Assessing the Welfare of Orphans in Rwanda: Poverty, Work, Schooling, and Health

One of the aspects of the orphan crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa relates to time use, namely where orphans end up living and what they spend their time doing in their new household of adoption. While some orphans are welcomed in centres and institutions, many live with relatives or other members of their communities, and others are welcomed by families which are not directly related to them. Orphans are in many ways better off when welcomed by relatives or other families than when living by themselves or in institutions, but there are also concerns that the orphans (and especially girls) that are welcomed in some families may be required to provide more help for the domestic tasks to be performed, with the resulting time pressure in terms of workload preventing them from benefitting from the same opportunities in education and other aspects of their development as other children. The objective of this paper is to conduct preliminary work to test this assumption using recent household survey data from Rwanda, with an attention not only to traditional variables of interest such as school enrollment, child labor and time use, but also with an eye to assessing other dimensions of the children’s welfare.Time Use; Orphans; Labor supply; Poverty; Rwanda

Parameters for success of Versova multipurpose cooperative in Maharashtra

Fishermen co-operatives can be a potent agency for bringing about the social and economic progress of the fishermen community. Streamlining of marketing procedures and provision of infrastructural facilities would result in lowering of production costs and increased benefits accruing to the producers. Another consequence will be an increase in fish yield whereby the problem of the nutritional food gap can be resolved. Success in cooperation is determined by diverse factors like effective leadership and management, loyal and informed members, availability of adequate and timely finance and infrastructure. Proximity to a large metropolis will also have a significant impact on the creation of a favourable environment

Inter disciplinary approach to aquaculture - with special reference to Damdama, Haryana

Successful aquaculture development depends not only on the economic evaluation of the cost parameters involved, but also a careful consideration of various bio-socio-economic factors is required. Financial viability has to be linked with location specific technology packaging within the framework of integrated rural development

Impact of DDT spraying on malaria transmission in Bareilly District, Uttar Pradesh, India

Background & objectives: Impact of indoor residual spraying of DDT on malaria transmission andvector density was evaluated in six villages of Shergarh PHC, Bareilly district, Uttar Pradesh under theoperational condition of National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP) from July 2001to March 2002 (one transmission season only).Methods: Two rounds of DDT (50% WDP) spraying @ 1 g/m2 were done both in the experimental andcontrol villages by the state health authorities. The spraying in experimental villages was supervisedby Malaria Research Centre (MRC) whereas the district health authorities supervised the operation incontrol villages. Mass blood surveys were made three times— before the first round, in between thefirst and second rounds and after the second round of spraying. The blood smears were examined bythe trained microscopists of MRC, Haldwani. From the above examinations epidemiological indicatorssuch as slide positivity rate (SPR), slide falciparum rate (SFR) and infant parasite rate (IPR) werecalculated. All malaria positive cases were given radical treatment as per NVBDCP schedule.Entomological parameters such as per man hour mosquito density, parity rate, gonotrophic conditionand adult susceptibility status of Anopheles culicifacies to diagnostic dosages of DDT (4%) weremonitored as per the standard techniques.Results: A total of 988.5 kg of DDT was consumed during two rounds of spray. The house coveragevaried from 87 to 95.3%. Parasitological evaluation revealed significant reduction in malaria cases (p <0.0005) and infant parasite rate declined from 2.9 to 0%. Entomological observations revealedconsiderable reduction in the density of malaria vector An. culicifacies despite of its 21.4% mortalityagainst DDT test papers.Interpretation & conclusion: The overall results of the study revealed that DDT is still a viableinsecticide in indoor residual spraying owing to its effectivity in well supervised spray operation andhigh excitorepellencyfactor

Preparation and Characterization of CuO Nanoparticles by Novel Sol-Gel Technique

Recent developments of nanosize materials of metal and metal oxide particles are intensively pursued because of their prominence in different fields of applications. Among all the transition metal oxides, CuO is a potential candidate for the application of magnetic storage devices, solar energy transfer, sensors, and super capacitors etc. Moreover CuO nanoparticles act as a good catalyst in some of the chemical reactions. CuO nanoparticles were prepared by novel sol-gel method. In this technique CuCl2.6H2O is added with acetic acid and heated to 100 °C with continuous stirring. To control the ph of the above solution, NaOH is added to the solution till ph reached desired value. The color of the solution changed from blue to black with precipitation. The black precipitation was washed 3 – 4 times with distilled water. Finally the solution was centrifuged and dried in air for one day. The CuO nanoparticles were characterized by studying their structure with X-ray diffraction and composition by energy dispersive X-ray analysis. The size of the nanoparticles is estimated by particle size analyzer and transmission electron microscopy. The optical studies were carried out with Uv-Vis spectrophotometer. When you are citing the document, use the following link http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/2960

Role of the Nlrp3 Inflammasome in Microbial Infection

The intracellular Nod-like receptor Nlrp3 has emerged as the most versatile innate immune receptor because of its broad specificity in mediating immune response to a wide range of microbial or danger signals. Nlrp3 mediates assembly of the inflammasome complex in the presence of microbial components leading to the activation of caspase-1 and the processing and release of the pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-1β and IL-18. In this review, we give an update on the recent literature examining the role of Nlrp3 inflammasome in response to fungal, bacterial, and viral infections

Evaluation of anti-tumor activity of ethanolic extract of Glycyrrhiza glabra against Ehrlich ascites carcinoma in swiss albino mice

Background: Cancer is one of the most life threatening diseases which is in need of newer drug development. The use of plant products with potent antioxidant and cytotoxic activity is upcoming Studies reveal that herbal product have increased efficacy as well as decreased side effects, with this in mind the present study was undertaken to assess the antitumor activity of extracts of Glycyrrhiza glabra (GG) against ehrlich ascites carcinoma in swiss albino mice.Methods: The extracts of roots of GG was collected and acute toxicity study was done following which the antitumor effect of extracts of GG was assessed by change in the body weight, mean survival time (MST), and percentage increased life span (% ILS). MST of each group containing six mice was monitored by recording the mortality daily for 6 weeks and % ILS was calculated. The hematological parameters and biochemical assays were also measured.Results: Extracts of GG showed a significant reduction in % increase in tumor induced body weight of the mice. The % increase in life span was also significant in the higher dose of GG (500 mg/kg). The combination of GG with standard drug cisplatin had better efficacy in terms of % ILS, hematological and biochemical parameters. The results obtained were statistically significant.Conclusions: The antitumor activity studies measuring the viability of cancer cells when exposed to the ethanolic extract of Glycyrrhiza glabra showed a potent cell-killing effect, indicating the presence of anti-cancer principles in the preparation

Characterization of VHF radar observations associated with equatorial Spread F by narrow-band optical measurements

International audienceThe VHF radars have been extensively used to investigate the structures and dynamics of equatorial Spread F (ESF) irregularities. However, unambiguous identification of the nature of the structures in terms of plasma depletion or enhancement requires another technique, as the return echo measured by VHF radar is proportional to the square of the electron density fluctuations. In order to address this issue, co-ordinated radar backscatter and thermospheric airglow intensity measurements were carried out during March 2003 from the MST radar site at Gadanki. Temporal variations of 630.0-nm and 777.4-nm emission intensities reveal small-scale ("micro") and large-scale ("macro") variations during the period of observation. The micro variations are absent on non-ESF nights while the macro variations are present on both ESF and non-ESF nights. In addition to the well-known anti-correlation between the base height of the F-region and the nocturnal variation of thermospheric airglow intensities, the variation of the base height of the F-layer, on occasion, is found to manifest as a bottomside wave-like structure, as seen by VHF radar on an ESF night. The micro variations in the airglow intensities are associated with large-scale irregular plasma structures and found to be in correspondence with the "plume" structures obtained by VHF radar. In addition to the commonly observed depletions with upward movement, the observation unequivocally reveals the presence of plasma enhancements which move downwards. The observation of enhancement in 777.4-nm airglow intensity, which is characterized as plasma enhancement, provides an experimental verification of the earlier prediction based on numerical modeling studies