Archives-November 2013

According to market statistics, the global functional food and nutraceutical market is growing industry, fuelled by consumer demand and advances in science as foods are now being examined intensively for added physiological benefits, which may reduce chronic disease risk or otherwise optimize health. It is these research efforts that have led to the global interest in the growing food category now recognised as functional foods. Nutraceuticals is the most active area of research in nutrition sciences today. There is renewed interest on traditional and indigenous health products and virgin coconut oil is a potent one as a nutraceutical. Focus on the benefits of virgin coconut oil in the present study from different studies will be useful to researchers in the fields of pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals and cosmetics.

Evaluation of “mgbam” traditional food on haematological profile and some selected biochemical parameters was carried out using standard methods. Fifty-six male wistar albino rats were separated into seven groups of eight rats each. One group served as the control, two groups served as reference groups while the other groups served as test groups. The reference foods were basal feed and nutrend (commercial infants’ food). The test groups were placed on compounded feed formulated with prepared “mgbam” and pelletized commercial rat feed using different proportions. Results obtained for haematological profile and biochemical parameters revealed that the studied food is good for health. This study has revealed the evaluation of “mgbam” traditional food on haematological profile and some selected biochemical parameters.

Antifungal properties, and effects of fresh, oven dried uncooked and cooked seeds of Buchholzia coriacea on haematology and kidney was evaluated. The haematology and kidney studies were carried out using Wistar albino rats. Antifungal property result revealed the following order fresh seed > oven dried uncooked seed > cooked seed for the studied seed samples. Effects of the studied seed samples on haematology and kidney followed the order cooked seed

Fisheries sector is one of the fastest growing sector in the world in the world as well as India, contributing to national income, export, food and national security and employment. India’s fish export has emerged as the largest group in agricultural exports. In India, Peanaeus monodon (shrimp) farming has become immensely popular with about 1,57,000 ha under culture and an average annual production of 1lakh tonnes. Farmed shrimp contributes about 60 percent by volume and 82 percent by value of India’s total shrimp export. Shrimp farming in India provides employment directly to about 0.3 million people and indirectly to about 0.6 to 0.7 million people mainly in coastal states Despite the progress, the shrimp industry has been facing severe crisis especially from 1994 owing to the outbreak of infectious diseases caused mass mortalities fetching crop losses to about Rs.1, 203 croes. To control the disease outbreaks and secondary infections, the shrimp growers resorted to use indiscriminately several antibiotics, chemicals and drugs. Even as they failed in controlling the diseases, the indiscriminate use of antibiotics caused the problem of tissue residues in the harvested shrimp. To over come the problem of antibiotic residues in the harvested shrimp, Government of India banned several antibiotics and allowed some antibiotics with MRL’s. Inspite of these remedial measures the problem of antibiotic residual problem had not been controlled as several reports have confirmed with contamination antibiotics. To address these antibiotic residual problems, a commonly used broad-spectrum antibiotic Oxytetracycline was used for the present study to estimate the withdrawal time. Oxytetracycline (OTC) is an approved antibiotic in India with a Maximum Residue limit of 0.1 ppm in the harvested shrimp, most commonly used in shrimp farming and hatchery operations to control endemic and systemic Vibrios through medicated feed. OTC was selected for estimation of withdrawal period for the black tiger prawn Peanaeus monodon under given conditions.

This paper presents the effective approach to harness electrical energy from the highways by means of vertical axis wind turbine. The wind turbine consists of stationary shaft which is mounted on the ball bearing on top and bottom end of the shaft. In addition, dynamo is connected to upper and lower part of the wind turbine. As the vehicles are moving at faster rate on two different directions in highways, the wind turbine, which is placed on the highways sides, is able to rotate effectively on its own axis in any of the direction. As a result, the large amount of electrical energy gets generated in both day and night time. This wind power generation is an alternative way for power generation instead of depleting non-renewable energy sources.

Describes a study performed in Leicestershire, United Kingdom to develop a reliable and valid scale for the measurement of the perceived service quality of bank services. The Cooperative Bank (CB) and Islamic Bank of Britain (IBB) which located in Leicester, UK. The location has been chosen as a sample for the research field study. A sample of retail banking customers in the Cooperative Bank and Islamic Bank of Britain was surveyed through a questionnaire. The proposed scale is called SERVQUAL and comprises 33 items named ‘CARTER’ with six dimensions (Compliance, Assurance, Reliability, Tangible, Empathy and Responsiveness), which customized for suitability of The Cooperative Bank and Islamic Bank of Britain. The Cooperative Bank and Islamic Bank of Britain were chosen because the both of banks is identified to have a different operational principles as compared to other conventional bank in the UK. The Cooperative Bank is recognized and operated its businesses according to the ethical values, while Islamic Bank of Britain has a similarities feature, where the business is run on Islamic Law. In this research the empathy dimension was chosen and will be analyzed to find its similarities in mean value and ranking for IBB and CB. The data gathered, which were derived from customers of The Cooperative Bank and Islamic Bank of Britain through questionnaire and was analyzed by using SPSS. The mean value of each banks will be compared in term of their perception in the given issues. The results indicated that the similarities were found in CB and IBB in the empathy dimension with the same ranking (1) in item of Confidence in banks management, on the other hand the similarities in the mean value also found with CB occupied the mean value 3.47 while IBB at 3.48.

The study examined the nature and characteristics of locus of control across three critical phases of the life span such as young adulthood (20-25 yrs.), middle age (40-45 yrs.), and old age (65-70 yrs.) among both males and females. The sample consisted of 90 subjects, 30 from each of the age categories. Equal number of males and females from each of the categories were randomly selected. All the subjects were individually administered Rotter’s ‘Internal-External Locus of Control Scale. The results were analyzed for observing age-related and sex-related effects and changes in locus of control. Major findings of the study are summarized below. Both males and females are highly internals during the middle age, while they are externals at young and old age. Females show relatively more of external locus of control than males. However, the male-female difference was not found to be statistically significant across any of the three age groups. The interaction effect between age and sex was also not found to be significant suggesting that these two are independent factors with respect to locus of control.

This study was conducted to estimate relationships between body lengths from several biometrical traits viz. Total length relationship between Standard length, Head length, Interorbital space, Length of the snout, Depth at the origin of dorsal fin and Orbit diameter of Macrones vittatus (Bloch, 1794). Samples of 419 individuals (ranging between 86-175 mm) were studied in the present investigation. The linear regression equation and coefficient correlation for Total length and Standard length is 0.785, r=0.99, Total length and Head length is 0.166, r=0.949, Total length and Interorbital space is 0.182, r=0.995, Total length and Length of the snout is 0.083, r=0.938, Total length and Depth at the origin of the dorsal fin is 0.260, r=0.991 and Total length and Orbit diameter is 0.033, r=0.924.

The fruits of Balanites aegyptiaca and Parinarium macrophylum were analysed for moisture, solid, crude protein, crude fibre, lipids, carbohydrates, acidity, ash, organic matter, ascorbic acid, potassium and sodium contents. The average mass of each fruit was 4.12 ± 0.68g and 50.52 ± 6.25g respectively. The percentage ash, organic matter, and crude fibre were 8.12 ± 0.87%, 91.89 ± 0.97% and 2.09 ± 0.00% for Balanites aegyptiaca and 4.51 ± 0.07%, 95.49 ± 0.07% and 96.32 ± 0.46% for Parinarium macrophylum respectively. The percentage vitamin C content was 0.04 ± 0.00% and 0.02 ± 0.00%, while total acidity was found to be 0.19 ± 0.00M and 0.05 ± 0.00M for each fruit. The sodium and potassium content was 4.33 ± 0.02% and 0.94 ± 0.04% for Balanites aegyptiaca and 17.99 ± 0.03% and 0.73 ± 0.07% for Parinarium macrophylum.

Methods of design and built become new invention of Outcome Based Education (OBE) at Politeknik Kota Bharu (PKB). This paper prefer to the process of development Bicycle Chopper Hybrid (BCH) with Project Based Online Learning (PBOL) match with OBE that implemented at PKB. The Project Based Online Learning (PBOL) was implemented based on online learning management system call eSOLMS for this project development. This process related with engineering survey, planning, design and development of BCH by using sophisticated technology combination with mechanical machines at inside/outside of workshops at Politeknik Kota Bharu (PKB). The concept of Hybrid vehicle become the new innovation ideas for outcome based project 2012. The product of BCH generate with the power of 1400 rpm motor's to mobilize this vehicle machine. The use of coupling and chain extension as its power mechanism make this project function properly. The testing data’s of product BCH was carry out on Mac 2012 shows that the movement of Bicycle Hybrid Chopper is between 30 till 50 km/h. This speed is safe to ride for a people. In addition, the battery using can function for 3 hours journey. Distance can be traveled is between 10 km depending on battery power. Power Inverter playing role to convert DC current from the battery to AC current turn on. The cost of RM1000.00 for BCH product manufacture is a significant low cost factor of its new creation. This invention shows the effective of Project Based Online Learning (PBOL) implementation match with OBE needs. Hopefully this concept of Project Based online learning become next invention of Project Based Mobile Learning (PBML) of engineering student project development at Polytechnics & Community College, Malaysia.