Development of bambangan (Mangifera pajang) carbonated drink

Mangifera pajang Kostermans or bambangan is a popular fruit among Sabahan due to its health and economic values. However, the fruit is not fully commercialized since it is usually been used as traditional cuisine by local people. Thus, development of bambangan fruit into carbonated drink was conducted to produce new product concept. The objectives of this study were to conceptualize, formulate, evaluate consumer acceptance, and determine physicochemical properties and nutritional composition of the accepted product. Method used in conceptualising the product was based on questionnaire. The consumer acceptance was evaluated based on descriptive and affective tests with four product formulations tested. The physicochemical properties on carbon dioxide volume, colour, pH, total acidity, total soluble solid (TSS) and viscosity were highlighted, meanwhile nutritional composition on fat, protein, carbohydrates and energy content were determined. About 77% respondents gave positive feedback, and 69% respondents decided this product is within their budget. The formulation of 5% bambangan pulp, 70% water, 25% sugar and 0.2% citric acid was highly accepted in descriptive and affective tests with 4.4 and 6.39 mean scores, respectively. The physicochemical properties and nutritional composition of the acceptance product were in optimum value except for colour, total acidity and TSS. Overall, this study showed that the product has high potential to be commercialized as new product concept, and heritage of indigenous people can be preserved when this fruit is known regionally

Antiproliferative activity of five garcinia species collected in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo against estrogen receptor-human breast carcinoma (MCF-7) cell line

Garcinia species are well-known for their unique properties of having natural secondary metabolite compounds called xanthone as well as their ethnomedicinal values such as antioxidant, anticancer, anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties. The study was conducted to investigate the antiproliferative activity of peel, flesh and seed extracts of G. dulcis, G. parvifolia, G. nitida, G. mangostana var. mangosta and G. cambogia collected from Malaysian Borneo (Sabah) against estrogen receptor-positive human breast carcinoma (MCF-7) cells. The antiproliferative activity was assessed using 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5- diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. The results showed that G. dulcis seed induced strongest antiproliferative activity against MCF-7 cancer cell line with the IC50 value of 2.5±0.0 μg/ml, followed by G. dulcis flesh, G. mangostana var. mangostana peel and G. dulcis peel with IC50 values of 9.33 ± 3.21, 11.17 ± 1.04 and 17.67 ± 2.08 μg/ml, respectively. Meanwhile, the IC50 value for G. cambogia peel was 56.67 ± 10.5 μg/ml. No IC50 value was detected in all parts of G. parvifolia and G. nitida at concentration tested (<100 μg/ml). Overall, this study clearly showed that the whole fruit of G. dulcis displayed potent cytotoxic effect by inducing antiproliferative activity at low concentration. Further studies are needed in the future to develop this fruit as pharmaceutical and nutraceutical product for the treatment and prevention against cancer

Development of PAN (personal area network) for Mobile Robot Using Bluetooth Transceiver

In recent years, wireless applications using radio frequency (RF) have been rapidly evolving in personal computing and communications devices. Bluetooth technology was created to replace the cables used on mobile devices. Bluetooth is an open specification and encompasses a simple low-cost, low power solution for integration into devices. This research work aim was to provide a PAN (personal area network) for computer based mobile robot that supports real-time control of four mobile robots from a host mobile robot. With ad hoc topology, mobile robots may request and establish a connection when it is within the range or terminated the connection when it leaves the area. A system that contains both hardware and software is designed to enable the robots to participate in multi-agent robotics system (MARS). Computer based mobile robot provide operating system that enabled development of wireless connection via IP address

IMMERSION ULTRASONIC INSPECTION SYSTEM FOR SMALL SCALED COMPOSITE SPECIMEN

ABSTRACT Ultrasonic testing is a common Non-Destructive Test (NDT) technique used especially in flaw detection for various material such as metal, plastic and composite. However, detecting flaw on a composite material is likely more difficult because of its non-homogenous characteristics. An ultrasonic scanning unit is developed in previous research focusing at the inspection on a composite material. In this paper, the improvement and modification to the system is revised and discussed in term of system configuration, specification, controls and also inspection results. The major improvement is made on the heart of the machine as the scanning mechanism is changed from using an air-coupled transducer to an immersion transducer. Current immersion transducer used is 2.25MHz which is highly recommended for a composite material. A combination of Arduino board and a self-developed graphical user interface (GUI) are used in order to control the position of the transducer and to run the inspection process. The data is acquired from pulse receiver to the computer for further data processing and interpretation. The machine is tested with fibre glass composite laminates (FGCL) sample with holes as artificial defect

Clinical, biochemical and histological changes during developement of pregnancy ketosis in goats

Thin does or very over-conditioned does and does carrying with multiple pregnancies are more likely to develop pregnancy ketosis (pregnancy toxaemia). Pregnancy ketosis is one of the metabolic disorders in ruminant animal such as does and ewes during the last weeks of pregnancy (5 – 6 weeks before gestation) and beside high ketone body levels characterised by free fatty acids levels (FFA). These FFA are derived from the adipose tissue. The ability of adipocytes to respond to changes in the energy balance, by secretion of FFA makes this parameter a main indicator for disorder that coincide with changes in energy balance. It is biochemically and endocrinologically characterized by ketosis, hypoinsulinemia and an elevation of B- hydroxybtyrate concentration in the plasma, free fatty acids (FFA), and cortisol. However, the effect of plasma free fatty acid on pathophysiology, metabolites and histological changes of this disorder remain poorly understood. Clinical signs, often with a slow onset, are characterised by neuorological signs like teeth grinding, stress and dull eyes. Ketosis also affected on pathological part which characterized by fatty liver. In this review, we are focusing various key aspects of the disease with special reference on the clinical, biochemical and histological changes during development of pregnancy ketosis in goat population

Properties of chicken head gelatins as affected by extraction method

Malaysia is a surplus poultry producing country with well-established commercial slaughtering and processing plants. Immense quantity of heads, feet, viscera, blood and feathers are usually discarded and not optimally utilized. Chicken heads are rich in protein, and could be a potential source of gelatin. The aim of the present work was therefore to find a simpler, faster, cheaper and greener gelatin extraction technology as compared to current available methods of gelatin extraction from poultry heads. A comparison of three different gelatin extraction methods with alkaline-acid pretreatment (E1), single acid pretreatment (E2) and single alkaline pretreatment (E3) were studied to extract gelatin from chicken heads. E1 and E2 produced gelatins of Type A, while E3 produced gelatin of Type B. High bloom gelatin (>300 g) with <1% of ash content, high gelling (25.8-26.0°C) and melting (30.8-32.3°C) temperatures, good functionality and physical appearance were obtained from E1 and E2 extraction methods. Gelatins of E1 and E2 had higher viscous (G’’) and elastic modulus (G’) values on cooling and heating as compared to the commercial bovine skin gelatin. FTIR spectra of the gelatins indicated different degrees of structural denaturation. Overall, extraction methods of E1 and E2 produced better gelatin quality than E3. Nonetheless, E1 was the best extraction method for the production of high quality gelatin from chicken heads

Curvature sensor utilizing evanescent field propagation via microfibers

In this study, we introduce curvature optical fiber sensor utilizing high sensitivity microfiber having a potential for pipeline monitoring system. The size of standard single mode fibers was narrowed down to different sizes with diameters of 10, 15 and 20 µm. Meanwhile, the up and down tapers were maintained at 2 mm, each, with waist lengths, were fixed at 15 mm, each. In this work, the microfibers with 15 and 20 µm of diameter sizes were able to detect a high bending sensitivity with the response of 3.4 nm/m−1 and 4.92 nm/m−1 by using an optical spectrum analyzer with 0.02 nm of optical resolution. This strategy is beneficial and practical in contrast to the ordinary system of utilizing a couple of hundred km ultrasonic long-range for pipeline monitoring. The proposed design can be permanently conceived in the pipeline to reduce the cost to achieve areas which require rehashed examinations

Passively mode-locked fiber laser by utilizing TTG film on a D-shaped fiber as a saturable absorber

In this paper, we propose a mode-locked fiber laser by utilizing single layer Trivial Transfer Graphene film (TTGF) as a saturable absorber (SA). The SA was deposited on the top of a side-polished D-shaped fiber. The SA was then integrated in the ring cavity configuration, with a clockwise light propagation. Three distinctive 2 m erbium doped fibers (EDFs) those are Metro-Gain15 EDF, Iso-Gain6 EDF and Iso-Gain12 EDF were used as gain media, interchangeable in the experiment. From the results, the Metro-Gain15 EDF gives the most proficient gain medium on generating a passively mode-locked fiber laser. The Metro-Gain15 Erbium doped mode-locked Laser was successfully producing ultrashort pulse with 8 nm spectral band-width, 13 MHz of repetition rate and 915 fs pulse duration. These outcomes demonstrated that TTGF deposited on the D-shaped fiber is a suitable component as an SA to produce a stable output passively mode-locked fiber laser for many optical fiber applications

Trace determination of cadmium content in Malaysian herbs using graphene–ionic liquid-modified screen-printed carbon electrodes

A simple and effective method of square-wave anodic stripping voltammetry (SWASV) with screen-printed carbon electrodes (SPCEs) was used to determine the cadmium concentration in Malaysian herb samples. The optimization process involved the selection of an optimized pH, an acetate buffer as a supporting electrolyte, the deposition potential, deposition time and the surface modification process on an SPCE surface. The optimum conditions were a pH of 4.5, a deposition potential of −1.4&thinsp;V and a deposition time of 120&thinsp;s. The SPCE surface was modified with the fabrication of the graphene–ionic liquid composite as the sensing layer. Four herb samples were tested, where herbs A, D, M and C contained 0.0035, 0.0237, 0.0267 and 0.0251&thinsp;ppm of cadmium, respectively. The sensitivity of the proposed sensor was compared with an inductively coupled plasma–optical emission spectroscopy (ICP–OES). The relative standard deviation (RSD) between the sensor and the ICP–OES indicated that the sensor was sensitive, as RSD was below 20&thinsp;% with range of 7.93&thinsp;% to 18.28&thinsp;%.</p

Eggshell coated grey cast iron for corrosion applications

In many years, corrosion has been such issues for carbon steel. Eggshell waste is believed to be a potential coating material for carbon steel in many applications. This paper introduces the use of eggshell waste which contains a source of calcium carbonate as corrosion prevention coating material on the grey cast iron by utilizing electrophoretic deposition (EPD) method. Eggshell consisted of 94-95 % of calcium carbonate in the form of calcite and others. Thus, calcium carbonate precipitation can serve as naturally formed coating on the cast iron pipe and prevent diffusion of oxygen that can direct to corrosion. Besides, this method will also prevent the lengthy and complex corrosion control piping system. In this study, the eggshell has been successfully coated on the grey cast iron substrate with optimum condition of 80 V for 1 minute deposition time at the sintering temperature of 600°C. From the preliminary work, thin and uniform coating thickness were produced at 1 minute deposition time and moderate voltage values of 60 - 80V