Knowledge and lifestyle practices regarding cardiovascular risk factors among middle school children in a rural area in Coimbatore

BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular disease is on the rise and is a global threat by being the leading cause of mortality globally. Primordial prevention of the potential risk factors will benefit not only the individual but also reduce the burden on the health sector as a whole. Early adolescence is the period in which the children are initially exposed to risk factors. Rapid urbanization and change in lifestyle that occurred during the past two decades have led to the growing burden of coronary risk factors even in rural setting in India. OBJECTIVES: To assess the level of awareness of risk factors of cardiovascular diseases among middle School children (6th – 8th standard) in the field practice area of Rural Health Training Centre, Vedapatti, attached to Department of Community Medicine, PSG IMSR, Coimbatore & to examine the association of socio-demographic factors and lifestyle practices with physical parameters of cardiovascular risk factors among these middle School children. Settings and Design: A School based cross sectional study involving 502 students of 6th to 8th standard. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study was approved by IHEC. Demographic details and informed written consent was obtained from the parents. Assent was obtained from the students. Self-administered questionnaires for assessing the Knowledge of cardiovascular risk factors, physical activity, sedentary activity per day, dietary food frequency and tobacco product usage were collected. Then anthropometry, blood pressure & step test for assessing the cardio-respiratory reserve were measured. Dependent variables were Knowledge, overweight & obesity, elevated Blood pressure(BP, poor cardio-respiratory reserve. Logistic regression analysis was done to identify association of factors with last three dependent variables. RESULTS: In our study Adequate knowledge of cardiovascular disease risk factors was found in 28.7% of the students (95% CI 24.72% - 32.66%). Inadequate physical activity 42.2% (95% CI ; 37.9% - 46.6%), Unacceptable dietary practices 60.2% (95% CI ; 55.7% - 64.5%), tobacco product usage 8.37% (95% CI ;6.1% - 11.23%) and time spent in sedentary activity in a usual day of more than 4 hours was seen in 25.1% (95% CI ; 21.3% - 28.9%) of the 502 participants. About 11.4% of the students were overweight and 6.6% were Obese. Elevated blood pressure was seen in 13.3% of students. Inadequate physical activity and tobacco product usage was associated with overweight & obesity and Inadequate physical activity with elevated BP. CONCLUSION: This study establishes the fact that the knowledge about cardiovascular disease and lifestyle practices were not satisfactory among the study participants. Creating awareness among the students and providing access for adequate physical activity and avoidance of tobacco products is the need of the hour. This might be helpful in tackling the future burden on health due to cardiovascular disease in particular and non-communicable disease as a whole as most of the risk factors overlap

2, 4-Dimethyl-6-hydroxyacetophenone oxime and 3, 5-dibromo-2, 4-dimethyl-6- hydroxyacetophenone oxime as reagents and diethylamine as a synergist in the extraction and separation of metals

1022-10242,4-Dimethyl-6-hydroxyacetophenone oxime and 3,5- dibromo-2,4-dimethyl-6-hydroxyacetophenone oxime act as very good reagents for the extraction and separation of Cu(II), Ni(II), Co(II), Fe(III) and Mn(II). Addition of diethylamine as a synergist in the extraction system, not only increases the per cent extraction of the metals but also the molar absorbances of the complexes. The separation of the metals from one another, viz., Cu(II) from Ni(II), Cu(II) from Co(II) and Cu(II) and Ni(II) from Cr(III) becomes far more easier in the presence of diethylamine

Characterization and diversity assessment in coconut collections of Pacific Ocean Islands and Nicobar Islands

Characterization and genetic diversity assessment among 30 conserved coconut accessions collected from Pacific Ocean Islands and Nicobar Islands for morphological traits, physico-chemical traits of tender nut water, leaf biochemical parameters and molecular characterization by using random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers were undertaken at World Coconut Germplasm Centre, Andaman. Significant variations were observed for most morphological and nut component traits. Out of the 30 accessions characterized, four accessions, namely, Niu Leka, Hari Papua, Niu Oma and Nikkore were dwarfs among which Niu Leka was identified as a unique dwarf with higher copra content. A dendrogram of genetic relationship obtained through RAPD markers showed distinct variation with 66% in all accessions. The average polymorphic information content (PIC) value of 13 selected primers was 0.29 and maximum and minimum PIC values was 0.46 and 0.17 for primers OPF-19 and OPH-25, respectively. Cluster analysis by UPGMA method grouped the accessions into two major clusters. The results will be useful in the selection among these conserved accessions for specific traits for future utilization in crop improvement initiatives based on their performance for different desirable traits and the level of diversity.Key words: Coconut, genetic diversity, characterization, RAPD, cluster analysis

Fuzzy Computing for Control of Aero Gas Turbine Engines .

Many methods, techniques and procedures available for designing the control system of plants and processes, are applied only after knowing accurately the plant or process to be controlled. However, in some complex situations where plants/processes cannot be accurately modelled, and especially where their control has human interaction, controller design may not be completely satisfactory. In such cases, it has been found that control decisions can be made on the basis of heuristic/linguistic measures or fuzzy algorithms. Fuzzy set principles have been used in controlling various plants/processes ranging from a laboratory steam engine to an autopilot, including an aero gas turbine engine engine for which the response of the engine speed for a fuzzy input of fuel flow has been studied. In this paper, certain stipulations and logic are suggested for the control of the total gas turbine engine. A case study of a single spool aero gas turbine engine with one of its state variables varied by heuristic logic is presented

HLA-DR and -DQ antibodies in the sera of South India Parous women

HLA-A, -B positive sera of south Indian parous women were screened for the presence of HLA-DR and -DQ antibodies. The sera were absorbed with pooled platelets in a micro-method and screened against HLA-DR and -DQ typed B-lymphocytes panel. Out of fifty two sera, twenty were found to contain HLA-DR and -DQ antibodies. Seven sera were demonstrated to be specific for well defined DR and DQ antigen

Effect of time of pruning and peeling on the bark yield of cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum J. Pres.) in Andaman and Nicobar Islands

An experiment was conducted at Port Blair, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, to study theeffect of time of pruning and peeling on the yield of cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum)intercropped in an arecanut (Areca catechu) garden. Pruning and peeling was carried out at20 days interval from first week of June to August during both the years. The number ofbranches (31) and girth (19.98 cm) were significantly higher in 10th July pruning. Bark yieldtree-1 (both fresh and dry weight) was also significantly higher during 10th July (4.03 kgfresh and 1.22 kg dry weight) pruning indicating that this period is ideal for pruning andpeeling cinnamon in Andaman and Nicobar Islands. &nbsp

Evaluation of System of Rice Intensification (SRI) in rice (Oryza sativa) - groundnut (Arachis hypogaea) system under Island ecosystem

Field experiment was conducted during wet and dry seasons of 2007-09 at Field Crops Research Farm of Central Island Agricultural Research Institute, Port Blair, Andaman and Nicobar Islands to evaluate System of Rice Intensification (SRI) in rice and its residual effect on groundnut in rice (Oryza sativa L.) – groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) systems. Time of planting, spacing and nitrogen practices evaluated significantly influenced the yield attributes and yield of rice, while the residual effect of N management practices had a positive influence on the yield attributes and yield of succeeding groundnut. Early planting in second fortnight of June with 20 cm × 20 cm spacing recorded higher panicles/m2 (9.1 %), higher number of filled grains/ panicle (108), higher grain yield (4 678 kg/ha), about 3% higher REY, productivity (26.8 kg/ha/day), and total profitability (` 62 882/ha) compared to the same time of planting with wider spacing (25 cm × 25 cm). Though application of 100% Recommended Dose of Nitrogen (RDN) through urea recorded highest grain yield (4 465 kg/ha) of rice, it was comparable with 50% RDN through Gliricidia + 50% RDN through urea and 75% RDN through Gliricidia + 25% RDN through urea. Application of 50% RDN through Gliricidia + 50% RDN recorded nearly 6% higher REY and ` 6 565/ha more profitability higher output energy in rice-groundnut sequence compared to application of 100% RDN through urea. N management practices of rice, in the crop sequence of rice- groundnut were found to improve the soil nitrogen status. Early planting of rice in second fortnight of June at 20 cm × 20 cm with the application of 50% RDN through Gliricidia + 50% RDN through urea can be recommended for achieving higher productivity, profitability and energy use efficiency of rice - groundnut system in Island ecosystem

Agro-materials : a bibliographic review

Facing the problems of plastic recycling and fossil resources exhaustion, the use of biomass to conceive new materials appears like a reasonable solution. Two axes of research are nowadays developed : on the one hand the synthesis of biodegradable plastics, whichever the methods may be, on the other hand the utilization of raw biopolymers, which is the object of this paper. From this perspective, the “plastic” properties of natural polymers, the caracteristics of the different classes of polymers, the use of charge in vegetable matrix and the possible means of improving the durability of these agro-materials are reviewed

Calculation of the Phase Behavior of Lipids

The self-assembly of monoacyl lipids in solution is studied employing a model in which the lipid's hydrocarbon tail is described within the Rotational Isomeric State framework and is attached to a simple hydrophilic head. Mean-field theory is employed, and the necessary partition function of a single lipid is obtained via a partial enumeration over a large sample of molecular conformations. The influence of the lipid architecture on the transition between the lamellar and inverted-hexagonal phases is calculated, and qualitative agreement with experiment is found.Comment: to appear in Phys.Rev.