Toxicity of the Herbicide Atrazine: Effects on Lipid Peroxidation and Activities of Antioxidant Enzymes in the Freshwater Fish Channa Punctatus (Bloch)

The present study was undertaken to evaluate the toxicity and effects of a commercial formulation of the herbicide atrazine (Rasayanzine) on lipid peroxidation and antioxidant enzyme system in the freshwater air breathing fish Channa punctatus. The 12, 24, 48, 72 and 96 h LC50 of atrazine, calculated by probit analysis, were determined to be 77.091, 64.053, 49.100, 44.412 and 42.381 mg·L−1, respectively, in a semi static system with significant difference (p < 0.05) in LC10–90 values obtained for different times of exposure. In addition to concentration and time dependent decrease in mortality rate, stress signs in the form of behavioral changes were also observed in response to the test chemical. In fish exposed for 15 days to different sublethal concentrations of the herbicide (1/4 LC50 = ∼10.600 mg·L−1, 1/8 LC50 = ∼5.300 mg·L−1 and 1/10 LC50 = ∼4.238 mg·L−1) induction of oxidative stress in the liver was evidence by increased lipid peroxidation levels. The antioxidants superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and glutathione reductase (GR) responded positively in a concentration dependent pattern, thus, suggesting the use of these antioxidants as potential biomarkers of toxicity associated with contaminations exposure in freshwater fishes

Developing Standard Treatment Workflows—way to universal healthcare in India

Primary healthcare caters to nearly 70% of the population in India and provides treatment for approximately 80–90% of common conditions. To achieve universal health coverage (UHC), the Indian healthcare system is gearing up by initiating several schemes such as National Health Protection Scheme, Ayushman Bharat, Nutrition Supplementation Schemes, and Inderdhanush Schemes. The healthcare delivery system is facing challenges such as irrational use of medicines, over- and under-diagnosis, high out-of-pocket expenditure, lack of targeted attention to preventive and promotive health services, and poor referral mechanisms. Healthcare providers are unable to keep pace with the volume of growing new scientific evidence and rising healthcare costs as the literature is not published at the same pace. In addition, there is a lack of common standard treatment guidelines, workflows, and reference manuals from the Government of India. Indian Council of Medical Research in collaboration with the National Health Authority, Govt. of India, and the WHO India country office has developed Standard Treatment Workflows (STWs) with the objective to be utilized at various levels of healthcare starting from primary to tertiary level care. A systematic approach was adopted to formulate the STWs. An advisory committee was constituted for planning and oversight of the process. Specialty experts' group for each specialty comprised of clinicians working at government and private medical colleges and hospitals. The expert groups prioritized the topics through extensive literature searches and meeting with different stakeholders. Then, the contents of each STW were finalized in the form of single-pager infographics. These STWs were further reviewed by an editorial committee before publication. Presently, 125 STWs pertaining to 23 specialties have been developed. It needs to be ensured that STWs are implemented effectively at all levels and ensure quality healthcare at an affordable cost as part of UHC

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Not AvailableGum karaya is natural exudate from Sterculia urens and it is a partially acetylated polysaccharide which is composed of 10-14 % acetyl groups. On ageing, deacetylation process takes place and with the result that there is continuous loss of acetic acid is formed and the quality of gum karaya deteriorates subsequently. As there is no data available on the effect the quality aspects of gum karaya, therefore a detailed study was undertaken for the control of loss of acetyl groups from gum karaya samples with time and storage conditions using different packaging films. Gum karaya samples packed in Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE), High Density Polyethylene (HDPE), Polypropylene (PP) and Aluminium Coated Polyethylene (ACP) with normal sealing and vacuum packaging with nitrogen filling. Samples were stored under ambient conditions as well as under refrigerated condition. On the basis of quarterly estimation of quality parameters of gum karaya packed in above film it was established that gum karaya samples can be stored for longer period in HDPE under cold condition for controlling the deacetylation process of karaya gum for retention of all quality parameters.Not Availabl

Nickel catalysed steam gasification of chars obtained from coal - alkali reaction at 600ºC

Studies on the steam gasification of washed residual chars (obtained from coal–alkali reaction at 600 ºC) were carried out at 500 ºC and 100 kPa pressure in a fixed bed glass reactor with or without nickel (as nickel nitrate) as catalyst. The results when compared with the corresponding data on coal, revealed that under similar reaction conditions, the coals yielded more gas with higher H2 and CO contents than their corresponding chars. It was concluded that presence of functional groups, especially oxygen containing is a requirement for nickel catalysed steam gasification of coals/lignites. The recovery of nickel achieved was about 80%

Genetic relationships among fruit cultivars and host plants of Indian lac insect in ber (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Ziziphus mauritiana </i>Lam.) revealed by RAPD and ISSR markers

170-177The genetic relationship among 26 fruit cultivars of Zizizphus mauritiana Lam. (ber), 6 high resin-yielding lac insect hosts of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Z. mauritiana and 2 other Ziziphus spp. used as lac hosts was compared using random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR) primers with an aim to identify genetically similar cultivars for utilization in fruit as well as in lac production. RAPD (15) and ISSR primers (11) employed in the study revealed 98.82 and 98.86% polymorphisms, respectively among all the ber accessions used. The study revealed that 11 fruit cultivars had &gt;50% genetic similarity with 6 high-yielding lac host genotypes. The UPGMA dendrogram and principal coordinate analysis clustered 11 fruit cultivars and the lac hosts within same cluster. The AMOVA analysis revealed very low genetic variations among the groups of fruit cultivars and high-yielding lac hosts, but high genetic variations within accessions of the groups. The results suggest that 11 ber cultivars may be useful not only as a source for fruit harvesting but also as potential high-yielding lac host plants, thus providing lac growers with more options of economic returns than the wild-type hosts presently used