Book review: modern India: a very short introduction by Craig Jeffrey

In Modern India: A Very Short Introduction, Craig Jeffrey summarises India's political developments from the seventeenth-century beginnings of colonial India up until the present day. While the book could have further explored the significance of Northeast India, this introduction offers a narrative thread that links lived perspectives to larger events of political history and enables comparisons of different eras to be made, writes Saba Sharma

Territories of belonging: Citizenship and everyday practices of the state in Bodoland

My thesis looks at the construction of citizenship in the Bodoland Territorial Area Districts (BTAD, or Bodoland for short) in Western Assam, India. The BTAD is an autonomous sub- region within the state of Assam, which in turn is part of a cluster of states in Northeast India. I look primarily at the everyday practices of the state in an ethnically diverse region with a history of separatism, armed militant struggle, and violence between different ethnic groups. My understanding of citizenship is developed in the backdrop of Assam’s contemporary exercise of updating its own National Register of Citizens, a process designed to identify illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh. I attempt to unpack the role of the state in the shaping of this relationship, looking at routine practices, as well as the ways in which the state represents itself in ordinary settings.Gates Cambridge Trus

Suicide gene therapy: a promising approach towards gene delivery

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Biochemical analysis of the DNA unwinding and strand annealing activities catalyzed by human RECQ1

RecQ helicases play an important role in preserving genomic integrity, and their cellular roles in DNA repair, recombination, and replication have been of considerable interest. Of the five human RecQ helicases identified, three are associated with genetic disorders characterized by an elevated incidence of cancer or premature aging: Werner syndrome, Bloom syndrome, and Rothmund-Thomson syndrome. Although the biochemical properties and protein interactions of the WRN and BLM helicases defective in Werner syndrome and Bloom syndrome, respectively, have been extensively investigated, less information is available concerning the functions of the other human RecQ helicases. We have focused our attention on human RECQ1, a DNA helicase whose cellular functions remain largely uncharacterized. In this work, we have characterized the DNA substrate specificity and optimal cofactor requirements for efficient RECQ1-catalyzed DNA unwinding and determined that RECQ1 has certain properties that are distinct from those of other RecQ helicases. RECQ1 stably bound to a variety of DNA structures, enabling it to unwind a diverse set of DNA substrates. In addition to its DNA binding and helicase activities, RECQ1 catalyzed efficient strand annealing between complementary single-stranded DNA molecules. The ability of RECQ1 to promote strand annealing was modulated by ATP binding, which induced a conformational change in the protein. The enzymatic properties of the RECQ1 helicase and strand annealing activities are discussed in the context of proposed cellular DNA metabolic pathways that are important in the maintenance of genomic stability

Attention-Based UNet Deep Learning Model for Plaque Segmentation in Carotid Ultrasound for Stroke Risk Stratification: An Artificial Intelligence Paradigm

Stroke and cardiovascular diseases (CVD) significantly affect the world population. The early detection of such events may prevent the burden of death and costly surgery. Conventional methods are neither automated nor clinically accurate. Artificial Intelligence-based methods of automatically detecting and predicting the severity of CVD and stroke in their early stages are of prime importance. This study proposes an attention-channel-based UNet deep learning (DL) model that identifies the carotid plaques in the internal carotid artery (ICA) and common carotid artery (CCA) images. Our experiments consist of 970 ICA images from the UK, 379 CCA images from diabetic Japanese patients, and 300 CCA images from post-menopausal women from Hong Kong. We combined both CCA images to form an integrated database of 679 images. A rotation transformation technique was applied to 679 CCA images, doubling the database for the experiments. The cross-validation K5 (80% training: 20% testing) protocol was applied for accuracy determination. The results of the Attention-UNet model are benchmarked against UNet, UNet++, and UNet3P models. Visual plaque segmentation showed improvement in the Attention-UNet results compared to the other three models. The correlation coefficient (CC) value for Attention-UNet is 0.96, compared to 0.93, 0.96, and 0.92 for UNet, UNet++, and UNet3P models. Similarly, the AUC value for Attention-UNet is 0.97, compared to 0.964, 0.966, and 0.965 for other models. Conclusively, the Attention-UNet model is beneficial in segmenting very bright and fuzzy plaque images that are hard to diagnose using other methods. Further, we present a multi-ethnic, multi-center, racial bias-free study of stroke risk assessment

Perfluorophenyl Derivatives as Unsymmetrical Linkers for Solid Phase Conjugation

Linkers play major roles in conjugation chemistry toward the advancement of drug discovery. Two different series of fluorinated linkers were introduced to the backbone of a model peptide using solid phase peptide synthesis. These fluorinated linkers have the potential to conjugate two asymmetrical groups. This has not been done using other fluorinated linkers. This study deals with application of linkers with S, N, and O terminals and reports on the investigation of their chemoselectivity and activity for branching peptide backbones using a chosen model peptide. These fluorinated linkers have unique properties that will make it possible for a large diversity of bioconjugated chemicals for different bioapplications to be designed and synthesized

Partnering with women collectives for delivering essential women\u2019s nutrition interventions in tribal areas of eastern India: a scoping study

Background: We examined the feasibility of engaging women collectives in delivering a package of women\u2019s nutrition messages/services as a funded stakeholder in three tribal-dominated districts of Odisha, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh States, in eastern India. These districts have high prevalence of child stunting and poor government service outreach. Methods: Conducted between July 2014 and March 2015, an exploratory mix-methods design was adopted (review of coverage data and government reports, field interviews and focus group discussion with multiple stakeholders and intended communities) to assess coverage of women\u2019s nutrition services. A capacity assessment tool was developed to map all types of community collectives and assess their awareness, institutional and programme capacity as a funded stakeholder for delivering women\u2019s nutrition services/behaviour promotion. Results: Limited targeting of pre-pregnancy period, delays in first trimester registration of pregnant women, and low micronutrient supplementation supply and awareness issues emerged as key bottlenecks in improving women\u2019s nutrition in these districts. Amongst the 18 different types of community collectives mapped, Self Help Groups (SHGs) and their federations (tier 2 and tier 3), with total membership of over 650,000, emerged as the most promising community collective due to their vast network, governance structure, bank linkage, and regular interface. Nearly 400,000 (or 20% of women) in these districts can be reached through the mapped 31,919 SHGs. SHGs with organisational readiness for receiving and managing grants for income generation and community development activities varied from 41 to 94% across study districts. Stakeholders perceived that SHGs federations managing grants from government and be engaged for nutrition promotion and service delivery and SHG weekly meetings can serve as community interface for discussing/resolving local issues impeding access to services. Conclusions: Women SHGs (with tier 2 and tier 3) can become direct grantees for strengthening coverage of women\u2019s nutrition interventions in these tribal districts/pockets, provided they are capacitated, supervised and given safe guards against exploitation and violence

Time Dependent Bladder Apoptosis Induced by Acute Bladder Outlet Obstruction and Subsequent Emptying is Associated with Decreased MnSOD Expression and Bcl-2/Bax Ratio

Ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury-induced oxidative stress plays an important role in the functional impairment of the bladder following acute bladder outlet obstruction (BOO) via induction of apoptosis. The purpose of this study was to investigate the time course of the bladder apoptosis, and apoptosis related molecular changes in the early stage of acute BOO. Twelve-week-old male Sprague Dawley rats were divided into control, acute BOO only (I), and acute BOO plus subsequent emptying (I/R) for 30, 60, 120 min, 3 days and 2 weeks. We examined the extent of bladder apoptosis, expression of Mn-superoxide dismutase (Mn-SOD), Bcl-2, Bax, caspase 3 and poly (ADP-ribose) (PAR) in the bladder. Bladder apoptosis was significantly increased in the I/R group at 30, 60, and 120 min following bladder emptying. BOO plus subsequent emptying for 30, 60, 120 min showed significant decrease in MnSOD and Bcl-2 expression, and significant increase in caspase 3, Bax expression, and amounts of PAR. These results indicate that bladder apoptosis, induced by acute BOO and subsequent emptying, is associated with decreased MnSOD expression, increased PARP activity and imbalance in apoptosis pathways