Im/possible Lives: Gender, Class, Self-Fashioning, and Affinal Solidarity in Modern South Asia

Drawing on ethnographic research and employing a micro-historical approach that recognizes not only the transnational but also the culturally specific manifestations of modernity, this article centers on the efforts of a young woman to negotiate shifting and conflicting discourses about what a good life might consist of for a highly educated and high caste Hindu woman living at the margins of a nonetheless globalized world. Newly imaginable worlds in contemporary Mithila,South Asia, structure feeling and action in particularly gendered and classed ways, even as the capacity of individuals to actualize those worlds and the “modern” selves envisioned within them are constrained by both overt and subtle means. In the context of shifting cultural anchors, new practices of silence, literacy, and even behaviors interpreted as “mental illness” may become tactics in an individual’s negotiation of conflicting self-representations. The confluence of forces at play in contemporary Mithila, moreover, is creating new structures of feeling that may begin to reverse long-standing locally held assumptions about strong solidarities between natal families and daughters, on the one hand, and weak solidarities between affinal families and new daughters-in-law, on the other

Physicochemical Properties of Various 2-Hydroxyethylammonium Sulfonate -Based Protic Ionic Liquids and Their Potential Application in Hydrodeoxygenation

In order to obtain the regularities of physicochemical properties of hydroxy protic ionic liquids (PILs) and broaden their potential application, a series of 2-hydroxyethylammonium sulfonate-based PILs were synthesized through proton transfer reaction and characterized by NMR and FT-IR and elemental analysis. Their phase transfer behavior (Tm) and initial decomposition point (Td) were characterized by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), respectively. Meanwhile, the regularities of density (ρ), viscosity (η) and electrical conductivity (σ) of synthesized PILs at different temperatures were measured. The results indicated that their physicochemical properties were tightly related with their structures and the interactions between cations and anions. In addition, the dissociation constants (pKa) of synthesized PILs were obtained by acid-base titration, which revealed that all synthesized PILs had pKa exceeding 7 and their cations were the crux of determining the pKa value. Moreover, several synthesized PILs with a low melting temperature also showed potential application in the deoxidation reaction of cyclohexanol, as they had conversion rates approximating 100% and the selectivity of cyclohexane or cyclohexene was about 80%

Pregnancy outcomes in different stages of systemic lupus erythematosus among Chinese women — a retrospective cohort study

Objectives: To analyze the outcomes of pregnancies and risk factors in Chinese women with different stages of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).Material and methods: A total of 55 conceptions in 52 patients with SLE between Jan 2007 and Jan 2019 were retrospected systematically from a general hospital graded 3A in China. Medical records provided us a good way to retrieve the clinical parameters and lab data of patients.Results: Pregnant women with SLE activity had significant hyperimmunoglobulin, hypocomplement, low platelet counts, high erythrocyte sedimentation rate, C-reactive protein and 24-h urine protein. Hydroxychloroquine had been used to reduce the rates of SLE activity in pregnant women. Logistic regression analysis showed low platelet counts, hypocomplement and 24-h urine protein were significantly correlated with fetal loss. Compared to those in stable stage, the active SLE patients have more risks of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, thrombocytopenia, lupus nephritis and placental infarction, and have worse fetal outcomes, including the higher rate of fetal loss, preterm and asphyxia neonatorum.Conclusions: Different stages of SLE during pregnancy are closely related to maternal and fetal outcomes. It is imperative to provide SLE women with pregnancy consultation and regular multispecialty care

Clinical study of exhaled nitric oxide in children with asthma and allergic rhinitis

Objective·To determine the levels of nasally exhaled nitric oxide (FnNO) combined with fractional concentration of exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) in children with asthma (AS) complicated with allergic rhinitis (AR), and analyze the levels of FnNO and FeNO in different clinical stages of AS with different severities of AR, so as to provide basis for guiding clinical diagnosis and treatment.Methods·Children diagnosed with AR with AS in the Department of Respiratory and Otolaryngology of Children's Hospital of Soochow University from April 2021 to November 2021 were included, and healthy children who visited the Department of Pediatrics for normal physical examination during the same period were enrolled as the control group. FeNO and FnNO were measured in all children to assess the severity of the children's diseases. The levels of FeNO and FnNO in children with AR and AS at different clinical stages of AS and their correlation with pulmonary function were compared and analyzed.Results·The proportion of persistent moderate-to-severe rhinitis was higher in the acute exacerbation stage of AS, and the proportion of intermittent mild rhinitis was higher in the clinical remission stage of AS. The FeNO level in the acute exacerbation stage were higher than that in the chronic persistent stage and clinical remission stage of AS (adjusted P=0.022, 0.000), and higher in the chronic persistent stage than that in the clinical remission stage of AS (adjusted P=0.002). The FnNO level in the acute exacerbation stage was higher than that in the clinical remission stage of AS (adjusted P=0.044). In the chronic persistent stage of AS, the FnNO levels in the persistent mild group and persistent moderate-to-severe control group were higher than those in the intermittent mild group (adjusted P=0.001, 0.000). In the clinical remission stage of AS, the FnNO levels in the persistent mild group and persistent moderate to severe control group were higher than those in the intermittent mild group (adjusted P=0.001, 0.007). In the intermittent mild group of AR, the FnNO levels in the acute exacerbation stage were higher than those in the chronic persistent stage and clinical remission stage of AS (adjusted P=0.010, 0.019). Part of pulmonary functions in the acute exacerbation stage of AS children were negatively correlated with the FeNO and FnNO levels (all P<0.05), while FEV1/pred in the chronic persistent stage was negatively correlated with FeNO level (P=0.010).Conclusion·FeNO and FnNO levels increased in the acute exacerbation stage of AS, and symptom scores of AR also increased. FeNO and FnNO levels were negatively correlated with pulmonary function in AS with AR children

Reduction in the exposure risk of farmer from e-waste recycling site following environmental policy adjustment: a regional scale view of PAHs in paddy fields

Farmland contamination by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) has drawn increasing attention across China with enhanced regulations and environmental policies proposed by government to protect soil environment safety. As the informal electronic waste (e-waste) dismantling activities were forbidden under recent environmental regulation, this study compared levels, compositions, spatial distributions, human health risks of PAHs in paddy soil within the vicinity of an e-waste recycling area in southeastern China, with 129 and 150 soil samples collected in 2011 and 2016, respectively. The soil contamination was dominated with high molecular weight PAHs. The mean concentration of EPA 16 PAHs decreased from 590.4 ± 337.2 μg kg in 2011 to 407.3 ± 232.2 μg kg in 2016. Distribution maps of soil PAHs concentration displayed the temporal change in spatial. Principal component analysis together with diagnostic ratios revealed the combustion of biomass and coal in industrial and unregulated e-waste dismantling were the main sources of PAHs in the study area. Both deterministic and probabilistic assessments demonstrated reduced exposure risk for farmers from 2011 to 2016. Sensitivity analysis revealed that exposure frequency (EF) is the most influential parameter for the total variance in the risk assessment model. This study implied that the more stringent environmental policy and regulation can lead reductions in soil contamination with PAHs. [Abstract copyright: Copyright © 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

threeinternationalconferencesonionicliquidsheldinbeijingin2012

Ionic liquids (ILs) have recently received worldwide intense attention as environmentally friendly solvents and become a hot topic in green chemistry. As we know, ILs have been utilized in diverse fields, such as synthesis, catalysis, separation technology, electrochemistry, analytical chemistry, nanotechnology, and so on, which makes ILs into a separated topic in many native and international conferences. Here we introduce three international conferences, which will be held in Beijing, China soon, for devotees of ILs

Rapid alcoholysis of PET enhanced by its swelling under high temperature

The development of catalysts with high thermal stability, high catalytic activity and high cycling performance has been an important challenge in PET alcoholysis research. PET degradation is a surface interface controlled process, but PET as a dense solid with lower specific surface area severely reduces its degradation rate. Here, the high specific surface area (0.4-3.3 m(2)/g) and the large number of pores (0-17.5 nm) formed by the swelling of PET at high temperature were used to break the interfacial confinement between the reactants; then the rapid and complete degradation of PET was achieved under the multi-hydrogen bonding microenvironment formed by the multi-active site polyoxometalate (POM) catalysts K-10[M-4(H2O)(2)(PW9O34)(2)]-H2O (M = Zn, Mn, Cu, Ni, Co) and EG. Finally, accompanied by the attack of the transition metal active site on C= O of PET, 1.0 g of PET could be completely degraded in 5 min under the optimal reaction conditions (2.0 wt% of catalyst to PET, 240 C) and the bis(hydroxyethyl) terephthalate (BHET) yield of 92.8% was achieved within 8 min. Moreover, the catalyst could be recycled more than 30 times, which is very meaningful. In the same time, the mechanism of PET alcoholysis was investigated and proposed a mechanism of PET alcoholysis