Aquaculture of a high-value freshwater fish in [Malaysia] : the marble or sand goby (Oxyeleotris marmoratus, Bleeker)

The article highlights the aquaculture of marble or sand goby (Oxyeleotris marmoratus) in Malaysia. Topics discussed are: breeding, hatchery and nursery techiques, nutrition, growout techniques, and diseases

Properties of Cement Brick Containing Expanded Polystyrene Beads (EPS) And Palm Oil Fuel Ash (POFA)

This paper assesses the mechanical properties of cement brick containing Expanded Polystyrene Beads (EPS) and Palm Oil Fuel Ash (POFA) as partial replacement of sand and Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC). The aim of this research are to determine the mechanical properties of brick containing EPS and POFA as partial replacement of sand and OPC. The dosage for EPS replacement is 20%, 30%, 40% and 50% EPS whereas 5%, 10%, 15%, 20% and 25% of POFA replacement. The mechanical properties of the bricks are density, compressive strength and water absorption. The bricks with 30%, 40% and 50% EPS replacement have density below 1680 kg/m3 which considered as lightweight brick. The brick with 50% EPS replacement recorded lowest density which is 1328 kg/m3 while 1629 kg/m3 for the brick with  25% POFA replacement at 56-days of curing. The water absorption testing for these brick are between 7.20%-18.19%. Brick with 0% POFA and 50% EPS replacement has the lowest water absorption properties whereas brick with 25% POFA and 0% EPS replacement has the highest water absorption properties

In vitro antiviral activity of medicinal mushroom Ganoderma neo-japonicum Imazeki against enteroviruses that caused hand, foot and mouth disease

Hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) is a highly contagious viral disease that predominantly affects children younger than 5 years old. HFMD is primarily caused by enterovirus A71 (EVA71) and coxsackievirus A16 (CV-A16). However, coxsackievirus A10 (CV-A10) and coxsackievirus A6 (CV-A6) are being increasingly reported as the predominant causative of HFMD outbreaks worldwide since the past decade. To date, there are still no licensed multivalent vaccines or antiviral drugs targeting enteroviruses that cause HFMD, despite HFMD outbreaks are still being frequently reported, especially in Asia-Pacific countries. The high rate of transmission, morbidity and potential neurological complications of HFMD is indeed making the development of broad-spectrum antiviral drugs/agents against these enteroviruses a compelling need. In this study, we have investigated the in vitro antiviral effect of 4 Ganoderma neo-japonicum Imazeki (GNJI) crude extracts (S1-S4) against EV-A71, CV-A16, CV-A10 and CV-A6. GNJI is a medicinal mushroom that can be found growing saprophytically on decaying bamboo clumps in Malaysian forests. The antiviral effects of this medicinal mushroom were determined using cytopathic inhibition and virus titration assays. The S2 (1.25 mg/ml) hot aqueous extract demonstrated the highest broad-spectrum antiviral activity against all tested enteroviruses in human primary oral fibroblast cells. Replication of EV-A71, CV-A16 and CVA10 were effectively inhibited at 2 hours post-infection (hpi) to 72 hpi, except for CV-A6 which was only at 2 hpi. S2 also has virucidal activity against EV-A71. Polysaccharides isolated and purified from crude hot aqueous extract demonstrated similar antiviral activity as S2, suggesting that polysaccharides could be one of the active compounds responsible for the antiviral activity shown by S2. To our knowledge, this study demonstrates for the first time the ability of GNJI to inhibit enterovirus infection and replication. Thus, GNJI is potential to be further developed as an antiviral agent against enteroviruses that caused HFMD

Large expert-curated database for benchmarking document similarity detection in biomedical literature search

Document recommendation systems for locating relevant literature have mostly relied on methods developed a decade ago. This is largely due to the lack of a large offline gold-standard benchmark of relevant documents that cover a variety of research fields such that newly developed literature search techniques can be compared, improved and translated into practice. To overcome this bottleneck, we have established the RElevant LIterature SearcH consortium consisting of more than 1500 scientists from 84 countries, who have collectively annotated the relevance of over 180 000 PubMed-listed articles with regard to their respective seed (input) article/s. The majority of annotations were contributed by highly experienced, original authors of the seed articles. The collected data cover 76% of all unique PubMed Medical Subject Headings descriptors. No systematic biases were observed across different experience levels, research fields or time spent on annotations. More importantly, annotations of the same document pairs contributed by different scientists were highly concordant. We further show that the three representative baseline methods used to generate recommended articles for evaluation (Okapi Best Matching 25, Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency and PubMed Related Articles) had similar overall performances. Additionally, we found that these methods each tend to produce distinct collections of recommended articles, suggesting that a hybrid method may be required to completely capture all relevant articles. The established database server located at https://relishdb.ict.griffith.edu.au is freely available for the downloading of annotation data and the blind testing of new methods. We expect that this benchmark will be useful for stimulating the development of new powerful techniques for title and title/abstract-based search engines for relevant articles in biomedical research.Peer reviewe

Tocilizumab in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial

Background: In this study, we aimed to evaluate the effects of tocilizumab in adult patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 with both hypoxia and systemic inflammation. Methods: This randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy [RECOVERY]), is assessing several possible treatments in patients hospitalised with COVID-19 in the UK. Those trial participants with hypoxia (oxygen saturation <92% on air or requiring oxygen therapy) and evidence of systemic inflammation (C-reactive protein ≥75 mg/L) were eligible for random assignment in a 1:1 ratio to usual standard of care alone versus usual standard of care plus tocilizumab at a dose of 400 mg–800 mg (depending on weight) given intravenously. A second dose could be given 12–24 h later if the patient's condition had not improved. The primary outcome was 28-day mortality, assessed in the intention-to-treat population. The trial is registered with ISRCTN (50189673) and ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04381936). Findings: Between April 23, 2020, and Jan 24, 2021, 4116 adults of 21 550 patients enrolled into the RECOVERY trial were included in the assessment of tocilizumab, including 3385 (82%) patients receiving systemic corticosteroids. Overall, 621 (31%) of the 2022 patients allocated tocilizumab and 729 (35%) of the 2094 patients allocated to usual care died within 28 days (rate ratio 0·85; 95% CI 0·76–0·94; p=0·0028). Consistent results were seen in all prespecified subgroups of patients, including those receiving systemic corticosteroids. Patients allocated to tocilizumab were more likely to be discharged from hospital within 28 days (57% vs 50%; rate ratio 1·22; 1·12–1·33; p<0·0001). Among those not receiving invasive mechanical ventilation at baseline, patients allocated tocilizumab were less likely to reach the composite endpoint of invasive mechanical ventilation or death (35% vs 42%; risk ratio 0·84; 95% CI 0·77–0·92; p<0·0001). Interpretation: In hospitalised COVID-19 patients with hypoxia and systemic inflammation, tocilizumab improved survival and other clinical outcomes. These benefits were seen regardless of the amount of respiratory support and were additional to the benefits of systemic corticosteroids. Funding: UK Research and Innovation (Medical Research Council) and National Institute of Health Research

Convalescent plasma in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised controlled, open-label, platform trial

Background: Many patients with COVID-19 have been treated with plasma containing anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. We aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of convalescent plasma therapy in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19. Methods: This randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy [RECOVERY]) is assessing several possible treatments in patients hospitalised with COVID-19 in the UK. The trial is underway at 177 NHS hospitals from across the UK. Eligible and consenting patients were randomly assigned (1:1) to receive either usual care alone (usual care group) or usual care plus high-titre convalescent plasma (convalescent plasma group). The primary outcome was 28-day mortality, analysed on an intention-to-treat basis. The trial is registered with ISRCTN, 50189673, and ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04381936. Findings: Between May 28, 2020, and Jan 15, 2021, 11558 (71%) of 16287 patients enrolled in RECOVERY were eligible to receive convalescent plasma and were assigned to either the convalescent plasma group or the usual care group. There was no significant difference in 28-day mortality between the two groups: 1399 (24%) of 5795 patients in the convalescent plasma group and 1408 (24%) of 5763 patients in the usual care group died within 28 days (rate ratio 1·00, 95% CI 0·93–1·07; p=0·95). The 28-day mortality rate ratio was similar in all prespecified subgroups of patients, including in those patients without detectable SARS-CoV-2 antibodies at randomisation. Allocation to convalescent plasma had no significant effect on the proportion of patients discharged from hospital within 28 days (3832 [66%] patients in the convalescent plasma group vs 3822 [66%] patients in the usual care group; rate ratio 0·99, 95% CI 0·94–1·03; p=0·57). Among those not on invasive mechanical ventilation at randomisation, there was no significant difference in the proportion of patients meeting the composite endpoint of progression to invasive mechanical ventilation or death (1568 [29%] of 5493 patients in the convalescent plasma group vs 1568 [29%] of 5448 patients in the usual care group; rate ratio 0·99, 95% CI 0·93–1·05; p=0·79). Interpretation: In patients hospitalised with COVID-19, high-titre convalescent plasma did not improve survival or other prespecified clinical outcomes. Funding: UK Research and Innovation (Medical Research Council) and National Institute of Health Research

The influence of physical, beneficial and image properties on responses to parallel imports

International Marketing Review176509-52

The power of money: A cross-cultural analysis of business-related beliefs

Journal of World Business35143-6

Crisis marketing: A comparison across economic scenarios

10.1016/S0969-5931(01)00016-6International Business Review103263-28

所外2 ニホンザル側頭視覚連合野における水平軸索の解剖学的解析(III 共同利用研究 2.研究成果)

Singapore Medical Journal326403-40