Iron making in ancient India - a critical assessment

It is a well known fact, that Indian craftsman produced quality iron products much earlier than the developed countries, making use of local reserves of iron ore. Iron produced in ancient India was mostly wrought iron. The metal was obtained in the form of a pasty mass and then shaped under hammer. Today, when India is producing several million tons of iron, primitive iron making is still exists in some parts of India. The primitive iron making furnaces declined in numbers gradually from about 500 in the beginning of 20'h century to about 150 by the middle of the century. Their present number is not known. Such furnaces are in operation deep into the forests and the tribal areas of India. The paper discusses briefly the history of iron making along with the critical assessment of the ancient processes. Some of the important measures absolutely. essential to upgrade the processes have also been discussed. Several pertinent modifications have been proposed in the design of these furnaces to make them more energy efficient and economically viable 'for tribal and rural populace

Nietzsche’s Epistemic Perspectivism

Nietzsche offers a positive epistemology, and those who interpret him as a skeptic or a mere pragmatist are mistaken. Instead he supports what he calls per- spectivism. This is a familiar take on Nietzsche, as perspectivism has been analyzed by many previous interpreters. The present paper presents a sketch of the textually best supported and logically most consistent treatment of perspectivism as a first- order epistemic theory. What’s original in the present paper is an argument that Nietzsche also offers a second-order methodological perspectivism aimed at enhancing understanding, an epistemic state distinct from knowledge. Just as Descartes considers and rejects radical skepticism while at the same time adopting methodological skepticism, one could consistently reject perspectivism as a theory of knowledge while accepting it as contributing to our understanding. It is argued that Nietzsche’s perspectivism is in fact two-tiered: knowledge is perspectival because truth itself is, and in addition there is a methodological perspectivism in which distinct ways of knowing are utilized to produce understanding. A review of the manner in which understanding is conceptualized in contemporary epistemology and philosophy of science serves to illuminate how Nietzsche was tackling these ideas

DNA adducts of aristolochic acid II: total synthesis and site-specific mutagenesis studies in mammalian cells

Aristolochic acids I and II (AA-I, AA-II) are found in all Aristolochia species. Ingestion of these acids either in the form of herbal remedies or as contaminated wheat flour causes a dose-dependent chronic kidney failure characterized by renal tubulointerstitial fibrosis. In ∼50% of these cases, the condition is accompanied by an upper urinary tract malignancy. The disease is now termed aristolochic acid nephropathy (AAN). AA-I is largely responsible for the nephrotoxicity while both AA-I and AA-II are genotoxic. DNA adducts derived from AA-I and AA-II have been isolated from renal tissues of patients suffering from AAN. We describe the total synthesis, de novo, of the dA and dG adducts derived from AA-II, their incorporation site-specifically into DNA oligomers and the splicing of these modified oligomers into a plasmid construct followed by transfection into mouse embryonic fibroblasts. Analysis of the plasmid progeny revealed that both adducts blocked replication but were still partly processed by DNA polymerase(s). Although the majority of coding events involved insertion of correct nucleotides, substantial misincorporation of bases also was noted. The dA adduct is significantly more mutagenic than the dG adduct; both adducts give rise, almost exclusively, to misincorporation of dA, which leads to AL-II-dA→T and AL-II-dG→T transversions

Malnutrition and infant and young child feeding in informal settlements in Mumbai, India: findings from a census

Childhood malnutrition remains common in India. We visited families in 40 urban informal settlement areas in Mumbai to document stunting, wasting, and overweight in children under five, and to examine infant and young child feeding (IYCF) in children under 2 years. We administered questions on eight core WHO IYCF indicators and on sugary and savory snack foods, and measured weight and height of children under five. Stunting was seen in 45% of 7450 children, rising from 15% in the first year to 56% in the fifth. About 16% of children were wasted and 4% overweight. 46% of infants were breastfed within the first hour, 63% were described as exclusively breastfed under 6 months, and breastfeeding continued for 12 months in 74%. The indicator for introduction of solids was met for 41% of infants. Only 13% of children satisfied the indicator for minimum dietary diversity, 43% achieved minimum meal frequency, and 5% had a minimally acceptable diet. About 63% of infants had had sugary snacks in the preceding 24 h, rising to 78% in the second year. Fried and salted snack foods had been eaten by 34% of infants and 66% of children under two. Stunting and wasting remain unacceptably common in informal settlements in Mumbai, and IYCF appears problematic, particularly in terms of dietary diversity. The ubiquity of sugary, fried, and salted snack foods is a serious concern: substantial consumption begins in infancy and exceeds that of all other food groups except grains, roots, and tubers

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