Perception of university students on Facebook

The research is to study the perception of students on Facebook. The objective of this study is to identify the influence of usefulness, ease of use, social influence, facilitating conditions and community identity on Facebook adoption. Identify the influence of social relations, work-related purpose, and daily activities influence on the purpose of Facebook usage. Identify the influence of communication, collaboration and resources and material sharing on the educational usage of Facebook. Identify the relationship between Facebook adoption with the purpose of Facebook usage. Identify the relationship between the purpose of Facebook usage with the educational usage of Facebook and identify the relationship between Facebook adoption mediated by the purpose of Facebook usage with the educational usage of Facebook. Quantitative approach is using to get the results from students of STML. The result show that the relationship is positive between the adoption, purpose and educational usage of Facebook

Biosensing of hepatitis B antigen with poly(acrylic acid) hydrogel immobilized with antigens and antibodies

Hydrogel based on poly(acrylic acid) (PAAc) polymers was successfully fabricated as the biosensor for detecting hepatitis B core antigen (HBcAg). Specifically, the pendant HBcAg and the anti-hepatitis B core antigen (anti-HBc) antibody were first immobilized on the PAAc, which were then covalently cross-linked via radical polymerization to form the HBcAg-sensitive (HBPAAc) hydrogel. The non-covalent affinity binding between the immobilized HBcAg and anti-HBc would be disrupted by the presence of free HBcAg in the HBPAAc hydrogel. The competitive binding of free HBcAg on the immobilized anti-HBc triggered the swelling of HBPAAc hydrogel. The equilibrium swelling ratio and the oscillatory swelling-deswelling kinetics of the HBPAAc hydrogel in response to protein concentration were studied. The swelling ratio of HBPAAc hydrogel increased along with an increase in HBcAg concentration until equilibrium was achieved at 4 mg/mL HBcAg. The HBPAAc hydrogel did not exhibit swelling/deswelling behavior when interacted with the negative control, i.e., bovine serum albumin (BSA). Based on the result of oscillatory swelling-deswelling of HBPAAc hydrogel, the minimum duration for HBcAg detection by the HBPAAc hydrogel was ∼20 min, whereas the regeneration of HBPAAc hydrogel took about 60 min. These results confirmed the reversibility and the reusability of this HBcAg-sensing HBPAAc hydrogel. Besides, the hydrogel demonstrated zero cross-reactivity to the hepatitis B surface antigen, a common serological marker for hepatitis B patients. The high sensitivity of HBPAAc hydrogel to the HBcAg was successfully demonstrated with quartz crystal microgravimetry. The magnitude of resonance frequency was inversely correlated with the swelling of HBPAAc hydrogel, which is governed by the concentration of analyte HBcAg. The application of HBPAAc hydrogel as a biosensor component in the detection and surveillance of hepatitis B holds great promises

Impact of opioid-free analgesia on pain severity and patient satisfaction after discharge from surgery: multispecialty, prospective cohort study in 25 countries

Background: Balancing opioid stewardship and the need for adequate analgesia following discharge after surgery is challenging. This study aimed to compare the outcomes for patients discharged with opioid versus opioid-free analgesia after common surgical procedures.Methods: This international, multicentre, prospective cohort study collected data from patients undergoing common acute and elective general surgical, urological, gynaecological, and orthopaedic procedures. The primary outcomes were patient-reported time in severe pain measured on a numerical analogue scale from 0 to 100% and patient-reported satisfaction with pain relief during the first week following discharge. Data were collected by in-hospital chart review and patient telephone interview 1 week after discharge.Results: The study recruited 4273 patients from 144 centres in 25 countries; 1311 patients (30.7%) were prescribed opioid analgesia at discharge. Patients reported being in severe pain for 10 (i.q.r. 1-30)% of the first week after discharge and rated satisfaction with analgesia as 90 (i.q.r. 80-100) of 100. After adjustment for confounders, opioid analgesia on discharge was independently associated with increased pain severity (risk ratio 1.52, 95% c.i. 1.31 to 1.76; P < 0.001) and re-presentation to healthcare providers owing to side-effects of medication (OR 2.38, 95% c.i. 1.36 to 4.17; P = 0.004), but not with satisfaction with analgesia (beta coefficient 0.92, 95% c.i. -1.52 to 3.36; P = 0.468) compared with opioid-free analgesia. Although opioid prescribing varied greatly between high-income and low- and middle-income countries, patient-reported outcomes did not.Conclusion: Opioid analgesia prescription on surgical discharge is associated with a higher risk of re-presentation owing to side-effects of medication and increased patient-reported pain, but not with changes in patient-reported satisfaction. Opioid-free discharge analgesia should be adopted routinely

A comparative assessment of different legal systems and its impact on HIV/AIDS responses: a learning point for HongKong in the unabated fight against HIV/AIDS

Aim. This paper reveals key considerations required to reform and enact public health legislation to reduce and maintain the low prevalence of Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), in light of the growing global transmission of the epidemic. Background. There are a total of 33.3 million people living with HIV/AIDS globally, with 2.7 million becoming newly infected in 2010. Despite an overall global decline in HIV incidence of 19%, the number of newly infected people still exceeds the amount of people placed on antiretroviral drugs. HKSAR experienced a 0.5% increase in incidence in 2011, with 438 new cases reported to the Department of Health. There are currently no protective or punitive laws either for or against people living with HIV/AIDS, Men who have sex with men (MSM), sex workers or injecting drug users in HKSAR. Additionally, HIV/AIDS is not reportable under the notifiable disease act. Methods. The data used was collected between 1983 and 2012 and researched using electronic databases: MEDLINE, Google Scholar and Web of Science. Results. Ten studies met the inclusion criteria. The themes identified from the literature are: (1) True prevalence not reflected due to unawareness of serostatus, (2) Low uptake of screening due to the fear of stigmatisation, discrimination and/or prosecution and (3) Protective laws encourage responsibility. The statistics of HIV/AIDS in HKSAR may not be reflective of the true prevalence given the current methods of data collection. Additionally, the legal system in HKSAR fails to protect against discrimination based on an individual’s sexual orientation, which can potentially exacerbate existing stigma and consequently fuel the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Hong Kong. Conclusion. The inclusion of HIV/AIDS under the notifiable disease act can provide a more accurate prevalence and incidence rate. It can also be used as a tool to evaluate ongoing prevention efforts. HIV/AIDS specific laws, with regard to transmission and exposure, are detrimental to public health efforts in managing the epidemic. Instead, protective laws, such as anti-discrimination laws and the furthering of women’s rights, would yield greater benefits.published_or_final_versionPublic HealthMasterMaster of Public Healt

Value-at-risk, informativeness of earnings.

Our paper examines the relationship between S&P500 firms’ 10-K market risk disclosures in terms of Value-at-risk (VaR), mandated by SEC Financial Reporting Release No.48 in 1997, and the informativeness of earnings. Our results show that earnings informativeness decrease with the increasing magnitude of the VaR figures disclosed

Feasibility of harnessing nuclear energy in Singapore.

Nuclear energy has been harnessed around the world. Its increased usage has outlined its importance as an alternative source of energy to the deteriorating fossil fuels. The rising prices of fossil fuels have hastened our search for alternative sources of energy and the increasing demand for electricity has motivated us to explore nuclear energy, which offers a low production cost for electricity when compared to other sources. The purpose of the study is to investigate the feasibility of harnessing nuclear energy in Singapore to meet future energy demand and to determine whether Singapore should build one on its own or cost-share with neighboring countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia. The study recommends that Singapore should consider utilizing nuclear energy as current energy sources are not sufficient to meet growing energy demand and the choice of location of a nuclear power plant should be based on the cost structure. The findings and recommendations are relevant to the evaluation in harnessing nuclear energy. The quantitative calculations may act as a gauge for the cost involved before further plans are initiated.Bachelor of Art

Quartz crystal microbalance-based biosensors as rapid diagnostic devices for infectious diseases

Infectious diseases are the ever-present threats to public health and the global economy. Accurate and timely diagnosis is crucial to impede the progression of a disease and break the chain of transmission. Conventional diagnostic techniques are typically time-consuming and costly, making them inefficient for early diagnosis of infections and inconvenient for use at the point of care. Developments of sensitive, rapid, and affordable diagnostic methods are necessary to improve the clinical management of infectious diseases. Quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) systems have emerged as a robust biosensing platform due to their label-free mechanism, which allows the detection and quantification of a wide range of biomolecules. The high sensitivity and short detection time offered by QCM-based biosensors are attractive for the early detection of infections and the routine monitoring of disease progression. Herein, the strategies employed in QCM-based biosensors for the detection of infectious diseases are extensively reviewed, with a focus on prevalent diseases for which improved diagnostic techniques are in high demand. The challenges to the clinical application of QCM-based biosensors are highlighted, along with an outline of the future scope of research in QCM-based diagnostics

Empathy in written communications with customers.

Existing literature on the concept of empathy has mainly revolved around its definition and relation to the performance indicators of certain professions, such as sales and nursing. However, limited research has been conducted on empathy in written communications by organisations. This study adopts an exploratory approach, using secondary data such as existing literature, as well as organisational correspondences found in the Straits Times Forum. Guided by existing literature, we analysed the organisational correspondences in order to better understand the presence and use of empathy in such written communications. In the process, we discussed the main motivations for people to write in to organisations, which could also have motivated the forms of emphatic information decoded. Furthermore, it was determined that despite the use of empathy in general, organisations did not seem to pay much attention to matching the forms of empathy they displayed, to the forms of empathy which should be displayed in written responses to people who had written to them. Moreover, certain phenomena were observed. This includes the tendency for Government organisations to display no empathy and for Non-Government organisations to use only cognitive empathy. A possible relationship between these phenomena and the use of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) was also explored.BUSINES

Novel Wearable Device for Blood Leakage Detection during Hemodialysis Using an Array Sensing Patch

Hemodialysis (HD) is a clinical treatment that requires the puncturing of the body surface. However, needle dislodgement can cause a high risk of blood leakage and can be fatal to patients. Previous studies proposed several devices for blood leakage detection using optical or electrical techniques. Nonetheless, these methods used single-point detection and the design was not suitable for multi-bed monitoring. This study proposed a novel wearable device for blood leakage monitoring during HD using an array sensing patch. The array sensing patch combined with a mapping circuit and a wireless module could measure and transmit risk levels. The different risk levels could improve the working process of healthcare workers, and enhance their work efficiency and reduce inconvenience due to false alarms. Experimental results showed that each point of the sensing array could detect up to 0.1 mL of blood leakage and the array sensing patch supports a risk level monitoring system up to 8 h to alert healthcare personnel of pertinent danger to the patients

A vision-based infrared decoy tracking algorithm for air conditioner spot cooling

Air conditioner has become one of the most common electrical appliances in every household. With the increase in their demand, the challenge to reduce the energy usage of air conditioner has become a subject of intense study in recent years. Spot cooling is one of the methods that can reduce the energy wastage. In this method, a control algorithm is implemented to actively track the location of users and direct the air conditioner's air flow to these targeted areas. This can make the cooling more efficient since the air conditioner does not need to cool down the entire room. By selectively directing the air flow, the users can still achieve the same cooling comfort. This paper proposed a technique of spot cooling for air conditioner using infrared (IR) camera and a decoy. The decoy is based on IR light emitting diodes arranged in a specific pattern. The IR camera captures the video of the room to locate the position of the decoy. Image processing techniques include thresholding and template matching are used for the decoy detection. Once the decoy is detected, the movement of the decoy is tracked by using a Kalman filter. To test the performance of the proposed method, a prototype system was implemented on a Raspberry Pi board and the accuracy of detection was evaluated. Experimental results showed that the system is able to detect the position of decoy with 98% accuracy in both day and night-time conditions