Search

Antibiotic usage has played a significant role in the growth of poultry industry all across the globe. But because of indiscriminate use of antibiotics, several incidences related to occurrence of antibiotic residues in broiler meat have been reported. In the context of Nepal, only limited studies have been attempted to assess the presence of antibiotic residues in poultry meat and thus this study aims to determine the same in Dharan. A questionnaire survey was conducted among poultry farmers and veterinary shops in Dharan where 44% of respondents had training on poultry farming but only 4 % had knowledge on antimicrobial resistance in microorganism. The survey report showed maximum usage of doxycycline and tetracycline in poultry farms. Four types of broiler meat, namely, liver, breast muscle, kidney and gizzard were collected and screening of antibiotic residues (ciprofloxacin, doxycycline, enrofloxacin, gentamycin and tetracycline) in them was performed by thin layer chromatography. On thin layer chromatography, 9%, 17%, 8%, 3% and 21% of samples were detected with ciprofloxacin, doxycycline, enrofloxacin, gentamycin and tetracycline residues respectively. Highest occurrence of ciprofloxacin, doxycycline, enrofloxacin and tetracycline residues were found in kidney (16%), gizzard (32%), liver (12%) and kidney (36%) samples respectively.

The Government of Nepal’s Ministry of Education, Science and Technology has a provision for an Early Childhood Education and Development (ECED) center in each school. Accordingly, schools are managing early childhood education and development centers in order to provide a better early learning and development environment for young children. However, the availability of quality human resources is still a critical issue. Keeping the existing reality in view, this study explored how early childhood teachers engaged with their young children (students) by implementing varied early learning activities. We deployed a case study approach and analyzed the cases of two teachers who have worked as early childhood teachers for more than five years. Observation and in-person in-depth interviews were conducted for both cases in this study. Single unit analysis for two cases was applied to analyze and draw meaning and implications of the study. This study finds that in order to engage young children in early learning, the teacher-directed approach could be useful, with the teacher taking multiple roles: as a planner, as an environment creator, as a decision maker and as a transformative practitioner.

Knowledge and skills in research ethics are essential for conducting ethically responsible research. Despite some local policies, strategic guidelines, and manuals on the antithesis of research misconduct, researchers’ adherence to research ethics, especially ethically responsible conduct of research, is still critical in developing countries like Nepal. This study explores the policy provisions to develop researchers’ capacity on research ethics in Nepal. With the aim, we identified ten key documents related to research ethics from the University Grants Commission (UGC), Nepal Health Research Council (NHRC), and Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST). We analysed the provisions using the adapted version of Cooke’s framework for research capacity development. The result shows that although there are provisions for capacity development for scientific research, none provisioned that the higher education research institutions need to take action for developing early career researchers’ capacity on research ethics. Further, this review depicts several structural, institutional, and procedural limitations that make the condition difficult to adopt and implement those policies, strategic guidelines, and manuals.

This chapter discusses researching the lived experience of social science researchers during a global pandemic, using hermeneutic phenomenology with a careful approach to methods and ethics. It discusses the researcher’s lived experience of research, the difficulties faced in the COVID-19 pandemic and how these were resolved through methodological and ethical reflexivity. Hermeneutic phenomenology research is the study of lived experiences — as the study of humanness within humanistic parameters. Time and space define humans’ lived experiences subjectively with vividness. The study of human experiences within contextual phenomena, defined by time and space including body and mind, is called ‘human science research’. A human science researcher explores research ethics from the perspective of how social scientists experience being ethical, as researchers.

Research ethics is concerned with ethical issues that can arise while conducting research. Social science research entails a combination of three equal entities: process, context and human agency. In each study, these entities demand rich interaction with each other. Generally, research ethics questions the interrelation between the research context and the human involvement established within that context. The research context and interaction between researcher and research participants lead to variations in the construction of knowledge, while research ethics plays a major role throughout all undertakings. In this narrative review paper, I have critically reflected my arguments on behalf of research ethics as a context-specific issue. I argued that the one-size-fits-all approach of research ethics is not viable by presenting ethical practices from the South Asian perspective. The paper is organized in three specific sections – ethical theories, research ethics and its contextual practices. Research ethics is very much a private affair and directly linked to the personal outlook of the researcher towards others. The ethical issue in research is not generic, but specific to the research context, i.e. the context of the research determines what form of behaviour is ethical and what is not. I explore the idea that the South Asian context may have its own system to conduct research ethically, as in euro-western and indigenous systems.

A study was conducted in Surkhet, Nepal in 2020 to identify and assess the gender participation in various activities and decisions of vegetable cultivation. A total of 120 vegetable farmers were selected; 30 farmers from four different municipality. The results revealed that most of the vegetable farming activities are done jointly, whereas, laborious and taxing activities like ploughing and spraying pesticides were exclusively done by male, and sowing/ raising nursery, picking/harvesting, and marketing of farm produce were predominantly done by female. Regarding the decisions related to vegetable cultivation, majority of the decision were joint decision; consent of both male and female. However, male had greater authoritative power, and female performed supportive role. Gender sensitization, awareness in society, education for women, and extension services should be provided for empowerment and capacity development of women by government and related organizations. This will help to widen the parochial outlook of women, which will ultimately enhance their participation in decision-making process.

Formative assessment is one of the leading elements of every classroom instruction for making learning contextual and students centred. The formative assessment creates such space where a teacher as adult supporter plays the role of scaffolding on the learning performance of their students. I studied the formative assessment and students' achievement status in mathematics through survey research design. I used the contingency questionnaire as research tool under quantitative research approach. The study was conducted within the target population; total number of community schools and their mathematics students (i.e. 547) who have participated in District Level Examination in 2014. I employed simple random sampling procedure to select the sample respondents (i.e. 232). The contingency questionnaire for students with 0.74 value of internal consistency was used as a research tool to collect the basic information for the study. Regarding the theoretical framework, I used Tomlinson's Differentiated Classroom Instruction and Assessment: Philosophy of Differentiation. The research depicts that regularity of teachers' responses (check) or feedback on the students' classwork, homework, project work and tests have a creditable role in improving their students’ learning performance. Furthermore, project work, a form of formative assessment, helps to improve students’ learning performance through creating an opportunity for learning by doing, which also contributes to contextualize the abstract concept of mathematics.

This study deals with phytochemical screening and evaluation of anti-bacterial and anthelmintic activities of the bark extracts of Cassia fistula L. The extraction with different solvents - methanol, acetone, distilled water - had been carried out. The anti-bacterial assay was done against two gram +ve and two gram −ve bacteria by agar cup diffusion method. The anthelmintic activity was done on Pheretima posthuma (earthworm) by recording the paralyzing and death time under different concentrations. Methanolic extract showed the maximum activity on both fronts be it anti-bacterial or anthelmintic. The extract was effective only against gram +ve bacteria. Among Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococci faecalis, the former was more susceptible. The activity against gram −ve bacteria was not found. In case of anthelmintic activity, the concentration of 50 mg/ml was effective and near to the paralyzing and death time as recorded for the 10 mg/ml concentration of the standard Albendazole. However, aqueous extract was more effective than the acetone extract.

Diverse airborne and ground-based environmental observations are important technologies for disaster assessment and response, as well as for the validation of environmental satellite observations and atmospheric models which can improve forecasts. The VISAGE (Visualization for Integrated Satellite, Airborne and Ground-based data Exploration) project is working to provide three-dimensional visualization and basic analytics capabilities for such datasets in an interactive user interface. The use of cloud-native, serverless technologies and analysis optimized data storage will position VISAGE for integration with other technologies into a Data Analytic Center Framework.

This study was conducted to assess the drug prescribing trend of anti-hypertensive and hypoglycemic agents in hypertensive and diabetic patients in tertiary care private Hospital. The study was prospective, cross-sectional and observational study. A total of 100 prescriptions were recorded. 56% were males as compared to 44% females. The age group of the patients varied from 30 to 90 years with majority individual above 50 years of age. 59% patients were hypertensive; 26% patients were diabetic and 15% had both the diseases. For the treatment of HTN, both mono-therapy and combination therapy were followed. In mono-therapy, amlodipine was most commonly prescribed followed by losartan. In combination therapy, a two-drug combination consisting of calcium channel blockers (amlodipine) and diuretics (furosemide /hydrochlorothiazide) were given to the majority of patients, followed by Diuretics and Angiotensin receptor blocker combination. Among diabetic hypertensive, 66.67% of patients were treated with single anti-hypertensive drug and 33.35% of patients were treated with anti-hypertensive drug combinations with oral hypoglycemics. This study showed that calcium channel blockers were the most prescribed antihypertensive agents while biguanides were the mostly prescribed among anti-diabetic agents. Combination therapy was observed in a high percentage of prescriptions in hypertensive patients. Prescribing pattern among antihypertensive showed some dubitable adherences to existing evidence-based JNC guidelines.Sunsari Technical College Journal 2015, 2(1):44-47

A prospective cross-sectional study was conducted through patient reported outcomes of the therapy in epileptic and hypertensive patients for the period of two months at B.P.Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, Hospital, Dharan. 52 epileptic and 60 hypertensive patients were analyzed with mean±SD ages 23.69±7.61 and 60.68±14.34 years old respectively. Out of which 53.85% and 46.66% were male in epilepsy and hypertension respectively. The Mean±SD (HRQOL) 60±17 was found in epilepsy and 59±6 in hypertension. Social function, scored 61 out of 100, was highly reduced in epilepsy than in hypertension whereas role limitation due to physical function is comparatively reduced in hypertension than epilepsy, although there were no significant difference between mean HRQOL of epilepsy and hypertension (P>0.05) with correlation -0.084 in paired samples T-test. There were no variations in HRQOL by gender in both groups after having drug therapy in both categories. Independent sample T test (P>0.025) showed that there were no significant differences in mean HRQOL and every domains of HRQOL of epilepsy with cut point 20 years. But physical functioning, energy level and general health were significantly (P