Functional endoscopic sinus surgery : an outcome analysis

lni adalah satu kajian retrospektif yang bertujuan untuk mengkaji keberkesanan pembedahan FESS yang dilakukan di HUSM dan seterusnya untuk mengetahui kepuasan hati pesakit selepas pembedahan. Seramai empat puluh lima orang pesakit telah dikaji. Pesakit telah melengkapi borang pengumpulan data berstruktur untuk memberi penilaian terhadap tanda-tanda penyakit sinus samada sebelum ataupun selepas pembedahan. This is a retrospective study to assess the result of functional endoscopic sinus surgery (FESS) which were performed in HUSM between January 1997 to December 1999 to evaluate the general satisfaction of patients after the operation. Forty-five patients were evaluated after functional endoscopic sinus surgery. Patients completed structured data collection form (Appendix A) to quantify _the severity of commonly experienced sinus-related symptoms both before surgery and after undergoing sinus surgery

Computational fluid dynamics study of pull and plug flow boundary condition on nasal airflow

The recent advances in the computer based computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software tools in the study of airflow behavior in the nasal cavity have opened an entirely new field of medical research. This numerical modeling method has provided both engineers and medical specialists with a clearer understanding of the physics associated with the flow in the complicated nasal domain. The outcome of any CFD investigation depends on the appropriateness of the boundary conditions applied. Most researchers have employed plug boundary condition as against the pull flow which closely resembles the physiological phenomenon associated with the breathing mechanism. A comparative study on the effect of using the plug and pull flow boundary conditions are evaluated and their effect on the nasal flow are studied. Discretization error estimation using Richardson's extrapolation (RE) method has also been carried out. The study is based on the numerical model obtained from computed tomographic data of a healthy Malaysian subject. A steady state Reynold averaged Navier–Stokes and continuity equations is solved for inspiratory flow having flow rate 20 L/min representing turbulent boundary conditions. Comparative study is made between the pull and plug flow model. Variation in flow patterns and flow features such as resistance, pressure and velocity are presented. At the nasal valve, the resistance for plug flow is 0.664 Pa-min/L and for pull flow the value is 0.304 Pa-min/L. The maximum velocity at the nasal valve is 3.28 m/s for plug flow and 3.57 m/s for pull flow model

Review: A critical overview of limitations CFD Modeling in nasal airflow.

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling of nasal airflow has been carried out by several researchers. Virtual surgical treatment and aerosol deposition studies have also been conducted. However, the appropriateness of such modeling practices with regards to modeling and medical constraints needs careful consideration. The current numerical models for the study of nasal airflow, developed from the scanned images obtained from computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging, are influenced by postural changes. These models neglect the mucous layer, other vital anatomical features, and nasal cycle effects, CFD studies make numerous assumptions that seriously limit their usefulness. Unless these constraints can be addressed, the interpretation of results from a CFD output cannot be considered as an appropriate definition of the flow behavior. This review provides a critical overview of the limit actions of the CFD mode ling of nasal air-low. Some of the limitations and constraints associated with CFD modeling are reviewed and possible studies that could be carried out in the future to ascertain the effect of neglecting these parameters are discussed. This study also proposes a standard station of the computational modeling procedure, which is necessary for studying airflow inside the nasal cavity

Bivariate causality between exchange rates and stock prices in Malaysia

The main purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between stock prices and exchange rates in Malaysia. This research considers high-frequency data of USD-MYR exchange rates and Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (KLSE) from July 22, 2005 to March 23, 2007, which is the period when the MYR was unpegged. The Johansen cointegration method suggests that there is no long-run equilibrium relationship between these two financial variables. Both Engle Granger and Toda-Yamamoto causality tests find that there is uni-directional causality running from stock prices to exchange rates

A faster version of rijndael cryptographic algorithm using cyclic shift and bit wise operations

Doing arithmetic in finite field is the key part to the implementation of communication and coding system including the newly developed Rijndael the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). This encryption standard uses KeyExpansion, ByteSub, Mixcolumn and Shiftrow functions which consists of XOR, inverse, multiplying and swap modules. Among them, inverse and multiplier are the most complex modules with longer delay. These modules are included in the Mixcolumn function. From the proposal of AES, the Mixcolumn function was suggested to solve the problem of delay by using look-up tables. This function can be integrated into a bigger table to replace the calculations of inverse and multiply operations, if it provides enough memory. In fact, too many tables are needed for various irreducible polynomials that this system is not flexible and expandable. The area for lookup tables becomes huge when multiple round units are implemented. This research proposes the use of cyclic shift and bit wise XOR operation as new approach to replace the lookup table. The principle benefit of using this new approach over the transform from Rijndael block cipher is speed. This new approach has shown the excellent result, which faster then Rijndael. The new approach algorithm speed increment has consistently increased in between 18% to 22% microsecond for encryption and 30% to 34% for decryption compared to Rijndael algorithm depending upon the key length

Bilinear pairings computation using the extended double-base chains algorithm

Elliptic curve (EC) pairings have been the focus of attention of researchers and cryptographers, especially after identity-based cryptosystems(IBC) were proposed in 2001. The Weil and Tate pairing is considered as the most important pairings used in cryptographical protocols and their applications. The computation efficiency of the Weil and Tate pairings mainly depends on the efficiency of the EC scalar multplications algorithms used. In this paper, we compute the Tate pairing using multi-base number representation(MBNR) system in scalar multiplication instead of using binary representation as used in Miller’s algorithm and in the double-base (DB) chain used by Changan Zhao et al. We show that using doubling, tripling and quintupling in scalar multiplication, computation of the Tate pairing and its applications can be significantly enhanced

An algorithm to enhance elliptic curves scalar multiplication combining MBNR with point halving

Elliptic curves (EC) scalar multiplication over some finite fields, is an attractive research area, and it has been paid much attention by re- searchers in the recent years. Researchs still in progress to improve the imple- mentation of elliptic curves cryptography (ECC) and reducing its complexity. Elliptic curve point-halving algorithm proposed in [10], later double-base (DB) chain [3], and step multi-base representation (SMBR) [17] are among the ef- ficient techniques used in this field. The presented paper proposes a new algorithm combining SMBR and point halving. We extend the work done by [13], which combined DB chain with point halving technique. The experiment results show that our contribution can enhance EC scalar multiplication

Effects of the liquid natural rubber (LNR) on mechanical properties and microstructure of epoxy/silica/kenaf hybrid composite for potential automotive applications

The effects of rubber toughened epoxy/silica/kenaf composites on mechanical properties and microstructure were investigated. In this study, a combination of silica, liquid rubber, and epoxy was used to toughen epoxy/kenaf composite for potential automotive applications. The composites with various liquid rubber MG30 (LMG30) contents from 1 to 7 phr were fabricated by using hand lay-up method and tested according to ASTM standards by using mechanical testings, which were impact and flexural tests. The modified epoxy and fracture surfaces from the impact test were characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to study the surface interaction. The addition of 1 part per hundred of resin (phr) of LMG30 in epoxy/silica/kenaf composite exhibited the highest impact and flexural strength, which were 13.83 kJ/m2 and 62.2 MPa, respectively. SEM analysis proved that the addition of LMG30 helped in lowering the stress transfer and resulted in optimum mechanical properties and the yielded composite has high potential to be used in automotive applications

The prevalence and risk factors of sexual dysfunction in gynaecological cancer patients.

Sexual dysfunction is highly prevalent in gynaecological cancer patients. Most of the time, sexual dysfunction in gynaecological cancer is underdiagnosed as there is overlapping of symptoms with other psychological morbidities, interplaying of multiple risks, patients’ reluctance to complain or incompetence of health care provider to assess. Determining the risk factors of sexual dysfunction in cancer patients enables us to pay more attention to those who are vulnerable and to device strategies for early detection, prevention and treatment of sexual dysfunction in them. The main aim of the study was to determine the prevalence of sexual dysfunction and its risk factors in gynaecological cancer patients in Hospital Sultanah Bahiyah, Alor Star, Malaysia. Sexual function of eighty-three gynaecological cancer patients who were married were assessed with self-rated MVFSFI (Malay version Female Sexual Function Index). Self-rated WHOQOL-BREF (World Health Organization- Quality of Life- 26) which assessed the domains of quality of life was used while MINI (Mini International Neuropsychiatry Interview) was used for diagnosis of major depressive disorder. The prevalence of sexual dysfunction among the married gynaecological cancer patients was 65% (54/83). Sexual dysfunction was significantly associated with low education level (OR 3.055, CI 1.009-9.250), shorter duration of cancer (OR 0.966, CI 0.966- 0.998), ongoing chemotherapy (OR 3.045, CI 1.149-8.067), pain perception (OR 3.230, CI 1.257-8.303), absence of sexual intercourse for more than one month (OR 1.862) and three domains of quality of life such as physical health, psychological health and social relationship (OR 0.942, CI 0.908-0.978; OR 0.955, CI 0.916-0.995; OR 0.933, CI 0.894-0.973, respectively). However, sexual dysfunction was not associated with major depressive disorder (χ2² = 1.224, p = 0.268). The prevalence of sexual dysfunction in gynaecological cancer patients was comparable to other studies of similar population. Since, the risk factors of sexual dysfunction in gynaecological cancer patients are multidimensional, the process of assessment and management need to be holistic and patient-oriented