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Background: Bronchial provocation test (BPT) is widely used internationally not only to evaluate bronchial responsiveness in conditions especially asthma, but is also utilized as a marker of control, severity and prognosis for asthma. However, the uptake of BPT in certain countries including Malaysia remains low. We aimed to explore this lack of knowledge by assessing the current level of awareness and knowledge on BPT amongst doctors in Malaysia. Materials and methods: A nationwide web-based questionnaire targeting doctors was sent through social media (Facebook, WhatsApp and Telegram) and Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) mailing lists between 1 October 2020 - 5 February 2021. Results: In all 415 survey responses were analysed from doctors of various grades namely medical officers to consultants. A total of 404 (97.35%) encountered patients with asthma in their daily practice. According to specialty: 169 (40.72%) were from primary care, 121 (29.16%) internal medicine, 50 (12.05%) pulmonary medicine and 75 (18.07%) others. Only 163 (39.28%) were aware of BPT as a tool to diagnose asthma. 232 (55.90%) and 124 (29.88%) regarded BPT as an important test and felt confident to refer patients for BPT respectively. Of those participants who were not confident to refer: 35.17% were unsure of BPT indications, 33.21% were unsure of centres providing BPT, 8.17% cited logistic reasons, 6.04% were concerned of possible BPT side effects. 387 (93.25%) wanted more training in BPT. The median BPT knowledge score was 20% (1 out of 5). Awareness and knowledge were affected by specialty but not by: region of practice, gender, age and grade from logistic regression analysis. Conclusion: Various national level programs and targeted local interventions are much needed to increase the awareness, knowledge and uptake of BPT in Malaysia.

Introduction: Tracheobronchial stenosis secondary to endobronchial tuberculosis (TSTB) is a rare but devastating complication of TB. Endoscopic interventions (EI) might be an attractive alternative for patients unfit for surgery but little is known on whether the efficacy of EI can be affected by airway features. Methods: Retrospective study of EI performed for TSTB patients at interventional pulmonology unit of Serdang Hospital, Malaysia. Results: Our cohort comprised of 9 patients with mean age of 33.9years (SD10.43). All had dyspnoea, 33% had stridor, 44% had cough. Of CT and bronchoscopy performed, 67% had tracheal stenosis, 44% right main bronchus involvement, 22% left main bronchus involvement. 33% had multilevel airway involvement. Of airway features, 67% had pure short segment membranous concentric stenosis. Remaining 33% had extra adverse airway features (22% bronchomalacia;11% thick fibrotic band). All cases were performed with rigid bronchoscopy under general anaesthesia. All underwent balloon dilatation of stenotic segment; 78% had topical mitomycin-c (TMC) application and 11% did mechanical coring of stenotic segment. Procedure was deemed successful (sustained symptomatic benefits of ≥3 months) in 67% cases. All unsuccessful cases had adverse airway features. Of complications, 22% developed self-limiting airway tear (0.5cm) during procedure. None developed TMC related complications. Conclusion: EI appears to be an attactive option for TSTB patients. We postulate that EI might produce more sustainable benefits in those with pure short membranous concentric stenosis without adverse airway features. Future studies are needed to define the exact role of EI for TSTB patients.

To assess the effects of tropical forest remnants on the assemblage of parasitoid wasps in the surrounding areas, we conducted insect samplings with Malaise traps along line transects that were set up in a type of ecotone between isolated reserved forest (forest remnant) and its surrounding acacia plantation at Sampadi Forest Reserve, Lundu, Sarawak in Borneo. We set up three line transects, and five plots for Malaise traps in each line transect so that the five plots could represent five different locations in the gradient along the ecotone. Preliminary results from a few analyses of the samples showed that the relatively species-rich assemblage of parasitoid wasps in the forest remnants enriched the diversity of parasitoid wasp assemblage in the surrounding areas, where the species-richness of the assemblage had originally been relatively low, probably via dispersal by some species of parasitoid wasps from the forest remnants to the surrounding areas. We discuss several issues related to the results, and present some future research plans to solve these issues.

We conducted a field experiment to reveal the effect of environmental factors on the decomposition process of woody debris in Bintulu from July 2013 to November 2014. Forest type (Acacia plantation or natural forest) and canopy openness were selected as predictor variables of the decomposition rates for Xylopia ferruginea and Dryobalanops beccarii. The results suggest that land use change affects the decomposition process of woody debris. Further studies on effects of landscape structure on colonization processes of decomposers are needed.

The species diversity of termites was investigated in three different types of forest: isolated acacia plantations, acacia plantations wholly surrounded by natural forests and acacia plantations partly adjacent to natural forests. The 100 m belt transect protocol was used to assess the species richness and abundance of termites. The results showed that the presence of adjacent natural forests contributes to an increase of biodiversity in acacia plantations. It was also found that the presence of acacia plantations caused a decrease of biodiversity in adjacent natural forests. The proportion of common species among the three types of forest arrangement was also compared.

Insect seed predators play important roles in the dynamics of forest ecosystems. Here, we briefly review the recent progress of research in ecology and evolutionary biology of insect seed predators in Southeast Asian tropical rainforests, where community-wide supra-annual masting (called "general reproduction (GR)" here) occurs, with the introduction of the predator satiation hypothesis, which is one of the leading hypotheses to explain the ecological mechanisms promoting the evolution of GR. We also introduce our own current studies on insect seed predators in the lowland tropical rainforest at Lambir Hills National Park, Sarawak. In addition, we present our future plans for research on the natural history and evolutionary ecology of interactions between seed-feeding insects and plant species in Sarawakian tropical rainforests, with emphasis on the necessity for the long-term census on the community-level seed predation.