Catalogue Search | MBRL
Are you sure you want to remove the book from the shelf?
{{itemTitle}}
1,315
result(s) for
"Lim, Richard"
Sort by:
Public Disputation, Power, and Social Order in Late Antiquity
Richard Lim explores the importance of verbal disputation in Late Antiquity, offering a rich socio-historical and cultural examination of the philosophical and theological controversies. He shows how public disputation changed with the advent of Christianity from a means of discovering truth and self-identification to a form of social competition and \"winning over\" an opponent. He demonstrates how the reception and practice of public debate, like other forms of competition in Late Antiquity, were closely tied to underlying notions of authority, community and social order. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1995.
eBook
The rough guide to Malaysia, Singapore & Brunei
The ultimate guide to these three exciting Southeast Asian destinations, covering all their attractions, from amazing national parks and historic temples to gorgeous beaches and islands. The sections on Penang and Singapore offer detail on cultural sights, new museums, and budget accommodations. The Rough Guide to Malaysia, Singapore & Brunei includes coverage of Sarawak's most popular national parks, Mulu and Bako, as well as old favorites like Mount Kinabalu and the Perhentian Islands. There's also plenty of practical information on topics like budget flights, river transport, etiquette, and the excellent local cuisines to help you get the best out of your trip, whatever your budget. Discover Malaysia's, Singapore's, and Brunei's highlights, with expert advice on exploring the best sites, participating in festivals, and exploring local landmarks through extensive coverage of these fascinating countries. Easy-to-use maps; reliable advice on how to get around; and insider reviews of the best hotels, restaurants, bars, clubs, and shops for all budgets ensure that you won't miss a thing.
Book
End-of-life care in patients with advanced lung cancer
Despite advances in the detection, pathological diagnosis and therapeutics of lung cancer, many patients still develop advanced, incurable and progressively fatal disease. As physicians, the duties to cure sometimes, relieve often and comfort always should be a constant reminder to us of the needs that must be met when caring for a patient with lung cancer. Four key areas of end-of-life care in advanced lung cancer begin with first recognizing ‘when a patient is approaching the end of life’. The clinician should be able to recognize when the focus of care needs to shift from an aggressive life-sustaining approach to an approach that helps prepare and support a patient and family members through a period of progressive, inevitable decline. Once the needs are recognized, the second key area is appropriate communication, where the clinician should assist patients and family members in understanding where they are in the disease trajectory and what to expect. This involves developing rapport, breaking bad news, managing expectations and navigating care plans. Subsequently, the third key area is symptom management that focuses on the goals to first and foremost provide comfort and dignity. Symptoms that are common towards the end of life in lung cancer include pain, dyspnoea, delirium and respiratory secretions. Such symptoms need to be anticipated and addressed promptly with appropriate medications and explanations to the patient and family. Lastly, in order for physicians to provide quality end-of-life care, it is necessary to understand the ethical principles applied to end-of-life-care interventions. Misconceptions about euthanasia versus withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining treatments may lead to physician distress and inappropriate decision making.
Journal Article
Leaf litter breakdown along an elevational gradient in Australian alpine streams
The breakdown of allochthonous organic matter, is a central step in nutrient cycling in stream ecosystems. There is concern that increased temperatures from climate change will alter the breakdown rate of organic matter, with important consequences for the ecosystem functioning of alpine streams. This study investigated the rate of leaf litter breakdown and how temperature and other factors such as microbial and invertebrate activities influenced this over elevational and temporal gradients. Dried leaves of Snow Gum (Eucalyptus pauciflora) and cotton strips were deployed in coarse (6 mm), and fine (50 μm) mesh size bags along an 820 m elevation gradient. Loss of mass in leaf litter and cotton tensile strength per day (k per day), fungal biomass measured as ergosterol concentration, invertebrate colonization of leaf litter, and benthic organic matter (mass and composition) were determined. Both microbial and macroinvertebrate activities were equally important in leaf litter breakdown with the abundance of shredder invertebrate taxa. The overall leaf litter breakdown rate and loss of tensile strength in cotton strips (both k per day) were greater during warmer deployment periods and at lower elevations, with significant positive relationships between mean water temperature and leaf breakdown and loss of tensile strength rate, but no differences between sites, after accounting for the effects of temperature. Despite considerably lower amounts of benthic organic matter in streams above the tree line relative to those below, shredders were present in coarse mesh bags at all sites. Ergosterol concentration was greater on leaves in coarse mesh bags than in fine mesh bags, implying differences in the microbial communities. The importance of water temperatures on the rate of leaf litter breakdown suggests the potential effects of climate change‐induced temperature increases on ecological processes in such streams. We aimed at understanding how spatial and temporal water temperatures influenced AOM breakdown in alpine streams. Microbial and macroinvertebrate activities were monitored and showed to be elevated at lower elevations and during warmer periods. Climate change induced warming will therefore potentially change alpine stream ecosystem, standing biomass and promote increased nutrient cycling through AOM breakdown.
Journal Article
Tropical cyanobacterial blooms: a review of prevalence, problem taxa, toxins and influencing environmental factors
Toxic cyanobacterial blooms are a major issue in freshwater systems in many countries. The potentially toxic species and their ecological causes are likely to be different in tropical zones from those in temperate water bodies; however, studies on tropical toxic cyanobacterial blooms are sporadic and currently there is no global synthesis. In this review, we examined published information on tropical cyanobacterial bloom occurrence and toxin production to investigate patterns in their growth and distribution. Microcystis was the most frequently occurring bloom genus throughout tropical Asia, Africa and Central America, while Cylindrospermopsis and Anabaena blooms occurred in various locations in tropical Australia, America and Africa. Microcystis blooms were more prevalent during the wet season while Cylindrospermopsis blooms were more prevalent during the dry period. Microcystin was the most encountered toxin throughout the tropics. A meta-analysis of tropical cyanobacterial blooms showed that Microcystis blooms were more associated with higher total nitrogen concentrations, while Cylindrospermopsis blooms were more associated with higher maximum temperatures. Meta-analysis also showed a positive linear relationship between levels of microcystin and N:P (nitrate:phosphate) ratio. Tropical African Microcystis blooms were found to have the lowest microcystin levels in relation to biomass and N:P (nitrate:phosphate) compared to tropical Asian, Australian and American blooms. There was also no significant correlation between microcystin concentration and cell concentration for tropical African blooms as opposed to tropical Asian and American blooms. Our review illustrates that some cyanobacteria and toxins are more prevalent in tropical areas. While some tropical countries have considerable information regarding toxic blooms, others have few or no reported studies.
Journal Article
Adult palliative care 2004–2030 population study: estimates and projections in Malaysia
ObjectivesTo estimate past trends and future projection of adult palliative care needs in Malaysia.MethodsThis is a population-based secondary data analysis using the national mortality registry from 2004 to 2014. Past trend estimation was conducted using Murtagh’s minimum and maximum methods and Gómez-Batiste’s method. The estimated palliative care needs were stratified by age groups, gender and administrative states in Malaysia. With this, the projection of palliative care needs up to 2030 was conducted under the assumption that annual change remains constant.ResultsThe palliative care needs in Malaysia followed an apparent upward trend over the years regardless of the estimation methods. Murtagh’s minimum estimation method showed that palliative care needs grew 40% from 71 675 cases in 2004 to 100 034 cases in 2014. The proportion of palliative care needs in relation to deaths hovered at 71% in the observed years. In 2030, Malaysia should anticipate the population needs to be at least 239 713 cases (240% growth from 2014), with the highest needs among age group ≥80-year-old in both genders. Sarawak, Perak, Johor, Selangor and Kedah will become the top five Malaysian states with the highest number of needs in 2030.ConclusionThe need for palliative care in Malaysia will continue to rise and surpass its service provision. This trend demands a stepped-up provision from the national health system with advanced integration of palliative care services to narrow the gap between needs and supply.
Journal Article
Proposal for improving access to palliative care by enhancing primary care services in an upper middle-income country
Primary care doctors play an important role in providing palliative care as they are often the first point of contact for most healthcare needs in the community. This mixed-method study aims to 1) determine the accessibility of palliative care services in Malaysia, an upper middle-income country with universal health coverage, 2) explore the knowledge, challenges and opportunities faced by primary care doctors in providing palliative care and 3) identify if minimum standards for palliative care service are clearly defined, available and achieved in primary care facilities.
Data on availability of palliative care services will be sourced from governmental and non-governmental databases and reports. Accessibility will be examined by estimating the distance, travel time and cost to the nearest facility offering palliative care services from various locations throughout Malaysia. In-depth interviews will be conducted with primary care doctors to explore their knowledge, challenges and opportunities in providing palliative care. Alongside, a survey will be conducted to evaluate whether components of palliative care services are available in primary care facilities using the Minimum Standard Tool for Palliative Care from India, which covers all the domains recommended by the World Health Organization. All findings will be inductively analysed and integrated, followed by a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats analysis and a threats, opportunities, weaknesses and strength analysis with relevant stakeholders.
The mapping study will provide empirical data on availability and accessibility of palliative care services in Malaysia. The qualitative inquiry will provide insights on the experiences and concerns of primary care physicians in providing palliative care in the community settings. The survey meanwhile will provide real-world data on availability of basic palliative care service components in the primary care facilities.
Findings will facilitate development of framework and policies aiming to optimise provision of sustainable palliative care services at the primary care level in local settings.
Journal Article
Experimental dam releases stimulate respiration in an epilithic biofilm community
This study explored biofilm metabolism as a functional indicator of ecological responses to dissolved organic carbon and inorganic nutrients from managed dam releases. We hypothesised that the dam releases would stimulate epilithic biofilm community respiration (CR), and trigger a larger increase in biofilm CR relative to gross primary production (GPP). We predicted that biofilm respiration would be related to water column dissolved carbon and nutrient concentrations. Tiles colonised with epilithic biofilm were exposed to dam release waters in a stream-side mesocosm system that separated out the physical effects of flow velocity. Biofilm CR increased during two of three releases, and increases in CR were larger relative to GPP during all three releases. Biofilm CR was not linearly related to dissolved resources or abiotic environmental variables. These results show that managed dam releases can influence biofilm metabolism via a mechanism independent from the direct physical effects of increased flow velocity. This study provides new insights into the complex pathways through which managed dam releases may influence ecological processes. The stimulation of benthic CR through physical and chemical variations in dam water is a potential mechanism through which dam releases may influence biogeochemical processing and energy flow through the riverine food web.
Journal Article
effects of three organic chemicals on the upper thermal tolerances of four freshwater fishes
The upper temperature tolerance limits of four freshwater fish species, silver perch Bidyanus bidyanus, eastern rainbowfish Melanotaenia duboulayi, western carp gudgeon Hypseleotris klunzingeri, and rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss, were determined using the critical thermal maximum (CTMaximum) method. The CTMaximum tests were carried out with unexposed fish and fish exposed to sublethal concentrations of endosulfan, chlorpyrifos, and phenol to determine whether or not the CTMaximum was affected. The CTMaximum temperature of B. bidyanus decreased by 2.8, 3.8, and 0.3°C on exposure to endosulfan, chlorpyrifos, and phenol, respectively. Similarly, in M. duboulayi, the CTMaximum was decreased by 4.1, 2.5, and 0°C, while in H. klunzingeri it decreased by 3.1, 4.3, and 0.1°C, respectively, and in O. mykiss by 4.8, 5.9, and 0.7°C, respectively. Exposure to sublethal test concentrations of endosulfan and chlorpyrifos caused significant (p ≤ 0.0001) reductions in CTMaximum values for all fish species compared to that of unexposed fish. However, exposure to phenol did not cause any significant (p ≥ 0.05) change of CTMaximum temperatures.
Journal Article