Heme Burden and Ensuing Mechanisms That Protect the Kidney: Insights from Bench and Bedside

With iron at its core, the tetrapyrrole heme ring is a cardinal prosthetic group made up of many proteins that participate in a wide array of cellular functions and metabolism. Once released, due to its pro-oxidant properties, free heme in sufficient amounts can result in injurious effects to the kidney and other organs. Heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) has evolved to promptly attend to such injurious potential by facilitating degradation of heme into equimolar amounts of carbon monoxide, iron, and biliverdin. HO-1 induction is a beneficial response to tissue injury in diverse animal models of diseases, including those that affect the kidney. These protective attributes are mainly due to: (i) prompt degradation of heme leading to restraining potential hazardous effects of free heme, and (ii) generation of byproducts that along with induction of ferritin have proven beneficial in a number of pathological conditions. This review will focus on describing clinical aspects of some of the conditions with the unifying end-result of increased heme burden and will discuss the molecular mechanisms that ensue to protect the kidneys.

The Causes and Potential Injurious Effects of Elevated Serum Leptin Levels in Chronic Kidney Disease Patients

Leptin is an adipokine that regulates appetite and body mass and has many other pleiotropic functions, including regulating kidney function. Increased evidence shows that chronic kidney disease (CKD) is associated with hyperleptinemia, but the reasons for this phenomenon are not fully understood. In this review, we focused on potential causes of hyperleptinemia in patients with CKD and the effects of elevated serum leptin levels on patient kidney function and cardiovascular risk. The available data indicate that the increased concentration of leptin in the blood of CKD patients may result from both decreased leptin elimination from the circulation by the kidneys (due to renal dysfunction) and increased leptin production by the adipose tissue. The overproduction of leptin by the adipose tissue could result from: (a) hyperinsulinemia; (b) chronic inflammation; and (c) significant lipid disturbances in CKD patients. Elevated leptin in CKD patients may further deteriorate kidney function and lead to increased cardiovascular risk.

TOBACCO USE AMONG STUDENTS OF RURAL BACKGROUND IN BHOPAL

Background: It is well known fact that tobacco kills up to half of its users. 8 million people are killed by the use of tobacco annually. Direct tobacco consumption is responsible for approx seven millions of these deaths and approx 1.2 million deaths due to tobacco use are due to the exposure of non smokers to second hand smoke. The present study was undertaken to study the prevalence of use of tobacco products among rural male students and their knowledge about its injurious effects. Aims and objectives:This study was undertaken to determine the prevalence of tobacco use among students residing in rural background and to assess their knowledge about injurious effects of tobacco products in any form. Material and Methods:The study was undertaken by using a detailed, predesigned questionnaire on the use of tobacco. Results: The prevalence of tobacco smoking was found to be 21% and smokeless tobacco as 37% on regular basis. Conclusion: Present study clearly demonstrates the common practice of tobacco consumption among students living in rural background and it is of deep concern. Knowledge about harmful effects of tobacco use certainly have role in restraining the tobacco habit among students.

METHOD OF DETERMINING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF A MISSILE’S BLAST-FRAGMENTATION WARHEAD BY USE OF COMPUTATIONAL METHOD AND EXPERIMENT

Armaments are characterized by groups of technical and operational characteristics, each of which is divided into separate indicators. These include effectiveness, ranges of use; combat capability, reliability, operational safety. Under the effectiveness of the missile’s warhead it shall be understood the amount of damage that can cause an explosion in combat environment. The aim of the work is to evaluate the effectiveness of the blast-fragmentation warhead by modeling and analyzing the damaging of injurious effects. Primary blast-fragmentation warhead effects are a shock wave, which is characterized by a specific air pressure on its front and a specific impulse, as well as fragments that move at high speed. Determining the effectiveness of target neutralization by the fragmentation effect of the warhead is described by a set of positions of the j units, each of which is characterized by the fractional volume, the angle of inclination, the type of losses. Due to the independent impact on the target of several effects, their whole impact can be estimated by the total probability of individual injurious effects. The effectiveness of warhead is assessed by the probability of hitting the target. It is most rational to achieve the goal by reducing the distance to the explosion while increasing accuracy. This is a global development trend. Other ways are either to increase its explosive power or structurally - the number of fragments. It is necessary to indicate experimental data on the number of holes per unit area for a given distance and characteristics of the warhead of the missile. Assessing the probability of the debris impact requires clarification of the characteristics of the warhead, the characteristics of the vulnerable spots of the target and the angle of the missile approach. It is advisable to make the trajectory of the missile approach guided, taking into account the modularity of the configuration. This reduces ammunition consumption and increases the efficiency of the warhead.

Pesticide and Human Health

Pesticides are known to be one of the extremely useful and incredibly beneficial agents for preventing losses of crops as well as diseases in humans. They are used in a large number of conditions as in farms, orchards, gardens, parks, sports lawn, residences, industrial areas, shops, schools, hospitals, airports, railway lines, drains, on animals, and on people for control of diseases such as scabies and head lice. People are exposed to pesticides in their daily lives through multiple routes of exposure such as occupational or food, water, and air. Many pesticides can be used safely and effectively, but care must be taken while using them. Several pesticides are beneficial in agriculture for killing pests. Yet many times their injurious effects offset the positive ones. Uses of pesticides are apprehension for sustainability of environment and global stability. This chapter aims to discuss pesticides, their types, routes of their exposure, human health concerns related to them, methods to stop using them, and a future scenario of the world after eradicating pesticides.