Where Is Nepal in the Demographic Transition within the Wider Context of the Nutrition Transition?

Historically, the process of nutrition transition begins with the shifts in demographic transition, moving away from high to low mortality, high to low fertility, high percentage of young population to high proportion of elderly population, high to low population growth rate; and short to long life expectancy at birth. The objective is to identify where Nepal is in demographic transition and whether demographic transition is considered as one of the proximate covariates of nutrition transition. Nepal’s position in the demographic transition has been identified by using Popkin’s framework which is scaled from Pattern I to Pattern V. The time series trends indicated that new patterns of demographic transition have been observed during 1995-2010, which is similar to the pattern IV of the nutrition transition as described by Popkin. Before 1970, the death rates were fluctuating around 30 to 50 deaths per thousand populations. The birth rate per thousand populations was more than 44, which was really high. Both fertility and mortality appear to start declining from 1970. During 1995-2010, birth rate declined from 38 to 24 per thousand populations. The time series trends indicated that new patterns of demographic transition have been observed during 1990-2010, which is similar to the transition between Pattern III and IV of the nutrition transition. Nepal is a country with faster declined in mortality followed by fertility decline, increasing life expectancy above 60 years, decreasing age-structure of below 15 years of population, increasing trends of urban population and beginning of large scale international migration. It may be concluded from above evidences that Nepal is across the new pattern of transition after 1990s in the demographic transition including the increasing risk of chronic diseases of elderly people related to excess consumption of fat, sugar and process foods

Is Economic Transition One of the Proximate Determinants of Nutrition Transition in Nepal?

Background: Historically, the process of nutrition transition begins with changes in economic structures which move away from agrarian economies to successful industrialisation, with high economic growth, urbanisation and increased real per capita income. Objective: The objective is to identify where Nepal is in economic transition and whether economic transition is considered as one of the proximate determinants of nutrition transition in Nepal. Results: Nepal’s position in the economic transition has been identified by using Popkin’s framework which is scaled from Pattern I to Pattern V. The time series trends indicated that new patterns of economic transition had been observed during 1995-2010, which was similar to the pattern IV of the Nutrition Transition as described by Popkin. The national income of Nepal increased over the past four decades. The GDP of Nepal has shown an annual increase at a rate of 3.92 per cent between 1970 and 2010. Conclusion: Economic growth and agricultural trade liberalization have induced plant fats supply in Nepal. Tourism has also transferred the taste and preferences of western foods to tourist destinations and urban centres, including potential negative health consequences related to excess consumption of fat, sugar and process foods

Workplace Accidents among Nepali Male Workers in the Middle East and Malaysia: A Qualitative Study

There are many Nepali men working in the Middle East and Malaysia and media reports and anecdotal evidence suggest a high risk of workplace-related accidents and injuries for male Nepali workers. Therefore, this study aims to explore the personal experiences of male Nepali migrants of unintentional injuries at their place of work. In-depth, face-to-face interviews (n = 20) were conducted with male Nepali migrant workers. Study participants were approached at Kathmandu International Airport, hotels and lodges around the airport. Interviews were transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis. Almost half of study participants experienced work-related accident abroad. The participants suggested that the reasons behind this are not only health and safety at work but also poor communication, taking risks by workers themselves, and perceived work pressure. Some participants experienced serious incidents causing life-long disability, extreme and harrowing accounts of injury but received no support from their employer or host countries. Nepali migrant workers would appear to be at a high risk of workplace unintentional injuries owing to a number of interrelated factors poor health and safety at work, pressure of work, risk taking practices, language barriers, and their general work environment. Both the Government of Nepal and host countries need to be better policing existing policies, introduce better legislation where necessary, ensure universal health (insurance) coverage for labour migrants, and improve preventive measures to minimize the number and severity of accidents and injuries among migrant workers

In-field monitoring of mango fruit dry matter for maturity estimation

The use of a short wave near infrared spectroscopic instrument for estimation of mango fruit DM on tree, as a support in the decision to harvest, was confirmed. The technique was robust in face of change in ambient temperature and light. Agronomic treatments of water stress and fruit removal are recommended for fruit DM increase. The DA meter reading was not a useful measure of mango fruit maturity. Sampling of areas of the fruit with less chlorophyll is recommended, to allow change in chlorophyll levels to be monitored

Manipulation of mango fruit dry matter content to improve eating quality

© 2017 Elsevier B.V. A near infrared spectroscopic method was used to non-invasively assess dry matter (DM) of fruit on tree with a R 2 p = 0.82 and RMSEP = 0.52% across fruit from a range of water denied treatments. A variety of techniques for manipulating tree fruit carbohydrates (fruit thinning, girdling, nitrogen and water manipulation) were implemented on six mango farms in 2013. Fruit thinning and water denial treatments resulted in increased DM. Water denial for periods as short as 2 weeks before harvest resulted in increased DM (17.6 cf. 16.5% in control) and ripened fruit Brix (14.3 cf. 13.3° in control) without decrease in fruit size associated with long periods of water denial

Automating mango crop yield estimation

Several imaging technologies were assessed for determination of mango crop load, including hyperspectral and thermal imaging, but with preference given to RGB imaging. Sets of RGB images of mango fruits on trees were collected under a range of orchard conditions over five seasons. A number of different image processing algorithms were evaluated, and positive identification rates of up to 80% were achieved. Approaches included colour and texture filters, contour detection and pixel classification using various approaches. Issues that affect load estimates, occlusion of fruits by leaves and flower stalks, fruit bunching, shadowing, triggering, and insufficient lighting are discussed. These image sets are available on request for comparative work using other image processing algorithms

Assessment of internal flesh browning in intact apple using visible-short wave near infrared spectroscopy

Walsh, KB ORCiD: 0000-0002-3033-8622© 2016 Elsevier B.V.Certain cultivars of apple are prone to an internal flesh browning defect following extended controlled atmosphere storage. A number of (destructive) reference methods were assessed for scoring the severity of this defect in a fruit, including visual assessment, image analysis (% cross section area affected), International Commission on Illumination (CIE) chromameter Lab values of a cut surface and juice Abs420, of which visual scoring on a 5 point scale and a colour index based on CIE Lab were recommended. Non-invasive detection of this disorder using three instruments operating in the visible-shortwave near infrared (NIR) but varying in optical geometry (interactance, partial transmission and full transmission) was attempted. Quantitative prediction of defect level was best assessed using visible-shortwave NIRS in a transmission optical geometry, with a typical partial least squares (PLS) regression model with correlation coefficient of determination, R2p = 0.83 and root mean square of errors of prediction = 0.63 (5 point defect score scale). The binary classification approaches of linear discriminant analysis, PLS discriminant analysis, support vector machine approach and logistic regression were trialled for separation of acceptable fruit, with the best result achieved using the PLS discriminant analysis method, followed by linear discriminant analysis and support vector machine classification. Classification accuracy [(True Positive + True Negative)/(Positive + Negative)] on an independent validation population of >95% and a false discovery rate [False Positive/(True Positive + False Positive)]of <2% was achieved