A cross-sectional study was conducted on 116 male pre-cast construction workers in Sipitang, Sabah to evaluate the association between Ergonomic Risk Level exposure and their working performances for 6 months (June to November 2014). Initially, a structured interview using a modified-Standardized Nordic Questionnaire was conducted on each study subject to determine the prevalence of Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs). The results showed that 93 out of 116 subjects (80.17%) complained of experiencing ache, pain or body discomfort during and after work with high percentage of MSDs prevalence affecting the wrist (78.5%), shoulder (73.1%), and lower leg (71.0%) regions of the body. Pictures and videos of workers performing their routine tasks were analyzed using Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA) tool to generate individual Ergonomic Risk Level classification. The results showed that all subjects were exposed to Medium (56.90%), High (29.31%) and Very High (13.79%) level of Ergonomic Risk. Pearson Correlation and One-way ANOVA test was conducted to determine the association between Ergonomic Risk Level and the subjects’ individual working performances. The results indicated that there was a significant negative association between Ergonomic Risk Level and the workers' performances in terms of tendency to work overtime (p
The demand for wound care products, especially advanced and active wound care products is huge. In this study, gellan gum (GG) and virgin coconut oil (VCO) were utilized to develop microemulsion-based hydrogel for wound dressing materials. A ternary phase diagram was constructed to obtain an optimized ratio of VCO, water, and surfactant to produce VCO microemulsion. The VCO microemulsion was incorporated into gellan gum (GG) hydrogel (GVCO) and their chemical interaction, mechanical performance, physical properties, and thermal behavior were examined. The stress-at-break (σ) and Young's modulus (YM) of GVCO hydrogel films were increased along with thermal behavior with the inclusion of VCO microemulsion. The swelling degree of GVCO hydrogel decreased as the VCO microemulsion increased and the water vapor transmission rate of GVCO hydrogels was comparable to commercial dressing in the range of 332-391 g m-2 d-1. The qualitative antibacterial activities do not show any inhibition against Gram-negative (Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae) and Gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus subtilis) bacteria. In vivo studies on Sprague-Dawley rats show the wound contraction of GVCO hydrogel is best (95 ± 2%) after the 14th day compared to a commercial dressing of Smith and Nephew Opsite post-op waterproof dressing, and this result is supported by the ultrasound images of wound skin and histological evaluation of the wound. The findings suggest that GVCO hydrogel has the potential to be developed as a biomedical material.