Diwali is one of the largest festivals for Hindu religion which falls in the period October–November every year. During the festival days, extensive burning of firecrackers takes place, especially in ...the evening hours, constituting a significant source of aerosols, black carbon (BC), organics, and trace gases. The widespread use of sparklers was found to be associated with short-term air quality degradation events. The present study focuses on the influence of Diwali fireworks emissions on surface ozone (O
3
), nitrogen oxides (NO
x
), and BC aerosol concentration over the tropical urban region of Hyderabad, India during three consecutive years (2009–2011). The trace gases are analyzed for pre-Diwali, Diwali, and post-Diwali days in order to reveal the festivity’s contribution to the ambient air quality over the city. A twofold to threefold increase is observed in O
3
, NO
x
, and BC concentrations during the festival period compared to control days for 2009–2011, which is mainly attributed to firecrackers burning. The high correlation coefficient (~0.74) between NO
x
and SO
2
concentrations and higher SO
2
/NO
x
(S/N) index suggested air quality degradation due to firecrackers burning. Furthermore, the Cloud–Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation-derived aerosol subtyping map also confirmed the presence of smoke aerosols emitted from firecrackers burning over the region. Nevertheless, the concentration level of pollutants exhibited substantial decline over the region during the years 2010 and 2011 compared to 2009 ascribed to various awareness campaigns and increased cost of firecrackers.
Ailments caused by helminth parasites are global causing different types of clinical complications with permanent and long term morbidity in humans. Although huge advances have been made in medical ...sciences the effectiveness of available anthelmintics are still quite limited. Starting from the 50's, most importance was given to synthetic compounds for developing remedies from them, however, the traditional knowledge of medicine of different countries continued to provide us clues against this widespread health problem. Natural products or structural analogs with diverse structures are always been the major sources for discovering new therapeutics and in recent past different active compounds have also been identified form these plant sources having anthelmintic properties. Although compounds of diverse chemical nature and classes were identified, most active ones belong to either phenol or terpene in broad chemical nature. The mechanism of action of these phytotherapeutics is usually multi-targeted and can act against the helminth parasites through diverse spectrum of activities. In this review we summarized the effective anthelmintics belong to either phenolics or terpenoids and highlighted the major way of their effectiveness. This also highlights the recent development of new therapeutic strategies against helminth parasites in the light of recent advances of knowledge. In addition, developing efficient strategies to promote apoptosis and disturbing redox status in them by natural products can provide us a clue in antifilarial drug developmental research and crucial unmet medical need.
•HPLC/LC–MS analysis revealed the presence of scytonemin in the cyanobacterium Rivularia sp.•UV radiation can induce the synthesis of scytonemin.•Scytonemin can detoxify in vivo reactive oxygen ...species generated by UV radiation.•Scytonemin can inhibit UV-mediated thymine dimer formation.
Scytonemin, located in the extracellular polysaccharide sheath of some cyanobacterial species is considered an efficient natural photoprotectant against lethal doses of ultraviolet (UV) radiations. In the present study, scytonemin from the cyanobacterium Rivularia sp. HKAR-4 was partially characterized and investigated for its induction by UV radiation as well as its role in photoprotection. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with photodiode-array detection studies revealed the presence of an UV-absorbing compound with absorption maximum at 386nm. Based on its absorption spectrum and ion trap liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS) analysis, the compound was confirmed as scytonemin. In comparison to photosynthetically active radiation, a significant induction in the synthesis of scytonemin was found under UV-stress. Scytonemin also exhibited efficient photoprotective ability by detoxifying the in vivo reactive oxygen species (ROS) generated by UV radiation and by reducing the formation of thymine dimers. To the best of our knowledge this is the first report on the UV-screening effects of scytonemin on in vivo ROS generation and thymine dimer formation in any cyanobacterial strain. Based on these findings, we conclude that scytonemin may play a vital role in the survival and sustainability of cyanobacterial life in adverse environmental conditions such as under high solar irradiances.
TRPA1 channels are expressed in nociceptive neurons, where they detect noxious stimuli, and in the mammalian cochlea, where their function is unknown. Here we show that TRPA1 activation in the ...supporting non-sensory Hensen's cells of the mouse cochlea causes prolonged Ca
responses, which propagate across the organ of Corti and cause long-lasting contractions of pillar and Deiters' cells. Caged Ca
experiments demonstrated that, similar to Deiters' cells, pillar cells also possess Ca
-dependent contractile machinery. TRPA1 channels are activated by endogenous products of oxidative stress and extracellular ATP. Since both these stimuli are present in vivo after acoustic trauma, TRPA1 activation after noise may affect cochlear sensitivity through supporting cell contractions. Consistently, TRPA1 deficiency results in larger but less prolonged noise-induced temporary shift of hearing thresholds, accompanied by permanent changes of latency of the auditory brainstem responses. We conclude that TRPA1 contributes to the regulation of cochlear sensitivity after acoustic trauma.
A newly designed cyanide-selective chemosensor based on chromone containing benzothiazole groups 3-(2,3-dihydro-benzothiazol-2-yl)-chromen-4-one (DBTC) was synthesized and structurally characterized ...by physico-chemical, spectroscopic, and single-crystal X-ray diffraction analyses. The compound DBTC can detect cyanide anions based on nucleophilic addition as low as 5.76 nM in dimethyl sulfoxide–N-(2-hydroxyethyl)piperazine-N′-ethanesulfonic acid buffer (20 mM, pH 7.4) (v/v = 1:3). The binding mode between receptor DBTC and cyanide nucleophile has also been demonstrated by experimental studies using various spectroscopic tools and theoretical studies, and the experimental work has also been verified by characterizing one supporting compound of similar probable structure of the final product formed between DBTC and cyanide ion (DBTC–CN compound) by single-crystal X-ray analysis for detailed structural analyses. In theoretical study, density functional theory procedures have been used to calculate the molecular structure and the calculation of the Fukui function for evaluation of the electrophilic properties of each individual acceptor atom. Furthermore, the efficacy of the probe (DBTC) to detect the distribution of CN– ions in living cells has been checked by acquiring the fluorescence image using a confocal microscope. Notably, the paper strips with DBTC were prepared, and these could serve as efficient and suitable CN– test kits successfully.
Cataract causes bilateral blindness in 20 million people globally, the vast majority of whom live in developing countries. Manual small-incision cataract surgery (MSICS) has emerged as an efficient ...and economical alternative to phacoemulsification, giving comparable results in terms of final visual gain. One of the important determinants of postoperative visual gain is the status of the corneal endothelium. Multiple factors such as corneal distortion, irrigation solution turbulence, mechanical trauma by instruments, nuclear fragments, intraocular lens contact, and free oxygen radicals, all have been implicated in causing corneal damage during cataract surgery. MSICS with posterior chamber intraocular lens implantation has been reported to cause an endothelial cell loss of 15.83%, which is comparable with other modes of cataract surgery like extracapsular cataract extraction and phacoemulsification. Thorough preoperative assessment of endothelial status and taking necessary steps for endothelial protection during surgery can decrease the endothelial cell loss and overall burden of pseudophakic bullous keratopathy. In addition to surgical techniques, the type of irrigating solutions, ocular viscoelastic devices, intracameral dyes, and drugs all affect the endothelial cell status. This review presents a summary of available literature on the protection of endothelial cells during different steps of MSICS. This is especially relevant for developing countries where large-scale MSICS cataract surgeries are performed to decrease the cataract blindness burden.
RC4 is the most popular stream cipher in the domain of cryptology. In this paper, we present a systematic study of the hardware implementation of RC4, and propose the fastest known architecture for ...the cipher. We combine the ideas of hardware pipeline and loop unrolling to design an architecture that produces 2 RC4 keystream bytes per clock cycle. We have optimized and implemented our proposed design using VHDL description, synthesized with 130, 90, and 65 nm fabrication technologies at clock frequencies 625 MHz, 1.37 GHz, and 1.92 GHz, respectively, to obtain a final RC4 keystream throughput of 10, 21.92, and 30.72 Gbps in the respective technologies.
The exorable climate changes leads to changes in the frequency and intensity of extreme rainfall events worldwide; however, the amendment in extreme rainfall events is not uniform over space, ...precisely it is more localized and a great threat to the society. Thus, study of rainfall extremes at a finer spatial scale is essential and identifying the large-scale parameters that are responsible factors is highly needed. Odisha state in India is one of the most vulnerable to weather extremes and considered as a study region. The present study is bi-fold, firstly examining the changes in the extreme rainfall (≥ 204.5 mm/day) over Odisha and exploring the foremost large-scale meteorological parameters responsible for heterogeneous characteristics of extreme rainfall within Odisha during 1980–2017 summer monsoon period. India Meteorological Department gridded high-resolution (0.25° × 0.25°) rainfall analysis and ERA-Interim (0.25° × 0.25°) reanalysis data at daily scale are used for the analysis. The study region has an increasing trend in extreme rainfall events and it is evident that the Indian Ocean is warmer during extreme rainfall events compared to the dry events, particularly near the seashore of Odisha. The stronger (weak) and cyclonic (anti-cyclonic) flows at 850-hPa exhibit during extreme rainfall (dry) events. The moisture flux is convergent during extreme rainfall events, while it is reverse during dry events. The monsoon trough has been shifted to south (north) from its normal position during extreme rainfall (dry) events. A detailed investigation is carried out for extreme rainfall events over five different regions in Odisha. It reveals that the wind at 850 hPa, omega at 500 hPa, and SST play the important role for Region I, while OLR and omega at 500 hPa are dominating for the Region IV in the occurrence of extreme rainfall. Moreover, the role of the dominant climatic parameters for the extreme rainfall occurrence varies for the other three regions. Analysis confirms that the role of main meteorological parameters is statistically significant for the extreme rainfall events over the respective region. Although the Odisha is a small state in India, not only the long-term trend in extreme rainfall varies region-to-region but also responsible factors associated with the climatic conditions differ for the occurrence of the extreme rainfall.
Are there any interrelationships between black income and macroeconomic variables? This question is the main motivation behind this study. The study finds that black income in India influences her ...key macroeconomic variables such as the consumption, investment, interest rate and inflation rate. The Bounds test of Cointegration and the Vector Error Correction analysis done in the study demonstrate that black income and the mentioned macroeconomic variables are cointegrated. Besides, the study also demonstrates using Granger causality in a VARX framework that there are interrelationships between black income and the mentioned macroeconomic variables. Black income has lagged impact on itself and on investment. Increases in tax rate and government expenditure increase black income. One of the policy conclusions of the study is that black income should be factored-in in the macroeconomic policy formulation in India.
Severe respiratory failure develops in some infants with bronchiolitis because of a complex pathophysiologic process involving increased airways resistance, alveolar atelectasis, muscle fatigue, and ...hypoxemia due to mismatch between ventilation and perfusion. Nasal CPAP and high-flow nasal cannula (HFNC) oxygen may improve the work of breathing and oxygenation. Although the mechanisms behind these noninvasive modalities of respiratory support are not well understood, they may help infants by way of distending pressure and delivery of high concentrations of warmed and humidified oxygen. Observational studies of varying quality have suggested that CPAP and HFNC may confer direct physiologic benefits to infants with bronchiolitis and that their use has reduced the need for intubation. No trials to our knowledge, however, have compared CPAP with HFNC in bronchiolitis. Two randomized trials compared CPAP with oxygen delivered by low-flow nasal cannula or face mask and found some improvements in blood gas results and some physiologic parameters, but these trials were unable to demonstrate a reduction in the need for intubation. Two trials evaluated HFNC in bronchiolitis (one comparing it with headbox oxygen, the other with nebulized hypertonic saline), with the results not seeming to suggest important clinical or physiologic benefits. In this article, we review the pathophysiology of respiratory failure in bronchiolitis, discuss these trials in detail, and consider how future research studies may be designed to best evaluate CPAP and HFNC in bronchiolitis.
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