MYTH AND REALITY:ORGANIC VS NON-ORGANIC

This report examines some of the key issues around organic food and its production. It takes up the challenge of answering the critics - critics who range from companies defending agri-business, through to the heads of national food authorities and some academics. It exposes the misleading and erroneous statements made against organic food, and provides the facts that proves them wrong

Dead Bryde's whale washed ashore at Veraval, Gujarat

Bryde’s Whale (Balaenoptera edeni Anderson, 1879) measuring 10.4 m in length and weighing about 7 tons was found washed ashore on the beach of Veraval on 4th august 2017. Locally called as “Machchh” it was found in dead condition with small injuries in the caudal peduncle and genital region. With the intervention and supervision of forest officials, it was towed ashore and a veterinary officer conducted post-mortem after which it was buried on the shore. Occurrenc

Symptomatic, radiological profile of patients with endobronchial aspergilosis: a descriptive study

Background: Aspergillosis is a common presentation, involving respiratory system and is usually seen as a fungus ball that colonizes and grows into a pre-existing lung cavity, in the majority of cases secondary to pulmonary tuberculosis (PT). An endobronchial aspergilloma (EBA) is a rare disease, and another, but unusual, presentation of aspergillosis, characterized by the growth of Aspergillus species into the bronchial lumen. These two different presentations of aspergillosis can co-exist in the same patient. endobronchial aspergillosis, a variant of invasive aspergillus tracheobronchitis, a rare manifestation, where disease is limited to tracheobronchial tree without invasion of lung parenchyma and in many cases incidentally diagnosed, in a patient who had undergone a bronchoscopy to investigate haemoptysis, or for another reason.Methods: Patients who were attending respiratory OPD with symptoms of cough with expectoration with immune compromised status or previous history of tuberculosis with abnormal chest X-ray were subjected to chest CT scan, with abnormal endobronchial mass in CT scan were further investigated with fibreoptic bronchoscopy and histopathological examination.Results: 16 patients were diagnosed as endobronchial aspergilloma of which 11 patients were having past history of tuberculosis, 9 patients were having type 2 diabetes mellitus on treatment, 2 were having cardiac disease.Conclusions: IATB is a rare manifestation caused by Aspergillus species affecting people with immunocompromised status or previous respiratory pathology like tuberculosis leading to formation of mass like growth obstructing the airway lead to respiratory distress and it should be taken as differential diagnosis in patients with previous respiratory pathology presented with mass like growth in bronchi

Response of Dome-enclosed Box-type Structure to Underwater Explosion

In the development of underwater sensor systems, the sensor arrays are configured for different shapes like cylindrical, rectangular and spherical depending on the requirement. The rectangular shaped box–type structure discussed here has both top and bottom ends open. Flanges stiffen the top and bottom ends, and gussets are used to connect the flanges with the structure. In this paper, the box-type structure is subjected to non-contact underwater explosion in a shock tank to study the peak free field pressure on the structure. To simulate the actual conditions, the structure is placed in free flooded area and covered with a dome. The free-field peak pressure on the dome and structure are plotted with time. The measured pressure curves are in agreement with the empirical predictions reported in literature. It is concluded that around 85 per cent of the shock impulse acting on the dome is transmitted to the box-type structure. The dome and box-type structure withstood the explosive load, thereby validating their design.Defence Science Journal, 2013, 63(4), pp.381-385, DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.14429/dsj.63.213

Evaluating Factors Related to the Abuse of Oral Corticosteroids among Community Pharmacy Customers: Using Theory of Reasoned Action

Introduction: Although it is discouraged, community pharmacy customers can obtain oral corticosteroids (OCSs) without prescriptions from some community pharmacies in Iraq. Medication abuse is defined as the use of medication for non-medical reasons. Objectives: The study aimed to determine demographics, beliefs, and perceptions associated with the abuse of oral corticosteroids for non-illness reasons among community pharmacy customers. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in fall 2018 in four provinces in Iraq. Customers of 19 community pharmacies asking for OCSs for themselves without a prescription were administered a paper survey. This study used the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) to measure the relationship between the motivational factors and the abuse of OCSs. Logistic regression analysis was conducted to evaluate the relationships between the use of OCSs for non-illness and six TRA factors: Normative belief, behavioral belief, evaluation of the behavior, motivation to comply, subjective norms and attitude toward behavior. Results: The study enrolled 141 participants (98 women and 43 men) taking asking for OCSs without prescription. Dexamethasone was the most commonly used OCSs (59.6%). Friends were the primary recommenders for corticosteroids abuse (28.4%). The main reasons for using OCSs were to increase appetite and gain weight (53.9 %). Approximately one-third (36.2 %) of the participants gained weight after using OCSs.  The regression analysis of the TRA variables showed two factors were significantly related to the abuse of OCSs. Age had a significant inverse relationship with the abuse of OCSs and the "good appearance" belief had a significant positive association with OCS abuse. Conclusion: Some Iraqi community pharmacy customers use non-prescribed oral corticosteroids to increase appetite and gain weight. Improve body appearance represents the dominant incentive that urges people to use OCSs without prescription. Health officials and healthcare practitioners need to promote people's awareness about the risks of misusing OCSs through education programs and advertisements in public health settings, media, and social media.   Article Type: Original Researc

Do migrant remittances promote human capital formation? Evidence from 89 developing countries

The few published empirical studies on the effect of migrant remittances on educational attainments are roughly based on cross-sectional microdata from household surveys. This paper applies the generalised method of moments (GMM) estimator on aggregate level data from 1970 to 2010 in five-year intervals to examine the impact of migrant remittances on human capital formation in 89 developing countries. The estimation results show that, on average, an increase in migrant remittance inflows by 1% is associated with a 2% rise in years of schooling at both the secondary and tertiary levels. This suggests that migrant remittances have the potential to relax liquidity constraints and generate spillover effects that facilitate more schooling opportunities in remittance-receiving countries

Mushrooms for integrated and diversified nutrition

            Mushrooms were considered as “Objects of mystery” by the primitive man, and were realized as food much before civilization. Mushrooms have been variously used in different cultures from being priced as “Food of Gods” in the Roman culture to tools of psychological sedation for the Mexican warriors. Most of the edible mushrooms are saprophytic growing on decomposed organic plant matter. Mushrooms play varied and important roles in human nutrition and health. They are unique nutrition dense vegetables with quality high protein, very low fat, zero cholesterol, low carbohydrates, low glycemic index, high fiber, good cardiac friendly sodium to potassium ratio and some unique bioactive compounds like ergothioneine and polysaccharides. These unique nutritive properties of mushrooms make them a recommended food for diabetics, body weight management, hypertension and cardiac well-being. The concept of selenium rich mushrooms for slowing down the progress of AIDS has been gaining importance in the recent years. Apart from being a healthy vegetable, the unique lignocellulosic waste-based production system of mushrooms makes them the most ecofriendly zero waste green technology with immense environmental benefits (Gupta et al., 2004, Jain et al., 2014 and & Pandey et al., 2014). Despite many environmental and nutritional benefits; mushrooms yet have not become a part of daily nutrition in the Indian diet and the per capita consumption still remains very low at 70 grams per annum. There is a need to educate and enhance the awareness among the people about the nutritional and health potential of mushrooms. There is also the need to draw the attention towards integrating mushroom technology in successful agro-residue management programs, livelihood programs, national nutrition programs and women empowerment and rural development schemes which ultimately culminate in providing better daily nutrition