Cognitive dimensions of talim: evaluating weaving notation through cognitive dimensions (CDs) framework

The design process in Kashmiri carpet weaving is distributed over a number of actors and artifacts and is mediated by a weaving notation called talim. The script encodes entire design in practice-specific symbols. This encoded script is decoded and interpreted via design-specific conventions by weavers to weave the design embedded in it. The cognitive properties of this notational system are described in the paper employing cognitive dimensions (CDs) framework of Green (People and computers, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1989) and Blackwell et al. (Cognitive technology: instruments of mind—CT 2001, LNAI 2117, Springer, Berlin, 2001). After introduction to the practice, the design process is described in ‘The design process’ section which includes coding and decoding of talim. In ‘Cognitive dimensions of talim’ section, after briefly discussing CDs framework, the specific cognitive dimensions possessed by talim are described in detail

Situated and distributed cognition in artifact negotiation and trade-specific skills: A cognitive ethnography of Kashmiri carpet weaving practice

This article describes various ways actors in Kashmiri carpet weaving practice deploy a range of artifacts, from symbolic, to material, to hybrid, in order to achieve diverse cognitive accomplishments in their particular task domains: information representation, inter and intra-domain communication, distribution of cognitive labor across people and time, coordination of team activities, and carrying of cultural heritage. In this repertoire, some artifacts position themselves as naïve tools in the actors’ environment to the point of being ignored; however, their usage-in-context unfolds their cognitive involvement in the tasks. These usages-in-context are shown through artifact analysis of their routine, improvised, and opportunistic uses, where cognitive artifacts like talim—the central artifact of this practice—are shown to play not only multifunctional roles beyond representation, but are also complemented by trade-specific skills bearing strong cognitive implications in a task

Cognitive bearing of techno-advances in Kashmiri carpet designing

The design process in Kashmiri carpet weaving is a distributed process encompassing a number of actors and artifacts. These include a designer called naqash who creates the design on graphs, and a coder called talim-guru who encodes that design in a specific notation called talim which is deciphered and interpreted by the weavers to weave the design. The technological interventions over the years have influenced these artifacts considerably and triggered major changes in the practice, from heralding profound cognitive accomplishments in manually driven design process causing major alterations in the overall structure of the practice. The recent intervention is by the digital technology: on the one hand, it has brought precision and speedy processing in the design process, and on the other, it has eliminated some of the crucial actors from the practice. This paper, which forms part of a larger study on the situated and distributed cognitive process in Kashmiri carpet-weaving practice, describes the technological makeover of the design artifacts involved in this practice over the years and their resultant cognitive impact on the design process as well as on the practice

Epi InfoTM a mHealth tool for primary field data collection in subsample population of Uttarakhand- A cross sectional study.

Background: A deficient data is among the biggest obstacle facing planners and policy makers. Health data collection in the developing world is often hampered by the high costs and inefficiencies of traditional large-scale paper-based surveys. mHealth using Epi-Info is most appropriate tool to create, share, deploy health surveys and for strengthening of health systems. The program runs on free and open software, is easy to use, and can be downloaded to handheld devices to be used by workers in the field.  Objectives: To find out the usefulness and limitations of data collection for mHealth by use of Epi InfoTM software.  Methods: The devices used Epi Info 7.1.5 (Android version), which has been modeled as a database with variables of the traditional form. A cross sectional survey among adolescents regarding their health needs was carried out in a sample of 200 adolescents (purposive sampling) of rural hilly (Jaunpur block of Tehri Garhwal district) and plain (Doiwala block of Dehradun district) areas of Uttarakhand by the use of Android tablets with Epi InfoTM.  Results: It was found that adolescent questionnaire tool developed in Epi InfoTM android tablet application is a powerful tool for data collection having numerable practical advantages like: Interview Time Tracking (ITT) that gives the reality check in field studies along with cases Geographical presentation by GIS mapping. In addition to this complete filling of data in field so no left over or guessing for data entry operator, paperless, bio-friendly. Despite of Tablet cost, it is cost effective as tablet can be repeatedly used for other surveys.  Conclusions: Epi InfoTM is a developing open access software for primary data collection and analyzing data from the field, with advantageous benefits of epidemiological surveys

Angiopreventive Efficacy of Pure Flavonolignans from Milk Thistle Extract against Prostate Cancer: Targeting VEGF-VEGFR Signaling

The role of neo-angiogenesis in prostate cancer (PCA) growth and metastasis is well established, but the development of effective and non-toxic pharmacological inhibitors of angiogenesis remains an unaccomplished goal. In this regard, targeting aberrant angiogenesis through non-toxic phytochemicals could be an attractive angiopreventive strategy against PCA. The rationale of the present study was to compare the anti-angiogenic potential of four pure diastereoisomeric flavonolignans, namely silybin A, silybin B, isosilybin A and isosilybin B, which we established previously as biologically active constituents in Milk Thistle extract. Results showed that oral feeding of these flavonolignans (50 and 100 mg/kg body weight) effectively inhibit the growth of advanced human PCA DU145 xenografts. Immunohistochemical analyses revealed that these flavonolignans inhibit tumor angiogenesis biomarkers (CD31 and nestin) and signaling molecules regulating angiogenesis (VEGF, VEGFR1, VEGFR2, phospho-Akt and HIF-1α) without adversely affecting the vessel-count in normal tissues (liver, lung, and kidney) of tumor bearing mice. These flavonolignans also inhibited the microvessel sprouting from mouse dorsal aortas ex vivo, and the VEGF-induced cell proliferation, capillary-like tube formation and invasiveness of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) in vitro. Further studies in HUVEC showed that these diastereoisomers target cell cycle, apoptosis and VEGF-induced signaling cascade. Three dimensional growth assay as well as co-culture invasion and in vitro angiogenesis studies (with HUVEC and DU145 cells) suggested the differential effectiveness of the diastereoisomers toward PCA and endothelial cells. Overall, these studies elucidated the comparative anti-angiogenic efficacy of pure flavonolignans from Milk Thistle and suggest their usefulness in PCA angioprevention

Cognitive bearing of techno-advances in Kashmiri carpet designing

The design process in Kashmiri carpet weaving is a distributed process encompassing a number of actors and artifacts. These include a designer called naqash who creates the design on graphs, and a coder called talim-guru who encodes that design in a specific notation called talim which is deciphered and interpreted by the weavers to weave the design. The technological interventions over the years have influenced these artifacts considerably and triggered major changes in the practice, from heralding profound cognitive accomplishments in manually driven design process causing major alterations in the overall structure of the practice. The recent intervention is by the digital technology: on the one hand, it has brought precision and speedy processing in the design process, and on the other, it has eliminated some of the crucial actors from the practice. This paper, which forms part of a larger study on the situated and distributed cognitive process in Kashmiri carpet-weaving practice, describes the technological makeover of the design artifacts involved in this practice over the years and their resultant cognitive impact on the design process as well as on the practice

Changing Designer-Function in Open Source

Purpose: Open source, since its arrival in 1990’s has been instrumental in challenging the copyright owned by traditional texts and narratives. Dissolving of author-function heralded by post-modern philosophers like Roland Barthes has been materialized by open source technology completely. However, along with textual narratives, similar dissolution can be seen for pictorial representations as well like the designing of a web-site for instance. Open source makes available technologies which along with, the content, the presentation, for instance, of the website in equal dissolution stage. This paper seeks to explore this trend for presentation part and argues how, like author-function, designer-function, is in jeopardyDesign/Methodology/Approach: For this purpose, the two open-source tools AddArt and ShiftSpace, the Mozilla Firefox extensions have been used to bring home the impact of these in terms of altering the presentation of various websites.Findings: The tools have been found to be significantly impressive in modifying the way the content is presented on the website without the owner’s permission. The modifications effected by these tools are presented at the end of the paper in the form of various snap-shots.Research Implications: The implications of these tools can range from purely web-ethical to political. The tools are not only found to raise ethical concerns of privacy and ownership of the way information is to be presented by the owners, but politically also present a trespassing avenue through which capitalist ideas of ownership of information through copyright can be effected.Originality/Value: The paper has attempted to bring to the forefront the ethico-political concerns associated with naively appearing open-source browser extensions like AddArt and ShiftSpace. The considering of concerns can provide a further criteria for evaluating such extensions apart from purely technical which is a norm at present.Keywords: Designer-Function, AddArt, ShiftSpace, Web Aesthetics, Open SourcePaperType: Researc

Bioinspired thymine functionalized polymeric systems: from synthesis to nano applications

Nature is an abundant source of elegant examples of synthesis of materials, and as in many other areas of science, polymer chemists have been drawing on bioinspiration to create sophisticated functional materials. Thymine, one of the nucleic bases in DNA, is well known for its ability to form relatively strong hydrogen bonds as well as its propensity to undergo reversible photo-dimerization upon UV exposure. The focus of this thesis is to develop a bioinspired thymine functionalized polymeric system based on hydrogen bonding and photo-crosslinking of thymine with potential nano applications such as in drug delivery and nanopatterned polymer films. In this research, thymine functionalized block copolymers were synthesized using controlled living radical polymerization. The block copolymers were used to prepare a stability enhanced core bound polymeric micelle system based on hydrogen bonding and photo-crosslinking of thymine. The stability of polymeric micelles was investigated in detail using various characterization techniques such UV-Vis spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy and dynamic light scattering. Further to this, the chemical loading and release potential of polymeric micelles was investigated using suitable drugs (6-mercaptopurine and 6-thioguanine). The results demonstrated that hydrogen bonding of thymine plays an important role in the stability of micelles and can be exploited for chemical loading and release of encapsulated materials. Furthermore, it was found that photo-crosslinking can be used as a tool to tune the stability of polymeric micelles, and hence to control the release of encapsulated materials. The photo-crosslinking of thymine was also exploited to develop reversible polymers and crosslinked nanogels. Overall, these studies demonstrated the scope and versatility of incorporation of thymine in polymers in order to develop functional materials for various applications such as drug delivery systems, nanopatterned films, reversible polymers and nanogels

Supplementary Material, supplementary_figures – Situated and distributed cognition in artifact negotiation and trade-specific skills: A cognitive ethnography of Kashmiri carpet weaving practice

<p>Supplementary Material, supplementary_figures for Situated and distributed cognition in artifact negotiation and trade-specific skills: A cognitive ethnography of Kashmiri carpet weaving practice by Gagan Deep Kaur in Theory & Psychology</p