Grievances, Demands, and Silencing: The case of Mutasareen-e Mirani Dam Movement

The sociological study of social movements conflates grievances with demands, and literature does not explain cases where the disjuncture between underlying grievances and articulated demands are significant. I propose a theory of silencing to study the gap between grievances and demand introduced due to internal and external movement factors shaped by differential power structures. Using the case of the Mutasareen-e Mirani Dam movement against a large dam in Pakistan, subsequent floods, and ongoing demands for financial compensation, I demonstrate that disjuncture are evident in cases where collective action seeks to address complex and multilayered loss faced by individuals and communities that are displaced and dispossessed due to the construction of mega-development projects. The research uses data collected through interviews, participant observation, and documentary archives collected between 2012 and 2015. My study shows mobilization can occur even when some underlying grievances are addressed, and the manner in which institutionalized power pre-configures movement demands.Master of Art

Saving Sindhu: Indus Enclosure and River Defense in Pakistan

Why do ideas of river defense take hold in some places along the same river and not others? Ideas of river defense emerged at the turn of the 21st century with a broader awareness that we are living in the Anthropocene era. The rapid construction of dams and irrigation systems over the past two centuries altered human-river relations to support modern lifestyles, with high costs for human and non-human riverine communities worldwide. While environmental and anti-dam groups have raised awareness about the adverse human impact on rivers and challenged powerful state and interstate institutions, it is not clear why and how ideas of defending nature emerged and took hold in some places rather than others. Scholars point to pre-existing sacred traditions, political recognition of indigenous groups, or the spread of secular-scientific environmentalism to explain the phenomenon, but these explanations neither explain variations along the same river nor work for the case of riverine movements in Pakistan. The present study focuses on variations in social movements along the northern, central, and southern Indus River to examine the material and cultural drivers of the politics of river control in Pakistan. The study extends the classical theory of the enclosure of commons to the case of rivers to examine how dams and irrigation systems alter the socio-material flows of rivers, impact state-society relations, and lead to different kinds of cultural claims over rivers by the state and societal actors. The study relies on archival and ethnographic data from three contemporary riverine social movements from Pakistan, two of which represent positive cases of river defense. The study finds that the deltaic and floodplain communities suffer recurring and cumulative impacts of river infrastructure development and have the most potential for the emergence of ideas of river defense. Activists realize this potential by organizing subaltern groups and centering them in existing ethnic identity-based movements. To do so, activists challenge the state’s claims to legitimacy and synthesize scientific evidence with cultural attitudes of river reverence to generate new concepts of territory, sovereignty, and rights that link the rights of humans to the rights of rivers. The strategic and creative work by riverine activists helps imagine alternative futures of human-river relations that privilege the defense of global rivers.Doctor of Philosoph

Oil Price Volatility, Organization Capital, and Firm Performance

We examine the relationship between oil price volatility and firm performance, and the moderating role of organization capital on this relationship. Using U.S. firm-level data during the period of 1986-2017, our analysis reveals several key findings. Consistent with the real option theory, we find that oil price volatility negatively affects firm performance. However, this adverse effect of oil price volatility is reduced for firms with high levels of organization capital. Interestingly, this moderating effect of organization capital is more pronounced for firms with large cash holdings. Overall, our findings substantiate the idea that firms with high levels of organization capital can hedge oil price related volatilities effectively. Findings from several robustness tests support our key results

Radiomics-Based Outcome Prediction for Pancreatic Cancer Following Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy

(1) Background: Radiomics use high-throughput mining of medical imaging data to extract unique information and predict tumor behavior. Currently available clinical prediction models poorly predict treatment outcomes in pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Therefore, we used radiomic features of primary pancreatic tumors to develop outcome prediction models and compared them to traditional clinical models. (2) Methods: We extracted and analyzed radiomic data from pre-radiation contrast-enhanced CTs of 74 pancreatic cancer patients undergoing stereotactic body radiotherapy. A panel of over 800 radiomic features was screened to create overall survival and local-regional recurrence prediction models, which were compared to clinical prediction models and models combining radiomic and clinical information. (3) Results: A 6-feature radiomic signature was identified that achieved better overall survival prediction performance than the clinical model (mean concordance index: 0.66 vs. 0.54 on resampled cross-validation test sets), and the combined model improved the performance slightly further to 0.68. Similarly, a 7-feature radiomic signature better predicted recurrence than the clinical model (mean AUC of 0.78 vs. 0.66). (4) Conclusion: Overall survival and recurrence can be better predicted with models based on radiomic features than with those based on clinical features for pancreatic cancer

Physarum-Inspired Bicycle Lane Network Design in a Congested Megacity

Improvement of mobility, especially environment-friendly green mobility, is challenging in existing megacities due to road network complexity and space constraints. Endorsing the bicycle lane network (BLN) in congested megacities is a promising option to foster green mobility. This research presents a novel bioinspired network design method that considers various constraints and preferences related to the megacity for designing an optimal BLN. The proposed method is inspired by natural Physarum polycephalum, a brainless, multi-headed single-celled organism, which is capable of developing a reticulated network of complex foraging behaviors in pursuit of food. The mathematical model of Physarum foraging behavior is adapted to maneuver various BLN constraints in megacity contexts in designing the optimal BLN. The Physarum-inspired BLN method is applied to two case studies on the megacity Dhaka for designing BLNs: the first one covers congested central city area, and the second one covers a broader area that includes major locations of the city. The obtained BLNs were evaluated comparing their available routes between different locations with the existing vehicle routes of the city in terms of distance and required travel times in different time periods, and the BLN routes were found to be suitable alternatives for avoiding congested main roads. The expected travel time using BLNs is shorter than other transport (e.g., car and public bus); additionally, at glance, the average travel speed on BLNs is almost double that of public buses in peak hours. Finally, the designed BLNs are promising for environment-friendly and healthy mobility

Assessment of distillate water quality parameters produced by solar still for potable usage

In this study, a few field experiments were conducted on a simple solar still and water quality analyses were done in laboratory to check the contaminants removal efficiency from raw water samples. A few water quality parameters such as pH, redox, electrical conductivity (EC), salinity, total dissolved solids (TDS), Escherichia coli and arsenic for the feed (before distillation) and product water (after distillation by a solar still) were obtained. A wide range of water samples (e.g. seawater, pond water, and arsenic contaminated groundwater) were collected from various locations in Malaysia and Bangladesh. A few synthetic saline water samples (e.g. 1, 2, 3 and 5% salt) were also prepared. The values of pH (6.5-7.5), redox (100-200 mV), EC (< 750 mS/cm) of the product water were found within the standard ranges. The average removal efficiencies of more than 24 and 99% were obtained from repetitive tests run on salinity and arsenic, respectively. The still was also successful in removing pathogenic bacteria by more than 80%. These obtained parameters of the product water were then compared with various drinking water standards and found that most of the values obtained were within the acceptable ranges provided by the standards. Finally, it is concluded that the solar still is able to produce potable water and can be installed to remove the water scarcity in coastal and arid regions

A Genome-Wide Study of Cytogenetic Changes in Colorectal Cancer Using SNP Microarrays: Opportunities for Future Personalized Treatment

In colorectal cancer (CRC), chromosomal instability (CIN) is typically studied using comparative-genomic hybridization (CGH) arrays. We studied paired (tumor and surrounding healthy) fresh frozen tissue from 86 CRC patients using Illumina's Infinium-based SNP array. This method allowed us to study CIN in CRC, with simultaneous analysis of copy number (CN) and B-allele frequency (BAF) - a representation of allelic composition. These data helped us to detect mono-allelic and bi-allelic amplifications/deletion, copy neutral loss of heterozygosity, and levels of mosaicism for mixed cell populations, some of which can not be assessed with other methods that do not measure BAF. We identified associations between CN abnormalities and different CRC phenotypes (histological diagnosis, location, tumor grade, stage, MSI and presence of lymph node metastasis). We showed commonalities between regions of CN change observed in CRC and the regions reported in previous studies of other solid cancers (e.g. amplifications of 20q, 13q, 8q, 5p and deletions of 18q, 17p and 8p). From Therapeutic Target Database, we identified relevant drugs, targeted to the genes located in these regions with CN changes, approved or in trials for other cancers and common diseases. These drugs may be considered for future therapeutic trials in CRC, based on personalized cytogenetic diagnosis. We also found many regions, harboring genes, which are not currently targeted by any relevant drugs that may be considered for future drug discovery studies. Our study shows the application of high density SNP arrays for cytogenetic study in CRC and its potential utility for personalized treatment.</p

Radiomics-Based Outcome Prediction for Pancreatic Cancer Following Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy

(1) Background: Radiomics use high-throughput mining of medical imaging data to extract unique information and predict tumor behavior. Currently available clinical prediction models poorly predict treatment outcomes in pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Therefore, we used radiomic features of primary pancreatic tumors to develop outcome prediction models and compared them to traditional clinical models. (2) Methods: We extracted and analyzed radiomic data from pre-radiation contrast-enhanced CTs of 74 pancreatic cancer patients undergoing stereotactic body radiotherapy. A panel of over 800 radiomic features was screened to create overall survival and local-regional recurrence prediction models, which were compared to clinical prediction models and models combining radiomic and clinical information. (3) Results: A 6-feature radiomic signature was identified that achieved better overall survival prediction performance than the clinical model (mean concordance index: 0.66 vs. 0.54 on resampled cross-validation test sets), and the combined model improved the performance slightly further to 0.68. Similarly, a 7-feature radiomic signature better predicted recurrence than the clinical model (mean AUC of 0.78 vs. 0.66). (4) Conclusion: Overall survival and recurrence can be better predicted with models based on radiomic features than with those based on clinical features for pancreatic cancer