METHOD AND MATERIAL: A preliminary study of the original TIBSIT (Phase 1) followed by cultural adaption (Phase 2) were carried out on volunteers from various neighbourhoods in Klang Valley, Malaysia comprising of age group 16-80 years. A total of 150 test subjects and 50 test subjects were recruited for Phase 1 and Phase 2 respectively. Cultural adaptation was done with changes to the distractors that were found to be confusing. In addition, modifications included added language translation and visual reinforcement with images of the odour's substance of origin.
RESULTS: 109 out of the 150 responses were accepted for Phase 1. A detection rate of less than 75% was found in three of the odours with the remaining showing an average rate of 87.2% to 97.7%. These three odours were culturally adapted for Phase 2. All 50 responses for Phase 2 were accepted; two of the odours' detection rates improved to 98% but the plum odour was only detected 53% of the time.
CONCLUSION: TIBSIT provides a quick office-based olfaction testing. The culturally adapted test kit is a potentially useful screening test for the Malaysian population. It is also safe and excludes the need of the clinician to carry out the test. This becomes especially useful in testing any dysosmia (hyposmia/anosmia) cases suspected of SARS-COV-2 virus infection (COVID-19).
OBJECTIVE: For the tuning of surfactant properties, double click coupling of the antipode precursors was attempted. Failure of the CuAAC to provide the targeted product in combination with unexpected reaction outputs led to an investigation of the side reaction.
METHODS: The CuAAC-based coupling of sugar azide with propargyl building block in the presence of copper- (I) catalyst exclusively led to the mono-coupling product in a respectable yield of almost 80%. Besides the unexpected incomplete conversion, the loss of the remaining propargyl group, as indicated by both NMR and MS. On the other hand, application of substantial amounts of CuSO4 under reducing conditions in refluxing toluene/water furnished the alkyne dimer in a moderate yield of 43%, while no change of azide compound was noticed.
RESULTS: The Cu(I)-catalyst applied for azide-alkyne cycloadditions enables the homo-coupling of certain terminal alkynes at a higher temperature. Moreover, aromatic propargyl ethers may be cleaved to furnish the corresponding phenol. The copper-catalyzed coupling appeared highly sensitive towards the alkyne compound. Only selected derivatives of propargyl alcohol were successfully dimerized.
CONCLUSIONS: The observed failure of the Huisgen reaction for the synthesis of sugar-based surfactants may indicate non-recognized constrains of the reaction, which could affect its wide application in bioconjugation. The temperature requirement for the alternative dimerization of terminal alkynes renders this side reaction nonrelevant for typical click couplings, while narrow substrate diversity and moderate yield limit its synthetic application.
METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted in the Kandy district, Sri Lanka. The nutritional status of older persons was assessed using the Mini Nutritional Assessment -Short Form (MNA-SF). A standardised questionnaire was used to record factors associated with malnutrition: demographic characteristics, financial characteristics, food and appetite, lifestyle, psychological characteristics, physical characteristics, disease and care, oral health, and social factors. Complex sample multinomial logistic regression analysis was performed.
RESULTS: Among the 999 participants included in the study, 748 (69.3%) were females and 251 (25.1%) were males. The mean age was 70.80 years (95% CI: 70.13, 71.47). The prevalence of malnutrition, risk of malnutrition and well-nutrition was 12.5%, 52.4% and 35.1% respectively. In the multivariate model, hypertension (adjusted OR = 1.71; 95% CI: 1.02, 2.89), alcohol consumption (aOR = 4.06; 95% CI: 1.17, 14.07), and increased age (aOR = 1.06; 95% CI: 1.01, 1.11) were positively associated with malnutrition. An increased number of people living with the older person (aOR: 0.91; 95% CI: 0.85, 0.97) was a protective factor among those at risk for malnutrition.
CONCLUSION: Both the prevalence of malnutrition and risk of malnutrition were commonly observed among community-dwelling older persons in Sri Lanka. The associated factors identified in this study might help public health professionals to implement necessary interventions that improve the nutritional status of this population.