We examined the effects of stereotyping on impression formation when encountering people dressed to represent a religious faith. We used stimulus photographs of eight male and female models dressed casually and a second photograph of one male and one female model in religious attire that was placed beside the control photos of models dressed causally. From each set of photographs, subjects selected a photo of the person with whom they would associate the various positive personality traits suggested by our stimulus questions. Subjects were students from a U.S. Catholic school, a U.S. public school, and a Malaysian Muslim school. All the subjects attributed more of the positive traits to photos of the models who were religiously attired than to photos of those who were casually dressed, but subjects from U.S. schools attributed more of the positive traits to the photos of religiously dressed models than did the subjects from the Malaysian school.
The Standard DAI is an orthodontic index based on perceptions of dental aesthetics in the USA. The Standard DAI is a regression equation linking perceptions of the social acceptability of dental aesthetics with the objective intraoral measurements of ten occlusal traits. Since the Standard DAI is based on perceptions of dental aesthetics in the USA it can be used without modification only where perceptions of dental aesthetics are similar to those in the USA. This study was designed to determine whether perceptions of dental aesthetics of students in eleven diverse ethnic groups are similar to those of students in the USA. The same 25 stimuli (photographs of dental configurations, a subset of the 200 stimuli used in deriving the Standard DAI equation) were rated for dental aesthetics by Australian, Chinese, German, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Native American, Singaporean Chinese, Singaporean Indian, Singaporean Malay, and Thai students. Their ratings were compared with the ratings of the same 25 stimuli by students in the USA. Spearman rank-order correlations ranged from 0.84 to 0.94. These correlations are sufficiently high to show that perceptions of dental aesthetics in all eleven ethnic groups are very similar to the perceptions of USA students. Therefore the Standard DAI can be used without modification in all eleven ethnic groups.
As growth potential in the U.S. market declines and regulatory constraints increase, providers of health-related services may look increasingly to international opportunities as a way to supplement the lost domestic market. In this article, critical factors bearing on the decision to compete in international markets are identified. Existing theories of multinational competition are expanded to provide a framework for analyzing international competition. Applied in the context of the proprietary hospital industry, the critical factors governing both the selection of foreign markets and mode of entry are proposed to be host country receptivity and market growth potential.
Female genital mutilation is the medically unnecessary modification of female genitalia. Female genital mutilation typically occurs at about 7 years of age, but mutilated women suffer severe medical complications throughout their adult lives. Female genital mutilation most frequently occurs in Africa, the Middle East, and Muslim parts of Indonesia and Malaysia, and it is generally part of a ceremonial induction into adult society. Recent political and economic problems in these regions, however, have increased the numbers of students and refugees to the United States. Consequently, US physicians are treating an increasing number of mutilated patients. The Council on Scientific Affairs recommends that US physicians join the World Health Organization, the World Medical Association, and other major health care organizations in opposing all forms of medically unnecessary surgical modification of the female genitalia.
It is known that alpha1-antitrypsin deficiency is associated with emphysema in adults and liver cirrhosis in neonates. The phenotypes PiZZ and PiSZ are considered to be high risk groups. alpha1-antitrypsin deficiency is one of the most common lethal congenital disorders in Europe and the USA, occurring in approximately 1 in 2,000 caucasians of North European descent. Studies in Malaysia have found that the phenotypes PiZ and PiS are present in our population. Out of 950 samples analyzed, it was found that 10 samples were shown to be apparently Z homozygous phenotype. The phenotype is determined by high resolution isoelectrofocusing on an ultra-thin polyacrylamide gel embedded with narrow range Pi phamarlyte. The isoelectrofocused bands are confirmed by immunofixation and the plasma alpha1-antitrypsin levels determined by electroimmunoassay. The abnormal phenotypes are further confirmed by polymerase chain reaction using allele specific oligonucleotides.
An examination of the fat composition of the diet of a Malaysian urban hostel population obtained by chemical analysis of representative meals prepared by a 7-day rotation menu, revealed both nutritional attributes and limitations when compared against the dietary messages contained in the American Heart Association (AHA) and World Health Organisation (WHO) models. The Malaysian diet supplies 26% kcal i.e. 66 g total fat (51 g vegetable fats, 15 g animal fats) and contains
Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia are initiating health care reform to meet the changing demands of populations with improved socioeconomic status and access to modern technologies and who are living longer than in previous generations. Hong Kong, in particular, is facing a unique set of circumstances as its people prepare for the transition in 1997 from a British colony to a Special Administrative Region of China. While spending only 4% of its gross domestic product on health care, it has a large and regulated public hospital system for most inpatient medical care and a separate, loosely regulated private health care system for most outpatient medical care. In 1993 the Secretary for Health and Welfare of Hong Kong initiated a year-long process to debate the pros and cons of 5 fundamental programs for health care reform. After a year of open consultation, options were chosen. We describe the Hong Kong health care system, the fundamental changes that have been adopted, and lessons for reformers in the United States.
6239 children aged 7 to 16 years, attending 22 primary and secondary schools in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, were screened using a self report questionnaire, with their heights and weights measured using a digital electronic SECA beam balance. The selection was done by a two staged stratified random sampling from a total of 226 schools in Kuala Lumpur. The racial distribution was 56.7% Malays, 33.8% Chinese and 8.1% Indians; 3.6% (n:222) of the children were identified as obese and 6% (n:373) identified as overweight. The definitions of obese and overweight were computed using growth charts of the National Centre for Health Statistics (NCHS) from the median of the reference population. There were no significant differences amongst the 3 major ethnic groups in the obese group. The differences were significant in the overweight group with the Indians most overweight, followed by the Chinese and the Malays.
This article examines the fat and fibre intakes of Malaysian adults and highlights discrepancies and practical limitations if these intakes are to match the levels for these nutrients advocated in the World Health Organisation (WHO) and American Heart Association (AHA) ‘diet models’. Local data on food consumption showed that the total fat intakes amongst Malaysian adults, contrary to common perception, were not high and the mean values obtained fell within the range of 40-66g or 22-26% kcal. As such, the dietary target of 30% kcal total fat or its intermediate target of 30-35% kcal, advocated by WHO and AHA mainly to address the problem of a high consumption of dietary fats in western populations, should not be adopted indiscriminately by Malaysians. Dietary fatty acid (FA) analysis by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled with the use of food composition tables, showed that the typical Malaysian diet prepared with palm olein or palm olein-groundnut oil blends as cooking oil contained 3.2-4.0% kcal polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), mainly as the w-6 linoleic acid, which is also the predominant essential fatty acid (EFA) in humans. This level of linoleic acid, with an ω-6/ ω--3 FA ratio approximating 10, is adequate for basal PUPA and EFA needs but fell short of the 4-10% kcal linoleic acid recommended by WHO (1993) to counter the effects of the cholesterol-raising saturated fatty acids (SFA). This raised upper limit of 10% kcal linoleic acid (previously 7% kcal), which equals the level of PUFA implied in the AHA diet model, appears unnecessarily high considering that the cholesterol-lowering potential of linoleic acid is maximum at about 6% kcal, while the health hazards associated with long-term high intakes of PUPA have never been completely dismissed. The new WHO lower limit for dietary linoleic acid (4% kcal) would have a controversial impact of raising the previous minimal 3% kcal EFA to above 4% kcal (linoleic + alpha-linolenic acids). Similarly, the WHO recommendation for total dietary fibre of 27-40g (equivalent to a daily combined intake of 400g of vegetables and fruits, 30g of which should come from pulses) appears at present, too high a dietary target for the average Malaysian adult whose habitual daily diet was estimated to contain about 180g of vegetables plus fruits, providing only about 13-16g total dietary fibre. Appropriately, an expert panel on Malaysian Dietary Guidelines has recommended instead, 20-30% kcal total fat containing 3-7% kcal PUFA, and 20-30g total dietary fibre for the local population.
Septal perforation from intranasal cocaine abuse is well recognised. We present a case of progressive septal as well as palatal perforation. Progression from septal perforation to palatal perforation occurred after cessation of intranasal cocaine abuse. This patient had a weakly positive cytoplasmic antineutrophilic cytoplasmic antibody (C-ANCA) but no histologic evidence of Wegener's Granulomatosis. The differential diagnosis for septal and palatal perforation is reviewed. This case represents the fifth reported case of palatal perforation secondary to cocaine abuse in the literature, and the second associated with positive C-ANCA.
Women college students in four countries were invited to write the story of their first menstruation in as much detail as memory allowed. Stories were received from 26 Lithuanians, 27 Americans, 20 Malaysians, and 23 Sudanese. The stories were read and their contents analyzed for the presence or absence of information on such topics as emotional reaction, preparedness, sources of information about menstruation, changes in body image, and celebrations of this rite of passage. Similarities and differences among the groups are discussed, and passages from particularly interesting stories are quoted.