Using a Policy of "Gross National Happiness" to Guide the Development of Sustainable Early Learning Programs in the Kingdom of Bhutan: Aspirations and Challenges

A national study on demand for early childhood care and development programs in Bhutan found strong support for development of a new early childhood care and development (ECCD) sector.  A wide range of stakeholders participating in the study, including ministries of education and health, post-secondary institutions, private preschool providers, community management committees, parents and children, emphasized the goal of preschool to promote success in English-medium formal education.  Promoting cultural traditions was also a priority, while developing children’s proficiency in home languages was hardly mentioned. The study highlighted the changing needs of Bhutanese families in the current context of increasing urbanization, dual career parents, and a shift from extended to nuclear family homes. Recommendations derived from the study encouraged a made in Bhutan approach to ECCD policy, programs, and professional education.  Subsequent to the study, the national education policy included plans for implementation of ECCD covering children from birth to 8 years old. To ensure the sustainability and cultural congruence of new programs and investments with the Kingdom’s Gross National Happiness Policy, a Gross National Happiness Commission screened and approved the new National Education Policy, which the Ministry of Education is charged with implementing. The emergence of an ECCD sector in Bhutan points to the role that national aspirations and value-driven policies and review processes could play in maintaining language diversity and transmitting culturally based knowledge

Evaluation of anti-inflammatory activity of Oxalis corniculata in experimentally induced inflammatory bowel disease in rats

Background: Oxalis corniculata is traditionally well-known for its versatile uses. The present study was carried out to evaluate the anti-inflammatory activity of the ethanolic extract of O. corniculata (EEOC) leaves in experimentally induced inflammatory bowel disease in rats.Methods: Rats were treated with the extract for 7 days following which acetic acid was used to induce colitis. Animals were euthanized, 24 hrs after induction of colitis and colon was removed and assessed for macroscopic injury, as well as also processed for histopathological examination. Sulfasalazine 360 mg/kg was used as the standard drug. The extract was used in 200 mg/kg, 300 mg/kg and 400 mg/kg doses.Results: At all the three doses, the EEOC showed significant (p<0.01) anti-inflammatory activity in experimental models.Conclusion: Results obtained in this study substantiate the anti-inflammatory effect of EEOCleaves

Improvement of Cracking Resistance for the Semi-Rigid Base Layer Reinforced by Geogrid

Reinforcement using an interlayer system appears nowadays as one of the techniques which is commonly used in asphalt pavement construction to improve its performances, extend its projected service life and reduce its structural cross section. Among a large number of existing interlayer systems, the geogrid has shown an effective use in pavement reinforcement with hot mix asphalt overlay. This article aims to research the mechanism leading to the spread of reflective crack and the anti-cracking effect of geogrid in semi-rigid pavement. The 3D finite element modeling package (ANSYS) has been used as tool to analyze the mechanical response of pavement model unreinforced and reinforced with different numbers of geogrid placed at different positions in the base layer under the influence of axle load. The results obtained from the finite element analysis have shown that, the use of geogrid in the semi-rigid base aids to reduce the stresses and strains both at the bottom of asphalt and base layer. Keywords: Reinforcement, Asphalt pavement, geogrid, Reflective crack, Anti-cracking effect

Evaluation of antidiabetic activity of Oxalis corniculata in streptozotocin induced diabetic rats

Background: Oxalis corniculata is traditionally well known for its versatile uses. The present study was carried out to evaluate the antidiabetic action of ethanolic extract of Oxalis corniculata in streptozotocin induced diabetic albino rats.Methods: To look for the antidiabetic effect the albino rats were divided into 5 groups, each consisting of 6 animals. Diabetes was induced by a single i.p. injection of streptozotocin at a dose of 50mg/kg body weight. Standard drug, glibenclamide and ethanolic extract of Oxalis corniculata (EEOC) at doses 200mg/kg and 400mg/kg body weight was fed to the rats and it was continued till the end of the study. The blood glucose levels were estimated on day 0, 3, 7, 14 and 21 day. The standard drug and the extract were fed from day 4 onwards.Results: The antidiabetic property of the extract has shown increasing trend with   increase in dose and there was a gradual decrease in blood glucose levels with increased period of exposure to the test drug.Conclusions: Results obtained in this study substantiate the anti-diabetic activity of EEOC leaves

Evaluation of the anti-nociceptive potential of ethanolic extract of leaves of Bryophyllum pinnatum in experimental animals

Background: The plant Bryophyllum pinnatum is traditionally used for the treatment of pain and inflammation. The present study was carried out to evaluate the antinociceptive effect of the ethanolic extract of the leaves of B. pinnatum (EEBP) using a hot plate method and acetic acid induced writhing test in mice.Methods: In the hot plate analgesiometer method, the time between the placement on the hot plate and the occurrence of licking of the paws, shaking or jumping off from the plate was recorded as response latency. Total numbers of stretching episodes for 30 mins immediately after acetic acid injection in all the groups were recorded in acetic acid induced writhing method. Pentazocine (10 mg/kg intraperitoneal) and aspirin (500 mg/kg) were used as the standard drugs in the hot plate and acetic acid induced writhing method, respectively. Extract was used in 200, 300 and 400 mg/kg doses.Results: At all the three doses the EEBP showed significant (p<0.01) anti-nociceptive activity in experimental models of Eddy’s hot plate analgesiometer and acetic acid induced writhing method in mice.Conclusion: The observed pharmacological activities provide the scientific basis to support traditional claims, as well as exploring some new and promising leads in the management of pain

Statistical Characterization of Bare Soil Surface Microrelief

Because the soil surface occurs at the boundary between the atmosphere and the pedosphere, it plays an important role for geomorphologic processes. Roughness of soil surface is a key parameter to understand soil properties and physical processes related to substrate movement, water infiltration or runoff, and soil erosion. It has been noted by many authors that most of the soil surface and water interaction processes have characteristic lengths in millimeter scales. Soil irregularities at small scale, such as aggregates, clods and interrill depressions, influence water outflow and infiltration rate. They undergo rapid changes caused by farming imple‐ ments, followed by a slow evolution due to rainfall events. Another objective of soil surface roughness study is investigating the effects of different tillage implements on soil physical properties (friability, compaction, fragmentation and water content) to obtain an optimal crop emergence. Seedbed preparation focuses on the creation of fine aggregates and the size distribution of aggregates and clods produced by tillage operations is frequently measured. Active microwave remote sensing allows potential monitoring of soil surface roughness or moisture retrieving at field scale using space-based Synthetic Aperture Radars (SAR) with high spatial resolution (metric or decametric). The scattering of microwaves depends on several surface characteristics as well as on imagery configuration. The SAR signal is very sensitive to soil surface irregularities and structures (clod arrangement, furrows) and moisture content in the first few centimeters of soil (depending on the radar wavelength). In order to link the remote sensing observations to scattering physical models as well as for modelling purpose, key features of the soil microtopography should be characterized. However, this characteri‐ zation is not fully understood and some dispersion of roughness parameters can be observed in the same field according to the methodology used. It seems also, that when describing surface roughness as a whole, some information related to structured elements of the micro‐ topography is lost

Factors Affecting Online Teaching and Learning Amidst Covid-19 in College of Science and Technology

COVID-19 had an enormous influence on students, teachers, and educational institutions all over the world, as it did on so many other aspects of everyday life. Schools and colleges were closed across the world to comply with social distancing initiatives. In order to ensure education continuity, the traditional mode of face-to-face learning has been replaced by online learning. This paper sets out to determine the factors affecting online teaching and learning amidst COVID-19 in College of Science and Technology. The research is based on a mixed methodology consisting both qualitative &amp; quantitative approach which is used mainly to gain more in-depth understanding of the factors that affect online teaching and learning for both tutors and students. Firstly, the quantitative approach is applied whereby an online survey will be carried out in order to see the   core factors in the bigger picture. The survey was conducted via Google form for the students and collected the data from 297 respondents. It was then followed by the qualitative approach whereby four teachers and nine students were interviewed (semi-structured interview) to validate the findings collected from the survey and consequently find the recurring factors. Then, to get a true integration of data and the relations between the qualitative and quantitative aspects of the data sets, the Dedoose software is used to analyze as a whole rather than two different components that must be pieced together. It was found that network connectivity, equipment availability for practical classes, nature of student and tutors, data insufficiency, favorable environment, module content and how adaptive student and tutor were to online platform were the factors identified affecting online teaching and learning at CST during Covid-19. Keywords:Online teaching and learning, Factors, Equipment availability, Network connectivity, Student characteristics, Tutors characteristics, Data insufficiency, Favorable environment, Module content DOI: 10.7176/JEP/13-20-03 Publication date:July 31st 202

MS/MS ANALYSIS OF IgG3 DISULFIDE BONDS AND DEVELOPMENT OF A NOVEL TOOL TO ASSESS ALGORITHMS THAT ASSIGN GLYCOPEPTIDE CID DATA

With the rapidly increasing use of proteins as biotherapeutics to treat diseases, the characterization of these large molecules using mass spectrometry has become a highly attractive field of research. A particular area of research is the identification and characterization of protein post-translational modifications. Disulfide bonds and glycosylation are among the most critical protein post-translational modifications (PTMs), as they play vital roles in maintaining the proper protein folding, structure, and functions. These two PTMs are particularly important in the development and characterization of monoclonal antibody-based drugs, which are the most prevalent protein therapeutics in the market. Among the four classes of immunoglobulins (IgG’s), the disulfide connectivity of IgG1, IgG2 and IgG4 have been effectively studied, and IgG2 and IgG4 have been shown to have disulfide bond-mediated isomers due to alternative disulfide bond connectivity. However, no studies to investigate the presence of disulfide related isomers in IgG3 have been done. In this dissertation, high resolution mass spectrometry is used map the disulfide bond connectivity in IgG3 in order to investigate the presence of disulfide-mediated isomers. The results indicate that no such isomers exist for endogenous IgG3 antibodies. The development of a novel glycoproteomics software, Glycopep Decoy Generator (Tool 1), and the generation of a large dataset of manually assigned CID spectra (Tool 2) from diverse glycopeptide compositions also are described herein. The decoy generator generates abundant decoys for any target glycopeptide composition, and when it is used along with the dataset of CID spectra, the accuracy of glycopeptide scoring algorithms can be readily determined. The tools were used to assess GlycoPep Grader, a scoring algorithm that assigns glycopeptides to CID spectra. The results indicate that GlycoPep Grader has some weaknesses in scoring spectra from fucosylated glycopeptide compositions. These weaknesses could not be easily identified without the aforementioned tools. In order to address GlycoPep Grader’s limitations, a thorough investigation of the root cause of its weaknesses is carried out, and potential updates that could improve the software are proposed

Effets de la durée de conservation et du prétraitement sur les paramètres de germination des graines du corossolier (Annona muricata L.) au Cameroun

Le corossolier (Annona muricata L.) fait partir des espèces très sollicitées du point de vue socioéconomiques et thérapeutiques. Les difficultés de&nbsp; régénération naturelles que connaît cette espèce réduisent sa distribution géographique impactant ainsi sa production au niveau du Cameroun. Face à cette contrainte, une étude axée sur le test de germination du corossolier a été effectuée au sein de la Station polyvalente Agricole de&nbsp; Bertoua. L’approche méthodologique inclue l’application de 4 traitements à 4 lots de semences constitués suivant la durée de conservation. Les&nbsp; résultats obtenus ont montré un taux de germination au-dessus de 80% pour la quasi-totalité des traitements appliqués aux différents lots, excepté&nbsp; le témoin qui a eu un taux de germination de 67%. Le délai de germination débute le 25ème jour et va jusqu’au 31ème jour pour une durée de&nbsp; germination variant de 2 à 6 jours. Les taux de germination ont régressés avec la durée de conservation et les graines conservées pendant 90 jours&nbsp; ont eu le plus faible taux de germination.&nbsp; Les traitements scarification et trempage des graines ont améliorées significativement le taux de germination des graines de corossolier et la conservation des semences au-delà de 90 jours affecte leur qualité germinative. Cette étude est une contribution sur les connaissances en rapport avec la durée de conservation sur la germination des graines de corossolier