Fructan utilizing strains of lactic acid bacteria were assessed for their potential as silage inoculants during ensilage with herbage harvested from a mixed sward of ryegrass. The experiment included five treatments: uninoculated herbage as a control, herbage inoculated with one of three fructan utilizing strains (Lactobacillus paracasei ssp. paracasei P4134 and Lact. plantarum V54/6 & V57/5) or inoculated with a non-fructan degrading strain (Lact. plantarum P3775). It was clearly demonstrated that inoculant strains dominated the lactic acid bacteria population during the first 14 days of ensilage. All inoculated silages underwent a rapid lactic acid fermentation with lactic acid bacteria numbers increasing to ×10 9 by day 2 and pH falling to ¾4·0 by day 3. Rates of fructan degradation were, however, considerably reduced in silages inoculated with Lact. plantarum P3775 compared with the fructan utilizing strains. Inoculation with Lact. plantarum P3775 also resulted in slightly lower levels of lactic acid production during the first 14 days of ensilage compared with other strains. While rates of fructan degradation in untreated herbage were comparable with those observed in herbage inoculated with fructan degrading strains, resulting silages were less well fermented. The majority of lactic acid bacteria isolated from untreated silages were unable to utilize fructan and the observed rate of breakdown is attributed to plant fructan hydrolases and possibly activity of other micro-organisms. The proportion of L-isomer in total lactic acid formed during ensilage was also analysed. The highest proportion of this isomer was detected in Lact. paracasei ssp. paracasei P4134 inoculated silage (370%), with intermediate values in untreated silages (350%) and lowest values being found in silages inoculated with strains of Lact. plantarum (330%). This study highlights the potential of fructan degrading strains of lactic acid bacteria as silage inoculants and also that of strains of Lact. paracasei ssp. paracasei to manipulate the relative proportions of lactic acid isomers formed during ensilage.

Abstract.In order to enhance the quality of Indonesian higher education, the Indonesian government through the Ministry of Research, Technology, and Higher Education paid much attention to lecturers in forms of financial incentives and opportunities for them to upgrade their professional skills. Meanwhile, educational laboratory assistants (educational supporting staffs with specific functional position) had also enjoyed some incentives from the government over the past 5 years. Therefore, these laboratory assistants need continuous coaching to maximise their roles in laboratories and to deliver services to their customers, such as lectures, students and other laboratory stakeholders. This study aimed at revealing to what extent effective coaching from superiors and adversity quotient owned by educational laboratory assistants influenced the quality of service of educational laboratory assistants of some Indonesian public universities. This research employed correlational quantitative approach using questionaires as data collection method. Data were analysed using regression analysis. The results of analysis indicated that there was a positive correlation between effective coaching and adversity quotient on the service quality of educational laboratory assistants of some public universities. The more effective the coaching and the higher the adversity quotient, the better quality of service of the laboratory assistants. Based on these results, it was concluded that the service quality of educational laboratory assistants could be improved through effective coaching and adversity quotient.

Knowledge and utilization of digital images are growing rapidly not only in the fields of medicine and industry but also in the field of agriculture. This knowledge can apply it to a computer-based program that is used to detect agricultural products more effectively and efficiently. this research aims to build a system to detect the types of pests and diseases of cocoa pods because in general, an inspection of pests and diseases of cocoa pods is still manual based on the visual analysis of the color of the pods visually by the human eye which has limitations, which requires more energy to sort, the level of human consistency. In terms of assessing the symptoms of pests and fruit diseases, it is not guaranteed, because humans can experience fatigue, and humans also assess symptoms of pests and fruit diseases, sometimes it is subjective. This study utilizes digital image processing techniques to extract the color features of digital images of cocoa pods, the method used to extract the color features of Hue, Saturation, Value (HSV), and the classification algorithm used by K-Nearest Neighbor. The data used as many as 150 images divided into 70% training data and 30% testing data. Based on the results of trials using k values ​​of 5,7,11 and 13 in the holdout method, the best accuracy is 84.44% with a value of k = 5. And in the k-5 cross-validation test, the best accuracy is also found at k = 5 with a value accuracy of 99.33%.

Telah dilakukan penelitian pembuatan formulasi granul effervescent dari sari buah jambu biji merah (Psidium guajava Linn.) sebagai antioksidan dengan menggunakan metode granulasi basah. Pada penelitian ini formula dibuat dengan variasi konsentrasi Na-CMC sebagai pengikat. Evaluasi yang dilakukan terhadap granul effervescent di antaranya adalah kecepatan alir, sudut istirahat, kerapatan curah, kerapatan mampat, kompresibilitas, uji kestabilan granul effervescent, uji hedonik terhadap 30 responden, dan uji antioksidan dengan menggunakan metode DPPH (1,1-difenil-2-pikrilhidrazil). Hasil evaluasi granul effervescent menunjukkan bahwa ketiga formula, yaitu F1, F2, dan F3 memiliki kualitas yang baik sesuai dengan persyaratan granul effervescent. F3 yang mengandung sari buah jambu biji merah 11%, manitol 35,35%, Na-CMC 0,75%, asam sitrat 9,4%, asam tartrat 18,8%, natrium bikarbonat 23,5%, karmin 0,5%, dan perisa jambu 0,7% merupakan formula yang menghasilkan granul effervescent terbaik dibandingkan F1 dan F2 dalam segi kecepatan alir, sudut istirahat, kerapatan curah, kerapatan mampat, dan kompresibilitas. Uji aktivitas antioksidan menunjukkan bahwa ketiga formula granul effervescent sari buah jambu biji merah masih memiliki aktivitas antioksidan. Hasil uji kesukaan menunjukkan bahwa tidak terdapat perbedaan yang nyata pengaruh formula granul effervescent sari buah jambu biji merah terhadap kesukaan responden dengan tingkat kepercayaan 95%.

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