Polymeric Nanofiber Conduits for Peripheral Nerve Regeneration

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Chemical analysis on the honey of Heterotrigona itama and Tetrigona binghami from Sarawak, Malaysia

This study aims to compare the chemical composition of honey samples produced by Heterotrigona itama and Tetrigona binghami which originated from Sarawak, Malaysia. One hundred and six (106) honey samples were collected from local bee farms and analysed in terms of their chemical profiles. The chemical analysis conducted includes physicochemical composition such as moisture, total phenolic content, sugar, 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF), pH and organic acids and proximate analysis which included ash, protein, carbohydrates and energy. Independent T-test was used as a statistical tool to investigate the significant difference between the composition of both honey samples. The results showed that honey samples of Heterotrigona itama and Tetrigona binghami possessed significant difference (p<0.05) in moisture, total phenolic content, fructose, glucose, pH, protein, gluconic acid, acetic acid, ash, carbohydrates and energy. The honey samples of Heterotrigona itama exhibited significantly higher fructose and glucose at the average of 22.00 ± 3.48 g/ 100 g and 23.45 ± 3.23 g/100 g, respectively. Besides, the honey samples also possessed higher pH value, gluconic acid, ash, carbohydrates and energy. Meanwhile, Tetrigona binghami honey samples possessed significantly (p< 0.05) higher moisture content, total phenolic content, protein and acetic acid compared to the Heterotrigona itama’s honey samples. To conclude, the geographical and floral origins of honey are the two important quality parameters which fundamentally affect the physical-chemical properties as well as biological activities of honey samples

The impact of e-commerce on transportation dependency

Growth of world population has directly caused traffic congestion particularly in the cities.With the development of technologies such as the internet applications have changed the way of doing things.The e-commerce allows buying to be done at any place and at any time, in the word, subjected to the availability of internet connections.The e-commerce has impacted the buying behaviour and business operations. Ecommerce is boomed as it provides the virtual platform to trade the goods and services by just a click without brick and mortal store.It has the ability to re-direct consumer to shop from physical store to online marketplace around the globe. The individuals’ journeys to the stores are replaced by frequent deliveries by the courier companies. Growing of e-commerce is able to reduce the private vehicles on road as the delivery services provide by e-retailer.This paper provides more insights into the relationships between e-commerce and transportation dependency.This study examines the role of buying behavior in e-commerce in affecting the transportation dependency in Malaysia. Non probability convenient sampling method used to collect the data from the students studying at Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM).The data were collected from 400 undergraduate students in UUM by using semi-structured questionnaire.In the pilot test, the Cronbach’s alpha score is 0.927, which is reliable.The findings are expected to widen the knowledge regard the impacts of e-commerce on transportation dependency

Electrochemical Synthesis of CdSe Quantum Dot Array on Graphene Basal Plane using Mesoporous Silica Thin Film Templates

We report on the synthesis of CdSe quantum dots on a graphene surface by an electrochemical deposition method. By using a mesoporous silica film formed on the graphene surface as a template and a potential equalizer between the edge/defect sites and the basal plane of the graphene, CdSe quantum dots can be grown on the basal plane into a regular hexagonal array.Comment: Adv. Mater. (in press

Long-term Prognostic Value of Cardiac MRI Left Atrial Strain in ST-Segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction

Background: Left atrial (LA) dysfunction is associated with morbidity and mortality. To the knowledge of the authors, the relationship of LA strain to long-term prognosis in participants with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) is unknown. / Purpose: To evaluate LA strain as a long-term outcome predictor in STEMI in a prospective, multicenter cardiac MRI cohort. / Materials and Methods: Participants with STEMI who underwent primary percutaneous coronary intervention and cardiac MRI from 10 sites (EARLY-MYO-CMR registry, clinical trial number NCT03768453) were included. The parent study took place between August 2013 and December 2018. LA longitudinal strain and strain rate parameters were derived from cine cardiac MRI by using an in-house semiautomated method. Major adverse cardiac events (MACEs) were defined as cardiovascular death, myocardial reinfarction, hospitalization for heart failure, and stroke. The association between LA performance and MACE was evaluated by using time-dependent receiver operating characteristic analysis, Kaplan-Meier analysis, and multivariable Cox regression analysis. / Results: A total of 321 participants (median age, 59 years; age range, 27–75 years; 90% men) were included in this study. During median follow-up of 3.7 years, MACE occurred in 76 participants (23.7%). Participants with impaired reservoir (≤22%) and conduit strain (≤10%) had a higher risk of MACE than those with reservoir strain greater than 22% and conduit strain greater than 10% (P < .001). Reservoir strain (hazard ratio, 0.84; 95% confidence interval: 0.77, 0.91; P < .001) and conduit strain (hazard ratio, 0.81; 95% confidence interval: 0.73, 0.89; P < .001) were independent predictors for MACE after adjustment for known risk factors. Finally, LA reservoir and conduit strains provided incremental prognostic value over traditional outcome predictors (Uno C statistic comparing models, 0.75 vs 0.68; P = .04). / Conclusion: Assessment of left atrial strain, as a measure of left atrial function, provided incremental prognostic information to established predictors in ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction

Effects of red grape, wild grape and black raspberry wines on ground pork during refrigerated storage

The effects of red grape, wild grape and black raspberry wines on the quality of ground pork during a 15 days refrigerated storage period were investigated. The levels of phenolic compounds were the highest in black raspberry wine (P0.05). The addition of 5% and 10% wine influenced the quality of ground pork by decreasing pH, inhibiting the progression of lipid oxidation and the formation of total volatile basic nitrogen (TVB-N), and stabilizing the red colour of the ground pork compared to control samples to which no wine was added. In ground pork, addition of red grape wine led to lower concentrations of thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS, 0.19–0.39 mg kg−1) and TVB-N values (69.1–119.9 mg kg−1) than wild grape (0.16–0.43 mg kg−1 and 72.0–194.1 mg kg−1, respectively) or black raspberry wine (0.33–0.58 mg kg−1 and 81.7–225.4 mg kg−1, respectively) up to 10 days of storage. Results from the present study suggested that the quality of ground pork was affected by wine type and storage period. These effects could be due to phenolic compounds as well as other chemical components of the wines

Selective Translational Repression of Truncated Proteins from Frameshift Mutation-Derived mRNAs in Tumors

Frameshift and nonsense mutations are common in tumors with microsatellite instability, and mRNAs from these mutated genes have premature termination codons (PTCs). Abnormal mRNAs containing PTCs are normally degraded by the nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) system. However, PTCs located within 50–55 nucleotides of the last exon–exon junction are not recognized by NMD (NMD-irrelevant), and some PTC-containing mRNAs can escape from the NMD system (NMD-escape). We investigated protein expression from NMD-irrelevant and NMD-escape PTC-containing mRNAs by Western blotting and transfection assays. We demonstrated that transfection of NMD-irrelevant PTC-containing genomic DNA of MARCKS generates truncated protein. In contrast, NMD-escape PTC-containing versions of hMSH3 and TGFBR2 generate normal levels of mRNA, but do not generate detectable levels of protein. Transfection of NMD-escape mutant TGFBR2 genomic DNA failed to generate expression of truncated proteins, whereas transfection of wild-type TGFBR2 genomic DNA or mutant PTC-containing TGFBR2 cDNA generated expression of wild-type protein and truncated protein, respectively. Our findings suggest a novel mechanism of gene expression regulation for PTC-containing mRNAs in which the deleterious transcripts are regulated either by NMD or translational repression