Chitosan flakes-mediated diatom harvesting from natural water sources.

Diatom is a unicellular photosynthetic microalga that is found in diverse environments. These are decorated with siliceous cell walls called frustules. Diatoms have long been favoured by grazers such as microscopic protozoa and dinoflagellates. However, grazers typically remain intact in laboratory culturing and feed on diatom in culturing vessels and reducing biomass yield. The isolation and cultivation of diatoms in laboratories hamper diatoms' diversity and vast industrial potential. Chitosan, a biopolymer, has been widely used with other polyelectrolytes to flocculate various organic and inorganic colloids at acidic pH. Dissolved chitosan (acidic pH) has been used in various natural water samples and wastewater system for dewatering. However, untreated chitosan flakes have never been evaluated in a heterogeneous natural water environment. Since diatoms have silica surfaces, we tested chitosan for diatom separation and optimized chitosan concentration and other parameters to obtain grazer-free diatom starter culture from raw water. We also elucidated the mechanism for chitosan flakes-mediated diatom flocculation through adsorption kinetics and molecular dynamic simulation analysis. The results of this study are statistically optimized and validated, with a significant R2 value of 0.99 for the proposed model.

Assessing diatom distribution in Cambay Basin, Western Arabian Sea: impacts of oil spillage and chemical variables.

Freshwater and marine diatoms produce the majority of the oxygen in aquatic systems. Estimates range from 12,000 to 30,000 species, and spatial distribution varies globally. There is significant variation in diatom diversity based on geographical and environmental conditions as well as the physicochemical characteristics of the habitat. Therefore, understanding the underlying factors that contribute to changes in diatom community structures requires a comprehensive understanding of taxons. A study of diatom assemblages from the Cambay Basin, Western Arabian Sea, was conducted, particularly on oil fields. A total of 37 samples were collected; nine were from oil fields. We evaluated micro-oil spills using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) analysis and microscopic techniques. Correlations were established through the ordination analysis of pernicious physical and chemical water variables (BOD, COD, TDS, pH, temperature, and DO), including principal component analysis (PCA). The oil field sites showed more total dissolved solids (TDS) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) than the respective marine control sites. The study does not display a cause-and-effect relationship, but we observed a positive correlation between increasing silica concentrations and diatom growth in oil fields. In contrast, high aluminium concentrations in oil fields negatively impacted the growth of diatom assemblage and abundance. When surveyed in nine oil fields, we found that Gomphonella pseudosphaerophorum and Nitzschia palea are well adapted to oil concentrations up to 40 ppm.

The Study of the Prevalence of Knowledge and Vaccination Status of HPV Vaccine Among Healthcare Students at a Tertiary Healthcare Center in Western India.

Background: Cervical cancer is one of the most common vaccine-preventable cancers. An amalgamation of timely screening and vaccination is an effective strategy to combat the prevalence of cervical cancer. We sought to assess knowledge, awareness, and practices regarding HPV cancer, screening, and vaccination as these are the bases for developing attitudes and practices which, in the long run, shall change the culture of the community for primary prevention. Methodology: This was a cross-sectional study with an anonymous questionnaire to check knowledge, attitude, and practice toward cervical cancer and HPV vaccination. The study was conducted for MBBS, physiotherapy, and nursing students aged between 17 and 24 years across all years at Bhaikaka University, irrespective of gender. Prior consent from the participants was taken while filling out the questionnaire. Results: Out of 868 students, 76% responded. Females were double than males, and there is no statistical difference between them. Overall knowledge regarding cancer was > 80%, but screening knowledge was < 10%, and that regarding vaccination was around 50%. There is a visible statistical difference between MBBS and non-MBBS students. More than > 80% have positive attitudes toward HPV vaccination, but only 7.72% are vaccinated. 42.7% had accepted a lack of knowledge as the reason for not getting vaccinated. Conclusion: Partial knowledge and poor vaccination, even in advanced age and healthcare communities, suggest a strong need for community intervention at the early adolescent age by a multispecialty and multidisciplinary team. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13224-023-01891-4.

Investigation on anti-Corona viral potential of Yarrow tea.

Achillea millefolium (Yarrow) is a herbaceous plant of Greek origin noted to treat pneumonia, common cold, cough, and other respiratory disorders. The flowers and leaves are the core part used to prepare herbal tea that gains the world's recognition as medicinal tea. Coronavirus disease is spreading across the globe, and numerous approaches are lodged to treat virus-induced lung inflammation. Here, we used the network pharmacology, metabolite analysis, docking and molecular simulation and MM-PBSA analysis to comprehend the biochemical basis of the health-boosting impact of Yarrow tea. Next, we performed the microscopic and dynamic light scattering (DLS) analysis of yarrow-treated ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 to evaluate the virucidal activity of the Yarrow. The present study investigates the druggability, metabolites and potential interaction of the title tea with genes associated with Covid-19-induced pathogenesis. Towards this, 1022 gene hits were obtained, 30 are mutually shared. Network Pharmacology and microarray gene expression analysis find the connection of PTGS2 in relieving the virus-induced inflammation. Yarrow constituents Luteolin may inhibit or down-regulate the Cyclooxygenase II (PTGS2), a plausible mechanism underlying the Yarrow's anti-inflammatory actions. Further, the Yarrow's virucidal activity was assessed towards Transmission Electron Microscopic (TEM). The Yarrow treated SARS-nCoV-2 cell exhibits the disintegration of the virus membrane. This work provides a scientific basis for further elucidating the mechanism underlying Achillea millefolium's antiviral and anti-inflammatory properties.

Lower layers in the motor cortex are more effective targets for penetrating microelectrodes in cortical prostheses.

Improving cortical prostheses requires the development of recording neural interfaces that are efficient in terms of providing maximal control information with minimal interface complexity. While the typical approaches have targeted neurons in the motor cortex with multiple penetrating shanks, an alternative approach is to determine an efficient distribution of electrode sites within the layers of the cortex with fewer penetrating shanks. The objective of this study was to compare unit activity in the upper and lower layers of the cortex with respect to movement and direction in order to inform the design of penetrating microelectrodes. Four rats were implanted bilaterally with multi-site single-shank silicon microelectrode arrays in the neck/shoulder region of the motor cortex. We simultaneously recorded unit activity across all layers of the motor cortex while the animal was engaged in a movement direction task. Localization of the electrode array within the different layers of the cortex was determined by histology. We denoted units from layers 2 and 3 and units as upper layer units, and units from layers 5 and 6 as lower layer units. Analysis of unit spiking activity demonstrated that both the upper and lower layers encode movement and direction information. Unit responses in either cortical layer of the cortex were not preferentially associated with contralateral or ipsilateral movement. Aggregate analysis (633 neurons) and best session analysis (75 neurons) indicated that units in the lower layers (layers 5, 6) are more likely to encode direction information when compared to units in the upper layers (layers 2, 3) (p< 0.05). These results suggest that electrode sites clustered in the lower layers provide access to more salient control information for cortical neuroprostheses.

Laminar characterization of spiking activity in the rat motor cortex.

The neocortex is a six-layered tissue consisting of different cell types. How does unit activity in the different layers of the motor cortex relate to movement? Does implantation in a particular layer improve direction decoding ability for a neuroprosthetic device? We simultaneously recorded unit activity in different layers of the rat motor cortex using chronic multi-site silicon electrodes. We used a combination of histology and electrophysiological signatures of Local Field Potentials (LFPs) to accurately localize the electrode sites in the different layers of the cortex. We analyzed 142 units from two animals and found that 40 units (28%) in Layers II to V showed significant modulation with respect to movement. Of these units that showed significant modulation, 9/20 (45%) of units in Layers II/III encoded directional information as compared to 15/19 (79%) of the units in Layers IV/V. These preliminary results suggest that units in Layers IV/V relatively contain more directional information than other layers of the cortex.

Real-time Detection of Unitary Events For Cortical Control.

Traditional brain-machine interfaces have typically focused on methods that use rate-based codes as a source for control signals. Opposed to rate, timing of firing across different neurons and within each neuron could also provide information that can be used for controlling brain-machine interfaces or neuroprosthetic devices. Findings have indicated that synchronization of individual spike discharges may help serve the organization of cortical motor processes. We are investigating neural firing synchrony in the context of using it for real-time control for neuroprostheses systems. Our results with rats suggest that subjects can be trained to synchronize neural firing and increase unitary events i.e. spike coincidence patterns that are significantly above chance. Temporal coding methods could be used as additional or alternative cortical control signals for neuroprostheses and brain machine interfaces.