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Human-wildlife conflict is a major issue for policymakers and conservationists due to economic loss to the communities living in the close territory of the park, affecting their livelihoods and wellbeing. This study aims at identifying and quantifying wildlife-induced damages on crops and livestock and methods used by communities for crop and livestock protection. A total of 434 households living in the vicinity of the park from the ten forest user groups around the Chitwan national parks and buffer zone were randomly sampled and interviewed with the use of semi-structured questionnaires in the year 2021. Findings revealed a total of 87.86% of rice-growing households reported the damage of rice whereas 90.32% and 87.68% of households reported the damage to wheat and maize, respectively. The annual loss of 78 kg of rice per household (NRs. 1776 at prevailing market rates) was reported along with the loss of wheat (86 Kg-worth of NRs. 2,523) and maize (96 Kg-worth of NRs. 2,019) per household. About 59% of households had lost at least a livestock species and poultry in last year, and that varied well across the sectors. Twelve different methods and techniques were identified by communities that were used regularly to prevent crop damage and livestock loss with the majority of people using certain methods and techniques against crop damage and livestock loss. A total of 425 (97.93%) were reported that they used at least one method and technique to prevent crop damage and livestock loss. Among all these methods, crop guarding, shouting, use of natural fences, guarding by dogs, and throwing stones were the most effective and safest practices/techniques, but the use of a single means and approach was found ineffective. This suggests the need for developing site-specific management techniques to minimize crop damage and livestock loss in the National Park vicinity and adjoining protected areas. Apart from the different mitigating means, construction, and maintaining permanent fences on the border of the national parks, there should be the provision of conservation education to communities bordering protected areas to practice sustainable agriculture and income-generating programs that are conservation-friendly. that may include, for example, provision of conservation educations along with income-generating programs that are conservation-friendly.

The present study investigated the effect of meals and fractions of black soldier fly larvae (BSFL; Hermetia illucens) in diets for Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) on the physical quality of feed pellets, nutrient utilisation, and growth performance. Six extruded diets were produced: control diet (CD); full-fat BSFL meal diet (IM); defatted BSFL meal diet (DFIM); de-chitinised BSFL meal diet (DCIM); BSFL oil diet (IO) and BSFL exoskeleton diet (EX). The full-fat, defatted and de-chitinised meals replaced 15% of protein in the control diet. An eight-week study was conducted using salmon with average 28 g initial weight. The full-fat and de-chitinised meals in the diets numerically reduced pellet hardness, expansion, and water stability. The full-fat and de-chitinised meals improved growth rate of salmon, whilst defatted meal, oil and exoskeleton supported similar growth performance as the control. Feed intake and growth rate of fish fed full-fat meal diet were higher than those fed the other insect diets, but defatted meal gave a better feed conversion ratio than full-fat meal. Defatted meal, de-chitinised meal and exoskeleton reduced protein digestibility in fish, however; defatted meal increased the digested protein retention. In conclusion, use of full-fat BSFL meal improved feed intake and growth rate of salmon when replacing 15% of dietary protein. The present results suggest that less processed fullfat form of BSFL is more optimal in diets for salmon and further processing to remove lipid or exoskeleton fractions would only lead to an additional cost.

OBJECTIVE: To systematically appraise the existing published literature on cervical cancer screening utilization, and associated barriers and facilitators, in Nepal.STUDY DESIGN: Systematic literature review and meta-analysis.METHODS: PubMed/MEDLINE, CINAHL, Scopus, Embase, and, Google Scholar were systematically searched using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis guideline. All quantitative and qualitative studies reporting cervical cancer screening (using the Pap smear test or visual inspection with acetic acid or human papillomavirus test) utilization, barriers, and facilitators for screening were identified. A meta-analysis was performed to estimate Nepal's pooled cervical cancer screening utilization proportion.RESULTS: The search yielded 97 records, of which 17 studies were included. Fifteen studies were quantitative and two were qualitative. Of the 17 studies, six were hospital-based and six were community-based. The pooled cervical cancer screening utilization proportion (using Pap smear test) among Nepalese women was 17% from the studies in the hospital settings, and 16% in the community. Six studies reported barriers to cervical cancer screening, of which four reported embarrassments related to the gynecological examination and a low level of knowledge on cervical cancer. Three (of four) studies reported health personnel, and two studies reported screening services-related facilitators for cervical cancer screening.CONCLUSION: Our review reported that cervical cancer screening utilization (16%) is more than four times lower than the national target (70%) in Nepal. Multiple barriers such as low levels of knowledge and embarrassment are associated with cervical cancer screening utilization. Health personnel's gender, counseling, and privacy of screening services were commonly reported facilitators. These findings could help to inform future research, and policy efforts to increase cervical cancer screening utilization in Nepal.

The complex and highly tortuous microstructure of aerogels has led to the superior insulating capabilities that aerogels are known for. This open cell microstructure has also created a unique acoustic fingerprint that can be manipulated to achieve maximum acoustic insulation/absorption. The goal of this work was to create a computational approach for predicting sound propagation behavior in monolithic aerogels using the wave solving tool k-wave. The model presented here explores attenuation and loss values as a function of density, angle of incidence of wave, and medium (aqueous and non-aqueous) for frequencies in the range of 0.5–1 MHz. High numerical accuracy without a significant computational demand was achieved. Results indicate that loss increases as a function of frequency and the medium that the incoming wave is travelling through dominates the attenuation, loss, and other characteristics more than angle of incidence, and pore structure.

Anisotropic properties of single crystals of SrPt

Anisotropic properties of single crystals of SrPt$_{3}$P were studied using London penetration depth and electrical resistivity measurements. The upper critical field, $H_{c2}(T)$, was determined from four-probe electrical resistivity measurements for three orthogonal directions of a magnetic field with respect to the crystal. The London penetration depth, $\lambda(T)$, was determined from the magnetic susceptibility of the Meissner-London state measured using a tunnel-diode resonator technique. Whereas $H_{c2}(T)$ and the normal-state $\rho(T)$ are practically identical for all three magnetic field orientations, the London penetration depth shows significant unidirectional anisotropy. The low-temperature $\lambda(T)$ is exponentially attenuated when a small excitation radiofrequency magnetic field, $H_{rf}$, is applied along the $c"-$direction, in which case screening currents flow in the $a"b"-$ plane, while for the other two orientations, $H_{rf}\parallel a"$ and $H_{rf}\parallel b"$, the London penetration depth shows a much weaker, $\lambda(T)\sim T^{2}$, variation. Such unusual and contrasting behavior of the two anisotropies, $\gamma_{H}\left(T\right)=H_{c2,ab}/H_{c2,c}=\xi_{ab}/\xi_{c}$ and $\gamma_{\lambda}\left(T\right)=\lambda_{c}/\lambda_{ab}$, imposes significant constraints on the possible order parameter. Although our measurements are insufficient to derive conclusively the superconducting gap anisotropy, qualitatively, order parameter with two point nodes and a modulation in the perpendicular direction is consistent with the experimental observations., Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2101.06489

Land suitability analysis is a pre-requisite in achieving optimum utilization of the available land resources. The main objective of this study was to develop a suitability map for lokta based on topographic, soil, land-use, land cover, and climatic factors of production using a Multi-Criteria Evaluation (MCE) & GIS approach. The study was carried out in Suspa Community Forest of Dolakha district. Biophysical variables of soil, climate, topography, and land use land cover (LULC) and water availability were considered as variable influencing for the study suitability classes. For MCE, Pairwise Comparison Matrix was applied and the suitable areas for lokta crop were generated and graduated. Finally, the land cover map was overlaid with the suitability map to identify variances between the present land cover. The crop-land evaluation results of this study showed that out of total 625 hectare area, 9% was under highly suitable, 22% were moderately suitable, 36% of the land was marginally suitable, and 33% were currently and permanently also not suitable. Also the suitable classes were overlaid over present land use and land class. It was found that 100% of the highly suitable land was under forest land of land use and hardwood of land cover. Thus findings of this research provided information at local level that could be useful in determining suitability status of desired species.

International audience; The London penetration depth λ(T) was measured in a single crystal of V3Si. The superfluid density obtained from this measurement shows a distinct signature of two almost decoupled superconducting gaps. This alone is insufficient to distinguish between s± and s++ pairing states, but it can be achieved by studying the effect of controlled nonmagnetic disorder on the superconducting transition temperature Tc. For this purpose, the same V3Si crystal was sequentially irradiated by 2.5-MeV electrons three times, repeating the measurement between the irradiation runs. A total dose of 10C/cm2 (6.24×1019 electrons/cm2) was accumulated, for which Tc changed from 16.4 K in a pristine state to 14.7 K (9.3%). Not only is this substantial suppression impossible for a single isotropic gap, but also it is not large enough for a sign-changing s± pairing state. Our electronic band structure calculations show how five bands crossing the Fermi energy can be naturally grouped to support two effective gaps, not dissimilar from the physics of iron pnictides. We analyze the results using two-gap models for both λ(T) and Tc which describe the data very well. Thus the experimental results and theoretical analysis provide strong support for an s++ superconductivity with two unequal gaps, Δ1(0)≈2.53meV and Δ2(0)≈1.42meV, and a very weak interband coupling in the V3Si superconductor.

A study was conducted to evaluate the effect of combined application of urea and poultry manure(viz., 100% N-urea, 75% N-urea + 25% N-PM, 50% N-urea + 50% N-PM, 25% N-urea + 75% N-PM and 100% N-PM) on yield and quality of two varieties of lettuce viz., Green Span and NAI RE KUI DA F1at the Horticulture Farm of Agriculture and Forestry University, Rampur, Chitwan, Nepal from October 30, 2015 to January 30, 2016. Results revealed that the integration of 50% or more N-PM had significantly higher values in growth, yield and quality parameters while the use of 100% N-urea had the lowest one. Similarly, the two varieties significantly differed in all characters and the variety Green Span performed better at all levels of integration of N-urea with N-poultry manure than NAI RE KUI DA F1. Based on interaction effect, Green Span performed better with 100% N-poultry manure while NAI RE KUI DA F1 did better with the combination of 50% N-urea and 50% N-PM. SAARC J. Agri., 17(1): 201-210 (2019)

Soybean is a critical food and nutritional security crop in Rwanda. Promoted by the Rwandan National Agricultural Research System for both adults and as an infant weaning food, soybean is grown by approximately 40% of households. Soybean may be susceptible to the growth of mycotoxin-producing moulds; however, data has been contradictory. Mycotoxin contamination is a food and feed safety issue for grains and other field crops. This study aimed to determine the extent of mycotoxin contamination in soybean, and to assess people’s awareness on mycotoxins. A farm-level survey was conducted in 2015 within three agro-ecological zones of Rwanda suitable for soybean production. Soybean samples were collected from farmers (n=300) who also completed questionnaires about pre-and post-harvest farm practices, and aflatoxin awareness. The concentration of total aflatoxin in individual soybean samples was tested by enzymelinked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using a commercially-available kit. Other mycotoxins were analyzed using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LCMS/MS) on 10 selected sub samples. Only 7.3% of the respondents were aware of aflatoxin contamination in foods, but farmers observed good postharvest practices including harvesting the crop when the pods were dry. Using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), only one sample had a concentration (11 µg/kg) above the most stringent EU maximum permitted limit of 4 µg/kg. Multi-mycotoxins liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) results confirmed that soybeans had low or undetectable contamination; only one sample contained 13µg/kg of sterigmatocystine. The soybean samples from Rwanda obtained acceptably low mycotoxin levels. Taken together with other studies that showed that soybean is less contaminated by mycotoxins, these results demonstrate that soybean can be promoted as a nutritious and safe food. However, there is a general need for educating farmers on mycotoxin contamination in food and feed to ensure better standards are adhered to safeguard the health of the consumers regarding these fungal secondary metabolites.

The experiment was conducted in the Horticulture farm of Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science, Paklihawa, Rupandehi, Nepal from March, 2017 to June, 2017 to screen the varieties of okra against Okra yellow vein mosaic virus under different management practices. The experiment was laid out in two factorial Split plot design and replicated three times. Five varieties of okra viz. Parvati, Arka Anamika, NOH-15, Super Green and Julie were used and five treatments viz. Jholmol (1:5), Azadiracthin (5ml/L), Imidacloprid (2ml/L), cow milk (100ml/L) and control (distilled water) were used as foliar spray on plants. The chlorophyll content of the leaves was higher in Julie followed by Arka Anamika. The white fly count was found to be reduced after the application of treatments in the succeeding date in almost all varieties. The efficiency of the management practices was found to be significant with Super Green and Julie varieties with least Percent Disease Incidence(PDI) value and in par with each other. Imidacloprid and Azadiractin had the leastPDI value and the combination of Super Green variety with Imidacloprid, Super Green with Jholmol, Super Green with cow milk, Julie with Imidacloprid, NOH-15 with Imidacloprid were found resistant. Similarly, the highest yield was obtained in Julie with Imidaclropid combination. However, due to the maximum waiting period of this chemical as well as its negative impact on human and plant health, Julie with Azadirachtin combination can be suggested to farmers to have eco-friendly management of Okra yellow vein mosaic virus.

This study was done with 70 households of Uttarkanya and Bhujung VDC of Lamjung district to assess the impacts of climatic variability on sheep production and to document their adaptation practices to mitigate this variability. Household interview with structured-questionnaire were used to collect primary information, and secondary data was collected from District Livestock Service Office, Lamjung, Central Bureau of Statistics and Department of Hydrology and Meteorology. This study found that more than 80% of the farmer's perception about climatic parameters matched to those recorded by department of hydrology and meteorology. Similarly, the trend of sheep rearing in Lamjung district was found in decreasing whereas youths are least attracted to sheep farming, posing serious threat to the sustainability of sheep farming in the area. The study found that the climate change has affected sheep production and livelihood of farmers since many years. Analysis of climate data of Khudi region of Lamjung district showed increase in maximum temperature from 28.32°C to 28.63°C with an average change of 0.002°C per year and increase in minimum temperature from 15.03°C to 16.38°C with an average change of 0.015°C per year in past 20 years, resulting in hotter summer and warmer winter. Similarly, rainfall has shown decreasing trend associated with erratic patterns. Most important risk factor affecting sheep farming was increase in occurrence of different types of diseases due to climate change which was significantly different (P

The Molly cow model uses fixed stoichiometric coefficients for predicting volatile fatty acid (VFA) production from the fermented individual dietary nutrient fractions of forage and concentrate. We previously showed that predictions of VFA production had large errors and hypothesized that it was due to a lack of representation of carbon exchange among VFA. The objectives of the present study were to add VFA interconversion equations based on thermodynamics to the Molly cow model and evaluate the effect of these additions on model accuracy and precision of VFA predictions. Previously described thermodynamic equations were introduced to represent interconversions among VFA. The model was further modified to predict de novo acetate, propionate, and butyrate production coefficients based on forage-to-concentrate ratios rather than discrete, fixed sets of coefficients for forage-based, concentrate-based, and mixed diets. Both the original model and the modified one were reparameterized and evaluated against a common data set containing 8 studies reporting pH, VFA concentration, and VFA production rates using isotope dilution techniques and 62 studies reporting VFA concentrations and pH. Evaluations after parameter estimation revealed that predictions of VFA production rates were not improved, with root mean squared prediction errors (RMSPE) of 77, 60, and 51% for acetate, propionate, and butyrate, respectively, for the revised model versus 75, 63, and 55, respectively, for the original model. The RMSPE for predictions of VFA concentrations were reduced from 28, 46, and 40% to 22, 31, and 26% for acetate, propionate, and butyrate, respectively, simply by rederiving the VFA coefficients, but minimal further improvement was achieved with the addition of thermodynamically driven interconversion equations (RMSPE of 21, 32, and 27% for acetate, propionate, and butyrate, respectively). Thus, the results indicate that thermodynamically driven interchanges among VFA, as represented in this study, may not be a primary determinant for the accuracy of predictions of net production rates. Including the effect of pH on VFA absorption reduced the mean bias of propionate production and slope bias of acetate production, but not the overall RMSPE. The larger prediction errors for VFA production as compared with concentrations suggest the data quality may not be high, or that our representation of VFA production and absorption as well as ruminal digestion is inadequate. Additional data are required to discriminate among these hypotheses.

Community diagnosis is defined as a comprehensive assessment of the state of an entire community in relation to its social, economic, physical and biological environment. It is a process of examining the patterns of disease or health status in the community in order to promote health, prevent disease and manage health services for the community people. As per the curriculum of Tribhuwan University, B.Sc. Nursing first year, we were provided an opportunity to fulfill the practicum of community health nursing in the assigned area Shanti Tole and Teentara Tole, Pokhara, Lekhnath, Ritthepani-27 from 18th June to 14th July 2017. Total population of Ritthepani was 4529, male population was 2100 and female population was 2429. Each of the 13 students was assigned with 10 different families for community diagnosis in order to promote the health of the individual, family and community. The main objective of community diagnosis was to find out the health related aspects and to provide preventive, promotive, curative and rehabilitative services to the individual and the community as a whole. All the findings were presented among the key members of the community. On survey, total population of 130 houses was found 565, among them 296 were male population and 269 were female population. Sanitation of the community was inappropriate. People were not using the health facilities effectively so they were found suffering from different kinds of diseases most commonly gastritis. The common health seeking practice was going to governmental hospital and traditional healers.

Background Integrated curriculum enhances students' learning and the retention of knowledge. At Patan Academy of Health Sciences, integrated organ system based curriculum is used with Problem Based Learning as the principle teaching learning method to foster students' learning. In addition, other approaches of integration were under taken such as integrated assessment; logical arrangement teaching learning methods (lectures and practicals); joint effort of faculty in curriculum planning and delivery; conducive environment to foster hidden curriculum. This study describes the perception of faculty and students on integration characteristics of Basic Science curriculum. Objective To measure the integration characteristics of Basic Science Curriculum. Method Tool was developed to measure integration characteristics of Basic Science Curriculum and ensure whether such planned integration has been achieved. Mixed method was used to measure the perception of the integration characteristics i) quantitatively by questionnaire survey to faculty and students ii) qualitatively by in-depth interview of students. Result Both faculty and students perceived that all the blocks in Basic Science was well integrated in the quantitative questionnaire survey. But, in the in-depth interview, students perceived integration of curriculum in organ system blocks were better integrated compared to Principle of Human Biology blocks where fundamentals of basic science disciplines were delivered. Students reflected that Problem Based Learning not only integrated Basic Science disciplines but also with clinical sciences and the social context. But, students perceived that Community Health Sciences curriculum was not so well integrated with Basic Science subjects. Conclusion Overall, this study showed that planned integration in Basic Science curriculum was successfully executed during curriculum implementation.

For water resources engineering community, reservoir operation is a complex job. Real-time reservoir operation is furthermore complex as it has to consider the real-time hydrological uncertain events. In this paper, a real-time operation model is presented for Tanahu Hydropower Reservoir System in Nepal. To handle the real-time hydrology, it has to predict the reservoir inflow, which is done by using genetic programming (GP). For this, GP-based inflow forecasted models are developed. The reservoir optimization model is solved using EMPSO method for few years’ inflow data, and the optimal solutions are obtained and used to generalize the operational policies. The release policies are used that obtained from EMPSO model and generalization is done with the function of initial storages and inflows to it by using GP model. Finally, the reservoir operation policies are formulated with the forecasted inflow. Performance of models is measured by using coefficient of determination (R2) and root mean squared error (RMSE) and found that the real-time operational model shows good accuracy.

An anaerobic isolate SG772 belonging to the genus Blautia was isolated from a healthy human faecal sample. When compared using 16s rRNA sequence identity, SG772 showed only 94.46% similarity with its neighbour species Blautia stercoris. As strain SG772 showed both phenotypic and genomic differences from other members of the type species within the genus Blautia, we propose the designation of SG772 as novel species ‘Blautia brookingsii SG772T’.

Herpes Zoster (HZ) is a segmental eruption of grouped vesicles that are confined to a dermatome. There is dermatomal distribution of skin rash, which is unilateral. When two non contagious dermatomes are involved, if affected bilaterally, it is called HZ duplex bilateralis; if unilaterally, unilateralis. HZ duplex bilateralis is extremely rare in immunocompetent children. This report describes a 12-year old girl with bilateral HZ. She had no features of immunosupression. She was treated with oral acyclovir for one week. No complications, including post herpetic neuralgia, were observed during the follow up period of three months. Birat Journal of Health Sciences Vol.2/No.1/Issue 2/ Jan - April 2017, page: 234-236

Analysis of regional climate simulations to evaluate the ability of 11 Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment in South Asia experiments (CORDEX-South Asia) along with their ensemble to produce precipitation from June to September (JJAS) over the Himalayan region have been carried out. These suite of 11 combinations come from 6 regional climate models (RCMs) driven with 10 initial and boundary conditions from different global climate models and are collectively referred here as 11 CORDEX South Asia experiments. All the RCMs use a similar domain and are having similar spatial resolution of 0.44° (~50 km). The set of experiments are considered to study precipitation sensitivity associated with the Indian summer monsoon (ISM) over the study region. This effort is made as ISM plays a vital role in summertime precipitation over the Himalayan region which acts as driver for the sustenance of habitat, population, crop, glacier, hydrology etc. In addition, so far the summer monsoon precipitation climatology over the Himalayan region has not been studied with the help of CORDEX data. Thus this study is initiated to evaluate the ability of the experiments and their ensemble in reproducing the characteristics of summer monsoon precipitation over Himalayan region, for the present climate (1970–2005). The precipitation climatology, annual precipitation cycles and interannual variabilities from each simulation have been assessed against the gridded observational dataset: Asian Precipitation-Highly Resolved Observational Data Integration Towards the Evaluation of Water Resources for the given time period. Further, after the selection of the better performing experiment the frequency distribution of precipitation was also studied. In this study, an approach has also been made to study the degree of agreement among individual experiments as a way to quantify the uncertainty among them. The experiments though show a wide variation among themselves and individually over time and space in simulating precipitation distribution over the study region, but noticeably along the foothills of the Himalayas all the simulations show dry precipitation bias against the corresponding observation. In addition, as we move towards higher elevation regions these experiments in general show wet bias. The experiment driven by EC-EARTH global climate model and downscaled using Rossby Center regional Atmospheric model version 4 developed by Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI-RCA4) simulate precipitation closely in correspondence with the observation. The ensemble outperforms the result of individual experiments. Correspondingly, different kinds of statistical analysis like spatial and temporal correlation, Taylor diagram, frequency distribution and scatter plot have been performed to compare the model output with observation and to explain the associated resemblance, robustness and dynamics statistically. Through the bias and ensemble spread analysis, an estimation of the uncertainty of the model fields and the degree of agreement among them has also been carried out in this study. Overview of the study suggests that these experiments facilitate precipitation evolution and structure over the Himalayan region with certain degree of uncertainty.

This paper presents optimization and uncertainty analysis of operation policies for Hirakud reservoir system in Orissa state, India. The Hirakud reservoir project serves multiple purposes such as flood control, irrigation and power generation in that order of priority. A 10-daily reservoir operation model is formulated to maximize annual hydropower production subjected to satisfying flood control restrictions, irrigation requirements, and various other physical and technical constraints. The reservoir operational model is solved by using elitist-mutated particle swarm optimization (EMPSO) method, and the uncertainty in release decisions and end-storages are analyzed. On comparing the annual hydropower production obtained by EMPSO method with historical annual hydropower, it is found that there is a greater chance of improving the system performance by optimally operating the reservoir system. The analysis also reveals that the inflow into reservoir is highly uncertain variable, which significantly influences the operational decisions for reservoir system. Hence, in order to account uncertainty in inflow, the reservoir operation model is solved for different exceedance probabilities of inflows. The uncertainty in inflows is represented through probability distributions such as normal, lognormal, exponential and generalized extreme value distributions; and the best fit model is selected to obtain inflows for different exceedance probabilities. Then the reservoir operation model is solved using EMPSO method to arrive at suitable operational policies corresponding to various inflow scenarios. The results show that the amount of annual hydropower generated decreases as the value of inflow exceedance probability increases. The obtained operational polices provides confidence in release decisions, therefore these could be useful for reservoir operation.

Predicting ruminal volatile fatty acid (VFA) production is important, as VFA are an energy source to the animal, affect nutrient partitioning, and dictate methane production. The VFA production submodel in the Molly cow model was evaluated using data from 8 publications that reported VFA production rates for cattle. Evaluations were conducted with ruminal water balance predictions enabled and the ruminal VFA stoichiometry coefficients set to "mixed" for all diets, or "mixed" when forage represented between 20 and 80% of the diet, "concentrate" when20% forage, or "forage" when80% forage. Prediction errors were relatively insensitive to changes in VFA coefficients by diet type. Root mean square prediction errors (RMSPE) were 63, 63, and 49% for acetate, propionate, and butyrate production rates, respectively. A large proportion of the error was slope bias for acetate and butyrate, and a modest proportion for propionate. Because interconversions between acetate and propionate represent approximately 15% of the variation in net production rates, lack of such consideration in the model may contribute to the substantial model prediction errors. The potential of using thermodynamic equations to predict interconversions was assessed using observed ruminal pH and VFA concentrations from 2 studies and assuming constant hydrogen pressure and concentrations of CO₂, H₂O, adenosine diphosphate, ATP, and inorganic P. Rate constants for conversion of acetate to propionate and propionate to acetate were derived independently from the control treatments and used to predict the fluxes for the other treatment. The observed changes in VFA concentrations and pH explained the observed changes in conversion of acetate to propionate, but overpredicted the change in the propionate to acetate flux in one study. When applied to the other study, the equations predicted the increase in propionate to acetate flux, but failed to predict the observed reduction in acetate to propionate flux. The inability to predict responses accurately may be due to a lack of data for controlling factors other than pH and VFA concentrations.

This paper presents a derivation of optimal operation policies for hydropower production in the Upper Seti Hydro-Power Reservoir system in Nepal using particle swarm optimization (PSO) technique. A reservoir operation model for the Upper Seti project is formulated with an objective of maximising the annual hydropower production operated at a weekly time scale subjected to various physical and operational constraints. An elitist-mutated PSO (EMPSO) technique is applied for solving the weekly reservoir operational model, and the EMPSO-based solutions are found to result in 3% more hydropower than the planned hydropower production. The reservoir operation policies are also compared for wet, dry and normal water years, and it is noted that there exist significant differences among the release policies for those hydrologic conditions. Later, the reservoir operation model is modified with an objective of minimising the annual sum of squared deviation between weekly energy production and target hydropower. Then ...

Background Peripheral neuropathy is one of the most common and distressing late complication of diabetes mellitus. Ignorance of the complications may develop foot ulcers and gangrene requiring amputation. Objective The main objective of this study is to find out the prevalence of sensory neuropathy in type 2 diabetes mellitus and to compare it with the duration of disease. Method Two hundred seventy one patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus of both gender age 30 years and above willing to participate were included in this study. Patients having hypothyroidism, rheumatoid arthritis, B12 deficiency, cerebrovascular disease, chronic musculoskeletal disease, Parkinson's disease, alcohol abuse, chronic renal or liver failure and cancer were excluded from the study. Touch, pin prick and vibration sensation were tested. Vibration perception threshold was recorded from six different sites of the sole of each foot using Biothesiometer. Result Two hundreds seventy one type 2 diabetic outpatients were studied. The mean age was 59.81±22.85 years. The overall prevalence of diabetic sensory neuropathy in the study population was 58.70%. A rising trend of diabetic sensory neuropathy with increasing age and duration of diabetes was observed. Neuropathy was found more in patients having urinary microalbuminuria. Burning and pins and needles sensation were most common symptoms. Conclusion The overall prevalence of diabetic sensory neuropathy in the study population was 58.70% (mean age 59.81±22.85 yrs), and its prevalence increased with duration of diabetes and increasing age. Its prevalence was found more in patients having microalbuminuria.

Klippel-Trenaunaysyndrome(KTS) is a rare congenital condition usually presenting with port wine stains, excessive growth of bones and soft tissue and varicose veins which most commonly occurs in the legs, but it also may affect the arms, face, head, or internal organs. We report a case of term male neonate with clinical findings of Port-wine stain, multiple cystic swellings with ultrasonographic findings suggestive of vascular malformations and limb abnormalities in the form ofsoft tissue hypertrophy of right upper limb, polydactyly of right hand and syndactyly of left hand consistent withKlippel-Trenaunay syndrome.

Atmospheric-pressure glow plasmas in air or other gases are attractive for industrial plasma processing, but attempts to obtain large-volume plasmas are plagued with filamentation due to transverse plasma instability. A method to prevent transverse instability of DC glow discharges using a resistive barrier is presented. Experimental data on current-voltage characteristics, light intensity versus time, and quantitative striation measurements indicate that the plasma is a true DC glow discharge which shows some longitudinal instability, but is transversely stabilized by a barrier with resistivity in the 104-106 Ω-m range. A finite-element model of the discharge's electric field elucidates the mechanism of transverse stabilization.

Aims: To analyse causes of maternal deaths and to identify avoidable factors. Methods: This was a retrospective analysis of maternal deaths, during a period of one year from 15th April, 2011-15th April, 2012, at Nobel Medical College Teaching Hospital, Biratnagar in the Eastern Region of Nepal case files and hospital records being the data sources. All the maternal deaths were recorded. Results: In one year study period, out of a total of 2,754 deliveries, there were 8 maternal deaths giving maternal mortality ratio of 310/100,000 live births. Three of them resulted from an induced abortion mishap and five of them were obstetric deaths. Four of the direct obstetric deaths resulted from complications of pregnancy induced hypertension (PIH) of which one case died due to traumatic post partum hemorrhage postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) as a result of torrential bleeding from extensive vaginal wall tear. One indirect obstetric death occurred in a case of twin pregnancy with severe anemia and congestive cardiac failure. Conclusions: Provision of safe abortion services is still not available to many women despite of legalization of abortion in Nepal. Quality antenatal care services would be helpful in avoiding maternal mortality in many situations by detecting and managing medical complications of pregnancy. DOI: http://www.dx.doi.org/10.3126/njog.v7i2.11140 Nepal Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology / Vol 7 / No. 2 / Issue 14 / July-Dec, 2012 / 33-35

Background: Age standardized cervical cancer incidence rate in Nepal is 19.2/100,000 woman, compared with 14.0 worldwide. Similarly, mortality rate is 12.0 women which is significant in comparison with 6.8 worldwide. Cervical intraepithelial neoplasm is a precursor lesion, having high transformation rate into the cervical carcinoma. Data clearly indicates that CIN 2 and 3 has more progression into cervical carcinoma. Despite the fact that Papanicolaou test has remained an important tool in the screening for cervical cancer and has contributed in significant decrease in cervical cancer, sensitivity and specificity of conventional Papanicolaou test is quite low. Colposcopy is visual inspection of cervix under magnification. Study revealed that the positive predictive rate of the colposcopic impression is better as the cervical lesion is more severe. Aim: To find out the significance of colposcopy in the detection of dysplastic cervical lesions and possible use of this method as a screening tool. Methods: This is an observational study done at Cancer Care Foundation, Nepal done from a period of January 2015 to February 2018. Permission was obtained from ethical committee and written consent was obtained from the patients. All the patients suspected having dysplastic or invasive lesions or in whom colposcopy-guided biopsy was performed; were included in the study. Relevant data were collected which included age, colposcopic diagnosis, histopathological diagnosis. Data were entered into Microsoft Excel and statistical analysis was done from statistical package SPSS 21. Results: 6109 females were screened through colposcopy. Out of these 900 patients underwent colposcopy-guided biopsy for being suspected of dysplastic lesions or inflammatory lesions. Mean age of females was 40.65 years. With colposcopy, 407 (45.2%) were suspected to have low grade lesion, followed by 401 (44.6%) high grade lesion and 15 (1.7%) carcinoma. Nonneoplastic lesions were suspected in 77 (8.6%) females. In the histopathological examination low grade dysplasia was observed in 403 (44.8%) followed by 250 (27.8%) high grade dysplasia and 8 (0.9%) carcinoma in-situ or invasive carcinoma. Similarly, 239 (26.6%) patients had nonneoplastic lesions. In colposcopy, high grade lesions were suspected more frequently in females of 41-50 years age group than in 31-40 years age group ( P < 0.01). Correlation between increasing age and dysplastic lesions were also observed ( P < 0.05). There was significant correlation between colposcopic diagnosis and histopathological diagnosis with a P value < 0.01. The sensitivity of colposcopy to diagnose dysplastic lesions were high 96.44% with positive predictive value of 62.65%. The specificity of colposcopy to diagnose various grades of dysplastic lesions is 34.98%. Conclusion: Colposcopy is highly sensitive method of screening dysplastic cervical lesions and should be used more frequently as a screening purpose.

The aim of this study was to identify farm management factors associated with the prevalence of Escherichia coli O157:H7 among cattle in Ontario beef cow-calf operations. A total of 119 cow-calf operations with more than 50 cows in southern Ontario were visited between June and December 2002. From each farm, 65 fresh fecal samples were collected and cultured for E. coli O157:H7. Colonies of E. coli O157:H7 were isolated using immunomagnetic separation and standard microbiological techniques. Final confirmation of suspected colonies was based on identifying E. coli O157:H7-specific genes by PCR and serotyping of representative isolates. A questionnaire was administered to collect information on farm size, cattle demographics, farm management practices, the presence of other livestock and wildlife, and other aspects of the farm environment. Associations between the prevalence of E. coli O157:H7 in cattle feces and management factors were determined using a multivariable logistic regression model that included random effects for farm and county. The presence of pigs on farm, use of corn silage supplementation in winter, number of times cattle were taken to a show in the previous 12 months and the percentage of cows on farm were significant risk factors for the presence of E. coli O157:H7 in fecal pat samples, after controlling for region and the age group of the sampled animals. These findings highlight the potential roles of biosecurity and avoiding mixed animal agriculture in controlling the prevalence of E. coli O157:H7 in beef cow-calf operations.