Steam explosion of oil palm frond has been carried out under different temperatures between 180 and 210°C for 4 min (severity of 2.96-3.84) after impregnation of the frond chips with water or KOH solution. The effects of impregnation and steam explosion conditions of oil palm fronds on the water soluble fraction and insoluble fraction were investigated. The maximum yield of hemicelluloses in water soluble fractions recovered was 23.49% and 25.33% for water and KOH impregnation, treated with steam explosion at temperature of 210°C (severity of 3.84) with a fractionation efficiency of 77.30% and 83.32%, respectively. Under this condition, the water insoluble fractions contained celluloses at 60.83% and 64.80% for water and KOH impregnation, respectively. The steam explosion temperature of 210°C for 4 min (logR(o) 3.84) was found to be the best condition in the extraction of hemicelluloses from OPF for both types of impregnation.
Phytomedicines are believed to have benefits over conventional drugs and are regaining interest in current research. Moringa oleifera is a multi-purpose herbal plant used as human food and an alternative for medicinal purposes worldwide. It has been identified by researchers as a plant with numerous health benefits including nutritional and medicinal advantages. Moringa oleifera contains essential amino acids, carotenoids in leaves, and components with nutraceutical properties, supporting the idea of using this plant as a nutritional supplement or constituent in food preparation. Some nutritional evaluation has been carried out in leaves and stem. An important factor that accounts for the medicinal uses of Moringa oleifera is its very wide range of vital antioxidants, antibiotics and nutrients including vitamins and minerals. Almost all parts from Moringa can be used as a source for nutrition with other useful values. This mini-review elaborate on details its health benefits.
The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) is typically compared with a reference value to support the cost-effectiveness of a decision. One method for estimating this value is to estimate the willingness-to-pay (WTP) for a quality-adjusted life-year (QALY). This study was conducted to explore the WTP for a QALY in the Malaysian population.
Deep Eutectic Solvents (DESs) have recently emerged as a new generation of ionic liquids for lignocellulose pretreatment. However, DESs contain salt components which tend to inactivate cellulase in the subsequent saccharification process. To alleviate this problem, it is necessary to evaluate the applicability of the DESs-Cellulase system. This was accomplished in the present study by first studying the stability of cellulase in the presence of selected DESs followed by applicability evaluation based on glucose production, energy consumption and kinetic performance. Results showed that the cellulase was able to retain more than 90% of its original activity in the presence of 10% (v/v) for glycerol based DES (GLY) and ethylene glycol based DES (EG). Furthermore, both DESs system exhibited higher glucose percentage enhancement and lower energy consumption as compared to diluted alkali system. Among the two DESs studied, EG showed comparatively better kinetic performance.
Microalgae lipids and oils are potential candidates for renewable biodiesel. Many microalgae species accumulate a substantial amount of lipids and oils under environmental stresses. However, low growth rate under these adverse conditions account for the decrease in overall biomass productivity which directly influence the oil yield. This study was undertaken to investigate the effect of exogenously added auxin (indole-3-acetic acid; IAA) on the oil content, fatty acid compositions, and the expression of fatty acid biosynthetic genes in Chlorella vulgaris (UMT-M1). Auxin has been shown to regulate growth and metabolite production of several microalgae. Results showed that oil accumulation was highest on days after treatment (DAT)-2 with enriched levels of palmitic (C16:0) and stearic (C18:0) acids, while the linoleic (C18:2) and α-linolenic (C18:3n3) acids levels were markedly reduced by IAA. The elevated levels of saturated fatty acids (C16:0 and C18:0) were consistent with high expression of the β-ketoacyl ACP synthase I (KAS I) gene, while low expression of omega-6 fatty acid desaturase (ω-6 FAD) gene was consistent with low production of C18:2. However, the increment of stearoyl-ACP desaturase (SAD) gene expression upon IAA induction did not coincide with oleic acid (C18:1) production. The expression of omega-3 fatty acid desaturase (ω-3 FAD) gene showed a positive correlation with the synthesis of PUFA and C18:3n3.
Genetic variants of cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) and endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) influence high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) metabolism and nitric oxide (NO) synthesis, respectively, and might increase the risk of coronary artery disease (CAD). This study is to investigate the relationship between genetic polymorphisms and the risk of CAD and to evaluate their potential interactions. A total of 237 patients with CAD and 101 controls were genotyped. The association of the polymorphism with the risk of CAD varied among the ethnic groups. Moreover, the concomitant presence of both CETP B1 and eNOS 4a alleles significantly increased the risk of CAD in the Malay group (OR = 33.8, P < .001) and the Indian group (OR = 10.9, P = .031) but not in the Chinese group. This study has identified a novel ethnic-specific gene-gene interaction and suggested that the combination of CETP B1 allele and eNOS 4a allele significantly increases the risk of CAD in Malays and Indians.
The present study describes a simple high performance thin layer chromatographic (HPTLC) method for the simultaneous quantification of apigenin, chamazulene, bisabolol and the use of DPPH free radical as a post-chromatographic derivatization agent to compare the free radical scavenging activities of these components in leaf and flower head extracts from feverfew, German chamomile and marigold from the Asteraceae family. Feverfew (Tanacetum parthenium) leaves have been traditionally used in the treatment of migraine with parthenolide being the main bioactive compound. However, due to similar flowers, feverfew is sometimes mistaken for the German chamomile (Matricaria recutita). Bisabolol and chamazulene are the main components in chamomile essential oil. Marigold (Calendula officinalis) was included in the study for comparison, as it belongs to the same family. Parthenolide was found to be present in all leaf extracts but was not detected in calendula flower extract. Chamazulene and bisabolol were found to be present in higher concentrations in chamomile and Calendula flowers. Apigenin was detected and quantified only in chamomile extracts (highest concentration in flower head extracts). Antioxidant activity in sample extracts was compared by superimposing the chromatograms obtained after post-chromatographic derivatization with DPPH and post-chromatographic derivatization with anisaldehyde. It was found that extracts from chamomile flower heads and leaves have the most prominent antioxidant activity, with bisabolol and chamazulene being the most effective antioxidants.
PURPOSE:
Osteoporotic fracture is the main complication of osteoporosis. The current management is to discharge patients as early as possible so they can get back to their daily activities. Once discharged, there are three main issues relating to morbidity, mortality, and risk of a subsequent fracture that need to be addressed and discussed. Therefore, the aim of this systematic review was to summarize and evaluate the evidence from published literature, to determine the outcome of osteoporotic fracture patients after their hospital discharge.
METHODS:
The MEDLINE and Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) databases were searched, using the terms "osteoporosis", "fracture", "osteoporotic fracture", "hip fracture", and "vertebral fracture". We included only human studies published in English between 2004 and 2014. The reference lists of included studies were thoroughly reviewed in search for other relevant studies.
RESULTS:
A total of 18 studies met the selection criteria. Most were observational and cohort studies. Out of all the studies, five studies looked into the morbidity, six studies looked into the risk of subsequent fractures, and seven studies looked into mortality. Vertebral fracture caused the greatest health burden, but hip fracture patients were the main users of informal care after hospital discharge. There was an increased risk of a subsequent fracture after a primary fracture compared with the control group, a cohort comparison, or the general population. Osteoporotic fractures, especially hip fractures, are associated with higher mortality rate despite the advances in the management of osteoporotic fracture cases.
CONCLUSION:
There is strong evidence to show that after hospital discharge, osteoporotic fracture patients are faced with higher morbidity, subsequent fractures, and mortality.
KEYWORDS:
hip fracture; osteoporosis; vertebral fracture
The genus Curcuma is a member of the ginger family (Zingiberaceae) that has recently become popular for use as flowering pot plants, both indoors and as patio and landscape plants. We used PCR-based molecular markers (SSRs) to elucidate genetic variation and relationships between five varieties of Curcuma (Curcuma alismatifolia) cultivated in Malaysia. Of the primers tested, 8 (of 17) SSR primers were selected for their reproducibility and high rates of polymorphism. The number of presumed alleles revealed by the SSR analysis ranged from two to six alleles, with a mean value of 3.25 alleles per locus. The values of HO and HE ranged from 0 to 0.8 (mean value of 0.2) and 0.1837 to 0.7755 (mean value of 0.5102), respectively. Eight SSR primers yielded 26 total amplified fragments and revealed high rates of polymorphism among the varieties studied. The polymorphic information content varied from 0.26 to 0.73. Dice's similarity coefficient was calculated for all pairwise comparisons and used to construct an unweighted pair group method with arithmetic average (UPGMA) dendrogram. Similarity coefficient values from 0.2105 to 0.6667 (with an average of 0.4386) were found among the five varieties examined. A cluster analysis of data using a UPGMA algorithm divided the five varieties/hybrids into 2 groups.
This study evaluated the potential of bioflocculant production from Aspergillus niger using palm oil mill effluent (POME) as carbon source. The bioflocculant named PM-5 produced by A. niger showed a good flocculating capability and flocculating rate of 76.8% to kaolin suspension could be achieved at 60 h of culture time. Glutamic acid was the most favorable nitrogen source for A. niger in bioflocculant production at pH 6 and temperature 35 °C. The chemical composition of purified PM-5 was mainly carbohydrate and protein with 66.8% and 31.4%, respectively. Results showed the novel bioflocculant (PM-5) had high potential to treat river water from colloids and 63% of turbidity removal with the present of Ca(2+) ion.
The morphological expressions and histopathological analysis of the gonads of a tropical marine neogastropod species (Thais sp.) from East Malaysia revealed new evidence of mechanical sterility in the imposex affected females. The gradual development of imposex was classified into five stages (Stage 0 to Stage 4) with three types of sterility conditions; Type A caused prohibition of copulation and capsule formation; Type B prohibits the releasing process of eggs; and gonads in Type C are infertile. Further analysis is needed to confirm, if the gonad malformation in imposex affected snails is generated specifically by tributyltin (TBT) or by other possible factors. The levels of imposex incidence (stages and percentages) were greater in a marina and decreased with increasing distance from the marina. Organotin tissue burden across the sexes showed that dibutyltin (DBT) as well as TBT might be the elements inducing imposex in Thais sp. from Miri in East Malaysia.
The effectiveness of helmets in reducing the risk of severe head injury in motorcyclists who were involved in a crash is well established. There is limited evidence however, regarding the extent to which helmets protect riders from facial injuries. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of helmet type, components and fixation status on the risk of facial injuries among Malaysian motorcyclists.
Over the last few years, particle swarm optimization (PSO) has been extensively applied in various geotechnical engineering including slope stability analysis. However, this contribution was limited to two-dimensional (2D) slope stability analysis. This paper applied PSO in three-dimensional (3D) slope stability problem to determine the critical slip surface (CSS) of soil slopes. A detailed description of adopted PSO was presented to provide a good basis for more contribution of this technique to the field of 3D slope stability problems. A general rotating ellipsoid shape was introduced as the specific particle for 3D slope stability analysis. A detailed sensitivity analysis was designed and performed to find the optimum values of parameters of PSO. Example problems were used to evaluate the applicability of PSO in determining the CSS of 3D slopes. The first example presented a comparison between the results of PSO and PLAXI-3D finite element software and the second example compared the ability of PSO to determine the CSS of 3D slopes with other optimization methods from the literature. The results demonstrated the efficiency and effectiveness of PSO in determining the CSS of 3D soil slopes.
This paper presents the application of enhanced opposition-based firefly algorithm in obtaining the optimal battery energy storage systems (BESS) sizing in photovoltaic generation integrated radial distribution network in order to mitigate the voltage rise problem. Initially, the performance of the original firefly algorithm is enhanced by utilizing the opposition-based learning and introducing inertia weight. After evaluating the performance of the enhanced opposition-based firefly algorithm (EOFA) with fifteen benchmark functions, it is then adopted to determine the optimal size for BESS. Two optimization processes are conducted where the first optimization aims to obtain the optimal battery output power on hourly basis and the second optimization aims to obtain the optimal BESS capacity by considering the state of charge constraint of BESS. The effectiveness of the proposed method is validated by applying the algorithm to the 69-bus distribution system and by comparing the performance of EOFA with conventional firefly algorithm and gravitational search algorithm. Results show that EOFA has the best performance comparatively in terms of mitigating the voltage rise problem.
Generating extreme appearances such as scared awaiting sweating while happy fit for tears (cry) and blushing (anger and happiness) is the key issue in achieving the high quality facial animation. The effects of sweat, tears, and colors are integrated into a single animation model to create realistic facial expressions of 3D avatar. The physical properties of muscles, emotions, or the fluid properties with sweating and tears initiators are incorporated. The action units (AUs) of facial action coding system are merged with autonomous AUs to create expressions including sadness, anger with blushing, happiness with blushing, and fear. Fluid effects such as sweat and tears are simulated using the particle system and smoothed-particle hydrodynamics (SPH) methods which are combined with facial animation technique to produce complex facial expressions. The effects of oxygenation of the facial skin color appearance are measured using the pulse oximeter system and the 3D skin analyzer. The result shows that virtual human facial expression is enhanced by mimicking actual sweating and tears simulations for all extreme expressions. The proposed method has contribution towards the development of facial animation industry and game as well as computer graphics.
The effect of different aeration rates on the organic matter (OM) degradation during the active phase of oil palm empty fruit bunch (EFB)-rabbit manure co-composting process under constant forced-aeration system has been studied. Four different aeration rates, 0.13 L min(-1) kg(DM)(-1),0.26 L min(-1) kg(DM)(-1),0.49 L min(-1) kg(DM)(-1) and 0.74 L min(-1) kg(DM)(-1) were applied. 0.26 L min(-1) kg(DM)(-1) provided enough oxygen level (10%) for the rest of composting period, showing 40.5% of OM reduction that is better than other aeration rates. A dynamic mathematical model describing OM degradation, based on the ratio between OM content and initial OM content with correction functions of moisture content, free air space, oxygen and temperature has been proposed.
Postmenopausal osteoporosis is best treated and prevented by estrogen replacement therapy (ERT). Although effective, ERT may cause breast cancer, uterine cancer and cardiovascular problems. Labisia pumila var. alata (LP), a herb with phytoestrogenic, antioxidative and anti-inflammatory effects has potential as an ERT alternative.
The dysbindin-1 (dystrobrevin-binding protein-1 [DTNBP-1]) gene has repeatedly been shown to be associated with psychotic disorder across diverse populations. In this study, we attempted to investigate the association of the rs3213207 (P1635) genetic polymorphism of the DTNBP1 gene with methamphetamine dependence and with methamphetamine-induced psychosis, manic episodes, and panic disorder in a male Malaysian population.