Coronary heart disease, hypertension, non-insulin-dependent diabetes and obesity are major causes of ill health in industrial societies. Disturbances of carbohydrate and lipid metabolism are a common feature of these disorders. The bases for these disturbances and their roles in disease pathogenesis are poorly understood. The spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR), a widely used animal model of essential hypertension, has a global defect in insulin action on glucose metabolism and shows reduced catecholamine action on lipolysis in fat cells. In our study we used cellular defects in carbohydrate and lipid metabolism to dissect the genetics of defective insulin and catecholamine action in the SHR strain. In a genome screen for loci linked to insulin and catecholamine action, we identified two quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for defective insulin action, on chromosome 4 and 12. We found that the major (and perhaps only) genetic determinant of defective control of lipolysis in SHR maps to the same region of chromosome 4. These linkage results were ascertained in at least two independent crosses. As the SHR strain manifests many of the defining features of human metabolic Syndrome X, in which hypertension associates with insulin resistance, dyslipidaemia and abdominal obesity, the identification of genes for defective insulin and catecholamine action in SHR may facilitate gene identification in this syndrome and in related human conditions, such as type-2 diabetes and familial combined hyperlipidaemia.

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This paper investigates the effect of financial inclusiveness on economic growth in selected developed and developing countries (63 countries) for the years of 2014 and 2017. The level of financial inclusiveness for each country is calculated using a new construction of the financial inclusion index. The role of financial inclusiveness on economic growth is subsequently estimated using a cross-sectional threshold regression technique. The main findings revealed that there is a threshold effect of the financial inclusiveness-growth nexus, which means that financial inclusiveness exhibits a non-monotonic positive relation with economic growth. The positive effect is more pronounced at a high level than in the low level of financial inclusion index. These new findings should motivate policymakers and the banking sector in each country to exert greater effort in raising the level of financial inclusion in stimulating sustainable economic growth.

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The main objective of this study was to measure and determine the efficiency of poly-crystalline, mono-crystalline and amorphous silicon solar module by applying single-axis time/date solar tracker to the installation of photovoltaic panel (dynamic system) as a strategy to increase the performance of the modules under hot-humid climate of Malaysia. The dynamic system in this experiment was designed to support the three types of PV panels which allowed it to move with single degree of freedom (horizontally) according to the sun’s orientation (sunrise to sunset) from east to west. Studies on sun movement in equator countries have been conducted to locate the sun‘s position on site (azimuth and altitude angle) using the Stereographic Diagram and Tabulate Daily Solar Data. It was found that poly-crystalline solar module have shown better performance ratio and average module efficiency compare to the others tested PV module under Malaysian climate.

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Fibre optic daylighting systems are a developing technology that offers solutions to daylighting designers. However, these systems are rarely used in the tropics because of the variable illumination provided by the sky, which changes with latitude, time of day, and seasons. This study examines the illumination levels obtained using a fibre optic daylighting system under various tropical climate conditions in Malaysia. A Parans SP3 fibre optic daylighting system with 10-m cable was used on a full-scale test bed model in Universiti Sains Malaysia as an empirical approach. The following results were obtained: (i) on sunny days with intermediate blue sky, the system worked at 79% and reached a maximum of 725 lx, an average of 457 lx, and a minimum of 98 lx; (ii) on moderately sunny days with intermediate mean sky, the system worked at 48.5% and reached a maximum 685 lx, an average of 439 lx, and a minimum of 80 lx; (iii) under overcast skies, the system worked at 37.5% and reached a maximum of 538 lx, an average of 305 lx, and a minimum of 41 lx. These findings provide benchmarking directions for the application of fibre optic daylighting systems in Malaysia.