Global sourcing strategy of electrical and electronics foreign multinationals in Malaysia / Siti Halijjah Shariff, Osman Mohamad and T Ramayah

Multinationals will source from within their company (intra) as well as from independent supplier (inter) and these suppliers may be located locally or overseas. This study highlights the percentage of components sourced from intra-domestic, intra-foreign, interdomestic, and inter-foreign sources by electrical and electronic foreign multinationals in Malaysia. These global sourcing strategies were found to be different among the different nationality of the parent company for the electrical and electronic foreign multinationals. However, the dependency on sourcing from parent country or from its subsidiaries in foreign country was not reduced even when the product is at the maturity stage

Purifying Nucleic Acids from Samples of Extremely Low Biomass

A new method is able to circumvent the bias to which one commercial DNA extraction method falls prey with regard to the lysing of certain types of microbial cells, resulting in a truncated spectrum of microbial diversity. By prefacing the protocol with glass-bead-beating agitation (mechanically lysing a much more encompassing array of cell types and spores), the resulting microbial diversity detection is greatly enhanced. In preliminary studies, a commercially available automated DNA extraction method is effective at delivering total DNA yield, but only the non-hardy members of the bacterial bisque were represented in clone libraries, suggesting that this method was ineffective at lysing the hardier cell types. To circumvent such a bias in cells, yet another extraction method was devised. In this technique, samples are first subjected to a stringent bead-beating step, and then are processed via standard protocols. Prior to being loaded into extraction vials, samples are placed in micro-centrifuge bead tubes containing 50 micro-L of commercially produced lysis solution. After inverting several times, tubes are agitated at maximum speed for two minutes. Following agitation, tubes are centrifuged at 10,000 x g for one minute. At this time, the aqueous volumes are removed from the bead tubes and are loaded into extraction vials to be further processed via extraction regime. The new method couples two independent methodologies in such as way as to yield the highest concentration of PCR-amplifiable DNA with consistent and reproducible results and with the most accurate and encompassing report of species richness

Malaysia's three major ethnic group preferences in creating a Malaysian garden identity

Malaysia has a complex multiracial population, predominantly defined by three major ethnic groups: Malay, Chinese and Indian races, with diverse cultural backgrounds. Despite this, the country has a vision to be the most beautiful garden nation, and its National Landscape Policy (NLP) puts emphasis on creating a unique landscape and garden identity. Because of ethnic and cultural differences, there are differences between preferences for developing a garden identity for Malaysia. Hence, this study focused on the visual quality of gardens. Representative images of four well-established gardens of the world including Persian-Islamic, English, Japanese and Chinese gardens were presented to the study's respondents through preference photo surveys. Respondents from the three major ethnic groups in Malaysia were asked to rate their preferred garden types, elements and scenes that they would like to see in Malaysian gardens. The results pinpointed expectations of the visual quality of gardens. These highlighted some similarities and differences between the three major ethnic groups in their preferences for the scenes and elements that they sought in gardens. Diverse factors must be considered when creating Malaysian gardens that will be accepted by Malaysians of different ethnic groups. Garden development reveals preferences attached to visual qualities and emphasises cultural differences between garden users

Automated Identification of Nucleotide Sequences

STITCH is a computer program that processes raw nucleotide-sequence data to automatically remove unwanted vector information, perform reverse-complement comparison, stitch shorter sequences together to make longer ones to which the shorter ones presumably belong, and search against the user s choice of private and Internet-accessible public 16S rRNA databases. ["16S rRNA" denotes a ribosomal ribonucleic acid (rRNA) sequence that is common to all organisms.] In STITCH, a template 16S rRNA sequence is used to position forward and reverse reads. STITCH then automatically searches known 16S rRNA sequences in the user s chosen database(s) to find the sequence most similar to (the sequence that lies at the smallest edit distance from) each spliced sequence. The result of processing by STITCH is the identification of the most similar well-described bacterium. Whereas previously commercially available software for analyzing genetic sequences operates on one sequence at a time, STITCH can manipulate multiple sequences simultaneously to perform the aforementioned operations. A typical analysis of several dozen sequences (length of the order of 103 base pairs) by use of STITCH is completed in a few minutes, whereas such an analysis performed by use of prior software takes hours or days

Factors influencing preferences of garden iconographies

Gardens are natural and cultural artifacts presenting both natural and man-made beauty through their natural images. The collection of these representative images or iconography forms the particular identity of a garden. Hence, different gardens present a variety of iconographies, which could affect people preferences for them. For the purpose of this study, four well-established gardens in the world were selected as case studiesand their images were used to represent their iconographies. A photo-questionnaire survey was employed to elicit preferences for garden iconographies and to determine factors influencing their preferences. Factor analysis was used to reveal preference dimensions and stimuli in each category or groups of garden scenes based on preference ratings. Dimensions were qualitatively analyzed and were discussed in terms of their contents and spatial organizations. The study found that garden elements, axes, direction, focal points, and their particular arrangements influence preferences of garden iconographies. The findings from this study will help to inform Landscape Architects the choice of iconographies in the development of new garden identities

Ultraviolet-Resistant Bacterial Spores

A document summarizes a study in which it was found that spores of the SAFR-032 strain of Bacillus pumilus can survive doses of ultraviolet (UV) radiation, radiation, and hydrogen peroxide in proportions much greater than those of other bacteria. The study was part of a continuing effort to understand the survivability of bacteria under harsh conditions and develop means of sterilizing spacecraft to prevent biocontamination of Mars that could interfere with the search for life there

Isolation of Resistance-Bearing Microorganisms

To better exploit the principles of gas transport and mass transport during the processes of cell seeding of 3D scaffolds and in vitro culture of 3D tissue engineered constructs, the oscillatory cell culture bioreactor provides a flow of cell suspensions and culture media directly through a porous 3D scaffold (during cell seeding) and a 3D construct (during subsequent cultivation) within a highly gas-permeable closed-loop tube. This design is simple, modular, and flexible, and its component parts are easy to assemble and operate, and are inexpensive. Chamber volume can be very low, but can be easily scaled up. This innovation is well suited to work with different biological specimens, particularly with cells having high oxygen requirements and/or shear sensitivity, and different scaffold structures and dimensions. The closed-loop changer is highly gas permeable to allow efficient gas exchange during the cell seeding/culturing process. A porous scaffold, which may be seeded with cells, is fixed by means of a scaffold holder to the chamber wall with scaffold/construct orientation with respect to the chamber determined by the geometry of the scaffold holder. A fluid, with/without biological specimens, is added to the chamber such that all, or most, of the air is displaced (i.e., with or without an enclosed air bubble). Motion is applied to the chamber within a controlled environment (e.g., oscillatory motion within a humidified 37 C incubator). Movement of the chamber induces relative motion of the scaffold/construct with respect to the fluid. In case the fluid is a cell suspension, cells will come into contact with the scaffold and eventually adhere to it. Alternatively, cells can be seeded on scaffolds by gel entrapment prior to bioreactor cultivation. Subsequently, the oscillatory cell culture bioreactor will provide efficient gas exchange (i.e., of oxygen and carbon dioxide, as required for viability of metabolically active cells) and controlled levels of fluid dynamic shear (i.e., as required for viability of shear-sensitive cells) to the developing engineered tissue construct. This bioreactor was recently utilized to show independent and interactive effects of a growth factor (IGF-I) and slow bidirectional perfusion on the survival, differentiation, and contractile performance of 3D tissue engineering cardiac constructs. The main application of this system is within the tissue engineering industry. The ideal final application is within the automated mass production of tissue- engineered constructs. Target industries could be both life sciences companies as well as bioreactor device producing companies

Isolation of the Paenibacillus phoenicis, a Spore-Forming Bacterium

A microorganism was isolated from the surfaces of the cleanroom facility in which the Phoenix lander was assembled. The isolated bacterial strain was subjected to a comprehensive polyphasic analysis to characterize its taxonomic position. Both phenotypic and phylogenetic analyses clearly indicate that this isolate belongs to the genus Paenibacillus and represents a novel species. Bacillus spores have been utilized to assess the degree and level of microbiological contamination on spacecraft and their associated spacecraft assembly facilities. Spores of Bacillus species are of particular concern to planetary protection due to the extreme resistance of some members of the genus to space environmental conditions such as UV and gamma radiation, vacuum, oxidation, and temperature fluctuation. These resistive spore phenotypes have enhanced potential for transfer, and subsequent proliferation, of terrestrial microbes on another solar body. Due to decreased nutrient conditions within spacecraft assembly facility clean rooms, the vegetative cells of Bacillus species and other spore-forming Paenibacillus species are induced to sporulate, thereby enhancing their survivability of bioreductio

The relationship between psychological distress with salivary á-amylase and physical symptoms among breast cancer survivors

Background and Aims: This study examined the stress levels, the stressors and biomarker such as Alpha (α)-Amylase enzyme which is secreted under distress conditions. The aim was to determine the relationship between these three variables. Methods: The study respondents were made up of cancer outpatients from 3 hospitals namely the Hospital Kuala Lumpur, Seberang Jaya and Johor Baru, Pantai Ipoh and Putrajaya. The Personal Stress Inventory (PSI) questionnaire was used to identify stressors, while the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) were used to determine the psychological distress levels. The Salimentary Oral Swab (SOS) Technique was used to collect the saliva and then the Salivary α-Amylase Assay Kit was used to analyse for α amylase. Results: The majority of respondents were stressed due to their sensitive emotion and nervousness in their daily lives (68.7%), they had poor memory and short attention spans of carrying out job tasks (67.3%) as well as they were emotionally depressed (65.3%). Their poor memory and short attention span (p = 0.037), heavy work load and poor task delivery (p = 0.008) were predictors for distress using HADS. The salivary α-amylase concentration was significantly related to the stress levels (p = 0.002). Conclusion: Breast cancer respondents with musculoskeletal system related symptoms, with heavy work load and poor task delivery, as well as had poor memory and short attention span were at higher risk of experiencing psychological distress. The salivary α-amylase which had significant relationships with psychological distress was therefore, a potential biological indicator for distress, while the musculoskeletal system related symptoms from the PSI questionnaire were predictors for distress

Novel Species of Non-Spore-Forming Bacteria

While cataloging cultivatable microbes from the airborne biological diversity of the atmosphere of the Regenerative Enclosed life-support Module Simulator (REMS) system at Marshall Space Flight Center, two strains that belong to one novel bacterial species were isolated. Based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing and the unique morphology and the taxonomic characteristics of these strains, it is shown that they belong to the family Intrasporangiaceae, related to the genus Tetrasphaera, with phylogenetic distances from any validly described species of the genus Tetrasphaera ranging from 96.71 to 97.76 percent. The fatty acid profile supported the affiliation of these novel strains to the genus Tetrasphaera except for the presence of higher concentrations of octadecenoic acid (C18:0) and cis-9-octadecenoic acid (C18:1), which discriminates these strains from other valid species. In addition, DNA-DNA hybridization studies indicate that these strains belong to a novel species that could be readily distinguished from its nearest neighbor, Tetrasphaera japonica AMC 5116T, with less than 20 percent DNA relatedness. Physiological and biochemical tests show few phenotypic dissimilarities, but genotypic analysis allowed the differentiation of these gelatin-liquefying strains from previously reported strains. The name Tetrasphaera remsis sp. Nov. is proposed with the type strain 3-M5-R-4(sup T) (=ATCC BAA-1496(sup T)=CIP 109413(sup T). The cells are Gram-positive, nonmotile, cocci, in tetrad arrangement and clusters. Spore formation is not observed. No species of Tetrashpaera has ever been isolated from airborne samples. Previous discoveries have come from soil and activated sludge samples. As other species of this genus have demonstrated enhanced biological phosphorus removal activity, further tests are required to determine if this newly discovered species would have bioremediation applications