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Hispanics in the USA, particularly those of Caribbean descent, experience high levels of diet-related diseases and dietary risk factors. Restaurants are an increasingly important yet understudied source of food and may present opportunities to positively influence urban food environments. We sought to explore food environments further, by examining the association between neighborhood characteristics and restaurant consumer nutrition environments within New York City's Hispanic Caribbean (HC) restaurant environments. We applied an adapted version of the Nutrition Environment Measurements Survey for Restaurants (NEMS-R) to evaluate a random sample of HC restaurants (n=89). NEMS-HCR scores (continuous and categorized as low, medium, and high based on data distribution) were examined against area sociodemographic characteristics using bivariate and logistic regression analysis. HC restaurants located in Hispanic geographic enclaves had a higher proportion of fried menu items (p6), compared with their medium (aOR: 6.6, 95% CI: 1.8-24.6) and large counterparts (aOR: 5.6, 95% CI: 1.5-21.4). This research is the first to examine the association between restaurant location and consumer nutrition environments, providing information to contribute to future interventions and policies seeking to improve urban food environments in communities disproportionately affected by diet-related conditions, as in the case of HC communities in New York City.

Hispanics in the USA, particularly those of Caribbean descent, experience high levels of diet-related diseases and dietary risk factors. Restaurants are an increasingly important yet understudied source of food and may present opportunities to positively influence urban food environments. We sought to explore food environments further, by examining the association between neighborhood characteristics and restaurant consumer nutrition environments within New York City's Hispanic Caribbean (HC) restaurant environments. We applied an adapted version of the Nutrition Environment Measurements Survey for Restaurants (NEMS-R) to evaluate a random sample of HC restaurants (n=89). NEMS-HCR scores (continuous and categorized as low, medium, and high based on data distribution) were examined against area sociodemographic characteristics using bivariate and logistic regression analysis. HC restaurants located in Hispanic geographic enclaves had a higher proportion of fried menu items (p6), compared with their medium (aOR: 6.6, 95% CI: 1.8-24.6) and large counterparts (aOR: 5.6, 95% CI: 1.5-21.4). This research is the first to examine the association between restaurant location and consumer nutrition environments, providing information to contribute to future interventions and policies seeking to improve urban food environments in communities disproportionately affected by diet-related conditions, as in the case of HC communities in New York City.

A cost-effective and unique RP-HPLC technology has been developed to correctly and precisely quantify the amount of Metolazone in both bulk amounts and solid dosage forms. The separation procedure was performed with an Inertsil ODS-3 HPLC Column with a particle size of 5 μm and dimensions of 250 x 4.6 mm. The experiment used the isocratic method, with a mobile phase composed of an 80:20 (v/v) blend of Acetonitrile and methanol. A pump was used to introduce the mobile phase into the column at a flow rate of 1.0 mL min-1. The eluent from the column was identified using a UV detector configured to function at a wavelength of 295 nm. The experiment lasted for 8 minutes, during which the column was continually maintained at the surrounding temperature. The calculated retention time for Metolazone was 3.557 minutes. The standard curves demonstrated a consistent linear correlation over the concentration range of 02-10 μg/ml, with a very high coefficient of determination (R2 = 0.9997). The investigation yielded a range of percentage recoveries, spanning from 98% to 102%. In addition, the Relative Standard Deviation (RSD) was calculated to be 0.290%. The percentage content of a commercially available version of Metolazone was tested to be 100.18%. The technique was validated in compliance with the guidelines established by the International Council for Harmonisation of Technical guidelines for Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (ICH). The proposed RP-HPLC technology has undergone validation via study, demonstrating its attributes of simplicity, specificity, speed, reliability, and consistency. Hence, the methodology proposed in this research may be used for the routine examination of Metolazone in both its concentrated and solid forms, particularly with the objective of ensuring quality assurance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural research and extension projects aimed at socio-economic and ecological development in the coastal saline zone (CSZ) often face serious operational challenges. Crop management practices in these stressed ecosystems confront stiff climatic (cyclonic storms, extreme high and extreme low rainfall, prolonged hot dry spells), edaphic (soil salinity during winter and summer months, excess soil moisture in rainy season and lack of soil moisture in summer season), production (growing long duration rainy season paddy varieties and consequent delay in sowing dry season crops) and socio-economic (resource-poor farmers, lack of credit and market infrastructure, migration of human labour) constraints. Any intervention in such systems, thus, needs critical empirical examination, not only in terms of concrete numbers but in terms of human experience for whom the interventions are made. During 2016 to 2020, a team of researchers and development workers, as part of a donor-supported project, aimed at standardizing and disseminating a suite of climate-smart, farmer-friendly technologies in Rangabelia and Jatirampur villages under the Gosaba Block of South 24 Parganas district, which comes under the CSZ of West Bengal. The interventions envisaged were - sowing date alteration of rainy-season rice to fetch good return from post-monsoon relay-sown lathyrus, intensification of rice-fallow areas with green gram, implementing water-saving technologies like drip irrigation with straw mulching for higher profit in tomato cultivation, and growing potato and onion under zero tillage and straw mulching conditions. The present study qualitatively examined the outcomes of these cropping system intensification interventions to capture the experience of the adopters of these technologies. Our thematic analysis identified field management, farmers' difficulties in coping with adverse agro-climatic and edaphic situations, barriers and drivers of technology adoption, and women's participation in agriculture as core areas of concern. Among the technologies introduced, zero tillage potato cultivation was the most adopted technology, followed by relay sowing of lathyrus and drip irrigation technology in tomato. Problem of salinity and water scarcity was widely reported, where higher crop yield was the predominant driver of technology adoption. Notably, women farmers received benefits from several technological interventions. Outcomes of the study provide a first-hand knowledge of farming situations, the problems associated with adopting innovations, and major factors that shape their adoption in the study areas. These qualitative insights can be amalgamated with formal quantitative studies and inform extension workers for sustainable implementation of future projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]