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Influences on family planning acceptance: an analysis of background and program factors in Malaysia

Johnson JT

Stud Fam Plann, 1979 Jan;10(1):15-24.
PMID: 442148 DOI: 10.2307/1966174

Which factors have the greater influence on family planning performance: fixed background variables such as racial composition, urbanization, and mortality, which are affected by level of development, or program inputs such as assignment of personnel and location of clinics, which are subject to manipulation by administrators? An analysis of differences in family planning acceptance among 70 districts of Malaysia shows that two main program-manipulable variables--level of personnel deployment and accessibility of clinics--have the largest direct effect upon acceptance levels. Variations in background factors explain a smaller proportion.
PIP: The application to the Malaysian family planning program of a conceptual model in which background factors, affected by the level of development, are distinguished from program input variables, subject to program manipulation, is considered in an effort to examine reasons for variations in program performance. Focus is particularly on the inputs of workers, who provide services and distribute supplies, and clinic facilities, through which services and supplies are made available. The questions asked concerned how their availability and use are affected by background factors, which themselves reflect to some extent the population's readiness to accept family planning. Distinguishing the program-manipulable factors from the background factors involved determination of the impact of both groups of variables, separately and together on levels of program acceptance, using appropriate bivariate and multivariate techniques. The evidence shows that in addition to background factors, over which program administrators can exercise no direct influence, there is a major contribution made to program acceptance through program factors over which the planner and administrator do have control. The 2 program variables contributed more in explaining performance levels than all 5 selected background variables combined, and the relative contribution of these program factors has increased over time. The key finding emerging from the different analyses is that program manipulable inputs are the dominant direct determinants of subsequent levels of family planning acceptance in Malayasia. Clearly, higher levels of development, as reflected in the measures of background variables, have facilitated acceptance, and background variables contributed significantly. Yet, whatever the level of development, the extent of deployment of program resources does significantly influence the level of program performance.
Seasonality of births for West Malaysia's two main racial groups

Johnson JT, Ann TB, Palan VT

Hum Biol, 1975 Sep;47(3):295-307.
PMID: 1176104
Fulltext Progressive septal and palatal perforation secondary to intranasal cocaine abuse

Gendeh BS, Ferguson BJ, Johnson JT, Kapadia S

Med J Malaysia, 1998 Dec;53(4):435-8.
PMID: 10971991

Septal perforation from intranasal cocaine abuse is well recognised. We present a case of progressive septal as well as palatal perforation. Progression from septal perforation to palatal perforation occurred after cessation of intranasal cocaine abuse. This patient had a weakly positive cytoplasmic antineutrophilic cytoplasmic antibody (C-ANCA) but no histologic evidence of Wegener's Granulomatosis. The differential diagnosis for septal and palatal perforation is reviewed. This case represents the fifth reported case of palatal perforation secondary to cocaine abuse in the literature, and the second associated with positive C-ANCA.
Separation of prescribing and dispensing in Malaysia: the history and challenges

Tiong JJ, Mai CW, Gan PW, Johnson J, Mak VS

Int J Pharm Pract, 2016 Aug;24(4):302-5.
PMID: 26777986 DOI: 10.1111/ijpp.12244

This article serves as an update to the work by Shafie et al. (2012) which previously reviewed the benefits of policies separating prescribing and dispensing in various countries to advocate its implementation in Malaysia. This article seeks to strengthen the argument by highlighting not only the weaknesses of the Malaysian health care system from the historical, professional and economic viewpoints but also the shortcomings of both medical and pharmacy professions in the absence of separation of dispensing. It also provides a detailed insight into the ongoing initiatives taken to consolidate the role of pharmacists in the health care system in the advent of separation of dispensing. Under the two tier system in Malaysia at present, the separation of prescribing and dispensing is implemented only in government hospitals. The absence of this separation in the private practices has led to possible profit-oriented medical and pharmacy practices which hinder safe and cost-effective delivery of health services. The call for separation of dispensing has gained traction over the years despite various hurdles ranging from the formidable resistance from the medical fraternity to the public's scepticism towards the new policy. With historical testament and present evidence pointing towards the merits of a system in which doctors prescribe and pharmacists dispense, the implementation of this health care model is justified.
Draft genome of neurotropic nematode parasite Angiostrongylus cantonensis, causative agent of human eosinophilic meningitis

Yong HS, Eamsobhana P, Lim PE, Razali R, Aziz FA, Rosli NS, et al.

Acta Trop, 2015 Aug;148:51-7.
PMID: 25910624 DOI: 10.1016/j.actatropica.2015.04.012

Angiostrongylus cantonensis is a bursate nematode parasite that causes eosinophilic meningitis (or meningoencephalitis) in humans in many parts of the world. The genomic data from A. cantonensis will form a useful resource for comparative genomic and chemogenomic studies to aid the development of diagnostics and therapeutics. We have sequenced, assembled and annotated the genome of A. cantonensis. The genome size is estimated to be ∼260 Mb, with 17,280 genomic scaffolds, 91X coverage, 81.45% for complete and 93.95% for partial score based on CEGMA analysis of genome completeness. The number of predicted genes of ≥300 bp was 17,482. A total of 7737 predicted protein-coding genes of ≥50 amino acids were identified in the assembled genome. Among the proteins of known function, kinases are the most abundant followed by transferases. The draft genome contains 34 excretory-secretory proteins (ES), a minimum of 44 Nematode Astacin (NAS) metalloproteases, 12 Homeobox (HOX) genes, and 30 neurotransmitters. The assembled genome size (260 Mb) is larger than those of Pristionchus pacificus, Caenorhabditis elegans, Necator americanus, Caenorhabditis briggsae, Trichinella spiralis, Brugia malayi and Loa loa, but smaller than Haemonchus contortus and Ascaris suum. The repeat content (25%) is similar to H. contortus. The GC content (41.17%) is lower compared to P. pacificus (42.7%) and H. contortus (43.1%) but higher compared to C. briggsae (37.69%), A. suum (37.9%) and N. americanus (40.2%) while the scaffold N50 is 42,191. This draft genome will facilitate the understanding of many unresolved issues on the parasite and the disorder it causes.
Fulltext Next generation sequencing reveals the antibiotic resistant variants in the genome of Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Ramanathan B, Jindal HM, Le CF, Gudimella R, Anwar A, Razali R, et al.

PLoS One, 2017;12(8):e0182524.
PMID: 28797043 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0182524

Rapid progress in next generation sequencing and allied computational tools have aided in identification of single nucleotide variants in genomes of several organisms. In the present study, we have investigated single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in ten multi-antibiotic resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa clinical isolates. All the draft genomes were submitted to Rapid Annotations using Subsystems Technology (RAST) web server and the predicted protein sequences were used for comparison. Non-synonymous single nucleotide polymorphism (nsSNP) found in the clinical isolates compared to the reference genome (PAO1), and the comparison of nsSNPs between antibiotic resistant and susceptible clinical isolates revealed insights into the genome variation. These nsSNPs identified in the multi-drug resistant clinical isolates were found to be altering a single amino acid in several antibiotic resistant genes. We found mutations in genes encoding efflux pump systems, cell wall, DNA replication and genes involved in repair mechanism. In addition, nucleotide deletions in the genome and mutations leading to generation of stop codons were also observed in the antibiotic resistant clinical isolates. Next generation sequencing is a powerful tool to compare the whole genomes and analyse the single base pair variations found within the antibiotic resistant genes. We identified specific mutations within antibiotic resistant genes compared to the susceptible strain of the same bacterial species and these findings may provide insights to understand the role of single nucleotide variants in antibiotic resistance.
Fulltext Harnessing inter-disciplinary collaboration to improve emergency care in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs): results of research prioritisation setting exercise

Lecky FE, Reynolds T, Otesile O, Hollis S, Turner J, Fuller G, et al.

BMC Emerg Med, 2020 08 31;20(1):68.
PMID: 32867675 DOI: 10.1186/s12873-020-00362-7

BACKGROUND: More than half of deaths in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) result from conditions that could be treated with emergency care - an integral component of universal health coverage (UHC) - through timely access to lifesaving interventions.
METHODS: The World Health Organization (WHO) aims to extend UHC to a further 1 billion people by 2023, yet evidence supporting improved emergency care coverage is lacking. In this article, we explore four phases of a research prioritisation setting (RPS) exercise conducted by researchers and stakeholders from South Africa, Egypt, Nepal, Jamaica, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Colombia, Ethiopia, Iran, Jordan, Malaysia, South Korea and Phillipines, USA and UK as a key step in gathering evidence required by policy makers and practitioners for the strengthening of emergency care systems in limited-resource settings.
RESULTS: The RPS proposed seven priority research questions addressing: identification of context-relevant emergency care indicators, barriers to effective emergency care; accuracy and impact of triage tools; potential quality improvement via registries; characteristics of people seeking emergency care; best practices for staff training and retention; and cost effectiveness of critical care - all within LMICs.
CONCLUSIONS: Convened by WHO and facilitated by the University of Sheffield, the Global Emergency Care Research Network project (GEM-CARN) brought together a coalition of 16 countries to identify research priorities for strengthening emergency care in LMICs. Our article further assesses the quality of the RPS exercise and reviews the current evidence supporting the identified priorities.
Combination of Measurements of the Top Quark Mass from Data Collected by the ATLAS and CMS Experiments at sqrt[s]=7 and 8 TeV

Hayrapetyan A, Tumasyan A, Adam W, Andrejkovic JW, Bergauer T, Chatterjee S, et al.

Phys Rev Lett, 2024 Jun 28;132(26):261902.
PMID: 38996325 DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.132.261902

A combination of fifteen top quark mass measurements performed by the ATLAS and CMS experiments at the LHC is presented. The datasets used correspond to an integrated luminosity of up to 5 and 20 fb^{-1} of proton-proton collisions at center-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV, respectively. The combination includes measurements in top quark pair events that exploit both the semileptonic and hadronic decays of the top quark, and a measurement using events enriched in single top quark production via the electroweak t channel. The combination accounts for the correlations between measurements and achieves an improvement in the total uncertainty of 31% relative to the most precise input measurement. The result is m_{t}=172.52±0.14(stat)±0.30(syst) GeV, with a total uncertainty of 0.33 GeV.
Evidence for the Higgs Boson Decay to a Z Boson and a Photon at the LHC

Aad G, Abbott B, Abeling K, Abicht NJ, Abidi SH, Aboulhorma A, et al.

Phys Rev Lett, 2024 Jan 12;132(2):021803.
PMID: 38277607 DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.132.021803

The first evidence for the Higgs boson decay to a Z boson and a photon is presented, with a statistical significance of 3.4 standard deviations. The result is derived from a combined analysis of the searches performed by the ATLAS and CMS Collaborations with proton-proton collision datasets collected at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) from 2015 to 2018. These correspond to integrated luminosities of around 140 fb^{-1} for each experiment, at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. The measured signal yield is 2.2±0.7 times the standard model prediction, and agrees with the theoretical expectation within 1.9 standard deviations.