UMT Journal Universiti Malaysia Terengganu
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Lactic Acid Bacteria Isolated from Locally Produced Vinegars and Their Antibacterial Activity Against Foodborne Bacteria
No full textVinegars are most widely used as preservatives in food industry. Vinegars are known for their health benefits; however, the roles of vinegar-associated microflora in locally produced vinegars are not well established. The objectives of this study are to isolate and identify the lactic acid bacteria (LAB) from black rice vinegar and coconut vinegar, measure their pH and titratable acidity, and determine their antibacterial activity. LAB was isolated using cultural method. Phenotypic characterization of LAB was carried out using Gram-staining, oxidase test, catalase test and API 50 CHL Kit. Results from API 50 CHL Kit confirmed that BRV03M strain from black rice vinegar and CV03M strain from coconut vinegar were Lactobacillus paracasei ssp. paracasei. The identified bacteria in both samples were consistent as L. paracasei using 16S rDNA gene sequences with 93% and 99% similarity, respectively. The pH and titratable acidity percentage of both vinegars were also determined. The stability of Cell Free Supernatant-Lactic Acid Bacteria (CFS-LAB) strains within 14 days on their inhibition against selected pathogenic bacteria was determined using agar well diffusion method. The CFS-LAB strain isolated from black rice vinegar (BRV03M) was more stable within 14 days than coconut vinegar in inhibiting tested bacteria, suggesting this strain has great potential as natural antibacterial agents
Modified Screen-Printed Electrode for Determination of Imidacloprid in Water Samples: A Preliminary Study
No full textA preliminary assessment of a simple and rapid electrochemical method was carried out to analyse imidacloprid (IMI) in water samples using cyclic voltammetry (CV) based on modified screen-printed gold electrode (SPGE). Self-assembled monolayer (SAM) was optimized using 11-mercaptoundecanoic acid (11-MUA) with several parameters such as scan rates, type of supporting electrolyte, and pH of the supporting electrolyte. The modified SPGE showed high suppressed current against the potential due to the formation of a monolayer on the electrode surface. Surface morphology of the electrode was analysed using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) confirming that 11-MUA was present on the modified SPGE. The water samples were collected from GM Peladang, Kuala Terengganu and two locations at Universiti Malaysia Terengganu. Method detection limit was expressed as limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) for modified SPGE which were calculated at 3.784 and 12.613 mg/L in water samples, respectively. This study showed that the reduction peak current observed on the modified electrode was lower compared with oxidation peak current. Hence, gold is unsuitable for IMI detection
Influences of Hygiene Practices, Awareness and Involvement Levels on Environmental Hygiene among UMT Students
No full textIndustrial development plays the most important role in the degradation of the global environment. In line with this issue, most universities in the world have introduced environmental management to increase awareness among young generation towards the environment. Therefore, this study is employed to examine the influences of hygiene practices, awareness and involvement levels towards environmental hygiene among UMT students. The design of this study is quantitative using cross-sectional data collected from students at residential colleges in Universiti Malaysia Terengganu. A total of 120 respondents participated but only data from 100 students could be used for further analysis after the data screening process. The result of this study showed that the level of awareness of UMT students on environmental issues could be categorized as moderate. Besides that, this study found that the level of awareness had significant positive influences on environmental hygiene. Meanwhile, hygiene practices and the level of involvement did not have significant influences on environmental hygiene. In addition, using the findings of this study, we suggest that the stakeholders of UMT increase the hygiene practice and involvement among young generation to increase the level of awareness regarding environmental hygiene
Effects of Exogenous Arachidonic Acid on Morphological Traits and Fatty Acid Profile of Rice (Oryza sativa L.) Grown on Saline Soil
No full textSalinity is one of the major constraints in the rice production worldwide. Rice plants have moderate tolerance towards salinity. Salinity changes cell membrane permeability and fatty acid compositions by releasing the free fatty acids. Nonetheless, the effect of exogenous fatty acid such as arachidonic acid (AA) on rice grown on saline soil is yet unknown. The objective of the current study is to determine the effect of AA on the morphological traits and free fatty acids of rice plant grown under saline conditions. Rice plants grown on saline soil (EC=12 ds/m) were treated with 50 mM AA on day 45 after transplant. Leaves and panicles were sampled after two weeks of treatment and analysed for fatty acid profile using GC-MS. The morphological traits were observed at the maturity stage. Results showed that AA treatment improved the grain fill-in of the saline stress rice and reduced the accumulation of free fatty acids in the cell. The AA treatment also increased the linoleic acid (18:2), linolenic acid (18:3) in panicles and, dihomo-y-linolenic acid (20:3) and nervonic acid (24:1) in leaves. The finding suggests that exogenous AA regulates salinity stress in rice by reducing the accumulation of free fatty acids
GrabCar: Opportunities and Challenges for Taxi Operators
No full textTaxis, being a significant element of mobility, play a sufficiently great role in public transportation. However, the issues towards taxi services have gradually increased due to the poor services given to passengers by taxi operators, leading to the demand for other ride service alternatives. With the development of technology, GrabCar was developed and launched as an online taxi booking through smartphone application which can easily connect passengers and drivers. The main purpose of this study is to find out the perception of taxi operators towards GrabCar service and vice versa so that there will be a clear point of view to identify opportunities and challenges for taxi operators. Standardized open-ended interviews were conducted with 5 taxi and 5 GrabCar operators in Kuala Terengganu and Kuala Nerus. Interview transcripts were analyzed using content analysis. The findings showed that there were more challenges than opportunities for the taxi operators. This study could help the government to improve taxi services in general and GrabCar services in sharing economy
Estimation of Coral Rubble Quantity using Edge Detection and Morphological- Based Methods
No full textReef rubble represents the broken components of the coral and reef structure which could be in the form of dead, broken or other fragmented coral. The process to estimate the distribution of reef rubble is currently done manually and thus takes a long time to complete and is laborious. This paper presents an image-processing-based method to estimate the distribution of reef rubbles in a coral reef environment from a still image. The method is basically a series of image processing steps including image complement, image binarization, edge detection, smoothing by Weiner filter and followed by erosion and dilation process. The experimental results showed that the system was able to roughly estimate the distribution of reef rubble
Cyber Bully: Emotional Impact among UKM students
No full textThe use of social media without civic culture among students has plagued many IPTA students in cyberbullying. Cyberbullying can be done in the uploading of cruel words, photographs and videos of the victim to hoax, incite, defame, revenge until the predators feel great and powerful. The fastest duration of all information can be disseminated in fast pace with worldwide reach. Among the factors of cyberbullying occurred in early adulthood are jealousy, discovering social media friends' attention, 'jaguar' capacity or gangster in social media. Previous studies focus more on bullying phenomena among adolescents, school students and mass media users. While, there are very few studies on the issue of cyberbullying among university students. The main objective of this study is to explore the impact of cyber bullying on UKM students. This study was conducted using a qualitative approach based on case study. Techniques of collecting research data through structured interviews in writing. 6 respondents were selected for this study using purposive sampling technique. The location of the study chosen was Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. Structured interview data were analyzed in a thematic manner and the findings found that there were five major implications of emotional, depression, suicidal desire, overwhelming sadness, uncertainty and uncontrolled feelings found in transcripts of study informants. Implications of this study are expected to suggest appropriate intervention and advocacy programs to social workers in handling cyber bullying cases at the Student Counseling Division, UKM
Exploring Stress Impact and Social Support towards Parenting Responsibilit among Single Fathers
No full textSingle father is a group that is less concerned by society including agencies and NGOs that focusing on community welfare rather than single mothers. This is because most people think that this group has a high physical and mental strength as the single father is a male. However, it is undeniable that these single fathers are also experiencing serious pressure because they have lost their support or spirit of life. Previous study are more focused on single mothers that earn social support from various agencies. Meanwhile, there is a lack of research on the social support of single fathers. The main objective of this study is to explore the pressure and social support among the single fathers. This study was conducted using a qualitative approach based on case study. The technique of collecting data through a structured interview. Seven informants were selected for this study using purposive sampling technique. The location of the study chosen is in the district of Kuala Selangor, Selangor. Structured interview data was analyzed in a thematic manner and the results of the study found that there were three main factors affected stress on single fathers namely emotion, household management and work were found through informants’ transcript of study. Meanwhile, social support required by single fathers are finance, moral support and a place to have a chit-chat. The implication of this study is expected to suggest an appropriate intervention and advocacy programs to social workers in handling single fathers’ cases in communities and institutions
Cytochrome Oxidase I (COI) Divergence Assessment of Family Nemipteridae from Malaysian Waters
No full textDNA Barcoding, primarily focusing on cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene has been appraised as an effective tool for species identification. Nonetheless, species identification based on molecular approach is essential for discrimination of look-alike species. In this study, we focused on the marine fishes Family Nemipteridae, one of the commercially important group distributed within the surrounding seas of Malaysia. Some of the samples were collected during the National Demersal Trawl Survey in the Exclusive Economic Zone of East Coast Peninsular Malaysia by the Department of Fishery Malaysia. A 652bp region of COI was sequenced for 74 individuals from nine putative species. Additional 34 COI sequences from GenBank were also included in this study making the total number of samples analysed to 108 individuals. The average Kimura 2-parameter (K2P) nucleotide divergence was 0.34% among individuals within species and 6.97% within genera. All putative species formed monophyletic clades in both Neighbour-joining (NJ) and Maximum-likelihood (ML) trees. However, there was a potential misidentification in specimen identified as Nemipterus tambuloides, as the specimen did not group with their own taxa. It was genetically grouped in Nemipterus thosaporni clade. This study supports the effectiveness of COI gene in species discrimination of Family Nemipteridae
Removal of Cadmium Ions from Synthetic Wastewater by using Pennisetum purpureum (Elephant Grass) as Low Cost Biodegradable Adsorbent (Biosorbent)
No full textAt present, heavy metal pollution is a major environmental concern and the adsorption technique is a potent method for removal of these heavy metals from wastewater. Activated carbon is one of the best adsorbents for metal ions removal but it is sometimes restricted due to high cost and problems with regeneration hamper large scale application. Low cost adsorbent is alternatively being introduced to replace activated carbon since it is available in large quantity, renewable and inexpensive. Hence, Pennisetum purpureum (elephant grass) was investigated for its potential in cadmium ions removal. The adsorbent was characterized by Fourier Transforms Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) and Barrett–Joyner–Halenda (BJH) analyses. The effects of pH (1 to 5), initial metal ion concentration (5 to 25 mg/L), contact time (10 to 60 minutes) and adsorbent dosage (0.2 to 1.0 g) on cadmium ions removal were conducted by batch adsorption experiments. In this study, the FT-IR results demonstrated that the functional groups for untreated and nitric acid-treated P. purpureum mainly consisted of carbonyl, carboxyl, hydroxyl and amine groups which are able to bind with positively charged cadmium ions. SEM micrographs have proven that nitric acid modification would remove the surface impurities of P. purpureum, which increased the surface roughness, produced deep, open pores and better pore size distribution. From the BET and BJH analyses, the treated P. purpureum was mesoporous, had larger surface area and pore volume compared to untreated P. purpureum. The best pH, adsorbent dosage and contact time were pH 4, 0.6 g and 30 minutes, respectively. The highest removal percentage of cadmium ions for both untreated and treated P. purpureum were 92% and 98% correspondingly. The results shown strengthened the fact that both biosorbents have great potential in cadmium ions removal