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Variations of Bi-Rads 5 in mammography by age, ethnicity, and breast density: a retrospective study in University Malaya Medical Centre
No full textBreast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer among Malaysian women. BI-RADS 5 category in the
mammogram report found breast lesion with a highly predictive of malignancy. Age, ethnicity and breast density
are the primary risk factor in developing breast cancer. The objective of this study was to identify age, ethnicity,
and breast density differences in BI-RADS 5 among mammographic patients at University Malaya Medical Centre
(UMMC). This study was conducted retrospectively from 2015 to 2019 in UMMC. The subject criteria selected
for this study are women aged 40 years and above which categorized in BI-RADS 5 from the mammogram
examination. Patient’s data on age, ethnicity, and breast density were retrieved from the Radiology Information
System (RIS) of UMMC. Among 110 cases, 20% were in the age group of 40-49, 28.2% in the age group of 50-
59, 35.5% in the age group of 60-69 while the 16.4% were between 70-79 years old. By ethnic distribution, the
majority were Chinese with 46.4%, followed by Malays 42.7%, and 10.9% were Indian. 14.5%, 40.9%, 33.6%,
10.9% of patients were classified as having categories A-D breast density, respectively. The study indicated
women were in the age group of 60-69 and Chinese ethnic group are most likely to develop breast cancer.
Although many studies have shown that risk factor for breast cancer is greater for denser breast tissue, this present
study shows that BI-RADS B (scattered fibro glandular breast tissue) is most likely to have breast cancer. It is
therefore important to have a regular follow-up of these patients and to raise the awareness of these patients
Adopting Qard Al-Hasan and Mudarabah crowdfunding for micro enterprise
No full textThis paper aims to explore the viability of Qard al-Hasan and Mudarabah as crowdfunding
instruments to support microenterprise. It is learned that microenterprise have experienced
challenges in terms of funding their project as well as to expend their operations, due to strict
procedures from traditional financial institutions. Also, the current practices of crowdfunding
are not fully Shari’ah compliant, thus alternative is needed. However, the study utilizes
secondary data with descriptive and comparative approaches. The findings indicate that both
models could be an alternative Shari’ah financing for entrepreneurs. While Qard al-Hasan can
focus on business start-up, Mudarabah can play more significant in expending the current
business to be more competitive. Though both models are associating with several risks
including risk of non-payment, risk of miss-management, and inflation risk, these risks can be
mitigated through proper reviewing of the proposal by crowdfunding platforms before the
campaign is launched as well as closely monitoring the project
Immunomodulation of Murine Macrophages RAW264.7 Infected with Mycobacterium Smegmatis
No full textTuberculosis (TB) remains as a major worldwide health problem which cause more than 1.3 million deaths
annually. The search for new vaccines more efficacious than Bacille Calmette- Guѐrin (BCG) for TB prevention
is regaining importance to control the disease. Mycobacterium smegmatis (Ms), which shares genetic and
structural homology with virulent mycobacteria, showed extensive advantages in vaccine vector development. In
addition, autophagy has emerged as a major immune mechanism against pathogens in macrophages. The aim of
this study is to determine immunomodulation capacity of Ms as a possible vector in development of vaccine
candidates against TB. The immunomodulatory capacity of Ms were evaluated in RAW 264.7 murine
macrophages cell line. The intracellular uptake were assayed by Ziehl- Neelsen staining and its phagocytic index
(PI) were evaluated. The supernatant were used to determine cytokine production (IFN-γ and IL-1β). In general,
the results demonstrated the immunomodulation effects of Ms in macrophages. For PI, a significant phagocytosis
activity was observed in Ms (61.67 ± 2.84) compared to uninfected group. A significant production of IFN-γ
(51.17 ± 20.70) but insignificant IL-1β (370.34 ± 6.23) cytokines were observed compared to uninfected group.
The results showed that Ms could induce the immunomodulatory effects on RAW 264.7 murine macrophages.
Taken together, this study provides preliminary results of potential evaluation of Ms as a new vector for
experimental vaccine development against TB
Banana Powder Production via Foam Mat Drying
No full textBanana puree is one of the main commercial banana products available in the
market worldwide. However, like other purees, banana puree deteriorates quite rapidly and
gets a chilling injury when refrigerated. Therefore, this study focused on the dehydration of
banana puree using a foam mat drying (FMD) technique to prolong its shelf life. It involved
whipping the banana puree to form foams with the help of whey protein concentrate (WPC)
and carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) as the foaming agent and foam stabilizer, respectively.
The study evaluated the effect of different foaming agent percentages (5, 7.5, 10, 12.5 and
15%) and drying temperatures (50, 60, 70 and 80°C) on the production of the foam mat dried
banana powder. Besides that, the drying curves of banana puree using FMD and oven drying
methods were compared. The banana powders produced were also analyzed in terms of the
foam density, moisture content, solubility, color (browning index) and flowability (caking
strength). Based on the findings, the FMD technique has proven to produce a good quality
banana powder better than the control sample especially at a higher foaming agent
concentration (15%) and drying temperature (80°C). By using the FMD technique, the
banana puree has the capacity to be dried three times faster compared to the conventional
oven drying method to form a more stable banana powder
Evolution of River Characteristics Impact on Post-Flood and Normal Season in Pinang River Basin, Malaysia
No full textCharacterization of river outflow characteristics in the post-flood and normal seasons
was carried out in the Pinang River Basin, Penang. Field sampling was performed twice
in November 2017 (post-flood) and in March 2019 (normal season). Cross-sectional
measurements involving the measurement of river width, river depth and velocity were
performed at both sampling times. The objective of this study was to identify the pattern of
river discharge in the Pinang River Basin and to assess the relationship between the
occurrence of water discharge and other factors for both seasons. The results showed that
the average discharge rate for each river after the rainy season was 0.85 m3
/s for the
Dondang River, 1.11 m3
/s for the Ayer Itam River and 3.23 m3
/s for the Sungai Pinang.
For the normal season, the mean readings were 0.13 m3
/s for the Dondang River, 0.38
m
3
/s for the Ayer Itam River and 0.69 m3
/s for the Pinang River. Subsequent estimates of
flood rates during floods were also estimated by estimating an increase in water depth by
five meters. As a result of this estimate, the average drainage rate for the Dondang river
is 8.58 m3
/s, the Ayer Itam River at 8.12 m3
/s while the Pinang River is 20.68 m3
/s. The
results from the correlation statistics analysis showed a very significant reading between
river depths and outflow with R2 = 0.85. The relationship between velocity and water
discharge shows a reading of R2
= 0.089 which is not significant. Whereas, the
relationship between width and discharge shows a R
2 = 0.495 which is significant. It is
hoped that this study will provide as much information as possible before the proper steps
are taken to prevent future flood events
THE VALUE OF EDUCATION IN MALAY PROVERBS ( قيمة الرتبية يف األمثال املاليوية)
No full textAs we know, proverbs are using to educate people in society. This study is about Malay proverbs
which stress on the proverbs that encourage people to behave a good behaviour. It also reflects
the morality of Malay society. This study focuses on the Malay proverbs which are connected to
the society and analyses the text. Through proverbs, we can seek knowledge about Malay culture
and gain knowledge about other society. As a conclusion, Malay proverbs show the Malay
society. They are also use it as a tool in advising. They create proverbs by using the events that
occurred in the environment. Malay proverbs are describing the Malay culture like a loyalty to
the king, living in the village, eating rice and rising cows and chickens
An Efficient Hybrid Conjugate Gradient Method for Unconstrained Optimisation
No full textOptimisation refers to a common procedure applied within the science and engineering domain to determine
variables that produce the best performance values. One of the common efficient techniques to solve large-scale
unconstrained optimisation issues is the conjugate gradient method, because of its simplicity, low memory
consumptions and global convergence properties. This method embeds the n-step to attain a minimum point, where
convergence properties are absent. Several techniques do not perform well according to the number of iteration and
CPU time. In order to address these shortcomings, this study proposed new Hybrid CG coefficients, β , Tal’at and
Mamat (HTM). The proposed parameter βkHTM is computed as a combination of βkHS (Hestenes–Steifel formula),
βkLS (Liu–Storey formula) and βkRMIL (Rivaie formula) to exploit attractive features of each. The algorithm uses the
exact line search. Numerical results and their performance profiles display that the proposed method is promising. It
is also shown that’s the new formula for β performs much better than the original Hestenes–Steifel, Liu–Storey and
the Rivaie methods. © 2020, The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature
Singapore Pte Ltd