Browse publications by year: 2022

Fulltext Sperm Morphology Assessment in the Era of Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection: Reliable Results Require Focus on Standardization, Quality Control, and Training

Agarwal A, Sharma R, Gupta S, Finelli R, Parekh N, Panner Selvam MK, et al.

World J Mens Health, 2022 Jul;40(3):347-360.
PMID: 34169687 DOI: 10.5534/wjmh.210054

Semen analysis is the first, and frequently, the only step in the evaluation of male fertility. Although the laboratory procedures are conducted according to the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines, semen analysis and especially sperm morphology assessment is very difficult to standardize and obtain reproducible results. This is mainly due to the highly subjective nature of their evaluation. ICSI is the choice of treatment when sperm morphology is severely abnormal (teratozoospermic). Hence, the standardization of laboratory protocols for sperm morphology evaluation represents a fundamental step to ensure reliable, accurate and consistent laboratory results that avoid misdiagnoses and inadequate treatment of the infertile patient. This article aims to promote standardized laboratory procedures for an accurate evaluation of sperm morphology, including the establishment of quality control and quality assurance policies. Additionally, the clinical importance of sperm morphology results in assisted reproductive outcomes is discussed, along with the clinical management of teratozoospermic patients.
Fulltext A Non-Convex Economic Dispatch Problem with Point-Valve Effect Using a Wind-Driven Optimisation Approach

Ramli NF, Kamari NAM, Abd Halim S, Zulkifley MA, Sahri MSM, Musirin I

J Electr Eng Technol, 2022;17(1):85-95.
PMID: 38624623 DOI: 10.1007/s42835-021-00859-6

This study presents the efficiency of the wind-driven optimisation (WDO) approach in solving non-convex economic dispatch problems with point-valve effect. The best economic dispatch for a power system is one wherein the system can generate energy at a low cost. The calculation of the generating cost is subject to a number of constraints, such as the power demand for the entire system and the generation limit for each generator unit in the system. In addition, the system should also produce low power loss. The WDO optimisation technique is developed based on the concept of natural wind movement, which serves as a stabiliser to equalise the inequality of air pressure in the atmosphere. One major advantage of WDO over other techniques is its search accuracy. The proposed algorithm has been implemented in two systems, namely, the 10-generator and 40-generator systems. Both systems were tested in a Matlab environment. To highlight the capabilities of WDO, the results using this proposed technique are compared with the results obtained using flower pollination algorithm, moth flame optimisation, particle swarm optimisation and evolutionary programming techniques to determine the efficiency of the proposed approach in solving economic dispatch. The simulation results show the capability of WDO in determining the optimal power generation value with minimum generation cost and low rate of power loss.
Fulltext Recent advancement in 3-D printing: nanocomposites with added functionality

Clarissa WH, Chia CH, Zakaria S, Evyan YC

Prog Addit Manuf, 2022;7(2):325-350.
PMID: 38624631 DOI: 10.1007/s40964-021-00232-z

Three-Dimentional (3-D) printing is currently a popular printing technique that is used in many sectors. Potentially, this technology is expected to replace conventional manufacturing in the coming years. It is accelerating in gaining attention due to its design freedom where objects can be produced without imagination boundaries. The review presents a perspective on the application of 3-D printing application based on various fields. However, the ordinary 3-D printed products with a single type of raw often lack robustness leading to broken parts. Improving the mechanical property of a 3-D printed part is crucial for its applications in many fields. One of the promising solutions is to incorporate nanoparticles or fillers into the raw material. The review aims to provide information about the types of additive manufacturing. There are few types of raw materials can be used as foundation template in the printing, enhanced properties of the printed polymer nanocomposites with different types of nanoparticles as additives in the printing. The article reviews the advantages and disadvantages of different materials that are used as raw materials or base materials in 3-D printing. This can be a guideline for the readers to compare and analyse the raw materials prior to a decision on the type of material to be selected. The review prepares an overview for the researchers to choose the types of nanoparticles to be added in the printing of the products depending on the targeted application. With the added functionality of the 3-D polymer nanocomposites, it will help in widespread of the application of 3-D printing technology in various sector.
Fulltext A comprehensive review on fused deposition modelling of polylactic acid

Sandanamsamy L, Harun WSW, Ishak I, Romlay FRM, Kadirgama K, Ramasamy D, et al.

Prog Addit Manuf, 2022 Oct 31.
PMID: 38625345 DOI: 10.1007/s40964-022-00356-w

Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) is one of the additive manufacturing (AM) techniques that have emerged as the most feasible and prevalent approach for generating functional parts due to its ability to produce neat and intricate parts. FDM mainly utilises one of the widely used polymers, polylactic acid, also known as polylactide (PLA). It is an aliphatic polyester material and biocompatible thermoplastic, with the best design prospects due to its eco-friendly properties; when PLA degrades, it breaks down into water and carbon dioxide, neither of which are hazardous to the environment. However, PLA has its limitations of poor mechanical properties. Therefore, a filler reinforcement may enhance the characteristics of PLA and produce higher-quality FDM-printed parts. The processing parameters also play a significant role in the final result of the printed parts. This review aims to study and discover the properties of PLA and the optimum processing parameters. This review covers PLA in FDM, encompassing its mechanical properties, processing parameters, characterisation, and applications. A comprehensive description of FDM processing parameters is outlined as it plays a vital role in determining the quality of a printed product. In addition, PLA polymer is highly desirable for various field industrial applications such as in a medical, automobile, and electronic, given its excellent thermoplastic and biodegradability properties.
Fulltext Glove Manufacturing: Opportunities and Challenges in Control Engineering

Tan AH

IFAC Pap OnLine, 2022;55(1):872-877.
PMID: 38620994 DOI: 10.1016/j.ifacol.2022.04.143

The glove manufacturing industry has seen tremendous growth recently, spurred on by the COVID-19 pandemic. A long-standing shortage of supply of disposable medical gloves has highlighted an urgent need to increase production capacity. This requires glove manufacturers to be quick in adopting best practices, in line with Industry 4.0, in order to optimize various aspects of the industry. Unfortunately, information available in the existing literature is, however, limited due to the confidential nature of the majority of research in this area. This article discusses some opportunities and challenges related to this important chemical industry, from the perspective of control engineering. These insights can point to some interesting directions of future work.
Fulltext Food security during the COVID-19 home confinement: A cross-sectional study focusing on adults in Malaysia

Tan ST, Tan CX, Tan SS

Hum Nutr Metab, 2022 Mar;27:200142.
PMID: 38620934 DOI: 10.1016/j.hnm.2022.200142

The surge in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) transmission cases has led to the decision to execute the Movement Control Order (MCO) by the Federal Government of MalaysiaEconomic activities, psychological wellbeing, and food security may be negatively affected by the implementation of MCO. Therefore, this study aims to assess the prevalence of food insecurity and its associated factors during the enforcement of MCO 1.0. A total of 162 respondents were enrolled in this study using convenience and snowball sampling approaches. Socio-demographic information was self-reported by the respondents. Food security and the presence of depressive symptoms during the MCO 1.0 were assessed with Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES) and Patient Health Questionnaire-2 (PHQ-2), respectively. Current findings demonstrated that the prevalence of food insecurity was 43.2%. Ethnicity, marital status, employment status, monthly earned income and being the head of a household were significantly associated (p
Fulltext iVaccine-Deep: Prediction of COVID-19 mRNA vaccine degradation using deep learning

Muneer A, Fati SM, Arifin Akbar N, Agustriawan D, Tri Wahyudi S

J King Saud Univ Comput Inf Sci, 2022 Oct;34(9):7419-7432.
PMID: 38620874 DOI: 10.1016/j.jksuci.2021.10.001

Messenger RNA (mRNA) has emerged as a critical global technology that requires global joint efforts from different entities to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. However, the chemical properties of RNA pose a challenge in utilizing mRNA as a vaccine candidate. For instance, the molecules are prone to degradation, which has a negative impact on the distribution of mRNA among patients. In addition, little is known of the degradation properties of individual RNA bases in a molecule. Therefore, this study aims to investigate whether a hybrid deep learning can predict RNA degradation from RNA sequences. Two deep hybrid neural network models were proposed, namely GCN_GRU and GCN_CNN. The first model is based on graph convolutional neural networks (GCNs) and gated recurrent unit (GRU). The second model is based on GCN and convolutional neural networks (CNNs). Both models were computed over the structural graph of the mRNA molecule. The experimental results showed that GCN_GRU hybrid model outperform GCN_CNN model by a large margin during the test time. Validation of proposed hybrid models is performed by well-known evaluation measures. Among different deep neural networks, GCN_GRU based model achieved best scores on both public and private MCRMSE test scores with 0.22614 and 0.34152, respectively. Finally, GCN_GRU pre-trained model has achieved the highest AuC score of 0.938. Such proven outperformance of GCNs indicates that modeling RNA molecules using graphs is critical in understanding molecule degradation mechanisms, which helps in minimizing the aforementioned issues. To show the importance of the proposed GCN_GRU hybrid model, in silico experiments has been contacted. The in-silico results showed that our model pays local attention when predicting a given position's reactivity and exhibits interesting behavior on neighboring bases in the sequence.
To travel, or not to travel? The impacts of travel constraints and perceived travel risk on travel intention among Malaysian tourists amid the COVID-19

Aziz NA, Long F

J Consum Behav, 2022;21(2):352-362.
PMID: 38607869 DOI: 10.1002/cb.2008

The tourism and hospitality industry has been deeply disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic since its inception in December 2019. Many tourists are too anxious to travel. Thus, understanding how travel constraints and perceived travel risk influence travel intention is crucial for many destinations in their post-crisis recovery. Drawing upon 357 Malaysian respondents, this study finds that structural constraints initiate tourists' negotiation process for travel decisions, which is inconsistent with the original Leisure Constraints Model. Nevertheless, it is reaffirmed that intrapersonal constraints remain the centrality of the negotiation process as they mediate the relationship between structural constraints, perceived travel risk and travel intention. These findings provide some theoretical contributions with regard to the Leisure Constraints Model and perceived travel risk in the context of the COVID-19. Based on the theoretical contributions, this study also sheds light on tourism revival from a practical perspective. Tourism authorities, destination marketing organizations, and business operators are suggested to take measures to restore tourists' confidence toward travel by reducing structural constraints and mitigating tourists' risk perception in a cooperative manner.
Rise of multiattribute decision-making in combating COVID-19: A systematic review of the state-of-the-art literature

Alsalem MA, Mohammed R, Albahri OS, Zaidan AA, Alamoodi AH, Dawood K, et al.

Int J Intell Syst, 2022 Jun;37(6):3514-3624.
PMID: 38607836 DOI: 10.1002/int.22699

Considering the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the government and health sectors are incapable of making fast and reliable decisions, particularly given the various effects of decisions on different contexts or countries across multiple sectors. Therefore, leaders often seek decision support approaches to assist them in such scenarios. The most common decision support approach used in this regard is multiattribute decision-making (MADM). MADM can assist in enforcing the most ideal decision in the best way possible when fed with the appropriate evaluation criteria and aspects. MADM also has been of great aid to practitioners during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, MADM shows resilience in mitigating consequences in health sectors and other fields. Therefore, this study aims to analyse the rise of MADM techniques in combating COVID-19 by presenting a systematic literature review of the state-of-the-art COVID-19 applications. Articles on related topics were searched in four major databases, namely, Web of Science, IEEE Xplore, ScienceDirect, and Scopus, from the beginning of the pandemic in 2019 to April 2021. Articles were selected on the basis of the inclusion and exclusion criteria for the identified systematic review protocol, and a total of 51 articles were obtained after screening and filtering. All these articles were formed into a coherent taxonomy to describe the corresponding current standpoints in the literature. This taxonomy was drawn on the basis of four major categories, namely, medical (n = 30), social (n = 4), economic (n = 13) and technological (n = 4). Deep analysis for each category was performed in terms of several aspects, including issues and challenges encountered, contributions, data set, evaluation criteria, MADM techniques, evaluation and validation and bibliography analysis. This study emphasised the current standpoint and opportunities for MADM in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and promoted additional efforts towards understanding and providing new potential future directions to fulfil the needs of this study field.
Fulltext The impact of fiscal decentralization, green energy, and economic policy uncertainty on sustainable environment: a new perspective from ecological footprint in five OECD countries

Zahra S, Badeeb RA

Environ Sci Pollut Res Int, 2022 Aug;29(36):54698-54717.
PMID: 35305216 DOI: 10.1007/s11356-022-19669-y

The paper explores the short-run and long-run asymmetric impact of fiscal decentralization, green energy, and economic policy uncertainty on environmental sustainability proxied by ecological footprint. Using the Nonlinear Autoregressive Distributed lag (NARDL) approach in selected five OECD countries, we find that ecological footprint responds to positive and negative fiscal decentralization asymmetrically in the long run and short run. However, the nature of the response varies significantly across countries. The result also suggests that green energy is a major factor in reducing the ecological footprint in all countries except Canada. Finally, economic policy uncertainty plays a negative and significant role in the ecological footprint in the UK, USA, and Germany while insignificant in Australia and Canada. Implications for effective environmental policies are discussed.

MeSH terms: Carbon Dioxide*; Politics; Uncertainty; Economic Development*; Renewable Energy; Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development
Reply - Letter to the editor

Sundar VV, Hwa OS, Easaw MEPM, Siew Swee WC

Clin Nutr ESPEN, 2022 Jun;49:673-674.
PMID: 35623873 DOI: 10.1016/j.clnesp.2022.03.041
Dynamic linkages between non-renewable energy, renewable energy and economic growth through nonlinear ARDL approach: evidence from Malaysia

Afroz R, Muhibbullah M

Environ Sci Pollut Res Int, 2022 Jul;29(32):48795-48811.
PMID: 35201582 DOI: 10.1007/s11356-022-19346-0

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the links between renewable energy (RE), non-renewable energy (NRE), capital, labour and economic growth, using the nonlinear autoregressive distributive lag (NARDL) model in Malaysia for the period of 1980-2018. The results of NARDL confirm the asymmetric effect of RE and NRE consumption on the economic growth in the long run as well as the short run in Malaysia. The findings also show that in the long and short run, positive shocks of NRE are greater than the positive shocks of RE. It indicates that Malaysia's economic growth is highly dependent on NRE which is not a good indication as NRE consumption increases carbon dioxide (CO2) emission in the country. Moreover, the empirical results of this study demonstrated that RE consumption reduction accelerates economic growth, whereas NRE consumption reduction decreases economic growth. It can have claimed that in Malaysia, RE is still more expensive than NRE. In conclusion, this study offered a variety of measures to develop RE to reduce the dependency on NRE consumption.

MeSH terms: Carbon Dioxide/analysis; Malaysia; Nonlinear Dynamics; Economic Development*; Renewable Energy*
Fulltext Lessons of the month 2: A case of inappropriate drug-drug interaction in kidney transplant

Tan MH, Yee SY, Yahya R

Clin Med (Lond), 2022 Mar;22(2):169-171.
PMID: 38589183 DOI: 10.7861/clinmed.2021-0789

Carbamazepine remains a first-line antiepileptic medication for the treatment of partial seizures. Despite its widespread use, carbamazepine has significant neurotoxicity and hypersensitivity reactions. We report a case of a patient post-kidney transplant who was on regular carbamazepine for childhood epilepsy and developed nystagmus, diplopia and a broad-base gait after receiving diltiazem. Understanding of the interaction between diltiazem and carbamazepine is necessary to prevent the neurotoxic effects.
Fulltext Lessons of the month 1: A diagnostic dilemma: thyroid abscess or subacute thyroiditis?

Teoh JHI, Velaiutham S

Clin Med (Lond), 2022 Jul;22(4):370-372.
PMID: 38589142 DOI: 10.7861/clinmed.2022-0160

Thyroid abscess is rare but potentially fatal, whereas subclinical thyroiditis is a self-limiting condition that is more commonly seen. The clinical features of both diseases can be overlapping but the treatment approach differs. We report a case of a painful left thyroid nodule not responding to conventional therapy for thyroiditis or thyroid abscess.
Fulltext Cone-beam CT as a diagnostic aid in evaluation of oroantral communication

Donald PM, Nayak V

BMJ Case Rep, 2022 Apr 07;15(4).
PMID: 35393280 DOI: 10.1136/bcr-2022-249127
MeSH terms: Humans; Oroantral Fistula*; Cone-Beam Computed Tomography*
Fulltext Expert Opinion on Biological Treatment of Chronic Rhinosinusitis with Nasal Polyps in the Gulf Region

Al-Ahmad M, Alsaleh S, Al-Reefy H, Al Abduwani J, Nasr I, Al Abri R, et al.

J Asthma Allergy, 2022;15:1-12.
PMID: 35018101 DOI: 10.2147/JAA.S321017

Chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) is defined as the inflammation of nose and paranasal sinuses, affecting the patients' quality of life and productivity. Chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP) is a principal clinical entity confirmed by the existence of chronic sinonasal inflammation and is characterized by anterior or posterior rhinorrhea, nasal congestion, hyposmia and/or facial pressure or facial pain. Several epidemiologic studies have revealed wide variations in the incidence of CRS among regions globally ranging from 4.6% to 12%. The Gulf countries are also witnessing an unprecedented burden of CRSwNP. According to the current clinical guidelines, glucocorticosteroids and antibiotics are the principal pharmacotherapeutic approaches. Endoscopic sinus surgery is recommended for those who have failed maximal pharmacotherapy. Recently, biologics are considered as an alternative best approach due to the complications associated with medical therapy and surgery. However, precise data on the clinical position of biologic agents in the management of CRSwNP in the Gulf region is not available. The present review article addresses the current diagnostic and management approaches for CRSwNP and also emphasizes the role of emerging biologics in the current treatment strategies for CRSwNP in the Gulf region. Further, a consensus protocol was convened to rationalize the guideline recommendations, strategize the best practices with biologics, and develop clinical practice guidelines for all primary-care specialists in the Gulf region. The consensus-based report will be a useful reference tool for primary-care physicians in primary-healthcare settings, regarding the appropriate time for the initiation of biological treatment in the Gulf region.
Fulltext First high-quality genome assembly data of sago palm (Metroxylon sagu Rottboll)

Lim LWK, Lau MML, Chung HH, Hussain H, Gan HM

Data Brief, 2022 Feb;40:107800.
PMID: 35059482 DOI: 10.1016/j.dib.2022.107800

The sago palm (Metroxylon sagu Rottboll) is a tropical halophytic starch-producing, economically important crop palm mainly located in Southeast Asian countries. Recently, a genome survey was conducted on this palm using the Illumina sequencing platform, with a very low (21.5%) BUSCO genome completeness score, and most of them (∼78%) are either fragmented or missing. Thus, in this study, the sago palm genome completeness was further improved with the utilization of the Nanopore sequencing platform that produced longer reads. A hybrid genome assembly was conducted, and the outcome was a much complete sago palm genome with BUSCO completeness achieved at as high as 97.9%, with only ∼2% of them either fragmented or missing. The estimated genome size of the sago palm is 509,812,790 bp in this study. A sum of 33,242 protein-coding genes was revealed from the sago palm genome and around 96.39% of them had been functionally annotated. An investigation on the carbohydrate metabolism KEGG pathways also unearthed that starch synthesis was one of the major sago palm activities. The genome data obtained from this work is indispensable for future molecular evolutionary and genome-wide association studies on the economically important sago palm.
Fulltext Elasticity and damping ratio measurement of droplets on super-hydrophobic surfaces

Sun Y, Zheng Y, Song L, Sun P, Zhao M, Zhou Y, et al.

R Soc Open Sci, 2022 Jan;9(1):211632.
PMID: 35242354 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.211632

The measurement of the droplets' elasticity is vitally important in microfluidic and ink-jet printing. It refers to the ability of the droplet to restore its original shape and strong robustness. This study investigated a novel method to measure elasticity. The plate coated with super-hydrophobic layers pressed on a droplet and the elastic force was recorded by an electronic balance. Meanwhile, a mathematical model was constructed to calculate the changes of the droplet area under the force. The measurement showed that external work mainly converts into surface energy and the damping ratio increases from 0.068 to 0.261 with the increase of mass fraction from 0 to 80 wt%. It also indicates that the novel method can accurately and efficiently measure the elasticity of droplets.
Fulltext Two cases of cryptogenic organizing pneumonia masquerading as tuberculosis (TB) in a TB endemic area

Abdul Hamid MF, Selvarajah SB, Nuratiqah N, Hau NB, Ban AY

Respirol Case Rep, 2022 Jan;10(1):e0883.
PMID: 34876988 DOI: 10.1002/rcr2.883

Before the era of COVID-19 pandemic, organizing pneumonia (OP) is often underdiagnosed while tuberculosis (TB) is overdiagnosed especially in an endemic area. We report two patients with cryptogenic OP mimicking TB. First, a 56-year-old lady with right upper lobe air space opacity and, second, a 37-year-old lady with left upper lobe cavitary lesion. They were treated empirically for pulmonary TB as they had chronic cough with typical chest imaging findings. As there were no improvements despite anti-TB and investigations for TB were negative, they underwent image-guided biopsy which confirmed OP. Both patients received 6 months of corticosteroids therapy and made complete recovery. These cases highlight the rare presentation of OP and serves as a reminder that patients tested negative for TB, despite typical history and chest imaging findings, warrant further investigations as many diseases may mimic TB and vice versa.
Fulltext Safety of Vitamin K in mechanical heart valve patients with supratherapeutic INR: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Sapapsap B, Srisawat C, Suthumpoung P, Luengrungkiat O, Leelakanok N, Saokaew S, et al.

Medicine (Baltimore), 2022 Sep 09;101(36):e30388.
PMID: 36086772 DOI: 10.1097/MD.0000000000030388

BACKGROUND: Patients who had mechanical heart valves and an international normalized ratio (INR) of >5.0 should be managed by temporary cessation of vitamin K antagonist. This study aimed to investigate the safety of low-dose vitamin K1 in patients with mechanical heart valves who have supratherapeutic INR.
METHODS: CINAHL, Cochran Library, Clinical trial.gov, OpenGrey, PubMed, ScienceDirect, and Scopus were systematically searched from the inception up to October 2021 without language restriction. Studies comparing the safety of low-dose vitamin K1 treatment in patients with placebo or other anticoagulant reversal agents were included. We used a random-effect model for the meta-analysis. Publication bias was determined by a funnel plot with subsequent Begg's test and Egger's test.
RESULTS: From 7529 retrieved studies, 3 randomized control trials were included in the meta-analysis. Pooled data demonstrated that low-dose vitamin K was not associated with thromboembolism rate (risk ratio [RR] = 0.94; 95% CI: 0.19-4.55) major bleeding rate (RR = 0.58; 95% CI: 0.07-4.82), and minor bleeding rate (RR = 0.60; 95% CI: 0.07-5.09). Subgroup and sensitivity analysis demonstrated the nonsignificant effect of low-dose vitamin K on the risk of thromboembolism. Publication bias was not apparent, according to Begg's test and Egger's test (P = .090 and 0.134, respectively).
CONCLUSION: The current evidence does not support the role of low-dose vitamin K as a trigger of thromboembolism in supratherapeutic INR patients with mechanical heart valves. Nevertheless, more well-designed studies with larger sample sizes are required to justify this research question.

MeSH terms: Heart Valves; Humans; Vitamin K 1; Vitamin K; Vitamins; International Normalized Ratio

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