WATER QUALITY INDEX AND CORRELATION STUDY FOR THE ASSESSMENT OF GROUND WATER QUALITY OF ALLAHABAD CITY

Water, the Nectar of Life’, is fundamental resource which is essential for the survival of different sectors, such as agricultural sector, industrial sector and small business units. In the absence of proper planning, urbanization and industrial/agricultural activities have adversely affected many regions around the world. This has led to indiscriminate actions, including dumping of wastes into the water and washing and bathing in open surface water bodies. In the present study groundwater samples from five sampling locations were collected and the analyses were done for nine physicochemical parameters. Water quality index assessment was carried out by using physicochemical analysis results. Water quality index of the sampling locations of Allahabad city has been divided into five categories. Good water quality index has been put into location 1 while locations 2, 3 and 4 indicate bad quality index. Very bad water quality index has been denoted in location 5. Correlation, the descriptive relationship among the physicochemical parameters, were also studied and it was found that the highly positively correlated values were among the parameters TDS vs EC (r=1.00), TS vs TSS (r=0.91), Temp vs TSS (r=0.87), Phosphate vs TSS (r=0.823) and highly negatively correlation was shown among TA vs Chloride. The result shows that the water quality of Allahabad city is not good and there is an urgent need for the preliminary treatment of water before it is used for the drinking purposes. There is also the need for the proper waste disposal and treatment system for the contaminants which seep in the groundwater and deteriorate groundwater quality. Awareness programmes should also be organized to educate the masses for the conservation and management of groundwater resources and the need to reduce of overuse and wastage of the groundwater resources should be emphasized. Sustainable water development in the city is needed to fulfill the demand of water for future

STANDARDIZATION OF A POLYHERBAL PREPARATION (POL–6) FOR TREATMENT OF OXIDATIVE, INFLAMMATORY AND IMMUNE DISORDERS

Objective: The objective of this study was to develop and standardize a polyherbal preparation (POL–6) and evaluate its use in treating oxidative, inflammatory and immune disorders.Methods: The individual hydroalcoholic extractions of Hypericum perforatum, Bacopa monnieri, Centella asiatica, Withania somnifera, Ocimum sanctum and Camellia sinesis dried plant materials were done, and POL–6 was prepared by mixing them in (1:2:2:2:2:1) proportions. POL–6 has been standardized on the basis of organoleptic properties, physical characteristics, and physicochemical properties. The antioxidant activities were evaluated using free radical scavenging methods for 1,1–diphenyl–2–picrylhydrazyl, (DPPH) and nitric oxide assays. Anti–inflammatory activity was done by albumin denaturation and HRBC membrane stabilization assays. Cell viability assay was used for immunomodulatory activity measurement by cultivating peripheral blood mononuclear cells.Results: The results obtained from physical and chemical parameters evaluation shows that the contents of preparation present are within permissible limits. In in–vitro antioxidant studies POL–6 showed significant antioxidant activity when tested in 1–1 Diphenyl–2–picrylhydrazyl and nitric oxide assays. In in–vitro antiâ€inflammatory investigation, POL–6 exhibited significant inhibition against albumin denaturation and significant protection against membrane stabilization assay. POL–6 also exhibit significant immunomodulatory activity at low doses, when tested in cell viability assay.Conclusion: The results from this study rationalize the medicinal use of POL–6 in oxidative, inflammatory and immune disorders.Keywords: Polyherbal preparation, Antioxidant, Antiâ€inflammatory, Immunomodulator

EVALUATION AND MODELLING OF GROUND WATER QUALITY DATA OF ALLAHABAD CITY BY ENVIRONMETRIC METHODS

Water is an essential resource for all the organisms, plants and animals including human beings. It is the backbone for the agricultural and industrial sectors and all the small business units. Increase in human population and economic activities have tremendously increased the demand for large-scale suppliers of freshwater for various competing end users. The quality evaluation of water is represented in terms of physical, chemical and biological parameters. A particular problem in the case of water quality monitoring is the complexity associated with analyzing a large number of measured variables. The data sets contain rich information about the behaviour of the water resources. Multivariate statistical approaches allow deriving hidden information from the data sets about the possible influences of the environment on water quality. Classification, modelling and interpretation of monitored data are the most important steps in the assessment of water quality. The application of different multivariate statistical techniques, such as cluster analysis (CA), principal component analysis (PCA) and factor analysis (FA) help to identify important components or factors accounting for most of the variances of a system. In the present study water samples were analyzed for various physicochemical analyses by different methods following the standards of APHA, BIS and WHO and were subjected to further statistical analysis viz. the cluster analysis to understand the similarity and differences among the various sampling stations.  Three clusters were found. Cluster 1 was marked with 3 sampling locations 1, 3 & 5; Cluster-2 was marked with sampling location-2 and cluster-3 was marked with sampling location-4. Principal component analysis/factor analysis is a pattern reorganization technique which is used to assess the correlation between the observations in terms of different factors which are not observable. Observations correlated either positively or negatively, are likely to be affected by the same factors while the observations which are not correlated are influenced by different factors. In our study, three factors explained 99.827% of variances. F1 marked  51.619% of total variances, high positive strong loading with TSS, TS, Temp, TDS, phosphate and moderate with electrical conductivity with loading values of 0.986, 0.970, 0.792, 0.744, 0.695,  0.701, respectively. Factor 2 marked 27.236% of the total variance with moderate positive loading with total alkalinity & temp. with loading values 0.723 & 0.606 respectively. It also explained the moderate negative loading with conductivity, TDS, and chloride with loading values -0.698, -0.690, -0.582. Factor F 3 marked 20.972 % of the variances with positive loading with pH, chloride, and phosphate with strong loading of pH 0.872 and moderate positive loading with chloride and phosphate with loading values 0.721, and 0.569 respectively.&nbsp

Anemia as a risk factor for lower respiratory tract infection in children of 6 months to 5 years of age

Objective: To determine whether anemia is a risk factor for acute lower respiratory tract infections (ALRTI) in children aging6 months–5 years. Materials and Methods: Observational case–control study was performed in 540 children in the age group of6 months–5 years who attended the outpatient and inpatient unit of the department of pediatrics of a tertiary care hospital of Jaipur,during the period from January 2017 to June 2018. 270 cases hospitalized for LRTI who fulfilled the inclusion criteria and 270 healthyage and sex matched controls without any respiratory problems attending outpatient department of the department of pediatrics. Childrenwith congenital anomalies, protein energy malnutrition, tuberculosis, congenital heart defects, HIV, and malignancies were excludedfrom the study. After a detailed history and anthropometric measurements, complete blood count, C-reactive protein, peripheral bloodfilm examination, reticulocyte count, chest skiagram, Mantoux test were done. Iron profile and detailed anemic investigations are doneif hemoglobin level was below 11 g/dl as per the WHO criteria. The sentence in abstract can be framed like this. The norms consideredfor ALRTI were also considered as per defined by the WHO criteria. Results: Male preponderance was observed (55.2%) in the studygroup. Most of the children were <2 years of age (59.6%). On auscultation, crepitations were a major finding (64.8%). Out of 270;240 (88.9%) patients were diagnosed as pneumonia and rest 30 (11.1%) cases as bronchiolitis. Anemic patients were found to be3.7 times more susceptible to ALRTI in this study (p=0.01). Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) was found in 63.7% of total anemic cases inthe study group. In the study group, the mean serum iron level 26.3±7.9 mcg/dl in the anemic cases and 29.11±8.95 mcg/dl in the nonanemiccases. It was observed that with an increase in the severity of anemia among the cases, a concomitant increase in the severityof pneumonia was also observed (p=0.04). Conclusion: Early detection, preventive measures, and aggressive treatment with propernutrition and medication of anemia; especially, IDA in all children are helpful for prevention of ALRTI

Study of Water Quality Status of Sai River in Uttar-Pradesh With Reference to Water Quality Index Assessment

ABSTRACT : The aim of the study is to find out the water quality of the sai river-a holy river of Uttarpradesh. River Sai is an important river of Uttar-Pradesh, originate from a pond in village Bijgwan near Pihani in district Hardoi and travel about 600 km to form district boundary between Lucknow and Unnao. After passing through Hardoi, Raebareli and Jaunpur district it finally join the Gomati River at Rajepur in Jaunpur district. The sai is worshiped as holy river in UP. total six water samples from each districts were collected and 18 physicochemical parameters were analyzed and used for the calculation for the water quality index of the samples and categories water in the rating of 0-100 and result shows that the water quality at districts, Hardoi is good and the district Unnao and Lucknow are in excellent rating and the other three districts Raebareli ,Pratapgarh and Jaunpur was in moderate polluted categories the maximum water quality index is 71.056 and minimum at districts Lucknow 43.34

The iNOS Activity During an Immune Response Controls the CNS Pathology in Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis

Inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) plays a critical role in the regulation of multiple sclerosis (MS) and experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). Previous studies have shown that iNOS plays pathogenic as well as regulatory roles in MS and EAE. However, how does iNOS alters the pathophysiology of the central nervous system (CNS) in neuronal autoimmunity is not clearly understood. In the present work, we show that treatment of mice with L-NAME, an iNOS inhibitor, during the antigen-priming phase primarily alters brain pathology, while in the subsequent effector phase of the immune response, the spinal cord is involved. Inhibition of iNOS during the priming phase of the immune response promotes the infiltration of pathogenic CD11b+F4/80−Gr-1+ cells, but there is low recruitment of regulatory CD11b+F4/80+ cells in the brain. Inhibition of iNOS during the effector phase shows similar pathogenic alterations in the spinal cord, instead of in the brain. Treatment of wild-type mice with L-NAME or mice having genetic deficiency of iNOS show lower MHC-II expression on the dendritic cells, but not on macrophages. Our data suggest that iNOS has a critical regulatory role during antigen-priming as well as in the effector phase of EAE, and inhibition iNOS at different stages of the immune response can differentially alter either the brain or spinal cord pathology. Understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms through which iNOS functions could help to design a better strategies for the clinical management of neuroinflammation and neuronal autoimmunity

WATER PURIFICATION: A BRIEF REVIEW ON TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES USED IN ANALYSIS, MONITORING AND ASSESSMENT OF WATER QUALITY

Drinking water sources are regularly polluted by various human activities that cause severe health problem all over the world. In recent years, water quality research has drawn great attention from scientific communities. A lot number of tools and techniques are used for proper water quality analysis, monitoring and assessment. This paper includes brief information about some of the them namely, physio-chemical water analysis (PCWA), adsorption, metal pollution index (MPI), water quality index (WQI), water quality modelling tools (WQMT) and multivariable statistical models that include five multivariate data mining approaches i.e. cluster analysis (CA), principal component analysis (PCA), factor analysis (FA), multiple linear regression analysis (MLRA), discriminant analysis (DA). Present paper also explores the interaction between science and technologies and provides basic knowledge of emerging tools and techniques used in water purification

Lymphangiogenesis Is Required for Pancreatic Islet Inflammation and Diabetes

Lymphangiogenesis is a common phenomenon observed during inflammation and engraftment of transplants, but its precise role in the immune response and underlying mechanisms of regulation remain poorly defined. Here we showed that in response to injury and autoimmunity, lymphangiogenesis occurred around islets and played a key role in the islet inflammation in mice. Vascular endothelial growth factors receptor 3 (VEGFR3) is specifically involved in lymphangiogenesis, and blockade of VEGFR3 potently inhibited lymphangiogenesis in both islets and the draining LN during multiple low-dose streptozotocin (MLDS) induced autoimmune insulitis, which resulted in less T cell infiltration, preservation of islets and prevention of the onset of diabetes. In addition to their well-known conduit function, lymphatic endothelial cells (LEC) also produced chemokines in response to inflammation. These LEC attracted two distinct CX3CR1hi and LYVE-1+ macrophage subsets to the inflamed islets and CX3CR1hi cells were influenced by LEC to differentiate into LYVE-1+ cells closely associated with lymphatic vessels. These observations indicate a linkage among lymphangiogenesis and myeloid cell inflammation during insulitis. Thus, inhibition of lymphangiogenesis holds potential for treating insulitis and autoimmune diabetes