Displaying publications 141 - 160 of 460 in total

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  1. A facile approach to prepare regenerated cellulose/graphene nanoplatelets nanocomposite using room-temperature ionic liquid
    Mahmoudian S, Wahit MU, Imran M, Ismail AF, Balakrishnan H
    J Nanosci Nanotechnol, 2012 Jul;12(7):5233-9.
    PMID: 22966551
    This study presents the preparation of regenerated cellulose (RC)/graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) nanocomposites via room temperature ionic liquid, 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate (EMIMAc) using solution casting method. The thermal stability, gas permeability, water absorption and mechanical properties of the films were studied. The synthesized nanocomposite films were characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The T20 decomposition temperature of regenerated cellulose improved with the addition of graphene nanoplatelets up to 5 wt%. The tensile strength and Young's modulus of RC films improved by 34 and 56%, respectively with the addition of 3 wt% GNPs. The nanocomposite films exhibited improved oxygen and carbon dioxide gas barrier properties and water absorption resistance compared to RC. XRD and SEM results showed good interaction between RC and GNPs and well dispersion of graphene nanoplatelets in regenerated cellulose. The FTIR spectra showed that the addition of GNPs in RC did not result in any noticeable change in its chemical structure.
  2. Fulltext Protective effect of pulp oil extracted from Canarium odontophyllum Miq. Fruit on blood lipids, lipid peroxidation, and antioxidant status in healthy rabbits
    Shakirin FH, Azlan A, Ismail A, Amom Z, Yuon LC
    Oxid Med Cell Longev, 2012;2012:840973.
    PMID: 22685623 DOI: 10.1155/2012/840973
    The aim of this paper was to compare the effects of pulp and kernel oils of Canarium odontophyllum Miq. (CO) on lipid profile, lipid peroxidation, and oxidative stress of healthy rabbits. The oils are rich in SFAs and MUFAs (mainly palmitic and oleic acids). The pulp oil is rich in polyphenols. Male New Zealand white (NZW) rabbits were fed for 4 weeks on a normal diet containing pulp (NP) or kernel oil (NK) of CO while corn oil was used as control (NC). Total cholesterol (TC), HDL-C, LDL-c and triglycerides (TG) levels were measured in this paper. Antioxidant enzymes (superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidise), thiobarbiturate reactive substances (TBARSs), and plasma total antioxidant status (TAS) were also evaluated. Supplementation of CO pulp oil resulted in favorable changes in blood lipid and lipid peroxidation (increased HDL-C, reduced LDL-C, TG, TBARS levels) with enhancement of SOD, GPx, and plasma TAS levels. Meanwhile, supplementation of kernel oil caused lowering of plasma TC and LDL-C as well as enhancement of SOD and TAS levels. These changes showed that oils of CO could be beneficial in improving lipid profile and antioxidant status as when using part of normal diet. The oils can be used as alternative to present vegetable oil.
  3. Fulltext Antiatherosclerotic Effect of Canarium odontophyllum Miq. Fruit Parts in Rabbits Fed High Cholesterol Diet
    Shakirin FH, Azlan A, Ismail A, Amom Z, Yuon LC
    Evid Based Complement Alternat Med, 2012;2012:838604.
    PMID: 22811751 DOI: 10.1155/2012/838604
    The effect of C. odontophyllum (CO) fruit parts was investigated in hypercholesterolemic rabbits. Forty-nine rabbits, which were randomly divided into seven groups of seven animals (n = 7), received a diet containing different parts of CO fruit parts for 8 weeks. The groups were as follows: (1) normal diet: NC group and (2) hypercholesterolemic diet: PC, HS (10 mg/kg/day simvastatin), HPO (20 g kg(-1) oil extracted from the pulp of CO), HKO (20 g kg(-1) oil extracted from the kernel of CO), HF (50 g kg(-1) fullfat pulp of CO), and HD (50 g kg(-1) defatted pulp of CO). Among these groups, rabbits receiving defatted pulp of CO showed the greatest cholesterol lowering effect as it had reduced plasma LDL-C, TC, and thiobarbiturate reactive substance (TBARS) levels as well as atherosclerotic plaques. The presence of high dietary fiber and antioxidants activity are potential factors contributing to the cholesterol lowering effect. Consequently, these results indicate the potential use of CO defatted pulp as a cholesterol lowering and antioxidant agent.
  4. Pre-treatment of multi-walled carbon nanotubes for polyetherimide mixed matrix hollow fiber membranes
    Goh PS, Ng BC, Ismail AF, Aziz M, Hayashi Y
    J Colloid Interface Sci, 2012 Nov 15;386(1):80-7.
    PMID: 22909959 DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2012.07.033
    Mixed matrix hollow fibers composed of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and polyetherimide (PEI) were fabricated. Pre-treatment of MWCNTs was carried out prior to the incorporation into the polymer matrix using a simple and feasible two stages approach that involved dry air oxidation and surfactant dispersion. The characterizations of the surface treated MWCNTs using TEM and Raman spectroscopy have evidenced the effectiveness of dry air oxidation in eliminating undesired amorphous carbon and metal catalyst while surfactant dispersion using Triton X100 has suppressed the agglomeration of MWCNTs. The resultant mixed matrix hollow fibers were applied for O(2)/N(2) pure gas separation. Interestingly, it was found that removal of disordered amorphous carbons and metal particles has allowed the hollow structures to be more accessible for the fast and smooth transport of gas molecules, hence resulted in noticeable improvement in the gas separation properties. The composite hollow fibers embedded with the surface modified MWCNTs showed increase in permeability as much as 60% while maintaining the selectivity of the O(2)/N(2) gas pair. This study highlights the necessity to establish an appropriate pre-treatment approach for MWCNTs in order to fully utilize the beneficial transport properties of this material in mixed matrix polymer nanocomposite for gas separation.
  5. Fulltext Evaluation of minerals content of drinking water in Malaysia
    Azlan A, Khoo HE, Idris MA, Ismail A, Razman MR
    ScientificWorldJournal, 2012;2012:403574.
    PMID: 22649292 DOI: 10.1100/2012/403574
    The drinking and mineral water samples obtained from different geographical locations had concentrations of the selected minerals lower than the standard limits, except for manganese, arsenic, and fluoride. The concentrations of manganese and arsenic in two mineral water samples were slightly higher than the standard international recommended limits. One mineral water sample had a fluoride concentration higher than the standard limits, whereas manganese was not detected in nine drinking and mineral water samples. Most of the selected minerals found in the tap water samples were below the international standard limits, except for iron and manganese. The concentrations of iron and manganese in the tap water samples were higher than the standard limits, which were obtained from one and three of the studied locations, respectively. The potable water obtained from various manufacturers and locations in Peninsular Malaysia is safe for consumption, as the minerals concentrations were below the standard limits prescribed by the Malaysian Food Regulations of 1985. The data obtained may also provide important information related to daily intake of these minerals from drinking water.
  6. A 35 kDa antigenic protein from Shigella flexneri: in silico structural and functional studies
    Yung-Hung RL, Ismail A, Lim TS, Choong YS
    Biochem Biophys Res Commun, 2011 Nov 18;415(2):229-34.
    PMID: 21982766 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbrc.2011.09.116
    Shigella flexneri serotype 2a is a major public health concern in the developing and under-developed countries which contributes to shigellosis endemic and mortality. Thus, there is an urgent need for a rapid diagnostic test for effective therapy and disease management. Previous study showed that a ∼35 kDa antigenic protein from S. flexneri is a potential biomarker. We therefore modelled the three-dimensional structure of the antigen to probe its functionality which could aid in the development of an antigen-based diagnostic. Results showed that the antigen is a transmembrane protein consists of OmpA and OmpA-like domains. The OmpA domain is a beta-barrel embedded in the outer membrane with four surface-exposed extracellular loops. The OmpA-like domain is linked to the OmpA domain with a 17 amino acids linker and located in the periplasmic. Docking of peptidoglycan into the groove of OmpA-like domain might help in catalyzing the bacterial cell wall formation. Both domains are expected to be involved in the virulence, structural stability, pathogenesis and survival of Shigella thus made the 35 kDa protein a suitable shigellosis diagnostic biomarker. This structural elucidation will also enable a better identification of the epitope regions for the development of specific binders to the 35 kDa antigen.
  7. Fulltext Actinopyga lecanora hydrolysates as natural antibacterial agents
    Ghanbari R, Ebrahimpour A, Abdul-Hamid A, Ismail A, Saari N
    Int J Mol Sci, 2012;13(12):16796-811.
    PMID: 23222684 DOI: 10.3390/ijms131216796
    Actinopyga lecanora, a type of sea cucumber commonly known as stone fish with relatively high protein content, was explored as raw material for bioactive peptides production. Six proteolytic enzymes, namely alcalase, papain, pepsin, trypsin, bromelain and flavourzyme were used to hydrolyze A. lecanora at different times and their respective degrees of hydrolysis (DH) were calculated. Subsequently, antibacterial activity of the A. lecanora hydrolysates, against some common pathogenic Gram positive bacteria (Bacillus subtilis and Staphylococcus aureus) and Gram negative bacteria (Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Pseudomonas sp.) were evaluated. Papain hydrolysis showed the highest DH value (89.44%), followed by alcalase hydrolysis (83.35%). Bromelain hydrolysate after one and seven hours of hydrolysis exhibited the highest antibacterial activities against Pseudomonas sp., P. aeruginosa and E. coli at 51.85%, 30.07% and 30.45%, respectively compared to the other hydrolysates. Protein hydrolysate generated by papain after 8 h hydrolysis showed maximum antibacterial activity against S. aureus at 20.19%. The potent hydrolysates were further fractionated using RP-HPLC and antibacterial activity of the collected fractions from each hydrolysate were evaluated, wherein among them only three fractions from the bromelain hydrolysates exhibited inhibitory activities against Pseudomonas sp., P. aeruginosa and E. coli at 24%, 25.5% and 27.1%, respectively and one fraction of papain hydrolysate showed antibacterial activity of 33.1% against S. aureus. The evaluation of the relationship between DH and antibacterial activities of papain and bromelain hydrolysates revealed a meaningful correlation of four and six order functions.
  8. Fulltext A self-optimizing scheme for energy balanced routing in Wireless Sensor Networks using SensorAnt
    Shamsan Saleh AM, Ali BM, Rasid MF, Ismail A
    Sensors (Basel), 2012;12(8):11307-33.
    PMID: 23112658 DOI: 10.3390/s120811307
    Planning of energy-efficient protocols is critical for Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) because of the constraints on the sensor nodes' energy. The routing protocol should be able to provide uniform power dissipation during transmission to the sink node. In this paper, we present a self-optimization scheme for WSNs which is able to utilize and optimize the sensor nodes' resources, especially the batteries, to achieve balanced energy consumption across all sensor nodes. This method is based on the Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) metaheuristic which is adopted to enhance the paths with the best quality function. The assessment of this function depends on multi-criteria metrics such as the minimum residual battery power, hop count and average energy of both route and network. This method also distributes the traffic load of sensor nodes throughout the WSN leading to reduced energy usage, extended network life time and reduced packet loss. Simulation results show that our scheme performs much better than the Energy Efficient Ant-Based Routing (EEABR) in terms of energy consumption, balancing and efficiency.
  9. Fulltext A pentaplex PCR assay for the detection and differentiation of Shigella species
    Ojha SC, Yean Yean C, Ismail A, Singh KK
    Biomed Res Int, 2013;2013:412370.
    PMID: 23509722 DOI: 10.1155/2013/412370
    The magnitude of shigellosis in developing countries is largely unknown because an affordable detection method is not available. Current laboratory diagnosis of Shigella spp. is laborious and time consuming and has low sensitivity. Hence, in the present study, a molecular-based diagnostic assay which amplifies simultaneously four specific genes to identify invC for Shigella genus, rfc for S. flexneri, wbgZ for S. sonnei, and rfpB for S. dysenteriae, as well as one internal control (ompA) gene, was developed in a single reaction to detect and differentiate Shigella spp. Validation with 120 Shigella strains and 37 non-Shigella strains yielded 100% specificity. The sensitivity of the PCR was 100 pg of genomic DNA, 5.4 × 10(4) CFU/ml, or approximately 120 CFU per reaction mixture of bacteria. The sensitivity of the pentaplex PCR assay was further improved following preincubation of the stool samples in gram-negative broth. A preliminary study with 30 diarrhoeal specimens resulted in no cross-reaction with other non-Shigella strains tested. We conclude that the developed pentaplex PCR assay is robust and can provide information about the four target genes that are essential for the identification of the Shigella genus and the three Shigella species responsible for the majority of shigellosis cases.
  10. Carotenoid content of underutilized tropical fruits
    Khoo HE, Ismail A, Mohd-Esa N, Idris S
    Plant Foods Hum Nutr, 2008 Dec;63(4):170-5.
    PMID: 18810641 DOI: 10.1007/s11130-008-0090-z
    This study was conducted to evaluate the total carotene content (TCC) and beta carotene (BC) in the selected underutilized tropical fruits. TCC of underutilized fruits estimated by spectrophotometric method was in the range of 1.4-19.8 mg/100 g edible portion. The TCC of these fruits decreased in the order: Jentik-jentik > Durian Nyekak 2 > Durian Nyekak 1 > Cerapu 2 > Cerapu 1 > Tampoi Kuning > Bacang 1 > Kuini > Jambu Mawar > Bacang 2 > Durian Daun > Bacang 3 > Tampoi Putih > Jambu Susu. BC contents estimated by HPLC method were highest in Jentik-jentik, followed by Cerapu 2, Durian Nyekak 2, Tampoi Kuning, Durian Nyekak 1, and Cerapu 1, which had a range of 68-92% of BC in TCC. These underutilized fruits have an acceptable amount of carotenoids that are potential antioxidant fruits.
  11. Johor strait as a hotspot for trace elements contamination in peninsular Malaysia
    Zulkifli SZ, Ismail A, Mohamat-Yusuff F, Arai T, Miyazaki N
    Bull Environ Contam Toxicol, 2010 May;84(5):568-73.
    PMID: 20411236 DOI: 10.1007/s00128-010-9998-8
    Present study was conducted to evaluate current status of trace elements contamination in the surface sediments of the Johor Strait. Iron (2.54 +/- 1.24%) was found as the highest occurring element, followed by those of zinc (210.45 +/- 115.4 microg/g), copper (57.84 +/- 45.54 microg/g), chromium (55.50 +/- 31.24 microg/g), lead (52.52 +/- 28.41 microg/g), vanadium (47.76 +/- 25.76 microg/g), arsenic (27.30 +/- 17.11 microg/g), nickel (18.31 +/- 11.77 microg/g), cobalt (5.13 +/- 3.12 microg/g), uranium (4.72 +/- 2.52 microg/g), and cadmium (0.30 +/- 0.30 microg/g), respectively. Bioavailability of cobalt, nickel, copper, zinc, arsenic and cadmium were higher than 50% of total concentration. Vanadium, copper, zinc, arsenic and cadmium were found significantly different between the eastern and western part of the strait (p < 0.05). Combining with other factors, Johor Strait is suitable as a hotspot for trace elements contamination related studies.
  12. Fulltext Type 2 diabetes mellitus patients with poor glycaemic control have lower quality of life scores as measured by the Short Form-36
    Kamarul Imran M, Ismail AA, Naing L, Wan Mohamad WB
    Singapore Med J, 2010 Feb;51(2):157-62.
    PMID: 20358156
    INTRODUCTION: This study aimed to compare the quality of life based on the Short Form-36 (SF-36) between two different groups of type 2 diabetes mellitus patients with glycaemic control: those with a glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1c) level at or below 7.5 percent and those above 7.5 percent.
    METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, a generic SF-36 questionnaire was self-administered to patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Based on the HbA1c level, the mean SF-36 scale scores were compared. The analysis of covariance was used to obtain the adjusted mean scores of the SF-36 scales while controlling for age and duration of type 2 diabetes mellitus.
    RESULTS: 150 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus were analysed. There were 63 (42 percent) women and 87 (58 percent) men, and their mean HbA1c level was 8.9 percent (SD 2.4 percent). When comparing the two groups of patients with different HbA1c levels, the adjusted means of four scales: physical health functioning, general health, social functioning and mental health, differed significantly between the two. The SF-36 scale scores in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients were also lower than those of the SF-36 norms for the Malaysian population.
    CONCLUSION: Type 2 diabetes mellitus patients with poor glycaemic control had lower mean SF-36 scores in physical functioning, general health, social functioning and mental health, and the SF-36 scores in these patients were also lower than the SF-36 norms of the Malaysian population.
  13. An assessment of selected trace elements in intertidal surface sediments collected from the Peninsular Malaysia
    Zulkifli SZ, Mohamat-Yusuff F, Arai T, Ismail A, Miyazaki N
    Environ Monit Assess, 2010 Oct;169(1-4):457-72.
    PMID: 19856123 DOI: 10.1007/s10661-009-1189-x
    Concentrations of 11 trace elements (V, Cr, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Ag, Cd, Pb, and U) were determined in the intertidal surface sediments of Peninsular Malaysia. The average trace element concentrations are ranked as follows: Zn>V>As>Cr>Pb>Cu>Ni>Co>U>g>Cd. Interim Sediment Quality Guidelines (ISQGs) employed in present study are the Australia and New Zealand joint guideline (ANZECC/ARMCANZ), and the Hong Kong authorities. From the pooled data, none of these trace elements have the average concentration above the ISQG-high values. However, As and Ag average concentrations were over the ISQG-low values. Some elements were found to have the average concentration above the ISQG-high and/or ISQG-low in certain locations, including Kampung Pasir Putih (JPP), Lumut Port (ALP), Kuala Perai (PKP), Port Dickson (NPD), and others. The lowest and highest concentrations in a specific sampling location and maritime area varied among the elements, variations that were greatly affected by natural and anthropogenic activities in a given area. For each trace element, there were various levels of concentration among the sampling locations and maritime areas. These patterns indicated pollutant sources of an element for each area perhaps derived from nearby areas and did not widely distributed to other locations. It is necessary for Malaysia to develop an ISQG for effective quick screening and evaluation of the coastal environment of Peninsular Malaysia.
  14. Apparent bioavailability of isoflavones in urinary excretions of postmenopausal Malay women consuming tempeh compared with milk
    Haron H, Ismail A, Shahar S, Azlan A, Peng LS
    Int J Food Sci Nutr, 2011 Sep;62(6):642-50.
    PMID: 21574819 DOI: 10.3109/09637486.2011.570742
    Quantitation of isoflavones in humans is important to establish the benefits of these compounds to the populations. Urinary isoflavones are frequently used as a biomarker of isoflavone bioavailability from food or supplement since urine contains 100-fold higher concentrations of isoflavones. The objective of the present study was to determine and compare the urinary excretions of daidzein (DA), genistein (GE) and equol (EQ) in postmenopausal Malay women following the consumption of tempeh and milk in a calcium absorption study and to test the hypothesis that the excretion of isoflavones following consumption of tempeh maybe higher compared with milk. The amounts of DA (47.06 ± 4.18 μmol/h), GE (33.27 ± 3.71 μmol/h) and EQ (24.35 ± 4.34 μmol/h) excreted in urine following tempeh consumption were significantly higher (P < 0.05) compared with those in milk (3.51 ± 0.62 μmol/h DA, 2.79 ± 0.35 μmol/h GE and 0 μmol/h EQ). Almost all studied postmenopausal Malay women were able to excrete EQ following consumption of 240 g tempeh but only one subject can be classified as an equol producer. We concluded that most postmenopausal Malay women excreted DA, GE and EQ in their urine following tempeh consumption and the amount of the excreted isoflavones were higher compared with those in milk. However, further studies are needed to determine whether longer periods of time are required to capture EQ producers.
  15. Scoparia dulcis (SDF7) endowed with glucose uptake properties on L6 myotubes compared insulin
    Beh JE, Latip J, Abdullah MP, Ismail A, Hamid M
    J Ethnopharmacol, 2010 May 4;129(1):23-33.
    PMID: 20193753 DOI: 10.1016/j.jep.2010.02.009
    Insulin stimulates glucose uptake and promotes the translocation of glucose transporter 4 (Glut 4) to the plasma membrane on L6 myotubes. The aim of this study is to investigate affect of Scoparia dulcis Linn water extracts on glucose uptake activity and the Glut 4 translocation components (i.e., IRS-1, PI 3-kinase, PKB/Akt2, PKC and TC 10) in L6 myotubes compared to insulin.
  16. Isolated hypertriglyceridemia: an insulin-resistant state with or without low HDL cholesterol
    Al-Mahmood A, Ismail A, Rashid F, Mohamed W
    J Atheroscler Thromb, 2006 Jun;13(3):143-8.
    PMID: 16835469
    There are numerous reports on insulin resistance in subjects with hypertriglyceridemia but most of the studies involved obese or diabetic subjects. We were interested to study such events but in a population free from other confounders influencing insulin sensitivity (i.e., obesity, glucose intolerance and hypertension). From the population of a cross-sectional study we obtained 12 subjects with isolated hypertriglyceridemia and compared their insulin sensitivity with that of normolipidemic subjects in that study. Insulin sensitivity and secretory status were computed using homeostasis model assessment (HOMA) software. The insulin sensitivity of hypertriglyceridemic subjects was found to be lower than in normolipidemic subjects. For the hypertriglyceridemic subjects, insulin sensitivity (HOMA%S) was 60.07% (values adjusted for age, BMI, waist circumference, and cholesterol levels), which was substantially lower than that of normolipidemic subjects (150.03%; p<0.001). The insulin secretory status (HOMA%B) of the two groups was 248.17% and 124.63%, respectively, and significantly different (p<0.001). Relative insulin resistance, HOMA-IR, of the two groups was 4.90 and 1.54, respectively. We therefore concluded that in comparison with normolipidemic subjects, the insulin sensitivity of otherwise healthy non-obese hypertriglyceridemic subjects was lower, and that B cells had to work harder to compensate for the lowered insulin sensitivity.
  17. Health Related Quality of Life in Malaysian children with thalassaemia
    Ismail A, Campbell MJ, Ibrahim HM, Jones GL
    Health Qual Life Outcomes, 2006;4:39.
    PMID: 16813662
    Health Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) studies on children with chronic illness such as thalassaemia are limited. We conducted the first study to investigate if children with thalassaemia have a lower quality of life in the four dimensions as measured using the PedsQL 4.0 generic Scale Score: physical, emotional, social and role (school) functioning compared to the healthy controls allowing for age, gender, ethnicity and household income.
  18. Crystalline style and tissue redistribution in Perna viridis as indicators of Cu and Pb bioavailabilities and contamination in coastal waters
    Yap CK, Ismail A, Cheng WH, Tan SG
    Ecotoxicol Environ Saf, 2006 Mar;63(3):413-23.
    PMID: 16406592
    The concentrations of Cu, Pb, and Zn in the crystalline style (CS) and in the remaining soft tissues (ST) of the green-lipped mussel Perna viridis from 10 geographical sites along the coastal waters off peninsular Malaysia were determined. The CS, compared with the remaining ST, accumulated higher levels of Cu in both contaminated and uncontaminated samples, indicating that the style has a higher affinity for the essential Cu to bind with metallothioneins. The similar pattern of Cu accumulation in the different ST of mussels collected from clean and Cu-contaminated sites indicated that the detoxification capacity of the metallothioneins had not been overloaded. For Pb, higher levels of the metal in the CS than in the remaining ST were found only in mussels collected from a contaminated site at Kg. Pasir Puteh. This indicated a tissue redistribution of Pb due to its binding to metallothioneins for Pb detoxification and the potential of the CS as an indicator organ of Pb bioavailability and contamination. For Zn, the above two phenomena were not found since no obvious patterns were observed (lower levels of Zn in the CS than in the remaining ST) in contaminated and uncontaminated samples due to the mechanism of partial regulation. Generally, all the different STs studied (foot, mantle, gonad, CS, gill, muscle, and byssus) are good biomonitoring tissues for Cu and Pb bioavailabilities and contamination. Among these organs, the CS was found to be the best organ for biomonitoring Cu. The present data also suggest the use of the tissue redistribution of Pb in P. viridis as an indicator of Pb bioavailability and contamination in coastal waters.
  19. Anthropogenic impacts on heavy metal concentrations in the coastal sediments of Dumai, Indonesia
    Amin B, Ismail A, Arshad A, Yap CK, Kamarudin MS
    Environ Monit Assess, 2009 Jan;148(1-4):291-305.
    PMID: 18274874 DOI: 10.1007/s10661-008-0159-z
    Concentrations of Cd, Cu, Pb, Zn, Ni and Fe were determined in the surface sediments to investigate the distributions, concentrations and the pollution status of heavy metals in Dumai coastal waters. Sediment samples from 23 stations, representing 5 different site groups of eastern, central and western Dumai and southern and northern Rupat Island, were collected in May 2005. The results showed that heavy metal concentrations (in microg/g dry weight; Fe in %) were 0.88 (0.46-1.89); 6.08 (1.61-13.84); 32.34 (14.63-84.90); 53.89 (31.49-87.11); 11.48 (7.26-19.97) and 3.01 (2.10-3.92) for Cd, Cu, Pb, Zn, Ni and Fe, respectively. Generally, metal concentrations in the coastal sediments near Dumai city center (eastern and central Dumai) which have more anthropogenic activities were higher than those at other stations. Average concentration of Cd in the eastern Dumai was slightly higher than effective range low (ERL) but still below effective range medium (ERM) value established by Long et al. (Environmental Management 19(1):81-97, 1995; Environmental Toxicology Chemistry 17(4):714-727, 1997). All other metals were still below ERL and ERM. Calculated enrichment factor (EF), especially for Cd and Pb, and the Pollution load index (PLI) value in the eastern Dumai were also higher than other sites. Cd showed higher EF when compared to other metals. Geo-accumulation indices (I(geo)) in most of the stations (all site groups) were categorized as class 1 (unpolluted to moderately polluted environment) and only Cd in Cargo Port was in class 2 (moderately polluted). Heavy metal concentrations found in the present study were comparable to other regions of the world and based on the calculated indices it can be classified as unpolluted to moderately polluted coastal environment.
  20. Baseline assessment of intensive care-acquired nosocomial infection surveillancein three adult intensive care units in Malaysia
    Katherason SG, Naing L, Jaalam K, Ismail A
    J Infect Dev Ctries, 2008 Oct 01;2(5):364-8.
    PMID: 19745504
    BACKGROUND: Nosocomial infections (NIs) have a serious impact on patient outcomes in Intensive Care Units (ICUs).

    METHOD: A prospective cohort-targeted comprehensive surveillance study on NI associated with usage of devices was conducted in three ICUs in Malaysia using a developed NI surveillance form. Patients who developed infection outside an ICU were excluded from the study.

    RESULTS: The device associated NI was 21.1%. The mean duration for development of NI was 10.0 +/- 7.44 days in ICU. The major device-associated infections were nosocomial pneumonia (18.7%) followed by bacteremia (8.5%) and urinary tract infections (4.7%) respectively. NI incidence density rate was 20.6 per 1,000 patient-days. Bacteremia, urinary tract infection (UTI) and nosocomial pneumonia (NP) rates were 8.9, 4.7 and 20.5 per 1,000 patient-days, respectively. Acinetobacter species, Klebseilla pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus were the predominant pathogens isolated from the NIs subjects during the study period in the three ICUs.

    CONCLUSION: Analysis of the rate of the NIs associated with usage of devices in the three ICUs showed that it is highly correlated with the use of mechanical ventilation devices, followed by intravascular devices and usage of indwelling urinary catheters.

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