Oral Presentation Abstracts GREEN SYNTHESIS OF FE-ZNO NANPARTICLAES - - PDF document

Oral Presentation Abstracts 01 GREEN SYNTHESIS OF FE-ZNO NANPARTICLAES VIA HIBISCUS ROSA-SINENSIS LEAF EXTRACTS FOR PHOTOCATALYTIC DEGRADATION OF PALM OIL MILL EFFLUENT Presenter: Chai Huey Yee Malaysia is the second largest palm oil producer in the world that generates massive amount of palm oil mill effluent (POME). The polluting properties of POME such as very low pH, high chemical and biological oxygen demand, towards the environment without proper treatment are raising public awareness. Heterogeneous photocatalysis utilizing semiconductor catalyst can photodegrade organic pollutants into harmless products under light irradiation. Zinc oxide (ZnO) is

• ne of semiconductors that has been widely used for photocatalytic degradation to treat

environmental pollutants. In recent years, green synthesis of ZnO nanophotocatalysts using eco- friendly materials like plant extracts has become popular among researchers due to their phytochemicals present in the leaf that act as strong reducing and stabilizing agents. In this study, a green reflux method was used to synthesize iron doped ZnO (Fe-ZnO) nanoparticles using Hibiscus rosa- sinens/s leaf extracts. The synthesized Fe-ZnO nanoparticles were characterized by different techniques such as UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-vis DRS), field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), X-ray diffraction (XRD), fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTlR) and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) analysis. The prepared Fe-ZnO performed excellent UV photodegradation on POME as compared to those

• f pure ZnO and commercial TiOz. The effects of operating parameters were studied by varying the

initial pollutant concentration, solution pH and catalyst loading to obtain the optimum photocatalytic degradation process. 02 VALORISATION OF RICE STARCH AS NATURAL COAGULANT IN POTABLE WATER TREATMENT Presenter: Chua Siong Chin Coagulation process is widely used in most of the water treatment due to its excellent efficiency in removing the pollutant. Despite the efficiency of the process, the chemical coagulant that is used in the process poses two nonnegligible disadvantages in human health and environmental aspect. Therefore, this paper investigates the performance of rice starch in potable water treatment and

• ptimize the operating conditions to evaluate the feasibility of rice starch to be applied in the water

treatment industry. Response surface methodology (RSM) is useful to optimize the operating conditions especially for industrial purpose in order to reduce the operating cost, while maintaining the quality. The three significant factors, dosage of starch, pH and settling time are optimized through Box-Behnken design (BBD). The ANOVA result shows that the model and the three

• perating factors are significant with the p-value less than 0.05. The optimum conditions (within

the designed range) of > 89% of turbidity reduction are with mg/L dosage of starch and 20 minutes

• f settling time pH 3. Besides, increasing the dosage of starch can greatly reduce the settling time,

meanwhile, achieved the similar result. 89% turbidity reduction can be achieved as well with 40 mg/L dosage of starch and 1 minute of settling time at pH 3. The settling time is reduced to 20 times lower which greatly enhancing the feasibility of starch to use in the water treatment industry. However, pH 3 may not be economical feasible in most of the water treatment plant. Therefore, another set of optimum conditions is generated, and the range of the pH is strictly set pH 6.5 — pH

• 9. The maximum turbidity reduction can be achieved within the specific range is 63.62% and the
• ptimum conditions are with pH 6.5, 19.41 mg/l of starch, and 20 minutes of settling time. The

results shows the use of conventional rice starch solely is still insufficient to achieve turbidity reduction up to 96%. Therefore, alum is still needed in water treatment, but the use of conventional rice starch can greatly reduce the settling time of the floc (up to 20 times lower).

03 SIMULTANEOUS PALM OIL MILL EFFLUENT DEGRADATION AND ELECTRICITY PRPODUCTION IN UV-LIGHT PHOTOCATALYTIC FUEL CELL Presenter: Kee Ming Wei Photocatalytic fuel cell (PFC) using ZnO/Zn photoanode and CuO/Cu photocathode was successfully established for simultaneous palm oil mill effluent (pome) treatment and the electricity production from the POME. The photoelectrodes were characterised by field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) and fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The ZnO/Zn photoanode was observed to be uniform nanorods with size of 1000—1200 nm The CuO/Cu photocathode was uniform nanoflakes in the length of 2143—2857 nm and width 286-571 nm. The EDX analysis revealed the Zn and O on the photoanode and the Cu and O on the photocathode, respectively. As-established PFC was used to examine the COD and colour removal of POME, and its electricity generation under 240 minutes

• f UV irradiation. The results suggested that the as-prepared ZnO/Zn photoanode displayed

higher COD (71 %) and colour (58 %) removal as compared to commercial ZnO/Zn photoanode. Such a system exhibited a greater short circuit current density (0.0797 mA cm-2) and maximum power density (0.0121mW cm-2). The presence of 0.2 M sodium chloride as supporting electrolyte completely remove the COD and colour from the PFC system with the peak current density of 0.2113 mA cm-2 and maximum power density of 0.0337 mW cm-2. 04 VIRULENCE AND BIOCIDE SUSCEPTIBILITY OF PLANKTONIC AND SESSILE Legionella pneumophila Presenter: Chay Min Jie Legionella pneumophila causes respiratory infections which may be fatal as in Legionnaires'

• disease. These bacteria are found in natural and artificial aquatic environments, such as waterfalls,

water cooling towers, and water distributing systems where they exist as free-living plankton or sessile cells in biofilms anchored onto surfaces. In this study, planktonic and surface-attached biofilm cultures of L. pneumophila ATCC 33152 are compared for their expression of virulence factors and susceptibility to a chlorine-containing biocide commonly used for the disinfection of water systems. The bacterium was grown in Feeley Gorman Broth in 6-well tissue culture plates, using an inoculum of 107 CFU/ml. After 7 days of incubation at 25°C, in 5% C02, planktonic and sessile biofilm cells were harvested for RNA extraction and quantification of 10 virulence and 2 quorum sensing genes by RT-qPCR (Rotor-Gene). For the biocide susceptibility testing, 10% sodium hypochlorite (ChemSoln), diluted in water to liberate 0.1-10.0 ppm of free chlorine, was added into the 7- day L. pneumophila cultures. After further incubation for 3 days, both planktonic and sessile cells were harvested for the measurement of cell mass using McFarland standards. The proportion

• f dead and living cells was estimated using the Bacterial Viability Assay kit (Abcam) and a

microplate reader that measures amount of fluorescence emitted from stained cells. The RT-qPCR results showed no significant changes in the expression of the virulence and quorum sensing genes with the exception of a 1.5-fold downregulation in the expression of the icmk gene (T value<0.05) in biofilm cells. This gene is one of the genes in the icm/dot system which is a major pathogenesis system in Legionella that has been shown to be involved with intracellular growth and conjugation. lts downregulation in biofilm cells is similar to the observation made by other workers that when conditions are favourable for L. pneumophila "replication (as in a young biofilm), traits (such as the icm/dot system) that promote transmission are repressed. The biocide susceptibility test results showed incomplete killing of L. pneumophila in both broth culture and biofilms, even up to 10ppm

• f free chorine. There was no increase in killing with the increase of free chlorine from 0.1ppm to
• 10ppm. The proportion of dead cells, however, was consistently higher in biofilms (68% to 91%)

compared to planktonic cultures (47% to 55%) at all concentrations of free chlorine tested. This unexpected result could be due to nutrient depletion in the densely populated biofilm rather than a greater susceptibility of biofilm cells to chlorine, compared to planktonic cells.

05 GREEN SYNTHESIS OF ZNO AND AG/ZNO COMPOSITE FOR PHOTOCATALYTIC DEGRADATION OF 2,4-DICHLOROPHENOXYACETIC ACID Presenter: Ng Pei Sian Citrullus lanatus rind extract is able to be used in the process of synthesizing ZnO as the aqueous extract of Citrullus lanatus fruit rind can act as a reducing and stabilizing agent in the formation of

• ZnO. Scanning electron microscopy showed that the as-synthesized ZnO were assembled by large

numbers of particles and formed a litchi chinensis-like structure. X-ray diffraction and fourier- transtorm infrared spectroscopy analyses proved that the as-synthesized ZnO were highly crystalline with the wurtzite structure. The Ag decorated ZnO photocatalysts (Ag/ZnO) were also synthesized to enhance the photocatalytic activity. Under sunlight irradiation, Ag/ZnO demonstrated higher photocatalytic activity towards the degradation of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid compared to that of ZnO. The observed results showed the potential of photocatalytic technology in purifying wastewater over Ag/ZnO composites. 06 ENGINEERING AND CHARACTERISATION OF NOVEL SUPERFOLDER GREEN FLUORESCENT PROTEIN VARIANTS FOR USE AS PLANT REPORTER GENES Presenter: Toh Wai Keat The green fluorescent protein (GFP) from Aequorea victoria is one of the most widely used reporter

• proteins. However, the interference of GFP fluorescence by plant autofluorescence compounds

when excited at 480 nm, presents a major challenge in the application of GFP to plant research. Ideally, the fluorescent reporter protein should be efficiently expressed and has a high quantum

• yield. Recently, a new GFP variant named superfolder GFP (sfGFP) with robust folding properties,

has been developed. This variant shows increased stability, improved folding kinetics and full recovery after denaturation. In this study, we aim to further enhance the performance of sfGFP as a plant reporter protein. Using site-directed mutagenesis, we mutated sfGFP at amino acid positions S65 and T203, converting it into a UV-excitable form, thus increasing its stoke shift. Three sfGFP variants, namely sfGFPuv, sfYFP and sfYFPuv, were constructed. Subsequently, using amino acid sequences of the yellow fluorescent proteins Venus and EYFP as references, sfYFPuv was subjected to further site-directed mutagenesis to generate sfYFPuvll. Moreover, an exceptionally brighter sfYFPuv variant, sfYFPuvlll, was obtained through random mutagenesis using sfYFPuv in a mutator strain, Escherichia coli XL-1 Red. DNA sequencing revealed a novel point mutation that caused the exceptional brightness in sfYFPuvll. To characterise the engineered sfGFP protein variants, each variant was first cloned into an arabinose-inducible pBAD expression vector, expressed in E. coli LMG 194 and subsequently purified by His tag affinity chromatography. As the excitation and emission spectra of the engineered sfGFP variants were measured using a fluorescence spectrometer. Lastly, to determine their functionality in planta, the engineered sfGFP variants were separately cloned into a 35S—promoter driven plant expression vector, followed by Agrobacterium-mediated transient transformation of Nicotiana benthamiana leaves. 07 THE EFFECT OF ANTHROPOGENIC IMPACTS IN KLANG STRAIT ON THE FEEDING ECOLOGY OF LARVAL FISH Presenter: Quah Wei Chiang Human activities are the major driving force behind global warming in the past few decades. Operation of the Kapar Power Station (KPS) in the Klang Straits in 1987 concurrent with the clearing

• f the mangrove ecosystem for industrial development, agriculture, shrimp farming and housing

had caused an increase in the sea surface temperature of surrounding waters. This in turn changes the structural composition of zooplankton, causing large crustacean zooplankton to be substituted by smaller crustacean and non-crustacean zooplankton. Since the main source of larval food is zooplankton, a shift in structural composition of zooplankton can alter the feeding habit of fish

• larvae. But knowledge of diets on fish larvae in the trophics are still lacking. For this study, fish

larvae samples were collected during two time periods: in relation to operation of KPS (1985-86) and nearly 30 years after (2013-14). Diet composition of seven dominant fish larvae families (Bregmacerotidae, Callionymidae, Cynoglossidae, Engraulidae, Gobiidae, Leiognathidae, Sciaenidae) in the Klang Straits are compared using gut content analysis. After 30 years, there is a reduction in the ontogenic stages of fish larvae towards having more preflexions. Copepods are found to be the major food item for most fish larvae families, while others include polychaete larvae, brachyuran zoea, Diogenidae zoea, Cirripedia nauplii, bivalve, ostracod, diatom, foraminiferan, detritus and plant matter. There is little difference between the diet of fish larvae in comparison between the two time periods, but different family of fish larvae have been found to have different preference towards copepod prey species. Major families of copepod preyed by fish larvae include Paracalanidae, Eucalanidae, Euterpinidae, Ectinosomatidae and Oithonidae. 08 FABRICATION OF NATURAL PLANT EXTRACTS MEDIATED ZnO NANOMATERIALS FOR SUSTAINABLE VISIBLE LIGHT DRIVEN PHOTOCATALYTIC ANTIBACTERIAL AND ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITIES Presenter: Quek Jian Ai The agriculture derived solid waste was utilized in photocatalyst development particularly in ZnO

• production. Unique green flower-like ZnO nanostructures were successfully fabricated with plant

extract wastes via a low-temperature co-precipitation method. ZnO products were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and UV-vis spectroscopy (UV- vis) techniques. The total polyphenols and flavonoids content of plant extract wastes were also

• investigated. Under visible light irradiation, green ZnO showed higher antibacterial activities against

Enterococcus faecalis (E. faecalis) bacteria than chemically synthesized ZnO and commercial ZnO. Among all green ZnO products, pomegranate ZnO (pome ZnO) showed the best photocatalytic antibacterial performance as it had the highest total polyphenols and flavonoids content. Superb antibacterial performance of green ZnO was greatly attributed to polyphenols and flavonoids compounds in plant extract wastes which acted as reducing agent, capping agent and stabilizing

• agent. These compounds aided in particle size reduction, morphological change and generation of

high surface hydroxyl group that produced sufficient reactive oxygen species (ROS) for antibacterial treatment system. The bacterial regrowth test was performed for 14 days to investigate the treatment practicality. Furthermore, the ROS scavenger experiment showed that hydrogen peroxide (H202) played a significant role in this system. Antioxidant studies were also performed to determine free radical scavenging abilities of ZnO products. Our study had demonstrated utilization

• f plant extract wastes in ZnO production for photocatalytic antibacterial treatment and

antioxidant performance. 09 ISOLATION OF MICROBES FROM CRPO BIOFERTILIZER AND THEIR ANTAGONISTIC ACTIVITIES ON Ganoderma boninense Presenter: Yeap Yee Hung Basal stem rot (BSR) disease, mainly caused by the white rot fungus Ganoderma boninense, has long plagued the oil palm plantations in many countries, particularly those of Indonesia and

• Malaysia. BSR disease has resulted in considerable financial loss over the years as the commercial

lifespan of infected oil palms is drastically shortened, thus reducing the potential palm oil yield. To date, few methods have shown to be useful in combating this invasive fungus in the laboratory, and none were successfully implemented on a plantation scale to an effective degree. Biofertilizer is gradually becoming a more favourable alternative to chemicals for agricultural applications. While providing the essential nutrients, the microbes in biofertilizer also possess plant growth promoting

• properties. In addition to these beneficial properties, previous field studies suggest that CRPO

biofertilizer shows potential in controlling BSR disease. Therefore, it is important to identify the microbes in CRPO biofertilizer which can serve as potential biocontrol agents against G. boninense.

In this study, we aim to isolate and identify microbes from CRPO biofertilizer which possess anti- Ganoderma activity and characterize them for plant growth promoting activities. Currently, a total

• f 99 colonies, mainly bacteria have been obtained from the biofertilizer. For characterizing the

anti-Ganoderma activity of these isolates, both central and dual culture assays were performed. BOX-PCR would be carried out on the isolates to eliminate the possible redundant species and further identification of each isolate will be conducted via 16S rDNA sequencing. 10 CONSTRUCTING MAGNETIC PT-DOPED BIFE03 NANOCOMPOSITE FOR BOOSTED VISIBLE LIGHT PHOTOCATALYTIC AND ANTIBACTERIAL ACTIVITIES Presenter: Jaffari Zeeshan Haider Visible-light-driven Pt-doped coral-like BiFeO3 (Pt-BFO) nanocomposites with several Pt loadings were synthesized via two-steps hydrothermal synthesis method. The as-synthesized photocatalysts were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE- SEM), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), EDX mapping, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), high- resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), UV-vis diffused reflectance spectroscopy (UV-vis DRS), photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL), fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and magnetic hysteresis loop (M-H loop) analyses. FESEM images revealed that metallic Pt nanoparticles were evenly distributed on coral-like BFO. The PL spectra suggested that the loading

• f metallic Pt on the surface of BFO can adequately reduce the recombination of photogenerated

charge carrier. The coral-like pure BFO and Pt-BFO nanocomposites were effectively applied for the photodegradation of malachite green (MG) dye under visible light irradiations. Specifically, the 0.5 wt% Pt-BFO nanocomposites presented superior photoactivity than those of the pure BFO and commercial TiO2. Moreover, the strong magnetic properties of coral-like Pt-BFO nanocomposites can be helpful in the particle separation by an external magnetic field along with great recyclability. The radical scavengers study indicated that hole (h+), hydroxyl (•OH) radicals and hydrogen peroxide (H202) were the main active species for the Pt-BFO photocatalytic system. Finally, the antibacterial activity of as-synthesized Pt-BFO nanocomposites was also studied against Bacillus cereus (B. cereus) and Escherichia coli (E.coli) strains using the agar well diffusion method. 11 INTERNAL FLOW PATTERNS IN STRAIGHT, C-SHAPE AND LOOP THERMOSYPHON Presenter: Kelvin Ng Kai Bin Heat pipe heat exchangers are efficient passive devices that are able to transfer large amounts heat

• ver long distances with a small temperature difference between the heat source and sink. They

could be employed in air conditioning systems to increase dehumidification and to thus reduce

• perating cost. In order to retrofit them, the pipes have to be formed into a “C-shape” or “Loop

shape”. The thermal performance of heat pipes is dependent upon type and quality of fill liquid, power input, pipe inclination and pipe dimensions. The boiling and condensation processes that

• ccur inside heat pipes are quite complex. Presently there are various evaporating and condensing

heat transfer coefficient correlations either determined from pool boiling or from vertical straight heat pipes. These values may be different for the C-shape and the loop heat pipes. A better insight

• f the flow patterns involved in the various heat pipe design would lead to a better understanding
• f the heat transfer mechanisms involved and may result in improved correlations. Visual studies

were conducted using transparent glass tubes and digital camera recording to observe the internal flow patterns associated with straight, C-shape and loop thermosyphons. The thermosyphons were fabricated from glass tubes and filled with water at various fill ratios. The evaporator section of each thermosyphon was immersed into an electrically- heated water bath. Forced convection air cooling at the condenser section was achieved using a fan. Flow patterns were observed and recorded from start until the hot water reached boiling point. Preliminary results showed reduction

• f fill liquid level due to retention of condensate at the condenser. Pool boiling was more frequent

as the water bath temperature increased.

12 CONVOLUTIONAL NEURAL NETWORKS FOR CLASSIFICATION OF MUSIC-LISTENING EEG AND CEREBRAL LATERALITY OF MUSICAL INFLUENCE Presenter: Cheah Kit Hwa This paper is to highlight the ability of convolutional neural networks (CNN) at classifying EEG data listening to different kinds of music without the requirement for hand-crafted features and to present the effect of decomposing 2-dimensional convolutional kernels into separate 1- dimensional kernels along different dimensions. Deep learning architectures presented in this paper include CNN of different depths and with different sizes and numbers of convolutional

• kernels. Support vector machine (SVM) taking in EEG features describing the frequency spectrum,

signal regularity, and cross-channel correlation has also been applied. The best performing CNN model presented in this paper achieves the 10-fold binary classification average accuracy of 98.94% (validation) and 97.46% (test), and the 10-fold three-class classification accuracy of 97.68% (validation) and 95.71% (test). In comparison, the SVM classifier achieves 10-fold binary classification accuracy of 80.23% (validation). The CNN model presented is able to not only differentiate EEG of subjects listening to music from that of subjects without auditory input, it is also capable of accurately differentiating the EEG of subjects listening to different music. This paper also shows that decomposing ZD- spatio-temporal convolutional kernels into separate 1D-spatial and 1D-temporal kernels significantly reduces the amount of trainable parameters of the model while retaining the classification performance. In addition, auditory stimulus is found to have altered the EEG pattern of the frontal lobe and the left cerebral hemisphere more than other brain regions. 13 REMEDIATION ON UNDERGROUND WATER POLLUTION: A CASE STUDY Presenter: Chok Jing Chern Being the largest groundwater user in Malaysia, Kelantan locals depend greatly on their groundwater supply system. In the recent groundwater quality test, benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene (BTEX) and methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE) were detected in the groundwater near the residency of Pengkalan Chepa of Kelantan. The pollutants typically originate from oil refineries or petrochemical plants that seep into the ground due to inappropriate discharge

• r leakage of underground storage. Hydrocarbon, particularly BTEX and dense non-aqueous phase

liquid (DNAPL), is highly toxic, carcinogenic, mutagenic, and harmful to the terrestrial and marine

• ecosystem. Study of bioremediation, adsorption, microwave energy and Fenton oxidation in

remediating hydrocarbon contamination (BTEX, MTBE, VC, DCE, TCE and PCE) on groundwater in a polluted locality is reviewed. Fenton oxidation, also known as advanced oxidation process (AOP) has better efficiency in the eradication of total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH), including those persistent organic compounds, with minimal time. Fenton's oxidation requires hydrogen peroxide and ferrous as catalyst which is abundant in market. Hence, Fenton oxidation is employed for further study in the remediation of real groundwater sample collected from Pengkalan Chepa. In this study, the efficiency of AOP is investigated toward the degradation of hydrocarbon such as BTEX, MTBE, VC, DCE, TCE and PCE in groundwater samples collected from site. Preliminary test such as pH, dissolved oxygen (DO), nitrate, chemical oxygen demand (COD), total organic carbon (TOC), total oil and grease (TOG), heavy metals (Fe, Cu), and total phosphorus (P) were performed for water characterization. As a result, treatment is needed for samples that exceed the Malaysia Drinking Water Quality Standard limits in COD and TOC. The percentage removal of hydrocarbon, in terms of COD and TPH, in different operating condition for Fenton oxidation of contaminated groundwater are determined for oxidation processes optimization. The predominant factors of Fenton oxidation, for example, pH, concentration of hydrogen peroxide (hydroxyl radicals), concentration of ferrous, and reaction time are studied. The practicality of Fenton treatment for contaminated groundwater of Kelantan is assessed in terms of time, cost and environmental impact.

14 INVESTIGATION OF UPPER RESPIRATORY CARRIAGE OF BACTERIAL PATHOGENS AND THEIR CIRCULATING GENOTYPES AND ANTIBIOTIC SUSCEPTIBILITY PROFILE IN THE KAMPAR DISTRICT, MALAYSIA Presenter: Ong Hing Huat Some members of the normal microbiota of the human upper respiratory tract (URT) can be potentially pathogenic when they overgrow or translocate to other body sites; the latter could lead to pneumonia and meningitis. The presence of these pathogens can be investigated via respiratory carriage studies, which have been recognised as a pragmatic solution to gaining large real-time epidemiological data on their carriage at the population level. Carriage studies of such nature are limited in Malaysia and therefore, the prevalence of their carriage in the URT remains poorly

• understood. This study aimed to investigate the upper respiratory carriage of Streptococcus

pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae, Neisseria meningitidis, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa among the population of Kampar district. Nasal and

• ropharyngeal swabs from 113 participants aged 4-90 years were collected. Identification of the S.

aureus, K. pneumoniae, and P. aeruginosa isolates obtained was done through assessment of their growth characteristics on mannitol salt agar, MacConkey agar and King’s A medium, respectively. They were isolated from 35%, 14%, and 1% of subjects in this study, respectively. In the Kirby-Bauer assay, 34 S. aureus isolates were resistant to penicillin while 7 were resistant to tetracycline. All the

• K. pneumoniae isolates were resistant to ampicillin as expected, with one was resistant to
• imipenem. In this study, the presence of S. pneumoniae, H. influenzae, and N. meningitidis was

assessed via multiplex PCR on total DNA extracts from the swab suspension. Among the 113 subjects screened, 37%, 12%, and 1% were positive for these target bacteria, respectively. All these were from the oropharyngeal swabs except for five S. pneumoniae-positive samples, which were

• f nasal origin. The outcomes of this study contributed to better understanding of the respiratory

carriage of bacterial pathogens, which will be of value to help inform the immunisation and antibiotic prescription policies. 15 INVESTIGATION OF THE EFFECTS OF ANGIOGENIN GENE (ANG) AND ITS AMYOTROPHIC LATERAL SCLEROSIS (ALS) MUTANTS OVER-EXPRESSION IN NSC34 MOUSE MOTOR- NEURON CELL LINE Presenter: Nor Anis Adila Ahmad Rawawi Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive and ultimately fatal neurodegenerative disease that was first described by a French clinician Jean- Martin Charcot in 1869. Even though this disease has been identified over 150 years ago and there are increasing number of studies, the precise causes of ALS remain unclear. Angiogenin is known to have neuroprotective function, is significantly expressed and secreted by adult motoneurons, and has been shown to be taken up by astrocytes for neuroprotection. Up to date, an increasing number of loss-of-function mutations of the human ANG gene has been identified among ALS patients around the world. On the other hand, several lines of evidence have led to the notion of pesticide involvement in increasing the susceptibility, triggering, and progression of ALS. Studies have found that people who have higher pesticide exposure had a significantly increased risk of ALS compared to those who were not exposed. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the plausibility of angiogenin gene (ANG) dysfunction and the interaction with organophosphate (OP) pesticides in relevance to the pathogenesis of ALS. For this purpose, the wild type and two angiogenin sporadic mutants, K171 and K401, were stably transfected in NSC34 cell line. Stable cells were established by selection with antibiotics and the level of expression was then confirmed by Western blotting. The properties of angiogenin on cell proliferation, cell viability, and expression of apoptotic markers were studied by subjecting the stable cells to sub-lethal concentration (LC50) of OP pesticides: Chlorpyrifos (CPF) and Diazinon (DZN). Currently, we have found that K171 mutant was more susceptible to both CPF and DZN treatment with increased ROS production and reduced cell viability than K401 and wild type as compared to control. More experiments will be conducted to study the pathways involved in the mechanisms of neuronal cell death in response to CPF and DZN treatment.

16 BIOINSPIRED SYNTHESIS OF CARBON DOTS/g-C3N4 NANOCOMPOSITES FOR PHOTOCATALYTIC APPLICATION Presenter: Tai Jun Yan This study reports a fast and green preparative strategy to synthesize water soluble and fluorescent carbon quantum dots (CQDs) through hydrothermal method by using low cost organic waste of human fingernails as the carbon precursor for the first time. The coupling of CQD with pure carbon nitride (g-C3N4) was further explored to enhance the latter’s performance in photocatalysis of 2,4- dicholorophenol (2,4-DCP), a toxic and recalcitrant com-pound mostly released from industrial

• effluent. Such coupling overcame the weakness of pure g-C3N4 in photocatalysis process by

broadening its visible light absorption and promoting the charge separation. As a result, the removal rate of CQD/ g-C3N4 (10) was up to 71.53%, which was approximately 1.5 times higher than that of pure g-C3N4 under sunlight irradiation. 17 EVALUATION OF ODDBALL CASES: SINGLE TRIAL EEG CONNECTIVITY STUDY BASED ON P300 AND MOTOR RESPONSE Presenter: Thee Kang Wei The difference between two oddball cases: Target with Response (TR) and Non-target with Response (NTR); is evaluated in terms of functional connectivity and for statistical significance Pearson’s Correlation method is used. The connectivity was estimated using coherence on single trial EEG data from a visual oddball paradigm. The pairwise coherence coefficient of all 19 electrodes were grouped into a 19 x 19 connectivity matrix for further analysis. The matrix from two subjects were averaged for group comparison between two oddball cases. Fig.1 shows the connectivity matrix and the estimated connectivity plotted on the 2D topographic map. Significant difference between two cases was observed in term of the connectivity matrix. Connectivity in TR case has higher weight than NTR case. The matrices were thresholded using absolute thresholding method to form undirected graphs. The connectivity matrix of TR is significantly different as compared to NTR. In general, connectivity in TR case has higher weight than NTR case. In terms of density, TR case has higher value than NTR case. Fronto-temporal (F-T) and occipito-temporal (O- T) links were observed in TR case but not in NTR case. It is also observed that centro-parietal (C-P) and parieto-temporal (P-T) links are important for motor response. 18 AN INTEGRATED MODEL FOR ADJUSTMENT OF PROCESS PARAMETERS TO RECOVER THROUGHPUT SHORTAGE IN SEMICONDUCTOR ASSEMBLY: A CASE STUDY Presenter: Ho Kok Hoe Existing productivity improvements activities such as inventory buffer, overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) and total productive maintenance (TPM) do not associate the throughput shortage with the process parameters. The aim of the paper is to develop and validate an integrated model to recover the throughput shortage through adjustment of process parameters in a semiconductor assembly setting. The mathematical model of planned throughput as a function of process parameters in an integrated multiple-process line is developed. When the actual throughput does not meet the planned throughput, throughput shortage occurs. The planned throughput for the next day is summed with the throughput shortage from the previous day and mathematical programming is used to search the adjusted values of the process parameters. The throughput shortage can be restored at the following day with the reconfigured process

• parameters. If throughput shortage still exists, the additional throughput shortage will be carried

forward to the subsequent day of planning where mathematical programming is repeated to search the adjusted values of the process parameters. The proposed optimization model is essentially a parametric model, where actual data of process parameters are fitted into distribution and is translated into a range of allowable values within the 95% confidence interval. The process

parameters subjected to adjustment in this model are the cycle time of Die Attach, Wire Bond and Pre-Cap Inspection. Downtime and setup time are not subjected to adjustments because these parameters require more extensive efforts to be changed. The mathematical programming computes adjusted values of process parameters to restore the throughput shortage, where it quantitatively correlates the process parameters and throughput shortage rather than the conventional method of production improvement activities that do not quantitatively correlate with the throughput shortage. The novelty of the proposed model is the throughput and throughput shortage can be manipulated through adjustment of process parameters in the integrated multiple-process line. The significance and contribution of the model is to establish a reference to develop the numerical relationship between process parameters with throughput and throughput shortage. Thus, it becomes feasible to adjust process parameters in multiple-process integration to plan for the future. 19 PREDICTING MOVIE BOX OFFICE: A MACHINE LEARNING APPROACH Presenter: Toh Si Jing Film industry is a multi-billion business as movie productions has had major enhancements and improvements over the decades. However, to determine if the movie is to be a success or not is an uncertainty for film makers and investors. This study aims to identify factors contributing to the box

• ffices receipts, consequently predicting the profitability of box offices based on the historical data

which is obtained from Internet Movie DataBase between the years 2006 and 2018. Machine learning techniques such as linear regression and decision tree are applied in this study by using Python programming language. Results showed that action genres significantly contribute in predicting box office and the proposed model showed a high accuracy in prediction. 20 HE EFFECT OF MUSIC ON HUMAN BRAIN; FREQUENCY DOMAIN AND TIME SERIES ANALYSIS USING ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAM Presenter: Rab Nawaz The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of music stimuli on human brain using electroencephalogram (EEG). The study comprises of two experiments, a short term and a long- term experiment referred to as experiment 1 and experiment 2, respectively. Two types of music stimuli; favourite music (preferred music of the subjects) and relaxing music (composed of alpha binaural beats) are used in experiment 1. Experiment 2 is conducted using relaxing music. Assessment of soothing effects of the music on human brain is done by analyzing different features; absolute power in alpha band, approximate entropy, sample entropy and frontal asymmetry using EEG recordings. The ANOVA measures for the extracted features indicated no significant change in experiment 1. In experiment 2, the features are evaluated for the music listening group and control group separately. From ANOVA results, no significant change is observed in the control group after both conditions (1st week and 2nd week) with respect to baseline. On the other hand, significant change was observed in the music listening group, for all features investigated; (a) absolute alpha power: condition (baseline and 1st week) F=4.59, P<0.05, condition (baseline and 2nd week) F=18.87, P<0.05 (b) approximate entropy: condition (baseline and 2nd week) F=30.62, P<0.05 (c) sample entropy: condition (baseline and 1st week) F=4.75, P<0.05, condition (baseline and 2nd week) F=38.37, P<0.05. For interhemispheric alpha asymmetry index measured from the frontal region of the brain; no significant change is observed in both experiments. The results indicate that relaxing music has better soothing effects as compared to the favourite music. It is also observed that the effect of relaxation is significant when the relaxing music is listened for a longer period of time (2 weeks).

21 TIME SERIES FORECASTING BY SINGULAR SPECTRUM ANALYSIS (SSA) Presenter: Teoh Yit Seng A time series data is a list of numerical data collected at uniformly spaced time interval. Example of time series include daily rainfall of an area, share market price and et cetera. There are three main components comprised in a time series data: season, trend and noise. Singular Spectrum Analysis (SSA) is a method applied to de-noise the time series data. It is a technique in which the time series data is first mapped into a trajectory matrix with certain dimensions (window-length), then the matrix is decomposed using Singular Value Decomposition (SVD). The noise-filtered data is then used to reconstruct the time series data for forecasting purpose. The objectives of this project are to explore and apply SSA to conduct time series forecasting, as well as to determine the best parameters (window-length and SVD-level) in SSA for effective forecasting. The SSA forecast is implemented on a few stock market indices (including KLCI, Hang Seng, and DowJones). Results indicate that SSA is feasible for forecasting stock market data.