Effects of short birth spacing on birth-order differences in child stunting: Evidence from India.

Do firstborn children have a height advantage? Empirical findings have found mostly that, yes, second or higher-order children often lag behind firstborns in height outcomes, especially in developing countries. However, empirical investigations of birth-order effects on child height overlook the potential impact that birth spacing can have. We provide an explanation for the negative birth-order effect on stunting outcomes for young Indian children and show it is driven by short preceding-birth spacing. We find that firstborn children are taller than children of higher birth order: The height-for-age gap for third (or higher)-order children is twice the gap for children second in birth order. However, this pattern is observed when spacing between later-born children and their immediate elder siblings is fewer than 3 y. Interestingly, the firstborn height advantage disappears when later-born children are born at least 3 y after their elder siblings. Thus, our findings indicate that spacing length between children explains differences in height, over birth order. Although India's family planning policy has resulted in a substantial reduction in total fertility, its achievement in spacing subsequent births has been less impressive. In showing that spacing can alleviate or aggravate birth-order effects on attained height, our study fills an evidence gap: Reducing fertility alone may not be sufficient in overcoming negative birth-order effects. To reduce the detrimental effects of birth order on child stunting, policy responses-and therefore research priorities-require a stronger focus on increasing the time period between births.

Seasonal time trade-offs and nutrition outcomes for women in agriculture: Evidence from rural India.

Women in agriculture are involved in agricultural activities and are solely responsible for household-level unpaid work. They face severe time trade-offs between agricultural and household activities across crop seasons. Recent literature suggests that these time trade-offs may negatively impact their nutrition. However, there is no quantitative evidence exploring this relationship within an agricultural context. This paper addresses this research gap by analyzing the relationship between women's time trade-offs and their nutritional outcomes. Using a unique ten-month primary panel data of 960 women from India, our findings show that women are severely time-constrained, as they contribute significantly to agricultural as well as domestic work. Our results show that during peak seasons relative to lean seasons, women's time trade-offs (rising opportunity cost of time) are negatively associated with the intake of calories, proteins, iron,zinc and Vitamin A. We show that this negative relationship is manifested severely among women who are landless and cultivate paddy alone (food crop) or paddy and cotton (mixed crop). This study highlights the gendered role of agricultural activities in rural households and the need to recognize time as a scarce resource when implementing policies and programs involving women in agriculture. We contribute to the literature of agriculture-nutrition linkages by examining the the time use pathway in detail. Besides providing novel metrics, we discuss several policy implications to reduce women's time constraints and enhance their nutrition.

Mixture Model Segmentation System for Parasagittal Meningioma brain Tumor Classification based on Hybrid Feature Vector.

Meningioma is the one of the most common type of brain tumor, it as arises from the meninges and encloses the spine and the brain inside the skull. It accounts for 30% of all types of brain tumor. Meningioma's can occur in many parts of the brain and accordingly it is named. In this paper, a mixture model based classification of meningioma brain tumor using MRI image is developed. The proposed method consists of four stages. In the first stage, with respect to the cells' boundary, it is necessary to further processing, which ensures the boundary of some cells is a discrete region. Mathematical Morphology brings a fancy result during the discrete processing. Accurate cancer cell nucleus segmentation is necessary for automated cytological image analysis. Thresholding is a crucial step in segmentation..An adaptive binarization technique is an important step for medical image analysis.Finally, a novel hybrid Fuzzy SVM is designed in the classification stage meningioma brain tumor. The tumor classification results of proposed feature extraction with SVM is 74.24%, MM with FSVM is 82.67% and MM with RBF is 62.71% and our proposed method MM with Hybrid SVM is 91.64%.

Monitoring the world's agriculture.

To feed the world without further damaging the planet, Jeffrey Sachs and 24 foodsystem experts call for a global data collection and dissemination network to track the myriad impacts of different farming practices.

Green revolution: impacts, limits, and the path ahead.

A detailed retrospective of the Green Revolution, its achievement and limits in terms of agricultural productivity improvement, and its broader impact at social, environmental, and economic levels is provided. Lessons learned and the strategic insights are reviewed as the world is preparing a "redux" version of the Green Revolution with more integrative environmental and social impact combined with agricultural and economic development. Core policy directions for Green Revolution 2.0 that enhance the spread and sustainable adoption of productivity enhancing technologies are specified.

Virgin coconut oil - its methods of extraction, properties and clinical usage: a review.

Abstract: Virgin coconut oil (VCO) is a processed edible oil, which is removed from the mature coconuts. It is a colourless water insoluble liquid and obtained by the hot and cold extraction processes. The nutritional components of VCO are mainly contributed to by lauric acid, its primary content. VCO has shown its anticancer, antimicrobial, analgesic, antipyretic and antiinflammatory properties. Because of these medicinal properties, VCO has gained the wider attention among the medical field. Most evidently VCO has shown its potential antioxidant property, because of its phenolic compounds and medium chain fatty acids. It is one of the beneficial compounds used to prevent and treat the oxidative stress induced neurological disorders like stress, depression and Alzheimer's disease. Dietary supplementation of VCO is easy and economical and safer in daily life among all age groups. It is also beneficial for the cardiovascular, respiratory, dermatological, reproductive and bone health. It can also be applied to the skin as a moisturizer in the paediatric age group. Hence, exploration of antioxidant property as well as other beneficial effects of VCO in various health conditions will be valuable.

Leveraging men's education as an effective pathway for improving diet quality: Evidence from rural India.

Investing in nutrition sensitive sectors such as education can be an effective strategy for combatting malnutrition. In this paper we analyze the role that men's education plays in determining dietary diversity outcomes using primary data from 3600 households across four districts of India. Dietary diversity scores were calculated to reflect the quality of food intake, for households and women. Men's education level was considered as the primary driver of diet diversity. To establish a causal link between men's education and diet diversity, the education level of parents and siblings were used as instrumental variables. We find that men's education levels are associated with significantly higher diet diversity scores both for the household and for women. The role of men's education continues to be a significant determinant of diet quality after controlling for household and individual- level confounding factors including the education level of the woman. The results are consistent across different definitions of the diet diversity score and reference period. Methodologically we extend the evidence on the education-nutrition pathway from being associational to causal in nature. Results from this study point to the benefits of leveraging men's education as an effective pathway for improving nutritional outcomes within households.

Effective monitoring of agriculture: a response.

The development of effective agricultural monitoring networks is essential to track, anticipate and manage changes in the social, economic and environmental aspects of agriculture. We welcome the perspective of Lindenmayer and Likens (J. Environ. Monit., 2011, 13, 1559) as published in the Journal of Environmental Monitoring on our earlier paper, "Monitoring the World's Agriculture" (Sachs et al., Nature, 2010, 466, 558-560). In this response, we address their three main critiques labeled as 'the passive approach', 'the problem with uniform metrics' and 'the problem with composite metrics'. We expand on specific research questions at the core of the network design, on the distinction between key universal and site-specific metrics to detect change over time and across scales, and on the need for composite metrics in decision-making. We believe that simultaneously measuring indicators of the three pillars of sustainability (environmentally sound, social responsible and economically viable) in an effectively integrated monitoring system will ultimately allow scientists and land managers alike to find solutions to the most pressing problems facing global food security.

Bone morphometry.

OBJECTIVES: To compare anatomical measurements with that of radiological measurements. BACKGROUND: The radiological measurements are commonly used in clinical practice. It is well known that the anatomical measurements are more accurate than radiological. The comparison of anatomicoradiological measurements is not reported hitherto. METHODS: One human adult cadaveric femur bone was used for the present study. It was measured both anatomically and radiologically. RESULTS: In digital X- ray measurements, the length from the upper lip of fovea capitis to the most prominent part of greater trochanter was 87.2 mms, from the upper most part of greater trochanter to the isthmus it was 147.9 mms, mediolateral width of medullary cavity at the isthmus was 8.9 mms, the mediolateral width at the distal root of lesser trochanter was 18.5 mms, anteroposterior width of medullary cavity at the isthmus was 11.5 mms, the anteroposterior width at the distal root of lesser trochanter was 16.8 mms. The same measurements were 91.2 mms, 154.6 mms, 11.8 mms, 19.7 mms, 11.9 mms and 18.5 mms when taken anatomically using the digital vernier caliper. CONCLUSION: The present study showed that in all the parameters measured the radiological values were slightly lesser than the anatomical values. Considering the variations in the values, the implants can be designed for a particular case in orthopedic surgery. We believe that this study adds an important reference in the scientific literature (Tab. 1, Fig. 2, Ref. 5).

Morphological study of lingula of the mandibles in South Indian population.

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY: The objectives were to study the morphology of the lingulae in adult human dried mandibles of South Indian population. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was carried out on 67 (37 males and 30 females) dry mandibles and the morphological variants of the shapes of the lingulae were macroscopically noted and classified. Totally, 134 lingula were studied from both sides of mandibles. RESULTS: From our observations, 29.9% (40) of the lingula had triangular shape, 27.6% (37) were truncated, 29.9% (40) were found nodular and 12.6% (17) were assimilated. In 61.2% (41) of the mandibles, the shape of the lingula was symmetrical on both the sides. The triangular lingulae were found bilaterally in 14, truncated in 11, nodular in 10 and assimilated in six mandibles. CONCLUSION: In our specimens, the majority of the mandibles were having triangular shaped lingula and the shape of the lingula was symmetrical on both sides. There was sexual dimorphism observed, as in males the triangular shape was more common and in females it was nodular. The incidence of different forms of lingulæ can be used as an anthropological marker to assess the different group of population and races, with other non-metric variants of the skull. The morphology of this subject is important to the maxillofacial and orodental surgeons as the inferior alveolar nerve is close to the lingula and may assist in the inferior alveolar block.

An unusual morphological variant of the extensor digitorum brevis manus in an Indian male cadaver.

The extensor digitorum brevis manus is a supernumerary muscle of the dorsum of hand and is a relatively rare finding during dissection. Only 2-3% of the cases are found world wide. Here we report the case of extensor digitorum brevis manus in an approximately 65-year-old Indian male cadaver. This report discusses the variant anatomy, morphology, review of literature and clinical implications of this muscle. We believe that it is of importance to report the observation of this muscle as the variation reported herein should be of interest to clinicians, surgeons and anatomists for academic purposes.

Are Women in Rural India Really Consuming a Less Diverse Diet?

BACKGROUND: It is widely considered that women have less diverse diets than other household members. However, it has been challenging to establish this empirically since women's diet diversity is measured differently from that of other household members. OBJECTIVE: In this article, we compare women's dietary diversity with that of their respective households and thereby generate a measure of "dietary gap." METHODS: We measure women's "dietary gap" by using the difference of homogenized household and woman dietary scores (using the same scales). This is done using primary data on 3600 households from 4 districts in India. Additionally, we show the robustness of our results to variations in scale and recall periods used to construct the diet diversity scores. RESULTS: Mean difference tests indicate that women consistently consume 0.1 to 0.5 fewer food groups relative to other household members, with the results being statistically significant at the 1% level. The food groups driving this dietary gap are nonstaples like Vitamin A-rich fruits and vegetables, meat/fish/poultry, and dairy. CONCLUSIONS: Results point toward the discrimination faced by women in the variety of the food consumed, the importance of considering comparability in creating indices of diet diversity, and the need to collect more detailed information on diets. To our knowledge, this is one of the first studies to examine dietary discrimination faced by women using common scales.

Market Access, Production Diversity, and Diet Diversity: Evidence From India.

BACKGROUND: Recent literature, largely from Africa, shows mixed effects of own-production on diet diversity. However, the role of own-production, relative to markets, in influencing food consumption becomes more pronounced as market integration increases. OBJECTIVE: This paper investigates the relative importance of two factors - production diversity and household market integration - for the intake of a nutritious diet by women and households in rural India. METHODS: Data analysis is based on primary data from an extensive agriculture-nutrition survey of 3600 Indian households that was collected in 2017. Dietary diversity scores are constructed for women and households is based on 24-hour and 7-day recall periods. Household market integration is measured as monthly household expenditure on key non-staple food groups. We measure production diversity in two ways - field-level and on-farm production diversity - in order to account for the cereal centric rice-wheat cropping system found in our study locations. The analysis is based on Ordinary Least Squares regressions where we control for a variety of village, household, and individual level covariates that affect food consumption, and village fixed effects. Robustness checks are done by way of using a Poisson regression specifications and 7-day recall period. RESULTS: Conventional measures of field-level production diversity, like the number of crops or food groups grown, have no significant association with diet diversity. In contrast, it is on-farm production diversity (the field-level cultivation of pulses and on-farm livestock management, and kitchen gardens in the longer run) that is significantly associated with improved dietary diversity scores, thus suggesting the importance of non-staples in improving both individual and household dietary diversity. Furthermore, market purchases of non-staples like pulses and dairy products are associated with a significantly higher dietary diversity. Other significant determinants of dietary diversity include women's literacy and awareness of nutrition. These results mostly remain robust to changes in the recall period of the diet diversity measure and the nature of the empirical specification. CONCLUSIONS: This study contributes to the scarce empirical evidence related to diets in India. Additionally, our results indicate some key intervention areas - promoting livestock rearing, strengthening households' market integration (for purchase of non-staples) and increasing women's awareness about nutrition. These are more impactful than raising production diversity.

Nutritional outcomes of empowerment and market integration for women in rural India.

Over half of all women of reproductive age are affected by anaemia in India. In this paper we study the role that both household market integration and women's empowerment in agriculture can play in determining women's dietary diversity. Our analysis is based on primary data from 3600 households across India on agriculture, nutrition and anthropometric outcomes. We account for market integration by way of per capita household purchases (quantity) of cereals and non- cereal food groups, such as pulses, meat/ fish/ poultry, fruits and vegetables, eggs and dairy. We construct an adapted version of the Abbreviated Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (A-WEAI) that is context- specific and agriculture- oriented. After controlling for individual, household and village- level explanatory factors, we find that - for a given level of per capita market purchases - women who are empowered in their agricultural decisions have significantly higher dietary diversity scores relative to women who are disempowered of such decisions. More specifically it is women's empowerment in two areas: input in production decisions and membership in self- help groups that supports this result. Women's empowerment also enhances dietary diversity in the presence of disaggregated per capita purchases of non-cereals such as pulses, meat, dairy and eggs. This highlights the importance of reorienting India's agricultural price and procurement policies beyond staple grains to ensure better dietary diversity.

Accessory brachialis muscle: a case report.

Variations of arm flexors are not uncommon with the exception of brachialis muscle. The role of brachialis is critical as it is the primary flexor of the elbow joint. Variations of brachialis are rare in literature. We present a case of an accessory-brachialis muscle (AcBr), found during routine cadaveric dissection. The AcBr originated from the lateral aspect of the brachialis muscle and lateral intermuscular septum. During its course towards the elbow, it crossed over the radial nerve and the distal tendon splits into two. The medial slip ran over the ulnar artery and merged with the deep fascia covering the pronator teres muscle, whereas lateral slip was inserted to the fascia covering the supinator. In the ipsilateral arm, an additional lateral cutaneous nerve of forearm (LCNF) was found coursing over the brachialis muscle medial to the LCNF. Clinical consideration of the present variations has been discussed. The present variation should be considered in the etiology of radial-tunnel syndrome (RTS).

FAST-2 is a mammalian winged-helix protein which mediates transforming growth factor beta signals.

The mechanisms by which transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta) and related ligands regulate transcription remain poorly understood. The winged-helix (WH) transcription factor fork head activin signal transducer 1 (FAST-1) was identified as a mediator of activin signaling in Xenopus embryos (X. Chen, M. J. Rubock, and M. Whitman, Nature 383:691-696, 1996). We have cloned a novel WH gene from the mouse which shares many properties with FAST-1. We find that this gene, which we call FAST-2, is able to mediate transcriptional activation by TGF-beta. FAST-2 also interacts directly with Smad2, a cytoplasmic protein which is translocated to the nucleus in response to TGF-beta, and forms a multimeric complex with Smad2 and Smad4 on the activin response element, a high-affinity binding site for FAST-1. Analysis of the sequences of FAST-1 and FAST-2 reveals substantial protein sequence divergence compared to known vertebrate orthologs in the WH family. This suggests that FAST-2 represents a new WH gene related to FAST-1, which functions to mediate TGF-beta signals in mammals. We have also examined the structure of the FAST-2 gene and find that it overlaps with a kinesin motor protein gene. The genes are transcribed in opposite orientations, and their transcripts overlap in the 3' untranslated region.

Incidence, types and clinical implications of a non-metrical variant--mylohyoid bridging in human mandibles.

Mylohyoid bridging (MB) is a non-metrical variant of the human mandible. The incidence and types of MB were investigated in 264 mandibles (edentulous 116, semi-dentulous 90 and dentulous 58). No mandible showed a complete type of MB, although 19 (7.2%) mandibles had a partial type. These were classified into two subtypes: distal partial (DP; Type I) and proximal partial (PP; Type II), depending on their location over the mylohyoid groove. The MB was present unilaterally in 7.76% of edentulous mandibles: right side 5.17% (3.45% PP type and 1.72% DP type) and left side 2.59% (1.72% PP type and 0.86% DP type). Of the semi-dentulous mandibles 3.33% had DP type of MB, 1.11% on the right side and 2.22% on the left side, and of the dentulous mandibles 1.72% had DP type of MB on the right side. A total of 13 mandibles out of 264 (4.92%) had unilateral MB. No dentulous mandible had bilateral MB, but 3.45% of edentulous and 2.22% of semi-dentulous mandibles did have. In total, 6 mandibles out of 264 bones (2.27%) had bilateral MB. Of the bilateral incidences 1.72% of edentulous mandibles had a DP-DP combination and the remaining 1.72% had a PP-DP combination. However, both instances of bilateral MB in semi-dentulous mandibles were of PP-DP combination. The incidence or types of MB showed no statistically significant differences between the groups or sides (p > 0.5; chi(2) test). In conclusion, the complete type of MB is a rare occurrence. The incidence increases with age, as edentulous mandibles had a higher incidence of MB than the other two groups. Clinically, MB may compress the mylohyoid neurovascular bundle, leading to neurological or vascular disorders.

A rare case of bilateral sternocleidomastoid muscle variation.

An abnormal sternocleidomastoid (SCM) muscle was encountered bilaterally during routine dissection of the head and neck region of a 60 year old male cadaver. The SCM muscle of both the sides had an additional sternal head arising from the capsule of the sternoclavicular joint and the supero-lateral border of the manubrium sterni. The clinical significance of the present variation is immense, as it might cause difficulty in assessing the vital neurovascular structures of the neck during surgical procedure.