Objective: The present study is designed to investigate the occurrence of Acanthamoeba in air ventilation and air-conditioning systems in selected buildings in Kuantan.
Methods: Acanthamoeba was isolated from dust samples taken from filters of air ventilation systems in selected buildings in Kuantan. The dusts were collected by using sterile cotton swabs, cultured in a xenic culture medium on non-nutrient agar (NNA) plates and incubated at 37º C. The plates were examined daily for any presence of Acanthamoeba cysts up to 7 days of incubation.
Results: Based on the results obtained, there were no cysts or trophozoites of Acanthamoeba successfully isolated from all 75 dust samples. After three days of incubation, all culture plates examined show negative findings.
Conclusions: The negative findings of this study were probably due to the limitations of the sampling method. It is recommended that future studies use the method proposed by National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) for indoor air quality monitoring.
Tawaf ritual performed during Hajj and Umrah is one of the most unique, large-scale multi-cultural events in this modern day and age. Pilgrims from all over the world circumambulate around a stone cube structure called Ka’aba. Disasters at these types of events are inevitable due to erratic behaviours of pilgrims. This has prompted researchers to present several solutions to avoid such incidents. Agentbased simulations of a large number of pilgrims performing different the ritual can provide the solution to obviate such disasters that are either caused by mismanagement or because of irregular event plans. However, the problem arises due to limited parallelisation capabilities in existing models for concurrent execution of the agent-based simulation. This limitation decreases the efficiency by producing insufficient frames for simulating a large number of autonomous agents during Tawaf ritual. Therefore, it has become very necessary to provide a parallel simulation model that will improve the performance of pilgrims performing the crucial ritual of Tawaf in large numbers. To fill in this gap between large-scale agentbased simulation and navigational behaviours for pilgrim movement, an optimised parallel simulation software of agent-based crowd movement during the ritual of Tawaf is proposed here. The software comprises parallel behaviours for autonomous agents that utilise the inherent parallelism of Graphics Processing Units (GPU). In order to implement the simulation software, an optimized parallel model is proposed. This model is based on the agent-based architecture which comprises agents having a reactive design that responds to a fixed set of stimuli. An advantage of using agents is to provide artificial anomaly to generate heterogeneous movement of the crowd as opposed to a singular movement which is unrealistic. The purpose is to decrease the execution time of complex behaviour computation for each agent while simulating a large crowd of pilgrims at increased frames per second (fps). The implementation utilises CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture) platform for general purpose computing over GPU. It exploits the underlying data parallel capability of an existing library for steering behaviours, called OpenSteer. It has simpler behaviours that when combined together, produces more complex realistic behaviours. The data-independent nature of these agent-based behaviours makes it a very suitable candidate to be parallelised. After an in-depth review of previous studies on the simulation of Tawaf ritual, two key behaviours associated with pilgrim movement are considered for the new model. The parallel simulation is executed on three different high-performance configurations to determine the variation in different performance metrics. The parallel implementation achieved a considerable speedup in comparison to its sequential counterpart running on a single-threaded CPU. With the use of parallel behaviours, 100,000 pilgrims at 10 fps were simulated.
During induction of general anaesthesia, the act of laryngoscopy and tracheal intubation stimulates the sympathetic
nervous system resulting in an increase in blood pressure and heart rate which may be harmful especially in elderly
patients with pre-existing ischaemic heart disease. Several drugs have therefore been used to obtund this increase
including esmolol, nicardipine, magnesium sulphate and lignocaine. This prospective, double blind randomised
clinical trial compared the efficacy of magnesium sulphate and esmolol in attenuating haemodynamic responses to
laryngoscopy and tracheal intubation. One hundred and twenty six ASA I-II patients scheduled for elective surgery
requiring general anaesthesia with tracheal intubation were enrolled and randomised into two groups: Group 1 (n =
67) received MgSO4 40 mg/kg diluted in 100 ml normal saline administered over ten minutes, whereas Group 2 (n =
59) received a bolus of esmolol 1.0 mg/kg diluted to 10 ml. Systolic and diastolic blood pressures and heart rate were
recorded every minute for subsequent 10 minutes following laryngoscopy and tracheal intubation. Attenuation of the
mean systolic and diastolic blood pressures following laryngoscopy and tracheal intubation was significantly larger
in Group 2 compared to Group 1. Patients in Group 2 had significantly better suppression of heart rate response
compared to Group 1 during the first four minutes after laryngoscopy and tracheal intubation (p
This paper presents the development of a Graphical User Interface (GUI)
for calculating the sum of nail-fold (NF) and distal interphalangeal joint
(DIP) ratios for all ten fingers. The sum of NF:DIP ratios for all ten fingers
leads to the Digital Index (DI) that was used as the measure for identifying
and determining the presence of finger clubbing symptom. This GUI system
was developed to serve as a simple and user-friendly interface for clinicians
to calculate DI value of patients in a busy clinic practice. It is also equipped
with the capability to keep the patient’s past diagnosis medical check-up
data for future monitoring purposes. The result shows that the developed
system helps the clinicians to perform calculation of DI value and identify
the presence of finger clubbing in a very short time. The average time taken
to measure both NF and DIP circumferences using Finger Clubbing Meter,
and to compute DI values using Digital Index Evaluation System (DIES)
interface is 6:36 ± 1:24 minutes (Mean ± SD) .This system is expected to
contribute in detecting the finger clubbing problem at early stage of so the
treatment can be performed immediately.
The objective of this study was to compare the extraction of peanut skin using supercritical carbon dioxide extraction and soxhlet extraction in terms of oil yield and catechin. For supercritical fluid extraction, the temperatures used were 40 and 70°C, while pressure used was 10 and 30 MPa, the flow rate was CO2 3 mL/min, and the concentration of co-solvents was 0 and 5%. Meanwhile, for soxhlet extraction, the extraction time was 6 hr with ethanol, hexane and water as the solvents. The results showed that soxhlet extraction gave the highest yield of extract (36.282%) using ethanol as solvent as compared with supercritical CO2 extraction (15.47%) at pressure 30 MPa, temperature 70°C and 5% concentration of co-solvent. This study reveals that the extracts from SC-CO2 extraction yielded the highest amount of catechin (208.73 µg/g sample) compared with that yielded in the soxhlet extraction (42.24 73 µg/g sample) with distilled water as a solvent analysed with High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC).
A new series of multifunctional amides has been synthesized having moderate enzyme inhibitory potentials and mild cytotoxicity. 2-Furyl(1-piperazinyl)methanone (1) was coupled with 3,5-dichloro-2-hydroxybenzenesulfonyl chloride (2) to form {4-[(3,5-dichloro-2-hydroxyphenyl)sulfonyl]-1-piperazinyl}(2-furyl)methanone (3). Different elecrophiles were synthesized by the reaction of various un/substituted anilines (4a-o) with 2-bromoacetylbromide (5), 2‑bromo‑N-(un/substituted-phenyl)acetamides (6a-o). Further, equimolar ratios of 3 and 6a-o were allowed to react in the presence of K2CO3 in acetonitrile to form desired multifunctional amides (7a-o). The structural confirmation of all the synthesized compounds was carried out by their EI-MS, IR, 1H NMR and 13C NMR spectral data. Enzyme inhibition activity was performed against acetyl and butyrylcholinestrase enzymes, whereby 7e showed very good activity having IC50 value of 5.54 ± 0.03 and 9.15 ± 0.01 μM, respectively, relative to eserine, a reference standard. Hemolytic activity of the molecules was checked to asertain their cytotoxicity towards red blood cell membrance and it was observed that most of the compounds were not toxic up to certain range. Moreover, chemoinformatic protepties and docking simulation results also showed the significance of 7e as compared to other compounds. Based on in vitro and in silico analysis 7e could be used as a template for the development of new drugs against Alzheimer's disease.
Electrocardiography (ECG) sensors play a vital role in the Internet of Medical Things, and these sensors help in monitoring the electrical activity of the heart. ECG signal analysis can improve human life in many ways, from diagnosing diseases among cardiac patients to managing the lifestyles of diabetic patients. Abnormalities in heart activities lead to different cardiac diseases and arrhythmia. However, some cardiac diseases, such as myocardial infarction (MI) and atrial fibrillation (Af), require special attention due to their direct impact on human life. The classification of flattened T wave cases of MI in ECG signals and how much of these cases are similar to ST-T changes in MI remain an open issue for researchers. This article presents a novel contribution to classify MI and Af. To this end, we propose a new approach called deep deterministic learning (DDL), which works by combining predefined heart activities with fused datasets. In this research, we used two datasets. The first dataset, Massachusetts Institute of Technology-Beth Israel Hospital, is publicly available, and we exclusively obtained the second dataset from the University of Malaya Medical Center, Kuala Lumpur Malaysia. We first initiated predefined activities on each individual dataset to recognize patterns between the ST-T change and flattened T wave cases and then used the data fusion approach to merge both datasets in a manner that delivers the most accurate pattern recognition results. The proposed DDL approach is a systematic stage-wise methodology that relies on accurate detection of R peaks in ECG signals, time domain features of ECG signals, and fine tune-up of artificial neural networks. The empirical evaluation shows high accuracy (i.e., ≤99.97%) in pattern matching ST-T changes and flattened T waves using the proposed DDL approach. The proposed pattern recognition approach is a significant contribution to the diagnosis of special cases of MI.
Forensic odontology plays an important role in human identification and dental age estimation is an integral part of this process. The aim of the study was to investigate the association between chronological age and pulp/tooth volume ratio in a Malaysian population (Malays and Chinese) from cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) scans, enhanced with Mimics software. Three hundred CBCT scans of 153 males and 147 females, aged between 16 and 65 years were divided into 5 age groups. Volumetric analysis of the pulp/tooth ratio was performed in maxillary left canines, maxillary right canines and maxillary right central incisors. Simple linear regression and Pearson correlation analysis indicated the strongest coefficient of correlation (R) values for maxillary right central incisors (0.83) followed by maxillary right canines (0.74) and maxillary left canines (0.73). Fisher's Z test indicated that dental age estimation is gender independent. The derived regression equations were further validated on an independent group of 126 teeth. The results indicated mean absolute error (MAE) values of 6.48 and 8.58 years for maxillary right central incisors and maxillary canines respectively. It was also noticed that MAE values were higher among the age groups ranging from 46 to 65 years. This study showed that a volumetric change in the pulp cavity with age is a valuable assessment method for dental age estimation among Malaysian population.
Climate change is the most realistic theory of this era. Sudden and drastic changes are happening on the earth and the survival of mankind is becoming questionable in the future. The plants play the key role in controlling the climate change. The study emphasizes on role of trees in the cop up or damaging the climate of this earth, whether they are medicinal trees or economically important trees. Due to the overgrazing and intense deforestation the climate is being affected hazardously. The global warming phenomenon is occurring due to the less availability of trees and more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. In total 20 plants were collected from across the Pakistan on the basis of their abundance and their key roles. Out of which seeds of eight plants were scanned through scanning electron microscope for correct authentication and importance of these medicinally important trees in mitigating the climate change. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: The role of forest sector in the climate's change mitigation. Medicinally and economically important tree species across Pakistan. By using SEM, Ultra seed sculpturing features as an authentication tool. To formulate some policies to stop or control deforestation.
The selection criteria play an important role in the portfolio optimization
using any ratio model. In this paper, the authors have considered the mean return as
profit and variance of return as risk on the asset return as selection criteria, as the first
stage to optimize the selected portfolio. Furthermore, the sharp ratio (SR) has been
considered to be the optimization ratio model. In this regard, the historical data taken
from Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) has been considered. A metaheuristic technique
has been developed, with financial tool box available in MATLAB and the particle swarm
optimization (PSO) algorithm. Hence, called as the hybrid particle swarm optimization
(HPSO) or can also be called as financial tool box particle swarm optimization (FTBPSO).
In this model, the budgets as constraint, where as two different models i.e. with
and without short sale, have been considered. The obtained results have been compared
with the existing literature and the proposed technique is found to be optimum and better
in terms of profit.
Work-life balance play an important role in influencing employee’s quality of social and working life together with job satisfaction in the organization. Nowadays, teachers are also included in the context of work-life balance due to academic workload and career issues. In
this study, researchers aim to explore work-life balance policies that influence teacher’s job satisfaction in selected Malaysia boarding school. Only 56 school teachers were selected to represent as respondents consist of teachers from language, mathematics, science, social science, counselling unit, and vice principals department. The questionnaires were distributed using convenience sampling. The elements of work-life balance policies such as flexibility policies, welfare policies, job design and leave provisions were included in this study to examine potential influence on teacher’s job satisfaction. Based on statistical analysis using SPSS, Pearson Correlation analysis four elements of work-life balance policies indicated positive and significant relationship with job satisfaction, with flexibility policies showed the strongest relationship toward teacher’s job satisfaction. Most of teachers in selected Malaysian boarding school also demonstrated high level of job satisfaction at the workplace.
With the increasing demand for greater quality of transferred data, the optical cable
lines are reaching their limits of transfer capacities. The alternative for more effective
usage is by introducing the Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM)
integrated with optical amplifier to optimize the output signal. This study was
performed theoretically with an assistance of OptiSystem 9.0 simulation software to
develop higher transfer speed of 32 channels DWDM network system by employing
hybrid optical amplifiers. Three types of optical amplifiers had been introduced such
as Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifier (EDFA), Semiconductor Optical Amplifier (SOA) and
Dynamic RAMAN amplifier. The optimum performance of DWDM system was obtained
by employed hybrid EDFA-Raman amplifier which resulted the best transmission signal
received with maximum Qfactor=43.0579 a.u. The hybrid EDFA-Raman produced
better stability than EDFA-SOA where the received signals were only fluctuated within
±3.73 a.u. In comparison with other types of configuration, namely EDFA-SOA and
RAMAN-SOA; the value of maximum Q-factor experienced about 50% of increment. In
conclusion, the development of high performance and excellent stability of 32-
channels DWDM optical network system can be achieved by introduced hybrid
amplifier of EDFA-RAMAN.
The human foot serves as an important part to support
the body weight and accounts for the majority of our
movements. A mangled limb involves injury to at least
three out of four systems, namely the soft tissues, nerves,
blood supply and bone. While amputation is indicated in
some cases of mangled limb, with proper planning, limb
salvaging surgical management is also a viable option.
Special consideration to the skeletal stabilization, control
of infection, vascular status and soft tissue coverage is
paramount to the success of limb salvaging surgery. We
present a case of mangled limb which was successfully
treated with limb salvaging surgical management. Initial
debridement, Kirschner wires insertion and cross ankle
external fixation were used for skeletal stabilization. An
antibiotic spacer was inserted for local antibiotic and to
maintain the length left due to the loss of medial and
intermediate cuneiform bones. The anterior tibialis
artery and its venae comitantes were utilized for free
vascularized fibular graft to provide bony reconstruction
as well as soft tissue coverage for the mangled foot.
This social psychology study sought to understand how the inability of former drug addicts controlling
interpersonal conflict that occurs in the community resulted in relapse or back to their addiction. A
qualitative phenomenological approach was taken to conduct interviews with former drug addicts that
are participating in a rehab program in Cure and Care Service Centre, Kuala Pilah, Negeri Sembilan,
Malaysia. Eight informants were consented and interviewed. Purposive sampling was used and
responses were analyzed thematically. These themes included the issue of labeling drug addicts as
convicts, isolation from the community and restricted from participating in community-based
programs. Researcher suggests related agencies to work with rehabilitation officers in restructuring the
rehabilitation learning module and improve the interpersonal conflict management module. Therefore,
it is hoped that in the future, former drug addicts would be capable to manage interpersonal conflict
and simultaneously avoid from recidivism in addiction.
The present study comprises the synthesis of a new series of benzenesulfonamides derived from N-sulfonation of 2-(4-methoxyphenyl)-1-ethanamine (1). The synthesis was initiated by the reaction of 2-(4-methoxyphenyl)-1-ethanamine (1) with benzenesulfonyl chloride (2), to yield N-(4-methoxyphenethyl)benzenesulfonamide (3). This parent molecule 3 was subsequently treated with various alkyl/aralkyl halides (4a-j) in N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) and in the presence of a weak base lithium hydride (LiH) to obtain various N-(alkyl/aralkyl)-N-(4-methoxyphenethyl) benzenesulfonamides (5a-j). The characterization of these derivatives was carried out by spectroscopic techniques like IR, 1H-NMR, and 13C-NMR. Elemental analysis also supported this data. The biofilm inhibitory action of all the synthesized compounds was carried out on Escherichia coli and some of the compounds were identified to be very suitable inhibitors of this bacterial strain. Furthermore, the molecules were also tested for their cytotoxicity behavior to assess their utility as less cytotoxic therapeutic agents.
Erectile dysfunction is common in adult men, particularly those with hypertension and diabetes. The present study determines the effectiveness of angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) drugs on erectile function in hypertensive male adults. For this purpose, CENTRAL and MEDLINE and reference lists of the articles were searched. The randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were selected that compared ARBs with conventional therapy or no treatment in men of any ethnicity who were presented with hypertension and/or diabetes. A total four trials that had 2,809 men were included. Three trials reported adequate random sequence allocation, two reported adequate blinding. Attrition bias is low in one of the included studies. All three studies are of low risk of selective reporting bias. There was an improvement in sexual activity with ARBs (valsartan) (mean difference (MD): 0.71, 95% Confidence Interval (CI) 0.66 to 0.76, I2 statistic = 0%). However, the erectile functions did not increase significantly in ARBs (losartan or telmisartan) treated men as compared to control or placebo (n = 203 vs n = 232; MD: 1.36; 95% CI: -0.97 to -3.69; I2 statistic = 80%). These results suggested that ARBs significantly improved sexual activity among hypertensive men. However, the erectile function was not significantly improved in ARBs treated men as compared to the control or placebo-treated. There were limited studies available. Hence, additional studies are needed to support findings from this review. ARBs should be considered when prescribing antihypertensive drugs to men.
The concentrations of Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material (NORM) and their corresponding terrestrial gamma radiation have been shown to be associated with certain lithology and soil types. A possible relationships among gamma radiation levels, and the lithology and soil types make it possible to predict ionizing radiation level of an area that cannot be directly measured. A study was carried out to statistically predict and validate environmental gamma radiation dose rates based on actual field measurements using a sodium iodide detector. Results obtained showed that the predicted dose rate (Dp) may be determined using a multiple correlation regression equation, Dp = 0.35DL + 0.82 Ds – 0.02, that integrates dose rates contributed by different lithological structures (DL) and soil types (Ds). Statistical analysis on 32 different lithology and soil type combinations showed that more than 50% of the predicted data were not significantly different from the data measured in the field. A predicted isodose map was subsequently plotted base on 4 dose rate classes ranging from 0.1 – 0.3 μSv h-1.
Primary cells have a limited proliferative capacity with a finite number of times as compared with cell line which can grow indefinitely. Therefore, this study was carried out to identify the proliferative capacity of primary mononucleated cells from mouse and human. The mononucleated cells were isolated from mouse and human peripheral blood by density gradient centrifugation using Ficoll-Paque™ Plus. The two types of cells i.e. suspension and adherent forms were obtained after culturing the isolated mononucleated cells for 4 days in the complete medium consists of Alpha Minimal Essential Medium, 10% newborn calf serum and 2% penicillin/streptomycin. The cells were then cultured for another 10 days to observe cell viability using trypan blue exclusion assay (suspension form) and MTT assay (adherent form). NSO and MC3T3-E1 cell lines were selected as control cell for suspension and adherent cells, respectively. Our results showed that the proliferation rate of mouse suspension mononucleated cells increased from 1.31 ± 0.24 cells/day (day 5) to 2.69 ± 0.42 cells/day (day 10) whilst, for human suspension cells, the proliferation rate slightly increased
from 0.56 ± 0.20 cells/day (day 5) to 0.76 ± 0.29 cells/day (day 10). However, the proliferation rate of mouse adherent mononucleated cells decreased from 0.23 ± 0.02 cells/day (day 5) to 0.17 ± 0.01 cells/day (day 10). Meanwhile, human adherent cells maintained proliferation rate at approximately 0.67 ± 0.18 cells/day. In conclusion, adherent primary mononucleated cells from both mouse and human have limited capacity to generate more cells in vitro as compared with suspension mononucleated cells.
Proliferasi tumor filodes tertumpu terutama pada bahagian stroma yang dianggap sebagai komponen neoplastik bagi tumor filodes. Reseptor Estrogen (ER) yang memainkan peranan dalam payudara neoplastik juga terlibat dalam perkembangan tumor filodes. ERβ adalah satu jenis klon ER yang dilaporkan hadir pada stroma tumor payudara manakala pengekspresan aktin otot licin (SMA) di stroma dapat membandingkan gred histologi tumor filodes. Kami membandingkan pengekspresan ERβ dengan SMA pada komponen stroma tumor filodes menggunakan teknik tisu mikroarai (TMA). TMA dibentuk ke atas 77 kes tumor filodes (46 benigna, 17 pinggiran dan 14 malignan) menggunakan jarum berdiameter 0.6 mm (Alphelys Plaisir, Perancis) dan pewarnaan imunohistokimia dijalankan menggunakan penanda molekul ERβ dan SMA. Tumor filodes kerap hadir pada wanita berusia lebih daripada 40 tahun dengan tumor filodes benigna menunjukkan median umur pesakit paling rendah (p=0.017). Ekspresi ERβ dalam komponen stroma meningkat dengan gred histologi tumor. Sementara SMA menunjukkan ekspresi pada 62.8, 41.2 dan 57.1%, masing-masing bagi tumor filodes benigna, pinggiran dan malignan. Kedua-dua ERβ (p=0.024) dan SMA lebih cenderung hadir pada wanita ≥40 tahun. Kajian menunjukkan hubungan signifikan antara ko-pengekspresan ERβ dan SMA (p=0.047) dan 65.5% daripadanya adalah wanita berumur lebih daripada 40 tahun. Ekspresi SMA yang tinggi pada stroma tumor filodes benigna mungkin menunjukkan potensi proliferasi tumor ini untuk menjadi malignan. Ekspresi tinggi ERβ dengan tumor filodes malignan dan hubungannya dengan SMA mencadangkan ko-pengekspresan kedua-dua penanda molekul ini mungkin berperanan dalam tumorigenesis stroma tumor filodes.
The aim of this study was to establish a simple, accurate and reproducible method for the identification and quantification of surfactin using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Previously reported method of identification and quantification of surfactin were time consuming and requires a large quantity of mobile phase. The new method was achieved by application of Chromolith® high performance RP-18 (100 × 4.6 mm, 5 μm) as the stationary phase and optimization of mobile phase ratio and flow rate. Mobile phase consisted of acetonitrile (ACN) and 3.8 mM trifluroacetic acid (TFA) solution of 80:20 ratio at flow rate of 2.2 mL/min was obtained as the optimal conditions. Total elution time of the obtained surfactin peaks was four times quicker than various methods previously reported in the literature. The method described here allowed for fine separation of surfactin in standard sample (98% purity) and surfactin in fermentation broth.