Bridging, linking, and bonding social capital in collective action: The case of Kalahan Forest Reserve in the Philippines

"This paper seeks to identify the factors which are responsible for successful management of natural resources when communities are given opportunities to manage those resources. Applying the social capital framework, it analyzes empirical data from the well known case of Kalahan Educational Foundation, the Philippines. The study confirms previous findings, which have emphasized the high level of cohesion and traditional norms among a homogeneous community of indigenous peoples (bonding social capital) as a success factor. This study further identifies that for effective management of collective action, mobilization of bridging and linking social capital are equally important as they do not only help mobilize external resources but, at times, also promote bonding social capital." authors' abstractKalahan, People's Organization (PO), Bonding, Bridging, Linking social capital, Governance, Collective action, Environmental risk,

Analyzing Urban Expansion and Spatial Growth Patterns in Barahathawa Municipality of Central Tarai Region, Nepal

The rapid transformation of rural settlements into municipalities in Nepal has brought significant changes in land use, and urban expansion and growth patterns mostly through the conversion of agricultural land into the built-up area. The issue is studied taking a case of the rapidly growing town, Barahathawa Municipality of Tarai Region of Sarlahi District. After the declaration of the municipality, several new roads have been opened and upgraded; and the municipality is well-connected to the national transportation network. After promulgated the Constitution of Nepal 2015 and functioning the elected local body, the municipality budget has been increased significantly as a result of increasing municipal investment in socio-economic and physical infrastructure development and environmental protection which has attracted people, goods, and services creating the zone of influence on the municipality. One of the changes found in the municipality is the increasing built-up area and expansion of urban growth through the decreasing agricultural land. Urban growth has been observed taking place around the Barahathawa Bazaar and main roadsides. The built-up area in Barahathawa municipality has remarkably increased by 183percent with the decrease of shrub and agricultural land within 10 years. Implications of such spatial and temporal dynamics have been a core issue of urban planning in most of the newly declared municipalities in Nepal

Knowledge and practice of personal hygiene among secondary school students of grade nine and ten

Introductions: Personal hygiene deficiency have been found to be a serious public health problem and people often affected are school children. These have been attributed to inadequate knowledge of personal hygiene and its practices. This study was designed to explore the existing knowledge and practices of personal hygiene among the students studying at secondary level schools in Bhaktapur district, Nepal. Methods: This study was a cross- sectional study to investigate personal hygiene knowledge and practices of secondary level, grades nine and ten school children, Bhaktapur district, Kathmandu valley, Nepal. Pre-tested, self- administered questionnaire were used. Data were collated and analyzed descriptively. Results: The result showed that the secondary school students who participated in the study were evenly distributed by gender (50.4% males and 49.6% females), most of the respondents (78.8%) were in the 15-16 year age bracket. Majority of the respondents (88.5%) had good knowledge level on personal hygiene. Female students were found having more knowledge level than male students. Conversely, majority of them were noted with moderate to poor level of hygiene practices. Conclusion: Secondary school students of Bhaktapur have good knowledge on personal hygiene while lot more improvement is required in terms of practices. Integrated approach by parents, school and social media to enhance hygiene practices could be useful. Keywords: knowledge, personal hygiene; practices, student

Detection of Anti- Leptospira

Leptospirosis is a globally distributed zoonosis with varied clinical outcomes and multiorgan involvement in humans. In this study conducted from July 2011 to December 2011, 178 serum samples from patients suspected of leptospirosis were tested by Panbio IgM ELISA at National Public Health Laboratory, Kathmandu, out of which 51 (28.65%) were positive for anti-Leptospira IgM antibody. Leptospirosis was more common in people in their 2nd and 3rd decades of their life which together comprised 56.86% of the total positive cases. Most of those tested positive were farmers followed by students and housewives. Both animal contact and water contact seemed to play significant roles in disease transmission. Symptoms were vague with the most common being fever, headache, myalgia, abdominal pain, vomiting, jaundice, and diarrhoea. Life style heavily dominated by agronomical and farming activities in Nepal is conducive to leptospirosis transmission. Leptospirosis seems to be a significant public health problem in Nepal but is underestimated. In resource poor countries like Nepal where laboratories performing MAT or maintaining cultures are rarely available, serological test like ELISA could well depict the scenario of the disease prevalence

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

Experiencing Transformative Learning during Participatory Needs Assessment of a Public School: Journeys and Arrivals to Relational Ontology(ies)

This paper discusses experiences from school-based needs assessment within a Participatory Action Research (PAR) project aimed at facilitating quality education in public schools of rural Nepal. Being often a first stage in the process of research-action, Participatory Needs Assessment (PNA) offers space for community members’ perceptions and attitudes toward their collective needs. In this light, this paper takes evidence from the first and the second authors’ Ph.D. experiences, under the supervision of the third and the fourth authors to initiate PNA of a school. Also, incorporating the reflections from the fifth author as a critical friend, it observes the political, epistemological, ethical, and methodological challenges of doing such assessments; the challenges of involving all the stakeholders in identifying problems, and the transformative possibilities the approach inherently brings within it. On the whole, the paper reflects how, despite manifold conflicting interests of the multi-group stakeholders, relational ontology(ies) emerged in the cyclical and spiral process

Fabrication of UV sensing transistor based on transparent polycrystalline zinc oxide thin film using polymeric electrolyte gate dielectric

The fabrication of electric double layer thin film transistors (EDLTFTs) using polymeric electrolyte as gate dielectric on chemically grown polycrystalline ZnO thin film channel has the lower threshold voltage at 0.4 V and the saturation current at 3 µA in the dark. The lower threshold voltage is -1 V and the saturation current is 10 µA in the UV illumination. In the dark and under UV light, the off state ID is 1 nA and 0.3 µA respectively and under gate and UV illumination the on current shows more than 3 times enhancement. This improvement in photocurrent is due to the combined effect of gate and UV illumination. The field effect mobility of the TFT is 0.06 cm2/Vs in the dark and 0.16 cm2/Vs under UV illumination. This increase in mobility under illumination and gate bias is due to the increase in carrier concentration and reduction of charged defects in the channel length

Fabrication of UV sensing transistor based on transparent polycrystalline zinc oxide thin film using polymeric electrolyte gate dielectric

The fabrication of electric double layer thin film transistors (EDLTFTs) using polymeric electrolyte as gate dielectric on chemically grown polycrystalline ZnO thin film channel has the lower threshold voltage at 0.4 V and the saturation current at 3 µA in the dark. The lower threshold voltage is -1 V and the saturation current is 10 µA in the UV illumination. In the dark and under UV light, the off state ID is 1 nA and 0.3 µA respectively and under gate and UV illumination the on current shows more than 3 times enhancement. This improvement in photocurrent is due to the combined effect of gate and UV illumination. The field effect mobility of the TFT is 0.06 cm2/Vs in the dark and 0.16 cm2/Vs under UV illumination. This increase in mobility under illumination and gate bias is due to the increase in carrier concentration and reduction of charged defects in the channel length

A systematic study on material properties of water retted Sterculia and Bauhinia fiber

Lignocellulose biomass forms an important component of traditional and next generation composite materials. To obtain desired properties, the biomass needs to be chemo‒mechanically processed at different levels. The raw lignocellulose fiber obtained from Sterculia villosa (Roxb.) and Bauhinia vahlii is traditionally believed to have high water stability; and therefore used in rural areas of South Asian regions to secure objects submerged under water. In this research, we systematically studied several material properties of raw Sterculia and Bauhinia fiber samples retted for 0, 20, 30 and 55 days (n=8). Water retting resulted in significant decrease in lignin and extractives content (p0.05). Interestingly, water retting resulted in increased thermal stability in both fiber types. These findings suggested that the fiber studied have excellent water stability. The observed trend in mechanical and thermal properties could have resulted from crystallinity change and/or nominal fiber damage as supported by XRD and SEM imaging data; respectively. These findings suggested that Sterculia and Bauhinia fiber biomass could be an important component of biodegradable composite materials which are intended for high wetting and/or humid conditions

A systematic study on material properties of water retted Sterculia and Bauhinia fiber

Lignocellulose biomass forms an important component of traditional and next generation composite materials. To obtain desired properties, the biomass needs to be chemo‒mechanically processed at different levels. The raw lignocellulose fiber obtained from Sterculia villosa (Roxb.) and Bauhinia vahlii is traditionally believed to have high water stability; and therefore used in rural areas of South Asian regions to secure objects submerged under water. In this research, we systematically studied several material properties of raw Sterculia and Bauhinia fiber samples retted for 0, 20, 30 and 55 days (n=8). Water retting resulted in significant decrease in lignin and extractives content (p0.05). Interestingly, water retting resulted in increased thermal stability in both fiber types. These findings suggested that the fiber studied have excellent water stability. The observed trend in mechanical and thermal properties could have resulted from crystallinity change and/or nominal fiber damage as supported by XRD and SEM imaging data; respectively. These findings suggested that Sterculia and Bauhinia fiber biomass could be an important component of biodegradable composite materials which are intended for high wetting and/or humid conditions