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Sago pith residue is one of the most abundant lignocellulosic biomass which can serve as an alternative cheap substrate for fermentable sugars production. This residue is the fibrous waste left behind after the starch extraction process and contains significant amounts of starch (58%), cellulose (23%), hemicellulose (9.2%) and lignin (3.9%). The conversion of sago pith residue into fermentable sugars is commonly performed using cellulolytic enzymes or known as cellulases. In this study, crude cellulases were produced by two local isolates, Trichoderma asperellum UPM1 and Aspergillus fumigatus, UPM2 using sago pith residue as substrate. A. fumigatus UPM2 gave the highest FPase, CMCase and β-glucosidase activities of 0.39, 23.99 and 0.78 U/ml, respectively, on day 5. The highest activity of FPase, CMCase and β-glucosidase by T. asperellum UPM1 was 0.27, 12.03 and 0.42 U/ml, respectively, on day 7. The crude enzyme obtained from A. fumigatus UPM2 using β-glucosidase as the rate-limiting enzyme (3.9, 11.7 and 23.4 IU) was used for the saccharification process to convert 5% (w/v) sago pith residue into reducing sugars. Hydrolysis of sago pith residue using crude enzyme containing β-glucosidase with 23.4 IU, produced by A. fumigatus UPM2 gave higher reducing sugars production of 20.77 g/l with overall hydrolysis percentage of 73%.

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Surfactants are compounds that can reduce the surface tension between two different phases or the interfacial tension of the liquid between water and oil, possessing both hydrophilic and hydrophobic moieties. Biosurfactants have traits that have proven to be advantageous over synthetic surfactants, but these compounds do not compete economically with synthetic surfactants. Different alternatives increase the yield of biosurfactants; development of an economical production process and the usage of cheaper substrates during process have been employed. One of the solutions relies on the suitable formulation of a production medium by including alternative raw materials sourced from agro-wastes, hydrocarbons, or by-products of a process might help in boosting the biosurfactant production. Since the nutritional factors required will be different among microorganisms, the establishment of a suitable formulation for biosurfactant production will be challenging. The present review describes various nutrients and elements considered in the formulation of a production medium with an approach focusing on the macronutrient (carbon, nitrogen source, and C/N ratio), minerals, vitamins, metabolic regulators, and salinity levels which may aid in the study of biosurfactant production in the future.

Surgical patients are at risk of developing a perioperative pressure injury (ORPI) during surgery. Accurate assessment and prompt implementation of prevention strategies or treatment of ORPI are dependent on knowledge and skills of operating room (OR) nurses. The study examined the knowledge and attitude of OR nurses in identifying at‐risk patients. A cross‐sectional, prospective, descriptive study was adopted. OR nurses were invited to complete the survey using the attitude towards pressure ulcer prevention instrument (Cronbach α of 0.79) and pressure ulcer knowledge assessment tool (Cronbach α of 0.77). Approximately, 28% of OR nurses took part in the survey. Most of them were females (99%) with a mean age of 38.4 ± 12.9 years old. Of these, 73% of the nurses described not having adequate experience in preventing ORPI, and 88% of them were uncertain about the treatment strategies. The mean overall knowledge score was 47.8 ± 9.1% for this cohort. The study demonstrated that approximately 8.9% of OR nurses passed with a score ≥ 60% for knowledge. The mean overall attitude score was 74.6 ± 6.1% for this cohort. About 35.6% of these nurses gave positive scores of greater than 75% for attitudes. The knowledge scores have no relationship with the working experience, role responsibility, academic qualification, ethnicity, nationality, and gender except for age 35 years older or equal and younger. Still, both the knowledge and attitude scores obtained have a strong relationship with the nurses' experiences with PI prevention. Personal competency to prevent PI has a strong correlation with risk identifying and preventing PI. There are strong associations between being responsible for PI development and the knowledge on risk identification and prevention of PI. The attitude regarding the prioritisation of PI prevention is also strongly correlated to the nurses' knowledge in preventing PI. Positive attitudes of OR nurses have no relationship with the overall knowledge scores. The prevention of ORPI is not on the list of priorities among OR nurses. The knowledge of preventive measures and risk identification of PI was limited among local OR nurses. Incorporating a standard screening and assessment tool within the current assessment list will support and promote ORPI risk assessment and continuous assessment. Contextualised education on ORPI prevention and management should be considered part of the training for OR nurses.

This is a scale-down study of a 500-m 3 methane recovery test plant for anaerobic treatment of palm oil mill effluent (POME) where biomass washout has become one of the problems because of the continuous mixing of effluent during anaerobic treatment of POME. Therefore, in this study, anaerobic POME treatment using a scaled down 50-l bioreactor which mimicked the 500-m 3 bioreactor was carried out to improve biogas production with and without biomass sedimentation. Three sets of experiments were conducted under different conditions in terms of biomass sedimentation applied to the system. The first experiment was operated under semi-continuous mode whereas the second and third experiments were operated based on mix and settle mode. As expected, biomass retention improved the anaerobic process as the POME treatment incorporated with mix and settle system were able to operate at an organic loading rate (OLR) of 3.5 and 6.0 kg COD/m 3 /day respectively, while the semicontinuous operated anaerobic treatment only achieved OLR of 3.0 kg COD/m 3 /day. The highest biogas and methane production rates achieved were 2.42 m 3 /m 3 of reactor/day and 0.992 m 3 /m 3 of reactor/day, respectively at OLR 6.0 kg COD/m 3 /day. The biomass or solids retention in the reactors was represented by the total solids measured in this study.

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