RESULTS: The PHAGOBURST™ assay detects fluorescence from oxidized dihydrorhodamine during oxidative burst. The average percentage of PMNL showing oxidative burst was almost two-fold greater with GBS (99.5%) and E. coli (98.2%) than GV (56.9%) (p
RESULTS: CoV-RNA was detected in ten specimens (47.6%, n = 21). Six alphacoronavirus and four betacoronaviruses were identified. The bat-CoVs can be phylogenetically grouped into four novel clades which are closely related to Decacovirus-1 and Decacovirus-2, Sarbecovirus, and an unclassified CoV. CoVs lineages unique to the Island of Borneo were discovered in Sarawak, Malaysia, with one of them closely related to Sarbecovirus. All of them are distant from currently known human coronaviruses.
DATA DESCRIPTION: We conducted cross-sectional online surveys in six countries from March 2020 to April 2021. By the end of June 2021, there will be six waves of surveys for the United States and China, and four waves for the rest of countries. There are common sets of questions for all countries, however, some questions were adapted to reflect local situations and some questions were designed intentionally for specific countries to capture different COVID-19 mitigation actions. Participants were asked about their adherence towards countermeasures, risk perceptions, and acceptance of a hypothetical vaccine for COVID-19.
RESULTS: Olfactory perception detected fragrance only from the petals and sepals. Light and Environmental Scanning Electron microscopy analyses on fresh tissues showed distributions of stomata and trichomes concentrated mostly around the edges. These results paralleled the rich starch deposits and intense neutral red stain, indicating strong fragrance and trichomes as potential main fragrance release sites. Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) transcriptomic data of adaxial and abaxial layers of the tissues showed monoterpene synthase transcripts specifically linalool and ocimene synthases distributed throughout the tissues. qPCR analyses taken at different time points revealed high levels of linalool and ocimene synthases transcripts in the early morning with maximal level at 4.00 am but remained low throughout daylight hours.
CONCLUSIONS: Knowledge of the VMP floral anatomy and its fragrance production characteristics, which complemented our previous molecular and biochemical data on VMP, provided additional knowledge on how fragrance and flower morphology are closely intertwined. Further investigation on the mechanisms of fragrance biosynthesis and interaction of potential pollinators would elucidate the evolution of the flower morphology to maximize the reproduction success of this plant.
RESULTS: The floatation of spike balls created a turbulent flow, thereby inhibiting further biofilm formation. The parameters such as, specific growth rate and doubling time of the algae before introducing the balls were 0.451 day-1 and 1.5 days respectively. Visible biofilm impeding light transmission was formed by 15-20 days. The removal of the biofilm commenced immediately after the introduction of the spike balls with visibly reduced deposits in 3 days. This was also validated by enhance cell count (6.95 × 106 cells mL-1) in the medium. The employment of spike balls in PBR is an environmental friendly and economical method for the removal of biofilm.
METHODS: The records of one hundred and thirty-four NPC cases confirmed by histopathology in Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) between 1st January 1998 and 31st December 2007 that fulfilled the inclusion and exclusion criteria were retrospectively reviewed. Simple and multiple Cox proportional hazard regression analyses were performed to determine the significant prognostic factors affect the survival of NPC patients.
RESULTS: The mean (SD) age of patients diagnosed with NPC was 48.12 (15.88) years with Malay was the largest ethnic group compared to other ethnicities. Most of patients had locally advanced stage IV (40.6%) and stage III (39.1%) of NPC. The overall median survival time of NPC patients was 31.30 months (95% CI 23.76, 38.84). The significant prognostic factors that influenced the survival of NPC patients were older age (HR 1.03, 95% CI 1.01, 1.04), metastases (HR 2.52, 95% CI 1.01, 6.28) and stage IV disease (HR 4.50, 95% CI 1.66, 9.88).
CONCLUSION: Older age, the presence of metastases and late stage are significant prognostic factors that influence the survival of NPC. Therefore, it is important to provide education to public and to raise awareness to diagnose NPC at an earlier stage and before the presence of metastases.
RESULT: 186 patients were enrolled and assigned into the COVID-19 group (n = 95) and non-COVID-19 group (n = 91) in this cross-sectional study. GG genotype frequency was dominant in ACE gene, but there were no significant differences between the groups (p = 0.163). The two groups had a significant difference (p = 0.000) for the CC genotype frequency (0,37 vs. 0.01) in the ACE2 gene. The proportion of women with COVID-19 is higher (51%), but men with hypertension had more severe symptoms (44%). Men with hypertension comorbidity, GG (ACE), and TT (ACE2) genotypes tended to have moderate-to-severe symptoms (25%). Similarly, women with hypertension as well as GG and CT genotypes tended to have moderate-to-severe symptoms (21%). We conclude that hypertension and mutations in the ACE (rs4331) and ACE2 (rs2074192) genes affect the severity of COVID-19.
RESULTS: When 20% of OD patients were switched to prophylaxis, projected reduction in bleeds was estimated between 3% (Taiwan) through 14% (Algeria and India); projected reductions in hospitalisations ranged from 3% (Taiwan) through 15% (India). Projected HCRU-related annual cost savings were estimated at USD 0.45 m (Algeria), 0.77 m (Argentina), 0.28 m (Chile), 0.13 m (India), 0.29 m (Malaysia), 2.79 m (Mexico), 0.15 m (Taiwan) and 0.78 m (Thailand). Net change in annual CFC consumption ranged from a 0.05% reduction (Thailand) to an overall 5.4% increase (Algeria). Our model provides a flexible framework to estimate the clinical and cost offsets of improved prophylaxis. Modest increase in CFC consumption may be an acceptable offset for improvements in health and healthcare capacity in resource constrained economies.
RESULTS: Sequence data were obtained for both A. dorsata and H. itama. The raw sequence data for A. dorsata was 5 Mb, which was assembled into 5 contigs with a size of 6,098,728 bp, an N50 of 15,534, and a GC average of 57.42. Similarly, the raw sequence data for H. itama was 6.3 Mb, which was assembled into 11 contigs with a size of 7,642,048 bp, an N50 of 17,180, and a GC average of 55.38. In the honey sample of A. dorsata, we identified five different plant/pollen species, with only one of the five species exhibiting a relative abundance of less than 1%. For H. itama, we identified seven different plant/pollen species, with only three of the species exhibiting a relative abundance of less than 1%. All of the identified plant species were native to Peninsular Malaysia, especially the East Coast area of Terengganu.
DATA DESCRIPTION: Our data offers valuable insights into honey's geographical and botanical origin and authenticity. Metagenomic studies could help identify the plant species that honeybees forage and provide preliminary data for researchers studying the biological development of A. dorsata and H. itama. The identification of various flowers from the eDNA of honey that are known for their medicinal properties could aid in regional honey with accurate product origin labeling, which is crucial for guaranteeing product authenticity to consumers.
METHODS: An online questionnaire was sent out in April 2021, to Malaysian Ophthalmologists and medical officers who perform cataract surgeries. The questions were focused on the preferred cataract surgery practices of the participants. All data obtained were collected, tabulated and analysed.
RESULTS: A total of 173 participants responded to the online questionnaire. 55% of the participants were within 31-40 years of age. 56.1% preferred peristaltic pump over venturi system. 91.3% of participants practised povidone iodine instillation to the conjunctival sac. With regards to the main wound incision, more than half of the surgeons (50.3%) preferred fixed superior incision and 72.3% of them preferred 2.75 mm microkeratome blade. Most of the participants (63%) were inclined towards C-Loop clear intraocular lens (IOL) with a single-handed push preloaded system. 78.6% of the surgeons routinely use carbachol in their cataract surgery.
CONCLUSIONS: This survey provides some insight into the current practices among Malaysian ophthalmologists. Most of the practices are in line with international guidelines for preventing postoperative endophthalmitis. This article could help trainees and ophthalmologists benchmark and observe the common cataract surgery practices among their seniors and peers in Malaysia.
RESULTS: In this experiment, thick and short hairy roots were induced at all induction sites of C. annuum while thin, elongated hairy roots appeared mostly at wound sites of C. frutescens. Overall, the hairy root induction percentages of C. frutescens were higher compared with C. annuum. Hairy root initiation was observed earliest using radicles (1st week), followed by cotyledons (2nd week), and hypocotyls (3rd week). Cotyledon explants of both species had the highest induction frequency with all strains compared with the other explants types. Strains ATCC 13333 and ATCC 15834 were the most favourable for C. frutescens while ATCC 43056 and ATCC 43057 were the most favourable for C. annuum. The interactions between the different explants and strains showed significant differences with p-values < 0.0001 in both Capsicum species.
CONCLUSIONS: Both Capsicum species were amenable to A. rhizogenes infection and hairy root induction is recommended for use as an alternative explants in future plant-based studies.
RESULTS: Mechanical disruption by sonication, which yielded 1.99 U/mg of GAD, was by far the most effective cell disintegration method compared with the other extraction procedures examined. In contrast, the second most effective method, freeze grinding followed by 10% v/v toluene permeabilization at 25°C for 120 min, yielded only 1.17 U/mg of GAD, which is 170% lower than the sonication method. Optimized enzymatic lysis with 3 mg/ml Yatalase® at 60°C for 30 min was the least effective. It yielded only 0.70 U/mg of GAD. Extraction using sonication was further optimized using a one-variable-at-a-time approach (OVAT). Results obtained show that the yield of GAD increased 176% from 1.99 U/mg to 3.50 U/mg.
CONCLUSION: Of the techniques used to extract GAD from A. oryzae NSK, sonication was found to be the best. Under optimized conditions, about 176% of GAD was recovered compared to recovery under non optimized conditions. The high production level of GAD in this strain offers an opportunity to conduct further studies on GABA production at a larger scale.
RESULTS: We report that combination of A-1210477 and ABT-263 exhibited synergistic effects on all cervical cancer cell lines tested. Drug sensitization studies revealed that A-1210477 sensitised the cervical cancer cell lines SiHa and CaSki to ABT-263 by 11- and fivefold, respectively. Sensitization also occurred in the opposite direction whereby ABT-263 sensitised SiHa and CaSki to A-1210477 by eightfold. This report shows that combination of ABT-263 and A-1210477 could be a potential treatment strategy for cervical cancer. Extensive drug mechanistic studies and drug sensitivity studies in physiological models are necessary to unleash the prospect of this combination for cervical cancer therapy.
RESULTS: A. burmanicus stem extract and M. modestum leaf extract were capable of inhibiting growth of P. falciparum when used at 200 µg/mL compared to chloroquine. The extracts at effective concentrations, did not affect the viability of PBMCs. These results support further need for characterization of active compounds from specific Annonaceae plants in order to exploit their components for potential malaria treatment.
RESULTS: Liquid Chromatography Tandem Mass spectrophotometry analysis of the TELSE tablet confirmed the presence of trimethoprim as the active compound. The TELSE tablet-treated females produced significant numbers of embryos with exencephaly (n = 8, 36.4%, *P
RESULTS: We attempted to identify genes that may be involved in biofilm formation in seven C. jejuni strains through construction of mutants using the EZ-Tn5 Transposome system. Only 14 mutants with reduced biofilm formation were obtained, all from one strain of C. jejuni. Three different genes of interest, namely CmeB (synthesis of multidrug efflux system transporter proteins), NusG (transcription termination and anti-termination protein) and a putative transmembrane protein (involved in membrane protein function) were identified. The efficiency of the EZ::TN5 transposon mutagenesis approach was strain dependent and was unable to generate any mutants from most of the strains used.
CONCLUSIONS: A diverse range of genes may be involved in biofilm formation by C. jejuni. The application of the EZ::TN5 system for construction of mutants in different Campylobacter strains is limited.
RESULTS: Primary outcome will be the ability of tranexamic acid to limit absolute haematoma volume on computed tomography at 24 h (± 12 h) after randomisation among spot sign positive and spot sign negative participants, respectively. Within all outcome measures, the effect of tranexamic acid in spot sign positive/negative participants will be compared using tests of interaction. This sub-study will investigate the important clinical hypothesis that spot sign positive patients might benefit more from administration of tranexamic acid compared to spot sign negative patients. Trial registration ISRCTN93732214 ( http://www.isrctn.com ).
FINDINGS: We optimized the assembly of a Hevea bark transcriptome based on 16 Gb Illumina PE RNA-Seq reads using the Oases assembler across a range of k-mer sizes. We then assessed assembly quality based on transcript N50 length and transcript mapping statistics in relation to (a) known Hevea cDNAs with complete open reading frames, (b) a set of core eukaryotic genes and (c) Hevea genome scaffolds. This was followed by a systematic transcript mapping process where sub-assemblies from a series of incremental amounts of bark transcripts were aligned to transcripts from the entire bark transcriptome assembly. The exercise served to relate read amounts to the degree of transcript mapping level, the latter being an indicator of the coverage of gene transcripts expressed in the sample. As read amounts or datasize increased toward 16 Gb, the number of transcripts mapped to the entire bark assembly approached saturation. A colour matrix was subsequently generated to illustrate sequencing depth requirement in relation to the degree of coverage of total sample transcripts.
CONCLUSIONS: We devised a procedure, the "transcript mapping saturation test", to estimate the amount of RNA-Seq reads needed for deep coverage of transcriptomes. For Hevea de novo assembly, we propose generating between 5-8 Gb reads, whereby around 90% transcript coverage could be achieved with optimized k-mers and transcript N50 length. The principle behind this methodology may also be applied to other non-model plants, or with reads from other second generation sequencing platforms.