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

Deconvolution of pro- and antiviral genomic responses in Zika virus-infected and bystander macrophages.

Genome-wide investigations of host-pathogen interactions are often limited by analyses of mixed populations of infected and uninfected cells, which lower sensitivity and accuracy. To overcome these obstacles and identify key mechanisms by which Zika virus (ZIKV) manipulates host responses, we developed a system that enables simultaneous characterization of genome-wide transcriptional and epigenetic changes in ZIKV-infected and neighboring uninfected primary human macrophages. We demonstrate that transcriptional responses in ZIKV-infected macrophages differed radically from those in uninfected neighbors and that studying the cell population as a whole produces misleading results. Notably, the uninfected population of macrophages exhibits the most rapid and extensive changes in gene expression, related to type I IFN signaling. In contrast, infected macrophages exhibit a delayed and attenuated transcriptional response distinguished by preferential expression of IFNB1 at late time points. Biochemical and genomic studies of infected macrophages indicate that ZIKV infection causes both a targeted defect in the type I IFN response due to degradation of STAT2 and reduces RNA polymerase II protein levels and DNA occupancy, particularly at genes required for macrophage identity. Simultaneous evaluation of transcriptomic and epigenetic features of infected and uninfected macrophages thereby reveals the coincident evolution of dominant proviral or antiviral mechanisms, respectively, that determine the outcome of ZIKV exposure

Operationalising FRAM in Healthcare: A critical reflection on practice

Resilience Engineering principles are becoming increasingly popular in healthcare to improve patient safety. FRAM is the best-known Resilience Engineering method with several examples of its application in healthcare available. However, the guidance on how to apply FRAM leaves gaps, and this can be a potential barrier to its adoption and potentially lead to misuse and disappointing results. The article provides a self-reflective analysis of FRAM use cases to provide further methodological guidance for successful application of FRAM to improve patient safety. Five FRAM use cases in a range of healthcare settings are described in a structured way including critical reflection by the original authors of those studies. Individual reflections are synthesised through group discussion to identify lessons for the operationalisation of FRAM in healthcare. Four themes are developed: (1) core characteristics of a FRAM study, (2) flexibility regarding the underlying epistemological paradigm, (3) diversity with respect to the development of interventions, and (4) model complexity. FRAM is a systems analysis method that offers considerable flexibility to accommodate different epistemological positions, ranging from realism to phenomenology. We refer to these as computational FRAM and reflexive FRAM, respectively. Prac-titioners need to be clear about their analysis aims and their analysis position. Further guidance is needed to support practitioners to tell a convincing and meaningful "system story" through the lens of FRAM

Resilient healthcare theory as a lens to research emergency department operations: a protocol for a scoping review

Introduction Emergency departments (EDs) are complex systems that have constant fluctuations in demand, creating mismatches with planned capacity. Despite the complexity of ED operations, quality and safety improvement are often approached in a reactive, linear and reductionist manner. There is increasing interest in adopting Resilient Healthcare (RHC) techniques based on complex systems thinking as a method for quality improvement and research in EDs. However, the evidence for this approach is still developing and it is not clear what techniques have been used so far and which are most effective. This scoping review will be conducted between March 2022 until May 2022. It seeks to examine the international literature for available reports that have adopted RHC theory to study ED operations and identify approaches used and proposed benefits. Methods and analysis The methodology for scoping reviews outlined by Arksey and O’Malley (2005) will be followed, acknowledging refinements made to the scoping review process by Levac et al (2010). The methodology consists of five steps: (1) identifying the research question; (2) identifying the relevant literature; (3) study selection; (4) charting the data; and (5) collating, summarising and reporting the results. A two-stage approach will be undertaken to synthesise and report results: (1) numerical analysis of the nature and distribution of studies (the overall number of studies, country of origin, the most studied core function of ED, type of research design); and (2) a thematic mapping of the literature. Ethics and dissemination Scoping review methodology synthesises published data and, therefore, does not require ethical approval. An article formatted in line with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses forScoping Reviews reporting guidance will be submitted for publication to a scientific journal. Findings will also be presented at relevant advanced practice conferences and disseminated within clinical and academic groups

Resilient Health Care as the basis for teaching patient safety - A Safety-II critique of the World Health Organisation patient safety curriculum

Resilient Health Care (RHC) is predicated on the idea that health care systems constantly adjust to changing circumstances. RHC has become increasingly popular as a new way to improve patient safety, but to date there is no agreed way of using RHC as the basis for teaching patient safety. A key resource for patient safety educators is the World Health Organisation (WHO) patient safety curriculum, released ten years ago. However, it is well established that patient safety thinking in healthcare has been driven largely by Safety-I principles, and this is reflected in the WHO curriculum. The aim of this paper is to review and to provide a critique of the WHO patient safety curriculum from a Safety-II perspective, in order to assess to what extent RHC principles are already incorporated, and to identify areas where RHC might make contributions to the WHO curriculum. Based on this analysis, we argue that RHC thinking could be added in modular fashion to the WHO curriculum, but that in the future a broader curriculum should be developed that integrates RHC thinking throughout

Inertial- and Dissipation-Range Asymptotics in Fluid Turbulence

We propose and verify a wave-vector-space version of generalized extended self similarity and broaden its applicability to uncover intriguing, universal scaling in the far dissipation range by computing high-order (\leq 20\/) structure functions numerically for: (1) the three-dimensional, incompressible Navier Stokes equation (with and without hyperviscosity); and (2) the GOY shell model for turbulence. Also, in case (2), with Taylor-microscale Reynolds numbers 4 \times 10^{4} \leq Re_{\lambda} \leq 3 \times 10^{6}\/, we find that the inertial-range exponents (\zeta_{p}\/) of the order - p\/ structure functions do not approach their Kolmogorov value p/3\/ as Re_{\lambda}\/ increases.Comment: RevTeX file, with six postscript figures. epsf.tex macro is used for figure insertion. Packaged using the 'uufiles' utilit

Analytical Modelling of Thirty Meter Telescope Optics Polarization

The polarization introduced due to Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) optics is calculated using an analytical model. Mueller matrices are also generated for each optical element using Zemax, based on which the instrumental polarization due to the entire system at the focal plane is estimated and compared with the analytical model. This study is significant in the estimation of the telescope sensitivity and also has great implications for future instruments

Blocking Zika virus vertical transmission.

The outbreak of the Zika virus (ZIKV) has been associated with increased incidence of congenital malformations. Although recent efforts have focused on vaccine development, treatments for infected individuals are needed urgently. Sofosbuvir (SOF), an FDA-approved nucleotide analog inhibitor of the Hepatitis C (HCV) RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) was recently shown to be protective against ZIKV both in vitro and in vivo. Here, we show that SOF protected human neural progenitor cells (NPC) and 3D neurospheres from ZIKV infection-mediated cell death and importantly restored the antiviral immune response in NPCs. In vivo, SOF treatment post-infection (p.i.) decreased viral burden in an immunodeficient mouse model. Finally, we show for the first time that acute SOF treatment of pregnant dams p.i. was well-tolerated and prevented vertical transmission of the virus to the fetus. Taken together, our data confirmed SOF-mediated sparing of human neural cell types from ZIKV-mediated cell death in vitro and reduced viral burden in vivo in animal models of chronic infection and vertical transmission, strengthening the growing body of evidence for SOF anti-ZIKV activity

A genetically informed study of the associations between maternal age at childbearing and adverse perinatal outcomes

We examined associations of maternal age at childbearing (MAC) with gestational age and fetal growth (i.e., birth weight adjusting for gestational age), using two genetically informed designs (cousin and sibling comparisons) and data from two cohorts, a population-based Swedish sample and a nationally representative United States sample. We also conducted sensitivity analyses to test limitations of the designs. The findings were consistent across samples and suggested that, associations observed in the population between younger MAC and shorter gestational age were confounded by shared familial factors; however, associations of advanced MAC with shorter gestational age remained robust after accounting for shared familial factors. In contrast to the gestational age findings, neither early nor advanced MAC was associated with lower fetal growth after accounting for shared familial factors. Given certain assumptions, these findings provide support for a causal association between advanced MAC and shorter gestational age. The results also suggest that there are not causal associations between early MAC and shorter gestational age, between early MAC and lower fetal growth, and between advanced MAC and lower fetal growth.NonePublishe