Management of waqf rental by SRCs in Malaysia / Mohd Afandi Mat Rani …[et al.]

Previous studies revealed several issues relating to the leasing of waqf properties in the aspects of the concepts and rulings, lease assessment rate, leasing contract and agreement. The overall management and administration of waqf property by State Religious Councils (SRC) are not yet discussed satisfactorily. This study therefore explored the practice of leasing of waqf properties by SRCs in Malaysia. Data and information for this study were collected through interviews and documented reports. Data were analysed based on inductive and deductive method. The study focused mainly on problems in the implementation and practice of waqf rental in Malaysia. The study found that there are still many shortcomings that the SRCs need to investigate seriously. It is proposed that a detailed study on waqf property management should be conducted for the sake of the ummah

Effects of sialic acid from edible bird nest on cell viability associated with brain cognitive performance in mice

Background: Edible bird nest (EBN) is a natural food product rich in glycoprotein such as sialic acid, which has been reported to improve brain functions. The EBN is widely consumed due to its higher nutritional contents and antioxidant status; however, an interaction of EBN on brain cell metabolic activity and viability are still unclear. Objective: The objectives of this study were to identify the effect of sialic acid from EBN on the cell viability and to determine the appropriate concentration of sialic acid on cognitive performance in mice. Materials and Methods: The viability of pheochromocytoma and neuroblastoma cell lines were tested using the 3-[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay. For in vivo study, 7-week-old female BALB/c mice were randomly assigned into four treatment groups and were treated with sialic acid for 21 days. At day 22, all mice were tested on cognitive performance by Y-maze test. Results: Treatment concentration of sialic acid extract and sialic acid standard at 60 μg/mL (0.6 ppm) increased cell viability and showed no cytotoxicity effects in pheochromocytoma and neuroblastoma cell lines. In addition, an administration of higher dose of sialic acid at 0.6 ppm in animals improved Y-maze test performance, which they showed significantly higher number of entries and time spent in the novel arm. Conclusion: Thus, the current study shows that the sialic acid extract at 0.6 ppm improved brain cognitive performance in mice associated with an increased viability of pheochromocytoma and neuroblastoma cell lines

Fuzzy simple hierarchy analysis for supplier selection decision / Zamali Tarmudi...[et al.]

Supplier selection problem usually involves so many ambiguity components and multi-criteria factors consideration towards achieving more precision decision. Different researchers have various approaches to overcome such problem concern. In this paper, the Fuzzy Simple Hierarchy Analysis (FSHA) was proposed to deal with the ambiguity or vague multi-criteria evaluation process which commonly exists in supplier selection decision. The technique is equipped with the linguistic variables, the so-called linguistic hedges (i.e., dilation and concentration) for decision-makers (DMs) to evaluate the criterion with ease and direct to the attributes based on their expertise and/or experiences. To show the applicability and practicality of the proposed method, the related hypothetical example was adopted. The calculation results show that the proposed method is highly beneficial and offers a unique advantage to deal with the diversified and too ill-defined in terms of input criterion. Therefore, a simple and systematic manner in evaluation process can be derived from the proposed method without loss any information

The potential use of sialic acid from edible bird’s nest to attenuate mitochondrial dysfunction by in vitro study

Edible bird’s nest (EBN) is one of the expensive functional foods in herbal medicine. One of the major glyconutrients in EBN is sialic acid, which has a beneficial effect on neurological and intellectual capability in mammals. The aims of this research were to study the effects of sialic acid from EBN on cell viability and to determine its effect on mitochondria membrane potential (MtMP) in Caco-2, SK-N-MC, SH-SY5Y, and PC-12 cell lines. Fourteen samples of raw EBN were collected from four different states in Malaysia. The confluency of the epithelial monolayers measurement of the tight junction for all the cell lines was determined using transepithelial electrical resistance (TEER), and the sialic acid uptake study in cell lines was determined by using ultra-high performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC). The MTT assay was conducted for cell viability study. The MtMP in cell lines was determined using the Mito Probe JC-1 Assay by flow cytometer analysis. We have recorded a statistically significant difference between the uptake of sialic acid from EBN and the standard solution. A higher amount of sialic acid was absorbed by the cells from extract of EBN compared to the standard solution. The amounts of sialic acid uptake in Caco-2, SK-N-MC, SH-SY5Y, and PC-12 cell lines were (0.019 ± 0.001), (0.034 ± 0.006), (0.021 ± 0.002), and (0.025 ± 0.000) µmol/L, respectively. The MTT results indicated that the concentration of sialic acid increased the cell viability and showed no cytotoxicity effects on cell lines when they were exposed to the sialic acid extract and sialic acid standard at all the tested concentrations. The number of active mitochondria was found to be significantly higher in SH-SY5Y cell lines with a 195% increase when treated with sialic acid from EBN. Although many researchers around the globe use SHSY5Y and SK-N-MC for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) study, based on our finding, SH-SY5Y was found to be the most suitable cell line for AD study by in vitro works where it has a known relationship with mitochondrial dysfunction

Development of five port reflectometer for reflection based sensing system

Five-Port Reflectometer is a microwave passivedevice where it implements the six-port algorithm to measure the complex reflection coefficient of material under test (MUT) through reflection on interface between MUT and microwave sensor. Initially, the Six-Port Reflectometer (SPR) was introduced by Engen in 1977 and major component used insix-port technique was designed in many types. When Riblet and Hanssonproposed ring junction with 5 ports only on 1981. Six ports ring junction has been reduced to five ports. In this paper, a dual frequency five ports ring junction circuit was designed, simulated and fabricated for reflection based sensing system. The fabricated five port ring junction is operating at frequencies of 0.64 GHz and 2.42 GHz. The measured result had good agreement with the simulated results for dual frequencies in terms of magnitude and phase

Different maturities and varieties of coconut (Cocos nucifera L.) flesh as fat replacers in reduced-fat meatballs

Meatball is a popular meat product in Malaysia but it has high-fat content that could often bring health problems such as non-communicable diseases. This study aimed to produce replaced-fat meatballs using coconut flesh with three different varieties (i.e. MAWA, MYD, and Pandan) at two levels of maturities (young and matured). Meatballs with animal fat were used as control. All samples were analysed for the proximate composition, cooking yield, water holding capacity (WHC), texture and sensory properties. Two-way ANOVA was conducted to determine the interaction between the maturity and variety of the coconut for all parameters with post-hoc analysis to observe the significant difference (p<0.05). The maturity and variety of coconuts showed significant interactions (p<0.05) in affecting most of the meatball properties. Young coconuts were superior to mature coconut with better cooking yield (p<0.05), texture and sensory properties. Meatballs with young Pandan had the highest moisture content (p<0.05) (71.78%), low fat (3.56%) (p<0.05), and overall sensory acceptance. Meatballs with young MYD had low fat content (3.50%) (p<0.05), high WHC (52.11) (p<0.05), high redness (6.09) (p<0.05) with a high score of the colour (7.13) taste (7.17), texture (7.30) and overall acceptability (7.03) for the sensory properties. Since both young Pandan and young MYD managed to reduce the fat content in the meatballs as compared to the control sample and other treatments while maintaining the quality characteristics of the meatballs, both can be concluded to have potential as the fat replacers in the production of reduced-fat meatballs

Impact of opioid-free analgesia on pain severity and patient satisfaction after discharge from surgery: multispecialty, prospective cohort study in 25 countries

Background: Balancing opioid stewardship and the need for adequate analgesia following discharge after surgery is challenging. This study aimed to compare the outcomes for patients discharged with opioid versus opioid-free analgesia after common surgical procedures.Methods: This international, multicentre, prospective cohort study collected data from patients undergoing common acute and elective general surgical, urological, gynaecological, and orthopaedic procedures. The primary outcomes were patient-reported time in severe pain measured on a numerical analogue scale from 0 to 100% and patient-reported satisfaction with pain relief during the first week following discharge. Data were collected by in-hospital chart review and patient telephone interview 1 week after discharge.Results: The study recruited 4273 patients from 144 centres in 25 countries; 1311 patients (30.7%) were prescribed opioid analgesia at discharge. Patients reported being in severe pain for 10 (i.q.r. 1-30)% of the first week after discharge and rated satisfaction with analgesia as 90 (i.q.r. 80-100) of 100. After adjustment for confounders, opioid analgesia on discharge was independently associated with increased pain severity (risk ratio 1.52, 95% c.i. 1.31 to 1.76; P &lt; 0.001) and re-presentation to healthcare providers owing to side-effects of medication (OR 2.38, 95% c.i. 1.36 to 4.17; P = 0.004), but not with satisfaction with analgesia (beta coefficient 0.92, 95% c.i. -1.52 to 3.36; P = 0.468) compared with opioid-free analgesia. Although opioid prescribing varied greatly between high-income and low- and middle-income countries, patient-reported outcomes did not.Conclusion: Opioid analgesia prescription on surgical discharge is associated with a higher risk of re-presentation owing to side-effects of medication and increased patient-reported pain, but not with changes in patient-reported satisfaction. Opioid-free discharge analgesia should be adopted routinely

The occurance of oil palm weevil, elaeidobius kamerunicus (order coleoptera) and the productivity of oil palm, elaeis guineensis (Family arecaceae)

Malaysia has the most developed oil palm industry in the world and this affects the overall agriculture development of the country. The oil palm tree in Malaysia is Elaeis guineensis (African oil palm) and the main pollinating agent is Elaeidobius kamerunicus (oil palm weevil). This study was conducted in Bangka Semong oil palm plantation, Kota Samarahan, Sarawak to verify the occurrence of E. kamerunicus in response to the productivity of oil palm. The result from this study showed that there is a low occurrence of male flower inflorescences that anthesis (<1%) from 660 oil palm trees sampled. The occurrence of oil palm weevil is higher in block F compared to A (Mann-Whitney U test). The numbers of fresh fruit bunches sampled were significant different comparing four different blocks (one-way ANOVA). The numbers of weevil presence is positively correlated with the numbers of spikelet based on Spearman Rank Correlation test. However, there are no linear relationships between the presence of weevils and the number of fresh fruit bunches or the average diameter of fruit bunches. The findings of this study could provide the useful information on the relationship between the occurrence of oil palm weevil and productivity. In addition, this study can serve as reference for future studies and knowledge on the biology of these insects which is vital for better management of oil palm yields

Different maturities and varieties of coconut (Cocos nucifera L.) flesh as fat replacers in reduced-fat meatballs

Meatball is a popular meat product in Malaysia but it has high-fat content that could often bring health problems such as non-communicable diseases. This study aimed to produce replaced-fat meatballs using coconut flesh with three different varieties (i.e. MAWA, MYD, and Pandan) at two levels of maturities (young and matured). Meatballs with animal fat were used as control. All samples were analysed for the proximate composition, cooking yield, water holding capacity (WHC), texture and sensory properties. Two-way ANOVA was conducted to determine the interaction between the maturity and variety of the coconut for all parameters with post-hoc analysis to observe the significant difference (p<0.05). The maturity and variety of coconuts showed significant interactions (p<0.05) in affecting most of the meatball properties. Young coconuts were superior to mature coconut with better cooking yield (p<0.05), texture and sensory properties. Meatballs with young Pandan had the highest moisture content (p<0.05) (71.78%), low fat (3.56%) (p<0.05), and overall sensory acceptance. Meatballs with young MYD had low fat content (3.50%) (p<0.05), high WHC (52.11) (p<0.05), high redness (6.09) (p<0.05) with a high score of the colour (7.13) taste (7.17), texture (7.30) and overall acceptability (7.03) for the sensory properties. Since both young Pandan and young MYD managed to reduce the fat content in the meatballs as compared to the control sample and other treatments while maintaining the quality characteristics of the meatballs, both can be concluded to have potential as the fat replacers in the production of reduced-fat meatballs