Water Quality and Pollution Status of Lararpur Reservoir with Special Reference to Bacterial Contamination

Laharpur dam was constructed in the southwest of Bhopal city, M.P., India with an objective to store water for irrigational purpose. At the time of planning and construction of the reservoir it was in the outskirts of township but now, with the expansion of the city the reservoir has come well within the settlement. The developmental activities and occupancy in the area is exerting pressure on the water body. Surface water in urban water bodies almost always contains some degree of contamination. This is due to exposure to animals, humans, aquatic life, etc. In addition to this, variety of other human activities resulted in increasing the bacterial concentration of reservoir. Many of these bacteria are pathogenic and spread diseases like typhoid, paratyphoid, gastroenteritis etc. Inflow of sewage in the surface water may play an important role in the transmission of pathogenic agents discharged through feces. Some pathogenic bacteria like Actinomyces sp., Aerobacter aerogenes, A. cloacae, Micrococcus sp., Salmonella sp., Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillussp, and Shigella species indicate the higher level of fecal contamination of water. This untreated water poses a serious threat to the health of consumers and therefore, calls for urgent intervention by government.
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A role for histone acetylation mechanisms in adolescent alcohol exposure-induced deficits in hippocampal brain-derived neurotrophic factor expression and neurogenesis markers in adulthood

Binge drinking during adolescence is a risk factor for neuropsychiatric disorders that can develop later in life. Histone acetylation is an important epigenetic mechanism that contributes to neurodevelopment. We investigated the effects of adolescent intermittent ethanol (AIE) exposure, as opposed to normal saline (AIS) exposure, on histone acetylation-mediated regulation of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) expression and developmental stages of neurogenesis (proliferating and immature neurons) in the hippocampus in adulthood. AIE exposure increased whole hippocampal histone deacetylase (HDAC) activity and decreased binding protein of cyclic adenosine monophosphate response element binding protein (CBP) and histone H3-K9 acetylation levels in the CA1, CA2, and CA3 regions of the hippocampus. BDNF protein and exon IV mRNA levels in the CA1 and CA3 regions of the hippocampus of AIE exposed adult rats were decreased as compared to AIS exposed adult rats. AIE induced anxiety-like behaviors and deficits in histone H3 acetylation at BDNF exon IV promoter in the hippocampus during adulthood, which were reversed by treatment with the HDAC inhibitor, trichostatin A (TSA). Similarly, neurogenesis was inhibited by AIE in adulthood as demonstrated by the decrease in Ki-67 and doublecortin (DCX)-positive cells in the dentate gyrus, which was normalized by TSA treatment. These results indicate that AIE exposure increases HDACs and decreases CBP levels that may be associated with a decrease in histone H3 acetylation in the hippocampus. These epigenetic changes potentially decrease BDNF expression and inhibit neurogenesis in the hippocampus that may be involved in AIE-induced behavioral abnormalities, including anxiety, in adulthood

SN 2013ab : A normal type IIP supernova in NGC 5669

We present densely-sampled ultraviolet/optical photometric and low-resolution optical spectroscopic observations of the type IIP supernova 2013ab in the nearby ($\sim$24 Mpc) galaxy NGC 5669, from 2 to 190d after explosion. Continuous photometric observations, with the cadence of typically a day to one week, were acquired with the 1-2m class telescopes in the LCOGT network, ARIES telescopes in India and various other telescopes around the globe. The light curve and spectra suggest that the SN is a normal type IIP event with a plateau duration of $\sim80$ days with mid plateau absolute visual magnitude of -16.7, although with a steeper decline during the plateau (0.92 mag 100 d$^{-1}$ in $V$ band) relative to other archetypal SNe of similar brightness. The velocity profile of SN 2013ab shows striking resemblance with those of SNe 1999em and 2012aw. Following the Rabinak & Waxman (2011) prescription, the initial temperature evolution of the SN emission allows us to estimate the progenitor radius to be $\sim$ 800 R$_{\odot}$, indicating that the SN originated from a red supergiant star. The distance to the SN host galaxy is estimated to be 24.3 Mpc from expanding photosphere method (EPM). From our observations, we estimate that 0.064 M$_{\odot}$ of $^{56}$Ni was synthesized in the explosion. General relativistic, radiation hydrodynamical modeling of the SN infers an explosion energy of $0.35\times10^{51}$ erg, a progenitor mass (at the time of explosion) of $\sim9$ M$_{\odot}$ and an initial radius of $\sim600$ R$_{\odot}$.Comment: 22 pages, 18 figures, 5 tables. Accepted for publication in MNRA

Neurotrophic Factor Signaling in Alcoholism

This article presents the proceedings of a symposium presented at the meeting of the International Society for the Biomedical Research on Alcoholism (ISBRA), held in Manheim, Germany, in September 2004. The organizers and chairpersons were Subhash C. Pandey and Toshikazu Saito. The presentations were (1) Ethanol and NMDA receptor coupling to ERK signaling, by L.J. Chandler;(2) Ethanol modulation of CREB: Role in neurogenesis, by Fulton Crews;(3) Serotonin dysfunction and alcohol preference in mice deficient in brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), by Julie G. Hensler; (4) BDNF gene and related signaling: role in anxiety and alcohol dependence and preference, by Subhash C. Pandey; (5) BDNF and CREB: role in ethanol induced neuronal damage, Wataru Ukai

Binge-Like Alcohol Exposure During Adolescence Disrupts Dopaminergic Neurotransmission in the Adult Prelimbic Cortex

Repeated binge-like exposure to alcohol during adolescence has been reported to perturb prefrontal cortical development, yet the mechanisms underlying these effects are unknown. Here we report that adolescent intermittent ethanol exposure induces cellular and dopaminergic abnormalities in the adult prelimbic cortex (PrL-C). Exposing rats to alcohol during early-mid adolescence (PD28–42) increased the density of long/thin dendritic spines of layer 5 pyramidal neurons in the adult PrL-C. Interestingly, although AIE exposure did not alter the expression of glutamatergic proteins in the adult PrL-C, there was a pronounced reduction in dopamine (DA) D1 receptor modulation of both intrinsic firing and evoked NMDA currents in pyramidal cells, whereas D2 receptor function was unaltered. Recordings from fast-spiking interneurons also revealed that AIE reduced intrinsic excitability, glutamatergic signaling, and D1 receptor modulation of these cells. Analysis of PrL-C tissue of AIE-exposed rats further revealed persistent changes in the expression of DA-related proteins, including reductions in the expression of tyrosine hydroxylase and catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT). AIE exposure was associated with hypermethylation of the COMT promoter at a conserved CpG site in exon II. Taken together, these findings demonstrate that AIE exposure disrupts DA and GABAergic transmission in the adult medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). As DA and GABA work in concert to shape and synchronize neuronal ensembles in the PFC, these alterations could contribute to deficits in behavioral control and decision-making in adults who abused alcohol during adolescence

Microbial fuel cells: a green and alternative source for bioenergy production

Microbial fuel cell (MFC) represents one of the green technologies for the production of bioenergy. MFCs using microalgae produce bioenergy by converting solar energy into electrical energy as a function of metabolic and anabolic pathways of the cells. In the MFCs with bacteria, bioenergy is generated as a result of the organic substrate oxidation. MFCs have received high attention from researchers in the last years due to the simplicity of the process, the absence in toxic by-products, and low requirements for the algae growth. Many studies have been conducted on MFC and investigated the factors affecting the MFC performance. In the current chapter, the performance of MFC in producing bioenergy as well as the factors which influence the efficacy of MFCs is discussed. It appears that the main factors affecting MFC’s performance include bacterial and algae species, pH, temperature, salinity, substrate, mechanism of electron transfer in an anodic chamber, electrodes materials, surface area, and electron acceptor in a cathodic chamber. These factors are becoming more influential and might lead to overproduction of bioenergy when they are optimized using response surface methodology (RSM)

Evolution of the Type IIb SN 2011fu

The UBVRI photometric follow-up of SN 2011fu has been initiated a few days after the explosion, shows a rise followed by steep decay in all bands and shares properties very similar to that seen in case of SN 1993J, with a possible detection of the adiabatic cooling phase at very early epochs. The spectral modeling performed with SYNOW suggests that the early-phase line velocities for H and Fe ii features were ~ 16000 km s−1 and ~ 14000 km s−1, respectively. Studies of rare class of type IIb SNe are important to understand the evolution of the possible progenitors of core-collapse SNe in more details

Influence of stabilisers on the unconfined compressive strength of a fine soil

In foundation engineering, weak subgrade soils are usually improved by adding several stabilisers to satisfy construction requirements, but the influence degree of each stabiliser on the strength of the stabilised soils is rarely studied. In this study, a series of unconfined compressive strength tests was conducted on a fine soil stabilised with various proportions of cement, lime, fly ash and gypsum. The influences of the four stabilisers were investigated through quantitative analysis and grey correlation analysis. The quantitative analysis examined the trends of the unconfined compressive strength with increasing contents of different stabilisers. It was found that there existed optimum fly ash and gypsum contents in this study. Also, the cement had the highest positive impact on the unconfined compressive strength. In the grey relational analysis, different normalisation methods were utilised, and it was found that the normalisation method and the trend of the strength with rising stabiliser content affected the order of the impact of various stabilisers. The grey relational analysis with a range-normalisation method provided a reasonable order of impact in this study