Global South perspectives on social justice

This paper draws on two studies that utilised an occupational science lens in understanding daily-life issues for Global South communities. International communities are experiencing fragmentation due to oppressive and unjust policies at home, or forced migration to safer and more just contexts. Studying the communal daily experiences of groups struggling against social injustice has become a key theme within occupational science, which is attempting to become a more inclusive and relevant field of study, by moving beyond the individual as a unit of study to focus on communal everyday experiences, including groups in the Global South. Boaventura de Sousa Santos described an ‘Epistemology of the South’ – a movement of thought and praxis from communities in the Global South who were struggling against socio-political phenomena related to colonialism, patriarchy, and globalised neoliberal capitalism. This movement is based on the need to learn from how communities resist such oppression in their daily lives to create social justice and ‘cognitive justice’ that would enable scholarly work to move beyond what Edward Said termed the ‘Epistemology of Imperialism’ – resulting from ignoring, or ‘othering’/’essentialising’, the experiences of marginalised groups in the process of knowledge production. Two processes are needed: ‘inter-cultural translation’ – the comparing and contrasting of ideas and practices of different communities; and the ‘ecologies of knowledge’, which involves stepping back from Eurocentric traditions to allow other analytical spaces that can explain reality to be involved in producing appropriate knowledge and theories that will contribute to social justice (Santos, 2014). The first study is a de-colonial ethnography in which the researcher’s “ability to shuttle between contrasting worlds of experience” was pivotal in researching olive growing as a daily form of resistance in Palestine (Zureik, 2014: 20). What emerged was a group of daily practices that were founded on historical, socio-political, cultural and spiritual principles. Olive growers in Palestine were observed to experience ‘occupational injustice’, or more specifically ‘occupational apartheid’, that is a particular form of social injustice based on restrictions on their daily lives imposed because of who they were (their belonging to Palestinian communities). Yet, rather than passively accept this situation, and despite all odds, they have continued this ancient, highly meaningful, and communal activity. This resilience was enabled by their need to survive and be dignified (Sutra/doing-being), to express solidarity and collaboration (‘Awna/belonging) and to aspire for a better shared future (Sumud/belonging-becoming) – and by their insistence upon meeting these collective needs. The second study addresses what is considered an increasingly prevalent social issue - the burden of older immigrants on host societies (Angel, 2003). This grounded theory study explored how Indian, Chinese and Korean older migrants to New Zealand sought to engage in everyday occupations, such as gardening, singing and caring for grandchildren, and thereby make valued contributions to their new community. Using an occupational science lens to critically examine the data revealed that these older immigrants were conscious of what New Zealand had to offer them and were determined not to take these opportunities for granted. Rather, through a social process of ‘strengthening community’, these elders worked to actively give back to their new homeland. However, coming to this understanding required further developing grounded theory methodology to encompass ‘inter-cultural translations’, as well as advance ‘ecologies of knowledge’. A willingness to employ new methods and ways of researching what may be framed as social problems from Global South perspectives is critical if we are to advance global understandings of the contributions that marginalised groups within society have to offer

Genetic diversity in cocoa (Theobroma cacao L.) plus trees in Tamil Nadu by simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers

The range of polymorphism of about 27 cocoa plus trees screened in the major cocoa growing regions of Tamil Nadu were assessed using 10 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. The gene diversity, genetic differentiation and genetic similarities were analyzed for the cocoa trees. The number of alleles detected by different primers ranged from 0 to 3 and the level of polymorphism was 0 to 100%. The polymorphism information content (PIC) value ranged from 0.000 to 0.677. The higher the PIC value, the more informative was the SSR marker. Hence, primer mTcCIR33 was found to be highly informative. The Jaccard’s similarity coefficient for the SSR data set varied from 0.39 to 1.00. The SSR marker profiles resulted in nine clusters at nearly 54% similarity. From this study, it could be inferred that the diversity exists in cocoa plantations in Tamil Nadu and can be exploited in crop improvement research.Keywords: Cocoa, simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers, polymorphism, genetic diversity, breeding.African Journal of BiotechnologyVol. 12(30), pp. 4747-475

OBESITY AS RISK FACTOR IN TYPE-2 DIABETES MELLITUS IN MIDDLE AGED WOMEN

Background: Type 2 diabetes is a common chronic disease resulting from a complex inheritance-environment interaction along with other risk factors such as obesity and sedentary lifestyle. Type 2 diabetes and its complications constitute a major worldwide public health problem, affecting almost all populations in both developed and developing countries like India with high rates of diabetes-related morbidity and mortality. Method: 110 women volunteers of age 35 to 55 years depending upon body mass index, were divided into five groups. Control (BMI; 25 kg / m2), Group I (BMI 25-29.9 kg / m2), Group II (BMI 30-34.9 kg / m2), Group III (BMI 35-39.9 kg / m2), Group IV (BMI > 40 kg / m2) were selected as subjects.  Their Body Mass Index, Waist - Hip circumference ratio (W/H), Fasting blood sugar (FBS), lipid profile: serum triglycerides (TG), serum total cholesterol and HDL, VLDL cholesterol were assessed. Result: There is a close association between obesity and type 2 diabetes. The mean values of FBS, HDL, TG & VLDL are significantly higher in group I compared to controls. The mean values of W/H ratio, FBS, HDL, TG & VLDL are higher in group II, III and IV compared to controls. Conclusion: In the middle aged women obesity is the major factor which increases the risk for diabetes. Obesity plays a role by altering homeostasis of the body; it does this by bringing about the changes in the various parameters studied.KEYWORDS:  Middle aged women; Obesity; Type-2 diabetes mellitus

OBESITY AS RISK FACTOR IN TYPE-2 DIABETES MELLITUS IN MIDDLE AGED WOMEN

Background: Type 2 diabetes is a common chronic disease resulting from a complex inheritance-environment interaction along with other risk factors such as obesity and sedentary lifestyle. Type 2 diabetes and its complications constitute a major worldwide public health problem, affecting almost all populations in both developed and developing countries like India with high rates of diabetes-related morbidity and mortality. Method: 110 women volunteers of age 35 to 55 years depending upon body mass index, were divided into five groups. Control (BMI; 25 kg / m2), Group I (BMI 25-29.9 kg / m2), Group II (BMI 30-34.9 kg / m2), Group III (BMI 35-39.9 kg / m2), Group IV (BMI > 40 kg / m2) were selected as subjects.  Their Body Mass Index, Waist - Hip circumference ratio (W/H), Fasting blood sugar (FBS), lipid profile: serum triglycerides (TG), serum total cholesterol and HDL, VLDL cholesterol were assessed. Result: There is a close association between obesity and type 2 diabetes. The mean values of FBS, HDL, TG & VLDL are significantly higher in group I compared to controls. The mean values of W/H ratio, FBS, HDL, TG & VLDL are higher in group II, III and IV compared to controls. Conclusion: In the middle aged women obesity is the major factor which increases the risk for diabetes. Obesity plays a role by altering homeostasis of the body; it does this by bringing about the changes in the various parameters studied.KEYWORDS:  Middle aged women; Obesity; Type-2 diabetes mellitus

Domination and power domination in a one-pentagonal carbon nanocone structure

Domination is an important factor in determining the robustness of a graph structure. A thorough examination of the graph’s topological structure is necessary for analyzing and examining it for various aspects. Understanding the stability of a chemical compound is a significant criterion in chemistry, which necessitates conducting numerous experimental tests. The domination number and power domination number are pivotal in defining a wide range of physical properties, which include physiochemical properties, thermodynamic properties, chemical activities, and biological activities. The one-pentagonal carbon nanocone (1-PCNC) is a member of the carbon nanocone family and has a structure similar to that of honeycomb networks, which are renowned for their robustness. In this paper, we find the domination number and power domination number of 1-PCNC by considering it as an (m-1)-layered infinite graph

A CHANGED PRODUCT GENERATOR FOR REDUNDANT BINARY MULTIPLIERS

Due to its high modularity and carry-free addition, redundant binary (RB) illustration may be used when coming up with high-performance multipliers. The conventional Rb number needs and extra Rb partial product (RBPP) row, as a result of AN error correcting word (ECW), is generated by each the radix- 4 changed Booth encryption (MBE) and also the Rb encoding. This incurs in an extra RBPP accumulation stage for the MBE number. In this paper, a replacement Rb changed partial product generator (RBMPPG) is proposed; it removes the additional ECW and hence, it saves one RBPP accumulation stage. Therefore, the planned RBMPPG generates fewer partial product rows than a traditional Rb MBE multiplier. Simulation results show that the planned RBMPPG based mostly styles considerably improve the realm and power consumption once the word length of every operand within the number is a minimum of thirty-two bits; these reductions over previous NB number styles incur in a modest delay increase (approximately 5%). The power-delay product may be reduced by up to fifty nine using the planned Rb multipliers when put next with existing Rb multipliers

Investigations on the creeks of Saurashtra

Gujarat has a rich estuarine system supported by run-off from five major rivers, viz., Narmada, Mahi, Tapti, Banas and Sabarmati. The branches of these rivers form several small creeks which act as outlets to the sea. These creeks are known to have supported traditional fisheries for a variety of shrimps and fishes over the years. However, these fisheries are now on a declining phase. With reduced rainfall in recent years, these creeks remain saline for a major part of the year. Natural flushing is further obstructed by the numerous check dams and small impoundments constructed across the rivers and rivulets flowing into these creeks

Beyond the Small-Angle Approximation For MBR Anisotropy from Seeds

In this paper we give a general expression for the energy shift of massless particles travelling through the gravitational field of an arbitrary matter distribution as calculated in the weak field limit in an asymptotically flat space-time. It is {\it not} assumed that matter is non-relativistic. We demonstrate the surprising result that if the matter is illuminated by a uniform brightness background that the brightness pattern observed at a given point in space-time (modulo a term dependent on the oberver's velocity) depends only on the matter distribution on the observer's past light-cone. These results apply directly to the cosmological MBR anisotropy pattern generated in the immediate vicinity of of an object like a cosmic string or global texture. We apply these results to cosmic strings, finding a correction to previously published results for in the small-angle approximation. We also derive the full-sky anisotropy pattern of a collapsing texture knot.Comment: 23 pages, FERMILAB-Pub-94/047-

SSR markers associated for late leaf spot disease resistance by bulked segregant analysis in groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.)

Late leaf spot (LLS) caused by Phaeoisariopsis personata is the major foliar disease that reduces the pod yield and severely affects the fodder and seed quality in groundnut. Molecular markers linked with LLS can improve the process of identification of resistant genotypes. In the present study, a LLS susceptible genotype (TMV 2) and the LLS resistant genotype (COG 0437) were crossed and their F2 population was used for marker analysis. The phenotypic mean data on F2:3 progenies were used as phenotype. Parents were surveyed with 77 SSR (Simple Sequence Repeat) primers to identify polymorphic markers. Among SSR markers, nine primers were found polymorphic between the parents TMV 2 and COG 0437. These markers were utilized for bulked segregant analysis (BSA). Among the polymorphic SSR markers, three primers viz., PM 375162, pPGPseq5D5220 and PM 384100 were able to distinguish the resistant and susceptible bulks and individuals for LLS. In single marker analysis, the markers PM 375, PM 384, pPGPseq5D5, PM 137, PM 3, PMc 588 and Ah 4-26 were linked with LLS severity score. The phenotypic variation explained by these markers ranged from 32 to 59 %. The markers identified through BSA were also confirmed with single marker analysis. While validating the three primers over a set of resistant and susceptible genotypes, the primer PM 384100 allele had association with resistance. Hence PM 384 could be utilized in the marker assisted breeding programme over a wide range of genetic background