Ecological health assessment of the Ousteri wetland in India through synthesizing remote sensing and inventory data

Ousteri Lake is one of the important wetlands in India, harbouring many different types of flora and providing a suitable habitat for many different fauna, being declared as a sanctuary in October 2008. The National Wetland Conservation Program of Ministry of Environment and Forests identified Ousteri Lake as a nationally important wetland, and the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) named it an Important Bird Area (IBA). The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) also has identified this lake as a heritage site. The present study examined the state of environment in and around the Ousteri wetland, assessing the probable threats to the lake and its ecological environs. Ousteri Lake supports diverse rich and rare flora and fauna. Because of its extreme hydrological fluctuations over the annual cycle, the lake exhibits interesting patterns of flora and fauna. The north‐east monsoons leave the lake flooded during the winter months, while the scorching summers leave it totally dry. Ousteri Lake had been primarily used as a tank for irrigation purposes, with ~2,000 acres being cultivated. The main crop is paddy, and the only subsidiary is sugar cane. The natural vegetation, significantly altered by human activities, consists of over 220 species belonging to 63 families. The vegetation study conducted earlier have reported a total of 472 plant species, with the herbs being 40% of this total, followed by trees (21%). Other life forms in the lake are represented by less than 100 species. Ousteri Lake and its environs also provide a wide variety of habitat for many floral species, with 190 species being listed as least concern, 23 species as near threatened and 24 species as vulnerable, according to the IUCN Red List. About 14 floral species are being categorized as endemic. Further, about 202 fauna are listed as least concern, 13 species as near threatened, two species as vulnerable, three species as endangered and one as critically endangered. Moreover, five species are in an endemic category.     

A simple method to irradiate blood cells in vitro with radon gas

Surface dose monitoring in patients and physicians during 29 uterine artery embolisation (UAE) procedures was performed using photoluminescence dosemeters and thermo-luminescence dosemeters. Organ or tissue doses were measured with an anthropomorphic phantom using UAE exposure conditions averaged from the 29 cases, and effective doses were estimated for the patient. Entrance surface dose of the patients at the maximum dose position ranged from 121.5 to 1650 mGy. Estimated doses ranged from 3.16 to 43 mGy for the ovary and from 3.8 to 51.8 mGy for the uterus. The effective dose was 1.09-14.8 mSv. Monitored doses on the body surface of physicians were relatively high in the upper arm (5.41+/-1.52 to 163+/-17.25 microGy) and the hand and fingers (0.85+/-1.18 to 222+/-16.4 microGy).     

Antioxidant activity of some phenolic constituents from green pepper (Piper nigrum L.) and fresh nutmeg mace (Myristica fragrans)

Antioxidant potential of phenolic compounds from green pepper (Piper nigrum L.) and lignans from fresh mace (Myristica fragrans) were evaluated for their ability to scavenge 1,1′-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical, inhibit lipid peroxidation and protect plasmid DNA damage upon exposure to gamma radiation. EC₅₀ values of the major phenolic compounds of green pepper namely, 3,4-dihydroxyphenyl ethanol glucoside, 3,4-dihydroxy-6-(N-ethylamino) benzamide and phenolic acid glycosides were found to be 0.076, 0.27 and 0.12 mg/ml, respectively, suggesting a high radical scavenging activity of these phenolics. These results were further confirmed with cyclic voltammetry. Acetone extract of nutmeg mace and its subsequent TLC isolated fractions constituted mainly of lignans as revealed by GC–MS analysis. The major compounds were tentatively identified from their mass spectral fragmentation pattern. DPPH radical scavenging capacity of the acetone extract as well as its fractions was comparatively lower than that of green pepper phenolics. In contrast, these fractions had a greater ability to inhibit lipid oxidation than phenolics from pepper as revealed by β-carotene–linoleic acid assay. A DNA protecting role of these compounds even at doses as high as 5 kGy further suggested the potential use of green pepper and fresh nutmeg mace and their extracts as a nutraceutical in preventing oxidative damage to cells.     

EMG Based Control of Transhumeral Prosthesis Using Machine Learning Algorithms

This research presents work on control of a prosthetic arm using surface electromyography (sEMG) signals acquired from triceps and biceps of fifteen healthy and four amputated subjects. Myo armband was used to acquire sEMG signals corresponding to four different arm motions: elbow extension, elbow flexion, wrist pronation, and wrist supination. Ten time-domain features were extracted and considered for classification to recognize the four-arm motions. These features and their various combinations were used to train four different classifiers, in both offline and real-time settings. It was found that the combination of signal mean and waveform length as a feature and k-nearest neighbors as classifier performed significantly better (p < 0.05) than all other combinations in both offline and real-time settings. The offline accuracies of 95.8% and 68.1% and real-time accuracies of 91.9% and 60.1% were obtained for healthy and amputated subjects, respectively. Results obtained using the presented scheme successfully demonstrate that using suitable features and classifier, classification accuracies can be significantly improved for transhumeral prosthesis, thereby, providing better, wearable and non-invasive control of prostheses using sEMG signals.

     

EQUILIBRIUM AND KINETIC STUDIES FOR THE ADSORPTION OF MN(II) AND CO(II) FROM AQUEOUS MEDIUM USING AGAR–AGAR AS SORBENT

An extensive increase in industrial activities and environmental accidents in recent years have greatly contributed to increasing metal pollution in water resources, thereby causing threats to terrestrial as well as aquatic life. The toxicity of metal pollution is slow and long lasting, as these metal ions are nonbiodegradable. The most appropriate solution for controlling the biogeochemistry of metal contaminants to produce high-quality treated effluents from polluted wastewaters is sorption technique. Agar–agar, a readily available seaweed, was used as sorbent for the removal of Mn(II) and Co(II) from aqueous media. Batch experiments were performed to study adsorption as a function of process parameters: sorption time, initial pH, concentration of sorbate and sorbent. The Freundlich model fitted best with the experimental equilibrium data between the two adsorption isotherm models tested. The kinetic data correlated well with the Lagergren pseudo-second-order kinetic model for the sorption of both Mn(II) and Co(II) using agar–agar. Adsorbed metal ions were quantitatively recovered from the spent adsorbent using 5.0 mol L^?1 HCl. The efficiency of agar–agar for decontaminating Mn(II) and Co(II) from electroplating effluent has also been evaluated. The results proved agar–agar to be a favorable adsorbent to remove and recover Mn(II) and Co(II) from waste effluent for further use in diversified industrial applications.