Raw goat milk is recognized as one kind of nutritious food owed to its originality and
medicinal values. This study aimed to evaluate the physico-chemical and microbiological
qualities of locally produced raw goat milk prior any processing steps during storage. Milk
samples passed organoleptic test and C.O.B. test were mostly (88.89 %) failed in alcohol test.
AOAC Official method of oven drying method, Kjeldahl method and Soxhlet method were
performed in physico-chemical analysis where results obtained were partially in lined with
reported literature due to subjective factors of breeds, geographical areas and feeds. The locally
produced raw goat milk’s compositions are high in water content and low in fat percentage.
Initial total plate count, coliform count and proteolytic count tested were 3.44 log cfu/ml, 1.87
log cfu/ml and 1.97 log cfu/ml, respectively. Storage time showed significant effect on the
bacterial counts (p>0.05) of milk samples. Shelf-life of milk samples were kept up to 12 hours
under ambient temperature (3.95 log cfu/ml) had not exceeded the standard limit. The shelflife
of the milk samples were extended up to 16 days storage under refrigerated temperature
of 4°C. The microbiological quality of the milk samples showed a significant bacteriological
growth upon prolonged storage and high initial coliform count indicates possible poor hygienic
practices at farm level.
Discovery of drugs from medicinal plants continues to provide major leads against various
pharmacological targets, particularly in cancer diseases. Hence, there are increasing demands to discover
more therapeutic agents from various species of medicinal plants. Chemical compounds in plants are
important for human beings due to their therapeutic properties. Goniothalamus umbrosus, Typhonium
flagelliforme, Myrmecodia pendens, Strobilanthes crispus and Clinacanthus nutans, are among the herbal
species, which are consumed by cancer patients in order to combat against the growth of cancer cells. The
present review aims to highlight on the anti-cancer properties of the listed Malaysian herbs.
The emergence of research about the biological effects of electromagnetic field (EMF) have growing concern among
researchers. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects on the brain of rats periodically exposed to 0.1 mT EMF.
Total 24 adult male Sprague Dawley rats were subdivided randomly to 4 groups: 2 control groups (C1 6 hours: 6 h/
day for 5 days; C2 20 hours: 20 h/day for 5 days) and 2 treatment groups which exposed to 0.1 mT EMF (T1 6 hours:
6 h/day for 5 days; T2 20 hours: 20 h/day for 5 days). A significant decrease in the pyramidal cell number was higher
as the exposure duration to EMF was extended (T1, p
Many studies have shown that probiotic strains added to a number of probiotic products are not compatible to that of
claimed. It is thus of note to validate probiotic strains added to probiotic products. In this study, three probiotic drinks,
A, B and C, were cultured on MRS agar and the number of bacterial colonies was enumerated. The bacterial counts
recovered from A (9.3 ± 6.9 log CFU/ml) and C (9.0 ± 6.9 log CFU/ml) were signifi cantly higher than B (5.2 ± 3.5 log
CFU/ml) and achieved the minimal amount recommended for probiotic bacteria. All of the isolates appeared as gram
positive rods microscopically and were proven to be catalase negative. However, there were only A1, A2, B4 and C1 that
were highly tolerant to the gastrointestinal pH 3 to 6. The four isolates produced and secreted antimicrobial substances
which inhibited the growth of Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus). C1 showed the greatest
growth inhibition by forming 17.50-mm and 17.85-mm inhibition zones against E. coli and S. aureus, respectively. The
16s rDNA sequencing and phylogenetic analysis were performed to further identify the twelve isolates. The twelve isolates
were found to be Lactobacillus (L.), particularly L. casei and L. paracasei. However, the bacteria isolated from drink B
were incompatible to the labelled ones. In conclusion, probiotic drinks are possible to contain different bacterial counts
and probiotic strains from the labelled ones. These differences might affect health benefi ts rendered by probiotic strains
to consumers.
Ocular abnormalities have apparent effects on brain activation. However, neuroimaging data about the ocular characteristics of healthy participants are still lacking to be compared with data for patients with ocular pathology. The objective of this multiple participants’ functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies was to investigate the brain activation characteristics of healthy participants when they view stimuli of various shapes, pattern and size. During the fMRI scans, the participants view the growing ring, rotating wedge, flipping hour glass/bow tie, quadrant arc and full checker board stimuli. All stimuli have elements of black-and-white checkerboard pattern. Statistical parametric mapping (SPM) was used in generating brain activation via fixed-effects (FFX) and conjunction analyses. The stimuli of various shapes, pattern and size produce different brain activation with more activation concentrated in the left hemisphere. These results are supported by the conjunction analysis which indicated that the left pre-central, post-central, superior temporal and occipital gyrus as well as the left cingulate cortices were involved when the participants viewed each given stimulus. Differential activation analysis showed activation with high specificity in the occipital region due to the stimuli of various shapes, pattern and size. The activation in the right middle temporal gyrus was found to be significantly higher in response to moving stimuli as compared to stationary stimuli. This confi rms the involvement of the right middle temporal gyrus in the observation of movements. The black-and-white checkerboard stimuli of various shapes, pattern and size, stationary and moving was found to 1) activate visual as well as other cortices in temporal and parietal lobes, 2) cause asymmetry in brain function and 3) exhibit functional integration characteristics in several brain areas.
Keywords: fMRI; SPM; visual stimulus; occipital gyrus; middle temporal gyrus
Balance and motor skills are essential prerequisites for physical development of a child. The aims of this study were to measure anthropometrics, postural balance and motor skills; and examine their correlation among healthy preschool children. Forty nine healthy preschool children aged between 3 to 4 years old participated from PERMATA preschool organization. Pediatric Balance Scale and Peabody Development Motor Scale-2nd Edition (PDMS-2) were administered to measure balance skills for both fine and gross motor skills respectively. Mann-Whitney U test demonstrated that there was no significant difference in balance (p=0.72) and motor skill (p=0.33) between boys and girls. Spearman correlation coefficient demonstrated that there was significant correlation between balance skills with height (r=0.45, p=0.001) and body mass index(r=0.47, p=0.001). No significant correlation was found between balance skills and motor skills (r=0.11, p=0.44). The present study suggests that balance skills in healthy preschool children aged 3-4 years old are correlated with their physical growth such as height and weight but not motor skills.
The invention of microarray technology has enabled expression levels of thousands of genes to be monitored at once. This modernized approach has created large amount of data to be examined. Recently, gene regulatory network has been an interesting topic and generated impressive research goals in computational biology. Better understanding of the genetic regulatory processes would bring significant implications in the biomedical fields and many other pharmaceutical industries. As a result, various mathematical and computational methods have been used to model gene regulatory network from microarray data. Amongst those methods, the Bayesian network model attracts the most attention and has become the prominent technique since it can capture nonlinear and stochastic relationships between variables. However, structure learning of this model is NP-hard and computationally complex as the number of potential edges increase drastically with the number of genes. In addition, most of the studies only focused on the predicted results while neglecting the fact that microarray data is a fragmented information on the whole biological process. Hence this study proposed a network-based inference model that combined biological knowledge in order to verify the constructed gene regulatory relationships. The gene regulatory network is constructed using Bayesian network based on low-order conditional independence approach. This technique aims to identify from the data the dependencies to construct the network structure, while addressing the structure learning problem. In addition, three main toolkits such as Ensembl, TFSearch and TRANSFAC have been used to determine the false positive edges and verify reliability of regulatory relationships. The experimental results show that by integrating biological knowledge it could enhance the precision results and reduce the number of false positive edges in the trained gene regulatory network.
Sports coaching and especially high performance coaching has long existed in some sort of duality. On one hand, sport coaching has been regarded by many as a prestigious and rewarding job, whereas on the other, sport coaching still lacks a reputation as a career opportunity mostly due to the fact that coaching is yet to receive its full professional recognition in the society. Given the vast variety of coaching qualifications, coaching roles and coaching occupations available within sport infrastructure in the society, the situation has got progressively complicated with the recognition of coaching qualifications. In addition, the growing popularity of high performance and participation sports in the society started drawing more attention from the public to the issues of coach education, competence and qualifications. Malaysian scenario on the issue is quite complicated as well, and growing demand to uplift the country’s performance in SEA, Asian, Commonwealth and Olympic Games requires interference from the higher education institutions and NGOs.
Ascorbic acid or vitamin C is mostly found in natural products such as fruits and vegetables. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method has been developed and validated to compare the ascorbic acid content in Benincasa hispida (Bh) fruit extract with three different extraction solvents; i) 3% metaphosphoric acid, ii) 3% citric acid and iii) distilled water. The compound has been detected and quantified by the use of HPLC coupled with UV-Vis detector. The amount of ascorbic acid detected in Bh fruit extract prepared with different extraction solvents; 3% metaphosphoric acid, 3% citric acid and distilled water were 13.18, 7.91 and 9.42 mg/100g respectively. Total run time was 6 min and the retention time was 2.60 min. Calibration curve was linear with the concentration range 1.00 – 16.00 μg/ml. Limits of detection was 0.24 μg/ml, limit of quantification was 0.81 μg/ml and recovery was 93.52%. The result showed ascorbic acid content is higher in Bh fruit extract with 3% metaphosphoric acid, followed by extract with distilled water and 3% citric acid. Thus, Bh is another novel fruit/ vegetable potentially used as food ingredient as it contains a good source of ascorbic acid that can be good for one’s health.
Many researchers have emphasized the importance of teaching stress management and self-care skills to medical students as they are vulnerable to develop psychological health problems. The researchers designed a 4-hour intervention based on the DEAL model to address these problems. This study aimed to determine outcomes of the DEAL-based intervention on medical students’ stress, anxiety and depression symptoms. Methods: A randomized controlled trial study was conducted on 171 medical students. Their stress, anxiety and depression symptoms were measured by the 21-item Depression Anxiety Stress Scale at five intervals; at 2 weeks before the intervention, and at 1 week, 8 weeks, 16 weeks and 32 weeks after the intervention. The mixed model ANCOVA was applied to determine the effect of the intervention on the participants’ psychological health at five intervals. Results: A total of 153 medical students (intervention = 73 and control = 80) completed this study. Results showed that the intervention group experienced significantly lower stress and depression symptoms than the control group. Although anxiety scores are consistently lower in the intervention group, no significant differences between groups were found. Conclusion: These results support the favourable outcomes of the intervention on psychological health of medical students. It is a promising intervention to be considered by medical schools as it consumes minimal amount of time, money, training and man power as well can be implemented easily.
The beneficial impact of the differential biofeedback intervention technique on modification in autonomic competence, as well as the ultimate impact on bilateral shooting ability, were studied on young and competitive male soccer players. A total of 45 young high-performing soccer players in the age range of 18 to 24 years were recruited. At first, the players were subjected to baseline evaluation of psychomotor (i.e., reaction time - RT), physiological (viz. resting heart-rate; VO2Max, electrical muscle potentiality, etc.), and psychobiological indices (such as skin conductance components - latency, amplitude and recovery time). Thereafter, they were equally categorized into: Control Group, Experimental Group I [who received skin conductance (Sc) biofeedback training], and Experimental Group II [who received electromyography (EMG) biofeedback intervention training]. Participants of the experimental groups were subjected to their respective interventions (Sc & EMG biofeedback intervention training), which were imparted for 24 sessions (15 mins/day; 2 days/week for 12 weeks). After six weeks of intervention, mid-term evaluation of all of the aforementioned parameters (assessed during baseline evaluation) was performed. Thereafter, intervention sessions continued following the identical protocol for six weeks. At the end of the 12th week, a post-intervention assessment on all of the psychological, psychomotor and psychobiological variables was carried out on all of the participants to verify the effect of training on dependent measures. Post-intervention analyses revealed improvements in physiological, psychobiological and performance parameters, which could be rationally attributed to the differential biofeedback therapeutic interventions introduced to the experimental groups. The outcome suggested that both interventions facilitated improvement in bilateral shooting ability, while indepth analyses clarified that a higher extent of autonomic recovery emerged as the most significant factor facilitating shooting ability in the experimental groups.
The presence of airflow during heating process is expected to increase heat uniformity in a closed heating chamber. Circulation of hot air increases the percentage of convective heat transfer. In this study effects of airflow on oven temperature, cake temperature and several cake qualities were investigated. Experimental studies were conducted in convective oven using two different baking modes; with and without airflow. During baking, oven temperatures and internal cake temperature were measured, and images of cake expansion were captured. Results of the study showed that the presence of airflow could maintain the oven temperature within a small range of set point temperature. Temperature in the oven exhibited ±5.5°C fluctuation, approximately 3.5% overshoot that occurred continuously during baking with airflow. On the contrary, higher overshoot (ranging from 15 to 30%) was observed in oven temperature without airflow. Airflow also showed a significant effect (p
Field investigation on the operation of an industrial fluidized bed paddy dryer of 25 t/h capacity available in a processing complex of Padiberas Nasional Berhad (BERNAS) of Malaysia was carried out to assess its drying characteristics, energy consumption and quality of product during two paddy harvesting seasons. A grain drying simulation model was used to predict dryer performance which can be used as a basis for improving drying operations. For the first season (August-September), average drying rate was found to be 538 kg moisture/h to reduce moisture content (mc) from 36.98± 0.89% dry basis (db) to 27.58±0.79% (db) at 100-120°C of drying air temperature with a feed rate (capacity) of 7.75 t/h. In the second season (February-March), average drying rate was found to be 435 kg moisture/h to reduce mc from 28.14 ±0.68% (db) to 22.54 ± 0.69% (db) at 78-90°C drying air temperature with a feed rate of 9.5 t/h. The thermal and electrical energy consumptions were obtained as 7.57 and 0.97 MJ/kg water removed, respectively, for the first season, while 5.92 and 1.2 MJ/kg water removed for the second season. Higher head rice yield and whiteness and lower milling recovery were achieved during the first season than the second season at acceptable milling degree and transparency. Meanwhile, simulation results indicated that the dryer performed better in terms of increased drying capacity during the second than the first season; the dryer could be operated at 150°C to achieve almost double throughput capacity up to 20 t/h for the second season, while for the first season, high mc hindered the capacity to be at or below 7.75 t/h even when using higher a temperature of 160°C to reduce moisture to the desired final moisture of 24-25% (db). Proportion of slower vehicles based on users' opinion poll
A recently published meta-analysis showed that each additional serving of rice increased risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) by an alarming 11%. We investigated whether this phenomenon is seen in the Malaysian population by studying the effect of rice intake and added sugar consumption on fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and fasting triacylglycerol (TAG).
Not many attempts have been made in previous studies to understand consumers’ socio-demographic characteristics and their awareness towards organic rice. Knowledge towards organic rice among consumers is fundamental to induce demand and market for organic rice. This study seeks to understand consumers’ awareness towards organic rice in Malaysia. The survey is exploratory in nature and was conducted at major supermarkets in Klang Valley. Data were analysed using descriptive analysis and chi-square analysis using cross-classification techniques, and correlation to determine their relationship, strength and direction of their relationship. The findings showed majority of the respondents (85.6%) have some level of awareness towards organic rice, while only 64.7% planned to consume organic rice in the future. This indicates that awareness of consumers towards organic rice does not necessarily translate to their planning to consume organic rice. Thus, achieving awareness and understanding the linkage between awareness and consumption is fundamental to impacting demand and market for organic rice. The study also showed that the younger respondents have more concern towards organic rice. These findings if well responded to, would definitely have positive implications for the Malaysian organic rice industry.
Introduction: Presently, the use of Eurycoma longifolia Jack (ELJ) (Tongkat Ali) has increased dramatically in Southeast Asia especially Malaysia where it is widely used as aphrodisiac and anti-malarial agent. Interestingly, its consumption has become popular in daily life as beverage to enhance energy and stamina especially among males. However, its effect on the safety of vital organs of the body has not been studied adequately. Hence, the main objective of this study was to determine whether or not long-term use of ELJ any has side effects on the liver in rats.
Methods: Three different concentrations of aqueous extract of ELJ were prepared and dissolved in distilled water. A total of 32 Sprague-Dawley male rats were used and randomly divided into three test groups and control. The test groups were given different doses (low dose 250 mg/kg bw, medium dose 500mg/kg bw and high dose 1000 mg/kg bw) of aqueous extract of ELJ, respectively. Control group was given distilled water alone. Doses were given orally and daily for 5 weeks. After 5 weeks, animals were sacrificed; whole liver tissues were obtained, fixed in 10 percent formaldehyde overnight for histological examination.
Result: Histological observations showed mild to moderate degrees of hemorrhage, hepatocytes degeneration and severe fatty changes in liver tissue of the test groups treated with ELJ as compared to control.
Conclusion: In conclusion, the long-term daily consumption of ELJ in large quantity as beverage may cause fatty changes, hemorrhage and hepatocytes degeneration in the liver tissue.
Pathogenic Vibrio parahaemolyticus is one of the leading causes of bacterial gastroenteritis in many countries. Among the strains examined, 36 RAPD-types were found when amplified with primers OPA8 and OPA10. The analysis shows the majority of V. parahaemolyticus isolates originated from seafood were branched into four major clusters at 18.2%, 20.7% 34% and 3.4% similarity levels. This suggests that there is potential for a single strain to be distributed widely within a population and there also potential for multiple contaminating strains of different clonal lineages to be present within the same population. Optimum temperature (37ºC) was the highest and stable formation of biofilm. The total percentage of biofilm formation at 37ºC was 33.33% for each of weak, moderate and strong biofilm producers. Room temperature produces 61.1% of weak biofilm producer, while 13. 89% for moderate biofilm producers and produce 25% of strong biofilm. While a total of 91.67% weak biofilm producers at 4ºC and 8:33% for room temperature and no growth of strong biofilm. Upon analysis, strong biofilm was tracked from the largest group at 37°C and room temperature which produce 27.27% of strong biofilm producer respectively. Interestingly, they are derived from cockles.
Unripe and ripe kundang fruits (Bouea macrophylla Griffith) is either consumed fresh or is cooked in Malaysia. In this study composition of unripe and ripe fruits (proximate, amino acids profile, minerals and heavy metal contents) were evaluated. Results obtained showed unripe kundang fruit to possess higher moisture, ash, crude lipid, crude fiber and crude protein contents than the ripe fruits. With regard to amino acid contents, unripe fruits had higher content of essential amino acids. The unripe and ripe fruits were found to be rich in essential minerals with potassium (K) to be in abundance. Heavy metals such as cadmium, nickel, mercury, lead and arsenic, were detected in trace amounts (< 5.0 mg/kg) in both unripe and ripe fruits. Through this investigation, it is concluded that both unripe and ripe fruits to posses’ adequate amount of nutritionally important compounds beneficial to human health and can be explored for commercial purposes.
The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of a two week reduction in training load on selected physiological and performance among junior cyclist. Twenty seven male junior cyclists (age= 16.6±0.7 years, height=165.6±6.1 cm, weight= 54.1±8.1 kg) were matched into either the control group (n=13) or the experimental group (n=14) using their initial VO2max values. Both groups followed a 12-week progressive endurance training program and subsequently, the experimental group (EXP) engaged in a two week tapering (recovery via a reduction in training loads) phase. The control group continued with their normal training routine. A simulated 20 km time trials performance and a graded exercise test on cycle ergometer were performed before and after endurance training and after the two week tapering protocol. Following the conclusion of the two week intervention or no intervention program both groups undertook a TT20km. Results showed no significant difference in the TT20km performance. Compared to the CON group, the EXP group showed significant changes in all the selected physiological variables tested, p
Nur Humaira’ Lau Abdullah, Zal U’yun Wan Mahmood, Norfaizal Mohamed @ Muhamad, Nazaratul Ashifa Abdullah Salim, Ahmad Nazrul Abd Wahid, Nor Dalila Desa, et al.
A glasshouse experiment was performed to evaluate the uptake of grasses viz. Napier and Vetiver
in radiophytoremediation of caesium-contaminated soil. The radiophytoremediation experiment
was designed according to the Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD). The grasses were
grown in troughs filled with soil mixed with a known specific activity of 134Cs. Initial Cs activity and
activity after different cultivation time intervals of 1, 3, 6 and 9 months were analyzed using gamma
spectrometer direct measurement. The results showed the uptake of caesium by Napier and Vetiver
after 9 months with the transfer factors (TF) were 4.70 and 6.25, respectively. The remediation of
caesium from the contaminated soil during the study period was 98.08% for Napier and 98.21% for
Vetiver. Both grasses have been found to accumulate caesium, with Vetiver accumulating higher
than Napier. Thus, the present study suggests that Vetiver could be used as a potential plant for
radiophytoremediation of caesium.