Odonata of Ayer Hitam Forest Reserve, Johor, Peninsular Malaysia

Odonata records from Ayer Hitam Forest Reserve and the surrounding area in Johor, Peninsular Malaysia are presented. A total of 44 Odonata species from eight families were collected in the area in October 2012. All of these records are new to Ayer Hitam Forest Reserve. Indothemis carnitica is a new record for Malaysia

The life and health challenges of young Malaysian couples: results from a stakeholder consensus and engagement study to support non-communicable disease prevention

BACKGROUND: Malaysia faces burgeoning obesity and diabetes epidemics with a 250% and 88% increase respectively between 1996 and 2006. Identifying the health challenges of young adults in Malaysia, who constitute 27.5 % of the population, is critical for NCD prevention. The aim of the study was two-fold: (1) to achieve consensus amongst stakeholders on the most important challenge impacting the health of young adults, and (2) to engage with stakeholders to formulate a NCD prevention framework.METHODS: The Delphi Technique was utilised to achieve group consensus around the most important life and health challenges that young adults face in Malaysia. Subsequently, the results of the consensus component were shared with the stakeholders in an engagement workshop to obtain input on a NCD prevention framework.RESULTS: We found that life stress was a significant concern. It would seem that the apathy towards pursuing or maintaining a healthy lifestyle among young adults may be significantly influenced by the broader distal determinant of life stress. The high cost of living is suggested to be the main push factor for young working adults towards attaining better financial security to improve their livelihood. In turn, this leads to a more stressful lifestyle with less time to focus on healthier lifestyle choices.CONCLUSIONS: The findings highlight a pivotal barrier to healthier lifestyles. By assisting young adults to cope with daily living coupled with realistic opportunities to make healthier dietary choices, be more active, and less sedentary could assist in the development of NCD health promotion strategies<br/

Force-induced recruitment of cten along keratin network in epithelial cells.

The cytoskeleton provides structural integrity to cells and serves as a key component in mechanotransduction. Tensins are thought to provide a force-bearing linkage between integrins and the actin cytoskeleton; yet, direct evidence of tensin's role in mechanotransduction is lacking. We here report that local force application to epithelial cells using a micrometer-sized needle leads to rapid accumulation of cten (tensin 4), but not tensin 1, along a fibrous intracellular network. Surprisingly, cten-positive fibers are not actin fibers; instead, these fibers are keratin intermediate filaments. The dissociation of cten from tension-free keratin fibers depends on the duration of cell stretch, demonstrating that the external force favors maturation of cten-keratin network interactions over time and that keratin fibers retain remarkable structural memory of a cell's force-bearing state. These results establish the keratin network as an integral part of force-sensing elements recruiting distinct proteins like cten and suggest the existence of a mechanotransduction pathway via keratin network

Trials on Induced Ovulation of Fugu niphobles (Jordan and Snyder) with Human Chorionic Gonadotropin

The effect of administration of HCG (Human Chorionic Gonadotropin) on ovulation of Fugu niphobles was studied. The female fish which exhibited distended abdomen were randomly assigned to four groups and the treatments for groups 1, 2, 3 and 4 were 0, 100, 200 and 300 I. U of HCG per fish respectively. The fish were injected immediately after the groups were established and unovulated females were reinjected after 72 hours. The dosage for each fish was calculated based on the body weight and expressed as 1.U/g body weight. The ovulatory success in fish administered with 0, 1, 2, 3 and 41. U of HCG/g body weight was 40%, 83 %, 70%, 90% and 80% respectively. This indicated that fish in the control group could also ovulate in captivity and that administration of HCG would enable a higher degree of ovulatory success

Preliminary Trials on juvenile Macrobrachium rosenbergii Production under modified Static 'Green water' Conditions

The methods of juvenile production of Udang Galah (Macrobrachium rosenbergii) have been documented by several workers (ling, 1969 .. Ling and Costello, 1976 .. Fujimura 7966, 1967, 1968, 1972 .. Fujimura and okomoto, 1970,. Sandifer etl.1976). The methods given by these workers involve intensive hatchery management such as frequent water change and cleaning of larval tanks to ensure good sanitation. Such a technique would involve wastage of sea water and at the same time is labour intensive. 'to overcome the above mentioned problems a study 'was conducted at the hatchery of the Faculty of Fisheries and marine Science, Serdang, to produce" Udang Galah" juveniles 'Without water change and by using «green water' at salinities 6~8°100 and 12-14% 0 respectively. Previous studies by Cohen et al. (1976) have conclusively shozon that (green water' is an efficient system to remove toxic metabolites such as ammonia from the culture medium. The 'green water' 'which mainly consists of unicellular algae such as Chlorella is produced by expos;'lg 'loater of salim'ty 6°(00 'Which contained Sarothcrodon mossambicus to sunlight (Fujimura

Mutation breeding of Phaseolus vulgaris L.: Studies on the effects of irradiation dosage to resolve a suitable procedure of handling M and M generations

Seedling growth studies on gamma-irradiated seeds of Phaseolus vulgaris were conducted in the greenhouse and the field. No significant differences in germination scores between the unirradiated control and the seeds exposed to 10, 20, 25, 30, 35 and 40 Krads of gamma radiation were obtained. Exposure to 100 Krads, however, was lethal to the apical meristem. Growth of the epicotyl under greenhouse conditions was the most affected by gamma radiation. Based upon a 30% reduction in epicotyl length the optimum dose for irradiation was 30 Krads. At this level of irradiation the survival score at harvest under field conditions was 50% of that of the unirradiated control. Treatment with 30 Krads also gave the highest number of solid chlorophyll mutants.While not all the chlorophyll mutants were scored in the Bs (Sl gle seed bulk) populations, the % occurrence was consistently higher than that for the corresponding Bp (single pod bulk) populations. Based on these results, it is recommended that: a) the most suitable level of gamma radiation to use in a mutation breeding programme is 30 Krads; b) the M1 seeds should be field-planted at double the planting density of the control; c) the M1 plants should be harvested such that the Bs (single seed bulk) population be used for screening of the mutants

Approximability of Connected Factors

Finding a d-regular spanning subgraph (or d-factor) of a graph is easy by Tutte's reduction to the matching problem. By the same reduction, it is easy to find a minimal or maximal d-factor of a graph. However, if we require that the d-factor is connected, these problems become NP-hard - finding a minimal connected 2-factor is just the traveling salesman problem (TSP). Given a complete graph with edge weights that satisfy the triangle inequality, we consider the problem of finding a minimal connected $d$-factor. We give a 3-approximation for all $d$ and improve this to an (r+1)-approximation for even d, where r is the approximation ratio of the TSP. This yields a 2.5-approximation for even d. The same algorithm yields an (r+1)-approximation for the directed version of the problem, where r is the approximation ratio of the asymmetric TSP. We also show that none of these minimization problems can be approximated better than the corresponding TSP. Finally, for the decision problem of deciding whether a given graph contains a connected d-factor, we extend known hardness results.Comment: To appear in the proceedings of WAOA 201

Knowledge and skills that beginner piano teachers need to teach a music program in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

In Kuala Lumpur, the piano teacher population ranges from unqualified to qualified teachers. They may possess certification from the examining boards in United Kingdom, while others may be qualified holding Music degrees from local or overseas’ universities. Private piano teachers encounter problems in their daily work and there are many unanswered questions. The research question that guided the research was: What are the knowledge and skills that beginner piano teachers need to teach a music program in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia? Following this main research question was a secondary question that asks: What might an introductory guidebook for novice teachers look like? A survey was administered to discover some areas that teachers and students need focus and attention. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with experienced piano teachers to obtain deeper insight into piano teaching. The findings from my research indicated there were areas of piano pedagogy that needed addressing. The aim of this research was to find answers and solutions to guide new beginner teachers start their teaching career, to teach beginner students learn to play the piano appropriately. The main outcome of the research was the development of a guidebook entitled Searching for answers in piano teaching for novice studio teachers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This guidebook would be suitable to assist practicing and prospective private piano teachers. It covers an array of issues and problems on teaching. Problems and issues of a generic nature were discussed alongside those specific to instrumental teaching, providing ideas, concepts and viewpoints on various methods and approaches in private piano studio teaching. The chapters from this introductory guidebook for new graduate piano teachers include the following topics: studio teaching; importance of building good groundwork by establishing appropriate essentials and avoiding and addressing faults; teacher knowledge and skills; ways to encourage practice; focusing on the significance of sight-reading; developing musicianship skills; the benefits of group learning and pros and cons of music examination