A 73.1 percent response rate was obtained in a postal questionnaire survey conducted among Malaysian dentists to assess their attitudes and needs for continuing dental education. It appeared that on an average the Malaysian dentist spent very little time on continuing education,reading journals and participation in professional dental meetings.The need for continuing education was strongly evident as almost all dentists indicated that such activities be further developed in Malaysia. Crown and Bridgework, Oral Surgery and Orthodontic appeared to be areas in which more continuing education were required.
Rice tungro bacilliform virus (RTBV) is a plant pararetrovirus and a member of the Caulimoviridae family and closely related to viruses in the Badnavirus genus. The coat protein of RTBV is part of the large polyprotein encoded by open reading frame 3 (ORF3). ORF3 of an RTBV isolate from Malaysia was sequenced (accession no. AF076470) and compared with published sequences for the region that encodes the coat protein or proteins. Molecular mass of virion proteins was determined by mass spectrometry (matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-TOF) performed on purified virus particles from three RTBV isolates from Malaysia. The N- and C-terminal amino acid sequences of the coat protein were deduced from the mass spectral analysis, leading to the conclusion that purified virions contain a single coat protein of 37 kDa. The location of the coat protein domain in ORF3 was reinforced as a result of immunodetection reactions using antibodies raised against six different segments of ORF3 using Western immunoblots after SDS-PAGE and isoelectrofocusing of proteins purified from RTBV particles. These studies demonstrate that RTBV coat protein is released from the polyprotein as a single coat protein of 37 kDa.
For the reading task, contrast reserve is defined as the ratio of the letter contrast of the printed letters, to the reader's contrast threshold. Acuity reserve is the ratio of the print size used for the reading task, to the reader's visual acuity. The effects of low contrast reserve on reading performance were investigated at various magnifications, ranging from 3x to 7.5x, with the field of view systematically controlled. Eye movements were recorded whilst normally sighted subjects read using the magnifiers. It was shown that with adequate contrast reserve, increasing the field of view improved the reading rate because of the resulting increase in forward saccade length. Conversely, reducing the contrast reserve slowed the reading rate by decreasing the length of forward saccades and increasing the mean fixation duration, suggesting that the perceptual span is reduced at low contrast reserve. This study also shows that when the contrast reserve is low, providing magnification higher than that required for letter recognition (that is, increasing the acuity reserve) will not improve the reading performance. Furthermore, even when the contrast reserve was high, reading rates were lower for the magnifications of 5x and higher, because increases in saccade length do not match those of the retinal image size at these magnifications.
The mRNA differential display method was used to identify and isolate cDNAs corresponding to transcripts that accumulate during the period of lipid synthesis, 12-20 weeks after anthesis (WAA) in the kernel of Elaeis guineensis, var. Tenera. We successfully isolated two cDNA clones, KT7 (312 bp) and KT8 (266 bp). Interestingly, both clones show 79% nucleotide sequence identity to each other. This suggests that both clones encode the isoforms of the same protein. We screened the kernel (15 WAA) cDNA library and isolated the clone pKT7 (587 bp) using KT7 as probe, and isolated another isoform with KT8 probe, which designated as pKT9 (900 bp). Clone pKT9 has 93% nucleotide identity to KT8 and only 46% to pKT7 in their 3'-untranslated region. All three clones displayed significant amino acid sequence identity to seed storage protein glutelin from monocotyledon and globulin from dicotyledon plants. The coding sequence of KT8 (106 bp) shows 76 and 97% identity to pKT9 and pKT7, respectively. Therefore, we suggest that clones KT8 and pKT7 are members of the same subfamily (A), while pKT9 belongs to another subfamily (B) of glutelin multigene families. Southern analysis shows that there are at least four members for the subfamily B. Northern analysis shows that these three members of the glutelin family are co-ordinately expressed and developmentally regulated during the development of the kernel. The transcripts begin to accumulate at 12 WAA, increase in 15 WAA and show a significant reduction at 17 WAA.
Streptococcus pyogenes ST4547 is an opacity factor negative strain, which has been recently reported as a new emm type from Malaysia. Nucleotide sequencing of the mga regulon of this strain showed the existence of two emm-like genes. The emm gene located upstream of the scpA gene comprises 1305 nucleotides encoding the putative precursor M protein of 435 amino acids in length with an M(r) of 49 kDa. or a predicted mature protein of 394 amino acids with an M(r) of 44.8 kDa. Another gene mrpST4547 was located upstream of the emm gene and downstream of the mga gene. The sequence of this mrp gene comprises 1167 nucleotides encoding a predicted protein of 388 amino acids in length with an M(r) of 42.2 kDa. or a predicted mature protein of 347 amino acids with an M(r) of 37.9 kDa. The mga regulon of strain ST4547 has a mosaic structure comprising segments, which originated from different OF positive and OF negative strains. The sequences flanking the hyper-variable and C repeats of the emmST4547 gene showed high similarity to corresponding regions in the mga regulon of OF positive strains notably M15, M4, M22 and M50. In contrast, the sequence within the hyper-variable and C repeat regions of the emmST4547 gene revealed high similarity to equivalent regions in the OF negative strains. These data indicates that horizontal transfer of emm-like gene could have occurred between OF positive and OF negative strains resulting in architectural divergence in the mga regulon.
This study examined the phonological and reading performance in English of Malaysian children whose home language was Bahasa Malaysia (BM). A sample of 69 Malaysian Standard Two pupils (aged 7-8 years) was selected for the study. Since commencing school at the age of 6 years, the children had been learning to read in BM and had subsequently also been learning to read in English for some 12 months. The study was part of a larger scale research programme that fully recognized the limitations of tests that had not been developed and standardized in Malaysia. Nevertheless, as a first step to developing such tests, a comparison with existing norms for the Phonological Assessment Battery (PhAB) and the Wechsler Objective Reading Dimension (WORD) was undertaken in relation to information about the children's L1 and L2 language competencies. Results showed that the children's performance on PhAB was at least comparable to the UK norms while, not surprisingly, they fared less well on WORD. The results are discussed in terms of L1 and L2 transfer, whereby the transparency of written BM and the structured way in which reading is taught in BM facilitates performance on phonological tasks in English. This has implications for identifying children with phonologically based reading difficulties.
A Bacillus sphaericus strain (205y) that produces an organic solvent-tolerant lipase was isolated in Port Dickson, Malaysia. The gene for the lipase was recovered from a genomic library and sequenced. Phylogenetic analysis was performed based on an alignment of thirteen microbial lipase sequences obtained from the NCBI database. The analysis suggested that the B. sphaericus lipase gene is a novel gene, as it is distinct from other lipase genes in Families I.4 and I.5 reported so far. Expression in Escherichia coli under the control of the lacZ promoter resulted in an eight-fold increase in enzyme activity after a 3-h induction with 1 mM IPTG. The crude enzyme thus obtained showed a slight (10%) enhancement in activity after a 30-min incubation in 25% (v/v) n-hexane at 37 degrees C, and retained 90% of its activity after a similar period in 25% (v/v) p-xylene.
The deduced amino acid sequences of segment A and B of two very virulent Infectious bursal disease virus (vvIBDV) isolates, UPM94/273 and UPM97/61 were compared with 25 other IBDV strains. Twenty amino acid residues (8 in VP1, 5 in VP2, 2 in VP3, 4 in VP4, 1 in VP5) that were common to vvIBDV strains were detected. However, UPM94/273 is an exceptional vvIBDV with usual amino acid substitutions. The differences in the divergence of segment A and B indicated that the vvIBDV strains may have been derived from genetic reassortment of a single ancestral virus or both segments have different ability to undergo genetic variation due to their different functional constraints.
The expressed sequence tag (EST) effort in Toxoplasma gondii has generated a substantial amount of gene information. To exploit this valuable resource, we chose to study tgd057, a novel gene identified by a large number of ESTs that otherwise show no significant match to known sequences in the database. Northern analysis showed that tgd057 is transcribed in this tachyzoite. The complete cDNA sequence of tgd057 is 1169 bp in length. Sequence analysis revealed that tgd057 possibly adopts two polyadenylation sites, utilizes the fourth in-frame ATG for translation initiation, and codes for a secretory protein. The longest open reading frame for the tgd057 gene was cloned and expressed as a recombinant protein (rd57) in Escherichia coli. Western analysis revealed that serum against rd57 recognized a molecule of ~21 kDa in the tachyzoite protein extract. This suggests that the tgd057 gene is expressed in vivo in the parasite.
Previous studies on individual differences in mathematical abilities have shown that working memory contributes to early arithmetic performance. In this study, we extended the investigation to algebraic word problem solving. A total of 151 10-year-olds were administered algebraic word problems and measures of working memory, intelligence quotient (IQ), and reading ability. Regression results were consistent with findings from the arithmetic literature showing that a literacy composite measure provided greater contribution than did executive function capacity. However, a series of path analyses showed that the overall contribution of executive function was comparable to that of literacy; the effect of executive function was mediated by that of literacy. Both the phonological loop and the visual spatial sketchpad failed to contribute directly; they contributed only indirectly by way of literacy and performance IQ, respectively.
Pseudorabies (Aujeszky's disease) is an economically significant disease of swine known to cause central nervous disorders, respiratory disease, reproductive failure and mortality in infected pigs. In attempts to eradicate the disease from becoming endemic, early detection is important to prevent further economic losses and to allow for detection and removal of infected pigs in domestic herds. Thus, a rapid and sensitive technique is necessary for the detection of the virus. For rapid and simple examination, an immuno - chromatographic lateral - flow assay system based on immunologic recognition of specific pseudorabies virus antigen was developed by utilising, as signal generator, colloidal gold conjugated to secondary antibody to detect primary or sample antibody in the sera of pseudorabies infected animals. The pseudorabies virus used as a capture antigen in the test strip was first cultivated in VERO cell culture and then purified by sucrose gradient separation to produce the viral protein concentration of 3.8 mg/ml. The standard pseudorabies antigens reacted well with the hyperimmune serum (HIS). The antibody detection system is basically composed of colloidal gold - labelled antibodies fixed on a conjugate pad, and the complementary pseudorabies antigen immobilised onto a nitrocellulose membrane forming capture zone. If the target antibody is present in a specimen, the colloidal gold-labelled antibody will form a complex with the antibody sample. Subsequently, the formed complex will migrate to the capture zone and is then bound to the solid phase via antigen - antibody interaction. As a result, a signal marker is generated by the accumulation of colloidal gold for detection confirmation. The results obtained demonstrated that the optimum combination of pseudorabies antigen needed as the capture reagent and gold conjugate as secondary antibody recognition marker was at a concentration of 0.38mg/ml and at 1:10 dilution factor respectively. The sensitivity of the solid - based test strip towards pseudorabies antibodies was high with a detection limit of 1 to 10,000 - dilution factor. The specificity of the assay was 100% with no cross - reaction being observed with other sera or antibodies. Accurate reading time needed for confirmation of the assay can be completed in 5 min with a whole blood sample of 25 microl. The colloidal gold - labelled antibody is stable at room temperature for 6 months or more (data not shown). Findings from this study indicated that the solid - based test strip assay system provided high sensitivity and specificity for the detection of pseudorabies at low levels of antibody concentration. The assay was rapid, simple, cheap, and does not require any sophisticated equipment. Thus, the solid based test strip will be a useful serological screening technique or for rapid diagnosis of an infectious disease in target populations of animals characterised by heterogeneous antibody responses.
Nipah virus is a recently emergent paramyxovirus that is capable of causing severe disease in both humans and animals. The first outbreak of Nipah virus occurred in Malaysia and Singapore in 1999 and, more recently, outbreaks were detected in Bangladesh. In humans, Nipah virus causes febrile encephalitis with respiratory syndrome that has a high mortality rate. The reservoir for Nipah virus is believed to be fruit bats, and humans are infected by contact with infected bats or by contact with an intermediate animal host such as pigs. Person to person spread of the virus has also been described. Nipah virus retains many of the genetic and biologic properties found in other paramyxoviruses, though it also has several unique characteristics. However, the virologic characteristics that allow the virus to cause severe disease over a broad host range, and the epidemiologic, environmental and virologic features that favor transmission to humans are unknown. This review summarizes what is known about the virology, epidemiology, pathology, diagnosis and control of this novel pathogen.
A small plasmid designated pAR141 was isolated from Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis M14 and its complete 1,594 base pair nucleotide sequence was determined. Analysis of the sequence indicated that this plasmid does not carry any industrially important determinants besides the elements involved in plasmid replication and control. The transcriptional repressor CopG and replication initiation protein RepB appeared as a single operon. A small countertranscribed RNA (ctRNA) coding region was found between the copG and repB genes. The double strand origin (dso) and single strand origin (sso) of rolling circle replicating (RCR) plasmids were also identified in pAR141, suggesting that this plasmid replicates by rolling circle (RC) mode. This observation was supported by S1 nuclease and Southern hybridization analyses.
Whitefly-transmitted, cucurbit-infecting begomoviruses (genus Begomovirus, family Geminiviridae) have been detected on cucurbit crops in Bangladesh, China, Egypt, Israel, Malaysia, Mexico, the Philippines, Thailand, United States, and Vietnam. Pumpkin plants showing leaf curling, blistering, and yellowing symptoms were observed in the AVRDC fields (Tainan, Taiwan) during 2001 and in nearby farmers' fields during 2005. Two samples from symptomatic plants were collected in 2001 and six collected in 2005. Viral DNAs were extracted (2), and the PCR, with previously described primers, was used to detect the presence of begomoviral DNA-A (4), DNA-B (3), and associated satellite DNA (1). Begomoviral DNA-A was detected in one of the 2001 samples and in all 2005 samples. The PCR-amplified 1.5 kb viral DNA-A from one positive sample each from the 2001 and 2005 collections was cloned and sequenced. On the basis of the 1.5-kb DNA-A sequences, specific primers were designed to completely sequence the DNA-A component. The overlap between fragments obtained using primer walking ranged from 43 to 119 bp with 100% nt identities. The complete DNA-A sequences were determined for the two isolates as 2,734 bp (2001) (GenBank Accession No. DQ866135) and 2,733 bp (2005) (GenBank Accession No. EF199774). Sequence comparisons and analyses were performed using the DNAMAN Sequence Analysis Software (Lynnon Corporation, Vaudreuil, Quebec, Canada). The DNA-A of the begomovirus isolates each contained the conserved nanosequence-TAATATTAC and six open reading frames, including two in the virus sense and four in the complementary sense. On the basis of a 99% shared nucleotide sequence identity, they are considered isolates of the same species. BLASTn analysis and a comparison of the sequence with others available in the GenBank database ( http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov ) indicated that the Taiwan virus shared its highest nt identity (more than 95%) with the Squash leaf curl Philippines virus (GenBank Accession No. AB085793). Virus-associated satellite DNA was not found in any of the samples. DNA-B was found in both samples, providing further evidence that the virus was the same as the bipartite Squash leaf curl Philippines virus. To our knowledge, this is the first report of Squash leaf curl Philippines virus in Taiwan. References: (1) R. W. Briddon et al. Virology 312:106, 2003. (2) R. L. Gilbertson et al. J. Gen. Virol. 72:2843, 1991. (3) S. K. Green et al. Plant Dis. 85:1286, 2001. (4) M. R. Rojas et al. Plant Dis. 77:340, 1993.
A Na(+)/H(+) antiporter gene was isolated from alkaliphilic Bacillus sp. G1. The full-length sequence of the Na(+)/H(+) antiporter gene was obtained using a genome walking method, and designated as g1-nhaC. An ORF preceded by a promoter-like sequence and a Shine-Dalgarno sequence, and followed by a terminator-like sequence was identified. The deduced amino acid sequence consists of 535 amino acids, and a calculated molecular mass of 57 776 Da. g1-nhaC was subsequently cloned into pET22b(+) and expressed in Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3). Recombinant E. coli harboring the g1-nhaC gene was able to grow in modified L medium at various concentrations of NaCl (0.2-2.0 M) at different pH values. The recombinant bacteria grew well in the medium with concentrations of NaCl as high as 1.75 M at pH 8.0-9.0. Minimal growth was observed at 2.0 M NaCl, pH 8.0-9.0. At pH 10, the recombinant bacteria grew well in a medium with a low concentration of NaCl (0.2 M). These results suggested that the g1-NhaC antiporter from Bacillus sp. G1 plays a role in Na(+) extrusion at lower pH values and in pH homeostasis at pH 10 under Na(+)-limiting conditions.
The objective of this survey was to understand the current trend of readership of professional dental journals among Malaysian dentists. A total of 225 questionnaires were sent out to Malaysian dentists who attended various dental related conferences throughout Peninsular Malaysia from February 2006 to July 2006. Questionnaires comprised of questions relating to dentists’ socio-demographic status and a list of journal(s) read by them. Malaysian dentists’ view on the content and quality of a particular dental journal, i.e. the Malaysian Dental Journal (MDJ) was also enquired. The details of this finding are highlighted in Part II of this study. A total of 156 questionnaires were returned; the respondents were made up of 61 male and 91 female dentists. Almost 80% of the respondents aged between 20-49 year-old and most respondents (n= 132; 84.62%) only had a basic Bachelor of Dental Surgery or equivalent degree while another 19 (12.18%) had in addition, a post-graduate degree. Almost equal numbers of respondents were working in the Ministry of Health (MOH) or Armed Force (n=73; 46.8%) and private practice (n=74; 47.4%). Also, equal number of respondents (n=67; 42.95%) were found to be working as single-handed practitioner and in a partnership/assistant/working-with-other specialties type of practice Almost two-thirds (n=103; 66%) of the respondents read more than one professional journal, and a majority of them worked in the private sector. The percentage of readers reading more than one journal from the private practice (n=67, 60.0%) was close to twice of that from the MOH (n=36, 35.0%). No specific age-group pattern was present but the least number of subscribers were from those 60 year-old and above (n=3), whereby none of them subscribed to any professional dental journal/magazine. The highest percentage of subscribers were from those in the age group of 40-49 year-old, whereby 86.49% (n=32) of dentists in this age-group subscribed to at least one professional dental journal/magazine. Out of the list of journals/magazines provided, it was found that the MDJ has the most number of readers. The MDJ was most read by dentists in the private practice while the Annals of Dentistry of the University of Malaya was most read by dentists in the MOH. In conclusion, it was found that almost two-third of the respondents read more than one professional journal, with the MDJ receiving the most number of readers. More dentists in the private practice read professional dental journals than dentists in the MOH.
The objective of this part of the study was to understand the current trend on readership of the Malaysian Dental Journal (MDJ) among Malaysian dentists. Their views on the contents and quality of the Malaysian Dental Journal were enquired. We also enquired the reasons they chose-to/chose-not-to read the MDJ. Of the 225 dentists surveyed, the number of MDJ readers was 101; with only 24.75% reading all issues published. The editorial section was rated as “useful” by 70.3% of readers, while 79.2%, 87.1%, 87.1% and 80.2% of readers rated the research article section, the review article section, the case reports section and book recommendation section similarly respectively. Feedback from readers indicated that they wanted more case reports, more review articles on “how to do it” and on medical problems in dentistry. More than half (55.45%) of the MDJ readers preferred to receive the journal in both hard and soft copies. For the non-readers, the most common reasons cited for not reading the MDJ was not being able to access to the journal, followed by not having time to read. Our finding suggested that the respondents preferred to learn from colleagues’ experience and to read article that can improve their clinical knowledge and skill.
Malay is an alphabetic language with transparent orthography. A Malay reading-related assessment battery which was conceptualised based on the International Dyslexia Association definition of dyslexia was developed and validated for the purpose of dyslexia assessment. The battery consisted of ten tests: Letter Naming, Word Reading, Non-word Reading, Spelling, Passage Reading, Reading Comprehension, Listening Comprehension, Elision, Rapid Letter Naming and Digit Span. Content validity was established by expert judgment. Concurrent validity was obtained using the schools' language tests as criterion. Evidence of predictive and construct validity was obtained through regression analyses and factor analyses. Phonological awareness was the most significant predictor of word-level literacy skills in Malay, with rapid naming making independent secondary contributions. Decoding and listening comprehension made separate contributions to reading comprehension, with decoding as the more prominent predictor. Factor analysis revealed four factors: phonological decoding, phonological naming, comprehension and verbal short-term memory. In conclusion, despite differences in orthography, there are striking similarities in the theoretical constructs of reading-related tasks in Malay and in English.
Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARgamma) is a ligand activated transcription factor, plays many essential roles of biological function in higher organisms. The PPARgamma is mainly expressed in adipose tissue. It regulates the transcriptional activity of genes by binding with other transcription factor. The PPARgamma coding region has been found to be closest to that of monkey in ours and other research groups. Thus, monkey is a more suitable animal model for future PPARgamma studying, although mice and rat are frequently being used. The PPARgamma is involved in regulating alterations of adipose tissue masses result from changes in mature adipocyte size and/or number through a complex interplay process called adipogenesis. However, the role of PPARgamma in negatively regulating the process of adipogenesis remains unclear. This review may help we investigate the differential expression of key transcription factor in adipose tissue in response to visceral obesity-induced diet in vivo. The study may also provide valuable information to define a more appropriate physiological condition in adipogenesis which may help to prevent diseases cause by negative regulation of the transcription factors in adipose tissue.