The Dimension of Labour Standards in the Age of Globalisation and Trade Unions’ Responses on the Ground: Insights from the Bangladesh Garment Industry

My study examines two interrelated phenomena in the Bangladesh Garment Industry: the conditions of labour standards in the aftermath of Rana Plaza under lived conditions of globalisation and the material and proximate roles played by unions in promoting labour standards on the ground. The study examines how specific catalytic factors originating from globalisation have caused changes and developments in labour standards in the context of global pressures and a weak state legal system. The study reveals that multinational corporations, although signed up to multi-stakeholder initiatives at the global level, are far from keeping their promises to support supplier factories in promoting labour standards. The research demonstrates key findings based on workers' collective voices from the ground up, identifying how the opportunities created in the immediate aftermath of the Rana Plaza disaster through the formation of private government initiatives have effectively used to reduce the power of unions in the Bangladesh Garment Industry. Taking evidence from in-depth semi-structured interviews with various stakeholders, the research examines a series of critical issues concerning global initiatives in the establishment of labour standards and the division of labour. My study finds that the dominant local and global actors constrain labour unions' organising and negotiating power. Unions have limited opportunities to challenge or reverse deteriorating working conditions as they have inadequate resources, impeding their capacity to promote standards. The research contributes to a growing body of analysis focusing on the structural shift of MNCs' policy towards labour standards and the behaviour of local and global actors that shape labour standards on the ground. The research explores the sets of accountability and best practices that could be developed to bridge the gaps between local and global actors in promoting labour standards in the global supply chain

Prospective observational study on peri-operative usage pattern of analgesics

The present work reports a prospective observational study to determine perioperative usage pattern of analgesics. Both general and regional anaesthesia and also different analgesics which is most effective to manage post operative pain were used. 120 patients were studied randomly as per criteria. Techniques of anaesthesia, pre, peri& post operative vitals and pain scores were noted in selected time interval. Pain score recorded 0-3 as mild, 4-6 as moderate & 7-10 as severe. Of all the analgesics administered in peri & postoperative period, Fentanyl (F) alone & in combination with diclofenac (D) were used maximum in perioperative period. These two groups were compared. In postoperative GA cases, majority patients received paracetamol (P) and tramadol (T) and in regional blocks, Pethidine (PE) Phenergan (PH) combination & tramadol were used. These groups werecompared to evaluate pain perception. Fentanyl alone found to be more effectivein maintaining hemodynamic stability. In fentanyl-diclofenac combination, pulse rate and blood pressure were higher than fentanyl alone. Pain scores were significantly higher in GA compared to regional blocks. In GA patients, fentanyl-paracetamol combination decrease pain significantly compared to fentanyl-tramadol combination. But in regional techniques, pethidine, phenergan and tramadol in combination with perioperative fentanyl shows same result for decreasing pain. Fentanyl is a better analgesics compared to fentanyl+diclofenac combination in perioperative period and in case of postoperative period paracetamol is better effective compared to tramadol HCL in combination with fentany

Fabrication of Germanium-on-insulator in a Ge wafer with a crystalline Ge top layer and buried GeO2 layer by Oxygen ion implantation

The paper reports fabrication of Germanium-on-Insulator (GeOI) wafer by Oxygen ion implantation of an undoped single crystalline Ge wafer of orientation (100). Oxygen ions of energy 200 keV were implanted. The implanted wafer was subjected to Rapid Thermal Annealing to 650 C. The resulting wafer has a top crystalline Ge layer of 220 nm thickness and Buried Oxide layer (BOX) layer of good quality crystalline Germanium oxide with thickness around 0.62 micron. The crystalline BOX layer has hexagonal crystal structure with lattice constants close to the standard values. Raman Spectroscopy, cross-sectional HRTEM with SAED and EDS established that the top Ge layer was recrystallized during annealing with faceted crystallites. The top layer has a small tensile strain of around +0.4\% and has estimated dislocation density of 2.7 x 10^{7}cm^{-2}. The thickness, crystallinity and electrical characteristics of the top layer and the quality of the BOX layer of GeO_{2} are such that it can be utilized for device fabrication

"The fruits of independence": Satyajit Ray, Indian nationhood and the spectre of empire

Challenging the longstanding consensus that Satyajit Ray's work is largely free of ideological concerns and notable only for its humanistic richness, this article shows with reference to representations of British colonialism and Indian nationhood that Ray's films and stories are marked deeply and consistently by a distinctively Bengali variety of liberalism. Drawn from an ongoing biographical project, it commences with an overview of the nationalist milieu in which Ray grew up and emphasizes the preoccupation with colonialism and nationalism that marked his earliest unfilmed scripts. It then shows with case studies of Kanchanjangha (1962), Charulata (1964), First Class Kamra (First-Class Compartment, 1981), Pratidwandi (The Adversary, 1970), Shatranj ke Khilari (The Chess Players, 1977), Agantuk (The Stranger, 1991) and Robertsoner Ruby (Robertson's Ruby, 1992) how Ray's mature work continued to combine a strongly anti-colonial viewpoint with a shifting perspective on Indian nationhood and an unequivocal commitment to cultural cosmopolitanism. Analysing how Ray articulated his ideological positions through the quintessentially liberal device of complexly staged debates that were apparently free, but in fact closed by the scenarist/director on ideologically specific notes, this article concludes that Ray's reputation as an all-forgiving, ‘everybody-has-his-reasons’ humanist is based on simplistic or even tendentious readings of his work

Leveraging technology-driven strategies to untangle omics big data: circumventing roadblocks in clinical facets of oral cancer

Oral cancer is one of the 19most rapidly progressing cancers associated with significant mortality, owing to its extreme degree of invasiveness and aggressive inclination. The early occurrences of this cancer can be clinically deceiving leading to a poor overall survival rate. The primary concerns from a clinical perspective include delayed diagnosis, rapid disease progression, resistance to various chemotherapeutic regimens, and aggressive metastasis, which collectively pose a substantial threat to prognosis. Conventional clinical practices observed since antiquity no longer offer the best possible options to circumvent these roadblocks. The world of current cancer research has been revolutionized with the advent of state-of-the-art technology-driven strategies that offer a ray of hope in confronting said challenges by highlighting the crucial underlying molecular mechanisms and drivers. In recent years, bioinformatics and Machine Learning (ML) techniques have enhanced the possibility of early detection, evaluation of prognosis, and individualization of therapy. This review elaborates on the application of the aforesaid techniques in unraveling potential hints from omics big data to address the complexities existing in various clinical facets of oral cancer. The first section demonstrates the utilization of omics data and ML to disentangle the impediments related to diagnosis. This includes the application of technology-based strategies to optimize early detection, classification, and staging via uncovering biomarkers and molecular signatures. Furthermore, breakthrough concepts such as salivaomics-driven non-invasive biomarker discovery and omics-complemented surgical interventions are articulated in detail. In the following part, the identification of novel disease-specific targets alongside potential therapeutic agents to confront oral cancer via omics-based methodologies is presented. Additionally, a special emphasis is placed on drug resistance, precision medicine, and drug repurposing. In the final section, we discuss the research approaches oriented toward unveiling the prognostic biomarkers and constructing prediction models to capture the metastatic potential of the tumors. Overall, we intend to provide a bird’s eye view of the various omics, bioinformatics, and ML approaches currently being used in oral cancer research through relevant case studies

Global burden of 288 causes of death and life expectancy decomposition in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

BACKGROUND Regular, detailed reporting on population health by underlying cause of death is fundamental for public health decision making. Cause-specific estimates of mortality and the subsequent effects on life expectancy worldwide are valuable metrics to gauge progress in reducing mortality rates. These estimates are particularly important following large-scale mortality spikes, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. When systematically analysed, mortality rates and life expectancy allow comparisons of the consequences of causes of death globally and over time, providing a nuanced understanding of the effect of these causes on global populations. METHODS The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2021 cause-of-death analysis estimated mortality and years of life lost (YLLs) from 288 causes of death by age-sex-location-year in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations for each year from 1990 until 2021. The analysis used 56 604 data sources, including data from vital registration and verbal autopsy as well as surveys, censuses, surveillance systems, and cancer registries, among others. As with previous GBD rounds, cause-specific death rates for most causes were estimated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model-a modelling tool developed for GBD to assess the out-of-sample predictive validity of different statistical models and covariate permutations and combine those results to produce cause-specific mortality estimates-with alternative strategies adapted to model causes with insufficient data, substantial changes in reporting over the study period, or unusual epidemiology. YLLs were computed as the product of the number of deaths for each cause-age-sex-location-year and the standard life expectancy at each age. As part of the modelling process, uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated using the 2·5th and 97·5th percentiles from a 1000-draw distribution for each metric. We decomposed life expectancy by cause of death, location, and year to show cause-specific effects on life expectancy from 1990 to 2021. We also used the coefficient of variation and the fraction of population affected by 90% of deaths to highlight concentrations of mortality. Findings are reported in counts and age-standardised rates. Methodological improvements for cause-of-death estimates in GBD 2021 include the expansion of under-5-years age group to include four new age groups, enhanced methods to account for stochastic variation of sparse data, and the inclusion of COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality-which includes excess mortality associated with the pandemic, excluding COVID-19, lower respiratory infections, measles, malaria, and pertussis. For this analysis, 199 new country-years of vital registration cause-of-death data, 5 country-years of surveillance data, 21 country-years of verbal autopsy data, and 94 country-years of other data types were added to those used in previous GBD rounds. FINDINGS The leading causes of age-standardised deaths globally were the same in 2019 as they were in 1990; in descending order, these were, ischaemic heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lower respiratory infections. In 2021, however, COVID-19 replaced stroke as the second-leading age-standardised cause of death, with 94·0 deaths (95% UI 89·2-100·0) per 100 000 population. The COVID-19 pandemic shifted the rankings of the leading five causes, lowering stroke to the third-leading and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to the fourth-leading position. In 2021, the highest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 occurred in sub-Saharan Africa (271·0 deaths [250·1-290·7] per 100 000 population) and Latin America and the Caribbean (195·4 deaths [182·1-211·4] per 100 000 population). The lowest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 were in the high-income super-region (48·1 deaths [47·4-48·8] per 100 000 population) and southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania (23·2 deaths [16·3-37·2] per 100 000 population). Globally, life expectancy steadily improved between 1990 and 2019 for 18 of the 22 investigated causes. Decomposition of global and regional life expectancy showed the positive effect that reductions in deaths from enteric infections, lower respiratory infections, stroke, and neonatal deaths, among others have contributed to improved survival over the study period. However, a net reduction of 1·6 years occurred in global life expectancy between 2019 and 2021, primarily due to increased death rates from COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality. Life expectancy was highly variable between super-regions over the study period, with southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania gaining 8·3 years (6·7-9·9) overall, while having the smallest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 (0·4 years). The largest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean (3·6 years). Additionally, 53 of the 288 causes of death were highly concentrated in locations with less than 50% of the global population as of 2021, and these causes of death became progressively more concentrated since 1990, when only 44 causes showed this pattern. The concentration phenomenon is discussed heuristically with respect to enteric and lower respiratory infections, malaria, HIV/AIDS, neonatal disorders, tuberculosis, and measles. INTERPRETATION Long-standing gains in life expectancy and reductions in many of the leading causes of death have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the adverse effects of which were spread unevenly among populations. Despite the pandemic, there has been continued progress in combatting several notable causes of death, leading to improved global life expectancy over the study period. Each of the seven GBD super-regions showed an overall improvement from 1990 and 2021, obscuring the negative effect in the years of the pandemic. Additionally, our findings regarding regional variation in causes of death driving increases in life expectancy hold clear policy utility. Analyses of shifting mortality trends reveal that several causes, once widespread globally, are now increasingly concentrated geographically. These changes in mortality concentration, alongside further investigation of changing risks, interventions, and relevant policy, present an important opportunity to deepen our understanding of mortality-reduction strategies. Examining patterns in mortality concentration might reveal areas where successful public health interventions have been implemented. Translating these successes to locations where certain causes of death remain entrenched can inform policies that work to improve life expectancy for people everywhere. FUNDING Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Ammonia Sensing by Sn1-xVxO2 Mesoporous Nanoparticles

Chemiresistive gas sensing by metal oxide based materials has been usually explained in terms of surface chemistry and band structure modifications due to factors such as chemical composition, particle surface to volume ratio, material morphology, temperature, and surface oxygen vacancy. In this work, keeping parameters such as particle size, morphology, surface area, temperature, and surface oxygen vacancy fixed, we have for the first time attempted to delineate quantitatively the role of crystal structure and surface electronic states in improving gas sensing responses of doped nanosized metal oxide samples. While vanadium-doped tin oxide samples show a nearly 4-fold increase in 10 ppm ammonia sensing responses, the Sn0.696V0.304O2. sample shows similar to 1.2 times more sensing response as compared to Sn0.657V0.343O2. The ammonia sensing behavior has been found to be directly correlated to crystal structures and concentrations of various oxidation states of vanadium dopants present in the studied samples. Detailed comparative analysis of crystal and electronic structures of the samples has revealed the mechanism of enhancement in the ammonia sensing behavior of vanadium-doped tin oxides. It is expected that similar mechanisms might be responsible for enhancement in gas sensing properties of other metal oxide based systems

Process for the preparation of nanosized iron oxide by biomimetic route

Preparation of nanosized iron oxide for enhancement of magnetic resonance imaging contrast, by mixing polyvinyl alcohol and disodium tetraborate, mixing with iron salt, heating, soaking in sodium hydroxide, and washing with deionized wate

Chronic Arsenicosis of Cattle in West Bengal and It's Possible Mitigation by Sodium Thiosulfate

Thirty milch cows having arsenic concentration in hair varying from 3 to 4 mg/kg from Dakhin Panchpota village of Nadia district, West Bengal, were divided into three equal groups where high amount of arsenic is reported to be present in soil and ground water. Groups II and III received, respectively, sodium thiosulfate 20 and 40 g to each animal for 30 days as a pilot study, whereas group I served as untreated control. Arsenic content of milk, feces, hair, and urine was estimated before and after administration of sodium thiosulfate orally at two dose level once daily for 1 month. Paddy straw, mustard oil cake, and water fed by animals were also assayed. Sodium thiosulfate significantly decreased arsenic load in milk, urine, and hair after 1 month. In milk, arsenic concentration was decreased significantly which may be beneficial for animal and human beings

Fabrication of Germanium-on-insulator in a Ge wafer with a crystalline Ge top layer and buried GeO2 layer by oxygen ion implantation

The paper reports fabrication of Germanium-on-Insulator (GeOI) wafer by Oxygen ion implantation of an undoped Ge wafer of orientation (100). O+ ions (energy 200 keV) were implanted to a fluence of 1.9 x 10(18) ions-cm(-2) and the implanted wafer was subjected to Rapid Thermal Annealing. The resulting wafer has a top crystalline Ge layer of similar to 220 nm thickness and resistivity approximate to 32 Ohm-cm and a buried Oxide layer (BOX) of crystalline GeO2 (thickness approximate to 0.62 mu m). The crystalline GeO2 layer has hexagonal crystal structure with lattice constants close to the standard values. Raman Spectroscopy and cross-sectional electron microscopy established that the top Ge layer was recrystallized during annealing with a residual tensile strain of around +0.4% and an estimated dislocation density of 2.7 x 10(7) cm(-2). The crystallinity and electrical characteristics of the top layer and the quality of the BOX layer are such that it can be utilized for device fabrication