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Background and context: As the oldest cancer-related nongovernmental organization in Malaysia, the National Cancer Society of Malaysia regularly receives proposals for collaborations. While many are mutually beneficial, some are "risky". Examples include partnerships with fast food companies, health supplements which benefits are vastly exaggerated, or fundraisers being held at bars or pubs. While these campaigns are accepted norms within the region, they might not conform to the standards of more mature markets. As we are expected to promote these activities or products on our digital media accounts, we risk overcrowding our pages, or being perceived as endorsing a product or behavior. Aim: Keeping donors happy while maintaining credibility Strategy/Tactics: The current strategy for NCSM's digital outreach is to focus on education/awareness instead of marketing. Also, we match the campaign's values with that of NCSM when deciding whether to promote it. When promoting a campaign, we stay neutral or personalise the donation. Above all, we play "devil's advocate", focus on the impact of the funds raised, and stay firm on our decision. Program/Policy process: Out of 12 social media posts each week, no more than 2 is on marketing campaigns. Donors, instead of the product, are featured in a personalised "Why I Give" post. At times, we also prioritize well-meaning campaigns over others. For fundraisers held in bars/pubs, we ask for compromises (e.g., to ban smoking in the area for a short time, or that we do not promote the alcohol manufacturer). We are also proactive in checking the promotional content and insist that the donor remove any unproven information. Outcomes: NCSM's Facebook page grew organically (without ad buys) from 4000 in 2016 to 15,000 in 2017. We have about 60 new followers each week, negligible "unfollows" even on marketing-heavy times, and a minimum reach of 15,000 people. Education content is more popular (2300 reach per post versus 400); the same trend is observed for personalised versus product-based posts (3700 vs 400). To date, we have good relationships with our donors, and have not received comments on any partnerships. What was learned: It's intention, and not visual or monetary value, that counts: our audiences are more appreciative of quality content, even if marketing/product posts might look better. Also, staff and survivors can sense sincere donors, which makes a difference in our promotional efforts (positive versus matter-of-fact tones). Well-meaning donors do adhere to our promotion guidelines, and do agree to not being promoted. In addition, featuring donors is a great way to publicise an activity without mentioning the product. Most importantly, being able to justify collaborations within the organization protects its integrity and credibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The tropical rainforest of Malaysia holds one of the richest flora in the world. The favourable climate has produced flora of amazing richness and variety. Terrestrial vegetation of tropical rainforests is an important feature of the environment. Plants play a major role in the environment and conservation of a particular environment depends fundamentally on the maintenance of existing plants and their communities and hierarchies. Interference in the balance of the ecosystem may produce radical changes that lead to progressive deviations from the original situation. Therefore, the application of a computer technology in the form of an expert system (ES) will be able to help in theanalysis and management of the EIA information. The ES is named VEGEVIC. Application of the system will lead to greater consistency in the application of EIA through implementation of a standard approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thirty patients with early onset breast cancer or familial breast cancer from Malaysia were analysed for germline mutation in the early onset breast cancer I gene (BRCA1). Direct sequencing of the entire coding region of BRCA1 identified a frameshift mutation, c.5447-5448insC (insC5447) (codon 1776 of exon 21) in a patient aged 32 of the Malay ethnic origin, who had no family history of breast and/or ovarian cancer. Eight polymorphisms (2201C > T, 2430T > C, P871L, E1038G, K1183R, 4427T > C, S1613G and IVS8-57delT) were identified in the samples tested.

The delay in the diagnosis of oral cancer has been variously reported as being contributed by the clinicians, patients or both. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the referral pattern of 65 patients eventually diagnosed as having oral squamous cell carcinoma. The results showed that 50% of the patients delayed seeking professional help for more than 3 months after being aware of the lesion. The majority of the patients consulted medical practitioners as the first source of help. The mean clinicians' and patients' delay were 10.3 weeks and 28.9 weeks respectively. Dental practitioners showed a tendency to refer more advanced lesions compared to the medical practitioners. The findings raise the concern that lack of patients' awareness, misdiagnosis by clinicians and late detection by dental practitioners prevail thus calling for urgent measures towards early detection of the disease.