Estimation of growth stages of wheat from spectral data

Growth stages of wheat subjected to different fertilizer treatments and sown on different dates have been estimated using spectral data. Greenness profiles were generated for different wheat plots. The profile parameters have been used to calculate growth stages at various times in the growing season. The model proposed by Badhwar (1981) has been used for this purpose. Results show that the model is capable of predicting growth stages accurately. There is a high correlation (r=O.97) between the observed and the predicted growth stages of wheat grown under various treatments

Technical efficiency of potato production in mid western terai region of Nepal

A study was done in 2018 to estimate the technical efficiency of potato production in mid western terai region of Nepal.30 households each from Dang, Banke and Bardiya districts were interviewed. Maximum likelihood estimate of the parameter showed the mean technical efficiency of 0.79 which indicated a high scope of increasing the production with the improvement of production technology. The coefficient for the parameter seed, Urea, DAP, MOP and labour were positive contributing for the production of potato. The parameter Compost, pesticides, herbicides and hour of tractor use were negative. The use of these input could be improved for increasing the production of potato. The farm specific variables Education, contact with the extension agent and farm size showed negative coefficient which causes less inefficiency of the farmers in production of potato while the coefficient for Age was estimated to be positive

Relative effectiveness of robot-assisted and standard laparoscopic prostatectomy as alternatives to open radical prostatectomy for treatment of localised prostate cancer : a systematic review and mixed treatment comparison meta-analysis

© 2013 The Authors. BJU International © 2013 BJU International.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Socio-economic analysis of coffee growers in Gulmi district of Nepal

Coffee is a major plantation cash crop of hills of Nepal. Gulmi is one of the popular districts for coffee production and export in Nepal. This research is an attempt to assess the production potentiality and profitability of coffee in Gulmi district. This study was carried out in four rural municipalities of Gulmi district namely Ruru rural municipality, Dhurkot rural municipality, Satyawoti rural municipality and Musikot municipality. A total of 100 samples (25 from each rural municipality) were selected using simple random sampling technique. Face to face (FtF) interview method was used to collect primary data using pretested semi-structured questionnaire. The economic indicators of coffee production like gross revenue, gross margin, benefit-cost ratio (BCR) and profitability index (PI) were calculated. BCR and PI were found to be 2.84± 0.59 and 2.50± 1.25, respectively. Gross margin per ropani was calculated to be NRs. 15675.29 ± 7189.72. The contribution of coffee in total household income was 12% in Gulmi showing it to be one of the major influencing commodities. The major production problem was found to be insect attack in the district while the major marketing problem was the low market price. The insights of this research were that coffee has the potentiality to uplift the rural income of Gulmi but at the same time there were poor extension services for coffee growers such that farmers had shown dissatisfaction towards coffee enterprise. Therefore, effective package of production and value chain monitoring should be introduced by the Nepal government in order to address the production and marketing constraints of coffee producers

Economics of fish production at Chitwan district, Nepal

A study was conducted in 2016 to analyze the economics of fish production at Chitwan District of Nepal. Three study sites: East, West and South part of Chitwan were selected purposively. A total of 90 households, 30 from each study site were selected randomly and were interviewed by using pre-tested semi structured questionnaire. Secondary data needed for the study were obtained from DADO, MOAD, NARC and other related organizations working on fisheries and aquaculture sector. Descriptive statistics and extended Cobb Douglas production function was used to accomplish the study objectives for which MS-Excel and SPSS 16 were used. The B/C ratio is obtained dividing the gross return by total variable cost incurred. The total cost of production per ha of the pond area was Rs. 743798 per year with 79 and 21 percent variable and fixed cost components, respectively. Feed cost (28 %) was largest cost item followed by cost for labour (25 %), fingerlings (10 %), maintenance (6 %), manure cum fertilizers (5 %), fuel cum energy (3 %) and limestone and others (2%). The average gross return and net profit realized per ha were Rs. 1223934 and Rs. 480135 respectively. The cost, return and profit were calculated to be highest for east Chitwan with highest B/C ratio followed by west Chitwan and south Chitwan. The B/C ratio for the district was found to be 1.63. The return to scale was found to be decreasing with value of 0.654 indicating that 1 percent increment in all the inputs included in the function will increase income by 0.654 percent. Production function analysis, including five variables, showed significant effect of human labour, fingerlings and fuel cum energy cost but feed and manure cum fertilizers cost were insignificant

Postpartum LARC use in low-risk women in CenteringPregnancy® versus traditional certified nurse midwife prenatal care

Contraception satisfaction and utilization is linked to pre-use clinical counseling. Group prenatal care may offer increased opportunity for education on postpartum contraception options. This study evaluated postpartum long acting reversible contraception (LARC) rates in women who attend CenteringPregnancy® group prenatal (CP) care versus individual prenatal care with Certified Nurse Midwives (CNM)

16S rRNA gene profiling and genome reconstruction reveal community metabolic interactions and prebiotic potential of medicinal herbs used in neurodegenerative disease and as nootropics.

The prebiotic potential of nervine herbal medicines has been scarcely studied. We therefore used anaerobic human fecal cultivation to investigate whether medicinal herbs commonly used as treatment in neurological health and disease in Ayurveda and other traditional systems of medicine modulate gut microbiota. Profiling of fecal cultures supplemented with either Kapikacchu, Gotu Kola, Bacopa/Brahmi, Shankhapushpi, Boswellia/Frankincense, Jatamansi, Bhringaraj, Guduchi, Ashwagandha or Shatavari by 16S rRNA sequencing revealed profound changes in diverse taxa. Principal coordinate analysis highlights that each herb drives the formation of unique microbial communities predicted to display unique metabolic potential. The relative abundance of approximately one-third of the 243 enumerated species was altered by all herbs. Additional species were impacted in an herb-specific manner. In this study, we combine genome reconstruction of sugar utilization and short chain fatty acid (SCFA) pathways encoded in the genomes of 216 profiled taxa with monosaccharide composition analysis of each medicinal herb by quantitative mass spectrometry to enhance the interpretation of resulting microbial communities and discern potential drivers of microbiota restructuring. Collectively, our results indicate that gut microbiota engage in both protein and glycan catabolism, providing amino acid and sugar substrates that are consumed by fermentative species. We identified taxa that are efficient amino acid fermenters and those capable of both amino acid and sugar fermentation. Herb-induced microbial communities are predicted to alter the relative abundance of taxa encoding SCFA (butyrate and propionate) pathways. Co-occurrence network analyses identified a large number of taxa pairs in medicinal herb cultures. Some of these pairs displayed related culture growth relationships in replicate cultures highlighting potential functional interactions among medicinal herb-induced taxa

Classifying Rhoticity of /r/ in Speech Sound Disorder using Age-and-Sex Normalized Formants

Mispronunciation detection tools could increase treatment access for speech sound disorders impacting, e.g., /r/. We show age-and-sex normalized formant estimation outperforms cepstral representation for detection of fully rhotic vs. derhotic /r/ in the PERCEPT-R Corpus. Gated recurrent neural networks trained on this feature set achieve a mean test participant-specific F1-score =.81 ({\sigma}x=.10, med = .83, n = 48), with post hoc modeling showing no significant effect of child age or sex.Comment: To appear in Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association, INTERSPEECH 202

Epidemiology, impact and control of rabies in Nepal : a systematic review

Background: Rabies is a vaccine-preventable viral zoonosis belonging to the group of neglected tropical diseases. Exposure to a rabid animal may result in a fatal acute encephalitis if effective post-exposure prophylaxis is not provided. Rabies occurs worldwide, but its burden is disproportionately high in developing countries, including Nepal. We aimed to summarize current knowledge on the epidemiology, impact and control of rabies in Nepal. Methods: We performed a systematic review of international and national scientific literature and searched grey literature through the World Health Organization Digital Library and the library of the National Zoonoses and Food Hygiene Research Centre, Nepal, and through searching Google and Google Scholar. Further data on animal and human rabies were obtained from the relevant Nepalese government agencies. Finally, we surveyed the archives of a Nepalese daily to obtain qualitative information on rabies in Nepal. Findings: So far, only little original research has been conducted on the epidemiology and impact of rabies in Nepal. Per year, rabies is reported to kill about 100 livestock and 10–100 humans, while about 1,000 livestock and 35,000 humans are reported to receive rabies post-exposure prophylaxis. However, these estimates are very likely to be serious underestimations of the true rabies burden. Significant progress has been made in the production of cell culture-based anti-rabies vaccine and rabies immunoglobulin, but availability and supply remain a matter of concern, especially in remote areas. Different state and non-state actors have initiated rabies control activities over the years, but efforts typically remained focalized, of short duration and not harmonized. Communication and coordination between veterinary and human health authorities is limited at present, further complicating rabies control in Nepal. Important research gaps include the reporting biases for both human and animal rabies, the ecology of stray dog populations and the true contribution of the sylvatic cycle. Interpretation: Better data are needed to unravel the true burden of animal and human rabies. More collaboration, both within the country and within the region, is needed to control rabies. To achieve these goals, high level political commitment is essential. We therefore propose to make rabies the model zoonosis for successful control in Nepal

Electrophilic Aldehyde 4-Hydroxy-2-Nonenal Mediated Signaling and Mitochondrial Dysfunction

Reactive oxygen species (ROS), a by-product of aerobic life, are highly reactive molecules with unpaired electrons. The excess of ROS leads to oxidative stress, instigating the peroxidation of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) in the lipid membrane through a free radical chain reaction and the formation of the most bioactive aldehyde, known as 4-hydroxynonenal (4-HNE). 4-HNE functions as a signaling molecule and toxic product and acts mainly by forming covalent adducts with nucleophilic functional groups in proteins, nucleic acids, and lipids. The mitochondria have been implicated as a site for 4-HNE generation and adduction. Several studies clarified how 4-HNE affects the mitochondria’s functions, including bioenergetics, calcium homeostasis, and mitochondrial dynamics. Our research group has shown that 4-HNE activates mitochondria apoptosis-inducing factor (AIFM2) translocation and facilitates apoptosis in mice and human heart tissue during anti-cancer treatment. Recently, we demonstrated that a deficiency of SOD2 in the conditional-specific cardiac knockout mouse increases ROS, and subsequent production of 4-HNE inside mitochondria leads to the adduction of several mitochondrial respiratory chain complex proteins. Moreover, we highlighted the physiological functions of HNE and discussed their relevance in human pathophysiology and current discoveries concerning 4-HNE effects on mitochondria