Factors associated With the development of motor proficiency in school children of Kolkata: A cross-sectional study to assess the role of chronic nutritional and socio-economic status.

Background: Development of coordinated movements is determined among others by individual growth and environmental factors, but the dynamic relationship between motor proficiency and potential contributing factors such as chronic nutritional status and socio-economic status (SES) is not known in school children of Kolkata.

Aim: To characterize the motor proficiency in school children of Kolkata and to investigate association of chronic nutritional and SES on motor proficiency.

Methods: Motor proficiency in 843 school children of Kolkata aged 5-12 years was assessed by the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor-Proficiency-Second Edition-Short Form (BOT-2 SF).

Grades of undernutrition and socioeconomic status influence cognitive development in school children of Kolkata.

Cognitive development of children is influenced by different environmental factors like nutritional and socio-economic status. The objectives of the present study were to determine the influence of grades of undernutrition and socio-economic status (SES) on the cognitive development of school children of Kolkata. Five hundred sixty six (566) school children having 5-12 years of age were selected from different schools of Kolkata.

Rice oxalate oxidase gene driven by green tissue-specific promoter increases tolerance to sheath blight pathogen (Rhizoctonia solani) in transgenic rice.

Rice sheath blight, caused by the necrotrophic fungus Rhizoctonia solani, is one of the most devastating and intractable diseases of rice, leading to a significant reduction in rice productivity worldwide. In this article, in order to examine sheath blight resistance, we report the generation of transgenic rice lines overexpressing the rice oxalate oxidase 4 (Osoxo4) gene in a green tissue-specific manner which breaks down oxalic acid (OA), the pathogenesis factor secreted by R. solani.