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Fulltext Towards sustainable transport policy framework: A rail-based transit system in Klang Valley, Malaysia

Yusoff I, Ng BK, Azizan SA

PLoS One, 2021;16(3):e0248519.
PMID: 33711053 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0248519

This study examines the sustainable transport policy framework in the case of railway development in Klang Valley, Malaysia. It is guided by the main principle that sustainable transport policy is a result of the integration of broad policy instruments that range from infrastructure provision and management, technological improvements, regulation, information, awareness, education, and pricing and taxation. Although this study is mainly qualitative, performance data available at the ASEAN Statistics Division, World Bank Open Data and Global Competitiveness Reports. This is followed by in-person interviews with experts who have vast knowledge, experience, and direct participation in sustainable railway development in Malaysia, especially those related to the Klang Valley development. The main findings have indicated that the current framework in Malaysia meets the criteria of sustainable development policy framework, which are essentially constituted within environmental protection. It also constitutes the pursuance of long-term growth in terms of economic and societal needs. Nonetheless, the rail-based transit system in Malaysia is highly driven by the Government and there is no clear sign indicating that the public is shifting from the road and private transport to rail-based services.
Management of Gender Determination of Newborns and Children with Disorders of Sex Development Using a Multidisciplinary Approach: An Exploratory Study of Islamic Perspective in Malaysia

Mohamed MS, Halim ZA, Azizan SA

J Relig Health, 2023 Apr;62(2):797-818.
PMID: 36070127 DOI: 10.1007/s10943-022-01657-8

Management of newborns with disorders of sex development (DSD), especially in deciding the need for a sex assignment surgery, is a complex matter. It is associated with many bioethical issues, such as concerns about the rights and welfare of the newborns and the reliability of parents' consent to the paternalistic disposition of physicians in making the best decisions. This paper, containing interviews with six medical experts and three religious' experts, aims to raise awareness of the multidisciplinary approach, which uses a combination of medicine, religion, and ethics in managing children with DSD, particularly in Malaysia, to avoid unnecessary psychological, biological, emotional, and societal ramifications.
Fulltext GIS-based intelligent planning approach of child-friendly pedestrian pathway to promote a child-friendly city

Fang K, Azizan SA, Huang H

Sci Rep, 2024 Apr 07;14(1):8139.
PMID: 38584168 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-58712-5

Pedestrian safety, particularly for children, relies on well-designed pathways. Child-friendly pathways play a crucial role in safeguarding young pedestrians. Shared spaces accommodating both vehicles and walkers can bring benefits to pedestrians. However, active children playing near these pathways are prone to accidents. This research aims to develop an efficient method for planning child-friendly pedestrian pathways, taking into account community development and the specific needs of children. A mixed-methods approach was employed, utilizing the Datang community in Guangzhou, China, as a case study. This approach combined drawing techniques with GIS data analysis. Drawing methods were utilized to identify points of interest for children aged 2-6. The qualitative and quantitative fuzzy analytic hierarchy process assessed factors influencing pathway planning, assigning appropriate weights. The weighted superposition analysis method constructed a comprehensive cost grid, considering various community elements. To streamline the planning process, a GIS tool was developed based on the identified factors, resulting in a practical, child-friendly pedestrian pathway network. Results indicate that this method efficiently creates child-friendly pathways, ensuring optimal connectivity within the planned road network.
Dynamics of Social Enterprises in Health Care Delivery: Contexts, Models, and Policy Insights From Malaysia

Ng BK, Chin TY, Abu Shamsi N, Azizan SA

Asia Pac J Public Health, 2023 May;35(4):257-266.
PMID: 37029545 DOI: 10.1177/10105395231164441

This qualitative article explores the potential role of health care social enterprises (SEs) as disruptive innovators in improving the availability, accessibility, and affordability of health care delivery. It focuses on the context and mechanisms that enable SEs to produce positive health outcomes. Findings from an in-depth interview with the representatives of SEs and stakeholders in Malaysia reveal that strategies to balance the elements of social and enterprise (business) are the key for SEs to sustain in the market. This is supported with several inclusive business models such as inclusive employment model, cross-subsidization, and flexible fees payment mechanism, as well as collaborative engagement with multiple stakeholders, expert domains, and social workers. This article also highlights several main challenges in health care SEs, namely financial sustainability, impact measurement, scaling up of project, and political influence. This article ends with a few salient policies that focus on nurturing and strengthening health care SEs.
Fulltext Evaluation of depression and obesity indices based on applications of ANOVA, regression, structural equation modeling and Taguchi algorithm process

Mohamed NA, Alanzi ARA, Azizan NA, Azizan SA, Samsudin N, Jenatabadi HS

Front Psychol, 2023;14:1060963.
PMID: 36910750 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1060963

INTRODUCTION: Depression and obesity are the main threat among women which have been considered by many research scholars in psychology studies. In their analysis for measuring and estimating obesity and depression they were involving statistical functions.
METHODS: Regression, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), and in the last two decades Structural Equation Modeling are the most familiar statistical methods among research scholars. Taguchi algorism process is one the statistical methods which mostly have been applying in engineering studies. In this study we are looking at two main objectives. The first one is to introduce Taguchi algorism process and apply it in a case study in psychology area. The second objective is challenging among four statistical techniques include ANOVA, regression, SEM, and Taguchi technique in a same data. To achieve those aims we involved depression and obesity indices with other familiar indicators contain socioeconomic, screen time, sleep time, and usage fitness and nutrition mobile applications.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Outputs proved that Taguchi technique is able to analyze some correlations which are not achieved by applying ANOVA, regression, and SEM. Moreover, SEM has a special capability to estimate some hidden correlations which are not possible to evaluate them by using ANOVA, regression, and even Taguchi method. In the last, we found that some correlations are significant by SEM, however, in the same data with regression those correlation were not significant. This paper could be a warning for psychology research scholars to be more careful with involving statistical methods for measuring and estimating of their research variables.
Fulltext Application of Bayesian structural equation modeling in construction and demolition waste management studies: Development of an extended theory of planned behavior

Mohamed NA, Alanzi ARA, Azizan AN, Azizan SA, Samsudin N, Salarzadeh Jenatabadi H

PLoS One, 2024;19(1):e0290376.
PMID: 38261595 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0290376

Sustainable construction and demolition waste management relies heavily on the attitudes and actions of its constituents; nevertheless, deep analysis for introducing the best estimator is rarely attained. The main objective of this study is to perform a comparison analysis among different approaches of Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) in Construction and Demolition Waste Management (C&DWM) modeling based on an Extended Theory of Planned Behaviour (Extended TPB). The introduced research model includes twelve latent variables, six independent variables, one mediator, three control variables, and one dependent variable. Maximum likelihood (ML), partial least square (PLS), and Bayesian estimators were considered in this study. The output of SEM with the Bayesian estimator was 85.8%, and among effectiveness of six main variables on C&DWM Behavioral (Depenmalaydent variables), five of them have significant relations. Meanwhile, the variation based on SEM with ML estimator was equal to 78.2%, and four correlations with dependent variable have significant relationship. At the conclusion, the R-square of SEM with the PLS estimator was equivalent to 73.4% and three correlations with the dependent variable had significant relationships. At the same time, the values of the three statistical indices include root mean square error (RMSE), mean absolute percentage error (MPE), and mean absolute error (MSE) with involving Bayesian estimator are lower than both ML and PLS estimators. Therefore, compared to both PLS and ML, the predicted values of the Bayesian estimator are closer to the observed values. The lower values of MPE, RMSE, and MSE and the higher values of R-square will generate better goodness of fit for SEM with a Bayesian estimator. Moreover, the SEM with a Bayesian estimator revealed better data fit than both the PLS and ML estimators. The pattern shows that the relationship between research variables can change with different estimators. Hence, researchers using the SEM technique must carefully consider the primary estimator for their data analysis. The precaution is necessary because higher error means different regression coefficients in the research model.
Thermoluminescence properties of lithium magnesium borate glasses system doped with dysprosium oxide

Mhareb MH, Hashim S, Ghoshal SK, Alajerami YS, Saleh MA, Razak NA, et al.

Luminescence, 2015 Dec;30(8):1330-5.
PMID: 25828828 DOI: 10.1002/bio.2902

We report the impact of dysprosium (Dy(3+)) dopant and magnesium oxide (MgO) modifier on the thermoluminescent properties of lithium borate (LB) glass via two procedures. The thermoluminescence (TL) glow curves reveal a single prominent peak at 190 °C for 0.5 mol% of Dy(3+). An increase in MgO contents by 10 mol% enhances the TL intensity by a factor of 1.5 times without causing any shift in the maximum temperature. This enhancement is attributed to the occurrence of extra electron traps created via magnesium and the energy transfer to trivalent Dy(3+) ions. Good linearity in the range of 0.01-4 Gy with a linear correlation coefficient of 0.998, fading as low as 21% over a period of 3 months, excellent reproducibility without oven annealing and tissue equivalent effective atomic numbers ~8.71 are achieved. The trap parameters, including geometric factor (μg), activation energy (E) and frequency factor (s) associated with LMB:Dy are also determined. These favorable TL characteristics of prepared glasses may contribute towards the development of Li2O-MgO-B2O3 radiation dosimeters.