Preparation of Lapsi (Choerospondias axillaries roxb.) pulp using IMF technology and study on storage stability

The work was carried out to study the storage stability and food safety aspects of lapsi (Choerospondias axillaries roxb.) pulp stock prepared using Intermediate Moisture Food Technology. Three recipes were designed with the TSS of 55, 60 and 65 oBx and the TSS/Acidity ratio of 20, 25 and 30 respectively so as to achieve the theoretical water activity level of 0.86 to 0.90. Further three treatments using no preservative, potassium sorbate (0.3%) as preservative and pasteurisation with hot filling were done to those recipes. All samples were found to be safe from the food poisoning organism Staphylococcus aureus. All preservative added and pasteurised samples as well as 65 oBx sample with no preservative were stable up to 5 months storage and no Mold growth were observed. Mold observed after 2 month in 55 oBx sample and after 69th day in 60 oBx sample with no preservative. Preservative added samples were faint in colour while pasteurised samples were dark due to browning reaction during heating. No preservative used sample was best in appearance. 65 oBx with no preservative sample was good design but protection from air to prevent browning and use of sorbate to further extend shelf life was found necessary

Use of calcium carbide for artificial ripening of fruits : its application and hazards

A review of different articles related to artificial ripening was done. Focus was given on the hazards and applications of calcium carbide for artificial ripening, being a very common practice in Nepalese Market. Litterateurs showed many hazardous aspects of carbide use and also standard procedures of safety handling aspects. But being banned by regulation, due to its hazardous aspects and lack of proper handling methods among users, it was concluded that the use of calcium carbide is to be strictly monitored and controlled

Correlated bosons in a one-dimensional optical lattice: Effects of the trapping potential and of quasiperiodic disorder

We investigate the effect of the trapping potential on the quantum phases of strongly correlated ultracold bosons in one-dimensional periodic and quasiperiodic optical lattices. By means of a decoupling meanfield approach, we characterize the ground state of the system and its behavior under variation of the harmonic trapping, as a function of the total number of atoms. For a small atom number the system shows an incompressible Mott-insulating phase, as the size of the cloud remains unaffected when the trapping potential is varied. When the quasiperiodic potential is added the system develops a metastable-disordered phase which is neither compressible nor Mott insulating. This state is characteristic of quasidisorder in the presence of a strong trapping potential.Comment: Accepted for publication in PR

Impact of climate change on potential distribution of Chinese caterpillar fungus (Ophiocordyceps sinensis) in Nepal Himalaya

Climate change has already impacted ecosystems and species and substantial impacts of climate change in the future are expected. Species distribution modeling is widely used to map the current potential distribution of species as well as to model the impact of future climate change on distribution of species. Mapping current distribution is useful for conservation planning and understanding the change in distribution impacted by climate change is important for mitigation of future biodiversity losses. However, the current distribution of Chinese caterpillar fungus, a flagship species of the Himalaya with very high economic value, is unknown. Nor do we know the potential changes in suitable habitat of Chinese caterpillar fungus caused by future climate change. We used MaxEnt modeling to predict current distribution and changes in the future distributions of Chinese caterpillar fungus in three future climate change trajectories based on representative concentration pathways (RCPs: RCP 2.6, RCP 4.5, and RCP 6.0) in three different time periods (2030, 2050, and 2070) using species occurrence points, bioclimatic variables, and altitude. About 6.02% (8,989 km2) area of the Nepal Himalaya is suitable for Chinese caterpillar fungus habitat. Our model showed that across all future climate change trajectories over three different time periods, the area of predicted suitable habitat of Chinese caterpillar fungus would expand, with 0.11–4.87% expansion over current suitable habitat. Depending upon the representative concentration pathways, we observed both increase and decrease in average elevation of the suitable habitat range of the species

Socio-economic factors and management regimes as drivers of tree cover change in Nepal

Despite the local and global importance of forests, deforestation is driven by various socio-economic and biophysical factors continues in many countries. In Nepal, in response to massive deforestation, the community forestry program has been implemented to reduce deforestation and support livelihoods. After four decades of its inception, the effectiveness of this program on forest cover change remains mostly unknown. This study analyses the spatial and temporal patterns of tree cover change along with a few socio-economic drivers of tree cover change to examine the effectiveness of the community forestry program for conserving forests or in reducing deforestation. We also investigate the socio-economic factors and policy responses as manifested through the community forestry program responsible for the tree cover change at the district level. The total tree cover area in the year 2000 in Nepal was ∼4,746,000 hectares, and our analysis reveals that between 2001 and 2016, Nepal has lost ∼46,000 ha and gained ∼12,200 ha of areas covered by trees with a substantial spatial and temporal variations. After accounting socio-economic drivers of forest cover change, our analysis showed that districts with the larger number of community forests had a minimum loss in tree cover, while districts with the higher proportion of vegetation covered by community forests had a maximum gain in tree cover. This indicates a positive contribution of the community forestry program to reducing deforestation and increasing tree cover

Multiresolution spatiotemporal mechanical model of the heart as a prior to constrain the solution for 4D models of the heart.

In several nuclear cardiac imaging applications (SPECT and PET), images are formed by reconstructing tomographic data using an iterative reconstruction algorithm with corrections for physical factors involved in the imaging detection process and with corrections for cardiac and respiratory motion. The physical factors are modeled as coefficients in the matrix of a system of linear equations and include attenuation, scatter, and spatially varying geometric response. The solution to the tomographic problem involves solving the inverse of this system matrix. This requires the design of an iterative reconstruction algorithm with a statistical model that best fits the data acquisition. The most appropriate model is based on a Poisson distribution. Using Bayes Theorem, an iterative reconstruction algorithm is designed to determine the maximum a posteriori estimate of the reconstructed image with constraints that maximizes the Bayesian likelihood function for the Poisson statistical model. The a priori distribution is formulated as the joint entropy (JE) to measure the similarity between the gated cardiac PET image and the cardiac MRI cine image modeled as a FE mechanical model. The developed algorithm shows the potential of using a FE mechanical model of the heart derived from a cardiac MRI cine scan to constrain solutions of gated cardiac PET images

Fragmentation, domain formation and atom number fluctuations of a two-species Bose-Einstein condensate in an optical lattice

We theoretically study the loading of a two-species Bose-Einstein condensate to an optical lattice in a tightly-confined one-dimensional trap. Due to quantum fluctuations the relative inter and intra species phase coherence between the atoms and the on-site atom number fluctuations are reduced in the miscible regime. For the immiscible case the fluctuations are enhanced and the atoms form metastable interleaved spatially separated domains where the domain length and its fluctuations are affected by quantum fluctuations.Comment: 32 page