Photoluminescence Quenching in Single-layer MoS2 via Oxygen Plasma Treatment

By creating defects via oxygen plasma treatment, we demonstrate optical properties variation of single-layer MoS2. We found that, with increasing plasma exposure time, the photoluminescence (PL) evolves from very high intensity to complete quenching, accompanied by gradual reduction and broadening of MoS2 Raman modes, indicative of distortion of the MoS2 lattice after oxygen bombardment. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy study shows the appearance of Mo6+ peak, suggesting the creation of MoO3 disordered regions in the MoS2 flake. Finally, using band structure calculations, we demonstrate that the creation of MoO3 disordered domains upon exposure to oxygen plasma leads to a direct to indirect bandgap transition in single-layer MoS2, which explains the observed PL quenching.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figure

Rapid silviculture appraisal to characterise stand and determine silviculture priorities of community forests in Nepal

Published online: 7 September 2016Community forestry in Nepal is an example of a successful participatory forest management program. Developments in community forestry in four decades have focused on the social and governance aspects with little focus on the technical management of forests. This paper presents a silviculture description of community forests and provides silviculture recommendations using a rapid silviculture appraisal (RSA) approach. The RSA, which is a participatory technique involving local communities in assessing forests and silviculture options, is a simple and costeffective process to gather information and engage forest users in the preparation of operational plans that are relevant to their needs. The RSA conducted on selected community forests in Nepal’s Mid-hills region shows that forests are largely comprised of dominant crowns of one or two species. The majority of studied community forests have tree densities below 500 stems per hectare as a consequence of traditional forest management practices but the quality and quantity of the trees for producing forest products are low. Silviculture options preferred by forest users generally are those which are legally acceptable, doable with existing capacities of forest users and generate multiple forest products. For sustainable production of multiple forest products, the traditional forest management practices have to be integrated with silviculture-based forest management system.Edwin Cedamon, Ian Nuberg, Govinda Paudel, Madan Basyal, Krishna Shrestha, Naya Paude

Crown and regeneration responses to silviculture systems in Pine and Sal forests: preliminary results from silviculture trials in Mid-hills Nepal

Silviculture trial plots were established in Kavre and Lamjung districts by the EnLiFT Project (Enhancing livelihoods and food security through improved agroforestry and community forestry in Nepal) to examine stand response to selected silviculture systems – uniform shelterwood, selection system, and negative thinning and as a showcase to forest users for these silviculture systems. This paper analyses the extent of canopy gaps on these trial plots after one-year of application of silviculture treatments and regeneration development. Using crown photographs, crown cover was estimated and compared between silviculture systems. The analysis showed that rigid silviculture systems like shelterwood and selection systems created canopy gap larger than negative thinning in Pine plantations and the rate of natural regeneration was directly related with the canopy gap. However, in Shorea robusta-Castanopsis- Schima (Sal-Katus-Chilaune) forest, negative thinning created canopy gap larger than selection system due to removal of 4-D trees, majority of trees were Schima wallichii (Chilaune),which typically have large spreading crown. Although, it may be too early to conclude the relationship between regeneration development and canopy gap from the trial plots, it became clear that silviculture operations have significant role in promoting higher regeneration. Selection and shelterwood systems are better than current silviculture regime represented by negative thinning in this study.E. Cedamon, G. Paudel, M. Basyal, I. Nuberg and N. Paude

Canopy gaps and regeneration development in Pine and Sal Forests Silviculture Demonstration Plots in Midhills Nepal

Silviculture demonstration plots were established in Kavre and Lamjung districts by the EnLiFT Project to examine stand response to selected silviculture system ~ uniform shelterwood, selection system, and negative thinning and as a showcase to forest users for these silviculture system. This paper analysis the extent of canopy gaps on these demo plots after silviculture treatments and regeneration development one-year after treatment. Using crown photographs, crown covers are estimated and compared between silviculture systems. The analysis have shown that rigid silviculture systems like shelterwood and selection system can create significant canopy gaps than negative thinning in pine plantations and that the rate of natural regeneration is directly related with the canopy gaps. In Sal-Katus-Chilaune forest however, negative thinning created canopy gaps larger than selection silviculture demo plots due to removal of 4-D trees, majority are Chilaune trees, which typically have large spreading crown. Although conclusion from the demo plots at this stage may be too early to make on regeneration growth and canopy gap relationship, it is clear that silviculture operations have significant role in promoting higher rate regeneration growth and that rigid silviculture operations like selection and shelterwood systems are better than current silviculture regime represented by negative thinning in this study.Edwin Cedamon, Govinda Paudel, Madan Basyal, Ian Nuberg and Naya Paude

The evolving landscape of agricultural biodiversity conservation: Community-based Biodiversity Management (CBM): A landscape approach to the conservation of agricultural biodiversity cultivated on fifteen years of experiences in Begnas, Nepal

Community-based Biodiversity Management (CBM) is an emerging landscape approach to agricultural biodiversity conservation. CBM seeks to encourage the custodianship of land and agricultural biodiversity as a means for improving livelihoods of local communities. Local Initiatives for Biodiversity, Research and Development (LI-BIRD), in collaboration with national and international research organizations, has been developing CBM through participatory action research projects in 15 districts in Nepal. One compelling example of CBM is the restoration of the Rupa lake watershed in Begnas, in the Lekhnath Municipality in Kaski district of Nepal

Towards active utilisation of community forestry: silvo-institutional model for sustainable forest management in Nepal

This paper explains what we term the ‘silvo-institutional model’ for a more productive, sustainable and equitable management of community forests in Nepal. The paper draws on four years of action research in six research sites of Kavre and Lamjung districts, complemented by the review of silviculture-based forest management by Government of Nepal in various parts of the country. The findings indicate that first, early silviculture-based forest management initiatives have failed because they did not adequately consider the policy and institutional dimensions. Second, current initiatives, while looked promising for the active utilisation of community forests, have faced with complex regulatory and institutional barriers. We argue that a new ‘silvoinstitutional model’, which combines technological and institutional dimensions, has a potential to increase the prospect of successful implementation of silviculture-based forest management.N. S. Paudel, H. Ojha, K. Shrestha, E. Cedamon, R. Karki, G. Paudel, M. Basyal, I. Nuberg and S. Danga

Medication dispensing system architecture

Non-adherence of prescribed medication is a global problem that a ects many people. There are many factors related to this problem that contributes to further increase the problem and impact in a patient's life. It is proposed a system to assist in the management of medicine and the communication with carers. The system has many components that include mechanical components, electrical components and management system, and servers. It is intended to o er a system that can help reduce the non-adherence factors and the consequences in the life of the patients and their carers.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Applications of single-tree selection guideline folllowing a DBq approach on Nepal's community forests

There is growing interest by forest users, government forest officers and policy makers on maximising forest goods and livelihood provisions from community forestry in a sustainable manner. However, the way several mature community forests are currently managed based on selection, e.g. negative thinning and crown thinning, is questionable as it results to decline in forest stock, timber quality and regeneration. To assist forest users in managing their community forests, an action research was implemented in Kavre and Lamjung to manage planted Pine (Pinus spp.) and naturallyregenerated Sal (Shorea robusta) through selection system. This paper describes the q-factor and its relevance for sustainable community forest management in Nepal. The simple guideline for selection system introduced to 30 community forest users groups in six sites are presented for wider adoption and policy recommendation.E. Cedamon, G. Paudel, M. Basyal, I. Nuberg and K. K. Shresth

Q-factors is a useful guide for selection silviculture on Nepal's community forests

There is growing interest by forest users, government forestry officers and policy makers on maximising forest goods and livelihood provisions from community forestry in a sustainable manner. However the way several mature community forests are currently managed based on selection, e.g. negative thinning and crown thinning is questionable as it results to decline in forest stock, timber quality and regeneration. To assist forest users in managing their community forests, an action research has been implemented in Kavre and Lamjung to manage planted Pine (Pinus spp.) and naturallyregenerated Sal (Shorea robusta) through selection system. This paper describes what is q-factor and its relevance for sustainable community forest management in Nepal. The simple guideline for selection system introduced to 30 community forest users groups in six sites are presented for wider adoption and policy recommendation.Edwin Cedamon, Govinda Paudel, Madan Basyal, Ian Nuberg and Krishna K Shresth

Families of dynamically hot stellar systems over ten orders of magnitude in mass

Dynamically hot stellar systems, whether star clusters or early-type galaxies, follow well-defined scaling relations over many orders of magnitudes in mass. These fundamental plane relations have been subject of several studies, which have been mostly confined to certain types of galaxies and/or star clusters so far. Here, we present a complete picture of hot stellar systems ranging from faint galaxies and star clusters of only a few hundred solar masses up to giant ellipticals (gEs) with 10^12 M_sun, in particular including large samples of compact ellipticals (cEs), ultra-compact dwarf galaxies (UCDs), dwarf ellipticals (dEs) of nearby galaxy clusters and Local Group ultra-faint dwarf spheroidals (dSphs). For all those stellar systems we show the effective radius-luminosity, effective radius-stellar mass, and effective mass surface density-stellar mass plane. Two families of hot stellar systems can be differentiated: the 'galaxian' family, ranging from gEs over Es and dEs to dSphs, and the 'star cluster' family, comprising globular clusters (GCs), UCDs and nuclear star clusters (NCs). Interestingly, massive ellipticals have a similar size-mass relation as cEs, UCDs and NCs, with a clear common boundary towards minimum sizes. No object of either family is located in the 'zone of avoidance' beyond this limit. Even the majority of early-type galaxies at high redshift obeys this relation. The sizes of dEs and dSphs as well as GCs barely vary with mass over several orders of magnitude. We use the constant galaxy sizes to derive the distances of several local galaxy clusters. Both, galaxies and star clusters, do not exceed a surface density of \Sigma_eff = 3.17*10^{10}*M^{-3/5} M_sun pc^{-2}, causing an orthogonal kink in the galaxy sequence for ellipticals more massive than 10^{11} M_sun. The densest stellar systems (within their effective radius) are nuclear star clusters. (abridged)Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS. Errors for mean effective radii and related quantities in Table 3 corrected, references added and affiliation changed in the replaced versio