Pathological laughing or crying (PLC) were recognized after the occurrence of stroke, with a prevalence of 15% to 18%. There is no apparent triggering stimulus, and is often misdiagnosed as a mood disorder as it is a disorder of emotional expression rather than a primary disturbance of feeling. We reported a case of a 32 year old lady, who presented with giddiness and altered consciousness progressing to fever and neck stiffness, who’s CT showed a massive left cerebellar infarct. No risk factors were identified. Psychiatrically, she developed sudden crying spells after one month and a diagnosis of Major Depressive Disorder was made with subsequent commencement of anti-depressants. A week later, she developed continuous inappropriate laughter without the feeling of elation, which was beyond her control. There were no symptoms of mania or psychosis.
Knowledge and concerns of the bad health implications of high fat intake in consumers has
resulted in a rising demand for low-fat foods. Consequently, the use of sweet pre-treatment
as alternative food source is gaining attention among producers and consumers. The study of
reducing oil uptake of fried banana chips using sweet pre-treatment was done. In the preparation
of fried banana chips, the sliced banana was blanched at 80o
C. Then, the sliced banana was
dipped in the treatment for 4 g, 8 g and 12 g of sugar solution. Next, the sliced banana was deep
fried at temperature 180o
C for 5 minutes. The result showed increased in percentage of moisture
reduction (86.65 %, 86.99%, 88.37% and 90.51%) for control and other three fried banana
chips as the concentration of sugar used for treatment was increased. For fat content, it showed
a decreased in percentage (0.66%, 0.63%, 0.62% and 0.54%) as the sugar concentration used
for the treatment was increased. Sugar treatment does not affect the colour of fried banana chips
as p-value for lightness (L*
) is 0.426 and the p-value for yellowness (b*
) is 0.468. This showed
that the null hypothesis was accepted and there was no significant difference in lightness and
yellowness of all four fried banana chips. Finally, sensory evaluation showed that there was a
significant difference in crispiness, colour, sweetness, oiliness and overall acceptance between
all four fried banana chips. As the conclusion, sweet pre-treatment gives positive effect on
reducing fat content in fried banana chips and can be used as one of the alternative method in
producing banana chips with lower amount of fat.
Objective: The aim of this study is to translate the original English version of List of Threatening Experiences (LTE) into Malay and to test the reliability on a group of medical students. Method: The LTE was translated into Malay and back-translated. The Malay LTE (LTE-M) was then tested on a total of 237 medical students. They were given LTE-M, General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and English version of LTE. A week later, these students were again given the LTE-M. Results: The parallel and test-retest reliability were satisfactory for 7 out of the 12 event categories (Kappa=0.67- 0.88). However 3 event categories were not reported. There was no statistical significant difference in the BDI and GHQ scores between the students with and without threatening experiences. Conclusion: The parallel and test-retest reliability of the LTE-M were acceptable. An association between the threatening experiences and increased disorders was not established.