Assessment of cervical range of motion,cervical core strength and scapular dyskinesia in violin players

Background. Playing the violin can lead to asymmetric postures which can affect the cervical range of motion, cervical core strength and scapular stability. Objective. The objective of the study was to assess the cervical range of motion, cervical core strength and scapular dyskinesia in violin players and non-players of the same age group. Methods. An inclinometer was used to assess the cervical range of motion, pressure biofeedback was used to assess cervical core strength and scapular dyskinesia was also assessed in 30 professional violin players (18–40 years) compared with 30 age-matched non-players. Analysis was done using an unpaired t test. Results. Significant change was seen with respect to extension (p?=?0.051), cervical core strength (p?=?0.005), right (Rt) superior angle 0° (p?=?0.004), Rt superior angle 45° (p?=?0.015) and Rt inferior angle 90° (p?=?0.013). Conclusion. This study shows a significant difference in extension range of motion and cervical core strength of violin players. Also, there was scapular dyskinesia seen at 0° and 45° right-side superior angle of the scapula and 90° right-side inferior angle of the scapula.     

Earthworms: nature’s chemical managers and detoxifying agents in the environment: an innovative study on treatment of toxic wastewaters from the petroleum industry by vermifiltration technology

Earthworms are justifying the beliefs of Great Russian scientist Dr. Anatoly Igonin who said they are????disinfecting, detoxifying, neutralizing, protective and productive??. Studies indicate that some species of earthworms can ??bio-accumulate, biodegrade or bio-transform?? any toxic chemicals including ??heavy metals??, ??organochlorine pesticide??, ??herbicides??, and the lipophilic organic micro-pollutants like ??polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons?? (PAHs). Worm vermicasts, due to the presence of ??hydrophilic?? groups in the ??lignin contents?? and ??humus??, also provide wonderful sites for ??adsorption?? of heavy metals and chemical pollutants in wastewater. Vermifiltration of wastewater using waste-eater earthworms is a newly conceived novel technology with several economic and environmental advantages. The earthworm??s body and the their ??vermicast?? work as a ??biofilter?? removing BOD₅ by over 90?%, COD by 60?C80?%, TDSS by 90?C95?%, and toxic chemicals and pathogens from wastewater. This was a pioneering work done on an extremely ??toxic wastewater?? from the petroleum industry. It contained mixture of ??aliphatic?? and ??aromatic?? volatile petroleum hydrocarbons (C 10?CC 36) and ??organochlorines?? originating from the cooling liquids, waste engine and gear oil, waste transmission and brake fluid, grease, spilled petrol, and diesel oil. The aliphatic fraction contained cycloalkanes as well as a complex mixture of saturated toxic hydrocarbons. The aromatic fraction mainly consisted of PAHs, which are more toxic and persistent than the aliphatic part. The chemicals of concern were the total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH), dichloromethane (DCM), dichloroethane (DCE), and t-butyl methyl ether (tBME). The tBME compound has raised global concern recently due to its high mobility and persistence in the environment and possible carcinogenicity. About 1,000 earthworms (species Eisenia fetida) were released in the soil of vermifilter bed. They not only tolerated and survived in the toxic petroleum environment but also bio-filtered and bio-remediated the dark-brown petroleum wastewater with a pungent smell into pale-yellow and odorless water indicating disappearance of all toxic hydrocarbons. The hydrocarbons C 10?CC 14 were reduced by 99.9?%, the C 15?CC 28 by 99.8?%, and the C 29?CC 36 by 99.7?% by earthworms.     

Application of foraminifers in ecotoxicology: retrospect, perspect and prospect

In view of the extensive use of foraminifers for the pollution monitoring especially their unmatched utility in deciphering the temporal variation in the type and concentration of pollutants at a given location, the literature dealing with the application of foraminifers for pollution studies has been reviewed. The pollution monitoring through foraminifers started with attribution of peculiar foraminiferal features at any location to the circumstantial presence of pollutants at that site. These peculiar features of the foraminifers in polluted areas included, variation in the abundance of total, calcareous and agglutinated foraminifers, species diversity, abnormal tests, etc. The abnormalities of tests included stunted growth, abraded margins, dissolved ornamentations, etc. Initially, much attention was paid to the effects of sewage pollution on the foraminifers but later on all kinds of human induced as well as natural pollutants came under the preview of foraminiferologists working on pollution aspects. The advantage of application of foraminifers, over other chemical and biological techniques, for pollution monitoring lies in their potentiality to decipher temporal variation in type and concentration of pollutants at any site even in the absence of pre-pollution studies, based on the recovery of foraminifers from the sediment core samples. Realizing the potential application of characteristic foraminiferal features from the polluted areas to decipher the variation in introduction and concentration of pollutants at any given location with time, efforts were made to characterize the specific types of foraminiferal features to the specific pollutants. It was at this point that the need of culture studies was widely felt which resulted in numerous lab and field culture studies where foraminifers were subjected to specific pollutants in order to document their response to these pollutants and to develop effective foraminiferal proxies for pollution monitoring through time. Such studies are still going on and it is felt that culture studies need to be supplemented with advanced crystallographic and molecular studies in order to find the mechanism through which foraminifers respond to the pollutants.     

Incident investigation of mono-nitro toluene still explosion

At one of the nitro-toluene facilities, an o-nitro toluene still was in standby mode. During the standby mode feed to the still had been stopped, the column was not de-inventoried, steam flow to the reboiler was not shut off and the condenser was on total reflux. After 22 days of standby mode, steam was shut off for 5 days for annual plant maintenance. Eight days after the re-start of steam, the still exploded, hurling debris as far as one mile. The internal packing was expelled from the column and landed on the ground burning. The incident was investigated to establish the contributing factors leading to explosion. Accelerating Rate Calorimetery was extensively used to determine the onset temperature for exothermic activity in the presence/absence of a number of materials to establish the underlying cause of the accident. It was found that foulant collected in the column over a period of years accelerated the ’runaway reaction’.     

Indexing method for assessment of pollution potential of leachate from non-engineered landfill sites and its effect on ground water quality

Dumping of solid waste in a non-engineered landfill site often leads to contamination of ground water due to leachate percolation into ground water. The present paper assesses the pollution potential of leachate generated from three non-engineered landfill sites located in the Tricity region (one each in cities of Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula) of Northern India and its possible effects of contamination of groundwater. Analysis of physico-chemical properties of leachate from all the three landfill sites and the surrounding groundwater samples from five different downwind distances from each of the landfill sites were collected and tested to determine the leachate pollution index (LPI) and the water quality index (WQI). The Leachate Pollution Index values of 26.1, 27 and 27.8 respectively for landfill sites of Chandigarh (CHD), Mohali (MOH) and Panchkula (PKL) cities showed that the leachate generated are contaminated. The average pH values of the leachate samples over the sampling period (9.2 for CHD, 8.97 for MOH and 8.9 for PKL) show an alkaline nature indicating that all the three landfill sites could be classified as mature to old stage. The WQI calculated over the different downwind distances from the contamination sites showed that the quality of the groundwater improved with an increase in the downwind distance. Principal component analysis (PCA) carried out established major components mainly from natural and anthropogenic sources with cumulative variance of 88% for Chandigarh, 87.1% for Mohali and 87.8% for Panchkula. Hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) identifies three distinct cluster types for the groundwater samples. These clusters corresponds to a relatively low pollution, moderate pollution and high pollution regions. It is suggested that all the three non-engineered landfill sites be converted to engineered landfill sites to prevent groundwater contamination and also new sites be considered for construction of these engineered landfill sites as the present dumpsites are nearing the end of their lifespan capacity.     

Alternative soil quality indices for evaluating the effect of intensive cropping, fertilisation and manuring for 31 years in the semi-arid soils of India

Soil quality assessment provides a tool for evaluating the sustainability of alternative soil management practices. Our objective was to develop the most sensitive soil quality index for evaluating fertilizer, farm yard manure (FYM), and crop management practices on a semiarid Inceptisol in India. Soil indicators and crop yield data from a long-term (31 years) fertilizer, manure, and crop rotation (maize, wheat, cowpea, pearl millet) study at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) near New Delhi were used. Plots receiving optimum NPK, super optimum NPK and optimum NPK + FYM had better values for all the parameters analyzed. Biological, chemical, and physical soil quality indicator data were transformed into scores (0 to 1) using both linear and non-linear scoring functions, and combined into soil quality indices using unscreened transformations, regression equation, or principal component analysis (PCA). Long-term application of optimum inorganic fertilizers (NPK) resulted in higher soil quality ratings for all methods, although the highest values were obtained for treatment, which included FYM. Correlations between wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) yield and the various soil quality indices showed the best relationship (highest r) between yield and a PCA-derived SQI. Differences in SQI values suggest that the control (no NPK, no manure) and N only treatments were degrading, while soils receiving animal manure (FYM) or super optimum NPK fertilizer had the best soil quality, respectively. Lower ratings associated with the N only and NP treatments suggest that one of the most common soil management practices in India may not be sustainable. A framework for soil quality assessment is proposed.     

Application of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay analysis for determination of monensin in environmental samples

There is growing concern that antibiotic use in livestock production is contributing to contamination of soil and aquatic environments. Monensin, a polyether ionophore antibiotic, accounts for approximately 13% of total subtherapeutic livestock antibiotic usage in the USA and has been widely detected in aquatic environments. Due to insufficient ultraviolet absorbance, liquid chromatography analysis of monensin in environmental samples is limited to equipment with mass spectrometry (e.g., liquid chomatography-mass spectrometry [LC-MS]). However, LC-MS equipment is costly, and extensive sample preparation and clean-up is often required. Rapid, low-cost analytical techniques are needed to monitor for monensin residues in the environment. In this study, a commercially available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for detecting monensin in animal feed extracts was evaluated for determination of monensin in water, soil, and manure. The monensin ELISA was highly sensitive, with limits of detection and quantification at 1.5 and 3.0 microg L(-1), respectively. Recovery of monensin in spiked water samples was approximately 100%. Cross-reactivity was not observed with similar polyether ionophores, tetracyclines, macrolides, or sulfonamides. Concentrations of monensin using ELISA were greater than concentrations measured with LC-MS. This is attributed to cross-reactivity of the monensin ELISA toward structurally similar monensin compounds, such as factors (slight naturally produced structural variants) and metabolites. Results from this study showed that ELISA can be a reliable, rapid, and low-cost alternative to LC-MS analysis of environmental samples.     

Is moral hazard good for the environment? Revenue insurance and chemical input use

Using farm level data we evaluate the input use and environmental effects of revenue insurance. A priori, the moral hazard effect on input use is indeterminate. This paper empirically assesses the input use impact of the increasingly popular, and federally subsidized, risk management instrument of revenue insurance and the extent to which its effects on input use may differ from those of the older yield based instruments. We conclude that among winter wheat farmers, those who purchase revenue insurance tend to spend less on fertilizers but do not appreciably alter pesticide expenditures. Thus, any improved environmental outcomes due to crop insurance are likely due to reduced fertilizer not pesticide use. When the environmental indicators included indicated a potential environmental fragility (i.e. high erosion, pesticide leaching or pesticide runoff potential), the input use equation suggested that fertilizer expenditures decreased. Revenue insurance undoubtedly further reduces fertilizer applications on these fields as well, but the marginal environmental benefit of revenue insurance is lessened because the reduction, where it matters most, accrues on land on which fertilizer use has already been curtailed to some degree.