Chemical composition of Piper sarmentosum extracts and antibacterial activity against the plant pathogenic bacteria Pseudomonas fuscovaginae and Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae

Piper sarmentosum is a cultivated plant that also growswildly in the South East Asian region. It is well known for its medicinal properties and a variety of active chemical constituents. The control potential of the plant extract against bacterial leaf blight caused by Xanthomonas oryzae andsheath brown rot of rice caused by Pseudomonas fuscovaginae wasevaluated. The aqueous methanol extracts of fruits and leaves of P. sarmentosum were chemically analyzed using gas-chromatography mass-spectrometry (GC-MS).The results gave the highest best matches of 28 compounds (80.2% of total extracts) in the leaf extract and 24 compounds (89.1% of total extracts) in the fruit extract. The flavonoidfraction 4H-pyran-4-one,2,3-dihydro-3,5-dihydroxy-6-methyl- (DDMP) was found to be the major component which constitutes a complex natural product that has been of recent medicinal interest. The extract of the fruit had IC50of 28.08 and 8.41 mg ml-1 against P. fuscovaginae and X. oryzae, respectively, while the leaf extract had IC50of 10.42 and 24.69 mg ml-1 against P. fuscovaginae and X. oryzae, respectively

Application of effective microorganism (EM) in food waste composting: a review

Objective: This paper provides a review on the application of effective microbe (EM) in food waste composting. It emphasized on the application EM in composting method, the EM properties and the quality of compost with EM in terms of nutrient content and heavy metals concentration. Method: This paper reviewed all related articles on EM from 2000 to 2014. All of the articles were searched through Sco-pus and Google Scholar search engines using specific keywords related to the topic. Result: EM has a great potential to be applied on food waste composting as it can accelerate the composting process and reduce odor during the decomposition of organic material. Conclusion: EM has a great potential to be used in accelerating the composting process and increased nutrient in compost. EM controls the temperature and reduces pathogens in the compost to produce good quality of compost. However, detail assessment is needed to assess the effect of EM application on compost quality and the safety for human health

Diversity of the insects in the diet of edible nest swiftlets in oil palm plantations

The Edible Nest Swiftlet (Aerodramus fuciphagus) is a small bird from the family Apodidae which is commonly found in the South-East Asian region which characteristically roost and nest in cave or cavern-like situation. Swiftlet farming in specially designed building has recently developed due to high consumer demand for the edible bird nest. The farms are not the natural habitat of the swiflets and there are greater chance that this will affect in one way or the other way of their dietary habit and composition. The focus of this study was to investigate the diversity of insects found in the diet of A. fuciphagus in their habitats in oil palm-growing areas in Malaysia. This was achieved by investigating the relationship between insect composition in oil palm and insect prey composition in the feeding bolus of A. fuciphagus. The most common insects order found in the sampled fields of the three states in the study was Diptera (26.53%) and followed closely by Hymenoptera (21.26%). The difference between the sample sites as far as insects order composition is not significantly different (t test = 3.759 and 2.9). We failed to accept the H0 that the diversity of insect in the fields and diet of the swiftlets in all locations was the same

Effects of calcium and chitosan treatments on controlling anthracnose and postharvest quality of papaya (Carica papaya L.)

This study was conducted to evaluate the in vitro fungicidal effects of calcium and chitosan on Colletotrichum gloeosporioides and to as well determine their effects on storage life and quality of papaya. Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA) incorporated with calcium at different concentrations (1.5, 2.5 or 3.5%) or in combination with chitosan at 0.75% or chitosan alone were used as treatments for in vitro tests. Uncorporated treatments with PDA and untreated fruits as control used on papaya fruits for storage life and quality evolutions. Chitosan had the greatest effect against Colletotrichum gloeosporioides in both in vitro and in disease incidence (%) on papaya fruits compared to calcium treatment and as well as control. Calcium reduced spores germination significantly as calcium concentrations increased from 2.5 to 3.5%, compared to the 1.5% and control treatments. However, it did not show any fungicidal effects on mycelial growth. The combination of 2.5% calcium with chitosan 0.75% completely inhibited spore germinations and significantly inhibited mycelia growth compared to calcium individual treatments and as well as control. Anthracnose disease incidence (%) was significantly controlled (5.6%) using calcium at 2.5% combined with chitosan compared with the other treatments. This demonstrated the best effect on controlling anthracnose disease incidence for papaya fruits. Moreover, this treatment proved able to extend the storage life of papaya fruits up to 33 days of storage life while maintaining valuable attributes of quality

Design of assistive video for hearing-impaired (AV4HI)

This paper reports on an initiative that assists hearing-impaired students and their teachers in the teaching and learning activities.Through a preliminary study, it was found that both hearing-impaired students and their teachers face many problems with the existing approach, including difficulties in acquire contents, high tendency of getting stressed, and high potential to miss the syllabus. Based on the identified problem, this study initiates an alternative approach, by introducing a type of specially-designed learning material for the hearing-impaired called Assistive Video for Hearing-impaired (AV4HI).User-centered Design (UCD) approach has been utilized in carrying out the study, in which both hearing impaired and their teachers were involved in the process of coming out with the design. Eventually, it was found that the hearing-impaired students enjoy the prototype very much, and expect to have the AV4HI in their teaching and learning activities

Assistive contents for hearing-impaired people

This paper reports an ongoing study on designing a learning content for hearing-impaired people. Since teaching hearing-impaired people orally is too burdening, both the teachers and students, an alternative has to be provided. Hence, the idea of providing contents in electronic means came into consideration.It is useful, because the hearing-impaired students could utilize the contents on their own pace.Understanding their limitations, this study attempts to gather the preferences by the hearing-impaired people.Hence, a series of interviews were conducted, assisted by a sign language interpreter.Based on the findings from the interviews, the contents were story-boarded. It was used for gathering feedback from the users. When the most preferred layout was determined, the content was developed, and tested with the users. It was found that the proposed requirements are able to make hearing-impaired happy to learn with the material, which is called Assistive Content for Hearing-impaired (AC4HI) people

Aplikasi M-pembelajaran dalam kalangan pelajar politeknik

Pembangunan dan kemajuan teknologi mudah alih berkembang pesat setelah teknologi ini diterapkan dalam sistem pendidikan di Malaysia. M-pembelajaran adalah pendekatan pembelajaran yang menentukan penguasaan pengetahuan dan kemahiran melalui teknologi mudah alih. Oleh yang demikian, kajian ini dijalankan bagi mengkaji tahap penggunaan m-pembelajaran dalam pengajaran dan pembelajaran, faktor-faktor yang penggunaan m-pembelajaran serta sikap pelajar terhadap penggunaan m-pembelajaran ini dalam kalangan pelajar politeknik. Kajian ini berbentuk tinjauan secara deskriptif dan melibatkan seramai 322 sampel pelajar Politeknik Ibrahim Sultan. Borang soal selidik digunakan sebagai instrumen bagi tujuan pengumpulan data. Data yang diperolehi dianalisis menggunakan perisian SPSS versi 21.0. Hasil analisis didapati tahap penggunaan m-pembelajaran dalam kalangan pelajar adalah tinggi. Faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhi penggunaan m-pembelajaran seperti persepsi kebergunaan (Perceived Usefulness - PU) dan persepsi mudah digunakan (Perceived Ease of Use-PEOU) berada pada tahap tinggi. Manakala sikap pelajar terhadap penggunaan m-pembelajaran dalam pembelajaran sangat positif. Dapatan kajian ini berguna kepada pensyarah serta pentadbir politeknik dalam meningkatkan penggunaan m-pembelajaran dalam pengajaran dan pembelajaran

Modelling of faults for chemical batch reactor using artificial neural network and fuzzy logic [TP1-1185].

Setiap proses kimia cenderung untuk mengalami kegagalan. Situasi ini memaksa industri dan penyelidik mencari teknik bersesuaian bagi mengesan kegagalan secepat yang mungkin. Every chemical processes prones to failure. This situation enforces the researchers and industrial to find the appropriate techniques to detect a process failure as early as possible

Effect of different concentrations of chitosan coating on storage life and quality characteristics of Papaya (Carica Papaya L.)

Mature green stage of papaya fruits were treated with different concentrations of chitosan at 0, 0.5, 0.75 and 1%, and stored at 13±1 °C for 28 days to study the effect of these concentrations on the storage life and maintaining quality of papaya. Chitosan concentrations 0.75 and 1% showed the best control effect on decay compared with 0% (Control) and 0.5%. At 0.75 and 1% of chitosan, flesh firmness maintained resulted in prolonging in storage life of 28 and 26 days compared with 21 and 19 days, respectively for 0.5 and 0%. Furthermore, they were significantly decreased the weight loss of fruit. All of the treatments inhibited increase of soluble solid contents and pH values of pulp fruits after 21 days of storage at 13 ± 1°C. Titratable acidity and ascorbic acid were higher for coated fruits (0.5, 0.75 and 1%) compared with uncoated fruits. Concern treatments of chitosan at 0.75 and 1% improve papaya fruit quality and resistance to decay