Tuesday, January 28, 2020

Determining Ethanol in Fermented Glutinous Rice

Determining Ethanol in Fermented Glutinous Rice 1.0 Introduction Fermented glutinous rice is a popular dessert among Malaysian consumers. It consist of carbohydrate such as rice and it need to be fermented for a few days until the glucose have been converted into the ethanol, carbon dioxide and energy whereas it signs is when the taste is sweet flavor. Cassava also can be fermented. Both of dishes served mostly in Southeast Asia. When the processes are completed, commonly the fermented glutinous rice will be wrapped in banana leaves. During the fermentation process, it most often done by a product called ‘ragi’. However, the consumption of fermented glutinous rice had rise the halal issue among the Muslim community. It is because the ethanol content that is produced during the fermentation is 5% which is similar to the concentration of ethanol in alcoholic beverages such as beers. As we know, the value of alcohol can be contained in the food that had been stated by JAKIM is 0.01% only. As we know, when a lot of alcohol are consumed, i t can affect our health and can caused death. There are many analytical methods that had been studied by researchers to determine the alcohol contained in food. Thus, FTIR spectroscopic had been chosen based on the easiest, low time consuming and low cost for determination of alcohol in fermented glutinous rice. Thus, it can give a contribution by providing the alcohol content for the sake of Muslim. 2.0 Rice The staple food for nearly two-thirds of the world’s population is rice (Oriza sativa L.). According to Arendt (2013), in 2010, China, India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Myanmar alone provided more than 75% of the world’s total rice production. As we know, the lowest protein content of all the cereals is rice but it also highly nutritious among others. It is rich in carbohydrates. There are many ways that it can be consumed by the consumers. For instance, in the form of puffed rice, noodles, snack foods and fermented sweet rice. To make bakery products, sauces, infant foods, breakfast cereals, alcoholic beverages and vinegar, it also can be used. 2.1 Fermentation Fermentation is one of the natural processes. According to Theresa (2014), when organisms convert nutrients for example carbohydrate such as starch and sugar into an acid (lactic acid and acetic acid) or an alcohol, it is called as energy-yielding anaerobic metabolic process which is occurs in fermentation. For instances, to obtain energy, yeast will perform fermentation by converting the sugar into the alcohol. Many people all around the world use fermentation to produce products such as wines, cheese and beers. It is also known as one of the historical biotechnological processes. 2.2 Fermented Glutinous Rice Tapai or also known as fermented glutinous rice is one of the Malaysian favorite dessert. It is come from Indonesia and Malaysia. Actually it is sour and sweet alcoholic paste, have a very pleasant aroma and it also can be used directly as a food or in traditional recipe. Normally, it is wrapped with rubber tree leaves or banana leaves. It can be made from carbohydrate sources such as cassava, glutinous rice or white rice. It have to undergo fermentation process which is performed by many types of moulds including Rhizopus oryzae, Aspergillus oryzae, Rhizopus oryzae or Mucor species, and including yeast for example Saccharomycopsis fibuliger, Endomycopsis burtonii and others,along with the bacteria. Besides, tapai also can be used to produce alcoholic beverages. Figure 1: example of fermented glutinous rice 2.3 Preparation Of Fermented Glutinous Rice To produce fermented glutinous rice, the ingredient needed is glutinous rice, yeast and sugar. The procedures are as follow: The glutinous rice was washed and soaked it overnight Glutinous rice will be cooked . After it had been cooked well, we need to cool it. After it has cooled, the yeast was pounded and then sprinkled it on the top of cooked rice. sugar was mixed with water and sprinkle each layer of rice with water to start the fermentation The rice was packed in layers into a tight container. Each of the layer was sprinkled with some sugar water to allow the fermentation proces. It will take about 2 days for fermentation occurred. After 2 days, there will be a bit liquid in the bottom of the container. At this time, the fermentation is complete. The liquid which collects at the bottom of container is called brem (rice wine). Originally it have a low alcohol content after fermentation in a few days but if it continued fermented, the alcohol content will increase. Yeast will carried out both anaerobic respiration and aerobic respiration. In the fermentation in of yeast, anaerobic respiration is occurred which is the yeast will secrete the enzyme zymase (Ali et al, 2012). According to Ali et al (2012), this enzyme will hydrolyse glucose to form the ethanol, energy and carbon dioxide in the absence of the oxygen Glucose → Ethanol + Carbon Dioxide + Energy The enzyme can speed up the fermentatation process and only a small amount of enegy used. Therefore, in ethanol there is a large amount of energy stored as chemical energy due to the incomplete broken down of glucose in anerobic respiration. 3.0 The Importance of Determination of Alcohol In western countries, there are a lot of alcoholic beverages for example beers, wines and distilled spirit drinks. A drink that typically containing below 60% v/v of ethyl alcohol is known as an alcoholic beverage (Gallignani et al,2005). There are three main classes of alcoholic beverages which are wines, beers and distilled spirit. Ryan (2014) stated that the alcoholic beverages which are made from germinated barley (malt), water, yeast and hops are known as beers while alcoholic beverages that produced by the fermentation of fresh grapes and grains for example rice are called as wines. The distilled spirituous beverages that contained 15% of alcohol or above and made from tubers, grain, fruit or sugar cane are known as spirit. But it is clearly that it is forbidden for Muslims to consume it as we know the alcohol content that exist in the beverages. On the other hand, in Malaysia we are not consuming the alcohol in the alcoholic beverages but we are consuming alcohol in the food product without realized about it. As stated above, alcohol can be produced naturally in some product that we consumed in our daily life such as soy sauce, fermented cassava and fermented glutinous rice that also become the Malaysian favorite food especially during the celebrations. Besides, there are also laboratories or specialized factory that produced ethanol artificially for the processing of various consumer products. Generally, the issue of the existence of alcohol in food is still been debated until today in Malaysia. The confusion is not only faced by the society but it also faced by the academicians and scholars. Glutinous fermented rice seems to have ethanol content higher than had been stated by JAKIM. Compared to the others natural product like soy sauce, the alcohol content in the fermented glutinous rice is about 5% of ethanol. Table 1: Alcohol content (ethanol) in fermented glutinous rice and fermented cassava. (The Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI) , 1983) Alcohol content (ethanol) % Day Fermented glutinous rice Fermented cassava 0 3.0 3.4 1 3.4 2.8 2 5.2 3.3 Based on the table 1, the ethanol content on the day 3 of the fermentation showed that the ethanol content in the fermented glutinous rice is 5.2% which is higher than the fermented cassava which is 3.3%. The alcohol content in fermented glutinous rice is similar to the alcohol content in beers which is 5%. Thus it had raised the halal issues to the Muslim community in Malaysia. Apart from that, consuming too much alcohol can lead to the bad consequences to the consumers especially for the acute chronic consumer. It is the main reason why we need to study the alcohol contents in fermented glutinous rice. The information about the content of alcohol can be such a contribution to the people and for the sake of Muslims all around the world. It also can make them more aware about what they had consumed. The ethanol content in fermented glutinous rice can increase when we continuing kept it for a longer time. At the certain time, the liquid produced can be categorized as alcohol as it can make us drunk if over consumed. As we know, when we consumed alcohol in a large amount, it can give a bad consequence effect to the consumer. Besides having pervasive psychosocial and economic consequences, alcohol is one of the main contributors to morbidity and mortality (Acharjee et al, 2015). All around the world, the number of deaths and substantial disability from medical and psychiatric consequences of alcohol misuse is increases day by day. Clearly in term of health, it is not good for us to consume alcohol in our life. Alcohol has an adverse impact on human. It has been proven in science, psychology and sociology. Acharjee et al (2015) also stated that large amount of alcohol has harmful effects on our health. For instance, alcohol can effects our cardiovascular such as hypertension, sudden cardiac death, stroke, cardiomyopathy and cardiac arrhythmias. In term of psychology, some crime and immorality in society happened due to the intake of alcohol. Often, drunks do not have a good attitude because when they get drunk, they were not aware of their behavior, which can cause discomfort to the community. This group also can apply chaos in a country because when alcohol addicts exist in a government or private sector, it can lead to abuse of power, property, embezzlement of state funds and breach of trust. 4.0 ANALYTICAL METHODS IN DETERMINATION OF ETHANOL A number of analytical methods have been employed with the aim of determination of alcohol. Commonly, there are combination of methods in order to achieved better result while analyze the sample. In western countries, various type of analytical method were developed to determine alcohol in alcoholic beverages. For example, Vonach et al (1998) had presented the coupling of high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with Fourier –transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). It can be used to determine the main component of wine such as glucose, fructose, citric, lactic, tartaric acid, glycerol, ethanol and so on. When it was about the sample preparation, it seems that the process was a little bit tedious because when using the internal standard, it need to be dissolved in distilled water and many more process need to carry out. The stationary phase and mobile phase that used in this study is ion-exchange resin based column and sulfuric acid. From the external reference data, an average deviation can be resulted which is 0.16mg/ml (Vonach et al, 1998). Yarita et al (2002) had proposed HPLC-FID to determine the ethanol content. Pure water had been chosen as a mobile phase in this study. When liquid water was introduced in FOD system, it changes into vapor. Due to limited flow rate of the HPLC eluent that introduced in FID system, capillary tube act as an alternative ways to control the flow rate of the HPLC eluent. Triacontylsylyl (C-30) silica gel is preferred because it show less decrease in the retention time compared with other. The ethanol concentration in the six sample can be detected around 10.2%-40.8% v/v at temperature 150C (Yarita et al, 2002). Gas chromatography also can be used as analytical tool to determine the alcohol in sample. Wang et al (2004) had proposed direct injection capillary gas chromatography that can be used to detect the methanol in beverages. Megapore capillary column with high polarity had been choosing to get the optimum condition for this study. It is because of it can used to separate the methanol in alcoholic beverages from the other components. At the stable baseline region, according to Wang et al (2004) when using acetonitrile as internal standard, it can perform clear separation from other constituents of sample. The samples studied were wine and whisky. Based on the obtained result, chromatogram give 3.06 min retention time for methanol while for the internal standard, it consumed about 4.21 min. Gas chromatography coupling with capillary column also has been proposed by Wang et al (2004). The aim was to determine both concentration of methanol and ethanol by using two internal standards which are acetonitrial for ethanol and 2- pentanol for methanol. Wang et al (2004) stated that for methanol, the retention time that revealed by this method was 2.87min while for ethanol, the retention time was 3.41 min. The analysis of both alcohol by using this method is 12 min. Apart from that, the limit of quantitation (LOQ) for methanol was 5 ÃŽ ¼g/mL and ethanol was 5 mg/mL (Wang, 2004). These methods are assumed to give contribution in order to determine the methanol content in industries due to high accuracy and precision. However, this method is time consuming and tedious. Vapour-phase FT-IR also can be used as analytical tool in determination of alcohol in beverages. In this experiment, there are aqueous solution of ethanol and methanol in the sample (Garrigues et al., 1997). The alcohol that contained in the sample had determined by using liquid-phase FTIR and vapour-phase FTIR. According to the Garrigues et al (1997), the result that obtained by the liquid-phase FTIR spectra, when pure water is used as a blank, there are a series of overlapping positive and negative peak (Garrigues et al., 1997). On the other hand, when discussing about FTIR spectra obtained by using vapour-phase FTIR after the injection of sample in heated plate, Garrigues et al (1997) stated that both ethanol and methanol provided a well-defined peak in the range of 1500 to 900 cm-1.The absorbance value for liquid-phase and vapour-phase are same but the spectrum for vapour-phase is clearer than spectrum for liquid-phase. Besides, the sensitivity and resolution of the alcohol band also high for vapour-phase FTIR (Garrigues et al., 1997). For the screening analysis of beverages, NIR can be used as a spectroscopic technique ( Barboza, 2003). The applications range was limited when using NIR because it has low sensitivity (Lanchemier, 2007). According to Chandley (1993), between NIR bitterness value and spectral data, the observation is it has a poor correlations and it needs the evaporation of water (dry extract spectroscopy) to make the determination of bitterness become possible. When mid-infrared combination with FTIR spectroscopy was used, it becomes such a development in the spectroscopic analysis compared with the using of NIR. Compared to the NIR, when using FTIR, we can get better result when analyzing the minor component such as lactic acid (Lanchenmier , 2007). Furhermore,it also can produce high resolution peak and the spectra also clearer when using FTIR ( Gallignani et al, 2003). Liquid Fourier transform-middle infrared spectrometry can be used to analyze wine in a 90 s (Patz et al., 2004). FTIR/PLS have b een developed for the multicomponent screening to analyze the alcohol in beverages (Neuwoudt et al, 2004).A lot of information can be obtained when using NMR rather than NIR and FTIR. According to Lanchenmier et al (2005), the distinct signals of the spectra can be produced if NMR was applied. In the calculation of cost-benefit for both NMR and FTIR, Lanchenmier (2007) also mentioned that in contrast with NMR, FTIR can give more advantage for screening method due to the less investment and operational costs. In this study, we want to determine the concentration of the ethanol in fermented glutinous rice with the use of FTIR and combination with Partial Least Square in the context of official food control. FTIR can give us advantages in order to determine and analyse the alcohol in alcoholic beverages because it can help us to reduce the time cost, and at the same time, it is also contribute for a good precision and accuracy when dealing with the parameters (Moreira et al., 2004). Fu rthermore, according to Lachenmeier (2007), a simple sample preparation is needed when dealing with FTIR spectroscopy compared to the other analytical methods. Problem Statement Recently the consumption of the fermented glutinous rice had rise the halal issue to the Muslim community since its alcohol content is similar to beer which is 5%. In order to determine the alcohol contained in the fermented glutinous rice, the government and private sector need the easiest, cheapest and low in cost analytical method for determination of alcohol. So we have come out with FTIR spectroscopy technique as this technique did not require the sample preparation like the other analytical method. Besides, it is not time consuming method and it has low cost compared to the other method. We also combine the FTIR with combination of Partial Least Square (PLS) in order to achieve better result. Objectives This study was conducted based on the objectives stated below: To develop method with the best accuracy To determine the lowest of detection limit To identified the ethanol contained in the sample

Monday, January 20, 2020

The Ugliness of War in Wilfred Owens Dulce et Decorum est Essays

The Ugliness of War in Wilfred Owen's Dulce et Decorum est Wilfred Owen's "Dulce et Decorum est" is seen as a strong expression of the ugliness of war, and "an attack on the idea of war being glorious" (Kerr 48). It transmits an irritating clip, with full animation and in vivid colors, of embittered and battered soldiers marching to their death. It also, cogently presents a nightmarish vision of hell uploading all its demons into the root directory of an impoverished soldier who saw one of his comrades gassed to death. The images that Owen confected with the skill of a professional craftsman remain grafted in the reader's memory long after the poem is read, echoing its sober message times and times again. The soldier's voice bitterly imploring that patriarchy stop disseminating lies about the glory and sweetness of death in defense of ones country haunts the text. The poem presents this extremely tense experience articulately in 28 lines of well-confected verse. It is this confected eloquence and the well structured articulation of this highly disturbing experience that really betrays the poem's lack of immediacy and artificiality, and makes the poet an accomplice with those he attacks as disseminators of lies. Scrutinizing Owen's poem under the magnifying lens of Longinus' treatise On the Sublime, and Harold Pinter's view on discourse reveals that the poem perches on a detrimental fault line that destabilizes its mainstream readings. While Owen challenges patriarchy and insinuates at its responsibilities for the horror of the war, he himself maintains, to a great extent, a conventional approach to writing poetry that does not subvert the traditional patriarchal forms of versification. The diction of the poem is delibe... ...arizes them to him to the extent that they cease to become that terrible after several repeated readings. In fact, in Owen's poem the war is exhausted by its discourse the way, to borrow Jean Baudrillard's expression, "the eyes are exhausted in the gaze and the face is exhausted in the makeup." (76) Works Cited Baudrillard, Jean. Seduction. Trans. Brian Singer. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1990. Dorsch, T. S. Classical Literary Criticism. London: Penguin books, 1965. Kerr, Douglas. Wilfred Owen's Voices: Language and Community. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993. Owen, Wilfred. Wilfred Owen: Collected Letters. Ed. Harold Owen and John Bell. London: Oxford UP, 1967. -----. Wilfred Owen: The Complete Poems and Fragments. Ed. John Stallworthy. 2 vols. New York: Norton, 1984. Hollis, J. R. Harold Pinter: The Poetics of Silence. New York: Macmillan, 1970.

Sunday, January 12, 2020

Troy vs Iliad

The movie Troy written by David Benioff and directed by Wolfgang Petersen was inspired by The Iliad, an ancient Greek poem about the time of warrior Achilles argument with King Agamemnon during the Trojan War. Some events the film where taken straight from the Iliad, and is at times the two stories are very similar to one another. However there are several major differences between them, as Troy the movie was made to appealing to twenty first century audiences, where as the Iliad was meant to appeal to Greeks in the eighth century BC.The difference in time, culture, and format between the movie and the Iliad make differences such as the gods roles and time the stories covered, are necessary to allow both to be understood and interesting by their audience, and where producible at the time. Time difference. The Iliad only tells part of the story of the Trojan War, covering only a few weeks during the war. The Iliad begins nine years after the start of the war, during the final year of the war.However the movie begins before the Trojan War, and continues through to the end of the war. The movie aims to give more of an overview of the events leading to and during the war, where as the Iliad only focuses on a small piece of the full story. When hearing the Iliad the ancient Greeks would have known the rest of the story about the Trojan War, as it was part of their culture, they would have heard the stories from the time they were very young.Because of this the Iliad did not need to explain why the Trojans and Greeks where at war, as its audience would already know what had happened before the Iliad, and they would also know what happens after the Iliad. Modern audiences on the other hand have not grown up hearing tales of the Trojan War, it is not part of our culture, and so most people watching troy would not already know how the war started, or who the different characters are. Because of this the movie begins by introducing some of important characters, the warri or Achilles and king Agamemnon, leader of the Greek kingdoms.The first scene of the film lets the audience know who king Agamemnon is and how powerful he is. It also shows how Achilles and Agamemnon feel about one another. Referring to Achilles King Agamemnon says â€Å"Of all the warlords loved by the gods, I hate him the most. † Later in the scene when speaking about Agamemnon Achilles says â€Å"He's not my king. † This sets up the ill feelings between the two, which is very important in the rest of the movie, as well as in the Iliad.The movie then continues to explain why the Trojan War began, and introduces the rest of the main characters before showing the beginning of the war. This allows its audience to understand what is happening in the movie without already having knowledge about the war and the characters in it. The movie also continues on after the end of the Iliad, which ends with the King of troy, Priam getting his son, Hector’s body back from Ach illes, who had killed him and taken the body back to the Greek camp.The movie however continues on passed this point, going on to show the end of the war. This was changed because the film amid to give an overview of the whole war, if it ended the same as the Iliad modern audiences would most likely have felt confused by the ending, and would want to know what happened afterwards. To the modern audience it would seem like a strange place to end, as they would expect the main conflict of the film, the Trojan War, to be solved before the movie ends.The length of the Trojan War is also changed in the Movie, in the Iliad the war has already been going for nine years, implying it was a long hard struggle for the Greeks to take Troy. In comparison the movie makes it appear as though the entire war lasted a number of weeks. The ancient Greeks would have known about war, as it was part of their culture, and would find it believable that the war between two such strong armies, with Troy†™s strong walls to protect them would take time, they also knew the Iliad was only part of what happened, and they had other stories about the rest of the war.Modern audiences however, especially in western culture do not have war as a large part of their culture, so are happy to believe the war lasted only a few weeks. The movie also did not have time to explain what happened in the nine years before, and as it does not really affect the storyline of the movie or Iliad it would have been easier to cut it out, then try to explain to the audience how much time had passed between events. The role of the Gods The role of the gods differs greatly between the movie and the poem.In the Iliad the Olympic Gods and Goddesses play a major role in the lives of the characters, and the outcome of the war. The Gods continuously intervene in the characters lives, hugely involving themselves in all the main events in the Iliad. For example in the Iliad when Paris a prince of Troy, fights Menelaus , king Agamemnon’s brother, for the beautiful Helen, the Goddess Aphrodite intervenes to save Paris when she see’s he is losing: â€Å"Aphrodite hid Paris in a dense mist and whisked him away. There are many other examples in the Iliad of Gods becoming involved in the Trojan War, such as when Zeus, the king of the gods, persuades king Agamemnon to launch a full scale attack on Troy in a dream, and later when it looks like the war might be over Athena convinces a Trojan archer to fire at Menelaus to anger the Greeks and make sure the war continues. Smaller deities are also involved in the Iliad, such as the spirit of a river called Xanthus, which was near Troy.The river is on the side of the Trojans, and when Achilles killed many Trojan solders in and near the river, the river â€Å"raised a high wave and attacked him †¦ The great and terrible wave gathered about Achilles, falling upon him and beating on his shield, so that he could not keep his feet. † Ach illes was saved by the rivers anger by another deity, Hephaestus, god of metal work, who boiled the river. In the Iliad Achilles mother, Thetis, is also a deity, she is a river nymph, who convinces Hephaestus to make Achilles new armor after Hector takes his old armor.The continued presence and intervention by the Gods in the Iliad is very different in the Movie. In the movie only one deity, Thetis, is ever seen. It is not inertly clear in the movie if she is a goddess, though it seems more likely that she is not one. A boy who wakes Achilles for battle mentions a rumor he heard about her, saying â€Å"They say your mother is an immortal goddess† the only time we see Thetis in the movie keeping with her being a river nymph she is standing walking in the ocean, collecting shells.However apart from this she appears to be mortal, as there is nothing godly about her, she looks like an older women, which you would not expect if she was an immortal nymph, but makes sense if she is Achilles mortal mother. Thetis only appears the movie once, near the beginning, before Achilles goes to Troy, to prophesize that if Achilles goes to Troy he will die there. The rest of the gods are never shown in the movie, although they are mentioned.The film makes it clear the Greeks and Trojans believe in the gods, at one point Achilles has his men ransack a temple of sun god Apollo, one of his followers Eudorus tells Achilles â€Å"Apollo sees everything. Perhaps it is not wise to offend him. † However Achilles does not care and cuts the head off a statue of Apollo. The Trojan king Priam asks a priest of Apollo for advice before he goes to battle, listening to the priest, as he believes the man is â€Å"a servant of the gods. † And that the signs the priest sees are from the gods, telling him what will happen. Achilles also speaks of the gods, but not in as kind a light as the others, when briam

Friday, January 3, 2020

Conflict Resolution at the St. Clare Hospital Free Essay Example, 1000 words

This paper presents various applicable conflict resolution strategies at the St. Clare Hospital. The first one is to listen to all conflicting sides. It is important to give each party a chance to express themselves and get everything on the table for an easy solution (Heather Falconer, 2009). Most of the conflicting physicians will feel good just knowing that their concerns are heard. The next step is to get to the root of the problem. It is important to get to the main cause of the problem arising and looking for a solution from there. It is important for the conflicting sides to know what kind of conflict they are dealing with and finding a solution from there. The third step is teaching all employees to embrace their diversity and differences. Once every employee has aired out their views, it is important to analyze how the different ideas complement each other. The CEO and other top officials in the health facility can align the views to maximize the strengths rather than the d ifferences arising. The next strategy is coming up with a common ground. We will write a custom essay sample on Conflict Resolution at the St. Clare Hospital or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now It is important to come up to a consensus to enable each party feels appreciated and motivated to work even harder. The next step is to get both parties to agree on the solution presented. It is important to keep the goals and objectives of the organization in check while developing a solution. Though it is important to impose the solution sometimes, it is ideal to ensure that both conflicting parties agree with the presented solution and that both are comfortable with it. There are various strategies the health facility can engage in to reduce costs and legal liabilities. One of them is cutting on operation costs. The health facility should come up with some of the workforces than can be done away with to reduce the cost of operation. They should also ensure that they use some cost-effective measures including looking for other means of coming up with the cost of operation. This will ensure that they continue providing more quality healthcare servi ces to their patients despite the reduced costs of operation.