Integrated assessment of irrigation and agriculture management challenges in Nepal: An interdisciplinary perspective.

Agriculture plays a critical role in ensuring food and nutrition security, livelihood, and rural employment in Nepal. Despite substantial investments and institutional reforms, irrigation projects have faced consistently low performance. While existing studies have shed light on technical aspects of irrigation performance, they often focus on specific themes rather than holistic evaluations of sustainability.

A Comprehensive Review on Nanoparticles as Drug Delivery System and Their Role for Management of Hypertension.

The current global epidemic of hypertension is not a disease in and of itself but rather a significant risk factor for serious cardiovascular conditions such as peripheral artery disease, heart failure, myocardial infarction, and stroke. Although many medications that work through various mechanisms of action are available on the market in conventional formulations to treat hypertension, these medications face significant difficulties with their bioavailability, dosing, and associated side effects, which significantly reduces the effectiveness of their therapeutic interventions. Numerous studies have shown that nanocarriers and nanoformulations can minimize the toxicity associated with high doses of the drug while greatly increasing the drug's bioavailability and reducing the frequency of dosing.

Mannose-Functionalized Isoniazid-Loaded Nanostructured Lipid Carriers for Pulmonary Delivery: In Vitro Prospects and In Vivo Therapeutic Efficacy Assessment.

Resistance to isoniazid (INH) is common and increases the possibility of acquiring multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. For this study, isoniazid-loaded nanostructured lipid carriers (INH-NLCs) were developed and effectively functionalized with mannose (Man) to enhance the residence time of the drug within the lungs via specific delivery and increase the therapeutic efficacy of the formulation. The mannose-functionalized isoniazid-loaded nanostructured lipid carrier (Man-INH-NLC) formulation was evaluated with respect to various formulation parameters, namely, encapsulation efficiency (EE), drug loading (DL), average particle size (PS), zeta potential (ZP), polydispersity index (PDI), in vitro drug release (DR), and release kinetics.

Effect of Different Molecular Weights of Chitosan on Formulation and Evaluation of Allopurinol-Loaded Nanoparticles for Kidney Targeting and in Management of Hyperuricemic Nephrolithiasis.

Present research study was conducted to formulate kidney-targeted allopurinol (AO)-loaded chitosan nanoparticles (ANPs) for management of hyperuricemic related nephrolithiasis. Different molecular weights of chitosan were used for fabricating ANP formulation by adopting modified ionotropic gelation method. The prepared batches were than evaluated for particle size analysis, entrapment efficiency, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, Differential Scanning Calorimetry, in vitro release and in vivo animal study.

Formulation, Characterization, and Pharmacokinetic Evaluation of Novel Glipizide-phospholipid Nano-complexes with Improved Solubility and Bio-availability.

Background: The proposed study was aimed to formulate and evaluate the glipizidephospholipid nano-complex. Since glipizide is a poorly soluble drug, its complexation with phospholipids is an ideal approach to improving solubility.

Methods: To improve the oral potency of glipizide, its phospholipid complex was prepared by employing the solvent evaporation method.

Association Between Erectile Dysfunction and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus.

Background: Erectile dysfunction is a distressing complication of diabetes among male patients. Despite being a serious concern affecting sexual health, the issue regarding sexual dysfunction is seldom discussed by patients with physicians in developing countries. This study aimed to identify the prevalence of Erectile dysfunction and its association with other risk factors among type 2 Diabetic males attending the tertiary care hospital in Nepal.

Ethical considerations of phone-based interviews from three studies of COVID-19 impact in Bihar, India.

Phone-based interviews present a range of ethical challenges, including how to ensure informed consent and privacy and maintain confidentiality. Our paper presents conceptual and practical ethical considerations taken into account across three telephone studies on the impact of COVID-19 conducted following India's nationwide lockdown imposed in March 2020. Two studies captured COVID-19 response impact on primary-level Reproductive Maternal Neonatal and Child Health (RMNCH) services and on provider wellness, respectively.

Avian diversity in forest, agriculture and water stream habitats of Dehradun Valley, Uttarakhand, India.

The Western Himalaya is recognised for its biological diversity and ecological values. An attempt was made to understand the avian diversity distribution in Forest, Agriculture and Water stream habitats of Dehradun (Western Himalaya) Uttarakhand. A total of two hundred and thirty one species belonging to 54 families were encountered during the survey.

A Comprehensive Review on Microbubble Concept, Development and Its Application in Therapeutic Drug Delivery and Clinical Management of Disease.

Background: The general purpose of this review was to briefly describe the Gastro-Retentive Drug Delivery System (GRDDS) and to primarily focus on mechanisms of flotation for gastric retention.

Methods: The principle mechanism of Floating Drug Delivery Systems (FDDS) is mainly based on hydro-dynamically controlled low-density system, which gets swollen when comes in contact with the gastric environment and remains buoyant for an extended period of time with improved bioavailability and therapeutic efficacy. The main perspective of this review was to focus on microbubble drug delivery due to its wide range of applications.

Amplification of mtDNA control region in opportunistically collected bird samples belonging to nine families of the order Passeriformes.

We describe six sets of primers for amplifying the mitochondrial control region (CR) of various bird species belonging to nine families of the order Passeriformes. These overlapping primers, with both short and long fragments, yielded an approximately 1 kb fragment of the CR. The short length of the amplified product makes the primers suitable for degraded DNA samples.

Conserve primers for sequencing complete ungulate mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) gene from problematic and decomposed biological samples.

We describe six novel ungulate-specific conserved primers for sequencing the complete mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) gene of selected threatened species from degraded samples for effective conservation planning. These primers amplified 301-1599 bp DNA fragments in various combinations. The method described may assist in the sequencing of either complete gene from moderate to good quality DNA or shorter fragment from degraded DNA.

The database of the PREDICTS (Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems) project.

The PREDICTS project-Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems (www.predicts.org.

Binding pattern of 125iodine thyroxine and tri-iodothyronine in skin and liver tissues of spotted munia, Lonchura punctulata: co-relation to seasonal cycles of breeding and molting.

Prevalent notion about thyroid hormones is that thyroxine (T4) is a mere precursor and physiological effects of thyroid hormones are elicited by tri-iodothyronine (T3) after mono-deiodination of T4. Earlier studies on feather regeneration and molt done on spotted munia L. punctulata suggest that T4 (mono-deiodination suppressed by iopanoic acid and thyroidectomized birds) is more effective than T3 in inducing feather regeneration.

Development and in-vitro evaluation of transdermal matrix films of metoprolol tartrate.

The transdermal matrix films of metoprolol tartrate (MT) were prepared by casting on mercury substrate employing different ratios of polymers, ethyl cellulose (EC) and polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP), using dibutyl phthalate (DBT) as a plasticizer. Four formulations were prepared. Formulations MF-1, MF-2, MF-3 and MF-4 were composed of EC and PVP in the following ratios: 4.