MyMedR

Fulltext Factors affecting the HIV/AIDS epidemic: an ecological analysis of global data

Mondal MN, Shitan M

Afr Health Sci, 2013 Jun;13(2):301-10.

PMID: 24235928 DOI: 10.4314/ahs.v13i2.15

All over the world the prevalence of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) has became a stumbling stone in progress of human civilization and is a huge concern for people worldwide.

Relative importance of demographic, socioeconomic and health factors on life expectancy in low- and lower-middle-income countries

Mondal MN, Shitan M

J Epidemiol, 2014;24(2):117-24.

PMID: 24390415

BACKGROUND: We attempted to identify the pathways by which demographic changes, socioeconomic inequalities, and availability of health factors influence life expectancy in low- and lower-middle-income countries.

METHODS: Data for 91 countries were obtained from United Nations agencies. The response variable was life expectancy, and the determinant factors were demographic events (total fertility rate and adolescent fertility rate), socioeconomic status (mean years of schooling and gross national income per capita), and health factors (physician density and human immunodeficiency virus [HIV] prevalence rate). Path analysis was used to determine the direct, indirect, and total effects of these factors on life expectancy.

RESULTS: All determinant factors were significantly correlated with life expectancy. Mean years of schooling, total fertility rate, and HIV prevalence rate had significant direct and indirect effects on life expectancy. The total effect of higher physician density was to increase life expectancy.

CONCLUSIONS: We identified several direct and indirect pathways that predict life expectancy. The findings suggest that policies should concentrate on improving reproductive decisions, increasing education, and reducing HIV transmission. In addition, special attention should be paid to the emerging need to increase life expectancy by increasing physician density.

Fulltext Author's Response: Regarding the Relative Importance of Demographic, Socioeconomic and Health Factors on Life Expectancy in Low- and Lower-Middle-Income Countries

Mondal MN, Shitan M

J Epidemiol, 2015;25(6):460.

PMID: 25986157 DOI: 10.2188/jea.JE20150046

Fulltext Projection of human immunodeficiency virus among high-risk groups in Malaysia

Mondal MN, Shitan M

Jpn J Infect Dis, 2013;66(5):421-4.

PMID: 24047742

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) presents a serious healthcare threat to young individuals in Malaysia and worldwide. This study aimed to identify trends in HIV-related risk behaviors among recognized high-risk groups and to estimate HIV transmission up to the year 2015. Data and necessary information were obtained from the Ministry of Health Malaysia, published reports from the World Health Organization and United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS, and other articles. The Estimation and Projection Package was used to estimate HIV transmission. The results of the present study revealed that within the high-risk groups, intravenous drug users (IDUs) had the highest prevalence rate of HIV transmission, followed by patients with sexually transmitted infections (STIs), female sex workers (SWs), and men who have sex with men (MSM). Within these at-risk populations, patients with STIs have the highest prevalence of HIV, followed by IDUs, MSM, and SWs. If the transmission rate continues to increase, the situation will worsen; therefore, there is an urgent need for a comprehensive prevention program to control HIV transmission in Malaysia.

Impact of Socio-Health Factors on Life Expectancy in the Low and Lower Middle Income Countries

Mondal MN, Shitan M

Iran J Public Health, 2013 Dec;42(12):1354-62.

PMID: 26060637

This study is concerned with understanding the impact of demographic changes, socioeconomic inequalities, and the availability of health factors on life expectancy (LE) in the low and lower middle income countries.

Development of an optical biosensor for the detection of Trypanosoma evansi and Plasmodium berghei

Theint HT, Walsh JE, Wong ST, Voon K, Shitan M

Spectrochim Acta A Mol Biomol Spectrosc, 2019 Jul 05;218:348-358.

PMID: 31026712 DOI: 10.1016/j.saa.2019.04.008

A laboratory prototype system that correlates murine blood absorbance with degree of infection for Plasmodium berghei and Trypanosoma avensi has been designed, constructed and tested. A population (n = 6) of control uninfected, Plasmodium infected and Trypanosoma infected BALB/c mice were developed and spectral absorption measurements pre and post infection were made every 3 days. A fibre optic spectrometer set-up was used as the basis of a laboratory prototype biosensor that uses the Beer Lambert Law to relate Ultraviolet-Visible-Near-infrared absorbance data to changes in murine blood chemistry post infection. Spectral absorption results indicate a statistically relevant correlation at a 650 nm with infection for Plasmodium from between 4 and 7 sampling days' post infection, in spite of significant standard deviations among the sample populations for control and infected mice. No significant spectral absorption change for Trypanosoma infection was been detected from the current data. Corresponding stained slides of control and infected blood at each sampling date were taken with related infected cell counts determined and these correlate well for Plasmodium absorbance at 650 nm.

Fulltext The beta Burr type X distribution properties with application

Merovci F, Khaleel MA, Ibrahim NA, Shitan M

Springerplus, 2016;5(1):697.

PMID: 27347471 DOI: 10.1186/s40064-016-2271-9

We develop a new continuous distribution called the beta-Burr type X distribution that extends the Burr type X distribution. The properties provide a comprehensive mathematical treatment of this distribution. Further more, various structural properties of the new distribution are derived, that includes moment generating function and the rth moment thus generalizing some results in the literature. We also obtain expressions for the density, moment generating function and rth moment of the order statistics. We consider the maximum likelihood estimation to estimate the parameters. Additionally, the asymptotic confidence intervals for the parameters are derived from the Fisher information matrix. Finally, simulation study is carried at under varying sample size to assess the performance of this model. Illustration the real dataset indicates that this new distribution can serve as a good alternative model to model positive real data in many areas.

Fulltext Prediction of Hexaconazole Concentration in the Top Most Layer of Oil Palm Plantation Soil Using Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA)

Maznah Z, Halimah M, Shitan M, Kumar Karmokar P, Najwa S

PLoS One, 2017;12(1):e0166203.

PMID: 28060816 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0166203

Ganoderma boninense is a fungus that can affect oil palm trees and cause a serious disease called the basal stem root (BSR). This disease causes the death of more than 80% of oil palm trees midway through their economic life and hexaconazole is one of the particular fungicides that can control this fungus. Hexaconazole can be applied by the soil drenching method and it will be of interest to know the concentration of the residue in the soil after treatment with respect to time. Hence, a field study was conducted in order to determine the actual concentration of hexaconazole in soil. In the present paper, a new approach that can be used to predict the concentration of pesticides in the soil is proposed. The statistical analysis revealed that the Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA) techniques would be appropriate in this study. The EDA techniques were used to fit a robust resistant model and predict the concentration of the residue in the topmost layer of the soil.

Discrimination of three Pegaga (Centella) varieties and determination of growth-lighting effects on metabolites content based on the chemometry of 1H nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy

H M, Khatib A, Shaari K, Abas F, Shitan M, Kneer R, et al.

J Agric Food Chem, 2012 Jan 11;60(1):410-7.

PMID: 22084897 DOI: 10.1021/jf200270y

The metabolites of three species of Apiaceae, also known as Pegaga, were analyzed utilizing (1)H NMR spectroscopy and multivariate data analysis. Principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) resolved the species, Centella asiatica, Hydrocotyle bonariensis, and Hydrocotyle sibthorpioides, into three clusters. The saponins, asiaticoside and madecassoside, along with chlorogenic acids were the metabolites that contributed most to the separation. Furthermore, the effects of growth-lighting condition to metabolite contents were also investigated. The extracts of C. asiatica grown in full-day light exposure exhibited a stronger radical scavenging activity and contained more triterpenes (asiaticoside and madecassoside), flavonoids, and chlorogenic acids as compared to plants grown in 50% shade. This study established the potential of using a combination of (1)H NMR spectroscopy and multivariate data analyses in differentiating three closely related species and the effects of growth lighting, based on their metabolite contents and identification of the markers contributing to their differences.

Fulltext A new mathematical evaluation of smoking problem based of algebraic statistical method

Mohammed MJ, Rakhimov IS, Shitan M, Ibrahim RW, Mohammed NF

Saudi J Biol Sci, 2016 Jan;23(1):S11-5.

PMID: 26858555 DOI: 10.1016/j.sjbs.2015.08.015

Smoking problem is considered as one of the hot topics for many years. In spite of overpowering facts about the dangers, smoking is still a bad habit widely spread and socially accepted. Many people start smoking during their gymnasium period. The discovery of the dangers of smoking gave a warning sign of danger for individuals. There are different statistical methods used to analyze the dangers of smoking. In this study, we apply an algebraic statistical method to analyze and classify real data using Markov basis for the independent model on the contingency table. Results show that the Markov basis based classification is able to distinguish different date elements. Moreover, we check our proposed method via information theory by utilizing the Shannon formula to illustrate which one of these alternative tables is the best in term of independent.

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