The Abundance and Spatial Distribution of Soft Sediment Communities in Tanjung Bungah, Malaysia: A Preliminary Study.

Benthic faunal communities are important components in the intertidal zones. The diversity and abundance of the benthic communities are subjected to different natural and anthropogenic disturbances. The study was conducted as one off sampling on 6th November 2013 (1) to investigate the abundance and distribution of soft sediment communities in relation to environmental variables and (2) investigate the changes of population structure and diversity using spatial scales of 1 m, 10 m, and 100 m.

The impact of training informal health care providers in India: A randomized controlled trial.

Health care providers without formal medical qualifications provide more than 70% of all primary care in rural India. Training these informal providers may be one way to improve the quality of care where few alternatives exist. We report on a randomized controlled trial assessing a program that provided 72 sessions of training over 9 months to 152 informal providers (out of 304).

Socioeconomic Status And Quality Of Care In Rural India: New Evidence From Provider And Household Surveys.

To assess socioeconomic differences in access to high-quality health care services, we collected novel data on illnesses that required primary care from 23,275 households in 100 villages in Madhya Pradesh, India. We matched the primary care visits for those illnesses to characteristics of the health care providers that members of the households visited. People in the average village in our sample could access eleven providers, of whom 71 percent were in the private sector and 49 percent had no formal medical training.

Light as a key driver of freshwater biofouling surface roughness in an experimental hydrocanal pipe rig.

Biofouling in canals and pipelines used for hydroelectric power generation decreases the flow capacity of conduits. A pipeline rig was designed consisting of test sections of varying substrata (PVC, painted steel) and light levels (transparent, frosted, opaque). Stalk-forming diatoms were abundant in both the frosted and transparent PVC pipes but negligible in the painted steel and opaque PVC pipes.

Experimental and kinetic studies for phycoremediation and dye removal by Chlorella pyrenoidosa from textile wastewater.

Potential of Chlorella pyrenoidosa was experimentally investigated for phycoremediation and dye removal from textile wastewater (TWW) in batch cultures. Growth of alga was observed at various concentration of textile wastewater (25%, 50%, 75% and 100%) and was found in a range of 8.1-14 μg ml(-1) day(-1).

Does financial development reduce environmental degradation? Evidence from a panel study of 129 countries.

The purpose of this study is to explore the effect of financial development on CO2 emission in 129 countries classified by the income level. A panel CO2 emission model using urbanisation, GDP growth, trade openness, petroleum consumption and financial development variables that are major determinants of CO2 emission was constructed for the 1980-2011 period. The results revealed that the variables are cointegrated based on the Pedroni cointegration test.

Nutrition practices of nurseries in England. Comparison with national guidelines.

Recent national guidelines call for improved nutrition within early years settings. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to describe foods and beverages served in nurseries, assess provider behaviors related to feeding, and compare these practices to national guidelines. We administered a mailed survey to a random sample of nurseries across England, stratifying by tertile of deprivation.

The 1965 coup and reformasi 1998: two critical moments in Indonesia-Malaysia relations during and after the Cold War.

This article discusses the significant impact of the two crucial moments in Indonesia namely, the 1965 coup and reformasi (reformation) in May 1998 and the impact towards the Indonesia-Malaysia relationship. History had demonstrated that both events were followed by some changes in the bilateral relationship. The 1965 coup for instance resulted the fall of Sukarno and the collapse of PKI, while reformasi brought the fall of Suharto and the collapse of New Order.

The mental health gender-gap in urban India: patterns and narratives.

Women report significantly higher levels of mental distress than men in community studies around the world. We provide further evidence on the origins of this mental health gender-gap using data from 789 adults, primarily spousal pairs, from 300 families in Delhi, India. These data were collected between 2001 and 2003.

Inter-state disparities in health care and financial burden on the poor in India.

Over five decades of independence, India has made rapid strides in various sectors. However, its performance in social sectors and particularly the healthcare sector has not been too rosy. Being the State's responsibility the healthcare has traditionally been influenced by individual State's budgetary allocation.

Telehealth and communication technologies in health: summary and action plan.

Introduction: Rapid innovations and improvements in communication technologies have opened many new channels for health education and delivery, as well as disaster management. Theme 2 examined the role and applicability of these technologies to Disaster Medicine and Management and the various issues involved in their use.

Methods: Details of the methods used are provided in the introductory paper.

Disasters and the information technology revolution.

This paper, the second in a series of state-of-the art reviews, examines the evolution and possible medium-term future of information technology (IT) in disaster management. Until the end of the 1970s, civilian application of IT to disaster management was confined to a few specialised departments of universities, large companies and government. Between the late 1970s and mid-1980s, microprocessor-based devices brought limited, though rapidly improving, computing capacity to a wider range of organisations and individuals.