Working satisfaction as a teacher

Teachers evaluate their roles in their school environment by what they feel as they go to work every day. The ability of workers to adapt to the work environment is often associated with job satisfaction. Job satisfaction is urgently needed to provide comfort in performing tasks that have been entrusted to the teachers. It would be achieved if all requirement are met and it would indirectly increase the motivated the teachers. Nowadays there are few signs which indicate that job satisfaction has occurred degradation. The stages of adaptation at the workplace often vary which will result in job dissatisfaction and thus the job performance is affected. Apart from that, findings of several studies has found that the key factors affecting job satisfaction to teachers is the development of motivation, attitude and behavior of an individual and the emotional stress due to workload and their internal problem. Job satisfaction is also closely related to the working-class pressure. The working pressure is always identified as factors leading to low production yield, absenteeism, resignations and poor health of workers. An individual who has high job satisfaction will focus on his career, will be not easily tired, hardworking, highly motivated and will strive to improve work performance. Aspects of job satisfaction is also associated with the psychological aspects inseparable from the concept of motivation. The emphasis on job satisfaction is very important because it will indirectly affect individual performance and contribution to the organization. Someone who do not get job satisfaction will be tempted to neglect their duty and does not carry out the mandate that was given to him

Predictors of exclusive breastfeeding among mothers attending rural health clinics in Hulu Langat district

Introduction: Even though exclusive breastfeeding prevalence has increased from 19.3% in 2006 to 47.1% in 2016, this practice was slightly higher in urban areas (48.3%) compared to rural area (45.1%) in Malaysia. National Plan of Action for Nutrition of Malaysia III has set an indicator to achieve at least 70% exclusive breastfeeding by 2025. Therefore this study is to identify predictors that influenced exclusive breastfeeding practice in rural areas. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in six rural health clinics in Hulu Langat District, Selangor among mothers with youngest child aged 6-48 months old. Respondents were selected through systematic random sampling. Validated self-administered questionnaire was used to assess sociodemographic factors, maternal factors, external factors and child’s factors. Mother’s height and weight was measured and body mass index was calculated. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 23. Multivariate logistic regression was used to determine the predictors for exclusive breastfeeding practice. Results: Response rate was 96% with a total of 311 mothers participated in this study. More than half of the mothers exclusively breastfed (52.4%). The predictors for exclusive breastfeeding were Malay ethnicity (AOR=3.951, 95% CI: 1.374-11.358), having tertiary education (AOR=2.401, 95% CI: 1.100-5.241) and positive attitude toward breastfeeding (AOR=7.755, 95% CI: 1.382-43.502). Conclusion: Prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding was higher in this study than the national level. Programme planners should pay special attention to Chinese and Indian ethnicities, mothers with lower level of education and negative attitude in order to improve breastfeeding practice among rural mothers

Psychosocial predictors of adolescent aggression

Aggression is one of the most common Paediatric Psychiatric emergency problems presented in healthcare services with major public health impacts. The aim of this review is to determine the psychosocial predictors of adolescent aggression. Systematic review on observational study designs were conducted. Recent five years English published journal articles (2014-2018) were searched in three databases (Science Direct, PubMed and EBSCO) from April 2018 until May 2018. The final 15 articles (seven prospective cohort, eight cross-sectional studies) were included in the systematic review. Psychological predictors were mainly on the personality traits and emotional problems experienced by the adolescents including callous-unemotional traits, hostility, anger, and low empathy. Self-control was found to be protective against adolescent aggression. Social predictors that contribute to the aggression among adolescents according to the highest reported number of articles were peer influence, followed by school climate, substance use, neighbourhood influence, family, and parent factors. In conclusion, psychosocial predictors of adolescent aggression include both Psychological Factors; mainly personality traits and emotional problems, and Social Factors; mainly peer influence and substance use. This warrants for more holistic approach in dealing with aggressive adolescents that can be applied in more targeted and focused intervention strategy deliveries

Symptomatology and range of the blood disease bacterium A2 HR MARDI strain (Ralstonia syzygii subsp. celebensis) on selected hosts

Bacterial wilt disease is one of the major diseases in banana. In Malaysia, banana blood disease (BBD) is caused by the blood disease bacterium (BDB) A2 HR MARDI (Ralstonia syzygii subsp. celebensis). This disease bears similarities in symptomatology with Moko disease which caused by Ralstonia solanacearum and BBD in Indonesia, which caused by BDB R229. To determine the symptoms and host range of BDB, a pathogenicity test and host range study were carried out. In this study, there are four stages of external and internal symptoms which were observed. The pathogenicity of the bacterium cultures was then tested on banana, tomato and heliconia plantlets to determine the host range for BDB. To reconfirm that the banana was infected with BDB, re-isolation of BDB from the infected banana plants and Koch’s postulates test were performed. The results showed that there were symptoms of wilting and yellowing of leaves, which eventually caused plants death in the banana plantlets but no symptoms appeared in tomato and heliconia. The results indicate that BDB A2 HR MARDI is host-specific pathogen, only infecting banana similar to BDB R229 and is not as a broad range pathogen as R. solanacearum

Determinants of the use of family planning methods among rural women in Plateau state, Nigeria

This study aimed at determining the factors that influence family planning practice among rural women of Pankshin district in Plateau state, Nigeria. A cross-sectional study using a simple random sampling method was conducted from October to December 2019. A self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection among 302 respondents. Among respondents, 48.3% had practised family planning and the most popular family planning method ever practised was injectables (57.5%). The determinants of family planning practice were age group 29-39 and 40-49 years old (AOR=4.373, p<0.001; AOR=5.862, p<0.001), discussion with partner (AOR=9.192, p<0.001) and partner’s approval (AOR=2.791, p=0.007). Findings showed an encouraging family planning prevalence with the main determinants involving male partners. Further efforts need to be made to promote family planning practice among male partners and to empower women of all reproductive age groups by providing them with relevant information that is needed for them to make informed decisions

Breast Cancer Classification: Features Investigation using Machine Learning Approaches

Breast cancer is the second most common cancer after lung cancer and one of the main causes of death worldwide. Women have a higher risk of breast cancer as compared to men. Thus, one of the early diagnosis with an accurate and reliable system is critical in breast cancer treatment. Machine learning techniques are well known and popular among researchers, especially for classification and prediction. An investigation was conducted to evaluate the performance of breast cancer classification for malignant tumors and benign tumors using various machine learning techniques, namely k-Nearest Neighbors (k-NN), Random Forest, and Support Vector Machine (SVM) and ensemble techniques to compute the prediction of the breast cancer survival by implementing 10-fold cross validation. This study used a dataset obtained from Wisconsin Diagnostic Breast Cancer (WDBC) with 23 selected features measured from 569 patients, from which 212 patients have malignant tumors and 357 patients have benign tumors. The analysis was performed to investigate the feature of the tumors based on its mean, standard error, and worst. Each feature has ten properties which are radius, texture, perimeter, area, smoothness, compactness, concavity, concave, symmetry and fractal dimensions. The selection of features was considered a significant influence to the breast cancer. The analysis is compared and evaluated with thirty features to determine the features used for breast cancer classification. The result shown AdaBoost has obtained the highest accuracy for thirty features at 98.95%, ten features of mean at 98.07%, and ten features of worst at 98.77% with a lowest error rate. Additionally, the proposed methods are classified using 2-fold, 3-fold, and 5-fold cross validation to meet the best accuracy rate. Comparison results between all methods show that AdaBoost ensemble methods gave the highest accuracy at 98.77% for 10-fold cross validation, while 2-fold and 3-fold cross validation at 98.41% and 98.24%, respectively. Nevertheless, the result with 5-fold cross validation shows SVM produced the best accuracy rate at 98.60% with the lowest error rate

Systematic review on knowledge and awareness of breast cancer and risk factors among young women

Introduction: Breast cancer is considered the primary cancer to affect women according to the global context. Due to its crucial escalation, it has become vital to inform the general population regarding breast cancer symptoms, risk factors and earlier detection methods. The main aim of the present study is to conduct a systematic review of breast cancer and the risk factors affecting young adult women. Methods: A systematic literature review was carried out to garner global studies on breast cancer risk factors as well as to understand the degree to which breast cancer and its associated risk factors are understood. The primary study included the exploration of databases and journal websites, PubMed, Google Scholar and Medline. The articles studied for the review was focused on the printed original English articles from the year 2008 to December, 2017. This review highlights the necessity for further studies regarding knowledge of breast cancer and its risk factors among young adult women are understood. Conclusion: Knowledge about breast cancer and its risk factors among young women was inadequate. Furthermore, cultural sensitivities should be adjusted to ensure optimal awareness among the public, in particular teenagers and young adult women. Intensive educational campaigns should be planned to increase breast cancer awareness in order to minimize the observed deficit of knowledge. The role of prevention and procedures to screen breast examinations in clinics as well as mammography should all be highlighted in order to achieve these goals and obtain the required data

A review on the factors influencing the attendance of postpartum diabetes screening for mothers with gestational diabetes mellitus

Women with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) during their pregnancy have a greater risk of developing overt diabetes mellitus and dysglycemia (prediabetes, impaired glucose tolerance or impaired fasting glucose) later in future, compared to mothers with normal pregnancy. Postpartum screening is crucial for early identification of type 2 diabetes (T2DM) in women with GDM. Nevertheless, despite various strategies, its rate remains low. A systematic review using databases of PubMed/Medline, Science Direct and CINAHL from 2008 to 2018, was conducted to identify the factors influencing the attendance of postpartum diabetes screening. Open access English articles, focusing on observational studies were reviewed. Primary screening of titles and abstracts of 91 articles were done, secondary screening of 31 articles resulted in 6 articles, included in this manuscript. Various factors identified to be associated with the attendance to postpartum diabetes screening, which are age, education, ethnicity, some obstetric factors like multiparty, and history of insulin usage previously. Many women fail to be screened for diabetes during the postpartum period, and this delays T2DM diagnosis, which in turn gives rise to various complications. Further research that considers these factors is necessary for developing interventions to improve postpartum T2DM screening for mothers with GDM during their pregnancy

Factors associated with knowledge and attitude of breastfeeding among staff of Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia

Introduction: Many studies have investigated the knowledge and attitude towards breastfeeding among fathers and mothers, however studies looking at working adults’ knowledge and attitude towards breastfeeding is limited. Working adults with good knowledge and favourable attitude toward the practice of breastfeeding may increase the breast-feeding initiative among working mothers. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate the knowledge and attitude toward breastfeeding among staff from the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of a public university and its associated factors. Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted among faculty staff members. The respondents were selected by simple random sampling and a self-administered questionnaire was used to investigate the knowledge and attitude towards breastfeeding among them. Multiple linear regression was used to determine the factors associated with knowledge and attitude respectively. Results: A total of 117 respondents were recruited to take part in this study. Of these, 83(70.9%) had good knowledge while 61(52.6%) respondents had favourable attitude toward breastfeeding. There was significant positive fair correlation between knowledge and attitude score (r=0.396,p<0.001). Gender (coefficient:1.04,CI:0.25-1.84), education level (coefficient:1.56,CI:0.60-2.53) and number of children (coefficient:0.21,CI:0.01-0.40) were the factors affecting knowledge score whereas education level (coefficient:5.73,CI:1.40-10.07) and number of children (coefficient:1.3,CI:0.41-2.11) were the factors affecting attitude. Conclusion: Overall, majority of respondents were found to have good knowledge but half of them had favourable attitude toward breastfeeding. A awareness program is suggested particularly for male, low education level and those with less number of children in order to increase knowledge and attitude toward breastfeeding