Presently, there is no specific federal legislation governing articular cartilage tissue engineering (ACTE) experimenta- tion practices in Malaysia. However, there are related regulations and guidelines provided by government agencies to oversee and guide such practices. The rules and regulations provided in the documents have the essential aim of safeguarding public health through ensuring that non-clinical studies reach a certain quality, efficient and safe for hu- man use. There are themes identified when scrutinising relevant documents which includes, the need for authorised personnel and the establishment of facilities in conducting such experiments, the aspect of cell-scaffold construct development, the use of human materials, the aspect of biosafety, animal care and use during the experiments, and considerations on the impact on the environment. The individual laboratory or facility shall adopt and adapt these standards as deemed appropriate by the ACTE researchers to ensure that non-clinical studies are conducted in a proper and ethical manner.
Sacral chordomas are rare, low-grade and slow growing malignant bone tumours arising from the sacral bone. They are locally aggressive with the tendency to metastasize to the lungs. Surgical resection remains the mainstay of treatment of sacral chordomas. However, most patients presented late with large tumours and intra-abdominal extension making en bloc resection highly challenging. Besides that, surgical resection poses risk of injury to the surrounding structures such as major blood vessels, bladder, ureters and rectum due to their proximity to the tumour. Therefore, multidisciplinary team approach is vital in ancipitating possible complications and preventing surgical morbidity. We present a case of advanced sacral chordoma which has been successfully resected with the assistance of pre-operative selective arterial embolization as a pre-emptive therapy. Case report: A 58-year-old lady presented with a large sacral chordoma (17.17 cm x 27.3 cm x 30.5 cm) with sacral erosion, infiltration to gluteus maximus, medius and minimus muscles and lung metastasis. A decision to perform a surgical resection was made to alleviate the pain secondary to sacral nerve compression. Anticipating massive bleeding intra-operatively, pre-operative arterial embolization was performed involving one branch of right internal iliac artery as well as five branches of left internal and external iliac arteries using endovascular coils. The tumour was resected with partial sacrectomy from S2 and below. Intra-operatively, 6 pints of packed cells were transfused with estimated blood loss of 4 litres. The patient recovered well after the surgery. She was pain-free post-operatively with no lower limb neurological deficit. Conclusion: Surgical resection remains the treatment of choice for sacral chordoma. Pre-operative selective arterial embolization can reduce intra-operative bleeding and avoid a potentially convoluted surgery.
The prevalence of oral cancer has been reported annually along with high mortality rate. Probiotics have been suggested to possess anti-cancer properties, however the role of these microorganisms on oral cancer is remain unclear. The objective of the present study is to identify the mechanisms exerted by probiotics on oral carcinogenesis by using systematic review and meta analysis with the hypothesis that probiotics inhibit oral carcinogenesis. Materials and method: Comprehensive literature search was conducted on PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science electronic database from January 2019 until April 2019. Main keywords that were used are “probiotic” AND “oral cancer”. Articles that were published in English language were included in this review. Articles were selected independently by three authors and inspected independently by another researcher. The titles and abstracts of the studies were screened to identify studies that meet the inclusion criteria. Full text articles of the remaining studies were assessed to determine the availability to be included in the review. Meta-analysis was conducted by using RevMan 5 software, and the result was graphically plotted on the forest plot. This review was done according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-analysis (PRISMA-P) 2015 guidelines. Results: After thorough screening of the full text articles, seven papers were eligible to be included in the systematic review. The included articles were mainly discussed on the association of probiotics and oral cancer. Two from the seven papers were selected to be analyse for quantitative synthesis (meta-analysis). The present study also showed that, Lactobacillus salivarius REN produces protective effect from developing neoplastic tongue lesions with odd ratio < 1. Conclusion: Probiotics were found to confer positive effect as an inhibitory agent against the oral carcinogenesis thus supported the hypothesis of the present study that probiotics can inhibit oral carcinogenesis.
Studies have found the association between hypercholesterolemia with oxidative stress and atherogenesis. Atherosclerosis has become one of the leading causes of mortality among industrial countries due to abnormal cholesterol metabolism, inflammation of arterial wall and build-up of atherosclerotic plaque. This disease has been recently linked with alpha lipoic acid (ALA), a mitochondrial compound with antioxidative effects in water- and fat-soluble mediums, in both oxidized and reduced forms: lipoic acid (LA) and dihydrolipoic acid (DHLA), respectively. This article provides a comprehensive review of the development and progression of atherosclerosis and the roles and regulations of ALA as a potent antioxidant against atherosclerosis.
Dural arteriovenous fistulas (DAVFs) are abnormal connections between branches of the intracranial arteries and dural veins or sinuses. Advancements in the technique of endovascular embolization has made it the treatment of choice for DAVFs. The goal of treatment is to completely occlude the fistula orifice while maintaining the normal cerebral venous drainage. Depending on the site of the DAVF, endovascular treatment has its own challenges to the performing physician. In this case report, we will discuss complex anterior cranial fossa DAVFs, treatment approaches, and complications of the treatment.
Repair and maintenance in power distribution is an important factor that
affects the continuous productivity services and power efficiency in electrical
supply systems. Thermographic inspection has been often used as a
maintenance tool, as it allows detection of early-stage failure from the system
in electrical distribution. Failure in the system can lead to catastrophic
failure like a high-voltage arc fault. The presence of fault is caused by the
higher temperature of the instrument that leads to the formation of hotspots.
The use of infrared inspection is useful in detecting the hotspot that is hardly
noticeable. It helps to overcome the problems that arise during operation
and maintenance in the distribution systems. In this research, a fault
detection system is proposed with the application of Artificial Neural
Network (ANN) in identifying faults on electrical equipment. This method
was trained by using the temperature parameter on the IR images taken from
TNB Distribution. As a result, it will lead to faults detection. Thus, the
purpose of this project is to ensure the correct recommendation of corrective
actions in the maintenance procedure of the electrical system. The actions to
the detection of faults taken are based on the results of the temperature
measured. The neural network training performance for the temperature of
hotspot detection was developed with a minimum error of 0.00084165 MSE
at epoch 39. The study shows the best-fitting allows detection of early-stage
failure. It can be concluded that the current method in conducting the
prediction process by using Thermographic inspection is suitable for
electrical equipment based on the training result.
Contaminated water does not only affect human beings, but the life of aquatic
species also relies on clean water. Critical parameters such as dissolved
oxygen (DO), the potential of hydrogen (pH), ammonia, nitrate and also
temperature must be observed. Ammonia is toxic to fish and can be damaging
to any fish production system. This paper presents three types of planar
interdigital sensors that have been fabricated and developed for the aim of
the aquaculture monitoring process. The objectives of this study are to
develop and to characterize a sensor suitable for ammonia detection for
aquaculture application; to evaluate the effectiveness of the sensor to detect
the ammonia level in the water and also to develop a low cost ammonia
sensor. There are several experiments conducted on these planar interdigital
sensors to recognize which sensor produces a better sensitivity. These planar
interdigital sensors are designed with the same number of positive electrodes
but different numbers of negative electrodes. The experiment was carried out
by using Impedance Analyzer IM3570 to obtain the data and NI myRIO-1900
was used to monitor the sensor application. Wheatstone bridge was used as
signal conditioning to interface between the sensor and NI myRIO-1900.
Graphical User Interface (GUI), programmed using LabVIEW was
developed to interface between the hardware and the software parts. Results
show that Sensor 1 has the best sensitivity compared to other sensors.
Introduction: The number of breast cancer survivors in developing Asian countries is still lacking compared to Western countries. Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of cancer patients is one of the significant predictors of survival. Hence, this study was conducted to determine HRQoL status among breast cancer survivors of different diagnosis duration in East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia. Methods: Cross-sectional data were collected for 128 breast cancer survivors, aged 37 to 72 years who were recruited by using purposive sampling method at two main govern- ment hospitals in Kelantan (n=67) and Terengganu (n=61). The validated European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaires (EORTC QLQ–C30) and Breast Cancer Supplementary Measure (EORTC QLQ-BR23) which had been translated into the Malay language were used to measure HRQoL. Indepen- dent t-test was used to compare HRQoL status among short term (5 years duration since diagnosis) and long term (>5 years duration since diagnosis) breast cancer survivors. Results: Overall, our breast cancer survivors reported good HRQoL, with high scores for global health status, functional status and low symptoms scores. Long term breast cancer survivors had better social functioning compared to short term survivors (p=.038). Nevertheless, there was no significant difference found for other HRQoL status between short and long term breast cancer survivors. Conclusion: Breast cancer survivors in East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia generally experienced good HRQoL. The relatively sim- ilar HRQoL status between long-term and short-term survivors indicated a constant HRQoL profile among survivors throughout their survivorship.
Due to labour shortages and increasing labour cost, many hotels have employed foreign labour. However, some five-star hotels continue to employ the local workers. Although the employment of foreign labour helps to fill job vacancies, the over flooding of foreign labour is detrimental to Malaysia’s economy, social tranquillity, national peace and political stability. This paper reviews articles on foreign labours, human capital investment and compensation. Past studies found that a well-designed and implementation of job-skill training improves corporate profits and create shareholder’s value as increased human capital leads to customer satisfaction. Human capital refers to employee’s knowledge, experience, professional competency and cognitive ability. High investment in human capital is essential to service firms that provide customize service and seek to compete based on their services. To secure their investment, luxury hotels provide an effective compensation plan that includes internal and external equity.
Nanostructures play an important role in targeting sparingly water-soluble drugs to specific sites. Because of the structural flexibility and stability, the use of template microemulsions (μEs) can produce functional nanopharmaceuticals of different sizes, shapes, and chemical properties. In this article, we report a new volatile oil-in-water (o/w) μE formulation comprising ethyl acetate/ethanol/brij-35/water to obtain the highly water-dispersible nanoparticles of an antihyperlipidemic agent, ezetimibe (EZM-NPs), to enhance its dissolution profile. A pseudoternary phase diagram was delineated in a specified brij-35/ethanol ratio (1:1) to describe the transparent, optically isotropic domain of the as-formulated μE. The water-dilutable μE formulation, comprising an optimum composition of ethyl acetate (18.0%), ethanol (25.0%), brij-35 (25.0%), and water (32.0%), showed a good dissolvability of EZM around 4.8 wt % at pH 5.2. Electron micrographs showed a fine monomodal collection of EZM-loaded μE droplets (∼45 nm) that did not coalesce even after lyophilization, forming small spherical EZM-NPs (∼60 nm). However, the maturity of nanodrug droplets observed through dynamic light scattering suggests the affinity of EZM to the nonpolar microenvironment, which was further supported through peak-to-peak correlation of infrared analysis and fluorescence measurements. Moreover, the release profile of the as-obtained EZM-nanopowder increased significantly >98% in 30 min, which indicates that a reduced drug concentration will be needed for capsules or tablets in the future and can be simply incorporated into the multidosage formulation of EZM.
Breast cancer in young pregnancy is a breast cancer diagnosed in a young lady at the age of less than 30 years old during pregnancy. Diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer during pregnancy are challenging as both maternal and fetal outcome must be considered in terms of their short and long-term effects. It requires multidisciplinary treatment. Instead, pregnancy should be preserved whenever possible, while treating the underlying breast cancer. It is important not to compromise the treatment of breast cancer because of the pregnancy. The overall therapeutic concept basically depends on timing of delivery, staging of the underlying disease, treatment mode and the impacts of treatment recommended as well as foetal outcome in relation to treatment that administered to the mother during pregnancy. We present a case of young pregnant lady at the age of 23 with breast cancer as it is a rare event and the challenges encountered in managing her and to highlight the treatment options for the patient and the baby.
Herein, we report the effect of synthesis temperature on the morphologies, optical and electronic properties of magnesium oxide (MgO) nanostructures. The MgO nanostructures were synthesized at different temperatures, i.e., 100 °C, 300 °C, and 600 °C by simple chemical reaction process and their morphology, particle size, optical, and electrical properties were examined by different techniques such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and UV-Vis. spectroscopy. The morphological investigations revealed that various morphologies of MgO nanostructures, i.e., nanoparticles, nanosheet networks, and nanoneedles were synthesized at 100 °C, 300 °C, and 600 °C. The XRD results confirmed that with increasing the synthesis temperature, the crystallinity of the synthesized nanostructures increases. Further, the dielectric properties and AC conductivity at various frequencies for MgO nanostructures were studied which revealed that the dielectric losses decrease with increase in frequency and temperature. In addition, the observed band gap decreases from 4.89 eV to 4.438 eV (100 °C to 600 °C) representing its increase in the conductivity.
Nanostructure materials are of interest in last few decades due to their unique size-dependent physio-chemical properties. In this paper, zinc oxide (ZnO) and barium doped ZnO nanodisks (NDs) were synthesized using sonochemical method and characterized by various techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscope (SEM), UV-vis absorption and dielectric measurements. The XRD and FTIR studies confirm the crystalline nature of ZnO NDs, and the average crystallite size was found to be ~25 nm for pure ZnO and ~22 nm for Ba doped ZnO NDs. SEM study confirmed the spherical shaped ZnO NDs with average sizes in the range of 20-30 nm. The maximum absorbance was obtained in the 200-500 nm regions with a prominent peak absorbance were observed by UV-vis spectra. The corresponding band gap for ZnO NDs and Ba doped ZnO NDs were calculated using Tauc's plot and was found to be 3.12 and 3.04, respectively. The conductivity and dielectric measurements as a function of frequency have been studied.
Euler method is a numerical order process for solving problems with the Ordinary Differential Equation (ODE). It is a fast and easy way. While Euler offers a simple procedure for solving ODEs, problems such as complexity, processing time and accuracy have driven others to use more sophisticated methods. Improvements to the Euler method have attracted much attention resulting in numerous modified Euler methods. This paper proposes Cube Polygon, a modified Euler method with improved accuracy and complexity. In order to demonstrate the accuracy and easy implementation of the proposed method, several examples are presented. Cube Polygon’s performance was compared to Polygon’s scheme and evaluated against exact solutions using SCILAB. Results indicate that not only Cube Polygon has produced solutions that are close to identical solutions for small step sizes, but also for higher step sizes, thus generating more accurate results and decrease complexity. Also known in this paper is the general of the RL circuit due to the ODE problem.
During a disaster, the rescuer must reach the disaster area within the fastest time with the help of navigation tools. However, there might be some obstacles during the night time that make the evacuation of the victims difficult especially due to the bad weather. Hence, an attempt to produce glow-in-the-dark emergency signage to ease the evacuation process and to enhance visibility during night time is necessary. In this present study, particular emphasis is given to investigate the characteristic of photo-luminescent (PL)powder applied with polyester resin as glow-in-the-dark emergency signage. Five samples of signage were fabricated with different percentage of PL powder, i.e. 20%, 40%. 60%, 80% and 100% and mixed with 150g polyester resin. Three types of luminance test were performed to check the workability of the samples. The tests are physical appearance, one-hours illuminance test and afterglow duration tests. The result showed that the maximum lux meter reading was recorded in Sample 5 with 6 lux luminosity and provided the longest glow duration of the sample before completely off after 12-hours. Results proved that the highest percentage of the PL powder content, the longer the afterglow duration will be achieved. It also noted that the polyester resin could be a good binder of PL powder for producing the glow-in-the-dark emergency signage.
Foot ulcer is one of the most serious complications associated with diabetes mellitus that mat resulted in a disability and impairment of health related quality of life.Materials andMethods: The main objective of this cross-sectional study was to determine the factors adversely associated with quality of life among diabetic foot ulcer patients. Diabetic patients with evidence of diabetic foot ulcer attending outpatient orthopaedics and general surgical clinic of Hospital Tengku Ampuan Afzan were recruited into this study. A set of validated SF-36 questionnaire was employed to evaluate the health-related quality of life for each patient.This study was registered with the National Medical Research Register (NMRR registration no. 17-1520-36332).Results: There is a slightly higher proportion of female among the 104 respondents. Its prevalence is most pronounces in the lower income group. Majority presented with Wagner stage 2 and 3. Amputation has been performed in 54% of these patients. Physical health score fair worse than mental health. Age, low socioeconomic status, presence of comorbidities, major amputation, ulcer at the forefoot and wheelchair usage associated with an adverse effect on the physical health aspect in these patients. Interestingly, smoker seems to score better on the mental health aspect of the quality of life.Conclusion: Diabetic foot ulcer affected physical health aspect much more than mental health aspect within the context of the quality of life.
Introduction: Monitoring changes in energy and nutrient intakes of the population
over the course of time is essential to help healthcare providers develop effective
dietary policies. The aim of this study was to assess the changes in the nutrient
intake and Recommended Nutrient Intake (RNI) achievements by using the data
obtained from the Malaysian Adult Nutrition Surveys (MANS) that were carried out
in 2003 and 2014. Mis-reporting of energy intake was taken into account. Methods:
Dietary data were obtained from MANS 2003 and MANS 2014, which involved a
combined total of 4,044 randomly selected respondents, aged 18-59 years, using
a single 24-hour diet recall. Energy and nutrients calculations were based on the
Malaysian Food Composition database using the Nutritionist Pro software. The
results were compared against the RNI for Malaysia to assess dietary adequacy.
Results: The proportions of calories derived from macronutrients were within the
recommendations for a healthy diet. The consumption of protein, fat, calcium, iron
and vitamin A was significantly higher in 2014 than in 2003. The consumption
of protein, iron, vitamin C, and vitamin A was found to exceed the RNIs in 2014.
However, carbohydrate and sodium intakes had significantly decreased. Despite the
decrease, sodium intake still exceeded RNI recommendations. Conclusion: Signs
of changing energy and nutrient intakes were found, including increases in protein
and fat intakes since 2003, and decreased carbohydrates. This could be an alarming
indicator of the tendency to eat energy dense food among the population.
Introduction: Under-reporting of energy intake is a common cause of bias
in nutritional studies. This study was aimed at examining the extent of underreporting of energy intake and its related characteristics among respondents in
the Malaysian Adult Nutrition Survey (MANS) 2003 and MANS 2014. Methods:
The present study analysed energy intakes of 9,624 adults aged 18-59 years from
the MANS in year 2014 (2,890 respondents) and 2003 (6,734 respondents) using
a single 24-hour diet recall. Basal metabolic rates (BMR) were calculated from the
age- and gender-specific equations of Schofield. Under-reporting was defined as an
energy intake:BMR ratio of
Imaging techniques involving optical coherence tomography, computed tomography (CT) and high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are used as tools to identify atherosclerotic plaques. However, the effects of water-based contrast media used in Post Mortem Computed Tomography Angiography (PMCTA) on the histopathology of atherosclerotic plaques have not been widely explored. The objective of this study is to determine the effects of water-based contrast media used in PMCTA on the histopathology of atherosclerotic plaques and biomarkers of atherosclerosis in experimentally induced established atherosclerotic rabbits. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty male New Zealand white rabbits were divided into 2 groups. One group was given a high cholesterol diet (HCD) for 12 weeks to establish atherosclerosis and the control group normal diet (ND). Five rabbits from each group were then given intravenous water-based contrast media before being sacrificed. The entire length of aorta was dissected and submitted for histopathological examination and determination of tissue biomarkers α-SMA and MMP-9. RESULTS:Histopathological examination of the aorta including percentage of area covered by plaque and foam cell formation showed no significant difference in atheromatous plaque formation in both groups of HCD rabbits with or without intravenous contrast media injection (plaque: 55±41 vs. 63±15, p=0.731; foam cells: 124±83 vs. 171±55, p=0.325). Similarly, α-SMA and MMP-9 protein expression also showed no significant difference in both groups (α-SMA: 70±20 vs. 67±26, p=0.807; MMP-9: 60±12 vs. 57±17, p=0.785). CONCLUSION:Water-based contrast media used in PMCTA does not affect the morphology or the immunohistochemistry staining of SMA and MMP-9 in atherosclerotic plaques.
Separation and sorting of microparticles have set foot in critical diagnostics, advanced chemical and biomedical assessment. By utilizing specific characteristics for sorting, various techniques have been developed and optimized. Evanescent field optical trapping of microparticles is one of the emerging technologies to sort and separate in a non-mechanical and non-destructively several particles simultaneously. This paper describes the studies carried out, both theoretically and experimentally, to optimize the propulsion of polymer particles on copper ion-exchanged channel waveguides, to ultimately allow for the trapping and separation of mammalian adipose tissue derived stem cells (AT-SCs) according to their size and refractive index. The propulsion of polymer particles was observed to increase with the supplied input power and with laser polarization at transverse electric (TE) mode. The propulsion of particles was demonstrated to peak on a 4μm channel width of a 1μm thick copper ion-exchanged waveguide. The work carried out provides the optimal optical and waveguide parameters to be exploited for trapping and sorting AT-SCs on copper ion-exchanged waveguides