Ecotourism and Its Role in Sustainable Development of Nepal

Ecotourism helps in environmental protection, wildlife conservation, poverty alleviation and socio-economic development. It affects environmental, social and economic components of the community and the whole country. It has different forms which are named according to the preference of the country. Developed as well as developing countries , such as Nepal, are promoting ecotourism for sustainable development of the nation. Different methodologies are applied throughout the world by different researchers for assessing ecotourism. This chapter focuses on review of ecotourism researches throughout the world. It has both positive and negative impacts on environmental, social and economic aspects of the country. Due to the high rate of beneficial impacts, it is helping in the overall development of the community, country and the whole world. There is need of cooperation among different stakeholders, training of ecotourism to tourism entrepreneurs and appropriate management policy for sustainable implementation of ecotourism projects

Instrumental Techniques for Chemical Analysis of Ferro-Alloys

Ferro-alloys are metallic addition agents used in iron and steel making to incorporate an alloying element into the molten material or to refine steel, for example by removal of oxygen and sulphur, in which case the alloying element is only to a minor extent incorporated in the steel. These additions are made to the ladle before the pouting into moulds. Most ferro-alloys are alloys of the main element (usually, 15-85%), with iron, hence the name. Sometimes ferro-alloy contain two or three alloying elements which act in different ways and there are also complex boron alloys in which titanium and aluminum can fix the oxygen and nitrogen in the steel bath so, that the boron may enter Solution and exert a metallurgical influence

The DNA-binding domain of Drosophila melanogaster c-Myb undergoes a multistate denaturation

The DNA-binding domain of Drosophila c-Myb protein has been studied using different spectroscopic probes, namely CD, fluorescence, acrylamide quenching and NMR, to determione the structure of some of its sub-domains and their relative stabilities in aqueous solutions. While CD and fluorescence spectroscopy showed that the protein had completely lost its tertiary and secondary structures in approximately 3 M urea, solvent accessibility of the tryptophan residues was still partial, as determined by acrylamide quenching. This suggested the presence of significant amounts of residual structure which persisted until the urea concentration was raised to approximately 6.0 M. Thermal-denaturation experiments also indicated the presence of an intermediate in the unfolding pathway. The experimental data could be fitted assuming a minimum of three states in both modes of denaturation. The thermodynamic parameters for the apparent three-state transition have been determined. From the protein stability curve, we have determined that Drosophila melanogaster Myb R123 has maximal stability at 16°C and pH 7.0

Acute fatty liver of pregnancy: an update on mechanisms

Acute fatty liver of pregnancy (AFLP), characterized by hepatic microvesicular steatosis, is a sudden catastrophic illness occurring almost exclusively in the third trimester of pregnancy. Defective fatty acid oxidation in the fetus has been shown to be associated with this disease. Since the placenta has the same genetic makeup as the fetus and as AFLP patients generally recover following delivery, we hypothesized that the placenta might be involved in pathogenesis of this disease. In an animal model of hepatic microvesicular steatosis (using sodium valproate), we found that microvesicular steatosis results in mitochondrial structural alterations and oxidative stress in subcellular organelles of the liver. In placentas from patients with AFLP, we observed placental mitochondrial dysfunction and oxidative stress in subcellular organelles. In addition, defective placental fatty acid oxidation results in accumulation of toxic mediators such as arachidonic acid. Escape of these mediators into the maternal circulation might affect the maternal liver resulting in microvesicular steatosis

Assessment of Obstructive Sleep Apnoea and Sleeping Laterality by Evaluating Upper Eyelid Distraction: A Prospective, Comparative Polysomnographic Study

Objective Our goal was to evaluate upper eyelid laxity by digital distraction, with the aim to determine sleeping laterality and the likelihood of obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA), and correlate these findings with polysomnography (PSG). Design We conducted a prospective, single-centre multidisciplinary study in a large sleep and respiratory department and an ophthalmology department within a tertiary referral university teaching hospital. Methods Patients with known OSA were evaluated using techniques based on the Lateralising Eyelid Sleep Compression (LESC) study. Upper eyelid laxity was assessed by two masked investigators, and the eyelid side with greater laxity was regarded as indicative of that patient's sleeping laterality: 'investigator-detected sleeping laterality' (ID SL). Each patient was then asked about the laterality of his or her accustomed sleeping position: 'patient-reported sleeping laterality' (PR SL). PSG was conducted according to the standard protocol of the Department of Sleep and Respiratory Medicine (DSRM). 'Polysomnography-detected sleeping laterality' (PSG SL) permitted the extraction of sleep positional data by two masked sleep scientists. Results The reliability of the LESC technique for diagnosing ID SL was demonstrated to be statistically significant (p<0.01). Upper eyelid laxity was significantly greater on the patients' sleeping side (t=6.340, df=45, p<0.01, two-tailed). There was a significant correlation between PR SL and ID SL (rs =0.33). However, PSG SL did not correlate with sleeping laterality compared with both ID SL and PR SL. Conclusion This study confirms that there is a statistically significant correlation of sleeping laterality with increasing upper eyelid laxity in OSA. Counterintuitively, PSG SL correlated poorly with ID SL and PR SL. This may likely be explained by the technical limitations implicit in current PSG techniques

NMR studies on the Myb-DNA system

NMR structural studies on a bacterially produced DNA binding domain of Drosophila c-Myb protein as well as its cognate DNA sequence carried out in our laboratory have been surveyed. The structure of a self-complementary dodecamer DNA containing the Myb responsive element (TAACGG) has been determined to atomic resolution by the combined use of two-dimensional NMR, spectral simulations, restrained energy minimization and distance geometry calculations. The structure is seen to possess novel features which may play important roles during its interaction with the Myb protein, The DNA binding domain of c-Myb protein was seen to have a hydrophobic core and we have identified the types of residues contributing to its formation. Residues contributing to the hydrophobic core formation are seen to be well spread out over the whole length of the 160 residues in the protein and include isoleucines, valines, leuclnes, alanines threonines, aromatic residues, glutamines and possibly aspartates. Our experimental data in combination with those of others indicate that some of the amino acid residues which form the helical motifs that directly interact with DNA may also be a part of the hydrophobic core

Plaquette Ordering in SU(4) Antiferromagnets

We use fermion mean field theory to study possible plaquette ordering in the antiferromagnetic SU(4) Heisenberg model. We find the ground state for both the square and triangular lattices to be the disconnected plaquette state. Our mean field theory gives a first order transition for plaquette ordering for the triangular lattice. Our results suggest a large number of low lying states.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figure