Correlation between benthic macroinvertebrate distribution and substrate composition in selected recreational rivers in Kelantan, Malaysia

This study was carried out to determine the correlation between benthic macroinvertebrate and substrate composition in recreational rivers in Bukit Bakar, Jeram Pasu, and Lata Mengaji. Pebble count method and Surber net were used for substrates and benthic macroinvertebrate data collection, respectively. D50 of substrates compositions was calculated using the pebble count data and correlated with benthic macroinvertebrates compositions by using Pearson correlation. The highest D50 measured was at Lata Mengaji (Station 5) with 120.11mm and the lowest D50 at Jeram Pasu (Station 5) with 10.82mm. Therefore, results showed the different richness, composition, and distribution of families between the three sites. Athericidae, Chironomidae, Elmidae, Euphaeidae, Helodidae, Heptageniidae, Leptophlebiidae, Platystictidae, Psephenidae and Simuliidae show a significant difference between sites. However, among all of these families, only families Psephenidae and Elmidae had the highest correlation with D50 (p-value<0.05). This was concluded that the substrate size compositions and arrangement are factors that influence the benthic macroinvertebrate distribution in rivers

Exploring metabolic signature of protein energy wasting in hemodialysis patients

End-stage renal disease patients undergoing maintenance hemodialysis (HD) are vulnerable to the protein energy wasting (PEW) syndrome. Identification and diagnosis of PEW relies on clinical processes of judgment dependent on fulfilling multiple criteria drawn from serum biochemistry, weight status, predictive muscle mass, dietary energy and protein intakes. Therefore, we sought to explore the biomarkers' signature with plasma metabolites of PEW by using 1H-nuclear magnetic resonance for an untargeted metabolomics approach in the HD population, to understand metabolic alteration of PEW. In this case-controlled study, a total of 53 patients undergoing chronic HD were identified having PEW based on established diagnostic criteria and were age- and sex-matched with non-PEW (n = 53) HD patients. Fasting predialysis plasma samples were analyzed. Partial least square discriminant analysis demonstrated a significant separation between groups for specific metabolic pattern alterations. Further quantitative analysis showed that the level of 3-hydroxybutyrate, acetate, arabinose, maltose, ribose, sucrose and tartrate were significantly increased whilst creatinine was significantly decreased (all p < 0.05) in PEW subjects. Pathway analysis indicated that PEW-related metabolites reflected perturbations in fatty acid mechanism and induction of glyoxylate and dicarboxylate pathway attributed to gluconeogenesis. These results provide preliminary data in understanding metabolic alteration of PEW and corresponding abnormal metabolites that could potentially serve as biomarkers of PEW