Getting diverse students and staff to talk about integration on campus, and what they say when they do: A UK-India collaborative case study.

This paper reports the early stages of a UKIERI-funded project, ‘Widening Participation: Diversity, isolation or integration in Higher Education?’.The project is concerned with greater equity, social justice, community and social cohesion within the current globalised, market oriented context of higher education (HE), and with enabling students to be better prepared for, and thrive in social networks and work-related arenas which are increasingly diverse, multicultural, interdependent and global. The main aim of this 3 year project is to explore the nature of social cohesion, integration and separation, diversity, equality and discrimination experienced by diverse, minority, disadvantaged and under-represented students attending HE in UK and India. Group stereotypes are often subconsciously held, emerging into consciousness only when they appear confirmed or confounded by personal experience or public events. Where there is little knowledge or personal experience then reliance upon group stereotypes is more likely (Kunda & Thagard, 1996). This can impact upon student and staff expectations of, responses to, and interactions with each other. Individual students’ experiences and perceptions lie at the core of this project, but the ultimate purpose is to illuminate our understanding as to how these are mediated, shaped and formed, in relation to and in interaction with the structures and contextual features of the educational environments in which they, as students, are located. It is thus framed by socio-cultural rather than psychological or therapeutic theories and is located within a social-constructivist perspective (Moore, 2000). Social constructivism facilitates the development of improved understandings of educational and social environments that shape rather than determine individual dispositions towards social diversity encountered on campus. It is highly suited to the understanding of perceptions, and exploring resonances with actions, reactions and interactions. The initial stage of this project involved inviting students and staff (academic and support staff) from five HE colleges and universities in England and India to keep a record (written and photographic) of what for them seemed to be important and relevant events relating to what they saw, heard, did and experienced on campus for a period of 1 month, in teaching, learning and social situations; namely interactions in classes and social settings; what seem to be good experiences and what seem to be negative ones; how and if their particular knowledge and experiences were used, valued and incorporated into their HE experience and learning or how they were negated. A sample size of 90 record keepers was sought across the participating institutions. Getting that sample presented significant difficulties to all but one of the participating institutions, and raised questions about • the methods initially adopted, • the general willingness of students and staff to address and share issues relating to diversity, equality, social cohesion and integration on HE campuses with researchers • cultural differences in accessing respondents to take part in the research Additional data collection methods were adopted and by January 2009 the intended sample size almost met. This paper will address the problems encountered in undertaking the first stage of this research and present initial findings from the data that were eventually obtained

Study the impact of ketamine, clonidine and combination of ketamine-clonidine on cardiovascular system during pre and postoperatively: A double blind, placebo controlled study

Background: The use of ketamine as a sole anesthetic induces marked central sympathetic stimulation, causing increased heart rate, blood pressure (BP), and oxygen consumption (VO2). Both alpha 2-agonists and benzodiazepines have been used to attenuate these potentially harmful ketamine-induced responses.  Materials and Methods: After approval from institutional ethical committee and written informed consent, 120 adult patients, ASA physical status I and II, undergoing elective surgeries e.g. Open abdominal surgery, laparoscopic surgery, open urological surgery were included in this controlled, prospective, randomized, double-blind study. Patients were randomly (envelop randomization) allocated in 4 groups (n=30): Group K received IV ketamine (0.5mg/kg), Group C received IV clonidine (1.5μg/kg), Group KC received combination of IV ketamine (0.25mg/kg) and IV clonidine (0.75μg/kg) and Group P received IV normal saline (placebo). One envelop at a time was chosen by an anaesthesiologist, who was blinded to the preparation of study agents and administered the study drugs in the envelope one after the other, intravenously approximately 20 minutes before extubation. Results: Pre operative haemodynamic parameters like mean arterial pressure (MAP) and heart rate are comparable across the groups. There was statistically significant (two tailed p value < 0.001) rise in intra operative heart rate following intubation in groups K, KC and P. There was statistically significant increase in systolic blood pressure (SBP) in groups K and P (two tailed p value < 0.001). In group C and KC, there were significant fall in SBP, from the baseline values, following induction. Conclusion: The unwanted effects of the individual drugs like, haemodynamic alteration, hallucination or lower incidences of nausea and vomiting could be achieved by using half of the dose of each of the drugs in combination

Phytochemical and in-vitro antioxidant activity of Careya arborea Roxb. leaves successive extracts

The successive extracts of Careya arborea Roxb leaves, a traditional medicinal plant used in India. It possessed a significant amount of total phenolic and flavonoid contents with potent antioxidant activities in scavenging DPPH, ABTS radicals, and good total antioxidant capacity. On the other hand, the ethyl acetate and ethanol extracts showed the highest inhibition of DPPH, ABTS radicals and phosphomolybdate assay. This study verified that the ethyl acetate and ethanol extracts have strong antioxidant activities which might be due to high level of phenolics and flavonoids. Thus results confirm its traditional claims can be used as a source of potential antioxidant. Keywords: Careya arborea Roxb, successive, leaves, antioxidant

Genetic diversity, population structure, and genome‑wide association study for the flowering trait in a diverse panel of 428 moth bean (Vigna aconitifolia) accessions using genotyping by sequencing

Background Moth bean (Vigna aconitifolia) is an underutilized, protein-rich legume that is grown in arid and semiarid areas of south Asia and is highly resistant to abiotic stresses such as heat and drought. Despite its economic importance, the crop remains unexplored at the genomic level for genetic diversity and trait mapping studies. To date, there is no report of SNP marker discovery and association mapping of any trait in this crop. Therefore, this study aimed to dissect the genetic diversity, population structure and marker-trait association for the flowering trait in a diversity panel of 428 moth bean accessions using genotyping by sequencing (GBS) approach. Results A total of 9078 high-quality single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were discovered by genotyping of 428 moth bean accessions. Model-based structure analysis and PCA grouped the moth bean accessions into two subpopulations. Cluster analysis revealed accessions belonging to the Northwestern region of India had higher variability than accessions from the other regions suggesting that this region represents its center of diversity. AMOVA revealed more variations within individuals (74%) and among the individuals (24%) than among the populations (2%). Marker-trait association analysis using seven multi-locus models including mrMLM, FASTmrEMMA FASTmrEMMA, ISIS EM-BLASSO, MLMM, BLINK and FarmCPU revealed 29 potential genomic regions for the trait days to 50% flowering, which were consistently detected in three or more models. Analysis of the allelic effect of the major genomic regions explaining phenotypic variance of more than 10% and those detected in at least 2 environments showed 4 genomic regions with significant phenotypic effect on this trait. Further, we also analyzed genetic relationships among the Vigna species using SNP markers. The genomic localization of moth bean SNPs on genomes of closely related Vigna species demonstrated that maximum numbers of SNPs were getting localized on Vigna mungo. This suggested that the moth bean is most closely related to V. mungo. Conclusion Our study shows that the north-western regions of India represent the center of diversity of the moth bean. Further, the study revealed flowering-related genomic regions/candidate genes which can be potentially exploited in breeding programs to develop early-maturity moth bean varieties

Haemodynamics and Oxygenation of the Tumor Microcirculation

Abnormalities of the tumor vasculature and their consequences on the microenvironment of tumor cells impact on tumor progression and response to both blood-borne anti-cancer agents and radio-therapy, as well as making tumor blood vessels a target for therapy in their own right. Intravital microscopy of experimental tumors, most commonly grown in ‘window’ chambers, such as the dorsal skin fold chamber in mice and rats, enables investigations of tumor microcirculatory function. This is needed both to understand the molecular control of tumor vascular function and to measure the response of the vasculature to treatment. In particular, intravital microscopy enables parameters associated with blood supply, vascular permeability and oxygenation to be estimated, at high spatial and temporal resolution. In this chapter, methods used for measuring a range of these parameters, specific examples of their applications, the significance of findings and some of the limitations of the techniques are described

Getting diverse students and staff to talk about equality and social integration issues on higher education campuses in India and the UK

Copyright 2012 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Type and screen policy in the blood bank: Is AHG cross-match still required? A study at a multispecialty corporate hospital in India

<b>Background:</b> Antibodies against only about 25-28 blood group antigens are known to cause hemolytic reactions (HTRs), and red cell antibody screening should detect such clinically significant antibodies. An extension of the antibody screening test is the &#x2032;type and screen&#x2032; done to detect clinically significant antibodies, omiting the anti-human globulin (AHG) cross-match. <b>Aim:</b> The aim of this study was to find out if the type and screen procedure is a safe method for pre-transfusion testing when compared to the AHG cross-match currently in use in India. <b>Materials and Methods:</b> We evaluated data from 45373 patients for whom a total of 61668 units of packed red blood cells (PRBC) were cross-matched in the AHG phase using DiaMed^&#894; ID cards. An antibody screen was carried out in all the patients using the DiaMed^&#894; ID-DiaCell I&#x002B;II&#x002B;III. The AHG cross-match was also carried out for all recipients, irrespective of the result of the antibody screen. The results were compared to see if there were any cases where the antibody screening was negative but the AHG cross-match showed incompatibility. <b>Results:</b> Not a single case was found where the antibody screen was negative and AHG cross-match showed incompatibility. In 68 cases the antibody screening was positive. Out of the 68 cases, AHG cross-match was incompatible with at least one unit of PRBC in 41 cases. <b>Conclusion:</b> The screening cell panel adequately detected the clinically significant antibodies in the Indian population in our study. The type and screen policy can be safe, efficient, cost-effective, and beneficial to the transfusion service in India