Objective: The family caregiver has a pivotal role in the management of HIV/AIDS patients and their well-being is consequently crucial as it could impact negatively on the quality of caregiving. This preliminary qualitative investigation intended to explore and describe the challenges and experiences of HIV/AIDS family caregivers in Terengganu, Malaysia. Methods: A convenient sample of family caregivers of HIV/AIDS patients who were aware of the diagnosis was enrolled. Recruitment was conducted in Hospital Sultanah Nur Zahirah, Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia and semi-structured interviews were used. Results: Results were transcribed into verbatim before being subjected to analysis. Twelve Muslim caregivers consented participation (age range = 18.0 - 81.0; female = 75.0%, mother/wife = 50.0%; married = 83.3%; ≤ primary school
= 50.0%; and self-employed = 66.7%). The four major themes that emerged were challenges of caregiving, financial issues, stigma and discrimination, and support for caregivers. Additionally, caregivers did mention several positive aspects of their caregiving role including satisfaction from helping family member and improved family relationships. Conclusion: A variety of life aspects were negatively affected by caring for HIV patients, thus requiring a multidisciplinary approach to address such issues. ASEAN Journal of Psychiatry, Vol. 15 (2): July - December 2014: 120-130.
Daily food intake of women may affect their bone health by altering their bone mineral density (BMD) as the lack of certain
nutrients may affect bone integrity whilst, BMD also can be a predictor of breast cancer. To date, many studies have been
conducted to discuss on association of BMD and mammographic breast density (MBD) and how both are related to breast
cancer risks but no consideration has been made on dietary intake. Therefore, this study was designed to determine
the association of dietary intake with BMD and other breast cancer risk factors. A cross-sectional study on 76 pre- and
postmenopausal women above 40 years underwent mammogram screening and Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DEXA)
was conducted in Hospital Kuala Lumpur (HKL) for the duration of 1 year. Purposive sampling method was used to choose
the respondents. Women who are diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent cancer treatment were excluded from this
study. DEXA unit (Hologic Discovery W, Hologic, Inc) were used to measure BMD at the femoral neck and lumbar spine in
grams per centimetre squared (g/cm2
) and they were classified into normal and abnormal group based on the T-scores.
The subjects were asked about their daily dietary pattern for a duration of three days using Diet History Questionnaire
(DHQ). The mean of selected characteristics were compared between groups. Additionally, binary logistic regression was
used to determine the association between diet intake with BMD and other risk factors of breast cancer. The total number
of pre- and postmenopausal women who consented to participate in this study are equal. The mean age was 47.1 years
and 54.9 years for premenopausal and postmenopausal women respectively. The results indicate only menopausal age of
the women was statistically significant (p < 0.05). A number of 17% premenopausal and 9% of postmenopausal women
showed to have family history of breast cancer, however, it was not statistically significant (p = 0.12). There was no
significant difference in daily energy intake of food in both groups (p = 0.22). None of the nutrients in daily food intake
showed to be statistically significant. Menstrual status showed an association with BMD with p < 0.05 and the remaining
risk factors did not show any association. Logistic regression revealed that only menstrual status had correlation with
BMD in both groups. This study provided the dietary pattern and the effects on bone health. The association of other risk
factors of breast cancer with BMD were also analysed and most of it showed a negative association.
Obesity is a risk factor for chronic diseases which can affect work productivity and physical function of employees
particularly among those in security sector. The study aimed to determine the association between obesity with total
days of sick leave and health related quality of life (HRQoL) among Malay male security officers. A cross-sectional
study was conducted among Malay male security officers working in a Malaysian higher learning institution. Subjects
were evaluated using anthropometric measurements, quality of life and number of sick leave taken within two months
prior to the study. A total of 194 subjects (mean age 40.12 ± 11.41 years) were recruited. A total of 30.4% were obese,
39.7% were pre-obese and only 29.9% had normal body weight or underweight. Central obesity was observed in 57.7%
of them and 87.1% shown excessive body fat percentage. Number of sick leave days was positively correlated with Body
Mass Index (BMI) (r = 0.162, p = 0.024) and waist circumference (r = 0.181, p = 0.012). Score of the general health
component was negatively correlated with BMI (r = -0.161, p = 0.025), waist circumference (r = -0.194, p = 0.007) and
body fat percentage (r = -0.191, p = 0.008). Physical functioning score was lowest in obese subjects than normal and
pre-obese subjects (p = 0.046). Score of the bodily pain component was positively correlated with waist circumference (r
= 0.156, p = 0.030). Obesity is associated with number of sick leave days and quality of life in the studied group. Hence,
body weight of the security staff should be monitored and appropriate intervention should be conducted to improve their
work attendance and quality of life.
Two cocoa bean fermentation methods (spontaneous fermentation and the use of starter culture) for 7 days fermentation were compared in terms of safety and quality fermented beans. Candida sp. was used as a starter culture in this study. The safety of the fermented cocoa beans were measured by the growth colonies of pathogenic microorganisms namely Bacillus cereus, Escherichia coli, Salmonella sp., Staphylococcus aureus, and Pseudomonas sp., on Bacillus cereus agar, eosin-methylene blue (EMB) agar, xylose lysine deoxycholate (XLD) agar, Baird-Parker agar (BPA), and Pseudomonas agar, respectively. B. cereus, E. coli and Salmonella sp. were early present in both fermentations. Candida sp.-fermentation showed detection of B. cereus at 5.34 log10 CFU/g and absence after 24 hours of fermentation while in spontaneous-fermentation B. cereus was too few to count. Moreover, the log10 E. coli number in Candida sp.-fermentation and spontaneous-fermentation were reduced from 5.72 to 3.66 and from 7.15 to 4.46 on day 1 to day 3, respectively. There were no presences of pathogenic microorganisms on day 5 and day 7 for both fermentations. In term of quality, proximate analysis of spontaneous-fermentation resulted that the content of moisture, ash, fat, crude protein, crude fibre and carbohydrate was 56.47%, 2.32%, 3.17%, 7.02%, 28.14% and 2.88%, meanwhile for the Candida sp.-fermentation was 53.96%, 2.19%, 3.44%, 8.25%, 25.46% and 6.70%, respectively. This study showed that both fermentations are considered to be safe and there is no significant difference in proximate value in fermented cocoa beans from spontaneous-fermentation and Candida sp.-fermentation.
The aim of this study was to assess the carcass characteristic of male Dorper sheep weaned at three different ages.
A total of 27 newborn male Dorper sheep (average body weight, 3.06 ± 0.74 kg) were selected randomly and divided
into three groups. Animals in group 1 (n=9) were weaned at day 30, while animals in group 2 (n=9) and 3 (n=9) were
weaned at day 60 and 90, respectively. Group 3 was acted as a control group. Creep feed and grower feed were given to
the animals based on 3.5% of body weight. There were no significant differences (P
Radiobiological model such as linear quadratic (LQ) is widely used in radiotherapy to predict the biophysical response of the tumour cell to the radiation. In clinical radiotherapy, LQ model is widely employed to plan treatment delivery and fractionation. Nevertheless, LQ model might not provide accurate prediction for high dose rate treatment. This study investigates the radiation cell survival responses using LQ model and alternative Multi-Target (MT) model. The experimental works were conducted in-vitro using HeLa cells that were irradiated using photon and electron beams of different energy. Cells irradiation were performed in full scatter condition and exposed to radiation doses ranges from 1 to 10 Gy. Clonogenic assay is used as an endpoint to obtain the cell survival curves which later be fitted with LQ and MT model. The results demonstrate that MT model produce the fitting curves that are closed to the experimental data compare to LQ model especially at high doses. Parameter analysis from both models indicates more biological damage inflicted by high energy electron beam. Correlation between the experimental cell survival data and radiobiological model analysis suggesting that alternative radiobiological model such as MT model could be applied in analysing cells’ radiation survival and damage in clinical radiotherapy.
The purpose of the study was to determine the effect of out-of-field photon beams radiotherapy to the cancer cell survival. In this study, HeLa and T24 cancer cells were irradiated with 6 MV and 10 MV photon beams in two different conditions, one with intercellular communication with the in-field cell and one without the communication. Cells survival was determined by clonogenic assay. In the presence of intercellular communication, the cell death was increased which indicate the presence of radiation induced bystander effects (RIBE). The effects were also dependent on the cell types and photon energy where the HeLa cells exhibit less survival compares to T24 cells and the effects were prominent at higher photon energy. This study demonstrates that the out-of-field cells in conjunction with RIBE plays important roles in the cells response towards megavoltage photon beam radiation therapy.
Stochastic differential equations play a prominent role in many application areas including finance, biology and epidemiology. By incorporating random elements to ordinary differential equation system, a system of stochastic differential equations (SDEs) arises. This leads to a more complex insight of the physical phenomena than their deterministic counterpart. However, most of the SDEs do not have an analytical solution where numerical method is the best way to resolve this problem. Recently, much work had been done in applying numerical methods for solving SDEs. A very general class of Stochastic Runge-Kutta, (SRK) had been studied and 2-stage SRK with order convergence of 1.0 and 4-stage SRK with order convergence of 1.5 were discussed. In this study, we compared the performance of Euler-Maruyama, 2-stage SRK and 4-stage SRK in approximating the strong solutions of stochastic logistic model which describe the cell growth of C. acetobutylicum P262. The MS-stability functions of these schemes were calculated and regions of MS-stability are given. We also perform the comparison for the performance of these methods based on their global errors.
Occupation is the most important element in changing the quality-of-life continuity and the recovery of drug addicts. This study aimed to measure the level of employment sustainability among ex-clients from the National Anti-Drug Agency (AADK). This study used a quantitative approach with a cross-sectional design. A total of 130 AADK ex-clients who were in employment were selected as respondents for this study. Our findings show that the majority of AADK ex-clients can survive relatively well enough for between 1 to 2 years depending on the factors of wages, work environment, interests and skills. The finding of this study implies that former clients tend to remain only 1 to 2 years in employment if their wages and jobs are not in line with their will. The findings also found that there was a significant relationship between the job-person fit and job satisfaction with motivation. Hence, this study is capable to modify the perceptions and views of employers towards clients' initiative for being persistent at the workplace as well as improving existing policies in providing incentives to clients for being consistent on the job.
In this paper, the uncontrolled environmental factors are perturbed into the growth rate deceleration factor of the Gompertzian deterministic model. The growth process under Gompertz’s law is considered, thus lead to stochastic differential equations of Gompertzian with time delay. The Gompertzian deterministic model has proven to fit well with the clinical data of cancerous growth, however the performance of stochastic model towards clinical data is yet to be confirmed. The prediction quality of stochastic model is evaluated by comparing the simulated results with the clinical data of cervical cancer growth. The parameter estimation of stochastic models is computed by using simulated maximum likelihood method. 4-stage stochastic Runge-Kutta is applied to simulate the solution of stochastic model. Low values of root mean-square error (RMSE) of Gompertzian model with random effect indicate good fits.
Three short sediment cores (12-32 cm) from South China Sea off Southern Terengganu were collected during May (postNortheast monsoon) and September (pre-Northeast monsoon) 2007. The concentration of total organic carbon (TOC) obtained ranged from 0.41-2.23 and 0.38-2.31% during post and pre-monsoon, respectively. TOC concentration was found to decrease with depth and distance from the coast and river mouth. In particular, station with close proximity to the coast exhibits most pronounced variation of TOC with depth. Besides spatial variation, it is noted that the seasonal variations also considerably affect the distribution and concentrations of TOC, where both near and offshore sampling stations showed significant variations in TOC content during May and September sampling. These findings suggest the importance of terrestrial organic carbon flux, physical mixing and seasonal variations in regulating the concentration and distribution of the organic carbon in the study area.
This paper reports on the synthesis and characterization of CdTe-CdSe core-shell quantum dots (QDs) with luminescent from 650 to 720 nm. The QDs were synthesized using a wet-chemical process at a moderate temperature (300 °C) following two-steps process of core and shell synthesis. The photoluminescence characterization on the QDs showed that the QDs emitted light in the range of red regime with quantum yield as high as 37%. Owing to their unique photoluminescence characteristics (high quantum yield and narrow spectrum), the QDs may find a potential application in a variety of applications such as LED, solar cell and bio-labeling.
The aim of this study was to assess spatial and seasonal variations of dissolved and particulate organic carbon (DOC and POC, respectively) in the Setiu Wetland, which is located in the southern region of the South China Sea coastal area. Surface water samples were collected monthly from October 2009-September 2010. In addition, the concentration of chlorophyll-a was determined. The DOC and POC mean concentration varied between 80-340 μM and 60-115 μM, respectively. The results showed that the concentrations of these parameters were mainly influenced by human activities and season. Higher concentrations of DOC (150-340 μM) and POC (75-115 μM) were found at stations near the populated area, aquaculture and palm oil plantation. In addition, higher concentrations of DOC (200-275 μM) and POC (105-150 μM) were also recorded during the monsoon season due to runoff from terrestrial sources and resuspension from bottom sediments. No significant correlation between the low molecular weight (LMW) fractions of DOC and chlorophyll-a (R2=0.0096, p>0.05) further supports the hypothesis that phytoplankton not playing key role in regulating the organic carbon distribution. Higher percentage of LMW DOC in monsoon season suggesting possible input of this fraction from land runoff to the wetland are
A study was carried out to determine the distribution and behaviour of nitrogen (N) compounds (nitrite, nitrate, ammonia,
dissolved and particulate organic nitrogen) in Sungai Terengganu estuary (TRE). Surface water samples were collected
during ebb neap and spring tides for the longitudinal survey along the salinity gradient. The results indicated that all N
compounds behave non-conservatively with addition during both tidal cycles, except for nitrate which exhibited removal
behaviour during spring tide. In general, higher concentration of N compounds was observed during spring tide compared
to neap tide. It is suggested that during spring tide, stronger water turbulence resulted in resuspension of nutrients in
bottom sediment and lead to the increase in N compounds concentrations in the surface water. The diurnal survey for the
freshwater station showed that the concentrations of N compounds follow the ebb and flood variations, whereas for the
coastal station the reverse trend was observed. Comparisons with a previous study under similar tidal conditions show
there was an increase in nitrite and ammonia concentrations in TRE, which was probably due to increase in discharge
from the rapid development activities around this area. In addition, the presence of a breakwater at the lower part of
the estuary may also contribute to the high nutrient content in the estuary due to restricted outflow of nutrients to the
coastal area. Overall, the results from this study highlighted the importance of monitoring the N compounds for future
protection of the estuary.
The purpose of this study is to review the literature on microsporidiosis in various high-risk groups among the Malaysian population, i.e., HIV/AIDS, cancer, hospitalised patients and Orang Asli, and to update information with regards to microsporidia prevalence, diagnosis and association of the disease with gastrointestinal symptoms in Malaysia. Hospitalised patients showed the highest prevalence (28.3%) of microsporidiosis compared to other risk groups. This review did not find any direct correlations between gastrointestinal symptoms and microsporidiosis. Since microsporidiosis is an emerging threat to the high-risk groups, greater awareness should be instilled among clinicians to consider microsporidiosis in their differential diagnosis if no other causes can be defined.
Interaction between the Red Palm Weevil (RPW) and coconuts will stimulate the plants’ early response by producing the
reactive oxygen species (ROS) which causes lipid peroxidation and membrane damage of the host plants. Thus, a multiple
defense lines, including both scavenging enzymes and molecular antioxidants have been evolved to promptly inactivate
these radicals. This study investigated the responses of catalase (CAT), peroxidase (POD), ascorbate peroxidase (APX),
α-tocopherol, ascorbic acid and carotenoids contents of three coconut cultivars which were PANDAN, MAWA and MATAG
against the RPW infestation. The infested PANDAN and MAWA exhibited higher CAT, POD and APX specific activities of 2.60
± 0.11, 5.0 ± 0.72 and 1.58 ± 0.20 units/mg protein for PANDAN whereas 1.13 ± 0.04, 39.38 ± 2.29 and 1.15 ± 0.16 units/
mg, protein for MAWA) compared with controls. However, MATAG cultivar showed no significant difference (p<0.05) in the
production of both enzymes except for POD specific activities. RPW infestations only managed to trigger the α-tocopherol
concentrations in the MAWA cultivar compared with the others. Infested MAWA and MATAG increased the ascorbic acid
concentrations, however, a contrast results was observed in infested PANDAN. All coconut cultivars exhibited higher
carotenoids content (2771.20 ± 263.90, 3043.20 ± 526.35 and 921.20 ± 281.10 µg/g.fwt of PANDAN, MAWA and MATAG,
respectively) compared with their respective controls (455.20 ± 135.10, 1408.40 ± 103.02 and 248.80 ± 110.39 µg/g.
fwt). The above results indicated that the oxidative stress induced by the RPW infestation would stimulate the activities of
enzymes and molecular antioxidants studied especially in infested MAWA. Thus, it may be suggested that MAWA cultivar
was more tolerance towards RPW infestation compared to MATAG and PANDAN. It is hoped that this finding will provide
clues on how plant respond toward stress during infestation, thus further action can be activated as soon as possible to
control the spread of R. ferrugineus.
Microscopy-based technique has been widely used in the detection of Blastocystis sp. This study was conducted to compare
the techniques used for screening of Blastocystis sp., namely in vitro cultivation of stool specimens in Jones’ medium (IVC)
followed by Wheatley Trichrome staining and direct examination of stool samples preserved with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)
followed by Wheatley Trichrome staining with single-round polymerase chain reaction (PCR) as the reference technique.
The study was performed on 466 stool samples obtained from the aboriginal community in Pahang, Malaysia. IVC showed
higher detection rate of Blastocystis sp. (35.6%) than PVA (20.0%). Single-round PCR detected Blastocystis sp. in 41.0%
of the stool specimens. The sensitivity and specificity of PVA and IVC in comparison to the reference technique were 75.3%
(95% CI: 65.2-83.6) and 68.5% (CI: 63.7-73.3) and 88.6% (CI: 82.7-93.0) and 86.3% (CI: 81.9-90.0), respectively. The
agreement between the reference technique and PVA showed statistically significant fair agreement by Cohen Kappa
statistics of (K=0.318, p<0.001), meanwhile statistically significant substantial agreement was observed between PCR
and IVC by Cohen Kappa (K=0.727, p<0.001). Therefore, in vitro cultivation in Jones’ medium followed by Wheatley
Trichrome staining of stool specimens should be used as a screening technique in the detection of Blastocystis sp. infections.
Introduction: There is a significant increase in the number of divorce cases among Malay Muslim couples over the past years which serves as a strong signal for the government to take initiatives to understand the current situation. A plethora of literature can be found on marriage satisfaction and the quality of the relationship within marriages. However, exploration on contributing factors to long lasting marriages amongst the Malay Muslim community are lacking. This paper aims to share the initial findings in an effort to explore of the strength of relationship in a lasting marriage amongst Malay Muslim couples in Malaysia. Methods: This paper adopted a quantitative approach utilizing the Eternal Love Instrument (c) 2016 which consisted of 171 items, distributed to 350 respondents based on simple random sampling technique. Results: The findings indicated that there are three main considerations in selecting a spouse which were (1) Religion (95.2%); (2) Character (responsible) (96.1%); well mannered (95.8%); and (3) Race (79.3%). Age, looks and type of jobs were the least considered factors amongst the respondents surveyed. The respondents perceived that the strongest element in their relationship was communication (69.6%), followed by tol- erance (62.6%) and responsible towards family wellbeing (56.4%). Conclusion: The initial survey has indicated that a lasting marriage is a consequence of having a responsible partner with good religious background. Also, from all these five constructs, these respondents considered their spouses to be highly responsible.
Behavioural change interventions for weight loss have been found to be effective in the short term, but their long-term effectiveness remains a question. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the 36 weeks F.E.A.T program combining behavioural changes of healthy eating and physical activity. A quasi-experimental study of overweight adults was conducted in Malacca. A total of 53 subjects (mean age 47.4 ± 7.2 years) completed the program in three stages. In the first stage (T1: weeks 1–12), the intervention group (n = 28) participated in the F.E.A.T program activities, while the control group (n = 25) did not receive the intervention. In the second stage (T2: weeks 13-24), the activity was supervised and monitored by the peer support group. Sustainability of activity was measured at the third stage (T3: weeks 25-36). The effectiveness of the program was measured by changes in dietary intake, physical activity score, body weight, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC) and body fat percentage at T0 (pre-intervention), T1, T2 and T3. All parameters showed significant interaction effects (time*group) except for energy intake. The intervention group showed significant decreases from T0 to T3 for energy intake (-14.3%), body weight (-4.3%), BMI (-4.2%), WC (-10.5%) and body fat percentage (-3.6%). While physical activity level increased by 109.6% for the intervention group. There were no significant differences in all of these parameters among the control group. The results show the effectiveness of the F.E.A.T program on dietary status and physical activity changes during the 36-week of intervention period.