Is the Phone Call the Most Effective Method for Recall in Cervical Cancer Screening? - Results from a Randomised Control Trial

Rashid, Rima Marhayu Abdul,Mohamed, Majdah,Hamid, Zaleha Abdul,Dahlui, Maznah Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2013 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.14 No.10

Objective: To compare the effectiveness of different methods of recall for repeat Pap smear among women who had normal smears in the previous screening. Design: Prospective randomized controlled study. Setting: All community clinics in Klang under the Ministry of Health Malaysia. Participants: Women of Klang who attended cervical screening and had a normal Pap smear in the previous year, and were due for a repeat smear were recruited and randomly assigned to four different methods of recall for repeat smear. Intervention: The recall methods given to the women to remind them for a repeat smear were either by postal letter, registered letter, short message by phone (SMS) or phone call. Main Outcome Measures: Number and percentage of women who responded to the recall within 8 weeks after they had received the recall, irrespective whether they had Pap test conducted. Also the numbers of women in each recall method that came for repeat Pap smear. Results: The rates of recall messages reaching the women when using letter, registered letter, SMS and phone calls were 79%, 87%, 66% and 68%, respectively. However, the positive responses to recall by letter, registered letter, phone messages and telephone call were 23.9%, 23.0%, 32.9% and 50.9%, respectively (p<0.05). Furthermore, more women who received recall by phone call had been screened (p<0.05) compared to those who received recall by postal letter (OR=2.38, CI=1.56-3.62). Conclusion: Both the usual way of sending letters and registered letters had higher chances of reaching patients compared to using phone either for sending messages or calling. The response to the recall method and uptake of repeat smear, however, were highest via phone call, indicating the importance of direct communication.

Adapting the Australian System: Is an Organised Screening Program Feasible in Malaysia? - An Overview of the Cervical Cancer Screening in Both Countries

Abdul Rashid, Rima Marhayu,Dahlui, Maznah,Mohamed, Majdah,Gertig, Dorota Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2013 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.14 No.3

Cervical cancer is the third most common form of cancer that strikes Malaysian women. The National Cancer Registry in 2006 and 2007 reported that the age standardized incidence (ASR) of cervical cancer was 12.2 and 7.8 per 100,000 women, respectively. The cumulative risk of developing cervical cancer for a Malaysian woman is 0.9 for 74 years. Among all ethnic groups, the Chinese experienced the highest incidence rate in 2006, followed by Indians and Malays. The percentage cervical cancer detected at stage I and II was 55% (stage I: 21.0%, stage II: 34.0%, stage III: 26.0% and stage IV: 19.0%). Data from Ministry of Health Malaysia (2006) showed a 58.9% estimated coverage of pap smear screening conducted among those aged 30-49 years. Only a small percentage of women aged 50-59 and 50-65 years old were screened, 14% and 13.8% coverage, respectively. Incidence of cervical cancer was highest (71.6%) among those in the 60-65 age group (MOH, 2003). Currently, there is no organized population-based screening program available for the whole of Malaysia. A pilot project was initiated in 2006, to move from opportunistic cervical screening of women who attend antenatal and postnatal visits to a population based approach to be able to monitor the women through the screening pathway and encourage women at highest risk to be screened. The project was modelled on the screening program in Australia with some modifications to suit the Malaysian setting. Substantial challenges have been identified, particularly in relation to information systems for call and recall of women, as well as laboratory reporting and quality assurance. A cost-effective locally-specific approach to organized screening, that will provide the infrastructure for increasing participation in the cervical cancer screening program, is urgently required.

Prediction of the phase distribution of diesel/CNG bubbly flow in a horizontal pipe under the influence of a magnetic field

Hasanain A. Abdul Wahhab,A. Rashid A. Aziz,Hussain H. Al-Kayiem,Mohammed S. Nasif,Lukmon O. Afolabi 대한기계학회 2017 JOURNAL OF MECHANICAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Vol.31 No.11

This paper describes an analytical study of the magneto hydrodynamics of small CNG bubbles in laminar horizontal diesel flow under the influence of a magnetic field. The investigation is based on experiments carried out to identify the effect of varying the magnetic field intensity on the trajectory, the formation of bubbles and their shape and velocity in the flow. Different images at different positions downstream of the CNG bubbles injection point were captured by a high speed camera and analyzed by image processing techniques provided information on bubble velocity, bubbles size, spatial location and gas area fraction as a function of changing the magnetic field intensity. The outcomes confirmed that CNG bubbles under magnetic field grow up vertically to an elliptical shape in the diesel phase with a mean diameter about twice that of the original bubble. It was also noticed that the velocity of the CNG bubbles decreased as the strength of the magnetic field increased.

How do teachers learn? A study on the policy and practice of teacher professional development in Malaysia

Yusof Petras,Hazri Jamil,Abdul Rashid Mohamed 한국교육개발원 2012 KEDI Journal of Educational Policy Vol.9 No.1

As the correlation of teacher professional development with student achievement has recently gained evidence in the scientific discourse on teacher professionalism and educational development, issues related to professional development have become a crucial component of nearly every education policy. In the context of reforms aiming at the improvement of educational systems, it has been widely acknowledged that teachers are to serve as essential agents of improving the educational system, rather than being one of the numerous ‘variables’ that need to be changed. This study explores the various formal and non-formal activities, as well as the institutional environment of in-service teacher learning, from the viewpoint of teachers serving in a metropolitan area of Malaysia.

Historical Analysis of the Land Movement in Landslide Area Using Elastic Image Registration and Conditional Statement Approach

Siti Khairunniza-Bejo,Abdul Rashid Mohamed Shariff 보안공학연구지원센터 2011 International Journal of Multimedia and Ubiquitous Vol.6 No.3

A Fast Processing Algorithm for Lidar Data Compression Using Second Generation Wavelets

Pradhan B.,Sandeep K.,Mansor Shattri,Ramli Abdul Rahman,Mohamed Sharif Abdul Rashid B. The Korean Society of Remote Sensing 2006 大韓遠隔探査學會誌 Vol.22 No.1

The lifting scheme has been found to be a flexible method for constructing scalar wavelets with desirable properties. In this paper, it is extended to the UDAR data compression. A newly developed data compression approach to approximate the UDAR surface with a series of non-overlapping triangles has been presented. Generally a Triangulated Irregular Networks (TIN) are the most common form of digital surface model that consists of elevation values with x, y coordinates that make up triangles. But over the years the TIN data representation has become an important research topic for many researchers due its large data size. Compression of TIN is needed for efficient management of large data and good surface visualization. This approach covers following steps: First, by using a Delaunay triangulation, an efficient algorithm is developed to generate TIN, which forms the terrain from an arbitrary set of data. A new interpolation wavelet filter for TIN has been applied in two steps, namely splitting and elevation. In the splitting step, a triangle has been divided into several sub-triangles and the elevation step has been used to 'modify' the point values (point coordinates for geometry) after the splitting. Then, this data set is compressed at the desired locations by using second generation wavelets. The quality of geographical surface representation after using proposed technique is compared with the original UDAR data. The results show that this method can be used for significant reduction of data set.

Identifying Reading Strategies to Teach Literal, Reorganisation and Inferential Comprehension Questions to ESL Students

Muhammad Javed,Lin Siew Eng,Abdul Rashid Mohamed,Shaik Abdul Malik Mohamed Ismail 아시아영어교육학회 2016 The Journal of Asia TEFL Vol.13 No.3

Reading strategies assist English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers to teach reading comprehension effectively to ESL students in developing their reading comprehension abilities. This study aimed at identifying reading strategies used by teachers that help them teach literal, reorganisation and inferential comprehension questions to ESL students. The target population was the ESL teachers teaching at the secondary school level in Penang, Malaysia. The ESL teachers from ten secondary schools who were teaching English to Form Four students were selected through convenient sampling. A questionnaire consisting of reading strategies that help ESL teachers teach literal, reorganisation and inferential comprehension questions developed by the researchers was used to collect data. The data were analysed through descriptive statistics to determine the frequency of reading strategies used by the ESL teachers. The findings, based on the quantitative analysis of data, revealed that the ESL teachers use different reading strategies for teaching literal and reorganisation comprehension questions but a small repertoire of reading strategies was employed for teaching inferential comprehension questions. Therefore, the researchers suggested a productive means of reading strategies to employ for teaching reading comprehension, particularly for teaching inferential comprehension questions in order to enhance ESL students’ higher order thinking skills and reading comprehension abilities.

A Fast Processing Algorithm for Lidar Data Compression Using Second Generation Wavelets

B. Pradhan,K. Sandeep,Shattri Mansor,Abdul Rahman Ramli,Abdul Rashid B. Mohamed Sharif 大韓遠隔探査學會 2006 大韓遠隔探査學會誌 Vol.22 No.1

The lifting scheme has been found to be a flexible method for constructing scalar wavelets with desirable properties. In this paper, it is extended to the UDAR data compression. A newly developed data compression approach to approximate the LIDAR surface with a series of non-overlapping triangles has been presented. Generally a Triangulated Irregular Networks (TIN) are the most common form of digital surface model that consists of elevation values with x, y coordinates that make up triangles. But over the years the TIN data representation has become an important research topic for many researchers due its large data size. Compression of TIN is needed for efficient management of large data and good surface visualization. This approach covers following steps: First, by using a Delaunay triangulation, an efficient algorithm is developed to generate TIN, which forms the terrain from an arbitrary set of data. A new interpolation wavelet filter for TIN has been applied in two steps, namely splitting and elevation. In the splitting step, a triangle has been divided into several sub-triangles and the elevation step has been used to `modify` the point values (point coordinates for geometry) after the splitting. Then, this data set is compressed at the desired locations by using second generation wavelets. The quality of geographical surface representation after using proposed technique is compared with the original LIDAR data. The results show that this method can be used for significant reduction of data set.

Continuous production of carbon nanotubes – A review

Lim Siang Ying,Mohamad Amran bin Mohd Salleh,Hamdan b. Mohamed Yusoff,Suraya Binti Abdul Rashid,Jeefferie b. Abd. Razak 한국공업화학회 2011 Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Vol.17 No.3

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) up to now are the most researched materials of the 21st century with an international intention of growing industrial quantities due to their superior properties for use in many applications. Thus far large quantities of carbon nanotube scan be grown in a continuous manner by both arc as well as chemical vapour deposition methods. In this paper, an innovative approach of feeding gases, a carbon precursor (solid or gases) and a catalyst into the reaction zone is reviewed. This is followed by a study of the reaction process concerning how the method is initiated, the effect of growth environment and catalyst on CNTs as well as the dischargingmechanism for the final carbon products. A study of the arc method consists of a novel way of growing CNTs in a liquid solution from an arc discharge generated by carbon rods, by growing CNTs in a plasma zone using carbon gases or solid carbon and a more direct method of using carbon tape as the anode for the synthesized source are also reported. In the case of the chemical vapour deposition (CVD) method, some use a horizontal reactor and some use a vertical reactor with all having different installed devices for use in continuous feeding and discharging of resources and products respectively. Additionally, problems regarding the CNT yield and some issues that have not been taken into consideration by others, are discussed. At the end of the review, an additional mechanism to integrate catalyst preparation and carbon nanotube purification into the current research synthesizing process for future study is proposed for a highly productive continuous CNT synthesis process.