Green framework to improve indoor air quality in buildings: reducing the impact of sick building syndrome on office workers in Sri Lanka: a literature review

The prevalence of harmful, natural and artificial substances, indoors are combined with poorly ventilated interior and the long period of time staff spend indoors, can lead to various health problems. Poor Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) can lead to such increased incidents of health related symptoms, which in turn can lead to an increase in absenteeism and loss of productivity. Sick Building Syndrome (SBS) is a major health effect faced by occupants in buildings with indoor air problems whilst most of buildings were potential carriers of SBS. SBS due to poor IAQ could affect to the workers who are working in the same premises for long durations. Especially in an office environment, the workers have to work in the same working area with many numbers of hours continually in the same premises. Thus, they are directly faced with the indoor air factors all along the day. Thus, poor IAQ has become a major concern and widely regarded as a significant health, environment and economic hazard. Consequently, certain guidelines are helpful to improve and control the quality of air indoors. Green building concept is gaining momentum in facilitating healthier environment specially by improving IAQ due to its potential impact on building occupants. Accordingly, a green framework of IAQ has been developed through a comprehensive literature review by considering available green strategies including green tools, standards and codes and organizational and national policies and procedures. Thus, those strategies can be applied to control sources of poor IAQ, human activities and IAQ performance as well as to improve the awareness on SBS and green strategies. Further, it is expected that the study will serve a green platform which can be applied by future researchers in order to reduce the impact of SBS on building occupants in Sri Lanka

Stakeholder Analysis For Smart City Development Project: An Extensive Literature Review

The current trend in urban planning has been evolved for developing the cities smart. Smart city concept directs urban development in to a strategic path to achieve sustainability in urban development. The understanding made up on the concept of smart city within any region would be fruitful to review in this nature. Similarly, the various stakeholders who would influence and contribute on smart city development projects are profound to identify in order to make the project success. As previous researches denoted, a timely and effective consultation of relevant stakeholders is of paramount importance for the success of any project. In line of thinking, this research was aimed to conduct a stakeholder analysis through a comprehensive literature review. Thirty one (31) key literature projects were obtained from recognised research databases and were critically reviewed to identify the internal and external project stakeholders of smart city development projects. As the key findings, the concept of smart city was first recognised. Secondly, academia and research institutions, local and regional administrations, financial suppliers/investors, energy suppliers, ICT sector representatives, citizens, government, property developers, non-profit organisations, planners, policy makers, experts and scientists, political institutions and media were identified as key internal and external stakeholders of a smart city development project. The key research findings were presented through a conceptual framework. The developed framework could be utilised as a basis to analyse the different influences and contributions of stakeholders of smart city development projects in any context

Adopting the Zero Waste Concept for Eliminating C&D Waste in the Construction Industry

Construction industry is one of the key economic players in any region, where Construction and Demolition (C&D) waste generation occurs due to continuous construction and demolition activities. The C&D waste mainly comprises cement, timber, brick, concrete, aluminium, tile, steel, plastic, polythene, paper, and cardboard. Such wastes have led to several environmental, economic, and social issues over the past years. Therefore, C&D waste management is considered as a persuasive matter that needs to address, and hence, the “Zero Waste” concept has emerged as a solution to eliminate the C&D waste. Zero waste is the elimination of waste at the source and throughout the construction activity. Accordingly, implementation of the Zero waste concept in the construction industry helps to optimise the use of natural resources, reduce environmental issues and to promote sustainability. However, only limited studies are available on zero waste management in the construction industry, and hence the present study aims to investigate the adoption of zero waste concept to eliminate C&D waste in developing countries. The paper outcomes based on a comprehensive literature review and the significant findings of this research paper are the recognition of strategies, enablers, and barriers to adopting zero waste concept in the construction industry

Safeguarding community-centred global health research during crises

Global health researchers encounter challenges in conducting research during crises, including pandemics, natural disasters and humanitarian conflicts.1 2 External crises often arise without prior notice and disrupt well-planned research. It is difficult to continue research activities under these circumstances, particularly when researchers and communities are at risk.3 Furthermore, community engagement and involvement (CEI), a crucial element in decolonised global health research,4 can become particularly difficult, as the community members’ primary focus may be on survival and acquiring basic needs, which must be a priority above commitment and participation in research. Conducting research in a context of crisis imposes concerns about ethical, credible and equitable research.5 6 The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on global health research, particularly in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). Both funding acquisition and scholarly output in LMICs were affected.2 Collaborative research relied on virtual communication platforms, and alternative data collection mechanisms, such as online questionnaires and telephone interviews. However, the validity, reliability and generalisability of such datasets are still subject to extensive discussion.7 Populations without reliable internet access and electronic devices were often excluded from participation, which further exacerbated social inequity, particularly in disadvantaged rural communities.8 9 Here, we share the experience of the Sri Lankan team of the multicountry global health research programme ECLIPSE. We highlight three aspects that will inform the global scientific community in safeguarding research during crises: (1) positioning the research within the crisis context; (2) using CEI for ongoing research and (3) innovating methods and moving beyond the virtual mode

Comprehensive evaluation of a prospective Australian patient cohort with suspected genetic kidney disease undergoing clinical genomic testing: a study protocol

Introduction: Recent advances in genomic technology have allowed better delineation of renal conditions, the identification of new kidney disease genes and subsequent targets for therapy. To date, however, the utility of genomic testing in a clinically ascertained, prospectively recruited kidney disease cohort remains unknown. The aim of this study is to explore the clinical utility and cost-effectiveness of genomic testing within a national cohort of patients with suspected genetic kidney disease who attend multidisciplinary renal genetics clinics. Methods and Analysis: This is a prospective observational cohort study performed at 16 centres throughout Australia. Patients will be included if they are referred to one of the multidisciplinary renal genetics clinics and are deemed likely to have a genetic basis to their kidney disease by the multidisciplinary renal genetics team. The expected cohort consists of 360 adult and paediatric patients recruited by December 2018 with ongoing validation cohort of 140 patients who will be recruited until June 2020. The primary outcome will be the proportion of patients who receive a molecular diagnosis via genomic testing (diagnostic rate) compared with usual care. Secondary outcomes will include change in clinical diagnosis following genomic testing, change in clinical management following genomic testing and the cost-effectiveness of genomic testing compared with usual care. Ethics and Dissemination: The project has received ethics approval from the Melbourne Health Human Research Ethics Committee as part of the Australian Genomics Health Alliance protocol: HREC/16/MH/251. All participants will provide written informed consent for data collection and to undergo clinically relevant genetic/genomic testing. The results of this study will be published in peer-reviewed journals and will also be presented at national and international conferences.Kushani Jayasinghe, Zornitza Stark, Chirag Patel, Amali Mallawaarachchi, Hugh McCarthy, Randall Faull, Aron Chakera, Madhivanan Sundaram, Matthew Jose, Peter Kerr, You Wu, Louise Wardrop, Ilias Goranitis, Stephanie Best, Melissa Martyn, Catherine Quinlan, Andrew J Mallet

Clinical spectrum, prognosis and estimated prevalence of DNAJB11-kidney disease

Monoallelic mutations of DNAJB11 were recently described in seven pedigrees with atypical clinical presentations of autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease. DNAJB11 encodes one of the main cofactors of the endoplasmic reticulum chaperon BiP, a heat-shock protein required for efficient protein folding and trafficking. Here we conducted an international collaborative study to better characterize the DNAJB11-associated phenotype. Thirteen different loss-of-function variants were identified in 20 new pedigrees (54 affected individuals) by targeted next-generation sequencing, whole-exome sequencing or whole-genome sequencing. Amongst the 77 patients (27 pedigrees) now in total reported, 32 reached end stage kidney disease (range, 55-89 years, median age 75); without a significant difference between males and females. While a majority of patients presented with non-enlarged polycystic kidneys, renal cysts were inconsistently identified in patients under age 45. Vascular phenotypes, including intracranial aneurysms, dilatation of the thoracic aorta and dissection of a carotid artery were present in four pedigrees. We accessed Genomics England 100,000 genomes project data, and identified pathogenic variants of DNAJB11 in nine of 3934 probands with various kidney and urinary tract disorders. The clinical diagnosis was cystic kidney disease for eight probands and nephrocalcinosis for one proband. No additional pathogenic variants likely explaining the kidney disease were identified. Using the publicly available GnomAD database, DNAJB11 genetic prevalence was calculated at 0.85/10.000 individuals. Thus, establishing a precise diagnosis in atypical cystic or interstitial kidney disease is crucial, with important implications in terms of follow-up, genetic counseling, prognostic evaluation, therapeutic management, and for selection of living kidney donors

Expression and Function of Osteopontin in Vascular Adventitial Fibroblasts and Pathological Vascular Remodeling

Osteopontin is known to play important roles in various diseases including vascular disorders. However, little is known about its expression and function in vascular adventitial fibroblasts. Adventitial fibroblasts have been shown to play a key role in pathological vascular remodeling associating with various vascular disorders. In this study, we measured activation of Osteopontin and its biological functions in cultured adventitial fibroblasts and injured rat carotid injury arteries induced by balloon angioplasty. Our results showed that angiotensin II and aldosterone increased Osteopontin expression in adventitial fibroblasts in a time- and concentration-dependent manner. MAPKs and AP-1 pathways were involved in Osteopontin upregulation. In addition, Adventitial fibroblast migration stimulated by Angiotensin II and aldosterone required OPN expression. Perivascular delivery of antisense oligonucleotide for Osteopontin suppressed neointimal formation post-injury. We concluded that upregulation of Osteopontin expression in adventitial fibroblasts might be important in the pathogenesis of vascular remodeling after arterial injury

Importance of Quality for Construction Project Success

Construction projects are always expected to create a balance between cost, time and quality. It is possible to have high quality and low cost, but at the expense of time, and conversely to have high quality and a fast project, but at a cost. High quality is not always the primary objective for the client; however, it is extremely important to a successful project. An appropriate level of quality could be determined during all phases of the construction project. Specially, construction and commissioning are two critical phases where the project could impact by its operability, availability, reliability, and maintainability of a facility. Ultimately, a facility with a good construction quality program and minimal defects is more likely to have a smooth and trouble free transition into the commissioning and qualification phase of the project. This creates a great potential for quality improvements in construction projects, as the poor quality could negatively effect to project failures. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to investigate the importance of quality for construction project success. Accordingly, quality and related key literature were reviewed and a framework of quality for construction project success was developed