Statistical prediction of environmental gamma radiation doses, in Perak, Malaysia

The concentrations of Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material (NORM) and their corresponding terrestrial gamma radiation have been shown to be associated with certain lithology and soil types. A possible relationships among gamma radiation levels, and the lithology and soil types make it possible to predict ionizing radiation level of an area that cannot be directly measured. A study was carried out to statistically predict and validate environmental gamma radiation dose rates based on actual field measurements using a sodium iodide detector. Results obtained showed that the predicted dose rate (Dp) may be determined using a multiple correlation regression equation, Dp = 0.35DL + 0.82 Ds – 0.02, that integrates dose rates contributed by different lithological structures (DL) and soil types (Ds). Statistical analysis on 32 different lithology and soil type combinations showed that more than 50% of the predicted data were not significantly different from the data measured in the field. A predicted isodose map was subsequently plotted base on 4 dose rate classes ranging from 0.1 – 0.3 μSv h-1

Assimilating construction worker safety into design – a review

Construction industry is an essential element in Malaysian economy. However, with the highest fatality rate compared to other industries in the country, construction industry faces a great challenge. In order to address this challenge, researches have demonstrated that decisions made throughout construction upstream activity i.e. the design stage can stimulate construction safety. In Malaysia, safety topics are often not highlighted until the start of construction stage. Assimilating construction worker safety in the design consideration presents designs that are safe to be built and maintain. During design process, designers can provide best safety practices such as modification to permanent features, preparation of plans and specifications with construction safety is considered. Besides, communication of risk regarding design and utilization of specific safe design can also be integrated to eliminate or reduce hazards during construction and occupational stage. Assimilating construction worker safety into design is consistent with safety hierarchy of control which calls for eliminating or minimizing hazard before relying on management or temporary controls to protect workers. This paper aims to review the concept of assimilating construction worker safety into design published by various literatures

Monetary Policy, Debt and the Cyclical Behavior of Inventories

An earlier study on the determinants of inventories investment has been proposed by Lovel (1961). However, the study fails to mention the effects of financial variables. The puzzle prevails on account of imperfect capital markets. This implies that interest rate generally affects inventory investment indirectly through the debt channel. For instance, in the period of tight monetary policy, increasing interest rates have a negative impact on the present value of firms’ collateralizable net worth. In addition, they also weaken firms’ balance sheets as interest expenses also rise up. In imperfect capital markets, this fact indicates an increase in the amount of external financing that firms need, a rise in the premium on external financing that they face, and a reduction in their accumulation of assets, their spending and their production. Given the low adjustment cost that characterizes firms, it will be inventories that firms will initially reduce. Therefore, this paper is contributes to the issue of monetary policy transmission in Malaysia. Our specific attention is limited to the channel of monetary policy on a firm’s inventory. Using micro data, we try to take into account the relevance of the firm’s balance sheet conditions in the transmission of monetary policy

Does the government doing enough in providing affordable housing in Malaysia?

In neoclassical, market failure is a situation in which the allocation of goods and services by a free market is not Pareto efficient, often leading to a net loss of economic value. This mismatching between supply of and demand for land creates sky rocketing housing prices in the market. Since the Government is concerned in housing the nation, numerous housing programs to provide adequate affordable housing to meet the needs of the low income or the middle income households. Unfortunately, the country still lacks the supply of affordable homes to meet the demand. Supply of houses in the market is in abundance but they do not fall under the affordable category. Therefore, the existing Government policies and implementation of affordable housing need to be realigned accordingly

Tree species composition for squirrel-observation recreational activity in botanical garden, Putrajaya / Noraini Bahari, Ismail Said and Noradila Rusli

Squirrel is one of the important natural components in urban ecosystems. It commonly inhabits urban parks in many cities of Peninsular Malaysia. The understanding of how they use trees is essential in creating wildlife habitats for supporting wildlife-oriented recreational activities in urban parks. Direct observation through focal animal sampling was employed in order to understand the tree composition which influences squirrel’s behaviours in Botanical Garden, Putrajaya. The result shows that squirrels mainly forage and feed in fruits and flowers bearing trees. Inasmuch, this paper suggests the tree species composition which is suitable for squirrel’s habitat in urban park

Antibiotic usage in pediatric respiratory tract infection

Respiratory tract infections are the worldwide main cause of death in children aging less than 5 years. In developed countries; respiratory tract infections are the leading cause of morbidity, accounted for 20% of medical consultation, 30% of work absenteeism and 75 % of all antibiotic prescription. Upper respiratory tract infections in children, which often associated with viral infection, and in average about 40 – 60 % of children with upper respiratory tract infections were prescribed with antibiotics. The type of antibiotics also varies from hospital to another.The objectives of this study are to describe the pattern, outcome, and cost of antibiotic usage in pediatric respiratory tract infections. A prospective study of pediatrics admitted to Pediatric Ward, Penang Hospital for respiratory tract infections was carried out. Appropriate descriptive analysiswas used. The results showed that penicillin, erythromycin; amoxicillinclavulanate were the most commonly prescribed antibiotics for respiratory tract infections. The average duration of antibiotic therapy 3.0 ± 3.2 days, fever clearance time 2.2 ± 2.4 days, improvement of sign and symptoms 3.7 ± 2.5 days and mean length of stay in the ward was 4.9 ± 2.8 days. The average cost of antibiotics was RM 14.83 ± 83.13, and total cost of respiratory tract infections treatment was RM 98.88 ± 65.87.Key words: antibiotic, respiratory tract infection, pediatric, hospita

Modul Psikospiritual-Mangsa Banjir (MPS-MB) serta-merta dan separuh penggal (MID-TERM) pasca banjir

Penerokaan mengenai aspek psikologi mangsa banjir dan keperluan pembentukan modul psikologi dilihat sebagai keperluan penting selepas berlaku bencana banjir besar. Kajian ini dijalankan untuk membentuk Modul PsikoSpiritual-Mangsa Banjir (MPS-MB) yang bakal digunapakai oleh mangsa banjir di negeri Sabah dan Sarawak serta di Semenanjung Malaysia. Seramai 130 mangsa banjir di Gua Musang dan Manik Urai, Kelantan dan Kuching, Sarawak dijadikan sebagai responden kajian. Pemilihan berdasarkan senarai mangsa banjir yang berdaftar di pusat pemindahan banjir. Kajian ini menggunakan reka bentuk exploratory sequential design iaitu dimulakan dengan Fasa 1: Kajian kualitatif, Fasa Interim: Proses Pembinaan Modul dan Fasa 2: Kajian kuantitatif iaitu menguji kesahan muka dan kesahan kandungan oleh pakar dalam bidang psikologi bencana. Di samping itu, kumpulan pengkaji turut menguji trauma mangsa banjir dengan menggunakan soal selidik Peritraumatic Dissociative Experiences Questionnaire (PDEQ) dan Peritraumatic Distress Inventory (PDI). Hasil kajian kualitatif menjadi asas dan panduan kepada pembinaan MPS-MB yang merangkumi lima (5) unit dan 17 aktiviti. Kesahan muka dan kesahan kandungan MPS-MB seterusnya disemak dan dinilai oleh pakar dalam bidang psikologi. Pembentukan MPS-MB mampu menjana ilmu pengetahuan mengenai pengalaman sebenar mangsa banjir berkaitan aspek psikologi dan spiritual. Hasil kajian dan pembentukan modul ini juga membolehkan masyarakat khususnya mangsa banjir mengetahui persediaan masa hadapan agar dapat mengurus dan mengurangkan impak psikologi yang negatif ke atas mangsa bencana banjir

Sumber stres, strategi daya tindak dan stres yang dialami pelajar universiti

Kajian ini bertujuan mengkaji sumber stres, strategi daya tindak dan stres yang dialami pelajar sebuah universiti di Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. Secara khususnya, kajian ini dilaksanakan bagi mengenal pasti hubungan antara sumber stres dan stres yang dialami pelajar universiti. Di samping itu, kajian ini cuba meneliti bentuk strategi daya tindak yang digunakan oleh pelajar universiti untuk menangani stres yang dialami. Kajian ini dijalankan menggunakan borang soal selidik. Seramai 223 orang pelajar yang berumur antara 19 hingga 22 tahun dijadikan subjek kajian. Alat kajian yang digunakan merangkumi item-item bagi mengukur sumber stres, Adolescent Coping Scale (ACS) bagi mengukur strategi daya tindak dan alat kajian Stress Student Scale yang telah diubahsuai digunakan untuk mengukur stres pelajar. Data yang diperolehi telah dianalisis menggunakan ujian statistik inferensi melibatkan korelasi Pearson dan korelasi separa (partial correlation). Keputusan yang diperolehi menunjukkan terdapat hubungan yang signifikan antara sumber stres keseluruhan dan stres yang dialami pelajar universiti. Sementara itu, strategi daya tindak keseluruhan didapati mampu bertindak sebagai perantara (mediator) bagi hubungan antara sumber stres keseluruhan dan stres yang dialami pelaja

Study on characteristics of patients with repeated admissions for asthma in Hospital Tengku Ampuan Afzan, Kuantan, Pahang, Malaysia

ABSTRACT (Perlu disediakan makluman di antara 100 - 200 perkataan di dalam Bahasa Malaysia dan Bahasa lnggeris. lni kemudiannya akan dimuatkan ke dalam Laporan Tahunan Sahagian Penyelidikan & Pembangunan sebagai satu cara untuk menyampaikan dapatan projek tuan/puan kepada pihak Universiti). Objective To determine the characteristics in patients with repeated admissions for asthma compared to patients with no repeated admission for asthma over the same period of one-year duration. Methods A cross-sectional comparative study among 30 patients with asthma who had repeated admissions and another 30 patients with asthma who had no repeated admission for exacerbation of asthma over the same period of one-year duration (2001 ). The socio-demographic, clinical characteristics and evaluation data were collected. The evaluation included measurement of peak expiratory flow (PEF), inhaler technique skills and questionnaires on knowledge of asthma. Results There was no significant difference in socio-demographic characteristics, measurement of PEF and inhaler technique skills in both groups. In clinical characteristics, there was significant difference noted in history of atopy, history of absenteeism, asthma symptoms and use of medications. There was significant difference in .the knowledge of asthma where the total mean scores was 14.8 in repeated admissions group and 17.7 in non - repeated admission group from the total sco~e of 31. Conclusions Patients with repeated admissions for asthma tend to have high past history of atopy, high history of absenteeism from work or school, more frequent nocturnal symptoms and more use of low dose inhaler corticosteroids. They also had poor inhaler techniques and less asthma knowledge. USM J

Doctor-shopping behaviour amongst adult patients attending family medicine clinic Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kubang Kerian, Kelantan

Introduction: Doctor-shopping refers to the changing of doctor without professional referral in a single episode of illness. It leads to some health risk and social problems. Objectives: To determine the prevalence and associated factors of doctorshopping behaviour amongst adult patients attending Family Medicine Clinic (FMC) Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (HUSM). Methodology: It was a cross-sectional study conducted on 442 adult patients aged 18 years and above. It was conducted as face to face interview using questionnaires. Data were analysed using SPSS version 11. Results: Fifty-six percents of these patients met our criteria for doctor-shopping patients. Most of the patients went to general practitioners for consultation prior to FMC visit. One-fifth of the respondents went for alternative treatment for the current illness episode. The main reason for changing doctors was due to no improvement of the illness. Doctor-shopping behaviour was found to be significantly associated with older age group and employed patients. Doctorshopping patients were found to be high among married people, females and patients with low education level, but the associations were not significant. The significant associated factors of doctor-shopping behaviour were chronic duration of illness, and advice to seek treatment from somebody. Conclusion: Prevalence of doctor-shopping behaviour amongst adult patients attending FMC was high. It is important to recognise and anticipate problems related to doctor-shopping behaviour. We need to emphasise on the importance of a good doctor-patient relationship, and give accurate explanation and health education to maintain a proper continuity of care