Proceedings of Bhutan: Biodemocracy & Resilience Conference 2020

The Second Bhutan Biodemocracy and Resilience Conference With a focus on pathways to resilience in the face of cross-sectoral and regional effects of the coronavirus pandemic)(held on December 21-22, 2020) brought together a range of people from politics, civil society, media, business, academia, education, industry, agriculture in multiple panels to discuss the key developmental challenges in the context of the pandemic. The conference was covered in the Bhutanese media and received an overwhelmingly positive feedback from various sectors of society and on social media. The aim of the project was to bring together key stakeholders in Bhutan to produce engaged deliberations and reports that can guide policymaking. The two-day conference had panel discussions on the effects of the coronavirus crisis in relation to economic vulnerability and climate change, volunteerism and public health, local governments, agriculture, employment, hydropower and tourism. A keynote address from Lyonpo Ugyen Dorji, Minister of Labour and Human Resources of the Royal Government of Bhutan, began the two days of panel discussions on the pandemic, public policy and development. The talks were livestreamed and watched by thousands of people and were covered nationally. The BBR 2020 conference built upon the first conference titled ‘Bhutan as Biodemocracy: Building Socioeconomic and Environmental Resilience’ which was held in July 2019

Social, Cultural and Economic determinants of HIV/AIDS: A community case report of Bhutan

Background: Bhutan has a low-level HIV epidemic, with sporadic cases across the whole population. Our society is witnessing momentous social and cultural changes coinciding with the arc of the HIV pandemic. Therefore, this paper systematically assesses socio cultural determinants of HIV in Bhutan for appropriate responses to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030. Methods: We reviewed the literature relevant to HIV in Bhutan using appropriate search engines. We adapted Dahlgren and Whitehead’s model of social health determinants in the population as a conceptual framework. Results: Young age played the salient role between rapid sociocultural changes and HIV in Bhutan. Most teens are sexually active, has relaxed sexual norms, low condom use, and has multiple sexual partners. Gender identity and sexual orientation are increasingly fluid among transgender and gay/bisexual men. Worksites with migrants and entertainment venues are nexuses for sexual networking resulting in transactional/sex work. Conclusion: Our findings suggest a high potential for a shift from diffuse cases of HIV to more concentrated HIV epidemic. HIV responses need to be tailored specifically for key populations instead of the current generalized approach. We recommend community-based HIV Self Testing and social support to overcome the structural barriers to enhance case diagnosis.&nbsp

Interannual variability of temperature in the UTLS region over Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna river basin based on COSMIC GNSS RO data

Poor reliability of radiosonde records across South Asia imposes serious challenges in understanding the structure of upper-tropospheric and lower-stratospheric (UTLS) region. The Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate (COSMIC) mission launched in April 2006 has overcome many observational limitations inherent in conventional atmospheric sounding instruments. This study examines the interannual variability of UTLS temperature over the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) river basin in South Asia using monthly averaged COSMIC radio occultation (RO) data, together with two global reanalyses. Comparisons between August 2006 and December 2013 indicate that MERRA (Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research Application) and ERA-Interim (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts reanalysis) are warmer than COSMIC RO data by 2°C between 200 and 50hPa levels. These warm biases with respect to COSMIC RO data are found to be consistent over time. The UTLS temperature show considerable interannual variability from 2006 to 2013 in addition to warming (cooling) trends in the troposphere (stratosphere). The cold (warm) anomalies in the upper troposphere (tropopause region) are found to be associated with warm ENSO (El Niño-Southern Oscillation) phase, while quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) is negatively (positively) correlated with temperature anomalies at 70hPa (50hPa) level. PCA (principal component analysis) decomposition of tropopause temperatures and heights over the basin indicate that ENSO accounts for 73% of the interannual (non-seasonal) variability with a correlation of 0.77 with Niño3.4 index whereas the QBO explains about 10% of the variability. The largest tropopause anomaly associated with ENSO occurs during the winter, when ENSO reaches its peak. The tropopause temperature (height) increased (decreased) by about 1.5°C (300m) during the last major El Niño event of 2009/2010. In general, we find decreasing (increasing) trend in tropopause temperature (height) between 2006 and 2013

Interannual variability of temperature in the UTLS region over Ganges–Brahmaputra–Meghna river basin based on COSMIC GNSS RO data

Poor reliability of radiosonde records across South Asia imposes serious challenges in understanding the structure of upper-tropospheric and lower-stratospheric (UTLS) region. The Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate (COSMIC) mission launched in April 2006 has overcome many observational limitations inherent in conventional atmospheric sounding instruments. This study examines the interannual variability of UTLS temperature over the Ganges–Brahmaputra–Meghna (GBM) river basin in South Asia using monthly averaged COSMIC radio occultation (RO) data, together with two global reanalyses. Comparisons between August 2006 and December 2013 indicate that MERRA (Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research Application) and ERA-Interim (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts reanalysis) are warmer than COSMIC RO data by 2 °C between 200 and 50 hPa levels. These warm biases with respect to COSMIC RO data are found to be consistent over time. The UTLS temperature show considerable interannual variability from 2006 to 2013 in addition to warming (cooling) trends in the troposphere (stratosphere). The cold (warm) anomalies in the upper troposphere (tropopause region) are found to be associated with warm ENSO (El Niño–Southern Oscillation) phase, while quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) is negatively (positively) correlated with temperature anomalies at 70 hPa (50 hPa) level. PCA (principal component analysis) decomposition of tropopause temperatures and heights over the basin indicate that ENSO accounts for 73 % of the interannual (non-seasonal) variability with a correlation of 0.77 with Niño3.4 index whereas the QBO explains about 10 % of the variability. The largest tropopause anomaly associated with ENSO occurs during the winter, when ENSO reaches its peak. The tropopause temperature (height) increased (decreased) by about 1.5 °C (300 m) during the last major El Niño event of 2009/2010. In general, we find decreasing (increasing) trend in tropopause temperature (height) between 2006 and 2013

Babesa sewage treatment plant as a vital artificial wetland habitat for a multitude of avian species

This study aimed to glean basic ecological aspects on diversity and abundance, temporal variation and guild composition of the birds at Babesa Sewage Treatment Plant (STP). The line transect method was used as the sampling technique from November 2021 to October 2022. A total of 80 species belonging to 58 genera, 29 families, and 11 orders were detected, of which three, namely, River Lapwing Vanellus duvaucelii, Falcated Duck Mareca falcata, and Ferruginous Duck Aythya nyroca, are ‘Near Threatened’ with the remaining being ‘Least Concern’. The highest species richness was recorded in the winter (6.29), the highest species diversity in the spring (2.73), and the highest evenness in the summer (0.76). There was not any statistically significant difference between non-waterbirds and waterbirds, or between feeding guilds. However, based on a permutational multivariate analysis of variance (PERMANOVA), the bird composition was significantly different among seasons. Subsequently, pairwise comparisons revealed a significant difference between autumn & winter (P = 0.006), autumn & summer (P = 0.006), autumn & spring (P = 0.018), winter & summer (P = 0.006), winter & spring (P = 0.006) as well as spring & summer (P = 0.006). The non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) biplot showed most bird species overlap occurred between autumn and spring as well as summer and spring, respectively. Taken together, the present results suggest that the Babesa STP holds significant potential as a habitat for diverse avian populations and underscores the ecological significance of artificial wetlands

HYBRID CLOUD EXPLOITING THE ASSETS OF BUSINESS VALUE

Cloud is kind of centralized database where numerous clients accumulate their data, recover data and possibly adjust data and it is a representation where user is made available services by Cloud Service Provider on the basis of pay per use.  Numerous organizations are now taking most important steps in the direction of cloud computing. A hybrid cloud is a grouping of both public and private clouds which are bound mutually by either harmonized or proprietary knowledge that facilitates data and application portability. Hybrid clouds present the benefits of outlay and scale of public clouds although also offering the security and organizing of private clouds. Hybrid clouds can be measured an intermediary stage as enterprises organize to progress for the most part of their workloads to public clouds. All along with the characteristic security concerns associated through private clouds, there are several additional factors one should regard in a hybrid environment. Hybrid environments entail both on-premise and public cloud providers, several additional infrastructure security considerations come into the view which is normally related with public clouds

Quantifying the impacts of ENSO and IOD on rain gauge and remotely sensed precipitation products over Australia

Large-scale ocean-atmospheric phenomena like the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) have significant influence on Australia's precipitation variability. In this study, multi-linear regression (MLR) and complex empirical orthogonal function (CEOF) analyses were applied to isolate (i) the continental precipitation variations likely associated with ENSO and IOD, here referred to as 'ENSO/IOD mode', and (ii) the variability not associated with ENSO/IOD (the 'non-ENSO/IOD mode'). The first is of interest due to its dominant influence on inter-annual variability, while the second may reveal lower frequency variability or trends. Precipitation products used for this study included gridded rainfall estimates derived by interpolation of rain gauge data from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BoM), two satellite remote sensing products (CHIRP and TRMM TMPA version 7), and two weather forecast model re-analysis products (ERA-Interim and MERRA). The products covered the period 1981-2014 except TMPA (1998-2014). Statistical and frequency-based inter-comparisons were performed to evaluate the seasonal and long-term skills of various rainfall products against the BoM product. The results indicate that linear trends in rainfall during 1981-2014 were largely attributable to ENSO and IOD. Both intra-annual and seasonal rainfall changes associated with ENSO and IOD increased from 1991 to 2014. Among the continent's 13 major river basins, the greatest precipitation variations associated with ENSO/IOD were found over the Northern and North East Coast, while the smallest contributions were for Tasmania and the South West Coast basins. We also found that although the assessed products show comparable spatial variability of rainfall over Australia, systematic seasonal differences exist that were more pronounced during the ENSO and IOD events

Synthesis of 3H-imidazo[4,5-b] pyridine with evaluation of their anticancer and antimicrobial activity

Microwave assisted and conventional synthetic methods of new 6-bromo-2-(substituted)-3H-imidazo[4,5-b]pyridine and its derivatives are described, which were obtained in reduced reaction times, higher yields, cleaner reactions than previously described methods. All the synthesized compounds were characterized, and screened for their anticancer and antimicrobial activity. Among synthesized compounds 3b and 3k shows prominent antibacterial activity and compound 3f shows both antibacterial and antifungal activity. Compounds 3h and 3j shows prominent anticancer activity against the both breast cancer cell lines, MCF-7 and BT-474. These results suggest that the imidazo[4,5-b]pyridine moiety may serve as a new promising template for synthesis of anticancer and antimicrobial agents and further study is required for evaluation of their mechanism of action