Mental health on the go: Navigating travel and travel eligibility

The 21st century has seen tourists from various source markets significantly impacted by non-communicable diseases, including mental disorders. Yet, research and practice frequently overlook tourists with mental disorders. Building on Buckley’s discussion in the Journal of Travel Research about tourism and mental health, this study examines the travel eligibility of tourists diagnosed with four prevalent mental disorders: major depressive disorder (MDD), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), schizophrenia, and dementia. We present preliminary recommendations for accommodating these tourists and highlight the urgent need for collaborative efforts between stakeholders in tourism, hospitality, and medicine. © The Author(s) 2023

Development of flight control for UGS tri-copter MAV

This paper presents our flight control development for the University of Glasgow Singapre (UGS) tilting tri-copter. The tilting tri-copter has the capability of high cruising speed by tilting the main rotors. The drawback of this design is that it causes instability during rotors transition and flight stability. As such, the development of a new flight control system is required to make this system stable. The first phase involves the designing & building of the tilting tri-copter for the investigation of its flight behaviour, and researching on different control systems to select the suitable control system for the tri-copter. The next phase is be to design the flight control system using the Simulink program. The final phase is to analyse and discuss the simulation result and compare with the test flights. There are discovery from the simulation result that after the main rotor had titled, the roll effect become less responsive and the roll mode will caused the tri-copter to yaw. This can be resolved by changing the design of the main rotor tilting into an independent tilting rotor system to improve the performance. With the new develop flight control system, it can use for future in deep research or even use it to combine with other controller such as LQR controller

Development of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) membrane from waste plastic: Towards waste to wealth for water treatment

Plastic, a non-biodegradable material has always been a concern to the environment and people. This single-use item generates waste to landfills and it persists for centuries once disposed. The urge of transforming such material into a highly valuable product has sought attention from many researchers. This study emphasizes on a nanotechnological approach to synthesize vertically-aligned carbon nanotubes (CNTs) on a substrate template using commercially available plastic bags as carbon precursor. CNTs are grown inside a hexagonally arranged nanoporous anodic alumina membranes (NAAMs). CNTs are liberated by wet chemical etching to dissolve the alumina matrix. The resulting CNTs are used as adsorption media filters for water treatment purpose. The high adsorption affinity towards heavy metals, organic matters and microbes, ability to antifouling and self-cleaning function have made CNTs a better choice over others. This article briefly discusses the catalyst-free synthesis, growth mechanism, characterization and functionalization of CNTs for water treatment application

Suppression of Flow-Induced Noise of a Canister Vacuum Cleaner

This paper describes the modification of a canister vacuum cleaner to reduce flow-induced noise. This research aims to identify the noise source and suppress the noise level of a canister vacuum cleaner experimentally without affecting its suction power significantly. Based on the preliminary results, the noise was mainly contributed by blade passing noise generated by the motor and airborne noise from aerodynamics origin. The blade passing frequency of the motor is 2475 Hz, while the dominant airborne noise occurs at 600 Hz. Two noise reduction methods were introduced: porous expanded polypropylene sound panels and a honeycomb noise filter in a canister vacuum cleaner. A layer of K-flex K-FONIK open-cell applied to the inner wall of the vacuum cleaner showed a 3.7 dB(A) reduction in noise level. In comparison, the honeycomb noise filter reduced the noise level by 3.4 dB(A). When both methods were implemented concurrently, the overall noise level was successfully reduced from 73.2 dB(A) to 65.8 dB(A), achieving a total reduction of 7.4 dB(A). The vacuum cleaner's suction power was tested after the modifications, and the results showed only a 0.001 Watts or 0.93% reduction in suction power

Suppression of Flow-Induced Noise of a Canister Vacuum Cleaner

This paper describes the modification of a canister vacuum cleaner to reduce flow-induced noise. This research aims to identify the noise source and suppress the noise level of a canister vacuum cleaner experimentally without affecting its suction power significantly. Based on the preliminary results, the noise was mainly contributed by blade passing noise generated by the motor and airborne noise from aerodynamics origin. The blade passing frequency of the motor is 2475 Hz, while the dominant airborne noise occurs at 600 Hz. Two noise reduction methods were introduced: porous expanded polypropylene sound panels and a honeycomb noise filter in a canister vacuum cleaner. A layer of K-flex K-FONIK open-cell applied to the inner wall of the vacuum cleaner showed a 3.7 dB(A) reduction in noise level. In comparison, the honeycomb noise filter reduced the noise level by 3.4 dB(A). When both methods were implemented concurrently, the overall noise level was successfully reduced from 73.2 dB(A) to 65.8 dB(A), achieving a total reduction of 7.4 dB(A). The vacuum cleaner's suction power was tested after the modifications, and the results showed only a 0.001 Watts or 0.93% reduction in suction power

Polymeric Nanoparticles Amenable to Simultaneous Installation of Exterior Targeting and Interior Therapeutic Proteins

Effective delivery of therapeutic proteins is a formidable challenge. Herein, using a unique polymer family with a wide-ranging set of cationic and hydrophobic features, we developed a novel nanoparticle (NP) platform capable of installing protein ligands on the particle surface and simultaneously carrying therapeutic proteins inside by a self-assembly procedure. The loaded therapeutic proteins (e.g., insulin) within the NPs exhibited sustained and tunable release, while the surface-coated protein ligands (e.g., transferrin) were demonstrated to alter the NP cellular behaviors. In vivo results revealed that the transferrin-coated NPs can effectively be transported across the intestinal epithelium for oral insulin delivery, leading to a notable hypoglycemic response.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grants EB015419, R00CA160350, and CA151884)Prostate Cancer Foundation (Challenge Award)National Research Foundation of Korea (Grant K1A1A2048701)David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT. Prostate Cancer Foundation Program in Cancer NanotherapeuticsNational Natural Science Foundation (China) (Grant 81173010

Extraction of Gallic Acid from Chromolaena sp. Using Ultrasound-assisted Extraction

Chromolaena sp. is believed to have phytochemical components namely alkaloids, flavonoids, flavone, essential oils, phenolics, saponins, tannins and terpenoids. In this study, ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE) procedure was performed to extract the gallic acid from Chromolaena sp. UAE is known to be an environmentally green extraction method. This study was carried out with two different parameters which are sonication time and duty cycle. Phytochemical screening result showed the presence of phenolic compound when the dark-green colour of solution was observed. The best operating parameters to maximise the yield were as follows: sonication time of 80 minutes with yield of 3.006 mg/mL and duty cycle of 90% with yield of 3.764 mg/mL. The FT-IR result shows that presence of O-H and alkene group in the extraction samples. From the results, it can be concluded that UAE is an effective method to extract gallic acid from Chromolaena sp. The implication in this study was reducing the extraction time for the production of herbs medicine from natural resource

Trends in cataract surgery and healthcare system response during the COVID-19 lockdown in Malaysia: Lessons to be learned

Background: Elective surgeries were suspended during the national lockdown in March 2020 to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia. We sought to evaluate the impact of the lockdown on cataract surgeries and suggest lessons for future outbreaks. Study design: We conducted an interrupted time series analysis to examine rates of cataract surgery before and during the lockdown. Methods: We used national cataract surgical data between 2015 and 2021 from the Malaysian Cataract Surgery Registry. Segmented regression with a seasonally adjusted Poisson model was used for the analysis. Stratified analyses were performed to establish whether the effect of the lockdown on cataract surgeries varied by hospital designation, type of cataract service, sex, and age groups. Results: Cataract surgeries began falling in March 2020 at the onset of the lockdown, reached a trough in April 2020, and subsequently increased but never recovered to pre-lockdown levels. Cataract surgical rates in December 2021 were still 43 % below the expected surgical volume, equivalent to 2513 lost cataract surgeries. There was no evidence of a differential effect of the lockdown between COVID-19 designated and non-COVID-19 designated hospitals. The relative decrease in cataract surgical rates appears to have been greatest in outreach services and in people 40 years and older. Conclusions: The lockdown caused an immediate reduction in cataract surgical rates to nearly half of its baseline rate. Despite its gradual recovery, further delays remain to be expected should there be no redistribution or increase in resources to support backlogs and incoming new cases