Advancing the Implementation of Hydrologic Models as Web-Based Applications

Deeper understanding of relationships between flow in river sand various hydrologic elements such as rainfall, land use, and soil type is imperative to solve water related problems like droughts and floods. Advanced computer models are becoming essential in helping us understand such relationships. However, preparing such models requires huge investment of time and resources, much of which are concentrated on acquisition and curation of data. This work introduces agree and open source web Application (web App) that provides researchers with simplified access to hydrological data and modeling functionality. The web App helps in the creation of both hydrologic models, and climatic and geographic data. Free and open source platforms such as Tethys and Hydro Share were used in the development of the web Apia physics based model called TOPographic Kinematic APproximation and Integration (TOPKAPI) was used as the driving use case for which a complete hydrologic modeling service was developed to demonstrate the approach. The final product is a complete modeling system accessible through the web to create hydrologic data and run a hydrologic model for a watershed of interest. An additional model, TOPNET, was incorporated to demonstrate the generality of the approach and capability for adding other models into the framework

A Review Over Genetic Algorithm and Application of Wireless Network Systems

AbstractTele-communication and network industry are becoming extremely fascinated by the use of evolutionary smart sensor nodes in wireless sensor networks. This technology promises to overcome several challenges within WSNs needed for real time data protection via optimization technique: Genetic Algorithm. This paper reviewedthe use of Genetic Algorithms (GAs) to solve certain limitation of wireless sensor networks. It further presents major application areas of wireless sensors networks. Longerdistance gap between a sensor and destination in a sensor network can remarkably reduce the energy of sensors and can degrade the life of a network. GA can prolong the network lifetime by minimizing the total communication distance

Assessment of Drug-Related Problems among Inpatients in a Tertiary Care Hospital of Eastern Nepal

Background: Drug-related Problems are major safety concerns in hospitalized patients; failure to prevent those medications related errors may lead to therapeutic failure, adverse effects, and poor therapeutic outcomes. This study aims to assess drug-related problems in the medicine ward of a tertiary care hospital in Eastern Nepal. Methodology: Prospective observational study was conducted from March to August 2019. Descriptive analysis was performed, and Bivariate analysis using chi-square was used to test the association between demographic characteristics and drug-related problems. Results: 365 patients were selected, of which 96 patients had drug-related problems. A total of 127 drug-related problems were documented. The most common drug-related problems were drug and therapeutic duplication 31(24.4%), a drug prescribed but no clear indication 22(17.3%), potential ineffective therapy 16(12.6%), inappropriate duration 11(8.7%), and adverse drug reaction 10(7.8%). The majority of recommendations provided by the pharmacist were drug discontinuation 57(44.9%), followed by drug change 16(12.6%), and the need for antibiotic susceptibility testing 14(11%). Antimicrobials 75(59.1%) was the most frequent drug class involved in drug-related problems followed by Corticosteroids 12(9.4%), and Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs 8(6.3%). A significant association with drug-related problems occurrences was found between age groups, length of hospital stay, and polypharmacy which was significant at p<0.05 Conclusion:  Nearly one-fourth of hospitalized inpatients had drug-related problems. Drug and therapeutic duplication were the most common drug-related problems followed by a drug prescribed without clear indication, potential ineffective therapy, and inappropriate duration. The pharmacist plays a crucial role in identifying and resolving drug-related problems during inpatients care

Advancing the Implementation of Hydrologic Models as Web-based Applications

This project aims to introduce a web-based prototype infrastructure in the form of a web application that provides researchers with seamless access to complete hydrological modeling functionality. This includes fetching the necessary geospatial and forcing data, preparing input files for a model by applying complex data preprocessing, running the model for a user defined watershed, and saving the results to the web. A typical hydrologic model setup involves a labor-intensive data preparation phase with workflows that may be difficult to reproduce. This paper introduces the web-based prototype that helps prepare input files, and run the model completely in the web. We discuss the design of the Tethys based front-end Graphical User Interface (GUI), and the HydroDS assisted backend workflow structures adopted to build the application. The paper demonstrates the features of the application that enables users to build and run hydrologic models. Given the possibility of huge data requirements slowing down the servers, we restrict our work to use only handful of data sources, and provide services that are only available for Western US. The TOPographic Kinematic APproximation and Integration (TOPKAPI) model serves as example of complete hydrologic modeling service, while Regional Hydro-Ecological Simulation System (RHESSys) and TOPNET model are included as examples of implementation of additional models into the framework

Community pharmacy personnel understanding of antibiotic dispensing in Eastern Nepal

Background:\ua0Community pharmacies are easily accessible outlets providing medicines to the general public in Nepal, but it is known that irrational dispensing of antibiotics from such outlets contributes to antimicrobial resistance.Objective:\ua0To assess the understanding of community pharmacy personnel around antibiotic-dispensing in Eastern Nepal and the relationship between this understanding and their personal characteristics.Methods:\ua0A cross-sectional survey was conducted on 312 pharmacy personnel working in community pharmacies of three districts within Eastern Nepal using a self-administered questionnaire. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze participants’ characteristics and their understanding of antibiotic dispensing. The relationships between their understanding of antibiotic dispensing and their characteristics were determined using Chi-square tests.Results:\ua0Most of the pharmacy personnel considered that dispensing antibiotics without a valid prescription is a problem (76.9%), and that it would not be legal to do so (86.9%). In the survey, 34.9% of participants agreed that they had dispensed antibiotics without prescription, and 26.9% disagreed with the assertion that inappropriate dispensing of antibiotics could promote antimicrobial resistance. Most (94.5%) reported that they would advise patients to follow their antibiotic dosage regimen, but 34.3% reported that they believed antibiotics to reduce pain and inflammation. Bivariate analysis showed that the level of understanding about antibiotic indication was significantly associated with age (p< 0.001), work experience (p< 0.001) and qualifications (p=0.017) of the pharmacy personnel. Work experience and qualifications also had significant but independent relationships with the level of understanding that irrational dispensing of antibiotics promotes antimicrobial resistance (p=0.018 and p=0.004) and is on the need for patient follow-up after dispensing antibiotics (p< 0.001 and p=0.042).Conclusion:\ua0The understanding of community pharmacy personnel about antibiotic dispensing in Eastern Nepal requires significant improvement. Degree of understanding of some aspects of antibiotic dispensing was influenced by age, work experience and qualifications

Undergraduate pharmacy students’ attitudes and perceived barriers toward provision of pharmaceutical care: a multi-institutional study in Nepal

Pharmaceutical care (PC) has a significant impact on optimizing pharmacotherapy and improving patients' quality of life. We aimed to determine the attitudes and perceived barriers of final year pharmacy undergraduates towards provision of PC services in Nepal. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 232 students using a 13-item-standard PC attitude survey (PCAS) questionnaire and 12-itemed PC barrier questionnaires. Mann-Whitney U test and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to measure the median difference between groups, at alpha=0.05, and Spearman's rho test was used to measure the strength of the correlation. Majority of students were self-motivated in undertaking the current pharmacy education (178, 76.7%) and had no previous incomplete grades that could delay their graduation (177, 76.3%). Over 80% of students had a positive attitude toward all items of PCAS (agreed and strongly agreed) except for two items. Whereas, 61 (26.3%) disagreed and strongly disagreed that providing PC takes too much time and effort. The major barriers perceived were inadequate PC training (176, 75.9%), inadequate drug information resources in the pharmacy (170, 73.3%), and lack of access to patient medical records in the pharmacy (165, 71.1%). A significant relationship was noticed between positive attitude towards PC and three factors; source of motivation, current employment in pharmacy job, and incomplete grades delaying graduation. Age factor was significant but negatively correlated with the scores of positive attitudes namely "I would like to perform PC as a pharmacist practitioner", "Providing PC is professionally rewarding" and "I feel that the PC is the right direction for the provision to be headed". Nepalese undergraduate pharmacy students had positive attitudes toward PC. Exercising proper pharmacy practice regulations and educational efforts to overcome the perceived barriers may lead to better delivery of PC