An Analysis on the Perception and Situational Factors in Using Vending Machine among Universities’ Students in Malaysia

This main objective of this research is to further analyse the perception and situational factors in using vending machine among universities’ students in Malaysia.  There were two parts in this study, the first part was to investigate the perception of Malaysia’s universities’ students in using vending machine.  The second part was to analyse the situational factors that influence universities’ students in Malaysia in using vending machine.   This research was conducted using quantitative method through a set of constructed questionnaire survey.   The target respondents for this research were students from different universities in Malaysia.  The questionnaire survey was distributed in several universities, such as Taylor’s University, Sunway University, Monash University and others, mainly to the universities’ students who use vending machine.   The sample size was 313 respondents who fairly selected by using non-probability sampling method such as convenience sampling and snowball sampling method. Overall, the results of the first part study illustrated there is a positive but weak relationship between perception and universities’ students in using vending machine.   In other words, it means that a positive perception does not leading to increase the usages of vending machine.   The second part results illustrated that among all the situational factors, physical surroundings and task definition showing higher possibilities and influences towards universities’ students’ level of certainty in using vending machine. Keywords: Perception, Situational Factors, Vending Machine, University student

User-defined multimodal interaction to enhance children's number learning

Children today are already exposed to the new technology and have experienced excellent number learning applications at an early age. Despite that, most of the children's application softwares either fail to establish the interaction design or are not child-friendly. Involving children in the design phase of any children application is therefore essential as adults or developers do not know the children’s needs and requirements. In other words, designing children's computer applications adapted to the capabilities of children is an important part of today's software development methodology. The goal of this research is to propose a new interaction technique and usability that evaluates children learning performance of numbers. The new interaction technique is designed by participatory design in which children are involved in the design process. A VisionMath interface was implemented with the user-defined multimodal interaction dialogues which was proposed to evaluate the children’s learning ability and subjective satisfaction. An evaluation with 20 participants was conducted using usability testing methods. The result shows that there is a significant difference in the number learning performance between tactile interaction and multimodal interaction. This study reveals the proposed user-defined multimodal interaction dialogue was successful in providing a new interaction technique for children’s number learning by offering alternative input modality and potentially providing a rich field of research in the future

PRE-TREATMENT TEMPERATURE AND MULTI-RESPONSE SURFACE OPTIMISATION OF ULTRASOUND-ASSISTED EXTRACTION OF ANTIOXIDANTS FROM RED DATES

Ziziphus jujube known as red dates are natural flora, are a rich source of antioxidant bioactive compounds and are widely used in making Chinese traditional medicine. However, the optimization of extraction conditions and demonstration of extraction kinetics of red dates remains a gap. Therefore, the main objective of this research was to enhance the antioxidant activity via DPPH, crude extract yield, and TPC by response surface methodology (RSM). Also, mathematical modeling of the TPC extraction kinetics was performed. Single-factor experiments were adopted to identify the preliminary RSM ranges of four extraction parameters such as liquid-solid ratio (10, 20, and 30 ml/g), extraction temperature (50, 60 and 70°C), time (40, 50 and 60min), and ultrasonic power (70, 80 and 90%). The extraction kinetics based on RSM optimized conditions were modeled into six extraction kinetic models. As result, the highest crude extract yield (4.56 g), highest TPC (0.023 g GAE/g extract), and highest antioxidant activity (85.88%) were obtained at 60ºC. The optimum values were liquid-solid ratio 30ml/g, extraction temperature 60°C, time 60 min, and ultrasonic power 70%. The antioxidant activity of red dates after optimization (90.59%) was higher than that of synthetic antioxidants, Butylated Hydroxytoluene (84.71%), and Butylated Hydroxyanisole (77.73%). Furthermore, the best-fitted kinetic model was the second-order kinetic model due to its coefficient of determination (R2) at 0.9849, being the closest to 1 and its root mean square error (RMSE) was the lowest, 0.001028 among other models

Determination of oil palm fruit phenolic compounds and their antioxidant activities using spectrophotometric methods.

There is scarce information on the phenolics of oil palm fruits (Elaeis guineensis). In this study, phenolics were extracted from oil palm fruits and analysed using spectrophotometry for information on the different types of palm phenolics and their antioxidative activities. Analyses of the total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC), o-diphenols index, hydroxycinnamic acid index, flavonols index and phenol index showed ranges between 5.64 and 83.97 g L−1 gallic acid equivalent (GAE), 0.31–7.53 g L−1 catechin equivalent, 4.90–93.20 g L−1 GAE, 23.74–77.46 g L−1 ferulic acid equivalent, 3.62–95.33 g L−1 rutin equivalent and 15.90–247.22 g L−1 GAE, respectively. The antioxidant assay, 2,2-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical scavenging assay, showed antioxidative activities in all the extracts with results ranging from 4.41 to 61.98 g L−1 trolox equivalent. The high antioxidant activities of the oil palm fruit phenolics were also found to increase with increasing TPC and TFC

Whole genome sequencing of Priestia megaterium isolated from the gut of sea cucumber (Holothuria leucospilota)

Priestia megatrium represents a bacterium of interest in a wide application of the field of biotechnology. Often it is sought after for its ability that boasts great rate for biosynthesis production of smaller biological molecules while also representing a suitable host to generate compounds such as cobalamin. The bacterium can also be found in a wide variety of habitats including sea water. Sea cucumbers have begun to be quite popular to a point of extinction in certain species. This interest could be associated to the uniqueness attributed to its gut microbiome or just the organism itself. Nevertheless, the presence of Priestia megaterium within the gut of Holothuria leucospilota might serve as rationale to the previous statement. Here, we describe a detailed genomic analysis of Priestia megaterium isolated from the gut of Holothuria leucospilota. Genomic DNA was extracted from nutrient broths which were incubated with pure cultures of Priestia megatrium which were previously isolated from the sea cucumber. Whole genome sequencing was carried out using an Oxford Nanopore Technology platform which used a long-read protocol. The study reported a complete genome of Priestia megatrium compromising of 5,323,711Â bp genome size with a GC content of 37.9Â . Finally, the annotated genome was submitted to the NCBI database. Overall, this study revealed the complete genome of Priestia megatrium and would serve to potentially explain its association towards the gut microbiome found within Holothuria leucospilota

High-throughput amplicon sequencing of gut microbiome sea cucumber in Pahang, Malaysia

Sea cucumbers are soft-bodied marine organisms found in the benthic environment which are known as trepang, gamat or timun laut by locals. Sea cucumbers are commercially exploited for their body extracts due to their therapeutic properties and as culinary demands. Moreover, sea cucumbers are host to complex community of microbes. However, less efforts were documented on the identification of these microbial communities using high-throughput sequencing approach. The purpose of this study is to identify the gut microbiome of the sea cucumber from Stichopus ocellatus species. For this study, the sea cucumbers were collected from a coastal area in Pahang, Malaysia. The gut contents were sampled and processed fresh upon collection and maintained on ice prior delivery to the storage facility. The DNA was extracted prior two steps Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) for amplicon library preparation by targeting the V4 region of 16S rRNA. The prepared libraries were sequenced using the Illumina iSeq 100 system. The raw data were analysed using QIIME2 and other bioinformatics software. Here, we observed that the gut of Stichopus ocellatus is home for the genera of Vibrio, Tropicibacter, Desulfopila and Halioglobus. Remarkably, the bacteria from the genus Vibrio are the most abundant bacteria colonising the gut microenvironment. This study suggests baseline microbial community that inhibit the gut of sea cucumber that may confer biotechnological important bacteria for pharmaceutical applications and drug development

High-throughput amplicon sequencing of gut microbiome sea cucumber in Pahang, Malaysia

Sea cucumbers are soft-bodied marine organisms found in the benthic environment which are known as trepang, gamat or timun laut by locals. Sea cucumbers are commercially exploited for their body extracts due to their therapeutic properties and as culinary demands. Moreover, sea cucumbers are host to complex community of microbes. However, less efforts were documented on the identification of these microbial communities using high-throughput sequencing approach. The purpose of this study is to identify the gut microbiome of the sea cucumber from Stichopus ocellatus species. For this study, the sea cucumbers were collected from a coastal area in Pahang, Malaysia. The gut contents were sampled and processed fresh upon collection and maintained on ice prior delivery to the storage facility. The DNA was extracted prior two steps Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) for amplicon library preparation by targeting the V4 region of 16S rRNA. The prepared libraries were sequenced using the Illumina iSeq 100 system. The raw data were analysed using QIIME2 and other bioinformatics software. Here, we observed that the gut of Stichopus ocellatus is home for the genera of Vibrio, Tropicibacter, Desulfopila and Halioglobus. Remarkably, the bacteria from the genus Vibrio are the most abundant bacteria colonising the gut microenvironment. This study suggests baseline microbial community that inhibit the gut of sea cucumber that may confer biotechnological important bacteria for pharmaceutical applications and drug development

Complete whole genome sequencing of Vibrio parahaemolyticus strain UMP001VA, isolated from sea cucumber Holothuria leucospilota from Malaysia harbouring blaCARB-33 gene

Pathogenic strain of Vibrio parahaemolyticus found in marine and coastal ecosystems can cause infections in marine animals. Increasing antibiotic resistance reported in Vibrio species may be linked to environmental contamination. Here, we present a 4.99-Mbp complete genome sequence of V. parahaemolyticus strain UMP001VA, a Gram-negative bacterium that was isolated from the gut content of a sea cucumber Holothuria leucospilota collected from Pulau Rhu, Terengganu, Malaysia. The whole genome sequencing was performed using hybrid de novo assembly using Illumina and the Oxford Nanopore Technology platforms. The genome analysis reported a total length of 4,991,208 bp of V. parahaemolyticus genome sequences with 45.3 % GC content. The functional annotation of the genome showcased that 56 genes of V. parahaemolyticus were associated with virulence, disease, and defence function. Virulence factors found in H. leucospilota were related to T3SS1, together with the presence of blaCARB-33 antibiotic resistance gene conferring ampicillin, piperacillin, and amoxicillin drug resistance were reported. The presence of virulence factors and antibiotic resistance genes reveals the considerable pathogenic potential of V. parahaemolyticus in sea cucumbers. Therefore, the whole genome sequencing presented here provides a fundamental genome insight for future assessment of V. parahaemolyticus in marine organisms

Centromere Protein B Null Mice are Mitotically and Meiotically Normal but Have Lower Body and Testis Weights

CENP-B is a constitutive centromere DNA-binding protein that is conserved in a number of mammalian species and in yeast. Despite this conservation, earlier cytological and indirect experimental studies have provided conflicting evidence concerning the role of this protein in mitosis. The requirement of this protein in meiosis has also not previously been described. To resolve these uncertainties, we used targeted disruption of the Cenpb gene in mouse to study the functional significance of this protein in mitosis and meiosis. Male and female Cenpb null mice have normal body weights at birth and at weaning, but these subsequently lag behind those of the heterozygous and wild-type animals. The weight and sperm content of the testes of Cenpb null mice are also significantly decreased. Otherwise, the animals appear developmentally and reproductively normal. Cytogenetic fluorescence-activated cell sorting and histological analyses of somatic and germline tissues revealed no abnormality. These results indicate that Cenpb is not essential for mitosis or meiosis, although the observed weight reduction raises the possibility that Cenpb deficiency may subtly affect some aspects of centromere assembly and function, and result in reduced rate of cell cycle progression, efficiency of microtubule capture, and/or chromosome movement. A model for a functional redundancy of this protein is presented

Factors associated with mobile health information seeking among Singaporean women

This study examined effects of age and social psychological factors on women’s willingness to be mobile health information seekers. A national survey of 1,878 Singaporean women was conducted to obtain information on women’s mobile phone usage, experiences of health information seeking, and appraisals of using mobile phones to seek health information. Results showed that young, middle-aged, and older women exhibited distinct mobile phone usage behaviors, health information-seeking patterns, and assessments of mobile health information seeking. Factors that accounted for their mobile information-seeking intention also varied. Data reported in this study provide insights into mobile health interventions in the future