Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Scholarships in China for Nepalese

Three Gorges University (CTGU), Yichang, Hubei, China has offered the fellowships for Nepalese. This is  one of good options to pursue a degree in China. It will provide 10 scholarships each year including Hydro-power and electrical engineering (4), medicine (2), Chinese language (2) and Business Studies (2).  Prof. Dr. Krishna Adhikari and Ex-PM Madhav Kumar Nepal has facilitated for this MoU. How much stipend will they provide? Not confirmed yet. Source:Gorakhapatra

In addition, Chinese Academy of Science also provides PhD fellowships under TWAS-CAS scheme, which provides at least $500 per month and this is sufficient to cover a good living expenses. 

Saturday, November 10, 2012

How Does Bovine Serum Albumin Protein Look Like?

If you are a biologist, serum albumin protein is very common to us. It is one of the abundant proteins in our body as well as the component of egg. Here are the some pictures of the bovine serum albumin that I have drawn using a software and x-ray crystallographic data deposited in protein data bank (3V03).
Ribbon structure of bovine serum albumin in black background

Ribbon structure of bovine serum albumin in black background side view

Ribbon structure of bovine serum albumin (3V03) in white background front view

Ribbon structure of bovine serum albumin in white background side view

Ribbon structure of bovine serum albumin (3V03) in white background left view

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Tips to Prevent the Spread of Infectious Diseases

Let's admit it, nobody wants to be sick. From the common cold to more serious strains of the flu, many infectious diseases run rampant through modern society. You cannot just stop all contact with the outside world in order to stay healthy, but there are many ways you can help lessen your odds of contracting an infectious disease. If you want to stay healthy even when surrounded by sick people, here are six ways you can help prevent contracting an infectious disease.

1. Wash Your Hands
One of the most important ways you can be proactive in preventing the spread of infectious diseases is by washing your hands. Everything you touch can contain disease causing microbes and the best way to avoid these microbes from causing illness is by washing your hands. To get the most out of hand washing, make sure you washing your hands vigorously for about 20 seconds. This should wash away all the unhealthy germs.

2. Stop Sharing
If you truly want to protect yourself from an infectious disease, refrain from sharing personal items like toothbrushes, makeup, towels and razor blades. Sharing these items can increase your chances of contracting an infectious disease.

3. Get Vaccinated
A wide variety of vaccinations can help you protect yourself from contracting infectious diseases. If you want to eliminate your chances of obtaining one of these horrible illnesses, stay up to date on your vaccinations and get a yearly flu shot.

4. Cook Safely
Many infectious diseases are caused by unsafe cooking habits. Before you cook, make sure you thoroughly wash your hands so to avoid contaminating the food your are cooking. Also, make sure foods like vegetables are washed properly so to clean away possibly bacteria.

5. Safe Sex
Though it is not common in Nepal, because of cultural and tradition. Many infectious diseases are spread through sexual contact, and that is why it is important to wear a condom each time your have sex. If you are in serious relationship, ask your partner about his or her sexual past and if necessary, have that person submit to std testing if you want to engage in sexual acts without the use of condoms.

6. Travel Cautiously
In a variety of countries, there are an abundance of diseases that are not necessarily seen in America. Before you travel abroad, make sure you are aware of the types of illnesses that are common to the country you will be visiting. Be sure to get the vaccinations needed for a health and safe vacation.

Fortunately, the risk of contracting an infectious disease can be minimized greatly if you follow the six above listed tips. In order to protect your health, always remember to wear a condom, be a cautious traveler, cook food properly, wash your hands, get vaccinated, and never share personal items. At that point, you can be certain that you will be doing all you can to help protect yourself from contracting an infectious disease.

This is guest post by Ian Watertown who writes about health, travel & more here.

Saturday, October 13, 2012

How the World of Medicine is Changing Today

Each day the pharmaceutical industry is making further strides in creating medicines to help a variety of different ailments. In the past 100 years, medication has gone from helping people live to be 50 to helping people live until 80 and beyond. Why is this? It is because the pharmaceutical industry is constantly developing even better medications and with better medication comes the possibility of a longer life span. The world of medicine is constantly evolving and here are some of the ways medication is evolving today.

1. Choice
From medications that help control the symptoms of diabetes to inhalers that help asthmatic people breathe, the pharmaceutical industry has created a variety of different medications to help alleviate the symptoms associated with many common illnesses. This means people have more choice when choosing medications. This is a great change from the medications of years past.

2. Availability
In today's world of medicine, it is now possible to help those in disease stricken countries obtain the medications they need for a healthier population of people. Each day, more and more people in poor countries are receiving the medication they need to survive.

3. Vaccines
The pharmaceutical industry is constantly coming up with vaccines that can help protect against a variety of different diseases and illnesses. Since the flu shot to vaccines that helps prevent girls from contracting HPV, the world of medicine is always researching and creating new vaccines. The vaccines of today are more advanced than the vaccines of years gone by.

4. Compounding Results
Because of advances in medicine, people have more options when it comes to taking care of their health. When people realize there are a variety of treatment options for what ails them, it may encourage them to get the help they need to manage their illness. This in turn will create a healthier population of people. In years gone by, people did not have the healthiest options available today and that is a major change in medicine.

5. Where the Heart is
Heart disease is a major problem for many people. Because of this, plenty of research has been done to help make heart surgery more successful. Many people may one day require heart surgery and with changes in medicine, it is more likely that the surgery will be a success.

6. Wellness
One major change in medicine that is certain to gain more attention in the years to come is the ability to monitor at risk individuals before they get sick. Through the use of genomic medicine, it may one day be possible to predict a disease before it occurs so a person can take preventive measures that may stop the disease ahead of time.

Modern-day medicine is changing constantly. As a result, people are experiencing longevity and a higher quality of life. Thanks to advances in medical technology, the world of medicine is evolving for the better on an almost daily basis - as can be seen by the examples listed above. Now all we have to do is wait for whatever is the next :)

This is guest post by Jenna Hayworth who writes about health, current events & more here.

Friday, September 07, 2012

Call for Abstracts ICIDN-2012 Conference (Dec. 15-18, 2012)

Message on the behalf of Santosh Thapa, ICIDN Secretariat

Dear interested all,
We are now accepting abstracts for oral and poster presentation at the "First International Conference on Infectious Diseases & Nanomedicine-2012 [ICIDN-2012]" scheduled on 15-18 December, 2012 in Kathmandu, Nepal. Abstracts can be submitted by Undergraduate/Post-graduate students or early career Scientists, Researchers, Professors and can be on any topic in infectious diseases and nanomedicine.To submit your abstract, please follow the following two step process.

(1) Download the Abstract Template from. The guidelines for preparation of abstract is also included within the template.
(2) Email your abstract (maximum one page) to icidn2012@gmail.com, mentioning the preferred way of presentation (oral or poster).

The deadline for abstract submission is : 15 October, 2012
Decision regarding your abstract will be communicated to you by email before: 31 October, 2012. For papers to be included into the conference final program, the author must register by: 1 November, 2012. We look forward to Welcoming you in Kathmandu in December this year.

Thank you.
With warm regards,
Santosh Thapa
ICIDN Secretariat
P. O. Box 24411
Kathmandu, Nepal

Friday, August 17, 2012

5 Things We Might Not Know About Our Universe

The universe is an awfully big and mysterious place. Humans have been working to pick apart it's intricacies for thousands of years now, and we are only just beginning to understand some of the more basic pieces of the galactic puzzle. It seems that with every new piece of knowledge that we gain, we open up a number of new questions for research. The following is a list of 5 things that we still might not know about our universe.
1. How did the universe begin?
 There are a number of theories ranging from the big bang all the way to the idea that a supreme being built the universe from a vast blank. Although many theories have emerged, there is no definitive answer to the question of how the universe began. Scientists are developing powerful telescopes in an effort to effectively see in to the past for clues that can answer this question.
2. What is dark matter and dark energy?
Our universe is made up of roughly 95% dark matter and dark energy. What this means is that the matter that we, as humans, can see, touch, smell, et cetera, is largely the minority of matter and energy in the universe. Dark matter and energy is being researched from a multitude of angles. There are no definitive answers to any of our questions regarding this phenomenon.
3. Will the universe ever slow it's expansion?
The universe is proven to be expanding away from itself at a high velocity. Scientists say that the speed is still increasing. What this means for humanity is completely unknown. We may never have the time to get a grasp on this knowledge.
4. Is there more than one universe?
This question is presented by renowned physicist, Stephen Hawking. He hypothesizes that, like galaxies, there are an indeterminate amount of universes which make up an even larger multi-verse. This theory can only be proven when we can develop more powerful telescopes.
5. Is there life somewhere out there?
This is possibly the most compelling of the unknowns. Are we alone? Are there other intelligent life forms somewhere out in the stars wondering on the same existential questions that we sit here pondering? We can only hope that we will find ways to sustain our race for long enough to find the answers to these ultimate questions of the universe.

This is a Guest Blog Post written by Kathleen Hubert. Check out more of her work at hawaiivacations.org.

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Is Grub and Boot Error in Fedora the Reason for Declination in User Numbers?

I had used Red Hat, a kind (distro) of Linux operating systems over a decade ago as a first Linux OS. So, I love to use Fedora, CentOS, Scientific Linux, and Fedora as the most preferred nowadays.

I like Fedora because it is a leader of all Linux distro in terms of rolling out and testing of new software. There are some science dedicated Linux distros, such as Scientific Linux, Bio-Linux, Scibuntu, etc. However, it has been easier for me to use latest science / chemistry related software, such as PyMol, Chimera, Autodock, OpenBabel, BioPerl, etc. in graphical version via Fedora. Sometimes, some of this software had made me irritation due to repeated crashes. We can tolerate the crash because of availability for free use of these precious software. But the obnoxious condition in Fedora is due to crash or error in Grub / boot.

I have always been using a dual boot system of Fedora and Windows OS. Grub boot as master. Fedora 4, 9, 12 and 17 were shipped the version with Grub Error, as I experienced. Unlike other error crash, for Grub / boot error, we are unable to report or repair with the simple restart of the computer. It may be due to infection / viruses or due to bugs.

The grub / boot error is a very sensitive issue. At the initial days, I couldn't fix that error and had to format hard disk, which was responsible for my data loss. Thus, this boot error affected Windows system also. I hope Fedora will be shipped with a stable and reliable version of Grub. And Fedora can compete with Linux Mint, Ubuntu and Mageia to take its sovereignty again.

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Identification and Classification of Bacteria; Microscopy to MALDI; May be Useful for Therapy Strategy

Bacterial diseases are responsible for the highest number of death than any other diseases. Although developed countries have been reducing the death cases of bacterial diseases, countries like Nepal is still striving against it. However, recent cases of Germany and Haiti where Escherichia coli and Vibrio cholerae had infected and killed many human beings, indicates a terrible situation may happen anywhere in the world. Many techniques have been being used to identify and get rid of bacterial diseases. In recent days, ribotyping and PCR are being used to identify bacterial strains as the gold standard method. MALDI could be the most efficient method in future days to identify such strains along with putative antibiotics sensitivity pattern. I had described the methods so far used (and future uses) in a seminar and attached here. This is not complete, if you are interested, mail me to get the slides.

Please wait for few seconds in case of slow internet.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Some Exciting Features of Windows 8

Microsoft’s flagship operating system, Windows, hasn’t always had a smooth ride. Whilst it’s true that more than 75% of the world’s computers (according to statistics from 2011) run some version of Windows or other, it’s still frequently subject to criticism from a range of sources. Perhaps the most widely panned version of the OS was Windows Vista, which to this day stands as one of the most poorly optimized operating systems. Microsoft made up for this in a big way with Windows 7, which marked a return to the quality of Windows XP in terms of speed and ease of use. But we’re now just months away from the next step forward: Windows 8. So should we all be afraid of another Vista debacle? Hopefully not. Here are just a few reasons why it’s actually OK to be excited for Windows 8.

Metro interface with ‘Live Tiles'
Much to the surprise of the technology community, Microsoft has become a real competitor in the Smartphone market with the Windows Phone. Its user interface is always complimented for being accessible and simple, but powerful. With Windows 8, Microsoft seem to be wanting to translate this success onto the desktop and laptop environments. It’s an optional thing, though, so don’t worry – you won’t have to sacrifice your desktop. The Metro interface, as it’s known, is a block of tiles, each representing an app. These are called Live Tiles, and can be used to deliver notifications about the app. Metro also takes full advantage of touch screens, although it’s unclear how that will work on a desktop PC. Still, the interface is something brand new for the OS, and is something to get excited about.

Boot from a USB drive with Windows to Go
If you’ve ever worked in IT, you’ll know that there are times when using a machine’s OS can either be impossible because of a fault, or because of a permissions issue. With Windows 8, Microsoft are introducing ‘Windows to Go’ – a fully featured corporate Windows environment accessible from a USB stick. All you’ll have to do is plug in the stick and you’ll gain access to the file system of the host machine. This can be very useful in situations whereby security has been compromised. No matter how good your business insurance is, there is often nothing that an insurance claim can do to save files when a workstation is compromised via networking vulnerabilities. With 'Windows to Go', businesses with or without insurance can feel confident that their network security is as tight as possible.

The Ribbon toolbar has been promoted
If you’ve ever used the more recent editions of Microsoft Office, you’ve very likely tried out the ‘ribbon’. It’s the strip along the top of the software that contains various buttons and tools, organized by category. With Windows 8, Microsoft are bringing the Ribbon to Windows Explorer, so dealing with files will be as simple as editing documents. This is great for consistency across Windows products, and should help everyone use the OS and software more seamlessly. It’ll be interesting to see exactly how this is implemented in Windows 8.

Native USB 3.0 support
At present, none of the Windows operating systems support the latest version of USB – 3.0. Windows XP, Vista, and 7 all use USB 2.0. It works fine, but it’s nowhere near as fast as the new version. With USB 3.0 native support, Windows 8 will make the new version available to everyone, and we can all benefit from super-quick file transfers and quicker syncing for our mobile devices. USB 3.0 support is certainly on the list of things you can genuinely be excited for.

Hybrid Boot will make start-up a snap
We’ve all been in a situation whereby we’ve had to get our PC or laptop started quickly, but then had to sit through at least a minute of loading – sometimes even longer. This is something that Microsoft are now going to address with Windows 8. Known as ‘Hybrid Boot’, the new feature will use advanced hibernation techniques to make shut down and start-up much faster, whilst keeping power consumption to a minimum. It’d be great to be able to ‘flick on’ your Windows 8 PC in the same way you do a Smartphone – and this could be the first step.
At the moment, Windows 8 is planned for a late 2012 release. If you can’t wait that long, you can already download the consumer preview from various places on the web and see the new features in action for yourself. There are already many good things being reported about the consumer preview, so feel free to grab a copy and see how it could help your business too.

Saturday, April 07, 2012

Cost of laptops fall down from $200 To $35

Children are our future and our legacy and deserve all the support we can give them. Creativity and experience of people could be increased, if they are exposed in diverse field during childhood. Unfortunately, Nepal being an under developed country, she is not able to give opportunity to every children to expose towards education and technology.  However, we hope. In an evermore technological world, however, are we equipping our children to be passive users or do we understand the importance of empowering them to do more than simply download songs and videos created by other faraway peoples?

The "One Laptop Per Child" project
One Laptop Per Child's mission statement runs as follows:

  • To create educational opportunities for the world's poorest children by providing each child with a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop with content and software designed for collaborative, joyful, self-empowered learning. When children have access to this type of tool they get engaged in their own education. They learn, share, create, and collaborate. They become connected to each other, to the world and to a brighter future.
Few people would care to disagree with any of the above.

In 2010, the One Laptop Per Child project was selling its computers for around $200. In collaboration with governments in developing countries across the globe, by 2011 1.84 million units had been shipped to precisely the children the mission statement was aimed at. Originally, however, this computer was intended to sell at $100. The rising costs of projects such as these are sometimes unavoidable. In this case, unhappily, as the data here demonstrates, sales have not been as buoyant as they could have been.

Aakash Ubislate Tablet PC
A potentially strong competitor, at least on virtual paper, looked as if it might be the “Made in India” Aakash Ubislate tablet. Priced around $62, its price advantage against the OLPC laptop was clear, with the price dropping to $50 for institutions which received the tablet via government initiatives. As with many cheap alternatives to the iPads and PCs of this world, there were advantages and disadvantages to this product which made it hard to evaluate one way or the other.
Advantages: Portability, Cheap, Expansion and connectivity
Disadvantages: Poor screen, Poor battery, No Android Market
There is one thing which must be said in its favour, however: its order books have been extremely healthy. The upgraded Ubislate7+ version, which has rapidly served to apply the user experience of the earlier model, has already generated over two million pre-orders since it was put on the market at the beginning of 2012.

What about the Raspberry Pi ?  (Picture)
Contrast the above experiences, then, with this year's other massive computing sensation: the Raspberry Pi. It is said there have been over “2 million expressions of interest or pre-orders” since the product was launched on 29th February 2012. Far more significantly, this single-board computer – without a case or even an onboard clock, and which runs Linux on an ARM processor – costs less than $35. Aimed at teaching schoolchildren how to program and generally get their hands dirty by playing around with the inside of the hardware in question, it follows a recent British government report which concluded that children spent far too much time being taught how to use software as relatively passive end-users and not enough time learning how to be creative with information technologies.
It is, of course, early days – but, with such computing projects, we may soon be seeing our young people designing websites and technologies for areas of business ranging from cash isa transfer sites to new and novel kinds of online communities.

Does the future of computing really lie in the palm of one's hand?
Many people have been arguing over the past few years that the future of computing is mobile. Cory Doctorow recently made an impassioned plea, however, on behalf of computing technologies and mindsets which allowed people to continue to act as cyber-mechanics, as they proceeded to want to open up and fiddle around inside the boxes of their machines.

From the locked-down but unlockable versions of the OLPC laptop to the caseless and totally open Raspberry Pi of recent months, via the Ubislate tablet of cut-down yet apparently marketable compromises, it's clear that the key to cheap computing has no one-size-fits-all solution. If we had to side with Doctorow, though, it's surely the Raspberry Pi and its fellow competitors we'd be supporting.
Our children do, after all, deserve the very best. The very best isn't a closed piece of kit which you can't even unscrew but something which allows them to change the world around them and interact with its marvels and glories.

That's what kids do.
That's what we should allow them to do like Mahabir Pun did a lot for rural people and fecilated them to access computer and internet.

Friday, March 30, 2012

Development Version of Mendeley 1.5 is Available

Mendeley is one of the popular and easy reference managing software. It can be installed in Windows, Linux and Mac OS. Combination of Mendeley with Zotero, another reference managing add-on of Firefox, could be very effective to run. Although it is one of the best for Linux OS, but it still has some limitations like abbreviation of journal's name, writing first capital letter for each word of name of journal, etc. are still limiting factors (or at least I assume). I hope, these limitation will be addressed in final stable release of this latest version. Please visit here to download and don't forget to back up Mendeley library.

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

What happens when he meets a fey?

When he meets a fey
Unlike other, he can’t say hey

This beautiful creation
Only on his imagination

Others feel and whistle
Excite and become drone
But he needs to be grown
Or does he have the Freudian syndrome?

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Finally, we got Publication in International Journal

After a long waiting, between frustration and enthusiasm, we read enthusiastic and pleasant news about the acceptance of our article in international journal. And surprisingly, it is included in top five "highly accessed" articles for this month (February, 2012).

We had spent almost two years in this research including literature search and writing time. Kathmandu Model Hospital and Central Department of Microbiology had provided lab facility.  Although we had not got any kind of stipend and financial support and even no internet facility in lab or university (it was not free), we did it.  We used to visit Cyber café @ Rs. 20-40 /hour for literature search and related articles. The co-authors, Pankaj Baral and Sanjiv Neupane had spent their pocket money to purchase chemicals such as DNA ladder, restriction enzymes, etc. I spend pocket money for collection of various medicinal plants and some medicines (in kg) that we are using traditionally. Some of our relatives and colleagues used to laugh at us and say it was craziness. This had created a bit disappointment, but we had the enthusiasm for science and research. These days, scientists from most of the developed countries are demanding from Government not to cut the budget for Science and Technology, where as we are struggling for a fraction of amount the budget for Science and Technology.

We would like to thank and express a heartful gratitude to Prof. Dr. Ronald Bauerele, Virginia University School of Medicine, USA, who trained us about the technique of Molecular Biology during six months stay in Nepal. Also, he provided technical and moral support along with science discussion. Thanks to Prof. Dr. Anjana Singh, Central Department of Microbiology, Dr. Bharat Pradhan, Kathmandu Model Hospital and obviously our mentors for guidance and for the arrangement of laboratory.