Browse publications by year: 2021

  1. Zulkifli N, Hashim N, Harith HH, Mohamad Shukery MF, Onwude DI
    J Sci Food Agric, 2021 Nov 20.
    PMID: 34802158 DOI: 10.1002/jsfa.11669
    BACKGROUND: Evaluation of the quality properties of papaya becomes essential due to the acceleration of the fruit shelf-life senescence and the deterioration factor of the expected postharvest operations. In this study, the colour features in RGB, normalised RGB, HSV and L*a*b* channels were extracted and correlated with mechanical properties, moisture content (MC), total soluble solids (TSS), and pH for the prediction of quality properties at five ripening stages of papaya (R1- R5).

    RESULTS: The mean values of colour features in RGB R m , G m , B m , normalised RGB R nm , G nm , B nm HSV H m , S m , V m , and L*a*b* L m , a m , b m were the best estimator for predicting TSS with R2 ≥ 0.90. All colour channels also showed satisfactory accuracies of R2 ≥ 0.80 in predicting the bioyield force, apparent modulus and mean force. The highest average classification accuracy was obtained using LDA with an average accuracy of more than 82%. The study showed that LDA, LSVM, QDA and QSVM obtained the correct classification of up to 100% for R5, whereas R1, R2, R3 and R4 gave classification accuracies in the range between 83.75-91.85%, 85.6-90.25%, 85.75-90.85% and 77.35-87.15% respectively. This indicates R5 colour information was obviously different from R1-R4. The mean values of the HSV channel indicated the best performance to predict the ripening stages of papaya, compared to RGB, normalised RGB and L*a*b*channels, with an average classification accuracy of more than 80%.

    CONCLUSION: The study has shown the versatility of a machine vision system in predicting the quality changes in papaya. The results showed that the machine vision system can be used to predict the ripening stages as well as classifying the fruits into different ripening stages of papayas. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

  2. Irfan M, Shahudin F, Hooper VJ, Akram W, Abdul Ghani RB
    Inquiry, 2021 11 23;58:469580211056217.
    PMID: 34802264 DOI: 10.1177/00469580211056217
    The objective of this article is to examine the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) upon university students' anxiety level and to find the factors associated with the anxiety level in Malaysia. We collected data from 958 students from 16 different universities using an originally designed questionnaire. The Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale 7-item (GAD-7) was used to estimate the anxiety. Then we applied the ordered logit model to calculate the odds ratios (OR) and factors associated with the anxiety level. We find that 12.3% of students were normal, whereas 30.5% were experiencing mild anxiety, 31.1% moderate anxiety, and 26.1% severe anxiety. Surprisingly, only 37.2% of students were aware of mental health support that was provided by their universities. However, age above 20 years (OR = 1.30), ethnicity Chinese (OR = 1.72), having any other disease (OR = 2.0), decreased family income (OR = 1.71), more time spent on watching COVID-19-related news (OR = 1.52), and infected relative or friends (OR = 1.62) were risk factors for anxiety among students. We conclude that the government of Malaysia should monitor the mental health of the universities' students more closely and universities should open online mental health support clinics to avoid the adverse impacts of anxiety.
    MeSH terms: Adult; Depression; Humans; Malaysia/epidemiology; Socioeconomic Factors; Students; Universities*; Young Adult
  3. Sapian S, Budin SB, Taib IS, Mariappan V, Zainalabidin S, Chin KY
    PMID: 34802412 DOI: 10.2174/1871530321666211119144309
    Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is known as one of the driving sources of end-stage renal disease (ESRD). DN prevalence continues to increase in every corner of the world andthat has been a major concern to healthcare professionals as DN is the key driver of diabetes mellitus (DM) morbidity and mortality. Hyperglycaemia is closely connected with the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) that cause oxidative stress response as well as numerous cellular and molecular modifications. Oxidative stress is a significant causative factor to renal damage, as it can activate other immunological pathways, such as inflammatory, fibrosis, and apoptosis pathways. These pathways can lead to cellular impairment and death as well as cellular senescence. Natural substances containing bioactive compounds, such as polyphenols, have been reported to exert valuable effects on various pathological conditions, including DM. The role of polyphenols in alleviating DN conditions has been documented in many studies. In this review, the potential of polyphenols in ameliorating the progression of DN via modulation of oxidative stress, inflammation, fibrosis, and apoptosis, as well as cellular senescence, has been addressed. This information may be used as the strategies for the management of DN and development as nutraceutical products to overcome DN development.
  4. Muyou AJ, Kunasagran PD, Syed Abdul Rahim SS, Avoi R, Hayati F
    Int J Tuberc Lung Dis, 2021 Sep 01;25(9):778-779.
    PMID: 34802506 DOI: 10.5588/ijtld.21.0258
    MeSH terms: Antitubercular Agents*; Ghana/epidemiology; Humans; Prevalence
  5. Asri MNM, Verma R, Ibrahim MH, Nor NAM, Sharma V, Ismail D
    Sci Justice, 2021 Nov;61(6):687-696.
    PMID: 34802642 DOI: 10.1016/j.scijus.2021.08.006
    Determining the origin of cosmetic traces is an important aspect of forensic investigations, that helps linking a suspect to a crime. Such type of evidence can help further narrow down the undergoing investigations. This paper reports the first use of Raman Spectroscopy (RS) coupled with the exploratory principal component analysis (PCA) and supervised partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) in facial creams. 40 facial cream samples of 8 different brands were studied in this work. Preliminary assessments through visual inspection of their Raman spectra revealed the presence of oxides, titanium dioxide, castor seed oil, and beeswax. Also, the peaks of alkyne groups were indicative of the presence of talc or mica compounds. The exploratory PCA correctly segregated the samples into 8 clusters and the supervised PLS-DA model correctly classified them into 8 classes. Further evaluation of the performance of the trained PLS-DA model resulted in perfect classification shown by the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. The PLS-DA model also resulted in 100% accuracy of correctly assigning the brand on the face wipes on each of the five substrates viz. cotton, dry and wet tissue paper, nylon substrate, and polyester. This validation was done treating these samples as unknowns. The study has a potential for use under actual forensic casework conditions.
  6. Ling Wong EY, Kit Loh GO, Peh KK
    Pak J Pharm Sci, 2021 Sep;34(5):1791-1803.
    PMID: 34803017
    A simple and sensitive stability-indicating HPLC-UV method was developed and validated for the determination of montelukast in the development of chewable tablet formulation. Chromatographic separation was achieved using Atlantis® T3 3µm C18 (4.6mmID X 10cm) analytical column. The mobile phase was consisted of KH2PO4 (0.05mM)-ACN-TEA (450:550:1.33, v/v/v) adjusted to pH 2.0 with orthophosphoric acid. The analysis was run at a flow rate of 1.5 mL/min with detection wavelength at 255nm. Method validation was performed in accordance with ICH guideline. Stress degradation studies, comprising of acid and alkali hydrolysis (1M HCl and 1M NaOH), oxidative degradation (3% H2O2), photo degradation and heat degradation, were performed. The standard calibration curve was linear from 0.0025 - 0.375mg/mL. The LOD and LLOQ were 0.01μg/mL and 0.04μg/mL. Stress degradation result shows that montelukast sodium was sensitive to photo degradation, oxidation and acid hydrolysis. Oxidative degradation kinetic study of montelukast sodium followed first order reaction, with r2 =0.9877, apparent degradation rate constant, k= 0.1066 h-1, t1/2= 6.6151 hr and t90% = 1.0118hr. In conclusion, HPLC-UV method was successfully developed and validated for determination of montelukast sodium in chewable tablet formulation.
  7. Anis S, Masood Khan M, Ali Z, Khan A, Arsalan HM, Naeem S, et al.
    Pak J Pharm Sci, 2021 Sep;34(5):1821-1836.
    PMID: 34803021
    The COVID-19 epidemic is considered the most important health disaster of the century and the largest humanitarian crisis since World War II. In December 2019, a new respiratory disease/disorder was discovered in Wuhan, Hubei province, China and World Health Organization named it COVID-19 (coronavirus 2019). It has been diagnosed with a new class of corona virus, called SARS-CoV-2 (a serious respiratory disease). According to the history of human civilization it is affected by the incidence of disease outbreaks caused by the number of viruses. Covid-19 is rapidly spreading across the globe, due to which mankind faces major health, economic, environmental and social challenges. The outbreak of coronavirus is seriously affecting the global economy. Almost all nations have problems limiting the spread of the disease by screening and treating patients, setting up suspects by keeping in touch, blocking large gatherings, maintaining full or partial closure etc. This paper describes the impact of COVID-19 on society and the global environment, and the ways in which the disease is likely to be controlled have been discussed.
    MeSH terms: Disease Outbreaks; Humans; Risk Factors; Transients and Migrants
  8. Aminu N, Yam MF, Chan SY, Bello I, Umar NM, Nuhu T, et al.
    Saudi Dent J, 2021 Nov;33(7):554-559.
    PMID: 34803300 DOI: 10.1016/j.sdentj.2020.08.008
    Purpose: To evaluate therapeutic effectiveness of antibacterial triclosan (TCS) and anti-inflammatory flurbiprofen (FLB)-loaded nanogels system in ligature-induced experimental periodontitis in rats.

    Methodology: A total of 72 Sprague-Dawley rats were used in this study. Four groups (n = 18 each) were randomly created: Group 1 - neither subjected to experimental periodontitis nor to any treatment; Group 2 - subjected to experimental periodontitis but not treated; Group 3 - subjected to experimental periodontitis and then treated with the developed nanogels; Group 4 - subjected to experimental periodontitis and then placed on a mixture of pure TCS and FLB treatment. The experimental periodontitis was induced on the lower incisors by applying a ligature which was kept for 14 days. Treatment was done for 7 days, and sampling was done at 7, 14, and 28 day of the post-induction experimental period. Morphometric analysis was conducted to assess the clinical outcomes and healing effect.

    Results: The morphometric findings showed that the group treated with the developed TCS and FLB-loaded nanogels recovered better and faster than a mixture of pure TCS and FLB. At 28 day of the experimental period, there was no significant difference (p > 0.05) between the baseline control group and the nanogels treated group.

    Conclusions: The developed TCS and FLB-loaded nanogels was found to be effective in the treatment of experimental periodontitis in rats. The used experimental periodontitis model was found to be simple and easily reproducible.

  9. Alam MK, Ganji KK, Munisekhar MS, Alanazi NS, Alsharif HN, Iqbal A, et al.
    Saudi Dent J, 2021 Nov;33(7):687-692.
    PMID: 34803320 DOI: 10.1016/j.sdentj.2020.04.008
    Objective: CBCT (cone beam computed tomography) analysis of condyle morphometry, to investigate the gender differences, symmetry and relationship with mandibular size.

    Materials and methods: This is a retrospective study. 800 CBCT scan obtained for the measurement of condyle in anterior-posterior and medio-lateral aspect using OnDemand 3D software. Participants were Saudi nationals of age above 18 years. 395 Males and 405 Females with the mean age of 38.2 ± 10.5 years. Right and left anterior-posterior width and medio-lateral width of the condyle were measured. Condyles were not isolated on the CBCT for volume measurement.

    Results: Mean right and anterior-posterior condyle width was 9.02 mm and 8.74 mm in males whereas in females it was 9.01 mm 8.69 mm respectively. For males mean medio-lateral width of the condyle in right and left side was 17.40 mm and 16.95 mm. For females, mean medio-lateral width of the condyle in right and left side was 17.14 mm and 16.93 mm. The prediction rate of gender was 57.2% for males and 53.3% for females. Statistically significant differences (p 

  10. Banavar SR, Rawal SY, Paterson IC, Singh G, Davamani F, Khoo SP, et al.
    Saudi Dent J, 2021 Nov;33(7):693-701.
    PMID: 34803321 DOI: 10.1016/j.sdentj.2020.04.007
    Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are extensively used in tissue regenerative procedures. One source of MSCs is the periodontal ligament (PDL) of teeth. Isolation of MSCs from extracted teeth is reasonably simple, being less invasive and presenting fewer ethical concerns than does the harvesting of MSC's from other sites. The objectives of this study were to isolate and characterize the PDL stem cells (PDLSC) from healthy adults' extracted teeth and then to characterize them by comparing them with bone-marrow derived MSCs (BMMSC).

    Methods: The PDL tissue was scraped from the roots of freshly extracted teeth to enzymatically digest using collagenase. The cells were sub-cultured. Flow-cytometric analysis for the MSC surface-markers CD105, CD73, CD166, CD90, CD34, CD45 and HLA-DR was performed. To confirm the phenotype, total RNA was extracted to synthesize cDNA and which was then subjected to RT-PCR. The gene-expression for Oct4A, Sox2, NANOG and GAPDH was determined by gel-electrophoresis. To assess their multilineage potential, cells were cultured with osteogenic, chondrogenic and adipogenic medium and then stained by Alizarin-red, Alcian-blue and Oil-Red-O respectively. MSCs from the bone-marrow were processed similarly to serve as controls.

    Results: The cells isolated from extracted teeth expanded successfully. On flow-cytometric analysis, the cells were positive for CD73, CD90, CD105, CD166 and negative for CD34, CD45 and HLA-DR. The PDLSCs expressed Oct4A, Sox2, and NANOG mRNA with GAPDH expression. Cells cultured in the osteogenic, chondrogenic and adipogenic media stained positive for Alizarin-red, Alcian-blue and Oil- Red-O respectively. The surface marker expression and the trilineage differentiation characteristics were comparable to those of the BMMSCs.

    Conclusions: The periodontal ligament tissue of extracted teeth is a potential source of therapeutically useful MSCs. Harvesting them is not invasive and are a promising source of MSC as the PDLSCs showed characteristics similar to those of the highly regarded MSC's derived from bone-marrow.

  11. Habib SR, Sattar K, Ahmad T, Barakah RM, Alshehri AM, Andejani AF, et al.
    Saudi Dent J, 2021 Nov;33(7):753-760.
    PMID: 34803330 DOI: 10.1016/j.sdentj.2020.03.012
    Purpose: The objective of this study was to explore the ambience of professionalism related to academic integrity among undergraduate dental students.

    Methodology: "Dundee Polyprofessionalism Inventory I: Academic Integrity" was used to collect responses from first-year to fifth-year dental students of the College of Dentistry, King Saud University (Response rate = 78%). The participants' responses (for 34 professionalism lapses) were recorded by using the Dundee Polyprofessionalism Inventory. Statistical analysis included descriptive statistics, Chi-square, and T-tests (P 

  12. Ayipo YO, Yahaya SN, Babamale HF, Ahmad I, Patel H, Mordi MN
    Turk J Biol, 2021;45(4):503-517.
    PMID: 34803450 DOI: 10.3906/biy-2106-64
    The nsp3 macrodomain is implicated in the viral replication, pathogenesis and host immune responses through the removal of ADP-ribosylation sites during infections of coronaviruses including the SARS-CoV-2. It has ever been modulated by macromolecules including the ADP-ribose until Ni and co-workers recently reported its inhibition and plasticity enhancement unprecedentedly by remdesivir metabolite, GS-441524, creating an opportunity for investigating other biodiverse small molecules such as β-Carboline (βC) alkaloids. In this study, 1497 βC analogues from the HiT2LEAD chemical database were screened, using computational approaches of Glide XP docking, molecular dynamics simulation and pk-CSM ADMET predictions. Selectively, βC ligands, 129, 584, 1303 and 1323 demonstrated higher binding affinities to the receptor, indicated by XP docking scores of -10.72, -10.01, -9.63 and -9.48 kcal/mol respectively than remdesivir and GS-441524 with -4.68 and -9.41 kcal/mol respectively. Consistently, their binding free energies were -36.07, -23.77, -24.07 and -17.76 kcal/mol respectively, while remdesivir and GS-441524 showed -21.22 and -24.20 kcal/mol respectively. Interestingly, the selected βC ligands displayed better stability and flexibility for enhancing the plasticity of the receptor than GS-441524, especially 129 and 1303. Their predicted ADMET parameters favour druggability and low expressions for toxicity. Thus, they are recommended as promising adjuvant/standalone anti-SARS-CoV-2 candidates for further study.Key words: SARS-CoV-2, nsp3 macrodomain, ADP-ribose, β-carboline, bioinformatics, drug design.
  13. Lok YC, Siau VG, Mohd Kanapiah NAA, Lai TC, Haslan NNHH, Nukili NN, et al.
    Biodivers Data J, 2021;9:e72651.
    PMID: 34803464 DOI: 10.3897/BDJ.9.e72651
    Bats (Order: Chiroptera) is a recognised group of bioindicators due to their sensitivity towards alterations in their immediate surroundings. With the threats of climate change becoming more severe on a daily basis, it is reasonable to collect data on how bat diversity is influenced by elevation. This will be useful to predict and monitor possible upslope shifting of bat species due to increase in surrounding temperature or anthropogenic pressure. Hence, this study aims to uncover the bat diversity trend at different elevations in Crocker Range Park (CRP), Sabah, Malaysia. Bat trappings were conducted in four substations within this park, covering an elevation spectrum from 450 to 1900 m a.s.l. The overall sampling managed to capture 133 individuals of bats, predominantly Pteropodidae, with the addition of two new species locality records for CRP, Murinapeninsularis and Hypsugovondermanni. Simple linear regression analyses revealed that both bat diversity and richness have an inverse linear relationship with elevation. Likewise, the Pearson's correlation value, associating bat diversity with elevation, also shows that they have a negative relationship at r = -0.852. Heterogeneity of habitats explain this trend, as in the lower counterpart of CRP, lowland forests, which are richer in fruit and insect resources persist. Besides, lower land forests have better niche assortment, due to the distinctive layers stratification, allowing bats utilising different guilds to thrive in the same vegetation profile. This study further emphasises the role of CRP to protect most of the bat species found in Borneo, as well as serving as the baseline data for the future studies that look into the impact of temperature increment towards the upslope shifting of the bat population in CRP.
  14. Aruna MG, Hasan MK, Islam S, Mohan KG, Sharan P, Hassan R
    Cluster Comput, 2021 Nov 15.
    PMID: 34803477 DOI: 10.1007/s10586-021-03461-7
    The Coronavirus pandemic and the work-from-anywhere has created a shift toward cloud-based services. The pandemic is causing an explosion in cloud migration, expected that by 2025, 95% of workloads will live in the cloud. One of the challenges of the cloud is data security. It is the responsibility of cloud service providers to protect user data from unauthorized access. Historically, a third-party auditor (TPA) is used to provide security services over the cloud. With the tremendous growth of demand for cloud-based services, regulatory requirements, there is a need for a semi to fully automated self sovereign identity (SSI) implementation to reduce cost. It's critical to manage cloud data strategically and extend the required protection. At each stage of the data migration process, such as data discovery, classification, and cataloguing of the access to the mission-critical data, need to be secured. Cloud storage services are centralized, which requires users must place trust in a TPA. With the SSI, this can become decentralized, reducing the dependency and cost. Our current work involves replacing TPA with SSI. A cryptographic technique for secure data migration to and from the cloud using SSI implemented. SSI facilitate peer-to-peer transactions, meaning that the in-between presence of TPA needs no longer be involved. The C2C migration performance is recorded and found the background or foreground replication scenario is achievable. Mathematically computed encrypted and decrypted ASCII values for a word matched with the output by the algorithm. The keys generated by the algorithm are validated with an online validator to ensure the correctness of the generated keys. RSA based mutual TLS algorithm is a good option for SSI based C2C migration. SSI is beneficial because of the low maintenance cost, and users are more and more using a cloud platform. The result of the implemented algorithm shows that the SSI based implementation can provide a 13.32 Kbps encryption/decryption rate which is significantly higher than the TPA method of 1 Kbps.
  15. Mohd Razali S, Radzi MA, Marin A, Samdin Z
    Environ Dev Sustain, 2021 Nov 14.
    PMID: 34803478 DOI: 10.1007/s10668-021-01935-7
    Mangrove land use changes of varied intensities have long been a problem in tropical mangrove forests. This has resulted in various degrees of mangrove land use modification, which catch many interests in the region for research. The research provided here is a bibliometric analysis of scholarly articles published around the world in various publication document types on changes in land use of tropical mangrove forests based on remote sensing and Geographical Information System (GIS). Scientific data analysis was undertaken by using bibliometric approaches on 6,574 papers extracted from the Scopus databases between 2010 and 2020. The findings revealed that the number of publications continuously climbed from under 400 to an average of 50-60 per year till 2019. The data showed that the mangrove forest modifications study gained traction when the highest number of citations, 9,236 in 2015, were observed. We can also notice that the overall number of citations fluctuated a lot during the first five years (2010-2015) but increased from 2013 to 2015. The findings demonstrate how remote sensing satellites have aided vegetation and land study in recent years. The findings also revealed that the analysis tools of Land Use Change, Vegetation Index, Mangrove, Tropical Country, Remote Sensing, and Tropical contributed to scientific knowledge of current issues of mangrove land use change in the tropical region. The authors' keywords, Remote Sensing in particular, supplied roughly 43%, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (13%), Vegetation Index (9%), and other keywords contributed less than 7%. The growth pattern of the keywords "MODIS" and "Landsat" implies that both will stay important over the next five years, according to an analysis of the type of satellite used in land use assessment. Meanwhile, papers pertaining to policy on land use change, food security, and forest resources were evaluated in order to highlight policy and academic research findings on the topics. The application of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, which is a very relevant tool that can be used in monitoring land use changes and assessing vegetation status because it is a desirable technique in measuring plant health and vigour, can help fill the research gaps presented in this study. This review can help with the development of better mangrove land use change approaches in tropical mangroves and around the world using satellite remote sensing and GIS.
  16. Brishty SR, Hossain MJ, Khandaker MU, Faruque MRI, Osman H, Rahman SMA
    Front Pharmacol, 2021;12:762807.
    PMID: 34803707 DOI: 10.3389/fphar.2021.762807
    Nowadays, nitrogenous heterocyclic molecules have attracted a great deal of interest among medicinal chemists. Among these potential heterocyclic drugs, benzimidazole scaffolds are considerably prevalent. Due to their isostructural pharmacophore of naturally occurring active biomolecules, benzimidazole derivatives have significant importance as chemotherapeutic agents in diverse clinical conditions. Researchers have synthesized plenty of benzimidazole derivatives in the last decades, amidst a large share of these compounds exerted excellent bioactivity against many ailments with outstanding bioavailability, safety, and stability profiles. In this comprehensive review, we have summarized the bioactivity of the benzimidazole derivatives reported in recent literature (2012-2021) with their available structure-activity relationship. Compounds bearing benzimidazole nucleus possess broad-spectrum pharmacological properties ranging from common antibacterial effects to the world's most virulent diseases. Several promising therapeutic candidates are undergoing human trials, and some of these are going to be approved for clinical use. However, notable challenges, such as drug resistance, costly and tedious synthetic methods, little structural information of receptors, lack of advanced software, and so on, are still viable to be overcome for further research.
  17. Md Nordin S, Ahmad Rizal AR, Zolkepli IA
    Front Psychol, 2021;12:705245.
    PMID: 34803798 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.705245
    Social media is a prominent communication platform. Its active usage permeates all generations and it is imperative that the platform be fully optimized for knowledge transfer and innovation diffusion. However, there are several considerations regarding platform usage, including media affordances. Social media affordances enable users to interact with the world around them through features of modality, agency, interactivity, and navigation. Previous studies have indicated that social media affordances significantly influence user behavior and usage. However, research exploring the effect of social media affordances on knowledge acquisition and the reduction of decision-making complexities is limited. Therefore, focusing on 179 paddy farmers in Malaysia, this study examined the effect of social media affordances on information quality, knowledge acquisition, and complexity reduction regarding innovation adoption decisions using a quantitative approach. This study's findings reveal that social media affordances have a significant effect on perceived information quality, knowledge acquisition, and complexity reduction.
  18. Caricati L, Owuamalam CK, Bonetti C
    Front Psychol, 2021;12:745168.
    PMID: 34803829 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.745168
    Do superordinate in-group bias as well as temporal and social comparisons offer standalone explanations for system justification? We addressed this question using the latest World Value Survey (7th Wave), combining the responses of 55,721 participants from 40 different nations. Results from a random slope multilevel model showed that superordinate (national) identification, temporal comparison (i.e., the outcomes of an individual relative to those of his/her parents at different time points), and social comparison (based on income levels) were independent and positive predictors of system justification. Specifically, system justification increased when national identification was high, when income increased (i.e., the socioeconomic comparison was positive), and when the outcomes of citizens improved relative to the outcomes of their parents at relevant time points (i.e., the temporal comparison was positive). Incidentally, we also observed an interaction between national identification and temporal comparison (but not with social comparison), indicating that positive temporal comparison seemed to have a reduced effect (but still significant) for highly identified citizens. These results are supportive of the social identity approach to system justification and suggest that support for societal systems is a positive function of people's personal and group interests.
  19. Han Y, Zhao S, Ng LL
    Front Psychol, 2021;12:752793.
    PMID: 34803833 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.752793
    Students experience different levels of autonomy based on the mediation of self-regulated learning (SRL), but little is known about the effects of different mediation technologies on students' perceived SRL strategies. This mixed explanatory study compared two technology mediation models, Icourse (a learning management system) and Icourse+Pigai (an automatic writing evaluation system), with a control group that did not use technology. A quasi-experimental design was used, which involved a pre and post-intervention academic writing test, an SRL questionnaire, and one-to-one semi-structured student interviews. The aim was to investigate 280 Chinese undergraduate English as a foreign language (EFL) students' academic writing performance, lexical complexity, and perceptions of self-regulated strategies in academic writing. One-way ANCOVA of writing performance, Kruskal-Wallis test of lexical complexity, ANOVA of the SRL questionnaire, and grounded thematic content analysis revealed that, first, both Icourse and Icourse+Pigai provided significant support for the development of SRL strategies vs. the control group, although there was no significant difference between the two groups. Second, Icourse+Pigai-supported SRL was more helpful for improving students' academic writing performance because it enabled increased writing practice and correction feedback. Third, Icourse+Pigai-supported SRL did not significantly improve students' lexical complexity. In conclusion, we argue that both learning management systems and automated writing evaluation (AWE) platforms may be used to assist students' SRL learning to enhance their writing performance. More effort should be directed toward developing technological tools that increase both lexical accuracy and lexical complexity. We conclude that the technical tools used in this study were positively connected to the use of SRL techniques. However, when creating technologically mediated SRL activities, students' psychological study preferences should be considered.
  20. Philip N, Jani J, Azhari NN, Sekawi Z, Neela VK
    Front Microbiol, 2021;12:753328.
    PMID: 34803975 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2021.753328
    The zoonotic disease leptospirosis is caused by pathogenic species of the genus Leptospira. With the advancement of studies in leptospirosis, several new species are being reported. It has always been a query, whether Leptospira species, serovars, and strains isolated from different geographical locations contribute to the difference in the disease presentations and severity. In an epidemiological surveillance study performed in Malaysia, we isolated seven novel intermediate and saprophytic species (Leptospira semungkisensis, Leptospira fletcheri, Leptospira langatensis, Leptospira selangorensis, Leptospira jelokensis, Leptospira perdikensis, Leptospira congkakensis) from environments and three pathogenic species from rodents (Leptospira borgpetersenii strain HP364, Leptospira weilii strain SC295, Leptospira interrogans strain HP358) trapped in human leptospirosis outbreak premises. To evaluate the pathogenic potential of these isolates, we performed an in vivo and in silico virulence analysis. Environmental isolates and strain HP364 did not induce any clinical manifestations in hamsters. Strain SC295 caused inactivity and weight loss with histopathological changes in kidneys, however, all hamsters survived until the end of the experiment. Strain HP358 showed a high virulent phenotype as all infected hamsters died or were moribund within 7 days postinfection. Lungs, liver, and kidneys showed pathological changes with hemorrhage as the main presentation. In silico analysis elucidated the genome size of strain HP358 to be larger than strains HP364 and SC295 and containing virulence genes reported in Leptospira species and a high number of specific putative virulence factors. In conclusion, L. interrogans strain HP358 was highly pathogenic with fatal outcome. The constituent of Leptospira genomes may determine the level of disease severity and that needs further investigations.
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