Photobleaching of Sn(IV) chlorine e6 dichloride trisodium salt in different environments

The photobleaching of Sn(IV) chlorine e6 dichloride trisodiuim salt in variety of solvents was investigated. The absorption of photosensitizer in polar solvent was much higher than in non-polar solvent. The results prove that this photosensitizer was high water soluble. The photosensitizer absorption decreased at all bands for all solvents. Increasing the irradiation time leads to gradual decrease in the absorption of photosensitizer in solvents. The photosensitizer binding to the protein will result in a reduction of the diffusional movement of the photosensitizer to equalize the protein. The presence of serum in the environment leads to increase in the photobleaching rate and response to light as well. A new peak position of absorption was observed in the ultra violet region with the presence of serum. Singlet oxygen was found to be responsible for photobleaching.Key words: Sn(IV) chlorine e6, photobleaching, photoproduct

Sustainability of Renewable Energy Systems with Special Reference to Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion Schemes

It was required to determine relative merits of commonly used renewable energy (RE) systems for which estimation of their individual sustainability percent achievable was chosen as the single criterion assessment tool. The methodology developed for estimating sustainability included identification of individual sustainability indices (SI) and examining the scope of sustainability percent input /kWh power generation for each of SI indices and summing them up estimating total sustainability accrued from respective RE systems. The RE systems studied included photo-voltaic (PV) cells, bio-fuels, on-shore & off-shore wind energy and OTEC schemes. Coal power plant being commercially viable was studied as the referral energy scheme. Nine SI indices identified for study included resource potential, greenhouse gas saving, influence on flora & fauna, effects on human health, land loss aspects, food and potable water security, economy evaluation, and improvement in quality of life from economic growth. Total sustainability achievable showed the highest in OTEC, followed by wind, bio-fuels and PV, respectively. SI index on quality of life showed RE schemes like OTEC & bio-fuels competing equally with coal power plant having poor sustainability with the least power generation cost; whence Hybrid OTEC showed the highest sustainability with high power production cost. Four fold approaches have been suggested for reducing power generation cost of OTEC. (i) Adopting economically viable scheme of not less than 40 MW. (ii) Heating up the working fluid with solar irradiation, terming SOTEC scheme. (iii) Saving cable laying cost, from hydrogen production utilizing the power generated. (iv) Hybridization of OTEC scheme

Carbon emissions from oil palm induced forest and peatland conversion in sabah and Sarawak, Malaysia

© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. The palm oil industry is one of the major producers of vegetable oil in the tropics. Palm oil is used extensively for the manufacture of a wide variety of products and its production is increasing by around 9% every year, prompted largely by the expanding biofuel markets. The rise in annual demand for biofuels and vegetable oil from importer countries has caused a dramatic increase in the conversion of forests and peatlands into oil palm plantations in Malaysia. This study assessed the area of forests and peatlands converted into oil palm plantations from 1990 to 2018 in the states of Sarawak and Sabah, Malaysia, and estimated the resulting carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. To do so, we analyzed multitemporal 30-m resolution Landsat-5 and Landsat-8 images using a hybrid method that combined automatic image processing and manual analyses. We found that over the 28-year period, forest cover declined by 12.6% and 16.3%, and the peatland area declined by 20.5% and 19.1% in Sarawak and Sabah, respectively. In 2018, we found that these changes resulted in CO2 emissions of 0.01577 and 0.00086 Gt CO2-C yr−1, as compared to an annual forest CO2 uptake of 0.26464 and 0.15007 Gt CO2-C yr−1, in Sarawak and Sabah, respectively. Our assessment highlights that carbon impacts extend beyond lost standing stocks, and result in substantial direct emissions from the oil palm plantations themselves, with 2018 oil palm plantations in our study area emitting up to 4% of CO2 uptake by remaining forests. Limiting future climate change impacts requires enhanced economic incentives for land uses that neither convert standing forests nor result in substantial CO2 emissions

Study protocol on Enhanced Primary Healthcare (EnPHC) interventions: a quasi-experimental controlled study on diabetes and hypertension management in primary healthcare clinics

Aim: This paper describes the study protocol, which aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a multifaceted intervention package called ‘Enhanced Primary Healthcare’ (EnPHC) on the process of care and intermediate clinical outcomes among patients with Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and hypertension. Other outcome measures include patients’ experience and healthcare providers’ job satisfaction. Background: In 2014, almost two-thirds of Malaysia’s adult population aged 18 years or older had T2DM, hypertension or hypercholesterolaemia. An analysis of health system performance from 2016 to 2018 revealed that the control and management of diabetes and hypertension in Malaysia was suboptimal with almost half of the patients not diagnosed and just one-quarter of patients with diabetes appropriately treated. EnPHC framework aims to improve diagnosis and effective management of T2DM, hypertension or hypercholesterolaemia and their risk factors by increasing prevention, optimising management and improving surveillance of diagnosed patients. Methods: This is a quasi-experimental controlled study which involves 20 intervention and 20 control clinics in two different states in Malaysia, namely Johor and Selangor. The clinics in the two states were matched and randomly allocated to ‘intervention’ and ‘control’ arms. The EnPHC framework targets different levels from community to primary healthcare clinics and integrated referral networks. Data are collected via a retrospective chart review (RCR), patient exit survey, healthcare provider survey and an intervention checklist. The data collected are entered into tablet computers which have installed in them an offline survey application. Interrupted time series and difference-in-differences (DiD) analyses will be conducted to report outcomes

Diagnostic implications of pitfalls in causal variant identification based on 4577 molecularly characterized families

Despite large sequencing and data sharing efforts, previously characterized pathogenic variants only account for a fraction of Mendelian disease patients, which highlights the need for accurate identification and interpretation of novel variants. In a large Mendelian cohort of 4577 molecularly characterized families, numerous scenarios in which variant identification and interpretation can be challenging are encountered. We describe categories of challenges that cover the phenotype (e.g. novel allelic disorders), pedigree structure (e.g. imprinting disorders masquerading as autosomal recessive phenotypes), positional mapping (e.g. double recombination events abrogating candidate autozygous intervals), gene (e.g. novel gene-disease assertion) and variant (e.g. complex compound inheritance). Overall, we estimate a probability of 34.3% for encountering at least one of these challenges. Importantly, our data show that by only addressing non-sequencing-based challenges, around 71% increase in the diagnostic yield can be expected. Indeed, by applying these lessons to a cohort of 314 cases with negative clinical exome or genome reports, we could identify the likely causal variant in 54.5%. Our work highlights the need to have a thorough approach to undiagnosed diseases by considering a wide range of challenges rather than a narrow focus on sequencing technologies. It is hoped that by sharing this experience, the yield of undiagnosed disease programs globally can be improved