From the survey, a total of 41 plant species belonging to 30 families were found to be useful in the treatment of hepatic disorders. The mostly used were the whole plant of Cuscuta reflexa (85%) and fruits of Carica papaya (50%), Saccharum officinarum (46.5%) and Cucurbita pepo (44.5%). Herbal remedies were mostly prepared from freshly collected plants and used alone or with water. Among the documented species, six plant parts, that were least studied previously, were selected for the study of antioxidant and antibacterial activities. The extracts of Diplazium stoliczkae, rhizomes and leaves both, with IC50 value, 5.54 and 5.49 µg/ml respectively, close to that of standard, ascorbic acid (4.80 µg/ml) showed potent antioxidant activity against 1,1-diphenyl-2-picryl hydrazyl (DPPH) free radical. Also, the extracts of rhizomes and leaves of D. stoliczkae and bark of Bombax Ceiba showed antibacterial activity comparable to that of standard drugs at a concentration of 1 mg/ml.

With the exponential increase of available textual data, transforming the natural language content into potential information becomes crucial to assist the prominent application domains. In Natural Language Processing (NLP) applications, keyphrase generation has recently become an increasingly prominent research topic. Even though numerous advancements are realized in the current keyphrase generation models, the proliferation of neural network models profoundly impacted natural language generation to a new era. Over the past several years, various studies on keyphrase extraction and generation have been developed that deliver significant contributions to the current state of keyphrase generation research. The researchers confront understanding the deep insights for further developments from the conventional keyphrase generation research while adopting the deep neural network models. Hence, this work notably focuses on studying the keyphrase generations with the impact of the exploding deep learning methods. This survey briefly introduces keyphrase generation in NLP and reviews the recent abstractive methods using deep learning for meaningful keyphrase generation that achieves stateof-the-art performance. By determining and discussing the shortcomings in the previous machine learning and deep learning-based keyphrase generation, this work facilitates strong groundwork for understanding the recent developments in keyphrase generation. Also, it discusses the research challenges in keyphrase generation from the perspective of both text mining and deep learning models. Thus, this study lays the foundation for the researchers to develop potential solutions to resolve the research constraints in keyphrase generation.

Eugenol (4-hydroxy-3-methoxy-allylbenzene) is an important bioactive compound found in various medicinal plants and has been extensively investigated for its pharmacological properties. Apart from its anaesthetic and analgesic properties, this phenolic compound has antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, anticancer and antioxidant properties. One of the promising candidates with versatile applications in designing new drugs will be Eugenol for its pharmacological effects. While the metabolism and pharmacokinetics of Eugenol have been studied in humans, still there is lack of data available on its precise mode of action and its impact on system level protein networks. To identify the action of Eugenol on protein interaction network, an interactome was constructed using STRING and Cytoscape tools, based on 98 key proteins extracted from PubMed literatures. Swiss Target Prediction was used to predict the possible macromolecular targets in humans. It was predicted that the target classes included 20% enzymes, secreted protein, and Family A G- protein coupled receptors, 13.3% of Ligand-gated ion channel and 6.7% of kinase, eraser, lyase and oxidoreductases. Further, using the Cytoscape 3.9.1 version in-silico study, it could be observed that 92 nodes in total were connected with 61 edges with a clustering coefficient of 0.369. Using a phytochemical Eugenol, the possible network analysis has been predicted. Evaluating the network among the other phytochemicals of Ocimum sanctum could help us to investigate the role played by these key phytochemicals at gene and molecular level and can help us explore their interference in disease patterns in humans.

The present study was carried out to establish the synergistic effect of CoolBot storage and organic and chemical preservatives on pineapple fruit to lengthen the marketable shelf life. The research work was conducted during the period of 17th Mangsir to 28th, Poush 2077 at the laboratory of the National Horticulture Research Center, Khumaltar, Lalitpur. The pineapple fruits var.Giant Kew was set up in an experimental unit in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with eight treatments and replicated three times. The treatments were viz., T1= Dipped in 3 mM salicylic acid for 15 min. under CoolBot storage, T2= Dipped in 5 mM salicylic acid for 15 min. under cool bot storage, T3= Coated with aloe Vera gel and T4=controlled treatment under CoolBot storage and T5= Dipped in 3 mM salicylic acid for 15 min. under ambient storage, T6= Dipped in 3 mM salicylic acid for 15 min. under ambient storage T7= Coated with aloe Vera gel under ambient storage and T8= Controlled treatment under ambient storage condition. Each replication of treatment comprises 8 fruits. Changes in Cumulative physiological weight loss % (Cum. PLW%), Vitamin C content (mg/100 gm), Outside and inside Firmness (N/F) of fruit, pH value of juice, and sensory evaluation were observed during the storage period at every 7 days of an interval. The samples at ambient storage conditions (20.5°C and 61.6%) were removed on day 14, and samples at CoolBot storage (10-12°C and 90-92%) were removed on 35 days of storage by observing the sensory evaluation. Thus the study concluded that the synergistic effect of aloe Vera gel coating and Cool Bot storage has been found effective in pineapple fruits to delay internal browning index and extend marketable shelf life from 14 days (ambient storage) to 35 days.

An area embellished with ornamental plants near the city area and office can give a pleasurable, picturesque and naturalistic effect which creates a refreshing and conducive working environment for both staff and service seekers. A study was carried out to elucidate the existing situation of the government managed gardens in public buildings located in the Kathmandu valley. The gardens were selected purposively and the study was made based on the number of plant species, composition of plants, styles of gardening, maintenance of garden and appreciation of the garden. The maintenance and the appreciation of gardens were evaluated by the Likert scale (1-4). The abundance of tree was higher followed by herbaceous perennial, herbaceous annual, shrub, cacti and succulent. The garden of Narayanhiti Palace Museum was found to be dominant in tree, shrub and herbaceous perennial while the Garden of Singha Durbar and Supreme Court was found to be dominant in herbaceous annual. The frequency of Thuja orientalis (tree), Bougainvillea spp (shrub), Cuphea hyssopifolia (herbaceous perennial), Calendula officinalis (herbaceous annual) and Petunia hybrida (herbaceous annual) were higher. This study shows that formal gardens (66.66%) dominated informal gardens (33.34%). It was found that the maintenance and the overall appreciation of gardens were fair to good. The gardens need improvements in various aspects to make them artistic and beautiful.

The present study has explored the electronic properties of Organic-inorganic mixed halide-based perovskites using density functional theory. The Quantum Espresso simulation package with PBE parameterization within the generalized gradient approximation (GGA) has been used in this work. The findings reveal that the addition of halogens (bromide and chlorine) to compound CH3NH3PbI3 for all the possible substituted halides may cause the shifting of energy bands in the band structure and thus change the bandgap. Hence, this calculation may be used to design perovskite solar cell material with varied electronic structure.

β-thalassemia is the most common autosomal recessive haemoglobin disorder worldwide. Although more than 200 β-thalassemia mutations have been reported, few ethnic group-specific alleles account for 90-93% of the β-thalassemia alleles in each population. The primary purpose of the study was to identify the prevalence of different types of beta-thalassemia mutations in the study group, and to establish a genotype-phenotype correlation. Complete blood count, peripheral blood smeacr, capillary electrophoresis and multiples arms refractory mutation system based polymerase chain reaction (MARMS) were performed on the peripheral blood samples to detect beta mutations at Decode Genomics and Research Centre, Sinamangal Kathmandu. The MARMS-PCR technique was applied for the detection of nine common mutations IVS1- 5(G>C), 619 bp del, FS8/9 (+G), IVS1-1 (G>T), FS 41/42 (-CTTT), C-15 (G>A). FS 16 (-C), C-30 (G>C) and C-5 (-CTCT). In the study group, three mutations, C-15(G>A), C-26 (Glu-Lys) and IVS1-5 (G>C) were detected. The study revealed a characteristic mutational profile in the five ethnic groups of eastern Nepal. It is the first report of HbE in the Koch Rajbanshi of eastern Nepal. The mutation C-15 reported as rare by earlier workers was the most common mutation identified in this research work.

In the recent past, infrastructure development activities have gained momentum in Nepal. Many roads are being and will be upgraded to enhance transport efficiency. The hydropower development activities are in full momentum. However, often occurring natural hazards caused by monsoon rain and large-scale earthquakes are major challenges to Nepal’s infrastructure and resilience hydropower projects. Developing an efficient transport network functioning in allweather conditions and resilience hydropower is not possible without the construction of tunnels. The experience indicates that the construction cost for tunnels is considerably higher due to insufficient capacity and knowledge base within Nepal and dependency on foreign agencies who have limited knowledge on the Himalayan geological condition. It is important to enhance ability through specialized high-level education and research within Rock and Tunnel Engineering (both MSc and Ph.D. Levels). This manuscript discusses a new curriculum developed for MSc education in Rock and Tunnel Engineering for the Institute of Engineering (IoE) of Tribhuvan University with the direct help from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), which helped to start the MSc program and first batch of students are enrolled for the academic year 2020/2021 at IoE-WRC Pokhara. NTNU collaborates with IoE through a research grant NORHED II Project 70141 6; Capacity Enhancement in Rock and Tunnel Engineering in Nepal received from the Norwegian Agency for Development Aid (NORAD).

We present the photometric analysis of Procyon in FITS format using Aladin 9.0 by studying the luminous flux collected by a 16 inch Meade LX200GPS Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope placed at B.P. Koirala National Observa¬tory, Nagarkot, Nepal on April 18, 2017. The maximum and minimum diameters along the maximum and minimum flux regions are constructed. A graph is plotted using a Python custom program for the relative flux density along the two diameters. The flux density varies from the region of extremities of the diameters constructed from 0.25 to a peak of 248.50 in the relative unit. A significant bulging towards the north-eastern portion of Procyon is observed. While moving from the region of maximum flux towards the edge of the north-eastern section, we noticed the bulge prominently. The south-western portion and the other two directions do not show much variation. A possible explanation of the result is discussed.

The novel properties of pristine h-BN, oxygen (O) atom impurity defects in h-BN (h-B(N-O) and h-(B-O)N), one boron (1B) atom vacancy defect in h-BN (h-BN_1B) and one nitrogen (1N) atom vacancy defect in h-BN (h-BN_1N) materials are investigated by spin-polarized density functional theory (DFT) using computational tool Quantum ESPRESSO. We found that they are stable materials. From the band structure calculations, we found that all the considered systems are wide bandgap materials. The bandgap energy of pristine h-BN, impurity defects h-B(N-O) and h-(B-O)N, and vacancy defects h-BN_1B and h-BN_1Nmaterials have values 4.98 eV, 4.19 eV& 2.47 eV,and 4.84 eV& 3.62 eV respectively. Also, it is found that h-B(N-O) and h-BN_1N materials have n-type Schottky contact while h-(B-O)N and h-BN_1B materials have p-type Schottky contact. From the analysis ofdensity of states (DOS) and partial density of states (PDOS) calculations, we found that non-magnetic pristine h-BN changes to magnetic h-B(N-O) andh-(B-O)N materials due to presence of impurity defects,and h-BN_1B andh-BN_1N materials due to presence of vacancy defects. Magnetic moments of h-B(N-O), h-(B-O)N, h-BN_1B and h-BN_1N materials are 1.00 µB/cell, 0.94 µB/cell, 3.00 µB/cell and 1.00 µB/cell respectively. They are obtained due to unpaired up and down spins state of electrons in 2p orbital of B and N atoms in the structures.