Socially-enhanced variants of mobile bingo game: Towards personalized cognitive and social engagement among seniors

Elderlies often feel isolated or disregarded. This may lead to depression, lack of cognitive and social engagement. This project thus aims to engage the elderlies through three variants of a mobile bingo game application designed based on Norman’s usability principles. This paper presents the design and development of three variants of the mobile bingo game to suit the needs of senior citizens. User testing outcomes on user experience, usability and cognitive load are positive

Green Procurement Practices and Barriers in Furniture Manufacturing Companies

Lack of awareness is the most significant barrier to implementing green procurement practices among procurement managers. Procurement managers seldom consider the effects of procurement on the environment. This situation will cause many environmental problems such as carbon dioxide emissions, climate change, greenhouse effects, pollution, and deforestation. Hence, the purpose of this study is to identify the current practices of green procurement in furniture manufacturing companies. Additionally, this study intends to determine barriers to green procurement practices in furniture manufacturing companies. In this study, 118 procurement officers and managers were chosen randomly from furniture manufacturing companies in Batu Pahat, Johor. This study applied a quantitative method and utilized the Statistical Package Social Science (SPSS) version 20.0 to analyse the data from the responses of questionnaires. Descriptive analysis was employed to achieve the research objectives. The findings of this study have revealed that current practices of green procurement in furniture manufacturing companies include ensuring the safe, incoming movement of product to facilities, followed by ensuring that suppliers locations are operated in a safe manner. Meanwhile, the main barrier to green procurement practices is that procedures for the implementation of green procurement are time-consuming. This study is important for furniture manufacturing companies to use green procurement practices in their operation and production processes

Roles and recommendations from primary care physicians towards managing low-risk breast cancer survivors in a shared-care model with specialists in Singapore-a qualitative study.

BackgroundBreast cancer is prevalent and has high cure rates. The resultant increase in numbers of breast cancer survivors (BCS) may overwhelm the current oncology workforce in years to come. We postulate that primary care physicians (PCPs) could play an expanded role in comanaging survivors, provided they are given the appropriate tools and training to do so.ObjectiveTo explore the perspectives of PCPs towards managing BCS in a community-based shared-care programme with oncologists.MethodsEleven focus groups and six in-depth interviews were conducted with seventy PCPs recruited by purposive sampling. All sessions were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim and coded by three independent investigators. Thematic data analysis was performed and the coding process facilitated by NVivo 12.ResultsMajority of PCPs reported currently limited roles in managing acute and non-cancer issues, optimizing comorbidities and preventive care. PCPs aspired to expand their role to include cancer surveillance, risk assessment and addressing unmet psychosocial needs. PCPs preferred to harmonize cancer survivorship management of their primary care patients who are also BCS, with defined role distinct from oncologists. Training to understand the care protocol, enhancement of communication skills, confidence and trust were deemed necessary. PCPs proposed selection criteria of BCS and adequacy of their medical information; increased consultation time; contact details and timely access to oncologists (if needed) in the shared-care programme.ConclusionsPCPs were willing to share the care of BCS with oncologists but recommended role definition, training, clinical protocol, resources and access to oncologist's consultation to optimize the programme implementation

Basal Cell Carcinoma of the Head and Neck Region in Ethnic Chinese

Objectives. This study aims to report our experience in the management of HNBCC in ethnic Chinese over a 10-year period. Methods. A retrospective review of all ethnic Chinese patients with HNBCC treated in a tertiary centre from 1999 to 2009. Results. From 1999 to 2009, 225 patients underwent surgical excision for HNBCC. Majority were elderly female patients. Commonest presentation was a pigmented (76.2%) ulcer (64.8%) over the nose (31.6%). Median skin margin taken on tumour excision was 2.0 mm; primary skin closure was achieved in 51.8%. Postresection skin margin was clear in 75.4%. Of those with inadequate skin margins, 56.7% opted for further treatment, 43.4% for observation. Recurrence rates were 2.6% and 13.8%, respectively (P = 0.106). Overall recurrence rate was 5.5%. Conclusions. HNBCC commonly presented as pigmented ulcers over the nose of elderly female patients in our locality. Adequate tumour excision ± reconstruction offered the best chance of cure. Reexcision of those with inadequate skin margins improved local tumour control

Liquid-Crystal-Based Phase Gratings and Beam Steerers for Terahertz Waves

We review our theoretical and experimental studies on a class of liquid crystal (LC) photonic devices, i.e., terahertz (THz) phase gratings and beam steerers by using LCs. Such gratings can function as a THz polarizer and tunable THz beam splitters. The beam splitting ratio of the zeroth-order diffraction to the first-order diffraction by the grating can be tuned from 10:1 to 3:5. Gratings with two different base dimensions were prepared. The insertion loss is lower by approximately 2.5 dB for the one with the smaller base. The response times of the gratings were also studied and were long (tens of seconds) as expected because of the thick LC layer used. Accordingly, the devices are not suitable for applications that require fast modulation. However, they are suitable for instrumentation or apparatuses that require precise control, e.g., an apparatus requiring a fixed beam splitting ratio with occasional fine tuning. Schemes for speeding up the device responses were proposed. Based on the grating structure, we also achieved an electrically tunable THz beam steerer. Broadband THz radiation can be steered by 8.5° with respect to the incident beam by varying the driving voltages to yield the designed phase gradient

Frequency-Synthesized Approach to High-Power Attosecond Pulse Generation and Applications: Applications

In part I of this work, we present the design, construction and diagnostics of a new scheme of generating high-power attosecond pulses and arbitrary waveforms by multicolor synthesis. In this chapter, we demonstrate selected applications of this novel source, such as coherently controlled harmonic generation as well as phase-sensitive two-color ablation of copper and stainless steel by this multicolor laser system

Frequency-Synthesized Approach to High-Power Attosecond Pulse Generation and Applications: Generation and Diagnostics

We present a new scheme of generating high-power attosecond pulses and arbitrary waveform synthesis by multicolor synthesis. The full bandwidth of the multicolor laser system extends more than two-octaves and reaches 37,600 cm−1 which can be used to generate sub-single-cycle (∼0.37 cycle) sub-femtosecond (360 attosecond) pulses with carrier-envelope phase (CEP) control. The results show a promising approach for generation of relatively high-power attosecond pulses in the optical region. In this chapter, the design and diagnostics of the laser system are described. In part 2 of this work (the following chapter), we demonstrate selected applications of this novel source, such as coherently controlled harmonic generation as well as phase-sensitive 2-color ablation of copper and stainless steel by this multi-color laser system