Physiological and behavioral risk factors of type 2 diabetes mellitus in rural India

BACKGROUND: The dynamics of physiological and behavioral risk factors of diabetes in rural India is poorly understood. Using data from a health and demographic surveillance site of Birbhum district in West Bengal, India, this study aims to assess the risk factors associated with type 2 diabetes mellitus. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: A total of 7674 individuals aged ≥18 years participated in a cross-sectional study. Venous plasma glucose method was used for measuring and reporting glucose concentrations in blood, categorized as individuals with diabetes, pre-diabetes or impaired, and normoglycemic. Aside from a set of physiological and behavioral risk factors, a range of socioeconomic confounders of diabetes was computed. Bivariate analysis with χ(2) test, and multivariate ordered logit regression methods were deployed to attain the study's objective. RESULTS: Overall 2.95% and 3.34% of study participants were diagnosed as individuals with diabetes and pre-diabetes or impaired, respectively. Compared to the poorest, the richest have higher probability (β: 0.730; 95% CI 0.378 to 1.083) of being diagnosed with diabetes. As compared to people with normal body mass index, overweight/obese people are more prone to being diagnosed with diabetes (β: 0.388; 95% CI 0.147 to 0.628). With a decreasing level of physical activity, people are more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes. CONCLUSIONS: To curb the level of diabetes, this study recommends a culturally sensitive, focused intervention for the adoption of physical activity with more traditional dietary practices, to control the level of overweight/obesity. Attention should be paid to relatively older patients with diabetes or adults with pre-diabetes

Why Forest Plantations Are Disputed? An Assessment of Locally Important Ecosystem Services from the Cryptomeria japonica Plantations in the Darjeeling Hills, India

This study explored locally important forest products generated from different plantation forests. A comparison was made between monoculture and mixed stands in terms of understory plant species richness and number of forest products collected by local communities in the Darjeeling Hills of India. The results showed that forest-dependent communities collect an array of forest products from mixed stands compared to the monoculture stands but understory plant species richness was not significantly different between these two types of forest plantations. This study suggests that a single management strategy alone (e.g., mixed species plantations), could not produce an array of forest products expected by local communities, which requires a mixture of different types of strategies. Limited plantation management activities that were confined during the first 3 years after plantation were the major determinants of such homogeneity in the Darjeeling hills

Role of Metal Nanoparticles on porosification of silicon by metal induced etching (MIE)

Porosification of silicon (Si) by metal induced etching (MIE) process have been studies here to understand the etching mechanism. The etching mechanism has been discussed on the basis of electron transfer from Si to metal ion (Ag$^+$) and metal to H$_2$O$_2$. Role of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) in the etching process has been investigated by studying the effect of AgNPs coverage on surface porosity. A quantitative analysis of SEM images, done using Image J, shows a direct correlation between AgNPs coverage and surface porosity after the porosification. Density of Si nanowires (NWs) also varies as a function of AgNPs fractional coverage which reasserts the fact that AgNPs governs the porosification process during MIE.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure

Interplay between Phonon Confinement and Fano Effect on Raman line shape for semiconductor nanostructures: Analytical study

Theoretical Raman line shape functions have been studied to take care of quantum confinement effect and Fano effect individually and jointly. The characteristics of various Raman line shapes have been studied in terms of the broadening and asymmetry of Raman line shapes. It is shown that the asymmetry in the Raman line-shape function caused by these two effects individually does not add linearly to give asymmetry of line-shape generated by considering the combined effect. This indicates existence of interplay between the two effects. The origin of interplay lies in the fact that Fano effect itself depends on quantum confinement effect and in turn provides an asymmetry. This can not be explained by considering the two effects contribution independent of each other.Comment: 10 Page

Intrinsic Half-metallicity in Edge Fluorinated Armchair Boron Nitride Nanoribbons

We predict intrinsic half-metallicity in armchair boron nitride nanoribbons (ABNNRs) via edge fluorination. The stability, electronic and magnetic properties of bare and edge fluorinated ABNNRs have been systematically analyzed by means of first-principles calculations within the local spin-density approximation (LSDA). The ribbons whose only edge-B atoms passivated with F atoms (i.e., edge-N atoms are un-passivated), regardless of width, are found half-metallic with a half-metal gap of 0.3 eV. A 100 \% spin polarized charge transport across the Fermi level is expected for such ribbons as the spin polarized states are $\sim$0.4 eV more stable than the spin un-polarized states and only single-spin conducting channels are present across the Fermi level owing to the gigantic spin splitting. The existence of half-metallicity is attributed to the localization of electronic charge at bare edge-N atoms as revealed from the analysis of Bloch states and projected density of states (PDOS).The sufficiently large half-metal gap (0.3 eV) with huge difference in the energies ($\sim$ 0.4 eV) of spin polarized and spin compensated states projects these half-metallic ABNNRs as potential candidate for spintronics applications.Comment: Error in Typing in older versio