Closing the Implementation Gap: Bringing Clean Air to the Region

This report identifies 25 clean air measures that can positively impact human health, crop yields, climate change and socio-economic development, as well as contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Implementing these measures could help 1 billion people breathe cleaner air by 2030 and reduce global warming by a third of a degree Celsius by 2050

Dehydrated foods: Are they microbiologically safe?

Dried foods are low water activity foods with water activity ranging from 0.03 to 0.7. They are commonly misconstrued to be inherently safe from food borne pathogenic bacteria. However, there are many reported cases where many food borne illnesses were caused by the consumption of dried foods contaminated with Salmonella spp., Cronobacter spp., Staphylococcus spp. and E. coli. In this work, we have systematically reviewed the literature dealing with the effect of drying/dehydration on the survival of pathogenic microorganisms with special focus on Salmonella spp. We have also reviewed and synthesized the literature dealing with the effect of drying process on microorganisms in dried vegetables, meat, fish, spices, mushroom and powdered foods. This review concludes that dried foods are not inherently safe microbiologically and required other hurdles to achieve microbial safety

Asparagus (Asparagus officinalis): Processing effect on nutritional and phytochemical composition of spear and hard-stem byproducts

Background: Asparagus (Asparagus officinalis L.), is a well-known vegetable for its unique flavor, texture and presence of many phytochemicals and desirable physiological functions. More than 200 species of asparagus have been identified, of which, Asparagus officinalis is the only species cultivated commercially as a vegetable. Scope and approach: We have comprehensively reviewed the literature on chemical composition and phytochemicals of asparagus, with special attention to phenolic compounds, including rutin as well as saponins, including protodioscin, and diosgenin. The literature on physiology of spear hardening and the utilization of hard-stem byproducts as the source of dietary fiber, and bioactive compounds is also explained. Key findings and conclusions: Asparagus spear and hard-stem byproducts are rich sources of nutritional and phytochemical compounds, the content of which are affected by different factors including asparagus variety, spear part, harvesting season, cultivation method etc. Cold- and MAP-storage are the most widely used processing techniques for fresh keeping of asparagus spear, whereas fermentation, juice production, drying studies have been conducted to some extent. Post-harvest hardening of asparagus spear is inevitable but different methods have been developed to delay such hardening process, such as low-temperature, anaerobic- and dark-condition, along with the control of PAL activity through the application of ammonium sulfate. A large quantity of byproducts (3050%) generated during production and processing of asparagus, can be converted into various high value products, including bioactive dietary fiber powders, bioactive extracts, mainstream products with these byproducts etc. Therefore, a comprehensive review on botanical, processing and byproduct utilization of asparagus are done in this paper

Efficacy of Misoprostol as a Post Abortion Care

Aims: This study was done to find the efficacy of Misoprostol as a post-abortion care in our setting. Methods: Women with incomplete abortion of gestational age ≤ 12 weeks or uterine size ≤ 12 weeks with open cervical os, haemoglobin ≥ 9 gm% and stable physical condition; were given 600 microgram Misoprostol orally and were observed for 24 hours for complete expulsion. If the patient failed to expel within 24 hours of Misoprostol administration manual vacuum aspiration or suction evacuation was done. Results: One hundred and twenty-two women were enrolled in the study. Among them, 41% had complete expulsion within 24 hours of administration of misoprostol and 49% had incomplete expulsions. The success rate was high in the group of &lt; 8 weeks of pregnancy. Among 50 (41%) successful cases, 38 (76%) belonged to 8 weeks of gestation by bimanual examination (p = 0.02). Conclusions: Single dose of oral Misoprostol was effective, safe and alternative method to the management of incomplete abortion compared to the manual vacuum aspiration or suction evacuation in case of early pregnancy abortion.Nepal Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology / Vol 8 / No. 2 / Issue 16 / July-Dec, 2013 / 71-74 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/njog.v8i2.9778 </jats:p

Measurements for Condition Monitoring of Hydropower plants: A Review

Abstract Condition monitoring is an extension of the predictive maintenance or proactive maintenance process for detecting faults in a machine component with the help of pre identified measuring parameters to identify a significant change which is indicative of a developing fault. The fault developed due to various factors in the hydropower plants can damage or halt the operation of power plants. The literatures on the measurement process for condition monitoring of power plants has been reviewed and discussed. Since condition monitoring is a newer and a broader topic, few literatures were available and they were review on the basis of measurement and faults detection processes.</jats:p

HIV Latency in Myeloid Cells: Challenges for a Cure

The use of antiretroviral therapy (ART) for Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) treatment has been highly successful in controlling plasma viremia to undetectable levels. However, a complete cure for HIV is hindered by the presence of replication-competent HIV, integrated in the host genome, that can persist long term in a resting state called viral latency. Resting memory CD4+ T cells are considered the biggest reservoir of persistent HIV infection and are often studied exclusively as the main target for an HIV cure. However, other cell types, such as circulating monocytes and tissue-resident macrophages, can harbor integrated, replication-competent HIV. To develop a cure for HIV, focus is needed not only on the T cell compartment, but also on these myeloid reservoirs of persistent HIV infection. In this review, we summarize their importance when designing HIV cure strategies and challenges associated to their identification and specific targeting by the “shock and kill” approach.</jats:p