Jellyfish Venom Peptides Targeting Human Potassium Channels Identified through Ligand Screening: Morphometric and Molecular Identification of the Species and Antibiotic Potential.

The relative lack of marine venom could be attributed to the difficulty in dealing with venomous marine animals. Moreover, the venom of marine animals consists of various bioactive molecules, many of which are proteins with unique properties. In this study, we investigated the potential toxic proteins of jellyfish collected for ligand screening to understand the mechanism of the toxic effects of jellyfish.

A prospective cohort study on post COVID syndrome from a tertiary care centre in Sri Lanka.

There is a scarcity of follow-up data on post-COVID syndrome and its physical, psychological, and quality of life attributes, particularly from South Asian populations. This study was conducted to assess the prevalence, associations, and impact of the post-COVID syndrome among patients treated at a dedicated COVID-19 treatment unit. A prospective cohort study was conducted to follow-up patients with moderate to severe disease or mild disease with co-morbidities at 2 and 6 weeks, 3 and 6 months and 1 year from discharge.

Hip fractures and outcome in elderly patients in a tertiary care hospital of Sri Lanka.

Unlabelled: This study assessed how elderly patients with hip fractures were affected by factors such as comorbidities, fracture type, treatments, complications, and health-related quality of life. The majority of participants had surgery for their fracture with good prognoses despite having comorbidities. Reductions in the general level of activities related to daily living were proportionately higher even after one year.

Hydrogeochemical characterization of groundwater with a focus on Hofmeister ions and water quality status in CKDu endemic and CKDu non‒endemic areas, Sri Lanka.

Hydro-geochemistry of drinking water was characterized in chronic kidney disease of unknown etiology (CKDu) endemic areas in Girandurukotte (GK) and Dehiattakandiya (DH) and non-endemic areas in GK, DH, and Sewanagala (SW) in Sri Lanka to comprehend any potential risk factors for CKDu. Groundwater (n = 142) and surface water (n = 08) were sampled during wet and dry seasons and analyzed for major anions, cations and stable isotopes of hydrogen and oxygen (δH and δO). Besides the typical water quality analysis, the water quality status was determined using the weighted arithmetic water quality index (WQI) and Hofmeister ion exposure levels.

Controlled Delivery and Photopatterning of Mechanical Properties in Polysaccharide Hydrogels Using Vanadium Coordination and Photochemistry.

Incorporation of the transition metal ion V(V) into hydrogels has been used to impart photoresponsive behavior, which was used to tune materials properties during light irradiation. The photoreaction in QHE-cellulose/agarose hydrogels coordinated with vanadium was evidenced by a clear color change of yellow to blue through a green intermediate. This color change was attributed to the reduction of V(V) to V(IV) as described in our previous work.

A functional molecular marker for detecting blister blight disease resistance in tea (Camellia sinensis L.).

Identification of an EST-SSR molecular marker associated with Blister blight, a common fungal disease of tea, facilitating marker-assisted selection, marking a milestone in tea molecular breeding. lister blight (BB) leaf disease of tea, caused by the fungus Exobasidium vexans, results in 25-30% crop loss annually. BB is presently controlled by Cu based fungicides, but genetic resistance is the most viable option in disease management.

Influence of regional climatic on the hydrogeochemistry of a tropical river basin-a study from the Walawe river basin of Sri Lanka.

The Walawe river basin is one of the important watersheds in Sri Lanka subjected to water scarcity due to intensive exploitation for irrigation and domestic purposes. The groundwater resource in the basin is under-explored for its capacity to sustain a continuous supply of water for future demand while facing the growing climate change challenges. The objective of this study was to identify the behavior of groundwater in the Walawe river basin that flows through two major climatic zones in Sri Lanka.

Isotope and chemical assessment of natural water in the Jaffna Peninsula in northern Sri Lanka for groundwater development aspects.

The demand for fresh groundwater in the Jaffna peninsula in northern Sri Lanka, has been increasing as the only water source for domestic and agricultural needs. Isotopic and hydro-chemical assessment on groundwater recharge and quality was done with the objective of assisting groundwater management plans. Water samples were collected in pre and post monsoon periods for isotope analyses (H, O and H) and major ions.

Geochemical and isotopic evidences from groundwater and surface water for understanding of natural contamination in chronic kidney disease of unknown etiology (CKDu) endemic zones in Sri Lanka.

Chronic kidney disease of unknown etiology (CKDu) is the main health issue in the dry zone of Sri Lanka. Despite many studies carried out, causative factors have not been identified yet clearly. According to the multidisciplinary researches carried out so far, potable water is considered as the main causative factor for CKDu.

Spatial and temporal variation in the stable isotope composition (δO and δH) of rain across the tropical island of Sri Lanka.

Seasonal and spatial variation in δO and δH in rainwater was determined in three selected transects across Sri Lanka, the tropical island in the Indian Ocean. Local meteoric water lines (LMWLs) for three distinguished climatic zones; wet, dry and intermediate were constructed. LMWLs show slight variations in their gradients and respective d-excess values, depending on the air moisture origin, circulation and environmental conditions of each climatic zone.

Assessing causes of quality deterioration of groundwater in Puttalam, Sri Lanka, using isotope and hydrochemical tools.

Extensive extraction of groundwater has resulted in deterioration of the groundwater quality in the Puttalam area in the northwestern coastal zone of Sri Lanka. This situation led us to carry out the present comprehensive study based on environmental isotopic ((18)O, (2)H, (3)H) and geochemical evaluation to understand the root cause for water quality deterioration. The isotopic data suggest that the surface water and shallow groundwaters are subjected to intensive evaporation and, as a result, increase in their salinity.

Occurrence of nontuberculous mycobacteria in aquatic sources of Sri Lanka.

Nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) have been reported to cause opportunistic infections with increasing frequency, especially in immunocompromised patients. Water plays a major role in the epidemiology of nontuberculous mycobacterial infection in humans, as it is one of the natural sources for transmission of this group of organisms. The current study focused on determining the occurrence of NTM in different aquatic sources of Sri Lanka by using phenotypic tests and polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) analysis of the rpoβ gene.

Total mercury, cadmium and lead levels in main export fish of Sri Lanka.

Total mercury (Hg), cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) levels were determined in the muscle of four commercialised exported fish species Thunnus albacares (yellowfin tuna), Xiphias gladius (swordfish), Makaira indica (black marlin) and Lutjanus sp (red snapper) collected from the Indian Ocean, Sri Lanka, during July 2009-March 2010 and measured by atomic absorption spectrophotometry. Results show that swordfish (n = 176) contained the highest total Hg (0.90 ± 0.

Cadmium, lead and total mercury in Tilapia sp. in Sri Lankan reservoirs.

In 2010, samples of muscles, liver and gills of Tilapia (Oreochromis sp.) were collected from eighteen reservoirs of four districts in Sri Lanka: Anuradapuraya, Polonnaruwa (North Central Province), Hambantota (Southern Province) and Ampara (Eastern Province). Cd, Pb and Hg were determined using atomic absorption spectrometry.

Total mercury content, weight and length relationship in swordfish (Xiphias gladius) in Sri Lanka.

Mercury (Hg) is a global environmental pollutant that has been the cause of many public health concerns. It is transferred through trophic level and bio magnification in the food chain. Total Hg level was measured by cold vapour atomic absorption spectrometry in muscle tissue of 176 Swordfish (Xiphiasgladius) samples ranging from 11.

The anomalous effect of surface diffusion on the nuclear magnetic resonance signal in restricted geometry.

Anisotropy of diffusion properties in a specimen plays a key role in numerous applications of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) imaging, like non-invasive tracking of fibers in the central nervous system. We suggest that contrasting fiber structures with certain diameters could be improved if second-order effects are taken into account. We introduce a procedure consisting of two standard diffusion NMR experiments differing in their gradient pulse characteristics.

Processed images in human perception: a case study in ultrasound breast imaging.

Two main research efforts in early detection of breast cancer include the development of software tools to assist radiologists in identifying abnormalities and the development of training tools to enhance their skills. Medical image analysis systems, widely known as Computer-Aided Diagnosis (CADx) systems, play an important role in this respect. Often it is important to determine whether there is a benefit in including computer-processed images in the development of such software tools.

A novel algorithm for initial lesion detection in ultrasound breast images.

This paper proposes a novel approach to initial lesion detection in ultrasound breast images. The objective is to automate the manual process of region of interest (ROI) labeling in computer-aided diagnosis (CAD). We propose the use of hybrid filtering, multifractal processing, and thresholding segmentation in initial lesion detection and automated ROI labeling.

A hybrid scheme for low bit-rate coding of stereo images.

In this paper, we propose a hybrid scheme to implement an object driven, block based algorithm to achieve low bit-rate compression of stereo image pairs. The algorithm effectively combines the simplicity and adaptability of the existing block based stereo image compression techniques with an edge/contour based object extraction technique to determine appropriate compression strategy for various areas of the right image. Unlike the existing object-based coding such as MPEG-4 developed in the video compression community, the proposed scheme does not require any additional shape coding.