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An eco-efficient protocol towards the synthesis of highly substituted bio-active pyrrolidine-2-one derivatives was demonstrated using β-cyclodextrin, a water-soluble supramolecular catalyst at room temperature under water–ethanol solvent medium.

The length-weight relationships of five fishes: Mystus tengara, Mystus bleekeri, Ailia coila, Aspidoparia jaya, and Cabdio morar of Koshi River, Bihar, India, were estimated. The study is the first report on the LWR of these five species from Koshi River, Bihar. The relationships were calculated using the formula: Log W = Log a + b Log L and length-weight parameters (“a” and “b”), and coefficients of determination (r2) were determined. The regression coefficient (b) values are 2.51, 3.38, 1.93, 2.62, and 2.63 for Mystus tengara, Mystus bleekeri, Ailia coila, Aspidoparia jaya, and Cabdio morar specimens, respectively.

Aquaculture is an important source of income, employment, and nutrition in rural areas. An integrated fish farming system is very much beneficial for farmers. Technology is climate resilient and supports good income compared to crop production and fish farming alone. It is efficient in providing regular income and recycling agricultural waste. Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Supaul, conducted the study in NICRA village Sadanandpur to estimate fish production, disease occurrence, and economic profitability of the integrated fish farming system. The generated data were used to calculate the gross return, net return, and ultimate B: C ratio; the integrated fish farming system witnessed higher fish production and economic return. The B: C ratio of paddy, wheat, fish, and integrated farming system are 2.7, 1.78, 3.7, and 4.3, respectively. Thus, farmers can get a higher financial return by adopting an integrated fish farming system with a complete package and practice.

An environmentally sustainable, green synthesis of thioamide through multi-component reaction (MCR) of aldehyde, amine and sulphur catalyzed by Humic acid in solvent-free condition at 100 oC. The key features of this protocol are use of humic acid, a greener, easily recyclable, easily available and almost unexplored catalyst and circumvention of noxious solvents that amplify the scope of the reaction. The proposed protocol also possesses tolerance to aromatic as well as aliphatic aldehydes and amines comprising variety electron donating and withdrawing functional groups.

Enzymes are proteins that functions as biological catalyst. It is now a known fact that enzyme can catalyze many synthetic operations better than the conventional reagents. Not only in the synthesis of natural products, they can also be applied for construction of varieties of unnatural compounds. In this chapter, Pariyar and Ghosh have discussed in brief synthesis of various biologically active heterocyclic compounds using different enzymes as catalysts. Among various enzymes, laccases, trypsin, α-amylase and Bakers’ yeast are few that are easily available and have been extensively explored for various synthetic strategies. This chapter will definitely serve as valuable source of information to the readers in the field of enzyme-catalyzed reactions.

Tobacco users are exposed to a higher risk of noncommunicable diseases, leading to premature mortality and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs). The future prediction indicates that tobacco-related mortality and morbidity rates will substantially increase in coming years. The study is aimed at assessing the prevalence of tobacco consumption and cessation attempts for different tobacco products among adult men in India. The study utilized information from India’s latest National Family Health Survey-5 (NFHS-5) data which was conducted during 2019-21, including 988,713 adult men aged 15 years and above and 93,144 men aged 15-49. Results suggest that 38 percent of men consume tobacco, including 29% in urban and 43% in rural areas. Among the men aged 35-49 years, the odds were significantly higher for consuming any form of tobacco (AOR: 7.36, CI: 6.72-8.05), smoking cigarettes (AOR: 2.56, CI: 2.23-2.94), and smoking bidi (AOR: 7.12, CI: 4.75-8.82) as compared to those aged 15-19. The application of multilevel model indicates that tobacco usages are not evenly distributed. In addition, there is maximum clustering of tobacco usages found around household level factors. Further, 30% of men aged 35-49 years attempted to stop consuming tobacco. Though 27% of men tried to quit tobacco in the last 12 months and 69% of men are exposed to secondhand smoke, 51% of men who received advice for quitting tobacco and visited the hospital in the last 12 months belong to the lowest wealth quintile. These findings prioritize promoting awareness about adverse effects of tobacco use, especially in rural areas, and capacitate them to adopt cessation efforts so that those who want to quit may be successful in their efforts. In addition, the health system’s response to the tobacco epidemic in the country should be strengthened by training of service providers to promote cessation efforts through appropriate counselling of all the patients visiting them in the context of tobacco use in any form as key drivers of the increasing burden of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) in the country.

Age misreporting is a common phenomenon in Demographic and Health Surveys, and there are numerous reasons for this. The trend and pattern of disparity in age heaping vary between countries. The present study assesses age heaping in the selected South Asian countries of Afghanistan, India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan using data from the most recent round of the Demographic and Health Survey. The respondent sample sizes were 203,703 for Afghanistan, 2,869,043 for India, 49,064 for Nepal, 81,618 for Bangladesh and 100,868 for Pakistan. Age heaping was assessed by respondent’s age, education level, sex and level of education. Whipple’s index was calculated to assess systematic heaping on certain ages as a result of digit preference. Bangladesh, Afghanistan and India showed stronger preference for ages ending with the digits ‘0’ and ‘5’ compared with Pakistan and Nepal among uneducated respondents. On the other hand, strong avoidance of ages ending in the digits ‘1’, ‘4’ and ‘9’ was observed in Bangladesh, Afghanistan and India. However, urban–rural place of residence was not found to be associated with digit preference in the study countries. Among males, age misreporting with the final digits ‘0’ and ‘5’ was highest in Bangladesh, followed by Afghanistan and India, and Nepal showed the least displacement. Strong digit preference and avoidance, and upper age displacement, were witnessed in the surveys conducted in Bangladesh, Afghanistan and India on the parameters of sex and education level. Innovative methods of data collection with the measurement and minimization of errors using statistical techniques should be used to ensure accuracy of age data.

OBJECTIVES To describe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)–related pediatric hospitalizations during a period of B.1.617.2 (Δ) variant predominance and to determine age-specific factors associated with severe illness. METHODS We abstracted data from medical charts to conduct a cross-sectional study of patients aged RESULTS Of 947 hospitalized patients, 759 (80.1%) had COVID-19, of whom 287 (37.8%) had severe illness. Factors associated with severe illness included coinfection with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) (PR 3.64) and bacteria (PR 1.88) in infants; RSV coinfection in patients aged 1 to 4 years (PR 1.96); and obesity in patients aged 5 to 11 (PR 2.20) and 12 to 17 years (PR 2.48). Having ≥2 underlying medical conditions was associated with severe illness in patients aged CONCLUSIONS Among patients hospitalized for COVID-19, factors associated with severe illness included RSV coinfection in those aged

β-Cyclodextrin, a green and widespread supramolecular catalyst, has been explored as a highly proficient promoter for the metal-free one-pot multi-component synthesis of a vast range of highly functionalized bioactive heterocyclic moiety, 2-amino-4,6-diphenylnicotinonitriles and 2,3-dihydroquinazolin-4(1H)-one, from easily available precursor aldehydes. The main endeavor of these protocols is to explore this organic supramolecule in one-pot multi-component synthesis. Absence of metal catalyst or toxic acid and harsh reaction conditions, excellent functional group tolerance, inexpensive, greener and environmentally safe protocol are the key advantages of this work.

The present study was undertaken to know the effect of common mixed pulp and paper mill effluent discharge released from century pulp and paper mill Lalkuan, Nainital Uttarakhand on the blood morphology of Heteropneustes fossilis (Singhi). The various morphological changes were observed in the specimen, randomly collected with the help of cast net from (3 sites) different locations. The maximum changes were observed in the specimen collected from site 3 in compare to site 1 and 2 respectively. The formation of inclusion bodies, sickle cells, Cabot rings and ovalocytes were recorded along with nuclear fusion, membrane disruption and cell clumping of blood cells in the specimen collected from the site 3 (i.e. nearer to source of discharge) while in the specimen collected from site 2, the formation of tear drop cell, target cells, spherocytes and bi-nucleated cells were recorded along with the activity of cell clumping. The changes were found less in the specimen collected from site 1 in compare to the specimen of site 2 and 3 i.e. formation of ovalocytes, spherocytes and microcytes with the activity of membrane degeneration and agglutination in blood cells.

Occupational health covers all aspects of health and safety in the workplace and has a strong focus on primary prevention of hazards. The objective of the study was to understand the extent of awareness about occupational health risks involved in tannery occupation and adopted preventive measures by the tannery workers of Kanpur, India. Information for the present research was strained from a cross-sectional household study of tannery workers in the Jajmau area of Kanpur. The survey was piloted through the period January–June 2015, and 284 samples were collected. The prevalence of awareness of tannery work is very hazardous in nature varies from 73–93% among the tannery workers. Tannery workers having a middle-school level of education were 3.01 times more likely to be aware of the hazards as compared to the illiterate workers. Tannery workers aged 36 and above were less likely to aware of a hazardous work environment. Further, tannery workers who belong to the younger cohort (16–24 years) reported a higher awareness of respiratory problems (38%), skin complaints (59%), and gastrointestinal issues (21%) than those aged 36 years and above. About one-third of Beam house workers (33%) and over a quarter (26%) of the wet finishing had moderate to high dermal contact with the chemicals. The study’s outcomes give a clear indication of the effect of the workstation environment on the health status of workers and require the use of adequate measures to improve the facilities and thereby the health status of tannery workers.

In recent decades, air pollution has become a real threat to the lives and health of populations around the world. Today, about 92% of the world’s population lives in areas with low air quality standards. In India, in particular, air pollution is one of the main causes of respiratory and allergic diseases, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, pneumonia, and even tuberculosis. The purpose of this study is to analyze the extent of the spread of respiratory diseases in people living near the leather manufacturing industry in Jammu, Kanpur, India. The source of information is a cross-sectoral survey of male workers from the Jammu area, for which a three-stage sampling model is used. The study area selected areas of Bujiat, Motinagar, and Asharfabad because of the high concentration of the population employed in leather processing plants. During the study, the authors used one- and two-dimensional statistics. The study showed that there are no major benefits of civilization in the study areas: housing, water, hygiene and sanitation, waste treatment, etc. In the last 12 months, it was found that 11% of the population in the aforementioned territory experienced symptoms such as wheezing or wheezing at any time of the day, ie permanently, and another 9% of the population were waking up from chest tightness in the previous 12 months. During the survey period, 10% of the respondents had coughing sputum at least three months before the day or night. The rapid spread of various respiratory diseases may be associated with higher levels of air pollution. The article presents the recommendations of the authors on adherence to the principles of fair industrial activity within the framework of corporate social responsibility and the promotion of sustainable development of territories. Keywords: living environment, morbidity, respiratory health, workers.

Persisters of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) that fail to form colonies on agar media when de-stressed are termed as differentially detectable (DD) persisters. Since in the host, Mtb primarily survives by utilizing lipids, we used a long-term lipid diet model to induce DD persisters of M. tuberculosis. Persisters were induced by replacing the dextrose-containing medium with one containing fatty acids instead of dextrose (FAM). After 2, 4 or 6 weeks, CFU and most probable number assays were performed; the difference between the two gave an estimate of DD persisters. Since rifampicin has been shown to induce formation of DD persisters in vitro, one set of FAM cultures were also given short-term rifampicin stress after 2, 4 or 6 weeks. Fraction of DD persisters increased with time and rifampicin treatment enhanced the effect of fatty acids, at 2 and 4 weeks. At six weeks, even in the absence of rifampicin, ∼95% population were DD persisters. The DD persisters were vulnerable to drugs interfering with bacterial respiration such as thioridazine, bedaquiline and clofazimine. The study indicates potential formation of DD persisters of Mtb in a lipid-rich microenvironment in the host even before antibiotic therapy.

The objective of the present research was to study the effect of cold shock (3 °C and 6 °C) on fertilized eggs of the sterlet, Acipenser ruthenus L. Cold shock was applied for various durations (30, 60 and 90 min) and the ploidy levels, survival, and genotypes of the treated embryos/larvae were recorded. Analysis of ploidy levels confirmed the presence of diploid, triploid, and mosaic (1n/2n, 2n/3n, and 1n/2n/3n) genotypes in experimental groups, while it was strictly diploid in control groups. Microsatellite genotyping confirmed both the incidence of polyspermy and retention of the 2nd polar body in experimental groups. However, patterns of inheritance in all diploid offspring in experimental and control groups revealed classical Mendelian disomic inheritance. Interestingly, the observed mosaic sterlets had normal morphology and were alive. However, some larvae had abnormal morphology which may be due to haploid syndrome. In all treatment groups (treatments: 3 °C–30 min; 3 °C–60 min; 3 °C–90 min; 6 °C–60 min), where the percentage of polyploid/mosaic larvae were high, the mortality was also high. Whereas, in the control groups (where there were only diploid (2n) larvae), the mortality was relatively low.