Urban Governance, Urbanization and Informal Sector in Solid Waste Management: A Case of Kathmandu, Nepal

With the rising number of world population living in urban areas and the changing consumption habits, solid waste management has become a predominant urban problem. The problem is further compounded in urban areas of Global South where rapid unplanned urbanization has brought forward the issue of poor basic urban services like water supply, solid waste management, energy supply and transport. The rapid urban growth taking place in capital of Nepal, Kathmandu and the burgeoning solid waste management challenge in the metropolitan is a representative case put forward by this dissertation. Solid waste management in Kathmandu is limited to collection and disposal with minimum consideration on ground to move from current disposal-oriented practices towards resource management-based approach. The existing government structure is struggling to provide waste services to the growing number of urban residents and does not have capacity to diversify solid waste management practices and move towards circular economy in waste. The inability to provide waste services to all residents and its non-compliance to solid waste management regulations indicate the weak government structure. This demands for the exploration of each actor and their engagement in solid waste management, for which the concept of solid waste governance is taken as an entry point. More specifically the governance aspect of integrated solid waste management framework is taken as a first step to investigate the situation. In addition, physical aspects as put forward by the integrated solid waste management framework such as storage, collection, reduce, reuse, recycle, recover, transportation and disposal are touched upon while delving into the everyday operations of waste management. The governance aspect of the framework focuses on achieving actor inclusivity, financial sustainability with sound institutions and proactive policies for attaining integrated solid waste management. The integrated framework arose out of the need for the recognition of actors both formal and informal contributing to waste systems. It also marks for attaining financial sustainability with comprehensive institutions for implementing waste related policies. It embarks for a shift away from the state centric to an integrated approach for waste management

The impacts of climate change on human wellbeing in developing countries

Climate change is the central challenge facing the world today. With rising temperatures, increasing extreme weather events and other climate catastrophes, it is but essential to urgently usher in a green growth paradigm. In this piece, published in collaboration with the International Growth Centre (IGC) blog, Nikita Sharma argues that Developing countries are set to face the brunt of the climate crisis and need international support to move towards sustainability without compromising on growth

Sensing the care:Advancing unobtrusive sensing solutions to support informal caregivers of older adults with cognitive impairment

Older adults (65 years and above) make up a growing proportion of the world's population which is anticipated to increase further in the coming decades. As individuals age, they often become more vulnerable to cognitive impairments, necessitating a diverse array of care and support services from their caregivers to uphold their quality of life. However, the scarcity of professional caregivers and care facilities, compounded by the preference of many older adults to remain in their own homes, places a significant burden on informal caregivers, adversely affecting their physical, mental, and social well-being. To assist informal caregivers, numerous sensing solutions have been developed. However, many of these solutions are not optimally suited for older adult care, particularly in cases of cognitive impairments. In that regard, the overarching aim of this thesis was to develop and evaluate the Unobtrusive Sensing Solution (USS) for in-home monitoring of older adults with cognitive impairment (OwCI) who live alone in their own houses to ease the support of their informal caregivers. In the 'Explore and Scope' part, a scoping review was conducted to identify available unobtrusive sensing technology that can be implemented in older adult care. Subsequently, in the 'Develop and Test' part, Wi-Fi CSI technology was utilized to collect a dataset illustrating physical agitation activities (Wi-Gitation). However, upon evaluation of the Wi-Gitation dataset, a challenge of generalization across different domains (or environments) was identified. To address this, the Inter-data Selected Sequential Transfer Learning framework was proposed and implemented. Lastly, in the 'Design to Communicate' part, the thesis focused on identifying the needs and requirements of informal caregivers of OwCI towards USSs. These needs and requirements were gathered through interviews and surveys, informing the development of a Lo-Fi prototype for an interaction platform. Overall, the results obtained in this thesis not only enhance the development of Wi-Fi CSI (specifically for OwCI care) but also provide valuable insights into the informational and design requirements of informal caregivers, thereby promoting the context-aware development of USSs

Genital tuberculosis in infertile women: role of hysterolaparoscopy and tuberculosis polymerase chain reaction

Background: Genital tuberculosis is an important cause of female infertility in developing countries like India. It is one of the major causes for severe tubal disease leading to infertility.Methods: A prospective study was conducted in which 100 women presented to hospital with infertility were subjected to hystero-laparoscopy over 1 year. Endometrium sent for tuberculosis polymerase chain reaction (TB-PCR) and HPE and results were formulated.Results: Out of 100 women, 28% were diagnosed with Genital tuberculosis (GTB) using accepted clinical criteria, TB-PCR and endometrial HPE. 25 of these 28 were diagnosed by hysterolaparoscopy (89.24%) alone, 16 by positive endometrial TB-PCR (57.14%) and another 2 by HPE (7.14%).Conclusions: In country like ours where TB is endemic, a multi-pronged approach to diagnosis increases the chances of successfully diagnosing this destructive disease

Efficient Intrusion Detection in Patient Health Records Based on LSTM-Based RNN

Advancements in Information and Communication Technology applications play an important role in the field of healthcare and bio-medical engineering. The process of image processing and analysis starts from receiving visual information to giving out the description of the scene for improving the visual appearance of the human viewer and extract the features of the data. Moreover, IDS can be deployed along with other security mechanisms as a line of defence to ensure security of system and network resources. There have been various efforts in designing IDS using Machine Learning (ML) techniques. Additionally, by developing a hybrid strategy for intrusion detection and classification and using feature engineering approaches to extract significant features for learning, among other things, efforts have been made to improve the classification performance of ML-based IDS. However, as networking technology have advanced, attack types have evolved as well. For this reason, an efficient and successful intrusion detection and classification system must be created. To address the issue and achieve good generalization ability for intrusion detection and classification, the paper presents empirical analysis of LSTM based RNN classifiers. The suggested methods\u27 effectiveness is assessed using a range of performance metrics, such as recall, f-score, accuracy, precision, and False Positive Rate (FPR). The LSTM based RNN method recognize attacks with 99.2% accuracy with minimum time complexity (5 s)

The Impact of Health Policy on Access to Healthcare: Utilizing Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for Detailed Access and Equity Mapping

Health policies are significant in relation to health equity and accessibility. Achieving equity in health care must understand the geographic distribution of health care and the impact of policy decisions on access Planners can use Geographic Information Systems (GIS) as an aid powerful to visualize and scrutinize these differences. The current study addresses some of the challenges of integrating multiple data sources, definitions of access and equity and the dynamic nature of health care processes. Furthermore, sophisticated analytical methods are needed to truly map all complex health care systems. Therefore this paper, describe a cross-sectional mental health treatment (C-SMHT) that uses a fuzzy inference system to assess justice and access to health care. Using ambiguous GIS data to address uncertainty and environmental variability, this approach provides a comprehensive picture of how policy change has shaped health disparities to improve. C-SMHT has many applications for policy makers as well as public health practitioners. This paper will provide a snapshot of mental health provider availability and utilization. Simulation studies to examine how the effectiveness of the C-SMHT approach can help to better identify underserved areas, better allocate resources, and deliver treatment were found to be good. A number of initiatives will be developed as part of this project to assess their impact on the availability of mental health services in defined areas or countries. In addition to providing recommendations to policy makers based on research findings, the simulation will also provide insights into how policies affect equity and access

Public Health Initiative: Enhancing Stress Evaluation using EEG Data

Study proposes an innovative public health that uses EEG data processing to improve stress assessment. Stress is a widespread health issue that affects people in a variety of demographics. Stress evaluation techniques based on traditional self-reporting are biased and subjective. EEG records patterns of brain activity linked to stress reactions and offers an objective measurement. In this study, we proposed Social Spider Advanced Bidirectional Long ShortTerm Memory (SS-ABiLSTM), an innovative method for improving stress evaluation by integration of EEG data. Initially, EEG data is gathered, and then preprocessed the EEG data using min-max normalization to remove inaccurate records from a dataset. To extract features from the preprocessed data using the Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT), this reliably extracts frequency-domain information from the data. The most discriminative characteristics for stress assessment to select feature using Recursive Feature Elimination (RFE). By combining these methods, stress assessment models that utilize EEG data have high accuracy. Utilizing the application of SS-ABiLSTM, that addresses stress prevention and management while also improving the ability to interpret EEG data in public health. The proposed methods are to evaluate F1-score (90.1%), precision (88.2%), recall (91.8%), and accuracy (98.97%). The accuracy of the proposed technique is superior to the existing techniques. Finally by using EEG data for stress evaluation in public health shows potential for more individualized care and better mental health results

The role of Sevista (ormeloxifene) in the management of dysfunctional uterine bleeding

Background: Dysfunctional uterine bleeding (DUB) is a common gynaecological disorder that usually ends up in hysterectomy and causes psychological and physiological stress. Medical management with hormones and NSAIDS has inherited side effects. Ormeloxifene, a selective estrogen receptor modulator, is emerging as a safe and effective agent for dysfunctional uterine bleeding. The objective of the study was to evaluate the role of ormeloxifene in medical management of dysfunctional uterine bleeding.Methods: 30 patients, on whom diagnosis of dysfunctional uterine bleeding was made, were included in the study. Patients were given ormeloxifene 60mg twice a week for 12 weeks and then once a week for 12 weeks. The primary outcome measures were menstrual blood loss (assessed by pictorial blood assessment chart score), hemoglobin concentration and endometrial thickness. The secondary outcome measures were acceptability and side effects of ormeloxifene.Results: There was a significant reduction in mean PBAC score from 316 to 52 after six months of treatment. The mean hemoglobin concentration increased significantly from 8.4 to 9.8 gms/dl with a rise of 1.4gm/dl (p <0.05). The mean pretreatment endometrial thickness was 10.8mm and it decreased significantly to 8.1mm after 6 months of treatment with ormeloxifene (p < 0.05). 76.7% of the women showed marked subjective improvement in symptoms. The most common side effect reported was amenorrhea (13.3%).Conclusions: Ormeloxifene can be considered as an effective and safe therapeutic option for the medical management of dysfunctional uterine bleeding

Development and Validation By RP-HPLC Method For the Estimation of Piperine Coenzyme Q10 In Bulk and Pharmaceutical Dosage Form

Safety is the fundamental principle in the provision of pharmaceutical products for health care of human being. Nutritional supplements used in medical practice are gaining considerable momentum in the world during the past decades. But this supplement is needed to be analysed before releasing in market to avoid any complications. A combination of piperine and coenzyme Q10 is used as nutritional supplement. As no analytical method has been developed for their simultaneous estimation a simple, specific, sensitive, precise and accurate RP-HPLC method was developed for the determination of CoQ10 and piperine in bulk or pharmaceutical dosage form. Coenzyme is very popular for its antioxidant property for protecting LDL from oxidation and piperine maintains cardiovascular system and increases bioavailability of coenzyme Q10. In this developed method, Waters X Bridge C8 column (250mm x 4.6mm,5μm) was used as a stationary phase and acetonitrile, tetrahydrofuran(THF), and water used in 65:32:3 (v/v) ratio as mobile phase with 1 ml/min flowrate with PDA detector detection at 275nm. The RP-HPLC was developed according to ICH guideline parameters. The retention times of Coenzyme Q10 and Piperine were 4.56 and 8.19 min respectively. The linearity ranges have lied between 4-6μg/ml, 240-360μg/ml. Correlation coefficient for both is 0.997. The present successfully validated method was applicable for the assay of piperine and coenzyme Q10 in bulk and pharmaceutical dosage forms

Mifepristone as pre-induction cervical ripening agent in term pregnancy

We hereby report the results of a prospective randomized study where we compared efficacy of mifepristone and prostaglandin (PGE2) gel for pre-induction cervical ripening