Indian women\u27s lives and labor : the indentureship experience in Trinidad and Guyana, 1845-1917.

This study examines the gender dynamics of the migration and settlement of Indian indentured workers in Trinidad and Guyana between 1845 and 1917, laying particular emphasis on the ways in which migration of Indian women workers impacted and changed the dynamics of the settlement process of Indians in Trinidad and Guyana. I argue in this thesis that the presence of sufficient numbers of females throughout this particular history of indentured migration and settlement had important and far-reaching implications for the nature of rural social and economic formations that evolved in post emancipation societies of Trinidad and Guyana. This thesis, is not then, the story only of women\u27s migration, or their roles in the new social and economic formations in Trinidad and Guyana in the period 1845 to 1917, but also discusses the relational aspects of women\u27s and men\u27s experiences and the politics of gender that influenced the indentureship experiment. I examine the ways in which the presence of a critical mass of women indentured and ex-indentured workers influenced not only the working of the sugarcane economy but also the ways in which the socio-cultural and sexual relationships evolved within the emergent rural community of Indians. The history of migration and indentureship is traced from the recruitment process in India where gender and patriarchy impacted the ways in which females were enlisted for contractual work overseas, to the eventual settlement of Indian women and men workers in their newly adopted homes in Trinidad and Guyana. I have based this thesis on British official sources like annual emigration and immigration reports, official correspondences, parliamentary and other inquiry committee reports, censuses, and non-official sources like contemporary newspapers, journals, travel and planter memoirs, missionary memoirs, an autobiography by Anna Mahase, Sr. born during my period of study, and oral interviews with ex-indentured men and women in Trinidad. Some of the hidden areas of knowledge about indentured men\u27s and women\u27s lives, particularly around questions of social, sexual, and ritual expressions, as also the ways in which the economic and social activities of women and men in peasant households were allocated, have been constructed through the reading of non-official sources like memoirs, newspapers, autobiographies, and three different sources of oral interviews of men and women

Formulation and statistical evaluation of a ready-to-drink whey based orange beverage and its storage stability

A value-added functional beverage is formulated utilizing unprocessed liquid whey. Whey has excellent nutritional qualities and bland flavors; it is easy to digest and has a unique functionality in a beverage system. The ready-to-drink beverage is formulated with concentrated whey, orange juice along with an adequate amount of sugar, stabilizer, citric acid and flavor. Orange juice is used since the acidic flavor of whey is compatible With citrus flavors and particularly orange. The health and nutrition benefits of orange further imparts the value to the formulated beverage. Nine blend formulations are prepared by varying the dry matter of whey, fruit juice and sugar content Based on a statistical analysis of the sensory evaluation of the drinks, the optimal formulation is found to have a ratio 3:2 for concentrated liquid whey and orange juice followed by an addition of 8% sugar (w/v) and 0.1% stabilizer (w/v). The shelf-life of the final product is carried out both at room temperature (30+/-2 degrees C) and refrigeration temperature (7+/-1 degrees C) with and without addition of preservatives. The product remains in good condition up to eleven days at room temperature and up to three months under refrigeration condition with addition of 150 ppm of sodium benzoate

Differences in object perception: a comparison of Indian and British participants on scene and silhouetted object perception tasks

Background: The impact of contrasting societal structures on various neuropsychological test performances is well recognized within the clinical community. Much of the research to date has focused on showing that a difference in performance exists, and less so on understanding specifically which aspects of the societies’ structure or “culture” are driving these differences. Many studies have explored conscious behavioral responses between individuals that are deemed “Western” and “Eastern-mainly Americans and Chinese-on visual perceptual tasks. Authors of these studies extrapolated their results to a theory suggesting that individuals who originated from Western/individualistic societies tend to implement an analytical cognitive style, attending to more focal/local information; and those who originate from Eastern/collectivist societies implement a holistic cognitive style, attending to the background/global information. With the rapid rise in technology starting from the turn of the century, one’s ability to understand various physiological mechanisms related to visual perception increased, and with it came a rise in studies investigating the translation of the aforementioned theory as a kinetic behavioral response-eye movements and neural activity specifically. The results of the studies investigating this theory within object/scene perception have been mixed, some confirming this theory while others showing little to no evidence of it. However, it is also important to note that this theory is limited to mainly Americans and Chinese individuals, and is unclear as to whether it can be confidently expanded to other cultures that are historically considered as part of the “West” and “East”, e.g. British and Indians, two cultural groups that have not been used in comparison with each other in cultural visual perceptual studies. This theory, along with the advances in technological techniques, has also not been explored as an explanation for performance differences seen in various neuropsychological visual perceptual tests. One example of observed performance differences in neuropsychological tests of perception is in the Visual Object Space Perception (VOSP) Battery. More specifically, on the Silhouettes subtest, a subtest that requires participants to identify objects from silhouettes of animals and man-made objects. Indians performed significantly worse than their Spanish, Greek, and American counterparts; however the driving forces behind this difference remain unknown. Given this information, the purpose of this thesis is to use eye tracking, the most commonly used technology in cultural object/scene perception studies, to see if differences in eye movement pattern exist between British and Indian individuals, whether these differences emulate the West/East theory in perceptual processing, and finally, whether these patterns of eye movements can help explain the performance differences seen between Indians and the British on the Silhouettes subtest. Method: I first conducted a systematic review to establish in what way eye tracking, fMRI, and EEG are able to detect differences in perception between distinct cultural groups during scene or object perception. In addition to this, the systematic review also investigated how cultural concepts, e.g. East vs West, Individualism vs Collectivism, etc., are used to explain any differences seen, and the specific cultural groups used as exemplars of the cultural concepts, e.g. Chinese vs. American, Japanese vs. American, etc. to represent East vs West, Individualism vs Collectivism, etc. My first experimental study utilized a scene perception recognition task, the most commonly used visual perceptual paradigm, to establish whether differences in eye movement are seen between Indians and the British, and whether these differences followed the West/East theory. In addition, participants were also given the Singelis Self-Construal Scale, a scaled used to measure degree of collectivist or individualist values an individual holds. I incorporated this scale in order to see if the conceptual link made between West/East and individualism/collectivism in previous studies could be demonstrated. In the second experimental study, the findings of the first experimental study were used as a base to investigate whether comparable differences in eye movement patterns were also present when viewing the shadowed single objects from the Silhouettes subtest. The question of familiarity to the objects depicted in the Silhouettes subtest as a driving cultural factor either oppose to or in addition to the West/East theory of perception held strong relevance. Thus, my third experimental study investigated whether the self-reported degree of familiarity with the objects represented in the Silhouettes subtest influenced their ability to accurately identify them. Participants were also asked to physically indicate which parts of the image they felt caught their attention when looking at the picture. This was to see if the features that Indians and British participants felt they were attending to differed from each other, and whether this explained their chances of accurately identifying the objects. Findings: My systematic review suggested that the cultural concepts most commonly used to explain perceptual differences were East Asians vs. Westerners, and Object/Context Independent vs Context/Context Dependent. The most common participant groups compared were Chinese/Chinese Singaporeans/Han Chinese and Americans. In terms of differences in perception, all but two studies found a cultural difference in at least one measurement. EEG and eye-tracking studies showed conflicting results among studies, but fMRI studies consistently showed differences between groups in neural activation for the processing of objects in scenes. British participants significantly out-performed the Indian participants in the memory recall portion of the first experimental study. A difference in eye movement was also present between Indians and the British only within the focal object; eye movement patterns in the background was not significantly different between the Indians and the British. When looking at the focal object, the British and Indians made a comparable number of shorter fixations and saccades, but made significantly fewer longer fixations and saccades than the Indians. The Singelis self-construal scale showed that Indians were slight more collectivist than the British but not significantly so. Singelis, regardless of which country participants were from, did not influence any of the eye movement patterns. My second experimental study showed that no significant difference in performance alone existed between Indians and the British; however a significant difference in performance was seen when analyzed across difficulty levels. Performance/accuracy was negatively correlated to the difficulty level of the object, and the British showed a greater declined in performance than the Indians. This is expected since the difficulty level of the objects was determined by the accuracy rates of each objects from the original UK normative data that the Silhouettes subtest was based on. In terms of eye movement data, the British showed a significantly greater saccade amplitude and saccade velocity than the Indians. No differences were seen in any other eye movement data. Singelis was not an influential variable in predicting accuracy or in any of the eye movement data. In third experimental study, I combined the performance data of the current study with the previous study and the integrated result re-enforced the findings of the second study. The British, overall, performed better than the Indians, but the difference did not reach significance. Performance/accuracy was, again, negatively correlated to the difficulty level of the object, for which, the British showed a greater declined in performance than the Indians. When examining the influence of familiarity on accuracy, results showed that the performance of the British were significantly influenced by how familiar they were with the object, however the performance of Indians remained unaffected. Furthermore, of all the incorrect answers given, participants claimed the correct answer to be a part of their thought process for only a small percentage (13% for the Indians and 3% for the British) of them. When asked about features that participants felt their attention was drawn towards, features indicated by Indians and the British largely overlapped. Conclusions: Though there is a difference in perceptual strategy between Indians and the British when viewing scenes, as evidenced by their eye movements, the strategies don’t follow the expected cognitive styles—analytic vs. holistic— of the West/East theory described in previous studies. This may be because the previously described cognitive styles have been examined mainly through studies of individuals who are American and Chinese, and thus the explanations developed may not fully encompass other types of cognitive styles that could possibly exist, or any variations of the analytical/holistic styles. None-the-less, the differences in eye movements seen between Indians and the British during scene perception were not evident during the viewing of the single, shadowed objects of the Silhouettes subtest suggesting that eye movement patterns used during scene perception and single object perception may not be directly interchangeable-how individuals go about looking at a scene may not be indicative of how individuals go about looking at a single object. Furthermore, though the overall difference in performance was not significant, a difference in performance was still seen between the Indians and the British on the Silhouettes Subtest which was driven by notable differences certain items. Self construal and familiarity were also not influential factors on overall performance which suggests that any performance difference may not be a result of any one factor but maybe be more specific to each item. Overall, I recommend that future research investigate the factors influencing the major performance differences seen on specific items of the Silhouettes subtest and to be cautious that factors may be unique to each case-what may be influential for one item may not be the same for a different item. This will allow for a clearer understanding of how to move forward in the test development of a Silhouettes subtest in the Indian context

Fluorescent ZnO−Au Nanocomposite as a Probe for Elucidating Specificity in DNA Interaction

In this work, we report the interaction of a fluorescent ZnO–Au nanocomposite with deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), leading to AT-specific DNA interaction, which is hitherto not known. For this study, three natural double-stranded (ds) DNAs having different AT:GC compositions were chosen and a ZnO–Au nanocomposite has been synthesized by anchoring a glutathione-protected gold nanocluster on the surface of egg-shell-membrane (ESM)-based ZnO nanoparticles. The ESM-based bare ZnO nanoparticles did not show any selective interaction toward DNA, whereas intrinsic fluorescence of the ZnO–Au nanocomposite shows an appreciable blue shift (Δλmax = 18 nm) in the luminescence wavelength of 520 nm in the presence of ds calf thymus (CT) DNA over other studied DNAs. In addition, the interaction of the nanocomposite through fluorescence studies with single-stranded (ss) CT DNA, synthetic polynucleotides, and nucleobases/nucleotides (adenine, thymine, deoxythymidine monophosphate, deoxyadenosine monophosphate) was also undertaken to delineate the specificity in interaction. A minor blue shift (Δλmax = 5 nm) in the emission wavelength at 520 nm was observed for single-stranded CT DNA, suggesting the proficiency of the nanocomposite for discriminating ss and ds CT DNA. More importantly, fluorescence signals from the nano-bio-interaction could be measured directly without any modification of the target, which is the foremost advantage emanated from this study compared with other previous reports. The AT base-pair-induced enhancement was also found to be highest for the melting temperature of CT DNA (ΔTmCT = 6.7 °C). Furthermore, spectropolarimetric experiments followed by calorimetric analysis provided evidence for specificity in AT-rich DNA interaction. This study would lead to establish the fluorescent ZnO–Au nanocomposite as a probe for nanomaterial-based DNA-binding study, featuring its specific interaction toward AT-rich DNA

On-farm seed priming interventions in agronomic crops

Priming techniques are gaining importance in agriculture with the increase in environmental stresses. Resource-poor farmers are in urgent need of such techniques as they are simple, economical, and value-added intervention associated with low-risk bearing factors. Seed enhancement methods are key to improve seed performance and achieve a good stand establishment. Worldwide beneficial effects of priming are recorded. But these technologies have still not reached most farmers. This review highlights the importance of on-farm priming strategies in modern crop production system to yield better productivity and obtain higher economic returns. Stimulation of the pre-germination metabolic changes by priming is necessary to overcome the environmental challenges that a plant can encounter. Thus, the study also focuses on mechanisms associated with priming-induced stress tolerance of crops. Various safe practical methods of seed priming can be easily adopted by the farming community to alleviate the levels of different stresses which can hamper productivity. Simultaneously they can produce good quality seeds and use them further for the next crop cycle cutting the costs of seed purchase.</p

Congenital cystic adenomatoid malformation of lung: A case report

A term neonate developed respiratory distress after 12 hours of birth which was diagnosed as a case of congenital cystic adenomatoid malformation (CCAM) of the right lung by computerized tomography scan. CCAM of the lung is rare congenital cystic lung lesion. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/jcmsn.v10i1.12767 Journal of College of Medical Sciences-Nepal, 2014, Vol.10(1); 41-42</p

Quantitative role of mast cells in odontogenic cystic enlargement

Aim: Mast cells have been hypothesized to play a significant role in pathogenesis of odontogenic cysts. The aim of this study was to evaluate mast cell distribution in cystic lining and the capsule to formulate a mechanism of cystic expansion. Methods: Ten formalin-fixed paraffin embedded tissue blocks each of OKC, dentigerous and radicular cysts were selected. Toluidine blue staining (1% in 1% NaCl solution) was done in 5μm thick sections and counting performed in 10 areas using an ocular grid. Areas counted were divided into 4 zones: intraepithelial, subepithelial, intermediate and deep zones (Group I, II, III and IV respectively). Statistical analysis: Mean ±S.D. was calculated in each group followed by paired ‘T’ test. Results: Mast cells had greatest concentration in subepithelial zone. &apos;T&apos; test showed no significant differences between group I and II zones in OKC but a highly significant difference between groups I and II in dentigerous cyst. Radicular cysts showed a significant difference between groups II and III. Conclusion: Mast cell degranulation releases numerous hydrolytic enzymes that facilitate breakdown of capsular matrix increasing the hydrostatic pressure due to raised osmolality. Influx of tissue fluids results in their enlargement coupled with resorption at the bone-cyst interface

A study on smoking and associated psychosocial factors among adolescent students in Kolkata, India

Tobacco use among school children and adolescents is an increasing problem world-wide, particularly in the developing countries. A cross-sectional observational study was carried out in six co-educational high schools in Kolkata, West Bengal among 526 students of 15-19 years to determine the prevalence of smoking and to find out any difference among the smokers and non-smokers regarding factors related to family relations, peer group and personal characteristics. The overall rate of smoking was found to be 29.6%, mean age of initiation of smoking was earlier in males. Among smokers 75% students started smoking by 15 years. Smoking of father and peer group, family conflict and pornography addiction were found to have significant association with smoking of students. Early school health based interventions addressing these factors might help in effectively tackling this problem