Deworming the Grinder for Successful Extrication of a Mangled Hand: A Case Report and Review of Literature

Grinding machine injuries are known to cause severe mutilating injuries of the upper limb. In some cases, the machinery equipment may still be attached to the limb when the patient reaches the hospital. In treating these injuries, the patient’s hemodynamic status should be the first priority of resuscitation. Following this and whenever possible, a reversal of the grinding mechanism should be done to free the limb as this would allow assessment of the extent of zone-of-injury prior to starting the surgical procedure. We report a case of a 28-year-old male who sustained a mangled hand injury that was successfully extricated from an industrial grinding machine, thereby allowing preservation of precious length of the limb during surgery. This case highlights the importance of adhering to safety precautions at the workplace to reduce the risk of potential occupational hazards when dealing with machinery equipment.

Waqf concept health clinic – “Uniqueness in disguise” USIM experience

Waqf or religious endowment is of a benevolence instrument emerged to help reduce the burden of the disadvantaged people. As the cost for medical expenses are exorbitant, the availability of waqf should contribute to the improvement of the community health. The establishment of Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM) Specialist healthcare clinic was founded by the idea of waqf through healthcare for the less fortunate. With collaboration from many agencies the establishment of the clinic has served community in need to access better health care. The primary aim of waqf clinic establishment is to continually uphold the Islamic aspects in its establishment and management for betterment of health among disadvantaged people.

Consumers’ Buying Behavior Towards Online Shopping During The Covid-19 Pandemic: An Empirical Study In Malaysia

The world has been affected by the COVID-19 outbreak recently, affecting the economy worldwide. Due to the booming of online activities, especially online shopping, this study is interested in finding the relationship between factors affecting consumers’ buying behavior on online shopping in Malaysia during the COVID-19 pandemic. The least studies related to this issue is needed in Malaysia to further understand the behavior of the consumers on online shopping. Based on available literatures, the factors of interest were trust, convenience, price, product variety and promotion on consumers’ buying behavior in Malaysia. The study employed survey procedures to collect the data, whereby online questionnaires were disseminated and recorded from a total of 335 respondents. The data was then analysed using several statistical analyses, namely pilot test, descriptive statistics and an ordered probit model. The result from an ordered probit model indicated that convenience, product variety, trust and promotion affected the Malaysian consumers’ buying behavior during the pandemic. Only price showed an insignificant impact on online shopping. This gave the sellers insight into understanding the consumers’ buying behavior on the online platform by planning marketing strategies to fascinate more customers.

Characterization of Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) as Antimicrobial Biocomposite Film: A Review

Packaging is a critical process in the food industry because it is used to prevent spoilage, extend shelf-life, and provide an attractive presentation of the food product. Plastic packaging is used all over the world, and its production is increasing year after year. It comes in a variety of colours and designs. However, it has caused serious environmental problems, particularly to the ocean that has become a place for discarded plastic packaging. To address this issue, biodegradable packaging was developed to replace the use of plastic packaging because it helps to reduce environmental impact and waste management costs. Biodegradable packaging is also known as environmentally friendly packaging because it can be degraded into carbon dioxide, water, inorganic compounds, and biomass by microorganisms, algae, fungi, as well as enzyme catalysts. Biodegradable biocomposite film such as starch, cellulose, chitosan, and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) is required to produce biodegradable packaging. Therefore, this paper aims to characterize PVA as a biocomposite film in biodegradable packaging. PVA has excellent properties to form films, as well as biodegradable, abundant in the environment, and cost-effective. However, it has some limitations in terms of thickness and mechanical properties; thus, the incorporation of PVA with essential oils and fiber is required to improve its mechanical properties, thickness, and provide antimicrobial properties to the packaging.

Shoe-Lace Technique Hasten Delayed Primary Closure In Fasciotomy Wound For Forearm Compartment Syndrome

We report a case of acute compartment syndrome of the forearm in a 51-year-old man with open fracture distal third radius (Gustilo I). Decompressive fasciotomy was performed promptly. Complete progressive closure of the wound without split-thickness skin grafting was achieved using a shoe-lace technique: silastic vessel loop were interlaced held together with skin staplers placed at the edge of the fasciotomy wound and were then tightened daily. Delayed primary closure of the fasciotomy wound was performed after 8 days post fasciotomy with complete opposition of skin edges without tension. Shoelace closure is a good option for atraumatic fasciotomy wound closure with good cosmesis result.

Synergistic inhibition of platelet function by NADPH oxidase inhibitors and clopidogrel

Previous studies have shown platelets play an important role in prothrombotic complications due to several factors such as hyperglycemia, oxidative stress, and hypercholesterolemia, which affected platelets reactivity. Platelets activation involves ADP stimulation via P2Y12 receptor, whereas reactive oxygen species (ROS) including superoxide anion and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) produced by NADPH oxidase (Nox) act as the second messenger, which involved in platelets activation and may contribute to thrombus formation. The aim of the present study was to investigate the influence of Nox on the purinergic receptor (P2Y12 receptor) in activation of human platelets function stimulated by platelets agonist. This research explored the effects of Nox inhibitors and clopidogrel either alone or in combination, on various agonist-stimulated human platelets, including platelets aggregation and adhesion measured by modified LTA, expression of platelets activation markers, and calcium mobilization using flow cytometry, and ROS formation, NADPH oxidase activity, as well as cAMP levels by chemiluminescence assay. Taken together, findings from these experiments suggest that the combination of clopidogrel and Nox inhibitors synergistically reduced platelets aggregation, platelets adhesion, and expression of platelets activation marker during late activation, ROS formation, NADPH oxidase activity, calcium mobilization and increased cAMP levels in vitro. This combination showed that P2Y12receptor reactivity was influenced by the activation of NADPH oxidase. Thus, these data demonstrated a potential combination therapy to reduce the risk of thrombosis formation.

Forecasting Nestle Stock Price by using Brownian Motion Model during Pandemic Covid-19

In the modern financial market, investors have to make quick and efficient investment decisions. The problem arises when the investor does not know the right tools to use in investment decision making. Different tools can be implemented in trading strategies to predict future stock prices. Therefore, the primary objective of this paper is to analyse the performance of the Geometric Brownian Motion (GBM) model in forecasting Nestle stock price by assessing the performance evaluation indicators. To analyse the stocks, two software were used, namely Microsoft Excel and Python. The model is trained for 16 weeks (4 months) of data from May to August 2019 and 2020. The simulated sample is for four weeks (1 month) which is for September 2019 and 2020. The findings show that during the Pandemic Covid-19, short-term prediction using GBM is more efficient than long-term prediction as the lowest Mean Square Error (MSE) value is at one week period. In addition, the Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) for all GBM simulations is highly accurate as it shows that MAPE values are less than 10%, indicating that the GBM method can be used to predict Nestle stock price during an economic downturn.

Volatility of Technology and Healthcare Sectors Before and During Covid-19 Pandemic

The study investigates the effect of the Covid-19 on the volatility of the technology and healthcare sector stock index in Malaysia. The two sectors pose considerable attention during the pandemic due to the increase in demand for healthcare products and digital services. The volatilities are estimated using the GARCH model for the period before and after the implementation of the nationwide movement order control using daily data from September 2019 to September 2020. The finding shows that the Covid-19 pandemic caused a volatility jump for the technology sector index in March 2020 but subsided afterward with estimated conditional volatility revert to normal in the middle of April 2020. However, during the high uncertainty period, the healthcare sector shows a steady increase in volatility beginning in March 2020 till the end of September 2020. The study confirms that there is a significant difference in the volatility of healthcare and technology sectors before and during the Covid-19 outbreak. The outbreak has a significant impact on increasing the volatilities for both sectors but is impacted in different magnitude.

The Impact of Covid-19 on Online Teaching and Learning (TnL) Towards Teachers in Malaysia

As COVID-19 hits the world shockingly, most nations worldwide have agreed to put educational institutions temporarily close. However, education has not stopped, but to go fully online as schools and universities could provide remote education. In this case, teachers have been struggling to adapt to the new norm to stop disease transmission. Thus, this study was conducted to investigate the impact of Online Teaching and Learning (OTL) on teachers during COVID-19. The questionnaire was distributed randomly online among 320 teachers in Malaysia. SPSS has been used to analyse the completed questionnaire to obtain descriptive and inferential statistics. Three variables that have been used in this study were effectiveness, challenges, and school reopening using Cronbach’s alpha, hypothesis testing, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation, and multiple linear regression. This study has shown that most teachers were affected by using online as a new method of teaching. A negative correlation between effectiveness and challenges has implied that increasing challenges would decrease online teaching effectiveness. Besides, many of the components show a significant difference in the variables in terms of socio-demographic profiles. The findings obtained would help the higher administration tackle challenges the teachers face and know the effectiveness of online teaching and learning.

Dentist’s Appearance: Does It Matter?

Dentistry is a client dependent field. Other than the dentist’s skills, the dentist’s appearance has been observed to affect the patient’s perception of the clinician. This research was conducted to assess patient’s perception of the dentist’s appearance based on the dentist’s attire, gender and age. A total number of 492 Malay respondents were involved in this study. A set of questionnaires was randomly distributed via google forms. This questionnaire consisted of three sections, including socio-demographic details of the respondents, patient’s perception towards dentist’s attire and patient’s perception towards dentist’s gender and age. The result showed that respondents consisted of 78% female and 22% male. The highest percentage of participants was in the age group of 18-30 (85.6%), while the lowest percentage of respondents came from the age group of 49-60 (5.3%). The majority of respondents (51%) preferred a dentist who wears a white coat followed by a dentist in scrub (38.2%) and a dentist dressed in formal attires (9.3%). Only 1.4% of respondents selected a dentist who wears casual attire. Participants also prefer dentist in the age group of 41-60 years old, while participants had no preference toward dentist’s gender. A final open-ended question showed respondents also preferred to see dentists with acceptable dental appearance, good behaviour and established qualification. In conclusion, a dentist’s appearance is important to secure a promising interpretation of the patient towards the dentist.