Tindakan minyak kelapa dara terhadap tulang osteoporosis pascamenopaus: analisis gen Osteoblastogenesis dan antioksidan

Osteoporosis pascamenopaus merupakan salah satu masalah kesihatan utama yang melanda kaum wanita berumur. Ia disebabkan oleh beberapa faktor termasuk tekanan oksidatif, yang dipercayai dapat dikawal melalui pengambilan antioksidan daripada sumber makanan. Minyak kelapa dara (VCO) merupakan salah satu hasil semula jadi yang kaya dengan antioksidan dan telah dibuktikan mampu memelihara tulang yang mengalami osteoporosis. Kajian ini dijalankan untuk mendapatkan kefahaman yang lebih mendalam tentang aktiviti minyak kelapa dara terhadap osteoporosis pada peringkat molekular. Tiga puluh dua ekor tikus betina Sprague-Dawley dibahagikan kepada empat kumpulan, iaitu kumpulan pembedahan Sham, kawalan terovariektomi (Ovx+Ctrl), kumpulan terovariektomi dengan rawatan VCO (Ovx+VCO) dan kumpulan terovariektomi dengan rawatan estrogen (Ovx+E). Kesemua rawatan diberikan melalui oral selama sepuluh minggu. Sampel tulang femur tikus diambil untuk mengkaji perubahan pada ekspresi gen superoksida dismutase (SOD), glutation peroksidase (GPX), osteokalsin dan transkripsi faktor 2 berkaitan run (Runx2). Hasil kajian mendapati bahawa tikus yang menerima rawatan VCO mengalami peningkatan yang signifikan pada ekspresi gen SOD, GPX dan osteokalsin berbanding kumpulan kawalan terovariektomi, disamping ekspresi gen Runx2 yang turut menunjukkan pola peningkatan. Secara kesimpulannya, VCO membantu memelihara tulang pada tikus model osteoporosis melalui tindakannya meningkatkan ekspresi gen antioksidan serta gen yang menigkatkan aktiviti sel osteoblas

The Islamic built environments perception in Malaysia

The main purpose of this paper is to highlight the issues regarding the Islamic built environment in Malaysia. Because Islam is the nation's majority religion, the government of Malaysia strives to adopt Islamic values in its regulation of Malaysia's built environment. Yet, given Malaysia's multi-racial and multi-religious lifestyle, how can an Islamic-based, built environment playa role there? Have Islamic concepts been implemented correctly and appropriately in the construction of Malaysia's cities? This research is based on the assumption that the desire to inject Islamic values into Malaysia's built environment for the purpose of providing an Islamic identity to the nation can clearly be seen from the architectural, landscape and planning approaches that have been deployed by the professionals (those who are relevantly related in the decision-making process of city development and design concepts include administrators, architects, planners and engineers). This ongoing research employs descriptive and survey-based research designs rooted in qualitative and quantitative research paradigms. The research method implemented is a Delphi method that uses structured and semi-structured interviews for primary data collection to achieve the objectives of this research include (1) to define the perceptions of experts from a variety of races and religions on the subject of Islamic built environments in order to ensure the appropriate implementation of the concept in Malaysian contexts; and (2) to evaluate and analyze the findings with regard to the degree to which the study area in Putrajaya are truly Islamic cities and are compatible with the criteria associated with an Islamic built environment in Malaysia. This research anticipates coming out with the characteristics of an Islamic built environment based on the input of "experts" and suggestions regarding how professionals can use these perceptions as guidance to concretely act on the design process

Does personality influence web-based learning performance of novice programmers? A preliminary study

This paper presents a research investigating the effects of personality types and learning performance of student who learned introductory programming through content sequencing of web-based intstruction (WBI).A controlled laboratory experiment was conducted with the aim to understand whether personality types affect learning performance when students use the content sequencing system.Thirty eight first semester's students who enrolled in information technology (IT) program in a higher learning institution in Malaysia voluntarily participated in this study.Statistical analysis on the data from the experiment revealed interesting findings about the effect of personality on learning performance.This finding is discussed in relation to personality model for adaptive WBI

Millennial tourist emotional experience in technological engagement at destination

Millennial is known to be the generations that strongly empowered by technologies that apparently had altered the pattern of their consumption habits to shape a new form of tourist market. The great incursion of technology on Millennial does not only mediates the experience formation at destination, instead provide added value and emotional impact through its cognitive stimulation and experience co-creation possibilities. As the key instrument for experience enhancement, mobile technologies support users' needs of on-site information, virtually connect tourism providers and consumers, and unfold destination uniqueness. These in turn allow co-creation of tourist experience through satisfaction of Millennial's addiction of connectivity. Virtual connectivity seems to create new form of affective attachment, through which Millennial are emotionally bonded to the place due to the intensity of technological engagement. Consequently, instead of tourist-destination encounter per se, technological experience is potentially classified as the third aspects that dictate experience development, especially among Millennial travellers. Existing literatures indicates that Millennial strong engagement with virtual platform is capable to manipulate their on-site emotional experience, which apparently changing the conventional way of tourist experiencing the destination. Nevertheless, the significant of Millennial's technological engagement towards their destination emotional experience is still open for debates. Pertaining to this situation, this conceptual paper is attempted to understand the influence of technology in the enhancement of emotional experience, specifically among Millennial travellers, in better understanding the evolving demand of the new generations tourist from psychological perspective

Virtual connectivity in mediating millennials destination emotional experience

Millennial is known to be the generations that strongly empowered by technologies that apparently had altered the pattern of their consumption habits to shape a new form of tourist market. The great incursion of technology on millennial does not only mediates the experience formation at destination, instead provide added value and emotional impact through its cognitive stimulation and experience co-creation possibilities. As the key instrument for experience enhancement, mobile technologies support users' needs of on-site information, virtually connect tourism providers and consumers, and unfold destination uniqueness. These in turn allow co-creation of tourist experience through satisfaction of millennial's addiction of connectivity. Virtual connectivity seems to create new form of affective attachment, through which millennial are emotionally bonded to the place due to the intensity of technological engagement. Consequently, instead of tourist-destination encounter per se, technological experience is potentially classified as the third aspects that dictate experience development, especially among millennial travellers. Existing literatures indicates that millennial strong engagement with virtual platform is capable to manipulate their on-site emotional experience, which apparently changing the conventional way of tourist experiencing the destination. Nevertheless, the significant of millennial's technological engagement towards their destination emotional experience is still open for debates. Pertaining to this situation, this conceptual paper is attempted to understand the influence of technology in the enhancement of emotional experience, specifically among millennial travellers, in better understanding the evolving demand of the new generations tourist from psychological perspective

Labisia pumila regulates bone-related genes expressions in postmenopausal osteoporosis model

Labisia Pumila var. alata (LPva) has shown potential as an alternative to estrogen replacement therapy (ERT) in prevention of estrogen-deficient osteoporosis. In earlier studies using postmenopausal model, LPva was able to reverse the ovariectomy-induced changes in biochemical markers, bone calcium, bone histomorphometric parameters and biomechanical strength. The mechanism behind these protective effects is unclear but LPva may have regulated factors that regulate bone remodeling. The aim of this study is to determine the bone-protective mechanism of LPva by measuring the expressions of several factors involved in bone formative and resorptive activities namely Osteoprotegerin (OPG), Receptor Activator of Nuclear Factor kappa-B Ligand (RANKL), Macrophage-Colony Stimulating Factor (MCSF) and Bone Morphogenetic Protein-2 (BMP-2)

Nigella sativa

Nigella sativa seeds (NS) has been used traditionally for various illnesses. The most abundant and active component of NS is thymoquinone (TQ). Animal studies have shown that NS and TQ may be used for the treatment of diabetes-induced osteoporosis and for the promotion of fracture healing. The mechanism involved is unclear, but it was postulated that the antioxidative, and anti-inflammatory activities may play some roles in the treatment of osteoporosis as this bone disease has been linked to oxidative stress and inflammation. This paper highlights studies on the antiosteoporotic effects of NS and TQ, the mechanisms behind these effects and their safety profiles. NS and TQ were shown to inhibit inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin-1 and 6 and the transcription factor, nuclear factor κB. NS and TQ were found to be safe at the current dosage for supplementation in human with precautions in children and pregnant women. Both NS and TQ have shown potential as antiosteoporotic agent but more animal and clinical studies are required to further assess their antiosteoporotic efficacies

The first Malay database toward the ethnic-specific target molecular variation

BACKGROUND:The Malaysian Node of the Human Variome Project (MyHVP) is one of the eighteen official Human Variome Project (HVP) country-specific nodes. Since its inception in 9(th) October 2010, MyHVP has attracted the significant number of Malaysian clinicians and researchers to participate and contribute their data to this project. MyHVP also act as the center of coordination for genotypic and phenotypic variation studies of the Malaysian population. A specialized database was developed to store and manage the data based on genetic variations which also associated with health and disease of Malaysian ethnic groups. This ethnic-specific database is called the Malaysian Node of the Human Variome Project database (MyHVPDb). FINDINGS:Currently, MyHVPDb provides only information about the genetic variations and mutations found in the Malays. In the near future, it will expand for the other Malaysian ethnics as well. The data sets are specified based on diseases or genetic mutation types which have three main subcategories: Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP), Copy Number Variation (CNV) followed by the mutations which code for the common diseases among Malaysians. MyHVPDb has been open to the local researchers, academicians and students through the registration at the portal of MyHVP ( http://hvpmalaysia.kk.usm.my/mhgvc/index.php?id=register ). CONCLUSIONS:This database would be useful for clinicians and researchers who are interested in doing a study on genomics population and genetic diseases in order to obtain up-to-date and accurate information regarding the population-specific variations and also useful for those in countries with similar ethnic background