Perinatal, maternal and antenatal associated factors for autism: a case control study

Autism disorders are a group of neurodevelopmental disorders which characterized into three main domains which are social interaction impairment, communication delay and repetitive or stereotypic behavior. Many studies had suggested that the risk factors for autism derive from three big factors namely environmental factors, genetic predisposition and vaccine induced. The aim of this study was to investigate the perinatal, maternal and antenatal associated factors on autistic disorder children at Hospital Pulau Pinang and Hospital Bukit Mertajam, Pulau Pinang. A case control study involving 312 cases and control was conducted using data retrieved from hospital records at Pulau Pinang hospital and Bukit Mertajam hospital from 2001 to 2008. The departments involved were Psychiatric, Obstetrics and Gynecology and Record and Management Department. All cases which met the inclusion and exclusion criteria were included in the study. Univariable and multivariable logistic regression were used to explore the prenatal/perinatal risk factors associated with autistic disorder children. There were seven risk factors contributed most to autistic disorder determination. The factors were maternal age [Adjusted OR: 1.41; 95% CI: (1.27, 1.57)], maternal smoking reported at first antenatal visit [Adjusted OR: 13.61; 95% CI: (1.87, 99.35)], birth asphyxia [Adjusted OR: 0.35; 95% CI: (0.11, 1.08)], psychiatric history [Adjusted OR: 54.94; 95% CI: (12.07, 250.04)], multiple gestation [Adjusted OR: 4.81; 95% CI: (1.86, 12.45)], parity for more than 4 [Adjusted OR: 0.11; 95% CI: (0.03, 0.47)], parity between 0 and 1 [Adjusted OR: 0.19; 95% CI: (0.07,0.55)], Chinese race compared to the Malay race [Adjusted OR: 10.11; 95% CI: (3.61, 28.30)] and Indian race compared to the Malay race [Adjusted OR: 5.14; 95% CI: (1.38, 19.16)]. The results suggested that autistic disorders were associated with perinatal, maternal and antenatal factors such as delivery, pregnancy and maternal characteristics

Position Tracking Of Automatic Rack And Pinion Steering Linkage System Through Hardware In The Loop Testing

VehicIe handling behavior is much influenced by the performance of steering system and its mechanism. Steering linkage play a very important role in maneuvering of a vehicle. In this paper, a set of kinematic relations of rack and pinion steering linkage system are modeled in MATLAB SIMULINK environment based on kinematic model equations is presented in study tile relationship between steering wheel angle and tire angle. A Hardware-in-the-loop simulations (HILS) test rig with actual rack and pinion mechanism has been set up using XPC TARGET environment, LVDT and encoder sensors installed for data measurement at various steering angle. Results from simuIation model demonstrate a linear pattern occurred from maximum lock-to-lock steering wheel angle and it is closely follow the sine input trend through HILS experiment with acceptable error

Measurement and determinants of rural food poverty in Nigeria: recent evidence from general household survey panel

This paper examines food security determinants among rural farming households in Nigeria. A total of 3380 households from General Household Survey-panel data that adopt the World Bank Living Standard Measurement Survey (LSMS) technique was used for this study. The impacts of household characteristics, household endowments and activity related characteristics were explored using logistic regression analysis. Based on the Food and Agriculture Organization FAO recommended minimum 2120 kcal daily per adult equivalent was valued at (N138) equivalent and USD 0.87 food poverty threshold of per annum was derived for rural Nigeria. This threshold is the cost for purchasing recommended daily food allowances (RDA) of an adult equivalent for healthy life in rural Nigeria. The results of the study revealed that age of the household head, tertiary education, farm size, household size, value of livestock holdings, total remittances received by the household, participation in nonfarm enterprise and access to formal credit have significant impact on food security. We conjecture that, the higher incidence of food security during post harvesting season might likely be due to inability of smallholder farmers to utilize their extra time into non-farm income generating activities due to high demand for labour for farm operations

Mobile Application of Community Screening Test on Infant Fever (SToIF) using Backward Chaining Technique

The main purpose of this project is to develop a mobile application that able to provide guidelines to young parents to identify symptom of fever and the action by using backward chaining. Besides that, the aim of this project is to determine parents’ satisfaction level towards “Mobile Application of Community Screening Test on Infant Fever (SToIF) Using Backward Chaining Technique” using questionnaire. This project application provides detection steps for infant fever by screening test technique. This application gives a focus on fever for infant below 6 months. Lack of experiences gives some ideas to build an application that help and provide guidelines on baby healthcare for young parents, especially when the parent have a new born baby always worry and keep thinking about well-being of their baby. The environment of the proposed system developed during the study is off-line system. Offline system is chosen because to reduce any problem related to efficiency of application. This application can be use even the user do not have any internet coverage. After searching and reading process of the information from journal, conference papers and books, comparison is made and backward chaining technique was chosen to be developed. Backward chaining is a technique which give more response time. The project provides an answer for each question. Screening test is a technique to screen the symptom of fever among infant

MODELING AND VALIDATION OF SIX-BAR RACK AND PINION STEERING LINKAGE SYSTEM

A vehicle handling behavior is much influenced by the performance of steering system and its mechanism. Steering linkage play a very important role in maneuvering of a vehicle. In this paper, a planar six-bar rack and pinion steering linkage is modeled in MATLAB SIMULINK to study the relationship between steering wheel angle and tire angle. A set of kinematic relations of steering system is used to analyze the kinematics of a planar linkage. The steering system consists of rack and pinion, tie rod end, tire and steering wheel column are modeled in MATLAB SIMULINK environment based on kinematic model equations is presented. The model is then validated using Hardware-in-the-loop simulations (HILS) consists of LVDT and rotary encoder sensors installed in actual steering system for data measurement at various steering angle. Results from simulation model has been developed demonstrates a linear pattern occurred from maximum lock-to-lock steering wheel angle and it’s closely follow the trend through HILS experiment

Discovering potential blood-based cytokine biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease using Firth Logistic Regression

Background: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder where patients suffer from memory loss, cognitive impairment and progressive disability. Individual blood biomarkers have not been successful in defining the disease pathology, progression and diagnosis of AD. There is a need to identify multiplex panels of blood biomarkers for early diagnosis of AD with high sensitivity and specificity. This study focused on identification of cytokine biomarkers. The maximum likelihood estimates of the ordinary logistic regression model cannot be obtained when there is complete separation and the alternative is Firth logistic regression which uses a penalised Maximum Likelihood in parameter estimation.  Methods: This paper reports a Firth logistic regression application in finding potential blood-based cytokine biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease in a matched case control study. We used a principle component analysis to discriminate the correlated, completely separated covariates.  Results: The Firth logistic regression results showed that nine individual biomarkers IL-1β, IL-6, IL-12, IFN-γ, IL-10, IL-13, IP-10, MCP-1 and MIP-1α had a significant relationshipwith elevated risk for AD as compared to the healthy control (HC). Principal component analysis with varimax rotation for the nine biomarkers revealed four factors (total variance explained=85.5%). The main principal component biomarkers were IL-1β, IL-6, IL-13 and MCP-1 (total variance explained=62.3%). Firth’s logistic regression model with the first principal component had accuracy of 78.2% with sensitivity and specificity of 71.8% and 75% respectively.  Conclusion: Firth’s logistic regression is a useful technique in identification of significant biomarkers when there is an issue of data separation.&nbsp

Comparison of Mean Knowledge on Age, Location and Education Level towards Dengue Fever Prevention

The World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP) recommends extensive community educational campaigns that emphasize reducing vector breeding sites as an effective way of dengue prevention. Several studies suggest that better knowledge of dengue and dengue vector prevention practices among people was one of the predictors of better practices of dengue prevention. The purpose of this study was to find the comparison of mean knowledge on age, location and education level towards dengue fever prevention. The study design was a cross sectional study with concerning the knowledge, attitude and practices of the dengue fever prevention among the people in Perak Tengah district, Perak. ANOVA (Analysis of Variance) was engaged in this study to find the difference on mean knowledge between education, age and location. We found that all variables (age, location and education) were statistically significant difference on mean knowledge since the p-value was less than 0.05. For age, the mean knowledge shows that there were significant difference on age 41 until 50 years old and age below 20 years old using post-hoc test Bonferroni’s procedures. Other than that, for mean knowledge there was statistically significant difference on variable location [F-statistic (df): 6.643 (5,194)] with the p-value less than 0.001. Finally, there were statistically significant difference on mean knowledge between education levels [F-statistic (df): 3.677 (6,193)] with the p-value equal to 0.002. As a conclusion strengthening the public health measures at local place would protect the people as well as providing them an adequate knowledge about infectious disease control and develop the correct behaviour on health and prevention of disease. Keywords: Knowledge, Dengue, Aedes, Prevention Ethical Approval – Ethical approval was obtained from UiTM Research Ethics Committee, Ref. No. (600-RMI(5/1/6/01)

Hardware-In-The-Loop Simulation For Automatic Rack And Pinion Steering System

Vehicle handling behaviour is much influenced by the performance of steering system and its mechanism. In this paper, a Hardware-in-the-loop Simulations (I-IILS) test rig has been set up with Matlab XPC TARGET environment, LVDT and rotary encoder sensors installed onto actual rack and pinion steering mechanism, for data measurement at various steering angle. It can manipulate the steering mechanism with various control structure, decrease time with real experiment and trial risk as well as improve development efficiency. Results from experimental model demonstrate a linear pattern occurred from maximum lock-to-lock steering wheel angle and it is closely follow the sine input trend through HILS experiment with acceptable error

Education Level amongst Natives in Malaysia

Malaysia is a country consisting of various races including Malays, Chinese, Indians and others. Among the many races here in Malaysia, natives or Orang Asli what we call here in Malaysia, is one of them. The people of Orang Asli consist of various different sub ethnics. Officially there were three major group ethnics among Orang Asli which are Negrito, Senoi and Melayu Asli. Our objectives in this study were to investigate the difference in family income for education level and to determine the difference in Orang Asli’s attitude for the level of education. With this study we can access the quality of education level amongst Orang Asli considering their unique customs. Besides that, we can understand clearly the development of education amongst Orang Asli throughout years of programs offered by the government of Malaysia. Our population was Orang Asli located in Perak, a state in Malaysia. The target sample was 126 people of Orang Asli from Kampung Batu 5, Batu 6, Batu 8 and Batu 14 in Tapah, Perak. The research design used for this study was cross-sectional research. Convenience sampling was used for the sampling technique in this study. Questionnaires were distributed during the visit to the village. For the statistical technique Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Independent t-test we used. Next the difference between income family and education level and differences between education level and total scale of attitude were shown for the findings and results. Based on this study, with the low score levels in the three aspects studied upon the Orang Asli, we can conclude that Orang Asli in Malaysia were still lacking in the level of attitude, family social and family income. Keywords: Education, Kruskall-Wallis, Natives, Tapa