Analysis of major fragrant compounds from citrus grandis flowers extracts

Various sampling techniques such as hydrodistillation, Soxhlet extraction and solid phase micro extraction (SPME) were used to extract compounds, i.e. the active components attributed to fragrance of C. grandis flowers. Gas chromatograph mass spectrometry was then used to identify and quantify the active components obtained from the techniques. The results thus far showed that, buds and blossoms of this flower which possesses a strong floral-, jasmine- and orange-like aroma contain β-myrcene, limonene, ocimene, linalool and caryophyllene as the major compounds. In hydrodistillation technique the levels of ocimene and linalool detected in blossom were higher than in the bud at 7.37 and 15.93%, respectively, while in the bud, limonene was the highest, i.e. 4.57%. In Soxhlet extraction, however the bud was found to consist of limonene (27.25%), ocimene (5.55%) and linalool (2.97%). The performance of three available SPME fibers was compared to evaluate the recoveries of volatile compounds in C.grandis flowers and 100 μm polydimethylsiloxane was found to be the most effective

Cryopreservation Of Oncidium Golden Anniversary’s Protocorm-Like Bodies Using Encapsulation-Dehydration Method

Oncidium Golden Anniversary is an orchid hybrid that has high economic value in flower market worldwide. However, this new orchid hybrid is difficult to maintain and cultivate conventionally thus increase the risk of permanent loss. Therefore, cryopreservation technique has been developed for long-term conservation of the orchids. This study was aimed to establish the proliferation of protocorm-like bodies (PLBs) and to develop encapsulation-dehydration method for cryopreservation of Oncidium Golden Anniversary hybrid orchid. The best media for rapid proliferation of PLBs was in half-strength semi-solid MS media supplemented with 20 g/L sucrose and 1 mg/L BAP using either whole PLBs, half-moon PLBs and transverse thin cell layer (tTCL) PLB as an explant. The PLBs produced were used as starting material in encapsulation-dehydration method and analysed by 2,3,5-triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC) spectrophotometry test and survivability percentage. Some important parameters have been assessed were PLB size, preculture condition, sodium alginate media, calcium chloride solution, dehydration duration, and the addition of antioxidants

INDUCTION OF CALLUS FORMATION FROM DIFFERENT PARTS OF Citrus grandis (OSBECK) FLOWERS

            The objectives of the present work were to study the capability of pomelo’s floral tissues to produce callus and to investigate the influence of plant growth regulators on callus induction and development. Various parts of flower namely petal, sepal, style, ovary, pistil and cup base were cultured onto Murashige and Skoog (MS) basal medium supplemented with different level of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D), 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP) and 6-Furfurylaminopurine (kinetin). It was found that different part of flowers favored different level of hormone for callus induction. The highest formation of callus were obtained from petal and sepal cultured on MS media supplemented with 1.5 mg/l kinetin. For the style and pistil, 50 ± 2.3% of the explants had developed callus when cultured on MS media supplemented with 0.05 mg/l and 0.10 mg/l BAP respectively. On the other hand, sucrose agar (SA) media alone had managed to induce callus formation from almost every part of the flowers with a success rate between 7.69 ± 0.32 to 50 ± 3.18%. Callus formation was preferred from the uncut part of flowers as shown in the study on petal with percentage of formation was 14.6 ± 0.35%

Conceptualizing Spatial Heterogeneity of Urban Composition Impacts on Precipitation Within Tropics

Urban composition has exacerbated precipitation patterns. Rapid urbanization with dynamic composition and anthropogenic activities lead to the change of physical environment, especially land-use and land cover which subsequently magnifies the environmental effects such as flash floods, extreme lightning, and landslides. Due to extreme and elevated temperature trends with exacerbated rainfall patterns, these environmental effects become major issues in tropics. Albeit several studies pointed out that rapid urbanization induced precipitation, studies about the heterogeneity of urban composition on precipitation variables are still limited. Thus, this paper review studies about precipitation pattern in relation to the heterogeneity of urban composition that successfully integrates geographical information system (GIS) and remote sensing techniques to enhance the understanding of interactions between precipitation patterns against heterogeneity of urban composition. This article also addressed the current state of uncertainties and scarcity of data concerning remote sensing techniques. Evidently, with a comprehensive investigation and probing of the precipitation variables in the context of urbanization models fused with remote sensing and GIS, they put forward powerful set tools for geographic cognition and understand how its influence on spatial variation. Hence, this study indicated a great research opportunity to set the course of action in determining the magnitude of spatial heterogeneity of an urban composition towards the pattern of precipitation

Effect of bean sprout on in vitro multiplication of Musa acuminata

Musa acuminata or Pisang Berangan is popular in Kelantan, but due to a lack of knowledge on modern farming technologies, many Musa acuminata are affected by diseases and are of low quality. Plant tissue culture has numerous advantages, including a rapid rate of multiplication, and the prevention of disease. Plant growth regulator such as Benzyl Amino Purine (BAP) is commonly used in media to grow banana explants, however, Murashige and Skoog (MS) media production with BAP hormone is expensive for low-income farmers. Therefore, this research had been done by substituting the BAP hormone by using bean sprout extract as an organic supplement for banana culture. The additives that were used in this project were non-centrifuged and centrifuged bean sprout extracts at different concentrations, which were 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% applied in the MS media. Data were collected based on number of leaves, length of leaves and length of roots. In this study, the positive control treatment with MS + 5 mg/L BAP media recorded the highest mean value in the number of leaves, length of leaves, and length of roots with values of 12.5 ± 0.59, 5.69 ± 0.13cm, and 6.45 ± 0.36cm respectively followed by MS media with centrifuged bean sprout extract. From the observation, the bean sprout has the potential to use as an additive for Musa acuminata media to substitute synthetic hormones such as BAP

Modeling of photodegradation process to remove the higher concentration of environmental pollution

Environmental organic pollutants are mineralized to harmless final-products such H2O and CO2 by photocatalytic advanced oxidation processes (AOPs). In photocatalytic-AOPs, an appropriate concentration of p-Cresol was mixed with certain amount of ZnO in 500 mL deionized water according to an experimental-design. Then the mixture was irradiated by UV-A lamp at different pH for 6 h. At specific time intervals, the sampling was carried out to calculate the efficiency of the photodegradation. Therefore, the photodegradation as a system consists of four input variables such irradiation time, pH, amount of ZnO and p-Cresol’s concentration while the only output was the efficiency. In this work, the system was modeled and optimized by semi-empirical response surface methodology. To obtain the empirical responses, the design was performed in laboratory. Then observed responses were fitted with several well-known models by regression process to suggest a provisional model. The suggested model which was validated by several statistical evidence, predicted the desirable condition with higher efficiency. The predicted condition consisted of irradiation time (280 min), pH (7.9), photocatalyst (1.5 g L−1), p-Cresol (95 mg L−1) and efficiency (95%) which confirmed by further experiments. The closed confirmation results has presented the removal (efficiency = 94.7%) of higher p-Cresol concentration (95 mg L−1) at shorter irradiation time in comparison with the normal photodegradation efficiency (97%) which included irradiation time (300 min), pH (7.5), photocatalyst amount (1.5 g L−1) and p-Cresol (75 mg L−1). As a conclusion, the modeling which is able to industrial scale up succeeded to remove higher concentration of environmental organic pollutants with ignorable reduction of efficiency

Investigation of the Vehicle Driving Trajectory During Turning at Intersectional Roads Using Deep Learning Model

Two-thirds of vehicle accidents in Malaysia occurred at the straight type of roads, followed by intersection-type roads. Despite the deployment of traffic lights on the road, accidents still occur which are caused by illegal maneuvers, speeding or misjudgment of other’s actions. Hence, motivated by the lack of previous research regarding causes of accidents on intersectional roads, this study aims to observe the pattern of the vehicles’ speed and turning angle during the right turn after the traffic stop at the intersection road. To obtain these parameters, video samples of vehicles at two types of intersections were obtained and analyzed via YOLOV7 and DeepSORT. The two road intersections researched are four-legged intersection and three-legged intersection. 153 and 35 vehicle samples were collected from these types of road intersections, respectively. It was observed that 78 and 75 vehicles exit towards the nearest and furthest lanes at four-leg controlled crossings on divided roads. While, at a single-lane to a dual carriageway road intersection, 26 and 9 vehicles exit towards the nearest and furthest lanes, respectively. From the research, 16.52 - 17.53 km/h and 67.57°-73.33° are the most optimal turning speeds and angles respectively for vehicles at four-leg controlled crossings. Whereas 14.48 - 15.51 km/h and 144.77° - 154.403° are the most optimal turning speeds and angles respectively for vehicles at a single-lane to a dual carriageway road intersection

Prevalence and factors associated with internet addiction among adolescents in Malaysia: a cross-sectional study

Introduction: Internet is important to university students, especially for medical students who use it to search for literature and relevant information. However, some of the users are experiencing a gradual loss of the ability to reduce the duration and frequency of their internet activities, despite the negative consequences. The literature on internet usage among Malaysian medical students is limited. This study aims to determine the prevalence and factors associated with internet usage among medical students in a public university in Malaysia. Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed among all the medical students (Year 1-5). Students were assessed on their internet activities using the internet addiction questionnaires (IAT). A Multiple Logistic Regression was used for data analysis. Results: The study was conducted among 426 students. The study population consisted of 156 males (36.6%) and 270 females (63.4%). The mean age was 21.6 ±1.5 years. Ethnicity distribution among the students was: Malays (55.6%), Chinese (34.7%), Indians (7.3%) and others (2.3%). According to the IAT, 36.9% of the study sample was addicted to the internet. Using the multivariate logistic regression analysis, we have found that the use of internet access for entertainment purposes (odds ratio [OR] 3.5, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.05-12.00), male students (OR 1.8, 95% CI 1.01-3.21) and increasing frequency of internet usage were associated with internet addiction (OR 1.4, 95% CI 1.09- 1.67). Conclusion: Internet addiction is a relatively frequent phenomenon among medical students. The predictors of internet addiction were male students using it for surfing and entertainment purposes

Prevalence and Factors Associated with Smartphone Addiction among Adolescents–A Nationwide Study in Malaysia

Smartphone ownership among adolescents is getting common in this decade especially in Malaysia; Adolescent are strongly devoted to their smartphone and this may lead to smartphone addiction. Studies have reported that smartphone addiction has become an emerging social and health problem especially among the youth in many countries however there is lack of study among adolescents in Malaysia. This study aimed to examine the prevalence and factors associated with smartphone addiction among adolescents in Malaysia. This was a cross-sectional study involving adolescents from 15 primary care clinics throughout the country. Respondents were assessed on their smartphone activities using the Malaysian short version of the Smartphone addiction scale (SAS-M-SV). Multiple logistic regression was used to determine the predictors of smartphone addiction among adolescents. The study was conducted among 921 adolescents with 49.6% male (n = 457). The mean age of adolescents was 16.4 ± 2.4 years. The ethnicity distribution were 74.6% Malay, 7.3% Chinese, 4.7% Indian and 13.4% other ethnicities. The prevalence of smartphone addiction was 37.1% (342/921); 37.4% in male and 36.9% in female. Based on multiple logistic regression analysis, longer duration of smartphone use per week was associated with higher odds of smartphone addiction among adolescent (odd ratio = 1.005%, 95% confidence interval = 1.000–1.009, p-value = 0.039). Smartphone addiction is present in nearly four in ten adolescents in Malaysia. Adolescents who spend longer duration in smartphone usage per week were associated with higher odds of having smartphone addiction. Parents should be more alert and vigilant about this finding. Hence, parents should limit their children from spending too much of time with smartphone in order to prevent their children from getting smartphone addiction

Prevalence and Factors Associated with Smartphone Addiction Among Adolescents-A Nationwide Study in Malaysia

Smartphone ownership among adolescents is getting common in this decade especially in Malaysia; Adolescent are strongly devoted to their smartphone and this may lead to smartphone addiction. Studies have reported that smartphone addiction has become an emerging social and health problem especially among the youth in many countries however there is lack of study among adolescents in Malaysia. This study aimed to examine the prevalence and factors associated with smartphone addiction among adolescents in Malaysia. This was a cross-sectional study involving adolescents from 15 primary care clinics throughout the country. Respondents were assessed on their smartphone activities using the Malaysian short version of the Smartphone addiction scale (SAS-M-SV). Multiple logistic regression was used to determine the predictors of smartphone addiction among adolescents. The study was conducted among 921 adolescents with 49.6% male (n = 457). The mean age of adolescents was 16.4 ± 2.4 years. The ethnicity distribution were 74.6% Malay, 7.3% Chinese, 4.7% Indian and 13.4% other ethnicities. The prevalence of smartphone addiction was 37.1% (342/921); 37.4% in male and 36.9% in female. Based on multiple logistic regression analysis, longer duration of smartphone use per week was associated with higher odds of smartphone addiction among adolescent (odd ratio = 1.005%, 95% confidence interval = 1.000–1.009, p-value = 0.039). Smartphone addiction is present in nearly four in ten adolescents in Malaysia. Adolescents who spend longer duration in smartphone usage per week were associated with higher odds of having smartphone addiction. Parents should be more alert and vigilant about this finding. Hence, parents should limit their children from spending too much of time with smartphone in order to prevent their children from getting smartphone addiction