Body mass index percentiles for rural Bengalee pre-school children aged 2-6 years, in comparison with the WHO reference and other studies

Objective: Compare the body mass index (BMI) percentiles of the rural Bengalee children with those in two recently developed international references: the WHO and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US CDC) growth references and two other studies. Design: A cross-sectional ethnic based survey. Setting: Thirty randomly selected villages, from rural areas of Purulia, Paschim Medinipur and Darjeeling. Subjects: 1,872 preschool children aged 2–6 years. Results: BMI percentiles were established using the LMS method, and were compared with the percentiles of the WHO reference, the US CDC reference and two other studies. BMI distributions and growth patterns in Bengalee preschool children were dramatically different from those in the two international reference populations. Compared with the international reference populations, rural Bengalee boys and girls (2-6 years) had substantially lower BMI percentiles than their counterparts in the reference populations. Conclusions: The present study described the different patterns of BMI values at the regional/ethnic level, and these values are useful as a reference for comparing different regions and for monitoring changes over time in Bengalee and children of Indian subcontinent. Higher proportions of children with extreme values in uni-directions indicate that Bengalee children currently facing an increasing level of undernutrition

Momentum dependence of the symmetry potential and nuclear reactions induced by neutron-rich nuclei at RIA

Effects of the momentum-dependence of the symmetry potential in nuclear reactions induced by neutron-rich nuclei at RIA energies are studied using an isospin- and momentum-dependent transport model. It is found that symmetry potentials with and without the momentum-dependence but corresponding to the same density-dependent symmetry energy $E_{sym}(\rho)$ lead to significantly different predictions on several $E_{sym}(\rho)$-sensitive experimental observables. The momentum-dependence of the symmetry potential is thus critically important for investigating accurately the equation of state (${\rm EOS}$) and novel properties of dense neutron-rich matter at RIA.Comment: Rapid Communication, Phys. Rev. C in pres

Body Mass Index and Chronic Energy Deficiency among Adult Santals of Purulia District, West Bengal, India.

The present community based cross-sectional study was undertaken to determine the overall prevalance of undernutrition using BMI (kg/m2) among the Santal adult tribes of  Purulia District, West Bengal, India. Present study is based on the data of height and weight of adults aged 18 years and above from 10 villages of Purulia. A total of 513 (196 males and 317 females) adults aged 18 years and above were measured. One commonly used indicator i.e., BMI were used to evaluate the nutritional status of the subjects. Females were found more underweight than their male counterpart (30.6%) & (63.4%), which is found to be significant (p < 0.001). There is highly significant gender differences in CED (x2= 55.96a; df= 4; p< 0.001). Tribal females of west Bengal were in highly critical situation than other states of the same country (64.2%). Valuable health and nutritional promotion programs can be formulated based on these findings of such researches with the ultimate objective of reducing overall nutritional problem in a population

Nutritional Assessment by Mid-Upper Arm Circumference of Santal Adults of Purulia, West Bengal, India

The present community based cross-sectional study was undertaken to determine the prevalence of undernutrition using mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) among adult (> 18 years) Santals of Purulia District, West Bengal, India. It was undertaken at 10 villages of the district. A total of 520 (217 males and 303 females) subjects were measured. Commonly used indicator i.e., MUAC and BMI, were used to evaluate the nutritional status of the subjects. More women (64.7%) then men (54.4%) based on MUAC and women (59.4%) then men (34.6%) based on BMI were undernourished. Significant sex difference both in MUAC (t=2.378, p<0.05) and BMI (t=4.971, p<0.001) were observed. Significant age group difference for MUAC was observed (F=8.93***, df=3) for men and (F=9.52***, df=3) for women. For BMI, these values were F=10.10*** (df=3) F=6.17*** (df=3) respectively. In conclusion, we found that adult Santals of both sexes were under critical nutritional stress, women and the oldest among them were the most

Firm Investment & Credit Constraints in India, 1997 – 2006: A stochastic frontier approach

We use the stochastic frontier approach to estimate the impact of firm characteristics on investment decisions of Indian firms during the 1997-2006 period. The use of the stochastic frontier approach allows us to define the (unobserved) optimum investment that is consistent with a firm‟s characteristics such as the Tobin‟s q during each firm-year, and then estimate the deviation from this unobserved optimum in the form of an (investment) efficiency score that varies between zero and one. This deviation is interpreted as the degree of credit constraint, and we are also able to estimate the impact of firm characteristics such as leverage and business group affiliation on the degree of credit constraint via their marginal effects. Our results suggest that the degree of credit constraint of an average firm increased over time during the sample period, despite significant reforms of the Indian banking sector by the turn of the century. We also find that the degree of credit constraint decreases with cash flow and assets, which is consistent with the available literature. Further, there is a threshold effect of leverage, and the degree of credit constraint is greater for highly leveraged firms. Finally, we find that the beneficial impact of business group affiliation on the degree of credit constraint decreases over time, and is eliminated by the end of the sample period.Investment, Credit rationing, Imperfect information, Stochastic frontier analysis

ଜେଲି ତଥ୍ୟ (Jelly facts-Odiya Version)

Jelly fact

A Transport Model for Nuclear Reactions Induced by Radioactive Beams

Major ingredients of an isospin and momentum dependent transport model for nuclear reactions induced by radioactive beams are outlined. Within the IBUU04 version of this model we study several experimental probes of the equation of state of neutron-rich matter, especially the density dependence of the nuclear symmetry energy. Comparing with the recent experimental data from NSCL/MSU on isospin diffusion, we found a nuclear symmetry energy of $)\approx 31.6(\rho /\rho_{0})^{1.05}$ at subnormal densities. Predictions on several observables sensitive to the density dependence of the symmetry energy at supranormal densities accessible at GSI and the planned Rare Isotope Accelerator (RIA) are also made.Comment: 10 pages. Talk given at the 2nd Argonne/MSU/JINA/INT RIA Workshop at MSU, March 9-12, 2005 to be published in the Proceedings by the American Institute of Physic

A schematic model for fragmentation and phase transition in nuclear collisions

We develop here a simple yet versatile model for nuclear fragmentation in heavy ion collisions. The model allows us to calculate thermodynamic properties such as phase transitions as well as the distribution of fragments at disassembly. In spite of its simplicity the model gives very good fit to recent data taken at the Michigan National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory. The model is an extension of a lattice gas model which itself has strong overlaps with percolation models which have been used in the past to compare with nuclear fragmentation data.Comment: 12 pages (RevTex), 4 figures (uuencoded ps file), To appear in Phys. Lett.

A Longitudinal growth study of weight among Lodha and Non-Lodha infants and young children of Lodhasuli, West Bengal, India

Abstract This is the first community based longitudinal study among the Lodha tribals and nonLodha children of Lodhasuli, West Bengal, India. The objective of the present longitudinal growth study was to compare the growth in weight of Lodha (tribal) children with the nonLodha children of two different nearby villages of Midnapore. The weight of 44 boys and 55 girls, from poor-class families in tribal and rural part of the Lodhasuli, Midnapore, were taken at one month interval over periods of up to 24 months. Independent sample ttest were used to compare the weight between sex and caste. Significant differences (p&lt;0.001) in weight among both boys and girls were observed. Significant deviations (p&lt;0.001) in weight were also observed from the NCHS data