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.
The state of Selangor, Malaysia, is facing a significant rise in the number of malaria cases with the incidence varying from 20 to 90 per 100,000 persons in a population. A study was carried out to describe the distribution of malaria cases in relation to the growing number of foreign workers in Selangor. Data were reviewed using the return forms "PBV (M) 101", a summary of malaria cases in Selangor for 2006 and Annual Reports of Vector-Borne Disease Control Unit, Selangor State Department for 2001- 2005. The malaria cases in Selangor varied between 172 cases in 2001 and 90 cases in 2006. Most of the cases were contributed by foreign workers, who were predominantly male of economically active age group and came from malaria endemic countries. Most of these cases were concentrated in the urban districts. Malaria is still endemic in Selangor. Malarial infection has the potential of contributing to an urban outbreak of malaria.
In July 1997 at 7 pm , 49 members 0f the public complained of dizziness, sore throat, eyes irritation and tightness of chest after exposed to sulphur dioxide while traveling on the road about 100 meter 90m the sulphuric acid factory in Teluk Kalong Kemaman. The incident was caused by leaking sulfur dioxide from return pipe of scrubber circulation. tank in the factory. The problem had occurred due to carelessness of the operator to inspect the level of water in the scrubber circulation tank during the operation.
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.
Bacillus cereus is a soil inhabitant gram positive bacterium, and is known to cause severe food poisoning. The objective of this study was to isolate and identify the presence of Bacillus cereus s.l. from selected ready to eat cereals purchased randomly from local supermarkets in Kuching and Kota Samarahan, Sarawak. The result showed that four of the 30 food samples were detected to be contaminated by B. cereus s.l. . Our findings suggested that it is important for the public to be aware of the safety of RTE cereals consumption, as it is possible that B. cereus s.l. may be present in high count number and pose hazardous health effects to the consumers.
Consumption of mushroom has increased remarkably because of their desirable aroma, taste and high nutritional content. This study was undertaken to measure and compare the antioxidant activity, total phenolic content (TPC) and total flavonoid content (TFC) of Agaricus bisporous (white button mushroom) and Agaricus brasiliensis (Brazilian mushroom) in aqueous and 60% ethanol extract. Results showed that button mushroom (21.47 ± 0.48 mg GAE/g of dry weight) had significant higher TPC in aqueous whereas Brazilian mushroom (12.50 ± 0.22 mg GAE/g of dry weight) had significant higher TPC in 60% ethanol (p< 0.05). In terms of TFC, Brazilian mushroom had higher content than button mushroom in both types of solvents. For FRAP assay, Brazilian mushroom had significantly higher total antioxidant activity than the button mushroom in 60% ethanol (p < 0.05) but opposite trend with aqueous. For DPPH radical scavenging activity, Brazilian mushroom (60% ethanol) had the lowest EC50 value, followed by button mushroom (60% ethanol), Brazilian mushroom (aqueous) and button mushroom (aqueous). Pearson correlation test (p < 0.05) showed strong positive correlation between TPC and FRAP assay in both extracts (r = 0.969 for 60% ethanol extract; r = 0.973 for aqueous extract). For TFC, there was a strong positive, correlation with FRAP assay (r = 0.985) in aqueous extract. In conclusion, high antioxidant activity in ethanol extract of mushrooms due to presence of phenolic content can potentially be used as a source of natural antioxidants.
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.
This study aim to evaluate antimicrobial efficacy of sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) and ozonated water against Enterococci faecalis biofilm. The bacterial biofilm was exposed to 2.62%, 1.31% NaOCl and 0.1 ppm ozonated water over a range of time periods. The presence of viable cells was determined by enumeration of colony forming units (CFU). All experiments were repeated four times (n=4). The effectiveness of the agents was compared using nonparametric Kruskal- Wallis test. The result revealed that 2.62% of NaOCl can completely kill E. faecalis biofilm in 15 minutes whereas 1.31 % NaOCl required a longer time to produce such effect. 0.1 ppm ozonated, however, did not exhibit any antimicrobial effect within the period of time tested. From this study, it can be concluded that 0.1 ppm ozonated water was not comparable with 2.62% and 1.31% NaOCl in antimicrobial efficacy against E. faecalis biofilm.
Tissue regeneration is a rapidly growing field providing a beacon of hope in the field of restorative and endodontics. Root canal treatment involves the removal of pulp tissue and replacement by an inorganic materials where as regenerative endodontics deals with replacement with healthy pulp to revitalize the teeth .Research in the field of tissue engineering and material science have lead to significant progress but still is plague with lots of drawbacks and failures, hence it is still not being adapted as routine clinical procedures .The purpose of this article is to review the advances made in regenerative endodontics and the future scopes.
Complicated crown-root fractures are rare and often need complex treatment planning. This paper describes a simplified treatment option for a complicated crown root fracture that minimally encroached into the biologic region in a growing child without the need for surgery or orthodontic treatment.
Mediastinal mature cycstic teratomas are rare germ cell tumors most commonly found in the anterior mediastinum, and constitute about 3-12% of all mediastinal tumors. They grow slowly and are usually diagnosed incidentally. This is a rare presentation of a young lady with mediastinal mature cystic teratoma (dermoid cyst) presenting with chronic cough and haemoptysis.
In this study the effects of phosphorus and nitrogen levels, temperature and light-dark cycle on the algal growth potential (AGP) of an Antarctic Chlorococcum isolated from an ephemeral stream at Reeve Hill, Antarctica was investigated. The highest AGP was attained when the cultures were grown at high nitrogen concentration (329.87 mg NO3-N/l) and low phosphorus concentration (2.6 mg PO4-P/l) at 4ºC on a 12 h:12 h light-dark cycle. The results showed that Chlorococcum sp. required a high concentration of nitrogen, low concentration of phosphorus, low temperature with equal lengths of light and dark period (12 h:12 h) for optimum growth.
Lead-free solder paste printing processes account for the majority of assembly defects in the electronic manufacturing industry. In the stencil printing process, the solder paste must be able to withstand low and high shear rates which result in continuous structural breakdown and build-up. This study investigated the effect of the addition of nickel and platinum powders to the thixotropic behaviour of lead-free Sn/Ag/Cu solder pastes using the structural kinetic model. A hysteresis loop test and constant shear test were utilized to investigate the thixotropic behaviour of the pastes using parallel plate rheometry at 25ºC. In this study, the shear rates were increased from 0.01 s–1 to 10 s–1 and the second curve was a result of decreasing the shear rate from 10 s–1 to 0.01 s–1. For the constant shear test, the samples were subjected to five different shear rates of 0.01s–1, 0.1s–1, 1s–1, 10s–1 and 100s–1. The constant shear rate test was designed to study the structural breakdown and build-up of the paste materials. From this investigation, the hysteresis loop test was shown to be an effective test method to differentiate the extent of structural recovery in the solder pastes. All the pastes showed a high degree of shear thinning behaviour with time. This might be due to the agglomeration of particles in the flux that prohibited paste flow under low shear rate. The action of high shear rate would break the agglomerates into smaller pieces which facilitated the flow of pastes, thus viscosity was reduced at high shear rate.
Helopeltis antonii is the major pest affecting cashew plants in Indonesia and causes potential damage to the plant. The development of the population was influenced by the fecundity and fertility of their eggs. The effect of mating on the eggs’ fecundity and the fertility of H. antonii was studied. Laboratory studies at Wonogiri Estate Service in Ngadirojo District, Wonogiri, Indonesia investigated the sexual maturity, the influence of female to male sex ratio on the females’ fecundity and longevity, and the influence of mating frequency to fecundity and the eggs hatchability of H. antonii. The study reveals that H. antonii females and males are ready to mate when they are two days old. The number of eggs laid and the longevity of the females’ lives were not significantly affected by the sex ratio; however, female to male sex ratios of 2:1 and 1:2 tended to produce a greater number of eggs. The fecundity of the female was not significantly influenced by the number of times the female mated. Unmated females laid fewer eggs than females paired with a mature male. The study shows that females need to mate to produce fertile eggs.
Mating studies were conducted on 78 isolates of Fusarium species section Liseola from rice, sugarcane and maize. From the crosses with tester strains of Gibberella fujikuroi species complex, 64.1% (50 out of 78 isolates) were cross-fertile with tester strains of mating populations A to E. The results of the mating studies showed that of the 50 isolates, 19 belonged to mating population A (Gibberella moniliformis), 18 to mating population B (Gibberella sacchari), 4 to mating population E (Gibberella subglutinans), 6 to mating population D (Gibberella intermedia) and 3 to mating population C (G. fujikuroi). Identification of several mating populations from rice,sugarcane and maize could be important biological entities under field conditions.
As women with breast cancer are living longer, issues beyond survivorship like the much neglected sexual functioning and issue of quality of life have become increasingly important. Experiences of significant alterations in sexual functioning need to be addressed. However, these sexual issues are often not acknowledged in our traditional medical model of health care delivery. This paper briefly reviews the changes in sexual functioning after a diagnosis of breast cancer, with implication for clinical practice and medical curicula.
This case series reports four patients who used religion and spirituality to relieve symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following motor vehicle accidents. Their symptoms subsided after a few weeks and the recovery is sustained after one month. This demonstrates that in a country where psychological help is still scarce and religion is central to its culture, intervention based on spirituality and religion can be used as an alternative early intervention to relieve symptoms of PTSD and hence protects them from developing the condition.
The term Developing Nations has to be used with caution as it had traditionally included a wide array of countries outside the developed world of North America, Western Europe and Japan (and a few other countries such as Australia and South Africa). The characteristics which defined these “emerging markets” were a Gross National Product (GNP) per capita which was below that of the developed economies, the potential for market growth and an environment with continued economic and political instability. However, as many of these countries have grown at different rates and have economic and other drivers which are very different and disparate, definitions of this sector have become more fragmented. (Copied from article).
Population growth and rise in per capital income have influenced the demand for convenience foods and a meat protein-rich diet. The per capital consumption of beef which had increased from 3.89 kg in 1980 to 5.49 kg in 2006 (DVS, 2006/2007) had resulted in an increased in demand for beef at the rate of 6.2% annually. The local beef production although recorded a 2.5% increased over the last 10 years, is still unable to meat the increasing national demand for beef. In 2008, local production of beef is about 38,250 mt. could only meet about 26.7% of the national demand (DVS, 2008). The gap between supply and demand for beef is expected to widen in the next decades unless efforts is been made to accelerate local production. The lack of number of quality breeding stocks and unorganized breeding system had been the major factors that contribute to the slow growth of the local beef industry.
The production of ethanol, from glucose in batch and fed batch culture, was investigated. In the fed batch culture, the glucose feeding was added into the culture at 16th hour of fermentation. The effects of different glucose concentration feeding rates on ethanol fermentation were investigated for fed batch culture. The 2gL-1hr-1 glucose concentration feeding rate was found to give higher ethanol yield (2.47 g ethanol g glucose-1), with respect to substrate consumed as compared to 8 gL-1hr-1 (0.23 g ethanol g glucose-1) and 4 gL-1hr-1 (0.20 g ethanol g glucose-1). The ethanol yield with respect to substrate consumed obtained in batch culture was 0.81 g ethanol g glucose-1. The fed batch culture at 2 gL-1hr-1 glucose concentration feeding rate was proven to be a better fermentation system than the batch culture. The specific growth rate, specific glucose consumption rate and specific ethanol production rate for the fed batch fermentation, at 2 gL-1hr-1 glucose concentration feeding rate, were 0.065 hr-1, 1.20 hr-1 and 0.0009 hr-1, respectively.