Mycobiota and Natural Incidence of Aflatoxins, Ochratoxin A, and Citrinin in Indian Spices Confirmed by LC-MS/MS

Nine different Indian spices (red chilli, black pepper, turmeric, coriander, cumin, fennel, caraway, fenugreek, and dry ginger) commonly cultivated and highly used in India were analysed for natural occurrence of toxigenic mycoflora and aflatoxins (AFs), ochratoxin A (OTA), and citrinin (CTN) contamination. Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus niger were the most dominant species isolated from all types of spices. Red chilli samples were highly contaminated with aflatoxins (85.4%) followed by dry ginger (77.7%). 56% Aspergillus flavus from red chilli and 45% Aspergillus ochraceus from black pepper were toxigenic and produced aflatoxins and ochratoxin A, respectively. Qualitative detection and quantitative detection of mycotoxins in spices were analyzed by ELISA and further confirmed by LC-MS/MS. Penicillium citrinum produced citrinin in red chilli, black pepper, coriander, cumin, fenugreek, and dry ginger samples. The highest amount of AFs was found in red chilli (219.6 ng/g), OTA was in black pepper (154.1 ng/g), and CTN was in dry ginger samples (85.1 ng/g). The results of this study suggest that the spices are susceptible substrate for growth of mycotoxigenic fungi and further mycotoxin production. This is the first report of natural occurrence of citrinin in black pepper and dry ginger from India

Toksikološka svojstva citrinina

Citrinin (CTN) is a nephrotoxic mycotoxin produced by several fungal strains belonging to the genera Penicillium, Aspergillus, and Monascus. It contaminates various commodities of plant origin, cereals in particular, and is usually found together with another nephrotoxic mycotoxin, ochratoxin A (OTA). These two mycotoxins are believed to be involved in the aetiology of endemic nephropathy. In addition to nephrotoxicity, CTN is also embryocidal and fetotoxic. The genotoxic properties of CTN have been demonstrated with the micronuleus test (MN), but not with single-cell gel electrophoresis. The mechanism of CTN toxicity is not fully understood, especially not whether CTN toxicity and genotoxicity are the consequence of oxidative stress or of increased permeability of mitochondrial membranes. CTN requires complex cellular biotransformation to exert mutagenicity. Compared with other mycotoxins, CTN contamination of food and feed is rather scarce. However, it is reasonable to believe that humans are much more frequently exposed to CTN than generally accepted, because it is produced by the same moulds as OTA, which is a common contaminant of human food all over the world. At present, there are no specifi c regulations either in Croatia or in the European Union concerning CTN in any kind of commodity.Citrinin (CTN) nefrotoksičan je mikotoksin koji proizvode različiti sojevi plijesni iz rodova Penicillium, Aspergillus i Monascus. CTN se može naći u različitim namirnicama biljnog podrijetla, osobito u žitaricama i obično se nalazi zajedno s drugim nefrotoksičnim mikotoksinom, okratoksinom A (OTA). Pretpostavlja se da je izloženost ovim mikotoksinima povezana s nastankom endemske nefropatije. Osim što je nefrotoksičan, CTN je još i embricidan i fetotoksičan. Na genotoksičnost citrinina upućuje pozitivan mikronukleusni test na različitim vrstama staničnih kultura, iako je kometski test negativan. Mutagenost CTN-a očituje se na različitim vrstama stanica samo ako se pridodaju stanični aktivatori kao npr. S9-mix. Mehanizam toksičnosti CTN-a nije potpuno razjašnjen pa još uvijek traje znanstvena rasprava je li njegova toksičnost i genotoksičnost posljedica oksidacijskog stresa ili povećane permeabilnosti mitohondrijskih membrana. U dostupnoj literaturi podaci o kontaminiranosti hrane i krmiva ovim mikotoksinom mnogo su rjeđi od onih za druge mikotoksine. Može se pretpostaviti da su ljudi često izloženi ovom mikotoksinu zato što ga proizvode iste plijesni koje proizvode i OTA, a one kontaminiraju hranu po cijelom svijetu. U Hrvatskoj i u zemljama Europske Unije ne postoje zakonske odredbe o dopuštenim granicama CTN-a u bilo kojoj vrsti hrane

Connectionist Models for Solving Linear and Nonlinear Equations

Various engineering and science problems may transform into linear and nonlinear equations, in general. In recent decades, Artificial Neural Network (ANN) has emerged as one of the prominent mechanism for solving linear and nonlinear equations. Although linear and nonlinear equations may be solved by different known analytical and numerical methods but those are sometimes having different complexity to handle. Traditional numerical methods may sometimes fail to solve these equations due to the involvement of singularities or complexity of the function etc. Moreover, (for example) there may exist two closely positioned roots or due to discontinuity of the curve in the problems of root finding and then the known numerical methods may sometimes difficult to use. In case of linear system of equations, the traditional numerical methods sometimes fail if the system is not diagonally dominant, positive definite etc. In those cases, ANN based methods may be an alternative for solving the equations. In this regard, detail ANN procedure with various example problems related to transcendental, Diophantine and linear system of equations with their network architectures have been addressed here to demonstrate the proposed procedure. Further, solving linear and nonlinear eigenvalue problems are also challenging task. For example, dynamic analysis of structure without damping may transform into a linear eigenvalue problem and with damping it leads to a nonlinear eigenvalue problem. Linear eigenvalue problems are studied though by many authors, but nonlinear eigenvalue problems are not studied much. However, these methods (for both linear as well as nonlinear) may sometimes be problem dependent and difficult to handle. As such, in these cases, ANN may also be advantageous over the existing methods. Few examples of linear eigenvalue problems such as vibration analysis of spring mass system and multi-storey shear building have been investigated. On the other hand, two examples of overdamped spring mass systems have been examined to show the efficacy of the proposed method in case of nonlinear eigenvalue problem. It may be noted that parameters involved in the above systems may not be crisp (exact) always because of errors in experiment, measurement and observation. In that case, the problem leads to an uncertain system. In order to handle these uncertainties, recently researchers have introduced interval and/or fuzzy numbers in place of crisp ones. In these regards, various techniques have been developed by different authors but these are sometimes valid for certain (particular) type of problems only. These methods may have few drawbacks that include number of iterations, triangularisation etc. In this context, application problems such as static problems of structures lead to system of equations. As mentioned earlier that inclusion of uncertainty makes the problem as uncertain. Similarly, computation of the interval controls using pole placement technique in case of uncertain plant system reduces to interval linear system, which itself is a challenging problem. Moreover, dynamic problems lead to eigenvalue problems which may become more complicated due to the inclusion of uncertainty. Accordingly, ANN methods have been developed to handle the above problems with ease. Different example problems have been solved in this context to validate the proposed ANN technique

Influence of section 377 on relationships of the MSM community with their family members

Background: Sexual and gender minorities all over the world are heavily impacted by the attitudes and beliefs of those around them. With this study, the researcher is trying to explore the impact of Section 377 (2018 judgment) on the relationships between the Men who have Sex with Men (MSM) and their parents. Method: This qualitative study was completed using semi-structured interviews that were conducted with 11 MSM who were living in Delhi and had come out to their parents. Additionally, interviews were also conducted with 5 parents of the selected MSM Community members. Qualitative content analysis was used to examine the data. Five major themes were identified; awareness of one’s sexual orientation, relationship dynamics with parents before coming out, disclosure of MSM identity to parents, change in relationship with parents post coming out and parent’s response and support towards their son’s sexual orientation. Results: During their adolescent or early adulthood years, the selected group of MSMs became certain of their sexual orientation. During the age range of 15-23 years, all MSM participants reported disclosing their sexual identity to their parents.&nbsp

A Derivative-free Method for Quantum Perceptron Training in Multi-layered Neural Networks

In this paper, we present a gradient-free approach for training multi-layered neural networks based upon quantum perceptrons. Here, we depart from the classical perceptron and the elemental operations on quantum bits, i.e. qubits, so as to formulate the problem in terms of quantum perceptrons. We then make use of measurable operators to define the states of the network in a manner consistent with a Markov process. This yields a Dirac-Von Neumann formulation consistent with quantum mechanics. Moreover, the formulation presented here has the advantage of having a computational efficiency devoid of the number of layers in the network. This, paired with the natural efficiency of quantum computing, can imply a significant improvement in efficiency, particularly for deep networks. Finally, but not least, the developments here are quite general in nature since the approach presented here can also be used for quantum-inspired neural networks implemented on conventional computers.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures, Accepted in ICONIP 202