Nutritional Status of Households of Rural Field Practice Area of a Tertiary Care Hospital in India

Introduction: In the world as a whole there appears to be a shift from under-nourishment towards over-nourishment making more and more children, adolescents, adults and even elderly to be overweight and obese. Objectives: Study aimed to find out the age and sex wise commonness of over-weight & obesity amongst the families of an overtly different socio-economic environment and its trend in the members of one type of families. Materials & Methods: The undergraduate medical students are supposed to maintain record of individual health (including height & weight) of their own family as well as that of the allotted family. The data collected (record maintained ) by students was utilized to calculate Body Mass Index (BMI). Results: Out of total 291 subjects (males 168; females 123) in students own family 28.9% (28.0%; 30.1%) were overweight and 5.9% (6.0%; 5.7%) were obese. The similar figures for 262 subjects (males 143 & females 119) in the allotted families were 20.2% (18.5%; 20.2%) and 6.5% (4.2%; 8.4%) respectively. The respective percentages of under nourished individuals were 18.6 (17.9; 19.5) and 35.5 (37.8; 32.8). Thus over-nutrition was more common amongst the members of students own families (34.8% vs. 26.7%) and under-nutrition was more common amongst the members of allotted families (35.5% vs. 18.6%) For the years 2000-2003, BMI amongst individuals of students own families the under-nutrition in the age group of 15-24 years amongst males increased from 15.9% to 32.9% and over-nutrition from 13.6% to 20.5%. There was no case of overweight and obesity up to the age of 34 years in the previous analysis which was 2.6% in the present analysis Previous results demonstrated overweight to be more common in males (32.4% Vs. 24.4% in females) and obesity being more common females ( 6.3% Vs. 2.6% in females). Conclusion: Males are increasingly becoming prey of malnutrition (adolescents for under-nutrition and adults & elderly for over-nutrition. More studies covering larger samples are required to be conducted on a more frequent basis

Determinant of Poverty in Ethiopia

Poverty has turned out to be a great global social and economic problem. In Ethiopia, it is multifaceted and deep rooted. This study attempts to analyze the impact of socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of households on poverty in Ethiopia, using the latest Household Income, Consumption and Expenditure Survey (HICES) 2010-11. The study employs a logistic regression model to identify determinants of wellbeing of the household by considering per capita consumption as a dependent variable. Different households are classified as either poor or non-poor on the basis of absolute per capita consumption of Birr 3781. Results show owner of agricultural land, head (self-employed or employed in formal sector) are more likely to exit from poverty line. The results also reveal that female headed households, large family size and high dependency ratio are adversely affected.Keywords: Poverty, Household, Per Capita Consumption, Determinants, Logistic Regression

Specialty Preference Among Medical Students and Factors Affecting It

Introduction: Medical education is one of the core part of educational system of any country. Medical education requires undergraduate students to study a wide range of medical specialties. It is often assumed that students do not make their career preferences until after they have graduated from medical school. So the reasons and factors responsible for preferences need to be found out among medical students. Material and Methods: It was a Cross sectional study on 180 medical students to assess preference for specialty and factors responsible. Results: Out of total 190 medical students more or less everyone (97.89%) wanted to pursue specialization and majority of them (96.84%) wanted to pursue the same in Medical Field(p>0.05). majority of male students were interested to pursue their specialization in the field of medicine (37.63%), surgery (23.65%) and pediatrics (13.97%). On the other hand female students were more interested in medicine (24.17%), pediatrics (32.96%) and obstetrics & gynecology (24.17%)(p<0.05). Interest, by far was found to be most common factor (76.63%) responsible for the preference of particular medical specialty among all four groups of students (1st professional-25.27%, 2nd professional-75.92%, final professional-89.47%, interns-68.42%).Conclusion: It is thus concluded there are many factors playing role in the specialty selection and preference among the medical students and should be equally justified and addressed

Optimal microscale water cooled heat sinks for targeted alleviation of hotspot in microprocessors

This paper was presented at the 4th Micro and Nano Flows Conference (MNF2014), which was held at University College, London, UK. The conference was organised by Brunel University and supported by the Italian Union of Thermofluiddynamics, IPEM, the Process Intensification Network, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, the Heat Transfer Society, HEXAG - the Heat Exchange Action Group, and the Energy Institute, ASME Press, LCN London Centre for Nanotechnology, UCL University College London, UCL Engineering, the International NanoScience Community, www.nanopaprika.eu.Hotspots in microprocessors arise due to non-uniform utilization of the underlying integrated circuits during chip operation. Conventional liquid cooling using microchannels leads to undercooling of the hotspot areas and overcooling of the background area of the chip resulting in excessive temperature gradients across the chip. These in turn adversely affect the chip performance and reliability. This problem becomes even more acute in multi-core processors where most of the processing power is concentrated in specific regions of the chip called as cores. We present a 1-dimensional model for quick design of a microchannel heat sink for targeted, single-phase liquid cooling of hotspots in microprocessors. The method utilizes simplifying assumptions and analytical equations to arrive at the first estimate of a microchannel heat sink design that distributes the cooling capacity of the heat sink by adapting the coolant flow and microchannel size distributions to the microprocessor power map. This distributed cooling in turn minimizes the chip temperature gradient. The method is formulated to generate a heat sink design for an arbitrary chip power map and hence can be readily utilized for different chip architectures. It involves optimization of microchannel widths for various zones of the chip power map under the operational constraints of maximum pressure drop limit for the heat sink. Additionally, it ensures that the coolant flows uninterrupted through its entire travel length consisting of microchannels of varying widths. The resulting first design estimate significantly reduces the computational effort involved in any subsequent CFD analysis required to fine tune the design for more complex flow situations arising, for example, in manifold microchannel heat sinks

A study on light trap catches of some rice pests in relation to meteorological factors

The effect of meteorological factors on the population build up of green leafhopper Nephotettix virescens Dist (Cicadellidae, Hemiptera), plant hoppers Cofana spectra Dist (Delphacidae, Hemiptera) and C. yasumatsui Young (Kolla mimica, Hemiptera) and rice gundhi bug Leptocoriza acuta Thunberg (Alydidae, Hemiptera) in rice growing season (July to November) was studied through light trap collection during ten years (1988–1997). Maximum populations of Nephotettix virescens Dist (Cicadellidae, Hemiptera) and C. yasumatsui Young (Kolla mimica, Hemiptera) were recorded in the third week of October during all the years. Cofana spectra Dist had maintained peak activity in respect of population in the last week of September and third week of October. Leptocoriza acuta Thunberg (Alydidae, Hemiptera) had maximum population in second and third weeks of October during the aforesaid period. No meteorological factors have significant effect on the population build up of Nephotettix virescens Dist, Cofana spectra Dist and C. yasumatsui Young in the month of October. In the case of Leptocoriza acuta Thunberg, no other factor but rainfall had positive correlation of order 0.857 with population build up in the fourth week of September.Key words/phrases: Meteorological factors, path analysis, regression analysis, rice insect pests SINET: Ethiopian Journal of Science: Vol. 27 (2) 2004: 165–17

Low genetic diversity and absence of population differentiation of hilsa (Tenualosa ilisha) revealed by mitochondrial DNA cytochrome b region in Ganga and Hooghly rivers

We investigated the mtDNA cytochrome b based genetic structure of anadromous clupeid hilsa, Tenualosa ilisha, from the rivers Ganga and Hooghly. Six different haplotypes were observed, in sample size of 240, with a single dominant haplotype present in both rivers. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) of Ganga and Hooghly populations does not suggest existence of population structuring in hilsa. AMOVA conducted on the whole population from Ganga and Hooghly suggested existence of a single population, migrating to Ganga and Hooghly rivers through the estuaries for spawning and breeding.Keywords: Hilsa, Tenualosa ilisha, Ganga, Hooghly, Bay of Bengal, West Bengal, India, mtDNA cytochrome bAfrican Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(22), pp. 3383-338

Analysis of genetic diversity in female, male and half sibs willow genotypes through RAPD and SSR markers

Willows belong to the genus Salix (Salicaceae) and consist of large number of species with large phenotypic variations. As a result, it has a low diagnostic value for identifying pure species and interspecific hybrids. Genetic characterization of 34 reference genotypes (4 female, 10 male, and 20 half sibs) of Salix collected from Naganji Nursery of University of Horticulture and Forestry, Solan, Himachal Pradesh, India were analyzed using 10 SSRs and 15 RAPDs PCR-based molecular markers. RAPD analysis yielded 87 polymorphic fragments (98.9%), with an average of 5.8 polymorphic fragments per primer. Similarly, SSR analysis produced 33 bands, out of which 26 were polymorphic (78.8%) with an average of 2.6 polymorphic fragments per primer. The genetic diversity was high among the genotypes (Nei’s genetic diversity = 0.468 and Shannon’s information index = 0.659) as measured by combination of both RAPD and SSR markers. The mean coefficient of gene differentiation (Gst) was 0.034, indicating 96.6% of the genetic diversity resided within the genotypes. The genetic diversity among genotypes of Salix sp. was found to be high, suggesting the importance and feasibility of introducing elite genotypes from different origins for Salix germplasm conservation and breeding programs.Keywords: Salix sp., half sibs, molecular markers, genomic DNA fingerprinting.African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(29), pp. 4578-458

Possible role of eclosion rhythm in mediating the effects of light-dark environments on pre-adult development in Drosophila melanogaster

BACKGROUND: In insects, circadian clocks have been implicated in affecting life history traits such as pre-adult development time and adult lifespan. Studies on the period (per) mutants of Drosophila melanogaster, and laboratory-selected lines of Bactrocera cucurbitae suggested a close link between circadian clocks and development time. There is a possibility of clock genes having pleiotropic effects on clock period and pre-adult development time. In order to avoid such pleiotropic effects we have used wild type flies of same genotype under environments of different periodicities, which phenotypically either speeded up or slowed down the eclosion clock of D. melanogaster. RESULTS: We assayed pre-adult development time and pre-adult survivorship of four laboratory populations of D. melanogaster, under five different light regimes, continuous light (LL), continuous darkness (DD), and light-dark (LD) cycles of 10:10 h (T20), 12:12 h (T24), and 14:14 h (T28). Although the development time was significantly different in most light regimes, except for females under T24 &T28, pre-adult survivorship remained largely unaffected. The development time was shortest under LL, followed by T20, DD, T24 and T28 regimes, in that order. Interestingly the development time showed a positive correlation with the period of eclosion rhythm, i.e., faster oscillations were associated with faster development, and slower oscillations with slower development. CONCLUSION: Based on these results we conclude that periodicity of imposed LD cycles, and/or of eclosion rhythm plays a key role in regulating the duration of pre-adult development in D. melanogaster in a manner that does not involve direct pleiotropic effects of clock genes on both clock period and development time

Influence of variable radius of cutting head trajectory on quality of cutting kerf in the abrasive water jet process for soda-lime glass

The main innovation of this article is the determination of the impact of curvature of a shape cut out in a brittle material using an abrasive water jet (AWJ) process as an important factor of the machined surfaces. The curvature of a shape, resulting from the size of the radius of the cutting head trajectory, is one of the key requirements necessary for ensuring the required surface quality of materials shaped by the abrasive water jet process, but very few studies have been carried out in this regard. An important goal of the experimental studies carried out here and presented in this work was to determine its influence on the quality of the inner and outer surfaces of the cutting kerf. This goal was accomplished by cutting the shape of a spiral in soda–lime glass. For such a shape, the effect of radius of the trajectory of the cutting head on selected parameters of the surface texture of the inner surface of the cutting kerf (IS) and the outer surface of the cutting kerf (OS) was studied. The obtained results of the experimental studies confirmed that the effect of the curvature of the cut shape is important from the point of view of the efficiency of the glass-based brittle material-cutting process using AWJ. Analyses of the surface textures of the areas located in the upper part of the inner and outer surfaces separated by the use of AWJ machining showed that the OS surfaces are characterized by worse technological quality compared with IS surfaces. Differences in the total height of surface irregularities (given by St amplitude parameter), determined on the basis of the obtained results of the measurements of both surfaces of the cutting kerf, were as follows: ΔStr = 50 = 0.6 μm; ΔStr = 35 = 1 μm; ΔStr = 15 = 1.3 μm. The analysis of values measured in areas located in the more sensitive zone of influence of the AWJ outflow proved that the total height of irregularities (St) of the OS was higher. Differences in the total heights of irregularities for inner and outer surfaces of the cutting kerf were as follows: ΔStr = 50 = 2.1 μm; ΔStr = 35 = 3 μm; ΔStr = 15 = 14.1 μm, respectively. The maximum difference in the total heights of irregularities (St), existing between the surfaces considered in a special case (radius 15 mm), was almost 20%, which should be a sufficient condition for planning cutting operations, so as to ensure the workpiece is shaped mainly by internal surfaces