Development of bambangan (Mangifera pajang) carbonated drink

Mangifera pajang Kostermans or bambangan is a popular fruit among Sabahan due to its health and economic values. However, the fruit is not fully commercialized since it is usually been used as traditional cuisine by local people. Thus, development of bambangan fruit into carbonated drink was conducted to produce new product concept. The objectives of this study were to conceptualize, formulate, evaluate consumer acceptance, and determine physicochemical properties and nutritional composition of the accepted product. Method used in conceptualising the product was based on questionnaire. The consumer acceptance was evaluated based on descriptive and affective tests with four product formulations tested. The physicochemical properties on carbon dioxide volume, colour, pH, total acidity, total soluble solid (TSS) and viscosity were highlighted, meanwhile nutritional composition on fat, protein, carbohydrates and energy content were determined. About 77% respondents gave positive feedback, and 69% respondents decided this product is within their budget. The formulation of 5% bambangan pulp, 70% water, 25% sugar and 0.2% citric acid was highly accepted in descriptive and affective tests with 4.4 and 6.39 mean scores, respectively. The physicochemical properties and nutritional composition of the acceptance product were in optimum value except for colour, total acidity and TSS. Overall, this study showed that the product has high potential to be commercialized as new product concept, and heritage of indigenous people can be preserved when this fruit is known regionally

Characterizations on microencapsulated sunflower oil as self-healing agent using In situ polymerization method

This paper emphasizes the characterization on the microencapsulation of sunflower oil as self-healing agent. In-situ polymerization method mainly implicates in the microencapsulation process. The analysis of microencapsulated sunflower oil via prominent characterization of yield of microcapsules, microcapsules characteristics and Fourier Transmission Infa-Red Spectroscopy (FTIR). The prime optimization used was reaction time of microencapsulation process in the ranges of 2, 3 and 4 h. The higher reaction time of microencapsulation process resulted in a higher yield of microcapsules. The yield of microcapsules increases from 46 to 53% respectively by the increasing of reaction time from 2 to 4 h. The surface morphology study associating the diameter of microcapsules measured to analyse the prepared microcapsules. It was indicated that microcapsules were round in shape with smooth micro-surfaces. It was discovered that the diameter of microcapsules during microencapsulation process after 4 h reaction time was in average of 70.53 μm. This size was measured before filtering the microcapsules with solvent and dried in vacuum oven. Apparently, after filtering and drying stage, the diameter of microcapsules specifically identified under Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM) showing the size of 2.33 μm may be due to the removing the suspended oil surrounded the microcapsules. Sunflower oil as core content and urea formaldehyde (UF) as shell of microcapsules demonstrated the proven chemical properties on characterization by FTIR with the stretching peak of 1537.99 - 1538.90 cm-1 (-H in -CH2), 1235.49 - 1238.77 cm-1 (C-O-C Vibrations at Ester) and 1017.65 - 1034.11 cm-1 (C-OH Stretching Vibrations). It was showed that sunflower oil can be considered as an alternative nature resource for self-healing agent in microencapsulation process. The characterization of microencapsulated sunflower oil using in-situ polymerization method showed that sunflower oil was viable self-healing agent to be encapsulated and incorporated in metal coating

A study of the effect of tunnel aspect ratio on control of smoke flow in tunnel fires.

In the event of a tunnel fire, the emergency ventilation system is often brought in action to create a safe route upstream clear of smoke for evacuation and fire fighting. The "critical ventilation velocity" is used to represent the value of the ventilation velocity which is just able to force the smoke moving in one direction. This value has become one of the important criteria for the design of the tunnel ventilation systems. This study reviewed current knowledge on the critical ventilation velocity and studies of tunnel fires. The literature review showed that the critical ventilation data are limited in number. The influence of fire power on the critical ventilation velocity remains uncertain and in addition, the most important issue which is the effect of tunnel geometry on the critical ventilation velocity has not been studied yet. To establish better model prediction of the critical ventilation velocity, the present work systematically investigated the effect of tunnel geometries on the critical ventilation velocity on five small scale model tunnels which have approximately the same height but different widths. Three dimensional Computer Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations were also carried out to investigate the flow behaviour and compare the modelling results with the experimental results. The present work found that cross-sectional geometry did affect the critical ventilation velocity. The critical ventilation velocity has been related to the distribution of the fire plume inside the tunnel at critical ventilation conditions. The present work also explored the new dimensionless of the critical ventilation velocity and the heat release rate and suggests that the mean hydraulic tunnel height (H) should be used as the characteristic length for the buoyant forces in the dimensionless analysis instead of tunnel height (H). A simple one dimensional relationship has been derived based on the new dimensionless analysis for predicting the critical ventilation velocity for large scale tunnels in any cross-sectional geometry. Finally, the scaling problem was resolved by comparing the present results with the large scale results obtained in the literature review, expressed in the new dimensionless analysis. The results showed that the present results agreed with most of the large scale experimental results. This suggests that the present results can be used with high degree of confidence to predict the critical ventilation velocity for larger scale tunnels in any cross-sectional geometry

Disclosure practices of funded and non-funded religious non-profit organizations: A comparison

Social responsibility performs by religious nonprofit organizations (RNPOs) typically depend on the availability of various sources of funds available. The most basic sources of funds available are from donations, corporate giving and grants. The main objective of this study is to analyze the disclosure practices of funded and non-funded RNPOs. Through content analysis on the sample of 83 RNPOs annual returns for the year 2010, results of independent sample T-test indicated that funded RNPOs are more likely to disclose information. In addition, ANOVA findings confirmed the differences in the disclosure practices among funded organizations of government, private and non-funded RNPOs. The results of this study provide empirical evidence to the government and other resource providers in scrutinizing the decision to distribute their funds to these RNPOs

KARAKTERISTIK ORGANOLEPTIK IKAN BANDENG (Chanos chanos Forskall) YANG DIBERI PENGAWETAN MENGGUNAKAN DAGING BUAH PICUNG (Pangiun edule Reinw)

ABSTRAK Ikan bandeng (Chanos chanos Forscal.) merupakan salah satu produk hasil perikanan yang banyak dihasilkan oleh masyarakat petani tambak di Kabupaten Bireuen. Kemunduran mutu bahan pangan merupakan masalah utama yang dihadapi dalam penanganan bahan pangan terutama bahan pangan segar, akibat tingginya kandungan air.Salah satu biji-bijian yang digunakan dalam pengawetan ikan adalah biji picung (Pangiumedule Reinw.)Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah metode eksperimental, Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa penggunaan daging buah picung pada ikan bandeng yang disimpan selama 10 untuk TPC adalah 9x105 pada konsentrasi 12 gram/ 300 gram ikan 12 dan yang paling tinggi didapatkan pada perlakuan kontrol dengan jumlah koloni sebanyak 16x105. Hasil pengujian organoleptik pada ikan bandeng tertinggi terdapat pada konsentrasi 12 gram daging buah picung/ 300 gram ikan pada mata sebesar 3,3, rupa 3,4, warna 2,5, tekstur 3,4 dan aroma 3,6. Sedangkan nilai paling rendah didapatkan pada perlakuan kontol dengan nilai pada mata sebesar 1,6, rupa 1,3, warna 1,0, tekstur 1,2 dan aroma 1,2. Kata Kunci :Ikan Bandeng, Pengawetan, Biji Picung dan Uji Organoleptik

Reconstruction of virtual environment using CAD-VR approach

Virtual environment should be able to replicate real environment as realistic as possible. This paper proposes a design framework for constructing virtual environments using Computer-Aided Design (CAD) and Virtual Reality (VR) packages, or in short, CAD-VR approach. This paper discusses the technical issues involved based on the experience in developing two prototype models of the Universiti Utara Malaysia Sports Complex and Sultanah Bahiyah Library. The benchmark of the development is the compatibility of the three dimensional (3D) CAD models with VR packages. The CAD modelling issues that have been encountered throughout the development stages are also discussed for future guidelines

Innovation in agricultural support on sustainability for fresh fruit bunch (FFB) of elais guineesis in Malaysia using artificial domestic pollination system (ADOPSY™)

Sustainability of the Fresh Fruit Bunch (FBB) is one of the most important elements at the plantation level. Most of Oil Palm planters at this stage do not get the desired result of output production due to inconsistency of number of fresh fruit bunch on the plants. The main element to ensure plants producing FBB at a sustainable level is to keep the existence of the weevil for pollination. Nowadays it is hard to ensure the population of the weevil in right condition constantly due to misconduct of the biodiversity as well as ecosystem in the plantation areas. Weevil species (Elaeidodius kamerunicus) brought by an entomologist, Syed Anwar Rahman, from Cameroon to Malaysia managed to increase the number of fruit set in 1981. Hence, this research is carried out to determine the new method of pollination that should help planters to get sustainable output of FBB in term of quantity. The main purpose of the research is to get sufficient numbers of FBB at individual oil palm plant using Artificial Domestic Pollination System (ADOPSY™) that was invented by the researcher. Applied research base on case study undertaken in Felda Cawangan Tembangau 6, Pahang, under the management of Felda Global Venture (FGV). Data collection completed by the FGV staff by using standard format so called “Bancian tandan hitam” or Fresh Fruit Bunch Census Format without influences by the researcher, ensuring data corroborated. The data is analyzed to examine the development in term of production referring to the increased quantity of fresh fruit bunch. FGV was chosen due to its worldwide establishment among the biggest oil palm production conglomerate in Malaysia. The most vital finding of this research is to confirm that the technology (ADOPSY™) and supported product (PreMix-SP) used in this research, would produce sustainable output production of FBB. The research demonstrated the increasing value of production of FBB by implementing check and control method under treated test plot compared to untreated test plot for period of one year. This research will also facilitate opportunity profit by eliminating defect, referring to decreasing numbers of abortion in plantation production

Low threshold linear cavity mode-locked fiber laser using microfiber-based carbon nanotube saturable absorber

In this work, we demonstrate a linear cavity mode-locked erbium-doped fiber laser in C-band wavelength region. The passive mode-locking is achieved using a microfiber-based carbon nanotube saturable absorber. The carbon nanotube saturable absorber has low saturation fluence of 0.98 µJ/cm2. Together with the linear cavity architecture, the fiber laser starts to produce soliton pulses at low pump power of 22.6 mW. The proposed fiber laser generates fundamental soliton pulses with a center wavelength, pulse width, and repetition rate of 1557.1 nm, 820 fs, and 5.41 MHz, respectively. This mode-locked laser scheme presents a viable option in the development of low threshold ultrashort pulse system for deployment as a seed laser

SRPTackle: A semi-automated requirements prioritisation technique for scalable requirements of software system projects

ContextRequirement prioritisation (RP) is often used to select the most important system requirements as perceived by system stakeholders. RP plays a vital role in ensuring the development of a quality system with defined constraints. However, a closer look at existing RP techniques reveals that these techniques suffer from some key challenges, such as scalability, lack of quantification, insufficient prioritisation of participating stakeholders, overreliance on the participation of professional expertise, lack of automation and excessive time consumption. These key challenges serve as the motivation for the present research.ObjectiveThis study aims to propose a new semiautomated scalable prioritisation technique called ‘SRPTackle’ to address the key challenges.MethodSRPTackle provides a semiautomated process based on a combination of a constructed requirement priority value formulation function using a multi-criteria decision-making method (i.e. weighted sum model), clustering algorithms (K-means and K-means++) and a binary search tree to minimise the need for expert involvement and increase efficiency. The effectiveness of SRPTackle is assessed by conducting seven experiments using a benchmark dataset from a large actual software project.ResultsExperiment results reveal that SRPTackle can obtain 93.0% and 94.65% as minimum and maximum accuracy percentages, respectively. These values are better than those of alternative techniques. The findings also demonstrate the capability of SRPTackle to prioritise large-scale requirements with reduced time consumption and its effectiveness in addressing the key challenges in comparison with other techniques.ConclusionWith the time effectiveness, ability to scale well with numerous requirements, automation and clear implementation guidelines of SRPTackle, project managers can perform RP for large-scale requirements in a proper manner, without necessitating an extensive amount of effort (e.g. tedious manual processes, need for the involvement of experts and time workload)