Liver Function Tests Values in Albino Wistar Rats Administered with Isolated Nigeria Achatina achatina Snail Lectin.

Achatina achatina snail specie are considered by many people in Nigeria, Ghana and other parts of West Africa to be the most prized snail for eating. In general, lectins bind to sugar moieties in cell walls or membrane, thereby change the physiology of the membrane to cause agglutination, mitosis or other biochemical changes in the cell. It has been deduced that lectins could be toxic and can as well be used as potent administrations that could be used or serve as substitutes for routine treatment or management of many disorders. Based on these, the toxicity of the Achatina achatina snail lectin in animals was investigated with a view to determining the nutritional value of the snail as food stuffs by carrying out tests to determine the blood values of Liver Function Tests (LFT) parameters in Albino Wistar Rats administered with the lectin. A total of 120 samples of the Nigeria Achatina achatina snail specie were collected, authenticated at the Zoology Department of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and 80mls of pooled crude Lectin extract was obtained. Purifications were performed on 20mls of the crude extract in three steps viz, Ammonium sulphate precipitation and Dialysis (Partial purifications), Con A Sepharose 4B affinity Chromatography column (Complete purification). The affinity purified lectin was used for all the tests conducted in this research. The crude, partially and complete/affinity purified Lectin extracts were subjected to Haemagglutination tests. The Lectin was further assessed to determine its effects on Liver Function Tests (LFT) parameters viz, Total bilirubin (TB), Conjugate bilirubin (CB), Alkaline phosphatase (ALP), Aspartate transaminase (AST) and Alanine transaminase (ALT) as follows: A total of Thirty-five (35) male Albino Wistar Rats weighing 101-180g and aged 2-3 months obtained from the Animal house of University of Nigeria, Nsukka, were used in this research. The animals were Grouped into 5 (A-E) and allowed for 2 weeks acclimatization. Graded doses of 0.04ml, 0.05ml and 0.06ml of the Affinity purified Lectin were administered intra-peritoneally to each of the rats in Groups A-D (test groups) according to their body weights at intervals of 2 days for 1 week. Group E served as the control. Two (2) mls of blood was collected from each of the rats before and 24 hours after the last day of lectin administration for the following tests: TB, CB, ALP, AST and ALT (performed by means of Roche Cobas C111 automated chemistry analyser). The results of the research showed as follows: On complete/affinity purification, 15mls of pure sample containing only the high molecular weight lectin was obtained. The respective haemagglutination tests on the crude, partially and affinity purified Lectin showed on standardization preferential agglutinations with Blood group A type. Bar charts statistics show that there was Post lectin administration mean increase in TB, CB and AST when the Post administrations values were compared with the Pre values. The Bar charts statistics show that there was Post lectin administration mean decrease in ALP and ALT. However, the differences in the Pre and Post administration mean values of these parameters were further subjected to one way analysis of variance (ANOVA) test statistics aimed at determining whether the mean increases or decreases in these assessed parameters were statistically significant. The ANOVA statistics show that the effects of the lectin on all the assessed LFT parameters viz, TB, CB, ALP, AST and ALT were statistically insignificant (P > 0.05). The results obtained in this research has succeeded in demonstrating that the A. achatina snail lectin is non-toxic, non-carcinogenic and therefore point to its nutritive value as food stuff, hence supports the snail eating education.

Complex Alumina-Ferrous Coagulant for Effective Wastewater Purification from Hydrogen Sulfide

The article provides an overview of studies on the causes of the formation of hydrogen sulfide in anaerobic conditions of urban sewage systems and methods for neutralizing toxic reagent sulfur-containing compounds. It is noted that the presence of sulfur compounds and organic components in sewage flow leads to the formation and release of hydrogen sulfide into the atmosphere of settlements. Three main categories of methods for purifying sewage wastewater from hydrogen sulfide are presented. In this work, a complex alumina-ferrous coagulant has been developed from Kazakh raw materials. Based on natural ferruginous diatomite and middlings of sintered alumina, a complex alumina-ferrous coagulant has been synthesized, which is effective in purifying wastewater from hydrogen sulfide, accelerating the processes of sedimentation and clarification of sewage slurries. Experimental results also show that with the supply of increased amounts of coagulant, oil and oil films disappear from the surface of the cylinder, an almost complete purification of effluents from hydrogen sulfide compounds occurs, and the color of the liquid part is greatly reduced. In addition, the advantage of the developed reagent is that it is presented in the form of fine powder and can be easily dosed and added to a canalization pump station to interact with diluted hydrogen sulfide and be transported to sewage fields. Compared to other proposed methods in previous works, the reagent is suitable to be used directly in sewage systems such as sewage waters treatment plants and collectors to prevent hydrogen sulfide emission into the air atmosphere of populated areas, as well as at city sewage water treatment stations after air tanks and before secondary clarifiers to obtain better purified water suitable for watering agricultural plants.

Legal Exegesis and Historical Narrative in Luke 2:22–4

This article wrestles with critical questions often cited in relation to Luke 2:22–4, the gospel writer’s description of two legal rituals (the sacrifice to complete purification after birth, and the consecration of a firstborn son) performed by Mary and Joseph at the Temple. In contrast with previous interpretations of this text, which have tended to conclude either that Luke has been misinformed about Jewish law, or that he simply is not interested in legal precision (thus creating a purely fictive narrative motivated by theological or literary concerns), this essay argues for a more nuanced reading of Luke’s account along a broader spectrum of Second Temple and early rabbinic legal interpretation, and in light of Luke’s claims about the genre and methodology of his gospel. By positioning Luke 2:22–4 among other examples of legal exegesis in ancient Judaism, particularly those that deal with the laws Luke cites, I conclude not only that the childbirth laws in the Torah leave multiple gaps that invite later interpretive differences, but that Luke’s own halakhic reading can be contextualized by comparable readings within the diversity of Second Temple interpretation.

ANALYSIS OF TECHNICAL SOLUTIONS FOR SHIP POTABLE WATER SYSTEMS

The article provides an overview and analysis of all main types of potable water systems currently used on inland and mixed navigation vessels: without potable water treatment; with elements of potable water disinfection and conditioning; with complete purification and disinfection of potable water. The operation principles of potable water systems of all types and designs are considered in detail, all the advantages and disadvantages of these systems are noted. Special attention is paid to stations for preparing potable water by using UV lamps, which essentially differ in the technological process from most of the stations used, and provide guaranteed high-quality disinfection of potable water, which allows to choose the most promising station type and outline a plan for further work on creating new and improving existing stations.

GRANULATED LOW-MODULUS ZEOLITES FOR EXTRACTION OF CO CATIONS

The paper gives a characteristic of LTA and SOD zeolite pellets, which were synthesized using preliminary ultrasonic processing. By X-ray diffraction and IR spectroscopy methods, it was established that the investigated samples contained about 100% of the LTA or SOD phase. It was shown that zeolite LTA particles have a dimension of coherent scattering region of 780 nm and root mean square microdeformations of 0.05%, while SOD zeolite particles have this parameter about 460 nm and the defectiveness of crystal lattice is 0.15%. The values of the specific surface area of zeolite pellets were determined, the values of which are 148.8 and 115.6 m2/g for LTA and SOD, respectively. It was noted that the SOD zeolite pellets have virtually no micropores. Equilibrium curves were obtained for the saturation of zeolite pellets with cobalt cations depending on the concentration of Co2+ in an aqueous solution of cobalt chloride. It was shown that in the entire investigated range of Co2+ concentrations, the LTA zeolite capacity is 30% higher than that of the SOD zeolite which can be explained by two main reasons. Firstly, this is a higher specific surface area of the LTA zeolite. Secondly, these are structural features of the zeolite frameworks, namely, LTA zeolite has α-cavities which are more accessible for Co2+. It is also shown that with increasing temperature, the zeolites capacity on cobalt cations grows. It was discovered that a new absorption band with a wave number at 1390 cm–1 appears on the IR spectra of both zeolites after saturation. In addition, an increase in the size of the unit cell and a growth in the defectiveness of particles were noted in cobalt-saturated zeolites. Taken together, these facts point to the cation exchange. It was shown that 1 g of LTA zeolite provides almost complete purification of 50 ml of the solution from 57Co cations in a dynamic mode.

ПРОБЛЕМЫ СООТНЕСЕНИЯ ДАТ ПАМЯТНИКОВ КУЛЬТУР БРОНЗОВОГО ВЕКА МОНГОЛИИ, ПОЛУЧЕННЫХ В РЕЗУЛЬТАТЕ ПРИМЕНЕНИЯ РАЗЛИЧНЫХ МЕТОДИК РАДИОУГЛЕРОДНОГО ДАТИРОВАНИЯ В 2000-Х – 2010-Х ГОДАХ

From 2001 to 2019, at the Radiocarbon Laboratory of the IIMK RAS, 14C dating was carried out using the liquid- scintillation method of samples from the excavations of the Russian-Mongolian Archaeological Expedition led by A.A. Kovalev and D. Erdenebaatar, including those belonging to the firstly discovered cultures of the Bronze Age and complexes with deer stones. The materials obtained made it possible to construct a columnar sequence of Western Mongolian cultures, to clarify the period of construction of a different types of burial and ritual structures. The dates obtained by AMS-method in recent years for the same burials make the column older in parts and as a whole; the discrepancy with the previously obtained results is most likely due to the impossibility of complete purification of bulk samples for LSC analysis from modern organic contaminants.

Irrigation with treated wastewaters and the protection of Hennaya groundwater – Tlemcen, Algeria

The Henaya Irrigated Perimeter (HIP) is an agricultural area irrigated by treated wastewater (TWW) of Ain El Hout treatment plant. Various analyses have shown that i) this water has low concentration of heavy metals and toxic elements, ii) the average values of the physicochemical parameters for 136 samples are satisfactory (29.2 mg O2∙dm−3 for chemical oxygen demands – COD, 13.14 mg O2∙dm−3 for biological oxygen demands – BOD, 14.2 mg∙dm−3 of suspended matter – SM, 1.82 mg∙dm−3 of N-NO3, 7.7 for pH and 927.74 μS∙cm−1 for electric conductivity – EC). Thirdly, it contains a high number of bacteria and nematodes (7200 CFU∙(100 dm3)−1 for faecal coliforms and 30 eggs∙dm−3 for intestinal Nematodes) which makes it dangerous for groundwater contamination.The objective in this work is to characterize the TWW and evaluate the impact of it use for irrigation on the quality of Hennaya groundwater. Before this, one has to prove that there is an amount of TWW that feeds the water table to show that there is a risk of pollution. We then estimated the aquifer minimum recharge value by TWW using the Thormthwaite method. The estimation has given 92 mm which is an important quantity. The results of the groundwater microbiological analyses reveal no sign of contamination. The cause is the efficiency of the degradation of pollutants of the Vadose zone. The soil purifying power Md of the HIP was evaluated by the Rehse method and gave values ranging from 2.1 to 12.7 which indicated a complete purification.

Emergency measure of soft isolation controlling pollution diffusion response to sudden water pollution accidents

The frequent occurrence of sudden water pollution accidents has become a major threat to water environment safety. Although most researches have focused on constructing a pollutant source identification model and risk assessment methods for dealing with sudden water pollution accidents, a real-time, effective emergency measure for controlling pollutant diffusion, isolating and removing the pollutant, aiming at sudden water pollution accidents, has not been emphasized. Therefore, in this paper, a novel emergency approach of soft isolation was investigated to control pollution diffusion and decrease damage as soon as the accident occurred. In stage 1, the feature of pollution diffusion regarding a sudden water accident was predicted through a water quality model using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Then, a design scheme of soft isolation was constructed in stage 2 to isolate the polluted zone and attention was paid to optimizing the parameters of soft isolation. Ultimately, the mathematical model of complete purification was formulated in stage 3 to remove the pollution from the impacted zone. The results indicated that the emergency measure of soft isolation could have significant potential to control and isolate pollution occurring in a sudden water pollution accident in the future.