THE EFFECT OF STOCK DENSITY OF GOLDEN-MOUTH TURBAN (Turbo chysostomus, L.) ON THEIR SURVIVAL AND GROWTH UNDER AIR WATER LIFT SYSTEM

Golden-mouth turban (Turbo chrysostumus, L.) belongs to the phylum of molluscs that inhabits coral reef ecosystem in group. Golden-mouth turban normally uses algae for their food. Study on survival and growth of the juvenile golden-mouth turban focussing on different density under air water lift sys-tem is still limited. This study was conducted on 7 January – 6 May,  2015, in a laboratory to observe the effect of different density on the survival and growth of golden-mouth turban under air water lift system. Based on the analyses of variance (ANOVA), there was no significant different (P>0.05) on mortality rate for different stock density treatment (5 ind., 10 ind., 15 ind., and 20 ind. each in 10 liter water volume). However, based on growth rate, the density of 5 individuals produced the highest monthly growth rate of 1.88 mm/month of shell height, 1.18 mm/month of mouth opening, and 1.1 gr/month of wet weight with the highest daily mean food absorption of 91.55 %. For all treatment, the correlation of shell height and wet body weight exhibited a similar growth pattrern i.e., allometry minor (b<3). Ketwords: Survival, growth, golden-mouth turban (Turbo chrysostumus), stocking density, air water lift system

PRESSURE CHANGES IN MEDIA MAINTENANCE OF SHELL PEARL (Pinctada maxima) LARVAE ON PROTEASE ENZYME ACTIVITY ENHANCING GROWTH AND SURVIVAL

The growth of pearl shell oyster is influenced by nacre availability consisting of calcium carbonate. Nacre is identified as a protein metabolism product in pearl oyster. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of media level pressure in larva rearing tank on protease enzyme activity to promote growth performance and survival rate of Pinctada maxima larvae. The research was conducted from March 6th to May 7th 2015 in laboratorium of Mataram Marine Bio Industry Technical Implementation Unit, LIPI. “Chi-Square” test showed that survival rate of larvae at Umbo-veliger stage (planktonic) was significantly affected by water level pressure within 99% with ratio 1.00:1.61. In contrast, treatment with no water level pressure also significantly influenced the survival rate of larvae in spat stage within 99% confidence with ratio of 1.00:1.93. The highest average survival rate of larvae in umbo-veliger and spat stages were 13.10% and 2.60%, respectively. The effect of protease enzyme activity on calcium carbonate production to produce oyster shell are also discussed in this paper. Keywords:  water level pressure, protease enzyme activity, survival rate, growth, larvae, P. maxim

Disparity refinement process based on RANSAC plane fitting for machine vision applications

This paper presents a new disparity map refinement process for stereo matching algorithm and the refinement stage that will be implemented by partitioning the place or mask image and re-projected to the preliminary disparity images. This process is to refine the noise and sparse of initial disparity map from weakly textured. The plane fitting algorithm is using Random Sample Consensus. Two well-known stereo matching algorithms have been tested on this framework with different filtering techniques applied at disparity refinement stage. The framework is evaluated on three Middlebury datasets. The experimental results show that the proposed framework produces better-quality and more accurate than normal flow state-of-the-art stereo matching algorithms. The performance evaluations are based on standard image quality metrics i.e. structural similarity index measure, peak signal-to-noise ratio and mean square error.Keywords: computer vision; disparity refinement; image segmentation; RANSAC; stereo.

Kepuasan pelancong dengan Melaka sebagai destinasi pelancongan lestari: satu kajian persepsi

Pelancongan lestari bertujuan mengurangkan kesan ekologi dan sosiobudaya kepada masyarakat setempat. Kini, pelancongan lestari semakin popular dan menjadi amalan kebanyakan negara di dunia. Persepsi pelancong terhadap pelancongan lestari juga boleh memberi impak terhadap sesuatu destinasi pelancongan. Justeru, objektif utama artikel ini adalah untuk mengenal pasti persepsi serta tahap kepuasan pelancong terhadap negeri Melaka sebagai destinasi pelancongan lestari. Kaedah survei menggunakan borang kaji selidik diaplikasikan dalam kajian ini. Seramai 735 orang pelancong terlibat dengan kajian ini dan mereka dipilih berdasarkan kaedah persampelan mudah bertujuan. Tahap kepuasan pelancong diukur menggunakan skala Likert, iaitu 1 sangat tidak berpuas hati dan 5 sangat berpuas hati. Hasil kajian mendapati majority (70 peratus) pelancong mempunyai tahap kepuasan yang tinggi terhadap Melaka sebagai destinasi pelancongan lestari

A cross-sectional study of hypertensive outpatients to determine the necessity of asking about erectile dysfunction symptoms.

Background: Erectile dysfunction (ED) is common amongst hypertensive men. Hypertensive patients often attribute it to antihypertensive drugs, although conflicting evidence linking ED with antihypertensive medication exists. The objectives were to determine the prevalence and severity of ED, the type of treatment sought, and the risk factors for ED among hypertensive men. Method: A cross-sectional survey conducted over six months from June to November 2008 at University Kebangsaan, Malaysia Medical Centre, Kuala Lumpur. Inclusion criteria included hypertensive men above 30 years old, with essential hypertension for at least three months. We excluded diabetics, a history of pelvic surgery and known psychiatric illnesses. The International Index of Erectile Function-5 (IIEF-5) assessment was used with a standardised checklist. We analysed data using SPSS, to assess the prevalence and association of ED with selected variables. Results: Of the 200 participants screened, 35.5% perceived that they had ED. However, prevalence increased to 69% after screening using an IIEF-5 questionnaire. Forty-eight per cent were reported to have moderate-tosevere ED. ED was significantly associated with age (p-value = 0.0001). No significant associations were found between ED and the duration of the hypertension (p-value = 0.505), hypertension control (p-value > 0.05), smoking status (p-value = 0.858) or number of antihypertensive medication taken (p-value > 0.05). Among perceived and proven ED patients, traditional medicines were mainly used for treatment (18.3% and 17.2% respectively). Conclusion: ED is a problem among hypertensive patients. It was associated with age but not with hypertension duration, control, number of antihypertensive drugs or smoking. Physicians should enquire about ED symptoms in hypertensive patients, as most of them resorted to self-treatment with traditional medicines

Global Retinoblastoma Presentation and Analysis by National Income Level

Importance: Early diagnosis of retinoblastoma, the most common intraocular cancer, can save both a child's life and vision. However, anecdotal evidence suggests that many children across the world are diagnosed late. To our knowledge, the clinical presentation of retinoblastoma has never been assessed on a global scale. Objectives: To report the retinoblastoma stage at diagnosis in patients across the world during a single year, to investigate associations between clinical variables and national income level, and to investigate risk factors for advanced disease at diagnosis. Design, Setting, and Participants: A total of 278 retinoblastoma treatment centers were recruited from June 2017 through December 2018 to participate in a cross-sectional analysis of treatment-naive patients with retinoblastoma who were diagnosed in 2017. Main Outcomes and Measures: Age at presentation, proportion of familial history of retinoblastoma, and tumor stage and metastasis. Results: The cohort included 4351 new patients from 153 countries; the median age at diagnosis was 30.5 (interquartile range, 18.3-45.9) months, and 1976 patients (45.4) were female. Most patients (n = 3685 84.7%) were from low-and middle-income countries (LMICs). Globally, the most common indication for referral was leukocoria (n = 2638 62.8%), followed by strabismus (n = 429 10.2%) and proptosis (n = 309 7.4%). Patients from high-income countries (HICs) were diagnosed at a median age of 14.1 months, with 656 of 666 (98.5%) patients having intraocular retinoblastoma and 2 (0.3%) having metastasis. Patients from low-income countries were diagnosed at a median age of 30.5 months, with 256 of 521 (49.1%) having extraocular retinoblastoma and 94 of 498 (18.9%) having metastasis. Lower national income level was associated with older presentation age, higher proportion of locally advanced disease and distant metastasis, and smaller proportion of familial history of retinoblastoma. Advanced disease at diagnosis was more common in LMICs even after adjusting for age (odds ratio for low-income countries vs upper-middle-income countries and HICs, 17.92 95% CI, 12.94-24.80, and for lower-middle-income countries vs upper-middle-income countries and HICs, 5.74 95% CI, 4.30-7.68). Conclusions and Relevance: This study is estimated to have included more than half of all new retinoblastoma cases worldwide in 2017. Children from LMICs, where the main global retinoblastoma burden lies, presented at an older age with more advanced disease and demonstrated a smaller proportion of familial history of retinoblastoma, likely because many do not reach a childbearing age. Given that retinoblastoma is curable, these data are concerning and mandate intervention at national and international levels. Further studies are needed to investigate factors, other than age at presentation, that may be associated with advanced disease in LMICs. © 2020 American Medical Association. All rights reserved

Development of brain signal processing interface software for Trackit-LabVIEW

There are many digital electroencephalography (EEG) acquisition systems available nowadays for researchers due to the demand in the brain signal research. The electroencephalography (EEG) acquisition systems varied on the specification, design and prices. One of the ambulatory amplifiers for acquisition is the Trackit from Lifelines Limited. Presently, the Trackit system is only available for clinical applications. In order to integrate from clinical applications to research capabilities, the Trackit has to be interfaced with software that be able to do the electroencephalography (EEG) signals processing. In our project, Lab VIEW is chosen as our software platform. Therefore, we have taken the initiative to developed the software for Trackit-Lab VIEW interfaced. In this paper, we have demonstrated that the acquired electroencephalography (EEG) signals obtained using TrackitLab VIEW software. Example of signal processing application on the raw electroencephalography (EEG) signals was shown in the results section

PRARANCANGAN PABRIK BIODIESEL DARI MIKROALGA DENGAN KAPASITAS 8.500 TON/TAHUN

This Biodiesel Plant will be established in Indramayu, West Java started in this year with the capacity 8500 tons/year. Begin with the microalgae cultivation process which is need at least 1 year to overcome the highly mass production. We need 382.5 liter of microalgae to be cultivated in the beginning. Total area needed is about 14.5 hectares, 90% of it is utilizing as cultivation area. To produce biodiesel, we use reactive distillation technology through 2 steps of heterogeneous reaction, esterification and transesterification. The raw materials are 39610.368 kg/hr of microalgae, 25936.86888 kg/hr of n-hexane as the solvent in extraction process, and 3341.9232 kg/hr of methanol. The utilities unit includes water at the rate of 56.0071 m 3 /ton of product and electricity at the rate of 28.4737 kW/ton of product. Based on economic analysis, the biodiesel plant has the following results: 1. Fixed Capital : Rp144,555,036,100.9 2. Working Capital : Rp27,770,748,480.07 3. Profit before taxes : Rp47,999,833,203.39 4. Profit after Taxes : Rp23,999,916,601.69 Feasibility Study Calculation Requirement ROI after Taxes 16.60% 11% minimum POT after Taxes 3.72 year 5 years maximum BEP 42.78 % 40-60% SDP 19.87% DCFRR 30.88% 18% minimum Based on the data above, the biodiesel plant from microalgae with capacity 8500 ton/year is potential to be established

Surface modification of polystyrene beads by ultraviolet/ozone treatment and its effect on gelatin coating

Problem statement: Polystyrene failed to provide any reactive functionality of surface hydrophilicity that is capable of binding proteins. It is known that polystyrene must be chemically modified to make its surface amenable to covalent crosslinking with protein. Approach: The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of UV/ozone treatment on gelatin coating. The surfaces of microsize polystyrene beads (150 μm) were modified by UV/ozone treatment system at different treatment time, ozone flow-rate and UV intensity was analyzed by Design expert software. The treated beads were characterized with ATR-FTIR analysis to determine the introduction of carbonyl (-C=O), carboxylic group (-COOH) and amide group (-CO-NH2) onto the polystyrene surface. Sample characterization was also carried out by SEM and densitometer. Gelatin immobilization was then preceded by incubating treated PS sample in gelatin solution and the total amount of gelatin coated on the modified surface was identified by Bradford assay. Results: The maximum amount of gelatin obtained was 63.75 μg mL-1 while the lowest amount obtained for untreated PS (9.947 μg mL-1). The introduction of carbonyl, hydroxyl and amide group on the polystyrene beads surface was confirmed by ATR-FTIR analysis and thus measures the importance of UV/ozone treatment. Conclusion: From the results, it has been found that time is the most significant factor to prepare samples for gelatin immobilization at reduced flow rate and at an increased Ultraviolet (UV) intensity in the ranges of study. © 2010 Science Publications