Introduction: Dietary diversity has been universally identified as a key element of high quality diets. The tendency among undergraduate students with poor dietary patterns is high, due to lack of parental supervision, incorrect knowledge regarding food habits, stress of academic, professional and social life. This study was carried out to assess the diet diversity and eating pattern of undergraduate students of various colleges in India. Methods: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted among 3046 undergraduate students across India by filling the online questionnaire shared through social media. The data on dietary diversity was collected by asking the number of consumed food groups in previous 24hr from the total food groups described by FAO, with anthropometric measurements. Data analysis was done using SPSS version 21. Results: Mean age of participants was 20.7±1.9 years, the majority being females. About 42.2% student's skipped breakfast 1-2 times per week and another 28.5% skipped 3 or more times. About 34.7% had poor DDS (Dietary Diversity Score) whereas 28.5% had good DDS. Higher DDS mean was found in males (3.67) than females (3.23), overall mean being 3.4. Among 869 people with good DDS, 63.1% had normal BMI and 57.1% availed their meals from mess. There is significant distribution of DDS among different regions (p=0.0007), graduation streams (p=0.0014) and source of meals (p<0.001). Conclusion: In this study, the diet diversity of about three-fourth participants was inadequate, showing their improper habit of food consumption and results also indicated their unhealthy eating pattern. Adequate dietary practice is recommended.

No abstract

The knowledge of ancestral origin is monumental in conservation of endangered animals since it can aid in preservation of population level genetic integrity and prevent inbreeding among related individuals. Despite maintenance of studbook, the biogeographical affiliation of most captive gorillas is largely unknown, which has constrained management of captive gorillas aiming at maximizing genetic diversity at the population level. In recent years, ancestry informative markers (AIMs) has been successfully employed for the inference of genomic ancestry in a wide range of studies in evolutionary genetics, biomedical research, genetic stock identification, and introgression analysis and forensic analyses. In this study, we sought to derive the AIMs yielding the most cohesive and faithful understanding of biogeographical affiliation of query gorillas. To this end, we compared three commonly used AIMs-determining methods namely, Infocalc, FST, and Smart Principal Component Analysis (SmartPCA) with ADMIXTURE, using gorilla genome data available through Great Ape Genome Project database. Our findings suggest that the SNPs that were detected by at least three of the four AIMs-determining approaches (N = 1,531), is likely most suitable for delineation of gorilla AIMs. It recapitulated the finer structure within western lowland gorilla genomes with high degree of precision. We further have validated the robustness of our results using a randomized negative control containing the same number of SNPs. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of an AIMs panel for gorillas that may aid in developing cost-effective resources for large-scale demographic analyses, and greatly help in conservation of this charismatic mega-fauna.

Background Of all the adolescents in India, 7.3% are suffering from some form of mental disorder. They frequently use tobacco to cope with these problems, but get stuck in a vicious cycle of deteriorating mental health. Our study aimed to determine the effect of tobacco on the mental health status of adolescents studying in the 9th to 12th standards in 10 high schools in urban and rural areas near Patna, Bihar. Methodology An analytical cross-sectional study was conducted among 360 school-going adolescents recruited using stratified random sampling. Selected adolescents were given the Indian Adolescent Health Questionnaire. The mental health status was calculated from the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) score. Information on sociodemographic characteristics and tobacco use was also obtained. Independent t-test, analysis of variance, and multiple linear regression analysis were used for predicting the significant factors. Significance was set at p-values <0.05. Results In this study, 40 (11.1%) adolescents had abnormal whereas 55 (15.3%) had borderline overall SDQ scores. The majority of those affected had peer problems (40%) and conduct problems (24.7%). All SDQ components of conduct (F = 2.94, p = 0.013), hyperactivity (F = 2.90, p = 0.014), emotional problems (F = 1.14, p = 0.001), and peer pressure (F = 3.06, p = 0.010), as well as the overall SDQ score (F = 5.74, p < 0.001), were significantly associated with increasing age. The adolescents attending rural schools (13.28 ± 5.22, p = 0.047) had significantly higher SDQ scores than those attending urban schools (12.08 ± 5.60). Hyperactivity scores were significantly higher in those studying in class 10 compared to other classes and in those attending rural rather than urban schools. Emotional problems score was significantly higher in 16-17-year-old students than in 14-15-year-old students, in females than in males, and in class 10 than in class 9 students. Only 24 (6.7%) adolescents had a history of tobacco consumption at least once which was significantly associated with the SDQ score (17.71 ± 5.69; t = 4.95, df = 358, p < 0.001). Around 79.4% of adolescents were exposed to passive smoking from close friends which deteriorated their overall mental health status (14.50 ± 5.99; F = 6.29, df = 2,357, p = 0.002). Those who had smoked for more than 10 days had significantly greater conduct problems and lesser pro-social behavior. Overall, 96.1% agreed that tobacco is harmful to health, and 76.1% had seen anti-smoking messages in the media. Female gender, increasing class and age, and history of smoking or chewing tobacco at least once also led to a significant increase in emotional problems. Age, area of the school, history of tobacco consumption, and exposure to cigarette smoke by either a close friend or male guardian had a significant impact on the conduct, hyperactivity, peer problems, and overall mental health status of school-going adolescents. Conclusions Predi...

The demographic and genomics of COVID-19 have changed with the advent of new BF.7 and XBB Omicron variants in the population. IPHA and IAPSM have released the 5th Joint statement on COVID-19 pandemic in India, where “Living with COVID” is the main theme. The report has summarized that it was time to declare an end to the pandemic, and institutionalize mechanisms for preventing misuse of any emergent disease. However, we should look towards the trends worldwide and be prepared for incoming new variants with robust surveillance to prevent another pandemic. Genomic sequencing and its association with the disease severity, strengthening the comprehensive primary health services are few of the measures that can be taken. Evidence-based decisions should be followed rather than keeping only restrained allocation of resources in mind. Despite the present endemic status of COVID-19, state level recommendations and mandates of masks, sanitisers or social distancing might apply in case there is rise of cases. With passage of time, protection against reinfection decreased regardless of vaccination before or after infection. However, people who were both infected and vaccinated had higher protection than those who were uninfected, or received a second dose of vaccine after the same time had elapsed. Remaining cautious and encouraging vaccination for the population should be our ongoing strategy for maintaining high level of seropositivity in the population.