Qualitative research on critical issues in halal logistics / Mohamed Syazwan Ab Talib, Lim Rubin and Vincent Khor Zhengyi.

Halal is not only restricted to Muslims and is more than a religious matter. Halal is in the realm of business and trade, and is becoming a global symbol for quality assurance and lifestyle choice. Although Halal is booming and on an upward trend, there are very limited studies published on Halal logistics and academic research in this area is highly needed. This study is exploratory in nature and data are collected through series of focus groups interviews. Besides that, this study applies purposive sampling and judgement sampling as information are conveniently available from specific target groups. Results obtained from this study uncover the various issues faced by Halal logistics service providers and are categorized into five categories namely general Halal issues (BARRIER 1), integration issues among logistics service providers (BARRIER 2), integration issues between Halal authorities and logistics service providers (BARRIER 3), financial issues and perception of implementing Halal logistics (BARRIER 4) and issues pertaining to government’s support and promotion (BARRIER 5). The researcher managed to underline the research limitation such as the lack of empirical evidence, lack respondents from non-logistics companies and the study only focuses on Halal logistics thus ignoring other Halal businesses such as Halal pharmaceutical and Halal tourism. Plus, the issues uncovered open more doors for potential future research on barriers and critical success factors in adopting Halal into logistics management

The more pieces, the better the puzzle: sperm concentration increases gametic compatibility

The genetic benefits individuals receive from mate choice have been the focus of numerous studies, with several showing support for both intrinsic genetic benefits and compatibility effects on fertilization success and offspring viability. However, the robustness of these effects have rarely been tested across an ecologically relevant environmental gradient. In particular, sperm environment is a crucial factor determining fertilization success in many species, especially those with external fertilization. Here, we test the importance of sperm environment in mediating compatibility-based selection on fertilization using a factorial breeding design. We detected a significant intrinsic male effect on fertilization success at only one of four sperm concentrations. Compatibility effects were significant at the two highest sperm concentrations and, interestingly, the magnitude of the compatibility effect consistently increased with sperm concentration. This suggests that females are able to modify the probability of sperm-egg fusion as the amount of sperm available increases

Infections of respiratory or abdominal origin in ICU patients: what are the differences?

There are few data related to the effects of different sources of infection on outcome. We used the Sepsis Occurrence in Acutely ill Patients (SOAP) database to investigate differences in the impact of respiratory tract and abdominal sites of infection on organ failure and survival.Comparative StudyJournal ArticleMulticenter StudyResearch Support, Non-U.S. Gov'tSCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Evaluation of six high-resolution satellite and ground-based precipitation products over Malaysia

Satellite precipitation products (SPPs) potentially constitute an alternative to sparse rain gauge networks for assessing the spatial distribution of precipitation. However, applications of these products are still limited due to the lack of robust quality assessment. This study compares daily, monthly, seasonal, and annual rainfall amount at 342 rain gauges over Malaysia to estimations using five SPPs (3B42RT, 3B42V7, GPCP-1DD, PERSIANN-CDR, and CMORPH) and a ground-based precipitation product (APHRODITE). The performance of the precipitation products was evaluated from 2003 to 2007 using continuous (RMSE, R-2, ME, MAE, and RB) and categorical (ACC, POD, FAR, CSI, and HSS) statistical approaches. Overall, 3B42V7 and APHRODITE performed the best, while the worst performance was shown by GPCP-1DD. 3B42RT, 3B42V7, and PERSIANN-CDR slightly overestimated observed precipitation by 2%, 4.7%, and 2.1%, respectively. By contrast, APHRODITE and CMORPH significantly underestimated precipitations by 19.7% and 13.2%, respectively, whereas GPCP-1DD only slightly underestimated by 2.8%. All six precipitation products performed better in the northeast monsoon than in the southwest monsoon. The better performances occurred in eastern and southern Peninsular Malaysia and in the north of East Malaysia, which receives higher rainfall during the northeast monsoon, whereas poor performances occurred in the western and dryer Peninsular Malaysia. All precipitation products underestimated the no/tiny (= 20 mm/day) rainfall events, while they overestimated low (1-20 mm/day) rainfall events. 3B42RT and 3B42V7 showed the best ability to detect precipitation amounts with the highest HSS value (0.36). Precipitations during flood events such as those which occurred in late 2006 and early 2007 were estimated the best by 3B42RT and 3B42V7, as shown by an R-2 value ranging from 0.49 to 0.88 and 0.52 to 0.86, respectively. These results on SPPs' uncertainties and their potential controls might allow sensor and algorithm developers to deliver better products for improved rainfall estimation and thus improved watermanagement

The Science and Practice of Carcinogen Identification and Evaluation

Several national and international health agencies have established programs with the aim of identifying agents and exposures that cause cancer in humans. Carcinogen identification is an activity grounded in the scientific evaluation of the results of human epidemiologic studies, long-term bioassays in experimental animals, and other data relevant to an evaluation of carcinogenicity and its mechanisms. In this commentary, after a brief discussion of the science basis common to the evaluation of carcinogens across different programs, we discuss in more detail the principles and procedures currently used by the IARC Monographs program

The WHO checklist: a global tool to prevent errors in surgery

In this article, we welcome the adoption of the WHO surgical checklist to prevent errors in surgical practice. We highlight the scale of the problem and discuss the adoption of this tool in the UK

Segond's fracture: a biomechanical cadaveric study using navigation

Background Segond’s fracture is a well-recognised radiological sign of an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear. While previous studies evaluated the role of the anterolateral ligament (ALL) and complex injuries on rotational stability of the knee, there are no studies on the biomechanical effect of Segond’s fracture in an ACL deficient knee. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of a Segond’s fracture on knee rotation stability as evaluated by a navigation system in an ACL deficient knee. Materials and methods Three different conditions were tested on seven knee specimens: intact knee, ACL deficient knee and ACL deficient knee with Segond’s fracture. Static and dynamic measurements of anterior tibial translation (ATT) and axial tibial rotation (ATR) were recorded by the navigation system (2.2 OrthoPilot ACL navigation system B. Braun Aesculap, Tuttlingen, Germany). Results Static measurements at 30 showed that the mean ATT at 30 of knee flexion was 5.1 ± 2.7 mm in the ACL intact condition, 14.3 ± 3.1 mm after ACL cut (P = 0.005), and 15.2 ± 3.6 mm after Segond’s fracture (P = 0.08). The mean ATR at 30 of knee flexion was 20.7 ± 4.8 in the ACL intact condition, 26.9 ± 4.1 in the ACL deficient knee (P[0.05) and 30.9 ± 3.8 after Segond’s fracture (P = 0.005). Dynamic measurements during the pivot-shift showed that the mean ATT was 7.2 ± 2.7 mm in the intact knee, 9.1 ± 3.3 mm in the ACL deficient knee(P = 0.04) and 9.7 ± 4.3 mm in the ACL deficient knee with Segond’s fracture (P = 0.07). The mean ATR was 9.6 ± 1.8 in the intact knee, 12.3 ± 2.3 in the ACL deficient knee (P[0.05) and 19.1 ± 3.1 in the ACL deficient knee with Segond’s lesion (P = 0.016). Conclusion An isolated lesion of the ACL only affects ATT during static and dynamic measurements, while the addition of Segond’s fracture has a significant effect on ATR in both static and dynamic execution of the pivot-shift test, as evaluated with the aid of navigation

Topological semimetal in a fermionic optical lattice

Optical lattices play a versatile role in advancing our understanding of correlated quantum matter. The recent implementation of orbital degrees of freedom in chequerboard and hexagonal optical lattices opens up a new thrust towards discovering novel quantum states of matter, which have no prior analogs in solid state electronic materials. Here, we demonstrate that an exotic topological semimetal emerges as a parity-protected gapless state in the orbital bands of a two-dimensional fermionic optical lattice. The new quantum state is characterized by a parabolic band-degeneracy point with Berry flux $2\pi$, in sharp contrast to the $\pi$ flux of Dirac points as in graphene. We prove that the appearance of this topological liquid is universal for all lattices with D$_4$ point group symmetry as long as orbitals with opposite parities hybridize strongly with each other and the band degeneracy is protected by odd parity. Turning on inter-particle repulsive interactions, the system undergoes a phase transition to a topological insulator whose experimental signature includes chiral gapless domain-wall modes, reminiscent of quantum Hall edge states.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures and Supplementary Informatio

The polygenic nature of telomere length and the anti-ageing properties of lithium

Telomere length is a promising biomarker for age-related disease and a potential anti-ageing drug target. Here, we study the genetic architecture of telomere length and the repositioning potential of lithium as an anti-ageing medication. LD score regression applied to the largest telomere length genome-wide association study to-date, revealed SNP-chip heritability estimates of 7.29%, with polygenic risk scoring capturing 4.4% of the variance in telomere length in an independent cohort (p = 6.17 × 10-5). Gene-enrichment analysis identified 13 genes associated with telomere length, with the most significant being the leucine rich repeat gene, LRRC34 (p = 3.69 × 10-18). In the context of lithium, we confirm that chronic use in a sample of 384 bipolar disorder patients is associated with longer telomeres (p = 0.03). As complementary evidence, we studied three orthologs of telomere length regulators in a Caenorhabditis elegans model of lithium-induced extended longevity and found all transcripts to be affected post-treatment (p  0.05). Consequently, this suggests that lithium may be catalysing the activity of endogenous mechanisms that promote telomere lengthening, whereby its efficacy eventually becomes limited by each individual's inherent telomere maintenance capabilities. Our work indicates a potential use of polygenic risk scoring for the prediction of adult telomere length and consequently lithium's anti-ageing efficacy

Genetic association of CDC2 with cerebrospinal fluid tau in Alzheimer's disease

We have recently reported that a polymorphism in the cell division cycle (CDC2) gene, designated Ex6 + 7I/D, is associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD). The CDC2 gene is located on chromosome 10q21.1 close to the marker D10S1225 linked to AD. Active cdc2 accumulates in neurons containing neurofibrillary tangles (NFT), a process that can precede the formation of NFT. Therefore, CDC2 is a promising candidate susceptibility gene for AD. We investigated the possible effects of the CDC2 polymorphism on cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers in AD patients. CDC2 genotypes were evaluated in relation to CSF protein levels of total tau, phospho-tau and beta-amyloid (1-42) in AD patients and control individuals, and in relation to the amount of senile plaques and NFT in the frontal cortex and in the hippocampus in patients with autopsy-proven AD and controls. The CDC2 Ex6 + 7I allele was associated with a gene dose-dependent increase of CSF total tau levels (F-2,F- 626 = 7.0, p = 0.001) and the homozygous CDC2Ex6 +7II genotype was significantly more frequent among AD patients compared to controls (p = 0.006, OR = 1.57, 95% CI 1.13-2.17). Our results provide further evidence for an involvement of cdc2 in the pathogenesis of AD. Copyright (C) 2005 S. Karger AG, Basel