Microbial and heavy metal contaminant of antidiabetic herbal preparations formulated in Bangladesh

The aim of the current study was to evaluate microbial contamination in terms of microbial load (total aerobic count and total coliform count) and specific pathogenic bacteria (Salmonella spp., Escherichia coli, particularly Escherichia coli 0157) in thirteen antidiabetic herbal preparations (ADHPs) from Dhaka City. All the thirteen ADHPs had been found contaminated with fungi and different pathogenic bacteria. From the data, it is found that only two of these preparations (ADHP-1 and ADHP-12) complied with the safety limit (as stated in different Pharmacopoeias and WHO guidelines) evaluated by all different microbial counts. None of these herbal preparations could assure the safety as all of them were contaminated by fungi. The overall safety regarding heavy metal content (Zn, Cu, Mn, Cr, Cd, and Pb) was assured as none of them exceeded the safety limit of the daily intake. Microbial contaminants in these herbal preparations pose a potential risk for human health and care should be taken in every step involved in the preparation of these herbal preparations to assure safety.Rausan Zamir, Anowar Hosen, M. Obayed Ullah, and Nilufar Naha

Comparison of outcome of interdigitated versus sequential brachytherapy along with concurrent chemoradiation in locally advanced carcinoma cervix

Background: Carcinoma cervix is a significant health concern, particularly in lower socioeconomic groups. The effectiveness of interdigitated versus sequential brachytherapy, both with concurrent chemoradiation, in treating this condition remains underexplored. Methods: This quasi-experimental study at Rajshahi Medical College Hospital enrolled 63 patients with biopsy-proven squamous cell cervical cancer. They were randomly divided into two arms: arm a received pelvic EBRT 50 Gy in 25 fractions, followed by HDR brachytherapy (7 Gy weekly × 3 weeks) starting after 30 Gy of EBRT; arm B received the same pelvic EBRT, followed by HDR brachytherapy (7 Gy weekly × 3 weeks) starting a week after the completion of EBRT. Results: Mean age was 47.82±8.45 years (range: 29-64 years). The mean OTT was significantly reduced in arm-A (36.58 days) compared to arm-B (59.5 days). In terms of treatment response, 90.32% of patients in arm-A and 78.12% in arm-B experienced a complete response. Conclusions: Interdigitated brachytherapy with concurrent chemoradiation significantly reduces treatment time without compromising treatment effectiveness. Despite a shorter treatment duration, the complete response rate was slightly higher in the interdigitated arm

Reply to comment on "Suburban watershed nitrogen retention: Estimating the effectiveness of stormwater management structures" by Koch et al. (Elem Sci Anth 3:000063, July 2015)

We reply to a comment on our recent structured expert judgment analysis of stormwater nitrogen retention in suburban watersheds. Low relief, permeable soils, a dynamic stream channel, and subsurface flows characterize many lowland Coastal Plain watersheds. These features result in unique catchment hydrology, limit the precision of streamflow measurements, and challenge the assumptions for calculating runoff from rainfall and catchment area. We reiterate that the paucity of high-resolution nitrogen loading data for Chesapeake Bay watersheds warrants greater investment in long-term empirical studies of suburban watershed nutrient budgets for this region

Effectiveness of vegetated patches as Green Infrastructure in mitigating Urban Heat Island effects during a heatwave event in the city of Melbourne

The city of Melbourne in southeast Australia experiences frequent heatwaves and their frequency, intensity and duration are expected to increase in the future. In addition, Melbourne is the fastest growing city in Australia and experiencing rapid urban expansion. Heatwaves and urbanization contribute in intensifying the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect, i.e., higher temperatures in urban areas as compared to surrounding rural areas. The combined effects of UHI and heatwaves have substantial impacts on the urban environment, meteorology and human health, and there is, therefore, a pressing need to investigate the effectiveness of different mitigation options. This study evaluates the effectiveness of urban vegetation patches such as mixed forest (MF), combination of mixed forest and grasslands (MFAG), and combination of mixed shrublands and grasslands (MSAG) in reducing UHI effects in the city of Melbourne during one of the most severe heatwave events. Simulations are carried out by using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model coupled with the Single Layer Urban Canopy Model (SLUCM). The fractions of vegetated patches per grid cell are increased by 20%, 30%, 40% and 50% using the mosaic method of the WRF model. Results show that by increasing fractions from 20 to 50%, MF reduces near surface (2 m) UHI (UHI2) by 0.6–3.4 °C, MSAG by 0.4–3.0 °C, and MFAG by 0.6–3.7 °C during the night, but there was no cooling effect for near surface temperature during the hottest part of the day. The night-time cooling was driven by a reduction in storage heat. Vegetated patches partitioned more net radiation into latent heat flux via evapotranspiration, with little to no change in sensible heat flux, but rather, a reduction in the storage heat flux during the day. Since the UHI is driven by the release of stored heat during the night, the reduced storage heat flux results in reductions in the UHI. The reductions of the UHI2 varied non-linearly with the increasing vegetated fractions, with lager fractions of up to 50% resulting in substantially larger reductions. MF and MFAG were more effective in reducing UHI2 as compared to MSAG. Vegetated patches were not effective in improving HTC during the day, but a substantial improvement of HTC was obtained between the evening and early morning particularly at 2100 local time, when the thermal stress changes from strong to moderate. Although limited to a single heatwave event and city, this study highlights the maximum potential benefits of using vegetated patches in mitigating the UHI during heatwaves and the overall principles are applicable elsewhere

Потенциальные противомикробные агенты на основе тимидина с помощью расчетов In Silico DFT

Modification of the hydroxyl (–OH) group of thymidine by acylation may cause changes in the antimicrobial and anticancer properties of thymidine which is investigated in this study. The current study is concentrated towards the in silico computational study of different in silico and bioactivity investigations. We relate the optimization of thymidine and its acylated analogs by applying density functional theory (DFT) with B 3LYP/3–21G level theory to demonstrate their thermal, frontier molecular orbital, the density of states (DOS) and molecular electrostatic potential (MESP) properties. All the analogs were found with enriched score than their parent atom which indicates the theoretical stability of these compounds. To deeply realize these observations molecular docking studies have been performed against human PARP1 (E.coli-BL21, PDB: 4ZZZ) and remarkable binding energies and non-covalent interactions were observed. Bioactivity data exhibited that compounds consisted of standard values in predicted cases. Moreover, toxicity data showed a safer level of the score for all studied thymidine analogs. This work demonstrates that potential thymidine analogs bind to bacterial pathogens for circumventing their activities and opens avenues for the development of newer drug candidates that can target bacterial and fungal pathogensМодификация гидроксильной (–OH) группы тимидина путем ацилирования может вызвать изменения в антимикробных и противоопухолевых свойствах тимидина, которые исследуются в данной работе. Текущее исследование сосредоточено на вычислительном изучении in silico различных исследований in silico и биоактивности. Мы связываем оптимизацию тимидина и его ацилированных аналогов с применением теории функционала плотности (DFT) с теорией уровней B 3LYP/3–21G, чтобы продемонстрировать их тепловые свойства, пограничную молекулярную орбиталь, плотность состояний (DOS) и молекулярный электростатический потенциал (MESP). Все аналоги были обнаружены с показателем, превышающим их исходный атом, что указывает на теоретическую стабильность этих соединений. Чтобы глубже осознать эти наблюдения, были проведены исследования молекулярного докинга против PARP1 человека (E.coli-BL21, PDB: 4ZZZ) и обнаружены значительные энергии связи и нековалентные взаимодействия. Данные о биологической активности показали, что соединения в прогнозируемых случаях соответствовали стандартным значениям. Более того, данные о токсичности показали более безопасный уровень оценки для всех изученных аналогов тимидина. Эта работа демонстрирует, что потенциальные аналоги тимидина связываются с бактериальными патогенами, чтобы обойти их активность, и открывает возможности для разработки новых лекарственных препаратов-кандидатов, которые могут воздействовать на бактериальные и грибковые патоген