Soil Chemical Properties Under Conservation Agriculture and Cereal-Based Cropping System in Eastern Tarai of Nepal

Field experiments were conducted for four years (2014-2017) at five locations namely Salbani, Bhokraha, Simariya, Bhaluwa and Kaptanganj of Sunsari district to assess the changes in soil chemical properties under conservation agriculture (CA)-based practices in two cropping systems namely rice-kidney bean-maize at Salbani and rice-wheat at rest of the locations. In rice-wheat cropping system, there were four treatments: (1) conventional tillage (CT) for rice transplantation and subsequent wheat sowing, (2) conventional tillage rice transplantation followed by zero tillage (ZT) wheat, (3) unpuddled rice transplantation followed by zero tillage wheat, (4) zero tillage in both rice and wheat. Similarly, in rice-kidney bean-maize cropping system, there were four treatments; (1) conventional tillage for rice transplantation and sowing of both kidney bean and maize, (2) conventional tillage rice transplantation followed by zero tillage in both kidney bean and maize, (3) unpuddled rice transplantation followed by zero tillage in both kidney bean and maize, (4) zero tillage in all three crops. Soil samples were taken at initial and every year after rice harvest.The soil samples were analyzed for total nitrogen, available phosphorus, available potassium, pH and soil organic matter.Total nitrogen (N) showed a slightly decreasing trend in the first three years and showed a slight increase at the end of experiment under ZT in all locations. The total N under ZT changed from 0.12 to 0.13%, 0.05 to 0.06%, 0.10 to 0.12%, 0.11 to 0.08% and 0.09 to 0.13% in Salbani, Bhokraha, Simariya, Bhaluwa and Kaptanganj, respectively.  All locations showed the positive values of available potassium; Salbani  revealing considerable change of 64.3 to 78.5 mg/kg in CT while 68.4 to 73.3 mg/kg in ZT condition. The treatment where rice was transplanted in unpuddled condition and zero tilled to wheat, had a mean value of available phosphorus and potassium as 87.3 and 81.9 mg/kg respectively. Soil pH ranged from 4.8 to 7.1 in CT while it was 5.2 to 6.8 in ZT across the locations. The change in soil organic matter in CT of all locations except Salbani was narrower as compared to ZT

INDDGO: Integrated Network Decomposition & Dynamic programming for Graph Optimization

It is well-known that dynamic programming algorithms can utilize tree decompositions to provide a way to solve some \emph{NP}-hard problems on graphs where the complexity is polynomial in the number of nodes and edges in the graph, but exponential in the width of the underlying tree decomposition. However, there has been relatively little computational work done to determine the practical utility of such dynamic programming algorithms. We have developed software to construct tree decompositions using various heuristics and have created a fast, memory-efficient dynamic programming implementation for solving maximum weighted independent set. We describe our software and the algorithms we have implemented, focusing on memory saving techniques for the dynamic programming. We compare the running time and memory usage of our implementation with other techniques for solving maximum weighted independent set, including a commercial integer programming solver and a semi-definite programming solver. Our results indicate that it is possible to solve some instances where the underlying decomposition has width much larger than suggested by the literature. For certain types of problems, our dynamic programming code runs several times faster than these other methods

A case report: ruptured primary ovarian abscess in pregnancy

Primary ovarian abscess during pregnancy is a very rare entity.  The clinical presentation is very vague and hence can be a diagnostic dilemma. Diagnostic laparoscopy gives a definitive diagnosis and an opportunity to treat the entity in same settings. Herein we discussed a case of a ruptured primary ovarian abscess in pregnancy which was successfully managed by laparoscopy. Ovarian abscess is different from tubo-ovarian abscess. A delay in diagnosis may be associated with risk of maternal death and can be detrimental to the fetus also. Surgical drainage of ovarian abscess and conservative and minimally invasive surgical procedure under antibiotics are recommended during pregnancy

Causes of Sudden Cardiac Death on Autopsy Findings; a Four-Year Report

Introduction: Incidence of sudden cardiac death (SCD) has been steadily increasing all over the world. While knowing the cause of SCD is one of the favorites of the physicians involved with these cases, it is very difficult and challenging task for the forensic physician. The present report is a prospective study regarding cause of SCDs on autopsy examination in four-year period, Bangalore, India. Methods: The present prospective study is based on autopsy observations, carried out for four-year period from 2008 to 2011, and analyzed for cause of SCDs. The cases were chosen as per the definition of sudden death and autopsied. The material was divided into natural and unnatural groups. Finally, on histopathology, gross examination, hospital details, circumstantial, and police reports the cause of death was inferred. Results: A total of 2449 autopsy was conducted of which 204 cases were due to SCD. The highest SCDs were reported in 50-60 years age group (62.24%; n-127), followed closely by the age group 60-69 (28.43%; n-58). Male to female ratio was around 10:1. The maximum number of deaths (n=78) was within few hours (6 hours) after the onset of signs and symptoms. In 24 (11.8%) cases major narrowing was noted in both the main coronaries, in 87 (42.6%) cases in the left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD), and in 18 (51.5%) cases in the right coronary artery (RCA). The major cardiac pathology resulting in sudden death was coronary artery disease (n-116; 56.86%) and myocardial infarction (n-104; 50.9%). most of the SCDs occurred in the place of residence (n-80; 39.2%) followed closely by death in hospital (n-49; 24.01%). Conclusion: Coronary occlusion was the major contributory cause of sudden death with cardiac origin and the highest number of deaths were reported in the age 50-59 years with male to female ratio of 10:1.

Surgical management of pterygium in a rural hospital using bare sclera versus conjunctival autograft technique

Background: Pterygium is defined as a triangular fibrovascular subepithelial ingrowth of degenerative bulbar conjunctival tissue over limbus onto the cornea. Commonly seen among farmers, fishermen, stone cutters and welders. Both blue and ultraviolet light have been implicated in its causation. Histologically the true Pterygium shows elastotic degeneration of the subconjunctival connective tissue. Pterygium warrant treatment when they encroach the visual axis, induces significant astigmatism or become cosmetically bothersome. My present study was undertaken to evaluate the efficacy, safety and recurrence rates of conjunctival autograft and bare sclera techniques in treatment of progressive true pterygium in a rural hospital.Methods: The prospective study was done in the Department of Ophthalmology, Adichunchanagiri Institute of Medical Sciences, B.G Nagara, Mandya District, Karnataka, India. The study was conducted for a period of 18 months. About 70 patients who presented with progressive pterygium were included in the study.Results: In our study pterygium recurred in 10 cases (14.28%), among which pterygium recurred in 8 cases (22.85 %) using bare sclera technique and in 2 patients (5.71%) using conjunctival autograft technique, best corrected visual acuity remained stable in 37 cases (52.85 %), improved in 33 cases (47.14 %) and worsened in none (0%) of the cases.Conclusions: Conjunctival autografting is a safe and effective procedure in the management of pterygium. The recurrence rate following limbal conjunctival autografting is significantly lower than that following primary conjunctival closure by bare sclera technique

Sustained expression of microRNA-155 in hematopoietic stem cells causes a myeloproliferative disorder

Mammalian microRNAs are emerging as key regulators of the development and function of the immune system. Here, we report a strong but transient induction of miR-155 in mouse bone marrow after injection of bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) correlated with granulocyte/monocyte (GM) expansion. Demonstrating the sufficiency of miR-155 to drive GM expansion, enforced expression in mouse bone marrow cells caused GM proliferation in a manner reminiscent of LPS treatment. However, the miR-155–induced GM populations displayed pathological features characteristic of myeloid neoplasia. Of possible relevance to human disease, miR-155 was found to be overexpressed in the bone marrow of patients with certain subtypes of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Furthermore, miR-155 repressed a subset of genes implicated in hematopoietic development and disease. These data implicate miR-155 as a contributor to physiological GM expansion during inflammation and to certain pathological features associated with AML, emphasizing the importance of proper miR-155 regulation in developing myeloid cells during times of inflammatory stress

INDOOR RADON SURVEY IN NEPAL USING PASSIVE TECHNIQUE SOLID STATE NUCLEAR TRACK DETECTOR

Context: It has been proved from many epidemiological studies that the inhalation of the radioactive, inert gas radon (222Rn) is the main cause of lungs cancer after smoking. Objective: The survey was conducted to estimate the indoor radon concentration, the annual effective dose rate and the annual dose equivalent rate to the lung. Material and Methods: Altogether 50 dwellings were chosen randomly at 5 different districts of Nepal. The dosimetric measurements were carried out over a period of 3 months using time-integrated passive radon detectors, CR-39 based on type II Solid State Nuclear Track Detector (SSNTD) technique. The type of houses was concrete with plastered walls and mud house. Results: The minimum concentration of radon in the study areas was found to be <20Bq.m-3 and the maximum concentration was 110±20Bq.m-3. Also the corresponding values of annual effective dose and annual equivalent dose to the lung respectively varied from <0.60 to 3.30mSv.y-1 and 0.16—10-7 to 0.88×10-7 Sv.y-1. The uncertainty was measured at 95% confidence level. Conclusion: The indoor radon concentration varies considerably with the ventilation condition, lifestyle of the people, construction of the dwellings and climate of the areas. The measurements show that the radon concentrations were found to be well below the reference levels of ICRP. KEYWORDS: Indoor Radon; Annual Effective Dose; CR-39; Ventilation Condition; Dwelling

INDOOR RADON SURVEY IN NEPAL USING PASSIVE TECHNIQUE SOLID STATE NUCLEAR TRACK DETECTOR

Context: It has been proved from many epidemiological studies that the inhalation of the radioactive, inert gas radon (222Rn) is the main cause of lungs cancer after smoking. Objective: The survey was conducted to estimate the indoor radon concentration, the annual effective dose rate and the annual dose equivalent rate to the lung. Material and Methods: Altogether 50 dwellings were chosen randomly at 5 different districts of Nepal. The dosimetric measurements were carried out over a period of 3 months using time-integrated passive radon detectors, CR-39 based on type II Solid State Nuclear Track Detector (SSNTD) technique. The type of houses was concrete with plastered walls and mud house. Results: The minimum concentration of radon in the study areas was found to be <20Bq.m-3 and the maximum concentration was 110±20Bq.m-3. Also the corresponding values of annual effective dose and annual equivalent dose to the lung respectively varied from <0.60 to 3.30mSv.y-1 and 0.16—10-7 to 0.88×10-7 Sv.y-1. The uncertainty was measured at 95% confidence level. Conclusion: The indoor radon concentration varies considerably with the ventilation condition, lifestyle of the people, construction of the dwellings and climate of the areas. The measurements show that the radon concentrations were found to be well below the reference levels of ICRP. KEYWORDS: Indoor Radon; Annual Effective Dose; CR-39; Ventilation Condition; Dwelling

Data Sharing using BFID Encryption for Privacy Preseration of Data in Cloud

The most important functionality in cloud storage is data sharing. With the advent of cloud computing [1], data owners are motivated to outsource their complex data management systems from local sites to the commercial public cloud for great flexibility and economic savings. But for protecting data privacy and integrity, sensitive data have to be encrypted before outsourcing, which causes the need of traditional data utilization based on plaintext keyword search. Thus, enabling an encrypted cloud data search service is of paramount importance.Typically cloud computing is a combination of computing recourses accessible via internet. Historically the client or organizations store data in data centers with firewall and various security techniques used to protect data against intrudes to access the data. Since the data was contained to data centers in limits of organisation, the control over the data was more and well defined procedures could be used for accessing its own data. Howeverin cloud computing, since the data is stored anywhere across the world, the client organizations have less control over the stored data.Identity-Based Encryption (IBE) which is used to simplifies the public key and certificate management at Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) is an important alternative to public key encryption. Identity-based encryption (IBE) is an important aspect of ID-based cryptography. As such it is a type of public-key encryption in which the public key of a user is provides unique information about the identity of the user (e.g. a user's Identification). This can use the text-value of the name or domain name as a key or the physical IP address it translates to