The Production of Threadfin Bream (Nemipterus Japonicus) Protein Hydrolysate by Hydrolysis with Alcalase

The optimization of hydrolysis conditions in terms of pH, temperature, enzymesubstrate (ES) ratio and hydrolysis time for the production of threadfin bream (Nemipterus japonicus) hydrolysate was studied. Alcalase showed a higher percent nitrogen recovery (% NR) than Flavourzyme: Protamex mixture. By using Alcalase, the optimum hydrolysis conditions were pH 8.5, 60°C, ES2% and 120 min hydrolysis time. At least twenty percent degree of hydrolysis (% DH) and 70% NR was achieved. The yield of spray-dried hydrolysate hydrolysed under these conditions was 4%. The hydrolysate was white in color, highly soluble over a wide pH range, high in protein and essential amino acids but low in fat. The hydrolysate also exhibited an improvement in foam ability in comparison to the threadfin bream muscle but the foam was unstable. Hydrolysis with Alcalase also produced hydrolysate with poor emulsifying properties. The major free amino acids in the hydrolysate were glutamic acid,aspartic acid, lysine, leucine and arginine in which glutamic acid was the dominant amino acid. Bitter amino acids methionine, valine, isoleucine, phenylalanine, leucine, arginine and tyrosine comprised of 42.34% of the total free amino acids. The inosine 5'-monophosphate (IMP) content was higher in the hydrolysate than that in the muscle. SDS-PAGE showed the presence of twenty peptide bands in the muscle having molecular weight between 7.2 to 87.6 kD and thirteen in the hydrolysate with molecular weight between 7.2 to 64 kD. For Sephadex G-75 fractions (FR), no peptide bands were seen in FR I, III, IV, VI, VII and VIII. FR II and V showed the presence of respectively five and seven peptide bands with molecular weight between 11.4 to 54 kD and 10.5 to 51.3 kD. Histamine content in the muscle was found to be 14.45 mgkg 1 but no histamine was detected in the hydrolysate. Sensory evaluation of the hydrolysate indicated that it was fishy in flavor and constitutes three basic tastes namely bitter, umami and salty with umami and bitterness as the dominating tastes

READABILITY OF ESL PICTURE BOOKS IN MALAYSIA

Predicting readability of a reading text for second language learners is important for teachers, educators, and other concerned parties to make sure the text matches targeted readers’ proficiency. Suitable reading materials would promote language development among readers, especially children. In Malaysia nowadays, English story books for children which are published locally can be easily found in libraries or bookstores. However, the readability of these reading materials has remained uncovered. Hence, this study aimed to investigate the readability of Malaysian English children story books on five aspects (narrativity, syntactic simplicity, word concreteness, referential cohesion and deep cohesion) as provided by the computational tool, Coh-Metrix Common Core Text Ease Readability Assessor (T.E.R.A). Ten local English children story books were selected as samples. It was found that the majority of the samples have high narrativity, syntactic simplicity, and word concreteness but average referential cohesion and deep cohesion. The result revealed that there is lack of attention given to the aspect of cohesion in children story books. This study recommends that children book writers consider the readability of ESL children story books to help children’s language development.  Keywords: readability, assessment of reading materials, Coh-Metrix, picture books, childrenCite as: Ismail, A., & Yusof, N. (2016). Readability of ESL picture books in Malaysia. Journal of Nusantara Studies, 1(1), 60-70.  http://dx.doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol1iss1pp60-7

Kemahiran Menvisualisasi Ruang Dalam Kalangan Pelajar Bagi Mata Pelajaran Pendidikan Seni Visual

Kajian ini bertujuan untuk melihat tahap keupayaan menvisualisasi ruang atau spatial visualisation bagi pelajar yang mengambil mata pelajaran Pendidikan Seni Visual. Aspek-aspek yang dikaji adalah untuk melihat tahap kemahiran menvisualisasi ruang berdasarkan imej mental, proses menvisualisasi dan keupayaan menvisualisasi. Selain itu, hubungan di antara pencapaian kemahiran menvisualisasi ruang dengan pencapaian Peperiksaan Pertengahan Tahun Pendidikan Seni Visual dan perbezaan antara pelajar lelaki dan pelajar perempuan terhadap tahap pencapaian kemahiran menvisualisasi ruang. Reka bentuk kajian yang digunakan dalam penyelidikan ini ialah kajian kuantitatif. Ujian Kemahiran Menvisualisasi Ruang atau Spatial Visualisation Ability Test Instrument (SVATI) serta pencapaian Peperiksaan Pertengahan Tahun Pendidikan Seni Visual merupakan instrumen yang telah digunakan. Kajian ini melibatkan 145 orang pelajar tingkatan 4 SMK Datin Onn Jaafar, Batu Pahat, Johor yang mengambil mata pelajaran Pendidikan Seni Visual. Seterusnya dapatan kajian telah dianalisis dengan menggunakan Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) versi 20 untuk menganalisis skor min, Kolerasi Pearson dan juga kaedah ujian-T (independent-sample-t-test). Daripada hasil kajian mendapati bahawa tahap keupayaan menvisualisasi ruang imej mental, proses menvisualisasi dan keupayaan menvisualisasi bagi keseluruhan responden berada pada tahap baik dan terdapat hubungan positif yang sederhana di antara tahap kemahiran menvisualisasi ruang dengan tahap pencapaian Peperiksaan Pertengahan Tahun Pendidikan Seni Visual. Di samping itu, dapatan kajian juga menunjukkan tidak terdapat perbezaan yang signifikan antara kemahiran menvisualisasi ruang antara pelajar lelaki dan pelajar perempuan. Hasil penyelidikan diharapkan dapat memberi kesedaran terhadap kemahiran menvisualisasi ruang terhadap pelajar

Effect of lime and tamarind pre-treatment on the enzymatically produced protein hydrolysate from silver catfish (Pangasius Sutchi) flesh / Normah Ismail and Nurhidayati Kamarodin

One of the main obstacles of protein hydrolysate application in food is bitterness and fishy off-flavor. Pre- treatment of the raw materials prior to hydrolysate production is one way of preventing the development of this undesirable flavor. In this study, silver catfish which was used as the raw material was soaked in lime or tamarind juice prior to hydrolysis process to produce hydrolysate with reduce bitterness and fishy off-flavor. Initially, the fish flesh was pre-treated by soaking in either water, lime juice (Citrus aurantifolia) or tamarind juice (Tamarindus indica). After the pre-treatment, the homogenised flesh was hydrolysed in Flavourzyme 500L at pH 7, 50°C and enzyme substrate ratio (ES) of 2% for 120 minutes to produce control (CH), lime (LIH) and tamarind (TAH) hydrolysates after soaking in water, lime juice and tamarind juice, respectively. The physicochemical and sensory properties of the hydrolysates were compared. Soaking in tamarind juice resulted in significantly (p0.05) in yield. TAH was significantly (p<0.05) darker than others and characterised by 96.16% nitrogen solubility index (NSI), 5.44% moisture and 68.28% protein content. Sensory analysis by Quantitative Descriptive Analysis (QDA) showed that TAH had fishy flavor, fishy odor, umami and bitterness intensity ranking between ‘weak’ and ‘moderate’ and sweetness between ‘moderate’ and ‘strong’. Overall, soaking in tamarind juice is an effective pre-treatment method to produce silver catfish hydrolysate with low intensity of fishy flavor and odor

Kajian Tinjauan Persepsi Guru Terhadap Peranan Kenaziran Jemaah Nazir Sekolah Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia

Kajian tinjauan ini bertujuan untuk mendapatkan persepsl guru-guru terhadap peranan kenaziran Jemaah Nazir Sekolah, Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia. Populasi kajian ini adalah terdiri daripada semua guru iaitu Pengetua/Guru Besar, Guru-guru kanan dan guru-guru mata pelajaran yang telah melalui Pemeriksaan Penuh di Negeri Selangor. Seramai 219 daripada 252 guru yang terlibat sebagai responden kajian ini telah memulangkan soal selidik dengan lengkap. Data telah dianalisis dengan menggunakan statistik deskriptif peratus min, sisihan piawai, peratusan dan frekuensi. Dapatan kajian menunjukkan 83.2% daripada 2 1 9 responden mengetahui peranan kenaziran Jemaah Nazir Sekolah. Persepsi guru terhadap peranan kenaziran pula menunjukkan tahap setuju dengan nilai min 4. 1 0. Guru juga mempunyai persepsi yang tinggi terhadap keberkesanan peranan kenaziran dengan nilai min melebihi 3 .4. Kajian Inl pada keseluruhannya membuat kesimpulan bahawa kebanyakkan guru mempunyai pengetahuan yang tinggi, mempunyai sikap setuj u dan berpuashati terhadap peranan kenaziran Jemaah Nazir Sekolah. Bagaimanapun terdapat beberapa cadangan guru yang patut diambil kira oleh Jemaah Nazir Sekolah semasa menjalankan pemeriksaan ke sekolah-sekolah. Pendekatan semasa menjalankan tugas pemeriksaan perlu diubah agar dapat menangani cabaran-cabaran terbaru dalam pendidikan

Use of English at the Workplace : How Far is this True in Malaysia?

According to Ong etal. (2011), the importance of English in theMalaysian work environment is the main concern of manyemployers. Some employers reported that having employees withbetter English would improve productivity. How far is Englishbeing used at the workplace in Malaysia? This quantitative studytargets at possible direction of a language programme such asEnglish for Specific Purpose especially for Occupational andVocational purposes. It looks into how much English is used atselected industries in Malaysia. Specifically, it reports on howcommunication in English is used at different departments inselected industries as well as how the use differs across agegroups, genders and industries. Results of this study will haveinteresting implication for future English for business purposescourses.(125 words)Keywords: work environment, industries, communicatio

Risk Management Disclosure In Malaysian Islamic Financial Institutions: Pre- And Post-Financial Crisis

The East Asian financial crisis in 1997 and later the global financial crisis in 2007 and 2008 had a big impact on the corporate world as many companies and financial institutions collapsed during that period. Poor governance systems and lack of transparency in reporting including lack of risk reporting and disclosure were blamed as the roots of the problem. Conventional financial institutions have widely practiced risk management within their organization, but it is still under-developed in Islamic financial institutions due to new emerging market and unique business structures which are based on Shariah or Islamic law. Therefore, this study examined the risk management disclosure by all 17 Islamic financial institutions in Malaysia from 2006 to 2009, covering the period before, during, and after the global financial crisis. A disclosure checklist consists of mandatory and voluntary items developed to measure the level of risk disclosure. The descriptive result shows the risk management disclosure among the Islamic Financial Institutions was satisfactory. Analysis for a four year period revealed that the risk disclosure has greatly improved before and after crisis indicating that Islamic Financial Institutions have taken the necessary steps to improve their disclosure

Effect of pre-treatment on physical properties and sensory attributes of gelatin extracted from sutchi catfish (Pangasius sutchi) Skin / Normah Ismail and Wan Najma Farhaten Wan A Latiff

This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of pre-treatment on the fishy flavour and odour removal of gelatine extracted from the skin of sutchi catfish (Pangasius sutchi). Pre-treatment of the skin involved soaking at 4°C in distilled water (GC), lime followed by tamarind (GLT) or salt followed by activated carbon (GSC) prior to extraction in warm distilled water (50°C) for 12 hours. Yield, physical properties and sensory were determined. Results showed that GLT produced highest yield (19.72%) compared to GSC (15.01%) and GC (15.81%). Although, GLT exhibited lowest gel strength (282.29g), viscoelasticity (14.1ºC) and setting point (10.46ºC) compared to other pre-treatments, fishy flavour and odour of the gelatine were almost absent with the score of 1.68 and 1.74, respectively. These values were below those of reference which are 1.87 (fishy flavour) and 2.71 (fishy odour) denoting from ‘absent to weak’. Since fishy flavour and odour were almost absent, soaking sutchi catfish skin in lime followed by tamarind could be a good method for achieving the desired sensory attributes of the freshwater fish by the reduction of the gelatine off flavour

Antioxidant activities of threadfin bream (nemipterus japonicus) hydrolysate and its effect on oxidative stability of frying oil / Normah Ismail, Mohd Faizzuddin Mustapa Kamal and Kyaw Zay Ya

The antioxidant activities and oxidative stability of palm olein frying oil added with threadfin bream (TFB) hydrolysate and Nanox 189 were studied. The DPPH radical scavenging activities and chelating effects of ferrous ion were evaluated and compared with α-tocopherol. Oxidative stability after 30 frying cycles were analysed for the induction period, free fatty acids (FFA), peroxide values (PV), total polar compounds (TPC), and viscosity. Palm olein without any antioxidant was used as control. Nanox 189 exhibited a higher percentage on the DPPH scavenging effect and ferrous ion chelating effect than TFB hydrolysate. Frying oil added with Nanox 189 recorded the longest induction period, which was up to 11 hr. while TFB hydrolysate added oil showed an induction period of nine hours. Nanox 189 addition in frying oil yielded the lowest FFA and PV, followed by those added with TFB hydrolysate. The highest readings of TPC were recorded for TFB hydrolysate added oil, which is 13%. Throughout the 30 frying cycles, the addition of TFB hydrolysate recorded a lower percentage increase for viscosity than Nanox 189 with 4.7% compared to the latter, which is 9.6%. Even though the antioxidant activities of TFB hydrolysate was lower than that of Nanox 189, the study suggested some antioxidant potential of TFB hydrolysate based on the DPPH radical scavenging activities and chelating effects of the ferrous ion as well as its ability to slightly improve the oxidative stability of palm olein during the 30 frying cycles

Storage stability and antioxidant properties of chicken ball incorporated with threadfin bream (Nemipterus Japonicas) hydrolysate / Normah Ismail, Aishah Netylia Amat Ruba’iee and Kyaw Zay Ya

This study was carried out to determine the antioxidant activity of threadfin bream (Nemipterus Japonicas) hydrolysate (TFBH) in comparison with the commercial antioxidants; α-tocopherol and LYK Nanox 189 and to evaluate the oxidative stability of chicken balls added with 20% TFBH during the 15 days storage at 4 ᵒ C. TFBH was prepared by hydrolysis with Alcalase at pH 8.5, 60 ᵒ C, enzyme/substrate ratio of 2% for 2 hours. The results showed some antioxidant activities of the hydrolysate even though the activity was lower than the commercial antioxidants. This was based on the ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) analysis and 2, 2-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activity. Based on the induction time measured by Rancimat, TFBH when added into the chicken balls was capable of delaying the oxidation process during the 15 days storage at 4 ᵒ C. The observation was also supported by peroxide and TBARS values. Therefore, TFBH can be used in food to delay the oxidation process during storage