Perception of airport users' on environmental-friendly airport chair design in KLIA

Malaysia Airport Holding Berhad (MAHB) has taken several measures to spread environmental awareness among the staff and communities. Nevertheless, the awareness appeared to be lacking in the context of eco-design product. Eco-design integrates multifaceted design aspects and reflects the environment concept. Understanding consumers’ needs and desires is imperative in designing environmental-friendly product. As consumers’ expectation plays an important role in developing eco-products, a survey was carried out to evaluate the user’ (passengers) environmental-friendly perception and eco-design attributes on the current airport chair use in KLIA. In KLIA, airport chairs appear to be the significant facility used by the passengers. The results indicated that the most users rated that the existing airport chair did not apply environmental-friendly practices. Users viewed on attributes characteristics for eco-design chair was categorized into physical appearance (i.e.- attraction feelings, design and colour), sensational feeling (i.e.- physical, health, and usability) and physical characteristics (recycle, reusable, eco-material, reduce cost and reduce environmental impact). Based from these findings, this study contributed towards integrating environmental-friendly concept with users’ perception as part to promote sustainable product

Perception of airport users on environmental-friendly airport chair design in KLIA

Malaysia Airport Holding Berhad (MAHB) has taken several measures to spread environmental awareness among the staff and communities. Nevertheless, the awareness appeared to be lacking in the context of ecodesign product. Eco-design integrates multifaceted design aspects and reflects the environment concept. Understanding consumers’ needs and desires is imperative in designing environmental-friendly product. As consumers’ expectation plays an important role in developing eco-products, a survey was carried out to evaluate the user’ (passengers) environmental-friendly perception and eco-design attributes on the current airport chair use in KLIA. In KLIA, airport chairs appear to be the significant facility used by the passengers. The results indicated that the most users rated that the existing airport chair did not apply environmental-friendly practices. Users viewed on attributes characteristics for eco-design chair was categorized into physical appearance (i.e.- attraction feelings, design and colour), sensational feeling (i.e.- physical, health, and usability) and physical characteristics (recycle, reusable, eco-material, reduce cost and reduce environmental impact). Based from these findings, this study contributed towards integrating environmentalfriendly concept with users’ perception as part to promote sustainable product

Malignant phylliodes tumours: Results of breast conserving surgery and immediate reconstruction

Background: Malignant phylliodes tumour (MPT) is a rare breast tumor. Surgery is the mainstay in treatment but varies from local resection to modified radical mastectomy. In this study, we present our experience using wide local excision or subcutaneous mastectomy and immediate breast reconstruction in the management of MPT.Methods and Results: Twenty-three recurrent MPT and ten patients with histological evidence of MPT were included. All patients with recurrent MPT (n=23) had subcutaneous mastectomy, tow centimeter wide excision of the scar and immediate breast reconstruction with either Latissimus Dorsi(LD) myocutaneous flap (n= 10) or Latissimus Dorsi muscle flap (n=13). Seven of the newly diagnosed patients had wide local excision of the tumor, reconstruction with LD muscle flap, tow had wide local excision and reduction of contra lateral breast, and one had subcutaneous mastectomy and silicon implant. The margin resection varied between five and fifteen centimeter in wide local resection group and subcutaneous mastectomy group respectively and the size of tumors varied between five and fifteencentimeters in diameter.Discussion: During the follow up period, which ranged between twenty-four and eighty-four months one local recurrence, was recorded (3.03%) and none of the patients had distant metastasis or regional lymph nodes involvement. This approach has secured wider excision of MPT, offered breast reconstruction, and has reduced the chances of recurrence in our patients. Key words: Latissimus Dorsi, myocutaneous, mastectomy

Automated speckle tracking in ultrasound images of tendon movements

The central aim of this thesis was to develop new tracking software employing various image tracking algorithms for tracking the speckled movement of the tendon image captured using dynamic B-mode ultrasound imaging. The algorithms were selected based on the literature related to the tracking of images captured using ultrasound imaging. Experiments were carried out to validate these tracking algorithms in order to enable development of the tracking software. The experiments conducted paralleled the objectives in designing, developing, experimenting and implementing the image-tracking algorithm to track movement of the human tendon in vivo within the speckled ultrasound images. The development of the tracking software focuses on solving the problems of tracking the ultrasound images as well as analysing the tracking movement frame-by-frame to produce useful measurements that can be used to describe the localised mechanical and structural properties of the human tendon.The algorithms tested were Normalised Cross Correlation (NCC), Mean Square Error (MSE), optical flow – Lucas-Kanade (LK) and combination of NCC and MSE (NCCMSE) selected by signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and were tested on both active and passive movements of the patella tendon (knee) and the medial gastrocnemius tendon (ankle). The comparison of the algorithms led to the identification of a single algorithm giving optimal result. The results from all tested algorithm showed NCC to be the closest match to the standard manual measurement. NCC was also the fastest among the algorithms tested and contained fewer errors in tracking.For NCC algorithm, various sizes of the region of interest (ROI) block were also tested and found that 15x15 pixels ROI block size gave the optimum measurement, which was close to the standard manual measurement. The threshold levels also indicated that >0.90 to be the optimum level for optimum tracking. The 2- ROI tracking analysis were also explored to look at the tracking performances when tracking at two different regional sites of the tendon simultaneously, and again theNCC performed better with 15x15 ROI block size and comparable to the results obtained from the standard manual measurement.Lastly, multiple layers of the tendon were also explored to look at the excursion of the anterior, midsection and posterior layers of the tendon during ramped isometric contraction. This experiment uses all the settings found from previous experiment results, and applied to look at the mechanical properties of the human tendon. The experiments showed that the anterior gave the highest mean stain followed by the mid section and the smallest mean strain was found at the posterior proximal. The experiment also looked at the distal strain, with the result showing that the posterior gave the highest mean strain followed mid section and anterior layer gave the smallest mean strain. The experiment also looked at the performance of posterior layers and distal layers at 50 and 100% force levels.The experimental results showed that the NCC to be the optimum-tracking algorithm. The method described here has the potential to improve clinical knowledge relating to the tendon mechanical properties. The information generated by the tracking algorithm could help to give further insight into the aetiology of tendon injury, repair, response to various training interventions and the time course of tissue adaptation with disease

ROCURONIUM-INDUCED ANAPHYLAXIS: ANY EVIDENCE FOR SUGAMMADEX?

INTRODUCTION: Anaphylaxis during general anesthesia is estimated to occur around 1 in 3,500 cases. 90% of these cases occur at induction of anesthesia. Neuromuscular blocking drugs are thought to be the most responsible trigger, with Rocuronium being the most implicated drug. Sugammadex is a synthetic modified gamma-cyclodextrin derivative that will incompletely encapsulate Rocuronium, preventing the rocuronium epitope from binding IgE; hence it was thought that its use could decrease anaphylaxis severity. The use of sugammadex in suspected rocuronium-induced anaphylaxis (RIA) is based on personal opinion or experience. Current literature and evidence regarding the use of sugammadex in RIA are based only on case reports or series. METHODS: We did a literature search in 3 main databases, Medline, Embase, and Web of science. The final total articles were 356 published cases published in the literature. Two independent reviewers conducted the first screen, and 69 articles with confirmed RIA were selected. These articles were divided into RIA alone in 39 cases and RIA with sugammadex use in 28 cases. We looked at patient characteristics (age, sex, ASA classification), associated symptoms (incidence of bronchospasm or rash, duration of hypotension), discharge disposition to intensive care unit (ICU), and associated morbidity or mortality. RESULTS: On comparing RIA vs. RIA with sugammadex use, we didn\u27t find a statistically significant difference in patient characteristics, associated symptoms, or discharge disposition to ICU. However, there was a statistically significant difference in morbidity (15.4% vs. 0, p-value 0.03). Mortality was 5% in RIA, and no patient died in RIA with sugammadex use (p-value 0.5). The number need to treat (NNT) analysis showed NNT with Sugammadex to prevent mortality = 20 and NNT with Sugammadex to avoid morbidity is 7. CONCLUSIONS: Early recognition and treatment of anaphylaxis with Epinephrine is still the mainstay of treatment. Since muscle relaxants, specifically Rocuronium, are the most common cause, we suggest using sugammadex in case of suspected RIA. We recommend using sugammadex in case of cardiac arrest or refractory anaphylaxis as evidence of NNT to avoid organ dysfunction is 7 and potential evidence of mortality benefit. The recommended dose is 16 mg/kg

Water stress and natural zeolite impacts on phisiomorphological characteristics of moldavian balm (Dracocephalum moldavica l.).

There is no doubt that certain plants offer valuable medicinal properties. But there are many challenges that local communities face in the harvesting and cultivation of these plants. Moldavian balm (Dracocephalum moldavica L.) is an important medicinal plant and there are three pharmaceutical products that originate from in Iran. Water source limitation is one of the important problems in Iran. The scientists suggest that active substance production is the results of environmental stress on plants. Natural zeolits have some properties such as water absorption and emission and nitrate leaching inhibition, which is useful for soil amendment. A pot experiment was conducted in greenhouse with 12 factorial treatments and three replicates. Four levels of Zeolit and three levels of water stress applied during the plant growth. Growth and development factors such as wet and dry weight, leaf area, chlorophyll content, number of leaves, root length and essential oils content were measured. The results showed that zeolit application had not a significant effect on dry weight. Moreover, there were not a significant effect of water stress on leaf area, number of leaves and root length. There was not an interaction between zeolit and water stress on wet and dry weight and also root length but this interaction was significant on leaf area, chlorophyll content, number of leaves and essential oils content. It concluded that medium level of zeolit with the lowest level of water stress recommended for herb and essential oil production of moldavian balm

Geographical Detector-Based Risk Assessment of the Under-Five Mortality in the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake, China

On 12 May, 2008, a devastating earthquake registering 8.0 on the Richter scale occurred in Sichuan Province, China, taking tens of thousands of lives and destroying the homes of millions of people. Many of the deceased were children, particular children less than five years old who were more vulnerable to such a huge disaster than the adult. In order to obtain information specifically relevant to further researches and future preventive measures, potential risk factors associated with earthquake-related child mortality need to be identified. We used four geographical detectors (risk detector, factor detector, ecological detector, and interaction detector) based on spatial variation analysis of some potential factors to assess their effects on the under-five mortality. It was found that three factors are responsible for child mortality: earthquake intensity, collapsed house, and slope. The study, despite some limitations, has important implications for both researchers and policy makers

Pan-Cancer Analysis of lncRNA Regulation Supports Their Targeting of Cancer Genes in Each Tumor Context

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are commonly dys-regulated in tumors, but only a handful are known toplay pathophysiological roles in cancer. We inferredlncRNAs that dysregulate cancer pathways, onco-genes, and tumor suppressors (cancer genes) bymodeling their effects on the activity of transcriptionfactors, RNA-binding proteins, and microRNAs in5,185 TCGA tumors and 1,019 ENCODE assays.Our predictions included hundreds of candidateonco- and tumor-suppressor lncRNAs (cancerlncRNAs) whose somatic alterations account for thedysregulation of dozens of cancer genes and path-ways in each of 14 tumor contexts. To demonstrateproof of concept, we showed that perturbations tar-geting OIP5-AS1 (an inferred tumor suppressor) andTUG1 and WT1-AS (inferred onco-lncRNAs) dysre-gulated cancer genes and altered proliferation ofbreast and gynecologic cancer cells. Our analysis in-dicates that, although most lncRNAs are dysregu-lated in a tumor-specific manner, some, includingOIP5-AS1, TUG1, NEAT1, MEG3, and TSIX, synergis-tically dysregulate cancer pathways in multiple tumorcontexts