Cement Dust Effect from Bokajan Cement Factory on Residents of Vicinity Area: A Study in Assam, India

Cement manufacturing industries are one of the most common reasons of air pollution, surface and ground water pollution and noise pollution and is also indirectly affecting the people residing near the cement plants. This study was carried out to quantify the cement dust emission from Bokajan Cement Corporation of India’s cement factory falling on the residences and to determine its effect on some selected household activities and general well-being of the people residing near it. An experimental method was carried out to estimate the accumulated cement dust in households. The findings showed that household activities performed by the residence were dependent upon the dust exposure, which means more the dusts are more are the cleaning and maintenance. It was also found that cement dust highly affected general wellbeing of the respondents living in southern direction and lowest affect was observed among the respondents of the east direction.

STONE TOOL FUNCTIONS, HOUSEHOLD ACTIVITIES, AND FORMATIVE LITHIC ECONOMIES IN NORTHERN TLAXCALA, MEXICO

High-magnification use-wear analyses create datasets that enable microeconomic studies of lithic consumption and household activities that complement macroeconomic studies of lithic production and exchange to collectively improve our reconstructions of ancient economies. In recent decades, compositional and technological analyses have revealed how certain obsidian sources and lithic technologies were exploited, produced, and exchanged in Mexico's central highlands region during the Formative period (1500 b.c.–a.d. 100). This article presents use-wear analyses of 275 lithic artifacts from four sites in northern Tlaxcala—Amomoloc (900–650 b.c.), Tetel (750–500 b.c.), Las Mesitas (600–500 b.c.), and La Laguna (600–400 b.c. and 100 b.c.–a.d. 150)—to compare household activities with lithic technologies and evaluate their roles in regional economies. Blades were used for subsistence and domestic crafting; maguey fiber extraction for textile production increased over time, especially in non-elite households. The preparation and consumption of meat acquired by hunting and other methods increased slightly over time, and bipolar tools were used as kitchen utensils. Bloodletting was practiced with two variations of late-series pressure blades, but these and other tools were neither exchanged as nor used to craft prestige goods, often viewed as driving forces of Formative economies in Mesoamerica.

Dietary Modification and Life Style Changes due to COVID-19 Pandemic Homestay among Nursing Students of Pokhara: Descriptive Cross-Sectional Study

INTRODUCTION: In December 2019, new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2) emerged in Wuhan, China causing pandemic all over the world which results in homestay order. Homestay lead to changes in lifestyle like sedentary life, sleeping habits and eating behavior. So, the objective is to assess dietary and life style modification among nursing students of Manipal College of Medical Sciences, Pokhara, Nepal. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A descriptive cross-sectional online survey was conducted from August 1 to October 15, 2020. The setting of study (Manipal) was selected purposively in which enumerative sampling technique was used constituting total sample size of 216 nursing students. Data was collected through self-administer semi-structure questionnaire via online mode which was further analyzed using descriptive statistics SPSS 20.0 version. RESULTS: There was slight modification in intake of food items like fruits, vegetable, protein, fats, commercialized items, carbonated/sweetened beverages and non-vegetarian diets (chicken and fish). During COVID-19, less than one-fifth (15%) wake up before 7 AM and 78.2% sleep duration is 7-9 hours. About 64.1% pass their leisure time watching TV/ facebook/ messenger/ youtube/ whatsapp/ instagram. Nearly 99.1% engaged in household activities during home stay. More than three-fourth (77.8%) of respondents were doing physical activity. But still 69.9% had weight gain. CONCLUSION: Despite physical and household activities, some unhealthy practices like waking up late, increased sleep duration and use of screen was observed. There was less modification in dietary pattern. So it is recommended to follow healthy diet like Mediterranean diet having several health benefits like weight reduction, prevention from non-communicable diseases and boost immune system in period of pandemic.

PENGETAHUAN REMAJA SUNDA PERKOTAAN TERHADAP ISTILAH AKTIVITAS DI DAPUR TRADISIONAL SUNDA (The Knowledge of Urban Sundanese Teenagers in Terms of Activities in Sundanese Traditional Kitchen)

Perkembangan zaman yang berimbas pada perubahan berbagai aspek kehidupan sangat memengaruhi ditinggalkannya bahasa Sunda oleh generasi muda. Jika kenyataan tersebut terus terjadi, tidak menutup kemungkinan dalam beberapa generasi ke depan, bahasa Sunda akan punah. Masalah yang dibahas dalam penelitian ini adalah pengetahuan remaja Sunda perkotaaan terhadap kosakata istilah aktivitas rumah tangga di dapur tradisional Sunda. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengungkapkan penguasaan remaja Sunda perkotaan terhadap kosakata istilah aktivitas rumah tangga di dapur tradisional Sunda. Penelitian ini menggunakan pendekatan kuantitatif dengan metode survei. Sampel penelitian dipilih sebanyak 86 orang secara purposive sampling yang berasal dari wilayah Bandung Raya. Teknik analisis data menggunakan statistika deskriptif (crosstab). Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa pengetahuan remaja Sunda perkotaaan terhadap kosakata istilah aktivitas rumah tangga di dapur tradisional Sunda mencapai rata-rata 70.5814% sehingga dapat dikategorikan cukup. Terdapat sekelompok remaja Sunda di perkotaan yang mengetahui keseluruhan istilah aktivitas rumah tangga di dapur tradisional Sunda yang ditanyakan, tetapi ada juga kelompok remaja lainnya yang hanya mengetahui beberapa istilah. The development of the times which impacted the changes in various aspects of life, significantly affected the abandonment of the Sunda language by the younger generation. If this fact continues, it is possible that in the next few generations, the Sunda language will become extinct. The problem discussed in this study is the knowledge of urban Sundanese teenagers in the vocabulary of the activities in Sundanese traditional kitchens. This study aims to reveal the mastery of urban Sundanese teenagers in terms of activities in Sundanese traditional kitchens. This study uses a quantitative approach with a survey method. 86 persons from Great Bandung areas were chosen purposively as the research samples. The data analysis technique used descriptive statistics (crosstab). The results showed that the knowledge of urban Sundanese teenagers in terms of household activities in Sundanese traditional kitchen reached an average of 70,5814% so it could be categorized as sufficient. There is a group of urban Sundanese teenagers who know all the terms of household activities in Sundanese traditional kitchens that asked, there is also another group of teenagers who only know a few.

Habitual Gestures

This chapter examines “habitual gestures”—everyday bodily movements, such as walking or sitting, that are ingrained as muscle memory—as a form of motion associated with postwar realist cinema. Closely reading scenes of ordinary household activities in Umberto D (De Sica, 1952), Best Years of Our Lives (Wyler, 1946), and Mouchette (Bresson, 1967), this chapter shows how an aesthetics of habitual gestures compels one to attend to the invisible bodily movements between and within willed actions. In doing so, this motion form foregrounds the body’s nonconscious and automatic ways of moving. Reading such gestures alongside the notion of “bodily habit” in the philosophy of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, this chapter ultimately troubles Gilles Deleuze’s notion of the time-image as the dominant lens through which the postwar aesthetics of laboring bodies is understood.

Polemik Work From Home (WFH) Bagi Perempuan Bekerja di Tengah Digitalisasi Teknologi dan Pandemi

Social distancing are a form of policy that made by the government in order to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus. This method, that was made by Indonesian government has implications for the method of working in the pandemic era, namely working from home. The application of social distancing then causes an increase in household activities that increase women's responsibilities in parenting and household work. Through the concept of symbolic violence, this article tries to explain the impact of social distancing restrictions on working women. This article finds that symbolic violence occurs through habitus that shapes women's mindsets so that they feel that caregiving and household work are women's responsibilities. This article also finds various gender inequalities that are increasingly visible with the social distancing restrictions that implemented by Indonesian governement. Keywords: Gender; pandemic; symbolic violence Abstrak: Pembatasan jarak sosial menjadi salah satu kebijakan yang dilakukan oleh pemerintah untuk mencegah persebaran COVID-19. Metode ini dijalankan di Indonesia yang berimplikasi pada metode bekerja era pandemi yaitu work from home atau bekerja dari rumah. Penerapan social distancing kemudian menyebabkan bertambahkan kegiatan rumah tangga yang memperbesar tanggung jawab perempuan dalam kerja pengasuhan dan kerja rumah tangga. Melalui konsep kekerasan simbolik artikel ini mencoba memaparkan dampak dari pembatasan jarak sosial pada perempuan bekerja. Artikel ini menemukan bahwa kekerasan simbolik terjadi melalui habitus yang menyusun pola pikir perempuan sehingga merasa kerja pengasuhan dan kerja rumah tangga merupakan tanggung jawab perempuan. Artikel ini juga menemukan berbagai ketimpangan gender yang semakin terlihat dengan adanya pembatasan jarak sosial yang dilakukan di Indonesia. Kata kunci: Gender; kekerasan simbolik; pandemi

Relative contribution of leaving home for work or education, transport, shopping and other activities on risk of acquiring COVID-19 infection outside the household in the second wave of the pandemic in England and Wales

BackgroundWith the potential for and emergence of new COVID-19 variants, such as the reportedly more infectious Omicron, and their potential to escape the existing vaccines, understanding the relative importance of which non-household activities increase risk of acquisition of COVID-19 infection is vital to inform mitigation strategies.MethodsWithin an adult subset of the Virus Watch community cohort study, we sought to identify which non-household activities increased risk of acquisition of COVID-19 infection and which accounted for the greatest proportion of non-household acquired COVID-19 infections during the second wave of the pandemic. Among participants who were undertaking antibody tests and self-reporting PCR and lateral flow tests taken through the national testing programme, we identified those who were thought to be infected outside the household during the second wave of the pandemic. We used exposure data on attending work, using public or shared transport, using shops and other non-household activities taken from monthly surveys during the second wave of the pandemic. We used multivariable logistic regression models to assess the relative independent contribution of these exposures on risk of acquiring infection outside the household. We calculated Adjusted Population Attributable Fractions (APAF - the proportion of non-household transmission in the cohort thought to be attributable to each exposure) based on odds ratios and frequency of exposure in cases.ResultsBased on analysis of 10475 adult participants including 874 infections acquired outside the household, infection was independently associated with: leaving home for work (AOR 1.20 (1.02 – 1.42) p=0.0307, APAF 6.9%); public transport use (AOR for use more than once per week 1.82 (1.49 – 2.23) p<0.0001, APAF for public transport 12.42%); and shopping (AOR for shopping more than once per week 1.69 (1.29 – 2.21) P=0.0003, APAF for shopping 34.56%). Other non-household activities such as use of hospitality and leisure venues were rare due to restrictions and there were no significant associations with infection risk.ConclusionsA high proportion of the second wave of the pandemic was spent under conditions where people were being advised to work from home where possible, and to minimize exposure to shops, and a wide range of other businesses were subject to severe restrictions. Vaccines were being rolled out to high-risk groups. During this time, going to work was an important risk factor for infection but public transport use likely accounted for a lot of this risk. Only a minority of the cohort left home for work or used public or shared transport. By contrast, the majority of participants visited shops and this activity accounted for about one-third of non-household transmission.

Measurement of various intensities of physical activities and categorization of “Locomotive” and “Household” activities provide a subject-specific detailed assessment

This study aimed to compare the physical activity (PA) measured by a wearable sensor device (WSD) and the step count measurement, and to investigate the association between PAs and lifestyle. Data of 301 participants were collected from March 2019 to March 2021. Step counts, sedentary behavior, performance time of light/moderate/vigorous PA, METs × hour of “Locomotive” and “Household” categorized activities, and energy expenditure (EE) were measured by the WSD, respectively. Furthermore, the participants were classified into student, standing worker, and sitting worker groups. Data were analyzed using the Steel–Dwass and Pearson correlation coefficient tests. The correlation between the performance time of each PA and step count was weak, except for moderate PA. “Household” EE and step count also had a weak correlation. In the comparison of lifestyle, there was a significant difference in the mean performance time of each type of PA between the groups. Additionally, the standing worker and sitting worker groups had a significant difference in METs × hour of "Household" activities, indicating that the difference between the occupations is reflected in “Household” activities. The WSD measurement can be used to evaluate detailed individual PA, whereas the step count measurement showed weakness in the PA estimation.

Epidemiology of risk factors of various morphological types of age-related cataract in eastern region of Nepal

Introduction: Age related cataract is the leading cause of preventable blindness globally, with multifactorial risk factors. Multiple mechanism contributes to the progressive loss of lens transparency. Objective: The purpose of this study is to determine the risk factors for different morphological types of senile cataract in eastern region of Nepal. Methodology: A hospital based cross sectional study was conducted in a tertiary care hospital. Four hundred patients aged ≥ 50 years with senile cataract attending eye out patient department for one year were enrolled and divided into two groups based on Lens Opacities Classification System (LOCS) III grading. Group A consisted of ‘no-moderate’ cataract and group B consisted of ‘severe’ cataract. The parameters studied were age, gender, education, occupation, smoking, alcohol consumption, diabetes and hypertension, body mass index and use of topical or oral medication. Statistical analysis was conducted to find an association of various parameters to different morphological type of cataract. Results: The mean age of presentation was 61±9.07 years. Male to female ratio was 1:02. Group A had 154 and group B 246 patients respectively. Statistically significant association was seen between older age group and severe cataract (p <0.002). Household activities and moderate alcohol consumption alcohol was seen associated with moderate nuclear sclerosis (p <0.001) and posterior sub-capsular cataract (p <0.003) respectively. High blood pressure was associated with severe Nuclear Sclerosis and Posterior Subcapsular Cataract (p <0.014). Conclusion: Older age groups, household activities, moderate alcohol consumption and high blood pressure were found to have significant association with age-related cataract.