Search

The article aims to provide insights into the effectiveness of international water treaties in addressing environmental challenges in river basins. The Ganga and Indus River basins, encompassing a vast expanse of 2.20 million square kilometers, serve as the lifeblood for roughly one billion inhabitants of the South Asian region. However, the escalating challenges of water scarcity, climate change, over-extraction, pollution, and reduced flow that stem from burgeoning population growth, urbanization, industrialization, and agricultural activities, have critically endangered the water quality and quantity of these basins. The Ganga and Indus Water Treaties were created to promote collaboration and address water-related environmental issues. However, their limitations in addressing these threats make it necessary to review their effectiveness and examine their gaps and inadequacies. The study examines treaties related to the Indus and Ganga River basins regarding environmental threats, identifying gaps that need attention. A comparative analysis with the UN Watercourse Convention will be conducted to assess their effectiveness and adherence to global standards. Key Words: Environmental threats, IWT, Ganga treaty, UNWC

To explore the anatomical parameters proximal femoral cavity and developmental dysplasia of the hip.The retrospective study was conducted at Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing, China, and comprised data of adult patients of either gender who underwent total hip arthroplasty from January 2009 to August 2015. Paients with a diagnosis of primary osteoarthrosis or aseptic necrosis of the femoral head were taken as the control group A, while patients with developmental dysplasia of the hip in group B were graded into subgroups I-IV using the Crowe classification. For each patient, the inner diameter of the proximal femoral medullary cavity was measured on preoperative radiographs using Noble's technique. Data was analysed using SPSS 20.Of the 835 hips, 571(68.4%) were in group A and 264(31.6%) in group B. The mean age of the patients at the time of surgery was 58.3 ± 12.3 years. Overall, there were 404(48.4%) hips of male patients; 59(22.3%) in group B. There were 431(51.6%) hips of female patients; 205(77.7%) in group B. In group B, 186(70.5%) hips were graded I, 38(14.4%) grade II, 22(8.3%)grade III, and 18(6.8%) hips were graded IV. There were significant differences in femoral offset, height of the femoral head, and canal flare index of the metaphysis between groups A and B (p0.05). There was no significant difference in the morphology of the marrow cavity between subgroups II and III. The femoral offset, height of the femoral head, canal flare index of the metaphysis and medullary cavity isthmus were significantly smaller in the subgrop IV than group B (p0.05). There was significantly greater stenosis in the diaphysis in subgroup IV than in the remaining subgroups (p0.05).The morphology of the marrow cavity was significantly different between patients with proximal femoral cavity and those with developmental dysplasia of the hip. Patients with developmental dysplasia grade IV had a narrower metaphyseal and diaphyseal cavity.

The study aimed to investigate the influences of the active ingredient in Caulis Mahoniae, total alkaloids, on the proliferation and apoptosis of cervical cancer cells and the caspase-3 expression. The total alkaloids were extracted in vitro from Caulis Mahoniae, and cervical cancer HeLa cell lines were used as experimental objects. The half inhibitory concentration (IC50) of total alkaloids on HeLa cell lines was detected via the preliminary experiment, the influences of total alkaloids at different concentrations on the proliferation of HeLa cell lines were detected via methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium (MTT) assay, and the cell growth curve was plotted. Moreover, the cell cycle and apoptosis after treatment with total alkaloids at different concentrations were detected via flow cytometry, and the caspase-3 gene and protein expressions were detected via reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and Western blotting. The IC50 of total alkaloids in Caulis Mahoniaeon HeLa cell lines was 12.5 μg/mL. With the gradual increase of concentration of total alkaloids in the treatment of cervical cancer cells, the inhibitory rate on cancer cells was gradually increased, and the proportion of cells in the G0/G1 phase was gradually decreased, while that in S and G2/M phases was gradually increased. Besides, with the increase in the concentration of total alkaloids, the apoptotic rate of cervical cancer cells was gradually increased, and both caspase-3 gene and protein expressions were also gradually increased. The total alkaloids extracted from Caulis Mahoniae can effectively inhibit the proliferation and promote the apoptosis of cervical cancer HeLa cells, which may be realized by promoting the expression of apoptosis-related factor caspase-3.

This experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of taking Baihe Gujin decoction combined with Shengmai powder on IL-1β and IL-1Ra expression in peripheral blood CD14+ monocytes from patients with pulmonary tuberculosis. For this purpose, one hundred adult patients with primary pulmonary tuberculosis were selected for the study. The age of the enrolled cases ranged from 18 to 60 years old, with a controlled male to the female sex ratio of about 1:1. The Chinese medical evidence was considered to be a qi-yin deficiency type of pulmonary consumption. The patients were randomly divided into experimental and control groups, 50 cases each. In addition, 50 cases of healthy people were selected as a healthy control group, totaling 150 cases. In the experimental group, patients were given Baihe gujin decoction and Shengmai powder based on conventional western medicine, 1 dose for 1 day, 150mL/time for 2 times. The control group was treated with conventional Western medicine. 2 mL of fasting elbow venous blood from the subjects was taken in the morning. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were isolated by density centrifugation. Monocytes were obtained after incubation with 5 μL of CD14+ immune magnetic beads at 4°C. The relative expression of IL1β and IL1R genes were measured using real-time quantitative PCR (RT-PCR), respectively. Results showed that the relative expression of IL1β and IL1R genes was significantly lower in the experimental group after 3 months compared with the control group, and the statistical difference was highly significant (p

Aptamers have been introduced to analytical applications, target validation, and drug discovery processes and, recently, applied directly as therapeutic agents. Aptamers can be generated by a method called SELEX (Systematic Evolution of Ligands by Exponential Enrichment). This is quite remarkable for such a young technology, which is only created in the early 1990s. This paper reviews recent new applications of aptamers in stem cell research and tissue engineering.