Analyses on programme outcomes measurements for continuous quality improvement of an undergraduate engineering programme

This article discusses new methods for the analyses of program outcome measurements of an engineering undergraduate program, enabling a robust effort to continually improve the quality of the program. The analyses were conducted on an undergraduate engineering program at University Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), based on program outcome achievements of 80 students undertaking selected courses from 2015–2019. Three techniques were utilized: i.e., graphical visualization of data using boxplots, association analysis using Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient, and consistency analysis using Cronbach’s alpha. Using these techniques, the authors identified trends among the courses measuring the same program outcome. Boxplots are very effective in gaining an overview of the achievements of courses measuring the same program outcome, and in highlighting outliers and anomalies in the data. It was also found that the Cronbach’s alpha result is coherent with that of the rank correlation coefficient. The techniques reported in this study can be applied to enhance data analysis for quality improvement of any academic program focusing on outcome-based education. Therefore, the study presented in this paper is both relevant and valuable to engineering programs working towards obtaining international accreditation

A biologist’s guide to planning and performing quantitative bioimaging experiments

Technological advancements in biology and microscopy have empowered a transition from bioimaging as an observational method to a quantitative one. However, as biologists are adopting quantitative bioimaging and these experiments become more complex, researchers need additional expertise to carry out this work in a rigorous and reproducible manner. This Essay provides a navigational guide for experimental biologists to aid understanding of quantitative bioimaging from sample preparation through to image acquisition, image analysis, and data interpretation. We discuss the interconnectedness of these steps, and for each, we provide general recommendations, key questions to consider, and links to high-quality open-access resources for further learning. This synthesis of information will empower biologists to plan and execute rigorous quantitative bioimaging experiments efficiently

Development of a prototype model for fully automated Sarawak layered cake machine

Layered cake also known as kek lapis is very synonym to Sarawak and very famous souvenir to tourist who travels to Sarawak. The exclusive savour and colourful layered design attribute has secure its constant demand all the year especially during festive seasons. The products are not only catered for Sarawak but also exported to Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei. The industry contributes almost RM 3 million a year to the entrepreneurs. However, the tedious traditional process is unable to cope with the demand. Manual process is highly dependent on labours and the labours skills has direct influence on the quality of cakes produced. The development follows systematic engineering design process. Concept of sectional base mechanism has been chosen for the machine. The automatic machine has includes all basic processes namely filling of mixture to the baking tray, baking, layered, pressing and cooling. The proposed model is expected to produce 216 moulds per day, which is 430% improvement from the current production rate (50 moulds). Estimated manufacturing cost is about RM 37,000 only. Copyright © 2014 BICET –All right reserved

A new integrated assessment framework for climate-smart nutrition security in sub-Saharan Africa : the integrated Future Estimator for Emissions and Diets (iFEED)

Funding statement This work was supported by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council through UK Research and Innovation as part of the Global Challenges Research Fund, AFRICAP programme, grant number BB/P027784/1.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Simultaneous Heat and Mass Transfer in Kek Lapis Sarawak Baking

Kek Lapis Sarawak is a specialty of Sarawak. Nowadays, energy becomes a global issue and there is call to minimize energy consumption for a better tomorrow. In cake industry, the use of oven in baking process contributes to the major energy consumption. This research aims to optimize the baking process for an efficient energy consumption. Therefore, it is very important to investigate the relationship between baking temperature, time and cake quality so that the baking process can be optimized. Kek Lapis Sarawak baking process has been modelled and simulate using finite element method (FEM). Then, results from the model was validated with experiment. As a result, similar model of the Kek Lapis Sarawak baking process has been developed. The finding shows interdependent relationship between porosity, thermal conductivity and moisture content where higher porosity that can lead to poor thermal conductivity

Stakeholder-driven transformative adaptation is needed for climate-smart nutrition security in sub-Saharan Africa.

Improving nutrition security in sub-Saharan Africa under increasing climate risks and population growth requires a strong and contextualized evidence base. Yet, to date, few studies have assessed climate-smart agriculture and nutrition security simultaneously. Here we use an integrated assessment framework (iFEED) to explore stakeholder-driven scenarios of food system transformation towards climate-smart nutrition security in Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia. iFEED translates climate-food-emissions modelling into policy-relevant information using model output implication statements. Results show that diversifying agricultural production towards more micronutrient-rich foods is necessary to achieve an adequate population-level nutrient supply by mid-century. Agricultural areas must expand unless unprecedented rapid yield improvements are achieved. While these transformations are challenging to accomplish and often associated with increased greenhouse gas emissions, the alternative for a nutrition-secure future is to rely increasingly on imports, which would outsource emissions and be economically and politically challenging given the large import increases required. [Abstract copyright: © 2024. The Author(s).

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

Examining the association of temperature and rainfall variables with household food security and under-five children’s nutritional status in Malawi

Addressing the effects of climatic variability on human population is one of the major development challenges facing the world today. This is more critical in the sub-Saharan African region where many people rely on climatic conditions for livelihood strategies such as farming. Among other factors, climatic variables such as rainfall, light intensity and temperature facilitate crop growth and yield which provide food for the population in the region.Studies report that climate variation influence occurrence of floods and droughts that wash out and dries up crops respectively. Such events lower crop yield, resulting in food insufficiency and in extreme cases food scarcity among populations. Despite the foregoing, not much is known in the country, and scarcely in the sub-Saharan African region as regards how variation in cropping season temperature and rainfall variables associate with crop yield, households’ food security and nutritional status of the members, especially under-five children. This knowledge gap exists amid high burden of disease and poor socio-economic conditions among people in sub-Saharan African countries. For Malawi, climatic variation presents a human survival and development concern, as it is located in a region experiencing frequent and severe climatic conditions with wider socio-economic impacts.Using station-based cropping season temperature and rainfall data from Malawi’s meteorological office, and demographic, socioeconomic data from the 2010 Malawi Integrated Household Survey, multi-level logistic regression models were fit to assess climatic and household level factors associated with food security and under-five children’s nutritional status. Results showed that controlling for household level demographic and socioeconomic variables, a shorter cropping season rainfall duration and below the season’s average rainfall were associated with higher odds of households’ food insecurity, stunting, wasting and underweight among under-five children. A higher amount of variation in household food security status and under-five children’s nutritional conditions was explained by household level factors. These results highlight climatic and socioeconomic factors which ought to be considered indesign and implementation of programs addressing food insecurity and childmalnutrition in Malawi, in the context of variable climatic conditions

Comparison of hydrological and vegetation remote sensing datasets as proxies for rainfed maize yield in Malawi

Weather Index-based Insurances (WIIs) have emerged as a promising risk coping mechanism to compensate for weather-induced damage to rainfed agriculture. Remote sensing may provide cost-effective information capable of discriminating the weather spatial variability thus reducing the spatial basis risk, i.e., the mismatch between the weather-based index triggering the insurance payout and the actual damage experienced by the farmers, which is often one of the causes hindering the wide implementation of WIIs. In this work we assess which indices based on remote sensing datasets are the best proxy indicators for rainfed maize yield in Malawi. We analyse the spatial (district scale) and temporal (monthly) correlations of historical maize yield data and several remote sensing datasets including the Climate Hazards group Infrared Precipitation with Stations (CHIRPS) dataset, the ESA CCI Soil Moisture combined dataset (version 4.2), the Evaporative Stress Index (ESI) from the Atmosphere-Land Exchange Inversion model (ALEXI), the MOD13Q1 Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI). With respect to the previous literature, this work exploits a historical crop yield dataset at the sub-national level which allows us to analyse the correlation of the hydro-meteorological and vegetation variables at a higher spatial resolution than what is commonly done (i.e., at the national level using FAO national yield statistics) and ultimately explore the issues related to WII spatial basis risk. Results show that the correlations between crop yield and satellite datasets show high spatial and temporal variability, making it difficult to identify a unique WII index that is at the same time simple and effective for the entire country. Precipitation, particularly the standardized March precipitation anomaly, has the highest correlations with maize yield (with Pearson correlation values higher than 0.55), in Central and South Malawi. Soil moisture and NDVI do not add much value to precipitation in anticipating historical maize yield at the district scale. From a methodological perspective, our work shows that WII indexes are best identified by: i) considering datasets with fine spatial resolution, whenever possible; ii) accounting for the vulnerability of the different crop growing stages to water-stress; iii) distinguishing between water scarce and water abundant events.</p