scholarly journals Influence of Meteorology on Fine Particles Concentration in Vitória Metropolitan Region During Wintertime

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 459-470 ◽  
Author(s):  
Willian Lemker Andreão ◽  
Bruna Tuão Trindade ◽  
Antônio Paula Nascimento ◽  
Neyval Costa Reis Júnior ◽  
Maria de Fátima Andrade ◽  
...  

Abstract Fine particles (PM2.5) are harmful to human health especially during periods of limited dispersion when the concentrations build up. This is a common occurrence in Southern Brazil in the dry season when high-pressure stationary systems inhibit vertical dispersion and reduce wind speed. The objective of this study was to evaluate the PM2.5 concentrations in the Region of Greater Vitória during the winter of 2013, and to assess the influence of the large-scale meteorological circulation on its concentration. An experimental campaign was carried out to determine the mass of PM2.5 at six urban sites and particle number concentration. The average PM2.5 concentrations varied from 9.70 μg m-3 to 14.36 μg m-3 with the average daily maximum reaching 29.35 μg m-3, exceeding the World Health Organization guideline (24-h average: 25 μg m-3). The particle size distribution showed a larger number of particles from 18 to 21 h (local time), indicating that the main vehicular emissions are the main sources. During the winter, rainfall associated with cold fronts were responsible for a decrease in the particulate concentrations. In contrast, the occurrence of high-pressure systems led to an increase in particle concentrations, due to stagnant conditions.

Author(s):  
Vikas Sharma ◽  
Chandana Majee ◽  
Rahul Kaushik ◽  
Shivani Saxena ◽  
Salahuddin Salahuddin ◽  
...  

Herbal digestive tablets are meant for treating indigestion problems. The indigestion problem is one of the major problems of all (the) ages of human beings. As trends for eating fast foods is increasing, simultaneously the improper digestion also tends to increase. There are a number of digestive tablets in the market but in attempt to improve their taste the actual motto behind their use is masked. To combat the indigestion problems, in the present study an attempt has been made to formulate, develop and evaluate herbal digestive tablets. The formula of the digestive tablet has been decided after deep review of Ayurvedic formulary of India. The ingredients of this formulation have been procured from authentic sources. The wet granulation method was used to prepare the granules for punching the tablets. After preparation, the herbal digestive tablets were subjected to various pharmaceutical evaluations and quality control evaluations as per the guidelines from World Health Organization (WHO). The formulation was also subjected to antioxidant screening using Phosphomolybdenum method. The digestive tablets are obtained as light brown-colored round tablets with pleasant odour and spicy taste with an average size of 8mm and smooth edges. Maximum extractive value was observed as 34% in methanol with a total ash value of 10.16%. Other parameters reported as bitterness value- 0.69 units, volatile oil content-8%, loss on drying- 12.3%, swelling and foaming index of 0.27 and less than 100 respectively. The tablets showed a total antioxidant potential of 0.51mg/mg as Ascorbic acid equivalent. Tablets also pass various pharmaceutical evaluation parameters like hardness, friability, weight variation, and disintegration test. Herbal digestive tablets have very excellent taste due to less bitter drugs. The tablet formula can be applied to prepare large scale production of digestive tablets.


Molecules ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 355
Author(s):  
Sebastian Elgueta ◽  
Marcela Valenzuela ◽  
Marcela Fuentes ◽  
Pablo Meza ◽  
Juan Pablo Manzur ◽  
...  

Over the last years, the detection of pesticide residues in the official food surveillance programs of Chile has been increased, mainly in fresh vegetables such as tomatoes and lettuces. The Metropolitana Region of Chile presents the highest detections in the country. The lack of evaluations of toxicological risks in human health have increased uncertainty of the potential effects of pesticides exposures in the Chilean population. This research aims to determinate health risks assessment of pesticide residues associated to tomatoes and lettuces produced in Metropolitana Region. The findings of this study reveal that tomatoes and lettuces cultivated in the MR show more than 50% of samples with one or multiple pesticides residues. From the total samples, 16% were over the Chilean Maximum Residue Levels (MRLs). The main pesticides detected in tomatoes and lettuces were methamidophos, methomyl, difenoconazole, cyprodinil and boscalid. The results obtained using the official data of the Ministry of Health of Chile (MINSAL) compared to the World Health Organization (WHO), describe relevant risks through the Estimated Daily Intakes (EDI), Hazard Quotients (HQ) and Hazard Index (HI) for the Chilean population due to high concentrations of methamidophos, methomyl and cyprodinil. More restrictions for the use of methamidophos, methomyl, difenoconazole, cyprodinil and boscalid and effective control programs should be implemented in order to mitigate the impacts on the Chilean population.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ole Lagatie ◽  
Ann Verheyen ◽  
Stijn Van Asten ◽  
Maurice R. Odiere ◽  
Yenny Djuardi ◽  
...  

Abstract Infections with intestinal worms, such as Ascaris lumbricoides, affect hundreds of millions of people in all tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Through large-scale deworming programs, World Health Organization aims to reduce moderate-to-heavy intensity infections below 1%. Current diagnosis and monitoring of these control programs are solely based on the detection of worm eggs in stool. Here we describe how metabolome analysis was used to identify the A. lumbricoides-specific urine biomarker 2-methyl pentanoyl carnitine (2-MPC). This biomarker was found to be 85.7% accurate in determining infection and 90.5% accurate in determining a moderate-to-heavy infection. Our results also demonstrate that there is a correlation between 2-MPC levels in urine and A. lumbricoides DNA detected in stool. Furthermore, the levels of 2-MPC in urine were shown to rapidly and strongly decrease upon administration of a standard treatment (single oral dose of 400 mg albendazole). In an Ascaris suum infection model in pigs, it was found that, although 2-MPC levels were much lower compared to humans, there was a significant association between urinary 2-MPC levels and both worm counts (p = 0.023) and the number of eggs per gram (epg) counts (p < 0.001). This report demonstrates that urinary 2-MPC can be considered an A. lumbricoides-specific biomarker that can be used to monitor infection intensity.


2018 ◽  
Vol 106 (10) ◽  
pp. 819-829 ◽  
Author(s):  
Akbar Abbasi

Abstract Radium-228 (228Ra) and Radium-226 (226Ra) isotopes in drinking water are significant from the aspect of radiation protection and human health. In this paper, the three most common preconcentration methods, i.e.coprecipitation, absorption and evaporation, were reviewed with emphasis on routinely measurement techniques. The reviewed measurement techniques include low background γ-spectrometry, α-spectrometry and liquid scintillation counting. The γ-spectrometry technique is the good selection, when the maximum sensitivity is considered. The Environmental Protection Agency guideline has provided the maximum concentration level 0.74 Bq/L for 226Ra and 228Ra. Also, the World Health Organization guideline limit is 1 Bq/L and 0.1 Bq/L for 226Ra and 228Ra, respectively.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lee Smith ◽  
Nicola Veronese ◽  
Vincenzo Racalbuto ◽  
Damiano Pizzol

The COVID-19 outbreak was declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) as global pandemic in March 2020. Considering the necessity to implement rapid response to control the pandemic and the fragility and the state of need of low income countries, it will be mandatory to develop a global approach in order to reduce the spread of infection and the creation of community viral reservoirs. So far, we could hypothesize a worst case scenario in which when the COVID-19 outbreak hits a peak in Africa and in low-income countries, the majority of such countries will be unprepared, with low resources allocated for affording the viral emergency and the consequences will be catastrophic with no lesson learnt. In the best case scenario, the COVID-19 will not affect Africa or South America on a large scale and, if the prevention measures will be implemented, we could register a lower incidence of hygiene linked diseases that still represent leading causes of death.


2019 ◽  
Vol 220 (Supplement_4) ◽  
pp. S148-S154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaymin C Patel ◽  
Heidi M Soeters ◽  
Alpha Oumar Diallo ◽  
Brice W Bicaba ◽  
Goumbi Kadadé ◽  
...  

Abstract Meningococcal meningitis remains a significant public health threat, especially in the African meningitis belt where Neisseria meningitidis serogroup A historically caused large-scale epidemics. With the rollout of a novel meningococcal serogroup A conjugate vaccine (MACV) in the belt, the World Health Organization recommended case-based meningitis surveillance to monitor MACV impact and meningitis epidemiology. In 2014, the MenAfriNet consortium was established to support strategic implementation of case-based meningitis surveillance in 5 key countries: Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Niger, and Togo. MenAfriNet aimed to develop a high-quality surveillance network using standardized laboratory and data collection protocols, develop sustainable systems for data management and analysis to monitor MACV impact, and leverage the surveillance platform to perform special studies. We describe the MenAfriNet consortium, its history, strategy, implementation, accomplishments, and challenges.


Author(s):  
Suryani Suryani ◽  
Loly Subhiaty Idrus ◽  
Ruslin Ruslin ◽  
Rini Hamsidi

Background: Transmission of COVID-19 developed rapidly until the World Health Organization (WHO) established a pandemic status on COVID-19 since March 11, 2020. Various of government efforts in the context of prevention and treatment have been carried out including lockdowns decisision, social distancing and new normal was currently carried out. Objective: This community service activity aims as an effort to increase the knowledge and awareness of South Konawe communities to prevent and fight covid-19 by clean and healthy living behaviors. Method: The implementation of this activity using socialization and persuasive communication online methods via social media instagram and youtube and offline method performed in two categories, small-scale and large-scale at South Konawe. These community service activities are outlined in 4 main programs, GERMAS (Healthy Living Community Movement), GEMAS (Community Movement Using Masks), socialization about TOGA (Family Medicinal Plants), antiseptics and disinfectants. Results: The result of this program is increasing public knowledges about how to improve the immune system, such as consuming nutritious food, consuming herbs which can be processed into an infusion or decocta preparations as well as understand the importance of implementing about prevention of covid-19 in daily life, such wearing masks, antiseptics, and disinfectants and washing hand correctly. Conclusion: This community service activity really helped increase the knowledge and awareness of the community of South Konawe to prevent and fight the corona virus.


Author(s):  
Mohammad Rubayet Hasan ◽  
Sathyavathi Sundararaju ◽  
Chidambaram Manickam ◽  
Faheem Mirza ◽  
Hamad Al-Hail ◽  
...  

Since the beginning of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, laboratory testing to detect severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) by real-time reverse transcription PCR (RT-qPCR) has played a central role in mitigating the spread of the virus (1). Soon after the viral genome sequences were available, several RT-qPCR assays were developed and made available by World Health Organization (WHO) for public use (https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/whoinhouseassays.pdf). The primer and probe sequences for these assays were chosen from multiple target genes within the viral genome such as the E gene, RdRp gene, ORF1ab and N gene. Many commercial and laboratory-developed assays were developed for SARS-CoV-2 detection based on these primer and probe sequences. The large-scale sustained person-to-person transmission of SARS-CoV-2 has led to many mutational events, some of which may affect the sensitivity and specificity of available PCR assays (2). Recently, mutations in the E gene (C26340T) and N gene (C29200T) were reported affecting the detection of target genes by two commercial assays in 8 and 1 patients, respectively. Interestingly, both mutations are of C>T type, a common single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) that may be associated with strong host cell mRNA editing mechanisms known as APOBEC cytidine deaminase (3, 4). Another study found a G to U substitution in position 29140 that affected the sensitivity of detection of N gene-based assays (5). Here we report a novel N gene mutation (C29200A) seen in 3 patients, which affected the detection of SARS-CoV-2 N gene by a commercial assay.


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