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Isolation and functional characterization of 5-enolpyruvylshikimate 3-phosphate synthase gene from glyphosate-tolerant Pseudomonas nitroreducens strains FY43 and FY47
No full text5-Enolpyruvylshikimate 3-phosphate synthase (EPSPS) is the primary target for the broad-spectrum herbicide, glyphosate. Improvement of EPSPS gene for high level of glyphosate tolerance is important to generate glyphosate-tolerant crops. In this study, we report the isolation and characterization of EPSPS genes of glyphosate-tolerant Pseudomonas nitroreducens strains FY43 and FY47. Both P. nitroreducens strains FY43 and FY47, which showed glyphosate tolerance up to 8.768% (518.4 mM, 32 × higher than field application), were isolated from soil samples collected from oil palm plantation with a long history of glyphosate application. The glyphosate tolerance property of EPSPS genes of strains FY43 and FY47 was functionally characterized by expressing the genes in Escherichia coli strain BL21(DE3). Error-prone PCR was performed to mutagenize native EPSPS gene of strains FY43 and FY47. Ten mutagenized EPSPS with amino acid changes (R21C, N265S, A329T, P71L, T258A, L184F, G292C, G292S, L35F and A242V) were generated through error-prone PCR. Both native and mutated EPSPS genes of strains FY43 and FY47 were introduced into Escherichia coli strain BL21(DE3) and transformants were selected on basal salt medium supplemented with 8.768% (518.4 mM) glyphosate. Mutants with mutations (R21C, N265S, A329T, P71L, T258A, L35F, A242V, L184F and G292C) showed sensitivity to 8.768% glyphosate, whereas glyphosate tolerance for mutant with G292S mutation was not affected by the mutation. © 2020, King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology
Financial Literacy and Retirement Planning among Government Officers in Malaysia
No full textThis study examines the level of financial literacy, financial behaviour and retirement planning behaviour and its dynamics among Malaysian government officers involving 320 employees working in the federal government administrative centre in Putrajaya and Kuala Lumpur using a questionnaire. Findings show high level of financial literacy, good financial behaviour but a mediocre in retirement planning behaviour, and only education and personal income positively influence financial literacy. Age and gender of officers do not influence financial literacy. Furthermore, financial literacy does not correlate with retirement planning and neither does it mediate the relationship between financial behaviour and retirement planning. © 2019, © 2019 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
Gender beyond male and female: Occurrence of a gynandromorph in the Japanese encephalitis vector Culex sitiens (Diptera: Culicidae)
No full textA gynandromorph of Culex sitiens Wiedemann (Diptera: Culicidae) was attracted to a human during a mosquito surveillance programme conducted in Kuala Lipis, Pahang, Malaysia on July 20, 2019. Gynandromorphism was observed in antennae, maxillary palps, legs and wings of the specimen, with distinct male characters on the left and female characters on the right, though the left maxillary palp is slightly shorter than the proboscis of a typical male. The abdomen, however, displays well-developed male genitalia. This study represents the first report of oblique gynandromorphism in Cx. sitiens, one of the vectors of Japanese encephalitis in Asia. © 2019 Elsevier B.V
Isolation and identification of salt-tolerant plant-growth-promoting rhizobacteria and their application for rice cultivation under salt stress
No full textGrowth and productivity of rice are negatively affected by soil salinity. However, some salt-tolerant rhizosphere-inhabiting bacteria can improve salt resistance of plants, thereby augmenting plant growth and production. Here, we isolated a total of 53 plant-growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) from saline and nonsaline areas in Bangladesh where electrical conductivity was measured as >7.45 and <1.80 dS/m, respectively. Bacteria isolated from saline areas were able to grow in a salt concentration of up to 2.60 mol/L, contrary to the isolates collected from non-saline areas that did not survive beyond 854 mmol/L. Among the salt-tolerant isolates, Bacillus aryabhattai, Achromobacter denitrificans, and Ochrobactrum intermedium, identified by comparing respective sequences of 16S rRNA using the NCBI GenBank, exhibited a higher amount of atmospheric nitrogen fixation, phosphate solubilization, and indoleacetic acid production at 200 mmol/L salt stress. Salt-tolerant isolates exhibited greater resistance to heavy metals and antibiotics, which could be due to the production of an exopolysaccharide layer outside the cell surface. Oryza sativa L. fertilized with B. aryabhattai MS3 and grown under 200 mmol/L salt stress was found to be favoured by enhanced expression of a set of at least four salt-responsive plant genes: BZ8, SOS1, GIG, and NHX1. Fertilization of rice with osmoprotectant-producing PGPR, therefore, could be a climate-change-preparedness strategy for coastal agriculture
A YouTube analysis of Muslim scholar reactions to Trump’s electoral outcome: social work implications
No full textThis paper investigated Muslim scholars’ immediate YouTube reactions towards President Trump during the November 2016 post-election week. Muslim scholars, also known as Imams or religious leaders, can promote social justice and rally the Muslim community, positively or negatively. Thematic analysis suggested reasons for Trump winning the election, and issues of unity and social justice. The analysis implies that Muslim scholars can be positive first responders and help bind both their Muslim and neighborhood community. The results of this study can help social workers together with Muslim scholars devise better interventions and use online media for community outreach. © 2019, © 2019 Taylor & Francis
Process Migration-Based Computational Offloading Framework for IoT-Supported Mobile Edge/Cloud Computing
No full textMobile devices have become an indispensable component of Internet of Things (IoT). However, these devices have resource constraints in processing capabilities, battery power, and storage space, thus hindering the execution of computation-intensive applications that often require broad bandwidth, stringent response time, long-battery life, and heavy-computing power. Mobile cloud computing and mobile edge computing (MEC) are emerging technologies that can meet the aforementioned requirements using offloading algorithms. In this article, we analyze the effect of platform-dependent native applications on computational offloading in edge networks and propose a lightweight process migration-based computational offloading framework. The proposed framework does not require application binaries at edge servers and thus seamlessly migrates native applications. The proposed framework is evaluated using an experimental testbed. Numerical results reveal that the proposed framework saves almost 44% of the execution time and 84% of the energy consumption. Hence, the proposed framework shows profound potential for resource-intensive IoT application processing in MEC. © 2014 IEEE
Seroprevalence of Nipah Virus Infection in Peninsular Malaysia
No full textNipah virus (NiV) outbreak occurred in Malaysia in 1998. The natural host reservoir for NiV is Pteropus bats, which are commonly found throughout Malaysia. Humans become infected when NiV spills over from the reservoir species. In this study, NiV serosurveillance in Peninsular Malaysia, particularly among the indigenous population, was performed. The collected samples were tested for presence of NiV antibodies using a comparative indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay based on the recombinant NiV nucleocapsid (rNiV-N) protein. We found that 10.73% of the participants recruited in this study had antibodies against rNiV-N, suggesting possible exposure to NiV. © The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press for the Infectious Diseases Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, e-mail: [email protected]
Assessment of Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of University Students towards Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
Full text linkThis study was performed to determine the awareness level of University of Malaya students towards Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). A set of survey questionnaires based on knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) was distributed among all the students of University of Malaya and 382 responses were obtained to analyze the awareness level (95% confidence level with ±5% margin of error). Data analysis was performed SPSS Statistics version 20. Descriptive statistics showed that the respondents have high knowledge with a positive attitude towards SDGs. Spearman’s rho coefficient correlation was applied to determine the relationships between variables (knowledge with practice and attitude with practice). The results revealed a weak negative correlation between the knowledge and practice towards SDGs (r = -.264, N = 382, p = .00). However, there is a strong positive correlation between the attitude and practice towards SDGs (r = .440, n = 382, p =. 00)
The Study on Thermal Environment and Airflow Pattern in an UFAD System Under a Cooling Mode
No full textIn the present research, an investigation of the UFAD system for thermal comfort has been conducted in a high-rise building located in the tropics. The indoor air conditions including temperature, relative humidity, air velocity, and mean radiant temperature have been obtained by conducting the fieldwork while the clothing insulation value and the metabolic rate of the occupants have been obtained by observing the occupants, where these data were used to obtain the predicted mean vote (PMV) and the predicted percentage dissatisfied (PPD) of the examined areas. In addition, the effects of the airflow pattern in the indoor thermal comfort have been investigated, where two different types of diffusers have been compared in order to find out which diffuser can provide a better thermal comfort to the occupants. The FloEFD simulation software is used to simulate the airflow pattern of these diffusers and to analyze the indoor air conditions of the UFAD system and also to examine the local mean age value. Based on the results obtained, the average PMV is approximately − 1.5 for each examined area, where a proper design of heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning system in a hot and humid country, the PMV result should be approximately equal to − 1. As for the PPD, the range of the PPD obtained falls in between 27.4 and 67.5%, in which it indicates that about more than half of the occupants have dissatisfied with the indoor conditions in the examined building. © 2019, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals
Magnetically recoverable magnetite-reduced graphene oxide as a demulsifier for surfactant stabilized crude oil-in-water emulsion
No full textOily wastewater, especially water-oil emulsion has become serious environmental issue and received global attention. Chemical demulsifiers are widely used to treat oil-water emulsion, but the toxicity, non-recyclable and non-environmental friendly characteristic of chemical demulsifiers had limited their practical application in oil-water separation. Therefore, it is imperative to develop an efficient, simple, eco-friendly and recyclable demulsifiers for breaking up the emulsions from the oily wastewater. In this study, a magnetic demulsifier, magnetite-reduced graphene oxide (M-rGO) nanocomposites were proposed as a recyclable demulsifier to break up the surfactant stabilized crude oil-in-water (O/W) emulsion. M-rGO nanocomposites were prepared via in situ chemical synthesis by using only one type Fe salt and GO solid as precursor at room temperature. The prepared composites were fully characterized by various techniques. The effect of demulsifier dosage and pH of emulsion on demulsification efficiency (ED) has been studied in detailed. The demulsification mechanism was also proposed in this study. Results showed that M-rGO nanocomposites were able to demulsify crude O/W emulsion. The ED reaches 99.48% when 0.050 wt.% of M-rGO nanocomposites were added to crude O/W emulsion (pH = 4). Besides, M-rGO nanocomposites can be recycled up to 7 cycles without showing a significant change in terms of ED. Thus, M-rGO nanocomposite is a promising demulsifier for surfactant stabilized crude O/W emulsion. © 2020 Yau et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited