Effect of xenobiotic challenge on enzymatic activity of detoxification enzymes at different exposure periods in Aedes albopictus (skuse) (Diptera: Culicidae)

The xenobiotics including insecticides such as malathion and permethrin induce the activities of detoxification enzymes and potentially leading to the development of resistance. In this study, biochemical analysis was used to characterize the time-dependent malathion and permethrin induction profile of Glutathione S-transferase (GST), α-esterase (α-est), β-esterase (β-est), Cytochrome P450 (Cyt P450) and Acetylcholinesterase (AChE), enzymes which are known to contribute to metabolic resistance in Aedes albopictus. Time-dependent induction of early fourth instar larvae with the sub-lethal concentration (LC50) of malathion (0.099 mg/L) and permethrin (0.0023 mg/L) was done at 6, 12 and 24 hours to observe the effect on the enzymatic activity under toxicological challenges. Total protein content of larvae was most elevated when the larvae were exposed to both insecticides for 24 hours. The level of total enzyme activity and specific activity of GST, as well as Cyt P450 were found to be most elevated whereas the level of α-est and β-est total enzyme and specific activity were decreased at 24 hours of treatment with malathion. A different pattern was observed for permethrin induction whereby the total enzyme and specific activity of all enzymes except Cyt P450 were highly elevated upon 24 hours of acute exposure. The level of total enzyme activity and specific activity of almost all enzymes upon acute induction with malathion and permethrin were statistically significant (p˂0.05) when compared between the induced hours and to its susceptible strain. Conclusively, these findings indicate that the continuous and prolonged exposure to sub-lethal concentration of malathion and permethrin influenced the induction of GST, α-est, β-est, Cyt P450 as well as AChE enzymatic activities

Pengaruh Keterlibatan Kerja Dan Keseimbangan Kerja Terhadap Turnover Intention Karyawan Pada PT. Makassar Mandiri Putra Utama Mitsubisi Beta Berlian Kendari

Banyak faktor yang dapat mempengaruhi Turnover Intention dari perusahaan pada karyawan, diantaranya adalah keseimbangan kehidupan kerja, komitmen perusahaan, kinerja karyawan, stres kerja, pengembangan karir, kepuasan kerja dan keterlibatan karyawan yang rendah. Tujuan dari penelitian ini yakni untuk melihat pengaruh antara keterlibatan kerja karyawan dan keseimbangan kerja karyawan terhadap Turnover Intention. Penelitian ini menggunakan pendekatan kuantitatif dengan menggunakan kuesioner sebagai instrument yang disebar keseluruh karyawan di PT. Makassar Mandiri Putra Utama Mitsubisi Beta Berlian Kendari sebanyak 56 responden. Data yang diperoleh dari sebaran questioner akan dianalisis menggunakan regresi linear berganda. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan Keterlibatan kerja dan Keseimbangan kerja secara parsial memiliki pengaruh negative dan signifikan. Namun, secara simultan kedua variabel memiliki pengaruh yang signifikan terhadap Turnover Intention Karyawan di PT. Makassar Mandiri Putra Utama Mitsubisi Beta Berlian Kendari. Artinya, Semakin tinggi keterlibatan kerja dan keseimbangan kerja maka Turnover Intention semakin baik

A phytosociological study on the community of palaquium gutta (Hook.f.) Baill. (Sapotaceae) at Ayer Hitam Forest Reserve, Selangor, Malaysia

A phytosociological study on the flora and vegetation community of Palaquium gutta (Hook.f.) Baill. was carried out in Compartment 13 of Ayer Hitam Forest Reserve, Selangor. The main objectives of this study were to identify, characterize and classify the P. gutta community which is naturally distributed in Ayer Hitam Forest Reserve. A total of 10 plots (30×30 m in size) were constructed according to the line transect method. The vegetation sampling and data analysis were done according to the Braun-Blanquet approach. The results showed that there were 59 species belonging to 54 genera and 34 families in the form of herbs, shrubs, understorey trees and also canopy tree layers. The most common species in the study area were P. gutta and Endospermum diadenum (Miq.) Airy Shaw. The phytosociological study identified a community of Palaquium gutta-Endospermum. diadenum along with two sub-communities known as Dracaena sp. sub-community and Streblus elongatus sub-community. The results also showed that most of the species belong to the Euphorbiaceae. This indicates that the forest is a secondary forest

Phyiso-chemical characteristics of soil at Sungai Udang Forest Reserve, Malacca, Peninsular Malaysia

A study was done to describe the soil characteristics and to determine the relationship between the soil properties of the forest reserve. A total of 25 plots were constructed and soil samples were collected from each plot of the study sites. A total of 1668 individual trees with diameter at breast height (DBH) of 5 cm and above were found in the 25 plots in Sungai Udang Forest Reserve, Malacca, Peninsular Malaysia. The overall floristic composition of the forest consists of 85 species belonging to 79 genera and 38 families. The soil in the studied area was acidic and dominated by clay loam which shows that the soil is suitable for the provision of nutrients to the plants. The correlation analysis between the physico-chemical characteristics of soil at all plots concluded that the correlation between the chemical content of soil in the area ranged from very weak to moderate. This is due to the fact that the strength of the correlation in this study for the absolute value of (r) ranged from as low as 0.007 (very weak) to 0.482 (moderate)

Review of gesture recognition for virtual automotive training applications

In a virtual system, gesture is considered as a natural way for communication between human and computers.Gesture recognition is the process of recognizing and interpreting a stream of continuous sequential gesture from a given set of input data.The main goal of gesture recognition is to create a system which can recognize specific human gestures and use them to convey information or to control a device and/or application.The objective of this paper is to review gesture-based recognition methods and its applications as an approach to improve user interaction particularly for virtual automotive training.Review of applications and techniques of gesture recognition system will be provided with emphasis on hand gesture expressions.The major techniques include HMMs, ANN, and fuzzy clustering will be reviewed and analyzed

Comparative evaluation of public transport systems

The study focuses on the public transportation systems provided in three different cities: Singapore, Melbourne and Adelaide. Trip details and public transport systems' attributes were recorded in travel diaries. A comparative study was conducted to identify major similarities and characteristics of the public transport systems from the perspective of different user types namely: frequent travellers and first time users. It was found that after the second trips, most of the first time users were getting familiarized with, among others, the ticketing and routing systems. Qualitative evaluation of seven characteristics of public transport systems was undertaken. Elements such as routes, stations and platform identifications, feeder services coverage, number of transfer or interchanges, seamless transfer or interchanges experiences, single or integrated ticketing systems, existence of free city-circle services, complementary versus competitive feeder services and differences of completing trips for familiar routes or destinations compared to trips for unfamiliar routes or destinations were recorded, transcribed and assessed so as to distinguish the variations of trip making processes between first time users and frequent travellers

The Effects of Osmosis and Thermo-Priming on Salinity Stress Tolerance in Vigna radiata L.

A plant’s response to osmotic stress is a complex phenomenon that causes many abnormal symptoms due to limitations in growth and development or even the loss of yield. The current research aimed to analyze the agronomical, physiological, and biochemical mechanisms accompanying the acquisition of salt resistance in the Vigna radiata L. variety ‘Ramzan’ using seed osmo- and thermopriming in the presence of PEG-4000 and 4 °C under induced salinity stresses of 100 and 150 mM NaCl. Seeds were collected from CCRI, Nowshera, and sowing was undertaken in triplicate at the Department of Botany, Peshawar University, during the 2018–2019 growing season. Rhizospheric soil pH (6.0), E.C (2.41 ds/m), field capacity, and moisture content level were estimated in the present study. We observed from the estimated results that the agronomic characteristics, i.e., shoot fresh weight and shoot dry weight in T9 (4oC + 150 mM NaCl), root fresh weight and root dry weight in T4 (PEG + 100 mM NaCl), shoot moisture content in T5 (PEG + 100 mM NaCl), and root moisture content in T6 (PEG + 150 mM NaCl) were the highest, followed by the lowest in T1 (both shoot and root fresh weights) and T2 (shoot and root dry weights). Similarly, the shoot moisture content was the maximum in T5 and the minimum in T6, and root moisture was the highest in T6. We observed from the estimated results that agronomical parameters including dry masses (T4, T6, T4), leaf area index, germination index, leaf area, total biomass, seed vigor index under treatment T9, and relative water content and water use efficiency during T5 and T6 were the highest. Plant physiological traits such as proline, SOD enhanced by T1, carotenoids in treatment T2, and chlorophyll and protein levels were the highest under treatment T4, whereas sugar and POD were highest under treatments T7 and T8. The principal component analysis enclosed 63.75% of the total variation among all biological components. These estimated results confirmed the positive resistance by Vigna radiata during osmopriming (PEG) and thermopriming (4 °C) on most of the features with great tolerance under a low-saline treatment such as T4 (PEG), T5 (PEG + 100 mM NaCl), T7 (4 °C), and T8 (4 °C + 100 mM NaCl), while it was susceptible in the case of T6 (PEG + 150 mM NaCl) and T9 (4 °C + 150 mM NaCl) to high salt application. We found that the constraining impact of several priming techniques improved low salinity, which was regarded as economically inexpensive and initiated numerous metabolic processes in plants, hence decreasing germination time. The current study will have major applications for combatting the salinity problem induced by climate change in Pakistan

The Effects of Osmosis and Thermo-Priming on Salinity Stress Tolerance in Vigna radiata L.

A plant’s response to osmotic stress is a complex phenomenon that causes many abnormal symptoms due to limitations in growth and development or even the loss of yield. The current research aimed to analyze the agronomical, physiological, and biochemical mechanisms accompanying the acquisition of salt resistance in the Vigna radiata L. variety ‘Ramzan’ using seed osmo- and thermopriming in the presence of PEG-4000 and 4 °C under induced salinity stresses of 100 and 150 mM NaCl. Seeds were collected from CCRI, Nowshera, and sowing was undertaken in triplicate at the Department of Botany, Peshawar University, during the 2018–2019 growing season. Rhizospheric soil pH (6.0), E.C (2.41 ds/m), field capacity, and moisture content level were estimated in the present study. We observed from the estimated results that the agronomic characteristics, i.e., shoot fresh weight and shoot dry weight in T9 (4oC + 150 mM NaCl), root fresh weight and root dry weight in T4 (PEG + 100 mM NaCl), shoot moisture content in T5 (PEG + 100 mM NaCl), and root moisture content in T6 (PEG + 150 mM NaCl) were the highest, followed by the lowest in T1 (both shoot and root fresh weights) and T2 (shoot and root dry weights). Similarly, the shoot moisture content was the maximum in T5 and the minimum in T6, and root moisture was the highest in T6. We observed from the estimated results that agronomical parameters including dry masses (T4, T6, T4), leaf area index, germination index, leaf area, total biomass, seed vigor index under treatment T9, and relative water content and water use efficiency during T5 and T6 were the highest. Plant physiological traits such as proline, SOD enhanced by T1, carotenoids in treatment T2, and chlorophyll and protein levels were the highest under treatment T4, whereas sugar and POD were highest under treatments T7 and T8. The principal component analysis enclosed 63.75% of the total variation among all biological components. These estimated results confirmed the positive resistance by Vigna radiata during osmopriming (PEG) and thermopriming (4 °C) on most of the features with great tolerance under a low-saline treatment such as T4 (PEG), T5 (PEG + 100 mM NaCl), T7 (4 °C), and T8 (4 °C + 100 mM NaCl), while it was susceptible in the case of T6 (PEG + 150 mM NaCl) and T9 (4 °C + 150 mM NaCl) to high salt application. We found that the constraining impact of several priming techniques improved low salinity, which was regarded as economically inexpensive and initiated numerous metabolic processes in plants, hence decreasing germination time. The current study will have major applications for combatting the salinity problem induced by climate change in Pakistan

Financial efficiency of microfinance institutions in the event of pre and post financial crisis

The 2008 financial crisis hits economic growth particularly in banking sector. The impacts also not spared to Microfinance Institutions' (MFIs) since MFIs nowadays become integral part in financial system. This paper aims to evaluate financial efficiency of the MFIs in the period of pre and post-financial crisis in first objective. Next, to examine impact of firm characteristics and economic determinants on financial efficiency within the similar period. Total of 166 MFIs from ASEAN 4 countries were selected which include Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, and the Philippines between pre-crisis years, 2000-2007 and post-crisis years, 2010-2017. Using Data Envelopment Analysis, first stage analysis estimates level of financial efficiency of MFIs. In second stage, application of Multivariate Panel Regression Analysis evaluates the effects of firm characteristics and economic determinants on financial efficiency level of the MFIs. Result on first stage revealed the post-crisis efficiency score higher than the pre-crisis efficiency score and this implies financial crisis does not financially affected the MFIs hence appear to be sustainable in the long-run. The findings in the next stage reveal firm characteristics and economic determinants mostly found insignificant for post crisis period while significant in the pre-crisis. The insignificant outcomes prove the crisis has resulted some variables being unable to explain variation in financial efficiency of the MFIs. Generally, the microfinance industry will be benefited from this study as an input for any concurrent crisis in the future. This is vital since the MFIs is the only financial institutions that provide financial access to the poor

Health risk assessment of heavy metal exposure to classroom dust in primary school, Serdang (Malaysia)

Investigation of indoor dust is one of the major pathways in children exposure to heavy metal. High concentration of heavy metal in dust will have significant unequivocal ecological impacts and pose a potential health hazard. Dust samples were collected from seven randomly selected classrooms using a clean plastic brush and shovel. The dust samples were digested using aqua regia method and analyzed for Cd, Pb and Cu using Flame Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer. Non-cancer effects due to heavy metal exposure from the classroom dust were also assessed. The heavy metal concentrates found on the floor, fan and windows were 0.17–6.14 μg/g for Cd, 0.34–454.86 μg/g for Pb and 12.63–185.82 μg/g for Cu, respectively. In comparison to other reported studies in the literature, the maximum levels of Cd, Pb and Cu were comparable or lower to those reported elsewhere. According to the calculation on Hazard Quotient (HQ) in the case of non-cancer effects, primary school children are experiencing no adverse effects since