The impacts of monsoon and dry seasons on physical water quality changes and farmed Asian seabass Lates calcarifer (Bloch, 1790) mortality at Sri Tujuh lagoon, Tumpat, Kelantan, Malaysia

This study aimed to monitor the water quality in Sri Tujuh lagoon during monsoon and dry seasons, as well as the impact of the two seasons on the production of Asian seabass (Lates calcarifer). The water quality parameters such as temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen (DO), salinity, conductivity, turbidity and total dissolved solid of Sri Tujuh lagoon were assessed using water samples collected from 13 sampling points at 1ft, 4ft and 7ft water depth during dry season (March-August 2014) and monsoon (September-November 2014). Fish mortality was recorded from Asian seabass farmers in the lagoon. Water quality data during dry seasoon and monsoon was compared using T-Test and data from 3 different depths was analysed by using One Way Anova followed by Tukey test at p < 0.05. The water parameters in dry season, monsoon season, combination of dry and monsoon season were subjected to Pearson correlation analysis separately and a matrix was tabulated. Water parameters were also subjected to cluster analysis by using Ward’s method with squared Euclidean distances as a measure of similarity. In the present study Ward’s method was used ANOVA followed by Tukey post hoc in order to minimize the sum of squares. The result was represented by a dendrogram. The findings of the present study showed water parameters such as DO, salinity and turbidity were significantly different between dry and monsoon seasons. However no significant difference was found in term of fish mortality. The water parameters of Sri Tujuh lagoon during the study were as follow: temperature 29.4-33.3 oC; pH 7.0-9.3; DO 0.8-6.8 mg L -1 ; salinity 10.7-31.3 ppt; conductivity 17.5-50.5 µs cm-1 ; turbidity 5.4-59.8 NTU; TDS 23.3-32 ppt. The fish mortality was recorded ranging from 9.3 to 15.5% from March to November, 2014. The positive and significance (p < 0.01) correlation was recorded between temperature and pH (0.434), temperature and DO (0.472), DO and pH (0.315), salinity and pH (0.615), conductivity and pH (0.595), conductivity and salinity (0.992), TDS and pH (0.340), TDS and salinity (0.322) and TDS and conductivity (0.322). Fish mortality showed no correlation with all water parameters changing in the whole study at Sri Tujuh lagoon. Based on the water parameter records from 13 sampling stations, the sampling stations can be divided into 5 clusters. Cluster 1 possesses the greatest number of stations namely S3, S4, S6, S7, S8, S11 and S12 whereas Cluster 2 has S1, S10 and S13. Only one station was found in the Cluster 3 (S5), Cluster 4 (S2) and Cluster 5 (S9). Based on the findings of the present study, Sri Tujuh lagoon can be considered as one of the best places to conduct aquaculture activities in Kelantan

Development of A Lightweight IoT Security System

Especially for constrained node devices, the risk of security and privacy increases as the number of Internet of Things (IoT) devices increases. From smart homes to smart cities, IoT is ubiquitous, indicating that most devices will be connected to the internet soon. This exacerbates the problem of securing IoT devices. Where our privacy is at risk are IoT devices with inadequate security. These devices transmit sensitive and private data. To construct well-secured IoT devices, we must first overcome IoT device issues such as low computation power, small data storage, and low power consumption. This demonstrates the need for IoT device security systems to be lightweight. However, there is currently no adequate security system for IoT devices with limited functionality. Consequently, the objectives of this paper are to design a secure IoT system and to analyze the overall system's power consumption and latency. The lightweight security system was able to secure MQTT messages with a latency of 0.3s and power consumption of 1.683mJ, according to the obtained results. Therefore, the success of the paper will enable IoT devices with limited bandwidth to transmit data securely

Generation Y employees and their perceptions of work-life balance practices

The objective of this study is to identify the perceptions of Generation Y employees regarding work-life balance practices. As increasing numbers of Generation Y enter the workforce, questions regarding how they perceive work, family and self-related issues, challenges and coping strategies in balancing personal and professional commitments became issues of interests for employers. This study uses interviews to collect data from six informants in Generation Y and the data were analyzed through content analysis. The results indicate that Generation Y employees do indeed have issues and challenges with balancing work and family. However, unlike the older generation of employees, Generation Y employees perceive managing work-life balance only through segmentation or separation strategies. This particular finding indicates that if organizations want to attract and retain these employees they should adapt a strategy specifically designed to target this employee group

Burden of musculoskeletal disorders in the Eastern Mediterranean Region, 1990–2013: findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013

Moradi-Lakeh M, Forouzanfar MH, Vollset SE, et al. Burden of musculoskeletal disorders in the Eastern Mediterranean Region, 1990–2013: findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013. Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases. 2017;76(8):annrheumdis-2016-210146

Transport injuries and deaths in the Eastern Mediterranean Region : findings from the Global Burden of Disease 2015 Study

Transport injuries (TI) are ranked as one of the leading causes of death, disability, and property loss worldwide. This paper provides an overview of the burden of TI in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) by age and sex from 1990 to 2015. Transport injuries mortality in the EMR was estimated using the Global Burden of Disease mortality database, with corrections for ill-defined causes of death, using the cause of death ensemble modeling tool. Morbidity estimation was based on inpatient and outpatient datasets, 26 cause-of-injury and 47 nature-of-injury categories. In 2015, 152,855 (95% uncertainty interval: 137,900-168,100) people died from TI in the EMR countries. Between 1990 and 2015, the years of life lost (YLL) rate per 100,000 due to TI decreased by 15.5%, while the years lived with disability (YLD) rate decreased by 10%, and the age-standardized disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) rate decreased by 16%. Although the burden of TI mortality and morbidity decreased over the last two decades, there is still a considerable burden that needs to be addressed by increasing awareness, enforcing laws, and improving road conditions.Peer reviewe

Epidemiology of facial fractures: Incidence, prevalence and years lived with disability estimates from the Global Burden of Disease 2017 study

Background: The Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD) has historically produced estimates of causes of injury such as falls but not the resulting types of injuries that occur. The objective of this study was to estimate the global incidence, prevalence and years lived with disability (YLDs) due to facial fractures and to estimate the leading injurious causes of facial fracture. Methods: We obtained results from GBD 2017. First, the study estimated the incidence from each injury cause (eg, falls), and then the proportion of each cause that would result in facial fracture being the most disabling injury. Incidence, prevalence and YLDs of facial fractures are then calculated across causes. Results: Globally, in 2017, there were 7 538 663 (95% uncertainty interval 6 116 489 to 9 4

Burden of obesity in the Eastern Mediterranean Region: findings from the Global Burden of Disease 2015 study

Mokdad AH, El Bcheraoui C, Afshin A, et al. Burden of obesity in the Eastern Mediterranean Region: findings from the Global Burden of Disease 2015 study. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH. 2018;63(Suppl. 1):165-176.We used the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2015 study results to explore the burden of high body mass index (BMI) in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR). We estimated the prevalence of overweight and obesity among children (2-19 years) and adults (20 years) in 1980 and 2015. The burden of disease related to high BMI was calculated using the GBD comparative risk assessment approach. The prevalence of obesity increased for adults from 15.1% (95% UI 13.4-16.9) in 1980 to 20.7% (95% UI 18.8-22.8) in 2015. It increased from 4.1% (95% UI 2.9-5.5) to 4.9% (95% UI 3.6-6.4) for the same period among children. In 2015, there were 417,115 deaths and 14,448,548 disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) attributable to high BMI in EMR, which constitute about 10 and 6.3% of total deaths and DALYs, respectively, for all ages. This is the first study to estimate trends in obesity burden for the EMR from 1980 to 2015. We call for EMR countries to invest more resources in prevention and health promotion efforts to reduce this burden

Predicting the environmental suitability for onchocerciasis in Africa as an aid to elimination planning

Recent evidence suggests that, in some foci, elimination of onchocerciasis from Africa may be feasible with mass drug administration (MDA) of ivermectin. To achieve continental elimination of transmission, mapping surveys will need to be conducted across all implementation units (IUs) for which endemicity status is currently unknown. Using boosted regression tree models with optimised hyperparameter selection, we estimated environmental suitability for onchocerciasis at the 5 × 5-km resolution across Africa. In order to classify IUs that include locations that are environmentally suitable, we used receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis to identify an optimal threshold for suitability concordant with locations where onchocerciasis has been previously detected. This threshold value was then used to classify IUs (more suitable or less suitable) based on the location within the IU with the largest mean prediction. Mean estimates of environmental suitability suggest large areas across West and Central Africa, as well as focal areas of East Africa, are suitable for onchocerciasis transmission, consistent with the presence of current control and elimination of transmission efforts. The ROC analysis identified a mean environmental suitability index of 0.71 as a threshold to classify based on the location with the largest mean prediction within the IU. Of the IUs considered for mapping surveys, 50.2% exceed this threshold for suitability in at least one 5×5-km location. The formidable scale of data collection required to map onchocerciasis endemicity across the African continent presents an opportunity to use spatial data to identify areas likely to be suitable for onchocerciasis transmission. National onchocerciasis elimination programmes may wish to consider prioritising these IUs for mapping surveys as human resources, laboratory capacity, and programmatic schedules may constrain survey implementation, and possibly delaying MDA initiation in areas that would ultimately qualify

Maternal mortality and morbidity burden in the Eastern Mediterranean region : findings from the Global Burden of Disease 2015 study

Assessing the burden of maternal mortality is important for tracking progress and identifying public health gaps. This paper provides an overview of the burden of maternal mortality in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) by underlying cause and age from 1990 to 2015. We used the results of the Global Burden of Disease 2015 study to explore maternal mortality in the EMR countries. The maternal mortality ratio in the EMR decreased 16.3% from 283 (241-328) maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in 1990 to 237 (188-293) in 2015. Maternal mortality ratio was strongly correlated with socio-demographic status, where the lowest-income countries contributed the most to the burden of maternal mortality in the region. Progress in reducing maternal mortality in the EMR has accelerated in the past 15 years, but the burden remains high. Coordinated and rigorous efforts are needed to make sure that adequate and timely services and interventions are available for women at each stage of reproductive life

Quantifying risks and interventions that have affected the burden of diarrhoea among children younger than 5 years : an analysis of the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017

Background Many countries have shown marked declines in diarrhoea! disease mortality among children younger than 5 years. With this analysis, we provide updated results on diarrhoeal disease mortality among children younger than 5 years from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2017 (GBD 2017) and use the study's comparative risk assessment to quantify trends and effects of risk factors, interventions, and broader sociodemographic development on mortality changes in 195 countries and territories from 1990 to 2017. Methods This analysis for GBD 2017 had three main components. Diarrhoea mortality was modelled using vital registration data, demographic surveillance data, and verbal autopsy data in a predictive, Bayesian, ensemble modelling tool; and the attribution of risk factors and interventions for diarrhoea were modelled in a counterfactual framework that combines modelled population-level prevalence of the exposure to each risk or intervention with the relative risk of diarrhoea given exposure to that factor. We assessed the relative and absolute change in diarrhoea mortality rate between 1990 and 2017, and used the change in risk factor exposure and sociodemographic status to explain differences in the trends of diarrhoea mortality among children younger than 5 years. Findings Diarrhoea was responsible for an estimated 533 768 deaths (95% uncertainty interval 477 162-593 145) among children younger than 5 years globally in 2017, a rate of 78.4 deaths (70.1-87.1) per 100 000 children. The diarrhoea mortality rate ranged between countries by over 685 deaths per 100 000 children. Diarrhoea mortality per 100 000 globally decreased by 69.6% (63.1-74.6) between 1990 and 2017. Among the risk factors considered in this study, those responsible for the largest declines in the diarrhoea mortality rate were reduction in exposure to unsafe sanitation (13.3% decrease, 11.2-15.5), childhood wasting (9.9% decrease, 9.6-10.2), and low use of oral rehydration solution (6.9% decrease, 4-8-8-4). Interpretation Diarrhoea mortality has declined substantially since 1990, although there are variations by country. Improvements in sociodemographic indicators might explain some of these trends, but changes in exposure to risk factors-particularly unsafe sanitation, childhood growth failure, and low use of oral rehydration solution-appear to be related to the relative and absolute rates of decline in diarrhoea mortality. Although the most effective interventions might vary by country or region, identifying and scaling up the interventions aimed at preventing and protecting against diarrhoea that have already reduced diarrhoea mortality could further avert many thousands of deaths due to this illness