Experiments in farmers' collectives in Eastern India and Nepal: Process, benefits, and challenges

Do farmers' collectives, which pool land, labour, capital, and skills to create medium-sized production units, offer a more viable model of farming for resource-constrained smallholders than individual family farms? A participatory action research project in Eastern India and Nepal provides notable answers. Groups of marginal and tenant farmers, catalysed by the project, evolved into four different collective models with varying levels of cooperation, gender composition, and land ownership/tenancy status. Based on 3 years of action research, this paper examines how the models evolved and their differential outcomes. All groups have gained from cultivating contiguous plots in their efficiency of labour and machine use for land preparation and irrigation, and from economies in input purchase. Several collectives of tenant farmers have also enhanced their bargaining power vis-a-vis an entrenched landlord class and thus been able to negotiate lower rents and refuse long-standing feudal obligations. However, the models differ in their extent of economic gain and their ability to handle gender inequalities and conflicts over labour sharing. The paper explores the historical, regional, and cultural factors that could explain such differences across the models. It thus offers unique insights into the processes, benefits, and challenges of farmers' collectives and provides pointers for replication and further research

Rare Complication of Nasogastric Tube Knotting around Endotracheal Tube in an Anesthetized Patient Undergoing Surgery

We report a case of successful management of a rare incidence and avoidance of complication of Ryle’s tube knotting around endotracheal tube. A vigilant anesthesia team prevented fatal complications of intraoperative accidental extubation and ventilation impairment which could have resulted into respiratory distress

All males do not have 46 xy karyotype: A rare case report

The sex of an embryo is determined by genetic sex due to presence or absence of Y chromosome, but it may not be true in all. We hereby report an interesting case of a phenotypic male carrying a female karyotype (46 XX). A 26-year-old male presented with bilateral gynecomastia, poor development of secondary sexual characters and azospermia. On evaluation patient had hypergonadotrophic hypogonadism and chromosomal analysis revealed 46 XX karyotype. The ultrasound revealed no Mullerian structures. Fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) showed sex determining region of Y chromosome (SRY) gene locus on X chromosome

Early discharge of patients with acute pancreatitis to enhanced outpatient care.

Acute pancreatitis (AP) is a common cause for hospital admission, but some patients have a prolonged stay. The aim of this study was to identify patients with mild AP who had a prolonged hospital stay, who potentially could be discharged at day 2 to enhanced outpatient care. Data was retrospectively collected on all patients admitted to the Royal Darwin Hospital between May 2016 and February 2017 with a diagnosis of mild AP to identify factors that may safely predict early discharge to enhanced outpatient care. Of 115 admissions, 62% were male, 50% indigenous and alcohol was causative in 53%. A total of 75 (65%) patients stayed more than 2 days and used 342 bed-days. Factors identified in the first 2?days of admission associated with a length of stay more than 2?days (R2 ?=?0.56, P?5 (P?=?0.034), temperature ?38?C (P?18 (P?=?0.036), not tolerating oral diet by day 2 (P?=?0.002), severe pancreatitis on imaging (P?=?0.008) and readmission in the previous 30?days (P?=?0.035). Using these criteria, 57% of all admissions and 87% of admissions greater than 2?days could potentially have been transferred to enhanced outpatient care at day 2 for management. This would have saved 277 inpatient bed-days and an estimated $122?771 over the 9-month study period. A significant proportion of patients admitted with mild AP, who stay longer than 2?days in hospital, could potentially be identified and discharged early to enhanced outpatient care

Assessment of the Genotype × Environment Interaction in Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) Genotypes for Yield and Its Contributing Traits under Different Dates of Sowing

The forty-five genotypes of groundnut were evaluated at Field Experimentation Centre of the Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Naini Agricultural Institute, SHUATS, Prayagraj (U.P.) during kharif, seasons of 2021-22 and 2022-23 in four artificially created environments by four different dates of sowing considered as E-I, E-II, E-III & E-IV. The present experiment was carried out in Randomized Block Design with three replications and involved recording observations on 17 yield and its contributing characters. Identifying stable-performing genotypes in the changing environmental scenario is of paramount importance in modern breeding materials. Crop improvement programme mostly depend on the identification of superior and stable genotypes. Mean sum of squares due to environment were found to be substantially distinct for all the traits and the mean sum of square due to genotype were found to be significant for all the characters. The regression coefficients (bi) of the genotypes ranged from -3.40 to 2.52 and the deviation from regression (S2di) ranged from -1.01 to 1.56. Stability parameters of various traits revealed that GJG-18, RG-574 and RG-559-3 pod yield per plant and RS-1 oil content showed high mean performance and regression coefficient close to unity and non-significant deviation from regression stable under overall environments. Thus indicating the importance of non-linear components in determining interaction of the genotypes with environments in the present study according to the Eberhart and Russell (1966) model

Relationship of Vitamin D status with thyroid autoimmunity in new onset autoimmune hypothyroidism

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