Fungal biosorption of the heavy metals chromium(VI) and nickel from industrial effluent-contaminated soil

Heavy metals are ubiquitous contaminants that have accompanied man since the earliest ancient times, and unlike other environmental pollutants, they are chemical elements that man does not create or destroy. In the present study, the aim was to determine the biosorption potential of heavy metal-tolerant fungi that were isolated from compost soil samples contaminated by industrial effluents. The isolation was performed on potato dextrose agar (PDA) media supplemented with heavy metals. Chromium-Cr(VI) and nickel-Ni. The most dominant fungal species were found to be Penicillium spp. This fungus was screened for its ability to tolerate heavy metals by the plate diffusion and broth method and was highly tolerant to fungal species. The fungi were assessed for their ability to remove heavy metals from the culture media, and the culture conditions for the fungus were experimentally optimized. The isolated Penicillium species was found to show maximum growth at 35°C with media pH 6 for an incubation period of 168 hours. The isolate was able to tolerate 60-70 ppm concentrations of heavy metals under normal conditions. The ability of the isolate to take up metal was very effective, as after 96 hrs of incubation, it was capable of removing approximately 93.8% of Cr(VI) and 95.6% of Ni from the culture media, and complete uptake was observed after a 144 hr incubation period. The molecular characterization revealed the only isolate to be Penicillium rubens (Accession no. LC536286). The morphological characteristics of this fungus make it capable of biosorption of heavy metals, imparting its bioremediation potential and economic importance.

Psychological capital and the role of perceived organizational support in determining psychological wellbeing among the UK & the India Bank employees

Background: Over the last couple of decades, psychological wellbeing at work has increasingly received research attention, particularly in light of a rise in the prevalence of mental health issues in work sectors that present with high job demand levels. High levels of stress, anxiety and depression have been documented in the banking workforce too and have been associated with personal and organizational factors that can be detrimental to psychological wellbeing at work in various Western and Eastern countries. Within a positive psychology framework, the construct of Psychological Capital (PsyCap) has become pertinent to the study and reinforcement of mental wellbeing in the workplace in terms of its focus on the development of the four dimensions it comprises of, i.e., hope, optimism, resilience, and self-efficacy. While PsyCap as a personal resource has been found to improve psychological wellbeing at work, Perceived Organizational Support (POS) has also been shown to contribute to wellbeing at work as well as to work satisfaction and performance; however, the relationship among PsyCap, POS and psychological wellbeing in the banking sector in either Western or Eastern countries has been under-researched. Aim: This is the first study aimed to investigate the role of psychological wellbeing in the banking workforce in relation to a PsyCap framework that also considers the contributing role of POS in the relationship between PsyCap and psychological wellbeing. The study will also adopt a comparative approach, aiming to explore any cultural and/or gender differences in the nature of the relationship among PsyCap, psychological wellbeing and POS in bank employees at a Western, i.e., U.K. and an eastern, i.e., India, organization site. Method: Following a systematic narrative review into the literature on PsyCap, studied along with aspects of psychological wellbeing and POS in the occupational sector (inclusive of students) that informed the aims of the current investigation, a mixed methods approach was adopted to explore the nature of the relationship among PsyCap, psychological wellbeing and POS in the U.K. and the India banking sector. In the quantitative part, validated self-report scales were distributed through an online survey or manually for completion, i.e. psychological capital (PsyCap; Luthans, Avolio, Avey, & Norman, 2007), perceived organizational support (POS; Eisenberger, 1986) and psychological wellbeing (DASS; Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995); the qualitative exploration employed semi-structured interviews with a subsample of those who participated in the quantitative part to enquire in more depth into factors associated with PsyCap, wellbeing and POS as well as the nature of stressors at work and the coping strategies adopted to deal with these stressors. Results: Quantitative data findings showed PsyCap -and its dimensions to be negatively correlated with (poor) psychological wellbeing. POS was negatively correlated with (poor) psychological wellbeing and positively correlated to PsyCap & its dimensions. POS moderated the relationship between PsyCap and psychological wellbeing in the total combined sample of U.K and India based bank employees (n=475) and in the U.K. bank employee sample (n=230) per se but did not serve as a moderator in this relationship for the India bank employee sample (n=245). Further, significant gender differences were seen on the domains of hope and optimism of PsyCap as well as on POS and on the domains of stress and anxiety of psychological wellbeing, among the banking cohort at both sites. Qualitatively, emerged themes derived from thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke,2006) were common and/or site-specific and reflected: the importance of POS (e.g., support from colleagues/managers, recognition of work and well-defined work parameters) in effective work performance; the link between PsyCap (e.g., optimism) and work performance; the link between POS (e.g., recognition of work) and PsyCap (e.g., self-efficacy) in effective work performance; the link between POS (e.g., provision of wellbeing programs) and work performance as well as psychological wellbeing; the link between stressors and various coping strategies with psychological wellbeing; and the importance of positive psychology approaches in stress reduction and improved work performance. Notably, managerial support and wellbeing program provision were found lacking at the India bank site. Conclusion: The combined pattern of findings suggests that PsyCap can be a vital personal resource for improving wellbeing at work as well as work performance that can be further developed, along with take-up of organizational support. Future research needs to further investigate the synergistic contribution of PsyCap and POS as personal and organizational sources for improving psychological wellbeing at work while Western practice can potentially inform India bank sites on the implementation of beneficial organizational support sources at work

Clinico-hematological profile of paediatric patient admitted with acute leukemia in tertiary care centre of central India

Background: Leukemia is the most prevalent childhood cancer. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) constitutes 75% of allcases. Objective: To find out the most common clinical and hematological findings of pediatric patients with acute leukemia at atertiary care center of central India. Materials and Methods: This retrospective study was done on 30 pediatric patients diagnosedwith acute leukemia in the Department of Pediatrics and Oncology at Chirayu Medical College and Hospital, Bhopal. This studyincluded children aged from 6 months to 15 years, who were admitted from June 2014 to June 2015. Data were retrospectivelycollected by reviewing medical records of these patients. Clinical history, physical examination, hematological, and radiologicaldata were analyzed. Results: ALL was the most common hematological malignancy observed at our hospital. In addition, it wasfound to be more prevalent in males and fever was the most common presenting symptoms followed by fatigue and anorexia.Hepatosplenomegaly and pallor were the most common findings on clinical examination. Among patients with ALL, subtype L1was the most common type. Among patients with acute myeloid leukemia, M2 and M3 subtypes were most commonly documented

Impact of serum vitamin D level on severity of asthma in children

Background: Asthma is the most common chronic respiratory disease among children characterized by reversible airway obstruction. Vitamin D plays an important role in many immune and allergic diseases and it may have a role in asthmatic patients, however this association yet remains uncertain. The present study was designed to assess the level of serum Vitamin D in patients with bronchial asthma and it’s correlation with disease severity.Methods: A prospective observational study was performed from April 2019 to February 2020 in the Paediatric OPD of LNMC and JK Hospital Bhopal. All 90 children with physician diagnosed bronchial asthma (mild, moderate and severe) aged 10 to 18 years of both genders who have come in the OPD (total enumeration sampling) during the above mentioned period were enrolled in to the study. The patients were grouped on the basis of Vitamin D sufficiency and Vitamin D levels were correlated with disease severity.Results: The study comprised 54 boys (60%) and 36 girls (40%) with mean age of 15.1±3.96. Out of 90 children enrolled, 46 had good control over asthma and 37 had uncontrolled asthma. As regards asthma control, 25-OH Vitamin D was lowest among patients with uncontrolled asthma.Conclusions: Vitamin D deficiency was highly prevalent in asthmatic patients and there was a direct and a significant relationship between serum Vitamin D levels, severity of asthma, control of asthma, serum IgE levels and blood eosinophils count. Thus, measuring serum levels of Vitamin D followed by supplementation could be considered in the routine assessment of patients with bronchial asthma

An Overview On Web Scraping Techniques And Tools

From the evolution of WWW, the scenario of internet user and data exchange is fastly changes. As common people join the internet and start to use it, lots of new techniques are promoted to boost up the network. At the same time, to enhance computers and network facility new technologies were introduces which results into automatically decreasing in cost of hardware and website�s related costs. Due to all these changes, large number of users are joined and use the internet facilities. Daily use of internet cose in to a tremendous data is available on internet. Business, academician, researchers all are share their advertisements, information on internet so that they can be connected to people fastly and easily. As a result of exchange, share and store data on internet, a new problem is arise that how to handle such data overload and how the user will get or access the best information in least efforts. To solve this issues, researcher spotout new technique called Web Scraping. Web scraping is very imperative technique which is used to generate structured data on the basis of available unstructured data on the web. Scaping generated structured data then stored in central database and analyze in spreadsheets. Traditional copy-and-paste, Text grapping and regular expression matching, HTTP programming, HTML parsing, DOM parsing, Webscraping software, Vertical aggregation platforms, Semantic annotation recognizing and Computer vision web-page analyzers are some of the common techniques used for data scraping. Previously most user uses the common copy-pest technique for gathering and analyzing data on the internet, but it is a tedious technique where lot of data copied by the user and store on computer files. As compared to this technique web scraping software is easiest scraping technique. Now a days, there are lots of software are available in the market for web scraping. Our paper is focused on the overview on the information extraction technique i.e. web scraping, different techniques of web scraping and some of the recent tools used for a web scraping

A Study of Types of Sensors used in Remote Sensing

Of late, the science of Remote Sensing has been gaining a lot of interest and attention due to its wide variety of applications. Remotely sensed data can be used in various fields such as medicine, agriculture, engineering, weather forecasting, military tactics, disaster management etc. only to name a few. This article presents a study of the two categories of sensors namely optical and microwave which are used for remotely sensing the occurrence of disasters such as earthquakes, floods, landslides, avalanches, tropical cyclones and suspicious movements. The remotely sensed data acquired either through satellites or through ground based- synthetic aperture radar systems could be used to avert or mitigate a disaster or to perform a post-disaster analysis

Knowledge, attitudes and practices related to dietary salt intake among adults in North India.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the knowledge, attitudes and practices related to salt consumption among adults in rural and urban North India. DESIGN: Data for the study were obtained from a community-based cross-sectional survey using an interviewer-administered questionnaire and 24 h urine samples. SETTING: Data collection was conducted during March-October 2012 in rural Haryana and urban Delhi in North India. PARTICIPANTS: Adults (n 1635) aged ≥20 years (701 in rural Haryana; 934 in urban Delhi). RESULTS: Twenty-four per cent of rural and 40·5 % of urban participants knew that a high-salt diet causes high blood pressure. Nearly one-fifth of both rural and urban participants knew that there should be a maximum daily limit for consumption of salt. In rural and urban areas, 46·6 and 45·1 %, respectively, perceived it important to reduce the salt content of their diet; however, only 3·7 and 10·2 %, respectively, reported taking some actions. Participants reported they were consuming 'too little salt', 'just the right amount of salt' or 'too much salt', but their corresponding mean (95 % CI) actual salt consumption (g/d; as measured by 24 h urinary Na excretion) was higher, especially among rural participants (rural: 9·2 (8·13, 10·22), 8·5 (8·19, 8·77) or 8·4 (7·72, 8·99); urban: 5·6 (4·67, 6·57), 5·7 (5·32, 6·01) or 4·6 (4·10, 5·14), respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Knowledge about the deleterious health impact of excess salt consumption is low in this population. Tailored public education for salt reduction is warranted with a particular focus on rural residents

Neuropsychiatric Events Associated with Leukotriene-Modifying Agents: A Systematic Review.

INTRODUCTION: Leukotriene-modifying agents (LTMAs) including montelukast, zafirlukast, and zileuton are approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of asthma and allergic rhinitis. Various neuropsychiatric events (NEs) have been reported; however, the evidence of the association is conflicting. This systematic review investigates the association between NEs and LTMAs by assessing the relevant published literature. METHODS: PubMed, EMBASE, MEDLINE, and Cochrane Library were searched using keywords. Studies designed to investigate the association were eligible for inclusion without restriction to any study design or language. The primary outcome was defined as suicidal conditions, while secondary outcomes included all other NEs. RESULTS: Thirty-three studies were included for a narrative review. Four observational studies did not find a significant association, while ten pharmacovigilance studies using different global databases detected the signals. Notably, some studies suggest that the FDA warning issued in 2008 might have influenced the reporting rate of NEs as a result of increased awareness. LIMITATIONS: The risk of NEs was not quantified, because of the lack of randomized controlled trials and observational studies investigating the association. CONCLUSION: Many pharmacovigilance studies have been conducted to determine the association between NEs and LTMAs, but there is limited evidence from observational studies. High-quality epidemiological studies should be conducted to evaluate the association and quantify the risk, not only in children, but also in adults

Managing Cardiovascular Risk of Macrolides: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

INTRODUCTION: It was postulated that antibiotics including macrolides could be used for the secondary prevention of coronary heart disease but recent studies showed that macrolides increase the cardiovascular risk. We aimed to review the evidence of cardiovascular risk associated with macrolides regarding duration of effect and risk factors; and to explore the potential effect of statins for the prevention of cardiovascular events as a result of macrolide use. METHODS: Several electronic databases (PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane library) were searched to identify eligible studies. Observational studies and randomized controlled trials that investigated the association between macrolides and cardiovascular events in adults aged ≥18 years were included. A meta-analysis was conducted to investigate the short- and long-term risks of cardiovascular mortality, myocardial infarction, arrhythmia, and stroke. Methodological quality was assessed by the Newcastle-Ottawa scale and the Cochrane Collaboration's tool. The body of evidence was evaluated by the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation guidelines. RESULTS: Observational studies were found to have a short-term risk of cardiovascular outcomes including cardiovascular mortality, myocardial infarction, and arrhythmia associated with macrolides but no risk was found in randomized controlled trials. However, no association for long-term risk (ranging from >30 days to >3 years) was observed in observational studies or randomized controlled trials. LIMITATIONS: The included studies reported different units of denominators for absolute risk and used different outcome definitions, which might increase the heterogeneity. CONCLUSIONS: More studies are required to investigate the short-term cardiovascular outcomes associated with different types of macrolides. Future studies are warranted to evaluate the effect of statins for preventing excess acute cardiovascular events associated with clarithromycin or other macrolides