Analysis of pesticide residues in tea using accelerated solvent extraction with in-cell cleanup and gas chromatography tandem mass spectrometry

A fast, simple and easily automated method was developed for the simultaneous determination of pesticide residues in tea using accelerated solvent extraction (ASE) with in-cell clean up and gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS). This method integrates extraction and clean up processes into a single step, by adding a clean-up sorbent along with the sample into the extraction cell. The efficiency of this method was characterized in terms of its recovery (with values ranging from 90 to 98%), repeatability along with intermediate precision (showing relative standard deviations less than 15%), and sensitivity (providing detection limits between 0.001 and 0.007mgg1). The concentration range of the pesticide residues found in the sample is from 0.008 to 0.161mgg1. The relative expanded uncertainty achieved for this method ranged from 24% to 34%. The results indicate that the proposed method is easy and reliable for the determination of pesticide residues in tea, and it is suitable for use in routine analysis

Necessity and challenges of nature conservation

Nature conservation is the preservation of resources that are produced naturally for example wild animals and plants, ecosystem and biodiversity especially from the effects of human activities for example exploitation and industrialization. Nature conservation is necessary in protecting the biodiversity for example to prevent animal species from endangering or extinct, protection for natural ecosystem and human’s freshwater sources for drinking purposes. Moreover, nature conservation is important in maintaining a long-life natural environment as well as an environment that is sustainable towards development. However, nature conservation is not an easy task as it requires a lot of manpower as well as money. Therefore, nature conservation is challenging as well. The challenges of nature conservation include human’s overpopulation, global warming and overharvesting. Human’s overpopulation is one of the most challenging factors that influences the practice of nature conservation

Comparison of ASE with in-cell cleanup and the QuEChERS sample preparation methods for the analysis of pesticide residues in tea

The aim of the present work was to compare and choose the best method to extract incurred pesticide residues from green tea. Accelerated solvent extraction (ASE) with in-cell cleanup and the quick, easy, cheap, effective rugged and safe (QuEChERS) methods were tested on green tea samples with incurred beta-endosulfan pesticide. The extracts were analyzed by GC-MS/MS and the recovery and the precision of both methods were compared. The average recovery using ASE with the in-cell cleanup method was in the range of 89 to 92% which is better than that obtained using a QuEChERS method. Both the ASE with in-cell cleanup and the QuEChERS methods provided good precision with RSDs in the range of 12 to 15% and 17 to 18%, respectively. This finding indicates that the ASE method with the in-cell cleanup is more suitable for the accurate determination of pesticides incurred in tea

The role of comparative religion in inter-intra civilizational dialogue

Comparative Religion is seen as an important curricula because it could serve as a mechanism for enhancing cross-cultural religious communication. The authors seek to examine the role of Comparative Religion as an important science for enhancing dialogue skills. Such a communication skill, however, must be developed from both intra- and inter-civilizational levels. The authors have employed an historical and textual analysis to re-examine Comparative Religion and its methodology. The authors proposed new curricula in Comparative Religion studies including criticism of the methodologies used in Comparative Religion. This includes a new methodology that considers the existing multicultural religious phenomenon as well as post–September 11, 2001 developments and the plans for departmentalization of Comparative Religion. For further benefit toward peace, harmony, and accepting co-existence, this study also highlights suggestions for developing the undergraduate and postgraduate programs at the higher education level

An evaluation of the final year dental students' geriatric oral health community programme.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the teaching-learning process involved in the geriatric oral health community programme for final year dentistry students which was introduced by the Faculty of Dentistry, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. The geriatric oral health community programme formed part of the curriculum for final year students and involved the division of the students into small groups. The groups were facilitated by their instructors to prepare an activity which was to be conducted at various community geriatric institutions. These group activities required the students to apply the oral health planning and promotion concepts they had been taught prior to the activity. At the end of an eight-week long preparation period, the students implemented a day-long programme at the institution. The effectiveness of the teaching-learning process involved in the programme was evaluated using a self-administered questionnaire measuring three segments: fulfilment of programme objectives, assessment of facilitators and programme processes and overall satisfaction regarding the conducted programme. Data was collected two weeks after the completion of each student group’s visit. Fifty of the total fifty-two participating students (96.2%) responded. Of these, forty-nine students (98%) were either ‘somewhat satisfied’ or ‘satisfied’ with the programme conducted. The majority of the students agreed that the programme had managed to achieve the following objectives: (1) sensitized them towards harbouring a caring attitude towards the elderly, (2) enabled them to better their interaction with the elderly, and (3) made them realize the importance of teamwork in executing a community project. Despite the certain administrative weaknesses encountered in conducting the program, the students agreed with the relevance and importance of the inclusion of community geriatric dental education in their curriculum

Analysis of multiclass pesticide residues in tea using accelerated solvent extraction with in-cell cleanup and gas chromatography tandem mass spectrometry

The application of pesticides in tea plantations is a common practice to control pests and plant diseases. Chemical pesticides are excessively used by the farmers in order to meet the increasing demand for food for the fast growing population. Due to a lack of a proper, continuous and efficient monitoring, farmers are facing severe quality related problems when exporting agricultural products and various problems related to human health being reported. The existing situation urgently demands for the implementation of advanced analytical procedures for accurate monitoring of pesticides in agriculture products and which would be needed for the management of the existing pesticide problem. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to develop an efficient method for analysis of pesticide residues in tea. The current trend in pesticide residue analysis is the use of multiresidue methods that not only provide a simultaneous determination of multiple pesticides but also applicable for analysis of a large number of samples. Despite advances in the development of high performance analytical instrumentation for determination, sample preparation still an important part of obtaining accurate quantitative results. QuEChERS and ASE with in-cell cleanup methods are amongst the modern sample preparation methods developed to overcome the drawback of traditional approach for pesticide analysis. There are many study reported for analysis of multiresidue pesticide analysis using QuEChERS method and the original version of this method also has been modified in order to establish efficient extraction and cleanup procedure for pesticide determination in tea. On the other hand, ASE with in-cell cleanup method has been successfully applied in pesticides analysis but it has not been applied for extraction of pesticides in tea. However, both methods had shown high performance for the analysis of multiresidue pesticides in tea, but their extraction performance based on recovery value was evaluate using spiked sample. Unlike incurred sample, the pesticide in spiked samples only coats the surface of matrices and may not be bound up in the tea cell structure. The first part of this study is to compare the extraction efficiencies of the QuEChERS and ASE with in-cell cleanup methods by using the reference material of incurred pesticide in tea. The extracts were analysed by gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS). Following this, the selected method for analysis of multiresidue pesticides in tea was validated and subsequently apply to determine the occurrence of pesticides in tea samples. In addition, the uncertainty of pesticides measurement using ASE with in-cell cleanup method was also quantified and estimated based on top down approach. ASE with in-cell cleanup method gave an average recovery of 91% with a 17% RSD whereas the QuEChERS method gave an average recovery of 64% with a 18% RSD. The recovery obtained from the QuEChERS method was outside the requirement set by the validation guidelines implying that the method is not reliable for extraction of pesticides in tea. Therefore, the ASE with in-cell cleanup method was selected and further validate for sample preparation of multiresidual pesticide analysis of a real sample. ASE with in-cell cleanup method was applied for the validation extraction of multiresidue pesticides comprising endosulfan, lindane, dieldrin, chlorpyrifos and bifenthrin. Method validation parameters such as the linearity, limits of detection and quantification, recovery, precision and accuracy of the method for all of the pesticides studied were carried out. Linear correlation coefficients for all of the tested pesticides were better than 0.995. The overall average recoveries using this method at three spiked concentration of 0.04, 2.0 and 3.5 μg g-1 ranged from 90 to 98%, and the relative standard deviations (RSDs) were less than 10% for all of the analytes. The limits of detections (LODs) ranged from 0.001 to 0.007 μg g-1, and the limits of quantifications (LOQs) ranged from 0.009 to 0.021 μg g-1. The results obtained from the validation parameters suggested that the ASE with in-cell cleanup method has good purification effect and therefore, resulting in a better detection and quantification by the GC-MS/MS. This method was subsequently applied to ten different brands of tea samples obtained from a local supermarket. The concentration of pesticide residues in all samples were detected to be lie in the range of 0.008 to 0.161 μg g-1. The uncertainty in the measurement of each pesticide was also evaluated. The measurement uncertainty (MU) was used to decide whether the results indicate compliance or non-compliance with the maximum residual limits (MRLs) value. Two out of ten samples were found noncompliance with European Union’s regulation. The relative expanded uncertainty for all pesticides were ranged from 24 to 34% and were considered as satisfactory for routine analysis. The incurred pesticide in a complex matrix such as tea makes it difficult to obtain complete extraction of pesticides. However, the combination of high temperature and pressure of ASE with in-cell cleanup method results in better extraction efficiency. The built-in features of this method allow short time sample extraction and less solvent used compared with the QuEChERS and other methods developed for pesticide analysis. The convenience, simplicity and reliability of the ASE with in-cell cleanup method is undoubtedly makes it a valuable tool for analysis of multiresidue pesticides in other agricultural products and can be applied as a routine method

Students' evaluation of oral health education ava teaching module

Audio-visual aids were widely used in raising dental awareness of the public. Faculty of Dentistry, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia introduced a 20-hour ‘Oral Health Education – Audio-Visual Aids’ (OHE-AVA) module requiring students to plan, produce, use and evaluate OHE-AVA materials for individual patients and in the community. Course evaluation was carried out at the end of the module to assess fourth-year dental students’ perception on the conduct and usefulness of ‘OHE-AVA’ as a learning module in the undergraduate curriculum. Self-administered questionnaires with five-point Likert Scales on skills development and teaching-learning environment were disseminated to two Year Four cohorts. A total of 123 completed questionnaires were returned. In ‘Development of Abilities’, most students agreed on improvement of critical thinking, creative thinking, self-managed learning, adaptability, problem solving, communication skills and computer literacy. In contrast, the responses for interpersonal skills and group work development were poorer (1.6% and 4.9% disagreement). Responses were positive for ‘Teaching and Learning Environment’, except for Feedback to Assist Learning (21.1% and 22.8% undecided). Disagreement was reported higher in the two statements on Workload, scoring 7.3% and 4.9% respectively. Nevertheless, most students observed the relevance of the module to the Dental Public Health course (86.9%), to other modules (86.8%) and to the entire dental programme (89.4%). Of the 123 students, 87.8% agreed that learning objectives were stated beforehand and 84.5% agreed that the course objectives were met. In conclusion, the OHE-AVA module was positively rated by students. Nonetheless, concerns regarding students’ interaction, assessment and workload could be improved

The role of comparative religion curricula in intra–inter civilizational dialogue

Comparative Religion is seen as an important curricula because it could serve as a mechanism for enhancing cross-cultural religious communication. The authors seek to examine the role of Comparative Religion as an important science for enhancing dialogue skills. Such a communication skill, however, must be developed from both intra- and inter-civilizational levels. The authors have employed an historical and textual analysis to re-examine Comparative Religion and its methodology. The authors proposed new curricula in Comparative Religion studies including criticism of the methodologies used in Comparative Religion. This includes a new methodology that considers the existing multicultural religious phenomenon as well as post–September 11, 2001 developments and the plans for departmentalization of Comparative Religion. For further benefit toward peace, harmony, and accepting co-existence, this study also highlights suggestions for developing the undergraduate and postgraduate programs at the higher education level