Maintenance Of Life Research Articles

Microwave assisted synthesis of nano sized sulphate doped hydroxyapatite

Inorganic sulphate is required by all mammalian cells to function properly, it is the fourth most abundant anion in the human plasma. Sulphate ions are the major source of sulphur which is considered an important element for sustenance of life as it is present in the essential amino and is required by cells to function properly. In this study we have successfully substituted sulphate ions (SO42−) into hydroxyapatite (Ca10(PO4)6−x(SO4)x(OH)2−x) lattice via ion exchange process with phosphate group. Concentration of SO42− ions was varied between X=0.05–0.5, using (Ca (NO3)2·4H2O), ((NH4)2HPO4) and (Na2SO4) as starting materials. X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform IR spectroscopy (FTIR), showed that the substitution of SO42− ions into the lattice resulted in peak broadening and reduced peak height due to the amorphous nature and reduced crystallinity of the resulting HA powder. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and field emission electron microscopy (FESEM) analysis confirmed the formation of needle shaped particles of 41nm size with homogenous and uniform distribution of element within the HA structure.

Evidences related to the care of people with pemphigus vulgaris: a challenge to nursing

Problem: Taking care of people hospitalized with pemphigus vulgaris is a complex process, since it is an autoimmune disease that leads to the formation of lesions of the skin and/or mucous membranes in an isolated or generalized form. Objective: To identify the nursing care recommended for people with pemphigus vulgaris. Method: Integrative review of the literature, using the keywords nursing care and pemphigus and the inclusion criteria: complete works with online availability, published between 2006 and 2010 in Portuguese, English and Spanish, covering the object of the study. Results: Of the 129 articles found, only four were selected, characterizing evidence levels 4 and 5. There is a predominance of authors and physicians who favored disease and drug treatment. Discussion: Nursing care is mentioned without addressing its importance in promoting comfort and the sustenance of life. Conclusion: The reality points to the need for the construction of a body of knowledge of nursing on this issue.

The Human Skeletal System and Spaceflight Analogs

The Human Skeletal System and Spaceflight Analogs The human skeletal system is a dynamic system that plays vital roles in the sustenance of life. Bone loss is a phenomenon that occurs in humans both in short and in long term spaceflights. The phenotype can be also reproduced on the ground in human and animals and also modeled in cell-based analogs. With limited missions in space, experimental studies in these analogs have provided much of our understanding of bone loss.

Efficient Hepatic Delivery of Drugs: Novel Strategies and Their Significance

Liver is a vital organ responsible for plethora of functions including detoxification, protein synthesis, and the production of biochemicals necessary for the sustenance of life. Therefore, patients with chronic liver diseases such as viral hepatitis, liver cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma need immediate attention to sustain life and as a result are often exposed to the prolonged treatment with drugs/herbal medications. Lack of site-specific delivery of these medications to the hepatocytes/nonparenchymal cells and adverse effects associated with their off-target interactions limit their continuous use. This calls for the development and fabrication of targeted delivery systems which can deliver the drug payload at the desired site of action for defined period of time. The primary aim of drug targeting is to manipulate the whole body distribution of drugs, that is, to prevent distribution to non-target cells and concomitantly increase the drug concentration at the targeted site. Carrier molecules are designed for their selective cellular uptake, taking advantage of specific receptors or binding sites present on the surface membrane of the target cell. In this review, various aspects of liver targeting of drug molecules and herbal medications have been discussed which elucidate the importance of delivering the drugs/herbal medications at their desired site of action.

Localizing the strategy for achieving rural water supply and sanitation in Nigeria

Water is essential for sustenance of life and determines the overall socio- economic development of any nation. In Nigeria, so many programmes to improve water supply and sanitation situation had been put in place by different administrations. Despite this, the hope of meeting the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) target of safe water supply by the year 2015 is still uncertain. The MDG in water supply and sanitation aims to half the proportion of people without access to potable water supply and basic sanitation. More recent statements of the MDGs refer to the right of communities to have access to an adequate supply of safe water. Safe rural water supply coverage in this context is taken to mean water that does not represent a significant health risk; that is of sufficient quantity to meet all domestic needs; that is available continuously to all of the people and is affordable. There is no gainsaying the fact that the objective of improved rural water supply generally is limited to improved health. This paper therefore examines the extent to which government, implementors, and users are adopting different but interrelated mechanisms to deal with water stress in Nigeria. The paper also identifies the challenges in governance, government policies and priorities as responsible for poor service delivery. More importantly, a policy/institutional framework for sustainable rural water supply and sanitation delivery is developed towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals. Keywords : Rural water supply, sanitation, sustainable development, Millennium Development Goals, Nigeria

Water quality assessment of Godavari river water at Nashik

Rivers are vital and vulnerable freshwater systems that are critical for the sustenance of aquatic life and also the main resource for domestic, industrial and agricultural purpose. Godavari is one of the sacred river rises near the Trimbakeshwar in the district of Nasik in the Indian state of Maharashtra. The river is approximately 1,465 km long and has a total catchment area of 31 mha. It flows in the eastward direction through the states of Maharashtra and joins the Bay of Bengal in Andhra Pradesh. Godavari river is under the serious threat as a result of the growing urbanization and industrialization and river water is used for irrigation, drinking and domestic purpose. Therefore the water quality of Godavari river was assessed by determining physico-chemical parameters like pH, temperature, conductivity, Total Dissolved Solids, Total Hardness, Dissolved oxygen, Biological oxygen demand, Chemical oxygen demand, Phosphates, Sulphates and heavy metals like Na, K, Fe, Pb at three locations S1, S2 and S3 during winter, summer and monsoon seasons in the year Nov. 2008 to Oct. 2010. The standard deviation and coefficient correlation of physico-chemical parameters was also calculated. The variations observed in physico-chemical parameters of Godavari river water during the study period may be due to increased influx of sewage, domestic and agricultural wastes which may vary from simple nutrients to toxic and hazardous substances thus making the river water unfit for drinking and domestic purpose.

Do que depende a vida em sociedade?

O presente artigo apresenta, na tentativa de produzir uma interpretação filosófica do pensamento de Freud, uma problematização acerca de uma gama de noções como subjetividade, realidade, princípio de prazer, princípio de realidade, pulsão de morte, fonte e sustentação da vida individual e grupal, entre outras. Investigando as condições de constituição da subjetividade humana, privilegiamos, entre outras vias possíveis, pelo apoio em diversos textos do psicanalista sobre hipnose. Pretendemos esclarecer, a partir dela e das relações que comporta, as condições em que os laços sociais, vale dizer libidinais, são estabelecidos, além do que proporcionam, a saber, a própria sustentação da vida pela oposição que oferecem à agressividade e autodestrutividade primária postulada por Freud. Com esse recurso, pretendemos sustentar nossa tese de que toda constituição da subjetividade como a sustentação da vida se dão por uma articulação entre interior e exterior que se opõe, por um período determinado de tempo, à conservadora pulsão de morte que subsiste em todo organismo.

Elixir: A history of water and humankind

The book Elixir: A History of Water and Humankind outlines the role and profound importance of water in human civilizations and tells the story of how the human race came to discover, understand, and harness water for daily use; control it during floods; and store and use it during droughts. Elixir is based on three broad themes outlined in the preface. The first theme is gravity and the fact that humans discovered the role of gravity in the flow of water and used it to their advantage, whether to store water, divert it for agriculture, or move it away from their homes in the case of floods. The second theme is the connection between water and religious practices followed by humans over the course of history. The book discusses the symbolism that cultures and civilizations have bestowed on water as a religious icon, which heralds humankind's deep‐seated respect for water as the sustenance of human life. The third theme is the connection or balance between technology and sustainability The use of water in daily activities and irrigation has spurred much technological advancement that has helped humans to harness water. The concept of sustainability was present centuries ago with the recycling of water; this helped societies to achieve more with the water they had and avoid facing shortages.

Soil loss estimation through MUSLE using Kirpich and Williams times of concentration using RS and GIS techniques: a case study

Water is one of the most vital requirements for sustenance of life. Water, along with soil, is the most essential natural resource for economic and social development. A study of soil and water dynamics at a watershed level can facilitate a scientific approach toward their conservation and management. The present study is an attempt to apply the Modified Universal Soil Loss Equation (MUSLE) along with the Soil Conservation Service Curve Number (SCS-CN) method for runoff estimation and comparison of soil loss estimates for the catchments of Baindur Hole and Yedamavina Hole in the Udupi District of Karnataka State, India, obtained by times of concentration calculated by the Kirpich equation and the Williams equation. The base map and thematic maps were prepared using Indian Remote Sensing satellite 1C (IRS-1C) LISS-III (Linear Imaging Self-Scanning Sensor) image for land use/land cover and from Survey of India topo sheet in a GIS environment for overlaying and extraction of results. The time of concentration estimated by the Kirpich formula is lower in all cases; hence, the corresponding soil loss is 1.4 times higher than that determined with Williams formula. Catchments 23 and 17 with a lower drainage length show comparatively higher values of soil loss in case of the Williams equation, which can be attributed to the greater importance of drainage length in the equation.

Weaving the Web of Globality

Ottmar Ette ushers in what he calls “Trans-area literary studies” by analyzing cultural encounters, conflicts and forms of living together in a large number of contemporary literary texts from North and South America, the Caribbean, Europe and North Africa. Ette highlights the need to overcome nationalist literary studies and reclaim literature as an archive of human experiences, which he sees as indispensable for the sustenance of human life. In spite of its transnational scope, the book’s focus on Latin American and West Indian colonial past, hybrid cultures and modern literatures makes it particularly useful for the fields of Hispanic and Caribbean studies.

Biodiversity Informatics and Digitalizing the Biodiversity of India

India is blessed not only with rich biological diversity but also with the associated indigenous knowledge system of the same. The population burst, industrialization, urbanization, environmental pollution and global climate change are some of the factors that lead to the loss of biological resources. Biodiversity is the key to the functioning and sustenance of life forms in the ecosystem. Due to its importance, it becomes imperative to digitalize valuable biological resources that exist in India and its neighboring region.

Teduglutide for the treatment of short bowel syndrome

Extensive resection of the intestine impairs its absorptive capacity and results in short bowel syndrome when the nutritional equilibrium is compromised. The remnant intestine adapts structurally to compensate, but nutritional autonomy cannot be achieved in patients with intestinal failure, requiring intravenous fluids and parenteral nutrition (PN) for sustenance of life. PN is expensive and associated with serious complications. Efforts to minimize or eliminate the need for PN heralded research focusing on the therapeutic utility of intrinsic gut factors involved in the postresection adaptation process. With the breakthrough recognition of the intestinotrophic properties of glucagon-like peptide-2, teduglutide, a recombinant analogue of glucagon-like peptide-2, is being investigated as a promising hope to mitigate the requirement of PN. Clinical studies to date have demonstrated a desirable benefit-to-risk profile in regards to its safety and efficacy. If approved for marketing, it will be the first of its class in short bowel syndrome management, offering an innovative therapeutic modality for this debilitating condition.

The Financial Crisis: A Psychoanalytic View Of Illusion, Greed And Reparation In Masculine Phantasy

The recent financial crisis has shaken the financial system and affected everyone's economic well-being. It has also shaken the framework of stability and trust in rational, ordered management, and injected an anxiety that irrationality is closer than we thought but that no-one really understands it. This essay argues that the financial crisis offers a way to look at a feature of masculinity that is a grounding assumption of both culture and the economy. Through exploring the crisis as a masculine collapse, we can simultaneously bring the nature of masculinity into clearer focus. In particular, I argue that our conscious sense of masculinity is only one pole of a duality - in psychoanalytic terms, it is phallic masculinity, which is based on an illusion of competitive superiority. Viewed as a manifestation of the unconscious, it can be seen as a defence against what I call seminal masculinity, which is based on the procreation, sustenance and restoration of life. I associate phallic masculinity with Klein's 'paranoid-schizoid position' and seminal masculinity with her 'depressive position'. This historic event ramifies into other areas, including environmentalism, trust and deception in politics. The paper focuses on illusion and illusory models that underwrite a sense of rationality, and the sense that a good economy that sustains life has been contaminated by 'toxic assets'.

Orthodox Perspectives on Peace, War and Violence

Orthodox Perspectives on Peace, War and Violence

Series of EGV synchronous generators for life sustenance of passenger cars

The parameters of all variants, the main structural parts, and some essential technological features of EGV synchronous generators are described. A comparison of the generators with the best known equipment, the results of performance tests, and the reliability data are also presented.

KIRPICH AND WILLIAMS TIMES OF CONCENTRATION IN MUSLE: A CASE STUDY

ABSTRACT Water is one of the most vital requirements for sustenance of life. Water, along with soil, forms the combination of the most essential natural resource for economic and social development. A study of soil and water dynamics at a watershed level can facilitate a scientific approach to a conservation and management plan for them. The present study is an attempt to implement Modified Universal Soil Loss Equation (MUSLE) using Soil Conservation Service Curve Number (SCS-CN) method for runoff estimation and comparison of soil loss results for the catchments of Baindur Hole and Yedamavina Hole in Udupi district of Karnataka state obtained by times of concentration calculated by the Kirpich equation and the Williams equation. Preparation of base map and thematic maps was carried out using IRS-1C, LISS-III image for LU/LC and from SOI toposheet in a GIS environment for overlaying and extraction of results. The time of concentration estimated by the Kirpich formula is lower in all cases; hence the corresponding soil loss is higher by 1.4 times in comparison to Williams' formula. The catchments 23 and 17 with a lower drainage length show comparatively higher values of soil loss in case of the Williams equation which can be attributed to the higher importance given to drainage length in the equation.

The Tasks of Keynesianism Today: Green New Deals As Transition Towards a Zero Growth Economy?

The world economy today is facing the juncture of two simultaneous crises: the deepest recession since the end of World War Two and an unprecedented world ecological crisis. Does Keynesianism offer viable ideas to face this combined crisis, alternative to the neoliberal policymaking that has prevailed during the last thirty years? Historically, if viewed from a longer-term perspective, the form of Keynesianism that has predominated, is military Keynesianism, defined as macro-economic policymaking by capitalist governments aimed at stimulating aggregate demand for goods. Thus deficit spending was already applied by the British government when it competed with other European states to gain world hegemony, in the late 17th and the 18th century. Again, whereas for a limited period of time after World War Two, a civilian type of Keynesianism has 'coexisted' with military Keynesianism, especially in Western Europe, – the military form of Keynesianism has clearly prevailed in the era of globalization, especially in the US. Keynesianism offers possibilities for a shift from current policymaking, but only if its mode of application is radically different from its historical modes. An ecological Keynesianism needs to fulfil both a social criterion – promotion of employment – and an ecological standard – countering capitalism's inherent tendency to destroy its natural surroundings. Three examples of an ecological Keynesianism initially come to mind: the state's use of transfer and investment measures so as to accelerate the shift from reliance on fossil fuels towards reliance on renewable energy; state intervention to discourage incineration of waste, and to enhance reliance on recycling; and conversion of military production facilities into units which produce for the sustenance of life on earth. The significance of these shifts can be illustrated by employing a model of social reproduction that diverges from Marx's and Keynes'. Yet while an ecological Keynesianism does offer ample possibilities to address today's combined crisis, the given policymaking needs to be understood as transitional. A solution to the world's ecological crisis is only possible via the transition towards a stationary state – a zero growth economy at the world level which protects the interests of the global South.

Aqua-toxicological Effects of Water Soluble Fractions (WSF) Of Diesel Fuel On O. Niloticus Fingerlings

Five concentrations of water soluble fraction (WSF) of diesel fuel (1.6 ppm, 3.2ppm, 6.4ppm, 12.3ppm and 19.2ppm) were made. To each of the concentrations of the WSF, ten fingerlings of O. niloticus with an average weight of 3g were incubated for 96hours. The 96hour LC50 was determined (8.08ppm). Histopathological examination of the fish gills following exposure to the LC50 and LC100 concentrations of the WSF showed gill elongation and lamellar hyperplasia respectively. There was reduction of dissolved oxygen content (from 7.2 to 4.5 mg/l) caused by diesel that dissolved in water. This was below acceptable levels for the sustenance of aquatic life (i.e. 6.0 – 8.0 mg/L). However, the pH reading was not adversely affected. The result tended to suggest that the death of the fingerlings might be related to the decreased dissolved oxygen content of the water due to the presence of diesel. The structural changes of the gills observed may be an adaptation by the fingerlings to oxygen stress

Subsistence strategies of first human settlements of Eurasia

International Meeting of First Human Settlements in Eurasia, Shanghai, Oct. 8-10, 2010 Subsistence strategies of first human settlements of Eurasia Rosa HUGUET, Palmira SALADIE, Isabel CACERES, Carlos DIEZ, Jordi ROSELL, Maria DE LLUC BENNASSAR, Ruth BLASCO, Montserrat ESTEBAN-NADAL, Joana GABUCCIO, Antonio RODRIGUEZ-HIDALGO, Eudald CARBONELL 1. Institut Catala de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolucio Social (IPHES), Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV), Tarragona 43002 Spain; 2. Laboratorio de Prehistoria, Edificio de i+D+I, Universidad de Burgos, Burgos 09001 Spain; 3. Visiting professor, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of Beijing (IVPP), CAS, Beijing 100044 China. FIRST PARAGRAPH: The paleoeconomy developed by Early Pleistocene human group was subjected to their subsistence strategies. From our point of view, subsistence strategies are a set of actions and measures chosen by hominids, in a precise space and time, for obtaining the necessary means to sustenance and reproduction of human life as individual and as group. When actions and measures chosen are successful, the favorable means for survival of group increased. As a result of this, demography increased and continuity of the group was insured. Some authors have exposed the existence of different constraints as demography, competition among hominids and large carnivores, and a presumably low social articulation of human groups to defend their idea on the impossibility or difficulty of an early occupation of Europe by hominids during the Lower Pleistocene [1-5].

A thioredoxin reductase-like protein from the thermophile, Thermus scotoductus SA-01, displaying iron reductase activity

The transition metal iron is an important element for the sustenance of life--it can function either as an electron acceptor or as a donor and serves as a cofactor in many enzymes activities. The cytoplasmic NAD(P)H-dependent ferric reductase in Thermus scotoductus SA-01 shares high sequence and structural similarity to prokaryotic thioredoxin reductases. Here we report the sequence of the ferric reductase (which is typically annotated as a thioredoxin reductase-like protein) and a comparative kinetic study with the thioredoxin reductase from SA-01. Structurally, the most noteworthy difference, immediately apparent from the protein sequence, is the absence of the disulphide redox centre in the ferric reductase. This is the first report relating the attributes of such a redox protein to its ability to reduce a ferric substrate.