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Fulltext Method comparison studies in medicine

Rafdzah, Z., Bulgiba, A., Ismail, N.A.

JUMMEC, 2013;16(1):1-7.
MyJurnal

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE:
Most of important variables measured in medicine are in numerical forms or continuous in nature. New instruments and tests are constantly being developed for the purpose of measuring various variables, with the aim of providing cheaper, non-invasive, more convenient and safe methods. When a new method of measurement or instrument is invented, the quality of the instrument has to be assessed. Agreement and reliability are both important parameters in determining the quality of an instrument. This article will discuss some issues related to methods comparison study in medicine for the benefit of medical professional and researcher.

METHOD:
This is a narrative review and this article review the most common statistical methods used to assess agreement and reliability of medical instruments that measure the same continuous outcome. The two methods discussed in detail were the Bland-Altman Limits of Agreement, and Intra-class Correlation Coefficient (ICC). This article also discussed some issues related to method comparison studies including the application of inappropriate statistical methods, multiple statistical methods, and the strengths and weaknesses of each method. The importance of appropriate statistical method in the analysis of agreement and reliability in medicine is also highlighted in this article.

CONCLUSION:
There is no single perfect method to assess agreement and reliability; however researchers should be aware of the inappropriate methods that they should avoid when analysing data in method comparison studies. Inappropriate analysis will lead to invalid conclusions and thus validated instrument might not be accurate or reliable. Consequently this will affect the quality of care given to a patient.

Matched MeSH terms: Research Personnel
Fulltext Lane detection using a stereo vision camera

M. Farihin Talib, Anuar, A.A., Mohd Fauzi Othman, Masoud Samadi

Journal of Advanced Research in Applied Sciences and Engineering Technology, 2016;5(2):55-61.
MyJurnal

Nowadays, intelligent vehicles have received a considerable attention among the
researchers to reduce the number of collisions and road accidents. One of the
challenging tasks for these vehicles is road lane detection or road boundaries
detection. In this research, a lane detection algorithm was developed to detect the
right and left lane markers on the road by using two cameras which act as a stereo
vision for the system. It is based on edge detection by using Canny Edge Detection to
reduce unnecessary data on the images and to perform features recognition for the
lane. After the features has been extracted, the algorithm is followed by Hough
Transform method to generate the detected lines on the image obtained from the
stereo vision camera. The algorithm has to work in different environment to be used
in real world applications. The stereo vision algorithm is implemented to generate
disparity map of area. This helps to gain more information on environment, such as the
estimated distance of the lines, the distance of the vehicle to the turns. The experiment
result shows the detection of right and left lane on the road with disparity map to
determine an estimate of the distance of detected lanes from the stereo vision camera.

Matched MeSH terms: Research Personnel
Fulltext Metaheuristic approaches for urban transit scheduling problem: a review

Vikneswary Uvaraja, Lee, Lai Soon

Journal of Advanced Review on Scientific Research, 2017;34(1):11-25.
MyJurnal

Urban Transit Network Design Problem (UTNDP) focuses on deriving useful set of
routes, manageable timetabling for each transit route and transit scheduling based on
available resources. UTNDP is commonly subdivided into Urban Transit Routing
Problem (UTRP) and Urban Transit Scheduling Problem (UTSP), respectively. There are
various approaches applied to solve the UTSP. The aim of this paper is to give a
comprehensive list of studies on UTSP that deals with metaheuristic approaches such
as Tabu Search, Simulated Annealing, Genetic Algorithm and their hybrid methods. This
review also addressed possible gaps of the approaches and the limitations of the
overall problem. It can be concluded that only some of the metaheuristic approaches
and sub-problems are highly studied in UTSP. This review will be useful for researchers
who are interested in expanding their knowledge and conduct research in UTSP using
metaheuristic approaches.

Matched MeSH terms: Research Personnel
Fulltext Opioids in inducing cell apoptosis: a mini review

Kua, Vee May Dianne, Ng Woei Kean, Sreenivasan, Sasidharan, Lai, Ngit Shin

Journal of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences, 2017;2(1):53-61.
MyJurnal

Opioids are opium-like drugs which are commonly used as analgesics to treat moderate to severe pain. Apoptosis is a type of programmed cell death to remove unnecessary or damaged cells in an organism. Recently, the ability of opioids to induce apoptosis especially in cancer cell lines hasgained the interest of many researchers. This fascinating finding hasled to more testing of different kindsof opioids against different kindsof cancer cell lines in the course to search for the potential anticancer drugs. This review provides current information about opioids and apoptosis, and more importantly the compilations of researches over the years on how opioids are related to apoptotic cells death.

Matched MeSH terms: Research Personnel
The Mediating Effects of Organizational Justice in Determining the Relationship between Performance-Based Pay and Employees’ Turnover Intention

Kuan Mei Yang, Rusli Ahmad, Siti Mariam Abdullah

Journal of Cognitive Sciences & Human Development, 2015;1(1):1-10.
MyJurnal

This is a study on employees’ perception of justice towards performance-based pay and
the effect of these perceptions on their turnover intention. This study aims to examine
the mediating role played by distributive and procedural justice in linking pay distribution
and pay procedure of performance-based pay to employees’ turnover intention. A
review of past literature in this particular area has prompted the researchers to narrow
the gaps in previous studies. Towards that, this study utilized questionnaires which
were administered among 50 non-managerial employees currently working in a private
company located in Kuching, Sarawak, East Malaysia. Data analysis was done using
Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), Version 20.0. Pearson Correlation and
Stepwise Regression were used to examine the relationship between the variables. The
outcomes of Stepwise Regression revealed that distributive justice fully mediated the
relationship between pay distribution and employees’ turnover intention in contrast to
procedural justice which did not have a significant impact in the relationship. The findings
of this study are useful references for organisation management of the pay system
to improve employees’ performance.

Matched MeSH terms: Research Personnel
Fulltext Polynomial interpolation in Matlab

Siti Hawa Binti Aziz, Zuliana Bt Abdul Mutalib

Journal of Engineering and Science Research, 2018;2(4):12-19.
MyJurnal

The problem of constructing such a continuous function is called data fitting. Many times, data given only at discrete points. With interpolation, we seek a function that allows us to approximate f(x) such that functional values between the original data set values may be determined. The process of finding such a polynomial is called interpolation and one of the most important approaches used are Lagrange interpolating formula. In this study, researcher determining the polynomial interpolation by using Lagrange interpolating formula. Then, a mathematical modelling was built by using MATLAB programming to determine the polynomial interpolation for a given points using the Lagrange method. The result of the study showed that the manual calculating and the MATLAB mathematical modelling will give the same answer for evaluated x and graph.

Matched MeSH terms: Research Personnel
Managing cancer using community participatory approach

Khalib Abdul Latiff

Journal of Health Management, 2008;4(1):10-14.
MyJurnal

Researchers all over the world have continuously contributed knowledge on common human cancers and its related risks. Despite these mountains of information, the trend of cancer problems has not significantly declined and perhaps in certain occasion, it gradually increased affecting those who are previously known to be less risky'. Cancer is still identified to be one of the top leading killer worldwide and is also the main source of psychosocial burden of the community particularly to the caregiver' Its problems are expected to be further increased as human beings are constantly modified and manipulated by unpredictable and dynamic human activities and globalization phenomena. Furthermore, the current advances in cancer therapy and others clinical interventions are not always guaranteed of a permanent cure, improve survival or prognosis, sustainable compliances, prolonging life and improving quality of life, thus the mortality and its associated biological and management complications are still prevalence. (Copied from article).

Matched MeSH terms: Research Personnel
From compliance to adherence and concordance, what quantitative and qualitative studies have synthesized?

Lee, K., Chin, Y.S., Loong, Y.Y., Hejar, A.R.

Journal of Health Management, 2008;4(1):36-60.
MyJurnal

The purpose of the present study is to provide a critical review on the revolution of the "compliance" concepts from compliance to adherence, and adherence to concordance for both pharmacological and non-pharmacological therapies. A comprehensive literature search was performed using online databases from Library of University Putra Malaysia, and Pub Med based on the keywords. The present study showed that both quantitative and qualitative studies cannot be neglected in assessing adherence and its related problems. One of major findings from the present review is that "compliance" was no longer suitable for current treatments and it is important to define concepts of the terms used (adherence or concordance) correctly and clearly. The findings reflected that researchers placed greater value on medication adherence than non-pharmacological adherence. There were three general factors related to treatments adherence, namely socio-economic factor, treatments-related factor and disease-related factor. The findings showed that both qualitative and quantitative studies found consistent results for most of the factors, except for the experience of diseases symptoms. Both study design contribute important values to the adherence studies and future studies should incorporate both quantitative and qualitative studies to understand adherence in both pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments.

Matched MeSH terms: Research Personnel
Simulator sickness: a threat to simulator training

Rabihah Ilyas

Journal of Occupational Safety and Health, 2012;9(1):45-52.
MyJurnal

Rapid development of technology has made simulator as a promising training tool. Advantages offered such as interactive and realistic training environments, mistake tolerance and training in hazardous scenario without causing harm to trainee, cost effectiveness, opportunity of training review and training time flexibility makes simulator widely used in aviation training, driver training, medical training and rehabilitation. Despite of these advantages, a major drawback of simulator is simulator sickness. Simulator sickness is a condition caused by inconsistency perceived by our vestibular system. Effected individual reported that they are experiencing nausea, fatigue, postural instability, headaches and difficulty in focusing which linger for hours or days in some cases. This paper will discuss the simulator usage and simulator sickness condition in Malaysia as experienced by researchers and a few organizations that use simulator as their training tool.

Matched MeSH terms: Research Personnel
Fulltext Occupational safety and health management system in Malaysia's southern region: small and medium enterprise case study

Muhammad Hasbullah, M.A., Leman, A.M., Baba, I.

Journal of Occupational Safety and Health, 2015;12(2):81-86.
MyJurnal

Occupational safety and health (OSH) in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) have not received the proper
attention not only in Malaysia, but in most of the countries globally, in terms of research or support for implementation.
This research focuses on the implementation of the occupational safety and health in small and medium industries in
the southern region of peninsular of Malaysia. The objective of this research is to determine the level of awareness of
SME owners and also their employers towards the importance of implementing OSH in their daily tasks. This study
will be based on conducting a survey to 200 SMEs owners and workers throughout the southern region of Malaysia.
The results from this research can be use as a benchmark for other researchers to further enhance the research in this
area.

Matched MeSH terms: Research Personnel
The Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) gene Val66Met (rs6265) polymorphism and stress among preclinical medical students in Malaysia

Al-Hatamleh MAI, Hussin TMAR, Taib WRW, Ismail I

J Taibah Univ Med Sci, 2019 Oct;14(5):431-438.
PMID: 31728141 DOI: 10.1016/j.jtumed.2019.09.003

Objective: This study aimed to determine the allelic and genotypic association of the Val66Met (rs6265) polymorphism in the BDNF gene with stress levels in preclinical medical students of Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (UniSZA), Terengganu, Malaysia.
Methods: In this cross-sectional study, we recruited all 122 preclinical medical students. The validated depression anxiety stress scales-21 (DASS-21) questionnaire was distributed and blood samples were collected from each subject for DNA extraction. Genotyping analysis of the BDNF gene (Val66Met) polymorphism was performed via an optimised polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) method.
Results: A total of 105 subjects agreed to participate in this study. Indian students were found to more likely have the Val/Val genotype, whereas Malay students were more likely to have the Met/Met genotype (p = 0.027). Individuals carrying any one of the three BDNF genotypes (Val/Val, Val/Met and Met/Met) differed significantly from each other in terms of their perception of stress (p = 0.010); students carrying the Val/Val genotype (M = 10.6) perceived significantly lower stress than students carrying the Val/Met (M = 14) and Met/Met (M = 15.1) genotypes.
Conclusion: In our study, the Met-allele was associated with higher stress levels. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study investigating this stress-related gene in medical students. The findings from this study should trigger more investigators to focus on the impact of stress on genetically predisposed medical students.

Matched MeSH terms: Research Personnel
Women in Computational Chemistry

Wahab HA, Amaro RE, Cournia Z

J Chem Inf Model, 2018 11 26;58(11):2175-2177.
PMID: 30277769 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.8b00642
Matched MeSH terms: Research Personnel/organization & administration
Mind the gap in clinical trials: A participatory action analysis with citizen collaborators

Price A, Liew SM, Kirkpatrick J, Price J, Lopreto T, Nelken Y

J Eval Clin Pract, 2017 Feb;23(1):178-184.
PMID: 27917564 DOI: 10.1111/jep.12678

What are the strengths, gaps, expectations, and barriers to research engagement in clinical trials as communicated through social media? Clinical trials test treatments to provide reliable information for safety and effectiveness. Trials are building blocks in which what is learned in earlier research can be used to improve treatments, compare alternatives, and improve quality of life. For 20 years, the percentages of clinical trials volunteers have decreased whereas the costs of running clinical trials have multiplied. Participants enroll in trials to access latest treatments, to help others, and to advance science, but there is growing unrest. The priorities of those running the trials differ from those of the participants, and the roles for public research involvement lack clarity. Changes to bridge these gaps in the research culture are proposed through the use of participatory action research (PAR) in which stakeholders collaborate to improve research methodology, galvanize citizen participation, multiply health knowledge, problem-solve barriers to access, and explore the value of research volunteers as collaborators. PAR enabled the inclusion of citizens as full collaborators. Social media data were gathered for 120 days until saturation was reached. De-identified data were organized into a Strengths Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats framework and coded into themes for analysis. After the analysis, the authors prioritized potential solutions for improving research engagement. Strengths and opportunities remained constant through trial phases, disease burdens, and interventions. Threats included alienation, litigation, disparity, and shaming. Poor management and barriers to inclusion were identified as weaknesses. Opportunities included improving resource management and information quality. Barriers were minimized when relationships between staff and participants were inclusive, respectful, tolerant, and open to change. Participants' communications ranged from fulfillment through trial involvement to disparities and rights violations. PAR provides a safe space without power imbalances in which researchers and citizen worked as equals rather than as researchers and objects of research.

Matched MeSH terms: Research Personnel
Fulltext Oral health and erectile dysfunction

Singh VP, Nettemu SK, Nettem S, Hosadurga R, Nayak SU

J Hum Reprod Sci, 2017 Jul-Sep;10(3):162-166.
PMID: 29142443 DOI: 10.4103/jhrs.JHRS_87_17

Ample evidence strongly supports the fact that periodontal disease is a major risk factor for various systemic diseases namely cardio-vascular disease, diabetes mellitus, etc. Recently, investigators focussed on exploring the link between chronic periodontitis (CP) and erectile dysfunction (ED) by contributing to the endothelial dysfunction. Both the diseases share common risk factors. Various studies conducted in different parts of the world in recent years reported the evidence linking this relationship as well as improvement in ED with periodontal treatment. Systemic exposure to the periodontal pathogen and periodontal infection-induced systemic inflammation was thought to associate with these conditions. The objective of this review was to highlight the evidence of the link between CP and ED and the importance of oral health in preventing the systemic conditions.

Matched MeSH terms: Research Personnel
Fulltext The acceptability among health researchers and clinicians of social media to translate research evidence to clinical practice: mixed-methods survey and interview study

Tunnecliff J, Ilic D, Morgan P, Keating J, Gaida JE, Clearihan L, et al.

J Med Internet Res, 2015;17(5):e119.
PMID: 25995192 DOI: 10.2196/jmir.4347

BACKGROUND: Establishing and promoting connections between health researchers and health professional clinicians may help translate research evidence to clinical practice. Social media may have the capacity to enhance these connections.
OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to explore health researchers' and clinicians' current use of social media and their beliefs and attitudes towards the use of social media for communicating research evidence.
METHODS: This study used a mixed-methods approach to obtain qualitative and quantitative data. Participation was open to health researchers and clinicians. Data regarding demographic details, current use of social media, and beliefs and attitudes towards the use of social media for professional purposes were obtained through an anonymous Web-based survey. The survey was distributed via email to research centers, educational and clinical institutions, and health professional associations in Australia, India, and Malaysia. Consenting participants were stratified by country and role and selected at random for semistructured telephone interviews to explore themes arising from the survey.
RESULTS: A total of 856 participants completed the questionnaire with 125 participants declining to participate, resulting in a response rate of 87.3%. 69 interviews were conducted with participants from Australia, India, and Malaysia. Social media was used for recreation by 89.2% (749/840) of participants and for professional purposes by 80.0% (682/852) of participants. Significant associations were found between frequency of professional social media use and age, gender, country of residence, and graduate status. Over a quarter (26.9%, 229/852) of participants used social media for obtaining research evidence, and 15.0% (128/852) of participants used social media for disseminating research evidence. Most participants (95.9%, 810/845) felt there was a role for social media in disseminating or obtaining research evidence. Over half of the participants (449/842, 53.3%) felt they had a need for training in the use of social media for professional development. A key barrier to the professional use of social media was concerns regarding trustworthiness of information.
CONCLUSIONS: A large majority of health researchers and clinicians use social media in recreational and professional contexts. Social media is less frequently used for communication of research evidence. Training in the use of social media for professional development and methods to improve the trustworthiness of information obtained via social media may enhance the utility of social media for communicating research evidence. Future studies should investigate the efficacy of social media in translating research evidence to clinical practice.
KEYWORDS: communication; eLearning; evidence-based medicine; social media

Matched MeSH terms: Research Personnel*
Inclining Trend of the Researchers Interest in Antimicrobial Stewardship: A Systematic Review

Ahmad NJ, Althemery AU, Haseeb A, Yusuf RF, Hassali AA, Khan AH

J Pharm Bioallied Sci, 2020 01 29;12(1):11-15.
PMID: 32801595 DOI: 10.4103/jpbs.JPBS_186_19

Introduction: The implementation of antibiotic stewardship programs (ASPs) can improve the treatment of infections and can decrease the adverse events that result from antibiotics use. In the last decades, there is an increasing interest of the researchers in the implementation of ASPs.
Materials and Methods: The articles published in different journals were retrieved by searching many research databases such as Cochrane library, Europe PMC, PubMed, and Web of Science; we searched these databases for all published articles till November 2018.
Results and Discussion: The searching results using Cochrane library showed an increase in the number of randomized clinical trials that related to the keyword of "antimicrobial stewardship" specially in the last 5 years. Using Europe PMC, we found 6178 results. From these results, there are 3874 free full texts. In addition, there are 2132 original articles in PubMed and by searching Web of Science database till November 8 there are 3085 results. These results show that the number of trusted published articles was increased continuously; this shows the increasing interest of the researchers in ASPs. These researches will help health-care providers to use antibiotics appropriately and to overcome the barriers of implementing ASPs.
Conclusion: The results of this study show that the researchers had high levels of interest in participating in research activities related to the appropriate use on antibiotics and the implementation of antimicrobial stewardship programs.

Matched MeSH terms: Research Personnel
Religious Commitment and its Relation to Happiness among Muslim Students: The Educational Level as Moderator

Achour M, Mohd Nor MR, Amel B, Bin Seman HM, MohdYusoff MYZ

J Relig Health, 2017 Oct;56(5):1870-1889.
PMID: 28160189 DOI: 10.1007/s10943-017-0361-9

This study examines the relationship between religiosity and level of happiness in an Islamic context among Muslim students studying at Malaysian universities. The determinants of happiness included in this research are positive attitudes, self-esteem, and other-esteem. Religiosity has long been considered as the main determinant in increasing happiness, and educational level strengthens its relationship. For this purpose, the researchers sampled 230 Muslim students aged 17-40 years studying at Malaysian universities in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The study found a positive and significant correlation between religious commitment and level of happiness. Religious commitment also shows positive and significant correlations with positive attitudes, self-esteem, and other-esteem. The study also concludes that educational attainment moderates the relationship between religious commitment and happiness. Thus, religious commitment plays a very important role in increasing levels of happiness.

Matched MeSH terms: Research Personnel
Fulltext Marks recorded in Co-curricular Registration System using QR code

Teh Faradilla Abdul Rahman, Zamri Abu Bakar

Jurnal Inovasi Malaysia, 2019;2(2):19-39.
MyJurnal

The co-curricular is important for students at The Centre of Foundation Studies, Universiti Teknologi MARA Dengkil to score. This is because it contributes 10% of the merits in the students’ applications for their degree program as set up by Bahagian Pengurusan Kemasukan Pelajar (UPU). In each new cohort, almost 5,000 students registered at this academic center. Previously, the grading process was done manually based on the number of activity coupon collected by the students in their co-curricular activity card. The use of co- curricular activity card had some challenges such as involving high cost, loss of coupons and activity cards, stolen activity cards and it was difficult for the students to monitor their achievement throughout their study. The process of recording thousands of students’ marks took place almost everyday, hence it must be improvised. To solve the problems mentioned, the CRS developers had came up with the idea of using QR code as an approach to ease and speed up the scoring process. Hence, this system helps supervisors to reduce human error and ease users (supervisors and administrators). Besides, the students could monitor their co-curricular total score from time to time to know how well they are doing so far. As a result, it has fruitfully benefited to almost 5,000 students, supervisors and administrator at the Student Affairs Division (HEP) as well as reducing the cost of buying co-curricular activity cards.

Matched MeSH terms: Research Personnel
Kesejahteraan psikologikal Orang Asli di Pertak dan Gerachi Jaya

Desa A, Ahmad A, Sharkawi Z

Jurnal Psikologi Malaysia, 2009;olume 23:19-25.

This study explores whether differences in levels of psychological well-being exist between the Orang Asli in Pertak and those in Gerachi Jaya. Field studies were conductecl on orang Asli in both these villages by using structured interviews. Psychological well-being questionnaires were modified by the researcher based on the Psychological Well-being Scale (Ryff 1989). Psychological well-being was measured in terms of autonomy, control environment, personal development and positive relationships. This study involved 40 Orang Asli from Gerachi City and 35 Orang Asli from Pertak. Data were analyzed with SPSS software using t-tests. Results show that the levels of psychological well-being between the two groups were not significantly different (t= 0.339, k> 0.05). Implications are also discussed.

Matched MeSH terms: Research Personnel
Fulltext Excessive smartphone usage among early adolescents: impact on social competence

Syed Ahmad Muhajir Alhaddad Syed E, Nurul Hudani Md N, Agnis S

Jurnal Psikologi Malaysia, 2018;32:1-11.

The benefit mobile technology brings is not limited to learning and entertainment but it also modifies human aspect of social communication. Despite the high number of previous research available concerning smartphones, there is still a gap of research that needs to be addressed such as its effect towards social competence. As the social system becomes complex, communication technology evolves to ensure the social needs are accomplished. For this study, 236 students aged between 13-14 years old were recruited and given a set of questionnaire which comprised Mobile Phone Problem Use Scale, Social Competence Scale for Teenagers and Self Scoring Self-Control Scale. In this study, the researcher attempted to examine the effect of excessive smartphone usage on social competence with self-control as mediator. Regression analysis was used to estimate the effect between the variables. The result indicates that there is negative relationship between excessive smartphone usage and social competence. However, when self-control is tested in the model as a mediator, excessive smartphones usage was not prevalent to predict social competence. This concludes to the apparent role of self-control as a mediator. The implication of study has contributed to the practical importance and methodological aspect of studies involving social competence and self-control.

Matched MeSH terms: Research Personnel

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