Estimation of Growth Trends and Impact Assessment of National Food Security Mission on Chickpea Production in India

The present study has been attempted to analyse the growth trends and impact assessment of NFSM-P on area, production and yield of chickpea in major states in India. The study was based on the secondary data pertaining to the year 1970-71 to 2014-15. To estimate growth trends, compound growth function was fitted and change in area, production and yield of chickpea during NFSM-P period (2008-09 to 2014-15) has been compared with preceding period (1990-91 to 2007-08) for impact assessment of NFSM-P on chickpea in the country. The results of the study indicated that chickpea area in India over the period has almost been stagnating (0.12%, statistically non-significant). The production of has increased at an annual rate of 1.12 per cent owing to the significant annual increase (1.00%) in chickpea yield. The results further highlighted emergence of niche area such as Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka in chickpea production while area shrinkage from Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh was also observed. The yield of chickpea in all the major states of India has shown positive growth during the study period. The effort of the government in the form of NFSM-P has positively impacted area, production and yield of chickpea in the country but increase in production was supported by area addition rather than yield improvement indicating need of technological advancement, improved yield varieties for enhancement of chickpea production in the country

Traditional Healers and Mental Health in Nepal: A Scoping Review.

Despite extensive ethnographic and qualitative research on traditional healers in Nepal, the role of traditional healers in relation to mental health has not been synthesized. We focused on the following clinically based research question, "What are the processes by which Nepali traditional healers address mental well-being?" We adopted a scoping review methodology to maximize the available literature base and conducted a modified thematic analysis rooted in grounded theory, ethnography, and phenomenology. We searched five databases using terms related to traditional healers and mental health. We contacted key authors and reviewed references for additional literature. Our scoping review yielded 86 eligible studies, 65 of which relied solely on classical qualitative study designs. The reviewed literature suggests that traditional healers use a wide range of interventions that utilize magico-religious explanatory models to invoke symbolic transference, manipulation of local illness narratives, roles, and relationships, cognitive restructuring, meaning-making, and catharsis. Traditional healers' perceived impact appears greatest for mild to moderate forms of psychological distress. However, the methodological and sample heterogeneity preclude uniform conclusions about traditional healing. Further research should employ methods which are both empirically sound and culturally adapted to explore the role of traditional healers in mental health

A Case of Myocardial Rupture on the Background of Coronary Artery Thrombosis

Myocardial infarction infrequently complicates with the rupture of myocardial free wall in 6.2% of cases. It represents the second cause of death after cardiogenic shock, and accounts for as much as 15% of in-hospital mortality. The authors here report a case of an 80 year old male with the cause of death as myocardial rupture on the background of coronary artery thrombosis. J-GMC-N | Volume 11 | Issue 01 | January-June 2018, Page: 68-7

Elective surgery patients walk to operating room instead of wheeled in on trolley: patient centered care

Introductions: Habits and beliefs of earlier practitioners influence medicine. We continue to wheel in the elective surgery patients to operating room (OR) which makes them feel not in self-control and increases anxiety. With few exceptions of heavily sedated, in severe pain or frail patients, most prefer to walk to the OR accompanied by nurse and family, if given the opportunity, in line with patient centered care. We aim to assess feasibility to allow elective surgery patients walk to OR accompanied by nurse and family member. Methods:This was a cross-sectional observation of 100 consecutive elective surgery patients admitted at surgery department, Patan Hospital, Nepal. Adult patients of 15 years or above were allowed to walk to OR accompanied by a nurse and family members. Demographic profile, patient satisfaction, anxiety on arriving to OR, patient feeling of autonomy were recorded to assess patient centered care. Microsoft Excel was used to descriptively analyze the data. Ethical approval was obtained. Results:Of 100 consecutive patients, 62 were female and 38 male, average age 52 years (range 15 to 72), and abdomen surgery 62 (62%). Two patients did not want to walk. The 98 patients who walked to the OR, all were satisfied and 89 were not anxious. Conclusions: Elective surgery patients (98 out of 100) accompanied by nurse and family members walked to operating room satisfied and were not anxious.  Keywords: elective surgery, patient autonomy, patient-centered care, patient satisfaction, walking to operating roo

Alternative pest control approaches NPV for pod borer control and its uptake in Nepal

Pod borer is the most serious pest of chickpea in Nepal and its control based upon chemical insecticides alone has met major problems of resistance. There is a clear need for alternative pod borer control techniques. One of the most promising alternative controls i nucleopolyhedrovirus or NPV This is effective, safe and has bee adopted in a number of countries as part of the national pod bore IPM strategy. The chickpea IPM project has conducted evaluation of NPV in Nepal and results show it to be as effective or better than existing chemical control. However, if promotion of NPV in Nepal for pod borer control were to be adopted, a policy for the supply of NPV would need to be developed. Importation is feasible but local production would probably be cheaper. Several models of local production exist including farmer production, village production, state or extension service production and commercial private sector production and these models need to be evaluated for adoption in Nepal. A national system of regulation for NPV would also need to be developed

Capture into Rydberg states and momentum distributions of ionized electrons

The yield of neutral excited atoms and low-energy photoelectrons generated by the electron dynamics in the combined Coulomb and laser field after tunneling is investigated. We present results of Monte-Carlo simulations built on the two-step semiclassical model, as well as analytic estimates and scaling relations for the population trapping into the Rydberg states. It is shown that mainly those electrons are captured into bound states of the neutral atom that due to their initial conditions (i) have moderate drift momentum imparted by the laser field and (ii) avoid strong interaction ("hard" collision) with the ion. In addition, it is demonstrated that the channel of capture, when accounted for in semiclassical calculations, has a pronounced effect on the momentum distribution of electrons with small positive energy. For the parameters that we investigated its presence leads to a dip at zero momentum in the longitudinal momentum distribution of the ionized electrons.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures in one zip-archiv

Bioactive Molecules Against Malarial Dihydroorotate Dehydrogenase: An in silico Approach

Malaria, caused by Plasmodium falciparum, remains a major cause of mortality among children in African countries. Due to the parasite's resistance against existing malarial drugs, there is a contemporary need for the exploration of potent compounds possessing anti-malarial properties. Plasmodium falciparum dihydroorotate dehydrogenase (pfDHODH) is one of the promising targets (PDB ID: 6GJG) for treating malaria. This study aims to incorporate computational approaches to explore potent phytochemicals with reported biological activity as inhibitors of pfDHODH and to investigate the molecular-level details. The results showed that acetylmontrifoline, retusin, montrifoline, ealamine D, rhamnazin, and canaliculin stand out as potential inhibitors of the enzyme with binding affinities of -11.308 kcal/mol, -11.251 kcal/mol, -11.221 kcal/mol, -10.938 kcal/mol, -10.920 kcal/mol, and -10.827 kcal/mol, respectively, better than that of the native ligand with -9.873 kcal/mol. The adducts exhibited significant geometrical stability, with good RMSD of ligands below 5 Å from 200 ns molecular dynamics simulation, and sustained thermodynamic stability from the MMPBSA method. All other geometrical evaluators also supported the stability of the complexes. The pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics predicted moderate drug-likeness, and the hit candidates could be proposed for further in vivo and in vitro experiments to validate the computational results