Vulnerability of public buildings subjected to earthquake by finite element modelling

Tremors in Peninsular Malaysia and East Malaysia due to Sumatra and Philippine earthquakes have been reported several times. Engineers are concerned of the seismic vulnerability of public buildings due to lack of earthquake consideration in Malaysia’s building design procedure. This study addresses the vulnerability of public buildings in Malaysia subjected to earthquakes from Sumatra and Philippines. A case study has been conducted on low rise to medium rise reinforced concrete buildings, which are mostly categorized as moment resisting frames. The buildings are analyzed using Finite Element Modeling (FEM) under different types of analyses including Free Vibration Analysis (FVA), and Time History Analysis (THA) considering low to medium earthquake intensities. The study indicates that more than 50% of the buildings produced dynamic amplification factors of slightly more than one indicating not much of a dynamic response to the buildings. The performances of the structure are shown by the yield point at beam-column connections where the internal forces at beam elements exceed the design capacity of the beams. In the non-linear analysis, the largest damage index is still under the intermediate level where no structural damage is indicated, but some non-structural damage are expected

A comparison of hand-arm vibration syndrome between Malaysian and Japanese workers

A Comparison of Hand-arm Vibration Syndrome between Malaysian and Japanese Workers: Anselm Ting SU, et al. Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health, Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Malaya, Malaysia-The evidence on hand-arm vibration syndrome (HAVS) in tropical environments is limited. The legislation for the control of occupational vibration exposure has yet to be established in Malaysia. Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical characteristics of HAVS in a tropical environment in comparison with a temperate environment. Methods: We conducted a series medical examinations among the forestry, construction and automobile industry workers in Malaysia adopting the compulsory medical examination procedure used by Wakayama Medical University for Japanese vibratory tools workers. We matched the duration of vibration exposure and compared our results against the Japanese workers. We also compared the results of the Malaysian tree fellers against a group of symptomatic Japanese tree fellers diagnosed with HAVS. Results: Malaysian subjects reported a similar prevalence of finger tingling, numbness and dullness (Malaysian=25.0%, Japanese=21.5%, p=0.444) but had a lower finger skin temperature (FST) and higher vibrotactile perception threshold (VPT) values as compared with the Japanese workers. No white finger was reported in Malaysiansubjects. The FST and VPT of the Malaysian tree fellers were at least as bad as the Japanese tree fellers despite a shorter duration (mean difference=20.12 years, 95%CI=14.50, 25.40) of vibration exposure. Conclusions: Although the vascular disorder does not manifest clinically in the tropical environment, the severity of HAVS can be as bad as in the temperate environment with predominantly neurological disorder. Hence, it is essential to formulate national legislation for the control of the occupational vibration exposure

Corporate Social Responsibility Practices of Malaysian Islamic Banks from the Shariah Perspective: A Focus on the Key Dimensions

This study examines the corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure practices of Islamic banks in a developing economy, i.e., Malaysia. Specifically, the study focuses on all three full-fledged Islamic commercial banks over the years 2004–2010 and constructs a CSR Disclosure Index to score the disclosure level of the banks. The findings reveal that Bank Islam has a higher disclosure practice than other banks since 2006. Disclosures on dimensions such as corporate vision, employment, and product are found to be strong, while disclosures on environmentally related information tend to be weak. Generally, the Islamic banks studied indicate that their CSR disclosure practices have low compliance with the Shariah principles, a clear sign that there is a need for more dynamic enhancement in the practice. Such an effort is deemed crucial for the banks to retain their credibility and reputation as Islamic business organizations

Association between night-shift work, sleep quality and health-related quality of life: a cross-sectional study among manufacturing workers in a middle-income setting

Objectives Night-shift work may adversely affect health. This study aimed to determine the impact of night-shift work on health-related quality of life (HRQoL), and to assess whether sleep quality was a mediating factor.Design A cross-sectional study.Setting 11 manufacturing factories in Malaysia.Participants 177 night-shift workers aged 40–65 years old were compared with 317 non-night-shift workers.Primary and secondary outcomes Participants completed a self-administered questionnaire on socio-demographics and lifestyle factors, 12-item Short Form Health Survey V.2 (SF-12v2) and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). The Baron and Kenny’s method, Sobel test and multiple mediation model with bootstrapping were applied to determine whether PSQI score or its components mediated the association between night-shift work and HRQoL.Results Night-shift work was associated with sleep impairment and HRQoL. Night-shift workers had significantly lower mean scores in all the eight SF-12 domains (p<0.001). Compared with non-night-shift workers, night-shift workers were significantly more likely to report poorer sleep quality, longer sleep latency, shorter sleep duration, sleep disturbances and daytime dysfunction (p<0.001). Mediation analyses showed that PSQI global score mediated the association between night-shift work and HRQoL. ‘Subjective sleep quality’ (indirect effect=−0.24, SE=0.14 and bias corrected (BC) 95% CI −0.58 to −0.01) and ‘sleep disturbances’ (indirect effect=−0.79, SE=0.22 and BC 95% CI −1.30 to −0.42) were mediators for the association between night-shift work and physical well-being, whereas ‘sleep latency’ (indirect effect=−0.51, SE=0.21 and BC 95% CI −1.02 to −0.16) and ‘daytime dysfunction’ (indirect effect=−1.11, SE=0.32 and BC 95% CI −1.86 to −0.58) were mediators with respect to mental well-being.Conclusion Sleep quality partially explains the association between night-shift work and poorer HRQoL. Organisations should treat the sleep quality of night-shift workers as a top priority area for action to improve their employees’ overall wellbeing

A Comparison of Hand-arm Vibration Syndrome between Malaysian and Japanese Workers

Le Goffic Pierre. Ambiguïté et ambivalence en linguistique. In: Documentation et recherche en linguistique allemande contemporain - Vincennes, n°27, 1982. Des bords au centre de la linguistique. pp. 83-105

Salivary biomarkers of stress among teachers in an urban setting

10.1177/1010539510393725Asia-Pacific Journal of Public Health242278-28