Development of decision support system for identification of medically important enterobacteriaceae

Members of the family Enterobacteriaceae are the majority of gram-negative organisms identified in a clinical microbiology Laboratory. The family now has over 20 genera and more than 100 species, of which about 50 are associated with human disease. Currently, in Laboratory of Microbiology and Parasitology, of Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia, the identification of Enterobacteriaceae is utilised routinely by conventional biochemical tests. Other than that, commercial system such as API 20E and Vitek 2 automated system are also been utilised specifically for identification of critical samples, due to its expensive cost. Identification manually by conventional method prone to human error during mixing and matching biochemical tests, which further cause misidentification, while identification using commercial methods require high cost. To overcome this problem, there is a need to develop a computerised decision support system to assist microbiologists for identification of Enterobacteriaceae. Decision support system of Enterobacteriaceae (DECIDER) were developed using free open source software, PHP and MySQL by following open source software development methodology. The newly develop system has been compared to previous method; conventional manual system, API 20E system and VITEK 2 automated system by back tested using a total of 356 positive blood culture previous record in year 2011 gathered from Laboratory of Microbiology and Parasitology. Percentage agreement was calculated. The highest percentage of complete agreement was by comparing DECIDER and Vitek 2, with 82 (87.23%) correctly identified organisms. Manual conventional system compared with DECIDER yield about 274 (76.97%) complete agreement for correctly identified organisms. Result has shown that DECIDER, identified a highly acceptable level of identification accuracy for members of the family Enterobacteriaceae. The system is simple and provides ease of use for user

Mathematical Modelling Of Unsteady Nanofluid Flow For Heat, Mass And Microorganism Transfers With Magnetic And Slip Effects

The study of flow problems related to the magnetic field, nanofluid, and microorganism are important especially in microfluidic devices. The advantages of microfluidic devices are its small size, low cost, and low consumption, especially for biological studies. The microorganisms in the nanofluid are essential to prevent nanoparticle agglomeration, to improve the stability of the nanofluids, to enhance mixing and hence enhance mass transfer in microfluidic devices. This thesis investigates the modified mathematical models to study the boundary layer flow for heat, nanoparticle mass, and microorganism transfers in the biochemical process involving microfluidic devices. Specific nanofluid flow problems under various geometries such as flow over stretchable/shrinkable rotating disk, flow between two parallel disks, flow over a vertical rotating cone, and micropolar nanofluid flow over a stretching/shrinking sheet were investigated. The effects of magnetic, Stefan blowing, and various slips (velocity slip, thermal slip, nanoparticle mass slip, and microorganism slip) were incorporated into the models. Both the Newtonian and non- Newtonian (micropolar) nanofluids have been taken into account. Appropriate transformations have been used to transform the partial differential equations into nonlinear ordinary differential equations. The differential equations have been solved numerically using the finite difference method coupled with the Richardson extrapolation technique in Maple softwar

Structural Characterization And Electrochemical Performance Of Nitrogen Doped Graphene Supercapacitor Electrode Fabricated By Hydrothermal Method

The introduction of nitrogen (N) into graphene is of great focus as it escalates overall device performance as the introduction of N atoms improves the electronics of the graphene. In this work, the N-doped graphene electrode was prepared by using hydrothermal method where graphene nanoplatelet was used as active material and aqueous ammonia as the nitrogen source. The electrode was then used as the supercapacitor electrode. From Raman analysis, the ID/IG ratio of N-doped graphene has a higher value than that of pristine graphene. This indicates the N-doped graphene possessed more defects and has a higher degree of disorder within the graphene sheet. For X-ray diffraction analysis, the result exhibits a broad peak at 2θ = 26.3o, corresponding to the graphitic profile with an interlayer spacing of 3.57 Å. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis proved that there is a presence of nitrogen on the graphene surface, with 2.35 % of the atomic concentration. From the cyclic voltammetry, all curves showed an almost rectangular shape at the scan rates of 10 to 100 mVs-1. The calculated specific gravimetric capacitance is 25.2 F g-1 at 10 mV s-1. In addition, charge-discharge analysis confirmed the typical behavior of electric double layer capacitor from the linear symmetric slope

MHD dissipative flow and heat transfer of casson fluids due to metachronal wave propulsion of beating cilia with thermal and velocity slip effects under an oblique magnetic field

A theoretical investigation of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) flow and heat transfer of electrically-conducting viscoplastic fluids through a channel is conducted. The robust Casson model is implemented to simulate viscoplastic behavior of fluids. The external magnetic field is oblique to the fluid flow direction. Viscous dissipation effects are included. The flow is controlled by the metachronal wave propagation generated by cilia beating on the inner walls of the channel. The mathematical formulation is based on deformation in longitudinal and transverse velocity components induced by the ciliary beating phenomenon with cilia assumed to follow elliptic trajectories. The model also features velocity and thermal slip boundary conditions. Closed-form solutions to the non-dimensional boundary value problem are obtained under physiological limitations of low Reynolds number and large wavelength. The influence of key hydrodynamic and thermo-physical parameters i.e. Hartmann (magnetic) number, Casson (viscoplastic) fluid parameter, thermal slip parameter and velocity slip parameter on flow characteristics are investigated. A comparative study is also made with Newtonian fluids (corresponding to massive values of plastic viscosity). Stream lines are plotted to visualize trapping phenomenon. The computations reveal that velocity increases with increasing the magnitude of Hartmann number near the channel walls whereas in the core flow region (centre of the channel) significant deceleration is observed. Temperature is elevated with greater Casson parameter, Hartmann number, velocity slip, eccentricity parameter, thermal slip and also Brinkmann (dissipation) number. Furthermore greater Casson parameter is found to elevate the quantity and size of the trapped bolus. In the pumping region, the pressure rise is reduced with greater Hartmann number, velocity slip, and wave number whereas it is enhanced with greater cilia length

Abstracts of the International Halal Science Conference 2023

This book presents the extended abstracts of the selected contributions to the International Halal Science Conference, held on 22-23 August 2023 by the International Institute for Halal Research and Training (INHART), IIUM, Malaysia in collaboration with Halalan Thayyiban Research Centre, University Islam Sultan Sharif (UNISSA), Brunei Darussalam. With the increasing global interest in halal products and services, this conference is timely. Conference Title:  International Halal Science ConferenceConference Acronym: IHASC23Conference Theme: Halal Industry Sustainability Through ScienceConference Date: 22-23 August 2023Conference Venue: International Islamic University (IIUM), MalaysiaConference Organizer: International Institute for Halal Research and Training (INHART), International Islamic University (IIUM), Malaysi