Profiling and study of interfacial tension laden with crude lipid extract plant based as surfactant for food application

Crude lipid extract plant based namely SPLIP and PULIP are being introduced in this research as a potential surfactant with phospholipid and glycolipid components which playing an important role at the oil/water interface. Since the interaction between the components give a significant impact on the interfaces, the aim of this research is to investigated whether these components in crude plant extract can also interact at oil/water interface compared to commercially available surfactant namely LEC. This work has been carried out with interfacial tension using PAT1. Prior to the interfacial tension analysis, profiling of the crude lipid extract was done using TLC. Finding obtained from TLC indicated that both crude lipid extract spotted phospholipid and glycolipidcomponents. For interfacial results, the interaction between phospholipid and glycolipid in both SPLIP and PULIP give impact at the interfaces; being more surface active results in lower interfacial tension value.Keywords: SPLIP, PULIP, phospholipid, glycolipid, interfacial tensio

Development and evaluation of polyherbal formulation for memory enhancement: study on its antioxidant properties and synergistic effects

Centella asiatica, Piper sarmentosum and Morinda citrifolia is well-known for their memory enhancement contribution from traditional practices as well as recent researches. However, all three herbs are utilized individually and never mixed together. The nutrient data on the synergistic effect on all three herbs remain scarce. The aims of this research project were to apply Simplex-centroid mixture design in describing the study for the effect of polyherbal formulation on antioxidants properties and its synergistic effects. Based on results obtained, there was a significant difference in antioxidant properties of the polyherbal formulation. The results show the polyherbal formulation 3 and 13 (M. citrifolia only) has the highest antioxidant capacity when being tested with total phenolic content (TPC) (210.10 and 209.12 μg GAE/mL respectively) and 2,2-diphenyl-1- picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) (42.94 and 37.77%) assays. Contradict to this result, the highest in total flavonoid content (TFC) and 2,2-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid (ABTS) for describing antioxidant properties are formulations 1 and 11 (C. asiatica only). The TPC for formulation 1 and 11 are 479.8 μg RE/mL and 470 μg RE/mL respectively while ABTS radical inhibition for formulation 1 and 11 are 64.53% and 60% respectively. For ferric reducing ability of plasma (FRAP) assay, formulation 7 (2.11 μg FSE/mL) is the highest which have 1:1:1 ratio of each herb. In addition, TPC, TFC, and DPPH assays showed high antioxidant activities when only single herbs were added into the formulation. Meanwhile, ABTS and FRAP are prone to binary polyherbal formulation. Hence, this study showed an antagonism effect instead of synergistic effect since single formulation exhibited the highest for TPC, TFC and DPPH. All tests gave the lowest antioxidant properties when the mix was ternary polyherbal formulation

Public attitude towards modern biotechnology

This article reviews the literature related to the main idea of the study, rooting from the definition of biotechnology, global status of commercialized biotechnology products, and global and local public attitudes towards modern biotechnology and past models for attitude towards modern biotechnology. The first section of the review will be the in-depth-discussion regarding the definition of modern biotechnology according to several established international organizations, followed by global status of commercialized biotechnology products which will emphasize on how modern biotechnology is classified and which area are being focused more by the stakeholders, and global and local public attitudes towards modern biotechnology based on previous studies. Last but not least, the final section is credited to past studies related to attitudes and past models of public attitudes towards biotechnology, both globally and locally. A developing country like Malaysia was chosen in this article as an example of the case study related to local situation of modern biotechnology.Key words: Modern biotechnology, genetically modified (GM), public attitude, Malaysi

Current review towards the new best practices of Corporate Real Estate Management (CREM) in Malaysia

Corporate Real Estate (CRE) is referring to land and buildings owned by companies which are not primarily in the real estate business used for operational purpose. CRE covers the entire range of activities. Awareness of knowledge of CRE in Malaysia lacks because the researcher found that the operation of properties owned by a few large companies is undermanaged and underused. This review paper focuses on the definition of corporate real estate (CRE), components of CRE, and the current practice in the industry. This paper a desk analysis reviewing the literature on general management of the corporate real estate. By using the secondary data such as Company Annual Report, Previous studies and other relevant sources. There are several different issues to examine along the way, from the business strategies, Constituent and tools to help make the right decisions. It draws a framework for CRE analysis. From this paper, we can find the issue to improve the current practice on the CRE in Malaysia

The significance of job description towards performance of cook in 4 and 5 stars hotel

This study explores the significance of job description practiced by Human Resources in 4 and 5 stars hotels located in Langkawi Island.This research is particularly relevant to the hotel industry, whereby the employee is the main asset to accomplish the organization expectation. Does job description influence cooks‘ performance? Job descriptions are one of the major mechanisms that organizations use to arranging work into positions in an organization.It consists of purpose, scope, duties and responsibilities of a specified job. Consequently, job descriptions play a major role in the recruitment process to find the right person for the right position to appoint.However, it is unclear whether the job description is significant in organization and employee.It is in the organizations‘ interest to understand this phenomenon to make better decisions on how to present job descriptions in order to achieve qualified employee and to increase their performance.The aim of this research is to gain an understanding of job description in the hotel industry context and to better understand the immediate effects of such practices in a cooks‘ life. Data were collected based on a mixed method via qualitative and quantitative study.Focus group interviews were used to gather information from 6 cooks in 4 and 5 stars hotels. Besides focusing on group interview, questionnaires were also been distribute to the cooks.Questionnaires were used to gather information from 168 cooks.The findings indicate a notable effect of job description toward cooks‘ performance. They need job description as their guide in enhancing their work performance.A clear description of the tasks from the employers will lead to high job performance

Investigation of graphene channel interaction with yeast cell for cell counting application

Graphene superior and unique properties make it a suitable material for biosensor. In this work, graphene interaction with yeast cell is investigated for development of graphenebased cell counter. The fabricated graphene channel was characterized by means of two-terminal and solution-gated three-terminal measurement setup. The correlation between graphene channel resistance and cell concentration was confirmed. The yeast cell was found to give n-type doping which modulate the conductivity of graphene channel

Optimization of Single-step Pravastatin Production by Penicillium brefeldianum ESF21P through Response Surface Methodology

The aim of the present study was to optimize the fermentation process for enhanced production of pravastatin by a wild-type Penicillium brefeldianum ESF21P strain using statistical approaches. Initial screening of significant variables influencing pravastatin production was carried out using 27-3 fractional factorial design. The seven variables involved in this study were slant age, spore concentration, inoculum volume, fermentation time, temperature, initial pH of the medium and agitation rate. Amongst these, slant age, fermentation time, initial pH of the medium and agitation rate had significant influences on pravastatin accumulation. These four variables were further optimized using the central composite rotatable design of response surface methodology

Risks and benefits of genetically modified foods

There are claims that fear towards new technology has been caused by the lack of information and education on the subject to the public. Modern biotechnology and its applications have been receiving the same criticism. Thus, the objective of this study is to analyze the trends and coverage of genetically modified food (GMF) related issues available in an online database. In order to achieve this, GMFrelated articles (n = 60) were retrieved from a database, Science Direct, from the year 2005 until 2010. These articles were then analyzed using the annotated bibliography and content analysis techniques. It was found that the highest number of articles was in the ’Technical/Progress’ theme with 22 counts followed by the ‘Attitude’ theme with 13 counts. Meanwhile, the ‘Social Risks and/or Benefits’ theme was the lowest with only 1 paper identified. This trend shows that the focus of the majority of papers published were on the progress of GMF technology followed by attitude studies (such as perceptions and willingness to buy) and only a few were discussing the risk and benefit aspects of GMF. These findings are useful in giving us an insight of what have been discussed on GMF in the existing literature.Key words: Genetically modified food (GMF), themes, risks and benefits, content analysis, biotechnology

Production of high strength bioliquid from municipal solid waste (MSW) using mixed culture

Landfilling is one of the most commonly used methods of municipal solid waste (MSW) disposal. It is necessary because there are residues in all waste management processes that cannot be reused or recovered further and are essentially landfilled. For the degradation of MSW, thermal, mechanical and biological pretreatment techniques are used. MSW could be treated and converted into liquid biomass (bioliquid) by using enzymes. This research focused on the production of high strength bioliquid in MSW. The experiments were conducted in three stages namely: acclimatization process, preliminary study and factorial analysis to determine the production of high strength bioliquid in MSW. The selected factors were ratio of AMC and substrates (1:2 and 1:5), temperature (room temperature and 37 °C), pH (adjusted pH and no pH adjustment), PET plastics size (1cm2 and 4cm2) and Hydraulic Retention Time (3 hours and 9 hours). Design Expert software (Version 7) was used to construct an experimental table where all the factors were randomized. Two-level factorial analysis (TLFA) was used to analyze the most contributing factor and interaction between the factors. The results showed that the most significant factor was temperature, while the interaction factors were between temperature and HRT. The best conditions of COD increment were determined at AMC/S ratio 1:5, adjusted pH, PET plastics size of 1cm x 1cm, at room temperature and HRT of 3 hours. The experimental and targeted final increments of COD were 2.19 and 1.99 respectively. Since the error was less than 10%, it is acceptable, and the objectives of this research were successfully achieved