Flood of Memories:Narratives of Flood and Loss in Tamil South India

Legendary deluges such as those said to have over-swept the Tamil lands or the flood waters that appear in popular religious and folk tales have long been a part of Tamil folk experience, and they serve as the backdrop against which contemporary flood is experienced. In this light, this dissertation explores the development and of disaster management policies in the Union Territory of Pondicherry from their origins in colonial-era policies to the significant re-orientation that followed the 2004 Asian tsunami. Conclusions are based on 14 months of ethnographic research in coastal fisher communities and government relief agencies in the Union Territory. Historical data collected from archives and interviews with territorial officials and NGO workers complement insights gleaned from extensive participant-observation and field collection among deep-sea fisher populations in the former French territories of the Coromandel Coast. Part one defines a Tamil “flood imaginary” by exploring myth-historic instances of flood in the Tamil-speaking region of India. The study then examines flood in the French colonies of India during the 18th and 19th centuries. Together these provide the background for better understanding the policies and beliefs about flood in place prior to the 2004 Asian tsunami and the effects these had on preparedness and resilience at both community and administrative levels. Part two focuses on the ways in which these affected how the territorial government and at-risk communities responded to the 2004 tsunami. Tensions that arose between government and community post-tsunami are examined through the interrogation of documents of agencies that undertook rehabilitation. ”Official” narratives of relief and reconstruction are balanced against the perspectives of recipients of government and voluntary aid and the local panchayat leaders who are agents of first resort for lodging requests and grievances. Through a comparison of relief efforts taken within a single state, this research higlights the efficacy of an approach to disaster relief and mitigation planning that appropriately integrates outside expertise with community metis and demonstrates the value of policy informed by ethnography

Scientific evidence on how organic food and farming contributes to sustainable food security

This briefing aims to summarise the most relevant recent scientific publications that critically assess the productivity and sustainability of organic farming methods. The rapid increase in the quantity of scientific literature on this topic reflects the growing importance of the sector as well as the need for accurate data and analysis to inform policy makers. There are currently 2.7 million organic-certified farmers (of which 350.000 are in Europe) who have committed to sustainable farming practices. Can organic food and farming be upscaled in order to contribute to sustainable food system and food security

Clamped cubic spline graphing of particle size distributions with application to Exeter and Sheep Pen Sandstones in northeastern New Mexico

The clamped cubic spline method for graphing particle size distributions involves fitting a clamped cubic spline to cumulative data, resulting in a continuous and smooth cumulative distribution curve (CDC) that honors the cumulative data. The ends of the CDC are clamped at zero slope. The CDC is easily differentiated, yielding a continuous and smooth probability density curve (PDC). Under conditions encountered typically in practical particle size analysis, clamped cubic spline method curves (1) provide detailed textural fingerprints that are easy to compare visually, (2) are not affected by random error, (3) allow accurate estimations of principal mode and median, (4) permit very accurate determinations of moment mean and moment standard deviation, (5) resolve accurately the polymodes of mixture distributions, and (6) facilitate determination of the number of component subpopulations in mixture distributions and their basis parameters. Based largely on application of the clamped cubic spline method to the Exeter Sandstone and Sheep Pen Sandstone in the Dry Cimarron Valley of northeastern New Mexico, it is proposed that the approximate lower one-half of the Exeter type section correlates with the Sheep Pen. This correlation reveals an angular unconformity at the base of the Sheep Pen. The Exeter, as redefined, is coarser grained and much better sorted than the Sheep Pen --Abstract, page iii

Gary Dorrien. Economy, Difference, Empire: Social Ethics for Social Justice. New York: Columbia University Press. 2010.

Book review

Endothelium-dependent sensory NANC vasodilatation: involvement of ATP, CGRP and a possible NO store

1. Non-adrenergic non-cholinergic (NANC) vasodilator nerves regulate tone in certain vascular beds. We have investigated the mechanisms of the NANC dilator response in the isolated small mesenteric artery of the rabbit by use of the tension myograph. 2. Small second or third order (150–300 μm in diameter) arteries of the rabbit mesenteric bed were mounted in a Mulvany tension myograph. Responses to electrical field stimulation (EFS) and exogenous vasodilators were investigated. 3. EFS (0.5–16 Hz, 10 V, 0.3 ms for 5 s), in the presence of guanethidine (5 μM) and atropine (1 μM) produced frequency-dependent relaxation of small arteries. Pretreatment with tetrodotoxin (1 μM) abolished the relaxation and desensitization with capsaicin (10 μM) strongly inhibited the relaxation. 4. Pretreatment with a P2Y-purinoceptor antagonist, basilen blue (3 μM) or a human calcitonin gene-related peptide (hCGRP) receptor antagonist, hCGRP(8–37) (1 μM) suppressed the NANC relaxation by approximately 40–60 % in each case and combined pretreatment almost abolished the relaxation. 5. The EFS-induced relaxation was suppressed by endothelium-removal, pretreatment with the soluble guanylyl cyclase inhibitor ODQ (1 μM) and the NO scavenger oxyhaemoglobin (OxyHb; 20 μM) but not by NO synthase inhibitors N(G)-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME; 300 μM) or N(G)-nitro-L-arginine (L-NOARG; 300 μM). Combined pretreatment with ODQ and CGRP(8–37) almost abolished the relaxation. 6. A P2Y-purinoceptor agonist, 2-methylthio ATP, produced endothelium-dependent relaxation which was inhibited by L-NAME and ODQ (1 μM), whilst hCGRP produced endothelium-independent and ODQ-insensitive relaxation. 7. Ultraviolet light (320 nm, 5 shots over 20 s) produced relaxation that was blocked by both OxyHb and ODQ but not by N(G)-monomethyl-L-arginine (L-NMMA, 300 μM). 8. The present study suggests that EFS-induced NANC relaxation of the mesenteric small artery of the rabbit is mediated mainly by capsaicin-sensitive sensory C-fibres and that both ATP and CGRP are involved. The action of ATP released by EFS appears to be endothelium-dependent and involve activation of soluble guanylyl cyclase, but is resistant to inhibitors of NO synthase. The response to CGRP is endothelium-independent. These results show that ATP and CGRP account fully for the NANC relaxation of this vessel type and that the endothelium is involved in NANC-induced relaxation. The endothelium-dependent part of the response is consistent with the release of NO, either from NO synthase, incompletely inhibited by the NO synthase inhibitors, or by some preformed stores

Captopril improves cerebrovascular structure and function in old hypertensive rats

1. We examined the effects of an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor (ACEI), captopril, on cerebral arterioles in young and old spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR). 2. Animals were anesthetized with sodium pentobarbitone (60 mg kg(−1) day(−1)). We measured cerebral blood flow (CBF, arbitrary units) and cerebral arteriolar internal diameter (ID, μm) prior to and during stepwise hypotension (SH) in 6- (WKY-6) and 15-month-old (WKY-15) Wistar Kyoto rats and in age-matched SHR that were untreated (SHR-6 and SHR-15) or treated for 3 months with captopril (SHR-6C, 105±2 mg kg(−1) day(−1) and SHR-15C, 94±1 mg kg(−1) day(−1)). ID and cross-sectional area of the vessel wall (CSA) were measured in deactivated (EDTA) cerebral arterioles during a second SH. 3. Captopril decreased the lower limit of CBF autoregulation (61±6 in SHR-6C and 51±2 in SHR-15C versus 52±6 in WKY-6 and 62±7 in WKY-15 and 83±14 mmHg in SHR-6 and 120±19 mmHg in SHR-15; P<0.05) and CSA (510±21 in SHR-6C and 585±25 in SHR-15C versus 529±12 in WKY-6 and 549±20 in WKY-15 and 644±38 mmHg in SHR-6 and 704±38 mmHg in SHR-15; P<0.05). 4. Captopril increased cerebral arteriolar external diameter of SHR (105±5 in SHR-6C and 94±4 in SHR-15C vs 125±8 in WKY-6 and 108±3 in WKY-15 and 83±2 mmHg in SHR-6 and 80±2 mmHg in SHR-15 for a pial arteriolar pressure step of 35–39 mmHg; P<0.05). Captopril attenuated increases in cerebral arteriolar distensibility in young SHR. 5. Thus, ACEIs attenuate eutrophic and hypertrophic inward remodeling of cerebral arterioles in young and old SHR, thus decreasing the lower limit of CBF autoregulation