Food Security and Nutritional Status among Rural Poor: Evaluating the Impact of Rural Livelihood Mission in Odisha, India

This paper empirically examines the effect of participation in National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) on the food security of rural poor. In parallel, it also introspects the nutritional profiles of the respondents. Data were collected from 220 respondents (including both beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries) through a structured questionnaire from Sonepur district of Odisha (India). For assessing the nutritional profile, the study uses 24 hour recall and food frequency questionnaire methods to collect the information on food consumption. Then food items were converted into their equivalent calories. A food security index (FSI) was constructed to capture the food security taking the average calories of food consumed by the respondents. The study finds a better food consumption pattern among beneficiaries than the non-beneficiaries. Further, the impact of NRLM is examined using randomised control trial method and finds a positive impact of the programme on the food security. That means, participation in the programme helps the beneficiaries to attain food security. Therefore, participation should be encouraged to mitigate the food insecurity problem

Matrix metalloproteinases in chemoresistance: regulatory roles, molecular interactions, and potential inhibitors

Cancer is one of the major causes of death worldwide. Its treatments usually fail when the tumor has become malignant and metastasized. Metastasis is a key source of cancer recurrence, which often leads to resistance towards chemotherapeutic agents. Hence, most cancer-related deaths are linked to the occurrence of chemoresistance. Although chemoresistance can emerge through a multitude of mechanisms, chemoresistance and metastasis share a similar pathway, which is an epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), a class of zinc and calcium-chelated enzymes, are found to be key players in driving cancer migration and metastasis through EMT induction. The aim of this review is to discuss the regulatory roles and associated molecular mechanisms of specific MMPs in regulating chemoresistance, particularly EMT initiation and resistance to apoptosis. A brief presentation on their potential diagnostic and prognostic values was also deciphered. It also aimed to describe existing MMP inhibitors and the potential of utilizing other strategies to inhibit MMPs to reduce chemoresistance, such as upstream inhibition of MMP expressions and MMP-responsive nanomaterials to deliver drugs as well as epigenetic regulations. Hence, manipulation of MMP expression can be a powerful tool to aid in treating patients with chemo-resistant cancers. However, much still needs to be done to bring the solution from bench to bedside

Application of the Multitype Strauss Point Model for Characterizing the Spatial Distribution of Landslides

Landslides are common but complex natural hazards. They occur on the Earth’s surface following a mass movement process. This study applies the multitype Strauss point process model to analyze the spatial distributions of small and large landslides along with geoenvironmental covariates. It addresses landslides as a set of irregularly distributed point-type locations within a spatial region. Their intensity and spatial interactions are analyzed by means of the distance correlation functions, model fitting, and simulation. We use as a dataset the landslide occurrences for 28 years from a landslide prone road corridor in the Indian Himalayas. The landslides are investigated for their spatial character, that is, whether they show inhibition or occur as a regular or a clustered point pattern, and for their interaction with landslides in the neighbourhood. Results show that the covariates lithology, land cover, road buffer, drainage density, and terrain units significantly improved model fitting. A comparison of the output made with logistic regression model output showed a superior prediction performance for the multitype Strauss model. We compared results of this model with the multitype/hard core Strauss point process model that further improved the modeling. Results from the study can be used to generate landslide susceptibility scenarios. The paper concludes that a multitype Strauss point process model enriches the set of statistical tools that can comprehensively analyze landslide data

Landslide susceptibility mapping along road corridors in the Indian Himalayas using Bayesian logic regression models

Landslide susceptibility mapping (LSM) along road corridors in the Indian Himalayas is an essential exercise that helps planners and decision makers in determining the severity of probable slope failure areas. Logistic regression is commonly applied for this purpose, as it is a robust and straightforward technique that is relatively easy to handle. Ordinary logistic regression as a data-driven technique, however, does not allow inclusion of prior information. This study presents Bayesian logistic regression (BLR) for landslide susceptibility assessment along road corridors. The methodology is tested in a landslide-prone area in the Bhagirathi river valley in the Indian Himalayas. Parameter estimates from BLR are compared with those obtained from ordinary logistic regression. By means of iterative Markov Chain Monte Carlo simulation, BLR provides a rich set of results on parameter estimation. We assessed model performance by the receiver operator characteristics curve analysis, and validated the model using 50% of the landslide cells kept apart for testing and validation. The study concludes that BLR performs better in posterior parameter estimation in general and the uncertainty estimation in particular

Stochastic landslide vulnerability modeling in space and time in a part of the northern Himalayas, India

Little is known about the quantitative vulnerability analysis to landslides as not many attempts have been made to assess it comprehensively. This study assesses the spatio-temporal vulnerability of elements at risk to landslides in a stochastic framework. The study includes buildings, persons inside buildings, and traffic as elements at risk to landslides. Building vulnerability is the expected damage and depends on the position of a building with respect to the landslide hazard at a given time. Population and vehicle vulnerability are the expected death toll in a building and vehicle damage in space and time respectively. The study was carried out in a road corridor in the Indian Himalayas that is highly susceptible to landslides. Results showed that 26% of the buildings fall in the high and very high vulnerability categories. Population vulnerability inside buildings showed a value >0.75 during 0800 to 1000 hours and 1600 to 1800 hours in more buildings that other times of the day. It was also observed in the study region that the vulnerability of vehicle is above 0.6 in half of the road stretches during 0800 hours to 1000 hours and 1600 to 1800 hours due to high traffic density on the road section. From this study, we conclude that the vulnerability of an element at risk to landslide is a space and time event, and can be quantified using stochastic modeling. Therefore, the stochastic vulnerability modeling forms the basis for a quantitative landslide risk analysis and assessment