While associations between trace elements and heavy metals with prostate cancer are still debatable, they have been considered as risk factors for prostate cancer. Thus, this study aimed to detect any links between selected minerals and heavy metals including Se, Zn, Cu, Mn and Fe with prostate cancer. A case control study was carried out among 100 subjects (case n=50, control n=50), matched for age and ethnicity. Trace elements and heavy metals level in hair and nail samples were determined by ICP-MS. Mean selenium levels in hair and nail of the cases were significantly lower as compared to controls. A similar trend was noted for zinc in both hair and nail samples, whereas the mean level of copper was significantly higher in cases than controls. Similar elevation was noted for iron and manganese (p<0.05 for all parameters). Low levels of selenium and zinc and high levels of copper, iron and manganese appear to be associated with the risk of prostate cancer. Further studies to elucidate the causal mechanisms and appropriate chemopreventive measures are needed.

Ammonia and chemical oxygen demand (COD) were the most two problematic parameters in the landfill leachate. In this study, a new composite adsorbent derived from rice husk ash waste is evaluated with respect to its ability to remove these contaminants from synthetic leachate. Results indicate that the new composite adsorbent is able to adsorb both ammonia and COD. It has a higher adsorption capacity for ammonia (Q = 2.2578 mg/g) and an almost equal adsorption capacity for COD (Q = 2.8893) when compared with commercially activated carbon. The adsorption kinetics of this new product for ammonia and COD were primarily represented by the pseudo second-order mechanism. The overall adsorption rate of the ammonia and COD adsorption processes appears to be determined by chemisorption process. The regenerated composite adsorbent indicated higher adsorption capacities of ammonia and COD, i.e. 12.9366 mg/g and 3.1162 mg/g, respectively.

Introduction The decreasing level of physical activity among female undergraduates is worrying as it is associated with the increased risk of non-communicable diseases. Thus, this study aimed to identify the motivations, barriers and preferences towards exercise among female undergraduates in Malaysia. Methods A non-probability purposive sampling was used for the recruitment process. The inclusion criteria of the participants were registered female undergraduates and aged between 18–30 years old. A semi-structured in-depth interview was used to collect topic-related information from the participants and signed consents were obtained prior to the interview. The interview questions were on respondents’ understanding of exercise, motivation and barriers to exercise, and exercise preferences. The recruitment process was conducted until the data was saturated. All interviews were audio recorded and manually transcribed verbatim. NVivo 11 was used to conduct the inductive analysis of the data to develop themes for motivation and barriers to exercise. For exercise preferences, four predetermined themes were used. Findings A total of 26 respondents participated in this study. Eight themes were found for motivation to exercise, with the most common themes being maintaining or improving appearance, health benefits and togetherness. For barriers of exercising, five themes were found, and the most common ones were disliking exercise and no motivation. For exercise preferences, most respondents preferred a structured exercise program with flexibility in terms of when and where the exercise could be conducted. Light or moderate intensity exercise for 10–30 minutes with a frequency of 1–2 times a week was desired the most among the respondents. Conclusion In conclusion, personal and environmental factors play important roles in motivating or hampering female undergraduates to exercise, and a structured program was the preferred mode of exercise of these respondents. A new exercise module was designed based on this needs assessment with a 70% acceptance rate among the participants. These findings can help the future development of more exercise modules tailored to female university students.

Problem statement:The growing interest in the chemistry of sulphur donor ligands are due to their encouraging anticancer, antibacterial and antifungal activities as well as their widespread industrial application. Dithiocarbamates belong to this class and much attention has been paid to them. Approach: Novel organotin compounds with the molecular formula R m Sn[S 2 CN(CH 3 )(C 6 H 11 )] 4-m (where m = 2, R = CH 3 , C 2 H 5; m = 3, R = C 6 H 5 ) have been synthesized using in situ method. These compounds were characterized by elemental analysis, IR, 1 H and 13 C NMR spectroscopy. Results: Elemental analysis revealed that all compounds were of good purity. Infrared spectra of the compounds showed that the thioureide ν(C-N) band was in the region 1450-1500 cm . Conclusion:The studied compounds were found to have the potential in biological activity especially in cytotoxicity where this possibly can be used for clinical trials after further research.

Heavy metals, particularly cadmium, lead, and arsenic, constitute a significant potential threat to human health. This study was conducted to determine the levels of cadmium, lead, and arsenic in nail samples from farmers at Muda Agricultural Development Authority (MADA), Kedah, Malaysia, and evaluate factors that can contribute to their accumulations. A total of 116 farmers participated in this study. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was used to analyze concentration of heavy metals in the nail samples and questionnaires were given to participants to get demographic, health status, and their agricultural activities data. In this paper, the level of heavy metals was within the normal range and varies according to demographic factors. We found that there were significant correlations between working period with level of lead and arsenic (r = 0.315 and r = 0.242, resp., P < 0.01) and age with lead level (r = 0.175, P < 0.05). Our findings suggested that agricultural activities could contribute to the accumulation of heavy metals in farmers. Hence, the control of environmental levels of and human exposure to these metals to prevent adverse health effects is still an important public health issue.