Welcoming Remarks By Professor Dr. Faisal Rafiq Mahamd Adikan Vice-Chancellor, Universiti Sains Malaysia Public Lecture: ‘R&D Ecosystem And Green Technology’ By Yb Yeo Bee Yin, Minister Of Energy, Science, Technology, Environment & Climate Change

Climate change is imminent with severe significant impact on the nation. For Malaysia the rising temperature has had major repercussions, one of which is the rise in sea levels. The recent Asian Development Bank Forum in early 2020 recognized the challenges, and the effect on coastal nations. USM studies pointed out the vulnerability of low lying coastal plains such as that of Kedah, Perak and Selangor, from which our main food resources grow. Here too are the main population areas and cultural heritage sites. There will also be a drastic reduction in coastal fisheries resources as major ecosystems such as coral reefs are obliterated. A rise of 1.5C in ambient sea temperature of more than 2 days will result in coral bleaching which may lead to death – a phenomenon of increasingly common occurrence in the past decades here

Post-COVID syndrome: an emerging global health issue in the aftermath of the SARS-COV-2 pandemic

SARS-CoV-19 started as acute respiratory tract infection in late 2019 and spread globally. It led to 65 million people affected worldwide and deaths of multimillion across the world. The term “post-COVID conditions” is an umbrella term for the wide range of physical and mental health consequences experienced by some patients that are present four or more weeks after SARS-CoV-2 infection, including by patients who had initial mild or asymptomatic acute infection

A rare case of bilateral septic arthritis of hip: in a patient of idiopathic angiodema

Enterococcal infection can lead to gastroenteritis and bacteraemia. However, osteoarticular infections caused by Enterococci are rarely encountered. We report the case of a 27-year-old female patient with bilateral hip infection caused by enterococci. This young female patient initially presented with flare up of angioedema symptoms followed by septic arthritis of one hip and then 2nd hip while patient was admitted in hospital. Thankfully this patient was successfully treated and discharge back home. Early detection and proper treatment are essential for the eradication of the infection. The use of prolonged antimicrobial therapy can be considered in the management of bilateral hip joint destruction due to delayed diagnosis of enterococci infection. The patient was informed that data from the case would be submitted for publication, and she provided his consent

Simplified ASE correction algorithm for variable gain-flattened Erbium-doped fiber amplifier

We demonstrate a simplified algorithm to manifest the contribution of amplified spontaneous emission in variable gain-flattened Erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA). The detected signal power at the input and output ports of EDFA comprises of both signal and noise. The generated amplified spontaneous emission from EDFA cannot be differentiated by photodetector which leads to underestimation of the targeted gain value. This gain penalty must be taken into consideration in order to obtain the accurate gain level. By taking the average gain penalty within the dynamic gain range, the targeted output power is set higher than the desired level. Thus, the errors are significantly reduced to less than 0.15 dB from 15 dB to 30 dB desired gain values

Assessment of the application level of radiation protection and awareness of radiation safety regulations among the radiographers at Yogyakarta Special Region, Indonesia

A strong relation between cancers and radiation exposure has been reported. Radiation may damage DNA in thecell. Therefore, radiation protection program must be applied in the radiology department. Morover, the radiographershould have high level of awareness and risk assessment for radiation. Personal radiation monitoring is one of themain radiation protection, especially for pregnant worker and her fetus. This study was conducted to evaluate theapplication, awareness and risk assessment levels of radiation protection among radiographers at hospitals inYogyakarta Special Region, Indonesia. This was a descriptive study, applying a cross sectional survey at hospitals inYogyakarta. The subjects were radiographers of both governmental and private hospitals. There were 101 respondentsfrom a total of 124 radiographers. The data obtained were tabulated and analyzed using Chi Square test. The studyrevealed that 69.3% of the respondents had low application level of radiation protection, 19.8% did not know themeaning of ALARA (As Low As Reasonably Achievable), 50.5% were not aware of Inverse Square Law. The studyalso reported that 36.6% of the respondents did not know the amount of radiation that entered their body last year,61.4% of radiographers thought that the risk assessment of radiation was not enough, 18.8% of radiographerswere never use any radiation monitoring device, and 90.1% stated that there was no additional protection orradiation monitoring to the pregnant radiographer. However, there were no significant differences between durationof working, type of imaging modality, academic level, and training course for radiation protection. In conclusion,there was no difference in the application, awareness, and risk assessment levels of radiation protection among theradiographers at hospital in Yogyakarta Special Region between duration of working, type of medical imaging modality,academic level, and training on radiation protection. In addition, the application, awareness, and risk assessmentlevels of radiation protection were not sufficient.Key words: radiation protection – ALARA – radiographer – hospital – risk assessmen

100 GHz electrically tunable planar Bragg grating via nematic liquid crystal overlay towards reconfigurable WDM networks

Novel liquid crystal-based integrated optical devices with >140GHz electrical tuning are presented for application towards reconfigurable wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) networks. Initial results with Bragg wavelength tuning covering five 25GHz WDM channel spacing have been achieved with 170V (peak-to-peak) sinusoidal voltages applied across electro-patterned ITO-covered glass electrodes placed 60µm apart. These prototype devices were fabricated using direct UV grating writing, with an evanescent field coupling into a liquid crystal overlay through an etched window. Electrically controlled liquid crystal birefringence modifies the waveguide effective index, resulting in Bragg wavelength shift. Merck 18523 nematic liquid crystals are used, exhibiting compatible refractive index values to that of silica (no=1.44, ne=1.49 at lambda=1550nm). Homeotropic alignment of the liquid crystal is provided by application of a surfactant layer.The inherent refractive index sensitivity of our etched direct-UV-written structures allows observation of previously unreported liquid crystal surface-behaviour, such as multi-threshold points during variation of the applied field. Continued optimisation based on evanescent field penetration, electrode layout, and surface interaction will allow implementation towards a variety of novel liquid crystal applications and devices. For example, a cascaded architecture of these integrated liquid crystal devices operating at different Bragg wavelengths would pave the way towards true colorless add/drop modules for dense optical networks