Background: Oral disease in association of pregnancy outcome has been long researched.
Most pregnant women perceived that oral disease in pregnancy are expected and considered
to be normal. Objective: This study aims to evaluate the knowledge of pregnant women and
their practices towards oral disease. Methods: 296 pregnant mothers were recruited from
government clinics in Kuantan, Malaysia. A validated and self -administered questionnaire
assessing knowledge, attitudes and practices towards oral health was used. Results were
analysed by descriptive analysis, chi square test and multiple logistic regression. Results:
Most respondents showed poor knowledge on oral health problem with its pregnancy
outcome (66.6%) and poor attitude about dental health during pregnancy (53.4%). Half of
them had good practice on oral health. Tooth cavity (46.3%) and gum bleeding (29.4%) were
the commonest problem reported by them. Only one third of the mothers utilize dental
service. Higher level of education was associated with better oral health practice [OR:0.02 CI
(1.12,3.92)] Conclusions: Knowledge on the relationship between oral health and pregnancy
outcome is still low among pregnant mothers. Utilization of dental service was also low. High
level of education is proven to give better oral health care.
Introduction: Clinical studies have shown that people suffering from tinnitus are at a high risk of developing serious psychological disturbances or serious psychological distress (Erlandsson &
Widen, 2004 in Hiller and Goebel, 1998). Thus the purpose of this study was to determine the
relationship between life-time noise exposure and tinnitus experience among young adults in IIUM Kuantan. Methods: A cross sectional study was used to determine whether there is any association between tinnitus experiences and life-time noise exposure among 11 young adults in IIUM Kuantan from age of 18 to 35 years old who are exposed to the noise. Hearing assessment was done using otoscopy, tympanometry and pure tone audiometry. Participants were asked to fill in a questionnaire on tinnitus experience, and were fitted with a noise dosimeter that measured their noise exposure during waking hours. Values collected from dosimeter were then converted into cumulative life-time noise exposure which refers to the equivalent noise exposure per year (Jokitulppo, Tolvenen & Bjork, 2005). Results: Average cumulative life-time noise exposure of the participants is 72.54 dBA ± 6.9459. Fifty five percent (55%) reported of sometimes having tinnitus. No correlation was found between cumulative life-time noise exposure and tinnitus experience. Conclusion: The cumulative life-time noise exposure among young adults in IIUM Kuantan was found to be lower than the level considered as hazardous. Despite reports of tinnitus experience, there was no evidence that the tinnitus was due to noise exposure.
Introduction: Clinacanthus nutans is used as natural nutraceuticals for prevention and treatment of cancer. The purpose of this study is to (i) determine the total phenolic content and antioxidant scavenging capacities of C. nutans in free and bound phenolic acid and (ii) study the relationship between TPC and antioxidant scavenging capacities of C. nutans. Methods: The total phenolic contents were measured using Folin-Ciocalteu assay. Free and bound phenolic were examined by using spectrophotometer while antioxidant capacity were evaluated using DPPH (2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) scavenging activity assay. Results: Insoluble phenolic acids showed the highest amount of total phenolic content in C. nutans extracts (6.09+ 0.45 mg gallic acid equivalent (GAE)/ g DW) and exhibited highest antioxidant activity (73.3+0.82 %) as compared to free and soluble phenolic extracts. The IC50 values for free phenolic, soluble bound and insoluble bound phenolic extracts were 0.69+0.02 mg/mL, 0.64+0.04 and 0.60+0.006 mg/mL, respectively. There were positive correlation between insoluble bound phenolic content of C. nutans extracts with antioxidant radical scavenging capacity (R2 = 0.893). Conclusions: These results indicate that different phenolic acid forms affect the total phenolic content and antioxidant properties. Natural compounds such as phenolics from C. nutans could be a good source of antioxidant.
Introduction: Collagen and gelatin are essential protein in vertebrates and extensively used in various industries. Methods: In this study, acid-solubilized collagen and gelatin were extracted from the scales of three different species of freshwater fish namely Kelah (Tombroides), Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) and Snakehead fish (Channidae) and then further quantified using Bradford assay and separated by molecular weight using SDS-PAGE. Results: The extracted collagen in Tilapia fish scale was found to be the highest with 0.018 of protein absorbance among the other three fish; Kelah fish (0.017) and Snakehead fish (0.011). For gelatin, Snakehead fish scales showed the highest amount of total protein concentration followed by Tilapia and Kelah fish with 0.467, 0.144 and 0.037 μg/μL per g, respectively. Based on the SDS-PAGE results, collagen from all the three freshwater fishes were identified as a type 1 (molecular weight approximately from 95 to 130 kDa) collagen. As for gelatin, only gelatin from Snakehead fish scale was identified to be a type 1(molecular weight approximately from 95 to 130 kDa) while the other two freshwater fishes showed no clear band due to high viscosity of the gelatin produced. Conclusion: It can be said that the fishes investigated in this study have a potential to be the alternative source of collagen and gelatin.
Introduction: Dietary calcium intake is important in body system regulation. Inadequate intake
among elderly may lead to various health issues such as osteoporosis and hip fracture. In order to counter the problem, this study was carried out to identify dietary calcium intake among elderly in Kuantan, Pahang. Methods: A face to face interviewer-administered session was done individually with seventy-nine (n=79) subjects aged ≥60 years to collect data on sociodemographic background, health status and dietary intake. Diet history method was used to obtain information related to dietary intake and analyzed using Nutritionist Pro Software. P-value was set at p
MeSH terms: Aged; Calcium, Dietary; Diet; Health Status; Hip Fractures; Humans; Middle Aged; Osteoporosis; Pelvic Bones; Software; Nutritionists
Introduction: Piper sarmentosum is one of the herbaceous plants that has been used as natural antioxidant to source to treat diseases. This study was conducted to determine the total phenolic contents (TPC) and free radical scavenging capacity in free and bound (soluble and insoluble) of P. sarmentosum. Methods: Free phenolic extract was acquired through direct methanol extraction while acidic and alkaline hydrolyses were adopted to release the bound phenolic acids. The TPC was determined by using Folin-Ciocalteu assay and is expressed as Gallic Acid equivalent (GAE) in miligrams per gram of extracts. The antioxidant scavenging capacity was determined by using DPPH (2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) assay. Results: Insoluble bound phenolic extract of P. sarmentosum showed the highest TPC value (1.54 ± 0.04 mg GAE/g DW) followed by soluble phenolic extract and free extract (1.13 ± 0.10 and 0.57 ± 0.06 mg GAE/g DW, respectively). The soluble phenolic fraction has expressed the highest free radical scavenging capacity (76.57± 4.12%) followed by insoluble (69.79± 2.33 %) and free extracts (58.15± 4.44 %). The IC50 values for free, soluble and insoluble bound phenolic were 24.05 ± 3.81, 16.17 ± 1.84 and 18.49 ± 1.92 mg/ml, respectively. Conclusions: The significant differences between all the extracts and antioxidant inhibition in this present study suggested that different forms (free and bound) of extracts did influence the radical scavenging capacity as a whole.
Fusarium wilt disease, caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense, especially by tropical race 4 (Foc TR4), is threatening the global banana industry. Musa acuminata Pahang, a wild diploid banana that displays strong resistance to Foc TR4, holds great potential to understand the underlying resistance mechanisms. Microscopic examination reports that, in a wounding inoculation system, the Foc TR4 infection processes in roots of Pahang (resistant) and a triploid cultivar Brazilian (susceptible) were similar by 7 days post inoculation (dpi), but significant differences were observed in corms of both genotypes at 14 dpi. We compare transcriptomic responses in the corms of Pahang and Brazilian, and show that Pahang exhibited constitutive defense responses before Foc TR4 infection and inducible defense responses prior to Brazilian at the initial Foc TR4 infection stage. Most key enzymatic genes in the phenylalanine metabolism pathway were up-regulated in Brazilian, suggesting that lignin and phytotoxin may be triggered during later stages of Foc TR4 infection. This study unravels a few potential resistance candidate genes whose expression patterns were assessed by RT-qPCR assay and improves our understanding the defense mechanisms of Pahang response to Foc TR4.
Sg. Papar is one of the rivers in Kota Kinabalu which is mainly used for water supply especially in Papar district. For the past years, many pollution cases concerning Sg. Papar have been reported which originated from various sources including pig farm, agricultural run-off and deforestation. These resulted in a frequent shutdown of the water treatment plants in Papar district leading to water supply disturbance and water supply deficiency in the affected area. The data utilized in this study were obtained from water quality tests performed on river water samples taken from Limbahau water treatment plant recorded from September 2013 to September 2016. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used in this study to analyze and correlate the physicochemical parameters with the water treatment plant shutdown. The results revealed that eight parameters (pH, alum, nitrate, TDS, DO, conductivity, colour and chloride) analysed in this study correlate with each other and the parameter that mostly caused the drastic change in the river water and as pollution index is turbidity. This study is critical for understanding the relationship between the water quality paramters and environmental issues.
MeSH terms: Alum Compounds; Animals; Color; Conservation of Natural Resources; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; Nitrates; Swine; Water Supply; Water Purification; Principal Component Analysis; Rivers; Water Quality; Farms
Lead contamination present in wastewater is one of the major problems due to its toxicity and persistence. This issue increased dramatically and led to the environmental and health concerns worldwide. Therefore, this study aims to remove lead from synthetic wastewater effluent by adsorption process. In this study, nanomaterial called graphene oxide (GO) is used as an adsorbent due to its mechanical strength and high surface area. The parameters were optimized using Fractional factorial design under response surface method. GO demonstrates high adsorption capacity, qmax = 500 mg/g at 100 mg/L of initial lead concentration and at optimum pH 9. Adsorption isotherm of lead was also investigated to evaluate the adsorption capacity. The equilibrium data of graphene oxide adsorption was better represented by the Langmuir isotherm and was achieved within 60 minutes. The results showed that GO has potential to be an important adsorbent for lead removal. In the future, GO might be imbedded as adsorbent in the membrane fabrication for wastewater treatment.
MeSH terms: Adsorption; Graphite; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; Lead; Nanostructures; Waste Water
This paper addresses the treatment of waste engine oils (WEO) by acid/clay refining method using glacial acetic acid. An optimization of the process parameters in terms of settling time, stirring speed and mixing temperature for treating the WEO was performed using Response Surface Methodology to improve the quality of treated lubricating oil. The quality of the treated WEO (Castrol brand) was evaluated in terms of viscosity index and flash point value. The treated fuel quality is found to have about 95% similarity to the fresh oil used as a standard at the settling time of 24 hours, temperature of 50 °C and mixing speed of 150 rpm. Analysis of variances (ANOVA) showed that settling time plays the most significant parameters of the process followed by the mixing temperature. Solid contaminants which were collected after the treatment were analyzed using SEM-EDS. They contained rough heteregenous shaped particles with elements such as carbon (97%), calcium (1.12%), zinc (0.74%), sulphur (0.73%) and phosphorus (0.29%). Then, four different brands of WEO (Liqui Moly, Castrol, Shell and Pennzoil) were treated at the optimized conditions to determine the feasibility of the method to treat any brands of WEO. It can be concluded that the optimized treatement method is suitable to treat most of WEO. The findings of this study provide the information on the best process condition for treating WEO as well as the solid contaminants present in it.
Patches has recently emerged and attracting more attention for its versatility in many areas such as cosmetic, pharmaceutical and medical. Patches can either be used to administer selected drug to skin or deliver some beneficial ingredients for cosmetic purposes. With that, as polymer is used as the matrix for patches, the polymer selected must be non-toxic, have adhesive property and non-irritative to the skin. Currently, synthetic polymer had been used as the matrix. However, as time passes, people are more concern with the environment, therefore biopolymer is chosen over synthetic polymer as they are degradable and also safe to use. Nowadays, as consumers are demanding for a more effective product that is not only good for appearance but also the health of the skin, studies had been done on many kinds of active ingredient that will give the best effect to the skin. Thus in this paper, patches made up of different combinations of polymer and active ingredients, as well as fabrication method currently used to produce patches will be discussed.
Sulfur has been highly sought by many industries everywhere around the world for various applications. This exceptionally useful element has been largely manufactured especially in powder form each year reflecting its increase in demand in line with technological advancement and uses for various product applications. The manufacturing processes include mining as well as chemical reactions in Claus Process. Rubber industries normally use abundance of sulfur in their latex compound to introduce vulcanization. The geneal concern of sulfur for rubber vulcanization is dispersibility in the rubber matrix due to improper optimization of its preparation process prior to latex compounding. Another crucial issue is crystallization of soluble sulfur from its insoluble origin, either during or post-rubber vulcanization that constitutes to formation of sulfur bloom that grows on the surface of the rubber articles. It is known that both issues are related to the process conditions and compounding recipe that could not be fully solved. Various studies have been conducted to minimize such occurences – from process optimization to sulfur chemistry itself – and of continuous improvement and innovation to solve various threats in sulfur applications. This paper reviews on detailed description on elemental sulfur, of respective industrial applications, and most importantly highlights on sulfur trends and issues normally encountered.
Curcuma longa L. uses widely as a traditional medicine especially in India and China for the treatment of diabetic wounds, inflammatory, hepatic, and digestive disorders. These effects lead to the research of this plant for the treatment of chronic diseases. To assess the tumour inhibition effect of curcumin in animal models by integrating various studies into a systematic literature review (SLR) and meta-analysis. Studies of curcumin treatment in tumor-induced animal models were searched in electronic databases. The assessment of the quality of the studies included and the tumor inhibition effect used SYRCLE’s Risk of Bias tool and Review Manager (The Cochrane Collaboration) software. From the 732 articles identified, only 11 studies met the selection criteria and included in the analysis. Curcumin significantly inhibited the tumor volume in the animal models in overall, and the subgroup analyses revealed that high dose, long-duration curcumin treatment, and intervention by injection have a more significant effect compared to the opposite group. Curcumin was effective in inhibiting tumor volume in animal models. The study quality and heterogeneity of the meta-analysis can probably be improved if a larger-scale bases of animal models and a well-designed study were available
Both community composition changes due to species redistribution and within-species size shifts may alter body-size structures under climate warming. Here we assess the relative contribution of these processes in community-level body-size changes in tropical moth assemblages that moved uphill during a period of warming. Based on resurvey data for seven assemblages of geometrid moths (>8000 individuals) on Mt. Kinabalu, Borneo, in 1965 and 2007, we show significant wing-length reduction (mean shrinkage of 1.3% per species). Range shifts explain most size restructuring, due to uphill shifts of relatively small species, especially at high elevations. Overall, mean forewing length shrank by ca. 5%, much of which is accounted for by species range boundary shifts (3.9%), followed by within-boundary distribution changes (0.5%), and within-species size shrinkage (0.6%). We conclude that the effects of range shifting predominate, but considering species physiological responses is also important for understanding community size reorganization under climate warming.
Biogas is an economical and environmentally friendly renewable energy which can be produced by anaerobic digestion (AD). This biochemical method converts organic compounds (mainly from wastes) into a sustainable source of energy. Anaerobic co-digestion (AcoD) is a method combining more than one substrate to resolve the difficulties faced in a single substrate AD system. Solid wastes increases as the population increase so do the urbanization and industrial industries. Food waste and sewage sludge are examples of one of the solid wastes. Co-digesting of both substrates may improve process stabilization to increase biogas production and overcome the nutrients imbalance. Thus, anaerobic co-digestion has been recognized as a technology that could provide a clean renewable energy source and helps reduce the landfill problem. The objective of this paper is to investigate the recent achievements and perspectives on the interaction of co-digestion between food waste and sewage sludge to improve biogas production. This may provide valuable information on the optimization of combinations of substrates: food waste and sewage sludge and prediction of bioreactor performance.
Effective treatment of wastewater is crucial in order to achieve a sustainable development. For instance, highly efficient treatment processes with low capital requirements are the major prerequisite for implementation of the advanced wastewater treatment operations. Among various available treatment methods, the application of coagulation-flocculation process by using natural coagulant; chitosan has vast advantages such as low operating cost, environmental friendly and highly effective in the wastewater treatment operations. The application of nanotechnology in numerous treatment techniques are considered as the most significant advances in water and wastewater treatment practices. The utilization of magnesium oxide (MgO) as nano-adsorbent has recently gained attention as a potential treatment method in water remediation particularly for treating effluents with high amount of organic dyes and heavy metals due to its high treatment efficiency, low cost, versatility and environment compatibility. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of coagulation-flocculation process when using novel coagulant in which MgO coated with chitosan by investigating the percentage removal of several significant parameters which were turbidity, chemical oxygen demand (COD) and suspended solid. The removal efficiencies were determined throughout a series of experiments carried out using a standard jar test procedure in which three different coagulants; chitosan, MgO coated with chitosan and MgO were tested on water samples taken from Sg. Pusu. In addition, a set of experiments was designed using response surface methodology (RSM) in order to optimize adsorption of chitosan into MgO. The experiments were conducted at various concentrations of chitosan (10-30 mg/ml) and selected MgO dosage ranges (10-30 mg). From the obtained results, it was found that chitosan-MgO coagulant has good removal efficiencies of turbidity, chemical oxygen demand (COD) and suspended solids at 92%, 91%, and 98% respectively from the optimization of adsorption of chitosan-MgO. The MgO coated with chitosan is the best coagulant in this study compared to chitosan and MgO alone because of the ability of treating the river water with up to 90 % removal for all the main parameters. The results showed that coagulation-flocculation is effective as a treatment for treating river water.
A therapeutic approach for treating diabetes is to decrease thepost-prandial hyperglycaemia. This is done by retarding the absorption of glucose through the inhibition of carbohydrate hydrolyzing enzymes, α-amylaseand α-glucosidase, in the digestive tract. Inhibition of both enzymes helpsto reduce the glucose level in the blood of a diabetic patient. This study was aimed to investigate the production of α-glucosidase and α-amylase inhibitors from local fruit wastes (honeydew skin, banana peel, and pineapple skin) using solid state fermentation. Each of the fruit wastes was fermented with three different types of white rot fungus Phenarochaete chrysosporium(PC), Panus tigrinusM609RQY(M6) andRO209RQY(RO2)for 7 days. Sampling was carried out starting from day 4 to day 7 to determine the enzyme inhibition activity. The samples were extracted using water prior to enzyme analysis. Most of the fruit samples showed varying degree of percentage inhibition activity depending on the sampling time. Extract of fermented banana peels with RO2 on day 4 showed the higherα-glucosidase inhibition (56.57±0.32%), followed byhoneydew extract fermented with the same fungus on the same day (39.68±0.05%). Extracts of each fruit wastesample fermented with PCshowed the least α-glucosidase inhibition (below 15%). Meanwhile for α-amylase inhibition activity, the extract from fermented honeydew skins with PCon day7 showed the highest inhibition activity i.e.98.29±0.63%. The least inhibition activity (43.37±0.54%) was observed in the extract from honeydew skins fermented withM6 on day 5. All positive resultsshowed that fruit wastes could be the alternative sourcesfor antidiabetic agent especially for α-amylase and α-glucosidase inhibitors.
Citric acid (CA) has a high demand due to its various uses in the food and pharmaceutical industries. However, the natural supply of CA is minimal compared to its growing industrial demand. The increasing demand for CA can be fulfilled by using biotechnological processes. This study utilized liquid state bioconversion by Aspergillus niger for CA production using sugarcane molasses as the primary substrate. Sugarcane molasses which is agricultural waste consists of significant proportion of organic matters such as lipids and carbohydrates. This makes sugarcane molasses as a potential and alternative source of producing CA at a lower cost. In this study, statistical optimization was applied to improve CA production using submerged fermentation in shake flasks. Aspergillus niger was cultured in potato dextrose agar. Then, inoculum spores were introduced into the fermentation media for a specific duration according to the experimental design from Central Composite Design (CCD) tool under Response Surface Methodology (RSM) in Design Expert 6.0 software. Three parameters were chosen to be optimized at 32⁰C i.e.agitation rate (160, 80, 200 rpm), substrate concentration (47, 60, 73%) and fermentation time (24, 72, 120 h). High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC)and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy(FTIR) analyses were conducted to measure CA yield. The optimization study showed that the media incubated for 72 hours with a substrate concentration of 60% and an agitation speed of 180 rpm produced the highest CA yield(21.2 g/L).The analysis of variance (ANOVA) also showed that CCD quadratic model was significant with P-value< 0.0104 and R2is0.8964.
MeSH terms: Agar; Agriculture; Analysis of Variance; Aspergillus niger; Biotechnology; Carbohydrates; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; Fermentation; Lipids; Molasses; Solanum tuberosum; Research Design; Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared; Citric Acid; Saccharum
sugar industry is one of the industries that produce a high amount of
pollutant since its wastewater contains high amount of organic material, biochemical
oxygen demand (bod) and chemical oxygen demand (cod). if this waste is
discharged without a proper treatment into the watercourse, it can cause problem to aquatic
life and environment. for the primary treatment process, sugar wastewater can be treated
by using chemical precipitation method which involves coagulation process. currently,
ferric chloride has been used as the coagulant but it consumes more alkalinity and
corrosive. in this study, the suitable coagulant to be used to treat the wastewater from sugar
industry and the optimum conditions to achieve high percentage removal of cod was
determined. the characteristic of the wastewater was firstly determined. then, the most
suitable coagulant to be used for the treatment was studied by determining their efficiency
to reduce cod and tss in the wastewater at different dosages. aluminium sulphate
(alum), ferric chloride and polyaluminium chloride (pac) were chosen to be studied for
suitable coagulant. The optimum condition of the coagulant (ph, coagulant dosage, fast
mixing speed) was determined by using design expert software. results showed that alum
can be used to effectively remove 42.9% of cod and 100% of tss at high dosage (50
mg/l). the optimum condition of alum was at ph 5.2, 10 mg/l of alum and 250 rpm of
mixing speed. this shows that at optimum condition, alum can be used to treat wastewater
from sugar industry.