Pre-Flood Warning System Based on User Mobility

The occurrence of flood causes millions of Ringgit in damages, along with the loss of life and property, and the devastation of agricultural and livestock. Therefore, an effective pre-flood warning system must be developed to mitigate flood losses and lessen the flood effects. However, when developing a warning system for flood disaster, limited communication during the occurrence of floods and the availability of electricity supplies should be taken into account. Thus, this research project proposes a conceptual framework with three (3) main stages: monitor water level, alert flood victims on flood danger status and inform flood victims to relocate to the nearest relief center. A system architecture has been designed for this research project and a prototype system is developed. The prototype system is made up of a medium sized aquarium tank, a hand pump, HC-SR04 ultrasonic sensor, Arduino UNO R3 and IComsat GSM shield. To validate the proposed prototype system, an experiment with controlled water rising effect is conducted in a lab scale setup. The results prove that the proposed prototype system is reliable as it is able to measure water level accurately and broadcast warning SMS immediately to flood victims. Thus, by having an effective real time pre-flood warning system, immediate action can be carried out in order to save lives and minimize the damages caused by flood disaster

Screening for hepatocellular carcinoma: patient selection and perspectives

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) develops on the background of liver cirrhosis often from multiple, simultaneous factors. The diagnosis of a single small HCC comes with good prognosis and provides a potential for cure. In contrast, the diagnosis of multifocal, large HCC has high mortality and poor prognosis. Unfortunately, the majority of HCC is diagnosed at such late stages. A surveillance program endorsed by regional liver societies involves six-monthly ultrasound surveillance of at-risk patients. This had been in action for the last two decades. It has led to marked increase in the proportion of patients presenting with small unifocal nodules found on surveillance. The development of tools to enhance our ability in optimizing available surveillance is likely to improve the prognosis of patients with HCC. In this review, we discuss the difficulties in utilizing HCC surveillance and possible means of improvement

On the Performance of Swarm Intelligence Optimization Algorithms for Phase Stability and Liquid-Liquid and Vapor-Liquid Equilibrium Calculations

This study introduces new soft computing optimization techniques for performing the phase stability analysis and phase equilibrium calculations in both reactive and non-reactive systems. In particular, the performance of the several swarm intelligence optimization methods is compared and discussed based on both reliability and computational efficiency using practical stopping criteria for these applied thermodynamic calculations.  These algorithms are: Intelligent Firefly Algorithm (IFA), Cuckoo Search (CS), Artificial Bee Algorithm (ABC) and Bat Algorithm (BA). It is important to note that no attempts have been reported in the literature to evaluate their performance in solving the phase and chemical equilibrium problems. Results indicated that CS was found to be the most reliable technique across different problems tried at the time that it requires similar computational effort to the other methods. In summary, this study provides new results and insights about the capabilities and limitations of bio-inspired optimization methods for performing applied thermodynamic calculations

Screening for phenylketonuria and galactosemia among Egyptian newborns in Menoufiya governorate

Aim of the Work: Was to study the prevalence of phenylketonuria and galactosemia in Menoufiya Governorate newborns. Among 3000 newborns, their mean ages were 9.3±2.43 days; mean weight was 3.1 ±0.82 Kg. Among them 1800( 60% ) males and 1200 (40% ) females who attended the central hospital and medical units for BCG vaccination in the duration from March 2005 to May 2008.Results: The results showed that the mean of phenylalanine levelwas 3.19 ±1.82 mg/dl and the mean total galactose level was 3.34 ± 2.23mg/ dl, among the 3000 neonates, 2183 (72.8. %) had phenylalanine levels ranging from 2-5 mg /dl, 705 (23.5%) had levels ranging from 5-7 mg/dl, 111(3.7%) had levels ranging from 7-10 mg/dl and one newborn (0.033%) had phenylalanine level of 22 mg/dl. The results for galactosemia screening assay showed that 2528 neonates (84.3%) had galactose levels ranging from 2-6 mg/dl, 450 (15%) had levels ranging from 6-8 mg/dl, 21(0.7%) had levels ranging from 8-12 mg/dl and one newborn (0.033%) had galactose level of 19 mg/dl. The child was reassayed and was found to be true hypergalactosemia 120mg/dl.Conclusion: We concluded that the prevalence of each of phenylketonuria and galactosemia in Menoufiya Governorate in the 3000 newborn tested was 1/3000 (0.03%). So, we estimate that about 333 neonates are affected every year with PKU and 333 with galactosemia as one million babies are born yearly, which could be prevented. The prevention of such treatable disorders depends on planning an efficient screening programme especially within three weeks after birth. So we recommend multicenter studies to encourage national neonatal screening programmes specialy for these treatable diseases.Key Words: Phenylketonuria, galactosemia, hepatomegaly, neonatal screening

Green corridors for liveable and walkable city: A case of Kuala Lumpur

The concept of sustainability embraces the conservation of the environment, cultural preservation, economic stability and overcoming of social problems. To ensure urban sustainability, one of the crucial factors is the environmental health, in which the environment should be kept in the best condition in developing countries thereby leading to reduction of environmental pollution. Green corridors in cities are one such way to ensure that the green areas are being used optimally. Such studies do exist in Malaysia but there is no established and published implementation. There is a need to analyse and study the current problems of the existing green corridors plans. This paper helps to visualise all the six suggested routes of the green corridors that had been made in Kuala Lumpur city. It discusses the opportunities and limitations of the plans as well as ways to improve for a successful implementation of green corridors in Kuala Lumpur

The Impact Of Social Media Addiction On Self-Esteem and Life Satisfaction

This study aims to examines the link between social media use and self-esteem as well as overall life satisfaction. The goal of this study is to determine the relationship between social media usage and self-esteem and also to determine the relationship between social media usage and life satisfaction. To achieve this purpose, a total of 170 students at University Malaysia Sarawak have participated in this studies. The social media addiction questionnaire, satisfaction with life scale and also Rosenberg self-esteem scale were used to assess the objective. Pearson correlation was used to analyze the results. It was found that there is a significant relationship between social media and self-esteem. However, there is no significant relationship between social media and life satisfaction

Inborn errors of metabolism revealed by organic acid profile analysis in high risk Egyptian patients: Six years experience

Objective: To determine the prevalence and types of inborn errors of amino acid or organic acid metabolism in a group of high risk Egyptian children with clinical signs and symptoms suggestive of inherited metabolic diseases. Subjects and Methods: 117 (79 males ═ 67.5 % and 38 females ═ 32.5 %) high risk patients with signs and symptoms of a metabolic disorder were studied, their ages ranged from 3 days to 12 years. Analysis of urine organic acids by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) was performed to all patients. Results: 22(18.8 % of the total) cases were diagnosed with different types of aminoacidopathies or organic acidurias. The disease profile showed increased lactate in 12 cases (54 %), glutaric aciduria type I 3cases (13 %), phenylketonuria 2 cases (9 %), maple syrup urine disease 1 case (4.5 %), glutaric aciduria type II 1 case (4.5 %), methylmalonic aciduria 1 case (4.5 %), Canavan disease 1 case (4.5 %) and non ketotic hyperglycemia 1 case (4.5 %). Conclusion: The results demonstrate the importance of the organic acid profile in the diagnosis of high risk patients. The diagnosed organic acid pattern in this study showed that 10.2 % of the patients had a mitochondrial energy defect.Key Words: Organicacidurias, organicacidemias, gas chromatography/mass spectrometry, organic acid profile analysis