Displaying publications 1 - 20 of 42 in total

Abstract:
Sort:
  1. Zhou F, Cui J, Zhou J, Yang J, Li Y, Leng Q, et al.
    Sci Total Environ, 2018 Aug 15;633:776-784.
    PMID: 29602116 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.03.217
    Atmospheric deposition nitrogen (ADN) increases the N content in soil and subsequently impacts microbial activity of soil. However, the effects of ADN on paddy soil microbial activity have not been well characterized. In this study, we studied how red paddy soil microbial activity responses to different contents of ADN through a 10-months ADN simulation on well managed pot experiments. Results showed that all tested contents of ADN fluxes (27, 55, and 82kgNha-1 when its ratio of NH4+/NO3--N (RN) was 2:1) enhanced the soil enzyme activity and microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen and 27kgNha-1 ADN had maximum effects while comparing with the fertilizer treatment. Generally, increasing of both ADN flux and RN (1:2, 1:1 and 2:1 with the ADN flux of 55kgNha-1) had similar reduced effects on microbial activity. Furthermore, both ADN flux and RN significantly reduced soil bacterial alpha diversity (p<0.05) and altered bacterial community structure (e.g., the relative abundances of genera Dyella and Rhodoblastus affiliated to Proteobacteria increased). Redundancy analysis demonstrated that ADN flux and RN were the main drivers in shaping paddy soil bacteria community. Overall, the results have indicated that increasing ADN flux and ammonium reduced soil microbial activity and changed the soil bacterial community. The finding highlights how paddy soil microbial community response to ADN and provides information for N management in paddy soil.
  2. Zheng Y, Ooi MCG, Juneng L, Wee HB, Latif MT, Nadzir MSM, et al.
    Sci Total Environ, 2023 Nov 25;901:166430.
    PMID: 37607626 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.166430
    Climate change is thought to influence the composition of atmospheric air, but little is known about the direct relationship between these variables, especially in a hot tropical climate like that of Malaysia. This work summarizes and analyzes the climate state and air quality of Peninsular Malaysia based on selected ground-based observations of the temperature, precipitation, relative humidity, wind speed, wind direction and concentrations of PM10, O3, CO, NO2, and SO2 over the last 20 years (2000-2019). The relationship between the climate state and air quality is analyzed using the Pearson correlation and canonical correlation analysis (CCA) methods is employed to predict the degree of change in the future air quality under different warming scenarios. It is found that the Peninsular Malaysia mainly experienced strong precipitation in the central and mountainous regions, while air pollutants are primarily concentrated in densely populated areas. Throughout the period of study (interannual, monthly, and diurnal time series analyses), Peninsular Malaysia became warmer and drier, with a significant increase in temperature (+4.2 %), decrease in the relative humidity (-4.5 %), and greater fluctuation in precipitation amount. The pollution conditions have worsened; there has been an increase in the PM10 (+16.4 %), O3 (+39.5 %), and NO2 (+2.1 %) concentration over the last 20 years. However, the amount of SO2 (-53.6 %) and CO (-20.6 %) decreased significantly. The analysis of the monthly variation shows a strong bimodality of the PM10 and O3 concentrations that corresponds to the monsoon transition. Intensive diurnal fluctuations and correlations are observed for all the variables in this study. According to the CCA, the air quality factors are strongly correlated with meteorological factors; in particular, the CO, O3, and PM10 concentrations interact strongly with the air temperature. These findings show that the future air quality in Peninsular Malaysia has high possibility to deteriorate under warming condition.
  3. Yi X, Yin S, Huang L, Li H, Wang Y, Wang Q, et al.
    Sci Total Environ, 2021 Jun 01;771:144644.
    PMID: 33736175 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.144644
    Chlorine radical plays an important role in the formation of ozone and secondary aerosols in the troposphere. It is hence important to develop comprehensive emissions inventory of chlorine precursors in order to enhance our understanding of the role of chlorine chemistry in ozone and secondary pollution issues. Based on a bottom-up methodology, this study presents a comprehensive emission inventory for major atomic chlorine precursors in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) region of China for the year 2017. Four primary chlorine precursors are considered in this study: hydrogen chloride (HCl), fine particulate chloride (Cl-) (Cl- in PM2.5), chlorine gas (Cl2), and hypochlorous acid (HClO) with emissions estimated for twelve source categories. The total emissions of these four species in the YRD region are estimated to be 20,424 t, 15,719 t, 1556 and 9331 t, respectively. The emissions of HCl are substantial, with major emissions from biomass burning and coal combustion, together accounting for 68% of the total HCl emissions. Fine particulate Cl- is mainly emitted from industrial processing, biomass burning and waste incineration. The emissions of Cl2 and HClO are mainly associated with usage of chlorine-containing disinfectants, for example, water treatment, wastewater treatment, and swimming pools. Emissions of each chlorine precursor are spatially allocated based on the characteristics of individual source category. This study provides important basic dataset for further studies with respect to the effects of chlorine chemistry on the formation of air pollution complex in the YRD region.
  4. Wang W, Zhou F, Chang Y, Cui J, He D, Du J, et al.
    Bull Environ Contam Toxicol, 2020 Mar;104(3):380-385.
    PMID: 31932904 DOI: 10.1007/s00128-020-02786-0
    In this study, three soil amendments (inorganic, liming, or organic-inorganic materials) were used in a Cd-contaminated purple field soil to investigate their impacts on soil Cd availability, enzyme (urease, catalase, sucrase, and acid phosphatase) activities, microbial biomass (carbon/nitrogen) and type (bacteria, fungi, and actinomycetes) in mustard and corn trials. Results showed that soil amendments generally decreased soil exchangeable Cd, fungi and bacterial populations while increasing the activities of all the four soil enzymes tested, microbial biomass carbon and populations of actinomycetes (p  0.05) whereas stronger effects appeared in soil organic matter and available nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium; p 
  5. Wang J, Yi X, Cui J, Chang Y, Yao D, Zhou D, et al.
    Sci Total Environ, 2019 Jun 20;670:1060-1067.
    PMID: 31018421 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.03.245
    With the population growth, urbanization and industrialization, China has become a hotspot of atmospheric deposition nitrogen (ADN), which is a threat to ecosystem and food safety. However, the impacts of increased ADN on rice growth and grain metal content are little studied. Based on previous long-term ADN studies, greenhouse experiment was conducted with four simulated ADN rates of 0, 30, 60 and 90 kg N ha-1 yr-1 (CK, N1, N2 and N3 as δ15N, respectively) to assess rice growth and metal uptake in a red soil ecosystem of southeast China during 2016-2017. Results showed that simulated ADN could promote rice growth and increase yields by 15.68-24.41% (except N2) and accumulations of cadmium (Cd) or copper (Cu) in organs. However, there was no linear relationship between ADN rate and rice growth or Cd or Cu uptake. The 15N-ADN was mainly accumulated in roots (21.31-67.86%) and grains (25.26-49.35%), while Cd and Cu were primarily accumulated in roots (78.86-93.44% and 90.00-96.24%, respectively). 15N-ADN and Cd accumulations in roots were significantly different between the two growing seasons (p 
  6. Peng Y, Zhou F, Cui J, Du K, Leng Q, Yang F, et al.
    Environ Sci Pollut Res Int, 2017 Jul;24(19):16206-16219.
    PMID: 28540543 DOI: 10.1007/s11356-017-9221-0
    The Three Gorges Dam's construction and industrial transfer have resulted in a new air pollution pattern with the potential to threaten the reservoir eco-environment. To assess the impact of socioeconomic factors on the pattern of air quality vairation and economical risks, concentrations of SO2, NO2, and PM10, industry genres, and meteorological conditions were selected in the Three Gorges Reservoir of Chongqing (TGRC) during 2006-2015. Results showed that air quality had improved to some extent, but atmospheric NO2 showed an increased trend during 2011-2015. Spatially, higher atmospheric NO2 extended to the surrounding area. The primary industry, especially for agriculture, had shown to be responsible for the remarkable increase of atmospheric NO2 (p 
  7. Ng T, Toh MR, Cheung YT, Chan A
    Support Care Cancer, 2015 Nov;23(11):3193-200.
    PMID: 25791392 DOI: 10.1007/s00520-015-2700-2
    PURPOSE: The aim of this study is to evaluate the perspectives of Asian oncology practitioners on the physical and psychosocial issues experienced by breast cancer survivors (BCS), current survivorship care practices, and the barriers to follow-up care.

    METHODS: This was a cross-sectional survey study. Oncology practitioners were recruited from a major cancer center in Singapore and through two regional cancer meetings that took place in Singapore and Malaysia in 2013.

    RESULTS: A total of 126 oncology practitioners from various Southeast Asian countries, mostly nurses (58.7 %) and physicians (37.3 %), were recruited. The majority of the respondents agreed that fatigue (78.4 %) and anxiety (69.1 %) were the most common physical and psychosocial problems experienced by BCS. Monitoring for physical and treatment-related adverse effects (80.7 %) and reviewing patients' noncancer medical history (65.3 %) were the most practiced aspects of follow-up care. Compared with the other practitioners, the physicians were more likely to communicate with other healthcare professionals (adjusted OR = 4.24, 95 % CI 1.54 to 11.72; p = 0.005). Most of the respondents also agreed that patient-specific barriers were the main impediments to follow-up care.

    CONCLUSION: This study provides insights into the various aspects of breast cancer survivorship care from the perspectives of oncology practitioners and shows that survivorship care is relatively inadequate in Asia. There is a need for new survivorship care models to meet the needs of Asian BCS and to complement the unique healthcare systems of Asia.

  8. Malhotra R, Bautista MAC, Müller AM, Aw S, Koh GCH, Theng YL, et al.
    Gerontologist, 2019 05 17;59(3):401-410.
    PMID: 30517628 DOI: 10.1093/geront/gny160
    The juxtaposition of a young city-state showing relative maturity as a rapidly aging society suffuses the population aging narrative in Singapore and places the "little red dot" on the spotlight of international aging. We first describe population aging in Singapore, including the characteristic events that shaped this demographic transition. We then detail the health care and socioeconomic ramifications of the rapid and significant shift to an aging society, followed by an overview of the main aging research areas in Singapore, including selected population-based data sets and the main thrust of leading aging research centers/institutes. After presenting established aging policies and programs, we also discuss current and emerging policy issues surrounding population aging in Singapore. We aim to contribute to the international aging literature by describing Singapore's position and extensive experience in managing the challenges and maximizing the potential of an aging population. We hope that similar graying populations in the region will find the material as a rich source of information and learning opportunities. Ultimately, we aspire to encourage transformative collaborations-locally, regionally, and internationally-and provide valuable insights for policy and practice.
  9. Maiwall R, Sarin SK, Kumar S, Jain P, Kumar G, Bhadoria AS, et al.
    Liver Int, 2017 Oct;37(10):1497-1507.
    PMID: 28393476 DOI: 10.1111/liv.13443
    BACKGROUND AND AIM: There is limited data on predictors of acute kidney injury in acute on chronic liver failure. We developed a PIRO model (Predisposition, Injury, Response, Organ failure) for predicting acute kidney injury in a multicentric cohort of acute on chronic liver failure patients.

    PATIENTS AND METHODS: Data of 2360 patients from APASL-ACLF Research Consortium (AARC) was analysed. Multivariate logistic regression model (PIRO score) was developed from a derivation cohort (n=1363) which was validated in another prospective multicentric cohort of acute on chronic liver failure patients (n=997).

    RESULTS: Factors significant for P component were serum creatinine[(≥2 mg/dL)OR 4.52, 95% CI (3.67-5.30)], bilirubin [(<12 mg/dL,OR 1) vs (12-30 mg/dL,OR 1.45, 95% 1.1-2.63) vs (≥30 mg/dL,OR 2.6, 95% CI 1.3-5.2)], serum potassium [(<3 mmol/LOR-1) vs (3-4.9 mmol/L,OR 2.7, 95% CI 1.05-1.97) vs (≥5 mmol/L,OR 4.34, 95% CI 1.67-11.3)] and blood urea (OR 3.73, 95% CI 2.5-5.5); for I component nephrotoxic medications (OR-9.86, 95% CI 3.2-30.8); for R component,Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome,(OR-2.14, 95% CI 1.4-3.3); for O component, Circulatory failure (OR-3.5, 95% CI 2.2-5.5). The PIRO score predicted acute kidney injury with C-index of 0.95 and 0.96 in the derivation and validation cohort. The increasing PIRO score was also associated with mortality (P

  10. Li Q, Zhang K, Li R, Yang L, Yi Y, Liu Z, et al.
    Sci Total Environ, 2023 May 10;872:162071.
    PMID: 36775179 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.162071
    Biomass burning (BB) has significant impacts on air quality and climate change, especially during harvest seasons. In previous studies, levoglucosan was frequently used for the calculation of BB contribution to PM2.5, however, the degradation of levoglucosan (Lev) could lead to large uncertainties. To quantify the influence of the degradation of Lev on the contribution of BB to PM2.5, PM2.5-bound biomass burning-derived markers were measured in Changzhou from November 2020 to March 2021 using the thermal desorption aerosol gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (TAG-GC/MS) system. Temporal variations of three anhydro-sugar BB tracers (e.g., levoglucosan, mannosan (Man), and galactosan (Gal)) were obtained. During the sampling period, the degradation level of air mass (x) was 0.13, indicating that ~87 % of levoglucosan had degraded before sampling in Changzhou. Without considering the degradation of levoglucosan in the atmosphere, the contribution of BB to OC were 7.8 %, 10.2 %, and 9.3 % in the clean period, BB period, and whole period, respectively, which were 2.4-2.6 times lower than those (20.8 %-25.9 %) considered levoglucosan degradation. This illustrated that the relative contribution of BB to OC could be underestimated (~14.9 %) without considering degradation of levoglucosan. Compared to the traditional method (i.e., only using K+ as BB tracer), organic tracers (Lev, Man, Gal) were put into the Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) model in this study. With the addition of BB organic tracers and replaced K+ with K+BB (the water-soluble potassium produced by biomass burning), the overall contribution of BB to PM2.5 was enhanced by 3.2 % after accounting for levoglucosan degradation based on the PMF analysis. This study provides useful information to better understand the effect of biomass burning on the air quality in the Yangtze River Delta region.
  11. Li L, Li Q, Huang L, Wang Q, Zhu A, Xu J, et al.
    Sci Total Environ, 2020 Aug 25;732:139282.
    PMID: 32413621 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.139282
    The outbreak of COVID-19 has spreaded rapidly across the world. To control the rapid dispersion of the virus, China has imposed national lockdown policies to practise social distancing. This has led to reduced human activities and hence primary air pollutant emissions, which caused improvement of air quality as a side-product. To investigate the air quality changes during the COVID-19 lockdown over the YRD Region, we apply the WRF-CAMx modelling system together with monitoring data to investigate the impact of human activity pattern changes on air quality. Results show that human activities were lowered significantly during the period: industrial operations, VKT, constructions in operation, etc. were significantly reduced, leading to lowered SO2, NOx, PM2.5 and VOCs emissions by approximately 16-26%, 29-47%, 27-46% and 37-57% during the Level I and Level II response periods respectively. These emission reduction has played a significant role in the improvement of air quality. Concentrations of PM2.5, NO2 and SO2 decreased by 31.8%, 45.1% and 20.4% during the Level I period; and 33.2%, 27.2% and 7.6% during the Level II period compared with 2019. However, ozone did not show any reduction and increased greatly. Our results also show that even during the lockdown, with primary emissions reduction of 15%-61%, the daily average PM2.5 concentrations range between 15 and 79 μg m-3, which shows that background and residual pollutions are still high. Source apportionment results indicate that the residual pollution of PM2.5 comes from industry (32.2-61.1%), mobile (3.9-8.1%), dust (2.6-7.7%), residential sources (2.1-28.5%) in YRD and 14.0-28.6% contribution from long-range transport coming from northern China. This indicates that in spite of the extreme reductions in primary emissions, it cannot fully tackle the current air pollution. Re-organisation of the energy and industrial strategy together with trans-regional joint-control for a full long-term air pollution plan need to be further taken into account.
  12. Li L, An J, Zhou M, Qiao L, Zhu S, Yan R, et al.
    Environ Sci Technol, 2018 Dec 18;52(24):14216-14227.
    PMID: 30288976 DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.8b01211
    An integrated source apportionment methodology is developed by amalgamating the receptor-oriented model (ROM) and source-oriented numerical simulations (SOM) together to eliminate the weaknesses of individual SA methods. This approach attempts to apportion and dissect the PM2.5 sources in the Yangtze River Delta region during winter. First, three ROM models (CMB, PMF, ME2) are applied and compared for the preliminary SA results, with information from PM2.5 sampling and lab analysis during the winter seasons. The detailed source category contribution of SOM to PM2.5 is further simulated using the WRF-CAMx model. The two pieces of information from both ROM and SOM are then stitched together to give a comprehensive information on the PM2.5 sources over the region. With the integrated approach, the detailed contributing sources of the ambient PM2.5 at different receptors including rural and urban, coastal and in-land, northern and southern receptors are analyzed. The results are compared with previous data and shows good agreement. This integrative approach is more comprehensive and is able to produce a more profound and detailed understanding between the sources and receptors, compared with single models.
  13. Kumaran A, Chan A, Yong K, Shen S
    Orbit, 2019 Apr;38(2):95-102.
    PMID: 29482415 DOI: 10.1080/01676830.2018.1441316
    AIM: To describe differences in the deep lateral orbital wall (specifically, trigone) between Chinese, Malay, Indian and Caucasian subjects Methods: Single-centre retrospective Computed Tomogram (CT)-based study; 20 subjects of each ethnicity were used from existing databases, matched for gender, average age and laterality. Subjects below 16 years of age were excluded. DICOM image viewing software CARESTREAM Vue PACS (Carestream Health Inc., USA) and OsiriX version 7.5 (Pixmeo., Switzerland) were used to measure deep lateral wall length, thickness and volume, as well as orbital depth and statistical analyses performed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 21 (IBM, USA).

    RESULTS: In each group, there were 12 males (60%) and average age was not significantly different (p = 0.682-0.987). Using Chinese subjects as a reference, in Chinese, Malay, Indian and Caucasian subjects, mean trigone thickness was 13.68, 14.02, 11.60 (p 

  14. Koczwara B, Chan A, Jefford M, Lam WWT, Taylor C, Wakefield CE, et al.
    JCO Glob Oncol, 2023 Jan;9:e2200305.
    PMID: 36749908 DOI: 10.1200/GO.22.00305
  15. Koczwara B, Chan A, Jefford M, Lam WWT, Taylor C, Wakefield CE, et al.
    JCO Glob Oncol, 2023 Jun;9:e2300102.
    PMID: 37290019 DOI: 10.1200/GO.23.00102
  16. Ketabchi MR, Masoudi Soltani S, Chan A
    Environ Sci Pollut Res Int, 2023 Sep;30(41):93722-93730.
    PMID: 37515618 DOI: 10.1007/s11356-023-28892-0
    The bio- and thermal degradation as well as the water absorption properties of a novel biocomposite comprising cellulose nanoparticles, natural rubber and polylactic acid have been investigated. The biodegradation process was studied through an assembled condition based on the soil collected from the central Malaysian palm oil forests located in the University of Nottingham Malaysia. The effects of the presence of the cellulose nanoparticles and natural rubber on the biodegradation of polylactic acid were investigated. The biodegradation process was studied via thermal gravimetric analysis and scanning electron microscopy. It was understood that the reinforcement of polylactic acid with cellulose nanoparticles and natural rubber increases the thermal stability by ~ 20 °C. Limited amorphous regions on the surface of the cellulose nanoparticles accelerated the biodegradation and water absorption processes. Based on the obtained results, it is predicted that complete biodegradation of the synthesised biocomposites can take place in 3062 h, highlighting promising agricultural applications for this biocomposite.
  17. Iwata H, Masuda N, Kim SB, Inoue K, Rai Y, Fujita T, et al.
    Future Oncol, 2019 Jul;15(21):2489-2501.
    PMID: 31140297 DOI: 10.2217/fon-2019-0143
    Aim: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of neratinib as extended adjuvant therapy in patients from Asia based on exploratory analyses of the Phase III ExteNET trial. Patients & methods: A total of 2840 women with early stage HER2-positive breast cancer were randomly assigned to neratinib 240 mg/day or placebo for 1 year after trastuzumab-based adjuvant therapy. Results: A total of 341 patients were from Asia (neratinib, n = 165; placebo, n = 176). 2-year invasive disease-free survival rates were 92.8 and 90.8% with neratinib and placebo, respectively (HR: 0.70; 95% CI: 0.31-1.55), and 5-year rates were 91.9 and 87.2%, respectively (HR: 0.57; 95% CI: 0.27-1.13). Diarrhea was the most common adverse event with neratinib. Conclusion: Extended adjuvant therapy with neratinib reduces disease recurrences in Asian women with HER2-positive breast cancer. Trial registration: Clinicaltrials.gov NCT00878709.
  18. Huang L, Liu Z, Li H, Wang Y, Li Y, Zhu Y, et al.
    Geohealth, 2020 Jul 07.
    PMID: 32838101 DOI: 10.1029/2020GH000272
    The outbreak of COVID-19 in China has led to massive lockdowns in order to reduce the spread of the epidemic and control human-to-human transmission. Subsequent reductions in various anthropogenic activities have led to improved air quality during the lockdown. In this study, we apply a widely used exposure-response function to estimate the short-term health impacts associated with PM2.5 changes over the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) region due to COVID-19 lockdown. Concentrations of PM2.5 during lockdown period reduced by 22.9% to 54.0% compared to pre-lockdown level. Estimated PM2.5-related daily premature mortality during lockdown period is 895 (95% confidential interval: 637-1081), which is 43.3% lower than pre-lockdown period and 46.5% lower compared with averages of 2017-2019. According to our calculation, total number of avoided premature death associated PM2.5 reduction during the lockdown is estimated to be 42.4 thousand over the YRD region, with Shanghai, Wenzhou, Suzhou (Jiangsu province), Nanjing, and Nantong being the top five cities with largest health benefits. Avoided premature mortality is mostly contributed by reduced death associated with stroke (16.9 thousand, accounting for 40.0%), ischemic heart disease (14.0 thousand, 33.2%) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (7.6 thousand, 18.0%). Our calculations do not support or advocate any idea that pandemics produce a positive note to community health. We simply present health benefits from air pollution improvement due to large emission reductions from lowered human and industrial activities. Our results show that continuous efforts to improve air quality are essential to protect public health, especially over city-clusters with dense population.
Related Terms
Filters
Contact Us

Please provide feedback to Administrator (afdal@afpm.org.my)

External Links