Influence of air quality on the composition of microbial pathogens in fresh rainwater.

In this study, the microbiological quality of fresh rainwater was assessed from 50 rain events under tropical weather conditions for a year. The levels of four major opportunistic waterborne pathogens, namely, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Aeromonas hydrophila, in rainwater samples were quantified by using a robust and sensitive quantitative PCR (qPCR) method. Of the 50 rainwater samples, 25 were found to be positive for at least one pathogen: 21 for E. coli, 16 for P. aeruginosa, 6 for K. pneumoniae, and 1 for A. hydrophila. In addition to the microbiological assessment of rainwater samples, we also studied the influence of prevailing air quality on the microbial quality of rainwater over the sampling period. A significant change in the diversity and relative abundance of the basic microbial indicator organisms in rainwater was observed during a major regional air pollution episode in Southeast Asia due to biomass-burning emissions.

Spectrum of urogenital tumors in males in Sub-Himalayan region: An institutional experience.

AIMS: The clinical presentation and frequency of urogenital tumors varies in different regions of the world. This study was undertaken to analyze the frequency, clinical presentation, and the histopathological spectrum of the various male urogenital tumors diagnosed over a period of 3 years in a tertiary care institute. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Three-year data were collected from the histopathology laboratory, which included all the cases of male urogenital tumors which were diagnosed histopathologically between November 2012 and October 2015. RESULTS: A total of 10,297 surgical specimens of male patients were received in 3 years, of which 1749 were tumors of various organs in males. Of 1749 surgical specimens, 455 were genitourinary tumors. Frequency of urogenital tumors in males was 13.05%. Malignant tumors comprised the majority (99.53%). The age of the patients ranged from 19 to 98 years. The maximum number of patients was in the 5th-7th decade and the mean age of presentation was 64 years. Urinary bladder was the most common site for urogenital tumors (61.09%), with urothelial carcinoma being the most common histological type. Prostatic adenocarcinoma, renal cell carcinoma, and penile squamous cell carcinoma accounted for a significant number of cases. Testicular tumors were the least common and included predominantly mixed germ cell tumors. CONCLUSION: This study can be taken as a small step toward making the registry of patients with urogenital tumors providing valuable information regarding the frequency, clinical presentation, and histological spectrum. Large population-based studies for a longer duration of time across both males and females are needed in the ever-changing trends of urogenital tumors.

Bone Marrow Disease Profile in Geriatric Patients: An Institutional Experience.

Bone marrow examination is integral to the diagnosis of hematological and many non-hematologic disorders. With increase in the elderly population, rise in the incidence of age-related health conditions is being observed. There are few published studies on the disorders involving the bone marrow exclusively in the geriatric age group. We studied the bone marrow profile in the elderly age group (60 years and above) over a period of 1 year using bone marrow aspiration and biopsy. Anemia was the most frequently diagnosed entity followed by multiple myeloma and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Cases of leukemia, primary myelofibrosis and metastatic carcinoma were also encountered. Bone marrow aspiration and biopsy were found to be complementary.

Cytological diagnosis of xanthogranulomatous appendicitis.

Xanthogranulomatous reaction can occur in any organ but the most common sites are kidney and gallbladder. Xanthogranulomatous appendicitis (XA) is a rare clinical entity. There are a few case reports of XA diagnosed on histopathology but none on cytology. Here we report a case of a 47-year-old lady who presented with acute abdomen and was found to have a mass lesion in the right iliac fossa. She was diagnosed with XA intraoperatively on imprint cytology that was subsequently confirmed on histopathological examination. Due to the rarity of XA itself and the use of imprint cytology for intraoperative diagnosis the case is being presented.

Cutaneous metastasis of renal cell carcinoma masquerading as scrotal growth.

Cutaneous metastases are an uncommon manifestation of visceral malignancy. We report a case of a 56-year-old male who presented with an ulcerated scrotal mass and inguinal swelling on the left side. Fine needle aspiration from both the sites revealed deposits of renal cell carcinoma though the patient had no urologic symptoms. Subsequent work-up revealed a renal mass. This case emphasizes the importance of keeping renal cell carcinoma as differential in cases who present with cutaneous metastases.

Food waste-to-energy conversion technologies: current status and future directions.

Food waste represents a significantly fraction of municipal solid waste. Proper management and recycling of huge volumes of food waste are required to reduce its environmental burdens and to minimize risks to human health. Food waste is indeed an untapped resource with great potential for energy production. Utilization of food waste for energy conversion currently represents a challenge due to various reasons. These include its inherent heterogeneously variable compositions, high moisture contents and low calorific value, which constitute an impediment for the development of robust, large scale, and efficient industrial processes. Although a considerable amount of research has been carried out on the conversion of food waste to renewable energy, there is a lack of comprehensive and systematic reviews of the published literature. The present review synthesizes the current knowledge available in the use of technologies for food-waste-to-energy conversion involving biological (e.g. anaerobic digestion and fermentation), thermal and thermochemical technologies (e.g. incineration, pyrolysis, gasification and hydrothermal oxidation). The competitive advantages of these technologies as well as the challenges associated with them are discussed. In addition, the future directions for more effective utilization of food waste for renewable energy generation are suggested from an interdisciplinary perspective.

Evaluation of AgNORs in pulmonary lesions: a cyto-histopathological correlation.

Silver nucleolar organizer regions (AgNORs) were studied in one hundred specimens of endobronchial brushings. Bronchial biopsies were also obtained from these one hundred cases and subjected to AgNOR staining. These included twenty histologically normal cases, ten cases of inflammatory pathology and seventy cases of pulmonary neoplasms. Fixed cytologic smears and three micron thick sections of paraffin embedded tissue were subjected to AgNOR staining. The mean AgNOR counts in bronchial tissue showed a progressive and statistically significant increase from normal, through inflammatory to neoplastic lesions in both cytologic smears and histopathologic specimens. The AgNOR technique is simple, inexpensive and a useful adjunct to routine histopathology, to evaluate pulmonary lesions. The counts, however, cannot be standardized for a particular lesion as there are inter-laboratory variations.

AgNOR counts in cervical lesions.

Present study was undertaken with a view to assess the utility of AgNOR counts in differentiating cervical lesions. One hundred cases of cervical lesions including normal, chronic cervicitis, CIN (I, II, III) and carcinoma were taken up for study during the period December 1995 to November 1996. Three micron thick sections of paraffin were subjected to AgNOR staining as described by Crocker and Smith with a little modification of 0.01% safranin counterstain. Statistical counts of AgNORs were done. The mean AgNOR counts in cervical epithelium showed a progressive and statistically significant increase from normal to chronic cervicitis to CIN, I, II and III (P<0.001). Scores in carcinoma also exceeded that of CIN (P<0.05). This can prove to be a useful adjunct to routine histopathology to evaluate cervical lesions.

A comparative toxicity evaluation of Escherichia coli-targeted ssDNA and chlorine in HepG2 cells.

In this study, a comparative assessment of the effectiveness of ssDNA and chlorine as disinfectants for treating water contaminated with Escherichia coli (E. coli) was investigated on the basis of cytotoxicity and genotoxicity. The gene targets addressed for the ssDNA based inhibition method were marA (multiple antibiotic resistance) and groL (essential gene Hsp60) in E. coli. Based on the maximum log reduction in E. coli cell numbers when compared to no ssDNA control, groL-1 was chosen as the optimized ssDNA for gene silencing-based inactivation. For toxicity assessment, HepG2 cells were exposed to extracts corresponding to concentrations of 0.2, 1, 5, 25 and 50 mL water/mL medium of chlorine doped water and 1, 10, 100, 300 nM of ssDNA. Compared with ssDNA, HepG2 cells exposed to extracts of chlorine doped water for 24 h showed higher cytotoxicity, caspase 3/7 levels, DNA damage, micronuclei frequency, and decreased cell viability. Water doped with chlorine was found to be more toxic than that by ssDNA when exposed to HepG2 cells. The results of this study provide a scientific basis for comparative evaluation of new and conventional disinfection methods by taking into consideration the outcome of cytotoxicity and genotoxicity assessments.

Microbial quality and phylogenetic diversity of fresh rainwater and tropical freshwater reservoir.

The impact of rainwater on the microbial quality of a tropical freshwater reservoir through atmospheric wet deposition of microorganisms was studied for the first time. Reservoir water samples were collected at four different sampling points and rainwater samples were collected in the immediate vicinity of the reservoir sites for a period of four months (January to April, 2012) during the Northeast monsoon period. Microbial quality of all fresh rainwater and reservoir water samples was assessed based on the counts for the microbial indicators: Escherichia coli (E. coli), total coliforms, and Enterococci along with total heterotrophic plate counts (HPC). The taxonomic richness and phylogenetic relationship of the freshwater reservoir with those of the fresh rainwater were also assessed using 16 S rRNA gene clone library construction. The levels of E. coli were found to be in the range of 0 CFU/100 mL-75 CFU/100 mL for the rainwater, and were 10-94 CFU/100 mL for the reservoir water. The sampling sites that were influenced by highway traffic emissions showed the maximum counts for all the bacterial indicators assessed. There was no significant increase in the bacterial abundances observed in the reservoir water immediately following rainfall. However, the composite fresh rainwater and reservoir water samples exhibited broad phylogenetic diversity, including sequences representing Betaproteobacteria, Alphaproteobacteria, Gammaproteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Lentisphaerae and Bacteriodetes. Members of the Betaproteobacteria group were the most dominant in both fresh rainwater and reservoir water, followed by Alphaproteobacteria, Sphingobacteria, Actinobacteria and Gammaproteobacteria.

Enzyme-assisted hydrothermal treatment of food waste for co-production of hydrochar and bio-oil.

Food waste was subjected to enzymatic hydrolysis prior to hydrothermal treatment to produce hydrochars and bio-oil. Pre-treatment of food waste with an enzyme ratio of 1:2:1 (carbohydrase:protease:lipase) proved to be effective in converting food waste to the two products with improved yields. The carbon contents and calorific values ranged from 43.7% to 65.4% and 17.4 to 26.9 MJ/kg for the hydrochars obtained with the enzyme-assisted pre-treatment, respectively while they varied from 38.2% to 53.5% and 15.0 to 21.7 MJ/kg, respectively for the hydrochars obtained with no pre-treatment. Moreover, the formation of carbonaceous microspheres with low concentrations of inorganic elements and diverse surface functional groups was observed in the case of enzyme-assisted food waste hydrochars. The enzymatic pre-treatment also facilitated the formation of the bio-oil with a narrow distribution of organic compounds and with the highest yield obtained at 350 °C.

Discrimination of viable from non-viable gram-negative bacterial pathogens in airborne particles using propidium monoazide-assisted qPCR.

The presence of bacterial pathogens in airborne particulate matter (PM) has been of considerable concern from the public health standpoint. Conventional culture-based methods are tedious, time consuming and are unable to quantify stressed viable but non-culturable (VBNC) populations of these pathogens. This study reports the optimization, validation and application of a new and rapid quantitative method for enumeration of four live potential Gram-negative bacterial pathogens (Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Aeromonas hydrophila) in PM of biomass burning origin. This method makes use of an intercalating dye (propidium monoazide, PMA) in conjunction with real-time PCR (qPCR) analysis following DNA extraction from PM samples for distinguishing viable from non-viable potential bacterial pathogens. This method was not affected by the complex matrix of the environmental samples, nor by any PCR inhibition effects. The number of viable pathogens ranged from 0 to 8×10(4) gene copies/m(3) in PM. With the exception of A. hydrophilia, all the three pathogens were found to be present in PM. The correlation between the counts obtained using the PMA-qPCR (modified qPCR) and those from the culture-based method was very high with R(2)~1.0 and p value<0.0001.

Cytological diagnosis of lepromatous leprosy: A report of two cases with review of literature.

The "gold standard" for the diagnosis and classification of leprosy to date, is histological examination of skin biopsy in correlation with the bacteriological indices. These are, however, time-consuming. An attempt was made to diagnose leprosy using fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) which is a simple, safe, cost-effective and time-saving procedure with minimal trauma and complications. This case report highlights the role of FNAC in rapid diagnosis and early management, in patients of leprosy.