A review on diversity, conservation and nutrition of wild edible fruits

The United Nations adopted the Millennium Declaration of September 2009 to improve the global living conditions through reducing poverty and hunger. However, considerable numbers of people are still living in utter penury and are deprived of a dignified living. In such tough circumstances nature’s free gift in the form of wild edible foods are benefiting the vulnerable and dependent communities. Wild edible plants (WEPs) are the species those are neither cultivated nor domesticated however are available in their wild natural habitat and used as sources of these plants have played a significant role in the development and civilization of human history throughout the ages and globe. These wild edible plants have played a significant role in supplying food and nutritional requirements of poor communities in many rural parts of the world. These wild edibles can be popularized only when they are comparedfor their nutritional and health benefits with major or widely used cultivated plants. The social, cultural, religious, and belief system of the rural communities are incomplete without these wild edible plants. Domestication of these wild edible plants can increase their use and their conservation as well. The present review paper has described the wild edible plants in context of their diversity, traditional knowledge, conservation practices and nutritional composition from the available secondary literature. Authors feel there is still scope to incorporate more contextual variables for explaining more variations embedded with local people’s perception on values and usage of these wild edible fruits

Investigation of the satellite internet of things and reinforcement learning via complex software defined network modeling

The satellite internet of things (SIoT) has emerged as a transformative technology, enabling global connectivity and extending IoT infrastructure to remote and underserved regions. This paper explores the integration of SIoT with advanced reinforcement learning (RL) techniques through sophisticated software-defined networking (SDN) modeling. The study emphasizes SDN’s capability to offer flexible, dynamic, and efficient management of satellite-based IoT networks, addressing unique challenges such as high latency, limited bandwidth, and frequent mobility. To address these challenges, we propose an RL based approach for optimizing network resource allocation, routing, and communication strategies. The RL algorithm enables autonomous adaptation to real-time network conditions, tackling critical concerns such as spectrum management, energy efficiency, and load balancing, ensuring reliable connectivity while minimizing congestion and power consumption. Furthermore, SDN facilitates network programmability, enabling centralized control and streamlined management of SIoT systems. The proposed RL-driven SDN model is validated through simulation experiments, demonstrating significant improvements in throughput, network efficiency, and quality of service (QoS) metrics compared to traditional network models. This work advances the development of satellite IoT networks by providing a robust, scalable framework that integrates RL and SDN technologies, offering intelligent and efficient connectivity solutions to meet the growing demands of next-generation SIoT systems

‘It Takes Two Hands to Clap’: How Gaddi Shepherds in the Indian Himalayas Negotiate Access to Grazing

This article examines the effects of state intervention on the workings of informal institutions that coordinate the communal use and management of natural resources. Specifically it focuses on the case of the nomadic Gaddi shepherds and official attempts to regulate their access to grazing pastures in the Indian Himalayas. It is often predicted that the increased presence of the modern state critically undermines locally appropriate and community-based resource management arrangements. Drawing on the work of Pauline Peters and Francis Cleaver, I identify key instances of socially embedded ‘common’ management institutions and explain the evolution of these arrangements through dynamic interactions between individuals, communities and the agents of the state. Through describing the ‘living space’ of Gaddi shepherds across the annual cycle of nomadic migration with their flocks I explore the ways in which they have been able to creatively reinterpret external interventions, and suggest how contemporary arrangements for accessing pasture at different moments of the annual cycle involve complex combinations of the formal and the informal, the ‘traditional’ and the ‘modern’

DeepDeMod: BPSK Demodulation Using Deep Learning Over Software-Defined Radio

In wireless communication, signal demodulation under non-ideal conditions is one of the important research topic. In this paper, a novel non-coherent binary phase shift keying demodulator based on deep neural network, namely DeepDeMod, is proposed. The proposed scheme makes use of neural network to decode the symbols from the received sampled signal. The proposed scheme is developed to demodulate signal under fading channel with additive white Gaussian noise along with hardware imperfections, such as phase and frequency offset. The time varying nature of hardware imperfections and channel poses a additional challenge in signal demodulation. In order to address this issue, additionally we propose transfer learning based DeepDeMod scheme. Pilot symbols along with data is transmitted in a packet which is used to learn the time varying parameters from the pilot reception followed by data demodulation. Results show that compared with the conventional demodulators and other machine learning based demodulators, our proposed DeepDeMod provides significantly better performance in term of bit error rate. We also implement the proposed DeepDeMod on software defined radio and present the experimental results

Poor Compliance with ACG Guidelines for Nutrition and Antibiotics in the Management of Acute Pancreatitis: A North American Survey of Gastrointestinal Specialists and Primary Care Physicians

Context Despite recent updates in the treatment of acute pancreatitis emphasizing enteral nutrition over parenteral nutrition as well as minimizing antibiotic usage, mortality rates from acute pancreatitis have not improved. Data has been limited regarding physician compliance to these guidelines in the United States. Methods A 20 question survey regarding practice patterns in the management of acute pancreatitis was distributed to physicians at multiple internal medicine and gastroenterology conferences in North America between 2009 and 2010. Responses were analyzed using the chi-square test and multivariate logistic regression. Results Out of 406 available respondents, 43.3% of physicians utilize total parenteral nutrition/peripheral parenteral nutrition (TPN/PPN) and 36.5% utilize nasojejunal (NJ) feedings. The preferred route of nutrition was significantly related to practice type (P<0.001): academic physicians were more likely to use NJ tube feeding than private practice physicians (52.1% vs. 19.9%) while private practitioners were more likely to utilize TPN/PPN than academic physicians (70.2% vs. 20.5%). Gastroenterologists and primary care physicians were equally non-compliant as both groups favored parenteral nutrition. Multivariate logistic regression demonstrated that practice type (P<0.001) was the only independent predictor of route of nutrition. Most survey respondents appropriately do not routinely utilize antibiotics for acute pancreatitis, but when antibiotics are initiated, they are for inappropriate indications such as fever and infection prophylaxis. Conclusions Many North American physicians are noncompliant with current ACG practice guidelines for the use of artificial nutrition in the management of acute pancreatitis, with overuse of TPN/PPN and underutilization of jejunal feedings. Antibiotics are initiated in acute pancreatitis for inappropriate indications, although there are conflicting recommendations for antibiotics in severe acute pancreatitis. Improved compliance with guidelines is needed to improve patient outcomes.Image: The most common reasons cited for using parenteral nutrition

Non-Timber Forest Products: Diversity, Utilization, and Dependency in Fringe Areas of Jaldapara National Park in Indian Sub-Himalayan Region

Non-timber forest products (NTFPs) greatly contribute to livelihood, development, and poverty alleviation across the tropics. We also assumed that the fringe communities inhabiting Jaldapara National Park (JNP) of Indian eastern sub-Himalayan region largely rely on the NTFPs for their livelihood due to its remote and isolated location with no physical infrastructure and facilities. Multistage sampling technique was used for the study. The sample size was 205 households selected randomly from a sample frame of 10 villages. Descriptive statistics was employed to analyze and summarize the data. A total of 146 NTFP species was documented. The communities relied on their NTFP collection/harvest for food, medicine, firewood, fodder, and other socio-cultural items for household use and cash income. The documented species were further categorized into plant, fish, fungus, and insect. The relative frequency of citation (RFC), value ranged from 0.2 to 0.96 for all categories of NTFPs with average 0.78. Income from NTFPs contributed on an average 45% of the total annual household income of the households. NTFPs provided a natural insurance to households especially during the periods of scarcity. Focused interventions with technical and financial support are recommended to uplift the livelihood of the communities in JNP

Advancing Remote Monitoring for Patients With Alzheimer Disease and Related Dementias: Systematic Review

BACKGROUND: Using remote monitoring technology in the context of Alzheimer disease (AD) care presents exciting new opportunities to lessen caregiver stress and improve patient care quality. The application of wearables, environmental sensors, and smart home systems designed specifically for patients with AD represents a promising interdisciplinary approach that integrates advanced technology with health care to enhance patient safety, monitor health parameters in real time, and provide comprehensive support to caregivers. OBJECTIVE: The objectives of this study included evaluating the effectiveness of various remote sensing technologies in enhancing patient outcomes and identifying strategies to alleviate the burden on health care professionals and caregivers. Critical elements such as regulatory compliance, user-centered design, privacy and security considerations, and the overall efficacy of relevant technologies were comprehensively examined. Ultimately, this study aimed to propose a comprehensive remote monitoring framework tailored to the needs of patients with AD and related dementias. METHODS: Guided by the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) framework, we conducted a systematic review on remote monitoring for patients with AD and related dementias. Our search spanned 4 major electronic databases-Google Scholar, PubMed, IEEE Xplore, and DBLP on February 20, 2024, with an updated search on May 18, 2024. RESULTS: A total of 31 publications met the inclusion criteria, highlighting 4 key research areas: existing remote monitoring technologies, balancing practicality and empathy, security and privacy in monitoring, and technology design for AD care. The studies revealed a strong focus on various remote monitoring methods for capturing behavioral, physiological, and environmental data yet showed a gap in evaluating these methods for patient and caregiver needs, privacy, and usability. The findings also indicated that many studies lacked robust reference standards and did not consistently apply critical appraisal criteria, underlining the need for comprehensive frameworks that better integrate these essential considerations. CONCLUSIONS: This comprehensive literature review of remote monitoring technologies for patients with AD provides an understanding of remote monitoring technologies, trends, and gaps in the current research and the significance of novel strategies for remote monitoring to enhance patient outcomes and reduce the burden among health professionals and caregivers. The proposed remote monitoring framework aims to inspire the development of new interdisciplinary research models that advance care for patients with AD

Monitoring vegetation degradation using remote sensing and machine learning over India – a multi-sensor, multi-temporal and multi-scale approach

Vegetation cover degradation is often a complex phenomenon, exhibiting strong correlation with climatic variation and anthropogenic actions. Conservation of biodiversity is important because millions of people are directly and indirectly dependent on vegetation (forest and crop) and its associated secondary products. United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) propose to quantify the proportion of vegetation as a proportion of total land area of all countries. Satellite images form as one of the main sources of accurate information to capture the fine seasonal changes so that long-term vegetation degradation can be assessed accurately. In the present study, Multi-Sensor, Multi-Temporal and Multi-Scale (MMM) approach was used to estimate vulnerability of vegetation degradation. Open source Cloud computing system Google Earth Engine (GEE) was used to systematically monitor vegetation degradation and evaluate the potential of multiple satellite data with variable spatial resolutions. Hotspots were demarcated using machine learning techniques to identify the greening and the browning effect of vegetation using coarse resolution Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) of MODIS. Rainfall datasets of Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Station data (CHIRPS) for the period 2000–2022 were also used to find rainfall anomaly in the region. Furthermore, hotspot areas were identified using high-resolution datasets in major vegetation degradation areas based on long-term vegetation and rainfall analysis to understand and verify the cause of change whether anthropogenic or climatic in nature. This study is important for several State/Central Government user departments, Universities, and NGOs to lay out managerial plans for the protection of vegetation/forests in India