Landfill leachate is a heavily polluted and a likely hazardous liquid that is produced as a result of water infiltration through solid wastes generated industrially and domestically. This study investigates the potential of using psyllium husk as coagulant and coagulant aid for the treatment of landfill leachate. Psyllium husk has been tested as primary coagulant and as coagulant aid with poly-aluminum chloride (PACl) and aluminum sulfate (alum). As primary coagulant, the optimum dosage and pH for PACl were 7.2 and 7.5 g/L, respectively, with removal efficiencies of 55, 80 and 95% for COD, color and TSS, respectively. For alum, the optimum conditions were 11 g/L alum dosage and pH 6.5 with removal efficiencies of 58, 79 and 78% for COD, color and TSS, respectively. The maximum removal efficiencies of COD, color and TSS were 64, 90 and 96%, respectively, when psyllium husk was used as coagulant aid with PACl. Based on the results, psyllium husk was found to be more effective as coagulant aid with PACl in the removal of COD, color and TSS as compared to alum. Zeta potential test was carried out for leachate, PACl, alum and psyllium husk before and after running the jar test to enhance the results of the jar test experiments.
Matched MeSH terms: Water Pollutants, Chemical/isolation & purification*
In this study, landfill leachate was treated by using the sequencing batch reactor (SBR) process. Two types of the SBR, namely non-powdered activated carbon and powdered activated carbon (PAC-SBR) were used. The influence of aeration rate and contact time on SBR and PAC-SBR performances was investigated. Removal efficiencies of chemical oxygen demand (COD), colour, ammoniacal nitrogen (NH(3)-N), total dissolved salts (TDS), and sludge volume index (SVI) were monitored throughout the experiments. Response surface methodology (RSM) was applied for experimental design, analysis and optimization. Based on the results, the PAC-SBR displayed superior performance in term of removal efficiencies when compared to SBR. At the optimum conditions of aeration rate of 1L/min and contact time of 5.5h the PAC-SBR achieved 64.1%, 71.2%, 81.4%, and 1.33% removal of COD, colour, NH(3)-N, and TDS, respectively. The SVI value of PAC-SBR was 122.2 mL/g at optimum conditions.
Matched MeSH terms: Water Pollutants, Chemical/isolation & purification*
Routine use of selective media improves diagnosis of Burkholderia pseudomallei, but resources may be limited in endemic developing countries. To maximise yield in the relatively low-prevalence setting of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, B. pseudomallei selective agar and broth were compared with routine media for 154 respiratory specimens from patients with community-acquired disease. Selective media detected three additional culture-positive specimens and one additional melioidosis patient, at a consumables cost of US$75. Burkholderia pseudomallei was not isolated from 74 diabetic foot ulcer samples. Following careful local evaluation, focused use of selective media may be cost-effective.
Gynura procumbens (Lour.) Merr. is a traditionally used medicinal plant to decrease cholesterol level, reduce high blood pressure, control diabetics, and for treatment of cancer. In our present study, a proteomic approach was applied to study the proteome of the plant that had never analyzed before. We have identified 92 abundantly expressed proteins from the leaves of G. procumbens (Lour.) Merr. Amongst the identified proteins was miraculin, a taste-masking agent with high commercial value. Miraculin made up ∼0.1% of the total protein extracted; the finding of miraculin gave a great commercial value to G. procumbens (Lour.) Merr. as miraculin's natural source is limited while the production of recombinant miraculin faced challenges of not being able to exhibit the taste-masking effect as in the natural miraculin. We believe the discovery of miraculin in G. procumbens (Lour.) Merr., provides commercial feasibility of miraculin in view of the availability of G. procumbens (Lour.) Merr. that grow wildly and easily in tropical climate.
A new bisbenzylisoquinoline, lancifoliaine (1), together with seven known alkaloids--N-allyllaurolitsine (2), reticuline (3), actinodaphnine, norboldine, pallidine, cassythicine and boldine--were isolated from the stem bark of Litsea lancifolia (Lauraceae). In addition to that of lancifoliaine, complete ¹³C-NMR data of N-allyl-laurolitsine (2) was also reported. The alkaloidal structures were elucidated by means of high field 1D- and 2D-NMR IR, UV, and LCMS-IT-TOF spectral data. N-Allyllaurolitsine (2) showed a moderate vasorelaxant activity on isolated rat aorta.
A new halogen-free and environmental-friendly method using water and ethanol is developed as an alternative for the recovery of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) from recombinant Cupriavidus necator in comparison to the established chloroform extraction method. After optimisation, our results showed that the halogen-free method produced a PHA with 81% purity and 96% recovery yield, in comparison to the chloroform extraction system which resulted in a highly pure PHA with 95% yield. Although the purity of the PHA using the new method is lower, the molecular weight of the extracted PHA is not compromised. This new method can be further developed as an alternative and more environmental-friendly method for industrial application.
This review summarizes studies on the epidemiology and public health implications of Helicobacter pylori published in peer-reviewed journals from April 2010 through March 2011. Prevalence rates vary widely between different geographical regions and ethnic groups. An interesting study from the USA identified the degree of African ancestry as an independent predictor of H. pylori infection. Two studies have demonstrated early childhood as the period of transmission of infection and identified an infected sibling as an important risk factor. An oral-oral route of spread has been substantiated with several studies showing the presence of H. pylori in the oral cavity. Studies have shown the presence of H. pylori in drinking water and the role of poor living conditions and sanitation in H. pylori infection, supporting an oral-fecal route of spread. Screening for H. pylori as a gastric cancer pre-screening strategy has been described in Japan, and the importance of H. pylori eradication as a gastric cancer-prevention strategy has now been further emphasized in Japanese guidelines. Two studies have shown a decrease in the burden of dyspepsia and peptic ulcer disease with H. pylori eradication.
A new genus of trypanorhynch cestode is described from two species of sharks, the sliteye shark Loxodon macrorhinus Müller & Henle and the straight-tooth weasel shark Paragaleus tengi (Chen) collected in the Makassar Strait (off Indonesian Borneo) and Sulu Sea (off Malaysian Borneo). Ancipirhynchus afossalis n. g., n. sp. possesses two bothria and a heteroacanthous, heteromorphous tentacular armature with three distinctive files of hooks on the external tentacle surface but lacks prebulbar organs and gland cells within the tentacular bulbs. The hook arrangement of alternating files on the external surface of the tentacle resembles that seen in the superfamily Otobothrioidea Dollfus, 1942 in the genus Fossobothrium Beveridge & Campbell, 2005. However, the new species lacks the defining characteristic of this group, i.e. the paired bothrial pits. A Bayesian inference (BI) analysis of 37 LSU sequences of trypanorhynchs from three superfamilies provided evidence supporting the taxonomic placement of Ancipirhynchus afossalis n. g., n. sp. within the Otobothrioidea.
The oxidative stability of sunflower oil supplemented with medicinal split gill mushroom, Schizophyllum commune's crude extract (CE), the formic acid (FA) fraction and semipurified subfractions (SF) II and IV were tested, compared to BHA and alpha-tocopherol, by measuring their peroxide value, iodine value, p-anisidine value, thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances, and free fatty acid content. Their total phenolic content (TPC), 2,2-diphenyl-1-picryhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging, and ferric reducing/antioxidant power (FRAP) were also evaluated. FA and CE exhibited highest DPPH* scavenging, while FA and SFIV showed the highest FRAP; TPC was found to be highest in CE, FA, and SFIV. BHA and alpha-tocopherol are more protective in stabilizing the sunflower oil; SFII and SFIV had short-term protective effect in secondary oxidation for 1 year, while CE and FA retarded secondary oxidation and extended the shelf life 1 1/2 years and 2 years, respectively. HPLC-DAD analysis found (+)-catechin in Sch. commune's extracts. Sch. commune's extracts did not show similar retardation of lipid oxidation in sunflower oil as compared to alpha-tocopherol and BHA at the 200 ppm level. However, the higher concentration of Sch. commune's extract that provided the protective effect in stabilizing sunflower oil can be further studied.
Japanese encephalitis (JE) is a global public health issue that has spread widely to more than 20 countries in Asia and has extended its geographic range to the south Pacific region including Australia. JE has become the most important cause of viral encephalitis in the world. Japanese encephalitis viruses (JEV) are divided into five genotypes, based on the nucleotide sequence of the envelope (E) gene. The Muar strain, isolated from patient in Malaya in 1952, is the sole example of genotype V JEV. Here, the XZ0934 strain of JEV was isolated from Culex tritaeniorhynchus, collected in China. The complete nucleotide and amino acid sequence of XZ0934 strain have been determined. The nucleotide divergence ranged from 20.3% to 21.4% and amino acid divergence ranged from 8.4% to 10.0% when compared with the 62 known JEV isolates that belong to genotype I-IV. It reveals low similarity between XZ0934 and genotype I-IV JEVs. Phylogenetic analysis using both complete genome and structural gene nucleotide sequences demonstrates that XZ0934 belongs to genotype V. This, in turn, suggests that genotype V JEV is emerging in JEV endemic areas. Thus, increased surveillance and diagnosis of viral encephalitis caused by genotype V JEV is an issue of great concern to nations in which JEV is endemic.
BACKGROUND: Streptococcus pneumoniae is a major causative agent of severe infections, including sepsis, pneumonia, meningitis, and otitis media, that has since become a major public health concern. In this study, the serotypes distribution of pneumococcal isolates was investigated to predict the efficacy of the 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV7) among the Malaysian populations.
METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: A total of 151 clinical isolates were serotyped using multiplex PCR assays. Out of them, there were 21.2% penicillin-resistant, 29.1% penicillin-intermediate, and 49.7% penicillin-susceptible S. pneumoniae strains. Serotypes detected among the Malaysian isolates were 1, 3, 10A, 11A/11D, 12F/12A, 14, 15A, 15B/15C, 16F, 18C/18B/18A/18F, 19A, 19F, 23F, 35B, 35F/47F, 6A/6B, 7C/7B/40, 7F/7A, 9V/9A, and 34. Serotype 19F and 23F were the two most prevalent serotypes detected. Serotypes are highly associated with invasiveness of isolates (p = 0.001) and penicillin susceptibility (p<0.001). Serotype 19F was observed to have increased resistance against penicillin while serotype 19A has high invasive tendency. Age of patients was an important factor underlying the pneumococcal serotypes (p = 0.03) and clinical sites of infections (p<0.001). High prevalence of pneumococcal isolates were detected among children <5 years old at nasopharyngeal sites while elderly adults ≥60 years old were at increased risk for pneumococcal bacteremia.
CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: Current study revealed that a number of serotypes, especially those associated with high penicillin resistance, have been formulated in the PCV7. Therefore, the protections expected from the routine use of PCV7 would be encouraging for the Malaysian. However, it is not possible to predict serotypes that might become predominant in the future and hence continued surveillance of circulating serotypes will be needed.
Nitrification of mature sanitary landfill leachate with high-strength of N-NH(4) + (1080-2350 mg L(-1)) was performed in a 10 L continuous nitrification activated sludge reactor. The nitrification system was acclimatized with synthetic leachate during feed batch operation to avoid substrate inhibition before being fed with actual mature leachate. Successful nitrification was achieved with an approximately complete ammonium removal (99%) and 96% of N-NH(4) + conversion to N-NO(-) (3) . The maximum volumetric and specific nitrification rates obtained were 2.56 kg N-NH(4) (+) m(-3) day(-1) and 0.23 g N-NH(4) ( +) g(-1) volatile suspended solid (VSS) day(-1), respectively, at hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 12.7 h and solid retention time of 50 days. Incomplete nitrification was encountered when operating at a higher nitrogen loading rate of 3.14 kg N-NH(4) (+) m(-3) day(-1). The substrate overloading and nitrifiers competition with heterotrophs were believed to trigger the incomplete nitrification. Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) results supported the syntrophic association between the ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and nitrite-oxidizing bacteria. FISH results also revealed the heterotrophs as the dominant and disintegration of some AOB cell aggregates into single cells which further supported the incomplete nitrification phenomenon.
Ocular toxocariasis is prevalent among children. The symptoms and signs may mimic other ocular pathologies such as malignancies and other infectious diseases (such as toxoplasmosis and syphilis). We presented a case of progressive blurring of vision in a single eye of a 9-year-old boy. The presence of anti-toxocara antibody in serum samples helps to confirmation the diagnosis in our patient. Despite of treatment, the boy had lost his vision on the affected eye.
Natural products from medicinal plants, either as pure compounds or as standardized extracts, provide unlimited opportunities for new drug leads because of the unmatched availability of chemical diversity. Due to an increasing demand for chemical diversity in screening programs, seeking therapeutic drugs from natural products, interest particularly in edible plants has grown throughout the world. Botanicals and herbal preparations for medicinal usage contain various types of bioactive compounds. The focus of this paper is on the analytical methodologies, which include the extraction, isolation and characterization of active ingredients in botanicals and herbal preparations. The common problems and key challenges in the extraction, isolation and characterization of active ingredients in botanicals and herbal preparations are discussed. As extraction is the most important step in the analysis of constituents present in botanicals and herbal preparations, the strengths and weaknesses of different extraction techniques are discussed. The analysis of bioactive compounds present in the plant extracts involving the applications of common phytochemical screening assays, chromatographic techniques such as HPLC and, TLC as well as non-chromatographic techniques such as immunoassay and Fourier Transform Infra Red (FTIR) are discussed.
The air-dried powdered stem bark of Calophyllum nodusum (Guttiferea) collected from Sandakan (Sabah, Malaysia), was extracted sequentially with hexane, chloroform and methanol. The solvents were removed by rotary evaporator to give dark viscous extracts. Detailed and repeated chromatographic separation of the extracts lead to isolation of two new xanthones, identified as nodusuxanthone and trapezifolixanthone A. Other common terpenoids such as betulinic acid, lupeol, stigmasterol and friedelin were also isolated from the extracts and identified. The structures of the compounds were established by detailed spectral analysis and comparison with previously reported data.
We previously described three new Malaysian orthoreoviruses designated Pulau virus, Melaka virus and Kampar virus. Melaka and Kampar viruses were shown to cause respiratory disease in humans. These viruses, together with Nelson Bay virus, isolated from Australian bats, are tentatively classified as different strains within the species Pteropine orthoreovirus (PRV), formerly known as Nelson Bay orthoreovirus, based on the small (S) genome segments. Here we report the sequences of the large (L) and medium (M) segments, thus completing the whole-genome characterization of the four PRVs. All L and M segments were highly conserved in size and sequence. Conserved functional motifs previously identified in other orthoreovirus gene products were also found in the deduced proteins encoded by the cognate segments of these viruses. Detailed sequence analysis identified two genetic lineages divided into the Australian and Malaysian PRVs, and potential genetic reassortment among the M and S segments of the three Malaysian viruses.
This study aimed to describe the transmission dynamics, the serological and virus excretion patterns of Nipah virus (NiV) in Pteropus vampyrus bats. Bats in captivity were sampled every 7-21 days over a 1-year period. The data revealed five NiV serological patterns categorized as high and low positives, waning, decreasing and increasing, and negative in these individuals. The findings strongly suggest that NiV circulates in wild bat populations and that antibody could be maintained for long periods. The study also found that pup and juvenile bats from seropositive dams tested seropositive, indicating that maternal antibodies against NiV are transmitted passively, and in this study population may last up to 14 months. NiV was isolated from the urine of one bat, and within a few weeks, two other seronegative bats seroconverted. Based on the temporal cluster of seroconversion, we strongly believe that the NiV isolated was recrudesced and then transmitted horizontally between bats during the study period.