Increasing the Civic and Political Participation of Women (2017)

In 2016, USAID's Center of Excellence on Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance launched its Learning Agenda—a set of research questions designed to address the issues that confront staff in USAID field offices working on the intersection of development and democracy, human rights, and governance. This literature review—produced by a team of UVA professors and graduate students representing the academic disciplines of anthropology, history, political science, religious studies, and sociology—synthesizes scholarship from diverse research traditions on the following Learning Agenda question:What are the most effective ways to encourage women's civic (e.g., volunteer, advocacy, etc.) and political (e.g., voting, running for office) participation? What are the risks to women of these strategies in contexts where resistance to changing gender norms is strong?Building on an ODI report, "Women's Voice and Leadership in Decision-Making: Assessing the Evidence" (2015) that identified seven strategies to support women's civic and political representation, the UVA team focused on the second half of the research question, using a flexible systematic review process that included defining and operationalizing strong resistance. Overall, the team found that 1) research on resistance that aims to limit or end challenges to the status quo is under-theorized and in need of concept-building before researchers can make the analytical distinctions necessary to assess resistance fully and 2) where the literature does exist, it has an almost exclusive focus on female politicians.With these limitations in mind, key findings include:Resistance—which may include physical and sexual violence; social and familial censure; ostracization by the religious community; and various overt or subtle forms of restriction, deprivation, and exclusion—varies according to multiple factors, including by not limited to gender norms, the broader cultural context, regime type, local power structures, economic opportunities, and the form of participation sought.All women do not experience the same levels of risk, and are not vulnerable to the same types of resistance. For example, even within a single socio-cultural context, women who are marginalized (economically, racially, linguistically, religiously, or otherwise) are likely to bear greater burdens of risk.Strong resistance in response to the seven strategies identified in the ODI report is not pervasive but does occur, and that it can discourage women's participation.Low to moderate resistance is ubiquitous, but generally has less deleterious effects.Sites where strong resistance occurs vary within countries and even among local areas within a single country, suggesting that a country-level analysis of gender norms is inadequate and ineffective for assessing and understanding women's risk of strong resistance.The implications of these findings are that practitioner risk assessments should be:Routine and done prior to engaging in any intervention, and require information extending far beyond local gender norms.Focused on low to moderate forms of resistance in situations of backlash, and attentive to the possibility of strong resistance in situations of entrenched resistance.Designed for the specific site where the intervention occurs, while remaining attentive to national- and individual-level factors that shape resistance

A Method for generating marker-less gene deletions in multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii

10.1186/1471-2180-13-158BMC Microbiology131581-1

Mesolimbic dopamine pathway dysfunction in dietary obesity

Obesity imposes major health risks on individuals and the alarming international rate of rise in obesity has been a subject of major concern. Initially obesity was believed to be solely linked to dysfunction of the homeostatic system regulating food intake. However, recent studies have also linked obesity to the Dopamine (DA) reward circuit dysfunction. Low levels of dopamine receptors and dopamine transmission is theorized to cause addiction like compulsive overeating, and has been positively correlated to obesity in both mice models and humans. More recently, consumption of high caloric palatable diets have also been shown to reduce dopamine receptors and thus cause compulsive overeating in mice models

Biochemical and clinical variations among severe Plasmodium Vivax malaria cases: A prospective study

Context: Plasmodium vivax is geographically widely distributed with up to 2.5 billion people at risk and an estimated 70-80 million cases every year. India contributes 77% of the total malaria in Southeast Asia. Retrospective analysis of burden of malaria showed that disability adjusted life years due to malaria were 1.86 million years. According to recent study, West Bengal contributes 11% of total malaria cases in country and is one of states where falciparum resistance to chloroquine has been confirmed. Aims: The aim of this study was to evaluate the biochemical and clinical profile of severe and non-severe Plasmodium vivax malaria and the complications and outcome of P. vivax malaria infections as there is very limited information on age and sex specific seasonal prevalence of malaria in different paradigms in the country. Materials and Methods: A hospital based prospective study was conducted in Medical College, Kolkata comprising of 138 patients with fever (≥37.5˚C), peripheral smear and/or rapid diagnostic tests positive for P. vivax. Previously established cases of CKD, hematological abnormalities, chronic liver diseases and neuro-psychiatric disorders were excluded from our study. Demographical, clinical and laboratory parameters including liver function test, renal function test were documented and were presented in tabular and statistical means. Results: Jaundice was present in 22% of patients and vomiting in 32% of the patients. Hepatomegaly was seen in 16 % cases and 33% cases had splenomegaly. ARDS was seen in 16% of severe malaria cases. Acute kidney injury was seen in 8% and cerebral malaria was seen in 12% of severe malaria cases. Multi organ dysfunction was seen in12 %cases. There was 1 death in the study due to multi organ dysfunction. Conclusion: Life threatening complications such as ARDS, AKI, cerebral malaria and MODS can be seen in P. vivax mono infections

Dietary milk phospholipids attenuate chronic stress-induced changes in behavior and endocrine responses across the lifespan

Scope: Increasing scientific evidence is validating the use of dietary strategiesto support and improve brain health throughout the lifespan, with tailorednutritional interventions catering for specific life stages. Dietary phospholipidsupplementations in early life and adulthood are shown to alleviate some ofthe behavioral consequences associated with chronic stress. This study aimsto explore the protective effects of a tailored phospholipid-enriched buttermilkon behavioral and endocrine responses induced by chronic psychosocialstress in adulthood, and to compare these effects according to the life stage atwhich the supplementation is started.Methods and Results: A novel developed phospholipid-enriched dairy productis assessed for its effects on social, anxiety- and depressive-like behaviors, aswell as the stress response and cognitive performance following chronicpsychosocial stress in C57BL/6J mice, with supplementation beginning inadulthood or early life. Milk phospholipid supplementation from birth protectsadult mice against chronic stress-induced changes in endocrine response to asubsequent acute stressor and reduces innate anxiety-like behavior innon-stressed animals. When starting in adulthood, the dietary interventionreverses the anxiety-like phenotype caused by chronic stress exposure.Conclusion: Dairy-derived phospholipids exert differential protective effectsagainst chronic psychosocial stress depending on the targeted life stage andduration of the dietary supplementation

Characteristics and outcomes of gallbladder cancer patients at the Tata Medical Center, Kolkata 2017–2019

Abstract Background The north and north‐eastern regions of India have among the highest incidence of gallbladder cancer (GBC) in the world. We report the clinicopathological charateristics and outcome of GBC patients in India. Methods Electronic medical records of patients diagnosed with GBC at Tata Medical Center, Kolkata between 2017 and 2019 were analyzed. Results There were 698 cases of confirmed GBC with a median age of 58 (IQR: 50–65) years and female:male ratio of 1.96. At presentation, 91% (496/544) had stage III/IV disease and 30% (189/640) had incidental GBC. The 2‐year overall survival (OS) was 100% (95% CI: 100–100); 61% (95% CI: 45–83); 30% (95% CI: 21–43); and 9% (95% CI: 6–13) for stages I–IV, respectively (p = <0.0001).   For all patients, the 2‐year OS in patients who had a radical cholecystectomy followed by adjuvant therapy (N = 36) was 50% (95% CI: 39–64), compared to 29% (95% CI: 22–38) for those who had a simple cholecystectomy and/or chemotherapy (N = 265) and 9% (95% CI: 6–14) in patients who were palliated (N = 107) (p = <0.0001). Conclusion The combined surgical/chemotherapy approach for patients with stage II GBC showed the best outcomes. Early detection of GBC remains problematic with the majority of patients presenting with stage III–IV and who have a median survival of 9.1 months. Our data suggests that the tumor is chemoresponsive and multi‐center collaborative clinical trials to identify alternative therapies are urgently required

Dignity through Discourse Poverty and the Culture of Deliberation in Indian Village Democracies

Employing a view of culture as a communicative phenomenon involving discursive engagement, which is deeply influenced by social and economic inequalities, the authors argue that the struggle to break free of poverty is as much a cultural process as it is political and economic. In this paper, they analyze important examples of discursive spaces—public meetings in Indian village democracies (gram sabhas), where villagers make important decisions about budgetary allocations for village development and the selection of beneficiaries for anti-poverty programs. They examine 290 transcripts of gram sabhas from South India to demonstrate how they create a culture of civic/political engagement among poor people, and how definitions of poverty and beneficiary-selection criteria are understood and interrogated within them. Through this examination, they highlight the process by which gram sabhas facilitate the acquisition of crucial cultural capabilities such as discursive skills and civic agency by poor and disadvantaged groups. They illustrate how the poor and socially marginalized deploy these discursive skills in a resource-scarce and socially stratified environment in making material and non-material demands in their search for dignity. The intersection of poverty, culture, and deliberative democracy is a topic of broad relevance because it sheds light on cultural processes that can be influenced by public action in a manner that helps improve the voice and agency of the poor. This paper—a product of the Poverty Team, Development Research Group—is part of a larger effort in the department to understand local government and citizen-based engagement in developing countries. Policy Research Working Papers are also posted on the Web a