As more research work is done on eye disorders, more safety rules and regulations are required to ensure the safety of trial subjects. This is the main function of Research Ethics Committees [also known as Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) and Domain Specific Review Boards (DSRBs)]. Tragedies in research in other fields are wake-up calls, such as the death of a healthy young volunteer subject in New York, the termination of a large study sparked by breach of medical confidentiality in Singapore and the South Korean debacle of its pioneering work in cloning. Many issues are still being debated, such as what statutory changes are required to control trials; whether all trials should be reviewed by IRB; if phase IV trials should be exempted; if compensation should be paid for all trial-related injuries; and whether investigators and IRB members be allowed to hold certain amount of shares in drug or device firms. Recent measures taken to prevent ethical problems include funding organisations not approving a study unless it has been cleared by the IRB, and requiring all investigators and IRB members to pass an ethics course. More measures will need to be taken to ensure the safety of the trial subjects involved in research studies.
Clinical Trials as Topic ; ethics ; Conflict of Interest ; Ethics Committees, Research ; Ethics, Research ; Humans ; Ophthalmology ; Singapore

Myopia studies are notoriously difficult to carry out. Past studies on intervention in myopia progression have given conflicting results. Beside inaccurate and inadequate measurements, the most important cause for this is the very variable nature of myopia, which makes it difficult to achieve baseline comparability between the control and the study group. Although there were inclusion criteria in these studies, for age, sex, race, degree of myopia and stigmatism, the most important variate-- the rate of myopia progression-- was not included. Randomisation can achieve baseline comparability of the myopia progression rate, provided the sample sizes are large enough. Unfortunately, past studies have been limited to 100 to 200 children only. Studies on twins are more reliable than random groups because myopia progression rates are more likely to be the same in a pair of twins. Studies on the same subject, comparing the right eye and the left eye would be even better, but this method is practicable for some studies only (e.g., we cannot have a spectacle lens for one eye and a contact lens on the fellow eye). There is another method of doing an interventional study on myopia. Because myopia progression is linear in its early stage until the early teenage years, it is possible to observe what happens to the linear progression upon intervention. In this way, we avoid the problem of trying to compare "apples with apples" but use the "same apple" instead.
Contact Lenses ; Disease Progression ; Humans ; Myopia ; pathology ; therapy ; Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic ; methods ; Reproducibility of Results ; Research

Introduction: Fingermarks left at a crime scene can indicate the presence of an individual and his/her involvement in the crime. Fingermarks, usually invisible, can appear on any surface and may be contaminated by any exogenous substances, including drug substance. Recovery of fingermarks contaminated by drug substance is crucial to link an individual with the drug-related crimes. Hence, this study was aimed to investigate the recovery and visualisation of methamphetamine-contaminated fingermarks from various non-porous surface materials. Methods: In this study, fingermarks were deposited on 11 types of surface materials varied by the presence of methamphetamine contamination, immediacy of deposition, and their concentration levels. Each fingermark was then developed using white and black fingerprint powders, graded, and compared based on the different settings. Results: Application of fingerprint powder was good in developing fingermarks; however, its suitability depends on the nature of the surface materials. Black fingerprint powder produced better visualisation where the fingermarks on all the 11 surface materials tested in this study were successfully recovered compared to white fingerprint powders. Methamphetamine-contaminated fingermarks could still be recovered using the fingerprint powder dusting method, but the fingermark grade was reduced due to the presence of exogenous substance. Conclusion: To conclude, the recovery and visualisation of methamphetamine-contaminated fingermarks on non-porous surfaces were successfully carried out through the application of fingerprint powder. A more severe contamination might lead to lower fingermark grade showing lesser ridge details.

Introduction: Evidence showed considerable variability of health risk factors within different socioeconomic groups. This study aimed to characterise dietary intakes by total household income among a sample of Malaysian pre-adolescents in urban Kuala Lumpur. Methods: Baseline data of 243 healthy, pre-adolescent children between 9 and 11 years old including socio-demographic background (gender, ethnicity, and total household monthly income), anthropometry (body weight and height), and 7-day diet histories were collected. Secondary analysis was performed on dietary intakes to quantify food groups based on the Malaysian Dietary Guidelines and NOVA classification systems besides nutrients. Differences and associations between total monthly household income categories with anthropometry and dietary intakes were tested using independent t-test/Mann-Whitney U (depending on normality) and chi-square tests, respectively. Results: Most children in this study population had dietary intakes below the recommended serving sizes for five food groups, except meat/poultry (195.2±107.2%) and fish (110.1±106.3%) and consumed about 32% of energy from ultra-processed foods (NOVA food group 4). While there was no difference in dietary intake between the bottom 40% with the middle 40% and high 20% household income groups, the percentage of energy contributed by NOVA food group 4 (processed fats/oils, condiments, and sauces) was higher in the bottom 40% households (p=0.024). Conclusion: Most pre-adolescent children in this study, regardless of household income, did not meet dietary recommendations and ate diets comprised of less nutritious foods. Comprehensive approaches that aim to improve dietary patterns and reduce the risk of diet-related chronic diseases are warranted.