Students' Reluctance to Attend Office Hours: Reasons and Suggested Solutions

This paper focuses on investigating students’ reasons for their reluctance to attend faculty members’ office hours. Study participants included 500 male and female students from the Colleges of Engineering (n = 248) and Arts and Social Sciences (CASS) (n = 252) at Sultan Qaboos University (SQU). The study followed a descriptive-analytical approach, and a questionnaire was utilized to collect people’s views. The results of the study indicate that the rates of SQU students’ attendance to office hours were low, and some students (11.2%) do not attend at all as they consider these office hours a waste of time. The main reasons behind the students’ lack of interest in office hours were busy student timetables, conflicts between faculty office hours and students’ timetables, and easier and faster ways of getting information than visiting faculty members. Additional reasons were related to faculty members’ personalities and their discouraging attitudes toward attending office hours. The researchers recommend that SQU adopt a new strategy for encouraging faculty members to hold office hours, familiarizing students with the importance of office hours and assigning part of a course’s grades to meeting with faculty members’ office hours

Characterization of Enzyme Produced from Pseudomonas Putida for BTX (Benzene, Toluene & Xylene) Treatment in Petrochemical Industry Wastewater System

One of the big challenges in petrochemical industries is waste management. Currently, huge money was spending on the disposal of the waste. Industries are trying hard to find an alternative method to reduce the cost and improve the effectiveness of current waste management including treatment efficiency. Most of petrochemical wastes are containing benzene, toluene and xylene (BTX) which are very harmful to environment and living organisms. Common method used to separate the BTX from the waste are by using liquid-liquid and stripping process. One of the alternative to treat BTX is biological treatment method that used the natural capability of microorganisms to degrade to less harmful product is been applied. Some of examples are Pseudomonas Putida. (P. putida), Rhizobium, and Agrobacterium. P. putida is selected in this study for the biological treatment of BTX in petrochemical wastewater because it can produce an enzyme that has the capability of breakdown the aromatic hydrocarbon to carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O). The main objective of this study is to produce and extract the enzymes produce, characterised the enzymes. This study also to investigate the effect of different concentration on the treatment as well as the growth of the bacteria. The enzyme is purified using salt precipitation and analysed using SDS_PAGE technique. UV-Vis is used to study the growth of the bacteria in the culture stock by measuring its optical density. The concentration of BTX was varied to determine the effect of the concentration on the percentage removal and the growth of P. putida. Enzymes detected or purified in this study was benzene reductase. Other expected enzymes were not able to be purified or analysed. It was found that in this experimental study, the removal of benzene is at 74% to 80%. The removal of toluene is at 62% to 75%. The removal of xylene is at 23% to 42%. Increasing the concentration of contaminants will reduce the removal capabilities

Quality assessment of ozone-treated citrus fruit juices

The aim of the present work was to analyse the impact of ozone treatment on the physicochemical parameters and antioxidant capacity of citrus fruit juices (orange, lemon and lime) with different juice components (total soluble solids). Each sample was ozonated at different ozone treatment time, between 0 to 30 min with fixed ozone concentration of 600 mg/h. The synergistic effects of ozone treatment and the different types of juice were found to significantly affect the pH, total colour difference (TCD), pectin methylesterase (PME) activity, ascorbic acid (AA) and total phenolic content (TPC) of treated juices, while total soluble solids, turbidity and 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay were found to be unchanged. It was observed that PME activity decreased with treatment time and this is related to the decrease of juice turbidity (R2 = 0.86) and TCD (R2 = 0.78). Ascorbic acid showed an abrupt decrease in all the juices especially in orange juice with percentage loss of 85%. TPC also showed decreasing trend for all juices with maximum loss of 84.4% in lemon juice after 30 min of ozonation time. The present work also found that lemon juice could retain most of its antioxidant activities (DPPH 98.9%, TPC 96%, AA 86.7%) after 10 min of ozone treatment time in comparison to orange and lime juices

Performance of Phytogreen Zone for BOD5 and SS Removal for Refurbishment Conventional Oxidation Pond in an Integrated Phytogreen System

In this study, the effectiveness of an integrated aquatic plants in phytogreen zone was studied and statistical analysis for the promotional integrated phytogreen system approached was discussed. It was found that's the effectiveness of using aquatic plant such as Typha angustifolia sp., Lepironia articulata sp., Limnocharis flava sp., Monochoria vaginalis sp., Pistia stratiotes sp., and Eichhornia crassipes sp., in the conventional oxidation pond process in order to comply the standard A according to Malaysia Environmental Quality Act 1974 (Act 127); Environmental Quality (Sewage) Regulation 2009 for effluent discharge into inland water near the residential area was successfully shown. It was concluded that the integrated phtogreen system developed in this study has great potential for refurbishment wastewater in conventional oxidation pond

The effect of static mixer on the properties and performance of aerobic granules under different organic loading rates in treating synthetic textile wastewater

Biogranulation is considered a promising technology in biological wastewater treatment due to its high effluent treatment quality, strong ability to withstand organic loading, strong microbial structure and high capability to remove organics, nitrogen and phosphate. Organic loading rate (OLR) is known as one of the significant factors in biogranulation process. Aerobic granules can be developed under different OLR conditions. Microorganisms are starved at low OLR while microbial growth accelerates at high OLR. The main objective of this study was to investigate the effect of various OLRs on the physical characteristics and treatment performance of aerobic granules in treating synthetic textile wastewater. Two reactors named as R4Y and R4N were used, where R4Y was a reactor with static mixer and R4N was without the static mixer. The OLR of 2.0, 2.5 and 3.0 kg/m3.day were examined during the post development study. The study demonstrated that OLR affected the performance of biogranules. The physical characteristics of biogranules and removal efficiencies of the reactor with static mixer seemed to be better as compared to the reactor without static mixer with increasing of OLR. The granules of R4Y had better physical strength with IC of 19.6% and more excellent settling ability with SV of 82.7 m/h and SVI of 24.6 mL/g. The findings proved that static mixer had a positive influence in biogranulation system and therefore, will lower the energy consumption and operational cost

Performance of Phytogreen Zone for BOD5 and SS Removal for Refurbishment Conventional Oxidation Pond in an Integrated Phytogreen System

In this study, the effectiveness of integrated aquatic plants in phytogreen zone was studied and statistical analysis for the promotional integrated phytogreen system approached was discussed. It was found that the effectiveness of using aquatic plant such as Typha angustifolia sp., Lepironia articulata sp., Limnocharis flava sp., Monochoria vaginalis sp., Pistia stratiotes sp., and Eichhornia crassipes sp. in the conventional oxidation pond process in order to comply the standard A according to Malaysia Environmental Quality Act 1974 (Act 127); Environmental Quality (Sewage) Regulation 2009 for effluent discharge into inland water near the residential area was successfully shown. It was concluded that the integrated phytogreen system developed in this study has great potential for refurbishment wastewater in conventional oxidation pond

Antidepressant-like effect of aqueous extract of Channa striatus fillet in mice models of depression.

Background and Objectives: Channa (C.) striatus (Malay-Haruan), is a fresh water snakehead fish, consumed as a rejuvenating diet in post-parturition period in local Malay population. The aqueous extract of C. striatus fillet (AECSF) was reported to act through serotonergic receptor system in a previous study. There is no scientific report on neuropharmacological effects of C. striatus. Based on these data, the antidepressant-like effect of C. striatus was evaluated in mice models of depression. Materials and Methods: AECSF was prepared by steaming the fillets as described previously. Antidepressant activity was studied in male ICR mice using forced swimming test (FST) and tail suspension test (TST). Open-field test was used to evaluate any psychomotor stimulant activity. AECSF was administered intraperitoneally at the concentrations of 30%, 40% and 50% w/v at the dosage of 10 ml/kg. Amitriptyline (10 mg/kg) was used as positive control. Results: All the three concentrations of AECSF (30%, 40% and 50% w/v) significantly reduced the immobility time (p < 0.001) in FST and TST. All the three concentrations of AECSF (30%, 40% and 50% w/v) significantly (p < 0.001) reduced locomotor activity in a dose-dependent manner in open-field test. Conclusions: AECSF produced significant reduction of immobility time in both FST and TST. Amitriptyline produced a significant reduction of immobility time in both FST and TST similar to previous findings. The AECSF produced a dose-dependent decrease in locomotor activity in the open-field test. This hypolocomotion effect indicated the absence of any psychomotor stimulant activity thereby supporting the antidepressant-like effect of the AECSF. The pharmacological mechanisms of the observed antidepressant-like effect and hypolocomotion effect are not understood from our study. Hence, further studies are required

Involvement of monoaminergic system in the antidepressant-like effect of aqueous extract of Channa striatus in mice

BACKGROUND: In our previous study, the aqueous extract of Channa striatus (family: Channidae) fillet (AECSF) showed an antidepressant-like effect in mice. However, the mechanism of the antidepressant-like effect is unknown. AIM: The objective of this study was to explore the involvement of monoamines in the antidepressant-like effect of AECSF in mice. MATERIALS AND METHODS: AECSF was prepared by steaming the fillets of C. striatus. The male ICR mice were pretreated with various monoaminergic antagonists viz., p-chlorophenylalanine (100 mg/kg, i.p.), prazosin (1 mg/kg, i.p.) and yohimbine (1 mg/kg, i.p.), SCH23390 (0.05 mg/kg, s.c.) and sulpiride (50 mg/kg, i.p.) followed by treatment with AECSF and tested in tail suspension test (TST). Two-way ANOVA with Tukey test were used at p < 0.05 for significance. RESULTS: The pretreatments with p-chlorophenylalanine, prazosin and yohimbine, but not with SCH23390 and sulpiride, were able to reverse the antidepressant-like effect of AECSF in TST. CONCLUSIONS: The antidepressant-like effect of AECSF may be mediated through the serotonergic and noradrenergic systems and not through the dopaminergic system

Development of integrated supply chain system in manufacturing industry

This paper presents the model of integrated halal supply chain in food manufacturing industries. There is global increase in the demand for halal products by Islamic countries as well as by non-Islamic countries. Halal food consumers are presently more alert and concern about the integrity of Halal status. Furthermore, they also curious about all the activities involved along the supply chain whether the products that they purchased were truly halal from the beginning to the end. The need of halal supply chain is crucial in ensuring that the concept of halal is not only applicable for the food itself but also for the whole supply chain starting from the farm to the customer. This project attempts to develop an integrated halal supply chain system that can be used by food manufacturers that are developing halal products for better productivity and quality. The identified supply chain components are human resources, process, environment, accreditations, logistics and traceability

Phase formation of REBa2Cu3O7−δ (RE: Y0.5Gd0.5, Y0.5Nd0.5, Nd0.5Gd0.5) superconductors from nanopowders synthesised via co-precipitation

Phase formation of REBa2Cu3O7−δ (RE: Y0.5Gd0.5, Y0.5Nd0.5, Nd0.5Gd0.5) superconductors synthesised via co-precipitation (COP) method were investigated by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential thermal analysis (DTA) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. All samples showed identical thermal decomposition behaviour from the thermogram in which 5 major weight losses were observed. However, XRD of the samples at different heat treatment temperatures showed different diffraction patterns indicating different thermolytic processes. Meanwhile, transmission electron microscopy and surface area analysis revealed that the powders obtained from COP have particle sizes ranging from 7 to 12 nm with relatively large surface area. Molar ratios of prepared samples obtained were near to the theoretical values as confirmed by elemental analyses using X-ray fluorescence (XRF). The TC(R=0) for sintered YGd, YNd and NdGd were 87 K, 86 K and 90 K, respectively. Surface morphological study via scanning electron microscope showed the structures of samples were dense and non porous