Effect of the different encapsulation methods on the physicochemical and biological properties of Clitoria ternatea flowers microencapsulated in gelatin

Clitoria ternatea flowers are known as butterfly pea flowers which contain many bioactive compounds and can be found in tropical countries. However, the bioactive compounds are easily lost when exposed to various environmental conditions. Encapsulation technologies are introduced to provide maximum protection to the encapsulated bioactive compounds. The main objectives of this study were to determine the physicochemical properties of C. ternatea flowers encapsulated in gelatine prepared using different encapsulating methods and the microbiological properties of the best encapsulating methods for C. ternatea flowers with gelatine. In this study, the moisture contents for ultrasonic spray dried powders recorded the lowest (5.94±0.44%) while samples of convection oven recorded the highest (14.33±1.30%). However, the ultrasonic spray dried powders demonstrated the highest total flavonoid contents, but convection oven dried powders showed the lowest. The results for total anthocyanin contents were similar to total flavonoid contents. The highest encapsulation efficiency based on anthocyanin contents was found in freeze dried powders (95.75±0.24%). These results showed the same antioxidant activity (DPPH assay) with the highest percentage inhibition of freeze dried powders and the lowest percentage inhibition of ultrasonic spray dried powders. The phytochemical functional group that revealed from Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopic (FTIR) analysis also indicate the presence of high amount of phenolic compounds in freeze dried powders although with ‘collapse building’ shape with fibrillary structure. The freeze dried powder showed the highest L* value (45.62±0.54), yet ultrasonic spray dried powders highest a*, b* and C* value. Thus, the analysis for microbial properties was carried out on freeze dried powders as freeze dryer was chosen as the best encapsulating methods. The freeze dried powders showed inhibition against gram positive and gram negative bacteria such as Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Salmonella enterica and fungi such as Aspergillus niger and Candida albicans. The current study demonstrated the potential of using gelatine to encapsulate technique to retain antioxidant compounds in gelatine encapsulated C. ternatea flowers. This finding provides useful information on the use of different encapsulated methods for the development of functional food products for gelatine encapsulated flowers of C. ternatea

A comparative study of conventional PID and intelligent Fuzzy-PID FordDC motor speed control

The development of a Self Tuning Fuzzy proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller was done to be compared with the conventional controller that is being used in a direct current (DC) motor. Simulation study is used to overcome the appearance of nonlinearities and uncertainties in the system with the proposed controller for the armature voltage controlled DC motors. Each parameter of the Fuzzy-PID controller is self tuned using 49 fuzzy rules in the fuzzy logic controller. The proportional, integral and derivative (KP,KI,KD) gains of the PID controller is being tuned by the controller. Different types of membership functions are evaluated in the fuzzy control and the best performance will be used in Fuzzy-PID for comparative analysis with the conventional PID.The FIS editor from MATLAB defines the membership function and the rules. Load disturbances from a variety of speed response and the step response are simulated from different scenarios.The Fuzzy PID has resulted to be more robust and it is insensitive to variations in the parameter

First report of brown widow spider sightings in Peninsular Malaysia and notes on its global distribution

Background The brown widow spider (Latrodectus geometricus Koch, 1841) has colonised many parts of the world from its continent of origin, Africa. By at least 1841, the species had successfully established populations in South America and has more recently expanded its range to the southern states of North America. This highly adaptable spider has been far more successful in finding its niche around the world than its famous cousins, the black widow, Latrodectus mactans, found in the south-eastern states of North America, and the red-back, Latrodectus hasselti, found mostly in Australia, New Zealand and Japan. Methods We performed an extensive web search of brown widow sightings and mapped the location of each sighting using ArcGIS. Specimens reputedly of the species L. geometricus were collected at three localities in Peninsular Malaysia. The spiders were identified and documented based on an examination of morphological characteristics and DNA barcoding. Results The spiders found in Peninsular Malaysia were confirmed to be Latrodectus geometricus based on their morphological characteristics and DNA barcodes. We recorded 354 sightings of the brown widow in 58 countries, including Peninsular Malaysia. Conclusion Reports from the Americas and the Far East suggest a global-wide invasion of the brown widow spider. Herein we report the arrival of the brown widow spider in Peninsular Malaysia and provide notes on the identification of the species and its recently expanded range

Pencirian dan aktiviti antibakteria endofit Streptomyces sp. dari Hutan Simpan Penyelidikan UKM Bangi

Endofit yang bersimbiosis dengan tumbuhan merupakan mikroorganisma yang terdapat dalam satu sistem jaringan tumbuhan seperti pada akar, daun, batang atau ranting. Ianya dapat menghasilkan metabolit sekunder yang berpotensi untuk digunakan dalam bidang kesihatan sebagai sumber penghasilan antibiotik. Kajian ini bertujuan memencilkan endofit Streptomyces sp. daripada pelbagai tumbuhan ubatan endemik. Kesemua pencilan telah dikenalpasti melalui pemerhatian secara makroskopik dan mikroskopik. Sebanyak 28 pencilan (32%) yang bercirikan Streptomyces sp. telah berjaya dipencilkan menggunakan media pemencil ISP2. Kesemua pencilan adalah bergram positif, mempunyai filamen bercabang serta berbau tanah yang merupakan ciri penting Streptomyces sp. Daripada pemerhatian secara makroskopik, didapati kebanyakan koloni yang terbentuk mempunyai permukaan yang tidak rata serta bersifat kering berkapur. Warna miselium udara pencilan adalah berbeza iaitu kelabu, putih kuning, putih serta hijau kelabu. Selain itu, warna miselium substrat ialah putih kuning, coklat, jingga tua, hijau zaitun dan kelabu muda. Amat menarik kerana terdapat beberapa pencilan yang berbeza cirinya telah dipencilkan daripada pokok yang sama. Selain dari itu, terdapat beberapa pencilan yang mempunyai aktiviti antibakteria yang memberikan perencatan 100% terhadap bakteria ujian

High-speed tracking of moving markers during radiotherapy using a CMOS active pixel sensor

Purpose/Objective(s): In order to minimize the dose delivered to healthy tissue near amoving tumor during radiotherapy it is first necessary to accurately measure tumor position as a function of time. For example, a portal imager can be used to detect surrogate markers implanted around the tumor in order to track its motion with a moving collimator. Lung tumors can move at up to 30 mm/s, requiring a sampling rate of 30 frame/s to achieve mm accuracy. However the passive a-Si Flat Panel Imagers (FPIs) available with current linear accelerators operate at 2 - 10 frames/s, significantly slower than the required rate. Furthermore a-Si FPIs provide low image quality at their fastest frame rates and are susceptible to damage by the treatment beam, requiring replacement every 1 - 2 years. Emerging CMOS active pixel sensors use an addressable and partial read-out architecture to achieve significantly improved frame-rates relative to their passive counterparts. They are also capable of higher resolution, image quality and radiation-hardness. This study investigates the feasibility of using a CMOS APS to quickly and accurately track radio-opaque markers during radiotherapy. Materials/Methods: A custom CMOS imaging system was designed and constructed in collaboration with the MI3 consortium. The performance of this system was characterized and compared with an a-Si FPI. Four cylindrical gold markers of diameter 0.8 to 2 mm and length 8 mm were positioned on a motion-platform and moved according to the Lujan approximation to respiratory motion. Images were acquired using the megavoltage treatment beam at a range of frame and dose rates. The success rate of an automatic detection routine, absolute mean-error from the expected position and contrast-to-noise ratio of the marker images were then evaluated as a function of marker size, marker speed, frame rate and dose rate. Results: TheCMOSimager was found to offer improved resolution and signal-to-noise than the standard a-Si FPI at a comparable dose. The long integration time of the FPI resulted in marker images being too blurred to detect. The CMOS was able to detect the three largest markers 100% of the time and estimate their position to within 0.3 mm at 150 - 300 MU/min and 20 - 50 frame/s. However success rate declined with decreasing dose or frame rate. Conclusions: A CMOS megavoltage imaging system was found to offer superior signal-noise and resolution than the standard a-Si FPI. Furthermore the high speed of CMOS provided sub mm tracking of moving markers at a clinically acceptable dose rate and marker size

Characterization and testing of LAS: a prototype 'large area sensor' with performance characteristics suitable for medical imaging applications

The Large Area Sensor (LAS) is a 1350 x 1350 array of active pixels on a 40m pitch fabricated in a 0.35m CMOS process. Stitching technology is employed to achieve an area of 5.4 cm x 5.4 cm. The sensor includes 'regions of reset', whereby three different integration times can be set on the array to achieve a large imaging range for static scenes. Characterization of the noise performance included temporal and fixed pattern sources. LAS was found to have a read noise of 62 e -, a full well capacity of 61 x 10 3 e - and a conversion gain of 5 e - per digital number (DN). The fixed pattern noise (FPN) was evaluated at half saturation; within a single stitched section of the array, column-to-column FPN was found to be 0.6, while the pixel-to-pixel FPN was 3. Both FPN sources were found to be gain related and could be corrected via flat fielding. Based on the results of characterization, LAS was coupled to a structured CsI:Tl scintillator and included in an X-ray diffraction system developed for the analysis of breast biopsy samples. Data acquired with plastic test objects agrees with that acquired by a previous prototype sensor. It is demonstrated that an imaging output range of 140 dB can be achieved using integration times of 0.1 ms to record the transmitted X-ray beam and 2.3 s to record the lower intensity scattered radiation. © 2009 IEEE

First report of brown widow spider sightings in Peninsular Malaysia and notes on its global distribution

Background: The brown widow spider (Latrodectus geometricus Koch, 1841) has colonised many parts of the world from its continent of origin, Africa. By at least 1841, the species had successfully established populations in South America and has more recently expanded its range to the southern states of North America. This highly adaptable spider has been far more successful in finding its niche around the world than its famous cousins, the black widow, Latrodectus mactans, found in the south-eastern states of North America, and the red-back, Latrodectus hasselti, found mostly in Australia, New Zealand and Japan. Methods: We performed an extensive web search of brown widow sightings and mapped the location of each sighting using ArcGIS. Specimens reputedly of the species L. geometricus were collected at three localities in Peninsular Malaysia. The spiders were identified and documented based on an examination of morphological characteristics and DNA barcoding. Results: The spiders found in Peninsular Malaysia were confirmed to be Latrodectus geometricus based on their morphological characteristics and DNA barcodes. We recorded 354 sightings of the brown widow in 58 countries, including Peninsular Malaysia. Conclusion: Reports from the Americas and the Far East suggest a global-wide invasion of the brown widow spider. Herein we report the arrival of the brown widow spider in Peninsular Malaysia and provide notes on the identification of the species and its recently expanded range

Avaliação nutricional, durante a amamentação, de tourinhos em pastejo recebendo suplementação proteica da amamentação à terminação Nutritional evaluation, during the nursing phase, of grazing young bulls that received supplementation with different protein profiles from nursing to finishing

O objetivo neste estudo foi avaliar as condições nutricionais de tourinhos em aleitamento, a pasto, recebendo suplementação com concentrados proteicos durante a época de transição águas-seca. Foram utilizados 52 bezerros mestiços com idade média inicial de 130 dias. Os animais foram distribuídos em quatro lotes, alojados em piquetes de Brachiaria decumbens Stapf junto com suas mães, onde receberam uma das quatro estratégias de suplementação: três suplementos concentrados, ou sal mineral (controle). Os suplementos concentrados diferiram quanto ao nível de proteína. Após 45 dias, realizou-se a avaliação nutricional dos animais, que incluiu a estimação do consumo e da digestão de nutrientes e das características do metabolismo proteico. A estimação do consumo e da digestibilidade foi feita utilizando-se os indicadores: LIPE®, dióxido de titânio e fibra em detergente neutro indigestível. Realizou-se ainda coleta de amostras de urina e de sangue. O efeito de suplementação e os efeitos linear e quadrático do nível de proteína no concentrado foram avaliados pela decomposição da soma de quadrados em contrastes ortogonais, adotando-se &#945; = 0,10. O consumo de concentrado substituiu parte do pasto ingerido pelos bezerros e aumentou a ingestão de proteína, a digestibilidade da matéria seca e matéria orgânica, o teor de nutrientes digestíveis totais e a excreção de nitrogênio na urina. O nível de proteína no suplemento tem efeito linear positivo sobre a ingestão diária de proteína, a digestibilidade de todos os nutrientes e o teor de nutrientes digestíveis totais e efeito quadrático sobre a excreção de nitrogênio na forma de ureia na urina.<br>The objective of this study was to evaluate the nutritional status of grazing nursing young bulls supplemented with concentrates with different protein levels during the rainy-dry season transition. Fifty two crossbred Nellore calves with initial mean age of 130 days were divided into four lots, housed in paddocks of Brachiaria decumbens Stapf and received one of the four different supplementation strategies: three different concentrate supplements, or mineral salt (control). The levels of protein in the concentrate supplements varied. After 45 days, the nutritional evaluation of animals, which included the prediction of intake and digestion of nutrients and characteristics of protein metabolism, was made. The prediction of intake and digestibility used the indicators LIPE®, titanium dioxide and neutral detergent fiber indigestible. Urine and blood samples were collected too. The supplementation effect, and the linear and quadratic effects of the level of protein in the concentrate were evaluated by the decomposition of the sum of squares into orthogonal contrasts, adopting &#945; = 0.10. The concentrate intake replaced part of the pasture ingested by the calves and increased protein intake, the digestibility of dry and organic matter, the total digestible nutrients content, and the nitrogen excretion in urine. The level of protein in the supplement has a positive linear effect on the daily protein intake, the digestibility of all nutrients and the total digestible nutrients content, and quadratic effect on the excretion of nitrogen as urea in the urine