Air Pollution Modelling to Predict Maximum Ground Level Concentration for Dust from a Palm Oil Mill Stack

The study is to model emission from a stack to estimate ground level concentration from a palm oil mill. The case study is a mill located in Kuala Langat, Selangor. Emission source is from boilers stacks. The exercise determines the estimate the ground level concentrations for dust to the surrounding areas through the utilization of modelling software. The surround area is relatively flat, an industrial area surrounded by factories and with palm oil plantations in the outskirts. The model utilized in the study was to gauge the worst-case scenario. Ambient air concentrations were garnered calculate the increase to localized conditions.Keywords: emission, modelling, palm oil mill, particulate, POM

Development Disrupted: The Case of Afghanistan Taliban 2.0 and Lessons Learned About Foreign Aid Management

In August 2021, the United States withdrawal from Afghanistan marked the end of twenty years of attempts at liberal state building and development in that country. Despite spending trillions of dollars to create a capable, functional government, the Afghan government could not last even a week without US military and financial support. After its collapse, the Taliban immediately took over Afghanistan for the second time (Taliban 2.0). This turn of events resulted in the discontinuance of foreign aid and immediate downturn of the Afghan economy. Since then, there has been debate, among other issues, over why and how the foreign aid failed, and whether and how aid (if any) should continue to flow into the country under Taliban rule. This Article argues that foreign aid from governments and non-governmental donor agencies was not the essential problem, but it was the centralized aid and public finance management system which caused systemic corruption and waste. The monopoly of authorities, discretion over resources, and lack of downward accountability promoted a top-down, unanswerable aid and public finance management system which ultimately failed the Afghan State. With the Taliban again in power, there are two main issues that challenge the flow of foreign aid, aside from its egregious human rights record. First, the international community cannot trust a regime that has not (yet) been formally recognized or proved itself a reliable recipient; and second, the authoritarian and undemocratic leadership is pursuing the same centralized approach to management of aid and public funds. While the aid would remain humanitarian in scope, there is no assurance, as was the case in the previous regime, of any sustainable prospect of peace and in-country development. Nevertheless, the international community must find a way to meet this development challenge

Capacity building and training services in the WASH sector in Afghanistan

High mortality and morbidity rates are prevalent in Afghanistan and one of the causes being lack of access to safe drinking water, safe sanitation and adoption of good hygiene practices. Furthermore prospects for the support to the population are limited due to the low level of knowledge and capacity of those who normally should or could help. Danish Committee for Aid to Afghan Refugees (DACAAR) started capacity building services since 2005 and established a Water Expertise and Training Centre (WET Centre) in 2010 in partnership with a Canadian organization, Centre for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology (CAWST).DACAAR WET centre acts as a hub for data, information and research as well as a vehicle for training and technical support to government agencies, NGOs and the private sector to accelerate the knowledge management, networking and capacity building in WASH sector. As a result of WET Centre training workshops, seminars and consulting support provision to organizations, seven new organizations implemented WASH projects in Afghanistan in 2012 and ten in 2013

Significant impact of +105 A>C promoter polymorphism in IL-18 cytokine in patients with kidney stone disease

Background: Inflammation may be one cause of nephrolithiasis and the interleukin-18 (IL-18) encoding gene   polymorphisms at +105 A>C has been implicated in several inflammation related diseases. The aim of this study was to test whether IL-18+105 A>C polymorphisms could act as genetic marker for renal stone disease. A case-control study was conducted to observe the genotype distribution of IL-18+105 A>C, to elucidate the possible role of this SNP as risk factor in renal stone development and to examine its correlation with the clinico-pathologic variables.Methods: Using the Polymerase Chain Reaction-Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) technique, we tested the genotype distribution of 160 nephrolithiasis patients in comparison with 200 disease free controls from the same geographical region.  Results: We observed significant differences of IL-18+105 A to C between the controls and patients with odds ratio 5.4 (P = 0.001). The prevalence of the variant genotypes AC + CC in the patients was higher than that in the controls (45% v/s 30%) and showed a significant association (P = 0.003). Moreover, the frequency per copy of the C allele of IL-18+105 A>C was found to be implicated more in patient group 0.27 as against only 0.16 in controls (P = 0.0003). Further, males and subjects with C is implicated in renal stone disease, and that the rare, C related allele is connected with higher susceptibility to nephrolithiasis.

PHYTOCHEMICAL SCREENING, ANTIOXIDANT PROPERTIES IN VARIOUS EXTRACTS FROM THE LEAVES OF FLAGELLARIA INDICA L. FROM SABAH, MALAYSIA

Objective: This study was conducted to evaluate the antioxidant capacities of the leaves of Flagellaria indica L. (FI) and its phytochemical constituents in six different extracts.Methods: The assessment was done via a 2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl hydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging assay for the antioxidant test, the Folin-ciocalteau method for total phenolic content, Willet's method for total flavonoid content and several other qualitative phytochemical tests carried out on all extracts.Results: The results show the highest values of radical scavenging in the following order of extracts: butanol>ethyl acetate>aqueous>chloroform>methanol>hexane. The total phenolic content is the highest in the ethyl acetate (e. acetate) extract (153.28 mg/g) followed by butanol (134.78 mg/g), aqueous extract (65.88 mg/g), chloroform (55.28 mg/g), methanol (45.98 mg/g) and hexane (22.78 mg/g), expressed as gallic acid equivalents. The total flavonoids content was also the highest in e. acetate extract (38.96 mg/g) followed by butanol (28.45 mg/g), aqueous (21.18 mg/g), chloroform (12.9 mg/g), methanol (10.78 mg/g) and hexane extract (4.92 mg/g) using cathechin equivalents.Conclusion: The antioxidant and radical scavenging activities of FI might be due to the strong presence of phenolic constituents, flavonoids and several other bioactive compounds. Thus, further research can be conducted to elucidate the potential of this plant for pharmacological importance.Â

5,7-Dihy­droxy-3,6-dimeth­oxy-2-(4-meth­oxy­phen­yl)-4H-chromen-4-one monohydrate

The title compound, C18H16O7·H2O, is a flavonoid isolated from Dodonaea viscosa­. The benzopyran ring system of the flavonoid is essentially planar [maximum deviation = 0.025 (2) Å] and inclined at 5.83 (2)° to the attached benzene ring. The water of hydration is involved in extensive hydrogen bonding, assembling the mol­ecules into a supra­molecular network via classical inter­molecular O—H⋯O hydrogen bonding. The crystal structure is further stabilized by π–π stacking inter­actions [centroid–centroid distance between benzene rings = 3.564 (3) Å]