Isolation of Alcohol Dehydrogenase cDNA and Basal Regulatory Region from Metroxylon sagu

Alcohol dehydrogenase (Adh) is a versatile enzyme involved in many biochemical pathways in plants such as in germination and stress tolerance. Sago palm is plant with much importance to the state of Sarawak as one of the most important crops that bring revenue with the advantage of being able to withstand various biotic and abiotic stresses such as heat, pathogens, and water logging. Here we report the isolation of sago palm Adh cDNA and its putative promoter region via the use of rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) and genomic walking. The isolated cDNA was characterized and determined to be 1464 bp long encoding for 380 amino acids. BLAST analysis showed that the Adh is similar to the Adh1 group with 91% and 85% homology with Elaeis guineensis and Washingtonia robusta, respectively. The putative basal msAdh1 regulatory region was further determined to contain promoter signals of TATA and AGGA boxes and predicted amino acids analyses showed several Adh-specific motifs such as the two zincbinding domains that bind to the adenosine ribose of the coenzyme and binding to alcohol substrate. A phylogenetic tree was also constructed using the predicted amino acid showed clear separation of Adh from bacteria and clustered within the plant Adh group

Tax evasion by business income taxpayers in Klang Valley Malaysia

Income tax is one of the major sources of revenue for Malaysian government. It has become an essential tool for the implementation of various government policies aimed at improving the welfare of the citizens and the development of the country. Tax evasion is alarming in Malaysia as more stringent measures are employed by Inland Revenue Board Malaysia (IRBM) to tackle this existing concerns. In general, tax is an illegal act of non-payment or under payment of tax. Although many studies on tax evasion were carried out in the past, there are still limited studies that used proprietary tax audit data to identify the association between taxpayers’ characteristics and tax evasion. Hence, this study will determine the significant difference between gender, age, business size and income level with tax evasion especially among taxpayers with business income in Klang Valley, Malaysia which has been identified to have low compliance rate in year assessment 2018. This study also employs actual data on the understatement of income as a proxy in measurement of tax evasion. The result shows that gender and income level have significant difference with tax evasion while age and business size have no significant difference with tax evasion. The result of this study are highly relevant to IRBM in developing strategies to curb tax evasion as well as add value to the current works on literature related to taxation

Synthesis of ZnO and styrene-acrylonitrile-based electrolyte for the application of quasi-solid-state dye-sensitized solar cell.

Sintesis zink oksida (ZnO) melalui sistem zink-udara (Zn-udara) telah dikaji. ZnO telah terbentuk apabila sistem Zn-udara dinyahcaskan sepenuhnya. Potensi pembangunan Zn-udara sebagai salah satu alternatif kepada kaedah sintesis ZnO telah dikaji untuk mencari nisbah luas kepada isipadu tertinggi berdasarkan beberapa kajian pencirian seperti pembelauan sinar-X, mikroskopi imbasan elektron pancaran medan, spektroskopi foto pendarkilau dan mikroskopi transmisi elektron. The synthesis of zinc oxide (ZnO) via the zinc-air (Zn-air) system was studied. The ZnO was formed upon discharge completion of the Zn-air system. Potential development of Zn-air as an alternative to ZnO synthesis method was studied to seek the highest surface-to-volume ratio based on the X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscopy, photoluminescence spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy characterization studies

Identification And Characterisation Of Coliphages From Seawater In Batu Ferringhi, Penang

Pathogenic microorganisms in polluted recreational seawater would be harmful to beachgoers and marine lives. Coliphages are recognised as bioindicator for the presence of human viruses in water quality monitoring. Thus, the purpose of this study was to survey the phage diversity in the polluted seawater in Batu Ferringhi and to study the characteristics of the isolated phages. The morphology of five isolated phages was determined through transmission electron microscopy visualisation. Three isolated coliphages that infected E. coli ATCC 11303 were suggested belonged to Myoviridae, whereas two coliphages which specific to E. coli ATCC 13706 were of Microviridae

Electrochemical studies of Mn(II) mediated by Li+ doped Indium Titanium Oxide (ITO) electrode.

An electrochemical investigation of Manganese species has been carried out by using cyclic voltammetry (CV) at Lithium doped Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) electrode. The doping of the Li+ ion onto the Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) electrode was carried out to 10 potential cycling in the presence of 0.1M LiOH. The modified Li+/ITO electrode used as working electrode and was applied for the detection of Mn(II) in 0.1M KCl aqueous solution using cyclic voltammetry (CV). Electrode responses were obtained for the reduction of 50μM of Mn(II) at lithium doped modified ITO electrode, and bare ITO electrode. A well defined peak appeared at -136mV vs Ag/AgCl with a current enhancement and peak potential shift toward higher potential due to the presence of Lithium doped. Besides that, the presence of Lithium doped caused an increase of the reduction peak of Mn (II) ion (current enhancement) by about 2.9 times compared to use of bare ITO electrode. The optimum physical and chemical conditions such as pH, concentration of Mn(II) ion solution, and scan rate for current enhancement would be obtained. A linear relationship (y= 1777.3x + 42.145, R2=0.995) was observed for the plot of current (μA) versus concentration range of 10μM to 1.0mM of Manganese in 0.1M KCl using Lithium doped modified ITO electrode. Based on the background noise of 50 data points, adjacent to the reduction peak of Mn (II), and 3σ/slope, a detection limit of 1.0nM was determined

Excitonic Instabilities and Insulating States in Bilayer Graphene

The competing ground states of bilayer graphene are studied by applying renormalization group techniques to a bilayer honeycomb lattice with nearest neighbor hopping. In the absence of interactions, the Fermi surface of this model at half-filling consists of two nodal points with momenta $\mathbf{K}$, $\mathbf{K}'$, where the conduction band and valence band touch each other, yielding a semi-metal. Since near these two points the energy dispersion is quadratic with perfect particle-hole symmetry, excitonic instabilities are inevitable if inter-band interactions are present. Using a perturbative renormalization group analysis up to the one-loop level, we find different competing ordered ground states, including ferromagnetism, superconductivity, spin and charge density wave states with ordering vector $\mathbf{Q}=\mathbf{K}-\mathbf{K}'$, and excitonic insulator states. In addition, two states with valley symmetry breaking are found in the excitonic insulating and ferromagnetic phases. This analysis strongly suggests that the ground state of bilayer graphene should be gapped, and with the exception of superconductivity, all other possible ground states are insulating.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures, 2 Tables, Added reference

Aberrant nuclear factor-kappa B activity in acute myeloid Leukemia: from molecular pathogenesis to therapeutic target

The overall survival of patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) has not been improved significantly over the last decade. Molecularly targeted agents hold promise to change the therapeutic landscape in AML. The nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) controls a plethora of biological process through switching on and off its long list of target genes. In AML, constitutive NF-κB has been detected in 40% of cases and its aberrant activity enable leukemia cells to evade apoptosis and stimulate proliferation. These facts suggest that NF-κB signaling pathway plays a fundamental role in the development of AML and it represents an attractive target for the intervention of AML. This review summarizes our current knowledge of NF-κB signaling transduction including canonical and non-canonical NF-κB pathways. Then we specifically highlight what factors contribute to the aberrant activation of NF-κB activity in AML, followed by an overview of 8 important clinical trials of the first FDA approved proteasome inhibitor, Bortezomib (Velcade®), which is a NF-κB inhibitor too, in combination with other therapeutic agents in patients with AML. Finally, this review discusses the future directions of NF-κB inhibitor in treatment of AML, especially in targeting leukemia stem cells (LSCs)