Regionalization and harmonization in TVET

A transversal skill is one of the skills needed in every type of workplace setting. There is limited information about the perceptions of which transferable skills are needed in the workplace. The objective of this study is to explore the transferable skills among students and lecturers in TVET higher learning institutions in Indonesia and Malaysia. In the present study, transferable skills consist of communication skills, collaboration skills, problem-solving skills, entrepreneurship, and learning to learn skills. A qualitative research was conducted using survey. The five Likert scale questionnaire was distributed to lecturers and students from selected Malaysian and Indonesian universities who have bachelor program in engineering. Based on the analysis outcomes, it is clearly shown that Malaysian university engineering students yielded significantly higher scores on the perceptions of transferable skill acquisition in all measured components compared to their counterparts in Indonesia. Similar patterns of data distribution have been observed in Malaysian and Indonesian engineering students. Based on the lecturers’ perception, Malaysian and Indonesian Engineering Lecturers have comparable perceptions in the aspects of problem solving skills and entrepreneurship skills. In contrast, Malaysian university engineering lecturers gained significantly higher scores on the perception of communication skill, collaboration skill, and learning to learn skill compared to the Indonesian lecturers. The results indicate the need to increase transferable skills of both lecturers and students

Living with a left ventricular assist device:Capturing recipients experiences using group concept mapping software

BackgroundLeft ventricular assist device (LVAD) implantation significantly impacts on a recipient's symptoms and quality of life. Capturing their experiences and post implant journey is an important part of clinical practice, research and device design evolution. Patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) are a useful tool for capturing that experience. However, patient reported outcome measures need to reflect recipients' experiences. Discussions with a patient partner group found that none of the frequently used cardiology PROMs captured their unique experiences.AimsTo capture the experiences and important issues for LVAD recipients. Develop a conceptual map of domains and items that should be reflected in patient reported outcomes.MethodsGroup concept mapping (GCM) web-based software was used to remotely capture and structure recipients' experiences across a wide geographical area. GCM is a semi-quantitative mixed method consisting of 3 stages: item generation, item sorting and rating (importance, relevance and frequency). Patient partners were involved in all aspects of the study design and development.Results18 LVAD recipients consented to take part. 101 statements were generated and multi-dimensional scaling, and hierarchical cluster analysis identified 9 clusters. Cluster themes included: Activities, Partner/family support, Travel, Mental wellbeing, Equipment and clothing, Physical and cognitive limitations, LVAD Restrictions, LVAD Challenges and positive impact of the LVAD (LVAD Positives). LVAD Positives were scored highest across all the rating variables, e.g., frequency (2.85), relevance (2.44) and importance (2.21). Other domains rated high for importance included physical and cognitive limitations (2.19), LVAD restrictions (2.11), Partner/family support (2.02), and Equipment and clothing (2.01).ConclusionOnline GCM software facilitated the inclusion of geographically dispersed recipients and provided useful insights into the experiences of LVAD recipients. The conceptual framework identifies important domains and items that should be prioritised and included in patient reported outcomes in future research, LVAD design evolution, and clinical practice

The genetic interplay between body mass index, breast size and breast cancer risk: a Mendelian randomization analysis.

BACKGROUND: Evidence linking breast size to breast cancer risk has been inconsistent, and its interpretation is often hampered by confounding factors such as body mass index (BMI). Here, we used linkage disequilibrium score regression and two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) to examine the genetic associations between BMI, breast size and breast cancer risk. METHODS: Summary-level genotype data from 23andMe, Inc (breast size, n = 33 790), the Breast Cancer Association Consortium (breast cancer risk, n = 228 951) and the Genetic Investigation of ANthropometric Traits (BMI, n = 183 507) were used for our analyses. In assessing causal relationships, four complementary MR techniques [inverse variance weighted (IVW), weighted median, weighted mode and MR-Egger regression] were used to test the robustness of the results. RESULTS: The genetic correlation (rg) estimated between BMI and breast size was high (rg = 0.50, P = 3.89x10-43). All MR methods provided consistent evidence that higher genetically predicted BMI was associated with larger breast size [odds ratio (ORIVW): 2.06 (1.80-2.35), P = 1.38x10-26] and lower overall breast cancer risk [ORIVW: 0.81 (0.74-0.89), P = 9.44x10-6]. No evidence of a relationship between genetically predicted breast size and breast cancer risk was found except when using the weighted median and weighted mode methods, and only with oestrogen receptor (ER)-negative risk. There was no evidence of reverse causality in any of the analyses conducted (P > 0.050). CONCLUSION: Our findings indicate a potential positive causal association between BMI and breast size and a potential negative causal association between BMI and breast cancer risk. We found no clear evidence for a direct relationship between breast size and breast cancer risk

Effects of Once-Weekly Exenatide on Cardiovascular Outcomes in Type 2 Diabetes.

Abstract BACKGROUND: The cardiovascular effects of adding once-weekly treatment with exenatide to usual care in patients with type 2 diabetes are unknown. METHODS: We randomly assigned patients with type 2 diabetes, with or without previous cardiovascular disease, to receive subcutaneous injections of extended-release exenatide at a dose of 2 mg or matching placebo once weekly. The primary composite outcome was the first occurrence of death from cardiovascular causes, nonfatal myocardial infarction, or nonfatal stroke. The coprimary hypotheses were that exenatide, administered once weekly, would be noninferior to placebo with respect to safety and superior to placebo with respect to efficacy. RESULTS: In all, 14,752 patients (of whom 10,782 [73.1%] had previous cardiovascular disease) were followed for a median of 3.2 years (interquartile range, 2.2 to 4.4). A primary composite outcome event occurred in 839 of 7356 patients (11.4%; 3.7 events per 100 person-years) in the exenatide group and in 905 of 7396 patients (12.2%; 4.0 events per 100 person-years) in the placebo group (hazard ratio, 0.91; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.83 to 1.00), with the intention-to-treat analysis indicating that exenatide, administered once weekly, was noninferior to placebo with respect to safety (P<0.001 for noninferiority) but was not superior to placebo with respect to efficacy (P=0.06 for superiority). The rates of death from cardiovascular causes, fatal or nonfatal myocardial infarction, fatal or nonfatal stroke, hospitalization for heart failure, and hospitalization for acute coronary syndrome, and the incidence of acute pancreatitis, pancreatic cancer, medullary thyroid carcinoma, and serious adverse events did not differ significantly between the two groups. CONCLUSIONS: Among patients with type 2 diabetes with or without previous cardiovascular disease, the incidence of major adverse cardiovascular events did not differ significantly between patients who received exenatide and those who received placebo. (Funded by Amylin Pharmaceuticals; EXSCEL ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01144338 .)

American College of Rheumatology Provisional Criteria for Clinically Relevant Improvement in Children and Adolescents With Childhood-Onset Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

10.1002/acr.23834ARTHRITIS CARE & RESEARCH715579-59

Automatic identification and categorize zone of RFID reading in warehouse management system

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology has improved the operational efficiency and process flow in the distribution of warehouse management system (WMS) around the globe. Nonetheless, a moving or missing tag as well as known and unknown tag’s location that may occur in the detection could reduce the efficiency of process flow. This study aims at identifying the location of goods in between two RFID reading zones by means of machine learning, particularly Support Vector Machine (SVM). A total of seven statistical features are extracted from the received signal strength (RSS) value from the raw RFID readings. SVM classifier are evaluated by considering the combination of different statistical features namely COMBINE to produce a more effective classification in comparison to individual statistical feature. The performance of the classifier demonstrated a classification accuracy of approximately 94% by considering all features whereas the performance of the classifier by considering individual features alone is below than 90%. This preliminary study establishes the applicability of the proposed automatic identification is able to provide the management of goods as well as supply chain reasonably well without human intervention

Measuring gender equality in technical and vocational education and training

This study was performed to measure the gender equality involvement in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Program in one of the Malaysia Technical University Network (MTUN). The focuses of this study are general perspective in gender equality, men and women position in society, and sources of information about TVET. 200 respondents involving students and lecturers from various field of TVET programs involved in this study. Questionnaire was applied to gather the data information and descriptive analysis represent the findings. Result showed that most respondents strongly agree with men helping in the household were women, they are also aware about the national policies on gender equality in Malaysia, and for last section of survey, respondents agree that they choose studying in TVET program because the better job opportunities. In summary, there is no gender issue in Malaysia’s policy, position of work and opportunities in further education especially in TVET programs

Measuring gender equality in technical and vocational education and training

This study was performed to measure the gender equality involvement in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Program in one of the Malaysia Technical University Network (MTUN). The focuses of this study are general perspective in gender equality, men and women position in society, and sources of information about TVET. 200 respondents involving students and lecturers from various field of TVET programs involved in this study. Questionnaire was applied to gather the data information and descriptive analysis represent the findings. Result showed that most respondents strongly agree with men helping in the household were women, they are also aware about the national policies on gender equality in Malaysia, and for last section of survey, respondents agree that they choose studying in TVET program because the better job opportunities. In summary, there is no gender issue in Malaysia’s policy, position of work and opportunities in further education especially in TVET programs