Validation of Computerised Aptitude Selection System (Compass) In Predicting Success of Uav Applicants in the Republic of Singapore Air Force (Rsaf)

The study examined the predictive validity of the Computerised Aptitude Selection System (COMPASS) that was set up to support the RSAF in its selection of pilots and other vocations. COMPASS measures cognitive abilities theoretically identified to be relevant to the vocation and was introduced for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) pilot selection since 2003. With fast changing technological advancement of the UAVs, it is important that validation studies are regularly conducted to improve the effectiveness of the test suite in predicting training success. 219 UAV Pilot applicants’ COMPASS scores were analysed against their actual training outcomes to determine a theoretically and statistically sound selection composite. Hierarchical multiple regression was done, and findings revealed that the current composite of tests remained to be significantly correlated with applicant success in UAV pilot training. The paper discusses the practical considerations in streamlining the tests to be included in the final assessment composite. Future studies should consider exploring non-cognitive assessment to improve the predictive validity of the overall selection system beyond COMPASS

Effect of Short-Term Supplementation with Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food or Micronutrients for Children after Illness for Prevention of Malnutrition: A Randomised Controlled Trial in Uganda

Background Globally, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) treats more than 300,000 severely malnourished children annually. Malnutrition is not only caused by lack of food but also by illnesses and by poor infant and child feeding practices. Breaking the vicious cycle of illness and malnutrition by providing ill children with nutritional supplementation is a potentially powerful strategy for preventing malnutrition that has not been adequately investigated. Therefore, MSF investigated whether incidence of malnutrition among ill children <5 y old could be reduced by providing a fortified food product or micronutrients during their 2-wk convalescence period. Two trials, one in Nigeria and one in Uganda, were conducted; here, we report on the trial that took place in Kaabong, a poor agropastoral region of Karamoja, in east Uganda. While the region of Karamoja shows an acute malnutrition rate between 8.4% and 11.5% of which 2% to 3% severe malnutrition, more than half (58%) of the population in the district of Kaabong is considered food insecure. Methods and Findings We investigated the effect of two types of nutritional supplementation on the incidence of malnutrition in ill children presenting at outpatient clinics during March 2011 to April 2012 in Kaabong, Karamoja region, Uganda, a resource-poor region where malnutrition is a chronic problem for its seminomadic population. A three-armed, partially-blinded, randomised controlled trial was conducted in children diagnosed with malaria, diarrhoea, or lower respiratory tract infection. Non-malnourished children aged 6 to 59 mo were randomised to one of three arms: one sachet/d of ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF), two sachets/d of micronutrient powder (MNP), or no supplement (control) for 14 d for each illness over 6 mo. The primary outcome was the incidence of first negative nutritional outcome (NNO) during the 6 mo follow-up. NNO was a study-specific measure used to indicate progression to moderate or severe acute malnutrition; it was defined as weight-for-height z-score <−2, mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) <115 mm, or oedema, whichever came first. Of the 2,202 randomised participants, 51.2% were girls, and the mean age was 25.2 (±13.8) mo; 148 (6.7%) participants were lost to follow-up, 9 (0.4%) died, and 14 (0.6%) were admitted to hospital. The incidence rates of NNO (first event/year) for the RUTF, MNP, and control groups were 0.143 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.107–0.191), 0.185 (0.141–0.239), and 0.213 (0.167–0.272), respectively. The incidence rate ratio was 0.67 (95% CI, 0.46–0.98; p = 0.037) for RUTF versus control; a reduction of 33.3%. The incidence rate ratio was 0.86 (0.61–1.23; p = 0.413) for MNP versus control and 0.77 for RUTF versus MNP (95% CI 0.52–1.15; p = 0.200). The average numbers of study illnesses for the RUTF, MNP, and control groups were 2.3 (95% CI, 2.2–2.4), 2.1 (2.0–2.3), and 2.3 (2.2–2.5). The proportions of children who died in the RUTF, MNP, and control groups were 0%, 0.8%, and 0.4%. The findings apply to ill but not malnourished children and cannot be generalised to a general population including children who are not necessarily ill or who are already malnourished. Conclusions A 2-wk nutrition supplementation programme with RUTF as part of routine primary medical care to non- malnourished children with malaria, LRTI, or diarrhoea proved effective in preventing malnutrition in eastern Uganda. The low incidence of malnutrition in this population may warrant a more targeted intervention to improve cost effectiveness

Quality of life among undergraduate university students duringCOVID-19 movement control order in Sarawak

Background and Aims: The aim of this study was to examine the QoL and health satisfaction of undergraduate university students in Sarawak during MCO and its association with socio-demographic profiles. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, QoL and satisfaction of health of 503 undergraduate university students (63.4% females) from a public university was assessed online using the World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL)-BREF instrument. Results: The overall QoL and satisfaction with health were 3.7 ± 0.87 and 3.9 ± 0.82, respectively. Male students showed significantly lower mean scores for the environmental domains than female students (63.37 ± 16.21 vs 68.10 ± 14.00, p<0.01). Students who lived inside the campus (vs outside campus) showed significantly lower mean score for the physical health (61.49±13.94 vs 67.23±13.93, p<0.01), environmental health (58.35±15.07 vs 70.49±13.21, p<0.01), overall QoL (3.39±0.90 vs 3.84±0.83, p<0.01) and satisfaction with health (3.71±0.90 vs 3.97±0.77, p<0.01). Students with parent’s income below RM5000 (vs parent’s income more than RM5000) had significantly lower mean score for the environmental domain (65.06±14.35 vs 68.20±15.74, p<0.05). Others ethnicity scored significantly lower than Bumiputera Sarawak and Malay while Bumiputera Sarawak scored significantly lower than Chinese in physical health domain (Malay = 65.73±13.40, Chinese = 63.24±15.35, Bumiputra Sarawak = 67.35±13.30, Others = 60.84±15.88, p<0.05). Malay (69.99 ± 15.20) scored the significantly higher than other ethnicities (Chinese = 63.58 ± 15.80; Bumiputera Malaysia = 65.23 ± 13.66; others = 63.98 ± 15.59) in environmental domain (p<0.01). When comparing between religions, the results also showed there were significant differences between different religion groups in overall quality of life (Islam=3.75±0.93, Christianity=3.77±0.79, Others=3.34±1.14, p<0.05), physical health (Islam=65.00±13.86, Buddhism=68.40±11.99, Christianity=64.77±14.94, Others=61.00±16.03, p<0.05) and environmental health (Islam=69.66±15.48, Buddhism=64.99±11.36, Christianity=64.87±15.61, Others=62.13±16.28, p<0.05). Conclusion: By understanding university students’ QoL in this global disaster, relevant authorities would provide a better rehabilitation and assistance to those affected ones

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals &lt;1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

Determination of disease progression with early toxin-induced neuropathology in the ageing mutant SOD mouse model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Adult onset amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) poses progressive and irreversible functional deficits to the central nervous system due to loss of motor neurons, caused by some poorly characterized, multifactorial etiology. Research focused on sporadic ALS cases with vastly greater incidence than hereditary ALS describes the potential causes to be of environmental origin. The discovery of endemic ALS in the native Chamorro population of Guam during the 1950s and the co-occurence of Parkinsonism and dementia led to searches for an environmental cause. To determine whether a genetic predisposition to adult-onset ALS could be exacerbated by a toxin that is known to produce a similar phenotype, I combined genetic and environmental models of ALS and tested a known neurotoxin (steryl glucosides) for its potential synergistic properties in combination with the genetic defect. Transgenic SOD1 G37R mice were treated with 42 mg toxin per kilogram of body weight daily in their daily diet. Results showed an additive effect of toxinonspinal motor neuron death, and caused decreases in average soma diameter on surviving motor neurons. The presence of the transgene alone resulted in smaller diameter ventral root axons.Toxin exposure alone resulted in a bimodal configuration of the ventral root size histogram resembling a more immature state of motor axons.The transgene alone markedly increased the amount of GFAP- and Iba1-positive glial cells in the spinal cord grey matter, with a heterogeneous expression of ramified (resting) and activated morphology. The transgene in combination with toxin did not significantly change glial numbers, but caused all glial cells to become extensively activated. Although the mechanism of cycad toxin-induced neurodegeneration remains uncertain, these results showed that dietary exposure to environmental toxin alone was sufficient to produce a disease phenotype, and when implemented in conjunction to a genetic predisposition to ALS was sufficient to produce a more severe disease phenotype. In conclusion, the environmental agent studied here has direct cytotoxic effects, contributes to disease progression in ALS, and indicate an additive effect of dietary neurotoxin in combination with genetic mutations leading to familial ALS.Medicine, Faculty ofMedicine, Department ofExperimental Medicine, Division ofGraduat

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF SCOTTS SHOPPING CENTRE & FAR EAST PLAZA

Bachelor'sBACHELOR OF SCIENCE (ESTATE MANAGEMENT

Has HIV/AIDS displaced other health funding priorities? Evidence from a new dataset of development aid for health

In recent times there has been a sense that HIV/AIDS control has been attracting a significantly larger portion of donor health funding to the extent that it crowds out funding for other health concerns. Although there is no doubt that HIV/AIDS has absorbed a large share of development assistance for health (DAH), whether HIV/AIDS is actually diverting funding away from other health concerns has yet to be analyzed fully. To fill this vacuum, this study aims to test if a higher level of HIV/AIDS funding is related to a displacement in funding for other health concerns, and if yes, to quantify the magnitude of the displacement effect. Specifically, we consider whether HIV/AIDS DAH has displaced i) TB, ii) malaria iii) health sector and 'other' DAH in terms of the dollar amount received for aid. We consider this question within a regression framework controlling for time and recipient heterogeneity. We find displacement effects for malaria and health sector funding but not TB. In particular, the displacement effect for malaria is large and worrying