Delivery site preferences and associated factors among married women of Panauti Municipality, Kavrepalanchok district, Nepal

Introduction: Maternal mortality is a top global developmental agenda. The main cause of being underutilization of available delivery services especially in a developing country like Nepal. Various socio-demographic, socio-cultural and health service-related factors affect the utilization of these services. Thus, the study aims to identify the delivery site preferences and its associated factors among the married women of Panauti municipality of Kavrepalanchok district. Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted among the married women between the ages of 15-49 y residing in Panauti municipality. The face-to-face interviews were conducted using semi-structured questionnaires. The statistical analysis was done using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21. Result: A total of 106 women of 15-49 y were included in the study. The proportion of institutional delivery among the participants was 68%. 90.6% of total participants would prefer health facility for their future deliveries; 7.5% were not sure about their preferences and very few (1.9%) preferred to deliver at home. The factors like knowledge regarding safe-motherhood program and age at marriage were found to be significantly associated with their delivery site preference (p<0.05). Conclusion: In a country like Nepal, home delivery is still in practice and pregnancy and childbirth are regarded as normal life events. Thus, efforts should be made to change that perception, increasing utilization of available services and improving maternal and child health. This in turn will help to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal target in reducing the Maternal Mortality Rate

Effect of sewage-water irrigation on physico-chemical parameters with special reference to heavy metals in agricultural soil of Haridwar city

The present study revealed that use of sewage for irrigation of agricultural soil of Haridwar city improved the water holding capacity (+27.98%), electrical conductivity (+196.15%), sulphate (+2.34%), organic carbon (+30.48%), total Kjeldhal nitrogen (+87.5%), available potassium (+25.77%) and available phosphorous (+59.97%) and fertility status of the soil in comparison to natural water irrigated soil. Further sewage irrigation also resulted in a significant build-up of total Pb (+98.95%), Ni (+128.29%), Cu (+253.17%), Fe (+39.74%), Cd (+30.92%), Zn (+696.03%) and Cr (+13.15%) than the natural water irrigated soil. The mean concentrations of these metals were below the permissible limits of Indian standards. The enrichment factor (Ef) for Cu (9.62) was maximum and minimum for Cr (1.13).The Ef for different metals was in the order of Cu> Zn > Ni > Pb > Cd > Cr > Fe. Pollution index (Pi) value of the sewage water irrigated soil ranged from 0.505 to 0.901 which indicated that the soil was not yet polluted

Varietal screening of rose (Rosa x hybrida) cultivars and in vitro efficacy of fungicides against black spot disease (Diplocarpon rosae Wolf.) in Arunachal Pradesh condition

Rose varieties were evaluated in field against Diplocarpon rosae cause of black spot disease of rose. Black spot resistance was visually evaluated for thirty seven rose varieties against D. rosae. Out of thirty seven varieties evaluated, none of the varieties were found immune, very highly resistant, highly resistant, resistant and moderately resistant. However, three varieties namely Paradise, Shabnam and Pixie showed moderately susceptible reaction. Whereas, eleven varieties viz., Angelica Renae, Atago, Folklore, Granada, Hot Cocoa, Mardigrass, Midas Touch, Mrinalini, Revival, Tipus Flame and Victor Hugo showed susceptible reaction. Twelve varieties viz. Baccardi, Claudia Ribond, Charles Mallerin, Crimson Lace, Dr. Pal, Impatient, Madam Dulbourde, Marcopolo, Melody, Rainbow End, Sonia and Sugandha were responded highly susceptible reaction at 75 per cent disease severity. Whereas, eleven varieties namely Angelique, Christian Dior, Gemini, Gladiator, Golden Jubilee, Priyadarsini, Sand. Centenary, R. R. M. Roy, Sweet Promise, Unforgotten and Vale of Cloyd were highly susceptible reaction at 95 per cent disease severity. Further, five fungicides [three systemic fungicides namely Carbendazim, Hexaconazole (Contaf) & Ridomil MZ 72 WP and two contact fungicides viz. Blitox-50 and Mancozeb] were evaluated in vitro for the management of D. rosae. Hexaconazole (Contaf) was found to inhibit the mycelial growth of D. rosae significantly at a concentration of 200 ppm and 250 ppm followed by Ridomil MZ 72 WP at same concentration

Molecular characterization of Nocardiopsis species from Didwana dry salt lake of Rajasthan, India

The genus Nocardiopsis is well known to produce secondary metabolites especially antibacterial bioactive compound. Isolation and characterization of bioactive compounds producing novel isolates from unusual habitats are crucial. The present study was aimed to explore Didwana dry salt lake of Rajasthan state in India for the isolation and characterization of actinomycetes. The isolated actinomycetes isolates were characterized based on culture characteristics, biochemical tests and 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis revealed that all the five isolates inhabiting soil of the said dry salt lake of Didwana, Rajasthan belonged to four species of Nocardiopsis viz., N. synnemataformans, N. potens, N. prasina and N. dassonvillei subsp. albirubida. The molecular identification based on 16S rRNA gene sequences was found accurate and robust. The phylogram generated through multiple sequence alignment of all the test isolates of Nocardiopsis revealed that the isolates aroused from a single branch and validated monophyletic association. The present study is the first report of exploring Nocardiopsis isolates from the dry salt lake. These characterized Nocardiopsis isolates isolated from Didwana dry salt lake habitat are novel stains and can be of significance in the detection and utilization of novel bioactive compounds

Surface morphology investigation of miniature gears manufactured by abrasive water jet machining

Abstract: In this paper, surface morphology investigation of miniature spur gears manufactured by abrasive water jet machining is discussed. Water jet pressure, abrasive flow rate and standoff-distance are the varying input parameters to study the surface morphology (surface roughness and topography) of the machined gears. From the investigation, the water jet pressure has highly influenced (with 47% contribution) the surface quality and found as a predominant process parameter. SEM micrograph study found that wear scars and clinging effects are the major surface defects found over the machined surfaces of the gear teeth. Maximum and minimum peaks of the wear tracks are observed with white light spectroscope. The best surface morphology with average surface roughness value 1.08 µm was achieved at 350MPa water jet pressure, 225 g/min abrasive mass flow rate, and 1mm stand-off distance. The present work identifies the potential of AWJM process for manufacturing of high quality miniature gears

Formulation and standardization of homoeopathic mother tincture of Cinnamomum zeylanicum

Alcoholic preparation of drugs in Homoeopathy, are called as tincture. The mother tincture of Cinnamomum zeylanicum was prepared by 100 g of coarse powder (40 mess) of Cinnamomum zeylanicum was macerated with 95 v/v % of alcohol to make 1000 ml of mother tincture for eight days (drug strength 1/10). It was shaken occasionally, and filtered. The mother tincture was standardized by using various physical, chemical and chromatographic parameters.Keywords: Cinnamomum zeylanicum, mother tinctur

Quality of life of people living with HIV/AIDS before and after receiving antiretroviral therapy

Background- HIV/AIDS is a chronic illness. Besides having serious morbidities, opportunistic infections, it also adversely affects quality of life of People Living with HIV/AIDS (QOL- PLHIV). Early and prompt initiation of antiretroviral therapy (ART) might improve quality of life of PLHIV in various domains like psychological, physical, environment level of independence, social relationship and spirituality/religion/personal beliefs. Material and methods- The study was conducted at a medical institute of North India. Patients attending ART centre of the institute for the treatment of HIV/AIDS were interviewed on WHOQOL-HIV questionnaire. Aim and objectives- To assess and compare quality of life of people living with HIV/AIDS at initiation and after 6 months of receiving antiretroviral therapy. Result- QOL-PLHIV was improved in various domains when assessed after six months of receiving ART. For physical domain mean score increased from 12.83 to 13.85, for psychological domain from 12.54 to 14.31, for level of independence from 12.95 to 13.21, for social relationship from 12.46 to 14.15, for environment domain from 11.98 to 13.15 and for spirituality/religion/personal belief mean score increased from 11.41 to 11.96. Respective standard deviation was decreased when compared from before initiation of ART to six months after receiving ART. Conclusion – Quality of life of people living with HIV/AIDS was improved significantly after receiving ART

STQS:Interpretable multi-modal Spatial-Temporal-seQuential model for automatic Sleep scoring

Sleep scoring is an important step for the detection of sleep disorders and usually performed by visual analysis. Since manual sleep scoring is time consuming, machine-learning based approaches have been proposed. Though efficient, these algorithms are black-box in nature and difficult to interpret by clinicians. In this paper, we propose a deep learning architecture for multi-modal sleep scoring, investigate the model's decision making process, and compare the model's reasoning with the annotation guidelines in the AASM manual. Our architecture, called STQS, uses convolutional neural networks (CNN) to automatically extract spatio-temporal features from 3 modalities (EEG, EOG and EMG), a bidirectional long short-term memory (Bi-LSTM) to extract sequential information, and residual connections to combine spatio-temporal and sequential features. We evaluated our model on two large datasets, obtaining an accuracy of 85% and 77% and a macro F1 score of 79% and 73% on SHHS and an in-house dataset, respectively. We further quantify the contribution of various architectural components and conclude that adding LSTM layers improves performance over a spatio-temporal CNN, while adding residual connections does not. Our interpretability results show that the output of the model is well aligned with AASM guidelines, and therefore, the model's decisions correspond to domain knowledge. We also compare multi-modal models and single-channel models and suggest that future research should focus on improving multi-modal models

A training program on the International Model for Policy Analysis of Agricultural Commodities and Trade (IMPACT)

The CCAFS project team at IFPRI in collaboration with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) team organized a 5-day capacity building workshop at the ICAR - National Institute of Agricultural Economics and Policy Research (NIAP). The workshop was conducted on IFPRI’s IMPACT model and was attended by scientists and senior scientists working in various ICAR institutes, particularly in NIAP. The training course introduced the IMPACT methodology, theory and scenario design to the participants. The course helped them gain an understanding on scenarios and scenario analysis. Participants learned how to use the network of models that make up IMPACT, how each module work and how they interact. They further learned to use IMPACT simulations, to design and run scenarios in IMPACT, and access and use IMPACT results correctly

Adsorptive column studies for removal of acid orange 7 dye using bagasse fly ash

319-327Increasing industrialization creates a large scale of pollution and affects the availability of usable water. Dyes in wastewater are a visible pollutant, difficult to treat, and are toxic in nature. Amongst all the physicochemical methods, adsorption is the extensively applied process for the aqueous removal of dye. In the present study; the Bagasse Fly Ash (BFA) is used as an adsorbent for aqueous removal of Acid Orange dye in packed bed adsorption technique. The packed bed studies for different bed heights, influent concentration and flow rate are performed. The efficacy of packed columns is investigated using different models namely Bed depth service time, Thomas, Wolborsaka, Yoon-Nelson, and Bohart-Adams Models. The maximum adsorption capacity of BFA for 50% saturation of column is calculated to be 38 (mg/g) which shows BFA as a good adsorbent for dye removal