Coping with the Supply-Demand Gap of Agricultural Labourers: A Case Study of Uttar Dinajpur District of West Bengal

The present paper has analyzed the mechanism by which farmers try to cope with the supply-demand gap of agricultural labourers during busy agricultural seasons in the face of growing shortage of agricultural labourers. The traditional mechanism of patron-client relationship between farmers and agricultural labourers has been dealt with in this regard. In this paper an attempt has been made to find answer to the following questions: What is the degree of attachment of the agricultural labourers with the employer? Is there any patron-client relationship between the employer and the employee? How effective is this relationship as a coping mechanism to mitigate the problem of supply-demand gap of agricultural labourers? The paper is based on a micro level study conducted in six villages of Uttar Dinajpur district, a predominantly agricultural and backward district of West Bengal. The study has suggested that to cope with the situation of supplydemand gap of farm labour, there is no other alternative but to adopt selective mechanization of farm activities. Some degree of mechanization is already there which is visibly on the rise. In future, there will be more inducement to undertake mechanical innovation to tackle the growing supply-demand gap in the farm labour.Patron-client relationship, Supply-demand gap, Farmer-labourer attachment, Agricultural labourers, Agricultural and Food Policy, J22, J23, J43,

The science of healthy cities: Deciphering the associations between urban morphometrics and health outcomes

Over the past decade there has been mounting evidence of the significant role played by the myriad attributes of our city's built environments in shaping our health and well-being. This thesis hypothesizes that the constituent components of the built environment, especially the configuration and design of land uses and street networks governs the distribution of resources and services, configures the neighbourhood activity space, and thereby influences individual physical activity behaviours, social interactions, weight outcomes as well as mental health and well being. Enhanced accessibility to health-promoting community resources improves local opportunities for physical activity, thereby enhancing mobility, social interactions and independence as well as reducing isolation. The first section of this thesis conceptualizes the urban health niche as a novel holistic and spatially-explicit paradigm in public health and proposes a health niche model of healthy city. Based on the proposed paradigm and gathered research evidence, multilevel data sets pertaining to health, socio-economic, built and natural environment have been produced and integrated together to constitute the high resolution database, spatial Design Network Analysis for Urban Health (sDNA-UH). sDNA-UH has been developed for the assembly constituency of Caerphilly, South Wales enabling operationalization of the spatial elements of the proposed urban health niche. State-of-the-art spatial and network analysis techniques have been employed upon the UK Ordnance Survey Mastermap data layers to quantify the various facets of urban built environment in the form of built environment morphological metrics (morphometrics) with the potential to influence individual's health. Based on the developed sDNA-UH, a series of three empirical studies comprising multilevel cross-sectional and longitudinal models have been presented which examine the association between specific attributes of a built environment and health outcomes. Firstly, a two-part multi-level regression model was employed to examine the impact of built environment configuration upon psychological distress. Land use mix, density of amenities, local street-network general accessibility (‘betweenness’) and slope variability were identified as significant predictors. Secondly, the first long-term longitudinal evidence relating the built environment to change in obesity in older people identified land use mix, density of amenities street network accessibility and slope variability as significant predictors. The third study examined the health effects of differential accessibility of an individual's dwelling with respect to multiple service and facility catchments at multiple spatial scales. Dwelling level density, dwelling type, density of community services, street network movement potential expressed in terms of betweenness index as well as neighbourhood-level deprivation were identified as the significant parameters. The study reported significant differences in point estimates and level of significance when comparing the two spatial scales of 0.5 and 1.0 mile street network catchments. The empirical evidence thus generated lends support to the thesis’ principal hypothesis that the built environment influences individual health behaviour and eventually health. The research concludes that optimized design and planning of urban built environments act as effective public health intervention in our goal of health-sustaining communities and a healthy city

Urban built environment configuration and psychological distress in older men: Results from the Caerphilly study

Background: Few studies have examined the impact of the built environment configuration upon mental health. The study examines the impact of objectively assessed land use and street network configuration upon psychological distress and whether this association is moderated by the natural environment and area-level deprivation. Methods. In a community sample of 687 older men from the Caerphilly Prospective Study, built environment morphological metrics (morphometrics) were related to differences in psychological distress as measured by the General Health Questionnaire. Cross-sectional data were taken from the most recent (5th) phase. A multi-level analysis with individuals nested within census-defined neighbourhoods was conducted. Environmental measures comprised GIS-constructed land use and street network metrics, slope variability and a satellite derived measure of greenness. Results: Reduced psychological distress was associated with residing in a terraced dwelling (OR = 0.48, p = 0.03), higher degrees of land-use mix (OR = 0.42, p = 0.03 for the high tertile) and having higher local-level street-network accessibility ('movement potential') (OR = 0.54, p = 0.03). Hillier topography with higher slope variability was associated with increased risks of psychological distress (OR = 1.38, p = 0.05). Conclusions: The findings support our hypothesis that built environment configuration is independently associated with psychological distress. The study underscores the need for effective intervention in the planning and design of residential built environment to achieve the goal of health-sustaining communities. © 2013 Sarkar et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.published_or_final_versio

Rooftop gardening to improve food security in Dhaka city: A review of the present practices

In recent years, the trend of growing vegetables on green roofs has gained momentum as a way of promoting agricultural sustainability in Dhaka City. Rooftop gardens become an important part of urban agriculture's recent rejuvenation and offer alternative spaces for urban markets to grow vegetable products. Green roofs create spaces for vegetable crop production, thereby creating opportunities for agricultural incorporation into urban communities. At present, however, vegetable production activities on rooftops are limited due to multiple challenges that need to be addressed before widespread implementation takes place. Rooftop agriculture can improve various ecosystem services, enhance the biodiversity of urban areas and reduce food insecurity. Food production from green roofs will help support and sustain food for urban communities and provide a rare opportunity to grow food efficiently in typically unused spaces. As human populations become more urbanized and urban consumers become more interested in local food for their families, the use of alternative agricultural production systems, such as green roof technologies, will increase in importance. While cultivating food on buildings is a key component of making cities more sustainable and habitable, green roofs are not the total solution for providing cities with food security. They should be viewed more as a supplement to other sources of food production in urban areas

Immunogenic Modulations Induced by Prospective Anti-Malarial Herbal Extracts in Murine Model

Keeping in view the ever increasing problem of drug resistance and affordability of the antimalarial drugs by the poor mass, herbal medicines can become an important and alternative sustainable strategy for malaria treatment. Aqueous extracts of three Himalayan herbs― _Equisetum ravense_, _Artemisia vulgaris_ and _Centella asiatica_, with reported antimalarial property were screened for clinical efficacy against a local strain of _Plasmodium vivax_ antigen in murine model. _E. arvense_ extract was consistent in boosting phagocytic activity, nitric oxide generation, acid phosphatase and alkaline phosphatase activities in the peritoneal macrophages. The effectiveness of the rest herbals was discrete. A need for further detailed investigation to evaluate the clinical efficacy of these herbals seems essential

Urban built environment configuration and psychological distress in older men: Results from the Caerphilly study

Background Few studies have examined the impact of the built environment configuration upon mental health. The study examines the impact of objectively assessed land use and street network configuration upon psychological distress and whether this association is moderated by the natural environment and area-level deprivation. Methods In a community sample of 687 older men from the Caerphilly Prospective Study, built environment morphological metrics (morphometrics) were related to differences in psychological distress as measured by the General Health Questionnaire. Cross-sectional data were taken from the most recent (5th) phase. A multi-level analysis with individuals nested within census-defined neighbourhoods was conducted. Environmental measures comprised GIS-constructed land use and street network metrics, slope variability and a satellite derived measure of greenness. Results Reduced psychological distress was associated with residing in a terraced dwelling (OR = 0.48, p = 0.03), higher degrees of land-use mix (OR = 0.42, p = 0.03 for the high tertile) and having higher local-level street-network accessibility (‘movement potential’) (OR = 0.54, p = 0.03). Hillier topography with higher slope variability was associated with increased risks of psychological distress (OR = 1.38, p = 0.05). Conclusions The findings support our hypothesis that built environment configuration is independently associated with psychological distress. The study underscores the need for effective intervention in the planning and design of residential built environment to achieve the goal of health-sustaining communities

Correction to: Examining the interaction of fast-food outlet exposure and income on diet and obesity: evidence from 51,361 UK biobank participants.

Furthermore, these errors were mistakenly introduced by the Production team managing this article and, as such were not the fault of the authors

RAGE signaling contributes to neuroinflammation in infantile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis

AbstractPalmitoyl-protein thioesterase-1 (PPT1) deficiency causes infantile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis (INCL), a devastating childhood neurodegenerative storage disorder. We previously reported that neuronal apoptosis in INCL is mediated by endoplasmic reticulum-stress. ER-stress disrupts Ca2+-homeostasis and stimulates the expression of Ca2+-binding proteins. We report here that in the PPT1-deficient human and mouse brain the levels of S100B, a Ca2+-binding protein, and its receptor, RAGE (receptor for advanced glycation end-products) are elevated. We further demonstrate that activation of RAGE signaling in astroglial cells mediates pro-inflammatory cytokine production, which is inhibited by SiRNA-mediated suppression of RAGE expression. We propose that RAGE signaling contributes to neuroinflammation in INCL