The retrospective data on childhood poisoning from eight regional hospitals in India has been reviewed. The demographic features and types of poisonings encountered have been compared. The analysis of the data indicated that pediatric poisonings constituted 0.23-3.3% of the total poisoning. The mortality ranged from 0.64-11.6% with highest being from Shimla. Accidental poisoning was common involving 50-90% of children below 5 years of age and males outnumbered the females. Suicidal poisoning was seen after 13 years of age and was due to drugs and household chemicals. One of the hospitals in Delhi recorded a very high incidence (66.6%) of drug poisoning in children. The drugs consumed belonged to phenothiazines, antiepileptics and antipyretics. Iron poisoning was seen in younger children. Kerosene was one of the causes of accidental poisoning at all hospitals except Shimla and rural Maharashtra were probably wood charcoal is widely used. Pesticide poisoning was more prevalent in Punjab and West Bengal whereas plant poisoning was very common in Shimla. Significant number of snake envenomation has been recorded from rural Maharashtra. Other less common accidental poisonings in children included alcohol, corrosives, heavy metals, rodenticides, detergents and disinfectants. Thus various regions in the country showed some variation in types and frequency of childhood poisoning which could be attributed to different geographical and socio-economic background.

Chitosan coated FeO NPs are effective antimicrobial agents and so may be developed as a microbial resistant coating for biomedical devices.

Alkalophilic Bacillus subtilis ASH produced high levels of xylanase using easily available inexpensive agricultural waste residues such as wheat bran, wheat straw, rice husk, sawdust, gram bran, groundnut and maize bran in solid-state fermentation (SSF). Among these, wheat bran was found to be best substrate. Xylanase production was highest after 72 h of incubation at 37°C and at a substrate to moisture ratio of 1:2 (w/v). The inoculum level of 15% resulted in maximum production of xylanase. The enzyme production was stimulated by the addition of nutrients such as yeast extract, peptone and beef extract. In contrast, addition of glucose and xylose repressed the production of xylanase. The extent of repression by glucose (10%, w/v) was 81% and it was concentration-dependent. Supplementation of the medium with 4% xylose caused 59% repression. Under optimized conditions, xylanase production in SSF (8,964 U of xylanase/g dry wheat bran) was about twofold greater than in submerged fermentation. Thus, B. subtilis produced a very high level of xylanase in SSF using inexpensive agro-residues, a level which is much higher than that reported by any other bacterial isolate.Furthermore, the enzyme was produced at room temperature and with tap water without the addition of any mineral salt in SSF, leading to a marked decrease in the cost of xylanase production, which enhances its industrial potential.

The present study describes the one-step purification and characterization of an extracellular cellulase-free xylanase from a newly isolated alkalophilic and moderately thermophilic strain of Bacillus subtilis ASH.Xylanase was purified to homogeneity by 10.5-fold with ~43% recovery using ion-exchange chromatography through CM-Sephadex C-50. The purified enzyme revealed a single band on SDS-PAGE gel with a molecular mass of 23 kDa. It showed an optimum pH at 7.0 and was stable over the pH range 6.0-9.0. The optimum temperature for enzyme activity was 55 °C. The purified xylanase did not lose any activity up to 45 ºC, however, it retained 80% and 51% of its activity after pre-incubation at 55 ºC and 60 ºC, respectively. The enzyme obeyed Michaelis-Menton kinetics towards birch wood xylan with apparent K m 3.33 mg/ml and V max 100 IU/ml. The enzyme was strongly inhibited by Hg 2+ and Cu 2+ while enhanced by Co 2+ and Mn 2+. The purified enzyme could be stored at 4 ºC for six weeks without any loss of catalytic activity. The faster and economical purification of the cellulase-free xylanase from B. subtilis ASH by onestep procedure together with its appreciable stability at high temperature and alkaline pH makes it potentially effective for industrial applications.

No abstract

The subject of environmental economics is at the forefront of the green debate: the environment can no longer be viewed as an entity separate from the economy. Environmental degradation is of many types and have many consequences. To address this challenge a number of studies have been conducted in both developing and developed countries applying different methods to capture health benefits from improved environmental quality. Minimizing exposure to environmental risk factors by enhancing air quality and access to improved sources of drinking and bathing water, sanitation and clean energy is found to be associated with significant health benefits and can contribute significantly to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals of environmental sustainability, health and development. In this paper, I describe the national and global causes and consequences of environmental degradation and social injustice. This paper provides a review of the literature on studies associated with reduced environmental risk and in particular focusing on reduced air pollution, enhanced water quality and climate change mitigation.

A field experiment was undertaken to evaluate the effect of conservation agriculture (CA) based management on soil biological properties, and on fungal diversity and abundance after 5 years of continuous cultivation. Treatments included four crop managements viz., conventional tillage (CT) rice-wheat (CT-RW; CT based), conventional tillage rice-zero tillage wheat and mungbean (CTR-ZTWMb; partially CA based), zero tillage rice-wheat-mungbean (ZT-RWMb; full CA based), and zero tillage maize-wheatmungbean (ZT-MWMb; full CA based). Full rice, maize, and mungbean crop residue and anchored wheat residue were recycled in CA-based managements, while CT-based management was without any residue. Full CA-based management (ZT-MWMb) recorded 43% higher organic carbon, 56% microbial biomass carbon, 70% microbial biomass nitrogen, 73% phosphatase activity, and 40% β-glucosidase activity, than CT-RW management. Ascomycota (55-74%) was the dominant phylum followed by Basidiomycota and Glomeromycota (0 to 3%); abundance of these phyla varied amongst managements. Ascomycota abundance was in order of CT-RW< CTR-ZTWMb< ZT-RWMb< ZT-MWMb, however, Basidiomycota and Glomeromycota did not follow any trend. Diversity indices such as species richness, evenness and Shannon-Wiener diversity index were in the order: ZT-MWMb> ZT-RWMb> CTR-ZTWMb> CT-RW. This study clearly showed that CA with all three proven principles (no-tillage, residue retention and crop diversification) in maize-wheat-mungbean system resulted in higher microbial activities, fungal diversity and species richness compared to other cereal based management systems.

This study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of purified free and immobilized xylanase in enrichment of fruit juices. Extracellular xylanase produced from Bacillus pumilus VLK-1 was purified to apparent homogeneity by 15.4-fold with 88.3 % recovery in a single step using CMSephadex C-50. Purified xylanase showed a single band on SDS-polyacrylamide gel with a molecular mass of 22.0 kDa. The purified enzyme was immobilized on glutaraldehydeactivated aluminum oxide pellets and the immobilization process parameters were optimized statistically through response surface methodology. The bound enzyme displayed an increase in optimum temperature from 60 to 65ºC and pH from 8.0 to 9.0. The pH and temperature stability of the enzyme was also enhanced after immobilization. It could be reused for 10 consecutive cycles with 58 % residual enzyme activity. The potential of purified xylanase (free and immobilized) in juice enrichment from grape (Vitis amurensis) and orange (Citrus sinensis) pulps has been investigated. The optimization of this process using free xylanase revealed maximum juice yield, clarity and reducing sugar on treatment with 20 IU/g fruit pulp for 30 min at 50ºC. Treatment of both the fruit pulps with xylanase under optimized conditions resulted in an increase in juice yield, clarity, reducing sugars, titratable acidity, and filterability but a decline in turbidity and viscosity. Immobilized enzyme was more effective in improving juice quality as compared to its soluble counterpart. The results showed B. pumilus VLK-1 xylanase, in both free and immobilized form, as a potential candidate for use in fruit juice enrichment.