Biosugar production from oil palm mesocarp fiber (OPMF) using viscozyme

In this study, the performance of HNO3 and NaOH pretreatmentson oil palm mesocarp fiber (OPMF) was evaluated based on the residual carbohydrate. The best pretreatment condition was ascertained for reducing sugar and biosugar produced after saccharification with viscozyme. The pretreatment with 2 % (v/v) HNO3 improved cellulose concentration from 33.14 % to 60.0 %, while hemicellulose, lignin and ash were reduced by 25.59 %, 10.0 % and 25.9 % to 10.0 %, 5.33 % and 3.0 %, respectively. Enzymatic treatment using 1g solid loading, produce highest production in terms of arabinose 10.5 g/l, glucose (1.1 g/L) and xylose (0.42 g/L) was obtained under agitation. While for 10 grams solid loading, highest level of bio-sugar was obtained with arabinose (0.8 g/L) and glucose (1.6 g/L). FESEM-EDX and FTIR images before and after saccharification successfully showed the effect of enzymatic treatment on the mesocarp fiber

Identifying national security fundamentals in the big data of digital asymmetrical environment communication

This conceptualization article discusses the impact of technology to society from variousperspectives which relates on humanities aspect of social convention, hegemony, generation warfare and intelligence constructs.The narratives provide understandings of the current transition, emphasizing the changing need of intelligence protocols to understand the society in current technological advancement era. Intelligence output is detrimental as information is no longer secluded in this borderless communication spheres. The article narrates generation warfare intelligence in complex information system of digital asymmetrical environment in current generation warfare to digest the social implications and of technology to society and provides appropriate recommendations.Keywords: communication; generation warfare; hegemony; intelligence; society; socialconvention

Regionalization and harmonization in TVET

A transversal skill is one of the skills needed in every type of workplace setting. There is limited information about the perceptions of which transferable skills are needed in the workplace. The objective of this study is to explore the transferable skills among students and lecturers in TVET higher learning institutions in Indonesia and Malaysia. In the present study, transferable skills consist of communication skills, collaboration skills, problem-solving skills, entrepreneurship, and learning to learn skills. A qualitative research was conducted using survey. The five Likert scale questionnaire was distributed to lecturers and students from selected Malaysian and Indonesian universities who have bachelor program in engineering. Based on the analysis outcomes, it is clearly shown that Malaysian university engineering students yielded significantly higher scores on the perceptions of transferable skill acquisition in all measured components compared to their counterparts in Indonesia. Similar patterns of data distribution have been observed in Malaysian and Indonesian engineering students. Based on the lecturers’ perception, Malaysian and Indonesian Engineering Lecturers have comparable perceptions in the aspects of problem solving skills and entrepreneurship skills. In contrast, Malaysian university engineering lecturers gained significantly higher scores on the perception of communication skill, collaboration skill, and learning to learn skill compared to the Indonesian lecturers. The results indicate the need to increase transferable skills of both lecturers and students

Chemical constituents and lipoxygenase inhibitory activity of Piper stylosum Miq.

ABSTRACT. Chemical constituents and lipoxygenase inhibitory activity of the aerial part of Piper stylosum have been studied. Fractionation and purification of the extracts afforded five lignans, identified as yangambin (1), sesamin (2), syringaresinol (3), pinoresinol (4), and medioresinol (5), together with other constituents; 4-allyl resorcinol, β-sitosterol, β-sitostenone, taraxerol, vanilin, and vanilic acid. The structures of these compounds were established by analysis of their spectral data, as compared to that of reported compounds. The lipoxygenase inhibitory activity of the extracts and isolated lignans were also evaluated.               KEY WORDS: Piperaceae, Piper, Piper stylosum, Lignan, Lipoxygenase Bull. Chem. Soc. Ethiop. 2019, 33(3), 587-592.   DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/bcse.v33i3.1

Evaluation of Double Loop IC Module for Inductive Coupled Fed RFID Tag Wire Embedded Antenna

This paper presents an evaluation on double loop integrated circuit module for inductive couple fed RFID Tag. The inductive couple feed gives advantage especially for flexible wire embedded antenna in controlling the manufacturing varians as the chip is not directly connected to the antenna. Thus electrostatic discharged effect and manufacturing errors can be minimized. An inductor loop is directly connected to the RFID chip before it is placed to indirectly coupled the energy from a meandered dipole antenna. The coupled energy should be enough to turn on the chip to communicate with the reader. The inductive coupled energy is achieved by manipulating the near field magnetic field between the antenna body and the inductor loop. To evaluate the performance, the antenna and the inductive feeding loop is designed to operate at RFID UHF band (860 MHz – 960 MHz) and simulated using CST software. The antenna body impedance is evaluated to match the impedance of the chip and the loop. It is confirmed that the double loop inductor has higher inductance values and thus should be counted in conjugate impedance between the antenna body and the chip module. The tag with overall dimension of 60 mm x 16 mm can be read at distance at least 9 meters through out the band

Aluminum toxicity in acid sulfate soil alleviated with biogenic liming composites of blood cockle shell and palm kernel shell

Low crop yield from acid sulfate soil was caused by high concentrations of aluminum and iron in soil. Aluminum ion which cause root injury at root region inhibits the uptake of the nutrients by the root and lead to nutrient deficiency. Ground magnesium limestones can beapplied to overcome this problem but incurred more production cost. Biogenic liming agent from blood cockle shell and/or palm kernel shell are more cost effective and provide the essential element i.e. calcium. This study evaluate phase-association of Al in acid sulfate soil remediated using biogenic composites liming material using selective sequential extraction analysis. Biogenic liming composites were characterized for pH, proximate analysis and elemental composition. High ratio of BCS in composite retained Al in the residual form about 91.33%. Amelioration of soil with 100% PKS did not give significant reduction of the exchangeable Al.Keywords: soil remediation; phytotoxicity; abiotic stress; calcination; alkalinity

Chemical constituents and acetylcholinesterase inhibitory activity of Beilschmiedia insignis Gamble

ABSTRACT. Secondary metabolites from natural products are potential sources of acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, which are key enzymes in the treatment of many neurodegenerative diseases. Inspired by the reported activities of alkaloids herein we report the chemical investigation on the chemical constituents from Beilschmiedia insignis and their acetylcholinesterase inhibitory activity. Isolation of the stem bark of B. insignis led to the isolation and identification of five aporphine alkaloids, namely isocorydine (1), norisocorydine (2), (+)-laurotetanine (3), (+)-N-methyllaurotetanine (4), and (+)-boldine (5), together with β-sitosterol (6), β-sitostenone (7), lupeol (8), and lupenone (9). The chemical structures of these compounds were obtained by analysis of their spectroscopic data, as well as the comparison with that of reported data. Acetylcholinesterase inhibitory activity revealed that all isolated alkaloids were found to inhibit AChE with percentage inhibition values ranged from 44.9 to 74.5%. This is the first report on phytochemicals from B. insignis.                     KEY WORDS: Lauraceae, Beilschmiedia insignis, Alkaloid, Acetylcholinesterase, Alzheimer   Bull. Chem. Soc. Ethiop. 2021, 35(3), 685-691. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/bcse.v35i3.1

Optimization of Water Treatment Parameters using Processed Moringa oleifera As a Natural Coagulant for Low Turbidity Water

Moringa oleifera is a natural coagulant which can be used for water treatment in tropical developing countries. This study presents the results of production of natural coagulant from processed Moringa oleifera with simple technique (oil extraction, salt extraction, and microfiltration with 0.2 μm). The optimization study on physical factors was carried out for coagulation-flocculation process. Low initial turbidity water samples (synthetic and river water) were used with turbidity less than 50 Nephelometric Turbidity Units (NTU). The response surface methodology (RSM) was used, and the analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed to validate the developed regression model. The residual turbidity obtained was 4.514 NTU for synthetic water and 1.598 NTU for river water by applying the optimum conditions of 40 rpm (low speed), mixing time of 41 minutes, and Moringa oleifera dosage of 0.75 mg/L

Influence of slip velocity on convective boundary layer flow of jeffrey fluid under convective boundary conditions

The problem on influence of slip velocity on convective boundary layer flow of Jeffery fluid with convective boundary conditions together with the effects of magnetohydrodynamic is investigated. The governing equations correspond to the discussed problem are first transformed into ordinary differential equations using similarity transformations before the computation process is done by Keller box method. It is found that, the magnetic parameter enhanced the fluid temperature and lowers the velocity of the fluid flow while the growth of the values of Prandtl and Deborah number weaken the distribution of the fluid temperature

The influence of carbonization temperature on the development of carbon membrane with superior CO2/CH4 separation performance Pengaruh suhu karbonisasi kepada pembangunan membran karbon dengan kesan pemisahan gas CO2/CH4 yang cemerlang

In this study, P84-based carbon tubular membranes were fabricated and characterized in terms of their structural morphology and gas permeation properties, by using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and pure gas permeation system, respectively. The polymer tubular membranes were then carbonized under nitrogen atmosphere at different carbonization temperatures of 600, 700, 800 and 900 °C, with heating rate of 3°C/min and thermal soak time of 30 minutes. The manipulation of carbonization temperatures was required to see if it could enhance the permeation properties as desired. Pure gas permeation tests were performed using CO2 and CH4 gases. The CO2/CH4 selectivity was found increasing as the carbonization temperature was increased from 600 to 800 °C. The carbon membrane carbonized at 800°C showed the most promising result for CO2/CH4 selectivity, rendering 69.48 and CO2 permeance of 206.1 GPU