Health Risk Assessment and Comparative Studies on Some Fish Species Cultured in Traditional and Biofloc Fish Farms.

The present study aimed at (a) determining the concentration of macro-minerals and toxic metals in fish species collected from biofloc and traditional fish farms; (b) assessing the contribution of macro-minerals to our daily diet; and (c) evaluating the health risks of children and adults based on the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) deterministic model. Significantly higher concentrations of macro-minerals and significantly lower levels of toxic metals (at < 0.05 level) were found in most of the biofloc fish species compared to the market fish samples. The values of the target hazard quotient (THQ) were less than 1.0 for all individual trace metals in all species, which indicated that there were no noncarcinogenic health risks. Furthermore, the value of the hazard index (HI) in three samples of Tilapia from the market exceeded the recommended value of 1.0, while all samples from the biofloc fish tank were within the maximum tolerable limit, which suggested that the daily consumption of Tilapia fishes from the market may result in considerable harmful effects. Target cancer risk (TCR) for Pb in all of the studied samples was within the range of 10-6 and 10-4, hence the adults and children would not experience any kinds of carcinogenic effects. The result obtained from this comparative study revealed that the consumption of fish species from both local market and biofloc fish farms was almost safe, but the value of TCR in Pb was higher in traditional fish samples than that of biofloc tanks, hence fish samples from biofloc farms were more suitable for consumption.

Synthesis of Magnetic Iron Oxide-Incorporated Cellulose Composite Particles: An Investigation on Antioxidant Properties and Drug Delivery Applications.

In recent years, polymer-supported magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (MIO-NPs) have gained a lot of attention in biomedical and healthcare applications due to their unique magnetic properties, low toxicity, cost-effectiveness, biocompatibility, and biodegradability. In this study, waste tissue papers (WTP) and sugarcane bagasse (SCB) were utilized to prepare magnetic iron oxide (MIO)-incorporated WTP/MIO and SCB/MIO nanocomposite particles (NCPs) based on in situ co-precipitation methods, and they were characterized using advanced spectroscopic techniques. In addition, their anti-oxidant and drug-delivery properties were investigated. Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses revealed that the shapes of the MIO-NPs, SCB/MIO-NCPs, and WTP/MIO-NCPs were agglomerated and irregularly spherical with a crystallite size of 12.38 nm, 10.85 nm, and 11.47 nm, respectively. Vibrational sample magnetometry (VSM) analysis showed that both the NPs and the NCPs were paramagnetic. The free radical scavenging assay ascertained that the WTP/MIO-NCPs, SCB/MIO-NCPs, and MIO-NPs exhibited almost negligible antioxidant activity in comparison to ascorbic acid. The swelling capacities of the SCB/MIO-NCPs and WTP/MIO-NCPs were 155.0% and 159.5%, respectively, which were much higher than the swelling efficiencies of cellulose-SCB (58.3%) and cellulose-WTP (61.6%). The order of metronidazole drug loading after 3 days was: cellulose-SCB < cellulose-WTP < MIO-NPs < SCB/MIO-NCPs < WTP/MIO-NCPs, whereas the sequence of the drug-releasing rate after 240 min was: WTP/MIO-NCPs < SCB/MIO-NCPs < MIO-NPs < cellulose-WTP < cellulose-SCB. Overall, the results of this study showed that the incorporation of MIO-NPs in the cellulose matrix increased the swelling capacity, drug-loading capacity, and drug-releasing time. Therefore, cellulose/MIO-NCPs obtained from waste materials such as SCB and WTP can be used as a potential vehicle for medical applications, especially in a metronidazole drug delivery system.

Effects of riverbank erosion on mental health of the affected people in Bangladesh.

BACKGROUND: In Bangladesh, riverbank erosion is a major problem that regularly displaces millions of people and affects their mental health every year. OBJECTIVES: The primary objective is to explore the effects of riverbank erosion on mental health problems such as depression, anxiety, and stress in Bangladesh. METHODS: We conducted a household survey from August 2019 to November 2019 on randomly selected adult respondents from Rajbari District located along the Ganges River and Tangail District located along the Brahmaputra River. The respondents were divided into two groups: exposed and non-exposed to riverbank erosion. All participants were asked to complete self-reported questionnaires on the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale-21, and other socio-demographic, economic and riverbanks erosion-related factors. We performed Chi-squared test and multiple logistic regression analysis to explore the significant risk factors (P<0.05) of mental illness (depression, anxiety and stress). RESULTS: We surveyed 611 households, of whom 410 were from Rajbari and 201 were from Tangail. Among 611 respondents, 509 (83.31%) were exposed by riverbank erosion whereas 102 (16.69%) were non-exposed. The prevalence of depression, anxiety and stress (DAS) was 38.30%, 76.60%, 32.41%, respectively, and they were significantly higher among the exposed group than the non-exposed group (depression: 45.19% versus 3.92%, P<0.001; anxiety: 82.71% versus 46.08%, P<0.001; stress: 38.11% versus 3.92%, P<0.001). The respondents exposed to river erosion were respectively 8.28, 2.26 and 5.09 times more likely to develop DAS disorder compared to their non-exposed counterparts (ORD = 8.28, 95% CI = 2.75-24.89; ORA = 2.26, 95% CI = 1.31-3.88; ORS = 5.09, 95% CI = 1.64-15.76). Females and those who lost their houses and displaced, were more likely to have DAS disorder compared to their respective counterparts. CONCLUSIONS: The exposed people were more likely to experience mental health problem and demand some social safety net programs with special focus on female and those who lost houses and displaced.