Tips for Allied Health Professionals to Successfully Engage with Research: A commentary

While allied health professionals are encouraged to engage with research, there are numerous challenges to do so in practice. In this commentary, we reflect on some of these challenges and provide some simple tips on strategies that can be used by allied health professionals to overcome these challenges. These tips may provide a starting point for allied health professionals to successfully engage with research

Insights for mfVEPs from perimetry using large spatial frequency-doubling and near frequency-doubling stimuli in glaucoma.

Purpose To compare two forms of perimetry that use large contrast-modulated grating stimuli in terms of: their relative diagnostic power, their independent diagnostic information about glaucoma and their utility for mfVEPs. We evaluated a contrast-threshold mfVEP in normal controls using the same stimuli as one of the tests. Methods We measured psychophysical contrast thresholds in one eye of 16 control subjects and 19 patients aged 67.8 ± 5.65 and 71.9 ± 7.15, respectively, (mean ± SD). Patients ranged in disease severity from suspects to severe glaucoma. We used the 17-region FDT-perimeter C20-threshold program and a custom 9-region test (R9) with similar visual field coverage. The R9 stimuli scaled their spatial frequencies with eccentricity and were modulated at lower temporal frequencies than C20 and thus did not display a clear spatial frequency-doubling (FD) appearance. Based on the overlapping areas of the stimuli, we transformed the C20 results to 9 measures for direct comparison with R9. We also compared mfVEP-based and psychophysical contrast thresholds in 26 younger (26.6 ± 7.3 y, mean ± SD) and 20 older normal control subjects (66.5 ± 7.3 y) control subjects using the R9 stimuli. Results The best intraclass correlations between R9/C20 thresholds were for the central and outer regions: 0.82 ± 0.05 (mean ± SD, p ≤ 0.0001). The areas under receiver operator characteristic plots for C20 and R9 were as high as 0.99 ± 0.012 (mean ± SE). Canonical correlation analysis (CCA) showed significant correlation (r = 0.638, p = 0.029) with 1 dimension of the C20 and R9 data, suggesting that the lower and higher temporal frequency tests probed the same neural mechanism(s). Low signal quality made the contrast-threshold mfVEPs non-viable. The resulting mfVEP thresholds were limited by noise to artificially high contrasts, which unlike the psychophysical versions, were not correlated with age. Conclusion The lower temporal frequency R9 stimuli had similar diagnostic power to the FDT-C20 stimuli. CCA indicated the both stimuli drove similar neural mechanisms, possibly suggesting no advantage of FD stimuli for mfVEPs. Given that the contrast-threshold mfVEPs were non-viable, we used the present and published results to make recommendations for future mfVEP tests. Introductionintramural funding from the Australian National University

RELAYVIO: MOBILE APPLICATION FOR DOCUMENTING DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

RelayVio is designed and developed as android based mobile applications for all users, particularly users of domestic violence victims and their families in Malaysia. The main function of this app is to encourage domestic violence victims to document evidence of violence by way of writing notes, capturing images and recording dates and times of the occurrence. The app also allows victims to sending messages to a domestic violence hotline (Talian Nur), or can directly connect to 999 in the event of an emergency. The app also aims to educate the general public on the signs, dangers and help they can get relating to domestic violence abuse, through the use of animation (3D stop motion). getting information about the act of domestic violence. The method used in the development of mobile applications is ADDIE, which consists of analysis, design, system development, implementation and evaluation. An interview with a sociologist was conducted as an expert review, as well as a usability study of the app. Results show that the majority of the participants agreed that RelayVio app will be able to facilitate victims of domestic violence to gather information and keep documentation of the abuse as a form of evidence against their abusers

RelayVio: mobile application for documenting domestic violence

RelayVio is designed and developed as android based mobile applications for all users, particularly users of domestic violence victims and their families in Malaysia. The main function of this app is to encourage domestic violence victims to document evidence of violence by way of writing notes, capturing images and recording dates and times of the occurrence. The app also allows victims to sending messages to a domestic violence hotline (Talian Nur), or can directly connect to 999 in the event of an emergency. The app also aims to educate the general public on the signs, dangers and help they can get relating to domestic violence abuse, through the use of animation (3D stop motion). getting information about the act of domestic violence. The method used in the development of mobile applications is ADDIE, which consists of analysis, design, system development, implementation and evaluation. An interview with a sociologist was conducted as an expert review, as well as a usability study of the app. Results show that the majority of the participants agreed that RelayVio app will be able to facilitate victims of domestic violence to gather information and keep documentation of the abuse as a form of evidence against their abusers

Detection of glaucoma using multifocal steady-state visual evoked potentials (MSV)

AIMS: Phase 1: (Studies 1 & 2)Study 1:• To investigate whether it is feasible to simultaneously record visual evoked potentials (VEPs) using stimuli presented concurrently to nine visual field regions (a 9RV stimulus), by examining the independent effects of (a) contrast on the response for each stimulated region, (b) recording channel and (c) the nonlinear interactions between the 9 stimuli, which differed in their temporal frequencies. Study 2:• Investigate if frequency doubling (FD)-like stimuli give contrast-response functions like those of the retinal ganglion cells projecting to the magnocellular LGN, so called M-cells.• Investigate the influence of cortical folding upon the 9RV by comparing responses to 9-region and smaller 17-region stimuli• Examine the effect of cortical magnification on those two stimulus ensembles by presenting them at 3 viewing distances.Phase 2: (Study 3)To compare the diagnostic power of 1- and 9-visual field region stimuli using electrophysiologically (1RV and 9RV) and psychophysically (1RP and 9RP) determined contrast thresholds in normal and glaucoma patients. METHODS: A total of 24 normals (Phase 1- Study 1(n=10), Study 2(n=14)) and 70 age matched subjects (Phase 2; 20: 50, normal: glaucoma patients) were recruited. The 9RV stimuli were modulated at a small range of incommensurate temporal frequencies. In Phase 1, the effect of several independent variables including (1) contrast (2) stimulus region, (3) frequencies, (4) channels, (5) viewing distance and (6) either 9- or 17-regions, were evaluated. In Phase 2, diagnostic power was assessed by the percent under the curve (%AUC) of receiver operating characteristic (ROC) plots.RESULTS: Effects (1) to (6) were all highly significant. The contrast-response functions were like those of M-cells: producing reliable responses at low contrasts. Phase 2 indicated that the psychophysical tests performed better diagnostically than their electrophysiological counterparts. Discrimination from normal of suspect and mildly affected eyes was below 76% AUC for all methods. Combining the (apparently) somewhat independent 1RP and 1RV data improved AUC values.CONCLUSIONS: Scientifically valuable data on recording locations, contrast response functions, frequency and visual field dependence, nonlinear visual field interactions, and viewing distance were obtained. Combining psychophysical and electrophysiological tests may improve detection of glaucoma

L-Band amplitude scintillations during solar maximum at a low latitude station

The Global Positioning System (GPS) is one of the most important and useful technologies developed for information and communication technology. Propagated wireless signals along the GPS link are affected by the ionospheric irregularities, therefore the GPS signals may experience ionospheric scintillation. In this study, GPS L-band amplitude scintillations observed at a low latitude station. Data from the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Ionospheric Scintillation and Total Electron Content (TEC) monitor (GISTM) receiver installed at the Space Science Centre (ANGKASA), Institute of Climate Change, UniversitiKebangsaan Malaysia, UKM (2.92°N, 101.78°E) were used for this study. Of the 460 scintillation (by neglecting S4<0.15) events recorded during February 2014, 55% were weak (0.15≤S4<0.25), 32% were moderate (0.25≤S4<0.35) and 13% were strong (S4≥0.35). For February 2014, the amplitude scintillations were most pronounced in the post-sunset time to pre-midnight time. Finally, these analysed data are used to study the variability of scintillation with solar activities

Abstracts of the International Halal Science Conference 2023

This book presents the extended abstracts of the selected contributions to the International Halal Science Conference, held on 22-23 August 2023 by the International Institute for Halal Research and Training (INHART), IIUM, Malaysia in collaboration with Halalan Thayyiban Research Centre, University Islam Sultan Sharif (UNISSA), Brunei Darussalam. With the increasing global interest in halal products and services, this conference is timely. Conference Title:  International Halal Science ConferenceConference Acronym: IHASC23Conference Theme: Halal Industry Sustainability Through ScienceConference Date: 22-23 August 2023Conference Venue: International Islamic University (IIUM), MalaysiaConference Organizer: International Institute for Halal Research and Training (INHART), International Islamic University (IIUM), Malaysi