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Studies that examined the growth during late childhood and early adolescence beyond 8 years of age are very limited. Further, most studies have used dichotomized classification of stunting, thereby limiting the understanding of moderate stunting in childhood growth trajectory. We aimed to examine the course of stunting from childhood to adolescence by undertaking robust analyses of the Young Lives Survey (YLS) longitudinal data from India using multilevel categorization of stunting. Retrospective cohort analysis was undertaken from YLS in India among 1827 children from the younger cohort born in 2001–02 with complete follow-up data in all five rounds of YLS collected in 2002, 2006, 2009, 2013, and 2016. A three-state multistate Markov model (not stunted, moderate, severe) was performed to estimate annual transition probabilities, mean sojourn-time, and transition-specific risk factors. Between Round-one and Round-five, cross-sectional prevalence of severe stunting decreased from 10.4% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 7.8%, 13.7%) to 5.3% (95% CI: 3.8%, 7.3%), while moderate stunting increased from 19.9% (95% CI: 16.3%,23.9%) to 21.7% (95% CI: 18.4%, 24.9%). Mean Sojourn time estimation indicated a relatively concise state for moderate stunting. The stunting trajectory had shown gender differential where more faltering to severe stunting and lower recovery to the normal state was observed among girls between 8 and 12 years and among boys between 12 and 15 years. Compared with boys, girls had 40% excess likelihood (Hazard Ratio: 1.40; 95% CI 1.00 to 1.95) for moderate-to-severe stunting transition and also had 19% excess likelihood (Hazard Ratio: 1.19; 95% CI 1.01 to 1.40) of favorable transition (moderate-to-non-stunted). The transition trajectory highlights preadolescence, especially among girls, as an additional window of opportunity to ensure better nutrition in adolescent life. With a fifth of adolescents living in India, study findings call for coordinated, multisectoral, age-appropriate, and gender-responsive approach to take India closer to meeting SDG-2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Estimation of the effect of long-range transportation of anthropogenic aerosols in India is a real challenge due to the strong influence of local sources. This study addresses this issue from the measurements of aerosol optical and physical properties during 16–31 March 2006 at Kalpakkam (12.56° N and 80.12° E), a remote eastern coastal station in India. Increased anthropogenic aerosols were observed due to long-range transport from Indo-Gangetic Basin (IGB) in comparison to two other sources: central Bay of Bengal (CBoB) and northern Indian Ocean (NIO) as grouped from back-trajectory analyses of air parcels. AOD is found to be maximum of about 0.32 during IGB wind regime followed by CBoB (0.27) and NIO (0.20) winds. MODIS observed AOD is found to be high all along the wind back-trajectories connected from IGB indicating IGB as a source. Black carbon (BC) during IGB wind (2.0μg·m−3) is 65% greater than that observed during NIO wind (1.2μg·m−3). As a result, single scattering albedo becomes as low as 0.89 during IGB wind while 0.92 during NIO wind. These long-range transported aerosols cause about 65% enhancement of atmospheric radiative forcing and consequently, aerosol heating rate is also increased by about 70% during IGB wind regime (0.36K/day) compared to NIO wind regime (0.21K/day). Being a coastal region, Kalpakkam experiences strong diurnal variation of aerosol properties due to land and sea breezes that introduce about 30% increase of atmospheric forcing during land breeze by short-range transport of BC from nearby urban region. The present study concludes that long-range transported anthropogenic aerosols over coastal region of India cause significant enhancement of regional aerosol radiative forcing and their heating effect can have significant consequences for regional climate change by altering hydrological cycle over the tropical continental area. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The present study addresses the role of black carbon (BC) in aerosol radiative forcing (ARF) over western India, where the Thar Desert produces large amount of dust aerosols during premonsoon season (Mar–May) and its mixing with BC makes the investigation a real challenge. Measurements of aerosol physical and optical parameters were carried out at three stations, Ahmedabad (urban area), Udaipur (semi-arid region) and Mt. Abu (a hill-top representing background conditions), to investigate the regional variation of ARF during April 2007. Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) measurements show presence of dust layer in the altitude region from 1 to 5km over western India throughout the month leading to uniform distribution of dust. Ahmedabad has slightly higher AOD500(0.31) due to production of anthropogenic aerosols with BC concentration of 1.8μg.m−3 at surface, followed by Udaipur (AOD500 =0.30 and BC=0.9μg.m−3) and Mt. Abu (0.28 and 0.7μg.m−3, respectively). The longwave ARF is found to be similar over all three stations whereas the shortwave ARF depends on type of location. The shortwave ARF at the top of atmosphere (TOA), surface, and within the atmosphere are found to be 1.7, −46 and 47.7Wm−2, respectively, at Ahmedabad, −1.5, −35 and 33.5Wm−2 at Udaipur and −1.5, −31 and 29.5Wm−2 at Mt. Abu. On the other hand, the heating rates in the lower atmosphere (up to 5km) are 1.3, 1.0 and 0.4K/day over Ahmedabad, Udaipur and Mt. Abu, respectively. Sensitivity analysis shows that a 40% enhancement of BC could increase the heating rate by up to 50% over western India. Higher aerosol-induced heating in the atmosphere during premonsoon may have a large impact on the regional climate dynamics and hydrological processes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Roof falls accounted for 18.18% of all fatal accidents in Indian coal mines, contributing about 35.29% of all fatal accidents in below-ground operations in 2005. The support safety factor, always preferred in support planning and design of underground coal mines, may be an important predictor for roof falls. In this paper, geotechnical data were collected from 14 roof fall incident places in an underground coal mine, located in the Eastern India, which has bord and pillar method of workings. The mean value of probabilistic support safety factor for the case study mine was found to be 1.24. However, the probability, of the estimated support safety factor of less than or equal to one, was found to be 0.246. Sensitivity analysis was conducted to analyze the effects of the contributing parameters on support safety factor and the likelihood of the roof fall. The multi-variate regression analysis was carried out for the data generated by Monte Carlo method to correlate the contributing factors to support safety factor. It ranked gallery width as the first parameter to control the support safety factor. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Fish community structure and water chemistry of two tropical rivers of West Bengal, an eastern province of India, were studied for two annual cycles (January 2003–December2004) and a higher degree of pollution was found in one river (the Churni) than in the other river (the Jalangi). This was reflected in the water quality as well as in fish community structure of the rivers. We observed that 63.6% of fish species appeared to have been eliminated from the polluted Churni river since 1983 in 20 years. For the protection of fish biodiversity and enhancement of fish production, a rational management program should be implemented for the Churni river. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

During a study of microbial diversity, a bacterial strain designated HT10, was isolated from sediment collected from an unexplored sulfur spring at Athamallik, Orissa, India. Various biochemical tests and 16S rDNA sequence analysis revealed that strain HT10 is Aeromonas caviae. The growth temperature of this strain ranged from 12 to 43°C and the optimum temperature was 30°C. The strain HT10 showed cytotoxic and α-hemolytic activity. This is the first report on the isolation of Aeromonas caviae from sulfur spring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigates the potential of bamboo fiber as a reinforcing material for polymer matrix composites. Composition of bamboo; Mechanical and macro/micro structural properties of the Valki variety of bamboo from West Bengal, India; Consideration of bamboo as both macroscopically and microscopically functionally graded biomaterial.

A letter to the editor is presented about the use of the "postage stamp test" to assess nocturnal penile tumescence.

High levels of natural radiation areas occur in some parts of coastal tracts of India. The newly discovered Erasama beach placer deposit, part of the eastern coast of Orissa State, India is a high natural background radiation area, due to the presence of radiogenic heavy minerals. The average activity concentrations of radioactive elements such as 232Th, 238U and 40K, measured by gamma-ray spectrometry using an HPGe detector, and found to be 2825±50, 350±20 and 180±25 Bq kg−1, respectively, for the bulk sand samples. The absorbed gamma dose rates in air due to the naturally occurring radionuclides varied from 650 to 3150 nGy h−1 with a mean value of 1925±718 nGy h−1. The annual external effective dose rates for the region varyed from 0.78 to 3.86 mSv yr−1 with a mean value of 2.36±0.88 mSv yr−1. The external gamma dose rate level of Erasama coastal region is similar to the other monazite sand bearing high background radiation areas of southern and southwestern coastal regions of India. The major contributors to the enhanced level of radiation are monazites and to a lesser extent in zircons. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The newly discovered Erasama beach placer deposits in southeastern coast of Orissa state has a high natural radiation environment. The concentrations of radioactive elements such as 232Th, 238U and 40K were measured by gamma ray spectrometry, using a High Purity Germanium detector. The studies show that these placer deposits have high natural radioactivity and external gamma dose rate levels. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: An accident leading to bursting of a compressed natural gas (CNG) cylinder fitted to a passenger bus in India resulted one person died and four persons injured. This paper presents the incident, the human factor involved, safety issues and lesson learned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The present study was carried out to document the pig rearing practices followed by the tribal farmers, to analyze the proximate composition of commonly used non-conventional feed stuffs and to study the growth performance of pigs under low input traditional pig production system. The study was conducted over a period of two and half years (2003–2005) in Mizoram, a hilly tribal state of North Eastern India. A total number of 320 farmers were surveyed all over the state (40 farmers per district in eight districts). The non-conventional pig feed materials/plants were collected, identified and evaluated for proximate composition. Besides this, a total number of 200 home made cooked ready to serve pig feed samples were collected from all over the state and analyzed for proximate composition. The average dry matter, crude protein, crude fiber, ether extract, total ash and nitrogen free extract content of ready to serve pig feed were 14.80±2.79, 6.66±2.14, 31.65±8.09, 4.71±1.99, 6.89±2.27 and 50.17±5.86, respectively. Eight male and seven female piglets of each Hampshire, Large White Yorkshire (LWY) and Nondescript local pigs, reared by 15 different farmers were selected randomly to assess the growth performance under low input production system. There was significant (p <0.05) difference in body weight between Hampshire, LWY and Nondescript local pigs throughout the study period. At 9 month age, the body weight of Hampshire, LWY and Nondescript local pigs were 50.50±0.34, 48.68±0.42 and 32.88±0.35 kg, respectively. The average age at first farrowing was 14.58±0.26, 14.23±0.32, and 12.11±2.51 months for Hampshire, LWY and nondescript local pigs, respectively. The litter size at birth varied from 7.40±0.40 in nondescript local pigs to 10.44±0.59 in LWY pigs. The litter size at weaning was 5.20±0.66, 8.06±0.66 and 8.33±0.55 for Nondescript local, LWY and Hampshire pigs. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]