No abstract

Maitake (Grifola frondosa) mycelia contain high dietary and medicinal values that have gained great attentions from consumers. Proper drying can preserve their bio-availabilities prior to subsequent processing or consumption. Pure Maitake (Grifola frondosa) strain was cultivated in Mushroom Complete Medium (MCM) using submerged fermentation for 14 days. Maitake mycelia were harvested and treated respectively by vacuum, oven drying treatments while the fresh mycelia were assigned as control. All the samples were tested for Total Phenolic Content, DPPH radical scavenging assays and nutritional contents. Submerged fermentation produced mycelia biomass (1.3 ± 0.1 g/L) within 14 days of fermentation. Both the pH and reduced sugar content had decreased (P < 0.05) throughout fermentation. Vacuum dried mycelia had shown higher (P < 0.05) total phenolic (20.0 ± 0.4 mg GAE/g), DPPH radical scavenging activity (84.7 ± 0.1%), and soluble protein content (283.6 ± 7.1 µg/mL) as compared to other treated samples. The crude protein (39.1 ± 0.2), fat (5.7 ± 0.7), ash (11.1 ± 0.3%) of mycelia were well preserved using vacuum drying as compared to oven dried samples. The study has suggested that vacuum drying at 70 °C, 1000mBar has the advantage to preserve the nutritional and radical scavenging activity of high value maitake mycelia effectively at lower cost.Keywords: DPPH radical scavenging; maitake mycelia; submerged fermentation; total soluble protein; vacuum drying.Practical Application: Cultivation of high value maitake biomass via submerged fermentation within shorter time at desirable yield. The use of vacuum drying at 70 °C, 1000 mBar to preserve its bioactive and nutritional compositions of maitake mycelia which can be considered as cost efficient dehydration unit for subsequent post-harvest or downstream process.

The double sampling (DS) � chart, one of the most widely-used charting methods, is superior for detecting small and moderate shifts in the process mean. In a right skewed run length distribution, the median run length (MRL) provides a more credible representation of the central tendency than the average run length (ARL), as the mean is greater than the median. In this paper, therefore, MRL is used as the performance criterion instead of the traditional ARL. Generally, the performance of the DS � chart is investigated under the assumption of known process parameters. In practice, these parameters are usually estimated from an in-control reference Phase-I dataset. Since the performance of the DS � chart is significantly affected by estimation errors, we study the effects of parameter estimation on the MRL-based DS � chart when the in-control average sample size is minimised. This study reveals that more than 80 samples are required for the MRL-based DS � chart with estimated parameters to perform more favourably than the corresponding chart with known parameters. OPSOMMINGDie dubbelmonster � -beheerkaart, wat grootskaals gebruik word, is voortreflik vir die opsporing van geringe en middelmatige verskuiwings van prosesmediaan. By 'n regsskuinse verdeling van looplengte lewer de mediaanlooplengte (MLL) 'n beter groottewaarde as die gemiddelde looplengte. Gewoonlik word die vertoning van die bogenoemde � -beheerkaart bepaal met geskatte prosesparameters. Die skattings word bepaall op die veronderstelling dat die proses onder beheer is. Aangesien die MLL gebaseerde beheerkaartvertoning betekenisvol beïnvloed word deur skattingsfoute, word dit ondersoek uit minimum gemiddelde monstergrootte. Die uiteindelike resultaat van die navorsing toon dat 80 monsters benodig word vir 'n beter vertoning as die ooreenstemmende beheerkaart vir bekende parameters.

Objectives: The mental health (MH) issue has emerged as one of the great public health concerns worldwide, and its prevalence is escalating substantially among Malaysians. An individual’s daily living, physical health, and relationships can be hard-hit by an MH disorder. The present study aimed to (i) estimate the probable psychological distress in warded adult patients at Hospital Tapah, Malaysia, and (ii) investigate the key antecedents intrinsically linked to depression, anxiety, and stress that may precipitate psychological distress symptoms.Material and Methods: This study was a cross-sectional questionnaire-based study involving 191 participants sampled from the warded adult patients at Hospital Tapah. The psychological distress was assessed using the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21). Data were analysed by logistic regression using SPSS 16.0.Results: Anxiety (34.0%) was detected as the highest prevalence of probable psychological distress by a wide margin, trailed by stress (16.8%) and depression (15.2%). Race, Orang Asli (native people) and mental health awareness were associated with the depression. Respondents who exercised regularly, were employed, non-smokers, non-alcoholic drinkers, and without mental health awareness were at risk of anxiety. Income was found to be significantly associated with stress. Conclusion: This study detected a two-fold increase in the risk of anxiety compared to stress and depression. Further studies should be conducted to identify the factors related to the high DASS-21 scores in detail.

The process of isolating humic substances especially humic acid consumes a lot of time. The isolation (extraction, fractionation and purification) processes of humic acid from different sources such as soils, organic fertilizers and so on vary from 12 hours to 7 days. Based on the previous findings reported by other researchers, the standard extractant ratio used for humic acid extraction is 1:10 because it gives the highest yield of humic acid isolated. Previous studies tend to focus on the isolation duration of humic acid but not extractant ratio. To date, there is also lack of information about the extraction period and extractant ratio required to extract humic acid from rice straw compost. This study aimed to assess the minimum duration and extractant ratio for extracting humic acid from rice straw compost. A ratio of 1: 5 and 1: 10 of rice straw compost sample to chemical used were performed in humic acid extraction. A 5 g of rice straw compost sample was mixed with 25 mL and 50 mL of 0.5 M sodium hydroxide, respectively, and were extracted under different extraction periods (1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 12, and 24 hours). There was significant difference in the extraction periods and extractant ratio on the yield of humic acid. This study revealed that an extractant ratio of 1:10 and 12 hours of extraction period are required to extract humic acid from rice straw compost and can be purified within 1 hour using distilled water. Humic acid yield was significantly lower when the extraction period was less than 12 hours because the time was not sufficient for the H+ ions to displace Na+ ions and other cations. Furthermore, the difficulty of HA extraction period of less than 12 hours was probably due to difficulty of wetting the air-dried compost. The significance of this study is humic acid from rice straw compost can be isolated within 12 hour of extraction period, 24 hours of fractionation period and 1 hour of purification period under extractant ratio of 1:10. Thus, this may help in reducing time and costs needed to produce the humate product from this compost. The extractant ratio of 1:10 is more preferred because of the higher humic acid yield obtained.