3D hand tracking.

The hand is often considered as one of the most natural and intuitive interaction modalities for human-to-human interaction. In human-computer interaction (HCI), proper 3D hand tracking is the first step in developing a more intuitive HCI system which can be used in applications such as gesture recognition, virtual object manipulation and gaming. However, accurate 3D hand tracking, remains a challenging problem due to the hand’s deformation, appearance similarity, high inter-finger occlusion and complex articulated motion. Further, 3D hand tracking is also interesting from a theoretical point of view as it deals with three major areas of computer vision- segmentation (of hand), detection (of hand parts), and tracking (of hand). This thesis proposes a region-based skin color detection technique, a model-based and an appearance-based 3D hand tracking techniques to bring the human-computer interaction applications one step closer. All techniques are briefly described below. Skin color provides a powerful cue for complex computer vision applications. Although skin color detection has been an active research area for decades, the mainstream technology is based on individual pixels. This thesis presents a new region-based technique for skin color detection which outperforms the current state-of-the-art pixel-based skin color detection technique on the popular Compaq dataset (Jones & Rehg 2002). The proposed technique achieves 91.17% true positive rate with 13.12% false negative rate on the Compaq dataset tested over approximately 14,000 web images. Hand tracking is not a trivial task as it requires tracking of 27 degreesof- freedom of hand. Hand deformation, self occlusion, appearance similarity and irregular motion are major problems that make 3D hand tracking a very challenging task. This thesis proposes a model-based 3D hand tracking technique, which is improved by using proposed depth-foreground-background ii feature, palm deformation module and context cue. However, the major problem of model-based techniques is, they are computationally expensive. This can be overcome by discriminative techniques as described below. Discriminative techniques (for example random forest) are good for hand part detection, however they fail due to sensor noise and high interfinger occlusion. Additionally, these techniques have difficulties in modelling kinematic or temporal constraints. Although model-based descriptive (for example Markov Random Field) or generative (for example Hidden Markov Model) techniques utilize kinematic and temporal constraints well, they are computationally expensive and hardly recover from tracking failure. This thesis presents a unified framework for 3D hand tracking, using the best of both methodologies, which out performs the current state-of-the-art 3D hand tracking techniques. The proposed 3D hand tracking techniques in this thesis can be used to extract accurate hand movement features and enable complex human machine interaction such as gaming and virtual object manipulation

Knowledge about Risk Factors for Cancer among Adults in Nepal

Cancer accounts for 8% mortality in Nepal and is an emerging public health concern. It is believed that increasing the basic knowledge about cancer is vital to decreasing the burden of cancer diagnosis and treatment. The purpose of this study was to identify cancer awareness among Nepali adults. A descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted in five wards of Lalitpur Sub-metropolitan city. A random sample of 300 Nepali adults aged 20–60 years participated in this study. Most participants (45.3%) were aged 20–40 years and 50.7% (N=152) were male. About 84.3% (N= 252) participants were literate and 30.7% (N =92) had a university level education. A total of 27.3% (N =82) had a family history of non-communicable diseases. The male participants smoked and consumed alcohol more than did the females (p <0.05). Television (78.3%) was reported as the most common information source, and 85% of participants had heard most information about lung cancer. Smoking was considered a major risk factor by 92% of participants. Although 69.3% believed cancer was preventable if diagnosed early, and only 11% (N = 33) had undergone screening for cancer. Only 19.6% of literate and middle-aged females had undergone cervical cancer screening. A total of 95% of participants showed a strong need for cancer education. Logistic regression showed that educational level was not a significant factor for knowledge about cancer (p=0.846, Odds ratio=0.944). This study showed astrong need for awareness about cancer and screening tests to ameliorate increasing cance risk. Keywords: Risk factors, Cancer, Knowledge, Nepal

Three studies on psychological distress, health-risk behaviors, and health care access among Chinese, Filipino, and Asian Indian American Subgroups

Asian Americans are the fastest-growing ethnic minority population in the United States. Among this group, Chinese-, Filipino-, and Asian Indian Americans are the most three largest Asian American subgroups. Yet, health-related research on the growing Asian American population at the subgroup level remains limited. To date, studies have focused on aggregating all Asians into a single category. The current study sought to examine psychological distress, cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption, and health care access among the three most populous subgroups of Asian Americans. In Study 1, we focus on psychological distress. In Study 2, we focus on current cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption. Finally, we focus on the usual source of health care among these three subgroups in Study 3. We use the pooled National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) data (2011-2015) for our statistical analyses. Participants are self-identified Asian American adults who completed the Sample Adult Component questionnaires of the survey. NHIS provides information on adults' psychological distress, current smoking and alcohol consumption, and health care access. We run a series of multivariate regression models to examine key factors associated with psychological distress, health risk behaviors, and usual source of care. The results of this dissertation highlight the importance of disaggregated data analysis when examining factors related to psychological distress, current cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption, and having a usual source of care. We showed that there were significant health disparities remain in psychological distress, health-risk behaviors, and usual source of care across Asian American subgroups. Marked differences in health outcomes indicate the underlying significance of different predictors and draw the attention of policymakers, researchers, and practitioners to address the existing health disparities. Once policymakers understand the disproportionate health outcomes, they have the opportunity to formulate policies and legislation that will more accurately represent the experiences of specific Asian American subgroups so that targeted public services can be more productive.Includes bibliographical reference

Fisheries Management under Irreversible Investment: Does Stochasticity Matter?

We present a continuous, nonlinear, stochastic and dynamic model for capital investment in the exploitation of a renewable resource. Both the resource stock and capital stock are treated as state variables. The resource owner controls fishing effort and the investment rate in an optimal way. Biological stock growth and capital depreciation rate are stochastic in the model. We find that the stochastic resource should be managed conservatively. The capital utilization rate is found to be a non-increasing function of stochasticity. Investment could be either higher or lower depending on the interaction between the capital and the resource stocks. In general a stochastic capital depreciation rate has only weak influence on optimal management. In the long run, the steady state harvest for a stochastic resource becomes lower than the deterministic level.Physical capital; irreversible investment; stochastic growth; long-term sustainable optimal

Knowledge of Risk Factors of Cancer Among Nepali Immigrants in Japan

Cancer accounts for 30% mortality in Japan. Increasing the basic knowledge on Cancer is vital to decrease the burden of cancer treatment and medical expenses. Since Nepal is the largest South Asian community in Japan, it is necessary to assess their awareness of Cancer. The purpose of this study was to identify cancer awarenessamong Nepali immigrants in Japan. A descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted Hokkaido prefecture, Japan. A snowball sample of 100 Nepali immigrants aged 20-45 years participated in this study. SPSS V.22.0 was used for regression and descriptive analysis. Most immigrants (67%) were in between 31 and 45 years old and male (73%). Almost 21% did not have health insurance in Japan. The smoking rate was low (12%) while the alcohol rate was high (65%) among immigrants. Internet was reported to be the most common source of information. A total of 87% of immigrants showed a strong need for cancer education. The total range of score was 0-9. Female, university-level education, family history of chronic illness, and immigrants with the daily habit of healthy diet had better knowledge about risk factors of Cancer. Multiple regressions showed education level, length of stay, and healthy diet habit as a significant factor for knowledge about cancer (R2 = 0.34, p<0.01). There was limited knowledge on risk factors of cancer among Nepali immigrants. This study showed a strong need for awareness about cancer and screening tests to ameliorate the increased risk of cancer. Keywords: Risk factors, Cancer, Immigrants, Knowledge, Nepal

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

Performance of Garden Pea Genotypes in Eastern Hills of Nepal

Garden pea (Pisum sativum L) is an important winter legume used as fresh vegetables and other drier food products. Despite of its importance as cash crop in many parts of Nepal, much study on various aspects for enhancing production and productivity has yet to be done. Therefore, to evaluate the production performance different genotypes of garden pea in eastern hills agro-ecological conditions present experiments were carried out consecutively for two years (2015 and 2016) at Agricultural Research Station, Pakhribas. The experiment comprised of 11 different genotypes of garden pea including a check variety Arkel. The production performance was evaluated in a completely randomized block design with three replications. The seeds were sown at 50 × 10 cm spacing during first week of October for two years. The result showed that DGP-05 genotype had earliest 104 days after sowing. The DGP-08 genotype showed 13 which were the maximum numbers of pods per plant (13), while DGP-01 showed 8 numbers of seeds as the maximum per pod. The DGP-03 genotype had the longest pod of 9.78 cm among others. The highest fresh pod yield of 18.14 t/ha was achieved from genotype DGP-09 followed by Arkel with (16.32 t/ha).Journal of Nepal Agricultural Research Council Vol.3 2017: 15-1