Delineating the Western Orders of Rights and Reason in Post‑Colonial Africa: An Appraisal of the Zimbabwean Variant Under and After Mugabe

Adherence to the fundamental tenets of Human Rights and advocacy of Democracy are the two traditionally entwined Western expressions of rights and reason that any state has to comply with to be treated as an egalitarian state. The degree of democratization in any state is to be gauged by its ability to give its citizens a fairly acceptable form of governance and a slew of natural rights and legal safeguards against human rights abuses, from which the idea of justice is to flow. Many of the African and Asian countries, that became sovereign states through the 1980s and 1990s and consequently came to be hailed as formal democracies, in reality, have only had a very perfunctory degree of democratization. In such circumstances, human rights, without the existence of a real democratic structure to uphold and sustain it, does not effectively translate into a charter of rights but would merely be retained as a set of flexible norms. It is in this context that the proposed paper intends to address the impact of globalization of the principles and values associated with the concepts of democracy and human rights in post-colonial African states. It also aspires to inquire into the need for an element of universality in the dialogues on human rights and democratization, so that they do not get reduced to mere synonyms for Westernization. Further, the reality and ambivalence surrounding the consolidation of democratic virtues along with the observance of human rights are best reflected in the exemplification of how the Sub-Saharan African country of Zimbabwe operated its “democracy”; both under its longest-serving President Robert Mugabe and post his unceremonious ouster following the coup d’etat on 14 November 2017. It would be interesting to study the political economy of transition in a country like Zimbabwe that, during and after its leading figure Mugabe, continues to pledge allegiance to a nationalist, post-colonial and populist anomaly of being principally antithetical to imperialism in all its forms while also being an anathema to the precepts of democracy, justice and human rights in practice

Modulating Thin Film Transistor Characteristics by Texturing the Gate Metal.

The development of reliable, high performance integrated circuits based on thin film transistors (TFTs) is of interest for the development of flexible electronic circuits. In this work we illustrate the modulation of TFT transconductance via the texturing of the gate metal created by the addition of a conductive pattern on top of a planar gate. Texturing results in the semiconductor-insulator interface acquiring a non-planar geometry with local variations in the radius of curvature. This influences various TFT parameters such as the subthreshold slope, gate voltage at the onset of conduction, contact resistance and gate capacitance. Specific studies are performed on textures based on periodic striations oriented along different directions. Textured TFTs showed upto ±40% variation in transconductance depending on the texture orientation as compared to conventional planar gate TFTs. Analytical models are developed and compared with experiments. Gain boosting in common source amplifiers based on textured TFTs as compared to conventional TFTs is demonstrated

Effectiveness of virtual lactation management upon knowledge and lactation practice among primi lactating mothers

An Experimental Study to Assess the Effectiveness of Virtual Lactation Management Upon Knowledge and Lactation Practice Among Primi Lactating Mothers at Selected Hospitals, Chennai OBJECTIVES: 1. To assess the level of knowledge on lactation before and after virtual lactation management among control and experimental group of primi lactating mothers. 2. To assess the lactation practice before and after virtual lactation management among control and experimental group of primi lactating mothers. 3. To determine the effectiveness of virtual lactation management upon lactation by comparing the level of knowledge and lactation practice before and after the virtual lactation management among control and experimental group of primi lactating mothers. 4. To determine the association between selected demographic variables and level of knowledge and lactation practice before and after virtual lactation management among control and experimental group of primi lactating mothers. 5. To determine the association between selected obstetrical variables and level of knowledge and lactation practice before and after virtual lactation management among control and experimental group of primi lactating mothers. 6. To determine the level of satisfaction regarding the virtual lactation management among the experimental group of primi lactating mothers. The conceptual framework for the study was developed based on the modified model of Wiedenbach’s helping art of clinical nursing theory. An experimental study of pre-test and post-test design was used. The study included 60 primi lactating mothers selected by simple random sampling. The present study was conducted at Andhra Mahila Sabha Hospital, Chennai. The variables of the study were virtual lactation management, knowledge and lactation practice. An extensive review of literature and guidance by experts laid to the foundation of development of demographic variable proforma, obstetric variable proforma, structured interview schedule, lactation practice observational checklist and rating scale on satisfaction of virtual lactation management. The data collection tools were validated and reliability was established. After two weeks of pilot study, then data collection for main study was conducted. The level of knowledge and lactation practice was assessed for control and experimental group of primi lactating mothers. The Virtual lactation management of seven minutes duration was provided for the experimental group. Then the level of knowledge and lactation practice was assessed again after 7 days for both the groups. The level of satisfaction on virtual lactation management among the experimental group of primi lactating mothers was assessed after one week from intervention. The data obtained was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. MAJOR FINDINGS: 1. Majority of primi lactating mothers were 18 -23years old (76.66, 83.33%), Hindus (83.33%, 96.66%), qualified upto secondary education (60%, 63.33%), from nuclear family (90.00%, 80.00%), residing in urban area (100%, 100%). Large percentage of them were unemployed (63.33%, 76.66%) in control group and experimental group respectively. 2. Majority of primi lactating mothers had regular antenatal checkups (100%, 100%), none of the mothers had practiced antenatal nipple exercises (100%, 100%) and most of them did not have any complications during labour (86.66%, 93.33%). Majority of them practiced breastfeeding (93.33%, 96.66%) and most of them practiced demand feeding (36.66%, 43.33%). About more than half of the babies had an effective latch (50%, 56.66%) and good sucking (56.66%, 63.33%) in control and experimental group respectively. 3. Majority of the primi lactating mothers had inadequate knowledge before intervention (80%, 93.33%) in the control and experimental group respectively and all of them had adequate knowledge (100%) in experimental group after intervention. 4. The mean knowledge level was slightly high in the post test (M=10.8, SD=2.119) when compared to pre test (M=10.7, SD=2.246) in the control group where as the mean level of knowledge was high in the post test (M=23.3, SD=0.97) when compared to pre test (M=10.2, SD=1.81) in the experimental group. 5. Majority of mothers in pre test had poor practice with regard to lactation (100 %, 100%) in the control and experimental group. After the intervention the lactation practice was good in (63.33%) lactating mothers in experimental group. Hence null hypothesis H01 was rejected. 6. The mean score of lactation practice in the experimental group was high in post test (M=19.13, SD=1.8) in comparison with pre test (M=7.3, SD=1.242). Whereas in the control group there was only a minimal increase in the score of lactation practice (M=7.5, SD=1.403) during post test when compared with pre test (M=7.4, SD=1.518). 7. There was no significant association between age in years, educational status, type of employment and type of family with level of knowledge in experimental and control group of primi lactating mothers. Hence null hypothesis H02 is retained. 8. There was no association between age in years, educational status, type of employment and type of family and lactation practice in control group of primi lactating mothers but there is significant association between type of family and lactation practice in experimental group of primi lactating mothers. Hence null hypothesis H02 was partially rejected. 9. There was no significant association between effective latch of the baby, type of delivery, initiation of breast feeding and frequency of feeding with level of knowledge and lactation practice in control and experimental group of primi lactating mothers. Hence the null hypothesis H03 was retained. 10. All the participants in the experimental group were satisfied (100%) with the virtual lactation management intervention. RECOMMENDATIONS: 1. The same study can be conducted with large number of samples to generalize results. 2. A comparison can be made between primi and multi gravidae mothers. 3. The same study can be conducted in different settings. 4. A comparison can be made between different types of educational programmes

Band Gap Tuning of DC Reactively Sputtered ZnON Thin Films

Zinc oxynitride (ZnO$_x$N$_y$) has recently emerged as a highly promising band gap-tunable semiconductor material for optoelectronic applications. In this study, a novel DC reactive sputtering protocol was developed to fabricate ZnO$_x$N$_y$ films with varying elemental concentrations, by precisely controlling the working pressure. The band gap was rigorously analyzed using UV-Visible spectroscopy, which was complemented by EDAX spectroscopy to determine the variations in the elemental composition. The correlation between the microstructure and band gap was investigated through the application of AFM, XRD, and Raman spectroscopy, while the Urbach theorem was used to evaluate the defect states. This study revealed the existence of intermediate structures formed during the tuning of the band gap, which can have important implications for future research aimed at developing heterostructures and 2D superlattices for photonics applications

Correlation between gamma analysis for midline and lateralized tumors by using volumetric modulated arc therapy

Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate the fluence for midline and lateralized tumors for volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) by using a two-dimensional array.Methods: For this study, we selected 60 patients who were undergoing VMAT. The octavius phantom was computed tomography (CT) scanned and imported to the planning system. Verification plans were created for each plan and exported. The measurements were performed using 2D seven29 ion chamber array. Fluence measurement values for all the delivered plans were analyzed using VeriSoft software. The TPS calculated values were then compared with the measured gamma values. Results: The gamma pass percentage for midline tumors was found to be higher than that for lateralized tumors. The standard deviations between the gamma values for midline and lateralized tumors were 1.96 and 2.86, respectively. Moreover, the standard deviations between the point doses for midline and lateralized tumors were 0.360 and 0.283, respectively. The mean gamma passing rate was 96.96% for midline tumors and 96.57% for lateralized tumors for 3%DD/3-mm criteria. There is no significance found in the gamma values for midline and lateralized tumors with p-value 0.08. Conclusion: No particular correlation was found between the gamma pass percentage for midline tumors and that for lateralized tumors. Only a marginal difference was found in the gamma pass percentage

Maze solvers demystified and some other thoughts

There is a growing interest towards implementation of maze solving in spatially-extended physical, chemical and living systems. Several reports of prototypes attracted great publicity, e.g. maze solving with slime mould and epithelial cells, maze navigating droplets. We show that most prototypes utilise one of two phenomena: a shortest path in a maze is a path of the least resistance for fluid and current flow, and a shortest path is a path of the steepest gradient of chemoattractants. We discuss that substrates with so-called maze-solving capabilities simply trace flow currents or chemical diffusion gradients. We illustrate our thoughts with a model of flow and experiments with slime mould. The chapter ends with a discussion of experiments on maze solving with plant roots and leeches which show limitations of the chemical diffusion maze-solving approach.Comment: This is a preliminary version of the chapter to be published in Adamatzky A. (Ed.) Shortest path solvers. From software to wetware. Springer, 201

Monetary policy and financial stability: Should central bank lean against the wind?

After the global financial crisis, it was observed that price stability alone would not ensure financial stability. The new paradigm indeed insists on the inclusion of financial stability as an additional macroeconomic objective. In this context, it is essential to understand how exactly is the new objective of financial stability will be placed in the existing framework. Also, the efficacy of monetary policy in this regard needs to be thoroughly discussed. This paper probes into the employability of monetary policy as a tool to achieve financial stability. We, therefore, compare between interest rates obtained from the standard Taylor rule and asset price augmented Taylor rule in the Indian context. The results suggest that targeting asset prices can be one of the effective ways to contain financial instabilities and consequent economic slumps

Ksheeravasthi in AVN Femoral Head – A Case Study

A 41-year-old male patient radiologically diagnosed as a case of avascular necrosis of head of both femur with Grade 2 of Ficat and Arlet classification, presented with the following chief complaints of pain in both hip joints, more on left side, of Harris Hip score was 66 and associated with decreased range of movements with slight limping. This presentation was correlated with Asthikshayaja vyadhi and treated accordingly. Initially, patient had been administered dipana and pacana followed by snehapana and koshtasodhana by virechana. Further panchathikthaka ksheera vasthi (medicated enema prepared with milk and ghee) was administered. This resulted with improvement of Harris hip score to 91