Tuberculous dilated cardiomyopathy: an under-recognized entity?

BACKGROUND: Tuberculosis (TB) is a common public health problem in many parts of the world. TB is generally believed to spare these four organs-heart, skeletal muscle, thyroid and pancreas. We describe a rare case of myocardial TB diagnosed on a post-mortem cardiac biopsy. CASE PRESENTATION: Patient presented with history suggestive of congestive heart failure. We describe the clinical presentation, investigations and outcome of this case, and review the literature on the involvement of myocardium by TB. CONCLUSION: Involvement of myocardium by TB is rare. However it should be suspected as a cause of congestive heart failure in any patient with features suggestive of TB. Increasing recognition of the entity and the use of endomyocardial biopsy may help us detect more cases of this "curable" form of cardiomyopathy

Manganese-Doped Zinc Oxide Nanostructures as Potential Scaffold for Photocatalytic and Fluorescence Sensing Applications

Herein, we report the photocatalytic and fluorescence sensing applications of manganese-doped zinc oxide nanostructures synthesized by a solution combustion technique, using zinc nitrate as an oxidizer and urea as a fuel. The synthesized Mn-doped ZnO nanostructures have been analyzed in terms of their surface morphology, phase composition, elemental analysis, and optical properties with the help of scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and UV-Visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy. A careful observation of the SEM micrograph reveals that the synthesized material was porous and grown in very high density. Due to a well-defined porous structure, the Mn-doped ZnO nanostructures can be used for the detection of ciprofloxacin, which was found to exhibit a significantly low limit of detection (LOD) value i.e., 10.05 µM. The synthesized Mn-doped ZnO nanostructures have been further analyzed for interfering studies, which reveals that the synthesized sensor material possesses very good selectivity toward ciprofloxacin, as it detects selectively even in the presence of other molecules. The synthesized Mn-doped ZnO nanostructures have been further analyzed for the photodegradation of methyl orange (MO) dye. The experimental results reveal that Mn-doped ZnO behaves as an efficient photocatalyst. The 85% degradation of MO has been achieved in 75 min using 0.15 g of Mn-doped ZnO nanostructures. The observed results clearly confirmed that the synthesized Mn-dopedZnO nanostructures are a potential scaffold for the fabrication of sensitive and robust chemical sensors as well as an efficient photocatalyst

Dynamics of ecosystem and climate change in India

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A Multi-Interfacial Material Design Leading Bifunctional Oxygen Reduction and Water Oxidation Electrocatalysis to Zinc-Air Battery Application

The presence of an energy efficient and stable electrocatalyst capable of inflicting a bidirectional oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is vital for the proper functioning of a rechargeable zinc-air battery (ZAB). Here, we rationally combined ORR-active nitrogen-doped graphitic carbon (N@C) around an OER-inflicting Ce-doped Ni-Co layered double hydroxide (LDH) to generate a unique N@C_LDH-CeO2 material, where all the segments operate synergistically to display bidirectional ORR/OER activity under analogous conditions. This multi-interfacial N@C_LDH-CeO2 material displayed exceptional energy efficiency, which was measured by its relatively low potential difference (ΔE) of 0.74 V between the half-wave potential of ORR (E1/2) and the OER potential at a current density of 10 mA cm-2 (Ej@10). This material was active in a ZAB assembly, achieving one of the highest reported specific energies (894.3 Wh kg-1 of Zn), appreciable power density (243 mW cm-2), and excellent specific capacity (698 mAh g-1 @ 10 mA cm-2), along with a remarkable durability of 270.0 h for 1600 continuous cycles. The tactical presence of N- and Ce-doping modulated the ORR and OER activity, respectively, as N@C_LDH-CeO2 displayed ample active sites during electrocatalysis on either side. This material remains active even in a solid-state ZAB assembly, where it successfully transduces energy to an electronic device.</p