Green construction in India: gaining a deeper understanding

A workshop on green construction was organized in New Delhi in July 2008 by Jamia Millia University, India and University of Salford, U.K., aiming to increase 'green' practices that are environmentally friendly and energy efficient. The workshop included participants from regulatory bodies, public and private construction companies and researchers. The object of the workshop was to provide an opportunity to capture issues, challenges and research issues in green practices throughout the supply chain in the construction sector in India. The methodology constituted a survey that was provided to all participants, where eight questions were composed by the facilitators. The participants were asked about their views on voluntary and compulsory ways of assessment and audit of green implementation in India. The findings of the workshop featured major challenges, drivers, initiatives, and the ways of effective implementation as well as enforcement on the discussed topic

The Biosorption of Cr (VI) From Aqueous SolutionUsing Date Palm Fibers (Leef)

The ability of Cr (VI) removal from aqueous solution using date palm fibers (leef) was investigated .The effects of pH, contact time, sorbets concentration and initial metal ions concentration on the biosorption were investigated.<br />The residual concentration of Cr (VI) in solution was determined colorimetrically using spectrophotometer at wave length 540 nm .The biosorption was pH-dependent, the optimum pH was 7 and adsorption isotherms obtained fitted well with Langmuir isotherms .The Langmuir equation obtained was Ce/Cs = 79.99 Ce-77.39, the correlation factor was 0.908.These results indicate that date palm fibers (leef) has a potential effect for the uptake of Cr (VI) from industrial waste water.<br /

The evolution of genome-scale models of cancer metabolism

The importance of metabolism in cancer is becoming increasingly apparent with the identification of metabolic enzyme mutations and the growing awareness of the influence of metabolism on signaling, epigenetic markers, and transcription. However, the complexity of these processes has challenged our ability to make sense of the metabolic changes in cancer. Fortunately, constraint-based modeling, a systems biology approach, now enables one to study the entirety of cancer metabolism and simulate basic phenotypes. With the newness of this field, there has been a rapid evolution of both the scope of these models and their applications. Here we review the various constraint-based models built for cancer metabolism and how their predictions are shedding new light on basic cancer phenotypes, elucidating pathway differences between tumors, and dicovering putative anti-cancer targets. As the field continues to evolve, the scope of these genome-scale cancer models must expand beyond central metabolism to address questions related to the diverse processes contributing to tumor development and metastasis

Single Level Lumbar Disk Herniation: Conventional Discectomy versus Interbody Fusion with Bilateral Pedicular Fixation

OBJECTIVE: The objective of the study was to compare between the conventional discectomy and the interbody fusion with bilateral pedicular screw fixation in the management of single level lumbar disk herniation. METHODS: This is a prospective study done on 50 patients (25 in each group) at Cairo University Hospitals in the period between October 2018 and June 2019 fulfilling the inclusion criteria. Diagnosis was made clinically with history (low back pain and sciatica),examination (motor power assessment, straight leg raising test), and radiological findings (MRI, CT and X-ray lumbar spine). The pain status (VAS) was pre and postoperatively evaluated and followed up every 3 months for 1 year. RESULTS: The study included 50 patients (25 in each group) (mean age 40.4 years old) with slight female predominance. The most common clinical findings presented at diagnosis were low back pain followed by lower limb pain in the form of claudication and sciatica. L5-S1 disk prolapse was the most common level affected in both groups followed by L4-5 level. Regarding the clinical outcome, there was statistical significance in the VAS of low back pain at 9 months and 1-year follow-up favoring the fusion group with mean VAS 0.40 and 1.32 (p &lt; 0.05). CONCLUSION: Clinical outcome was excellent in both groups. However, the reduction in low back pain after surgery was greater in the fusion group (p &lt; 0.05). The rate of recurrent disk herniation at the surgical level in the nonfusion group was higher, but intraoperative blood loss, operation time, length of hospital stay, and total cost of procedure were all less in the patients undergoing discectomy alone. Although there is still controversy regarding the pros and cons of fusion in association with disk excision without instability, fusion results were highly favorable

Dust Fallout Characteristics within Baghdad City during 2013

The frequency and severity of dust storms have been significantly increased especially in the last decade as a result of regional and local reasons like climate changes and mismanagement of water resources. Within this framework, this study was conducted to analysis the dust fallout characteristics within Baghdad city during February to July 2013. The results of particle size analyses indicate the texture most of samples are ranging from clayey (Mean=14.1%) and silt (Mean=74.35%) with less quantities of sand (Mean=11.99%). Abo-Graib region recorded the highest level of heavy metals concentration among other studied region (Mean=9.9 mg/kg), while Adamiyah gave less concentration (Mean=1.62 mg/kg). The results of dost loading refer to  that station B (Kadumyah Mean=0.82kg/m2)  recorded high dust loading from station A (Al-Sena?a street Mean=0.57 kg/m2), it is worth mentioning that dust loading depending on speed of winds, duration of blowing and altitude of sample collection. From microbial analyses we can observed that Aspergillus nigerr recorded high frequency (F= 41.12%) and high occurrence percent (27.6%) at dilution 10-3, from the results Bacillus spp the only bacteria have been isolated as spore forming bacteria. Key words: Dust storm, Dust loading, heavy metals, Baghdad, Ira

Isolation, biochemical and molecular characterization of 2-chlorophenol-degrading Bacillus isolates

Pure cultures of 2-chlorophenol degrading bacteria were isolated from a natural enrichment that may be adapted to chlorophenols in the industrial zone at Umm-Saied city (Qatar). The bacteria were identifiedby 16S rDNA analysis, using PCR with universal primers. Comparative analysis of the 16S rDNA sequence (~ 550 bp) in the GenBank database revealed that these bacteria are related to the genusBacillus. Molecular heterogeneity among 2-chlorophenol-degrading bacteria was investigated using REP-PCR chromosomal fingerprinting and correlated with antibiotic profile analysis. REP-PCR resultsstrongly confirmed that the bacterial isolates from different Qatari soils produced different fingerprinting patterns. The distribution of phenol hydroxylase catabolic gene among examined isolates revealed thatthree isolates out of six yielded positive PCR products. Degradation of 2-chlorophenol was studied using theses cultures in liquid medium under aerobic conditions, at initial concentrations of 0.25 – 2.5mM 2-chlorophenol. Undegraded 2-chlorophenol was quantified by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Degradation rates by isolates could be determined at concentrations up to 1.5 mM. However, higher concentrations of 2-chlorophenol (2.5 mM) were inhibitory to cell growth

Combined use of compost, compost tea, and vermicompost tea improves soil properties, and growth, yield, and quality of (Allium cepa L.)

Liquid organic fertilizers are organic solutions that are a valuable choice for sustainable agriculture. In addition, these organic forms play a significant role, in integrated waste management strategies. In this study, a one-way analysis of variance, Pearson correlations and principal component analysis were performed on all traits, to compare the responses of sole application of compost, compost tea, vermicompost tea and their combinations on growth, yield of Allium cepa and on soil properties. The results showed that, in most cases with fertilizers treatments, the soil pH, CaCO3 and bulk density were decreased, while soil organic matter, total N, available P and K were increased. A mixture of 50% compost, 25% compost tea, and 25% vermicompost had more desirable effect on plant height, leaves number, plant fresh weight and plant dry weight. Therefore, application of 50% compost tea and 50% vermicompost tea, it is possible to achieve an acceptable total bulb yield ton/ha, total soluble solids %, and dry matter %. While, available P, K in soil and P % in plant were raised when plants treated with teas sole or combined with compost 50%. Using a mixture of 50% compost, 25% compost tea, and 25% vermicompost tea, was a higher nutrient concentration and had a significant impact on onion plants productivity, and on soil properties

Substituted pyrazoles and their heteroannulated analogs—recent syntheses and biological activities

Pyrazoles are considered privileged scaffolds in medicinal chemistry. Previous reviews have discussed the importance of pyrazoles and their biological activities; however, few have dealt with the chemistry and the biology of heteroannulated derivatives. Therefore, we focused our attention on recent topics, up until 2020, for the synthesis of pyrazoles, their heteroannulated deriva-tives, and their applications as biologically active moieties. Moreover, we focused on traditional procedures used in the synthesis of pyrazoles