Survival and fertility characteristics of the brown planthopper (BPH), Nilaparvata lugens were assessed in the laboratory and field. Life tables and population parameters of the BPH were constructed in an environment with unlimited food supply and that was free of natural enemies. The highest mortality occurred in the immature stage, especially in the first and second instars. The life table analysis showed that the population density of BPH decreased gradually. The survival ratio of male to female was 0.512:0.488. The females lived for a maximum of 20 days. The trend of oviposition showed a peak at around the tenth day of the female life. The highest number of eggs produced per female per day was 9.63. The intrinsic rate of increase (rm) in egg production per female per day was 0.0677 and the daily finite of increase (λ) was 1.0688 females per female per day, with a mean generation time (T) of 34.05 days. The net reproductive rate (Ro) of the population was 10.02. The population doubling time (DT) was 10.42 days.
Knowledge on the population of genetic structure and ecological behaviour of Apis dorsata from Peninsular Malaysia is needed for effective management and conservation of this species since unsustainable whole solitary low nest cutting for product harvesting is the current common practice here. The analysis of 15 single locus DNA microsatellite markers on samples from 20 solitary nests of A. dorsata showed that while these markers were polymorphic, high intracolonial relatedness existed. Furthermore, in general, slightly negative values of intercolony relatedness (R) among the nests of A. dorsata were found. However, positive values of mean intercolony relatedness were observed between 54 pairs of nests out of 190 possible combinations. The R values among nest pairs 3-4 and 3-5 was higher than 0.50 showing that their queens were half siblings, whereas nest pair 19-20 showed relatedness of 0.95 indicating that the same queen was sampled. The results that we obtained could not conclusively support the hypothesis of this study that the honey hunters in Marang district of Malaysia repeatedly harvest the same nest located at a different site and at a different time during the same honey harvesting season. However, our finding of an appreciable level of intercolonial relatedness between several pairs of nests in this pioneer study indicated that a comprehensive study with a larger sample size of solitary nests found throughout the region would be necessary to provide concrete proof for this novel idea.
AIM: This study was conducted to evaluate the in vitro anti-inflammatory activities and total phenolic content (TPC) of methanolic extracts of infloresence axes, endosperms, leaves, and pericarps of Barringtonia racemosa L.
METHODS: The anti-inflammatory study was conducted by assessing the potential through xanthine oxidase (XO) and albumin denaturation inhibition assays. Meanwhile, the TPC in the extracts were assessed by Folin-Ciocalteu assay.
RESULTS: In the XO inhibition assay, the infloresence axes extract was found to exert the highest inhibition capacity at 0.1% (w/v) with 59.54 ± 0.001% inhibition followed by leaves (58.82 ± 0.001%), pericarps (57.99 ± 0.003%), and endosperms (57.20 ± 0.003%) extracts. Similarly in the albumin denaturation inhibition assay, the infloresence axes extract had shown the greatest inhibition capacity with 70.58 ± 0.004% inhibition followed by endosperms (66.80 ± 0.024%), leaves (65.29 ± 0.006%), and pericarps extracts (43.33 ± 0.002%). Meanwhile, for TPC analysis, leaves extract was found to have the highest phenolic content (53.94 ± 0.000 mg gallic acid equivalent [GAE]/g DW) followed by infloresence axes (31.54 ± 0.001 mg GAE/g DW), endosperms (22.63 ± 0.001 mg GAE/g DW), and the least was found in pericarps (15.54 ± 0.001 mg GAE/g DW).
CONCLUSION: The results indeed verified the in vitro anti-inflammatory activities of B. racemosa and supported its potential to be used in alleviating gouty arthritis and XO-related diseases.
This research study aims to investigate the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR)-related communication on social media and brand advocacy behavior of retail banking customers in a developing country. This study also proposes a dual mediating mechanism of customer engagement and customer-company identification in the above-proposed relationship. The data were collected from retail banking customers with the help of a self-administered questionnaire (n = 356). To test the hypothesized relationships, a theoretical model was developed in this study. For hypothesis testing, we used the structural equation modeling (SEM) technique in AMOS software. The empirical analysis results confirmed our theoretical assumption that the manifestation of CSR-related communication on social media by a bank significantly influenced the advocacy behavior of retail banking customers. Our study also confirmed the mediating function of customer engagement and customer-company identification. The findings of this study offer different implications for the banking sector. For example, our study highlights the critical role of CSR-related communication on social media for meaningful customer-brand relationships by promoting the advocacy behavior of customers.
The aim of this study was to screen and identify the types of thalassemia among blood donors at the Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (HUSM). Thalassemia screening was performed by hemoglobin electrophoresis. A total number of 80 blood samples were obtained from donors at the Transfusion Medicine Unit, HUSM. The ethnic origins of the donors were Malays (n=73, 91.3%) and non-Malays (n=7, 8.75%). Males comprised 88.1% of the donors. Thalassemia was detected in 16.25% (n=13) of the blood donors. Of those with thalassemia, 46.2% (6/13) were anemic. Microcytosis and hypochromia were detected in 84.6% (n=l1) and 84.6% (n=l1) of these donors, respectively. The types of thalassemias detected were Hb E, 11.25% (n=9/80) and beta thalassemia trait, 5% (n=4/80). Among the thalassemias detected, the Hb E hemoglobinopathy was comprised of Hb E/ alpha-thalassemia (38.5%: n=5), Hb E /beta-thalassemia (23.1%: n=3), Hb E trait (7.6%: n=1) and beta-thalassemia (30.8%: n=4). In conclusion, screening for thalassemia trait should be included as part of a standard blood testing before blood donation. Further studies are required to look at the effects of donated thalassemic blood.
1. Majority of adolescent nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients present with advanced locoregional disease. 2. The ethnic distribution of patients with adolescent NPC could be different from that of adult NPC suggesting a possible difference in aetiopathogenesis. 3. The late presentation of adolescent NPC underlies the importance of recognizing the clinical presentation and characteristics of this cancer.