The Applicability of Oxidative Stress Biomarkers in Assessing Chromium Induced Toxicity in the Fish Labeo rohita

The evaluation of metal’s toxicity in freshwater is one of the imperative areas of research and there is an emergent concern on the development of techniques for detecting toxic effects in aquatic animals. Oxidative stress biomarkers are very useful in assessing the health of aquatic life and more in depth studies are necessary to establish an exact cause effect relationship.Therefore, to study the effectiveness of this approach, a laboratory study was conducted in the fish Labeo rohita as a function of hexavalent chromium and the toxicity indices using a battery of oxidative stress biomarkers such as catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and glutathione reductase (GR) in the liver, muscle, gills, and brain have been studied along with biometric parameters, behavioral changes, and Cr bioaccumulation. A significant increased HSI was observed in contrast to CF which reduced significantly. SOD,CAT, and GR activity increased significantly in all the tissues of treated fishes. The bioaccumulation of Cr was highest in liver followed by gills, muscle, and brain. This study highlights the significance of using a set of integrated biomarker and advocate to include these parameters in National Water Quality Monitoring Program in areas potentially polluted with metals to assess the health of the ecosystem

Chlorination as Drinking Water Disinfection Technique and Disinfection by Products: A Scientometric Analysis

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 2015, defined to achieve a better and more sustainable future, contains goal number 6 related to safe and affordable drinking water facility for all till 2030. The rural and remote areas in the developing countries predominantly face the scarcity of pathogen free drinking water leading to water borne diseases and deaths due to consumption of contaminated water indicating a need of advancement in the drinking water disinfection techniques. The paper discusses scientometric analysis of publication trends in chlorination as a popular disinfection techniques and research related to the Disinfection By Products (DBPs) that are produced due to the reaction between the disinfectant and naturally occurring organic matter in water. The analysis of the existing SCOPUS database from year 2000 to 2020, indicates total of 1279 journal articles, 138 conference proceedings, 88 review papers, and 57 other documents, with the key words ‘drinking water, disinfection, and chlorination’. As per the analysis, United States and China presented maximum publications related to drinking water disinfection using chlorination treatment. The analysis of literature also indicates that there is huge amount of literature related to the formation of alternative DBPs and their hazardous effects on human health. However, as per scopus database only three research documents are registered till date for the removal techniques of DBPs produced after the disinfection process, indicating a need of further research in this area. The literature also suggests the need to engender new technology or optimize the existing technology for minimizing the formation of DBPs

Study of Liquid-Crystalline Behaviour of Aliphatic-Aromatic Polyamides Derived from Castor Oil Based Dimer Acid by DSC

ABSTRACT Aliphatic-aromatic polyamide of castor oil based dimer acid (DA) with pphenylenediamine (PPD) was characterized by differential scanning calorimetry. Thispolyamide exhibited interesting liquid-crystalline behavior which was quite unexpectedlooked at the structure of dimer acid moiety

Effect of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor and angiotensin receptor blocker initiation on organ support-free days in patients hospitalized with COVID-19

IMPORTANCE Overactivation of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) may contribute to poor clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19. Objective To determine whether angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor or angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) initiation improves outcomes in patients hospitalized for COVID-19. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS In an ongoing, adaptive platform randomized clinical trial, 721 critically ill and 58 non–critically ill hospitalized adults were randomized to receive an RAS inhibitor or control between March 16, 2021, and February 25, 2022, at 69 sites in 7 countries (final follow-up on June 1, 2022). INTERVENTIONS Patients were randomized to receive open-label initiation of an ACE inhibitor (n = 257), ARB (n = 248), ARB in combination with DMX-200 (a chemokine receptor-2 inhibitor; n = 10), or no RAS inhibitor (control; n = 264) for up to 10 days. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary outcome was organ support–free days, a composite of hospital survival and days alive without cardiovascular or respiratory organ support through 21 days. The primary analysis was a bayesian cumulative logistic model. Odds ratios (ORs) greater than 1 represent improved outcomes. RESULTS On February 25, 2022, enrollment was discontinued due to safety concerns. Among 679 critically ill patients with available primary outcome data, the median age was 56 years and 239 participants (35.2%) were women. Median (IQR) organ support–free days among critically ill patients was 10 (–1 to 16) in the ACE inhibitor group (n = 231), 8 (–1 to 17) in the ARB group (n = 217), and 12 (0 to 17) in the control group (n = 231) (median adjusted odds ratios of 0.77 [95% bayesian credible interval, 0.58-1.06] for improvement for ACE inhibitor and 0.76 [95% credible interval, 0.56-1.05] for ARB compared with control). The posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitors and ARBs worsened organ support–free days compared with control were 94.9% and 95.4%, respectively. Hospital survival occurred in 166 of 231 critically ill participants (71.9%) in the ACE inhibitor group, 152 of 217 (70.0%) in the ARB group, and 182 of 231 (78.8%) in the control group (posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitor and ARB worsened hospital survival compared with control were 95.3% and 98.1%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE In this trial, among critically ill adults with COVID-19, initiation of an ACE inhibitor or ARB did not improve, and likely worsened, clinical outcomes. TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT0273570

A Bibliometric Analysis of Global Research on Green Building Rating Tools.

The movement of green buildings started all over the world after the development of different rating tools for the assessment of green buildings. In the present study, the research trends in the area of green building rating tools (GBRTs) were analysed through the Scopus database from the year 2000-2020. By using the different combinations of keywords, relevant articles were found after refining the search results. In this study, 482 relevant articles from the first set of keywords were considered till the period 4th February 2021 for further analysis. Results reveal that research on GBRTs was majority done only on residential buildings. As per analysis, the USA and China depicted maximum publications in the area of GBRTs. The analysis also revealed that Building and Environment Journal is the leading Journal in publishing the GBRTs research followed by the Journal of Cleaner Production

The Applicability of Oxidative Stress Biomarkers in Assessing Chromium Induced Toxicity in the Fish Labeo rohita

The evaluation of metal’s toxicity in freshwater is one of the imperative areas of research and there is an emergent concern on the development of techniques for detecting toxic effects in aquatic animals. Oxidative stress biomarkers are very useful in assessing the health of aquatic life and more in depth studies are necessary to establish an exact cause effect relationship. Therefore, to study the effectiveness of this approach, a laboratory study was conducted in the fish Labeo rohita as a function of hexavalent chromium and the toxicity indices using a battery of oxidative stress biomarkers such as catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and glutathione reductase (GR) in the liver, muscle, gills, and brain have been studied along with biometric parameters, behavioral changes, and Cr bioaccumulation. A significant increased HSI was observed in contrast to CF which reduced significantly. SOD, CAT, and GR activity increased significantly in all the tissues of treated fishes. The bioaccumulation of Cr was highest in liver followed by gills, muscle, and brain. This study highlights the significance of using a set of integrated biomarker and advocate to include these parameters in National Water Quality Monitoring Program in areas potentially polluted with metals to assess the health of the ecosystem

A Composite Permeable Sloping Seawall for Effective Energy Dissipation: A Quasi-Soft Alternative Solution for Shore Protection

The recent trend in coastal research centers around environmental sustainability, especially in coastal conservation. A seawall typically has three layers, namely core, filter, and hard rubble/concrete armor. In the current study, a two-layered seawall is proposed, comprising a coir geotextile roll from the coastal regions, along with sand encapsulated in a geotextile over an impermeable core. This can be considered as a quasi-soft solution against the traditional, three-layered, hard alternative. The objective of this study is to investigate the combined effect of slope and porosity, of this composite structure, on the wave reflection. The findings show that the composite structure provides less reflection coefficient values compared to traditional rubble mound seawalls. Four orientations and positions of coir rolls with geosynthetic sandbag were tested. The armor layer with coir rolls overlain by geosynthetic sandbags over an impermeable core could be a better alternative, as it increases the hydrodynamic performance by 59% as compared to sandbags, used alone, over an impermeable core on a slope of 1:2

Perception of student’s towards online learning during COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has impinged on the people irrespective of their nationality, age, income or gender. It has hit almost all the sectors of the economy including education. In response to lockdown norms issued by the government, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and universities had to close their premises and switch to online mode of teaching. However, HEIs were quick to replace traditional classroom with online learning. The analysis represents the perception of undergraduate and postgraduate students towards online learning during Covid 19 pandemic on the basis of three factors “Teacher’s Support & Comfort”, “Learning Satisfaction” and “Effectiveness”. Research findings indicated that the majority of students preferred online learning as it saves time, provides an opportunity to create one’s own learning environment thereby creating positive impact on the studies. However, some of the students feel that they are not getting full attention from teacher in online class compared to traditional classroom environment