Protection of the Rights of the Victims of Human Trafficking: Has Malaysia done Enough?

Human trafficking is a grave threat to human rights. Statistic shows that yearly almost thousands of men, women and children grieve in the hand of traffickers as human trafficking victim, in their own countries or abroad. Thus, there is a need for Malaysia to take the necessary step to combat human trafficking and at the same time to provide effective protection for victims of trafficking as enacted under the Malaysian Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants Act 2007 (ATIPSOM 2007). The first part of this research examines the international law standards on human rights protection of the victim of human trafficking while the second part analyses any legal and policy measures adopted within the Malaysian context. In this analysis, attention will be made on numerous protection mechanisms such as provision for a shelter, or a place of refuge, appointment of Protection Officers, medical treatment, right to work and safe repatriation. This research further examines and assesses the adequacy and effectiveness of the current measures and laws especially in terms of their enforcement by the relevant enforcement bodies. Analysis on the existing legal framework within other ASEAN States, including Indonesia, is also done so as to provide relevant best practices for consideration and adoption by the Malaysian government. In conclusion, this research provides a number of solutions to address the problems and challenges within the existing legal framework in Malaysia with the ultimate aim at providing better protection for the victims of human trafficking

Development of Anti-diabetic Niosomes Formulation Containing Metformin and Gliclazide

Metformin/Gliclazide niosomes were formulated with span 60 by ether injection method. Three batches MG1-MG3 were prepared in order to study influence of drug polymer ratio on the niosomes formation and in vitro drug release. The formulated niosomes were characterized by drug entrapment, vesicle size determination, and in vitro drug release. Optimized concentration of span 60 and cholesterol was found to be 1:1. In the in-vitro study, niosomes formulation of MG1 showed high percentage of drug release, 40.18 to 45.75% for about 8 hrs. This indicated that this batch of niosomes formulation exhibit sustained drug release pattern as the niosomes act as reservoir system for continuous delivery of drug. The quantity of Metformin/Gliclazide present in the niosomes and the release medium were estimated by a validated HPLC method. The formulated niosomes had acceptable physicochemical characters and released the drug over 6-8 h. The data obtained from in vitro release studies were fitted with various kinetic models and was found to follow Higuchi kinetics

Synthesis and antimicrobial activity of some newer semicarbazone analogues

On the basis of literature review Semicarbazones have been potent in activities such as antifungal, antibacterial, antituberculosis, anticancerous etc. Till date various works has been done however still there is tremendous opportunities which can be explored. So, we planned for the synthesis of Semicarbazone derivaties and checking their antimicrobial activities. Biological activity was determined for all 19 synthesized compounds against bacteria (gram positive and gram negative) by MIC(Minimum Inhibitory Concentration) method

SIMULTANEOUS ESTIMATION OF SAXAGLIPTIN HYDROCHLORIDE AND METFORMIN HYDROCHLORIDE IN ACTIVE PHARMACEUTICAL INGRIDENT BY RP-HPLC

A new simple, accurate, precise and reproducible RP-HPLC method has been developed for the simultaneousestimation of Saxagliptin and Metformin in bulk drug form using C18 column (Phenomenex, 250 x 4.6 mm, 5 μm) inisocratic mode. The mobile phase consisted of 0.02M Potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KH2PO4), Acetonitrile,Methanol in the ratio of 50:25:25 (v/v/v) at pH 4.3. The detection wavelength was carried out at 240 nm. Themethod was linear over the concentration range for Saxagliptin 10-50μg/ml and for Metformin 5-25 μg/ml. Therecoveries of Saxagliptin and Metformin were found to be 100.48and 101.1% respectively. The validation of methodwas carried out utilizing ICH-guidelines. The described HPLC method was successfully employed for the analysisof pharmaceutical formulations containing combined dosage form

SEDLIN forms homodimers: characterisation of SEDLIN mutations and their interactions with transcription factors MBP1, PITX1 and SF1

BACKGROUND SEDLIN, a 140 amino acid subunit of the Transport Protein Particle (TRAPP) complex, is ubiquitously expressed and interacts with the transcription factors c-myc promoter-binding protein 1 (MBP1), pituitary homeobox 1 (PITX1) and steroidogenic factor 1 (SF1). SEDLIN mutations cause X-linked spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia tarda (SEDT). METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS We investigated the effects of 4 missense (Asp47Tyr, Ser73Leu, Phe83Ser and Val130Asp) and the most C-terminal nonsense (Gln131Stop) SEDT-associated mutations on interactions with MBP1, PITX1 and SF1 by expression in COS7 cells. Wild-type SEDLIN was present in the cytoplasm and nucleus and interacted with MBP1, PITX1 and SF1; the SEDLIN mutations did not alter these subcellular localizations or the interactions. However, SEDLIN was found to homodimerize, and the formation of dimers between wild-type and mutant SEDLIN would mask a loss in these interactions. A mammalian SEDLIN null cell-line is not available, and the interactions between SEDLIN and the transcription factors were therefore investigated in yeast, which does not endogenously express SEDLIN. This revealed that all the SEDT mutations, except Asp47Tyr, lead to a loss of interaction with MBP1, PITX1 and SF1. Three-dimensional modelling studies of SEDLIN revealed that Asp47 resides on the surface whereas all the other mutant residues lie within the hydrophobic core of the protein, and hence are likely to affect the correct folding of SEDLIN and thereby disrupt protein-protein interactions. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE Our studies demonstrate that SEDLIN is present in the nucleus, forms homodimers and that SEDT-associated mutations cause a loss of interaction with the transcription factors MBP1, PITX1 and SF1.This work was supported by the Oliver Bird Fund (Studentship No. RHE/00029/G), The Nuffield Foundation (J.J.), Arthritis Research Campaign (Grant ID 16438) (M.A.N. and R.V.T.), European Community Framework 7 programme grant TREAT-OA (HEALTH-F2-2008-00) (M.A.N. and R.V.T.) and the Medical Research Council (J.J., M.A.N. and R.V.T.). J.J. was an Oliver Bird funded PhD student

Antioxidant and Skeletal Muscle Relaxant Activity of Leaf Extract of Plant Piper Attenuatum (B. HAM)

Piper attenuatum (B. Ham) is traditional medicinal plant in India. It has been claimed in traditional Indian system of medicine that the phytochemical constituents present in P. attenuatum (B. Ham) have Antioxidant and skeletal muscle relaxant activity. So the present study aimed to evaluate anti–oxidant and skeletal muscle relaxant activity of ethanolic, aqueous and ethanolic leaf extract of plant P. attenuatum (B. Ham), respectively. Antioxidant activity was evaluated by in vitro as well as in vivo methods. Invitro method we used DPPH (2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) free radical scavenging assay and H2O2 (Hydrogen Peroxide) scavenging assay while in vivo methods antioxidant enzymes like Superoxide Dismutase (SOD) and reduced glutathione (GSH) were assayed by using animal models. Anti-oxidant activity of following concentrations 10μg/mL, 20μg/mL, 30μg/mL, 40μg/mL and 50μg/mL were measured for both extracts. Ethanolic extract of P. attenuatum (B. Ham) was evaluated at dose of 100mg/kg and 200 mg/kg b.w. for skeletal muscle relaxant activity by using rota rod apparatus. The high antioxidant activity was found in the ethanolic extract of P. attenuatum (B. Ham) compared to aqueous one. For muscle relaxation, 200 mg/kg b.w. showed a significant reduction in the time spent by the animals on the revolving rod compared to the control. From the above study it may be concluded that both extract of P. attenuatum (B. Ham) having Anti – oxidant and skeletal muscle relaxant activity

A COMPREHENSIVE STUDY OF CRYPTOGRAPHY AND KEY MANAGEMENT BASED SECURITY IN CLOUD COMPUTING

Cloud computing is a cost effective flexible and proven delivery platform for providing consumer IT services or business services over internet. It has an ability to provide many services over internet. It not only provides computing services but additional computing resources. To interact with various services in the cloud and to store retrieve data from cloud several security mechanism is required. Cryptography and key management mechanism are one of the import services in the cloud to secure data. In this context, this paper investigates the basic problem of cloud computing with cryptography and key management system for enabling support of interoperability between cloud cryptography client and key management services