Understanding the Impacts of Lockdown during COVID-19 Pandemic on Financial Threat and Psychological Response among Sarawak Adults

The Malaysian government announced the lockdown measures following the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak in mid-March 2020. This action unavoidably led to economic instability and negative psychological effects. The present study examines perceived financial threats and psychological impacts on Sarawak adults during lockdown for the COVID-19 pandemic. Data from 336 respondents were collected from all divisions in Sarawak using an online self-reported questionnaire that included sociodemographic, the Financial Threat Scale (FTS), and the Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scales 21 (DASS-21). Results showed that perceived financial threat was associated with the employment sector, the number of children, and the change in income during the lockdown period. Almost half (47.9%) of the respondents perceived moderate-to-severe financial threat, particularly self-employed persons and those who had reduced income during the lockdown. Negative psychological effects were found to be associated with the employment sector, marital status, number of children, and number of liabilities. In general, people who perceived severe financial threats were significantly associated with severe levels of depression, anxiety, and stress. The study provided some insights into the urgent need to build on strategic plans to mitigate the economic and psychological crisis for the affected communities

Association between Urinary Aflatoxin (AFM1) and Dietary Intake among Adults in Hulu Langat District, Selangor, Malaysia

Aflatoxin is a food contaminant and its exposure through the diet is frequent and ubiquitous. A long-term dietary aflatoxin exposure has been linked to the development of liver cancer in populations with high prevalence of aflatoxin contamination in foods. Therefore, this study was conducted to identify the association between urinary aflatoxin M1 (AFM1), a biomarker of aflatoxin exposure, with the dietary intake among adults in Hulu Langat district, Selangor, Malaysia. Certain food products have higher potential for aflatoxin contamination and these were listed in a Food Frequency Questionnaire, which was given to all study participants. This allowed us to record consumption rates for each food product listed. Concomitantly, urine samples were collected, from adults in selected areas in Hulu Langat district, for the measurement of AFM1 levels using an ELISA kit. Of the 444 urine samples collected and tested, 199 were positive for AFM1, with 37 of them exceeding the limit of detection (LOD) of 0.64 ng/mL. Cereal products showed the highest consumption level among all food groups, with an average intake of 512.54 g per day. Chi-square analysis showed that consumption of eggs (X2 = 4.77, p = 0.03) and dairy products (X2 = 19.36, p < 0.01) had significant associations with urinary AFM1 but both food groups were having a phi and Cramer’s V value that less than 0.3, which indicated that the association between these food groups’ consumption and AFM1 level in urine was weak

Phytochemicals screening and antioxidant activities of Malaysian Donax grandis extracts

Common Donax (Donax grandis) is in a family of marantaceae and widely distributed in South East Asia region. Phytochemical constituents in different parts of the plant (leaves, fruits, stems and roots) were extracted by soxhlet extractions using hexane,dichloromethane, methanol and water. Methanolic extract showed the highest yield of crude extracts from all parts of the plant as compared to the other solvents, including water. Screening tests of the crude extracts revealed the presence of phenolic compounds, alkaloids, tannins, phytosterols, cardiac glycosides, terpenoids, steroids, saponins and flavonoids. Proximate analysis of saponins have also been done for all plant parts of D.grandis using the methanolic extract. The results showed that fruits contained the highest amount of saponins (2.39 wt.%). All parts of the plant samples showed highest total phenolic content (0.18 to 0.65 mg GAE/g). These three solvent fractions possessed strong radical scavenging activity from DPPH, in the ranged from 14.86 to 21.85 mg/mL. The results indicate that D. grandis is a potential candidate to be used as an antioxidant and antiproliferative agents

Antimicrobial activity of Malaysian Donax grandis extracts

The present investigation was carried out to evaluate the antibacterial activities of four different parts of Malaysian Donax grandis. Dried fruit, root, leaf and stem powder of D. grandis was successively extracted with hexane, dichloromethane and methanol using Soxhlet method. All extracts were screened for its antibacterial and antifungal activity using agar disc diffusion method. The microorganisms used for antibacterial and antifungal were, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, Psedomonas auraginosa, Escherichia coli, Candida albicans, Candida tropicalis and Candida krusei. Streptomycin (25 μg/disc) and Nystatine (30 μg/disc) was used as standards. The extracts (40 μg/disc) showed antimicrobial activity were subjected to minimum inhibitory concentration assay by two fold dilutions method. Hexane, dichloromethane and methanol extract exhibited in-vitro antimicrobial activity. None of the hexane and dichloromethane extracts showed antifungal activity

Qualitative analysis of biochemicals and proximate determination of saponin in different parts of Donax grandis plant extracts

Bemban (Donax grandis) is a family of Marantaceae. Synonym as D. canniformis or Clinogyne grandis. It is widely distributed in Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Brunei, Filipina, Papua New Guinea and in other South East Asia region. It has a hollow stem like bamboos with branching at each segment. It is distributed throughout the jungle along the river and usually found in the wet places in the secondary forest and bamboo thicket. It can be propagated by seed and easily by rhizome. Although the active compound properties of these plant have not been fully documented but from the previous phytochemicals screening test, saponins are known as the main active compounds found in this plant

Triple band MIMO dielectric resonator antenna for LTE applications

A triple band dual-polarized MIMO square dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) for fourth generation (4G) and fifth generation (5G) is proposed and analyzed in this paper. It covers LTE band 9/24 (1.63–1.84) GHz at lower frequency, LTE band 38/41 (2.43–2.71) GHz at middle frequency and LTE band 48/52 (3.27–3.75) GHz at higher frequency. The aperture coupling feeding mechanism techniques such as position of slot/feeding and L-monopole feeding have been explored to obtain triple band operation by exciting TE1δ1 (1.8 GHz), TE2δ1 (2.6 GHz) and TE44δ (3.6 GHz) radiating modes inside the DRA respectively. The proposed MIMO antenna provide impedance bandwidth of 12% at 1.7 GHz, 10.89% at 2.6 GHz and 13.68% at 3.6 GHz. Measured antenna gain obtained at 1.7 GHz is 5.5 dBi, at 2.6 GHz is 5.9 dBi and at 3.6 GHz is 6.9 dBi. Obtained envelope correlation coefficient (ECC) is less than 0.02, and the diversity gain is about 10 dB at the desired frequency band

Slot dipole antenna with single- and dual-band tuning characteristic

A slot dipole antenna with a reconfigurable operating frequency is presented. The antenna comprises two pairs of slot arms. Each arm incorporates a number of varactor diodes. The antenna is capable of operating in single-band or dual-band mode. In each case, the location of these bands can be altered by varying the voltage applied to the varactor diodes. The antenna can be tuned over a wide frequency range, namely 1.5-4.5 GHz (i.e. a ratio of 3:1). The antenna is potentially useful for cognitive radio application, particularly in a small base station or access point terminal

Analysis of graphene antenna properties for 5G applications

The incoming 5G technology requires antennas with a greater capacity, wider wireless spectrum utilisation, high gain, and steer-ability. This is due to the cramped spectrum utilisation in the previous generation. As a matter of fact, conventional antennas are unable to serve the new frequency due to the limitations in fabrication and installation mainly for smaller sizes. The use of graphene material promises antennas with smaller sizes and thinner dimensions, yet capable of emitting higher frequencies. Hence, graphene antennas were studied at a frequency of 15 GHz in both single and array elements. The high-frequency antenna contributed to a large bandwidth and was excited by coplanar waveguide for easy fabrication on one surface via screen printing. The defected ground structure was applied in an array element to improve the radiation and increase the gain. The results showed that the printed, single element graphene antenna produced an impedance bandwidth, gain, and efficiency of 48.64%, 2.87 dBi, and 67.44%, respectively. Meanwhile, the array element produced slightly better efficiency (72.98%), approximately the same impedance bandwidth as the single element (48.98%), but higher gain (8.41 dBi). Moreover, it provided a beam width of 21.2° with scanning beam capability from 0° up to 39.05°. Thus, it was proved that graphene materials can be applied in 5G

Single-, dual- and triple-band frequency reconfigurable antenna

The paper presents a frequency reconfigurable slot dipole antenna. The antenna is capable of being switched between single-band, dual-band or triple-band operation. The antenna incorporates three pairs of pindiodes which are located within the dipole arms. The antenna was designed to operate at 2.4 GHz, 3.5 GHz and 5.2 GHz using the aid of CST Microwave Studio. The average measured gains are 1.54, 2.92 and 1.89 dBi for low, mid and high band respectively. A prototype was then constructed in order to verify the performance of the device. A good level of agreement was observed between simulation and measurement