Taking a Break from the State: Indian Feminists in the Legal Reform Process

This paper examines the critique of what has been termed as “governance feminism” and analyses its conceptual utility with reference to the legal reform process undertaken in India in the aftermath of the Delhi anti-rape demonstrations of late 2012-early 2013. Governance feminism refers to the process by which feminists influence institutional decisions and policy, and critiques of governance feminism focus on its tendency to maintain an equivalence between womanhood and victimhood, and its blindness to unintended consequences of feminist legal reform. This paper will reflect on the critiques that have been made of governance feminist interaction with the state, and examine their exportability to the Indian context, with reference to Indian feminist engagement with the Justice Verma Committee (JVC) that was set up to make recommendations to the criminal law. I will go on to argue that the critiques that have been made of governance feminist intervention in the West have limited exportability to the Indian context. The insights of the governance feminist critique remain invaluable, and the methodological emphasis that it places on unintended consequences are of relevance to Indian feminists who (like any feminist movement) do not operate as a monolithic movement, but are constantly negotiating unstable political categories and identities. However, this paper will pay attention to the fact that where the Indian feminist movement was self-critical in its recommendations for legal reform, they were largely unsuccessful in having them reflected in the Ordinance and Act later passed. In the light of this, it will argue that while the governance feminist critique tends to espouse taking a break from feminism to account for other justice projects, the Indian feminist’s experience suggests that feminists may be better off taking a break from the state

SLC5A3-dependent myo-inositol auxotrophy in acute myeloid leukemia.

An enhanced requirement for nutrients is a hallmark property of cancer cells. Here, we optimized an in vivo genetic screening strategy in acute myeloid leukemia (AML), which led to the identification of the myo-inositol transporter SLC5A3 as a dependency in this disease. We demonstrate that SLC5A3 is essential to support a myo-inositol auxotrophy in AML. The commonality among SLC5A3-dependent AML lines is the transcriptional silencing of ISYNA1, which encodes the rate limiting enzyme for myo-inositol biosynthesis, inositol-3-phosphate synthase 1. We use gain- and loss-of-function experiments to reveal a synthetic lethal genetic interaction between ISYNA1 and SLC5A3 in AML, which function redundantly to sustain intracellular myo-inositol. Transcriptional silencing and DNA hyper-methylation of ISYNA1 occur in a recurrent manner in human AML patient samples, in association with IDH1/IDH2 and CEBPA mutations. Our findings reveal myo-inositol as a nutrient dependency in AML caused by the aberrant silencing of a biosynthetic enzyme

The fish, lake, and groundwater: Driving towards disparities reduction: Equitable approaches to social care at an integrated health system in Northern California

Introduction: The growing body of evidence shows associations between upstream social determinants of health and downstream health outcomes. Studies are increasingly documenting race and ethnic differences in social risk factors across all social determinants. Thus, healthcare industry stakeholders are joining the charge to support social needs. In response to these trends, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) put forth a five-domain framework for health system integration of social care activities into the delivery of care. Methods: Set within the Northern California Integrated Health System (NCIHS), this dissertation employed a mixed-methods design. Manuscript 1 is a literature review that examines multilevel social care programs influenced by the 2019 NASEM framework. Manuscript 2 sources equitable social care activities through qualitative interviews with NCIHS patients, clinicians, and operational managers. Manuscript 3 utilized the Modified Delphi Method to gain leadership consensus and prioritization of said equitable social care activities. Results: Manuscript 1 describes 21 multilevel social care programs aligned with the NASEM framework. Findings questioned NASEM framework completeness, calling for it to address the family level of the socioecological model and more foundationally, structural determinants of health. In Manuscript 2, patients, frontline clinicians, and operational managers detailed equitable social care activities across the five domains of the NASEM framework: awareness, adjustment, assistance, alignment, and advocacy. Four equitable care principles emerged as foundational to the NASEM framework and called for: anti-racism, cultural responsivity, healing-centered engagement, and a whole-family approach in social care. Manuscript 3 included leadership review of 52 equitable social care activities and resulted in 20 activities gaining consensus for prioritization at NCIHS. Results of these inquiries informed the development of an "Equitable Social Care Integration Proposal" for NCIHS consideration. Conclusion: NCIHS can lean on the "Equitable Social Care Integration Proposal" to strengthen its social care programming. The four equitable care principles now informing the NASEM framework help recalibrate social care initiatives with the equity lens. The collective action from our patients, clinical frontline, operational managers, and senior leaders detailed in the final proposal can help drive for race/ethnic disparities reduction and promote health equity for NCIHS’ diverse members and communities

Silicosis and the State: Configuring Labour’s Interest as the Public Interest

This article presents a close reading of several Public Interest Litigation (‘PIL’) petitions before the Indian Supreme Court since the 1980s, analysing how the figure of the worker suffering from silicosis, an occupational lung disease, has been constructed in judicial discourse. I trace the shifts in the vocabulary of law which variously constructed informal workers, exposed to dust in the workplace – first, as a community facing forced working conditions; then, as residents suffering air pollution; and finally, as victims of a human rights violation that the state was bound to compensate. This paper builds on and contributes to existing critical scholarship on PIL in India, and demonstrates how the Supreme Court has been subject to varying pressures in its decision-making, issuing a confusing range of orders as a result. I show that these cases represent an important but contested site of claim-making. Through these cases, this article emphasizes that we can discern the outlines of a broader trajectory in India – where state responsibility for informal workers has been negotiated with the identification of informal labour’s interests with the public interest. I also suggest that the route these cases have taken might offer us reason to be sceptical of the promise of the ‘public interest’ for informal workers in India

Association Rule Based Flexible Machine Learning Module for Embedded System Platforms like Android

Abstract—The past few years have seen a tremendous growth in the popularity of smartphones. As newer features continue to be added to smartphones to increase their utility, their significance will only increase in future. Combining machine learning with mobile computing can enable smartphones to become ‘intelligent ’ devices, a feature which is hitherto unseen in them. Also, the combination of machine learning and context aware computing can enable smartphones to gauge users’ requirements proactively, depending upon their environment and context. Accordingly, necessary services can be provided to users. In this paper, we have explored the methods and applications of integrating machine learning and context aware computing on the Android platform, to provide higher utility to the users. To achieve this, we define a Machine Learning (ML) module which is incorporated in the basic Android architecture. Firstly, we have outlined two major functionalities that the ML module should provide. Then, we have presented three architectures, each of which incorporates the ML module at a different level in the Android architecture. The advantages and shortcomings of each of these architectures have been evaluated. Lastly, we have explained a few applications in which our proposed system can be incorporated such that their functionality is improved. Keywords—machine learning; association rules; machine learning in embedded systems; android, ID3; Apriori; Max-Miner I