Comparison between paper and electronic sleep diary

This study aimed to test the concurrent validity of an electronic version (to run on tablet) of a sleep diary derived from the core Consensus Sleep Diary compared with the traditional paper and pencil version. To this end, 15 healthy volunteers (6 males; mean age 37.20 ± 17.55 years) every morning, for at least 7 consecutive days, filled both paper and electronic sleep diary. Furthermore, sleep was objectively assessed through actigraphy. With reference to all sleep parameters examined, no significant differences were observed between paper and electronic sleep diary. As expected, paper and electronic sleep diary showed the same poor agreement with actigraphic estimates of sleep quantity and sleep quality. On the basis of the present data, we can conclude that electronic sleep diary performs like paper sleep diary. Bearing in mind that electronic sleep diary presents several benefits in comparison to the paper sleep diary (e.g. avoiding of the “parking lot syndrome”, in which patient retrospectively completes more days at the same time; reducing the time for data entry and scoring), we suggest that, if the present findings will be confirmed also in clinical populations, electronic sleep diary should replace paper sleep diary in both research and clinical settings.     

Extended Producer Responsibility in Thailand

Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) sheds light on the dimmer side of production and consumption patterns in modern societies. The rapid increase in its quantity and complexity contribute to the challenges it poses to solid waste management systems. Several members of the Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development (OECD) have relied on the principle of extended producer responsibility (EPR) to tackle the issue, with varying degrees of success. Several non‐OECD countries, including Thailand, are now developing WEEE programs and are looking for lessons from these first movers. This case study aims to provide an understanding both of this context and of the EPR program for WEEE proposed for Thailand. It finds that EPR mechanisms in general, and the proposed buy‐back system financed by product fees in Thailand in particular, have a strong potential to consolidate WEEE collection for the formal recycling sector by offering end users monetary incentives. On the negative side, this is an expensive combination of policy instruments, and the institutional design of the governmental fund is rigid. The policy proposal also contains no mechanism for product redesign—one of the objectives in the national WEEE strategy. This article suggests that the effectiveness of the policy might benefit from more flexibility at the compliance scheme level, in order to lessen the monopoly of the governmental fund, as well as the introduction of differentiated fees to promote environmentally friendly products.     

Reductive Biotransformation of Benzaldehyde Derivatives by Baker's Yeast in Non-Conventional Media: Effect of Substrate Hydrophobicity on the Biocatalytic Reaction

The reduction of six derivatives of benzaldehyde, α,α,α-trifluorotolualdehyde, nitrobenzaldehyde, anisaldehyde, fluorobenzaldehyde, tolualdehyde, chlorobenzaldehyde, each of which was substituted in the ortho-, meta- and para-positions, was investigated in whole cell yeast biotransformations conducted in non-conventional media. Correlation between hydrophobic (π) and electronic (σ) parameters of the substituent of the substrate and biocatalytic activity in organic solvent media (hexane containing 2% v/v water) was evaluated. While catalytic activity in general decreased as the substituent hydrophobicity (π) increased, the trend was more pronounced for ortho- substituents compared to meta- and para-. When the electronic parameters (σ) of the meta- and para- substituents were correlated with the catalytic activity, the opposite was observed, namely the catalytic activity increased as the electronic parameter of the substituent increased. This observation was similar for meta- and para- substituents.

Preliminary studies on the relationships between solvent and substrate polarity on the one hand and catalytic activity on the other are also presented and discussed.     

Toward a general mixed quantum/classical method for the calculation of the vibronic ECD of a flexible dye molecule with different stable conformers: Revisiting the case of 2,2,2‐trifluoro‐anthrylethanol

We extend a recently proposed mixed quantum/classical method for computing the vibronic electronic circular dichroism (ECD) spectrum of molecules with different conformers, to cases where more than one hindered rotation is present. The method generalizes the standard procedure, based on the simple Boltzmann average of the vibronic spectra of the stable conformers, and includes the contribution of structures that sample all the accessible conformational space. It is applied to the simulation of the ECD spectrum of (S)‐2,2,2‐trifluoroanthrylethanol, a molecule with easily interconvertible conformers, whose spectrum exhibits a pattern of alternating positive and negative vibronic peaks. Results are in very good agreement with experiment and show that spectra averaged over all the sampled conformational space can deviate significantly from the simple average of the contributions of the stable conformers. The present mixed quantum/classical method is able to capture the effect of the nonlinear dependence of the rotatory strength on the molecular structure and of the anharmonic couplings among the modes responsible for molecular flexibility. Despite its computational cost, the procedure is still affordable and promises to be useful in all cases where the ECD shape arises from a subtle balance between vibronic effects and conformational variety.     

Tuning Electronic Structure of NiFe Layered Double Hydroxides with Vanadium Doping toward High Efficient Electrocatalytic Water Oxidation

Binary NiFe layer double hydroxide (LDH) serves as a benchmark non‐noble metal electrocatalyst for the oxygen evolution reaction, however, it still needs a relatively high overpotential to achieve the threshold current density. Herein the catalyst's electronic structure is tuned by doping vanadium ions into the NiFe LDHs laminate forming ternary NiFeV LDHs to reduce the onset potential, achieving unprecedentedly efficient electrocatalysis for water oxidation. Only 1.42 V (vs reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE), ≈195 mV overpotential) is required to achieve catalytic current density of 20 mA cm^?2 with a small Tafel slope of 42 mV dec^?1 in 1 m KOH solution, which manifests the best of NiFe‐based catalysts reported till now. Electrochemical analysis and density functional theory +U simulation indicate that the high catalytic activity of NiFeV LDHs mainly attributes to the vanadium doping which can modify the electronic structure and narrow the bandgap thereby bring enhanced conductivity, facile electron transfer, and abundant active sites.     

Muon Spectroscopy Applied to Biological Systems: A Study of Thiyl Radicals, RS

Thiyl radicals (RS.) are formed when positive muons (μ⁺) are implanted into solutions of thiocarbonyl compounds (C = S) in ethanol, tetrahydrofuran or formamide solvents. A solvent dependence is found, which reflects changing electronic interactions and overall conformations, suggesting that the properties of RS. radicals may be dependent on the polarity (philicity) of the environment in which they are formed.