The impact of health care expenditure and infectious diseases on labour productivity performance in Africa: do institutions matter?

This study was rooted from the findings that for many years infectious diseases remain the major cause of death around the globe especially in Africa. Economic theory also predicts among others that HIV/AIDS reduces labour supply and productivity, and the GDP of Africa declines by 2-4% annually. In addition, institution is one of the reasons for slower growth in Africa. The study, therefore, examined the impact of health care expenditure per capita and infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis (TB) on labour productivity performance in Africa using System GMM Estimation methods for 50 panels of African countries from 2002-2011. The results show that health-care expenditure per capita is positive but insignificant to labour productivity performance in the region. The results also confirm the negative impact of infectious diseases on labour productivity performance in the region. Government effectiveness and control of corruption are positive and significant to the improvement of health care expenditure in Africa. In addition, the study also revealed that political instability and conflict also contribute positively to the spread of infectious diseases in the region. Thus, it is recommended that African governments and health-related development partners increase the financial amount allocated to the health sector. At the same time, more efforts are needed to curb and control the spread of infectious diseases through strengthened institutions to improve health-care expenditure in the region

Effect of serving time on microbiological quality of food served (chicken dish and rice) during wedding banquet

Ayam masak merah (chicken in tomato sauce) and nasi minyak (flavoured ghee rice) are among the common dish served in Malay wedding banquet. The microbiological quality of these dishes becomes a concern when there was a food poisoning that caused four deaths after attending the wedding banquet. Therefore, the aim of this work is to investigate the microbiological quality of ayam masak merah and nasi minyak during the serving time (0, 1, 2, 3 and 4 hours) at the wedding banquet. The microbiological analysis were; total plate count (TPC), total coliform, Escherichia coli , Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, Salmonella spp., and Listeria spp. The results showed that ayam masak merah has the highest count for TPC, total coliform, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, but low count in Listeria spp. and Salmonella spp. was not detected. Highest TPC was observed at the first hour of serving time, 7.33 log CFU/g, while for total coliforms and Staphylococcus aureus was at the 4 hours of serving time, 7.44 log CFU/g and 7.27 log CFU/g respectively

Dumbbells and ankle-wrist weight training leads to changes in body composition and anthropometric parameters with potential cardiovascular disease risk reduction

AbstractObjectivesPromoting physical activity is a global strategy to reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease. This study aimed to determine and compare the effect of light resistance training using either dumbbells or ankle-wrist weights on the anthropometric parameters and body composition of adults in Kelantan, Malaysia.MethodsThis randomized community trial was conducted in Kelantan, Malaysia, from March through August 2012. Adults with a body mass index (BMI) of more than 23 kg/m2 were randomized into dumbbell (N = 69) and ankle-wrist (N = 69) weight groups. Participants in the dumbbell group performed structured group exercises three times per week using a pair of one-kilogram dumbbells. Participants in the ankle-wrist weight group were given one pair of 500 gm ankle weights and one pair of 500 gm wrist weights to be worn during the activities of daily living three days per week for at least 20 min. BMI, waist circumference (WC), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), body fat percentage (BF%) and skeletal muscle percentage (SM%) were measured at baseline, week 6, month 3 and month 6.ResultsEighty-nine participants completed this study. There were significant reductions in BMI only at week six for the dumbbell group. No significant BMI changes were observed for the ankle-wrist weight group. Significant improvements of WC, WHR, BF%, and SM% were observed in both intervention groups from baseline at week 6, month 3, and month 6.ConclusionResistance exercise using either dumbbells or ankle-wrist weights produced significant improvements in certain components of body composition and anthropometric parameters

Forensic Analysis of Gel Pen Inks using Hyperspectral Imaging coupled with Chemometric Procedures

Abstract Forensic examination of inks on questioned documents has become an important practice and the law enforcement agencies rely heavily on these techniques during criminal investigations. Although nowadays there are a variety of methodologies focused on the analysis of inks, the combination of non-destructive nature of Hyperspectral Imaging (HSI) coupled with the multivariate chemometric technique has received little attention. In this study, forty-five (n = 45) gel pen inks of three different colours i.e. blue, red and black of five different brands were analysed using HSI with the idea of classifying them according to the brand. In terms of discriminating similar coloured components between samples, this was achievable only on the basis of the % reflectance spectra. However, arguably, there was sufficient evidence to suggest that it may be possible to discriminate the samples using chemometric of Principal Component Analysis (PCA). A 2-D score plot from PCA analysis was enough to characterise the samples into five clusters. The synergy of complementary information provided by PCA narrows matching possibilities (in terms of classification) for forensic investigations involving ink analysis

Utilization of saffron (Crocus sativus L.) as sensitizer in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs)

Photoelectrodes of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have been prepared using nanosized titanium dioxide that have soaked in a solution of different saffron (Crocus sativus L.) spice content in ethanol. The optimized polyacrylonitrile (PAN)-based gel polymer electrolyte with 40.93 wt.% ethylene carbonate, 37.97 wt.% propylene carbonate, 4.37 wt.% tetrapropylammonium iodide, 9.86 wt.% PAN, 1.24 wt.% 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium iodide, 4.35 wt.% lithium iodide and 1.28 wt.% iodine has been used as the electrolyte for DSSC. The electrolyte has conductivity of 2.91 mS cm−1 at room temperature (298 K). DSSCs were also sensitized with saffron solution that has been added with 30 wt.% chenodeoxycholic acid (CDCA) co-adsorbent and designated as DSSC P4. The solar cell converts light-to-electricity at an efficiency of 0.31%. This is 29% enhancement in efficiency for the DSSC without addition of CDCA in the saffron-ethanol solution. The DSSC exhibits current density at short-circuit (J sc ) of 1.26 mA cm−2, voltage at open circuit (V oc ) of 0.48 V and 51% fill factor. DSSC P4 also exhibits the highest incident photon-to-current density of more than 40% at 340 nm wavelength

Main structural targets for engineering lipase substrate specificity

Microbial lipases represent one of the most important groups of biotechnological biocatalysts. However, the high-level production of lipases requires an understanding of the molecular mechanisms of gene expression, folding, and secretion processes. Stable, selective, and productive lipase is essential for modern chemical industries, as most lipases cannot work in different process conditions. However, the screening and isolation of a new lipase with desired and specific properties would be time consuming, and costly, so researchers typically modify an available lipase with a certain potential for minimizing cost. Improving enzyme properties is associated with altering the enzymatic structure by changing one or several amino acids in the protein sequence. This review detailed the main sources, classification, structural properties, and mutagenic approaches, such as rational design (site direct mutagenesis, iterative saturation mutagenesis) and direct evolution (error prone PCR, DNA shuffling), for achieving modification goals. Here, both techniques were reviewed, with different results for lipase engineering, with a particular focus on improving or changing lipase specificity. Changing the amino acid sequences of the binding pocket or lid region of the lipase led to remarkable enzyme substrate specificity and enantioselectivity improvement. Site-directed mutagenesis is one of the appropriate methods to alter the enzyme sequence, as compared to random mutagenesis, such as error-prone PCR. This contribution has summarized and evaluated several experimental studies on modifying the substrate specificity of lipase

The characteristic of whole wheat bread supplemented with roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa) powder

Roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa) has many health benefits and all parts of the roselle, including calyx, seeds, leaves, fruits and roots. Over the years, high demand for wholegrain products has been observed worldwide due to their high nutritional values and protective effects against several chronic diseases. Whole wheat bread is one of the most consumed whole-grain products. However, products of whole wheat flour had lower consumer acceptability than refined flour. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of the addition of roselle powder (1, 2, or 3%) on the characteristics and composition of whole wheat dough and whole wheat bread. Bread quality is determined by sensory evaluation, bulk density, texture profile analysis (TPA), colour and moisture content, ash, protein, fat, crude fibre, and carbohydrates. The sensory analysis showed the 2% roselle powder was the best bread formulation with 6.65±1.00 of panel acceptance compared to the other formulations. By incorporating roselle powder, the height of the dough was similar to any commercial bread (10 cm) and could shorten the fermentation time from 60 to 45 mins. Sensory-wise, the bread colour was lighter and reddish, which was appealing with the values of 53.92±0.02 for ∆E*. The firmness of roselle bread was reduced from 4.60±o.42 to 2.55±0.46 with a decreasing amount of roselle powder from 3% to 1% but increased to 5.19±0.15 during 4 days of storage. Interestingly, roselle bread has the potential to reduce staling of bread during storage with a value of 6.29±0.35 in control bread to 5.19±0.15 in F2 roselle bread after certain days of storage

Auto indoor hydroponics plant growth chamber

The objective of this project is to build an auto indoor hydroponics plant growing chamber that has an auto monitoring and controlling system. A ESP32 based hydroponics electrical system is built with the attachment of hardware components such as temperature and humidity sensor, light intensity sensor, water level sensor, and water flow rate sensor. The software development of the system is through Arduino IoT Cloud platform, which has an overall suitability in terms of features, cost, and user intuitiveness for starters. Results have shown that ESP32 can ensure stable power supply. After testing and validation, all of the electrical components are stored in a power enclosure box to prevent contact with liquid. In short, the developed auto indoor hydroponics plant growth chamber has effectively demonstrated the ability in easing the plant cultivation procedure for agricultural community

Integrating cleaning studies with industrial practice: case study of an effective cleaning program for a frozen meat patties SME factory

Cleaning of process equipment is a necessity in the food industry. There is no standard cleaning program formulated for all food industries. Thus, in order to achieve economic objectives and to comply with food hygiene regulations, specific cleaning problems need to be solved to achieve an optimal solution. In this work, a cleaning program was proposed for a local frozen meat patties Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) factory, X. Several cleaning tools such as a portable cleaning unit and industrial cleaning brushes with different functionality were used to ensure the effectiveness of the cleaning program. The portable cleaning unit was used to evaluate the impact of water jet with different nozzle distances (10 cm and 20 cm), cleaning times (30 s and 120 s), and temperatures (35 °C and 65 °C) in reducing different foodborne pathogens (Escherichia coli, Listeria monocytogenes, and Salmonella enteritidis). Two places of food processing equipment with two different stainless steel surfaces were tested. First, a former of meat patties (mesh wire surface), and second, a mixer (smooth surface). The results were then compared with factory X's current cleaning program and have shown that this new cleaning program can achieve physical clean level and helped to reduce microorganism to non-detectable level (less than 2.0 CFU/cm2). For the evening cleaning, the suggested cleaning program is using the portable cleaning unit at 65 °C, 120 s, 10 cm nozzle distance, and 5.2 bar. For the morning cleaning before production, the same parameters are suggested except for the temperature which is slightly higher at 75 °C

A study on the EBG and AMC on radial line slot array structure at 28 GHz

This paper is a study on the electromagnetic band gap (EBG) and artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) on the radial line slot array (RLSA) antenna structure at a frequency of 28 GHz. The RLSA antenna is known based on its characteristic which has high gain, durable, simple structures, high efficiency and low cost of fabricating. This project is focusing on the study of the RLSA antenna with the Electromagnetic Band Gap (EBG) and Artificial Magnetic Conductor (AMC) with analyzes the effect of number EBG and AMC structures applied to the antenna. It enhances the performances of the RLSA antenna before the EBG structure is added. This may be due to eliminating the several numbers of slots on the radiating plate is the reason for the present number of EBG structures applied to it. The lowest value of S11 for eight (8) units EBG is -41.4686 dB at a frequency of 29.86 GHz, the directivity value is 25.60 dBi and realizes a gain of 25.26 dB at a frequency of 28 GHz. While the AMC structure can reduce the side lobes from -2.7 dB for non-element of AMC to -1.7 dB for eight (8) and nine (9) elements. This RLSA antenna with AMC and EBG produces high directivity which is 26.10 dBi compared to conventional RLSA antenna which is 21.70 dBi. This antenna can also be used as widely applications such as RADAR and satellite communication