Integrating vocational training in culinary arts and Islamic studies at juvenile rehabilitation centres: Malaysian experience

The Juvenile Rehabilitation Centres (JRC) in Malaysia aims to provide shelter, counselling and skills training to juveniles specifically for those who wish to transform themselves from the regrettable misdeeds they have committed. At JRCs, an integrated Culinary Vocational Training and Islamic education forms part of their training curriculum. The skills acquired should enable trainees to secure jobs upon completion of training. However, there are some training institutions that lack systematic training structures resulting in trainees becoming less skilful in both vocational and Islamic education. The objective of this research is to identify the effectiveness of an integrated Culinary and Islamic Education curriculum implemented at JRCs in Malaysia. This is a descriptive survey and data was obtained using questionnaire and interview. Respondents comprised 92 trainees, four managers, four culinary trainers and four Islamic education teachers, all from four different JRCs. The findings show that the trainees are happy with their trainings that brought about positive effects for them. Some suggestions have been made to provide improvements in the implementation of the course among them the inclusion of prayers in the Islamic education syllabus

Implementation Of Internal Model Control (IMC) In Continuous Distillation Column.

Distillation columns have been widely used in chemical plants for separation process. The high nonlinearity and dynamic behavior of the column make them hard to control

Kimura’s disease with atypical musculoskeletal presentation

We would like to highlight an unusual clinical presentation of Kimura’s disease, a rare, benign, idiopathic condition, usually seen as swelling and lesions of the head and neck region and commonly affecting young men of Asian descent. It is rare for this disorder to present with lesions on other parts of the body, especially the lower limbs. We report a 27- year-old man who presented with a large mass located at the inguinal region and extending down to the upper thigh. Due to the large size of the mass (28 x 18 cm), our provisional diagnosis was a soft tissue sarcoma. Open biopsy showed that the lesion was benign

Design and Implementation of Temperature Controller for a Vacuum Distiller

This paper proposed design and implementation of temperature controller for a vacuum distiller. The distiller is aimed to provide distillation process of bioethanol in nearly vacuum condition. Due to varying vacuum pressure, temperature have to be controlled by manipulating AC voltage to heating elements. Two arduino based control strategies have been implemented, PID control and Fuzzy Logic control. Control command from the controller was translated to AC drive using TRIAC based dimmer circuit. Experimental results show that fuzzy logic controllers have better performance in controlling temperature of vacuum distille

The Sufi order against religious radicalism in Indonesia

This study aimed to analyse the contribution of the Sufi order in stemming religion-based violence as a form of the Sufis’ response to rampant violence, extremism and religious radicalism. This study used a qualitative method in which the data were obtained through interviews, observation and documentation. Then they were analysed by using an interactive model. This study was carried out in three Sufi communities of the Sufi order Qadariyah wan Naqshabandiyah (TQN) in Indonesia, namely in Suryalaya Islamic Boarding School, Futuhiyyah Islamic Boarding School Mranggen and Darul Ulum Islamic Boarding School Jombang. The results of the study show that the three TQN orders have the concepts of dhikr and love, which are internalised in the act of Sufism. The Sufi order has the doctrines of love of God, mutual love, discourse of moderation and tolerance towards religion and other groups as the main instruments in the fight against religious radicalism. The resistance of the Sufis to religious radicalism shows that the Sufi order is cornered from attacks by formalist groups in religion. This fact reopens the historical archive of contradictions between the two major currents of Islamic thought and movement, Salafi versus Sufi. The counter-radicalism narrated by the Sufis of the three TQN communities represents their defensive attitude towards the aggressiveness of the textual and radical Salafis. Contribution: This article contributes to prevent and reduce the rise of religious radicalism in Indonesia. The doctrines of tanbih, mahabbah, tolerance and moderatism developed by the Sufis in the three TQN communities became a source of reference and inspiration for resistance to violence and religious radicalism

Diuretic properties of Orthosiphon stamineus Benth.

Ethnopharmacological relevance: Orthosiphon stamineus has been used in traditional medicine for centuries especially to treat diseases of the urinary system. Aim of the study: To investigate the diuretic activity, to elucidate its possible mechanism and to evaluate the renal effects of Orthosiphon stamineus extract. Materials and methods: Water extracts were administered orally at doses of 5 and 10 mg/kg to Sprague-Dawley rats and the control groups were given commercial diuretic drugs either furosemide or hydrochlorthiazide at 10 mg/kg. Urine volume, urine pH, urine density and urine electrolytes were determined every hour for 4 h. Blood was assayed for glucose, albumin, blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and creatinine. Results: O. stamineus extract exhibited dose-dependent diuretic activity. However, excretion of Na+ and Cl- was not markedly elevated, but urinary excretion of K+ was significantly increased. O. stamineus extracts slightly increased the serum BUN, creatinine and blood glucose level. Although these levels were statistically significant when compared to control, these levels were still within normal range. Conclusions: O. stamineus exhibited diuretic activity, but was less potent than furosemide and hydrochlorothiazide. Care should be taken when consuming this herb as slight increase of kidney function enzymes was recorded

Analysis on Complex Frequency Selective Surface (FSS) using Finite Different Time Domain Method (FDTD)

In this paper, three different situations of the symmetry frequency selective surface (FSS) shaped are designed – consist of without symmetry, 1/4 symmetry and 1/8 symmetry condition using FORTRAN software. In this work, the Energy-Saving Glass (ESG) that covered the glass with a metallic oxide coating to exploit obstructive of infrared and ultraviolet radiation into structures. The tools used in this work were applied to propose a complex shape by using Genetic Algorithm (GA) as the optimization tool to create bits of the chromosome in designing the shape of energy-saving glass (ESG). It also used the Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) was working as a process of numerical algorithm modeling to design the complex shape in pixelized shape based on the unit cell idea. For without symmetry complex, 1/4 symmetry complex and 1/8 complex for FSS shape, it shows that the - 43 dB at 1.2 GHz, respectively

Evaluation on physico-chemical properties of pink guava puree residue as bioresource

Pink Guava Puree (PGP) factory produces tons of residues from its unit operation [refiner (R), siever (S), and decanter (D)]. These residues represent a waste of nutrients and can contribute to environmental problem. However, it can benefit related industries if the properties of the residues are known. Thus, this research aims to determine the compositions of the residues from PGP processing factory in order to evaluate possible value-added by-product and energy sources. The residues from each unit operation were being tested for proximate composition, dietary fibre components, pH value, emulsifying activity (EA) and emulsifying stability (ES), carbon-to-nitrogen (C/N) ratio, and sugar analysis. The sugar content was analysed using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC-RI detector). Results showed that the residues have good composition of carbohydrate (11.82–12.18%), and thus potential as carbon source and can be a good substrate for fermentation. These residues may also benefit the food industry as a good source of dietary fibre (18.63–29.86%). The pH value for these PGP residues is 4; thus they were considered as acidic food by-product. The low pH value also contributed to the low EA and ES value other than the low content of protein in the sample. C/N ratio for PGP residue from R (46:1) is the lowest compared to the C/N ratio from S (84:1) and D (115:1). The amount of sugars detected in the PGP residues in descending order were fructose > glucose > sucrose

Effects of concurrent TeO2 reduction and ZnO addition on elastic and structural properties of (90 − x)TeO2–10Nb2O5–(x)ZnO glass

Niobium-containing tellurite glass with starting composition of (90 − x)TeO2–10Nb2O5–(x)ZnO (x = 0–15 mol%) have been prepared by melt-quenching method and the effect of reduction of TeO2 with simultaneous increase in ZnO on elastic properties was studied. Ultrasonic longitudinal and shear velocity showed initial decrease of 3.52% and 2.37%, respectively, at x = 5 mol%. For x > 5 mol%, longitudinal velocity showed weak recovery but shear velocity showed steady recovery with ZnO and recorded 0.95% increase in value at x = 15 mol% compared to x = 0 sample. Shear and Young's moduli recorded similar drop at x = 5 mol% followed by strong recovery at x > 5 mol%, while longitudinal and Bulk modulus showed weak and no recovery, respectively, with x. Infrared (IR) absorption spectra showed increase in intensity of NbO6-assigned peak accompanied by increase in intensity of ZnO4 tetrahedra and TeO4 trigonal bipyramid (tbp) assigned peaks indicating formation of both non-bridging oxygen, NBO and bridging oxygen, BO, respectively, with addition of ZnO. The initial drop in ultrasonic velocity and related elastic moduli observed at x = 5 mol% indicates weakening of network rigidity of the glass system due to structural modification as a direct effect of TeO2 reduction and existence of NBO. However, further replacement of TeO2 by ZnO at x > 5 mol% contributed to increase in BO causing rigidity of the glass network to improve. In addition, hardness, H, was observed to increase with ZnO indicating increase in connectivity of the glass network while Poisson's ratio, σ, decreased indicating increase in cross-link density of the glass system. The combined results of ultrasonic velocity and IR absorption spectra suggest that the role of TeO2 is very critical in the ternary glass system as, although ZnO addition showed improved rigidity due to recovery of shear modulus, the weakening of longitudinal and Bulk moduli indicates ZnO is not fully effective as glass former in place of TeO2