Barriers to implementing a national health screening program for men in Malaysia: An online survey of healthcare providers

@#Introduction: This study aimed to determine the views and practices of healthcare providers and barriers they encountered when implementing the national health screening program for men in a public primary care setting in Malaysia. Methods: An online survey was conducted among healthcare providers across public health clinics in Malaysia. All family medicine specialists, medical officers, nurses and assistant medical officers involved in the screening program for adult men were invited to answer a 51-item questionnaire via email or WhatsApp. The questionnaire comprised five sections: participants’ socio-demographic information, current screening practices, barriers and facilitators to using the screening tool, and views on the content and format of the screening tool. Results: A total of 231 healthcare providers from 129 health clinics participated in this survey. Among them, 37.44% perceived the implementation of the screening program as a “top-down decision.” Although 37.44% found the screening tool for adult men “useful,” some felt that it was “time consuming” to fill out (38.2%) and “lengthy” (28.3%). In addition, ‘adult men refuse to answer’ (24.1%) was cited as the most common patient-related barrier. Conclusions: This study provided useful insights into the challenges encountered by the public healthcare providers when implementing a national screening program for men. The screening tool for adult men should be revised to make it more user-friendly. Further studies should explore the reasons why men were reluctant to participate in health screenings, thus enhancing the implementation of screening programs in primary care.

Ghrelin Gly90Leu and Ghrelin Receptor Gly57Gly Gene Variants Are Not Associated with Saltiness Intensity Perception and Pleasantness Ratings.

Aims: The salty taste modality is modulated by epithelial sodium channel (ENaC) and Transient Receptor Potential Vanniloid (TRPV1) ionic channel and more recently, the gastric hormone ghrelin and its signaling system are also thought to play a role. Taste perception plays an important role in modulating food preference, and intake and is partly determined by genetic variations in chemoreceptor genes. For the salty taste modality, no studies have yet identified any genetic determinants of salt taste in humans. Nevertheless, a single study has identified that common variations in genes encoding for TRPV1 (TRPV1) and ENaC (SCNN1B) may influence the perception of salt solutions in humans, while it is currently unknown whether it would be the same for ghrelin and its cognate receptor, GHSR. Therefore, the primary objective of this study was to investigate the association of Ghrelin Gly90Leu and GHSR Gly57Gly gene polymorphisms with individual’s saltiness intensity perception and pleasantness ratings. Study Design: A convenience sampling method was practiced in this study. The sampling was carried out among students between the age of 18–25. Place and Duration of Study: Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR), Perak campus between January to December, 2011. Methodology: We recruited 166 Malaysian university students (mean age: 20.33±1.68; 75 males, 91 females; 152 ethnic Chinese, 14 Indians; 113 normal weight, 53 overweight) by convenience sampling. Low and high sodium concentrations of foods, solutions and broths were tasted and rated for their perceived intensity and pleasantness using generalized Labeled Magnitude Scale and Labeled Affective Magnitude scale, respectively. Results: The minor allele frequencies (MAF) of Ghrelin Gly90Leu and GHSR Gly57Gly were 0.48 and 0.31, respectively. Only the perceived intensity of salted egg was significantly different among Ghrelin Gly90Leu genotypes, where the individuals with T318T and A318T genotypes rated the intensity significantly higher than those with the A318A genotype. Conclusion: In conclusion, Ghrelin Gly90Leu and GHSR Gly57Gly SNPs did not serve as markers for individual’s saltiness intensity perception and pleasantness ratings, at least among Malaysian subjects in this study. This suggests that the ghrelin signaling mechanism in modulating salty taste responsivity in inconclusive at the moment, as the positive findings in mice might not be translatable to humans.

Directed evolution of D-lactonohydrolase by error prone PCR and DNA shuffling / 生物工程学报

D-lactonohydrolase is useful in the procedure of resolution of racemic pantolactone to produce D-pantolactone, but the activity and stability under low pH of the wild type enzyme is not satisfactory enough to be applied to industrial production. The expected properties of wild type enzyme were enhanced by directed evolution. According to the formation of products and pH indicators, a screening system was designed. After three sequential error prone PCR and one round DNA shuffling followed by screening, Mut E-861, the best mutant with improved activity and stability under low pH situation was obtained. Gene analysis of the Mut E-861 mutant indicated that the mutant enzyme had A352C, G721A mutations and a silent mutation of position 1038. Moreover, the activity and stability of Mut E-861 were determined. The results showed that the activity of this mutant was 5.5-fold higher than that of wild type, and the stability under low pH was improved at no expense of D-lactonohydrolase activity. After incubated at pH 6.0 and pH 5.0 the activity of D-lactonohydrolase could be retained 75% to 50%, however, compared with 40% to 20% for wild type.

Control of Ammonia Pollution in Indoor Air / 环境与健康杂志

Objective To understand the ammonia pollution level in indoor air in Chengdu city,China.Methods 50 newly decorated houses included resident houses,offices and public places were selected in Chengdu city.The national standard method of China-Berthelot spectrophotometry was used to determine the concentration of ammonia in indoor air.Results The result showed that the average concentration of ammonia was 0.307 mg/m3,the rate of exceed standard limit was 58.33%,the highest concentration was 0.598 mg/m3,which was almost three times of the national standard limit.At 4 months after decoration,the concentration of ammonia decreased near to the national standard limit(0.20 mg/m3).Conclusion As the time goes on,the concentration of ammonia in indoor air shows a downtrend,and in general,it will reach to the safe level in 4 months after decoration,so it is suggested to move in the newly decorated houses after five months since the decoration finished will be better for human health.