Ethnic Diversity and Ethnic Strife: An Interdisciplinary Perspective

The objective of this paper is to present an overview of ethnicity, ethnic strife and its consequences, as seen from the perspective of the disciplines of economics, political science, social anthropology and sociology. What exactly is ethnicity--how is it to be defined, characterized and measured? What exactly are the causal links from ethnicity so defined to its presumed consequences, including tension and violence? What are the feedback loops from the consequences of ethnic divisions back to these divisions themselves? How can policy, if at all, mitigate ethnic divisions and ethnic conflict? Finally, what role does interdisciplinarity have in helping to understand ethnicity and ethnic strife, and how can interdisciplinary collaboration be enhanced? These are the questions which this paper takes up and deals with in sequence.Ethnicity, Conflict, Interdisciplinary Approaches, International Development, International Relations/Trade,

Nitrogen status and heat-stress-dependent differential expression of the cpn60 chaperonin gene influences thermotolerance in the cyanobacterium Anabaena

Heat stress caused rapid and severe inhibition of photosynthesis and nitrate reduction in nitrate-supplemented cultures of the cyanobacterium Anabaena sp. strain L-31, compared to nitrogen-fixing cultures. Anabaena strains harbour two hsp60 family genes, groEL and cpn60, respectively encoding the 59 kDa GroEL and 61 kDa Cpn60 chaperonin proteins. Of these two Hsp60 chaperonins, GroEL was strongly induced during heat stress, irrespective of the nitrogen status of the cultures, but Cpn60 was rapidly repressed and degraded in heat-stressed nitrate or ammonium-supplemented cultures. The recovery of photosynthesis, nitrate assimilation and growth in heat-stressed, nitrate-supplemented cultures were preceded by resynthesis and restoration of cellular Cpn60 levels. Glutamine synthetase activity, although adversely affected by prolonged heat stress, was not dependent on either the nitrogen status or Cpn60 levels during heat stress. Overexpression of the Cpn60 protein in the closely related Anabaena sp. strain PCC7120 conferred significant protection from heat stress to growth, photosynthesis and nitrate reduction in the recombinant strain. The data favour a role for Cpn60 in carbon and nitrogen assimilation in Anabaena

A prospective study of lornoxicam as pre-emptive analgesic in abdominal surgeries in tertiary care hospital in Salem, India

Background: Preemptive analgesia, involves the introduction of an analgesic regimen before the onset of noxious stimuli, with the goal of preventing sensitization of the nervous system to subsequent stimuli that could amplify pain.Methods: To determine the efficacy and safety of Lornoxicam when administered preemptively by using Wong-Baker FACES Pain Rating scale. The patients undergoing abdominal surgery were randomly categorized into group A and B of 25 each. Group A- Received Lornoxicam 8mg (1ml) one hour before surgery. Group B- Not received any analgesic before surgery. Primary measurement of the efficacy was done by using Wong-Baker Faces Pain Rating Scale at 2, 4, 8, 12 and 24 hour. All parameters were analyzed by using student t test.Results: Surgeries which were included in the study are hernia repair, open appendectomy, laparoscopic (appendectomy, cholecystectomy). Reduction in pain scores at 12th hourly and 24th hourly pain scores (<0.05) was significant. Tramadol usage decreased significantly with laparoscopic surgeries.Conclusions: In this study we could demonstrate that lornoxicam when used preemptively reduces the pain score slightly and reduces the requirement of post-operative analgesics significantly

Exile and desire: Refugees, aesthetics and the territorial borders of international relations.

The thesis begins by exploring state-centric conceptualisation of refugees in international relations and the incapacity of territorialised notions of identity and responsibility to give a properly historical account of and response to displacement in the modern world. The onus is rather on defining refugees as a 'lack' or 'aberration' before the citizen. I suggest that this renders refugees effectively invisible and 'voiceless' 'others' whose personalities and experiences are appropriated to bolster the fundamental 'territorial' grounds of IR thinking on identity, ethics and responsibility. I explore this perception of refugees in an 'international refugee regime', focusing specifically on international refugee law and on humanitarian discourses on refugees. Two case studies are involved. One the marginalisation of child refugees by the terms of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, and, two, a study of Oxfam's Listening to the Displaced project in Sri Lanka. I argue that a consideration of refugees as subjects marginalised in international relations theory and practice opens up new theoretical spaces, throwing into stark relief the violence and Euro-centrism of prevalent 'territorialised' notions of identity, security, 'home' and 'culture' and, consequently, ethics and politics. Such a consideration of refugees questions the ascendancy of territorialised ethics and politics. The thesis critiques post-modern or post-structural attempts to widen the parameters of ethics and politics by noting that their methodology tends to fail to problematise the position of the critic, essentially making the geographical and historical 'locatedness' of the critic unimportant (thereby calling the non-western 'other' to definition in terms of yet another vein of the European canon). The thesis then argues that Theodor Adorno's aesthetic understanding with its emphasis on contingency, unceasing critique and the instability of all rational summations of the meaning of an object, both calls into question the subjective desire of the critic that influences what one sees and what one does not and provides a means for beginning with the marginalised experience of the other (rather than with the European canon)

Analysis of physico-chemical characteristics of seawater in Andaman and Nicobar Islands using multivariate statistical analysis

271-280The current study was aimed to determine the physico-chemical characteristics from the seawaters of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, during one year seasonal (post-monsoon, summer, pre-monsoon and monsoon) survey from January to December 2016 at six different sampling stations viz. Carbines Cove beach (CC), Burmenalla beach (BB), Hadoo Wharf harbor (HW), Pigeon Island (PI), Bquarry beach (BQB) and Campbell Bay (CB). Surface water temperature, pH, salinity, dissolved oxygen, nitrite (NO2), nitrate (NO3), total nitrogen (TN), inorganic phosphate (IP), total phosphate (TP) and silicate (SiO3) were recorded. The physico-chemical parameters were tested by means of multivariate statistical methods including Pearson&rsquo;s correlation, Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Cluster Analysis (CA) and Multidimensional Scaling (MDS). PCA revealed that 60.38% of variations in physico-chemical characteristics of all the six sampling stations. It showed a high degree of positive correlation with surface water temperature, salinity, DO, nitrite, nitrate and inorganic phosphate. A moderate degree of positive correlation with total phosphate in all the four seasons. CA produced a dendrogram assemblage of the study sites into four groups that exhibited maximum similarity of 99.3 % which has anthropogenic influence. The acquired results are significant to the mentioned conditions for virtual study with other parallel ecosystem in the area

IN SILICO ANALYSIS AND MOLECULAR INTERACTIONS STUDIES OF SELECTED PHYTOCONSTITUENTS FROM ANDROGRAPHIS PANICULATA AS POTENTIAL INHIBITORS OF MONOAMINE OXIDASE B

ABSTRACTObjective: The objective of the present study is to explore novel drug lead constituents from Andrographis paniculata for the treatment of Parkinson'sdisease.Methods: Phytoconstituents from A. paniculata were screened, and their activity against the monoamine oxidase B (MAO-B) protein was analyzed usingMolegro Virtual Docker software. The binding energy and interaction of the phytoconstituents with the protein were analyzed. The phytoconstituentswere also analyzed for their compliance toward Lipinski's rule of five.Results: Molecular docking studies were performed using Molegro Docking software. The compound neoandrographolide exhibited more potentinhibitory activity with a MolDock score of −126.78 Kcal/mol compared to that of the standard drug Zelapar which exhibited a MolDock score of−49.95 Kcal/mol. The docked pose of the compound neoandrographolide fits exactly at the active site with a maximum number of H-bond interactions.Conclusion: The present study suggests that neoandrographolide could be used as a potent inhibitor of MAO-B protein. However, it has to be validatedusing in-vivo and in-vitro studies to suggest the potency of neoandrographolide to inhibit the target protein, which could make neoandrographolide asan effective drug lead for the treatment of Alzhemier's disease.Keywords: Andrographis paniculata, Monoamine oxidase B protein, MolDock, Alzhemier's disease

A case series of Stener’s lesion of the first metacarpophalangeal joint

Ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) injuries have a high prevalence however; these are usually being missed in the initial clinical evaluation. Depending on the chronicity of the injury there are two acronyms for UCL tear. One is the skier's thumb and the other is the gamekeeper's thumb. If the UCL of the first metacarpophalangeal joint (MCP joint) has a complete tear with entrapment of aponeurosis of adductor pollicis muscle between the MCP joint and torn ligament, is called a Stener’s lesion. This is a rare clinical entity that requires early surgical correction because of entrapment. The mechanism of injury is the coerced abduction of the thumb from the index finger, causing ligament tears or sprain with or without ensuing avulsion fracture. The incidence of Stener’s lesions associated with UCL rupture has been reported to be up to 52% per intra-operative finding. In Stener’s lesions, the UCL tears from the base of the proximal phalanx (PP) then retracts proximally and displaces superficial to the adductor pollicis. Here we are presenting four cases of Stener’s lesions, with the usefulness of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in diagnosing this entity, which can prevent possible long-term complications such as chronic pain, joint degeneration, and joint instability