Browse publications by year: 2016

  1. Cheah IG, Choo WY
    Med J Malaysia, 2016 06;71(Suppl 1):87-99.
    PMID: 27801391 MyJurnal
    The aim of this review was to summarise published literature on child abuse and neglect and its consequences in Malaysia, to discuss the implications of the research findings and to identify gaps in the local literature on child abuse and neglect. Medical and social literature in the English language published between the year 2000 to 2015 were searched for, resulting in forty four papers to be reviewed inclusive of a few key papers in the earlier years to provide some background information. The literature shows that child abuse and neglect is an important impact factor on mental health outcomes, involvement in substance abuse and delinquency due to the slant of the research interest from social studies. At least 70% of perpetrators are known to the affected children according to school-based prevalence studies. Safety programs and rehabilitation outcome studies involve small cohort groups. Studies on childhood mortality from child abuse or neglect are very limited. Overall, there are a few comprehensive studies involving school children but overall available studies are too patchy in to advocate for resource allocation, change in statutory procedures or training requirements. More extensive studies looking at the complex interaction of social environment, parenting skills, societal attitudes and responses, resilience factors and child safety nets and statutory response and their impact on different types of abuse or neglect are required.
    MeSH terms: Child; Child Abuse*; Employment; Humans; Malaysia; Research/trends*
  2. Ganesh CS, Krishnan R
    Med J Malaysia, 2016 06;71(Suppl 1):100-104.
    PMID: 27801392 MyJurnal
    A literature review of 16 papers on occupational injury research in Malaysia published during a 13-year period from 2000-2013 was carried out. The objective of this review and article selection was based on relevance to the research theme and mention of areas for future research. Most of the publications have focused on descriptive epidemiology, management practices, worker's knowledge, attitude, training, and rehabilitation services. The transportation, agriculture and construction sectors were found to be the most hazardous sectors and would benefit the most from Occupational Safety & Health (OSH) research and interventions. There is a strong need to develop a national injury surveillance system and also a mechanism to ensure adherence to the Occupational Safety & Health Act(OSHA) 1994. Detailed description and identification of risk factors for occupational injury in the environment, including machinery and equipment used was generally lacking. Future research on occupational injury should focus on surveillance to determine the magnitude of occupational injuries, determination of risk factors, identifying costeffective interventions (such as enforcement of OSHA regulations), and assessment of rehabilitation services. Relevant government agencies, universities, corporate sector and occupational safety organizations need to play a proactive role in identifying priority areas and research capacity building. Funding for occupational injury should be commensurate with the magnitude of the problem.
    MeSH terms: Humans; Malaysia/epidemiology; Risk Factors; Universities; Occupational Health*
  3. Ibrahim MF, Ahmad Sa'ad FS, Zakaria A, Md Shakaff AY
    Sensors (Basel), 2016 Oct 27;16(11).
    PMID: 27801799
    The conventional method of grading Harumanis mango is time-consuming, costly and affected by human bias. In this research, an in-line system was developed to classify Harumanis mango using computer vision. The system was able to identify the irregularity of mango shape and its estimated mass. A group of images of mangoes of different size and shape was used as database set. Some important features such as length, height, centroid and parameter were extracted from each image. Fourier descriptor and size-shape parameters were used to describe the mango shape while the disk method was used to estimate the mass of the mango. Four features have been selected by stepwise discriminant analysis which was effective in sorting regular and misshapen mango. The volume from water displacement method was compared with the volume estimated by image processing using paired t-test and Bland-Altman method. The result between both measurements was not significantly different (P > 0.05). The average correct classification for shape classification was 98% for a training set composed of 180 mangoes. The data was validated with another testing set consist of 140 mangoes which have the success rate of 92%. The same set was used for evaluating the performance of mass estimation. The average success rate of the classification for grading based on its mass was 94%. The results indicate that the in-line sorting system using machine vision has a great potential in automatic fruit sorting according to its shape and mass.
    MeSH terms: Calibration; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted/methods*; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted/standards; Discriminant Analysis; Mangifera/physiology*; Radio Frequency Identification Device; Food Quality*
  4. Abdul-Hamid NA, Mediani A, Maulidiani M, Abas F, Ismail IS, Shaari K, et al.
    Molecules, 2016 Oct 28;21(11).
    PMID: 27801841
    This study was aimed at examining the variations in the metabolite constituents of the different Ajwa grades and farm origins. It is also targeted at establishing the correlations between the metabolite contents and the grades and further to the nitric oxide (NO) inhibitory activity. Identification of the metabolites was generated using ¹H-NMR spectroscopy metabolomics analyses utilizing multivariate methods. The NO inhibitory activity was determined using a Griess assay. Multivariate data analysis, for both supervised and unsupervised approaches, showed clusters among different grades of Ajwa dates obtained from different farms. The compounds that contribute towards the observed separation between Ajwa samples were suggested to be phenolic compounds, ascorbic acid and phenylalanine. Ajwa dates were shown to have different metabolite compositions and exhibited a wide range of NO inhibitory activity. It is also revealed that Ajwa Grade 1 from the al-Aliah farm exhibited more than 90% NO inhibitory activity compared to the other grades and origins. Phenolic compounds were among the compounds that played a role towards the greater capacity of NO inhibitory activity shown by Ajwa Grade 1 from the al-Aliah farm.
    MeSH terms: RAW 264.7 Cells; Animals; Anti-Inflammatory Agents/pharmacology*; Anti-Inflammatory Agents/chemistry; Ascorbic Acid/analysis; Fruit/chemistry; Nitric Oxide/metabolism*; Phenols/analysis; Phenylalanine/analysis; Plant Extracts/pharmacology*; Plant Extracts/chemistry; Oxidative Stress/drug effects; Mice; Metabolomics; Phoeniceae/classification; Phoeniceae/chemistry*; Proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy
  5. Rahim J, Ahmad AH, Kassim NF, Ahmad H, Ishak IH, Rus AC, et al.
    J Am Mosq Control Assoc, 2016 Sep;32(3):210-216.
    PMID: 27802400
    Dengue vector control still heavily relies on the use of chemical insecticides, and the widespread use of insecticides has led to resistance in mosquitoes. The diagnostic dose is a key part of resistance monitoring. The present study corroborates the discriminating lethal doses of temephos and malathion based on dose-response of known susceptible strain of Aedes albopictus following the World Health Organization (WHO) diagnostic test procedure. Late 3rd and early 4th instars were tested with a range of larvicides to determine the lethal concentrations (LC50 and LC99) values. A slightly higher diagnostic dose of 0.020 mg/liter as compared with the WHO-established value of 0.012 mg/liter was observed for temephos. Meanwhile, a malathion diagnostic dose of 0.200 mg/liter is also reported here since there are no such reported values by WHO. Doubling the LC99 values of susceptible strains, 3 of the 5 wild-collected populations showed resistance to temephos and 2 showed incipient resistance; all 5 populations showed incipient resistance to malathion. The revised and established lethal diagnostic dose findings from the current work are crucial to elaborate on the variation in susceptibility of Ae. albopictus in future resistance monitoring programs in Malaysia.
    MeSH terms: Temefos*; Aedes*; Animals; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; Female; Insecticide Resistance*; Insecticides*; Malathion*; Malaysia; Mosquito Control*
  6. Watts G
    Lancet, 2016 Sep 24;388(10051):1274.
    PMID: 27673462 DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(16)31669-5
    MeSH terms: Anesthesia, General/history*; Anesthesia, General/instrumentation; Anesthesia, General/methods; Anesthesiology/history*; Anesthesiology/methods; Anesthetics/administration & dosage; Anesthetics/history*; Great Britain; Humans; Malaysia; Military Medicine/history; Nebulizers and Vaporizers/history*; Societies, Medical; History, 20th Century; History, 21st Century
  7. Danish-Daniel M, Ming GH, Mohd Noor ME, Sung YY, Usup G
    Genome Announc, 2016 Oct 6;4(5).
    PMID: 27795265 DOI: 10.1128/genomeA.01106-16
    Bacillus sp. strain UMTAT18 was isolated from the harmful dinoflagellate Alexandrium tamiyavanichii Its genome consists of 5,479,367 bp with 5,546 open reading frames, 102 tRNAs, and 29 rRNAs. Gene clusters for biosynthesis of nonribosomal peptides, bacteriocin, and lantipeptide were identified. It also contains siderophore and genes related to stress tolerance.
    MeSH terms: Bacillus; Bacteriocins; Dinoflagellida; Multigene Family; Peptides; RNA, Ribosomal; RNA, Transfer; Open Reading Frames; Siderophores
  8. Akram Z, Abduljabbar T, Abu Hassan MI, Javed F, Vohra F
    Dis Markers, 2016;2016:4801418.
    PMID: 27795608
    To investigate the cytokine profile as biomarkers in the gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) of chronic periodontitis (CP) patients with and without obesity, MEDLINE/PubMed, EMBASE, ScienceDirect, and SCOPUS databases were combined with handsearching of articles published from 1977 up to May 2016 using relevant MeSH terms. Meta-analyses were conducted separately for each of the cytokines: resistin, adiponectin, TNF-α, leptin, IL-6, IL-8, and IL-1β. Forest plots were produced reporting standardized mean difference of outcomes and 95% confidence intervals. Eleven studies were included. Three studies showed comparable levels of leptin among obese and nonobese patients with CP. Four studies reported comparable levels of interleukin- (IL-) 6 and resistin whereas five studies reported comparable levels of adiponectin. Two studies reported similar levels of CRP in patients with periodontitis with and without obesity. One study showed higher levels of tumor necrosis factor-alpha in obese patients with CP. One study showed higher levels of IL-1β and IL-8 in obese patients with CP. The level of localized periodontal inflammation may have a greater influence on the GCF proinflammatory biomarker levels as compared to systemic obesity. Whether patients having chronic periodontitis with obesity have elevated proinflammatory GCF biomarkers levels compared to nonobese individuals remains debatable.
    MeSH terms: Humans; Obesity/complications; Obesity/metabolism*; Biomarkers/metabolism*; Cytokines/metabolism*; Chronic Periodontitis/etiology; Chronic Periodontitis/metabolism*
  9. Hossain MK, Jena KK, Bhuiyan MA, Wickneswari R
    Breed Sci, 2016 Sep;66(4):613-626.
    PMID: 27795687
    Sheath blight is considered the most significant disease of rice and causes enormous yield losses over the world. Breeding for resistant varieties is the only viable option to combat the disease efficiently. Seventeen diverged rice genotypes along with 17 QTL-linked SSR markers were evaluated under greenhouse conditions. Pearson's correlation showed only the flag leaf angle had a significant correlation with sheath blight resistance under greenhouse screening. Multivariate analysis based on UPGMA clustering and principal component analysis (PCA) indicated that the flag leaf angle, flag leaf length, and plant compactness were significantly associated with the following SSR marker alleles: RM209 (116,130), RM202 (176), RM224 (126), RM257 (156), RM426 (175), and RM6971 (196), which are linked to the SB QTLs: QRlh11, qSBR11-3, qSBR11-1, qSBR9-1, qShB3-2, and qSB-9. A Mantel test suggested a weak relationship between the observed phenotypes and allelic variation patterns, implying the independent nature of morphological and molecular variations. Teqing and Tetep were found to be the most resistant cultivars. IR65482-4-136-2-2, MR219-4, and MR264 showed improved resistance potentials. These results suggest that the morphological traits and QTLs which have been found to associate with sheath blight resistance are a good choice to enhance resistance through pyramiding either 2 QTLs or QTLs and traits in susceptible rice cultivars.
  10. Leow SS, Bolsinger J, Pronczuk A, Hayes KC, Sambanthamurthi R
    Genes Nutr, 2016;11:29.
    PMID: 27795741
    BACKGROUND: The Nile rat (NR, Arvicanthis niloticus) is a model of carbohydrate-induced type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and the metabolic syndrome. A previous study found that palm fruit juice (PFJ) delayed or prevented diabetes and in some cases even reversed its early stages in young NRs. However, the molecular mechanisms by which PFJ exerts these anti-diabetic effects are unknown. In this study, the transcriptomic effects of PFJ were studied in young male NRs, using microarray gene expression analysis.

    METHODS: Three-week-old weanling NRs were fed either a high-carbohydrate diet (%En from carbohydrate/fat/protein = 70:10:20, 16.7 kJ/g; n = 8) or the same high-carbohydrate diet supplemented with PFJ (415 ml of 13,000-ppm gallic acid equivalent (GAE) for a final concentration of 5.4 g GAE per kg diet or 2.7 g per 2000 kcal; n = 8). Livers were obtained from these NRs for microarray gene expression analysis using Illumina MouseRef-8 Version 2 Expression BeadChips. Microarray data were analysed along with the physiological parameters of diabetes.

    RESULTS: Compared to the control group, 71 genes were up-regulated while 108 were down-regulated in the group supplemented with PFJ. Among hepatic genes up-regulated were apolipoproteins related to high-density lipoproteins (HDL) and genes involved in hepatic detoxification, while those down-regulated were related to insulin signalling and fibrosis.

    CONCLUSION: The results obtained suggest that the anti-diabetic effects of PFJ may be due to mechanisms other than an increase in insulin secretion.

    MeSH terms: Fruit and Vegetable Juices; Animals; Apolipoproteins; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2; Diet; Fibrosis; Gallic Acid; Insulin; Lipoproteins, HDL; Liver; Male; Up-Regulation; Dietary Supplements; Control Groups; Rats; Transcriptome
  11. Tan SY, Tan IK, Tan MF, Dutta A, Choo SW
    Sci Rep, 2016 10 31;6:36116.
    PMID: 27796355 DOI: 10.1038/srep36116
    On record, there are 17 species in the Yersinia genus, of which three are known to be pathogenic to human. While the chromosomal and pYV (or pCD1) plasmid-borne virulence genes as well as pathogenesis of these three species are well studied, their genomic evolution is poorly understood. Our study aims to predict the key evolutionary events that led to the emergence of pathogenic Yersinia species by analyzing gene gain-and-loss, virulence genes, and "Clustered regularly-interspaced short palindromic repeats". Our results suggest that the most recent ancestor shared by the human pathogenic Yersinia was most probably an environmental species that had adapted to the human body. This might have led to ecological specialization that diverged Yersinia into ecotypes and distinct lineages based on differential gene gain-and-loss in different niches. Our data also suggest that Y. pseudotuberculosis group might be the donor of the ail virulence gene to Y. enterocolitica. Hence, we postulate that evolution of human pathogenic Yersinia might not be totally in parallel, but instead, there were lateral gene transfer events. Furthermore, the presence of virulence genes seems to be important for the positive selection of virulence plasmid. Our studies provide better insights into the evolutionary biology of these bacteria.
    MeSH terms: Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins/genetics; Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins/chemistry; Humans; Phylogeny; Plasmids/genetics; Plasmids/metabolism; Virulence/genetics; Yersinia/classification; Yersinia/genetics*; Yersinia/pathogenicity; Yersinia Infections/microbiology; Yersinia Infections/pathology; Genome, Bacterial*; Adhesins, Bacterial/genetics; Adhesins, Bacterial/chemistry; Evolution, Molecular*; CRISPR-Cas Systems/genetics
  12. Angel LP, Yusof MT, Ismail IS, Ping BT, Mohamed Azni IN, Kamarudin NH, et al.
    J Microbiol, 2016 Nov;54(11):732-744.
    PMID: 27796927
    Ganoderma boninense is the causal agent of a devastating disease affecting oil palm in Southeast Asian countries. Basal stem rot (BSR) disease slowly rots the base of palms, which radically reduces productive lifespan of this lucrative crop. Previous reports have indicated the successful use of Trichoderma as biological control agent (BCA) against G. boninense and isolate T. virens 7b was selected based on its initial screening. This study attempts to decipher the mechanisms responsible for the inhibition of G. boninense by identifying and characterizing the chemical compounds as well as the physical mechanisms by T. virens 7b. Hexane extract of the isolate gave 62.60% ± 6.41 inhibition against G. boninense and observation under scanning electron microscope (SEM) detected severe mycelial deformation of the pathogen at the region of inhibition. Similar mycelia deformation of G. boninense was observed with a fungicide treatment, Benlate(®) indicating comparable fungicidal effect by T. virens 7b. Fraction 4 and 5 of hexane active fractions through preparative thin layer chromatography (P-TLC) was identified giving the best inhibition of the pathogen. These fractions comprised of ketones, alcohols, aldehydes, lactones, sesquiterpenes, monoterpenes, sulphides, and free fatty acids profiled through gas chromatography mass spectrometry detector (GC/MSD). A novel antifungal compound discovery of phenylethyl alcohol (PEA) by T. virens 7b is reported through this study. T. virens 7b also proved to be an active siderophore producer through chrome azurol S (CAS) agar assay. The study demonstrated the possible mechanisms involved and responsible in the successful inhibition of G. boninense.
    MeSH terms: Antifungal Agents/isolation & purification; Antifungal Agents/metabolism; Antifungal Agents/pharmacology*; Antifungal Agents/chemistry; Benomyl/pharmacology; Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; Phenylethyl Alcohol/isolation & purification; Phenylethyl Alcohol/pharmacology; Phenylethyl Alcohol/chemistry; Plant Diseases/microbiology; Trichoderma/metabolism; Trichoderma/chemistry*; Siderophores/biosynthesis; Mycelium/drug effects; Mycelium/ultrastructure; Ganoderma/drug effects*; Biological Control Agents/isolation & purification; Biological Control Agents/pharmacology; Biological Control Agents/chemistry*
  13. Cheah SK, Matthews T, Teh BS
    Asian Pac J Cancer Prev, 2016;17(9):4233-4235.
    PMID: 27797223
    BACKGROUND: Whole brain radiotherapy (WBRT) and stereotactic radiosurgery were frequently used to palliate patients with brain metastases. It remains controversial which modality or combination of therapy is superior especially in the setting of limited number of brain metastases. The availability of newer medical therapy that improves survival highlighted the importance of reducing long term radiation toxicity associated with WBRT. In this study, we aim to demonstrate the hippocampal sparing technique with whole brain and integrated simultaneous boost Materials and Methods: Planning data from 10 patients with 1-5 brain metastases treated with SRS were identified. Based on the contouring guideline from RTOG atlas, we identified and contoured the hippocampus with 5mm isocentric expansion to form the hippocampal avoidance structure. The plan was to deliver hippocampal sparing whole brain radiotherapy (HSWBRT) of 30 Gy in 10 fractions and simultaneous boost to metastatic lesions of 30 Gy in 10 fractions each.

    RESULTS: The PTV, hippocampus and hippocampal avoidance volumes ranges between 1.00 - 39.00 cc., 2.50 - 5.30 cc and 26.47 - 36.30 cc respectively. The mean hippocampus dose for the HSWBRT and HSWBRT and SIB plans was 8.06 Gy and 12.47 respectively. The max dose of optic nerve, optic chiasm and brainstem were kept below acceptable range of 37.5 Gy.

    CONCLUSIONS: The findings from this dosimetric study demonstrated the feasibility and safety of treating limited brain metastases with HSWBRT and SIB. It is possible to achieve the best of both worlds by combining HSWBRT and SIB to achieve maximal local intracranial control while maintaining as low a dose as possible to the hippocampus thereby preserving memory and quality of life.

    MeSH terms: Brain Neoplasms/pathology; Brain Neoplasms/radiotherapy*; Brain Neoplasms/surgery*; Hippocampus/radiation effects*; Humans; Prognosis; Radiometry; Radiotherapy Dosage; Radiotherapy Planning, Computer-Assisted/methods*; Cranial Irradiation/methods*; Radiosurgery*; Radiotherapy, Intensity-Modulated/methods; Organs at Risk/radiation effects; Organ Sparing Treatments*
  14. Zunura'in Z, Almardhiyah AR, Gan SH, Arifin WN, Sirajudeen K, Bhavaraju V, et al.
    Asian Pac J Cancer Prev, 2016;17(9):4439-4444.
    PMID: 27797258
    The objective of this case-control study was to determine anthropometric and reproductive factors associated with the development of breast cancer among women. Fifty-six newly diagnosed breast cancer patients were recruited from the Oncology Clinic, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), and 56 healthy female hospital employees were recruited as controls. Socio-demographic and reproductive data were obtained using a standard questionnaire. Anthropometric factors (body weight, height, body fat percentage, visceral fat and waist and hip circumference) were assessed. A high waist circumference (adjusted OR= 1.04, [95% CI: 1.00, 1.09]) and being more than 30 years of age at rst full-term pregnancy (adjusted OR=3.77, [95% CI: 1.10, 12.90]) were predictors of breast cancer development. The results of this study indicate that weight and reproductive health management should be emphasized for breast cancer prevention in Malaysia.

    Study site: Oncology clinic, Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (HUSM)
    MeSH terms: Adult; Anthropometry/methods; Body Weight/physiology; Breast Neoplasms/diagnosis*; Breast Neoplasms/physiopathology*; Female; Hospitals, University; Humans; Malaysia; Middle Aged; Outpatient Clinics, Hospital; Risk Factors; Body Mass Index; Case-Control Studies; Women's Health; Reproductive History; Waist-Hip Ratio/methods; Waist Circumference/physiology
  15. Kondo T, Nishimura S, Tani N, Ng KK, Lee SL, Muhammad N, et al.
    Am J Bot, 2016 Nov;103(11):1912-1920.
    PMID: 27797714
    PREMISE OF THE STUDY: In tropical rainforests of Southeast Asia, a highly fecund thrips (Thrips spp.) responds rapidly to the mass flowering at multiple-year intervals characteristic of certain species such as the canopy tree studied here, Shorea acuminata, by feeding on flower resources. However, past DNA analyses of pollen adherent to thrips bodies revealed that the thrips promoted a very high level of self-pollination. Here, we identified the pollinator that contributes to cross-pollination and discuss ways that the pollination system has adapted to mass flowering.

    METHODS: By comparing the patterns of floral visitation and levels of genetic diversity in adherent pollen loads among floral visitors, we evaluated the contribution of each flower visitor to pollination.

    KEY RESULTS: The big-eyed bug, Geocoris sp., a major thrips predator, was an inadvertent pollinator, and importantly contributed to cross-pollination. The total outcross pollen adhering to thrips was approximately 30% that on the big-eyed bugs. Similarly, 63% of alleles examined in S. acuminata seeds and seedlings occurred in pollen adhering to big-eyed bugs; about 30% was shared with pollen from thrips.

    CONCLUSIONS: During mass flowering, big-eyed bugs likely travel among flowering S. acuminata trees, attracted by the abundant thrips. Floral visitation patterns of big-eyed bugs vs. other insects suggest that these bugs can maintain their population size between flowering by preying upon another thrips (Haplothrips sp.) that inhabits stipules of S. acuminata throughout the year and quickly respond to mass flowering. Thus, thrips and big-eyed bugs are essential components in the pollination of S. acuminata.

    MeSH terms: Animals; Pollen/genetics; Pollen/parasitology; Pollen/physiology; Population Density; Reproduction; Seeds/genetics; Seeds/physiology; Trees; Genetic Variation; Microsatellite Repeats/genetics; Flowers/genetics; Flowers/parasitology; Flowers/physiology; Seedlings/genetics; Seedlings/parasitology; Seedlings/physiology; Dipterocarpaceae/genetics; Dipterocarpaceae/parasitology; Dipterocarpaceae/physiology*; Pollination*; Genotyping Techniques; Thysanoptera/physiology*; Rainforest
  16. Mohan SN, Mukhtar F, Jobson L
    BMJ Open, 2016 Oct 21;6(10):e012774.
    PMID: 27798019 DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2016-012774
    INTRODUCTION: Depression is a mood disorder that affects a significant proportion of the population worldwide. In Malaysia and Australia, the number of people diagnosed with depression is on the rise. It has been found that impairments in emotion processing and emotion regulation play a role in the development and maintenance of depression. This study is based on Matsumoto and Hwang's biocultural model of emotion and Triandis' Subjective Culture model. It aims to investigate the influence of culture on emotion processing among Malaysians and Australians with and without major depressive disorder (MDD).

    METHODS AND ANALYSIS: This study will adopt a between-group design. Participants will include Malaysian Malays and Caucasian Australians with and without MDD (N=320). There will be four tasks involved in this study, namely: (1) the facial emotion recognition task, (2) the biological motion task, (3) the subjective experience task and (4) the emotion meaning task. It is hypothesised that there will be cultural differences in how participants with and without MDD respond to these emotion tasks and that, pan-culturally, MDD will influence accuracy rates in the facial emotion recognition task and the biological motion task.

    ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: This study is approved by the Universiti Putra Malaysia Research Ethics Committee (JKEUPM) and the Monash University Human Research Ethics Committee (MUHREC). Permission to conduct the study has also been obtained from the National Medical Research Register (NMRR; NMRR-15-2314-26919). On completion of the study, data will be kept by Universiti Putra Malaysia for a specific period of time before they are destroyed. Data will be published in a collective manner in the form of journal articles with no reference to a specific individual.

    MeSH terms: Adolescent; Adult; Australia; Cross-Cultural Comparison; Culture*; Depressive Disorder/ethnology*; Emotions*; Ethnic Groups/psychology*; Facial Expression; Humans; Malaysia; Mental Processes*; Middle Aged; Movement; Perception; Psychology/methods; Research Design; Case-Control Studies; Young Adult
  17. Pindus DM, Lim L, Rundell AV, Hobbs V, Aziz NA, Mullis R, et al.
    BMJ Open, 2016 Oct 24;6(10):e012840.
    PMID: 27798023 DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2016-012840
    INTRODUCTION: Interventions delivered by primary and/or community care have the potential to reach the majority of stroke survivors and carers and offer ongoing support. However, an integrative account emerging from the reviews of interventions addressing specific long-term outcomes after stroke is lacking. The aims of the proposed scoping review are to provide an overview of: (1) primary care and community healthcare interventions by generalist healthcare professionals to stroke survivors and/or their informal carers to address long-term outcomes after stroke, (2) the scope and characteristics of interventions which were successful in addressing long-term outcomes, and (3) developments in current clinical practice.

    METHODS AND ANALYSIS: Studies that focused on adult community dwelling stroke survivors and informal carers were included. Academic electronic databases will be searched to identify reviews of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and controlled trials, trials from the past 5 years; reviews of observational studies. Practice exemplars from grey literature will be identified through advanced Google search. Reports, guidelines and other documents of major health organisations, clinical professional bodies, and stroke charities in the UK and internationally will be included. Two reviewers will independently screen titles, abstracts and full texts for inclusion of published literature. One reviewer will screen search results from the grey literature and identify relevant documents for inclusion. Data synthesis will include analysis of the number, type of studies, year and country of publication, a summary of intervention components/service or practice, outcomes addressed, main results (an indicator of effectiveness) and a description of included interventions.

    ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The review will help identify components of care and care pathways for primary care services for stroke. By comparing the results with stroke survivors' and carers' needs identified in the literature, the review will highlight potential gaps in research and practice relevant to long-term care after stroke.

    MeSH terms: Community Health Services*; Delivery of Health Care*; Great Britain; Humans; Long-Term Care; Primary Health Care*; Caregivers; Survivors; Stroke/therapy*
  18. Ang GY, Yu CY, Subramaniam V, Abdul Khalid MI, Tuan Abdu Aziz TA, Johari James R, et al.
    PLoS One, 2016;11(10):e0164169.
    PMID: 27798644 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0164169
    The human cytochrome P450 (CYP) is a superfamily of enzymes that have been a focus in research for decades due to their prominent role in drug metabolism. CYP2C is one of the major subfamilies which metabolize more than 10% of all clinically used drugs. In the context of CYP2C19, several key genetic variations that alter the enzyme's activity have been identified and catalogued in the CYP allele nomenclature database. In this study, we investigated the presence of well-established variants as well as novel polymorphisms in the CYP2C19 gene of 62 Orang Asli from the Peninsular Malaysia. A total of 449 genetic variants were detected including 70 novel polymorphisms; 417 SNPs were located in introns, 23 in upstream, 7 in exons, and 2 in downstream regions. Five alleles and seven genotypes were inferred based on the polymorphisms that were found. Null alleles that were observed include CYP2C19*3 (6.5%), *2 (5.7%) and *35 (2.4%) whereas allele with increased function *17 was detected at a frequency of 4.8%. The normal metabolizer genotype was the most predominant (66.1%), followed by intermediate metabolizer (19.4%), rapid metabolizer (9.7%) and poor metabolizer (4.8%) genotypes. Findings from this study provide further insights into the CYP2C19 genetic profile of the Orang Asli as previously unreported variant alleles were detected through the use of massively parallel sequencing technology platform. The systematic and comprehensive analysis of CYP2C19 will allow uncharacterized variants that are present in the Orang Asli to be included in the genotyping panel in the future.
    MeSH terms: Alleles; Cytochrome P-450 Enzyme System; Exons; Genotype; Humans; Introns; Malaysia; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; Cytochrome P-450 CYP2C19
  19. El-Garj FMA, Wajidi MFF, Avicor SW
    Asian Pac J Trop Med, 2016 10;9(10):973-978.
    PMID: 27794391 DOI: 10.1016/j.apjtm.2016.07.024
    OBJECTIVE: To clone cytochrome P450 from Aedes aegypti (Ae. aegypti) and determine the characteristics using bioinformatics tools.

    METHODS: Cytochrome P450 of Ae. aegypti was amplified using polymerase chain reaction, cloned and sequenced. Evolutionary relationship of the sequence was inferred and bioinformatics tools were used to predict subcellular localisation, signal peptide, transmembrane helix, phosphorylation, O-glycosylation, secondary and tertiary structures of the deduced protein.

    RESULTS: Polymerase chain reaction rather amplified a cytochrome P450 pseudogene which was named CYP4H44P (GenBank accession number KF779932). The pseudogene has 1537 nucleotides and an open reading frame of 335 amino acids containing cytochrome P450 motifs except the WxxxR motif. It is highly homologous to CYP4H28 and CYP4H28v2. Phylogenetic analysis and evolutionary divergence showed strong clustering with CYP4H28 alleles and least divergence from the alleles respectively. The deduced protein was predicted to be found in the cytoplasm and likely to be phosphorylated but devoid of signal peptide, transmembrane helix and O-glycosylated sites. The secondary and tertiary structures were also generated.

    CONCLUSIONS: A cytochrome P450 pseudogene, CYP4H44P was cloned from Ae. aegypti. The pseudogene is homologous with CYP4H28 alleles and seems to have recently diverged from this group. Isolating this pseudogene is an important step for evaluating its biological role in the mosquito and for the evolutionary analysis of Ae. aegypti CYPs.

  20. Tan ET, Yong KW, Wong SH, D'Arcy BR, Al Jassim R, De Voss JJ, et al.
    J Agric Food Chem, 2016 Nov 09;64(44):8447-8453.
    PMID: 27737547
    Ingestion of indospicine-contaminated camel and horse meat has caused fatal liver injury to dogs in Australia, and it is currently not known if such contaminated meat may pose a human health risk upon dietary exposure. To date, indospicine-related research has tended to focus on analytical aspects, with little information on post-harvest management of indospicine-contaminated meat. In this study, indospicine degradation was investigated in both aqueous solution and also contaminated meat, under a range of conditions. Aqueous solutions of indospicine and indospicine-contaminated camel meat were microwaved (180 °C) or autoclaved (121 °C) with the addition of food-grade additives [0.05% (v/v) acetic acid or 0.05% (w/v) sodium bicarbonate] for 0, 15, 30, and 60 min. An aqueous sodium bicarbonate solution demonstrated the greatest efficacy in degrading indospicine, with complete degradation after 15 min of heating in a microwave or autoclave; concomitant formation of indospicine degradation products, namely, 2-aminopimelamic and 2-aminopimelic acids, was observed. Similar treatment of indospicine-contaminated camel meat with aqueous sodium bicarbonate resulted in 50% degradation after 15 min of heating in an autoclave and 100% degradation after 15 min of heating in a microwave. The results suggest that thermo-alkaline aqueous treatment has potential as a pragmatic post-harvest handling technique in reducing indospicine levels in indospicine-contaminated meat.
    MeSH terms: Animals; Camels*; Chromatography, Liquid/methods; Food Contamination*; Hydrolysis; Meat*; Norleucine/analogs & derivatives*; Norleucine/analysis; Norleucine/chemistry; Pimelic Acids/analysis; Mass Spectrometry/methods; Sodium Bicarbonate/chemistry; Amino Acids, Neutral/analysis
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