No abstract

Erythrosine and tartrazine are common artificial food additives which have become a part of daily human consumption. Advised daily intake values for these agents are set strictly, however, the actual intake is much higher than the recommended ADI. A higher intake of erythrosine and tartrazine is shown to exhibit adverse effects in mammalian models, and is thus a matter of public health concern. In this study we have assessed and compared the dose-dependent effects of erythrosine and tartrazine on inducing oxidative stress in zebrafish embryos. We performed the superoxide dismutase (SOD) enzyme activity assay to test the effect of the two food colorants on reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. Erythrosine and tartrazine treated embryos showed significantly increased SOD activity in an enzyme assay. Additionally SOD mRNA transcripts in the treated embryos were found to be upregulated. Erythrosine and tartrazine treatment specifically altered SOD1 mRNA transcript levels while it had no effect on SOD2 mRNA, the other isoform found in zebrafish. Our study shows that erythrosine at a concentration of 0.05% is embryotoxic in a dose and time dependent manner. Tartrazine treated embryos exhibit similar toxicity at a concentration of 0.5%. Erythrosine treated zebrafish embryos hatch much slower when compared to tartrazine treated embryos and control embryos. While erythrosine affects the yolk utilization, tartrazine exhibits teratogenic effects on early zebrafish embryos. The mRNA expression as well as biochemical analysis indicates that exposure to food colorants induces cytoplasmic SOD transcription to combat the ROS toxicity in zebrafish embryos.

Mutual funds are considered as the best investment option because they offer a higher return with little risk. The study’s main aim is to evaluate the performance of selected large and small cap equity mutual fund schemes. The performance has been analysed in terms of return and risk using risk-adjusted performance measures. The present study is descriptive and secondary data has been collected from the website of BSE, NSE and Mutual funds. The analysis shows that “HDFC Top 100 Fund - Growth Option - Direct Plan” is top large cap mutual funds scheme and “Tata Small Cap Fund-Direct Plan-Growth” is top small cap mutual funds scheme among the selected funds as per Sharpe, Treynor and Jenson ratio.

The present study was conducted to compare psycho-social factors among elderly people living in home with family and in old age institution. The study is based on an urban sample of 60 individual saged 60 years and over. Out of these, 30 were institutionalized and 30 were from homeset-up. The data was collected using an especially self designed questionnaire and observation technique which consist 65 items, divided into 13 dimensions which measures the psycho-social factors of elderly people eg self-esteem, cognitive capacity, meaningful roles, social contacts etc. in different areas.