British Muslim Feminisms on Stage

Second-generation writers of Muslim descent have played a crucial role in contesting stereotypes, but relatively little attention has been devoted to contemporary British Muslim women playwrights, whose work is the focus of this study. Yasmin Whittaker-Khan, Azma Dhar, and Emteaz Hussain examine the gender and sexual politics of Islam in the context of increasingly polarised debates about immigration and multiculturalism in Britain. Subverting Islamophobic stereotypes and conservative efforts to define or delimit Islam, they provide intimate views of diverse, self-critical, and adaptable subcultures

Teaching research methods to social work students in India and Australia: reflections and recommendations

This paper draws on the reflections of two social work educators who have, for many years taught research methods to undergraduate and postgraduate social work students in India and Australia. The intent is to suggest measures for enhancing the quality of social work research education. The reflections are embedded in a social justice and human rights framework, privileging the educators’ unique social and cultural contexts and their commitment to engage with indigenous knowledge. The authors recommend effective social work research education requires the educator to draw on a deep understanding of their own context, as well as globally accepted research traditions. Particularly, we encourage research teachers to adopt student-centred approaches that emphasise a broad ‘research mindedness’ (in their students and themselves), building students’ practical capacities and confidence to become effective, research informed practitioners; capable of contributing to their own communities and to the social work profession more broadly

Social Work: perspectives on practice and extension

[Extract] Practice and extension are basic essentials of professional social work. Social work education cannot be offered withour practice and extension. One of the main reasons for the lack of due recognition to the social work profession in India is because it is embedded in the traditional college and university system, that too, in the arts and science stream of higher education. Looking back, at the time when the profession is celebrating its Platinum Jubilee, we can very well realize that practice and extension need to be strengthened and inextricably interwoven with social work education to take the profession to greater heights and make it socially relevant. This volume contains papers reporting some experiences with practice and extension and insights drawn by social work educators, students, practitioners and researchers

Radiosensitivity of Amla (Emblica officinalis Gaertn.) Varieties Treated with Gamma Rays

Investigations were carried out at the Horticultural College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, during 2003-2005 to work out radiosensitivity of five varieties of amla (Emblica officinalis Gaertn.) exposed to different doses of gamma rays. Scions of five amla varieties, viz., BSR-1, Kanchan, Krishna, NA-7 and Chakaiya, were irradiated with different doses (1.0 to 5.0 kR) and these were grafted on to rootstocks. Based on the sensitivity study, LD50 for 100% survival ranged from 1.0 to 2.0 kR for all the five varieties. All the amla varieties could survive upto 10-20% at lower doses (upto 2.5 kR)

Molecular characterization of ten mango cultivars using simple sequences repeat (SSR) markers

Simple sequence repeats (SSRs) which is an efficient genetic markers for comparative genome mapping can be helpful in the classification of genotypes, germplasm resource utilization and breeding programmes. Therefore, the present study was conducted to show genetic variation and investigate inter-relationship between ten mango genotypes. Twenty (20) SSR markers were tested with 10 genotypes: Kalepad, Neelum, Swarnarekha, Alphonso Rumani, Sendura, Banganapalli, Himayuddin, Mulgoa and Bangalora. The genomic DNA was extracted from the leaf samples using cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) method. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of the DNA isolated from 10 mango genotypes with 20 SSR primers produced a total of 240 amplified products, of which 184 were polymorphic and 56 monomorphic. The sizes of the alleles detected ranged from 120 to 369 bp. SSR markers were highly polymorphic with an average of 2.70 alleles per primers. SSRs gave moderate values of polymorphic information content (PIC) range of 0.320 to 0.774. The amplified products varied between 2 (LMMA 1, 5, 7, 12, 16, MiSHRS-1 and MiSHRS-37) to 3 and 4 (LMMA 4, 6, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15 MiSHRS-4, 48, 18, 39 and LMMA 8) bands per primer. We obtained moderate degree of genetic diversity, with Jaccard’s similarity co-efficient values ranging from 0.075 between cluster I and II to 0.285 between clusters II and III. The dendrogram generated from the unweighted pair group arithmetic average (UPGMA) cluster analysis broadly placed 10 mango cultivars into three major clusters at co-efficient similarity of 0.65. The cluster size varied from 1 to 6 and cluster III was the largest cluster comprising of six cultivars followed by cluster II possessing three and cluster I possessing one variety. Cluster I had the highest diverse cultivars namely, Kalepad, Neelum and Swarnarekha. Cluster II included cultivar of Alphonso. Cluster III contain the cultivars viz., Rumani, Sendura, Bangnapalli, Himayuddin, Mulgoa and Bangalora. Unique fingerprints were identified in the cultivars. The unique fingerprints size ranged from LMMA-8 (257-270 bp), LMMA-11 (232- 245 bp) to MiSHRS 39 (340-369 bp). The tendency of clustering among mango cultivars revealed that they have strong affinity towards further breeding programme.Key words: Cultivars, genetic diversity, mango, simple sequence repeats (SSR)

Real-world evaluation of safety and effectiveness of ferrous bis-glycinate and its combination in pregnant women with iron deficiency anemia

Background: Iron deficiency is the most common cause of anemia during pregnancy. It leads to adverse outcomes on maternal and infant morbidity/mortality. There is a reduction in hemoglobin levels due to an increase in iron demand during pregnancy. Many pregnant women have poor or depleted iron stores and the amount of iron from the diet together with mobilized stores from the body is insufficient to meet the maternal demands. To meet iron demands, regular iron supplementation is recommended. Conventional iron supplements report frequent gastrointestinal side effects. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the safety, effectiveness, tolerability, and compliance of ferrous bis-glycinate and it’s combination for treating iron deficiency anemia during pregnancy. Methods: This was a retrospective analysis of data collected from 34 obstetricians and gynecologists across India, on the use of ferrous bis-glycinate and it’s combination as iron supplementation to pregnant women. The clinical records were analyzed for the objective i.e., rise in hemoglobin, safety, tolerability, and compliance. Results: 374 completed case records forms were considered for the analysis. These pregnant women had taken supplementation with ferrous bis-glycinate and its combination for an average of 58.5 days. The use of ferrous bis-glycinate and it’s combination improved mean hemoglobin concentration from 8.86 gm/dL to 11.27 gm/dL. With respect to safety, 97.6% of pregnant women did not report any adverse events. The remaining 2.4% had mild gastrointestinal side effects. Furthermore, 93% of pregnant women rated the tolerability as very good to good, and >98% of patients complied with >80% of treatment with ferrous bis-glycinate. Conclusions: This retrospective analysis suggests that ferrous bis-glycinate and it’s combination as iron supplementation in pregnancy is safe, effective, and well-tolerated

Life cycle and host range of Phycitasp. rejected for biological control of prickly acacia in Australia

Prickly acacia (Vachellia nilotica subsp. indica), a native of the Indian subcontinent, is a serious weed of the grazing areas of northern Australia and is a target for classical biological control. Native range surveys in India identified a leaf webber, Phycita sp. (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) as a prospective biological control agent for prickly acacia. In this study, we report the life cycle and host-specificity test results Phycita sp. and highlight the contradictory results between the no-choice tests in India and Australia and the field host range in India. In no-choice tests in India and Australia, Phycita sp. completed development on two of 11 and 16 of 27 non-target test plant species, respectively. Although Phycita sp. fed and completed development on two non-target test plant species (Vachellia planifrons and V. leucophloea) in no-choice tests in India, there was no evidence of the insect on the two non-target test plant species in the field. Our contention is that oviposition behaviour could be the key mechanism in host selection of Phycita sp., resulting in its incidence only on prickly acacia in India. This is supported by paired oviposition choice tests involving three test plant species (Acacia baileyana, A. mearnsii and A. deanei) in quarantine in Australia, where eggs were laid only on prickly acacia. However, in paired oviposition choice trials, only few eggs were laid, making the results unreliable. Although oviposition choice tests suggest that prickly acacia is the most preferred and natural host, difficulties in conducting choice oviposition tests with fully grown trees under quarantine conditions in Australia and the logistic difficulties of conducting open-field tests with fully grown native Australian plants in India have led to rejection of Phycita sp. as a potential biological control agent for prickly acacia in Australia