Keanekaragaman Ngengat Superfamily Bombicoidea: Eksplorasi Potensi Ulat Sutera di Dataran Rendah Kabupaten Jayapura

Jayapura Regency is one of the regions that considerable potential for economic growth from non-timber forest products. In the development of non-timber forest products in the form of products produced by insects, silk yarn is one of the commodity that has a high demand. The domestic demand for silk yarn is 900 tons/year, while only 19.05 tons/year were produced in 2012. Jayapura Regency has a great potential to supply the shortage of cocoon for the domestic market and the wide open international market. Related to this challenge, this study conducted basic research on the diversity of moths from the Bombicoidea superfamily in the natural forest of Kampung Soaib, Jayapura Regency. Sampling using light traps, four species of moths from the Saturnidae family were obtained, Syntherata apicalis, Opodiphtera intermedia, Opodiphtera papuana, and Coscinocera hercules. The cocoon of Coscinocera hercules is very potential as a silk thread producer because it is large and consists of two layers with brown color and has fiber characteristics similar to the cocoon of Attacus atlas which has been developed as a wild silk producer. These results indicate that the lowland forests of Jayapura Regency as a habitat for wild silkworm species has potential to be developed as non-timber forest products.Key words: Superfamily Bombicoidea; silkworm; cocoon; Jayapura regenc

The Hunger Crisis Measuring Hunger across Indian States

India faces significant challenges in addressing hunger, particularly when measured against the global hunger index. The India state hunger index for 2017 is presented to evaluate hunger across states, filling the void post-2008. Most states and union territories fall in the serious category with only a few in the moderate, none in the low, and some in the alarming categories. A consumption threshold of 1,600 kcal is proposed to identify populations at risk of undernourishment. This allows ISHI 2017 to align with the GHI scores for India for 2017. To meet the Sustainable Development Goal-2 of “No Hunger” by 2030, strategies must target reducing undernourishment, under-five mortality, stunting, and wasting at the subnational level, necessitating regular review and monitoring of interventions

Patterning in Birthweight in India: Analysis of Maternal Recall and Health Card Data

National data on birthweight from birth certificates or medical records are not available in India. The third Indian National Family Health Survey included data on birthweight of children obtained from health cards and maternal recall. This study aims to describe the population that these data represent and compares the birthweight obtained from health cards with maternal recall data in terms of its socioeconomic patterning and as a risk factor for childhood growth failure.The analytic sample consisted of children aged 0 to 59 months with birthweight data obtained from health cards (n = 3227) and maternal recall (n = 16,787). The difference between the card sample and the maternal recall sample in the distribution across household wealth, parental education, caste, religion, gender, and urban residence was compared using multilevel models. We also assessed the ability of birthweight to predict growth failure in infancy and childhood in the two groups. The survey contains birthweight data from a majority of household wealth categories (>5% in every category for recall), both genders, all age groups, all caste groups, all religion groups, and urban and rural dwellers. However, children from the lowest quintile of household wealth were under-represented (4.73% in card and 8.62% in recall samples). Comparison of data across health cards and maternal recall revealed similar social patterning of low birthweight and ability of birthweight to predict growth failure later in life. Children were less likely to be born with low birthweight if they had mothers with over 12 years of education compared to 1-5 years of education with relative risk (RR) of 0.79 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.52, 1.2) in the card sample and 0.70 (95% CI: 0.59, 0.84) in the recall sample. A 100 gram difference in a child's birthweight was associated with a decreased likelihood of underweight in both the card (RR: 0.95; 95% CI: 0.94, 0.96) and recall (RR: 0.96; 95% CI: 0.96, 0.97) samples.Our results suggest that in the absence of other sources, the data on birthweight in the third Indian National Family Health Survey is valuable for epidemiologic research

Relative Undernourishment and Food Insecurity Associations with Plasmodium falciparum Among Batwa Pygmies in Uganda: Evidence from a Cross-Sectional Survey

Although malnutrition and malaria co-occur among individuals and populations globally, effects of nutritional status on risk for parasitemia and clinical illness remain poorly understood. We investigated associations between Plasmodium falciparum infection, nutrition, and food security in a cross-sectional survey of 365 Batwa pygmies in Kanungu District, Uganda in January of 2013. We identified 4.1% parasite prevalence among individuals over 5 years old. Severe food insecurity was associated with increased risk for positive rapid immunochromatographic test outcome (adjusted relative risk [ARR] = 13.09; 95% confidence interval [95% CI] = 2.23–76.79). High age/sex-adjusted mid-upper arm circumference was associated with decreased risk for positive test among individuals who were not severely food-insecure (ARR = 0.37; 95% CI = 0.19–0.69). Within Batwa pygmy communities, where malnutrition and food insecurity are common, individuals who are particularly undernourished or severely food-insecure may have elevated risk for P. falciparum parasitemia. This finding may motivate integrated control of malaria and malnutrition in low-transmission settings

On the long-term variability of temperature trends and changes in surface air temperature in Kolkata Weather Observatory, West Bengal, India

The impact of climate change on annual air temperature has received a great deal of attention from climatologists worldwide. Many studies have been conducted to illustrate that changes in temperature are becoming evident on a global scale. Air temperature, one of the most important components of climate parameters, has been widely measured as a starting point towards the apprehension of climate change and variability. The main objective of this study is to analyse the temporal variability of mean monthly temperature for the period of 1941 to 2010 (70 years). To detect the magnitude of trend in mean monthly temperature time series, we have used non-parametric test methods such as The Mann-Kendall test, often combined with the Theil-Sen’s robust estimate of linear trend. Whatever test is used, the user should understand the underlying assumptions of both the technique used to generate the estimates of a trend and the statistical methods used for testing. The results of this analysis reveal that four months – January, February, March and December – indicate a decreasing trend in average temperature, while the remaining eight months have an increasing trend. The magnitude of Mann-Kendall trend statistic Zc for this declining temperature and the magnitude of slope for the months of January, February and December are confirmed at the high significance levels of α = 0.001, 0.01 and 0.1 respectively. Though, the overall trend is positive for monthly as well as seasonally efficient time series

Nonlinear coupling of a superluminal electromagnetic wave to a relativistic electron beam

The nonlinear propagation of a superluminal, linearly polarized electromagnetic wave in the presence of a relativistic cold electron beam is investigated. At large amplitudes the wave couples to the electron-beam plasma mode owing to two important nonlinear effects, namely the relativistic variation of the electron mass and the excitation of longitudinal space charge fields by strong v × B forces. The nonlinear propagation equations for the coupled electromagnetic and longitudinal waves are derived within the context of a relativistic cold-fluid model. Nonlinear travelling-wave solutions are sought to describe the saturated state of the coupled system. Using Hamiltonian techniques, a wide variety of solutions are obtained and their characteristics discussed

Synthesis of chiral vicinal C<SUB>2</SUB> symmetric and unsymmetric bis(sulfonamide) ligands based on trans-1,2-cyclohexanediamine by aminolysis of N-tosylaziridines

The ring opening of N-tosylaziridines with aliphatic amines can be efficiently catalyzed by lithium perchlorate to provide derivatives of the trans-1,2-diamine in high yields. The reaction was used in desymmetrization of several cyclic N-tosylaziridines using chiral amines. Using this strategy, an efficient synthesis of chiral vicinal C<SUB>2</SUB> symmetric bis(sulfonamide) and unsymmetrical bis(sulfonamide) ligands based on trans-1,2-cyclohexanediamine was developed

Trimethylsilyl cyanide addition to aldimines and its application in the synthesis of (S)-phenylglycine methyl ester

The addition of TMSCN to a variety of arylaldimines (Strecker reaction) in the presence of LiClO4 or BF3·Et2O in acetonitrile has been studied. The reaction provided the addition products in very high yields. The method has been successfully utilized for the synthesis of (S)-phenylglycine methyl ester

2-aryl-N-tosylazetidines as formal 1,4-dipoles for [4 + 2] cycloaddition reactions with nitriles: an easy access to the tetrahydropyrimidine derivatives

A new synthetic route to 2-aryl-N-tosyl azetidines has been developed starting from N-tosylarylaldimines in two steps in an overall yield of 63-70%. A formal [4 + 2] cycloaddition of these 2-aryl-N-tosylazetidines with nitriles in the presence of BF3·OEt2 has been described for the synthesis of substituted tetrahydropyrimidines. It is proposed that the reaction proceeds in Ritter fashion