Heavy metal pollution and evaluation of health risk of amaranth around Don Bosco wastewater treatment plant, Iringa, Tanzania.

One of the world's most significant sources of environmental pollution is heavy metals contamination of soil, water, and agricultural products. Liver cancer, kidney damage, anaemia, coma, hypertension and sporadic fever are among the illnesses that might result from consuming plants contaminated with heavy metals. This study assesses heavy metals (Cu, Mn, Cd, Cr, Ni and Pb) contamination and associated human health risks in amaranth () grown near Don Bosco wastewater treatment plant in Iringa municipal, Tanzania.

Overlooked Ionic Contribution of a Chiral Dopant in Cholesteric Liquid Crystals.

This study focuses on the ionic contribution by a chiral dopant added into a nematic host for preparing cholesteric liquid crystals (CLCs). Chiral structures were designated by individually incorporating two enantiomers, R5011 and S5011, into the nematic E44 to construct right- and left-handed CLCs, respectively. Characterized by the space-charge polarization, the dielectric spectra of the CLCs were investigated in the low-frequency regime, where   ≤  1 kHz.

Genome-wide analysis of the biophysical properties of chromatin and nuclear proteins in living cells with Hi-D.

To understand the dynamic nature of the genome, the localization and rearrangement of DNA and DNA-binding proteins must be analyzed across the entire nucleus of single living cells. Recently, we developed a computational light microscopy technique, called high-resolution diffusion (Hi-D) mapping, which can accurately detect, classify and map diffusion dynamics and biophysical parameters such as the diffusion constant, the anomalous exponent, drift velocity and model physical diffusion from the data at a high spatial resolution across the genome in living cells. Hi-D combines dense optical flow to detect and track local chromatin and nuclear protein motion genome-wide and Bayesian inference to characterize this local movement at nanoscale resolution.

Diffusion and Chemical Degradation of Vitamin B6 in Chickpeas ( L.) during Hydrothermal Treatments: A Kinetic Approach.

Chickpeas are more sustainable than other food systems and have high a nutritional value, especially regarding their vitamin composition. One of the main vitamins in chickpeas is vitamin B6, which is very important for several human metabolic functions. Since chickpeas are consumed after cooking, our goal was to better understand the role of leaching (diffusion) and thermal degradation of vitamin B6 in chickpeas during hydrothermal processing.

First FASEB conference in Africa-The 2023 FASEB conference on Imaging Cellular and Chromosome Dynamics held on August 27-30, 2023 in Accra, Ghana.

Access to scientific meetings and conferences is limited in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). Efforts are being implemented to rectify this issue through short workshops, seminars, and conferences. Sena Institute of Technology (SIT), a nonprofit research institute based in Ghana, is one such organization championing this initiative.