ネパール ニ オケル トキソプラズマショウ ノ ケッセイ エキガク チョウサ

We studied the seroprevalence of anti-Toxoplasma antibodies among inhabitants of the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal (location of the capital, Kathmandu) and inhabitants of a village area in Lekhnath City, Kaski District (central Kathmandu), epal. A total of 376 serum samples were collected from apparently healthy participants. Toxoplasma antibodies (IgM and IgG) were detected by enzyme- linked fluorescent assay (ELFA). In the Kathmandu Valley, positive rates for Toxoplasma IgM and IgG antibodies were 1.4% (2/146) and 35.6% (52/146) respectively. In Lekhnath City, positive rates were 2.6% (6/230) for IgM antibodies and 60.4% for IgG antibodies, i.e., comparatively higher than those in the Kathmandu Valley. The higher prevalence of these antibodies in the Lekhnath City village area was associated with animal keeping in almost all households, while in the Kathmandu Valley only a few households kept animals. However, the seroprevalence of anti-Toxoplasma antibodies in these areas was relatively high in each case. Environmental conditions may be responsible for the transmission of Toxo- plasma parasites in both areas

Geo-Archaeological Assessment of Foundation Fills, Kasthamandap, Nepal

First paragraph: On 25th April 2015 at 11.56 the Gorkha earthquake, magnitude 7.8, struck Nepal resulting in widespread devastation, loss of life and disruption of livelihoods in the Kathmandu Valley (Coningham et al., 2015). This human and cultural disaster had far-reaching social consequences and destroyed or substantially damaged the seven sites of the Kathmandu Valley UNESCO World Heritage Sites (WHS). This aspect of the disaster is universally significant as these sites are 'exceptional testimony to the traditional civilisations of the Kathmandu Valley’ and contribute significantly to the understanding of South Asian cultural heritage more broadly (UNESCO, 2017). The loss and damage of these sites also has great local significance, as worship in these living monuments is an important part of local daily religious practices in Nepali cultural and fundamental to the lives of thousands

Implicit Rāga Knowledge in the Kathmandu Valley

The term rāga is current not only in the classical traditions of North and South Indian music, where it is the subject of an extensive written and oral theory, but also in many non-classical traditions especially of religious music in South Asia. For example, devotional songs (dāphā) sung by groups of Newar farmers in the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal, are regularly attributed to rāgas; but there is little explicit (i.e. verbally expressed) knowledge about rāga among the performers. The question whether the concept has any musical meaning in terms of melodic structure can only be investigated through comparative musical analysis combined with ethnographic observation. An earlier study (Grandin 1997) concluded that dāphā song melodies in one rāga share a set of characteristic melodic formulae and are thus constructed in a rāga-like way. The present study suggests that rāga-preludes sung before each dāphā song constitute melodic models that underlie song melodies. A common stock of preludes is known by different groups, but singers are not aware of this commonality. There is thus an implicit melodic system that does not depend on performers’ explicit knowledge. This situation can be understood in historical and social terms

Prestigious Houses or Provisional Homes? The \u3ci\u3eghar\u3c/i\u3e as a Symbol of Kathmandu Valley Peri-Urbanism

Compared to the uniform brick architecture and contiguous courtyard structure of houses in the urban core of Kathmandu Valley cities, the houses of the growing urban periphery appear fragmented, disorganized, and unplanned. While critics attribute this haphazard growth to a site-then-services (house first, then infrastructure) approach of rural migrants, in this paper I consider it a result of an alternative formulation of planning generated by three-plus decades of economic and governmental liberalization. The practices of new homeowners in the periphery must be understood within the greater context of peri-urbanism controlled by a complex negotiation of brokers, contractors, housing companies, and neighborhood associations. I draw from the multiple expressions of what ‘ghar’ (house/ home) means to make sense of everyday life in a new neighborhood on the western edge of Kathmandu Valley. While ghar references the singular focus on building a prestigious house, it also indexes aspirations of neighborly cooperation and collective action to develop neighborhoods. Based on an ethnographic account of one family’s struggles to build a ghar, I track how such aspirations can unravel into debt, shame, and alienation, which ultimately produce a provisional sense of place in the city

The Trade-Off Between Child Labor and Schooling: Influence of Social Labeling NGOs in Nepal

Does the labeling of products which have been produced without any child laborers contribute to increased welfare of children? This paper presents some results of a survey in Nepal conducted to analyze which factors determine the probability of a child to work, and to examine the influence of non governmental organizations (NGOs) which are engaged in social labeling, on the incidence of child labor and child schooling. Data were obtained from interviews with 410 households of Kathmandu Valley in Nepal. The results of the econometric analysis show that the probability of child labor (i) decreases if the carpet industry has implemented a labeling program, (ii) decreases if the adult’s income increases (‘luxury axiom’), (iii) decreases if the head of the household is educated, (iv) increases with the age of the head of the household, and (v) is increased in the presence of more children (aged 5-14) in the household. It can also be shown that labeling NGOs have a significant positive influence on sending the ex-child laborers to school.Child labor; Schooling; Social labeling; Kathmandu Valley

Road Expansion and Urban Highways: Consequences Outweigh Benefits in Kathmandu

Rapid urbanization has transformed Kathmandu Valley, Nepal, one of the fastest growing metropolitan regions in South Asia. This urbanization, in turn, is leading to considerable social, economic, and environmental stress. The region has seen unplanned growth despite continued planning exercises. In 2011, in response to the rapid urbanization then Prime Minster Baburam Bhattarai initiated road expansion throughout the city to reduce traffic congestion. By mid 2015, it was clear that the road expansion induced greater demand leading to further traffic congestion rather than alleviating the problem. Today, non-motorized (pedestrians and bicycle) road users are more unsafe on the roads than ever before, and the plight of public transport users has remained the same. Traffic congestion has become a more serious problem. Air pollution associated with road construction and an increasing number of vehicles has turned the Kathmandu Valley into a dust bowl with potential for serious human health consequences. Along with road expansion, the government’s inability to regulate land use has contributed to Kathmandu’s current urban sprawl. Road expansion done without proper planning has threatened traditional settlements, many with heritage sites, and led to loss of public spaces and temple courtyards to make space for increasing demand for parking. Another major landscape change has been the building of concrete embankments and exclusive motor roads along the river corridors. The road expansion campaign is still ongoing and is a top priority of the government’s efforts to reduce congestion and improve urban transportation. It is high time the government of Nepal rethinks its vehicle-centric urban transport policy and adopts policy where mobility of people is prioritized. Urban transport planning should work to build a more equitable and inclusive city while addressing accessibility, safety, and environmental health risks of its growing urban population. Today, non-motorized users (pedestrians and bicycle users) are unsafe on the roads than ever before, and the plight of public transport users has remained the same. Road expansion has led to destruction of traditional settlements many with heritage sites and loss of public spaces and temple courtyards to make space for increasing parking demand. Another major landscape change has been the building of concrete embankments and exclusive motor roads along the river corridors. Air pollution associated with road construction and increasing number of vehicles has turned the valley into a dust bowl with potential for serious human health consequences. Along with the road expansion, the government’s inability to regulate proper landuse has contributed to Kathmandu’s current urban sprawl. The road expansion drive is still ongoing and is still the priority for government’s urban transportation initiatives within the Valley. It is high time the government of Nepal rethinks its vehicle-centric urban transport policy and adopts policy where mobility of people is prioritized. Urban transport planning should work on building more equitable and inclusive city while addressing accessibility, safety, and environmental health risk associated for its growing urban population

Farming Differentiation in the Rural-urban Interface of the Middle Mountains, Nepal: Application of Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP)Modeling

This article investigates the dominant factors of farming differentiation in the rural-urban interface of the densely populated Kathmandu Valley, using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) modeling. The rural-urban interface in the Kathmandu Valley is an important vegetable production pocket which supplies a large amount of the vegetables in the city core. While subsistence farming in the rural area is characterized by a system which integrates livestock and forestry with agriculture, the intensification in the urban fringe is characterized by triple crop rotations and market-oriented intensive vegetable production. Seven factors which were supposed to cause farming variation in the interface were incorporated in the AHP framework and then subjected to the farmers’ judgment in distinctly delineated three farming zones. These factors played crucial yet differing roles in different farming zones. Inaccessibility and use of local resources; higher yield and accessibility and agro-ecological consideration and quality production are the key impacting factors of subsistence, commercial inorganic and smallholder organic farming respectively. The quantification of such factors of farming differentiation through AHP is an important piece of information that will contribute in modeling farming in the rural-urban interface of developing countries which are characterized by a high diversity of farming practices and are undergoing a rapid change in the land use pattern

Urban Energy Scenario: the Case of Kathmandu Valley

Rapid urbanization has made Kathmandu Valley one of the fastest growing metropolitan cities in South Asia, resulting in the need of additional facilities and infrastructure. The local energy crisis is one of the issues to be addressed. High dependence on imported fossil fuels and the sluggish development of hydropower for electricity generation despite abundant water resources are the major causes to be blamed for the energy crisis in Nepal. This study investigated possible strategies to be implemented in Kathmandu Valley to deal with the discrepancy between energy demand and supply. Several scenarios have been developed and analyzed, both quantitatively and qualitatively. The Comprehensive Scenario, which borrowed from all other developed scenarios, seems superior to the others. It reduces the energy demand by 32.36%, the GHG emission by 44.12%, and the social cost by 33.79%. This scenario implies that the Kathmandu Valley authority will support the installation of photovoltaic solar panels, the use of electric vehicles and electric cookers, and convert solid waste into energy. However, the EV Scenario (electric vehicles) is the one to be given priority in the implementation for its better performance than the other individual scenarios

Is the Smartphone Smart in Kathmandu?

This is the extensive study of the smartphone in the developing country of Nepal, specifically the Kathmandu valley. Throughout my research I conducted various interviews with businesses, Tibetan refugees, and Nepali millennials (18yrs-33yrs) with the goal of identifying how the smartphone is used and understood. I chose the Kathmandu valley as my main area of research because the usage of smartphones in rural Nepal is extremely limited, and the valley represents the economic hub where progressive thinking flourishes. As a main objective I sought to understand how, if at all, the smartphone is used differently between Nepal and America. All millennials interviewed possessed smartphones

Health status and health needs of the orphan children in Kathmandu, Nepal

This paper reports on a cross-sectional study of orphanages in Kathmandu Valley Nepal. The study formed part of the PhD research of the first author