Malaysian Journal of Applied Sciences (Journal of UniSZA - Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin)
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Correlation Between Platelet Counts and MPV Values With Mortality Rates in Acute Ischemic Stroke Patients
Get PDFThe purpose of this study was to determine the relationship of platelet counts and MPV values with mortality rates in patients with acute ischemic stroke. The sample used for this study was ischemic stroke patients at RSUP Dr. M. Djamil Padang as many as 66 samples consisting of 33 live patients and 33 patients died. Data analysis uses independent t-test. The mean result of platelet count in patients with acute ischemic stroke who died (233,520 ± 71.1 / mm3) was significantly lower (p <0.05) compared to living patients (301,580 ± 85.6 / mm3). The mean MPV value in patients with acute ischemic stroke who died (9.91 ± 1.7 fL) was significantly higher (p <0.05) than in living patients (7.73 ± 0.7 fL). There is a positive correlation between platelet counts and MPV values (r = 0.32; p = 0.008) with mortality rates in acute ischemic stroke patients
Implementing Lean Principles in Administrative Procedures: Registration Process for New Student Intake in Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM)
Get PDFThe purpose of this case study is to look at how “Lean Techniques and Principles” can be successfully introduce and implement in the higher education institution or university context. In the last two decades, Lean techniques and principle has been applied to improve production system in manufacturing processes. Lean was introduced in the 1950s by Womack and Jones known as the Toyota Production System (TPS) by the legendary car manufacturer Toyota, the world’s most profitable automaker and have spent decades perfecting lean practices in the production. The method used was to produce more productivity while using fewer resources and identifying activities which creates value for customers, activities which do not create value but are required and actions which do not create value and can be eliminated. This case study demonstrates how “Lean Principles” can be adopted to the administration services particularly in the registration process for new student intake in USIM. The objective of this case study includes : to identify the needs of improving the registration process by eliminating the waste (Muda) such as time wastage, human resource wastage, to introduce the apparatus required to reduce and eliminate waste, to redesign the process using the lean techniques and principles to eliminate waste and to continually improve the process with the goal to achieve perfection for customer satisfaction and university’s reputation. How Lean Principles can transform the work process in the registration procedure, process efficiency, the reasons for implementing Lean in the process, minimize the lead time, minimize the financial cost and the role of management. This paper contains a comprehensive discussion and findings of the development of Lean principles and management through one of the models, namely; Value Stream Mapping (VSM) process which can enhance the operational process in the university environment to improve the process, particularly in the new student registration process
Deep-Frying with Thermoxidized Groundnut Oil Is a Potential Source of Free Radicals with Health Hazards
Get PDFGroundnut oil is one of the most commonly used vegetable oils in the household and industry in Nigeria for deep frying purposes. This research work was aimed at evaluating the effects of thermoxidized and fresh groundnut oils on lipid peroxidation, in vitro radical scavenging and in vivo antioxidant activities. The study comprised thirty-five (35) wistar albino rats divided into seven (7) groups of five (5) rats each. The different groups excluding group one (1) were fed with animal feeds containing various doses of the oils in their feed for six (6) weeks. Different methods of analyses, ranging from colorimetric, titrimetric, spectrophotometric, and hyphenated mass-spectroscopy were employed to obtain the results. The study showed that the peroxide and acid values (responsible for the off-flavour due to rancidity), DPPH and FRAP (which give a measure of the pro-oxidant capacity) were significantly (p<0.05) increased in the thermoxidized oils when compared to the fresh edible oils. Also, SOD, CAT (responsible for the antioxidant activity) and MDA values (a measure of peroxidation of a sample) increased significantly (P<0.05) in the thermoxidized groups. The GC-MS analyses also revealed that the thermoxidized oil samples produced compounds which are toxic or carcinogenic, like Butane, 1-[(2-methyl-2-propenyl)oxy]-, 4-n-Hexylthiane, (R)-,1,6-Octadiene, 5,7-dimethyl-, (R)- and Cyclododecanol, 1-aminomethyl and (R)-(-)-14-Methyl-8-hexadecyn-1-ol. The above findings suggest that there are potential health hazards associated with the consumption of oxidized products resulting from these oils used repeatedly in frying processes. In light of these findings, it is recommended that consumption of groundnut oils subjected to heating for long periods of time should be discouraged in Nigeria and other Low and Medium Income Countries (LMIC) where such practices are common.Keywords: Edible oils, Deep-frying, Antioxidants, Radical scavenging, Lipid peroxidation
Molecular Taxonomic Identification of Predatory Ladybird Beetles Inferred from COI Sequences (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae)
No full textThe Coccinellidae is a highly diversified family of the Coleoptera. Coccinellids are well recognized because of their use as biocontrol agents and they are the subject of many ecological studies. However, little is known concerning phylogenetic relationships of the Coccinellidae, and a precise evolutionary framework is still required for the family. In this study, therefore, we endeavoured to use molecular taxonomic identification on the Cocinellidae. We also provided the first phylogenetic reconstruction of the relationships within the Coccinellidae based on analysis of a 658-bp fragment of mitochondrial DNA from the 5’ region of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) gene. Afterwards, all obtained COI sequences were verified and compared to sequences previously deposited in Genbank using BLAST. It was discovered that they were similar to Coccinellidae with 99-100% identities. Eleven coccinellid species (10 genera) belonging to four subfamilies (Coccinellinae, Chilocorinae, Sticholotidinae and Scymninae) and relevant outgroup were reconstructed using the Neighbor-Joining (NJ) method with 1,000 bootstrap replicates. The recovered phylogeny was revealed that most of subfamilies (except Sticholotidinae) of Coccinellidae were reciprocally monophyletic and the threshold level of nucleotide divergence was 0.155% ± 0.008, suggesting that this DNA barcoding, when combined with bioinformatics, provided a reliable method for the taxonomic classification of coccinellid beetles in this time
Analysis of Fiber, Calcium and Acceptability Cookies With Papaya Flour and Dates Puree Substitution
Get PDFBackground: Adolescent need adequate nutritious snack. Cookies is one of the best snack products, made from low protein and flourthan roasting until hard, cookies will taste crunchy when eaten. To make it more nutritious, papaya flour and dates puree is solution to increase dietary fiber and acceptability cookies. Objective: Analysing the effect of papaya flour and dates puree substitution in dietary fiber and acceptability of cookies. Methods: The type of research used complete randomized design with two repetitions. Making cookies using 4 formulation, there are control formulation papaya flour: dates puree, (PD1 10%: 30%), (PD2 20%: 20%) and (PD3 30%: 10%). The method used to determine dietary fiber content was multienzimatic method and acceptability was determined using hedonic test on colour, flavor, taste and texture by 90 panelist. Results: The highest total dietary fiber content was PD3 15.9g/100g. The acceptability cookies showed that panelists prefered cookies with PD2 formulation. Conclusion: Substitution with papaya flour and dates puree increased the level of dietary fiber cookies.Background: Adolescent need adequate nutritious snack. Cookies is one of the best snack products, made from low protein and flourthan roasting until hard, cookies will taste crunchy when eaten. To make it more nutritious, papaya flour and dates puree is solution to increase dietary fiber and acceptability cookies. Objective: Analysing the effect of papaya flour and dates puree substitution in dietary fiber and acceptability of cookies. Methods: The type of research used complete randomized design with two repetitions. Making cookies using 4 formulation, there are control formulation papaya flour: dates puree, (PD1 10%: 30%), (PD2 20%: 20%) and (PD3 30%: 10%). The method used to determine dietary fiber content was multienzimatic method and acceptability was determined using hedonic test on colour, flavor, taste and texture by 90 panelist. Results: The highest total dietary fiber content was PD3 15.9g/100g. The acceptability cookies showed that panelists prefered cookies with PD2 formulation. Conclusion: Substitution with papaya flour and dates puree increased the level of dietary fiber cookies
An Empirical Comparison between Partial Likelihood and Penalized Partial Likelihood Estimators for Semi-parametric Non-proportional Hazards Models with Frailty
Get PDFThis study compared partial likelihood (PL) and penalized partial likelihood (PPL) estimators in non-proportional hazards model with dichotomous time-varying covariates and subject–specific frailty. We considered Gamma and Inverse Gaussian as frailty distributions. The methods were illustrated with a dataset on diabetes. Extensive numerical studies were conducted using Monte Carlo simulations to compare the efficacy of the methods in terms of Relative Bias (RB) and Root Mean Square Error (RMSE). A sensitivity analysis was carried out to assess the power of the estimators under misspecification of frailty distributions. It was found, that PPL estimator generally outperformed PL estimator in all scenarios considered. Efficiency was found to increase with increase in sample size, and decrease with increase in censoring proportion. The sensitivity analysis conducted to assess the effect of frailty misspecification revealed that sample size, proportion of censored observations and the shape of the frailty distribution (log-skewed) severely affected the power of the estimators
Development of Long-Term Talent in Sports Model Based on Anthropometric and Motor Fitness Components using Multivariate Analysis
Get PDFThe study attempts to use multivariate analysis to evaluate the profile of male player for developments of Long-Term Talent in Sports (LT-TiS) model based on anthropometric and motor fitness components. Data of anthropometric and motor fitness included power, flexibility, coordination and speed were obtained from 2019 respondents aged year. Data interpretations were carried out using multivariate analysis of Principle Components Analysis (PCA) and Discriminant analysis (DA). The adequacy of sampling has been measured using Bartletts tests on sphericity and Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) has been used, with this conformance of running the Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Then, Discriminant Analysis (DA) were used to validate the correctness of group classification by LT-TiS model. Then, Discriminant Analysis (DA) were used to validate the correctness of group classification by LT-TiS. As a result, two factors with eigenvalues greater than 1 were extracted which accounted for 55.00% of the variations present in the original variables was found. The two factors were used to obtain the factor score coefficients explained by 27.86% and 27.21% of the variations in player performance respectively. Factor 1 revealed high factor loading on motor fitness compared to factor 2 as it was significantly related to anthropometrics. A model was obtained using standardized coefficient of factor 1. Three clusters of performance were shaped in view by categorizing; , and as good, moderate and poor performance respectively. Six discriminated variables obtained using forward and backward stepwise mode by DA including weight, height, standing broad jump, hand wall toss, sit and reach and 20 meter run. Variables have been established as an important indicator of choosing talented player
Effect of Edible Coatings (Xanthan gum and Carob gum) on the Physicochemical and Sensory Properties of French Fries Potatoes
Get PDFIn the present study, French fries potatoes were coated with combination of xanthan gum and carob gum or each of them separately at different concentrations of 0.25, 0.5, 0.75 and 1.5%( w/v) beside the control sample which was considered without coating. Samples were fried at 180 for 6 min. The percentage of hydrocolloids coating, moisture content, oil uptake, textural characteristic (hardness index), frying efficiency, colorimetric characteristics (brightness, redness and yellowness indexes plus color difference) and sensory evaluation (Flavor, aroma, appearance, color and overall acceptance) of potato strips were measured.The results indicated that when the hydrocolloids coating of potato strips applied, the moisture retention capacity increased, oil uptake decreased, frying efficiency increased, brightness index reduced and redness/yellowness index increased. Also by increasing the hydrocolloid initial concentration over 1%, sensory evaluation of the samples decreased. Sensory and physiochemical properties significantly decreased in the control sample (p≥0.05). As a final point, the sample contained 0.25% carob gum and 0.75% xanthan gum was introduced as superior treatment
Evaluation of Heat Stress Tolerance Indices in Maize Inbred Lines
Get PDFThe heat stress during flowering, pollination and grain filling stages affect the productivity of maize. Twenty maize inbred lines were evaluated in field and plastic houses using alpha lattice design with two replications during spring season of 2016 at National Maize Research Program, Rampur, Chitwan, Nepal. Five stress tolerance indices namely stress susceptibility index (SSI), stress tolerance index (STI), tolerance index (TOL), geometric mean productivity (GMP) and mean productivity (MP) were applied to identify superior heat stress tolerant lines. The results showed that STI, SSI, GMP and MP indices were the more accurate criteria for selection of heat tolerant and high yielding lines. The positive and significant correlation of GMP and MP with grain yield under both conditions revealed that these two indices were more applicable and efficient for selection of inbred lines. The biplot analysis identified the groups of tolerant and sensitive inbred lines. The maize inbred lines namely RL-140 and RML-91 found high yielding and low stress susceptibility in both conditions. These results suggest that the inbred lines namely RL-140 and RML-91 should be use a source of heat tolerance for maize breeding program
Optimal Intervention Strategies for Transmission Dynamics of Cholera Disease
Get PDFIn this paper, an optimal control model for cholera disease described by a system of first order ordinary differential equations was formulated and examined. The necessary conditions for the attainment of optimum level of control in the dynamical system were derived by employing the Pontryagin’s Maximum principle. Numerical studies of the analytical results were conducted to investigate the behaviour of the optimality system and the results were tabulated. The tabular results showed that the combination of the interventions up to 80% was capable of bringing cholera epidemic under control. As the rate of control was directly related to the cost of control, the result of the analysis revealed the control outlay that maintained the optimum balance of interventions with the lowest cost.