Why some community forests are performing better than others: a case of forest user groups in Nepal

Management of many Nepalese forests has been devolved to local communities. Forest products, which are used by the community and which may also be traded, are essential contributors to community well-being. Forests are also important contributors of ecosystem services, such as flood protection and wildlife habitat. Nepalese communities were surveyed to measure flows of forest products from their community forests. A stochastic frontier analysis shows that communities are not producing forest products efficiently and there is potential for improvement. The results shows that forest products benefit and environmental performance are associated products. In addition, analysis reveals that factors such as social capital, support from government and knowledge in management contributes positively to the production efficiency. It is anticipated that these findings will contribute to community forest policy redesign and consequently to the welfare of communities.Community forestry, stochastic frontier, production efficiency, Nepal, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Environmental Economics and Policy, Farm Management, Productivity Analysis,

Effect of nano and macro iron sprays on growth, flowering, seed and oil yielding attributes in calendula (Calendula officinalis L.)

The investigation was executed with nine treatments viz. nano forms of ferrous sulfide (7, 14, 21, 28 ppm) and macro ferrous sulphate (0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8 per cent) along with control, and were applied as foliar sprays after 30 days of transplanting on two varieties of calendula namely Fiesta Gitana Mix’ and ‘Fiesta Yellow’ during 2018 and 2019. The experiment was laid out in factorial randomized block design with three replications. Application of 0.8 % FeSO4 recorded maximum number of branches (26.75), plant height (29.73 cm), plant spread(45.17 cm), number of leaves (22.63) and seed test weight (15.63 g) and number of flowers per plant (134.04). However, application of 0.2% macro FeSO4 resulted in early bud appearance (50.50 days) and higher flower diameter (8.09 cm). ‘Fiesta Gitana Mix’ outperformed over ‘Fiesta Yellow’ for most of the vegetative and floral characters. The ‘Fiesta Yellow’ variety with oil content (13.97%) had an edge over ‘Fiesta Gitana Mix’

The effect of general anaesthesia versus conscious sedation in dosimetric distribution of intracavitary radiotherapy in cervical cancer patients

Background: Majority of Indian patients presents in locally advanced stage and most of them treated by combination of external teletherapy and intracavitary brachytherapy (ICRT). Because of deficient infrastructure, the waiting period is generally long at existing caner canters. Hence ICRT may be done in conscious sedation to treat more patients by avoiding time consuming general anaesthesia. The aim of this study is to know the effect of general anaesthesia vs. conscious sedation in dosimetric distribution in brachytherapy and its feasibility.Methods: Total 80 ICRT applications were randomized to general anaesthesia (GA) and conscious sedation (CS) groups. Fletcher suit type of applicators was used and dose delivery equipment was cobalt 60 high dose rate remote after loading brachytherapy unit. In CS group, injection midazolam 0.5-8mg (median 2.5mg) in the form of slow i.v. infusion was used along with antiemetic support.Results: Total 6 parameters were analyzed. e.g., Dose to point A1, Dose to point A2, Bladder max dose, Bladder mean dose, Rectal max dose and Rectal mean dose. The dose distribution was found similar both   groups and it did not depend on type of anaesthesia.Conclusions: The high volume centers of developing countries are most suitable candidate to opt conscious sedation to perform ICRT to treat more cancer cervix patients in same time frame

Cancer oesophagus: is sequential chemo radiation better in elderly patients or patients with severe dysphagia?

Background:This study was conducted to analyse the local control, regional control and toxicities of sequential versus concurrent chemo radiation in the patients of oesophageal cancer especially in elderly.Methods: A total of newly diagnosed 50 patients were randomized in concurrent and sequential arm. Two courses of 3 weekly chemotherapy (Cisplatin and 5-FU based) were given concurrently and three courses of same chemotherapy were given neoadjuvantly with EBRT (44 Gys) respectively in randomised arms. HDR-ICBT (2 fractions of 5 Gy) delivered after two weeks of completion of EBRT in both arm.Results: Concurrent arm had higher incidence of grade III+IV overall all toxicity especially in elderly patients or patients that presented with grade IV or higher dysphagia. Other haematological and non-haematological toxicities were equal in both arms. Complete response at both primary and mediastina was higher in concurrent arm but there was no statistically significant difference.Conclusions: Our data suggest that if a patient can tolerate the combination of chemotherapy and radiation, this approach offers superior results but at the cost of higher incidence of severe toxicities especially in patients with grade IV or higher dysphagia or elderly patients. So this group could be treated with sequential chemo radiation

The Changing Landscape for Stroke\ua0Prevention in AF: Findings From the GLORIA-AF Registry Phase 2

Background GLORIA-AF (Global Registry on Long-Term Oral Antithrombotic Treatment in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation) is a prospective, global registry program describing antithrombotic treatment patterns in patients with newly diagnosed nonvalvular atrial fibrillation at risk of stroke. Phase 2 began when dabigatran, the first non\u2013vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulant (NOAC), became available. Objectives This study sought to describe phase 2 baseline data and compare these with the pre-NOAC era collected during phase 1. Methods During phase 2, 15,641 consenting patients were enrolled (November 2011 to December 2014); 15,092 were eligible. This pre-specified cross-sectional analysis describes eligible patients\u2019 baseline characteristics. Atrial fibrillation disease characteristics, medical outcomes, and concomitant diseases and medications were collected. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results Of the total patients, 45.5% were female; median age was 71 (interquartile range: 64, 78) years. Patients were from Europe (47.1%), North America (22.5%), Asia (20.3%), Latin America (6.0%), and the Middle East/Africa (4.0%). Most had high stroke risk (CHA2DS2-VASc [Congestive heart failure, Hypertension, Age  6575 years, Diabetes mellitus, previous Stroke, Vascular disease, Age 65 to 74 years, Sex category] score  652; 86.1%); 13.9% had moderate risk (CHA2DS2-VASc = 1). Overall, 79.9% received oral anticoagulants, of whom 47.6% received NOAC and 32.3% vitamin K antagonists (VKA); 12.1% received antiplatelet agents; 7.8% received no antithrombotic treatment. For comparison, the proportion of phase 1 patients (of N = 1,063 all eligible) prescribed VKA was 32.8%, acetylsalicylic acid 41.7%, and no therapy 20.2%. In Europe in phase 2, treatment with NOAC was more common than VKA (52.3% and 37.8%, respectively); 6.0% of patients received antiplatelet treatment; and 3.8% received no antithrombotic treatment. In North America, 52.1%, 26.2%, and 14.0% of patients received NOAC, VKA, and antiplatelet drugs, respectively; 7.5% received no antithrombotic treatment. NOAC use was less common in Asia (27.7%), where 27.5% of patients received VKA, 25.0% antiplatelet drugs, and 19.8% no antithrombotic treatment. Conclusions The baseline data from GLORIA-AF phase 2 demonstrate that in newly diagnosed nonvalvular atrial fibrillation patients, NOAC have been highly adopted into practice, becoming more frequently prescribed than VKA in Europe and North America. Worldwide, however, a large proportion of patients remain undertreated, particularly in Asia and North America. (Global Registry on Long-Term Oral Antithrombotic Treatment in Patients With Atrial Fibrillation [GLORIA-AF]; NCT01468701

Production efficiency of community forestry in Nepal : a stochastic frontier analysis

During the past three decades, 1.2 million hectares of Nepal’s forests have been transferred to community management with the twin objectives of supplying forest products and addressing local environmental problems. Community forests provide a range of benefits, from direct forest products such as timber, fuelwood, fodder, litter and grasses to ecosystem services such as soil protection and wildlife conservation. However, there is limited information on the relationship between the environmental and the community welfare effects of entrusting forests to communities. This study has analysed the production of natural environmental and direct forest product benefits in CFs, and identified the relationships between the outputs. Community Forest User Groups were surveyed to measure the flow of products from their community forests. Environmental benefits were measured using a novel application of the Analytic Network Process (ANP). The ANP is generally executed by taking expert opinions; however, this study has taken forest user member’s opinions. The stochastic frontier production analysis indicated that the production of direct forest product benefits per hectare was influenced by various socioeconomic and forest related factors, most prominently forest size, group heterogeneity, forest product dependency, size of community and links to the market. In addition, forest product benefits and environmental benefits were complementary to each other. Likewise, the production efficiency analysis showed that communities were not producing forest products efficiently. It also showed that factors such as social capital, support from the government and the longevity of CF management, contributed positively to the production efficiency, whereas caste heterogeneity in the executive committees of community forest user groups was negatively associated. It is anticipated that these findings will contribute to better implementation of community forestry programmes in Nepal and consequently will improve the welfare of communities by increasing direct forest product benefits and environmental benefits

Why some community forests are performing better than others: a case of forest user groups in Nepal

Management of many Nepalese forests has been devolved to local communities. Forest products, which are used by the community and which may also be traded, are essential contributors to community well-being. Forests are also important contributors of ecosystem services, such as flood protection and wildlife habitat. Nepalese communities were surveyed to measure flows of forest products from their community forests. A stochastic frontier analysis shows that communities are not producing forest products efficiently and there is potential for improvement. The results shows that forest products benefit and environmental performance are associated products. In addition, analysis reveals that factors such as social capital, support from government and knowledge in management contributes positively to the production efficiency. It is anticipated that these findings will contribute to community forest policy redesign and consequently to the welfare of communities

Why some community forests are performing better than others: a case of forest user groups in Nepal

Management of many Nepalese forests has been devolved to local communities. Forest products, which are used by the community and which may also be traded, are essential contributors to community well-being. Forests are also important contributors of ecosystem services, such as flood protection and wildlife habitat. Nepalese communities were surveyed to measure flows of forest products from their community forests. A stochastic frontier analysis shows that communities are not producing forest products efficiently and there is potential for improvement. The results shows that forest products benefit and environmental performance are associated products. In addition, analysis reveals that factors such as social capital, support from government and knowledge in management contributes positively to the production efficiency. It is anticipated that these findings will contribute to community forest policy redesign and consequently to the welfare of communities