Femoral head diameters in Nepalese patients undergoing hemiarthroplasty

Background: Sizing of the femoral head is important for determining the appropriate size of implants to be used for a patient undergoing hip arthroplasty. The present study aimed to determine the mean diameter of femoral head in Nepalese population who underwent hemiarthroplasty in our department.Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of patients who underwent hemiarthroplasty from December 2016 till December 2020. We included patients aged more than 50 years who underwent hemiarthroplasty. The diameter of the femoral head was measured intraoperatively using standard fully circular templates. For radiological measurements, X-ray of pelvis with hips anteroposterior view were included.Results: A total of 600 femoral heads were evaluated, 400 of women and 200 of men. Of these cases, the femoral head diameter were evaluated based on x-ray pelvis in 500 cases and rest of the 100 cases were evaluated intraoperatively. The mean age of the patients in our sample was 75.2±9.4 (range 50–90) years. Overall, the mean femoral head diameter (with intact articular cartilage) was 44.9±3.2 (range 39–53 mm) mm. Among the male patients, mean femoral head diameter was 47.7±2.8 mm, which was found to be significantly higher than that of female patients, who had a mean femoral head diameter of 43.7±2.4 mm, p value <0.05.Conclusions: Further studies are needed in other geographical locations, so that reference values could be established for specific regions

Pediatric long bone fractures treated by elastic intramedullary nailing

Background: Pediatric long bone fractures can have a high morbidity and long term disability among the survivors. The present study was aimed to study the clinical outcomes of children with long bone fractures managed by elastic intramedullary nail.Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of children (aged 2 to 15 years) who were admitted and treated for unilateral femoral, tibial or forearm fractures with elastic intramedullary nail from January 2018 till February 2020. All were managed with elastic intramedullary nailing. The union times and complications were noted from the medical records.Results: Femoral, tibial and forearm bones were involved in 15 patients each (33.3%). Road traffic accident was reported by 31%) and physical abuse by one case (2%). The mean time of union was 10 weeks, ranging from 6 to 12 weeks. The mean time for union of the femur and tibia was 11.54 and 11.34 weeks respectively. It was significantly lower for forearm (6.67 weeks, p value <0.05). Two patients reported of bursitis and impingement, which were resolved after nail removal. One case had limb length discrepancy of about 0.5 cm in femur fracture, which was not impairing functional activity. Functional status was assessed based on Flynn criteria was found to be excellent in 36%, good in 44% and fair in 20%.Conclusions: The results of the present study show that titanium elastic nail (TEN) is an effective treatment modality for managing pediatric long bone fractures. We recommend the use of TEN in managing long bone fractures in children

Prospect of Protected Agricultural Structure and its Constraints for Utilizing in Nepal

Protected agricultural structures have been adopted by commercial farmers throughout the world including Nepal to cope with climate change and its adverse effects on agriculture. Technology based production system is important for sustainable agricultural development. It could be the tool for low-income countries like Nepal where agriculture is the priority of income generation for the rural people. A field study was conducted in 2021 and 2022 to understand the prospects of protected agriculture structures adaptation by farmers and agricultural entrepreneur in Nepal. The study was traversed with both physical observation and the user’s interviews. The opportunities and the constraints have been critically analysed based on these field study along with the review of different policy documents and success stories published. This study found that the protected cultivation practice has been rapidly increased with increasing number of protected structures like plastic house or tunnel framed with bamboo or GI pipe, Agri-net house, naturally ventilated poly house and semi or hi-tech green house. In contrary, the import of horticulture products has also been increased more than 200% in last 10 years. This study finds the gap mismatching between technology enhancement, production and import of horticulture crops

Zero till in wheat from the gender perspective in Nepal

Different tillage practices such as zero-till direct-seeded rice (ZTDSR), zero-till maize (ZTM), and zero-till wheat (ZTW) were implemented in the farmer's field of Sunsari district were evaluated. However, the focus was on ZTW because of high its competitiveness with cheaper wheat from abroad. Focus Group Discussion (FGD), Famers households keeping records, field monitoring, key informant interviews were the primary source of data whereas literature and desktop review were done for secondary data. Zero till wheat operation scale out of the machine use had been increased, by 61.25% out of 109.63ha land in Bhokraha and 66.49 % out of 55.3ha of land in Kaptangunj. Whereas, a new node Chitaha was established with the initiation of non-respondent farmer's where the area occupied 26ha in the year of 2019 respectively as compared to the base year that of 2014. Yield advantage was not much higher with ZTW, the additional benefit of almost 34% over conventional till wheat (CTW) was sufficient enough for the farmers to decide to adopt zero tillage technology. Farmers perceived about 17% saving in seed requirement, 13% saving in irrigation amount and time, and 44% saving in total labor cost with ZTW to make it more profitable as compared to CTW. Among different methods of extension, farmers’ field day with 63% and field trial with 48% with women's participation shows the most effective method to create awareness. Although the percentage of the working hour for the female worker is higher the number of the total hour has been decreased for both the man and women and the total 303.64hr/ha has been saved

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Not AvailableEngineering diazotrophic rice having either an integral component of diazotrophic microbes or placing microbial origin nif gene to the rice plant is the dream of biotechnologist. Rice-Aeschynomene ecosystem of pristine chaur land provides a suitable niche to search Rhizobium endophytes in rice. Accordingly, the work was initiated to search suitable endophytic Rhizobium strain for artificial symbiosis within the roots of Desariya rice and its source through morphological, biochemical and molecular approaches. Detection of Acetylene reduction assay (ARA) activity in sterilized Desariya rice root confirmed the presence of putative diazotrophic endophytes in rice root. Isolates from Aeschynomene aspera L. nodulating and Desariya rice endophytic Rhizobium were evaluated for growth, IAA, morphological and biochemical features. Carbon profiling pattern of both these isolates indicated that Desariya rice endophytic Rhizobium has its similarity with Aeschynomene aspera L. nodulating Rhizobium. 16S rRNA gene sequencing confirmed the presence of endophytic Bradyrhizobium sp. in Desariya rice roots and its similarity with Aeschynomene aspera L. nodulating Bradyrhizobium. Desariya rice Bradyrhizobium may be an ideal candidate in the future for creating artificial symbiosis in rice due to its similarity with Aeschynomene aspera L. Bradyrhizobium.Not Availabl

Detection of endophytic association between Aeschynomene nodulating Bradyrhizobium sp. and traditional Desariya rice roots under rice-Aeschynomene ecosystem of chaur land, Bihar, India

Engineering diazotrophic rice having either an integral component of diazotrophic microbes or placing microbial origin nif gene to the rice plant is the dream of biotechnologist. Rice-Aeschynomene ecosystem of pristine chaur land provides a suitable niche to search Rhizobium endophytes in rice. Accordingly, the work was initiated to search suitable endophytic Rhizobium strain for artificial symbiosis within the roots of Desariya rice and its source through morphological, biochemical and molecular approaches. Detection of Acetylene reduction assay (ARA) activity in sterilized Desariya rice root confirmed the presence of putative diazotrophic endophytes in rice root. Isolates from Aeschynomene aspera L. nodulating and Desariya rice endophytic Rhizobium were evaluated for growth, IAA, morphological and biochemical features. Carbon profiling pattern of both these isolates indicated that Desariya rice endophytic Rhizobium has its similarity with Aeschynomene aspera L. nodulating Rhizobium. 16S rRNA gene sequencing confirmed the presence of endophytic Bradyrhizobium sp. in Desariya rice roots and its similarity with Aeschynomene aspera L. nodulating Bradyrhizobium. Desariya rice Bradyrhizobium may be an ideal candidate in the future for creating artificial symbiosis in rice due to its similarity with Aeschynomene aspera L. Bradyrhizobium