We Don’t Need Another Hero

Ethnographic work occupies an uneasy spectrum of experiences, and in this timely discussion where ethnographic challenges are being given their rightful place – my arguments join the discussion by urging a slowing down, a stopping and taking stock about what counts as good work in our current professional environment. I attempt a reflection on immersed anthropologists, and in some ways, on those amongst whom we immerse. The base queries that animate these reflections are – who, what, where and how will ‘good’ anthropological work be decided. The curious fascination with heroic, ideologically driven, ‘difficult’ ethnography is a point of departure here. Once again, they lead to questions about the allocations of labor and power in ethnographic work and in disciplinary knowledge production practices

Effect of cyclophosphamide on the microanatomy of liver of albino rats

Background: Cyclophosphamide is widely used in the treatment of various neoplastic diseases and diseases associated with altered immunity. Higher doses used for longer duration effects many organs like urinary bladder, lungs, liver, heart and male reproductive organs.Methods: To study the effect of cyclophosphamide on the micro anatomy of liver, sixty eight Albino rats were taken and divided into three groups, group A (control group) of 20 animals, were fed with routine diet, group B (low dose group) of 24 animals, were given cyclophosphamide at the dose of 0.5 mg/100 gms in addition to the routine diet and group C (high dose group) of 24 animals, were given high dose of cyclophosphamide at the dose of 0.7 mg/100 gms of weight of animal in addition to the routine diet. The animals were sacrificed at intervals of 3, 6, 9 and 12 weeks, 5 microns sections of the tissue were prepared and stained with Haematoxylin and Eosin stain.Results: Microscopic changes in liver were apparent in the drug treated animals. In group B the changes appeared after 6 weeks while in group C they started appearing after 3 weeks of drug treatment. The changes were in the form of fatty changes, hemorrhages and central vein congestion.Conclusion: Cyclophosphamide induces histological changes like fatty infiltration and central vein congestion in the liver. These changes are with low doses given for longer durations and manifest earlier when larger doses are used. Thus it is advised that patients receiving cyclophosphamide should be periodically evaluated for liver dysfunction.

Role of fertilization regime on soil carbon sequestration and crop yield in a maize-cowpea intercropping system on low fertility soils

Achieving food security through intensive agricultural practices on low fertility soils is challenging as crop productivity is increasingly curtailed by the loss of soil structural stability and rapid depletion of soil organic carbon (SOC). As such, the conversion from traditional mono-cropping to legume-cereal intercropping, especially with integrated fertilization, may increase crop yields with the least ecological footprint. We set up a 2-year field experiment in a split-plot design with cowpea-maize monoculture and intercropping under different organic-inorganic fertilization regimes, including no fertilization (control), organic input only (compost), chemical input only (NPK), and multi-nutrient enriched compost (NPKEC). We observed that intercropped maize had a significantly higher biomass yield compared to the corresponding monoculture when fertilized with NPKEC fertilizer. However, cowpea biomass yield differences between monoculture and intercropped plots were comparable under all fertilization regimes. In contrast, the grain yield advantage of both maize and cowpea was significantly enhanced under the intercropping system compared to monoculture, with NPKEC showing the most significant effect among all fertilization regimes. When comparing the relative contribution of the fertilization regime to SOC, the NPKEC fertilizer provided the highest SOC-sequestration (0.30 Mg C/ha yr−1). At the same time, the effect of the cropping system on C-sequestration showed that intercropping provided the highest C-sequestration (0.17 Mg C/ha yr−1) compared to monocultures of both crops. Although compost application significantly increased mineral associated (MAOC) and particulate associated organic carbon (PAOC) concentrations compared to unfertilized control plots, NPKEC fertilization with intercropping system was the most effective combination causing the greatest increase of both soil C pools over time. Based on redundancy analysis (RDA), the positive association of MAOC and PAOC with C-sequestration suggests the importance of both organic fractions as primary C reservoirs conducting SOC storage. Importantly, although compost alone in association with intercropping had a lower C-sequestration, it was associated to a better soil structure as confirmed by its positive relationship with macro-and micro-aggregation, water stable aggregates (WSA), and mean weight diameter (MDA). Overall, our results indicate the importance of restoring soil structure in degraded soils through appropriate land management solutions, such as stoichiometrically balanced fertilization practices (NPKEC) and crop diversification (intercropping), in order to achieve significant gains in SOC storage and, ultimately, improve crop productivity

S‐Fertilizer (Elemental Sulfur) Improves the Phytoextraction of Cadmium through Solanum nigrum L.

Soil contamination with toxic heavy metals [such as cadmium (Cd)] is becoming a serious global problem due to the rapid development of the social economy. This study was carried out to assess the beneficial role of two different kinds of (S)‐fertilizer in the phytoremediation of Cd contaminated soil through Solanum nigrum L. Gypsum (Gyp) and Elemental sulfur (ES) was applied alone and in combination with different ratios (0, 100:0, 0:100, 50:50 mg kg−1) accompanied by different Cd levels (0, 25, 50 mg kg−1). After seventy days of sowing, plants were harvested for determination of growth, physiological characteristics, oxidants and antioxidants, along with Cd uptake from different parts of the plant. Cd toxicity significantly inhibited growth, physiology and plant defence systems, and also increased Cd uptake in the roots and shoots of Solanum nigrum L. The application of Gyp 100 mg kg−1 boosted plant growth and physiology along with oxidants and antioxidants activity as compared to ES 100 mg kg−1 alone, and combine application of GYP+ES 50 + 50 mg kg−1. The application of ES 100 mg kg−1 showed an effective approach to decreasing Cd uptake as compared to Gyp 100 mg kg−1. Overall results showed that the combined application of GYP+ES 50 + 50 mg kg−1 significantly enhanced the phytoremediation potential of S. nigrum in Cd contaminated soil. Thus, it is highly recommended to apply the combined application of GYP+ES for phytoremediation of Cd contaminated soil

The reluctant native: Or, decolonial ontologies and epistemic disobedience

Anthropologists, in regular intervals, tend to ask a cardinal question: How do we know what we know? Storms about ethnography and theory, epistemology and representation rage, and in their wake the debris of epistemic inequities, philosophical villainy, and more, scatter. What do these issues imply for those practicing the discipline outside the power centers where these issues circulate? In this essay, arguments built from the ground up will map the political economy of issues such as: what lies beneath the epistemological positions we occupy (funding, institutional structures, publishing); what are the pragmatics of the knowledge we produce or are obliged to produce (local, “area/region” knowledge); and, what slots do we occupy now (“native,” postcolonial anthropologists)? From that map, I articulate what ethnographic and epistemological potential or constraint is created by those ontologies. This leads me to transpose the cardinal anthropological question to: What can we know from where we are

‘Making the Mosque a Social Hub’? Mosque Outreach and Ethical Aspiration Amid British Austerity

This paper explores an emerging trend among British mosques towards community outreach. Based on participant observation and interviews, it argues that the growing interest in outreach stems from a particular understanding of how to live a ‘good life’ as a British Muslim: to care for others and to make the mosque a place that welcomes non-Muslims. I suggest that the increasing interest in community outreach is not simply a defensive response to anti-Muslim prejudice, but inspired by a rich con-ceptualisation of an Islamic genealogy of hospitality and virtue and motivated by growing need. However, Muslim voluntarism may reinforce the ideological distinction between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ Muslims, contributing to  the discursive construction of British Muslim citizenship as conditional. Moreover, while acts of outreach and charity help to mitigate increasing poverty and destitution in the UK, these individualistic, small-scale responses to inequality may actually depoliticise the nature of poverty and structural injustice

“Girls should be ready for anything”: time, learning and aspiration among hostel girls in Lahore

This thesis explores the lives of a group of young, middle-class women living in a privately-run girls’ hostel in Lahore. The key question that this thesis seeks to address is the meaning of this stage in the lives of young women. A temporary period of accommodation in an urban hostel while studying is increasingly conceptualised as part of the life course for middle-class young women, bracketed by childhood in the natal household and married, virilocal adulthood. What does it mean to move to the city alone as a young Pakistani woman, and how do these women understand the experience of being a ‘hostellite’? Based on nearly nine months of close-range participant observation, I tell the stories of some of the women who lived alongside me in the hostel. I describe how the journeys they make from rural areas to the city become conceptualised as journeys from asynchronous cultural ‘backwardness’ to a distinctively gendered and classed modernity, embodied in bodily techniques, cultural competencies and practices of consumption. Against global narratives celebrating the liberatory potential of education and work for supposedly constrained and oppressed Muslim women in the Global South, my thesis shows the pressure placed upon these subjects in the process of becoming groomed, as they experience hardship, humiliation and loneliness and learn to cultivate endurance (bardasht) and patience (sabr) as key attributes of hostellite life. In this thesis I reflect critically upon the ethical and methodological decisions that have influenced my research practice, particularly in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. I seek to show how these issues have influenced my research and writing, and how questions of absence, incompleteness and ethical refusal have shaped my thesis

International pre-primary maths teaching guide: Year 1 workbooks A and B

This new series for pupils of pre-primary classes (Pre-nursery, Nursery and KG) comprises 6 workbooks that carry all the concepts necessary to develop skills associated with numbers for this level. The colourfully illustrated workbooks teach number counting and writing, patterns, sequencing, one more, one less, shapes, money, and fractions besides many other concepts to prepare pupils for the primary level mathematics. Each level of 2 workbooks is accompanied by a guide with lesson plans and additional activities. Each workbook has an interactive CD for further practice.https://ecommons.aku.edu/books/1084/thumbnail.jp

International pre-primary maths teaching guide: Year 2 workbooks A and B

This new series for pupils of pre-primary classes (Pre-nursery, Nursery and KG) comprises 6 workbooks that carry all the concepts necessary to develop skills associated with numbers for this level. The colourfully illustrated workbooks teach number counting and writing, patterns, sequencing, one more, one less, shapes, money, and fractions besides many other concepts to prepare pupils for the primary level mathematics. Each level of 2 workbooks is accompanied by a guide with lesson plans and additional activities. Each workbook has an interactive CD for further practice.https://ecommons.aku.edu/books/1085/thumbnail.jp