Efficient removal of arsenic (V) from water using steel-making slag

This study describes the potential use of steel-making slag as an arsenic-removal medium. Systematic analysis of slag material revealed a composition of oxides of calcium, iron, silicon, and phosphorous. Under the experimental conditions of this study, the equilibrium time was shown to be 2 hours, and the removal capacity to be 99%, with an adsorbent loading capacity of 1.25g/l. The adsorption kinetics were shown to follow a pseudo-second-order rate equation, and the adsorption isotherm closely followed both the Langmuir and Freundlich isothermic models. Variations in solution pH levels demonstrated that with a decrease in the initial solution pH, the adsorption capacity decreases. This is attributed to the leaching of silica and phosphate from the slag to the solution, which imparted a competing effect for adsorption sites. However, with an alkaline pH, such leaching was reduced, and due to formation of calcium carbonate from the leached calcium from the slag material, the arsenic removal efficiency increased as it was co-precipitated with calcium carbonate.

A rare case report showing direct association between hepatitis B and bulbar palsy

Bulbar Palsy is B/L impairment of function of cranial N. 9, 10, 11, 12 at lower motor neuron level either at nuclear or fascicular level in medulla or B/L lesion of lower cranial N. outside brainstem. We present case of viral hepatitis who initially presented with classical signs and symptoms of hepatitis B followed by characteristic features of bulbar palsy in form of difficulty in swallowing and slurring of speech reduced gag reflex, weak palatal movement. Other causes for bulbar palsy were excluded and indirect laryngoscopy confirmed presence of bulbar palsy. Patient had no previous neurological abnormality, there are many studies in the past for association of hepatitis B and bulbar palsy but no one confirmed about a direct association between hepatitis B and bulbar palsy. To best of knowledge this is the first case report which shows direct association between hepatitis B and bulbar palsy.

Performance of fruit extract of Melastoma malabathricum L. as sensitizer in DSSCs

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) with fruit extracts, of Melastoma malabathricum L. as sensitizer, were fabricated. The fruit dye was extracted in two different solvents; de-ionized water (MMD) and ethanol (MME). The dye was subjected to UV-Vis and DSC studies. UV-Vis studies show absorption of light for a wider range of wavelength for MMD as compared to MME. Both MMD and MME were found to be stable till 121°C, as shown by DSC studies, beyond which MME showed unstable behavior. FTIR spectra of MMD and MME along with dye adsorbed TiO2 were recorded. MMD showed better adsorption with TiO2 than with MME. Voc, Jsc and efficiencies of the MMD sensitized solar cells were obtained in the ranges 420-430 mV, 1.25-1.50 mA cm(-2) and 1.11-1.37% respectively, while for MME sensitized solar cells they were in the ranges 370-380 mV, 0.63-0.87 mA cm(-2) and 0.41-0.72% respectively. Preliminary investigation on stability of DSSCs which were fabricated using both the extracts revealed sharp drop in efficiency of DSSC with MME in comparison to DSSC with MMD as sensitizer.

Charge symmetric dissociation of doubly ionized N2 and CO molecules

We report a comparative study of the features in dissociative double ionization by high energy electron impact of N2 and CO molecules. The ratio of cross-section of charge symmetric dissociative ionization to non-dissociative ionization (CSD-to-ND ratio) and the kinetic energy release (KER) spectra of dissociation are experimentally measured and carefully corrected for various ion transmission losses and detector inefficiencies. Given that the double ionization cross sections of these iso-electronic diatomics are very similar, the large difference in the CSD-to-ND ratios must be attributable to the differences in the evolution dynamics of the dications. To understand these differences, potential energy curves (PECs) of dications have been computed using multi-reference configuration interaction method. The Franck-Condon factors and tunneling life times of vibrational levels of dications have also been computed. While the KER spectrum of N2 (++) can be readily explained by considering dissociation via repulsive states and tunneling of meta-stable states, indirect dissociation processes such as predissociation and autoionization have to be taken into account to understand the major features of the KER spectrum of CO(++). Direct and indirect processes identified on the basis of the PECs and experimental KER spectra also provide insights into the differences in the CSD-to-ND ratios.

Advanced stage of breast cancer hoist alkaline phosphatase activity: risk factor for females in India

Breast cancer is the most common neoplasm affecting women in the western world with an average frequency of 1 in 11, developing the malignancy and it is second most common cancer in India. Variations in serum levels of biochemical parameters especially alkaline phosphatase (ALP) changes may be of great help in diagnosis of breast carcinoma. Serum ALP activity was assayed in 388 histopathologically proven breast cancer patients using spectrophotometric methods and monitored association with cancer stages. Breast cancer is a female-biased disease and our study was conducted in a group of female patients with mean age of 48.67 ± 8.32 years. A significant increase in levels of ALP (809.65 ± 145.97 IU/L) was observed in stage IV of the disease. The logistic regression study gave a significant result (P < 0.001) when we compared the group of ALP level (>500 IU/L) with metastatic presentation. The present study besides being cost effective suggested the usefulness of ALP in differentiating breast cancer stages and metastasis.

Prevalence of hand disorders in type 2 diabetes mellitus and its correlation with microvascular complications

Background:

Physicians have long recognized the association between diabetes mellitus and several pathologic conditions of the hand. The most commonly recognized maladies are limited joint mobility (LJM), Dupuytren's disease (DD), trigger finger (TF), and carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS). Incidence of these hand disorders has increased in the setting of diabetes. Collectively, these are described as diabetic hand syndrome.

Aim:

The aims were to find out the prevalence of hand disorders in diabetic patients, and to study the relation of these hand disorders with microvascular complications.

Subjects and Methods:

This is an observational cross-sectional case-control study done over a period of 1 year Patients of type 2 DM, of age < 65 years, who visited Gandhi Memorial Hospital, Lucknow were enrolled and were described as cases. Age- and sex-matched nondiabetic individuals were taken in the control group. The data were analyzed using software SPSS. SPSS Inc. Released 2008. SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 17.0. Chicago: SPSS Inc. Means and standard deviations were computed; the Student t-test and Chi-square (χ²) test were used as appropriate.

Results:

A total of 400 subjects were studied, 200 each in the case and control groups. Of total 200 diabetic patients, 30% (60/200) patients had neuropathy, 37.5% (75/200) had nephropathy, and 44.5% (89/200) patients had retinopathy. In the study population, 67% patients were having one or more hand disorders, in which LJM was found in 40.5% (81/200) patients, DD was found in 19% (38/200) patients, TF in 16.5% (33/200), and CTS in 14% (28/200) patients.

Conclusions:

This study shows a high prevalence of hand disorders in diabetic patients and also correlates with the duration of type 2 DM, LJM being the most common hand disorder and more common in patients who have microvascular complications.

Role of blood C - reactive protein levels in upper urinary tract infection and lower urinary tract infection in adult patients (>16 years)

AIM

Role of blood C - reactive protein levels in upper urinary tract infection and lower urinary tract infection in adult patients (>16 years).

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Study included 2 groups of patients -Test group (n=58). Control group (n=28).Test group further classified into 2 groups- a). Patients having upper urinary tract infection b). Patients having lower urinary tract infection. Patients were subjected to following tests - complete hemogram, blood C-reactive protein levels, urinalysis.

RESULTS

The mean value of C-reactive protein in the cases of upper urinary tract infection 127.33 mg/L which is statistically significantly raised when compared to control(t-value 12.370 and p-value<0.01). C-reactive protein was significantly raised in upper urinary tract infection in comparison to control group( p<0.01), while in lower urinary tract infection this difference was insignificant (p<0.05).

CONCLUSION

C-reactive protein has a good diagnostic role in differentiating upper and lower urinary tract infection. The simple size of our study is very small to say these authentically, hence, further studies of large number of cases is required.

Swelling-induced deformations: a materials-defined transition from macroscale to microscale deformations

Swelling-induced deformations are common in many biological and industrial environments, and the shapes and patterns that emerge can vary across many length scales. Here we present an experimental study of a transition between macroscopic structural bending and microscopic surface creasing in elastomeric beams swollen non-homogeneously with favorable . We show that this transition is dictated by the materials and geometry of the system, and we develop a simple scaling model based on competition between bending and swelling energies that predicts if a given droplet would deform a polymeric structure macroscopically or microscopically. We demonstrate how proper tuning of materials and geometry can generate instabilities at multiple length scales in a single structure.

Linking sleep to hypertension: greater risk for blacks

Background. Evidence suggests that insufficient sleep duration is associated with an increased likelihood for hypertension. Both short (<6 hours) and long (>8 hour) sleep durations as well as hypertension are more prevalent among blacks than among whites. This study examined associations between sleep duration and hypertension, considering differential effects of race and ethnicity among black and white Americans. Methods. Data came from a cross-sectional household interview with 25,352 Americans (age range: 18-85 years). Results. Both white and black short sleepers had a greater likelihood of reporting hypertension than those who reported sleeping 6 to 8 hours. Unadjusted logistic regression analysis exploring the race/ethnicity interactions between insufficient sleep and hypertension indicated that black short (<6 hours) and long (>8 hours) sleepers were more likely to report hypertension than their white counterparts (OR = 1.34 and 1.37, resp.; P < 0.01). Significant interactions of insufficient sleep with race/ethnicity were observed even after adjusting to effects of age, sex, income, education, body mass index, alcohol use, smoking, emotional distress, diabetes, coronary heart disease, and stroke. Conclusion. Results suggest that the race/ethnicity interaction is a significant mediator in the relationship between insufficient sleep and likelihood of having a diagnosis of hypertension.

Prospects of nano-material in breast cancer management

Breast cancer evaluation and early diagnosis are core complexity worldwide and an ambiguity for scientists till date. Nano-materials are innovative tools for rapid diagnosis and therapy, which may induce an immense result in the field of oncology. Their exceptional size-dependent properties make them special and superior materials and quite indispensable in several fields of the human activities. The major obstacle in finding cure for malignant breast cancer is to increase in development of resistances for tumors to the therapeutic treatments. The widespread mammo-graph particle is being developed by nations to diagnosis disease in primitive stage to decline the mortality rates caused by breast carcinoma. The advancement of nano-particle based diagnostic tools facilitates in evaluation and provides encouraging development in breast cancer therapeutics. In this compact review, efforts have been made to compose the current advancements in the area of functional nano-particles. Furthermore, in vivo and in vitro applications of nano-materials in breast cancer management are also discussed.

Subsurface synthesis and characterization of Ag nanoparticles embedded in MgO

Metal nanoparticles exhibit a localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) which is very sensitive to the size and shape of the nanoparticle and the surrounding dielectric medium. The coupling between the electromagnetic radiation and the localized surface plasmon in metallic nanoparticles results in a sizable enhancement of the incident fields, making them possible candidates for plasmonic applications. In particular, partially exposed metallic nanoparticles distributed in a dielectric matrix can provide prime locations for LSPR spectroscopy and sensing. We report the synthesis and characterization of a plasmonic substrate consisting of Ag nanoparticles partially buried in MgO. Ag nanoparticles of different shapes and size distributions were synthesized below the surface of MgO by implanting 200 keV Ag(+) ions followed by annealing at 1000 °C for 10 and 30 h. A detailed optical and structural characterization was carried out to understand the evolution of the Ag nanoparticle and size distribution inside the MgO matrix. Micro x-ray diffraction (Micro-XRD) was employed to investigate the structural properties and estimate the crystallite size. The nanoparticles evolved from a spherical to a faceted morphology with annealing time, assuming an octahedral shape truncated at the (001) planes, as visualized from aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images. The nanoparticles embedded in MgO were shown to be pure metallic Ag using atom probe tomography (APT). The nanoparticles were partially exposed to the surface by employing plasma etch techniques to remove the overlaying MgO. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) were employed to study the surface morphology and obtain a height distribution for the partially exposed nanoparticles.

Tobacco addiction augments obesity and carcinogenesis: Matter of concern for Indian patients

Purpose:

Patients and Methods:

Results:

Conclusion:

Intralesional bleomycin in lymphangioma: an effective and safe non-operative modality of treatment

Introduction:

Lymphangiomas are benign hamartomatous lymphatic tumors. The mainstay of the therapy is surgical excision, but due to its infiltration along the nerves and muscles, total excision is not always possible. In the present study, we have evaluated the clinical profile of all the cases of lymphagiomas coming to our department and evaluated the efficacy of intralesional Bleomycin as a sclerosing agent in its management.

Materials and Methods:

In this prospective study, all patients were evaluated clinically and color Doppler ultrasonography (USG). The required dose was calculated as 0.5 mg/kg body weight, not exceeding 10 units at a time. The response was assessed clinically and on the basis of color Doppler USG.

Results:

Thirty-five patients of lymphangioma were included in the study. The neck region was the most common site of involvement. The response was excellent in 7 (20%), good in 26 (74.29%), and poor in 2 (5.71%) patients. The complications included fever, transient increase in size of swelling, local infection, intraluminal bleed, and skin discoloration in 10 patients.

Conclusion:

This therapy may be used as primary modality instead of surgery in selected group of patients.

Epistasis network centrality analysis yields pathway replication across two GWAS cohorts for bipolar disorder

Most pathway and gene-set enrichment methods prioritize genes by their main effect and do not account for variation due to interactions in the pathway. A portion of the presumed missing heritability in genome-wide association studies (GWAS) may be accounted for through gene-gene interactions and additive genetic variability. In this study, we prioritize genes for pathway enrichment in GWAS of bipolar disorder (BD) by aggregating gene-gene interaction information with main effect associations through a machine learning (evaporative cooling) feature selection and epistasis network centrality analysis. We validate this approach in a two-stage (discovery/replication) pathway analysis of GWAS of BD. The discovery cohort comes from the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium (WTCCC) GWAS of BD, and the replication cohort comes from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) GWAS of BD in European Ancestry individuals. Epistasis network centrality yields replicated enrichment of Cadherin signaling pathway, whose genes have been hypothesized to have an important role in BD pathophysiology but have not demonstrated enrichment in previous analysis. Other enriched pathways include Wnt signaling, circadian rhythm pathway, axon guidance and neuroactive ligand-receptor interaction. In addition to pathway enrichment, the collective network approach elevates the importance of ANK3, DGKH and ODZ4 for BD susceptibility in the WTCCC GWAS, despite their weak single-locus effect in the data. These results provide evidence that numerous small interactions among common alleles may contribute to the diathesis for BD and demonstrate the importance of including information from the network of gene-gene interactions as well as main effects when prioritizing genes for pathway analysis.