The influence of work life balance towards job performance in private higher education institution (PHEI) / Noorlaila Hj. Yunus and Siti Musalmah Ahmad Fuad.

Work-Life Balance (WLB) is an important factor that the Human Resource Management of private higher education Institution (PHEI) should concern about in order to gain high Job Performance in the institution. If there are WLB practices implemented by the university, the Human Resource Department (HRD) must always get feedback from the employees to continuously improve the WLB policy. This will benefit not just the employees but the most important to the PHEI by having a good productivities and high job performance employees. The result shows that most of the employees in the university have good social support from their colleagues at work place, friends and their families. This support have given them inspiration and motivation in doing their job properly and finally they might achieved high job performance. Even though the result were positive about the social support the employees receives, the top management including the HRD need to revise their policy of WLB especially other factors that can influenced the employees to optimized their efforts in doing their jo

Reformulation of Le’Natura® Biscuit: Effects on Textural, Sensorial, Nutritional and Glycemic Index Values

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to reformulate Le’Natura® biscuit for textural, sensorial, nutritional and glycemic index properties improvement. The original biscuit had a brittle and coarse texture with a bitter after-taste. It also contained high carbohydrate which made the biscuit unsuitable for diabetic patients and less desirable to the health-conscious consumers. Methods and Results: Several ingredients from the original formulation were either eliminated, reduced or substituted in order to modify the texture and taste, to obtain a low glycemic index (GI) value and to increase acceptability. The ingredients involved in reformulation were wheat flour, milk powder, maltodextrin, atta flour, green bean flour, polydextrose, palm oil, and leavening agents. The final reformulated biscuit showed improvements in thickness, spread ratio, fracturability and firmness properties. The improved biscuit also scored higher acceptability for appearance, texture, sweetness, after-taste and overall acceptability attributes. The in vivo GI measured indicates that the improved biscuit was in the low GI range of 44.7±4.7 compared to the original biscuit (63.5±7.7, moderate GI). The nutrients composition of total energy, fat, protein, dietary fiber, iron, and calcium content were increased while total carbohydrate and sodium levels were decreased. Conclusions: With the improvements, Le’Natura® biscuit is expected to capture the functional food market segment more competitively. Keywords: functional food; biscuit; glycemic index; high fibe

Influence of thermal processing on chemical composition and antinutritional factors of durian (Durio zibethinus) SEED / Marina Zulkifli … [et al.]

The effects of some heat treatments on the chemical composition of durian (Durio zibethinus) seeds were determined. Heat treatments applied were boiling, microwave cooking and autoclaving. The raw D.zibethinus seeds contained the highest chemical composition in terms of protein, fat, total ash, minerals, and crude fibre content. Nevertheless, boiling, microwave cooking and autoclaving processes caused significant (p < 0.05) decreases in crude protein, crude fat, total ash, mineral compositions, and crude fibre content of D.zibethinus seeds. However, all heat treatments employed significantly (p < 0.05) increased the moisture content and total carbohydrate content of D.zibethinus seeds. Heat treatments brought a total removal of ferum of treated D.zibethinus seeds. Raw and treated D.zibethinus seeds were evaluated for their antinutritional components including phytates, oxalates, saponins and tannins. Based on the results, raw D.zibethinus seeds showed the highest amount of phytates (864.94±12.24 mg/100g), oxalates (217.98±5.00 mg/100g), saponins (161.63±2.48 mg/100g) and tannins (564.44±7.18 mg/100g) while the least amount of antinutritional components were recorded in boiled D.zibethinus seeds with 181.32±4.46 mg/100g (79.04% reduction), 105.55±13.07 mg/100g (51.58% reduction), 60.22±1.27 mg/100g (62.74% reduction) and 232.19±4.92 mg/100g (58.79% reduction) for each phytates, oxalates, saponins and tannins respectively. All treatments conducted on D.zibethinus seeds caused significantly (p < 0.05) decreases in the level of all antinutritional factors studied as compared to the raw seeds. Boiling caused the highest reduction in the level of antinutritional factors in D.zibethinus seeds followed by autoclaving and microwave cooking