19672 research outputs found
Sort by
Government, Business and Lobbyists: The Politics of Palm Oil in US–Malaysia Relations
No full textThis paper reviews how information was utilised by the disputing parties made up of producers and consumer interests in seeking and opposing the imposition of tariff and non-tariff barriers relating to the entry of palm oil into the US market. Information was used in a variety of ways to mould public opinion and influence official US trade policy. Producers, with the support of the Government of Malaysia, countered US efforts by mounting an information-based counter-campaign. This study examines how US-based opponents to the importation of oil palm used information to influence consumer opinion and governmental decision-makers. It goes on to describe countermeasures taken by Malaysian producers. These latter measures included counter-arguments challenging spurious claims made by US-based groups. The paper also reviews the role played, and the positions taken by the US and Malaysian governments. Malaysia, as one of the world’s leading exporter of palm oil, reacted to preserve and protect the interests of various stakeholders in the palm oil industry. Measures taken included greater R&D effort, stronger trade promotion and countering spurious information. This study demonstrates how information was used by disputing parties to shape consumer opinion and develop a case for policy intervention by the respective governments. © 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
A Cytotoxic Indole Characterized by Incorporation of a Unique Carbon–Nitrogen Skeleton and Two Pentacyclic Corynanthean Alkaloids Incorporating a Substituted Tetrahydrofuranone Ring from Kopsia arborea
No full textThree new alkaloids were isolated from the bark extract of the Malayan Kopsia arborea, viz., arbophyllidine (1), an unusual pentacyclic, monoterpenoid indole characterized by an absence of oxygen atoms and incorporating a new carbon-nitrogen skeleton, and arbophyllinines A (2) and B (3), two pentacyclic corynanthean alkaloids incorporating a hydroxyethyl-substituted tetrahydrofuranone ring. The structures of the alkaloids were deduced based on analysis of the MS and NMR data and confirmed by X-ray diffraction analyses. The absolute configuration of arbophyllidine (1) was established based on experimental and calculated ECD data, while that of arbophyllinine A was based on X-ray diffraction analysis (Cu Kα). A reasonable biosynthetic route to arbophyllidine (1) from a pericine precursor is presented. Arbophyllidine (1) showed pronounced in vitro growth inhibitory activity against the HT-29 human cancer cell line with IC50 6.2 μM. © 2019 American Chemical Society and American Society of Pharmacognosy
Are Boys Ready for Human Papillomavirus Vaccine? A National Study of Boys in Malaysia
No full textBackground The aim of this study was to investigate factors associated with the willingness of boys to accept the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine. Methods A nationwide cross-sectional survey among Secondary One male students in Malaysia. Results Among 2823 respondents, knowledge about HPV infection and the HPV vaccine was extremely poor. The mean total knowledge score was only 3.17 (SD ± 2.14), out of a possible score of 10. The majority of respondents were unaware that vaccinating boys can help protect girls against HPV infection (81.6%), and HPV is a sexually transmitted infection (70.1%). Many had the misconception that only females get HPV (78.9%). In multivariable analysis, the factors associated with the intention to receive the HPV vaccination were: agreeing boys need to be vaccinated against HPV infection (odds ratio [OR], 2.05; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.57-2.68), perceiving their parents might allow them to get the HPV vaccine (OR, 1.66; 95% CI, 1.18-2.34), perceived susceptibility to HPV infection (OR, 1.63; 95% CI, 1.06-2.52), and attending a rural school (OR, 1.49; 95% CI, 1.14-1.95). Conclusions Public health educational programs that are focused and tailored on parents consenting to HPV vaccination for boys at a young age can be useful in improving HPV vaccination rates among boys. There is also a pressing need to educate boys about the benefits of HPV vaccination in males and about HPV disease susceptibility to facilitate adoption of the HPV vaccine by young adults in the future. © 2019 American Sexually Transmitted Diseases Association. All rights reserved
Water Quality Prediction Model Based Support Vector Machine Model for Ungauged River Catchment under Dual Scenarios
No full textWater quality analysis is a crucial step in water resources management and needs to be addressed urgently to control any pollution that may adversely affect the ecosystem and to ensure the environmental standards are being met. Thus, this work is an attempt to develop an efficient model using support vector machine (SVM) to predict the water quality of Langat River Basin through the analysis of the data of six parameters of dual reservoirs that are located in the catchment. The proposed model could be considered as an effective tool for identifying the water quality status for the river catchment area. In addition, the major advantage of the proposed model is that it could be useful for ungauged catchments or those lacking enough numbers of monitoring stations for water quality parameters. These parameters, namely pH, Suspended Solids (SS), Dissolved Oxygen (DO), Ammonia Nitrogen (AN), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), and Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) were provided by the Malaysian Department of Environment (DOE). The differences between dual scenarios 1 and 2 depend on the information from prior stations to forecast DO levels for succeeding sites (Scenario 2). This scheme has the capacity to simulate water-quality accurately, with small prediction errors. The resulting correlation coefficient has maximum values of 0.998 and 0.979 after the application of Scenario 1. The approach with Type 1 SVM regression along with 10-fold cross-validation methods worked to generate precise results. The MSE value was found to be between 0.004 and 0.681, with Scenario 1 showing a better outcome. © 2019 by the authors
Shandong’s Yintan Town and China’s “Ghost City” Phenomenon
No full textAlthough much research has been devoted to urbanization and city growth, urban dynamics also include city decay and renewal. Extant theories and models have been developed to explain these dynamics. They do not, however, fit the experience of China's "ghost cities". These cities have been characterized as state-built but minimally inhabited, testimony to planning failure by the monolithic Chinese state. The goal of the article is to provide in-depth insights to China's ghost city phenomenon and its effects to residents from local stakeholders' perspectives. A review of Shandong's new Yintan city reveals many ghost city attributes, but its development trajectory was at odds with this stereotype. Yintan's lack of success was attributable to too little, not too much, state intervention, reflecting limited state capacity to develop and manage the new city by Rushan, the nearby small city seeking to capitalize on the central government's development imperatives. These distinctive features notwithstanding, generic key drivers of city growth can help explain Yintan's lack of development, in a sense, reconciling the city's experience with extant research elsewhere. © 2019 by the authors
Bee colony optimisation of the travelling salesman problem in light rail systems
No full textThe travelling salesman problem in transit planning is an extremely complex and non-deterministic polynomial problem. Many optimisation algorithms have been tested but failed to facilitate passengers getting to multiple stations by way of a complex rail transit network. Although various algorithms based on social insect species have successfully solved complex problems, bee behaviour in nature has inspired more significant solutions. The study reported in this paper aimed to identify the most efficient algorithm and develop a mathematical model based on artificial bee colony optimisation to solve this problem in light rail transit systems. For validation, the developed model was contrasted with empirical routes generated by human experience. The model was able to generate the optimal route in all cases without any error or miscalculation and could thus be used in any rail transit network in the world to determine the optimal route for multiple stations. © 2018 ICE Publishing: All rights reserved
Development of a Novel Hybrid Optimization Algorithm for Minimizing Irrigation Deficiencies
No full textOne of the most important issues in the field of water resource management is the optimal utilization of dam reservoirs. In the current study, the optimal utilization of the Aydoghmoush Dam Reservoir is examined based on a hybrid of the bat algorithm (BA) and particle swarm optimization algorithm (PSOA) by increasing the convergence rate of the new hybrid algorithm (HA) without being trapped in the local optima. The main goal of the study was to reduce irrigation deficiencies downstream of this reservoir. The results showed that the HA reduced the computational time and increased the convergence rate. The average downstream irrigation demand over a 10-year period (1991-2000) was 25.12 × 106 m3, while the amount of water release based on the HA was 24.48 × 106 m3. Therefore, the HA was able to meet the irrigation demands better than some other evolutionary algorithms. Moreover, lower indices of root mean square error (RMSE) and mean absolute error (MAE) were obtained for the HA. In addition, a multicriteria decision-making model based on the vulnerability, reliability, and reversibility indices and the objective function performed better with the new HA than with the BA, PSOA, genetic algorithm (GA), and shark algorithm (SA) in terms of providing for downstream irrigation demands. © 2019 by the authors
Aqueous leaf extract of Clinacanthus nutans improved metabolic indices and sorbitol‐related complications in type II diabetic rats (T2D)
No full textClinacanthus nutans (Burm. f.) Lindau (C. nutans) has been reported to lower blood glucose level; however, evidence on its efficacy in lowering diabetic complications is limited. The antidiabetic properties of C. nutans aqueous leaf extract on serum metabolic indices, sorbitol production, and aldose reductase enzyme activities in the kidneys, lens, and sciatic nerve of type II diabetic (T2D) rats were evaluated. All rats except normal control rats were fed with a high-fat diet for 8 weeks to induce obesity and subsequently injected with 35 mg/kg streptozotocin to induce type II diabetes. Aqueous leaf extract of C. nutans (100 and 200 mg kg −1 day −1 ) and quercetin (10 mg kg −1 day −1 ) were fed orally for 4 weeks. Diabetic rats administered with C. nutans at 100, 200 mg kg −1 day −1 and quercetin had significantly (p < 0.05) lower fasting blood glucose levels post-intervention: 14.2, 14.0, and 19.9 mm, respectively, compared with the untreated group (22.1 mm). Total cholesterol was significantly (p < 0.05) lower in the C. nutans groups in comparison with the diabetic control group. Levels of F2-isoprostane, a marker of oxidative stress, were attenuated in the presence of the extract. Aldose reductase enzyme activity increased by 64, 99, and 0% and total antioxidant activities by 22, 29, and 126%, respectively. Sorbitol levels in the kidney, lens, and nerve were reduced in diabetic rats administered with C. nutans and quercetin group (by 8, 16, and 3%, respectively). The protective effect of the extract to the liver and kidney was confirmed through liver and kidney enzyme markers and histological analyses. The C. nutans has the potential to attenuate T2D-induced metabolic perturbations and complications related to sorbitol accumulation. © 2019 The Authors. Food Science & Nutrition published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc
Cardiometabolic Risk Factors and Physical Activity Patterns Maximizing Fitness and Minimizing Fatness Variation in Malaysian Adolescents: A Novel Application of Reduced Rank Regression
No full textPatterns of physical activity (PA) that optimize both fitness and fatness may better predict cardiometabolic health. Reduced rank regression (RRR) was applied to identify combinations of the type (e.g., football vs. skipping), location and timing of activity, explaining variation in cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and Body Mass Index (BMI). Multivariable regressions estimated longitudinal associations of PA pattern scores with cardiometabolic health in n = 579 adolescents aged 13–17 years from the Malaysian Health and Adolescent Longitudinal Research Team study. PA pattern scores in boys were associated with higher fitness (r = 0.3) and lower fatness (r = −0.3); however, in girls, pattern scores were only associated with higher fitness (r = 0.4) (fatness, r = −0.1). Pattern scores changed by β = −0.01 (95% confidence interval (CI) −0.04, 0.03) and β = −0.08 (95% CI −0.1, −0.06) per year from 13 to 17 years in boys and girls respectively. Higher CRF and lower BMI were associated with better cardiometabolic health at 17 years, but PA pattern scores were not in either cross-sectional or longitudinal models. RRR identified sex-specific PA patterns associated with fitness and fatness but the total variation they explained was small. PA pattern scores changed little through adolescence, which may explain the limited evidence on health associations. Objective PA measurement may improve RRR for identifying optimal PA patterns for cardiometabolic health. © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland
Chemical constituents and nitric oxide inhibitory activity of supercritical carbon dioxide extracts from Mitragyna speciosa leaves
No full textMitragyna speciosa Korth., is a controversial plant that possesses various medicinal values and has been used from time immemorial in folk medicine. Recently, it has been widely abused as a narcotic source. The aim of the present study was to characterize the in vitro nitric oxide (NO) inhibition property of the supercritical CO 2 fluid extracts from M. speciosa leaves and to identify the chemical constituents of the extract that exhibited the most inhibition without toxicity effect. Samples were extracted using the green technology, supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) technique via CO 2 as the mobile phase. The NO inhibitory activity was evaluated by Griess assay, which measures the formation of nitrite ion (NO 2 − ) in recombinant mouse interferon gamma/lipopolysaccharide (IFN-γ/LPS) stimulated RAW 264.7 cells. Matrix 5 Step-1 (M5S1) that was extracted with pure CO 2 at 3000 psi and 60 °C exhibited the highest NO inhibitory activity (60.08%) without cytotoxicity (cell viability, 91.98%) at a concentration of 100 μg/mL. GC and GC–MS analysis revealed palmitic acid as the major constituent (34.90%) of M5S1. This study provides first evidence that M5S1, the non-alkaloidal extract obtained by supercritical fluid extraction of M. speciosa leaves possesses potential property in preventing inflammatory diseases mediated by excessive production of NO. © 2016 The Author