Women's Empowerment in the Context of Rural West Bengal: An Index Construction with Exploratory Factor Analysis.

Background: Women's empowerment, a precondition of sustainable development, is a multidimensional and complex concept, often described with three interrelated components: resources, agency, and achievement. There is no universal construct for women's empowerment; rather, it has been assessed based on the context. It had been hardly explored in rural West Bengal. Objectives: This study was formulated to construct a women's empowerment index (WEI), in rural West Bengal, and assess the reliability of the index. Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study focusing on Women's Empowerment, Child Health and Nutrition (WE-CHANT) was conducted in a community development block in West Bengal. Mother (of reproductive age)-child (6-59 months) pairs were recruited from 20 villages by two-stage sampling (n = 268). Mothers were interviewed. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) with oblique rotation was conducted with 25 measurement variables to construct the WEI. The internal consistency was assessed with Cronbach's alpha, item-rest, average inter-item, inter-domain, and domain-to-index correlation. Results: A 12-item (factor loading ≥0.40) WEI comprising three domains-decision-making power, attitude toward gender-based violence (GBV), and social independence-was constructed with acceptable internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.747). The multidimensionality of the index was also observed. Conclusion: A concise agency-based WEI was constructed, where decision-making power was explored as the major domain. This index in the context of rural West Bengal could be further utilized to assess women's empowerment and elicit its association with resources and achievements.

Readiness to manage domestic violence among medical interns - an observational study in a medical college and hospital in India.

BACKGROUND: Domestic violence is a deeply entrenched issue in Indian society, with global implications, especially for women's physical and mental health. Healthcare providers play important role in early identification and support of the victims. Medical interns, the future generation of Health care professionals, often acting as primary caregivers are uniquely positioned and expected to recognize and assist victims. This study aims to evaluate their knowledge, attitudes, practices, and readiness to manage domestic violence and its associating factors. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 157 medical interns at a Medical college and hospital in West Bengal, India, from December 2022 to February 2023. Simple random sampling was done. Data were collected using a semi-structured questionnaire, Medical Intern Readiness to manage domestic violence scale (MIREDS), validated after adoption from Physician Readiness to manage Intimate partner violence scale (PREMIS). Ethical approval was obtained, and participants gave informed written consent for inclusion. Satisfactory threshold was determined to be more than 50 percent. Data analysis was performed using MS Excel and SPSS software, including descriptive and inferential statistics, with a significance level of p less than 0.05, along with logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: Only 45.2% of medical interns demonstrated satisfactory knowledge, 54.8% had a satisfactory attitude. Most interns (91.7%) exhibited poor practice in dealing with domestic violence cases, only 31.2% considered themselves ready to manage domestic violence cases. Interns who attend more patients was found to have better attitude. Positive associations were found between knowledge, attitude, and readiness to manage domestic violence cases among doctors . CONCLUSIONS: A substantial proportion of medical interns demonstrated inadequate knowledge, negative attitudes, and poor practice and inadequate readiness to manage domestic violence. Comprehensive training and education with cultural sensitivity training along with more practical exposures are in need to address this issue properly.

Proportion, Pattern, and Predictors of Falls in Older Adults - A Community-based Observational Study in Rural West Bengal.

Introduction: In spite of falls being a major public health problem, where most of the falls are preventable, there is a lack of epidemiological investigation among those aged 50 and above, especially in developing countries. Hence, we investigate the proportion, pattern, and predictors of falls in this age group. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional community-based study was done in the Uluberia-II block of Howrah district, West Bengal, from February to July 2021. A multistage cluster sampling method was used to meet the sample size. Data were collected with the help of a structured interview schedule. Predictors were estimated by the SPSS version 16 and defined in adjusted odds ratio (AOR) with a 95% confidence interval. Results: Among 170 study participants, 34.7% (59/170) experienced at least one episode of fall, while 20.6% (35/170) experienced recurrent falls in 12 months. Most (78%; 46/59) falls occurred in the home environment and due to slippage (67.8%; 40/59) on the floor. 84.7% (50/59) sustained any type of injuries, 47.5% (28/59) required either consultation of a physician or medication, and 6.8% (4/59) required hospitalization. Safety Checklist Score measured 75.3% (128/170) had a poor household environment, within that 30.6% (52/170) had a seriously poor household environment, which was an important predictor of falls ([AOR] = 3.59 [1.24-10.38]). Fear of fall (AOR = 6.18 [1.77-21.53]) measured by shortfall efficacy scale and nonformal education (AOR = 5.05 [1.33-19.07]) were also predictors of falls. Conclusion: Considerable proportion of falls occurred in the past year, which can be preventable by improving modifiable environmental factors and detection of fear of fall in persons at different levels of health-care facilities.

Magneto-Optical Sensing of the Pressure Driven Magnetic Ground States in Bulk CrSBr.

Competition between exchange interactions and magnetocrystalline anisotropy may bring new magnetic states that are of great current interest. An applied hydrostatic pressure can further be used to tune their balance. In this work, we investigate the magnetization process of a biaxial antiferromagnet in an external magnetic field applied along the easy axis. We find that the single metamagnetic transition of the Ising type observed in this material under ambient pressure transforms under hydrostatic pressure into two transitions, a first-order spin-flop transition followed by a second-order transition toward a polarized ferromagnetic state near saturation. This reversible tuning into a new magnetic phase is obtained in layered bulk CrSBr at low temperature by varying the interlayer distance using high hydrostatic pressure, which efficiently acts on the interlayer magnetic exchange and is probed by magneto-optical spectroscopy.

Growth of uniform Mg-doped p-AlGaN nanowires using plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy technique for UV-A emitters.

In this manuscript, we have shown the growth and extensive structural and optical characteristic of the uniformly Mg-doped Al0.23Ga0.77N (UV-A region,λ∼ 323 nm) nanowire. The Kelvin probe force microscopy was employed to determine the profile of holes in p-type AlGaN nanowires by measuring the work function changes induced by Mg incorporation. The influence of surface band bending on doping concentration has thoroughly been discussed. Our experiment confirms the homogeneous incorporation of Mg throughout the nanowire without any top surface Mg segregation. In this work, we have also demonstrated a comprehensive analysis of acceptor states induced thermal quenching behaviour in the optical transition of Mg-doped AlGaN nanowire. We propose a phenomenological model, based on the rate equation which confirms that achieving higher 'hole' (p-doping) concentration in AlGaN nanowire (>1018cm-3) is more conducive than the planar counterpart if the growth of NWs is carried out at optimized process conditions. This rate equation-based model has also demonstrated the influence of sidewall surface passivation in those AlGaN nanowires.

Pump-probe surface photovoltage spectroscopy measurements on semiconductor epitaxial layers.

Pump-probe Surface Photovoltage Spectroscopy (SPS) measurements are performed on semiconductor epitaxial layers. Here, an additional sub-bandgap cw pump laser beam is used in a conventional chopped light geometry SPS setup under the pump-probe configuration. The main role of pump laser beam is to saturate the sub-bandgap localized states whose contribution otherwise swamp the information related to the bandgap of material. It also affects the magnitude of Dember voltage in case of semi-insulating (SI) semiconductor substrates. Pump-probe SPS technique enables an accurate determination of the bandgap of semiconductor epitaxial layers even under the strong influence of localized sub-bandgap states. The pump beam is found to be very effective in suppressing the effect of surface/interface and bulk trap states. The overall magnitude of SPV signal is decided by the dependence of charge separation mechanisms on the intensity of the pump beam. On the contrary, an above bandgap cw pump laser can be used to distinguish the signatures of sub-bandgap states by suppressing the band edge related feature. Usefulness of the pump-probe SPS technique is established by unambiguously determining the bandgap of p-GaAs epitaxial layers grown on SI-GaAs substrates, SI-InP wafers, and p-GaN epilayers grown on Sapphire substrates.