Pesticide Reduction through Organic Farming for Promoting Public Health Management and Food Security

There is a growing global interest in sustainable food consumption to ensure food security. One significant factor driving this demand is the belief that consuming organic food affects Public Health (PH). This research examines the historical context of sustainable agriculture. This article specifically examines the impact of sustainable agriculture on health-related substances, pesticide residues, and contaminants in crops. It also explores the connections between organic food and health indicators. In Organic Farming (OF), the use of pesticides is often restricted or non-existent, which is different from Traditional Farming (TF) methods that heavily depend on pesticides to preserve crops. The notable disparities in pesticide usage between the two agricultural systems profoundly affect the comparative nutritional exposure, hazards, and ecological impacts associated with pesticides. Pesticide Usage Monitoring (PUM) information has been used to compare pesticide usage across organically certified and adjacent traditional farms for tomato crops. This work suggested methods for PR by promoting the widespread use of organic agricultural techniques. Additionally, emphasis on many alternatives available within organic food supply chains to further minimize the usage of pesticides, contact, and adverse effects on workers has been proposed to provide food security

A prospective observational study to compare efficacy and safety of methyldopa and nifedipine in management of moderate gestation hypertension

Background: Hypertensive disorder in pregnancy is one of the most common complications of pregnancy worldwide. It is associated with maternal mortality and morbidity as well as perinatal mortality. Antihypertensive drugs are often used to lower blood pressure with the aim of preventing its progression to adverse outcomes for the mother and the fetus. The risk of developing severe hypertension is reduced to half by using antihypertensive medications. Studies have been done using various antihypertensive in hypertensive disorders of pregnancy. But there are very few studied comparing nifedipine and methyldopa in hypertensive disorders of pregnancy where majority of the studies are evaluated for short duration. Hence we have undertaken this study to compare the efficacy and safety of methyldopa and nifedipine in patient with moderate gestational hypertension.Methods: This is a prospective observational study where pregnant patients with moderate gestational hypertension either on oral nifedipine 10 mg t.i.d. or on methyl-dopa 250 mg t.i.d. were enrolled during 6 month period. Data at week one and week four were observed along with side effects. Reduction in systolic and diastolic blood pressure from baseline and occurrence of side effects were studied. The statistical significance was at P < 0.05.Results: The mean reduction of systolic/diastolic BP with methyldopa in four weeks was 17/13 mmHg as compared to nifedipine being 18.5/14.5 in four week. There was significant reduction in systolic blood pressure in nifedipine group compared to methyldopa group at four weeks (p-0.04). Both treatments were well tolerated with minimal side effects.Conclusions: Methyldopa and Nifedipine are equally effective in controlling blood pressure in moderate gestational hypertension with minimal side effects. However, nifedipine can be preferred over methyldopa as it showed significant reduction in systolic blood pressure at four weeks

Nutrient intakes from solid/semisolid foods and body fat of children 12-36 months of age in Mumbai city, India

Background: Few reports are available on the association between feeding practices and body fat of young Asian Indian children.&nbsp;Indian children have “thin-fat” syndrome, i.e., they tend to have higher body fat at lower body mass index, placing them at risk&nbsp;of non-communicable diseases. Objectives: The objective of this study is to examine whether young children’s nutrient intakes&nbsp;are associated with body fat. Materials and Methods: Percent body fat measured by bioelectric impedance and nutrient intakes&nbsp;estimated from three 24-h diet recalls were studied in 1200 children, aged 12-36 months. Average intakes of macronutrients and&nbsp;micronutrients were calculated. Nutrient intakes were compared by quintiles of body fat. Results: Mean body fat was 20.13±2.37%,with older children having more body fat than younger children. Males had more body fat than females. Percent body fat was not&nbsp;only correlated with macronutrient intakes but also was positively correlated with iron, zinc intakes, and thiamine. Body fat was&nbsp;negatively associated with calcium, fiber, and Vitamin A intakes but was positively associated with intakes of animal protein&nbsp;and from milk and milk products. Children in the highest quintile of body fat had lower calcium intakes those in lower quintiles.&nbsp;Animal protein intakes increased from Quintile 1 to Quintile 4 of body fat. Male children aged 12-24 months in the second and third&nbsp;quintile had higher mean protein intakes than in the other quintiles. Female children in the highest quintile of body fat had lowermean animal protein intakes. Breastfed children aged 24-36 months old in Quintile 1 had lower protein intakes from milk and milk&nbsp;products than in the other four quintiles. Among non-breastfed male children, those in the fifth quintile had lowest intake of milk&nbsp;protein. Conclusion: Diets given to young children should be adequate in micronutrients and fiber, and there should not be too&nbsp;much emphasis on dairy protein only

Improvement of alignment accuracy utilizing sequentially conserved motifs

Background: Multiple sequence alignment algorithms are very important tools in molecular biology today. Accurate alignment of proteins is central to several areas such as homology modelling, docking studies, understanding evolutionary trends and study of structure-function relationships. In recent times, improvement of existing progressing programs and implementation of new iterative algorithms have made a significant change in this field. Results: We report an alignment algorithm that combines progressive dynamic algorithm, local substructure alignment and iterative refinement to achieve an improved, user-interactive tool. Large-scale benchmarking studies show that this FMALIGN server produces alignments that, aside from preservation of functional and structural conservation, have accuracy comparable to other popular multiple alignment programs. Conclusions: The FMALIGN server allows the user to fix conserved regions in equivalent position in the alignment thereby reducing the chance of global misalignment to a great extent. FMALIGN is available at http://caps.ncbs.res.in/FMALIGN/Home.html

Characteristics, determinants and cost implications of severe adverse drug reactions in the intensive coronary care unit of a hospital

Background: The objective of the study was to determine the predictors, frequency, characteristics and incremental costs of severe Adverse Drug Reactions in the Intensive Coronary Care Unit (ICCU) of a hospital.Methods: Two trained physicians prospectively reviewed case records of all in-patients admitted to ICCU over one year (July 2015 to June 2016) and identified ADRs. Each ADR was assessed for causality, severity, predictability and preventability. Determinants of severe ADRs were identified using multiple binary logistic regression analysis. Cost of severe ADR was estimated based on the corrected duration of excess hospital stay after adjusting for age, gender, co-morbid conditions and number of drugs.Results: Of 573 cases admitted during one year, 47 (8%) patients had 56 severe ADRs. Streptokinase (16.1%) was the commonest drug associated with severe ADRs. Arrhythmias (30.4%) were the commonest severe ADR. Presence of arrhythmias (OR 4.54, 95% CI 2.25–9.14), renal dysfunction (OR 2.27, 95% CI 1.01–5.11) and poly-pharmacy (>10 drugs) (OR 1.13, 95% CI 1.007- 1.254) were found to be the predictors for occurrence of severe ADRs. Majority of severe ADRs were found to be probable 30 (53.6%). 46 (82%) were predictable and 25 (44.6%) probably preventable severe ADRs. Patients with severe ADRs had a longer duration of ICCU (0.8 extra day) and hospital stay (1.5 extra days) (adjusted analysis). The mean incremental cost incurred by patients in the severe ADR group was $ 32 (INR 2170/-) per patient based on the corrected duration of hospital stay.Conclusions: Severe ADRs in ICCU add considerably to treatment costs. Cardiac arrhythmias, renal dysfunction, and polypharmacy are important predictors of severe ADRs

Comparative study of programmed labor and traditional management of labor

Background: Prolongation of labor leads to dehydration, ketoacidosis, infection, fetal asphyxia. Programmed labor aims at reducing the duration of labor, labor pain and incidence of cesarean section with improved maternal and neonatal outcome.Aims and Objectives:1)       To evaluate the effect of programmed labor on duration of labor.2)       To assess efficacy of analgesics in reducing pain of labor.3)       To find out maternal and neonatal complications.4)       To study impact of programmed labor on LSCS rates.Methods: Prospective randomized study of primigravida in active labor (after 4 cm cervical dilatation) for which 100 women were selected for programmed labor (cases) and 100 women were selected for traditional management of labor (controls). Cases were subjected to interventions to improve uterine contractions (ARM, Dinoprostone tablets, and Oxytocin drip), to facilitate cervical dilatation (Inj. Drotaverine), to relieve labor pains (Inj. Pentazocine & Diazepam). All labors were monitored by partogram.Results: Programmed labor reduced duration of first and second stage of labor. There was faster cervical dilatation (1.8 cm/hour against 1.2 cm/hour). Majority of the patients had better pain relief. There was no impact on LSCS ratesConclusions: Programmed labor significantly reduced duration of labor with good pain relief without compromising maternal and fetal/neonatal safety. But it had no impact on LSCS rates

SCANMOT: searching for similar sequences using a simultaneous scan of multiple sequence motifs

Establishment of similarities between proteins is very important for the study of the relationship between sequence, structure and function and for the analysis of evolutionary relationships. Motif-based search methods play a crucial role in establishing the connections between proteins that are particularly useful for distant relationships. This paper reports SCANMOT, a web-based server that searches for similarities between proteins by simultaneous matching of multiple motifs. SCANMOT searches for similar sequences in entire sequence databases using multiple conserved regions and utilizes inter-motif spacing as restraints. The SCANMOT server is available via