DETERMINATION OF DIVERSE ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION LEVEL FROM SELECTED AREAS OF RAWALPINDI, PAKISTAN

Anthropogenic contaminants arising from both stationary (power plants, industries and residential heating) and mobile sources (road traffic) can harm ambient air quality in urban areas. Depending upon their physical state, these pollutants are classified as liquid and vapor phases and are subsequently transported to the Earth’s surface through dry and wet deposition. After the deposition of these pollutants onto the surface of earth various health effects caused by these pollutants occurred like cardiovascular diseases and hypertension. In this study four different locations/sites were selected from the Rawalpindi city depending upon the population, traffic rush and industries to examine the noise level, concentration of carbon dioxide and heavy metals. Air sampler was used for the collection of air sample to analyze the heavy metal concentration, Quest electronic sound meter for measuring sound level and SIBATA for CO2 measurement. The study findings revealed that noise level was higher at all selected locations as described by WHO limit (70 dB) being highest at Industrial area due to heavy machinery and lowest at green area. Concentration of all four heavy metals were high as compared with the prescribed limits. CO2 level reaches up to 300 ppm because of coal consumption during the winter season. The threshold values of all these selected parameters well above the prescribed limits defined by the authorities so to combat with this situation we should move towards more energy efficient fuels, proper maintenance of vehicles and machineries, traffic management and installation of noise barriers in industries as well as installation of catalytic convertors in vehicles to stop further air pollution

Modelling Li+ Ion Battery Electrode Properties

We formulated two detailed models for an electrolytic cell with particulate electrodes based on a lithium atom concentration dependent Butler-Volmer condition at the interface between electrode particles and the electrolyte. The first was based on a dilute-ion assumption for the electrolyte, while the second assumed that Li ions are present in excess. For the first, we used the method of multiple scales to homogenize this model over the microstructure, formed by the small lithium particles in the electrodes. For the second, we gave rigorous bounds for the effective electrochemical conductivity for a linearized case. We expect similar results and bounds for the "full nonlinear problem" because variational results are generally not adversely affected by a sinh term. Finally we used the asymptotic methods, based on parameters estimated from the literature, to attain a greatly simplified one-dimensional version of the original homogenized model. This simplified model accounts for the fact that diffusion of lithium atoms within individual electrode particles is relatively much faster than that of lithium ions across the whole cell so that lithium ion diffusion is what limits the performance of the battery. However, since most of the potential drop occurs across the Debye layers surrounding each electrode particle, lithium ion diffusion only significantly affects cell performance if there is more or less complete depletion of lithium ions in some region of the electrolyte which causes a break in the current flowing across the cell. This causes catastrophic failure. Providing such failure does not occur the potential drop across the cell is determined by the concentration of lithium atoms in the electrode particles. Within each electrode lithium atom concentration is, to leading order, a function of time only and not of position within the electrode. The depletion of electrode lithium atom concentration is directly proportional to the current being drawn off the cell. This leads one to expect that the potential of the cell gradually drops as current is drawn of it. We would like to emphasize that all the homogenization methods employed in this work give a systematic approach for investigating the effect that changes in the microstructure have on the behaviour of the battery. However, due to lack of time, we have not used this method to investigate particular particle geometries

Investigation of wet milling and indirect ultrasound as means for controlling nucleation in the continuous crystallization of an active pharmaceutical ingredient

This study compares the use of wet milling and indirect ultrasound for promoting nucleation and controlling the particle size during the continuous crystallization of a hard-to-nucleate active pharmaceutical ingredient (API). Both an immersion and an external wet mill installed on a recirculation loop were investigated. It was found that all methodologies significantly improved the nucleation kinetics, and the effects of key process parameters (e.g., mill speed, temperature, and ultrasound intensity) on particle size were experimentally investigated. A minimum d50 of 27 and 36.8 μm was achieved when using the wet mill and ultrasound, respectively. The effectiveness of wet milling was demonstrated in a three-stage mixed suspension mixed product removal continuous crystallization of the API that was operated continuously for 12 h (eight residence times), achieving a steady state with minimal fouling. Strategies for improving the overall robustness of the setup in routine manufacturing are discussed

Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms in HSP17.8 and Their Association with Agronomic Traits in Barley

Small heat shock protein 17.8 (HSP17.8) is produced abundantly in plant cells under heat and other stress conditions and may play an important role in plant tolerance to stress environments. However, HSP17.8 may be differentially expressed in different accessions of a crop species exposed to identical stress conditions. The ability of different genotypes to adapt to various stress conditions resides in their genetic diversity. Allelic variations are the most common forms of genetic variation in natural populations. In this study, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the HSP17.8 gene were investigated across 210 barley accessions collected from 30 countries using EcoTILLING technology. Eleven SNPs including 10 from the coding region of HSP17.8 were detected, which form nine distinguishable haplotypes in the barley collection. Among the 10 SNPs in the coding region, six are missense mutations and four are synonymous nucleotide changes. Five of the six missense changes are predicted to be deleterious to HSP17.8 function. The accessions from Middle East Asia showed the higher nucleotide diversity of HSP17.8 than those from other regions and wild barley (H. spontaneum) accessions exhibited greater diversity than the cultivated barley (H. vulgare) accessions. Four SNPs in HSP17.8 were found associated with at least one of the agronomic traits evaluated except for spike length, namely number of grains per spike, thousand kernel weight, plant height, flag leaf area and leaf color. The association between SNP and these agronomic traits may provide new insight for study of the gene's potential contribution to drought tolerance of barley

Simulating the interaction between plant roots, soil water and nutrient flows, and barriers and objects in soil using rootmap

Abstract: Plant productivity is directly affected by the capacity of the root system to forage for soil resources. An enhanced understanding of root-soil interactions provides the potential to improve crop performance in specific soil environments. Interactions between roots and soil are, however, complex. The root-soil environment is heterogeneous and difficult to visualise and measure, root architecture and root growth responses are complex and dynamic, and processes from the ionic and rhizosphere scale right up to the whole crop and even catchment scale are involved. For these reasons, pot experiments are used in root studies to simplify the environment, target specific interactions and aid with visualisation and measurement. Significant challenges exist, however, in relating pot studies to the field, requiring upscaling from a spatially confined and artificially contrived environment to the reality of a more complex cropping environment. Simulation models provide an opportunity to upscale complex root-soil interactions from the pot to the field, but to do so they must represent the way that plant roots explore a restricted pot environment. In this study ROOTMAP, a 3D functional-structural model of root growth and resource capture, was modified to enable the simulation of barriers in soil, and the interaction of plant roots and soil water and nutrients with those barriers. This barrier-modelling utilises custom coding, with the support of Boost.Geometry (Generic Geometry Library) where appropriate. The barrier approach defines the 3D shape and location of any number of what are termed Volume Objects. Roots and soil can be: wholly contained within one Volume Object such as in the case of roots growing in a pot; a plant can have roots distributed between two Volume Objects such as in a split-pot experiment; and they can be wholly outside one or more Volume Objects for simulating the presence of rocks or other hard objects in soil. Volume Objects can be wholly impermeable, such as; pot walls that contain roots within them, or impermeable rocks or hardpan layers that roots grow around. Volume Objects can also have varying degrees of permeability for representing layers or areas in soil that have varying degrees of hardness and varying root penetrability. In this initial version of the code, barriers or objects can be represented as rectangular prisms, giving flat barrier layers or square or rectangular objects such as root/rhizo boxes, or as cylinders, representing curved pots or smooth curved objects in soil. The barrier modelling code calculates the deflection of a root tip when it intersects a boundary, representing the way that plant roots grow around and along object surfaces. It also calculates the effect of semi-permeable objects in soil on root growth into and around those objects. Water and nutrients are distributed through the soil environment by use of a variable 3D grid of sub-volumes or cells. The water and nutrient routines then search for the presence of a barrier or wall (Volume Object) intersecting each cell and the volume of the cell contained inside/outside the barrier is calculated. This combined with the permeability of the barrier determines the water and nutrient transfer within the cell. The result is a model which can simulate the root, water and nutrient dynamics in a bounded-environment. This provides an opportunity to represent root architectural development and root-soil interactions in pots and rhizo-boxes, and investigate how these studies relate to root growth and resource capture in un-bounded field soil

Arabidopsis leucine-rich repeat receptor–like kinase NILR1 is required for induction of innate immunity to parasitic nematodes

Plant-parasitic nematodes are destructive pests causing losses of billions of dollars annually. An effective plant defence against pathogens relies on the recognition of pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) by surface-localised receptors leading to the activation of PAMP-triggered immunity (PTI). Extensive studies have been conducted to characterise the role of PTI in various models of plant-pathogen interactions. However, far less is known about the role of PTI in roots in general and in plant-nematode interactions in particular. Here we show that nematode-derived proteinaceous elicitor/s is/are capable of inducing PTI in Arabidopsis in a manner dependent on the common immune co-receptor BAK1. Consistent with the role played by BAK1, we identified a leucine-rich repeat receptor-like kinase, termed NILR1 that is specifically regulated upon infection by nematodes. We show that NILR1 is essential for PTI responses initiated by nematodes and nilr1 loss-of-function mutants are hypersusceptible to a broad category of nematodes. To our knowledge, NILR1 is the first example of an immune receptor that is involved in induction of basal immunity (PTI) in plants or in animals in response to nematodes. Manipulation of NILR1 will provide new options for nematode control in crop plants in future

Association between Helicobacter pylori genotypes and severity of chronic gastritis, peptic ulcer disease and gastric mucosal interleukin-8 levels: evidence from a study in the Middle East

Background: The varied clinical presentations of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection are most likely due to differences in the virulence of individual strains, which determines its ability to induce production of interleukin-8 (IL-8) in the gastric mucosa. The aim of this study was to examine association between cagA, vacA-s1 and vacA-s2 genotypes of H. pylori and severity of chronic gastritis and presence of peptic ulcer disease (PUD), and to correlate these with IL-8 levels in the gastric mucosa. Methods: Gastric mucosal biopsies were obtained from patients during esophagogastroduodenoscopy. The severity of chronic gastritis was documented using the updated Sydney system. H. pylori cagA and vacA genotypes were detected by PCR. The IL-8 levels in the gastric mucosa were measured by ELISA. Results: H. pylori cagA and/or vacA genotypes were detected in 99 patients (mean age 38.4±12.9; 72 males), of whom 52.5% were positive for cagA, 44.4% for vacA-s1 and 39.4% for vacA-s2; and 70.7% patients had PUD. The severity of inflammation in gastric mucosa was increased with vacA-s1 (p=0.017) and decreased with vacA-s2 (p=0.025), while cagA had no association. The degree of neutrophil activity was not associated with either cagA or vacA-s1, while vacA-s2 was significantly associated with decreased neutrophil activity (p=0.027). PUD was significantly increased in patients with cagA (p=0.002) and vacA-s1 (p=0.031), and decreased in those with vacA-s2 (p=0.011). The level of IL-8 was significantly increased in patients with cagA (p=0.011) and vacA-s1 (p=0.024), and lower with vacA-s2 (p=0.004). Higher levels of IL-8 were also found in patients with a more severe chronic inflammation (p=0.001), neutrophil activity (p=0.007) and those with PUD (p=0.001). Conclusions: Presence of vacA-s1 genotype of H. pylori is associated with more severe chronic inflammation and higher levels of IL-8 in the gastric mucosa, as well as higher frequency of PUD. Patients with vacA-s2 have less severe gastritis, lower levels of IL-8, and lower rates of PUD. The presence of cagA genotype is not associated with the severity of gastritis or IL-8 induction in the gastric mucosa. The association of cagA with PUD may be a reflection of its presence with vacA-s1 genotype