Factors influencing antenatal mothers' choice of hospital for delivery at Hospiatl Universiti Sains Malaysia (HUSM) and Hospital Kota Bharu(HKB)

The selection of a hospital for delivery does not become an issue for women until they become pregnant. The main aim for promoting hospital delivery is to ensure safety to the mother and the newborn child. The main objective in this study is to determine the factors that influence antenatal mothers choice of hospitals for delivery at Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (HUSM) and Hospital Kota Bharu (HKB). The study was carried out in two phases. In phase one, a cross sectional study was conducted on 344 Malays, multiparty antenatal mothers who attended selected Maternal and Child Health Clinics (MCHC) in Kota Bharu district, from November 2003 to February 2004. Subjects were selected using two-stage sampling. Data were obtained using an interviewer guided, validated and piloted questionnaire. In order to ensure high quality of the interview, only one dedicated interviewer was involved. The questionnaire consists of a few domains namely socio-economic, accessibility, convenience, previous delivery experience, and interpersonal relationship with doctors and nurses, comfort of the patients and their relatives. The data were analyzed using logistic regression. Focus Group Discussions (FGD) were carried out in phase two in March 2004. FGD was carried out purposely to explore in depth the influencing factors, which cannot be explored through questionnaire. To fulfill this objective, 24 volunteered antenatal mothers were recruited in this phase after being consented and agreed to involve in this study. Four FGD sessions, each group consisted of six participants were conducted. Their responses were transcribed and analyzed based on the framework questions directed to them. The prevalence for choosing HUSM for delivery center was 38.0% and HKB 62.0°/o respectively. Based on the simple logistic regression, ten predictors variables namely health center, previous delivery hospital, distance to hospital, accessibility to hospital, good nursing care, short waiting hours, clean wards, children friendly (accept visitor under twelve) and fast admission to wads were significantly associated with the outcomes,. Among these only three factors remained significantly influenced when analyzed through multiple logistic regression. The final model was tested and it was found fit. The factors derived from the final model were previous delivery hospital, accessibility and children-friendly hospital. The findings in FGD support the model above and were able to extract the underlying facts. This study concludes previous delivery hospital; accessibility and children friendly hospital (hospital allows children under 12 years to visit their mothers in the wards) significantly influences the choice of hospital for delivery among antenatal mothers in Kota Bhe-ru distric

Criterion-referenced and norm-referenced agreement between the mile run/walk test and the one-and-a-half mile run/walk test and the pacer test

Purpose – The purpose of this study was to test the reliability of the Mile Run/Walk Test and One-and-a-Half Mile Run or Walk Test,and the PACER Test 20-m, multistage shuttle run using criterion reference and norm reference as a working framework. Method – The sample for the study comprised 2,056 students, with male (n = 1159) and female (n = 897) randomly selected using stratifi ed random sampling, from the whole population of students aged 13, 14, and 15 years from 18 secondary schools throughout Perak, Malaysia. Two trials of the PACER Test and one each of the Mile Run/Walk Test and One-and-a-Half Mile Run/Walk Test were performed. The estimated criterion referenced reliability for the Mile Run/Walk Test and the One-and-a-Half Mile Run/Walk Test, and the PACER Test was obtained using the proportion of agreement (Pa) and ‘modified kappa (Kq) on FITNESSGRAM® Standards (Baumgartner, Jackson, Mahar, & Rowe, 2003) and the American College of Sports Standards (ACSM, 1999). Findings – Results of the study showed that the Pacer Test had high reliability for testing the maximum volume of oxygen among male and female students aged 13, 14, and 15 years old. The statistical analysis indicated a positive and strong correlation between test scores and repeated tests for the Pacer Test on male and female students aged 13, 14 and 15 years old with r = 0.94 to 0.97; 0.95 to 0.97 respectively, and was signifi cant (p<.05).Value – It is recommended that the PACER Test be used as a component of the Physical Fitness Test battery to replace the Mile Run/Walk Test and the One-and-a-Half Mile Run or Walk Test, which are still used by the Malaysian Ministry of Education,Teacher Education Division,Curriculum Development Centre, and also State Education Departments to test students’ cardiovascular resistance

Tekanan Kerja di Kalangan Penguasa Kastam di Wilayah Persekutuan, Kuala Lumpur

Kajian ini dijalankan untuk menentukan tahap tekanan kerja di kalangan Penguasa Kastam di Wilayah Persekutuan, Kuala Lumpur. Secara khususnya kajian ini dijalankan untuk menentukan faktor yang mempengaruhi tekanan kerja di kalangan Penguasa Kastam. Kajian ini berbentuk deskriptif dan menggunakan soal selidik. Sampel kajian ini terdiri daripada 159 Penguasa Kastam di Wilayah Persekutuan, Kuala Lumpur. Hasil kajian menunjukkan bahawa lebih separuh daripada Penguasa Kastam iaitu 59% menghadapi tekanan yang sederhana. Didapati kajian juga menunjukkan tiada perkaitan di antara tekanan kerja dengan faktor tekanan kerja iaitu beban kerja (r = 0.118), perhubungan kerja (r = 0.016), persekitaran kerja (r = 0.074),\ud kekaburan peranan (r = -0.069) dan keluarga (r = -0.032). Berasaskan penemuan kajian ml, dicadangkan pihak pengurusan dapat memberikan penerangan yang jelas terhadap tugas dan peranan kerja sebagai Penguasa Kastam. Tambahan pula, penganjuran program-program yang berkaitan dengan strategi mengatasi tekanan kerja serta mengawal tekanan dari berterusan bukan sahaja dapat mengurangkan tekanan di tempat kerja malahan dapat meningkatkan produktiviti pekerja. Dengan adanya program-program ini, ia bukan sahaja dapat meningkatkan prestasi kerja malah dapat menggalakkan budaya kerja positif semasa menjalankan tugas harian mereka

Preparation and Characterisation of Y3fe5o12-Filled Polyvinylidene Fluoride Composite

This research project was undertaken with the main objective of preparing and characterising a wave absorbing material by utilising a magnetic material with polymer as the base material to provide the carrier template. Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) was chosen as the polymer due to the well-established physical properties. Yttrium iron garnet (YIG) was chosen as the magnetic filler due to its well known microwave absorbing properties. Preparation of YIG particles was carried out via a sol-gel method from nitrates raw material with a citrate route. It was found that with this method employed, the sintering temperature of YIG was minimised to 800ºC compared to 1300ºC for a normal solid state reaction method. PVDF powder was supplied by manufacturer and its film was prepared by dissolving it in cyclopentanone. This method was chosen to reduce the heating cost of preparation as a normal preparation would require hot melting of the PVDF powder. It was found that up to 30 weight percent (wt%) of PVDF could be dissolved in cyclopentanone successfully. Higher wt% hindered total dissolution of PVDF. Dissolution of PVDF powder in cyclopentanone was carried out by magnetic stirring at about 200 RPM for half an hour followed by another half an hour of stirring and heating (200 RPM and 90ºC). The whole process was carried out under reflux condition and the gel formed after the stirring was left to cool down for a few minutes. The gel was cast onto a petri dish to form film. PVDF-YIG composite was prepared by the same PVDF preparation method with additional YIG particles prepared as a raw material component. The composition of YIG is limited to 20 wt%. It was found that YIG particles prepared had an average crystallite size of about 51 nm and YIG single phase was formed at sintering temperature as low as 600ºC. Temperature of 800ºC was chosen as the sintering temperature for preparation of YIG filler particles for the composite due to a better garnet phase formed as observed by XRD. PVDF with 10 wt% of PVDF dissolved in cyclopentanone was chosen for the composite preparation. The PVDF film prepared was found to be highly crystalline with a major XRD peak observed at 77.7º (2θ). This peak was never reported before for PVDF. The PVDF film had leaf-like morphology with observable fibrils. FT-IR results confirmed the YIG and PVDF prepared conformed to reported results. EDX analysis showed that all elements were traceable although with some deviation from theoretical values. Magnetic analysis of YIG, PVDF and PVDF-YIG composites showed that all the samples prepared were wave absorbing. It was found that the PVDF film without any filler was a magnetic material and had a better wave absorbing property than the YIG itself. It was also found that imaginary permeability of composite samples showed a capacitive instead of inductive character. However, the best wave absorber was found to be the composite with 1 wt% of YIG filled which can operate at a frequency range of 2 MHz – 1 GHz with a real permeability of about 200

Fertilization of food waste management in UTHM’s cafeteria using arduino

Everyday food is consumed by humans for survival and basic needs for daily consumption. When humans eat food, there will be waste such as unfinished food or bones. With increasing food waste on earth, it can cause many kinds of diseases if the waste is not managed properly. Tons of food waste are created yearly on earth. To overcome the food waste problem, composting was introduced so we can recycle the food waste into compost fertilizer that can help improve soil nutrition. This research paper presents an overview of Fertilization of Food Waste Management in UTHM’s Cafeteria. This project aims to produce compost fertilizer within a shorter time. The machine will preserve the food waste and let it decompose by letting good bacteria eat the waste. The machine will create an optimum temperature so that the microorganism can live and decompose food waste into fertilizer. Temperature and moisture are monitored during the decomposition of food waste. With the help of this machine, food wastage produces daily can be reduced. Different kinds of pollution and sickness can also be reduced so that humans can live in a healthy world

Educating the educators: Incorporating bioinformatics into biological science education in Malaysia

Bioinformatics can be defined as a fusion of computational and biological sciences. The urgency to process and analyse the deluge of data created by proteomics and genomics studies has caused bioinformatics to gain prominence and importance. However, its multidisciplinary nature has created a unique demand for specialist trained in both biology and computing. In this review, we described the components that constitute the bioinformatics field and distinctive education criteria that are required to produce individuals with bioinformatics training. This paper will also provide an introduction and overview of bioinformatics in Malaysia. The existing bioinformatics scenario in Malaysia was surveyed to gauge its advancement and to plan for future bioinformatics education strategies. For comparison, we surveyed methods and strategies used in education by other countries so that lessons can be learnt to further improve the implementation of bioinformatics in Malaysia. It is believed that accurate and sufficient steerage from the academia and industry will enable Malaysia to produce quality bioinformaticians in the future

Economies of Scale and Economies of Scope of Commercial Banks in Malaysia

Commercial banks in Malaysia represent the largest financial institutions in term of assets owned, loans rendered and total deposits. To-date, commercial banks account for about 70 percent of the assets, loans and deposit of all financial institutions in the country. They are considered important because they have contributed significantly in intermediating between the depositors in the financial sector and the borrowers in the real sectors that generate economic growth, besides offering a wide range of financial services. The role of the commercial banks in rendering and facilitating the payments system in the financial and capital markets is particularly important. Thus, without a cost effective and operationally efficient payments system, domestic and foreign economic transactions could not be carried out effectively. Commercial banks are considered efficient and effective if they are able to generate outputs or services at a minimum cost and continuously reap the benefits of economies of scale and scope in the long run