22 research outputs found
Formal versus informal practices: Trade of medicinal and aromatic plants via Trans- Himalayan Silk Road
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Swertia chirayita in Nepal Himalayas: Cultivation and Cross Border Trade to China
No full textFor ethnic inhabitants in the rural areas, medicinal plants are not only the cultural, sacred medicinal ingredients of traditional medicine, part of traditional belief and biodiversity but also an important cash crop to support their livelihood. With the commercialization of traditional medicine and medicinal plant-based industries worldwide, Nepalese medicinal plants are in high demand. This photo essay presents the various steps from the cultivation to the cross-border trade of Swertia chirayita (Roxb.) H. Karst., a traditional valuable medicinal plant, and a beautiful landscape of Nepal-China border. The essay contains fourteen photographs each described with captions in detail with the information collected during field work. The ethnographic study on cross border trade of medicinal plants was conducted in 2020 at Bhotkhola routes in the northeastern Nepal. Bhotkhola-Tibet border control in 2008 has politically ruptured the original link of traditional exchange among people, goods, and ideas by displacing the community from its everyday borderlands. However, the cross border trade is performed by traditional networks of Bhotiya communities such as rural ethnic inhabitants, farmers, small budget dealers, and traditional practitioners through formal and informal supply chains. The government authorities from both the countries are responsible for regulating, monitoring, and permitting medicinal plants supply from harvesters to cross-border traders
Multiphysics machine learning framework for on-demand multi-functional nano pattern design by light-controlled capillary force lithography
No full textNature finds ways to realize multi-functional surfaces by modulating nano-scale patterns on their surfaces, enjoying transparent, bactericidal, and/or anti-fogging features. Therein height distributions of nanopatterns play a key role. Recent advancements in nanotechnologies can reach that ability via chemical, mechanical, or optical fabrications. However, they require laborious complex procedures, prohibiting fast mass manufacturing. This paper presents a computational framework to help design multi-functional nano patterns by light. The framework behaves as a surrogate model for the inverse design of nano distributions. The framework’s hybrid (i.e., human and artificial) intelligence-based approach helps learn plausible rules of multi-physics processes behind the UV-controlled nano patterning and enriches training data sets. Then the framework’s inverse machine learning (ML) model can describe the required UV doses for the target heights of liquid in nano templates. Thereby, the framework can realize multiple functionalities including the desired nano-scale color, frictions, and bactericidal properties. Feasibility test results demonstrate the promising capability of the framework to realize the desired height distributions that can potentially enable multi-functional nano-scale surface properties. This computational framework will serve as a multi-physics surrogate model to help accelerate fast fabrications of nanopatterns with light and ML.This article is published as Chapagain, Ashish, and In Ho Cho. "Multiphysics machine learning framework for on-demand multi-functional nano pattern design by light-controlled capillary force lithography." Communications Physics 7, no. 1 (2024): 213. doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s42005-024-01703-9. © The Author(s) 2024. This Open Access article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Globalisation of water: Opportunities and threats of virtual water trade
No full textMore information: http://www.taylorandfrancis.co.ukCivil Engineering and Geoscience
Water saving through international trade of agricultural products
No full textCivil Engineering and Geoscience
Inscription of the Old City of Ahmedabad in the World Heritage List: Observations on the 41st Session of World Heritage Committee Meeting
No full text The Old City of Ahmedabad was inscribed in the list of World Heritage Sites (UNESCO) at the 41st session of the World Heritage Committee in Poland in July 8, 2017. Though the ICOMOS evaluation and the draft decision prior to the session had it ‘deferred’, the committee discussed an amended draft decision and unanimously voted to inscribe the property onto the World Heritage List. This is an immediate reflection on the observations of the session proceedings (webcasted live and watched by author). I argue that a non-rigorous process of nomination – pursued through other forms of negotiation avoiding the recommendations of technical evaluation, may raise questions about the relevance of ICOMOS evaluation process and the credentials of the World Heritage Convention. </jats:p
