Metarhizium anisopliae as Eco-friendly Antimalarial Biopesticide

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Malaria is one of the major public health problem for Nepal, indeed all developing countries are facing the problem. Although epidemics of malaria has been reduced, emergence of drug resistant Plasmodium spp (causative agent of malaria), poor sanitation, agricultural dependency etc. still making malaria as frightening.

Living in the Terai region of Nepal was avoided due to malaria. This is the fact of just 60-70 years ago. During Rana rule in Nepal, prisoners were sent to this Terai area as punishment, where malaria was a big threat. After the discovery of anti-malarial drugs, deforestation and people's migration began and the Terai gradually overcrowded and become Nepal's dense populated area. I remember, whole houses were sprayed by DDT to get rid from the diseases transmitted by mosquito. But DDT exhibited serious environmental and public health hazards. And neither, malaria could be eliminated.

The finding (gift of science and research ?) from the University of Maryland may be helpful to combat malaria and mosquito related diseases in Eco-friendly and biological way. A fungus Metarhizium anisopliae, which is a plants symbiont protecting plants from insect, infects mosquito and some other insects and attenuates then kills. This fungus has been genetically modified (GM) and have very narrow host range e.g., only infect harmful insects. Also, this GM fungus express SM1 and scorpion proteins, toxic to Plasmodium sporozoites in mosquito that enhance the rate of killing in short time period. This fungus easily invade and infect the mosquito through the surface like if contacted to cuticle; unlike bacterial and viral infection. So, like DDT, spore of this fungus can be sprayed in bed net, house; so that it would be easily contact with mosquito and to eliminate Plasmodium spp. And, it could infect larvae of mosquito, hence meta-acid and hazardous chemicals can be replaced by the fungal spore in ditches and stagnant water pool.

However, whether this genetic engineered fungus can survive freely in environment or work significantly? Or might it create bad impact in ecology? Or will it be available easily for poor countries to use? What happens if it infect honey bee and other beneficial insects ? We have to wait.

Reference: Fang et al., Science (25 February, 2011), 331; 1074-1077

Spy thru' Mozilla Firefox or else ?

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       Every-time when I open Firefox, after computer start (not after restart of Firefox without restarting the computer), CPU fan run in the fastest speed with busy HDD indicator for initial 15 minutes. This was surprising, it shouldn't be, and in another user account; no such abnormality could be seen.
       Upon checking the “System Monitor”, the CPU was busy and astonishingly there was peak in the graph of sent and received items, even-though, I hadn't opened any web site. I don't remember that I had activated any automatic update in this Fedora 12. 

Peak in this graph is indicating something is downloading

Here CPU is busy and making cooling fan work hard

CPU, memory and network usage graph in Fedora

 I deleted this user profile and recreated with the same name, the problem solved. Again after few months later, the problem reappeared in both user accounts this time, and I deleted and reopened both with the same name, and nowadays working well. However, I am still skeptical what was uploading and downloading or installing or whether, was it normal process ?

नेपालीमा ब्लग लेखन र ब्लग भेला, एक अनुभव

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       यो टाँसो दैंतरीमा (dautari.org) नेपाली ब्लग भेलामा मैले राखेका कुराहरुलाई क्रमबद्ब गरेको मात्र हो ।
       मेरो ब्लग खोल्नुको उद्धेश्य, मैले रचना गरेका टुक्रा-टुक्री साहित्य पस्कनु र लेखाइमा निखार ल्याउनु थियो । तर, एक त नेपालीमा टाइप गर्नुको झर्को, टाइप गरिहालेपनि कापीमा लेखे जस्तो ह्रस्व-दीर्घ मिलाउन अनी स्क्रिनमा शुद्ध बर्ण उतार्नको कठिनाईले गर्दा आफ्नो लेख आँफैलाई अनौठो लाग्ने भएकोले नेपाली लेखलाई निरन्तरता दिन सकेन । यसकारणले अनियमित नै भएपनि अङ्रेजीमै बिशेष गरी कम्प्युटर, बिज्ञान तथा प्रविधी परिधिका तथा केही अनुभवका लेख लेखेर भए पनि उपस्थिती जनाइरहे । अशुद्ध लेख्नु भन्दा नलेख्नु नै बेश भन्ठानेर बसे पनि कहिले-काँही चाँही लेख्न खसखस लाग्ने रहेछ । अङ्रेजीको आफ्नो लेखमा व्याकरण अशुद्ध भएपनि अङ्रेजी आफुले त्यती नजान्ने भएकोले आँफैले पढ्दा त्यती अनौठो लाग्दैन ।
       नेपालीद्वारा लेखिएका सयौं ब्लग भए पनि आफ्नै मौलिकताले भरीएका र नियमित हुने (महिनामा कम्तिमा १ लेख) त २०-२२ वटा मात्र पाएको छु, जसको म नियमित पाठक हुँ । तर त्यसमध्ये पनि सदैव शुद्ध र व्याकरण मिल्ने लेख हुने त जम्मा ८-१० वटा मात्र भए जस्तो लाग्छ । त्यस्तै झिलिमिली बनाएका ब्लगहरु पनि धेरै छन्, जुन खुल्न धेरै समय लाग्छ किनकी नेपाल मा अझै पनि सुस्त गतिकै ईन्टरनेट छ । साथै नेपाली ब्लगको संख्यात्मक भन्दा पनि मौलिकतामा र रचनात्मक लेखमा ध्यान पुर्‍याउनु पर्ने जस्तो देखिन्छ । blogger.com.np त्यस्तै अरु वेबसाईटमा सम्पूर्ण नेपाली ब्लगरहरुको नामाँकन त छ । तर, कुन बिषय बस्तु मा लेखिएको हो, समुह छैन । त्यसैले, विकीपिडीयामा नेपाली ब्लगको जानकारी, गुगल समूह वा अरु कुनै वेबसाईट बनाएर नेपाली ब्लगरहरुको बिषयसुचीको आधारमा समूह पनि बनाउन पहल गर्ने कि ? जस्तो समाचारमुलक, कथा, साहित्य, बिज्ञान, प्रविधी, अर्थ, राजनैतीक ब्लग इत्यादी.
       अर्को कुरा, प्राय: ब्लगहरुमा समाचारहरुमात्र (अथवा कुनै सामाग्री भए), त्यो पनि अरुको चोरी गरेर लेखिएका छन्, मलाई त्यस्ता ब्लग खोल्नै मन लाग्दैन । अरुको चोरी गर्ने र कपी पेस्ट गर्ने ब्लगहरु त म आजकाल बहिस्कार गरेको छु, ति ब्लग मैले खोल्दै खोल्दैन; त्यसैले सबै जनाले नखोल्दिए-नहेर्दिए ती चोरी गर्नेहरु निरुत्साहित हुन्थे कि ? बिज्ञापन हेरिदिएर सहयोग गरे जस्तै शुद्ध लेख्न पनि सुझाव र प्राविधिक सहयोग गरिदिए, अनी लिंक साटासाट गरिदिए पनि नेपाली ब्लग प्रवर्दनमा सहयोग पुग्ने थियो ।
       सोख नहुने हो भने त ब्लग लेख्न सार्है झन्झटिलो र पट्यारिलो काम हो । नियमित र रचनात्मक नेपाली लेख ब्लग मार्फत ईन्टरनेटमा उपलब्ध गराइदिनुहुने सम्पूर्ण नेपाली ब्लगरहरुप्रति हार्दिक आभार ब्यक्त गर्दछु ।

Nepal, Nepali and Blogging; Experience of Nearly a Decade

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       What comes between computer hardware and software? I certainly say, Nepal. Ridiculous, isn’t it? Let me explain. China has been dominating in production of computer parts (hardware) including CPU and India is advance in software design and outsourcing, Nepal is between them (but geographically).
       Could it be possible technically or really towards the development of computer hardware or software or both in New Nepal / e-Nepal? Probably Not! during my life. Success may skew towards software but electricity availability condition …….? Somewhat improvement in IT sectors like telecommunication, Nepal could be an example. But no enough to mention in example, I assume. However, a decade ago, there was trend (fashion) to learn and get trained in basic computer and still it is an essential skill to get any kind of job. Also, it was the matter of self dignity. But it has been limited only in training, not extended to any discovery or industrialization.
       My engrossment was in electronics. Trend to learn computer, and my engrossment / enthusiasm in computer hardware (and still! nevertheless could become a professional), I used to spend several hours in computer related articles, experiments, and in cyber café (Rs. 30-50/hr, later Rs.15-25/hr). http://www.geocities.yahoo.com/bishnu.........(extinct) was the first website (or blog?) that I created. I was at learning stage of html code, jumped from hardware. Initially, it was used to view change in html code after change made using yahoo’s website builder. This site was used for html code practice (observe code, after change in template and vice versa), rather than to publish any article or any advertisement. Later, I used to post some jokes, computer tips (windows, and basic code of html).
       Half of my diary was filled with poems and stories (written in Nepali) and hence, I thought, only thought to post them in the website (geocities). Both, laziness and difficulty in typing and posting in Nepali font (Unicode was unknown to me at that time) made these literature unexposed to public. Later on King Gyanendra’s regime, I found blogspot and wordpress were better to post such kind of literature (in Nepali) and creativity. But the weakness in typing, achieving correct orthography in screen unlike in handwritten manuscript, enervated…oops! Although a revolution made due to Unicode system to post in Nepali, typing time, grammar and punctuation are still making obstacle to post article in Nepali language. I feel odd when reading Nepali article typed by me. I rarely posted these Nepali article (or deleted later) because some word I couldn’t type with correct spelling. I am poor in English, so, I rarely feel odd when reading grammatically mistaken my article.
       Therefore, again, both blogspot and wordpress were used to change template and to design in different ways (wordpress having less option) as in geocities in initial days. Posting and writing couldn’t be continued. Later a decision was made to write article in Nepali for wordpress and in English for blogspot, whatever may be the topic. Article proliferated in blogspot which I hadn’t imagined during opening of its account; just thought Nepali article and literacy will be proliferated as it is easy to create and write; but typing skill made it reverse.
       I salute them (I am not mentioning some important names at this moment, sorry) who not only continuing blog in Nepali but also encouraging other Nepali with correct grammar and spelling, and technical guidance.

Seagate Hard Disk Failure with Soft tick ... tick... tick....Noise

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       I have been using many Seagate Hard Disks for a decade, also recommending it to friends/colleagues as a (amateur) technician. It has been found durable, efficient and cheap. None of them reported as failure although, some other computer parts complained to be repaired or replaced.
       But 3 years ago, my hard disk (Seagate, SATA, 80 GB) was not recognized by BIOS after sudden power cut off during windows installation, at the point of disk format. It was within warranty period, so I took to the vendor. Their BIOS system was also unable to recognize my hard disk. After 3 days, he called me notifying that hard disk was working properly without any repair. Both of us astonished; it worked automatically (without repairing? was he telling the truth?). Recovery software helped to recover most of my files except some photos (recovered but damaged), and office 2007 documents (*.docx, *.xlsx etc. But office 2003 format like *.doc, *.xls were fine). This HDD is still working well with dual operating system of Linux and Windows XP.
       Then another case of HDD failure also happened to me. Ten months ago, I had purchased a 250 GB SATA (16 MB cache), Seagate Barracuda ES (China); Date Code 08133; site code WV; Lot: 10111209. Five partition was made, 3 with Ext-2 and initial 2 with NTFS format. Fedora 12 was installed for the reason that virus might not able to transfer while back up from normal hard disk containing windows XP. Although I kept this hard disk inside the computer, power cable and data cable was connected only once a month. But used as primary (regular hard disk as secondary for a moment) to copy and paste (from regular HDD) using its own operating system i.e. Fedora.
       Up to six months it worked well but suddenly, screen was frozen (hanged) without any external interruption like shock, electricity failure. Upon restart, BIOS did not recognize this HDD. It disappointed me. Then I disconnected  power and data cable for one month and after a month it worked properly but failed in the middle of file copy. It made me doom. I had strong belief on hard disk, I felt power cable was loose, and I purchased a new power cable (regular HDD is PATA). Didn't work !??@!!!. Tried with another computer, no luck. I noticed a soft sound of tick...tick.... tick... while connecting with power cable. This HDD was dumped for a month.
       I was willing to change it, and irritated vendor (shopkeeper) checked upon my request, it worked fine. This time, the HDD betrayed me. It was amazing how it worked, I requested to restart and repeat but he refused. I requested him to copy some important files (a few MB), which was not in regular HDD. He scolded me, and tried to manifest his importance indexing customers.  I had little hope, however, tried again but didn't work, and same soft tick...tick.... tick...!!!
       I am still confused, whether this lot/HDD is faulty one or shopkeeper provided refurbished/ used one (lying as new), or I have to think twice before recommending to use Seagate HDD as the best.

Presentation Styles of European/American Scientists and South Asian Scientists

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I have been attending some national and international symposiums and getting chance to listen seminars by veterans from many countries. Two weeks ago, I got chance to take part in two inauguration ceremonies in a day. It was really an exciting experience as two inaugurations in a single day. Surprisingly, a distinct way of presentation styles between South Asian scientists and European/American scientists that I have realized, however, may not be interacted with sufficient eminent scientists.
South Asian

1. The sentence starts as, I/my colleague discovered........
2. Content : most of the literature survey, and long introduction, and few result.
3. Slide filled with most of copied and pasted texts, and definitions.
4. Seminar deliver : just read text that written in slide somewhat similar to reading news and make audience sleep.
5. Spend time just to define few scientific terms.
6. Acknowledge : no or very few.
7. Don't care for allocated time limit.

European/American

1. The sentence starts as, we/our team discovered........
2. Content : most of their own result and less literature survey, and short introduction.
3. Slide filled with most of pictorial and graphical representation of their experimental findings.
4. Seminar deliver : describe picture or graph try to make audience understand of new discovery.
5. Spend time using scientific terms to describe the results, science and mechanism.
6. Acknowledge : whole team(s).
7. Aware of time limit.

Important, this is not intended to make a conclusion that all South Asian scientists do as mentioned above, and neither all European/American scientists can always do in this manner.

View a Glimpse and Visit Ravishing Nepal

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       Sometimes, lacking of development, and abhorring science and technology may be beneficial preserving natural beauty and ecosystem, ancient culture and heritage, etc. Nepal has the evidence of it.
       In spite of small territory, diverse flora and fauna, language, ethnic group and culture, religion along with the highest peak in the world (Mt. Everest), seraph of peace (Buddha) has been stowed in Nepal, which is not in other country.
       Nepal is celebrating 2011 as "Nepal Tourism Year 2011".


       Courtesy: http://www.vn2011.blogspot.com

Glorious Cricket era in Chhapiya

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“....Like disappearance of glorious and exemplary architecture and engineering of Pagoda from Nepal, cricket of Chhapiya only in memory......”
       These coldest days are rewinding and refreshing my nostalgic of decades ago. There was the biggest and well managed playing ground of Chhapiya, which was not only used for football and cricket but also for grazing of cattle in rainy season. After our school-time, whether it was 12 noon (more than 40°C in summer) or 5 pm (pleasant breezing), we used to spent few hours in that ground. As I remember, Jagat guru (same Jagat Tamata, national coach after Roy Luke Dias or different ? Oops! Foggy memory) had started his career as coach from Chaapiya. Everyday, all player had to practice and to run early in the morning for 2-3 hours, that's why our senior team was always fit to play. Although, not mandatory, we 'fucche', even in the coldest days before sunrise, used to run in parallel to them (circular path of a lesser diameter). I thank and express heartily gratitude to Jagat guru for his major contribution and wish a success for national team on his strategy.
       Our junior/fuchhe team hardly got chance to play/practice in that central pitch. Sometimes, we were gifted the damaged/repaired Bat and leather Ball, otherwise we had to rely on Stem (of tree) for Bat and rubbish plastic (after partial burning) for Ball, which was very hard. Although, I frequently contributed a good run score for 'Fuchhe team' but was censured due to missing catch and misfielding.
      Chhapiya (Bhetghat Club) has given birth to many national player of cricket. From first generation, Dal Bahadur Thapa and Tej Narayan Pokhrel were included in national team, but cricket of Nepal was inchoate and rarely exposed internationally, in those days. From second generation Hari Thapa, one of the fastest bowler of Nepal was selected in closed training session (but may be because of his inconsistency, Binod Das was selected instead of him). Aashis Karki, Narayan Pokhrel, Santhosh Thapa (Thakali), Laxman Poudel were other key players.
      Recently, Bhairahawa won the U-19 Wai-Wai cup, panegyrical congratulation !!!!...... Bhetghat club frequently won almost all matches of football and cricket and amazingly, colt of Chhapiya sometimes stunned full of veteran (Anup, Zafar, sorry, I forget others names), rich and elite team of Bhairahawa (MCC / Khukuri / ? Club) in cricket tournaments ,and other team were not competitive. This history of frequent wining in both kind of matches, probably never repeats. Nowadays, hardly there is a cricket / football team because young (16-40 years) generation is dispersed either to Kathmandu or many countries for higher education (after SLC/+2) or job. If a team could be made would be puny and hardly enter the second round in any tournaments.
      Why did glory of Chhapiya fall down to gloomy days and inconspicuous without any significant accident/abruption in the system, even in this era where Nepal has been recognized as potent leading nation in cricket ? My assumption are;
Patronization, Impecunious and Club's responsibility: Former skippers, veterans of Bhetghat club should have taken the leadership for team arranging and funding and to guide and peruse juniors but I have found, all of them are inert. Fuchhes don't have to worry about their accommodation and earning and even for bat and ball or football (parent may provide upon crying). But the elders and veterans have to look a secure future and/or their family, no one will for penurious life. Unfortunately, the club is neither arranging ball, bat, pads, gloves nor any kind of support to player.
 Change in Occupation: Previously almost all inhabitant of Chhapiya were dependent on agriculture, hence, were available in Chhapiya. Veterans were selected because of competition and option to choose among many players. Recent trend of exodus to Gulf, Korea, Europe, USA (according to their capability) is creating a vacuum of youth, which is the important reason, I think.
       Besides these, current politician and security situation also, exacerbating plethora of game along with reducing the number of tournaments and enthusiasm as there is a diverse ethnic and religious group living together, which is enervating development and economy.
                                                                                                                Adieu 2010.

Is Linux Virus or Malware Free?

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       It may be a coincidence or true? Six months ago, I used Evolution 2.28.3 of Fedora 12 (Equivalent to Outlook Express of Windows) for Gmail. Password was hacked and e-mailed (Viagra and other advertisements) to more than thousand recipients including contact persons from my email account. Thus, account was blocked by Google's e-mail service mentioning the violation of terms. After providing phone number and security question and answer, Google sent activation code through SMS. I analyzed the IP address to find place where  account was opened. It was found Mexico where I  had never been, even in Dream. Then, I changed the password and was going fine.
       The case repeated again a few days ago, when I retried the evolution of same version in the same operating system. Does it mean Linux has leak points for virus and other vulnerability and defects, which I have never thought as in my previous posts?

Nonage Memory Refreshing Migratory Birds

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Recalling my foggy memory of more than 17 years ago, my father used to declare the beginning and the ending of the season after observing the sky. I would have wondered, how he could prevised to do or don’t about agricultural work for neighbors, and astonished upon his forecast of rain on the blue sky.

Migratory birds seeking destination

Then, very high in the sky, I noticed inexplicit semi-circle patterns created by the flocks of migratory birds (at that time I didn’t know the term and concept of migratory bird, instead used to say “Maal Chara”). I didn’t know, where were they coming from and going to? But had noticed they were visible only at beginning and ending of seasons (rainy, summer, and winter), might be due to migration from both Northern part (Russia) and Southern part (Australia). Although very small area of swamp, wetland, and fen is available nearby my house, I have never seen alighting of these flocks of immigrant birds and neither tried to retrieve their alighting area. So, I couldn’t figure out which species they were and probably never because these swamp area are now converted to the private ponds for fisheries.

Migratory Birds

After a long time (near about to delete from memory), I could see them again but in different place to my house. The abstraction is the flight in lower height and could be clicked but not enough to recognize; early in the morning in those days vs. in the evening; number reduced by approx. four times. Really are they reduced? Due to global warming? Human occupy their habitat? I am unable to compare with the same condition and with the same place as nostalgia.

Endangered bird

My personal clarions to save these guests by maintaining swamp area and not poaching. So that, not only we could declare about seasons but also to patch up tourism in Nepal.

Fedora 14 Released

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Fedora 14 (A kind of Linux Operating System) has been released today and its feature can be found here and installation guide can be found here and here or pdf. You can Download different desktop environment of Fedora 14 from here.

Why Fedora ?

1. Benefit of Linux OS (Visit my previous article).
2. More than 2,000 (software) repository are available and free.
3. Release cycle is short (Approx. 6 months) so, latest discovery in Linux system is included in Fedora in comparison to other Linux OS (Fedora is leader, not follower). But, critics say that software/codes are tested in Fedora may cause instability and hamper on its reliability.
4. Easy to install not only whole Operating System but also software and applications using yum install ..... (good internet connectivity is beneficial).
5. Can be used as Home/Office Desktop environment even as Server (CentOS is preferred).
6. Available in many different languages.
7. Wide community support, just mention your problem here (registration is necessary) probably, get solution within 24 hour.

Remember you are getting everything free; don't aspect so much facility, however, you'll get almost your needs.

Want Expeditious and Persistent Memory? Medicate yourself and Dust off Your Musical Instruments for Child.

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By Bishnu Marasini

       Except some politicians and few others who only exploit public’s emotional believes to aggrandize and become supreme. We need an urbane brain not only for deep understanding of a subject but also a wide knowledge of diverse field is essential for better life in this competitive era.
       Neuronal cells are the important component of the brain and unable to divide. Millions of the cells in our skin die and regenerate everyday. But neuronal cells once died or damaged, hardly replaced/repaired. But, upon stimulation, they can be more branched as dendrites and the secondary cells (helper of neurons) like astrocytes, oligodandrocites, microglia; ependymal cells are increased in number as well which enrich the better communication of each other increasing efficiency.

Picture 1: Musical Keyboard (Source)

       Recent study reveals the power of music to enhance the brains exhibiting increased vocabulary, multilingual capacity, reading performance and other educational activities. Pleasant waves of music not only increase volume of Grey Matter but also increases the brain’s adeptness and competence. Musical instruments work by two ways; (1) Through pleasant wave of music; (2) Curiosity/learning of instruments to produce such wave. It is most efficient at the age of 7; the stage where brain-cells are actively growing (some are increasing in volume and some in number).
       Also, flash of bright light (especially blue colored) and electric current of 1-2 mA and repeated learning of object found to be effective for long term memory.
       Although, neurons and the memory are lost with the age but the rate of deterioration can be reduced with the meditation. Neuroscientists conduct experiments upon the Buddhist Monk of NEPAL after challenged by the  (Peace) Nobel Laureate; Dalai Lama. Significant improvements were found on the Monks comparing to non-meditating people. After this exciting result, more test done on those people previously unknown of meditation, with the 20 min/day of meditation, exhibited significant improvements.

Picture 2: Preparing for Meditation (Source)

       I also used to medicate early in the morning during examination period which helped to relief from pressure of exam phobia (nowadays lazy in early rise and meditation). Nowadays, most of the elder people in Nepal are influenced by the Yoga technique of Ramdev. It will be more beneficial if some modification of Yoga for brain exercise 5-10 min/day, makes their memory long term. My personal opinion also, meditation maintains a halcyon and expeditious mind which is exigent in these morose, truculent and turbulence days.
       I don’t mean, only music and meditation are perfect for refulgent brain but these techniques adorn the regular activity of reading, writing, speaking, memory recalling, and others.

Further reading:  (1) New Scientist (2010), 2780    (2) Science (2010), 330