Digital Childhood: the Impact of Using Digital Technology on Children’s Health

Background and Objective: Digital media can be considered as an important element of life for today's children and adolescents since theyspend a lot of time using it. This increased use of digital media is associated with poor behavior and health status. Society in general andpractitioners in public health in particular should promote digital media use strategies through health education. This study is aimed atevaluating the impact of using digital technology on children physical, social and behavior health. Methodology: This is a descriptive studywhich was conducted at the primary health care centers of Tabuk. Through purposive sampling, 300 people were included in the study. Aquestionnaire and a checklist were used as the tools for data collection. Results: There was a significant relationship between theattachment to technology and both physical and psychological health of the studied children. There was also a significant differencebetween the awareness of mothers regarding both negative and positive effects of technology and total effects of technology at the pre andpost-intervention stages. Conclusion: Using technology had an impact on both physical and psychological health of children, and there wasan improvement in mothers’ awareness in this regard. This reflects the key role of health education on improving the awareness of mothersabout the effects of using technology on the health of their children.

Identification of synthetic food colors adulteration by paper chromatography and spectrophotometric methods

Synthetic food colors are widely used in different types of food stuffs in India as well as in the world. Changing lifestyles across the globe have transformed food habit patterns. The instant and processed foods (junk foods) are mainly used in a variety of attractive “Synthetic food colors” by its manufacturers. In the present study an attempt has been aimed to study the Extraction, Identification of Synthetic food colors adulteration by Paper chromatography and UV-Visible spectrophotometer in different sweets and jams. In the Institute of Forensic Science and Criminology (IFSC), Bundelkhand University, Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh in 2011.

Toxicity Assessment of Silver Nanoparticles in Zebrafish Embryos.

Genotoxic effects of silver nanoparticles (Ag-np) in a vertebrate model system were investigated. Effects and accumulation patterns of silver nanoparticles were studied using zebrafish embryos. Nanoparticles of silver were synthesized by chemical reduction of silver nitrate, using sodium borohydride as reducing agent and polyvinyl pyrolidene as a stabilizer. These nanoparticles were characterized by UV/ Vis spectrophotometer (absorption spectra), Transmission electron microscopy and were found to have the size range of 4 to 10 nm. Evaluation of cytotoxicity was carried out at various concentrations to obtain the LD50 value. Dose dependent decrease in percent viability was observed on exposure of embryos to different concentrations of silver nanoparticles with LD50 of 1.0 µg/ml. The results indicate that silver nanoparticles induce a dose-dependent toxicity in embryos and abrogate normal development.

Comparative analysis for metal binding capacity of cysteine by using UV-VIS spectrophotometer.

The metal binding capacity of cysteine with three different metals Nickel, Copper and Lead was studied using UV-Vis spectrophotometer for which absorbance values were taken after interaction of cysteine with metal salt solutions (10ppm and 100ppm). Before taking above absorbance dilution factor was set using cysteine stock. The increase in peak intensity was observed when metal salt solution and metal saltcysteine solution were compared. Based on peak shift and peak intensity finally it can be concluded that the binding capacity of cysteine with Nickel is more, followed by lead and copper. The normal chromophore activity in cysteine is due to the sulphur in which the transition takes place from non bonding orbital’s to the excited antibonding orbital in the range of 210-215nm range. The binding of the metals with cysteine may affect the chromophore activity and may also lead to structural damage of the chromophore. This can give the decrease in the peak intensity or the complete shift in the peak. These results suggest that cysteine metal binding ability can be used for the removal of the metals in water purification. Also this property can be used in removal of metals from our body considering the fact that cysteine may not show adverse effect in the system. So we can go for designing a new type of drug containing cysteine which helps to prevent the accumulation of such metals and thus prevent us from adverse effect.