Analysis of porcine DNA in several food products

Species identification in food products has grown interest in recent years since these foodstuffs are liable targets for fraudulent labelling. Consumers of Halal products typically buying those with a Halal logo stamped on the packaging without doubt for its authenticity. DNA-based methods on PCR amplification were used to identify the presence of porcine DNA in the processed food samples. Genomic DNA of porcine was extracted using DNA-Sorb-C and subjected to PCR amplification targeting the mitochondrial 12S rDNA gene and porcine leptin gene (LEP). Out of 66 samples, 37 samples showed amplified product of 387 bp with mitochondrial 12S rDNA gene and 59 samples showed amplified products of 152 bp with LEP. The verification for Halal authentication of food products is significant for economical, religious and public health concerns

Soil macronutrient detection based on visible and near-infrared absorption spectroscopy

Precision agriculture using cost-effective soil fertility measurement is important to obtain adequate quality and quantity of crops. Modern agriculture uses soil spectroscopy, which is a fast, cost-effective, environmentally friendly and reusable method. Soil fertility is used in modern agriculture to sustain plant growth and optimize crop yield. However, most existing light sources and computerized photodetection modules in soil spectroscopy are bulky in size, consume high power and expensive such as tungsten-halogen lamps, deuterium lamps and commercial spectrometer. This thesis proposes an improved experimental module based on absorbance spectroscopy to determine the nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) in various soil samples which are extracted using colour-developing reagent. The experimental module consisting light-emitting diode (LED) in visible and near-infrared range, and integrated passively quenched silicon photodiode. The optical absorption of various soil samples, including agricultural and non-agricultural soils are experimentally investigated in absorbance mode using an optimal wavelength range of 467 nm until 741 nm. Beer-Lambert Law (BLL) is applied to identify the relationship between the nutrient concentration and the amount of absorbed light. At a wavelength (λ) of 467 nm, N gives a coefficient of determination (R2) between 0.49 and 0.63 for agriculture soil samples. Meanwhile, R2 of agricultural soils for K gives a value from 0.54 to 0.73. At λ = 741nm, P produces R2 in the range of 0.47 to 0.82. Furthermore, research findings using LED and photodiode follow the BLL. BLL states that high concentration has many chemical absorbing species which will lower the transmitted light intensity and give low output voltage. This study has shown that absorbance spectroscopy with proposed LED and photodiode modules are able to distinguish the nutrient concentration in the soil

LED based soil spectroscopy

Soil is a medium for plant roots to grow, absorb water and necessary solutes for growth. Soil macronutrient testing is helpful for determining the nutrient content in soil before applying fertilizer for quality and process controls of agricultural productivity and soil fertility. Spectroscopy is an emerging technology which is rapid and simple has been widely used in agricultural and food analysis processes. The capability of spectroscopy to characterize material from the transmission or absorbance has been used in this paper to measure nitrogen ( N ), phosphorus ( P ) and potassium ( K ) content in organic soil. The paper details preliminary characterization of soil spectroscopy with a Deuterium - Halogen lamp and spectrometer to measure the absorbance level of the macronutrients. The extracted nutrients were mixed with the colour reagent and specific colour ed solution was developed. The result shows high absorbance level for N and P are at 970 nm in wavelength. In addition, N gi ve absorbance at wavelength 450 nm and P yield absorbance at 800 nm wavelength . K was measured high at 620 nm. Further experiments were conducted to measure the absorbance characteristic of N , P and K for 20 minute period. The result shows that P and K has constant value of absorbance for 20 minutes duration while N , have stable absorbance value after 10 minutes being illuminated by 470 nm blue light - emitting diode ( LED ) . For future works, the optical measurements will be implemented using visible and near infrared LED and the photodetector in order to replace the spectrometer usage for soil spectroscopy. This would lead to achieve the primary objective of this research in developing a simple and low cost spectroscopy uses LED

Shinyei Based Sensor with Added Roof Enhanced Detection of Indoor Particulate Matter

Commercially available monitoring systems in the market are expensive and rather challenging to maintain, had prompted researchers to invent low-cost monitoring system as alternative. New cost-effective, portable and user-friendly prototypes have been proposed using Shinyei PPD42NS sensor for PM10 monitoring. The performances of the original and roofed prototype were tested by measuring indoor PM10 concentrations. The roofed prototype showed a higher reading of PM10 (822 μgm-3) detected at minutes 16 compared to the original prototype (0 μgm-3) due to the presence of a roof decreased the velocity of particulate matter and accumulate before entered the Shinyei sensor inlet. CFD analysis of the roofed prototype illustrated lower air velocity of 0.3ms-1 compared to original prototype having a velocity of 0.4 ms-1. The original prototype exhibit comparable performance to the reference instrument (GRIMM) in detecting PM10 concentration. Shinyei PPD42NS inside the original prototype showed high sensitivity by detecting higher concentration of PM10 with readings of 79 μgm-3. The prototypes were successfully developed by detecting the presence of PM10 and addition of roof showed increase efficiency in detecting particulate matter in the air

Significance of Speech Intelligibility Assessors in Medium Classroom Using Analytical Hierarchy Process

When there are constraints on the resources-equipment, manpower and time-to conduct speech intelligibility tests, the most reliable or significant SI assessor for many different types of rooms is always sought for. The purpose of this study was to determine the most significant speech intelligibility assessor in four medium classrooms. The speech intelligibility assessors tested were RT60, C50, D50, and STIPA. The data were acquired by means of sound recorder that recorded six Malay words spoken by a trained male speaker, in four medium classrooms.The recorded speech signals were analyzed by DIRAC software. The data of four speech intelligibility assessors have to be normalized before it can be analyzed by AHP. In conclusion, C50 has shown the most consistent prediction of speech intelligibility in all sampled classrooms. On the other hand, as the room gets larger, RT60 becomes significant for determining speech intelligibility in these sampled classrooms

NPK detection using LED based spectroscopy on soil

xSoil spectroscopy measurement is widely used to determine the macronutrient level in soil. This measurement is useful to assist the quality controls of agricultural production, soil fertility and would also helpful in reducing the agricultural cost. This paper details the preliminary optical characterization of soil spectroscopy for the monitoring of soil macronutrient concentration. By using a wavelength corresponding to a macronutrient absorption peak, the Beer -Lambert Law can be used to relate the concentration of macronutrient surrounding the sensing portion to the amount of absorbed light. Based on the peak absorbance level performance, LED wavelengths have been identified in replacing the deuterium and halogen lamps in visible and near infrared wavelength for the concentration measurement of soil macronutrient. The chosen LEDs are in a range from 400nm to 1100nm. From colour reagent, the amount of macronutrient can be detected by observing the intensity of colour -develop solution. This colour -develop solution, then illuminates by deuterium and halogen lamp to measure the peak absorbance . The soil samples have obtained the peak absorbance level for nitrogen and phosphorus at wavelength of 450nm and 780nm respectively . The experimental result shows the absorption line for measured potassium is in a similar pattern, but the maximum absorbance shows in range 400nm to 500nm . By using LEDs, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium are estimated to absorb blue, red and near -infrared wavelength range respectively for all samples. Future work would be carried out to study the soil spectroscopy measurements using LEDs and photodetector in order to replace the spectrometer usage for soil spectroscopy. This would lead to achieving the primary objective of this research in developing a simple and low cost spectroscopy uses light -emitting diode (LED)

A review on generational differences and work-related attitude

Over the years, there is a growing attention on generational differences and work attitudes among academician and practitioners. Researchers have investigated generational differences on organizational commitment, job satisfaction and turnover intention, yet the issue concerning generational differences on these work attitudes is still debatable. Hence, this article reviews the past studies concerning generational differences and their work-related attitudes in the period of fifteen years. Based on the review, we found that younger generation tends to have lower overall commitment, affective commitment as well as normative commitment compared to older generations. We also found a decrease in job satisfaction and a noticeable upward trend in turnover intention among younger generations. The review also found that generational differences and work-related attitudes also vary across different context of research setting

Dengue outbreak prediction using an improved salp swarm algorithm

Dengue disease is the most common type of disease caused by mosquitoes. It is reported that dengue fever was first recognized in Thailand and Philippines in 1950. According to World Health Organization (WHO), dengue is a viral disease that spread in public environment where the number of cases reported in 2010 increased from 2.2 million to 3.2 million in 2015. Until today, numerous studies by researchers to improve the prediction of dengue fever disease based on Computational Intelligence (CI) methods have been reported. The research includes study using Swarm Intelligence (SI) algorithm. In this study, an improved Salp Swarm Algorithm (iSSA) is proposed for dengue outbreak prediction. The original SSA will be enhanced by enriching the exploration and exploitation process for the sake of improving the accuracy of dengue outbreak prediction. This will be done by inducing a mutation based on Levy Flight. Later, the iSSA algorithm will be realized on dengue disease dataset. The proposed iSSA will be compared against the original SSA and another CI method known as Grey Wolf Optimization (GWO). With this proposed algorithm, it is expected to improve the dengue outbreak prediction where MAE and RMSE are two crucial evaluation indicators when smaller the values obtained, more accurate the prediction model

Arca Keris in Alor Gajah Town, Melaka: A SWOT Analysis of Design and Appeal Factor

In 2020, the Alor Gajah Municipal Council (AGMC) embarked on a project to upgrade the town’s public courtyard. One of its tasks was restoring and relocating a giant traditional Malay dagger replica known as the Arca Keris from the courtyard to an adjacent roundabout. Despite this initiative, most people are unaware of how such a change could improve the town’s image and one’s quality of life. In this sense, two questions arise: (1) what are the design specifications of the Arca Keris? and (2) how does the presence of the Arca Keris improve the town’s image? In order to address this issue, the design and appeal factors of the Arca Keris were examined. A triangulation strategy was used, consisting of interviews and observation; this was followed by a SWOT analysis. The outcome demonstrates that the Arca Keris has both strengths and opportunities in terms of visibility and symbolization. However, it may have flaws, such as accessibility and anonymity. As a result, the general public was unable to appreciate the significance of the Arca Keris or comprehend the rationale for its relocation. This research should help us better understand how public art affects a town’s image across the country