Catalytic activity of supported solid catalysts for phenol hydroxylation

Cobalt(II), copper(II) and zinc(II) complexes of 2-phenylbenzimidazole (PhBzlH) encapsulated in the supercages of zeolite-Y and ZSM-5 have been synthesized and characterized by spectroscopic studies (IR, UV/visible, EPR), elemental analyses, thermal studies and X-ray diffraction patterns. The catalytic activity of encapsulated complexes was investigated for the hydroxylation of phenol using 30 % H2O2 as an oxidant. Under optimized reaction conditions, the hydroxylation of phenol yielded catechol and hydroquinone as the major products. All catalysts show good selectivity for diphenol products. A maximum conversion of phenol was obtained with [Cu(PhBzlH)]-Y as the catalyst. The results showed that conversion of phenol varies in the order [Cu(PhBzlH)]-Y (53 %) > [Cu(PhBzlH)]-ZSM-5 > (49 %) > [Co(PhBzlH)]-ZSM-5 (47 %) > [Co(PhBzlH)]-Y (46 %) > [Zn(PhBzlH)]-Y (45 %) > [Zn(PhBzlH)]-ZSM-5 (41 %) after 6 h of reaction time. Test for the recyclability of the reaction was also carried out and the results indicate their recyclability

A review of public health economic modelling in the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE)

Background: The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) use economic modelling to inform judgements whenever further insight is required for decision-making. Doing so for public health guidance poses several challenges. The study’s objective was to investigate the level of heterogeneity in NICE’s public health economic models with regards to economic evaluation techniques, perspectives on outcomes and the measurement of non-health benefits. Methods: A review of all economic modelling reports published by NICE’s Centre for Public Health (CPH) as part of their guidance. Results: The review identified 56 eligible pieces of public health over the relevant period. Of these, 43 used economic modelling and 13 used no formal economic model. In total 61 economic models were used. Though the CPH specifies a reference case, in practice there is a large amount of variability from one model to the next. The most common perspective used for evaluations was that of the National Health Service (NHS); the most common economic evaluation approach was cost-utility analysis (CUA). 23 of the 56 topics used other combinations of perspective and technique, which allowed them to incorporate non-health effects, such as productivity, the effect on taxes raised and benefits spending, costs to the criminal justice sector, the effect on educational attainment and general wellbeing. Conclusions: NICE regularly updates its reference case, and non-CUA evaluation techniques have become more prominent in recent years. The results highlight the genuine advantages of having a variety of economic evaluation techniques available, which can be matched with the given topic. While it is always necessary to be wary of the possibility of gamesmanship and cherry picking, there is a surprising alignment between many approaches in certain circumstances

Rethinking Equality in the Global Society

The future of affirmative action, especially in the area of American higher education, has been called into question by the 1996 decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in Hopwood v. State of Texas, requiring race-blind admission to state universities in Texas, and the passage of Proposition 209 in California. The seemingly endless American debate on this issue almost entirely has ignored the fact that other countries faced with comparable problems of remedying the effects of past discrimination have developed programs and acquired experience from which Americans might learn. Further, the legal debate has not been adequately informed by the social science disciplines. This conference was intended to expand discussion at a critical moment by introducing these missing perspectives

A dc-link voltage stability analysis technique for hybrid five-phase open-end winding drives

This paper studies the dc-link voltage stability for a hybrid five-phase open-end winding (OeW) drive operating under carrier based (CB) pulse-width modulation (PWM). The drive consists of a five-phase induction machine, supplied using one three-level and one two-level voltage source inverter (VSI). This configuration is analysed for the case of isolated dc-link rails, while dc-link voltage ratio is considered as an additional degree of freedom. It is demonstrated that different dc-link voltage ratios lead to the different overall number of voltage levels across stator windings. Modulation strategies are investigated and their performances are analysed from the dc-link voltages stability point of view. An analytical method for dc-link voltage stability analysis is presented. Results show that the four-level configuration always leads to stable dc-link voltages, regardless of the modulation strategy. On the other hand, if six-level configuration is combined with modulation strategies that lead to an optimal harmonic performance, not all dc-link capacitor voltages will be in balance depending on the operating conditions

Microgeographically diverse Plasmodium vivax populations at the Thai-Myanmar border

Malaria transmission along international borders of the Greater Mekong Subregion is a big challenge for regional malaria elimination. At the Thai-Myanmar border, Plasmodium falciparum cases have dropped dramatically; however, increasing P. vivax prevalence and the emerging reports on hidden malaria burden due to asymptomatic infections demand attention. We conducted cross-sectional surveys to detect asymptomatic malaria infections in a small village located at Thai-Myanmar border and genotyped P. vivax infections in order to understand the level of genetic diversity on such a microgeographic scale. PCR/RFLP and DNA sequencing identified high levels of genetic polymorphisms at both Pvmsp3α and Pvmsp3β loci among P. vivax infections. Combining the PCR/RFLP patterns of Pvmsp3α and Pvmsp3β, a total of 10 genotypes were observed among 17 samples, while concatenated DNA sequences of Pvmsp3α and 3β generated 14 haplotypes with haplotype diversity of 0.97. These markedly diverse parasites on a microgeographic scale suggest the circulation of a considerably large parasite population at the international border

Whole-genome sequencing reveals host factors underlying critical COVID-19

Critical COVID-19 is caused by immune-mediated inflammatory lung injury. Host genetic variation influences the development of illness requiring critical care1 or hospitalization2,3,4 after infection with SARS-CoV-2. The GenOMICC (Genetics of Mortality in Critical Care) study enables the comparison of genomes from individuals who are critically ill with those of population controls to find underlying disease mechanisms. Here we use whole-genome sequencing in 7,491 critically ill individuals compared with 48,400 controls to discover and replicate 23 independent variants that significantly predispose to critical COVID-19. We identify 16 new independent associations, including variants within genes that are involved in interferon signalling (IL10RB and PLSCR1), leucocyte differentiation (BCL11A) and blood-type antigen secretor status (FUT2). Using transcriptome-wide association and colocalization to infer the effect of gene expression on disease severity, we find evidence that implicates multiple genes—including reduced expression of a membrane flippase (ATP11A), and increased expression of a mucin (MUC1)—in critical disease. Mendelian randomization provides evidence in support of causal roles for myeloid cell adhesion molecules (SELE, ICAM5 and CD209) and the coagulation factor F8, all of which are potentially druggable targets. Our results are broadly consistent with a multi-component model of COVID-19 pathophysiology, in which at least two distinct mechanisms can predispose to life-threatening disease: failure to control viral replication; or an enhanced tendency towards pulmonary inflammation and intravascular coagulation. We show that comparison between cases of critical illness and population controls is highly efficient for the detection of therapeutically relevant mechanisms of disease