Corrigendum to “Integrated miniature fluorescent probe to leverage the sensing potential of ZnO quantum dots for the detection of copper (II) ions”

Quantum dots are fluorescent semiconductor nanoparticles that can be utilised for sensing applications. This paper evaluates the ability to leverage their analytical potential using an integrated fluorescent sensing probe that is portable, cost effective and simple to handle. ZnO quantum dots were prepared using the simple sol-gel hydrolysis method at ambient conditions and found to be significantly and specifically quenched by copper (II) ions. This ZnO quantum dots system has been incorporated into an in-house developed miniature fluorescent probe for the detection of copper (II) ions in aqueous medium. The probe was developed using a low power handheld black light as excitation source and three photo-detectors as sensor. The sensing chamber placed between the light source and detectors was made of 4-sided clear quartz windows. The chamber was housed within a dark compartment to avoid stray light interference. The probe was operated using a microcontroller (Arduino Uno Revision 3) that has been programmed with the analytical response and the working algorithm of the electronics. The probe was sourced with a 12V rechargeable battery pack and the analytical readouts were given directly using a LCD display panel. Analytical optimisations of the ZnO quantum dots system and the probe have been performed and further described. The probe was found to have a linear response range up to 0.45mM (R(2)=0.9930) towards copper (II) ion with a limit of detection of 7.68×10(-7)M. The probe has high repeatable and reliable performance

Impact of opioid-free analgesia on pain severity and patient satisfaction after discharge from surgery: multispecialty, prospective cohort study in 25 countries

Background: Balancing opioid stewardship and the need for adequate analgesia following discharge after surgery is challenging. This study aimed to compare the outcomes for patients discharged with opioid versus opioid-free analgesia after common surgical procedures.Methods: This international, multicentre, prospective cohort study collected data from patients undergoing common acute and elective general surgical, urological, gynaecological, and orthopaedic procedures. The primary outcomes were patient-reported time in severe pain measured on a numerical analogue scale from 0 to 100% and patient-reported satisfaction with pain relief during the first week following discharge. Data were collected by in-hospital chart review and patient telephone interview 1 week after discharge.Results: The study recruited 4273 patients from 144 centres in 25 countries; 1311 patients (30.7%) were prescribed opioid analgesia at discharge. Patients reported being in severe pain for 10 (i.q.r. 1-30)% of the first week after discharge and rated satisfaction with analgesia as 90 (i.q.r. 80-100) of 100. After adjustment for confounders, opioid analgesia on discharge was independently associated with increased pain severity (risk ratio 1.52, 95% c.i. 1.31 to 1.76; P < 0.001) and re-presentation to healthcare providers owing to side-effects of medication (OR 2.38, 95% c.i. 1.36 to 4.17; P = 0.004), but not with satisfaction with analgesia (beta coefficient 0.92, 95% c.i. -1.52 to 3.36; P = 0.468) compared with opioid-free analgesia. Although opioid prescribing varied greatly between high-income and low- and middle-income countries, patient-reported outcomes did not.Conclusion: Opioid analgesia prescription on surgical discharge is associated with a higher risk of re-presentation owing to side-effects of medication and increased patient-reported pain, but not with changes in patient-reported satisfaction. Opioid-free discharge analgesia should be adopted routinely

Event recognition in parking lot surveillance system

This paper presents a novel event recognition framework in video surveillance system, particularly for parking lot environment. An event is represented by feature vector that contains dynamic information and the contextual information of the motion trajectory is incorporated into the recognition process. Experimental results have demonstrated great accuracy of the proposed event recognition algorithm

Design and optimisation of hybrid power system using MATLAB® Simulink®

This paper details the different renewable energy resources used in the proposed hybrid power system for rural area electrification and the respective power generator systems used to generate power. The design approach is to use mathematical software to model the power generators. The respective power generators for the proposed hybrid power system are represented using MATLAB Simulink. The power generator models will be simulated in order to obtain and analyse the outputs for each generator. Using features in MATLAB, the power generators are tested using fault models to determine the effects to the system in the case of a sudden fault. A simple control strategy is proposed for the hybrid power system

Corporate governance and firm performance : a study of family and non-family controlled firms in Singapore.

For this research, we aim to investigate the relationship between corporate governance mechanisms and financial performance of firms, across family-controlled firms and non-family controlled firms. The research was conducted in Singapore due to the increasing studies undertaken in the field of family firms worldwide, coupled with the lack of understanding in this field in Singapore. A total of 100 companies were studied over the period of 2009 to 2011 from the Singapore Exchange Mainboard based on their market capitalisation. 4 corporate governance mechanisms were chosen for this study, namely Board Composition, Directors’ Qualifications, Board Meetings and Leadership Structure. These mechanisms were tested for their association through 5 hypotheses with 3 indicators of financial performance: Return on Assets, Tobin’s Q and Operating Cash Flow, with firm size taken as a control variable. A variety of statistical techniques were utilised, from correlation analysis to panel data regression, to further ascertain the associations. Directors’ Qualifications and Leadership Structure were found to influence financial performance for family firms. On the other hand, Board Meetings was significant in influencing financial performance for non-family firms. In conclusion, varying results from the research is an indication that there may be an over-emphasis on corporate governance mechanisms on analysing the financial performance of companies.BUSINES

Integrated miniature fluorescent probe to leverage the sensing potential of ZnO quantum dots for the detection of copper (II) ions

Quantum dots are fluorescent semiconductor nanoparticles that can be utilised for sensing applications. This paper evaluates the ability to leverage their analytical potential using an integrated fluorescent sensing probe that is portable, cost effective and simple to handle. ZnO quantum dots were prepared using the simple sol-gel hydrolysis method at ambient conditions and found to be significantly and specifically quenched by copper (II) ions. This ZnO quantum dots system has been incorporated into an in-house developed miniature fluorescent probe for the detection of copper (II) ions in aqueous medium. The probe was developed using a low power handheld black light as excitation source and three photo-detectors as sensor. The sensing chamber placed between the light source and detectors was made of 4-sided clear quartz windows. The chamber was housed within a dark compartment to avoid stray light interference. The probe was operated using a microcontroller (Arduino Uno Revision 3) that has been programmed with the analytical response and the working algorithm of the electronics. The probe was sourced with a 12 V rechargeable battery pack and the analytical readouts were given directly using a LCD display panel. Analytical optimisations of the ZnO quantum dots system and the probe have been performed and further described. The probe was found to have a linear response range up to 0.45 mM (R2=0.9930) towards copper (II) ion with a limit of detection of 7.68x10-7 M. The probe has high repeatable and reliable performance. For the amendment see: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/36939

Credit card fraud detection using a hierarchical behavior-knowledge space model

With the advancement in machine learning, researchers continue to devise and implement effective intelligent methods for fraud detection in the financial sector. Indeed, credit card fraud leads to billions of dollars in losses for merchants every year. In this paper, a multi-classifier framework is designed to address the challenges of credit card fraud detections. An ensemble model with multiple machine learning classification algorithms is designed, in which the Behavior-Knowledge Space (BKS) is leveraged to combine the predictions from multiple classifiers. To ascertain the effectiveness of the developed ensemble model, publicly available data sets as well as real financial records are employed for performance evaluations. Through statistical tests, the results positively indicate the effectiveness of the developed model as compared with the commonly used majority voting method for combination of predictions from multiple classifiers in tackling noisy data classification as well as credit card fraud detection problems

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE BENCHMARKING GUIDELINES ON COMMUNITY PHARMACIES IN MALAYSIA

The International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) adopted a set of Good Pharmacy Practice (GPP) guidelines in 1993 and recommended that the regulatory bodies of individual countries should adapt the guidelines in accordance with their resources. The Malaysian Pharmaceutical Society (MPS) introduced its benchmarking guidelines (BMG) in 2003 as a means to raise the professional standards of the community pharmacy practice in Malaysia. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the extent to which community pharmacies have adopted the BMG. A cross-sectional study was conducted using mail questionnaires, which were posted to all community pharmacies in Malaysia. A total of 371 questionnaires (29.2%) were returned. Only 51.0% of the respondents were aware of the BMG. The extent of compliance with the guidelines was 62.6+21.1% (mean + standard deviation), with a median of 65%. The type and ownership of the community pharmacies were significantly associated with compliance with certain aspects of the guidelines. The main problem in complying with the BMG was financial constraint, and this problem was more likely to occur with independent than with chain pharmacies. However, the respondents generally agreed that most aspects of the BMG could be achieved in less than five years. Since the level of awareness among community pharmacists regarding the BMG is low, the MPS should promote or publicise the BMG further. The BMG should be reviewed before being used as part of the criteria for the accreditation of community pharmacies, as proposed by the MPS to further improve the quality and standards of community pharmacies in Malaysia

Design and development of a portable fiber optic chemical sensor utilizing fluorescent carbon dots as receptor

Abstract not availabl

Corrigendum to 'Integrated miniature fluorescent probe to leverage the sensing potential of ZnO quantum dots for the detection of copper (II) ions'

Corrects an error in Ng, S. M., Wong, D. S. N., Phung, J. H. and Chua, H. S. (2013). Integrated miniature fluorescent probe to leverage the sensing potential of ZnO quantum dots for the detection of copper (II) ions. Talanta, 116, 514-519. For the original see: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/36939