Immunotoxicological Threats of Pollutants in Aquatic Invertebrates

Immunology deals with the physiological activity of organisms to defend against pathogen and toxin invasion. Invertebrates residing in aquatic ecosystems often face toxicological threat arises from habitat pollution. The aquatic habitat of invertebrates is in the precarious risk of pollution caused by diverse groups of environmental toxins. Immunotoxins have been considered as a special group of pollutants capable of affecting the immunological profile of organisms. Invertebrates residing in water bear ecological, economical, medicinal, industrial, nutritional and biotechnological significance. Global aquatic bioresource is largely composed of invertebrates belonging to multiple Phyla. These organisms, including insects, snails, clams, mussels, crabs and sponges, are physiologically dependent on innate immunological response for defense against pathogen and environmental contaminants. External physicochemical barriers of invertebrates act as primary line of defen against toxin entry. Principal barriers have been identified as shell, tunic, test, carapace, mucus, etc., in diverse species. Toxin-induced morphological damage of specialized immunocytes of invertebrates has been reported. Toxin-induced shift in density, surface adhesion efficacy and aggregation of blood cells or haemocytes have been identified as major xenobiotic stress in invertebrates. Various environmental toxins are capable of initiating alteration in the innate phagocytic response and cytotoxicity of blood cells. Lysosomes of invertebrate haemocytes are functionally involved in intracellular destruction of environmental pathogens. Toxins like arsenic, pyrethroid pesticides, azadirachtin and washing soda were reported to increase the relative fragility of lysosomal membranes of immunocytes. This often leads to impairment in the efficacy of invertebrates to destroy pathogen under the exposure of pollutants. Xenobiotics like pyrethroid pesticides have been recorded to affect apoptosis and necrosis of invertebrate immunocytes. Selected toxin-induced morphological damages of heart, gill, digestive gland, mantle and antennae may result in the overall impairment in homeostatic levels of invertebrates inhabiting the polluted environment. Global environment, in recent times, is under the serious threat of contamination by diverse chemical compounds of unknown or less known toxicity. A thorough ecotoxicological analysis at cellular and molecular levels needs to be carried out in invertebrates occupying the different realms of the planet in future

Context-aware Dynamic Data-driven Pattern Classification

AbstractThis work aims to mathematically formalize the notion of context, with the purpose of allowing contextual decision-making in order to improve performance in dynamic data driven classification systems. We present definitions for both intrinsic context, i.e. factors which directly affect sensor measurements for a given event, as well as extrinsic context, i.e. factors which do not affect the sensor measurements directly, but do affect the interpretation of collected data. Supervised and unsupervised modeling techniques to derive context and context labels from sensor data are formulated. Here, supervised modeling incorporates the a priori known factors affecting the sensing modalities, while unsupervised modeling autonomously discovers the structure of those factors in sensor data. Context-aware event classification algorithms are developed by adapting the classification boundaries, dependent on the current operational context. Improvements in context-aware classification have been quantified and validated in an unattended sensor-fence application for US Border Monitoring. Field data, collected with seismic sensors on different ground types, are analyzed in order to classify two types of walking across the border, namely, normal and stealthy. The classification is shown to be strongly dependent on the context (specifically, soil type: gravel or moist soil)

A report of hailstorm damage to two species of freshwater sponge (Demospongiae: Haplosclerida: Spongillidae) populations of West Bengal, India

Selected freshwater bodies in Jagaddal of North 24 Parganas in West Bengal, India are inhabited by two species of sponge, Eunapius carteri (Bowerbank, 1863) and Spongilla alba (Carter, 1849) (Porifera: Demospongiae: Spongillidae). Most of these wetlands are perennial ponds without a history of aquaculture and toxin contamination. On 22 March 2014, the entire area of Jagaddal experienced an unprecedented hailstorm associated with a sharp decline of environmental temperature from 35 0C to 21 0C within 10–15 minutes. The hailstorm associated with torrential rain lasted for about 30 minutes. The natural habitat of the sponge was visited after six hours of the hailstorm in open day light conditions. During the field investigation, we recorded large-scale damage to the populations of E. carteri and S. alba. Macroscopic observation revealed that the fragmentation of body masses were also associated with cellular disintegration of the external surface. Sponge cells were experimentally dissociated from the sponge fragments and subjected to dye exclusion assay. A vital dye (trypan blue) exclusion assay of sponge fragments confirmed a high degree of mortality of the cells of E. carteri and S. alba. Hailstorm associated with the decline of environmental temperature down to 21 0C resulted in the mass destruction of these two species of sponges in their natural habitat. Any unprecedented and acute change in the climatic and hydrological parameter may lead to physiological adversity in the freshwater sponge. Subsequently, recovery from cold shock and mechanical stresses was overcome and a regeneration of sponge specimens was recorded within a period of around six months from the date of the hailstorm. </div

Factors Influencing Workplace Violence against Health Care Personnel in a Tertiary Health Care Institute of West Bengal,India, India

Background: Violence in health sector although being a global issue as well as an alarming burden in India, has received limited attention till now. The present study aimed at estimation of perceived causes of workplace violence (WPV) in health sector and exploration of the possible measures to prevent it. Methods: A qualitative study was undertaken in Burdwan Medical College and Hospital a tertiary health care facility of West Bengal,India, during September – December 2018 among different types of health care personnel. Six from each stratum of doctors, nurses and support staffs i.e. 18 health personnel were included as the study subjects in Focussed Group Discussions (FGD) to explore the perceived causes of workplace violence. In-depth interview were (IDI) done with 25 individual. 3 Key Informant Interviews (KII) were done among senior faculties associated with hospital administration. 3 Focussed Group Discussions (FGD) were undertaken with the 18 health care personnel comprising 6 participants in each session with the help of a predetermined FGD guide composed of some guiding questions.Results: Doctor patient miscommunication, lack of manpower, political influence was few of the salient reasons of violence in health sector.Conclusion: The study highlights several issues like behavioural aspects, communication gaps between service provider and beneficiaries, resource crisis and political as well as social factors to be causative for violence in health sector

Nutritional status of adult Tuberculosis patients in Burdwan municipality area of West Bengal

Background: Nutritional status of a Tuberculosis (TB) patient plays a role in disease manifestation.&nbsp; Aims &amp; Objective: To assess the nutritional status of adult tuberculosis patients under intensive phase of treatment. Settings and Design: A descriptive study with cross-sectional design was conducted at Burdwan Municipality of West Bengal. Methods and Material: In this study, TB patients aged 18 years and above receiving intensive phase of treatment, registered in the Tuberculosis units in the months of October-December, 2018 and residing in the municipality were approached. Nutritional status was evaluated through two approaches - dietary intake by twenty-four hours recall method and anthropometric status by measuring weight, height, BMI and MUAC. Data were analysed using SPSS v20. Results: Out of 113 study subjects, under-nutrition was present in 61.9% and inappropriate MUAC was observed in 68.1%. Interestingly, intake of Cereals and Millets among food groups was found to be deficient. The adjusted odds ratio for having under-nutrition among new cases compared to previously treated was 0.16 (0.33-0.82). Conclusions: For combating protein energy malnutrition in TB patients, emphasis should be given on balanced diet intake

Expanded polystyrene microplastic is more cytotoxic to seastar coelomocytes than its nonexpanded counterpart: A comparative analysis

Microplastics (MPs) are established contaminants of coastal ecosystem. Present investigation is aimed to assess comparative toxicity of polystyrene microplastic (PS-MP) and expanded polystyrene microplastic (EPS-MP) in the coelomocytes of Astropecten indicus, a common seastar of Digha coast of Bay of Bengal, India. Coastal water of Digha, a tourist spot of attraction, bears the ecotoxicological risk of contamination by various agents including expanded and nonexpanded microplastics of industrial origin. Coelomocytes of seastar perform multiple physiological functions including pathogen engulfment, cytotoxicity and respiratory gas exchange and considered as immunoeffector cells in echinoderms. We report an adverse shift in total count, phagocytic response, cytotoxicity and oxidative potential of the coelomocytes of A. indicus under the exposures of 0.5 and 1 mg L−1 PS-MP and EPS-MP for 7 and 14 d. Experimental data suggested a higher level of cytotoxicity of EPS-MP in coelomocytes in comparison to that of PS-MP. Seastar is considered as a keystone species, which plays an important role in maintaining the functional homeostasis of coastal ecosystem. Unrestricted contamination of coastal water by MPs may lead to a persistent immunophysiological stress in seastar. Experimental endpoints may be considered as effective monitoring tool to assess ecotoxicity of MPs in seastar and alike organisms sharing the same habitat

Mass Drug Administration Coverage Evaluation Survey for Lymphatic Filariasis: An Experience from Paschim Bardhaman District, West Bengal

Purpose: The purpose of the present study was to assess the coverage and compliance of mass drug administration (MDA) to identify the factors for non-compliance, to find out the side effects experienced by the consumers and to ascertain the constraints/problems in implementing MDA by the functionariesin Paschim Bardhaman district of West Bengal after the last round of MDA (Dec 2017).Methods: In this cross-sectional coverage evaluation survey, one urban and three rural clusters were selected, using multistage cluster sampling. At least 30 households and 150 eligible subjects were included from each cluster (village/ward). Participants were interviewed using pre-designed and pretested schedule. A qualitative assessment was also done in the form of in-depth interview of different program implementers and participants.Results: Among the 660 eligible populations interviewed, distribution coverage for DEC and both the drugs were 76.4% and 74.8% respectively. For DEC, effective coverage was found to be 64.1%, which was 63.3% for both the drugs. Overall supervised consumption rate was very low (32% for DEC and 30.3% for both the drugs). Insufficient and delayed availability of drugs and IEC materials, budgetary constraints in undertaking IEC activities, poor community mobilization, and negligible supervised administration of drugs by the drug distributers were found to be the key qualitative issues.Conclusions: Supervised consumption of drugs in the presence of drug distributors was found to be grossly neglected in this district. Proper availability of medicines and logistics should be ensured and coordinated, and community awareness should be strengthened for successful implementation of this activity