Mahanem Mat Noor

Rules for ontology population from text of Malaysia medicinal herbs domain

The primary goal of ontology development is to share and reuse domain knowledge among people or machines. This study focuses on the approach of extracting semantic relationships from unstructured textual documents related to medicinal herb from websites and proposes a lexical pattern technique to acquire semantic relationships such as synonym, hyponym, and part-of relationships. The results show of nine object properties (or relations) and 105 lexico-syntactic patterns have been identified manually, including one from the Hearst hyponym rules. The lexical patterns have linked 7252 terms that have the potential as ontological terms. Based on this study, it is believed that determining the lexical pattern at an early stage is helpful in selecting relevant term from a wide collection of terms in the corpus. However, the relations and lexico-syntactic patterns or rules have to be verified by domain expert before employing the rules to the wider collection in an attempt to find more possible rules.

Antifertility properties of Centella asiatica ethanolic extract as a contraceptive agent: Preliminary study of sperm proteomic

Objective: To investigate the antifertility properties of Centella asiatica L. ethanolic extract and identify the sperm proteomic changes in treated male rats. Methods: A total of 32 male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into two groups: control group (n=16) received distilled water and treatment group (n=16) which received 300 mg/kg of Centella asiatica L. extract for 42 d. After the treatment period, the number of implantation sites was recorded and the sperm proteomic changes were analysed by 2D gel electrophoresis. In addition, the expression of protein spots was quantified by MALDI-TOF analysis. Results: Centella asiatica L. extract resulted in low number of implantation sites in the treatment group (100.00±2.82) compared to the control group (183.00±2.14). The percentage of infertile male rats in the treatment group was higher (43.75%) compared to the control group (18.75%). Proteomic analysis showed the expression of protein spots identified in the treatment group decreased with 234 spots compared to the control group with 282 spots. Conclusions: The results revealed that there was antifertility activity in the male rats with the administration of Centella asiatica L. ethanol extract and the identified proteins could provide understanding on the adverse effect of Centella asiatica in male reproductive system.

Cytotoxicity and Toxicity Evaluation of Xanthone Crude Extract on Hypoxic Human Hepatocellular Carcinoma and Zebrafish (Danio rerio) Embryos

Xanthone is an organic compound mostly found in mangosteen pericarp and widely known for its anti-proliferating effect on cancer cells. In this study, we evaluated the effects of xanthone crude extract (XCE) and α-mangostin (α-MG) on normoxic and hypoxic human hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG2) cells and their toxicity towards zebrafish embryos. XCE was isolated using a mixture of acetone and water (80:20) and verified via high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Both XCE and α-MG showed higher anti-proliferation effects on normoxic HepG2 cells compared to the control drug, 5-fluorouracil (IC50 = 50.23 ± 1.38, 8.39 ± 0.14, and 143.75 ± 15.31 μg/mL, respectively). In hypoxic conditions, HepG2 cells were two times less sensitive towards XCE compared to normoxic HepG2 cells (IC50 = 109.38 ± 1.80 μg/mL) and three times less sensitive when treated with >500 μg/mL 5-fluorouracil (5-FU). A similar trend was seen with the α-MG treatment on hypoxic HepG2 cells (IC50 = 10.11 ± 0.05 μg/mL) compared to normoxic HepG2 cells. However, at a concentration of 12.5 μg/mL, the α-MG treatment caused tail-bend deformities in surviving zebrafish embryos, while no malformation was observed when embryos were exposed to XCE and 5-FU treatments. Our study suggests that both XCE and α-MG are capable of inhibiting HepG2 cell proliferation during normoxic and hypoxic conditions, more effectively than 5-FU. However, XCE is the preferred option as no malformation was observed in surviving zebrafish embryos and it is more cost efficient than α-MG.

Gynura procumbens Improved Fertility of Diabetic Rats: Preliminary Study of Sperm Proteomic

Gynura procumbens (GP) is a medicinal herb that has long been known as anti-inflammatory and antihyperglycaemic. Recently, this herbal extract has been associated with a profertility effect, suggesting its applicability in treating both diabetes and male infertility. In this study, the effects of GP aqueous extract (GPAE) on diabetic rats were investigated through evaluating testes histology and androgen hormone levels as well as the implantation sites of female rats on copulation with the treated male rats. Three dosages of GPAE were used (150, 300, and 450 mg/kg), and there were three control groups [normal, diabetic, and metformin-treated diabetic]. Testes histology, androgen hormone levels, and number of implantation sites of the GPAE-treated groups matched those of the normal group in contrast to the diabetic and metformin-treated diabetic controls. Sperm proteomics analysis identified 666 proteins, but only 88 were consistently found in all the control and 450-mg/kg GPAE-treated groups. Four proteins, including cysteine-rich secretory protein 1, carboxylesterase 5A, zona pellucida binding protein, and phosphatidylethanolamine-binding protein 1, were significantly upregulated with GPAE treatment compared with the diabetic control, matching the protein levels of the normal group. These proteins were mainly involved in sperm maturation, sperm capacitation, and sperm-egg interaction, suggesting that GP treatment was able to restore the fertility of male diabetic rats at molecular protein level. In conclusion, GP treatment effectively treats infertility of male diabetic rats, possibly through the upregulation of proteins related to sperm maturation and sperm-egg interaction.

Toxicity test of xanthone from mangosteen on zebrafish embryos

Xanthone is a chemical compound identified in mangosteen pericarp. A previous study showed that xanthone has anti-proliferating effect on cancer cells. In this study we investigate the toxicity level of xanthone in zebrafish embryo to for future reference on other animal model. We employed Fish Embryo Toxicity (FET) assay to determine the toxicity level of different concentrations of xanthone. Embryos were observed at 24, 48 and 72 hours post fertilization (hpf) under microscope at 4× magnification. The extract showed toxicity effect on embryo at concentrations of 250, 125 and 62.5 µg/mL. Concentrations at 15.63, 7.81 and 3.91 µg / mL of xanthone did not harm the embryos and showed 100% of survival.

Students’ Perception of the Programme Offered by the School of Biosciences and Biotechnology, Faculty of Science and Technology, UKM (Persepsi Pelajar terhadap Program yang Disajikan oleh Pusat Pengajian Biosains dan Bioteknologi, Fakulti Sains dan Teknol

Applied to grade 9 students in Jordan, this study aimed at examining the effi ciency of using the ‘learning cycle’ strategy in acquiring Arabic grammatical concepts. A sample of 124 students was approved, which was distributed over two schools (boys and girls) and in two groups. The experimental group was taught the subject instructional material through the learning cycle strategy with 29 males and 35 females, whereas the control group was taught through the same material through the traditional program with 32 males and 28 females. In terms of fi ndings, there were found statistically signifi cant differences in the subjects’ achievement in acquiring Arabic grammatical concepts, in favor of the experimental group. Statistically signifi cant differences were also found due to gender in favor of females. Whereas no statistically signifi cant differences were found due to the interaction between group/teaching strategy and gender.Additional Mathematics is an elective subject in Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM). However, it is treated as a core subject for almost all the science stream students. Many students who can perform well in Modern Mathematics since primary school cannot master the Additional Mathematics. They fail to understand the concepts in Additional Mathematics. This study seeks to identify the factors that affect students in mastering Additional Mathematics at five schools in an urban area. Bayesian network is used to identify the relationship between the factors in the study and to analyze the data as it is able to represent the variables as nodes and the relationships as directed arcs. Constraint-based algorithms and score-based algorithms are used to generate the networks into several categories to compare and identify the strong relationships among the factors that affect the students’ learning of the subject. It is concluded that the new symbols and sign learned in Additional Mathematics affects the students in mastering the subject. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17576/JPEN-2015-4002-11Substance abuse is a current and serious problem all around the globe. In fact, the number of substance abusers including school children and teenagers is growing. This study aims to identify challenges faced by secondary schools and the supports needed in the effort to curb substance abuse. A total of 18 high risk secondary schools were selected from Selangor, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Negeri Sembilan and Melaka. The questionnaire survey involved a total of 258 teachers from 18 selected schools. Data were analyzed descriptively using frequency counts and percentages. The results identifi ed the lack of student participation, time constraints and fi nancial problem as three main challenges in conducting drug prevention programmes in schools while the most crucial support needed by schools in organizing substance abuse programmes are material and fi nancial support, anti-drug talk/clinic and professional advice. It is recommended that substance abuse prevention programmes should involve the students’ families and the community to have better result. As for every substance abuse prevention programme held in schools, feedback from the participants should be obtained and analyzed in order to gauge the effectiveness and relevance of the programme. This study concluded that there are many challenges faced by schools in curbing substance abuse with lack of student participation, time constraints and fi nancial problem posed as the main challenges. Hence, involvement of all parties is needed to provide support needed to ensure the success of the implementation of substance abuse prevention programmes.This study examined the pattern of sexual harassment in higher institutions in Lagos state. Hypothesising, unlike researchers that there shall be a direct relationship between all identifi ed categories of sexual harassment behaviours thus: physical, verbal, non-verbal and quid pro quo and sexual harassment; and the report of sexual harassment is predicted by gender, physical sexual behaviour and quid pro quo. Six hundred students randomly selected from six higher institutions in Lagos State, responded to Pattern of Sexual Harassment Questionnaire (PSHQ). Results were analysed by the use of path analysis. The produced model adequately fi t the hypothesised model; the chi-square result χ2 (6) = 13.02, p = 0.043 0.9 all indicate suffi cient good fi tness of the model. Based on the fi ndings of the study counsellors are challenged to become more responsive than before to counselling needs of students in order to discourage sexual harassment and encourage reporting of sexual harassment.