Assessing fun: young children as evaluators of interactive systems.

In this paper, we describe an exploratory study on the challenges of conducting usability tests with very young children aged 3 to 4 years old (nursery age) and the differences when working with older children aged 5 to 6 years old (primary school). A pilot study was conducted at local nursery and primary schools to understand and experience the challenges working with young children interacting with computer products. We report on the studies and compare the experiences of working with children of different age groups in evaluation studies of interactive systems

Performance Investigation of Dual Wavelength Fiber Laser using different SOAs

We investigated the performance of a dual wavelength fiber laser (DWFL) using different types of semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) utilizing fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) as comb filter. The lasing performances of linear SOA (LSOA), nonlinear SOA (NLSOA) and booster optical amplifier (BOA) at different current setting were observed. LSOA produced the flattest spectrum based on its peak power difference at only 4.5 dB as compared to 66.4 dB using BOA. BOA has the worst flatness because its polarization sensitivity is the highest as compared to LSOA and NLSOA. Overall, the best lasing performance is when LSOA is used due to the lowest peak power difference with high peak power at -17.6 dBm

Modeling neural plasticity in echo state networks for time series prediction

In this paper, we investigate the influence of neural plasticity on the learning performance of echo state networks (ESNs) and supervised learning algorithms in training readout connections for two time series prediction problems including the sunspot time series and the Mackey Glass chaotic system. We implement two different plasticity rules that are expected to improve the prediction performance, namely, anti-Oja learning rule and the Bienenstock-Cooper-Munro (BCM) learning rule combined with both offline and online learning of the readout connections. Our experimental results have demonstrated that the neural plasticity can more significantly enhance the learning in offline learning than in online learning

A new species of genus Ephemeroporus Frey, 1982 (Cladocera: Anomopoda: Chydoridae) from Peninsular Malaysia

Study of Ephemeroporus Frey, 1982 populations from Peninsular Malaysia revealed a new species. Ephemeroporus malaysiaensis sp. nov. is characterized by the presence of four-five large denticles on anal margin of postabdomen instead of two-three, and five distinctive pigmented spots on each valve. Pigmented spots on the valves were never recorded for any species of family Chydoridae. E. malaysiaensis sp. nov. seems to be another endemic Chydoridae species of South- East Asia. E. malaysiaensis sp. nov. is a rare species, associated with emergent macrophytes in the littoral zone of shallow lake. Most of Ephemeroporus populations from Peninsular Malaysia belong to eurybiotic Paleotropical species Ephemeroporus barroisi (Richard, 1984)

Bacterial co-infections in a captive Python bivittatus with septicemia

This case reports bacterial co-infection in a dead albino python (Python bivittatus). The snake was brought in dead to the Universiti Veterinary Hospital, Universiti Putra Malaysia. Necropsy was conducted and organ samples were sent for virus and bacterial isolation, as well as histopathology. Gross pathological lesions include congestion of the heart, spleen and liver and presence of superficial whitish circumscribed spots in the lungs. Bacterial culture showed the presence of Salmonella enterica ssp arizona, Plesiomonas shigelloides and Enterobacter cloacae. Histopathological evaluation showed evidence of necrosis, degeneration and heterophil infiltration in the liver, kidney, heart and lungs. The snake was diagnosed to have died of bacterial septicemia.Keywords: Bacterial isolation, Captive snake, Histopathology, Python bivittatus, Septicemi

Multi objective machining estimation model using orthogonal and neural network

Much hard work has been done to model the machining operations using the neural network (NN). However, the selection of suitable neural network model in machining optimization area especially in multi objective area is unsupervised and resulted in pointless trials. Thus, a combination of Taguchi orthogonal and NN modeling approach is tested on two types of electrical discharge machining (EDM) operations; Cobalt Bonded Tungsten Carbide (WC-Co) and Inconel 718 to observe the efficiency of proposed approach on different numbers of objectives. WC-Co EDM considered two objective functions and Inconel 718 EDM considered four objective functions. It is found that one hidden layer 4-8-2 layer recurrent neural network (LRNN) is the best estimation model for WC-Co machining and one hidden layer 5-14-4 cascade feed forward back propagation (CFBP) is the best estimation model for Inconel 718 EDM. The results are compared with trial-error approach and it is proven that the proposed modeling approach is able to improve the machining performances and works efficiently on two-objective problems

Oral Health-related Quality of Life Among Pregnant Women at Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia

This cross sectional study aimed to determine oral health-related quality of life in pregnant women. A total of 100 pregnant women seen at the Obstetrics and Gynaecology Clinic at Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia participated in this study. The short version of the Malaysian Oral Health Impact Profile (S-OHIP(M)) questionnaire with five-point ordinal scale that ranges from ‘never' to ‘very often' was used to assess the frequency of oral impacts during the previous 12 months. The majority of the respondents were Malay (96.0%), with a mean age of 29.9 years (SD 5.78). The highest education level attained by most respondents was post-secondary qualification or Diploma (39.0%). Some had formal tertiary education (27.0%). The majority of them were income earners (74.0%) and contributed to the household income. Half of the respondents were in their third trimester of pregnancy while the remaining half was either in the first or second trimester. The severity of impact experienced by the women, which is the mean S-OHIP(M) score was high at 10.43 (95% CI = 8.96, 11.90). The prevalence of impact, which is the percentage of respondents reporting ‘fairly often' or ‘very often' to one or more impacts, was 36.0%. Common impacts experienced by the respondents include feeling uncomfortable because food got stuck in between teeth or dentures (22.0%), feeling that oral health problems had caused bad breath (13.0%), and feeling shy because of problems with teeth, mouth or dentures (9.0%). The results also demonstrated that neither the severity nor the prevalence of impact was influenced by the women's socio-demographic background. This study concluded that pregnant women suffered from high impact of oral diseases that could affect their quality of lif

Effects of nitrite and pH on a tropical fish fry, puntius gonionotus (Bleeker)

The effects of short term and long term exposure of a tropical fish fry, Barbodes gonionotus (Bleeher), to pH and nitrite separately and in combination, were evaluated using static and flow-through bioassays respectively. The 96-hour LC50 values of pH and nitrate were 4.9 and 7.91 mg/l N02-N -respectively. However the 96-hour LC50 of pH was higher (5.4 pH unit) in the presence of nitrite 5.00 mg/l N02-N) than that without nitrite. At pH 5.00,100% mortality was found at 4.00 mg/l N02-N concentration after 48-hour exposure. Under long-term exposure, the growth rates of the fish fry decreased with increased nitrite concentrations. Fish fry grown at 2.00 mg/l N02-N had significantly lower growth rate (P < 0.05) than the control, but had a significantly higher rate (P < 0.05) than in the 4.00 mg/l N02-N (PH 7.33-7.56). One hundred per cent mortality occurred within 30 days at pH 5.00 - 7.00 when the fish were exposed to 4.00 mg/l N02-N concentration at the same time. The study demonstrated that the effects of combined pH and nitrite on the survival and growth rates of the fish fry were more serious than the effects of each factor separately

Preliminary study on the use of Bacillus sp., Vibrio sp. and egg white to enhance growth, survival rate and resistance of Penaeus monodon fabricius to white spot syndrome virus

Research in low cost feeds with high nutritional value and immunogenicity is important to reduce production cost and increase yields in the shrimp industry. In this study, immunostimulants of bacterial origin (peptidoglycan and lipopolysaccharides) and egg white were incorporated in shrimp diets as feed additives to determine the growth, survival and tolerance of Penaeus monodon to white spot syndrome virus (WSSV). Although the results obtained were not statistically significant (p>0.05) among the treatments, shrimp fed with bacterial additives and egg white showed higher weight gain, specific growth rate and survival than those fed on commercial shrimp diet. Shrimp fed with artificial diet showed 100% mortality when challenged with WSSV. However, shrimp fed on peptidoglycan supplemented diet had higher survival than their counterpart, whereas shrimp fed on egg white supplemented diet had a higher specific growth rate and better tolerance when challenged with WSSV. Further studies are required to determine the effectiveness and optimization of bacterial strains and egg white as feed additives to increase production and enhance the shrimp immune response to diseases