Association of 25- hydroxy Vitamin D levels with Vitamin D receptor TAQ1 gene polymorphism in Chennai Population: A Cross Sectional study

Vitamin D stands at the frontline of current scientific endeavours, being a topic of great interest to medical researchers all over the globe. Vitamin D deficiency (VDD) has been arising as a pandemic around the world. Globally about one billion people are known to have VDD and it is the most common undiagnosed medical condition Vitamin D receptor (VDR) gene is located in the chromosome12cen-q12. Taq1 gene is present in the 3’UTR (untranslated region), is a T/C nucleotide substitution (ATT/ATC) in exon IX coding for isoleucine. This could potentially influence the activity of 1, 25 dihydroxy vitamin D [1, 25(OH)2 D] by mRNA instability or by affecting the regulation of translation. From this study we conclude that the predominant VDR Taq1genotype is homozygous t

Enhanced Photocatalytic Activity of Rare Earth Metal (Nd and Gd) doped ZnO Nanostructures2

International audiencePresence of harmful organic pollutants in wastewater effluents causes serious environmental problems and therefore purification of this contaminated water by a cost effective treatment method is one of the most important issue which is in urgent need of scientific research. One such promising treatment technique uses semiconductor photocatalyst for the reduction of recalcitrant pollutants in water. In the present work, rare earth metals (Nd and Gd) doped ZnO nanostructured photocatalyst have been synthesized by wet chemical method. The prepared samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). The XRD results showed that the prepared samples were well crystalline with hexagonal Wurtzite structure. The results of EDS revealed that rare earth elements were doped into ZnO structure. The effect of rare earth dopant on morphology and photocatalytic degradation properties of the prepared samples were studied and discussed. The results revealed that the rare earth metal doped ZnO samples showed enhanced visible light photocatalytic activity for the degradation of methylene blue dye than pure nano ZnO photocatalyst