Muon g-2 and Implications for Supersymmetry

A brief review is given of the implications of the recent Brookhaven result on the muon anomaly ($a_{\mu}$) for supersymmetry. We focus mainly on the implications of the recent results for the minimal supergravity unified model. We show that the observed difference implies the existence of sparticles most of which should become observable at the Large Hadron Collider. Further, as foreseen in works prior to the Brookhaven experiment the sign of the difference between experimental prediction of $a_{\mu}$ and its Standard Model value determines the sign of the Higgs mixing parameter $\mu$. The $\mu$ sign has important implications for the direct detection of dark matter. Implications of the Brookhaven result for other low energy phenomena are also discussed.Comment: Based on Invited Plenary talk at the IIIrd International Conference on Non-Accelerator New Physics, Dubna, Russia, June 19-23, 2001. 18 pages, Latex including five figure

Theoretical Status of Muon (g-2)

The theoretical status of the muon anomaly is reviewed including the recent change in the light by light hadronic correction. Specific attention is given to the implications of the shift in the difference between the BNL experimental result and the standard model prediction for sparticle mass limits. The implication of the BNL data for Yukawa unification is discussed and the role of gaugino mass nonuniversalities in the satisfaction of Yukawa unification is explored. An analysis of the BNL constraint for the satisfaction of the relic density constraint and for the search for dark matter is also given.Comment: 9 pages, Latex aipproc.Invited plenary talk at the Coral Gables Conference, at Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Dec 12-16, 2001. Vernon Hughes and Alan Krisch, session organizer

STATUS OF WOMEN IN THE RURAL KHASI SOCIETY OF MEGHALAYA

The issue of empowerment of women has been much discussed at various levels to find out the solution to age old problem of gender discrimination, exploitation of women and to uplift their status and position in the society. However, in most of the tribal societies even if poor, women always have an instilled special position and role they play in different spheres with great responsibility vis a vis their counterpart men. The Khasi society of Meghalaya is such a society, commonly known as matrilineal where authority, title, inheritance, residence after marriage and succession are traced through female line. So it is presumed that they do not require any special effort to make them aware and get social, economic, political or psychological understanding and knowledge to establish their rights along with men in their society as they are automatically placed on an esteemed level. They are presumed to have access to education, ownership of property, authority in their family and society; they are the heads of their families and decide what to be done or not etc. But a recent survey by us in the rural areas of Meghalaya shows that about one-third of the families are headed by the male. Also many of the families headed by females who are either widow or deserted. Also in the political sphere, hardly anybody is there who is female and even in the Dorbar; females are not allowed to take part in the meeting or decision-making. But in most of the socio-economic activities, still now dominance on female is observed even though they are assumed to be physically weak. Also, even though some families are headed by males it may be that they are just to carry out activities with the guidance of their female counterpart who has better control over assets and therefore no fear of loosing anything even if they are deserted by their husbands. Therefore, a question may arise whether in Khasi tribe the status of women is ascribed or prescribed by the society. Also it is pertinent to enquire about the direction to which the position and status of women are moving with the development of the society. This paper is thus an attempt to examine the dynamics of status and role of tribal women in Meghalaya, especially of Khasi women. It is examined through a number of social, economic, political, cultural, psychological and attitudinal indicators on the basis of the primary data on such factors collected from two villages in East Khasi Hills District of Meghalaya.Status of Women, Empowerment of Women

Silence of the genes- 2006 nobel prize in physiology or medicine

The 2006 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Andrew Fire and Craig Mello for discovering "RNA interference-genesilencing by double-stranded RNA". The Nobel Committee at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden selected them for the award for unraveling "a fundamental mechanism for controlling the flow of genetic information" that is "already being widely used in basic science as a method to study the function of genes and may lead to novel therapies in the future". This has been one of the fastest Nobel Prizes conferred in physiology or medicine, considering that Fire and Mello published their path-breaking article in the journal Nature in 1998, less than ten years ago

Women in natural resource collection: Experience from rural Jharkhand in India

Women living in rural areas are closely associated with the natural environment. Poor families are mostly dependent on natural resources for their survival activities viz.grazing of cattle, collection of water for drinking and cooking purposes and collection of fuel wood. In the poor families due to the compulsion of earning, adult males mostly go for outside activities and sometimes female members of the family also join them. The aforementioned natural resource collection activities are considered to be inferior, less remunerative and hence suitable for the women or young kids to perform. Thus, they are found to be more close to the nature than men and this very close relationship makes them perfect managers of the eco-system in their vicinity. The life of rural women is so much intertwined with the environment that they can't even think of her survival without it. However, there might be significant inter-household differences in the distribution of such activities between male and female members of the families, depending upon their socioeconomic characteristics, cultural and religious beliefs and attitude towards women and children. The involvement of women in such activities is also found to be more in the tribal dominated societies. This paper tried to examine the extent to which women in rural Jharkhand are involved in such natural resource collection and management activities. Also, we tried to unearth various economic and cultural reasons and their impact on the involvement of women in such activities across various social and economic groups. The analysis of primary data collected from the rural areas of tribal dominated Jharkhand reveals that income, occupation and status of the families have significant inverse link with the involvement of women and also of girl children at the cost of their educational prospects. Religious and cultural beliefs also enter in the determination of extent of involvement of women and children in the rural society. It is also an indication of the low empowerment level of the rural women in the study area