Forms and Records Control ; Humans ; Qualitative Research ; Software

Anti-Bacterial Agents ; therapeutic use ; Drug Resistance, Microbial ; Humans ; Singapore

A self-answered, anonymously completed, nationwide questionnaire survey was conducted between June 2002 and May 2003 among Malaysian doctors through post and at medical meetings. Findings based on 116 government and 110 private doctors who satisfactorily completed the forms (effective respondent rate: 30.1%) showed that more than 70% of government and private doctors claimed familiarity with asthma CPGs but proportionately more private doctors considered them "unworkable" and were reluctant to adopt them in their practice setting, quoting cost as the primary reason. Between those who frequently adopted the CPGs and those who did not, there was an equally high proportion of inappropriate prescribing. Despite the shortcomings of such a survey, our findings suggest that medicinal cost and practitioner's prescribing practices are important in the acceptance and execution of asthma CPGs recommendations.
private ; Asthma ; appropriateness ; guiding characteristics ; Cost aspects

Objective To study the false positive of enzyme linked immunoinhibition continuous assays to detect CK-MB in clinic,to reasonably explain the results of detection and to get correctly the project of solving.Methods A total of 125 serum specimen of non-myocardial infarction patients were detected by enzyme linked immunoinhibition continuous assays,in retrospective study.To analyze the factors which made the CK-MB enzymatic activity unit pseudo-rising.Results Total CK-MB enzymatic activity was low in 86 serum specimen of adult patients with non-myocardial infarction,but in the patients with tumor,encephalic infarction and allergic disorder the pseudo-positive ratio of the CK-MB enzymatic activity was high.There were 53 cases, in which CK-MB activity accounted for 6%-21% enzymatic activity of CK, and 6 cases accounted for more than 38% in 59 cases in which the CK-MB activity was more than 5% enzymatic activity of CK.In 38 neonate cases, the enzymatic activity of CK ranged from 145U/L to 1974U/L,In 1 case of neonatal respiratory distress syndrome CK-MB activity accounted for more than 90% enzymatic activity of CK.Another haemolytic sample led to false positive result.Conclusion The phenomenon of enzymatic activity rising in the serum specimen of non-myocardial infarction patients may be caused by the factors of lots CK, CK-BB and AK in serum.Those materials maybe have effects on the action between McAb and M subunit of the CK.Some non-inhibit CK-M and the M subunit with B subunit may participate the enzymatic activity together.Because of the shortcoming of method,the single assay should not be taken as the diagnostic basis.

Certain human papillomavirus (HPV) types are strongly associated with cervical cancer. Recently-described effective vaccines against these HPV types represent a great medical breakthrough in preventing cervical cancer. In Malaysia, the vaccine has just received regulatory approval. We are likely to face similar barriers to implementing HPV vaccination as reported by countries where vaccination has been introduced. Most women have poor understanding of HPV and its link to cervical cancer. Physicians who will be recommending HPV vaccines may not have extensive knowledge or experience with HPV-related disease. Furthermore, a vaccine against a sexually-transmitted infection may elicit negative reactions from potential recipients or their cares, particularly in a conservative society. Given the high cost of the vaccine, reaching the most vulnerable women is a concern. To foster broad acceptance of HPV vaccine, education must be provided to health care providers, parents and young women about the risks of HPV infection and the benefits of vaccination.
Papillomavirus, Human ; Vaccines ; Human Females ; Vaccination ; Malaysia

Neurodegenerative diseases refer to incurable conditions that result in progressive degeneration or death of nerve cells. This causes functional movement deficits and cognitive problems such as dementias. Among different types of neurodegenerative diseases, Alzheimer disease (AD) accounts for majority of the cases. The transient receptor potential melastatin member 2 (TRPM2) channel is a Ca2+-permeable non-selective cation channel which has been studied and implicated in the pathological process of AD through different pathways including inflammation. This review summarizes the contribution of TRPM2 in AD pathology and recent advances in pharmacology of TRPM2, with a focus on relationships between β-amyloid, oxidative stress and Ca2+. We also discuss the potential future research direction for neurodegenerative diseases.

In June 2015, invitations were sent by email to 151 APAME journals to participate in an online survey with an objective of gaining insight into the common publication misconduct encountered by APAME editors. The survey, conducted through SurveyMonkey over a 20-day-period, comprised 10 questions with expansions to allow anecdotes limited to 400 characters, estimated to take less than 10 minutes to complete. Only one invitation was issued per journal, targeting (in order of priority) editors, editorial board members and editorial staff, and limited by email availability. 54 (36%) journals responded. 98% of respondents held Editor or Editorial Board positions. All respondent journals have editorial policies on publication ethics and 96% provide instructions related to ethics. 45% use anti-plagiarism software to screen manuscripts, the most popular being iThenticate, CrossCheck and Turnitin. Up to 50% of journals had encountered studies without IRB approval. Author misconduct encountered were (in rank order): plagiarism (75%), duplicate publication (58%), unjustified authorship (39%), authorship disputes (33%), data falsification (29%), data/image manipulation (27%), conflict of interest (25%), copyright violation (17%) and breach of confidentiality (10%). Reviewer misconduct encountered were: conflict of interest (19%), plagiarism (17%), obstructive behavior (17%), abusive language (13%) and breach of confidentiality (13%). Notwithstanding the limitations of the survey and the response rate, a few insights have been gained: (1) the need for strengthening the ethical culture of researchers/authors and reviewers, (2) anti-plagiarism software can improve plagiarism detection by about 15%, and (3) the need for technical support to detect plagiarism, duplicate publication and image manipulation.

Jujube(Zizyphus vulgaris Lam)is a popular fruit in North China. The fruit is mainly marketed after dehydration. However, there are no less than twenty rarities sold in Peking while fresh during the months of August and October.The ascorbic acid content of 16 varieties of the fresh fruit has been determined. The values found are all above 300 mg per 100 g of edible portion—mostly between 400-600 mg, the highest being above 1,000 mg. It is certainly worth noting that, as a class of ordinary food, Jujube has the highest ascorbic acid content.As the fruit ripens, i. e. the colour turns from green to red and the texture changes from hard to soft, its ascorbic acid content decreases. When the sample was stored at 0-4℃ for about one and a half months, the fruits which remained hard lost about 10％ of its ascorbic acid; when the fruit had become somewhat soft, the amount of ascorbic acid decreased drastically and the dehydro-form increased correspondingly while the total amount remained practically unchanged.Experiment with human subjects indicated that the utilization of the ascorbie acid of Jujube is 86.3-93.0％ of the pure vitamin.

Malaysia has good environmental laws to protect the outdoor environment and public health. However there are no laws governing indoor air quality (IAQ) and the knowledge among the public about its importance is also lacking. Environmental professionals think it is not a priority and this influences the policy decisions in the country. Therefore there is a need to create awareness by way of research, education and other promotional activities. What is much needed at this time is the establishment of standards for the conduct of risk assessment studies. To establish standards we need reliable data which can be used to develop appropriate guidelines for the purpose of mitigation and adaptation programmes. IAQ can have significant influence on health resulting in drop in productivity and economy of a country. It has been estimated that in the US, building related illnesses (BRI) symptoms have a relationship with decrease (3 to 5%) in work performance in an affected population resulting in an annual loss of US$60 billion in revenue. However, based on efficient management programmes they have also projected that the potential annual savings can be in the region of US$10 to 30 billion. This establishes that fact that good management programmes based on efficient guidelines is of economic value to a country and wellbeing of the population. The IMU has embarked on a research programme to collect the much-needed data for the framing of a good IAQ guideline for Malaysia.

PURPOSE: This study was undertaken to examine the impact of screening and race on breast cancer outcomes in Singapore. METHODS: An institutional database was reviewed, and invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) and ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) data were analyzed separately. Overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DFS), and cancer-specific survival (CSS) were assessed. RESULTS: The study included 6,180 IDC and 1,031 DCIS patients. The median follow-up time was 4.1 years. Among IDC patients, Malay women were the youngest when first diagnosed, and were more likely to present with advanced stage disease. Malay women also had the highest proportion of T3 and T4 tumors at 14.2%, compared with Chinese women at 8.7% and Indian women at 9.6% (p<0.001). Malay women had a higher incidence of node-positive disease at 58.3% compared with Chinese women at 46.4% and Indian women at 54.9% (p<0.001). Malay subjects also had higher-grade tumors; 61.8% had grade 3 tumors compared with 45.8% of Chinese women and 52% of Indian women (p<0.001). Furthermore, tumors in Malay subjects were less endocrine-sensitive and more human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 enriched. Malay women had the lowest 5- and 10-year OS, DFS, and CSS rates (p<0.001). After separating clinically and screen-detected tumors, multivariate analysis showed that race was still significant for outcomes. For screen-detected tumors, the OS hazard ratio (HR) for Malay women compared to Chinese women was 5.78 (95% confidence interval [CI], 2.64–12.64), the DFS HR was 2.18 (95% CI, 1.19–3.99), and the CSS HR was 5.93 (95% CI, 2.15–16.39). For DCIS, there were no statistically significant differences in the tumor size, grade, histology subtypes, or hormone sensitivity. CONCLUSION: Malay race is a poor prognostic factor in both clinically and screen-detected IDC. Special attention should be given to the detection and follow-up of breast cancer in this group.
Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Breast Neoplasms* ; Breast* ; Carcinoma, Ductal ; Carcinoma, Intraductal, Noninfiltrating ; Continental Population Groups ; Disease-Free Survival ; Early Detection of Cancer ; Ethnic Groups ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Incidence ; Mass Screening* ; Multivariate Analysis ; Prognosis ; Receptor, Epidermal Growth Factor ; Singapore