Risk Factors for the Number of Sustained Injuries in Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining Operation

Background@#The relationship between risk factors and likelihood of occupational injury has been studied. However, what has been published has only provided a limited explanation of why some of the employees working in the same environment as other employees suffered a single-injury event, while other employees experienced multiple-injury events. This article reports on an investigation of whether artisanal and small-scale miners in Migori County of Kenya are susceptible to a single-injury or multiple-injury incidences, and if so, what underpinning parameters explain the differences between the single incident injured and the multiple incident injured group. Mine management commitment to safety in artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) operations is also considered. @*Materials and methods@#The research objectives were achieved by surveying 162 uninjured and 74 injured miners. A structured, closed-end questionnaire was administered to participants after the stratification of the study population and systematic selection of the representative samples. @*Results@#The results showed that most injured miners suffer a single-injury incident rather than experiencing multiple-injury events, and laceration (28.40%) was the common injury suffered by the miners. The analysis showed that the risk factors for the single incident injured group were not similar to those in the multiple incident injured group. The research also found mine workers have low opinion about mine management/owners commitment to safety. @*Conclusion@#The study concluded that mine management and miners need to be educated and sensitized on the dangers of this operation. Provision of safety gears and positive safety culture must be a top priority for management.

Groundwater arsenic contamination and associated health risks in Bihar, India

The extent of groundwater arsenic [As] contamination and associated health-risks were studied in the four villages: Chaukia and Terahrasiya [Vaishali]; Mamalkha and Masharu [Bhagalpur] in Bihar, India. Groundwater samples were tested using the standard Silverdiethyledithiocarbamate method at 520nm by Thermo UV-1 spectrophotometer. The As levels in both the districts exceeded the WHO standard of 10microg/L for drinking water with a maximum value of 20microg/L in Vaishali and 143microg/L in Bhagalpur. However, the FAO standard of 100microg/L of As for irrigation water was only exceeded in Bhagalpur. The calculated range of the hazard index [HI] for Vaishali was 0.9 to 10, and for Bhagalpur was 10.40 to 40.47. Both ranges exceed the accepted normal toxic HI of 1.00. The cancer risk was derived as 1-5/1000 people to 5-16/10,000 people in Vaishali, and 7-21/1000 and 5-16/1000 people in Bhagalpur. Prevalence of skin pigmentation was double in Vaishali in comparison to Bhagalpur. The analysis of principal components showed that only two components had a fundamental role in defining variance for cancer risk assessment. A more extensive screening of As contamination of groundwater and a follow-up clinical study are necessary to accurately assess the likelihood of As-related cancers in these districts

Development and validation of a method for densitometric analysis of berberine in herbal extract and polyherbal formulation

Todevelop a new high-performance thin-layer chromatography [HPTLC] method for the quantification of berberine in herbal extract and pharmaceutical dosage form. The HPTLC was performed on aluminium foil plates coated with 200 mm silica gel 60F254. Linear ascending development with toluene:ethyl acetate:formic acid:methanol 9:9:3:1 [v/v/v/v] was performed at room temperature [25 +/- 2 C] in a twin-trough glass chamber saturated with mobile-phase vapour. Compact bands [RF 0.58 +/- 0.02] were obtained for berberine. Spectrodensitometric scanning was performed in fluorescence mode at 350 nm. The method was validated for precision, recovery, robustness, specificity, and detection and quantification limits, in accordance with International Conference on Harmonization guidelines. Linear regression analysis of the calibration plots showed a good linear relationship [r2 = 0.9996 +/- 0.0001] between peak area and concentration in the range 10-100 ng/band, respectively. The limits of detection and quantification were 2.8 and 9.3 ng/band. The recovery of the method was 98.5-100.6%. The above method was a rapid and cost-effective quality-control tool for routine analysis of berberine in herbal extracts and in pharmaceutical dosage form

Qsar studies of side chain modified DI and TRI-peptides in mimicking the Bio-potency of anti-nociceptive action of enkephalin

QSAR Studies of smaller chain peptides has been proposed for predicting enkephalin mimic anti-nociceptive activity using a lipophilic parameter partition coefficient. C Log P Program was developed basically based on the fragmentation approach, has been written in Fortran IV. The test compounds, Ile-Val, Phe-Gly, Asn-Cys, Gly-Cys-Val and Ile-Val-Glu were encoded as topological representation of molecular structures using alpha numeric language smiles notation. Log P values obtained for the smaller chain dipeptides and tri-peptides were -0.481 [Ile-Val]; -1.757 [Phe-Gly]; -4,159 [Asn-Cys]; -2.318 [Gly-Cys-Val] and -1.627 [Ile-Val-Glu]. Substitution of glycyl or L-amino acid residues by D-amino acids at appropriate sites of some bioactive peptides may cause a considerable rise in potency. The effect is most dramatic at the Gly-position of enkephalin. Drugs which are to be targeted for the CNS should have log P value of approximately 2. Hence it was concluded that Phe-Gly and Gly-Cys-Val are selected as potential targets for enkephalin like anti-nociceptive activity

Evaluation studies of antimicrobial activity on the leaf extracts of Achyranthes aspera Linn

Disc diffusion method was employed to determine the effect of methanol, acetone and chloroform extracts of the dried leaves of Achyranthes aspera against Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus fecalis, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Proteus vulgaris, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Candida albicans. The chloroform extract shown to exhibit maximum potency against E. coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Methanol extract showed moderate potency against E. coli and Candida species. Acetone extract was less effective against most of the species used except Streptococcus fecalis. Among all the extracts tested, none of the extract was found to be effective against gram positive S. aureus and gram negative Proteus vulgaris

In vivo anti-tumour activity of Wrightia tomentosa in Ehrlich ascites carcinoma bearing mice

Anti-tumour activity of ethanolic extracts of leaf and bark of Wrightia tomentosa [Fam: Apocynaceae] in the mice transplanted with Ehrlich ascites carcinoma [EAC] were investigated. The EAC mice receiving 100 and 200 mg/kg ethanolic leaf and bark extract showed a dose dependent elevation in tumour-free survival and a highest number of survivors were observed at 200 mg/kg for leaf extract of ethanol. which was considered as an optimum dose for its neoplastic action. The Median survival time [MST] for this dose was approximately 44 days when compared with 23 days of non-drug treated controls. Statistical analysis also indicates that the leaf extract showed highly significant anti-tumour potency [p<0.00l] when compared with control

Hepatoprotective effect of ethanol extract from leaves of Phyllanthus emblica in rats

In this study, phytochemical extraction was carried out on the leaves of Phyllanthus emblica using ethanol as the organic solvent. The antioxidant activity of ethanol extract from Phyllanthus emblica was evaluated by various biochemical marker parameters, including super oxide dismutase [SOD - anion radical scavenging], catalase [CAT - hydrogen peroxide scavenging], glutathione peroxidase [GPX], glutathione reductase [GRD - reducing power], glutathione transferase [GTS] and thio-barbituric acid reactive substances [TBARS] measurement. Hepato cellular damage was induced by intraperitoneal administration of CCl[4] in male albino Sprague-Dawley strain rats. The reduced levels of SOD, CAT, GPX and GRD with CCl[4] treated animals attain normal level, after administration of ethanolic extract of Phyllanthus emblica. However, the activity of GTS was significantly higher in CCl[4] treated animals, which were brought down towards normal level in herb treated rats. The increased concentration of TBARS with CCl[4] treated rats attains normal level after administration of ethanolic extract of the same plant. An antioxidant property appears to be predominantly responsible for this hepato-protective action of the drug

Antimicrobial activity of extracts and isolates of the leaves of Plumeria alba Linn.

Disc diffusion method was employed to determine the effect of methanol, chloroform and acetone extracts of the dried leaves of Plumeria alba Linn. [Apocyitaceac] against fungi [Candida albicans] and bacteria [Bacillus subtilis, Proteus vulgaris Staphylococcus aureus. Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Streptococcus fecalis, Escherichio coil, Staphylococcus albus and Klebsiella pneumoniae]. The methanol and acetone extracts exhibited a prominent antimicrobial activity. The methanolic and acetone extracts were further fractionated by column chromatography to yield 2 pure isolates. The methanol pure component-2 [MPC[2]-50% Ethyl acetate:Methanol] and Acetone pure component-2 [APC[2]-70% Acetone:Ethyl acetate] have shown significant activity against all organisms used except Klebsiella

Anti-microbial activity of extracts and isolates of leaves of acalypha canescana linn

The in vitro antibacterial activity of the extracts and isolates of Acalypha canescana [leaves] have been studied against bacteria [Bacillus subtilis, Staphlylococcus aureus, Proteus vulgaris, Pseudomonas aeruginosa] and fungi [Candida albicans]. The total acetone extract, total methanol extract, total chloroform extract, total benzene extract and the fractionated two isolates of acetone extract and benzene extract have shown significant activity against the organisms used, almost comparable with the standard drugs Ciprofloxacin and Clotrimazolc. This in vitro testing also resulted in activity guided isolation of four antibacterial and antifungal principles from the leaves

Design and optimization of nsaid loaded nanoparticles

The objective of the study was to design and evaluate NSAID loaded Nanoparticles drug delivery system, where Flurbiprofen [model drug] Nanoparticles with suitable size range are envisaged to concentrate at inflammation sites due to increase fragility of blood vessels at those sites and increased aggregation and prostaglandin synthesis. Materials used were surfactant [pluronic F 68] and polymer [poly lactic co glycolic acid; PLGA]. The flurbiprofen loaded nanoparticles were prepared by solvent diffusion nano-precipitation method. Experiment was carried out following 32 factorial designs, where drug-polymer ratio was varied to optimize the formulation. From I.R studies no drug-polymer interaction was found. Particles size analysis was done using Malvern Mastersizer. Two parameters, namely, drug-polymer ratio and solvent-nonsolvent ratio were chosen for optimization following the factorial design. Amount of drug loading and surfactant were kept constant, and only polymer load was varied. The in-vitro drug release profile from nanoparticles was found to follow Higuchi square root kinetics implying a diffusion dependent release as is expected of an insoluble, non-swellable nature of PLGA. It indicated that nanoparticles formed were matrix in nature, in which flurbiprofen dispersed uniformly. Suitable polynomial models were generated and statistically validated using ANOVA for the different responses, namely drug release [maximization] and particle size [minimization]. Those models were solved numerically and simultaneously to optimize the required formulation. Optimized formulation were found to have a polymer-drug ratio of 18.89:1 and manufactured at a nonsolvent-solvent ratio of 4:1 to maximized release after 8 hrs and minimized particle size. The methodology avoids the use of organic solvent and thus provides a safe, reproducible and fast method of production of nanoparticles. The study collaborates on the feasibility and suitability of aqueous polymeric drug delivery system, employing statistical design to develop a clinically useful Nanoparticle system with targeting potential

Toward a pharmacophore for anti-tumor based tubulin inhibitors: insight from a catalyst hypogen mapping of cryptophycin analogues

The invention of a new class of anti-tumour tubulin inhibitors based on a pharmacophore hypothesis for small molecule analogues of cryptophycin is discussed. A training set of 20 compounds was selected from 45 crypiophycin inhibitors [1C 50 value ranges from 0.022 nm to 1860 nm] of Periyar Bio in-house data bases to generate hypogen model. All structures were built and minimized within the CATALYST and conformational analysis was implemented using the pooling algorithm. The maximum number of conformers generated was 250 and a range of 10 kcal/mol was chosen. Training set consists of 20 compounds tested against human tubulin was used to develop pharmacophore hypothesis. Among the generated 10 hypotheses, the best pharmacophore model [Hypothesis 1] feature one hydrogen bond acceptor, one hydrogen bond donor, one hydrophobic aliphatic and one ring aromatic with the correlation coefficient of 0.948, RMS deviation of 0.774, and a cost difference of 57.71. The obtained pharmacophore models were validated on 18 test molecules. The mapping of hypothesis 1 models on to a highly active compound 6S [1C 50 = 0.58 nm] and the mapping of hypothesis 1 model on to a highly inactive compound 7a [1C 50 = 2000 nm], was successfully designed using CATALYST Hypogen. For the test set, the accuracy in predicting active compounds was greater than 95%, while 8% and 1% representing both false positive and negative, respectively

Growth performance and nutrient utilization in black Bengal bucks (Capra hircus) supplemented with graded doses of chromium as chromium chloride hexahydrate

Black Bengal bucks (Capra hircus) were supplemented with 0, 0.2 or 0.4 mg elemental chromium (Cr) as chromium chloride hexahydrate per day for 70 days. Intake of dry matter (p0.05) effect on the plasma half life (k) and clearance rate of glucose (T1/2) during an intravenous glucose tolerance test. Area under the response curve from 0 to 180 minutes after glucose loading was lower (p<0.001) in the control group of bucks. The study revealed that Cr supplementation might promote growth and nutrient utilization in black Bengal bucks. However, little difference between the 0.2 and 0.4 mg Cr supplemented bucks suggested limited benefit of increasing the level of supplementation beyond 0.2 mg per day under the normal management regimes.

Allogeneic bone marrow transplantation in Oman Sultan Qaboos University Hospital experience

Allogeneic bone marrow transplantation was started 1995 in a single-bed facility at Sultan Qaboos University Hospital at Muscat. Until today 23 patients have received allogeneic marrow from HLA compatible siblings. One patient died during the first 100 days after bone marrow transplantation due to overwhelming Klebsiella septicaemia. One patient with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and another patient with acute myeloid Ieukaemia relapsed and died. The remaining patients who have been followed up for periods ranging from 1 month to 3 years are doing well without any disability. Twenty three patients transplanted so far include 9 patients with B thalassaemia major, 4 chronic myeloid leukaemia patients in chronic phase, 4 with acute myeloid leukaemia, 2 severe aplastic anaemia, 3 acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and 1 sickle cell anaemia. the results from this centre show < 5% mortality in the first 100 days and very low morbidity. The scope and availability of this procedure needs to be expanded in the Sultanate to meet rising demands