An Analysis on the Detection of Biological Contaminants Aboard Aircraft

The spread of infectious disease via commercial airliner travel is a significant and realistic threat. To shed some light on the feasibility of detecting airborne pathogens, a sensor integration study has been conducted and computational investigations of contaminant transport in an aircraft cabin have been performed. Our study took into consideration sensor sensitivity as well as the time-to-answer, size, weight and the power of best available commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) devices. We conducted computational fluid dynamics simulations to investigate three types of scenarios: (1) nominal breathing (up to 20 breaths per minute) and coughing (20 times per hour); (2) nominal breathing and sneezing (4 times per hour); and (3) nominal breathing only. Each scenario was implemented with one or seven infectious passengers expelling air and sneezes or coughs at the stated frequencies. Scenario 2 was implemented with two additional cases in which one infectious passenger expelled 20 and 50 sneezes per hour, respectively. All computations were based on 90 minutes of sampling using specifications from a COTS aerosol collector and biosensor. Only biosensors that could provide an answer in under 20 minutes without any manual preparation steps were included. The principal finding was that the steady-state bacteria concentrations in aircraft would be high enough to be detected in the case where seven infectious passengers are exhaling under scenarios 1 and 2 and where one infectious passenger is actively exhaling in scenario 2. Breathing alone failed to generate sufficient bacterial particles for detection, and none of the scenarios generated sufficient viral particles for detection to be feasible. These results suggest that more sensitive sensors than the COTS devices currently available and/or sampling of individual passengers would be needed for the detection of bacteria and viruses in aircraft

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Not AvailableLength-weight relationship (LWR) was estimated for three stomatopod species, namely Oratosquillina perpensa (Kemp, 1911), Harpiosquilla raphidea (Fabricius, 1798) and Miyakella nepa (Latreille, 1828) for the first time from the north-eastern Arabian Sea. Experimental fishing, using a shrimp trawl, was conducted fortnightly during September 2017 up to April 2018 along the Maharashtra coast. A total of 821 samples were collected. Length-weight relationship showed good fit with coefficient of determination (r2) values varying from 0.9190 to 0.9612. In this study, b values ranged from 2.758 to 3.140. The LWRs of Oratosquillina perpensa and Miyakella nepa have not yet been reported in the SealifeBase.Not Availabl

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Not AvailableBycatch one of the major issue in marine fishery is contributed mainly by trawls due to their low selectivity. Investigations on trawl fishery were carried out fortnightly from September 2017 to May 2018 by means of experimental fishing using shrimp trawl to study the catch composition and discards from trawl along Mumbai coast. Of the total catch 1218.91 kg, discarded catch contributed maximum 1128.55 kg, commercial catch 86.85 kg and marine debris 3.5 kg. The catch and discard percentage varied from 0%-63% and 37% to 100% respectively. Catch per hour was the maximum during November (63.26 kg) and discards per hour was maximum during October and November due to abundance of jellyfish and Trypauchen vagina. Monthly shrimp: bycatch ratio estimated varied from 1:3.4 to 1:60.98 and the mean monthly bycatch was estimated as 10.26 kg h-1. Of the total catch shrimps formed 8%, non-target catch 32% and discards 60%. In all, 83 species were encountered in the trawl. It is thus evident from the results of the present study that the marine fisheries sector of Mumbai is in crisis with increasing discards and decreasing target catch that indicates both ecological and economic loss. The data generated through this study could be used for suggesting seasonal and spatial restrictions in fishing to conserve and maintain the sustainability of these resources.Not Availabl

Two-dimensional gold nanostructures with high activity for selective oxidation of carbon–hydrogen bonds

Efficient synthesis of stable two-dimensional (2D) noble metal catalysts is a challenging topic. Here we report the facile synthesis of 2D gold nanosheets via a wet chemistry method, by using layered double hydroxide as the template. Detailed characterization with electron microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy demonstrates that the nanosheets are negatively charged and [001] oriented with thicknesses varying from single to a few atomic layers. X-ray absorption spectroscopy reveals unusually low gold–gold coordination numbers. These gold nanosheets exhibit high catalytic activity and stability in the solvent-free selective oxidation of carbon–hydrogen bonds with molecular oxygen

Fatty acid synthase cooperates with glyoxalase 1 to protect against sugar toxicity.

Fatty acid (FA) metabolism is deregulated in several human diseases including metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes and cancers. Therefore, FA-metabolic enzymes are potential targets for drug therapy, although the consequence of these treatments must be precisely evaluated at the organismal and cellular levels. In healthy organism, synthesis of triacylglycerols (TAGs)-composed of three FA units esterified to a glycerol backbone-is increased in response to dietary sugar. Saturation in the storage and synthesis capacity of TAGs is associated with type 2 diabetes progression. Sugar toxicity likely depends on advanced-glycation-end-products (AGEs) that form through covalent bounding between amine groups and carbonyl groups of sugar or their derivatives α-oxoaldehydes. Methylglyoxal (MG) is a highly reactive α-oxoaldehyde that is derived from glycolysis through a non-enzymatic reaction. Glyoxalase 1 (Glo1) works to neutralize MG, reducing its deleterious effects. Here, we have used the power of Drosophila genetics to generate Fatty acid synthase (FASN) mutants, allowing us to investigate the consequence of this deficiency upon sugar-supplemented diets. We found that FASN mutants are lethal but can be rescued by an appropriate lipid diet. Rescued animals do not exhibit insulin resistance, are dramatically sensitive to dietary sugar and accumulate AGEs. We show that FASN and Glo1 cooperate at systemic and cell-autonomous levels to protect against sugar toxicity. We observed that the size of FASN mutant cells decreases as dietary sucrose increases. Genetic interactions at the cell-autonomous level, where glycolytic enzymes or Glo1 were manipulated in FASN mutant cells, revealed that this sugar-dependent size reduction is a direct consequence of MG-derived-AGE accumulation. In summary, our findings indicate that FASN is dispensable for cell growth if extracellular lipids are available. In contrast, FA-synthesis appears to be required to limit a cell-autonomous accumulation of MG-derived-AGEs, supporting the notion that MG is the most deleterious α-oxoaldehyde at the intracellular level