Blue carbon stock of the Bangladesh Sundarban mangroves: what could be the scenario after a century?

The total blue carbon stock of the Bangladesh Sundarban mangroves was evaluated and the probable future status after a century was predicted based on the recent trend of changes in the last 30 years and implementing a hybrid model of Markov Chain and Cellular automata. At present 36.24 Tg C and 54.95 Tg C are stored in the above-ground and below-ground compartments respectively resulting in total blue carbon stock of 91.19 Tg C. According to the prediction 15.88 Tg C would be lost from this region by the year 2115. The low saline species composition classes dominated mainly by Heritiera spp. accounts for the major portion of the carbon sock at present (45.60 Tg C), while the highly saline regions stores only 14.90 Tg C. The prediction shows that after a hundred years almost 22.42 Tg C would be lost from the low saline regions accompanied by an increase of 8.20 Tg C in the high saline regions dominated mainly by Excoecaria sp. and Avicennia spp. The net carbon loss would be due to both mangrove area loss (~ 510 km2) and change in species composition leading to 58.28 Tg of potential CO2 emission within the year 2115

Clinical Study of 'Triphala' – A Well Known Phytomedicine from India

Triphala' is an age old commonly used Ayurvedic powdered preparation in Indian systems of medicine. This well known formulation is made by combining Terminalia chebula, Terminalia belarica and Emblica officinalis, in equal proportions based on the observation of Ayurvedic Formulary of India (AFI). The formulation is prescribed in the first line treatment of many aliments and is used as laxative, detoxifying agent and rejuvenator. To establish its clinical validity the present work was undertaken to evaluate its therapeutic potentials and adverse effects. The Triphala formulation was standardized by HPTLC (High Performance Thin Layer Chromatography), using Gallic acid as a marker and was subjected to clinical studies. After proper screening 160 patients of age between 16–52 years were selected for 45 days clinical study. The effectiveness of trial drugs were judged on the basis of the subjective and objective parameters. It was observed that the amount, frequency and consistency of stool were improved in Triphala treated group. The changes of odor, mucous, flatulence, belching and abdominal pain where also taken into account. The well being was assessed on the basis of the parameters like concentration, appetite, thirst, sleep, hyperacidity in arbitrary scoring system. Triphala was found to have good laxative property, help in management of hyperacidity and also improve appetite. No adverse effect was observed in the treated group when compared to normal patients. Triphala can be used effectively in the treatment of constipation and other gastric problems

An association study of severity of intellectual disability with peripheral biomarkers of disabled children in a rehabilitation home, Kolkata, India

International audienceThe current investigation has identified the biomarkers associated withseverity of disability and correlation among plethora of systemic,cellular and molecular parameters of intellectual disability (ID) in arehabilitation home. The background of study lies with the recentclinical evidences which identified complications in ID. Variousindicators from blood and peripheral system serve as potentialsurrogates for disability related changes in brain functions. IDsubjects (Male, age 10 ± 5 yrs, N = 45) were classified as mild,moderate and severe according to the severity of disability usingstandard psychometric analysis. Clinical parameters including stressbiomarkers, neurotransmitters, RBC morphology, expressions ofinflammatory proteins and neurotrophic factor were estimated from PBMC,RBC and serum. The lipid peroxidation of PBMC and RBC membranes, levelsof serum glutamate, serotonin, homocysteine, ROS, lactate and LDH-Aexpression increased significantly with severity of ID whereas changesin RBC membrane ?-actin, serum BDNF, TNF-? and IL-6 was found non-significant. Structural abnormalities of RBC were more in severelydisabled children compared to mildly affected ones. The oxidative stressremained a crucial factor with severity of disability. This is confirmednot only by RBC alterations but also with other cellular dysregulations.The present article extends unique insights of how severity ofdisability is correlated with various clinical, cellular and molecularmarkers of blood. This unique study primarily focuses on the strongpredictors of severity of disability and their associations via brain-blood axis

Plasma Anti-Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein Autoantibody Levels during the Acute and Chronic Phases of Traumatic Brain Injury: A Transforming Research and Clinical Knowledge in Traumatic Brain Injury Pilot Study

We described recently a subacute serum autoantibody response toward glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and its breakdown products 5-10 days after severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). Here, we expanded our anti-GFAP autoantibody (AutoAb[GFAP]) investigation to the multicenter observational study Transforming Research and Clinical Knowledge in TBI Pilot (TRACK-TBI Pilot) to cover the full spectrum of TBI (Glasgow Coma Scale 3-15) by using acute (<24 h) plasma samples from 196 patients with acute TBI admitted to three Level I trauma centers, and a second cohort of 21 participants with chronic TBI admitted to inpatient TBI rehabilitation. We find that acute patients self-reporting previous TBI with loss of consciousness (LOC) (n = 43) had higher day 1 AutoAb[GFAP] (mean ± standard error: 9.11 ± 1.42; n = 43) than healthy controls (2.90 ± 0.92; n = 16; p = 0.032) and acute patients reporting no previous TBI (2.97 ± 0.37; n = 106; p < 0.001), but not acute patients reporting previous TBI without LOC (8.01 ± 1.80; n = 47; p = 0.906)

Heating and lighting: understanding overlooked energy-consumption activities in the Indian residential sector

Understanding the climate impact of residential emissions starts with determining the fuel consumption of various household activities. While cooking emissions have been widely studied, non-cooking energy-consumption activities in the residential sector such as heating and lighting, have been overlooked owing to the unavailability of data at national levels. The present study uses data from the Carbonaceous Aerosol Emissions, Source Apportionment and Climate Impacts (COALESCE) project, which consists of residential surveys over 6000 households across 49 districts of India, to understand the energy consumed by non-cooking residential activities. Regression models are developed to estimate information in non-surveyed districts using demographic, housing, and meteorological data as predictors. Energy demand is further quantified and distributed nationally at a 4 × 4 km resolution. Results show that the annual energy consumption from non-cooking activities is 1106 [201] PJ, which is equal to one-fourth of the cooking energy demand. Freely available biomass is widely used to heat water on traditional stoves, even in the warmer regions of western and southern India across all seasons. Space heating (51%) and water heating (42%) dominate non-cooking energy consumption. In comparison, nighttime heating for security personnel (5%), partly-residential personal heating by guards, dominant in urban centers and kerosene lighting (2%) utilize minimal energy. Biomass fuels account for over 90% of the non-cooking consumption, while charcoal and kerosene make up the rest. Half of the energy consumption occurs during winter months (DJF), while 10% of the consumption occurs during monsoon, when kerosene lighting is the highest. Firewood is the most heavily used fuel source in western India, charcoal in the northern hilly regions, agricultural residues and dung cake in the Indo-Gangetic plains, and kerosene in eastern India. The study shows that ∼20% of residential energy consumption is on account of biomass-based heating and kerosene lighting activities