Novel genomic variants related to visceral adiposity index (VAI) and body adiposity index (BAI) in Indian sib-pairs.

Background: Obesity is among the leading public health threats globally. Over the last few years, visceral adiposity index (VAI), and body adiposity index (BAI), derived from anthropometric, and biochemical measures, have gained importance as a measure of obesity. However, unlike other common indices like body mass index, and waist circumference, the genetic predisposition of VAI, and BAI under-examined.

Evaluation of genetic variants related to lipid levels among the North Indian population.

A heavy burden of cardiometabolic conditions on low- and middle-income countries like India that are rapidly undergoing urbanization remains unaddressed. Indians are known to have high levels of triglycerides and low levels of HDL-C along with moderately higher levels of LDL-C. The genome-wide findings from Western populations need to be validated in an Indian context for a better understanding of the underlying etiology of dyslipidemia in India.

Genetic associations of TMEM154, PRC1 and ZFAND6 loci with type 2 diabetes in an endogamous business community of North India.

Background: More than 250 loci have been identified by genome-wide scans for type 2 diabetes in different populations. South Asians have a very different manifestation of the diseases and hence role of these loci need to be investigated among Indians with huge burden of cardio-metabolic disorders. Thus the present study aims to validate the recently identified GWAS loci in an endogamous caste population in North India.

Genetic architecture of adiposity measures among Asians: Findings from GWAS.

Adiposity has gradually become a global public threat over the years with drastic increase in the attributable deaths and disability adjusted life years (DALYs). Given an increased metabolic risk among Asians as compared to Europeans for any given body mass index (BMI) and considering the differences in genetic architecture between them, the present review aims to summarize the findings from genome-wide scans for various adiposity indices and related anthropometric measures from Asian populations. The search for related studies, published till February 2022, were made on PubMed and GWAS Catalog using search strategy built with relevant keywords joined by Boolean operators.

Adsorption Characterization of Lactobacillus sp. for Di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate.

Di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) is the widely detected plasticizer in foods whose exposure is associated with a myriad of human disorders. The present study focused on identifying Lactobacillus strains with high adsorption potential towards DEHP and further elucidating the mechanism of binding using HPLC, FTIR and SEM. Two strains, Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG and Lactobacillus plantarum MTCC 25,433, were found to rapidly adsorb more than 85% of DEHP in 2 h.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in cooked (tandoori) chicken and associated health risk.

Tandoori cooking is a popular food preparation method in India involving a unique combination of grilling, baking, barbecuing, and roasting processes. This study determined the levels of 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in tandoori chicken and assessed the associated health risk. The sum of 16 PAHs concentration ranged from 25.

Influence of pyrolysis temperature on biochar properties and Cr(VI) adsorption from water with groundnut shell biochars: Mechanistic approach.

This study was envisaged to understand the effect of increasing pyrolysis temperature on the Cr(VI) removal potential of the groundnut shells derived biochars. The biochars were prepared at four different pyrolysis temperatures (350 °C, 450 °C, 550 °C, 650 °C) and were used unmodified to examine the adsorption potential for Cr(VI). Influence of biochar dose (1-10 g/L), pH (2-10), Cr(VI) (10-500 mg/L) on Cr(VI) adsorptions; adsorption kinetics and isotherms were investigated.

Integrated approach towards acrylamide reduction in potato-based snacks: A critical review.

Acrylamide is a process contaminant and neurotoxic with growing evidence of cancer in human. Potato-based products majorly contribute towards acrylamide dietary intake thereby posing major food safety threat that necessitates formulation of acrylamide reduction strategies. This review highlights the recent research work on acrylamide formation mechanism, dietary intake, toxicity and potential reduction strategies at various levels in the food supply chain to ensure safety of potato-based products.

Persistent organic pollutants in foods, their interplay with gut microbiota and resultant toxicity.

Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) have become immensely prevalent in the environment as a result of their unique chemical properties (persistent, semi-volatile and bioaccumulative nature). Their occurrence in the soil, water and subsequently in food has become a matter of concern. With food being one of the major sources of exposure, the detrimental impact of these chemicals on the gut microbiome is inevitable.

Comparative analysis of conventional and greener extraction methods and method validation for analyzing PAHs in cooked chicken and roasted coffee.

This study compared different extraction methods [sonication, alkaline hydrolysis, supramolecular solvent microextraction (SUPRAS) and Quick, Easy, Cheap, Effective, Rugged and Safe (QuEChERS)] along with their greenness. An analytical method was validated for determination of USEPA's listed 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons' (PAHs) in cooked chicken and roasted coffee using high pressure liquid chromatography-fluorescence detector (HPLC-FLD) with a C18 column. The recoveries with QuEChERS ranged between 62.

A Topological Similarity Measure Between Multi-Resolution Reeb Spaces.

Searching similarity between a pair of shapes or data is an important problem in data analysis and visualization. The problem of computing similarity measures using scalar topology has been studied extensively and proven useful in the shape and data matching. Even though multi-field or multivariate (consists of multiple scalar fields) topology reveals richer topological features, research on building tools for computing similarity measures using multi-field topology is still in its infancy.

Quantification of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in kitchen depositions by SUPRAS-LC-FLR and human health risk assessment.

Concentration, composition and sources of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in kitchen depositions from different sampling categories such as restaurants, university mess and houses were investigated, and associated human exposure risk through dietary intake, inhalation and dermal contact was determined. The PAHs in the samples were extracted by supramolecular solvent based microextraction (SUPRAS) method and the concentrations were determined by high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) with fluorescence detection. The mean of Σ16PAHs concentration was found to be the highest (386.

Causal relationships between lipid and glycemic levels in an Indian population: A bidirectional Mendelian randomization approach.

Background: Dyslipidemia and abnormal glycemic traits are leading causes of morbidity and mortality. Although the association between the two traits is well established, there still exists a gap in the evidence for the direction of causality.

Objective: This study aimed to examine the direction of the causal relationship between lipids and glycemic traits in an Indian population using bidirectional Mendelian randomization (BMR).

Biochar synthesis from sweet lime peel for hexavalent chromium remediation from aqueous solution.

Sweet lime (Citrus limetta) peel biochar was obtained by slow pyrolysis of raw biomass at 450 °C with 5 °C/min heating rate. Proximate and ultimate analysis, physico-chemical characterization of the biochar was done. Batch adsorption experiments for Cr(VI) removal were performed with varying pH, biochar dose, contact time and initial Cr(VI) concentrations.

Gestational route to healthy birth (GaRBH): protocol for an Indian prospective cohort study.

Introduction: Pregnancy is characterised by a high rate of metabolic shifts from early to late phases of gestation in order to meet the raised physiological and metabolic needs. This change in levels of metabolites is influenced by gestational weight gain (GWG), which is an important characteristic of healthy pregnancy. Inadequate/excessive GWG has short-term and long-term implications on maternal and child health.

Concentration and factors affecting the distribution of phthalates in the air and dust: A global scenario.

Phthalates are ubiquitously present environmental contaminants. Air and dust are the most important mediums of exposure to phthalates. The present study reviews the presence of phthalates in the air and dust reported from different countries in the last ten years (2007-2017).

PAHs in Indian diet: Assessing the cancer risk.

Food products such as bread, biscuits, tea, coffee, oils, chocolates, grapes, pepper and fishes belonging to different categories represent a significant part of everyday diet in India and other countries having variable cooking techniques. In this study, we evaluated cancer risks of long term exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) through consumption of these products for eight societal groups in India. Total concentrations of PAHs in these products from India ranged from 0.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons' formation and occurrence in processed food.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) emerged as an important contaminant group in a gamut of processed food groups like dairy, nuts, herbs, beverages, meat products etc. Different cooking processes and processing techniques like roasting, barbecuing, grilling, smoking, heating, drying, baking, ohmic-infrared cooking etc. contribute towards its formation.

Dynamics of toxic heavy metals in different compartments of a highly urbanized closed aquatic system.

This paper deals with the dynamics of chromium, nickel, copper and lead among the different components namely water, surface sediments, submerged and free floating macrophytes and fish of the twin manmade lakes, Upper and Lower lakes, of Bhopal (M.P., India).

Has the burden and distribution of PCBs and PBDEs changed in European background soils between 1998 and 2008? Implications for sources and processes.

Background soils were collected from 70 locations on a latitudinal transect in the United Kingdom and Norway in 2008, ten years after they had first been sampled in 1998. The soils were analyzed for polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), and organochlorine pesticides (OCs), to see whether there had been any change in the loadings or distributions of these persistent organic pollutants (POPs). The same transect has also been used to sample air between the mid-1990s and the present, so the air and soil spatial and temporal trends provide information on air-soil transfers, source-receptor relationships, long-range atmospheric transport (LRAT), and recycling phenomena.

Contrasting temporal trends and relationships of total organic carbon, black carbon, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in rural low-altitude and remote high-altitude lakes.

Historical records of total organic carbon (TOC), black carbon (BC), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were reconstructed in dated sediment cores from four nearby lakes in central Switzerland. In the sub-Alpine Lake Thun, located at 558 m a.s.

Adaptation, validation and application of the chemo-thermal oxidation method to quantify black carbon in soils.

The chemo-thermal oxidation method at 375°C (CTO-375) has been widely used to quantify black carbon (BC) in sediments. In the present study, CTO-375 was tested and adapted for application to soil, accounting for some matrix specific properties like high organic carbon (≤ 39%) and carbonate (≤ 37%) content. Average recoveries of standard reference material SRM-2975 ranged from 25 to 86% for nine representative Swiss and Indian samples, which is similar to literature data for sediments.

Is black carbon a better predictor of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon distribution in soils than total organic carbon?

Black carbon (BC) and total organic carbon (TOC) were quantified in the surface soils of Switzerland (N=105) and Delhi (N=36), India, to examine their relationships with contents of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). BC content in Swiss (background) soils (N=104) varied from 0.41 to 4.

Metallic species in ambient particulate matter at rural and urban location of Delhi.

In the present study 14 metallic species (six crustal and eight trace metals) were quantified in the suspended particulate matter (SPM) at a rural and urban location of Delhi, India. Particulate matter was collected on glass fiber filters for a period of one year (from September 2003 to August 2004). Rank sum test revealed that the TSP concentration at the urban site was significantly (P=0.