Pharmacological Activities of Banana

Plants have been in use in traditional medicine since antiquity, and many active metabolic products with biological significance are obtained from them. Recently, pharmaceutical industries have developed great interest in utilizing these products as an alternative to the chemically synthesized drugs. This is due to the discovery of important new medicines from the plants, because of studies on how people of different background use plants as cure and treatment for many diseases, and side effects of the synthesized drugs. Banana, an eatable fruit produced by some herbaceous flowering plants of the genus Musa, is one of the valuable fruits with proven pharmacological potentials. Bananas are spread almost all over the world. Different chemical constituents like apigenin glycosides, myricetin-3-O-rutinoside, kaempferol-3-O-rutinoside, dopamine, and serotonin have been reported in different parts and varieties of banana. The presence of carbohydrate, proteins as well as flavonoids, makes bananas useful in both nutrition and therapeutics. Pharmacologically, bananas have been shown to possess antiulcer, antimicrobial, and antioxidant activities. This chapter discusses the essential information on banana, including its varieties, distribution, pharmacological actions, and its relevance in pharmaceutical industries. This will be beneficial for researchers to further harness the robustness of this fruit in controlling many diseases and modification of drugs

The removal of Perak's Menteri Besar from constitutional perspective / Kamal Hadi Ahmad Zaki, Muhammad Syafiq Aminudin, Mohd Radzi Mohd Sani

The issue of the removal of Perak's Menteri Besar in constitutional perspective has brought lots of dilemma which has opened vast legal loopholes in the governance of constitution in our country. Therefore, this research aims are to explore the legal aspect in the State of Perak by examine the validity of the resignation letters made by the 3 Perak State Assemblymen, examine the powers vested in the Sultan of Perak's in dismissing the Menteri Besar and examine whether the procedural aspects of the removal of former Menteri Besar of Perak in accordance with the provision of the Perak's Constitution. The first chapter in this research provides the introduction of our draft proposal in conducting this research. The next chapter provides the power of Sultan and State Ruler on which this chapter discuss more on the discretionary powers of Sultan and State Ruler references with Federal Constitution and Perak Constitution. Further on chapter three it provides the cases study which relating with our research paper. Next, chapter four provides the current judgement in High Court and Court of Appeal in Perak's present crisis. Lastly, chapter five provides findings and conclusion. The issue of the removal of Perak Menteri Besar is still waiting to be heard at Federal Court, for that it is important for our group to analyze all the possible and relevant issue to achieve a precise outcome in this research

Variation in Resistance to Fungal Attack among Tomato (Solanumlycopersicum) Fruits Varieties Sold in Gombe Metropolis, Nigeria

Tomato is one of the major commercially cultivated fruits vegetable that is widely consumed both as fresh fruits and for making soup. Paradox to its importance and value, tomato spoils very fast after harvest due to its limited shelf life. This, in most cases, leads to huge loses both for farmers and marketers. Consequently, this research aimed at investigating the variation in resistance to fungal spoilage between local and improved varieties of tomatoes. A total of eighty (80) fresh tomato fruits of two varieties, improved (UTC) and local (Siriya), were bought from Gombe main market and allowed to deteriorate under room temperature and used in this study. A diseased portion of the infected tissue of each of the samples was cut and inoculated in petri dish containing Potato Dextrose Agar, and incubated at room temperature for 10 days. The growths were sub-cultured and viewed under mcroscope. The results showed that Aspergillus niger, Candida albicans, Aspergillusfumigatus, Rhizopus stolonifer,and Fusarium oxysperum were associated with tomato spoilage, with the frequencies of occurrence of 26, 6, 4, 2, and 4 in Siria; 13, 7, 2, 3 and 0 in UTC respectively. Pathogenicity test revealed that all fungi isolated were pathogenic and contributed to tomato spoilage. However, Siriya variety was observed to be susceptible to all the pathogens, whereas UTC showed some degree of resistance.This indicated that UTC might be better for farmers as well as marketers in terms of harvest and shelf life

Estimation of pH and MLSS using Neural Network

The main challenges to achieving a reliable model which can predict well the process are the nonlinearities associated with many biological and biochemical processes in the system. Artificial intelligent approaches revolved as better alternative in predicting the system. Typical measured variables for effluent quality of wastewater treatment plant are pH, and mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS). This paper presents an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) and feed-forward neural network (FFNN) modeling applied to the domestic plant of the Bunus regional sewage treatment plant. ANFIS and feed- forward neural network techniques as nonlinear function approximators have demonstrated the capability of predicting nonlinear behaviour of the system. The data for the period of two years and nine months sampled weekly (140 week samples) were collected and used for this study. Simulation studies showed that the prediction capability of the ANFIS model is somehow better than that of the FFNN model. The ANFIS model may serves as a valuable prediction tool for the plant

Sistem Reservasi Penginapan Dengan Aplikasi Android (Studi Kasus PT. Chevron Pacific Indonesia)

PT Chevron Pasific Indonesia (CPI)  merupakan perusahaan yang bergerak di bidang minyak dan gas. PT CPI memiliki tempat penginapan berupa wisma yang diperuntukkan untuk karyawan dengan sistem kerja on-off atau rotator. Selama ini sistem reservasi wisma di PT. Chevron Pacific Indonesia masih menggunakan cara pencatatan dan administrasi secara manual dan penghuni tidak dapat memilih kamar yang diinginkan. Hal ini menyebabkan kenyamanan penghuni menjadi berkurang karena penghuni harus berpindah dari satu wisma ke wisma yang lain dengan jarak yang relative jauh. Dilatarbelakangi dari masalah tersebut, penulis melakukan penelitian berjudul “Sistem Reservasi Wisma Berbasis Android di PT. Chevron Pacific Indonesia”. Dalam penelitian ini semua proses di dalam wisma, mulai dari reservasi, pemesanan kamar, pemilhan kamar, check in dan check out dapat dilakukan melalui suatu sistem yang terintegrasi dengan memanfaatkan aplikasi berbasis Android yang tujuannya adalah meningkatkan kenyamanan penghuni wisma. Selain itu karyawan wisma akan dipermudah dengan proses distribusi kamar yang dapat dilakukan secara otomatis melalui sistem ini. Berdasarkan penelitian yang dilakukan, diperoleh kesimpulan bahwa penilitian ini dapat meningkatkan kenymanan penghuni wisma dengan nilai prosentase  intepretasi sebesar 87% dari kuesinoer yang telah dilakukan. Selain itu kemudahan dari karyawan wisma juga meningkat dengan prosentase intepretasi sebesar 83% dari kuesioner yang telah dilakukan

Screening of microfilaricidal effects of plant extracts against Dirofilaria immitis

Canine dirofilariasis is a common tropical parasitic disease of companion animals, caused by infestation of Dirofilaria immitis filarids within the pulmonary arteries and extending into the right heart. Increased reports of adverse reactions elicited by current microfilaricidal agents against D. immitis such as neurological disorders, circulatory collapse and potential resistance against these agents, warrant the search for new agents in forms of plant extracts. The use of plant extracts in therapeutic medicine is commonly met with scepticism by the veterinary community, thus the lack of focus on its medical potential. This study evaluated the presence of microfilaricidal activities of the aqueous extracts of Zingiber officinale, Andrographis paniculata and Tinospora crispa Miers on D. immitis in vitro at different concentrations; 10 mg/ml,1 mg/ml, 100 lg/ml, 10 lg/ml and 1 lg/ml within 24 h, by evaluation of relative microfilarial motility as a measure of microfilaricidal activity. All extracts showed microfilaricidal activity with Z. officinale exhibiting the strongest activity overall, followed by A. paniculata and T. crispa Miers. It is speculated that the microfilaricidal mechanism exhibited by these extracts is via spastic paralysis based upon direct observation of the microfilarial motility

Development of Distraction Risk Index (DRI) Among the Intrastate Bus Driver in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Bus services is one of the main public transport chosen by the people all around the world especially in the big city such as Kuala Lumpur. However, the safety of the passenger of the bus services become main concern among the researchers due to increasing number of accidents among the bus services. Some researcher found that, the major factor of the accidents involving bus services was caused by the bus driver distraction. Therefore, the objective of this research is to develop the Distraction Risk Index (DRI) among the intrastate bus driver. This research will only focus on the intrastate bus driver in Kuala Lumpur. Survey which adapting the Hampton University Transportation Centre Bus Driver Distraction Survey was used and distributed to 215 intrastate bus drivers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It was found that there were four sources of distraction which classified as very high risk which were condition of the bus, traffic congestion, drivers’ welfare and drivers’ health. Findings of this research can be used as a platform for future improvement for the performance of the intrastate bus services. This research also can provide assistance to future researchers to design and provide solution to overcome sources of distraction

Preparation, characterization, and antibacterial activity of green-biosynthesised silver nanoparticles using Clinacanthus nutans extract

Plant leaf extract can be used as a reducing agent in the synthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNP) in a green and safe way. As a result, this study describes the synthesis of AgNP using a Clinacanthus nutans plant extract. C. nutans is known as belalai gajah in Malaysia and is widely used as a medicinal herb. UV-Vis spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), and transmission electron microscope (TEM) were used to characterize the biosynthesized AgNP using C. nutans aqueous extract at pH 10, 70°C, and a reaction time of 48 hours. The UV-Vis spectra revealed a peak around 400 nm, while XRD confirmed AgNP's crystal structure, which had an average size of 20 to 30 nm, as shown in FESEM and TEM micrographs. The antibacterial activity of biosynthesized AgNP against Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Staphylococcus aureus was tested using the disc diffusion technique (DDT). Antibacterial activity was limited against Enterococcus faecalis and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). AgNP, which was synthesized using C. nutans leaf extract AgNP as a bioreducing agent, has antibacterial activity against a wide range of bacteria in general

Study on physiochemical properties and the halalness of commercially marketed vinegar in Malaysia

Vinegar is very popular as traditional ingredient for cooking, pickling, and preservation. It is made from sugar or starch by an alcoholic and acetous fermentation and produces ethanol as a by-product. Alcohol is prohibited to be consumed for Muslim or used as ingredient if it is exceeding the allowable limit as stated by Islamic Council in Malaysia. According to Fatwa Committee National Council of Islamic Religious Affairs Malaysia, natural occurrences of ethanol in food products are acceptable if the ethanol contents are less than 1% in beverages and 0.5% for flavoring or coloring substances for the purpose of stabilization. On the other hand, for specific vinegar product, as stated by Malaysian Food Act and Regulation, acetic acid content must be at least 4%. According to FAO/WHO, a product is to be labelled as vinegar if the acetic acid content is 6% and with a maximum residual alcohol content of 0.5%v/v for wine vinegar and 1%v/v for other vinegars. This study investigated the physiochemical properties of the vinegar from different sources of raw materials. Total solubility (TA) by using Brix method, pH, and alcohol and acetic acid content by GC-TOF/MS of 12 commercial vinegars from Malaysia and abroad were studied. The result shown that for pH value of commercial vinegar are ranged from 2.51-3.14°Brix from 2.10-40.73°Brix, acetic acid is ranged from 0.0253-0.1276% and ethanol content from 0-0.5911%. Thus, this study will come out with the clear observation on ethanol content in fermented product which is vinegar in order to categories the halalness of the product that available in Malaysia market especially the ones that are produced internationally. Lastly, as shown by the profiling study, vinegar that are imported internationally may contain some amount of alcohol in contrast with the one that locally produced in Malaysia and has Halal certification

Design optimization of single-phase inner-rotor and outer-rotor hybrid excitation flux switching machine for EV applications

Electric Vehicle (EV) is considered as an ultimate eco-friendly car and this is highly expected to be popularized in the future. One of the main candidates of electric machine for an EV drive is a flux switching machine (FSM). However, since the designed machine consists of three-phase complicated winding, the copper loss which contributes to efficiency of the machine is expected to be increased. Furthermore, the three-phase armature winding has a large area size of the total system. Due to the complicated three-phase armature winding that contribute to high copper losses, a single-phase inner-rotor and outer-rotor Hybrid Excitation Flux Switching Machine (HEFSM) with much simpler structure and less armature coil consumption are introduced in this research. Various characteristics of HEFSM are investigated by analytical approaching based in finite element analysis using JMAG software. The project implementation of this research is divided into three parts including design, analyze and optimize. Firstly, the impact of a rotor pole number of the proposed is investigated for inner-rotor and outer-rotor configuration in order to determine the optimal performances of the rotor poles combinations. Then 8S-4P and 8S-8P HEFSM are chosen for optimization analysis. The combination of 8S-8P inner-rotor HEFSM have best performance with 284Nm maximum torque, 62.98kW maximum power and 90% efficiency. Then 8S-8P HEFSM have been compared with three-phase 12S-14P HEFSM in term of copper loss, weight and efficiency. As conclusion, the final design machine produce 12.45% less copper loss, 8.88% less weight and with almost similar efficiency compared to three-phase configuration