Displaying publications 61 - 80 of 98 in total

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  1. Chen ST, Lam SK
    Med J Malaysia, 1985 Dec;40(4):281-8.
    PMID: 3842727
    A study was carried out at the University Hospital, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to determine the age-specific prevalence of measles infection by serology and the age specific - seroconversion rates following measles vaccination. The results show that the percentage of children with passively acquired measles antibodies decreased with increasing age fill three to five months of age. From 12 months of age, the percentage of positivity increased sharply due probably to natural infection. The geometric mean antibody titre was low at birth, but from six months it started to increase. These results indicate that measles infection is common in Malaysia and a small number of children began to acquire natural measles infection from six to eight months of age; however the peak age for the acquisition of measles infection was from 12 months to five years of age. Seroconversion rates following vaccination from nine months of age, ranged from 94-99%. However, the rates and the geometric mean titre were higher among those vaccinated at 11 months of age or older compared with those vaccinated at nine or ten months of age. Based on the above results, it is concluded that the optimum age for measles immunization in Malaysia should be 11 months.
  2. Chen LT, Martinelli E, Cheng AL, Pentheroudakis G, Qin S, Bhattacharyya GS, et al.
    Ann Oncol, 2020 03;31(3):334-351.
    PMID: 32067677 DOI: 10.1016/j.annonc.2019.12.001
    The most recent version of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Clinical Practice Guidelines for the diagnosis, treatment and follow-up of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) was published in 2018, and covered the diagnosis, management, treatment and follow-up of early, intermediate and advanced disease. At the ESMO Asia Meeting in November 2018 it was decided by both the ESMO and the Taiwan Oncology Society (TOS) to convene a special guidelines meeting immediately after the Taiwan Joint Cancer Conference (TJCC) in May 2019 in Taipei. The aim was to adapt the ESMO 2018 guidelines to take into account both the ethnic and the geographic differences in practice associated with the treatment of HCC in Asian patients. These guidelines represent the consensus opinions reached by experts in the treatment of patients with intermediate and advanced/relapsed HCC representing the oncology societies of Taiwan (TOS), China (CSCO), India (ISMPO) Japan (JSMO), Korea (KSMO), Malaysia (MOS) and Singapore (SSO). The voting was based on scientific evidence, and was independent of the current treatment practices, the drug availability and reimbursement situations in the individual participating Asian countries.
  3. Chen MX, Zhang RL, Xu XN, Yu Q, Huang DN, Liu W, et al.
    Trop Biomed, 2020 Mar 01;37(1):50-57.
    PMID: 33612717
    A 24-year-old man born in Guizhou province was diagnosed with obstructive jaundice and bile duct stones in 2013. Four living trematodes were found during laparotomy and cholecystectomy. Based on the morphology and molecular genetics analysis of internal transcribed spacer and pcox1 genes of the flatworm specimens, the trematodes from the patient were confirmed to be Fasciola hepatica. This report provided the clinical and molecular diagnosis information on human fascioliasis, which is an emerging sanitary problem still ignored in China. Human fascioliasis constantly occurs due to climatic changes and frequency of human travel. Therefore, it deserves more attention from physicians working in both developing and developed countries.
  4. Dugdale AE, Chen ST, Hewitt G
    Am J Clin Nutr, 1970 Oct;23(10):1280-7.
    PMID: 5475659
  5. Cheng J, Wang Y, Hou J, Luo D, Xie Q, Ning Q, et al.
    J Clin Virol, 2014 Dec;61(4):509-16.
    PMID: 25200354 DOI: 10.1016/j.jcv.2014.08.008
    In mainland China, peginterferon (PEG-IFN) alfa-2b 1.0μg/kg/wk for 24 weeks is the approved treatment for HBeAg-positive chronic hepatitis B.
  6. Slik JWF, Franklin J, Arroyo-Rodríguez V, Field R, Aguilar S, Aguirre N, et al.
    Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 2018 02 20;115(8):1837-1842.
    PMID: 29432167 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1714977115
    Knowledge about the biogeographic affinities of the world's tropical forests helps to better understand regional differences in forest structure, diversity, composition, and dynamics. Such understanding will enable anticipation of region-specific responses to global environmental change. Modern phylogenies, in combination with broad coverage of species inventory data, now allow for global biogeographic analyses that take species evolutionary distance into account. Here we present a classification of the world's tropical forests based on their phylogenetic similarity. We identify five principal floristic regions and their floristic relationships: (i) Indo-Pacific, (ii) Subtropical, (iii) African, (iv) American, and (v) Dry forests. Our results do not support the traditional neo- versus paleotropical forest division but instead separate the combined American and African forests from their Indo-Pacific counterparts. We also find indications for the existence of a global dry forest region, with representatives in America, Africa, Madagascar, and India. Additionally, a northern-hemisphere Subtropical forest region was identified with representatives in Asia and America, providing support for a link between Asian and American northern-hemisphere forests.
  7. Zuntini AR, Carruthers T, Maurin O, Bailey PC, Leempoel K, Brewer GE, et al.
    Nature, 2024 Apr 24.
    PMID: 38658746 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07324-0
    Angiosperms are the cornerstone of most terrestrial ecosystems and human livelihoods1,2. A robust understanding of angiosperm evolution is required to explain their rise to ecological dominance. So far, the angiosperm tree of life has been determined primarily by means of analyses of the plastid genome3,4. Many studies have drawn on this foundational work, such as classification and first insights into angiosperm diversification since their Mesozoic origins5-7. However, the limited and biased sampling of both taxa and genomes undermines confidence in the tree and its implications. Here, we build the tree of life for almost 8,000 (about 60%) angiosperm genera using a standardized set of 353 nuclear genes8. This 15-fold increase in genus-level sampling relative to comparable nuclear studies9 provides a critical test of earlier results and brings notable change to key groups, especially in rosids, while substantiating many previously predicted relationships. Scaling this tree to time using 200 fossils, we discovered that early angiosperm evolution was characterized by high gene tree conflict and explosive diversification, giving rise to more than 80% of extant angiosperm orders. Steady diversification ensued through the remaining Mesozoic Era until rates resurged in the Cenozoic Era, concurrent with decreasing global temperatures and tightly linked with gene tree conflict. Taken together, our extensive sampling combined with advanced phylogenomic methods shows the deep history and full complexity in the evolution of a megadiverse clade.
  8. Chen ST
    Trop Geogr Med, 1975 Mar;27(1):103-8.
    PMID: 806152
    Pneumonia and diarrhoeas are an important cause of toddler mortality and morbidity in developing countries. Of the 147 children admitted to the University Hospital at Kuala Lumpur in 1971 for pneumonia and diarrhoeas 50 (34%) were found to be suffering from protein-calorie malnutrition of varying degrees of severity. The malnourished children tended to come from poorer homes, and to have a larger number of siblings born in rapid succession when compared with normal weight children. Anemia was more common among the malnourished children. The interaction of infection and malnutrition and the social implications of these diseases are important. It is vital that hospitals in developing countries promote health in addition to their traditional curative role.
  9. Ong P, Chen S, Tsai CY, Chuang YK
    PMID: 33744842 DOI: 10.1016/j.saa.2021.119657
    In this study, near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy was exploited for non-destructive determination of theanine content of oolong tea. The NIR spectral data (400-2500 nm) were correlated with the theanine level of 161 tea samples using partial least squares regression (PLSR) with different wavelengths selection methods, including the regression coefficient-based selection, uninformative variable elimination, variable importance in projection, selectivity ratio and flower pollination algorithm (FPA). The potential of using the FPA to select the discriminative wavelengths for PLSR was examined for the first time. The analysis showed that the PLSR with FPA method achieved better predictive results than the PLSR with full spectrum (PLSR-full). The developed simplified model using on FPA based on 12 latent variables and 89 selected wavelengths produced R-squared (R2) value and root mean squared error (RMSE) of 0.9542, 0.8794 and 0.2045, 0.3219 for calibration and prediction, respectively. For PLSR-full, the R2 values of 0.9068, 0.8412 and RMSEs of 0.2916, 0.3693, were achieved for calibration and prediction. Also, the optimized model using FPA outperformed other wavelengths selection methods considered in this study. The obtained results indicated the feasibility of FPA to improve the predictability of the PLSR and reduce the model complexity. The nonlinear regression models of support vector machine regression and Gaussian process regression (GPR) were further utilized to evaluate the superiority of using the FPA in the wavelength selection. The results demonstrated that utilizing the wavelength selection method of FPA and nonlinear regression model of GPR could improve the predictive performance.
  10. Ngim CF, Lee MY, Othman N, Lim SM, Ng CS, Ramadas A
    Hemoglobin, 2019 Mar;43(2):95-100.
    PMID: 31179787 DOI: 10.1080/03630269.2019.1599906
    We explored the severity and risk factors for cardiac and liver iron overload (IOL) in 69 thalassemia patients who underwent T2* magnetic resonance imaging (T2* MRI) in a Malaysian tertiary hospital from 2011 to 2015. Fifty-three patients (76.8%) had transfusion-dependent thalassemia (TDT) and 16 (23.2%) had non transfusion-dependent thalassemia (NTDT). Median serum ferritin prior to T2* MRI was 3848.0 μg/L (TDT) and 3971.0 μg/L (NTDT). Cardiac IOL was present in 16 (30.2%) TDT patients and two (12.5%) NTDT patients, in whom severe cardiac IOL defined as T2* <10 ms affected six (11.3%) TDT patients. Liver IOL was present in 51 (96.2%) TDT and 16 (100%) NTDT patients, 37 (69.8%) TDT and 13 (81.3%) NTDT patients were in the most severe category (>15 mgFe/gm dry weight). Serum ferritin showed a significantly strong negative correlation with liver T2* in both TDT (rs = -0.507, p = 0.001) and NTDT (r = -0.762, p = 0.002) but no correlation to cardiac T2* in TDT (r = -0.252, p = 0.099) as well as NTDT (r = -0.457, p = 0.100). For the TDT group, regression analysis showed that cardiac IOL was more severe in males (p = 0.022) and liver IOL was more severe in the Malay ethnic group (p = 0.028) and those with higher serum ferritin levels (p = 0.030). The high prevalence of IOL in our study and the poor correlation between serum ferritin and cardiac T2* underline the need to routinely screen thalassemia patients using T2* MRI to enable the early detection of cardiac IOL.
  11. McGrattan AM, Zhu Y, Richardson CD, Mohan D, Soh YC, Sajjad A, et al.
    J Alzheimers Dis, 2021;79(2):743-762.
    PMID: 33361599 DOI: 10.3233/JAD-201043
    BACKGROUND: Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a cognitive state associated with increased risk of dementia. Little research on MCI exists from low-and middle-income countries (LMICs), despite high prevalence of dementia in these settings.

    OBJECTIVE: This systematic review aimed to review epidemiological reports to determine the prevalence of MCI and its associated risk factors in LMICs.

    METHODS: Medline, Embase, and PsycINFO were searched from inception until November 2019. Eligible articles reported on MCI in population or community-based studies from LMICs and were included as long as MCI was clearly defined.

    RESULTS: 5,568 articles were screened, and 78 retained. In total, n = 23 different LMICs were represented; mostly from China (n = 55 studies). Few studies were from countries defined as lower-middle income (n = 14), low income (n = 4), or from population representative samples (n = 4). There was large heterogeneity in how MCI was diagnosed; with Petersen criteria the most commonly applied (n = 26). Prevalence of amnesic MCI (aMCI) (Petersen criteria) ranged from 0.6%to 22.3%. Similar variability existed across studies using the International Working Group Criteria for aMCI (range 4.5%to 18.3%) and all-MCI (range 6.1%to 30.4%). Risk of MCI was associated with demographic (e.g., age), health (e.g., cardio-metabolic disease), and lifestyle (e.g., social isolation, smoking, diet and physical activity) factors.

    CONCLUSION: Outside of China, few MCI studies have been conducted in LMIC settings. There is an urgent need for population representative epidemiological studies to determine MCI prevalence in LMICs. MCI diagnostic methodology also needs to be standardized. This will allow for cross-study comparison and future resource planning.

  12. Sweeney S, Leo BF, Chen S, Abraham-Thomas N, Thorley AJ, Gow A, et al.
    Colloids Surf B Biointerfaces, 2016 Sep 01;145:167-75.
    PMID: 27182651 DOI: 10.1016/j.colsurfb.2016.04.040
    Accompanying increased commercial applications and production of silver nanomaterials is an increased probability of human exposure, with inhalation a key route. Nanomaterials that deposit in the pulmonary alveolar region following inhalation will interact firstly with pulmonary surfactant before they interact with the alveolar epithelium. It is therefore critical to understand the effects of human pulmonary surfactant when evaluating the inhalation toxicity of silver nanoparticles. In this study, we evaluated the toxicity of AgNPs on human alveolar type-I-like epithelial (TT1) cells in the absence and presence of Curosurf(®) (a natural pulmonary surfactant substitute), hypothesising that the pulmonary surfactant would act to modify toxicity. We demonstrated that 20nm citrate-capped AgNPs induce toxicity in human alveolar type I-like epithelial cells and, in agreement with our hypothesis, that pulmonary surfactant acts to mitigate this toxicity, possibly through reducing AgNP dissolution into cytotoxic Ag(+) ions. For example, IL-6 and IL-8 release by TT1 cells significantly increased 10.7- and 35-fold, respectively (P<0.01), 24h after treatment with 25μg/ml AgNPs. In contrast, following pre-incubation of AgNPs with Curosurf(®), this effect was almost completely abolished. We further determined that the mechanism of this toxicity is likely associated with Ag(+) ion release and lysosomal disruption, but not with increased reactive oxygen species generation. This study provides a critical understanding of the toxicity of AgNPs in target human alveolar type-I-like epithelial cells and the role of pulmonary surfactant in mitigating this toxicity. The observations reported have important implications for the manufacture and application of AgNPs, in particular for applications involving use of aerosolised AgNPs.
  13. Zhang Y, Jiang K, Chen S, Wang L, Zhang X, Xu W, et al.
    Front Plant Sci, 2023;14:1234729.
    PMID: 37885663 DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1234729
    RATIONALE: Ganoderma lucidum (G. lucidum) is a popular medicinal fungus that has been used in traditional medicine for decades, with its provenance influencing its medicinal and commercial worth. The amount of active ingredients and the price of G. lucidum from different origins vary significantly; hence, fraudulent labeling is common. Reliable techniques for G. lucidum geographic verification are urgently required to safeguard the interests of consumers, producers, and honest dealers. A stable isotope is widely acknowledged as a useful traceability technique and could be developed to confirm the geographical origin of G. lucidum.

    METHODS: G. lucidum samples from various sources and in varying stages were identified by using δ 13C, δD, δ 18O, δ 15N, C, and N contents combined with chemometric tools. Chemometric approaches, including PCA, OPLS-DA, PLS, and FLDA models, were applied to the obtained data. The established models were used to trace the origin of G. lucidum from various sources or track various stages of G. lucidum.

    RESULTS: In the stage model, the δ 13C, δD, δ 18O, δ 15N, C, and N contents were considered meaningful variables to identify various stages of G. lucidum (bud development, growth, and maturing) using PCA and OPLS-DA and the findings were validated by the PLS model rather than by only four variables (δ 13C, δD, δ 18O, and δ 15N). In the origin model, only four variables, namely δ 13C, δD, δ 18O, and δ 15N, were used. PCA divided G. lucidum samples into four clusters: A (Zhejiang), B (Anhui), C (Jilin), and D (Fujian). The OPLS-DA model could be used to classify the origin of G. lucidum. The model was validated by other test samples (Pseudostellaria heterophylla), and the external test (G. lucidum) by PLS and FLDA models demonstrated external verification accuracy of up to 100%.

    CONCLUSION: C, H, O, and N stable isotopes and C and N contents combined with chemometric techniques demonstrated considerable potential in the geographic authentication of G. lucidum, providing a promising method to identify stages of G. lucidum.

  14. Shang X, Peng Z, Ye Y, Asan, Zhang X, Chen Y, et al.
    EBioMedicine, 2017 Sep;23:150-159.
    PMID: 28865746 DOI: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2017.08.015
    Hemoglobinopathies are among the most common autosomal-recessive disorders worldwide. A comprehensive next-generation sequencing (NGS) test would greatly facilitate screening and diagnosis of these disorders. An NGS panel targeting the coding regions of hemoglobin genes and four modifier genes was designed. We validated the assay by using 2522 subjects affected with hemoglobinopathies and applied it to carrier testing in a cohort of 10,111 couples who were also screened through traditional methods. In the clinical genotyping analysis of 1182 β-thalassemia subjects, we identified a group of additional variants that can be used for accurate diagnosis. In the molecular screening analysis of the 10,111 couples, we detected 4180 individuals in total who carried 4840 mutant alleles, and identified 186 couples at risk of having affected offspring. 12.1% of the pathogenic or likely pathogenic variants identified by our NGS assay, which were undetectable by traditional methods. Compared with the traditional methods, our assay identified an additional at-risk 35 couples. We describe a comprehensive NGS-based test that offers advantages over the traditional screening/molecular testing methods. To our knowledge, this is among the first large-scale population study to systematically evaluate the application of an NGS technique in carrier screening and molecular diagnosis of hemoglobinopathies.
  15. Murshid ME, Chen S, Rahman MM, Islam MZ, Shimpuku Y, Rahman Era N, et al.
    Cureus, 2023 Nov;15(11):e49605.
    PMID: 38033436 DOI: 10.7759/cureus.49605
    Background Adequate community-based or societal collaboration and cooperation are considerably important for the overall welfare of women and adolescent girls with disabilities. "The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS)" has not been evaluated for reliability and validity amid women and adolescent girls with disabilities in the Bangladeshi context. Methods A Bangla-translated form of the MSPSS was constructed, and the survey was conducted among 152 women and adolescent girls with disabilities who were purposefully recruited from Bogura Sadar and Chapainawabganj Sadar sub-districts of Bangladesh. Results The Cronbach's alpha of the entire scale was 0.868, indicating high internal consistency. Cronbach's alpha for the family sub-scale was 0.763, the friends sub-scale was 0.820, and the significant others scale was 0.776. The composite reliability for the family sub-scale was 0.849677, the friends sub-scale was 0.881248, and the significant others sub-scale was 0.859668. Convergence reliability was established following sub-scale-wise scores. It affirms the consistency of measurements. The content validity score was >0.62, following the Lawshe approach. The three-factor model was adopted during confirmatory factor analysis when the three-factor model run in SPSS Amos (version 21) CFI (comparative fit index) was 0.919. Conclusions In Bangladesh, to the best of our knowledge, our study is initially to calculate the perceived societal assistance of women and adolescent girls with disabilities. We validated the Bangla-translated form of the MSPSS from the Bangladeshi perspective. Researchers and clinicians may rely on our accurate and validated MSPSS translation into Bangla when working with this group. Based on our findings, this study endorses implementing the MSPSS for assessing professed community-based collaboration using the three-factor model, especially among women and adolescent girls with disabilities.
  16. Chen ST
    J Singapore Paediatr Soc, 1990;32(3-4):102-7.
    PMID: 2133745
    Over the past hundred years in industrialised countries and recently in some developing countries, children have been getting larger and growing to maturity more rapidly. This paper compares the growth of Malaysian children with similar socioeconomic backgrounds but born about twelve years apart. Data were obtained from records of 227 children born between 1968 and 1973 and 238 children born between 1980 and 1985. The children were followed-up regularly at the University Hospital Child Health Clinic in Kuala Lumpur for a variable period from birth to five years of age. Measurements for their weight, length and head circumference were taken at each visit. There is a directional indication that boys and girls of the 1980-1985 cohort are taller, heavier and have bigger head circumferences from birth to five years of age and the difference widens as the child grows older. This study clearly shows that a positive secular trend has taken place in the last decade, reflecting an improvement of living conditions with time. The factors involved in the positive secular trend are manifold and the most important is probably nutrition.
  17. Puthucheary SD, Chen ST, Dugdale AE
    Med J Malaysia, 1972 Jun;26(4):262-265.
    PMID: 35158504
    No abstract available.
  18. Gong J, Harris K, Lipnicki DM, Castro-Costa E, Lima-Costa MF, Diniz BS, et al.
    Alzheimers Dement, 2023 Aug;19(8):3365-3378.
    PMID: 36790027 DOI: 10.1002/alz.12962
    INTRODUCTION: Sex differences in dementia risk, and risk factor (RF) associations with dementia, remain uncertain across diverse ethno-regional groups.

    METHODS: A total of 29,850 participants (58% women) from 21 cohorts across six continents were included in an individual participant data meta-analysis. Sex-specific hazard ratios (HRs), and women-to-men ratio of hazard ratios (RHRs) for associations between RFs and all-cause dementia were derived from mixed-effect Cox models.

    RESULTS: Incident dementia occurred in 2089 (66% women) participants over 4.6 years (median). Women had higher dementia risk (HR, 1.12 [1.02, 1.23]) than men, particularly in low- and lower-middle-income economies. Associations between longer education and former alcohol use with dementia risk (RHR, 1.01 [1.00, 1.03] per year, and 0.55 [0.38, 0.79], respectively) were stronger for men than women; otherwise, there were no discernible sex differences in other RFs.

    DISCUSSION: Dementia risk was higher in women than men, with possible variations by country-level income settings, but most RFs appear to work similarly in women and men.

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