Pneumonia and concurrent eggs retention in a river terrapin (Batagur baska)

A case report of pneumonia and egg retention in a river terrapin was presented in this paper. A 20 year-old river terrapin (Batagur baska) was presented with complaint of coughing with blood discharge, wheezing breathing and inappetance. Plain radiograph showed both right and left lung lobes were consolidated due to pneumonia 90% and 70%, respectively. Tentative diagnosis of pneumonia due to opportunistic bacterial infection of Chromobacterium sp. and Plesiomonas shigelloides was made in this case based on bacterial isolation and response to antibiotic and anti-inflammatory drugs. Enrofloxacin and flunixin meglumine were administered from Day-1 to -5. Enrofloxacin was then changed to gentamicin since it showed resistance in those bacteria. No clinical changes were observed. Gentamicin was given at rate 2.5 mg/kg once a week intramuscularly and prednisolone 2 mg/kg once on Day-6 given intramuscularly, showed a response on Day-10 of hospitalisation with the evidence of reduction in lung consolidation by almost 90% clear of lung lobes from pneumonia. Sixteen thin-shelled eggs were also observed in the coelomic cavity on radiographic images. Active laying season, prolonged laying period and the history of laying only two eggs a week before presenting to hospital gives a highly suggestive diagnosis of egg retention syndrome. To encourage laying, the terrapin was given a daily parenteral calcium supplement, oxytocin 5 IU/kg intramuscularly (Day-10 hospitalisation) and was released for sunbath and to sand twice daily. The eggs were completely laid on Day-11 and the overall terrapin condition was greatly improved 2 weeks post-hospitalisation

Accumulation and depuration of Cu and Zn in the blood cockle Anadara granosa (Linnaeus) under laboratory conditions.

Studies on the accumulation (4 days of single metal exposure) and depuration (6 days in natural seawater) of Cu and Zn were conducted in the blood cockle Anadara granosa under laboratory conditions. Different rates of accumulation and depuration between the soft and hard tissues probably reflect the different mechanisms of binding and regulation of Cu and Zn between the soft tissues and shells of cockles. At the end of depuration, the concentrations of Cu and Zn in the soft tissues were only 1.71 and 1.75 times higher than prior to the exposure, respectively. Thus, no significant difference was found in the depuration level between Cu and Zn. Hard tissues showed that the levels of Cu and Zn are similar to those before the exposure. This indicated the slow rates of accumulation and depuration in the shells as compared to the soft tissues of A. granosa. The condition index of A. granosa could be used as a potential physiological indicator of metal pollution. The capabilities to accumulate Cu and Zn and to depurate both metals in the soft tissues indicate that A. granosa is a potential biomonitoring organism for its health assessment using the condition index

Plastron osteotomy in the management of fishing hook ingestion in a Malayan box turtle (Cuora amboinensis)

An adult male Malayan box turtle was diagnosed with foreign body obstruction of fishing hook. Upon presentation, the animal had pale mucous membrane and fishing line protruding out from the oral cavity. Diagnosis of foreign body ingestion was based on plain radiograph where the fishing hook was evidenced on the lateral and ventrodorsal radiographic view. Plastron osteotomy surgical removal was performed after endoscopy guided forcep removal failed. Procedures were carried out under the injectable anesthesia using a combination of ketamine and xylazine hydrochloride. Antibiotic, anti-inflammatory and parenteral fluid therapy was given pre and post-surgically as medical treatment and stabilisation

Ethical perception of cross-species gene transfer in plant

Plants can be genetically modified through a variety of methods in the hope that it will be improved in some way to increase the yield and quality of a crop, or to add nutritional value or shelf life. The development of genetically modified (GM) rice to enrich its nutritional value, such as Vitamin C might involve gene transfer across different species. The purpose of this paper is to examine how the public in the Klang Valley region of Malaysia, perceive the development of GM rice which contain mice gene to increase its vitamin C content. A survey was carried out using self constructed multi-dimensional instrument measuring ethical perception of GM rice. The respondents (n = 434) were stratified according to stakeholders groups. Results from the survey on 434 respondents have shown the Malaysian stakeholders were not very familiar with GM rice and perceived it as having moderate risk, its benefits to the society would not be much denied if it is not developed and the ethical aspects were considered as not acceptable to them as well as from their religous point of view. ANOVAs showed that the five ethical dimensions: Familiarity, denying benefits, religious acceptance, ethical acceptance and perceived risks significantly differed across stakeholders’ groups while the first three dimensions also differed significantly across races. Furthermore, with respect to ages, only the factor of familiarity differed and no significant difference were found across educational level and gender. In conclusion, although the idea of producing GM rice enriched with vitamin C seems to be an ideal alternative to increase vitamin C intake in Malaysia, the Malaysian public in the Klang Valley region were still not ready and have a cautious stance. The research finding is useful to understand the social construct of the ethical acceptance of cross-species gene transfers in developing country.Key words: Ethical perception, genetically modified (GM) rice, cross-species gene transfer, Malaysia

Mechanical And Thermal Properties Of Hydroxyapatite Filled Poly(Methyl Methacrylate) Composites.

Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) filled with hydroxyapatite (HA) filler has been widely used in biomaterial application. Acrylic denture base material was prepared from PMMA filled with HA

Ethical perception of modern biotechnology

Past studies have shown that successful development and commercialisation of modern biotechnology products depends heavily on public acceptance. Of the many variables studied by earlier researchers, it was found that moral acceptability was an important predictor of support for biotechnology. The purpose of this paper is to examine the ethical perception of modern biotechnology among the public in the Klang Valley region of Malaysia and to compare their ethical perception across several demographic variables. A survey was carried out using a self-constructed multi-dimensional instrument measuring the ethical perception of modern biotechnology. The respondents (n = 434) were stratified according to stakeholder groups which consisted of eleven groups: Producers, scientists, policy makers, NGOs, the media, religious scholars, university students and consumers. Results from the survey showed that the Klang Valley public did not perceive modern biotechnology as very threatening to the natural order of things (mean score 3.76) and they recognised the high benefits that modern biotechnology could provide to society (mean score 5.31). However, they also stressed that humans do not have the absolute right to modify living things (mean score 3.55) and they perceived modern biotechnology as moderately risky (mean score 4.59), whilst they had moderate confidence in regulation (mean score 4.09) and stressed the high need for proper labelling of modern biotechnology products (mean score 5.70). Background variables such as religion, race, age, education level and gender have significant effect on some of the dimensions of Malaysians’ ethical perception of modern biotechnology. The research findings are useful for understanding the social construct of the ethical acceptance of modern biotechnology in a developing country.Key words: Modern biotechnology, ethical aspects, perception, Malaysia

Unsupervised Anomaly Detection for Energy Consumption in Time Series using Clustering Approach

Recent years have seen significant growth in the adoption of smart home devices. It involves a Smart Home System for better visualisation and analysis with time series. However, there are a few challenges faced by the system developers, such as data quality or data anomaly issues. These anomalies can be due to technical or non-technical faults. It is essential to detect the non-technical fault as it might incur economic cost. In this study, the main objective is to overcome the challenge of training learning models in the case of an unlabelled dataset. Another important consideration is to train the model to be able to discriminate abnormal consumption from seasonal-based consumption. This paper proposes a system using unsupervised learning for Time-Series data in the smart home environment. Initially, the model collected data from the real-time scenario. Following seasonal-based features are generated from the time-domain, followed by feature reduction technique PCA to 2-dimension data. This data then passed through four known unsupervised learning models and was evaluated using the Excess Mass and Mass-Volume method. The results concluded that LOF tends to outperform in the case of detecting anomalies in electricity consumption. The proposed model was further evaluated by benchmark anomaly dataset, and it was also proved that the system could work with the different fields containing time-series data. The model will cluster data into anomalies and not. The developed anomaly detector will detect all anomalies as soon as possible, triggering real alarms in real-time for time-series data's energy consumption. It has the capability to adapt to changing values automatically. Doi: 10.28991/esj-2021-01314 Full Text: PD

The impact of board and hotel characteristics on biodiversity reporting: Market diversification as a moderator

Purpose: This study aims to explain how board and hotel characteristics affect biodiversity reporting and to test the moderating effect of market diversification. Design/methodology/approach: The annual reports of 105 hotels were examined for the period between 2016 and 2017 to analyse these hotels’ biodiversity reporting using content analysis. The partial least squares technique was used to test the proposed relationships. Findings: The results show that the number of board members who are also on the corporate social responsibility committee, number of board members who are in environmental organizations, the star rating of the hotel, hotel size and hotel location have significant positive effects on the extent of biodiversity reporting. In addition, market diversification moderates positively the effects of number of board members with environmental experience and number of board members from environmental organizations on the extent of biodiversity reporting. Practical implications: The results of this study will be useful in enabling hotel manager and investors to become knowledgeable about these aspects of boards, which lead to higher biodiversity reporting. This study can also inform policymakers about the types of hotels that are less likely to disclose biodiversity reports and to develop effective enforcement of regulations. Originality/value: These findings extend the literature on biodiversity reporting by exploring the importance of board and hotel characteristics on the extent of biodiversity reporting and testing the moderating effect of market diversification

Improving the lipid profile in hypercholesterolemia-induced rabbit by supplementation of germinated brown rice.

It is imperative that there be a diet designed specifically to improve lipid profile in order to impede the progress of atherosclerosis. Because rice is a staple food in Asia, it will be chosen as the diet of interest. This study sets out to discover whether consumption of different processed rice diets may result in a change of the lipid profile. The experiment was done on male New Zealand white rabbits after 10 weeks of treatment with diet containing 0.5% cholesterol. The experimental diets include white rice (WR), brown rice (BR), and germinated brown rice (GBR). Among them, rabbits fed a GBR diet demonstrated significantly lower levels of total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein (LDL), LDL/HDL, and atherogenic index (AI) and a higher level of high-density lipoprotein (HDL). Results from atherosclerotic plaque assessment further support the findings. The level of malondialdehyde (MDA), which acts as an indicator for oxidative stress, was also reduced by GBR diet. The positive change in lipid profile in the rabbits fed GBR appeared to correspond with the higher amounts of γ-oryzanol, tocopherol, and monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA) content