Home gardens are defined as a system of production of diverse crop plant species, which can be adjacent to household or slightly further away and is easily accessible. Species composition and management systems of Nepalese home gardens are poorly known. The study was conducted to develop an inventory on composition of crop species and varietal diversity to characterise the home gardens of Rupandehi and Gulmi of western Nepal, and to observe the species change over the time for last 10-15 years. Semi-structured Interviews, Direct Observation and Focus Group Discussions were employed to collect primary data. Shannon-Weaver index (SWI) was used to determine the species richness. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was employed to characterise the home gardens. Mid-hill SWI (H¢=4.41) revealed the higher species diversity (131 species) as compared to terai (123 species). This species richness was significantly higher (p=0.001) in the midhill area. The vegetable species constitute the major component followed by fruits and fodder species that also contributed to the species diversity. The size of home gardens and species richness was positively correlated (r s =0.29, p=0.001). Twenty crop species have been lost during the last 10-15 years and eleven species were threatened in the studied home gardens. Inaccessibility of local seed crops and deforestation were the major causes reported accounting for this trend. Self-saved seed was the major source of planting material in home gardens. There is a need to study the seed supply system for these home gardens. Therefore, a challenge is to make these home gardens selfsupporting through creating a mechanism on strengthening local seed supply systems for long term sustainability of home garden in agrobiodiversity management.

The purpose of this study is to identify key home garden species in order to address basic research questions aimed at understanding farmers' home gardens management practices. The study was conducted in two contrasting Hill and Tarai sites in Nepal with households (HHs) ranging from 355 to 634. Unlike larger production systems, home gardens harbour many species in small areas often with a few crop varieties and species that are not well represented in larger fields. Given the number of species and their small population sizes, species and genetic diversity are best studied by identifying representative key species characterizing the complex productive niches within farms. Although species diversity within community is large (172 -342), 24 key species were identified for the study. There is no fixed size of a home garden. The log of home garden size and species richness was positively correlated (r ¼ 0.42, P , 0.001). Species richness was significantly higher in vegetable followed by fodder, fruits and spices. This paper also explores the diversity in home gardens to identify the composition and characteristics of the key species and how they are managed, used and conserved. Most of the farmers save the seeds of these home garden species for their own use, but many also exchange and buy and sell seed in local weekly market. Farmers' practices for selecting seed vary according to the reproductive biology of the key home garden species. Home gardens provide the HH with fresh and diverse supply of nutritious food, which improves their self-sufficiency, while conserving diversity on-farm. Despite this, they are neglected in research and development by policy makers and researchers.

Aims: To evaluate the maternal and perinatal outcome in adolescent pregnancy,Method: This was a cross-sectional study conducted in Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Manipal Teaching Hospital, Pokhara from October 2017 to March 2018 for duration of 6 months.Results: There were total 82 cases of teenage pregnancy in the study duration with incidence of  6% among total deliveries. Majority of cases were of age 19 and were primigravida. Fifty five percent of the cases had normal vaginal delivery and cesarean section accounted for 39% of cases. The major indication for cesarean section was meconium stained liquor (52%) followed by oligohydraminos (15%) and cephalopelvic disproportion (11%). The maternal complication accounted for 59% of total cases. Among them, anaemia was highly prevalent comprising 11% of cases followed by PPROM (9.8%) and hypertensive disorders in pregnancy (8.5%). In perinatal outcome, the incidence of preterm birth was 15.9% and low birth weight was 13.4%. The rate of NICU admission was 2.4% and there was one case of still birth.Conclusion: The study showed that teenage pregnancy is at increased risk of adverse maternal and perinatal outcome. So if we lay an effort for reducing the incidence of teenage pregnancy, we can bring in positive changes in the indicators of maternal and perinatal morbidities.

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Introduction: Bipolar affective disorder a chronic, and highly disabling psychiatric disorder is one of the leading causes of disability and is estimated to affect more than 1% of the global population irrespective of origin, ethnicity, nationality or socioeconomic status. The effectiveness of lithium in mania and psychotic excitement was proven first proven in 1960 and since then lithium is considered to be a gold standard treatment for bipolar disorder. Material and Method: A total of one hundred thirty five patients with bipolar disorder were enrolled in a prospective study to analyze the serum lithium levels on maintenance dose of lithium. After ethical clearance data was collected from patients attending BG Hospital and Research Centre from July 2013 to July 2019. The patients who were on maintenance treatment with different doses of lithium only were included. These patients were tested for serum lithium concentration as per lithium monitoring guidelines. Serum Lithium, serum electrolytes, height and weight of the patients were recorded. The psychiatric diagnosis was made according to the ICD-10 criteria. Data were computed and analyzed by using SPSS version 21. Parametric and non-parametric statistical technique was applied wherever appropriate. Results: The minimum efficacious serum lithium level in the long-term treatment of bipolar disorder was found at 0.16 mmol/l and maximum serum levels was 1.51 mmol/l. The mean serum lithium level was 0.596 mmol/l with standard deviation of 0.237 mmol/l. Conclusion: There is substantial variation in between the serum lithium levels of patients in remission on long term treatment. The uncertainty about the most efficacious serum lithium level for the long-term treatment of bipolar disorder leads to the suggestion of the treatment of individual patients to be based on clinical response rather than on serum lithium levels.