Tests on a Small Rainfall Simulator for Evaluating Soil Erodibility

A selected number of upland soils were subjected, in situ, to simulated rain of short duration in order to establish a methodology for evaluating erodibility of Malaysian soils. The rainfall simulator produces an 18mm shower in three minutes from an average height of OAm, falling onto a 0.0625m2 test plot area at 20% slope. Results from both the surface and sub-surface horizons show less variability in the soil loss between plots than between successive runs on the same plot. Mean soil loss ranged between 5A2g and 12. 66g per plot. Soil loss was found to be not very sensitive to small variations in antecedent soil moisture around the field capacity value. The method appears capable of discriminating responses between soils and is thus, suited to the study of erodibility of upland soils in Malaysia

Kaunseling Kelompok Terapi Kognitif dalam Pengurusan Stres dalam kalangan Polis

This article was written to discuss the use ofcognitive therapy group counseling method in stress managementamong police personnel in Malaysia. It also discusses what police stressscenarios, stress factors, stress effects experienced by policemen in their work and lifestyle, and how existing programs have been done to reduce police stress. The results of this paper can give an idea and suggestion to the Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM)in intervention using cognitivecounseling group interventions as a method that can be applied to high-stresspolice personnel in particular and who experience moderate stress

Family Characteristics and the Coping Behaviour Associatedwith Duration and Frequency of Sexual Assaul

This study reports the sexual abuse of children and their trauma post-assault in Sabah, Malaysia. The objective of this study is to analyze the relationship between family characteristics and coping behavior associated with the duration and frequency of sexual assault of the child survivors. Eighty children who reported sexual assault through a One Stop Crisis Centre in an urban hospital were studied. The main research instrument used was adapted from the Adolescence Coping Scale. The results of the study show that there are no significant differences in the coping behavior of victims according to the frequency and duration of their sexual abuse. The relationship of the variables family characteristics, frequency, and duration of sexual assault as well as the coping behavior of the victims is important for social workers both to understand and to take note of in intervention work with child sexual assault survivors who report their abuse. The implications of these findings were also discussed in the context of the provision of crisis intervention support for child victims of sexual abuse by social workers

Kesan Rawatan Terapi Integratif Terhadap Kemurungan dan Agresif dalam kalangan Banduan Penjara

Tujuan utama kajian ini dijalankan adalah untuk mengenal pasti kesan rawatan Terapi Integratif terhadap kemurungan dan agresif dalam kalangan banduan penjara. Terapi Intergratif dalam kajian ini merujuk kepada modul rawatan yang mengandungi empat integrasi teori di dalam suatu proses kaunseling. Ia melibatkan gabungan terapi Person Client Centered (PCC), Rational Emotions Behaviour Therapy (REBT) dan Choice Theory Reality Therapy (CTRT) sebagai teknikal rawatan. Manakala Stimulus Organisme Response (SOR) bertindak sebagai prinsip rawatan atau pembelajaran. Terapi Integratif ini dikendalikan terhadap responden sebanyak enam sesi kaunseling kelompok. Kajian ini juga berbentuk kuasi eksperimen melibatkan 160 orang banduan murung (80 rawatan; 80 kawalan) dan 140 orang banduan agresif (70 rawatan; 70 kawalan) daripada lima buah institusi penjara sebagai responden kajian menggunakan persampelan bertujuan. Banduan ini dikenalpasti sebagai responden berdasarkan cutting point tinggi kemurungan menggunakan alat ukur Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) dan tinggi agresif menggunakan Aggressive Questionaires (AQ). Bagi tujuan analisis data, statistik yang digunakan adalah ujian non-parametrik iaitu Mann-Whitney Test dan Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test berdasarkan analisis Taburan Normal menggunakan ujian Kolmogorov-Smirnov dan Shapiro-Wilk. Hasil kajian melaporkan keputusan Mann-Whitney Test menunjukkan kumpulan rawatan mempunyai kadar penurunan yang lebih tinggi berbanding kumpulan kawalan dalam kemurungan dan agresif. Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test juga menunjukkan keputusan yang sama apabila kumpulan rawatan menunjukkan nilai penurun dari pra program kepada pasca program lebih besar berbanding kumpulan kawalan

Examination of Prefrontal Cortex Activity After EEG-Neurofeedback Stimulation in Overweight Cases

Food intake regulation is considered the key to weight control and overweight prevention. The brain activity in PreFrontal Cortex (PFC) plays a role in food intake behaviors. Most of the previous studies were aimed to PFC stimulation in overweight cases to modify the food intake behaviors. The EEG-neurofeedback is one of  the brain stimulation techniques; therefore, this study aims to find the effect of  EEG-NF stimulation on PFC function by EEG features analysis. For the purpose of analysis, the theta\beta ratio was extracted from ten healthy overweight participators in this study. All participants were divided into two groups, experimental group and control group with two phase-terms, pre and post-stimulation phase. The experiments were run using EEG-NF device. The results in this study indicate that success of EEG-Neurofeedback in PFC stimulation of overweight cases may have an influence on changing the food intake behavior

Analysis of human bradykinin receptor gene and endothelial nitric oxide synthase gene polymorphisms in end-stage renal disease among Malaysians

The aim of this study was to determine the association of the c.894G>T; p.Glu298Asp polymorphism and the variable number tandem repeat (VNTR) polymorphism of the endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) gene and c.181C>T polymorphism of the bradykinin type 2 receptor gene (B2R) in Malaysian end-stage renal disease (ESRD) subjects. A total of 150 ESRD patients were recruited from the National Kidney Foundation’s (NKF)dialysis centers in Malaysia and compared with 150 normal healthy individuals. Genomic DNA was extracted from buccal cells of all the subjects. The polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) method was carried out to amplify the products and the restricted fragments were separated by agarose gel electrophoresis. Statistical analyses were carried out using software where a level of p T, 4b/a) and eNOS gene (c.894G>T) polymorphisms were not statistically significant (p >0.05) when compared to the control subjects. The B2R and eNOS gene polymorphisms may not be considered as genetic susceptibility markers for Malaysian ESRD subjects

Effect of trauma distress, trauma dissociative experience and life satisfaction among earthquake victims in Sabah, Malaysia

For years, many researchers have been working on ways of examining the psychological effect of earthquakes among victims who have experienced trauma. The goal of this study is to examine the relationship between trauma distress, associative trauma and life satisfaction among earthquake victims in Ranau, Sabah. A survey was conducted in a sample of 136 students from the Ranau area, 1 month after the earthquake. Demographics were obtained from participants using a self-administered questionnaire, fear and sense of helplessness were assessed with the Peritraumatic Distress Inventory (PDI), peritraumatic dissociative experiences were assessed with the Peritraumatic Dissociative Experiences Questionnaire (PDEQ) and life satisfaction was assessed with the cantrill’s vertical visual-analogue scale ladder of life satisfaction. The results showed that was a significant negative effect of traumatic distress towards life satisfaction whereas dissociative traumatic experience did not have significant effect on life satisfaction. In addition, there was a significant and positive relationship between trauma distress and dissociative trauma among earthquake victims in Ranau. The findings suggest that concern over earthquake disaster was strongly associated with psychological distress. Reliable, accurate information on earthquake disaster might reduce psychological effects among victims

Effectiveness of cognitive therapy and behavior therapy treatment moddules intervention in group counseling among stress nurses

This Study was conducted as to explore the effectiveness of the treatment modules in group counseling between the Cognitive Therapy Group Counseling and Behavior Therapy Group Counseling in reducibg stress level among nurses in Woman and Children Hospital in Kota Kinabalu. The Fact, nurses who have joined either treatment have shown some decrease in their stress level. However when comparing between the two (CTGC and BTGC), BTGC showed better results in reducing stress level among nurses in the hospital. Therefore, both CTGC and BTGC are suitable to reduce stress among nurses in the hospital

Parasitological and serological investigation into lymphatic filariasis among immigrants at Semenyih Detention Centre, Selangor, West Malaysia

Parasitological and serological investigations for lymphatic filariasis were performed on 450 immigrants detained at the Immigration Centre at Semenyih, Seiangor, West Malaysia. The country of origin of these immigrants were Indonesia, The Philippines, Myanmar, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. Brugia malayi adult worm homogenate (BmAH) antigen was used for the detection of antifilarial IgG. A monoclonal antibody-based ELISA (MAb.XC3~ELISA) specific for filarial circulating antigens and non-phosphorylcholine reactive was used to detect antigenemia in these immigrants. Parasitologically 67 (14.89 %) were positive for W, bancrofti and 54 (12.0%) for Brugia malayi. Serologically 63 % had antifilarial IgG titre to the BmAH antigen. While Bancroftian filariasis is now unknown in Peninsular Malaysia, the potential of it to be reintroduced into Peninsular Malaysia by the immigrant population is discussed