Effect of cadmium to strombus canarium (Gastropod: Strombidae)

Total of 180 specimens of marine gastropod, Strombus canarium, collected from southern coast of Peninsular Malaysia were exposed to artificial sea water containing cadmium in the concentration range between 1.0 and 5.0 mg L-1 for 96 hours. The objective of the study is to statistically determine the acute toxicity of cadmium to the gastropod, Strombus canarium that has not been reported yet so far. Experiments were carried out under static renewal condition in order to maintain the concentration level of cadmium constant as well as to prevent accumulation of organic pollutants such as excreta of the gastropods and disintegrated dead bodies. The data obtained from the test were subjected to the EPA Probit Analysis Program and the acute toxicity was determined as the median lethal concentration (LC50). Abnormal behaviour such as secretion of mucus in large quantities was observed, especially, at high concentration of cadmium. Neither mortality nor abnormal behaviour was observed in the control group throughout the experiment. As a result, the 96-h LC50 value for Strombus canarium was determined to be 1.23 mg L-1. The result indicates that the Strombus canarium possesses less tolerance to cadmium ions compared to other gastropods

Development of Internet of Thing (IoT) technology for flood prediction and Early Warning System (EWS)

Flood is the most significant disaster happened in almost every part of the world. When the event occurred, it causes great losses in economic and human life. Implementation of the advancement of ICT brings significant contribution to reduce the impact of flood toward the people and properties. This paper attempts to investigate the capability of internet of things (IoT) technology in reducing the impact of natural disaster specifically in flood disaster scenario. First, the concept of Internet of Things (IoT), key technologies and its architecture are discussed. Second, related research work on IoT in disaster context will be discussed. Third, further discussion on the propose Internet of Things (IoT) architecture and key components in the development of flood prediction and early warning system. The smart sensors will be placed at river basin for real-time data collection on flood related parameter such as rainfall, river flaw, water level, temperature, wind direction and so on. The data will be transmitted to data centre via wireless communication technology which will be processed and measured on the cloud service, then the alert information will be sent users via smart phone. Thus, early warning message is received by the people in terms of location, time and other parameters relate to flood

Microbial diversity in disturbed and undisturbed peat swamp forest and isolation of cyanobacteria

Microbial diversity from disturbed and undisturbed peat swamp forest obtained from next generation sequencing. Through this analysis, genera cyanobacteria is being compared with isolated cyanobacteria from both environmments which is extremely acidic. For the future study, this genera has ability as biofertilizer in acidic soil for plantations

Characterization of musty odor producing actinomycetes in Malaysia

The presence of geosmin and 2-methylisoborneol (2-MIB) becomes an increasing concern as they are known to cause earthy or musty odor in freshwater environments. Geosmin and 2-MIB outbreaks in Malaysia are not well understood and since Malaysia has a stable temperature throughout the year, no information has been reported on effect of temperature to the odor production. In this study, 6 isolated strains were selected for study of the effect of temperature (20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45 & 50°C) on geosmin and 2-MIB production. Preliminary results indicate that at temperature 30 °C, Strain 5 showed highest geosmin production (129.06 µg/L) and Strain 2 produced highest 2-MIB (19.89 µg/L). PCR band was obtained in a test whether these isolated strains had geoA gene or not

Microcystin degradation in sphingopyxis sp. C-1

The microcystin-degrading gene cluster, mlrA-B-C-D, plaies an important role in the degradation process of hepatotoxic microcystins for several bacterial species. However after microcystin is degraded to linear-microcystin by MlrA, it is still unknown about where and by what it is metabolited. In order to clarify it, we disrupted the mlrB gene and mlrC gene in chromosome of microcystin-degrading bacteria, Sphingopyxis sp. C-1. The cells disrupted mlrB gene and mlrC gene accumulated of microcystin-degradation product, linear-microcystin and tetrapeptide, respectively, whereas the cell free extracts of ?mlrB cells detected Adda and ?mlrC cells accumulated tetrapeptide. Moreover, topology analysis of MlrB using the ß-lactamase gene fusion method insisted MlrB is the peripheral protein binding the inner-membrane. These results insist that MlrB degrades the linear microcystin in the periplasmic space and MlrC degrades tetrapeptide in cytoplasm. Thus, in intact cells, MlrC cannot degrade linear-microcystin as being separated in inner-membrane from linear-microcystin while MlrC is capable of degrading the linear-microcystin in cell-free extract

Effect of nitrate concentration on cell growth and astaxanthin accumulation in four different species of isolated microalgae in Malaysia

Astaxanthin possess a red color pigment, a type of xanthophylls carotenoid and is mainly found in algae, fish and bird. In this study, cell growth and astaxanthin accumulation from four different isolated microalgae species based on their morphology were investigated. Isolated microalgae were cultured at three different nitrate concentration (1.64, 0.82, and 0.41 mM) and cell growth and astaxanthin were measured spectrophotometrically at 750 and 475 nm respectively. All species showed high growth rates at 1.64 mM nitrate concentration except for Pediastrum sp that is favorable in 0.82 mM nitrate. Among the four species, Ankistrodesmus sp showed the fastest growth rate. For the astaxanthin production, Ankistrodesmus and Pediastrum showed the highest yield. Thus it have a potential in production of astaxanthin in the future work

ブラゼルトン新生児行動評価の臨床活用

我々はこれまでブラゼルトン新生児行動評価法（NBAS）を未熟児やリスクを有する成熟児の早期発達評価と介入手段として応用してきた。今回は未熟児を対象にNBASの評価結果から発達障害を予測された児の新生児行動上の特性を4つの行動系に分けて整理し，我々の実施している早期療育プログラムについて報告した。また，これまでフォローした児について発達経過を加えた。We have applied the Brazelton\u27s Neonatal Behaviour Assessment Scale (NBAS) for the evaluation of early development stages in both premature infants, and mature risk infants, as well as for the clinical application of early intervention method. This paper reports the neonatal behaviour peculiarities of premature infants forecast by NBAS to have mental-motor delays. This paper also report on our practical application of the early intervention program. Finally, we conclude with the progress made in these infant\u27s developments