ABSTRACT
To understand the effects of land use system and its cropping techniques, the study on carbon stock and soil nutrients in response to varied land use systems and soil depths in Chandel district was carried out during 2020 from five different locations in the Chandel district that include a variety of land use systems such as Forest area, Jhum cultivation after 15 years, Jhum cultivation after 10 years, Jhum cultivation after 10 years from different sub division of the district, Jhum cultivation after 5 years, Intermittent Jhum area, Oak forest area, Teak forest area, Pine forest area, Agri-horti jhum cropping system area and Maize based cropping system area. The study revealed that Forest soils shows significantly higher Organic carbon content of 2.73 % in 0-15 cm and 2.04% in 30-45 cm soil depth respectively than the other land use system of Chandel district. Available N was also found to be significantly higher in forest soils i.e. 533.49 kg/ha in 0-15 cm soil depth and 475.14 kg/ha in 30-45 cm soil depth as compared to other land use systems. Similarly, available P2O5 of 10.92 kg/ha and 9.97 kg/ha in 0-15 cm and 30-45 cm soil depth respectively and K2O of 278.08 kg/ha in 0-15 cm and 266.11 kg/ha in 30-45 cm were also recorded to be significantly higher in forest soil which was followed by the Jhum cultivation after 15 years in Chandel district. Next to forest area soils, Jhum cultivation after 15 years shows higher organic carbon content and other soil nutrients as compare to other land use systems due to the longer waiting period of cultivation. These results indicated that the land under more vegetation and less disturbed areas have higher soil nutrient and organic carbon as compared to other land use system. Thus it may be concluded that, variations in soil fertility parameters need immediate improvement in soil health of Jhum lands and other land use systems.
ABSTRACT
An assessment of climate change knowledge is important to understand farmers' knowledge. There are several tests available to measure it, but they are all dispersed, making the study tedious. The present study, conducted in 2022-23, aimed at developing a composite climate change knowledge test that would aid in the amalgamation of various aspects to holistically study climate change such as farmers’ knowledge of climate change; climate change extreme events knowledge (rainfall, temperature, relative-humidity, drought and so on); and adaptation strategies. Initially, items from diverse literature were collected and discussed with specialists. A total of 63 items were selected. At two levels, the knowledge item was judged and screened. For the first level of screening, 63 items were sent to 100 experts for review. 39 items were chosen for item analysis based on the opinions of 60 experts. These 39 items were distributed to 60 non-sample farmers for second-level screening. The difficulty and discrimination indexes were calculated using the item analysis score. Items with difficulty index of 0.30 to 0.80 and discrimination index of 0.25 and higher were chosen. Following that, 29 items were selected for the final climate change knowledge test for farmers. Finally, the split-half method reliability of the test was 0.85. The developed knowledge tool aids in identifying knowledge gaps and planning the future policy for better adaptation. Furthe, enhancing farmers' knowledge can also help them solve problems more effectively and with a more optimistic outlook when dealing with the challenges posed by climate change.
ABSTRACT
Introduction: Physical activity and diet go hand in hand for the maintenance of good health. This becomes even more important in school-going adolescent students as they are readily exposed to a wide variety of junk food items inside or around their school premises and lead increasingly sedentary lifestyles as they progress through their academics. Aim and Objective: Toassess the junk food intake and physical activity level among school-going adolescents. Material and Method: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 800 school-based adolescents aged 12 to 14 years at AMU High Schools, Aligarh. Students were asked about their physical activity and dietary habits by disseminating a self-reported questionnaire. The data were analyzed in SPSS version 20.0. Results: The majority of the adolescents had a moderate level of physical activity (53%), while 23% of the students had high and 24% had low physical activity levels. On the analysis of the students’ dietary habits, it was found that a staggering 70.75% of students had more than the recommended intake of junk food items. The association between physical activity and junk food intake was found to be significant. Conclusion: More emphasis should be given to limiting junk food intake, increasing healthy food intake, and motivating the students to be more physically active. This can be done by encouraging the family as well as teachers at the school level and creating more spaces for children to be physically active at the community level.
ABSTRACT
Background: Reproductive Tract Infections (RTI) have a direct impact on reproductive and child health through infertility, cancers, and pregnancy complications, and they have an indirect impact through their role in facilitating the sexual transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus. Objectives: To find the prevalence and determinants of RTI/STI among married women of reproductive age group in rural and peri-urban areas of Aligarh. Methods: The data were collected by using a pretested, semi-structured with both open and closed-ended questionnaire from 500 married women of reproductive age group. The collected data were analyzed using IBM SPSS 20.0 Proportion, frequencies, ?2, and logistic regression were used to interpret the data. Results: Prevalence of RTI/STI symptoms was found to (42.8%) in rural areas and 37.6 % in periurban areas. Strong association was found in study subjects having lower educational status, who were not using any contraceptive method, not following good menstrual hygiene, early marriage age had husband history of RTI/STI, had a history of abortion, had a history of violence, and increased parity. Conclusions: Prevalence of symptoms found to be associated with these females having low educational status, early age of marriage, high parity, partner history of reproductive Tract Infections, history of violence etc. So, there should be more focus on improvement in these factors to reduce the prevalence.
ABSTRACT
Purpose: The present study analyzed the existing literature related to COVID 19 and Mental Health by using the technique of bibliometric analysis which may serve as guide-map for future researchers and policy makers. Method: Bibliometric analysis is conducted in the present study by using various techniques like cita-tion analysis, co-citation analysis, co-occurrence of keywords, thematic mapping by using visualization of similarities (VOS) viewer open-source software and R-based bibliometrix. Results: The study highlighted the most significant journals, authors, co-cited authors, institutions, key-words co-occurrence, and most cited articles in the area of COVID-19 and Mental Health on the basis of bibliometric analysis of 149 studies taken from the database of Scopus for the past three years (2020–first quarter of 2022). Also, authors identified few relevant themes such as Economic Effects of COVID-19, COVID-19 and its Impact on Healthcare workers, COVID-19 and its Impact on Patients and General Population as important emerging key areas for further research. Conclusion: We have highlighted significant citations, co-citations and keywords co-occurrence to summarize the literature. The present bibliometric study convincingly confirms the effect of COVID 19 pandemic on mental health and provides enough evidence to advocate formulation of strategies to tackle mental health issues.
ABSTRACT
Background: India ranks among the bottom five countries in public health spending. Out of pocket spending of households on healthcare is almost 70% of income and reimbursement in any form availed by households whose members are employed in the formal sector is negligible. Objectives: To determine the usual source of medical care opted for by the study population. To find out the illness pattern and its age/sex distribution in the study population. To find out the expenditure incurred on illness and its source of procurement by the study population. Methodology: 52.42% urban Aligarh resides in slums. A cross sectional study was done to study the newer slum pockets. 3409 households with a population of 16,978 were studied with the help of pretested questionnaire; SPSS 20 was used for statistical analysis. Results: In our study, we found that almost all the households suffered from catastrophic health expenditure. The study population, which was already vulnerable owing to their low socio-economic and migrant status was further forced into poverty and indebtedness on account of expenditure on illness. Conclusions: National health financing systems should be designed to protect households from financial catastrophe, by reducing out-of-pocket spending.