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In the neoliberal democratic order, society is governed by dual constitutions. The constitutional laws ensure the rights and liberty of an individual. However, the economic laws of the market nurture competition for economic self-sufficiency of an individual as a homo-economicus. The neo-liberal market laws are complimented by the constitutional laws that help the liberal elites to perpetuate dominance and decry the call for social justice demanded by the masses. The study humbly attempts to brief upon the dichotomy between the free market and the interests of individuals in the neoliberal order. The study thus explores the evolution and status of neo-liberalism to trace out the dynamics of the dichotomy between market and individual.

In the field of nanoscale materials and electronics fabrication, the term “nanotechnology” refers to a broad range of techniques that may be used. Examples of nanotechnological processes include the production of nanowires, as well as techniques for fabricating semiconductors such as lithography, atomic layer deposition, molecular vapour deposition, focused ion beam machining, electron beam lithography, and molecular self-assembly. Concerns regarding the impact of nanotechnology on the environment, health, and society are a contested issue. It's too early to tell whether the growth of nanotechnology will be a boon or a bane.

Nanotechnology has garnered a lot of publicity because of its promising attributes and vast variety of applications in areas including structural components, ballistic protection, electronics, culinary science, and medication delivery. The sources of nanoparticles are multifaceted. The introduction of nano-particles into different ecosystems is a major concern and its traces have been found in marine ecosystems as well. This chapter explores the sources and occurrences of nanoparticles in aquatic ecosystems and the need for future research in this direction.

Interest in growing cannabis for medical and recreational purposes is increasing worldwide. This study reviews the cultivation of cannabis, its medicinal significance, and its social impacts. It is believed that cannabis has many medicinal properties that could prove very useful for the managing different disease, and at the same time it has many harmful effects that expose it to many legal and social aspects. Cannabis contains a psychoactive compound called tetrahydrocannabinols (THC) that creates a psychogenic effect. It can be consumed through the respiratory tract and digestive tract through smoking and oral ingesting, respectively. In contrast, cannabidiol (CBD), another component derived from cannabis, is a non-psychoactive cannabinoid that has gained popularity for its medicinal values and as a supplement.

Phytoremediation is a plant-based technology that is both cost-effective and environmentally beneficial, and it is classified as an in-situ modification method. Using phytoremediation, on the other hand, results in the restoration of the preservation site's biological activity, physical structure, and chemical properties. Heavy metals can be found in a variety of places in the environment. Because most of these compounds are water soluble, they circulate quickly across the environment. Heavy metals and other pollutants in high concentrations can impair the body's physiology and biochemistry, resulting in health problems. This chapter will review the literature available in different data bases on Cannabis sativa for possible remediation of pollutants from different ecosystems.

Background:Post meningitis hearing impairment is an important public health problem. Neonatal meningitis is an important cause of mortality and morbidity in neonates in future life. An important consequence is hearing loss. Hearing plays a basic and important role in language, speech and intellectual development. Late detection causes irreversible stunting of the language development potential of the child. Early detection and intervention would help to maximize linguistic competence and literacy development for children who are deaf or hard of hearing. The study of brainstem evoked response audiometry provides an opportunity to evaluate the functional integrity of auditory pathway from inner ear to upper brainstem. Aim:This study was conducted to determine the incidence of sensorineural hearing loss following meningitis in neonates. Material and Methods:The present study was conducted in the Department of Pediatrics, Government Medical College Srinagar. All the patients,Term neonates with CSF culture proven bacterial meningitis. , were referred to the Department of ENT, SMHS Hospital Srinagar, of the institution for thorough ENT checkup, to exclude any ear pathology and BERA (Brainstem Evoked Response Audiometry). Results:In our study total number of cases were 87. Majority of our studied children i.e. 47 (54%) were < days of age whereas 40 (46%) children were 8-28 days of aged. The mean age of our study patients was 15.7+3.71.Out of 87 patients in our study, male predominance was observed with 55.2% males versus 44.8% females with a male to female ratio of 1.2:1. Hearing loss was observed in 11 (12.6%) of our study children.Bilateral hearing loss was seen in 5 of the 11 children (5.7%) while as unilateral hearing loss was observed in 6 of the 11 children (6.9%). Out of a total of 11 (12.6%) patients who had hearing loss, 6 (6.9%) were having mild hearing loss, followed by 3 (3.4%) children with profound hearing loss while as moderate and severe hearing loss was observed in 1 (1.1%) patients each. Conclusion: Hearing loss is not a rare complication asociated with meningitis in neonates, early detection and appropriate treatment is needed to prevent language , speech and intellecual damage.

Gastric cancer (GC) is a multistep process characterized by a gradual accumulation of genetic and epigenetic alterations in genes at various stages of progression. Epigenetic alterations like DNA methylation play an important role in cancer and may serve as a biomarker for cancer. The present study was aimed to investigate the promoter hypermethylation, expression profile, and Arg399Gln gene polymorphism of DNA repair gene XRCC1 (X-ray repair cross complimentary group I) in GC patients. A total of 60 histopathologically confirmed GC subjects were recruited in the study. Information on various dietary, lifestyle and environmental factors was obtained in face-to-face interviews using a structured questionnaire from each subject. Tissue samples were taken along with adjacent non-cancerous tissues for analysis. Promoter methylation status and expression of XRCC1 gene was evaluated using MS-PCR and western blotting respectively; while as Arg399Gln polymorphism was analyzed by PCR-RFLP. We found that the XRCC1 gene promoter of 38.3% cancerous tissues were methylated compared to 13.3% of adjacent normal tissues. The promoter hypermethylation status of the gene was found to be significantly associated with the loss of protein expression (P0.0001, OR = 14.63; 95% CI 4.01-53.43). However, we did not find any significant association of polymorphism of XRCC1 Arg399Gln with promoter methylation or protein expression. Further, comparison of methylation status and protein expression with clinical parameters like age, smoking status, etc. was also not significant (P0.05). The present study indicates that XRCC1 undergoes aberrant promoter hypermethylation with subsequent loss of protein expression in gastric cancer.

Interplay between the nervous and immune systems is critical for homeostasis, and its dysfunction underlies pathologies such as multiple sclerosis, autism, leukemia, and inflammation. The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans provides an opportunity to define evolutionarily conserved mechanisms of regulation of host innate immunity and inflammation in a genetically tractable whole-animal system. In the past few years, the C. elegans nervous system has emerged as an integral part of host defense against pathogens, acting through diverse mechanisms to repress or induce protective transcriptional responses to infection in distal tissues. In this review, we discuss current knowledge of the mechanisms through which the C. elegans nervous system controls the expression of host defense genes in the intestinal epithelium. Although still incomplete, the insights derived from such work have broad implications for neural regulation of epithelial function at mucosal barriers in higher organisms in health and disease.

Primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) has variable clinical presentation and symptomatic PHPT is still the predominant form of the disease in Indian subcontinent. Now, there is a decreasing trend of symptomatic cases and increasing number of asymptomatic cases with time. 25-hydroxy vitamin D has no correlation with serum calcium and PTH. To study patients with hyperparathyroidism and its relation to vitamin D. We studied 78 consecutive patients with PHPT in whom vitamin D level was measured. Out of the 78 study patients, 67 (85.7%) were females and 11 (14.2%) were males. The age ranged from16 to 70 years. Nephrolithiasis was the single most common presentation (48.2%) followed by bone pain in 44%. Only 5% were asymptomatic with a decreasing trend of symptomatic cases and increasing number of asymptomatic cases with time. Mean serum calcium level was 11.5±1.0, mean serum PTH level 377±386.1 pg/ml and mean 25-hydroxy vitamin D level 37.2±58.1 ng/ml. Forty eight percent of patients were vitamin D deficient. 25-hydroxy vitamin D had no correlation with serum calcium and PTH, but had a negative correlation with tumour size. Neck ultrasonography was suggestive of parathyroid pathology (laterality) in 89.8% and exact site of parathyroid pathology in 63.3%. MIBI scan showed parathyroid pathology in 92.5% and exact site in 85.7% of patients. Single parathyroid gland was involved in 90% of cases, double glands in 8% and multiple/hyperplasia in 1.6%. Parathyroid adenoma was in 86.3%, parathyroid hyperplasia in 7.8%. Temporary post-operative hypocalcaemia was seen in 36%; cure rate was achieved in 98.37% of patients without operative mortality. Primary hyperparathyroidism is still a symptomatic disease in Kashmir Valley but now there is a decreasing trend of symptomatic cases and an increasing number of asymptomatic cases with time. 25-hydroxy vitamin D level has no correlation with serum calcium, iPTH and tumour size.

Functional food ingredients and dietary supplements are essential for health promotion and disease risk reduction. The demand for various food products is increasing day by day due to ever increasing population. Different multinational companies have invested to meet the demands of the people all over the world. However, some miscreants have adultered different food products that caused various concerns to the people and the government. Hence, different laws in different countries have been regulated to maintain the quality of food. However, there is major legislation and product approval challenges which should be aligned by global common regulations to move forward by reducing the scope for conflict between our regulatory approaches and by forging closer cooperation that can only be addressed by appropriate and accurate ingredients understanding, safety legislation, clinical studies benefits, advanced food processing technologies and various analytical studies. The nutraceutical revolution will direct us into a new era of medicine and health, in which the food industry will become a research oriented, analogous to the pharmaceutical industry. The present review article discusses the recent status of nutraceuticals and their importance to prevent various diseases.

The model organism Caenorhabditis elegans mounts transcriptional defense responses against intestinal bacterial infections that elicit overlapping starvation and infection responses, the regulation of which is not well understood. Direct comparison of C. elegans that were starved or infected with Staphylococcus aureus revealed a large infection-specific transcriptional signature, which was almost completely abrogated by deletion of transcription factor hlh-30/TFEB, except for six genes including a flavin-containing monooxygenase (FMO) gene, fmo-2/FMO5. Deletion of fmo-2/FMO5 severely compromised infection survival, thus identifying the first FMO with innate immunity functions in animals. Moreover, fmo-2/FMO5 induction required the nuclear hormone receptor, NHR-49/PPAR-α, which controlled host defense cell non-autonomously. These findings reveal an infection-specific host response to S. aureus, identify HLH-30/TFEB as its main regulator, reveal FMOs as important innate immunity effectors in animals, and identify the mechanism of FMO regulation through NHR-49/PPAR-α during S. aureus infection, with implications for host defense and inflammation in higher organisms.

Primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) has a variable clinical presentation. Symptomatic PHPT continues to be the predominant form of the disease in the Indian subcontinent, but a decreasing trend of symptomatic cases is observed, and increasing numbers of asymptomatic cases are now being diagnosed. In these cases, 25-hydroxy vitamin D [25(OH)D] shows no correlation with the serum levels of calcium and intact parathyroid hormone (iPTH). To study the characteristics of patients with hyperparathyroidism and the relationship of 25(OH)D with the levels of calcium and i PTH. A study was conducted with 78 consecutive patients diagnosed from 1996 to 2018 with PHPT, in whom the vitamin D status was investigated preoperatively. Of the 78 study subjects, 67 (85.7%) were females and 11 (14.2%) were males. Their age ranged from 16 to 70 years. Nephrolithiasis was the single most common presentation (44.3%) followed by bone pain (42.6%). Only 5% of the subjects were asymptomatic, with a decreasing trend of symptomatic cases and increasing number of asymptomatic cases with time. Their mean serum calcium level was 11.5±1.0 mg/dl, mean serum iPTH level 377±386.1 pg/ml, mean 25(OH)D level 37.2±58.1 ng/ml, while 48% of the patients were vitamin D deficient. The serum levels of 25(OH)D showed no correlation with serum calcium and iPTH levels, whereas it showed a negative correlation with tumor size. Neck ultrasound (US) was indicative of parathyroid pathology and laterality in 89.8% and showed the exact site of the parathyroid pathology in 63.3%. Technetium99sestamibi (MIBI) scan was indicative of parathyroid pathology (side accuracy) in 92.5% and showed the exact site in 85.7% of patients. A single parathyroid gland was involved in 90% of study subjects, double glands in 8% and multiple glands/hyper-plasia in 1.6%. Histopathological examination showed parathyroid adenoma in 86.3% and parathyroid hyperplasia in 7.8%. Temporary post-operative hypocalcemia was detected in 36% of the patients; the cure rate was 98.4%, without any operative mortality. Primary hyperparathyroidism continues to be mainly a symptomatic disease in the Kashmir Valley. There is a decreasing trend of symptomatic cases and an increasing number of asymptomatic cases with time. The level of 25(OH)D has no correlation with serum calcium, iPTH or tumor size in these patients.

Paraquat dichloride (PD) is a major contaminant in aquatic environment and is a cause of concern to different organisms, especially to fishes, as it causes different changes in behavioral and morph...

Aim Survivin is a unique member of inhibitor of apoptotic protein family present in embryonic development but absent in normal tissues. Splicing of the survivin gene give rise to five different splice variants and differential expression of these splice variants has been associated with disease progression and development in many human cancers. The aim of our study was to investigate the expression level of survivin (survivin-wild type) and two of its splice variants (∆Ex3 & 2B) in human breast cancer and normal adjacent. Method Fifty breast cancer patients were included in this study. The mRNA expression level of survivin and its variants was checked by SYBR Green based real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) method. Result The expression of surviving WT, ∆Ex3 and survivin-2B mRNA was 88% (44/50), 76% (38/50), and 72% (36/50) respectively. Further correlation of expression of survivin splice variants with clinico-pathologic parameters in breast cancer patients indicated a stage and grade specific increase in survivin-wt mRNA, and stage and grade dependent change in expression for variants ∆Ex3 and 2B. Conclusion Our data demonstrates that differential expression of survivin splice variants is a key feature of breast cancer. Apart from survivin, targeting survivin splice variants can also be an important diagnostic and therapeutic target in cancer. Our findings may provide novel avenues for development of both diagnostics and biotheraepeutics in cancer.

In recognition of the potential risks that certain chemicals pose to aquatic ecosystems and human health as well as the lack of information regarding the levels of such compounds, the present study...

It has been shown that reproductive activity is responsive to changes in the physical, psychosocial, and chemical environments. Occupational exposure has been identified to a wide range of putative hazards and adverse reproductive outcomes, or fertility. Such risks include the physical environment such as VDT and noise, as well as psychosocial stress and chemical agents. Some of these may have a direct or indirect effect on IVF outcomes. Psychosocial factors such as inadequate coping mechanisms, anxiety and/or depression are related to a lower incidence of IVF pregnancy. In this chapter the authors focus on the difficulties involved in linking exposure to putative hazardous substances to adverse reproductive outcomes in environmental and occupational settings, particularly the effectiveness of IVF procedures.

One of the expected effects of mammalian developmental defects is a rise in air temperature. Heat stress adversely affects embryo oogenesis, oocyte maturation, fertilization, and implantation. The number of defects caused by heat stress in all mammals is almost identical, but each species has its own particular sensitivity to specific defects. It suggests that genotype may have a significant effect on the type of defect, its occurrence, and its extent. By heat output and loss, the body temperature is usually preserved in a restricted range, but the equilibrium can be disrupted by illness, inadequate nutrition, and severe environmental temperature. Elevated maternal temperature during pregnancy, either by fever or any other means of heating, may result in embryo death, retarded development, abortion, and many embryonic defects such as cell proliferation, migration, differentiation and apoptosis or programmed cell death, structural and functional defects, and changes in maternal physiology. Maternal heat stress also reduces the levels of placental hormones. This chapter deals with the heat stress effect on reduction of reproductive function, implantation defects, etc. of different animals and humans.

Agriculture is important for people all over the world in order to obtain food to sustain the ever-growing population. However, the current practices for obtaining more and more food has several environmental challenges. Hence, new environmentally friendly fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides have been developed that enhance crop yield by facilitating maximum nutrient uptake by the application of nanotechnology that will help in promoting sustainable agriculture by the slow or controlled release fertilizers. This slow discharge encourages improved delivery of nutrients to the plants that further speeds up early germination, fast growth, and high nutritional level. The current study is aimed to review nano-chemicals used in agriculture that have been developed by the researchers all over the world.

How neural circuits drive behavior is a central question in neuroscience. Proper execution of motor behavior requires the precise coordination of many neurons. Within a motor circuit, individual neurons tend to play discrete roles by promoting or suppressing motor output. How exactly neurons function in specific roles to fine tune motor output is not well understood. In C. elegans, the interneuron RIM plays important yet complex roles in locomotion behavior. Here, we show that RIM both promotes and suppresses distinct features of locomotion behavior to fine tune motor output. This dual function is achieved via the excitation and inhibition of the same motor circuit by electrical and chemical neurotransmission, respectively. Additionally, this bi-directional regulation contributes to motor adaptation in animals placed in novel environments. Our findings reveal that individual neurons within a neural circuit may act in opposing ways to regulate circuit dynamics to fine tune behavioral output.

The conversion of waste into vermicompost is seen as an opportunity by different workers that may be advantageous in terms of improving the structure and physical conditions of the soil, increase the water retention capacity and availability of phosphorous to the growing plants, prevention of leaching loss of soluble inorganic nitrogen, and addition of nutrients/essential micro nutrients. It is observed that the vermicompost obtained from seri waste has better nutrient value as compared to conventional fertilizers. The success of sericulture industry in future will depend on sustainability of organic fertilizers both in terms of nutrient management and environmental protection. Similarly, the waste can be used for biogas production, as activated carbon, feed for the livestock, etc. are the opportunities of converting waste into value-added products. This chapter will review the different types of waste that is produced from sericulture and can be used to form value-added services.

The story of garbage processing is changing globally and is being considered as a potential option in the hierarchy of integrated solid waste management that involves stabilization of organic material by the joint action of earthworms and microorganisms. Vermicomposting is an economically viable technique in which the job is done by certain species of earthworms that enhances the process of waste conversion and produces a better end product vermicompost. Vermicompost is highly nutritive fertilizer and more powerful growth promoter over the conventional compost. It is rich in nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium commonly referred as NPK, micronutrients, growth hormones and enzymes. Its commercialization is a good business opportunity and is emerging as an industry itself. The farmers need to raise the crops by organic farming that will reduce the cost and will decrease the impact on environment. The present chapter is an attempt to highlight different approaches of converting waste into vermicompost and the importance of vermicomposting as compared to synthetic fertilizers.

Plants in urban territories assume a fundamental job to purify the contamination in human conditions. Quickly developing biomass plants, for example, Salix species, are promising for use in phytoremediation of defiled land. It is realized that substantial metals are taken up and translocated by plants to various degrees. The section portrays the decision of eco-accommodating Salix alba species and their correct situation in the urban condition to defeat the contamination issues. White willow imitations can aggregate generous measures of Cd and Zn in the over-the-ground biomass and have along these lines been tried for phytoextraction of decently polluted soils. This section likewise audits the potential for the phytoremediation of substantial metal-defiled land by the Salix alba. The perspectives from various examinations on Salix alba have been utilized to exhibit the limit and plausibility of utilizing it in phytoextraction. Consequently, to augment phytoextraction productivity, it is critical to choose a quickly developing and high biomass plant with high take-up of substantial metals, which is additionally perfect with motorized development systems and neighborhood climate conditions.

The management of solid waste has become a major problem even in rural areas of India, due to shrinkage of agricultural land and depletion of forest areas. During the recent past, people in rural areas were decomposing the waste, and finally, it was used as a manure in their agricultural areas. However, the trend is completely changing the Indian scenario of converting the backyard waste into manure. Now with the help of scientific knowledge, the waste is utilized as an energy resource, and waste from the rural areas is considered a raw material for this process. Different technologies in India are available to convert waste into energy apart from the technologies that have impact on the environment.

The rise of different heavy metals in different ecosystems is a cause of concern as it may deteriorate the quality of these ecosystems. The increase in these metals may reach to different organisms by a process of bioaccumulation that may cause various deleterious effects in humans. Hence, researchers have used different mechanisms to remove these pollutants from these ecosystems. Phytoremediation is considered a safe and eco-friendly mechanism to restore these ecosystems. Among the different species, Salix spp. is considered a potent tool to remove the heavy metals from the most spoiled sites by natural mechanisms. This chapter reviews the ecology, ecological niches and phytoremediation characteristics of Salix spp.

Marine pollution due to littering from anthropogenic activities is a serious global environmental problem—the main reason accumulation of debris in the environment, including in the ocean. There is a significant hazard coming from plastic debris. Besides entanglement and ingestion, marine plastics debris has more complex problems and can release additional and by-product chemical substances. If we keep producing and not doing anything, a recent study said by 2050 there would be three times more plastic than fish in the ocean. We only have a limited understanding of marine plastic debris distribution, implication, fate, and behavior. Science is the key to getting the right alternative for processing debris. To prevent marine pollution successfully requires education and outreach programs, strong laws and policies, and law enforcement for government and private institutions. This chapter explores marine plastic debris.

With a long history and deep connection to the Earth’s resources, indigenous peoples have an intimate understanding and ability to observe the impacts linked to climate change. Traditional ecologic...

Vegetables are vital to the human diet, and in particular provide the well-known nutrients to maintain normal physiological functions. The prolonged application of large amount of fertilizers and p...

The concentrations of organochlorine and organophosphorus pesticides were determined in surface sediments and freshwater molluscs (Melanoides scabra and Melanoides tuberculata) from Tighra Reservoi...

During bacterial infection, the host is confronted with multiple overlapping signals that are integrated at the organismal level to produce defensive host responses. How multiple infection signals are sensed by the host and how they elicit the transcription of host defense genes is much less understood at the whole-animal level than at the cellular level. The model organism Caenorhabditis elegans is known to mount transcriptional defense responses against intestinal bacterial infections that elicit overlapping starvation and infection responses, but the regulation of such responses is not well understood. Direct comparison of C. elegans that were starved or infected with Staphylococcus aureus revealed a large infection-specific transcriptional signature. This signature was almost completely abrogated by the deletion of transcription factor hlh-30/TFEB, except for six genes including a flavin-containing monooxygenase (FMO) gene, fmo-2/FMO5. Deletion of fmo-2/FMO5 severely compromised infection survival, thus identifying the first FMO with innate immunity functions in animals. Further, fmo-2/FMO5 was specifically induced by Gram-positive pathogens and Gram-positive natural microbiota of C. elegans. Moreover, the mechanism of fmo-2/FMO5 induction required the nuclear receptor, NHR-49/PPARα, which induced fmo-2/FMO5 and host defense cell non-autonomously. These findings for the first time reveal an infection-specific host response to S. aureus, identify HLH-30/TFEB as its main regulator, reveal that FMOs are important innate immunity effectors in animals, and identify the mechanism of FMO regulation through NHR-49/PPARα in C. elegans, with important implications for innate host defense in higher organisms.