Urban public knowledge towards Sarcopenia: health education needs assessment

Introduction: Sarcopenia is increasingly recognized as a health problem among older persons and is one of the major determinant factors in frailty. Studies revealed sarcopenia is prevalent in Malaysia and it have detrimental impact on the quality of life of older people. Sarcopenia can be prevented with adequate knowledge and practices on controlling the risk factors. This study aimed to assess the urban public’s knowledge on sarcopenia. Methods: A cross-sectional online survey was conducted among urban population in one of the states in Malaysia. Data was collected from October to December 2020. Results: A total of Two hundred and two publics participated in the study. The present study revealed that only 14 (6.9%) of the participants were found to possess good knowledge about sarcopenia with mean age was 49.0 years (SD = ±12.65. Analysis of variance indicated statistically significant differences at the < 0.05 significance level for age group, gender, educational level and smoking habit. Conclusion: The findings highlight the lack of sarcopenia knowledge among the urban public. This study indicated urban public are not well-informed about sarcopenia and lack of health promotion strategies to address this alarming public health problem. The study findings have identified the health education needs and will contribute to the development and implementation of an evidence-based health promotion programme serve as data for health promotion programme towards sarcopenia and its prevention

Development of Passive Quarter Car Suspension Prototype

In this paper, a construction of a prototype to represent passive vehicle suspension system for quarter car model is considered. The prototype is represented by two degree-of freedom quarter-car model which are conventionally used by researchers. This laboratory equipment is developed in order to familiarize students with 2 DoF passive suspension system model. It consists of two masses, two springs and a damper. This equipment is easily dismantled and could be assembled with different spring and damper constants which contribute to different characteristics of the suspension system. A number of experiments have been carried out using the experiment setup in order to identify the suspension system characteristics i.e. experiments with different vehicle body mass, different period for one pulse and different pulse width of input pressure of the road excitation have been conducted. The experiment results are evaluated based on the vehicle body displacement and tire displacement of the prototype. Experiment results show that the pulse width of the input pressure or road profile is directly affected the characteristic of this passive suspension system. Lastly, simulations were done in order to compare the simulation and experiment results. Next step is to implement active control to this system via active actuators

Medan maklumat dalam Kamus Dewan dan Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia

Kajian bidang leksikografi ini menyelidik perbandingan medan maklumat antara dua buah kamus ekabahasa Melayu, iaitu Kamus Dewan Edisi Keempat dengan Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia Edisi Keempat. Medan maklumat merujuk kepada jenis maklumat dalam kamus seperti ejaan, sebutan, makna, tatabahasa, etimologi, penggunaan kata, silang kata, dan sebagainya Data kajian pula terdiri daripada 1087 entri yang dipilih secara rawak mudah dan bersistematik. Kaedah kajian ialah kaedah kepustakaan dan analisis kandungan. Data dianalisis secara deskriptif asas. Objektif kajian ini adalah untuk mengenal pasti penggunaan medan maklumat dalam Kamus Dewan dan Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia berdasarkan penggunaan prinsip umum leksikografi. Pelbagai aspek terkandung dalam medan atau kategori maklumat dalam sesebuah kamus. Sebanyak enam aspek sahaja yang akan dibincangkan dalam kajian ini, iaitu ejaan, penyusunan entri atau kata masukan, sebutan, penggunaan kata, etimologi, dan rujuk silang. Hasil kajian menunjukkan bahawa memang wujud perbedaan, persamaan dan kekurangan dalam medan maklumat keduadua buah kamus tersebut. Kelebihan dapatan kajian ini menunjukkan bahawa penggunaan medan maklumat dalam sesebuah kamus ekabahasa Melayu membantu pihak penyusun kamus menghasilkan sesebuah kamus yang berwibawa. Kajian ini mendedahkan para pengguna, khususnya para pendidik, pelajar dan ahli akademik tentang kepentingan medan maklumat dalam kamus

Pretreatment carcinoembryonic antigen level is a risk factor for para-aortic lymph node recurrence in addition to squamous cell carcinoma antigen following definitive concurrent chemoradiotherapy for squamous cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>To identify pretreatment carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) levels as a risk factor for para-aortic lymph node (PALN) recurrence following concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) for cervical cancer.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>From March 1995 to January 2008, 188 patients with squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the uterine cervix were analyzed retrospectively. No patient received PALN irradiation as the initial treatment. CEA and squamous cell carcinoma antigen (SCC-Ag) were measured before and after radiotherapy. PALN recurrence was detected by computer tomography (CT) scans. We analyzed the actuarial rates of PALN recurrence by using Kaplan-Meier curves. Multivariate analyses were carried out with Cox regression models. We stratified the risk groups based on the hazard ratios (HR).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Both pretreatment CEA levels ≥ 10 ng/mL and SCC-Ag levels < 10 ng/mL (<it>p </it>< 0.001, HR = 8.838), SCC-Ag levels ≥ 40 ng/mL (<it>p </it>< 0.001, HR = 12.551), and SCC-Ag levels of 10-40 ng/mL (<it>p </it>< 0.001, HR = 4.2464) were significant factors for PALN recurrence. The corresponding 5-year PALN recurrence rates were 51.5%, 84.8%, and 27.5%, respectively. The 5-year PALN recurrence rate for patients with both low (< 10 ng/mL) SCC and CEA was only 9.6%. CEA levels ≥ 10 ng/mL or SCC-Ag levels ≥ 10 ng/mL at PALN recurrence were associated with overall survival after an isolated PALN recurrence. Pretreatment CEA levels ≥ 10 ng/mL were also associated with survival after an isolated PALN recurrence.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Pretreatment CEA ≥ 10 ng/mL is an additional risk factor of PALN relapse following definitive CCRT for SCC of the uterine cervix in patients with pretreatment SCC-Ag levels < 10 ng/mL. More comprehensive examinations before CCRT and intensive follow-up schedules are suggested for early detection and salvage in patients with SCC-Ag or CEA levels ≥ 10 ng/mL.</p

Large expert-curated database for benchmarking document similarity detection in biomedical literature search

Document recommendation systems for locating relevant literature have mostly relied on methods developed a decade ago. This is largely due to the lack of a large offline gold-standard benchmark of relevant documents that cover a variety of research fields such that newly developed literature search techniques can be compared, improved and translated into practice. To overcome this bottleneck, we have established the RElevant LIterature SearcH consortium consisting of more than 1500 scientists from 84 countries, who have collectively annotated the relevance of over 180 000 PubMed-listed articles with regard to their respective seed (input) article/s. The majority of annotations were contributed by highly experienced, original authors of the seed articles. The collected data cover 76% of all unique PubMed Medical Subject Headings descriptors. No systematic biases were observed across different experience levels, research fields or time spent on annotations. More importantly, annotations of the same document pairs contributed by different scientists were highly concordant. We further show that the three representative baseline methods used to generate recommended articles for evaluation (Okapi Best Matching 25, Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency and PubMed Related Articles) had similar overall performances. Additionally, we found that these methods each tend to produce distinct collections of recommended articles, suggesting that a hybrid method may be required to completely capture all relevant articles. The established database server located at https://relishdb.ict.griffith.edu.au is freely available for the downloading of annotation data and the blind testing of new methods. We expect that this benchmark will be useful for stimulating the development of new powerful techniques for title and title/abstract-based search engines for relevant articles in biomedical research.Peer reviewe

Effects of hospital facilities on patient outcomes after cancer surgery: an international, prospective, observational study

Background Early death after cancer surgery is higher in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) compared with in high-income countries, yet the impact of facility characteristics on early postoperative outcomes is unknown. The aim of this study was to examine the association between hospital infrastructure, resource availability, and processes on early outcomes after cancer surgery worldwide.Methods A multimethods analysis was performed as part of the GlobalSurg 3 study-a multicentre, international, prospective cohort study of patients who had surgery for breast, colorectal, or gastric cancer. The primary outcomes were 30-day mortality and 30-day major complication rates. Potentially beneficial hospital facilities were identified by variable selection to select those associated with 30-day mortality. Adjusted outcomes were determined using generalised estimating equations to account for patient characteristics and country-income group, with population stratification by hospital.Findings Between April 1, 2018, and April 23, 2019, facility-level data were collected for 9685 patients across 238 hospitals in 66 countries (91 hospitals in 20 high-income countries; 57 hospitals in 19 upper-middle-income countries; and 90 hospitals in 27 low-income to lower-middle-income countries). The availability of five hospital facilities was inversely associated with mortality: ultrasound, CT scanner, critical care unit, opioid analgesia, and oncologist. After adjustment for case-mix and country income group, hospitals with three or fewer of these facilities (62 hospitals, 1294 patients) had higher mortality compared with those with four or five (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 3.85 [95% CI 2.58-5.75]; p&lt;0.0001), with excess mortality predominantly explained by a limited capacity to rescue following the development of major complications (63.0% vs 82.7%; OR 0.35 [0.23-0.53]; p&lt;0.0001). Across LMICs, improvements in hospital facilities would prevent one to three deaths for every 100 patients undergoing surgery for cancer.Interpretation Hospitals with higher levels of infrastructure and resources have better outcomes after cancer surgery, independent of country income. Without urgent strengthening of hospital infrastructure and resources, the reductions in cancer-associated mortality associated with improved access will not be realised

International Consensus Statement on Rhinology and Allergy: Rhinosinusitis

Background: The 5 years since the publication of the first International Consensus Statement on Allergy and Rhinology: Rhinosinusitis (ICAR‐RS) has witnessed foundational progress in our understanding and treatment of rhinologic disease. These advances are reflected within the more than 40 new topics covered within the ICAR‐RS‐2021 as well as updates to the original 140 topics. This executive summary consolidates the evidence‐based findings of the document. Methods: ICAR‐RS presents over 180 topics in the forms of evidence‐based reviews with recommendations (EBRRs), evidence‐based reviews, and literature reviews. The highest grade structured recommendations of the EBRR sections are summarized in this executive summary. Results: ICAR‐RS‐2021 covers 22 topics regarding the medical management of RS, which are grade A/B and are presented in the executive summary. Additionally, 4 topics regarding the surgical management of RS are grade A/B and are presented in the executive summary. Finally, a comprehensive evidence‐based management algorithm is provided. Conclusion: This ICAR‐RS‐2021 executive summary provides a compilation of the evidence‐based recommendations for medical and surgical treatment of the most common forms of RS

What influences student nurses’ intention to work with older people? A cross-sectional study

Background: Studies have reported that student nurses hold positive attitudes towards older people; nevertheless, working with older people has consistently remained one of the least desired career choices among student nurses in most countries. Objectives: The current study aimed to assess student nurses’ intentions to work with older people and to determine the predictors of working intentions among nursing students. Design: The study adopted a cross-sectional design. Settings: Multistage sampling was used to recruit nursing students from five states in Malaysia. Participants: A total of 1462 nursing students from eleven nursing education institutions participated in this study. Methods: A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data. This study is underpinned by the Theory of Planned Behaviour. The Intent to Work with Older People Scale and Kogan Attitudes Toward Old People Scale were used to assess nursing students’ intentions and attitudes towards care of older people respectively. Researcher-developed instruments were used to assess subjective norms and perceived behavioural control among nursing students. Results: The present study found that nursing students in Malaysia demonstrated a moderate level of intention to work with older people, with a mean of 39.72 (±4.38). There were significant differences in effects of gender, ethnic group, academic level, type of nursing institution and setting of older person care clinical experience on intentions to work with older people. There was a moderate and positive relationship between attitudes towards older people and intentions to work with older people, as well as between perceived behavioural control and intentions to work with older people; it was found that r = 0.36 for both relationships. Attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control accounted for 19.7% of the variance in intentions to work with older people. Conclusion: The primary findings of this national study revealed that Malaysian nursing students have a moderate level of intention to work with older people. It is imperative to develop educational interventions to nurture attitudes for caring and promote stronger intentions to work with older people

The mediating role of coping styles in the relationship between second victim experience and professional quality of life among nurses: a cross-sectional study

Abstract Background Studies have shown that second-victim experiences could increase risks of the compassion fatigue while support from individuals and organisations is most often protection. However, the risk for poor compassion satisfaction and increased compassion fatigue in nurses aroused by adverse events remains an underestimated problem, meanwhile, litter known about the role of positive and negative coping styles among nurses suffering from adverse events. This study aims to investigate the effect of second-victim experiences on the professional quality of life among nurses and to determine the mediating role of coping styles in the relationship between second-victim experiences and professional quality of life. Methods Multistage sampling was used to recruit registered nurses from Hunan province in China. Registered nurses who identified themselves as experiencing adverse events from nine tertiary hospitals were included in this study. Participants were recruited to complete a survey on the second victim experience and support tool, the simplified coping style questionnaire, and the professional quality of life scale. The stress coping theory was used to develop the framework in this study. The structural equation modelling approach was used for conducting the mediating effects analysis via IBM SPSS Statistics 26.0 and Mplus 8.3. Results In total, 67% (n = 899) of nurses reported a second victim experience during their careers. In a bivariate analysis, both second-victims experiences and coping styles were significantly associated with their professional quality of life. The results showed that the effects of second victim experiences on their professional quality of life were fully mediated by coping styles. A total of 10 significantly indirect pathways were estimated, ranging from -0.243 to 0.173. Conclusions Second-victim experiences are common among nurses in this study. Since the mediating effects of coping styles were clarified in this study, it is imperative to promote the perception of negative coping styles and encourage nurses to adopt more positive coping styles with adequate support systems

Development Of Passive Quarter Car Suspension Prototype

In this paper, a construction of a prototype to represent passive vehicle suspension system for quarter car model is considered. The prototype is represented by two degree-of freedom quarter-car model which are conventionally used by researchers. This laboratory equipment is developed in order to familiarize students with 2 DoF passive suspension system model. It consists of two masses, two springs and a damper. This equipment is easily dismantled and could be assembled with different spring and damper constants which contribute to different characteristics of the suspension system. A number of experiments have been carried out using the experiment setup in order to identify the suspension system characteristics i.e. experiments with different vehicle body mass, different period for one pulse and different pulse width of input pressure of the road excitation have been conducted. The experiment results are evaluated based on the vehicle body displacement and tire displacement of the prototype. Experiment results show that the pulse width of the input pressure or road profile is directly affected the characteristic of this passive suspension system. Lastly, simulations were done in order to compare the simulation and experiment results. Next step is to implement active control to this system via active actuators