Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-Madras) have developed a robot, HomoSEP, to eliminate manual scavenging in the country. Septic tanks are poisonous environments, filled with semi-solid and semi-fluid human faecal material that make up about two-thirds of the tank. Hundreds of deaths are reported every year across India, due to manual scavenging in these tanks, despite bans and prohibitory orders.

The HomoSEP robot can homogenise hard sludge in the tank through a custom-developed rotary blade mechanism and pump the tanking slurry using an integrated suction mechanism. Sanitation workers will be able to operate the HomoSEP on their own, after being provided with the relevant training and appropriate guidance along with necessary safety measures. Safety plays a vital role in this whole procedure, starting with the design of HomoSEP itself, IIT-Madras stated in a recent statement.

The Institute has been developing the technology for several years. Since the first proof-of-concept, the research team has made some significant innovations, including improving the blade design through extensive simulation and achieving miniaturisation for better portability. Moreover, they integrated the product with a tractor, enabling it to reach remote locations.

Ten units will be deployed across the state of Tamil Nadu, and the Institute is also considering areas in Gujarat and Maharashtra. The researchers have been in contact with sanitation workers to identify locations. So far, two HomoSEP units have been distributed to self-help groups. An official said that the team hopes to leverage support from government channels to mass-produce and distribute the solution on a much larger scale throughout the country by next year.

The Institute has been developing several technology-based solutions to combat a variety of societal challenges. Last month, IIT-Madras developed a machine-learning algorithm to save wildlife from illegal poaching, logging, and fishing. The CombSGPO (Combined Security Game Policy Optimisation) algorithm performs strategic resource allocation and patrolling in green security domains to protect animals.

As reported on OpenGov Asia, the research team found that the combined and coordinated use of forest rangers and surveillance drones, referred to as resources, was a good way to protect wildlife from poaching. As the resources are limited, the algorithm provides highly efficient, scalable strategies. After the extent of resources has been identified, the algorithm handles resource allocation and strategises patrolling. It uses data from the animal population in the conserved area and assumes that poachers are aware of the patrolling being done at various sites. The drones have object detectors mounted on them to signal and communicate with each other as well as the human patrollers.

The algorithm works on a game theory-based model created by the researchers. Game theory is a theoretical framework for conceiving social situations among competing players. In the context of wildlife protection, game theory pertains to predicting the areas where poaching may take place. These predictions are based on the history of poaching incidents and interactions between poachers and defenders. The game model and the kind of resources researchers used to simulate such a ‘poaching game’ between the defender (forest rangers and drones) and attackers (poachers) are based on the widely-studied Stackelberg Security Game Model and are linked to drones that have already been deployed in Africa to stop elephant and rhino poaching.

City University of Hong Kong (CityU) signed Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with three venture capital funds and technology companies to establish a co-investment partnership that will provide at least HK$ 15 million in additional angel fund investment each year to selected start-ups incubated by CityU’s large-scale innovation and entrepreneurship programme, HK Tech 300. This joint effort supports start-ups that specifically benefit social and environmental sustainability and promotes the development of innovation and technology in Hong Kong.

The venture capital funds and technology companies are a company specialising in driving investment for bringing positive impacts to society and the environment; a technology enterprise specialising in the development of virtual reality and augmented reality, interactive solution services, and metaverse-related technology; and a professional service provider and business incubator. These three companies will each invest at least HK$5 million in the first year after signing the MoU and provide co-investment to selected start-ups together with the HK Tech 300 Angel Fund.

In his speech at the signing ceremony, the Under Secretary for Innovation and Technology at HKSAR, who witnessed the ceremony stated that said HK Tech 300 had been well received since its launch. In just over a year, it had already yielded fruitful results and become a new driving force for the innovation and technology ecosystem in Hong Kong. He believes the additional funding from a variety of enterprises and venture capital funds in the innovation and technology circle with actual investment in HK Tech 300 will vitalise the development of innovation and technology in Hong Kong.

The CityU Council Member and Board Chairman of CityU Enterprises Limited noted that CityU has been working closely with the innovation and technology sector to build a bridge between HK Tech 300 start-ups and industry to create a more complete runway for their development. He added that the University looks forward to working with more industry leaders and investors in the future to assist more outstanding start-ups, and promote the development of innovation and technology in Hong Kong and beyond.

The Director & CTO of the company specialising in driving investment for bringing positive impacts to society and the environment noted that through this partnership with CityU start-ups can be supported to leverage technology and spur sustainable development in Hong Kong.

The Executive Director of the tech firm that specialises in the development of VR and AR and related technologies hopes to share their experience and resources with more start-ups through this partnership to help them to grow and to motivate other small and medium enterprises to contribute together to the innovative technology industry in Hong Kong, in so doing build a better and more united innovative technology ecosystem. It is hoped that through partnership, more young entrepreneurs can be nurtured.

HK Tech 300 is a large-scale flagship innovation and entrepreneurship programme launched by CityU, under the theme “Venture Beyond Boundaries”. It was designed for aspiring entrepreneurs among CityU students, alumni, research staff and others to establish start-ups and foster their entrepreneurship journey.

HK$500-million-programme offers comprehensive support for entrepreneurship training, a seed fund of HK$100,000 per team, an angel fund of up to HK$1 million per company, co-working space, and networking opportunities in the industrial and commercial communities.

The programme aims to create 300 start-ups in three years, providing educational and growth opportunities for young entrepreneurs and translating CityU research results and intellectual property into practical applications.

For the first time, the researchers used agent-based simulation in Lake Erie to depict the behaviour of blue-green algae in their new modelling study. On the computer, each blue-green alga is represented as an individual, behaving slightly differently depending on its assumed life history.

“The big advance here was to integrate our understanding of the microbiology of the blooms into predictive models,” says Gregory Dick, an environmental microbiologist at the University of Michigan and study co-author. He added that the findings suggest that biologically informed models can reproduce emergent properties of blooms that traditional models cannot predict.

The simulation shows that lowering phosphorus levels to control harmful algal blooms in places like Lake Erie is beneficial to toxic cyanobacteria strains, which can lead to an increase in toxins in the water. Lake Erie is the fourth largest of North America’s five Great Lakes and the eleventh largest lake in the world.

When cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae, die, they can produce toxins and deplete lakes of oxygen. Phosphorus is an important nutrient for these algae, and efforts are being made around the world to reduce phosphorus levels and inhibit cyanobacterial growth.

However, as the total number of cyanobacteria decreases, the remaining cyanobacteria have a greater supply of another important nutrient which is nitrogen. Furthermore, higher nitrogen concentrations promote the production of a toxin that protects cyanobacteria from oxidative damage.

The researchers used an agent-based model to simulate how cyanobacteria behave in Lake Erie. They advocate for a paradigm shift in water management, as well as the adoption of a strategy that reduces not only phosphorus but also nitrogen loading in bodies of water.

Cyanobacteria can be harmful to both pets and humans. Due to contaminated drinking water, nearly 500,000 people in the Toledo area were without tap water for nearly three days in August 2014. This is because microcystis, a type of blue-green algae, had produced particularly high levels of the liver toxin microcystin (MC) in Lake Erie.

According to Ferdi Hellweger, chair of Water Quality Engineering at TU Berlin’s Institute of Environmental Technology and lead author, while microcystin is a strong toxin for humans and animals, it is extremely beneficial to cyanobacteria.

Microcystin can occupy specific sites on enzymes that are essential for bacterial life processes. It protects the bacteria from aggressive hydrogen peroxide, which would otherwise attack these binding sites, oxidise the enzymes, and render them ineffective.

Because phosphorus is a nutrient that is only available to a limited extent in nature for bacteria, previous efforts have focused on reducing the use of phosphates as fertilisers in agriculture and reducing the phosphorus content of wastewater through tertiary treatment of wastewater to slow the growth of blue-green algae, even in larger bodies of water like Lake Erie.

Furthermore, a blue-green alga, for example, that was frequently at the water’s surface would have been particularly exposed to sunlight and thus hydrogen peroxide. This increases the chances that it will fully utilise its microcystin production capabilities.

Sunlight can also activate the gene responsible to produce microcystin. Because more light can penetrate to greater depths and stimulate production, this mechanism contributes to the fact that less biomass leads to more toxins.

For their simulation, the researchers used the blue-green alga Microcystis and Lake Erie as the model organism and environment, respectively. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, and the National Science Foundation all contributed to the research.

The Australian National University (ANU) will play a vital role in the research and development of cheaper, more efficient and more sustainable solar technologies as a result of a multi-million-dollar investment that will ignite a spark in Australian solar innovation.

The Albanese government recently announced the Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics (ACAP), led by The University of New South Wales (UNSW) in collaboration with ANU and other institutions, will receive $45 million over the next eight years to ensure the nation continues to be a world leader in the development and deployment of cutting-edge solar technology, including the next iteration of solar panels.

Professor Andrew Blakers, an ANU scholar who coordinates the University’s involvement with ACAP, noted that Australia has a history of delivering creative solutions to further the capabilities of solar photovoltaics (PV) – technology that converts sunlight into electricity – both at home and abroad. This means that the nation is well-positioned to rise to the challenge of developing more capable and more efficient solar cells.

The investment will ensure Australia remains at the forefront of solar innovation globally and will also bring it a step closer to becoming a renewable energy superpower, he said.

Australia generates roughly twice as much solar energy per capita in comparison to any other country. Australia’s main electricity grid currently procures approximately 30 per cent of its electricity from solar and wind, and South Australia procures 70 per cent.

If nations around the world, including Australia, are to meet and surpass current-day modest emissions reduction targets, cost-effective, more efficient and widely accessible solar panels must be developed.

Professor Blakers stated that solar electricity already costs less than electricity from fossil fuels. However, the cost reductions are nowhere near finished. He said that clean and cheap solar and wind electricity allows clean electrification of transport, heating and industry and hence the removal of 80 per cent of greenhouse emissions.

Continued investment and advances in clean energy infrastructure are now, more than ever, necessary amid constraints on the global energy market and higher prices fuelled by ongoing supply issues.

Solving current energy difficulties means greater investment in solar and wind, supplemented by extra transmission to bring the new solar and wind power to the cities.

ACAP is funded by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) and is a collaboration between multiple Australian universities, solar cell production companies, and CSIRO as well as international partners.

The Incoming ACAP Director, Professor Renate Egan from UNSW stated, “We’re looking forward to working with ARENA to deliver low-cost solar technologies through ongoing research. Australia has been leading the world in solar technology development, and there’s still so much more to do. And we’re only just beginning.”

The global solar power market size was US$170.55 billion in 2020. The impact COVID-19 pandemic has been sudden and staggering resulting in the solar power market witnessing a negative demand shock across all regions amid the pandemic.

Recent research notes that this market is expected to grow from US$184.03 billion in 2021 to US$293.18 billion in 2028 at a CAGR of 6.9% during the forecast period. The rapid rise in CAGR is attributable to this market’s demand and growth returning to pre-pandemic levels once the pandemic is over.

While digital fluency enables organisations to leverage intelligent technology to solve increasingly complex challenges, a gap has emerged between innovation and having the right people to drive it. Without a doubt, it is not easy to align digital tools and human resources when technology advances so quickly, creating a disparity that is prevalent at every level of the workforce and in practically every tech function.

From entry-level personnel to experts, getting the right people, with the right skill sets at the right time is a huge challenge. With a limited pool, competitors jostle to onboard skilled, experienced talent disrupting operations and hindering progress.

In an exclusive interview with Mohit Sagar, Group Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief, OpenGov Asia, Tengku Intan Narqiah Tengku Othman, Chief Digital and Information Officer, Group Digitalisation and Information Technology, Sirim Berhad, Malaysia shared her insights on countries struggle to have the right technology and talent in an increasingly digital landscape.

Building a digital talent strategy

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, businesses throughout Malaysia have had to deal with the economic consequences of physical separation and lockdown measures. But, if there is one key takeaway, it is that digital technology adoption is no longer optional for businesses.

Because of the host of restrictions and challenges it brought, the pandemic has accelerated the digitalisation of front-end business processes such as digital marketing and e-commerce.

“I don’t see technology adoption as a one-off project or whether there is a pre, during and post-pandemic. All through my career, whether working in a multinational company or for the government, we have always been involved in technology adoption. If there is business evolution, and there is business, I have yet to find the full stop,” Tengku Intan claims emphatically.

For digital transformation to happen, people need to learn how to use new technologies and the workforce needs to be encouraged to use their skills to make new things happen. They need to think digitally, and they need skills as well.

Employees who learn to think as digital natives do better at their jobs, are happier at work and are more likely to get promoted, she feels.

According to Tengku Intan, to attract, retain and develop digital talent in different industries, the private or public sectors need to meet employee ambition and provide them with technical challenges. Second, employers need to understand the unique talents of their employees and create avenues where they can unleash their potential. Thirdly, if employers cannot match competitive remuneration packages, they need to find ways and means to reward and motivate employees in other ways.

“I don’t think there is one formula that fits all as the culture varied from one organisation to another, and this is a journey where you cannot see the results immediately. But to drive a technology-oriented culture and digital mindset, it has to come from the top,” Tengku Intan is firmly convinced.

The digital mindset in different sectors

A digital mindset is a set of attitudes and behaviours that help people and organisations see how data, algorithms and AI open new opportunities and find ways to succeed in a business world where data-intensive and smart technologies are becoming more important.

According to her, having a pessimistic mindset is the greatest challenge in upskilling employees and imparting digital literacy across the public sector. “I cannot upskill a person who can come up with a million reasons on how not to do it. But to be fair, I cannot ask a fish to fly. As a leader, I need to really understand team members’ talent and upskill them appropriately, and not have them blindly obey orders.”

Digital transitions are often significant, involving changes in shared values, traditions, attitudes and behaviours. Starting with an activity that captures attention and conveys to everyone in the company that a new path is needed is a smart approach.

Tengku Intan says technologies like cloud computing and robotic process automation (RPA) were created to improve company processes rather than to decrease human participation or threat.

“For example, the establishment of cloud computing in SIRIM. The fact that we still retain the current team and reskill them to learn cloud management, instead of installing a physical server, shows we still need people. But tech allows us to improve tremendously on business process, where we no longer required 8 weeks to get one server up, but within 15mins,” Tengku Intan explains.

She acknowledges that knowing how to work effectively not only with people but also with machines, is an important part of collaboration in the digital age. Accepting change is the final requirement for developing a digital mindset.

SIRIM towards a new norm

SIRIM Berhad, is a Malaysian government-owned corporation, an agency under the purview of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI). It is designated as the mechanism for research and technology development, as well as the national champion of quality with over four decades of experience and knowledge.

SIRIM has always been essential in the growth of Malaysia’s private sector. Utilising its skills and knowledge base, it concentrates on developing new technologies and enhancing the manufacturing, technology and services industries.

The organisation fosters the growth of Small and Medium-Sized Businesses (SMBs) by providing solutions for technology penetration and upgrade, making them an ideal technology partner for SMBs.

“I love the fact that with the current readily available technology we can democratise the application development, data visualisation and analytics work,” Tengku Intan points out.

To drive a digital mindset, SIRIM introduced a hackathon – SIRIM Hack – where non-IT employees learned how to develop simple apps or automate their paper-based forms within 2 days. It was exciting to see some participants develop much better automation than people from an actual IT team.

SIRIM is the best partner for innovation because of its unique advantages in research and technology innovation, industry standards, and quality. They have enabled Malaysian products and services to gain international recognition for their quality and innovation.

Tengku Intan wishes to share lessons learned from her 27-year career in a variety of IT/digital and business fields with the younger generation. “I have only one mantra – Always Hack Yourself!”

She emphasises that people must continue to push themselves as only they know what motivates them. In a working environment, the younger generation should learn how to:

Male-dominated industries and occupations are especially prone to reinforcing harmful stereotypes and creating unfavourable environments that make it even more difficult for women to succeed. Despite other challenges, Tengku Intan made it to the top. “For me, so far, I have not faced any gender discrimination to be where I am today. I worked as hard and as fast as the men. My passion resonates with the energy that was released. And I continuously learn.”

Tengku Intan, however, observes some inequalities, particularly stereotyping women leaders as emotional leaders as opposed to men leaders. Those “emotional leaders” have evolved into empathetic leaders. “And it’s true, you can’t be an empathetic leader if you don’t have a lot of emotions for your people.”

Many ask Tengku Intan what her secret is to successfully balance being a wife and mother of four in a world where technology pervades almost every aspect of people’s lives. She smiles and says, “I have a very supportive and understanding husband. We share and can talk about everything.”

She agrees that this is not the case for many Malaysian working mothers, but she reminds them that it is okay if they have not excelled in their careers; if they want to be committed to being full-time mothers, they should do so.

“I have witnessed many technology women, who choose not to climb the corporate ladder but her dedication and commitment to work are second to none. They are happy to continue where they are. And I believe they are more successful than I am,” Tengku Intan happily recalls.

She is optimistic about the future for Malaysia and is wholeheartedly committed to ensuring quality and equality in Malaysia’s digital journey.

The National University of Singapore’s Associate Professor Gary Tan employs technology to model and forecast human movement and then uses that information to optimise evacuation, reduce accidents, and ease traffic congestion during emergency situations. He is particularly interested in modelling how people would run or flee in such circumstances.

According to Associate Professor Gary, when people are in a panic, they act extremely differently and try to anticipate what would happen when, for example, they must evacuate an MRT station due to a bomb threat or a fire.

“In a crisis, each second is crucial. Effective evacuation and rescue plans are essential because delays might result in more fatalities,” says Associate Professor Gary.

Associate Professor Gary together and his students PhD candidates Wang Chengxin and Muhammad Shalihin bin Othman have created this special framework. It uses deep learning methods to track the real-life movement of pedestrians through video feeds. This behaviour is then converted into information that a virtual simulator can use to recreate situations and occurrences that would be too expensive or risky to actually recreate.

The project’s main goal was to create a disaster simulation. This data-driven approach makes it easier to build crowd management tactics that are more effective and delivers a more accurate prediction of human reactions in a crisis.

The framework interprets the movement patterns of pedestrians in real-world video feeds and converts them into data that can be used in a virtual simulator. The technology uses deep learning techniques to identify objects in specific video frames and accurately track them across the video feed.

They recreate settings and imitate actions that would be too expensive or risky to be carried out in real life. This enables the researchers to simulate various evacuation and rescue plans to determine the best course of action to take in an emergency.

The methodology is distinctive because, in contrast to earlier pedestrian simulation methods, it takes a data-driven approach and aims to investigate human behaviour directly from real-life footage. Since they are adapted from real video, this raises the level of realism.

The tracking algorithm that analyses how people move in the films underwent considerable improvement by the researchers. To extract realistic trajectories from real-world recordings, a good tracking algorithm is necessary. They can simulate realistic human movements using highly accurate trajectory data, which enables them to make more accurate predictions.

Following testing, it was discovered that “greater than expected” numbers of trajectories were successfully imported into the simulator from the movies.

Since releasing their research, the team has focused on developing further pedestrian monitoring systems. One, known as the Graph-based Temporal Convolutional Network (GraphTCN), uses artificial intelligence to track pedestrians’ temporal and geographical interactions with one another. The outcome is a behavioural model that can more faithfully simulate human movement.

The researchers are currently developing a new model that thinks more deeply. The Conscious Movement Model, or CMM, analyses CCTV footage and other real-world recordings to identify human behavioural patterns. These patterns are used to build a deep learning model that would subsequently affect the motions of a pedestrian in the simulation.

Researchers can increase the precision of prediction simulations by including genuine pedestrian movements. This will enable them to automatically run optimization algorithms and suggest the optimal course of action in various what-if scenarios. The research can be used to model the movement of both humans and autos in simulations of traffic congestion and accidents in addition to disaster situations.

A research team from the LKS Faculty of Medicine at The University of Hong Kong (HKUMed) has developed more efficient CRISPR-Cas9 variants that could be useful for gene therapy applications. By establishing a new pipeline methodology that implements machine learning on high-throughput screening to accurately predict the activity of protein variants, the team has expanded the capacity to analyse up to 20 times more variants at once without needing to acquire additional experimental data, which vastly accelerates the speed in protein engineering.

The pipeline has been successfully applied in several Cas9 optimisations and engineered new Staphylococcus aureus Cas9 (SaCas9) variants with enhanced gene editing efficiency. The findings are now published in Nature Communications and a patent application has been filed based on this work.

Staphylococcus aureus Cas9 (SaCas9) is an ideal candidate for in vivo gene therapy owing to its small size that allows packaging into adeno-associated viral vectors to be delivered into human cells for therapeutic applications. However, its gene-editing activity could be insufficient for some specific disease loci.

Before it can be used as a reliable tool for the treatment of human diseases, further optimisations of SaCas9 are vital within precision medicine. These optimisations must comprise the boosting of its efficiency and precision by altering the Cas9 protein.

The standard protocol for modifying the protein involves saturation mutagenesis, where the number of possible modifications that could be introduced to the protein far exceeds the experimental screening capacity of even the state-of-art high-throughput platforms by order of magnitude.

In their work, the team explored whether combining machine learning with structure-guided mutagenesis library screening could enable the virtual screening of many more modifications to accurately identify the rare and better-performing variants for further in-depth validations.

The machine learning framework was tested on several previously published mutagenesis screens on Cas9 variants and the team was able to show that machine learning could robustly identify the best performing variants by using merely 5-20% of the experimentally determined data.

The Cas9 protein contains several parts, including protospacer adjacent motif (PAM)-interacting (PI) and Wedge (WED) domains to facilitate its interaction with the target DNA duplex. The research team married the machine learning and high-throughput screening platforms to design activity-enhanced SaCas9 protein by combining mutations in its PI and WED domains surrounding the DNA duplex bearing a (PAM). PAM is crucial for Cas9 to edit the target DNA and the aim was to reduce the PAM constraint for wider genome targeting whilst securing the protein structure by reinforcing the interaction with the PAM-containing DNA duplex via the WED domain.

In the screen and subsequent validations, the researchers identified new variants, including one named KKH-SaCas9-plus, with enhanced activity by up to 33% at specific genomic loci. The subsequent protein modelling analysis revealed the new interactions created between the WED and PI domains at multiple locations within the PAM-containing DNA duplex, attributing to KKH-SaCas9-plus’s enhanced efficiency.

Until recently, structure-guided design has dominated the field of Cas9 engineering. However, it only explores a small number of sites, amino-acid residues, and combinations. In this study, the research team was able to illustrate that screening with a larger scale and less experimental efforts, time and cost can be conducted using the machine learning-coupled multi-domain combinatorial mutagenesis screening approach, which led them to identify a new high-efficiency variant KKH-SaCas9-plus.

The Assistant Professor of the School of Biomedical Sciences, HKUMed stated that this approach will greatly accelerate the optimisation of Cas9 proteins, which could allow genome editing to be applied in treating genetic diseases more efficiently.

To preserve and propagate the species in the typhoon-affected Cagayan Valley and to investigate bamboo’s potential for use in the pharmaceutical and industrial industries, phytochemical screening and DNA barcoding of economically significant bamboos will be conducted in the Philippines.

There are several benefits of using bamboo in the food, medicinal, phytochemical, medical, and industrial sectors, according to Alvin Jose L. Reyes and Eddie B. Abugan Jr from the Project Management Division (PMD) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)-Foreign Assisted and Special Projects.

They explained that seeds or living cells containing genetic resources beneficial for plant conservation and breeding are called germplasms. The DENR-PMD staff clarified that the classification of bamboo germplasm is an essential correlation between the preservation of diversity and utilisation of germplasm.

A study dubbed the Bamboo Characterisation Project of the Cagayan State University (CSU)-Gonzaga was recently presented to the DENR Protected Area Management Board (PAMB) in the province of Sta. Ana, Cagayan through its project leader Jeff M. Opeña. It has to do with its request for a free permit to carry out the bamboo characterisation and sample collecting tasks on the protected landscape and seascape of Palaui Island.

The CSU-Gonzaga research lab will also be renovated as part of the project. In the province of Cagayan, it will collect and classify various species in various environments. Furthermore, a contemporary and inventive method of classifying bamboo species will be DNA barcoding. It will speed up the process of experts identifying the species they want to utilise based on characteristics like quick reproduction or medicinal properties.

Bamboo has traditionally been classified according to how frequently or abundantly it flowers -annually, sporadically, or regularly, and gregariously. However, the demand for a long period of time, which might occur over years or even decades, made floral morphology description a limitation and a challenge.

On the other hand, professionals in pharmaceuticals and medicine can find plant secondary metabolites in bamboo that have application potential in the business through biochemical characterisation by phytochemical (plant chemistry) screening.

While secondary plant metabolites such as anthocyanins, alkaloids, flavonoids, saponins, phenols, steroids, tannins, and terpenoids are explored for medical plant herbal reasons, among other prospective commercial uses, primary metabolites comprise tiny molecules like amino acids and carbohydrates.

Additionally, Executive Order 879 required that 25% of the Department of Education’s annual supply of school desks be constructed of bamboo. Philippine Bamboo Industry Development Council (PBIDC) is created by Executive Order 879.

According to a direction sent to the DENR’s Forest Management Bureau, Laguna Lake Development Authority, and Mines and Geosciences Bureau, bamboo should be planted in the agency’s own reforestation zones.

In addition to reducing typhoon flooding, DENR wants to employ bamboo as a strategy for reducing climate change. Per hectare of a plantation, bamboo is known to absorb five metric tonnes of carbon dioxide. Bamboo is being planted in the Bicol and Marikina rivers, which are typically inundated during typhoons. Using engineered bamboo, DENR is also advocating its usage as a lumber replacement.

The first bamboo species studies to consider the various habitats where bamboo grows in the province of Cagayan are the phytochemical and morphological studies of bamboo species. The Smith Volcano, also known as Mount Babuyan, which is politically located in Calayan Island, and Mount Cagua in Gonzaga are the two volcanoes that the study of bamboo species growth will focus on.

Coastal locations, residential areas, grasslands, agroecosystems, next to water bodies, caverns, close the volcano, rainforests, islands, protected regions, and other habitats will be researched for the bamboo species using DNA barcoding.

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