Statistical-Based Forecasting of Avalanche Prediction

This paper describes the study carried out to predict few meteorological parameters of the nextday using the observed parameters of previous day through statistical methods. Multiple linear regression model was formulated for a hill station, Patsio, situated between Manali and Leh, for two winter months(December and January) separately. Twelve meteorological parameters were predicted using 18 predictorsob served on the previous day. Ten years data has been used for the computation of regression coefficients. A  comparison of the forecasted parameters with the observations was made through the regressionmodel. The prediction of the developed regression model was reasonably close to the observations.The relevant statistical error associated with the linear model (standard error) was also estimated. Theoutput of this regression model will be useful in developing knowledge-based and statistical-basedavalanche forecasting mode

Seaweeds A Potential Source for Functional Foods

Seaweeds are microalgae growing in coastal regions and resistant to salinity. Seaweeds are rich resources of natural nutrients some of which cannot be obtained from terrestrial plants. Bioactive compounds of seaweeds such as sulphated polysaccharides, peptides, minerals, phlorotannins, carotenoids and sulfolipids have proven health benefits against various diseases. Traditionally, seaweeds are used as folk medicine for treating diseases like goiter, wounds, burns, rashes, inflammation, diabetes and also gaining attention of pharmaceutical industries due to their anti-cancer, anti-aging, anti-angiogenesis, anti-bacterial, anti-viral and antioxidant properties. Seaweeds polysaccharides have wide applications in foods as well as in pharmaceutical industry due to their bio-chemical properties such as stabilizer, emulsifier and gelling property. In food industry, seaweed polysaccharides are used as a functional ingredient in many products such as frozen foods, ice-cream, jam, jelly, beverages etc. Several commercial food preparations from seaweeds are also available in the market such as sea salt, nori snack wasabi, pink rock salt, seaweed thins toasted coconuts, crunchy seaweed chips, raw unroasted seaweed under different brand names. The present review is a compilation of nutritional, pharmacological and food properties of seaweeds along with its potential towards development of functional foods

Mapping regional risks from climate change for rainfed rice cultivation in India

Global warming is predicted to increase in the future, with detrimental consequences for rainfed crops that are dependent on natural rainfall (i.e. non-irrigated). Given that many crops grown under rainfed conditions support the livelihoods of low-income farmers, it is important to highlight the vulnerability of rainfed areas to climate change in order to anticipate potential risks to food security. In this paper, we focus on India, where ~ 50% of rice is grown under rainfed conditions, and we employ statistical models (climate envelope models (CEMs) and boosted regression trees (BRTs)) to map changes in climate suitability for rainfed rice cultivation at a regional level (~ 18 × 18 km cell resolution) under projected future (2050) climate change (IPCC RCPs 2.6 and 8.5, using three GCMs: BCC-CSM1.1, MIROC-ESM-CHEM, and HadGEM2-ES). We quantify the occurrence of rice (whether or not rainfed rice is commonly grown, using CEMs) and rice extent (area under cultivation, using BRTs) during the summer monsoon in relation to four climate variables that affect rice growth and yield namely ratio of precipitation to evapotranspiration (PER), maximum and minimum temperatures (Tmax and Tmin), and total rainfall during harvesting. Our models described the occurrence and extent of rice very well (CEMs for occurrence, ensemble AUC = 0.92; BRTs for extent, Pearson's r = 0.87). PER was the most important predictor of rainfed rice occurrence, and it was positively related to rainfed rice area, but all four climate variables were important for determining the extent of rice cultivation. Our models project that 15%–40% of current rainfed rice growing areas will be at risk (i.e. decline in climate suitability or become completely unsuitable). However, our models project considerable variation across India in the impact of future climate change: eastern and northern India are the locations most at risk, but parts of central and western India may benefit from increased precipitation. Hence our CEM and BRT models agree on the locations most at risk, but there is less consensus about the degree of risk at these locations. Our results help to identify locations where livelihoods of low-income farmers and regional food security may be threatened in the next few decades by climate changes. The use of more drought-resilient rice varieties and better irrigation infrastructure in these regions may help to reduce these impacts and reduce the vulnerability of farmers dependent on rainfed cropping

Optimisation and Evaluation of Ricebean (Vigna Umbellata) Extrusion Process for Downstream Food Processability

Ricebean(Vigna umbellata), a native bean of North-Eastern part of India has not been explored fully for development of convenience foods although it is loaded with various vitamins, minerals, dietary fiber, phytochemicals and bioactive compounds. The effect of extrusion parameters namely moisture content, barrel temperature and screw speed on expansion ratio, extrudate density, and breaking strength was investigated by using response surface methodology. It was observed that moisture content of flour had significant (p<0.05) affect on expansion ratio, extrudate density, and breaking strength of extrudates. The optimal combination of process parameters which resulted in extrudates with maximum expansion ratio but minimum extrudate density and breaking strength were 15 per cent moisture content, 110°C barrel temperature and 350 rpm screw speed. The value of water absorption index, water solubility index, swelling power, oil absorption index, bulk density, true density and colour for optimally extruded ricebean flour (OEF) was found significantly different (p<0.05) whereas value of proximate parameters were insignificant (P>0.05) than the native flour. The OEF was used for different downstream processings such as papadability, friability, steamability, cakeability, gravyability and porridgability and compared with that of native flour for their process quality parameters. The cake prepared with OEF had significantly (p<0.05) less baking time (25 min) than the cake of native ricebean flour (35 min). However, consistency and over all acceptability (OAA) of porridge from OEF was found significantly (p<0.05) higher than porridge of native ricebean flour. Hierarchical cluster analysis on OAA showed that porridgability and cakeability were most influential downstream processe

WOMEN UNDER DURESS: A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY ON VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IN DISTRICT DEHRADUN

Introduction: Violence against women is a significant public health problem, as well as a fundamental violation of women’s human rights. It is one of the most common forms of violence globally and includes physical, sexual, emotional and economic violence. Aims and Objectives: 1.To study the prevalence of Violence against Women (VAW) amongst ever-married women of reproductive age group in district Dehradun.2. To study their awareness regarding protection from such violence. Methodology: The community-based, cross-sectional study was conducted using multistage random sampling method, amongst 880 ever married women aged 15-49 years, in the rural & urban areas of district Dehradun. Results: Out of the surveyed sample of 880 women, receiving obscene phone calls was reported by 11.8 %; eve teasing by 9.4 %; being followed home by 5.7% and unsolicited advances by 3.9%. About 1.0% women reported being forced into unsolicited sexual activity by a person other than a spouse. Overall only 19.2% women had any knowledge about protection laws and agencies for victims of VAW. Conclusion: Nearly 37% women in our study reported suffering from any harassing activity ever in life, it was disheartening to see that only one-fifth had knowledge regarding protection laws. Primary prevention in this scenario becomes very important to disjoin VAW from cultural acceptance

Integrated Natural Resource Management: Approaches and Lessons from the Himalaya

Losses of forest cover, biodiversity, agricultural productivity, and ecosystem services in the Himalayan mountain region are interlinked problems and threats to the sustainable livelihoods of 115 x 106 mountain people as well as the inhabitants of the adjoining Indo-gangetic plains. Until the 1970s, environmental conservation, food security, and rural economic development were treated as independent sectors. The poor outcomes of sector-oriented approaches catalyzed efforts to address environmental and socioeconomic problems concurrently. The identification of "key" natural resource management interventions is an important dimension of integrated management. Projects to rehabilitate the degraded lands that cover 40% of the Indian Himalaya could be key interventions provided that they address both socioeconomic and environmental concerns across spatial and temporal scales. However, projects of this type, e.g., investments in conifer plantations on degraded forest lands, have failed because their designs did not take into account the needs of local residents. This study illustrates a case of land rehabilitation in a small isolated village close to the alpine zone. Vital elements of this project strategy included identifying local perceptions and knowledge and involving the local people in the selection and implementation of the interventions needed to restore the land. Communities were found to be more concerned with the immediate economic benefits from bamboo and medicinal species than the long-term benefits of tree planting. The villagers eventually reached a consensus to plant broadleaved multipurpose trees in association with bamboo and medicinal species. Despite assurances that all the economic benefits from rehabilitation would go to the community, the people would not agree to voluntary labor, although they did absorb significant costs by providing social fencing, farmyard manure, and propagules from community forests. Households shared costs and benefits according to traditional norms. The economic benefits to the local people exceeded the rehabilitation cost over the 7-yr life of the project. There were significant on-site environmental benefits in terms of improvements in soil fertility, biodiversity, protective cover, and carbon sequestration, and off-site benefits from more productive use of labor, reduced pressure on protected areas, and the introduction of rare and threatened medicinal species onto private farmland

Evaluation of the response rate of chemo-radiation and brachytherapy in patients with locally advanced carcinoma cervix in a tertiary care center

Background: Incidence and mortality estimates are used to measure the burden of cancer in a population and survival estimates are ideal for evaluating the outcome of cancer control activities. Survival studies evaluate the quality and quantity of life of a group of patients after diagnosing the disease. The patient survival after the diagnosis of cervical cancer is indirectly influenced by socio-economic factors. The present study was carried out with an aim to evaluate the success rate of chemo-radiation followed by brachytherapy to the patients of locally advanced carcinoma (Ca.) cervix in a tertiary care center.Methods: All cases were staged according to the International Federation of Gynaecologists and Oncologists (FIGO) staging system. To illustrate the observed survival of cancer patients Kaplan-Meier curve was plotted. All the patients, except one, completed chemo-radiation and were retrospectively analyzed for the presence of local residual disease, local recurrence, distant metastases, radiation reactions, disease-free survival, and overall survival.Results: There were 22 patients of Carcinoma cervix reported in the radiation oncology department in the year 2018 and 2019. The overall treatment time ranged from 30 days to 178 days, with a median of 63 days. All the patients had a complete response after the treatment. The median follow-up time for all the patients was 15 months. Three patients had a metastatic recurrence and one patient developed distant metastases as well as local recurrence. Overall survival rate was 100% while the disease-free survival rate was 81.82%.Conclusions: The response to chemo-radiation in the treatment of locally advanced Carcinoma cervix is comparable to historic data and is well tolerated

Role of Spacers in Molecularly Linked RuRh Dyads: A Comparative Synthetic and Ultrafast Spectroscopic Investigation

Supramolecular photocatalysts consisting of photosensitizer (PS), bridging ligand (BL), and catalytic center (CAT) have garnered significant attention in solar fuel applications. In this study, the photophysics and photocatalytic properties of two Ru(II)-based dinuclear complexes, specifically [(tbbpy) 2 Ru(p(Ph) n p)Rh(Cp*)Cl] 3+ ( n = 0, 1; Ru(pp)Rh for n = 0 or Ru(p(Ph)p)Rh for n = 1; tbbpy = 4,4′-di- tert -butyl-2,2′-bipyridine, Cp* = pentamethylcyclopentadienyl, Ph = phenyl, p = 1,10-phenanthroline), are investigated. These complexes are studied as model complexes only differing by the distance between PS and CAT and thus allows a selective investigation of the influence of spacers in light-driven catalysis. A joint synthetic, spectroscopic, and theoretical approach, incorporating time-resolved absorption and emission spectroscopy, resonance Raman (rR) spectroscopy, density functional theory (DFT), and time-dependent (TD)DFT calculations, allows for comprehensive structural, electrochemical, photophysical, and photochemical characterization. Our findings suggest that minor structural variations in the intramolecular photocatalytic system significantly impact photocatalytic activity and system stability