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The speciality rice variety such as Basmati and Jasmine maybe not be very suitable to plant under the Malaysian climate because the growth may be influenced by the changes in the environmental conditions causing the changes of its physical and chemical characters and results in low yield. Thus, an attempt was made through a hybridisation program among selected Malaysian rice varieties consist of MRQ50, MRQ74, MRQ76, MR219, Mahsuri Mutant, and Mahsuri Mutant 98 with Indian traditional rice, Basmati 370 with the main objectives, to compare the kernel elongation ratio of each cross and to determine the potential and suitable combination among crosses rice for further evaluation program. The results of the study indicated that among parental lines, Basmati 370 posed the highest elongation ratio 2.00 which revealed its speciality elongation trait of cooked rice. A comparison between crosses, rice cross between Basmati 370 and Mahsuri Mutant 98 showed the highest elongation ratio with the value 2.12 and the lowest elongation ratio of about 1.96 was found in rice cross between Basmati 370 and MR219. However, all hybridised rice poses a value of elongation ratio more than 1.6 which is considered good kernel elongation. The segregation pattern of all crosses also posed a ratio 3:1 whereas three is low elongation and one is high elongation which demonstrated the Mendelian inheritance of monogenic cross. The results obtained from this study could contribute to the existing literature on speciality rice production in Malaysia and beneficial for future rice quality improvement program.

Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency (G6PDd) is the most common enzymopathy globally, and deficient individuals may experience severe hemolysis following treatment with 8-aminoquinolines. With increasing evidence of Plasmodium vivax infections throughout sub-Saharan Africa, there is a pressing need for population-level data at on the prevalence of G6PDd. Such evidence-based data will guide the expansion of primaquine and potentially tafenoquine for radical cure of P. vivax infections. This study aimed to quantify G6PDd prevalence in two geographically distinct areas in Sudan, and evaluating the performance of a qualitative CareStart rapid diagnostic test as a point-of-care test. Blood samples were analyzed from 491 unrelated healthy persons in two malaria-endemic sites in eastern and central Sudan. A pre-structured questionnaire was used which included demographic data, risk factors and treatment history. G6PD levels were measured using spectrophotometry (SPINREACT) and first-generation qualitative CareStart rapid tests. G6PD variants (202 G>A; 376 A>G) were determined by PCR/RFLP, with a subset confirmed by Sanger sequencing. The prevalence of G6PDd by spectrophotometry was 5.5% (27/491; at 30% of adjusted male median, AMM); 27.3% (134/491; at 70% of AMM); and 13.1% (64/490) by qualitative CareStart rapid diagnostic test. The first-generation CareStart rapid diagnostic test had an overall sensitivity of 81.5% (95%CI: 61.9 to 93.7) and negative predictive value of 98.8% (97.3 to 99.6). All persons genotyped across both study sites were wild type for the G6PD G202 variant. For G6PD A376G all participants in New Halfa had wild type AA (100%), while in Khartoum the AA polymorphism was found in 90.7%; AG in 2.5%; and GG in 6.8%. Phenotypic G6PD B was detected in 100% of tested participants in New Halfa while in Khartoum, the phenotypes observed were B (96.2%), A (2.8%), and AB (1%). The African A- phenotype was not detected in this study population. Overall, G6PDd prevalence in Sudan is low-to-moderate but highly heterogeneous. Point-of-care testing with the qualitative CareStart rapid diagnostic test demonstrated moderate performance with moderate sensitivity and specificity but high negative predicative value. The two sites harbored primarily the African B phenotype. A country-wide survey is recommended to understand GP6PD deficiencies more comprehensively in Sudan., Author summary Malaria is caused by five species of parasites; of these Plasmodium falciparum and P. vivax cause the majority of global morbidity and mortality. Plasmodium vivax infection is an emerging public health problem in sub-Saharan Africa, including Sudan. Primaquine and other 8-aminoquinolines including tafenoquine are the primary treatments to target the silent liver stage (hypnozoites) in P. vivax infections. However, these regimens can cause severe intravascular hemolysis in patients suffering from glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency (G6PDd). To support safe and efficacious use of primaquine, and potentially tafenoquine in Sudan, this study aimed to estimate the prevalence of G6PDd across two sites in Sudan using spectrophotometry and a qualitative CareStart rapid diagnostic test. Subsequent genetic analysis by PCR/RFLP and sequencing of G6PD genetic variants was performed. This survey found an overall prevalence was 5.5% (27/491; 30% of adjusted male median, AMM), and 27.3% (134/491; 70% of AMM) and 13.1% (64/490) by qualitative CareStart rapid diagnostic test. Important differences in distribution of genetic variants of G6PD were found across the two sites, and the African A- was not observed. In univariate analysis a few parameters showed significant association with G6PD deficiency. In conclusion the prevalence of G6PDd was low to moderate but heterogonous, and the first-generation qualitative CareStart rapid diagnostic test showed moderate performance in both males and females.

This paper presented a preliminary results of utilization sago fine waste as a sand replacement material for cement bricks. Sago waste is a by-product of the extraction of sago starch. Usually, the bark is not utilized for other products and being dumped directly into the rivers or left for natural degradation. About 32,250 tons of sago bark waste annually. Sand however usually obtained by using machinery at the riverbank which greatly contribute to damaging the ecosystem of the river and contributing to global warming. For environmental protection and sustainable development, extensive research has been conducted on the production of bricks from waste materials. The replacement percentage of SFW are 0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, 20% and 25% with water content of 50% and 60%. Density, water absorption and compressive strength are the properties that have been investigated. From the results obtained, both density and compressive strength are decreasing as the percentages of SFW increasing. On the other hand, from the data of water absorption it was found that the percentage of water absorption of brick was increased correspond to the increasing percentages of the SFW. Based on the findings, the optimum brick properties are SFW1W0.6 with the strength 5.18 MPa that can be used as non-load bearing bricks and the optimum percentage of water absorption is at 13.33%. From this study, it was found that the replacement of sand by SFW give a significant impact on density, strength, and water absorption performance of concrete brick.

Railway’s concrete sleepers demand high consumption of cement which generates higher energy assumption and carbon emission. Meanwhile, in Malaysia, around 100 tonnes of palm oil fuel ash (POFA) were disposed of in the landfill, which endangering environmental health. However, this POFA have pozzolanic properties that can be employed as cementitious material. Therefore, this study aimed to produce a sustainable concrete sleeper by using POFA as a cement replacement material focusing on the compressive strength and water absorption performance. Concrete samples with a strength grade of 55MPa and w/c of 0.35 were prepared with three design mixes containing 0% (control), 20%(POFA20), and 40%(POFA40) of POFA. For the compressive strength test, a compression machine was used. Meanwhile, the water absorption was measured at atmospheric pressure. Both tests were conducted at 7 and 28 days of curing age. The results show that as the curing age increases, their water absorption and compressive strength improves, indicating a pozzolanic reaction. In terms of POFA content, the water absorption increases by 14% and 54% for POFA20 and POFA40, respectively. Meanwhile, the compressive strength reduced by 39% for POFA20 and 67% for POFA40. Since POFA20 meets the standards, it is however applicable in slab tracks.

Objectives Clinical and subclinical laboratory evidence of renal proximal tubular dysfunction had been reported in children with epilepsy as an adverse effect of some antiepileptic drugs (AEDs). This study aimed to determine kidney function in adult patients with monosymptomatic epilepsy of unknown etiology and treated with valproate (VPA) or carbamazepine (CBZ). Methods This study included 60 patients [mean age of 33.97 ± 6.70 years and treated with VPA (n = 24) or CBZ (n = 36) for mean duration of treatment of 6.03 ± 2.81years. Measurements of serum creatinine (sCr), urinary creatinine, creatinine clearance (CrCl) and serum kidney injury molecule 1 (KIM-1), markers of renal dysfunction/injury were done. Results Compared to controls, patients had higher sCr, KIM-1 and lower CrCl levels. Compared to patients on VPA, those on CBZ had relatively higher KIM-1 and lower CrCl levels. We reported only significant correlations between KIM-1 with sCr (r = 0.324, p = 0.001) and duration of treatment with AEDs (r = 0.301, p = 0.02). Conclusion Chronic VPA and CBZ therapy may be associated with subclinical renal glomerular and/or proximal tubular dysfunctions or injuries. The treating neurologist have to consider this while selection of AED on start treating patients or modifying the AED for patients at high risk of kidney injury.

Challenges are faced by individuals in making financial decisions throughout their life to be financially well. Managing risk such as health risks may incur high cost to remain healthy. Individuals make decisions on having protection against health risks in the long run which depends on several factors. This study focused on the behavioral aspects of finance which attempts to assess factors predicting health insurance purchase among Malaysian public sector employees. The likelihood of personality and health risks factors in predicting health insurance purchase were determined. Multistage random sampling based on four zones in Peninsular Malaysia was utilized to sample 500 respondents from four states. Selected departments in the states were contacted prior to the data collection for their consent. Respondents identified by liaison officers in each department were given self-administered questionnaires resulting in 356 usable questionnaires. Apart from socioeconomic characteristics and health insurance purchase, data on investment, personality and health status were collected. Personalities measured were self-esteem, risk-averse and future-orientation, while health risks were measured through health status using SF-36. The primarily measures and the aggregate measures of health were analyzed in two separate binomial logistic regressions where both analyses revealed that income was the strongest predictor as compared to investment activity or self-esteem. None of the indicators for health risks was found to be significant in predicting health insurance purchase. Both models were justified as fit by being moderately correctly classified and were more than 25% improvement over the chance accuracy rate. It is concluded that the decision on protection against health risks using health insurance is not based on their health risks instead the decision depends more on their income. As these are employees in the public sector, it may reflect high reliance on the government health service. Nevertheless, the public sector is considered as a potential market for health insurance industry.

Economic uncertainty has led to the decision of investing in a much safer investment such as gold investment. Gold in the investment portfolio is perceived to safeguard individual investors against market risk. The Malaysian government has launched unit trust schemes under the Amanah Saham group which is a government-backed fail-safe investment. Gold investment, however, is a new phenomenon with very little promotion. The central bank has introduced the gold coin series while the private banking sector released few gold-related products. This study is performed to identify the purpose of investing, barriers to invest in gold and to ascertain financial risk tolerance as one of the predictor affecting gold investment behavior among Malaysian employees. Respondents in Peninsular Malaysia were sampled via a multistage random among urban public sector employees. Data from self-administered questionnaires revealed the main purpose to invest on gold was to have savings in the form of physical product. More than one-third of the 403 respondents reasoned out inavailability of funds for gold investment followed by the complication of gold investment procedures which they are not very familiar as the main barriers to gold investing. The significant predictors for gold investment behavior revealed were financial risk tolerance, gold investment attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control with an explained variance of 30.4%. As gold investment is perceived as a safe investment, the result of financial risk tolerance as a positive significant predictor is not as expected. In addition, gold investment subjective norms surpassed the others in predicting gold investment behavior however gold investment knowledge is not significant in predicting investment on gold. It can be concluded that peer group is very important in determining a person’s intention to invest in gold. The results from this study may be utilised in marketing practices and business decisions.

In this study, the Geographic Information System (GIS) was integrated with the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) model to identify the risk of erosion at 360,000 ha in the Temengor Reservoir Basin. GIS was utilized as a tool for generating, manipulating and spatializing data from government agencies for sediment yield modelling and offering spatial input data to the erosion model. Meanwhile, USLE was used to predict the spatial distribution of the sediment yield on the grid basis. The five main parameters used in this study were the rainfall erosivity factor (R), topographic factor (LS), soil erodibility factor (K), crop management factor (C) and practice support factor (P). The R factor was calculated based on the annual rainfall data of the study area. The soil survey data was used to generate the K value and Digital Improvement Model (DEM) of the study area was used to generate LS factor. The values of C and P factors were derived from the land use map. After generating all parameters, analysis was performed to estimate the soil erosion using USLE model with spatial information analysis approach. It was discovered that the average annual soil loss in the study area was 8 t ha-1year-1and only 4% of the total area was under extreme erosion risk.

This study presented the strength and water absorption properties of lightweight concrete brick containing Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) as the material replacement for sand. EPS has been widely used by the construction industries in the production of lightweight building materials such as wall panel and lightweight concrete blocks. Hence, in this study, EPS has been used as the replacement material in the production of lightweight concrete brick. Replacement of sand by EPS was based on volume. The replacement percentage of EPS was 0%, 20%, 30%, 40% and 50%. The brick properties that have been investigated in this study were density, water absorption and compressive strength. Based on the experimental results, the density and compressive strength of the brick was decreased as the percentage of the replacement increased. Meanwhile, for water absorption properties, it was found that water absorption of the brick was decreased as the percentage of EPS increased. However, the properties obtained has satisfied the requirement where the brick density for lightweight should be less than 1680 kg/m3 and the strength for load bearing and non-load bearing brick is 11.7 MPa and 3.45 MPa for each individual unit. Meanwhile, for water absorption, the percentage of water absorption of brick should be less than 12% [1,2]. From this study, it was found that, the replacement of sand by EPS give significant impact towards strength and water absorption performance of concrete brick.

This paper is focusing on strength and water absorption properties of lightweight concrete brick containing Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) and Palm Oil Fuel Ash (POFA) as partial replacement materials of fine aggregates and cement respectively. EPS has been chosen as lightweight aggregates material due to its characteristic which is extremely light. Meanwhile, POFA has been chosen as cement replacement due to the cementitious characteristic which could act as the binder in the concrete mixture. The replacement percentage of EPS is 0%, 20%, 30%, 40% and 50% whilst the replacement percentage of POFA is 0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, 20% and 25%. The brick properties that have been investigated in this study are density, water absorption and compressive strength. Based on the experimental results, the density and compressive strength of the brick is decreased as the percentage of the replacement increased. Meanwhile, for water absorption, it was found that the percentage of water absorption of brick was increased as the percentage of POFA increased, and it was decreased as the percentage of EPS increased. Based on the findings, the properties obtained has satisfied the requirement where the brick density for lightweight should be less than 1680 kg/m3 and the strength for load bearing and non-load bearing brick is 11.7 MPa and 3.45 MPa for each individual unit. Meanwhile, for water absorption, the percentage of water absorption of brick should be less than 12% [1,2]. From this study, it was found that, the replacement of sand and cement by EPS and POFA give significant impact towards density, strength and water absorption performance of concrete brick.

As wet land rice, aerobic rice is also faced with the problem of weeds management. The absences of stagnant water facilitating more weed species to survive and compete with rice plants. Therefore, soil preparation is crucial for reduce weed problems in addition to manual control, which focuses on the rate of herbicides, the growth of rice plants, plant moisture and weed species. The risk of spray drift would be eliminated if herbicides were wiped on to weeds rather than sprayed. A machine designed to apply herbicides using rolling wipers were assessed for their ability to apply constant amounts of herbicide to treated surfaces. The machine designed by developed a structure consist of weed ball applicator, a hose connect to a 300 liter reservoir tank which attached to the transplanter prime mover. Weed ball applicator treated strips 15cm wide and having a roller 100 cm length. Adjustments to the flow rate as the reservoir can be made using a control valve at weed ball devices and control valve at the reservoir tank. AeRoller application used by wipe the herbicide onto weeds instead of spraying. The risk of damage to nearby non target plant would be almost eliminated and treatment under windy conditions would be possible by wiping herbicide on to weeds rather than spraying. A field evaluation of the Aeroller showed that it had good potential for the applications of herbicides for controlling weeds on aerobic rice farm. The use of this rollers device system saves chemicals, reduce labor, reduce pollution on the environment and reduce worker exposure to dangerous herbicides.

Noticeably, different environments of wicked website include different types of information which could be a threat for all web users such as incitement for hacking sites and encouraging them for spreading notions through learning theft networks, Wi-Fi, websites, internet forums, Facebook, email accounts, etc. The proposed work deals with sites to protect from hacking through designing a method that takes full advantage of machine learning and intelligent systems’ capabilities to realize the informative contents. The ultimate goal of this work of research is to understand the system behavior and determine the best solution to secure the vulnerable users, state and society via Random Forest (RF) and Support Vector Machines (SVM) methods instead of traditional methods. Random Forest exhibited Promising Results in terms of accuracy.

Introduction: Consuming half-boiled eggs during breakfast is popular among Malaysians. The eggs are usually prepared by submerging them in freshly boiled water for about 20 minutes duration. As chickens have the likelihood of harbouring Salmonella enterica Serovar Enteritidis in their eggs, it is feared that consumption of half-boiled eggs contaminated with S. Enteritidis could lead to gastroenteritis. Hence, this study was carried out to determine the optimum time required for boiled water to kill S. Enteritidis in half-boiled eggs. Methods: Grade C chicken eggs (average weight 54.5 g) were obtained from a local sundry shop and were confirmed to be Salmonella-free prior to the experiment. Fifteen eggs that were previously spiked with 106 colony-forming units (CFU) of S. Enteritidis were completely submerged into freshly-boiled water (≈100ºC) for a maximum of 20 min. Positive controls consisted of eggs that were inoculated but were not treated. At every 5 min interval, three eggs were taken out and checked for presence of viable S. Enteritidis on MacConkey agar, and the respective water temperature was recorded. Results: Results of two independent trials showed that after 10 min of submerging the eggs in the hot water, there were an average of 3 log reductions in the CFU of S. Enteritidis but after 15 min, no viable S. Enteritidis was detected. Conclusion: A half-boiled egg should be prepared by submerging it in freshly boiled water for at least 15 min to ensure that it is safe to be consumed.

Provenance trial of Eurycoma longifolia is currently being carried out in order to provide necessary information for breeding strategies, which is crucially needed for the production of high quality planting materials. Assessment of polysaccharides content in the root part of the plant is taken among the important characteristics in the selection of the best provenance. Polysaccharides compound is chosen as bioactive marker due to the non-toxicity nature of the compound and potential pharmacological properties possessed. Polysaccharides compound of the root part is extracted by using water extract procedure from nine selected provenances (Johor, Melaka, Pahang A, Pahang B, Pahang D, Perak, Pulau Pinang, Selangor and Terengganu) of E. longifolia collected throughout forest reserves of Peninsular Malaysia. The analysis of the actual weight of the compound is conducted using phenol-sulfuric acid method by UV-VIS and High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) is used for the detection of structural components of the polysaccharides compound. The assessment showed that polysaccharides content in the root part of Terengganu provenance significantly has the highest with 1.06 % actual weight of polysaccharides (out of 30 g extracted dry roots). Meanwhile, there are four provenances showed undetectable range of polysaccharide content which were Melaka, Pahang A, Pulau Pinang and Selangor. In a nutshell, based on the preliminary assessment of polysaccharide content alone, Terengganu provenance has the potential to be declared among the best provenances that has high quality. The provenance trial also has taken into considerations several important parameters such as the growth performances variation and the tolerance of the plants to pests and diseases besides the phytochemical screening. Provenance trial of E. longifolia is still ongoing, data for various parameters are still being collected, and thus it is still too early to derive a conclusion of which is the best provenance.

Aging is a process that can develop rice-cooking quality. Specially, it helps to increase kernel elongation rate during cooking time. We have aged four popular Malaysian rice cultivars in different time and temperature conditions and we have observed that maximum good kernel elongation ratio for Mahsuri and Mahsuri Mutant are 100 C for 5 hours. In 9192, maximum kernel elongation ratio was observed at 110 C o o

Apples and apple products are the most notably commodities contaminated with patulin (PAT), which cause detrimental effects on human health and economic problems. The primary objective of this study was to investigate the removal of PAT contamination from apple juice using 10 different inactivated lactic acid bacteria (LAB) strains.Significant quantities of PAT ranging from 47 to 80% were bound to all tested bacterial strains, whereas Lactobacillus rhamnosus 6224 and Enterococcus faecium 21605 caused a decrease of PAT by 80·4 and 64·5%, respectively. The results showed that the binding of PAT depends on the initial concentration of toxin and the adsorption temperature, also the differences in biomass existed among the 10 bacterial strains. IR analysis was performed to identify potential functional groups and the possible binding sites related to PAT adsorption.The removal of PAT was observed to be strain specific. The results indicated that the biosorption process did not affect the quality of juice. FTIR analysis showed that the cell wall plays a key role in PAT adsorption.Our results proof that inactivated LAB have the potential as a novel and promising adsorbent to bind PAT effectively.

The title salt, C16H18N6O22+·2ClO4−·2H2O, was obtained unintentionally as a major product in the reaction of Zn(ClO4)2·6H2O with the N′,N′2-bis[(1E)-1-(2-pyridyl)ethylidene]ethanedihydrazide (H2L) ligand. The (H4L)2+ cation lies across a centre of inversion. The pyridiniumimine fragments of (H4L)2+ adopt syn orientations. Intramolecular N—H...N and N—H...O hydrogen bonds lead to the formation of S(5) motifs. In the crystal, neighbouring cations are connected by π–π interactions between pyridinium units with a centroid–centroid distance of 3.600 (1) Å. Moreover, the crystal components are assembled into two-dimensional layers via N—H...O and O—H...O hydrogen bonds, with no direct hydrogen-bonding interactions between cations.

Rice being the staple food crops, hundreds of land races in it makes the diversity of rice crops. Aerobic rice production was introduced which requires much less water input to safeguard and sustain the rice production and conserve water due to decreasing water resources, climatic changes and competition from urban and industrial users. Mechanization system plays an important role for the success of aerobic rice cultivation. All farming activities for aerobic rice production are run on aerobic soil conditions. Row seeder mechanization system is developed to replace conventional seeding technique on the aerobic rice field. It is targeted for small and the large scale aerobic rice farmers. The aero - seeder machine is used for the small scale aerobic rice field, while the accord - seeder is used for the large scale aerobic rice field. The use of this mechanization machine can eliminate the tedious and inaccurate seeding operations reduce labour costs and increases work rate. The machine is easy to operate and it can increase crop establishment rate. It reduce missing hill, increasing planting and crop with high yield can be produce. This machine is designed for low costs maintenance and it is easy to dismantle and assemble during maintenance and it is safe to be used.

This article presents a comparison of two reference non-active current generation techniques for power compensation under unbalanced and distorted source voltage conditions and unbalanced loads. Two techniques are evaluated: Fryze's General Equation (FGE) and the Positive Sequence Magnitude by the Synchronous Reference Frame Method (PSM-SRF). These techniques are evaluated in terms of the compensation performance of a three-phase shunt active filter in a four wire power system. The reference current generation techniques are stated theoretically and the comparison is evaluated on simulation and experimental results. The more important results are that both techniques allow harmonic and reactive components elimination under any conditions, the unity power factor correction is achieved only by the FGE technique, but this technique balances the source currents only under distorted voltage and unbalanced load conditions, and source currents balancing and neutral current elimination are achieved under any condition only by the PSM-SFR technique.