In forensic entomology practice, it is more common to use raw animal tissue to breed dipteran larvae and it often brings unpleasant odour in the laboratory. Few studies suggested the use of synthetic diets, mainly agar-based media, as alternatives to animal tissue but it is rarely being practiced in forensic entomology laboratory. The present study observed the growth of a forensically important fly, Megaselia scalaris (Loew) on raw cow’s liver, nutrient agar, casein agar and cow’s liver agar. A total of 100 M. scalaris eggs were transferred each into the different media and placed in an incubator at 30°C in a continuous dark condition. Data on length and developmental period were collected by randomly sampling three of the largest larvae from each rearing media, twice a day at 0900 and 1500 hours until pupariation. M. scalaris larvae reared on raw cow’s liver recorded the highest mean length (4.23 ± 1.96 mm) followed by cow’s liver agar (3.79 ± 1.62 mm), casein agar (3.14 ± 1.16 mm) and nutrient agar (3.09 ± 1.11 mm). Larval length in raw liver and liver agar were significantly different from those in nutrient and casein agar (p < 0.05). Larvae bred in liver agar and raw liver recorded the shortest larval duration before entering the post-feeding stage (89 hours), followed by nutrient agar (119 hours) and casein agar (184 hours). Total developmental time from oviposition until adult emergence for M. scalaris in liver agar and raw liver was approximately 163 hours. All puparia in nutrient agar and casein agar failed to hatch. This research highlighted the potential use of cow’s liver agar as an alternative diet of raw liver to culture M. scalaris in laboratory.
An outbreak of pneumonia occurred among 1,491 recruits undergoing training at the Army Recruit Training Center, Port Dickson, Negeri Sembihxn, between july to August 2000. They had reported for training 2 weeks before and were placed in new modern concrete 4 floors buiMing with well ventilated dorm. A total of 70 recruits were ajjfected and one died. The attack rate was 4.7% and the case fatality rate was 1.4%. The outbreak ajfected recruits from all the jive companies; J (21/299,
30.0%) , G (19/298, 27.1 %), I (14/298, 20.0%), H (13/298, 18.6%) and F (3/298, 4.3%) . The main presenting symptoms were fever (68/70, 97.1%), cough (62/70, 88.6%), and chest pain (35/70, 50 .0%) . This was a common site outbreak with the mode of spread from person to person through infected droplet. The outbreak has three peaks, which was at lst, 4th and 6th week respectively and lasted for eight weeks. The organisms isobted through blood culture were Streptococcal pneumoniae and Klebsiella pneumoniae. All the cases were managed and treated as in-patients at four dijjferent hospitals depending on the severity of the illness. The main control activities carried out were separation of ill recruits from the healthy, reducing the number of recruits in the dormitories and encourage recruits to drink a lot of water while in training.
Objective: The present study aims to assess verbal memory performance in patients with schizophrenia attending HUSM and determine the relationship between the patients’ verbal memory performance and their demographic/clinical factors. Methods: A cross sectional study of 114 patients with schizophrenia attending HUSM psychiatric services from December 2007 to May 2008 was conducted. The schizophrenia symptoms as well as verbal memory performance were assessed using the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale, the Malay version of the Calgary Depression Scale (MVCDS), and the Malay version of the Auditory Verbal Learning Test (MVAVLT). The relationship between verbal memory performance and demographic/clinical symptoms was evaluated using Pearson Correlation. Results: Overall MVAVLT scores in all the trials were lowered in patients with schizophrenia compared to average healthy controls. There were significant relationships between occupational status and MVAVLT performance in Trial A1-A5 Total; between educational level and MVAVLT performance in Trial A1 and Trial A1-A5 Total and between severities of illness and MVAVLT performance in all indexes except Trial A1 after controlled for occupation and
educational level. Conclusions: Patient with schizophrenia in HUSM performed significantly worse than healthy controls in verbal memory with or without interference. There were significant relationships between MVAVLT performance and patient’s occupational s tatus, educational level and severity of the illness but not depressive symptoms.
Study site: Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (HUSM)
The aim of this project is to produce electricity from citronella biomass using isolated microbes from wastewater as biocatalyst in a dual chamber microbial fuel cell (MFC). MFC is one such system that not only reduced biomass, which contains mostly waste products but can also liberate electricity from them. MFC system is well-established and using lignocellulosic biomass as fuel is one step to future energy generation. Trials of MFC experiments have been conducted but using citronella bagasse (CB) as fuel source. Furthermore, pre-treatment of the biomass was done using NaOH pre-treament and effluent treatment wastewater from a palm edible oil company as a source for microorganism. The end results indicate that bioelectricity production from CB is possible though very low yield in the present MFC.
Changes to the physicochemical properties of wheat, sago and tapioca starches subjected to gamma ray, electron beam and microwave irradiations and the conditions that lead to wheat starch having leaching behaviour similar to sago or tapioca starch were studied. The properties were characterised through swelling and leaching behaviours of the starch granules and retrogradation following pasting. The leaching of wheat starch increased tremendously and resulted in amylose to amylopectin ratios in the leachate similar to that of native sago and tapioca starches. This observation is significant as wheat starch is known to have a leachate composition of mostly amylose. This opens up the possibility of utilising wheat starch in snacks where tapioca and sago starch are commonly used. It was observed that the required conditions for such changes were exposure to microwave for 8 and 10 minutes, electron beam at 5 and 10 kGy and gamma ray at 5 kGy.
The present study was aimed at assessing the effect of solvents on the yield and the color properties of amaranth extract. Two species of amaranth namely Amaranthus gangeticus and Amaranthus blitum were extracted with water, methanol and ethanol. Seven parameters like betacyanin content, total soluble solids, lightness (L*), redness (a*), yellowness (b*), hue angle (h*) and chroma (c*) were analyzed to assess extraction efficiency. Correlation analysis was carried out to assess the linear association among the analytical variables. Principal component analysis was used to establish the relationships between the different analytical variables and to detect the most important factors of variability. Among the two varieties, Amaranthus gangeticus extract contained about two and half time more betacyanin with half of total soluble solids compared to Amaranthus blitum. Water is the best as solvent for extracting betacyanin from Amaranthus gangeticus and ethanol in case of Amaranthus blitum. Among the analytical parameters, a* and c* were perfectly correlated. Three principal components were found among the seven analytical variables accounting 88% of total variability. The first principal components mostly reflected the redness (a*), whereas the second principal components reflected the betacyanin content, total soluble solids and lightness (L* value).
Post-intubation airway related adverse effects such as coughing on the endotracheal tube (ETT), restlessness, hoarseness and sore throat are common and undesirable outcomes of anaesthesia using endotracheal intubation. This prospective randomized single blind study was carried out to compare the effectiveness of intra-cuff dexamethasone and alkalinized lignocaine in reducing the incidence of post-intubation airway related adverse effects. Eighty four patients aged 18 – 60 years, of ASA status I or II, were randomly allocated into three groups: air, dexamethasone and alkalinized lignocaine. Their ETT cuffs were inflated according to the group they were allocated to. The incidence of coughing on the ETT, restlessness, hoarseness and sore throat was assessed, postoperatively. The results showed a significant difference in the incidence of cough, restlessness, hoarseness and sore throat in the dexamethasone group compared to the air group. All the patients had minimal or no sore throat at all documented times. Both intra-cuff dexamethasone and alkalinized lignocaine significantly reduced the incidence of hoarseness. However, alkalinized lignocaine additionally lowered the incidence of restlessness, significantly.
This prospective, randomised study compared the effectiveness of patient controlled epidural analgesia (PCEA) versus continuous epidural infusion (CEI) in providing pain relief post gynaecological surgery. Sixty six ASA I or II patients planned for gynaecological surgery via Pfannensteil incision under combined spinal epidural anaesthesia were recruited. They were randomised into two groups: Group A patients received PCEA while Group B patients received CEI. In the recovery area, both groups received an epidural combination of levobupivacaine 0.1% and fentanyl 2 μg/ml. Group A patients were allowed demand bolus doses of 5 ml with a 20 minute lockout interval, while Group B patients had their epidural infusion initiated at 6 ml/hour with increments as required to a maximum of 12 ml/hour. Pain score and degree of motor blockade was assessed hourly in the first four hours and subsequently at four hourly intervals. Side effects were recorded at four-hourly interval. The total amount of analgesia, number of anaesthetic interventions and patient satisfaction was assessed 24 hours, postoperatively. There was no significant difference in pain score, total amount of analgesia, number of anaesthetic interventions and patient satisfaction. The degree of motor blockade and side effects were comparable between the groups. In conclusion, PCEA was comparable to CEI for pain relief after gynaecological surgery.
The objectives of this study were to determine the prevalence of HI V iryfection, risk factors and to measure the knowledge on AIDS among fishermen in Terengganu. In this survey fishermen registered with the Malaysian Fishery Development Board in Terengganu were studied. There were 600 eligible fishermen based on a list provided by the Malaysian Fishery Development Board (MFDB). Study sites were at 6 loading centres where health personnel awaited returning fishermen between 4. 00pm —7. 00 pm during a period of one month, A total of 542 registeredfshermen were studied and this corresponded to a response rate of 90.3 %. The majority of the fishermen were Malays (98.6%}, Nine fishermen were tested positive to HIV antibody and this corresponds to a
g prevalence of I. 7%. Prevalence of HIV is higher among those with a positive history of drug use, single marital status and also among the unskilled workers who represented the socio-economically poorer group of fishermen. Almost 89% of respondents have heard about HIV/AIDS and among these, 93% received information through TV and radio. The mean knowledge score was significantly higher among fishermen admitting to drug taking, sex with prostitutes, and those who have had at least a secondary school education. The Prevalence of HIV infection among fishermen is higher than in the general population. Risk characterisation of HI V injection was statistically signyicant onlv among fishermen who gave positive history of drug used. Findings also suggest that poorer fishermen based on multiple indicators to socioeconomic status had a higher risk of being HIV positive as well as being less knowledgeable about AIDS, Health promotion strategies should focus on the use of TV and radio as an interactive medium to reach out to risk groups among fishermen as its popularity has been determined by this study.
Objective: Family Environment Scale (FES) is one of the most widely used instruments to measure many family aspects. Cross cultural adaptation of the original FES is essential prior to local utilization as different cultures percept their family environments differently. We attempted to translate the FES into the Bahasa Malaysia language for adolescents, evaluate its reliability using internal consistency and compare its results with the original
study. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study, involving adolescents aged 12-17 from four secondary schools. The adolescents were selected using quota sampling for different age, ethnic and academic performance. The study was divided into four phases, namely: i) translation of FES, ii) pilot test iii) internal consistency reliability test and iv) comparison of the study results with the original FES. Results: A total of 295 adolescents participated in this study. All of the reliability measurements generated (ranged between Cronbach’s alpha 0.10 - 0.70) were lower than those originally reported for this instrument (ranged between Cronbach’s alpha 0.61 -0.78). Five subscales in the Bahasa Malaysia version were found to be less than Cronbach’s alpha 0.5, which were below the acceptable level for practical or research use. There was considerable variation observed between the sample population of this study and that of the original study, which could be due to the social cultural differences. Conclusion: The Bahasa Malaysia version of FES requires further culturally
appropriate revision. A new measuring scale could also be devised to provide an accurate evaluation of the family environment as perceived by Malaysian adolescents, which has acceptable levels of reliability and validity.
Finding relevant disaster data from a huge metadata overhead often results in frustrating search
experiences caused by unclear access points, ambiguous search methods, unsuitable metadata, and long response times. More frequently, semantic relation between the retrieved objects is neglected. This paper presents a system architecture that makes use of ontologies in order to enable semantic metadata descriptions for gathering and integrating multi-format documents in the context of disaster management. After a brief discussion on the challenges of the integration process, the Multi-format Information Retrieval, Integration and Presentation (MIRIP) architecture is presented. A specific approach for ontology development and mapping process is introduced in order to semantically associate user’s query and documents metadata. An ontology model approach was designed to follow inspirational and collaborative approaches with top-down to bottom-up implementation. A prototype of the integrated disaster management information system is currently under development, based on the architecture that is presented in this paper.
In this study, 45 bisindolylmethanes having sulfonamide moiety had been synthesized through 3 steps. In vitro assay for inhibition of carbonic anhydrase showed that some of the compounds having sulfonamide moiety are capable of inhibiting carbonic anhydrase II. Bisindoles having halogens at fifth position showed better inhibitory activity as compared to unsubstituted bisindoles. The results obtained from in vitro inhibitory activity were subjected through 3D QSAR and docking studies to identify important features contributing to the activity and further improve the structure. Pharmacophore studies suggest that bisindolylmethane moiety is contributing significantly towards the inhibition activity. Docking studies showed that compounds having nitro substituent (5g and 5i) were found to be able interact with Zn(2+) ion, Thr199, His94, His96, and His119, which interferes with the ZnOHThr199Glu106 hydrogen bond network. Bulky nitro substituent at ortho position for compound 5g prevents the compound from interacting with other residues like Thr199 and Thr200. Methyl substituent at ortho position for Compound 5i induces less steric hindrance effect, thus allowing second oxygen atom of sulfonamide to interact with Thr199 (2.51Å). Hydrogen bonding between NH on indole ring with Glu69 might have increased stability of ligand-receptor complex.
Cloud computing system is a huge cluster of interconnected servers residing in a datacenter and dynamically provisioned to clients on-demand via a front-end interface. Scientific applications scheduling in the cloud computing environment is identified as NP-hard problem due to the dynamic nature of heterogeneous resources. Recently, a number of metaheuristics optimization schemes have been applied to address the challenges of applications scheduling in the cloud system, without much emphasis on the issue of secure global scheduling. In this paper, scientific applications scheduling techniques using the Global League Championship Algorithm (GBLCA) optimization technique is first presented for global task scheduling in the cloud environment. The experiment is carried out using CloudSim simulator. The experimental results show that, the proposed GBLCA technique produced remarkable performance improvement rate on the makespan that ranges between 14.44% to 46.41%. It also shows significant reduction in the time taken to securely schedule applications as parametrically measured in terms of the response time. In view of the experimental results, the proposed technique provides better-quality scheduling solution that is suitable for scientific applications task execution in the Cloud Computing environment than the MinMin, MaxMin, Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) scheduling techniques.
A cross sectional survey was conducted in Kampung Datuk Kerarnat, an urbanized residential area in Kuala Lumpur from August to November ZOO5 to assess knowledge, attitude and preventive practices on dengue among its residents. A two stage sampling strategy was used to select survey household. An adult aged at least 21 years old was identified from each selected household and interviewed using a standardized questionnaire. Data was collected on demographics, dengue related KAP and house-types. Knowledge, attitude and practice were assessed using a scoring system. Each appropriate answer was given a point and the points for each section of the questionnaire were totalled. Knowledge was assessed as ‘good' or ‘moderate to poor’ based on arbitrary cut-off point. Out of 133 respondents interviewed, 78.2% were able to identify at least one clinical sign of dengue, 73% knew that dengue fever was caused by the bite of dengue infected Aedes mosquitoes, 71 % correctly identified breeding sites, 69.2% correctly identified the Aedes mosquito and 42% correctly reported biting times ofthe mosquito vector. Overall, knowledge
was categorized as poor, attitude was good and dengue control and prevention practices was moderately poor. There was a weak but significant positive correlation between knowledge and practice (r=0.271, p=0.002) but there was no significant correlation between attitude with practice and between attitude with knowledge (p>0.05) . The results suggested that inspite of good attitude l
on dengue fever, it did not correlate with good practices and good knowledge in dengue prevention. We conclude that there is a need to increase health promotion activities to increase knowledge which forms the basis for preventive practices as part of the strategy to control dengue. Preventive strategies are the only means of controlling the disease.
At present, soil and mineral based building material such as bricks are one of the main components in building construction in Malaysia. This building material is a direct source of radiation exposure since it contains naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM). In this study, clay brick samples used were obtained from 7 factories in Selangor and Johore, Malaysia. The activity concentrations of 226 Ra, 232 Th and 40 K in these samples of clay bricks were determined using a comparative method and was analysed using gamma spectrometry with HPGe detector. The mean values of activity concentrations for 226 Ra, 232 Th and 40 K were found to be in the range of 39.04 ± 0.88 Bqkg-1 - 73.61 ± 5.32 Bqkg-1, 43.38 ± 2.60 Bqkg-1 - 73.45 ± 1.51 Bqkg-1, and 381.54 ± 11.39 Bqkg-1 - 699.63 ± 15.82 Bqkg-1, respectively. The radiation hazard of NORM in the samples was estimated by calculating the radium equivalent activity (Raeq), external hazard index (Hex) and internal hazard index (Hin). Radium equivalent activity (Raeq) determined was in the range of 151.90 Bqkg-1 - 194.22 Bqkg-1 which is lower than the limit of 370 Bqkg-1 (equivalent to 1.5 mSvyr-1 ) recommended in the NEA-OECD report in 1979, whereas external hazard index (Hex) and internal hazard index (Hin) were between 0.20 – 0.26 and 0.52 - 0.71 respectively. The annual effective dose rate exposure to a dweller received from the clay bricks was calculated to be in the range of 0.35 ± 0.18 mSvy-1 - 0.43 ± 0.09 mSvy-1.
Research on the use of Jatropha curcas triglycerides as biodiesel feedstock has received worldwide attention due to its inherent characteristics. Unlike palm oil, J. curcas oil is not edible, and thus, it will not disturb the food supply. However, to the researchers' experiences with the synthesis of J. curcas, oil-based biodiesel has shown that the fuel characteristics depend largely on the type of alcohol used as the excess reactants. Transesterification reaction is chosen for this process with sodium methoxide as the catalyst. Comparison studies on the yield of esters using methanol and ethanol, as well as the impacts on the reaction rate are discussed. The effects of reaction time and molar ratio on the reaction conversion are also examined. The determination of reaction yield is based on the conversion of triglycerides into alkyl esters as the main product. The findings are described as follows: the highest percentage yield of product is attained at 96% for methanol as an excess reactant, and this is 90% when ethanol is used. The optimum conditions of parameters are achieved at 6:1 molar ratio of alcohol to triglycerides, 50 min of reaction time and reaction temperature of 65°C for methanol and 75°C for ethanol. The biodiesel properties of both ester fuels were determined according to the existing standards for biodiesel and compared to the characteristics of diesel fuel.
The current study emphasizes the synthesis of iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) and impact of hydrophilic polymer polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) coating concentration as well as anticancer drug doxorubicin (DOX) loading on saturation magnetization for target drug delivery applications. Iron oxide nanoparticles particles were synthesized by a reformed version of the co-precipitation method. The coating of polyvinyl alcohol along with doxorubicin loading was carried out by the physical immobilization method. X-ray diffraction confirmed the magnetite (Fe3O4) structure of particles that remained unchanged before and after polyvinyl alcohol coating and drug loading. Microstructure and morphological analysis was carried out by transmission electron microscopy revealing the formation of nanoparticles with an average size of 10 nm with slight variation after coating and drug loading. Transmission electron microscopy, energy dispersive, and Fourier transform infrared spectra further confirmed the conjugation of polymer and doxorubicin with iron oxide nanoparticles. The room temperature superparamagnetic behavior of polymer-coated and drug-loaded magnetite nanoparticles were studied by vibrating sample magnetometer. The variation in saturation magnetization after coating evaluated that a sufficient amount of polyvinyl alcohol would be 3 wt. % regarding the externally controlled movement of IONPs in blood under the influence of applied magnetic field for in-vivo target drug delivery.
Due to cost containment considerations, it is common to have medical schools being
located in buildings or campuses built for some other purposes. These buildings are converted into
medical schools which often compromising the functional architectural aspects. Objectives: The
paper examines, explores and proposes an architectural concept of a purpose-built medical school. The
architectural design proposed is sensitive to the values and norms of many schools around the globe.
Methods: An Internet search and personal communication were conducted, focusing on the concepts
of the functionality of medical school. It emphasises on general design of the main building, keeping
in mind the various kinds of teaching, learning and assessment activities. We examined lecture hall,
pre-clinical laboratory, skill laboratory, general facilities of Objective Structured Practical Examination
(OSPE) and Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE). Results: We present hypothetical
structural designs based on built-functions concepts. For example, for the better vision of students
around a demonstration table, an inclined floor surface is proposed. The concept is as illustrated by
anatomy dissection area built inclined upward from the cadaver table. It inevitably provides a better
visual access to the students around the table. Other teaching and learning areas are also illustrated
wherever appropriate in the text. Conclusion: The paper is hypothetical and explores innovative
structural designs of modern medical schools. While most are built to meet the demands of current
technology, it cannot however completely replace face-to-face teaching and learning processes.
Research in architectural designs of education buildings and facilities may be further developed into a
new research niche of medical education.
The Pandanus species (Pandanaceae family) was investigated, in order to set up a library of their chromatographic profiles. From a literature review, the most common Pandanus plant that was greatly examined was P. amaryllifolius (the fragrant screw pine), followed by P. sanderi. Here, the chromatographic data from an extract of a relatively unfamiliar Pandanus is also presented. The leaves of P. monotheca were extracted by using methanol. Later, the extract was filtered, prior to a Reversed-Phase High Performance Liquid Chromatography (RP-HPLC) experiments. The automated system was set to run by gradient elution (acetonitrile:water). The flow rate was maintained at 1 ml/min, otherwise stated in a number of attempts. The ultra-violet absorbance of the Pandanus’ constituents was measured via Multiple Wavelength Detector. From the chromatogram, the major peaks for Pandanus’ compounds were eluted (λ = 220, 260 and 360 nm) and the retention times were recorded. The lower absorbance readings of other minor peaks could be due to various minor secondary metabolites, such as the furolignan. The different elution time depends on the polarity of the composition. In short, Pandanus’ phytochemicals could be obtained via alcoholic extraction. The utilisation of modern chromatographic applications enables the scientists to discover and subsequently, purify single component of the complex natural mixtures. This finding can be beneficial to the research areas in botanical study, pharmacognostical assessment and biotechnology industry. It is aimed that more
Pandanus species could be learnt for the future.
Cloud computing infrastructure is suitable for meeting computational needs of large task sizes. Optimal scheduling of tasks in cloud computing environment has been proved to be an NP-complete problem, hence the need for the application of heuristic methods. Several heuristic algorithms have been developed and used in addressing this problem, but choosing the appropriate algorithm for solving task assignment problem of a particular nature is difficult since the methods are developed under different assumptions. Therefore, six rule based heuristic algorithms are implemented and used to schedule autonomous tasks in homogeneous and heterogeneous environments with the aim of comparing their performance in terms of cost, degree of imbalance, makespan and throughput. First Come First Serve (FCFS), Minimum Completion Time (MCT), Minimum Execution Time (MET), Max-min, Min-min and Sufferage are the heuristic algorithms considered for the performance comparison and analysis of task scheduling in cloud computing.