Mapping of mosquito breeding sites in malaria endemic areas in Pos Lenjang, Kuala Lipis, Pahang, Malaysia

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The application of the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to the study of vector transmitted diseases considerably improves the management of the information obtained from the field survey and facilitates the study of the distribution patterns of the vector species.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>As part of a study to assess remote sensing data as a tool for vector mapping, geographical features like rivers, small streams, forest, roads and residential area were digitized from the satellite images and overlaid with entomological data. Map of larval breeding habitats distribution and map of malaria transmission risk area were developed using a combination of field data, satellite image analysis and GIS technique. All digital data in the GIS were displayed in the WGS 1984 coordinate system. Six occasions of larval surveillance were also conducted to determine the species of mosquitoes, their characteristics and the abundance of habitats.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Larval survey studies showed that anopheline and culicine larvae were collected and mapped from 79 and 67 breeding sites respectively. Breeding habitats were located at 100-400 m from human settlement. Map of villages with 400 m buffer zone visualizes that more than 80% of <it>Anopheles maculatus s.s</it>. immature habitats were found within the buffer zone.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This study amplifies the need for a broadening of the GIS approach which is emphasized with the aim of rejuvenating the dynamic aspect of entomological studies in Malaysia. In fact, the use of such basic GIS platforms promote a more rational basis for strategic planning and management in the control of endemic diseases at the national level.</p

Indoor and outdoor residual spraying of a novel formulation of deltamethrin K-Othrine® (Polyzone) for the control of simian malaria in Sabah, Malaysia

Since 2000, human malaria cases in Malaysia were rapidly reduced with the use of insecticides in Indoor Residual Spray (IRS) and Long-Lasting Insecticide Net (LLIN). Unfortunately, monkey malaria in humans has shown an increase especially in Sabah and Sarawak. The insecticide currently used in IRS is deltamethrin K-Othrine® WG 250 wettable granule, targeting mosquitoes that rest and feed indoor. In Sabah, the primary vector for knowlesi malaria is An. balabacensis a species known to bite outdoor. This study evaluates an alternative method, the Outdoor Residual Spray (ORS) using a novel formulation of deltamethrin K-Othrine® (PolyZone) to examine it suitability to control knowlesi malaria vector in Sabah, compared to the current method. The study was performed at seven villages in Sabah having similar type of houses (wood, bamboo and concrete). Houses were sprayed with deltamethrin K-Othrine® (PolyZone) at two different dosages, 25 mg/m2 and 30 mg/m2 and deltamethrin K-Othrine® WG 250 wettable granule at 25 mg/m2, sprayed indoor and outdoor. Residual activity on different walls was assessed using standard cone bioassay techniques. For larval surveillances, potential breeding sites were surveyed. Larvae were collected and identified, pre and post spraying. Adult survey was done using Human Landing Catch (HLC) performed outdoor and indoor. Detection of malaria parasite in adults was conducted via microscopy and molecular methods. Deltamethrin K-Othrine® (PolyZone) showed higher efficacy when sprayed outdoor. The efficacy was found varied when sprayed on different types of wall surfaces. Deltamethrin K-Othrine® (PolyZone) at 25 mg/m2 was the most effective with regards to ability to high mortality and effective knock down (KD). The vector population was reduced significantly post-spraying and reduction in breeding sites as well. The number of simian malaria infected vector, human and simian malaria transmission were also greatly reduced

A Hybrid Color Space for Skin Detection Using Genetic Algorithm Heuristic Search and Principal Component Analysis Technique

Color is one of the most prominent features of an image and used in many skin and face detection applications. Color space transformation is widely used by researchers to improve face and skin detection performance. Despite the substantial research efforts in this area, choosing a proper color space in terms of skin and face classification performance which can address issues like illumination variations, various camera characteristics and diversity in skin color tones has remained an open issue. This research proposes a new three-dimensional hybrid color space termed SKN by employing the Genetic Algorithm heuristic and Principal Component Analysis to find the optimal representation of human skin color in over seventeen existing color spaces. Genetic Algorithm heuristic is used to find the optimal color component combination setup in terms of skin detection accuracy while the Principal Component Analysis projects the optimal Genetic Algorithm solution to a less complex dimension. Pixel wise skin detection was used to evaluate the performance of the proposed color space. We have employed four classifiers including Random Forest, Naïve Bayes, Support Vector Machine and Multilayer Perceptron in order to generate the human skin color predictive model. The proposed color space was compared to some existing color spaces and shows superior results in terms of pixel-wise skin detection accuracy. Experimental results show that by using Random Forest classifier, the proposed SKN color space obtained an average F-score and True Positive Rate of 0.953 and False Positive Rate of 0.0482 which outperformed the existing color spaces in terms of pixel wise skin detection accuracy. The results also indicate that among the classifiers used in this study, Random Forest is the most suitable classifier for pixel wise skin detection applications

Study of air traffic over KLFIR

This paper shares the overview of the work currently being conducted with the Department of Civil Aviation Malaysia related to the air traffic. The aim is to study air traffic performance over KL and KK FIR, and the area of interest in this paper is the Kuala Lumpur Flight Information Region (KLFIR). The air traffic performance parameters includes general air traffic movement such as level allocation, number of movements, sector load analysis and also more specific parameters such as airborne delays, effects of weather to the air movements as well as ground delays. To achieve this, a huge effort has been undertaken that includes live data collection algorithm development and real time statistical analysis algorithm development. The main outcome from this multi-disciplinary work is the long-term analysis on the air traffic performance in Malaysia, which will put the country at par in the aviation community, namely the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)

Racial effect on the recommended safe weight for back pack users among schoolchildren

Racial differences associated with variation in diet, climate and culture, may pose a challenge in developing a globally acceptable safe backpack weight for schoolchildren. This study therefore investigates the suitability of a multivariate backpack-related back pain model in a multiracial society such as Malaysia. Back pain related data from an average of 205 Malay, Chinese and Indian Schoolchildren were fitted into a proposed backpack-related back pain model and also into a regression model to predict safe weight from percentage body weight (PBW), body mass index and age in order to determine the level of fit. While the three racial models met the minimum requirements of the different goodness-of-fit indices, there were uncaptured significant relationships peculiar to each racial model in the proposed model. Notwithstanding, the combination of age, BMI and PBW are better predictors of back pain occurrence among the children in the three ethnic groups

Aircraft ground movement delay: a descriptive statistical analysis at Kuala Lumpur International Airport

Delay commonly used in classifying the level of service (LOS) hence indicating the traffic performance of a road segment. For aircraft ground movement, delay contributes directly to the increasing of operational cost, accident possibility, noise pollution and ground emission. In this study, Kuala Lumpur International Airport, KLIA airside configuration was marked as nodes in Google Earth®. Ground movement of each aircraft from nodes to nodes is recorded based on the aircraft transponder signal. The Database was then analyzed using MySQL via Cygwin64 interface. A detail preliminary descriptive statistical analysis was carried out to get more insight of the current airside ground logistic performance and furthermore determine the delay patterns and characteristics. This result is crucial for future research of optimizing aircraft airside ground movement particularly at KLIA

Human perception of slipperiness through measured COF

In this study, psychophysics (the subsets of human-centred approach) which includes the perception of slipperiness with visual and tactile cues (Chang et al., Ind Health 52:379380, 2014 [1]) are important to validate human perception of slipperiness. Subject rating was used as an instrument for data collection in human-centred approach. This study measured the perception of four different floor surfaces in five surface conditions—one dry condition and four liquid-spillage conditions. The concerned tested floor surfaces were (i) ceramic I (glazed ceramic tile), (ii) ceramic II floor (unglazed ceramic tile), (iii) epoxy floor, and (iv) porcelain floor (homogenous tile). Chi-square test was used to test the subjective scores of the floor slipperiness while Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient was used to measure the strength of association between the subjective scores of floor slipperiness and the measured COF

The relationship between coefficient of friction (COF) with floor slipperiness and roughness

The relationship between coefficient of friction (COF) and roughness is best found using tribology approach. This study used experimental design to collect and measure the data on COF and the roughness measurement under contaminated condition. It particularly measured the COF of four different floor surfaces in five surface conditions—one dry condition and four liquid-spillage conditions. For slipperiness measurement, the analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to determine the effect of floor, footwear, and surface condition on the measured COF. Duncan’s multiple range tests was performed to determine the sample of means that is significantly different from others. Meanwhile, Pearson’s correlation coefficient was used to measure the strength between COF and the roughness parameter

Factors leading to slip-and-fall incidents

There are several factors that prompt the slip-and-fall incidents and this study focuses on seven factors. Epidemiology approach was used to determine the factors of slip-and-fall incidents, and questionnaire was selected as an instrument for data collection. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was performed to evaluate how the respondents perceived the slip-and-fall factors while Cronbach’s alpha was used to assess the internal consistency for each domain in the survey. Subsequently, the factors were ranked in accordance with the total variance recorded

Conclusion

Achievement of research objectives are very important. In this study, the perception of risk factor was found as the main factor affecting slip-and-fall incidents. It was evident that friction was significantly affected by footwear material, type of floor, and the presence of contaminants on the floor. In addition, roughness also found consistent with the coefficient of friction (COF). According to human perception issue, the subjects could differentiate floor slipperiness under contaminated conditions but became unsure when in rating floor slipperiness for different types of floor