Public Awareness of Warning Signs and Symptoms of Cancer in Oman: A Community-Based Survey of Adults

Al-Azri, Mohammed,Al-Hamedi, Ibtisam,Al-Awisi, Huda,Al-Hinai, Mustafa,Davidson, Robin Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2015 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.16 No.7

Background: The majority of deaths from cancer occur in low and middle income countries, partly due to poor public awareness of the signs and symptoms of cancer. Materials and Methods: A community based survey using the Cancer Awareness Measure (CAM) questionnaire was conducted in three different communities in Oman. Omani adults aged 18 years and above were invited to participate in the study. Results: A total of 345 responded from 450 invited participants (response rate=76.7%). The majority of respondents were unable to identify the common signs and symptoms of cancer identified in the CAM (average awareness was 40.6%). The most emotional barrier to seeking help was worry about what the doctor might find (223, 64.6%); a practical barrier was too busy to make an appointment (259, 75.1%) and a service barrier was difficulty talking to the doctor (159, 46.1%). The majority of respondents (more than 60% for seven out of ten symptoms) would seek medical help in two weeks for most signs or symptoms of cancer. Females were significantly more likely than males to be embarrassed (p<0.001), scared (p=0.001), and lack confidence talking about their symptoms (p=0.022). Conclusions: Urgent strategies are needed to improve public awareness of the signs and symptoms of cancer in Oman. This might leads to earlier diagnosis, improved prognosis and reduced mortality from cancer.

Fast Pyrolysis of Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunches (EFB) using Fluidised-Fixed Bed Reactor

( Mohamad Azri Sukiran ),( Loh Soh Kheang ),( Choo Yuen May ) 한국폐기물자원순환학회 2023 I-CIPEC Vol.2012 No.0

Intestinal obstruction: predictor of poor prognosis in colorectal carcinoma?

Mohd Azri Mohd Suan,Wei Leong Tan,Shahrul Aiman Soelar,Ibtisam Ismail,Muhammad Radzi Abu Hassan 한국역학회 2015 Epidemiology and Health Vol.37 No.-

OBJECTIVES: The goal of this study was to assess the relationship between intestinal obstruction and the prognosis of colorectal carcinoma. METHODS: Data pertaining to 4,501 colorectal carcinoma patients were extracted from the national colorec-tal registry and analysed. Survival analysis was performed using the Kaplan-Meier method. The log-rank test was used to compare the survival rate between patients with intestinal obstruction and those without intesti-nal obstruction. The p-values< 0.05 were considered to indicate statistical significance. Simple Cox proportion-al hazards regression analysis was used to estimate the crude hazard ratio of mortality from colorectal cancer. RESULTS: Intestinal obstruction was reported in more than 13% of patients. The 3-year survival rate after treat-ment was 48.3% (95% confidence interval [CI], 43.9 to 52.8) for patients with intestinal obstruction (n= 593) and 54.9% (95% CI, 53.1 to 56.6) for patients without intestinal obstruction (n= 3,908). The 5-year survival rate for patients with intestinal obstruction was 37.3% (95% CI, 31.9 to 42.8), which was lower than that of patients without intestinal obstruction (45.6%; 95% CI, 43.5 to 47.7). After adjusting the hazard ratio for oth-er prognostic variables, intestinal obstruction had a statistically significant negative correlation with the surviv-al rate of colorectal cancer patients, with an adjusted hazard ratio of 1.22 (p= 0.008). CONCLUSIONS: The presence of intestinal obstruction is associated with a lower survival rate among colorectal cancer patients.

Awareness of Risk Factors for Cancer among Omani adults- A Community Based Study

Al-Azri, Mohammed,AL-Rasbi, Khadija,Al-Hinai, Mustafa,Davidson, Robin,Al-Maniri, Abdullah Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2014 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.15 No.13

Background: Cancer is the leading cause of mortality around the world. However, the majority of cancers occur as a result of modifiable risk factors; hence public awareness of cancer risk factors is crucial to reduce the incidence. The objective of this study was to identify the level of public awareness of cancer risk factors among the adult Omani population. Materials and Methods: A community based survey using the Cancer Awareness Measure (CAM) questionnaire was conducted in three areas of Oman to measure public awareness of cancer risk factors. Omani adults aged 18 years and above were invited to participate in the study. SPPSS (ver.20) was used to analyse the data. Results: A total of 384 participated from 500 invited individuals (response rate =77%). The majority of respondents agreed that smoking cigarettes (320, 83.3%), passive smoking (279, 72.7%) and excessive drinking of alcohol (265, 69%) are risks factors for cancer. However, fewer respondents agreed that eating less fruit and vegetables (83, 21.6%), eating more red or processed meat (116, 30.2%), being overweight (BMI> 25) (123, 32%), doing less physical exercise (119, 31%), being over 70 years old (72, 18.8%), having a close relative with cancer (134, 34.9%), infection with human papilloma virus (HPV) (117, 30.5%) and getting frequent sunburn during childhood (149, 38.8%) are risk factors for cancer. A significant association was found between participant responses and their educational level. The higher the educational level, the more likely that respondents identified cancer risk factors including smoking (p<0.0005), passive smoking (p= 0.007), excessive drinking of alcohol (p<0.0005), eating less fruit and vegetables (p= 0.001) and infection with HPV (p<0.0005). Conclusions: The majority of respondents in this study in Oman were not aware of the common risk factors for cancer. It may be possible to reduce the incidence of cancers in Oman by developing strategies to educate the public about these risk factors.

Singular and Marcinkiewicz integral operators on product domains

Badriya Al-Azri,Ahmad Al-Salman 대한수학회 2023 대한수학회논문집 Vol.38 No.2

In this paper, we prove $L^{p}$ estimates of a class of singular integral operators on product domains along surfaces defined by mappings that are more general than polynomials and convex functions. We assume that the kernels are in $L(\log L)^{2}(\mathbb{S}^{n-1}\times \mathbb{S}^{m-1})$. Furthermore, we\ prove $L^{p}$ estimates of the related class of Marcinkiewicz integral operators. Our results extend as well as improve previously known results.

A Note on Marcinkiewicz Integral Operators on Product Domains

Badriya Al-Azri,Ahmad Al-Salman 경북대학교 자연과학대학 수학과 2023 Kyungpook mathematical journal Vol.63 No.4

In this paper we establish the Lp boundedness of Marcinkiewicz integral oper ators on product domains with rough kernels satisfying a weak size condition. We assume that our kernels are supported on surfaces generated by curves more general than polyno mials and convex functions. This generalizes and extends previous results.

Colorectal Cancer Awareness and Screening Preference: A Survey during the Malaysian World Digestive Day Campaign

Suan, Mohd Azri Mohd,Mohammed, Noor Syahireen,Hassan, Muhammad Radzi Abu Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2015 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.16 No.18

Background: Although the incidence of colorectal cancer in Malaysia is increasing, awareness of this cancer, including its symptoms, risk factors and screening methods, remains low among Malaysian populations. This survey was conducted with the aim of (i) ascertaining the awareness level regarding colorectal cancer symptoms, risk factors and its screening among the general populations and (ii) assessing the public preference and willingness to pay for colorectal cancer screening. Materials and Methods: The questionnaire was distributed in eight major cities in West Malaysia during the World Health Digestive Day (WDHD) campaign. Two thousand four hundred and eight respondents participated in this survey. Results: Generally, awareness of colorectal cancer was found to be relatively good. Symptoms such as change in bowel habit, blood in the stool, weight loss and abdominal pain were well recognized by 86.6%, 86.9%, 83.4% and 85.6% of the respondents, respectively. However, common risk factors such as positive family history, obesity and old age were acknowledged only by less than 70% of the respondents. Almost 80% of the respondents are willing to take the screening test even without any apparent symptoms. Colonoscopy is the preferred screening method, but only 37.5% were willing to pay from their own pocket to get early colonoscopy. Conclusions: Continous cancer education should be promoted with more involvement from healthcare providers in order to make future colorectal cancer screening programs successful.

The Impact of Strategic Planning Factors on Service Quality: An Empirical Study of Private Universities in Oman

Mahmood AL-AZRI,Ibrahim AL-JUBARI,Ahmad ALBATTAT 한국유통과학회 2021 The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Busine Vol.8 No.7

The study investigates the impact of strategic planning (SP) factors on service quality (SQ) in private universities (PUs) in Oman and how they fit together in the development of higher education institutions (HEIs). The reports of the Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE) in Oman revealed that the service quality in private universities is unsatisfactory. This study employs a quantitative method. Data were collected from a sample of 730 academics and administrators. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) based on AMOS software was applied for data analysis. The results of the structural paths showed that, among the strategic planning factors, only environmental scanning and leadership had a direct significant impact on service quality. However, mission statement and participation had insignificant direct impact on service quality. The findings suggest that environmental scanning and leadership are critical factors in predicting service quality dimensions of private universities. The findings add to the body of knowledge particularly in the Omani context, which can be useful in the neighboring countries as well. The study combines two different popular models in addressing service quality. The study also clarified the importance of each factor of the strategic planning process, which give a comprehensive picture of the university.

Selective Harmonic Elimination for a Single-Phase 13-level TCHB Based Cascaded Multilevel Inverter Using FPGA

Wahidah Abd. Halim,Nasrudin Abd. Rahim,Maaspaliza Azri 전력전자학회 2014 JOURNAL OF POWER ELECTRONICS Vol.14 No.3

This paper presents an implementation of selective harmonic elimination (SHE) modulation for a single-phase 13-level transistor-clamped H-bridge (TCHB) based cascaded multilevel inverter. To determine the optimum switching angle of the SHE equations, the Newton-Raphson method is used in solving the transcendental equation describing the fundamental and harmonic components. The proposed SHE scheme used the relationship between the angles and a sinusoidal reference waveform based on voltage-angle equal criteria. The proposed SHE scheme is evaluated through simulation and experimental results. The digital modulator based-SHE scheme using a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) is described and has been implemented on an Altera DE2 board. The proposed SHE is efficient in eliminating the 3<SUP>rd</SUP>, 5<SUP>th</SUP>, 7<SUP>th</SUP>, 9<SUP>th</SUP> and 11<SUP>th</SUP> order harmonics, which validates the analytical results. From the results, it can be seen that the adopted 13-level inverter produces a higher quality with a better harmonic profile and sinusoidal shape of the stepped output waveform.

Generalized Selective Harmonic Elimination Modulation for Transistor-Clamped H-Bridge Multilevel Inverter

Wahidah Abd. Halim,Nasrudin Abd. Rahim,Maaspaliza Azri 전력전자학회 2015 JOURNAL OF POWER ELECTRONICS Vol.15 No.4

This paper presents a simple approach for the selective harmonic elimination (SHE) of multilevel inverter based on the transistor-clamped H-bridge (TCHB) family. The SHE modulation is derived from the sinusoidal voltage-angle equal criteria corresponding to the optimized switching angles. The switching angles are computed offline by solving transcendental non-linear equations characterizing the harmonic contents using the Newton-Raphson method to produce an optimum stepped output. Simulation and experimental tests are conducted for verification of the analytical solutions. An Altera DE2 field-programmable gate array (FPGA) board is used as the digital controller device in order to verify the proposed SHE modulation in real-time applications. An analysis of the voltage total harmonic distortion (THD) has been obtained for multiple output voltage cases. In terms of the THD, the results showed that the higher the number of output levels, the lower the THD due to an increase number of harmonic orders being eliminated.