Formaldehyde content and quality characteristics of selected fish and seafood from wet markets

Formaldehyde was used by fishermen and fish vendors to preserve the freshness and quality of fish and seafood. The study was undertaken to determine the formaldehyde content and quality characteristics of fish and seafood from wet markets. Formaldehyde content was in the range of 0.38 to 15.75 μg g-1. Three types of biogenic amines (histamine, putrescine and cadaverine) were detected from all samples in which histamine content ranged from 0.25 to 1.97 μg g-1, putrescine from 0.33 to 9.09 μg g-1 and cadaverine from 0.34 to 5.81 μg g-1. Amino acids as biogenic amines precursor were also determined with lysine ranged from 12.75 to 28.80mg g-1, arginine from 8.17 to 27.83 mg g-1 and histidine from 1.93 to 10.14 mg g-1. As for the microbiological analyses, total plate counts for all fish types ranged from 5.68 to 7.13 log cfu g-1 and the proteolytic counts from 5.12 to 6.91 log cfu g-1. Samples were also analyzed for the presence of putrescine/ cadavarine/ histamine producing bacteria where the counts ranged from 3.50 to 6.52 log cfu g-1. The pH of all selected fish ranged from 6.25 to 7.28. There was no significant difference (p>0.05) among fish purchased from different wet markets. Hence this study suggested that fish and seafood from wet markets can be considered in good quality since the formaldehyde content and microbiological counts were still below the permissible limits

Integrating Green Skills into TVET Curricula in Polytechnics Malaysia

Green skills are very much needed by green industry. Nevertheless, many TVET institutions have not yet embedded green skill elements into the programme’s curriculum because it is still unclear concerning the types of green skills demanded by the green industry. Therefore, this research was conducted to identify the green skills that should be integrated into TVET curricula from the perspective of engineering lecturers in Polytechnics. The nature of this research was descriptive in which the date were collected using self-developed questionnaire. Four Polytechnics located in the East Coast, Northern, Central, and Southern of Malaysia were involved. A total of 332 engineering lecturers from three departments of engineering (Civil, Electrical, and Mechanical Engineering) were invited to participate in this research. The findings revealed that the TVET curricular should contains some of these green skills: problem solving skill related to environmental pollution,  interpretative skill on environmental phenomena, research skill on environmental issues, data collection skill, analytical skill, exploitation skill on green technology, management skill on natural resources, design skill, controlling skill on environment pollution, raw material management skill, energy saving skill, recycling skill, and reuse skill. It is suggested that Polytechnics should embed these green skills into their programme curricula in order to produce graduates who are able to meet the needs of green industry

The study of services quality by Rapid Kuantan bus

Public transportati011 services play an important role in the country and are seen as a solution to overcome the serious traffic congestion. Traffic congestion caused by the increasing number of private cars and was due to public transport cannot meet the needs and customer satisfaction. Therefore the objective of this study was to determine the level of service quality by Rapid Kuantan Bus and to investigate the factors of strength and weakness by Rapid Kuantan Bus.This study was conducted to find out the respondents' views on the availability of information, comfort, safety and convenience. This study focuses on the quality of service with Rapid Kuantan Bus by using the questionnaire survey method. The study was conducted on 300 respondents randomly involving route 100 Hentian Bandar - Gambang Resort. The results revealed that most respondents said the service quality by Rapid Kuantan Bus was still in good level, especially in term of safety, air condition and physical appearance. Nevertheless, Rapid Kuantan Bus should improve their service quality in seat availability, crowdedness and exchange money for price fare. Recommendations have been made based on the results of the study is to provide two different types of buses, provides free Wi-Fi and provides ticketing system