Tourists visiting destination in warm climate countries such as Malaysia might easily be affected with dehydration problem. Places like the Zoo requires tourist to walk intensively inside the Zoo area may cause dehydration if they do not consume enough plain water. This ZIBMAP innovative product intends to benefit the tourist wellness who visits the National Zoo, comes with an informative map and attractive infographic habitat, which can be kept as a souvenir. This innovative product is designed based on environmental-friendly features that support the implementation of environmental sustainability. A feasibility survey on dehydration risk awareness and the potential of the product acceptance for commercialization was carried out using a quantitative method. A convenience sampling technique was used to identify 300 tourists visiting the National Zoo as respondents for this survey. Descriptive analysis results indicated that majority of respondents aware of the dehydration risk and supported the used of the ZIBMAP innovative product. The outcome of the study highlighted the potential of this product to be commercialized and contribute to tourists’ wellness.
Introduction: Adolescent aggression is an important public health concern with escalating prevalence of juvenile cases and violence among these age groups including robbery, homicide, and gang fights. The objectives of this study protocol are to determine the biopsychosocial predictors and explore the contextual factors of adolescent ag- gression among secondary school students in Hulu Langat. Methods: Explanatory mixed method study design will be used, consist of quantitative cross-sectional study followed by basic qualitative study. Proportionate population sampling among Form 4 secondary school students from selected public secondary schools in Hulu Langat will be executed. Questionnaires will be distributed to 481 students on aggression as the dependent variable, and several independent variables: demographic (ethnicity, family income), biological (sex, head injury, nutritional deficiency, breakfast skipping), psychological (attitude and normative beliefs, personality trait, emotional intelligence), and so- cial factors (family environment, single parent status, domestic violence, peer deviant affiliation, alcohol, smoking, substance abuse). Subsequently, participants with moderate to high aggression scores will be further explored on the contextual factors of adolescent aggression by in-depth interview. Multiple linear regression will be executed using SPSS to determine significant predictors whereas thematic analysis will be applied for qualitative data analysis on the context of adolescent aggression. Both findings will be further integrated and discussed to give comprehensive description on the phenomena. Conclusion: Better knowledge and understanding on adolescent aggression may generate new framework to drive more effective preventive strategies and unravel adolescent aggressive related Pub- lic Health problems.
In the current study, a total of 86 soccer’s players with mean age of 14 years drawn from Terengganu soccer academy were tested in performing 10 parameters aiming at determining the performance of those players based on assessing the contribution of each activity and its corresponding significant level. The 10 performance related parameters involved anthropometry (BMI), fitness test (agility, coordination, muscular endurance (push and sit up), power, YoYo level), and football skill test (dribbling with ball, dribbling without ball and juggling). All the parameters testing is carried out based on international standard and performed by well-trained staff. The Pearson correlation analysis was used to achieve the objective in this study. Result shows a positive correlation between the two types of muscular parameters; the power is influenced by BMI and coordination; the specific football tests are highly impacted by the power and agility. The coefficient of determination R^2 and the significance level p-values show that the parameters that can be significantly considered are the anthropometric BMI (0.020), agility (0.025), muscular endurance (0.039 and 0.043), power (0.039), special football test without the ball (0.041), and juggling (0.046). The coordination, YoYo, football special test with the ball were not found to be significantly accounted for preparing the young players to achieve the required performance. Based on the results of the coefficient of determination and the significance p-values of the parameters, a model was proposed to determine the highest and lowest parameters that play important roles in the selection of young players.
The tone of peking 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 1’ was investigated using time-frequency analysis (TFA). The frequencies were measured using PicoScope oscilloscope, Melda analyzer in Cubase version 9 and Adobe version 3. Three different approaches for time-frequency analysis were used: Fourier spectra (using PicoScope), spectromorphology (using Melda analyzer) and spectrograms (using Adobe). Fourier spectra only identify intensity-frequency within entire signals, while spectromorphology identify the changes of intensity-frequency spectrum at fixed time and Adobe spectrograms identify the frequency with time. PicoScope reading produces the spectra of the fundamental and overtone frequencies in the entire sound. These overtones are non-harmonic since they are non-integral multiples of the fundamental. The fundamental frequencies of peking 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 were 1066Hz (C6), 1178Hz (D6), 1342Hz (E6), 1599Hz (G6) and 1793Hz (A6) respectively while peking 1’was 2123Hz (C7) i.e. one octave higher than peking 1. Melda analyzer reading proved that all peking sustained the initial fundamental frequency and overtone at t=0 until 2s. TFA from Adobe reading provides a description of the sound in the time-frequency plane. From TFA, peking 1, 2 and 6 exhibited a much gentler attack and more rapid decay than peking 3, 5 and 1’.
Gamelan in general is categorized as a group of gongs. This traditional Malay gamelan ensemble is in a slendro scale i.e. five notes per octave. The rhythms, pitch, duration and loudness classify the various groups of gongs such as bonang, kenong, gender, peking and gambang. The cast bronze peking, kenong and bonang were chosen from a range of Malay gamelan ensemble from Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) and Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM). The sounds were recorded by PicoScope Oscilloscope. The PicoScope software displays waveform and spectrum in time and frequency domain respectively. The peking lowest and highest frequencies from UiTM were 293 Hz and 1867 Hz, from UPM were 644 Hz and 1369 Hz, from UKM were 1064 Hz and 2131 Hz and from UNIMAS were 1072 Hz and 2105 Hz respectively. The kenong lowest and highest frequencies from UiTM were 259 Hz and 463 Hz, from UPM were 294 Hz and 543 Hz, from UKM were 300 Hz and 540 Hz and from UNIMAS were 293 Hz and 519 Hz respectively. The fundamental frequencies of bonang from UPM were higher than that of UKM, UiTM and UNIMAS. The harmonics were not successive but interrupted by another frequency. The harmonics of each bonang was similar except for gamelan from UKM.
Safety and feasibility of transoral robotic surgery (TORS) in adults for otolaryngology surgery,
mainly in the treatment of oropharyngeal carcinoma and obstructive sleep apnoea has already
been established several years ago. However, less is known with respect to the role and safety
of TORS for otolaryngology surgery in the paediatric age group and its description in the
literature is currently insufficient. As paediatric patients are unique in their anatomy, physiology
and pharmacological kinetic, special attention and consideration has to be applied when using
TORS, hence this increases the perioperative challenges. Herewith we present our experience
in anaesthetising a paediatric patient for TORS adenotonsillectomy which is the first not only
in our centre but in Malaysia. Our major obstacle was the limited airway access as the area of
concern was shared by the anaesthesiologist, surgeon and also the robotic system.
Haemodynamic stabilisation was a challenge compared to the conventional method as the
operative time increased due to robot docking time and the new surgical learning process. In
our opinion, the key point for the success of TORS adenotonsillectomy in paediatric patients is
good communication and teamwork between all personnel involved in the surgery.
Introduction: Lean healthcare outcome is usually measured with multiple key performance metrics but there is a lack of tools that enabled efficiency assessment. This research aimed to assess the efficiency among lean public emergen- cy departments (ED) through Slack-Based Measure Data Envelopment Analysis (SBM-DEA) and evaluate the impact of lean on the efficiency in public emergency departments. Methods: A retrospective observational study design using data on the number of support staff, number of doctors, number of discharge, arrival to consultant and length of stay. Efficiency scores of 20 Malaysian public EDs were computed using SBM-DEA modelling and compared be- tween before and after lean implementation. Results: A total of 13 out of 20 public EDs exhibited improvement in ar- rival to consultant and length of stay upon lean implementation. However, only 9 out of the 13 public EDs have had an improvement in efficiency score. Conclusion: Lean healthcare demonstrated a positive impact on the efficiency level of some public EDs. The SBM-DEA model offers the benchmarking capability and slack elimination information that may complement the lean continuous improvement philosophy.
Introduction: Chronic musculoskeletal pain is a common disabling condition among older adults with the major- ity, remain undertreated. This study aimed to determine the uptake of non-pharmacological treatment for chronic musculoskeletal pain among older adults and the associated factors. Methods: A stratified sampling proportionate to size with individual clinics as the strata were used to recruit 276 respondents from six public health clinics in Petaling district, one of the most aged districts in the state of Selangor, Malaysia. Based on the proportion calculat- ed, eligible older adults were selected by systematic random sampling from the registration list. Data was collected using a pre-tested and validated questionnaire through a face-to-face interview with respondents. The questionnaire comprised of seven sections, namely, socio-demographic, comorbidity, depression, pain severity, treatment options, attitude towards chronic pain and chronic musculoskeletal pain. Inferential analysis was conducted using Chi- Square (X2) and Fisher’s Exact Tests. The P value of < 0.05 regarded as statistically significant. Results: A total of 242 (87.7%) of the respondents had chronic musculoskeletal pain, in which 235 (85.1%) were treated with non-pharma- cological treatments. The commonly used non-pharmacological treatments were exercise (67.8%), biological-based therapies (40.9%) and massage (33.7%). The uptake of non-pharmacological treatment for chronic musculoskeletal pain among older adults was significantly associated with the presence of diabetes. Conclusion: The findings re- vealed the remarkably high uptake of non-pharmacological treatment among older adults who experienced chronic musculoskeletal pain which was significantly associated with diabetes and the presence of other diseases like high blood pressure, osteoarthritis, back pain and rheumatic arthritis.
Head and neck cancer (HNC) is among the common cancer in Malaysia. Depending on the location of the cancer in head and neck region, each type of HNC has its own characteristics and prevalence to specific gender and ethnicity. The remote and inaccessible location of the cancer also cause the difficulty to detect the cancer. This make the cancer usually diagnosed at late stage and make the treatment very challenges and ended with low survival rate of post-treatment among HNC patients. In fact, the detection of HNC at early stage could promise high successful recovery rate. This situation demand lots of studies to explore the carcinogenesis of HNC and searching for robust diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic biomarkers. MicroRNA (miRNA) is a class of non-coding RNA that regulate cellular physiology at post-transcriptional level. miRNAs expression has
been found to deregulate in various disease state, including cancer. A few studies revealed that miRNAs can behave as oncogenic and tumour suppressor in HNC. Even HNC is common in Malaysia, the studies of miRNA in HNC are still scarce. In this review article, we highlight the studies of miRNA in HNC that have been published by Malaysian researchers with aim to call more Malaysian researchers to focus on miRNA researches in HNC.
The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of different inter-stimulus intervals to the Cortical Auditory Evoked Potential (CAEP) findings in adult participants. Nineteen normal hearing individuals aged between 20 and 24 years old participated in this study. CAEP were measured by presenting 1000 Hz tone burst stimulus at 70dBnHL at three different inter-stimulus intervals (ISI)s of 2000, 909 and 555 ms in randomized order. Results revealed significant changes in the CAEP’s amplitude as a function of ISI with a reduction of P1-N1 amplitude of up to 50%. N2 peak was absent in some subjects using short ISI (555 ms). This study concluded that the use of very short ISI (e.g. 555 ms) may not be appropriate clinically because it can reduce the CAEP wave amplitude
and can cause an absence of peak N2. In contrast, the use of short ISI may be useful for other clinical applications that may benefit from neural habituation and refractoriness, for example to predict the potential future outcome of speech and mental disorders.
This study was designed to examine the relationship between attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control towards parents’ intention in sending their child to the audiologist. A sample of 76 parents with hearing impaired child all over the Peninsular of Malaysia was involved in this research. A set of questionnaires was used for data collection. The theory of planned behavioral (TPB) was able to explain the link between human intention and their behavior. In this study, the researcher looked at parents’ behavior in bringing their child to Audiologist. In order to achieve this a set of questionnaires was adapted from Jusoh (2011) and was administered to a group of parents with hearing loss (HL) children. The result showed that there were correlations between attitude, subjective norms as well as perceived behavioral control and parents’ intention in sending their child to the audiologist. However, there was no correlation between intentions and behavior towards the same intention.
Kerajaan Malaysia telah memberikan penumpuan terhadap aspek keselamatan dan pembangunan
pertahanan sejak dari kemerdekaan negara lagi. Pada ketika ini, ancaman yang dihadapi oleh negara
adalah melibatkan dua bentuk ancaman iaitu ancaman dari dalam negara dan ancaman dari luar negara.
Kebanyakkan negara khususnya di rantau Asia Tenggara telah mencapai kemerdekaan di antara tahun
1950-an dan 1960-an. Sebagai sebuah negara yang juga boleh dikategorikan juga baru mencapai
kemerdekaan, negara-negara di rantau Asia Tenggara ini tidak lari dari menghadapi pelbagai ancaman
yakni ancaman dari sudut dalaman negara seperti ancaman pemberontakan komunis semasa insurgensi,
konflik etnik, ketidakstabilan politik, rusuhan kaum, masalah perpaduan dan sebagainya telah menjadi
faktor yang juga telah mempengaruhi perbentukan Dasar Pertahanan Negara (DPN). Manakala
ancaman dari sudut luar seperti persempadan, persaingan kuasa besar antara Amerika Syarikat dan
Kesatuan Soviet semasa perang dingin yang juga menyebabkan berlakunya ketidakstabilan politik,
konflik dan peperangan di rantau Asia Tenggara, persaingan ideologi, ketegangan hubungan dan
konflik hubungan antara negara, ancaman terrorisme dan pemberontakan serta sebagainya telah
mempengaruhi dan memaksa negara Malaysia untuk membangun serta memodenkan sistem pertahanan
negara.
Introduction: Clinical studies have shown that people suffering from tinnitus are at a high risk of developing serious psychological disturbances or serious psychological distress (Erlandsson &
Widen, 2004 in Hiller and Goebel, 1998). Thus the purpose of this study was to determine the
relationship between life-time noise exposure and tinnitus experience among young adults in IIUM Kuantan. Methods: A cross sectional study was used to determine whether there is any association between tinnitus experiences and life-time noise exposure among 11 young adults in IIUM Kuantan from age of 18 to 35 years old who are exposed to the noise. Hearing assessment was done using otoscopy, tympanometry and pure tone audiometry. Participants were asked to fill in a questionnaire on tinnitus experience, and were fitted with a noise dosimeter that measured their noise exposure during waking hours. Values collected from dosimeter were then converted into cumulative life-time noise exposure which refers to the equivalent noise exposure per year (Jokitulppo, Tolvenen & Bjork, 2005). Results: Average cumulative life-time noise exposure of the participants is 72.54 dBA ± 6.9459. Fifty five percent (55%) reported of sometimes having tinnitus. No correlation was found between cumulative life-time noise exposure and tinnitus experience. Conclusion: The cumulative life-time noise exposure among young adults in IIUM Kuantan was found to be lower than the level considered as hazardous. Despite reports of tinnitus experience, there was no evidence that the tinnitus was due to noise exposure.
“Fenomena anarki” telah mempengaruhi kebanyakan negara untuk memberikan tumpuan dan
perhatian terhadap pembangunan Angkatan ketenteraan bagi menjamin keselamatan untuk tujuan
kelangsungan hidup. Manakala merujukkan kepada teori neo-realisme, teori ini mengatakan dilema
keselamatan sebagai situasi yang sentiasa ada ancaman yang cuba untuk menggugat keselamatan
negara mahupun ianya dari bentuk unsur ancaman tradisional mahupun dari unsur dari ancaman bukan
dari tradisional. Akibat dari senario keselamatan dan sifat anarki dalam sistem antarabangsa, keadaan
ini akan menyebabkan negara perlu bergantung pada diri sendiri untuk kelangsungan hidup. Ini
merujuk kepada konsep self help atau self reliance di mana setiap negara mempunyai kepentingan
negara mereka tersendiri dalam meneruskan kelangsungan hidup dalam sistem antarabangsa. Melihat
dari sudut Angkatan Tentera Malaysia (ATM,) perspektif pembangunan dan pemodenan ATM semasa
era Perang Dingin dan Pasca Perang Dingin ternyata mempunyai perubahan yang signifikan di mana
pembangunan ATM sebelum tahun 1990 lebih bersifat konvensional dan pasca Perang Dingin
memperlihatkan pembangunan ATM bersifat lebih strategik.
Introduction:The objectives of this study were to measure the status of glycaemic control and identify factors asso-ciated with good glycaemic control among diabetic patients treated at primary health clinics. Methods: All diabetic patients registered and under follow up of Ministry of Health facilities were monitored for their glycaemic controls through HbA1c levels. Data obtained from line listing of diabetic patients that received treatment from four health clinics at Hulu Terengganu in 2019. All of patients’ data including socio demographic characteristics, latest labo-ratory investigations and treatment modalities were recorded in the line listing. In this study, 350 active patients were randomly selected systematically. Logistic regression analysis was done to predict factors associated with good glycaemic control which is defined as having HbA1c less or equal to 6.5%. Results: In this study, the proportion of patients with good glycaemic control was lower than other published studies. It is found that 99 patients (28.3%) have good glycaemic control while 251 patients (71.7%) have poor glycemic control. Factors significantly associ-ated with good glycaemic control included age (odds ratio 0.965; 95% confidence interval 0.940-0.991), presence of comorbidity (odds ratio 0.326; 95% confidence interval 0.107- 0.995) and type of treatment (odds ratio 0.302; confidence interval 0.171-0.533). Those who were not on insulin were more likely to have good glycaemic control. Older patients were also tend to have good glycaemic control. Conclusion: Multi-disciplinary approaches and great-er efforts by healthcare providers at primary health clinics are needed in order to help more patients to achieve good glycaemic control. Younger patients and those who do not have comorbidities yet should be closely monitored as they are prone to have poor glycaemic control. Extra cautions is warranted in patients with insulin in order to achieve glycaemic target thus reducing complications and making the treatment more cost-effective.
Introduction: Workers in health sector are exposed 5 times more workplace violence as compared to workers in other sectors. Their consequences can range from mild to severe, affecting the victim, quality of services and orga-nization. The objective is to evaluate the effectiveness of educational intervention on workplace violence among healthcare workers in health clinics. Methods: This study is a single blinded cluster randomized trial to see the ef-fectiveness of education intervention on coping with workplace violence involving 10 cluster clinics with total 82 respondents in each control and intervention group. Data was collected using pretested questionnaire at baseline, 1-month and 6-months post intervention. The analysis used were descriptive, compared mean at baseline, repeated measures of variance and Mixed Model. Results: Response rate 94% at 1-month due to loss to follow up. Majority of the respondents were female (82.3%), and Malays (83.5%). The prevalence of workplace violence was 27.4% and mostly involved psychological violence (95.6%). There were no significant different between control and interven-tion group characteristic at baseline. Repeated measures MANOVA test was conducted to test intervention effect on dependent variables. The results until 1-month time showed significant difference between intervention and control group on combination of the dependent variables over time in coping (F(1,162)=9.51, p=0.002, and η2=0.06), knowledge (F(1,162)=10.47, p=0.001, and η2=0.061) and confidence (F(1,162)=15.65, p
Introduction: Inhibition of the cholinesterase’s function leads to paralysis and death. This mechanism is served as a common mode of action of insecticide. The three tropical seaweeds, namely Bryopsis pennata, Padina australis and Sargassum binderi were reported for its potential mosquito larvicidal effect. In the present study, these seaweeds were evaluated for their potential as a cholinesterase inhibitor in the mechanism of larvicidal action. Methods: Ace- tylcholinsterase (AChE) inhibition assay was carried out based on the colorimetric method using a microplate reader. Phytochemical content of the seaweed extracts was screened by using liquid chromatography-mass spectroscopy (LC-MS). Results: Green seaweed B. pennata showed the strongest inhibition effect towards in vitro AChE by using
tissue homogenates of Aedes aegypti (IC50 value = 0.84 mg mL ) and Aedes albopictus as the enzyme source (IC
-1
value = 0.92 mg mL-1). The pattern of Lineweaver-Burk plots revealed that B. pennata was a mixed type inhibitor of
AChE, as the readings of Km, Vmax, Ki and Ki’, indicates that it had a strong inhibition ability with high binding affin- ity towards both free enzyme and enzyme-substrate complex. Conclusion: These findings suggest the compound(s) in
B. pennata extract serves as a promising source that could be developed into a mosquito larvicidal agent with AChE inhibition effect.
Lasers have been identified as one of the preventive tools that can be utilised to prevent white spot lesion in ortho- dontic practice. The aim of this scoping review was to evaluate the current scientific literature on the use of lasers specifically to prevent white spot lesion in orthodontic cases. Search was performed in PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus and EBSCO databases from the past ten years. The records obtained were peruse considering specific in- clusion and exclusion criteria. From the total of 1123 studies that were evaluated, 68 papers were included for this review. A variety of laser types has been reported including Er;YAG, Er,Cr:YSGG, Argon and CO2 lasers. CO2 laser has a good number of evidence of it’s positive result and can be suggested to be use in clinical practise. However, since most data for the other type of lasers were derived from in vitro studies, they must be interpreted with care. Randomised clinical trials would be beneficial to give more meaningful evidence for clinicians to adopt lasers in their practice.
Introduction: Vector surveillance in high-rise buildings is important to predict and monitor the presence of vectors regarding their abundance and distribution. In this study, the infestation profile of Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopic- tus species in different environmental settings were investigated. Methods: Four high-rise apartments in four differ- ent localities were selected for ovitrap surveillance. Fifty ovitraps were placed in semi indoor and outdoor settings. Results: A total of 507 (42.8%) from ovitraps showed the presence of the Aedes species larvae. Out of these, 170 (33.5%) of the positive ovitraps were those placed in semi indoor and 337 (66.5%) in outdoor. Of the total 16,613 Aedes larvae found, 4,130 (24.9%) were from semi indoor, and 12,483 (75.1%) from outdoor. In terms of distri- bution, Ae. albopictus was predominantly found in outdoor environments (POI=87.5%; MLT=36.45 larvae). Ae. aegypti was also found in outdoor environments (POI=14.89%; MLT=8.26 larvae). There was a significant difference in POI for both Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus in the two different environments but no significant difference was observed in MLT, indicating that the density of the Aedes species in both environments was well distributed. Con- clusion: In this study, the patterns of Aedes habitat in high-rise apartments were observed. This study has shown an invasion and adaptation of Aedes mosquitoes into the ecosystems of high-rise buildings. It can be concluded that housing designs and the condition of the surrounding environment affects the infestation profile and the distribution of Aedes mosquitoes.