tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69819362851502470712024-02-20T09:50:40.252-08:00Asian Great MindsEastern Solution for Global ProblemsUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger36125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981936285150247071.post-81781695041601616942013-09-20T05:16:00.000-07:002013-09-20T05:16:48.971-07:00Have More Kids And Breastfeed Longer To Reduce Breast Cancer Risks<div style="background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.5em; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black;"><strong>By Shahfizal Musa<br />Pix Ismail Ibrahim</strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">KUALA LUMPUR, 21 Jun 201 - Women who have more children and breastfeed them for a long period of time can reduce the risk of getting breast cancer.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">A pathologist at The National University of Malaysia (UKM), Prof Dr Aishah Md Ali said breast cancer can be reduced by half in developed countries by just having more children and breastfeeding their babies for some time.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">Giving her inaugural lecture on ‘Women, Tumor and Cancer, the Pathological Perspective’ she explained in great detail about cancers that affect women.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">Prof Aishah has written a book on the subject and had also presented more than 130 papers in various conferences around the world.</span></div>
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<img src="http://www.ukm.my/news/images/stories/Research2013/BarahPayudara4.jpg" /></div>
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<span style="color: black;">Though Malaysia is moving towards the developed nation status it can still significantly reduce the number of such cases if Malaysian women are to practice the risk mitigation methods.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">She said those methods had been prescribed in Islam which were later discovered by western researchers.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">In Malaysia cancer is the third highest cause of death in hospitals with breast cancer taking the lead, followed by cervix, colon, ovarian, leukemia and lung cancer.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">Risks faced by the various racial groups in Malaysia have to be assessed separately as each race have their own lifestyles and their risk has to be assessed separately in order to give the best treatment possible.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">She quoted a local study that evaluated the risks of cancer in the three major races, Malays, Chinese and Indians. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><img border="0" class="border" src="http://www.ukm.my/news/images/stories/Research2013/BarahPayudara2.jpg" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 1px solid rgb(234, 234, 234); margin: 2px 3px 0px 0px; padding: 6px;" /> <img border="0" class="border" src="http://www.ukm.my/news/images/stories/Research2013/BarahPayudara3.jpg" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 1px solid rgb(234, 234, 234); margin: 2px 3px 0px 0px; padding: 6px;" /><br />The study shows that the risk of breast cancer is highest among Chinese and lowest for the Malays that is 1 in 16 chance for the Chinese to get breast cancer, 1 in 17 for the Indians and 1 in 28 chance for the Malays.</span></div>
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify; width: 565px;"><tbody>
<tr><td valign="top" width="133"><div style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.5em;">
<strong><span style="color: black;">Ethnic</span></strong></div>
</td><td valign="top" width="290"><div style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.5em;">
<strong><span style="color: black;">Breast Cancer Risk</span></strong></div>
</td></tr>
<tr><td valign="top"><div style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.5em;">
<span style="color: black;">Chinese</span></div>
</td><td valign="top"><div style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.5em;">
<span style="color: black;"> 1:16</span></div>
</td></tr>
<tr><td valign="top"><div style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.5em;">
<span style="color: black;">Indian</span></div>
</td><td valign="top"><div style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.5em;">
<span style="color: black;"> 1:17</span></div>
</td></tr>
<tr><td valign="top"><div style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.5em;">
<span style="color: black;">Malay</span></div>
</td><td valign="top"><div style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.5em;">
<span style="color: black;"> 1:28</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">The Chinese also faces a higher risk than the rest when it comes to cervical cancer. The life expectancy is reduced from one to 40 Chinese suffering from cervical cancer. For the Indians the risk is 1 in 50 of a reduced life expectancy, while for the Malays the risk of life expectancy reduction is only 1 in 111.</span></div>
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<tr><td valign="top" width="133"><div style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.5em;">
<strong><span style="color: black;">Ethnic</span></strong></div>
</td><td valign="top" width="290"><div style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.5em;">
<strong><span style="color: black;">Life Expectancy Risk</span></strong></div>
</td></tr>
<tr><td valign="top"><div style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.5em;">
<span style="color: black;">Chinese</span></div>
</td><td valign="top"><div style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.5em;">
<span style="color: black;"> 1:40</span></div>
</td></tr>
<tr><td valign="top"><div style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.5em;">
<span style="color: black;">Indian</span></div>
</td><td valign="top"><div style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.5em;">
<span style="color: black;"> 1:50</span></div>
</td></tr>
<tr><td valign="top"><div style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.5em;">
<span style="color: black;">Malay</span></div>
</td><td valign="top"><div style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.5em;">
<span style="color: black;"> 1:111</span></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="color: black;">For cervical cancer 80 percent of the dire cases are found in developing countries as severe cases in developed countries have been reduced due to the use of screening methods enabling early detections.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">Present at the lecture was the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic and International Affairs), Professor Dato' Ir Dr Othman A. Karim; Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Professor Dato’ Dr Raymond Azman Ali, academics, physicians and students.</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981936285150247071.post-55797873479317237242013-09-20T05:12:00.000-07:002013-09-20T05:12:01.682-07:00UKMMC First Hospital in Asia to have safer thyroid surgery<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<strong>By Shahfizal Musa</strong></div>
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<strong>Pix Izwan Azman</strong></div>
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KUALA LUMPUR 22 July 2013 – The National University of Malaysia Medical Centre is the first Hospital in Asia to use the latest technique in thyroid surgery which drastically reduces risk of injury to vocal cords .</div>
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<img src="http://www.ukm.edu.my/news/images/stories/Campus2013/thyroid5.jpg" /></div>
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With the aid of <em>Automated Periodic Stimulation</em> (APS) combined with existing Nerve Integrity Monitoring system, the risk of injury to vocal cords in thyroid surgery can be reduced by 95 percent, said Prof Dr Rohaizak Muhammad an Endocrine and Breast Surgeon in UKMMC who pioneered this nerve monitoring method for thyroid surgery in UKM and Malaysia.</div>
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The technique which is a surgical landmark in thyroid surgery is only practiced in Europe and the United State of America at this moment.</div>
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Thyroid surgery is done to remove the thyroid gland located in the neck. The thyroid gland produces hormones that act throughout the body, influencing metabolism, growth and development, and body temperature.</div>
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Thyroid surgery or <em>thyroidectomy</em> is needed to treat thyroid thyroid cancer, nodules, and hyperthyroidism. During these procedures, part or all of the thyroid gland is removed. But there are risks of injuring the recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN), which is connected to the vocal cord. This can result in patients left with a husky voice or losing it totally.</div>
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The RLN is like the power cable that connects your house to the electric grid. Similarly the RLN is the cable that makes your larynx and few other muscles in your throat function. Basically it controls the sensation and movement of your voice box.</div>
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Located behind the thyroid glands, surgeons have a hard time, keeping track of it, especially when removing the thyroid gland.</div>
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With APS system this can be avoided. It is just like the parking sensor at the back of your car, it starts by giving a beeping sound when there is an obstacle close by.</div>
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<em>By using this nerve monitoring system in a thyroid surgery, it operates very much the same way. Every time surgical dissection gets a little too close to the RLN a beeping sound would go off.</em></div>
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<em>How this is accomplished is by attaching an electrode to the vagus nerve. The other end of the electrode goes to the monitor. The electrode inserted in the throat, touching the vocal cord, is periodically stimulated. This will alert the surgeon if he is too close for comfort to the RLN and might unintentionally harm it. This gives him ample warning to reassess how he wants to maneuver the dissection.</em><em></em></div>
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Dr Rohaizak, said based on statistic 3 out of 100 patients who undergo thyroid surgery face risk of getting their RLN injured.</div>
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He jokingly said after performing such surgery that this actually proves the existence of God. The RLN has a different position than other nerves, this fact has been used by people to argue that humans were created by God.</div>
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“The reason why a surgery is successful before the use of this system is not because the surgeon is great but it is God that protects the patients RLN from human error,” he said.<br /><strong>Risk of Thyroid surgery</strong></div>
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Having a husky voice may not be a big deal to many but it can create problems when your voice is the bread winner.</div>
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Imagine if you work as teacher, lecturer, or singer; it can mean the end of your career.</div>
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A lot of people are reluctant to undergo thyroid surgery because after the surgery they may end up with a different problem.</div>
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Imagine coming out the operating theater with a different voice or no voice at all.</div>
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In some cases the patient would need a <em>tracheostomy</em> where a hole had to be drilled on the throat to facilitate breathing.</div>
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Because of the damage to the RLN the vocal cord loses its ability to automatically shut.</div>
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So when you eat the food would fall into your air valve causing you to choke.</div>
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These are the risks of thyroid surgery in extreme cases. With the aid of APS in thyroid surgery all these can be avoided.</div>
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<strong><img alt="" border="0" src="http://www.ukm.edu.my/news/images/stories/Campus2013/Thyroid1.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: auto; margin: 10px; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" /><img alt="" border="0" src="http://www.ukm.edu.my/news/images/stories/Campus2013/Thyroid2.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: auto; margin: 10px; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" /><br />Creative Surgery</strong></div>
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The beauty of this technique is that, it does not require major investment on the part of the hospital to buy new equipment. The equipment needed is already available in most hospitals. It is used in other nerve surgery like spinal surgery and parotid surgery.</div>
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But it only requires minor adjustment to the setting of the machine. Then it will become a revolutionary safety instruments for patients in a thyroid surgery.</div>
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It does however need an electrode which is connected to the vagus nerve in the neck.</div>
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The RLN is a branch of the vagus nerve and once the electrode is connected, the screen will display the safe range for surgeons to operate.</div>
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The surgeon then would perform the gland extraction guided by the monitor and the beeping alarm sound. It helps the surgeon in doing his work, because he does not have to stop and identify the location of the RLN every minute.</div>
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He can focus on removing the gland without worrying he might cut the RLN. As the equipment is readily available, there is no extra cost needed.</div>
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But Dr Rohaizak believes if the surgery is implemented as a teaching program in UKM he is confident that he can discuss with the suppliers to bring the cost further down.</div>
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This new procedure is a great improvement in terms of safety to the patients. It does not require any investment so any major hospital can do it.</div>
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He is even willing to set up a training program. He does not know how hospitals in the country will respond to this new method. What is for sure, he had already received requests from surgeons from other parts of Malaysia to learn about the technique. Next is to have training workshop in the neighbouring countries.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981936285150247071.post-66394359451446603582013-05-02T17:13:00.001-07:002013-05-02T17:13:38.965-07:00Malaysia can now create human organs<br />
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<a href="http://www.ukm.my/news/images/stories/research/cell%201.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" class="border" src="http://www.ukm.my/news/images/stories/research/cell%201.jpg" style="-webkit-border-image: url(data:image/png; border-image-repeat: stretch; border-image-slice: 9; border-image-source: url(data:image/png; border-image-width: 9px; border-left-color: rgb(234, 234, 234); border-right-color: rgb(234, 234, 234); border-top-color: rgb(234, 234, 234); border-top-style: solid; border-width: 1px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; height: auto; margin-top: 2px; max-width: 100%; padding: 6px; position: relative;" /></a><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;"><strong style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">BANGI, 28 July 2010</strong><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">After successfully culturing human skin tissue using</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> tissue engineering technology, UKM researchers are now going inside the </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">human body trying to create other organs.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;">Some of the organs that they have began culturing is the heart, bone, </span><br /><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;">cartilage, respiratory epithelium (wind pipe), nerve, conjuctiva and even</span><br /><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;"> cornea that covers the eye. They hope to make human tissues and organs</span><br /><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;"> or at the very least find a way to aid the repair of tissues or organs with</span><br /><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;"> regenerative medicine.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;">Professor Dr Ruszymah Idrus, Head of Tissue Engineering Centre at UKM Medical Centre, when explaining the work </span><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;">that is being carried out at the Centre said:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;">“Our dream is to make tissues or organs like kidney, liver and heart. These are organs that cannot regenerate</span><br /><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;"> and if they failed, the patient will be very sick and die. We started with cartilage cells and then skin cells., We </span><br /><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;">began with the cells that can be cultured relatively easier. After that we move on to more difficult cells.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;">The research in tissue engineering started in 1999 in UKMMC when UKM researchers first started to </span><br /><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;">engineer human cartilage. Dr Ruszymah’s husband Dr Aminuddin Saim who is an Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT)</span><br /><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;"> Surgeon came across a number of infants being born without an ear.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;">So they began to replicate an experiment which was done in Harvard Medical School where they both had </span><br /><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;">Post-Doctoral Training. Human chondrocytes was successfully cultured and reconstructed into a 3-D ear lobe with</span><br /><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;"> the help of a scaffold. The experiment in Harvard did not use human cells. The implant was inserted at the back </span><br /><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;">of a nude mice. A nude mice is an animal that do not reject human cells. Amazingly the human ear matured and</span><br /><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;"> feels like a normal ear lobe. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;">“It is a small one because we wanted to test the technique whether it works, That was human ear at the back o</span><br /><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;">f the mouse made from human cartilage cells” said Dr Ruszymah.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;">To appreciate what regenerative medicine is all about and how it can lead to replacing body parts, some </span><br /><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;">understanding about this relatively new medical segment of tissue engineering is necessary.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;"><strong><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Understanding Tissue engineering</span></strong></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.ukm.my/news/images/stories/research/cell%201.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.3s; clear: left; color: #009eb8; display: inline; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.3s;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"></span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;">The field of tissue engineering began when knowledge about </span><br /><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;">cells and how they behave were known. In 1838-1839,</span><br /><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;"> Schleiden and Schwann formulated the so-called "Cell Theory" </span><br /><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;">based on their microscopic findings. The theory dictates that</span><br /><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;"> cell retains a dual existence as a distinct entity and as a building</span><br /><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;"> block in the construction of organisms. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;">Analogically, cells are like employees working in a corporate</span><br /><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;"> entity. The company make things happen but it is the individuals who keep the smooth running of the company. Just think of the employees as human cells and the company is </span><br /><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;">the h</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 12px;">uman body</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;"> If a company wants a winning position in the industry, it must have good and competent employees. This can happen by sending the workers out for training nurturing them</span><br /><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;"> to work towards the company’s goal instead of against it. </span><br /><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;">This is what tissue engineering is all about, sending cells to</span><br /><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;"> team building camp so they would work towards better health for the human body. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;">What this completely new segment of tissue engineering does to a patient is it gives them shorter recovery period</span><br /><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;"> and less traumatic medical treatment. Imagine a person who needs a knee replacement, instead of having his</span><br /><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;"> knee cut open and replaced by foreign object, all he will need is an injection and his kneecap will grow back again.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;"><strong><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Manufacturing human organs</span></strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;">Similarly, ever since that discovery of the cell theory, scientists have been intrigue with the notion whether </span><br /><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;">human cell can be trained outside the human body, pretty much like employees sent by their companies to a team</span><br /><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;"> building camp. When they discovered that it is </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 12px;">possible to do so; to train or manipulate cell, outside the human </span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 12px;">body, now they are taking it a step further. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;">“Tissue engineering is about making human body parts with their own stem cells, if for instance a person’s cornea</span><br /><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;"> is damaged, by manipulating the stem cells from the patient, a new cornea can be created to replace </span><br /><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;">the damaged cornea and prevent the patient from blindness,” said Dr Ruszymah.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;"><strong><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Heart in progress</span></strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;">Unlike other body parts that have their own healing mechanism, the heart however, cannot heal itself. Currently</span><br /><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;"> the treatment of coronary heart problems is a by-pass surgery which involves harvesting a vein from your </span><br /><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;">leg, cutting his chest open, stopping the heart and stitching the vein taken from the leg to the heart, making a new</span><br /><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;"> highway for blood to flow into the heart. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;">UKM researchers are now working on ways to simplify that process with tissue engineering technology. In the </span><br /><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;">future repairing a heart blocked by cholesterol and fat will not involve the cutting open of the heart as in present day surgery. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;">“In UKM we’ve just started to culture heart cells. Of course, we do not culture human heart but we are trying it </span><br /><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;">on sheep. In the future, if people have a severe heart attack, we can inject their own stem cell, which have been</span><br /><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;"> treated to the damage site. It can then grow into new heart muscles and blood vessel.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;">Instead of harvesting a vein from the patient’s leg, the blood vessels will grow by itself on the heart. </span><br /><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;">This will make open heart surgery today look somewhat barbaric.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;"><strong><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Cornea</span></strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;">The researchers have also successfully used tissue-engineering technology to make cornea the layer at the </span><br /><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;">front of the eye. If the cornea is damaged, it will become opaque and this will prevent light to enter the eye and causes blindness.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;">Dr Ruzymah said her team has already achieved success in making cornea and they are waiting to do clinical</span><br /><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;"> testing before they can bring it to the bed side.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The difference of the cornea tissue engineered by UKM researchers is that they are fully autologous.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;">“Though there are many places in the world which make cornea but this is fully autologous. The problem with </span><br /><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;">autologous engineered tissue is the problem of tissue delivery, it’s difficult to transfer from one geographical</span><br /><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;"> area to another. Although there are other centres making cornea, the product is not available to our Malaysian </span><br /><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;">population.” said Dr Ruszymah.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;"><strong><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Cartilage and Bones</span></strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;">Experiments on animals also prove to be successful for knee joint. This is especially a blessings for osteoathritis </span><br /><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;">patients who suffer from debilatating joint pains.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;">The pain is caused, by damage cartilage in the knee, basically the part that connects the upper leg and the</span><br /><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;"> lower leg. So when the knee joint rub against each other it causes immense pain. The present treatment is knee</span><br /><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;"> replacement.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;">“We’ve also investigated focal defect and osteoarthritis of the knee joint in sheep. The knee joint has a tendency</span><br /><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;"> to be damaged in sports injury and as we grow old. These injuries can be treated with stem cells injection. </span><br /><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;">We’ve proven this in our animal model and the next step is human clinical trial.” said Dr Ruszymah.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">What it means really is that the knee joint can be grown back, instead of having to go for a knee replacement.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;">“ We can also treat non union (bone that does not heal after a fracture with the normal treatment) bones using</span><br /><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;"> tissue engineering technology, we can connect the bone,” she said.</span><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;">When a bone is broken the present method is doctors will assist the bone with steel plate </span><br /><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;">allowing the broken bones to unite. But using the tissue engineering technology formulated by UKM</span></span><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> researchers non-union fractured bones can be reconnected again.</span></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981936285150247071.post-12131376390414276462013-05-02T17:06:00.002-07:002013-05-02T17:06:35.444-07:00Patient wakes up during brain surgery<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">By Shahfizal Musa</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">
Pix UKMMC</span><br /><br />
<br />
<img src="http://www.ukm.my/news/images/stories/Research2013/Tumor3.jpg" /><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">KUALA LUMPUR, 12 March - The National University of Malaysia
(UKM) achieved yet another milestone when a patient was made to wake up during
a brain surgery last February.</span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It was UKM Medical Centre first Awake Craniotomy, a
procedure to remove brain tumor with minimal or no brain damage to the patient.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Some might think that waking up during surgery is a terrifying experience but in this case it was intentional. The patient needed to be conscious to
monitor and preserve his brain functions. The procedure was performed by UKM Neurosurgeon, Associate
Prof Dr Ramesh Kumar assisted by three other surgeons, Dr Toh Charng
Jeng, Dr Sanmugarajah Paramasvaran and Dr Ainul Jaffar.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Dr Esa Kamuruzaman was the anesthetist responsible in
sedating the patient before his skull was opened up and for bringing the him to consciousness during the surgery, just before the tumor is cut out.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The complex surgery is commonly done to remove tumors that
grow in the eloquent brain. These are areas of the brain that allow us to
communicate, perceive, interact and have movement. They regulate our senses,
movement and speech, a very important part of living a normal life.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">What is fascinating about the unique procedure is the
patient participated in his surgery by giving feedback to the surgeon, who in
turn will react accordingly. It is quite a scene when the patient woke up
during the operation and starts responding to questions. He also gave a priceless grin when he was asked to smile. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">When asked why a patient need to be awake during the
surgery, Dr Ramesh explained: “This technique was developed to allow maximum
excision of the lesion while causing minimum or no injury to the surrounding
normal brain tissue so that the patient has minimal or no functional loss.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“The best way to know that the patient has his functions
intact is from his response. You cannot know this when the patient is
unconscious”.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Dr Ramesh said the patient will be asked to perform simple
task related to the critical area, while the tumor is removed. Any changes in
function are monitored and the surgeon stops further dissections in the related
area if any adverse effect is detected.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Though current scanning technology like MRI can pin point
where the tumor is but it is not accurate enough.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“By resorting only to the MRI scan, the surgery will be very
much like walking in a mine field. Any damage to eloquent areas even by a
millimeter can mean living with a disability for the rest of the patient’s
life. It might harm the ability to speak or move or even think.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“Although functional MRI can show the motor and speech
areas, it may not accurately pin point the most important areas and therefore
the brain mapping done with direct electrical stimulation on the brain while
the patient is awake remains as the most reliable avenue for neurological
preservation,” Dr Ramesh said, t</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">he patient is given general anesthesia before commencing
surgery to render him unconscious. Then the surgeon will get to work and start
drilling his skull to gain access to the patient’s brain.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The sedation is given initialy because the
scalp and pericranium (tissue overlying the bone) is pain sensitive while the
brain is not.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“Once the skull is opened the anesthesia is reversed and the
patient is awakened. Upon completion of the excision of the lesion, the
patient is put to sleep again and the skull opening is then closed”.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It is no secret that Awake Craniotomy is a very scary option
to the patient so before the patient undergo the procedure he is counselled and
guided every step of the way.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The patient is now recovering splendidly. He is fit enough to give a press conference to the media.</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981936285150247071.post-12253893100481147502012-12-26T08:18:00.001-08:002013-05-02T19:43:47.758-07:00Syria should we care?<a href="http://www.facebook.com/syria.care">http://www.facebook.com/syria.care</a><br />
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<strong><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">By Shahfizal Musa</span></span></strong></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">BANGI, 20 Dec 2012 -Syrian women and children were raped in front of their husbands and fathers with some of the despicable acts even committed in mosques.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">People were slaughtered on a daily basis with some of them mutilated by President Bashir Al Assad’s regime.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Despite such atrocities they did not receive the help and media attention that they deserved, said Chairman of the Syrian Ulama Council, Sheikh Muhammad Ali Al Sabuni.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The 83 old renowned Islamic scholar came to The National University of Malaysia (UKM) to seek help from Malaysians in whatever way such assistance could be rendered.</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.ukm.my/news/images/stories/Campus2012/syria%20main.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" class="border" src="http://www.ukm.my/news/images/stories/Campus2012/syria%20main.jpg" style="background-color: white; border: 1px solid rgb(234, 234, 234); margin-top: 2px; padding: 6px;" /></a></div>
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Making his emotional plea in Arabic, he said the atrocities committed on the Syrian people are much worse than those committed by Israel on the Palestinians judging from the death toll. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Syeikh Muhammad Ali said 60,000 Palestinians were martyred in 60 years but over the last two years of intense oppression in Syria, 60,000 people were killed brutally. That is the official figure whereas the unreported death is 5 times more, he said.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The problem is that the Syrian plight is overshadowed by the Palestinian cause. Muslims don’t see helping the Syrian is as important as helping the Palestinian. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Syrian people do not just need money and prayers, they need every Muslim whether in Malaysia, Saudi Arabia or Indonesia to be united about the importance of helping Syrian.</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://sphotos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/419428_384146038338907_58344656_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="276" src="http://sphotos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/419428_384146038338907_58344656_n.jpg" width="400" /></a><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The situation in Syria is not a conflict between the Sunnis and the Syiahs because to call what is happening in Syria a conflict is to suggest two parties of equal strengths. But the actual situation is where the defenseless ordinary people are being massacred because they are Sunnis. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Syeikh Muhammad Ali said not even one mosque in Syria is not damaged or destroyed by the regime, which is supported by Iran.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /><br />He said no hospital would be willing to help the Sunnis; if they are injured or maimed they are left in pain until they die as even family members can’t help because those who helped will be tracked down and killed. Thus the injured who needs urgent medical attention is left untreated, the best they could hope for is for the injured to die quickly.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Syeikh Muhammad Ali’s statement that Syria is as important if not more so than Palestine was emotionally objected to by a Palestinian saying that would be tantamount to taking away help and attention from Palestine.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But her comments was responded by Abu Anas, another member in the audience, a Palestinian Medical Doctor who have worked on the frontlines in Gaza.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">He said the situation in Syria is much worse than in Palestine because at least in Gaza they are dealing with the Isreali soldiers who only has the courage to attack from the air, but in Syria the people who are Sunnis are murdered in their own homes, their children are slaughtered in front of their own eyes,</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">They have no food and children freeze to death because there is no heating, no medical help and hunted and slaughtered like animals.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">He agrees with Syeikh Muhammad Ali that right now, the situation in Syria is much worse than in Palestine.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Syeikh Muhammad Ali clarified that he was not asking Muslims wanting to help to make a choice but was only trying to correct the misconceptions among Muslims that Syrian oppression is not bad.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The talk organised by the Institute of West Asian Studies was attended by more than 200 students and lecturers.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">The mindset of Muslim is that they feel that they are betraying Palestine if they focus on Syria. Nobody is willing to say that the atrocities in Syria is worst than Palestine. Even when Hamas and Palestinian themselves have admitted that what happen in Syria is much much worst. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">Muslims are actually suffering from a guilty conscience of their years of indifferent towards the Palestinian Issue. Now they are doing the same mistake that they did to Palestine. They are ignoring Syria. </span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-box-shadow: none !important; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 13px; text-align: left;"><br style="-webkit-box-shadow: none !important;" /><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">‘Abdullah bin Hawalah narrated that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: “You will prepare some armies: an army for Sham, an army for Iraq, and an army for Yemen.” So, ‘Abdullah said: “Choose one for me, O Messenger of Allah!” So, he said: “</span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="-webkit-box-shadow: none !important; background-color: white; color: #333333; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Go to Sham</span></span><span style="-webkit-box-shadow: none !important; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 13px; text-align: left;">. Whomever is unable to do so should go to Yemen, as Allah – Mighty and Majestic – has sufficed for me Sham and its people.” Rabi’ah said: “I heard Aba Idris narrating this hadith and saying: “Whoever is sufficed by Allah can never be lost.”</span></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981936285150247071.post-42387605832669230602012-10-23T22:06:00.001-07:002013-05-02T19:45:43.673-07:00Hollywood favorite villain <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
A<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/5Kz2TJNE1V4?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
The negative international image of the Arabs and Muslims as violent, intolerant and out of control people has been attributed to films continuously churned out by Hollywood.
A visiting professor from California State University, Prof Dr Sophia Pandya said Hollywood has for decades been producing and distributing films depicting a very bad image of the Arabs and Muslims for the global market.<br />
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Speaking at a discourse jointly organised by the Institute of West Asian Studies (IKRAB) and the Institute of Islam Hadhari (HADHARI) and the Turkish Dialogue Society here today, she said such negative portrayal had been made from the very beginning from cartoons like Aladdin to blockbuster movies.<br />
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Arabs are portrayed as a subhuman barbaric and a threat to be feared by western society. This dehumanising of the Arabs and Muslims has nurtured hatred for them by the Americans for a long time.
What is sad is that Muslims themselves support Hollywood by buying and watching those movies that portray Muslims in a preposterous manner.<br />
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Muslim watch it because the image portrayed was so far off the mark, that Muslims think it is silly and is not about them. Yet this fictionalised image of Arabs and Muslims is taken as fact by non Muslims and the West, she said.
She referred to a groundbreaking documentary on how Hollywood have been slandering Arabs and Muslim for decades, The negative international image of the Arabs and Muslims as violent, intolerant and out of control people has been attributed to films continuously churned out by Hollywood.<br />
<br />
A visiting professor from California State University, Prof Dr Sophia Pandya said Hollywood has for decades been producing and distributing films depicting a very bad image of the Arabs and Muslims for the global market.
Speaking at a discourse jointly organised by the Institute of West Asian Studies (IKRAB) and the Institute of Islam Hadhari (HADHARI) and the Turkish Dialogue Society here today, she said such negative portrayal had been made from the very beginning from cartoons like Aladdin to blockbuster movies.
Arabs are portrayed as a subhuman barbaric and a threat to be feared by western society.<br />
<br />
This dehumanising of the Arabs and Muslims has nurtured hatred for them by the Americans for a long time.
What is sad is that Muslims themselves support Hollywood by buying and watching those movies that portray Muslims in a preposterous manner.
Muslim watch it because the image portrayed was so far off the mark, that Muslims think it is silly and is not about them.<br />
<br />
Yet this fictionalised image of Arabs and Muslims is taken as fact by non Muslims and the West, she said.
She referred to a groundbreaking documentary on how Hollywood have been slandering Arabs and Muslim for decades, Reel Bad Arabs- How Hollywood Vilifies People by Jack Shaheen.
The documentary is a compilation from about one thousand films with racist remarks demeaning the Arabs.<br />
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Such remarks if made against the Jews or African Americans can cause an uproar, she said.
Prof Pandya said Hollywood inherited the blatant racist portrayal of the Arabs and Muslims from the Europeans who used to colonise the Arab region in the Middle East and North Africa.
The colonial powers were on a quest for raw materials during the industrial revolution leading them to systematically robbed countries out of their resources.
They argued that the Arabs are barbarians which needed the colonial powers to bring modernisation.<br />
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The late Edward Said in his book Orentalism explained that the colonial powers portray the Arabs as a threat and something to be feared.
Debates in the British parliament then depicted the Arabs as people who deserved to be colonised, occupied and controlled even if it involves violence.
Thus the perception that Arabs and Muslims are bad people who deserved everything that is done to them is deeply rooted and entrenched in western perceptions.<br />
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Though such image is a gross injustice it continues unabated and will keep on, Prof Pandya said.
She quoted Martin Luther King’s idea on peace “peace is not the absence of tension but it is the presence of justice”. Justice has not been done to the Muslims and Arabs, Prof Pandya said.
Present at the talk was the Director of Islam Hadhari, Prof Dato’ Dr Mohd Yusof Hj Othman, academic staff and the public.
The documentary is a compilation from about one thousand films with racist remarks demeaning the Arabs.<br />
<br />
Such remarks if made against the Jews or African Americans can cause an uproar, she said.
Prof Pandya said Hollywood inherited the blatant racist portrayal of the Arabs and Muslims from the Europeans who used to colonise the Arab region in the Middle East and North Africa.
The colonial powers were on a quest for raw materials during the industrial revolution leading them to systematically robbed countries out of their resources.<br />
<br />
They argued that the Arabs are barbarians which needed the colonial powers to bring modernisation. The late Edward Said in his book Orentalism explained that the colonial powers portray the Arabs as a threat and something to be feared.
Debates in the British parliament then depicted the Arabs as people who deserved to be colonised, occupied and controlled even if it involves violence.
Thus the perception that Arabs and Muslims are bad people who deserved everything that is done to them is deeply rooted and entrenched in western perceptions.<br />
<br />
Though such image is a gross injustice it continues unabated and will keep on, Prof Pandya said.
She quoted Martin Luther King’s idea on peace “peace is not the absence of tension but it is the presence of justice”. Justice has not been done to the Muslims and Arabs, Prof Pandya said.
Present at the talk was the Director of Islam Hadhari, Prof Dato’ Dr Mohd Yusof Hj Othman, academic staff and the public.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981936285150247071.post-47824986441587356892012-07-19T03:26:00.000-07:002012-08-08T18:47:53.796-07:00No more hypertension during pregnancy<span style="background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;">KUALA LUMPUR, 27 April 2012 - A group of four final year medical students from The National University of Malaysia (UKM) have made history with a discovery that can prevent hypertension in pregnancy. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;">The discovery said to be the first in the world was made by Dr Noorfaizahtul Hanim binti Md. Nawawi, Dr Lim Jing Fen, Dr Melissha binti Luqman and Dr Faizuddin bin Zoklkeplai. They graduated earlier this month. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;">The discovery has been accepted for publication in a high indexed international journal, a statement by the supervisor of the students, the Deputy Dean of</span><span style="background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;">Graduate Studies of the Faculty of Medicine UKM, Prof Dr Zainul Rashid bin Mohamad Razi said today.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;">Prof Zainul Rashid said hypertension in pregnancy is still one of the main causes of maternal death all over the world.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;">“Women in their first pregnancy are more susceptible to develop hypertension with an incidence of between 10% to 15%. Many methods have been tried to prevent this condition such as supplementation with aspirin, zinc, Vitamin E and anti-oxidants. However, to date, none of these methods have proven to be successful. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;">“Thus, the only method to reduce the morbidity of this condition is to control the blood pressure when it appears in pregnancy to buy time for the baby to be more matured for delivery.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;">“This, however, exposed the mother to all the complications of hypertension in pregnancy such as eclamptic fits, bleeding due to placental separation, premature delivery as well as maternal and fetal death,” Prof Zainul Rashid said.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;">The group who were then in their 4th year of studies were doing research on mothers in their first pregnancy following IVF. They noted that the incidence of hypertension among the mothers were very low compared to other mothers in their first pregnancy who conceived spontaneously. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;">Prof Zainul Rashid said the only difference were that the mothers who conceived by IVF were supplemented with a progestogen hormone, dydrogesterone for the first 16 weeks of their pregnancy. From 116 mothers who conceived by IVF, only two(1.7%) developed hypertension in pregnancy as compared to 15(12.9%) in 116 other women who conceived spontaneously.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;">Prof Zainul Rashid the difference was very significant statistically.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;">“With this finding, it is now possible to reduce the incidence of hypertension in first pregnancies thus further reducing maternal mortality due to this condition by taking the hormone dydrogesterone during the early part of their pregnancies.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;">“Further studies will be performed by other students in the UKM Medical Faculty on other pregnant mothers who are at high risk of developing hypertension in pregnancy such as twin pregnancies, obese and mothers older than 35 years,” </span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6981936285150247071" name="_GoBack" style="background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #555555; cursor: pointer; font-family: Verdana; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"></a><span style="background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;">Prof Zainul Rashid said.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;">The students took 1 year 10 months to complete their studies, which was one of the requirements for UKM medical students to pass their medical course.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;">The newly qualified doctors will receive a prize of RM1000.00 each for their discovery from Prof Dr Zaleha Mahdy, the Deputy Dean of Undergraduate Studies of the Faculty at a special ceremony at the Faculty</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981936285150247071.post-29468053858461614742012-07-19T03:25:00.001-07:002012-08-08T18:49:35.090-07:00Reverse aging with palm oil<br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">KUALA LUMPUR, 18 July, 2012 – Research findings by a team of postgraduate students at The National University </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">of Malaysia (UKM) revealed that Tocotrienal Rich Fraction (TRA) derived from palm oil may have the potential to reverse the aging process.</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.ukm.my/news/images/stories/Research2012/Penuaan2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" class="border" height="139" src="http://www.ukm.my/news/images/stories/Research2012/Penuaan2.jpg" style="background-color: white; border: 1px solid rgb(234, 234, 234); margin-top: 2px; padding: 6px;" width="320" /></span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The initial findings made by the students from the Department of Biochemistry at the Medical Faculty discovered that TRA actually has the potential to reverse the shrinking of satellite cells found in skeletal muscles. These are cells in muscles that support the skeleton.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The discovery is one of over 50 such findings exhibited in the ongoing 14th Health and Medical Research Week (RW14) being held at the Faculty of Medicine here from Tuesday 17 July.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Lim Jing Jye, who is doing his Masters and involved in the research said that the cells in question have been closely linked to aging since they shrink with age.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What the team did was to take human cells from 5 day old infants and exposed them to conditions that simulated the causes of aging.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The team found that the cells that have shrunk grew back to almost its original size when treated with TRA.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Chairman of RW14, Prof Yasmin Anum Mohd Yusof from the Biochemistry Department when asked about the research at a press conference said: “While it is too early to say that aging of an octogenarian can be reversed, the findings have the potential at the very least too delay the aging process.”</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">TRA may offer not just a longer life but more importantly a healthier life especially to the aged.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">She said the focus of the study is not to find the ‘fountain of youth’ but how to make people live longer and at the same time in good health.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There were many other equally significant findings made that were exhibited such as anti oxidant and anti-tumour properties found in ginger (Zingiber officinale).</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There was also research done on ‘belacan’ (shrimp paste) titled “Risk Assesment of local Belacan Intake”. Belacan which is a favourite flavouring ingredient used in many Malaysian dishes is said to contain arsenic and lead which exceeded the limit of Malaysian Food Act 1983 and Food Regulation 1985.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">However the findings revealed that the daily intake is much lower than the provisional tolerable weekly intakes given by Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) and World Health Organisation (WHO) and could not be considered to be harmful to humans.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Over 200 participants consisting of postgraduate students and lecturers from the Faculties of Medicine, Dentistry, Health Sciences, Pharmacy and the Medical Molecular Biology Institute (UMBI) are taking part in the programme.<br /><br />It include a series of lectures meant to hone in the skills of the researchers and lecturers in preparing their research proposals and nurturing multidisciplinary collaborations.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The RW14 is one of the initiatives by UKM Medical Centre (UKMMC) to equip lecturers and students with the knowledge and skills they need to get their research proposals approved and later recognised at the international level.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dean of the Medical Faculty and Director of UKMMC, Prof Dato’ Dr Raymond Azman Ali, Deputy Deans and heads of department, students, clinicians and lecturers attended the official opening of the RW14.<br /><img border="0" src="http://www.ukm.my/news/images/stories/Icon/ukmnewsportal.png" style="border: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981936285150247071.post-79158514722703828252012-04-25T11:54:00.000-07:002012-08-08T18:47:14.176-07:00Brain drain or Brain Circulation<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">KUALA LUMPUR, 19 APRIL 2012- A number of ENT specialists trained in The National University of Malaysia (UKM) have been snatched to work abroad thereby regarded as being part of the brain drain phenomena for the country.
However its Vice Chancellor, Prof Tan Sri Dato' Wira Dr Sharifah Hapsah Syed Hasan Shahabudin looked at it differently.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> She is of the view that these experts who chose to work abroad will one day come back home and will then bring back their expertise to the country.
Opening the 4th ASEAN Academy of Neuro-Otology & Audiology Congress (AANOA) here today, she likened it as ‘brain circulation’ rather than ‘brain drain’.
Neuro-Otology is a branch of clinical medicine which studies and treats neurological disorders of the ear. It is a subspecialty which stems from Ear, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Nose and Throat (ENT) specialisation.
She said their going abroad will allow them to gain invaluable experience and will one day bring their expertise back home.
Though it does cause a shortage to the country in the immediate term the specialists nonetheless are helping people no matter where they are. What is more important is that the people should benefit regardless of boundaries, she said.
Prof Sharifah Hapsah also said that new developments in ENT treatment like cochlear implants have revolutionised the treatment of hearing impairment where hearings can now be revived even in cases once considered impossible. Sign language may one day become obsolete, she said.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Hearing impairment needed to be detected early as it can have a detrimental effect on an individual’s learning ability, she said.
UKM began its coclear implant programme in 1995 and to date had given such implants to 295 patients.
The honourary founding president of the conference, Prof Dr Suchitra Paransuk in her keynote address said she was treated with skepticism and sometimes ridiculed when she said that hearing disability can be tackled with Neuro-Ontology some 40 years ago.
She had then just got back home from studying abroad. Now the Thai government is subsidising cochlear implant surgery while Neuro-Ontology is also recognised globally.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Prof Suchitra said though cochlear implant surgery is accepted, the treatment depended on facilities available in a country. In some places it is only available to those who can afford it. This has to change because every child deserves the gift of hearing.
UKM started its cochlear implant programme in 1995. The cochlear team also trained health personnel from other hospitals both locally and foreign.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> The AANOA conference which began today ends on Saturday 21 April. It also consists of various workshops on the latest technique available for ear surgery.
AANOA President, Prof Dato’ Dr Lokman Saim, participants and guests from United Arab Emirates, Thailand, Australia, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines attended the conference.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981936285150247071.post-56148946519632228282012-04-14T06:58:00.002-07:002012-04-14T07:25:49.915-07:00Cure for Osteoporosis<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.allinfodir.com/healthinfo/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Mechanism-of-Osteoporosis.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="300" width="400" src="http://www.allinfodir.com/healthinfo/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Mechanism-of-Osteoporosis.jpg" /></a></div><br />
KUALA LUMPUR, 6 April 2012 - Researchers from The National University of Malaysia (UKM) have discovered that ‘tocotrienol’ (a form of Vitamin E) derived from palm oil, can strengthen brittle bones thereby reversing incidences of osteoporosis.<br />
<br />
This discovery was made by Prof Dr Ima Nirwana Soelaiman and her team, Assoc Prof Dr Norazlina Mohamed, Assoc Prof Dr Ahmad Nazrun Shuid and Dr Norliza Muhammad of the Faculty of Medicine, UKM after a series of comprehensive studies. <br />
<br />
Prof Ima who is Head of the Bone Metabolisme Research Group, said: “our extensive animal studies have shown that Tocotrienol can improve the bone structure of osteoporotic bone and bring it back to its original condition.”<br />
<br />
She said that the studies also revealed that besides reversing osteoporosis, Tocotrienol can also prevent the development of osteoporosis. The studies conducted over fifteen years have produced consistent results time after time; which is that tocotrienol can prevent and cure osteoporosis.<br />
<br />
Her work has won awards in international scientific expositions, such as at the Invention and New Product Exposition (INPEX2008), Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, 2008 [Gold Medal, Award of Merit] and 34th International Exhibition of Inventions, New Techniques and Products, Geneva, Switzerland, 2006 [Gold Medal, with Merit]. She has also published almost 80 scholarly articles in indexed journals, of which half are on vitamin E and bones.<br />
<br />
Tocotrienol is a family of vitamin E which is derived from palm oil. In recent years, Tocotrienol has gained recognition as a potent antioxidant that protects cell membranes and DNA from free radical damage. Free radicals are by products generated when oxygen is converted into fuel for the human body. As an antioxidant tocotrienol prevents cellular damage. Therefore diseases such as osteoporosis which have strong oxidative component will benefit from tocotrienol.<br />
<br />
Understanding osteoporosis <br />
<br />
Bone is made of a hard outer shell with a mesh of collagen (tough elastic fibres), minerals (including calcium), blood vessels and bone marrow. This mesh looks a bit like a honeycomb, with spaces between the different parts. <br />
<br />
Healthy bones are very dense and thus the spaces inside the bones are small. However in bones affected by osteoporosis, the spaces are larger and this make the bones weaker, less elastic and more likely to break. <br />
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As a living tissue, bones constantly repair themselves in a process called bone turnover. There are cells which break down old bones (osteoclasts) and cells which build new bones (osteoblasts). Bones become brittle when the osteoclast activity predominate over osteoblast activity. This results in less bone, since bone is broken down at a faster rate than it can be replaced. <br />
<br />
These fractures most commonly occur in the spine, wrist and hips but can affect other bones such as the arm or pelvis. A fracture is a huge problem to an osteoporotic patient, since osteoporotic bone is slow to heal and a fracture may not heal completely.<br />
These patients will have to depend on others to do simple tasks such as going to the bathroom.<br />
<br />
Osteoporosis Risk Group<br />
<br />
Osteoporosis is caused primarily by hormonal imbalance and women are four times more likely to get osteoporosis then men. When women reach menopause, their estrogen production will go down drastically, causing increased bone loss leading to osteoporosis. Women with a low pre-menopausal bone mass are more prone to develop osteoporosis. Tocotrienol can prevent this from occurring. <br />
<br />
Men are, however, not totally immune to osteoporosis. Men can become osteoporotic if they lose their testosterone and this is also considered to be osteoporotic due to hormonal deficiency. This problem usually arises when men get very old or if there are problems with their testicles such as testicular tumor that require their testicles to be removed. Removal of the testicles will then cause testosterone to be depleted in the body leading to osteoporosis.<br />
People who are on steroid treatment for asthma, arthritis and cancer can developed osteoporosis as a side effect. From her studies tocotrienol was also shown to reverse steroid induced osteoporosis. <br />
<br />
Nicotine found in cigarrette smoke is another risk factor for osteoporosis. Chronic smokers have been shown to have lower bone mineral density compared to non-smoker. Studies by Prof Ima and her team have found that tocotrienol can reverse the osteoporosis and bring the bone back to normal once the nicotine intake was stopped.<br />
<br />
Additional studies by Prof Ima and her team found that tocotrienol also enhanced the structure and strength of normal, non-osteoporotic bone. This indicates that tocotrienol can increase peak bone mass. High peak bone mass will reduce the risk of osteoporosis in later life. Her latest studies have shown that it can accelerate the process of fracture healing in osteoporotic bone.<br />
Prof Ima Nirwana Soelaiman can be contacted at imasoel@medic.ukm.my, imasoel@yahoo.comUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981936285150247071.post-64264152281854715742012-04-14T06:36:00.001-07:002013-05-02T19:38:04.138-07:00How notorious is Vitamin E<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://earthfirstnews.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/palmoil.jpg?w=234&h=176" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="176" src="http://earthfirstnews.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/palmoil.jpg?w=234&h=176" width="234" /></a></div>
<br />
Well it depends on what type of vitamin E you are talking about.Some can increase your risk to have osteoporosis. But others have the opposite effect. Yes it can help brittle bones get back to normal condition. <br />
<br />
There is a lot of confusion about Vitamin E in general. This is more so after the publication of a scientific article in a reputable journal, ‘Nature Medicine’ titled “Vitamin E decreases bone mass by stimulating osteoclast fusion”.<br />
<br />
The paper published was referring to the presence of the compound alpha tocopherol found in vitamin E but not the compound tocotrienol which is also found in vitamin E which has been the subject of extensive studies by Prof Dr Ima Nirwana Soelaiman and her team of researchers at the Faculty of Medicine of the National University of Malaysia, UKM. (see accompnying story). <br />
<br />
The article did in fact showed that alpha tocotrienol did not have the same effect as alpha tocopherol, which was claimed to be linked to osteoporosis, said Prof Ima, Head of the Bone Metabolisme Research Group of UKM. <br />
<br />
Some researchers have shown that tocotrienol found in palm oil is a better antioxidant than tocopherol found in soya oil. <br />
<br />
There are even some reports that say tocopherols and tocotrienols may have opposing effects in certain situations. In her studies, Prof Ima has found that tocotrienol was better than alpha tocopherol in preventing and reversing osteoporosis.<br />
<br />
While Prof Ima does not dispute the findings of the study itself, she said that the title, which used the general term “Vitamin E” will create the wrong impression. <br />
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“You have to be more specific since there are eight isoforms of Vitamin E, four can be classified as tocopherol and another four as tocotrienol,” said Prof Ima. <br />
<br />
Therefore, it should be made clear in the title, that it is the alpha-tocopherol isoform of Vitamin E that was being referred to because not every isoform of vitamin E have the same effect. Unfortunately, due to the misleading title, the mass media have started to portray all vitamin E in a bad light . <br />
<br />
She has since written to the journal’s editor pointing out the misleading heading and asking for a correction but to no avail.<br />
<br />
Prof Ima and her team are continuing their research on tocotrienol and osteoporosis and plan to develop tocotrienol as an anti-osteoporotic agent with a pharmaceutical company. <br />
<br />
They are in the final stages of animal testing and will then conduct clinical testing on humans. Once the medicine is produced and reaches the bedside, osteoporosis maybe a thing of the past.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981936285150247071.post-76323284749667507022012-03-27T10:16:00.006-07:002012-03-27T10:16:00.459-07:00EU deny Discriminating Muslim Asylum Seekers<a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/content/newsweek/2010/10/04/how-muslim-bashers-raise-europe-s-terrorism-risk/_jcr_content/body/inlineimage.img.486.jpg/1302551625272.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="europe-violence-fe04-vl" border="0" src="http://www.thedailybeast.com/content/newsweek/2010/10/04/how-muslim-bashers-raise-europe-s-terrorism-risk/_jcr_content/body/inlineimage.img.486.jpg/1302551625272.jpg" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #555555; line-height: 18px;"><span><span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: small; line-height: normal;"></span>BANGI, 29 Oct 2010 </span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">- The Europeon Union (EU) does not discriminate entry of asylum seekers solely on the basis of their race or religions, the Belgian Ambassador to Malaysia, Dr Frank Van De Craen said.<br />
</span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #555555; line-height: 18px;"><span><span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">In a talk on ‘The Belgian Presidency of the Europeon Union: Implications for EU –Asia Relations’ at UKM’s Institute of Occidental Studies’ third Round Table series here yesterday, Dr Van De Craen did, however, admit that things had indeed changed for security reasons after September 11, 2001.<br />
</span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #555555; line-height: 18px;"><span><span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">“The EU is certainly more wary to accept immigrants from certain regions, and tighter screenings were done after Sept 11. But the EU does not deny the right to asylum and migration just because of a person’s race or religion,” he said.<br />
</span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #555555; line-height: 18px;"><span><span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Since then Europe had experienced a rise in Xenophobia, especially in France and Germany resulting in the French government’s proposal to ban the use of the hijab in schools initated in 2004.<br />
</span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #555555; line-height: 18px;"><span><span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">There was also the campaign to ban minarets at mosques in Switzerland. Though Switzerland is not an EU member it is nonetheless part of the geographic region.<br />
</span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #555555; line-height: 18px;"><span><span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The ambassador claimed that these views were not mainstream but are extremist views which clearly infringe upon the freedom of choice and religion.<br />
</span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #555555; line-height: 18px;"><span><span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The immigrants are by and large different and they find it difficult to integrate into the EU societies. So populist politicians jump on the issue and try to present it as black and white issue but they are not the mainstream, he said.<br />
</span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #555555; line-height: 18px;"><span><span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Responding the questions on whether Europe has failed as a multicultural society he said: “I am afraid the answer is yes. Twenty years ago we never anticipate that we would have a large influx of the unskilled immigrant labours. ”<br />
</span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #555555; line-height: 18px;"><span><span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">So the EU sees the only way to tackle the problem of such large influx is by tightening its labour laws.<br />
</span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #555555; line-height: 18px;"><span><span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">He also said that Asia and Europe share some common grounds for example in economic and financial relations by rejecting trade or currency wars while upholding socially responsible markets.<br />
</span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #555555; line-height: 18px;"><span><span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Both regions also advocate for improvements in the quality of life of their peoples. <br />
</span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #555555; line-height: 18px;"><span><span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">“Without imposing our views on social security policy, democracy or justice in Asia, we want to share with our Asian neighbours the experiences we went through since the 18th century from the very positive to the very negative,” said Mr. Van De Craen.<br />
</span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #555555; line-height: 18px;"><span><span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">They also have a common concern on the global warming phenomena. This, he said, was also a new challenge for Europe and “we have no lessons to advice you. But we are all in the same boat and we expect a strong and honest commitment from Asia (on the issue), he said.</span></span></span></span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981936285150247071.post-536778503556852592012-03-26T10:09:00.002-07:002012-03-26T10:09:00.643-07:00Breast Cancer Biopsy<script type="text/javascript"><!--
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://mycanceradvisor.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/stereotactic.mammobiopsy1.jpg?84cd58" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://mycanceradvisor.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/stereotactic.mammobiopsy1.jpg?84cd58" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #555555; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: auto; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: auto; text-align: justify;"><span lang="MS"><span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: small; line-height: normal;"></span>BANGI , 13 Oct. 2010 – UKM Medical Centre has performed the latest minimally invasive breast cancer biopsy procedure, the breast Sentinel Lymph Biopsy (SLNB), the first public hospital in Malaysia to do so.</span></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #555555; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: auto; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: auto; text-align: justify;"><span lang="MS"><span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
The SLNB is a procedure which helps determine if a cancer is contained in a specific location or have spread (metastasized) to other parts of the body.</span></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #555555; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: auto; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: auto; text-align: justify;"><span lang="MS"><span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
After performing 35 such procedures successfully, UKMMC has organised the Breast SLNB workshop attended by approximately 50 surgeons from all over the country yesterday. </span></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #555555; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: auto; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: auto; text-align: justify;"><span lang="MS"><span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
Opening the workshop, Deputy Minister of Women, Family and Community Development , Senator Heng Seai Kie hoped the workshop would encourage more centres to advocate the procedure to their patients and thus improve the medical care services in the country.</span></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #555555; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: auto; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: auto; text-align: justify;"><span lang="MS"><span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
Later she told a press conference that the government will give a RM50 subsidy to woman earning less than RM 5000 a month, for breast cancer screening.</span></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #555555; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: auto; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: auto; text-align: justify;"><span lang="MS"><span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
Breast cancer affects woman irrespective of age, colour or creed with every one in 13 women found to develop breast cancer. </span></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #555555; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: auto; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: auto; text-align: justify;"><span lang="MS"><span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
When breast cancer cells begin to escape from the primary tumor site in the breast they travel to the lymph nodes under the arm, the first lymph node they reach is the 'sentinel' lymph node.</span></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #555555; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: auto; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: auto; text-align: justify;"><span lang="MS"><span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
When breast cancer is diagnosed, women (and men) must often undergo axillary lymph node dissection (i.e., removal of underarm nodes) to check for the spread of cancer. This process is part of assessing the cancer location. Unfortunately, the removal of these lymph nodes can lead to lymphedema (chronic swelling) of the arm of the patient.</span></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #555555; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: auto; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: auto; text-align: justify;"><span lang="MS"><span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
The SLNB biopsy procedure involves only the injection of a dye to pinpoint the lymph node which is closest to the cancer site. This is better than the conventional method which requires the surgeon to generally remove between five and thirty nodes during a traditional axillary dissection.</span></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #555555; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: auto; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: auto; text-align: justify;"><span lang="MS"><span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
Furthermore the lymph nodes has a role in activating our immune system. If we imagine that our immune system as an army which fends of threats of diseases, then the lymph nodes is like an army base which sends out orders and deploys the troops. So it is better to leave them intact as much as possible so they can do their job.</span></span></span></span></div><div style="color: #555555; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em;"><span style="color: black;"><span lang="MS"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
Present at the workshop were Prof Dato’ Dr Lokman Saim, the Dean of the Medical Faculty and Director of UKMMC, Prof Rohaizak Muhammad, Head of Breast and Endocrine Surgery and Dr Saladina Jaszle Jasmin, the Course Director of the workshop</span></span></span></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981936285150247071.post-36095879889925236802012-03-24T09:53:00.005-07:002012-03-24T09:53:00.508-07:00Youth told to aim for the outer space<a href="http://www.digitaldesktopwallpaper.com/wallpapers/space/space_009.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://www.digitaldesktopwallpaper.com/wallpapers/space/space_009.jpg" width="320" /></span></a><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">BANGI, 6 Oct. 2010 – UKM’s Institute of Space Science (ANGKASA) has been identified as the secretariat for the proposed Malaysian Association of Young Space Explorers (MyACE) .</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Deputy Minister of Higher Education, Dato’ Saifuddin Abdullah said the setting up of the Malaysian Young Aerospace Explorers (MyACE) is to promote interest in space exploration and aerospace studies among youth and students.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Speaking at a gathering of 64 astronauts in the UKM campus today, he said Malaysia’s own astronaut, Datuk Dr Sheikh Muzapahar Shukor will act as advisor to MyACE.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The ministry, he said, was committed to develop aerospace studies by having related courses in various public universities apart from UKM. Other universities involved include UTM, UPM, USM, UIAM, UPNM and UTHM.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Dato’ Saifuddin also said that Malaysia’s involvement in the space programme was not merely the sending of a Malaysian to outer space but more importantly what could be done after the astronaut came back to earth.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Datuk Dr Sheikh Muzapahar Shukor took along with him cancer cells and microbes to see how they behaved in zero gravity. This can help scientists understand cancer cells better and hopefully can lead to finding a cure for many diseases.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">UKM played a leading role in the area forging international collaborations in the area of space research.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic and International Affairs), Prof Ir. Dato’ Hassan Basri said that ANGKASA since its inception in 2003 has been actively involved in setting up an international network of collaborations to further its research agenda in aerospace science.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Presently UKM has collaborations with Antarctic New Zealand, University of Canterbury New Zealand, Science Institute of University of Iceland, National Institute of Polar Research and Space Environment Research Centre of Japan and STAR laboratory of Stanford University USA.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">He said the research networks comprise studies in the fields of upper and lower atmospheric layers, meteorology, solar radiation impact on the atmosphere (space weather), radio signal propagation and related space engineering including antenna communication and satellite technology.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981936285150247071.post-40197646260479371952012-03-23T14:56:00.000-07:002013-05-02T19:35:45.865-07:00Noble laureate : Don't look for a job create your own<br />
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<strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">By Shahfizal Musa<br />Pix Shahiddan Saidi</span></span></strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /><br />BANGI, 25 Feb. 2012 -Aided by technology, a new economy is</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">taking shape that enables people to create jobs instead of looking</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> for one.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />The National University of Malaysia (UKM) Laureate in Residence Professor Muhammad Yunus in saying this believes that everyone including the poor can be a successful entrepreneur if given guidance.<br /><br />Giving a talk to a group of women entrepreneurs of small businesses here today, the founder of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh likened the poor to bonsai trees. There is nothing wrong with the plant. But because the tree is planted in a pot, it can only grow to a very limited height.<br /><br />His efforts in helping the poor help themselves through the bank earned him a Nobel prize in 2006. His idea of using capitalism to help the poor took off spreading like wild fire engulfing the rest of the world.<br /><br />Similarly, he said, society never gave the poor the base to grow bigger. They is nothing wrong with poor people, it is not their fault, society never gave them a chance to realise their true potential. <br /><br />“Sincerity is of the upmost importance even before trying to help the poor with any success. Their mind set has to be changed first. And usually there are several layers of fears and assumptions that is stopping them from becoming successful. Each one of the layers needed to be peeled off.”<br /><br />He said that was evident from his experience with the Grameen Bank which he founded for the poor including beggars. It took him quite a while to convince the poor especially the women, that they can generate their own income.<br /><br />“At first no one wanted to take money from the bank to start an income generating project, because they lack the confidence in themselves. So patience is required”.</span></span><strong><img border="0" class="border" src="http://www.ukm.my/news/images/stories/Research2012/prof%20yunus%202.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(234, 234, 234); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: initial; border-left-color: rgb(234, 234, 234); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(234, 234, 234); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; border-style: initial; border-top-color: rgb(234, 234, 234); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; float: right; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 3px; margin-top: 2px; padding-bottom: 6px; padding-left: 6px; padding-right: 6px; padding-top: 6px;" /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Technology gives freedom</span></span></strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /><br />Today, he said, technology has made it possible for man and women to be happy. “They can take care of their family without having to be stuck in the office from 9 to 5. They will have the freedom to be with their families and generate their own income without having to depend on a job”.<br /><br />He said with the help of technology an accountant can become an expert that offers his services not just to his town but the whole world.<br /><br />Technology has come to a level that we can reach out to the world and not be limited to our towns and villages.<br /><br />Prof Muhammad gave his talk to a group of women entrepreneurs of small businesses. The event was organised by Centre of Women Leadership to help women realise their true potential.<br /><br />Prof Muhammad said that he believes that everybody can be a successful entrepreneur if they are given guidance. This holds true even for the poor.</span></span><strong><img border="0" class="border" src="http://www.ukm.my/news/images/stories/Research2012/prof%20yunus%203.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(234, 234, 234); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: initial; border-left-color: rgb(234, 234, 234); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(234, 234, 234); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; border-style: initial; border-top-color: rgb(234, 234, 234); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; float: left; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 3px; margin-top: 2px; padding-bottom: 6px; padding-left: 6px; padding-right: 6px; padding-top: 6px;" /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Empowering Women </span></span></strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /><br />He also urged women to take part of the new economy. He said when he first started the Grameen bank it helped the poor to borrow money and create their own income generating vehicle. It was a success with virtually everyone paying back their loans.<br /><br />Prof Muhammad Yunus said he discovered one major difference on the outflow of income they generated according to their gender. For the women most of the income will go to the family including their children’s need.<br /><br />But if the borrower was a man, the money generated from the capital, were usually spent on himself first before it goes to the family.<br /><br />In other words lending money to a woman will give more social benefits than lending money to a man.<br /><br />Thus the need to empower women with income generating opportunities because their earnings will benefit the whole family.<br /><br />But when you try to empower women you will definitely step on a few toes. Usually these are men who are comfortable with the status quo of women being subservient.<br /><br />Prof Muhammad Yunus found it odd that several women rights groups also opposed his idea of lending money to women to enable them to start their own income generating projects.</span></span><strong><img border="0" class="border" src="http://www.ukm.my/news/images/stories/Research2012/prof%20yunus%204.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(234, 234, 234); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: initial; border-left-color: rgb(234, 234, 234); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(234, 234, 234); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; border-style: initial; border-top-color: rgb(234, 234, 234); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; float: right; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 3px; margin-top: 2px; padding-bottom: 6px; padding-left: 6px; padding-right: 6px; padding-top: 6px;" /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Challenges in empowering women</span></span></strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /><br />In giving women the power to generate their own income, it might be seen as a threat. Despite the rhetoric of women empowerment some people do not want to see women do better than them .<br /><br />No man would like to be told that his wife is wearing the pants in the house.<br /><br />But the fears that some men have about women earning more than them was a misconception. He said in many cases the relationship between husbands and wives have improved when the wife can contribute to the family financially.<br /><br />So it basically strengthen the family institution and not threaten it, he said.</span></span></div>
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<strong><img border="0" class="border" src="http://www.ukm.my/news/images/stories/Research2012/prof%20yunus%205.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(234, 234, 234); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: initial; border-left-color: rgb(234, 234, 234); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(234, 234, 234); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; border-style: initial; border-top-color: rgb(234, 234, 234); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; float: left; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 3px; margin-top: 2px; padding-bottom: 6px; padding-left: 6px; padding-right: 6px; padding-top: 6px;" /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Giving Tradition a new leash of life</span></span></strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /><br />Tradition is usually the stumbling block in empowering women. Most tradition originate out of necessity. Harsh and hazardous environment, may have required women to sit and take care of their young ones in caves. While the man go out and hunt for food.<br /><br />But as the environment is tamed by technology the man’s role has also to change.<br /><br />Tradition, he said, is a living thing, it is not a set of rules that is carved in stone. It should evolve with time.<br /><br />If empowering women can lead to thousands of families climbing out of poverty, then it is natural that it should be made the new tradition.<br /><br />Another subject used to hinder <a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6981936285150247071" name="_GoBack" style="cursor: pointer;"></a>efforts to empower women financially is religion. It is not religion per se that prevents women from being financially capable. But it’s the fear of men losing their status quo of being the dominant one in a family.<br /><br />He said it is not religion that hampers efforts to help women realise their potential. It is the interpretation of religion from a certain view point.<br /><br />Islam, he said, gave women the right to own property and inheritance. While before Islam they are not so entitled.<br /><br />Empowering them, he said, was not about giving women the upper hand over man. It is about using entrepreneurship and capitalism to solve society’s most pressing problem.<br /><br />Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research and Innovation Affars) Prof Dato’ Dr Rahmah Mohamed; Director of the Centre for Women’s Leadership, Assoc Prof Dr Madeline Berma; women entrepreneurs, lecturers and students attended the talk.</span></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981936285150247071.post-19750460993514842182012-03-23T00:39:00.000-07:002012-03-23T00:39:01.737-07:0071 year old surgeon smuggled himself to Syria<div class="articleBody" style="color: #333333; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 10px; line-height: 15px; margin-bottom: 1.7em; margin-top: 1.5em;"><nyt_text></nyt_text><br />
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PARIS — At the age of 71, Dr. Jacques Bérès, a veteran of war zones, left his comfortable Paris life last month to smuggle himself into Homs, the center of the Syrian revolt, to tend to the wounded and the sick.</div></div><div class="articleBody" style="margin-bottom: 1.7em; margin-top: 1.5em;"><div itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Dr. Bérès, a surgeon who was part of the group that founded <a class="meta-org" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/d/doctors_without_borders/index.html?inline=nyt-org" style="color: #004276; text-decoration: underline;" title="More articles about Doctors Without Borders">Médecins Sans Frontières</a>, or <a href="http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/" style="color: #004276; text-decoration: underline;" title="The organization’s Web site.">Doctors Without Borders</a>, appears to be the only Western doctor who has been able to enter Homs, where security forces have been carrying out <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/02/world/middleeast/rebels-resisting-onslaught-in-syrian-city-activists-say.html" style="color: #004276; text-decoration: underline;" title="Times article.">a brutal assault</a>. His account offers a rare glimpse at the medical emergency that has developed as the Syrian conflict rages on.</div><div itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">His journey into <a class="meta-loc" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/syria/index.html?inline=nyt-geo" style="color: #004276; text-decoration: underline;" title="More news and information about Syria.">Syria</a> began in early February when he crossed the Lebanese border with the help of smugglers, carrying luggage filled with medical equipment. He then traveled by car and motorbike to Al Qusayr, another besieged city that is part of Homs Province, where he worked for a few days with a Syrian doctor. When he finally made it to Homs, he spent about two weeks there.<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 10px; line-height: 15px;"></span><br />
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<h3 class="sectionHeader" style="color: black; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.2857em; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 10px; line-height: 15px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 22px;">Working in secret, in a dark, abandoned house, with only one operating table, three beds, four local aides and intermittent electricity, Dr. Bérès operated on 89 people, he said; all but nine survived.</span></span></h3></div><div itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">He was forced to move once — “I sensed that the building had become a target for government forces” — and conditions were far from ideal.</div><div itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">“The place was so crowded that we had to walk between the stretchers,” Dr. Bérès said in an interview late last month in his Paris apartment, just days after returning.</div><div itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">“I treated all kinds of wounds, from heavy mortars, shots from long-range sniper rifles, high-velocity rounds, shrapnel,” he said. His makeshift hospital was only a few minutes from Baba Amr, the neighborhood that had some of the heaviest shelling and fighting.</div><div itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">One day, he said, 11 people died in his hospital, some before he could even begin to treat them. “Some of them had brain damage and arrived already dead,” Dr. Bérès said. “Others were so severely injured that they could not be saved.”</div><div itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Many of his patients were children, he said. At least 400 children have died since the beginning of the uprising, according to Unicef.</div><div itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">He was clearly affected by the death of a teenage boy, “who had pale skin, handsome features, a slightly mischievous look and a cap on his head which made him look like Gavroche in Victor Hugo’s ‘Misérables.’ ” The boy, Dr. Bérès said, “had almost been cut into two.”</div><div itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Dr. Bérès left Syria before the government began its all-out assault on Homs in late February.</div><div itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">“I was sad,” he told the French radio network RTL after his return to Paris. “I saw useless suffering, cruelty, meanness, the suffering of children, of families.”</div><div itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">But those who worked with him praised Dr. Bérès for his composure and quiet energy in the face of suffering and death.</div><div itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">“We went through very tense moments,” said Nicolas Hénin, a video journalist and a friend of Dr. Bérès who filmed him on the first days of his mission in Al Qusayr. “But while everyone around him got agitated, Dr. Bérès remained extremely calm, as if all this agitation didn’t affect him.”</div><div itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Dr. Bérès’s trip to Syria was partly sponsored by two associations: France-Syria Democracy and <a href="http://www.uam93.com/" style="color: #004276; text-decoration: underline;" title="The federation’s Web site, in French.">UAM93</a>, a federation of Muslim associations in Seine-St.-Denis, an area in the Paris suburbs largely populated by immigrants. Dr. Bérès said the participation of the Muslim federation was crucial.</div><div itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">But gaining its support was not easy. “I was strongly against this trip,” said M’hammed Henniche, the director of UAM93, who said he thought it was too risky. “But Dr. Bérès insisted so much that we finally paid for his ticket and begged him to keep his mouth shut during his stay.”</div><div itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Mr. Henniche said that Dr. Bérès left because he could no longer cope with the violence and harsh living conditions in Homs, including the lack of hot water and electricity, and because he was exhausted from treating so many patients. “We also thought that he had to escape before the city was entirely besieged,” he added.</div><div itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 10px; line-height: 15px;"></span></div><div class="articleBody" style="margin-bottom: 1.7em; margin-top: 1.5em;"><nyt_text></nyt_text><br />
<div itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Dr. Bérès described weeks of tension and sleepless nights; he struggled with the noise of bombardments, cold weather, mud in the streets, a lack of food and a shortage of child-size masks for anesthesia. He said there was not enough equipment to allow for anything but the most basic treatments.</div></div><div class="articleBody" style="margin-bottom: 1.7em; margin-top: 1.5em;"><div itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
But he also emphasized the professionalism of his aides and the character of the Syrian opposition, as well as the spirit of solidarity among the city’s residents.</div><div itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">“The members of the opposition are formidable,” Dr. Bérès said. “They’re very smart, they’re very, very motivated, their morale is very strong regardless of what happens to them.”</div><div itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Donations of blood, which are often difficult to obtain in war zones, “never caused us any trouble,” the doctor said. “There was almost a line of people ready to offer their blood.”</div><div itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Born in 1941 and married twice, Dr. Bérès learned battlefield surgery in Vietnam in 1967 at the French hospital in Saigon where he did his military service. Surgery was primitive, Dr. Bérès said, and some doctors had been reluctant to use techniques “often inherited from the First World War.”</div><div itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">He was among the dozen or so co-founders of Doctors Without Borders in 1971 and of a similar group, <a href="http://www.mdm-international.org/" style="color: #004276; text-decoration: underline;" title="The organization’s Web site.">Doctors of the World</a>, in 1980. He has spent more than 40 years in some of the most dangerous war zones around the world, experiencing conflicts in Vietnam, Liberia, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Chechnya, Iraq and most recently Libya.</div><div itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">“In Baghdad, I used to operate on people with an aide hanging an oil lamp over my shoulder,” Dr. Bérès said.</div><div itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">He said he wanted to return to Homs because the need was great and international aid was meager.</div><div itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">“I don’t know what the future of Syria will look like,” Dr. Bérès said. “But I admire the Syrians so much.<br />
”</div></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Source NYTIMES & AlJazeera</span><br />
<div itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981936285150247071.post-28954653302621741612012-03-22T23:40:00.000-07:002012-03-22T23:40:00.655-07:00Shortage of optometerists<br />
<br />
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<span lang="EN-MY"><span style="color: black;"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">By Shahfizal Musa</span></strong></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://fst.ukm.my/news/images/stories/Campus_News_Picture/optimetri.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://fst.ukm.my/news/images/stories/Campus_News_Picture/optimetri.jpg" /></a><span lang="EN-MY"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: large;">KUALA LUMPUR, 1 Oct. 2010 - Malaysia currently faces a shortage of nearly 3,000 optometrists if it were to meet the ratio of one optometrist for every 7,000 people. It currently have only 834 registered optometrists, 736 of whom are UKM graduates, against 3,600 needed to meet the ratio requirement.</span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-MY"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: large;">There is thus a need to increase such qualified eye specialists to meet the need of an expanding demand, said Minister of Higher Education, Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin when launching the Malaysian Optometry Day at The Faculty of Health Sciences UKM yesterday.</span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-MY"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: large;">Measures needed to be taken to increase such specialists is in line with the 10<sup>th</sup>Malaysia plan objectives which emphasises on intellectual development rather than mere physical developments as in previous plans.</span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-MY"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: large;">He said: “The shift in priorities is very important and significant in the light of the ongoing transformation process for Malaysia to become a fully developed nation by 2020. This must be supported with a source of talented and qualified human capital needed in all sectors, said Dato Seri Khaled.</span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-MY"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: large;">It was feared the shortage of optometrists could lead to a brain drain phenomenon because there will not be enough skilled professionals to pass on their knowledge to the younger generations</span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-MY"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;"></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-MY"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: large;">“Though the issue of brain drain is not that serious in optometry, proactive steps needed to be taken to ensure that the graduates work in the country,” said Datuk Seri Khaled.</span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-MY"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: large;">UKM was the first institution of higher learning to have the Bachelors programme specialising in Optometry in Malaysia and the Asia Pacific region. Optometry graduates produced by UKM are now working in various higher learning institutions in the country as well as overseas in Singapore and Australia.</span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-MY"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: large;">Also present in at the ceremony was Deputy Vice Chancellor, Prof. Dato’ Dr Mohamad Abdul Razak, Professor Dr Salman H. Inayat Hussin, the Dean of the Faculty and Prof of Toxicology, senior members of the optometry faculty and representives from other higher learning institutions which offer optometry courses.</span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-MY"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: large;">Aug 15th has been chosen as Malaysia Optometry Day to mark the date when the first batch of seven optometrists graduated from UKM. They were the pioneers in the field of optometry studies in Malaysia</span></span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.5em; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-MY" style="line-height: 12px;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: large;">This year the celebration was delayed to yesterday (30<sup>th</sup> September) in deference to the month of Ramadhan.</span></span></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981936285150247071.post-54678815085478176542012-03-20T21:46:00.000-07:002012-03-20T21:46:00.501-07:00Distance Learning MA and Phd<strong><span style="background: #F7F7F7; color: #555555; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">BANGI, 20 September
2010</span></strong><span style="background: #F7F7F7; color: #555555; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"> –</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #f7f7f7; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #555555; line-height: 115%;"> Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM)
is widening its part time executive study and distance
learning programmes to include post graduate studies up to the PhD level in
Islamic Studies, Education and Economy.<br />
<br />
</span>For a start over 100 students
have enrolled for the post graduate programmes, said Deputy Vice Chancellor,
Prof Dato’ Ir. Dr.Hassan Basri (Academic and International Affairs) when
representing the Vice Chanellor, Prof Tan Sri Sharifah Hapsah Syed Hasan
Shahabuddin at the oath taking ceremony of the new students of the programme
for the 2010- 2011 session here on Saturday (18 September).<br />
<br />
A total of 914 new
students for the part time and distance learning programmes took part in
the ceremony.<br />
<br />
This alternative learning
programme was designed to give opportunities to people already employed to
obtain higher qualifications, said Prof Hassan.<br />
<br />
As a Research University, UKM
has the responsibility to provide opportunities to these group to gain tertiary
qualifications.<br />
<br />
The availability of this
alternative learning programme allow those committed to their work or have
family commitments to continue their studies without having to leave their
existing obligations.<br />
<br />
In line with the 1 Malaysia concept,
the Executive learning and distance learning programmes are offered. More information on the program <a href="http://www.ukm.my/">www.ukm.my</a></span><span style="background: #F7F7F7; color: #555555; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 7.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981936285150247071.post-61450503172154272672012-03-19T08:02:00.001-07:002012-03-21T03:17:44.285-07:00Borderless Biotechnology<script type="text/javascript"><!--
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<a href="http://www.ukm.my/news/images/stories/Campus_News_Picture/nor%20mahadi2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" class="border" src="http://www.ukm.my/news/images/stories/Campus_News_Picture/nor%20mahadi2.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(234, 234, 234); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: initial; border-left-color: rgb(234, 234, 234); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(234, 234, 234); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; border-style: initial; border-top-color: rgb(234, 234, 234); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; margin-top: 2px; padding-bottom: 6px; padding-left: 6px; padding-right: 6px; padding-top: 6px;" /></a><br />
<div style="color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; text-align: justify;">BANGI 10 OGOS 2010 – Malaysia with its vast biodiversity resources has an immense potential for research that can be economically beneficial to the people, said newly conferred Prof Emeritus Dr. Nor Muhammad Mahadi.</div><div style="color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; text-align: justify;">Speaking when accepting the title at the seventh session of the 38<sup>th</sup> Convocation of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) here today he said that the research area is vast and could bring great opportunities that transcends geographical borders.</div><div style="color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; text-align: justify;">Speaking on the last day of the ceremony to graduads he said “the biotechnology research world is so wide for you to explore. Urging them to grab the opportunities he asked them to use the chance because the playing ground is not limited by national boundaries as the world is their playground. </div><div style="color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; text-align: justify;">He said that biotechnology is an area which needed various expertise to make it successful giving the genome based research which needed graduates from all the various science disciplines as an example. </div><div style="color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; text-align: justify;">“What is needed is the determination and openness to foster collaboration and synergy which is needed in these multi disciplinary field” said Prof Emeritus Nor Muhammad who is the Director General of Genome Institute Malaysia. </div><div style="color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; text-align: justify;">Nor Muhammad who retired from UKM three years ago advised the graduates to explore opportunities offered in the field of biotechnology which has immense benefit both economically as well as in terms of discovery. </div><div style="color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; text-align: justify;">“The result of the various biological research with the mathematical biology platform will change the equation where two plus two is no longer four” . As a country with mega biodiversity Malaysia has the biological sources that is wide that can benefit the country economically and in terms of knowledge, he said. </div><div style="color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; text-align: justify;">Prof Emeritus Nor Muhammad received his Bachelors Degree in Microbiology from Monash University in 1974 received his Doctorate from the same University in 1978. </div><div style="color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; text-align: justify;">He started his career in UKM in 1973 as a tutor in the Faculty of Science. He was appointed a lecturer in the Microbiology unit in 1978 and made an Associate Professor in 1988 then Professor in 1994. </div><div style="color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; text-align: justify;">He played a significant role in restructuring the science based faculties in UKM into one mega faculty known as Faculty of Science and Technology. He had been the Dean of the Faculty of Biology and Chairman of Bioscience and Biotechnology Centre, Faculty of Science and Technology </div><div style="color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; text-align: justify;">Internationally he was responsible to coordinate Malaysia’s involvement in International Asia Pacific in health which was headed by Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre, Seattle, America since September 2004.</div><div style="color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; text-align: justify;">He also heads the Malaysia-Stanford University International Research Project while being the source of reference and guidance in the field of biotechnology and also the backbone in planning and outlining the establishment of the Biology System Institute (INBIOSIS). </div><div style="color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; text-align: justify;">INBIOSIS was designed to provide a dynamic infrastructure and environment for multi-disciplinary researchers in pursuing challenging fundamental research on tropical biology resources.</div><div style="color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; text-align: justify;">A total of1865 students from the Faculty of Science and Technology (FST), Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities (FSSK), Faculty of Economy and Business (FEP), Faculty of Education (FPEND), Faculty Allied Health Sciences (FSKB) and the Faculty of Islamic Studies (FPI) receive their Diplomas, Advance Diplomas, Graduate Diplomas, Bachelors and Masters Degrees in today’s ceremony.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981936285150247071.post-82361509028327349132012-03-18T08:15:00.001-07:002012-03-19T05:50:28.298-07:00Al Jazari water supply system<h2 class="contentheading" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></h2><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> </span> <br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><object class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://1.gvt0.com/vi/U_U_6zR0K00/0.jpg" height="266" style="clear: left; float: left;" width="320"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/U_U_6zR0K00&fs=1&source=uds" /> <param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /> <embed width="320" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/U_U_6zR0K00&fs=1&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><b>By Shahfizal Musa</b><br />
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ASIAN MINDS -- An Islamic engineer and inventor has been discovered to be the first man to successfully developed and built </span><span lang="EN" style="color: black; line-height: 115%;">man’s earliest sophisticated water supply system driven by gears and hydropower to supply water to mosques and hospitals in </span><span style="line-height: 115%;">Diyarbakir, Anatolia </span><span lang="EN" style="color: black; line-height: 115%;">in the early 13<sup>th</sup> century. </span></span></div><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; line-height: 115%;">A team of researchers from<a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_2058839666"> </a></span><span style="line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://www.ukm.my/">Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia</a> discovered that</span><span lang="EN" style="color: black; line-height: 115%;">, </span><span style="line-height: 115%;">Ismā'īl ibn <span style="font-weight: normal;">Al</span> Razāz <span style="font-weight: normal;">Al </span>Jazari (1150-1220) came up with the system using water as the power to distribute water to the selected areas. </span><span style="line-height: 115%;">Al Jazari’s machine, consisted of a water wheel, an advanced pump system and gears mechanism, pumped water from the water source located down at the bottom of a hill to mosques and hospitals in the city using a pipeline system. The city was situated at the top of the hill.</span></span></div><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">The researchers have successfully modeled the gears mechanism used in Al Jazari’s water system in a modern three dimensional drawing. It graphically demonstrated the working operation of the gears system and the suction pump.</span> <span style="line-height: 115%;"><br />
<img border="0" class="border" src="http://www.ukm.my/news/images/stories/research/aljazari%201.jpg" style="border: 0pt none; float: left;" /><i>Graphic of how the water supply system works.</i></span></span></div><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">This fact was discovered by the team from three different areas of expertise. Dr Nordin Jamaludin an Associate Professor from Department of Mechanical Engineering reported this in his working paper entitled <i>“Engineering Analysis of Ismail Al Jazari water raising system.” </i>The paper was prepared in collaboration with Dr Salehudin Mohamed Haris and Mohd Nur Khairulnizam Mohd Ghazali. </span></span></div><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">The team of Dr Nordin had worked closely with Associate Professor Dr Kamaruzaman Yusoff from School of History, Politics and Strategic Studies along with Associate Professor Dr Wan Kamal Mujani, an expert in Arabic language from the Department of Arabic and Islamic Civilisation Studies. </span></span></div><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">While working together deciphering information from two 13<sup>th</sup> century manuscripts, they delved deeper into the intricate details of Al Jazari’s invention. The finding proposed that Al Jazari’s should have been credited with the invention of the hydraulics and gear system. The manuscripts are <i>Fi Ma</i><sup>c</sup><i>rifat al-Hiyal al-Handasiyya</i> (<i>The Book of Ingenious Mechanical Devices) </i>and “<i>al-Jami<sup>c</sup> bain al-<sup>c</sup>Ilm Wa al-<sup>c</sup>Amal al-Nafi sina<sup>c</sup>at al-Hiyal</i> <i>(A Compendium on the Theory and Useful Practice of the Mechanical Arts)</i>”. </span></span></div><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Access to the manuscript was made possible by Institute of Arabic Sciences and Civilisation, Aleppo, Syria as well as </span><span lang="MS" style="color: black; line-height: 115%;">the Foundation of Science Technology and Civilisation, a foundation set up to highlight Muslim heritage developed during Europe’s dark ages and its influence during the rennaiscense. </span></span></div><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<h2 style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 12pt 0in 3pt; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; line-height: 115%;">Al Jazari’s water supply system </span></span></h2><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; line-height: 115%;">This dispelled centuries old belief that it was Leonardo da Vinci (1452 –1519), the much honoured genius, who was attributed to be the first to develop and used hydraulics and mechanical gears. Credit for that invention should rightly go to Al </span><span style="line-height: 115%;">Jazari, who developed the system more than 200 years before </span><span lang="EN" style="color: black; line-height: 115%;">Leornado, who was given the credit only because Al Jazari’s writings were in Arabic and not known to the West. </span></span></div><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; line-height: 115%;">The researchers felt that it was highly likely that Leonardo was influenced by Al Jazari’s writings because there were evidence of interactions between Leonardo da Vinci and the Ottoman Empire where Al Jazari had lived. In 1502, Leonardo produced a drawing of a single span 720-foot (220 m) bridge as part of a project for Ottoman Sultan Beyazid II of Istanbul. </span></span></div><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; line-height: 115%;">This fact alone proved that there were communications between Leonardo and the descendents of Al Jazari’s employer, </span><span style="line-height: 115%;">Sultan Artuq in Turkey during the Ottoman period. Yet Leonardo’s sketch was rejected because it was too impractical to implement.</span></span></div><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="MS" style="color: black; line-height: 115%;">Unlike many ancient text which mostly are like a maze of philosophical riddles, Al Jazari’s text was written to serve a practical purpose. It is like today’s <i>Do it Yourself</i> (DIY) guide which focussed on practical instructions on how to construct his inventions. The researchers had to combine three expertise; history, engineering and language to come up with their findings. </span></span></div><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<h2 style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 12pt 0in 3pt; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="MS" style="color: black; line-height: 115%;">Al Jazari Water Raising device</span></span></h2><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">The sophisticated water supply system developed in Diyarbakir included an extensive piping network built to channel water to areas where water was required including irrigations of agriculture. This was a leap in civilisation considering that even today, occupants of remote areas are still complaining about the lack of water supply.</span></span></div><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">What is so great about Al Jazari’s water system? Today if you open the tap in your house out comes the water. But for that to happen there must be a device that suck the water from its main source, transfer the water to another channel or pipeline that lead to your house. This is the simplest scenario which exist in a water supply sytem. Then naturally these devices need to be powered before they can operate.</span></span></div><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">At a time when people still relied on wells and rivers as the sources for water, Al Jazari’s invented the mechanical devices needed to create a water supply system. Unlike Leornado Da Vinci who’s greatness is measured in sketches that he made in his notes, Al Jazari’s successfully created a working and functional mechanical system operated by the devices he invented with great precision and accuracy. His water system, comprised of four main devices which formed several basis of mechanical engineering today. </span></span></div><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="line-height: 115%;">A geared water wheel </span></b><span style="line-height: 115%;">A water wheel is used to obtain a similar effect of a turbine. The water wheel is usually submerged in a stream to take advantage of the flow of the river. When the water flow hits the blade of the water wheel it will cause it to rotate. Al Jazari’s water supply system used a water wheel with a vertical gear connected to the wheel. The vertical gear rotated together with the water wheel rotation. </span></span></div><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" class="border" height="204" src="http://www.ukm.my/news/images/stories/research/aljazari%204.jpg" width="275" /> </span></div><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><i>Flowing water from the stream hits the water wheel causing it to rotate</i></span></span></div><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">The vertical gear was used to convert the water energy from the rotating water wheel to rotate another gear which was placed horizontally. The uniqueness of the gearing system was such that it not only caused the motion to be transferred but also changed the motion direction from vertical to horizontal. The developed gear system by Al Jazari was probably the first functional gear system which practically transferred the rough movement of water flow to a smooth horizontal motion used to operate a delicate suction pump. The horizontal gear was the main gear to operate the central device in Al Jazari’s water system, known as the hydraulic suction pump, first introduced by Al Jazari. </span></span></div><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
<img border="0" class="border" height="151" src="http://www.ukm.my/news/images/stories/research/aljazari%203.jpg" width="407" /> </span></div><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="line-height: 115%;">These gears are made from Mulberry wood so it will stand the test of time</span><span style="line-height: 115%;">Gear connected to the water wheel</span></i></span></div><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="line-height: 115%;"><br />
The main gear</span></b><span style="line-height: 115%;">This main gear will rotate when the water wheel starts to rotate. The challenge was how to change the horizontal rotational movement to a back and forth movement, a linear motion. Al Jazari had introduced a genius solution consisting of a small knob placed on the main horizontal gear to operate the arm of the pump. So when the main gear rotated it led to a piston like movement of the suction pump, pumping water out from the stream into a pipe which were then channeled to the respective areas of Diyarbakir. </span></span></div><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Al Jazari accomplished three things here, firstly, he had succeeded in inventing a gear which channeled water power from a water wheel to operate other devices. Secondly, by using an unique combination of gears he was able to change the direction of the motion from vertical to horizontal. Thirdly, by connecting the main gear to a suction pump he was able to create a piston like dual motion movements. </span></span></div><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><img border="0" class="border" height="173" src="http://www.ukm.my/news/images/stories/research/aljazari%202.jpg" width="419" /><br />
<i>Main Gear Gear operating water pump</i></span></span></div><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">These gears were made from mulberry wood which is known for its durability and long lasting quality. Mulberry wood is still used today to make hockey sticks. </span></span></div><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="line-height: 115%;"><br />
Double-action suction pump with valves and reciprocating piston. </span></b><span style="line-height: 115%;">Al Jazari should also be recognised and credited for his contributions in inventing the suction pump. The pump was a device that used hydraulics power to pump water out into another pipeline system. In simple terms, Al Jazari’s water system, used the water stream to power a turbine which in turn by a combination of gears created a back and forth motion to operate the suction pump. </span></span></div><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Al Jazari not only came up with the idea, he also created a working and functional hydraulic pump. The suction pump was the central part of Al Jazari’s water supply system. Because of the invention of the suction pump, water could be supplied to places far away and on a higher elevation from the main water source. He used cylinders and caps to produce a hydraulic effect. </span></span></div><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">By having a working and functional invention like this, it shows the depth of his knowledge. Al Jazari not only knew how to construct the pump, but he also chose the right material showing he knew about their properties. Specifically, the material used for the suction pump was copper which is known to be rust resistant and does not contaminate the water. It is clear that he was not only a mechanical engineer but also an expert on materials and their long lasting properties.</span></span></div><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="line-height: 115%;"><br />
The miracle of Al Jazari’s water supply system</span></b><span style="line-height: 115%;">Unlike today where power is available at a click of a switch, in the 13<sup>th</sup> century power was non existent. There is not even one single source of power that could power the king’s chamber, let alone to power devices that can supply water miles away from the source.</span></span></div><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">The ingenuity of Al Jazari’s is clearly seen in his creativity in finding a power source and manipulating it exponentially. He used water as a power source to operate his pump to supply water. He turned the flowing water into useful energy which then was capable of operating a pump automatically and, finally the pump moved water from its source into a pipeline. It is fully automatic without the need of man power turning it on and off, so long as the water wheel was kept moving by the flowing stream. </span></span></div><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">It is unfortunate that the gear and hydraulics system introduced by Al Jazari’s were not properly recognised in the engineering world, as the engineering world credited several scientists such as Sir Isaac Newton and Leonardo da Vinci for their theoretical contributions. Based in this finding, it is a fact that in the field of practical mechanical engineering, Al Jazari preceded the well known western scientists by over 200 years.</span></span></div><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<h2 style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 12pt 0in 3pt; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="MS" style="color: black; line-height: 115%;"><img border="0" class="border" src="http://www.ukm.my/news/images/stories/research/aljazari%206.jpg" /><br />
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A Mechanical genius </span></span></h2><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Beside being the Royal Chief Mechanical Engineer for the Sultan, Al Jazari also had a very refined artistic taste. His intricate artistic character was clearly demonstrated in his inventions like the musical boat. An</span><span lang="EN" style="color: black; line-height: 115%;">other outstanding Al Jazari invention was an elephant clock. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; line-height: 115%;">It was the first automatic clock powered by water which accurately recorded time to match the uneven length of days throughout the year. The clock even had automatic features; a humanoid robot striking the cymbal and a mechanical robotic bird chirping denoting the time. </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> <span lang="EN" style="color: black; line-height: 115%;">Al Jazari all together invented, designed and fabricated 50 practical working devices as finished products. Principles applied in his inventions </span><span style="line-height: 115%;">have been utilised in the development of new technology </span><span lang="EN" style="color: black; line-height: 115%;">that we take for granted today from the car to the production line in a factory.</span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981936285150247071.post-80872104526618345532012-03-18T08:00:00.000-07:002012-03-18T08:00:05.258-07:00Jawi Transliteration software<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px;"><strong>Shahfizal Musa</strong></span></h2>
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<span lang="MS" style="font-size: 8.5pt;"><span style="color: black;"><strong>BANGI, 9 August 2010</strong> – Researchers from the Faculty of Technology and Infromation Sciences , Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia has created a transliteration search engine that can change Romanised Malay into Jawi script.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="MS" style="font-size: 8.5pt;"><span style="color: black;">Vice Chancellor, Prof. Tan Sri Dato’ Dr. Sharifah Hapsah Syed Hasan Shahabudin said the transliteration engine named TERUJA can transliterate any Malay language website that use the romanised alphabets into Jawi without changing the structure of the website. </span></span></div>
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<span lang="MS" style="font-size: 8.5pt;"><span style="color: black;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span lang="MS" style="font-size: 8.5pt;"><span style="color: black;"> Speaking at the 5th session of the 38th UKM convocation today, she said the faculty has succeeded in bringing a number of its researches for commercialisation .</span></span></div>
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<span lang="MS" style="font-size: 8.5pt;"><span style="color: black;">At today’s ceremony, the third day of the 38th convocation, 2066 graduands receive their respective Bachelors and Masters degrees. They are from the Faculty of Islamic Studies (FPI), Faculty of Information Science and Technology (FTSM), Institute of Islam Hadhari (Hadhari), Faculty of Allied Sciences (FSKB) and Faculty of Education (FPEND).<br /><br /><br /></span></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6981936285150247071" name="0.1_table01" style="cursor: pointer;"></a><span lang="MS" style="font-size: 8.5pt;">Graduands</span></div>
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<span lang="MS" style="font-size: 8.5pt;">Islamic Studies </span></div>
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<span lang="MS" style="font-size: 8.5pt;">HADHARI</span></div>
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<span lang="MS" style="font-size: 8.5pt;">FTSM</span></div>
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<span lang="MS" style="font-size: 8.5pt;">FSKB</span></div>
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<span lang="MS" style="font-size: 8.5pt;">FPEND</span></div>
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<span lang="MS" style="font-size: 8.5pt;">Master</span></div>
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<span lang="MS" style="font-size: 8.5pt;">65</span></div>
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<span lang="MS" style="font-size: 8.5pt;">2</span></div>
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<span lang="MS" style="font-size: 8.5pt;">33</span></div>
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<span lang="MS" style="font-size: 8.5pt;">55</span></div>
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<span lang="MS" style="font-size: 8.5pt;">137</span></div>
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<span lang="MS" style="font-size: 8.5pt;">Bachelors</span></div>
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<span lang="MS" style="font-size: 8.5pt;">638</span></div>
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<span lang="MS" style="font-size: 8.5pt;">-</span></div>
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<span lang="MS" style="font-size: 8.5pt;">208</span></div>
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<span lang="MS" style="font-size: 8.5pt;">501</span></div>
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<span lang="MS" style="font-size: 8.5pt;">427</span></div>
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<span lang="MS" style="font-size: 8.5pt;"><span style="color: black;">For the first time this year FSKB also produce 20 undergraduate in forensic science with honours.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="MS" style="font-size: 8.5pt;"><span style="color: black;">At the convocation today Syakirah binti Edrus from the Faculty of Islamic Studies received her Tun Razak Award as best student.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="MS" style="font-size: 8.5pt;"><span style="color: black;">UKM today also awarded an Honorary Doctorate (Islamic Studies) to Prof. Tan Sri Dato’ Dr. Abdul Shukor Hj Husin (FPI) in recognition of his contribution in Islamic scholarship in Malaysia.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="MS" style="font-size: 8.5pt;"><span style="color: black;">Prof Tan Sri Dr Abdul Shukor is Chairman of the National Fatwa Council. He had once served as the Dean of FPI and later the Vice Chancellor of Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM). </span></span></div>
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<span lang="MS" style="font-size: 8.5pt;"><span style="color: black;">Former RTM Director of Music, Dato’ Johari Salleh was also conferred an Honorary PhD (Arts) for his contributions to the development of music in the country and in UKM.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="MS" style="font-size: 8.5pt;"><span style="color: black;">In her speech the Vice Chancellor said, efforts by the Faculty of Information Science and Technology has benefited the community especially those who are poor and in the rural areas.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="MS" style="font-size: 8.5pt;"><span style="color: black;">She cited the Mytuition project carried out to help slow and weak learners while also further improving the bright students.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="MS" style="font-size: 8.5pt;"><span style="color: black;">UKM was able to achieve them because it constantly make changes and take the best practices and applied them in its quest for excellence.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="MS" style="font-size: 8.5pt;"><span style="color: black;">“UKM constantly bench marks its practices with the best organisations and institutions in the world” she said </span></span></div>
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<span lang="MS" style="font-size: 8.5pt;"><span style="color: black;">As a result UKM has produced academics who are respected internationally and given the confidence to hold international conferences like the recent International Association for Organisational Innovation. </span></span></div>
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<span lang="MS" style="font-size: 8.5pt;"><span style="color: black;">She was also proud that Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic and International), Prof. Dato’ Ir Dr. Hassan Basri was awarded the Outstanding Professor award for his involvement in the collaboration.”</span></span></div>
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<span lang="MS" style="font-size: 8.5pt;"><span style="color: black;">Of the achievements, she said the Faculty of Islamic Studies is leading research in the fields of Dakwah, spirituality, Islamic developments, Reveal knowledge, Turath Islam, Religion and Islamic thought, culture, jurisprudence and Muamalat. The faculty had in the last five years received RM10 million of research funds.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="MS" style="font-size: 8.5pt;"><span style="color: black;">Researchers from the Faculty of Education received significant recognition from the Prime Minister when the faculty was selected to implement the PERMATA Pintar programme for gifted children.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="MS" style="font-size: 8.5pt;"><span style="color: black;">“A PERMATA Pintar centre is being built in the UKM campus to be operational next January with grants from the government.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="MS" style="font-size: 8.5pt;"><span style="color: black;">The Faculty of Allied Sciences have carried out programmes aimed at giving new hopes to patients. “These include the Cochlear implant an intervention programme for children with hearing problem and the prosthetic leg labrotary which started its operation on 31st March 2010. </span></span></div>
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981936285150247071.post-19967190212347167432012-03-18T03:20:00.005-07:002012-03-18T03:20:55.646-07:00New Invention help discover dyslexic early<br />
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<a href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3048/2905470977_772808e0b4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3048/2905470977_772808e0b4.jpg" width="320" /></a><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">By Shahfizal
Musa<br />
<br />BANGI, 4 Oct. 2010</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> -
A screening and diagnostic tool to measure reading performance (MRP) in
children has been developed by a UKM team of researchers headed by Dr Rokiah
Omar, Senior Lecturer of the Allied Health Sciences Faculty. They specialised
in low vision treatment method and techniques.<br />
<br />
The MRP consist of a system that will determine whether a child
has reading problems as early as 7 years old which often go
unnoticed. With this screening and diagnostic tool, a child who has a
reading difficulty can be given help at an early age.<br />
<br />
The language that is used for the MRP is Malay, but efforts are underway to
produce it in other languages so that it can be marketed internationally. It is
now going through the process of commercialisation. It is expected to be
available in the next 6 months.<br />
<br />
“Reading is something you need to do well, when you can read well, you read
faster and understand better. But if a child has a reading problem it will
effect his future learning capabilities,” said Dr Rokiah.<br />
<br />
When a child is unable to read at a similar pace with other average students,
he becomes frustrated for not being able to keep up with the lessons given in
school. In the worst case scenario the child starts to believe that he has a
lower intelligence capability compared to his peers.<br />
<br />
But his problem is really his poor reading performance which may not have
anything to do with his intelligence level at all. A child who faces
difficulty in reading cannot be deemed to be having a low IQ.<br />
<br />
“This could be due to a lot of factors. One is left and right eye do not work
well together rendering the child prone to fatigue and easily becoming tired.
Or he may suffer from dyslexia, that is having problems to process the
alphabets. Maybe he cannot hear what he is reading. Or Maybe his IQ is low
in which case he should not be in a normal class when he needs a different type
of teaching,” said Dr Rokiah.<br />
<br />
Once the reading problem has been detected further investigations can be
carried out to see what is the real cause facing the child. The problem can
then be rectified.<br />
<br />
“Once the problem is identified we can intervene by ruling out possible causes
like eye problems, attention deficit disorder or genuine low I.Q level,” said
Dr Rokiah.<br />
<br />
It is not rare that a child go through his entire school life with his reading
problem undetected.<br />
<br />
There had been cases where many people are deemed illiterate then work as
manual labours and go through life as uneducated and poor people, just because
they have a reading problem and it is undetected at the early age. When it is
later discovered that the person is actually dyslexic, half of his life is
already gone.<br />
<br />
“Imagine if the problem was detected when he was 7 years old, his entire life
could have been very different probably leading a life that is better than you
and me” said Dr Rokiah.<br />
<br />
The beauty of the system developed by Dr Rokiah is that it can be either a
diagnostic or a screening tool depending on who is using it.<br />
<br />
The reading performance measurement tool can be just a screening tool, used to
identify the reasons why a child has reading difficulties.<br />
<br />
Teachers can also use this assessment tool, to detect the reading problems of
their pupils and then intervene to help them overcome the problem.<br />
<br />
“It will help teachers do what is needed for the betterment of the child,” said
Dr Rokiah. This is where the system act as screening tools when it is used by
the layman.<br />
<br />
But for professionals like an optometrist, it can be a diagnostic tool in
assessing the reading problem arising from a sight deficiency and then form
part of the treatment process.<br />
<br />
“We can measure the improvements made arising from the remedial measures taken
when the cause is known. The tool can then be used to compare his performance
after the therapy is given. This indirectly will tell the professional whether
the therapy is working or otherwise, “<br />
<br />
The researchers aim is to know why a child have reading difficulties. While
developing the MRP the team of researchers wanted to ensure that the tool can
be used by any ordinary person.<br />
<br />
Thus what has been developed is a tool that can be used by anyone with a
reasonable level of intelligence, teachers, Members of health sciences and
medical specialist to help overcome the reading difficulties faced by some
children. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981936285150247071.post-61228593652192272752012-03-17T10:35:00.000-07:002012-03-17T11:03:57.554-07:00Saving Stroke Patient with MERCI<br />
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<b><span lang="MS" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">By Shahfizal Musa</span></b><span style="color: #555555; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="MS" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/45F5IGAihBA?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe><span lang="MS" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">BANGI, 22, September 2010 - Radiologists in
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre (UKMMC) is trained to rescue
patients attacked by stroke due to blood clot by physically pulling the clot
out from the blood vessel in the brain.</span><span style="color: #555555; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #F7F7F7; line-height: 12.25pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="MS" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">This is meant for a patient who failed to come to the
hospital within four and half hours after an attack.</span><span style="color: #555555; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #F7F7F7; line-height: 12.25pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="MS" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #F7F7F7; line-height: 12.25pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="MS" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">A stroke victim can have the attack reversed and have a
complete recovery provided he can be brought to the hospital within four and a
half hours. Treated with an anti clotting drug, which dissolves the blood
clot in the brain, the patient can be cured.</span><span style="color: #555555; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #F7F7F7; line-height: 12.25pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="MS" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #F7F7F7; line-height: 12.25pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="MS" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The catch is, it must be given within four and a half
hours or it would work against the patient causing his brain to bleed.</span><span style="color: #555555; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #F7F7F7; line-height: 12.25pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="MS" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #F7F7F7; line-height: 12.25pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="MS" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">What if the patient arrived at the hospital later than
four and a half hours? Is he condemned for life? UKMMC now offers new hope for
the late comers with an instrument call the MERCI device.</span><span style="color: #555555; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #F7F7F7; line-height: 12.25pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="MS" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #F7F7F7; line-height: 12.25pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="MS" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">“Between four and a half and 6 hours, there is still a
window of opportunity where the radiologist will try to rescue the patient by
removing the clot. This is done by inserting a catather into the blood vessel
and pulling the clot out using the MERCI device,” said Prof
Dato’ Dr. Raymond Azman Ali, the Senior Consultant Neurologist.</span><span style="color: #555555; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #F7F7F7; line-height: 12.25pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="MS" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #F7F7F7; line-height: 12.25pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="MS" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The MERCI device is also used on patients who cannot be
given the anti clotting drug <i>Recombinant Tissue Plasminogen Activator </i>or
r-tPA. So once the patient arrives at the emergency ward, the UKMMC stroke Team
will refer him to a radiologist who will do the scanning, to confirm the cause
of the stroke.</span><span style="color: #555555; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #F7F7F7; line-height: 12.25pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="MS" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">When a patient reached the hospital after 4 hours, every
second counts. They do not have the luxury of waiting to be admitted for a
neurosurgeon to do his rounds and see them. If the patient is to have his
normal life back, the blood clot in his brain must be removed immediately.</span><span style="color: #555555; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #F7F7F7; line-height: 12.25pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="MS" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">So the UKMMC radiologist will have to do the job instead
of waiting for a neurologist. With the help of the MERCI device the blood clot
can pulled out from the brain.</span><span style="color: #555555; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #F7F7F7; line-height: 12.25pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="MS" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #F7F7F7; line-height: 12.25pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="MS" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The MERCI device consists of a catheter and a small
cork-screw shaped device at the end which operates by wrapping around the clot
and trapping it.</span><span style="color: #555555; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #F7F7F7; line-height: 12.25pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="MS" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The catheter is a plastic tube that can be inserted into
the body through a blood vessel allowing access by surgical instruments. In
this case the cork screw shaped retriever will travel all the way up to the
brain to retrieve the blood clot.</span><span style="color: #555555; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #F7F7F7; line-height: 12.25pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="MS" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #F7F7F7; line-height: 12.25pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="MS" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">To get to the blood clot in the brain the catheter will
be inserted in the blood vessel that was blocked at the groin. It will then be
pushed up through the vein up into the brain.</span><span style="color: #555555; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #F7F7F7; line-height: 12.25pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="MS" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #F7F7F7; line-height: 12.25pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="MS" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">It is quite an amazing feat, considering the whole
process starts in the groin. The plastic tube that contains the cork screw will
travel from the groin up to neck and into the brain.</span><span style="color: #555555; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #F7F7F7; line-height: 12.25pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="MS" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #F7F7F7; line-height: 12.25pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="MS" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The process is quite complex. The vein that is blocked
have to be identified right down to the groin. The vein in the human body is
like a maze thus care must be taken to ensure that the affected vein is
identified and not any others.</span><span style="color: #555555; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #F7F7F7; line-height: 12.25pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="MS" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Once the catheter is deployed and in position, the
corkscrew shaped device will engage the blood clot, grab it very slowly, trap
it and pull it out all the way down back to the groin. </span><span style="color: #555555; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #F7F7F7; line-height: 12.25pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="MS" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #F7F7F7; line-height: 12.25pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="MS" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The MERCI device, however, is reserved only for those who
cannot be treated by the drug r-tPA and the late comers.</span><span style="color: #555555; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #F7F7F7; line-height: 12.25pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="MS" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">“We can do that here but it is a complex process and we
reserved it to those who come in within 4 to 6 hours,” said Dr Raymond.</span><span style="color: #555555; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #F7F7F7; line-height: 12.25pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6.0pt;">
<span lang="MS" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #F7F7F7; line-height: 12.25pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6.0pt;">
<span lang="MS" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">So a stroke victim now has a double lifeline to speed
their recovery. First is the treatment with the anti clotting drug and for late
comers there is still hope for a speedy recovery with the MERCI device. </span><span style="color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981936285150247071.post-14279596409250122572012-03-16T07:52:00.000-07:002012-03-18T03:28:56.684-07:00Medical and legal graduates highly sought after<div class="newsitem_tools" style="color: #555555; display: block; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 10px !important; margin-left: 0px !important; margin-right: 0px !important; margin-top: 0px !important; width: 936px;">
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q18U5rjglEQSSV8kVumAQhlOMYYsw3PewuQBcgCg5XmV29nRas/FY0/flBH1ivDxzVH2dBL+tNAPwdqnSa4adQLlgBfHuO5NgPjfa1BDfynrj20cQ/t6q37sLVy0/ET2i0afGaVvwiF6Xi459BPO1sELlAO7LH4QT/aZWI9xWktbzIqLGmcfXd1jZQcsSFEk1lHibFb295UedAjp4NVpi0pRJeocpYYSdmG3UhztclQMkNrlbg32PHNHH4ToJHU5iUGJF3Ul2utiCLqVsSQRcYmpeXjkCqzGVCFVnIDAm0Zs9he/hOx9DtWPajVGaQyMBclifezG8hPrY/Rj9GMetBovJHNLakNDMQZkGQa2PUXsTYbBgdjbbdT52FrrE9HxA6aVJ17xHIj1XtIv1rf67VtUUgYBgbgi4PqDuKDqo4cIPzv5zmbdHpdO23t55A32PkRbfapGiggOdYjLpTp02fUMsSn0ucmY/ohFYn4W86geYeJLw6FNHpPC5GTybFlB7sT5yuQbE9gCfICrLqTlroge0cMj/AsyIp/uh6yrWcQOomllPd3Lfqn/ACY+pQo+qgRCAEnux7sSSx+LHc/Was/JXM3zZ+lIfoZG2J/zbsfuRj39Cb+ZqtCktOckW+9xY389rG9BukgJBA2JGxrCYdG8LFJlaORVC4sLGy7ZD1Um5uNu1anyLxs6jT4ObyQ2Vie7D/Nt9YFj71NSvGeAw6tMZlvb2WGzIfVWG4/A+d6DHq9jldGDxsY5Fvi47i/4g+Y86tHE/k6nj3gdZ1/Na0bj6/Yb/ZqFk5e1Smx001/cob71Yj76COjBtuSWO5JNySdyST3JPc1xp5sxfyuQPgCR/CpiflfUxxPNKghRLGzEM7EkAKqpcXJPmb+gNR0mmaI9N0aNgASjWuA24OxI3/gaDmk0PiYfAj69j94++lKSf2194I/Aj8DQSPBdd0NTDL2CyAH+y/0bfYGv9VW/inLWslR4EaONJZ2kkmEjB3RiSBYJ4cVwSwbcKN7XBobpcEHsRb7a1Lh/MNuGrqX8TLF4h5s6+Age9nFh8aCpazkrUo8MbakyJJqFkKeM3ZQkkjEk2VBg4C7jdfM3Eq3ybAspMim0ZLeEjOdg+Ur2YZDJ8hfcYgAgd25571MbAzRJEBCgIlvFlLJII8jsxSMYykDcsIyfMU7PPckdw6JKcfCUDxZSMpdI8JAWtYpdjY3kXw2NRTuDkJUJtM4S6YoAAFCCO4v3a5hjNz2AItuSVeHckJDGiiRiVyu1gpYySJJIbjcZYYne9mO96b6vnZo06hRMZJRHAMiC6q2MsjXFgvmtrk5L61O8F4g06O5sF6sipbzVHKAnfe5Un4EVUZ9z1yzDotMpQu800ixKzkHEZGRrAAAbKL+uI86rdwgUDtso+zb8Pvq2fKdPnqdPH/VI8h+MhCJ9yPVSn/J/tD+NArWocha4y6GMHcx3iP8A9s4r9q4n66y+rx8mE5tqI/IOjj9dcT/u6C80UUUFX4vxJItTqM3VG+aLiGNrnKc2HqdhtWXadbG36CfdcVqfMBt8+t56Efd84/xrL+0nxX8D/wCqgVpLTdiPRmH+0f4WpWmyT+NsVLDzItsw2I3I8rUFh5S4t821SE+xJaJ/1iMD9TW+pjWs1hDy3BGLj6r/AIE1rXLXNMWrAQE9ZUDOpUr7iRcWIy9PdQTtRfMnFvm2nZ7Nc+FSqhsS1wGYEgYjubkDapO9VP5QEzWBRGZWLsFsFkA8JveJlbIWvuFONjuL7hB6DiWolmg6l5gpLRCUFY3e1gwnjjtmBfEFWF2PivakOL8sayRnmaF2lZiz2kiaPEbKqezICqADsbnyF7hflHTLo5mlkiaG4IIgg1qhve6FOmfjiCPXyq5cN5s0uoAMU8ZuL4lgrb/otY0Vjo16Hscv7ILfgDXE05NsUe4N9wAPTcMwPa9S/GynzrUdIAJ1WAA2FwAHI+L5H66Z0QjppGYeNcD6XBHxBqw8H42qxLpmBduus0aGRIkYjxBGd9heRcgACSxHlciDZgBcmwHcna3xqW4PoDLDizL0tawTFFZpikJZXKqBZULN4mYjFfUsACrRO2i1zLM/XhN1IcF4usB9EpVl3ZAZyoKlScr9jeiEcOeVZEV2klmUBvGd4mjxYZHwxFuj4hs1077Ulq+WPnIs+tTOAJCRGOmiHLKzJmfEfobAnvGPXZxw/lAAo7ahc1sHWMDC6WESrluoQqm3digvbtQSXDuC6SaIvDEEWQnxAYk4yXuPQZICPcBT/hPA4tKCIswD5NJI4G5NlDsQo3OwtTXl7QyaaJUkniljjQIuMfTth4d2MjXO2/be9ScmtRQxLL4fa3G21xceRtRGVc3anqa/UHuFKRj9RAx/2naoWb2k+JP2Kf8AGu1nMl5G9qQmQ/FyX+69vqpN/wDKL8GP7o/jQTnLOljkmtJvYXVSL5G48vyrC5x87fUb/wAv8PSJ2xjEZZV2sQSoZrZXPiIve/qxFUXlIjrG638B8Xkm4uSe4BHhuN/FtV/4IgVmAxsRcYm43LEX9CQRt+jQS9FFFBWeddPKkM08OBtCySI4PiTcnFhurC7dwRWXS3GBPkbH9bb961bjrdOJI3Q9nUqf1hb+NYhH4kF97jf7N6BSvFUDYC3wpE6cj2XYe4+Mffv99BaQfkq3wJX7iD+NAvT7lt4xrE6wZk6UlwqyOe6eUYJtfz7VEnVEd43+oBvvBq3fJd4tTOzLY9JQl9iFyOVx5XOO3uFBb4OCaGRA6xad0O4YqrD7TVS5m4YkWpHzZQhspUQxxnZgSReErPHlgbN4lJFvLaz8xcsxSYyrp4pHSQSOuC5TBb3XIj2rkML7EqAdjXnAeWYwUnkjwk8TJEQMYczcBUGyOFCgked/Win/AC3omi0saM7OSMruuDeM5WcXPiF7E3JJrG+j9HjYEqCoy33W6/iK3isW4kmM8y+k0o/8RrfdaiI3TsVUKI22Ft8R/H+Fd5SHsFX4kt9wA3+ul6KBD5oCQWJcjcZdh8FG3196sPK3LsuqSbBhGvVH03UkWRQqCTpqqWGLO5JJPmTYkAiFq9/JhJ9HqF9JVP2xoP8AhoGE/wAl0uLEajOTLK7jZyX6jdTY2ALSY4AG73JuNu4fk51CMQNQn0jRNJKFKuOmSWEQAIVmvcyEliSe1aFRQqnRfJ+qhFPTdUnMqh1BxUR2RQAoAu6ozWtex733h+N8nSwcOkaSdTJH1Ji6IVLF1sw9qzFifaYEgEgd60mq78oDW4fN78B/ekQfxoMwAttSHeX4J+83/ppc0hCLySH0xH2An/ioLDylNjPa9slxHkSbgqFJ8Ia42y27+daBwtGErAggY3OeOVyxIxw8OO7387kVQOUwOsbrfwGx7Y7i5HnuLrdbkZXq+8KkQOQCDtYAK4t5n2h4b7DvvjegmaKKKANYagt9pH2EityrE9ZFhLKv5ssi/ZIwoEqKKKAqzfJ01tYw9YW+54/8arNWHkE/9eX/AFUn4x/+VBqFFFFAVj/MsWGt1I/72/8AeRH/ABY1sFZZz3Djr3P58cb/ALyH9wUEDQBRRQFXP5MH8epHuiP29QfwqmVY+Q+IrBPMznFOiCxsTbCS1zbsB1Nz2AuTsKDTqKiOZOZY9DAZXu/5iLuzm17D3W3J7AU1XnSFBEk7CPUSYqYEvKyM/ZWwXb67djQWGqt8pEltCR+dJEv/AIin+FSEfHgdbJAbBUhWS523yOdz5AK0Z/WqJ+UeZW0KMpDK00JBBuDdxuCO4tQZ7U5yPwiHUaqQTRpKBCCA4vvna/xtUHSUuvfTssiFl3AYrfYZKwJtvYEffQWviHDk0nFANPAN4kKqnhIJMisy+Qbw2uQRarLwHXah9SwkheOPpXzkZWJYNsoxsAACx7efeqVyjxptXqDJI7M6QEEP2IEvhDiwyXFyfivuq/aJrSgdNB4it+iYybKxuhLHJdgLj84UE7RRRQFY1xn+k6i39dJ++b/fWy1jHFRbUT/6+X/eMaBrRRRQFWL5P/6cP9TJ+9FVdqyfJ4v/AF6/pA/3vFQabRRRQFZ38pcNtRC350Tj+66kfvmtEqk/KdD4NO/pIyf3kLfilBRKKK8Vge2/l9neg9qe5Ee2uUHs8Ui/uN+CmoGpjk3+nwfr/wC6egtWs5GaRZV61hkiwd/oIhIksirf8olbA77Kg7Cnk/ImnZ4iDLGkSkLFE5jW7e27MlnZ2FgTlvve9zex0UFe1vImlkj6eBUAu18ixLOuJZ8iepaykBri6L6VVuc+VU0mljMcs7KJIlweQstxdcrHsbYgAWUYiwFaVVQ+U3+iR/69PwY0Ge0VyzgWv5mw+J7V1QSHA9WsUyu4Y2vbHfe3mv5Q8rbd/qNz5S46k0zRiLpuIszsBtniN8Rf4CwFu2+1V5T/AKSva5BsPyj7kP5Le+42B9a0ThkdpGurg4j/AChDMASexBPhNu3qPsCUpvxDWdGJ5MXfAXKoAWIHewJFz7qcUUEbwrj0ep2W6viGwcWbE9mFiQ6H85SR76y7jq21WoH/AHz/AHm/8avWv4YIWC36cRfKGVe+mkY7qR26Lk9jtdip2K2pHNMjjUyGZAj7Ehdw2wAZNrsGI2877HcUEXI5AbFS+Kl2t+So82J2UX2HmTsAa9jJsLix8x3t7r1OcxaT5np9PpiPpJT157C5dhYRRgDdgGOwH9WPU0y1PLkkaAzfRPJ4ljX2lUWUy6iUAiKEXW4AY7CxU3IBlUtydxJo9YqRL1JJFw3vii5K8jOR2so2HclhTKLl+UakaPImXLHM7+G2Rk/s49h62WrnoZNNoNU6C46caQxoqtJJIz3lmbFQWZj9Hk1reEdqCbPGm/lAaYAYdAuTb8vNQq3/ALGRt7xU1VL+djGfWgMDDqSzKVZW6axJFIpUgG4UlwPMgetS+nl10v0gEECndYpFd3t5dR1YKhPoFa3voFuZOOfNI0YLmWkVcQCTju0pAH5qKzfq1G/KFD1NEHXxBJI3uN9icLj6nvS3A5DrJm1MiFFjBhjRt7EH/rLe+7jAH0jJ/Kpm86fydNEXF4jLGBcXtFIyxi3f2QooM7drDYFibAKO7EmyqPeSQPrrxtE2nZ4nObrIVOIvkzWJCgd/E2IFPuDa6KDUxSz+xHm/a+6xsVNvO3b4stWLkLhx1eok10ihU6jmJe/jYnI37HBfBfsWL27Ciqrxzgs8AjV3WKWTxdNAHKJe15HOwY9gqg73OXh3fcqgJqoLsws1sr7+IFdz9dOouGy8U185B6ahyHktcoiMY40UHYucWbfYZEm9wDMcU5LghaKKErC7BnOqlZpHXpYkYAsFDEtcnZQAdjegm+VeKylpdNqWzmhYgPYDqJcYsQNsgGS9vz1PnSnM3GnjvHEwjIQyySlculGu11Q7PIxBCg7bEm9rGF0+qyf5z1EcjUQQiRNllOAi1BX9Hxt+yHpT6XSnUJrXjAdjMgUX9tdN0yY79hk4lHxaiH/KXDJYYLzySSSynqN1Gywv7KDsBiLA2ABN/Kqj8ovHjqdOqwrZBMpSVjbrNGSSIowLvH5GQlVt2J2qx63jw1idDTLNlJ4XcxSRiFb2lJZ1AztkoAuciPIXqr8+6Qpq41WNyvRRIVRS3ss2SqANj7H1W9KCtx6Bpla9h0onna17XjXwge7Jh9hrqrJLwaXRcPmZ42M+qKxYopkMSG9wcAd7Zk2uLlRvaofgegGo1cUDq1i13RlZDiqliGBAIBIUe+9vOgccpapTqQBcgq1yASlltfMgWKgldgb3K+u+hcKktMVEdlKEllUoFKlQAVbxXYMSDa3gPnUAOFzpxKUiNhDgqxlQAmAClUUg2jIfJu231irTwu+Thgway7llbbxWtgABvf7aCRooooEtTplkRkcBlYFWB7EHYiq6vA1mdItTkz6Vlkil/rEvdQ5/KIKgMPMqrbXqz0UDGbg0T6hNQy3kjUopPkGIJIH521r+hPrSGm0ROp1DOtw6xotxcFQGyH94tce8VXeLcZfWM6Ru0WnVsc4zZ5Sps1m/JjBFtt2sd7d0Ogw3WbUKfUTSN9odmU/WKC1cJ4MIsSwVnjUxJJ+UYrgorH1FgPPtfzpxDwmJZnnCASyKqs/mQvYe4fDvYelRnLfHGkWVJ2XOAgNJsoZWXJGYdlPcHyuL7XtU8jggEEEHcEbg/CgLV7RRQFQsHJujVbHTQyEksWkjR2YsSxLMRcm5qaooIjQcp6SAs0UEalwVY2vdT3Xe/h93apSKJUAVQFUbAAWA+AHau6KBKLSohYqqqXN2IABY+rEdz7zTHjvzXAHWdDANcdfAjLytntf4V3xXWSqAmnRZJWIHjNljBDHN7eIr4SAB3O1x3FM555e0rwq3F9c/ngExjUHz6cQVmNvUlvjQWuHiWi1KCNZNNMjbCPKNgbeQT+FqktJo0hQJEixovZUAUDzNgNhvXyDxyeHT6gHQTyuikEOwxNxvcWY/V5/Cvpf5NOcl4lokbPKZFCyjsb/nW9Db7b0FtooooCiiigS1KgqbrmPzdt/t2pppSVYBYOmhBuRgN/L2W3Hf7qV4oLxNvj23vjbcX38qQVX6iKWG1/Flu62808yCV393le1BJUVzLKFBZiFA3JJsB8Se1NP5ag/rov2i/wCNA9qF5v17RaZhGbPIViQ/mmQ4lv1Rc/VTqXmHTL7WogX4yoPxaq3zNx2DUtp4oJopfpc3Ebq5AjRit8TsMiPsoG+ngWNVRRZVAAHuGwpSimvFZikErL3WNiPiFNqBHh3AX1Gl1Oo6ZkaZrxKWDDAWjDrEbKZQgLLlfe1itzV94S0Zgi6O8WChP7IAC/dSXCESCGCEFRaNVVbi5CKL2Hnb+NV/l7nDRQ6dUl1UETXdsHkRWCvIzpcE7XUg/A0FwoqvN8ofDR312l/ap/jSh574eBf59pfX/LR/81BO0VXv+kPhv+naX9sn+Ndjn3h/+naX9sg/jQT1VLiHBtQ08jSI2qjZvAg1LQoq22UwhQrG/dmZr+7tT/8An5w//TtL+2j/AOakddzdpp4pItLqoJZ3jcRJHNGWZsTiF8Xegg+WYJDO76XTrpw7teQgtE0aoqIFIKliZFdht2LHswvVvlj+TzX6101CYz4qEMcSsCBcnLEsxbv5fZ51p3LWtc5wvCNP0QiomYc9MpZCSPD3DDYn2TvU3QfKnNPyUanh+jTUylbMQGS/iS4uMhawOx7E1c//AIbtL9LqZMxsgUp57sCD8Bj99Tvyn6/UcVB0Gi08rYSfSuQMQy3AUOCUGxJNyO499Ofk94N/IkTRvpdVNO9i7xRZoBa4VXyGVr7kbX23xoNSoqs/z2P+gcQ/YL//AErpOcmP/YNf9cKD8ZKCyUVXm5tYf9h137OM/wD5a6TmiQ9tBrfrEA/GfagmdZp+ohW9r29/Yg/wpBeG2ZfEcFJKrbcXBFg3fHc7VFycyan8nhmqPxl0g/8A2aTXmTWH/wCWTj4z6b+EtBYZ9OsilXVXVhYqwBBHoQdiKjzytpP9F0/7GP8A5alKKBhFwDTJ7OnhX4RoPwFQnN+iWMQSqqqElxawAsJVMYJt5ZFPtq1UhrtGs0bRyDJXBUj3H8D76CnUnPCHVlbcMCpHuIsfurzWwS6PacF4xsNQoyBHYdVRvG3bexUnzF7U3PE8toY5dQ3kqI1v1nYBVHxP20CWhlkB1JMjTT2j0emJAGBkTJ7BRYWXF2a24T6qvkXBYRGkZjRljUIuSq1goAHcegqlcBvpJIn1cMsJtM8sjKGjEkpjCkNGWCKqIUyfHb41oStfcb0DL+Q9P/URfs0/wo/kPT/1EP7NP8KfUUDH+Q9P/URfs0/wrl+X9Me+nhPxjQ/8NSFFBG/zb0v+jQfsk/5a7h4Dp0YMkEKsNwyxoCPgQLin9cTTBFLMQqqCSTsABuSfdQQWv0jQav539JJGY+myqSenvfMRgXdTYXA3FrgG5tILzDpiARqIbHcHqJv99VvU86zzA/NdMAh9mWd+ncHsyxKrNbzGWNVPT8rSBbEaO9t2+bmRmPmWZ3uzE3JJ9aDReSkA0GnNhdkDm3mz+Jj7ySSfrqbtWZ8K02s0ylIdVFGhbLAaYFVJAviOr4QbXsPMk+dTnC+aJonVNZ03R2CrNGpTFmNlEiEmwY7Bge5AI3vQW+1FqGYAXOwHnSOj18cy5RSJIt7ZIwYX9Lg2oF7UUx1vGI4ZAkhCjpySliQAqxlAxP8Af+4020/M8Jjhd3ERmAKqx33UOAbdjiVO/qPWgl6Krb85xxRxNN7cxYpHGCzBQQRkL3zCstwPPYCpHgGu66PKGyRpXwINxih6YI9xxLfrUEnRRRQFNOK9XpN0LCTaxYXA3GRsSATje2/e1O6KCvT8tzygCTXSmzK1lihUXUhl2KHsQDvftSh5ZkPta7WH4NCv7sIqdooK7JyYG76zXftyPuC2pOPkx0AWPX61FAsFDQsAB2AyhJA+urNRQRXBtLPCzxyyvqEsrJK4QNvkHRsAAbWUg2HtW8qlaKKAooooCqpzDwbV8QE8KzrpYLhB9Dm0gsrM2RYAKSSuw/JNWuigox5E1p78RUfDSp/GSkv+jvWHvxST9XTQr+JNX6igoP8A0car/wCqz/sYR/CuJvkvndSj8TnZGBVh0odwRYjcVoNFBS9XwLWwwzwid9cs0WCtMEBiclY/yAMoyjFjtcGM98qR0fCOIxbR4ILh2zcEyyBTlliNo2IVBb2VwsoKm96ooKy/JyyD6bGVliVI2a5s4yLu3rk7A23HhG21ROm+TEqbnUn2XXaNduooUm5O7W2z2Nthba18ooK/wXkqDT2dlWSYEEvawBAIGK3Nh4vO5JAJJYXqejjCiygAegFu+5rqigKKKKAooooCiiigKKKKAooooCiiigKKKKAooooCiiigKKKKAooooCiiigKCaKKCOj45Gcrh0CJ1CWUiw+Hf7q7fjMQa2QPe5BFhawsd+5JsPeCKWn0COWLC+SdM7kXU32sDt3O/emh5bg/NN73Bze48WYsb3FmJPxJoF4uLxMqtkFyRXAbY2YErf7D9hryXjMSo7hwwRGchSCbKAzW9div94etJtwKMlbjwpGI0HmoBU3y9onwrbfa3vrkcuQgOAps6MjDJtw4UPtfYnFbnvtQOl4nEb2kQ2UsfENlHdu/YetDcTiHeRB3HtDyJB8/Igj4gikdLwSKN3dQcnvlc3vkSSbdvOkF5X04Fglh5jJt/Y73O+8aH4i/mbgtPxyJMrsPDjuCDcsWUAb7m6m491drxiIlbOGDGyspupN7Y5DbLe9vSmn81Yf0/LfNr7X8/MHI7fD0pzBwWNFCjKwZWHiNwUUIu/pioFAs3E4he8sYt3uy7bkb77bgj6jXD8XhBIMsYI3N2G1jibm+2+1N9Ry3A5clSDJ7RBIvuG+A3F/1m9TSf81of073v7R87X93YW99z60D+biMSGzSIpHkzKDvuNia8l4pEq5GRbdhZhubEgd7XNj9lNNXy1FK7O2d2BBsxtYrgdvgTXS8CQxlGJN3MhK+HxNe9hc2BBItQLji8Jv8ASx3AuRmtxbvffa1dy8SiUgNIgJtYFhvftbfsaYScqwt3z739rsQWYHt3BYmlNTy5FIQTkCFCDFsbAdu3/vfa1AvJxmEf51CSLgBlJO19gDvtSqa+M9pENzjswO/e3fvuNvfUbHypCqlQX3JN8t9wwI7dvEa4/moqypIjlQrZFSA2W6kb7W9n0PkdiKCRTi8Rv4wLFlN9sShIbK/s9vPvSr66NTYugNr2LAbHYHv23H21Gz8qwuWJL+K99x5s7ny9Xb/2K6l5bR5c3JNumVHoY9wSTu16B+3EIwATIgB7HIb74+vqQPjXUesRgCGG9tjsd+2x3F6iNPyfCgsrSfkncg7oQUPs9x999716vJ8Itu5CkMAcSLhQnmvmFHwIuLUEpBrkdnVSSUNmFiLXv5kWPY9qcVzGtgBcmw7nufebbXrqgKKKKAooooCiiigK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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 8.5pt;"><span style="color: black;"><strong>By Shahfizal Musa</strong></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 8.5pt;"><span style="color: black;">BANGI 7 August 2010,- UKM has succeeded to dispel earlier </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 8.5pt;"><span style="color: black;">skepticism of its graduates when its medical and legal </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 8.5pt;"><span style="color: black;">specialists are not only recognized for their ability and </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 8.5pt;"><span style="color: black;">professionalism but are greatly sought after even by the</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 8.5pt;"><span style="color: black;"> developed countries.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 8.5pt;"><span style="color: black;">Speaking at the second session of UKM’s 38<sup>th</sup> Convocation this afternoon, Vice Chancellor Prof Tan Sri Sharifah Hapsah Syed Hassan Shahabuddin said alumni</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 8.5pt;"><span style="color: black;"> of its Medical Faculty have become renowned specialists in </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 8.5pt;"><span style="color: black;">countries where they are serving while the faculty has become a place of choice for specialist training.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 8.5pt;"><span style="color: black;">A total of 775 graduands from the Medical and Law Faculties and the Institute of Molecular Medical Research receive their scrolls this afternoon.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 8.5pt;"><span style="color: black;">She congratulated Professor Dr. Micheal Kerin Morgan from Australian School of Advanced Medicine, Macquarie University who was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in the field of Neurosurgery.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 8.5pt;"><span style="color: black;">Medical student, Farin bt Masra received the Vice Chancellor’s award for coming out tops among the medical graduands. Farin, the eldest daughter among three siblings said “I am a daughter of a single mother so I have to set an example to my siblings. I think my success would not have been possible if not for the blessings of my mother and the help of my lecturers.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 8.5pt;"><span style="color: black;">UKM Medical Faculty has to date produced 4626 doctors and 2677 specialist in various fields of medicine. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 8.5pt;"><span style="color: black;">“UKM’s Medical Centre, has been designated as the referral hospital for Formula 1. PPUKM is continuously venturing into the latest specialist services like cochlear implant, spine cell therapy, fertility, heart surgical techniques, paediatrics and others and they are also cost effective,” said Prof. Tan Sri Sharifah Hapsah</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 8.5pt;"><span style="color: black;">The Medical Faculty also made several world class achievements like KULITKU human skin engineering where scientist have succeeded in culturing human skin.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 8.5pt;"><span style="color: black;">“The skill of the medical research is evident when The Medical Molecular Research Institute or UMBI has been accorded as one of the Higher Learning Centres of Excellence” she said.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 8.5pt;"><span style="color: black;">The recognition has enabled UMBI to get RM9 million in funding for cancer research.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 8.5pt;"><span style="color: black;">The Faculty of Dentistry was given an allocation of RM35 million to enable the Faculty to have the resources to engage in quality research and produce skilled graduates.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12px;"><span style="color: black;">The Law Faculty has since its inception produced 1581 graduates some of whom are now judges and members of Parliament. </span></span></div>
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981936285150247071.post-3962333030063461022012-03-16T07:46:00.000-07:002012-03-16T07:46:00.713-07:00Uni should give attention to Character Building<br />
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: black;"><strong>By Shahfizal Musa</strong></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: black;">BANGI, 7 August 2010 – UKM’s Chancellor said the university need to concentrate on character building of its students apart from providing them with the requisite education.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: black;">Speaking at the first session of the university’s 38<sup>th</sup> convocation today, Tuanku Muhriz Ibni Almarhum Tuanku Munawir, the Yang Dipertuan Besar Negeri Sembilan said <span> </span>“UKM mission set at its inception is becoming more relevant in the context of society and current environment in facing the reality of the times.”</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: black;">This was to ensure that UKM graduates will not only have the intellectual excellence but also good moral grounding so they can lead the world to a better future.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: black;">The first session today apart from conferring doctorates to 233 scholars from all its faculties also saw the conferment of awards to students from the Engineering Faculty in Micro Engineering and Nano Electronics.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: black;">The Chancellor said such a mission in character building of its students in the context of globalisation has placed UKM on the world stage with its own mould in human capital development thereby making UKM a symbol of scholarship and knowledge. UKM needed to uphold that challenge.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: black;">This is to enable it to stand side by side with World Class Universities but yet able to maintain its own values. UKM must be ready to take on the challenges of an increasingly global higher education scenario.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: black;">Tuanku Muhriz said “UKM has to be ready in facing the challenges of the 21<sup>st</sup> century in every dimension. Particularly in handling the trend in global development of higher learning in a way that create an impact to National education for it to reach its goal to become a world class Research University in 2018. “</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: black;">UKM, he said, has come a long way and have surpassed various milestones which exceeded its founders’ expectation and is geared to make its mark in the global scene as an Innovative Research University</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: black;"><br />Tuanku Muhriz said “In four decades since its inception, I am pleased with its achievements in various fields. UKM is productive in undertaking research in a wide spectrum of disciplines. I believe that as a research university UKM will continue to initiate innovations that will benefit mankind”</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: black;">Tunku Muhriz recognizing that most of the student would leave academia to venture into the employment world after graduating gave this advice: “Be a person who will continuously learn throughout your lifetime. Knowledge is something dynamic and keep on changing with time. Maybe what you learn today will no longer be relevant to face the challenges in the future, so have the determination to keep on learning.”</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: black;">Also present at the Convocation Ceremony are the Tunku Ampuan, Tuanku Aishah Rohani bt Almarhum Tengku Besar Mahmud, the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Tan Sri Dr Sharifah Hapsah Syed Hassan Shahabuddin and senior university officials.</span></span></div>
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0