Analysis of the nutritional status and its related factors of three different geographic areas was conducted. The areas were Kampong Sungai Gulang-Gulang, a traditional village in Kuala Selangor, vegetable farming area in Kuala Terla, Cameron Highland and housing flats in Kuala Lumpur. Assessment of nutritional status was done using anthropometric, clinical, biochemical, dietary and stool examination. The results show that 13% of the children in traditional village were stunted, 8% were wasted and 17% were underweight. In vegetable farming area the prevalence were 16.5%, 10.2% and 20.2% respectively. The prevalence of anaemia among toddler was 81.0% in traditional village, 77.2% in vegetable farming area and 55.3% in urban flats. Anaemia in the three areas was strongly associated with inadequate intake of iron.
Background: Impaired fasting glucose (IFG) poses a higher risk of diabetes. Honey has been reported to improve metabolic abnormalities including lowering hyperglycemia. This study is sought at determining the effect of Malaysian Kelulut honey (KH) on fasting glucose levels and metabolic parameters in IFG patients.
Methods: This quasi-experimental intervention study of 30-day duration was conducted among 60 adult patients with IFG. They were allocated into taking 30 g/day KH group (experimental group, n=30) and not taking KH group (control group, n=30). Body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, blood pressure (BP), fasting glucose, and lipid profile levels (total cholesterol, triglyceride, high-density lipoprotein, and low-density lipoprotein) were measured before and after treatment.
Results: There was no significant difference in all measured variables at day 30 compared to day 1 within both groups. Similarly, all measured variables neither at day 1 nor at day 30 had shown a statistically significant difference between the groups.
Conclusions: Daily intake of 30 g KH for 30 days resulted in insignificant effect on fasting glucose, fasting lipid profiles, and other metabolic parameters in patients with IFG. Further studies that employ longer study duration are needed to ascertain the finding.
Study site: Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM) Specialist Centre, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia, and Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.
Floods have caused inevitable major disasters around the world as well as in Malaysia. This paper demonstrates that lessons can be taken from the previous flood disasters when developing an effective flood preparedness plan. As a common practice, disaster management is based on a top-down approach or is government-centred. This article attempts to highlight the significance of developing a flood preparedness plan by involving the communities affected. Qualitative analysis was adopted in order to gain in-depth insight of the communities. Two flood-prone communities were chosen: (1) Machang, Kelantan; and (2) Kuala Lipis, Pahang. There were two important things executed by the community for the preparation: (1) community-based disaster risk management; and (2) intensive mutual assistance.
To encourage recycling in Malaysian households, a waste separation at source programme was implemented that made it mandatory for households to sort their waste into different categories before leaving it out for collection. Penalties designed to act as a deterrent are imposed on households that fail to sort their waste appropriately. But does this deterrence motivate compliance with the programme directives? This study employs the deterrence theory to investigate if deterrence alone is sufficient to motivate households to actively participate in recycling. A total of 866 questionnaires were administered in person in households in Putrajaya and Melaka. Data were analysed using structural equation modelling. The results of the structural model reveal that just 25% of the variance in compliance is explained by the severity of the sanction, and the perceived certainty of penalty imposed. Perceived severity of sanction (β = 0.149, p = 0.012) and perceived certainty of sanction (β = 0.383, p = 0.000) were found to contribute significantly to compliance behaviour to the programme directives. However, deterrence alone cannot motivate household participation in waste separation at source because it only explains 25% of compliance behaviour. The present study provides information that could allow policymakers to understand recycling habits better and implement more effective compliance strategies.
In paddy cultivation, harvesting is the most important operation, which needs suitable machinery. Thus, this study was carried out to compare field performances and energy and environmental effect between the conventional 5 m cutting width NEW HOLLAND CLAYSON 8080, 82 kW@2500 rpm combine harvester running on a total net area of 42.78 ha of plots for two rice (Oryza sativa L.) cultivation seasons and the new mid-size 2.7 m cutting width WORLD STAR WS7.0, 76 kW@2600 rpm combine harvester running on a total net area of 16.95 ha of plots for two rice cultivation seasons. The conventional combine as compared to mid-size combine showed 14.4% greater mean fuel consumptions (21.13 versus 18.46 l/ha), 31.1% greater mean effective field capacity (0.69 versus 0.53 ha/h), 5.23% greater cornering time (turning time) percentage of total time (8.28% versus 3.05%) and 1.41% greater reversing time percentage of total time (7.2% versus 5.79%) but 20.90% lesser mean operational speed (3.24 versus 4.10 km/h), 11.69% lesser effective time percentage of total time (60.0%versus 71.69%h/ha), 10.8% lesser mean field efficiency (64.3% versus 72.1%). In terms of total energy use the conventional combine showed 24.64% greater mean total energy use in the harvesting operation (1445.81 versus 1160.00 MJ/ha), 14.46% greater mean fuel energy (1010.014 versus 882.39 MJ/ha), 56.47% greater mean machinery energy (431.32 versus 275.65 MJ/ha) and 59.25% greater mean human energy (3.48 and 2.18 MJ/ha), this cause 26.12% greater mean total Green House Gas emission (GHG) than the mid-size combine. The results revealed that the mid-size combine is more suitable in conducting the harvest operation in rice field in Malaysia than the conventional combine.
Nurul Mahfuzah Ahmad Yani, Nur Zakirah Zahari, Nur Fatini Haziqah Abu Samah, Muhammad Ammar Faidhi Mohamed Azahar, Siti Munira Yasin, Mohd Shahril Ahmad Saman, et al.
Homelessness continues to exist in our country even though we hear of various initiatives that have been put in place to solve this ongoing issue. The objectives of this study are, first, to explore factors that lead to homelessness, second, to determine the associated medical conditions and third, to shed light on the views of homeless individuals regarding their future perspectives.
Globally women's mental health issues have been emphasized since many decades ago. World Health Organization (WHO) has highlighted the importance of justice and equality in term of social context related to gender in order to achieve good mental well-being. Gender differences in the prevalence of psychiatric disorders have been recognized long ago where women commonly exceeds the men for a number of psychiatric illnesses (1). Women are more likely to suffer from depression, anxiety, somatic problems and being victims of sexual or physical violence. At least 1 in 5 women suffer rape in their lifetime but the rate differ from various country (2). Much work has been done to look into the general well-being and psychological distress in women as well as to understand the reason for women become more vulnerable to stress as compared to men. Multiple factors such as biological determinants and psychosocial issues have been found to be correlated to depression. Women with chronic major depression tend to have a younger age at the onset of her illness, a more extensive family history of mood disorder, poorer social adjustment, and poorer quality of life compared to chronically depressed men (3). Women are also known to be more likely to seek help for their mental health problem from primary care physician. Furthermore, across socio-economic levels many women nowdays are doing multiple roles in the society. They are not only wives and mothers in their family, but women also go out to earn for living. Some women are holding a higher position at workplace or in any organization. These multitasking roles may cause stress to women especially if she has to handle family-work or work-family conflicts. Biological differences related to gender have been increasingly explored. Differences exist in brain anatomy and that male and female reproductive hormones i.e. estrogen and progesterone produce psychoactive effects (4). Estrogen's antidopaminergic (5) and serotonin-enhancing (6) effects may play a role in psychiatric disorders in women. These are the areas that need more research investigations.
Psychiatric community-based services are being developed in Malaysia currently to ensure more comprehensive mental health care to especially patients with severe mental illness. Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) as one of the earliest component of community-based services has been observed to be useful and able to provide favourable outcomes in this group of patients. Though the paradigm shift has gradually occurred among mental health practitioners and policy makers, challenges are mainly in the implementation process. This article will present the discussion and academic view on various aspects of ACT including the rationale, elements, clinical and psychosocial impacts on patients as well as the current challenges in the Malaysian context. Keywords: Psychiatric community-based services, Assertive community treatment (ACT), severe mental illness (SMI
The use of Electro-Convulsive Therapy (ECT) has again risen, and so have the restrictions laid in the path for its use. This communication serves to discuss the thoughts and practices of ECT in our setting and that in the West, which we all know vary from center to center and individual to individual. A reminder guide, incorporating those ideas along with a simple risk-benefit assessment checklist, is suggested to induce an approved perspective that will enable the drawing-up of a standard, sanctioned guideline on the applications of ECT in our region. This proposal will then be hoped to be of substantial medico-legal benefit in the future. Keywords: Re-stimulation, dosing, unilateral ECT, bilateral ECT, frequency, multiple monitored ECT
The phenomenon of 'lost fetus' to orang bunian is quite commonly heard of in our culture. It may present in psychiatric settings and may potentially create confusion and difficulties in diagnostic and management aspects. A case of feigned full-term pregnancy followed by a pregnancy loss is described. This review emphasizes the need to recognize this phenomenon of 'lost advanced pregnancy' in context of the Malay belief. Possible etiological factors, diagnostic indicators of factitious disorder and management strategies are discussed. The possibility of cultural beliefs being used as psychological defenses is also discussed. Keywords: lost pregnancy, orang bunian, Malay mystical belief, factitious disorder
Dementia is typically characterized by the deterioration of cognitive abilities and is a common disorder
among the elderly in Malaysia. However, behavioral and psychological symptoms are also present
in approximately 90% of dementia patients.1 We report the manifestation of these symptoms in an
elderly woman with dementia and the treatment thereof.
This study aims to assess the environmental impacts of conventional and organic rice cultivations and proposes a sustainable conceptual framework of rice farming based on the life cycle assessment (LCA) approach. A cradle-to-gate LCA was performed by using the ReCiPe 2016 method and SimaPro 8.5 software. The functional unit was one ton of rice grains harvested. Primary data were obtained from the farmer, while secondary data were collected from Ecoinvent 3.0, the Agri Footprint 3.0 database and the literature. The total characterization factors for global warming potential (GWP), water consumption potential (WCP) and fossil fuel depletion potential (FFP) were 457.89 kg CO2-eq, 98.18 m3 and 84.56 kg oil-eq, respectively, at the midpoint level for conventional rice, while the impacts for organic rice were 140.55 kg CO2-eq, 29.45 m3 and 22.25 kg oil-eq, respectively. At the endpoint level, the total characterization factors for human health damage (HH), ecosystem damage (ED) and resource availability (RA) for conventional rice were 9.63 × 10-4 DALY, 5.54 × 10-6 species.year and 30.98 Dollar, respectively, while for organic rice, the impacts were 2.60 × 10-4 DALY, 2.28 × 10-6 species.year and 8.44 Dollar, respectively. Rice cultivation impacted the environment, particularly in relation to three impact categories: GWP, WCP and FFP. The cultivation phase of rice production was the main contributor to environmental impacts due to the production and application of fertilizer and pesticides. It can be concluded that the application of LCA in agricultural sector is able to provide information and responses for policy makers in understanding the potential environmental impacts at various spatial levels.
Three new species were described from Borneo: Itara (Bornitara) spinosa sp. nov. and Aphonoides duri sp. nov. from Brunei and Varitrella (Cantotrella) suikei sp. nov. from Sandakan in Sabah. We describe the call of Varitrella (Cantotrella) suikei sp. nov. In addition to the new species descriptions, we also report new locality records of other recently discovered species: Borneloria spinosa Gorochov, 2018 in Belait (Brunei Darussalam), species of Anemozara Gorochov, 2014 in Brunei Darussalam and Terrozacla borneo Gorochov, 2014 in Belait.
Background:Coelogyne kaliana, Coelogyne stenochila and Coelogyne tiomanensis are three valuable rare orchid species endemic to Peninsular Malaysia, currently rampantly traded illegally via the internet and through local nurseries, which label them as hybrids to avoid enforcement detection. Drastic measures to ensure the continued existence of their populations in the wild should be introduced as they are rapidly diminishing into extinction, including the development of rapid and accurate species-specific identification tools. These three orchid species are highly similar morphologically and currently it is impossible to distinguish among them without their reproductive structures. Methods: RAPD-based species-specific SCAR markers were developed to distinguish and authenticate the identity of these three endemic Peninsular Malaysian Coelogyne species. Results: Three SCAR markers were successfully developed in this study. SCAR marker primer pair , CKL_f / CKL_r was specific to C. kaliana as it produced a unique single band of 271 bp but not in C. stenochila and C. tiomanensis. SCAR marker primer pair CST_f / CST_r amplified a single band of 854 bp in C. stenochila and two bands of different sizes (372 bp and 858 bp) in C. tiomanensis, but no amplification in C. kaliana. The third SCAR marker primer pair, CTI_f / CTI_r produced a single band (about 500 bp) for both C. stenochila and C. tiomanensis, but showed no amplification in C. kaliana. Conclusions: Although not all these SCAR markers were species amplification specific, they could be used to discriminate among the three Coelogyne species effectively. Accurate species identification is one of the most important steps to allow a proper management plan to be established in the effort to conserve these three endangered orchid species of Peninsular Malaysia. Besides, it could effectively put a stop to the illegal trading of these rare endangered orchid species worldwide.
International Academy of Pathology, Malaysian Division has initiated and run the external quality assurance program for general diagnostic histopathology since the year 2017. This article introduces the educational philosophy of this external quality assurance program and the technicalities in running such a national program. Challenges in ensuring the successful running of this program to gain wide acceptance by histopathology laboratories in Malaysia as well as experience in overcoming these challenges are detailed. This article charts the future direction of this external quality assurance program.
This paper aimed to review the literature on depression that focused on its assessment and treatment in Malaysia. PsycINFO, Medline, local journals were searched, and 18 published articles were included in this paper. Results indicate that research on depression in Malaysia, particularly validation studies and psychotherapy research, was weak and fragmented, with minimal empirical evidence available. Pharmacotherapy still dominated the treatment for depression, and, in terms of psychotherapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) was recently practiced, but only a few studies have reported on the treatment efficacy of CBT. Major limitations of studies were noted, and, consequently, the problems that are associated with the implementation and future direction of clinical and research on depression in Malaysia were discussed. In short, the contribution of empirical research on the assessment and treatment for depression remained inconsistent and fragmented and urgently in need of further empirical investigation.