Introduction: The Five-Factor Nonverbal Personality Questionnaire (FF-NPQ) is a non-verbal personality inventory consisting of illustrations of different social situations, designed to measure five broad factors underlying the Big-Five model of personality. This study aimed to prove the validity of the FF-NPQ in Malaysia. Methods: The FF-NPQ instruction and the answer option were translated to the Malay language, which is the main language spoken in Malaysia. A total of 153 university students aged 18–30 years from Universiti Sains Malaysia were involved in this study. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), composite reliability and intraclass correlation (ICC) were applied to show evidence of validity by internal structure. Results: CFA indicated that only 26 out of 60 items remained in the final model while maintaining the five personality factors. Each factor had a good composite reliability value of 0.68–0.77. The ICC values from the test-retest analysis ranged from 0.65 to 0.75. Conclusion: Overall, the shortened Malay Version of the FF -NPQ (five-factor, 26 items) exhibited acceptable evidence of validity in Malaysia.
Background: Astrocytic gliomas are the most common primary brain tumors that developed from glial origin.
The angiogenic cell population from brain tumor enhances the recruitment of circulating cancer stem cells
homing towards tumor site.
Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the tumor angiogenic cell population that stained with CD133+
and VEGFA+ markers and its association with circulating cancer stem cell (CD133+/VEGFR2-) population in the
peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of astrocytic glioma patients.
Methods: A total of 22 astrocytic glioma patients from Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia who consented to
the study were included. Tumors (n=22) were sliced and stained with CD133+ and VEGFA+ angiogenic markers
and counter stained with DAPI. The circulating cancer stem cells (CD133+/VEGFR2-) in PBMCs (n=22) were
quantified using FACS based on the expression of CD133 and VEGFR2 markers. The paired t-test and Pearson
correlation were used for the data analysis.
Results: The percentage of angiogenic cell population was significantly higher in brain tumor compared to
adjacent normal brain tissue (1.25 ± 0.96% vs. 0.74 ± 0.68%; paired t-test=2.855; df=21, p = 0.009). Positive
correlation was found between the angiogenic cells of brain tumor tissue and adjacent normal brain tissue
(Pearson correlation, r = 0.53, p = 0.011). Significant positive correlation was found between angiogenic cells
in glioma tumor and cancer stem cells in peripheral circulating systems of astrocytic glioma patients (Pearson
correlation, r = 0.42, p = 0.049).
Conclusion: Angiogenic cells in the brain tumor resident promote the recruitment of circulating cancer stem cells
homing to the tumor site and induce the proliferation and growth of the tumor in astrocytic glioma patients.