Association of Caucasian-identified variants with colorectal cancer risk in Singapore Chinese

Background: Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in Caucasians have identified fourteen index single nucleotide polymorphisms (iSNPs) that influence colorectal cancer (CRC) risk. Methods: We investigated the role of eleven iSNPs or surrogate SNPs (sSNPs), in high linkage disequilibrium (LD, r2≥0.8) and within 100 kb vicinity of iSNPs, in 2,000 age- and gender-matched Singapore Chinese (SCH) cases and controls. Results: Only iSNP rs6983267 at 8q24.21 and sSNPs rs6695584, rs11986063, rs3087967, rs2059254, and rs7226855 at 1q41, 8q23.3, 11q23.1, 16q22.1 and 18q21.1 respectively showed evidence of association with CRC risk, with odds ratios (OR) ranging from 1.13 to 1.40. sSNP rs827401 at 10p14 was associated with rectal cancer risk (OR = 0.74, 95% CI 0.63-0.88) but not disease prognosis (OR = 0.91, 95% CI 0.69-1.20). Interestingly, sSNP rs3087967 at 11q23.1 was associated with CRC risk in men (OR = 1.34, 95% CI 1.14-1.58) but not women (OR = 1.07, 95% CI: 0.88-1.29), suggesting a gender-specific role. Half of the Caucasian-identified variants, including the recently fine-mapped BMP pathway loci, BMP4, GREM1, BMP2 and LAMA 5, did not show any evidence for association with CRC in SCH (OR ~1; p-value >0.1). Comparing the results of this study with that of the Northern and Hong Kong Chinese, only variants at chromosomes 8q24.21, 10p14, 11q23.1 and 18q21.1 were replicated in at least two out of the three Chinese studies. Conclusions: The contrasting results between Caucasians and Chinese could be due to different LD patterns and allelic frequencies or genetic heterogeneity. The results suggest that additional common variants contributing to CRC predisposition remained to be identified. © 2012 Thean et al

Imagineering anatomy assessment amidst Covid-19: turning obstacles into achievements

A well-designed assessment has beneficial impacts on students’ learning and competency attainment. Failure in obtaining psychomotor learning competency, lack of understanding of assessment principles among instructors, unoptimized information and technology facilities, and difficulties in ensuring the integrity of online examination are among the threats to validity of online anatomy assessment during the COVID-19 pandemic. To ensure the validity of anatomy assessment during the pandemic, it is important to adopt several educational principles into the assessment design. We solidify the input discussed in the Malaysian Anatomical Association webinar 2021, on the challenges of anatomy online assessment and proposed six solutions to the challenges, namely adopting the programmatic assessment design, conducting small group in-person high stake examination, modifying assessment policy, utilizing question bank software, upgrading ICT facilities, and offering the ICT training to the students and instructors. It is envisioned that anatomy assessment are future ready are adaptive to change

Development of a Digital Health Supported Diabetes Prevention Program (PRIME) based in Malaysian Community Pharmacies

Background: Prediabetes is a high-risk state for developing type-2 diabetes mellitus, where evidence-based lifestyle management programs were proven to substantially reduce its risk progression. PRIME is a mobile application equipped with features such as education modules, chat functions, diet, physical activity and sleep tracking, weight and biochemistry monitoring. With the help of community pharmacists as health coaches, lifestyle interventions targeting on weight reduction among people with prediabetes will be delivered via PRIME.Aims: To examine the usability, acceptability, feasibility and preliminary efficacy of PRIME.Methods: This pilot study will consist of two phases: 1) user testing 2) single-arm pre- and post- intervention study. For phase 1, participants will be invited to test the features of PRIME. Feedback on usability and acceptability will be collected via a short survey and a short interview or text messaging. For phase 2, adults with prediabetes will be recruited from a community pharmacy in Klang Valley, Malaysia to evaluate the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of PRIME. Data will be collected at baseline and 1-month follow-up, including a survey on knowledge, attitude and practice towards prediabetes, biochemistry and anthropometry measures such as weight, fasting blood glucose, HbA1c and lipid profile. An in-depth interview with the participants will be conducted post-intervention to collect qualitative data on their perception towards PRIME.Results and conclusion: This research is still at its preliminary stage, findings will be available before the conference

Electricity market reform : comparison of California, United Kingdom and Singapore.

The main objective of this report is to analyze the effectiveness of electricity market reforms in improving efficiency cross California, United Kingdom and Singapore. Although many studies have been done on the respective markets, no study has ever attempted to make a performance comparison using standardized indicators across the three markets. Hence, this paper, segmented into wholesale, retail and transmission aims to fill the gap. Overall, our findings showed that Singapore is the best performer, followed by United Kingdom and California. This study then list and provide an in-depth explanation of consistent factors affecting their performance. The conclusion is that either market based or regulatory reforms can be used to improving efficiency, with regulatory being a safer alternative. Reforms across the three segments have to be consistent and not contradict each other. And also, introducing performance based regulation for transmission market will improve reliability.Bachelor of Art

Social media : an additional channel for effective crisis communication.

Social media has been receiving a lot of attention from companies due to the large number of users that are engaged in it. A worldwide Nielsen study has shown that there is a 82% increase in users spending more than five hours a day on social networking sites in December 2009 since a year ago. Our research aims to look at how organizations can tap on social media as an additional tool for effective crisis communication. The basis of our study is derived from the 4Cs(Comprehension, Connection, Credibility and Contagiousness) communication framework by Isabelle Albanese. Following this, a survey was conducted to test the perception of internet-savvy Singaporeans towards the use of social media in crisis communication. Survey results have concluded that out of the 4Cs, comprehension of the message and connection with the audience are the two Cs that benefit most from the use of social media. On the other hand, traditional media is more effective in achieving credibility and message contagiousness. This paper will be of interest to organizations which are contemplating the use of social media in their crisis communication efforts. They can make use of this research to find out more about how crisis communication is affected by social media. In addition, organizations will also be more aware of the benefits that they are missing out if they do not utilize this medium.BUSINES

Optimal design of the side-sensitive modified group runs (SSMGR) Xbar chart when process parameters are estimated

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