Prevalence of anemia among health science students of a university in South India

Background: Anemia due to iron deficiency continues to be the major public health problem in developing as well as developed countries affecting quality of life and work capacity of large population throughout the world. It is being observed that prevalence of anemia is more in students of both the genders due to several factors like improper nutrition intake, socio-economic background etc. The objective of our study was to determine the prevalence of anemia among health science students of a private university in South India.Methods: A total of 568 university students between 18-45 years participated in the study. Patients who underwent major surgery less than three months before and who had donated blood within the last three months were excluded. Baseline characteristics of all the patients were recorded. 1.5 ml of blood was collected from all the study patients for complete haemogram test. WHO criterions were taken for determining severity of anemia with determined hemoglobin (Hb) concentration.Results: Among the study subjects, 43% (n=237) had anaemia as per the WHO criteria. There was a significant preponderance of female students with anaemia as compared to males (97 vs. 68%, p=0.0001). Anaemic subjects had a higher risk of bleeding disorders as compared to non-anaemic subjects (16 vs. 12%, p=0.0001). When assessed by WHO criteria of anemia severity, majority of the anemic subjects had mild anemia and only less than two percent had severe anemia.Conclusions: Present study showed the prevalence of anemia among university health science students to be 43%. The need of the hour is to provide health education on the ill-effects of anemia and the life-style modification particularly with respect to eating habits along with nutritional supplementation

Biomodulation of mineral surfaces for selective separation of pyrite from chalcopyrite: a ftir study

This paper discusses the utility of FTIR spectra in understanding the mechanism of selective separation of chalcopyrite from pyrite after biomodulation using Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans cells. Consequent to interaction with bacterial cells, pyrite remained depressed even in presence of collector while chalcopyrite exhibited significant flotability. FTIR spectra indicated that the major species formed when pyrite and chalcopyrite were interacted with an aqueous solution of potassium ethyl xanthate was dixanthogen and copper (I)alkyl xanthate respectively. The observed difference in the flotability of the two minerals after interaction with the cells and collector is explained based on FTIR studies

Surface chemical and flotation behaviour of chalcopyrite and pyrite in the presence of Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans

Extraction of valuable metals and removal of sulfide minerals from abandoned mines holds the key for environmental protection. This paper discusses the utility of Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans for the selective removal of pyrite from chalcopyrite for the economic extraction of valuable copper. Interaction of bacterial cells with the sulfide minerals altered the surface chemistry of both the minerals and cells. The isoelectric point of both pyrite and chalcopyrite shifted to higher pH after interaction with cells. Adhesion kinetics of the bacterial cells to both the minerals was similar, however, the adsorption density on pyrite was higher compared to that on chalcopyrite. Interaction with cells rendered both the minerals hydrophilic. Flotation of minerals, preconditioned with cells, with potassium isopropyl xanthate as collector resulted in depression of pyrite and good flotation of chalcopyrite. The observed behaviour is discussed in detail. Poor selectivity achieved when the minerals were floated together was overcome by conditioning the collector interacted minerals with the bacterial cells prior to flotation. Thus it was possible to selectively depress pyrite from chalcopyrite at both acidic and neutral pH conditions

Microbially-induced separation of arsenopyrite and bioremediation of arsenic

This paper discusses the role of the mineral-adapted acidiphilic microorganism Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans in the beneficiation of arsenopyrite-containing multisulfides (pyrite and chalcopyrite) and the bioremediation of the resulting arsenical waste water. It was found that adaptation to minerals alters the surface properties of the microorganism. Bacterial adaptation to arsenopyrite and controlled bacterial adhesion to mineral surfaces lead to selectivity in arsenopyrite separation. Bioremoval of arsenic ions (both arsenite and arsenate ions) by Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans is also discussed

Imaging of acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans by AFM and analysis of AFM curves

The aim of the present investigation is to obtain tapping mode images of Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans and interfacial forces between Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans cells and silicon nitride tip of AFM. The effect of exposure of cells to toxic metal ions like arsenic on the morphology of the cells was investigated by the section analysis of the AFM images obtained. Effect of glutaraldehyde fixation on force curves is also analyzed

Mechanism of arsenic tolerance and bioremoval of arsenic by Acidithiobacilus ferrooxidans

This paper reports the studies on mechanism of arsenic tolerance and bioremoval of arsenic ions (arsenite or arsenate) by Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans. Exposure of cells to arsenic ions resulted in increased cell surface hydrophobicity, decreased electrophoretic mobility and stronger adsorption affinity towards arsenopyrite. The mechanism of tolerance to arsenic ions were specific and could be attributed to the changes in specific protein expression in the outer membrane and cytosolic membrane fractions. Biosorption studies showed decrease in solution arsenic concentration only with ferrous–grown cells indicating that presence of ferric ions in the EPS was necessary for binding or entrapment of arsenic ions in the EPS. Bacterial EPS of ferrous–grown wild cells were able to uptake arsenate ions due to the strong affinity of ferric ions towards arsenate ions. Neither cells nor the ferric ions were capable of precipitating or oxidizing arsenite ions directly. Both arsenate ions and arsenite ions were co–precipitated with ferric ions formed during the growth of the bacteria

Conduction Mechanisms in Polypyrrole-Copper Nanocomposites

By mixing independently synthesized polypyrole and copper nanoparticles in different proportions, nanocomposites were prepared. Bulk and surface structures were probed by X-ray diffraction and Scanning electron microscopes. DC resistivity with temperature as a variable of all the composites has been investigated. Conductivity has been calculated using resistivity and found it to be of the order 10 – 4 (Ω – 1m – 1), which is greater by one order of magnitude than that reported for polypyrole nanoparticles. Temperature behaviour of conductivity in all the samples revealed semiconducting nature. By applying Mott’s theory of small polaron hopping, activation energy for conductivity at high temperature has been determined. Activation energy is found to be increasing with increase in copper content in the composites. Using data deviated from small polaron model, the density of states at Fermi level is calculated by employing the theory of variable range hopping of polarons due to Mott. It is for the first time that PPy-Cu nanocomposites have been probed for structural and temperature dependence of conductivity and conduction mechanisms operated in these composites in different temperature regions have been understood

Microbially induced mineral beneficiation

The divergent role of microbes in the field of mineral processing starting from mining and beneficiation to efficient waste disposal has been well recognized now. The roles of various microorganisms and bioreagents in the beneficiation of minerals are illustrated in this paper. Various types of microorganisms useful in bringing about selective flotation and flocculation of various oxide and sulfide minerals are illustrated. Interfacial phenomena governing microbe-mineral interactions are discussed with reference to bacterial cell wall architecture, cell surface hydrophobicity, electrokinetic data, and adsorption behavior on various minerals. Applications of microbially induced mineral beneficiation are demonstrated with respect to beneficiation of iron ores, bauxite, limestone, and complex multimetal sulfides

Catechin, epicatechin, curcumin, garlic, pomegranate peel and neem extracts of Indian origin showed enhanced anti-inflammatory potential in human primary acute and chronic wound derived fibroblasts by decreasing TGF-β and TNF-α expression

Abstract Background Although chronic wounds are devastating and can cause burden at multiple levels, chronic wound research is still far behind. Chronic wound treatment is often less efficient due to delay in diagnosis and treatment, non-specific treatment mainly due to lack of knowledge of wound healing or healing resistance genes. It’s known that chronic wounds do not progress towards healing, because it gets stalled in inflammatory phase of wound healing. Objective We aimed to use phytoextracts possessing excellent anti-inflammatory properties to regulate the unbalanced levels of cytokines responsible for increased inflammation. Methods Evaluation of anti-inflammatory activity of selected phytoextracts namely, Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze, Acacia catechu (L.f) Willd., Curcuma longa (L.), Allium sativum (L.), Punica granatum (L.) and Azadirachta indica A. hereafter, called as catechin, epicatechin, curcumin, garlic, pomegranate and neem extracts, respectively in Acute wound fibroblasts (AWFs) and Chronic wound fibroblasts (CWFs) using flow cytometry. Results The phytoextracts exhibited no cytotoxicity below 100 μg/ml on normal Human Dermal fibroblasts (HDFs), while garlic extract showed highest cell viability followed by catechin, epicatechin, curcumin, pomegranate peel and neem based on IC50 value. Garlic, catechin and epicatechin extracts showed highest anti-inflammatory activities for both TGF-β and TNF-α in both AWFs and CWFs treated cells. After treatment of AWFs with catechin, epicatechin and garlic extracts, TGF-β and TNF-α expression was significantly reduced compared to untreated AWFs and reached to almost normal HDFs level. Also, after treatment of CWFs with catechin, epicatechin and garlic extracts, TGF-β and TNF-α expression was significantly reduced compared to untreated CWFs and was lesser than untreated AWFs. Conclusion The present findings reveal the potential of catechin, epicatechin and garlic extracts for the treatment of acute and chronic wounds with excellent anti-inflammatory properties

Proceedings of International Conference On Global Innovations In Computing Technology (ICGICT'14) Adaptive Discriminating Detection for DDoS Attacks from Flash Crowds Using Flow Correlation C o e f f i c i e n t with Collective Feedback

ABSTRACT: A Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack is a most popular and crucial attack in the internet. Its motive is to make a network resource unavailable to the legitimate users. Botnets are commonly the engines behind the attack. In our deep study of the size and organization of current botnets, found that the current attack flowsare usually more similar to each other compared to the flows of flashcrowds In this paper we are concentrating flashcrowd and DDoS there are two steps involved, first it is necessary to differentiate normal traffic and flashcrowd by using Flash Crowd Detection Algorithm. Secon d we ha ve t o di fferentiat e fl ash crowd and DDoS b y usin g Fl ow Correl ati on Coeffi ci ent (FCC). By using this FCC value, algorithm proposed called Adaptive discrimination algorithm is used to detect the DDoS from the flash crowd event. And a s equ en t i al det e ct i on and pac ki n g al gori t h m u sed t o d et ect t he at t a cked pa ck et s and fi l t er i t out .By using above mentioned algorithms we can improve the accuracy in filtering the attacked packets and also the time consummation is reduced