Optimal method to introduce faeces sample for olfactory-cues studies in Malayan tapir (Tapirus indicus)

Studying the hidden meaning behind the behaviours of wildlife can provide plenty of information for the betterment of their conservation. In this research, a preliminary study had been conducted to find out whether Malayan tapir (Tapirus indicus) (1) sniffs on the faeces or not and (2) to identify the optimal method of presenting the faeces samples. Five individuals of Malayan tapirs were contributed to this research as the samples donors and/or the subject. Basically, for this experiment several replicates of faeces samples were collected from the donors and frozen at -20˚C, and the thawed samples were introduced to the subjects at different time slots (morning, afternoon and night). The results showed that tapirs exhibited both investigation and identification behaviours when sniff on faeces samples of other individuals. However, the sniffing was observed only during early in the morning and night when they were active due to their nocturnal characteristic. We found that, the location and the sample nature (i.e., thawed at sufficient period of time) had influenced the attractiveness of presented faeces sample to tapirs. Presenting the samples at feeding and sleeping areas increased the chance for the tapirs to sniff on samples and well thawed samples which emits strong odour drawn tapir’s attention. Thus, it is recommended to take into account the above factors for further investigation related to the individual recognition through olfactory cues in Malayan tapir. The findings of this study could be incorporated in ex-situ conservation mainly during the selection of mating partners prior to physical introduction of the animals (strategy to avoid any injuries to tapir due to fighting and inbreeding in captivity)

A study of road hazards faced by Malaysian school children using HIRARC

Road transport is the movement of passengers or goods on the road. To date, issues concerning the safety of students and school institutions have continued to attract public attention. The recent spate of incidents insideandoutside the school compound has brought the issue ofchildren safetyinto our attention. These include the escalating number of road casualties. This study was conducted to observe roadhazard outside the school compound and analyse the safety risksfaced by school childrenby using the risk matrix. The risks arecalculated to includelikelihood and severity of hazard as identified in theGuideline of HIRARC 2008. The area selected was the East Coaststateof Peninsular Malaysia, withover 111 schools randomly selected in Kelantan. Re sults werethen analysed and six highlighted hazards were discussed. The results show that the main road posed the highest risk due to speeding vehicles. These vehicles failed to slow down when approaching the school area. The school administration must enhance the safety ofthe staff, students, and public while in the school area. In conclusion, road safety awareness must be instilled among teachers, students, parents and road users alike

A review on performances evaluation of low power wide area networks technology 2019

Low Power Wide Area Networks technology is considered as a new technology which enables a long-range communication where it targets the low power applications. There are many available solutions for Low Power Wide Area Networks technology in the market which among them are LoRa from Semtech and NB-IoT from 3GPP. This paper provides a review of the performances evaluation for Low Power Wide Area Networks Technology. It is shown that the parameters of PHY layer such as frequency, bandwidth, transmit power, spreading factor and code rate able to affect the performances of Low Power Wide Area Networks. Meanwhile, the received signal strength indicator and number of successful received packets data are the common performance parameter studied. In addition, the performance also conducted in the various location either in line-of-sight or not such as outdoor, indoor and underground

Perception of ergonomic safety training among school teachers in Kelantan, Malaysia

Ergonomic safety is one of the most important issues in many working sectors and this includes educational institutions especially school. It is important to get the information on the teachers’ perception of ergonomic safety training. Thus, the researcher manages to identify the suitable methods to prevent more ergonomic problem among teachers in future. Aim of this study was to analyze teachers’ perception on ergonomic safety in school and at the same time measured the training requirements on ergonomic safety. Ergonomic safety training in school is important in order to improve good body posture. Survey questionnaires were distributed to 400 teachers. 111 schools randomly selected from the 10 District Education Offices from whole state of Kelantan, Malaysia. Results were then analyzed by using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 24. Most of the respondents involved in this research are female with the percentage of 68%. Descriptive analysis showed that more than half of respondents understood about ergonomic safety, 78% of them possessed basic safety knowledge and 22% of them lacked on the basic understanding of safety. Interestingly most of the respondents agreed that ergonomic safety should be included in occupational safety and health training in school. It is suggested that all teacher must undergo ergonomic safety training to promote and improve ergonomic safety in school. Higher awareness and more information about ergonomic safety will help teachers teach their students about the importance of ergonomic safety and create a safer environment in their school. As for the conclusion, teachers and students having an important role to ensure ergonomic safety and their commitment will help in reducing the number of ergonomic problems in school

A revisit to a low-cost method for the isolation of microsatellite markers: the case of the endangered Malayan tapir (Tapirus indicus)

There are many approaches to develop microsatellite markers. Despite the availability of the more advanced technology in the market, due to budget constraints, we revisited an easy and rapid polymerase chain reaction (PCR) cloning-sequencing method to design microsatellite markers for Tapirus indicus. Using six random amplified microsatellite markers, this study had rapidly generated 45 unique genomic sequences containing microsatellites. After screening 15 terminal and seven intermediate microsatellite loci, we shortlisted five and seven which were amplified either by single- or multiplex PCR using the economical three-primer PCR method. Genotyping attempts were made with ten T. indicus individuals using three of the terminal microsatellite loci and all seven intermediate loci. However, none of the terminal microsatellite loci were considered useful for population genotyping studies, while the seven intermediate loci showed good amplification but were monomorphic in the ten samples and the subsequent 51 tapir samples. Despite successful detection of amplified loci, we would like to highlight that, researchers who are interested in this alternative method for isolation of microsatellite loci to be cautious and be aware of the limitations and downfalls reported herein that could render these loci unsuitable for population genotyping

Lard detection in edible oil using dielectric spectroscopy

Food adulteration is the process of adding or mixing of substance(s) that should not be into food products for financial gain or other motives. Food adulteration is a serious problem worldwide not just because it is a fraud to consumer, but it can also harm the health and causes serious consequences to the well being of people. Among the food products, edible oil has been identified as the top ingredient involved in food fraud. Studies show that adulteration in fats and oils are mainly economically motivated and in some cases intended to enhance food flavor. In general, adulteration of edible oil causes two great concerns to the consumer. First, it concerns consumers that practice vegetarian diet or followers of religions that prohibit from consuming pig, pork or any of its products. Second, it may cause serious health related issues particularly those who have allergies to certain types of substances or consumers who suffer coronary disease. Several conventional techniques have been utilized in order to study food adulteration particularly on fats and oil, such as polymerase chain reaction, differential scanning calorimetry, electronic nose and chromatography. Until recently, dielectric spectroscopy technique that have been widely used to analyze food products, attain research community’s attention in the study of adulteration on fats and oil. In this chapter, a review on conventional techniques and dielectric spectroscopy approach for analyzing food products are presented. In particular, a review on dielectric spectroscopy to study adulteration in fats and oils and recent work on lard detection at both low and high frequency range are discussed. Results show that dielectric sensing can be a great technology to detect lard adulterated edible oil and applying data analysis technique can further enhance the detection ability

Optimization of Small Scale Total Lipid Extraction from Frog Muscle

An optimized procedure based on Folch extraction method for extraction of total lipid from frog muscle is proposed. The effect of tissue disruption method (Hand grinding and glass beads), solvent chloroformmethanol ratio (2:1, 1:1 and 2.5:0.5), and sample-weight to solvent ratio (lg: 20ml, lg; 10ml, lg: 40ml) on percentage of lipid recovery was examined. Glass beads beating was shown to be the best method for frog muscle homogenization. Solvent ratio of 1: I was found to yield the highest percentage of lipid recovery. The percentage of lipid recovery was also recorded to be higher when using double volume of solvent. However, the result extracted by using standard Folch volume still falls within the frog lipid muscle range. When performing this extraction, the species of the frog should be maintained for each batch of optimization. It is essential to weigh the sample weight, and test tube weight accurately to avoid systemic error

Isolation and characterisation of major histocompatibility complex gene class I and II in Malayan tapir (Tapirus indicus Desmarest)

Malayan tapir is one of the five tapir species in the world and is listed as endangered in the IUCN Red List due to multiple threats such as habitat loss and human disturbance that lead to its high population decline. Low population number in this species increase the risk of inbreeding that could result in reduction in genome-wide genetic variation and particularly risky if it affects the gene responsible for immune response i.e. MHC gene. Class I and II MHC genes are responsible for encoding MHC molecules in the cells that recognise pathogenic peptides and present them to T-Cells on the cell surface for adaptive immune response. However, at present there is no study related to MHC gene in Malayan tapir yet. This study characterise the MHC peptide-binding region (PBR) of the MHC class I and II gene in Malayan tapir by isolating the DNA, amplify the targeted region by PCR, cloning and sequencing; investigate if there is evidence of balancing selection by calculating the rate of non-synonymous (dN) and synonymous (dS) substitutions using MEGA and PAML and study its relationship with homologous genes of other species based on phylogenetic tree construction alongside two DRA, two DQA, three DRB and three DQB of class II alleles were evidence of selection with dN /dS > 1. A total of 24 codons within exon 2 DRB gene were found to be under selection with ten of the codons under positive selection sites (PSS) are part of the codons forming the Antigen Binding Site (ABS). Class I αI and α2 sequences formed two separate groups on phylogenetic tree when compared to other species indicating possibility of two different loci. Within class II genes, all genes show species specific monophyletic group formation except for DRB genes with intersperse relationship in their phylogenetic trees which may indicate occurrence of trans-species polymorphism of allelic lineage. To maintain and improve the variation within the MHC gene, it is recommended to genotype tapir at the MHC gene to avoid mating with similar MHC allele and variation

Effect of high protein diet and probiotic Lactobacillus casei Shirota supplementation in aflatoxin B1-induced rats

Probiotic Lactobacillus casei Shirota (LcS) is a potential decontaminating agent of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1). However, few studies have investigated the influence of diet, especially a high protein (HP) diet, on the binding of AFB1 by probiotics. This research was conducted to determine the effect of HP diet on the ability of LcS to bind AFB1 and reduce aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) in AFB1-induced rats. Sprague Dawley rats were randomly divided into three groups: A (HP only), B (HP + 108 CFU LcS + 25 μg AFB1/kg BW), and C (HP + 25 μg AFB1/kg BW). Levels of AST and ALP were higher in all groups but other liver function’s biomarkers were in the normal range, and the liver’s histology showed no structural changes. The urea level of rats in group B (10.02 ± 0.73 mmol/l) was significantly lower () than that of rats in group A (10.82 ± 0.26 mmol/l). The presence of carcinoma in the small intestine and colon was more obvious in group C than in group B. Moreover, rats in group B had significantly () lower AFM1 concentration (0.39 ± 0.01 ng/ml) than rats in group C (5.22 ± 0.28 ng/ml). Through these findings, LcS supplementation with HP diet alleviated the adverse effects of AFB1 by preventing AFB1 absorption in the small intestine and reducing urinary AFM1