Gender Relation and Economic Resources

The study was conducted to explore the gender relation in regarding their access on economic resources. The study was conducted among the 390 respondents of five ethnic groups of Kathmandu valley, Nepal in 2014. Study was based on the descriptive design. Simple random sampling technique was adopted to select the respondents. Structured self-reported questionnaires were administered in field. Data shows that female has more authority than male in routine household expenditure, selling livestock and purchasing the clothes of children whereas final authority was found holding by male in finalizing the business plan, taking the final decision in social activities and overall access on economic resources. Perceptually people are ready to transform the equal authority to female but in practice, it is not found in real ground. Equality aspect of gender relation in any decision level is found different between the theory and practice. KEYWORDS: Economic, Gender, Relation, Resource

Professionalism among nurses working in a tertiary hospital

Introduction: Professionalism in nursing practice ensures the safety and quality of patient care. A high level of professionalism is essential for developing a professional identity. This study aims to find out the nurses’ professionalism and professional identity. Method: A cross-sectional analytical study was conducted in September 2021 among nurses of Patan Hospital. Data were collected using the Snizek-Revised Professionalism Inventory and Adam’s Professional Identity Scale via online Google form and printed forms. Spearman’s rho test was used to analyze the correlation between professionalism and professional identity. The associations of professionalism and professional identity with the personal characteristics of nurses were measured by Pearson’s Chi-square test.  Result: A total of 386 nurses participated in the study. Of the participants, only 181(46.95%) had a membership in any nursing professional organization. A high level of professionalism was perceived by 205(53.1%) with the highest mean score (16.9±3.20) for a sense of calling to the nursing profession and the lowest mean score (15.94±3.31) for using the professional organization as a major referent. Most nurses 211(54%) perceived a high level of professional identity. A positive significant correlation was found between professionalism and professional identity (p<0.01). Age (p=0.02) and nursing title (p=0.03) had a significant association with professional identity.  Conclusion: More than half participants had a high level of professionalism and professional identity.  There was a positive significant correlation between professionalism and professional identity.  Age and nursing job title were significantly associated with professional identity. Keywords: nurses, nursing profession, professional attitude, professional identity, professionalism

Urinary tract infections and antibiotic susceptibility among the patients attending B & D hospital of Lalitpur, Nepal

Background: Urinary tract infection is the most common bacterial infections in humans and serious health problem in many parts of the world. It has become more complicated in treatment due to different pathogens and increasing resistant to antimicrobial agents. This study aims to investigate the prevalence of urinary tract infection and antibiotic susceptibility patterns of pathogens among the patients attending in B & B hospital Nepal. Materials and Methods: A hospital based cross sectional study was conducted in between April 2010 to March 2011. Urine samples were collected from clinically suspected patients and tested bacteriologically using standard procedures. Antimicrobial susceptibility test was performed for isolated pathogen using the Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion method according to Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute guidelines. Results: Out of 1260 examined specimens 25.24 % were positive and majority 61.64% were females. The most common pathogens isolated were Escherichia coli (66.67%), Enterococcus (7.55%) and Staphylococcus (6.60 %). The drug resistant among the positive cases were reported. The highest resistant of positive cases was found with Cefexime (87.88%) and Enterococcus with Ampicillin (66.67%) and Staphyllococcus with Cloxacillin (66.67%). The highest susceptibility was for Vancomycin and Ampicillin i.e. 33.33% in each. Conclusion: The findings showed that E. coli isolates were the predominant pathogen and the presence of bacterial isolates with very high resistance to the commonly prescribed drugs. As drug resistance among bacterial pathogens is an evolving process and serious issue. Therefore, routine surveillance and monitoring studies should be conducted to provide physicians knowledge on the updated and most effective empirical treatment of UTIs

Process improvements for AAV production by transient transfection of HEK293 cells

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Attempting affirmative political ecologies: Collective transformative learning for social justice in Nepal's community forestry

Whilst political ecology scholarship has contributed much to articulating social injustices associated with Nepal's community forestry, here we took a different approach, by attempting an 'affirmative political ecology.' We drew on feminist and activist scholarship to inspire collective action that engaged directly with challenges of social justice and those charged with delivering it through their work. Guided by theories and practices of 'transformative learning' and a range of associated reflective practices, our participatory action research involved 4 facilitators and (up to) 25 participants who work across Nepal's forest bureaucracy (and for some, the wider community-based natural resource management sector). Together physically, remotely and through our writing, we reflect upon the operation of power in our professional – and personal – lives, exploring how that may enable a more informed and meaningful engagement with social justice within the workplace, and beyond. This article presents the process of our collective reflection and learning, and shares some of its initial outcomes based on the experiences of the 15 co-authors. Whilst 'simply' having the time and space to come together was hugely important, it was the form and feel of that space that was particularly significant, as we focused on co-creating a safe space which was non-judgmental and based on mutual respect, enabling comfortable and open discussion of often unspoken and uncomfortable issues. Ultimately, this article argues that collective practices of reflection and transformative learning can create shared learning, understanding, empathy and solidarity, and thus that it offers hope in the face of on-going social injustices. It therefore urges political ecologists to work towards such caring and affirmative collective engagements with practitioners as one way in which to affect change

Strengthening Supply Chains for a Sustainable Housing Sector in Nepal : Factors Influencing the Organization, Management, Relationships and the Adoption and Use of Green Practices, Products and Services

EU’s main approach to sustainable housing is promoting green practices/products within the building construction sectors SCs. EU Switch Asia program financed research conducted in Nepal, 2015, to understand the organization of SCs, identify factors/barriers affecting SCM and existing relationships, the reasons to adopt green concepts/approaches and recommend support for SMEs to strengthen the sector’s management and sustainability. 109 companies, non-probabilistic snowball sampling and semi-closed questionnaires used in the survey. Conclusions: Companies create SCs to increase customer satisfaction, maintain long-term sales and retain clients. Size of company influences SCs organisation, SCM and using/producing green products/services; majority of participants had a person in the company to manage SC’s and had very good knowledge of SC, SCM and greening issues. SMEs need support with: information/communication technology, promotion and improvement/development of green products/services. Government should: increases awareness of green building products

Use of Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) in an Infant with COVID-19 patients in a tertiary care center of Gandaki Pradesh, Nepal

COVID-19 in infancy is a rare disease among all COVID-19 patients. Here we report a case of 2 months old male child who was brought by parents with the complain of fever and running nose for 2 days. He was being treated with antibiotics and antipyretics from local pharmacy without improvement and was admitted in hospital for intravenous antibiotics. On 5th day of admission baby developed grunting and respiratory distress so referred to tertiary center for possible covid-19 infection. Further investigations led to the positivity of COVID-19 in PCR test. He was treated with antibiotics, steroids and kept in CPAP during respiratory distress for 40 hours and then to high flow oxygen therapy via hood box. CPAP during respiratory distress responded to the treatment dramatically. COVID-19 infection among infant though rare, it is important to consider CPAP and oxygen therapy via hood box as an important treatment modality in COVID-19 patients

Stakeholder perspectives on the effectiveness of governance in red panda conservation programmes in Nepal: a comparative analysis

This paper investigates the views of multi-stakeholders on the governance quality of existing forest management strategies for red panda (Ailurus fulgens) protection in Nepal, focusing on forest governance in general, red panda conservation programmes and natural habitat protection in particular. The study deployed two surveys in August and September 2020. The first survey was conducted online for the stakeholders with internet access; for those without, it was conducted over the phone. While the results reveal almost similar perspectives among the stakeholders regarding the effectiveness of the red panda management approaches, they differ significantly between the online survey and telephonic survey, in terms of the relative scores given to these initiatives. In depth, follow-up interviews revealed that marginalised groups had little access to income generation from conservation activities and few capacity-building opportunities. These findings indicate that while management strategies for red panda conservation were generally considered effective by online survey participants which are generally more privileged, this is less effective for marginalised people. Local people, who are typically resource-poor and reliant on the forest, continue to endure inequitable resource distribution and benefit sharing. Consequently, greater attention should be paid to balancing the conservation needs and basic needs of forest-dependent communities through capacity building, income generation and alternative sources of livelihood

Use of antibiotics in children younger than two years in eight countries: A prospective cohort study

Objective: To describe the frequency and factors associated with antibiotic use in early childhood, and estimate the proportion of diarrhoea and respiratory illnesses episodes treated with antibiotics.Methods: Between 2009 and 2014, we followed 2134 children from eight sites in Bangladesh, Brazil, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Peru, South Africa and the United Republic of Tanzania, enrolled in the MAL-ED birth cohort study. We documented all antibiotic use from mothers’ reports at twice-weekly visits over the children’s first two years of life. We estimated the incidence of antibiotic use and the associations of antibiotic use with child and household characteristics. We described treatment patterns for diarrhoea and respiratory illnesses, and identified factors associated with treatment and antibiotic class.Findings: Over 1 346 388 total days of observation, 16 913 courses of antibiotics were recorded (an incidence of 4.9 courses per child per year), with the highest use in South Asia. Antibiotic treatment was given for 375/499 (75.2%) episodes of bloody diarrhoea and for 4274/9661 (44.2%) episodes of diarrhoea without bloody stools. Antibiotics were used in 2384/3943 (60.5%) episodes of fieldworker-confirmed acute lower respiratory tract illness as well as in 6608/16742 (39.5%) episodes of upper respiratory illness. Penicillins were used most frequently for respiratory illness, while antibiotic classes for diarrhoea treatment varied within and between sites.Conclusion: Repeated antibiotic exposure was common early in life, and treatment of non-bloody diarrhoea and non-specific respiratory illnesses was not consistent with international recommendations. Rational antibiotic use programmes may have the most impact in South Asia, where antibiotic use was highest

Methanodibenzo[b,f][1,5]dioxocins as Novel Glutaminase Inhibitor with Anti-Glioblastoma Potential

Glutamine metabolism is an important hallmark of several cancers with demonstrated antitumor activity in glioblastoma cancer cells (GBM). GBM cells regulate glutamine and use it as a major energy source for their proliferation through the glutaminolysis process. Enzymes, such as glutaminase in glutaminolysis, can be targeted by small-molecule inhibitors, thus exhibiting promising anticancer properties. The resistance to glutaminolysis demands the development of new therapeutic molecules to overcome drug resistance. Herein, we have reported a novel library of constrained methanodibenzo[b,f][1,5]dioxocin derivatives as glutaminase (GLS) inhibitors and their anti-GBM potential. The library consisting of seven molecules was obtained through self-condensation of 2′-hydroxyacetophenones, out of which three molecules, namely compounds 3, 5, and 6, were identified with higher binding energy values ranging between −10.2 and −9.8 kcal/mol with GLS (PDB ID; 4O7D). Pharmacological validation of these compounds also showed a higher growth inhibition effect in GBM cells than the standard drug temozolomide (TMZ). The most promising compound, 6, obeyed Lipinski’s rule of five and was identified to interact with key residues Arg307, Asp326, Lys328, Lys399, and Glu403 of GLS. This compound exhibited the best cytotoxic effect with IC50 values of 63 µM and 83 µM in LN229 and SNB19 cells, respectively. The potential activation of GLS by the best-constrained dibenzo[b,f][1,5]dioxocin in the tested series increased apoptosis via reactive oxygen species production in both GBM cells, and exhibited anti-migratory and anti-proliferative properties over time in both cell lines. Our results highlight the activation mechanism of a dibenzo[b,f][1,5]dioxocin from the structural basis and demonstrate that inhibition of glutaminolysis may facilitate the pharmacological intervention for GBM treatment.publishedVersionPeer reviewe