Clinical review: Clinical management of atrial fibrillation – rate control versus rhythm control

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained cardiac arrhythmia in the critically ill and is associated with adverse outcomes. Although there are plausible benefits from conversion and maintenance of sinus rhythm (the so-called 'rhythm-control' strategy), recent randomized trials have failed to demonstrate the superiority of this approach over the rate-control strategy. Regardless of approach, continuous therapeutic anticoagulation is crucial for stroke prevention. This review addresses the findings of these studies and their implications for clinical management of patients with atrial fibrillation

Cross-aisle seismic performance of selective storage racks

© 2020 A series of single-axis shaking table tests were conducted on three full-scale selective storage racks in the cross-aisle direction. The uplifting and rocking behaviour of the racks was examined under three baseplate types: ductile, heavy duty, and unanchored. Each rack was subjected to a sequence of ground motions of increasing intensity up to failure, with a total of 29 tests conducted. At 1.5 times the respective design level ground motions, the heavy duty baseplates caused a foundation failure while the unanchored rack failed by overturning. The rack with ductile baseplates survived all tests up to 2.3 times the design level. For a given ground motion, the unanchored rack upright always had the smallest peak axial load. However, the unanchored rack had much larger sways under the Northbridge and Kobe ground motions. The NZS 1170.5 equivalent static method design loading was found to be overly conservative for racks with ductile and heavy duty baseplates, of which the upright design axial forces were better predicted using the refined equivalent static method

The effectiveness of work stress coping strategies : An analysis of probit model

This study finds that the work stress levels that are faced by ICT personnel range from mild to moderate. The estimated probit model finds that there is personality differentiation in the effectiveness of stress coping strategies. The significant and effective coping strategy. is "'seeking treatment". The "escape from situation" coping strategic is found to be significant but ineffective. Thus, it is recommended that in alleviating work stress, "seeking treatment" is the best strategy It is found that the high risk group that have higher work stress are non-Malays, married, field of specialization of accounting/business/ economics, job status of junior management, and less than 2 years of services

Impact Of Knowledge Management on Organisational Performance: An Empirical Study of Electrical and Electronics Industry in Malaysia

When encountering a business environment characterised with rapid changes, the manufacturing industry needs to emphasise knowledge management to enhance organisational performance. Knowledge management represents the processes and practices carried out in organisations to leverage their intellectual potential by enhancing the effectiveness and efïciency of their knowledge resources. A growing number of studies have demonstrated that knowledge management is related to organisational performance. However, the practice of knowledge management is not prevalent in many developing countries even though it has been claimed to be an essential component to enhance organisational performance. The purpose of this study was to examine the association of knowledge management and organisational performance using survey data obtained from 185 respondents in electrical and electronic (E&E) manufacturing firms in Malaysia. Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to test the research hypothesis. The finding indicated a significant relationship between knowledge management and organisational performance. The result provides empirical evidence that it is imperative for business firms to manage their knowledge resources to enhance their organisational performance. Practical implications of the research finding for E&E manufacturing firms are discussed

E-government adoption among businesses in Jordan

This study investigates e-government adoption among businesses in Jordan. Specifically, the objectives of the study are twofold: (a) to determine the status (level) of e-government adoption among businesses in Jordan, (b) to identify the factors that drive e-government adoption among businesses in Jordan. For this purpose, an integrated theoretical framework for assessing e-government adoption, beyond initial adoption was developed.The responses of 113 firms were used to determine the relationships between technological, organizational, and external factors and adoption of e-government.The result found the existence of significant relationship between the technological, organizational, and external factors and the businesses e-government adoption.It is further found that higher explicitness and accumulation of technology can help the transfer of technological knowledge within the organization and can raise the capability to adopt innovative technologies

B2B e-commerce adoption among small & medium enterprises : An analysis of multinomial logit model

This paper examines the factors that influence e-commerce adoption levels among SMEs in Malaysia. Based on Technological-Organisational-External(T0) framework, it is found that external support is significant across all e-commerce adoption levels. This finding suggests that future policy to encourage e-commerce uptake in Malaysia should focus on providing support to facilitate e-commerce adoption effort. The findings also show that owners or CEOs of SMEs who are more experienced, have completed tertiary education and used computer frequently, are more likely to adopt e-commerce. Hence, to further promote e-commerce adoption among SMEs,owners or CEOs of SMEs who are less experienced, high-school leavers, and who used computer less frequently, ought to be targeted in future e-commerce initiatives. Relatively, based on TOE framework, CEO attributes are more significant in terms of e-commerce adoption among SMEs in Malaysia

Rosamines Targeting the Cancer Oxidative Phosphorylation Pathway

Reprogramming of energy metabolism is pivotal to cancer, so mitochondria are potential targets for anticancer therapy. A prior study has demonstrated the anti-proliferative activity of a new class of mitochondria-targeting rosamines. This present study describes in vitro cytotoxicity of second-generation rosamine analogs, their mode of action, and their in vivo efficacies in a tumor allografted mouse model. Here, we showed that these compounds exhibited potent cytotoxicity (average IC50<0.5 µM), inhibited Complex II and ATP synthase activities of the mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation pathway and induced loss of mitochondrial transmembrane potential. A NCI-60 cell lines screen further indicated that rosamine analogs 4 and 5 exhibited potent antiproliferative effects with Log10GI50 = -7 (GI50 = 0.1 µM) and were more effective against a colorectal cancer sub-panel than other cell lines. Preliminary in vivo studies on 4T1 murine breast cancer-bearing female BALB/c mice indicated that treatment with analog 5 in a single dosing of 5 mg/kg or a schedule dosing of 3 mg/kg once every 2 days for 6 times (q2d×6) exhibited only minimal induction of tumor growth delay. Our results suggest that rosamine analogs may be further developed as mitochondrial targeting agents. Without a doubt proper strategies need to be devised to enhance tumor uptake of rosamines, i.e. by integration to carrier molecules for better therapeutic outcome

Estimating influence of TOE factors on e-government usage: Evidence of Jordanian companies

This paper examines the effect of TOE (Technology, Organizational and External) factors on the usage of e-government among Jordanian public listed companies. Results reveal that in Jordan, companies that are categorized as basic adopters of e-government mainly used e-government for seeking information and contracts (procurement) and TOE factors are generally found to have insignificant effect on the usage. On the other hand, TOE factors are found to have significant effect only on advanced adopters of e-government that mainly used e-government for financial and business integration purposes

An analysis on the factors related to the adoption of KS tools

KS tools are tools that allow knowledge workers to share and reuse knowledge both in organizations and leisure environments. However the adoption of KS tools in most organizational ecosystem is slow and worrying, as many researchers have pointed out.This study looks into several factors such as nationality, experience, position and education that influence the usage on a list of KS tools. The study will use technology adoption lifecycle proposed by Beal, Rogers and Bohlen [1] model explains the six (6) types of users in organizations.This paper will provide an analysis from data collected to explain the correlations between the factors discussed above and the usage level of the KS tools within their organizations using the theory of diffusion of innovation on different adopter categories [6]. This study uses survey to conduct an empirical investigation and our instruments are designed based on the several past well tested research studies

Estimating The Determinants of Happiness Among Primary School Teachers in Malaysia

Teachers play an important role in nurturing human resources. Old wisdom regards teachers as the “engineer of the human soul”. Teacher happiness is very important since a happy teacher is productive, allowing him/her to play his/her role effectively. We need to understand the determinants of teacher happiness to formulate better policies for teachers. The objectives of the study are to examine the level of happiness of primary school teachers in Malaysia and its determinants. Ordered logit models are estimated using data from a random sample of 1,510 primary school teachers in Perlis, Kedah, and Penang. The descriptive statistics analysis reveals that, on average, the teachers are happy with their life but with a substantial variance. Aspiration is found to be an important determinant of happiness. Other determinants of happiness include religiosity (strength in religion, all religions teach morality in schools), the interaction between aspiration and religiosity, targeted life goals, achievement of life goals, and school environment. To increase the happiness of primary school teachers, the government needs to focus on the teachers’ aspiration, their life goals, religiosity, and the school environment. Thus, tangible and non-tangible rewards are needed to improve teacher happiness