Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages
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Tradition Versus Modernity: A Study of Shobha De’s Socialite Evenings, Starry Nights and Snapshots
Get PDFIndian society, from ancient times has been very malleable and open to outside influences. It has willingly accepted the influences from outside and made adjustments and readjustments at different times. Although the structural changes have occurred many times ―there was seldom a functional loss or variation in the traditional order of the society.It is only during the past decades that ―the social change on Indian scene has started touching the functional part though in a limited way
Population Status of Select Medicinal Plants of Kangan Forest, Jammu and Kashmir
No full textAny plant which harbours curative elements or properties in one or more of its organs may be termed as medicinal plant. Plant based medicaments have been employed since the dawn of civilization for prolonging the life of man by combating various ailments (Singh and Kumar, 1984; Kumar, 1986; Padulosi et al., 2002). Such plants have been one of the valuable tools in the traditional systems of medicine and also provide active ingredients to formulate new medicine by the pharmaceutical industry. Infact, the WHO has compiled a list of 20,000 medicine plants in different parts of the globe (Gupta and Chadha, 1995). More than 60% of the world’s populations rely on the plant medicine for primary health care needs
Child Labour in the Cotton Industry of Uzbekistan: A Sociological Study
Get PDFUzbekistan, with its enormous potential of natural resources like oil, natural
gas, water, gold and minerals, has made it as one of the most potential investment
countries in the globalized world after its separation from Soviet Union. The available
natural resources have not been exploited yet by the state of Uzbekistan due to its lack
of skilled manpower, sophisticated technology and marketization which could have
sustained the ever growing population of the country if utilized properly. On the other
hand agriculture which comprises around 40 percent of GDP (Gross Domestic
Product) of Uzbekistan has turned black and white from coloured in the Post-Soviet
era due to the decline in the sophisticated technology and manpower put into place
and practice by the Russians. And the cotton industry, which constitutes around 47
percent of the agricultural production of Uzbekistan, gives billions of dollars in
annual return. Due to the downsizing of skilled manpower and technology the cotton
cultivation which was earlier in the pre-Soviet era practised by machines is now done
by hand and often with the use of school children.
Uzbekistan- the fifth largest exporter and second largest producer of cotton in
the world- mostly cultivates cotton by the dint of child labour- mainly school children.
From the first week of September every year schools are closed down for two to three
months and all the children and teachers, irrespective of age and gender, are ordered
by the autocratic state administration to take part in cotton-picking. Daily quotas are
assigned to everyone by the supervisors and farm directors and those who do not meet
the set quotas are bound to face punishment. The forced labour of children by the state
of Uzbekistan is unique in its dimension and magnitude in the sense that in the rest of
the world there are reasons like poverty, illiteracy etc. responsible for child labour but
in Uzbekistan it is completely state-controlled to meet the totalitarian interests.
Though the magnitude of the problem has been expanding in that more and
more children turn to be working children, the amount of attention that the problem
receives from the government and various non-governmental agencies is not in tune
with its size because the tender-aged school going boys and girls who are part of the
problem are not in a position to present their case before the concerned authorities as
the administration in itself is fully responsible for this inhuman institution of child
labour in Uzbekistan. Thus, the traditional nature of the problem becomes a limiting
factor for its solution.
7
Amidst the plethora of literature on working children, the present work on
the same subject is distinguished by its extensiveness and holistic treatment. Not
only that a considerable number of child labourers were interviewed but their
employers and parents were also interviewed to make the study multidimensional in
character. In-depth interviews of human rights activists, senior citizens, government
officials and social workers were also taken into consideration to make the findings
of the study more viable. The case studies at the end of the findings chapter help to
provide a holistic picture of the problem.
I am sure this work will provide a very valuable addition to the existing
literature on child labour in the cotton industry of Uzbekistan, besides being useful
to those directly working with such children
Simulation of FinFET Structures
Get PDFThe intensive downscaling of MOS transistors has been the major driving force behind the aggressive increases in transistor density and performance, leading to more chip functionality at higher speeds. While on the other side the reduction in MOSFET dimensions leads to the close proximity between source and drain, which in turn reduces the ability of the gate electrode to control the potential distribution and current flow in the channel region and also results in some undesirable effects called the short-channel effects. These limitations associated with downscaling of MOSFET device geometries have lead device designers and researchers to number of innovative techniques which include the use of different device structures, different channel materials, different gate-oxide materials, different processes such as shallow trench isolation, source/drain silicidation, lightly doped extensions etc. to enable controlled device scaling to smaller dimensions. A lot of research and development works have been done in these and related fields and more remains to be carried out in order to exploit these devices for the wider applications
Elucidation of etiology of colorectal cancer: A study on silencing of p16 gene by promoter hypermethylation
Get PDFColorectal cancer (CRC), commonly known as bowel cancer is the third most common cause of cancer-related deaths in the western world. Colorectal cancer is one of the leading malignancies worldwide. CRC has been reported to show geographical variation in its incidence, even within areas of ethnic homogeneity. The usual treatment is surgery and subsequent chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Cancer development and progression is dictated by series of alterations in genes such as tumor suppressor genes, DNA repair genes, oncogenes and others. In colorectal carcinogenesis disturbances different from mutations called an epigenetic regulation are also taken into consideration.
The aim of this study was to study the promoter hypermethylation of CpG islands of p16 gene in colorectal cancer patients among the Kashmiri population. The study included 70 surgically obtained colorectal samples among which 50 were obtained from colorectal cancer patients and 20 were histopathologically normal colorectal samples. All the samples were histopathologically confirmed before further processing. DNA was extracted from all the samples and was modified using bisulphite modification kit. Methylation-specific polymerase (MSP) chain reaction was used for analysis of the promoter hypermethylation status of p16 gene. The genetic analysis of the cases and controls by MSP- PCR method, for checking the promoter hypermethylation of CpG islands of p16 gene revealed that unlike other high risk regions, Kashmiri population has a different promoter hypermethylation profile of p16 gene. 66% of the cases showed p16 promoter hypermethylation while as 34% of the cases were nonhypermethylated. The study also revealed that 20% of the normal cases also had promoter hypermethylation of p16 gene and 80% did not showed promoter hypermethylation of p16 gene. The association of promoter hypermethylation with colorectal cancer was evaluated by χ2 (Chi square) test with Odds ratio and was found to be significant. Among 29 male cases and 21 female cases, the association of promoter hypermethylation with colorectal cancer was evaluated using Fisher’s exact test and was found to be significant in both males and females. Occurrence of p16 promoter hypermethylation was found to be unequally distributed in males and females with more frequency in males than in females but the difference was not statistically significant. When the frequency of p16 promoter hypermethylation was compared with clinical staging of the disease, p16 promoter hypermethylation was found to be certainly higher in Stage III/IV (83.33%) compared to Stage I/ II (56.25%) but the difference was not statistically significant. Also, the degree of p16 promoter hypermethylation increased with the increasing severity of the lesion but the difference was not again statistically significant.
These results clearly suggest that p16 aberrant promoter hypermethylation in Kashmiri population contributes to the process of carcinogenesis in colorectal cancer and is reportedly one of the commonest epigenetic changes in the development of human CRC. It also demonstrates that hypermethylation of p16 gene can be designated as epigenetic biomarker for the screening, diagnosis and prognosis of colorectal cancer. The data gives a clue that p16 gene expression can be readily and fully restored and growth rate of cancer cells decreased by treatment of cancer cells with demethylating agents and DNA methylation inhibitors
Construction & Cloning of Wild Type & Mutant (ΔN307- ΔN313) Alleles of p16ink4a
Get PDFp16INK4a, a CDK4/CDK6 binding protein is an established tumour suppressor implicated in cell cycle regulation.
Functional attributes of this protein are, therefore,important in determining optimal growth and proliferation of the mammalian cells. Accordingly point mutations and/or
deletions that undermine its function have been associated with a variety of tumours. One such mutation that deletes a 7bp region near the carboxy terminal ankyrin domain has
previously been identified by us to associate with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. The study represents construction, cloning and expression of the said mutation for its functional evaluation
Village Social Life of Kashmir (1900-50): A Case Study of District Pulwama
Get PDFThe discipline of history has travelled a long from the story of kings, Queens and courts to the inquiry into the overall existence and engagement of man with his physical and social environment. The present concept of history1 is more detailed study of people, their beliefs and practices, customs and culture and the evolution of societies and civilizations. The course of human civilization is determined to a fairly large extent by the geo-physical conditions of the region, which the people inhabit. The environment influences regulates the life of man and leads a distinct colour to the culture of man. In addition to this there are various spheres of life - social sphere, Economic sphere, political sphere, religio-ethical sphere; all of these structures are responsible for shaping the life style of the people of a particular region
A Comparative Study of Health, Nutrition and Socio-Psycho Behaviour of Adolescent Boys and Girls
Get PDFThis thesis is an outcome of Ph.D research project entitled “A Comparative
Study of Health, Nutrition and Socio- Psycho Behavior of Adolescent Boys
and Girls.” The field work of this thesis has been undertaken in six districts
of Kashmir valley i.e. Srinagar, Budgam, Anantnag, Kupwara, Pulwama and
Baramulla, covering a sample of 1500 adolescents i.e. 750 boys and equal
number of girls in the age group of 10-19 years, studying in Government
Schools during 2004-07. The findings of the study are interesting and useful
for framing programme guidelines towards adolescent development.
During last couple of years, various policies have been formulated to bring
adolescents to the centre stage of development planning. These policies are
National Health Policies 2002, the National Population Policy 2000, the
National AID’S Policy 2001, the Woman Policy 2001, the Child and
Education Policy, Scheme for Adolescent Girls (Kishori Shakti Yojana) etc.
All these policies have addressed the adolescents of the age of 10-19 years.
The present study critically examines different dimensions of health,
nutrition and socio-psycho behavior of both rural and urban adolescents of
Kashmir valley. The suggestions of the study demand interventions to be
initiated by Government, parents, teachers, NGO’s, academic institutes and
health workers.
Adolescence is a period between childhood and adulthood during which the
individual learns the skills needed to flourish as an adult. Although
adolescence begins with the biological series of events called puberty, some
authors suggest that adolescence was culturally “invented” during the last century and defined it as a period in which the individual could gain the
complex skills necessary to navigate adulthood in a Western culture.
Puberty, the beginning of adolescence, is marked by dramatic physical
changes in both growth rate and sexual characteristics (Gluckberg 1980;
Field 1995). The initial adolescent growth spurt and the fast signs of the
developing secondary sex characteristic signal the onset of a period of rapid
physical growth. In boys active growth and development of pubic hair and
facial hair usually precede such other signs of puberty as voice change. In
girls rapid growth in height usually begins about 2 ½years before menarche.
The growth spurt generally begins at age 12 or 13 years in boys and 10-11
years for girls. In both the sexes it takes about four and a half years from the
completion of the first appearance of secondary sex characteristics (Tanner
1962). The amount of growth also varies from one individual to another. The
average height gain of girls in the child research council series was 31cms
between the onset of acceleration and final cessation of growth in stature but
individual girls ranged from 18-39 cms. The average gain of boys was 33
cms with a range of 21-45 cms. The individual has need of more nutrients to
support such a gain in contrast to the individual with relatively small
increase in body size. Physical growth, hormonal secretion, body
composition and other aspects of physiological development are so inter
woven during adolescence that it is difficult to compartmentalize them.
Throughout life different physiological functions reach maturity at different
periods (Thissen 1976). Approximately 80 per cent of BMR is derived from
metabolic activity of internal organs. Total body water increases from birth
to 20 years, as tissues grow and is higher in males than females.Blood volume during adolescence is greater than the provisional increase in weight.
Plasma volume /kg remain constant. The RBC count of male is more than 5
million/mm while the female maintains an average close to 4.7 million/mm
during adolescence. The height rate of an individual is highly variable. The
blood pressure tends to be higher in males and continue to rise and in
females at 14 years it remains constant (Virginia 1980).
Skipping meals and having snacks during adolescence is common. With
their often-busy schedule, an adolescent may rush off to school without
having breakfast. In the evening rather than waiting for dinner he/she may
grab a snack. Consequently he/she eats fewer meals at home where parents
can provide them with nutritious foods. When away from home, an
adolescent eats meals that are acceptable to a peer group. This may mean
snacks in the form of fast foods and ready to eat foods (Drummond 1996;
Gregary 2000). Nutrient needs during adolescence are dictated by the rate of
growth. Requirement increases at the onset of growth spurt, reaches their
maximum at the time of peak growth and gradually approach adult levels as
growth subsides (Srilakshmi 2002).
Psychology of adolescent is of vital importance for the future functioning of
the society. It is during this period that physical, intellectual, emotional,
psychosocial, social, religious and moral maturity begins to take place.
Adolescents are generally moody and sulky and burst into tears on the
slightest provocation especially the girls. Their feelings are easily hurt. An
adolescent when emotionally aroused simply bursts out and is unable to
control behavior. Jammu and Kashmir is a land of diversities and disparities professing diverse religion, language and culture. Since health and nutrition
of people are influenced by a number of conditions in a multi-pronged
manner, therefore, a comparative study of health, nutrition and socio-psycho
behaviour of adolescent boys and girls” seemed important. The present study
aimed to establish the local base line data relevant to the health, nutrition
and socio-psycho behaviour of boys and girls in six districts of Kashmir
Valley.
The study was undertaken with following objectives:
To assess the nutritional status of adolescent through anthropometrics
measurements (height and weight).
To comprehend the present health, sickness status and the past illness of the
adolescents.
To study the dietary habits and nutritional intake of the adolescents.
To know various food taboos among adolescents.
To workout the effect of mass media on food preferences and intake of
adolescents.
To know socio-psycho behavioral problems among adolescents.
To see the inclination of adolescents towards physical activities