The present study was conducted on the river Yamuna, which passes through Delhi-NCR from Baghpat to Chhainssa, a distance of about 125 km, at six sampling locations to evaluate the concentrations of ...heavy metals in surface water using heavy metal pollution index (HPI) approach. The river serves both urban-industrial and rural areas in the study area; hence, domestic, industrial, and agricultural wastes are being contributed greatly in the contamination of river water. The Yamuna River is one of the major tributaries of the river Ganga originated in the Himalayas and is flowing through a varied geological terrain. Metals such as iron (Fe), copper (Cu), cobalt (Co), zinc (Zn), lead (Pb), cyanide (CN), nickel (Ni), and chromium (Cr) in selected sites of Yamuna River water were determined by using atomic absorption spectrophotometer. The concentrations of Fe, Cu, Co, Zn, Pb, CN, Ni, and Cr in the river water were found to be in the range of 40–190, 50–120, 4–66, 840–1800, 2–40, 100–600, 88–253, and 35–52 μg/L, respectively. The results show that the maximum heavy metal content was found at sampling site S3 (Nizamuddin) followed by S6 (Chhainssa), S4 (Okhla), S1 (Baghpat), S5 (Manjhawali), and S2 (Pachahira). The heavy metal data was integrated in GIS environment for preparing spatial distribution maps of sampling sites. A scatter plot matrix was created to assess the pattern and interrelationships between heavy metals. The average concentration of heavy metals was recorded high, often exceeding the permissible limits for drinking of surface water prescribed by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and World Health Organization (WHO). Based on HPI (varies from 98.2 to 555.1), about 85% of the river water was classified as highly polluted; hence, it is not recommended for drinking. Overall, significant variations were observed in concentrations of heavy metals from one location to the other which may be because of toxic industrial effluents and domestic sewage wastes being added to the river water by various anthropogenic activities in the study area. The present work highlights the pollution load of heavy metals in the river Yamuna and also advocates an urgent attention towards minimizing the health risk of people residing not only along the river banks and surrounding regions but also for city population.
The present research work was carried out to understand the influence of basin morphometric parameters on runoff potential in an ungauged basin using satellite images, topographical maps, and ...rainfall data combined with geospatial techniques. The upper Gosthani river basin is an ungauged basin which is located in the Eastern Ghats of Visakhapatnam District, Andhra Pradesh State, Southern India. The river Gosthani and its tributaries are draining through the basin area covering about 321.1 km
2
. The quantitative analysis of basin morphometry reveals that the area is under influenced by steep ground slopes, with moderate to less permeable rocks, leading to high runoff. The basin is elongated in shape resulting to flatter peak of flow for longer duration. The daily rainfall data during 2008–2016 were used in the estimation of runoff potential with the help of the Soil Conservation Service-Curve Number (SCS-CN) model. The weighted curve number was determined by the integration of land use and land cover, antecedent moisture condition, and hydrological soil groups. It was observed from the analysis that the overall increase in runoff corresponding to the rainfall. The area receives a good amount of rainfall, but most of it lost as surface runoff (nearly 40% of total rainfall) due to rapid overland flow and impermeable rocks. Analysis of morphometric parameters combined with SCS-CN-based approaches can be explored as an alternative for simulating the hydrological response of the basins.
This communication describes a synthetic study of the originally proposed structure of mycalol (1) and the total synthesis of the actual structure of the anticancer marine natural product mycalol ...(2). The total synthesis of the originally proposed structure of mycalol (1) was targeted by a late‐stage asymmetric dihydroxylation, which resulted in an inseparable mixture of diastereomers. Thus a new strategy was developed for the total synthesis of the revised structure of mycalol (2); all the stereocentres except the C‐2′‐OH were created in an asymmetric fashion by using a Maruoka allylation, a Noyori asymmetric reduction, and an asymmetric alkynylation.
The total synthesis of the anticancer marine natural product mycalol has been achieved using a Maruoka asymmetric allylation, a Noyori asymmetric reduction, an asymmetric alkynylation, and a zipper reaction as key steps.
Abstract
The present work was carried out in the deltaic region of the river Godavari in coastal Andhra Pradesh of southern India to evaluate the status of groundwater quality for irrigation. ...Groundwater is predominantly used in these productive agricultural fields. Saline water intrusion in fresh groundwater aquifers, which is mainly due to the excess withdrawal of groundwater, was recorded in the study area. A total of 80 groundwater samples were analyzed for physical and chemical parameters using standard chemical procedures. The groundwater mainly represents Na+–Cl− type, which shows the mixing of fresh water with saline water. The high correlation between Na+–Cl− and Mg2+–HCO3− explained that the intermixing of aquifer waters and the leaching of secondary salts influenced the region. Evaporation-fractional crystallizations are the main processes in the groundwater of the study area. The irrigation water quality index was calculated using different quality indices including Na%, sodium adsorption ratio, residual sodium bicarbonate (RSBC), permeability index (PI), magnesium hazard (MH), Kelly's ratio (KR), and potential salinity (PS), Cl−:HCO3−, Mg2+:Ca2+ and Na+:Ca2+ to estimate the suitability of groundwater quality for irrigation. Spatial distribution maps were prepared using raster interpolation in GIS. The assessment revealed that the areas covering 67.6% of electrical conductivity, 100% of total dissolved solids, 57.5% of Na%, 21.3% of RSBC, 66.3% of PI, 16.3% of MH, 65% of KR, and, 100% of PS required severe to moderate restrictions. Overall, the groundwater in the study region showed potential salinity due to geogenic and anthropogenic activities, and thus it must be monitored for sustainable agriculture.
Background and Aims: Thyromental height test (TMHT) is a recently described anatomical bedside screening tool in predicting difficult laryngoscopy. It has been shown to be more accurate than the ...modified Mallampati score, thyromental distance (TMD), and sternomental distance with regard to sensitivity and positive predictive value (PPV). Airway assessment studies based on the anatomic parameters of the upper airway are limited in the subcontinent population. We attempted this study to evaluate and validate the predictive value of TMHT at 50 mm in an Indian population in predicting difficult laryngoscopy. Methods: This prospective observational study was conducted in a tertiary teaching hospital on 340 patients. TMHT along with other bedside predictors of difficult intubation, including modified Mallampati score, interincisor gap (IIG), TMD, neck circumference (NC), and neck extension were assessed. We compared the sensitivity, specificity, PPV, negative predictive value (NPV), and diagnostic accuracy of TMHT with other bedside tests such as the modified Mallampati score, IIG, TMD, NC, and neck extension individually in predicting difficult laryngoscopy. Any Cormack and Lehane's intubation grade II b and above was considered to be difficult laryngoscopy. Results: TMHT had the highest sensitivity (84.62%) and specificity (98.97%), and had the most PPV (88%) and NPV (98.63%) when compared with the modified Mallampati score, IIG, TMD, NC, and neck extension. TMHT was followed by the modified Mallampati score and IIG. Conclusion: TMHT appears promising as a single anatomical measure to predict the risk of difficult laryngoscopy, however, validation will require further studies in more diverse patient populations.
The eustatic sea-level rise due to global warming is predicted to be about 18 to 59 cm by the 2100 (IPCC 2007), which necessitates identification and protection of vulnerable sections of coasts. ...Assessment of vulnerability level of Andhra Pradesh (AP) coast as an example is demonstrated in this study using five physical variables, namely coastal geomorphology, coastal slope, shoreline change, mean spring tide range, and significant wave height. A coastal vulnerability index was prepared by integrating the differentially weighted rank values of the five variables, based on which the coastline is segmented into low-, moderate-, high-, and very high risk categories. About 43% of the 1,030-km-long AP coast is under very high-risk, followed by another 35% under high-risk if the sea level rises by ~0.6 m displacing more than 1.29 million people living within 2.0 m elevation in 282 villages in the region.
The gadolinium (Gd
3+
)-doped SrBi
2
Nb
2
O
9
(SBN) ceramics with the chemical formula SrBi
2
−
x
Gd
x
Nb
2
O
9
(
x
= 0.0, 0.4, 0.6, and 0.8) have been prepared through traditional solid-state ...sintering method. X-ray diffraction reveals a single-phase-layered perovskite structure for all compositions with shrinkage of the unit cell of SBN. The plate-like morphology revealed from SEM is symbolic of the characteristic Aurivillius phase of ceramics. Shifting of Raman phonon modes indicates the reduced rattling space of NbO
6
octahedral with an increase in Gd concentration. The dielectric properties of all compositions are studied as a function of temperature (RT—500 °C) over the frequency range (50 Hz to 1 MHz). Softening the lowest frequency mode with increasing
x
in SBGN shows the transition from ferroelectric to paraelectric at room temperature (RT). The flattening of dielectric permittivity and low dielectric loss is observed in SBN and gadolinium-modified SBN (SBGN) ceramic samples at RT. The phase transition becomes diffused and transition temperature gets shifted from 430 to 330 °C with an increase in gadolinium concentration at higher frequencies. The increase in broadness with an increase in frequency suggests that the presentation materials are of ferroelectric relaxor type. The degree of relaxor behavior (γ) increases from 1.05 for
x
= 0.0 to 1.57 for
x
= 0.8. The relaxor behavior along with diffuseness was noticed in the fabricated ceramics.
Mitochondrial displacement loop (D-loop) is the hot spot for mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) alterations which influence the generation of cellular reactive oxygen species (ROS). Association of D-loop ...alterations with breast cancer has been reported in few ethnic groups; however none of the reports were documented from Indian subcontinent.
We screened the entire mitochondrial D-loop region (1124 bp) of breast cancer patients (n = 213) and controls (n = 207) of south Indian origin by PCR-sequencing analysis. Haplotype frequencies for significant loci, the standardized disequilibrium coefficient (D') for pair-wise linkage disequilibrium (LD) were assessed by Haploview Software.
We identified 7 novel mutations and 170 reported polymorphisms in the D-loop region of patients and/or controls. Polymorphisms were predominantly located in hypervariable region I (60%) than in II (30%) of D-loop region. The frequencies of 310'C' insertion (P = 0.018), T16189C (P = 0.0019) variants and 310'C'ins/16189C (P = 0.00019) haplotype were significantly higher in cases than in controls. Furthermore, strong LD was observed between nucleotide position 310 and 16189 in controls (D' = 0.49) as compared to patients (D' = 0.14).
Mitochondrial D-loop alterations may constitute inherent risk factors for breast cancer development. The analysis of genetic alterations in the D-loop region might help to identify patients at high risk for bad progression, thereby helping to refine therapeutic decisions in breast cancer.
The solution presented in this paper is useful for finding the stress distribution around holes in symmetric laminates as well as in isotropic plates and also to determine the failure strength of the ...laminate on first ply failure basis by Tsai-Hill, Hashin-Rotem and Tsai-Wu criteria. This is a one stop solution for all kinds of in-plane loading on symmetric laminates as well as isotropic plates with any shape of cutout. Using Savin’s basic solution for anisotropic plates, the stress functions are derived for generalized mapping function for the hole and arbitrarily oriented in-plane loading. Square and rectangular holes in symmetric laminates of Graphite/epoxy and Glass/epoxy are studied. It is noted that the maximum stress and its location is mainly influenced by the type of loading. Larger stresses are noted for shear loading. The stress results are also obtained by ANSYS for comparison.