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The teaching case is designed to be used by students in higher education institutions at the undergraduate level. This case may also be relevant for staff at the bursary departments of any public universities or public organizations that have biological assets.

This case provides a study on agricultural activity at Universiti Pengurusan Malaysia (UNIPM). The purpose of this case is to create greater awareness for case users on the accounting framework and on methods recommended for recording specific assets in agricultural activity, i.e., biological assets. This case provides users with experience in explaining the nature of an organization’s agricultural activities and accounting for biological assets as recommended in the Malaysian accounting framework. In addition, users are exposed to some current issues in accounting standards, such as ethical issues. In this case, Fakhrul, an accountant at UNIPM and a leader of the Asset Unit, was responsible for reporting the value of all UNIPM’s assets, including biological assets. He was instructed to accurately recognize, measure, and disclose the value of biological assets according to the appropriate accounting standard. Furthermore, UNIPM had been urged to replace the existing accounting standard of the Malaysian Private Entity Reporting Standard (MPERS) with the Malaysian Public Sector Accounting Standard (MPSAS). Fakhrul was considering how to account for and report biological assets according to the new MPSAS. This case is a decision making or ‘unfinished’ case which is suitable for financial accounting and reporting courses. The names of the people and the university are fictitious, but the details were based on actual events. A series of interviews were conducted with the key players to gather the data. Other useful documents such as the university’s annual report, university’s website and the deer reports were also referred.

The primary objective of this teaching case is to provide an opportunity for case users to understand both the accounting framework and the methods recommended for recording specific assets in agricultural activity. More specifically, the teaching objectives of this case are to achieve the following learning outcomes: to identify the relevant accounting standard for recognizing, measuring, reporting, and disclosing biological assets by public universities in Malaysia, to apply the appropriate accounting treatment in recognizing, measuring, reporting, and disclosing biological assets in accordance with the appropriate accounting standard for public universities in Malaysia and to understand the ethical issues involved in deer valuation methods.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 1: Accounting and finance.

To prepare bioactive polymeric materials by grafting methods and characterisation of the biological activity of such materials.

New bioactive polysaccharides were prepared by grafting of acrylonitrile onto water soluble starch and the resulted material was reacted with bioactive heterocyclic rings, converting to N‐halamine biocidal polymers by chlorination and to polyquats by converting it to quaternary ammonium salts using hydrochloric acid. The biological activity of the materials prepared against gram positive and gram negative bacteria was studied by three methods.

Most of the bioactive materials prepared showed high disinfecting power against bacteria.

The bioactive materials were prepared by grafting of acrylonitrile onto starch and then reacting the resultant material with sulphadiazine. Many other heterocyclic rings that contain tertiary nitrogen atoms or amide group can also be used.

The new bioactive materials prepared can be used in disinfection of drinking water, swimming pools, etc.

The materials prepared and the use of such materials for disinfection were novel.

The preparation and characterisation of new bioactive polymeric materials.

New bioactive polysaccharide were prepared by grafting of acrylonitrile onto water soluble starch and then reacting with bioactive heterocyclic rings. The biological activity, against bacteria, of the materials prepared was studied.

Some of the prepared bioactive materials show high disinfecting power against bacteria.

The bioactive materials were prepared by grafting acrylonitrile onto starch and then reacting the resulting material with cyanuric acid and 2‐aminothiazole. Many other heterocyclic rings that contain tertiary nitrogen atom or amide nitrogen can also be used.

The new bioactive materials prepared can be used for disinfecting purposes.

Some of the materials prepared were used successfully in killing bacteria, as such, can be used as disinfecting materials.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the content of bioactive pigments in coloured callus of Azadirachta indica and to understand the correlation between the callus colours with their bioactive constituents, antioxidant properties and cytotoxicity. These assessments will yield valuable insight into the use of in vitro-derived pigments for possible use as functional natural colourants.

In this study, the authors have successfully developed a protocol to produce leaf-derived callus of various colours with enhanced content of bioactive pigments in A. indica through plant tissue culture. Comparative analysis of the pigments content (chlorophyll, carotenoid, phenolics and anthocyanins) in the coloured callus was conducted, followed by evaluation of its bioactive properties. The antioxidant properties against 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl and 2,2′-azinobis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) radicals, ferric reducing antioxidant power and cytotox activities of the coloured callus extracts were also reported.

Callus of various colours were successfully produced in A. indica through plant tissue culture, and their valuable pigment content and bioactivity were evaluated. The green callus contained the highest amount of anthocyanin, followed by brown and cream callus. The total anthocyanin contents in both the green and brown callus was more than two-fold higher than that in cream callus. Contrasting observation was obtained for total phenolic content (TPC), where the TPC of cream callus was significantly higher than that in brown callus. Nevertheless, the green callus also exhibited the highest TPC. Green callus also contained the highest amount of total chlorophyll and carotenoid, as well as exhibited the highest antioxidant potential, and was found to be the only extract with active cytotox activity against SKOV-3 cells. Correlation analysis revealed that the excellent bioactivity exhibited by the coloured extracts was strongly correlated with the bioactive pigments present in the callus.

The major bioactive compounds identified in the methanolic extracts of A. indica coloured callus are anthocyanins, phenolics, chlorophylls and carotenoids. Future research work should include improvements in the extraction and identification methods, which may lead to detection and determination of other compounds that could attribute to its bioactivity, to complement the findings of the current study.

This analysis provides valuable information on the application of plant tissue culture as an alternative source for sustainable production of major pigments with medicinal benefits in A. indica for possible use as functional natural colourants.

A comparative study on bioactive pigment production in coloured callus from A. indica leaves and its antioxidant potential and cytotoxicity is original. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first report detailing a comparative evaluation on the production of coloured callus in A. indica and its relative biochemical composition and bioactive properties.

Before one looks at services intended to make one aware of current progress in science, one should look briefly at the structure of science and at how, and perhaps why, information is generated. It has long been an administrative convenience to divide science into a number of quite well‐defined fields such as biology, physics, chemistry, etc., and to further subdivide these, again largely for administrative reasons. Chemistry, for example, may be divided into inorganic, organic, physical, etc. branches.

This paper aims to prevent cotton textiles from fungi damage using eco-friendly aloe vera leaf extract, which was applied at a minimum amount, and cost-effective material.

Batch extraction method using methanol solvent; phytochemical analysis was investigated and three-level factorial design of experiment and analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used for the optimization of 27 test runs. The finish was applied by pad-dry-cue at distinct concentrations, and the chemical property after treatment was studied. Colorfastness and coordinates are analyzed. Cotton fabrics were cultured with Fusarium oxysporum fungi and the anti-fungal property was examined and reported according to AATCC 30–2004 standard.

The maximum yield of extract was at an optimum volume of 200 ml, 65 °C for 120 min. The effective antifungal fabric was achieved with minimum concentrations. There was significant strength loss in warp and weft direction. The treatment results in yellow-colored cotton fabric with fastness grade 3. The antifungal effect is durable until fifteen washes as the tensile strength losses were less than 1%.

The findings of this work were based on samples considered in the laboratory. However, it can be reproducible at the factory production scale the treatment has the potential of yielding yellow dyed cotton fabric with multifunctional finishing.

The treated fabric is against Fusarium oxysporum Fungi which is one of the vital antimicrobial properties of textile apparel products for various areas of application.

The natural extract material applied to a textile material is eco-friendly effective against microbes of cotton seeds during cultivation and apparel end-uses.

The work application of fungi resistance on cotton fabric using aloe vera active component was original; this work provides extraction of the active agent from aloe vera leaf, which is optimized statically and successfully applied for anti-fungal activity on cotton fabric.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the technical-economic process efficiency of obtaining simultaneous lipo-soluble (LSF) and water-soluble (WSF) fractions from annatto seeds.

The batches of annatto seeds were submitted to the refrigerated solid-liquid extraction process in four stages: pre-extraction, aqueous extraction, separation by decantation and filtration. After that, LSF and WSF from annatto seeds were obtained. The process efficiency and the quality of LSF and WSF were analyzed in terms of average yield and bioactive compounds (bixin, norbixin, phenolics and flavonoids) and their antioxidant and antimicrobial activities. Furthermore, they were economically evaluated in terms of costs of manufacturing and profitability parameters.

The process was efficient in terms of overall average yield (LSF = 8.68% and WSF = 2.76%) (w/w) and in terms of quality, mainly with higher average yields of bixin (82.34% in LSF) and norbixin (29.59% in WSF) (w/w). The concentration of bioactive compounds in the fractions promoted an increase in inhibiting free radicals (DPPH* and ABTS*+) and in the ferric-reducing power (FRAP). LSF showed a minimum inhibitory concentration of 0.06 mg mL-1 for S. aureus and 0.13 mg mL-1 for S. Typhimurium and S. Enteritidis. The lowest manufacturing costs were obtained for the LSF due to its higher extraction yield compared to the WSF. Plants on an industrial scale of 100 and 1000 L were considered economically viable, with a return on investment of 5 and 2 years.

Thus, fractions (WSF and LSF) can be applied as natural additives, as sources of bioactive compounds for nutraceutical and/or pharmaceutical, and in the development of other innovative processes. These results have practical applicability for pharmaceutical and food industry.

1. Green processing of annatto seeds obtains fractions rich in antioxidant compounds.

2. Efficiently presents a high yield of bixin and other bioactive compounds.

3. Effective in concentrating compounds that inhibit microbial growth.

4. Fractions are more accessible sources of bioactive compounds for isolation.

5. Cost of manufacturing (COM) and profitability are studied.

Green processing of annatto seeds obtains fractions rich in antioxidant compounds.

Efficiently presents a high yield of bixin and other bioactive compounds.

Effective in concentrating compounds that inhibit microbial growth.

Fractions are more accessible sources of bioactive compounds for isolation.

Cost of manufacturing (COM) and profitability are studied.

Road traffic emissions are generally believed to contribute immensely to air pollution, but the effect of road traffic data sets on air quality (AQ) predictions has not been fully investigated. This paper aims to investigate the effects traffic data set have on the performance of machine learning (ML) predictive models in AQ prediction.

To achieve this, the authors have set up an experiment with the control data set having only the AQ data set and meteorological (Met) data set, while the experimental data set is made up of the AQ data set, Met data set and traffic data set. Several ML models (such as extra trees regressor, eXtreme gradient boosting regressor, random forest regressor, K-neighbors regressor and two others) were trained, tested and compared on these individual combinations of data sets to predict the volume of PM_2.5, PM₁₀, NO₂ and O₃ in the atmosphere at various times of the day.

The result obtained showed that various ML algorithms react differently to the traffic data set despite generally contributing to the performance improvement of all the ML algorithms considered in this study by at least 20% and an error reduction of at least 18.97%.

This research is limited in terms of the study area, and the result cannot be generalized outside of the UK as some of the inherent conditions may not be similar elsewhere. Additionally, only the ML algorithms commonly used in literature are considered in this research, therefore, leaving out a few other ML algorithms.

This study reinforces the belief that the traffic data set has a significant effect on improving the performance of air pollution ML prediction models. Hence, there is an indication that ML algorithms behave differently when trained with a form of traffic data set in the development of an AQ prediction model. This implies that developers and researchers in AQ prediction need to identify the ML algorithms that behave in their best interest before implementation.

The result of this study will enable researchers to focus more on algorithms of benefit when using traffic data sets in AQ prediction.

This paper seeks to demonstrate a functional beverage incorporating pine bark which is an unutilized forestry waste, determine in vitro release kinetics of enriched beverages, and antioxidant activities, besides assessing their shelf stabilities.

Orange juice was enriched with Pinus brutia, Pinus pinea bark extracts, Pycnogenol^®. In vitro release kinetics was determined in pH 1.2 and pH 7.4. Ascorbic acid content, pH, titratable acidity, and colorimetric analyses were analyzed monthly for eight months to determine shelf life. Additionally, total phenol contents and radical scavenging activities were analyzed. Subsequently a consumer acceptance test was conducted among 200 participants.

The release of all extracts in orange juices in pH 1.2 were slower than pH 7.4. The release results were fitted to Higuchi square root of time kinetic model with high determination coefficients. Although total titratable acidity values were in agreement with the trend of minor pH changes, prominent losses in antioxidant capacities, ascorbic acid contents and color were observed for the last two months suggesting a shelf life of six months. Female participants and young people had a greater tendency to consume such a beverage. Health concerns and flavor were the primary factors affecting their purchasing decisions.

Findings of the study demonstrated the effects of fortification with a plant‐based extract as a substitute to the present practice of fortifying beverages with vitamins and minerals for a potential future market.

The paper shows that juices fortified with pine bark extracts show higher antioxidant capacities and ascorbic acid contents compared to the control, thereby providing improved functionality.

The paper aims to analyse the effect of acid hydrolysis on the chemical composition and the biological activities of Rubia tinctorum collected from the south of Tunisia. It proposes to clarify the relationship between alizarin content and the antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of Rubia extract.

The paper opted for analytical tools (HPLC) and the in-vitro study of biological activities, namely, the antioxidant activity which is evaluated using the radical scavenging assay (ABTS) and ferric reducing power assay (FRAP); the antimicrobial activity is tested using the wells agar diffusion method.

The paper provides information about the positive effect of acid hydrolysis, namely, the enhancement of alizarin content in the extract which has increased its antioxidant and antimicrobial activities.

This paper fulfils an identified need to study the relationship between the chemical composition, biological activities and colour enhancement.