BACKGROUND The rapid physical growth and development in adolescence are associated with increased nutritional needs and this depends on the dietary pattern and eating habits of the adolescents. Adolescence is also a period of increased vulnerability to obesity which is not only linked to food intake but also due to a lack of physical activity in the growing years. Dietary habits that are established during adolescence are often sustained till adulthood. Hence the purpose of the study was to understand the prevalence of unhealthy dietary practices among adolescents that could enable schools to create a health-promoting culture by teaching healthy food choices and creating awareness of the ill effects of unhealthy dietary practices. METHODS A cross-sectional study was conducted using a semi-structured questionnaire among adolescents in the age group 15 to 17 years in a panchayat in Kerala. The socio-demographic characteristics, the family details and dietary practices were recorded, height and weight were measured, and BMI was calculated and ELIZ health pathway for adolescents (EPHA) was used for categorising the study participants. A diet score was also calculated to estimate the prevalence of unhealthy dietary practices among adolescents. RESULTS The prevalence of inadequate consumption of fruits was 60.9 % and inadequate consumption of vegetables was 36.9 %. Based on the dietary score, 36.7 % had poor dietary habits and 36.6 % had good dietary habits. A significant association was found between the type of school, occupation of mother, educational status of parents, type of family and inadequate consumption of fruits and vegetables. CONCLUSIONS An unhealthy lifestyle does not just appear in adulthood, it stems from practices children develop during their childhood and adolescence. Awareness regarding the risk factors of non-communicable diseases should be provided to children to enable primordial and primary prevention as powerful tools to prevent these diseases in future.

Defects like crack are common in engineering structures that are either material intrinsic or initiate during fabrication. The theory of fracture mechanics establishes a mechanistic relationship between the maximum allowable loads applied on a structural component to the size and location of an actual or assumed crack in the component. Linear-elastic or complex elastic-plastic, i. e., non-linear models, are used to conduct the fracture analysis. Established studies show that methods of non-linear fracture mechanics, in comparison to elastic methods, offer more accurate measures of the fracture behaviour in failed structures with high toughness and materials with low strength. In this work, an attempt is made to evaluate stress intensity factor-K I and J-integral of 40Ni2Cr1Mo28 alloy (structural application steel) for various crack length-a to width ratio-W (a/W = 0.25, 0.375, 0.5, 0.625 and 0.75) against the applied force in the form of load under plane stress condition by elasto-plastic finite element analysis (compact tension specimen). Non-linearity is modeled using the inverse Ramberg-Osgood relation. Compact tension specimen is modeled in ANSYS software and analyzed by using Finite element analysis. It is found that there is a good agreement between both finite element analysis and theoretical value with an error deviation in the range of 0 % to 6 %.

BACKGROUND Tobacco use is a serious public health problem worldwide and it is the largest preventable risk factor for non-communicable diseases, also acting as a significant hurdle to development gains worldwide. Tobacco use among adolescents is increasing in epidemic proportions and this has profound public health implications. Although the single baseline measure of tobacco use in adolescence is unlikely to capture the lifetime risk of diseases, the prevalence of current tobacco use among adolescents is an important predictor of the future burden of tobacco-related diseases. Due to the enormous psychosocial and health effects of tobacco on childhood and adolescence, it is important to understand its burden and its associated socio-demographic factors for formulating effective tobacco control measures in adolescents. We wanted to estimate the prevalence of tobacco use among adolescents and determine the factors associated with tobacco use among adolescents in higher secondary schools in Ambalappuzha Block, Kerala. METHODS A school-based cross-sectional study was conducted among adolescents in higher secondary schools in a block panchayat area in Kerala using a self-administered semi-structured questionnaire. The use of tobacco was explored using the global school-based student health survey questionnaire (GSHS) and the associated factors were analysed using the chi-square test. RESULTS The prevalence of tobacco use which was categorised as ever users of tobacco was 13 % and the prevalence of smokeless tobacco use was 15.9 % among the study participants. A significant association was found between age, year of study, smoking status of parents, feeling of inability to study, poor academic grades and lack of confidence to face exams and tobacco use. CONCLUSIONS Tobacco use is an important risk behaviour among adolescent students. Risk behaviours can be made less damaging if addressed early in life and schools play an important role in addressing this public health problem by promoting healthy behaviours and lifestyles in adolescents.