Customs, rights and identity. Adivasi women in Eastern India

This article traces the trajectory of the changing lives of adivasi women of eastern and central India, i.e., the erstwhile Chotanagpur Division and the Santal Parganas of the Bengal Presidency under colonial times, and which is today incorporated largely within the state of Jharkhand. In India today, adivasi women figure among some of the most deprived of people living in the margins, much of their vulnerability arising from unequal access to resources, particularly their right to inherit paternal property, and rooted in their socio-economic norms. Colonial rule, on the one hand, witnessed the increasing marginalisation of tribal women with the weakening of the communal indigenous organisations which left them exposed to exploitation of the market forces. On the other hand, it also enabled the empowerment of a section of adivasi women who asserted their right to inherit ancestral property. In contrast, the politics of indigeneity in contemporary India have imposed restrictions on adivasi women’s bid to claim land rights

Introduction. Out of Hidden India: Adivasi Histories, Stories, Visual Arts and Performances

This issue of Anglistica AION is dedicated to indigenous India and to some of its forms of emerging subjectivity. After having been studied by ethnoanthropologists as cultural exceptions or worse after having embodied the stereotype of the ‘born offender’ in colonial legislation, Indian tribals are claiming a new articulated visibility and an amplified political resonance. As Rashmi Varma remarks, in post-independence India, tribals are emerging as political protagonists in their own right asking, and in part obtaining, attention and recognition. Unfortunately even in the postcolonial state tribals continue to suffer from an easy mis-representation of their role and status, figuring very often as dangerous insurgents who threaten national security or as backward minorities whose survival hinders development

From ‘Folk’ to Digital: Transformation of Bengal Paṭacitra Art in the Times of Coronavirus

This article looks at the fortunes of traditional craftsmen, the scroll painters – citrakars or paṭuỵās – of Bengal during the novel coronavirus pandemic. It first examines how ideas regarding coronavirus were propagated and represented through paṭacitra folk art. Secondly, through an analysis of the paṭacitras of Medinipur and Kālighāt, it seeks to trace the ways paṭacitra art has been adapted and reinvented in the digital space, arguing that the pandemic is a milestone in the long history of the transformation of Bengal paṭacitras. Since the last decade of the 20th century, the market for paṭacitras has become increasingly urban and even global, and partly dependent on governmental and NGO support, art fairs and cultural centres. The pandemic opened up paṭuỵā art to cyberspace: direct contact was established between the village-based scroll painter and a worldwide virtual audience. NGOs with dedicated Facebook pages on popular art and the possibility of live performances effectively transformed a ‘rurban’ cultural practice into a ‘glocal’ phenomenon. Finally, the article explores whether this new performance-cum-marketing space will lead to any change in the income-earning capacity of traditional artists

An Exploratory Study of Bloggers\u27 Information Sharing Behavior: The Role of Online Privacy Concerns

Social networking websites have become very popular with Internet users as one of the latest forms of online communication tools. Blogs, recurrently updated web pages with a series of archived postings in social network websites have been discussed as a useful information sharing platform for knowledge management in a collaborative work environment. However, blogs generate growing concerns regarding information privacy issues. This study, based on social capital theory, presents exploratory results about bloggers’ information sharing behavior. The survey results indicate that trust which has four second order factors: economy based trust, trust in reciprocity, trust in other bloggers and trust in social interaction positively affects bloggers’ information sharing behavior. However, online information privacy concerns have a negative impact on the relationship between trust and bloggers’ information sharing behavior

From ‘Folk’ to Digital

This article looks at the fortunes of traditional craftsmen, the scroll painters – citrakars or paṭuỵās – of Bengal during the novel coronavirus pandemic. It first examines how ideas regarding coronavirus were propagated and represented through paṭacitra folk art. Secondly, through an analysis of the paṭacitras of Medinipur and Kālighāt, it seeks to trace the ways paṭacitra art has been adapted and reinvented in the digital space, arguing that the pandemic is a milestone in the long history of the transformation of Bengal paṭacitras. Since the last decade of the 20th century, the market for paṭacitras has become increasingly urban and even global, and partly dependent on governmental and NGO support, art fairs and cultural centres. The pandemic opened up paṭuỵā art to cyberspace: direct contact was established between the village-based scroll painter and a worldwide virtual audience. NGOs with dedicated Facebook pages on popular art and the possibility of live performances effectively transformed a ‘rurban’ cultural practice into a ‘glocal’ phenomenon. Finally, the article explores whether this new performance-cum-marketing space will lead to any change in the income-earning capacity of traditional artists

Digital Risk Considerations Across Generative AI-Based Mental Health Apps

Mental health platforms on online mobile applications are increasingly adopting generative AI algorithms, however, studies point to the digital risks involved in this adoption. Ethical dilemmas, misinterpretation of complex medical cases, compromised patient privacy, and potential legal liabilities deter generative AI integration with online mobile applications. This study examines 1 million user-generated review comments from 54 applications on various mobile platforms such as Google Store and App Store which use generative AI to provide mental health assistance. The review comments are studied using text-mining approaches to identify the potential digital risks posed to users across these mental healthcare apps. Results from our study aim to guide regulatory frameworks in healthcare in the future

Approximate controllability of a second-order neutral stochastic differential equation with state dependent delay

In this paper, the existence and uniqueness of mild solution is initially obtained by use of measure of noncompactness and simple growth conditions. Then the conditions for approximate controllability are investigated for the distributed second-order neutral stochastic differential system with respect to the approximate controllability of the corresponding linear system in a Hilbert space. We construct controllability operators by using simple and fundamental assumptions on the system components. We use the lemma, which implies the approximate controllability of the associated linear system. This lemma is also described as a geometrical relation between the range of the operator B and the subspaces Ni⊥, i = 1, 2, 3, associated with sine and cosine operators in L2([0, a], X) and L2([0, a], LQ). Eventually, we show that the reachable set of the stochastic control system lies in the reachable set of its associated linear control system. An example is provided to illustrate the presented theory. &nbsp

Patient Adoption of Smart Cards

This paper adapts the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use Technology Model (UTAUT) to assess the factors impacting the adoption of smart cards in Medicaid Health Home context. We contribute to the theory by including three constructs specific to smart card and health devices: (i) concern for error, (ii) sickness orientation (iii) concern for data security. Utilizing a survey design we collected responses from 116 participants who are ethnic minorities, enrolled in a Medicaid Health Home program or from a high-risk population. We developed a conceptual model and an instrument to measure the patient’s likelihood to use the smart card. The concern for error, social influence and sickness orientation significantly impact the likelihood to use the smart card. Our results show that patients are more concerned about prevention of errors as compared to security breaches

Smart Card Adoption in Healthcare: An Experimental Survey Design using Message Framing

The smart card is a cloud-based device that enables participating healthcare organization’s greater access to a patient’s protected health information. This research investigates salient factors including the impact of communication using message framing on the likelihood to use the cards. We integrate the technology acceptance model theory (TAM) with the prospect theory, using message framing to assess the impact of gain-and loss-framed messages on patient’s likelihood to use. The conceptual model also adapts TAM by considering new constructs specific to the adoption of smart cards. Using data collected from 331 patients, we use logistic regression to investigate the adoption of this technology. Preliminary results indicate that concern for location monitoring and loss-framed messages have an adverse impact on a patient’s likelihood to adopt. Error prevention, smart card benefits, improved decision making and the social influence of healthcare actors have positive effects on the likelihood to use smart cards

A Parallel Algorithm Template for Updating Single-Source Shortest Paths in Large-Scale Dynamic Networks

The Single Source Shortest Path (SSSP) problem is a classic graph theory problem that arises frequently in various practical scenarios; hence, many parallel algorithms have been developed to solve it. However, these algorithms operate on static graphs, whereas many real-world problems are best modeled as dynamic networks, where the structure of the network changes with time. This gap between the dynamic graph modeling and the assumed static graph model in the conventional SSSP algorithms motivates this work. We present a novel parallel algorithmic framework for updating the SSSP in large-scale dynamic networks and implement it on the shared-memory and GPU platforms. The basic idea is to identify the portion of the network affected by the changes and update the information in a rooted tree data structure that stores the edges of the network that are most relevant to the analysis. Extensive experimental evaluations on real-world and synthetic networks demonstrate that our proposed parallel updating algorithm is scalable and, in most cases, requires significantly less execution time than the state-of-the-art recomputing-from-scratch algorithms