Common issues on commercialization of genetically modified crops in Asia; a review / Mohd Khairi Abd Hamid

Genetically Modified Crops (GMC) commercialization has become one of the major issues in Asia country because of low food production and affected their economic life. Furthermore, the country like China, India, and Iran were the most country which has high population compared to other country like Malaysia. The objectives of this study are to review on the issue regarding GM Crop in Asia country and to extend knowledge on issues of commercialization in genetically modified crops for better precaution to the future. Without a doubt, GM Crop can help produce more foods to support people to survive in the future and prevent hunger in the community. The issues which concern Asian scientists, regulators and the lay public resemble those of other regions - biosafety, food safety, ethics, social justice, and regulation. Many of the remaining challenges to commercialization GM crops are related to the regulation and public acceptance. Most Asian countries now have regulatory systems for approving the commercialization of GM crops, and for approving food safety of GM crops. In Asia, because of the varied cultures, issues concerning the use of genes derived from animals arouse much emotion for religious and diet choice reasons. This is because many Asian producers and farmers are small-scale, there is also concern about technology dependency and to whom the benefits accrue

Antioxidative activity and total phenolic compounds of leaf, root and petiole of four accessions of Centella asiatica (L.) Urban

Antioxidative activity and total phenolic compounds of root, leaf and petiole of four accessions of Centella asiatica (L.) Urban, namely CA 01, CA 05, CA 08 and CA 11, were evaluated. Antioxidative activity of the extracts was measured using the ferric thiocyanate (FTC) method and thiobarbituric acid (TBA) test. The antioxidative activities were then compared with that of α-tocopherol (natural antioxidant) and butylated hydroxytoulene or BHT (synthetic antioxidant). The results showed that CA 01 and CA 05 had the highest antioxidative activities among the accessions tested. Results also showed that both leaf and root of C. asiatica had high antioxidative activity, which was as good as that of α-tocopherol. The total phenolic content, determined according to the Folin–Ciocalteu method, varied from 3.23 to 11.7 g/100 g dry sample, and showed strong association (r2=0.90) with antioxidative activity. The results suggest that phenolic compounds are the major contributors to the antioxidative activities of C. asiatica

Fire Briquette Enterprise / Masro Masag...[et.al]

Nowadays, our country faces with the biomass waste problems left in the agricultural activity either from industrial crop or secondary crop. In conjunction, to solved it, in our effort to minimize the amount of the waste and avoid it from pollute our eco-system, we need to find away to use the biomass as a source of energy or reusable products. Oil palm kernel shell biomass is one of the biomass that produce from the palm oil industry. It is a product that form after the process production of palm oil in the factory. Fire Briquette Enterprise is one of the company that has been established with the purpose to minimize the biomass leftover from the industry then form it into the reusable product as a charcoal and deodorizer. The priority of our company is to produce a product that is environmental friendly that produce less pollution than normal product in the market. Our product formulated with natural ingredients (palm kernel shell). This product can promote a healthy environment, less pollution around us. We had chosen Lot 43, Jalan Teratai, KM5 off Jalan Meru, 41050 Klang, Selangor as our business location because it is a strategic trade area and nearby to the residential area. It will facilitate and easier for consumers and other buyers to purchase our product. Our target market is from food industry (grill industry, traditional dishes),convenience store, outdoor camping shop, art industry (blacksmith, goldsmith, keris maker) and medicine industry (charcoal tablet). We innovate this product in order to fulfill demand from government in effort to reduce environment pollution. The aim of production of the product is to upgrade from the normal charcoal (wood, coconut shell) that already in the market by enhancing the quality and the features. Our company's target is to get profit of market about 10% for first year we enter the market and continue to increase to 10% for year after.In operating this business, our company, Fire Briquette Enterprise, will be managed by board of directors team which is organized by General Manager (GM), Admin Manager (AM),Marketing Manager (MM), Operation Manager (OM) and Financial Manager (FM) and Assistant Financial Manager (AAM) to ensure the business run smoothly and on a right track. The board has their own functions and talents which make them able to work effectively. A lawful agreement had been made between us, in front of the lawyer. The reason for this agreement is to make sure that all the business operation goes according to the schedule towards grasping our company goal

Evaluation of a quality improvement intervention to reduce anastomotic leak following right colectomy (EAGLE): pragmatic, batched stepped-wedge, cluster-randomized trial in 64 countries

Background Anastomotic leak affects 8 per cent of patients after right colectomy with a 10-fold increased risk of postoperative death. The EAGLE study aimed to develop and test whether an international, standardized quality improvement intervention could reduce anastomotic leaks. Methods The internationally intended protocol, iteratively co-developed by a multistage Delphi process, comprised an online educational module introducing risk stratification, an intraoperative checklist, and harmonized surgical techniques. Clusters (hospital teams) were randomized to one of three arms with varied sequences of intervention/data collection by a derived stepped-wedge batch design (at least 18 hospital teams per batch). Patients were blinded to the study allocation. Low- and middle-income country enrolment was encouraged. The primary outcome (assessed by intention to treat) was anastomotic leak rate, and subgroup analyses by module completion (at least 80 per cent of surgeons, high engagement; less than 50 per cent, low engagement) were preplanned. Results A total 355 hospital teams registered, with 332 from 64 countries (39.2 per cent low and middle income) included in the final analysis. The online modules were completed by half of the surgeons (2143 of 4411). The primary analysis included 3039 of the 3268 patients recruited (206 patients had no anastomosis and 23 were lost to follow-up), with anastomotic leaks arising before and after the intervention in 10.1 and 9.6 per cent respectively (adjusted OR 0.87, 95 per cent c.i. 0.59 to 1.30; P = 0.498). The proportion of surgeons completing the educational modules was an influence: the leak rate decreased from 12.2 per cent (61 of 500) before intervention to 5.1 per cent (24 of 473) after intervention in high-engagement centres (adjusted OR 0.36, 0.20 to 0.64; P < 0.001), but this was not observed in low-engagement hospitals (8.3 per cent (59 of 714) and 13.8 per cent (61 of 443) respectively; adjusted OR 2.09, 1.31 to 3.31). Conclusion Completion of globally available digital training by engaged teams can alter anastomotic leak rates. Registration number: NCT04270721 (http://www.clinicaltrials.gov)