Viability and Vigor of Dura, Pisifera and Tenera Oil Palm (Elaeis Guineensis Jacq.) Pollen

Selecting pollen with high viability and vigor are important for ensuring the success of oil palm seed production through controlled pollination. Therefore, an estimation of pollen viability and vigor is essential for fruit and seed setting. This study consist of three experiments. In the first experiment, pollens from three oil palm fruit-forms of 20-year old dura, pisifera and tenera palms were collected at Malaysia Palm Oil Board (MPOB) Research Station, Kluang and MPOB/UKM Research Station, Bangi. The objective of this study is to establish a favorable medium pollen germination medium for the assessment of pollen viability and vigor in three oil palm fruit-forms. Three types of media: two solid media prepared with two types of sugar i.e. 11% sucrose and glucose and another is sucrose liquid medium (sucrose 2.5%+0.01% boric acid) was investigated. Pollen was incubated at 35°C for 2 hours. Experiment was carried out by using completely randomized design with four replications. Data were collected at 60, 120 and 180 minutes. Dura pollen germination percentage as well as pollen tube growth showed good response in solid sucrose medium compared to other media. Solid sucrose media yielded highest pollen germination percentage among the media tested at 60 min (69.7%) to 180 min (75.8%) which is significantly higher than liquid medium but no difference with glucose solid medium. Liquid media gave longer pollen tube (409.0μm) but with no significant difference with solid sucrose medium (405.7μm). Only liquid medium caused the rupturing of pollen tubes. Solid glucose medium produced only shorter pollen tubes and was significantly shorter than solid sucrose and liquid sucrose medium. The effect of liquid sucrose medium was more pronounced in pisifera pollen. Solid sucrose medium emitted longer pollen tube length (372.1 μm) with smooth and slender tubes without bursting which is no difference with liquid sucrose medium (419.6 μm). At 60 min after incubation exhibited was the highest pollen germination rate (PGR) and pollen tube length rate (PTLR) was the most important counting time. For PTLR, at 60 min counting time, all media tested were not significantly different for dura pollen. Solid sucrose and liquid sucrose media had significantly higher PTLR than solid glucose in pisifera pollen. For tenera, solid sucrose and solid glucose media provided significantly higher PTLR than liquid sucrose medium. In the second experiment, the study was carried out to investigate the effect of different pollen sizes (small 32μm) on pollen germinability and vigor. Experiment was carried out by using completely randomized design with four replications. Data were collected with 60 min interval up to 180 min. Results showed that small pollen generally have a higher germinability and is free from impaired factors such as slower tube growth rate and hypertrophy effect. Both rates of germination and tube growth were highest at 60 min after incubation and increase with the declining rate up to 120 min and 180 min. In the third experiment, pollen was taken from three different fruit forms of 20 and 8-year old oil palm and stored in sub-zero condition at different temperature regimes (0°C, -5°C, -10°C, -15°C and -20°C). Experiment was conducted by completely randomized design with four replications. Percentage of pollen germination (PG), rate of pollen germination (PGR), pollen tube length (PTL) and rate of pollen tube growth (PTLR) from 180 min measuring time was evaluated in each storage temperature level with 2 months interval until 6 months. Generally, all the tested pollen sources decrease viability and vigor with storage time. The germination percentage and vigor of all pollen sources were maintained during the first two months after storage. This experiment pointed that -15 °C was the best storage temperature among all the other tested temperatures regimes for both traits, pollen germination and tube growth

Motor Function and Manual Ability in Children with Cerebral Palsy: A Primary Report

Abstract This descriptive study aims to describe the motor type, topographical distribution and motor function of lower limbs, and the manual ability of upper limbs. Cerebral Palsy (CP) describes a group of disorders in the development of movement and posture in the developing brain. This study was carried out during 2015 on 60 CP children. Multiple sources of assessment were used, including medical records of patients at the Physical Medicine Department in 550 Bedded Mandalay Children’s Hospital. Children were grouped according to motor type, topographical pattern, Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS) and Manual Ability Classification System (MACS) scales. During the study period, 60 CP children (29 males and 31 females) aged 4-12 years were observed, with a mean (SD) age of 7.7 (3.7) years. In this study, spastic CP was the most common type (80%) and more specifically, bilateral CP (70%) was more common than unilateral (10%). With respect to the GMFCS classification, level II (30%), and to the MACS classification, level II (38.3%), was the most common. This study is only a hospital based, descriptive study and therefore there are many limitations. We are trying to establish a neuro-clinic, as well as a development clinic, with few resources and man power. This research team is in the first few steps of developing a coordinated, multidisciplinary team to help children with cerebral palsy and developmental delay. The significance of the study results will help to educate the community about the role of early intervention, the earlier the better, for children with cerebral palsy

Determination of Oncogenic Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Genotypes in Anogenital Cancers in Myanmar

Molecular and epidemiologic investigations suggest a causal role for human papillomavirus (HPV) in anogenital cancers. This study identified oncogenic HPV genotypes in anogenital cancers among men and women in a 2013 cross-sectional descriptive study in Myanmar. In total, 100 biopsy tissues of histologically confirmed anogenital cancers collected in 2008-2012 were studied, including 30 penile and 9 anal cancers from Yangon General Hospital and 61 vulvar cancers from Central Women's Hospital, Yangon. HPV-DNA testing and genotyping were performed by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism. Overall, 34% of anogenital cancers were HPV-positive. HPV was found in 44.4% of anal (4/9), 36.1% of vulvar (22/61), and 26.7% of penile (8/30) cancers. The most frequent genotypes in anal cancers were HPV 16 (75%) and 18 (25%). In vulvar cancers, HPV 33 was most common (40.9%), followed by 16 (31.8%), 31 (22.7%), and 18 (4.6%). In penile cancers, HPV 16 (62.5%) was most common, followed by 33 (25%) and 18 (12.5%). This is the first report of evidencebased oncogenic HPV genotypes in anogenital cancers among men and women in Myanmar. This research provides valuable information for understanding the burden of HPV-associated cancers of the anus, penis, and vulva and considering the effectiveness of prophylactic HPV vaccination

Apoptosis: Dual role in aetiology and cure

Apoptosis is a programmed cell death which occurs following a variety of stimuli. Physiologically the process is important for morphogenesis of organs and homeostasis of different types of cells. Apoptotic cell death is responsible for a variety of pathologic states such as elimination of cell death in mutated cells, infected cells, tumour cells and transplant rejection well as the pathological atrophy. In this review, there is discussion about the control of apoptosis, detection methods of apoptosis, its association with infectious and non-communicable diseases. Intracellular microorganisms survive through inhibition of host cell apoptosis as well as they destroy the parenchymal cells causing impaired functions. It plays important role in tumourigenesis. There are possible therapeutic roles of drugs that modify apoptosis in human diseases

Antenatal care practice and pregnancy out come at Sikuati area, Kudat, Sabah

Antenatal (AN) care is vital for all pregnant women and for reduction of maternal mortality and morbidity. AN care knowledge and specific AN care practices are some of the crucial components of what determines effective AN care. In developing nations, the health of pregnant women can be even more sensitive to these factors. Objectives of this study was to assess the antenatal ( AN) care practice and pregnancy outcome of ever-married women aged 18 to 49 years old having at least one pregnancy experience, residing in kampongs of Sikuati area, Kudat between March to December 2015. Cross–sectional descriptive study, non-probability convenient sampling method was used and 150 eligible participants were interviewed through face to face by trained interviewers using a semi- structured questionnaire and their knowledge of AN care, their AN care practices and outcomes and complications of their pregnancies were recorded. 99% of all the women received AN care, and 64% of the women received essential AN care practice (AN visit of minimum 4 times). The study revealed that overall knowledge amongst the women with good knowledge was 48% and low knowledge was 52%. Despite this, it was found that low knowledge of AN care was associated with essential AN care practice. Additionally, AN care practices, assessed through timing of first AN care visit and frequency of visits, was not significantly associated with pregnancy complications. Despite these results, outcomes were good and all complications were properly and successfully addressed. This may reflect the effectiveness of current programs in place promoting importance of AN care and delivery practices. Maintenance of current programs with targeted interventions to address low knowledge level and the low level of compliance with essential AN care completed are recommended

Age Related Changes in Hematological Values of Myanmar Local Puppies

The hematological parameters were used to monitor the health status and its components also changed according to the ages. However, there were no reports for this issues in Myanmar local dogs. Thus, this study was carried out to investigate the age-related changes on the hematological parameters of local puppies in Myanmar. Ten local puppies with the age of 2-3 month old were used in this experiment, which was lasted for 8 weeks.The daily clinical examinations were conducted throughout the entire experimental period for general health check-up. Haematological parameters (Total WBC count and its differential counts, and RBC, HCT, MCV, HGB, MCH, MCHC and platelets) were measured bi-weekly with Abacus Vet-5 automate haematology analyser. According to the results, the total WBC and eosinophil counts were not significantly different (P>0.05), while lymphocytes, monocytes, neutrophils and basophils were significantly different (P<0.05) with the aging of experimental animals. The values of RBC, HGB, HCT, MCV, MCH, MCHC and platelets were not significantly different (P>0.05) throughout the experimental periods. Thus, the age-related changes were observed on cell counts of lymphocytes, monocytes, neutrophils, basophils in Myanmar local puppies

Preferred modalities for learning anatomy: medical students’ opinion

Learning anatomy is the basic and essential component of medical study when students start to learn in medical career. Since five hundred years ago, the human cadaver has been used as the silent mentor for students in learning anatomy. Later, pre-dissected specimens were used in addition to hands-on dissection of human cadaver. Current advances promote the use of anatomical models as well as plastinated specimens. This study focused on analyzing the preference of students towards different learning modalities available for anatomy teaching. It was conducted on first year medical students at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University Malaysia Sabah (FPSK, UMS). A total of 76 students (27 males and 49 females) participated in this study. Out of 76 students, 57 (75%) students preferred using human cadaver for anatomy learning. Four students (5.3%) opted for plastinated specimen while 15 students (19.7%) chose the plastic model. Knowledge gained in learning Anatomy was said to be easier from cadaver (67.1%), followed by plastinated specimen (35.5%) and plastic models (52.6%). In the present study, 97.4% responded that plastic model was easier to apply their knowledge in objective structured practical examinations. The present study found that using cadaver was still favoured by medical students. Further studies are required to determine the preference between hands-on cadaveric dissections versus pre-dissected specimens

Myanmar dengue outbreak associated with displacement of serotypes 2, 3, and 4 by dengue 1

Published version is free to read on publisher website In 2001, Myanmar (Burma) had its largest outbreak of dengue—15,361 reported cases of dengue hemorrhagic fever/dengue shock syndrome (DHF/DSS), including 192 deaths. That year, 95% of dengue viruses isolated from patients were serotype 1 viruses belonging to two lineages that had diverged from an earlier, now extinct, lineage sometime before 1998. The ratio of DHF to DSS cases in 2001 was not significantly different from that in 2000, when 1,816 cases of DHF/DSS were reported and dengue 1 also was the most frequently isolated serotype. However, the 2001 ratio was significantly higher than that in 1998 (also an outbreak year) and in 1999, when all four serotypes were detected and serotypes 1, 2, and 3 were recovered in similar numbers. The large number of clinical cases in 2001 may have been due, in part, to a preponderance of infections with dengue 1 viruses

A study on health-related quality of life and comorbidity among elderly population in rural Sabah, Malaysia

Ageing is a global phenomenon. In Malaysia, a projected model estimated that the number of elderly would be 3.4 million in 2020 which is more than 10% of the population. A cross-sectional study targeted the elderly population of three villages in rural Sabah, Malaysia aimed to investigate the health-related quality of life, comorbidity, and the socio-demographic profile amongst the elderly in the community. Participants (60 years and above) were selected for face-to-face interviews using health-related quality of life questionnaires (SF-36). SPSS 21 was used for statistical analyses. Results showed that mean (sd) of age; 67.71 (6.95) years. Five common co-morbidities were hypertension (67%), bone and joint pain (63%), gastric pain (67%), poor vision (58%), and hearing problems (33%). The highest HRQoL score was social functioning (67.96) whereas the lowest HRQoL score is role limitation due to emotional problems (30.54). There is a significant relationship between HRQoL domains and socio-demographic factors (gender, marital status, membership in association), and health condition (co-morbidities and access to healthcare, bone and joint pain or arthritis and treatment, hearing impairment and treatment) which indicated need for health and social support like participating in association and access to health care for rural elderly in future programme. We recommend a further study to compare elderly HRQoL in rural, urban and institutional settings for future health-care planning