Royal Manas National Park, Bhutan: A Hot Spot for Wild Felids

The non-uniformity of the distribution of biodiversity makes allocation of the limited resources available for conservation of biodiversity a difficult task. Approaches such as biodiversity hotspot identification, endemic bird areas, crisis ecoregions, global 200 ecoregions, and the Last of the Wild are used by scientists and international conservation agencies to prioritize conservation efforts. As part of the biodiverse Eastern Himalayan region, Bhutan has been identified as a conservation priority area by all these different approaches, yet data validating these assessments are limited. To examine whether Bhutan is a biodiversity hot spot for a key taxonomic group, we conducted camera trapping in the lower foothills of Bhutan, in Royal Manas National Park, from November 2010 to February 2011. We recorded six species of wild felids of which five are listed on the IUCN Red List: tiger Panthera tigris, golden cat Pardofelis temminckii, marbled cat Pardofelis marmorata, leopard cat Prionailurus bengalensis, clouded leopard Neofelis nebulosa and common leopard Panthera pardus. Our study area of 74 km(2) has c. 16% of felid species, confirming Bhutan as a biodiversity hot spot for this group

(The) New regional context of post Cold War South Asia and its implication for Bhutan

Thesis(Master) --KDI School:Master of Public Policy,2009masterpublishedby Karma Tshering Wangchuk

Dietary Habits of adolescents in higher secondary school in Bhutan: An In-Depth Analysis of Nationally Representative Data

Bhutan is a small landlocked country that lies between the two most populous countries in the world India and China, with a total area of 38,394 square kilometers. A peaceful mountainous kingdom in the Himalayas mandated free education to all children of school-going age up to the 12th standard. Recognizing that education is the fundamental link to national progress, the Royal Government of Bhutan has always and will continue to emphasize education as a priority sector, In doing so, through a dynamic professional health system in the country, Bhutan has made enormous strides in the field of education that promote healthy and happy school children.  However, as Bhutan steadily proceeds along its development path, substantial challenges remain, including the dietary habits of an adolescent in higher secondary schools. Therefore, this paper intends to explore the dietary habits among adolescents in higher secondary school. And this will contribute empirical data evidence for the policy framers and implements of the nutrition department at higher authority and school level to improve the dietary habits of adolescents

Water-based therapies of Bhutan: current practices and the recorded clinical evidence of Balneotherapy

Medical water therapy (also called medical hydrology) is practiced worldwide both for relaxation and treatment of diseases. While this practice is still thriving in Bhutan, there is a lack of proper documentation and critical study. Therefore, the current study reports on the water therapies practiced in Bhutan and their health benefits. We used four-stage process: (1) a review of literature on balneotherapy (both traditional textbooks and scientific papers); (2) listing and surveying the hot springs, mineral, and holy spring waters; (3) reviewing the health records of the patients maintained at the traditional hospitals and interviewing traditional physicians and patients about health benefits; and (4) reviewing available literature to identify existing clinical trials data to provide evidence for hydrotherapies. We found three main forms of hydrotherapies are practiced in Bhutan, which comprises herbal bath therapy, balneotherapy, and spiritually empowered waters.The most popular hydrotherapies are herbal bath and hot spring therapies. Herbal bath therapy needs traditional physicians' prescriptions, while hot springs do not require it. Through field surveys, ten different hot springs (tsha-chu) and 17 medicinal water or mineral springs (sman-chu), and 17 holy spring-waters (sgrub-chu) were identified. In general, medical water therapies are used by the Bhutanese people to treat various ailments, including gastritis, neurological disorders, arthritis, dermatological diseases, and rheumatological and musculoskeletal disorders. Even though a lack of scientific evidence makes it difficult to draw concrete conclusions on their traditionally claimed efficacy and safety, there are clinical evidences documented from other countries

Examining Temporal Sample Scale and Model Choice with Spatial Capture-Recapture Models in the Common Leopard \u3ci\u3ePanthera pardus\u3c/i\u3e

Many large carnivores occupy a wide geographic distribution, and face treats from habitat loss and fragmentation, poaching, prey depletion, and human wildlife-conflicts. Conservation requires robust techniques for estimating population densities and trends, but the elusive nature and low densities of many large carnivores make them difficult to detect. Spatial capture-recapture (SCR) models provide a means for handling imperfect detectability, while linking population estimates to individual movement patterns to provide more accurate estimates than standard approaches. Within this framework, we investigate the effect of different sample interval lengths on density estimates, using simulations and a common leopard (Panthera pardus) model system. We apply Bayesian SCR methods to 89 simulated data sets and camera-trapping data from 22 leopards captured 82 times during winter 2010-2011 in Royal Manas National Park, Bhutan. We show that sample interval length from daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly periods did not appreciably affect median abundance or density, but did influence precision. We observed the largest gains in precision when moving from quarterly to shorter intervals. We therefore recommend daily sampling intervals for monitoring rare or elusive species where practicable, but note that monthly or quarterly sample periods can have similar informative value. We further develop a novel application of Bayes factors to select models where multiple ecological factors are integrated into density estimation. Our simulations demonstrate that these methods can help identify the true explanatory mechanisms underlying the data. Using this method, we found strong evidence for sex-specific movement distributions in leopards, suggesting that sexual patterns of space-use influence density. This model estimated a density of 10.0 leopards/100 km2 (95% credibility interval: 6.25-15.93), comparable to contemporary estimates in Asia. These SCR methods provide a guide to monitor and observe the effect of management interventions on leopards and other species of conservation interest

Special Sensory Function Deficit among Patients with Post-COVID-19 Visiting a Tertiary Care Centre

Introduction: Several patients who recover from COVID-19 infection continue to have persistent symptoms even after recovery from the disease. The special sensory functions such as taste, smell and hearing are affected by COVID-19 infection even after recovery from the illness. The aim of the study was to find out the prevalence of special sensory deficits among patients with post-COVID-19 visiting a tertiary care centre. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among adult patients who recovered from COVID-19 visiting a tertiary care centre from 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2022. After obtaining ethical approval from the Research Ethics Board of Health, data on patients who were diagnosed with COVID-19 one year ago was obtained from the surveillance register from the Ministry of Health. They were contacted by phone call and invited to the centre to participate in the study. Appropriate clinical examination and tests were carried out to assess the special sensory deficits. A convenience sampling technique was used. The point estimate was calculated at a 95% Confidence Interval. Results: Among 271 patients, the prevalence of sensory function deficit was 39 (14.39%) (10.21-18.57, 95% Confidence Interval). Conclusions: The prevalence of special sensory deficits after recovery from COVID-19 infections was found to be similar to the findings of other studies

Introduction and establishment of fluoroquinolone-resistant Shigella sonnei into Bhutan.

Shigella sonnei is a major contributor to the global burden of diarrhoeal disease, generally associated with dysenteric diarrhoea in developed countries but also emerging in developing countries. The reason for the recent success of S. sonnei is unknown, but is likely catalysed by its ability to acquire resistance against multiple antimicrobials. Between 2011 and 2013, S. sonnei exhibiting resistance to fluoroquinolones, the first-line treatment recommended for shigellosis, emerged in Bhutan. Aiming to reconstruct the introduction and establishment of fluoroquinolone-resistant S. sonnei populations in Bhutan, we performed whole-genome sequencing on 71 S. sonnei samples isolated in Bhutan between 2011 and 2013.We found that these strains represented an expansion of a clade within the previously described lineage III, found specifically in Central Asia. Temporal phylogenetic reconstruction demonstrated that all of the sequenced Bhutanese S. sonnei diverged from a single ancestor that was introduced into Bhutan around 2006. Our data additionally predicted that fluoroquinolone resistance, conferred by mutations in gyrA and parC, arose prior to the introduction of the founder strain into Bhutan. Once established in Bhutan, these S. sonnei had access to a broad gene pool, as indicated by the acquisition of extended-spectrum β-lactamase-encoding plasmids and genes encoding type IV pili. The data presented here outline a model for the introduction and maintenance of fluoroquinolone-resistant S. sonnei in a new setting. Given the current circulation of fluoroquinolone-resistant S. sonnei in Asia, we speculate that this pattern of introduction is being recapitulated across the region and beyond

Community-based Influence Maximization framework for Social Networks

Maximizing Influence (IM) in social networks has a considerable role to play in the phenomenon of viral marketing, targeted advertisements and in promoting any campaigns. However, the Influence Maximization Problem is a very challenging research-problem due to it being NP-Hard and scaling with the social networks with millions of nodes and edges becomes very tough due to the computational complexities concerned with it. Recently, solving this problem through the use of community detection based methodology is becoming very popular since, it reduces the search space by dividing the network into smaller and more manageable groups called "communities." As part of the larger research work, we reiterate a framework which has been inspired by collection of different work done by Alfalahi et al. (2013) that we can implement to solve the IM problem and its limitation through community detection and fuzzy logic inspired approach. Since the work is still under development, for this project, we report on understanding the IM field through literature reviews and in communicating a design of IM framework as inspired by the previous works. We also present our version ofthe blueprint (Algorithm design) of the framework as a five step approach. For the purpose of this report, we implement and evaluated the step 1 and step 2 of the framework. Step 1 is about preprocessing the input network with a similarity measure, which according to previous study by Alfalahi et al. (2013a) aids the algorithms in detecting better community structure (clear and accurate distinction of the nodes into communities in networks). We test it to see if it holds true. Step 2 is about implementing the community detection in social network. We benchmarkthree candidate algorithms, chosen based on theirperformance, from the previous studies in community detection fieldand we report onwhich algorithm should we consider to use in the proposed framework through experimentationon the simulated data. We use Normalized Mutual Information (NMI) and Modularity (Q) as evaluation metrics to measure the accuracy of the community detected by the candidate algorithms. Our results show that similarity based preprocessing does not improve the community structure and thus may not be required in the framework. We also found out that Louvain should be the algorithm that use to detect communities in social networks since it outperforms both CNM and Infomap on Q and NM

Sydenham's chorea in a 16‐year‐old female from Bhutan: A case report

Key Clinical Message Rheumatic heart disease is a preventable disease. Patients may not present with a typical history of sore throat and polyarthritis but may present with Sydenham's chorea. We should not rely completely on clinical findings to rule out carditis. Echocardiography should be done to rule out subclinical carditis. Abstract Sydenham's chorea is a major manifestation of rheumatic fever. It occurs primarily in children and is seen rarely after the age of 20 years. We describe a 16‐year‐old girl who presented with purposeless involuntary movements of her upper and lower limbs. Laboratory blood reports showed raised erythrocyte sedimentation rate and anti‐streptolysin O. 2D Doppler Echocardiography confirmed subclinical carditis, thickened mitral and aortic valve with mild mitral regurgitation. She was managed as Acute Rheumatic Fever with oral Phenoxymethyl penicillin and Carbamazepine. At the latest follow‐up interviewing the caregiver, the patient had no sequelae. Early diagnosis is key to preventing late consequences of acute rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease. Sydenham's chorea is a rare presentation of acute rheumatic fever. The absence of clinical carditis does not rule out carditis