Fluxon Dynamics of a Long Josephson Junction with Two-gap Superconductors

We investigate the phase dynamics of a long Josephson junction (LJJ) with two-gap superconductors. In this junction, two channels for tunneling between the adjacent superconductor (S) layers as well as one interband channel within each S layer are available for a Cooper pair. Due to the interplay between the conventional and interband Josephson effects, the LJJ can exhibit unusual phase dynamics. Accounting for excitation of a stable 2$\pi$-phase texture arising from the interband Josephson effect, we find that the critical current between the S layers may become both spatially and temporally modulated. The spatial critical current modulation behaves as either a potential well or barrier, depending on the symmetry of superconducting order parameter, and modifies the Josephson vortex trajectories. We find that these changes in phase dynamics result in emission of electromagnetic waves as the Josephson vortex passes through the region of the 2$\pi$-phase texture. We discuss the effects of this radiation emission on the current-voltage characteristics of the junction.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figure

Assessment of Pesticide Use in Major Vegetables From Farmers\u27 Perception and Knowledge in Dhading District, Nepal

A field study was carried out to assess the pesticide use status in major vegetable crops from farmers\u27 perception and knowledge in Dhading, Nepal in 2019. Field study was carried with 100 commercial farmer\u27s using semi-structure questionnaire by face to face interview. This study was analyzed by categorization of farmers into small holder (51) and large holder (49) groups on the basis of mean area of vegetable cultivation (6.48 ropani). The highest amount of pesticides is needed in tomato in both large holders and small holders according to the farmer\u27s experience. Among the study farmer\u27s, 41% of them spray the pesticides by making a cocktail or mixed method and 56%  follow the waiting period of 3-5 days in both of the cases. A significant positive correlation was found at 5% level of significance between the knowledge and practice pattern of waiting period of the pesticides and negative correlation was found between the Personal Protective equipment score and health hazard score. Headache was the major health hazards faced by the farmers which was higher in small holders (66.7%) as compared to the large holders (46.9%). Mask was the most used PPE by the farmer\u27s i.e. by 83% in overall. Fourty three percent of the farmer\u27s throw the pesticide containers in secret place after using of it.The use of PPE was seen lower in small holders as compared to the large holders. This study reveals the necessities of suitable program and policies regarding the knowledge, safe handling and use of pesticide among the farmer\u27s level

Cardiovascular Risk Behavior Amongst Adolescents of Lekhnath Muncipality of Kaski district, Nepal

Background: Life style related behavioral risk factors are mainly implicated for increase burden of cardiovascular diseases. Research related to these risk behaviors especially among adolescents is essential considering their role as future citizens of the country. Objectives: The study aimed to evaluate the burden of cardiovascular risk behavior amongst the adolescents of Kaski district, Lekhnath Nepal. Methods: A cross sectional study was carried out among the adolescents of Lekhnath Muncipality Kaski District. Total 350 participants from five different schools from Lekhnath Muncipality took part in the study and the sampling technique was simple random method by using a random number table. Self administered questionnaires were used to collect information on identification of risk behaviors. Results: Descriptive statistics and Chi square test were computed. Out of 350 adolescents 175 males and remaining 175 females were interviewed. Alcohol and tobacco consumption were more amongst males whereas fast food and soft drinks were more amongst the females. Nearly 40% of the adolescents were not involved in physical activity. Tobacco and alcohol consumption was 26% and 16% respectively, which was higher amongst the late adolescents group studying in the 11th and 12th standard. In this study fruits and vegetables consumption was very less only 42% whereas soft drinks and fast food consumption was more 83% which shows that the adolescents are not aware about their food habits. Some participants did not consume fruits due to low purchasing power to buy fruits. Adolescence is a period of experimentation and so some participants told that they have just started taking alcohol and also started consuming tobacco for fun and were not aware that it was cardiovascular risk behavior. Conclusions: The adolescents had a high burden of cardiovascular risk behavior and if immediate intervention is not done to reduce these high risk behaviors many may be vulnerable to cardio vascular diseases in the future.  J-GMC-N | Volume 11 | Issue 01 | January-June 2018, Page: 10-1

Agro-morphological Diversity of High Altitude Bean Landraces in the Kailash Sacred Landscape of Nepal

Many varieties of bean are widely grown across diverse agro-ecological zones in Nepal. And opportunities exist for improving the crops and enhancing their resilience to various biotic and abiotic stressors. In this context, an experiment was conducted from June to October 2016 in Khar VDC of Darchula district to study the phenotypic traits of nine landraces of bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.). The bean landraces were planted using randomized complete block design in three sites (Dhamidera, Dallekh and Sundamunda villages), with three replications in each site for their comparative analysis. The study considered the following phenotypic traits: days to emergence, days to 50% flowering, days to 90% pod maturity, number of nodes, pod length, pod width, number of pods, number of seeds per pod and weight and grain yield for 100 seeds. Kruskal-Wallis test showed significant differences in the landraces both within and among locations. KA-17-08-FB and KA-17-04-FB were late  flowering (63 and 65 days respectively) compared to other landraces whereas KA-17-07-FB flowered earliest (within 42 days). In all three sites, three landraces namely KA-17-07-FB, KA-17-04-FB and KA-17-06-FB were found to be relatively more resistant to pest and diseases than other landraces. Eight out of nine landraces in Dhamidera and Dallekh villages and seven out of nine in Sundamunda village produced seeds greater than 1.0 t/ha. Among the nine varieties KA-17-02-FB was the highest yielding variety, with an average yield of 3.8 t/ha. This study is useful for identifying suitable landraces for future promotion based on their maturity, grain yield, diseases resistance and other qualitative and quantitative characteristics

Agrobiodiversity and Its Conservation in Nepal

Nepal is a part of the world\u27s biodiversity hotspot and ranks the 49th in the world for biodiversity. Agrobiodiversity and its conservation status were studied through literature review, field survey, key informant survey and focus group discussion. Results of field implementation of some good practices and action research were also documented. Among 24,300 total species in the country, 28% are agricultural genetic resources (AGRs), termed as agrobiodiversity. Agrobiodiversity has six components (crops, forages, livestock, aquatic, insects and microorganisms) and four sub-components (domesticated, semi-domesticated, wild relatives and wild edible) in Nepal. Agrobiodiversity on each component exists at agroecosystem, species, variety/breed/biotype/race/strain, genotype and allele levels, within an altitude range from 60 to 5,000 masl. There are 12 agroecosystems supporting 1026 species under crop component, 510 under forage, 35 under livestock, 250 under the aquatic animal, 17 under aquatic plant, 3,500 under insect and 800 under microorganism. An estimated loss of agrobiodiversity is 40%, however, farmers have reported up to 100% loss of AGRs in some areas for a particular species. Conservation of agrobiodiversity has been initiated since 1986. Four strategies namely ex-situ, on-farm, in-situ and breeding have been adopted for conservation and sustainable utilization of AGRs. Eighty good practices including process, methods and actions for managing agrobiodiversity have been in practice and these practices come under five conservation components (sensitization, method and approach, accelerator, value and enabling environment). Within the country, 18,765 accessions of AGRs have been conserved in different kinds of banks. A total of 24,683 accessions of Nepalese crops, forages and microbes have been conserved in different International and foreign genebanks. Some collections are conserved as safety duplication and safety backup in different CGIARs\u27 banks and World Seed Vault, Korea. Two global databases (GENESYS and EURISCO) have maintained 19,200 Nepalese accessions. Geographical Information System, Climate Analog Tool and biotechnological tools have been applied for better managing AGRs. Many stakeholders need to further concentrate on the conservation and utilization of AGRs. Global marketing of some native AGRs is necessary for sustaining agriculture and attracting young generations as well as conserving them through use

Agricultural innovation and adaptation to climate change: empirical evidence from diverse agro-ecologies in South Asia

While impacts of climate change on agricultural systems have been widely researched, there is still limited understanding of what agricultural practices evolves over time in response to both climatic and non-climatic drivers and how actors mobilize their resources, institutions and practices in South Asia. Through eight case studies and a survey of300 households in 15 locations in India, Nepal and Bangladesh, this paper generates empirical evidence on emerging agricultural interventions in contrasting socio-economic, geographical and agro-ecological contexts. The study shows that several farm practices emerge out in response to multiple drivers over time; some of them can be further adjusted to the challenge of climate change by planned adaptation programs. Most actors, however, have considered private risks in the short run. Although there has been some progress in streamlining climate change into strategic planning in different countries of South Asia, policy, research and extension systems lack adequate attention to wider resilience of the system. Based on this analysis, we recommend that adaptation policies should complement farmers’ responses to climate change through informed research and extension systems and pro-poor government policies that improve adaptation and coordinate activities of different actors

Rebuilding soil hydrological functioning after swidden agriculture in eastern Madagascar

Land-use change due to the widespread practice of swidden agriculture affects the supply of ecosystem services. However, there is comparatively little understanding of how the hydrological functioning of soils, which affects rainfall infiltration and therefore flood risk, dry-season flows and surface erosion, is affected by repeated vegetation clearing and burning, the extent to which this can recover following land abandonment and vegetation regrowth, and whether active restoration speeds up recovery. We used interviews with local land users and indicator plant species to reconstruct the land-use history of 19 different sites in upland eastern Madagascar that represent four different land-use categories: semi-mature forests that were never burnt but were influenced by manual logging until 15–20 years ago; fallows that were actively reforested 6–9 years ago; 2–10 year old naturally regenerating fallows; and highly degraded fire-climax grassland sites. Surface- and near-surface (down to 30 cm depth) saturated soil hydraulic conductivities (Ksat), as well as the dominant flow pathways for infiltration and percolation were determined for each land-cover type. Surface Ksat in the forest sites was very high (median: 724 mm h−1) and infiltration was dominated by flow along roots and other preferential flow pathways (macropores), whereas Ksat in the degraded land was low (median: 45 mm h−1) with infiltration being dominated by near-surface matrix flow. The total area of blue-dye stains was inversely correlated to the Ksat. Both surface- and near-surface Ksat had increased significantly after 6–9 years of forest regeneration (median values of 203 and 161 mm h−1 for reforestation and natural regeneration, respectively). Additional observations are needed to more fully understand the rates at which soil hydrological functioning can be rebuilt and whether active replanting decreases the time required to restore soil hydrological functioning or not

Collaborative exploration and collection of native plant genetic resources as assisted by agrobiodiversity fair

This article describes the agrobiodiversity fair aided exploration and collection expedition of native plant genetic resources in southern Lalitpur, jointly organized by the National Agriculture Genetic Resources Centre (NAGRC) and Group of Helping Hands (SAHAS) Nepal. In-district one-day agrobiodiversity fairs were organized in February and December month of 2019, altogether two times, and these agrobiodiversity fairs were used as a tool to explore plant genetic resources found in Bagmati and Mahankal Rural Municipalities of Lalitpur district. To collect these explored genetic resources during agrobiodiversity fairs, the joint field expedition, key informant survey, diversity rich farmers discussion was used as a collection tool. The present study explored, inventoried, collected and conserved 148 accessions of 44 crop species, the highest number (18 accessions) was of chayote followed by 10 accessions each of soybean, cowpea and maize and 9 accessions of common bean. Collections are generally new and unique. Many landraces, mostly from rice (13 landraces) were identified as extinct from the surveyed areas and few are under extinction mainly due to attraction of farmers to new high yielding varieties. The collected species with orthodox seeds were tested for germination ability and those that passed a minimum of 85% germination, were preserved in seedbank of NAGRC. NAGRC plans to characterize these accessions in the coming seasons depending upon the season of crop growing. The current expedition collected eight species for which mode of propagation is vegetative or those for which seed storage behavior falls under intermediate mode. NAGRC has been started expanding field genebank coverage using these accessions