North Eastern Hill University

About: North Eastern Hill University is a education organization based out in Shillong, Meghalaya, India. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Catalysis. The organization has 2318 authors who have published 4476 publications receiving 48894 citations.

Nutritional Status among the Urban Meitei Children and Adolescents of Manipur, Northeast India

Abstract: Purpose. To determine the nutritional status (underweight and overweight) among Meitei children and adolescents. Methods. Cross-sectional data on 854 subjects (384 boys and 470 girls) were collected during the months of May 2009 to August 2009 following house-to-house survey. An anthropometric rod and a weighing scale were used to measure height and weight. The presence of underweight and overweight has been evaluated using the international cutoff points for children and adolescents. MS-Excel software was used for all statistical analyses. Results. A high prevalence of underweight (30.21%) and overweight (3.12%) in the present study was found among children and adolescent boys, respectively. Among girls, the prevalence of both underweight (33.86%) and overweight (5.18%) was reported higher among children than adolescents, and the differences in the distribution were significant at 0.05 levels. The overall prevalence of underweight (28.29%) was found more or less the same among boys and girls, but overweight (5.10%) was reported higher among girls than boys (2.34%). Conclusion. The possible reasons for both forms of malnutrition among Meitei children and adolescents could be traced through poverty, low dietary intake, socioeconomic condition, nutrition transition, and changing lifestyles. The other possible reasons could be due to peer pressure, eating habits, or emotional factor.

Ex situ conservation of Cymbidium eburneum Lindl.: a threatened and vulnerable orchid, by asymbiotic seed germination

Abstract: The population of many splendid orchids is reducing from their natural habitats at an alarming rate and their conservation is becoming a matter of global concern Asymbiotic seed germination has been applied for ex situ conservation of rare, endangered and threatened orchid taxa and could provide rapid means their multiplication In the present study reported here, seeds of an epiphytic and rare orchid, Cymbidium eburneum were germinated asymbiotically in different basal media viz, Murashige and Skoog (MS), Knudson C, Mitra et al (Mitra), Gamborg et al (B5) and Nitsch The highest germination rate was observed in Mitra medium, whereas the development of the protocorms was found to be best in MS medium Effects of growth regulators viz, indole-3 acetic acid (IAA), α-naphthalene acetic acid (NAA), 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-d), thidiazuron (TDZ), 6-benzyl aminopurine (BAP) and kinetin (Kn) both singly and in combination incorporated in the MS medium were studied on growth and development of seedlings It was observed that MS medium nourished with 15 μM each of BAP and NAA in combination was found to enhance shoot number and length, and root number and length in the seedlings The rooted seedlings were successfully acclimatized