• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.607-613
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• 1989

The validity of the hypothesis that between-breed differences of carcass composition in cattle can be reduced when compared at the same degree of maturity was assessed using carcass data of various breeds obtained from slaughter experiments in Denmark, Japan and Malaysia. All cattle were kept in intensive feeding conditions in this study. With respect to temperate data (Danish and Japanese data), although large between-breed differences were found in carcass composition in the comparison at the same slaughter weight, the differences were reduced when compared at the same degree of maturity. This result supported the above hypothesis. Kedah-Kelantan and their crosses in Malaysian data, however, had more muscle and bone contents but less fat content than temperate breeds, even if compared at the same degree of maturity. This could be attributed to the history that native Kedah-Kelantan breed has adapted itself in the direction of decreasing fat deposition which requires much energy and prevents heat evaporation, in order to survive under high temperature and high humiodity conditions in Malaysia. In spite of the same tropical breed, carcass composition of Sahiwal-Friesian was similar to that of other temperate breeds at the same degree of maturity.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.59-66
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• 1995

Energy obtained by grazing cattle in oil palm plantations is usually used for maintenance of body functions, the construction of body tissues and pregnancy, the synthesis of milk and the conversion to mechanical energy used for activities such as walking, eating and others. In this study, attempt was made to estimate metabolizable energy (ME) requirement of grazing cattle. Models of ME requirement (MER) for maintenance, gain, pregnancy, lactation and activities were developed. ME system and units were used because of wide recognition. Estimation of ME intake in grazing cattle was expressed as MEVI = $14.58{\times}VI{\times}DMD$, and under grazing condition MEVI = $MER_i$. MER was expressed as a function of net energy(NER, MJ) required for the i'th body function. Coefficient of efficiency for conversion of ME into net energy(ki) was adopted from literatures. Quantifying of ME requirement for Kedah-Kelantan cattle under grazing condition was made by using equation MERM = NEM / kn. The estimated values of MER for Kedah-Kelantan cattle is quite reasonable if compared with other estimates as reported in literatures from stall-fed animals. Dynamic MER models for grazing herd was developed in order to estimate ME requirement for maintenance and productions. These ME requirement models can be used for prediction of energy utilization pattern of the herd in the grazing systems.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.435-440
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• 2013

Background: Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death among women in Malaysia. A diagnosis is very stressful for women, affecting all aspects of their being and quality of life. As such, there is little information on quality of life of women with breast cancer across the different ethnic groups in Malaysia. The purpose of this study was to examine the quality of life in Malay and Chinese women newly diagnosed with breast cancer in Kelantan. Materials and Methods: A descriptive study involved 58 Malays and 15 Chinese women newly diagnosed with breast cancer prior to treatment. Quality of life was measured using the Malay version of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-C30) and its breast-specific module (QLQ-BR23). Socio-demographic and clinical data were also collected. All the data were analyzed using SPSS version 20.0. Results: Most of the women were married with at least a secondary education and were in late stages of breast cancer. The Malay women had lower incomes (p=0.046) and more children (p=0.001) when compared to the Chinese women. Generally, both the Malay and Chinese women had good functioning quality-of-life scores [mean score range: 60.3-84.8 (Malays); 65.0-91.1 (Chinese)] and global quality of life [mean score 60.3, SD 22.2 (Malays); mean score 65.0, SD 26.6 (Chinese)]. The Malay women experienced more symptoms such as nausea and vomiting (p=0.002), dyspnoea (p=0.004), constipation (p<0.001) and breast-specific symptoms (p=0.041) when compared to the Chinese. Conclusions: Quality of life was satisfactory in both Malays and Chinese women newly diagnosed with breast cancer in Kelantan. However, Malay women had a lower quality of life due to high general as well as breast-specific symptoms. This study finding underlined the importance of measuring quality of life in the newly diagnosed breast cancer patient, as it will provide a broader picture on how a cancer diagnosis impacts multi-ethnic patients. Once health care professionals understand this, they might then be able to determine how to best support and improve the quality of life of these women during the difficult times of their disease and on-going cancer treatments.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.8
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• pp.4083-4088
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• 2016

Background: Physical inactivity has been identified as the fourth leading risk factor for global mortality and is associated with increased breast cancer diagnosis and recurrence. Purpose: To examine the association between adult lifetime physical activity and breast cancer risk in a case-control analysis. Materials and Methods: This study involved 122 cases of breast cancer and 121 controls in the state of Kelantan in Malaysia. A comprehensive measure of lifetime physical activity was used to assess occupational, household, and recreational/sports activity. For every type of activity, a metabolic equivalent (MET) score was assigned using the compendium of physical activities. MET-hours/week per year for all types of activities at different levels of intensities for different age groups were calculated. Logistic regression analysis was used to estimate odds ratios between various measures of physical activity and breast cancer risk. Conclusions: The mean MET-hours/week per year for all activities were 120.0 and 132.9 of MET-hours/week per year for cases and controls respectively. Household activities accounted for about 70% of the total lifetime physical activities. Only about 2.5% of the total lifetime physical activities were in the form of recreational/sports. This study found no association between lifetime occupational and recreational/sports physical activities with breast cancer risk among Kelantanese women. However, higher intensity lifetime household activities seemed to significantly reduce risk of breast cancer.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.12
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• pp.4869-4872
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• 2015

Background: Mutations of the FMS-like tyrosine kinase-3 (FLT3) receptor gene may promote proliferation via activation of multiple signaling pathways. FLT3-internal tandem duplication (FLT3-ITD) is the most common gene alteration found in patients diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) and has been associated with poor prognosis. Materials and Methods: We performed mutational analysis of exons 14-15 and 20 of the FLT3 gene in 54 AML patients using PCR-CSGE (conformational sensitive gel electrophoresis) followed by sequencing analysis to characterise FLT3 mutations in adult patients diagnosed with AML at Hospital USM, Kelantan, Northeast Peninsular Malaysia. Results: FLT3 exon 14-15 mutations were identified in 7 of 54 patients (13%) whereas no mutation was found in FLT3 exon 20. Six ITDs and one non-ITD mutation were found in exon 14 of the juxtamembrane (JM) domain of FLT3. FLT3-ITD mutations were associated with a significantly higher blast percentage (p-value = 0.008) and white blood cell count (p-value = 0.023) but there was no significant difference in median overall survival time for FLT3-ITD+/FLT3-ITD- within 2 years (p-value = 0.374). Conclusions: The incidence of FLT3-ITD in AML patients in this particular region of Malaysia is low compared to the Western world and has a significant association with WBC and blast percentage.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.49-55
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• 2016

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study is to utilize an extended Theory of Planned Behavior in identifying predictors of exclusive breastfeeding intention and behavior among women in Kelantan, Malaysia. SUBJECTS/METHODS: A prospective cohort study was conducted, recruiting pregnant womenthrough two-stage cluster sampling. Their exclusive breastfeeding intention, attitude, perceived norm, perceived behavioral control and past behavior were obtained at baseline through interviewer-guided questionnaire. At one month after delivery, another interview was conducted to determine the two additional variables in the extended theory, which were their postpartum support and breastfeeding difficulty. The behavior, which was the actual duration of exclusive breastfeeding, was obtained from the second follow-up at six months. Pearson correlation and two hierarchical regression analyses were conducted. RESULTS: A total of 200 women completed the study follow-up. Their median intended exclusive breastfeeding duration was 4.0 (IQR 5) months, and the median actual duration was 1.0 (IQR 4) month. The Theory of Planned Behavior explained 51.0% of the variance in intention, with perceived behavioral control and attitude were the significant predictors. It also explained 10.0% of the variance in behavior, but the addition of postpartum support and breastfeeding difficulty increased the amount of explained variance in behavior by 6.0%. The significant predictors of exclusive breastfeeding behavior were intention, postpartum support and breastfeeding difficulty. CONCLUSION: The extended Theory of Planned Behaviorhad a good predictive ability in explaining exclusive breastfeedingintention and behavior. The women's intention to practice exclusive breastfeeding may be improved by improving their perceived behavioral control and attitude. Providing correct postpartum support and skills to handle breastfeeding difficulties after delivery will improve their exclusive breastfeeding behavior.

• Korean Journal of Family Medicine
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• v.39 no.6
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• pp.355-359
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• 2018

Background: Body image is associated with the perception of people on themselves. Influencing factors are generated internally and/or externally. The most common issue pertaining to body image is body weight and weight loss. This study aimed to determine the association between body weight perception and weight loss practices among college students. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted involving 297 college students from private nursing colleges in the state of Kelantan, Malaysia. A self-administered questionnaire was used to assess sociodemographic characteristics, body weight perception, and weight loss methods. Weight and height were measured, and body mass index (BMI) was calculated based on weight and height measurement. The World Health Organization BMI cutoffs were applied in the study. Results: More than half (54.2%) of college students perceived their weight correctly as per actual measured BMI. A total of 51.5% of participants had tried various methods to reduce their weight. Body weight perception is associated with weight loss practices (odds ratio, 0.31; 95% confidence interval, 0.19-0.50; P<0.001) adjusted for sex, marital status, and status of having obese family members. Those who had correct body weight perception were less likely to engage in weight loss practice. Food intake restriction (42.4%) is the most popular weight reduction method among students in nursing colleges. Over a quarter of the participants chose physical exercise (25.3%) to reduce their weight, and a small number engaged in unhealthy weight loss practices. Conclusion: Body weight perception is an important factor that influences the practice to reduce weight especially among young adult group and college students.

• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.287-328
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• 2019

Comprehensive understanding of the flood risk assessments via frequency analysis often demands multivariate designs under the different notations of return periods. Flood is a tri-variate random consequence, which often pointing the unreliability of univariate return period and demands for the joint dependency construction by accounting its multiple intercorrelated flood vectors i.e., flood peak, volume & durations. Selecting the most parsimonious probability functions for demonstrating univariate flood marginals distributions is often a mandatory pre-processing desire before the establishment of joint dependency. Especially under copulas methodology, which often allows the practitioner to model univariate marginals separately from their joint constructions. Parametric density approximations often hypothesized that the random samples must follow some specific or predefine probability density functions, which usually defines different estimates especially in the tail of distributions. Concentrations of the upper tail often seem interesting during flood modelling also, no evidence exhibited in favours of any fixed distributions, which often characterized through the trial and error procedure based on goodness-of-fit measures. On another side, model performance evaluations and selections of best-fitted distributions often demand precise investigations via comparing the relative sample reproducing capabilities otherwise, inconsistencies might reveal uncertainty. Also, the strength & weakness of different fitness statistics usually vary and having different extent during demonstrating gaps and dispensary among fitted distributions. In this literature, selections efforts of marginal distributions of flood variables are incorporated by employing an interactive set of parametric functions for event-based (or Block annual maxima) samples over the 50-years continuously-distributed streamflow characteristics for the Kelantan River basin at Gulliemard Bridge, Malaysia. Model fitness criteria are examined based on the degree of agreements between cumulative empirical and theoretical probabilities. Both the analytical as well as graphically visual inspections are undertaken to strengthen much decisive evidence in favour of best-fitted probability density.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.321-325
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• 2001

Two experiments were conducted to examine the degradation rates of 4 tropical legume forages in rumen and intestine of Kedah-Kelantan (KK) cattle. Three KK cattle, averaging $173{\pm}17.15kg$ each fitted with a permanent ruminal and a T-shaped duodenal cannulae were used. The cattle were fed a maintenance diet (1% DM of their body weight) composing of 60% oil palm frond (OPF) pellet and 40% of a legume mixture of Arachis pintoi (AP) and Leucaena throughout the study. The overall DM and CP degradabilities in the rumen for Gliricidia sepium (GS) and AP were significantly higher than those for Leucaena leucocephala-Bahru (LB) and Leucaena leucocephala-Rendang (LR). This implies that LB and LR would have higher dietary protein flows into the intestine for the more efficient enzymatic digestion. However, the results of the present study suggested only limited proportions of the ruminal undegraded protein in the Leucaenas were digested in the intestine.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.27 no.11
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• pp.2074-2074
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• 2017