The Mouse Who Would be King: Innovating Tradition in the State of Chamba

ABSTRACT THE MOUSE WHO WOULD BE KING: INNOVATING TRADITION IN THE STATE OF CHAMBA Mandavi Mehta Michael W. Meister The mountain kingdom of Chamba in Himachal Pradesh is believed to be one of the oldest kingdoms in continuous existence in India, from its putative foundation in the sixth century until the 20th century. The basis of this contention is the genealogical roll of the ruling family, the Chamba Vaṃśāvalī, a text whose only existing copy was composed in the 17th century. Positioning itself at this key moment in the 17th century, this dissertation attempts to trace and problematize the process of state formation in the kingdom over the longue durée, by analyzing the Vaṃśāvalī’s historical narrative in the context of extant inscriptional records, the construction of both wooden and stone Nāgara temples at the two centers of Chamba and Bharmaur, and the introduction in the 17th century of a new visual vocabulary based on painting. A close study of the shifts and transitions in the material culture of the kingdom across the mediums of architecture, sculpture and painting sheds new light on the processes by which the rulers of Chamba formulated their ideas of kingship and identity and sought legitimacy from the past in the context of social and political developments both within their immediate neighborhood as well as North India more broadly. The 17th century in Chamba is revealed to be a period both of looking back in time to locate an ‘ancient’ and authentic past for the royal lineage of Chamba, as well as looking forward, to project an image of statehood that was in keeping with current political and cultural norms. Exploring the inconsistencies between the official history of the Chamba royal family – who claimed their descent from a Mūṣa (mouse) clan – and the visual and inscriptional evidence reveals the motivations behind the positioning of the rulers of Chamba at particular historical moments, during which they drew on both the past and the contemporary to create artistic vocabularies to give form to their aspirations and to survive

The strides of transformation: from planning commission to NITI Aayog

Mandavi Mehrotra considers the issues that plagued the Planning Commission from its inception and led to it being scrapped by the Modi administration last year. She argues the new NITI Aayog is a fresh concept with great potential, but that only time will tell if it can address the weaknesses of its predecessor

Study of prevalence for lactose malabsorption in malnutrition

Background: Milk is the major food in the diet of the infant mammal and consequently has always attracted considerable interest from the physician, the industrialist and the mother. The concentration of lactose in milk varies from species to species. Main objective is to study the prevalence of malabsorption in malnutrition.Methods: Sixty-seven children ranged between ages of 6 months to 3 years, of both sex and varying grades of malnutrition, were studied. Study conducted between July 1979-December 1979. All children were grouped into 4 grades of malnutrition according to Indian Academy of Pediatrics recommendation.Results: Out of 67 cases, 50 were followed up. Severe malnutrition of grades III and IV (less than 60 percent of expected body weight) comprises 58.2 percent (39 out of 67) in first seen group, and 52 percent (26 out of 50) in follow up group. 59.7 percent Males and 40.3 percent females in first seen cases. 58 percent males and 42 percent females in follow up cases. 24 cases (53.33 percent) of lactose malabsorbers were males and 21 cases (46.67 percent) were females.Conclusions: Lactose malabsorption is common in protein-energy malnutrition. This can be determined by simple ward tests and abnormal lactose tolerance curve after oral lactose load. Lactose malabsorption increases with the severity of malnutrition. Malnutrition leads to lactose malabsorption and lactose malabsorption is an important contributory factor in production of malnutrition

Clinical study of cases of intrauterine foetal death in a tertiary centre

Background: Foetal death at any stage of pregnancy is a tragic event and one of the unhappy events in the field of obstetrics. The present study was done to determine the probable etiology for antepartum and intrapartum foetal deaths and to study the role of antenatal care in prevention of intrauterine foetal deaths.Methods: The cases of intrauterine foetal deaths in OBGY department at MGM hospital, Kalamboli and Kamothe with either ultrasound reports proving Intrauterine foetal death  (IUFD) or diagnosed on clinical examination by absence of foetal heart rate with gestational age more than 28 weeks by dating from Naegle’s rule or by ultrasonography were studied. Inclusion criteria includes as following; 1) All cases of IUFD >28 weeks of gestation; 2) Baby weight of 1000 grams or more and exclusion criteria includes molar pregnancy.Results: The foetal death rate was 27.76/1000 births. Major causes of IUFD were PE and eclampsia (34.78%), unexplained (14.49%) and abruptio placentae (7.25%). Majority of the stillbirth were seen in preterm pregnancy between 34 - 36 (18.85%) weeks followed by 28 - 30 weeks (17.39%). Majority of foetuses were preterm and of birth weight between 1 - 1.5 kg (28.26%) followed by 1.5 - 2 kg (26.09%).Conclusions: Present studies showed that majority of IUFDs were preventable. Pre-eclampsia and abruption which are the major causes of IUFD can be reduced by improving education of the patient to avail obstetric care, more frequent visits for high risk pregnancies, timely reference to specialist. Early registration is an important pre-requisite for early detection of risk factors.

Ischemic axonal injury up-regulates MARK4 in cortical neurons and primes tau phosphorylation and aggregation.

Ischemic injury to white matter tracts is increasingly recognized to play a key role in age-related cognitive decline, vascular dementia, and Alzheimer's disease. Knowledge of the effects of ischemic axonal injury on cortical neurons is limited yet critical to identifying molecular pathways that link neurodegeneration and ischemia. Using a mouse model of subcortical white matter ischemic injury coupled with retrograde neuronal tracing, we employed magnetic affinity cell sorting with fluorescence-activated cell sorting to capture layer-specific cortical neurons and performed RNA-sequencing. With this approach, we identified a role for microtubule reorganization within stroke-injured neurons acting through the regulation of tau. We find that subcortical stroke-injured Layer 5 cortical neurons up-regulate the microtubule affinity-regulating kinase, Mark4, in response to axonal injury. Stroke-induced up-regulation of Mark4 is associated with selective remodeling of the apical dendrite after stroke and the phosphorylation of tau in vivo. In a cell-based tau biosensor assay, Mark4 promotes the aggregation of human tau in vitro. Increased expression of Mark4 after ischemic axonal injury in deep layer cortical neurons provides new evidence for synergism between axonal and neurodegenerative pathologies by priming of tau phosphorylation and aggregation

Comparison of Performance Analysis of Different Control Structures

Process control is a key part of almost every process operation. The features of a process are usually measured by process variables. The control of process variables is achieved by controllers. Process Engineers are often held responsible for different processes taking place in industries. These processes are generally of large scale and more complex. So, the role of process automation is more and more important in industries. Our prime objective is to design and tune various controllers and also analyze their performance. Implementing an effective control structure to control a process provide us various benefits like: better regulation of yield, better utilization of resources like energy, higher operating frequency, increased production and improved recording and reporting of process operations

Clear Cell Myoepithelial Carcinoma of the Upper Lip -A Rare Case Report

Myoepithelial carcinomas are quite infrequent neoplasms and coupled with their diverse morphological appearance are interesting as far as diagnosis and management is concerned. They account for less than 1% of all salivary gland tumors. The variable morphologic appearance of myoepithelial carcinoma leads to a wide differential diagnosis, including primary salivary gland tumors and metastatic tumors. The prognosis of these tumors is not fair as they are locally aggressive and approximately one third of the patients die of the pathology. We report a case of clear cell variant of myoepithelial carcinoma in an unusual location, i.e. the upper lip. The treatment carried out was wide surgical resection. The patient was followed up for 2 years and was symptom free. The clear cell variant of myoepithelial carcinoma is extremely rare and only about 51 cases of this variant affecting the salivary glands have been reported worldwide so far

Loss of Proliferation and Antigen Presentation Activity following Internalization of Polydispersed Carbon Nanotubes by Primary Lung Epithelial Cells

Interactions between poly-dispersed acid functionalized single walled carbon nanotubes (AF-SWCNTs) and primary lung epithelial (PLE) cells were studied. Peritoneal macrophages (PMs, known phagocytic cells) were used as positive controls in this study. Recovery of live cells from cultures of PLE cells and PMs was significantly reduced in the presence of AF-SWCNTs, in a time and dose dependent manner. Both PLE cells as well as PMs could take up fluorescence tagged AF-SWCNTs in a time dependent manner and this uptake was significantly blocked by cytochalasin D, an agent that blocks the activity of acto-myosin fibers and therefore the phagocytic activity of cells. Confocal microscopic studies confirmed that AF-SWCNTs were internalized by both PLE cells and PMs. Intra-trachially instilled AF-SWCNTs could also be taken up by lung epithelial cells as well as alveolar macrophages. Freshly isolated PLE cells had significant cell division activity and cell cycling studies indicated that treatment with AF-SWCNTs resulted in a marked reduction in S-phase of the cell cycle. In a previously standardized system to study BCG antigen presentation by PLE cells and PMs to sensitized T helper cells, AF-SWCNTs could significantly lower the antigen presentation ability of both cell types. These results show that mouse primary lung epithelial cells can efficiently internalize AF-SWCNTs and the uptake of nanotubes interfered with biological functions of PLE cells including their ability to present BCG antigens to sensitized T helper cells

Activating the knowledge-to-action cycle for geriatric care in India

Despite a rapidly aging population, geriatrics - the branch of medicine that focuses on healthcare of the elderly - is relatively new in India, with many practicing physicians having little knowledge of the clinical and functional implications of aging. Negative attitudes and limited awareness, knowledge or acceptance of geriatrics as a legitimate discipline contribute to inaccessible and poor quality care for India's old. The aim of this paper is to argue that knowledge translation is a potentially effective tool for engaging Indian healthcare providers in the delivery of high quality geriatric care. The paper describes India's context, including demographics, challenges and current policies, summarizes evidence on provider behaviour change, and integrates the two in order to propose an action plan for promoting improvements in geriatric care