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A study of adult diagnostic reference levels (DRLs) for bone and thyroid scintigraphy in Hospital Pakar USM
No full textIntroduction: Diagnostic Reference Levels (DRLs) are important in nuclear medicine imaging procedures, especially in commonly performed examinations such as bone and thyroid scintigraphy. DRLs function as the benchmarks to improve patient safety and optimize the use of radiopharmaceuticals. However, there are no established DRLs for these imaging procedures in the Hospital Pakar USM, or even in Malaysia. Currently, only national Achievable Doses (ADs) have been established for nuclear medicine imaging, resulting in limited understanding regarding the administered radiopharmaceutical activities of the current clinical practices in Hospital Pakar USM. Objectives: This study focuses to determine the administered radiopharmaceutical activities in adult patients undergoing bone and thyroid scintigraphy in Hospital Pakar USM, in order to propose DRLs for these imaging procedures. The comparisons were carried out between the proposed DRLs and established international DRLs, as well as between the proposed ADs and established national ADs. Methodology: A retrospective observational design was conducted in this study using patient data within five years, starting from January 2020 to December 2024. A total of 158 patient cases, consisting of 104 bone scintigraphy cases using Tc-99m MDP and 54 thyroid scintigraphy cases using Tc-99m pertechnetate, were collected. The administered radiopharmaceutical activities were analyzed, followed by calculating the 50th and 75th percentiles for these imaging procedures to represent the values of the proposed DRLs and ADs. Results: For proposed ADs, the administered radiopharmaceutical activities calculated at the 50th percentile (median) for bone scintigraphy was 763.68 MBq, while for thyroid scintigraphy was 187.71 MBq. For proposed DRLs, the administered radiopharmaceutical activities calculated at the 75th percentile for bone scintigraphy was 793.28 MBq, while for thyroid scintigraphy was 196.08 MBq. Conclusion: Both proposed DRLs and ADs obtained for this study were consistent with international and national standards, where these values were within the ranges of administered radiopharmaceutical activities after the comparison had been made. This study also supports the ongoing efforts for the development of the national DRLs for nuclear medicine imaging procedures in Malaysia
Near-infrared glucose sensing in adulterated honey using smartphone-based photometric detection: A feasibility study
No full textGlucose sensing is vital in health such as monitoring glucose levels in managing diabetes and
food quality, for instance, adulterated honey detection. Current methods involve invasive,
expensive equipment and highly trained personnel to carry out the test, which can limit the
detection and application of glucose at on-site determination. This study aimed to apply
smartphone-based biophotonic instrumentation for measuring glucose concentrations using the
photometric method. The photonic device constructed consists of a 940 nm near-infrared lightemitting
diode (NIR LED) as an emitter, a BPW34 photodiode as a detector, a Raspberry Pi
Pico microcontroller board acts as a digital interface to convert the receiving data into output
voltage, and an Android app; Scoppy as a digital oscilloscope to display the output voltage
value on a smartphone. The instrument detected the glucose at different concentrations. A lower
and higher range of glucose concentrations was tested which is 10 – 100 g/dL for glucose in
adulterated honey. The findings indicated that higher glucose concentrations resulted in higher
detector output voltages. The linear regression analysis obtained is R2 = 0.4038 with slope
value of -0.0019 for phototransmittance and R2 = 0.4504 with slope value of 0.0011 for photo
absorbanc
Personality traits, victimisation,and cybercrime-reporting behaviour in Malaysia
No full textCybercrime is a growing global concern, yet many victims do not report incidents, leading to gaps in crime statistics and complicating victim support. This quantitative study examines the relationship between personality traits, cybercrime victimisation, and reporting behaviour in Malaysia, with a focus on barriers to reporting and awareness of existing reporting platforms. A cross-sectional study was conducted with 91 Malaysian adults (aged 18 and above) recruited via convenience sampling. Participants completed an online self-administered survey battery, measuring their experiences with cybercrime, awareness of reporting platforms, cybercrime-reporting behaviour, barriers to reporting, and personality traits.
Multivariate and non-parametric tests were used to compare personality traits between victims and non-victims, as well as across different types of cybercrime. Additional analyses examined associations between reporting behaviour, cybercrime victimisation and barriers to reporting. The results showed no significant differences in personality traits between victims and non-victims or across cybercrime types. Furthermore, cybercrime types and perceived barriers to reporting were not significantly associated with reporting behaviour.
These findings indicate that personality traits may play a limited role in cybercrime victimisation, highlighting the need to explore alternative study factors, such as those of psychological, sociological, or criminological influences. Despite these non-significant findings, the current study contributes to the field of cyber victimology by challenging theories regarding the role of personality traits in cybercrime victimisation. Implications for cybercrime prevention, awareness of cybercrime-reporting options, and future research are discussed
Recovery and persistence of latent fingermarks on food
No full textFingermarks are important forensic evidence often found at crime scenes. In some cases, criminals leave half-consumed food at the crime scene, leaving behind latent fingermarks on the food’s surface that provide critical information for forensic investigations. However, recovery of latent fingermark from food items remains an underexplored area. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of various fingermark development techniques on different food substrates and examined the persistence of latent fingermarks over time. Ten food items with varying surface properties were selected, including kuih lapis, wrap, mantou, boiled egg, crab, clam, bread, popiah, fish ball, and hotdog. The study was conducted in two phases: a main experiment to determine the most effective development method and a persistence study evaluating fingermark survivability at 1, 6, and 24 hours of post-deposition on mantou and crab. Eight different development methods were used, namely non-magnetic powder, magnetic powder, small particle reagent (SPR), sudan black, amido black, crystal violet (CV), oil red-O (ORO) and ninhydrin. The findings indicated that the surface characteristics of food significantly influenced fingermark recovery. Smooth, non-porous surfaces such as mantou and crab shells yielded better results. In contrast, overly smooth surfaces such as eggshells and clam shells, along with sticky or oily substrates like kuih lapis and fried popiah presented challenges. Sudan black and ninhydrin were identified as the most effective development techniques. The persistence study revealed that fingermarks remained detectable for up to 24 hours, with notable degradation over time. The study highlighted that developing fingermark from food item is both possible and persistent, making it a factor that should not be overlooked in real forensic cases
Effects of aquatic exercise and progressive muscle relaxation on physical fitness, pain score and emotional distress among osteoarthritis patients
No full textAquatic exercises and progressive muscle relaxation are commonly recommended as non-pharmacological treatments for individuals with osteoarthritis (OA); however, their effectiveness remains understudied. This study is designed to evaluate how aquatic exercise, progressive muscle relaxation, and their combination affect physical fitness, pain levels, and emotional distress (including depression, anxiety, and stress) in Malaysian knee osteoarthritis patients. It also focused on identifying practical intervention components. A total of 46 men and women with knee osteoarthritis diagnosed as grades II and III who met the inclusion criteria were randomly assigned to either an aquatic group (n = 11), a progressive muscle relaxation group (n = 11), a combination group (n = 12), or a control group (n = 12). Participants were recruited from the Orthopaedics clinic at Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (HUSM). All participants completed assessments for physical fitness (6-MWT, ROM), pain score (VAS, WOMAC pain), and emotional distress (DASS-21) at baseline, after 4 weeks (mid-intervention), after 8 weeks (post-intervention), and 12 weeks (end-intervention), respectively, at the Exercise and Sports Science Laboratory, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). The intervention consisted of a twelve-week programme, conducted twice weekly (totaling 24 sessions), which involved an aquatic exercise programme, progressive muscle relaxation training, and a combination of both over twelve consecutive weeks. Statistical analysis was performed using a mixed factorial ANOVA. Compared to the control group, all intervention groups experienced significant improvements in flexibility, walking distance, pain scores, anxiety, depression, and stress. The combined group showed additional improvements in physical fitness, as measured by the 6-MWT (485.75 ± 42.16 m, p = .00) and ROM (range of motion), flexion in the right knee (144 ± 6.88⁰, p = .00) and left knee (147 ± 3.98⁰, p = .00); extension in the right knee (0.00 ± 0.00⁰, p = .00) and left knee (0.00 ± 0.00⁰, p = .00)—often following the aquatic and PMR groups. Similarly, there were reductions in pain VAS score (13 ± 7.33 mm, p = .00), WOMAC-pain score (0.08 ± 0.28, p = .00), and emotional distress (depression 0.16 ± 0.30, p = .00; anxiety 0.00 ± 0.00, p = .00; stress 0.08 ± 0.28, p = .00). These improvements remained significant at weeks 8 and 12 of the intervention. Over 12 weeks, aquatic exercises, progressive muscle relaxation, and their combination, especially, led to significantly improved physical fitness, reduced pain, and alleviated emotional distress in patients with knee osteoarthritis compared to the control group. The combined approach consistently yielded the highest meaningful benefits across various outcome measure
Immunomodulatory effects of crx-527 on immune response against bcg-msp1c
No full textDevelopment of vaccines against malaria is crucial since malaria continues to be a serious worldwide health concern that affects millions of people each year. The development of recombinant vaccines using live vectors, such as Mycobacterium bovis BCG, has been extensively used to combat many infectious diseases, including malaria. Our group has previously demonstrated that innate immune cells, including macrophages bind to a recombinant BCG expressing the MSP-1C antigen of Plasmodium falciparum (BCG-MSP1C) through various toll-like receptors including TLR4. This reaction stimulates both innate and acquired immune responses by increasing host-pathogen interaction and presentation. However, the mechanism by which these TLRs enhance an immune response to BCG-MSP1C is still unknown. The current work used the TLR4 agonist (CRX-527) as a model has been conducted to assess the involvement of TLR4 in activating the innate and acquired immune response against BCG-MSP1C. In this study, mice (n=6) were divided into eight groups and injected with either PBS-T80, LPS, parent BCG, or BCG-MSP1C, with or without CRX-527 (0.5 mg/kg). Blood was drawn from the tail veins of mice before and 3 weeks after each immunisation. After the animals were sacrificed, the peritoneal macrophages and spleen were collected to prepare peritoneal macrophage and splenocyte cultures. ELISA was used to determine inflammatory cytokines (IL-1β, IL-10, IL-12p40, TNF-α) and nitric oxide (NO) in peritoneal supernatant and serum, as well as intracellular cytokines (IL-4 and IFN-γ) in splenocyte culture supernatant and serum. Total IgG and IgG subclasses (IgG1, IgG2a, and IgG2b) responses from mouse serum were also measured using ELISA, while protein expression in macrophages and splenocytes was determined using Western blot analysis and reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) respectively. The results demonstrated that CRX-527 enhances inflammatory and intracellular cytokine production, NO production, IgG and IgG subclass response, and signalling protein expression. The increases were significant in BCG-MSP1C. In the IgG productions the IgG2a showed the highest productions of IgGs among the class with 2.728 ± 0.0069 OD, while in peritonel macrophage cytokine, IL-1β have the highest productions with 2261.09 ± 13.36 pg/mL and IL-12p40 serum cytokine 455.947 ± 0.1802 pg/mL. Protein expression of BCG-MSP1C also higheest in the p38 of peritoneal sample with 1.819 ± 0.0132 MRI. These findings suggested that CRX-527 acts as a booster for the enhancement of an immunological response to BCG-MSP1C, making it a suitable candidate for malaria vaccine development. More research is needed to understand the underlying mechanisms of how this CRX-527 adjuvant can improve the immune response to BCG-MSP1
PPKBSM, Pusat Pengajian Kejuruteraan Bahan dan Sumber Mineral (2025) EBP202 - Polymer Structure SEM 1 SA 2024.2025.
No full textPPKBSM, Pusat Pengajian Kejuruteraan Bahan dan Sumber Mineral (2025) EBP204 Elastomeric Materials SEM 1 SA 2024.2025.
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