Restoration of anterior teeth requires high precision in the shade selection of the restorative material due to its aesthetic appearance. Incorrect selection of shade for the restoration may result in patient’s dissatisfaction due to unaesthetic appearance. This study was conducted to determine the optimum lighting condition and preferable patient’s position that may influence the anterior tooth shade selection at the Faculty of Dentistry, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. One hundred dental students from the 4th and 5th year were randomly selected to perform the shade selection procedure on the maxillary central incisor of two selected subjects. The shade of the tooth was predetermined using an intraoral spectrophotometer machine and the result was used as reference for the visual shade selection procedure done by the students. Four different clinical situations were selected and the shade selected by the students’ was compared with the predetermined shade. The result showed that the shade selection for anterior composite resin restoration is more reliable using the first reading taken (46%) when the patient is in the upright position (35.5%) with dental chair light off (56%). As a conclusion, the patient’s position, lighting condition and number of readings taken does influence the result of the shade selection for the anterior tooth.
This study was carried out by using Centella asiatica grown using a hydroponic system under laboratory conditions to study synergistic and antagonistic effects of Zn bioaccumulation with added Pb and the changes in antioxidant activities in leaves and roots of C. asiatica. The antioxidant activities included superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), ascorbate peroxidase (APX) and guaiacol peroxidase (GPX). The treatments Zn (2 ppm) + Pb (0.4 ppm) and Zn (4 ppm) + Pb (0.6 ppm) increased the accumulation of Zn in leaves by 14.06 and 16.84%, respectively, but decreased by 7.36% uptake in roots (Zn 4 ppm + Pb 0.6 ppm). This showed that Pb and Zn acted synergistically to Zn accumulation in leaves but antagonistically in roots. CAT and SOD activities in leaves were increased when Zn was added together with Pb. In roots, CAT, APX and SOD activities were increased but GPX was decreased. Owing to their sensitivities to Zn with Pb, SOD and CAT could be used as biomarkers to monitor the toxicity of Pb and Zn exposure in the leaves and roots of C. asiatica.
A total of 19 polymorphic microsatellite loci were used to analyze the levels of genetic variations for six geographical populations of green-lipped Perna viridis collected from the coastal waters of Peninsular Malaysia. In addition, the total soft tissues of all mussel populations were determined for heavy metals (Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn). FST values revealed that all the six populations of P. viridis in Peninsular Malaysia were categorized as showing ‘moderate genetic differentiation’ according to the classification of Wright (1978). Cluster analysis revealed that three populations which were located in the western part of the Johor Causeway were clustered differently from the other three populations located in the eastern part. Hierarchical F-statistics and cluster analysis indicated that the Johor Causeway which blocked the free flow of the pelagic larvae swimmers of P. viridis and a distinct effect of heavy metal contamination on the Kg. Pasir Puteh population, were the two main causal agents for the genetic differentiation of the P. viridis populations investigated in this study.
Previous studies have found that luminance contrast may enhance attention and attention is positively correlated with memory. However, little attention has been given to understand the impact of luminance contrast on memory. The present study attempts to address this gap by examining the effect of luminance contrast on attention and memory. A total of 159 undergraduates were randomly assigned to three luminance contrast conditions (high vs. moderate vs. low) and were administered a modified d2 test and modified words memory test. Multivariate analysis of variance showed significant effect of luminance contrast on memory performance. Participants in the high and moderate luminance contrast groups recalled more words than counterparts in the low contrast group. However, the effect of luminance contrast on attention was not significant, though planned comparison found that high contrast group scored higher than low contrast group. The findings not only shed light on improvement of memory but also have implication for design and marketing and consumer behaviours study.
Terdapat dua jenis permineralan bijih besi di kawasan Ladang Toh Pawang, Kedah iaitu bijih besi primer dan sekunder. Kepekatan Pb dan Cr yang amat rendah ditemui dalam bijih besi primer (bdl) manakala Cu ditemui sebagai bendasing (60-93 μg/g). Kepekatan Cr dan Cu meningkat di persentuhan antara jasad rejahan bijih besi dengan batuan sekitar. Kepekatannya masing-masing ialah sebanyak 27-30 μg/g and 242-294 μg/g. Pengayaan logam-logam tersebut disebabkan oleh penggantian metasomatik apabila magma likat yang panas berinteraksi dengan batuan syal Formasi Mahang yang kaya besi. Secara umum, kepekatan Pb dan Cr dalam bijih besi sekunder lebih tinggi berbanding dengan pemineralan bijih besi primer yang mana masing-masing berjulat 3-7 μg/g and 121-151 μg/g. Kepekatan Cu di dalam bijih besi primer dan sekunder hampir sama. Taburan Pb, Cr dan Cu di dalam bijih besi sekunder berpunca daripada luluhawa batuan syal Formasi Mahang yang kaya besi. Ketika proses permukaan berlaku, logam-logam berat tersebut telah dijerap daripada air bawah tanah lalu turut terenap bersama-sama dengan bijih besi sekunder.
The main objective of this paper is to explore the varying volatility dynamic of inflation rate in Malaysia for the period from January 1980 to December 2004. The GARCH, GARCH-Mean, EGARCH and EGARCH-Mean models are used to capture the stochastic variation and asymmetries in the economic instruments. Results show that the EGARCH model gives better estimates of sub-periods volatility. Further analysis using Granger causality test show that there is sufficient empirical evidence that higher inflation rate level will result in higher future inflation uncertainty and higher level of inflation uncertainty will lead to lower future inflation rate.
A quantitative analysis has been conducted to determine the concentration of ammonium (NH4+) ion in solution by using Ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometry method and artificial neural network (ANN). Riegler’s reagent was used to form Riegler-NH4+ complex. The characterisations of Riegler’s reagent in solution such as photostability, pH effect, reagent concentration, dynamic range and reproducibility were conducted. The colour change of the Riegler’s reagent after reaction with NH4+ was yellow to red. The Riegler’s reagent responds linearly to NH4+ ion concentration in the range of 1-7 ppm with optimum response at pH7. Satisfactory reproducibility (2.0-2.8%) were obtained with this reagent. The effect of interfering ions that may contain in the leachate on the determination of NH4+ ion was also studied. The application of ANN enabled the extension of the useful dynamic concentration range of NH4+ ion to 1–24 ppm. The best ANN architecture for Riegler-NH4+ complex was built from 29 hidden neurons, 21,389 epochs number and 0.001% learning rate which produced sum square error (SSE) value of 0.0483 with an average calibration error of 1.4136.
Pure phase Bi1.6Y0.4-xNdxO3 solid solution with x = 0.00, 0.10 and 0.20 was successfully synthesised via conventional solid state method at 850°C in 21 h. The materials were refined and fully indexed with space group Fm-3m and lattice parameters, a ranging from 5.5124(1) Å to 5.5289(4) Å. Variation of the lattice parameters of these materials were found in an almost linear correlation with increasing Nd2 O3 dopant concentration. Thermal analysis of Bi1.6Y0.4-xNdx O3 solid solution showed no thermal event that associated with any phase transition or weight loss within the studied temperature range of 35 to 900°C. The electrical properties of the samples were investigated by ac impedance analyser, HP4192 at temperature ranging from 25 to 800°C over frequency of 5 Hz to 13 MHz. Bi1.6Y0.3Nd0.1O3 exhibited the highest oxide ion conductivity among the synthesised samples in Bi1.6Y0.4-xNdxO3 solid solution.
The current paper review researches on sexual and online infidelity from personality perspectives. This is done through looking from Dark Triad Traits, The Big Five Factors and HEXACO. 51 studies from various journals were reviewed and showed supportive findings between personality and infidelity. Individuals high in the Dark Triads: psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism were associated with committing infidelity. For the Big Five Factors, conscientiousness was linked to lower infidelity; extraversion and agreeableness were associated with higher infidelity while neuroticism and openness showed mixed results. For HEXACO, individuals scoring low on honesty-humility scale had stronger relationship with infidelity. Future studies should do more studies on neuroticism and openness on infidelity. Environment factors should also be considered in explaining individuals’ act in committing infidelity.
This study aimed to investigate the predicting role of mindfulness and procrastination on psychological well-being among university students. A total of 449 university students from both public and private universities were recruited using convenience sampling method. This quantitative correlational research used Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) to measure mindfulness whereas General Procrastination Scalewas used to measure procrastination. Psychological well-being, the dependent variable, was tested using the Ryff’s Scale of Psychological Well-being. The study showed a significant relationship between mindfulness, procrastination and psychological well-being among university students. Besides, the results also revealed that procrastination was the strongest predict or of students’ psychological well-being. The findings of this study may be beneficial to practitioners, universities, parents and individuals in order to further comprehend the current status of psychological well-being among university students. Programs and implementations should endorse the circumstance that certain form of procrastination indeed enhances performance and well-being of students.
This paper reviews the literature on blood pressure profile and hypertension studies carried out in Peninsular Malaysia from 1952 to 1988. From these studies, the following key information is summarised: 1. Blood pressure profiles of Malaysians, irrespective of sex and the three major ethnic groups viz., Malay, Chinese and Indian followed a similar rising trend with age. 2. The mean systolic and diastolic pressures were 134 mmHg and 84 mmHg respectively across the major ethnic groups. 3. The prevalence of hypertension for Malaysians was 16.0%, 4.2% and 3.4% when 140/90 mmHg, 150/90 mmHg or a diastolic pressure of 100 mmHg or greater were taken as cut-off values respectively. Males generally showed a higher prevalence of hypertension than females. 4. Orang Asli living in the deep jungle had relatively low blood pressures (Mean: 109/70 mmHg) and their blood pressure did not rise with increasing age. 5. There was generally no difference in the prevalence of hypertension amongst the major ethnic groups. However, there was a tendency for the Malays to have a higher prevalence of hypertension than the Chinese or the Indians. 6. There was an increased prevalence of hypertension among subjects who smoked heavily or who did very little or no physical exercise. Differences in prevalence of hypertension among subjects living in changing environment and lifestyle, such as urban versus rural, alcohol versus non-alcohol consumers and low income versus moderate income groups were not evident in the studies reviewed. 7. Percent unawareness of hypertension in hypertension subjects was generally high i.e. 57 % - 69% except in one sample which recorded a moderately value (33%).
Introduction: Gait pattern analysis is a scientific procedure used for describing the human walking pattern and examining it for characteristic idiosyncrasies.The identification of perpetrators by means of Closed-circuit Television (CCTV) is commonly used.But footprint based gait patterns are generally found at crime scenes like burglary, murder, rape etc. This study was aimed to study the footprint based gait analysis among Malaysian Indians.
Method: The study subjects consist of 100 Malaysian Indians (50 males, 50 females) and gait patterns were collected by using footprint ink, roller and footprint plate following the standard procedure for analysis.
Result: The result of this study shows that gender can be determined from footprint based gait pattern analysis. The study also proved that no two gait patterns are similar, like fingerprints.
Conclusion: Footprint based gait pattern analysis is a promising method for inclusion and exclusion of suspects and finally for person identification and the findings can be very well applied in real scene of crime in forensic perspective.
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is known to cause acute and chronic active hepatitis. In addition, HCV also has systemic disorder involvement that links to various extra-hepatic complications. We report a case of a patient which has been diagnosed to have Hepatitis C Genotype 3A who has been started on antiviral. He achieved end treatment response and sustained virologic response. During routine follow up, he experienced acute kidney injury. Renal biopsy showed type III membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis. His proteinuria improved greatly with the addi- tion of angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor. This case highlights the possibility of appearance of HCV related glomerulonephritis in patient who has sustained virological response.
Dalam kajian ini, bakteria asid laktik (LAB) serta sebatian aroma ikan pekasam daripada spesies yang berbeza
ditentukan. Persampelan ikan pekasam iaitu tilapia, loma, lampam, sepat dan gelama diperoleh daripada pembekal
Perusahaan Ikan Pekasam Kiah di Kuala Kangsar, Perak. Penentuan spesies LAB dijalankan melalui kaedah pencairan
bersiri, pengkulturan LAB, ujian katalase, ujian pewarnaan spora serta ujian pengesanan Gram bakteria dan morfologi.
Pengesahan spesies LAB dijalankan melalui pengekstrakan asid deoksiribonukleik (DNA), amplifikasi dengan tindak
balas rantaian polimerasi (PCR), analisis elektroforesis gel dan penjujukan DNA. Hasil jujukan DNA yang diperoleh
dibandingkan dengan jujukan dalam pangkalan data GenBank di NCBI menggunakan BLAST. Didapati Lactobacillus
brevis KB290 DNA dan Lactobacillus casei W56 wujud dalam pekasam tilapia, Lactobacillus plantarum 16 dalam
pekasam lampam, Lactobacillus casei BD-II kromosom dan Lactobacillus plantarum WCFS1 dalam pekasam sepat,
Corynebacterium vitaeruminis DSM 20294 dan Streptococcus anginosus C1051 dalam pekasam gelama. Manakala
Staphylococcus carnosus subsp. carnosus TM300 kromosom adalah LAB dominan dalam pekasam loma. Sementara
itu, sebatian aroma ditentukan melalui kaedah pengekstrakan cecair menggunakan pelarut metanol dan heksana.
Pemprofilan sebatian aroma dijalankan dengan kromatografi gas-spektometer jisim (GC-MS). Sebatian aroma dalam
ekstrak metanol dan heksana daripada lima jenis ikan pekasam dibandingkan. Bilangan sebatian aroma yang diekstrak
menggunakan metanol adalah lebih banyak berbanding dengan yang menggunakan heksana. Sebatian aroma yang
paling banyak dikesan adalah daripada pekasam loma. Asid karboksilik merupakan sebatian yang paling dominan
dalam ikan pekasam dan memberi bau hamis serta tengik.
Bacteria play an important roles in the soil ecosystem and in the rhizosphere, they are intricately linked to nutrient content
and its accessibility to plants, plant protection and sometimes pathogenicity. Banana grows well in the tropics and it is
popularly grown in Orang Asli (OA) (indigenous people) settlements. Banana is also grown in commercial plantations.
In traditional planting practices, the OA do not add pesticide nor fertilizer to their crops which are planted for selfsustenance
mainly. On the other hand, fertilizer and pesticide are added to commercial banana plantations to maximise
yield. Rhizosphere bacteria from the banana plant, Pisang Nipah, grown in OA fields and commercial plantations were
identified by clone library construction of the 16S rRNA gene. This was to determine whether farming practices influenced
the bacterial community in the banana plant rhizosphere. Acidobacteria, Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria were found in
all the soil. Other common phyla found in some soil (but not all) were Nitrospirae, Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, Chloroflexi,
Verrumicrobia, Gemmatimonadetes and Cyanobacteria. The bacterial diversity was a little more diverse in the OA fields
than the commercial plantations. The latter had higher contents of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. These could
have exerted selective pressure to reduce the bacterial diversity in the commercial plantations.
Anaemia in patients on renal replacement therapy is a cornmon problem and response to treatment with erythropoietin may be limited by functiollal iron deficiency. We recently studied prospectively for 22 weeks the effect of iron supplemetltation via intramuscular and oral vs intramuscular vs oral routes in 16 patients on chronic haemodialysis with renal anaenlia treated with erythropoietin injections. The rise in haemoglobin was significant in all patients except those on intramuscular iron only. This study supports unconfirmed observations that oral iron supplementation may be effective in patients with renal anaemia associated with functional iron deficiency. KEYWORDS: Renal, Anaemia, Erythropoietin, Iron deficiency, Oral, Parenteral.
A comparison of the dissipation of chlorpyrifos in a Malaysian agricultural soil was undertaken using data from a field experiment and simulation by the PERSIST model. The study was carried out at an oil palm estate located close to the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), Sepang, Selangor (for field experiment). The plots were treated with chlorpyrifos at the manufacturer’s recommended dosage. Soil samples were collected according to the sampling schedule at intervals of 0, 1, 3, 7, 14, 21, 30, 60 and 90 days. Residues of chlorpyrifos in soil from the field trial were analyzed in the laboratory. Simulation of chlorpyrifos leaching and persistency was done using two computer-run software VARLEACH and PERSIST. Generally, predicted data for chlorpyrifos residue obtained using the VARLEACH and PERSIST models was found to be well matched with the observed data from the field trial. The PERSIST Prediction for chlorpyrifos residue in soils planted with oil palm trees was found to be accurate and conformed to the results observed in the field trial.
Familial amyloid polyneuropathy is most commonly associated with variant plasma transthyretin (TTR) although it has been described in association with variant apolipoprotein A1 and gelsolin. More than 40 TTR variants, all consisting of single amino acid substitutions diskibuted widely along the length of the 127 residue TTR subunit have now been described. We report here a novel TTR variant, Glu18, in a Colombian woman with TTR amyloidosis.
Certain public service pre-school teachers have been trained as vision screeners of children. However, there are no studies that assessed the knowledge and skills retention of these screeners. This study determines the level of knowledge retention among pre-school teachers who have been trained to perform vision screening on children. In 2013, 180 KEMAS pre-school teachers were recruited in a vision screening training which included both theory and practical sessions. Teachers were assessed through a theory test which comprised of 15 questions, firstly a category on the preparations needed for vision screening and secondly on the implementation of vision screening. They were then asked to conduct pre-school vision screening annually at their working premises. In 2016, 136 teachers who had been involved in the earlier program were recruited as subjects in this study. All these subjects answered the same set of theory test questions used in 2013. The Student’s t-test result indicated that the mean theory test scores obtained by the pre-school teachers in 2013 (84.3 ± 7.8) differed significantly with the mean scores obtained in 2016 (67.5 ± 11.3) (p < 0.001). The mean scores in 2013 for questions in the first and second categories were 4.5 and 4.4, decreasing to 4.2 and 3.7 in 2016. The knowledge level of pre-school teachers thus decreased with time and this effect was found significant after 3 years. There is therefore a need to conduct re-certification training, so that the screening conducted by these pre-school teachers remains effective and in accordance with established standards.