An investigation into the age and origin of Suranga in the foothills of the Western Ghats of India

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version. The final publication is available at Springer via: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12685-015-0125-yThis paper presents the evidence for determining the age and origin of suranga irrigation found mainly in southern Karnataka and northern Kerala in the foothills of the Western Ghats of south India. It draws on on-going research that has attempted to use an interdisciplinary approach to date the system using Indian Archives, British and Portuguese colonial archives, etymology, oral testimony archaeology, phenology and palaeo dating techniques. The results from this study put the origins of the system at around 1900–1940 CE. These results are compared with the current academic discourse that supports the view that the system originates from ancient Persia and qanat technology, because of the long established trade links with Persia and the Arabian Peninsula in the Malabar region. We argue that a new ‘origin discourse’ should be framed around these much more recent dates. The methodological constraints behind both theories are discussed throughout to enable the reader to appreciate the limitations of both arguments.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

The research and practice of integrating conservation and development: Self-reflections by researchers on methodologies, objectives and influence

This study examines the application of mixed-method and participatory approaches to conservation and development research. Both approaches were applied in a research project on the relationship between ecosystem governance and the wellbeing of local communities adjacent to a protected area in Laos. By encouraging four of the involved field researchers to reflect upon and expose their practical approaches as scientific experts (in terms of methodologies, objectives, reliability of results and research influence), this article aims to improve our learning from research practice and to promote reflexivity in research. The reflexive study presented here emphasizes the social and political context or real world situation against which research outputs can and should be evaluated, and retrospectively sheds light on the barriers to reach research objectives. In essence, the article addresses the relation between science and policy, and underlines the political undercurrent of conservation and development research in facilitating institutional change. The article outlines the very role of researchers in developing conservation policies, and provides a foundation for institutions and individual researchers to promote critical and constructive self-reflections in scientific practices

Sustaining impactful multidisciplinary contributions over five decades

A professor avows, declares, or professes knowledge of a field. The challenge for most professors lies in continuing to generate relevant knowledge. Of those continuing research, most make impact on their respective disciplines. Ramadhar Singh—an experimental social psychologist and currently, Distinguished University Professor, Amrut Mody School of Management, Ahmedabad University—has been steadily contributing to the advancement of knowledge in psychology and producing multidisciplinary impact over his 49-year career. By tracing the trajectory of Singh's vast and varied experience, attitude and approach to research, and scholarly output in international publications that have advanced knowledge and found applications from management to biological and social sciences, this interview offer pathways to research scholars for sustained multidisciplinary and impactful research in their careers

Ming Loyalists in Southeast Asia

Claudine Salmon, Ming Loyalists in Southeast Asia. As Perceived through Various Asian and European Records, Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz, 2014, XXXII, 134 S. (Maritime Asia 27) In order to attain a panoramic view of the Ming loyalists who, after the rise of the Qing in 1644, settled in various port cities of what is today Vietnam and the Malay World, this study seeks to make use of various European and Asian sources such as travelogs, commercial records, genealogies, inscriptions, old maps, drawi..

Perception-based methods to evaluate conservation impact in forests managed through popular participation

We reviewed construct validity in perception-based methods assessing status and/or trend of forest condition as applied in 19 empirical studies that evaluated the conservation impact of popular participation in forest management. Perception-based methods focus on eliciting peoples' assessment of the status and/or trend in forest condition or indicators of forest condition through interviews, surveys, or participatory rural appraisal techniques. We found that individual studies generally did not attend to the issue of construct validity in relation to each particular approach to perception-based assessment of status and/or trend in forest condition. Furthermore, the studies provided very little documentation of the construct validity of the perception-based methods as applied to assessments of forest condition in the specific context of popular participation in forest management. This scarcity of evidence implies that any support for the construct validity of these methods must be found outside the literature in which it was applied. A quick review of the literature on local assessments, monitoring, and local ecological knowledge supports the construct validity of such approaches as applied in various contexts; however, we argue that this support cannot be directly transferred to the context of popular participation in forest management. Accordingly, we conclude that there is a need for research to refine and validate perception-based methods as applied in the specific context of popular participation in forest management

Use of Immunoglobulin G Avidity To Determine the Course of Disease in Visceral and Post-Kala-Azar Dermal Leishmaniasis Patients

In the present study, anti-Leishmania immunoglobulin G (IgG) avidity was used to estimate the approximate time of disease manifestation. Significant differences (P < 0.0001) were found between the levels of anti-rKE-16 IgG avidity in leishmaniasis patients with recent and chronic diseases. More than 76% of patients with an illness duration of less than 6 months had avidity of less than 70%, 94% of patients had less than 80% avidity, and all (100%) patients with illness of more than 6 months had avidity values higher than 70%. The study showed that avidity could successfully be used to pinpoint the duration of leishmaniasis