Quantification of total phenolics in different parts of Pluchea indica (Less) ethanolic and water extracts

One of the compounds present in Pluchea indica extracts is antioxidant which plays an important role in inhibiting free radicals and thus protects humans against infections and degenerative diseases, such as cancer, arthritis, and ageing process. The main objective of this study was to investigate and determine the total phenolic compounds of Pluchea indica in different concentrations of ethanolic extracts. This species was chosen because of its high phytonutrient compounds with potential medicinal properties. There was a significant difference (P ≤ 0.05) in the total phenolic among the different parts of the tested plant. 50% of the ethanolic extract produced the highest total phenolic compounds (1775.00±86.00 to 658.95±5.00 µmol/g), followed by water extract (759.79±1.53 µmol/g) and 100% ethanol extract (352.72±22.30 to 249.29±5.37 µmol/g), respectively. In terms of the plant parts, the leaves contained the highest phenolic compounds (1775.00±86.00 µmol/g in 50% ethanol extract, 759.79±1.53 µmol/g in 100% aqueous extract and 352.72±22.30 µmol/g in 100% ethanol extract), followed by the stems (990.22±24.00 µmol/g in 50% ethanol extract, 990.22±24.59 µmol/g in 100% aqueous extract and 293.48±0.00 µmol/g in 100% ethanol extract). Meanwhile, lower total phenolic compounds were detected in the flowers (727.71±11.00 µmol/g in 50% ethanol extract, 603.81±8.46 µmol/g in 100% aqueous extract and 249.29±5.37 µmol/g in 100% ethanol extract) and roots (658.95±5.00 µmol/g in 50% ethanol extract, 450.00±10.76 µmol/g in 100% aqueous extract and 272.28±0.53 µmol/g in 100% ethanol extract). Based on these findings, Pluchea indica has potential medicinal properties that can be further developed to produce neutraceutical products, diet supplements or cosmetic products. However, further research should first be conducted on the effects of these compounds on laboratory animals

Survey on occurrence of aflatoxins in chicken feeds from Peninsular Malaysia

This study was conducted to observe the occurrence of aflatoxin in chicken feed from Peninsular Malaysia. A total of 336 samples of chicken feed from Peninsular Malaysia were conveniently collected in this survey. The chicken feed represented the following three categories which are starter, grower and finisher. All samples were collected from local poultry farms in East Coast Region (Kelantan, Terengganu, and Pahang), Northern Region (Perlis, Kedah, Penang, and Perak), Southern Region (Malacca, Johor) and Central Region (Selangor, Negeri Sembilan) of Peninsular Malaysia for a period of six months (July-December 2015). Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used for screening of total aflatoxin (TA) in the samples. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with fluorescence detector was used for determination of aflatoxin B and G. Moisture content of samples was determined using the hot air oven method (AOAC International, 2011). Overall, the incidence of positive TA > 20 μg/kg in chicken feed is 14.9% (50 samples). The average level of TA was found significantly different between different states at p<0.05 for both broiler grower and finisher. The chromatograph results showed that positive samples were found in broiler finisher from Kedah (94.6 μg/kg and 42.1 μg/kg) and Penang (56.4 μg/kg) with aflatoxin B1. In this study, the range of moisture content were around 6.5-27.3%. About 40% samples have more than 12% moisture content. One of the predisposing factors for aflatoxin accumulation in chicken feed is moisture content. The results warrant the need for surveillance and constant monitoring programmes for the prevention of aflatoxin incidence in poultry farms

Homoserine and quorum-sensing acyl homoserine lactones as alternative sources of threonine:A potential role for homoserine kinase in insect-stage Trypanosoma brucei

10.1111/mmi.12853Molecular Microbiology951143-15

Fabrication and characterization of printed zinc batteries

Zinc batteries are a more sustainable alternative to lithium-ion batteries due to its components being highly recyclable. With the improvements in the screen printing technology, high quality devices can be printed with at high throughput and precision at a lower cost compared to those manufactured using lithographic techniques. In this paper we describe the fabrication and characterization of printed zinc batteries. Different binder materials such as polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) and polyvinyl butyral (PVB), were used to fabricate the electrodes. The electrodes were first evaluated using three-electrode cyclic voltammetry, x-ray diffraction (XRD), and scanning electron microscopy before being fully assembled and tested using charge-discharge test and two-electrode cyclic voltammetry. The results show that the printed ZnO electrode with PVB as binder performed better than PVP-based ZnO. The XRD data prove that the electro-active materials were successfully transferred to the sample. However, based on the evaluation, the results show that the cathode electrode was dominated by the silver instead of Ni(OH)2, which leads the sample to behave like a silver-zinc battery instead of a nickel-zinc battery. Nevertheless, the printed zinc battery electrodes were successfully evaluated, and more current collector materials for cathode should be explored for printed nickel-zinc batteries

Malaysian politicians’ connection pattern on twitter using sna: a case of Najib Razak

Najib Razak is one of the most prominent politicians in Malaysia whose popularity has risen worldwide over the years due to his political sharp-witted strategy and various political scandals. He is also identified as one of the most followed Malaysian politicians on social media, especially Twitter. Hence, this study aims to apply Social Network Analysis (SNA) to further examine the interactions between Twitter users and the relationship formed with Najib Razak. A complete network of Najib Razak's Twitter account is used to study the connection pattern, influence, and groups developed between account users in the network. Netlytic is used to extract the data on Twitter, and based on the extracted dataset, it is discovered that 1004 nodes that represent Twitter users, follows and mentions the @najibrazak Twitter account. The dataset was further analyzed using R to explore the interaction and the connection patterns were visualized using Gephi. Based on the findings, the connectivity, centrality and clustering of the top 10 most influential Twitter users that contribute to the discussion and mention of Najib Razak on Twitter were determined. The previous work using Najib Razak's twitter account focused on finding the relations between public and politicians by analyzing the issues discussed through language processing at topical and lexical level. Unlike the previous achievement, the results from this proposed SNA technique can be further analyzed to gather greater insights on the hidden relationship built between politicians to strengthen their position and distinguish their possible future followers for further investigations

Immunity, Sex Hormones, and Environmental Factors as Determinants of COVID-19 Disparity in Women

The current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has resulted in a major global pandemic, causing extreme morbidity and mortality. Few studies appear to suggest a significant impact of gender in morbidity and mortality, where men are reported at a higher risk than women. The infectivity, transmissibility, and varying degree of disease manifestation (mild, modest, and severe) in population studies reinforce the importance of a number of genetic and epigenetic factors, in the context of immune response and gender. The present review dwells on several contributing factors such as a stronger innate immune response, estrogen, angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 gene, and microbiota, which impart greater resistance to the SARS-CoV-2 infection and disease progression in women. In addition, the underlying importance of associated microbiota and certain environmental factors in gender-based disparity pertaining to the mortality and morbidity due to COVID-19 in women has also been addressed.Institute for Research and Medical Consultatio

TRIP-Br2 promotes oncogenesis in nude mice and is frequently overexpressed in multiple human tumors

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Members of the TRIP-Br/SERTAD family of mammalian transcriptional coregulators have recently been implicated in E2F-mediated cell cycle progression and tumorigenesis. We, herein, focus on the detailed functional characterization of the least understood member of the TRIP-Br/SERTAD protein family, TRIP-Br2 (SERTAD2).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Oncogenic potential of TRIP-Br2 was demonstrated by (1) inoculation of NIH3T3 fibroblasts, which were engineered to stably overexpress ectopic TRIP-Br2, into athymic nude mice for tumor induction and (2) comprehensive immunohistochemical high-throughput screening of TRIP-Br2 protein expression in multiple human tumor cell lines and human tumor tissue microarrays (TMAs). Clinicopathologic analysis was conducted to assess the potential of TRIP-Br2 as a novel prognostic marker of human cancer. RNA interference of <it>TRIP-Br2 </it>expression in HCT-116 colorectal carcinoma cells was performed to determine the potential of TRIP-Br2 as a novel chemotherapeutic drug target.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Overexpression of TRIP-Br2 is sufficient to transform murine fibroblasts and promotes tumorigenesis in nude mice. The transformed phenotype is characterized by deregulation of the E2F/DP-transcriptional pathway through upregulation of the key E2F-responsive genes <it>CYCLIN E</it>, <it>CYCLIN A2</it>, <it>CDC6 </it>and <it>DHFR</it>. TRIP-Br2 is frequently overexpressed in both cancer cell lines and multiple human tumors. Clinicopathologic correlation indicates that overexpression of TRIP-Br2 in hepatocellular carcinoma is associated with a worse clinical outcome by Kaplan-Meier survival analysis. Small interfering RNA-mediated (siRNA) knockdown of TRIP-Br2 was sufficient to inhibit cell-autonomous growth of HCT-116 cells <it>in vitro</it>.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This study identifies <it>TRIP-Br2 </it>as a <it>bona-fide </it>protooncogene and supports the potential for TRIP-Br2 as a novel prognostic marker and a chemotherapeutic drug target in human cancer.</p

Performance analysis of optimized screen-printed electrodes for electrochemical sensing

The screen-printed electrode (SPE) sensor is widely employed in food analysis, environmental health monitoring, disease detection, toxin detection and other applications. As it is crucial for the SPE sensor to have an outstanding performance, this study examined the effects of manipulating the working electrode (WE) radius, gap spacing between electrodes, and counter electrode (CE) width on the performance of an SPE sensor. Finite element simulation on various geometrical dimensions was done prior to screen-printed electrode SPE sensor’s fabrication at Jabil Circuits Sdn Bhd. The electrodes performance is measured through cyclic voltammetry (CV) using a potentiostat at an optimum scan rate of 0.01 V/s and a voltammetry potential window range of -0.2 to 0.8 V in 0.01 M Phosphate Buffered Saline (PBS) solution. It is discovered that adjusting the WE area and the gap separation between the electrodes had the most impact on sensor performance compared to varying the CE width. In both simulation and CV measurements, WE with the highest radius of 0.9 mm with an effective area of 2.54 mm2 and the smallest gap spacing of 0.7 mm has shown the highest current density of 0.04 A/mm2 (simulation) and 0.3 μA/mm2 (experiment) which can be translated as the highest sensitivity for the SPE sensor. Further CV measurement in nicotine sensing application has proven that the SPE sensor can effectively detect the nicotine oxidation indicating its promising potential as a biosensor. Combination of optimum SPE dimension together with suitable electrode modification process serves as the basis for an effective and sensitive SPE sensor for various biosensing applications

Clinical-epidemiological pattern of primary immunodeficiencies in Malaysia 1987-2006: a 20 year experience in four Malaysian hospitals

Aim of study: To determine the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of patients seen with primary immunodeficiencies referred at four Malaysian Hospitals between 1987 to 2007 Methods: Patient data were retrospectively obtained from patient records and supplemented by information from a standardized questionnaires taken at the time of diagnosis from 4 participating hospitals. The completed data were transferred to document records kept by the first author. The diagnoses made were based on criteria set by WHO Scientific Committee 1986. Results: Fifty one (51) patients with completed records satisfied the criteria of primary immunodeficiencies based on WHO Scientific Committee 1986. Predominant Antibody deficiency (40.4%) is the commonest of the class of primary immunodeficiency (based on modified IUIS classification) followed by phagocytic defect (17.3%), combined immunodeficiencies (15.4%) and other cellular immunodeficiencies (11.5%). The commonest clinical presentation is pneumonia (54%). A positive Family history with a close family relative afflicted was a strong pointer to diagnosis for PID (52.6%) Primary immnodeficiencies are seen in all the major ethnic groups of Malaysia, predominantly among Malays. As observed in other patient registries, diagnostic delay remains the major cause of morbidity and mortality. Conclusion: Primary immunodeficiencies is relative rare but is an emerging disease in Malaysia. Creating awareness of the disease, may reveal more cases within the community. It is sufficient to be a health issue in Malaysia as in other developing countries in the future