Between Commerce and Empire: David Hume, Colonial Slavery, and Commercial Incivility

Eighteenth-century Enlightenment thought has recently been reclaimed as a robust, albeit short-lived, cosmopolitan critique of European imperialism. This essay complicates this interpretation through a study of David Hume’s reflections on commerce, empire and slavery. I argue that while Hume condemned the colonial system of monopoly, war and conquest, his strictures against empire did not extend to colonial slavery in the Atlantic. This was because colonial slavery represented a manifestly uncivil institution when judged by enlightened metropolitan sensibilities, yet also a decisively commercial institution pivotal to the eighteenth-century global economy. Confronted by the paradoxical ‘commercial incivility’ of modern slavery, Hume opted for disavowing the link between slavery and commerce, and confined his criticism of slavery to its ancient, feudal and Asiatic incarnations. I contend that Hume’s disavowal of the commercial barbarism of the Atlantic economy is part of a broader ideological effort to separate the idea of commerce from its imperial origins and posit it as the liberal antithesis of empire. The implications of analysis, I conclude, go beyond the eighteenth-century debates over commerce and empire, and more generally pertain to the contradictory entwinement of liberalism and capitalism

2. Physical and Bioclimatic Features of the Selected Landscape Units

The level of heterogeneity in a landscape is generally determined by its physical, biological and human ecological complexities. Understanding the characteristics, behaviour and interactions of these elements are crucial for evolving a prudent management system. The landscape units in Kerala (see chapter 1) although may have some similarities in landscape elements; the complex environment driven by topographical and bioclimatic variability on the one hand and diverse cultural, social and econ..

Physical and bioclimatic features of the selected landscapes

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A Framework for Sustainable Groundwater Management

This manuscript aims to present the framework for the development of a four-stage tool for sustainable groundwater management as one of the highly interactive three-day workshop products. The four stages in the tool are (1) representing the target system, (2) description of the target system using components of DPSIR framework (drivers, pressures, state, impact, responses), (3) development of causal chains/loops, and (4) identifying knowledge gaps and articulating next steps. The tool is an output from the two-day Indo-US bilateral workshop on "Integrated Hydrochemical Modeling for Sustainable Development and Management of Water Supply Aquifers”. Four case studies from the invited talks, panel discussions, and breakout sessions were selected to demonstrate the developed four-stage framework to a coastal aquifer (India) and in high plains in Floridian, Piedmont, and Blueridge aquifers (United States of America). The developed tool can be practically used in the development of strategies for the sustainable use of groundwater in various regions around the world (e.g., planning/building/maintaining groundwater recharging structures). Continued work can result in establishing a center for excellence as well as developing a network project. The recommendations from the workshop were: (1) developing vulnerability analysis models for groundwater managers; (2) treatment and new ways of using low-quality groundwater; (3) adopting groundwater recharge; (4) mitigating pollutants getting into the aquifer; and (5) reducing groundwater use. This study provides a framework for future researchers to study the groundwater table related to the effectiveness of water recharging structures, developing a quantitative model from the framework. Finally, recommendations for a future study are more data collection on groundwater quality/recharge as well as enhancing outreach activities for sustainable groundwater management

3. Forest Types and Status: Ecological Characteristics and Impact of Disturbance

Vegetation as a template of a landscape is the visible expression of the prevailing environment. Within a landscape, heterogeneity in vegetation depends on local variability in bioclimate, soil and topography. However, interferences from anthropogenic activities further modify vegetation into various stages of degradations and transformations. Thus the characterization and classification of vegetation based on its dynamics and succession along the natural gradient and the disturbance regime a..

RNA interference in Fasciola gigantica: Establishing and optimization of experimental RNAi in the newly excysted juveniles of the fluke.

Fasciolosis caused by Fasciola gigantica is a neglected tropical disease but a constraint on the growth and productivity of cattle, buffaloes and sheep in the tropical countries of Asia and Africa. Resistance to commonly used anthelmintics in Fasciola has increased the need to search for alternative therapeutic targets. RNA interference is the current tool of choice in the search for such targets in Fasciola. The susceptibility of juvenile Fasciola hepatica to double stranded (ds) RNA induced RNAi has been established but in F. gigantica a single preliminary report on RNAi induced mRNA transcript knockdown is available. Here we optimized conditions for RNAi in the liver fluke F.gigantica targeting six genes including superoxide dismutase (SOD), σ class of glutathione-s-transferase (GST), cathepsin (Cat) L1-D, Cat B1, Cat B2 and Cat B3 that showed robust transcriptional silencing of the targets following exposure of the newly excysted juveniles (NEJs) to long (170-223 nt) dsRNA. Knockdown was shown to be concentration dependent with significant mRNA transcript suppression occurring at 5 ng / μl that showed further suppression with the increase in the dsRNA concentration. The dsRNA induced persistent silencing of the mRNA transcript of SOD and σGST up to 15 days of observation. Delivery of the long dsRNA and siRNA to the newly excysted juveniles by soaking method was found to be efficient by tracking the uptake and diffusion of Cy3 labelled siRNA and long dsRNA in the flukes. Off-target effects of dsRNA trigger on some of the non-target genes were detected in the present investigation on RNAi in F. gigantica. The dsRNA induced superoxide dismutase protein suppression while impact of RNAi on other target proteins was not studied. There is no in vitro culture system for prolonged survival of the F. gigantica and in the present study in vitro maintenance of the NEJs is reported for a period of 3 weeks. The present study is the first attempt on optimization of RNAi protocols in F. gigantica where long dsRNA allowed for an efficient and persistent gene silencing, opening prospects for functional validation of putative vaccine and therapeutic targets in this neglected parasite