Risk assessment of heavy metal and metalloid toxicity through a contaminated vegetable (Cucurbita maxima) from wastewater irrigated area: A case study for a site-specific risk assessment in Jhang,Pakistan

The present research was conducted in district Jhang, Pakistan, to evaluate the concentration of metals/metalloids in soil and pumpkin (Cucurbita maxima) irrigated with domestic wastewater. Data revealed that the levels of metals and metalloids in soil samples from two different sites were below the safe limits except Cd, whereas, in the vegetable, the concentrations of As, Se, Ni, Mo, Pb, Mn, and Cu were above the safe limits. The levels of 12 metals and metalloids in the soil were ranged between 0.14 to 22.76 mg/kg at site-I and 0.16 to 22.13 mg/kg at site-II. The levels of these metals in the vegetable were found 0.35 to 61.13 mg/kg at site-I and 0.31 to 53.63 mg/kg at site-II. The transfer factor at both sites was highest for As and Co. The pollution load index recorded for Se, Cu, Cd, Mo, Pb, and Co was greater than 1. The daily intake of As, Mn, and Mo was above the oral reference dose, which reflects that the intake of pumpkin is not safe for the inhabitants of the selected sites. The control measures should be taken to phytoextract heavy metals and metalloids from polluted sites so as to reduce the health risks.     

Biological Control of Macrophomina phaseolina Charcoal Rot of Sunflower and Mung Bean

Infection by Macrophonina phaseolina was substantially reduced following treatment of sunflower and mungbean seeds with Trichoderma harzianum, Gliocladium virens, Paecilomyces lilacinus or Streptomyces sp. which gave promising control of charcoal rot disease. Treatment of mungbean seeds with Rhizobium meliloti also gave good disease control.     

Sexual dimorphism in leg length among orb-weaving spiders: a possible role for sexual cannibalism

The degree and direction of sexual dimorphism across different species is commonly attributed to differences in the selection pressures acting on males and females. The extent of these differences is especially apparent in species that practise sexual cannibalism, where the female attempts to capture and eat a courting male. Here, we investigate the relationship between sexual dimorphism in size and leg length, sexual cannibalism and courtship behaviour in three taxonomic groups of orb-weaving spiders, using morphological data from 249 species in 36 genera. Females are larger than males in all three taxonomic groups, and males have relatively longer legs than females in both the Araneinae and Tetragnathidae. Across genera within each taxonomic group, male body size is positively correlated with both female body size and male leg length, and female body size is positively correlated with female leg length. Sexual size dimorphism is negatively correlated with relative male leg length within the Araneinae, but not within either the Tetragnathidae or the Gasteracanthinae. There was no negative correlation between sexual size dimorphism and relative female leg length in any taxonomic group. We argue that the relationship between sexual size dimorphism and relative male leg length within the Araneinae may be the result of selection imposed by sexual cannibalism by females.     

Survival of Macrophomina phaseoli (Maubl.) Ashby on cucurbit roots

Summary Experiments on the survival ofM. phaseoli on cucurbit root pieces were carried out. The sclerotia ofM. phaseoli were almost unaffected by 10 months dry storage in the laboratory. Under dry to moderately moist soil conditions it survived for 2 months with little loss of viability. In wet soils however, the buried root pieces were colonized by other soil microorganisms which prevented the growth ofM. phaseoli.     

Vibrio cholerae Classical Biotype Is Converted to the Viable Non-Culturable State when Cultured with the El Tor Biotype

A unique event in bacterial epidemiology was the emergence of the El Tor biotype of Vibrio cholerae O1 and the subsequent rapid displacement of the existing classical biotype as the predominant cause of epidemic cholera. We demonstrate that when the El Tor and classical biotypes were cocultured in standard laboratory medium a precipitous decline in colony forming units (CFU) of the classical biotype occurred in a contact dependent manner. Several lines of evidence including DNA release, microscopy and flow cytometric analysis indicated that the drastic reduction in CFU of the classical biotype in cocultures was not accompanied by lysis, although when the classical biotype was grown individually in monocultures, lysis of the cells occurred concomitant with decrease in CFU starting from late stationary phase. Furthermore, uptake of a membrane potential sensitive dye and protection of genomic DNA from extracellular DNase strongly suggested that the classical biotype cells in cocultures retained viability in spite of loss of culturability. These results suggest that coculturing the classical biotype with the El Tor biotype protects the former from lysis allowing the cells to remain viable in spite of the loss of culturability. The stationary phase sigma factor RpoS may have a role in the loss of culturability of the classical biotype in cocultures. Although competitive exclusion of closely related strains has been reported for several bacterial species, conversion of the target bacterial population to the viable non-culturable state has not been demonstrated previously and may have important implications in the evolution of bacterial strains.     

Fine needle aspiration cytology of hepatic metastasis from a meningeal hemangiopericytoma. A case report

BACKGROUND: Hemangiopericytomas (HPCs) are rare spindle cell tumors, constituting 2.5% of soft tissue neoplasms. Few reports have addressed the fine needle aspiration (FNA) cytology of HPC. CASE: We describe the FNA biopsy (FNAB) findings in a 44-year-old patient with a previously resected meningeal hemangiopericytoma. The patient underwent ultrasound-guided FNAB of a 16.0-cm, radiographically heterogeneous density in the liver. The FNA smear showed crowded, ovoid to spindle-shaped cells with poorly defined, scant cytoplasm. The neoplastic cells were positive for CD34 and negative for CD31, factor VIII, glial fibrillary acid protein and cytokeratin AE1/AE3, supporting a diagnosis of HPC and compatible with metastasis from the patient's cerebral tumor. CONCLUSION: This case documents the role of FNA cytology in confirming HPC.     

Application of Central Upwind Scheme for Solving Special Relativistic Hydrodynamic Equations

The accurate modeling of various features in high energy astrophysical scenarios requires the solution of the Einstein equations together with those of special relativistic hydrodynamics (SRHD). Such models are more complicated than the non-relativistic ones due to the nonlinear relations between the conserved and state variables. A high-resolution shock-capturing central upwind scheme is implemented to solve the given set of equations. The proposed technique uses the precise information of local propagation speeds to avoid the excessive numerical diffusion. The second order accuracy of the scheme is obtained with the use of MUSCL-type initial reconstruction and Runge-Kutta time stepping method. After a discussion of the equations solved and of the techniques employed, a series of one and two-dimensional test problems are carried out. To validate the method and assess its accuracy, the staggered central and the kinetic flux-vector splitting schemes are also applied to the same model. The scheme is robust and efficient. Its results are comparable to those obtained from the sophisticated algorithms, even in the case of highly relativistic two-dimensional test problems.     

Condition stabilization for <Emphasis Type="Italic">Aspergillus niger</Emphasis> FCBP-198 and its hyperactive mutants to yield high titres of α-amylase

A number of substrates were tested for the cultivation of microorganisms to produce a host of enzymes. The effect of different substrates (wheat and rice straw, sugar cane waste, wood waste), incubation temperatures (20–40°C), initial pH levels (3.5–9.0), incubation periods (0–72 hours) and nitrogen sources (ammonium sulfate, urea, peptone, yeast extract, sodium nitrate) on growth and α-amylase activity was studied for the native and mutant strains. Maximum enzyme activity was observed at 1.5% wheat straw for Aspergillus niger FCBP-198 and An-Ch-4.7 and at 2% wheat straw for An-UV-5.6, with sodium nitrate as a principle nitrogen source. The optimum temperature for maximum enzyme activity was 30°C for the parental strain, while An-UV-5.6 and An-Ch-4.7 thrived well at 32.5°C. The best conditions of pH and incubation duration were 4.5 and 48 hours, respectively, for all the strains. Mass production under preoptimized growth conditions demonstrated the suitability of wheat straw for swift mycelial colonization and viability.     

Enantioselective phenylacetylene addition to aldehydes and ketones catalyzed by recyclable polymeric Zn(salen) complex

New polymeric Zn(salen) complex was employed in the enantioselective phenylacetylene addition to aldehydes and ketones to produce corresponding chiral secondary propargylic alcohols with yields (up to 96%) and enantioselectivity (up to 72%) and tertiary propargylic alcohols with yields (up to 79%) and enantioselectivity (up to 68%) at room temperature, with added advantage of four times reuse with retention of enantioselectivity.