Determination of volatile fatty acids in municipal wastewater by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry preceded by headspace- solid phase microextraction with PDMS-CAR fibre

An analytical procedure based on headspace – solid phase microextraction (HS-SPME) followed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) has been developed for the determination of free volatile fatty acids in municipal wastewater samples. Polydimethylsiloxane-Carboxen (PDMS-CAR) fibre was found to have greater affinity to extract lower chain fatty acids. Extraction and gas chromatographic parameters of importance such as desorption time, sample volume, amount of salt to be added and extraction time have been optimized. Detection limits were in the low to medium mg/L levels. To evaluate the applicability of the developed HS-SPME procedure on real samples, municipal wastewater treatment plant samples were analysed

The Development of Securities Market in Nepal : A Comparative Analysis

This paper analyzes the development of securities market in Nepal from historical and comparative perspectives. It is observed that the financial sector (commercial banks and finance companies) highly dominates the Nepalese securities market in which the corporate equities are the largest market instruments. Measured in terms of market capitalization, total value traded, and turnover ratio in relation to the size of respective economies (seven industrial and six South Asian developing economies), it is found that the Nepalese securities market is very small, highly illiquid, inefficient and underdeveloped compared not only with developed countries but also with most of its South Asian counterparts. The correlation between the major securities market indicators and real GDP growth is consistent with the hypothesis that there exists causal relationship between securities market development and economic growth. The correlation results also reveal the strong complementarity between the growth of banking sector and securities market in Nepal. Moreover, the Gini Coefficient and Herfindahl concentration indices show the highly concentrated market structure implying the lack of competition in the market. Finally, the overall analysis indicates that Nepal has a limited scope of financing choice from bank to market. Due to the inadequate securities market infrastructure and small size of industrial undertakings within a few numbers of public limited companies, the Nepalese financial system is highly dominated by banking sector and is likely to follow the same pattern in the future until the market infrastructures are developed and corporate sector earns sufficient credibility

Banking System Development in Nepal : A Comparative Analysis

This paper presents the analysis of the structure and major financial highlights of the commercial banking sector in Nepal. As a major component of financial system, the commercial banking sector accounts for more than three fourth of all banking system assets, deposits, loans and investments in Nepal. There is highly asymmetric distribution of assets, deposits, loans and investments within the industry and the market share of public sector banks in terms of overall banking products is still dominant. Despite the satisfactory growth and development of the private sector financial institutions during the nineties, the overall performance of the financial system is undermined due to the problems arising from the two largest public sector banks making huge amount of accumulated loss and non-performing loans (NPLs). The international comparison of the performance of Nepalese banking system with that of selected developed as well as developing economies shows mixed results. Measured in terms of size of financial intermediaries, bank\u27s involvement in the private sector and concentration indices, we find poor indicators of Nepalese banking system compared with some developing and all developed economies. However, the efficiency measures, given by IFS and Fitch\u27s Bankscope data, provide rather ambiguous results showing the comparable ratios of overhead costs and net interest margin to GDP between developed as well as developing economies. The overall analysis shows that the banking sector is/will remain the major source of corporate finance in Nepal. The lack of good and independent corporate governance system and efficient credit monitoring mechanism are the two major reasons for degrading financial conditions of public sector banks (NBL & RBB)

Screen Time in Children of Central Nepal: A Parent Reported Cross-sectional Study during COVID-19 Pandemic

Introduction: The insurgence of COVID-19 has affected many aspects of human life and its repercussions on the life of children cannot be undermined. In addition to the serious impact on health and food insecurity, lack of recreational activities, school closure and switch to online learning have pushed children to excessive screen exposure. This study aimed to assess the duration of screen time and parental perspective towards screen viewing in children during the pandemic. Methods: A community-based descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out in Bharatpur Metropolitan City. A total of 384 parents were included purposively. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to interview the parents during the pandemic for one month. During the data collection, appropriate universal precautions for COVID-19 were taken. Results: The median duration of screen exposure was two hours (30 minutes to 9 hours). Most (65%) of the parents stated that their children spent more time on screen compared to pre-COVID-19 times. The majority (82%) of the parents were worried about the possible consequences of excessive screen time. More than two-thirds (72%) of parents thought that screen exposure also has various benefits for children. Conclusion: Most of the children exceeded the duration of screen time recommended by the World Health Organization. Most of the parents were worried about the harmful effects on the health and behavior of children

Asymptomatic Bacteriuria in Diabetic Adults

Introduction: Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) is a well- known complication of Diabetes Mellitus (DM). Its spectrum ranges from Asymptomatic Bacteriuria (ABU) to acute pyelonephritis. Many studies have delineated an increased prevalence of ABU in DM whereas to the same degree other studies have come to naught showing insignificant association. Hence, this study was drafted to evaluate the presence of ABU among diabetics and assess various risk factors. Methods: Total of 116 diabetic adults without symptoms of UTI attending medical out-patient department, Manipal Teaching Hospital were enrolled by detailed clinical history, examination and laboratorial examination as per standard set of questionnaire from February 2013 to May 2014. Data were analyzed by SPSS (17.0). Results: The rate of ABU in diabetic adults was 10.3% and was significantly associated with duration of DM, fasting blood glucose level and poor glycaemic control. Escherichia coli was the most frequently isolated pathogen which was sensitive to Nitrofurantoin and Imipenem. Conclusion: Being asymptomatic, diabetics fail to recognise ABU, however, ABU is preponderant in DM and is linked mainly with duration of DM and poor glycaemic control. Hence screening for ABU is imperative in diabetic adults if above mentioned risk factors are present

A short glimpse on promising pharmacological effects of Begenia ciliata

Bergenia ciliata is a potent indigenous folk medicine that has been proved fruitful in the treatment of various adverse conditions of the body. The major chemical constituents of plant include tannic acid, gallic acid, glucose, metarbin, albumen, bergenin, (+)-catechin, gallicin. Bergenia ciliata was subjected to bioactivity analysis. The plant has antitussive, antiulcer, antioxidant, antibacterial, hypoglycemic, toxicological activity. It was observed that root and leaves extract were promising as antifungal agent. The root and leaves extract were effective against Microsporum canis, Pleuroetus oustreatus and Candida albicans.   All the extracts except chloroform extract of root and leaves of Bergenia ciliata were found to possess hypoglycemic activity in Streptozotocin (STZ) treated rats. The methanolic extract exhibited significant anti-tussive activity in a dose-dependent manner. B. ciliata bear potent anti-neoplastic activities that may have prospective clinical use as precursor for preventive medicine. Methanolic and aqueous B. ciliata rhizome extracts were found to possess antioxidant activity, including reducing power, free radical scavenging activity and lipid peroxidation inhibition potential. Bergenia ciliata extracts exhibit a narrow spectrum antibacterial activity. The results obtained thus suggest that extracts of B. ciliata have promising therapeutic potential and could be considered as potential source for drug development by pharmaceutical industries

Pharmacological activities of pyrazolone derivatives

Pyrazoline is a five member heterocyclic ring which is a versatile lead compound for designing potent bioactive agents. The review of the literature shows that the pyrazoline derivatives are quite stable and has inspired the chemists to synthesize the new pyrazoline derivatives. The past studies of pyrazoline derivative revealed that they are useful in pharmaceutical and agrochemical research. Pyrazoline derivatives display various pharmacological activities such as antitumor, antitubercular, antimicrobial, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant etc. and the pharmacological activities of different synthesized compound are reviewed in the present article

Impact of climate change on rice production: an empirical study in Kaski and Nawalparasi, Nepal

This study explores the relationship between climate variables to rice production in Kaski and Nawalparasi district of Nepal. The study was conducted in the year 2016. This study captured the time series data ranging from 1995 to 2014 on rice production, temperature and rainfall of two different districts and analyzed through panel data regression. Regarding primary data collection, a total of 120 sampled households were surveyed by using simple random sampling to understand the perception of farmers to change in climatic parameters using a semi-structured pre-tested questionnaire and Focus Group Discussions. The secondary information was collected from the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, Department of Hydrology and Meteorology and Centre Bureau of Statistics. The regression model revealed that seasonal rainfall had a linear relation on rice production (p<0.05). Respondents from both districts perceived that temperature, rainfall and hailstone had increased or varied than before. The major problems faced by the farmers of the study area due to climate change were prioritized as drought, flood hailstone, extreme hot and extreme cold. This necessitates the promotion and use of climate-smart technologies for better rice adaptation to climate change

Resource Tuned Optimal Random Network Coding for Single Hop Multicast future 5G Networks

Optimal random network coding is reduced complexity in computation of coding coefficients, computation of encoded packets and coefficients are such that minimal transmission bandwidth is enough to transmit coding coefficient to the destinations and decoding process can be carried out as soon as encoded packets are started being received at the destination and decoding process has lower computational complexity. But in traditional random network coding, decoding process is possible only after receiving all encoded packets at receiving nodes. Optimal random network coding also reduces the cost of computation. In this research work, coding coefficient matrix size is determined by the size of layers which defines the number of symbols or packets being involved in coding process. Coding coefficient matrix elements are defined such that it has minimal operations of addition and multiplication during coding and decoding process reducing computational complexity by introducing sparseness in coding coefficients and partial decoding is also possible with the given coding coefficient matrix with systematic sparseness in coding coefficients resulting lower triangular coding coefficients matrix. For the optimal utility of computational resources, depending upon the computational resources unoccupied such as memory available resources budget tuned windowing size is used to define the size of the coefficient matrix

A REVIEW ON PHARMACEUTICAL PROCESS VALIDATION OF SOLID DOSAGE FORM [TABLETS]

The article gives an introduction and general overview on process validation of pharmaceutical tablet manufacturing process. Process Validation is one of the important steps in achieving and maintaining the quality of final product. Process validation emphasizes the role of statistical tools and analyses, knowledge, detection, and control of variability and thus gives assurance on consistency of quality product. The validation study provides the accuracy, sensitivity, specificity and reproducibility of the established and documented test methods employed by the manufacturer. Thus, validation is an essential part of the quality assurance. This review examines the need for pharmaceutical validation, the various approaches, process and steps to be monitored during tablet manufacturing process. Key words: Process Validation, Types, Validation Stages, Guidelines and Process.Â