Identification of Risk Factors for Scoliosis in Elementary School Children Using Machine Learning

Scoliosis is an abnormal curvature of the spine and often diagnosed in childhood or early adolescence. In this study, the risk factors for scoliosis in elementary school children is investigate based on age, backpack weight and gender. There are 260 children participated in this study from aged 7 up to 12 years old. Scoliometer is used to measure the angle of trunk rotation (ATR) on Adam Forward Bending Test. Statistical analysis of analysis of variance (ANOVA) is used to determine the characteristic difference of ATR readings on the risk factors for scoliosis. Significant results with P-value less than 0.001 are found among ATR readings on a linear combination of risk factors for scoliosis of age and backpack weight. Then, the risk factors for scoliosis are classified among elementary school children using Decision Tree and K-Nearest Neighbor. The classification results shown that both Decision Tree method produced highest classification percentage up to 98.08%. This finding indicates that age and backpack weight are significant as the risk factors for scoliosis

Identification of Risk Factors for Scoliosis in Elementary School Children Using Machine Learning

Scoliosis is an abnormal curvature of the spine and often diagnosed in childhood or early adolescence. In this study, the risk factors for scoliosis in elementary school children is investigate based on age, backpack weight and gender. There are 260 children participated in this study from aged 7 up to 12 years old. Scoliometer is used to measure the angle of trunk rotation (ATR) on Adam Forward Bending Test. Statistical analysis of analysis of variance (ANOVA) is used to determine the characteristic difference of ATR readings on the risk factors for scoliosis. Significant results with P-value less than 0.001 are found among ATR readings on a linear combination of risk factors for scoliosis of age and backpack weight. Then, the risk factors for scoliosis are classified among elementary school children using Decision Tree and K-Nearest Neighbor. The classification results shown that both Decision Tree method produced highest classification percentage up to 98.08%. This finding indicates that age and backpack weight are significant as the risk factors for scoliosis

Feasibility Study of a Low Cost Saltwater Lamp for Rural Area

Renewable energy is energy generated from natural resources and cannot be depleted. Solar energy is the fastest growing source of renewable energy but the high installation and maintenance cost of a solar system has restrained the consumers from adopting this technology at their home or commercial building. This is especially true for those in developing countries. A new promising renewable energy source known as saltwater energy that takes advantage of the conductive nature of salt water to generate electricity, has intrigued many people. A study has been conducted to develop and produce saltwater-powered devices especially for rural and remote communities in Malaysia as well as worldwide. To main objective of this study is to determine the factors that affect the performance of the saltwater energy generation such as electrode’s combinations, number of cells and the durability of the electrodes. It was found that the choice of electrodes as anode and cathode does affect the voltage output. However, due to the small power produce, the number of cells must be increased to produce enough power to light up a led light and to provide power to USB port. This paper also conducted a cost analysis of using the saltwater lamp and compared it with a solar system. Although the difference in the cost per hour is very small, there are a number of disadvantages of solar system that need to be aware of. The findings obtained from these experiments will be used to design a prototype of the illumination technology for further product development

A preliminary study on the hand grip and pinch strength among adults in an indigenous people community in Royal Belum Forest, Malaysia.

Handgrip strength is a general indicator of muscle strength and nutritional status of an adult population and is linked with premature mortality as well as physical disabilities. In this preliminary study, handgrip strength among adults in an indigenous community in Malaysia is measured using a cross-sectional study design. Structured questionnaire on sociodemographic characteristics, medical history, and hand strength measurements were taken. Overall, 28 adults aged 25 years and older participated in this study with 64.23% are males and all of them are from Jahai tribe. The overall sample mean (standard deviation) age are 39.8 (13.2) years. As expected, males have significantly higher recorded measurement than females (p< 0.05) both in handgrip and hand pinch strength with mean (standard deviation) of 30.6 (10.5) and 6.1 (2.4) respectively

Risk assessment on electrical maintenance activity at Menora Tunnel, Perak

Risk assessment is an essential element for Occupational Safety and Health. Risk assessment allows an organization to assess and control the potential risks to a minimum so as not to impact or causes major accident to workers and organizations. Every maintenance activities in industries such as construction, manufacturing, agriculture or in other sector should ensure that risk assessment is carried out and all the inherent risks are well controlled. For example, electrical maintenance work in a highway tunnel is also necessary to ensure that the inherent risks are eliminated or controlled to a minimum during the work carried out. This study is to identify potential risks that could occur during electrical maintenance activities in highway tunnels. The objective of the study is to assess the risk faced by the staff during electrical maintenance activity and to recommend the action plans to manage the critical risk which can lead to fatalities during electrical maintenance activity. The risk will be identified and assess based on bowtie analysis method and the measurement of risk level will be referred to five levels of risk-matrix. The development of bowtie diagram will be using a fault tree together with an event tree and barriers to mapping the risk

Frequency dependence of electroluminescence measurement in LDPE

A good insulator for high voltage cable has low dielectric loss, reasonable flexibility and thermo-mechanically stable. However, prolonged application of electrical stresses on the cable will degraded the cable; physically and morphologically. Electrical degradation in high voltage cable can be detected using electroluminescence (EL) method. Electroluminescence is a phenomenon that occurs when the atoms of a material are being excited due to the application of and external high electrical stresses. There are several external factors that affect the behaviour of electroluminescence emission such as, applied voltage, applied frequency, ageing of material and types of materials. In this paper, the EL measurement is employed to determine the effect of applied frequency on virgin LDPE at fixed and varying applied voltage. It can be observed that EL emission increases as applied frequency increases with increasing voltage applied. However, interesting EL behaviour is observed when varying frequency is applied from 10 Hz to 100 Hz

Relationship of backpack weight towards risk factor for scoliosis among primary school children in Pahang, Malaysia

The purpose of this study is to determine the relationship of backpack weight and risk factor for scoliosis in primary school children. The risk factors are identified by age, gender, body mass index and the weight of the backpack. A total of 260 children aged from 7 to 12 years old participated in this study. The test was performed by measuring the angle of trunk rotation (ATR) on Adam Forward Bending Test (AFBT) using a scoliometer. ATR readings at 5 ° and above is deemed to be positive. The findings showed that a significant of moderately correlation was found on risk factor of age (r = 0.538), gender (r = 0.580), and backpack weight (r = 0.552) which indicates that age, gender and backpack weight may contribute to risk factor of scoliosis

Relationship between demographic characteristics and hand grip measurement of students in UTMKL

Biomechanical motion analysis is concerned with the investigation of movement of a subject. In particular, this project is interested in the movement found in nature, in biological systems such as human pinch and human grip. The motion is to be investigated with a view of analyzing the mechanical aspects of it, such as grip rate and force values in Newton and kilograms using a Digital Pinch/Grip Analyser. The hand grip strength (HGS) is an important test used to measure deficiency in hand muscle power, assessment of surgical treatments and rehabilitation evaluation. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between demographic characteristics on HGS of UTMKL students. Additionally, this study also observes the relation of some anthropometric variables such as weight, height, body mass index (BMI) and hand circumferences with the HGS. Overall, 30 participants participated in this study. Data were collected for demographic variables, medical history, and lifestyle behavior. Maximum dominant hand grip strength (DHGS) in male was at the age of 23 (mean= 276.446N) and 26 years (mean=276.1N) and for female in age 22 (mean=166.1778N). The mean difference in DHGS between both genders was statistically significant (p < 0.05). The mean difference in DHGS between each side was statistically significant (p < 0.05) in the right-hand dominant group, but not in the left-hand dominant group. The dominant hand is stronger than the non-dominant. Right-hand dominance is stronger than left-hand dominance. Besides, DHGS differed significantly across ethnicity and residential area. The DHGS also has positive correlations with age and height in males, and with all measurements (age, height, weight, BMI, hand circumferences) in females. Our study has shown the relationship between HGS with demographic and anthropometric data

Relationship between demographic characteristics and hand grip measurement of students in UTMKL

Biomechanical motion analysis is concerned with the investigation of movement of a subject. In particular, this project is interested in the movement found in nature, in biological systems such as human pinch and human grip. The motion is to be investigated with a view of analyzing the mechanical aspects of it, such as grip rate and force values in Newton and kilograms using a Digital Pinch/Grip Analyser. The hand grip strength (HGS) is an important test used to measure deficiency in hand muscle power, assessment of surgical treatments and rehabilitation evaluation. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between demographic characteristics on HGS of UTMKL students. Additionally, this study also observes the relation of some anthropometric variables such as weight, height, body mass index (BMI) and hand circumferences with the HGS. Overall, 30 participants participated in this study. Data were collected for demographic variables, medical history, and lifestyle behavior. Maximum dominant hand grip strength (DHGS) in male was at the age of 23 (mean= 276.446N) and 26 years (mean=276.1N) and for female in age 22 (mean=166.1778N). The mean difference in DHGS between both genders was statistically significant (p < 0.05). The mean difference in DHGS between each side was statistically significant (p < 0.05) in the right-hand dominant group, but not in the left-hand dominant group. The dominant hand is stronger than the non-dominant. Right-hand dominance is stronger than left-hand dominance. Besides, DHGS differed significantly across ethnicity and residential area. The DHGS also has positive correlations with age and height in males, and with all measurements (age, height, weight, BMI, hand circumferences) in females. Our study has shown the relationship between HGS with demographic and anthropometric data