Managing hot flushes in menopausal women: a review

Hot flushes during menopause are distressing for women and result in poor quality of life. Purpose of the current review was to evaluate the available treatment modalities that should be utilised for the management of hot flushes. Menopause refers to last menses of women life and can be declared after amenorrhea of 12 months. Vasomotor symptoms including hot flushes and night sweats are common after menopause, affecting almost 50 - 85% women older than 45 years. The mean increment in core body and skin temperature is 0.5 degree C and 0.25 - 3 degree C during a hot flush attack. Low level of estrogen during menopause and its association in triggering episodes of hot flushes, is still under debate. The most accepted hypothesis is a narrowing of the thermoneutral zone [TNZ] triggered by estrogen fluctuations. Although, hormone replacement therapy [HRT] remains the standard treatment for the alleviation of such symptoms, incidence of life threatening side effects restrained medical professionals from its use. Complications associated with the use of HRT can be avoided by appropriate evaluation of patients before initiating therapy. Several guidelines have also recommended HRT [estrogen and progesterone] to be safe for up to a period of seven years. Both hormonal and non-hormonal treatments are used for the management of hot flushes. Since hot flushes are the least appreciated and neglected complication of menopause, current review provides detailed information on its background, pathophysiology and management, and emphasises the need of its treatment

Health impact caused by poor water and sanitation in district Abbottabad

Large proportions of people still do not have excess to safe drinking water and proper sanitation. Qualitative and quantitative approaches were used to assess the health impacts. Random households were selected. Information was collected from questionnaire through interview schedule method, group discussion and observation checklist. People rated water and sanitation condition in urban as: 10% very good, 27% good, 20% bad, 43% very bad, and none of them said we don't know. While in rural areas they rated 10% very good, 36% good, 44% bad, 6% very bad, and 4% of them said we don't know. Water sources in selected urban and rural areas were different, 37% in urban and 68% in rural area depended on bore wells as water source, 22% depended on hand pumps. In urban areas, the disease ratio was typhoid 20%, hepatitis 13%, diarrhoea 27%, skin infection 23%, stomach problems 53% and allergies 33%. In rural areas, after stomach problems, diarrhoea, hepatitis and typhoid ratio was very high as compared to urban area. In rural community, 70% were unaware of poor water and sanitation consequences on health. The water and sanitation condition in urban as well as in rural community is poor but in rural community it is even worse. The drinking water was contaminated with E. coli, Enterobacter, Salmonella and Clostridium. This observation was correlated with prevalence of many water born diseases especially in rural communities of Abbottabad

Assessing potential dietary toxicity of heavy metals in selected vegetables and food crops / 浙江大学学报（英文版）（B辑：生物医学和生物技术）

Heavy metals, such as cadmium, copper, lead, chromium and mercury, are important environmental pollutants, particularly in areas with high anthropogenic pressure. Their presence in the atmosphere, soil and water, even in traces can cause serious problems to all organisms, and heavy metal bioaccumulation in the food chain especially can be highly dangerous to human health. Heavy metals enter the human body mainly through two routes namely: inhalation and ingestion, ingestion being the main route of exposure to these elements in human population. Heavy metals intake by human populations through food chain has been reported in many countries. Soil threshold for heavy metal toxicity is an important factor affecting soil environmental capacity of heavy metal and determines heavy metal cumulative loading limits. For soil-plant system, heavy metal toxicity threshold is the highest permissible content in the soil (total or bioavailable concentration) that does not pose any phytotoxic effects or heavy metals in the edible parts of the crops does not exceed food hygiene standards. Factors affecting the thresholds of dietary toxicity of heavy metal in soil-crop system include: soil type which includes soil pH, organic matter content, clay mineral and other soil chemical and biochemical properties; and crop species or cultivars regulated by genetic basis for heavy metal transport and accumulation in plants. In addition, the interactions of soil-plant root-microbes play important roles in regulating heavy metal movement from soil to the edible parts of crops. Agronomic practices such as fertilizer and water managements as well as crop rotation system can affect bioavailability and crop accumulation of heavy metals, thus influencing the thresholds for assessing dietary toxicity of heavy metals in the food chain. This paper reviews the phytotoxic effects and bioaccumulation of heavy metals in vegetables and food crops and assesses soil heavy metal thresholds for potential dietary toxicity.

Prediction of anoxic sulfide biooxidation under various HRTs using artificial neural networks / 生物医学与环境科学（英文）

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>During present investigation the data of a laboratory-scale anoxic sulfide oxidizing (ASO) reactor were used in a neural network system to predict its performance.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Five uncorrelated components of the influent wastewater were used as the artificial neural network model input to predict the output of the effluent using back-propagation and general regression algorithms. The best prediction performance is achieved when the data are preprocessed using principal components analysis (PCA) before they are fed to a back propagated neural network.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Within the range of experimental conditions tested, it was concluded that the ANN model gave predictable results for nitrite removal from wastewater through ASO process. The model did not predict the formation of sulfate to an acceptable manner.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Apart from experimentation, ANN model can help to simulate the results of such experiments in finding the best optimal choice for ASObased denitrification. Together with wastewater collection and the use of improved treatment systems and new technologies, better control of wastewater treatment plant (WTP) can lead to more effective maneuvers by its operators and, as a consequence, better effluent quality.</p>

Process performance of simultaneous anaerobic sulfide and nitrate removal / 生物工程学报

The process performance of simultaneous anaerobic sulfide and nitrate removal was studied. The results showed that the process held a high sulfide and nitrate removal loading rate of 3.73kg/(m3 x d) and 0.80kg/(m3 x d), respectively, under steady state. It was capable of tolerating high influent substrate concentration (580mg/L and 110mg/L) with the optimum substrate concentration of 280mg/L and 67.5mg/L. It was capable of tolerating short hydraulic retention time (HRT) with the optimum HRT of 0.13d. Careful operation was needed when HRT was shortened because the process performance was deteriorated abruptly.

Anatomical studies on water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes (Mart.) Solms) under the influence of textile wastewater / 浙江大学学报（英文版）（B辑：生物医学和生物技术）

Water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes (Mart.) Solms) is a prolific free floating aquatic macrohpyte found in tropical and subtropical parts of the earth. The effects of pollutants from textile wastewater on the anatomy of the plant were studied. Water hyacinth exhibits hydrophytic adaptations which include reduced epidermis cells lacking cuticle in most cases, presence of large air spaces (7 approximately 50 microm), reduced vascular tissue and absorbing structures. Textile waste significantly affected the size of root cells. The presence of raphide crystals was noted in parenchyma cells of various organs in treated plants.