Interview with Professor Om Gurung

Professor Om Gurung is a senior anthropologist, an influencing intellectual, and a prominent public leader in Nepal. He served Tribhuvan University as a professor of anthropology for 36 years and headed the Central Department of Sociology/Anthropology for 13 years. Professor Gurung did his M. A. in History from Tribhuvan University in 1975, M. A. in anthropology from the University of Poona in 1980, and Ph. D. in Anthropology from Cornell University of Ithaca, New York in 1996. He is one of the founding members of the Central Department of Sociology/Anthropology at Tribhuvan University of Nepal. He has served as a visiting professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Liverpool John Moores University in the UK, Lille University in France, and the University of Sichuan in China. He is a visiting research fellow at the University of Bergen, Norway, and a guest lecturer at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, Oxford University, UK, China Institute of New School University, New York, the University of Mons, Belgium, the University of Heidelberg, Germany and Chinese University in Hong Kong. Professor Gurung was heavily engaged in various social, professional, and political organizations. He has made substantial scholarly and social contributions to the understanding of social and political issues of Nepal. As a promising intellectual leader of ethnic rights and politics of social inclusion in Nepal, he raised socio-political awareness among indigenous peoples of Nepal and mobilized them to assert their ethnic identity and cultural rights. He has a deep commitment to the development of anthropology and Nepali people.

Interview with Professor Chaitanya Mishra

Professor Chaitanya Mishra teaches Sociology to MPhil/PhD students at Tribhuvan University (TU), Nepal. His research focuses on macrosociology, politics, social change, and social stratification. He is an author/co-author, and co-editor of 10 books and about 250 articles. He believes that all sciences should contribute to public education, and frequently contributes to public debates through the media. He started his career in 1978 as a researcher at the Institute of Nepal and Asian Studies, TU. In 1981, he was appointed the founder Chair of the Central Department of Sociology/Anthropology, TU. He has written on the development of sociological knowledge in Nepal, its disciplinary growth, empirical and theoretical orientations, as well as strategies that could be adopted to meet contemporary disciplinary challenges. His contributions have led to theoretical debates on the issues of development or underdevelopment of Nepali society as well as the nature and causes of economic and political divisions and alternative trajectory of change. Professor Mishra served as a member of Nepal’s National Planning Commission (1994-95), founding president of Nepal Sociological Association (2017-18), Fulbright Visiting Professor and Hubert Humphrey Professor of Sociology at Macalester College (2015-16), and founding Executive Chair of the Policy Research Institute (2018-19) of the Government of Nepal.

Belief and transparency on assessment: Students’ and teachers’ reflections

Assessment is the key aspect to evaluate learning status of learner’s and academic status of the institution. Assessment practice should be transparent and believable for all. This study intends to assess students’ and teachers’ reflection on assessment based on belief and transparency of assessment. This research is descriptive survey type standing on post positivist paradigm. The major tools of the study are questionnaire and interview. Department of Mathematics Education, Central Department of Education was the study territory. The random sample was used to select the students of third and fourth semester studying on 2076 (2020). There were 12 teachers’ 91 students involved in questionnaire and three teachers and six students for interview. The data were analyzed using weighted mean. Further, data triangulation method was used to get the validity of the research.The findings indicated that there are positive reflections of students and teachers towards the assessment belief and transparency. Therefore, assessment will be more effective if it is planned in a reliable structure for valid results following the transparent criteria of assessment.

First Record of Sericomyrmex mayri for Paraguay and Increasing the Range of Distribution of 17 Ant Species in the Central Department

Ants have been studied in Paraguay, South America, over the last two centuries, nevertheless new species can still be discovered with simple sample surveys. Most species collected in the country belong to one or few locations, therefore knowledge about species distribution is limited. A total of 2,040 ants have been collected, belonging to 7 subfamilies and representing 44 species. All of these species, except Sericomyrmex mayri, were documented for Paraguay and 17 species were first documented in the Central Department. Those 17 species are: Camponotus sanctaefidei, Crematogaster acuta, C. arata, Cyphomyrmex laevigatus, C. lectus, C. minutus, Forelius pusillus, Linepithema neotropicum, L. pulex, Mycetomoellerius fiebrigi, Nylanderia docilis, Pheidole cyrtostela, Pogonomyrmex tenuipubens, Solenopsis megergates, S.richteri, Strumigenys hindenburgi, and Wasmannia lutzi. These species belong to 12 genera and 3 subfamilies. The new recorded species is described and illustrated with photographs of the collected specimens as well as a short description of taxonomy, ecology, and distribution. A list of the new species to the Central Department is also provided. The aim of this study is to increase the knowledge of ant species in Paraguay and their distribution.

Lean manufacturing technologies in the work of multifunctional centers as a tool for improving the quality of public services: the Lipetsk region experience

The work examines the experience of using lean technologies in the work of multifunctional centers in the Lipetsk region. The authors substantiated the need to use lean production in order to improve the quality of state and municipal services. Russia had now developed the necessary legal and regulatory framework, which provided the basis for improving public administration and guaranteeing the quality of services. The article summarizes the results of activities created to implement the policy of the state institutions, which were called multifunctional centers (MFCs) on the example of the Lipetsk region. Since 2019, a pilot project “Lean Region”, aimed at optimizing the internal processes of organizations by minimizing losses through the introduction of lean technologies, was launched in the Lipetsk Region,. In the framework of this event, the implementation of a project aimed at reducing queues, creating comfortable conditions for both applicant and staff to stay in the MFC was launched at the site of the Lipetsk Central Department of the UMFC Lipetsk Region. One of the difficult issues to solve the problem of improving the quality of service is the testing of methods for evaluating the services provided, receiving feedback and implementing measures to improve Various lean production tools, including mapping, have been proposed to improve the delivery of State and municipal services. The analysis of the process of providing state and municipal services in Multifunctional Centers revealed various problems of the MFC's work related to the gaps between online and offline interaction channels, the complexity and multiplicity of visits for different services; with obsolete MFC monitoring system; technical optimization of MFC service, etc., is required. To solve these problems, a set of measures aimed at introducing a knowledge management system, an MFC monitoring system and a technical optimization of the MFC service is proposed.

First contribution to the genus Gymnopilus (Agaricales, Strophariaceae) in Paraguay

Gymnopilus is characterized by its ferruginous-yellow basidiomata and lamellae, ferruginous spore print, ellipsoidal basidiospores with warty and rough ornamentation, and lacking a germinative pore. Here, novel data on the Gymnopilus species of Paraguay is presented, macro and microscopic morphological characteristics, distribution, and ecology are described, and a taxonomic discussion is provided. Gymnopilus imperialis is recorded in the Alto Paraná Department, G. lepidotus in the Central Department, G. luteofolius in the Cordillera Department, G. peliolepis in the Paraguarí Department, and G. purpureosquamulosus in the Central Department and Boquerón, all as new records for Paraguay. Photographs of the fresh basidiomata and some microscopic structures such as basidia and basidiospores are attached.

Experience of Teaching Anthropology: Interrogating the Semester System at Tribhuvan University, Nepal

This article deals with the teaching of medical anthropology and research methodology under the newly reintroduced semester system at Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal. It mainly consists of my experience of teaching anthropology under the semester-based education system in its Central Department of Anthropology for postgraduate anthropology students. In addition, it comprises of information acquired from students and colleagues from the Department and other colleges about the very subject. This paper does not provide any guideline for a better course of action for teaching anthropology. Instead, this paper emphasizes the imperativeness of the semester system that facilitates employing student-centred and interactive teaching and encourages elevating their potential through the effective teaching-learning mechanism. It portrays how the typical pedagogical approaches adopted under the semester system can contribute crucially to facilitate students to enhance their skills in critical reading and creative writing.

A Dalit Mainstreaming in Rural Development: An Alternative Approach for Combating Poverty

Rajan Binayek Pasa (Ph.D. in Education, 2019 and Ph.D. Scholar in Rural Development) is Assistant Professor at Central Department of Rural Development (CDRD), Tribhuvan University, University Campus Kirtipur Kathmandu. Besides, he has been serving as a coordinator of Self Study Report preparation committee of CDRD that is formed under Quality Accrediation Assurance project of University Grants Commission Nepal. Pasa’s publications within education and social sciences are more focused on transformative role of education, employability of technical education and vocational training, agriculture transformation, ecotourism and rural tourism development issues.

TOURIST RESOURCES FOR BUSINESS TOURISM IN SOFIA AND PLOVDIV

The article presents the resources for business tourism in Sofiya and Plovdiv. These events are described in the "Catalogue of fairs and exhibitions in Bulgaria". In Sofia, such events are held at the Inter Expo Center, the Central Department Store, the National Palace of Culture, the Universiade Hall and Sofia Tech Park, while in Plovdiv they are organized only at the International Fair. The article uses the terms exhibition day, when a fair or exhibition is held and calendar day when one or more exhibitions are held in the city. Intensity interval is the ratio between the exhibition days and the calendar days by rounding to the second decimal place and it can be explained as the number of exhibitions that residents (visitors, tourists) of (in) a city can visit in one day.