Assessment of Water Quality and Soil Sequestration to Ensure Environmental Quality at Georgia Southern University Campus

Assessment of Water Quality and Soil Sequestration to Ensure Environmental Quality at Georgia Southern University Campus Dr. Arpita Saha (PI), Dr. Subhrajit Saha (Co-PI), and Matthew Pfister (Co-PI) The proposed project has two parts, first part involves analysis of campus surface water quality and the second part involves measurement of campus soil carbon storage. The storm water runoff from off-campus and on-campus sources has the potential to pollute the campus water bodies and the findings of our study will recommend remedial strategies, which may help authorities to take necessary actions. The campus soil carbon distribution was inventoried and the factors (land use, management) supporting soil C stocking will be identified and recommended to help authorities promote climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies on campus

Utilization of Agro Waste for Beneficial Product Formulation

In the past few years, we have been very familiar with the waste hierarchy concept of the 3 R’s, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. This review article aims to suggest a possible way to reuse the agro-waste sector. It will focus on the zero waste food industry. While consuming our day-to-day food unknowingly we throw away some of the important portions of fruits and vegetables which can help us fight diseases and stay healthy. Therefore, we need proper management to utilize these beneficial components present in those fruit scrapes. An abundant amount of food waste is been produced during the processing of food from the different food industries. In addition to this, agro wastes like peels, seeds, etc. are also generated from fruit and vegetable agriculture. This paper mainly focuses on the agro-waste of the food industry, which can be consumed when the bioactive compound is extracted and is available as a functional food. The bioactive compounds have the potential to control blood pressure, diabetes, inflammation, etc. Thus, by incorporating these bioactive compounds we can enhance the quality of food. Recently functional food is consumed by a large population for its beneficial effect on our body

Molecular basis of pathogenesis in amoebiasis

Amoebiasis is one of the major public health problems in developing countries. In spite of the availability of an effective drug and absence of overt drug resistance, the disease is still prevalent among large population and spread over a number of countries. It is caused by the protist parasite Entamoeba histolytica that essentially infects humans, though other species that infect a few animals have been reported. A number of molecular techniques have recently been developed. These have helped in understanding biological processes in E. histolytica and in the identification of key molecules that are involved in amoebic virulence and invasion. Moreover, developments in the area of disease and invasion models have allowed understanding of these processes at molecular level and circumvented lack of a good animal model of amoebiasis. All these knowledge will help us to design better therapeutics and allow us to control this important disease

Impact of the non-biodegradable plastics and role of microbes in biotic degradation

Plastic is a group of elastic organic compounds whose definition has radically changed from being a large family of useful polymers to an indispensable part of life.  We might say we are residing in the “era of plasticene”. If we simply pause and look around, we would realize that a majority of things in our daily life comprise plastic polymers.  Currently, the international production of these polymers has spiked to around 300 million metric tons annually. Surprisingly about 50 percent of the products are discarded within a year of fabrication.  Once discarded ‘outside’ they end up ‘somewhere’ and start exerting their disruptive consequences.  Despite its enormous utility, it is now being increasingly known that these polymers are surely not without their downsides.  Several steps are taken and even more, are being investigated so the mayhem of plastic doesn't prove for a "no pilot in cockpit" situation. Here we have conducted a review work of the available literature on various biological entities that can utilize plastic while at the same time focusing our attempts to assemble information regarding the probable enzymes that do it.  We have also provided a report on the effect of different plastics on the ecosystem and the various management alternatives out there

Leishmaniasis: Plants as a source of antileishmanial agents

Leishmania infection causes a group of tropical diseases and has remained neglected for decades. It spreads by sandfly vector and is one of the most fatal protozoan diseases after malaria. Leishmaniases are a group of diseases caused by the infection of different Leishmania species and display clinically different forms like “Visceral leishmaniasis” (VL), “mucocutaneous leishmaniasis” and “cutaneous leishmaniasis” (CL). Approximately one billion people living in an endemic area are at high risk. Three hundred thousand cases of VL are reported annually and around twenty thousand people die every year, proving it as one of the most lethal forms of leishmaniasis. Until now, no effective vaccine could be made. There is an increase in drug resistance in the case of conventional drugs. New synthetic drugs are either too costly or have side effects. Requirements of new drugs are of utmost importance to control this situation. Plants provide a source of unlimited chemical diversity, which can be screened for antileishmanial activities. Moreover, their low cost and less or no side effects make them idle candidates in the search of new antileishmanial drugs