Mercenaries, domestics and prostitutes, three figures of the wage system in Nepalese international migrations: Beyond the institutional fictions of the State: the reality of employee trafficking

As a result of preliminary research into the growth of social, domestic and gender inequalities in certain non-Hindi minority populations of Nepal, who began to emigrate massively from the rural areas in the 1980s, I was led to study the conditions of their integration in Arab or Christian countries where these Buddhist populations migrated, through multi-site and transnational surveys in their destination countries (especially in Europe - France, Portugal, Belgium, and in the United States). Having lived since fourty years now, in close continuity with a Tamang community of Nepal, how could we sociologically account for the shared representation of the profits or losses in the new statuses they claimed and sometimes acquired in working abroad? How could the new provisions of these aspiring migrants who had managed to create new conditions of life outside their country, in turn influence and change new forms of exploitation or "self-exploitation" of workers, believing they were accessing a new form of subjectivity and freedom by leaving behind the rural world and domestic constraints? This paper attempts thus to drawing a historic redefinition of the 'restrained work', i.e. not working on the desire of people to emigrate, nor whatever the pressures exercised on candidates for emigration, but rather on the redefinition of what we commonly mean by 'work' and 'employment' in the recent history of Nepal and through the studies of economic history and history of rural migration abroad

RHABDOMYOLYSIS INDUCED BY ANAESTHESIA WITH INTRAOPERATIVE CARDIAC ARREST

A 9-year-old boy undergoing anaesthesia including suxamethonium and halothane suffered cardiac arrest on two occasions. Clinical and laboratory examination subsequently showed that the patient had suffered from acute rhabdomyolysis. The eventual recovery was satisfactor

Repeated and Time-Correlated Morphological Convergence in Cave-Dwelling Harvestmen (Opiliones, Laniatores) from Montane Western North America

BACKGROUND: Many cave-dwelling animal species display similar morphologies (troglomorphism) that have evolved convergent within and among lineages under the similar selective pressures imposed by cave habitats. Here we study such ecomorphological evolution in cave-dwelling Sclerobuninae harvestmen (Opiliones) from the western United States, providing general insights into morphological homoplasy, rates of morphological change, and the temporal context of cave evolution. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We gathered DNA sequence data from three independent gene regions, and combined these data with Bayesian hypothesis testing, morphometrics analysis, study of penis morphology, and relaxed molecular clock analyses. Using multivariate morphometric analysis, we find that phylogenetically unrelated taxa have convergently evolved troglomorphism; alternative phylogenetic hypotheses involving less morphological convergence are not supported by Bayesian hypothesis testing. In one instance, this morphology is found in specimens from a high-elevation stony debris habitat, suggesting that troglomorphism can evolve in non-cave habitats. We discovered a strong positive relationship between troglomorphy index and relative divergence time, making it possible to predict taxon age from morphology. Most of our time estimates for the origin of highly-troglomorphic cave forms predate the Pleistocene. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: While several regions in the eastern and central United States are well-known hotspots for cave evolution, few modern phylogenetic studies have addressed the evolution of cave-obligate species in the western United States. Our integrative studies reveal the recurrent evolution of troglomorphism in a perhaps unexpected geographic region, at surprisingly deep time depths, and in sometimes surprising habitats. Because some newly discovered troglomorphic populations represent undescribed species, our findings stress the need for further biological exploration, integrative systematic research, and conservation efforts in western US cave habitats

Elevated serum biotinidase activity in hepatic glycogen storage disorders-A convenient biomarker

Summary: An elevated serum biotinidase activity in patients with glycogen storage disease (GSD) type Ia has been reported previously. The aim of this work was to investigate the specificity of the phenomenon and thus we expanded the study to other types of hepatic GSDs. Serum biotinidase activity was measured in a total of 68 GSD patients and was compared with that of healthy controls (8.7 ±10; range 7.0-10.6mU/ml; n=6). We found an increased biotinidase activity in patients with GSD Ia (17.7 ±3.9; range: 11.4-24.8; n=21), GSD I non-a (20.9 ±5.6; range 14.6-26.0; n=4), GSD III (12.5 ±-3.6; range 7.8-19.1; n=3), GSD VI (15.4 ±-2.0; range 14.1-17.7; n=) and GSD IX (14.0 ±-3.8; range: 7.5-21.6; n=22). The sensitivity of this test was 100% for patients with GSD Ia, GSD I non-a and GSD VI, 62% for GSD III, and 77% for GSD IX, indicating reduced sensitivity for GSD III and GSD IX, respectively. In addition, we found elevated biotinidase activity in all sera from 5 patients with Fanconi-Bickel Syndrome (15.3 ±-3.7; range 11.0-19.4). Taken together, we propose serum biotinidase as a diagnostic biomarker for hepatic glycogen storage disorder

Incidence of Arrhythmias and Myocardial Ischaemia During Haemodialysis and Haemofiltration

Thirty-two patients (10 male, 22 female; age 37-82 years) undergoing maintenance haemodialysis or haemofiltration were studied by means of Holter device capable of simultaneously analysing rhythm and ST changes in three leads. Twenty-five patients were on haemodialysis, seven on haemofiltration, mean duration of haemodialysis/haemofiltration being 3.4±3 years. Incidence of ventricular tachycardia was low, being detected only in 1 of 32 patients. Ventricular premature beats in excess of 10/h during a period of 2 h were found in 8 of 32 patients and 100 supraventricular premature beats for 2 h or more in 4 of 32 patients. Both ventricular premature beats and supraventricular premature beats were most frequently recorded during the last hour of haemodialysis/haemofiltration. ECG signs of ischaemia were detected in eight patients, four of whom were asymptomatic. Ischaemia also occurred predominantly during the last hour of haemodialysis/haemofiltration. Two symptomatic patients displayed neither arrhythmias nor ST-changes while being monitored. The study shows that silent ischaemia and arrhythmias in patients under going chronic haemodialysis/haemofiltration may not be infrequent. Recognition of these events could be of importance in the management of these patient

Perturbative Construction of Models of Algebraic Quantum Field Theory

We review the construction of models of algebraic quantum field theory by renormalized perturbation theory.Comment: 38 page