Memperkasa pembangunan modal insan Malaysia di peringkat kanak-kanak: kajian kebolehlaksanaan dan kebolehintegrasian pendidikan STEM dalam kurikulum PERMATA Negara

Kajian ini adalah mengenai pendidikan STEM (Sains, Teknologi, Kejuruteraan, Matematik) untuk PERMATA Negara dan bertujuan menentukan kebolehlaksanaan pendidikan STEM kepada kanak-kanak 3-4 tahun di taska PERMATA dan kebolehintegrasian pendidikan STEM ke dalam Kurikulum PERMATA Negara. Selain itu, kajian ini juga menilai kesan pendidikan STEM terhadap kebolehan inkuiri, penerokaan, rekacipta, refleksi, minat, komunikasi, dan kerjasama dalam kalangan kanak-kanak yang terlibat. Sepuluh Modul STEM telah dibina dan ditentusahkan oleh pendidik PERMATA dan penyelidik pakar bidang STEM. Seramai 22 orang pendidik dan 160 orang kanak-kanak dari 19 buah Taska PERMATA terlibat sebagai responden. Dapatan kajian menunjukkan peningkatan yang signifikan (p<0.001) terhadap kebolehan inkuiri, penerokaan, rekacipta, reflleksi, minat, dan komunikasi serta semangat kerjasama kanak-kanak. Kesan latihan STEM kepada pendidik juga menunjukkan peningkatan yang sangat besar dan signifikan terhadap pengetahuan, pemahaman, kemahiran dan keyakinan diri pendidik melaksanakan STEM di taska. Dapatan-dapatan ini memberi implikasi positif terhadap pelaksanaan STEM di peringkat awal kanak-kanak. Bahagian Permata Jabatan Perdana Menteri dan agensi-agensi pelaksana perlu segera mengintegrasikan STEM ke dalam kurikulum PERMATA dan menyediakan latihan profesional STEM kepada pendidik-pendidik menerusi penubuhan Jawatankuasa Pelaksana , penggubalan dasar-dasar yang sesuai , dan penglibatan industri, swasta dan GLC

Ground plane detection using Kinect Sensor

Görüntü işleme tabanlı mobil robotların başarılı navigasyonu için zemin düzlemi algılama esastır. Bu bildiride Kinect derinlik sensöründen elde edilen derinlik bilgisine dayalı yeni ve gürbüz bir zemin düzlemi algılama algoritması önerilmektedir. Literatürdeki benzer yöntemlerin aksine, zemin düzleminin sahnedeki en büyük alan olduğunu varsayılmamaktadır. Yöntemimiz sensörün yeri görüş açısının sabit olduğu veya değişken olabileceği iki farklı durum için iki değişik algoritma halinde sunulmaktadır. Yaptığımız deneylerde her iki durum için önerdiğimiz algoritmaların oldukça başarılı olduğu gösterilmektedir.Ground plane detection is essential for successful navigation of vision based mobile robots. We introduce a novel and robust ground plane detection algorithm using depth information acquired by a Kinect sensor. Unlike similar methods from the literature, we do not assume that the ground plane covers the largest area in the scene. Furthermore our algorithm handles two different conditions: fixed and changing view angle of the sensor. We show that the algorithm is robust if the view angle is fixed whereas an additional procedure handles different view angles satisfactorily.Publisher's VersionAuthor Post Prin

Hemostasis management and therapeutic plasma exchange: Results of a practice survey

BackgroundPatients undergoing therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE) may present with risks for hemorrhage or thrombosis. Use of replacement fluids devoid of coagulation factors will decrease factor levels and platelet levels. There are no established guidelines for hemostasis management in these situations.Materials and methodsA survey to evaluate current hemostasis management practice during TPE was conducted using online survey software. One response per institution was analyzed based on a hierarchical algorithm, excluding membrane filtration users, resulting in a maximum of 107 respondents. Descriptive analysis was performed with results reported as the number and frequency (%) of respondents to each question.ResultsApheresis Medicine physicians, alone (59.4%) or jointly with the requesting provider (29.2%), choose the replacement fluid. Based on a theoretical patient case receiving five TPEs approximately every other day, the percent of respondents who would use albumin with or without normal saline was 94.7% with no history of a bleeding or clotting disorder, 1.1% with active bleeding, and 8.8% with hypofibrinogenemia (<100â mg/dL) due to recent TPE. More respondents would use albumin with or without normal saline for replacement fluid when a minor invasive procedure (49.5%) vs a major surgery (8.9%) was performed 1 day before TPE. Replacement fluid selection varied among respondents for several other clinical conditions. The most frequent use for cryoprecipitate by respondents (14.3%) was hypofibrinogenemia.ConclusionsThese survey results demonstrate wide interinstitutional variation in replacement fluid selection to manage hemostasis in patients undergoing TPE. Further studies are needed to guide optimal hemostasis management with TPE.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146396/1/jca21653.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146396/2/jca21653_am.pd

Influence of Febrile Neutropenia Period on Plasma Viscosity at Malignancy

Cancer, chemotherapy, and infections all together make changes in blood rheology and may affect the defense mechanisms by changing the thrombocyte function and endothelial cell. We have examined changes of blood rheology on plasma viscosity to put on probable following criteria for starting the treatment of febrile neutropenia immediately. A total of 27 postchemotherapy patients (16 males and 11 females) with febrile neutropenia diagnosed according to international guidelines have been included into the study. The plasma viscosity of the patients whose febrile neutropenia has been successfully treated was also measured to assess the impact of the duration of neutropenia on viscosity. The plasma viscosities of the patients were significantly higher during neutropenic episode than in nonneutropenic state () except for alkaline phosphatase. All study parameters, particularly acute phase reactants, were statistically similar during both states. In the correlation of analysis with study parameters and stages, significant correlation was not observed between plasma viscosity alteration and leukocyte-neutrophil alteration, also other study parameters. We have demonstrated significantly elevated plasma viscosity in our patients during febrile neutropenic episode. Despite normal values of various parameters known to trigger plasma viscosity, particularly fibrinogen, it can be easily argued that the main mechanism may be the endothelial injury during infectious process and immune response mediated microcirculatory blood flow alterations

Postural Photogrammetry as Promising Tool for Clinical Use: A Reliability Study

Many studies on postural photogrammetry had reported various intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC) across postural variable measurements, however no conclusive solution was given. This reliability and cross-sectional study was done in June 2016 at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Malaysia Sabah. A total of 24 male adult subjects with mean age 28.5 years (± 4.8 years), body mass 24.97 kg (± 3.85 kg) and height 166.6 cm (± 6 cm) were evaluated for standing postural photogrammetry. Four sets of manually digitized posture image files (by 4 raters) were measured and statistically analyzed for inter-rater agreement as well as the influence of image resolution and camera height from the floor on various postural variable measurements. The ICC between 4 raters for all postural variables was excellent (the lowest ICC was 0.940 for Q Angle of the Right Knee measurements). Two-Way ANOVA showed that postural variable measurements were not affected by either image resolution or camera height from the floor. Scrupulous attempts done on standing postural photogrammetry amplified the potential for standing postural evaluation in clinical settings

STAD cooperative learning model: its effect on the achievement of zoology among pre-service biology teachers in Indonesia

The STAD or “Student Teams-Achievement Divisions” cooperative learning model was investigated on its effectiveness in augmenting the Zoology achievement in pre-service Biology Education Program in Indonesia. More specifically, the comparative effect of STAD versus the conventional method on Zoology achievement through the learning of Agnatha and Placodermi in Vertebrate Zoology was investigated. Employing a quasi-experimental design over a one-week intervention, 30 pre-service Biology teachers in the Experimental Group were taught using the STAD model while 34 of their peers in the Control Group was taught using the teacher-centered conventional method. The effect of STAD was measured using a researcher-developed zoology achievement test with sufficient validity and reliability. Analyzed using the ANCOVA, the findings indicated that the Experimental Group performed significantly better than the Control Group. Further, an effect size of 0.6 shows that the average person in the experimental group scored better than 73 percent of all the participants in the control group. The findings are discussed in terms of in-service science teacher education

The impact of hybrid capture-based comprehensive genomic profiling on treatment strategies in patients with solid tumors

Objective: The development of bioinformatics and comprehensive genomic profiling (CGP) has provided insights into the ap-plicability and functionality of the genomic alterations (GA). In this study, we evaluated the impact of CGP on the treatment plan and outcomes in a significant number of patients. Material and Methods: We carried out a retrospective case-control study on 164 adult patients with advanced solid tumors from 15 oncology centers in Türkiye. Results: In all cases, CGP was performed within 23.8 [standard deviation (SD)±32.1] months of initial diagnosis. Non-small cell lung carcinoma, breast cancer, unknown primary carcinoma, colorectal carcinoma, and sarcoma were among the most common tumor types, accounting for 61.5% of all cases. CGP was performed immediately after the diagnosis of advanced cancer in 13 patients (7.9%). In 158 patients (96.4%), at least one GA was found as per the CGP report. Also, in the reports, the average tumor mutational burden (TMB) and GAs were 7.3 (SD±8.7) mut/Mb and 3.5 (SD±2.0), respectively. According to CGP reports, 58 patients had 79 evidence-based drug suggestions for their particular tumor type, whereas 97 patients had 153 evidence-based drug suggestions for another tumor type. After the primary oncologist interpreted the CGP reports, significant changes were made to the treatment of 35 (21.3%) patients. Conclusion: We strongly believe that in the future, high-TMB or other tumor-agnostic biomarkers will become much more afford-able, and CGP will serve as one of the major decision-making tools for the treatment of patients along with pathological, radiological or lab-oratory tests

Ground Plane Detection Using Kinect Sensor

21st Signal Processing and Communications Applications Conference (SIU) -- APR 24-26, 2013 -- CYPRUSWOS: 000325005300196Ground plane detection is essential for successful navigation of vision based mobile robots. We introduce a novel and robust ground plane detection algorithm using depth information acquired by a Kinect sensor. Unlike similar methods from the literature, we do not assume that the ground plane covers the largest area in the scene. Furthermore our algorithm handles two different conditions: fixed and changing view angle of the sensor. We show that the algorithm is robust if the view angle is fixed whereas an additional procedure handles different view angles satisfactorily

Adaptive visual obstacle detection for mobile robots using monocular camera and ultrasonic sensor

This paper presents a novel vision based obstacle detection algorithm that is adapted from a powerful background subtraction algorithm: ViBe (VIsual Background Extractor). We describe an adaptive obstacle detection method using monocular color vision and an ultrasonic distance sensor. Our approach assumes an obstacle free region in front of the robot in the initial frame. However, the method dynamically adapts to its environment in the succeeding frames. The adaptation is performed using a model update rule based on using ultrasonic distance sensor reading. Our detailed experiments validate the proposed concept and ultrasonic sensor based model update.Publisher's Versio