Search results for: Bara Gali

Authors: Saif Ullah, Zaigham Hasan, Muhammad Ali, Qaisar Jamal, Kiran Salahuddin, Muhammad Awais

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Survey of avian fauna of Bara Gali Summer Campus, University of Peshawar situated in Abbottabad was conducted from April to October, 2013. A total of 21 species belonging to 5 orders and 15 families were recorded. Out of these, 6 were resident, 12 summer visitor and 3 rare. Order Passeriformes was represented by 16 species which are Certhia himalayana, Megalaima virens, Phylloscopus trochiloides, Garrulax lineatus, Passer rutilans, Corvus macrorhynchos, Hypsipetes leucocephalus, Acridotheres tristis, Delichon dasypus cashmeriensis, Hirundo rustica, Muscicapa thalassina, Saxicola ferrea, Myiophoneus caeruleus, Parus melonolophus, Parus rufonuchalis, Parus monticolus, belonging to 11 families. Two species Dendrocopos himalayansis and Picus squamatus belong to only one family Picidae of order Piciformes. Among rest of the three orders each is represented by only a single species; Accipitriformes by Accipiter virgatus, Coraciformes by Upupa epops while order Psittaciformes has been represented by Psittacula himalayana. The distribution and abundance varied with season and maximum number of species were found during the monsoon season when most of the birds migrate for breeding. Some habits and behaviors like nesting, feeding, breeding and vocalizations were also studied which are very unique from other birds found at lower elevations. Among bird species adapted to diverse habitat in the field, Himalayan Jungle Crow, Common Mynas, Bulbuls, Barn Swallows, barbets were prominent. Interesting feature of the avian fauna is its familiarity with flora, was also observed during the present studies that some birds are very quick and active in their movement on a tree surface i.e Certhia himalayana.

Keywords: avifauna diversity, distribution, Bara Gali, Abbottabad

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Authors: Saif Ullah

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Survey of avian fauna of Bara Gali Summer Campus, University of Peshawar in the Hazara District was conducted from April to October, 2013. A total of 21 species belonging to 5 orders and 15 families were recorded. Out of these 6 were resident, 12 were summer visitor and 3 were rare. Order Passeriformes was represented by 16 species which are Certhia himalayana, Megalaima virens, Phylloscopus trochiloides, Garrulax lineatus, Passer rutilans, Corvus macrorhynchos, Hypsipetes leucocephalus, Acridotheres tristis, Delichon dasypus cashmeriensis, Hirundo rustica, Muscicapa thalassina, Saxicola ferrea, Myiophoneus caeruleus, Parus melonolophus, Parus rufonuchalis, Parus monticolus, belonging to 11 families. Two species Dendrocopos himalayansis and Picus squamatus belongs to only 1 family of order Piciformes. Only one species from the remaining 3 orders were recorded i.e. Accipiter virgatus belongs to order Accipitriformes, Upupa epops from order Coraciformes, while order Psittaciformes represented by Psittacula himalayana .The distribution and abundance varied with season and maximum number of species was found during the monsoon season when most of the birds migrate for breeding. Some habits and behaviors like nesting, feeding, breeding and vocalizations were also studied which are very unique from other birds. Among bird species adapted to diverse habitat in the field, Himalayan Jungle Crow, Common Mynas, Bulbuls, Barn Swallows, barbets were prominent. Interesting feature of the avian fauna is familiarity with flora was greatly observed. Human related impacts such as grazing by livestock, removal of shrub cover, disturbance of habitat etc. were also studied.

Keywords: birds, summer visitor, Phylloscopus trochiloides, Parus monticolus

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Authors: A. Bara, D. Barkat

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The liquid-liquid extraction of copper (II) from aqueous solution by capric acid (HL) in chloroform at 25°C has been studied. The ionic strength effect of the aqueous phase shows that the extraction of copper(II) increases with the increase in ionic strength. with different ionic strengths 1, 0.5, 0.25, 0.125 and 0.1M in the aqueous phase. Cu (II) is extracted as the complex CuL2(ClO4).

Keywords: liquid-liquid extraction, ionic strength, copper (II), capric acid

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Authors: A. Bara, D. Barkat

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Liquid-liquid extraction is one of the most useful techniques for selective removal and recovery of metal ions from aqueous solutions, applied in purification processes in numerous chemical and metallurgical industries. In this work, The liquid-liquid extraction of cobalt (II) and copper (II) from aqueous solution by capric acid (HL) in chloroform at 25°C has been studied. Our interest in this paper is to study the effect of concentration of capric acid on the extraction of Co(II) and Cu(II) to see the complexes could be formed in the organic phase using various concentration of capric acid. The extraction of cobalt (II) and copper (II) is extracted as the complex CoL2 (HL )2, CuL2 (HL)2.

Keywords: capric acid, Cobalt(II), copper(II), liquid-liquid extraction

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Authors: Yakubu Bitrus Gali

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Bura refers both to the kingdom, the people as well as to the language. It is a language spoken in North-Eastern Nigeria. It is also classified under the Chadic group of languages, subgroup of the Afro-Asiatic phylum. Three morphological processes were found to be operating in Bura language viz: affixation, reduplication and modification. Affixation could be prefixation, infixation and suffixation, while reduplication and modification are divided into complete and partial. Verbs as well, can be formed through various processes like affixation, reduplication and modification. The aim of this paper is to examine the morphological processes that are found in Bura language. In this study, research informants were selected by means of sampling technique. The study helps us to understand that Bura like other languages morphological processes of verbs is possible.

Keywords: Bura language, infixation, morphological processes, prefixation, suffixation

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Authors: Djemai Bara, Mohamed Faouzi Mahboub, Djamila Bennaceur-Doumaz

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In this work, the role of the preformed plasma created on the front face of a target, irradiated by a high intensity short pulse laser, in the framework of ion acceleration process, modeled by Target Normal Sheath Acceleration (TNSA) mechanism, is studied. This plasma is composed of cold ions governed by fluid equations and non-thermal & trapped with densities represented by a "Cairns-Gurevich" equation. The self-similar solution of the equations shows that electronic trapping and the presence of non-thermal electrons in the pre-plasma are both responsible in ion acceleration as long as the proportion of energetic electrons is not too high. In the case where the majority of electrons are energetic, the electrons are accelerated directly by the ponderomotive force of the laser without the intermediate of an accelerating plasma wave.

Keywords: Cairns-Gurevich Equation, ion acceleration, plasma expansion, pre-plasma

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Authors: Mohd Noah A. Rahman, Afzaal H. Seyal, Norhafilah Bara

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Developing a software application using an interface with computers and peripheral devices using gestures of human body such as hand movements keeps growing in interest. A review on this hand gesture detection and recognition based on computer vision technique remains a very challenging task. This is to provide more natural, innovative and sophisticated way of non-verbal communication, such as sign language, in human computer interaction. Nevertheless, this paper explores hand detection and hand gesture recognition applying a vision based approach. The hand detection and recognition used skin color spaces such as HSV and YCrCb are applied. However, there are limitations that are needed to be considered. Almost all of skin color space models are sensitive to quickly changing or mixed lighting circumstances. There are certain restrictions in order for the hand recognition to give better results such as the distance of user’s hand to the webcam and the posture and size of the hand.

Keywords: hand detection, hand gesture, hand recognition, sign language

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Authors: Khunsa Fatima, Umar K. Khattak, Allah Bakhsh Kausar

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Satellite images interpretation and analysis assist geologists by providing valuable information about geology and minerals of an area to be surveyed. A test site in Fatejang of district Attock has been studied using Landsat ETM+ and ASTER satellite images for lithological mapping. Five different supervised image classification techniques namely maximum likelihood, parallelepiped, minimum distance to mean, mahalanobis distance and spectral angle mapper have been performed on both satellite data images to find out the suitable classification technique for lithological mapping in the study area. Results of these five image classification techniques were compared with the geological map produced by Geological Survey of Pakistan. The result of maximum likelihood classification technique applied on ASTER satellite image has the highest correlation of 0.66 with the geological map. Field observations and XRD spectra of field samples also verified the results. A lithological map was then prepared based on the maximum likelihood classification of ASTER satellite image.

Keywords: ASTER, Landsat-ETM+, satellite, image classification

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Authors: Bara M. Yousef

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Kingdome of Saudi Arabia (KSA). High numbers of traffic accidents with sever, moderate and mild level of impairments admits to Sultan bin Abdulaziz humanitarian city. Over a period of 4 months the city received 111 male and 79 female subjects with CP, who received 4-6 weeks of rehabilitation and using WeeFIM score to measure rehabilitation outcomes. WeeFIM measures and covers various domains, such as: self-care, mobility, locomotion, communication and other psycho-social aspects. Our findings shed the light on the fact that nearly 85% of people at admission got better after rehabilitation program services at individual sever moderate and mild and has arrange of (59 out of 128 WeeFIM score) and by the time of discharge they leave the city with better FIM score close to (72 out of 128 WeeFIM score) for the entire study sample. WeeFIM score is providing fair evidence to rehabilitation specialists to assess their outcomes. However there is a need to implement other instruments and compare it to WeeFIM in order to reach better outcomes at discharge level.

Keywords: Cerepral Palsy (CP), pediatric Functional Independent Measure (WeeFIM), rehabilitation, disability

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Authors: Turk Ayman, Ahn Jong Hoon, Khalife K. Hala, Gali-Muhtasib Hala, Lee Mi Kyeong

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Laurus nobilis is an aromatic plant widely distributed in the Mediterranean region. The leaves of this plant are frequently used as a spice and as a traditional medicine for several diseases. In our present study, the methanolic extract of L. nobilis leaves showed antioxidant activity. Chromatographic separations of the EtOAc fraction which had the highest antioxidant activity led to the isolation of 12 compounds. Among them, there was a new phenylpropanoid derivative, which was identified by 1D and 2D NMR experiments, as well as high resolution mass spectrometry. In addition, two major compounds, catechin and epicatechin, which showed strong antioxidant activity may be responsible for the antioxidant activity of L. nobilis leaves. Since different plant parts may contain different types of constituents which contribute to the biological activities, we investigated the antioxidant activity of different parts of L. nobilis such as leaves, stems and fruits. Stems of L. nobilis showed the most potent antioxidant activity, followed by leaves. Further quantitation of total phenol and flavonoids contents revealed a positive correlation between the content of these compounds and antioxidant activity. Taken together, phenolic compounds including flavonoids are responsible for antioxidant activity of L. nobilis. In addition, stem parts of L. nobilis are suggested as good sources for antioxidant activity. Conclusively, L. nobilis might be effective in several free radical mediated diseases.

Keywords: antioxidant activity, different parts, Laurus nobilis, phenolic compound

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Authors: Lakshmana Ravi Raj Gali, K. Sridhar Reddy, M. Amaranatha Reddy

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Load transfer between adjacent slabs of the jointed plain concrete pavement (JPCP) system is inevitable for long-lasting performance. Dowel bars are generally used to ensure sufficient degree of load transfer, in addition to the load transferred by aggregate interlock mechanism at the joints. Joint efficiency is the measure of joint quality, a major concern and therefore the dowel bar system should be designed and constructed well. The interaction between dowel bars and concrete that includes various parameters of dowel bar and concrete will explain the degree of joint efficiency. The present study focuses on the methodology of selecting contact stiffness, which quantifies dowel-concrete interaction. In addition, a parametric study which focuses on the effect of dowel diameter, dowel shape, the spacing between dowel bars, joint opening, the thickness of the slab, the elastic modulus of concrete, and concrete cover on contact stiffness was also performed. The results indicated that the thickness of the slab is most critical among various parameters to explain the joint efficiency. Further displacement equivalency method was proposed to find out the contact stiffness. The proposed methodology was validated with the available field surface deflection data collected by falling weight deflectometer (FWD).

Keywords: contact stiffness, displacement equivalency method, Dowel-concrete interaction, joint behavior, 3D numerical simulation

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Authors: Gali Moritz, Jacqueline H. Becker, Jyoti V. Ankam, Kimberly Arcoleo, Matthew Wysocki, Roee Holtzer, Juan Wisnivesky, Paula J. Busse, Alex D. Federman, Sunit P. Jariwala, Jonathan M. Feldman

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Objective: Cognitive impairment (CI), whose incidence is greater among ethnic/racial minorities, is a significant barrier to asthma self-management (SM) behaviors and outcomes in older adults. The aim of this study was to examine the relationships between CI, assessed using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), and asthma SM behaviors and outcomes in a sample of predominantly Black and Hispanic participants. Additionally, we evaluated whether using two different MoCA cutoff scores influenced the association between CI and study outcomes. Methods: Baseline cross-sectional data were extracted from a longitudinal study of older adults with asthma (N=165) age≥ 60 years and used for analysis. Cognition was assessed using the MoCA. Asthma control, asthma-related quality of life (QOL), inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) dosing, and ICS adherence were assessed using self-report. The inhaler technique was observed and rated. Results: Using established MoCA cutoff scores of 23 and 26 yielded 45% and 74% CI rates, respectively. CI, defined using the 23 cutoff score, was significantly associated with worse asthma control (p=.04) and worse ICS adherence (p=.01). With a cutoff score of 26, only asthma-related QOL was significantly associated with CI (p=.03). Race/ethnicity and education did not moderate the relationships between CI and asthma SM behaviors and outcomes. Conclusions: CI in older adults with asthma is associated with important clinical outcomes, but this relationship is influenced by the cutoff score used to define CI.

Keywords: cognition, respiratory, elderly, testing, adherence, validity

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Authors: Bara Yousef

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The development of independency and functional participation is an important therapeutic goal for many children with cerebral palsy,They was many therapeutic approach have been used for treatment those children like neurodevelopment treatment, balance training strengthening and stretching exercise. More recently, therapy for children with cerebral palsy has focused on achieving functional goals using task-oriented interventions and summer camping model, which focus on activities that relevant and meaningful to the child, to learn more efficient and effective motor skills. We explore the effectiveness of using functional rehabilitation comparing with regular rehabilitation among 40 Saudi children with cerebral palsy in pediatric unit at Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz Humanitarian City-Ksa ,where 20 children randomly assign in control group who received rehabilitation based on regular therapy approach and other 20 children assign on experiment group who received rehabilitation based on functional therapy approach with an average of 45min OT treatment and 45 min PT treatment- daily within a period of 6 week. Our finding reported that children in experiment group has improved in gross motor function with an average from 49.4 to 57.6 based on GMFM 66 as primary outcome measure and improved in WeeFIM with an average from 52 to 62 while children in control group has improved with an average from 48.4 to 53.7 in GMFM and from 53 to and 58 in WeeFIM. Consequently, there has been growing interest in determining the effects of functional training programs as promising approach for these children.

Keywords: Cerebral Palsy (CP), gross motor function measure (GMFM66), pediatric Functional Independent Measure (WeeFIM), rehabilitation, disability

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Authors: Nuhu Mohammed Gali, Kenichi Matsui

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Climate change poses a significant threat to agriculture and food security in Africa. The UNFCC recognized the need to address climate change adaptation in the broader context of sustainable development. African countries have initiated a governance system for adapting and responding to climate change in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). Despite the implementation limitations, Africa’s adaptation initiatives highlight the need to strengthen and expand adaptation responses. This paper looks at the extent to which South-South cooperation facilitates the implementation of adaptation actions between nations for agriculture and sustainable development. We conducted a literature review and content analysis of reports prepared by international organizations, reflecting the diversity of adaptation activities taking place in Sub-Saharan Africa. Our analysis of the connection between adaptation and nationally determined contributions (NDCs) showed that climate actions are mainstreamed into sustainable development. The NDCs in many countries on climate change adaptation action for agriculture aimed to strengthen the resilience of the poor. We found that climate-smart agriculture is the core of many countries target to end hunger. We revealed that South-South Cooperation, in terms of capacity, technology, and financial support, can help countries to achieve their climate action priorities and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We found that inadequate policy and regulatory frameworks between countries, differences in development priorities and strategies, poor communication, inadequate coordination, and the lack of local engagement and advocacy are some key barriers to South-South Cooperation in Africa. We recommend a multi-dimensional partnership, provisionoffinancialresources, systemic approach for coordination and engagement to promote and achieve the potential of SSC in Africa.

Keywords: climate change, adaptation, food security, sustainable development goals

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Authors: Bara' Al-Mistarehi

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Documentation and assessment of conservation state of an archaeological structure is a significant procedure in any management plan. However, it has always been a challenge to apply this with a low coast and safe methodology. It is also a time-demanding procedure. Therefore, a low cost, efficient methodology for documenting the state of a structure is needed. In the scope of this research, this paper will employ digital photogrammetry and laser scanner to one of highly significant structures in Germany, The Old Castle (German: Altes Schloss). The site is well known for its unique features. However, the castle suffers from serious deterioration threats because of the environmental conditions and the absence of continuous monitoring, maintenance and repair plans. Digital photogrammetry is a generally accepted technique for the collection of 3D representations of the environment. For this reason, this image-based technique has been extensively used to produce high quality 3D models of heritage sites and historical buildings for documentation and presentation purposes. Additionally, terrestrial laser scanners are used, which directly measure 3D surface coordinates based on the run-time of reflected light pulses. These systems feature high data acquisition rates, good accuracy and high spatial data density. Despite the potential of each single approach, in this research work maximum benefit is to be expected by a combination of data from both digital cameras and terrestrial laser scanners. Within the paper, the usage, application and advantages of the technique will be investigated in terms of building high realistic 3D textured model for some parts of the old castle. The model will be used as diagnosing tool of the conservation state of the castle and monitoring mean for future changes.

Keywords: Digital photogrammetry, Terrestrial laser scanners, 3D textured model, archaeological structure

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Authors: Bara M Yousef, Naresh B Raj, Nadiah W Arfah, Brightlin N Dhas

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Background: Executive function (EF) impairment is common in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). EF strategies are considered effective in improving the therapeutic outcomes of children with ASD. Aims: This study primarily aims to explore whether integrating EF strategies combined with regular occupational therapy intervention is more effective in improving daily life skills (DLS) and sensory integration/processing (SI/SP) skills than regular occupational therapy alone in children with ASD and secondarily aims to assess treatment outcomes on improving visual motor integration (VMI) skills. Procedures: A total of 92 children with ASD will be recruited and, following baseline assessments, randomly assigned to the treatment group (45-min once weekly individual occupational therapy plus EF strategies) and control group (45-min once weekly individual therapy sessions alone). Results and Outcomes: All children will be evaluated systematically by assessing SI/SP, DLS, and VMI, skills at baseline, 7 weeks, and 14 weeks of treatment. Data will be analyzed using ANCOVA and T-test. Conclusions and Implications: This single-blind, randomized controlled trial will provide empirical evidence for the effectiveness of EF strategies when combined with regular occupational therapy programs. Based on trial results, EF strategies could be recommended in multidisciplinary programs for children with ASD. Trial Registration: The trial has been registered in the clinicaltrail.gov for a registry, protocol ID: MRC-01-22-509 ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT05829577, registered 25th April 2023

Keywords: autism spectrum disorder, executive function strategies, daily life skills, sensory integration/processing, visual motor integration, occupational therapy, effectiveness

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Authors: Gali Pesin, Yuliya Lipshits-Braziler, Sima Amram-Vaknin, Moshe Tatar

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The present study introduces four different patterns of seeking and providing help online among adolescents: (I) ‘Transceivers’ - adolescents who both seek as well as provide help online; (II) ‘Receivers’ - adolescents who seek help online, yet don’t provide it; (III) ‘Transmitters’ - adolescents who provide help online, yet don’t seek it; and (IV) ‘Idles’ - adolescents who refrain from seeking and providing help online. The study examined differences in seeking and providing help online between possible combinations of the four patterns, as well as gender differences within each pattern. Data was collected from 528 adolescents in Israel (59% were girls). Findings revealed that Transceivers are the largest group (45%) in this study, with higher representation of girls (65%). These adolescents seek help mainly around social difficulties, and they turn to peers who are both known and unknown to them. In addition, their preferred way to seek and provide help is through social network sites. Moreover, they often accept and give others emotional support. Receivers are the smallest group (5%) in this study. They turn to both known and unknown professionals more often than to friends and family. In addition, they seek help mostly around health and nutrition issues, and they usually receive instrumental support. For Receivers, the most important factor for seeking help online is anonymity, and the least important factor is familiarity with the help giver. Transmitters represent 16% of the adolescents in this study, with a greater representation of boys (52%). Their main reason to refrain from seeking help online is self-reliance. Nevertheless, these adolescents provide help to others online, mainly to those known to them through posting or responding to posts on social network sites. Idles represent 34% of the adolescents in this study. They refrain from seeking help online mainly due to their preference to seek help face to face, and due to their lack of trust in the internet or those using it. Idles and Transmitters are willing to seek help online mostly from friends and family. In addition, they are willing seek help online mainly regarding questions concerning military or civil service. They consider the most important facilitators for seeking help online as confidentiality and reliability. The present study’s main contribution is exploring the role of providing online help in understanding the adolescent behavior of seeking help online. In addition, the results of the present study have practical implications for the work of mental health providers, such as counseling psychologists and online mental health support.

Keywords: adolescents, counseling, online help-seeking, online help-providing

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Authors: S. K. Gali

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Spentwash, An effluent of distillery is an environmental pollutant because of its high load of pollutants (pH: 2-4; BOD>40,000 mg/l, COD>100,000mg/l and TDS >70,000mg/l). But However, after subjecting it to primary treatment (bio-methanation), Its pollutant load gets drastically reduced (pH: 7.5-8.5, BOD<10,000 mg/l) and could be disposed off safely as a source of organic matter and plant nutrients for crop production. With the consent of State Pollution Control Board, the distilleries in Karnataka are taking up ‘one time controlled land application’ of bio-methanated spentwash in farmers’ fields. A monitoring study was undertaken in Belgaum district of Karnataka State with an objective of studying the effect of land application of bio-methanated spent wash of a distillery on soil properties and crop growth. The treated spentwash was applied uniformly to the fallow dry lands in different farmers’ fields during summer, 2012 at recommended rate (based on nitrogen requirement of crops). The application was made at least a fortnight before sowing/planting operations. The analysis of soils collected before land application of spentwash and after harvest of crops revealed that there was no adverse effect of applied spentwash on soil characteristics. A slight build up in soluble salts was observed but, however all the soils recorded EC of less than 2.0 dSm-1. An increase in soil organic carbon (SOC) and available nitrogen (N) by about 10 to 30 % was observed in the spentwash applied soils. The presence of good amount of biodegradable organics in the treated spentwash (BOD of 6550 mg/l) contributed for increase in SOC and N. A substantial build up in available potassium (K) status (50 to 200%) was observed due to spentwash application. This was attributed to the high K content in spentwash (6950 mg/l). The growth of crops in the spentwash applied fields was higher and farmers could get nearly 10 to 20 per cent higher yields, especially in sugarcane and corn. The analysis of ground water samples showed that the quality of water was not affected due to land application of treated spentwash. Apart from realizing higher crop yields, the farmers were able to save money on N and K fertilisers as the applied spentwash met the crop requirement. Hence, it could be concluded that the bio-methanated distillery spentwash can be gainfully utilized in crop production without polluting the environment.

Keywords: bio-methanation, pollutant, potassium status, soil organic carbon

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Authors: Ala’a F. Jaber, Bara’ah A. Bsharat, Noor T. Ismael

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Background: Sensory processing is a fundamental skill needed for the successful performance of daily living activities. These skills are impaired as parts of the neurodevelopmental process issues among children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This systematic review aimed to summarize the evidence on the differences in sensory processing and motor characteristic between children with ASD and children with TD. Method: This systematic review followed the guidelines of the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis. The search terms included sensory, motor, condition, and child-related terms or phrases. The electronic search utilized Academic Search Ultimate, CINAHL Plus with Full Text, ERIC, MEDLINE, MEDLINE Complete, Psychology, and Behavioral Sciences Collection, and SocINDEX with full-text databases. The hand search included looking for potential studies in the references of related studies. The inclusion criteria included studies published in English between years 2009-2020 that included children aged 3-18 years with a confirmed ASD diagnosis, according to the DSM-V criteria, included a control group of typical children, included outcome measures related to the sensory processing and/or motor functions, and studies available in full-text. The review of included studies followed the Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine guidelines, and the Guidelines for Critical Review Form of Quantitative Studies, and the guidelines for conducting systematic reviews by the American Occupational Therapy Association. Results: Eighty-eight full-text studies related to the differences between children with ASD and children with TD in terms of sensory processing and motor characteristics were reviewed, of which eighteen articles were included in the quantitative synthesis. The results reveal that children with ASD had more extreme sensory processing patterns than children with TD, like hyper-responsiveness and hypo-responsiveness to sensory stimuli. Also, children with ASD had limited gross and fine motor abilities and lower strength, endurance, balance, eye-hand coordination, movement velocity, cadence, dexterity with a higher rate of gait abnormalities than children with TD. Conclusion: This systematic review provided preliminary evidence suggesting that motor functioning should be addressed in the evaluation and intervention for children with ASD, and sensory processing should be supported among children with TD. More future research should investigate whether how the performance and engagement in daily life activities are affected by sensory processing and motor skills.

Keywords: sensory processing, occupational therapy, children, motor skills

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Authors: Asmit Neupane, Narayan Prasad Gautam, Prabin Bhusal

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Indian pangolin, locally called as ‘Salak’, ‘Sal machha’, ‘Pakho machha’, is a globally endangered species, nationally categorized as a critically endangered species, protected under the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (NPWC) Act 1973 and appended in Appendix I of CITES. Indian pangolins occur in the tropical areas of Terai region and Chure foothills of eastern Nepal, and India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. They utilize a wide range of habitats, including primary and secondary tropical forest, limestone forest, bamboo forest, grassland, and agricultural lands. So, in regard to this fact, this research is aimed to provide detailed information regarding the current distribution pattern, status, habitat preference, prevailing threats and attitude of local people towards species conservation in Madhesh Province, Nepal. The study was conducted in four CFs, two from Bara district and two from Dhanusha district. The study area comprised of Churia range and foothills with tropical and sub-tropical vegetation. A total of 24 transects were established, each of 500*50 m2, where indirect signs of Indian pangolin, including active/old burrows, pugmarks and scratches, were found. Altogether 93 burrows were found, where only 20 were active burrows. Similarly, a vegetation survey and social survey was also conducted. The data was analyzed using Stata 16 and SPSS software. Distance from settlement, ground cover, aspect, presence/absence of ants/termites and human disturbance were the important habitat parameters having statistically significant relationship with the distribution of Indian pangolin in the area. The species was found to prefer an elevation of 360 to 540m, 0-15º slope, red soil, North-east aspect, moderate crown and ground cover, without fire and rocks, vicinity of water, roads, settlement, Sal dominated forest and minimum disturbed by human activities. Similarly, the attitude of local people towards Indian pangolin conservation was found to be significantly different with respect to age, sex and education level. The study concludes that majority of active burrows were found in Churia hills, which indicates that Indian pangolin population is gradually moving uphill towards higher elevation as hilly area supports better prey availability and also less human disturbance. Further studies are required to investigate microhabitat preferences, seasonal variability and impacts of climate change on the distribution, habitat and prey availability of Indian pangolin for the sustainable conservation of this species.

Keywords: conservation, IUCN red list, local participation, small mammal, status, threats

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