The evaluations of facebook as an educational technology tools in polytechnic’s entrepreneurship courses

Entrepreneurship is integrated into the curriculum structure designed for students studying subjects other than Business. The aim of this study was to evaluate the usage of Facebook as an educational technology tool in entrepreneurship course in TVET institution particularly in Polytechnic Malaysia. The 400 sample was selected randomly among the students from theMalaysian Polytechnic Institutions. Tool analysis using IBM-SPSS version 21.The constructs of Cronbach’s alpha is 0.932. The results supported. It shows the averages mean value scores for educational technology tools is on the approximate scale of 4.0 (3.93). Usages of Facebook as an educational technology tools onto entrepreneurship course was well received by Polytechnics’ studentsKeywords: Facebook usage; educational technology tools; entrepreneurship course;polytechnics; DoI theories

Antioxidant and antityrosinase activities of piper maingayi HK. Essential oils

The study was aimed to investigate the chemical components of stem and fruit volatile oils of Piper. maingayi Hk. with their antioxidant and antityrosinase activities. GC and GC-MS analysis of the essential oils obtained from the fresh stem and fruit of P. maingayi Hk. resulted in the identification of 34 and 18 components accounting for 83.6% and 78.7% of the total amount, respectively. Sesquiterpene hydrocarbons and oxygenated sesquiterpenes were the most highly represented classes as the former ranging from 64.7% to 70.7%, and the latter varying from 7.4% to 8.6%. The main constituents of the stem oil were: α-caryophyllene (26.2%), α-cedrene (8.4%), caryophyllene oxide (6.7%) and cis-calamenene (6.2%), while the fruit oil was dominated by δ-cadinene (22.6%), β-caryophyllene (18.8%), α-copaene (11.2%) and α-cadinol (7.1%). The stem and fruit of P. maingayi oils showed significant value for antioxidant and antityrosinase activities

Mapping urban heat island phenomenon: Remote sensing approach

This article investigates the application of remote sensing data for mapping urban heat island (UHI) phenomenon in an urbanised area of Selangor. The selected area covers Kajang, Cheras and Dengkil mukims in Selangor with total area of 4950 ha. The urban heat island was determined by using the land surface temperature (LST) information from thermal infrared band (Band 6) of Landsat image with 120 m pixel resolution. A subset of Landsat TM acquired on April 17, 1988 (path 127/row58) covers the urbanised mukims was used in this study. Erdas Imagine 8.5 was the main software for image classification of urban land covers in 1988, while GIS-Grid Calculator functions were used to derive land surface temperature. This study demonstrates the spatial variation of LST within urban blocks with temperature above 27.5o Celcius. About 3557 pixels (or approximately 32 ha of area) has been identified as UHI pixels in both Cheras and Kajang mukims. Urban impervious area near Pekan Bt 9, Cheras, Kajang town and Bandar Baru Bangi have been recognised areas with highest number of UHI-related pixels. The result revealed the effectiveness of remote sensing data application in analysing urban heat island-land surface temperature relationships in Selangor

Cognitive function assessment in young adult using trail making and stroop tests

Cortical network between brain regions is one of the topics that being investigated by brain researchers. Methods that are used to investigate brain developments of cognitive function include Partial Directed Coherence (PDC) and the power spectrum of the brain activity. The purposes of this study were to determine the cortico-cortical functional connectivity between brain regions using PDC and to investigate the power spectrum of brain activity while performing cognitive function assessments. Twenty healthy young adults, age between 20 to 30 years old, were asked to perform two tasks/tests, Trail Making Test (TMTA-alphabet, TMTA-number, TMTB-mixed alphabets and numerical) and Stroop Task. An electroencephalogram (EEG) machine was used to record the brain signals, and the data were analyzed using PDC and Fast Fourier Transform (FFT). Our findings showed that not only frontal area but temporal and occipital area also generates information and the information was sent to various scalp location. Theta frequency was significantly increased at frontal area while gamma and high-gamma frequency bands were significantly increased at centroparieto-occipito-temporal regions. All of these areas are associated with cognitive function doing specific task

Fluorescence spectroscopy for analysing deterioration of palm olein in batch deep-fat frying

Palm olein has been commercially used as frying medium in batch deep-fat frying. During frying, the oil usually deteriorates due to the exposure to high temperature. In this study, a fluorescence spectroscopy technique was applied to monitor the deterioration of refined, bleached, and deodorized palm olein (RBDPO) in batch deep-fat frying. 22.5 kg of French fries were used as the frying material. In 30 batches, the french fries were intermittently fried at 185 ± 5°C for eight hours a day over five consecutive days capturing 40 hours. The fluorescence intensity of the RBDPO was recorded with excitation at 390 nm and resulting emission of 465 nm. The fluorescence intensity of the RBDPO over five days of frying decreased considering the wavelength range of emission 430-640 nm and excitation 360-430 nm. The decreased in intensity of fluorescence emission and excitation spectra were inversely correlated with the FFA content of the oil samples. This study demonstrates the potential of fluorescence spectroscopy in monitoring the deterioration of RBDPO during batch deep-fat frying

Chemical constituents and lipoxygenase inhibitory activity of Piper stylosum Miq.

ABSTRACT. Chemical constituents and lipoxygenase inhibitory activity of the aerial part of Piper stylosum have been studied. Fractionation and purification of the extracts afforded five lignans, identified as yangambin (1), sesamin (2), syringaresinol (3), pinoresinol (4), and medioresinol (5), together with other constituents; 4-allyl resorcinol, β-sitosterol, β-sitostenone, taraxerol, vanilin, and vanilic acid. The structures of these compounds were established by analysis of their spectral data, as compared to that of reported compounds. The lipoxygenase inhibitory activity of the extracts and isolated lignans were also evaluated.               KEY WORDS: Piperaceae, Piper, Piper stylosum, Lignan, Lipoxygenase Bull. Chem. Soc. Ethiop. 2019, 33(3), 587-592.   DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/bcse.v33i3.1