Two new black fly species, Simulium (Gomphostilbia) brinchangense and S. (G.) tanahrataense, are described on the basis of reared adult females, males, pupae and larvae from Cameron's Highlands, Peninsular Malaysia. These new species are assigned to the asakoae species-group within Simulium (Gomphostilbia) and taxonomic notes are given to distinguish each new species from six known species in Malaysia. Revised keys to identify all 21 species including 13 species from other countries are provided for females, males, pupae and mature larvae. The species diversity of the asakoae species-group in Cameron's Highlands is briefly noted.
A new silvanid genus Dentirotacorimus gen. nov. is described based on specimens collected from Ulu Gombak (Malay Peninsula), Malaysia. Two new species, D. reticulatus sp. nov. and D. zigzag sp. nov., are described herein. A key to species of this genus and a table listing states of diagnostic characters of Corimus-like genera, including this new genus, are provided.
Two new species of black flies, Simulium (Gomphostilbia) roslihashimisp. n. and Simulium (Gomphostilbia) lurauensesp. n., are described on the basis of reared adult, pupal and larval specimens collected from Peninsular Malaysia. These two new species are placed in the ceylonicum species-group within the subgenus Gomphostilbia. Simulium (Gomphostilbia) roslihashimisp. n. is most distinctive with the male having almost entirely yellow antennae, and Simulium (Gomphostilbia) lurauensesp. n. is characterized in the female by having the elongate sensory vesicle and the yellowish-white hairs on the base of the costal vein and on the stem vein, in the male by the greater number of large upper-eye facets and the spindle-shaped hind basitarsi which are much narrower than the hind tibiae and femora and in the pupa by the small terminal hooks. Keys to species of the ceylonicum species-group reported from Peninsular Malaysia are provided for females, males, pupae and mature larvae.
Three myrmecophilous genera of Aleocharinae (Staphylinidae) associated with Leptogenys distinguenda (Emery, 1887) and Leptogenys mutabilis (Smith, 1861) are reviewed with descriptions of new taxa: Maschwitzia Kistner, 1989, Togpelenys Kistner, 1989 and Witteia Maruyama & von Beeren, gen. n. (type species: Witteia dentilabrumMaruyama & von Beeren, sp. n.). The following new combinations are proposed: Zyras (s. lat.) aenictophila (Kistner, 1997),comb. n. (exMaschwitzia), Zyras (s. lat.) dichthadiaphila (Kistner in Kistner et al., 2003), comb. n. (exMaschwitzia), Maschwitzia derougemonti (Pace, 1984), comb. n. (exWroughtonilla Wasmann, 1899), Maschwitzia watanabei (Maruyama, 2004), comb. n. (exWroughtonilla), Maschwitzia dilatata (Pace, 2005), comb. n. (exWroughtonilla), Witteia borneensis (Pace, 1986), comb. n. (ex Wroughtonilla). These genera belong to the Wroughtonilla genus group of the tribe Lomechusini.
The genus Dichaetophora Duda comprises 61 described species classified into four species groups: agbo, tenuicauda, acutissima and sinensis. This genus is distributed exclusively in the Old World, and is rich in species in the tropical and subtropical areas of the Oriental, Australasian, and Afrotropical regions. In this paper, a new species group, the trilobita group, is established for six new species discovered from the Oriental region. The delimitation of these species is firstly performed in light of morphology and further with the aid of DNA sequences of the mitochondrial COI and COII (cytochrome c oxydase, subunits I and II, respectively) genes, considering also their respective geographical origins. Then, the new species (trilobita Yang & Gao, sp. n., heterochroma Yang & Gao, sp. n., flatosternata Yang & Gao, sp. n., borneoensis Yang & Gao, sp. n., javaensis Yang & Gao, sp. n., and sumatraensis Yang & Gao, sp. n.) are described, and a key, based on not only morphological but also molecular information, is provided.
Conference abstract;
Objectives: Warfarin use in atrial fibrillation has been established for preventing occurrence of stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation. However, safety and clinical monitoring of warfarin use is crucial due to its risk of bleeding complications. This study aims to compare and establish relation of time in therapeutic range (TTR) of warfarin in patients with atrial fibrillation in the first 6 months and 6 month thereafter of anticoagulation therapy.
Methods: This is a retrospective study carried out at a tertiary-care hospital with anticoagulation clinic in the state of Selangor, Malaysia. Data collected included patients’ demographics, co-morbidities, and international normalized ratio (INR). TTR were determined using Rosendaal method based on records found in database (INR Desk 4.0 system) and patients’ hemorrhage events were also recorded. Samples of the study were patient who started warfarin from January 2009 until March 2013.
Results: A total of 167 patients with atrial fibrillation were enrolled and only 6% (n=10) achieved TTR of more than 75% for the first 6 months of warfarin use as compared to 16.8% (n=28) of TTR more than 75% 6 months thereafter. As for bleeding incidences, 29% (n=45) of patients in the group of TTR less than 75% in the first 6 months had bleeding complications as compared to 18.7% (n=26) in patients of TTR less than 75% 6 months after.
Conclusions: A more regular follow up is necessary during the first 6 months of new warfarin users as they tend to be out of the TTR and have a higher bleeding risk.
Study site: anticoagulation clinic, tertiary hospital, Selangor, Malaysia
Conference abstract:
Objectives: Warfarin has been used for more than 50 years as stroke prophylaxis in patients with atrial fibrillation. New oral anticoagulant, Dabigatran, was developed and shown to be safer and more efficacious compared to Warfarin due to its lower tendency of bleeding and in reducing stroke incidences. This study aims to compare the pattern of anticoagulants used and to assess their safety and efficacy by evaluating bleeding and stroke occurrences in both groups.
Methods: This is a retrospective study carried out at a hospital with hematology clinic in the state of Selangor, Malaysia. The samples of the study were patients with atrial fibrillation, prescribed with warfarin or dabigatran. Data collected includes patients’ demographics, co-morbidities, and stroke and haemorrhage events.
Results: A total of 71 patients were recruited in this study with 21, 21 and 29 patients were on Warfarin, Dabigatran 110 mg and Dabigatran 150 mg respectively. Out of 50 Dabigatran users, 36 of them are warfarin-experienced. 1 out of 21 patients on warfarin experienced stroke while none in both 110 and 150mg dabigatran group. A total of 11 (52.4%) of warfarin patients experienced bleeding with 2 of them having major bleeding whereas, only 4 (8%) out of 50 dabigatran patients experienced minor bleeding, 1 in patient who were on Dabigatran 150mg and 3 patients who were on Dabigatran 110mg.
Conclusions: The pattern of anticoagulant used for stroke prophylaxis in atrial fibrillation is slowly changing from Warfarin to Dabigatran. Evaluation of safety and efficacy profile of Warfarin shows that Warfarin requires more extensive management and monitoring in order to achieve therapeutic goals with fewer side effects. Comparison between both anticoagulants show that Dabigatran is safer and more effective compared to warfarin
Study site: Haematology clinic, hospital, Selangor, Malaysia
Ultrasonic pulse velocity is affected by defects in material structure. This study applied soft computing techniques to predict the ultrasonic pulse velocity for various peats and cement content mixtures for several curing periods. First, this investigation constructed a process to simulate the ultrasonic pulse velocity with adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system. Then, an ANFIS network with neurons was developed. The input and output layers consisted of four and one neurons, respectively. The four inputs were cement, peat, sand content (%) and curing period (days). The simulation results showed efficient performance of the proposed system. The ANFIS and experimental results were compared through the coefficient of determination and root-mean-square error. In conclusion, use of ANFIS network enhances prediction and generation of strength. The simulation results confirmed the effectiveness of the suggested strategies.
This study aimed to assess the concentrations of cadmium (Cd), nickel (Ni) and lead (Pb) in the tissues of fish collected from the lower reach of the Kelantan River, Malaysia. Fishes were collected using gill nets during the dry and wet seasons. A total of 78 individual fish were caught and comprised 6 families, 11 genera and 13 species. The dorsal muscle was analysed using a graphite furnace Atomic Absorption Spectrometer (AAS). The mean concentration of Cd in Chitala chitala (0.076 mg/kg) was above the critical limit values of the European Commission (EC), World Health Organization (WHO) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The mean concentrations of Cd in Barbonymus gonionatus and Tachysurus maculatus were already at the level of concern, whereas the other species were approaching the limits of permissible levels. No fish samples were found to have a Ni level higher than the permissible limit of 0.5-0.6 mg/kg set by the WHO (1985). Osteochilus hasseltii (0.169 mg/kg) and T. maculatus (0.156 mg/kg) showed high Pb concentrations. The concentrations of heavy metals were found to be elevated in the wet season (p<0.05). Omnivorous fish were detected with elevated concentrations of Cd and Ni, whereas carnivorous fish had the highest concentration of Pb. The concentrations of Cd and Pb in fish tissues were positively correlated with fish weight (p<0.05). This study determined that the fish species caught in the Kelantan River were contaminated with non-essential metals (Cd, Ni and Pb). Nevertheless, the heavy metal concentration in the fish tissues, with the exception of C. chitala, O. hasseltii and T. maculatus, did not exceed the EC, FAO, Malaysian Food Act (MFA) or WHO guidelines.
A three-year study (July 2000 - June 2003) of fish assemblages was conducted in four tributaries of the Big Black River: Big Bywy, Little Bywy, Middle Bywy and McCurtain creeks that cross the Natchez Trace Parkway, Choctaw County, Mississippi, USA. Little Bywy and Middle Bywy creeks were within watersheds influenced by the lignite mining. Big Bywy and Middle Bywy creeks were historically impacted by channelisation. McCurtain Creek was chosen as a reference (control) stream. Fish were collected using a portable backpack electrofishing unit (Smith-Root Inc., Washington, USA). Insectivorous fish dominated all of the streams. There were no pronounced differences in relative abundances of fishes among the streams (P > 0.05) but fish assemblages fluctuated seasonally. Although there were some differences among streams with regard to individual species, channelisation and lignite mining had no discernable adverse effects on functional components of fish assemblages suggesting that fishes in these systems are euryceous fluvial generalist species adapted to the variable environments of small stream ecosystems.
This study used a two-phase feeding trial to determine the influence of selected dietary prebiotics and probiotics on growth performance, feed utilisation, and morphological changes in snakehead (Channa striata) fingerlings as well as the duration of these effects over a post-experimental period without supplementation. Triplicate groups of fish (22.46 ±0.17 g) were raised on six different treatment diets: three prebiotics (0.2% β-glucan, 1% galacto-oligosaccharides [GOS], 0.5% mannan-oligosaccharides [MOS]), two probiotics (1% live yeast [Saccharomyces cerevisiae] and 0.01% Lactobacillus acidophilus [LBA] powder) and a control (unsupplemented) diet; there were three replicates for each treatment. All diets contained 40% crude protein and 12% crude lipid. Fish were fed to satiation three times daily. No mortalities were recorded during Phase 1; however, 14% mortality was documented in the control and prebiotic-amended fish during Phase 2. At the end of Phase 1, growth performance and feed utilisation were significantly higher (p<0.05) in the LBA-treated fish, followed by live yeast treatment, compared with all other diets tested. The performance of fish on the three prebiotic diets were not significantly different from one another but was significantly higher than the control diet. During Phase 2 (the post-feeding phase), fish growth continued until the 6th week for the probiotic-based diets but levelled off after four weeks for the fish fed the prebiotic diets. The feed conversion ratio (FCR) was higher in all treatments during the post-feeding period. The hepatosomatic index (HSI) did not differ significantly among the tested diets. The visceral somatic index (VSI) and intraperitoneal fat (IPF) were highest in the LBA-based diet and the control diet, respectively. The body indices were significantly different (p<0.05) between Phases 1 and 2. This study demonstrates that probiotic-based diets have a more positive influence on the growth, feed utilisation, and survival of C. striata fingerlings compared with supplementation with prebiotics.
This study was conducted to determine the physical and chemical composition of goat milk produced by eight local farms located in the central region of Malaysia. Farms 1 to 4 (F1-SC, F2-SP, F3-SP, F4-SBC) reared Saanen-type goats while farms 5 to 8 (F5-JK, F6-JPEC, F7-JTC, F8-JC), Jamnapari-type goats. The common feedstuffs used in all farms comprised of fresh or silage from Napier grass, feed pellets, and brans while two farms, F5-JK and F6-JPEC supplemented the feeds with soybean-based product. The total solid content, dry matter, and proximate composition of goat milk and feedstuffs from the different farms were determined and the results analysed using principal component analysis. Total solid content of goat milk from the Jamnapari crossbreed had the highest solid content ranging from 11.81% to 17.54% compared to milk from farms with Saanen and Saanen crossbreed (10.95% to 14.63%). Jamnapari-type goats from F5-JK, F6-JPEC, and F8-JC had significantly higher (p < 0.05) milk fat and protein contents (7.36%, 7.14%, and 6.59% fat; 5.08%, 6.19%, and 4.23% protein, respectively) than milk from other farms but, milk produced by Saanen-type goats from F4-SBC contained similar protein content (4.34%) to that from F8-JC. Total ash and carbohydrate contents in milk ranged between 0.67% to 0.86% and 3.26% to 4.71%, respectively, regardless of goat breed. Feeding soybean-based products appear to have a positive influence on milk fat and protein content in Jamnaparitype goats.
This study reported the ant species that were recovered from monkey carcasses in three different ecological habitats in Malaysia. The study was conducted from 9 May - 10 October 2007, 6 May - 6 August 2008 and 26 May - 14 July 2009 in forested area (Gombak, Selangor), coastal area (Tanjong Sepat, Selangor) and highland area (Bukit Cincin, Pahang), respectively. Monkey carcass was used as a model for human decomposition in this study. A total of 4 replicates were used in each of the study sites. Ants were observed to prey on eggs, larvae, pupae and newly emerged flies. This study found that ant species could be found at all stages of decomposition, indicating that ants were not a significant indicator for faunal succession. However, different species of ants were obtained from monkey carcasses placed in different ecological habitats. Cardiocondyla sp. was only found on carcasses placed in the coastal area; while Pheidole longipes, Hypoponera sp. and Pachycondyla sp. were solely found on carcasses placed in the highland area. On the other hand, Pheidologeton diversus and Paratrechina longicornis were found in several ecological habitats. These data suggests that specific ant species can act as geographic indicators for different ecological habitats in forensic entomology cases in Malaysia.
Simulium (Gomphostilbia) sofiani sp. nov. is described on the basis of reared adult female, male, pupal and larval specimens collected from Cameron Highlands, Pahang state, Malaysia. This new species is placed in the ceylonicum species-group within the subgenus Gomphostilbia and is easily distinguished from all the related known species by the combination of the following characteristics: an elongate sensory vesicle and yellow hair tuft on the stem vein of the wing in the female, the greater number of large upper-eye facets (15 or 16 vertical columns and 15 or 16 horizontal rows) and almost entirely darkened hind basitarsus in the male, and the gill bearing a long common basal stalk and 8 filaments arranged as [(1+2)+(1+2)] +2 filaments from dorsal to ventral in the pupa.
Threats to beaches have accelerated the coastal destruction. In recent decades, geotextile tubes were used around the world to prevent coastal erosion, to encourage beach nourishment, and to assist mangrove rehabilitation. However, the applications of geotextile tube in sandy and muddy coasts have different concerns as the geological settings are different. Applications of geotextile tubes in sandy beaches were mainly to prevent coastline from further erosion and to nourish the beach. However, for the muddy coasts, mangrove rehabilitation and conservation were additional concerns in coastal management schemes. The mangrove forests are natural barriers which can be found on the muddy coasts of many tropical countries. In this paper, the viability of geotextile tubes in sandy and muddy beaches was analysed. The advantages and disadvantages of the utilization of geotextile tubes in coastal management were discussed based on the experiences from the tropical countries such as Mexico, Malaysia, and Thailand. From the case studies, impressive improvements in coastal restoration after installation of geotextile tubes were shown. Based on the discussion, several recommendations to improve the application of geotextile tubes were suggested in this paper.
One of the major challenges for the CBIR is to bridge the gap between low level features and high level semantics according to the need of the user. To overcome this gap, relevance feedback (RF) coupled with support vector machine (SVM) has been applied successfully. However, when the feedback sample is small, the performance of the SVM based RF is often poor. To improve the performance of RF, this paper has proposed a new technique, namely, PSO-SVM-RF, which combines SVM based RF with particle swarm optimization (PSO). The aims of this proposed technique are to enhance the performance of SVM based RF and also to minimize the user interaction with the system by minimizing the RF number. The PSO-SVM-RF was tested on the coral photo gallery containing 10908 images. The results obtained from the experiments showed that the proposed PSO-SVM-RF achieved 100% accuracy in 8 feedback iterations for top 10 retrievals and 80% accuracy in 6 iterations for 100 top retrievals. This implies that with PSO-SVM-RF technique high accuracy rate is achieved at a small number of iterations.
The popularity of low cost, lightweight, and environmentally affable masonry unit in building industry carries the need to investigate more flexible and adaptable brick component as well as to retain the requirements confirmed in building standards. In this study, potential use of local materials used as lightweight building materials in solving the economic problems of housing has been investigated. Experimental studies on peat added bricks have been carried out. It demonstrates the physicomechanical properties of bricks and investigates the influence of peat, sand, and cement solid bricks to the role of various types of constructional applications. The achieved compressive strength, spitting strength, flexural strength, unit weight, and ultrasonic pulse velocity are significantly reduced and the water absorption is increased with percentage wise replacement of peat as aggregate in the samples. The maximum 20% of (% mass) peat content meets the requirements of relevant well-known international standards. The experimental values illustrate that, the 44% volumetric replacement with peat did not exhibit any sudden brittle fracture even beyond the ultimate loads and a comparatively smooth surface is found. The application of peat as efficient brick substance shows a potential to be used for wall and a viable solution in the economic buildings design.
Wave energy and storm surges threaten coastal ecology and nearshore infrastructures. Although coastal structures are conventionally constructed to dampen the wave energy, they introduce tremendous damage to the ecology of the coast. To minimize environmental impact, ecofriendly coastal protection schemes should be introduced. In this paper, we discuss an example of an innovative mangrove rehabilitation attempt to restore the endangered mangroves on Carey Island, Malaysia. A submerged detached breakwater system was constructed to dampen the energy of wave and trap the sediments behind the structure. Further, a large number of mangrove seedlings were planted using different techniques. Further, we assess the possibility of success for a future mangrove rehabilitation project at the site in the context of sedimentology, bathymetry, and hydrogeochemistry. The assessment showed an increase in the amount of silt and clay, and the seabed was noticeably elevated. The nutrient concentration, the pH value, and the salinity index demonstrate that the site is conducive in establishing mangrove seedlings. As a result, we conclude that the site is now ready for attempts to rehabilitate the lost mangrove forest.
Bioethanol production from renewable sources to be used in transportation is now an increasing demand worldwide due to continuous depletion of fossil fuels, economic and political crises, and growing concern on environmental safety. Mainly, three types of raw materials, that is, sugar juice, starchy crops, and lignocellulosic materials, are being used for this purpose. This paper will investigate ethanol production from free sugar containing juices obtained from some energy crops such as sugarcane, sugar beet, and sweet sorghum that are the most attractive choice because of their cost-effectiveness and feasibility to use. Three types of fermentation process (batch, fed-batch, and continuous) are employed in ethanol production from these sugar juices. The most common microorganism used in fermentation from its history is the yeast, especially, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, though the bacterial species Zymomonas mobilis is also potentially used nowadays for this purpose. A number of factors related to the fermentation greatly influences the process and their optimization is the key point for efficient ethanol production from these feedstocks.