Double burden of malnutrition among urban Bengalee adolescent boys in Midnapore, West Bengal, India

Malnutrition is an important public health problem worldwide. Therefore a study was undertaken to assess the prevalence of adolescent thinness, overweight and obesity in Midnapore town, West Bengal, India. A total of 974 adolescent boys aged 10-18 years were selected following multistage cluster sampling method from three higher secondary schools. Data was collected using pretested questionnaire following standard technique. Presence of thinness was evaluated using the cut-off values of international survey as suggested by Cole et al (2007). While overweight and obesity was determine by using international cut-off values develop by Cole et al (2000) based on international surveys as recommended by IOTF. Overall the prevalence of thinness, overweight and obesity were 20.8%, 14.9% and 3.8%, respectively. This study developed age specific smooth BMI percentile values using LMS method. Moreover, the study also developed BMI cut-off values to define thinness, overweight and obesity. In conclusion, the present analyses indicated that the prevalence of adolescent undernutrition is still a major problem. In addition, there was also an emerging trend for overweight/obesity, thereby indicating a double burden of malnutrition as observed in other developing countries

Knowledge and Information on Psychological, Physiological and Gynaecological Problems among Adolescent Schoolgirls of Eastern India

BACKGROUND: Sex education aims to reduce the risks of potentially negative outcome from sexual behavior such as fear and stigma of menstruation, unwanted and unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections including HIV. Hence, this study was conducted to determine sex education knowledge level of school going adolescents in semi urban area of Midnapore, West Bengal, India.METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted in two selected premier secondary school of girls in the Midnapore Town from September – October 2007. A total of 521 adolescent aged 10-19 years were selected randomly from two secondary schools of girls. However, schools were selected purposively. All information was collected by using open-ended pre-tested questionnaire.RESULTS: Of the total subjects 94.2% of them were in the age of 13-16 years. Nearly, 94% respondents reported their age at menarche and maximum i.e. 54% respondents experienced in the age of 11 – 13 years. It was observed that 18%, 60.7% and 21.3% of the respondents had good knowledge, moderate or some knowledge and very poor knowledge of puberty, pubertal problems and their prevention. Thirty three percent said that they had faced one or some other kind of physical problems and out of them 60% indicated that they had visited to a doctor for their problems. The suffering of any gynecological problems had 2.48 (95% CI: 1.42 – 4.36) and 1.94 (95% CI: 1.01 – 3.73) times greater among subjects with little or some knowledge and minimum or no knowledge compare to subjects with good knowledge of sex education.CONCLUSION: Thus, the results show that not only knowledge regarding sex education was poor among the subjects but also their knowledge regarding sexual infections including AIDS was not satisfactory. School based sex education programs are particularly good at providing information, skills development and attitude clarification in more formal way through lesson within the curriculum. Therefore, appropriate sex education program should be initiated from the adolescence to prevent health hazards.KEYWORDS: Adolescent, Sex Education, AIDS/HIV awareness, Menarche, IndiaEthiop J Health Sci. Vol. 21, No. 3 November 201

The Hunger Crisis Measuring Hunger across Indian States

India faces significant challenges in addressing hunger, particularly when measured against the global hunger index. The India state hunger index for 2017 is presented to evaluate hunger across states, filling the void post-2008. Most states and union territories fall in the serious category with only a few in the moderate, none in the low, and some in the alarming categories. A consumption threshold of 1,600 kcal is proposed to identify populations at risk of undernourishment. This allows ISHI 2017 to align with the GHI scores for India for 2017. To meet the Sustainable Development Goal-2 of “No Hunger” by 2030, strategies must target reducing undernourishment, under-five mortality, stunting, and wasting at the subnational level, necessitating regular review and monitoring of interventions

Patterning in Birthweight in India: Analysis of Maternal Recall and Health Card Data

National data on birthweight from birth certificates or medical records are not available in India. The third Indian National Family Health Survey included data on birthweight of children obtained from health cards and maternal recall. This study aims to describe the population that these data represent and compares the birthweight obtained from health cards with maternal recall data in terms of its socioeconomic patterning and as a risk factor for childhood growth failure.The analytic sample consisted of children aged 0 to 59 months with birthweight data obtained from health cards (n = 3227) and maternal recall (n = 16,787). The difference between the card sample and the maternal recall sample in the distribution across household wealth, parental education, caste, religion, gender, and urban residence was compared using multilevel models. We also assessed the ability of birthweight to predict growth failure in infancy and childhood in the two groups. The survey contains birthweight data from a majority of household wealth categories (>5% in every category for recall), both genders, all age groups, all caste groups, all religion groups, and urban and rural dwellers. However, children from the lowest quintile of household wealth were under-represented (4.73% in card and 8.62% in recall samples). Comparison of data across health cards and maternal recall revealed similar social patterning of low birthweight and ability of birthweight to predict growth failure later in life. Children were less likely to be born with low birthweight if they had mothers with over 12 years of education compared to 1-5 years of education with relative risk (RR) of 0.79 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.52, 1.2) in the card sample and 0.70 (95% CI: 0.59, 0.84) in the recall sample. A 100 gram difference in a child's birthweight was associated with a decreased likelihood of underweight in both the card (RR: 0.95; 95% CI: 0.94, 0.96) and recall (RR: 0.96; 95% CI: 0.96, 0.97) samples.Our results suggest that in the absence of other sources, the data on birthweight in the third Indian National Family Health Survey is valuable for epidemiologic research

On the long-term variability of temperature trends and changes in surface air temperature in Kolkata Weather Observatory, West Bengal, India

The impact of climate change on annual air temperature has received a great deal of attention from climatologists worldwide. Many studies have been conducted to illustrate that changes in temperature are becoming evident on a global scale. Air temperature, one of the most important components of climate parameters, has been widely measured as a starting point towards the apprehension of climate change and variability. The main objective of this study is to analyse the temporal variability of mean monthly temperature for the period of 1941 to 2010 (70 years). To detect the magnitude of trend in mean monthly temperature time series, we have used non-parametric test methods such as The Mann-Kendall test, often combined with the Theil-Sen’s robust estimate of linear trend. Whatever test is used, the user should understand the underlying assumptions of both the technique used to generate the estimates of a trend and the statistical methods used for testing. The results of this analysis reveal that four months – January, February, March and December – indicate a decreasing trend in average temperature, while the remaining eight months have an increasing trend. The magnitude of Mann-Kendall trend statistic Zc for this declining temperature and the magnitude of slope for the months of January, February and December are confirmed at the high significance levels of α = 0.001, 0.01 and 0.1 respectively. Though, the overall trend is positive for monthly as well as seasonally efficient time series

Correlation between the relative blob fraction and plasma parameters in NSTX

data of figures used in this publicatio

Formation of a density blob and its dynamics in the edge and the scrape-off layer of a tokamak plasma

Formation of a density blob and its motion in the edge and scrape-off layer (SOL) of a tokamak plasma have been simulated using two-dimensional, two-field, fluid model equations. The simulation results show that density blobs form in the edge or in the edge-to-SOL transition region where the poloidal velocity shear is maximum. From the numerical data, a condition for density blob formation has been obtained. Dynamics of the detached blob in the edge and SOL regions has been studied. It is observed that not all the blobs that form in the edge or edge-to-SOL transition region are capable of ejection deep into the SOL. A condition for their ejection is also discussed. Radial particle transport associated with the blobs in the SOL has been calculated. It is found that about 60% of the total radial particle flux is carried out by these blobs