Extraction of Jatropha curcas fruits for antifungal activity against anthracnose (Colletotrichum gloeosporioides) of papaya

Extracts from seeds and leaves of Jatropha curcas have shown molluscidal, insecticidal and fungicidal properties. J. curcas extracts were found to inhibit the mycelium growth of Colletotrichum musae that causes anthracnose disease in bananas. The antimicrobial activity of crude methanol extracts of J. curcas fruits, pulp and seeds were investigated. J. curcas fruits, pulp and seeds were collected from the farm of Universiti Putra Malaysia. The samples were air dried at ambient temperature, then oven-dried to remove the residual moisture. Equivalent amounts of each ground sample of the J. curcas fruits, pulp and seeds were soaked in methanol solvent and left to stand for 7 days before being filtered and evaporated. The extract was spread over potato dextrose agar (PDA) medium under an aseptic condition and incubated. The zone of inhibition of mycelial growth (mm) around the disc was measured. Both J. curcas seed and pulp extracts had higher antifungal activity than whole fruit extract. J. curcas seed extract showed significant antifungal activities with growth inhibition zone of 5.6 mm or equivalent to 78.87% inhibition followed by pulp with zone of 7.4 mm or equivalent to 72.07%, and whole fruits with zone of 14.2 mm or equivalent to 46.42% as compared to the control with zone of 26.5 mm or equivalent to 100%. Active microbial components in J. curcas have the potential of an antifungal compound to control Colletotrichum gloeosporioides which causes anthracnose disease in papaya in vitro.Key words: Methanol extracts, inhibition zone, postharvest pathogen

Study on the growth and development of brinjal shoot and fruit borer with different diets

A laboratory experiment was conducted with two natural and one artificial diet on the growth and development of brinjal shoot and fruit borer (BSFB). The population of BSFB used in the study was in the 2nd instar larvae. Among the different diet, brinjal was the best for growth, development and longevity of larvae and pupae and prolongation of larval and pupal period. The mean length of full grown larvae fed with natural the food brinjal were 9.37, 9.80 and 12.44 mm from generations 1, 2 and 3, respectively. The larval and pupal duration on brinjal food media were 13.10 and 8.17, 12.80 and 8.23 and 13.10 and 8.03 days in generations 1, 2 and 3, respectively. The percentages of adult emergence from pupae raised in brinjal were 65.38, 47.95 and 33.78 in generations 1, 2 and 3, respectively.Key words: Brinjal, brinjal shoot and fruit borer (BSFB), natural and artificial diet

Pengrajin Batik Dan Hak Kekayaan Intelektual: Studi Tentang Perlindungan Hukum Terhadap Pembajakan Hak Cipta Batik Di Kampung Laweyan Surakarta

The purpose of this study are: 1) To describe patterns and explain the pattern of copyright infringement by batik craftsmen in Kampung Laweyan Surakarta. 2) To describe and explain the legal protection for batik craftsmen as the owners of copyright in Kampung Laweyan Surakarta whom their copyrights are infringed. From the analysis results of the research, it is obtained conclusion that patterns of copyright infringement by Batik craftsmen in Kampung Batik Laweyan Surakarta is batik motives and brand plagiarism. This infringes the provisions of Article 12 and Article 72 paragraph (2) of Law No. 19 of Year 2002 about piracy. Legal protection for batik craftsmen as the owner of copyright in Kampung Surakarta Laweyan Surakarta is conducted by copyright registration and forming community among batik craftsmen . The efforts that performed by Batik craftsmen in Kampung Batik Surakarta Laweyan to protect copyright infringed is by change batik motives once in three months

Off-Street Vehicular Fog for Catering Applications in 5G/B5G: A Trust-based Task Mapping Solution and Open Research Issues

One of the key enablers in serving the applications requiring stringent latency in 5G networks is fog computing as it is situated closer to the end users. With the technological advancement of vehicles’ on-board units, their computing capabilities are becoming robust, and considering the underutilization of the off-street vehicles, we envision that the off-street vehicles can be an enormously useful computational source for the fog computing. Additionally, clustering the vehicles would be advantageous in order to improve the service availability. As the vehicles become highly connected, trust is needed especially in distributed environments. However, vehicles are made from different manufacturers, and have different platforms, security mechanisms, and varying parking duration. These lead to the unpredictable behavior of the vehicles where quantifying trust value of vehicles would be difficult. A trust-based solution is necessary for task mapping as a task has a set of properties including expected time to complete, and trust requirements that need to be met. However, the existing metrics used for trust evaluation in the vehicular fog computing such as velocity and direction are not applicable in the off-street vehicle fog environments. In this paper, we propose a framework for quantifying the trust value of off-street vehicle fog computing facilities in 5G networks and forming logical clusters of vehicles based on the trust values. This allows tasks to be shared with multiple vehicles in the same cluster that meets the tasks’ trust requirements. Further, we propose a novel task mapping algorithm to increase the vehicle resource utilization and meet the desired trust requirements while maintaining imposed latency requirements of 5G applications. Results obtained using iFogSim simulator demonstrate that the proposed solution increases vehicle resource utilization and reduces task drop noticeably. This paper presents open research issues pertaining to the study to lead..

Heat Transfer Characteristics in a Large-Scale Bubble Column Operating in a Semi – Batch Mode

Time-averaged local heat transfer coefficient profiles were studied in a 0.45m bubble column using air-water system. The effect of the superficial gas velocity andaxial locations (Z/D) on the heat transfer coefficient and its radial (r/R) profiles wereinvestigated in bubble column. Significant differences were observed between heattransfer coefficients in the axial directions viz. in the bulk flow region (Z/D=4.8)higher than in the distributor region (Z/D=0.28) by 14% -22% for increasing thesuperficial gas velocity from 0.05-0.45 m/s. The heat transfer coefficients increasewith superficial gas velocities and the values in the center of the column were 9–13%greater than those near the wall region .The characteristics of bulk flow region arelarge variation in radial direction and little in axial direction for the values of heattransfer coefficients

Advanced power routing framework for optimal economic operation and control of solar photovoltaic-based islanded microgrid

© 2019 Institution of Engineering and Technology. All rights reserved. Energy sharing through a microgrid (MG) is essential for islanded communities to maximise the use of distributed energy resources (DERs) and battery energy storage systems (BESSs). Proper energy management and control strategies of such MGs can offer revenue to prosumers (active consumers with DERs) by routing excess energy to their neighbours and maintaining grid constraints at the same time. This paper proposes an advanced power-routing framework for a solarphotovoltaic (PV)-based islanded MG with a central storage system (CSS). An optimisation-based economic operation for the MG is developed that determines the power routing and energy sharing in the MG in the day-ahead stage. A modified droop controller-based real-time control strategy has been established that maintains the voltage constraints of the MG. The proposed power-routing framework is verified via a case study for a typical islanded MG. The outcome of the optimal economic operation and a controller verification of the proposed framework are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed powerrouting framework. Results reveal that the proposed framework performs a stable control operation and provides a profit of 57 AU$/day at optimal conditions

Antenatal iron deficiency in an urban Malaysian population

Iron deficiency anemia is the most common form of anemia in pregnancy. The present study was carried out to determine the prevalence of antenatal anemia and iron deficiency in the Malaysian population and its correlation with socio-demographic and obstetric profile. It was a cross-sectional study conducted at an urban health clinic over a period of six months. A single blood sample was drawn from apparently healthy pregnant mothers at antenatal booking and sent for laboratory assessment of full blood count and serum ferritin as screening tools for anemia and iron status. SPSS version 19.0 was used for statistical analyses. The results showed that out of 250 subjects, 43.6% had anemia and 31.6% had iron deficiency. Whilst 47.7% of subjects with anemia were iron deficient, 19.1% of subjects without anemia were also iron deficient. Serum ferritin correlated negatively with period of gestation at booking (p<0.001), with 77.6% of these women not having prior iron supplements. Serum ferritin was also significantly lower among grandmultiparae (p=0.01). Iron deficiency was significantly (p=0.024) more common among Indians (42.5%) compared to Malays (33.5%) and Chinese (13.0%). In conclusion, continuation of the current practice of routine antenatal iron supplementation is still warranted and justifiable in Malaysia as there is high prevalence of iron deficiency in pregnancy not only in the presence of anemia but also in the presence of normal hemoglobin values