A Study of the relationship between leadership styles (transformational and transactional) and employees’ job satisfaction in the electronic industries, in Penang.

Kajian ini adalah untuk memeriksa hubungan antara kepimpinan (transformasi dan transaksi) dan kepuasan bekerja dalam industri elektronik. The study was to examine the relationship between leadership styles (transformational and transactional) and job satisfaction in electronic industry

Effects of Cigarette Smoking in Adults

First-hand cigarette smoking is known to result in adverse health effects in adults, influencing wellbeing physically and mentally. The most prevalent physical consequences are cardiovascular diseases, cancer of the throat and oral cavities, diseases of the bowel, eye, respiratory system, and reproductive system. Arguably, direct effects of tobacco smoking have been said to affect mental aspects of wellbeing such as depression, mood, and anxiety disorders. Undoubtedly smoking comes with many negative effects, but with implementation of smoking cessation strategies, it is possible to strengthen the overall health and wellbeing of smokers. As such, Health Canada recognizes the many health benefits associated with smoking cessation, by delivering health-promoting campaigns that strongly urge, it is not too late to quit. 

A reduced risk of stroke with lithium exposure in bipolar disorder: a population‐based retrospective cohort study

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/115969/1/bdi12336.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/115969/2/bdi12336_am.pd

Nutritional and smoking advice to patients with or at risk of age-related macular degeneration by optometrists in Singapore

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause for visual impairment and blindness registration in the developed world. Globally, 8.7% of the population has AMD and it has been projected that the number of people afflicted with AMD by 2020 will be 196 million, increasing to 288 million by 2040. AMD is multi-factorial and the key pathogenesis of AMD is not known, but it has been postulated to be related to oxidative stress. As there is no known treatment for atrophic AMD, many researchers have investigated the modifiable risk factors such as smoking and diet to prevent progression to neovascular AMD. Following large clinical trials such as AREDS and AREDS 2, many supplements to support eye health emerged in the market. With such a large selection of products and various information, this could be confusing for the patients and even eye care practitioners. This doctorate programme consists of three distinct studies (chapters three to five) and the first objective of this research was to evaluate the nutritional and smoking advice for patients with or at risk of AMD by optometrists in Singapore. This objective was achieved via a questionnaire (online and hardcopy) (chapter three) as well as face-to-face in-depth interviews (chapter four). The questionnaire consisted of 41 questions and participants received the hardcopies through mail or an online link through social media or email to complete the questionnaire electronically. The questionnaire elicited demographic information, frequency of dietary advice to patients with early, advanced or at risk of AMD, as well as smoking advice to AMD patients. The response rate of the questionnaire was 18.2%. 52.9% of the respondents provide dietary advice to patients with advanced AMD most of the time, and 31.7% of the respondents provide dietary advice to patients at risk of AMD most of the time. Optometrists in Singapore advise AMD patients to consume green leafy vegetables and oily fish but seldom advise on the amount to consume. Slightly more than one-third of the optometrists in Singapore will inform smokers of the link between smoking and AMD and slightly more than half will advise AMD patients to stop smoking. From the face-to-face in-depth interviews, Singapore optometrists do believe that nutrition are beneficial for the eye but they need more knowledge and a guideline in this area to be more confident when providing nutritional advice for AMD patients. The second objective of this research was to evaluate a Clinical Decision-Making Aid (CDMA) in the form of a flowchart to determine its impact on the self-efficacy of qualified and student optometrists in providing dietary advice regarding risk or progression of AMD (chapter five). The results show that the self-efficacy scores increased after using the CDMA for both qualified and student optometrists and the number of correct answers for five simulated clinical scenarios also increased after using the CDMA. Despite some conflict regarding nutritional research for AMD, provision of appropriate nutritional and smoking advice is important with regard to reducing risk of progression to sight loss related to AMD. Moreover, optimising nutritional intake and avoiding smoking are beneficial for general well-being. This thesis shows that, with the CDMA, eye care practitioners are able to provide more accurate and research-based nutritional information to their AMD patients with more confidence

BEING FORGIVEN

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Preferences Single-Peaked on a Tree: Multiwinner Elections and Structural Results

A preference profile is single-peaked on a tree if the candidate set can be equipped with a tree structure so that the preferences of each voter are decreasing from their top candidate along all paths in the tree. This notion was introduced by Demange (1982), and subsequently Trick (1989) described an efficient algorithm for deciding if a given profile is single-peaked on a tree. We study the complexity of multiwinner elections under several variants of the Chamberlin-Courant rule for preferences single-peaked on trees. We show that the egalitarian version of this problem admits a polynomial-time algorithm. For the utilitarian version, we prove that winner determination remains NP-hard, even for the Borda scoring function; however, a winning committee can be found in polynomial time if either the number of leaves or the number of internal vertices of the underlying tree is bounded by a constant. To benefit from these positive results, we need a procedure that can determine whether a given profile is single-peaked on a tree that has additional desirable properties (such as, e.g., a small number of leaves). To address this challenge, we develop a structural approach that enables us to compactly represent all trees with respect to which a given profile is single-peaked. We show how to use this representation to efficiently find the best tree for a given profile for use with our winner determination algorithms: Given a profile, we can efficiently find a tree with the minimum number of leaves, or a tree with the minimum number of internal vertices among trees on which the profile is single-peaked. We also consider several other optimization criteria for trees: for some we obtain polynomial-time algorithms, while for others we show NP-hardness results.Comment: 44 pages, extends works published at AAAI 2016 and IJCAI 201

A survey comparing the attitudes toward perinatal bereavement care of nurses from three Asian cities

Caring for parents whose infant has died is extremely demanding, difficult, and stressful. In some situations, nurses may experience personal failure, feel helpless, and need to distance themselves from bereaved parents because they are unable to deal with the enormity of the parental feelings of loss. The aim of the study was to describe and compare attitudes toward perinatal bereavement care across a sample of nurses working in five obstetrics and gynecology settings from three Asian cities, as well as the factors associated with these attitudes. A survey was conducted, and 573 nurses were recruited from 2006 to 2007. The data were collected using the perinatal bereavement attitudes scale, which involves an 11-item self-report questionnaire. Nurses’ attitudes were mainly positive, but differed across cities, with the attitude of Jinan nurses being significantly more positive than nurses from the other two cities, and the attitude of Hong Kong nurses being significantly the lowest. Positive attitudes were associated with position, and nurses who were well informed of hospital policy and received training for bereavement care were statistically significantly more likely to have a positive attitude toward perinatal bereavement care. Although nurses’ attitudes to prenatal bereavement care differ significantly across the three Asian cities, they are generally similar. The differences observed could be related to the wider social, cultural, and organizational circumstances of nursing practice