Browse publications by year: 2017

  1. Dashti S, Peyman N, Tajfard M, Esmaeeli H
    Electron Physician, 2017 Mar;9(3):3966-3973.
    PMID: 28461871 DOI: 10.19082/3966
    BACKGROUND: In order to provide a better healthcare education to the society, health care students should have an acceptable electronic health (E-Health) literacy.
    OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to assess the level of E-Health literacy of Medicine and Health Sciences university students in Mashhad, Iran.
    METHODS: This cross-sectional study was performed on 192 students of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences using a validated Persian translate of the E-Health literacy scale (P-EHEALS) questionnaire in 2016. Demographic data including age, monthly income, level of education, preference of website for obtaining health related information and minutes of Internet use per day were obtained from the subjects. Independent-samples t-test and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used for comparison between groups, and Pearson correlation coefficient and linear regression were used to assess the correlation between study parameters and EHEALS score using SPSS version 21.
    RESULTS: A total of 192 (67.2% female and 32.8% male) subjects with mean age of 24.71±5.30 years participated in the study. Mean P-EHEALS score of the subjects was 28.21±6.95. There was a significant difference in P-EHEALS score between genders (p<0.001), department (p=0.001), education level (p<0.001) and health status (p=0.003) as well as monthly income (p=0.03), website preference categories (p=0.02). Male students were significantly more likely to gain higher P-EHEALS scores.
    CONCLUSION: The level of E-Health literacy was low in Medical and Health Sciences university students in Mashhad. More studies are needed to assess the contributors to E-Health literacy.
    MeSH terms: Cross-Sectional Studies; Humans; Iran; Students; Universities; Health Literacy*
  2. Sam JE, Rachmat RPN, Melano CSJ, Wahab NA
    J Korean Assoc Oral Maxillofac Surg, 2017 Apr;43(2):134-137.
    PMID: 28462199 DOI: 10.5125/jkaoms.2017.43.2.134
    Giant cell tumor (GCT) of the craniofacial bones has been reported but they are not common. This tumor occurs more often in women than in men and predominantly affects patients around the third to fifth decade of life. GCTs are generally benign but can be locally aggressive as well. We report a case of GCT involving the temporomandibular joint (TMJ), which was initially thought to be temporomandibular disorder (TMD). A 22-year-old female presented with swelling and pain over the right temporal region for 18 months associated with jaw locking and clicking sounds. On examination, her jaw deviated to the right during opening and there was a 2×2 cm swelling over the right temporal region. Despite routine treatment for TMD, the swelling increased in size. Computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging of the brain and TMJ revealed an erosive tumor of the temporal bone involving the TMJ which was displacing the temporal lobe. Surgical excision was done and the tumor removed completely. Histopathological examination was consistent with a GCT. No clinical or radiological recurrence was detected 10 months post-surgery.

    Study site: Hospital Pulau Pinang
    MeSH terms: Adult; Case Reports; Female; Hospitals; Humans
  3. Chee KY, Gaillard F, Velakoulis D, Ang CL, Chin LK, Ariffin R
    Aust N Z J Psychiatry, 2017 Nov;51(11):1157-1158.
    PMID: 28462591 DOI: 10.1177/0004867417707821
    MeSH terms: Adult; Dementia/diagnosis*; Dementia/genetics; Dementia/pathology; Dementia/physiopathology; Female; Humans; Membrane Glycoproteins/genetics*; Mutation; Receptors, Immunologic/genetics*; Primary Progressive Nonfluent Aphasia/diagnosis*; Primary Progressive Nonfluent Aphasia/genetics; Primary Progressive Nonfluent Aphasia/pathology; Primary Progressive Nonfluent Aphasia/physiopathology
  4. Savage F
    Lancet, 2017 04 29;389(10080):1696.
    PMID: 28463138 DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(17)31061-9
    MeSH terms: Drug Industry*; Humans; Industry; Conflict of Interest*
  5. Nazıroğlu M, Muhamad S, Pecze L
    Expert Rev Clin Pharmacol, 2017 Jul;10(7):773-782.
    PMID: 28463572 DOI: 10.1080/17512433.2017.1324781
    INTRODUCTION: In etiology of Alzheimer's disease (AD), involvement of amyloid β (Aβ) plaque accumulation and oxidative stress in the brain have important roles. Several nanoparticles such as titanium dioxide, silica dioxide, silver and zinc oxide have been experimentally using for treatment of neurological disease. In the last decade, there has been a great interest on combination of antioxidant bioactive compounds such as selenium (Se) and flavonoids with the oxidant nanoparticles in AD. We evaluated the most current data available on the physiological effects of oxidant and antioxidant nanoparticles. Areas covered: Oxidative nanoparticles decreased the activities of reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging enzymes such as glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase in the brain of rats and mice. However, Se-rich nanoparticles in small size (5-15 nm) depleted Aβ formation through decreasing ROS production. Reports on low levels of Se in blood and tissue samples and the low activities of GSH-Px, catalase and SOD enzymes in AD patients and animal models support the proposed crucial role of oxidative stress in the pathogenesis of AD. Expert commentary: In conclusion, present literature suggests that Se-rich nanoparticles appeared to be a potential therapeutic compound for the treatment of AD.
  6. Sinniah A, Oei TPS, Maniam T, Subramaniam P
    Psychiatry Res, 2017 08;254:179-189.
    PMID: 28463716 DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2017.04.026
    The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of Individual Cognitive Behavior Therapy (ICBT) in treating patients with mood disorders with suicidal ideation. A total of 69 patients (48 females, 21 males) with the diagnoses above were randomly allocated to either the group of Treatment As Usual (TAU)+ICBT (n=33) or the TAU group (n=36). All participants completed the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation (BSS), Positive and Negative Suicide Ideation Inventory (PANSI), Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS), and Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21). These questionnaires were administered at pre-treatment, midway through treatment (week 4), post-treatment (week 8), and at follow-ups after three months (week 20) and six months (week 32). Factorial ANOVA results showed that the TAU+ICBT patients improved significantly and at faster rate as compared to the TAU group, which showed improvement only from pre to mid treatment on DASS-D and BHS-T measures. The effect size (Cohen's d), for the TAU+ICBT group showed large effect (1.47) for depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation (1.00). These findings suggest that ICBT used in addition to the TAU, was effective in enhancing treatment outcome of patients with unipolar mood disorders as well as, reducing risk for suicide behavior.
    MeSH terms: Adult; Aged; Depressive Disorder/epidemiology; Depressive Disorder/psychology*; Depressive Disorder/therapy*; Female; Follow-Up Studies; Humans; Malaysia/epidemiology; Middle Aged; Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; Cognitive Therapy/methods*; Treatment Outcome; Mood Disorders/epidemiology; Mood Disorders/psychology*; Mood Disorders/therapy*; Suicidal Ideation*
  7. Vijayarathna S, Chen Y, Kanwar JR, Sasidharan S
    Biomed Pharmacother, 2017 Jul;91:366-377.
    PMID: 28463800 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopha.2017.04.112
    Over the years a number of microscopy methods have been developed to assess the changes in cells. Some non-invasive techniques such as holographic digital microscopy (HDM), which although does not destroy the cells, but helps to monitor the events that leads to initiation of apoptotic cell death. In this study, the apoptogenic property and the cytotoxic effect of P. longifolia leaf methanolic extract (PLME) against the human cervical carcinoma cells (HeLa) was studied using light microscope (LM), holographic digital microscopy (HDM), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM). The average IC50 value of PLME against HeLa cells obtained by MTT and CyQuant assay was 22.00μg/mL at 24h. However, noncancerous Vero cells tested with PLME exhibited no cytotoxicity with the IC50 value of 51.07μg/mL at 24h by using MTT assay. Cytological observations showed nuclear condensation, cell shrinkage, multinucleation, abnormalities of mitochondrial cristae, membrane blebbing, disappearance of microvilli and filopodia, narrowing of lamellipodia, holes, formation of numerous smaller vacuoles, cytoplasmic extrusions and formation of apoptotic bodies as confirmed collectively by HDM, LM, SEM and TEM. In conclusion, PLME was able to produce distinctive morphological features of HeLa cell death that corresponds to apoptosis.
    MeSH terms: Extracellular Vesicles; Methanol; Animals; Cytoplasm; HeLa Cells; Holography; Humans; Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; Microvilli; Plant Extracts; Pseudopodia; Vacuoles; Vero Cells; Cell Death; Apoptosis; Inhibitory Concentration 50; Microscopy, Electron, Transmission
  8. Jayaprakasam S, Abdul Rahim SK, Leow CY, Ting TO
    PLoS One, 2017;12(5):e0175510.
    PMID: 28464000 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0175510
    Collaborative beamforming (CBF) with a finite number of collaborating nodes (CNs) produces sidelobes that are highly dependent on the collaborating nodes' locations. The sidelobes cause interference and affect the communication rate of unintended receivers located within the transmission range. Nulling is not possible in an open-loop CBF since the collaborating nodes are unable to receive feedback from the receivers. Hence, the overall sidelobe reduction is required to avoid interference in the directions of the unintended receivers. However, the impact of sidelobe reduction on the capacity improvement at the unintended receiver has never been reported in previous works. In this paper, the effect of peak sidelobe (PSL) reduction in CBF on the capacity of an unintended receiver is analyzed. Three meta-heuristic optimization methods are applied to perform PSL minimization, namely genetic algorithm (GA), particle swarm algorithm (PSO) and a simplified version of the PSO called the weightless swarm algorithm (WSA). An average reduction of 20 dB in PSL alongside 162% capacity improvement is achieved in the worst case scenario with the WSA optimization. It is discovered that the PSL minimization in the CBF provides capacity improvement at an unintended receiver only if the CBF cluster is small and dense.
    MeSH terms: Heuristics; Algorithms; Communication; Data Collection; Feedback
  9. Imrigha NAA, Bidin N, Lau PS, Musa N, Zakaria N, Krishnan G
    J Biophotonics, 2017 Oct;10(10):1287-1291.
    PMID: 28464516 DOI: 10.1002/jbio.201600295
    Q-switched Nd: YAG laser is the most effective laser for tattoo removal. Photobiomodulation (PBM) therapy is an alternative method applied to accelerate the wound healing. This paper investigated the effects of PBM therapy using 808 nm diode laser on tattooed skin after laser tattoo removal. Forty-five rats were selected and tattooed with black ink on their dorsal, and then distributed into three groups. G0 was received non-laser irradiation. G1 was treated by laser tattoo removal using 1064 nm with energy density of 3.4 J/cm2 without PBM therapy, while G2 was treated daily with PBM therapy using 808 nm diode laser of 5 J/cm2 after a single session of laser tattoo removal. The effects of tattoo removal and healing progress of the wound were analyzed using histological studies. Findings showed 808 nm laser promotes the healing process through enhancing epithelialization and collagen deposition. Moreover, PBM therapy stimulated immune cells to improve phagocytosis process for removing the tattoo ink fragments effectively. The PBM therapy treated group was capable of improving the healing process and increasing the quality of skin following the laser tattoo removal. It was also found that stimulation of cellular function by PBM therapy increased tattoo clearance efficiency.
    MeSH terms: Animals; Collagen/biosynthesis; Skin/cytology; Skin/metabolism; Skin/radiation effects; Tattooing*; Wound Healing/radiation effects*; Low-Level Light Therapy*; Cell Proliferation/radiation effects; Rats; Lasers, Solid-State*; Pain Management
  10. Suk KH, Gopinath SCB
    Curr Med Chem, 2017;24(30):3310-3321.
    PMID: 28464786 DOI: 10.2174/0929867324666170502122444
    BACKGROUND: Drug encapsulated nanoparticle has the potency to act as an effective antidote for various diseases. It is possible to enhance the bioavailability of drug encapsulated nanoparticle, whereby the yield is significantly higher compared to the standard formulation. The development with drug encapsulated nanoparticle has been improved drastically after demonstrating its capability of showing the enhanced thermophysical properties and stability of the drug. It is also utilized widely in cancer diagnoses, whereby the surface of the nanoparticle can be modified to enable the nanocarriers to reach the targeted location. Thus, the encapsulated nanoparticle can reveal neural stem cell differentiation due to the multifaceted nature and the biophysical cues to control the cell differentiation.

    OBJECTIVE: In this overview, different advantages of the drug encapsulated nanoparticle for the downstream applications are narrated with its appealing characteristics.

    CONCLUSION: The application of the drug encapsulated nanoparticle is unrestricted as it can be customized to the specific target cell in the living system.

    MeSH terms: Antineoplastic Agents/pharmacology; Antineoplastic Agents/therapeutic use; Antineoplastic Agents/chemistry; Cell Differentiation/drug effects; Cell Survival/drug effects; Drug Carriers/chemistry*; Humans; Neoplasms/diagnosis; Neoplasms/drug therapy; Drug Delivery Systems*; Nanoparticles/therapeutic use; Nanoparticles/chemistry*; Neural Stem Cells/cytology; Neural Stem Cells/drug effects; Neural Stem Cells/metabolism
  11. Hong W, Li J, Chang Z, Tan X, Yang H, Ouyang Y, et al.
    J Antibiot (Tokyo), 2017 Jul;70(7):832-844.
    PMID: 28465626 DOI: 10.1038/ja.2017.55
    The emergence of drug resistance in bacterial pathogens is a growing clinical problem that poses difficult challenges in patient management. To exacerbate this problem, there is currently a serious lack of antibacterial agents that are designed to target extremely drug-resistant bacterial strains. Here we describe the design, synthesis and antibacterial testing of a series of 40 novel indole core derivatives, which are predicated by molecular modeling to be potential glycosyltransferase inhibitors. Twenty of these derivatives were found to show in vitro inhibition of Gram-positive bacteria, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Four of these strains showed additional activity against Gram-negative bacteria, including extended-spectrum beta-lactamase producing Enterobacteriaceae, imipenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae and multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumanii, and against Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Ra. These four compounds are candidates for developing into broad-spectrum anti-infective agents.
    MeSH terms: Anti-Bacterial Agents/chemical synthesis; Anti-Bacterial Agents/pharmacology*; Anti-Bacterial Agents/chemistry; Gram-Negative Bacteria/drug effects*; Gram-Positive Bacteria/drug effects*; Indoles/chemical synthesis; Indoles/pharmacology*; Indoles/chemistry; Models, Molecular; Drug Design; Drug Resistance, Multiple, Bacterial
  12. Ullah F, Abdullah AH, Kaiwartya O, Cao Y
    J Med Syst, 2017 Jun;41(6):93.
    PMID: 28466452 DOI: 10.1007/s10916-017-0739-y
    Recently, Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) has witnessed significant attentions in research and product development due to the growing number of sensor-based applications in healthcare domain. Design of efficient and effective Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol is one of the fundamental research themes in WBAN. Static on-demand slot allocation to patient data is the main approach adopted in the design of MAC protocol in literature, without considering the type of patient data specifically the level of severity on patient data. This leads to the degradation of the performance of MAC protocols considering effectiveness and traffic adjustability in realistic medical environments. In this context, this paper proposes a Traffic Priority-Aware MAC (TraPy-MAC) protocol for WBAN. It classifies patient data into emergency and non-emergency categories based on the severity of patient data. The threshold value aided classification considers a number of parameters including type of sensor, body placement location, and data transmission time for allocating dedicated slots patient data. Emergency data are not required to carry out contention and slots are allocated by giving the due importance to threshold value of vital sign data. The contention for slots is made efficient in case of non-emergency data considering threshold value in slot allocation. Moreover, the slot allocation to emergency and non-emergency data are performed parallel resulting in performance gain in channel assignment. Two algorithms namely, Detection of Severity on Vital Sign data (DSVS), and ETS Slots allocation based on the Severity on Vital Sign (ETS-SVS) are developed for calculating threshold value and resolving the conflicts of channel assignment, respectively. Simulations are performed in ns2 and results are compared with the state-of-the-art MAC techniques. Analysis of results attests the benefit of TraPy-MAC in comparison with the state-of-the-art MAC in channel assignment in realistic medical environments.
    MeSH terms: Algorithms; Wireless Technology*
  13. Chan KL, Rosli R, Tatarinova TV, Hogan M, Firdaus-Raih M, Low EL
    BMC Bioinformatics, 2017 Jan 27;18(Suppl 1):1426.
    PMID: 28466793 DOI: 10.1186/s12859-016-1426-6
    BACKGROUND: Gene prediction is one of the most important steps in the genome annotation process. A large number of software tools and pipelines developed by various computing techniques are available for gene prediction. However, these systems have yet to accurately predict all or even most of the protein-coding regions. Furthermore, none of the currently available gene-finders has a universal Hidden Markov Model (HMM) that can perform gene prediction for all organisms equally well in an automatic fashion.

    RESULTS: We present an automated gene prediction pipeline, Seqping that uses self-training HMM models and transcriptomic data. The pipeline processes the genome and transcriptome sequences of the target species using GlimmerHMM, SNAP, and AUGUSTUS pipelines, followed by MAKER2 program to combine predictions from the three tools in association with the transcriptomic evidence. Seqping generates species-specific HMMs that are able to offer unbiased gene predictions. The pipeline was evaluated using the Oryza sativa and Arabidopsis thaliana genomes. Benchmarking Universal Single-Copy Orthologs (BUSCO) analysis showed that the pipeline was able to identify at least 95% of BUSCO's plantae dataset. Our evaluation shows that Seqping was able to generate better gene predictions compared to three HMM-based programs (MAKER2, GlimmerHMM and AUGUSTUS) using their respective available HMMs. Seqping had the highest accuracy in rice (0.5648 for CDS, 0.4468 for exon, and 0.6695 nucleotide structure) and A. thaliana (0.5808 for CDS, 0.5955 for exon, and 0.8839 nucleotide structure).

    CONCLUSIONS: Seqping provides researchers a seamless pipeline to train species-specific HMMs and predict genes in newly sequenced or less-studied genomes. We conclude that the Seqping pipeline predictions are more accurate than gene predictions using the other three approaches with the default or available HMMs.

    MeSH terms: Exons/genetics; Markov Chains; Oryza/genetics; Software*; Arabidopsis/genetics; Genome, Plant/genetics*; Gene Expression Profiling*; Genomics/methods*; Transcriptome*
  14. Tan JWC, Lam CSP, Kasim SS, Aw TC, Abanilla JM, Chang WT, et al.
    Heart Asia, 2017;9(1):81-87.
    PMID: 28466882 DOI: 10.1136/heartasia-2016-010818
    OBJECTIVE: High-sensitivity troponin (hs-Tn) assays need to be applied appropriately to improve diagnosis and patient outcomes in acute coronary syndromes (ACS).

    METHODS: Experts from Asia Pacific convened in 2015 to provide data-driven consensus-based, region-specific recommendations and develop an algorithm for the appropriate incorporation of this assay into the ACS assessment and treatment pathway.

    RESULTS: Nine recommendations were developed by the expert panel: (1) troponin is the preferred cardiac biomarker for diagnostic assessment of ACS and is indicated for patients with symptoms of possible ACS; (2) hs-Tn assays are recommended; (3) serial testing is required for all patients; (4) testing should be performed at presentation and 3 hours later; (5) gender-specific cut-off values should be used for hs-Tn I assays; (6) hs-Tn I level >10 times the upper limit of normal should be considered to 'rule in' a diagnosis of ACS; (7) dynamic change >50% in hs-Tn I level from presentation to 3-hour retest identifies patients at high risk for ACS; (8) where only point-of-care testing is available, patients with elevated readings should be considered at high risk, while patients with low/undetectable readings should be retested after 6 hours or sent for laboratory testing and (9) regular education on the appropriate use of troponin tests is essential.

    CONCLUSIONS: We propose an algorithm that will potentially reduce delays in discharge by the accurate 'rule out' of non-ACS patients within 3 hours. Appropriate research should be undertaken to ensure the efficacy and safety of the algorithm in clinical practice, with the long-term goal of improvement of care of patients with ACS in Asia Pacific.

  15. Ang KM, Yeo LY, Hung YM, Tan MK
    Nanoscale, 2017 May 18;9(19):6497-6508.
    PMID: 28466906 DOI: 10.1039/c7nr01690e
    We exploit the possibility of enhancing the molecular transport of liquids through graphene films using amplitude modulated surface acoustic waves (SAWs) to demonstrate effective and efficient nanoparticle filtration. The use of the SAW, which is an extremely efficient means for driving microfluidic transport, overcomes the need for the large mechanical pumps required to circumvent the large pressure drops encountered in conventional membranes for nanoparticle filtration. 100% filtration efficiency was obtained for micron-dimension particulates, decreasing to only 95% for the filtration of particles of tens of nanometers in dimension, which is comparable to that achieved with other methods. To circumvent clogging of the film, which is typical with all membrane filters, a backwash operation to flush the nanoparticles is incorporated simply by reversing the SAW-induced flow such that 98% recovery of the initial filtration rate is recovered. Given these efficiencies, together with the low cost and compact size of the chipscale SAW devices, we envisage the possibility of scaling out the process by operating a large number of devices in parallel to achieve typical industrial-scale throughputs with potential benefits in terms of substantially lower capital, operating and maintenance costs.
    MeSH terms: Filtration; Graphite; Maintenance; Sound; Microfluidics; Nanoparticles
  16. Baig AM, Lalani S, Khan NA
    J Basic Microbiol, 2017 Jul;57(7):574-579.
    PMID: 28466971 DOI: 10.1002/jobm.201700025
    Here we describe features of apoptosis in unicellular Acanthamoeba castellanii belonging to the T4 genotype. When exposed to apoptosis-inducing compounds such as doxorubicin, A. castellanii trophozoites exhibited cell shrinkage and membrane blebbing as observed microscopically, DNA fragmentation using agarose gel electrophoresis, and phosphatidylserine (PS) externalization using annexin V immunostaining. Overall, these findings suggest the existence of apoptosis in A. castellanii possibly mediated by intrinsic apoptotic cascade. Further research in this field could provide avenues to selectively induce apoptosis in A. castellanii by triggering intrinsic apoptotic cascade.
    MeSH terms: Animals; Doxorubicin/pharmacology; Genotype; Apoptosis*; Annexin A5/analysis; Acanthamoeba castellanii/cytology*; Acanthamoeba castellanii/drug effects; Acanthamoeba castellanii/genetics; Acanthamoeba castellanii/physiology*; Trophozoites/drug effects; DNA Fragmentation
  17. Wong JE, Haszard JJ, Howe AS, Parnell WR, Skidmore PML
    Nutrients, 2017 May 03;9(5).
    PMID: 28467392 DOI: 10.3390/nu9050454
    Healthful dietary habits are individually associated with better nutrient intake and positive health outcomes; however, this information is rarely examined together to validate an indicator of diet quality. This study developed a 15-item Healthy Dietary Habits Index (HDHI) based on self-reported dietary habits information collected in the 2008/09 New Zealand Adult Nutrition Survey. The validity of HDHI as a diet quality index was examined in relation to sociodemographic factors, 24-diet recall derived nutrient intakes, and nutritional biomarkers in a representative sample of adults aged 19 years and above. Linear regression models were employed to determine associations between HDHI quintiles and energy-adjusted nutrient data and nutritional biomarkers. Significantly higher HDHI scores were found among women, older age groups, Non-Māori or Pacific ethnic groups, and less socioeconomically-deprived groups (all p < 0.001). Increasing quintiles of HDHI were associated with higher intakes of dietary fibre and seven micronutrients including calcium, iron, and vitamin C, and lower intakes of energy, macronutrients, sodium, zinc, vitamins B6 and B12. Associations in the expected directions were also found for urinary sodium, whole blood folate, serum and red blood cell folate, and plasma selenium (all p < 0.001). The present findings suggest that the HDHI is a valid measure of diet quality as it is capable of discerning quality of diets of subgroups and ranking nutrient intakes among NZ adults.
    MeSH terms: Adult; Aged; Ascorbic Acid; Energy Intake; Diet; Ethnic Groups; Female; Folic Acid; Humans; Iron; New Zealand; Nutrition Surveys; Selenium; Sodium; Zinc; Linear Models; Micronutrients; Vitamin B 6; Young Adult; Self Report
  18. Madni SHH, Abd Latiff MS, Abdullahi M, Abdulhamid SM, Usman MJ
    PLoS One, 2017;12(5):e0176321.
    PMID: 28467505 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0176321
    Cloud computing infrastructure is suitable for meeting computational needs of large task sizes. Optimal scheduling of tasks in cloud computing environment has been proved to be an NP-complete problem, hence the need for the application of heuristic methods. Several heuristic algorithms have been developed and used in addressing this problem, but choosing the appropriate algorithm for solving task assignment problem of a particular nature is difficult since the methods are developed under different assumptions. Therefore, six rule based heuristic algorithms are implemented and used to schedule autonomous tasks in homogeneous and heterogeneous environments with the aim of comparing their performance in terms of cost, degree of imbalance, makespan and throughput. First Come First Serve (FCFS), Minimum Completion Time (MCT), Minimum Execution Time (MET), Max-min, Min-min and Sufferage are the heuristic algorithms considered for the performance comparison and analysis of task scheduling in cloud computing.
    MeSH terms: Heuristics*; Cloud Computing*; Algorithms*; Task Performance and Analysis*
  19. Huong KH, Azuraini MJ, Aziz NA, Amirul AA
    J Biosci Bioeng, 2017 Jul;124(1):76-83.
    PMID: 28457658 DOI: 10.1016/j.jbiosc.2017.02.003
    Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-4-hydroxybutyrate) [(P(3HB-co-4HB)] copolymer receives attention as next generation biomaterial in medical application. However, the exploitation of the copolymer is still constrained since such copolymer has not yet successfully been performed in industrial scale production. In this work, we intended to establish pilot production system of the copolymer retaining the copolymer quality which has recently discovered to have novel characteristic from lab scale fermentation. An increase of agitation speed has significantly improved the copolymer accumulation efficiency by minimizing the utilization of substrates towards cell growth components. This is evidenced by a drastic increase of PHA content from 28 wt% to 63 wt% and PHA concentration from 3.1 g/L to 6.5 g/L but accompanied by the reduction of residual biomass from 8.0 g/L to 3.8 g/L. Besides, fermentations at lower agitation and aeration have resulted in reduced molecular weight and mechanical strength of the copolymer, suggesting the role of sufficient oxygen supply efficiency in improving the properties of the resulting copolymers. The KLa-based scale-up fermentation was performed successfully in maintaining the yield and the quality of the copolymers produced without a drastic fluctuation. This suggests that the scale-up based on the KLa values supported the fermentation system of P(3HB-co-4HB) copolymer production in single-stage using mixed-substrate cultivation strategy.
    MeSH terms: Fermentation; Hydroxybutyrates/metabolism*; Hydroxybutyrates/chemistry*; Molecular Weight; Pilot Projects; Polyesters/metabolism*; Polyesters/chemistry*; Biomass; Elastomers/metabolism*; Elastomers/chemistry*; Cupriavidus/metabolism
  20. Ahmad H, Ahmad S, Shah SAA, Latif A, Ali M, Khan FA, et al.
    Bioorg Med Chem, 2017 07 01;25(13):3368-3376.
    PMID: 28457693 DOI: 10.1016/j.bmc.2017.04.022
    Extensive chromatographic separations performed on the basic (pH=8-10) chloroform soluble fraction of Aconitum heterophyllum resulted in the isolation of three new diterpenoid alkaloids, 6β-Methoxy, 9β-dihydroxylheteratisine (1), 1α,11,13β-trihydroxylhetisine (2), 6,15β-dihydroxylhetisine (3), and the known compounds iso-atisine (4), heteratisine (5), hetisinone (6), 19-epi-isoatisine (7), and atidine (8). Structures of the isolated compounds were established by means of mass and NMR spectroscopy as well as single crystal X-ray crystallography. Compounds 1-8 were screened for their antioxidant and enzyme inhibition activities followed by in silico studies to find out the possible inhibitory mechanism of the tested compounds. This work is the first report demonstrating significant antioxidant and anticholinesterase potentials of diterpenoid alkaloids isolated from a natural source.
    MeSH terms: Alkaloids/isolation & purification; Alkaloids/pharmacology*; Alkaloids/chemistry; Animals; Antioxidants/isolation & purification; Antioxidants/pharmacology*; Antioxidants/chemistry; Cholinesterase Inhibitors/isolation & purification; Cholinesterase Inhibitors/pharmacology*; Cholinesterase Inhibitors/chemistry; Cholinesterases/metabolism*; Diterpenes/isolation & purification; Diterpenes/pharmacology*; Diterpenes/chemistry; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; Electrophorus; Models, Molecular; Quantum Theory; Structure-Activity Relationship; Molecular Structure; Crystallography, X-Ray; Aconitum/chemistry*
External Links