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.

The paper reports a validity and reliability study on a newly developed Moral Value Inventory for Muslim Adolescent (MVIMA). Analysis of data using 107 subjects showed a high general relialibity (.95), and the nine sub-scales (patience, gratefulness, humility, respecfulness, positive regard, honesty, love, tawakal, sincerity and taqwa) shows reliability value ranging between .72 to .84. The convergence validity for the sub-scales were significantly correlated (.36 to .72; p<.01). Factor analysis identified four factors (self-spiritual, self-social, social-spiritual, and self). Forty eight items with factor loading between .413-.657 of 99 original items were retained in the final inventory. (C) 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd.