Efficacy of bio-fertilizers and chemical fertilizers on growth and yield of cowpea varieties

Cowpea is valued for its nutrition and nitrogen-fixing ability, and investigating bio-fertilizers offers a sustainable way to enhance cowpea growth and yield. A field experiment was conducted from February to June 2022 in the Nawalparasi West, Nepal, to investigate the impact of different fertilizers, including bio-fertilizers and chemical fertilizers, on the growth parameters and yield of cowpea varieties. Employing a double factorial Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD), the experiment considered two factors: cowpea varieties (Malepatan-1 and Stickless) and fertilizers (control, mycorrhizal, rhizobia, recommended dose of chemical fertilizer (RDF), mycorrhizal + rhizobia, and mycorrhiza + rhizobium + RDF). Malepatan-1 exhibited superior growth and yield compared to Stickless, with higher plant height (125.73 cm), seed weight plant−1 (72.29 g), thousand grain weight (151.62 g), and yield ha−1 (3,536.83 kg ha−1). While the application of rhizobia + mycorrhiza and chemical fertilizers increased various growth parameters, mycorrhiza + rhizobium showed comparable results in terms of yield (4,321.41 kg ha−1) and thousand grain weight (167.19 g) compared to the combination of the former (4,714.26 kg ha−1 and 176.83 g, respectively). Moreover, mycorrhiza + rhizobium demonstrated a higher benefit-cost ratio (3.76), making it economically and environmentally preferable to biofertilizers with chemicals. The study recommends mycorrhiza + rhizobium for its comparable yield, superior economic returns, and environmental sustainability over biofertilizers combined with chemicals. For maximizing economic and sustainable production, the study suggests using the Malepatan-1 cowpea variety with biofertilizers, excluding chemical (inorganic) fertilizers

A mixed-mode ginger and turmeric solar dryer: design, simulation, biochemical and performance analysis

Postharvest loss of vegetables and fruits is higher in developing countries due to the lack of post-processing equipment. Although the production of ginger and turmeric is high in Nepal, farmers practices open sun drying, which leads to poor quality, and the products do not get to the market at reasonable prices. In this study, a simple, easy to assemble and disassemble mixed-mode solar dryer has been designed, fabricated, and biochemical and performance analyses were done. The dryer was designed considering the solar irradiation, sunshine hours, latitude of the location, locally available materials, moisture content (MC) of the product, and drying capacity. The Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis was performed using ANSYS Fluent simulation software to predict the dryer’s temperature and air flow behavior. The experiment was carried out in November in the harvesting season of ginger. The dryer performance is compared with the open sun drying using ginger and turmeric. The biochemical properties such as Oleoresin and Essential oil were determined using Soxhlet and Steam distillation methods and compared with the product of open sun drying. The experiment results showed that ginger and turmeric took only about 14 sunshine hours to reach from 88% to 10-12% moisture content. The maximum collector and drying efficiency were recorded at about 45.32% and 31.364%, respectively. The temperature distribution inside the dryer obtained from the experiment correlated with the results obtained from the CFD analysis. The retention of essential oil was found more in product drying with dryer than open sun drying. Among the various drying models, Wang and Singh model was found suitable for describing the drying model. It is concluded that the designed dryer is suitable for ginger and turmeric drying into a safe moisture level, ensuring product quality. BIBECHANA 19 (2021) 40-6

A mixed-mode ginger and turmeric solar dryer: design, simulation, biochemical and performance analysis

Postharvest loss of vegetables and fruits is higher in developing countries due to the lack of post-processing equipment. Although the production of ginger and turmeric is high in Nepal, farmers practices open sun drying, which leads to poor quality, and the products do not get to the market at reasonable prices. In this study, a simple, easy to assemble and disassemble mixed-mode solar dryer has been designed, fabricated, and biochemical and performance analyses were done. The dryer was designed considering the solar irradiation, sunshine hours, latitude of the location, locally available materials, moisture content (MC) of the product, and drying capacity. The Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis was performed using ANSYS Fluent simulation software to predict the dryer’s temperature and air flow behavior. The experiment was carried out in November in the harvesting season of ginger. The dryer performance is compared with the open sun drying using ginger and turmeric. The biochemical properties such as Oleoresin and Essential oil were determined using Soxhlet and Steam distillation methods and compared with the product of open sun drying. The experiment results showed that ginger and turmeric took only about 14 sunshine hours to reach from 88% to 10-12% moisture content. The maximum collector and drying efficiency were recorded at about 45.32% and 31.364%, respectively. The temperature distribution inside the dryer obtained from the experiment correlated with the results obtained from the CFD analysis. The retention of essential oil was found more in product drying with dryer than open sun drying. Among the various drying models, Wang and Singh model was found suitable for describing the drying model. It is concluded that the designed dryer is suitable for ginger and turmeric drying into a safe moisture level, ensuring product quality. BIBECHANA 19 (2021) 40-6

Effects of open dumping site on surrounding air, soil, and water: a case study of Biratnagar metropolitan city

Managing solid waste is one of the emerging challenges in urban areas, and open dumping and burning is common practices mostly in developing countries like Nepal. Which affects the overall surroundings. The study has investigated the effects of open dumping and burning in nearby air, soil, and river water in dumping site of Biratnagar metropolitan city. For studying the effects on air, the three samples of air were taken, at center and 100m upstream and downstream to the direction of wind flow. Soil samples were taken at 10m from the dumping site center, at 25m from the first sample and at 60m from the second sample, and the water samples were taken at leachate and 100 m upstream and downstream to the leachate. Soil and water were subjected to the physiochemical test, heavy metals test and microbes test whereas PM 2.5, and PM 10 were tested for air  quality. The results showed that the air from upstream has been seen carrying particulate matter from the dumping site to downstream. Similarly, it is found that the quality of water at leachate and downstream is degraded compared to upstream. The soil quality has been found to have degraded due to the harmful and toxic material of the dumping site. Thus, this study shows that open dumping and burning have affected the nearby air, water, and soil

The COVID‐19 Pandemic Not Only Poses Challenges, but Also Opens Opportunities for Sustainable Transformation

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted social, economic, and environmental systems worldwide, slowing down and reversing the progress made in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). SDGs belong to the 2030 Agenda to transform our world by tackling humankind's challenges to ensure well-being, economic prosperity, and environmental protection. We explore the potential impacts of the pandemic on SDGs for Nepal. We followed a knowledge co-creation process with experts from various professional backgrounds, involving five steps: online survey, online workshop, assessment of expert's opinions, review and validation, and revision and synthesis. The pandemic has negatively impacted most SDGs in the short term. Particularly, the targets of SDG 1, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 13 have and will continue to have weakly to moderately restricting impacts. However, a few targets of SDG 2, 3, 6, and 11 could also have weakly promoting impacts. The negative impacts have resulted from impeding factors linked to the pandemic. Many of the negative impacts may subside in the medium and long terms. The key five impeding factors are lockdowns, underemployment and unemployment, closure of institutions and facilities, diluted focus and funds for non-COVID-19-related issues, and anticipated reduction in support from development partners. The pandemic has also opened a window of opportunity for sustainable transformation, which is short-lived and narrow. These opportunities are lessons learned for planning and action, socio-economic recovery plan, use of information and communication technologies and the digital economy, reverse migration and “brain gain,” and local governments' exercising authorities

microRNAs as prognosticators in breast cancer

Master's thesis in Biological chemistry.Breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease. It is the leading cause of death due to cancer among women in the western world. With the increase in incidence of breast cancer and mostly the lymph node negative breast cancer, accurate prognosis is necessary to make the treatment effective and to avoid under and over treatment. In attempt to provide reliable diagnosis, and to find out which therapy is most suitable for a particular patient various prognostic biomarkers have been developed. microRNA is one among the potential biomarkers. These small non- coding RNA molecules exerts its effect through mRNA either by binding directly and specifically to 3’-UTR region (imperfect match) and silencing them or by enabling the degradation of target mRNA (perfect match). In this study, expression level of nine different miRNAs (let-7b, miR-18b, miR-21, miR-25, miR-29c, miR-106b, miR375, miR505 and miR-150) was investigated using quantitative real time PCR (qPCR). One hundred and twenty-three formaldehyde fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) tissues from the MMMCP project were used to isolate total RNA. Tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) were assessed from the samples to observe its prognostic value. Among the miRNAs studied, the biological function of let-7b was examined in ER negative (MDA- MB-231) and positive (MCF-7) breast cancer cell lines. For this, PNATM inhibitor was transfected and the corresponding miRNA was analyzed by using qPCR. The rate of proliferation and migration potential of the transfected cells was studied by wound healing assay. A immunohistochemical screening was performed to see the expression of markers in the let-7b inhibited. Furthermore, metabolic functions of the cells were studied by mitochondrial mito-stress test using a Seahorse XF analyzer. Independent t-test was used to detect significant correlations between miRNA expression and different clinical features of breast cancer. Kaplan- Meier survival analysis showed that high MAI (>10) and high histological grade (≥2) were the most important prognostic factors for distance metastasis free survival. Among the nine miRNAs studied, miR-18b, miR-21, miR-25 and miR-150 are associated with high grade while miR-18b and miR-106b are associated with higher proliferation in breast tumor cells. Similarly let-7b and miR-150 were found to be associated with low and high TILs respectively while let-7b, miR-375 and miR-150 were found to be associated with older age (>50yrs). The expression of let-7b in both MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cells was successfully knocked out with an inhibitor concentration of 0.5μM. However, a wound healing assay performed in order to see the rate of proliferation, in absence of let-7b, did not provide any conclusive results. No distinct difference in the expression of markers was obtained except for Cyclin D1. Cyclin D1 was seen to be expressed higher in the cells transfected with inhibitor in both MCF-7 and MDA- MB-231 cells. Mitochondrial mito stress test done to study the cellular metabolism showed that, the mitochondrial parameters as well as ATP production was lowered in MCF-7 cell transfected with let-7b in comparison to the control. While MDA-MB-cell do not show any significant change the the mitochondrial respiration in absence of let-7b inhibitor. our results confirm the role of let7b as a tumor suppressor in breast cancer. Furthermore, we confirm the strong prognostic value of proliferation in lymph node negative breast cancer, also the prognostic value of TILs is confirmed

CRISPR/CAS9: A new paradigm for crop improvement revolutionizing agriculture

Genome editing has a long history that dates back to the 1970s with the introduction of recombinant DNA technology; fast forward three decades, the advent of Zinc Finger Nucleases (ZFN) and Transcription Activator-Like Effector Nuclease (TALEN) during the early 2000s marked the beginning of site-specific genome editing, and at the forefront is Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats-associated protein (CRISPR)/Cas9 discovered in 2012. CRISPR technology has experienced unprecedented growth as a tool in both pure and applied research. Gene/genome editing has been a pivotal tool for plant biologists for the functional analysis of genes and their characterization, and for plant breeders for creating variability and improving adapted cultivars. CRISPR/Cas9, with its simplicity, efficiency, inexpensiveness and elegant way of genomic editing, offers a wide possibility to plant breeders for crop improvement. This review highlights the past accomplishment, current research and future prospects of CRISPR technology in crop improvement. Furthermore, this review summarizes how CRISPR technology is applied in different scopes of plant breeding for producing improved crops, along with a brief overview of the CRISPR/Cas9 system

Upcycling of pine and sodium silicate composites through pyrolysis: Effects of pyrolysis temperature and sodium silicate content

In 3D-printing, sodium silicate (SS) can be used as an inorganic binder for wood-based composites due to its better rheological properties, high strength, and affordability. Investigating the recyclability of 3D-printed composites is necessary to understand the reusability of demolished additively manufactured construction waste. In this work, the bio-oil through pyrolysis was produced using pine and SS composites and further characterized to observe the effects of the pyrolysis temperatures and the proportion of SS in composites. Pine and SS composites with 0, 33.33, 50, and 66.67 % of the SS on a mass basis were prepared and cured to mimic the 3D-printed composites. Then, pyrolysis of cured composites was performed in a bench-scale fixed bed pyrolysis reactor at four temperatures (450–600 °C). From the pyrolysis of composites with 66 % SS at 600 ℃, a maximum condensed liquid yield of 68 % (wt.%, dry basis) was obtained. Further, it was observed that the selectivity towards hydrocarbons and alkyl phenols increased by increasing the proportion of SS in the composite, but methoxy phenols decreased, which enhanced bio-fuel production. A maximum hydroxyl concentration of 6.54 mmol g−1 was observed for the bio-oil from pyrolysis of SS-based composite at 600 ℃. This study shows the feasibility of upcycling the 3D-printed wood composites through pyrolysis to generate bio-oil that can be used for bio-based resin synthesis and bio-fuel applications

Histomorphology Spectrum of Gall Bladder Pathology in Cholecystectomy Specimens with Clinical Diagnosis of Chronic Cholecystitis

Introduction: Chronic cholecystitis is a common disease in surgery where majority of cholecystectomy are performed. This study was carried out to see histomorphological pattern of gallbladder diseases, staining pattern with various stains and prevalence of carcinoma. Methods: This prospective study was conducted in the department of Pathology, B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, Dharan, Nepal from January to December 2008. A minimum of fifty random samples were included in study. Clinical details and pathological data were retrieved from case sheets and patient’s history. All specimens were fixed in 10% formalin. Three sections each from neck, body and fundus were taken. Tissues were processed in an automated tissue processor and paraffin blocks made. The tissue sections were examined under light microscope after hematoxylin-eosin, neutral mucin, sulfated mucin and sialomucin stain. Results: Chronic cholecystitis without cholelithiasis constituted majority of 25(50.0%) cases with M: F of 1: 7.1. The gastric and intestinal metaplasias were present in 33.0 % and 8.0% of the cases respectively. The neutral, sulfated and sailomucin were positive in 35.0 %, 21.0 %, 1.0 % and 34.0 %, 21.0 %, 1.0% cases respectively in gastric and intestinal metaplasia. Both gastric and intestinal metaplasia showed significant p-value on sulfated mucin. Conclusions: The increase risk factors for developing of chronic cholecystitis were seen in female gender (86%). The gastric and intestinal metaplasia showed positivity more with neutral followed by sulfated mucin.  Keywords: chronic cholecystitis; metaplasia; mucins.