This paper describes the culture of Traditional Malays, in particular the use of sustainable furniture inside a Traditional Malay House (TMH). The sample houses for this study were retrieved from archived reports, from the Centre for Built Environment in the Malay World (KALAM), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). Data collected were analysed using Componential Analysis for the presence of components (based on drawings of archival reports as well as photographic evidence from site visits). The findings showed that the Malays used a variety ofsustainable furniture in their houses. Additionally, their homes had built-in furniture, which indicated the houses were pre-designed based on its user.
The soil fungal community of the Klang Gates quartz ridge in Malaysia was determined by ITS amplicon sequencing using the Illumina HiSeq platform. The community contained 2767 OTUs, 47% of which could not be assigned to a phylum, likely representing new lineages. Those that could be assigned were found within 5 phyla, 16 classes, 49 orders and 98 families with over 85% of these within the Ascomycota. Sequence data is available from the NCBI's Sequence Read Archive (PRJNA542066). This data illustrates the microbial diversity in a particularly nutrient poor tropical soil and can be used for broader-scale comparisons of microbial distributions.
This paper discusses the roles and challenges of the national language, which is Malay as a language in
uniting the various ethnic groups in Sabah. On September 16, 1963, the Federation of Malaysia was
officially declared which comprised of the Malay States, Singapore, Sabah and Sarawak. In line with
that, the special provisions on the national language in Sabah are contained in Article 161 of the
national constitution. Although the provision of the constitution clarify that Sabah was given a 10-year
period to use Malay and English as the official languages but later on September 16, 1973 the Malay language was declared the sole official language for the state of Sabah. Hence, various efforts have
been made by the government to ensure the national language can play its role as a language that can
unite the various ethnic groups in Sabah. However, ethnic diversity with their own ethnic mother
tongue languages has resulted in the Malay language as a national language as well as the language of
unity to face many challenges. Therefore, the discussion in this paper is focused on policies undertaken
by the government to strengthen the national language in various fields in Sabah and the challenges
faced by the national language to foster unity among the various ethnic communities in the state. This
study was conducted using a qualitative analysis approach and used archive study methods as well as
library study to obtain research information sources. This study will produce an analysis that can be
used as a reference to improve or formulate policies particularly in matters that benefit in strengthening
the multi-ethnic communities in Sabah.
It is obligatory to educate student researchers before they start their work by teaching them about the various types of plagiarism and how to avoid them. It is also vital that research supervisors take into account the sources of data that are explored in their students' manuscripts. This article tries to draw the reader's attention to the importance of avoiding all types of plagiarism in their research.
A Gram-negative bacterium, Pantoea stewartii subspecies stewartii (P. stewartii subsp. stewartii) has been recognized as the causative agent for jackfruit bronzing disease in Malaysia. Here, we report the whole genome sequencing dataset of P. stewartii subsp. stewartii strain SQT1 isolated from local infected jackfruit. The paired-end libraries with an insert size of 350 bp was subjected to the Illumina Hiseq 4000, generating a genome size of 4,783,993 bp with a G+C content of 53.7%. A total protein of 4,671 was identified including virulence factors, resistance factors and secretion systems. Pantoea stewartii subsp. stewartii strain DC283 (NCBI accession no. CP017581.1) was used as a reference genome, where the query hit 72% coverage and average sequencing depth of 68. In total, 28,717 nucleotide polymorphisms, 520 small insertion/deletions and 142 structure variants were identified. The complete genome was deposited at the European Nucleotide Archive under the sample accession number ERP119356 and study accession number PRJEB36196.
The study of human-environmental relations is complex and by nature draws on theories and practices from multiple disciplines. There is no single research strategy or universal set of methods to which researchers must adhere. Particularly for scholars interested in a political ecology approach to understanding human-environmental relationships, very little has been written examining the details of "how to" design a project, develop appropriate methods, produce data, and, finally, integrate multiple forms of data into an analysis. A great deal of attention has been paid, appropriately, to the theoretical foundations of political ecology, and numerous scholarly articles and books have been published recently. But beyond Andrew Vayda's "progressive contextualization" and Piers Blaikie and Harold Brookfield's "chains of explanation," remarkably little is written that provides a research model to follow, modify, and expand. Perhaps one of the reasons for this gap in scholarship is that, as expected in interdisciplinary research, researchers use a variety of methods that are suitable (and perhaps unique) to the questions they are asking. To start a conversation on the methods available for researchers interested in adopting a political ecology perspective to human-environmental interactions, I use my own research project as a case study. This research is by no means flawless or inclusive of all possible methods, but by using the details of this particular research process as a case study I hope to provide insights into field research that will be valuable for future scholarship.
The study of a Posidonia australis sedimentary archive has provided a record of changes in element concentrations (Al, Fe, Mn, Pb, Zn, Cr, Cd, Co, As, Cu, Ni and S) over the last 3000 years in the Australian marine environment. Human-derived contamination in Oyster Harbor (SW Australia) started ~100 years ago (AD ~1900) and exponentially increased until present. This appears to be related to European colonization of Australia and the subsequent impact of human activities, namely mining, coal and metal production, and extensive agriculture. Two contamination periods of different magnitude have been identified: Expansion period (EXP, AD ~1900-1970) and Establishment period (EST, AD ~1970 to present). Enrichments of chemical elements with respect to baseline concentrations (in samples older than ~115 cal years BP) were found for all elements studied in both periods, except for Ni, As and S. The highest enrichment factors were obtained for the EST period (ranging from 1.3-fold increase in Cu to 7.2-fold in Zn concentrations) compared to the EXP period (1.1-fold increase for Cu and Cr to 2.4-fold increase for Pb). Zinc, Pb, Mn and Co concentrations during both periods were 2- to 7-fold higher than baseline levels. This study demonstrates the value of Posidonia mats as long-term archives of element concentrations and trends in coastal ecosystems. We also provide preliminary evidence on the potential for Posidonia meadows to act as significant long-term biogeochemical sinks of chemical elements.
A cross sectional study was done to determine the prevalence and distribution of human papillomavirus (HPV) genotypes in pre-invasive (cervical intraepithelial neoplasia, grade 3 or CIN 3) and invasive cervical cancer (ICC), in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre (UKMMC). A total of 80 paraffin-embedded tumour tissue blocks (20 CIN 3, 60 invasive cancers) between 1999 to 2007 were retrieved from the archives of the Department of Pathology. Patient’s medical records were obtained from the Medical Records Office. Among invasive cancers (n=60), squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) account for 75% and adenocarcinoma 25%. The mean age of cases studied was 52.0 ± 12.2 years and Chinese was the predominant ethnicity (66.3%). Twelve HPV genotypes were identified, namely, HPV 16, 33, 18, 39,52, 45, 58, 59, 31, 35, 6 and 11. The prevalence of HPV was 92.5% with types 16 being the most common (73.8%), followed by types 33 (30%) and 18 (22.5%). A total of 31 cases (38.8%) showed single HPV genotype, while 43 (53.8%) had multiple HPV (two genotypes or more) genotypes. In ICC, HPV 16, followed by types 33, 18, 52 and 39 were the top five common HPV genotypes detected. High prevalence of HPV and multiple HPV infections were major findings among patients with pre-invasive and invasive cervical cancer.