Understanding media literacy in relation to adolescent soft drink consumption behavior

This paper examines relationship between media literacy and the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) variables focusing on consumption of soft drink among adolescents in Klang Valley, Malaysia. In addition, this paper also determines soft drink consumption, level of media literacy and the influences of the TPB variables on the intention of soft drink consumption. A cluster sampling method was used in collecting data within the Klang Valley area. The sample consisted of 436 adolescents from secondary school, aged between 13 to 18 years old. Two main scales utilized were Media Literacy (ML) scale and TPB scale. The descriptive, multiple linear regression and Pearson product-moment correlation analyses were carried out to answer the research objectives. Results revealed that 36% of respondents drank a minimum of 1 can, bottle or glass of soft drink for the past seven days and possess good level of media literacy (35%).Meanwhile, 14% of variance in adolescents’ intention of soft drink consumption is explained by TPB variables. Additionally, the total media literacy score towards soft drink advertisement was significantly positively correlated with attitude (r = 0.250, p<.05) and subjective norms (r = 0.174, p<.05). Conversely, total media literacy was significant negatively correlated with intention to consume soft drink (r = -0.19, p<.05) and indicated that media literacy could lower the intention to consume soft drink, thus can reduce soft drink consumption among adolescents. The importance of this study is to help the authorities, soft drink marketers and producers in Malaysia to better understand media literacy and adolescent soft drink consumption behavior

Optical characterization on ITO/TiO2/P3HT/Areca Catechu/au for thin film hybrid solar cell

In this research, dye sensitized solar cell is fabricated by a combination of inorganic titanium dioxide nanoparticles sensitized by a locally available natural dye extract from organic Areca Catechu nut. This hybrid solar cells are fabricated accordingly by deposition of ITO/TiO2/P3HT/Areca Catechu/Au by using electrochemical method. The deposition rates of TiO2 are varied from 0.05, 0.07, 0.09 to 0.11 vs-1 whereas the number of scan of each layers are fixed to 5. The absorption spectra analysis is carried out in the wavelength range 200 to 600 nm, showed a wide and significant absorption spectrum in UV and visible regions. Analysis shows that scan rate affects the electrical conductivity of hybrid solar cell. The highest conductivity is recorded at 0.278 Scm-1 corresponding to the scan rate of 0.07 Vs-1at a potential value of 3.5 V

Color Thresholding Techniques Performance for Night Vision Surveillance Using Thermal Imaging

Visible surveillance is commonly an active research worldwide. The need of surveillance allows thermal imaging to participate in this study activity. The drawback of visible surveillance for night monitoring is overcome by the technology of the thermal imaging. To achieve the goal of the surveillance system , the works on detection must be very efficient to do the detection Throughout this research , we developed an algorithm involving thresholding technique for subject detection using thermal image to find the for night surveillance system

Impact Modified Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunch Fiber/Poly(Lactic) Acid Composite

In this study, composites were fabricated from oil palm empty fruit bunch fiber and poly(lactic) acid by extrusionn followed by injection moulding. Surface of the fiber was pre-treated by ultrasound in an alkali medium and treatment efficiency was investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis and Fourier transforms infrared spectrometer (FTIR). Effect of fiber treatment on composite was characterized by tensile strength (TS), tensile modulus (TM) and impact strength (IS). Furthermore, biostrong impact modifier was incorporated into the treated fiber composite to improve its impact properties. Mechanical testing showed an improvement of up to 23.5% and 33.6% respectively for TS and TM of treated fiber composite above untreated fiber composite. On the other hand incorporation of impact modifier led to enhancement of about 20% above the initial IS of the treated fiber composite

The effect of the rheocast process on the microstructure and mechanical properties of Al-5.7Si-2Cu-0.3Mg alloy

This study shows the results of an experimental investigation of semisolid rheocasting of Al-5.7Si-2Cu-0.3Mg alloy using a cooling slope (CS) casting technique. However, the challenge is to determine process parameters of the CS process to get a desirable microstructure in the semisolid feedstock material. cooling slope technique was employed to create feedstock material for thixoforming under an argon gas atmosphere, where on an inclined plate that was fixed at a 60° slope angle, molten alloy is poured at different temperatures of 640°C, 650°C and 660°C at lengths 300, 400 and 500 mm. Examination the microstructure with optical microscope observed that the microstructure of conventionally cast alloy presented coarse and dendritic primary α-Al phase, whereas rheocast alloy included fine and nondendritic primary α-Al phase with homogeneous distribution of eutectic phase. The best CS processing condition has been identified for optimum pouring temperature of 650°C and the slope length of 400 mm as average globular grain size of around 31.67 ± 3 μm and a shape factor of about 0.66 ± 0.09 were obtained. The mechanical properties of conventional cast alloy were enhanced by the CS casting process. The ultimate tensile strength, the yield strength and elongation of the rheocast alloy were increased by 10%, 12% and 22% respectively compared to the conventional cast alloy. due to a reduction in shrinkage and porosity of the microstructure of the CS alloy

Detection Technique of Squamous Epithelial Cells in Sputum Slide Images Using Image Processing Analysis

A good quality sputum is important to detect diseases. The presence of squamous epithelial cells (SEC) in sputum slide images is important to determine the quality of sputum. The presence of overlapping SEC in sputum slide images causes the process become complicated and tedious. Therefore this paper discusses on technique of detection and summation for Squamous Epithelial Cell (SEC) in sputum slide image. We addressed the detection problem by combining K-means and color thresholding algorithm. The design of aided system is evaluated using 200 images and the proposed technique is capable to detect and count each SEC from overlapping SEC image. Total of 200 images were clustered to 10 groups, labelled as Group Cell 1 to group Cell 10 that correspond to the number of cells in the image. Therefore, each group will contain 20 images. The accuracy of the algorithm to detect SEC was also measured, and results show that in 91% which provides a correct SEC detection and summation

Hole spin polarization in GaAlAs:Mn structures

A self-consistent calculation of the electronic properties of GaAlAs:Mn magnetic semiconductor quantum well structures is performed including the Hartree term and the sp-d exchange interaction with the Mn magnetic moments. The spin polarization density is obtained for several structure configurations. Available experimental results are compared with theory.Comment: 4 page

Cytotoxicity and antiviral activity of Annona muricata aqueous leaves extract against dengue virus type 2

In this study, Annona muricata aqueous leaves extract was tested against dengue virus type 2. Firstly, the cytotoxicity of A. muricata was evaluated using a cell viability assay. The cytotoxicity of A. muricata on Vero cells was tested and the value of cytotoxic concentration, CC50 was ~2.5 mg/ml and the 50% Effective Concentration, EC50 was ~ 0.20 mg/ml. Selectivity index of extract against DENV-2 was more than 10 indicating potential as antiviral agent. Cells were pre- and post-treated with the extract and the viral inhibitory effect was investigated by observing the morphological changes, which were further confirmed the cellular viability evaluated by MTT technique. The results revealed that the post-treatment was more effective in inhibiting viral replication compared to pre-treatment. The findings indicated that A. muricata has good potential for prospective nature-based antiviral drug.Keywords: DENV-2, Annona muricata; Vero cells; MTT technique; antiviral dru

Handover Algorithm based VLP using Mobility Prediction Database for Vehicular Network

This paper proposes an improved handover algorithm method for vehicle location prediction (VLP-HA) using mobility prediction database. The main advantage of this method is the mobility prediction database is based on real traffic data traces. Furthermore, the proposed method has the ability to reduce handover decision time and solve resource allocation problem. The algorithm is simple and can be computed very rapidly; thus, its implementation for a high-speed vehicle is possible. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed method, QualNet simulation is carried out under different velocity scenarios. Its performance is compared with conventional handover method. The superiority of the proposed method over conventional handover method in deciding the best handover location and choosing candidate access points is highlighted by simulation. It was found that VLP-HA has clearly reduced handover delay by 45% compared to handover without VLP, give high accuracy, hence low complexity algorithm