Mercury toxicity and detection using chromo-fluorogenic chemosensors

Mercury (Hg), this non-essential heavy metal released from both industrial and natural sources entered into living bodies, and cause grievous detrimental effects to the human health and ecosystem. The monitoring of Hg2+ excessive accumulation can be beneficial to fight against the risk associated with mercury toxicity to living systems. Therefore, there is an emergent need of novel and facile analytical approaches for the monitoring of mercury levels in various environmental, industrial, and biological samples. The chromo-fluorogenic chemosensors possess the attractive analytical parameters of low-cost, enhanced detection ability with high sensitivity, simplicity, rapid on-site monitoring ability, etc. This review was narrated to summarize the mercuric ion selective chromo-fluorogenic chemosensors reported in the year 2020. The design of sensors, mechanisms, fluorophores used, analytical performance, etc. are summarized and discussed

Isolation and Screening of Azo Dyes Tolerant Bacteria in Semi-Scale Industrial Effluents

Dyes are organic compound have colouring properties of the object which used in industrial application. Huge effluent are releasing by industrial processing, where the microorganism may naturally adopted against particular problems. Present work focused over the selection and screening few best native candidates from diverse bacteria from semi-skilled dye industrial effluent. From eleven isolated bacterial colonies only two are found resistant against azo dyes (Methyl orange and Trypan blue). During the screening it observed that isolates of bacteria (VN1 and VN2) were tolerates and decolorize azo dye up to 500 ppm. These bacterial strain can be used efficientlyremoval of dyes contamina-tion from ex-situ and in-situ

Composition of Jupiter irregular satellites sheds light on their origin

Irregular satellites of Jupiter with their highly eccentric, inclined and distant orbits suggest that their capture took place just before the giant planet migration. We aim to improve our understanding of the surface composition of irregular satellites of Jupiter to gain insight into a narrow time window when our Solar System was forming. We observed three Jovian irregular satellites, Himalia, Elara, and Carme, using a medium-resolution 0.8-5.5 micro m spectrograph on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF). Using a linear spectral unmixing model we have constrained the major mineral phases on the surface of these three bodies. Our results confirm that the surface of Himalia, Elara, and Carme are dominated by opaque materials such as those seen in carbonaceous chondrite meteorites. Our spectral modeling of NIR spectra of Himalia and Elara confirm that their surface composition is the same and magnetite is the dominant mineral. A comparison of the spectral shape of Himalia with the two large main C-type asteroids, Themis (D 176 km) and Europa (D 352 km), suggests surface composition similar to Europa. The NIR spectrum of Carme exhibits blue slope up to 1.5 microm and is spectrally distinct from those of Himalia and Elara. Our model suggests that it is compositionally similar to amorphous carbon. Himalia and Elara are compositionally similar but differ significantly from Carme. These results support the hypotheses that the Jupiter irregular satellites are captured bodies that were subject to further breakup events and clustered as families based on their similar physical and surface compositions

Glycemic Index Lowering Effect of Chicken Solids on Corn Starch

Glycemic index lowering effect of chicken solids was studied using a model system approach. Experimental samples were prepared by adding chicken powder at varying levels (10 mg, 20 mg, 30 mg, 40 mg) to 50 mg of corn starch as carbohydrate base. The chicken powder had a proximate protein content of 81.1 per cent, fat 9.1 per cent, ash 6 per cent and moisture 3.7 per cent. In vitro starch digestibility and estimated glycemic index (eGI) of the samples were estimated. It was found that only sample B and C could reduce the eGI of the sample by 22.8 per cent and 21.8 per cent respectively, with an eGI value of 68.05 and 68.9 respectively. Samples containing 30 mg and 40 mg chicken powder did not affect the eGI significantly and values were close to eGI values for the control (corn starch alone). It is concluded that chicken solids exhibit a significant (p < 0.05) glycemic index lowering effect at a level of 17 per cent to 29 per cent of the formulation, and not linearly with an increase in protein content

A Public Private Partnership Model for Managing Urban Health: A Study of Ahmedabad City

Urbanization is an important demographic shift worldwide. India’s urban population of 300 million represents 30 % of its total population; with the slum population in urban cities registering a 5 % growth in the last few years. Responding to the healthcare needs of urban poor is therefore very essential. Government of India focus has been mainly on rural health till the late 90s. Recognizing the urgency to manage urban health for the vulnerable sections of our population, the 9th and 10th Five Year Plans of the Government of India have laid special emphasis on developing a well structured network of urban primary care institutions. Ahmedabad city (also known as Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, AMC) is the sixth largest city in India with a population of 3.5 million spread over 192 square kilometers, across 43 wards. AMC has nearly 2500 slums and chawls housing approximately 1.5 million people. Out of 43 wards in AMC, 9 wards which house more than 20 % of AMC population, have no government health facility at all. With more than 3500 private health facilities in AMC, it is therefore worthwhile to explore Public Private Participation (PPP) to improve the delivery of healthcare services. In this working paper, we outline our approach to developing a PPP model for a decentralized and integrated primary healthcare center for each ward of AMC. Our model is built on a clear understanding of the socio-economic profile, status of public health, and the healthcare seeking habits of Ahmedabad population. Our GIS (Geographic Information System) methodology guides the AMC authorities to identify good locations for urban health center (UHC) so as to ensure availability, affordability, accessibility, and equity to primary healthcare facilities to the slum populations. We illustrate our methodology for Vasna and Naroda wards in AMC.

Evaluation of vitamins/tonics prescribing pattern in tertiary care teaching hospital and private sector

Background: Rational use of drugs had been great concern by the government as well as public during the past several years. Monitoring of prescriptions studies could identify the associated problems and provide feedback to the prescribers, so as to create awareness about the irrational use of drugs. This study was conducted to evaluate the prescribing pattern of Vitamins/Tonics in government sector and private sector.Methods: This prospective study was designed to obtain statistical data on the prescribing pattern of Vitamins/tonics in patients of S.V.B.P. Hospital Meerut and other associated hospital/ clinics. The total study sample size was of 614 prescriptions. Out of these 439 prescriptions were from government sector, 175 prescriptions from private sectors.Results: Percentages of prescription with Vitamins/ Tonics were 35.76 and 48.57 in government and private sectors respectively and these differences are statistically significant. Percentage of drug prescribed as Vitamins/ Tonics of the total drugs was 8.68 and 10.19, in government and private sector respectively and these differences are statistically not significant. Vitamins/ Tonics were the most frequently prescribed drugs 16.52% and 17.14% in obs./ Gynae in both the sectors respectively, and least number of Vitamins/ Tonics 1.06% and 3.2% were prescribed in cardiology in both the sectors.Conclusions: The study indicates a big scope for enhancing the prescribing pattern of Vitamins/Tonics and minimizing the use of irrational Vitamins/Tonics, due to the fact most of the times it’s not needed, and it only put financial burden on Patients