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  1. Alhammami M, Ooi CP, Tan WH
    Data Brief, 2017 Jun;12:480-484.
    PMID: 28508027 DOI: 10.1016/j.dib.2017.04.026
    We present in this paper a novel dataset (MMU VAAC) for violent actions against children recognition. This original dataset has been recorded using Microsoft Kinect with the usage of a child mannequin. MMU VAAC dataset contains skeleton joints, depth, and RGB modalities.
  2. Tan WH, Ong L, Strijk JS
    PhytoKeys, 2023;219:1-10.
    PMID: 37252448 DOI: 10.3897/phytokeys.219.95991
    A new species from the Fagaceae family, Castanopsiscorallocarpus Tan & Strijk, is described from Royal Belum State Park in Peninsular Malaysia. Here, we provide technical illustrations, colour images and a description of its conservation status and the collecting locality, in addition to a comparative analysis with other species in the region. The solitary nut of C.corallocarpus has a morphologically unique cupule, lined with rows of thick coral-like spines not seen in other Castanopsis species.
  3. Kai L, Tan WH, Saari EM
    JMIR Serious Games, 2023 Aug 22;11:e42878.
    PMID: 37463860 DOI: 10.2196/42878
    BACKGROUND: As the gaming industry grows around the world, playing pervasive games is becoming an important mode of entertainment. A pervasive game is one in which the game experience extends into the actual world or where the fictive world of the game merges with the physical world. How pervasive games can adapt to the ever-changing nature of technology and design in current society requires a comprehensive review.

    OBJECTIVE: In this systematic review, we aimed to measure and analyze 4 dimensions of pervasive games through development, technology, experience, and evaluation. Moreover, we also aimed to discover and interpret their relationship with game, interaction, experience, and service design.

    METHODS: We first chose 3 well-known databases, Web of Science, Scopus, and EBSCO, and searched from 2013 to April 2022. A strictly thorough Boolean search for research keywords such as "pervasive game," "design," and "interactive" resulted in 394 relevant articles. These articles were identified, screened, and checked for eligibility to find valid and useful articles, which were then categorized and analyzed using the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) method.

    RESULTS: The systematic selection was finally left with 40 valid and valuable articles. After categorization and analysis, all articles were classified according to 4 main themes, which were design and development (11/40, 28%), interaction and technology (15/40, 38%), users and experience (9/40, 23%), and evaluation and service (5/40, 13%). These 4 main areas can be subdivided into several smaller areas.

    CONCLUSIONS: In the 4 areas of game design, interaction design, experience design, and service design, many scholars have studied pervasive games and made contributions. Although the development and technology of pervasive games have evolved with the times, there is still a need to strengthen emerging design concepts within pervasive games.

  4. Tan WH, Chai LC, Chin CF
    Physiol Mol Biol Plants, 2020 Sep;26(9):1889-1896.
    PMID: 32943824 DOI: 10.1007/s12298-020-00868-1
    Alpinia belongs to a large genus with many species found in Peninsular Malaysia. Several species of Alpinia exhibit important medicinal potential. However, progressive studies on the genus Alpinia were hampered by difficulties encountered in species identification. With the advancement achieved in genomic technology, more sensitive tools such as DNA barcoding were developed, which can be used for species identification. Internal Transcribe Spacer 2 (ITS2) is a DNA barcode which has proven to be a promising tool for species identification. The criterions of ITS2 efficacy namely universality and efficacy for species identification were tested on Alpinia species collected from Peninsular Malaysia. The results showed that a success rate of 96.97% was achieved using ITS2 for screening 11 species of Alpinia and an outgroup sample (Zingiber specatabile). Combined with 15 additional sequences from the Genbank for five Alpinia species, ITS2 demonstrated high species identification efficacy with 88.2% of species identified using phylogenetic and distance analysis. The analysis was further improved with the use of ITS2 secondary structure. The results of both criterions demonstrated the ability of ITS2 to successfully discriminate Alpinia species, which will help to improve species identification of Alpinia species in Peninsular Malaysia.
  5. Lan H, Bailey R, Tan WH
    Heliyon, 2024 Aug 30;10(16):e35675.
    PMID: 39220952 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e35675
    Rapid growth has been witnessed in digital technologies, resulting in significant productive changes in communication and information technology-oriented practices in different fields. Hybrid teaching or blended learning has gained progressively widespread acceptance in the educational process, and concerns about teachers' information and communication technology (ICT) competence or digital competence have become prevalent. This study adopts a systematic review to interpret and analyse the relevant research findings, aiming to systematically investigate the existing models and paradigms of ICT competence or digital capacities and to understand further how these models and paradigms are applied specifically within the context of Chinese universities. Based on inclusion and exclusion criteria, 12 out of 801 candidate studies were accessed from Web of Science, Scopus and the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) databases. The findings indicate that the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) and the National Educational Technology Guides for Teachers in Higher Education (CETG) are frequently used to evaluate college educators' digital proficiency or ICT capability in China. Educators' demographic characteristics, self-efficacy, external factors such as institutional policies and the availability of infrastructure and training collectively influence how digital teaching is integrated within Chinese higher education institutions. By conducting a systematic review of research trends and the critical factors affecting the digital competence of faculty in Chinese universities, this study aims to equip policymakers and educators with a deeper understanding of how to prepare for educational shifts in the digital era and thereby ensure the sustainability of professional development.
  6. Abbas AA, Guo X, Tan WH, Jalab HA
    J Med Syst, 2014 Aug;38(8):80.
    PMID: 24957396 DOI: 10.1007/s10916-014-0080-7
    In a computerized image analysis environment, the irregularity of a lesion border has been used to differentiate between malignant melanoma and other pigmented skin lesions. The accuracy of the automated lesion border detection is a significant step towards accurate classification at a later stage. In this paper, we propose the use of a combined Spline and B-spline in order to enhance the quality of dermoscopic images before segmentation. In this paper, morphological operations and median filter were used first to remove noise from the original image during pre-processing. Then we proceeded to adjust image RGB values to the optimal color channel (green channel). The combined Spline and B-spline method was subsequently adopted to enhance the image before segmentation. The lesion segmentation was completed based on threshold value empirically obtained using the optimal color channel. Finally, morphological operations were utilized to merge the smaller regions with the main lesion region. Improvement on the average segmentation accuracy was observed in the experimental results conducted on 70 dermoscopic images. The average accuracy of segmentation achieved in this paper was 97.21 % (where, the average sensitivity and specificity were 94 % and 98.05 % respectively).
  7. Ng H, Tan WH, Abdullah J, Tong HL
    ScientificWorldJournal, 2014;2014:376569.
    PMID: 25143972 DOI: 10.1155/2014/376569
    This paper describes the acquisition setup and development of a new gait database, MMUGait. This database consists of 82 subjects walking under normal condition and 19 subjects walking with 11 covariate factors, which were captured under two views. This paper also proposes a multiview model-based gait recognition system with joint detection approach that performs well under different walking trajectories and covariate factors, which include self-occluded or external occluded silhouettes. In the proposed system, the process begins by enhancing the human silhouette to remove the artifacts. Next, the width and height of the body are obtained. Subsequently, the joint angular trajectories are determined once the body joints are automatically detected. Lastly, crotch height and step-size of the walking subject are determined. The extracted features are smoothened by Gaussian filter to eliminate the effect of outliers. The extracted features are normalized with linear scaling, which is followed by feature selection prior to the classification process. The classification experiments carried out on MMUGait database were benchmarked against the SOTON Small DB from University of Southampton. Results showed correct classification rate above 90% for all the databases. The proposed approach is found to outperform other approaches on SOTON Small DB in most cases.
  8. Tong CY, Chua MX, Tan WH, Derek CJC
    Chemosphere, 2023 Feb;315:137712.
    PMID: 36592830 DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2022.137712
    Microalgal biofilm is a popular platform for algal production, nutrient removal and carbon capture; however, it suffers from significant biofilm exfoliation under shear force exposure. Hence, a biologically-safe coating made up of algal extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) was utilized to secure the biofilm cell retention and cell loading on commercial microporous membrane (polyvinylidene fluoride), making the surfaces more hydrophobic (contact angle increase up to 12°). Results demonstrated that initial cell adhesion of three marine microalgae (Amphora coffeaeformis, Cylindrotheca fusiformis and Navicula incerta) was enhanced by at least 1.3 times higher than that of pristine control within only seven days with minimized biofilm exfoliation issue due to uniform distribution of sticky transparent exopolymer particles. Bounded extracellular polysaccharide gathered was approximately 23% higher on EPS-coated membranes to improve the biofilm's hydraulic resistance, whereas bounded extracellular protein would only be substantially elevated after the attached cells re-accommodate themselves onto the EPS pre-coating of themselves. In accounting the rises of hydrophobic protein content, biofilm was believed to be more stabilized, presumably via hydrophobic interactions. EPS biocoating would generate a groundswell of interest for bioprocess intensifications though there are lots of inherent technical and molecular challenges to be further investigated in future.
  9. Chua MX, Cheah YT, Tan WH, Chan DJC
    Environ Res, 2023 May 01;224:115544.
    PMID: 36822535 DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.115544
    Conventional establishment of laboratory cultures of duckweed Lemna minor are prepared in beakers, Erlenmeyer flasks or Schott bottles. These conventional cultivation methods limit the available surface area for growth which then causes layering of fronds that reduces the efficiency of plants in sunlight capturing. Here, acrylic sheets were spray-coated with a superhydrophobic (SHP) beeswax suspension and these coated acrylic sheets were used as a novel cultivation platform for L. minor. L. minor was grown for 7 days in conventional glass jar which acted as the control and were compared to SHP coated acrylic (SHPA) and SHP coated acrylic with aluminium mesh centrally placed (SHPAM) at similar duration and cultivation conditions. Addition of mesh was to entrap the plantlets and fixed the plantlets' position on the growing platform. The effects of cultivation platforms on growth rate and biochemical compositions of L. minor were monitored. The highest biomass growth was obtained from SHPA cultivation where the relative growth rate (RGR) was 0.0909 ± 0.014 day-1 and the RGR was 2.17 times higher than the control. Moreover, L. minor harvested from SHPA displayed the highest values in total protein content, total carbohydrates content and crude lipid percentage. The values were 156.04 ± 12.13 mg/g, 94.75 ± 9.02 mg/g and 7.09 ± 1.14% respectively. However, the control showed the highest total chlorophyll content which was 0.7733 ± 0.042 mg/g FW. Although SHPA obtained a slightly lower chlorophyll content than the control, this growing platform is still promising as it displayed the highest growth rate as well as other biochemical composition. Hence, this study proved that the proposed method that applied superhydrophobic properties in cultivation of L. minor provided a larger surface area for L. minor to grow, which then resulted in a greater biomass production while simultaneously maintaining the quality of the biochemical compositions of duckweeds.
  10. Zhang D, Tan WH, Wei Y, Tan CK
    Front Artif Intell, 2024;7:1295554.
    PMID: 38978998 DOI: 10.3389/frai.2024.1295554
    The panoramic stereo video has brought a new visual experience for the audience with its immersion and stereo effect. In panoramic stereo video, the face is an important element. However, the face image in panoramic stereo video has varying degrees of deformation. This brings new challenges to face recognition. Therefore, this paper proposes a face recognition model DCM2Net (Deformable Convolution MobileFaceNet) for panoramic stereo video. The model mainly integrates the feature information between channels during feature fusion, redistributes the information between channels in the deeper part of the network, and fully uses the information between different channels for feature extraction. This paper also built a panoramic stereo video live system, using the DCM2Net model to recognize the face in panoramic stereo video, and the recognition results are displayed in the video. After experiments on different datasets, the results show that our model has better results on popular datasets and panoramic datasets.
  11. Buhari AM, Ooi CP, Baskaran VM, Phan RCW, Wong K, Tan WH
    J Imaging, 2020 Nov 30;6(12).
    PMID: 34460527 DOI: 10.3390/jimaging6120130
    Several studies on micro-expression recognition have contributed mainly to accuracy improvement. However, the computational complexity receives lesser attention comparatively and therefore increases the cost of micro-expression recognition for real-time application. In addition, majority of the existing approaches required at least two frames (i.e., onset and apex frames) to compute features of every sample. This paper puts forward new facial graph features based on 68-point landmarks using Facial Action Coding System (FACS). The proposed feature extraction technique (FACS-based graph features) utilizes facial landmark points to compute graph for different Action Units (AUs), where the measured distance and gradient of every segment within an AU graph is presented as feature. Moreover, the proposed technique processes ME recognition based on single input frame sample. Results indicate that the proposed FACS-baed graph features achieve up to 87.33% of recognition accuracy with F1-score of 0.87 using leave one subject out cross-validation on SAMM datasets. Besides, the proposed technique computes features at the speed of 2 ms per sample on Xeon Processor E5-2650 machine.
  12. Zhang J, Zhang Z, Peng S, Veloo A, Bailey RP, Tan WH
    Front Psychol, 2023;14:1260253.
    PMID: 38023018 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1260253
    INTRODUCTION: The Sport Anxiety Scale-2 (SAS-2) is a validated measure of sports trait anxiety, with promising psychometric properties. However, its cross-cultural applicability in Chinese samples remains unexplored. Thus, the primary objectives of this study were twofold: to translate the SAS-2 into Chinese and assess the psychometric properties of the Chinese version.

    METHODS: In Study 1, we initiated the translation of the SAS-2 into Chinese. This assessment involved bilingual Chinese students proficient in both English and Chinese. Additionally, we conducted a cross-linguistic measurement invariance analysis. In Study 2, we delved into the psychometric properties of the Chinese SAS-2 using a sample of Chinese student athletes. This examination encompassed an evaluation of its factor structure, convergent and discriminant validity, and measurement invariance across genders.

    RESULTS: Our findings in Study 1 indicated no significant differences in item scores between the Chinese SAS-2 and the English version, and measurement invariance across languages. In Study 2, we uncovered that the Chinese SAS-2 and its factors exhibited excellent reliability, with Cronbach's alpha values exceeding 0.80. Confirmatory factor analyses upheld the original three-factor model, demonstrating acceptable model fit indices (CFI = 0.96, TLI = 0.93, RMSEA = 0.08). Furthermore, all three factors of the Chinese SAS-2 displayed significant and positive correlations with athlete burnout and State-Trait anxiety. Additionally, this study elucidated the mediating role of Concentration Disruption (Somatic anxiety and Concentration Disruption) in the relationship between the Trait (State) anxiety, and athlete burnout. Moreover, we identified measurement invariance of the Chinese version of the SAS-2 across genders. Finally, female college athletes exhibited significantly higher scores in somatic anxiety and worry compared to their male counterparts.

    DISCUSSION: In sum, our findings affirm that the Chinese version of the SAS-2 demonstrates robust reliability and correlates effectively with related criteria, thus validating its suitability for use in a Chinese context.

  13. Jamaiah I, Rohela M, Tok EL, Tan CL, Tan WH, Teo WS, et al.
    PMID: 23077803
    This retrospective study was conducted among 59 HIV/AIDS patients with opportunistic infections admitted to the University Malaya Medical Centre between 2000 and 2009. Fifty-five point nine percent of cases were Chinese, 25.4% were Malays, 11.9% were Indians and 6.8% were of unknown ethnic origin. The male:female ratio was 2.9:1 (44 males and 15 females). The highest prevalence (38.9%) occurred in the 30-39 year old age group. Men comprised 47.7% and women 53.3%; the majority of both were married. The majority of cases were Malaysians (89.8%) and the rest (10.2%) were immigrants. Most of the patients (18.6%) were non-laborers, followed by laborers (11.9%), the unemployed (5.1%) and housewives (3.4%). The most common risk factor was unprotected sexual activity (20.3%). The two most common HIV/AIDS related opportunistic infections were Pneumocystis carinii (jirovecii) pneumonia (PCP) (62.7%) and toxoplasmosis (28.8%). Seventy-two point nine percent of patients had a CD4 count <200 cells/microl and 5.1% had a CD4 count >500 cells/microl. Eleven point nine percent of cases died during study period. A low CD4 count had a greater association with opportunistic infections. Most of the patients presented with fever (44.1%), cough (42.4%) and shortness of breath (28.8%). Detection of the etiologic pathogens aids clinicians in choosing appropriate management strategies.
  14. Chang CT, Ang JY, Wong JM, Tan SS, Chin SK, Lim AB, et al.
    Med J Malaysia, 2020 05;75(3):286-291.
    PMID: 32467546
    AIM: This study is conducted to compare the pharmacokinetic profiles of two fixed dose combination of metformin/glibenclamide tablets (500mg/5 mg per tablet).

    MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a single-center, single-dose, open-label, randomized, 2-treatment, 2-sequence and 2- period crossover study with a washout period of 7 days. All 28 adult male subjects were required to fast for at least 10 hours prior to drug administration and they were given access to water ad libitum during this period. Thirty minutes prior to dosing, all subjects were served with a standardized high-fat and high-calorie breakfast with a total calorie of 1000 kcal which was in accordance to the EMA Guideline on the Investigation of Bioequivalence. Subsequently, subjects were administered either the test or reference preparation with 240mL of plain water in the first trial period. During the second trial period, they received the alternate preparation. Plasma levels of glibenclamide and metformin were analysed separately using two different high performance liquid chromatography methods.

    RESULTS: The 90% confidence interval (CI) for the ratio of the AUC0-t, AUC0-∞, and Cmax of the test preparation over those of the reference preparation were 0.9693-1.0739, 0.9598- 1.0561 and 0.9220 - 1.0642 respectively. Throughout the study period, no serious drug reaction was observed. However, a total of 26 adverse events (AE)/side effects were reported, including 24 that were definitely related to the study drugs, namely giddiness (n=17), while diarrheoa (n=3), headache (n=2) and excessive hunger (n=2) were less commonly reported by the subjects.

    CONCLUSION: It can be concluded that the test preparation is bioequivalent to the reference preparation.

  15. Al-Quraishi MS, Tan WH, Elamvazuthi I, Ooi CP, Saad NM, Al-Hiyali MI, et al.
    Heliyon, 2024 May 15;10(9):e30406.
    PMID: 38726180 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e30406
    Electroencephalogram (EEG) signals are critical in interpreting sensorimotor activities for predicting body movements. However, their efficacy in identifying intralimb movements, such as the dorsiflexion and plantar flexion of the foot, remains suboptimal. This study aims to explore whether various EEG signal quantities can effectively recognize intralimb movements to facilitate the development of Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) devices for foot rehabilitation. This research involved twenty-two healthy, right-handed participants. EEG data were collected using 21 electrodes positioned over the motor cortex, while two electromyography (EMG) electrodes recorded the onset of ankle joint movements. The study focused on analyzing slow cortical potential (SCP) and sensorimotor rhythms (SMR) in alpha and beta bands from the EEG. Five key features-fourth-order Autoregressive feature, variance, waveform length, standard deviation, and permutation entropy-were extracted. A modified Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) including Long Short-term Memory (LSTM) and Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU) algorithms was developed for movement recognition. These were compared against conventional machine learning algorithms, including nonlinear Support Vector Machine (SVM) and k Nearest Neighbourhood (kNN) classifiers. The performance of the proposed models was assessed using two data schemes: within-subject and across-subjects. The findings demonstrated that the GRU and LSTM models significantly outperformed traditional machine learning algorithms in recognizing different EEG signal quantities for intralimb movement. The study indicates that deep learning models, particularly GRU and LSTM, hold superior potential over standard machine learning techniques in identifying intralimb movements using EEG signals. Where the accuracies of LSTM for within and across subjects were 98.87 ± 1.80 % and 87.38 ± 0.86 % respectively. Whereas the accuracy of GRU within and across subjects were 99.18 ± 1.28 % and 86.44 ± 0.69 % respectively. This advancement could significantly benefit the development of BCI devices aimed at foot rehabilitation, suggesting a new avenue for enhancing physical therapy outcomes.
  16. Lim SCL, Hor CP, Tay KH, Mat Jelani A, Tan WH, Ker HB, et al.
    JAMA Intern Med, 2022 Apr 01;182(4):426-435.
    PMID: 35179551 DOI: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2022.0189
    IMPORTANCE: Ivermectin, an inexpensive and widely available antiparasitic drug, is prescribed to treat COVID-19. Evidence-based data to recommend either for or against the use of ivermectin are needed.

    OBJECTIVE: To determine the efficacy of ivermectin in preventing progression to severe disease among high-risk patients with COVID-19.

    DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: The Ivermectin Treatment Efficacy in COVID-19 High-Risk Patients (I-TECH) study was an open-label randomized clinical trial conducted at 20 public hospitals and a COVID-19 quarantine center in Malaysia between May 31 and October 25, 2021. Within the first week of patients' symptom onset, the study enrolled patients 50 years and older with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19, comorbidities, and mild to moderate disease.

    INTERVENTIONS: Patients were randomized in a 1:1 ratio to receive either oral ivermectin, 0.4 mg/kg body weight daily for 5 days, plus standard of care (n = 241) or standard of care alone (n = 249). The standard of care consisted of symptomatic therapy and monitoring for signs of early deterioration based on clinical findings, laboratory test results, and chest imaging.

    MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: The primary outcome was the proportion of patients who progressed to severe disease, defined as the hypoxic stage requiring supplemental oxygen to maintain pulse oximetry oxygen saturation of 95% or higher. Secondary outcomes of the trial included the rates of mechanical ventilation, intensive care unit admission, 28-day in-hospital mortality, and adverse events.

    RESULTS: Among 490 patients included in the primary analysis (mean [SD] age, 62.5 [8.7] years; 267 women [54.5%]), 52 of 241 patients (21.6%) in the ivermectin group and 43 of 249 patients (17.3%) in the control group progressed to severe disease (relative risk [RR], 1.25; 95% CI, 0.87-1.80; P = .25). For all prespecified secondary outcomes, there were no significant differences between groups. Mechanical ventilation occurred in 4 (1.7%) vs 10 (4.0%) (RR, 0.41; 95% CI, 0.13-1.30; P = .17), intensive care unit admission in 6 (2.4%) vs 8 (3.2%) (RR, 0.78; 95% CI, 0.27-2.20; P = .79), and 28-day in-hospital death in 3 (1.2%) vs 10 (4.0%) (RR, 0.31; 95% CI, 0.09-1.11; P = .09). The most common adverse event reported was diarrhea (14 [5.8%] in the ivermectin group and 4 [1.6%] in the control group).

    CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: In this randomized clinical trial of high-risk patients with mild to moderate COVID-19, ivermectin treatment during early illness did not prevent progression to severe disease. The study findings do not support the use of ivermectin for patients with COVID-19.

    TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04920942.

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