Knowledge and utilization of preconception care among women in selected community of Kathmandu

Introduction: Preconception care is a critical component of maternal and child health care services to reduce adverse outcomes of pregnancy and to improve desired health outcomes for women, new-born, and children by focusing on health promotion, screening, and interventions. This study aimed to find out the knowledge and utilization of preconception care among women. Method: A cross-sectional design was carried out among women. Non-probability purposive sampling technique was adopted to select married women of reproductive age in Tokha municipality-10, Kathmandu. Data was collected using face-to-face structured interview. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. Association among variables was measured by Kruskal–Wallis H test. Result: More than half of the 200 women surveyed, 133 (66.5%) had average level of knowledge and 61 (30.5%) adequate and 6 (3%) inadequate level of knowledge regarding preconception care. Similarly, 196 (98%) had low utilization and 4 (2%) had high utilization level. There was statistically significant association between educational level of respondents with the level of knowledge (p=0.05) and their husband’s educational level (p=0.00). There was no significant association with age, type of family, occupation, monthly family income, number of pregnancy, history of abortion/still birth and age at first pregnancy.  Conclusion: This study shows more than half of respondents had an average level of knowledge about preconception care whereas only 2% had high level of utilization of care

Energy Gardens for Small-Scale Farmers in Nepal Institutions, Species and Technology. Field Work Report

The Nepal Energy Garden forges new links across disciplines by integrating research on the institutional economics of energy and technology transfer with the knowledge of botanists and engineers. The objectives are fourfold: to investigate the institutional economics of energy biomass and biofuel production from local to national and global scales to undertake a technical assessment of resources and conversion routes to combine the institutional and technical analyses to devise ways for community cooperation on sustainable energy production to transfer the knowledge gained to a wide international audience. The energy garden concept originates from an idea developed by the Hassan Biofuels Park in India and will follow their approach for using local plant species as the source of biofuels, thereby avoiding loss of biodiversity as much as possible, and using marginal land to avoid competition with food crops. The project is a partnership of four organisations in Nepal and the Hassan Biofuels Park. The objectives will be achieved through a combination of policy analysis, reviews of plant species, analysis of technical options and field work in the villages. The aim is to test the feasibility of expanding the successful Energy Garden approach to Nepal and worldwide

Projected distribution of the westernmost subpopulation of Assamese macaques (Macaca assamensis pelops) under climate change: conservation implications of a threatened population

Anthropogenic climate change can have a negative impact on the distribution of habitat specialist species with narrow distributional ranges. Among the many areas around the world affected by climate change, the Himalayan region in particular is experiencing marked effects of global warming on its climatic patterns and life forms. This study assessed the current distribution of Assamese macaques (Macaca assamensis) in western Nepal, and projected their likely distribution (via habitat suitability modeling) for the years 2050 and 2070 under the two most plausible greenhouse gas emission scenarios (RCP4.5 and RCP6.0). We recorded a total of 159 Assamese macaques belonging to 10 groups (nine of them residing outside of protected area networks) between 684m and 2550m asl in western Nepal. Climatic niche modeling predicted that 37.03% (25,114 km2) of the total area of western Nepal (67,813 km2) represented suitable habitat of the species, the majority of which ranged between 1000 m and 2000 m asl. Future projections of the current climatic niche of the Assamese macaques revealed a consistent decrease in the suitable habitat for 2050 and 2070 in both of the greenhouse emission scenarios tested. With the RCP6.0 scenario, almost 57% of the current highly suitable habitat would be lost by 2070 with remaining suitable habitat shifted towards higher elevations. The loss of habitat directly affects the species survival and the range shift towards higher elevation exposes them to new areas for conflict with humans. Therefore, the Assamese macaque population in western Nepal requires a high conservation priority with the establishment of new protected areas

Predicting the potential distribution and habitat variables associated with pangolins in Nepal

Pangolins are highly-threatened due to illegal hunting and poaching, and by the loss, degradation, and fragmentation of their habitats. In Nepal, effective conservation actions for pangolins are scarce due to limited information on the distribution of pangolins in many areas of the country. To identify the nationwide distribution of pangolins in Nepal, and assess the environmental variables associated with their habitat, we conducted an extensive literature review to collate data from previous studies, canvassed information from key informant interviews and expert opinion, and conducted transect surveys and sign surveys. The occurrence of pangolins was recorded based on sightings and indirect signs (such as burrows, digs, tracks, and scats) along 115 belt transects of 500-m length with a fixed width of 50-m, and habitat parameters were surveyed using 347 quadrats of 10 m*10 m. Pangolin presence was confirmed from 61 out of 75 districts from the eastern to the far western parts of the country. The highest frequency of burrows (74%) was observed in the forested habitat constituting brown soil with medium texture (0.02–2 mm) within an elevation range of 500–1500 m above sea level. Logistic regression suggested that the occurrence of pangolin was highly influenced by ground cover and canopy cover of 50–75%, litter depth, and the distance to termite mounds and roads. We used 4136 occurrence GPS points of pangolin burrows that were compiled and collected from the literature review and field surveys in order to predict the potential habitat distribution of pangolin using maximum entropy algorithm (MaxEnt 3.4.1). The model predicted 15.2% (22,393 km2) of the total land of Nepal as potentially suitable habitat for pangolin, with 38.3% (8574 km2) of potential habitat in the eastern region, followed by 37.6% (8432 km2) in the central and 24.1% (5,387 km2) in the western regions. The results of this study present a national baseline for pangolin distribution and serve as an important document for developing and executing conservation actions and management plans for the long-term conservation of pangolins in Nepal

Linkages among forest, water, and wildlife: a case study from Kalapani community forest in Lamahi bottleneck area in Terai Arc Landscape.

Forest and water are important entities for sustaining life on earth. In a terrestrial ecosystem, linkages between the entities creates a mosaic benefiting the wildlife by creating the suitable habitat. In turn, communities get benefits stemming up from ecosystem services such as fodder, fuelwood, and water. We present a case study from a forest restoration project to assess the linkages between forest, water and wildlife across Lamahi bottleneck area in Terai Arc Landscape. We used combination of surveys such as forest area and canopy cover change (2001-2016) analysis followed by household questionnaire, water hole, camera trapping including process documentation. Forest area has increased by ~20 km2 in last 16 yrs. followed by number of water spouts along the identified tributaries. Water spouts are conserved in the form of conservation pond by the communities living downstream and utilized in the vegetable farming. Communities have benefited financially (~ US$ 1,252) contributing to their income level from the sale of fresh season vegetables in nearby market. Camera trap survey including the assessment of historical records showed presence of wildlife including elephant, hyena and other small carnivores in and around bottleneck forest. Both, motivation and enthusiastic support from local communities followed by the conducive government policies led to improve condition of natural resources over the period. This has also created a mosaic habitat for wildlife forming functional connectivity along the linear Terai Arc Landscape

The perfect storm: Disruptions to institutional delivery care arising from the COVID-19 pandemic in Nepal

Background The COVID-19 pandemic has led to system-wide disruption of health services globally. We assessed the effect of the pandemic on the disruption of institutional delivery care in Nepal. Methods We conducted a prospective cohort study among 52356 women in nine hospitals to assess the disruption of institutional delivery care during the pandemic (comparing March to August in 2019 with the same months in 2020). We also conducted a nested follow up cohort study with 2022 women during the pandemic to assess their provision and experience of respectful care. We used linear regression models to assess the association between provision and experience of care with volume of hospital births and women’s residence in a COVID-19 hotspot area. Results The mean institutional births during the pandemic across the nine hospitals was 24563, an average decrease of 11.6% (P<0.0001) in comparison to the same time-period in 2019. The institutional birth in high-medium volume hospitals declined on average by 20.8% (P<0.0001) during the pandemic, whereas in low-volume hospital institutional birth increased on average by 7.9% (P=0.001). Maternity services halted for a mean of 4.3 days during the pandemic and there was a redeployment staff to COVID-19 dedicated care. Respectful provision of care was better in hospitals with low-volume birth (β=0.446, P<0.0001) in comparison to high-medium-volume hospitals. There was a positive association between women’s residence in a COVID-19 hotspot area and respectful experience of care (β=0.076, P=0.001). Conclusions The COVID-19 pandemic has had differential effects on maternity services with changes varying by the volume of births per hospital with smaller volume facilities doing better. More research is needed to investigate the effects of the pandemic on where women give birth and their provision and experience of respectful maternity care to inform a “building-back-better” approach in post-pandemic period

Teachers' (De)Motivation During COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case Study from Nepal

The COVID-19 pandemic has produced havoc in the world and Nepal is no exception. A transition from an in-person classroom to online classroom has been daunting for the students and teachers motivation level. The impact of teacher morale is often neglected by policymakers and all the stakeholders themselves, which may lead to teachers’ lack of motivation or "demotivation". Teachers’ demotivation is an emotional, cognitive, socio-cultural and psychological state that leads to exhaustion, depersonalization, burnout, decreased teacher achievement and self-worth stress. This study aimed to investigate the factors that supported and hindered Nepalese EFL teachers' motivation levels in their classrooms. A qualitative case study was employed as a research design. Four EFL secondary level teachers teaching at private schools in Kathmandu Valley were selected for this study. The teacher participants were chosen via a systematic random sampling procedure. The data was analyzed and interpreted using a thematic approach, employing survey questionnaires, teachers' interviews, and classroom observation as data collection instruments. The results of this study revealed that EFL teachers in private schools are intrinsically and extrinsically demotivated. The factors that demotivate these teachers include low wages, lack of continuing professional development, students' disruptive behaviors, job insecurity, and fewer holidays

Teachers' (De)Motivation During COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case Study From Nepal

The COVID-19 pandemic has produced havoc in the world and Nepal is no exception. A transition from an in-person classroom to online classroom has been daunting for the students and teachers motivation level. The impact of teacher morale is often neglected by policymakers and all the stakeholders themselves, which may lead to teachers' lack of motivation or "demotivation". Teachers' demotivation is an emotional, cognitive, socio-cultural and psychological state that leads to exhaustion, depersonalization, burnout, decreased teacher achievement and self-worth stress. This study aimed to investigate the factors that supported and hindered Nepalese EFL teachers' motivation levels in their classrooms. A qualitative case study was employed as a research design. Four EFL secondary level teachers teaching at private schools in Kathmandu Valley were selected for this study. The teacher participants were chosen via a systematic random sampling procedure. The data was analyzed and interpreted using a thematic approach, employing survey questionnaires, teachers' interviews, and classroom observation as data collection instruments. The results of this study revealed that EFL teachers in private schools are intrinsically and extrinsically demotivated. The factors that demotivate these teachers include low wages, lack of continuing professional development, students' disruptive behaviors, job insecurity, and fewer holidays

Comparison of Antibody Titre Against Salmonella Species among Healthy Individuals and Febrile Patients

Background: Widal tube agglutination test is a widely used laboratory test for diagnosis of enteric fever   especially in resource limited countries where blood culture are not routinely available. We studied the titres from different groups including febrile and healthy populations in order to identify the significant agglutination titre. Materials and Methods: This was a hospital based cross-sectional study. Subjects were divided into three groups: 1) 60 healthy blood samples from volunteer students, 2) 60 febrile non-typhoidal cases and 3) 58 culture positive patient for enteric fever. Results: Among 60 apparently healthy volunteers, agglutination of ≥ 1:20 for anti O and anti-H titres against serotype Typhi were seen in 40 and 46 samples respectively. A significant proportion of   sample had a titre of ≥1:80 (n=19) and 1:160 (n=14) for anti O and anti-H titres against serotype Typhi respectively among healthy individuals. Similar observations were seen in febrile non typhoidal cases except for one which had a titre of ≥1:320 for anti O and anti-H titres against serotype Typhi. In blood culture positive typhoid cases, 56 samples showed agglutinations of ≥1:80 for both anti O and anti-H titres against serotype Typhi. However two of the total sample tested showed no agglutinations. In all cases from three groups, anti-H titre for S. enterica serotype Paratyphi A and B were below 1:80. Conclusions: Widal test can be used as presumptive diagnostic tool in all the suspected cases of enteric fever if the titres are specifically raised.Keywords: enteric fever; titre; widal aggultination test. </p