Assessment of Immunotoxic Response in Albino Rats Following Nickel Nitrate Treatment

Nickel nitrate affects body physiology and immunology following its absorption through food, water, air. Predetermined doses of nickel nitrate (Ni(NO3)2] in acute (1 d) and subacute (7, 14, 21 ds) treatments revealed a significant increase in IgG concentration and lymphocyte number, whereas, neutrophils and eosinophils registered significant fall. These alterations indicated heavy metal stress in Immunological parameters that become targets

Role of nanomaterials in catalytic reduction of organic pollutants

415-430Developing innovative technologies for the effective treatment of wastewater containing organic pollutants is of extreme importance across the globe. The organic pollutants such as dyes and nitrophenols are the common hazardous pollutants known for their adverse effects on humans and aquatic organisms. Various methods have been used for the removal of organic pollutants from wastewater but they suffer limitations such as high cost, time consuming removal process and production of sludge or toxic by-products. In recent years, chemical reduction method is becoming popular for removal of organic pollutants using various nanomaterials as catalysts. Nanomaterials show great potential for removal of organic pollutants due to large surface area which provides high catalytic activity. In the present review, current studies on catalytic reduction of organic pollutants (dyes and nitrophenols) using four different types of nanomaterials specifically carbon nanotubes, silica, metal oxide and chitosan polymer based have been explored. The factors affecting the catalytic process and mechanism of catalysis is explained in detail.In addition, a critical discussion about the pros and cons of each nano-catalyst have also been included for developing better understanding of the choice of catalyst

Assessment of Immunotoxic response in Albino Rats following Nickel Nitrate Treatment

Nickel nitrate affects body physiology and immunology following its absorption through food, water, air. Predetermined doses of nickel nitrate (Ni(NO3)2] in acute (1 d) and subacute (7, 14, 21 ds) treatments revealed a significant increase in IgG concentration and lymphocyte number, whereas, neutrophils and eosinophils registered significant fall. These alterations indicated heavy metal stress in Immunological parameters that become targets

Synthesis of ethylene carbonate from cyclocondensation of ethylene glycol and urea over ZnO•Cr2O3 catalyst system controlled by co-precipitation method

ZnO·Cr2O3 catalyst has been synthesized by low temperature, pH controlled co-precipitation route and characterized employing techniques of Brunauer, Emmett, and Teller (BET) surface area measurement, ammonia desorption technique, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). These characterizations reveal the catalyst to possess ZnO·ZnCr2O4 composition. The catalysts have been tested for their performance for the first time, in the synthesis of ethylene carbonate from cyclocondensation of ethylene glycol and urea. Effect of catalyst concentration, temperature and molar ratio of reactants has been studied to obtain the optimum conversion and selectivity of ethylene glycol and urea to ethylene carbonate. A maximum yield of 85.75% of ethylene carbonate was obtained at a temperature of 423 K and urea: ethylene glycol molar ratio of 1:1.5. A tentative mechanism of the reaction is proposed on the basis of analysis of reactants, products and modeling of the transition state for the reaction under density function theory using Gaussian09W software. Our studies suggest a consecutive mechanism for the reaction. In the first step, urea and ethylene glycol react to produce 2-hydroxyethyl carbamate, which undergoes further reaction to produce ethylene carbonate (EC) and ammonia

Green electrochemical sensors based on ionic liquid nanocomposites for detection of environmental pollutants

387-398Industrialization and globalization have caused a huge burden on the limited natural resources, which releases various environmental pollutants such as toxic metal ions and pesticides. World Health Organisation (WHO) has set a maximum permissible limit for these toxic pollutants in water, above which, it is unsuitable for drinking purpose. There are various techniques available for the determination of such pollutants like ICP-MS, HPLC, FAAS etc. that are costly, cumbersome, and time consuming. Whereas, electrochemical sensors are portable, fast and can perform multi-analyte sensing. Electrochemical sensor can be made selective by fabricating with nanocomposites having different functional groups. Nowadays, trend of utilizing greener materials in research field is being highly appreciated in accordance with the principles of green chemistry for the application and development of electrochemical sensors. Ionic liquids having non-volatility, low toxicity, wide potential window, high electrochemical stability and conductivity have shown sustainable electrochemical sensing applications. Nanocomposite of these ionic liquids as a sensing platform have been extensively used in electrochemical detection of various pollutants. This work provides a literature survey of different ionic liquid nanocomposite based sensing platform for electrochemical detection of toxic pesticides and heavy metals. They have demonstrated good sensitivity with detection limit below WHO guidelines

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

Role of nanomaterials in catalytic reduction of organic pollutants

Developing innovative technologies for the effective treatment of wastewater containing organic pollutants is of extreme importance across the globe. The organic pollutants such as dyes and nitrophenols are the common hazardous pollutants known for their adverse effects on humans and aquatic organisms. Various methods have been used for the removal of organic pollutants from wastewater but they suffer limitations such as high cost, time consuming removal process and production of sludge or toxic by-products. In recent years, chemical reduction method is becoming popular for removal of organic pollutants using various nanomaterials as catalysts. Nanomaterials show great potential for removal of organic pollutants due to large surface area which provides high catalytic activity. In the present review, current studies on catalytic reduction of organic pollutants (dyes and nitrophenols) using four different types of nanomaterials specifically carbon nanotubes, silica, metal oxide and chitosan polymer based have been explored. The factors affecting the catalytic process and mechanism of catalysis is explained in detail.In addition, a critical discussion about the pros and cons of each nano-catalyst have also been included for developing better understanding of the choice of catalyst

Flow injection preconcentration system using a new functionalized resin for determination of cadmium(II) by flame atomic absorption spectroscopy

1567-1573A rapid and sensitive method for the determination of trace level of Cd(II) in industrial effluents by flame atomic absorption spectroscopy has been developed. The technique is based on the online flow injection preconcentration of Cd(II) ions on a mini column, packed with Amberlite XAD-2 functionalized with xylenol orange. Flow injection variables have been optimized for the determination and quantitative preconcentration of Cd(II). Cd(II) ions are effectively retained on the mini column at pH 5.0. A high sorption capacity of 348 µmol/g of dry resin is obtained and chelating resin can be reused for 70-80 cycles of sorption desorption without any significant change in the sorption capacity. With preconcentration times of 60 s and 120 s at a sample loading flow rate of 5 mL min-1, preconcentration factors of 17 and 32 are obtained. The calibration graph using the preconcentration system for Cd(II) is linear over the concentration range of 0-120 µg L-1. The precision for 5 replicate measurements are 1.68 and 1.12 for the determination of 20 and 50 µg L-1 Cd(II) respectively. The limits of detection obtained are 1.038 and 0.57 µg L-1 for 60 s and 120 s sorption time respectively. A sample throughput of 32 h-1 is obtained with 5 mL of sample solution. Spiked recovery studies in water samples with certified Cd(II) nitrate solution traceable to NIST shows recovery in the range of 98-99 %. The accuracy of the developed online FI-FAAS procedure has been validated by analyzing cadmium(II) in standard reference material (SRM-1643e)