Earticle

The purpose of the experiment was to investigate whether ethanol could be produced in a sustainable way to validate its use as an alternative fuel. This was tested by fermenting onions, apples, potato and cheese over a period of two weeks using Bokashi. The ethanol produced by the food was then collected and measured to determine which food yielded the most alcohol. To further test whether the food was a sustainable option, worms were added to the waste after the two weeks of fermenting. The purpose of this was to see whether they could survive in and condition the waste products into compost capable of growing crops. The results of the experiments suggest that onion was the most efficient at producing ethanol, followed by apple, potato and, finally, cheese, which did not ferment. All three fermentable foods that were tested managed to sustain worms for the entirety of the experiment, indicating that the food scraps remaining after fermentation could further be used as a compost to grow crops in. Furthermore, this could be done at a community level to increase the health of nearby farmlands and gardens, and to offer economic benefits for the production of ethanol.

Exercise has previously been shown to have positive effects on cognitive function; Cognitive function is known as having close relationship with specific Neuronal oscillation. Based on preceding researches, the current study examined the effect of exercise on the cognitive functions - learning, spatial memory and decision making process from the memory - with specially designed multi T-maze to escape from it with shorter time duration by memory. Besides different time decreases, the brain wave was collected during the maze task for analysis in such alteration of neuronal oscillation. As a result, we found that (1) the decrease in the time duration for escaping maze had statically significance and (2) some interesting neuronal oscillations related to cognitive function from previous researches were discovered. Thus we could conclude that exercise affects the development of spatial memory and task-solving ability and the neuronal oscillations on cognitive function.

We report the genetic transformation of rice for developing stress-resistant crops with a view to solving the international problem of hunger. Hunger is an international problem because, while the world population is increasing geometrically, food production is increasing arithmetically. Food production is not increasing at the desired rate because of the deterioration of the environment and limited production capacities. In addition, climate changes pose an even more serious concern with regard to food production. Therefore, rice was genetically transformed with a view to overcoming the stress resulting from climate changes. cDNA was reverse transcribed from mRNA extracted from rice and introduced into the TOPO and pET cloning vectors. The resultant expression plasmids were used to transform Escherichia coli cells.

Nhp6A, and Nhp6B in Saccharomyces cerevisiae are homologues with Human Hmgb1 which belongs to High Mobility Group Box (HMGB) family. Hmgb1 is believed to play an important role in autophagy and apoptosis. Besides the roles in necrosis, however, the exact roles of Nhp6A and Nhp6B are not studied so far. Recently, it is suggested that Nhp6A also plays important roles in autophagic cell death of S. cerevisiae. Our study is to assess the roles of Nhp6A, Nhp6B, and HMGB1 in overexpression of cell death of S. cerevisiae under various stress conditions. We did transformation of the genes HMGB1 and NHP6A into S. cerevisiae BY4743 strain and its mutants (NHP6A-/-, NHP6B-/-, NHP6A/B-/-). Using these strains, we compared the growth rate and colony formation under various chemical stress factors-EDTA, D-sorbitol, acetic acid, methyl methane sulfonate, dithiothreitol, NaCl, 4-nitroquinoline 1-oxide. Under dithiothreitol, BY4743-HMGB1 shows high viability, while BY4743-NHP6A shows low viability. In contrast, under acetic acid, BY4743-HMGB1 shows low viability, while BY4743-NHP6A shows high viability. These results imply that HMGB1 plays important roles in dithiothreitol(ER stress) induced cell death and acetic acid(pH stress) induced cell death.

An empirical investigation was conducted to compare the effectiveness of various tested fireproofing chemicals in an attempt to discover which of these would prove the most useful to protect a fabric, and potentially other construction materials in an average Australian bushfire. The chemicals tested also needed to be a plausible and cost-effective precaution that could be utilised by the general public. The primary intended destination of these chemicals is on a structure such as a house, fire bunker or vehicle with over 75% of bushfire fatalities occurring in these locations. The other plausible place of use for these chemicals is for the fire-proofing of fabric clothing and general flammable household items. The results of this experiment displayed that the NPFA formula was the most effective method of protection against both heat and direct flame, resulting in low damage despite high temperature testing, while the other chemicals only acted as slight fire-retardants. It is possible that these chemicals could provide protection from smaller scale, lower temperatures fires, however they would do little to prevent a raging Australian bushfire whereas the NPFA chemical could potentially slow the burning of fabrics in a consumer home.

Tyre disposal is currently an undervalued and underused venture that could yield economical and environmental benefits. This investigation was to test the viability of recycling a tyre through heating the tyre to 600°C in an oxygen free enclosure until decomposed into its three original components: carbon black, nylon and high quality diesel fuel. This method was tested through heating different sized tyre fragments in a crucible with a Bunsen burner then recording the yield of each component. Tests showed that this method of tyre recycling achieved a 23-46% average yield of highly recyclable components (diesel and carbon black.) This method provides a viable solution to the ever growing issue that tyre waste is causing today.

There are so many consumers and small scale traders of fried food in this world, including Indonesia. Unfortunately, some of the traders usually do not have enough capital to create a good healthy standard for the food they produced and therefore they use their cooking oil (usually called waste cooking oil) repeatedly more than 8-10 times. Obviously the oil is not a good healthy standard for producing food. Useless materials in the waste oil especially peroxide will increase risks of some diseases, such as cancer. This research conducted to test the effectiveness of banana peel as readily available, low cost, environment friendly bio-material. The banana peel could adsorb peroxide and increase the brightness of waste cooking oil. Several 100 ml samples of waste cooking oil were treated at room temperature using combinations of 2 grams of dehydrated banana peel, activated carbon banana peel, carbon banana peel, and/or shallot, and compared to commercial activated carbon as absorbent. After 24 hours, the concentration of peroxide (peroxide number) was calculated using a thiosulphate titration method. Clarity, thus purity of each samples were also compared by analysing the absorbance using a spectrophotometer. The result shows that dehydrated banana peel is the best material applied to remove peroxide in waste cooking oil compared to activated carbon banana peel, carbon banana peel, shallot, and commercial activated carbon. Whereas shallot is the material that results in the brightest waste cooking oil compared to other material used.

Hydroxylapatite (HA) is an important part of mineral bone. Synthetic HA is widelyknown as a substitute material for decayed teeth and damaged bones. This is due to its biocompatability with bone material. We chose to investigate wet precipitation reaction as it synthesises a relatively large amount of HA, resulting in a cheaper cost compared to other techniques such as thermal preparation. Moreover, the reaction does not involve foreign materials, and produces a safe by-product, water. Other methods of synthesis exist such as reverse microemulsion, a technique which involves the use and production of harmful organic compounds. As such, we chose to focus our research on the effect of heat on HA synthesised by wet precipitation. This is to determine if a more biocompatible sample of HA can be obtained with application of heat. The synthesised HA powder was characterised by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Electron Dispersive X-Ray (EDX), Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD).

Statistics have shown that falls are the leading cause of accidental deaths among people over the age of 75 and 55% of all falls take place in homes with most falls occurring in the bathroom. In this research, the aim of this project is to come up with a system that is able to detect falls in the washrooms, so that immediate medical aid can be provided so as to alleviate the aftereffects of the fall. Microsoft Visio was used to map the logic of the system which was then used in the creation of the rules for the system. Drools Rules is used to create a set of rules that gets input from the sensors detecting the motions of the patients, so as to infer the activities that are ongoing in order to check for errors. With input from the sensors, the set of rules should be able to determine the activity happening and possible errors that the input could imply. Simulations of real-li (Learn Not To Fall, 2009) scenarios were carried out twice. Errors and limitations of the system were noted during the simulation to further debug and improve the rules for a more robust and efficient system.

All municipal wastes consists large amounts of water (as much as 60% by mass) which hinders the performance of waste incinerators. Excess water can easily be separated out from the municipal solid wastes using centrifuges. The waste water can be reformed to Brown gas (di-atomic and mon-atomic hydrogen and oxygen) using an electrolyzers. At the instant that the water splits, the hydrogen and oxygen are in their mon-atomic state (H and O). Brown gas in the form of hydrogen and oxygen production form waste water is useful from waste waters and all kinds of solid wastes. Dehydrated waste can be easily combusted in an incinerator. Waste is an unavoidable by-product of most human activity. Economic development and rising living standards, including the Asian and Pacific Region have led to increased quantity and complexity of generated waste, whilst industrial diversification and the provision of expanded health-care facilities have added substantial quantities of industrial hazardous waste and biomedical waste into the waste stream with potentially severe environmental and human health consequences. Technologies available remove the large and diverse amounts of wastes generated include incineration, ocean dumping, lagooning, sanitary landfill, direct combustion, pyrolysis, gasification and more. However, available information reveals that incineration.is widely used with reasonable good success to manage the large amounts of wastes generated from low moisture content wastes. Today most incinerators are stoker incinerator which produces dioxins in low temperatures regions of the incinerator as well as other criteria pollutants emission. . High temperature (1600C) zones in the incinerator assist in melting the glass and metal in the waste to mitigate dioxin formation and release of heavy metals in to the environment. Low energy density and high moisture content in the waste require the use of auxiliary fuel to maintain high temperatures in the incinerator. Separating out the water from waste and reforming water to Brown gas and burning low moisture solid wastes in incinerator helps environmental benign means of wastes management. In this paper, different technologies are described that form key elements of overall waste management system, including the brown gas production from the water collected from solid wastes that can be used in the incinerator to further increase the incinerator temperature.

This research focuses on formulating a design idea which makes use of solar energy and negative pressure (pressures lower than normal atmospheric pressure of 101.325kPa) to boil (impure) water at temperatures lower than 100oC, producing water vapor which is then condensed to form pure distilled water. Included in this research are estimations and calculations of solar power required to provide energy to boil water as well as a prototype which uses solar power to distill water. The design idea is aimed at people who have water but do not have the means to purify it.

This paper covers the design of the mission and the trajectory for the Korean lunar exploration program. For this research, previous lunar missions carried out by other countries were benchmarked. Korean experts who are involved in the lunar exploration program were interviewed so that various perspectives on Korean lunar program can be collected. Using the space exploration simulation program STK (Satellite Tool Kit), we designed three Korean lunar exploration missions, called Boreum1, Boreum2, and Boreum3. Boreum1 mission is a lunar orbiter mission using direct injection trajectory. Boreum2 mission is a lunar landing and sample return mission. Boreum3 mission is a Earth-Moon lagrange point (L1) exploration mission. We expect that the results of this research will contribute to the future Korean lunar exploration program.

The project aimed to provide scientific basis to international claims of Teschke et al. (2003) and Schmidt et al. (2002) stating that Kava (Piper methysticum) is responsible for cases of liver complications in areas in which consumption is regularly practiced, making it a hepatotoxin. Thirty C57BL/6 mice had been acclimatized as Kava root chips were subjected to extraction using water as solvent. Twenty mice (4 groups of 5 replicates) were given varying (25 mg/kg BW, 50 mg/kg BW, 100 mg/kg BW, 125 mg/kg BW) concentrations of the crude Kava extract, and methylenedioxybenzene or Safrole (a hepatotoxin) was used as positive control for 5 mice (with concentrations of 0.5 mg/kg BW for 2 mice, 0.75 mg/kg BW for another 2, and 1 mg/kg BW for the remaining), all of which was given once intravenously. After one week, all mice were subjected to serum glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (SGOT), serum glutamic pyruvic transaminase (SGPT), and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) liver function tests. One-way ANOVA with a confidence level of 95% was then implemented to determine whether there was a significant difference among the results. The test’s conclusions significantly differed from the said claims made about the hepatotoxicity of the Kava root, thus making them debatable.

This project produced a lauric acid mixture consisting of lauric acid and non-fat milk, which contained components that lowered the cholesterol to HDL-LDL ratio in the system. This was done to pinpoint its effects on blood cholesterol levels in the hopes of lowering the amount of plaque found in the blood vessels. In the feasibility study, three out of the prospective twelve mice (4 groups of 3 mice) were given treatments of 2.00 mg lauric acid per 2.00 mL milk. The control mouse was given no lauric acid. After acclimatization, atherosclerosis was induced by feeding all mice 1.00 gram of butter per mice per day for two weeks. Blood was then extracted from the saphenous vein of the control mouse. After a month of treatment, blood was again extracted. The LDL-C (low density lipoprotein-cholesterol) ratios ranged from 1.90 to 18.3 from an initial 37.9 and the HDL-C (high density lipoproteins-cholesterol) ratios ranged from 19.4 to 28.4 from an initial 34.6. The t-tests (α = 0.05) show that there is a significant difference between the initial and final levels, which may then lead to the creation of a supplement that will lessen the susceptibility of atherosclerosis in humans.

Most cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are caused by high levels of cholesterol and lipoproteins, specifically Low Density Lipoproteins (LDL), in the blood, heart and liver. In response to the growing number of patients with heart-related diseases, this study was conducted to determine the synergistic effects of coconut oil with the leading cholesterollowering medicine, atorvastatin on the lipid profile of guinea pigs (Cavia percellus), particularly the Total Cholesterol to high-density lipoprotein (TC: HDL) ratio, which is considered one of the best markers in determining CVD risk. After blood samples were taken for initial lipid analysis, the guinea pigs were subjected to four treatments: coconut oil, statins, statins with coconut, oil and a control group. After two weeks of administering the treatments, blood was extracted again for the new lipoprotein levels. Data was analyzed using two-way ANOVA (α = 0.05). Results show that decrease in the TC:HDL ratio induced by coconut oil was lower than the decrease induced by atorvastatin. Interestingly, the group with coconut oil and statins, yielded the greatest decrease in the TC: HCL ratio. This shows the positive synergy of coconut oil and statins in decreasing CVD risk. The information provided in this study will aid in the improvement of current medicine.

Asia-Pacific countries have tropical and subtropical climate with high rainfall each year. Indonesia is a country in Southeast Asia which has a tropical climate and very high rainfall, that has two seasons per year, they are rainy season and dry season. Rain drops that fall to the earth's surface occur through a long process called the hydrologic cycle. The cycle starts from the evaporation of water in the earth's surface by the heat of the sun, the condensation of water vapor to form clouds, until the clouds become saturated and eventually become rain. Rain water that absorb by the soil is very useful, such as ground water. Moreover, the rain has potential force and kinetic force. Thus, if the force that contain in the rain can be utilized as much as possible, we will get great benefits, especially for Indonesia, which is a tropical country with high rainfall. In addition, by using this system as an alternative electrical energy source, we do not need to worry about the power outages, because when it is rain, this system could produce electrical energy. This is the main idea why the author has decided to study about this research.

Real biological neuron is an electrically excitable cell that processes and transmits information by electrical and chemical signaling in human body. Each neurons receive electrical and chemical signal from other neurons, and then send signals to other neurons. An artificial neural network is a mathematical model or computational model that is inspired by the structure and functional aspects of biological neural networks. I tried to figure out the principle of the artificial neural network, and demonstrate a realistic model using it. In addition, I tried to apply an artificial model to solve various problems.

About 50 years ago, authority of physics academy concluded that Big bang theory is right by the discovery of Cosmic Microwave Background radiation (CMB). But soon, people found serious problem in the Big bang theory so conception called ‘Inflation’ invited, which implies that there was great expansion of space after Big bang between 10-30 s and 10-33 s ~ 10-32 s. At that time, inflaton that caused inflation included asymmetry throughout space. After the inflation, the energy that inflaton had was released as the form of a matter. So, asymmetric inflaton also derived asymmetry of matter. Because of this asymmetry, large scale structure and CMB became to have these days’ shape. In this research, we are going to set simple model of inflaton that contains asymmetry and compare with these day’s CMB by using laplace series. Finally, we could get a result that resemble our universe’s CMB power spectrum.

Wave and particle characteristic of light has taken an important role in understanding the basic phenomenon of natural science and since the quantum-mechanics has been established, coexistence of wave and particle property in light. This research is aimed to understand the duality and the complementarity of light dependant on the existence of information according to path of the light obtained from the possibility of differentiating using polarization-based Mach-Zehnder interferometer.

It is impossible to find the object which is not vibrates. From the oscillation of molecules to periodic vibrating object, our world is filled with large and tiny oscillation. Therefore, it is important to operate and analyze the oscillation. Oscilloscope is a typical instrument for analyzing oscillation, however, it is essential for all oscillation to go through the change to the electromagnetic wave. The aim is to analyze the visible vibrating plate without oscillator however, this instrument is troublesome to use conveniently in our lives, because it is essential for all oscillation to go through the change to the electromagnetic wave. We made the measurement instrument for analyzing the oscillation easily. At this time we connected the idea of Lissajous figure. By this new instrument, we also visualize the occurrence principal of Lissajous figure, and furthermore we could analyze the vibrating phase.