Displaying publications 81 - 100 of 165 in total

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  1. Mohd Tap R, Sabaratnam P, Ahmad NA, Abd Razak MF, Hashim R, Ahmad N
    Mycopathologia, 2015 Aug;180(1-2):137-41.
    PMID: 25894509 DOI: 10.1007/s11046-015-9890-5
    An 11-year-old girl presented with multiple blisters on her the right foot complicated with cellulitis. The conventional and molecular identification were performed on the culture. The internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region in rRNA gene of the isolate was amplified by PCR. The sequence of the amplified ITS region matched 99 % with that of Chaetomium globosum in the GenBank. This is the first report describing C. globosum causing cutaneous infection in Malaysia.
  2. Sany SB, Hashim R, Rezayi M, Rahman MA, Razavizadeh BB, Abouzari-lotf E, et al.
    Environ Sci Pollut Res Int, 2015 Aug;22(15):11193-208.
    PMID: 25953606 DOI: 10.1007/s11356-015-4511-x
    Current ecological risk assessment (ERA) schemes focus mainly on bioaccumulation and toxicity of pollutants in individual organisms. Ecological models are tools mainly used to assess ecological risks of pollutants to ecosystems, communities, and populations. Their main advantage is the relatively direct integration of the species sensitivity to organic pollutants, the fate and mechanism of action in the environment of toxicants, and life-history features of the individual organism of concern. To promote scientific consensus on ERA schemes, this review is intended to provide a guideline on short-term ERA involving dioxin chemicals and to identify key findings for exposure assessment based on policies of different agencies. It also presents possible adverse effects of dioxins on ecosystems, toxicity equivalence methodology, environmental fate and transport modeling, and development of stressor-response profiles for dioxin-like chemicals.
  3. Hamasuna D, Hashim R, Kasatani A, Luckhurst GR, Sugimura A, Timimi BA, et al.
    PMID: 26172726
    The dynamic alignment of the nematic director by near-orthogonal electric and magnetic fields has been investigated. The intermediate states during the relaxation process were found, with the aid of time-resolved deuterium NMR spectroscopy, to be markedly nonuniform. The macroscopic order was perturbed, although the initial and final states of the director appear to be essentially uniform. However, the initial state does have a profound influence on the uniformity of the director in the intermediate states. We have developed a fundamental model based on the effect of spontaneous director fluctuations to explain these unusual NMR observations.
  4. Mohamed Zahidi J, Bee Yong T, Hashim R, Mohd Noor A, Hamzah SH, Ahmad N
    Diagn Microbiol Infect Dis, 2015 Apr;81(4):227-33.
    PMID: 25641125 DOI: 10.1016/j.diagmicrobio.2014.12.012
    Molecular approaches have been investigated to overcome difficulties in identification and differentiation of Brucella spp. using conventional phenotypic methods. In this study, high-resolution melt (HRM) analysis was used for rapid identification and differentiation of members of Brucella genus. A total of 41 Brucella spp. isolates from human brucellosis were subjected to HRM analysis using 4 sets of primers, which identified 40 isolates as Brucella melitensis and 1 as Brucella canis. The technique utilized low DNA concentration and was highly reproducible. The assay is shown to be a useful diagnostic tool, which can rapidly differentiate Brucella up to species level.
  5. Adeshina AM, Hashim R
    Interdiscip Sci, 2015 Feb 06.
    PMID: 25663112
    Stroke is a cardiovascular disease with high mortality and long-term disability in the world. Normal functioning of the brain is dependent on the adequate supply of oxygen and nutrients to the brain complex network through the blood vessels. Stroke, occasionally a hemorrhagic stroke, ischemia or other blood vessel dysfunctions can affect patients during a cerebrovascular incident. Structurally, the left and the right carotid arteries, and the right and the left vertebral arteries are responsible for supplying blood to the brain, scalp and the face. However, a number of impairment in the function of the frontal lobes may occur as a result of any decrease in the flow of the blood through one of the internal carotid arteries. Such impairment commonly results in numbness, weakness or paralysis. Recently, the concepts of brain's wiring representation, the connectome, was introduced. However, construction and visualization of such brain network requires tremendous computation. Consequently, previously proposed approaches have been identified with common problems of high memory consumption and slow execution. Furthermore, interactivity in the previously proposed frameworks for brain network is also an outstanding issue. This study proposes an accelerated approach for brain connectomic visualization based on graph theory paradigm using Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA), extending the previously proposed SurLens Visualization and Computer Aided Hepatocellular Carcinoma (CAHECA) frameworks. The accelerated brain structural connectivity framework was evaluated with stripped brain datasets from the Department of Surgery, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, United States. Significantly, our proposed framework is able to generates and extracts points and edges of datasets, displays nodes and edges in the datasets in form of a network and clearly maps data volume to the corresponding brain surface. Moreover, with the framework, surfaces of the dataset were simultaneously displayed with the nodes and the edges. The framework is very efficient in providing greater interactivity as a way of representing the nodes and the edges intuitively, all achieved at a considerably interactive speed for instantaneous mapping of the datasets' features. Uniquely, the connectomic algorithm performed remarkably fast with normal hardware requirement specifications.
  6. Ghalib RM, Chidan Kumar CS, Hashim R, Sulaiman O, Fun HK
    Acta Crystallogr E Crystallogr Commun, 2015 Jan 1;71(Pt 1):o6-7.
    PMID: 25705509 DOI: 10.1107/S2056989014025997
    In the title iso-quinoline-1,3,4-trione derivative, C18H9NO5, the five-membered ring of the indane fragment adopts an envelope conformation with the nitro-gen-substituted C atom being the flap. The planes of the indane benzene ring and the iso-quinoline-1,3,4-trione ring make a dihedral angle of 82.06 (6)°. In the crystal, mol-ecules are linked into chains extending along the bc plane via C-H⋯O hydrogen-bonding inter-actions, enclosing R 2 (2)(8) and R 2 (2)(10) loops. The chains are further connected by π-π stacking inter-ations, with centroid-to-centroid distances of 3.9050 (7) Å, forming layers parallel to the b axis.
  7. Abou-Zied OK, Zahid NI, Khyasudeen MF, Giera DS, Thimm JC, Hashim R
    Sci Rep, 2015;5:8699.
    PMID: 25731606 DOI: 10.1038/srep08699
    Local heterogeneity in lipid self-assembly is important for executing the cellular membrane functions. In this work, we chemically modified 2-(2'-hydroxyphenyl)benzoxazole (HBO) and attached a C8 alkyl chain in two different locations to probe the microscopic environment of four lipidic phases of dodecyl β-maltoside. The fluorescence change in HBO and the new probes (HBO-1 and HBO-2) shows that in all phases (micellar, hexagonal, cubic and lamellar) three HBO tautomeric species (solvated syn-enol, anionic, and closed syn-keto) are stable. The formation of multi tautomers reflects the heterogeneity of the lipidic phases. The results indicate that HBO and HBO-1 reside in a similar location within the head group region, whereas HBO-2 is slightly pushed away from the sugar-dominated area. The stability of the solvated syn-enol tautomer is due to the formation of a hydrogen bond between the OH group of the HBO moiety and an adjacent oxygen atom of a sugar unit. The detected HBO anions was proposed to be a consequence of this solvation effect where a hydrogen ion abstraction by the sugar units is enhanced. Our results point to a degree of local heterogeneity and ionization ability in the head group region as a consequence of the sugar amphoterism.
  8. Ahmad N, Chong TM, Hashim R, Shukor S, Yin WF, Chan KG
    J Genomics, 2015;3:97-8.
    PMID: 26816553 DOI: 10.7150/jgen.13910
    We performed whole genome sequencing on a clinical multidrug-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae strain 223/14. Investigation into its draft genome revealed the presence of KPC-6 variant, suggesting carbapenemase is present in this isolate. We found a plasmid-borne KPC gene (882 bp) inserted between two transposase genes in the genome of K. pneumoniae 223/14.
  9. Tay BY, Ahmad N, Hashim R, Mohamed Zahidi J, Thong KL, Koh XP, et al.
    BMC Infect Dis, 2015;15:220.
    PMID: 26033227 DOI: 10.1186/s12879-015-0958-0
    Brucellosis is one of the most common zoonotic diseases worldwide. It can cause acute febrile illness in human and is a major health problem. Studies in human brucellosis in Malaysia is limited and so far no genotyping studies has been done on Brucella isolates. The aim of the study was to determine the genetic diversity among Brucella species isolated from human brucellosis, obtained over a 6-year period (2009-2014).
  10. Lamaming J, Hashim R, Sulaiman O, Leh CP, Sugimoto T, Nordin NA
    Carbohydr Polym, 2015;127:202-8.
    PMID: 25965475 DOI: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2015.03.043
    In this study cellulose nanocrystals were isolated from oil palm trunk (Elaeis guineensis) using acid hydrolysis method. The morphology and size of the nanocrystals were characterized using scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The results showed that the nanocrystals isolated from raw oil palm trunk (OPT) fibers and hot water treated OPT fibers had an average diameter of 7.67 nm and 7.97 nm and length of 397.03 nm and 361.70 nm, respectively. Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy indicated that lignin and hemicellulose contents decreased. It seems that lignin was completely removed from the samples during chemical treatment. Thermogravimetric analysis demonstrated that cellulose nanocrystals after acid hydrolysis had higher thermal stability compared to the raw and hot water treated OPT fibers. The X-ray diffraction analysis increased crystallinity of the samples due to chemical treatment. The crystalline nature of the isolated nanocrystals from raw and hot water treated OPT ranged from 68 to 70%.
  11. Hashim R, Song TH, Muslim NZ, Yen TP
    Trop Life Sci Res, 2014 Dec;25(2):21-39.
    PMID: 27073597 MyJurnal
    This study aimed to assess the concentrations of cadmium (Cd), nickel (Ni) and lead (Pb) in the tissues of fish collected from the lower reach of the Kelantan River, Malaysia. Fishes were collected using gill nets during the dry and wet seasons. A total of 78 individual fish were caught and comprised 6 families, 11 genera and 13 species. The dorsal muscle was analysed using a graphite furnace Atomic Absorption Spectrometer (AAS). The mean concentration of Cd in Chitala chitala (0.076 mg/kg) was above the critical limit values of the European Commission (EC), World Health Organization (WHO) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The mean concentrations of Cd in Barbonymus gonionatus and Tachysurus maculatus were already at the level of concern, whereas the other species were approaching the limits of permissible levels. No fish samples were found to have a Ni level higher than the permissible limit of 0.5-0.6 mg/kg set by the WHO (1985). Osteochilus hasseltii (0.169 mg/kg) and T. maculatus (0.156 mg/kg) showed high Pb concentrations. The concentrations of heavy metals were found to be elevated in the wet season (p<0.05). Omnivorous fish were detected with elevated concentrations of Cd and Ni, whereas carnivorous fish had the highest concentration of Pb. The concentrations of Cd and Pb in fish tissues were positively correlated with fish weight (p<0.05). This study determined that the fish species caught in the Kelantan River were contaminated with non-essential metals (Cd, Ni and Pb). Nevertheless, the heavy metal concentration in the fish tissues, with the exception of C. chitala, O. hasseltii and T. maculatus, did not exceed the EC, FAO, Malaysian Food Act (MFA) or WHO guidelines.
  12. Jasmi MA, Mazlan MN, Shaharuddin S, Zulkifly HH, Long CM, Hashim R, et al.
    Value Health, 2014 Nov;17(7):A478.
    PMID: 27201388 DOI: 10.1016/j.jval.2014.08.1375
    Conference abstract;
    Objectives: Warfarin use in atrial fibrillation has been established for preventing occurrence of stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation. However, safety and clinical monitoring of warfarin use is crucial due to its risk of bleeding complications. This study aims to compare and establish relation of time in therapeutic range (TTR) of warfarin in patients with atrial fibrillation in the first 6 months and 6 month thereafter of anticoagulation therapy.
    Methods: This is a retrospective study carried out at a tertiary-care hospital with anticoagulation clinic in the state of Selangor, Malaysia. Data collected included patients’ demographics, co-morbidities, and international normalized ratio (INR). TTR were determined using Rosendaal method based on records found in database (INR Desk 4.0 system) and patients’ hemorrhage events were also recorded. Samples of the study were patient who started warfarin from January 2009 until March 2013.
    Results: A total of 167 patients with atrial fibrillation were enrolled and only 6% (n=10) achieved TTR of more than 75% for the first 6 months of warfarin use as compared to 16.8% (n=28) of TTR more than 75% 6 months thereafter. As for bleeding incidences, 29% (n=45) of patients in the group of TTR less than 75% in the first 6 months had bleeding complications as compared to 18.7% (n=26) in patients of TTR less than 75% 6 months after.
    Conclusions: A more regular follow up is necessary during the first 6 months of new warfarin users as they tend to be out of the TTR and have a higher bleeding risk.
    Study site: anticoagulation clinic, tertiary hospital, Selangor, Malaysia
  13. Jackson RR, Li D, Woon JR, Hashim R, Cross FR
    R Soc Open Sci, 2014 Oct;1(2):140131.
    PMID: 26064534 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.140131
    Paracyrba wanlessi is a southeast Asian jumping spider (Salticidae) that lives in the hollow internodes of fallen bamboo and preys on the larvae, pupae and adults of mosquitoes. In contrast to Evarcha culicivora, an East African salticid that is also known for actively targeting mosquitoes as preferred prey, there was no evidence of P. wanlessi choosing mosquitoes on the basis of species, sex or diet. However, our findings show that P. wanlessi chooses mosquitoes significantly more often than a variety of other prey types, regardless of whether the prey are in or away from water, and regardless of whether the mosquitoes are adults or juveniles. Moreover, a preference for mosquito larvae, pupae and adults is expressed regardless of whether test spiders are maintained on a diet of terrestrial or aquatic prey and regardless of whether the diet includes or excludes mosquitoes. Congruence of an environmental factor (in water versus away from water) with prey type (aquatic versus terrestrial mosquitoes) appeared to be important and yet, even when the prey were in the incongruent environment, P. wanlessi continued to choose mosquitoes more often than other prey.
  14. Adeshina AM, Hashim R, Khalid NE
    Interdiscip Sci, 2014 Sep;6(3):222-34.
    PMID: 25205500 DOI: 10.1007/s12539-013-0204-7
    Hepatocellular Carcinoma is the most common type of liver cancer having a strong relation with cirrhosis. Undoubtedly, cirrhosis may be caused by the virus infection of hepatitis B (HBV) and hepatitis C (HBC) or through alchoholism. However, even when cirrhosis has not been developed, patients with hepatitis viral infections are still at the risk of liver cancer. Apparently, among the numerous medical imaging techniques, Computed Tomography (CT) is the best in defining liver tumor borders. Unfortunately, these imaging techniques, including the CT procedures, usually rely on an appended application to reconstruct the generated 2-D slices to 3-D model. This may involve high performance computation, may be time-consuming or costly. Moreover, even with the outstanding performances of CT in defining the liver tumor boundaries, contrast between tumor tissues and the surrounding liver parenchyma is too low in CT slices. With such a close proxity in the tumor and the surrounding liver tissues, accurate characterization of liver tumor is a challenge. Previously, algorithms were developed to reveal abnormalities in brain's MRI datasets and CT abdominal pelvic, however, introducing a framework that could accurately characterize liver tumor and its surrounding tissues in CT datasets would go a long way in contributing to medical diagnosis and therapy planning of Hepatocellular Carcinoma. This paper proposes an Hepatocellular Carcinoma framework by extending the functionalities of SurLens Visualization System with an automatic liver tumor localization technique using Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA). The study was evaluated with liver CT datasets from the Imaging Science and Information Systems (ISIS) Center, the Georgetown University Medical Center. Significantly, visualization of liver CT datasets and the localization of the entangled tumor was achieved without prior datasets segmentation. Interestingly, the framework achieved remarkably good processing speed at a reasonably cheaper cost with an immediate reconstruction of the datasets and mapping of the tumor tissues within the surrounding liver parenchyma.
  15. Coulibaly AY, Hashim R, Sulaiman SF, Sulaiman O, Ang LZ, Ooi KL
    Asian Pac J Trop Med, 2014 Sep;7S1:S553-9.
    PMID: 25312183 DOI: 10.1016/S1995-7645(14)60289-3
    OBJECTIVE: To evaluate antioxidant activities of seven medicinal plant species and their fractions, and to identify their phenolic compounds.

    METHODS: Two extractions were processed and further fractionated by column chromatography to evaluate the concentration that inhibit 50% of 2,2'-azinobis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-suslfonic acid, 1,1-diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl radicals, and their ferric reducing antioxidant power. The identification of the fractions of phenolic compounds was done by ultra performance liquid chromatography.

    RESULTS: The aqueous-acetone extracts of Feretia apodanthera and Ozoroa insignis exhibited the highest antioxidant potentials comparable to those of the standard quercetin. Their subsequently silica gel column fractionation showed three most active fractions from which the major constituents quercetin, myricetin, kampferol, rutin and isoquercetin were identified.

    CONCLUSIONS: These plant species have potent antioxidant profiles and polyphenol compounds that may help to manage with radical related disease and aging.

  16. Hashim R, Roslan NA, Zulkipli FH, Daud JM
    Asian Pac J Trop Med, 2014 Sep;7S1:S150-4.
    PMID: 25312111 DOI: 10.1016/S1995-7645(14)60222-4
    OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the aphrodisiac property of Aplysia dactylomela (A. dactylomelan), locally known as 'dugu-dugu', which is one of the sea slug species.

    METHODS: Two types of extractions were used; aqueous and lipid. Three doses of each A. dactylomelan extract, respectively; 50, 100, 200 mg/kg were administered (i.p.) to male mice for mounting behavior test. Sildenafil citrate or Viagra® (5 mg/kg) being positive control while negative control received saline solution.

    RESULTS: The animals treated with lipid extract at the respective dose exhibited mounting behavior, but the mounting frequency decreased at higher doses (100 and 200 mg/kg). However, all doses of aqueous extract did not show any mounting behavior. Meanwhile, in all doses of lipid extracts administered displayed significant difference (P<0.05) from the positive control. Despite this, only the lipid extract of 50 mg/kg showed significant difference (P<0.05) with negative control. This signifies that lipid extracts especially in dose 50 mg/kg have a substantial effect of aphrodisiac property. In addition, the presence of steroids was detected in the phytochemical screening of lipid extract.

    CONLUSIONS: The findings from this study provides preliminary scientific evidence that A. dactylomela could be used as an alternative medication of natural product for promoting sexual activity in men.

  17. Velayutham TS, Ng BK, Gan WC, Abd Majid WH, Hashim R, Zahid NI, et al.
    J Chem Phys, 2014 Aug 28;141(8):085101.
    PMID: 25173043 DOI: 10.1063/1.4893873
    Glycolipid, found commonly in membranes, is also a liquid crystal material which can self-assemble without the presence of a solvent. Here, the dielectric and conductivity properties of three synthetic glycolipid thin films in different thermotropic liquid crystal phases were investigated over a frequency and temperature range of (10(-2)-10(6) Hz) and (303-463 K), respectively. The observed relaxation processes distinguish between the different phases (smectic A, columnar/hexagonal, and bicontinuous cubic Q) and the glycolipid molecular structures. Large dielectric responses were observed in the columnar and bicontinuous cubic phases of the longer branched alkyl chain glycolipids. Glycolipids with the shortest branched alkyl chain experience the most restricted self-assembly dynamic process over the broad temperature range studied compared to the longer ones. A high frequency dielectric absorption (Process I) was observed in all samples. This is related to the dynamics of the hydrogen bond network from the sugar group. An additional low-frequency mechanism (Process II) with a large dielectric strength was observed due to the internal dynamics of the self-assembly organization. Phase sensitive domain heterogeneity in the bicontinuous cubic phase was related to the diffusion of charge carriers. The microscopic features of charge hopping were modelled using the random walk scheme, and two charge carrier hopping lengths were estimated for two glycolipid systems. For Process I, the hopping length is comparable to the hydrogen bond and is related to the dynamics of the hydrogen bond network. Additionally, that for Process II is comparable to the bilayer spacing, hence confirming that this low-frequency mechanism is associated with the internal dynamics within the phase.
  18. Tavakoly Sany SB, Hashim R, Rezayi M, Salleh A, Rahman MA, Safari O, et al.
    Mar Pollut Bull, 2014 Jul 15;84(1-2):268-79.
    PMID: 24855978 DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2014.05.004
    The concentration of carcinogenic poly aromatic hydrocarbons (c-PAHs) present in water and sediment of Klang Strait as well as in the edible tissue of blood cockle (Anadara granosa) was investigated. The human health risk of c-PAHs was assessed in accordance with the standards of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA). The cancer risks of c-PAHs to human are expected to occur through the consumption of blood cockles or via gastrointestinal exposure to polluted sediments and water in Kalng Strait. The non-carcinogenic risks that are associated with multiple pathways based on ingestion rate and contact rates with water were higher than the US EPA safe level at almost all stations, but the non-carcinogenic risks for eating blood cockle was below the level of US EPA concern. A high correlation between concentrations of c-PAHs in different matrices showed that the bioaccumulation of c-PAHs by blood cockles could be regarded as a potential health hazard for the consumers.
  19. Chen CD, Nazni WA, Lee HL, Hashim R, Abdullah NA, Ramli R, et al.
    Trop Biomed, 2014 Jun;31(2):381-6.
    PMID: 25134909 MyJurnal
    This study reported the ant species that were recovered from monkey carcasses in three different ecological habitats in Malaysia. The study was conducted from 9 May - 10 October 2007, 6 May - 6 August 2008 and 26 May - 14 July 2009 in forested area (Gombak, Selangor), coastal area (Tanjong Sepat, Selangor) and highland area (Bukit Cincin, Pahang), respectively. Monkey carcass was used as a model for human decomposition in this study. A total of 4 replicates were used in each of the study sites. Ants were observed to prey on eggs, larvae, pupae and newly emerged flies. This study found that ant species could be found at all stages of decomposition, indicating that ants were not a significant indicator for faunal succession. However, different species of ants were obtained from monkey carcasses placed in different ecological habitats. Cardiocondyla sp. was only found on carcasses placed in the coastal area; while Pheidole longipes, Hypoponera sp. and Pachycondyla sp. were solely found on carcasses placed in the highland area. On the other hand, Pheidologeton diversus and Paratrechina longicornis were found in several ecological habitats. These data suggests that specific ant species can act as geographic indicators for different ecological habitats in forensic entomology cases in Malaysia.
  20. Takaoka H, Sofian-Azirun M, Ya'cob Z, Hashim R, Otsuka Y
    J Med Entomol, 2014 May;51(3):517-28.
    PMID: 24897845
    Simulium (Gomphostilbia) leparense sp. nov. is described from females, males, and pupae collected from Peninsular Malaysia. This new species is assigned to the ceylonicum species-group of the subgenus Gomphostilbia, and is characterized by the female and male scuta covered with dark-brown short hairs, smaller number of male upper-eye facets, presence of shiny paired spots on the male abdominal segments 2-8, and absence of grapnel-shaped hooklets on the pupal abdominal segment 9. The male and pupa of S. capillatum Takaoka, which was originally described from larvae collected from Sarawak and Sabah, are described for the first time. Keys to identify all 32 species of the Simulium ceylonicum species-group including 27 species from other countries are provided for females, males, pupae, and mature larvae.
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