Gender norms and relations in an agricultural watershed project in the Parasai-Sindh Watershed, Jhansi/India

Agricultural watershed projects require intertwined technical and social interventions, and accompanying research should aim at blending technical and social sciences (Douthwaite et al. 2001). CGIAR research programs have been designed by centers and partners with such an approach since their first phase from 2010 to 2016; and also in their second phase, 2017 to 2022, this interdisciplinary approach represents their conditions of existence. As many studies have demonstrated, the success of agricultural intervention projects depends on the degree of participatory approach and gendersensitivity in each project stage: planning, design, implementation and monitoring (Leder et al. 2017; Quisumbing et al. 2014). Hence, any intervention project should develop mechanisms trying to avoid the reproduction of gender relations and the exclusion of diverse local knowledge at the community level. Instead, a holistic approach to empower communities with its diverse members should be developed and adjusted continuously. While “participatory” has become a buzzword, it is necessary to demystify respective project stakeholders’ assumptions. As Cleaver (1998: 293) argues, “sectorial bias, instrumental approaches to participation, and an inadequate understanding of social context (...) detract from a truly gendered understanding of water resource management“. Hence it is the role of any intervening organization to understand diverse water needs, and to identify who accesses water and who controls water access. Women are traditionally associated with the domestic use of water, while men are linked to the productive uses of water, whereas several studies have found this division inadequate and far more complex, particularly in the context of primarily male out-migration and the so-called feminization of agriculture. In their study on agrobiodiversity management in Nepals Himalaya, Bhattarai et al. (2015: 129) found that women’s lack of power can be “reinforced by the development organizations’ acceptance of established gender roles that privileges men with new products associated with cash”

Association of adverse pregnancy outcome and domestic/intimate partner violence

Background: Domestic/intimate partner violence is not a mere household issue. It is a global phenomenon that occurs in all the countries and cuts across all strata, races and countries. Apart from being an issue of human/individual rights, it also has major health consequences. The main aim of this study is to stress the need of screening and detecting violence in antenatal women.Methods: This was a questionnaire based observational cross sectional study done at King Edward Memorial Hospital, Mumbai, India over a span of one year. A total of 200 antenatal/postnatal patients seeking healthcare were enrolled after an informed consent with approval from the Institutional Ethics Committee. Percentages of various parameters were analysed. Test of significance was Chi square test and Odd’s ratio (p <0.05).Results: Prevalence of domestic/intimate partner violence in our study was 12.5% and 7% in the group with normal pregnancy outcome and 18% in group with adverse pregnancy outcome. It was found that violence was more prevalent in age group of 21 to 30 years, love marriages, nuclear families, lower educational level of partner, addiction in partner, unplanned pregnancies, lower economic conditions and families supporting dowry and gender bias and allowing freedom of choice and contraception.Conclusions: Need for routine screening for violence in women of reproductive age group with vulnerable subset of pregnant women. Creating awareness/sensitivity amongst healthcare professionals and to train them to identify and help these women

Comparison of efficacy of atropine versus atropine with pralidoxime in organophosphorus poisoning

Background: Comparison of the efficacy of atropine alone against atropine with pralidoxime in the treatment of organophosphorus (OP) poisoning.Methods: Forty two patients between the age group of 18 to 65 years, treated for OP poisoning and matched for baseline characteristics, were included in two groupsbased on treatment received as “Atropine only” or “Atropine plus pralidoxime(PAM)”.Main outcomes of the study were ICU stay, total hospital stay and mortality. ICU and hospital stay were compared using ‘t’ test while  mortality was compared using Fisher’s exact test.Results: Total hospital stay was not significantly different between the treatment groups (95% CI of difference: -4.227, 0.784). Length of stay was also not significantly different between patients who received atropine plus PAM within 6 hours of consumption of poison and those who received 6 hours later (95% CI of difference: -4.154, 0.954; p value: 0.2). Conclusion: Our data supports the use of only atropine over atropine plus PAM in patients with OP poisoning on account of no significant difference /reduction of hospital/ICU stay and mortality in the latter group. However, a study with a larger sample needs to be conducted, to be able to draw a definitive conclusion

Prevalence of Malnutrition in Adolescent Girls: A Cross-Sectional Study in the Tribal Regions of Telangana

Malnutrition continues to be one of India's major human development challenge. Despite enormous economic progress achieved in the past two to three decades, malnutrition rates continue to be high especially among children and adolescents in both urban and rural India. The shining India is in shade on these important human development indicators. Adolescents in India especially those residing in tribal regions are at high nutritional risk and face health issues such as anemia and chronic disorders. This paper investigates the prevalence, causes and socio-economic-cultural determinants of malnutrition among 11 to 18 years old adolescent tribal girls from the districts of Adilabad, Komaram-Bheem Asifabad and Mancherial in Telangana state. The cross sectional survey collected data in the year 2017 on socio-economic, demographic, diet and anthropometric indicators from 695 tribal adolescent girls out of 2542 tribal households. The analysis of the anthropometric data reveals that about 67 percent of adolescent girls are undernourished having a BMI of less than 18.5. The results revealed that stunting and thinness was highly prevalent among the tribal adolescent girls. Overweight or obesity is not of particular concern in the studied tribal adolescent girls. These adolescents also lack basic awareness about food, nutrition, health and overall wellbeing. The paper ultimately determines the need for a concerted combination of policies and programs specifically aimed at adolescents in the tribal regions addressing poverty, education, nutrition literacy, empowerment to challenge the existing cultural norms related to food consumption and access to diverse diets both in terms of quantity and quality

WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORK WITH CENTRALIZED EMBEDDED WEB SERVER USING ARM 7

A plat form independent embedded web server and its integration into a network of wireless sensor nodes is implemented here. The embedded web server is designed and built as an expansion module for one of the nodes in the Wireless Sensor Network (WSN). It allows authorized Internet users to establish two-way communication with the sensor network. The server uses limited available hardware resources to implement an interface to the WSN node. This allows the user to monitor the operation of the WSN remotely, to periodically download the sensed data and to change the operation mode of the network. In this project, by typing the IP-address of LAN on the web browser, the user gets a web page on screen; this page contains all the information about the status of the devices. The user can also control the devices interfaced to the web server by pressing a button provided in the web pag

Pathogen-induced expression of harpinPss increases resistance in tobacco against fusarium oxysporum f. sp. nicotianae

HarpinPss (encoded by the hrpZ gene), a proteinaceous elicitor produced by Pseudomonas syringae pv. syringae, induces cell death in plants through hypersensitive response (HR). With an aim to generate transgenic tobacco resistant to fungal diseases, hrpZ was expressed in a secretable form, tagged with the signal peptide (SP) of PR1a, under the constitutive 35S promoter (P35S) or pathogen-inducible promoters (PIPs) like phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL), osmotin (OSM), and hypersensitive-related (HSR) promoters. The constitutive expression of the secretable form of hrpZ did not permit regeneration of transformed cells due to harpinPss-induced cell death. Transformants were recovered at a low frequency (2-6%) from leaf discs infected with Agrobacterium harbouring the SP-hrpZ driven by PIPs due to wound-induced leaky expression of harpinPss. The transgenic lines were confirmed by PCR using transgene-specific primers for SP-hrpZ. The expression of hrpZ under PIPs in transgenic lines was confirmed by Western blotting after challenging the leaves with Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. nicotianae. RT-PCR analysis also confirmed the expression of SP-hrpZ driven by PIPs in transgenic tobacco upon infection with F. oxysporum f. sp. nicotianae. The expression of harpinPss in these transgenic lines was accompanied by expression of defense-response genes such as PR1, PR2, PR3, HSR and HIN1. Transgenic tobacco plants showed enhanced resistance to F. oxysporum f. sp. nicotianae. Our findings suggest the potential use of an elicitor gene (hrpZ), driven by PIPs (PAL, OSM, and HSR) for the development of resistant plants

An analytical review on method development and validation of drugs used for alzheimers disease

Alzheimers disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by progressive memory defeat and impairment in behavior, language, and visuospatial skills. Current approved drugs for the treatment of Alzheimer disease (AD) include cholinesterase inhibitors (donepezil, galantamine and rivastigmine,) and the NMDA receptor antagonist memantine. These drugs can provide a symptomatic relief but they poorly affect the progression of the disease. There are several risk factors for the development of Alzheimers disease which include factors like age, genetic factor family history, Downs syndrome, head injury and cardiovascular diseases. Cardio vascular risk factors may include blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, obesity and smoking. People may experience cognitive mental illness, difficulty in understanding and thinking, forgetting things easily, making things complicated, mental confusion, difficulty in concentrating, inability to create old memories, inability to do simple things, or inability to recognize common things. The main objective of this review is discussion on various analytical methods used, different solvents used as mobile phase and their retention time. This review includes method development and validation of cholinesterase inhibitors like Donepezil, Galantamine, Rivastigmine and Tacrine combination of drugs which include cholinesterase inhibitors like Donepezil and NMDA receptor antagonist Memantine. The review is a collection of data including various analytical methods used, the different columns used, mobile phase used, flow rate, different detectors and detection wavelength and retention time. This review includes discussion on method development and validation of Alzheimers drugs and newly developed compounds which have lesser side effects and are proving more efficient for treatment of Alzheimers disease

Comparative study of wound healing effect of topical Acacia catechu extract and silver sulfadiazine on excisional wound model in guinea pigs

Background: Impaired and aberrant wound healing imposes a huge financial burden and places an enormous drain in health care resources in the developed world and an insurmountable problem in the developing countries too. In this study, authors have compared the wound healing effect of topical application of Acacia catechu extract with silver sulfadiazine in excisional wound model in guinea pigs.Methods: Twelve guinea pigs were randomly divided into two groups (n=6). The wound healing was observed in excision model. The standard group is treated with silver sulfadiazine (group 1) and the test group with Acacia catechu extract (group 2). The mean wound size expressed in mm2 and the mean percentage of the wound healed was measured on day 0, 4, 8, 12, 16 and 19. Biopsy was done on day 21 for histopathological examination (HPE).Results: Statistical analysis was done by using unpaired t test for between the groups comparison and by using paired t test for within the group comparison. The mean percentage of the wound healed with-in the groups was found to be statistically highly significant (p value 0.05). A comparable increase in collagen content and granulation tissue was found on HPE in both the groups on day 21.Conclusions: Wound healing effect of the Acacia catechu extract is equal to and comparable with that of silver sulfadiazine

Analyzing gender differentials in dietary diversity across urban and peri-urban areas of Hyderabad, India

Background: India’s recent increase in urbanization alongside with feminization of rural agriculture could increase the existing gender disparities in dietary diversity. With many rural men migrating to urban areas, women have increased domestic burdens as well as productive burdens such as making informed crop production decisions so household members consume a diverse diet. Given the rapid and recent onset of this phenomenon, there is a need to explore gender differentials in diet diversity across urban and rural areas to assess if certain populations are being disproportionately impacted by this trend. There are limited established quantitative studies discussing this gender disparity with respect to urbanization. Therefore, this paper compares dietary diversity among adult men, adult women, adolescent males, and adolescent females in urban and peri-urban locations. The authors also assess if various sociodemographic factors correlate with dietary diversity. Methods Analyses were conducted on dietary diversity data collected by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) from selected urban (1108 individuals) and peri-urban (808 individuals) locations of Hyderabad, India. The total sample size of the population is n = 1816: 660 adult males, 662 adult females, 205 adolescent males, and 289 adolescent females. Results Adult women and adolescent females have a higher diet disparity between peri-urban and urban areas when compared to adult males and adolescent males. Multivariate analyses followed by post hoc multiple comparisons testing further support that peri-urban adult women consume a less diverse diet compared to their urban counterparts and less than other peri-urban adult men and adolescent women. It was also found that marital status, type of household card owned, and the highest degree of education are statistically significant correlators of an individual’s dietary diversity. Conclusions Given that urbanization could negatively impact already vulnerable populations such as peri-urban adult women, who play a key role in children’s nutrition, it is important to provide support to these populations. This paper suggests it is possible to do so through government subsidization of peri-urban farmers to grow more diverse crops, fortifying easily accessible foods with commonly lacking micronutrients, including Vitamin A, folic acid, and iron, market access, and affordable prices