Laboratory Waste Hexanes and Chloroform Recovery by a Cost Effective and Sustainable Physicochemical Treatment Process

Solvent in general is a liquid chemical substance that dissolves solute chemicals without performing chemical reactions. Therefore, in the chemical industry and academia, solvents play vital roles as washing media, reaction media, extraction media and analysis media. Thus, solvents are often used in large quantities. Waste water generated in chemical laboratories are cleaned and discarded to environment. However, toxic, hazardous, and/or carcinogenic nature of organic solution wastes makes them a major environmental threat when discarded. The acquisition of solvent waste recovery systems by industries and institutions is largely prevented by high costs of establishment and maintenance. Thus, the development of a simple, low cost, and self-sustainable physicochemical treatment processes is a timely need. However, the treatment process must be custom developed based on the solvent properties, impurities, impurity levels. According to United States Environmental Health and Safety (US-EHS), hexanes and chloroform are classified as non-recommended solvents on the basis of environmental perspectives and human health standpoints. Waste organic solvents and aqueous reagents used in the liquid-liquid extraction processes were collected in large quantities from undergraduate laboratories of the Department of Chemistry, University of Sri Jayewardenepura. Waste hexanes contaminated with dichloromethane (CH2Cl2), o-nitroaniline, and p-nitroaniline was extracted with hydrochloric acid (HCl) whereas three types of waste chloroform samples each contaminated with iodine (I2), salicylic acid, and ammonia (NH3) were extracted with sodium thiosulfate (Na2S2O3), sodium hydroxide (NaOH), and sulfuric acid (H2SO4), respectively. The impurities were identified and quantified using titrimetric and colorimetric techniques before and after the purification process. According to the analytical data obtained for waste samples a series of representative samples similar to the wastes and representative reagents were prepared and the extractions were performed in order to facilitate further analysis of recovered solvents using UV-vis, ATR-FTIR and GC-MS. The removal of the impurities in the range of 96-100% was achieved. Furthermore, the reusability of the recovered chloroform was demonstrated by performing the laboratory experiments and getting acceptable results. Over 75% of the amount of solvents required for the undergraduate experiments under the current investigation can be fulfilled by recovered solvents. The contaminants extracted into aqueous media are further treated separately and discarded. Taking the environmental benefits and economic advantage into account, proposed solvent recovery methods were approved by the Chemistry Department and soon will be implemented. The concept of solvent recovery and reuse is being extended to additional solvents and impurity types with our ongoing research.Keywords: Solvent waste, Solvent-recovery, Liquid-liquid extractio

The Moderating Effect of Gender on Self-Image and House Purchase Intention in Sri Lanka

Self-image is one of the major consumer behaviour constructs that play a major role in house purchase intention. In this context, moderating impact of gender between self-image and house purchasing intention is uncertain and ambiguous. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of gender moderation on the relationship between self-image and house purchasing intention. The quantitative research method was used for this study. Potential luxury housing buyers in Sri Lanka were used as a population of the study and a structured questionnaire survey was conducted to collect data. The sample size of the study is 100.  Four hypotheses were developed for the study and those hypothesized were analysed using Partial Least Square (PLS) analysis. The findings reveal that actual self-image and house purchase intention have a significant positive relationship and there is no relationship between ideal self-image and house purchase intention. Further, the study failed to support that gender moderates the relationship between self-image (actual and ideal) and house purchasing intention. The present findings of the study will be beneficial for real estate developers, real estate marketers/managers, and academia, relating to the house purchase intention in the luxury housing market. © 2022 The Authors. Published by Department of Estate Management and Valuation, University of Sri Jayewardenepura.   Keywords: Consumer Behaviour, Self-image, Actual Self-image, Ideal self-image, House Purchase Intention, House Buying Behaviou

Do we achieve LDL-cholesterol targets in routine clinical practice? Evidence from a tertiary care hospital in Sri Lanka

Background: Statins are widely used for primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD). European Society of Cardiology / European Atherosclerosis Society (ESC/EAS) guidelines recommend LDL-cholesterol targets based on CVD risk.Objectives: This study aimed to determine whether LDL-cholesterol targets recommended by2016 ESC/EASare achieved in routine clinical practice.Methods: This paper is based on baseline data of patients recruited to a controlled clinical trial conducted at a tertiary care hospital. Participants have been on atorvastatin for >2 months. Demographic and clinical data were obtained using clinic records and interviewer administered questionnaires. LDL-cholesterol was assessed using Friedewald equation (when triglyceride was <400mg/dL) or by direct measurement (when triglyceride was ≥400mg/dL). Each participant’s CVD risk level and appropriate LDL-cholesterol target (very-high CVD risk:<70mg/dL; high CVD risk:<100mg/dL; low to moderate CVD risk:<115mg/dL) was determined according to 2016 ESC/EAS Guideline.Results: 101 patients were studied. (Women: 76.2%; mean-age: 61.2:±9.3years). Prevalence of coronary heart disease, ischaemic stroke, diabetes, hypertension and smoking was 30.7%, 4%, 77.2%, 80.2% and 4%, respectively. According to CVD risk level 80.2%, 15.8% and 4% were in very-high, high and moderate risk categories, respectively. Most were on atorvastatin 10mg (45.5%) followed by 20mg (43.6%), 40mg (8.9%), 30mg (1%) and 5mg (1%). Median duration of treatment was 41-months. Overall, only 12.9% had achieved target LDL-cholesterol (very-high risk: 7.4%; high risk: 37.5%, moderate risk: 25%; p=0.003). Men did better than women in achieving target LDL-cholesterol (men: 29.2%, women: 7.8%; p=006). There was no difference based on age, comorbidities or atorvastatin dose.Conclusions: In the study population majority has failed to achieve LDL-cholesterol targets recommended by 2016 ESC/EAS. Failure to achieve targets was more common among women and those having very-high CVD risk. Reason for suboptimal target achievement has to be studied further.Acknowledgement: Funded by University of Sri Jayewardenepura Research Grant (ASP/01/RE/MED/2015/54) and Ceylon College of Physicians Research Grant (2014)

Pleustonic colonies of cnidarians (Physalia physalis, Porpita porpita and Velella velella) found along the coastal belt of Sri Lanka

Three species of the free-floating, colonial hydrozoans namely Physalia physalis L., Porpita porpita L. and Velella velella L., found along the coastal belt of Sri Lanka are reported here with their morphological descriptions and respective abundance. The study was conducted from March 2017 to April 2018, implementing monthly coastal surveys at 26 sampling stations along the coastal belt of Sri Lanka. The abundance of stranded colonies of those species was assessed using line transects and the specimens were identified taxonomically. Of the porpitids found in this study, V. velella was reported for the first time in Sri Lankan waters while P. porpita was re-reported trustworthy as its initial record was just a sighting. The siphonophore P. physalis was also re-reported and it always represented the lowest abundance among the stranded colonies of the three species. The highest abundance of all the species was from May to August on the southwest coast of Sri Lanka, and from November to February on the northeast coast. There was a significant size difference in colonies of each species between the two coasts

A mobile cloud computing framework integrating multilevel encoding for performance monitoring in telerehabilitation

Recent years have witnessed a surge in telerehabilitation and remote healthcare systems blessed by the emerging low-cost wearable devices to monitor biological and biokinematic aspects of human beings. Although such telerehabilitation systems utilise cloud computing features and provide automatic biofeedback and performance evaluation, there are demands for overall optimisation to enable these systems to operate with low battery consumption and low computational power and even with weak or no network connections. This paper proposes a novel multilevel data encoding scheme satisfying these requirements in mobile cloud computing applications, particularly in the field of telerehabilitation. We introduce architecture for telerehabilitation platform utilising the proposed encoding scheme integrated with various types of sensors. The platform is usable not only for patients to experience telerehabilitation services but also for therapists to acquire essential support from analysis oriented decision support system (AODSS) for more thorough analysis and making further decisions on treatment

A technological framework for data-driven IoT systems: application on landslide monitoring

The emergence of the paradigm of the Internet of Things has underpinned the development of data-driven cyber-physical systems that collect and process data that is dense both in space and time. The application areas of such data-driven IoT systems are numerous and their socio-economic impact of great importance as they enable the monitoring and management of processes in sectors ranging from urban management to management of the natural environment. In this work, we introduce and detail an end-to-end technological framework for data-driven IoT systems for landslide monitoring. The framework is articulated in three tiers – namely data acquisition, data curation and data presentation. For each tier we present and detail its design and development aspects; from the IoT hardware design and the wireless communication technologies of choice, to how Big Data infrastructure and Machine Learning components can be combined to support a sophisticated presentation tier that delivers the true added value of a system to its final users. The framework is validated, extended and fine-tuned by means of two pilots at locations experiencing the impact of different landslide types and activity. This work qualitatively improves upon existing methods of landslide monitoring and showcases how data-driven IoT systems can pave new pathways for interdisciplinary research as well as generate positive impact on modern societies

Lichen floral studies on Artocarpus heterophyllus Lam. tree trunk in different eco - regions of Sri Lanka

Information on lichen flora in Sri Lanka is scarce. Therefore a study was carried out to investigatelichens growing on a tree species common to all five eco regions (Montane, Wet, Intermediate, Aridand Dry zone) of Sri Lanka. The common tree species found in all regions was Artocarpusheterophyllus Lam. (jak). Lichen flora found on bark of jak trees between 1.5 m and 2 rn above theground level was studied. Six hundred and sixty three specimens from hundred and twenty trees werestudied. Twenty five genera and thirteen families were found among them. Twenty genera werefound to be crustose and five were folioses. No fruticose lichen was found in any region. Of allidentified lichens 40% were belonged to the family Graphidaceae and it was the most frequentlyfound lichen family in all regions and the second highest (17%) was belonged to family Phyciaceae.The most frequently found genus was Graphis.Heterodermia and Pertusaria were found only in montane zone while Leptogium was found only inlowland wet zone. Thelotrema. Ocellularia. Myriotrema and Chrysothrix were found only inIntermediate zonc. Parntelia was restricted to wet zone while Dirinaria, Dimerella and Porinawere restricted to dry zone, Differences in distribution of some of these lichens can be explainedwith rain fall, temperature and humidity.

The Contribution of Co-signaling Pathways to Anti-malarial T Cell Immunity

Plasmodium spp., the causative agent of malaria, caused 212 million infections in 2016 with 445,000 deaths, mostly in children. Adults acquire enough immunity to prevent clinical symptoms but never develop sterile immunity. The only vaccine for malaria, RTS,S, shows promising protection of a limited duration against clinical malaria in infants but no significant protection against severe disease. There is now abundant evidence that T cell functions are inhibited during malaria, which may explain why vaccine are not efficacious. Studies have now clearly shown that T cell immunity against malaria is subdued by multiple the immune regulatory receptors, in particular, by programmed cell-death-1 (PD-1). Given there is an urgent need for an efficacious malarial treatment, compounded with growing drug resistance, a better understanding of malarial immunity is essential. This review will examine molecular signals that affect T cell-mediated immunity against malaria