This study aimed to identify the independent and combined effects of age, BMI at first prenatal visit and GWG on the risk of GDM. A retrospective cohort study of 1,951 pregnant women in Seremban district, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia. GDM was defined as fasting plasma glucose (FPG) ≥5.6 mmol/l and/or 2-hour postprandial plasma glucose (2hPPG) ≥7.8 mmol/l. A higher percentage of women with GDM had 2 risk factors (29.0%) or >2 risk factors (8.6%) compared to non-GDM women (2 risk factors: 25.5%; >2 risk factors: 5.0%). In general, women with ≥2 risk factors were respectively 1.36-2.06 times more likely to have GDM compared to those without risk factors. Older maternal age and being overweight/obese were significantly associated with risk of GDM. Overweight/obese women with age ≥35 years had 2.45 times higher risk of GDM and having excessive GWG at second trimester further increased the risk of GDM. Age and BMI are independent risk factors for GDM but not GWG in the first and second trimester. The findings emphasize the need to focus on a healthy BMI before pregnancy and optimal GWG during pregnancy to improve pregnancy outcomes.
This study intended to explore the neuropsychological ramifications in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) survivors in Malaysia and to examine treatment-related sequelae. A case-control study was conducted over a 2-year period. Seventy-one survivors of childhood ALL who had completed treatment for a minimum of 1 year and were in remission, and 71 healthy volunteers were enlisted. To assess alertness (processing speed) and essential executive functioning skills such as working memory capacity, inhibition, cognitive flexibility, and sustained attention, seven measures from the Amsterdam Neuropsychological Tasks (ANT) program were chosen. Main outcome measures were speed, stability and accuracy of responses. Mean age at diagnosis was 4.50 years (SD ± 2.40) while mean age at study entry was 12.18 years (SD ± 3.14). Survivors of childhood ALL underperformed on 6 out of 7 ANT tasks, indicating poorer sustained attention, working memory capacity, executive visuomotor control, and cognitive flexibility. Duration of treatment, age at diagnosis, gender, and cumulative doses of chemotherapy were not found to correlate with any of the neuropsychological outcome measures. Childhood ALL survivors in our center demonstrated significantly poorer neuropsychological status compared to healthy controls.
This study was conducted to assess the spatial distribution of beetles in mountain ecosystems and their elevational diversity. Malaise, pitfall and light traps were used to collect beetles from nine different mountains in Malaysia from September 2014 to September 2016, where from Gunung Angsi, Gunung Belumut, Gunung Basor and Gunung Tebu samples were collected at 500 m and 1000 m (above sea level) elevations, while beetles were sampled at 500 m, 1000 m and 1500 masl from Gunung Benom, Gunung Inas, Cameron Highland, Gunung Besar Hantu and Gunung Basor. In this study, 9628 beetles belonging to 879 different species were collected with highest representation from family Staphylinidae and Carabidae. Chamah Highland had the highest beetle diversity followed by Gunung Benom, Gunung Inas, Cameron Highland, Gunung Belumut, and Gunung Basor. Chamah Highland was different to all mountains on abundance and species richness. The highest species richness was observed at 1000 m, followed by 500 m and 1500 m. We identified characteristic species associated with habitat conditions at Gunung Benoum and Gunung Inas mountains, according to INDVAL values. The beetle diversity of the sampled mountains showed multiple alpha and beta patterns according to type of mountain ecosystem and elevation, providing guidelines for the scientific community to underpin conservation efforts in Malaysia.
Acridone based synthetic and natural products with inherent anticancer activity advancing the research and generating a large number of structurally diversified compounds. In this sequence we have designed, synthesized a series of tetracyclic acridones with amide framework viz., 3-(alkyloyl/ aryloyl/ heteroaryloyl/ heteroaryl)-2,3-dihydropyrazino[3,2,1-de]acridin-7(1H)-ones and screened for their in vitro anti-cancer activity. The in vitro study revealed that compounds with cyclopropyl-acetyl, benzoyl, p-hydroxybenzoyl, p-(trifluoromethyl)benzoyl, p-fluorobenzoyl, m-fluorobenzoyl, picolinoyl, 6-methylpicolinoyl and 3-nicotinoyl groups are active against HT29, MDAMB231 and HEK293T cancer cell lines. The molecular docking studies performed for them against 4N5Y, HT29 and 2VWD revealed the potential ligand-protein binding interactions among the neutral aminoacid of the enzymes and carbonyl groups of the title compounds with a binding energy ranging from - 8.1394 to - 6.9915 kcal/mol. In addition, the BSA protein binding assay performed for them has confirmed their interaction with target proteins through strong binding to BSA macromolecule. The additional studies like ADMET, QSAR, bioactivity scores, drug properties and toxicity risks ascertained them as newer drug candidates. This study had added a new collection of piperazino fused acridone derivatives to the existing array of other nitrogen heterocyclic fused acridone derivatives as anticancer agents.
A specific safety concern is the possibility that a dietary supplement could be contaminated with heavy metals. This research was undertaken to investigate the daily exposure levels of heavy metals in dietary supplements available in the UAE and to explore the factors associated with the contamination of dietary supplements with heavy metals. A total of 277 dietary supplement samples were collected from the UAE market and prepared for the analysis of selected heavy metal contamination. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was used to determine the presence of heavy metals. The average daily intake of cadmium was 0.73 μg [95% CI 0.61-0.85], compared to the acceptable daily intake (ADI) of 6 μg; the daily intake of lead was 0.85 μg [95% CI 0.62-1.07], compared to the acceptable daily intake (ADI) of 20 μg; and the daily intake of arsenic was 0.67 μg [95% CI 0.57-0.78], compared to the acceptable daily intake of 10 μg. Although the dietary supplements available in the UAE have low levels of heavy metal contamination, numerous individuals are consuming a number of different dietary supplements every day and thereby may experience a cumulative level of toxic exposure. Dietary supplements formulations (Categories), dosage forms and country of origin are strong determents of heavy metal contamination in dietary supplements products.
We present precipitation isotope data (δ2H and δ18O values) from 19 stations across the tropics collected from 2012 to 2017 under the Coordinated Research Project F31004 sponsored by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Rainfall samples were collected daily and analysed for stable isotopic ratios of oxygen and hydrogen by participating laboratories following a common analytical framework. We also calculated daily mean stratiform rainfall area fractions around each station over an area of 5° x 5° longitude/latitude based on TRMM/GPM satellite data. Isotope time series, along with information on rainfall amount and stratiform/convective proportions provide a valuable tool for rainfall characterisation and to improve the ability of isotope-enabled Global Circulation Models to predict variability and availability of inputs to fresh water resources across the tropics.
Humans express a wide array of ideal mate preferences. Around the world, people desire romantic partners who are intelligent, healthy, kind, physically attractive, wealthy, and more. In order for these ideal preferences to guide the choice of actual romantic partners, human mating psychology must possess a means to integrate information across these many preference dimensions into summaries of the overall mate value of their potential mates. Here we explore the computational design of this mate preference integration process using a large sample of n = 14,487 people from 45 countries around the world. We combine this large cross-cultural sample with agent-based models to compare eight hypothesized models of human mating markets. Across cultures, people higher in mate value appear to experience greater power of choice on the mating market in that they set higher ideal standards, better fulfill their preferences in choice, and pair with higher mate value partners. Furthermore, we find that this cross-culturally universal pattern of mate choice is most consistent with a Euclidean model of mate preference integration.
Bisphenol A (BPA) is a plasticiser used in the manufacturing of many products and its effects on human health remain controversial. Up till now, BPA involvement in metabolic syndrome risk and development is still not fully understood. In this study, we aimed to investigate the effect of prenatal BPA exposure with postnatal trans-fat diet intake on metabolic parameters and pancreatic tissue histology. Eighteen pregnant rats were divided into control (CTL), vehicle tween 80 (VHC), and BPA (5 mg/kg/day) from gestational day (GD) 2 until GD 21, then their weaning rat's offspring were fed with normal diet (ND) or trans-fat diet (TFD) from postnatal week (PNW) 3 until PNW 14. The rats were then sacrificed and the blood (biochemical analysis) and pancreatic tissues (histological analysis) were collected. Glucose, insulin, and lipid profile were measured. The study has shown that there was no significant difference between groups with regard to glucose, insulin, and lipid profiles (p > 0.05). All pancreatic tissues showed normal architecture with irregular islets of Langerhans in TFD intake groups compared to offspring that consumed ND. Furthermore, the pancreatic histomorphometry was also affected whereby the study findings revealed that there was a significant increase in the mean number of pancreatic islets in rats from BPA-TFD group (5.987 ± 0.3159 islets/field, p = 0.0022) compared to those fed with ND and BPA non-exposed. In addition, the results have found that prenatal BPA exposure resulted in a significant decrease in the pancreatic islets diameter of the BPA-ND group (183.3 ± 23.28 µm, p = 0.0022) compared to all other groups. In conclusion, prenatal BPA exposure with postnatal TFD in the offspring may affect glucose homeostasis and pancreatic islets in adulthood, and the effect may be more aggravated in late adulthood.
The EQ-5D is a common generic tool used in clinical trials and economic evaluations to evaluate the health-related quality of life as a proxy of health outcomes. To date, studies using EQ-5D-5L to evaluate the health status of cancer patients remain scarce in Malaysia. In this study, EQ-5D-5L dimensions, EQ-5D-5L index, and EQ-VAS scores were applied to assess the health status of Malaysian cancer patients. A cross-sectional study was conducted March-December 2022 to collect data relevant to the EQ-5D-5L valuation of health status via the Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap) platform. Respondents rated their health states using EQ-5D-5L and EQ-VAS. Among the 235 respondents, the mean EQ-5D-5L index and EQ-VAS score were 0.76 (SD 0.223) and 81.06 (SD 16.36). Most of the patients reported some problems in the pain/discomfort and anxiety/depression dimensions. The level of education, stage of cancer, and comorbidity were significantly associated with better health status on EQ-5D-5L (p
A numerical analysis of a CdTe/Si dual-junction solar cell in terms of defect density introduced at various defect energy levels in the absorber layer is provided. The impact of defect concentration is analyzed against the thickness of the CdTe layer, and variation of the top and bottom cell bandgaps is studied. The results show that CdTe thin film with defects density between 1014 and 1015 cm-3 is acceptable for the top cell of the designed dual-junction solar cell. The variations of the defect concentrations against the thickness of the CdTe layer indicate that the open circuit voltage, short circuit current density, and efficiency (ƞ) are more affected by the defect density at higher CdTe thickness. In contrast, the Fill factor is mainly affected by the defect density, regardless of the thin film's thickness. An acceptable defect density of up to 1015 cm-3 at a CdTe thickness of 300 nm was obtained from this work. The bandgap variation shows optimal results for a CdTe with bandgaps ranging from 1.45 to 1.7 eV in tandem with a Si bandgap of about 1.1 eV. This study highlights the significance of tailoring defect density at different energy levels to realize viable CdTe/Si dual junction tandem solar cells. It also demonstrates how the impact of defect concentration changes with the thickness of the solar cell absorber layer.
This study reports on a facile and economical method for the scalable synthesis of few-layered graphene sheets by the microwave-assisted functionalization. Herein, single-layered and few-layered graphene sheets were produced by dispersion and exfoliation of functionalized graphite in ethylene glycol. Thermal treatment was used to prepare pure graphene without functional groups, and the pure graphene was labeled as thermally-treated graphene (T-GR). The morphological and statistical studies about the distribution of the number of layers showed that more than 90% of the flakes of T-GR had less than two layers and about 84% of T-GR were single-layered. The microwave-assisted exfoliation approach presents us with a possibility for a mass production of graphene at low cost and great potentials in energy storage applications of graphene-based materials. Owing to unique surface chemistry, the T-GR demonstrates an excellent energy storage performance, and the electrochemical capacitance is much higher than that of the other carbon-based nanostructures. The nanoscopic porous morphology of the T-GR-based electrodes made a significant contribution in increasing the BET surface as well as the specific capacitance of graphene. T-GR, with a capacitance of 354.1 Fg(-1) at 5 mVs(-1) and 264 Fg(-1) at 100 mVs(-1), exhibits excellent performance as a supercapacitor.
The relationships between acute coronary syndromes (ACS) adverse events and the associated risk factors are typically complicated and nonlinear, which poses significant challenges to clinicians' attempts at risk stratification. Here, we aim to explore the implementation of modern risk stratification tools to untangle how these complex factors shape the risk of adverse events in patients with ACS. We used an interpretable multi-algorithm machine learning (ML) approach and clinical features to fit predictive models to 1,976 patients with ACS in Kuwait. We demonstrated that random forest (RF) and extreme gradient boosting (XGB) algorithms, remarkably outperform traditional logistic regression model (AUCs = 0.84 & 0.79 for RF and XGB, respectively). Our in-hospital adverse events model identified left ventricular ejection fraction as the most important predictor with the highest interaction strength with other factors. However, using the 30-days adverse events model, we found that performing an urgent coronary artery bypass graft was the most important predictor, with creatinine levels having the strongest overall interaction with other related factors. Our ML models not only untangled the non-linear relationships that shape the clinical epidemiology of ACS adverse events but also elucidated their risk in individual patients based on their unique features.
Fusarium wilt disease, caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense, especially by tropical race 4 (Foc TR4), is threatening the global banana industry. Musa acuminata Pahang, a wild diploid banana that displays strong resistance to Foc TR4, holds great potential to understand the underlying resistance mechanisms. Microscopic examination reports that, in a wounding inoculation system, the Foc TR4 infection processes in roots of Pahang (resistant) and a triploid cultivar Brazilian (susceptible) were similar by 7 days post inoculation (dpi), but significant differences were observed in corms of both genotypes at 14 dpi. We compare transcriptomic responses in the corms of Pahang and Brazilian, and show that Pahang exhibited constitutive defense responses before Foc TR4 infection and inducible defense responses prior to Brazilian at the initial Foc TR4 infection stage. Most key enzymatic genes in the phenylalanine metabolism pathway were up-regulated in Brazilian, suggesting that lignin and phytotoxin may be triggered during later stages of Foc TR4 infection. This study unravels a few potential resistance candidate genes whose expression patterns were assessed by RT-qPCR assay and improves our understanding the defense mechanisms of Pahang response to Foc TR4.
Neural-like computing models are versatile computing mechanisms in the field of artificial intelligence. Spiking neural P systems (SN P systems for short) are one of the recently developed spiking neural network models inspired by the way neurons communicate. The communications among neurons are essentially achieved by spikes, i. e. short electrical pulses. In terms of motivation, SN P systems fall into the third generation of neural network models. In this study, a novel variant of SN P systems, namely SN P systems with self-organization, is introduced, and the computational power of the system is investigated and evaluated. It is proved that SN P systems with self-organization are capable of computing and accept the family of sets of Turing computable natural numbers. Moreover, with 87 neurons the system can compute any Turing computable recursive function, thus achieves Turing universality. These results demonstrate promising initiatives to solve an open problem arisen by Gh Păun.
New crystal structures of fully hydrogenated borophene (borophane) have been predicted by first principles calculation. Comparing with the chair-like borophane (C-boropane) that has been reported in literature, we obtained four new borophane conformers with much lower total-energy. The most stable one, washboard-like borophane (W-borophane), has energy about 113.41 meV/atom lower than C-borophane. In order to explain the relative stability of different borophane conformers, the atom configuration, density of states, charge transfer, charge density distribution and defect formation energy of B-H dimer have been calculated. The results show that the charge transfer from B atoms to H atoms is crucial for the stability of borophane. In different borophane conformers, the bonding characteristics between B and H atoms are similar, but the B-B bonds in W-borophane are much stronger than that in C-borophane or other structures. In addition, we examined the dynamical stability of borophane conformers by phonon dispersions and found that the four new conformers are all dynamically stable. Finally the mechanical properties of borophane conformers along an arbitrary direction have been discussed. W-borophane possesses unique electronic structure (Dirac cone), good stability and superior mechanical properties. W-borophane has broad perspective for nano electronic device.
An appropriate tillage method must be implemented by maize growers to improve phosphorus dynamics in the soil in order to increase phosphorus uptake by plant. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of tillage systems on phosphorus and its fractions in rhizosphere and non-rhizosphere soils under maize. An experimental field was established, with phosphate fertilizers applied to four treatment plots: continuous rotary tillage (CR), continuous no-tillage (CN), plowing-rotary tillage (PR), and plowing-no tillage (PN). Under the different tillage methods, the available P was increased in the non-rhizosphere region. However, the concentration of available P was reduced in the rhizosphere soil region. The soil available P decreased with the age of the crop until the maize reached physiological maturity. The non-rhizosphere region had 132.9%, 82.5%, 259.8%, and 148.4% more available P than the rhizosphere region under the CR, PR, CN, and PN treatments, respectively. The continuous no-tillage method (CN) improved the uptake of soil phosphate by maize. The concentrations of Ca2-P, Ca8-P, Fe-P, Al-P and O-P at the maturity stage were significantly lower than other seedling stages. However, there was no significant relationship between total P and the P fractions. Therefore, a continuous no-tillage method (CN) can be used by farmers to improve phosphorus availability for spring maize. Soil management practices minimizing soil disturbance can be used to impove phosphorus availability for maize roots, increase alkaline phosphatase activity in the rhizosphere soil and increase the abundance of different phosphorus fractions.
This study investigates the impact of macroprudential policies on ecological footprint (EF) in the top 11 largest countries. This study uses country-level panel data from these countries, covering the period from 1992 to 2020. Findings indicate that macroprudential policies alleviates ecological footprint in the sample. Macroprudential policies primarily reduce the ecological footprint before medium quantile (50%) while the environmental benefits of the policies end in the later quantiles. Moreover, environmental policy stringency (EPS) amplifies the positive influence of macroprudential policies on environmental sustainability. Estimate results stay the same with basic regression results in the post-global financial crisis (GFC) period while the impact is positive in the pre-GFC period. Finally, other robust tests validate the findings reported in basic regression model. This study suggests that governments should customize various types of macroprudential policies while also considering environmental concerns. The achievement of a sustainable environment can be facilitated by the combined effects of macroprudential policies and EPS.
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed people's lives, with the most prominent change being the use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). In this study, we used the extended Value-Identity-Personal (VIP) norm model to empirically analyze the influencing factors of Pro-Environmental Behavior (PEB) among college students in Xi 'an, China, while considering the usage of PPE as an example of PEB. We proposed nine hypothetical questions, and the VIP model was established through the SmartPLS software to test the valid questionnaires of 414 college students. The verification results indicated that all the nine hypotheses were supported statistically, with personal environmental social responsibility and personal norms showing the most significant direct impact on PEB; notably, personal norms were also strongly influenced by environmental personal social responsibility. Biosphere values affected PEB indirectly, through self-identity and individual norms. This study proposes viable countermeasures and suggestions for college students to improve PEB; our findings can serve as a reference for policymakers and stakeholders to ensure the effective waste management of personal safety equipment.
Tropical forests are global centres of biodiversity and carbon storage. Many tropical countries aspire to protect forest to fulfil biodiversity and climate mitigation policy targets, but the conservation strategies needed to achieve these two functions depend critically on the tropical forest tree diversity-carbon storage relationship. Assessing this relationship is challenging due to the scarcity of inventories where carbon stocks in aboveground biomass and species identifications have been simultaneously and robustly quantified. Here, we compile a unique pan-tropical dataset of 360 plots located in structurally intact old-growth closed-canopy forest, surveyed using standardised methods, allowing a multi-scale evaluation of diversity-carbon relationships in tropical forests. Diversity-carbon relationships among all plots at 1 ha scale across the tropics are absent, and within continents are either weak (Asia) or absent (Amazonia, Africa). A weak positive relationship is detectable within 1 ha plots, indicating that diversity effects in tropical forests may be scale dependent. The absence of clear diversity-carbon relationships at scales relevant to conservation planning means that carbon-centred conservation strategies will inevitably miss many high diversity ecosystems. As tropical forests can have any combination of tree diversity and carbon stocks both require explicit consideration when optimising policies to manage tropical carbon and biodiversity.
Stingless bee (Meliponini) honey has long been considered a high-value functional food, but the perceived therapeutic value has lacked attribution to specific bioactive components. Examination of honey from five different stingless bee species across Neotropical and Indo-Australian regions has enabled for the first time the identification of the unusual disaccharide trehalulose as a major component representing between 13 and 44 g per 100 g of each of these honeys. Trehalulose is an isomer of sucrose with an unusual α-(1 → 1) glucose-fructose glycosidic linkage and known acariogenic and low glycemic index properties. NMR and UPLC-MS/MS analysis unambiguously confirmed the identity of trehalulose isolated from stingless bee honeys sourced across three continents, from Tetragonula carbonaria and Tetragonula hockingsi species in Australia, from Geniotrigona thoracica and Heterotrigona itama in Malaysia and from Tetragonisca angustula in Brazil. The previously unrecognised abundance of trehalulose in stingless bee honeys is concrete evidence that supports some of the reported health attributes of this product. This is the first identification of trehalulose as a major component within a food commodity. This study allows the exploration of the expanded use of stingless bee honey in foods and identifies a bioactive marker for authentication of this honey in associated food standards.