A proteomic atlas of senescence-associated secretomes for aging biomarker development.

The senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP) has recently emerged as a driver of and promising therapeutic target for multiple age-related conditions, ranging from neurodegeneration to cancer. The complexity of the SASP, typically assessed by a few dozen secreted proteins, has been greatly underestimated, and a small set of factors cannot explain the diverse phenotypes it produces in vivo. Here, we present the "SASP Atlas," a comprehensive proteomic database of soluble proteins and exosomal cargo SASP factors originating from multiple senescence inducers and cell types. Each profile consists of hundreds of largely distinct proteins but also includes a subset of proteins elevated in all SASPs. Our analyses identify several candidate biomarkers of cellular senescence that overlap with aging markers in human plasma, including Growth/differentiation factor 15 (GDF15), stanniocalcin 1 (STC1), and serine protease inhibitors (SERPINs), which significantly correlated with age in plasma from a human cohort, the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging (BLSA). Our findings will facilitate the identification of proteins characteristic of senescence-associated phenotypes and catalog potential senescence biomarkers to assess the burden, originating stimulus, and tissue of origin of senescent cells in vivo

HAJJRAH: an innovative application for pilgrims of Hajj and Umrah

This paper describes an application system named HAJJRAH which offer solutions to common problems faced by pilgrims in performing the obligatory and supplementary activities of Hajj and Umrah. Background of pilgrimage and problems faced by various agencies who manage pilgrims were also provided in this paper to give an understanding on the problem surrounding the need of HAJJRAH application. Analysis of market study among potential user and industrialists are presented in this paper to justify market needs and strength of the applications business idea. Results of the analysis shows that the features provided by HAJJRAH application accommodates and address common problems faced by most pilgrims and various agencies who involved in managing the pilgrims during Hajj and Umrah

To volunteer or not to volunteer: the case of Malaysian public service retirees

There are thousands of retirees from the Premier and Managerial and Professional (PMP) group of the Malaysian Public Service who, after the mandatory retirement at the age of fifty-five or fifty-six, could contribute to the community gleaning from an improved longevity index for both male and female Malaysians in the recent years. This article attempted to decipher the difference between volunteer and non-volunteer retirees as far as the role of psychosocial and altruistic factors are concerned and what this difference would imply as far as motivating other retirees to engage in the voluntary work for the development of the Malaysian society. The psychosocial dimension includes the environment, lifestyle, personality and resources while altruism includes empathy, reciprocity and spirituality. Independent sample t-test was used to determine whether there was a significant difference for the psychosocial variables and altruism between the volunteers and non-volunteers. Findings of the study revealed that there was a significant difference between the volunteers and non-volunteers by looking at the effects of both psychosocial and altruism further indicating that these volunteers were more altruistic and whose psychosocial factors greatly influenced the volunteers' propensity to render voluntary service to the community

Debunking the myth: the involvement of Malaysian retirees in volunteerism

This is an exploratory study involving the Malaysian retirees from the Premier and Managerial and Professional sectors of the Malaysian Public Service. It examined the extent of the retirees' involvement, motivation and preference in relation to engaging in volunteerism in the country. Methodologically, a mailed-survey questionnaire was conducted to elicit the information and opinion of 261 retirees throughout Malaysia, including Sabah and Sarawak. Based on the findings, these retirees were more than willing to volunteer in religious, social, educational or community type of organization especially to those who needs their expertise. These retirees expressed concerns about the widely-accepted public conditioning that they were no longer productive and could therefore be relegated to the background as far as their relevance was concerned

Environmetric study on air quality pattern for assessment in Northern region of Peninsular Malaysia

Background and Objective: Causes of air quality problems detected are emission from vehicles, industrial emissions and open burning. The objective of this study was to determine the significant pollutant parameters contributing to air quality problems and also to look at air quality pattern at 12 air monitoring stations in the Northern region of Peninsular Malaysia (Perlis, Kedah, Pulau Pinang and Perak). Methodology: The data set was given from the Department of Environment, Malaysia (DOE) for the years 2002-2012 (11 years). Basically, air pollution index (API) parameters such as O3, SO2, CO, NO2 and PM10 were involved in this study. Therefore, environmental metric techniques used such as cluster analysis (CA), perform three smaller groups compared 12 stations which has a same characteristic. This clusterization was also used to look air quality pattern based on yearly and specific monthly basis. It were shown that, 2005 and 2006 has a more stand out and different pattern. The third quarter of these years showed predominant and different pattern due to transboundary pollution. Discriminant analysis (DA) was used for differentiating each class. The study found that there were establish different variables, between each class. Principal component analysis (PCA), combined with factor analysis (FA), was used to know significant pollutant parameters based on five pollutants/gases in the air pollution index (API) which cause many activities either internal or external factors. Results: The study found that SO2, NO2 and O3 are the major pollutants contributing to degradation of air quality in the Northern region due to the combustion process from vehicles and industries. Conclusion: As a result of using the envirometric technique for analyzing huge data sets become better understanding air quality pattern and more clearly identify significant air pollutant parameters

Tahap Kelestarian Pertanian Komuniti Pekebun Kecil Koko (KPKK) di Zon Pantai Timur Sabah (PTS)

Penurunan produktiviti tanaman koko seringkali dikaitkan dengan kuantiti, kualiti dan demografi pekebun kecil yang semakin berusia. Amalan pertanian baik (APB) yang tidak dipraktiskan dengan konsisten juga mempengaruhi kelestarian pertanian komuniti pekebun kecil koko (KPKK). Justeru, kajian bertujuan untuk mendeksripsi profil KPKK di zon Pantai Timur Sabah dan mengenal pasti tahap kelestarian pertanian KPKK dari segi sosial, ekonomi dan alam sekitar. Reka bentuk kajian kuantitatif dengan pendekatan penyelidikan tinjauan dilaksanakan ke atas 195 orang responden KPKK menggunakan borang soal selidik. Landasan model kajian adalah berdasarkan Model Kelestarian Pertanian. Item kajian mempunyai nilai kebolehpercayaan yang tinggi berjumlah antara 0.874 sehingga 0.934. Data kajian dianalisis secara deksriptif menggunakan perisian SPSS versi 26.0. Kajian menunjukkan majoriti pekebun kecil merupakan generasi pertama penanam koko, berumur lingkungan 51 sehingga 60 tahun dan berpengalaman 1 hingga 20 tahun dalam bidang pertanian. Tahap kelestarian pertanian berada pada tahap tinggi yang didominasi oleh aspek sosial (min 4.27). Diikuti, dengan kelestarian pertanian dari segi ekonomi (min 4.25) dan alam sekitar (min 4.25). Input kajian memberi kefahaman baharu kepada model yang menjelaskan keperluan Lembaga Koko Malaysia (LKM) untuk menambahkan usaha bagi melestari pertanian koko. Ini bertepatan dengan usaha LKM bagi meningkatkan sekuriti makanan negara melalui komoditi koko

The role and competence of agricultural development officers as community developers: a scoping review

Discussions on agricultural development officers in the field of social science studies have long been discoursed by academics, community development practitioners and various formal and informal agencies since 1960. However, the results of studies focusing on the role and competencies of development officers in the context of community development remain. limited. Accordingly, the study focuses on two main objectives, namely i) to analyse the trends of the study findings on the role and competencies in the field of community development and ii) to identify the role and competencies of agricultural development officers as community developers. The study analyses secondary data through content analysis techniques and examines the theme of the role and competencies of agricultural development officers in the context of community developers thematically. The results of the first objective study, found that the trend of research findings on the role and competence of agricultural development officers in the field of community development began to be analysed as a field of knowledge since 1960. While the analysis of the role and competencies of agricultural development officers has identified 11 themes as community developers: i) identify community forms and processes of social action; ii) respect the diversity/pluralism and multi-culture of community members; iii) implement development programs appropriate to the demographics of the community; iv) skilfully encourage community involvement in development programs; v) have information and ability to deliver developmental education; vi) establish interpersonal relationships; vii) have knowledge of organization; viii) leadership; ix) organizational management; x) have professionalism; and xi) master the field of community development in terms of theory and practice. In conclusion, the implications of the study on the literature highlights are able to build a deep and systematic understanding of the role and competencies of agricultural development officers in the context of community development practitioners in Malaysia

Application of deep learning method in facilitating the detection of breast cancer

Breast cancer is a type of tumour that could be treated if the disease is identified at an earlier stage. Early diagnosis is crucial when it comes to reducing the mortality rate. In this study, deep neural network method is applied to facilitate the detection of breast cancer. The aim of this study is to implement deep neural network in breast cancer classification models that can produce high classification accuracy. Deep Neural Network (DNN) with multiple hidden layers was applied to learn deep features of the breast cancer data. Dataset used in this study was obtained from the UCI Machine Learning Repository which consists of Wisconsin Breast Cancer Dataset (WBCD) and used for the original and diagnostic dataset. The performance of the proposed DNN method was compared against previous machine learning classifier in terms of accuracy. From the results, the accuracy obtained for the original dataset was 97.14% and 97.66% for the diagnostic dataset, which is better than previous SVM method

Government expenditure, manufacturing growth, C02 emission: A causality analysis in Malaysia

The main objective of the study is to explore government expenditure, C02 emission and manufacturing output in one model. These comprehensive literature reviews related to this topic of interest prove evidence upon variations towards the causality relationship that exists between government expenditure, C02 emission and manufacturing output. Most of past literatures had studied on the relationship of these variables, however separately. This study is done in order to test the relationship between government expenditure. C02 emission and manufacturing output on pollution in Malaysia. The data is secondarily obtained from The World Bank, The Eurostat, The European Environment Agency (EEA) and the international Monetary Fund (IMF) on the basis of a 39 of data collection from 2005 to 2019. The amounts of government expenditure, C02 emission and manufactu1ing output are then valued from the data usable. The study aims to analyses to whether or not do the variables hold causal to each other. This study discusses on the impacts of economic sectors on pollution the government expenditure, C02 emission and manufacturing consumption as its variables. Upon examining the study, an annual time series data covering the period of 2005 to 2019 in Malaysia were used. Models such as Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) unit root test, Johansen and Juselius (1990) Co- Integration test, Vector Error Correction Model test and Granger Causality test were employed, each its own purposes. The conclusion on the findings limitation of the studies and suggestion for future references will later on be discussed in this chapter

Government expenditure, manufacturing growth and CO2 emission: A causality analysis in Malaysia

The main objective of the study is to explore government expenditure, CO2 emission and manufacturing output in one model. These comprehensive literature reviews related to this topic of interest prove evidence upon variations towards the causality relationship that exists between government expenditure, CO2 emission and manufacturing output. Most of past literatures had studied on the relationship of these variables, however separately. This study is done in order to test the relationship between government expenditure. CO2 emission and manufacturing output on pollution in Malaysia. The data is secondarily obtained from The World Bank, The Eurostat, The European Environment Agency (EEA) and the international Monetary Fund (IMF) on the basis of a 39 of data collection from 2005 to 2019. The amounts of government expenditure, CO2 emission and manufactu1ing output are then valued from the data usable. The study aims to analyses to whether or not do the variables hold causal to each other. This study discusses on the impacts of economic sectors on pollution the government expenditure, CO2 emission and manufacturing consumption as its variables. Upon examining the study, an annual time series data covering the period of 2005-2019 in Malaysia were used. Models such as augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) unit root test, Johansen and Juselius (1990) co-integration test, vector error correction model test and Granger causality test were employed, each its own purposes. The conclusion on the findings limitation of the studies and suggestion for future references will later on be discussed in this chapter