70 research outputs found
Estimating future primary school enrolments for Nepal
This study identifies the Government's efforts at different points in
time towards the qualitative and quantitative improvement of the
Nepalese Education System. More stress is given to studying the New
Education System regarding the level and organization of the system
with its aims and objectives. The literacy rate, enrolment ratio,
pupil-school ratio and pupil-teacher ratio have been analysed by sex
and region. Nepalese education is characterised by sex and areal
differentials in enrolment, literacy rate and by a high dropout rate,
particularly when pupils are promoted from grade one to two. The
study highlights some of the causes of such a high dropout rate.
The study provides two series of projections of population from
the year 1981 to 2001 at intervals of 5 years and the corresponding
school age population under the plausible assumptions of fertility and
mortality. Nepal's rapid population growth, inherent in the existing
high fertility and declining mortality, has tended to produce more
children of school age and this study tries to find out whether or not
the present education system will be able to absorb the probable
growth of children in the future.
Because of the paucity of data on key items such as age specific
enrolments and the numbers of dropouts and repeaters, future school
enrolments have been estimated by adopting the ratio method rather
than the cohort method. Finally the requirement for teachers and
school places in the near future are considered
Obesity and COVID-19 Outcomes in a Primarily Black Population
ABSTRACT
Background:
Studies have noted higher COVID-19 mortality with more severe obesity in populations that included a small percentage of Black patients.
Methods:
We retrospectively analyzed COVID-19 outcomes associated with obesity in our largely African American patient population. A total of 1101 symptomatic patients with a positive COVID-19 laboratory test March 5 to June 3, 2020, were categorized into weight groups based on body mass index (BMI). Of these patients, 679 (61.7%) were Black. A total of 355 (32.2%) patients had overweight and 516 (46.9%) had obesity.
Results:
BMI was an independent risk factor for intubation and an independent predictor for ICU length of stay and intubation days. An unexpected observation was favorable outcomes in mild obesity compared with normal weight and more severe obesity, likely a result of older age and higher Charlson comorbidity index in patients with normal BMI compared with patients with mild obesity.
Conclusions:
In a diverse primarily Black population, comorbidities were a concern for adverse COVID-19 outcomes and COVID-19 outcomes were significantly worse with moderate and severe obesity
Rebuilding local seed system and safeguarding conservation of agrobiodiversity in the aftermath of Nepal 2015 earthquake
A study was conducted from July 2015 to December 2017 to rebuild local seed system and safeguard conservation of agrobiodiversity in the aftermath of earthquake through rescue collection, conservation and
repatriation of endangered crop landraces from 10 earthquake affected districts. The process employed
several methods, approaches and processes combining rescue missions with qualitative and quantitative
assessments techniques and tools. The process helped to assess status of diversity of traditional crops,
identify endangered, extinct and rare crop landraces, document and characterize their unique agronomic
traits and develop and validate methodology for conservation of native crops by linking on-farm and ex-situ
approaches. A total of 921 accessions of 61 crops were collected from 35 VDCs of 10 severally earthquake
affected districts. The process has identified 104 lost crop landraces and rescued 284 rare and endangered
ones and conserved them in national Genebank. Some of the farmer demanded crop landraces are repatriated
back to local communities and also conserved in community seed banks in affected districts.The process
therefore helped to restore lost diversity, revive and strengthen the local seed system and safeguard
biodiversity of native crops to adapt to more extreme and changing climatic conditio
Application of frequency ratio, statistical index, and weights-of-evidence models and their comparison in landslide susceptibility mapping in Central Nepal Himalaya
The Mugling–Narayanghat road section falls within the Lesser Himalaya and Siwalik zones of Central Nepal Himalaya and is highly deformed by the presence of numerous faults and folds. Over the years, this road section and its surrounding area have experienced repeated landslide activities. For that reason, landslide susceptibility zonation is essential for roadside slope disaster management and for planning further development activities. The main goal of this study was to investigate the application of the frequency ratio (FR), statistical index (SI), and weights-of-evidence (WoE) approaches for landslide susceptibility mapping of this road section and its surrounding area. For this purpose, the input layers of the landslide conditioning factors were prepared in the first stage. A landslide inventory map was prepared using earlier reports, aerial photographs interpretation, and multiple field surveys. A total of 438 landslide locations were detected. Out these, 295 (67 %) landslides were randomly selected as training data for the modeling using FR, SI, and WoE models and the remaining 143 (33 %) were used for the validation purposes. The landslide conditioning factors considered for the study area are slope gradient, slope aspect, plan curvature, altitude, stream power index, topographic wetness index, lithology, land use, distance from faults, distance from rivers, and distance from highway. The results were validated using area under the curve (AUC) analysis. From the analysis, it is seen that the FR model with a success rate of 76.8 % and predictive accuracy of 75.4 % performs better than WoE (success rate, 75.6 %; predictive accuracy, 74.9 %) and SI (success rate, 75.5 %; predictive accuracy, 74.6 %) models. Overall, all the models showed almost similar results. The resultant susceptibility maps can be useful for general land use planning
National identity predicts public health support during a global pandemic
Changing collective behaviour and supporting non-pharmaceutical interventions is an important component in mitigating virus transmission during a pandemic. In a large international collaboration (Study 1, N = 49,968 across 67 countries), we investigated self-reported factors associated with public health behaviours (e.g., spatial distancing and stricter hygiene) and endorsed public policy interventions (e.g., closing bars and restaurants) during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic (April-May 2020). Respondents who reported identifying more strongly with their nation consistently reported greater engagement in public health behaviours and support for public health policies. Results were similar for representative and non-representative national samples. Study 2 (N = 42 countries) conceptually replicated the central finding using aggregate indices of national identity (obtained using the World Values Survey) and a measure of actual behaviour change during the pandemic (obtained from Google mobility reports). Higher levels of national identification prior to the pandemic predicted lower mobility during the early stage of the pandemic (r = −0.40). We discuss the potential implications of links between national identity, leadership, and public health for managing COVID-19 and future pandemics
Social and moral psychology of COVID-19 across 69 countries
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all domains of human life, including the economic and social fabric of societies. One of the central strategies for managing public health throughout the pandemic has been through persuasive messaging and collective behaviour change. To help scholars better understand the social and moral psychology behind public health behaviour, we present a dataset comprising of 51,404 individuals from 69 countries. This dataset was collected for the International Collaboration on Social & Moral Psychology of COVID-19 project (ICSMP COVID-19). This social science survey invited participants around the world to complete a series of moral and psychological measures and public health attitudes about COVID-19 during an early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic (between April and June 2020). The survey included seven broad categories of questions: COVID-19 beliefs and compliance behaviours; identity and social attitudes; ideology; health and well-being; moral beliefs and motivation; personality traits; and demographic variables. We report both raw and cleaned data, along with all survey materials, data visualisations, and psychometric evaluations of key variables
Author Correction: National identity predicts public health support during a global pandemic
Correction to: Nature Communications https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-27668-9, published online 26 January 2022
National identity predicts public health support during a global pandemic
Changing collective behaviour and supporting non-pharmaceutical interventions is an important component in mitigating virus transmission during a pandemic. In a large international collaboration (Study 1, N = 49,968 across 67 countries), we investigated self-reported factors associated with public health behaviours (e.g., spatial distancing and stricter hygiene) and endorsed public policy interventions (e.g., closing bars and restaurants) during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic (April-May 2020). Respondents who reported identifying more strongly with their nation consistently reported greater engagement in public health behaviours and support for public health policies. Results were similar for representative and non-representative national samples. Study 2 (N = 42 countries) conceptually replicated the central finding using aggregate indices of national identity (obtained using the World Values Survey) and a measure of actual behaviour change during the pandemic (obtained from Google mobility reports). Higher levels of national identification prior to the pandemic predicted lower mobility during the early stage of the pandemic (r = −0.40). We discuss the potential implications of links between national identity, leadership, and public health for managing COVID-19 and future pandemics.publishedVersio
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National identity predicts public health support during a global pandemic.
Changing collective behaviour and supporting non-pharmaceutical interventions is an important component in mitigating virus transmission during a pandemic. In a large international collaboration (Study 1, N = 49,968 across 67 countries), we investigated self-reported factors associated with public health behaviours (e.g., spatial distancing and stricter hygiene) and endorsed public policy interventions (e.g., closing bars and restaurants) during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic (April-May 2020). Respondents who reported identifying more strongly with their nation consistently reported greater engagement in public health behaviours and support for public health policies. Results were similar for representative and non-representative national samples. Study 2 (N = 42 countries) conceptually replicated the central finding using aggregate indices of national identity (obtained using the World Values Survey) and a measure of actual behaviour change during the pandemic (obtained from Google mobility reports). Higher levels of national identification prior to the pandemic predicted lower mobility during the early stage of the pandemic (r = -0.40). We discuss the potential implications of links between national identity, leadership, and public health for managing COVID-19 and future pandemics
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