Quality issues facing Malaysian higher learning institutions: a case study of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

This chapter analyses the extent to which Malaysian universities have responded to the pressing call for enhancing institutional quality and advocating academic excellence. Malaysian universities have been challenged by both internal and external assessments that suggest that they are not on a par with their international competitors. As a result there have been great demands for an urgent remedy. This chapter explores the progress that has been made in responding to those demands and the limitations that have been encountered. In so doing it provides a case study that focuses on engineering programmes in particular. The chapter is intended to answer the question: can institutional quality improvement deliver the human capital that Malaysia needs in order to remain globally competitive

Near Real-Time Data Labeling Using a Depth Sensor for EMG Based Prosthetic Arms

Recognizing sEMG (Surface Electromyography) signals belonging to a particular action (e.g., lateral arm raise) automatically is a challenging task as EMG signals themselves have a lot of variation even for the same action due to several factors. To overcome this issue, there should be a proper separation which indicates similar patterns repetitively for a particular action in raw signals. A repetitive pattern is not always matched because the same action can be carried out with different time duration. Thus, a depth sensor (Kinect) was used for pattern identification where three joint angles were recording continuously which is clearly separable for a particular action while recording sEMG signals. To Segment out a repetitive pattern in angle data, MDTW (Moving Dynamic Time Warping) approach is introduced. This technique is allowed to retrieve suspected motion of interest from raw signals. MDTW based on DTW algorithm, but it will be moving through the whole dataset in a pre-defined manner which is capable of picking up almost all the suspected segments inside a given dataset an optimal way. Elevated bicep curl and lateral arm raise movements are taken as motions of interest to show how the proposed technique can be employed to achieve auto identification and labelling. The full implementation is available at https://github.com/GPrathap/OpenBCIPytho

Feed Formulation Based on Local Feed Resources and Its Effects on Nutritional-Related Blood Profile in Breeder Goats

A comparative study was conducted to determine the nutrient composition of different feed formulations and its effect on nutritional related blood profile in breeder goats. Eighteen female adult goats, Capra aegagrus hircus (Boer cross) were selected and allocated into three different groups (n = 6) and assigned according to different feed formulations. Blood sampling was conducted before and after fourth weeks of feeding trial and analysed for selected parameters. Proximate analysis of diets was done and revealed comparable value of crude protein and crude fat. Glucose, total protein and calcium level in serum showed significant difference between groups (P-value 0.05) while cholesterol and fatty acid showed no significant difference (P-value 0.05). Fatty acid analysis of feed and serum showed polyunsaturated fatty acid was higher than satureated fatty acid. Overall, diet 3 shows the highest value of all blood parameters analysed in this study. Hence, it is very important to provide animal with nutrient according to production stages as sufficent protein and energy will improve the animal performance in terms breeding efficacy and quality of animal products. This study indicates that different feed formulation affects certain nutritional related blood profile in goat

Maternal use of drug substrates of placental transporters and the effect of transporter-mediated drug interactions on the risk of congenital anomalies

Background A number of transporter proteins are expressed in the placenta, and they facilitate the placental transfer of drugs. The inhibition of P-glycoprotein (P-gp) was previously found to be associated with an increase in the risk of congenital anomalies caused by drug substrates of this transporter. We now explore the role of other placental transporter proteins. Methods A population-based case-referent study was performed using cases with congenital anomalies (N = 5,131) from EUROCAT Northern Netherlands, a registry of congenital anomalies. The referent population (N = 31,055) was selected from the pregnancy IADB. nl, a pharmacy prescription database. Results Ten placental transporters known to have comparable expression levels in the placenta to that of P-gp, were selected in this study. In total, 147 drugs were identified to be substrates, inhibitors or inducers, of these transporters. Fifty-eight of these drugs were used by at least one mother in our cases or referent population, and 28 were used in both. The highest user rate was observed for the substrates of multidrug resistance-associated protein 1, mainly folic acid (6% of cases, 8% of referents), and breast cancer resistance protein, mainly nitrofurantoin (2.3% of cases, 2.9% of referents). In contrast to P-gp, drug interactions involving substrates of these transporters did not have a significant effect on the risk of congenital anomalies. Conclusions Some of the drugs which are substrates or inhibitors of placental transporters were commonly used during pregnancy. No significant effect of transporter inhibition was found on fetal drug exposure, possibly due to a limited number of exposures

Application of Folin-Ciocalteau colorimetric method in the determination of total tannin in maize and soybean food products

Yellow maize (Zea mays L.) and soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.) are local raw materials used in the formulation of complementary foods in Nigeria. The presence of antinutritional factors such as tannins in them could disrupt the nutritional status in infants and young children, thus leading to malnutrition. However, data on the total tannin contents in maize, soybean, and their products remain limited. This could be due to the lack of a fast, accurate, and inexpensive analytical method for tannin determination. The present work thus evaluated the Folin-Ciocalteu (FC) assay for the accurate quantification of total tannin from yellow maize, soybean, and their products. Techniques including soaking, dehulling, oven-drying, boiling, and frying were used to process the raw materials, prior to grinding and subsequent formulation of their products. The FC method was validated to quantify the total tannin contents from extracts of tested samples by ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectrophotometry. The original extracts from the tested samples, and external standards from tannic acid and total phenolics (µg/µL) were used for method validation. The method validation showed that the instrumental response to standard tannic acid and the investigated analytes were specific, linear (R2 = 0.998), precise (% CV < 20%), and accurate (recovery = 91%). The limits of detection (LOD) and limits of quantification (LOQ) were 0.03 and 0.09 µg/µL, respectively. The validation complied with the requirements to ensure the reliability of the results. The combined processing techniques were also effective in reducing the total tannin content of maize (0.213 to 0.041% TAE) and soybean (0.257 to 0.064% TAE) by 81 and 75%, respectively. The present work demonstrated the suitability of the FC method as an analytical tool for the quantification of total tannin from plant-based food products

Study on adhesion strength of TiN coated biomedical Ti-13Zr-13Nb alloy

One of the crucial factors which determine the success of coated implantation and stability in the long run is the strength of adhesion between the coating and substrate. After implantation, a weakly adhered coating may delaminate and this might seriously restrict the implant’s effectiveness and longevity. Based on past studies, the quality of TiN coating is directly influenced by the process parameters. The objective of this research is to evaluate the effect of N2 gas flow rate on adhesion strength of biomedical grade Ti-13Zr-13Nb alloy. In this research, N2 gas flow rate of 100, 200 and 300 sccm were varied while the other parameters (substrate temperature and bias voltage) were fixed. The scratch testing method was used to examine the adhesion strength of the TiN coating. This research used the calibrated optical images to verify the total coating failures on the scratched coated samples. The results indicated that the micro droplet form on the TiN coating decreases as the flow rate of the N2 gas increases. In contrast, the TiN coating’s adhesion strength increases with the increase of N2 gas flow rate. It can be concluded that N2 gas flow rate was significant factor in improving the coating properties of TiN on Ti-13Zr-13Nb alloy

The effects of dietary supplementation of methanolic extracts of herbal medicine on haematological variable of red hybrid tilapia (Oreochromis sp.)

The most common strategy to treat in aquaculture disease is the use of antibiotics, however, such utilization has been accounted to have antagonistic impacts like accumulation of drugs in tissues, development of drug resistance and immunosuppression. One of the most promising methods of controlling diseases in aquaculture is strengthening the defence mechanisms through therapeutic administration. Vitex trifolia, Strobilanthes crispus, and Aloe vera have been reported to have better antimicrobial activity in vitro against Streptococcus agalactiae. However, there is no report on the application of the extracts on the treatment of Oreochromis sp. The objective of the study was to assess the effectiveness of diet supplementation of selected plant extract for 14 days as disease treatment. In red blood cell (RBC), haemoglobin (Hb), mean corpuscular volume (MCV), white blood cell (WBC), alanine transaminase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) showed significant differences between treatment and control. RBC, Hb and WBC levels of the infected group were significantly higher (P<0.05) than those of the control group indicating improve defence system in the fish fed with V. trifolia, S. crispus, and A. vera. These results suggested that of methanolic mixed herbal to applying S. agalactiae infected Oreochromis sp had a synergistic restorative effect on the haematological variables

Feed formulation based on local feed resources and its effects on nutritional-related blood profile in breeder goats

A comparative study was conducted to determine the nutrient composition of different feed formulations and its effect on nutritional related blood profile in breeder goats. Eighteen female adult goats, Capra aegagrus hircus (Boer cross) were selected and allocated into three different groups (n = 6) and assigned according to different feed formulations. Blood sampling was conducted before and after fourth weeks of feeding trial and analysed for selected parameters. Proximate analysis of diets was done and revealed comparable value of crude protein and crude fat. Glucose, total protein and calcium level in serum showed significant difference between groups (P-value 0.05). Fatty acid analysis of feed and serum showed polyunsaturated fatty acid was higher than satureated fatty acid. Overall, diet 3 shows the highest value of all blood parameters analysed in this study. Hence, it is very important to provide animal with nutrient according to production stages as sufficent protein and energy will improve the animal performance in terms breeding efficacy and quality of animal products. This study indicates that different feed formulation affects certain nutritional related blood profile in goat