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Fulltext What Sways People's Judgment of Sleep Quality? A Quantitative Choice-Making Study With Good and Poor Sleepers

Ramlee F, Sanborn AN, Tang NKY

Sleep, 2017 07 01;40(7).
PMID: 28525617 DOI: 10.1093/sleep/zsx091

Study objectives: We conceptualized sleep quality judgment as a decision-making process and examined the relative importance of 17 parameters of sleep quality using a choice-based conjoint analysis.
Methods: One hundred participants (50 good sleepers; 50 poor sleepers) were asked to choose between 2 written scenarios to answer 1 of 2 questions: "Which describes a better (or worse) night of sleep?". Each scenario described a self-reported experience of sleep, stringing together 17 possible determinants of sleep quality that occur at different times of the day (day before, pre-sleep, during sleep, upon waking, day after). Each participant answered 48 questions. Logistic regression models were fit to their choice data.
Results: Eleven of the 17 sleep quality parameters had a significant impact on the participants' choices. The top 3 determinants of sleep quality were: Total sleep time, feeling refreshed (upon waking), and mood (day after). Sleep quality judgments were most influenced by factors that occur during sleep, followed by feelings and activities upon waking and the day after. There was a significant interaction between wake after sleep onset and feeling refreshed (upon waking) and between feeling refreshed (upon waking) and question type (better or worse night of sleep). Type of sleeper (good vs poor sleepers) did not significantly influence the judgments.
Conclusions: Sleep quality judgments appear to be determined by not only what happened during sleep, but also what happened after the sleep period. Interventions that improve mood and functioning during the day may inadvertently also improve people's self-reported evaluation of sleep quality.
Fulltext Design and fabrication of a heat exchanger for portable solar water distiller system

Abduhamed, A.J., Adam, N. M., Hairuddin, A. A., Kareem, H. K.

International Food Research Journal, 2016;23(101):15-22.
MyJurnal

Heat exchanger H.X.s is the equipment used to transfer the thermal energy between two or more
fluids at varying temperatures. The nature of this paper is an experimental study of the optimum
design for shell and tube heat exchanger as a condenser with high productivity of drinking
water for portable solar water distiller. The elaboration covers the aspects of considerations,
design, fabrication, and test of the shell and tube H.X. as a portable condenser for solar water
distiller system. The system consists of a portable stainless steel condenser, which is able to be
dismantled and assembled without tools. The experimental result establishes that the condenser
is able to produce 3.8 liter /hour of distilled water from vapor at 99.7˚C of inlet temperature and
4 liter/hour vapor flow rate, with 130 liter /hour as a condenser coolant water flow rate. The heat
efficiency of the condenser can be increased by means of minimizing the tube’s thickness and
vapor inlet pressure. There is no back pressure effect on the system and the pressure drop in
both sides of the condenser is reportedly of very low value and negligible, therefore, no need
for a pressure pump is to be eliminated.
Fulltext Using computational fluid dynamics in the determination of solar collector orientation and stack height of a solar induced ventilation prototype

Yusoff, W. F. M., Sapian, A. R., Salleh, E., Adam, N. M., Hamzah, Z., Mamat, M. H. H.

Pertanika Journal of Science & Technology, 2014;22(1):273-288.
MyJurnal

Stack ventilation in the hot and humid climate is inherently inefficient due to minimal air temperature differences between indoor and outdoor environment of a naturally ventilated building. Solar induced ventilation is a viable alternative in enhancing this stack ventilation. This paper aims to demonstrate investigations on the effective solar collector orientation and stack height for a solar induced ventilation prototype that utilizes roof solar collector and vertical stack. The orientation of the solar collector is significant as it determines the amount of solar radiation absorbed by the solar collector. Meanwhile, the height of the vertical stack influences the creation of the stack pressure in inducing air movement. Investigations were executed using a simulation modelling software called FloVENT. The validation of the simulation modelling against physical experiment indicated a good agreement between these two results. Analyses were executed on the air temperature increments inside the solar collector. A high increment of the air temperature resulted in the effective orientation. Meanwhile, the air temperature and mass flow rate of the various heights of the vertical stack were also analyzed. The findings concluded that the recommended orientation for the prototype’s solar collector is the west-facing orientation. It was also found that the higher the vertical stack, the lower the air temperature inside the stack would be, but with greater induced mass flow rate.
Fulltext VIPoma syndrome: challenges in management

Adam N, Lim SS, Ananda V, Chan SP

Singapore Med J, 2010 Jul;51(7):e129-32.
PMID: 20730389

Vasoactive intestinal peptide-producing tumour (VIPoma) or Verner-Morrison syndrome is a very rare neuroendocrine tumour. It occurs in less than ten percent of all pancreatic islet cell tumours, and about 70 percent to 80 percent of these tumours originate from the pancreas. Diagnosis is characteristically delayed. The first-line treatment is surgical. It may be curative in forty percent of patients with benign and non-metastatic disease. Palliative surgery is indicated in extensive disease, followed by conventional somatostatin analogue (octreotide) therapy. Somatostatin analogues improve hormone-mediated symptoms, reduce tumour bulk and prevent local and systemic effects. We present a female patient with VIPoma syndrome, which had metastasised to the liver at diagnosis. The patient underwent palliative Whipple procedure and subsequent cytoreductive radiofrequency ablations to her liver metastases. Unfortunately, after symptomatic improvement for three years, her disease progressed. Currently, she is on daily octreotide, achieving partial control of her symptoms.
Cost of cardiovascular disease events in patients with and without type 2 diabetes and factors influencing cost: a retrospective cohort study

Puteh SEW, Kamarudin N', Hussein Z, Adam N, Shahari MR

BMC Public Health, 2024 Jul 26;24(1):2003.
PMID: 39061035 DOI: 10.1186/s12889-024-19475-w

BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) are non-communicable diseases that impose a significant economic burden on healthcare systems, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the hospital treatment cost for cardiovascular disease events (CVDEs) in patients with and without diabetes and identify factors influencing cost.
METHOD: We conducted a retrospective, cross-sectional study using administrative data from three public tertiary hospitals in Malaysia. Data for hospital admissions between 1 March 2019 and 1 March 2020 with International Classification of Diseases 10th Revision (ICD-10) codes for acute myocardial infarction (MI), ischaemic heart disease (IHD), hypertensive heart disease, stroke, heart failure, cardiomyopathy, and peripheral vascular disease (PVD) were retrieved from the Malaysian Disease Related Group (Malaysian DRG) Casemix System. Patients were stratified by T2DM status for analyses. Multivariate logistic regression was used to identify factors influencing treatment costs.
RESULTS: Of the 1,183 patients in our study cohort, approximately 60.4% had T2DM. The most common CVDE was acute MI (25.6%), followed by IHD (25.3%), hypertensive heart disease (18.9%), stroke (12.9%), heart failure (9.4%), cardiomyopathy (5.7%) and PVD (2.1%). Nearly two-thirds (62.4%) of the patients had at least one cardiovascular risk factor, with hypertension being the most prevalent (60.4%). The treatment cost for all CVDEs was RM 4.8 million and RM 3.7 million in the T2DM and non-T2DM group, respectively. IHD incurred the largest cost in both groups, constituting 30.0% and 50.0% of the total CVDE treatment cost for patients with and without T2DM, respectively. Predictors of high treatment cost included male gender, non-minority ethnicity, IHD diagnosis and moderate-to-high severity level.
CONCLUSION: This study provides real-world cost estimates for CVDE hospitalisation and quantifies the combined burden of two major non-communicable disease categories at the public health provider level. Our results confirm that CVDs are associated with substantial health utilisation in both T2DM and non-T2DM patients.
Fulltext Management of diabetes in pregnancy in primary care

Nurain MN, Marmuji LZ, Mastura I, Michael FH, Barakatun-Nisak MY, Yusof M, et al.

Malays Fam Physician, 2019;14(3):55-59.
PMID: 32175041

Diabetes in pregnancy is associated with risks to the woman and her developing fetus. Management of the condition at the primary care level includes pre-conception care, screening, diagnosis, as well as antenatal and postpartum care. A multidisciplinary approach is essential in ensuring its holistic management.
Fulltext Management of prediabetes in Malaysian population: An experts' opinion

Mafauzy M, Khoo EM, Hussein Z, Yusoff Azmi NS, Siah GJ, Mustapha FI, et al.

Med J Malaysia, 2020 07;75(4):419-427.
PMID: 32724007

INTRODUCTION: Prediabetes, typically defined as blood glucose levels above normal but below diabetes thresholds, denotes a risk state that confers a high chance of developing diabetes. Asians, particularly the Southeast Asian population, may have a higher genetic predisposition to diabetes and increased exposure to environmental and social risk factors. Malaysia alone was home to 3.4 million people with diabetes in 2017; the figure is estimated to reach 6.1 million by 2045. Developing strategies for early interventions to treat prediabetes and preventing the development of overt diabetes and subsequent cardiovascular and microvascular complications are therefore important.

METHODS: An expert panel comprising regional experts was convened in Kuala Lumpur, for a one-day meeting, to develop a document on prediabetes management in Malaysia. The expert panel comprised renowned subject-matter experts and specialists in diabetes and endocrinology, primary-care physicians, as well as academicians with relevant expertise.

RESULTS: Fifteen key clinical statements were proposed. The expert panel reached agreements on several important issues related to the management of prediabetes providing recommendations on the screening, diagnosis, lifestyle and pharmacological management of prediabetes. The expert panel also proposed changes in forthcoming clinical practice guidelines and suggested that the government should advocate early screening, detection, and intensive management of prediabetes.

CONCLUSION: This document provides a comprehensive approach to the management of prediabetes in Malaysia in their daily activities and offer help in improving government policies and the decision-making process.
Global status and conservation potential of reef sharks

MacNeil MA, Chapman DD, Heupel M, Simpfendorfer CA, Heithaus M, Meekan M, et al.

Nature, 2020 07;583(7818):801-806.
PMID: 32699418 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2519-y

Decades of overexploitation have devastated shark populations, leaving considerable doubt as to their ecological status1,2. Yet much of what is known about sharks has been inferred from catch records in industrial fisheries, whereas far less information is available about sharks that live in coastal habitats3. Here we address this knowledge gap using data from more than 15,000 standardized baited remote underwater video stations that were deployed on 371 reefs in 58 nations to estimate the conservation status of reef sharks globally. Our results reveal the profound impact that fishing has had on reef shark populations: we observed no sharks on almost 20% of the surveyed reefs. Reef sharks were almost completely absent from reefs in several nations, and shark depletion was strongly related to socio-economic conditions such as the size and proximity of the nearest market, poor governance and the density of the human population. However, opportunities for the conservation of reef sharks remain: shark sanctuaries, closed areas, catch limits and an absence of gillnets and longlines were associated with a substantially higher relative abundance of reef sharks. These results reveal several policy pathways for the restoration and management of reef shark populations, from direct top-down management of fishing to indirect improvement of governance conditions. Reef shark populations will only have a high chance of recovery by engaging key socio-economic aspects of tropical fisheries.
Author Correction: Global status and conservation potential of reef sharks

MacNeil MA, Chapman DD, Heupel M, Simpfendorfer CA, Heithaus M, Meekan M, et al.

Nature, 2020 09;585(7825):E11.
PMID: 32848253 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2692-z

An Amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.
Widespread diversity deficits of coral reef sharks and rays

Simpfendorfer CA, Heithaus MR, Heupel MR, MacNeil MA, Meekan M, Harvey E, et al.

Science, 2023 Jun 16;380(6650):1155-1160.
PMID: 37319199 DOI: 10.1126/science.ade4884

A global survey of coral reefs reveals that overfishing is driving resident shark species toward extinction, causing diversity deficits in reef elasmobranch (shark and ray) assemblages. Our species-level analysis revealed global declines of 60 to 73% for five common resident reef shark species and that individual shark species were not detected at 34 to 47% of surveyed reefs. As reefs become more shark-depleted, rays begin to dominate assemblages. Shark-dominated assemblages persist in wealthy nations with strong governance and in highly protected areas, whereas poverty, weak governance, and a lack of shark management are associated with depauperate assemblages mainly composed of rays. Without action to address these diversity deficits, loss of ecological function and ecosystem services will increasingly affect human communities.