Festival culture of nepalese immigrant students living in Oslo

Master's thesis in global studies. School of Mission and Theology, spring 2016MV 17 S

CAF: A Collaborative Approach to Providing Feedback

This paper reports findings from a small-scale study on a collaborative technique for providing feedback to student writing, English languages teachers spend a significant amount of their time and effort on providing feedback to students on their writing performances. However, their corrective feedback does not produce desired outcomes. The students either do not pay attention to the comments or they do not learn as much as expected. Research suggests that they generally regard feedback as punitive. and demoralising. One reason for this is that students are not made a part of the feedback process, rather, only its recipients. Based on these premises, a small-scale action research project was conducted in a reputed Australian university. The study employed a collaborative approach, termed here as Collaborative Approach to Feedback (CAF), in which students, rather than their teachers, in small communities, worked together on their writings to provide feedback to each other. CAF, as an educational practice framework, was adopted in this project to involve students actively and collaboratively to provide feedback to other members of their community. Preliminary findings indicate that students felt engaged in and empowered by the process, and that, CAF as a feedback technique exerted positively on the correction of errors in writing. In the pretext of feedback and error correction theory, this paper offers a collaborative feedback framework and a rationale for CAF to be further explored, developed, and adapted

Mass-Conserving Self-Similar Solutions to Collision-Induced Breakage Equations

Existence of mass-conserving self-similar solutions to collision-induced breakage equation is shown for a specific class of homogeneous collision kernels and breakage functions. The proof mainly relies on a dynamical approach and compactness method to constructing mass-conserving stationary solutions for an evolution problem, which induces mass-conserving self-similar solutions to collision-induced breakage equation. Furthermore, we also determine lower and upper bound of the scaling profile

Genotype × Environment Interaction of Quality Protein Maize Grain Yield in Nepal

In order to determine G × E interaction of quality protein maize grain yield, six maize genotypes were evaluated under different environments of three Terai (Chitwan, Surkhet and Doti) and four mid hill (Dhankuta, Lalitpur, Dolakha and Kaski) districts of Nepal during summer seasons of 2014 and 2015. The experiments were conducted using randomized complete block design along with three replications. The genotypes namely S99TLYQ-B, S99TLYQ-HG-AB and S03TLYQ-AB-01 were identified high yielding and better adapted genotypes for Terai environments with grain yield of 4199 kg ha-1, 3715 kg ha-1, and 3336 kg ha-1 respectively and S99TLYQ-B and S03TLYQ-AB-01 for mid hill environments with grain yield of 4547 kg ha-1 and 4365 kg ha-1 respectively. Therefore, these genotypes can be suggested for cultivation in their respective environments in the country

The continuous collision-induced nonlinear fragmentation equation with non-integrable fragment daughter distributions

Existence, non-existence, and uniqueness of mass-conserving weak solutions to the continuous collision-induced nonlinear fragmentation equations are established for the collision kernels $\Phi$ satisfying $\Phi(x_1,x_2)={x_1}^{\lambda_1} {x_2}^{\lambda_2}+{x_2}^{\lambda_1} {x_1}^{\lambda_2}$, $(x_1,x_2)\in(0,\infty)^2$, with ${\lambda_1} \leq {\lambda_2}\leq 1$, and non-integrable fragment daughter distributions. In particular, global existence of mass-conserving weak solutions is shown when $1\le\lambda:={\lambda_1}+{\lambda_2}\le2$ with $\lambda_1\ge k_0$, the parameter $k_0\in(0,1)$ being related to the non-integrability of the fragment daughter distribution. The existence of at least one mass-conserving weak solution is also demonstrated when $2k_0 \le \lambda < 1$ with $\lambda_1\ge k_0$ but its maximal existence time is shown to be finite. Uniqueness is also established in both cases. The last result deals with the non-existence of mass-conserving weak solutions, even on a small time interval, for power law fragment daughter distribution when $\lambda_1<k_0$. It is worth mentioning that the previous literature on the nonlinear fragmentation equation does not treat non-integrable fragment daughter distribution functions

Management of infected custom mega prosthesis by Ilizarov method

A 26 year old male patient with an aggressive giant cell tumour of the left distal femur was managed by wide excision and insertion of custom mega prosthesis. Patient developed deep infection which did not subside with multiple debridements and antibiotics.  Hence the custom mega prosthesis was removed and the bone gap was managed by Ilizarov method.  Ilizarov fixation of the left femur and tibia was done.  Femoral and tibial corticotomy was done and the bone segments were transported towards the knee to finally achieve a knee arthrodesis.  The case illustrates the method and difficulties encountered during the treatment

Mixed-Methods Research: A Discussion on its Types, Challenges, and Criticisms

The article positions mixed-method research (MMR) as a principled complementary research method to the traditional quantitative and qualitative research approaches. By situating MMR in an analysis of some of the common research paradigms, the article presents it as a natural choice in order to complement and cater to the increasingly complex needs of contemporary researchers. It proffers MMR as a flexible and adaptive conceptual framework for designing and conducting mixed methods research in a simplified manner. By explaining fundamental principles and major theoretical tenets of a mixed-methods approach, which involves both quantitative and qualitative data collection in response to research questions, it elucidates several benefits of adopting MMR since it integrates post-positivism as well as interpretivism frameworks. There is abundant literature around this research design aiming to provide researchers an understanding of the approach. Yet there is limited literature that provides illustrative guidance to research novices in comprehending mixed methods, understanding reasons for choosing it, and selecting an appropriate mixed methods design. Based on an analysis of some notable works in the field, this article provides an overview of mixed methods designs, discusses its main types, and explains challenges one can potentially encounter when in using them with a view to assisting early career researchers in particular and other researchers in general

Effects of different fertilizers on the growth and yield of okra (Abelmoschus esculentus L.) in summer season in Chitwan, Nepal

An experiment was conducted in the Horticulture Farm of Agriculture and Forestry University to demonstrate the effects of different fertilizers on the yield and yield parameters of okra (var. Arka Anamika). The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) consisting of seven treatments and three replications. The various treatments used in the experiment were goat manure, sesame cake, mustard cake, synthetic fertilizer (NPK), poultry manure, vermicompost and untreated control. The required dose of nitrogen was fulfilled by the fertilizer itself whereas insufficient amount of phosphorous and potassium was fulfilled by addition of single super phosphate and muriate of potash respectively. The fertilizers were applied on the basis of recommendation given by the Nepal Agriculture Research Council (NARC). The effect of poultry manure on number of open flowers and number of fruits at 40 DAS was found superior. The effect of poultry manure on plant height, number of leaves, plant diameter was found superior at 50 DAS. Goat manure produced the superior result on number of open flowers at 50 DAS. Poultry manure on the number of leaves and plant height produced the significant result at 60 DAS. Synthetic fertilizer responded well to number of fruits at 60 DAS. Sesame cake produced the superior results at 70 DAS on number of buds. Poultry manure responded well to all the parameters and produced the yield of 200 qt./ha with the BC ratio of 1.77. This experiment suggests the farmers to use the poultry manure to get the highest economic return. Vermicompost and mustard cake producing the superior and significant yield in this research are not recommended as they have low BC ratio unless effective measures are encouraged to reduce the cost of this fertilizers