Neonatal Nav1.5 (nNav1.5) is the alternative splice variant of Nav1.5 and it has been widely associated with the progression of breast cancer. The immunological context of nNav1.5 with respect to breast cancer metastases remains unexplored. The presence of antibodies against nNav1.5 may highlight the immunogenicity of nNav1.5. Hence, the aim of the present study was to detect the presence of antineonatal Nav1.5 antibodies (antinNav1.5-Ab) in the serum of patients with breast cancer and to elucidate the effects of breast cancer therapy on its expression. A total of 32 healthy female volunteers and 64 patients with breast cancer were randomly recruited into the present study as the control and breast cancer group, respectively. Patients with breast cancer were divided equally based on their pre- and ongoing-treatment status. Serum samples were tested with in-house indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to detect antinNav1.5-Ab, CD25 (T regulatory cell marker) using an ELISA kit and Luminex assay to detect the expression of metastasis-associated cytokines, such as vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), interleukin (IL)-6, IL-10, IL-8, chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 2 and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) The mean difference in the expression of antinNav1.5-Ab among the three groups (control, pretreatment and ongoing-treatment) was significant (P=0.0005) and the pretreatment breast cancer group exhibited the highest expression. The concentration of CD25 was highest in the pretreatment breast cancer group compared with the control and ongoing-treatment groups. There was a significant positive correlation between antinNav1.5-Ab and IL-6 in the pretreatment group (r=0.7260; P=0.0210) and a significant negative correlation between antinNav1.5-Ab and VEGF in the ongoing-treatment group (r=−0.842; P-value=0.0040). The high expression of antinNav1.5-Ab in the pretreatment group was in accordance with the uninterrupted presence of metastasis and highlighted the immunogenicity of nNav1.5 whereas the low expression of antinNav1.5-Ab in the ongoing-treatment group reflected the efficacy of breast cancer therapy in eliminating metastases. The augmented manifestation of T regulatory cells in the pretreatment group highlighted the functional role of nNav1.5 in promoting metastasis. The parallel expression of antinNav1.5-Ab with the imbalanced expression of cytokines promoting metastasis (IL-8, IL-6 and TNF-α) and cytokines that prevent metastasis (IL-10) indicated the role of nNav1.5 in breast cancer growth. The expression of antinNav1.5-Ab in accordance to the metastatic microenvironment indicates the immunogenicity of the protein and highlights the influence of breast cancer therapy on its expression level.

Background: Perceptions and levels of understanding of spiritual care vary among nurses, which may affect their competency to meet the patient’s spiritual needs. Therefore, determining nurses' perception of spiritual care is the first important step in addressing the spiritual needs of patients, and may also help nursing management in developing spiritual care education and training programs.Purpose: This study aimed to assess the competence of Malaysian nurses toward providing spiritual care and identify the relationship between nurses’ spiritual care competence and their sociodemographic factors. Methods: This study employed a cross-sectional design to assess nurses' competence in spiritual care by using a simple random sampling method which involved 271 staff nurses from a public hospital in Northeast of Peninsular Malaysia. Spiritual care competence scale in Bahasa Malaysia version was used for data collection. Data analysis was performed using descriptive (frequency, percent, mean, standard deviation) and inferential (Chi-square and Pearson’s correlation test) statistics.Results: This study showed that 69.7% of staff nurses had an average level of competence toward providing spiritual care for the patients (M=95.44, SD=4.34). The highest mean difference among the domains was personal support and patients counseling (MD=5.789), while the lowest mean difference was assessment and implementation of spiritual care (MD=1.258). Furthermore, there was no significant relationship between spiritual care competence and sociodemographic factors (gender, age, marital status, educational level, nurses' experience, race, religion, and previous participation in training spiritual care programs).Conclusion: The majority of nurses have an average level of competence toward providing spiritual care. There is no significant relationship between nurses’ spiritual care competence and sociodemographic factors.

Background: Mobile health technologies are widely being used for delivering health behaviour interventions. However, there is insufficient evidence that they are integrating theory and only a few researchers utilized a qualitative approach in their study. Objectives: This paper aims to identify requirements in developing a breast examination awareness mobile app based on the component of the Health Belief Model (HBM) for integration in health promotion strategy. Methods: A qualitative approach using semi-structured in-depth interview was utilized in this study. A purposive sampling method was conducted among public women attending hospital services, software and content experts in a tertiary teaching hospital in the East coast of Peninsular Malaysia. These interviews were recorded, transcribed and organized using NVIVO 11. The main themes were identified through thematic analysis of the interview transcripts. Results: A total of 37 participants recruited in this study. The themes that emerged from the analysis are vulnerability, forecasting, reactive, influence, outcome and obstacles. The sub-themes findings supported the HBM’s component in terms of the requirement for are an infographic risk factor, video (symptoms, self-examination), info (metastasis, survival, screening, triple assessment, treatment, myth and facts, benefit of early treatment, support groups), features (screening reminder, sharing button, prompt) and mobile app’s design. Conclusion: The research findings could provide a guide for future app development from public women, content and software experts. The information will be used to develop a breast examination awareness mobile app integrated with health theories.

Background: The study was aimed to elucidate the influence of passage number of 4T1 cells for the development of the ideal tumour model. Methods: A total of 24 female BALB/c mice was divided equally into three groups: i) control (phosphate buffered saline [PBS] only); ii) group A (subjected to 4T1 cells of passage number 9) and iii) group B (subjected to 4T1 cells of passage number 10). The injections were introduced at the 3rd mammary pad of the mice. The net volume of the tumours was examined. Histopathological analysis was conducted to compare the extent of metastasis in the different groups of mice. Results: Group B had a higher net volume of 4T1 tumour as compared to group A (P = 0.042). The coefficient of variation in the net volume of 4T1 tumour for group A was higher (135.3%) as compared to group B (40.79%). Group A only exhibited metastasis on the lungs, liver and spleen whereas group B showed metastasis to the heart, spleen, lungs and liver. Conclusion: The use of 4T1 cells from passage number 10 is more ideal for the development of 4T1 tumour.

Background: Dengue fever is the most important mosquito-borne disease that has rapidly spread in tropical regions of the world in recent years. Due to absence of vaccine, the only method available is to prevent and control dengue is by preventing transmission of the disease. However, the control needs support, cooperation and participation from community. The objective of this study is to assess the current level of knowledge, attitude and practice toward dengue fever among the community living in rural area, beside to ascertain the association between those three domains, and to evaluate the effect of sociodemographic factors toward them. Methods: A cross sectional survey was performed among 202 respondents dwelling in rural area, whom were selected through stratified random sampling. Knowledge, attitude, and practice toward dengue fever were assessed through a set of self-administered validated questionnaire. Results: The community had moderate level of knowledge (64.4%), positive attitude (79.7%), and good level of practices (65.3%) on dengue fever. Television was the main source of information on dengue fever (76.2%). From the result, there were significant association between level of education with practice on dengue fever (p=0.001). The result also shown that there was significant association between knowledge and practice in the community (p=0.008). Conclusions:More health education programmes should be organized to increase knowledge and help the translation of knowledge into practice of prevention.

This article provides violent crime data in Malaysia from 2006 to 2017. The violent crimes include murder, rape, gang robbery, robbery and voluntarily causing hurt cases. A total of 330,395 violent crime cases were reported in this 12 year period and the data were tabulated state by state for all thirteen states of Malaysia, including two states in Borneo (Sabah and Sarawak) and one federal territory (Kuala Lumpur). In general, violent crimes show a decreasing trend from 2006 to 2017 in Malaysia. However, armed gang robbery and armed robbery show a fluctuating pattern from 2008 to 2011. A similar pattern was also recorded for unarmed gang robbery from 2008 to 2010. The violent crime data deposited here are available for further analysis, e.g., for identifying risk factors such as demography, lifestyle, socio-economic status, government policies etc. which may be associated with violent crime incidence and pattern across the country.

The success of DNA profiling using long-term stored samples depends on the amount and quality of their recovered DNA templates. Physical and biochemical factors such as microbial activity, humidity and temperature contribute to DNA degradation. In this study, we used genomic DNA extracted from buccal cell samples that were stored for more than 4 years on Bode Buccal DNA Collector™ cards (Bode Technology, Virginia, USA) for typing 27 and 24 short tandem repeat (STR) loci using Powerplex® Fusion 6C system (Promega Corporation, Madison, USA) and Globalfiler™ Express kit (Thermo Fisher Scientific, USA), respectively. Our results demonstrated that the Buccal DNA Collector can be used as a collection medium for buccal swab samples that are not immediately analyzed or those that need to be retrospectively analyzed. There is a sign of DNA degradation which might well be expected because buccal cell samples were deposited on untreated filter paper and have been stored for a long period (> four years) at room temperature. However, STR allele calls were obtained from most of the buccal cell samples, especially when typed using the Powerplex® Fusion 6C system kit.

Job stress has been identified as one of the most widespread problems for many years. Hence, a validated and reliable instrument is very important for measuring the level of job stress among employees. About 210 secondary school teachers from 30 schools in Kota Bharu district participated in this study. The sample size was divided half into Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). The instrument was answered by respondents by self-administered. Data was analyzed for EFA, CFA, internal consistency and convergent validity using STATA software version 14. The EFA resulted in reduction of items from 20 to 18, which comprised of 2 factors. Meanwhile, the CFA results exhibited that the data fitted the model very well with Chi square/df (1.488), CFI (0.944) and TLI (0.934) and RMSEA (0.069). The two factors of Job Stress Level Inventory were renamed as Job Performance and Intention to Withdraw. Overall JSLI produced very good internal consistency with Cronbach's alpha value of 0.93. The Average Variance Extracted (AVE) value of JSLI is 0.51 indicate that the convergent validity is met. Two factors produced by EFA consist of 17 items were named as Behavioural Symptom and Motivational Symptom that measuring the job stress level of employee. Job Stress Level Inventory was concluded to be a reliable and validated instrument in measuring the level of job stress among school teachers and also can be used to assess the job stress level of employee from other fields of work.