International Student Adaptation Factors in Malaysian Public Universities

The research focuses on the internationalization of Malaysia's Higher Education by ensuring that the increasing number of international students will be accommodated fairly. The issues addressed will revolve around the Psychological Factor with the Intercultural Adaptation Model by Kim Young Yun as the foundation. The model was used as the framework to focus on the psychological issue the international students experienced. Twelve international students were selected as respondents from four public universities in Malaysia: UPM, UKM, UM and USM as the main research area. This qualitative research used a semi-structured interview as the main instrument of data collection, online interview using WeBex and Google Meet were used. Respondents were selected using quota sampling with varying characteristics. Results were analysed by using the colour-coding technique assisted by ATLAS.ti. Although it is psychologically challenging, some of it is actually helping as a part of their life circle's support system, namely the presence of supportive classmates and support group

Arabidopsis IRE1 catalyses unconventional splicing of bZIP60 mRNA to produce the active transcription factor

IRE1 plays an essential role in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress response in yeast and mammals. We found that a double mutant of Arabidopsis IRE1A and IRE1B (ire1a/ire1b) is more sensitive to the ER stress inducer tunicamycin than the wild-type. Transcriptome analysis revealed that genes whose induction was reduced in ire1a/ire1b largely overlapped those in the bzip60 mutant. We observed that the active form of bZIP60 protein detected in the wild-type was missing in ire1a/ire1b. We further demonstrated that bZIP60 mRNA is spliced by ER stress, removing 23 ribonucleotides and therefore causing a frameshift that replaces the C-terminal region of bZIP60 including the transmembrane domain (TMD) with a shorter region without a TMD. This splicing was detected in ire1a and ire1b single mutants, but not in the ire1a/ire1b double mutant. We conclude that IRE1A and IRE1B catalyse unconventional splicing of bZIP60 mRNA to produce the active transcription factor

Targeting Huntington’s disease through histone deacetylases

Huntington’s disease (HD) is a debilitating neurodegenerative condition with significant burdens on both patient and healthcare costs. Despite extensive research, treatment options for patients with this condition remain limited. Aberrant post-translational modification (PTM) of proteins is emerging as an important element in the pathogenesis of HD. These PTMs include acetylation, phosphorylation, methylation, sumoylation and ubiquitination. Several families of proteins are involved with the regulation of these PTMs. In this review, I discuss the current evidence linking aberrant PTMs and/or aberrant regulation of the cellular machinery regulating these PTMs to HD pathogenesis. Finally, I discuss the evidence suggesting that pharmacologically targeting one of these protein families the histone deacetylases may be of potential therapeutic benefit in the treatment of HD

Diabetic foot presentation and surgical outcome at Hospital Raja Perempuan Zainab II, Kota Bharu, Kelantan: a prospective review

Objective: To review the presentation and its surgical outcome among diabetic foot patients at Hospital Raja Perempuan Zainab II (HRPZ II), Kota Bharu, Kelantan. Methodology: This is a prospective study of 35 diabetic foot patients who were admitted to orthopaedic wards of HRPZ II from April to May 2007. Subjects were interview for sensory neuropathy and peripheral vascular disease. The lesion was classified based on Wegner’s and King’s classification. Blood glucose level and HbA1c were reviewed. Subjects were followed up for the surgical outcome. Results: 18 male patient (51.4%) and 17 female patients (48.6%) were involved in the study with men age of 58.4 ± 7.8 yeas old. Most of them are Malay (91.4%, n=32). 33 (94.3) patients were known to have diabetes mellitus with median duration of 12 years (range of 1-30 years). 71.0% (n=22) had significant neuropathy and 12% (n=3) had significant peripheral vascular disease. 51.4% (n=18) were classified in Grade 4 Wegner’s and Stage 5 King’s. Mean glucometer at early presentation was 14.7 ± 5.1 mmol/L and mean random blood glucose was 14.3 ± 8.0 mmol/L. HbA1c results revealed that 82.3% (n=14) of them had HbA1c more 8.0%. 14.3% (n=5) of the patients were planned for major amputation and 25.7% (n=9) were planned for Ray’s amputation. Within the study period, two patients died due to septicaemia. Conclusion: Majority of patients presented at advanced stage problem with poor glucose control. Rate of amputation was 40.0% and 14.3% ended up with major amputation