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Malnutrition persists as a critical public health concern in India, aggravated by widespread nutrition insecurity due to lack of dietary diversity. Integrating the promotion of nutrition gardens with nutrition education offers a promising strategy to mitigate these challenges, particularly among vulnerable populations. This paper examines the perceptions of households participated in an intervention to promote nutrition-sensitive agriculture and improve nutrition education to combat undernutrition in small-scale farming households in rural India. Using a mixed-methods approach, data were collected from participants in Tamil Nadu and Odisha through structured interviews, key informant interviews, and focus group discussions. The qualitative data were thematically analysed, and a SWOT analysis was conducted to assess the intervention’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The findings show that by integrating nutrition-sensitive approaches into agricultural activities, the intervention has transformed traditional home gardening practices by diversifying homegrown produce. Participants highly valued the training sessions, and the provision of seeds and saplings, which facilitated the establishment of nutrition gardens and improved nutrition-related knowledge. However, while many participants reported improved nutrition knowledge, improvements in dietary diversity and overall nutrition were less commonly reported. Achieving a sustained impact will require context-sensitive implementation, sustained engagement, and addressing structural barriers.

Purpose of Review: This retrospective, case controlled, comparative evaluation review of radiation exposure during epidural procedures in interventional pain management assessed variations in radiation exposure based on obesity, race, and gender. Recent Findings: Numerous publications have shown increasing radiation exposure based on body mass index (BMI). However, the influence of race and gender have not been studied. A recent study assessing radiation exposure for epidural procedures with mandated 2 views, compared to a single view or optional 2 views, showed an increase in exposure time of 21%, with radiation dose increases of 133%. The influence of obesity, has been studied, but potential influence of race, and gender on radiation exposure for epidural procedures has not been studied. Summary: The present review shows a prevalence of total obesity with BMI of 30 or above of 50.9%, with a higher prevalence in patients below the age of 45, female gender, and African Americans. Mean fluoroscopy time and dose increased significantly from 6.9 s to 0.925 milligray (mGy) for all epidural procedures for those who are underweight to 10.0 s and 6.7 mGy for those with Class 3 obesity above BMI of 40. However, after adjusting for body mass index, no significant differences were noted in race for both fluoroscopy time and radiation dose across multiple epidural procedures. Fluoroscopy time and radiation dose increased in males in cervical interlaminar and lumbar transforaminal procedures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AZ31 alloys are gaining considerable research interest owing to their commendable applications in automobile and aerospace applications because of their high strength-to-weight ratio to reduce the overall weight of the vehicle. However, these alloys are more susceptible to porosity and material shrinkage during casting, which in turn results in poor mechanical behavior. Ultrasonic-assisted squeeze casting is a non-traditional casting technique that involves the application of ultrasonic waves to distribute the reinforced particles homogenously in the melt, improving the integrity of the alloy composites by reducing agglomeration. While various materials have demonstrated the efficacy of these processing techniques, their potential for casting AZ31/10% SiC alloy composites remains unexplored. The present work aims to investigate the impact of three major process parameters, namely ultrasonic power (UP), squeeze time (ST), and stirring speed (SS), on the responses of porosity and microhardness, using the response surface methodology (RSM) central composite design (CCD) approach. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) technique is used to determine the most significant process parameter and to check the model's adequacy. The analysis indicates that ultrasonic power has the highest F-value and is the most influential factor on porosity and microhardness. Microstructural studies reveal the composites' structural morphology. Apart from identifying the optimal individual process parameters, the desirability approach was also deployed to carry out the multi-objective optimization. Further, empirical models were developed, and confirmatory tests were performed to validate the models. The observed confirmatory results indicate that the developed models have a good prediction tendency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]