A noninvasive molecular approach: exploiting species-locus-specific PCR primers in defeating numts and DNA cross-contamination of cercopithecidae

The lack of a standardized, noninvasive molecular approach to studying genetic aspects of primates has made it hard for primatologists to decode the evolutionary history of these species. Researchers must optimize their own techniques to fully exploit the available samples. Lack of species-locus-specific primers also contributes to difficulties in using noninvasive genetic samples. Thus, the objectives of this study were to develop a standardized technique to collecting samples noninvasively, propose newly designed species-locus-specific primers, and optimize conditions for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for Macaca fascicularis, M. nemestrina, Trachypithecus cristatus, and T. obscurus. Nine new species-locus-specific primers for three different loci of mitochondrial DNA, namely D-loop, cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI), and cytochrome b, were successfully designed. These primers proved to be efficient in amplifying larger datasets (up to ~1,000 bp) of the targeted species in the optimized PCR conditions. The species-locus-specific primers are able to anneal to host DNA alone in highly contaminated feces of highlighted species. They can also offer alternatives measures in avoiding contamination related to nuclear insertion of mitochondrial pseudogenes (numts)

Discharge and flow coefficient analysis in internal combustion engine using computational fluid dynamics simulation

Intake system is one of the crucial sub-systems in engine which can inflict significant effect on the air-fuel mixing, combustion, fuel consumption, as well as exhaust gases formation. There are many parameters that will influence engine performances. Good engine breathing is required to get better air flow rate to the engine. One of the methods includes the improvement of intake system by modifying the intake port design. This paper presents the application of Computational Fluid Dynamics analysis on two engines with different intake port shapes. Dimensionless parameters like discharge coefficient and flow coefficient are used to quantify the changes in intake flow at different valve lifts variation. Results show that when valve lift increases, this inflicted the increase in discharge coefficient because of greater mass flow rate of induction air. Both flow and discharge coefficient is dependent on valve lift. Flow analysis proved the relationship by computing the increase of flow coefficient as valve opening increase. The computed analysis shows that different intake port shapes does bring significant effect on discharge coefficient and flow coefficient

A training monitoring system for cyclist based on wireless sensor networks

This paper presents a training monitoring system for cyclist that is based on the technology of wireless sensor networks (WSNs). A stable and reliable wireless cyclist monitoring system is vital to establish a smart and efficient sports management program. A training monitoring system has been developed and tested in a real cyclist training environment in a velodrome. The system is designed is such a way that the packet loss rate is minimum. Using TelG mote as the basis, customized sensor nodes that function as a forwarder node and the relay nodes are developed to form the WSN. This WSN is linked to the cloud network on the Internet. The cloud network is then established and end users application for data accessing is designed. Several experiments have been conducted in a real scenario in a velodrome to measure the reliability of the system architecture. It is shown from the experiments that the proposed system is reliable even when the cyclist is moving at a high speed. The packet loss is less than 2% which does not give a huge impact to the data transmission

Perception of Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) on various curation and preservation techniques for the development of natural history gallery in Malaysia: a qualitative study

Preserving animal’s body or part of the animals have become an important and wellknown conservation medium to ensure that the future generations are still able to enjoy the biodiversity and all the incredible species that live within it. This paper aims to present a qualitative study on perception and preference of subject matter experts (SMEs) on various curation and preservation methods that is suitable for certain animals for the development of Natural History Gallery. Interview with the SMEs were done by using semi-structured questionnaire and prior to this, permission were gained from the respondents by signing the Informed Consent Form (ICF). The findings suggest that the preservation methods of specimens ultimately depend on the purpose of specimens collected, either to be preserved as research specimens or exhibition specimens. The information gained form this study will be valuable as directive for the development of natural history gallery in Malaysia

Characterization of End-to-end Path Selection for Cognitive Radio Wireless Mesh Networks

Abstract: The Cognitive Radio (CR) can delivers the environment to Secondary Users (SUs) of Wireless Mesh Network (WMN) to utilize unused spectrum of Primary Users (PUs) opportunistically. The CR can improve the spectrum usage of the WMN. However, this rises the some additional complexities for the SUs such as spectrum heterogeneity, unpredictable PU activity and interference constraints. In this paper an analytical model has been developed to analyse these complexities for each SU node and link characteristics for end-to-end optimal Path and channel assignment. Numerical results show that the analytical model is an effective tool to investigate the effects of the PU activities and channel heterogeneity on the network performance

A review of forest fire surveillance technologies: Mobile ad-hoc network routing protocols perspective

Mobile Ad-Hoc Network (MANET) is a type of structure-less wireless mobile network, in which each node plays the role of the router and host at the same time. MANET has gained increased interest from researchers and developers for various applications such as forest fire detection. Forest fires require continuous monitoring and effective communication, technology, due to the big losses are brought about by this event. As such, disaster response and rescue applications are considered to be a key application of the MANET. This paper gives an extensive review of the modern techniques used in the forest fire detection based on recent MANET routing protocols such as reactive Location-Aided Routing (LAR), proactive Optimized Link State Routing (OLSR) and LAR-Based Reliable Routing Protocol (LARRR)

A survey of voice pathology surveillance systems based on internet of things and machine learning algorithms

The incorporation of the cloud technology with the Internet of Things (IoT) is significant in order to obtain better performance for a seamless, continuous, and ubiquitous framework. IoT has many applications in the healthcare sector, one of these applications is voice pathology monitoring. Unfortunately, voice pathology has not gained much attention, where there is an urgent need in this area due to the shortage of research and diagnosis of lethal diseases. Most of the researchers are focusing on the voice pathology and their finding is only to differentiating either the voice is normal (healthy) or pathological voice, where there is a lack of the current studies for detecting a certain disease such as laryngeal cancer. In this paper, we present an extensive review of the state-of-the-art techniques and studies of IoT frameworks and machine learning algorithms used in the healthcare in general and in the voice pathology surveillance systems in particular. Furthermore, this paper also presents applications, challenges and key issues of both IoT and machine learning algorithms in the healthcare. Finally, this paper highlights some open issues of IoT in healthcare that warrant further research and investigation in order to present an easy, comfortable and effective diagnosis and treatment of disease for both patients and doctors

Low diversity of fruit bats in the East Coast islands of Terengganu, Malaysia

Fruit bats are important pollinators for plants and play important ecological functions and services in the tropical rain forest. Fruit bats are considered more important for the ecological rehabilitation and health of the plant community on islands as other pollinators may not be able to fly across open sea and reach the island. This study was conducted to determine the diversity of fruit bats in three contrasting Terengganu offshore islands, namely, Pulau Perhentian, Pulau Bidong, and Pulau Redang. A total of 40 individuals of four species were captured using 10 mist nets during the 180 mist-net night sampling period from June 27, 2019 until February 29, 2020. Pulau Bidong had the highest number of bats captured (22), followed by Pulau Redang (18) and Pulau Perhentian (0). The most frequently captured species was Cynopterus brachyotis in both islands. No yield in Pulau Perhentian may be caused by tourism activity, seasonal movement following flowering and fruiting trees, or inadequate sampling effort in multiple sites. The data can be further used to determine factors in assessing threats and for future conservation by the management authorities

Is Malaysia’s banded langur, Presbytis femoralis femoralis, actually Presbytis neglectus neglectus? Taxonomic revision with new insights on the radiation history of the Presbytis species group in Southeast Asia

The disjunct distribution of Presbytis femoralis subspecies across Sumatra (P. f. percura), southern (P. f. femoralis) and northern (P. f. robinsoni) Peninsular Malaysia marks the unique vicariance events in the Sunda Shelf. However, the taxonomic positions and evolutionary history of P. f. femoralis are unresolved after decades of research. To elucidate this evolutionary history, we analyzed 501 base pairs of the mitochondrial HVSI gene from 25 individuals representing Malaysia’s banded langur, with the addition of 29 sequences of Asian Presbytis from Genbank. Our results revealed closer affinity of P. f. femoralis to P. m. mitrata and P. m. sumatrana while maintaining the monophyletic state of P. f. femoralis as compared to P. f. robinsoni. Two central theses were inferred from the results; (1) P. f. femoralis does not belong in the same species classification as P. f. robinsoni, and (2) P. f. femoralis is the basal lineage of the Presbytis in Peninsular Malaysia. Proving the first hypothesis through genetic analysis, we reassigned P. f. femoralis of Malaysia to Presbytis neglectus (Schlegel’s banded langur) (Schlegel in Revue Methodique, Museum d’Histoire Naturelle des Pays-Bas 7:1, 1876) following the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (article 23.3). The ancestors of P. neglectus are hypothesized to have reached southern Peninsular Malaysia during the Pleistocene and survived in refugium along the western coast. Consequently, they radiated upward, forming P. f. robinsoni and P. siamensis resulting in the highly allopatric distribution in Peninsular Malaysia. This study has successfully resolved the taxonomic position of P. neglectus in Peninsular Malaysia while providing an alternative biogeographic theory for the Asian Presbytis