Ageing is defined as gradual decline of physiological, cellular and molecular state of an organism with time. The age-associated cell dysfunctions usually cause chronic diseases such as diabetes, cancers and other age-related diseases. Many of the genes and pathways involved in ageing are conserved in different species. These genes and pathways have been categorised into nine cellular and molecular hallmarks, namely, genomic instability, telomere attrition, loss of proteostasis, mitochondrial dysfunction, epigenetic alterations, deregulated nutrient sensing, stem cell exhaustion, cellular senescence and altered intercellular communication. Despite countless studies on ageing, the molecular mechanism of ageing is poorly understood. Here, we performed genome wide transcriptome mapping of ageing process in D. melanogaster. In which, transcriptomic analysis conducted on the 1 day and 60 days flies. Illumina Hiseq platform were used to generate raw data. Afterwards, further analysis including differential expression analysis, GO classification and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis were performed. The raw data were uploaded to SRA database and the BioProject ID is PRJNA718442. These data provide the basis for future research in order to discover the genes and pathways involved in ageing.
In this data article, we provide energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) spectra of the electrospun composite (SnO2-TiO2) nanowires with the elemental values measured in atomic and weight%. The linear sweep voltammetry data of composite and its component nanofibers are provided. The data collected in this article is directly related to our research article "Synergistic combination of electronic and electrical properties of SnO2 and TiO2 in a single SnO2-TiO2 composite nanowire for dye-sensitized solar cells" [1].
We present here a data set generated from a multinational survey on opinions of university community members on the prospect of consuming food grown with human urine as fertiliser and about their urine recycling perceptions in general. The data set comprises answers from 3,763 university community members (students, faculty/researchers, and staff) from 20 universities in 16 countries and includes demographic variables (age bracket, gender, type of settlement of origin, academic discipline, and role in the university). Questions were designed based on Ajzen's theory of planned behaviour to elicit information about three components of behavioural intention-attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control. Survey questions covered perceived risks and benefits (attitudes), perceptions of colleagues (injunctive social norm) and willingness to consume food grown with cow urine/faeces (descriptive social norm), and willingness to pay a price premium for food grown with human urine as fertiliser (perceived behavioural control). We also included a question about acceptable urine recycling and disposal options and assessed general environmental outlook via the 15-item revised New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) scale. Data were collected through a standardised survey instrument translated into the relevant languages and then administered via an online form. Invitations to the survey were sent by email to university mailing lists or to a systematic sample of the university directory. Only a few studies on attitudes towards using human urine as fertiliser have been conducted previously. The data described here, which we analysed in "Willingness among food consumers at universities to recycle human urine as crop fertiliser: Evidence from a multinational survey" [1], may be used to further understand potential barriers to acceptance of new sanitation systems based on wastewater source separation and urine recycling and can help inform the design of future sociological studies.
Renewable energy assessments for resort islands in the South China Sea were conducted that involves the collection and analysis of meteorological and topographic data. The meteorological data was used to assess the PV, wind and hydropower system potentials on the islands. Furthermore, the reconnaissance study for hydro-potentials were conducted through topographic maps in order to determine the potential sites suitable for development of run-of-river hydropower generation. The stream data was collected for 14 islands in the South China Sea with a total of 51 investigated sites. The data from this study are related to the research article "Optimal combination of solar, wind, micro-hydro and diesel systems based on actual seasonal load profiles for a resort island in the South China Sea" published in Energy (Khan et al., 2015) [1].
The data consists of actual generation-side auditing including the distribution of loads, seasonal load profiles, and types of loads as well as an analysis of local development planning of a resort island in the South China Sea. The data has been used to propose an optimal combination of hybrid renewable energy systems that able to mitigate the diesel fuel dependency on the island. The resort island selected is Tioman, as it represents the typical energy requirements of many resort islands in the South China Sea. The data presented are related to the research article "Optimal Combination of Solar, Wind, Micro-Hydro and Diesel Systems based on Actual Seasonal Load Profiles for a Resort Island in the South China Sea" [1].
Coal combustion by-products (CCPs) (i.e. fly (FA) and bottom (BA) ashes) generated by power plants contain heavy metals. This research presents leaching properties of coal ashes (FA and BA) collected from Jimah coal-fired power station, Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan using USEPA standard methods namely toxicity characteristic leaching procedure (TCLP), and synthetic precipitation leaching procedure (SPLP). Heavy metals like lead (Pb), zinc (Zn), copper (Cu) and arsenic (As) were quantified using atomic absorption spectrometer (AAS). The leached of heavy metals fluxes were Cu < Zn < Pb < As. As leached the most whilst indicating of possible contamination from As. Overall, the ranges of leached concentration were adhered to permissible limits of hazardous waste criteria for metal (Pb and As) and industrial effluent (Zn and Cu). The presented data has potential reuse as reference for the coal ash concrete mixed design application in construction industries.
Lichen is a symbiotic organism that exists as a single composite body consisting of a mycobiont (fungus) and a photobiont (algae or a cyanobacterium). Many lichen species are considered as extremophiles due to their tolerance to radiation, desiccation, temperature and pollution. However, not all lichen species are tolerant to harsh environmental conditions as several species are sensitive for example to nitrogen, sulphur, acidity, heavy metals, halogens (e.g. fluoride) and ozone. Thus, to better understand why some lichens can withstand exposure to pollutants as opposed to those that are susceptible, we focused on the lichen species of Dirinaria known for their wide distribution in the tropics, subtropics and pantropical, and moderate tolerance to air pollution. Their moderate tolerance to air pollution affords them to thrive in good air quality environments as well as polluted air environments. Lichen samples of Dirinaria sp., UKM-J1 and UKM-K1, were respectively collected from two areas with different levels of air quality based on Air Pollutant Index or API (with index pollutant criteria of PM10, carbon monoxide, ozone, nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide) in the outskirt of Jerantut (UKM-J1), a rural area in the middle of Peninsular Malaysia and the township of Klang (UKM-K1), in a busy area of the Klang Valley, Malaysia. API was monitored throughout 2012-2013 whereby the sample collection site in Klang showed markedly higher concentrations of pollutants in all the index pollutant criteria as compared to that of Jerantut. We performed transcriptome sequencing using Illumina RNA-seq technology and de novo assembly of the transcripts from the lichen samples. Raw reads from both libraries were deposited in the NCBI database with the accession number SRP138994.
The soil fungal community of the Klang Gates quartz ridge in Malaysia was determined by ITS amplicon sequencing using the Illumina HiSeq platform. The community contained 2767 OTUs, 47% of which could not be assigned to a phylum, likely representing new lineages. Those that could be assigned were found within 5 phyla, 16 classes, 49 orders and 98 families with over 85% of these within the Ascomycota. Sequence data is available from the NCBI's Sequence Read Archive (PRJNA542066). This data illustrates the microbial diversity in a particularly nutrient poor tropical soil and can be used for broader-scale comparisons of microbial distributions.
Electrospinning is a promising approach to fabricate desirable electropsun nanofibrous scaffold that could be applied in the medical fields. In this study, bacterial copolymer poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-68 mol% 4-hydroxybutyrate) [P(3HB-co-68mol% 4HB)] copolymer produced was fabricated into electrospun nanofibers using various combination of electrospinning parameters including the polymer solution, applied voltage and injection speed. The morphology of the fabricated scaffolds were observed using scanning electron microscope (SEM). The SEM images were analysed for the fibre diameter distribution of the scaffolds using Image Analyser. The results revealed that the 8 wt% of polymer solution, 25 kV/cm of the applied voltage and 1.5 mL/h of the injection speed was the most suitable combination. This electrospinning parameters combination fabricated nanofibrous P(3HB-co-4HB) scaffold with smooth, beadles and uniform nanofibers with small fibre diameter distribution.
Inactivation of smoothened protein (SMO) by the antagonists in SHH-driven cancer types is essential for inhibition of cancer progression. This article presents molecular dynamics (MD) trajectories of water solution of three protein-ligand complexes smoothened-β-sitosterol (SMO-BST), smoothened-sonidegib (SMO-SNG) and smoothened-cholesterol (SMO-CLR) using CHARMM36 and SPC/E water model combination. Additionally, the work presents the topologies and trajectories of GROMACS files that were employed to analyse the protein-ligand interaction types (PyContact) and binding energy calculation (g_mmpbsa). The data demonstrated that equilibrated models of SMO-SNG and SMO-CLR complexes showed crucial residues that almost similar for interaction and contribution energy as previously reported in laboratory setup (in vitro). Initial simulations confirmed the role of ARG451 and TRP535 in the dynamic regulation of SMO. These data then were used as a reference for understanding the molecular dynamics of SMO-BST complex and thus predicted its mechanism of action.
The introduction of good and services tax (GST) that has replaced the sales and services tax (SST) had contributed to the rising cost of living in Malaysia. The focus of this research was to present a data article on the response and perception of Malaysian households about the increasing cost of living. A descriptive research design was adopted in this study. Data were obtained from randomly selected 751 respondents of households across Malaysia. The data were collected through a structured questionnaire. Data analysis was carried out using tables and percentages. The findings show the negative perceptions of Malaysian households on the increase in the cost of living. There are various causes of the rising cost of living and can be inferred based on the perspective of income changes, price changes and patterns household consumption expenditure.
This article describes the process of selecting a collection of professional and amateur videos that elicit five basic emotions (i.e., happiness, fear, disgust, anger, and sadness) and validating these videos in three groups of participants (i.e., Chinese from China, Chinese from Malaysia, and Bumiputera from Malaysia). In the video selection phase, professional videos, which were Western movie trailers, were selected from IMDb (Internet Movie Database) and amateur videos were selected from YouTube. The researchers selected videos that display five basic emotions, identified the time frames with the strongest display of emotion, and rated the emotional intensity of each video on a 5-point Likert scale. After the initial stage of selection, two other researchers performed an emotion recognition task by watching the videos without audio to ensure that the emotions can be elicited without understanding the language. This data was used to refine the final selection of 20 professional videos and 20 amateur videos. In the video validation phase, 30 participants were asked to identify and rate the intensity of emotion felt. This article includes a description of the video selection method, a detailed list of the videos selected, and participants' responses and ratings of emotional intensity for the 40 videos.
Red palm weevil (RPW), Rhynchophorus ferrugineus, is a polyphagous insect that caused economic damage in various palm species, particularly coconut plantation in Malaysia. Therefore, entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium anisopliae was being introduced in attempts to control biologically the RPW. The entomopathogenicity of an indigenous (Met-Gra4) and foreign (Met-TH) strains of M. anisopliae isolated from the soil of Malaysia and Thailand, were tested against RPW adults in laboratory bioassays at 50, 70, 90% relative humidity (RH). Bioassays indicate no significance differences in efficacy between both the conidia of M. anisopliae strains against RPW adults. Met-Gra4 showed the highest efficacy at 90% RH (LT50 = 6.17 days). However, LT50 only slightly differed from Met-TH (6.33 days; 90% RH). Scanning el ectron microscopy for the treated RPWs showed that Met-Gra4 (90% RH) was densely sporulated within the abdomen, while Met-TH can be found mainly across cuticular surface of RPW.
Shorea macrophylla belongs to the Shorea genus under the Dipterocarpaceae family. It is a woody tree that grows in the rainforest in Southeast Asia. The complete chloroplast (cp) genome sequence of S. macrophylla is reported here. The genomic size of S. macrophylla is 150,778 bp and it possesses a circular structure with conserved constitute regions of large single copy (LSC, 83,681 bp) and small single copy (SSC, 19,813 bp) regions, as well as a pair of inverted repeats with a length of 23,642 bp. It has 112 unique genes, including 78 protein-coding genes, 30 tRNA genes, and four rRNA genes. The genome exhibits a similar GC content, gene order, structure, and codon usage when compared to previously reported chloroplast genomes from other plant species. The chloroplast genome of S. macrophylla contained 262 SSRs, the most prevalent of which was A/T, followed by AAT/ATT. Furthermore, the sequences contain 43 long repeat sequences, practically most of them are forward or palindrome type long repeats. The genome structure of S. macrophylla was compared to the genomic structures of closely related species from the same family, and eight mutational hotspots were discovered. The phylogenetic analysis demonstrated a close relationship between Shorea and Parashorea species, indicating that Shorea is not monophyletic. The complete chloroplast genome sequence analysis of S. macrophylla reported in this paper will contribute to further studies in molecular identification, genetic diversity, and phylogenetic research.
Marinobacter adhaerens (PBVC038) was isolated from a harmful algal bloom event caused by the toxic dinoflagellate Pyrodinium bahamense var. compressum (P. bahamense) in Sepanggar Bay, Sabah, Malaysia, in December 2012. Blooms of P. bahamense are frequently linked to paralytic shellfish poisoning, resulting in morbidity and mortality. Prior experimental evidence has implicated the role of symbiotic bacteria in bloom dynamics and the synthesis of biotoxins. The draft genome sequence data of a harmful algal bloom-associated bacterium, Marinobacter adhaerens PBVC038 is presented here. The genome is made up of 21 contigs with an estimated 4,246,508 bases in genome size and a GC content of 57.19%. The raw data files can be retrieved from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) under the Bioproject number PRJNA320140. The assessment of bacterial communities associated with harmful algal bloom should be studied more extensively as more data is needed to ascertain the functions of these associated bacteria during a bloom event.
Parageobacillus caldoxylosilyticus, or previously identified as Geobacillus caldoxylosilyticus, is a thermophilic Gram-positive bacterium which can easily withstand growth temperatures ranging from 40 °C to 70 °C. Here, we present the first complete genome sequence of Parageobacillus caldoxylosilyticus ER4B which was isolated from an empty oil palm fruit bunch compost in Malaysia. Whole genome sequencing was performed using the PacBio RSII platform. The genome size of strain ER4B was around 3.9Mbp, with GC content of 44.31%. The genome consists of two contigs, in which the larger contig (3,909,276bp) represents the chromosome, while the smaller one (54,250bp) represents the plasmid. A total of 4,164 genes were successfully predicted, including 3,972 protein coding sequences, 26 rRNAs, 91 tRNAs, 74 miscRNA, and 1 tmRNA. The genome sequence data of strain ER4B reported here may contribute to the current molecular information of the species. It may also facilitate the discovery of molecular traits related to thermal stress, thus, expanding our understanding in the acclimation or adaptation towards extreme temperature in bacteria.
The excessive growth of aquatic macrophytes in a water system has a negative effect on the lake ecosystem. This article presents data on water parameters and sedimentation rates from sites that include different aquatic macrophytes at Tasik Berombak, a freshwater lake on Peninsular Malaysia's eastern coast. Areas with Hanguana malayana and Pandanus helicopus were selected for sampling, while an area without aquatic macrophytes served as the control. At the lake's surface and bottom, temperature, conductivity, total dissolved solids, dissolved oxygen (D.O.), and pH were measured in situ. The surface water was sampled for chemical analysis in the laboratory (chlorophyll-a, total suspended solids, total carbon, total organic carbon, inorganic carbon, total dissolved nitrogen, total dissolved phosphorus). Settling sediment was collected using cylinder traps deployed under the macrophytes at the bottom of the lake. The presented data includes the water parameters according to plant-base area, depth differentiation (top versus bottom), and variable correlation analysis. Understanding the impact of excessive aquatic plants on the lake ecosystem in a tropical environment requires information on water parameters and sedimentation rates from the aquatic plants. Therefore, these data can be used to monitor the impact of land use change on the aquatic plant community and, ultimately, the lake ecosystem.
The Streptomyces cavourensis strain 2BA6PGT was isolated from sediment from the bottom of the salt lake Verkhnee Beloe (Buryatia, Russia). This strain's 7,651,223 bp complete genome has a high G + C content of 72.1% and consists of 7,069 coding sequences and 315 subsystems. The 16S ribosomal RNA of isolate 2BA6PGT was most closely related to Streptomyces cavourensis strain NBRC 13026T (98.91% identity), followed by Streptomyces bacillaris strain ATCC 15855T (95.36%), Streptomyces rhizosphaericola strain 1AS2cT (94.68%), and Streptomyces pluricolorescens strain JCM 4602T (86.75%). These comparisons were supported by pairwise comparisons using average nucleotide identity (ANI) and DNA-DNA hybridization analysis. This is the first complete genome reported on Streptomyces cavourensis isolated from sediment from the bottom of the salt lake Verkhnee Beloe. The complete genome sequence has been deposited at the NCBI GenBank with an accession number CP101140.
Barrientosiimonas humi gen. nov., sp. nov. 39T is a rare actinobacteria strain isolated from the less explored extreme environment of the Antarctic soil. Here, we present the whole genome sequencing and annotation data from the high-quality draft genome of B. humi from Antarctica. The extracted genomic deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) was sequenced using the PacBio Sequel sequencing platform, followed by the Illumina HiSeq sequencing system. Subsequently, the assembly data from Canu 1.7 and Pilon were subjected to bioinformatics analysis for genome annotation to analyze the entire genomic information of the sequences. Different bioinformatics analysis approaches were used to disclose a high-quality draft genome basis for B. humi and provided a better understanding of its biological and molecular functions. Note that 83,639 reads were predicted from its 3.6Mb genome size, with a guanine-cytosine content (GC) content of 72.39%. The genome was assembled into two contigs, where the larger contig represents the chromosome and the smaller contig represents the plasmid. It is composed of 3,381 coding genes, with about 95% of them being functionally annotated. It consists of 3,318 coding sequences, one tmRNA gene, 57 tRNA genes, and five repeated regions. B. humi was evident, sharing a close sequence similarity with the species Demetria terragena and the family Dermacoccaceae. Gene Ontology (GO) functional classification indicated cell and cell parts were highly represented among the cellular component category; catalytic activity and binding were the most enriched processes within the molecular function category; metabolic and cellular processes were the most represented in the biological process category. Clusters of Orthologous Group (COG) functional classification revealed metabolism-related genes were highly enriched and mostly mapped to amino acid transport metabolism, transcription, energy production, and conversion. Moreover, the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) functional classification reported that the metabolism process was the most represented KEGG pathway. There were 52 biosynthetic gene clusters involved in secondary metabolites biosynthesis, indicating B. humi has antibacterial, antifungal, cytotoxic, and inhibitor bioactivities. The dataset of the whole-genome sequence of B. humi has been deposited in the European Nucleotide Archive (ENA) repository under the accession number PRJEB44986 / ERP129097. The dataset of the genome annotation of B. humi had been deposited in Zenodo. The reported genomic sequence data for B. humi contributes comprehensive data to the current molecular information of the species, serving as a significant approach that facilitates the advancement of medicine.
This data article provides macroeconomic data that can be used to generate macroeconomic volatility. The data cover a sample of seven selected countries in the Asia Pacific region for the period 2004-2014, including both developing and developed countries. This dataset was generated to enhance our understanding of the sources of macroeconomic volatility affecting the countries in this region. Although the Asia Pacific region continues to remain as the most dynamic part of the world's economy, it is not spared from various sources of macroeconomic volatility through the decades. The reported data cover 15 types of macroeconomic data series, representing three broad categories of indicators that can be used to proxy macroeconomic volatility. They are indicators that account for macroeconomic volatility (i.e. volatility as a macroeconomic outcome), domestic sources of macroeconomic volatility and external sources of macroeconomic volatility. In particular, the selected countries are Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Philippines, which are regarded as developing countries, while Singapore, Japan and Australia are developed countries. Despite the differences in level of economic development, these countries were affected by similar sources of macroeconomic volatility such as the Asian Financial Crisis and the Global Financial Crisis. These countries were also affected by other similar external turbulence arising from factors such as the global economic slowdown, geopolitical risks in the Middle East and volatile commodity prices. Nonetheless, there were also sources of macroeconomic volatility which were peculiar to certain countries only. These were generally domestic sources of volatility such as political instability (for Thailand, Indonesia and Philippines), natural disasters and anomalous weather conditions (for Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Japan and Australia) and over-dependence on the electronic sector (for Singapore).