Contextualizing Statelessness in the Indian Legal Framework: Illegal Immigration in Assam

With the publication of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, the indispensable question regarding the legal status of individuals who would be excluded from the final version arises. This paper critically analyzes the legal framework that addresses and governs statelessness, by taking into consideration, both the domestic laws, and the international treaties which India is a party to, and argues that the contemporary legal system does not address the issue of statelessness effectively and requires an overhaul. The lack of a comprehensive legislative policy to address statelessness will prevent uniformity in the expulsion methods that is employed by the state. In the light of forced deportation and the subsequent expulsion, this paper highlights the significance of formulating a uniform policy that operates on established humanitarian principles that does not vary from one instance to another

Quantitative analysis of venation patterns of Arabidopsis leaves by supervised image analysis

The study of transgenic Arabidopsis lines with altered vascular patterns has revealed key players in the venation process, but details of the vascularization process are still unclear, partly because most lines have only been assessed qualitatively. Therefore, quantitative analyses are required to identify subtle perturbations in the pattern and to test dynamic modeling hypotheses using biological measurements. We developed an online framework, designated Leaf Image Analysis Interface (LIMANI), in which venation patterns are automatically segmented and measured on dark-field images. Image segmentation may be manually corrected through use of an interactive interface, allowing supervision and rectification steps in the automated image analysis pipeline and ensuring high-fidelity analysis. This online approach is advantageous for the user in terms of installation, software updates, computer load and data storage. The framework was used to study vascular differentiation during leaf development and to analyze the venation pattern in transgenic lines with contrasting cellular and leaf size traits. The results show the evolution of vascular traits during leaf development, suggest a self-organizing mechanism for leaf venation patterning, and reveal a tight balance between the number of end-points and branching points within the leaf vascular network that does not depend on the leaf developmental stage and cellular content, but on the leaf position on the rosette. These findings indicate that development of LIMANI improves understanding of the interaction between vascular patterning and leaf growth