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Fulltext 5G planar branch line coupler design based on the analysis of dielectric constant, loss tangent and quality factor at high frequency

Mohd Shukor NA, Seman N

Sci Rep, 2020 Sep 30;10(1):16115.
PMID: 32999315 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-72444-2

This study focuses on the effect of different dielectric properties in the design of 3-dB planar branch line coupler (BLC) using RT5880, RO4350, TMM4 and RT6010, particularly at high frequency of 26 GHz, the fifth generation (5G) operating frequency. The analysis conducted in this study is based on the dielectric constant, loss tangent and quality factor (Q-factor) associated with the dielectric properties of the substrate materials. Accordingly, the substrate that displayed the best performance for high frequency application had the lowest dielectric constant, lowest loss tangent and highest Q-factor (i.e., RT5880), and it was chosen to enhance our proposed 3-dB BLC. This enhanced 3-dB BLC was designed with the inclusion of microstrip-slot stub impedance at each port for bandwidth enhancement, and the proposed prototype had dimensions of 29.9 mm × 19.9 mm. The design and analysis of the proposed 3-dB BLC were accomplished by employing CST Microwave Studio. The performance of scattering parameters and the phase difference of the proposed BLC were then assessed and verified through laboratory measurement.
Fulltext Recent Progress in Genetics and Epigenetics Research on Diabetic Nephropathy in Malaysia

Abu Seman N, Othman SH

J Diabetes Res, 2023;2023:9053580.
PMID: 37187702 DOI: 10.1155/2023/9053580

Diabetic nephropathy is a multifactorial disease. Gene susceptibility, as well as environmental exposure, plays an important role in disease progression. Malaysia is reported to be among the world's second-fastest-growing rates of kidney failure. Diabetic nephropathy has become the main cause of end-stage renal disease in Malaysia. This article is aimed at reviewing genetic studies conducted among diabetic nephropathy patients in the Malaysian population. This review was conducted by searching PubMed, MEDLINE, and Google Scholar databases to identify all relevant papers published in English from March 2022 to April 2022, using the following keywords: diabetes, type 2 diabetes, diabetic nephropathy, diabetic kidney disease, and Malaysia. The case-control study among diabetic patients with and without diabetic nephropathy showed a significant association with diabetic nephropathy in CNDP1, NOS3, and MnSOD genes. In the ethnic subgroup analysis, significant differences for diabetic nephropathy in terms of diabetes duration (≥10 years) were observed for CCL2 rs3917887, CCR5 rs1799987, ELMO1 rs74130, and IL8 rs4073. The IL8 rs4073 was associated only with the Indians, while the CCR5 rs1799987 was associated with the Chinese. In Malays, SLC12A3 Arg913Gln polymorphism and ICAM1 K469E (A/G) polymorphism were found to be associated with diabetic nephropathy. Studies on gene-environment interactions have suggested significant genetic and environmental factors such as smoking, waist circumference, and sex for eNOS rs2070744, PPARGC1A rs8192678, KCNQ1 rs2237895, and KCNQ1 rs2283228 with kidney disease. The genetic variants' contributions differed across ethnic groups. Therefore, a study to validate the genetic variants that are found to be associated with different ethnicities in Malaysia may be important in future studies.
The effect of educational intervention on enhancing the empathy among nursing students

Ahmad A, Wahab H, Seman N

Enferm Clin, 2020 03;30 Suppl 3:100-103.
PMID: 32331728 DOI: 10.1016/j.enfcli.2019.12.038

With the revision on the concept of empathy, this study attempted to teach empathy to nursing students with the goal of to increase the students' empathy levels.
METHOD: We conducted a quasi-experimental study with a non-equivalent group design and incorporated empathy training, pre- and post-training empathy measurements of participants in a private nursing college (N=64). Empathy scores were measured using the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy (2001) and the educational intervention used was Wlodkowski and Ginsberg's Motivational Framework for Culturally Responsive Teaching (1995). Descriptive analysis and paired T-test were used to determine the effect of intervention applied.
RESULTS: The study found increased mean score for both control and experimental group during post-intervention as compared to pre-intervention mean score.
CONCLUSIONS: The result indicates the effectiveness of educational intervention in enhancing empathy among nursing students in the experimental group.
Study site: private nursing college, Malaysia
A comparison of brain phantom relative permittivity with CST simulation library and existing research

Chew KM, Seman N, Sudirman R, Yong CY

Biomed Mater Eng, 2014;24(6):2161-7.
PMID: 25226914 DOI: 10.3233/BME-141027

The development of human-like brain phantom is important for data acquisition in microwave imaging. The characteristics of the phantom should be based on the real human body dielectric properties such as relative permittivity. The development of phantom includes the greymatter and whitematter regions, each with a relative permittivity of 38 and 28 respectively at 10 GHz frequency. Results were compared with the value obtained from the standard library of Computer Simulation Technology (CST) simulation application and the existing research by Fernandez and Gabriel. Our experimental results show a positive outcome, in which the proposed mixture was adequate to represent real human brain for data acquisition.
Reflection coefficient detection of simulation models for microwave imaging simulation system

Chew KM, Sudirman R, Seman N, Yong CY

Biomed Mater Eng, 2014;24(1):199-207.
PMID: 24211899 DOI: 10.3233/BME-130800

The study was conducted based on two objectives as framework. The first objective is to determine the point of microwave signal reflection while penetrating into the simulation models and, the second objective is to analyze the reflection pattern when the signal penetrate into the layers with different relative permittivity, εr. Thus, several microwave models were developed to make a close proximity of the in vivo human brain. The study proposed two different layers on two different characteristics models. The radii on the second layer and the corresponding antenna positions are the factors for both models. The radii for model 1 is 60 mm with an antenna position of 10 mm away, in contrast, model 2 is 10 mm larger in size with a closely adapted antenna without any gap. The layers of the models were developed with different combination of materials such as Oil, Sandy Soil, Brain, Glycerin and Water. Results show the combination of Glycerin + Brain and Brain + Sandy Soil are the best proximity of the in vivo human brain grey and white matter. The results could benefit subsequent studies for further enhancement and development of the models.
Fulltext The Potential Therapeutic Use of Agarwood for Diabetes: A Scoping Review

Fadzil MAM, Abu Seman N, Abd Rashed A

Pharmaceuticals (Basel), 2024 Nov 18;17(11).
PMID: 39598457 DOI: 10.3390/ph17111548

INTRODUCTION: In 2019, 9.3% (463 million) of adults worldwide had diabetes, according to the International Diabetes Federation (IDF). By 2030, the number will rise to 10.2% (578 million) and 10.9% (700 million) by 2045 if effective prevention methods are not implemented. Agarwood is a pathological product and valuable plant due to its numerous medicinal properties, and it is used as an essential ingredient in medicine. Therefore, we conducted this review to determine agarwood's potential health benefit effect on type 2 diabetes.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Although no clinical trials were found, the evidence from in vitro and in vivo studies is promising. Agarwood has shown the ability to reduce the activity of α-glucosidase, α-amylase, and lipase, promote adiponectin secretion during adipogenesis, and reduce oxidative stress. Animal studies elucidated hypoglycaemic, antidyslipidemia, anti-obesity, and organ protective effects from agarwood.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: Original articles were searched in three databases (PubMed, Scopus, and Cochrane Library) using the medical subject heading (MeSH) term "diabetes" crossed with the term "agarwood" from 2008 to 2024. Synonyms and relevant search terms were also searched.
CONCLUSIONS: This effect underscores the need for further research and the potential for groundbreaking discoveries in the field of diabetes treatment.
Fulltext Evaluation of the association of plasma pentraxin 3 levels with type 2 diabetes and diabetic nephropathy in a Malay population

Abu Seman N, Witasp A, Wan Mohamud WN, Anderstam B, Brismar K, Stenvinkel P, et al.

J Diabetes Res, 2013;2013:298019.
PMID: 24350299 DOI: 10.1155/2013/298019

Recent reports have demonstrated that elevated plasma long pentraxin 3 (PTX3) levels are associated with cardiovascular and chronic kidney diseases. In the current study, we investigated the plasma PTX3 levels in 296 Malay subjects including the subjects with normal glucose tolerance (NGT) and type 2 diabetes (T2DM) patients with or without DN by using an enzyme-linked immune-sorbent assay. Results showed that in males, plasma PTX3 levels in T2DM patients without DN were lower than that in the subjects with NGT (2.78 versus 3.98 ng/mL; P = 0.021). Plasma PTX3 levels in T2DM patients with DN were decreased compared to the patients without DN (1.63 versus 2.78 ng/mL; P = 0.013). In females, however, no significant alteration of plasma PTX3 levels among NGT subjects and T2DM patients with and without DN was detected. Furthermore, an inverse correlation between PTX3 and body mass index was found in male subjects with NGT (P = 0.012; r = -0.390), but not in male T2DM patients, neither in all females. The current study provided the first evidence that decreased plasma PTX3 levels are associated with T2DM and DN in Malay men and also suggested that PTX3 may have different effects in DN and chronic kidney diseases.
Genetic, epigenetic and protein analyses of intercellular adhesion molecule 1 in Malaysian subjects with type 2 diabetes and diabetic nephropathy

Abu Seman N, Anderstam B, Wan Mohamud WN, Östenson CG, Brismar K, Gu HF

J Diabetes Complications, 2015 Nov-Dec;29(8):1234-9.
PMID: 26255081 DOI: 10.1016/j.jdiacomp.2015.07.004

Recent research has implicated that the inflammation may be a key pathophysiological mechanism in diabetic nephropathy (DN). Intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1) is an acute phase marker of inflammation. In the present study, we carried out genetic, epigenetic and protein analyses of ICAM-1 in a Malaysian population, including normal glucose tolerance (NGT) subjects and type 2 diabetes (T2D) patients with or without DN in order to evaluate its role in DN.
Fulltext The Effect of a Combined Intermittent Fasting Healthy Plate Intervention on Anthropometric Outcomes and Body Composition Among Adults With Overweight and Obesity: Nonrandomized Controlled Trial

Abdullah SR, Wan Mohd Zin RM, Azizul NH, Sulaiman NS, Khalid NM, Mohd Salim Mullahi Jahn RJ, et al.

JMIR Form Res, 2024 Apr 10;8:e51542.
PMID: 38598283 DOI: 10.2196/51542

BACKGROUND: Adult obesity and overweight pose a substantial risk to global public health and are associated with various noncommunicable diseases. Although intermittent fasting (IF) is increasingly used as a relatively new dietary strategy for weight loss, the effectiveness of 2 days per week of dry fasting remains unknown.
OBJECTIVE: This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a combined dry IF and healthy plate (IFHP) and healthy plate (HP) intervention in improving anthropometric outcomes and body composition.
METHODS: This nonrandomized controlled trial involved 177 adults who were overweight and obese. Among them, 91 (51.4%) were allocated to the IFHP group and 86 (48.6%) were allocated to the HP group. The overall study duration was 6 months (October 2020 to March 2021). The intervention was divided into 2 phases: supervised (3 months) and unsupervised (3 months). The data were collected at baseline, after the supervised phase (month 3), and after the unsupervised phase (month 6). Anthropometric (weight, height, waist circumference, and hip circumference) and body composition (body fat percentage, body fat mass, skeletal muscle mass, and visceral fat area) data were measured at all 3 data collection points. Sociodemographic data were obtained using a questionnaire at baseline.
RESULTS: Most participants were female (147/177, 83.1%) and Malay (141/177, 79.7%). After 3 months, there were significant reductions in weight (difference -1.68; P.05).
CONCLUSIONS: A combined IFHP intervention was effective in improving anthropometric outcomes and body composition in adults with overweight and obesity.
INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): RR2-10.2196/33801.