Molecular detection of genetic defects in ambiguous genitalia (AG) and congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) due to 21-hydroxylase deficiency

Congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) is a group of inherited disorders affecting the enzymes catalyzing the synthesis of steroids in the adrenal cortex.Malfunction of 21-hydroxylase is the most frequent defect among these disorders.This enzyme is essential for the synthesis of cortisol and aldosterone.The decreased level of serum cortisol in patients with 21-hydroxylase cleticiency stimulates ACTH secretion, which result in elevated levels of steroid precursors as 17-hydroxyprogesterone and increased production of adrenal androgens causing virilization.Deficiency of the 2 I -hydroxylase (21-0H) enzyme is by far the most common form of CA H which arises as a result of deletions or deleterious mutations in the active gene (CYP21) located on chromosome 6p21.3.Many different mutations of the CY P21 gene cause varying degrees or impairment of 21-0H activity that results in a spectrum of disease statement.There is no sharp limit between the salt-wasting, the simple virilizing and the late onset forms.The objective of our study was to determine the 21-0H deticiency mutation defects and correlate the genotype with their phenotypic statement of the disease.vVe performed mutational analysis using Polymerase Chain Reaction-Allele Specific Oligonucleotide Hybridization (PCR-ASOH) technique on patients who were suspected to have CAH as they presented with ambiguous genitalia (AG) and or electrolyte derangement.Among the 52 patients, 3 had Val281 Leu mutation (5.76%). 2 had Pro30Leu mutation (3.85%). I had Gln318stnp mutation (1.92%) and in 46 (88.l6%) patients mutation was detected.The three patients with Val281 Leu mutation had presented with adrenal crises during in infancy and was classified as salt losers and treated with glucocorticoids and mineralocorticoids.These 3 patients could well be the other 40% who are categorized as salt-losers. The two patients with Pro30Leu mutations have normal male external genitalia and presented with hyponatraemia and hyperkalaemia.Only one patients required mineralocorticoid therapy that was given for about 5 months duration.Subsequently he hold normal electrolytes level even without mineralacorticiod therapy. The Gln3I8stop mutation was identitied in one patient who presented with ambiguous and adrenal crises.Our study showed that the cases with genotype Val281 Leu, Pro30Leu and Gln318stop mutations correlated with their phenotype. The mutation analysis of CYP21 gene proved to be a good complementary investigation and supportive to the diagnosis and management of our CAH patients

Surface modification via alginate-based edible coating for enhanced osmotic dehydration mass transfer of ginger slices

Ginger has a high moisture content, which makes it highly susceptible to spoilage. Therefore, the shelf life can be extended through drying. In the drying process, osmotic dehydration is applied as pre-treatment due to its simple operation and energy-saving process for removing moisture from food. However, large solute gain during the osmotic dehydration has become the major challenge of this process as it has a negative impact on the final product. The edible coating is the key step to circumventing this issue. Alginate is a potential candidate for the coating material to enhance the mass transfer kinetics of the osmotic dehydration process. This study investigated the surface modification of ginger slices caused by the cross-linker calcium chloride and plasticizer glycerol on alginate coating using a Scanning Electron Microscope. Furthermore, the kinetics of water loss and solute gain were evaluated and modelling aspects were conducted. It was observed that the surface roughness of ginger coated with a combination of alginate, glycerol and calcium ions has reduced. This facilitated the mass transfer process, which was observed to have a high water loss and a lower solute gain. The Peleg model presented the best fitting model of mass transfer kinetics during osmotic dehydration of ginger slices. From this work, it can be deduced that alginate-based coating can be a promising pre-treatment step in the osmotic dehydration process

Development Of Low Cost Block Mold For Copper Alloy Casting

Suitable block mold formulations for copper alloy casting have been developed and the formulations used were 25% plaster of paris (POP), 75% silica sand and 31-37% water. Silica sand with a grain size of 106-212 µm was added into dilute suspension of POP and the mixing process was continued until a thick slurry (mixture) was obtained. It has been found that the mixing time of molding materials was highly depended on the type of plaster and optimum slurry viscosity around the diameter of 7.7 – 9.6 cm (slump test) was essential to ensure that the wax pattern could be fully invested. In the dewaxing process, the mold was subjected to the temperature of 170oC for 3 hours and burnout process was effectively achieved by heating the molds at 750oC for 5 hours. The pouring process was successfully carried out without any leakage and it was found that all molds can be easily broken under a force of a hammer. The developed mold also able to produce fully formed of casting without any major defects such as misrun, fin or flash and rat tail, which can be associated with inadequate mold temperature, mold cracks and the separation of mold’s material respectively

Millennial tourist emotional experience in technological engagement at destination

Millennial is known to be the generations that strongly empowered by technologies that apparently had altered the pattern of their consumption habits to shape a new form of tourist market. The great incursion of technology on Millennial does not only mediates the experience formation at destination, instead provide added value and emotional impact through its cognitive stimulation and experience co-creation possibilities. As the key instrument for experience enhancement, mobile technologies support users' needs of on-site information, virtually connect tourism providers and consumers, and unfold destination uniqueness. These in turn allow co-creation of tourist experience through satisfaction of Millennial's addiction of connectivity. Virtual connectivity seems to create new form of affective attachment, through which Millennial are emotionally bonded to the place due to the intensity of technological engagement. Consequently, instead of tourist-destination encounter per se, technological experience is potentially classified as the third aspects that dictate experience development, especially among Millennial travellers. Existing literatures indicates that Millennial strong engagement with virtual platform is capable to manipulate their on-site emotional experience, which apparently changing the conventional way of tourist experiencing the destination. Nevertheless, the significant of Millennial's technological engagement towards their destination emotional experience is still open for debates. Pertaining to this situation, this conceptual paper is attempted to understand the influence of technology in the enhancement of emotional experience, specifically among Millennial travellers, in better understanding the evolving demand of the new generations tourist from psychological perspective

Review of Facilities Management Functions in Value Management Practices

This paper identifies the functions of facilities management (FM) in value management (VM) studies in Malaysia. Most previous research in this area has discussed the history, evolution, knowledge, challenges, and contributions of FM in both the private and the public sectors, yet it is also essential to explore the benefits of FM involvement and the drawbacks of FM non-involvement in VM studies during the pre-construction stage in Malaysia. This paper provides an overview the FM manager’s roles in a VM workshop based on a review of literature collected and compiled from various publications. The study contributes to current knowledge by addressing the five elements of FM functions and their impacts on VM studies. The findings will enhance project, product, and service value by illustrating the importance of FM functions in a VM study

Pembangunan model penilaian Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) untuk bahasa Arab di Institusi Pengajian Tinggi: Developing an assessment model for Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) for the Arabic language at Higher Educational Institutions

Platform Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) merupakan salah satu platform pembelajaran dalam talian yang sedang popular digunakan di pelusuk dunia terutamanya dalam IPT telah dijadikan salah satu platform utama sebagai proses pengajaran dan pembelajaran (PdP) di IPT Malaysia ketika pendemik covid-19 yang telah menular di seluruh dunia sejak Disember 2019. Walaupun begitu, terdapat beberapa pensyarah menyuarakan kebimbangan mereka dalam melaksanakan penilaian dalam MOOC khususnya untuk pembelajaran bahasa Arab. Justeru itu, pembangunan model penilaian MOOC untuk bahasa Arab boleh dijadikan sebagai salah satu alternatif penyelesaian. Artikel ini bertujuan untuk merungkaikan permasalahan yang kompleks, menganalisis struktur dan elemen penting untuk diterapkan dalam model penilaian MOOC. Model ini dibangunkan berpandukan kepada kesepakatan pakar seramai 7 orang. Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM) diaplikasikan dalam pembangunan model ini. Enam langkah utama yang terlibat dalam pembangunan model adalah bermula dengan mengenal pasti elemen-elemen yang berkaitan, mewujudkan hubungan antara pemboleh ubah, membangunkan matriks struktur interaksi kendiri (SSIM), penjanaan model daripada pendekatan ISM, pembentangan model kajian dan langkah terakhir melibatkan persembahan serta pindaan model akhir kajian. Sebanyak 7 elemen dikenal pasti oleh barisan pakar bagi pelaksanaan penilaian MOOC untuk bahasa Arab. Elemen yang menjadi keutamaan adalah elemen menentukan jenis pentaksiran (penilaian kendiri, rakan sebaya, penilaian sumatif, formatif) bagi mengukur prestasi pelajar dan di akhiri dengan elemen menentukan syarat pensijilan bagi pelajar menamatkan kursus.Platform Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) merupakan salah satu platform pembelajaran dalam talian yang sedang popular digunakan di pelusuk dunia terutamanya dalam Institut Pengajian Tinggi. Ia telah dijadikan salah satu platform utama sebagai proses pengajaran dan pembelajaran (PdP) di IPT Malaysia ketika pandemik covid-19 yang telah menular di seluruh dunia sejak Disember 2019. Walaupun begitu, terdapat beberapa pensyarah menyuarakan kebimbangan mereka dalam melaksanakan penilaian dalam MOOC khususnya untuk pembelajaran bahasa Arab. Justeru itu, pembangunan model penilaian MOOC untuk bahasa Arab boleh dijadikan sebagai salah satu alternatif penyelesaian. Artikel ini bertujuan untuk merungkaikan permasalahan yang kompleks, menganalisis struktur dan elemen penting untuk diterapkan dalam model penilaian MOOC. Model ini dibangunkan berpandukan kepada kesepakatan pakar seramai tujuh orang. Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM) diaplikasikan dalam pembangunan model ini. Enam langkah utama yang terlibat dalam pembangunan model adalah bermula dengan mengenal pasti elemen-elemen yang berkaitan, mewujudkan hubungan antara pemboleh ubah, membangunkan matriks struktur interaksi kendiri (SSIM), penjanaan model daripada pendekatan ISM, pembentangan model kajian dan langkah terakhir melibatkan persembahan serta pindaan model akhir kajian. Sebanyak tujuh elemen dikenal pasti oleh barisan pakar bagi pelaksanaan penilaian MOOC untuk bahasa Arab. Elemen yang menjadi keutamaan adalah elemen menentukan jenis pentaksiran (penilaian kendiri, rakan sebaya, penilaian sumatif, formatif) bagi mengukur prestasi pelajar dan di akhiri dengan elemen menentukan syarat pensijilan bagi pelajar menamatkan kursus

Optimization Of Energy Consumption In KUKA KR 16 Articulated Robot Manipulator

A study for optimal energy consumption in KUKA KR 16 articulated robot for pick-and-place task was introduce in this paper. In order to achieve the optimal energy consumption, an improve trajectory planning is required. Essentially, trajectory planning encompasses path planning in addition to planning how to move based on velocity, time and kinematics. Trajectory planning gives a path from a starting to a goal point by avoiding collisions in a 2D or 3D space. Therefore, this paper is focus on analyze the PTP motion and Linear motion in order to determine which is the best motion that can improve the trajectory planning. The optimal energy consumption to minimizing the movement based on three main axes where it used a big motors used to drive the axes. This method is much simpler in terms of development process and did not require any additional hardware to be install to the robot’s system. KUKA KR 16 is use to study optimal energy consumption and analyze PTP and Linear motion. The energy performance is measures with respect to two categories of movements known as Default and Optimal movement which do the same task repetitively within specific time. The result show that PTP motion consumed 6% more energy than Linear motion but completed 773 cycles within one hour whereas Linear motion only completed 492 cycles. Energy performance between Default and Optimal movement shows that Optimal movement recorded 21.8% less energy usage when compared to Default movement although the total cycles completed for both movement almost the same

Development and Implementation of a Smart Parking Spot Allocation System Based on the User’s Category and Priority using Verilog HDL

Finding parking spots for automobiles is a major issue in many large and congested cities. Usually, drivers lose time searching for parking spots, especially during peak hours, which increases traffic congestion and makes drivers frustrated and annoyed. Large building parking areas could also become dangerous to women, pregnant women, and the elderly, as several criminal cases in the parking area, were reported. In this project, a prototype of a smart parking spot allocation system based on the user’s category and priority was developed. The choice of user categories is people with disabilities (OKU), pregnant women/elderly, women, and normal users. The highest priority is assigned to OKU, followed by pregnant women/elderly, followed by women and the lowest priority is assigned to normal users. The parking spots for the highest priority category are placed near building entrances such as mall entrances. The controller for the automatic parking spot allocation system was developed using Verilog HDL code and the prototype was implemented on FPGA DE2-115. The controller is programmed to process the user’s category which is selected by the user at the second entrance and assign a specific parking spot number according to the category’s priority. The prototype was tested with multiple parking spots condition with different user inputs for different user categories. The system was able to allocate parking spots based on the user’s category depending on the parking spot available for the selected category with 75% out of 12 tests correct. However, all 12 tests, or 100% recorded accurate allocation based on the expected output of the system design. In a conclusion, this proposed system would be able to cater to the issue of finding parking spots hence directly avoiding traffic congestion and frustration among users. In addition, this system can indirectly reduce crime cases in the parking area due to parking spaces that prioritize categories of users needing to be parked near the entrance

Virtual connectivity in mediating millennials destination emotional experience

Millennial is known to be the generations that strongly empowered by technologies that apparently had altered the pattern of their consumption habits to shape a new form of tourist market. The great incursion of technology on millennial does not only mediates the experience formation at destination, instead provide added value and emotional impact through its cognitive stimulation and experience co-creation possibilities. As the key instrument for experience enhancement, mobile technologies support users' needs of on-site information, virtually connect tourism providers and consumers, and unfold destination uniqueness. These in turn allow co-creation of tourist experience through satisfaction of millennial's addiction of connectivity. Virtual connectivity seems to create new form of affective attachment, through which millennial are emotionally bonded to the place due to the intensity of technological engagement. Consequently, instead of tourist-destination encounter per se, technological experience is potentially classified as the third aspects that dictate experience development, especially among millennial travellers. Existing literatures indicates that millennial strong engagement with virtual platform is capable to manipulate their on-site emotional experience, which apparently changing the conventional way of tourist experiencing the destination. Nevertheless, the significant of millennial's technological engagement towards their destination emotional experience is still open for debates. Pertaining to this situation, this conceptual paper is attempted to understand the influence of technology in the enhancement of emotional experience, specifically among millennial travellers, in better understanding the evolving demand of the new generations tourist from psychological perspective