Browse publications by year: 2016

Proteomics of edible mushrooms: A mini-review

Al-Obaidi JR

Electrophoresis, 2016 05;37(10):1257-63.
PMID: 26891916 DOI: 10.1002/elps.201600031

Mushrooms are considered an important food for their traditionally famous nutritional and medicinal values, although much information about their potential at the molecular level is unfortunately unknown. Edible mushrooms include fungi that are either collected wild or cultivated. Many important species are difficult to cultivate but attempts have been made with varying degrees of success, with the results showing unsatisfactory economical cultivation methods. Recently, proteomic analysis has been developed as a powerful tool to study the protein content of fungi, particularly basidiomycetes. This mini-review article highlights the contribution of proteomics platforms to the study of edible mushrooms, focusing on the molecular mechanisms involved in developmental stages. This includes extracellular and cytoplasmic effector proteins that have potential or are involved in the synthesis of anticancer, antidiabetic, antioxidant, and antibiotic, in blood pressure control, in the supply of vitamins and minerals, and in other responses to environmental changes. The contribution of different proteomics techniques including classical and more advanced techniques is also highlighted.

MeSH terms: Agaricales/growth & development; Agaricales/metabolism; Agaricales/chemistry*; Anti-Bacterial Agents; Antineoplastic Agents; Antioxidants; Food; Fungal Proteins/analysis*; Fungal Proteins/physiology; Hypoglycemic Agents; Vitamins; Proteomics/methods*
Loss of Control as a Discriminating Factor Between Different Latent Classes of Disordered Gambling Severity

James RJ, O'Malley C, Tunney RJ

J Gambl Stud, 2016 Dec;32(4):1155-1173.
PMID: 26892198

Analyses of disordered gambling assessment data have indicated that commonly used screens appear to measure latent categories. This stands in contrast to the oft-held assumption that problem gambling is at the extreme of a continuum. To explore this further, we report a series of latent class analyses of a number of prevalent problem gambling assessments (PGSI, SOGS, DSM-IV Pathological Gambling based assessments) in nationally representative British surveys between 1999 and 2012, analysing data from nearly fifty thousand individuals. The analyses converged on a three class model in which the classes differed by problem gambling severity. This identified an initial class of gamblers showing minimal problems, a additional class predominantly endorsing indicators of preoccupation and loss chasing, and a third endorsing a range of disordered gambling criteria. However, there was considerable evidence to suggest that classes of intermediate and high severity disordered gamblers differed systematically in their responses to items related to loss of control, and not simply on the most 'difficult' items. It appeared that these differences were similar between assessments. An important exception to this was one set of DSM-IV criteria based analyses using a specific cutoff, which was also used in an analysis that identified an increase in UK problem gambling prevalence between 2007 and 2010. The results suggest that disordered gambling has a mixed latent structure, and that present assessments of problem gambling appear to converge on a broadly similar construct.

MeSH terms: Adult; Ethnic Groups/psychology*; Female; Gambling/psychology*; Humans; Surveys and Questionnaires; Severity of Illness Index*; Socioeconomic Factors; Prevalence; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
Adhesion of Pseudomonas fluorescens biofilms to glass, stainless steel and cellulose

Wan Dagang WR, Bowen J, O'Keeffe J, Robbins PT, Zhang Z

Biotechnol Lett, 2016 May;38(5):787-92.
PMID: 26892223 DOI: 10.1007/s10529-016-2047-x

The adhesion of colloidal probes of stainless steel, glass and cellulose to Pseudomonas fluorescens biofilms was examined using atomic force microscopy (AFM) to allow comparisons between surfaces to which biofilms might adhere.

MeSH terms: Bacterial Adhesion; Cellulose; Glass; Pseudomonas fluorescens; Stainless Steel; Biofilms; Microscopy, Atomic Force
Fulltext Synthesis of Highly Crystalline Multilayered Boron Niride Microflakes

Ahmad P, Khandaker MU, Amin YM, Muhammad N

Sci Rep, 2016;6:21403.
PMID: 26892366 DOI: 10.1038/srep21403

Boron niride microflakes of 2-5 μm in diameter and greater than 40 μm in length with multilayer structure and highly crystalline nature are synthesized in two states of catalysts and dual role of nitrogen at 1100 °C. Most of the microflakes are flat, smooth and vertically aligned with a wall-like view from the top. Transmission electron microscopy shows overlapped layers of microflakes with an interlayer spacing of 0.34 nm. The h-BN components of the synthesized microflakes are verified from B 1s and N1 s peaks at 190. 7 and 397.9 eV. Raman shift at 1370 (cm(-1)) and sharp peaks in the XRD pattern further confirm the h-BN phase and crystalline nature of the synthesized microflakes. Microflakes of h-BN with the above characteristics are highly desirable for the development of a solid state neutron detector with higher detection efficiency.

MeSH terms: Boron; Catalysis; Hydrogen; Neutrons; Nitrogen; Microscopy, Electron, Transmission
Fulltext Paediatric palliative care at home: a single centre's experience

Chong LA, Khalid F

Singapore Med J, 2016 Feb;57(2):77-80.
PMID: 26893078 DOI: 10.11622/smedj.2016032

There is increased awareness of paediatric palliative care in Malaysia, but no local published data on home care services. We aimed to describe the paediatric experience at Hospis Malaysia, a community-based palliative care provider in Malaysia.

MeSH terms: Cause of Death/trends; Child, Preschool; Female; Follow-Up Studies; Home Care Services/organization & administration*; Humans; Infant; Malaysia/epidemiology; Male; Neoplasms/mortality; Neoplasms/therapy*; Palliative Care/organization & administration*; Retrospective Studies; Survival Rate/trends
Fulltext Genome Sequence of a Gram-Positive Diazotroph, Paenibacillus durus Type Strain ATCC 35681

Halim MA, Rahman AY, Sim KS, Yam HC, Rahim AA, Ghazali AH, et al.

Genome Announc, 2016;4(1).
PMID: 26893411 DOI: 10.1128/genomeA.00005-16

Here, we report the complete genome sequence of Paenibacillus durus type strain ATCC 35681, which can fix atmospheric nitrogen even in the presence of nitrate.

MeSH terms: Nitrates; Nitrogen; Nitrogen Oxides; Paenibacillus
Fulltext Is There a Correlation between Languages Spoken and Intricate Movements of Tongue? A Comparative Study of Various Movements of Tongue among the Three Ethnic Races of Malaysia

Nayak SB, Awal MB, Han CW, Sivaram G, Vigneswaran T, Choon TL, et al.

J Clin Diagn Res, 2016 Jan;10(1):AC08-11.
PMID: 26894051 DOI: 10.7860/JCDR/2016/16669.7156

Tongue is mainly used for taste, chewing and in speech. In the present study, we focused on the secondary function of the tongue as to how it is used in phonetic pronunciation and linguistics and how these factors affect tongue movements.
Long-term operation of double chambered microbial fuel cell for bio-electro denitrification

Oon YS, Ong SA, Ho LN, Wong YS, Oon YL, Lehl HK, et al.

Bioprocess Biosyst Eng, 2016 Jun;39(6):893-900.
PMID: 26894384 DOI: 10.1007/s00449-016-1568-y

The main aim of this study is to investigate the performance of organic oxidation and denitrification of the system under long-term operation. The MFC reactor was operated in continuous mode for 180 days. Nitrate was successfully demonstrated as terminal electron acceptor, where nitrate was reduced at the cathode using electron provided by acetate oxidation at the anode. The removal efficiencies of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and nitrate were higher in the closed circuit system than in open circuit system. Both COD and nitrate reduction improved with the increase of organic loading and subsequently contributed to higher power output. The maximum nitrate removal efficiency was 88 ± 4 % (influent of 141 ± 14 mg/L). The internal resistant was 50 Ω, which was found to be low for a double chambered MFC. The maximum power density was 669 mW/m(3) with current density of 3487 mA/m(3).

MeSH terms: Bioelectric Energy Sources*; Water Purification; Denitrification*; Waste Water
Fulltext A Global Analysis of the Relationship between Farmed Seaweed Production and Herbivorous Fish Catch

Hehre EJ, Meeuwig JJ

PLoS One, 2016;11(2):e0148250.
PMID: 26894553 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0148250

Globally, farmed seaweed production is expanding rapidly in shallow marine habitats. While seaweed farming provides vital income to millions of artisanal farmers, it can negatively impact shallow coral reef and seagrass habitats. However, seaweed farming may also potentially provide food subsidies for herbivorous reef fish such as the Siganidae, a valuable target family, resulting in increased catch. Comparisons of reef fish landings across the central Philippines revealed that the catch of siganids was positively correlated to farmed seaweed production whilst negatively correlated to total reef fish catch over the same period of time. We tested the generality of this pattern by analysing seaweed production, siganid catch, and reef fish catch for six major seaweed-producing countries in the tropics. We hypothesized that increased seaweed production would correspond with increased catch of siganids but not other reef fish species. Analysis of the global data showed a positive correlation between farmed seaweeds and siganids in Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines) but not Africa (Tanzania and Zanzibar), or the Western Pacific (Fiji). In Southeast Asia, siganid catch increased disproportionately faster with seaweed production than did reef fish catch. Low continuity, sporadic production and smaller volumes of seaweed farming may explain the differences.

MeSH terms: Africa; Animals; Asia, Southeastern; Fishes*; Models, Theoretical; Seaweed*; Ecosystem*; Herbivory*
Synthesis, α-glucosidase inhibitory, cytotoxicity and docking studies of 2-aryl-7-methylbenzimidazoles

Taha M, Ismail NH, Imran S, Mohamad MH, Wadood A, Rahim F, et al.

Bioorg Chem, 2016 Apr;65:100-9.
PMID: 26894559 DOI: 10.1016/j.bioorg.2016.02.004

Benzimidazole analogs 1-27 were synthesized, characterized by EI-MS and (1)HNMR and their α-glucosidase inhibitory activities were found out experimentally. Compound 25, 19, 10 and 20 have best inhibitory activities with IC50 values 5.30±0.10, 16.10±0.10, 25.36±0.14 and 29.75±0.19 respectively against α-glucosidase. Compound 6 and 12 has no inhibitory activity against α-glucosidase enzyme among the series. Further studies showed that the compounds are not showing any cytotoxicity effect. The docking studies of the compounds as well as the experimental activities of the compounds correlated well. From the molecular docking studies, it was observed that the top ranked conformation of all the compounds fit well in the active site of the homology model of α-glucosidase.

MeSH terms: alpha-Glucosidases; Benzimidazoles; Inhibitory Concentration 50; Catalytic Domain; Molecular Dynamics Simulation; Molecular Docking Simulation; Glycoside Hydrolase Inhibitors
Fulltext Ultrasonographic assessment of inferior vena cava/abdominal aorta diameter index: a new approach of assessing hypovolemic shock class 1

Rahman NH, Ahmad R, Kareem MM, Mohammed MI

Int J Emerg Med, 2016 Dec;9(1):8.
PMID: 26894896 DOI: 10.1186/s12245-016-0101-z

We designed this study to expand the usage of ultrasound to detect early occurrence of hypovolemia. We explore the potential use of inferior vena cava (IVC) and abdominal aorta (AA) diameter index (IVC:AA) measured ultrasonographically to detect class 1 hypovolemic shock with blood loss less than 15%.ᅟ

MeSH terms: Aorta, Abdominal; Hemorrhage; Shock; Ultrasonography; Vena Cava, Inferior; Hypovolemia
Postoperative Early Major and Minor Complications in Laparoscopic Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy (LVSG) Versus Laparoscopic Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass (LRYGB) Procedures: A Meta-Analysis and Systematic Review

Osland E, Yunus RM, Khan S, Alodat T, Memon B, Memon MA

Obes Surg, 2016 Oct;26(10):2273-84.
PMID: 26894908 DOI: 10.1007/s11695-016-2101-8

BACKGROUND: Laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (LRYGB) and laparoscopic vertical sleeve gastrectomy (LVSG) have been proposed as cost-effective strategies to manage obesity-related chronic disease. The aim of this meta-analysis and systematic review was to compare the "early postoperative complication rate i.e. within 30-days" reported from randomized control trials (RCTs) comparing these two procedures.
METHODS: RCTs comparing the early complication rates following LVSG and LRYGB between 2000 and 2015 were selected from PubMed, Medline, Embase, Science Citation Index, Current Contents, and the Cochrane database. The outcome variables analyzed included 30-day mortality, major and minor complications and interventions required for their management, length of hospital stay, readmission rates, operating time, and conversions from laparoscopic to open procedures.
RESULTS: Six RCTs involving a total of 695 patients (LVSG n = 347, LRYGB n = 348) reported on early major complications. A statistically significant reduction in relative odds of early major complications favoring the LVSG procedure was noted (p = 0.05). Five RCTs representing 633 patients (LVSG n = 317, LRYGB n = 316) reported early minor complications. A non-statically significant reduction in relative odds of 29 % favoring the LVSG procedure was observed for early minor complications (p = 0.4). However, other outcomes directly related to complications which included reoperation rates, readmission rate, and 30-day mortality rate showed comparable effect size for both surgical procedures.
CONCLUSIONS: This meta-analysis and systematic review of RCTs suggests that fewer early major and minor complications are associated with LVSG compared with LRYGB procedure. However, this does not translate into higher readmission rate, reoperation rate, or 30-day mortality for either procedure.

MeSH terms: Chronic Disease/therapy; Gastrectomy/adverse effects*; Humans; Obesity/complications; Obesity/surgery*; Laparoscopy/adverse effects; Postoperative Complications/therapy; Time Factors; Gastric Bypass/adverse effects*; Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic
Phase transition kinetics and surface binding states of methylammonium lead iodide perovskite

Rajendra Kumar G, Dennyson Savariraj A, Karthick SN, Selvam S, Balamuralitharan B, Kim HJ, et al.

Phys Chem Chem Phys, 2016 Mar 2;18(10):7284-92.
PMID: 26894928 DOI: 10.1039/c5cp06232b

We have presented a detailed analysis of the phase transition kinetics and binding energy states of solution processed methylammonium lead iodide (MAPbI3) thin films prepared at ambient conditions and annealed at different elevated temperatures. It is the processing temperature and environmental conditions that predominantly control the crystal structure and surface morphology of MAPbI3 thin films. The structural transformation from tetragonal to cubic occurs at 60 °C with a 30 minute annealing time while the 10 minute annealed films posses a tetragonal crystal structure. The transformed phase is greatly intact even at the higher annealing temperature of 150 °C and after a time of 2 hours. The charge transfer interaction between the Pb 4f and I 3d oxidation states is quantified using XPS.
Mosaicplasty for femoral osteochondritis dissecans

Louahem D, Lozach F, Delpont M, Weiss A, Prodhomme O, Cottalorda J

Orthop Traumatol Surg Res, 2016 Apr;102(2):247-50.
PMID: 26896409 DOI: 10.1016/j.otsr.2015.12.013

The authors describe a surgical mosaicplasty technique, with an anterior surgical dislocation approach without trochanterotomy, for osteochondritis dissecans of the hip. A graft was taken from the lateral condyle of the knee. Two adolescents underwent this procedure with good results. No osteonecrosis was observed at the longest follow-up. Mosaicplasty is a useful treatment method for small osteochondritis dissecans (<2cm(2)).
Degradation of Insecticides in Poultry Manure: Determining the Insecticidal Treatment Interval for Managing House Fly (Diptera: Muscidae) Populations in Poultry Farms

Ong SQ, Ab Majid AH, Ahmad H

J Econ Entomol, 2016 Feb 18.
PMID: 26896536

It is crucial to understand the degradation pattern of insecticides when designing a sustainable control program for the house fly, Musca domestica (L.), on poultry farms. The aim of this study was to determine the half-life and degradation rates of cyromazine, chlorpyrifos, and cypermethrin by spiking these insecticides into poultry manure, and then quantitatively analyzing the insecticide residue using ultra-performance liquid chromatography. The insecticides were later tested in the field in order to study the appropriate insecticidal treatment intervals. Bio-assays on manure samples were later tested at 3, 7, 10, and 15 d for bio-efficacy on susceptible house fly larvae. Degradation analysis demonstrated that cyromazine has the shortest half-life (3.01 d) compared with chlorpyrifos (4.36 d) and cypermethrin (3.75 d). Cyromazine also had a significantly greater degradation rate compared with chlorpyrifos and cypermethrin. For the field insecticidal treatment interval study, 10 d was the interval that had been determined for cyromazine due to its significantly lower residue; for ChCy (a mixture of chlorpyrifos and cypermethrin), the suggested interval was 7 d. Future work should focus on the effects of insecticide metabolites on targeted pests and the poultry manure environment.
Inheritance pattern of lip prints among Malay population: A pilot study

George R, Nora Afandi NS, Zainal Abidin SN, Binti Ishak NI, Soe HH, Ismail AR

J Forensic Leg Med, 2016 Apr;39:156-60.
PMID: 26896666 DOI: 10.1016/j.jflm.2016.01.021

We assessed the resemblance of lip print patterns between parents and biological offspring in families of 31 Malay students as well as the distribution of different types of lip print in the study group. Only a few studies have successfully established the inheritance pattern of lip prints. Such studies can be population specific and need to be conducted in various populations. No such study have been conducted in Malay population in Malaysia, according to our knowledge. Present study was carried out to ascertain whether there is any inherence pattern in lip prints and thereby to investigate the potential role of lip prints in personal identification. We found 58.06% resemblance of lip print patterns between the parents and their biological offspring in our study. The influence of heredity in lip print pattern is still a new concept and there is lack of concrete evidence. The data from our study shows that there is potential influence of inheritance in the lip print patterns among the family members. Further researches involving larger samples size are suggested to derive more reliable and accurate results. The most common lip print pattern among the study group is type I (29.84%) followed by type II (23.12%), type III (22.45%), type I' (13.44%), type IV (9.54%) and type V (1.61%). Racial variations in lip print patterns and their prevalence may serve as an aid in forensic identification and crime scene investigation. The results of this pilot study will help in establishing guidelines for future researches on lip print analysis in Malaysia.
Data mining framework for identification of myocardial infarction stages in ultrasound: A hybrid feature extraction paradigm (PART 2)

Sudarshan VK, Acharya UR, Ng EY, Tan RS, Chou SM, Ghista DN

Comput Biol Med, 2016 Apr 1;71:241-51.
PMID: 26897481 DOI: 10.1016/j.compbiomed.2016.01.029

Early expansion of infarcted zone after Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI) has serious short and long-term consequences and contributes to increased mortality. Thus, identification of moderate and severe phases of AMI before leading to other catastrophic post-MI medical condition is most important for aggressive treatment and management. Advanced image processing techniques together with robust classifier using two-dimensional (2D) echocardiograms may aid for automated classification of the extent of infarcted myocardium. Therefore, this paper proposes novel algorithms namely Curvelet Transform (CT) and Local Configuration Pattern (LCP) for an automated detection of normal, moderately infarcted and severely infarcted myocardium using 2D echocardiograms. The methodology extracts the LCP features from CT coefficients of echocardiograms. The obtained features are subjected to Marginal Fisher Analysis (MFA) dimensionality reduction technique followed by fuzzy entropy based ranking method. Different classifiers are used to differentiate ranked features into three classes normal, moderate and severely infarcted based on the extent of damage to myocardium. The developed algorithm has achieved an accuracy of 98.99%, sensitivity of 98.48% and specificity of 100% for Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier using only six features. Furthermore, we have developed an integrated index called Myocardial Infarction Risk Index (MIRI) to detect the normal, moderately and severely infarcted myocardium using a single number. The proposed system may aid the clinicians in faster identification and quantification of the extent of infarcted myocardium using 2D echocardiogram. This system may also aid in identifying the person at risk of developing heart failure based on the extent of infarcted myocardium.

MeSH terms: Algorithms; Echocardiography; Heart Failure; Myocardial Infarction; Myocardium; Tomography, X-Ray Computed; Entropy; Support Vector Machine
Hand hygiene compliance in Penang, Malaysia: Human audits versus product usage

Lee YF, Merican H, Nallusamy R, Ong LM, Mohamed Nazir P, Hamzah HB, et al.

Am J Infect Control, 2016 06 01;44(6):e95-7.
PMID: 26897697 DOI: 10.1016/j.ajic.2015.12.031

Hand hygiene auditing is mandatory for all Malaysian public hospitals; nonetheless, the burden of auditing is impacting the support and sustainability of the program. We report an alternative method to routinely measure hand hygiene compliance with the aim to test whether alcohol-based handrub purchase data could be used as a proxy for usage because human auditing has decreased validity and reliability inherent in the methodology.

MeSH terms: Disinfectants*; Drug Utilization*; Health Services Research*; Humans; Malaysia; Management Audit; Guideline Adherence/utilization*; Hand Hygiene/methods*
Fulltext Most prevalent unmet supportive care needs and quality of life of breast cancer patients in a tertiary hospital in Malaysia

Edib Z, Kumarasamy V, Binti Abdullah N, Rizal AM, Al-Dubai SA

Health Qual Life Outcomes, 2016;14:26.
PMID: 26898558 DOI: 10.1186/s12955-016-0428-4

Addressing breast cancer patients' unmet supportive care needs in the early stage of their survivorship have become a prime concern because of its significant association with poor quality of life (QOL), which in turn increases healthcare utilization and costs. There is no study about unmet supportive care needs of breast cancer patients in Malaysia. This study aims to assess the most prevalent unmet supportive care needs of Malaysian breast cancer patients and the association between QOL and patients' characteristics, and their unmet supportive care needs.

MeSH terms: Humans; Malaysia; Patient Acceptance of Health Care; Quality of Life; Survival; Prevalence
An integrated index for automated detection of infarcted myocardium from cross-sectional echocardiograms using texton-based features (Part 1)

Sudarshan VK, Acharya UR, Ng EY, Tan RS, Chou SM, Ghista DN

Comput Biol Med, 2016 Apr 1;71:231-40.
PMID: 26898671 DOI: 10.1016/j.compbiomed.2016.01.028

Cross-sectional view echocardiography is an efficient non-invasive diagnostic tool for characterizing Myocardial Infarction (MI) and stages of expansion leading to heart failure. An automated computer-aided technique of cross-sectional echocardiography feature assessment can aid clinicians in early and more reliable detection of MI patients before subsequent catastrophic post-MI medical conditions. Therefore, this paper proposes a novel Myocardial Infarction Index (MII) to discriminate infarcted and normal myocardium using features extracted from apical cross-sectional views of echocardiograms. The cross-sectional view of normal and MI echocardiography images are represented as textons using Maximum Responses (MR8) filter banks. Fractal Dimension (FD), Higher-Order Statistics (HOS), Hu's moments, Gabor Transform features, Fuzzy Entropy (FEnt), Energy, Local binary Pattern (LBP), Renyi's Entropy (REnt), Shannon's Entropy (ShEnt), and Kapur's Entropy (KEnt) features are extracted from textons. These features are ranked using t-test and fuzzy Max-Relevancy and Min-Redundancy (mRMR) ranking methods. Then, combinations of highly ranked features are used in the formulation and development of an integrated MII. This calculated novel MII is used to accurately and quickly detect infarcted myocardium by using one numerical value. Also, the highly ranked features are subjected to classification using different classifiers for the characterization of normal and MI LV ultrasound images using a minimum number of features. Our current technique is able to characterize MI with an average accuracy of 94.37%, sensitivity of 91.25% and specificity of 97.50% with 8 apical four chambers view features extracted from only single frame per patient making this a more reliable and accurate classification.

MeSH terms: Cross-Sectional Studies; Echocardiography; Heart Failure; Humans; Myocardial Infarction; Myocardium; Ultrasonography; Fractals; Entropy

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