Studies on plant species used by tribal communities of Saputara and Purna forests, Dangs district, Gujarat

368-374The paper deals with the ethno-medico-botany of plant species of Saputara and Purna forests, extreme northern part of western Ghats, South Gujarat. About 50 plant species belonging to 40 genera and 28 families used by the tribals for their economic as well as medicinal uses in curing various diseases have been enumerated. Information on economic and medicinal utilization of plant species including their family, vernacular name and parts used for the treatment has been presented

Perceptions of weight and associated factors of adolescents in Jiangsu Province, China

OBJECTIVE: To describe perceptions of weight of adolescents and associated factors. Design Cross-sectional survey in 2002. Setting Eight public middle schools in two distinct socio-economic areas of Jiangsu Province, China. SUBJECTS: Eight hundred and twenty-four adolescents (aged 12–14 years) and 628 of their parents. Methods Self-administered questionnaires for students and their parents were used to collect the data. Height and weight of the students were measured. Results One-third of the girls perceived themselves as overweight, while only 8.9% were actually overweight or obese according to the World Health Organization definition. On the other hand, 15.0% of the girls considered themselves underweight, while 5.6% were underweight according to the definition. Among the boys, one-fifth of those defined as overweight perceived their weight as normal. Furthermore, 23.9% perceived themselves as underweight when in fact only 4.9% were classified as underweight according to the definition. About one-quarter of the students dieted in the past year. Adolescents who perceived themselves to be overweight dieted and skipped breakfast more often. They also had lower intake frequencies of animal foods, Western foods and milk/yoghurt. No disparity was observed in the intake frequency of fruits and vegetables between the groups of different weight perception. Parents' weight norms seemed to favour overweight in both genders, but especially among boys. CONCLUSIONS: Both overweight and underweight concerns were common among girls, while a higher body weight was favoured by normal-weight boys and their parents. Distorted weight perceptions in adolescents, as well as dieting, are problems that need appropriate intervention.Zumin Shi, Nanna Lien, Bernadette Nirmal Kumar and Gerd Holmboe-Ottese

Characteristics and toxicological effects of commuter exposure to black carbon and metal components of fine particles (PM2.5) in Hong Kong

Epidemiological studies have demonstrated significant associations between traffic-related air pollution and adverse health outcomes. Personal exposure to fine particles (PM2.5) in transport microenvironments and their toxicological properties remain to be investigated. Commuter exposures were investigated in public transport systems (including the buses and Mass Transit Railway (MTR)) along two sampling routes in Hong Kong. Real-time sampling for PM2.5 and black carbon (BC), along with integrated PM2.5 sampling, were performed during the warm and cold season of 2016-2017, respectively. Commuter exposure to BC during 3-hour commuting time exhibited a wider range, from 3.4 to 4.6 mu g/m(3) on the bus and 5.5 to 8.7 mu g/m(3) in MTR cabin (p < .05). PM2.5 mass andmajor chemical constituents (including organic carbon (OC), elemental carbon (EC), andmetals) were analyzed. Cytotoxicity, including cellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, was determined in addition to acellular ROS generation. PM2.5 treatment promoted the ROS generation in a concentration-dependent manner. Consistent diurnal variationswere observed for commuter exposure to BC and PM2.5 components, along with cellular and acellular ROS generation, which marked with two peaks during the morning (08:00-11:00) and evening rush hours (17:30-20:30). Commuter exposures in the MTR system were characterized by higher levels of PM2.5 and elemental components (e.g., Ca, Cr, Fe, Zn, Ba) compared to riding the bus, alongwith higher cellular and acellular ROS production (p < .01). These metals were attributed to different sources: rail tracks, wheels, brakes, and crustal origin. Weak to moderate associations were shown for the analyzed transition metals with PM2.5-induced cell viability and cellular ROS. Multiple linear regression analysis revealed that Ni, Zn, Mn, Fe, Ti, and Co attributed to cytotoxicity and ROS generation. These findings underscore the importance of commuter exposures and their toxic effects, urging effective mitigating strategies to protect human health. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

An assessment of carbon stock for various land use system in Aravally mountains, Western India

Carbon stock, Forest, Plantation, Agriculture, Carbon mitigation, Carbon sequestration,