Search results for: pharmaceutical products

Authors: Waleed S. Alwaneen

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Dairy industry is flourishing in world to provide milk and milk products to local population. Besides milk products, dairy industries also generate a substantial amount of cow manure that significantly affects the environment. Moreover, heat produced during the decomposition of the cow manure adversely affects the crop germination. Different companies are producing vermicompost using different species of worms/larvae to overcome the harmful effects using fresh manure. Tiger worm treatment enhanced plant growth, especially in the compost-manure ratio (75% compost, 25% cow manure), followed by a ratio of 50% compost, 50% cow manure.  Results also indicated that plant growth in Waxworm treated manure was weak as compared to plant growth in compost treated with Fruit Beetle (FB), Waxworms (WW), and Control (C) especially in the compost (25% compost, 75% cow manure) and 100% cow manure where there was no growth at all. Freshplant weight, fresh leaf weight and fresh root weight were significantly higher in the compost treated with Tiger worms in (75% compost, 25% cow manure); no evidence was seen for any significant differences in the dry root weight measurement between FB, Tiger worms (TW), WW, Control (C) in all composts. TW produced the best product, especially at the compost ratio of 75% compost, 25% cow manure followed by 50% compost, 50% cow manure.

Keywords: fruit beetle, tiger worms, waxworms, control

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Authors: Miho Tsukamoto

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Since the initial creation of the Barbie doll in 1959, it became a symbol of US society. Likewise, the Licca-chan, a Japanese doll created in 1967, also became a Japanese symbolic doll of Japanese society. Prior to the introduction of Licca-chan, Barbie was already marketed in Japan but their sales were dismal. Licca-chan (an actual name: Kayama Licca) is a plastic doll with a variety of sizes ranging from 21.0 cm to 29.0 cm which many Japanese girls dream of having. For over 35 years, the manufacturer, Takara Co., Ltd. has sold over 48 million dolls and has produced doll houses, accessories, clothes, and Licca-chan video games for the Nintendo DS. Many First-generation Licca-chan consumers still are enamored with Licca-chan, and go to Licca-chan House, in an amusement park with their daughters. These people are called Licca-chan maniacs, as they enjoy touring the Licca-chan’s factory in Tohoku or purchase various Licca-chan accessories. After the successful launch of Licca-chan into the Japanese market, a mixed-like doll from the US and Japan, a doll, JeNny, was later sold in the same Japanese market by Takara Co., Ltd. in 1982. Comparison of these cultural iconic dolls, Barbie and Licca-chan, are analyzed in this paper. In fact, these dolls have concepts of girls’ dreams. By using concepts of mythology of Jean Baudrillard, these dolls can be represented idealized images of figures in the products for consumers, but at the same time, consumers can see products with different perspectives, which can cause controversy.

Keywords: Barbie, dolls, JeNny, idealization, Licca-chan

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Authors: Elgendy M. Eman, Sameeh Y. Manal

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Ginger (Zingiber officinale) is so important plant for its medicinal properties from ancient time and used as a spicy herb all over the world. This study was designed to examine the chemical composition of the essential oil and various crude extracts (n-hexane, chloroform and ethanol) of Zingiber officinale as well. GC–MS analyses of the essential oil resulted in the identification of 68 compounds,; 1,8-cineole (8.9%) and linalool (15.1%) were the main components in the essential oil .The crude extracts were analyzed with TLC plates and revealed several spots under UV light; however the hexane extract exhibited the highest number of spots compared to the other extracts. Hexane extract was selected for GC-MS profile, and the results revealed the presence of several volatile compounds and linalool was the major component with high percentage (11.4 %). Further investigation on the structure elucidation of the bioactive compound (linalool) using IR, GC-MS and NMR techniques compared to authenticated linalool then subjected to purification using preparative and column chromatography. Linalool has been epoxidized using m-chloroperbenzoicacid (mcpba) at room temperature in the presence of florescent lamps to give two cyclic oxygenated products (furan epoxide & pyran epoxide) as a stereospecific product.it is concluded that, oxidation process is enhanced by irradiation to form epoxide derivative, which acts as the precursor of important products.

Keywords: epoxide, ginger, irradiation, linalool

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Authors: Parth Shah

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The author examines the recent trend where business organizations are significantly reducing their developmental cycle times to stay competitive in today’s global marketspace. The author proposes a rapid systems engineering framework to address late design changes and allow for flexibility (i.e. to react to unexpected or late changes and its impacts) during the product development cycle using a Systems Engineering approach. A System Engineering approach is crucial in today’s product development to deliver complex products into the marketplace. Design changes can occur due to shortened timelines and also based on initial consumer feedback once a product or service is in the marketplace. The ability to react to change and address customer expectations in a responsive and cost-efficient manner is crucial for any organization to succeed. Past literature, research, and methods such as concurrent development, simultaneous engineering, knowledge management, component sharing, rapid product integration, tailored systems engineering processes, and studies on reducing product development cycles all suggest a research gap exist in specifically addressing late design changes due to the shortening of life cycle environments in increasingly competitive markets. The author’s research suggests that 1) product development cycles time scales are now measured in months instead of years, 2) more and more products have interdepended systems and environments that are fast-paced and resource critical, 3) product obsolesce is higher and more organizations are releasing products and services frequently, and 4) increasingly competitive markets are leading to customization based on consumer feedback. The author will quantify effectiveness with respect to success factors such as time-to-market, return-of-investment, life cycle time and flexibility in late design changes by complexity of product or service, number of late changes and ability to react and reduce late design changes.

Keywords: product development, rapid systems engineering, scalability, systems engineering, systems integration, systems life cycle

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Authors: Aman Ullah

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The use of renewable resources in supplementing and/or replacing traditional petrochemical products, through green chemistry, is becoming the focus of research. The utilization of oils can play a primitive role towards sustainable development due to their large scale availability, built-in-functionality, biodegradability and no net CO2 production. Microwaves, being clean, green and environmentally friendly, are emerging as an alternative source for product development. Solvent free conversion of fatty acid methyl esters (FAME's) derived from canola oil and waste cooking oil under microwave irradiation demonstrated dramatically enhanced rates. The microwave-assisted reactions lead to the most valuable terminal olefins with enhanced yields, purities and dramatic shortening of reaction times. Various monomers/chemicals were prepared in high yield in very short time. The complete conversions were observed at temperatures as low as 40 ºC within less than five minutes. The products were characterized by GC-MS, GC-FID and NMR. The monomers were separated and polymerized into different polymers including biopolyesthers, biopolyesters, biopolyamides and biopolyolefins. The polymers were characterized in details for their structural, thermal, mechanical and viscoelastic properties. The ability for complete conversion of oils under solvent free conditions and synthesis of different biopolymers is undoubtedly an attractive concept from both an academic and an industrial point of view.

Keywords: monomers, biopolymers, green chemistry, bioplastics, biomaterials

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Authors: Muhammed Ertuğrul Çeloğlu, Mehmet Yılmaz

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In this study, apricot seed shell, walnut shell, and sawdust were chosen as biomass sources. The materials were sorted by using a sieve No. 50 and the sieved materials were subjected to pyrolysis process at 400 °C, resulting in three different biochar products. The resulting biochar products were added to the bitumen at three different rates (5%, 10% and 15%), producing modified bitumen. Penetration, softening point, rotation viscometer and dynamic shear rheometer (DSR) tests were conducted on modified binders. Thus the modified bitumen, which was obtained by using additives at 3 different rates obtained from biochar produced at 400 °C temperatures of 3 different biomass sources were compared and the effects of pyrolysis temperature and additive rates were evaluated. As a result of the conducted tests, it was determined that the rheology of the pure bitumen improved significantly as a result of the modification of the bitumen with the biochar. Additionally, with biochar additive, it was determined that the rutting parameter values obtained from softening point, viscometer and DSR tests were increased while the values in terms of penetration and phase angle decreased. It was also observed that the most effective biomass is sawdust while the least effective was ground apricot seed shell.

Keywords: rheology, biomass, pyrolysis, biochar

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Authors: Nutnicha Wongpadungkiat, Suwit Siriwatanayotin, Aluck Thipayarat, Punchira Vongsawasdi, Chotika Viriyarattanasak

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Chicken products are major export product of Thailand. With a dramatically increasing consumption of chicken product in the world, there are abundant wastes from chicken meat processing industry. Recently, much research in the development of value-added products from chicken meat industry has focused on the production of protein hydrolysate, utilized as food ingredients for human diet and animal feed. The present study aimed to determine the effect of thermal pre-treatment on functional properties of chicken protein hydrolysate. Chicken breasts were heated at 40, 60, 80 and 100ºC prior to hydrolysis by Alcalase at 60ºC, pH 8 for 4 hr. The hydrolysate was freeze-dried, and subsequently used for assessment of its functional properties molecular weight by gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). The obtained results show that increasing the pre-treatment temperature increased oil holding capacity and emulsion stability while decreasing antioxidant activity and water holding capacity. The SDS-PAGE analysis showed the evidence of protein aggregation in the hydrolysate treated at the higher pre-treatment temperature. These results suggest the connection between molecular weight of the hydrolysate and its functional properties.

Keywords: chicken protein hydrolysate, enzymatic hydrolysis, thermal pretreatment, functional properties

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Authors: Alexandra C. Blaga, Dan Caşcaval, Alexandra Tucaliuc, Madalina Poştaru, Anca I. Galaction

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Amino acids are valuable chemical products used in in human foods, in animal feed additives and in the pharmaceutical field. Recently, there has been a noticeable rise of amino acids utilization throughout the world to include their use as raw materials in the production of various industrial chemicals: oil gelating agents (amino acid-based surfactants) to recover effluent oil in seas and rivers and poly(amino acids), which are attracting attention for biodegradable plastics manufacture. The amino acids can be obtained by biosynthesis or from protein hydrolysis, but their separation from the obtained mixtures can be challenging. In the last decades there has been a continuous interest in developing processes that will improve the selectivity and yield of downstream processing steps. The liquid-liquid extraction of amino acids (dissociated at any pH-value of the aqueous solutions) is possible only by using the reactive extraction technique, mainly with extractants of organophosphoric acid derivatives, high molecular weight amines and crown-ethers. The purpose of this study was to analyse the separation of nine amino acids of acidic character (l-aspartic acid, l-glutamic acid), basic character (l-histidine, l-lysine, l-arginine) and neutral character (l-glycine, l-tryptophan, l-cysteine, l-alanine) by reactive extraction with di-(2-ethylhexyl)phosphoric acid (D2EHPA) dissolved in butyl acetate. The results showed that the separation yield is controlled by the pH value of the aqueous phase: the reactive extraction of amino acids with D2EHPA is possible only if the amino acids exist in aqueous solution in their cationic forms (pH of aqueous phase below the isoeletric point). The studies for individual amino acids indicated the possibility of selectively separate different groups of amino acids with similar acidic properties as a function of aqueous solution pH-value: the maximum yields are reached for a pH domain of 2–3, then strongly decreasing with the pH increase. Thus, for acidic and neutral amino acids, the extraction becomes impossible at the isolelectric point (pHi) and for basic amino acids at a pH value lower than pHi, as a result of the carboxylic group dissociation. From the results obtained for the separation from the mixture of the nine amino acids, at different pH, it can be observed that all amino acids are extracted with different yields, for a pH domain of 1.5–3. Over this interval, the extract contains only the amino acids with neutral and basic character. For pH 5–6, only the neutral amino acids are extracted and for pH > 6 the extraction becomes impossible. Using this technique, the total separation of the following amino acids groups has been performed: neutral amino acids at pH 5–5.5, basic amino acids and l-cysteine at pH 4–4.5, l-histidine at pH 3–3.5 and acidic amino acids at pH 2–2.5.

Keywords: amino acids, di-(2-ethylhexyl) phosphoric acid, reactive extraction, selective extraction

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Authors: Lara F. Horani, Shurong Tong

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Identification of customer requirements and their preferences are the starting points in the process of product design. Most of design methodologies focus on traditional requirements. But in the previous decade, the green products and the environment requirements have increasingly attracted the attention with the constant increase in the level of consumer awareness towards environmental problems (such as green-house effect, global warming, pollution and energy crisis, and waste management). Determining the importance weights for the customer requirements is an essential and crucial process. This paper used the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) approach to evaluate and rate the customer requirements for green products. With respect to the ultimate goal of customer satisfaction, surveys are conducted using a five-point scale analysis. With the help of this scale, one can derive the weight vectors. This approach can improve the imprecise ranking of customer requirements inherited from studies based on the conventional AHP. Furthermore, the AHP with extent analysis is simple and easy to implement to prioritize customer requirements. The research is based on collected data through a questionnaire survey conducted over a sample of 160 people belonging to different age, marital status, education and income groups in order to identify the customer preferences for green product requirements.

Keywords: analytic hierarchy process (AHP), green product, customer requirements for green design, importance weights for the customer requirements

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Authors: Vladimir Ryabov, Mikhail Baryshevs, Mikhail Voskresenskey, Boris Popov

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The human prostate gland (PG) samples were obtained from patients who had undergone radical prostatectomy for prostate cancer (PC) and used to extract total RNA and prepare the prostate stromal cell cultures (PSCC) and patients-derived organoids (PDO). Growth of the cell cultures was accessed under microscopic evaluation in transmitted light and the marker expression by reverse polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), immunofluorescence, and immunoblotting. Some PCR products from prostate tissue, PSCC, and PDO were cloned and sequenced. We found that the cells of early and late passages of PSCC and corresponding PDO expressed luminal (androgen receptor, AR; cytokeratin 18, CK18) and basal (CK5, p63) epithelial markers, the production of which decreased or disappeared in late PSCC and PDO. The PSCC and PDO of early passages from cancer tissue additionally produced cancer markers AMACR, TMPRSS2-ERG, and Ezh2. The expression of TMPRSS2-ERG fusion transcripts was verified by cloning and sequencing the PCR products. The results obtained suggest that early passages of PSCC might be used as a pre-clinical model for the evaluation of early markers of prostate cancer.

Keywords: localized prostate cancer, prostate epithelial markers, prostate cancer markers, AMACR, TMPRSS2-ERG, prostate stromal cell cultures, PDO

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Authors: Misty Attwood, Helgi Schioth

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Transmembrane proteins are important components in many essential cell processes such as signal transduction, cell-cell signalling, transport of solutes, structural adhesion activities, and protein trafficking. Due to their involvement in diverse critical activities, transmembrane proteins are implicated in different disease pathways and hence are the focus of intense interest in understanding functional activities, their pathogenesis in disease, and their potential as pharmaceutical targets. Further, as the structure and function of proteins are correlated, investigating a group of proteins with the same tertiary structure, i.e., the same number of transmembrane regions, may give understanding about their functional roles and potential as therapeutic targets. In this in silico bioinformatics analysis, we identify and comprehensively characterize the previously unstudied group of proteins with five transmembrane-spanning regions (5TM). We classify nearly 60 5TM proteins in which 31 are members of ten families that contain two or more family members and all members are predicted to contain the 5TM architecture. Furthermore, nine singlet proteins that contain the 5TM architecture without paralogues detected in humans were also identifying, indicating the evolution of single unique proteins with the 5TM structure. Interestingly, more than half of these proteins function in localization activities through movement or tethering of cell components and more than one-third are involved in transport activities, particularly in the mitochondria. Surprisingly, no receptor activity was identified within this family in sharp contrast with other TM families. Three major 5TM families were identified and include the Tweety family, which are pore-forming subunits of the swelling-dependent volume regulated anion channel in astrocytes; the sidoreflexin family that acts as mitochondrial amino acid transporters; and the Yip1 domain family engaged in vesicle budding and intra-Golgi transport. About 30% of the proteins have enhanced expression in the brain, liver, or testis. Importantly, 60% of these proteins are identified as cancer prognostic markers, where they are associated with clinical outcomes of various tumour types, indicating further investigation into the function and expression of these proteins is important. This study provides the first comprehensive analysis of proteins with 5TM regions and provides details of the unique characteristics and application in pharmaceutical development.

Keywords: 5TM, cancer prognostic marker, drug targets, transmembrane protein

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Authors: Raana Babadi Fathipour

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Ice cream is a nutritious dairy product that, given its constituent materials and high nutritional value, is a suitable growth medium for the growth of various food microorganisms. The contamination of this product with pathogenic microorganisms may cause food poisoning and infections, and so could be harmful to human health. The foremost critical pathogenic microscopic organisms of ice cream incorporate Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, Enterobacteriaceae, coliforms, Listeria monocytogenes and Enterococcus. Biosensor technology, albeit a recent addition to the dairy industry, has proven its worth in other fields, such as medical devices. Through numerous studies, the advantages of employing biosensors have consistently emerged. These incredible tools present expeditious and straightforward means while specifically targeting analytes. Thus, they bring forth unparalleled solutions that bolster ongoing advancements within dairy products and processes. This review delves into the latest developments in the realm of biosensors and evaluates the diverse techniques of bio-recognition and transduction in terms of their benefits, drawbacks, and relevance to traditional ice cream. Furthermore, the obstacles that impede the progress of these approaches in meeting the growing need for swift and real-time quality control of milk products, particularly ice cream, are also expounded upon.

Keywords: traditional ice cream, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, biosensors

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Authors: Mulatu Kassie Birhanu

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Electro-oxidation of glycerol is an important process to convert the less price glycerol into other expensive (essential) and energy-rich chemicals. In this study, nickel was electro-deposited on laboratory-made carbon ceramic electrode (CCE) substrate using electrochemical techniques that is cyclic voltammetry (CV) to prepare an electro-catalyst (Ni/CCE) for electro-oxidation of glycerol. Carbon ceramic electrode was prepared from graphite and methyl tri-methoxy silane (MTMOS) through the processes called hydrolysis and condensation with methanol in acidic media (HCl) by a sol-gel technique. Physico-chemical characterization of bare CCE and modified (deposited) CCE (Ni/CCE) was measured and evaluated by Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Electro-oxidation of glycerol was performed in 0.1 M glycerol in alkaline media (0.5 M NaOH). High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) technique was used to identify and determine the concentration of glycerol, reaction intermediates and oxidized products of glycerol after its electro-oxidation is performed. The conversion (%) of electro-oxidation of glycerol during 9-hour oxidation was 73% and 36% at 1.8V and 1.6V vs. RHE, respectively. Formate, oxalate, glycolate and glycerate are the main oxidation products of glycerol with selectivity (%) of 75%, 8.6%, 1.1% and 0.95 % at 1.8 V vs. RHE and 55.4%, 2.2%, 1.0% and 0.6% at 1.6 V vs. RHE respectively. The result indicates that formate is the main product in the electro-oxidation of glycerol on Ni/CCE using the indicated applied potentials.

Keywords: carbon-ceramic electrode, electrodeposition, electro-oxidation, Methyltrimethoxysilane

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Authors: R. Santos Jiménez, A. San-Antonio-González, M. del Río Merino, M. González Cortina, C. Viñas Arrebola

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On average, Europe generates around 890 million tons of construction and demolition waste (CDW) per year and only 50% of these CDW are recycled. This is far from the objectives determined in the European Directive for 2020 and aware of this situation, the European Countries are implementing national policies to prevent the waste that can be avoidable and to promote measures to increase recycling and recovering. In Spain, one of these measures has been the development of a CDW recycling guide for the manufacture of mortar, concrete, bricks and lightweight aggregates. However, there is still not enough information on the possibility of incorporating CDW materials in the manufacture of gypsum products. In view of the foregoing, the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid is creating a database with information on the possibility of incorporating CDW materials in the manufacture of gypsum products. The objective of this study is to improve this database by analysing the feasibility of incorporating two different CDW in a gypsum matrix: ceramic waste bricks (perforated brick and double hollow brick), and extruded polystyrene (XPS) waste. Results show that it is possible to incorporate up to 25% of ceramic waste and 4% of XPS waste over the weight of gypsum in a gypsum matrix. Furhtermore, with the addition of ceramic waste an 8% of surface hardness increase and a 25% of capillary water absorption reduction can be obtained. On the other hand, with the addition of XPS, a 26% reduction of density and a 37% improvement of thermal conductivity can be obtained.

Keywords: CDW, waste materials, ceramic waste, XPS, construction materials, gypsum

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Authors: Ijeoma Chinyere Ukonu, Linda Ojeyokan

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This study produced and compared the acceptability of white bean cake (akara) and soy bean cake (akara) through sensory evaluation. Two varieties of beans were used; white (haricot) beans and soy beans; processed in the wet (paste) form and dry (flour) form. They were all used in the production of samples of bean cake (akara) under the same condition. Sensory evaluation was carried out on the products; 100% white beans cake paste was labeled (A1), 50% white bean and 50% soya bean cake paste was (B1), 100% white bean cake flour was (A2); 50% white bean cake flour and 50% soya bean cake flour (B2). A five (5) point hedonic scale rating, very good (5), good (4), fair (3), poor (2) and very poor (1) was administered on the ten panel of judge. 40 questionnaires were administered to the general public to access their knowledge of soya beans akara. Correlation analysis was carried out to determine which product is more acceptable. Table, percentages and mean score were methods employed in analyzing data collected. The analysis revealed that soya bean (akara) is generally acceptable except for sample B1 that was rated poor with 2 points, white beans cake was rated very well with 5 points. It was recommended that the hospitality industry could introduce soya bean cakes in the breakfast menu. Families can also include these products in their breakfast.

Keywords: akara, bean cake, soybean, white bean

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Authors: Raquel Galante, Marina Braga, Daniela Ghisleni, Terezinha J. A. Pinto, Rogério Colaço, Ana Paula Serro

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The sensitive nature of soft biomaterials, such as hydrogels, renders their sterilization a particularly challenging task for the biomedical industry. Widely used contact lenses are now studied as promising platforms for topical corneal drug delivery. However, to the best of the authors knowledge, the influence of sterilization methods on these systems has yet to be evaluated. The main goal of this study was to understand how different pairs drug-hydrogel would interact under an ozone-based sterilization method in comparison with two conventional processes (steam heat and gamma irradiation). For that, Si-Hy containing hydroxylethyl methacrylate (HEMA) and [tris(trimethylsiloxy)silyl]propyl methacrylate (TRIS) was produced and soaked in different drug solutions, commonly used for the treatment of ocular diseases (levofloxacin, chlorhexidine, diclofenac and timolol maleate). The drug release profiles and main material properties were evaluated before and after the sterilization. Namely, swelling capacity was determined by water uptake studies, transparency was accessed by UV-Vis spectroscopy, surface topography/morphology by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and mechanical properties by performing tensile tests. The drug released was quantified by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The effectiveness of the sterilization procedures was assured by performing sterility tests. Ozone gas method led to a significant reduction of drug released and to the formation of degradation products specially for diclofenac and levofloxacin. Gamma irradiation led to darkening of the loaded Si-Hys and to the complete degradation of levofloxacin. Steam heat led to smoother surfaces and to a decrease of the amount of drug released, however, with no formation of degradation products. This difference in the total drug released could be the related to drug/polymer interactions promoted by the sterilization conditions in presence of the drug. Our findings offer important insights that, in turn, could be a useful contribution to the safe development of actual products.

Keywords: drug delivery, silicone hydrogels, sterilization, gamma irradiation, steam heat, ozone gas

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Authors: Shalluf Milad

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Tomatoes are widely produced and consumed due to their nutritional content and versatility. However, the tomato is a soft fruit liable to damage and flavour deterioration. Hence, the main challenge for the tomato producing industry is to prevent the high loss incurred during harvest, handling and transportation of the crops. The objective of this study was to investigate the overall nutritional implication of controlled storage of tomatoes using ozone on the basic nutritional components of tomatoes. This investigation was also designed to focus on the effect of different ozone doses on the basic components (antioxidant activity). Green, yellow and red stages of ripeness (elegance tomatoes), were harvested at different dates for each experiment. The tomatoes were cleaned and placed inside the glass reactors and ozonated at 0.25, 0.50 and 1 mg O3/g tomatoes and clean air respectively for 5 days at 15°C ± 2 and 90-95 % relative humidity respectively. The fruits were analysed for total antioxidant activity. Analysis of the fruits clearly showed that antioxidant activity in the pericarp tissue was the lowest (P<0.001) compared with the pulp tissue of tomatoes during storage in the red stage of maturity, after being treated with ozone in the atmosphere of storage in a dose of 1.00 mgO3/g tomatoes. It can be concluded from this study that the use of ozone in the atmospheres of storage and handling of fresh products maintains the important compounds of these products while maintaining the nutritional value and health quality.

Keywords: post-harvest treatment, controlled atmosphere storage, ozone, tomatoes, antioxidant activity

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Authors: María Laura Guevara Campos

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The increasing number of vending machines makes it easy for people to find them more frequently in stores, universities, workplaces, and even hospitals. These machines usually offer products with high contents of sugar and fat, which, if consumed regularly, can result in serious health threats, as overweight and obesity. Additionally, the energy consumption of these machines tends to be high, which has an impact on the environment as well. In order to promote the consumption of healthy food, a vending machine was designed to give the customer the opportunity to choose between a customized fruit salad and a customized fruit juice, both of them prepared instantly with the ingredients selected by the customer. The main parameters considered to design the machine were: the storage of the preferred fruits in a salad and/or in a juice according to a survey, the size of the machine, the use of ecologic recipients, and the overall energy consumption. The methodology used for the design was the one proposed by the German Association of Engineers for mechatronics systems, which breaks the design process in several stages, from the elaboration of a list of requirements through the establishment of the working principles and the design concepts to the final design of the machine, which was done in a 3D modelling software. Finally, with the design of this machine, the aim is to contribute to the development and implementation of healthier vending machines that offer freshly-made products, which is not being widely attended at present.

Keywords: design, design methodology, mechatronics systems, vending machines

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Authors: Anjali Sharma, R. R. K. Sharma

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The purpose of this study is to examine relationships between personality factors and customer switching for services. Earlier research was directed towards establishing relationship between individual personality traits and customer switching variables considering five-factors model comprised of five personality dimensions (OCEAN), in which personality was not the only influencing factor. Moreover, these works were found to be focused on products and not services. In contrast, the current study is aimed at investigating role of personality using Myer Briggs Type indicator (MBTI) as well as Five-Big Factors, on customer switching and building the conceptual framework on services rather than products. MBTI also known as four opposite pairs or dichotomies of personality dimensions are studied using different levels Involvement (High, Low) of consumer and Value of service-offering (Value for money and Premium) as moderators associated with Consumer Switching. The study is unique in sense that consequences of these indicators of personality on switching behavior has never been studied using considering moderating effect of involvement and value of services. According to our prepositions for a more Extrovert, Intuitive Personality the switching is going to be high whereas the switching is going to be less for an Introvert, Judgmental kind of personality. Similarly, for a consumer with high Neuroticism and Agreeableness the switching would be less as compared to an Open and Conscious Personality type. These level differs with level of a consumer’s involvement and type of a service being offered based on its value.

Keywords: consumer switching, involvement, Myer Briggs personality type indicators, personality, value of service

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Authors: Ferran Paulí Pla, Pere Palacín Farré, Albert Fornells Herrera, Pol Toldrà Fernández

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Poor image acquisition is limiting the promising growth of industrial vision in food control. In recent years, the food industry has witnessed a significant increase in the implementation of automation in quality control through artificial vision, a trend that continues to grow. During the packaging process, some defects may appear, compromising the proper sealing of the products and diminishing their shelf life, sanitary conditions and overall properties. While failure to detect a defective product leads to major losses, food producers also aim to minimize over-rejection to avoid unnecessary waste. Thus, accuracy in the evaluation of the products is crucial, and, given the large production volumes, even small improvements have a significant impact. Recently, efforts have been focused on maximizing the performance of classification neural networks; nevertheless, their performance is limited by the quality of the input data. Monochrome linear backlight systems are most commonly used for online inspections of food packaging thermo-sealing zones. These simple acquisition systems fit the high cadence of the production lines imposed by the market demand. Nevertheless, they provide a limited amount of data, which negatively impacts classification algorithm training. A desired situation would be one where data quality is maximized in terms of obtaining the key information to detect defects while maintaining a fast working pace. This work presents a backlight hyperspectral imaging system designed and implemented replicating an industrial environment to better understand the relationship between visual data quality and spectral illumination range for a variety of packed food products. Furthermore, results led to the identification of advantageous spectral bands that significantly enhance image quality, providing clearer detection of defects.

Keywords: artificial vision, food packaging, hyperspectral imaging, image acquisition, quality control

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Authors: Mohan Bikram Thapa

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Despite the successful implementation of community forestry program, a number of pros and cons have been raised on Terai community forestry in the case of lowland locally called Terai region of Nepal, which climatically belongs to tropical humid and possessed high-quality forests in terms of ecology and economy. The study aims to investigate the local pricing strategy of forest products and its impacts on equitable forest benefits sharing, the collection of community fund and carrying out livelihood improvement activities. The study was carried out on six community forests revealed that local people have substantially benefited from the community forests. However, being the region is heterogeneous by socio-economic conditions and forest resources have higher economic potential, the decision of low pricing strategy made by the local people have created inequality problems while sharing the forest benefits, and poorly contributed to community fund collection and consequently carrying out limited activities of livelihood improvement. The paper argued that the decision of low pricing strategy of forest products is counterproductive to promote the equitable benefit-sharing in the areas of heterogeneous socio-economic conditions with high-value forests. The low pricing strategy has been increasing accessibility of better off households at a higher rate than poor, as such households always have the higher affording capacity. It is also defective to increase the community fund and carry out activities of livelihood improvement effectively. The study concluded that unilateral decentralized forest policy and decision-making autonomy to the local people seems questionable unless their decision-making capacities are enriched sufficiently. Therefore, it is recommended that empowerments of decision-making capacity of local people and their respective institutions together with policy and program formulation are prerequisite for efficient and equitable community forest management and its long-term sustainability.

Keywords: benefit sharing, community forest, livelihood, pricing mechanism, Nepal

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Authors: Enrique Moliner, Alba Lafarga, Isaac Herraiz, Evelina Castellana, Mihaela Mirea

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NENU2PHAR (GA 887474) is an EU-funded project aimed at the development of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) from micro-algae. These biobased and biodegradable polymers are being tested and validated in different high-volume market applications including food packaging, cosmetic packaging, 3D printing filaments, agro-textiles and medical devices, counting on the support of key players like Danone, BEL Group, Sofradim or IFG. At the moment the project has achieved to produce PHAs from micro-algae with a cumulated yield around 17%, i.e. 1 kg PHAs produced from 5.8 kg micro-algae biomass, which in turn capture 11 kg CO₂ for growing up. These algae-based plastics can therefore offer the same environmental benefits than current bio-based plastics (reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and fossil resource depletion), using a 3rd generation biomass feedstock that avoids the competition with food and the environmental impacts of agricultural practices. The project is also dealing with other sustainability aspects like the ecodesign and life cycle assessment of the plastic products targeted, considering not only the use of the biobased plastics but also many other ecodesign strategies. This paper will present the main progresses and results achieved to date in the project.

Keywords: NENU2PHAR, Polyhydroxyalkanoates, micro-algae, biopolymer, ecodesign, life cycle assessment

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Authors: Jane E. Alam Solangi

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The contribution of the study is to explore the important part of humorous dialogues in cellular network advertisements. This promotes the message of valuable construction and promotion of network companies in Pakistan that employ different and broad techniques to give promotion to selling products. It merely instigates the consumers to buy it. The results of the study after analysis of its collected data gives a vision that advertisers of network advertisements use humorous dialogues as a significant device to the greater level. The source of entertainment in the advertisement is accompanied by the texts and humorous discourses to influence buying decisions of the consumers. Therefore, it tends to neutralize personal and social based values. The earlier contribution of scholars presented that the technical employment of humorous devices leads to the successful market of the relevant products. In order to analyze the humorous discourse devices, the approach of multi-modality of Fairclough (1989) is used. It is accompanied by the framework of Kress and van Leeuwen’s (1996). It analyzes the visual graph of the grammar. The overall findings in the study verified the role of humorous devices in the captivation of consumers’ decision to buy the product that interests them. Therefore, the role of humor acts as a breaker of the monotonous rhythm of advertisements.

Keywords: advertisements, devices, humorous, multi-modality, networks, Pakistan

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Authors: Sarif Ullah Patwary, Matthew Heinrich, Brandon Payne

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The ubiquity of web 2.0 platforms, in the form of wikis, social media (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, etc.) and online review portals (e.g., Yelp), helps shape today’s apparel consumers’ purchasing decision. Online reviews play important role towards consumers’ apparel purchase decision. Each of the consumer reviews carries a sentiment (positive, negative or neutral) towards products. Commercially, apparel brands and retailers analyze sentiment of this massive amount of consumer review data to update their inventory and bring new products in the market. The purpose of this study is to analyze consumer reviews of selected apparel stores with a view to understand, 1) the difference of sentiment expressed through men’s and woman’s text reviews, 2) the difference of sentiment expressed through men’s and woman’s star-based reviews, and 3) the difference of sentiment between star-based reviews and text-based reviews. A total of 9,363 reviews (1,713 men and 7,650 women) were collected using Yelp Dataset Challenge. Sentiment analysis of collected reviews was carried out in two dimensions: star-based reviews and text-based reviews. Sentiment towards apparel stores expressed through star-based reviews was deemed: 1) positive for 3 or 4 stars 2) negative for 1 or 2 stars and 3) neutral for 3 stars. Sentiment analysis of text-based reviews was carried out using Bing Liu dictionary. The analysis was conducted in IPyhton 5.0. Space. The sentiment analysis results revealed the percentage of positive text reviews by men (80%) and women (80%) were identical. Women reviewers (12%) provided more neutral (e.g., 3 out of 5 stars) star reviews than men (6%). Star-based reviews were more negative than the text-based reviews. In other words, while 80% men and women wrote positive reviews for the stores, less than 70% ended up giving 4 or 5 stars in those reviews. One of the key takeaways of the study is that star reviews provide slightly negative sentiment of the consumer reviews. Therefore, in order to understand sentiment towards apparel products, one might need to combine both star and text aspects of consumer reviews. This study used a specific dataset consisting of selected apparel stores from particular geographical locations (the information was not given for privacy concern). Future studies need to include more data from more stores and locations to generalize the findings of the study.

Keywords: apparel, consumer review, sentiment analysis, gender

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Authors: Shane David van Zyl, A. J. Burger

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The global green energy shift has placed significant value on the production of green hydrogen and its derivatives. The study examines the impact on capital expenditure (CAPEX), operational expenditure (OPEX), levelized cost, and environmental impact, depending on the relationship between various production capacities of potable water, green hydrogen, and green ammonia. A model-based sensitivity analysis approach was used to determine the relevance of various process parameters in the production of potable water combined with green hydrogen or green ammonia production. The effects of changes on CAPEX, OPEX and levelized costs of the products were determined. Furthermore, a qualitative environmental impact analysis was done to determine the effect on the environment. The findings indicated the individual process unit contribution to the overall CAPEX and OPEX while also determining the major contributors to changes in the levelized costs of products. The results emphasize the difference in costs associated with potable water, green hydrogen, and green ammonia production, indicating the extent to which potable water production costs become insignificant in the complete process, which, therefore, can have a large social benefit through increased potable water production resulting in decreased water scarcity in the south-west African region.

Keywords: CAPEX and OPEX, desalination, green hydrogen and green ammonia, sensitivity analysis

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Authors: M. A. Stoian, D. M. Cocarta, A. Badea

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The main sources of soil pollution due to petroleum contaminants are industrial processes involve crude oil. Soil polluted with crude oil is toxic for plants, animals, and humans. Human exposure to the contaminated soil occurs through different exposure pathways: Soil ingestion, diet, inhalation, and dermal contact. The present study research is focused on soil contamination with heavy metals as a consequence of soil pollution with petroleum products. Human exposure pathways considered are: Accidentally ingestion of contaminated soil and dermal contact. The purpose of the paper is to identify the human health risk (carcinogenic risk) from soil contaminated with heavy metals. The human exposure and risk were evaluated for five contaminants of concern of the eleven which were identified in soil. Two soil samples were collected from a bioremediation platform from Muntenia Region of Romania. The soil deposited on the bioremediation platform was contaminated through extraction and oil processing. For the research work, two average soil samples from two different plots were analyzed: The first one was slightly contaminated with petroleum products (Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons (TPH) in soil was 1420 mg/kg_d.w.), while the second one was highly contaminated (TPH in soil was 24306 mg/kg_d.w.). In order to evaluate risks posed by heavy metals due soil pollution with petroleum products, five metals known as carcinogenic were investigated: Arsenic (As), Cadmium (Cd), Chromium^VI (Cr^VI), Nickel (Ni), and Lead (Pb). Results of the chemical analysis performed on samples collected from the contaminated soil evidence soil contamination with heavy metals as following: As in Site 1 = 6.96 mg/kg_d.w; As in Site 2 = 11.62 mg/kg_d.w, Cd in Site 1 = 0.9 mg/kg_d.w; Cd in Site 2 = 1 mg/kg_d.w; Cr^VI was 0.1 mg/kg_d.w for both sites; Ni in Site 1 = 37.00 mg/kg_d.w; Ni in Site 2 = 42.46 mg/kg_d.w; Pb in Site 1 = 34.67 mg/kg_d.w; Pb in Site 2 = 120.44 mg/kg_d.w. The concentrations for these metals exceed the normal values established in the Romanian regulation, but are smaller than the alert level for a less sensitive use of soil (industrial). Although, the concentrations do not exceed the thresholds, the next step was to assess the human health risk posed by soil contamination with these heavy metals. Results for risk were compared with the acceptable one (10^-6, according to World Human Organization). As, expected, the highest risk was identified for the soil with a higher degree of contamination: Individual Risk (IR) was 1.11×10^-5 compared with 8.61×10^-6. 

Keywords: carcinogenic risk, heavy metals, human health risk assessment, soil pollution

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Authors: Ana Jurkeviciute, Larisa Grigorieva, Ksenia Moskvinа

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Oil shale alkylresorcinols are formed as a by-product in oil shale processing. They are unique raw material for chemical industry. Polycondensation resins obtaining is one of the worthwhile directions of oil shale alkylresorcinols use. These resins are widely applied in many branches of industry such as wood-working, metallurgic, tire, rubber products, construction etc. Possibility of resins obtaining using overall alkylresorcinols will allow to cheapen finished products on their base and to widen the range of resins offered on the market. Synthesis of polycondensation resins on the basis of alkylresorcinols was conducted by several methods in the process of investigations. In the formulations a part of resorcinol was replaced by fractions of oil shale alkylresorcinols containing different amount of 5-methylresorcinol (40-80 mass %). Some resins were modified by aromatic alkene at the stage of synthesis. Thermal stability and degradation behavior of resins were investigated by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) method both in an inert nitrogen environment and in an oxidative environment of air. TGA integral curves were obtained and processed in dynamic mode for interval of temperatures from 25 to 830 °C. Rate of temperature rise was 5°C/min, gas flow rate - 50 ml/min. Resins power for carbonization was evaluated by carbon residue. Physical-chemical parameters of the resins were determined. Content of resorcinol and 5-methylresorcinol not reacted in the process of synthesis were determined by gas chromatography method.

Keywords: resorcinol, oil shale alkylresorcinols, aromatic alkene, polycondensation resins, modified resins

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Authors: U. Gunal, H. I. Turgut, H. Gurler, S. Kaya

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There are many ever-increasing and newly emerging problems with rapid population growth in the world. With the increase in people's quality of life in our daily life, acoustic comfort has become an important feature in the textile industry. In order to meet all these expectations in people's comfort areas and survive in challenging competitive conditions in the market without compromising the customer product quality expectations of textile manufacturers, it has become a necessity to bring functionality to the products. It is inevitable to research and develop materials and processes that will bring these functionalities to textile products. The noise we encounter almost everywhere in our daily life, in the street, at home and work, is one of the problems which textile industry is working on. It brings with it many health problems, both mentally and physically. Therefore, noise control studies become more of an issue. Besides, materials used in noise control are not sufficient to reduce the effect of the noise level. The fabrics used in acoustic studies in the textile industry do not show sufficient performance according to their weight and high cost. Thus, acoustic textile products can not be used in daily life. In the thesis study, the attributions used in the noise control and building acoustics studies in the literature were analyzed, and the product with the highest damping value that a textile material will have was designed, manufactured, and tested. Optimum values were obtained by using different material samples that may affect the performance of the acoustic material. Acoustic measurement methods should be applied to verify the acoustic performances shown by the parameters and the designed three-dimensional structure at different values. In the measurements made in the study, the device designed for determining the acoustic performance of the material for both the impedance tube according to the relevant standards and the different noise types in the study was used. In addition, sound records of noise types encountered in daily life are taken and applied to the acoustic absorbent fabric with the aid of the device, and the feasibility of the results and the commercial ability of the product are examined. MATLAB numerical computing programming language and libraries were used in the frequency and sound power analyses made in the study.

Keywords: acoustic, egg crate, fabric, textile

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Authors: Pavel Porubiak, Lukas Kudlacek

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Introduction Transplant tourism is a controversial method of obtaining an organ, and that goes all the more for a country such as China, where sources of evidence point out to the possibility of organs being harvested illegally. This research aimed at listing the individual countries these tourists come from, or which medical companies sell transplant related products in there, with China being used as an example. Materials and methods The methodology of scoping study was used for both parts of the research. The countries from which transplant tourists come to China were identified by a search through existing medical studies in the NCBI PubMed database, listed under the keyword ‘transplantation in China’. The search was not limited by any other criteria, but only the studies available for free – directly on PubMed or a linked source – were used. Other research studies on this topic were considered as well. The companies were identified through multiple methods. The first was an online search focused on medical companies and their products. The Bloomberg Service, used by stock brokers worldwide, was then used to identify the revenue of these companies in individual countries – if data were available – as well as their business presence in China. A search through the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission was done in the same way. Also a search on the Chinese internet was done, and to obtain more results, a second online search was done as well. The results and discussion The extensive search has identified 14 countries with transplant tourists to China. The search for a similar studies or reports resulted in finding additional six countries. The companies identified by our research also amounted to 20. Eight of them are sourcing China with organ preservation products – of which one is just trying to enter the Chinese market, six with immunosuppressive drugs, four with transplant diagnostics, one with medical robots which Chinese doctors use for transplantation as well, and another one trying to enter the Chinese market with a consumable-type product also related to transplantation. The conclusion The question of the ethicality of transplant tourism may be very pressing, since as the research shows, just the sheer amount of participating countries, sourcing transplant tourists to another one, amounts to 20. The identified companies are facing risks due to the nature of transplantation business in China, as officially executed prisoners are used as sources, and widely cited pieces of evidence point out to illegal organ harvesting. Similar risks and ethical questions are also relevant to the countries sourcing the transplant tourists to China.

Keywords: China, illegal organ harvesting, transplant tourism, organ harvesting technology

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Authors: Norazilawati Binti Md Dahlal, Nabiila Binti Mat Yusoff, Anis Najiha Binti Ahmad

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With the increasing demand for halal products, there is a growing emphasis on ensuring their quality and adherence to halal standards. However, the vulnerability of halal goods to fraud and adulteration poses a significant challenge to the integrity of the halal industry. Whistleblowers play a pivotal role in safeguarding the safety and integrity of halal food by exposing wrongdoings, misconduct, and fraudulent practices. This study explores the implementation of whistleblowing practices aligned with halal and toyyib principles to effectively address halal food fraud issues. Whistleblowing is defined as the act of disclosing information about misconduct, immorality, or unlawful activities to relevant authorities or the public. Although whistleblowing is universally recognized as beneficial, it exposes whistleblowers to substantial risks, including career setbacks, reputation damage, and personal safety threats. Despite legal protections, whistleblowers often face retaliation and hesitancy to come forward. By integrating the principles of halal and toyyib, which encompass the physical and spiritual as well as material and supernatural elements, effective whistleblowing practices can be developed. These principles include the physical characteristic of the product in accordance with Shari’ah law (P1); products that are sourced ethically and responsibly (P2); Products that meet high standard of quality and safety (P3); functioning as servant and caliph of Allah in managing according to Allah's commands and prohibitions (P4); not excessively wasteful or extravagant (P5); positive moral and spiritual implications associated with the product (P6); and aimed at achieving prosperity in both this life and the Hereafter (P7). Employing a quantitative research approach, this study examines Islamic primary data sources and secondary data sources to investigate the prevalence and impact of whistleblowing in the halal industry. By analyzing the principles of halal and toyyib and exploring the importance of whistleblowing effective whistleblowing practices, this research aims to enhance our understanding of promoting accountability and justice within the halal industry from an Islamic perspective.

Keywords: whistleblowing, halal and toyyib, food fraud, halal integrity, Islamic practices

Procedia PDF Downloads 135