The efficiency comparison of the road management system in oil palm plantation / Mohd Saiful Abdul Wahil

Nowadays, the successful of the oil palm plantation nowaday are coming from the company management system. Reducing the cost of operating maintenance will help to increase the profit of the company. There are always some effects if the road system is not managed well. Many unnecessary cost will burden the company to cover for example road repair and tractor maintenance cost. So, this study was done to compare between the different road management systems and determine which are better. The data are collected from Mados's Lenggor and Tradewind Ladang Petri Tenggara, Johor. The data of road repair cost, tractor maintenance cost, no of collected bunches and output yield weight was collected from the year 2015. The result showed that road management system in field will give the impact to the cost and yield production of the oil palm

Urinary aluminium and its association with autism spectrum disorder in urban preschool children in Malaysia

Background The presence of aluminium (Al) in the human body may impact brain neurodevelopment and function, and it is thought to contribute to autism spectrum disease (ASD). The main objective of this study was to assess the association between urinary Al and the development of ASD among Malaysian preschool children in the urban city of Kuala Lumpur. Method This was an unmatched case–control study in which children with ASD were recruited from an autism early intervention center and typically developed (TD) children were recruited from government-run nurseries and preschools. Urine samples were collected at home, assembled temporarily at study locations, and transported to the laboratory within 24 h. The Al concentration in the children’s urine samples was determined using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Result A total of 155 preschool children; 81 ASD children and 74 TD children, aged 3 to 6 years, were enlisted in the study. This study demonstrated that ASD children had significantly higher urinary Al levels than TD children (median (interquartile range (IQR): 2.89 (6.77) µg/dL versus 0.96 (2.95) µg/dL) (p 1, p < 0.05). Conclusion A higher urine Al level was discovered to be a significant risk factor for ASD among preschool children in the urban area of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Preliminary Study on Associated Risk Factors of Mortality Due to COVID-19 Pandemic in Malaysia

The COVID-19 pandemic has claimed numerous lives worldwide. Malaysia documented about 118 mortalities during the second wave of the outbreak. This study aims to assess associated risk factors of the COVID-19 mortalities from 18 March until 22 May 2020. The majority of patients were above 60 years old (69.0%), male (78.0%), and Malaysian citizens (98.0%). The mean age of the mortalities was 64.01 years old (±SD 14.91 years). The major risk factors consist of hypertension (52.0%), diabetes mellitus (43.0%), cardiovascular diseases (21.0%), extra-pulmonary solid malignancies (5.0%), cerebrovascular diseases (3.0%), pulmonary diseases (1.0%) and pulmonary malignancies (1.0%). About 23.0% of mortalities were related to established clusters while 5.0% had a history of travelling overseas. The mean survival time was 11.87 days (±SD 9.32 days). Approximately 50.0% of the patients survived until day 10 post-admission. The probability of the patients surviving beyond 30 days post-admission was less than 10.0%. There is a significant difference between groups for having a shorter duration to death for risk factors including age group, history of travelling overseas, attending mass gatherings, and having pulmonary malignancies. The hazard ratio (HR) for pulmonary malignancy is 5.512 (95% CI 0.662, 45.899), mass gathering; 3.434 (95% CI 1.375, 8.579), pulmonary disease is 2.442 (95% CI 0.314, 18.983), travelling overseas; 2.251 (95% CI 0.657, 7.711), extra-pulmonary solid malignancy; 2.165 (95% CI 0.767, 6.112), and despite the significant result only applied for mass gathering (p-value = 0.008). COVID-19 screening should be mandatory for those who attend mass gatherings as they are the main source of COVID-19 spread in the community during the second wave outbreak in Malaysia