Academic Research Journal of Nature and Public Health

Sleep Paralysis V.S Lucid Dreaming

Dhruti Gundala

flutter my eyelids open, acknowledging the blurry vision I’m welcomed with every time I wake up from a sleep-induced state with thought-provoking dreams. Regular dreams are based on my current life, my inner thoughts/fears, or some sort of deja vu. But now and then, I wake up having experienced the most unimaginable situations in dreamland. I stare at the rotating blades of my ceiling fan as I try to get a grip on reality and attempt to fathom how dreams even work. How can the brain create an experience that feels so real while the body is asleep?

Perceptions, thoughts, emotions, and memories mix to create an interactive, complex mental experience: dreaming. Not only are dreams commonly associated with rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, but dreaming can also occur during non-REM(NREM) sleep. Research signifies that REM dreams tend to be more vivid, emotional, and story-like than NREM dreams. Even with decades of research, scientists still do not completely understand what the purpose of dreaming is.

In order to understand dreams, we need to examine what happens inside our brain during sleep. As a person travels through the different stages of sleep, activity inside the brain changes significantly. During REM sleep, some areas of the brain become highly active while others become less active. These changes explain why dreams can feel realistic.

Groundwater arsenic contamination status and its impact on humans' health in Bangladesh

Uttam K Chowdhury

In the early 1960s, physicians in Antofagasta noticed dermal manifestations and several deaths among people consuming drinking water contaminated with arsenic. The contamination resulted from the leaching of arsenic wastes from mining operations into spring water. The observed symptoms included changes in skin pigmentation (melanosis) and hyperkeratosis. Children were particularly affected, suffering from bronchopneumonia and bronchitis.

The arsenic contamination incident in well water in Taiwan (1961–1985) is also well documented. Cases of black-foot disease and arsenism were reported and were associated with high concentrations of arsenic in drinking water, ranging from 100 to 1,810 µg/L. In endemic areas, cases of cancer, particularly of the bladder, kidney, and liver, were also observed. For many years, it was believed that arsenic alone was responsible for black-foot disease in that region. However, in 1975, the discovery of fluorescent compounds in well water led to the isolation of humic substances. Since then, arsenic in combination with humic substances has been considered the probable cause of black-foot disease.

Trace elements concentrations in biological samples and their correlation with urinary arsenic metabolites of chronic arsenic exposed people

Uttam K Chowdhury

The concentration of total arsenic in urine has often been used as an indicator of recent exposure because urine is the main route of excretion of most arsenic species^1,2. Analyses of blood, hair, and fingernailsamples are also good indicators of exposure. Because of the short half-life of As in blood, hematological estimation is useful in particular in the diagnosis of acute intoxication. Inorganic As is incorporatedinto hair and fingernails due to its affinity to the sulfhydryl groups in keratin.Following exposure to inorganic arsenic, the biological half time is about 4 days. It is slightly shorter following exposure to As(V) than to As(III)^3-6.In a study of sixhumans, subjects who ingested radiolabeled ⁷⁴As-arsenate, 38% of the dose was excreted in the urine within 48 hours and 58% within 5 days⁴.The results indicate that the data were best fit to a three-compartment exponential function, with 65.9% excreted with a half time of 2.09 days, 30.4% with a half-time of 9.5 days, and 3.7% with a half-time of 38.4 days⁵.In three subjects, each of whom ingested 500 µg of arsenic in the form of arsenite in water, about 33% of the dose was excreted in the urine within 48 hours and 45% within 4 days⁶.The methylated metabolites MMA and DMA are excreted in the urine faster than the inorganic arsenic. In humans, about 78% of MMA and 75% of DMA were excreted in the urine within 4 days of ingestion of the dose⁶. In another study, two subjects ingested mineral water containing 200 µg As(V) and about 66% of the dose was excreted over 7 days⁷.Several studies on human subjects exposed to inorganic arsenic occupationally, experimentally, or environmentally have shown that, in general, U-As met consists of 10-30% inorganic arsenic (iAs), 10-20% MMA, and 60-80% DMA

Agricultural Production Characteristics of Soils in The South Slope of The Great Caucasus On The Example of The Sheki District of Azerbaijan

Prof.Dr. Z.H.Aliyev

The article presents the results of soil-ecological and geobotanical studies of the main types of soils in the Sheki region, describes the natural conditions and diagnostic indicators of soils in vertical zoning from intrazonal landscapes to subalpine meadows.

Improving Pasture Management

Prof.Dr. Z.H.Aliyev, Mr. Dr. S.Sh. Savalan Seyfeddinov

As it is known, Azerbaijan is one of the low-soil countries and the per capita area of agricultural land in the country is 0.46 hectares, including 0.19 hectares of arable land and 0.26 hectares of pastures and hayfields.As a continuation of the “State Program on Rational Use of Summer and Winter Pastures, Hayfields and Prevention of Desertification in the Republic” approved by the Presidential Decree No. 222 of May 22, 2004, in 2018-2022 andThe Action Plan of the “Strategic Roadmap for the production and processing of agricultural products in the Republic of Azerbaijan” approved by the Decree of the President of the Republic No.1138 dated December 6, 2016 envisages the implementation of “Improvement of pasture management”.Elimination of existing problems and improvement of the regulatory framework for the development of the field; Necessary measures are being taken to ensure the efficient use of land, water and other natural resources, and the development of livestock and agriculture.

Superficial Improvement of Eroded Summer Pastures In Azerbaijan, Its Impact On Increasing Productivity and Quality of Manufactured Products

Prof.Dr. Z.H.Aliyev and Dr.f.a.sS.Sh.Seyfaddinov

Accordance with the natural and geographical conditions of the republic, there are historical traditions of the development of many areas of animal husbandry, especially sheep breeding, using natural resources, summer and winter pastures.55.1% or 4.77 million hectares of the country's territory are agricultural lands, and 54.3% of agricultural lands are natural pastures. Our country is one of the countries with limited land resources. There are 0.22 hectares of arable land and 0.58 hectares of agricultural land per capita, and the area of pastures and hayfields is 0.26 hectares. From this point of view, increasing the fertility of lands, protection of pastures, preservation and improvement of their geobotanical richness are of special importance in meeting the needs of the population for certain agricultural products. As it is known, pastures are state-owned lands. However, due to non-timely implementation of necessary measures to restore soil fertility by users of these areas and non-compliance with agro-technical rules in their operation, as well as non-compliance with existing standards and regulations in the field of soil protection in many places, washing of humus and nutrients, soil erosion has occurred.

Effect of Environmental Radiation on Public Health

Pranav Adithya Navath, Haris S. Ansari

A review on effect of environmental radiation on public health is described. Radiation is energy that comes from different sources and exists in different forms in the environment. This energy has an electric field and a magnetic field associated with it, and has electromagnetic properties. The author is discussed about the environmental radiation and its effect on public health. 

Young generation is a boat for carrying and distributing the knowledge of science, health, and everything: How might they grow up?

Uttam K Chowdhury, Shreya Chowdhury

The young generation is the driving force for everything. Bangladesh has a young population with 34% that are aged 15 and younger, and just 5% that are aged 65 and older. Bangladesh is expected to reach a population of 172 million by 20231.This is a huge number of young populations in Bangladesh, and they need to grow up properly.

A comparative study of underground water arsenic contamination and suffering of people in Flood Plain with Deltaic reason of Bangladesh

Uttam K Chowdhury

The people were drinking arsenic-contaminated underground water in Bangladesh. We had analyzed 33,092 hand tube-well water samples, collected from all four geomorphological areas (i.e., from all 64 districts) in Bangladesh and found arsenic in 60 districts that were above the WHOrecommended value in drinking water (10 µg/L) and in 50 districts that were above maximum permissible limit, 50 µg/L. In this paper, I have reported the magnitude of arsenic contamination in the tubewell water samples that were collected from two districts of Bangladesh, one from Flood Plain, named Chandpur, and another one from Deltaic region, named Madaripur. It describes the analytical report of arsenic concentrations in underground drinking water and biological samples, and people suffering from arsenic toxicity in these two districts.

In the Madaripur district, 19.62% of the total tubewell water samples (n=2,309) contained arsenic concentrations that were below WHO recommended value (10 µg/L) and safe to drink, and 80.38% and 59.59% of the tubewells contained levels arsenic that were above 10 µg/L and 50 µg/L, respectively. In Chandpur district (n=1,165 tubewell water samples), these values are 4.12, 95.88, and 92.79%, respectively. Of the samples in Madaripur, the percentage of water samples with arsenic are 26.94, 12.68, 3.29. 0.91, and 0.22% in the ranges 100-299, 300-499, 500-699, 700-1,000, and above 1,000 µg As/L, respectively. In Chandpur district, these values are 57.86, 25.15, 4.81, 1.80, and 0.43%, respectively. During our preliminary survey, arsenical patients were identified in all 42 villages, and we surveyed 8 police stations under these two districts. In this survey, 1,038 and 1,605 people (including children) were examined and 81 (7.8%) and 157 (9.78%) people had been identified with arsenical skin lesions from Madaripur and Chandpur districts, respectively. It appears that the overall arsenical skin lesions of adult females are somewhat higher than adult males. We identified arsenical skin lesions of one teenager(girl) and four children (girls) in Madaripur and Chandpur districts, respectively. We could not identify any cancer patient out of a total of 238 patients in these two districts.

Per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are emerging contaminants:Review of sources, contaminations, and awareness

Shreya Chowdhury

In the past few years, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have received a lot of media attention. PFAS are a category of “emerging contaminants'' that have been detected in the environment and are linked to many toxic effects such as miscarriage1, lower birth weight2, increased risk of liver, kidney, and testicular cancer3,4, increased risk of cholesterol levels5, increased risk of asthma6, increased risk of diabetes7, etc., but their risk to human health is not well-understood8.PFAS are man-made chemicals that have been used in industry and consumer products worldwide since the 1940s9. They have been used to make nonstick cookware, water-repellent clothing, stain resistant fabrics and carpets, some cosmetics, some firefighting foams, and products that resist grease, water, and oil9.