Performance of STAR virtual trials for diabetic and non-diabetic in HTAA Intensive Care Unit

Critically ill patients are commonly linked to stress-induced hyperglycaemia which relates to insulin resistance and the risk of per-diagnosed with diabetes and other metabolic illnesses. Thus, it is essential to choose the best practice of blood glucose management in order to reduce morbidity and mortality rates in intensive care unit. This study is focusing on clinical data of 210 critically ill patients in Hospital Tengku Ampuan Afzan (HTAA), Kuantan who underwent Intensive Insulin Therapy which utilized a sliding scale method. Patients were identified in two main groups of diabetic (123) and non-diabetic (87) where stochastic model is generated to observe 90% confidence interval of insulin sensitivity. Blood glucose levels comparison between these two cohorts is conducted to observe the percentage of blood glucose levels within targeted band of 4.4 – 10.0 mmol/L. It is found that 82% of BG levels are within targated band for non-diabetes cohort under stochastic targeted (STAR) glycaemic control protocol. However, only 59.6% and 70.6% BG levels are within targeted band for diabetes cohort for insulin infusion therapy used in HTAA and STAR protocols. Thus, further investigation on blood glucose control protocol for diabetes patients is required to increase the reliability and efficacy of current practice despite of patient safety

Estimation of stature from hand and handprint measurements in Iban population in Sarawak, Malaysia and its applications in forensic investigation

Handprints and dismembered hands are commonly found during crime scene investigations and disaster victim identifications, respectively. It has been indicated that the accuracy of handprint and hand measurements for estimating stature maybe population specific. Since Iban is the largest ethnic population in Sarawak, Malaysia and because the application of anthropometry of hand and handprint within this population as well as other populations within the Southeast Asian countries remain unreported, this present study that investigated the reliability and accuracy of these two anthropometric aspects acquires forensic significance. Upon measuring the height, 21 measurements were recorded on each hand and the corresponding handprint of 50 male and 52 female consented adult Iban subjects. Using univariate statistics as well as simple and multiple regression analyses, interpretation of the measurements examined here was attempted. Results revealed that lengths of hand and handprint are the more reliable traits for estimating stature in both the male and female Iban subjects (p < 0.05) with correlation strength ranging from 0.60 to 0.76. Comparable to the established skeletal standards for hand, the stature prediction accuracy using hand and handprint measurements investigated in this research ranged between 4.29 and 5.78 cm. Hence, this research provided the first forensic standard for estimation of stature among the Iban population in Sarawak that may prove useful for crime scene investigations and disaster victim identifications in Malaysia

Load-deformation analysis on a slope at Gunung Pulai water treatment plant, Sultan Ibrahim reservoir

The Sultan Ibrahim Reservoir located at Gunung Pulai catchment area was previously managed by the Singapore's Public Utilities Board before the Board handed over the reservoir to Johor State Government under current management of the Syarikat Air Johor. At the present time, the Syarikat Air Johor is operating a Gunung Pulai Water Treatment Plant consisted of two main plants, i.e. Water Sedimentation Plant and Water Filtration Plant for treating raw water from the reservoir before supplying to the consumers. However, the integrity of water treatment plant's structure should be checked due to several cracks were observed, and moreover the structure was built over more than 90 years. The formation of the cracks in the Gunung Pulai Water Treatment Plant may be induced by movement of the sloping area to the south-east of Water Sedimentation Plant. The calculated Factor of Safety (FOS) via sensitivity analysis for cross sections of original slope indicates any decrease in friction angle and/or cohesion strength or increase in horizontal seismic load will further cause instability on slope. Also, the results of Load-Deformation analysis on cross sections of original slope show significant vertical displacement and horizontal displacement on the bottom and both sides of sedimentation tanks, respectively. The results indicate applied structural and water loads significantly affect deformation at both vertical and horizontal directions which could have contributed to FOS < 1 in slope stability analysis

Performance of STAR Virtual Trials for Diabetic and Non-Diabetic in HTAA Intensive Care Unit

Critically ill patients are commonly linked to stress-induced hyperglycaemia which relates to insulin resistance and the risk of per-diagnosed with diabetes and other metabolic illnesses. Thus, it is essential to choose the best practice of blood glucose management in order to reduce morbidity and mortality rates in intensive care unit. This study is focusing on clinical data of 210 critically ill patients in Hospital Tengku Ampuan Afzan (HTAA), Kuantan who underwent Intensive Insulin Therapy which utilized a sliding scale method. Patients were identified in two main groups of diabetic (123) and non-diabetic (87) where stochastic model is generated to observe 90% confidence interval of insulin sensitivity. Blood glucose levels comparison between these two cohorts is conducted to observe the percentage of blood glucose levels within targeted band of 4.4-10.0 mmol/L. It is found that 82% of BG levels are within tar gated band for non-diabetes cohort under stochastic targeted (STAR) glycaemic control protocol. However, only 59.6% and 70.6% BG levels are within targeted band for diabetes cohort for insulin infusion therapy used in HTAA and STAR protocols. Thus, further investigation on blood glucose control protocol for diabetes patients is required to increase the reliability and efficacy of current practice despite of patient safety

Application of microwave moisture sensor for determination of oil palm fruit ripeness

This paper describes the development of a low cost coaxial moisture sensor for the determination of moisture content (30 % to 80 % wet-weight basis) of the oil palm fruits of various degree of fruit ripeness. The sensor operating between 1 GHz and 5 GHz was fabricated from an inexpensive 4.1 mm outer diameter SMA coaxial stub contact panel which is suitable for single fruit measurement. The measurement system consists of the sensor and a PC-controlled vector network analyzer (VNA). The actual moisture content was determined by standard oven drying method and compared with predicted value of fruit moisture content obtained using the studied sensor. The sensor was used to monitor fruit ripeness based on the measurement of the phase or magnitude of reflection coefficient and the dielectric measurement software was developed to control and acquire data from the VNA using Agilent VEE. This software was used to calculate the complex relative permittivity from the measured reflection coefficient between 1GHz and 5 GHz

A review of powdered additive manufacturing techniques for Ti-6al-4v biomedical applications

Rapid advancements in science and technology have assured biomaterials and their associated fields towards becoming a multimillion-dollar industry. Biomaterials have been shown as one of the most promising materials for biomedical implant development. As such, this article intends to provide a comprehensive review of metal additive manufacturing (metal-AM) processes evolution used in biomedical applications. The most common types of metal-AM methods practised today are Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), Selective Laser Melting (SLM), Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS), Electron Beam Melting (EBM) and Laser Engineered Net Shaping (LENS). The present review also covers the application of these metal-AM systems in Ti-6Al-4V-based implants fabrication. The scientific challenges and critical issues towards improving the biomaterial properties so that they are more notable in the biomedical industry are also discussed