The Changing of the Gods: Religion, Religious Transformation and the Indian Immigrant Experience

The Durkheimian notion that there is a close correspondence between the type of religion within a society and the structure of the society itself is now taken to be nearly axiomatic. As societies become increasingly dynamic and fragmented, however, the nexus between religion and society becomes far more complex. With globalization and widespread movements of populations struggling to maintain their identities within the contexts of both the old and new societies, changes of religion—including religious affiliation and religiosity—are inevitable. Cultural and social aspects of these changes are explored with reference to Indians migrating to the United States

Next4: Snapshots in Ext4 File System

The growing value of data as a strategic asset has given rise to the necessity of implementing reliable backup and recovery solutions in the most efficient and cost-effective manner. The data backup methods available today on linux are not effective enough, because while running, most of them block I/Os to guarantee data integrity. We propose and implement Next4 - file system based snapshot feature in Ext4 which creates an instant image of the file system, to provide incremental versions of data, enabling reliable backup and data recovery. In our design, the snapshot feature is implemented by efficiently infusing the copy-on-write strategy in the write-in-place, extent based Ext4 file system, without affecting its basic structure. Each snapshot is an incremental backup of the data within the system. What distinguishes Next4 is the way that the data is backed up, improving both space utilization as well as performance

Effects of Melanin-Induced Free Radicals on the Isolated Rat Peritoneal Mast Cells

Pheomelanin from human red hair (RHM) produces considerably more cellular damage in Ehrlich ascites carcinoma cells when subjected to radiations of wavelength 320-700nm than eumelanin from black hair (BHM). Irradiation of RHM generated large amounts of superoxide while BHM did not produce detectable amounts of superoxide. The present investigations describe the effects of irradiation of mast cells in the presence of various natural and synthetic melanins. Irradiation of mast cells in the presence of RHM and red hair melanoprotein released large amounts of histamine while BHM and synthetic melanins prepared from dopa, cysteinyldopa, or a mixture of dopa and cysteinyldopa did not release histamine. The release of histamine at lower concentrations of RHM was not accompanied by the release of 51Cr from chromium-loaded cells, suggesting that this release was of noncytotoxic nature. On the other hand, the release of histamine at higher concentrations of RHM was due to cell lysis since both histamine and cytoplasmic marker 51Cr were released to the same extent. The release evoked by large concentration RHM was not inhibited by superoxide dismutase or catalase. This suggests that the cell lysis under these conditions was not due to H2O2 or O2-. The finding that mast cells release histamine when irradiated in the presence of RHM suggests that the immediate and late-phase reactions seen in sunburn may in part be due to the release of mediators from these cells

Acanthamoeba Encephalitis in Patient with Systemic Lupus, India

We report a fatal case of encephalitis caused by Acanthamoeba in a 24-year-old woman from India with systemic lupus erythematosus. Diagnosis was made by identification of amebas in brain sections by immunofluorescence analysis and confirmed by demonstrating Acanthamoeba mitochondrial 16S rRNA gene DNA in brain tissue sections

Rapidly Fatal Acanthamoeba Encephalitis and Treatment of Cryoglobulinemia

We describe a 66-year-old woman with therapy-refractory cryoglobulinemia treated with rituximab, plasmapheresis, and steroids; a case of fatal meningoencephalitis caused by Acanthamoeba spp. then developed. Such infections are rare and show an unusually rapid course (possibly related to rituximab)

Successful Treatment of Disseminated Acanthamoeba sp. Infection with Miltefosine

We report on an HIV-negative but immunocompromised patient with disseminated acanthamoebiasis, granulomatous amoebic encephalitis, and underlying miliary tuberculosis and tuberculous meningitis. The patient responded favorably to treatment with miltefosine, an alkylphosphocholine. The patient remained well with no signs of infection 2 years after treatment cessation

Fatal Disseminated Acanthamoeba lenticulata Acanthamebiasis in a Heart Transplant Patient

We report a fatal case of disseminated acanthamebiasis caused by Acanthamoeba lenticulata (genotype T5) in a 39-year-old heart transplant recipient. The diagnosis was based on skin histopathologic results and confirmed by isolation of the ameba from involved skin and molecular analysis of a partial 18S rRNA gene sequence (DF3)

Decay spectroscopy of two-quasiparticle K isomers in Cm 246,248 via inelastic and transfer reactions

The decay of K isomers in Cm (Z = 96) isotopes has been studied using inelastic and transfer reactions. The half-life of a previously identified 2-quasiparticle (qp) Kπ=8- isomer in Cm246 has been measured. A new 2-qp isomer is observed in Cm248, its half-life measured and its decay scheme established. The reduced K hindrances extracted for the decay transitions from the isomers in Cm246,248 indicate K to be a robust quantum number and validate axial symmetry in these nuclei. The excitation energies of the 2-qp isomers in Cm246 (N = 150) and Cm248 (N = 152) support the persistence of a deformed subshell gap at N = 152 in the Z≈100 region down to Z = 96 nuclei