Correlation of FT-IR fingerprint and α-glucosidase inhibitory activity of Salak (Salacca zalacca) fruit extracts utilizing orthogonal partial least square

Salak fruit (Salacca zalacca), commonly known as snake fruit, is used indigenously as food and for medicinal applications in Southeast Asia. This study was conducted to evaluate the α-glucosidase inhibitory activity of salak fruit extracts in correlation to its Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) fingerprint, utilizing orthogonal partial least square. This calibration model was applied to develop a rapid analytical method tool for quality control of this fruit. A total of 36 extracts prepared with different solvent ratios of ethanol–water (100, 80, 60, 40.20, 0% v/v) and their α-glucosidase inhibitory activities determined. The FT-IR spectra of ethanol–water extracts measured in the region of 400 and 4000 cm−1 at a resolution of 4 cm−1. Multivariate analysis with a combination of orthogonal partial least-squares (OPLS) algorithm was used to correlate the bioactivity of the samples with the FT-IR spectral data. The OPLS biplot model identified several functional groups (C–H, C=O, C–N, N–H, C–O, and C=C) which actively induced α-glucosidase inhibitory activity

Malaysia indigenous herbs knowledge representation

The values of Malaysia indigenous herbs are not limited to its medicinal benefits but also in local and traditional knowledge of each herb.However, this knowledge is scattered and unorganized in internet and merely own by local people that led to difficulty in designing knowledge based system.This paper proposed a Malaysia indigenous herbs knowledge representation and its implementation in Web Ontology Language (OWL) using Protégé 4.2. The herbs knowledge mainly in preparation methods and plants part uses is collected from literatures and experts in herbal field.Additional interview session is conducted with expert to validate the information gathered.In order to ensure the knowledge model and ontology view is well defined, a prototype of knowledge based system is developed based on the ontology classes or concepts and relationships defined which requires conversion the OWL ontology into the relational database system at first hand

Cytotoxic activities of extracts and isolated compounds of some potential Sumatran medicinal plants against MCF-7 and HSC-3 cell lines

In continuation of our study of Sumatran plants and the bioactivity of their constituents, Stereocaulon halei Lamb (Stereocaulaceae) was extracted and isolated to obtain atranorin (1), lobaric acid (6), and methyl-β-orcinol carboxylate (9). We also prepared methanolic extracts of some Sumatran medicinal plants, i.e. Alpinia denticulata, Alpinia malaccensis, Alpinia submutica, Curcuma zedoaria, Centella asiatia, Mangifera indica, Piper crocatum, Mussaenda frondosa, together with previously isolated compounds, i.e. crocatin A (2) and crocatin B (3) from P. crocatum, curcumin (4) from Curcuma longa, demethoxymatteucinol (5) from Sphaerostephanos polycarpus, mangiferin (7) from M. indica, methyl caffeate (8) from Balanophora elongata, tiliroside (10) from Guazuma ulmifolia, and usnic acid from Usnea sp (11). These extracts and compounds were tested for their cytotoxicity against MCF-7 and HSC-3 cell lines by MTT assay (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5- diphenyltetrazolium bromide). It was found that the IC50 value of atranorin (1), lobaric acid (6), methyl-β-orcinol carboxylate (9), and methanolic extract of A. submutica towards the MCF-7 cell line was 208.20 μM, 172.05 μM, 382.60 μM and 70.95 μg/mL, respectively. The IC50 value of lobaric acid (6) and methyl-β- orcinol carboxylate (9) against the HSC-3 cell line was 88.92 μM and 260.09 μM, respectively. The other extracts did not show significant cytotoxicity

An Examination of the determinants of entrepreneurship in Thai high technology start-ups

This study advances understanding of the complexity of sustaining growth in high technology-based businesses. The study builds on the conceptual and applied insights on business growth from the entrepreneurship literatures to develop a model. The model is developed to investigate the impact of determinants subsumed under the three key-based factors, entrepreneurship, innovation and firm growth dynamics on the firms’ innovative entrepreneurial activities that might lead to enhanced economic growth This thesis uses both qualitative and quantitative methods to describe the determinants and test the relationships. The quantitative survey collected data from 521 young Thai start-ups. The qualitative study involved interviews with the CEO/owners of seven high-tech firms in Thailand. The quantitative and qualitative evidence from these firms led to a much stronger explanation of the performance of the high-tech sample. This thesis has significant theoretical and practical implications. From a theoretical viewpoint, this study provides detailed evaluation on the growth determinants from a developing country perspective. The results shown that the young high-technology firms in Thailand were similar to firms that had been examined in the literature with regard to their characteristics, innovation and firm growth dynamics but differed with regard to the utilisation of the key firm based factors subsumed under the three key-based factors, entrepreneurship, innovation and firm growth dynamics. From a practical viewpoint, these findings indicate that the competitiveness of young technology-based firms can be enhanced by developing critical capabilities to assist the right strategies for better performance. The thesis provides important new insights into this group of firms in a developing country. The analysis of the empirical and qualitative results showed the role and impacts of the determinants on the firms’ sustainable growth and highlighted the importance of the managerial ability to dynamically manipulate these key firm based determinants to sustain growth

Robust Counterfactual Explanations on Graph Neural Networks

Massive deployment of Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) in high-stake applications generates a strong demand for explanations that are robust to noise and align well with human intuition. Most existing methods generate explanations by identifying a subgraph of an input graph that has a strong correlation with the prediction. These explanations are not robust to noise because independently optimizing the correlation for a single input can easily overfit noise. Moreover, they do not align well with human intuition because removing an identified subgraph from an input graph does not necessarily change the prediction result. In this paper, we propose a novel method to generate robust counterfactual explanations on GNNs by explicitly modelling the common decision logic of GNNs on similar input graphs. Our explanations are naturally robust to noise because they are produced from the common decision boundaries of a GNN that govern the predictions of many similar input graphs. The explanations also align well with human intuition because removing the set of edges identified by an explanation from the input graph changes the prediction significantly. Exhaustive experiments on many public datasets demonstrate the superior performance of our method

Estimating the extent and structure of trade in horticultural orchids via social media

The wildlife trade is a lucrative industry involving thousands of animal and plant species. The increasing use of the internet for both legal and illegal wildlife trade is well documented, but there is evidence that trade may be emerging on new online technologies such as social media. Using the orchid trade as a case study, we conducted the first systematic survey of wildlife trade on an international social-media website. We focused on themed forums (groups), where people with similar interests can interact by uploading images or text (posts) that are visible to other group members. We used social-network analysis to examine the ties between 150 of these orchid-themed groups to determine the structure of the network. We found 4 communities of closely linked groups based around shared language. Most trade occurred in a community that consisted of English-speaking and Southeast Asian groups. In addition to the network analysis, we randomly sampled 30 groups from the whole network to assess the prevalence of trade in cultivated and wild plants. Of 55,805 posts recorded over 12 weeks, 8.9% contained plants for sale, and 22–46% of these posts pertained to wild-collected orchids. Although total numbers of posts about trade were relatively small, the large proportion of posts advertising wild orchids for sale supports calls for better monitoring of social media for trade in wild-collected plants

Mapping Nanomedicine Terminology in the Regulatory Landscape

A common terminology is essential in any field of science and technology for a mutual understanding among different communities of experts and regulators, harmonisation of policy actions, standardisation of quality procedures and experimental testing, and the communication to the general public. It also allows effective revision of information for policy making and optimises research fund allocation. In particular, in emerging scientific fields with a high innovation potential, new terms, descriptions and definitions are quickly generated, which are then ambiguously used by stakeholders having diverse interests, coming from different scientific disciplines and/or from various regions. The application of nanotechnology in health -often called nanomedicine- is considered as such emerging and multidisciplinary field with a growing interest of various communities. In order to support a better understanding of terms used in the regulatory domain, the Nanomedicines Working Group of the International Pharmaceutical Regulators Forum (IPRF) has prioritised the need to map, compile and discuss the currently used terminology of regulatory scientists coming from different geographic areas. The JRC has taken the lead to identify and compile frequently used terms in the field by using web crawling and text mining tools as well as the manual extraction of terms. Websites of 13 regulatory authorities and clinical trial registries globally involved in regulating nanomedicines have been crawled. The compilation and analysis of extracted terms demonstrated sectorial and geographical differences in the frequency and type of nanomedicine related terms used in a regulatory context. Finally 31 relevant and most frequently used terms deriving from various agencies have been compiled, discussed and analysed for their similarities and differences. These descriptions will support the development of harmonised use of terminology in the future. The report provides necessary background information to advance the discussion among stakeholders. It will strengthen activities aiming to develop harmonised standards in the field of nanomedicine, which is an essential factor to stimulate innovation and industrial competitiveness.JRC.F.2-Consumer Products Safet

Potent Plants, Cool Hearts: a landscape of healing in Laos

This thesis maps a landscape of healing in southern lowland Laos, demonstrating how traditional medicine and health practices engage with and occur within the local environment, set against the wider socio-political landscape. Rural fieldwork conducted with traditional healers, villagers and health staff in Champasak province utilised methods from anthropology and ethnopharmacology, and included work within state institutions. In rural Laos, traditional medicine use is commonly a response to chronic illness, as part of complex trajectories of care. Its popularity is strongly influenced both by social and familial connections and trust in practitioners associated with their reputation and positive experiences of the therapeutic encounter. Good health necessitates strengthening the blood and body boundaries to prevent illness, and attention to the mental-emotional and spiritual state. Social wellbeing and networks of care are also integral to regaining health; this is enacted during the soul-calling ceremony, a popular ritual for wellbeing. Traditional medicine forms are heterogeneous and localised, operating primarily outside the formal healthcare context, without a prominent power hierarchy with biomedicine and state regulation. Concurrently, Lao medical practices and knowledge can be situated within intersecting and layered medical and religious landscapes of Southeast, East and South Asia. Characteristics of the Lao healers’ medicines include the collection of fresh plant materials in the wild, preparation methods such as grinding raw woody parts into water, the use of unique herbal formulae, blowing techniques and mantra. Whilst tacit knowledge of medicinal plants among rural people arises through social relations and correspondences between plant names and illness forms, the healers’ knowledge is transmitted in specific forms. In treating illness such as fever, healers formulate a complete treatment based on symptom patterns. To ensure potency, the healers follow the logic of phitsanu, which frames efficacy through sources of spiritual power based in local cosmologies, and draw on natural forces such as van plants and astrology. They must thus regulate their actions to protect themselves and their patients from harm

The Intellectual Property and Alternative Legal Protection for Thai Cultural Heritage Properties, Traditional Knowledge and Products

This thesis comprises a study into whether the existing intellectual property regime, a sui generis system, or any adaptations or modifications of them have been successfully adopted for protecting both tangible and intangible cultural property and traditional knowledge of Thailand. How other developing countries have dealt with misappropriation issues and the limitations of the current intellectual property regime has also been studied. A number of concerns about and obstacles to traditional knowledge have been pointed out: the existing intellectual property system may have increased the risk of misappropriation or unauthorised use of traditional knowledge without consent; most developing countries have no comprehensive national policies or legal frameworks covering traditional knowledge; lack of effective legislation, authorities and mechanisms associated with intellectual property; the high cost of intellectual property procedures and management; the threat to the intellectual and cultural property rights of indigenous peoples; loss of cultural traditions/ articles and biodiversity; problems with maintaining and passing on cultural expression; as well as inequitable benefit-sharing and remedies. Intellectual property rights and traditional knowledge have become increasingly controversial globally, and sometimes they overlap. Due to the presumption that traditional knowledge is in the public domain, the current intellectual property rights regime can not efficiently and appropriately protect traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions/folklore, or provide equitable sharing for indigenous and local communities. Sometimes domestic legislation is insufficient, incompatible or in conflict with international intellectual property norms and policies. The most feasible solutions need to be rigorous, but flexible enough to cover the various forms of traditional knowledge and access to the generic resources of individual communities. Policy-making, development of categorisation and management of biodiversity data and local knowledge systems, effective strategies and mechanisms, international co-operation and support all need to be taken into consideration. It would be ideal to have a single legal system to protect all forms of intellectual property; unfortunately, in reality, this is impossible. However, depending on the capacity of governments and the readiness of their people, alternative or sui generis rights or a combination of any regimes of both preventive and positive protection could be developed and adapted and play a complementary role to balance the interests of all parties, while the general public can still access appropriate usage and benefits. Various ideas and alternative solutions from the different perspectives of international forums and other countries are gathered, analysed, proposed and recommended here for Thailand in particular