Trade liberalization and food security in Nepal

"Among South Asian countries, Nepal has liberalized most extensively during the 1980s and 1990s on both fronts, domestic and external. Nepal is a least developed country with a gross national product of US $235 per capita in 2001 and second lowest per capita wealth in the world. In South Asia, Nepal has the lowest per capita income, highest dependence of population on agriculture and second highest poverty rate. At the same time, on an average, Nepal has the lowest tariffs in South Asia and has taken several steps to downsize its public distribution system and remove a host of agricultural subsidies. This twin scenario where the lowest per capita income country is perhaps also the most liberalized makes for an interesting case for policy analysis. This paper reviews the outcomes from the liberalization policies followed by Nepal relating to food security." from Authors' Abstract

Oxidation of Thrombomodulin Methionine 388 in Cigarette Smokers

This work tested the hypothesis that oxidation of methionine 388 in thrombomodulin is higher in cigarette smokers, and thus a likely contributor towards the hypercoagulable state in smokers. Thrombomodulin, a protein cofactor found on endothelial cell surfaces, regulates the activity of thrombin. Thrombin bound to thrombomodulin no longer converts fibrinogen to fibrin, but instead activates Protein C which, in turn, stops the coagulation cascade by inactivation of clotting factors. The oxidation of methionine 388 of thrombomodulin has been shown in vitro to dramatically decrease the anticoagulant cofactor activity of thrombomodulin. The blood of cigarette smokers is more prone to clot than that of non-smokers, a major factor in their premature deaths from cardiovascular disease. Cigarette smoke consists of many oxidizing species that impose oxidative stress on the body. These species include organic radicals and hydrogen peroxide, which can oxidize methionine. The fact that smokers are in a hypercoagulable state has been established, however the molecular origins of such a state have not been elucidated. Techniques were developed to isolate thrombomodulin cleared from the blood stream in urine, proteolytically digest it, and identify using mass spectrometry the peptide containing methionine 388 in both its oxidized and reduced forms. In many cases the oxidized version of the peptide was below the limits of detection in non-smokers and the reduced version was not detected in smokers. The intensity of these peaks in the mass spectra do not allow calculation of absolute percentages of oxidation because of differences in proton affinity of the two forms, but there is a very statistically significant difference (P=0.002 by Mann-Whitney Rank Sum test) in the apparent median reduced to oxidized ratios of \u3e2.043 for non-smokers and o

Draft bills and research reports on: reducing judicial corruption and child labor in Nepal

These two draft bills and accompanying research report comprise the work of two teams of Nepali officials from Nepal's Ministry of Law and Justice who prepared them in the context of the Boston University School of Law Program on Legislative Drafting for Democratic Social Change. They attended that Program as part of a larger Ministry of Law and Justice Program, funded by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), to strengthen Nepal's legal framework and the Rule of Law. Using the bills and reports as case studies, the four officials aimed to learn legislative theory, methodology and techniques. The Ministry had assigned them, on their return to Nepal, to play a significant role in institutionalizing an on-going learning process to strengthen Nepali drafters' capacity to prepare the effectively implementable legislation necessary to ensure good governance and development

Turning conflict into collaboration in managing commons: A case of Rupa Lake Watershed, Nepal

A growing body of literature on the commons has provided fascinating and intricate insights on how some local institutions have successfully managed to avoid a seemingly inevitable “tragedy of the commons” once popularized by Garrett Hardin. Primarily benefitting from the recent studies on the commonpool resources conducted by Elinor Ostrom and colleagues, polycentric selforganization and autonomy, rather than the direct state or market control over the commons, are often recognized as key features of the long enduring commons.However, these commons are quite diverse and the outcomes are often multiple and complex, accentuating the needs to differentiate among multiple commons outcomes. Furthermore, relatively under-reported are the cases where the degradation of common-pool resources are actually halted, and even restored. This study examines both the turbulent history of fishery mismanagement in Rupa Lake, Nepal and its reversal built around the participation, engagement and inclusiveness in the governance of its watershed. We find that Rupa Lake’s experience tells two stories. Reflecting Hardin’s dire forecast, the Rupa Lake watershed verged on collapse as population grew and seemingly selfish behaviorintensified under an open-access regime. But the users also found a way to rebound and reverse their course as they adopted a bottom-up approach to fishery management and established an innovative community institution, the ‘Rupa Lake Rehabilitation and Fishery Cooperative’, dedicated to the sustainable governance of the commons. This case highlights how one community at the threshold of ‘tragedy’ transformed itself by turning conflict into collaboration, which we hope contributes to the effort of better understanding multiple commons

Unified framework for B-anomalies, muon g − 2 and neutrino masses

We present a model of radiative neutrino masses which also resolves anomalies reported in $B$-meson decays, $R_{D^{(\star)}}$ and $R_{K^{(\star)}}$, as well as in muon $g-2$ measurement, $\Delta a_\mu$. Neutrino masses arise in the model through loop diagrams involving TeV-scale leptoquark (LQ) scalars $R_2$ and $S_3$. Fits to neutrino oscillation parameters are obtained satisfying all flavor constraints which also explain the anomalies in $R_{D^{(\star)}}$, $R_{K^{(\star)}}$ and $\Delta a_\mu$ within $1\, \sigma$. An isospin-3/2 Higgs quadruplet plays a crucial role in generating neutrino masses; we point out that the doubly-charged scalar contained therein can be produced in the decays of the $S_3$ LQ, which enhances its reach to 1.1 (6.2) TeV at $\sqrt s=14$ TeV high-luminosity LHC ($\sqrt s=100$ TeV FCC-hh). We also present flavor-dependent upper limits on the Yukawa couplings of the LQs to the first two family fermions, arising from non-resonant dilepton ($pp \rightarrow \ell^+ \ell^-$) processes mediated by $t$-channel LQ exchange, which for 1 TeV LQ mass, are found to be in the range $(0.15 - 0.36)$. These limits preclude any explanation of $R_{D^{(\star)}}$ through LQ-mediated $B$-meson decays involving $\nu_e$ or $\nu_\mu$ in the final state. We also find that the same Yukawa couplings responsible for the chirally-enhanced contribution to $\Delta a_\mu$ give rise to new contributions to the SM Higgs decays to muon and tau pairs, with the modifications to the corresponding branching ratios being at (2-6)% level, which could be tested at future hadron colliders, such as HL-LHC and FCC-hh

Investigating Electronic, Optical, and Phononic Properties of Bulk γ-M<inf>2</inf>ON<inf>2</inf>and β-M<inf>7</inf>O<inf>8</inf>N<inf>4</inf>(M = Hf and Zr) Insulators Using Density Functional Theory

Hafnium and zirconium oxynitrides have similar properties, yet a consolidated investigation of their intrinsic properties has not been carried out. In this paper, we perform first-principles density functional theory calculations of γ- and β-phase hafnium and zirconium oxynitrides, which show that the γ-M2ON2(M = Hf and Zr) is an indirect band-gap (Eg) insulator, while the β-M7O8N4has a "pseudo-direct" type of Eg. β-phase has higher Egthan γ-phase, with concomitant disappearance of the conduction band tail. Optical properties in γ-M2ON2show that the anisotropy is negligible, and the optical constant values are in the range of other superhard materials. Phonon calculations present peculiar characteristics such as a small phonon band gap in γ-Hf2ON2and imaginary phonon frequencies in β-phases relating to lattice instability. The phononic properties are unfavorable for their potential use as an absorber material of the hot carrier solar cell-an emerging photovoltaic concept