Trichoderma species are commercially applied as biocontrol agents against numerous plant pathogenic fungi due to their production of antifungal metabolites, competition for nutrients and space, and mycoparasitism. However, currently the identification of Trichoderma species from throughout the world based on micro-morphological descriptions is tedious and prone to error. The correct identification of Trichoderma species is important as several traits are species-specific. The Random Amplified Microsatellites (RAMS) analysis done using five primers in this study showed different degrees of the genetic similarity among 42 isolates of this genus. The genetic similarity values were found to be in the range of 12.50-85.11% based on a total of 76 bands scored in the Trichoderma isolates. Of these 76 bands, 96.05% were polymorphic, 3.95% were monomorphic and 16% were exclusive bands. Two bands (250 bp and 200 bp) produced by primer LR-5 and one band (250 bp) by primer P1A were present in all the Trichoderma isolates collected from healthy and infected oil palm plantation soils. Cluster analysis based on UPGMA of the RAMS marker data showed that T. harzianum, T. virens and T. longibrachiatum isolates were grouped into different clades and lineages. In this study we found that although T. aureoviride isolates were morphologically different when compared to T. harzianum isolates, the UPGMA cluster analysis showed that the majority isolates of T. aureoviride (seven from nine) were closely related to the isolates of T. harzianum.
Contamination of insect DNA for RAPD-PCR analysis can be a problem because many primers are non-specific and DNA from parasites or gut contents may be simultaneously extracted along with that of the insect. We measured the quantity of food ingested and assimilated by two sympatric populations of brown planthopper (BPH), Nilaparvata lugens, one from rice and the other from Leersia hexandra (Poaceae), a wetland forage grass, and we also investigated whether host plant DNA contaminates that of herbivore insects in extractions of whole insects. Ingestion and assimilation of food were reduced significantly when individuals derived from one host plant were caged on the other species. The bands, OPA3 (1.25), OPD3 (1.10), OPD3 (0.80), OPD3 (0.60), pUC/M13F (0.35), pUC/M13F (0.20), BOXAIR (0.50), peh#3 (0.50), and peh#3 (0.17) were found in both rice-infesting populations of brown planthopper and its host plant (rice). Similarly, the bands, OPA4 (1.00), OPB10 (0.70), OPD3 (0.90), OPD3 (0.80), OPD3 (0.60), pUC/ M13F (0.35), pUC/M13F (0.20), and BOXAIR (0.50) were found in both Leersia-infesting populations of brown planthopper and the host plant. So, it is clear that the DNA bands amplified in the host plants were also found in the extracts from the insects feeding on them.
Matched MeSH terms: Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA Technique/methods
The application of the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to the study of vector transmitted diseases considerably improves the management of the information obtained from the field survey and facilitates the study of the distribution patterns of the vector species.
The oxidative stability of sunflower oil supplemented with medicinal split gill mushroom, Schizophyllum commune's crude extract (CE), the formic acid (FA) fraction and semipurified subfractions (SF) II and IV were tested, compared to BHA and alpha-tocopherol, by measuring their peroxide value, iodine value, p-anisidine value, thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances, and free fatty acid content. Their total phenolic content (TPC), 2,2-diphenyl-1-picryhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging, and ferric reducing/antioxidant power (FRAP) were also evaluated. FA and CE exhibited highest DPPH* scavenging, while FA and SFIV showed the highest FRAP; TPC was found to be highest in CE, FA, and SFIV. BHA and alpha-tocopherol are more protective in stabilizing the sunflower oil; SFII and SFIV had short-term protective effect in secondary oxidation for 1 year, while CE and FA retarded secondary oxidation and extended the shelf life 1 1/2 years and 2 years, respectively. HPLC-DAD analysis found (+)-catechin in Sch. commune's extracts. Sch. commune's extracts did not show similar retardation of lipid oxidation in sunflower oil as compared to alpha-tocopherol and BHA at the 200 ppm level. However, the higher concentration of Sch. commune's extract that provided the protective effect in stabilizing sunflower oil can be further studied.
This paper reports the design of an electronic nose (E-nose) prototype for reliable measurement and correct classification of beverages. The prototype was developed and fabricated in the laboratory using commercially available metal oxide gas sensors and a temperature sensor. The repeatability, reproducibility and discriminative ability of the developed E-nose prototype were tested on odors emanating from different beverages such as blackcurrant juice, mango juice and orange juice, respectively. Repeated measurements of three beverages showed very high correlation (r > 0.97) between the same beverages to verify the repeatability. The prototype also produced highly correlated patterns (r > 0.97) in the measurement of beverages using different sensor batches to verify its reproducibility. The E-nose prototype also possessed good discriminative ability whereby it was able to produce different patterns for different beverages, different milk heat treatments (ultra high temperature, pasteurization) and fresh and spoiled milks. The discriminative ability of the E-nose was evaluated using Principal Component Analysis and a Multi Layer Perception Neural Network, with both methods showing good classification results.
Moringa oleifera is an indigenous plant to Malaysia whose seeds are used for water purification. Many studies on Moringa oleifera have shown that it is highly effective as a natural coagulant for turbidity removal. In this study, two different methods for extraction of Moringa's active ingredient were investigated. Results of sodium chloride (NaCl) and distilled water extraction of Moringa oleifera seeds showed that salt solution extraction was more efficient than distilled water in extracting Moringa's active coagulant ingredient. The optimum dosage of shelled Moringa oleifera seeds extracted by the NaCl solution was comparable with that of the conventional chemical coagulant alum. Moreover, the turbidity removal efficiency was investigated for shelled Moringa oleifera seeds before drying in the oven under different storage conditions (i.e. open and closed containers at room temperature, 27 °C) and durations (fresh, and storage for 2, 4, 6 and 8 weeks from the time the seeds were picked from the trees). Our results indicate that there are no significant differences in coagulation efficiencies and, accordingly, turbidity removals between the examined storage conditions and periods.
Good suspension lessens the pistoning (vertical displacement) of the residual limb inside the prosthetic socket. Several methods are used for measuring the pistoning.
The catalytic cracking of waste cooking palm oil to biofuel was studied over different types of nano-crystalline zeolite catalysts in a fixed bed reactor. The effect of reaction temperature (400-500 °C), catalyst-to-oil ratio (6-14) and catalyst pore size of different nanocrystalline zeolites (0.54-0.80 nm) were studied over the conversion of waste cooking palm oil, yields of Organic Liquid Product (OLP) and gasoline fraction in the OLP following central composite design (CCD). The response surface methodology was used to determine the optimum value of the operating variables for maximum conversion as well as maximum yield of OLP and gasoline fraction, respectively. The optimum reaction temperature of 458 °C with oil/catalyst ratio=6 over the nanocrystalline zeolite Y with pore size of 0.67 nm gave 86.4 wt% oil conversion, 46.5 wt% OLP yield and 33.5 wt% gasoline fraction yield, respectively. The experimental results were in agreement with the simulated values within an experimental error of less than 5%.
Lipase-catalyzed synthesis of 6-O-glucosyldecanoate from d-glucose and decanoic acid was performed in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), a mixture of DMSO and tert-butanol and tert-butanol alone with a decreasing order of polarity. The highest conversion yield (> 65%) of decanoic acid was obtained in the blended solvent of intermediate polarity mainly because it could dissolve relatively large amounts of both the reactants. The reaction obeyed Michaelis-Menten type of kinetics. The affinity of the enzyme towards the limiting substrate (decanoic acid) was not affected by the polarity of the solvent, but increased significantly with temperature. The esterification reaction was endothermic with activation energy in the range of 60-67 kJ mol⁻¹. Based on the Gibbs energy values, in the solvent blend of DMSO and tert-butanol the position of the equilibrium was shifted more towards the products compared to the position in pure solvents. Monoester of glucose was the main product of the reaction.
A thermophilic lipolytic bacterium identified as Bacillus sp. L2 via 16S rDNA was previously isolated from a hot spring in Perak, Malaysia. Bacillus sp. L2 was confirmed to be in Group 5 of bacterial classification, a phylogenically and phenotypically coherent group of thermophilic bacilli displaying very high similarity among their 16S rRNA sequences (98.5-99.2%). Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) cloning of L2 lipase gene was conducted by using five different primers. Sequence analysis of the L2 lipase gene revealed an open reading frame (ORF) of 1251 bp that codes for 417 amino acids. The signal peptides consist of 28 amino acids. The mature protein is made of 388 amino acid residues. Recombinant lipase was successfully overexpressed with a 178-fold increase in activity compared to crude native L2 lipase. The recombinant L2 lipase (43.2 kDa) was purified to homogeneity in a single chromatography step. The purified lipase was found to be reactive at a temperature range of 55-80 °C and at a pH of 6-10. The L2 lipase had a melting temperature (Tm) of 59.04 °C when analyzed by circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy studies. The optimum activity was found to be at 70 °C and pH 9. Lipase L2 was strongly inhibited by ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) (100%), whereas phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride (PMSF), pepstatin-A, 2-mercaptoethanol and dithiothreitol (DTT) inhibited the enzyme by over 40%. The CD spectra of secondary structure analysis showed that the L2 lipase structure contained 38.6% α-helices, 2.2% ß-strands, 23.6% turns and 35.6% random conformations.
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Ritual circumcision is one of the most common surgical procedures performed in the developing world. Various technique for circumcision has been described to increase patient's safety and to decrease operating time. This study will look at comparing the conventional method of circumcision using scissors and ligatures with bipolar diathermy. To compare the incidence of bleeding and infection in patients who underwent circumcision between using the bipolar diathermy technique with conventional surgery (dorsal slit) technique for circumcision. The operative time between the two techniques were also recorded.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: A prospective, randomized study was conducted in all children undergoing ritual circumcision at Raja Perempuan Zainab II Hospital, Malaysia over a 1-year period. Data analysed were the operation time,postoperative bleeding rates and infection rates.
RESULTS: A total of 341 patients were included in the study. Randomization resulted in 183 patients in conventional surgery group and 158 patients in bipolar group. The incidence of bleeding were significantly better in the bipolar group compared to conventional group (3.1% vs 19.7%), (p<0.001). There was no significant difference in the infection rate (1.3% vs 2.7%) (p=0.457). Operative times were shorter in the bipolar diathermy group (Mean 8.2 minutes) compared to conventional group (Mean 15.3 minutes) (p<0.01).
CONCLUSION: Bipolar diathermy technique for circumcision is safe and quicker than the dorsal slit technique.
A simple, environmental friendly and selective sample preparation technique employing porous membrane protected micro-solid phase extraction (μ-SPE) loaded with molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) for the determination of ochratoxin A (OTA) is described. After the extraction, the analyte was desorbed using ultrasonication and was analyzed using high performance liquid chromatography. Under the optimized conditions, the detection limits of OTA for coffee, grape juice and urine were 0.06 ng g(-1), 0.02 and 0.02 ng mL(-1), respectively while the quantification limits were 0.19 ng g(-1), 0.06 and 0.08 ng mL(-1), respectively. The recoveries of OTA from coffee spiked at 1, 25 and 50 ng g(-1), grape juice and urine samples at 1, 25 and 50 ng mL(-1) ranged from 90.6 to 101.5%. The proposed method was applied to thirty-eight samples of coffee, grape juice and urine and the presence of OTA was found in eighteen samples. The levels found, however, were all below the legal limits.
CYP2D6 has received intense attention since the beginning of the pharmacogenetic era in the 1970s. This is because of its involvement in the metabolism of more than 25% of the marketed drugs, the large geographical and inter-ethnic differences in the genetic polymorphism and possible drug-induced toxicity. Many interesting reviews have been published on CYP2D6 and this review aims to reinstate the importance of the genetic polymorphism of CYP2D6 in different populations as well as some clinical implications and important drug interactions.
This study identifies the potential greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions, which can be achieved by optimizing the use of residues in the life cycle of palm oil derived biodiesel. This is done through compilation of data on existing and prospective treatment technologies as well as practical experiments on methane potentials from empty fruit bunches. Methane capture from the anaerobic digestion of palm oil mill effluent was found to result in the highest GHG reductions. Among the solid residues, energy extraction from shells was found to constitute the biggest GHG savings per ton of residue, whereas energy extraction from empty fruit bunches was found to be the most significant in the biodiesel production life cycle. All the studied waste treatment technologies performed significantly better than the conventional practices and with dedicated efforts of optimized use in the palm oil industry, the production of palm oil derived biodiesel can be almost carbon neutral.
Ultrasonic irradiation greatly improved the Candida antarctica lipase B mediated ring opening polymerization of ε-caprolactone to poly-6-hydroxyhexanoate in the ionic liquid 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium tetraflouroborate. Compared to the conventional nonsonicated reaction, sonication improved the monomer conversion by 63% and afforded a polymer product of a narrower molecular weight distribution and a higher degree of crystallinity. Under sonication, the polydispersity index of the product was ~1.44 compared to a value of ~2.55 for the product of the conventional reaction. With sonication, nearly 75% of the monomer was converted to product, but the conversion was only ~16% for the reaction carried out conventionally. Compared to conventional operation, sonication enhanced the rate of polymer propagation by >2-fold and the turnover number of the lipase by >3-fold.
Diabetic retinopathy has become an increasingly important cause of blindness. Nevertheless, vision loss can be prevented from early detection of diabetic retinopathy and monitor with regular examination. Common automatic detection of retinal abnormalities is for microaneurysms, hemorrhages, hard exudates, and cotton wool spot. However, there is a worse case of retinal abnormality, but not much research was done to detect it. It is neovascularization where new blood vessels grow due to extensive lack of oxygen in the retinal capillaries. This paper shows that various combination of techniques such as image normalization, compactness classifier, morphology-based operator, Gaussian filtering, and thresholding techniques were used in developing of neovascularization detection. A function matrix box was added in order to classify the neovascularization from natural blood vessel. A region-based neovascularization classification was attempted as a diagnostic accuracy. The developed method was tested on images from different database sources with varying quality and image resolution. It shows that specificity and sensitivity results were 89.4% and 63.9%, respectively. The proposed approach yield encouraging results for future development.
Planning and preparation in advance for radiological emergencies can help to minimise potential public health and environmental threats if and when an actual emergency occurs. During the planning process, emergency response organisations think through how they would respond to each type of incident and the resources that will be needed. In Malaysia, planning, preparation for and response to radiological emergencies involve many parties. In the event of a radiological emergency and if it is considered a disaster, the National Security Council, the Atomic Energy Licensing Board and the Malaysian Nuclear Agency (Nuclear Malaysia) will work together with other federal agencies, state and local governments, first responders and international organisations to monitor the situation, contain the release, and clean up the contaminated site. Throughout the response, these agencies use their protective action guidelines. This paper discusses Malaysian preparedness for, and response to, any potential radiological emergency.
Silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) have been successfully prepared with simple and "green" synthesis method by reducing Ag(+) ions in aqueous gelatin media with and in the absence of glucose as a reducing agent. In this study, gelatin was used for the first time as a reducing and stabilizing agent. The effect of temperature on particle size of Ag-NPs was also studied. It was found that with increasing temperature the size of nanoparticles is decreased. It was found that the particle size of Ag-NPs obtained in gelatin solutions is smaller than in gelatin-glucose solutions, which can be related to the rate of reduction reaction. X-ray diffraction, ultraviolet-visible spectra, transmission electron microscopy, and atomic force microscopy revealed the formation of monodispersed Ag-NPs with a narrow particle size distribution.
Matched MeSH terms: Green Chemistry Technology/methods*
The present study investigates the formation of aerobic granular sludge in sequencing batch reactor (SBR) fed with palm oil mill effluent (POME). Stable granules were observed in the reactor with diameters between 2.0 and 4.0mm at a chemical oxygen demand (COD) loading rate of 2.5 kg COD m(-3) d(-1). The biomass concentration was 7600 mg L(-1) while the sludge volume index (SVI) was 31.3 mL g SS(-1) indicating good biomass accumulation in the reactor and good settling properties of granular sludge, respectively. COD and ammonia removals were achieved at a maximum of 91.1% and 97.6%, respectively while color removal averaged at only 38%. This study provides insights on the development and the capabilities of aerobic granular sludge in POME treatment.
This study was carried out to determine the sorption-desorption, degradation and leaching of napropamide in selected Malaysian soils. The sorption capacities of the selected Malaysian soils for napropamide were the following in descending order: Linau > Teringkap > Gunung Berinchang > Jambu > Rudua > Baging soil. The results indicate that napropamide degradation decreased with increasing soil sorption capacity. Napropamide was leached out earlier in the Baging soil than the other soils. Overall, the application of napropamide in the selected Malaysian soils would not pose a threat to the environment except in soil with low organic matter and clay content and high hydraulic conductivity, such as the Baging soil.