Vinegar is a liquid product that undergoes both alcoholic and acetous fermentation of sugar (carbohydrate) sources. Soursop (Annona muricata) is easily available in Malaysia throughout the year. However, it is also highly perishable and has a short shelf-life. Therefore, in this research, soursop was used in the production of vinegar, to increase its utilisation and reduce wastage. The objectives of this research were to determine the effects of fermentation time and pH on soursop vinegar using a 3 × 5 factorial design and to determine its chemical compositions. It was found that pH and fermentation time showed significant (p<0.05) effects on the reduction of sugar content and the production of acetic acid, while only fermentation time showed a significant effect on the production of ethanol. The interaction between factors did not exhibit any statistical significance (p>0.05). It was evident that the sugar concentration reduces over time and it was inversely proportional to the ethanol and acetic acid concentrations, due to the conversion of sugar to ethanol and subsequently acetic acid. It was found that higher pH (pH5.5) gave significantly (p<0.05) higher acetic acid production in the vinegar, while pH has no significant (p>0.05) effect on ethanol production. There were no significant differences (p>0.05) in vitamin C content in all vinegar samples. Thus, it can be established that at fermentation time of 120 h and pH5.5, more sugar was used and more ethanol and acetic acid were produced.
In a previous study, the gene EgP450 that encodes the proteins of 505 amino acids was isolated from oil palm. The recombinant protein EgP450 is bound to phenylurea-like herbicides which detoxify the substance. Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), a mycotoxin produced by Aspergillus sp., is another toxic compound that is known to cause acute toxic effects and act as a hepatocarcinogenic agent. This study aimed to examine the role of EgP450 enzyme in mycotoxin bioactivation in human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs). Docking analysis showed that EgP450 is bound to the group of carcinogens, which includes AFB1, n-(2-fluorenyl) acetamide, n-n-butyl-n-butan-4-ol-nitrosamine, n-nitrosodiethylamine, n-nitrosodiethylamine and n-nitrosodimethylamine. An in vivo aflatoxin toxicity test on hMSCs and AFB1 induces the expression of Bmi-1 which is one of the markers for the development of cancer. The presence of EgP450 at 0.15 μg/mL could reduced the Bmi-1 expression in AFB1 induced cells. Moreover, this protein also showed some antioxidant activity. These results exhibited the enormous potential of EgP450 in the detoxification processes.
soflavonoids are the main compound in White Kwao Krua (Pueraria mirifica), which is an effective folk medicinal plant endemic to Thailand. It has been widely used for improving human physical and treating diseases. There are substances with estrogenic activities have been isolated from P. mirifica, such as puerarin, daidzein and genistein. Isoflavone synthase (IFS) is one of the key enzymes in Leguminous plants to convert liquiritigenin, liquiritigenin C-glucoside and naringenin chalcone to isoflavonoids. The aim of this research was to enhance the production of isoflavonoids by metabolic engineering. Transgenic plants were constructed by introducing P450 gene (EgP450) which is similar to IFS from oil palm (Elaeis guineensis), into P. mirifica by a biolistic method. After the transgenic plants had proved successfully, isoflavonoids of each group plants were determined by HPLC. The contents of daidzein and genistein in transgenic plants were higher than the control plants
Morelloflavone, a biflavonoid from Southeast Asian folk medical plant Garcinia dulcis, possesses powerful antioxidant activity both in vivo and in vitro. We aimed to evaluate the hypotensive and diuretic effect of morelloflavone in two-kidneys-one-clip (2K1C) renovascular hypertensive rats together with its vasorelaxant mechanism. Male Wistar rats (175±4 g) were undergone 2K1C and sham operation (SO) (n=6, each group). Four weeks after the rats were anesthetized and clearance markers (0.5% para-aminohippuric acid and 1% inulin) were given via a jugular vein (1.6 mL/h/100 g BW) to estimate renal blood flow (RBF) and glomerular filtration rate. The arterial blood pressure (AP) was monitored via a carotid artery and urine samples were collected. After equilibration, either morelloflavone or vehicle (DMSO) was given (0.1 mg/kg BW+5 μg/min/kg BW). Baroreflex sensitivity (BRS) (ΔHR/ΔMAP) was performed by an intravenous injection of 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 and 32 μg/kg BW phenylephrine (PE) or sodium nitroprusside. The PE-preconstricted isolated thoracic aortic rings (intact and denuded) relaxation were experimented using organ bath technique by cumulative additions of morelloflavaone (10-13-10-5 M) in the presence of specific vasorelaxant inhibitors and expressed as %relaxation from pre-contraction tension. In 2K1C rats, morelloflavone significantly lowered mean AP, increased RBF and increased urine flow rate when compared to vehicle control (138±6 vs. 152±1 mmHg, 3.44±0.49 vs. 2.29±0.25 mL/min/g KW and 42.0±9.4 vs. 18.2±3.9 μL/min/g KW, p<0.05), respectively and also restored the blunt BRS. Nitric oxide signaling pathway triggered by morelloflavone might be responsible for its diuretic and hypotensive effect.
Gynura procumbens (GP) has been widely used in traditional medicine due to its ability in treating various types
of diseases. This study was carried out to determine the effects of GP on blood glucose level, fertility and libido of
streptozotocin-induced male rats. A total of 42 male rats were randomly sorted into six groups; normal, negative and
positive controls and three treated groups with different dosages of GP aqueous extract (GPAE); 150, 300 and 450 mg/kg.
Each group was treated via oral feeding for 14 consecutive days. The rats were sacrificed on day 15 for further analysis.
Administration of GPAE significantly lowered the fasting blood glucose (FBG) level and increased the plasma testosterone
level of diabetic-induced rats compared to the positive and negative control groups. There was also a significant increase
in the sperm quality as well as the fertility of GPAE treated groups compared to the negative and positive control groups.
Sexual behaviour analysis demonstrated that GPAE is able to facilitate the expression of sexual behaviour significantly;
increased mounting frequency and reduced mounting latency. These lines of evidence suggested that GPAE can act as
antihyperglycaemic, profertility and libido agents. However, its mechanism(s) remains unresolved.
Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) can be used to replace petrochemical plastics in many applications. However, their production has limitation due to production cost. This research was conducted using alternative carbon source from waste to synthesize PHAs by Cupriavidus necator H16. In this study, PHAs were produced from used cooking oil (UCO) and compared with production PHAs from palm oil. Two UCO storage times (4 and 10 weeks) and three UCO concentrations (10, 20 and 30 g/L) were used to determine the most optimum condition for PHA synthesis. The best optimum condition for PHA synthesis was cultivated in the medium containing 30 g/L of UCO at 4 weeks storage. The cell dry weight (CDW) and PHA content were 5.26±0.61 g/L and 27.36±2.04 wt. %, respectively. These results were similar to cell cultivation using 20 g/L palm oil and 1% of fructose (5.93±0.33 g/L of CDW and 26.96±6.14 wt. % of PHA contents). In addition, PHA content from the culture with 10 g/L of UCO stored for 10 weeks was higher than PHA content from the culture with 20 and 30 g/L of UCO. Thus, it can be concluded that UCO could be used in PHA production.
This study was carried out to identify the active compounds of Emilia sonchifolia on induction of ovarian maturation
in Fenneropenaeus merguiensis. The crude extracts from dichloromethane and acetone were investigated in vitro. The
crude extract from acetone induced up-regulation of shrimp ovarian peritrophin (SOP) and translationally controlled
tumor protein (TCTP) genes, which were highly expressed during early phase of ovarian development higher than
dichloromethane extract. Furthermore, fraction 14 (F14) from acetone extract up-regulated both of the SOP and the
TCTP genes to the greatest extent. Leading to in vivo study, the effect of ribosomal protein L10a (RPL10a), which
acts as shrimp ovarian stimulator plus with F14 on shrimp ovarian maturation was investigated by injection. The
best result was observed in the group that received RPL10a plus with F14 at 0.8 µg/g body weight of shrimp. The
RPL10a plus F14 enhanced the shrimp ovaries from undeveloped stage to 57% of early developing stage within 15
days. Meanwhile, the control group remained 100% of the undeveloped stage. Hence, F14 seems to play a positive
role in the induction of shrimp ovarian maturation. The component of F14 was identified using mass spectroscopy
and presented as 1,2-benzenedicarboxylic acid; 2,4-di-tert-butyl phenol; 2,4,5-trimethoybenzylidene;palmitic acid;
1-heneicosyl formate; 1-heptadecanol; ethyl-4-ethoxybenzoate and stearic acid.
NP-SNP interactions have been recognized to be basically important for understanding genetic causes of complex disease
traits. Logic regression is an effective methods for identifying SNP-SNP interactions associated with risk of complex disease.
However, identifying SNP-SNP interactions are computationally challenging and may take hours, weeks and months to
complete. Although parallel computing is a powerful method to accelerate computing time, it is arduous for users to
apply this method to logic regression analyses of SNP-SNP interactions because it requires advanced programming skills
to correctly partition and distribute data, control and monitor tasks across multi-core CPUs or several computers, and
merge output files. In this paper, we present a novel R-library called SNPInt to automatically speed up analyses of SNP-SNP
interactions of genome-wide association (GWA) studies using parallel computing without the advanced programming skills.
The Crohn’s disease GWA studies dataset from the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium (WTCCC) that includes 4,680
individuals with 500,000 SNPs’ genotypes was analyzed using logic regression on a computer cluster to evaluate SNPInt
performance. The results from SNPInt with any number of CPUs are the same as the results from non-parallel approach,
and SNPInt library quite accelerated the logic regression analysis. For instance, with two hundred genes and twenty
permutation rounds, the computing time was continuously decreased from 7.3 days to only 0.9 day when SNPInt applied
eight CPUs. Executing analyses of SNP-SNP interactions using the SNPInt library is an effective way to boost performance,
and simplify the parallelization of analyses of SNP-SNP interactions.
Seagrass meadows have one of the highest carbon sequestration and storage capacities than any other ecosystems. Carbon that is stored in the ecosystem is accumulated in the deposited sediment as well as in the living, above and below ground biomass, with a different rate of carbon sequestration and storage between the species. The objective of this research was to investigate carbon storage in the living plants and in the sediment among species of different size in tropical waters. The samples were collected from Phuket province, Thailand, in the high density monospecific patches of different size species (Enhalus acoroides as a big, Thalassia hemprhicii as a medium and Halophila ovalis as a small size species). Total carbon and carbon stored in above and below ground, was significantly different between the species (p<0.05), with the highest values in below ground parts of E. acoroides and T. hemprichii 238.10±85.07 and 134±21.55 g Dw m-2, respectively. Average organic carbon in the sediment was significantly different (p<0.05) as well, with E. acoroides having highest organic carbon content in the deeper layers of the sediment 1.14±0.25 % Corg, while the other two species had higher organic carbon in the top and medium layers of sediment. The results of this preliminary research propose that big size species have higher carbon content than smaller species, which reflects in higher sequestration rates of carbon from the ocean, thus reducing the ocean carbon budget. Moreover, it provides necessary information on size of the species which is the key for the future carbon storage studies in the region.
Scales are calcium carbonate and collagen-contained structures embedded within the fish epidermis and useful for
species identification. This study aimed to describe morphological characteristics of scales and use the differences to
prepare keys to species. Fishes were sampled from selected rivers of Tembat Forest Reserve, Hulu Terengganu. Specimens
caught were from 3 families (Cyprinidae, Channidae, Nandidae) and 17 species. Each species was represented by ten
individuals (size ranges 2.5 - 50 cm TL). The scales were removed, soaked in H2
O2
(0.5%), NH3 (0.3%), DH2
O and
mounted between a pair of glass slides for digital photographing. The morphological descriptions were based on types
of scales, distinctiveness of radii arrangement at the anterior field, radii cover, radii distribution, overall shape, focus
position and focus pattern. Keys to species were constructed based on these scale morphological characters described.
Measurements of scale total length (L), total width (W), rostral field length (L1) and caudal field length (L2) of the scales
were taken using Image J software. The inter-specific variation among scales was indicated by L1/L, L2/L, L1/L2 and
W/L indices through multiple comparison tests (ANOVA). It was found that all 17 species showed significant differences
with at least one other species in all four indices. Pristolepis grootii (Bleeker 1852) was the only one that significantly
different (p<0.05) from other 16 species in the first three indices. Species that showed the least significant differences
among species was Probarbus jullieni (Sauvage 1880). The differences among the scales were primarily due to the
different types of scale that was either ctenoid or cycloid.
Elevated atmospheric CO2 is widely reported to stimulate the plant growth and affect plant physiological processes. However, studies on the respond of tropical plant species to elevated CO2 are quite limited and remain largely unknown. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of elevated atmospheric CO2 treatments on the photosynthetic characteristics, growth and biomass in Shorea platycarpa. Saplings of S. platycarpa were grown for seven months in the open roof gas chamber supplied with elevated CO2 (800±50 μmol mol-1) and in the shade house with ambient CO2 (400±50 μmol mol-1). Measurements of S. platycarpa growth and photosynthetic characteristics were made at frequent intervals. Biomass characteristics were determined using destructive methods after seven months of treatment and nondestructive method was used for leaf area index (LAI) determination. Photosynthetic rate (A) of S. platycarpa was not significantly affected by elevated CO2. Increased water use efficiency (WUE) of S. platycarpa grown in elevated CO2 was due to the reduced stomatal conductance (gs) and transpiration rate (E). The CO2 elevation had no significant effect on the S. platycarpa relative growth rates (RGR) and biomass but significantly reduced the leaf area. A weak correlation was found between photosynthetic rate (A) and relative growth rate (RGR). The results clearly showed that photosynthesis, growth rate and biomass of S. platycarpa were not significantly enhanced by elevated CO2. The findings indicated that elevated CO2 did not affect a relatively slow growing and a late successional peat swamp tree species.
The use of allelopathy concept in weed management has received attentions to minimize extensively the reliance on herbicide applications on the agriculture industry in Malaysia. A laboratory study was conducted to evaluate the allelopathic potential of 15 Malaysian common weed species of different morphological characteristics (broadleaves, sedges and grasses). They were screened using the Sandwich method (from leaf litter leachate) and the Dish pack method (for testing the presence and content of volatile compounds in weeds). Among the 15 weed species tested, the leaf litter leachate of Centrosema pubescens was observed to be the most sensitive plant material inhibiting the growth of lettuce radicle (84%) and hypocotyl (55%) in the Sandwich bioassay compared to the control. This was followed by Asystasia gangentica (81%) and Cynodon dactylon (80%) inhibiting the lettuce radicle growth. In the Dish pack bioassay, Rhynchelytrum repens demonstrated maximum inhibition on the radicle and hypocotyl elongations by 44% and 29%, respectively, (over control) at 41 mm distance from the source well. Meanwhile, at the same distance, Cynodon dactylon was observed to have the least inhibitory effect on lettuce radicle growth by 12%. The results presented can be utilized as benchmark information for further research on the identification and isolation of allelochemicals for weed control strategies.
In this study, 6 MV photon beam of TrueBeam STx Varian LINAC with Flattening Filter Free (FFF) was simulated using PRIMO code. The depth dose profiles for various jaws open fields and cross beam profiles for various depths inside water phantom were determined using Monte Carlo (MC) simulation technique and validated with experimental result. The experiments were performed using the Source to Surface Distance (SSD) technique with a 100 cm distance from target to the surface of water. Simulation used 109 histories with the same configurations with experiments. The depth dose profiles and cross beam profiles of 6 MV FFF photon beam was determined using MC simulations and compared with experimental results. The results showed that depth dose profiles and cross beam profiles by MC simulation accurately matched with experimental results. The best result of depth dose profile was obtained at 10×10 cm2 jaws open field with 98.53% passing criterion whereas cross beam profile was obtained at 10 cm depth inside water phantom with 88.96% passing criterion. The discrepancies were caused by scatter of particle and incompatibility of primary beam in PRIMO with experiment.
ABSTRACT
Triclopyr is a post emergence herbicide used to control woody plants. After application, the excess amount will enter the soil and water bodies and it is present in ppb level thus making extraction very difficult. The extraction of triclopyr 3, 5, 6-trichloro-2-pyridinyl residue from soil, sediment and water samples under different solid phase extraction (SPE) sorbent efficiency was studied for better recovery. Four different SPE sorbents i.e.: Oasis HLB, Water Sep-Pak, Cromabond (cation/anion PS-H+ /OH-), Isolute ENV+ and a series of solvent i.e. potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KH2PO4 0.1M), sodium hydroxide (NaOH 0.2M), potassium hydroxide (KOH 0.5 & 0.6M), ammonium acetate, methanol and water were used as extraction solution. Sample clean-up performance was evaluated using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC, Agilent 1220 infinity LC) with variable wavelength detector (VWD) 290 nm. Cromabond®H+/OHcolumn with 0.6 M KOH was the most suitable for the clean-up in view of the overall feasibility of the analysis. The highest recovery was 89.32%.
AgCl/BiYO3
composite was successfully synthesized via the aqueous precipitation method followed by calcination. The
varied amount of AgCl (10, 20 and 30%) was mixed into BiYO3
via sonochemical-assisted method. The structures and
morphologies of the as-prepared AgCl/BiYO3
composite were characterized by x-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron
microscopy (SEM) and UV-vis diffused reflectance spectroscopy (UV-vis DRS). The optical absorption spectrum of AgCl/
BiYO3
composite showed strong absorption in visible region. The photocatalytic activity of AgCl/BiYO3
composite was
evaluated by the photodegradation of reactive orange16 (RO16), which was selected to represent the dye pollutants,
under UV and visible light irradiation. The results indicated that 20% AgCl/BiYO3 photocatalyst was the most capable
photocatalyst in this series in the degradation of RO16 under both UV and visible light illumination within 1 h. Moreover,
the mechanism of photocatalytic degradation of AgCl/BiYO3
was elucidated using three types of free radical scavengers.
The significant enhancement was attributed to the formation of AgCl/BiYO3
heterojunction resulting in the low electronhole
pair recombination rate.
A set of coupled particle and thermal transport equations is used to study a formation and sustainability of an edge transport barrier (ETB) in tokamak plasmas based on two-field bifurcation. The two transport equations are numerically solved for spatio-temporal profiles of plasma pressure and density. The plasma core transport includes both neoclassical and turbulent effects, where the latter can be suppressed by flow shear mechanism. The flow shear, approximated from the force balance equation, is proportional to the product of pressure and density gradients, resulting in non-linearity behaviors in this calculation. The main thermal and particle sources are assumed to be localized near plasma center and edge, respectively. It is found that the fluxes versus gradients regime illustrates bifurcation nature of the plasma. This picture of the plasma implies hysteresis properties in fluxes versus gradients space. Hence, near marginal point, the perturbation in thermal or particle sources can trigger an L-H transition. Due to hysteresis, the triggered H-mode can be sustained and the central plasma pressure and density can be enhanced.
Compounding of natural rubber (NR) requires high energy due to the high viscosity characteristic of NR. In order to reduce the viscosity, low molecular weight of NR (LNR) latex was prepared from field latex by using oxidative phenyl hydrazine/O2 system. LNR latex was mixed with high ammonium NR latex at 3, 5 and 10 phr to provide low energy processing NR (LEPNR). Viscosity molecular weights (Mv) of obtained LNR were 42.59, 18.42 and 6.66 kg/mol, respectively. It was found that the maximum Mooney viscosities and ML 1+4@100°C of LEPNRs were significantly decreased with a decrease of Mv of LNR and an increase of LNR content as well. Specific mixing energy consumptions for mastication step and carbon black incorporation step in Brabender Plasticorder were characterized. The results showed that the mixing energy consumption decreased with an increase of LNR content and a decrease of Mv of LNR. Furthermore, an addition of LNR lowered the viscosity of the compounded rubber, slightly shortened the scorch time, and significantly changed the cure time. Although LNR dropped 50% and 100% modulus of vulcanized rubber, it slightly affected the tensile strength of the vulcanized rubber.
hlorophyll a is known as the prevailing light absorbing pigment giving a strong absorption and fluorescence emission in visible region. Quenching reactions of the chlorophyll a fluorescence by Fe(acac)3 were precisely investigated in various organic solvents which are benzene toluene, ethanol, methanol, dmf, dmso and acetonitrile. Electron transfer performance of chlorophyll a by Fe(acac)3 was investigated from oxidative quenching reaction. Herein, the simplified Rehm-Weller relationship was used to calculate the free energy change of the photo-induced electron transfer reaction. Emission intensity decreased when the concentration of Fe(acac)3 quencher was increased. Non-linear Stern-Volmer plots are found to be affected by inner filter effect more than the ground state complex formation. Rate of quenching reactions (kq) were determined from the Stern-Volmer equation with corrected inner filter effect. The rates of quenching reactions occurred faster in high viscous solvents.
The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of microwave pretreatment on the properties of particleboard made from para rubber wood sawdust with the addition of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs). Para wood sawdust was pretreated with microwaves at different wattages (400, 600 and 800 W) and pretreatment times (5, 10 and 15 min) before being mixed with 10 wt. % of pure PHAs and 10 wt. % freeze-dried cells which contained 46.90% wt. % PHA, in order to make particleboard. The physical and mechanical properties of the particleboard panels obtained were also tested based on the Japanese Industrial Standards A 5098 for particleboard (JIS A5908) including modulus of rupture (MOR), internal bonding (IB), water absorption (WA) and thickness swelling (TS). The results showed that only panel made from 10 wt. % freeze-dried cells and treated with 400 watts for 5 min passed the minimum requirements of MOR (7.86 ± 0.67 MPa) and IB (1.62 ± 0.06 MPa) but not passed that of WA (40.09 ± 6.53%) and TS (34.69 ± 5.43%). The panels without the addition of PHA cannot test WA and TS values because the panels dispersed immediately when submerged in water. The MOR of panels decreased with increasing wattages and pretreatment time. The wattage and pretreatment time of microwave had little effect on the WA and TS. Based on this study, microwave treatment is an appropriate method for the pretreatment of materials and PHAs can be promoted as potential additives for making particleboard.
We obtain a generalization of Hardy’s inequality for functions in the Hardy space H1 (Bd), where Bd is the unit ball {z = (z1, …, zd) ∈ In particular, we construct a function φ on the set of d –dimensional multi-indices {n = (n1, …, nd) | ni ∈ {0}} and prove that if f(z) = Σ anzn is a function in H1 (Bd), then ≤ Moreover, our proof shows that this inequality is also valid for functions in Hardy space on the polydisk H1 (Bd).