Effect of lactic fermentation on the antioxidant capacity of Malaysian herbal teas

This study evaluated and compared the antioxidant capacity between freshly prepared and lactic fermented Malaysian herbal teas. Herbal teas are rich in antioxidants. Fermentation has been known to be the oldest and cost effective method with the ability to preserve or improve food nutritional qualities. Information on the antioxidant capacity of lactic fermented food or beverage is still lacking. Hence, the objective of this study is to determine the changes in the antioxidant properties of Malaysian herbal teas after being subjected to lactic fermentation. Commercially available local herbal teas were used for this study. Herbal teas such as “Allspice”, “Scaphium”, “Gora” and “Cinnamon” were purchased from the local store in Malaysia and were subjected to 24-hour lactic fermentation. Lactic fermented herbal teas were analyzed for their total phenolic, total flavonoid and antioxidant properties via DPPH, FRAP, and β-carotene linoleate bleaching assay. All lactic fermented herbal teas exhibited higher phenolic contents, flavonoid contents and antioxidant properties compared to the freshly-prepared herbal teas with majority showing significant changes (p < 0.05) in FRAP and β-carotene bleaching assay. Lactic fermented herbal teas also showed an increase in antioxidant capacity in DPPH assay, however non-significant changes were observed

Adverse Effects of Condenser Cooling Seawater Temperature, Fouling, and Salinity on the Output Power and Thermal Efficiency of BWR NNPs

Increasing the thermal efficiency in newly designed power stations is a priority. Keeping the efficiency in existed plants close to the rated one is of paramount importance. This research contributes to investigating the adverse effects of changes in condenser seawater coolant characteristics, (temperature, fouling, and salinity), on the thermal performance of a Boiling Water Reactor Nuclear Power Plant (BWR) NPP. A mathematical model is developed to relate seawater cooling temperature, fouling, and salinity to output power and thermal efficiency. The model also explains the impact of the condenser performance on power and efficiency. The thermal efficiency of the considered BWR NPP is reduced by 2.26% for a combined extreme increases in the condenser cooling seawater temperature, fouling factor of seawater and treated boiler feed water, and salinity by 10 °C, 0.0002, 0.00001 m2K/W, and 100 g/kg, respectively. A rise in the condenser efficiency from 40 - 100 % results in an increase in the output power by 7.049%, and the thermal efficiency increases by about 2.62%. Conclusions are useful for reactor’s desig

Critical Analysis of Material Consumption and Cost Reduction Techniques for the Apparel Cutting Processes

Revenues generation in the garment industry is synonymous with material consumption. This study thus analysed material consumption and cost reduction techniques in the Tanzanian garment industry. The research employed quantitative (experimentation) and qualitative approaches (document review and observation technique) in the apparel cutting processes. Experimental results of material consumption from ten tests averaged efficiency of 78.67%, the wasted pieces (19.2%), and unnoticed waste (2.03%). Essential considerations to reduce material waste include: digitalising the fabric cutting processes; providing workers training; deploying appropriate practices in the cutting room (e.g. pattern engineering and pattern accuracy); considering the quality of the procured fabric and fabric efficiencies relative to different human body shapes and proportions; and considering the separation process rather than extending facings, splitting substantial components, slight reductions in a flare, and seam displacements. The study implies that apparel enterprises can benchmark their actual material consumption circa 50-70% of their total garment manufacturing costs. Keywords: Material waste, Garment industry, Fabric losses, Cost reduction techniques, Small and medium-sized enterprises

Experimental study on mechanical properties of elastomer containing carbon nanotubes

Recently, elastomer reinforced with nanofillers have attracted great interest due to their properties. The incorporation of carbon nanotubes into elastomers improves significantly their mechanical and dynamic mechanical properties. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were used to prepare natural rubber (NR) nanocomposites. Four different NR compounds containing CNTs were investigated. Compounds were prepared by a two roll mill with conventional and efficient cure systems. The properties of the nanocomposites such as tensile strength, tensile modulus and elongation at break were studied. Results obtained show that a smaller amount of CNTs can effectively improve the performance of NR. NR with 1% CNTs composites exhibited better tensile strength compared to other compounds. The study also indicated that filler materials effect on the mechanical properties of the blends

A Proposed Approach for Predicting Liver Disease

One of the main challenges is to exploit recent technologies in a way that is able to preserve human life. Liver disease is one of the most influencing and largest organs of the human body, which has a great impact on human life, according to the massive number of deaths of this disease. So, it is important to predict liver disease with the maximum possible accuracy, as the current problem is the weak accuracy of predicting liver disease and not predicting the severity of the liver disease. Thus, through this paper, the aim behind our proposed work is to enhance the performance of predicting liver disease, predicting the severity of liver disease, and then building a recommender system that recommends the appropriate medical pieces of advice according to the patients condition using machine learning algorithms and tools like a GridsearchCV tool. Indian liver patients dataset (ILPD) and the hepatitis C virus (HCV) dataset are our training datasets. Hence, the proposed solution enhanced the prediction accuracy of liver disease by 80% and 77 % for extra tree and KNN algorithms when using ILPD datasets. And when using the HCV dataset, the accuracy is achieved by the Gradient boosting algorithm and Logistic Regression by 96% for predicting liver disease, disease severity, and patient recommendation system model

Constructivist Approach to Learning Activity: The Case of Junior Secondary Students’ Misconception on the Three States of Matter in Basic Science, Nigeria

The paper focuses on the misconceptions of students on the states of matter and suggests the need for scienceteachers to adopt the 7E model in order to reduce these misconceptions and promote students’ learning. The paperdevelops and proposes a learning activity based on a systematic review of scholarly articles, thesis, and curriculumthat investigated the subject matter. The 7E model consists of phases such as elicit, engage, explore, explain,elaborate, evaluate, and extend. The researchers prepared a specific lesson plan on identifying the properties andstructures of states of matter using the 7Es learning cycle specifying the teacher’s activities and the correspondingstudents’ activities. The 7E model is recommended for teaching states of matter based on studies that found theapproach to be effective in helping students eliminate scientific misconception and improve understanding

The concept of Itqan and its role in Muslim professional life

Professional Ethics which concern one's conduct of behavior and practice when carrying out professional work needs Itqan. The word itqan is an Arabic word which has a close meaning to the English word pelfection. Islam as a perfect and comprehensive religion set the bases for quality work. The order, discipline, accuracy, beautiful work, well thought out tasks and justice are all part of quality Islamic work and performance. Quran as the final divine revelation from Allah provides a code of conduct for every believer and is the commandment and warrant for him to be committed in hislher work and be sincere about it [5]. Adhering to the Quranic teachings on itqan equips the Muslim professional an effective approach to problem-solving preceded by steady and thorough examination before undertaking an activity and enables the Muslim to tackle problems in an orderly and disciplined manner. This prompts us to the institutionalization of Codes of Conduct and Codes of Practice which are common in many professional bodies for their members to observe. This paper attempts to investigate the importance of this concept and its role in the Muslim life

Damage assessment of high-rise reinforced concrete buildings in peninsular Malaysia subjected to Ranau earthquake

This paper shows the analysis of high reinforced concrete buildings in Ranau that have experienced low intensity intensity earthquakes. This study refers to the performance of five (5) high rise reinforced concrete frame when subjected to a variation of low earthquake intensity analysis with 5% damping ground motion measurements. The IDARC software is used to study structures through nonlinear dynamic analysis. Beam-column points are examined to determine damage to the index and to build damage levels subject to varying seismic load. Result shows the first yielding occurred at 4.82 seconds for the beam element at when 0.05g load applied. Based on the result, all buildings cannot withstand seismic load when goes up to 0.2 ground acceleration. It may have arisen that the building is categorized to the extent of the major damage where there is structural affect and structural affect up to 0.15g intensity

Decolorization of reactive red-120 by using macrofungus and microfungus

The objectives of the study are to investigate the growth of Aspergillus sp. and Pleurotus sp. and decolorization of Reactive Red – 120 in Minimal Salt Solution (MSS). The growths of fungi were measured every 3 days by using spectrophotometer at 540 nm. For decolorization, the fungi were cultured in 10 mg/L and 20 mg/L of dye concentration. Furthermore, pH of 5, 7 and 9 were used to determine the optimum pH for dye decolorization. The 10 mg/L concentration and pH 5 were chosen as optimum conditions with the maximum performance of reactive dye decolorization ranging of 60%-70%. The Aspergillus sp. was more efficient todecolourize synthetic dye Reactive Red – 120 when compared to Pleurotus sp. This study contributes to the knowledge of mycoremediation and product of mycoremediation kit that could be developed and applied in industry.Keywords: aspergillus sp.; dye decolorization; mycoremediation; pleurotus sp.; reactive red – 120; synthetic dye