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

The need for biosafety regulation in developing countries: Benefits and controversies

Nowadays, the rapid development of biotechnology has become a main concern for a larger part of the world. It has become one of the most promising fields which guarantee returns to businesses and offers benefits to the society. When dealing with biotechnology, the first issue that comes to mind is the safeness of the technology from tip to toe, that is, the safeness of the products of biotechnology, how they can be used on human beings and animal, and their effects on the environment. The objective of this paper is to assess the needs and adequacy of the regulation in developing countries compared to the developed countries. In order to address these concerns, governments have adopted appropriate regulations to ensure the safety of the biotechnology products, and to protect not just human but the environment universally. This paper will discuss those regulations, especially as adopted by developing countries along with their implications. It is hoped that the paper will recover the lack of the regulations in relation to developed country.Key words: Biotechnology, biosafety, developing countries, benefits, risks and controversies

تحليل الأغنية الشعبية الثورية الفلسطينية المعاصرة "فدائي" للشاعر فلسطيني على ضوء منهج النقد الأدبي: سعيد المزين أنموذجا = Analyzing the contemporary Palestinian revolutionary folk song “Fida’I” by the Palestinian poet in the lense of literary criticism method: Sa’eed al-Muzayyen as model

تعد الأغنية الشعبية الفلسطينية وسيلة يستخدمها الفلسطينيون من أجل تعبير عن الواقع الذي حدث في أرض فلسطين خاصة بعد احتلّت الصهاينة أرضهم وسرقت كل ما عندهم من الأموال والبيوت والأحلام والآمال، وقد صارت الأغنية الشعبية الفلسطينية منذ ذلك الوقت – وإن لم يطلق عليها اسم الثورة – شكلا من أشكال المقاومة للاحتلال. بناء على هذا، حاول هذا البحث دراسة إحدى الأغاني الشعبية الثورية الفلسطينية المعاصرة، وهي أغنية "فدائي" للشاعر الفلسطيني سعيد المزين، وذلك على ضوء منهج النقد الأدبي، مع التركيز على المنهج السياقي الذي يتضمن ثلاثة من أهم المناهج، وهي المنهج التاريخي والاجتماعي والنفسي، وقد اعتمدت الدراسة على المنهج الوصفي التحليلي حيث يقوم بتحليل نص الأغنية تحليلًا مطابقًا لثلاث مناهج النقد الأدبي المذكورة سابقًا. توصلت الدراسة إلى أن: (1) الأغنية الشعبية الثورية الفلسطينية لها دور هام في بناء الهوية الوطنية، و(2) الشاعر والمناضل سعيد المزين عاش في الفترة التي اندلعت فيها الثورة الفلسطينية، فعاصر أحداث حرب الأيام الستة أو ما يعرف بأيام النكسة، فتأثر بواقع ذلك الوقت، ولهذا تصاعدت مشاعر النضال في نفسه حتى تبلورت روحه المقاومة في نص الأغنية التي كتبها، وفي الوقت نفسه أثرت هذه الأغنية أيضاً على المجتمع الفلسطيني لأنها كانت تدعو إلى الجهاد والكفاح من أجل بقاء فلسطين حرةً شامخةً عصيّةً على الاحتلال والانكسار. ***** Palestinian folk song is a medium used by Palestinians to express the reality happened in the land of Palestine, especially after the Zionist occupied their land and stole their belongings, houses, dreams and hopes, and since the occupation began, Palestinian folk song had become a form of resistance – even though is was not called as a revolutionary song –. Hence this research attempt to study one of the contemporary Palestinian revolutionary folk songs, which is "Fida’i" written by the Palestinian poet Sa’eed al-Muzayyen, by using the literary criticism approach which focus on the contextual approach, which are the historical, social and psychological approach. The study relied on the descriptive-analytical approach, by which it analyzes the text of the song using the three methods of literary criticism approach as mentioned before. The study shows that: (1) Palestinian revolutionary folk songs play an important role in constructing the national identity, and (2) the poet Sa’eed al-Muzayyen lived in the period where the Palestinian revolution flared up, especially after the Six-Day War or known as the “al-Naksah”. He himself was influenced and affected by the war which escalated and intensified his spirit of resistance. This infliction is expressed throughout the text of this song. Juxtaposition, this song has also impacted the society as it calls for resistance for the survival of Palestine

Empirical Investigation on Agile Methods Usage: Issues Identified from Early Adopters in Malaysia

Agile Methods are a set of software practices that can help to produce products faster and at the same time deliver what customers want. Despite the benefits that Agile methods can deliver, however, we found few studies from the Southeast Asia region, particularly Malaysia. As a result, less empirical evidence can be obtained in the country making its implementation harder. To use a new method, experience from other practitioners is critical, which describes what is important, what is possible and what is not possible concerning Agile. We conducted a qualitative study to understand the issues faced by early adopters in Malaysia where Agile methods are still relatively new. The initial study involves 13 participants including project managers, CEOs, founders and software developers from seven organisations. Our study has shown that social and human aspects are important when using Agile methods. While technical aspects have always been considered to exist in software development, we found these factors to be less important when using Agile methods. The results obtained can serve as guidelines to practitioners in the country and the neighbouring regions

Physicochemical properties of tarap (Artocarpus adoratisimus) starch

The objective of the research was to investigate the physicochemical characteristics of Tarap fruit starch. In this study, young Tarap fruit starch was extracted and the percentage of total starch, resistant starch, amylose and amylopectin were determined. Scanning electron microscope was used to evaluate the morphological features of the starch granule. Swelling, pasting, gelatinization, retrogradation and in vitro digestibility were also investigated. A total of 17.85% starch was successfully extracted from unripe Tarap fruit, whereas the amount of total starch and resistant starch were 89.14% and 47.82%, respectively. The amounts of rapid digestible starch and slowly digestible starch were 6.58% and 23.25%, respectively. Results found that the amylopectin content was higher than amylose (77.15% and 11.97%). The starch granules were round and polygon in shapes with smooth surfaces. The average of starch granules size was range from 6.50 to 8.30 μm with 7.4 μm of mean granule diameter. Pasting properties showed that peak viscosity was observed at about 6.5 min at 73.5oC. Tarap starch gelatinization temperatures (onset, 71.63°C; peak, 74.56°C; conclusion, 78.24°C) and enthalpy of gelatinization (ΔHgel) (3.74 J/g) were higher while the retrograded starches show lower retrogradation temperature and enthalpy than native starches. Unripe Tarap starch showed good potential to be utilized as adhesives and thickener for industrial applications

A global study on the correlates of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and COVID-19 vaccine distribution

This study aimed to explore the association between the GDP of various countries and the progress of COVID-19 vaccinations; to explore how the global pattern holds in the continents, and investigate the spatial distribution pattern of COVID-19 vaccination progress for all countries. We have used consolidated data on COVID-19 vaccination and GDP from Our World in Data, an open-access data source. Data analysis and visualization were performed in R-Studio. There was a strong linear association between per capita income and the proportion of people vaccinated in countries with populations of one million or more. GDP per capita accounts for a 50% variation in the vaccination rate across the nations. Our assessments revealed that the global pattern holds in every continent. Rich European and North-American countries are most protected against COVID-19. Less developed African countries barely initiated a vaccination program. There is a significant disparity among Asian countries. The security of wealthier nations (vaccinated their citizens) cannot be guaranteed unless adequate vaccination covers the less affluent countries. Therefore, the global community should undertake initiatives to speed up the COVID-19 vaccination program in all countries of the world, irrespective of their wealth

Heat transfer model to predict human skin temperature under comfort levels by using bioheat equation

Thermal comfort is the human subject perceived satisfaction to the environmental condition. The human comfort level is affected by skin temperature. Currently to determine the human skin temperature by using human experiment in a controlled environment. However, the experiment is very rigorous and exhaustive. This study was conducted to predict human skin temperature under comfort level with using the finite element method and the bioheat equation. The bioheat equation is used to predict the initial value of human skin temperature with the influence of the metabolic heat generation and the blood perfusion. It is discovered the skin temperature of the human subject experiment fluctuates. However, the result obtained from the model remains unchanged until the simulation ends. The predicted results from the model were well in agreement with the experimental results with an acceptable error of 1.05%

Functional properties of composite flour: A review

Incorporation of composite flour into wheat flour for bakery goods production is expected to produce an effect in the functional properties of the blended samples. Functional properties of composite flour have been studied in most of the developing countries which used and imported a large amount of wheat flour to fulfil the increasing number of consumers as the higher demand in the development of bakery and pastry products. In this review paper, the characteristics of composite flours were reviewed to determine the suitability of the raw materials to be used in the production of food products. The functional properties such as water and oil absorption capability, foam ability, emulsion capability, least gelation concentration, and particle size distribution might indicate the capability of the composite flour before proceeding to the development of food products were reviewed. The functionality of composite flour was found to be beneficial to enhance the variety of food products with acceptable appearance, organoleptic, nutrition, and low cost to fulfil consumer demands

Passively mode-locked ultrashort pulse fiber laser incorporating multi-layered graphene nanoplatelets saturable absorber

In this paper, a passive mode-locked erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) incorporating graphene nanoplatelet (GNP) powder-based saturable absorber (SA) with short pulse duration in femtosecond range is demonstrated. A good synthesis of GNP can be simply produced via a combination of thermal, chemical, and mechanical exfoliation of expandable graphite. The GNP-SA is fabricated by mechanically imprinting the powder onto the tip of a single mode fiber ferrule. The characterization of SA is done via focus ion beam scanning electron microscope, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, as well as Raman spectroscopy. The fabricated GNP-SA has 1.8 % modulation depth and C-band transmission loss of less than 1.8 dB. The ring-configuration EDFL integrated with GNP-SA yields a mode-locking threshold of 22.6 mW pump power. Net anomalous dispersion of the laser cavity is validated by the observation of Kelly’s sideband in the optical spectrum. At maximum pump power of 115.8 mW, the mode-locked EDFL has a pulse repetition rate of 13.11 MHz, sech2 profile fitted pulse duration of 694 fs, peak-to-pedestal extinction ratio of 58.2 dB, average output power of 6.7 mW, and pulse energy of 507.2 pJ. Our proposed GNP-SA is feasible as a mode-locker for ultrashort pulsed fiber laser with advantage in terms of simple synthesis and fabrication technique