Buying Practices and Prevalence of Adulteration in Selected Food items in a Rural Area of Wardha District: A Cross - Sectional Study

Introduction: Food adulteration in India includes both willful adulteration and substandard food which do not confirm to prescribe food standard. There is striking paucity of reliable data with regard to extent of adulteration and documentation of food borne illnesses reflecting lack of attention and focus on this problem. Objectives: To find the prevalence of food adulteration, buying practices of selected food items and their awareness towards food adulteration act. Also assess relationship between per-capita incomes, education of respondents, and food borne illnesses with magnitude of adulteration in each house-hold. Methods: With the best estimate of 50%, sample size comes to 89. By stratifying the village according to social strata and randomly selecting the households with PPS. Questionnaire was administered to fulfill our objectives and food items were tested. Data analyzed by numeral with percentage, Pearson moment correlation, F test and chi square test. Results: In 68.5% Households, wife (home-maker) buys the grocery. Majority of them never read the food labels. All the selected food items were adulterated ranging from 76 % to 11%. Mean percentage of purity was highest in literates (47.5 ± 22.48) than illiterates and just literates. Food borne illness was prevalent in households with low purity of food. Association was found between per capita income and percentage of purity (0.765)

Determinants and Associated Disability of Leprosy Patients Attending GMLF, Sevagram

Background: Leprosy, as an oldest disease known to a man and already eliminated from India in 2005, still poses a public health problem with steady new case detection rate. Method: The present study was carried out in Gandhi memorial leprosy foundation, Wardha, with the aim to find out proportion of multibacillary leprosy cases and various grading of disability and factors associated with it in this part of country. All the successive new OPD patients were included in study and examined for type of leprosy and grade of disability if present. Analysis done by Descriptive statistics. Result: 66 % had multibacillary type of leprosy and 44 % the disability. Higher age group, females, illiterate and less educated, unskilled and low income group were mostly affected. Conclusion: high proportion of multibacillary cases and disabilities reflects the need for active thrust to identify new cases

dTip60 HAT Activity Controls Synaptic Bouton Expansion at the Drosophila Neuromuscular Junction

Background: Histone acetylation of chromatin plays a key role in promoting the dynamic transcriptional responses in neurons that influence the neuroplasticity linked to cognitive ability, yet the specific histone acetyltransferases (HATs) that create such epigenetic marks remain to be elucidated. Methods and Findings: Here we use the Drosophila neuromuscular junction (NMJ) as a well-characterized synapse model to identify HATs that control synaptic remodeling and structure. We show that the HAT dTip60 is concentrated both pre and post-synaptically within the NMJ. Presynaptic targeted reduction of dTip60 HAT activity causes a significant increase in synaptic bouton number that specifically affects type Is boutons. The excess boutons show a suppression of the active zone synaptic function marker bruchpilot, suggesting defects in neurotransmission function. Analysis of microtubule organization within these excess boutons using immunohistochemical staining to the microtubule associated protein futsch reveals a significant increase in the rearrangement of microtubule loop architecture that is required for bouton division. Moreover, a-tubulin acetylation levels of microtubules specifically extending into the terminal synaptic boutons are reduced in response to dTip60 HAT reduction. Conclusions: Our results are the first to demonstrate a causative role for the HAT dTip60 in the control of synaptic plasticity that is achieved, at least in part, via regulation of the synaptic microtubule cytoskeleton. These findings have implication

Mutations in Wnt2 Alter Presynaptic Motor Neuron Morphology and Presynaptic Protein Localization at the Drosophila Neuromuscular Junction

Wnt proteins are secreted proteins involved in a number of developmental processes including neural development and synaptogenesis. We sought to determine the role of the Drosophila Wnt7b ortholog, Wnt2, using the neuromuscular junction (NMJ). Mutations in wnt2 produce an increase in the number of presynaptic branches and a reduction in immunolabeling of the active zone proteins, Bruchpilot and synaptobrevin, at the NMJ. There was no change, however, in immunolabeling for the presynaptic proteins cysteine-string protein (CSP) and synaptotagmin, nor the postsynaptic proteins GluRIIA and DLG at the NMJ. Consistent with the presynaptic defects, wnt2 mutants exhibit approximately a 50% reduction in evoked excitatory junctional currents. Rescue, RNAi, and tissue-specific qRT-PCR experiments indicate that Wnt2 is expressed by the postsynaptic cell where it may serve as a retrograde signal that regulates presynaptic morphology and the localization of presynaptic proteins

Separation and recovery of critical metal ions using ionic liquids

Separation and purification of critical metal ions such as rare-earth elements (REEs), scandium and niobium from their minerals is difficult and often determines if extraction is economically and environmentally feasible. Solvent extraction is a commonly used metal-ion separation process, usually favored because of its simplicity, speed and wide scope, which is why it is often employed for separating trace metals from their minerals. However, the types of solvents widely used for the recovery of metal ions have adverse environmental impact. Alternatives to solvent extraction have been explored and advances in separation technologies have seen commercial establishment of liquid membranes as an alternative to conventional solvent extraction for the recovery of metals and other valuable materials. Liquid membrane transport incorporates solvent extraction and membrane separation in one continuously operating system. Both methods conventionally use solvents that are harmful to the environment, however, the introduction of ionic liquids (ILs) over the last decade is set to minimize the environmental impact of both solvent extraction and liquid membrane separation processes. ILs are a family of organic molten salts with low or negligible vapour pressure which may be formed below 100 oC. Such liquids are also highly thermally stable and less toxic. Their ionic structure makes them thermodynamically favorable solvents for the extraction of metallic ions. The main aim of this article is to review the current achievements in the separation of REE, scandium, niobium and vanadium from their minerals, using ILs in either solvent extraction or liquid membrane processes. The mechanism of separation using ILs is discussed and the engineering constraints to their application are identified