Displaying publications 1 - 20 of 57 in total

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  1. Evaluation of the Seventh Malaysian Health Plan: a new approach
    Yon RB, Hamidy MA, Lin CY
    Asia Pac J Public Health, 2001;13(1):54-8.
    PMID: 12109263
    Since the First Malaysia Plan (1966-1970) many reviews have been done on the five-year health plans of the Ministry of Health (MOH). These included the Mid-Term Reviews and the review done at the end of the respective five-year plan period. There was no structured evaluation method carried out until the Seventh Malaysia Plan (7MP) period (1996-2000), among others because of the complexity of the MOH health plans. The evaluation of the 7MP was the first one conducted using a better-structured process. The findings and recommendations of the evaluation were used and incorporated in the subsequent 5-year health plan, under the Eighth Malaysia Plan (2001-2005).
  2. Dry vacuum-assisted hydration method: A new accelerating method for reconstitution of injectable Poly-D,L-lactic acid
    Lin JY, Lin CY, Cheong VM
    J Cosmet Dermatol, 2024 Apr;23(4):1489-1491.
    PMID: 37990772 DOI: 10.1111/jocd.16097
  3. Fulltext Changes in drowning mortality rates and quality of reporting from 2004-2005 to 2014-2015: a comparative study of 61 countries
    Lin CY, Wang LY, Lu TH
    BMC Public Health, 2019 Oct 28;19(1):1391.
    PMID: 31660919 DOI: 10.1186/s12889-019-7749-2
    BACKGROUND: This study assessed international variations in changes in drowning mortality rates and the quality of reporting specific information in death certificates over the past decade.

    METHODS: Drowning mortality data of 61 countries were extracted from the World Health Organization Mortality Database. We calculated the percentage change (PC) in age-standardized drowning mortality rates and percentage of drowning deaths reported with unspecified codes between 2004 and 2005 and 2014-2015.

    RESULTS: Of the 61 countries studied, 50 exhibited a reduction in drowning mortality rates from 2004 to 2005 to 2014-2015. Additionally, five countries-Lithuania, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, Romania, and El Salvador-with a high mortality rate in 2004-2005 (> 40 deaths per 100,000) showed improvement (PC  40%) exhibited a marked reduction (PC 

  4. Complete genome sequences of two novel dicistroviruses detected in yellow crazy ants (Anoplolepis gracilipes)
    Lee CC, Lin CY, Hsu HW, Yang CS
    Arch Virol, 2020 Nov;165(11):2715-2719.
    PMID: 32776255 DOI: 10.1007/s00705-020-04769-2
    We report two novel RNA viruses from yellow crazy ants, (Anoplolepis gracilipes) detected using next-generation sequencing. The complete genome sequences of the two viruses were 10,662 and 8,238 nucleotides in length, respectively, with both possessing two open reading frames with three conserved protein domains. The genome organization is characteristic of members of the genus Triatovirus in the family Dicistroviridae. The two novel viruses were tentatively named "Anoplolepis gracilipes virus 1" and "Anoplolepis gracilipes virus 2" (AgrV-1 and AgrV-2). Phylogenetic analyses based on amino acid sequences of the non-structural polyprotein (ORF1) suggest that the two viruses are triatovirus-like viruses. This is the first report on the discovery of novel triatovirus-like viruses in yellow crazy ants with a description of their genome structure (two ORFs and conserved domains of RNA helicase, RNA-dependent RNA polymerase, and capsid protein), complete sequences, and viral prevalence across the Asia-Pacific region.
  5. The microbially driven formation of siderite in salt marsh sediments
    Lin CY, Turchyn AV, Krylov A, Antler G
    Geobiology, 2020 03;18(2):207-224.
    PMID: 31814266 DOI: 10.1111/gbi.12371
    We employ complementary field and laboratory-based incubation techniques to explore the geochemical environment where siderite concretions are actively forming and growing, including solid-phase analysis of the sediment, concretion, and associated pore fluid chemistry. These recently formed siderite concretions allow us to explore the geochemical processes that lead to the formation of this less common carbonate mineral. We conclude that there are two phases of siderite concretion growth within the sediment, as there are distinct changes in the carbon isotopic composition and mineralogy across the concretions. Incubated sediment samples allow us to explore the stability of siderite over a range of geochemical conditions. Our incubation results suggest that the formation of siderite can be very rapid (about two weeks or within 400 hr) when there is a substantial source of iron, either from microbial iron reduction or from steel material; however, a source of dissolved iron is not enough to induce siderite precipitation. We suggest that sufficient alkalinity is the limiting factor for siderite precipitation during microbial iron reduction while the lack of dissolved iron is the limiting factor for siderite formation if microbial sulfate reduction is the dominant microbial metabolism. We show that siderite can form via heated transformation (at temperature 100°C for 48 hr) of calcite and monohydrocalcite seeds in the presence of dissolved iron. Our transformation experiments suggest that the formation of siderite is promoted when carbonate seeds are present.
  6. Fulltext Hierarchical Image Transformation and Multi-Level Features for Anomaly Defect Detection
    Farady I, Kuo CC, Ng HF, Lin CY
    Sensors (Basel), 2023 Jan 15;23(2).
    PMID: 36679785 DOI: 10.3390/s23020988
    Anomalies are a set of samples that do not follow the normal behavior of the majority of data. In an industrial dataset, anomalies appear in a very small number of samples. Currently, deep learning-based models have achieved important advances in image anomaly detection. However, with general models, real-world application data consisting of non-ideal images, also known as poison images, become a challenge. When the work environment is not conducive to consistently acquiring a good or ideal sample, an additional adaptive learning model is needed. In this work, we design a potential methodology to tackle poison or non-ideal images that commonly appear in industrial production lines by enhancing the existing training data. We propose Hierarchical Image Transformation and Multi-level Features (HIT-MiLF) modules for an anomaly detection network to adapt to perturbances from novelties in testing images. This approach provides a hierarchical process for image transformation during pre-processing and explores the most efficient layer of extracted features from a CNN backbone. The model generates new transformations of training samples that simulate the non-ideal condition and learn the normality in high-dimensional features before applying a Gaussian mixture model to detect the anomalies from new data that it has never seen before. Our experimental results show that hierarchical transformation and multi-level feature exploration improve the baseline performance on industrial metal datasets.
  7. Emotion Dysregulation Mediates the Relationship Between Sensory Processing and Behavior Problems in Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Preliminary Study
    Sung YS, Lin CY, Chu SY, Lin LY
    J Autism Dev Disord, 2024 Feb;54(2):738-748.
    PMID: 36441430 DOI: 10.1007/s10803-022-05839-x
    Emotion dysregulation is one of the challenges that children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their families face. It is unclear whether emotion dysregulation plays a mediating role in the relationship between sensory processing patterns and problem behaviors among these children. This study examined the relations between emotion dysregulation, behavioral problems, and sensory processing patterns among fifty-seven young children with ASD. Behavioral problems and sensory processing patterns were moderately to strongly correlated with emotion dysregulation. The relationship between sensory processing patterns and behavioral problems was significant with emotion dysregulation as a mediator. These findings help identify the relationship between emotion dysregulation, sensory processing patterns, and behavioral problems to facilitate the planning of intervention strategies for young children with ASD.
  8. Assessment of heavy metals contamination in Mamut river sediments using sediment quality guidelines and geochemical indices
    Mohammad Ali BN, Lin CY, Cleophas F, Abdullah MH, Musta B
    Environ Monit Assess, 2015 Jan;187(1):4190.
    PMID: 25471626 DOI: 10.1007/s10661-014-4190-y
    This paper describes the concentration of selected heavy metals (Co, Cu, Ni, Pb, and Zn) in the Mamut river sediments and evaluate the degree of contamination of the river polluted by a disused copper mine. Based on the analytical results, copper showed the highest concentration in most of the river samples. A comparison with Interim Canadian Sediment Quality Guidelines (ICSQG) and Germany Sediment Quality Guidelines (GSQG) indicated that the sediment samples in all the sampling stations, except Mamut river control site (M1), exceeded the limit established for Cu, Ni, and Pb. On the contrary, Zn concentrations were reported well below the guidelines limit (ICSQG and GSQG). Mineralogical analysis indicated that the Mamut river sediments were primarily composed of quartz and accessory minerals such as chalcopyrite, pyrite, edenite, kaolinite, mica, and muscovite, reflected by the geological character of the study area. Enrichment factor (EF) and geoaccumulation index (Igeo) were calculated to evaluate the heavy metal pollution in river sediments. Igeo values indicated that all the sites were strongly polluted with the studied metals in most sampling stations, specifically those located along the Mamut main stream. The enrichment factor with value greater than 1.5 suggested that the source of heavy metals was mainly derived from anthropogenic activity such as mining. The degree of metal changes (δfold) revealed that Cu concentration in the river sediments has increased as much as 20 to 38 folds since the preliminary investigation conducted in year 2004.
  9. Fulltext Global-and-Local Context Network for Semantic Segmentation of Street View Images
    Lin CY, Chiu YC, Ng HF, Shih TK, Lin KH
    Sensors (Basel), 2020 May 21;20(10).
    PMID: 32455537 DOI: 10.3390/s20102907
    Semantic segmentation of street view images is an important step in scene understanding for autonomous vehicle systems. Recent works have made significant progress in pixel-level labeling using Fully Convolutional Network (FCN) framework and local multi-scale context information. Rich global context information is also essential in the segmentation process. However, a systematic way to utilize both global and local contextual information in a single network has not been fully investigated. In this paper, we propose a global-and-local network architecture (GLNet) which incorporates global spatial information and dense local multi-scale context information to model the relationship between objects in a scene, thus reducing segmentation errors. A channel attention module is designed to further refine the segmentation results using low-level features from the feature map. Experimental results demonstrate that our proposed GLNet achieves 80.8% test accuracy on the Cityscapes test dataset, comparing favorably with existing state-of-the-art methods.
  10. Psychometric Properties of the Spiritual Coping Strategies Scale-Chinese Version (SCSS-C) for Adults in Taiwan
    Wang TY, Yap KY, Saffari M, Hsieh MT, Koenig HG, Lin CY
    J Relig Health, 2023 Oct;62(5):3651-3663.
    PMID: 37587304 DOI: 10.1007/s10943-023-01877-6
    This study examined the psychometric properties of the Spiritual Coping Strategies Scale-Chinese version (SCSS-C) in Taiwanese adults. A convenience sample of 232 participants in Taiwan completed an online survey, and 45 of the 232 participants completed the SCSS-C again over a 2 week interval. The content validity index of the SCSS-C was 0.97. Parallel analysis and exploratory factor analysis results revealed two factors (religious coping and non-religious coping). The internal consistency of the SCSS-C was satisfactory (α = 0.88 to 0.92). Test-retest reliability was satisfactory (r = 0.68 to 0.89). The psychometric properties of the SCSS-C were found to be acceptable for use in Taiwanese adults.
  11. Role of energy consumption and sustainability-oriented eco-innovation on economic growth: evidence from Middle Eastern economy
    Tu YT, Lin CY, Ehsanullah S, Anh NHV, Duong KD, Huy PQ
    Environ Sci Pollut Res Int, 2023 Jan;30(2):3197-3212.
    PMID: 35943651 DOI: 10.1007/s11356-022-22257-9
    Economic growth is a global requirement that requires extensive energy consumption, and this phenomenon needs researchers' attention and regulators' focus. Thereby, the paper scrutinizes the determinants of energy consumption such as fossil fuel energy consumption (FFEC), energy use, nuclear energy consumption (NEC), energy import, and renewable energy consumption (REC) and sustainability-oriented eco-innovation and their effectiveness on the economic growth of Saudi Arabia. The study extracted data from the World Bank from 1989 to 2020. Stationarity was examined using augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) tests, and the associations among constructs were analyzed through QARDL model. The findings revealed that FFEC, EU, NEC, EI, REC, and sustainability-oriented eco-innovation are significantly correlated with the EG of Saudi Arabia. The study also provides insights to new researchers who will investigate this area in the future and guides regulators in developing regulations related to economic growth using an appropriate level of energy and adoption of sustainability-oriented eco-innovation.
  12. Retraction Note: Role of energy consumption and sustainability-oriented eco-innovation on economic growth: evidence from Middle Eastern economy
    Tu YT, Lin CY, Ehsanullah S, Anh NHV, Duong KD, Huy PQ
    Environ Sci Pollut Res Int, 2024 Jul;31(33):46107.
    PMID: 38969895 DOI: 10.1007/s11356-024-34278-7
  13. Fulltext Exploring Factors Affecting Graduate Students' Satisfaction toward E-Learning in the Era of the COVID-19 Crisis
    Mohammed LA, Aljaberi MA, Amidi A, Abdulsalam R, Lin CY, Hamat RA, et al.
    Eur J Investig Health Psychol Educ, 2022 Aug 15;12(8):1121-1142.
    PMID: 36005228 DOI: 10.3390/ejihpe12080079
    BACKGROUND: Shifting the educational system from a traditional to an online context during COVID-19 necessitated several considerations to assure students' satisfaction with e-learning.

    AIM: This study aims to explore the factors influencing students' satisfaction with e-learning during the COVID-19 crisis. In particular, it tests multiple mediations, student factors, and system quality between students' satisfaction and each course evaluation and instructor's performance.

    METHODOLOGY: In this cross-sectional study, 258 undergraduate and postgraduate students enrolled in online courses at multiple Malaysian universities were recruited using non-probabilistic purposive sampling. Data were collected using a questionnaire that assessed four factors that influenced students' satisfaction with e-learning during the COVID-19 crisis (i.e., instructor performance, course evaluation, student factors, and system quality) and analyzed using the partial least squares route structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM).

    RESULTS: The results indicated that the four factors were significantly associated with students' satisfaction with e-learning during COVID-19. Student factors and system quality were the most factors predicting students' satisfaction with e-learning. Findings indicate statistically significant relationships between the instructor's performance, student factors, course evaluation, and system quality on students' satisfaction. Furthermore, the results depict that both course evaluation and system quality serially mediate the relationship between instructors' performance and students' satisfaction.

    CONCLUSION: This study finds that improving and enhancing student factors and system quality is critical for students' satisfaction with e-learning. Furthermore, e-learning platforms should contain new advances of computer-mediated technologies that enable collaboration, which is a critical factor in the success of e-learning systems.

  14. Fulltext Commodity dynamism in the COVID-19 crisis: Are gold, oil, and stock commodity prices, symmetrical?
    Sadiq M, Lin CY, Wang KT, Trung LM, Duong KD, Ngo TQ
    Resour Policy, 2022 Dec;79:103033.
    PMID: 36187223 DOI: 10.1016/j.resourpol.2022.103033
    The current research intends to examine the commodities' dynamism connection with stock prices under the COVID-19 crisis. DCC-GARCH modeling was applied to the data of Asian economies, including China, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Pakistan to achieve the study objectives. The study's results indicated a significant connection between gold prices with stock prices and oil prices for all Asian stock markets. The results of the study constructs were symmetrical. In general, the connection grows with the frequency. The lowest frequency months contributed the most to the total relationship, followed by more than 12 months. Overall, gold and oil prices influence the Asian stock markets. These research findings can avoid contagion in times of economic uncertainty. This study also suggested policy implications for better decision-making of key stakeholders. Dynamic coefficient values were about 0.8 of β2 because nations' internal markets were more closely linked. There are also dynamic relationship factors between crude oil and foreign currency markets, where the correlations in India and China have always been around 0.
  15. Biogas production from beverage factory wastewater in a mobile bioenergy station
    Lin CY, Lay CH, Chew KW, Nomanbhay S, Gu RL, Chang SH, et al.
    Chemosphere, 2021 Feb;264(Pt 2):128564.
    PMID: 33065325 DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.128564
    Recently, the production of renewable biogas such as biohydrogen and biomethane from wastewaters through anaerobic fermentation has gained worldwide attention. In the present study, a mobile bioenergy generation station had been constructed based on a high-efficiency hydrogenesis & methanogenesis technology (HyMeTek) developed by Feng Chia University, Taiwan. The substrate was a beverage wastewater having chemical oxygen demand (COD) concentration of 1200 mg/L. This bioenergy station had a feedstock tank (3.8 m3), a nutrient tank (0.8 m3), an acidogenesis tank (AT, 2 m3), two methanogenesis tanks (MT, 4 m3 for each), a membrane bioreactor and a control room. Biogas production rate, methane concentration, COD removal efficiencies, energy efficiency and economical interest of the plant were assessed. The peak total methane production rates for AT (at hydraulic retention time, HRT, 4 h) and MT (at HRT 8 h) were 430 and 7 mL/L·d, respectively. A strategy of shortening HRT was a promising method to enhance biogas quality and energy efficiency. This mobile bioenergy system has commercial potential because it could bring good economic benefit of initial rate of return (58.84%) and payback time (2.68 y).
  16. Fulltext Relationship between Mindfulness, Psychological Skills, and Mental Toughness in College Athletes
    Wu CH, Nien JT, Lin CY, Nien YH, Kuan G, Wu TY, et al.
    Int J Environ Res Public Health, 2021 06 24;18(13).
    PMID: 34202770 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph18136802
    Numerous studies have shown that dispositional mindfulness is positively associated with many mental abilities related to sports performance, including psychological skills and mental toughness. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between dispositional mindfulness, psychological skills, and mental toughness among different types of athletes. For this cross-sectional study, 101 college athletes were recruited. Their dispositional mindfulness, psychological skills, and mental toughness were measured by the Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS), Athletic Psychological Skills Inventory (APSI), and Traits of Mental Toughness Inventory for Sports Scale (TMTIS). Pearson's correlation was used to calculate how dispositional mindfulness is associated with psychological skills and mental toughness. The results revealed that dispositional mindfulness is positively associated with comprehensive APSI (r = 0.21-0.36, p < 0.05), TMTIS overall (r = 0.27, p < 0.01), positive effort (r = 0.26, p = 0.01), and pressure (r = 0.30, p < 0.01). These findings suggest a positive linkage between mindfulness and the two examined psychological characteristics related to sports performance. Other approaches to increase mindfulness may be considered in the future.
  17. Fulltext Fear, Stress, Susceptibility, and Problematic Social Media Use Explain Motivation for COVID-19 Preventive Behaviors Among Patients With Stroke and Their Caregivers
    Kukreti S, Hsieh MT, Liu CH, Chen JS, Chen YJ, Hsieh MT, et al.
    Inquiry, 2024;61:469580231225030.
    PMID: 38314649 DOI: 10.1177/00469580231225030
    The COVID-19 pandemic presented significant challenges for individuals who experienced stroke and their caregivers. It is essential to understand the factors affecting preventive behavior in these populations. Therefore, the present study examined the factors that influenced COVID-19 preventive behavior and motivation for COVID-19 vaccine uptake among patients with stroke and their caregivers. A cross-sectional study comprising 191 participants (81 patients with stroke and 110 caregivers) was carried out. Participants completed a survey assessing fear of COVID-19, stress, perceived susceptibility, problematic social media use, preventive behaviors, and motivation for vaccine uptake. Statistical analyses included descriptive statistics, Pearson correlations, and multiple linear regressions. Motivation for COVID-19 vaccine uptake was significantly positively correlated with problematic social media use (r = 0.225, P = .002), perceived susceptibility (r = 0.197, P = .008), and fear of COVID-19 (r = 0.179, P = .015), but negatively correlated with stress (r = -0.189, P = .010). Caregivers, compared to patients, showed a lower level of preventive behavior (standardized coefficient = -0.23, P = .017). Furthermore, higher levels of fear were associated with increased preventive behavior (standardized coefficient = 0.22, P = .006), while greater stress correlated with lower preventive behavior (standardized coefficient = -0.38, P 
  18. Fulltext Association of quality of life with internet use and weight stigma across individuals with obesity and those without obesity: Role of self-perception
    Lin CY, Latner JD, Rozzell-Voss KN, Huang PC, Tsai YC, Pakpour AH, et al.
    Acta Psychol (Amst), 2024 Apr;244:104203.
    PMID: 38442432 DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2024.104203
    Weight status, weight stigma, and internet use are important factors impacting quality of life (QoL). However, little is known regarding how these factors interact in their association with QoL, and it is important to understand how self-perceived obesity and body mass index (BMI)-defined obesity may differentially impact QoL. We aimed to assess the associations between weight status (obesity vs. non-obesity, including both self-perceived and BMI-defined), weight stigma, internet use, and QoL. Cross-sectional data from the Taiwan Social Change Survey (N = 1604; mean age = 49.22; 52.93 % women) were used. All participants were classified as having obesity or not having obesity according to both self-perceived (self-perceived as 'too fat') and BMI-defined (≧27 kg/m2 as obesity) weight status. Results showed that the group with obesity (both BMI-defined and self-perceived) had significantly more internet time and lower physical QoL than the group without obesity. Those with self-perceived obesity, but not those with BMI-defined obesity, sought health information via the internet and used social media significantly more than the group without obesity. More internet time was associated with worse physical and mental QoL for the group with obesity regardless of BMI-defined or self-perceived status. Moreover, weight stigma was associated with worse mental QoL for the group with self-perceived obesity, but not for the group with BMI-defined obesity. Accordingly, being a person with obesity (self-defined, or based upon BMI) was associated with more internet time and poorer QoL. People with self-perceived obesity may have increased experience of weight stigma and greater internet use, factors that may contribute to their impaired QoL.
  19. Assessing intrinsic capacity in Taiwan: Initial psychometric properties of the Integrated Care for Older People Screening Tool for Taiwanese (ICOPES-TW)
    Su HC, Liu CH, Chen HY, Wu YL, Griffiths MD, Li CY, et al.
    BMC Geriatr, 2024 May 31;24(1):477.
    PMID: 38822234 DOI: 10.1186/s12877-024-05071-5
    BACKGROUND: The World Health Organization (WHO) proposed the concept of intrinsic capacity (comprising composite physical and mental capacity) which aligns with their concepts of healthy aging and functional ability. Consequently, the WHO promotes the Integrated Care for Older People (ICOPE) framework as guidance for geriatric care. Consequently, each government should have a screening tool corresponding to ICOPE framework to promote geriatric care. The present study examined the initial psychometric properties of the Taiwan version of ICOPE (i.e., ICOPES-TW).

    METHODS: Older people (n = 1235; mean age = 72.63 years; 634 females [51.3%]) were approached by well-trained interviewers for participation. A number of measures were administered including the ICOPES-TW, WHOQOL-AGE (assessing quality of life [QoL]), Clinical Frailty Scale (assessing frailty), Barthel Index (assessing basic activity of daily living [BADL]), and Lawton Instrumental Activities of Daily Living Scale (assessing instrumental activity of daily living [IADL]).

    RESULTS: The ICOPES-TW had a two-factor structure (body functionality [eigenvalue = 1.932] and life adaptation [eigenvalue = 1.170]) as indicated by the results of exploratory factor analysis. Internal consistency of the ICOPES-TW was low (Cronbach's α = 0.55 [entire ICOPES-TW], 0.45 (body functionality factor), and 0.52 (life adaptation factor). ICOPES-TW scores were significantly (i) positively correlated with age (r = 0.321), IADL (r = 0.313), and frailty (r = 0.601), and (ii) negatively correlated with QoL (r=-0.447), and BADL (r=-0.447), with all p-values 

  20. Design and fabrication of scaffolds for anatomic bone reconstruction
    Hollister SJ, Lin CY, Lin CY, Schek RD, Taboas JM, Flanagan CL, et al.
    Med J Malaysia, 2004 May;59 Suppl B:131-2.
    PMID: 15468853
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