MyMedR

Crafting a Community Blueprint towards ending HIV transmission and AIDS in Singapore by 2030

Banerjee S, Chan R

Sex Health, 2021 03;18(1):116-118.

PMID: 33588986 DOI: 10.1071/SH20119

In November 2019, Action for AIDS launched the Community Blueprint Towards Ending HIV and AIDS in Singapore by 2030, a key milestone in the country's HIV movement where a roadmap was developed with strategies to end HIV by 2030. Overall, 60 representatives from 30 community organisations and institutions were convened to plan and lead work on the Blueprint, which covers 10 themes. The Blueprint examines the current state of the epidemic and populations most affected by it: heterosexual males with multiple partners, men who have sex with men, sex workers, transgender persons, and persons who use drugs. It assesses existing programs, estimates gaps and recommends strategies and resources needed to close the gap. The second section of the Blueprint explores cross-cutting themes including: stigma and discrimination; strengthening the HIV community workforce; and scaling up pre-exposure prophylaxis. The Blueprint provides key recommendations and is being discussed with the Ministry of Health.

Reversible chemical reactions model with fractional difference operator: Dynamical analysis and synchronization

Vignesh D, Banerjee S

Chaos, 2023 Mar;33(3):033126.

PMID: 37003836 DOI: 10.1063/5.0139967

Chemical reactions form the basis of life and understanding the different patterns and unpredictable changes in the reactions are noteworthy in real life situations. The article aims at constructing a mathematical model of two step reversible chemical reactions with a Caputo fractional difference operator. The reversible reaction involves the breakdown of an ester compound in the presence of water followed by the formation of fatty acid salts from the reaction of a free fatty acid with alkali hydroxide, such as NaOH. Using bifurcation diagrams, the chaotic response exhibited by the system is illustrated for state variables with identical fractional order and variables with non-identical fractional orders. The changes in periodic states of the system are investigated for each state variables with time varying plots and maximum Lyapunov exponents using the Jacobian matrix method are presented in support of the bifurcation diagrams. The synchronization of the subsystems of the proposed system is achieved with nonlinear control functions. Numerical simulations are presented to provide comparison of commensurate and incommensurate order models. Understanding the nature of these processes has significant applications in the production of bio-fuels from vegetable oils and animal fats by a transesterification reaction.

Fulltext Can India develop herd immunity against COVID-19?

Gowrisankar A, Rondoni L, Banerjee S

Eur Phys J Plus, 2020;135(6):526.

PMID: 32834913 DOI: 10.1140/epjp/s13360-020-00531-4

World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak to be a public health crisis of international concern. Further, it provided advice to the global community that countries should place strong measures to detect disease early, isolate and treat cases, trace contacts and promote "social distancing" measures commensurate with the risk. This study analyses the COVID-19 infection data from the top 15 affected countries in which we observed heterogeneous growth patterns of the virus. Hence, this paper applies multifractal formalism on COVID-19 data with the notion that country-specific infection rates follow a power law growth behaviour. According to the estimated generalized fractal dimension curves, the effects of drastic containment measures on the pandemic in India indicate that a significant reduction of the infection rate as its population is concern. Also, comparison results with other countries demonstrate that India has less death rate or more immunity against COVID-19.

Fulltext Analysis of rattleback chaotic oscillations

Hanias M, Stavrinides SG, Banerjee S

ScientificWorldJournal, 2014;2014:569386.

PMID: 24511290 DOI: 10.1155/2014/569386

Rattleback is a canoe-shaped object, already known from ancient times, exhibiting a nontrivial rotational behaviour. Although its shape looks symmetric, its kinematic behaviour seems to be asymmetric. When spun in one direction it normally rotates, but when it is spun in the other direction it stops rotating and oscillates until it finally starts rotating in the other direction. It has already been reported that those oscillations demonstrate chaotic characteristics. In this paper, rattleback's chaotic dynamics are studied by applying Kane's model for different sets of (experimentally decided) parameters, which correspond to three different experimental prototypes made of wax, gypsum, and lead-solder. The emerging chaotic behaviour in all three cases has been studied and evaluated by the related time-series analysis and the calculation of the strange attractors' invariant parameters.

Generalized variable projective synchronization of time delayed systems

Banerjee S, Theesar SJ, Kurths J

Chaos, 2013 Mar;23(1):013118.

PMID: 23556955 DOI: 10.1063/1.4791589

We study generalized variable projective synchronization between two unified time delayed systems with constant and modulated time delays. A novel Krasovskii-Lyapunov functional is constructed and a generalized sufficient condition for synchronization is derived analytically using the Lyapunov stability theory and adaptive techniques. The proposed scheme is valid for a system of n-numbers of first order delay differential equations. Finally, a new neural oscillator is considered as a numerical example to show the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.

Fulltext Perioperative very late stent thrombosis treated with thrombosuction

Sikdar S, Kumar D, Basu S, Mohanty V, Naik J, Banerjee S

Med J Malaysia, 2012 Feb;67(1):129-30.

PMID: 22582568

Comparison of four antibiotics with indigenous marine Bacillus spp. in controlling pathogenic bacteria from shrimp and Artemia

Banerjee S, Devaraja TN, Shariff M, Yusoff FM

J Fish Dis, 2007 Jul;30(7):383-9.

PMID: 17584435

Use of antibiotics for the control of bacterial diseases in shrimp culture has caused several adverse impacts to the industry. This has resulted in the search for alternative environment friendly approaches to overcome bacterial infections. This study was conducted to investigate the use of beneficial bacteria as an alternative to antibiotics. Ten pathogenic bacterial species isolated from shrimp, Penaeus monodon, and Artemia cysts were tested for susceptibility to indigenous marine Bacillus subtilis AB65, Bacillus pumilus AB58, Bacillus licheniformis AB69 and compared with oxytetracycline, chloramphenicol, gentamicin and bacitracin, which are common antibiotics used in Asian aquaculture. The Bacillus spp. were isolated from the local marine environment for bioremediation use in shrimp hatcheries and were proven to reduce total ammonium nitrogen. The pathogenic bacterial isolates were 90% susceptible to B. subtilis AB65, 70% susceptible to B. pumilus AB58 and B. licheniformis AB69 and 100% susceptible to oxytetracycline, chloramphenicol and gentamicin but only 40% to bacitracin. Two representative isolates of the vibrio group, Vibrio alginolyticus VaM11 and Vibrio parahaemolyticus VpM1, when tested for competitive exclusion by a common broth method using the marine Bacillus spp., showed decreased viable counts from 10(8) to 10(2) cfu mL(-1). The results suggest that the action of the marine bacteria appears to be significant in protecting the host shrimp against pathogenic bacteria. In addition to the alternative use of antibiotics, the selected marine bacteria had additional bioremediation properties of reducing ammonia.

Availability and Utilization of Pigments from Microalgae

Begum H, Yusoff FM, Banerjee S, Khatoon H, Shariff M

Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr, 2016 Oct 02;56(13):2209-22.

PMID: 25674822 DOI: 10.1080/10408398.2013.764841

Microalgae are the major photosynthesizers on earth and produce important pigments that include chlorophyll a, b and c, β-carotene, astaxanthin, xanthophylls, and phycobiliproteins. Presently, synthetic colorants are used in food, cosmetic, nutraceutical, and pharmaceutical industries. However, due to problems associated with the harmful effects of synthetic colorants, exploitation of microalgal pigments as a source of natural colors becomes an attractive option. There are various factors such as nutrient availability, salinity, pH, temperature, light wavelength, and light intensity that affect pigment production in microalgae. This paper reviews the availability and characteristics of microalgal pigments, factors affecting pigment production, and the application of pigments produced from microalgae. The potential of microalgal pigments as a source of natural colors is enormous as an alternative to synthetic coloring agents, which has limited applications due to regulatory practice for health reasons.

Fulltext Antibiotic resistant Salmonella and Vibrio associated with farmed Litopenaeus vannamei

Banerjee S, Ooi MC, Shariff M, Khatoon H

ScientificWorldJournal, 2012;2012:130136.

PMID: 22619583 DOI: 10.1100/2012/130136

Salmonella and Vibrio species were isolated and identified from Litopenaeus vannamei cultured in shrimp farms. Shrimp samples showed occurrence of 3.3% of Salmonella and 48.3% of Vibrio. The isolates were also screened for antibiotic resistance to oxolinic acid, sulphonamides, tetracycline, sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim, norfloxacin, ampicillin, doxycycline hydrochloride, erythromycin, chloramphenicol, and nitrofurantoin. Salmonella enterica serovar Corvallis isolated from shrimp showed individual and multiple antibiotic resistance patterns. Five Vibrio species having individual and multiple antibiotic resistance were also identified. They were Vibrio cholerae (18.3%), V. mimicus (16.7%), V. parahaemolyticus (10%), V. vulnificus (6.7%), and V. alginolyticus (1.7%). Farm owners should be concerned about the presence of these pathogenic bacteria which also contributes to human health risk and should adopt best management practices for responsible aquaculture to ensure the quality of shrimp.

Complexity in congestive heart failure: A time-frequency approach

Banerjee S, Palit SK, Mukherjee S, Ariffin M, Rondoni L

Chaos, 2016 Mar;26(3):033105.

PMID: 27036183 DOI: 10.1063/1.4941374

Reconstruction of phase space is an effective method to quantify the dynamics of a signal or a time series. Various phase space reconstruction techniques have been investigated. However, there are some issues on the optimal reconstructions and the best possible choice of the reconstruction parameters. This research introduces the idea of gradient cross recurrence (GCR) and mean gradient cross recurrence density which shows that reconstructions in time frequency domain preserve more information about the dynamics than the optimal reconstructions in time domain. This analysis is further extended to ECG signals of normal and congestive heart failure patients. By using another newly introduced measure-gradient cross recurrence period density entropy, two classes of aforesaid ECG signals can be classified with a proper threshold. This analysis can be applied to quantifying and distinguishing biomedical and other nonlinear signals.

Fulltext Microalgae as sustainable renewable energy feedstock for biofuel production

Medipally SR, Yusoff FM, Banerjee S, Shariff M

Biomed Res Int, 2015;2015:519513.

PMID: 25874216 DOI: 10.1155/2015/519513

The world energy crisis and increased greenhouse gas emissions have driven the search for alternative and environmentally friendly renewable energy sources. According to life cycle analysis, microalgae biofuel is identified as one of the major renewable energy sources for sustainable development, with potential to replace the fossil-based fuels. Microalgae biofuel was devoid of the major drawbacks associated with oil crops and lignocelluloses-based biofuels. Algae-based biofuels are technically and economically viable and cost competitive, require no additional lands, require minimal water use, and mitigate atmospheric CO2. However, commercial production of microalgae biodiesel is still not feasible due to the low biomass concentration and costly downstream processes. The viability of microalgae biodiesel production can be achieved by designing advanced photobioreactors, developing low cost technologies for biomass harvesting, drying, and oil extraction. Commercial production can also be accomplished by improving the genetic engineering strategies to control environmental stress conditions and by engineering metabolic pathways for high lipid production. In addition, new emerging technologies such as algal-bacterial interactions for enhancement of microalgae growth and lipid production are also explored. This review focuses mainly on the problems encountered in the commercial production of microalgae biofuels and the possible techniques to overcome these difficulties.

Can hyperchaotic maps with high complexity produce multistability?

Natiq H, Banerjee S, Ariffin MRK, Said MRM

Chaos, 2019 Jan;29(1):011103.

PMID: 30709147 DOI: 10.1063/1.5079886

In this paper, we investigate the dynamical behavior in an M-dimensional nonlinear hyperchaotic model (M-NHM), where the occurrence of multistability can be observed. Four types of coexisting attractors including single limit cycle, cluster of limit cycles, single hyperchaotic attractor, and cluster of hyperchaotic attractors can be found, which are unusual behaviors in discrete chaotic systems. Furthermore, the coexistence of asymmetric and symmetric properties can be distinguished for a given set of parameters. In the endeavor of chaotification, this work introduces a simple controller on the M-NHM, which can add one more loop in each iteration, to overcome the chaos degradation in the multistability regions.

Fulltext Residual quantification and oxidative stress induced by malachite green after subacute and sublethal exposure in red tilapia

Kwan PP, Banerjee S, Shariff M, Yusoff FM

Vet World, 2019 Sep;12(9):1416-1421.

PMID: 31749575 DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2019.1416-1421

Background and Aim: Malachite green (MG) is an effective antiparasitic and antifungal chemical for treatment of fish. However, MG is reported to be a potential carcinogen. Yet, it is widely used in aquaculture despite its prohibition for use in food-producing animals by the EU and USFDA. The present study quantified MG residues and evaluated the oxidative stress in red tilapia when exposed to subacute and sublethal concentrations of MG.

Materials and Methods: Red tilapia exposed to subacute (0.105 mg/L for 20 days) and sublethal (0.053 mg/L for 60 days) concentrations were evaluated for total plasma protein, total immunoglobulin, nitroblue tetrazolium activity, malondialdehyde, reduced glutathione (GSH), and catalase (CAT) activity levels. The residues of MG and leuco-MG (LMG) were also quantified in the fish muscles using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.

Results: Fish exposed to subacute concentration showed higher CAT on day 10 in the liver and days 5 and 15 in the spleen, whereas in fish exposed to the sublethal concentration, higher levels of GSH were observed on day 1 in the kidney and day 50 in the spleen. Fish muscle was able to accumulate the sum of MG and LMG of 108.04 µg/kg for subacute (day 20) and 82.68 µg/kg for sublethal (day 60).

Conclusion: This study showed that red tilapia was able to adapt to the stress caused by exposure to MG at sublethal concentration.

Fulltext Association between sexual orientation acceptance and suicidal ideation, substance use, and internalised homophobia amongst the pink carpet Y cohort study of young gay, bisexual, and queer men in Singapore

Ong C, Tan RKJ, Le D, Tan A, Tyler A, Tan C, et al.

BMC Public Health, 2021 05 22;21(1):971.

PMID: 34022843 DOI: 10.1186/s12889-021-10992-6

BACKGROUND: Gay, bisexual and queer (GBQ) men are frequently subjected to minority stressors that have negative impacts on their health. Milestones that include the acceptance and disclosure of sexual identity amongst GBQ men are hence key instruments in understanding the prevalence of internalised homophobia and predicting health outcomes. As such, this work takes a novel approach to deduce the correlates of delayed acceptance of sexual orientation in young GBQ men as a measure of internalised homophobia through retrospective self-reporting and age-based analysis.

METHODS: Participants were recruited as part of a cohort study exploring the syndemic risks associated with HIV acquisition among young GBQ men in Singapore. We examined their levels of internalised, perceived, experienced homophobia, as well as their health behaviours and suicidal tendencies. Two separate variables were also self-reported by the participants - the age of questioning of sexual orientation and the age of acceptance of sexual orientation. We subsequently recoded a new variable, delayed acceptance of sexual orientation, by taking the difference between these two variables, regressing it as an independent and dependent variable to deduce its psychosocial correlates, as well as its association with other measured instruments of health.

RESULTS: As a dependent variable, delayed acceptance of sexual orientation is positively associated with an increase of age and internalised homophobia, while being negatively associated with reporting as being gay, compared to being bisexual or queer. As an independent variable, delayed acceptance of sexual orientation was associated with a delayed age of coming out to siblings and parents, suicide ideation, historical use of substances including smoking tobacco cigarettes and consuming marijuana, as well as reporting higher levels of experienced, internalised and perceived homophobia.

CONCLUSION: Greater levels of early intervention and efforts are required to reduce the heightened experience of minority stress resulting from communal and institutional hostilities. Areas of improvement may include community-based counselling and psychological support for GBQ men, while not forsaking greater education of the social and healthcare sectors. Most importantly, disrupting the stigma narrative of a GBQ 'lifestyle' is paramount in establishing an accepting social environment that reduces the health disparity faced by GBQ men.

Nipah virus disease: A rare and intractable disease

Banerjee S, Gupta N, Kodan P, Mittal A, Ray Y, Nischal N, et al.

Intractable Rare Dis Res, 2019 Feb;8(1):1-8.

PMID: 30881850 DOI: 10.5582/irdr.2018.01130

Nipah virus, an enveloped ribonucleic acid virus, has been a major cause of encephalitis out-breaks with high mortality, primarily in the Indo-Bangladesh regions. Except for the first outbreak in Malaysia-Singapore, which was related to contact with pigs and the outbreak in Philippines associated with horse slaughter, most other outbreaks have affected the Indo- Bangladesh regions. The Indo-Bangladesh outbreaks were associated with consumption of raw date palm sap contaminated by fruit bats and had a very high secondary attack rate. The patient usually presents with fever, encephalitis and/or respiratory involvement with or without thrombocytopenia, leukopenia and transaminitis. Diagnosis can be confirmed by isolation and nucleic acid amplification in the acute phase or antibody detection during the convalescent phase. Treatment is mostly limited to supportive care and syndromic management of acute encephalitis syndrome. Ribavirin, m102.4 monoclonal antibody and favipiravir are the only anti-virals with some activity against Nipah virus. Standard precautions, hand hygiene and personal protective equipments are the cornerstone of comprehensive infection prevention and control strategy. With the recent outbreaks affecting newer geographical areas, there is a need for physicians to be aware of this disease and keep abreast of its current detection and management strategies.

Effects of different light source and media on growth and production of phycobiliprotein from freshwater cyanobacteria

Khatoon H, Kok Leong L, Abdu Rahman N, Mian S, Begum H, Banerjee S, et al.

Bioresour Technol, 2018 Feb;249:652-658.

PMID: 29091850 DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2017.10.052

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of different light sources and media (wastewater and BBM) on the growth of Pseudanabaena mucicola and its phycobiliprotein production. Results showed that P. mucicola grown in white light using wastewater as medium attributed higher biomass (0.55 g L-1) and when extracted with water, also showed significantly higher (P 

Interaction of low-level dietary supplementation of Chlorella vulgaris Beijerinck, 1890, and feeding duration on growth hormone, growth performance and serum biochemistry of red hybrid tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus × Oreochromis niloticus)

Ahmad MT, Shariff M, Goh YM, Banerjee S, Yusoff FM

J Fish Biol, 2023 Sep;103(3):715-726.

PMID: 37249562 DOI: 10.1111/jfb.15469

Chlorella is one of the most widely accepted Chlorophyta used by many as livestock and aquaculture feed. Nonetheless, different studies on the overall performances of fish reported the unfavourable effect of high-level supplementations of Chlorella vulgaris. The current study determined the impact of low-level dietary supplementation of C. vulgaris alongside the different feeding durations and their interactions on the growth hormone (GH), growth performances, serum-biochemical indices, hepatic function and some immunological parameters of red hybrid tilapia. The fingerlings (mean weight: 14.25 ± 0.01 g, length: 13.5 ± 0.49 cm) were fed diets containing 0, 0.99%, 2.91% and 4.76% of C. vulgaris powder per kilogram dry diet for 90 days. GH, growth performance, serum-biochemical indices (total serum protein, albumin, globulin, glucose, aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase) and some immunological (respiratory burst and lysozyme activities) parameters of the fish were examined after 30, 60 and 90 days of feeding. The results demonstrated that tilapia fed C. vulgaris-supplemented diets showed increased levels of respiratory burst, lysozyme, albumin and total protein, GH and growth performances (P

Fulltext High Productivity of Eicosapentaenoic Acid and Fucoxanthin by a Marine Diatom Chaetoceros gracilis in a Semi-Continuous Culture

Tachihana S, Nagao N, Katayama T, Hirahara M, Yusoff FM, Banerjee S, et al.

Front Bioeng Biotechnol, 2020;8:602721.

PMID: 33363132 DOI: 10.3389/fbioe.2020.602721

Significantly high eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and fucoxanthin contents with high production rate were achieved in semi continuous culture of marine diatom. Effects of dilution rate on the production of biomass and high value biocompounds such as EPA and fucoxanthin were evaluated in semi-continuous cultures of Chaetoceros gracilis under high light condition. Cellular dry weight increased at lower dilution rate and higher light intensity conditions, and cell size strongly affected EPA and fucoxanthin contents. The smaller microalgae cells showed significantly higher (p < 0.05) value of 17.1 mg g-dw-1 fucoxanthin and 41.5% EPA content per total fatty acid compared to those observed in the larger cells. Chaetoceros gracilis can accumulate relatively higher EPA and fucoxanthin than those reported previously. In addition, maintenance of small cell size by supplying sufficient nutrients and light energy can be the key for the increase production of valuable biocompounds in C. gracilis.

Fulltext Tolerance of Tetraselmis tetrathele to High Ammonium Nitrogen and Its Effect on Growth Rate, Carotenoid, and Fatty Acids Productivity

Farahin AW, Natrah I, Nagao N, Yusoff FM, Shariff M, Banerjee S, et al.

Front Bioeng Biotechnol, 2021;9:568776.

PMID: 33585428 DOI: 10.3389/fbioe.2021.568776

Microalgae can use either ammonium or nitrate for its growth and vitality. However, at a certain level of concentration, ammonium nitrogen exhibits toxicity which consequently can inhibit microalgae productivity. Therefore, this study is aimed to investigate the tolerance of Tetraselmis tetrathele to high ammonium nitrogen concentrations and its effects on growth rate, photosynthetic efficiency (F
v
/F
m
), pigment contents (chlorophyll a, lutein, neoxanthin, and β-carotene), and fatty acids production. Experiments were performed at different ammonium nitrogen concentrations (0.31-0.87 gL-1) for 6 days under a light source with an intensity of 300 μmol photons m-2 s-1 and nitrate-nitrogen source as the experimental control. The findings indicated no apparent enhancement of photosynthetic efficiency (Fv/Fm) at high levels of ammonium nitrogen (

NH

4

+

-N) for T. tetrathele within 24 h. However, after 24 h, the photosynthetic efficiency of T. tetrathele increased significantly (p < 0.05) in high concentration of

NH

4

+

-N. Chlorophyll a content in T. tetrathele grown in all of the different

NH

4

+

-N levels increased significantly compared to nitrate-nitrogen (NO3-N) treatment (p < 0.05); which supported that this microalgal could grow even in high level of

NH

4

+

-N concentrations. The findings also indicated that T. tetrathele is highly resistant to high ammonium nitrogen which suggests T. tetrathele to be used in the aquaculture industry for bioremediation purpose to remove ammonium nitrogen, thus reducing the production cost while improving the water quality.

Fulltext Estimation of Andrographolides and Gradation of Andrographis paniculata Leaves Using Near Infrared Spectroscopy Together With Support Vector Machine

Sing D, Banerjee S, Jana SN, Mallik R, Dastidar SG, Majumdar K, et al.

Front Pharmacol, 2021;12:629833.

PMID: 34025404 DOI: 10.3389/fphar.2021.629833

Andrographis paniculata (Burm. F) Nees, has been widely used for upper respiratory tract and several other diseases and general immunity for a historically long time in countries like India, China, Thailand, Japan, and Malaysia. The vegetative productivity and quality with respect to pharmaceutical properties of Andrographis paniculata varies considerably across production, ecologies, and genotypes. Thus, a field deployable instrument, which can quickly assess the quality of the plant material with minimal processing, would be of great use to the medicinal plant industry by reducing waste, and quality grading and assurance. In this paper, the potential of near infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIR) was to estimate the major group active molecules, the andrographolides in Andrographis paniculata, from dried leaf samples and leaf methanol extracts and grade the plant samples from different sources. The calibration model was developed first on the NIR spectra obtained from the methanol extracts of the samples as a proof of concept and then the raw ground samples were estimated for gradation. To grade the samples into three classes: good, medium and poor, a model based on a machine learning algorithm - support vector machine (SVM) on NIR spectra was built. The tenfold classification results of the model had an accuracy of 83% using standard normal variate (SNV) preprocessing.

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