Inch - Unpacking Measurements

While global efforts to close gender gaps have taken great strides in the past years, broad cultural views and social institutions still exist to place women at a subordinate level to men. It is a common scenario to trivialize a woman’s achievements or power in instances when she does not conform to gender norms taken as “a given” in a cultural context. A few elementary examples of such social inequality could include unequal pay at the workplace or menstruation in cultures where it is considered a defilement of a woman’s body instead of a female bodily process. In most of these cases, we are privileged to be biased and hold our prejudices against the case both knowingly and unknowingly. Keeping this as the foundation of my research, I want to explore the analysis of a universal subordination of women to men in every culture regardless of the complexity of a particular culture basis the most universal distinction between humanity and other animals - the body and the mind. Such analysis has been made in the academic realms where Sherry B. Ortner, an American cultural anthropologist, examines the intriguing assumption of women appearing to be closer to nature and men being more aligned with culture. She elaborates on physiological, psychological, and social dimensions that corroborate the cultural view of women being closer to nature and thus inherently occupying a lower ground in culture or instead, sitting at an ‘intermediate’ position on that scale. I want to take the nature-culture relationship as a framework to create a more nuanced view of the argument to make the larger public of both men (to educate) and women (to identify) aware of their biases and prejudices in this context. I feel that putting these ideologies open discussions on the givens of the conventional gender norms

The Evolution of a Collaborative Network: Understanding Partnerships in a Policy Mandated Collaboration Through Social Network Analysis

Federal funding agencies that administer financial support in the form of program grants to non-profit organizations (NPOs) that provide child and family services increasingly require NPOs to formalize inter-organizational partnerships in order to receive this vital source of funding. That is, by mandate NPOs must participate in inter-organizational collaboration networks to receive these essential federal funds. Therefore, there is a need to understand the collaboration behavior of NPOs in a policy-mandated environment. This study considers collaboration behavior as information sharing and advice-seeking between the organizations who are part of a collaboration network as a result of a policy mandate. Drawing on collaboration theory, social capital theory, and social network theory, this study examines the evolution of a collaboration network by assessing how NPOs in a policy-mandated context chose to engage in information-sharing behaviors and how these behaviors changed over time as NPOs developed a working history together. This research examined the production and distribution of social capital as the primary mechanism for motivating collaboration (i.e., information exchange) as the network evolved. Using Louisiana’s Project Linking Actions for Unmet Needs in Children’s Health (LAUNCH) as a case study, this study analyzed five years of self-reported organization-level data on collaboration behaviors and information exchanged among NPOs within the LAUNCH network. A social network approach was used to analyze the evolution of collaboration practices and found that existing ties play a pivotal role in facilitating information exchange behaviors among the NPOs in the study. That is, organizations are more likely to create information-sharing partnerships with other organizations that have been endorsed and vouched for by an existing partner, or they share information with organizations that have already shared information with them in the past. This showed a tendency towards bonding social capital wherein organizations are provided security against the high levels of risk within a policy-mandated collaboration by the convenience and accessibility offered by maintaining existing relationships. Results of this study were consistent throughout the different model specifications employed in the analysis, and reveal key implications for organizations engaged in policy-mandated partnerships, as well as for funders who require collaboration. Keywords: Collaboration, Partnerships, Collaboration Network, Collaboration Theory, Social Capital Theory, Social Network Theory, Social Network Analysi

How national culture and parental style affect the process of adolescents’ ecological resocialization

The role of adolescents as influencers on their families’ environmental behavior is potentially a catalyst for change towards increasing eco-friendly actions. In this paper, the authors report on a cross-cultural study of ecological resocialization in France and India. Using in-depth dyadic interviews, they investigated parental styles, cultural attributes and extent of adolescents’ influence over parental eco-behavior. The study reveals that ecological resocialization across countries differs substantially, according to a combination of national cultural values, parental style and influence strategy. French teens exhibit a greater impact than Indian teens on their parents’ eco-behavior and use bilateral influence strategies. In India, not all mothers engage in ecological resocialization, but those who do are susceptible to unilateral strategies. The role of environmental knowledge, and the context and effectiveness of each kind of strategy is discussed. The findings have implications for how public policy officials and agencies can encourage adolescents as key resocialization agents to influence their parents’ pro-environmental consumption by using the most adapted influence strategy across cultures

Constructing the bundle sheath towards enhanced photosynthesis.

This article comments on: van Rooijen R, Schulze S, Petzsch P, Westhoff P. 2020. Targeted misexpression of NAC052, acting in H3K4 demethylation, alters leaf morphological and anatomical traits in Arabidopsis thaliana. Journal of Experimental Botany 71, 1434–1448

Successful management of pregnancy with dual mechanical heart valves: a case report

Incidence of cardiovascular diseases in pregnancy is increasing due to advanced maternal age at first conception and frequent association of comorbid chronic medical conditions. Rheumatic heart diseases comprise 56-89% of all CVDs in pregnancy in non-western countries. Management of pregnant women with mechanical valves is very challenging due to high risk of cardiac and non-cardiac complications either due to heart disease itself or changes in hemodynamics during pregnancy or due to anticoagulant therapy. We presented here a case of a 35-year-old pregnant woman with rheumatic heart disease with dual mechanical (aortic and mitral) valve replacement who was managed successfully by our team of expert clinicians with intensive antepartum surveillance with good obstetric outcome. It is very important for managing clinicians to have necessary information about high-risk cardiovascular diseases during pregnancy along with their management and treatment related feto-maternal complications in order to have optimal feto-maternal outcome

Newly engineered nanoparticles as potential therapeutic agents for plants to ameliorate abiotic and biotic stress

Food scarcity is a global concern that is growing every year. Biotic stress factors like pathogenic fungi, bacteria, viruses, and nematode pests aggravate the situation by imparting detrimental effects on crops by unfavourably affecting their growth and yield. Abiotic stress factors include extreme heat and cold, drought, high salinity, floods, and heavy metal toxicity. Annually, millions of hectares of agricultural land worldwide are lost to these stress elicitors. To combat these stress factors, plants have developed strong defense mechanisms, including protective physical barriers, the overexpression of certain genes, and the production of secondary metabolites. Nanotechnology offers numerous novel and sustainable substitutes for conventional agriculture due to its potential uses in this field. Newly engineered nanoparticles (NENPs) are synthesized nanoparticles that are 1-100 nm in size and possess unique properties that help plants combat abiotic and biotic stress factors efficiently. NENPs are designed to ameliorate stress, alleviate nutrient inadequacy in soil, improve plant nutritional value, and overall boost crop productivity. This review illustrates the applications of various NENPs, which help plants cope with biotic and abiotic stresses. It highlights the effective induced changes that develop in the morphology, physiology, and biochemistry of different plants under stress and the role of NENPs. This review also highlights the toxic and deleterious effects of NENPs on the soil when used in higher doses and concludes with the prospects of NENPs in agriculture

Identifying Pre-hypertensives in the Community: At Risk Approach for Prevention of Hypertension

Introduction: Pre-hypertension is a borderline health state of increased blood pressure (BP) that falls short of the measurable parameters at which surveillance and/or therapy would be required. The approach of identifying people “At Risk” of developing hypertension can be more cost-effective and feasible for applying lifestyle interventions. Objectives: The objective of the present study is to find the prevalence of pre-hypertensives and associated bio-socio-demographic factors Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 1946 participants aged 19 years and more in the Doiwala block of Dehradun, Uttarakhand. Multistage sampling was used to arrive at desired sample size. A pre-validated, structured questionnaire was used for data collection. The questionnaire included information on the socio-demographic profile (age, sex, education etc.), awareness about hypertension and its associated risk factors. Statistical Analysis: The chi-square test was used to compare proportions and draw inferences. Results: 958 (49.2%) study participants out of a total 1946 were found to be pre-hypertensives. A statistically significant association was found between pre-hypertension and factors such as male gender, age, education, occupation and waist-hip ratio. (p<0.05) Conclusion: It is recommended that identification on the pre-hypertensive group and subjecting them to lifestyle modification could be a fruitful strategy for preventing them from becoming hypertensive

Performance Evaluation of Routing Protocols for Vehicle Re-Routing in ITS-based Vehicular Networks

This study aims to assess the performance of routing protocols in Intelligent Transportation System (ITS)-based vehicular networks, specifically in accident and highway scenarios. The effective management of traffic flow in these situations is crucial for ensuring the safety and smooth operation of vehicular networks. Therefore, it is imperative to evaluate routing protocols to identify the most suitable one for these scenarios. The evaluation considers various commonly used routing protocols in vehicular networks, including Ad hoc On-Demand Distance Vector (AODV), Ad hoc On-Demand Multipath Distance Vector (AOMDV), and Destination-Sequenced Distance Vector (DSDV). The evaluation is based on several performance metrics, such as packet delivery ratio, end-to-end delay, network throughput, normalized routing load, and routing overhead. These metrics provide insights into the effectiveness and efficiency of the routing protocols in handling re-routing in accident and highway scenarios. The research is divided into two modules, Module I and Module II, to evaluate the effectiveness of routing protocols in these distinct scenarios using the NS2 simulation tool. The simulation results are analyzed and compared to determine the performance of the routing protocols in each module. The findings indicate that AODV consistently achieves the highest throughput, packet delivery ratio, and lowest end-to-end delay, routing overhead, and normalized routing load, followed by AOMDV and then DSDV. The findings of this study contribute to the understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of different routing protocols in accident and highway scenarios. This knowledge can assist in the development of more efficient and reliable routing protocols for vehicular networks

Uterine leiomyosarcoma: an unusual presentation

Uterine leiomyosarcomas are rare aggressive tumors, with high recurrence rates, even when confined to the uterine corpus at the time of diagnosis. It arises from smooth muscle of uterus and is a rare tumor that accounts for 2-5% of all uterine malignancies. These tumors typically spread hematogenously. Patients present with vague symptoms similar to those of patients with leiomyomas. Most patients are diagnosed with leiomyosarcoma postoperatively. Although prognosis remains dismal, various ongoing studies are investigating the role of advanced imaging, multimodality treatment, prognostic nomograms, and unique biomedical pathways to increase understanding of leiomyosarcoma and improve therapeutic options for patients. 46 years old para2 live2 postmenopausal (since 1.5 year) female presented to outpatient clinic with complaints of bleeding per vaginum, foul smelling discharge, unquantified weight loss and something coming out of vagina since 1.5 months. On abdominal examination, an irregular midline mass arising from pelvis corresponding to 20 weeks gestational size of uterus was present. On vaginal examination, 3 infected vaginal growths were present in vagina maximum 4x4cm. Intra-operatively, uterus was nearly 20 weeks size with irregular surface. A 3×3 cm subseroal fibroid with necrotic surface was present on posterior wall of uterus. Cut section of the operative specimen showed myohyperplasia which was compressing the uterine cavity, some necrotic areas were also present. Vaginal growths - 4×4 cm on left vaginal wall near introitus with necrotic surface, 3×3 cm on right vaginal wall, 1×1 cm on right upper vaginal wall present. Excision of vaginal growth was done and was sent for histopathology. Histopathologic examination of sections of uterus showed all features were suggestive of leiomyosarcoma uterus