A review of combined advanced oxidation technologies for the removal of organic pollutants from water

Water pollution through natural and anthropogenic activities has become a global problem causing short-and long-term impact on human and ecosystems. Substantial quantity of individual or mixtures of organic pollutants enter the surface water via point and nonpoint sources and thus affect the quality of freshwater. These pollutants are known to be toxic and difficult to remove by mere biological treatment. To date, most researches on the removal of organic pollutants from wastewater were based on the exploitation of individual treatment process. This single-treatment technology has inherent challenges and shortcomings with respect to efficiency and economics. Thus, application of two advanced treatment technologies characterized with high efficiency with respect to removal of primary and disinfection by-products in wastewater is desirable. This review article focuses on the application of integrated technologies such as electrohydraulic discharge with heterogeneous photocatalysts or sonophotocatalysis to remove target pollutants. The information gathered from more than 100 published articles, mostly laboratories studies, shows that process integration effectively remove and degrade recalcitrant toxic contaminants in wastewater better than single-technology processing. This review recommends an improvement on this technology (integrated electrohydraulic discharge with heterogeneous photocatalysts) viz-a-vis cost reduction in order to make it accessible and available in the rural and semi-urban settlement. Further recommendation includes development of an economic model to establish the cost implications of the combined technology. Proper monitoring, enforcement of the existing environmental regulations, and upgrading of current wastewater treatment plants with additional treatment steps such as photocatalysis and ozonation will greatly assist in the removal of environmental toxicants

HIV-1 Promotes Renal Tubular Epithelial Cell Protein Synthesis: Role of mTOR Pathway

Tubular cell HIV-infection has been reported to manifest in the form of cellular hypertrophy and apoptosis. In the present study, we evaluated the role of mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway in the HIV induction of tubular cell protein synthesis. Mouse proximal tubular epithelial cells (MPTECs) were transduced with either gag/pol-deleted NL4-3 (HIV/MPTEC) or empty vector (Vector/MPTEC). HIV/MPTEC showed enhanced DNA synthesis when compared with Vector/MPTECs by BRDU labeling studies. HIV/MPTECs also showed enhanced production of β-laminin and fibronection in addition to increased protein content per cell. In in vivo studies, renal cortical sections from HIV transgenic mice and HIVAN patients showed enhanced tubular cell phosphorylation of mTOR. Analysis of mTOR revealed increased expression of phospho (p)-mTOR in HIV/MPTECs when compared to vector/MPTECs. Further downstream analysis of mTOR pathway revealed enhanced phosphorylation of p70S6 kinase and associated diminished phosphorylation of eEF2 (eukaryotic translation elongation factor 2) in HIV/MPTECs; moreover, HIV/MPTECs displayed enhanced phosphorylation of eIF4B (eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4B) and 4EBP-1 (eukaryotic 4E binding protein). To confirm our hypothesis, we evaluated the effect of rapamycin on HIV-induced tubular cell downstream signaling. Rapamycin not only attenuated phosphorylation of p70S6 kinase and associated down stream signaling in HIV/MPTECs but also inhibited HIV-1 induced tubular cell protein synthesis. These findings suggest that mTOR pathway is activated in HIV-induced enhanced tubular cell protein synthesis and contributes to tubular cell hypertrophy

Tussle for Existence: An Inquisitive Exploration on the Role of Women in Sangati(Events)

Indian society is quite a complex one, because of its construction of hierarchal social order grounded on the premise of sophistication, social order and sex. Historically, women are placed at the margins that prevented them from having opportunities and denied them the flexibility to enter the general public sphere. This paper entitled “Tussle for Existence: An Inquisitive Exploration on the Role of Women in Sangati (Events)” which is a close to the accurate attempt to discern the penetrating expertise of lower-class women who passed through many unconditional subjugations from varied norms of the society, as well as Dalit women’s power of resilience to subdue these existing curtailments in the patriarchal social structure. Through the work, Sangati, Bama explores the lives of women, wherever caste and gender-based rights and rituals executed a women’s life as sacrificial fires. In her work Sangati, Bama, one among the predominant Dalit women writers, constitutes the themes of Dalit feminism and the celebrations of self-assurance within the community of subaltern women.</jats:p

Mastering of Fancy Meeting Reality: A Critical Exploration of Magical Realism with Reference to “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” Directed by David Fincher

Apart from other art forms, cinema has an unquestionable potential to install new concepts and believes among the society. It has spread around the world, crossed the barriers of languages and communities and has traversed into the depths of social arena. The tool which caused an impact in the ethos, throughout the history is nothing but the new notions portrayed by the filmmakers. Cinema has overpowered the restrictions of the cultural borders and showed its power towards internationalism, which caught the mind of the viewers worldwide. The plot of a cinema often reminds us of things we perhaps already know, but may often forget, that is the beauty of storytelling. The world we see through a lens, is lot clearer than the real one, it takes people to other dimensions of perspective. This approach may be unfathomable to our sceptical minds, which always has an inclination towards disbelieves, but it is still worth the time to question our preconceived dogmas. Magical realism managed to touch the everyday life of the ordinary people through cinema, even though it appears in many fields of art and literature; there is not a single thing that is missing in Magical Realism. When a viewer look at an art work, if they could see beyond the picture of an inanimate object and grasp the depth of the concept which is hidden, through a unique vantage point, then that is the moment you appreciate Magical Realism.</jats:p