Handling practices and food safety measures about umai delights among Bintulu locals, Borneo Sarawak

Umai is a popular traditional dish among the Melanau ethnic group indigenous to Sarawak. The local people believed that the acidity of the citrus juice can slightly cook the fish and remove the fishy smell. The aim of the study was to investigate the umai preparation process and to study the food safety awareness among the locals in Bintulu. A purposive sample of 100 umai makers divided into two equal groups; the professionals and non-professionals, participated in the study. The most recommended fish for making umai in the professional and non-professional group were Spanish Mackerel (62%; 32/50) and Empirang (82%; 41/50), respectively. Majority of the respondents in both groups (>60%) determined the freshness of the fish by observing the condition of the gills. Both groups were using calamansi juice as their main ingredients, as well as vinegar, lemon juice, asam paya and salt. Only 12% of the professional and 14% of the non-professional respondents agreed on freezing the raw fish chunks before processing them into umai. Most of the respondents indicated, that soon after marinating the raw fish in calamansi juice with other ingredients, the umai dish is ready to eat. A higher proportion of the non-professional (60%) compared to the professional respondents (50%) affirmed umai need to be chilled for 30 min before serving. Overall, the respondents showed little understanding of food safety measures. Hence, this study revealed that, the handling and processing of umai, and the food safety measures need to be improved among the Bintulu population

Monitoring of microbial hydrocarbon remediation in the soil

Bioremediation of hydrocarbon pollutants is advantageous owing to the cost-effectiveness of the technology and the ubiquity of hydrocarbon-degrading microorganisms in the soil. Soil microbial diversity is affected by hydrocarbon perturbation, thus selective enrichment of hydrocarbon utilizers occurs. Hydrocarbons interact with the soil matrix and soil microorganisms determining the fate of the contaminants relative to their chemical nature and microbial degradative capabilities, respectively. Provided the polluted soil has requisite values for environmental factors that influence microbial activities and there are no inhibitors of microbial metabolism, there is a good chance that there will be a viable and active population of hydrocarbon-utilizing microorganisms in the soil. Microbial methods for monitoring bioremediation of hydrocarbons include chemical, biochemical and microbiological molecular indices that measure rates of microbial activities to show that in the end the target goal of pollutant reduction to a safe and permissible level has been achieved. Enumeration and characterization of hydrocarbon degraders, use of micro titer plate-based most probable number technique, community level physiological profiling, phospholipid fatty acid analysis, 16S rRNA- and other nucleic acid-based molecular fingerprinting techniques, metagenomics, microarray analysis, respirometry and gas chromatography are some of the methods employed in bio-monitoring of hydrocarbon remediation as presented in this review

A Fast Panel Code for Complex Actuator Disk Flows

A fast, linear scaling vortex method is presented to study inviscid incompressible flow problems involving one or more actuator disks. Building upon previous efforts that were limited to axi-symmetric flow cases, the proposed methodology is able to handle arbitrary configurations with no symmetry constraints. Applications include the conceptual study of wake interaction mechanisms in wind farms, and the correction of wind tunnel blockage effects in test sections of arbitrary shape. Actuator disks represent wind turbines through the shedding of a deformable vortex wake, discretized with a plaid of triangular distributed dipole singularities. An iterative method is adopted to align the wake with the local flow field, which is reconstructed from the vorticity field with a Green function approach. Interactions are computed with a Fast Multipole Method (FMM), effectively overcoming the quadratic scaling of computational time associated with traditional panel methods. When compared to direct computation, the use of an FMM algorithm reduced solution time by a factor 30 when studying the wake of a single actuator disk with 60000 panels. In the same case, the mass flux of the actuator streamtube was conserved to 0:002%. Finally, the presence of round and square impermeable walls around the actuator is considered to demonstrate the code applicability to wind tunnel wall interference correction problems

Synthesis of beta-alumina solid electrolyte for sodium-sulphur batteries

B-alumina is a sodium ion conducting solid electrolyte with an ideal formula Na20.1 1 A1203. It has another phase namely 8" alumina (Naz0.5AI2O3) wherein Na20 content is more and has a greater conductivity than beta A1203. Distinctions between B and 8" A1203 are given in this paper. Various methods of synthesizing the above powders and sintering to gel one end closed tubesare discussed here for their use in sodium-sulphur batterie

Molybdenum and molybdenum carbide coating from fused salts

Molybdenum and molybdenum carbide coating on different substrates exhibit unique physical and chemical properties which have rendered them important in many high temperature structural material applications. The superior wear and corrosion resistance of molybdenum and its carbide in sulphur containing melts make them suitable materials for coating the current collectors and containers of high energy density batteries like Na-S, Li-FeS2. The poor fabricability and expensive nature of nolybdenum has resulted in the development of its coating by different methods like plasma or flame spray, sputtering cvd, fused salt electrolysis etc., Recently fused salt plating has received greater attention as this method has been found to provide pore-free, oxide free coating for molybdenum and its carbide. Several electrolyte compositions have been reported and are mainly classified as chloride melt, fluoride melt, fluoride-oxide melt, tungstate melt etc. The various parameters involved in employing these metals along with the nature of the deposit on various substrates have been reviewed in this communicatio

Deposition of zinc on molten lead by electrochemical tecgniques in molten LiCl-KCl

The electrochemical incorporation of Zn onto molten Pb working electrode from molten eutectic of LiCl and KC1 containing 0.0179, 0.0313 and 0.0477 mol ZnC12 at 673K was investigated by cyclic voltammetry at different scanning rates and by chronocoulometry. The results show that the initial formation of lead-zinc solid solution is followed by the formation of Pb-Zn intermetallic compoun

Aluminium-lithium alloy by fused salt electrolysis

Laboratory scale investigations on the preparation of aluminium-lithium alloy containing 11 % lithium by the electrolysis of a molten mixture of LiCl + KC1 + LiF at 670° - 700°C, employing molten aluminium cathode were carried out and the results are reported. The applications of At-Li alloy and the advantage of the electrochemical alloying method have been indicated. An outline of the electrolytic cell with rocking motion employed for the experiment has been given

Globalised Muslim youth : a study of Singapore and Sydney

This thesis is a sociological study of Muslim youth culture in two globalised cities in the Asia Pacific, Singapore and Sydney. This research compares two groups of youth living in secular multicultural cities, across three aspects of popular culture: hip-hop music, tattooing and cultural consumption. The two case studies illuminate a range of attitudes adopted by young Muslims, which demonstrates strategies employed to reconcile popular youth culture with piety. The research explores the extent to which globalisation results in a convergence of popular culture among young Muslims in Singapore and Sydney. It argues that while globalisation does bring about a certain degree of convergence, different state and societal structures in place play a significant role in bringing about different manifestations of Muslim youth culture. As an extension, the thesis explores how different forms of religious management by the authoritarian and liberal models of the Singapore and Sydney states respectively function as crucial mediators of popular Muslim youth culture. This thesis argues against the conventional view of the cultural alienation of minority Muslim youth that promotes the idea of a clash of civilisations and the radicalisation of Muslim youth thesis. Rather, it posits that global cultural flows and forms of piety interact with locally promulgated forms of popular culture, which Muslim youth partake at varying degrees. The dynamic nature of Muslim youth culture is set against attempts by the state, religious leaders and other gatekeepers of particular popular cultural domains who seek to maintain a ―puritan‖ and ―contained‖' view of youth culture. Hence, these demonstrate a plurality of religious rationalities amidst an individualisation of views by young Muslims. These result in some young Muslims existing in the interstices of local youth culture that increasingly conflicts with the globalising and multicultural realities of youth in Singapore and Sydney