PAX2 mutations cause renal-coloboma syndrome (RCS), a rare multi-system developmental abnormality involving optic nerve colobomas and renal abnormalities. End-stage renal failure is common in RCS, but the mechanism by which PAX2 mutations lead to renal failure is unknown. PAX2 is a member of a family of developmental genes containing a highly conserved 'paired box' DNA-binding domain, and encodes a transcription factor expressed primarily during fetal development in the central nervous system, eye, ear and urogenital tract. Presently, the role of PAX2 during kidney development is poorly understood. To gain insight into the cause of renal abnormalities in patients with PAX2 mutations, kidney anomalies were analyzed in patients with RCS, including a large Brazilian kindred in whom a new PAX2 mutation was identified. In a total of 29 patients, renal hypoplasia was the most common congenital renal abnormality. To determine the direct effects of PAX2 mutations on kidney development fetal kidneys of mice carrying a Pax2 (1Neu)mutation were examined. At E15, heterozygous mutant kidneys were approximately 60% of the size of wild-type littermates, and the number of nephrons was strikingly reduced. Heterozygous 1Neu mice showed increased apoptotic cell death during fetal kidney development, but the increased apoptosis was not associated with random stochastic inactivation of Pax2 expression in mutant kidneys; Pax2 was shown to be biallelically expressed during kidney development. These findings support the notion that heterozygous mutations of PAX2 are associated with increased apoptosis and reduced branching of the ureteric bud, due to reduced PAX2 dosage during a critical window in kidney development.

Purpose – Maintaining a comfortable physical environment in the workplace is claimed to be vital as it will create a “healthier” building with optimum environmental conditions, which enable employees to be healthier and have a lower absenteeism rate, and hence be more productive. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to deal with the importance of physical environment comfort in the office workplace. Evaluation was made of the office workers’ performance that is mainly affected by levels of comfort in the office. Design/methodology/approach – Three selected case studies were evaluated based on aspects of employees’ comfort, perceived health and absenteeism rate, by considering the elements of physical comfort that consist of room temperature, relative humidity and luminance level. The selected case studies were the Department of Development and Estate Maintenance of three research universities in Malaysia. Field studies were carried out using hygrometers and lux meters in measuring the said elements as well as post-occupancy evaluation, which involved 30 respondents for each case (total 90 respondents), to determine their perception of comfort and its effect on their health and absenteeism rate. Data collected were analysed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. Findings – The results suggest that employees did not find luminance level uncomfortable, when compared with room temperature, thus proving that employees are more sensitive to room temperature comfort. Furthermore, when the room temperature comfort was low, significant correlations were found with health-related issues such as feeling “stuffy”, being easily tired and having difficulty concentrating. Originality/value – This paper investigates the relationship between employee performance and a comfortable workplace environment. It could be concluded that an uncomfortable environment in an office workplace leads to health-related issues as well as increasing the absenteeism rate. High levels of employee absenteeism lead to decreased employee productivity, therefore affecting their work performance.

Purpose Proper maintenance management ensures a long-term investment and provides a support function in business continuity to achieve organisational goal. However, inadequate involvement and participation of key stakeholders in maintenance management limit the continuous improvement of maintenance performance. Currently, there is a lack of studies about the influence of key stakeholders’ involvement in maintenance. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to deal with enhancement of maintenance management through the involvement of key stakeholders. Design/methodology/approach This research adopted a mixed method approach to determine the relationship between involvement of key stakeholders in maintenance management and maintenance effectiveness. The approach comprised of literature review, questionnaire survey and semi-structured interviews. Findings This research suggests a positive correlation between involvement of maintenance manager (MM), maintenance staff, organisation, user and maintenance service provider (SP) in improving the effectiveness of maintenance management. The logistic regression analysis indicated that the involvement of MM and SP are significant predictors of maintenance effectiveness. The research further identified that there was a lack of involvement of the user and SP in maintenance management. Originality/value The research demonstrated that all key stakeholders should value the important roles of their participation in maintenance management to ensure an optimum return on a long-term investment. To create the awareness for the involvement of key stakeholders in building maintenance, studies on the advantages of participating in building maintenance and the impacts of ignorant towards building maintenance can be beneficial to the industry.

In Malaysia, most of the building managers faced problems in conducting maintenance operation due to unclear plan and unsystematic approach. Improper maintenance management and practices could affect the performance levels of the maintenance works and the productivity of the building users. This paper aims to examine the issues and challenges faced by government office building managers in selecting an appropriate maintenance strategies. This study adopted mixed method which is a combination of both qualitative and quantitative methods. Three government office buildings in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia were selected as the case study. Structured interviews were conducted with the building maintenance managers and 200 questionnaires were distributed to the buildings occupants. A total of 67.5% questionnaires were valid for data analysis. The results showed that there are significant correlation between the frequency of services breakdown and the productivity of the building user. Top management, human resource and technical problems were identified as the issues and challenges faced by building managers in conducting maintenance work. Based on the data obtained, the performance level of building maintenance services are analysed using three selected performance indicators. From the findings, it is proven that the issues and challenges faced affect the performance levels of the maintenance works. In contrast, if the building managers do not face too many issues and challenges in implementing the maintenance works, the maintenance strategies will perform in an optimum level.

Purpose Preventive maintenance is an effective maintenance strategy to ensure the constant and efficient usage of building systems and their components. The reactive-based maintenance as the main strategy in high-rise residential buildings is a concern as the maintenance output resulting from the strategy could not achieve the standard level of performance. The purpose of this paper is to identify the characteristics of preventive maintenance and establish the relationship with maintenance performance in high-rise residential buildings. Design/methodology/approach The characteristics of preventive maintenance and maintenance performance parameters were identified through the literature review. A quantitative approach was adopted, where a questionnaire was distributed to the maintenance personnel of high-rise residential buildings. Then, ranking analysis and correlation were conducted to produce findings that help to achieve the research objectives. Findings The research findings indicate that there are seven maintenance characteristics significantly correlated with maintenance performance indicators (maintenance costs deviation, time variance of maintenance work, customer service and downtime rate). It is recommended that these characteristics are considered during the execution of preventive maintenance as they have a significant effect on the maintenance performance. Originality/value The extensive literature suggests the relationship between the characteristics of preventive maintenance and maintenance performance, but is still questionable. Thus, this research investigates the relationship between preventive maintenance characteristic and maintenance performance for high-rise residential buildings in Malaysia. The findings of the research can act as a guide for maintenance personnel to optimise maintenance performance by focusing on the highlighted preventive maintenance characteristics.