Nutritive Value of Barley Fodder Grown in a Hydroponics System

A series of experiments were conducted to evaluate barley fodder (BF) as a feed for ruminants. Barley seeds were grown in a specially designed and controlled environment cabin at 15 - 18°C. The first experiment was conducted to germinate barley seeds from day 0 (dO) to day 10 (dIO, n=ll) and samples were collected daily for chemical composition analysis. In the second experiment, the rumen simulation technique (RUSITEC) was used to measure the in vitro dry matter (DM) and crude protein (CP) digestibility and the volatile fatty acids (VF A) produced by BF at different times. The nylon bag technique was also used to measure the DM degradability of BF in the rumen of cattle at 2, 4, 8, 12, 24 and 48 hours. The third experiment on the intake and digestibility of eight-day old BF was measured by an in vivo technique, using four bucks. The fourth experiment involved the measurement of rumen fluid parameters (pH, ammonia and VFA) in three rumen fistulated bucks that were fed on eight-day old BF ad libitum. The CP, organic matter (OM), ether extract (EE), neutral detergent fibre (NDF), acid detergent fibre (ADF) and crude fibre (CF) contents of BF from d1 to d10 increased, but the DM content decreased with the age of BF. DM content at d7 and d8 were 16 and 18% while CP content were 12 and 13% respectively. The amount of calcium (Ca), phosphorus (P) and Nitrate (N03) did not change significantly throughout sprouting time. The in vivo, in vitro and in sacco DM degradability studies showed that 80 to 100% DM loss for BF harvested on d7 to dW. DM intake was lower in the third experiment although digestion coefficient (DC) of BF was very high (98%). This condition was probably due to the abnormal growth of BF during the experimental period. Rumen fluid pH was 5.9-6.0 and ammonia-N (NH3-N) content was 7.0 to 8.8 mg/mL. Total fatty acids production was 70 to 1 00 mmoVL between two and eight hour of collection. The acetic:propionic:butyric ratios were 58:36:1.3, 68:25:2, 61:35:1.2, 64:33:0.7 and 65:32:1 at 0, 2, 4, 6 and 8 hours, respectively. Overall results showed that VFA and ammonia-nitrogen (NH3-N) were produced at a minimum level when BF was given ad libitum although the digestibility was higher in both in sacco and in vitro studies. BF should be given at different levels in order to get optimum pH, VFA and NH3-N production

An Overview of Masaqid Al-Syariah on Homeownership and Young Graduate’s Wellbeing through Sustainable Affordable Housing

Affordable housing study in Malaysia became widespread in the early 21st century since the government encourage home ownership for all income groups and beforehand the government was focused on the low cost housing provision. However, in the early affordable housing study, most of the research emphasis on affordability among the middle income group instead of study in different generation affordability, particularly among young graduate’s affordability. Hence, this paper will discuss on young graduate housing affordability in urban area and to be more specific, observing the negative consequences of unsustainable affordable housing that reflex to young graduate’s well-being. Affordable housing issue for young graduate is a vital issue as they are considered not eligible to purchase the low cost housing and cannot afford to buy the middle and high cost house. Another essential point, young graduates who are just entering into the employment market in certain duration of the period with a monthly salary approximately RM 3000 have negative impact to their quality of life. In addition, marriage is common among fresh graduates in Malaysia and this adds to the pressure of purchasing an affordable housing that allows them to start a new family and they also consider in getting marriage and importance for them to having a house as beginning to dictate important decisions such as starting a family. Furthermore, this paper will discuss homeownership in Islamic perspective or Maqasid Syariah

Development and partial characterization of new marine cell line from brain of Asian sea bass Lates calcarifer for virus isolation

A new cell line, Asian sea bass brain (ASBB), was derived from the brain tissue of Asian sea bass Lates calcarifer. This cell line was maintained in Leibovitz L-15 media supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS). The ASBB cell line was subcultured more than 60 times over a period of 15 mo. The ASBB cell line consists predominantly of fibroblastic-like cells and was able to grow at temperatures between 20°C and 30°C with an optimum temperature of 25°C. The growth rate of these cells increased as the proportion of FBS increased from 2% to 20% at 25°C with optimum growth at the concentrations of 10% or 15% FBS. Polymerase chain reaction products were obtained from ASBB cells and tissues of sea bass with primer sets of microsatellite markers of sea bass. An isolate of piscine nodavirus from juveniles of marine fish species tested positive by IQ2000 kit for viral nervous necrosis detection and was examined for its infectivity to a fish cell line of ASBB. A marine fish betanodavirus was tested to determine the susceptibility of this new cell line in comparison with commercial highly permissive SSN-1 cells. The ASBB cell line was found to be susceptible to nodavirus (RGNNV genotype), and the infection was confirmed by comparison cytopathic effect (CPE) with commercial SSN-1 and reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction. A nodavirus was further elucidated by electron microscopy, and the virus tested was shown to induce CPE on ASBB cells with significant high titer. This suggests that the ASBB cell line has good potential for the isolation of fish viruses

Development and partial characterization of new marine cell line from brain of Asian sea bass Lates calcarifer for virus isolation.

A new cell line, Asian sea bass brain (ASBB), was derived from the brain tissue of Asian sea bass Lates calcarifer. This cell line was maintained in Leibovitz L-15 media supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS). The ASBB cell line was subcultured more than 60 times over a period of 15 mo. The ASBB cell line consists predominantly of fibroblastic-like cells and was able to grow at temperatures between 20°C and 30°C with an optimum temperature of 25°C. The growth rate of these cells increased as the proportion of FBS increased from 2% to 20% at 25°C with optimum growth at the concentrations of 10% or 15% FBS. Polymerase chain reaction products were obtained from ASBB cells and tissues of sea bass with primer sets of microsatellite markers of sea bass. An isolate of piscine nodavirus from juveniles of marine fish species tested positive by IQ2000 kit for viral nervous necrosis detection and was examined for its infectivity to a fish cell line of ASBB. A marine fish betanodavirus was tested to determine the susceptibility of this new cell line in comparison with commercial highly permissive SSN-1 cells. The ASBB cell line was found to be susceptible to nodavirus (RGNNV genotype), and the infection was confirmed by comparison cytopathic effect (CPE) with commercial SSN-1 and reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction. A nodavirus was further elucidated by electron microscopy, and the virus tested was shown to induce CPE on ASBB cells with significant high titer. This suggests that the ASBB cell line has good potential for the isolation of fish viruses. © 2010 The Society for In Vitro Biology

Betanodavirus infection in marine fish aquaculture in Malaysia

Betanodavirus is known to cause mass mortality in many marine aquaculture fish species. In this study, we detected the virus in four different marine aquaculture fish species in Malaysia. These included humpback grouper (Cromileptisaltivelis), brown marbled grouper (Epinephelusfuscoguttatus), Asian seabass (Latescalcarifer) and golden pompano (Trachinoltusblochii). Out of 246 fish specimens analyzed using RT-PCR, 60.98% detected infected by the virus. Histological pathological analysis showed extensive cell vacuolationin the brain and retina tissues of severely infected specimens. However, some of the fish specimens detected positive using RT-PCR did not exhibit cell vacoulation which indicate the carrier state of those specimens. The RT-PCR amplification method developed in this study was shown useful as biosecurity tool in monitoringBetanodavirus infection in aquaculture. Although the origin of Betanodavirus in Malaysia is difficult to ascertained, evidence showed that some infections may have been contributed by the importation of fish fingerlings form neighboring countries. Currently, effective treatment of the viral disease is still impossible hence strict biosecurity measures need to be carried out in order to control the spread of the virus in fish stocks. These can include enforcement of biosecurity check and quarantine of every batch of imported fish, the use of virus-free broodstocks in hatchery, and proper disposal of infected fish stocks. In addition, good aquaculture practices must be carried in aquaculture farms or fish nursery all the time

Detection of Koi herpesvirus (KHV) in Cyprinius carpio (Koi) stocks using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)

Koi herpesvirus (KHV), which is also known as Cyprinid herpesvirus 3 (CyHV-3) infection, is an OIE(international des epizootis) listed disease that caused high losses in common and koi carp in Indonesiaand Japan in 2002 and 2003. Since the mid of 2006, the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has been usedin Malaysia for surveillance of koi fingerlings to detect virus nucleic acid, but it has been found to produceunreliable results. Following this, an alternative enzyme-link immunosorbent assay (ELISA) technique forthe detection of antibody against KHV was used to find evidence of KHV infection in koi carp stocks on farmsthat had been sampled for the PCR. For this purpose, a total of 245 serum samples from koi carp stocks werecollected and tested for the antibody to KHV by the ELISA at the Centre for Environment, Fisheries andAquaculture Science (CEFAS) laboratory, Weymouth, UK. Two hundred and eight samples were found to benegative but 37 others were either definitely positive or close to borderline positive and all were retested. Thefinal results showed that 222 (90%) samples were confirmed as negative and 19 (8%) others were definitelypositive. Meanwhile, four samples (1.6%) were positive at dilutions of 1:400 or 1:200, but cross reactionswith CyHV-1 (causing herpesviral epidermal hyperplasia) could have occurred at those dilutions. Three of thesamples were the only positive fish at two sites, but the fourth sample came from a site at which there were 4definite positive samples (from 20 fish sampled). Thus this study confirmed that Malaysian koi stocks havepreviously been exposed to KHV. With the lack of bio-security measures and awareness, there was a highprobability that the koi carp had been exposed to KHV, leading to subclinical infections and some fish mightpossibly have become carriers of the virus. Hence, further surveillance needs to be conducted to determinethe true situation of the KHV infection in Malaysia

Religious dimensions of Malaysia’s wellbeing indexes

Amongst the 57 members of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference’s (OIC) countries, Malaysia is at number one rating in the Islamicity Index, Islamic Index of Wellbeing and Global Muslim Travel Index studies. The rating gave the impression of the liveability or wellbeing in Malaysia within the Islamic sphere. This recognition prompts the study on the indicators of wellbeing that Malaysia has focused on Islamic dimensions. Consequently, content analysis was done on six selected government documents namely the Malaysian Wellbeing Index, the Malaysian Family Wellbeing Index, the Malaysian Urban-Rural National Indicators Network for Sustainable Development, the Malaysian Shariah Index, the Malaysian Ummah Development Index and the Muslim Religiosity and Personality Indexing. The study found that the first three documents embodied indirect religious dimensions in their wellbeing indexing while the latter three have direct religious dimensions. The incorporation of the religious dimensions into the Malaysia’s wellbeing indexing either directly or indirectly shows the relevancy of the religious factor to human wellbeing. Noticeably, the indicators promulgated under each study are organizationally-driven aiming at attaining their specific objectives that invariably led to variations amongst the agencies. Nonetheless, religion has been found to command a significant factor in the wellbeing of Malaysian though different indicators have been used by the six organizations to arrive at this fact. Keywords: Index, Malaysia, Religion, Quality of Life, Wellbeing

A conceptual framework of Maqasidic human wellbeing index

Amongst the 57 members of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) countries, Malaysia was rated as number one in the Islamicity Index, Islamic Index of Wellbeing and Global Muslim Travel Index studies. In Malaysia, the Institute of Islamic Understanding Malaysia (IKIM), Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (JAKIM), and the Institute of Community and Peace Studies (PEKKA) have also published their own Islamic-oriented wellbeing indexes. However, these Indexes lack the integration of Maqasid al-Shari’ah (the objectives of Islamic laws) concept, which is based on the preservation of five essentials namely faith, self, intellect, posterity and property. Hence, to address this gap, this study proposes a conceptual framework of human wellbeing index in the context of Maqasid al-Shari’ah. This study is exploratory in nature employing rigorous library research and content analysis technique. The three basic principles of Iman (faith), Islam (submission) and Ihsan (benevolence) are discussed in relation to the five essentials of Maqasid al-Shari’ah. Their application at the three levels of the social structure i.e. individual, family and community is elaborated to establish a maqasidic approach for human wellbeing. This approach is then linked to the five established themes of human wellbeing domains notably politics and governance, economy, social and culture, environment, and infrastructure. Finally, a conceptual framework of human wellbeing index is proposed to provide the maqasidic foundation for the measurement of human wellbeing

A conceptual framework of Maqasidic human wellbeing index

Amongst the 57 members of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) countries, Malaysia was rated as number one in the Islamicity Index, Islamic Index of Wellbeing and Global Muslim Travel Index studies. In Malaysia, the Institute of Islamic Understanding Malaysia (IKIM), Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (JAKIM), and the Institute of Community and Peace Studies (PEKKA) have also published their own Islamic oriented wellbeing indexes. However, these Indexes lack the integration of Maqasid al-Shari’ah (the objectives of Islamic laws) concept, which is based on the preservation of five essentials namely faith, self, intellect, posterity and property. Hence, to address this gap, this study proposes a conceptual framework of human wellbeing index in the context of Maqasid al-Shari’ah. This study is exploratory in nature employing rigorous library research and content analysis technique. The three basic principles of Iman (faith), Islam (submission) and Ihsan (benevolence) are discussed in relation to the five essentials of Maqasid al-Shari’ah. Their application at the three levels of the social structure i.e. individual, family and community is elaborated to establish a maqasidic approach for human wellbeing. This approach is then linked to the five established themes of human wellbeing domains notably politics and governance, economy, social and culture, environment, and infrastructure. Finally, a conceptual framework of human wellbeing index is proposed to provide the maqasidic foundation for the measurement of human wellbeing

The philosophy of Maqasid al-Shariah and its application in the built environment

This paper deciphers the application of the philosophy of the Maqasid al-shari’ah (Objectives of Islamic Law) in the built environment. Being seen as a result of human minds and acts towards the environment for the purpose of human needs, wants and values, the built environment is very much related to the Islamic theory of man as vicegerent (khalifah) on earth. Here lies the interconnectedness between the built environment and the Maqasid al-shari’ah. In this regard, the terms Islam and Maqasid al-shari’ah play the same role in the sense that they set a way of life for mankind with the principles of the Qur’an and Sunnah. Human reactions in their daily life basically react upon these elements. Definitely, human wellbeing or maslahah (public interests) for mankind is the ultimate aim of the shari’ah. Thus this paper attempts to assimilate the philosophy of the Maqasid al-shari’ah with the built environment’s profession towards the realization of their role as khalifah. Ultimately, this will pave for better human interaction with the environment resulting in utmost quality of the built environment for human life. Keywords: Built environment, Maqasid al-shariah, and human bein