The sunshine under our skin: public knowledge and practices about vitamin D deficiency in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates.

This cross-sectional study among members of public showed that people generally had good knowledge and awareness about vitamin D. However, inconsistencies between awareness and attitudes were observed. Our findings reinforce the need of educating people to improve attitude and practices toward vitamin D consumption. INTRODUCTION: Owing to its hot and dry climate, United Arab Emirates (UAE) is one of the top ranked vitamin D deficient countries. However, little is known about people's awareness surrounding this topic. METHODS: A descriptive cross-sectional survey to assess people's knowledge, awareness, and attitude toward vitamin D deficiency was conducted in Al Ain city of UAE. A 25-item validated self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection. Differences among demographic groups were analyzed using chi-square test, and simple binary logistic regressions were used to investigate the association between vitamin D awareness and other significant risk factors. RESULTS: More than 90% of the total 346 participants showed awareness toward vitamin D and its deficiency. Doctors were reported as the most common source of information. More than one-third of the participants claimed to have vitamin D deficiency with significantly more females than males. More than 70% of the sample considered sunlight as the best source of vitamin D and avoiding going out in sun as the major risk for vitamin D deficiency. Nearly half (43%) of the participants did not consume milk and only 24% claimed to be using vitamin D supplements. Females were found to be applying sunscreen and consuming vitamin supplements significantly more than their male counterparts. Participants aged 24-35 years, having bachelor degree and those who were tested for vitamin D, were found to score better for awareness questions. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings demonstrate a mismatch between knowledge and awareness, and attitude implying the need of educating people to improve their attitude toward consuming vitamin D rich food and supplements.

Chitosan-alginate immobilized lipase based catalytic constructs: Development, characterization and potential applications.

In this study, lipase (LIP) was isolated from Aspergillus crevinus, statistically optimized and purified via ammonium sulfate fractionation (ASF), and Sephadex G-100 gel permeation chromatography. LIP was 2.26-folds purified with a specific activity of 223.60 U/mg. The molecular mass was estimated to be 60 kDa on sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (5% stacking and a 12% resolving gel) (SDS-PAGE). The active LIP fraction was immobilized onto chitosan-alginate (CTS-ALG) beads developed in a uniform size, i.e., 2.0 ±â€¯0.25 mm diameter using ultrasonically dispersed 2.0% (w/v) chitosan and alginate along with 0.5% (w/v) glutaraldehyde as a macromolecular crosslinking agent. Prior to exploit for detergent compatibility and dehairing purposes, various parameters including pH, thermal, Michaelis-Menten kinetic constants and influence of organic/inorganic and metal ions on PF-LIP and CST-ALG-LIPs fractions were investigated. The immobilized fractions were optimally active and stable over a broader pH (5-11) and temperature (75 °C) as compared to the free counterpart pH (7-8) and temperature (35 °C), respectively. However, the negligible difference between the KM and Vmax values of PF-LIP i.e., 0.133 ±â€¯0.05 mg/mL and 255.0 ±â€¯11.8 U/mL/min and CST-ALG-LIPs revealed that the conformational flexibility of LIP was retained as such. Comparative to PF-LIP, the CTS-ALG-LIPs were found much stable and retained most of their activity up to 80% in the presence of inhibitory molecules. After 75 min incubation, CTS-ALG-LIP3 retained >95% activity at pH 9.0 which was reduced to 80% at pH 10.0 and 44% at pH 11.0. Among all three samples, 100% dehairing was observed when the sheepskin was dipped for 30 min in CTS-ALG-LIP3. The dehairing of leather (sheepskin) was greatly affected by CTS-ALG-LIP3 rendering its potential candidatures for leather and tannery industry.