Enzyme immobilisation technology is an effective means to improve sugar ester production through the employment of biocatalysts. In the present study, immobilisation of Candida rugosa (CRL) lipase onto amino-activated mica is performed via covalent bonding (namely Amino-CRL) and the cross-linking of lipases into nano-reactors through physical adsorption (namely NER-CRL). Free and immobilised lipases were tested for their esterification activities. Specific activities for Amino-CRL and NER-CRL increased by 2.4 and 2.6-fold, respectively, upon immobilisation. Extending this work, immobilised lipases have novel capabilities in the synthesis of sugar esters. The optimised conditions for sugar fatty acid ester syntheses are 48 h at 2:1 of molar ratio of lactose sugar to capric acid at 55 C. Furthermore, a high operational stability with half-lives of over 13 and 10 runs was achieved for NER-CRL and Amino-CRL, respectively, indicating the efficiency of the immobilisation process. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The online news media are said to have changed the understanding of the gatekeeping theory. Due to the virtually unlimited news space together with the interactivity in the online presentation of news, the Internet defies the whole conception of gatekeeping in journalism. This article seeks to examine the influence of gatekeeping forces in two influential Malaysian online news portals, MalaysiaKini and The Malaysian Insider (TMI), during the 2013 Malaysian general election. Based on the hierarchical model of news conception, this study assessed the influence of ideological gatekeeping forces on their news content. The reporting by both news portals was subjected to qualitative textual analysis. The results are triangualted with interviews with corresponding reporters and editors from MalaysiaKini and TMI. The findings show that although the reporting of MalaysiaKini and TMI is counter-ideological, the gatekeeping process remains intact. This is due to the speed factor and the requirement of the news portals to abide by the media-related laws in Malaysia.

Investigative journalism is a new development in the Indonesian press and the study is at infancy. However, news magazines have investigated quite a number of scandals and problems in Indonesia during the Reformation era, post-New Order authoritarian regimes. This research examines fact searching activities at two main news magazines in Indonesia namely Tempo and Gatra in the process of producing investigative stories. This study deploys case study and an in-depth interview in its exploration of identifying specific processes involved in the process of producing investigative stories in these two news organizations. The interview was conducted with six informants including journalists at Tempo and Gatra news magazine, book authors and journalism analysts. The results of the study indicate that news magazines in Indonesia reveal various issues and cases, which are deliberately hidden to the community. The findings also demonstrate that the facts searching process encompasses several styles that effectively complement each other in news narration, especially with the particular concept, attitude, direction and effort to report its best to the society. This suggests that investigative stories in Indonesia news magazines emphasize the originality of news with in-depth coverage based on independent position, free from the influence of other societal entities, government's pressure, as well as from other interests.

The utilization of natural mica as a biocatalyst support in kinetic investigations is first described in this study. The formation of lactose caprate from lactose sugar and capric acid, using free lipase (free-CRL) and lipase immobilized on nanoporous mica (NER-CRL) as a biocatalyst, was evaluated through a kinetic study. The apparent kinetic parameters, K-m and V-max, were determined by means of the Michaelis-Menten kinetic model. The Ping-Pong Bi-Bi mechanism with single substrate inhibition was adopted as it best explains the experimental findings. The kinetic results show lower K-m values with NER-CRL than with free-CRL, indicating the higher affinity of NER-CRL towards both substrates at the maximum reaction velocity V-max,V-app > V-max). The kinetic parameters deduced from this model were used to simulate reaction rate data which were in close agreement with the experimental values.

Optically active (-)-menthyl butyrate was synthesized by enantioselective esterification of racemic (+/-)-menthol and butyric anhydride using lipase from Candida rugosa immobilized onto epoxy-activated supports of Eupergit C and Eupergit C 250 L through physical adsorption method. The effects of various temperature, storage condition, stability in organic solvent and lipase recyclability were investigated for their influence on the enzymatic enantio selective formation of (-)-menthyl butyrate. The immobilized lipases retained high catalytic activity of up to 31% yield and 100% enantiomeric excess of the desired product, and showed better stability compared to the native lipase. They also exhibited about 50% retained activity even after incubation at higher temperatures, storage at room temperature and after long incubation in hexane. Immobilized lipases also showed considerably efficient reusability. (C) 2007 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Mica was modified either by acid treatment, grafting with aminopropyl-, octyl-, vinyl-, mercapto- and glycidoxy-triethoxysilanes, and activation of pre-treated support with glutaraldehyde (Glu). The derivatives were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), infra-red spectroscopy (FTIR), surface area and porosity analysis, scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersive X-ray (SEM-EDX) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques. The modified micas were used for immobilization of lipase from Candida rugosa (CRL). Activity of the lipase was determined by esterification and exhibited the improved activity than the free enzyme following the order; Amino-CRL>Glu-Amino-CRL>Octyl-CRL>Vinyl-CRL>Glycidoxy-CRL>Mercapto-CRL>Mica-CRL Lipase immobilized mica showed enhanced protein loading (up to 8.22 mg protein/g support) and immobilization (up to 78%) compared to the free lipase and unmodified mica. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The purpose of this exploratory study is to identify motivations and gratifications from the uses of news portals among Malaysia youths through three focus group discussions and a forum in social media that was carried out from March to May 2015. Findings reveal that the rise of the smartphones popularity has contributed tremendously to the youth's preference to access to the online news portal compare to television, newspapers, and radio. Friends' influence and the usefulness of smartphones itself has contributed to the new trend of media usage by which saw it is easier for them to share and exchange information. The Malay and English mainstream newspapers news portal are informant preference choice. The main reasons behind informants choosing the news portal are because it is easy, fast, cost-saving, flexible, easy to access, leisure time activity, education, follow current issues, and uniqueness of the news portal itself. They are satisfied with the news portal because it is faster and easier to access to the additional information when it's required through the search engine such as Google. The characteristics of the news portal itself that are linked to the video and related news emerge as the attraction to the youth beside it is easier to share the information with their friends through social media such as WhatsApp. For the university students, the difficulty of access to the traditional media in the campus encouraged them to choose news portal. The free wifi in the university also plays significant role why they prefer news portal. As for the working group, the time constraint is seen as the main factor contribute to the uses of online news. Overall it is seen that the information seeking behaviors is still there but the form of the news changed to approach that is much easier and cheaper.