The Śūdrācāraśiromani of Krsna Śesa: A 16Th Century Manual of Dharma for Śūdras

From the fourteenth to the seventeenth century C.E., a śāstra of a new type on the topic of Śūdras was composed and circulated among Dharmaśāstrins. These śūdradharma texts were primarily concerned with the ritual life of Śūdras—the rites, sacraments, and forms of religious knowledge to which they were entitled in śruti and smr&#;ti. But they also included expositions on the generation of Śūdra jātis according to the theory of varn&#;asankara and descriptions of the ways of life and occupations of Śūdras. This is a study and translation of one of these texts, the Śūdrācāraśiroman&#;i of Kr&#;s&#;n&#;a Śes&#;a, among the most brilliant and eminent pan&#;d&#;its of late medieval Sanskrit, celebrated as both grammarian and poet. In the series of essays that accompany the translation, I analyze the text and piece together the fragmentary evidence for its date and authorship. Śūdradharma texts were one response of the Brahmin intellectual elite to the challenges to traditional dharma and dominance arising from the changing socio-economic conditions of Sultanate and Mughal India. They represent a shift in Dharmashastric discourse from the ritual exclusion of Śūdras as the sign of their social subjection to fuller integration into the Brahmanical fold. As an effort to deepen the ritual regulation of low castes in a time of and caste instability and anxiety (the improved but precarious class position of many Śūdras) and social ferment (the Bhakti movements) they were adjunct to a more general reassessment of varn&#;&#;a and the identity and place of Brahmins and Ks&#;atriyas. Śūdradharma texts like the Śūdrācāraśiroman&#;i preserve the Vedic privilege and ritual primacy of Brahmins while adjusting to the new realities of caste by the qualified inclusion of sat, i.e., “good” Śūdras as a new client base for ritual services. The Śūdrācāraśiroman&#;i was composed in typical nibandha style, but in the form of a concise and comprehensive handbook for Brahmins to instruct and guide Śūdras in their daily ritual life

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Update of an occupational asthma-specific job exposure matrix to assess exposure to 30 specific agents

International audienceOBJECTIVES:We aimed to update an asthmagen job exposure matrix (JEM) developed in the late 1990s. Main reasons were: the number of suspected and recognised asthmagens has since tripled; understanding of the aetiological role of irritants in asthma and methodological insights in application of JEMs have emerged in the period.METHODS:For each agent of the new occupational asthma-specific JEM (OAsJEM), a working group of three experts out of eight evaluated exposure for each International Standard Classification of Occupations, 1988 (ISCO-88) job code into three categories: 'high' (high probability of exposure and moderate-to-high intensity), 'medium' (low-to-moderate probability or low intensity) and 'unexposed'. Within a working group, experts evaluated exposures independently from each other. If expert assessments were inconsistent the final decision was taken by consensus. Specificity was favoured over sensitivity, that is, jobs were classified with high exposure only if the probability of exposure was high and the intensity moderate-to-high. In the final review, all experts checked assigned exposures and proposed/improved recommendations for expert re-evaluation after default application of the JEM.RESULTS:The OAsJEM covers exposures to 30 sensitisers/irritants, including 12 newly recognised, classified into seven broad groups. Initial agreement between the three experts was mostly fair to moderate (κ values 0.2-0.5). Out of 506 ISCO-88 codes, the majority was classified as unexposed (from 82.6% (organic solvents) to 99.8% (persulfates)) and a minority as 'high-exposed' (0.2% (persulfates) to 2.6% (organic solvents)). CONCLUSIONS:The OAsJEM developed to improve occupational exposure assessment may improve evaluations of associations with asthma in epidemiological studies and contribute to assessment of the burden of work-related asthma

Occupational exposures and incidence of chronic bronchitis and related symptoms over two decades: The European Community Respiratory Health Survey

Objectives: Chronic bronchitis (CB) is an important chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)-related phenotype, with distinct clinical features and prognostic implications. Occupational exposures have been previously associated with increased risk of CB but few studies have examined this association prospectively using objective exposure assessment. We examined the effect of occupational exposures on CB incidence in the European Community Respiratory Health Survey. Methods: Population samples aged 20-44 were randomly selected in 1991-1993, and followed up twice over 20 years. Participants without chronic cough or phlegm at baseline were analysed. Coded job histories during follow-up were linked to the ALOHA Job Exposure Matrix, generating occupational exposure estimates to 12 categories of chemical agents. Their association with CB incidence over both follow-ups was examined with Poisson models using generalised estimating equations. Results: 8794 participants fulfilled the inclusion criteria, contributing 13 185 observations. Only participants exposed to metals had a higher incidence of CB (relative risk (RR) 1.70, 95% CI 1.16 to 2.50) compared with non-exposed to metals. Mineral dust exposure increased the incidence of chronic phlegm (RR 1.72, 95% CI 1.43 to 2.06). Incidence of chronic phlegm was increased in men exposed to gases/fumes and to solvents and in women exposed to pesticides. Conclusions: Occupational exposures are associated with chronic phlegm and CB, and the evidence is strongest for metals and mineral dust exposure. The observed differences between men and women warrant further investigation

Occup Environ Med

OBJECTIVES: Chronic bronchitis (CB) is an important chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)-related phenotype, with distinct clinical features and prognostic implications. Occupational exposures have been previously associated with increased risk of CB but few studies have examined this association prospectively using objective exposure assessment. We examined the effect of occupational exposures on CB incidence in the European Community Respiratory Health Survey. METHODS: Population samples aged 20-44 were randomly selected in 1991-1993, and followed up twice over 20 years. Participants without chronic cough or phlegm at baseline were analysed. Coded job histories during follow-up were linked to the ALOHA Job Exposure Matrix, generating occupational exposure estimates to 12 categories of chemical agents. Their association with CB incidence over both follow-ups was examined with Poisson models using generalised estimating equations. RESULTS: 8794 participants fulfilled the inclusion criteria, contributing 13 185 observations. Only participants exposed to metals had a higher incidence of CB (relative risk (RR) 1.70, 95% CI 1.16 to 2.50) compared with non-exposed to metals. Mineral dust exposure increased the incidence of chronic phlegm (RR 1.72, 95% CI 1.43 to 2.06). Incidence of chronic phlegm was increased in men exposed to gases/fumes and to solvents and in women exposed to pesticides. CONCLUSIONS: Occupational exposures are associated with chronic phlegm and CB, and the evidence is strongest for metals and mineral dust exposure. The observed differences between men and women warrant further investigation

Reanalysis of Clinical Exome Sequencing Data

As knowledge about genetic causes of disease improves, periodic reanalysis of clinical exome sequence could yield new genetic information. This study showed that a reanalysis of data initially analyzed about 6 years ago almost doubled the diagnostic yield and that a semiautomated approach to sequence analysis had a diagnostic sensitivity of 92.9%