Not Available

Not AvailableSeverity of arsenic toxicity was reported to vary depending on its species. The present study reflects the status of different species of arsenic in goat following long-term exposure of arsenic leading to hepatic damage. The experiment was conducted with six black Bengal goats, which were administered with sodium arsenite orally at a dose rate of 2 mg kg 1 daily for 84 days. Faeces, urine, hair and blood samples were collected from those animals at 14 days interval. Excretion of total arsenic was reduced from 56 days onwards through both faeces and urine indicating higher accumulation of arsenic in body. The speciation study revealed that urinary arsenic was mainly of organic type, whereas hair accumulated almost equal proportion of arsenite, arsenate and organo arsenicals. Goats excreted high proportion of organo arsenicals through faeces possibly due to hepatobiliary secretion of organo arsenic into the gut. Significantly elevated serum alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase activities (p < 0.05) alongwith histopathological changes in liver indicated hepatotoxicity. The arsenite fraction increased and organic proportion decreased in urine as the time progressed, which indicates that arsenite gets methylated in liver of goat. The study thus alluded that the toxicity of arsenic would aggravate if the animals were exposed for long time as the hepatotoxicity progressed resulting in decreased methylation and formation of organo arsenicals and decreased excretions through urine.ICAR-NAI

Effects of processing conditions of poly(methylmethacrylate) encapsulated liquid curing agent on the properties of self-healing composites

A series of microcapsules were prepared by solvent evaporation technique using liquid curing agent, polyetheramine as the core material and poly(methylmethacrylate) as the shell material. The desired morphology, shell wall thickness, curing agent content, and size distribution of microcapsules have been obtained by fine tuning the processing conditions such as reaction temperature, core-shell weight ratio, agitation speed, and emulsifier concentration in the medium. The resulting microcapsules exhibit excellent thermal and curing agent storage stability. Maximum healing efficiency of 93.50% has been obtained with 15 wt.% epoxy containing microcapsules. The microcapsules containing liquid curing agent can efficiently be utilized for the fabrication of epoxy-based self-healing composites