272 research outputs found
Interview with Lakshmi Raj Sharma, Author of The Tailor’s Needle
Interview with Indian writer Lakshmi Raj Sharma, author of 'The Tailor's needle
Dilip Kumar: autor-aktor
Dilip Kumar has been praised for his sublime dialog delivery, for his restrained gestures, and for his measured and controlled underplay of emotions in tragic stories as well as in light-hearted comedies. His debut in 1944 with Jwar Bhata (Ebb and Tide) met with less-than-flattering reviews. So did the next three films until his 1948 film, Jugnu (Firefly), which brought him recognition and success. Unlike his contemporaries such as Raj Kapoor and Dev Anand, who propelled their careers by launching their own production companies, Dilip Kumar relied on his talent, his unique approach to characterization, and his immersion in the projects he undertook. In the course of his career that spanned six decades, Kumar made only 62 films. However, his work is a textbook for other actors that followed. Not only did he bring respectability to a profession that had been shunned by the upper classes in India as a profession for “pimps and prostitutes,” but he also elevated film-acting and filmmaking to an academic discipline, making him worthy of the title ‘Professor Emeritus of Acting’. Rooted in the theoretical framework of Howard S. Becker’s work on the “production of culture” and “doing things together,” this paper discusses Kumar’s approach to acting, character development, and the level of his involvement and commitment to each of his projects. The author of this article argues that more than the creative control as a producer or a director, it is the artistic involvement and commitment of the main actors that shape great works of art in cinema. Dilip Kumar demonstrated it repeatedly.Dilip Kumar był chwalony za wysublimowane prowadzenie dialogów, opanowaną gestykulację oraz za wyważone i kontrolowane wyrażanie emocji zarówno w opowieściach tragicznych, jak też w beztroskich komediach. Jego debiut w 1944 w Jwar Bhata (Odpływy i przypływy) spotkał się z niezbyt pochlebnymi recenzjami. Podobnie było z kolejnymi trzema filmami, aż do filmu Jugnu (Świetlik) z 1948 roku, który przyniósł mu uznanie i sukces. W przeciwieństwie do swoich rówieśników, jak Raj Kapoor iDev Anand, którzy napędzali kariery, uruchamiając własne firmy produkcyjne, Dilip Kumar polegał na swoim talencie, unikalnym podejściu do charakteryzacji i zaangażowaniu w projekty, których się podjął. W ciągu swojej sześćdziesięcioletniej kariery Kumar nakręcił tylko 62 filmy. Jednak jego praca jest podręcznikowa dla młodszych aktorów. Nie tylko przyniósł szacunek zawodowi aktora, traktowanemu przez indyjskie klasy wyższe jako zawód „alfonsów i prostytutek”, ale także podniósł aktorstwo filmowe i filmowanie do dyscypliny akademickiej, co uczyniło Kumara godnym tytułu emerytowanego profesora aktorstwa. Artykuł ten, zakorzeniony w ramach teoretycznych pracy Howarda S. Beckera nad „produkcją kultury” i „robieniem rzeczy razem”, omawia podejście Kumara do aktorstwa i rozwoju postaci oraz poziom jego zaangażowania w każdy ze swoich projektów. Autor tego artykułu przekonuje, że to artystyczne zaangażowanie i poświęcenie głównych aktorów kształtują wielkie dzieła sztuki w kinie bardziej niż kontrola twórcza producenta czy reżysera. Dilip Kumar wielokrotnie to zademonstrował
Association of pro/anti-inflammatory cytokine gene variants in renal transplant patients with allograft outcome and cyclosporine immunosuppressant levels
Parmeet Kaur Manchanda, Anant Kumar, Raj K Sharma, Himanshu Goel, Rama Devi MittalDepartment of Urology and Renal Transplantation, Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Raebareli Road, Lucknow 226014, Uttar Pradesh, IndiaAbstract: T-helper (Th) type 1/Th2 cytokines are key mediators in induction/effecter phases of all immune and inflammatory responses playing role in acute/chronic renal allograft rejection. Association studies lead to identification of patient risk profiles enabling individualization of level of immunosuppressions. We investigated the association of allograft rejection with interleukin-2 (IL-2), IL-4, IL-6, tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) –308, transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) (C-del, codon 10 and 25) gene variants in 184 renal transplant recipients and 180 controls. These cytokine genotypes were also evaluated with cyclosporine levels (C2) at one month in 135 stable recipients. High producing genotypes B1B1 of IL-4 and AA of TNF-α −308 showed significant association with rejection of allograft. The dose-adjusted C2 levels were significantly lower in patients with the high producing genotype T/T of IL-2 and heterozygous G/C of TGF-β codon 25 (P = 0.012 and 0.010, respectively). Haplotype frequencies were comparable in subjects for TGF-β codon-10 and 25. Combined inter-gene interaction showed high risk for rejection in recipients with high producing genotype B1B1 of IL-4 and AA of TNF-α and high TNF-α (AA) with low TGF-β (CC or Pro/Pro). In conclusion, association of IL-4 VNTR and TNF-α –308 suggested the involvement of these cytokines contributing to pathogenesis of allograft rejection. Recipients with TT genotype of IL-2 and GC of TGF-β codon 25 having low C2 levels may require higher cyclosporine dosage. Combined analysis of gene-gene interaction demonstrated synergistic effect of cytokines increasing risk for rejection. Thus, this information may help in pre-assessment of allograft outcome and to optimize cyclosporine therapy in post-transplant patients.Keywords: cytokines, renal transplant, polymorphism, ARMS–PCR, PCR–RFLP, cyclosporin
Social Indicators Research: A Retrospective Using Bibliometric Analysis
Social Indicators Research (SIR) publishes novel and groundbreaking research focusing on
social indicators related to quality of life and sustainability. Using bibliometrics, this study
aims to offer a retrospective of the major trends (e.g., publication, citation, and top contributing
authors, institutions, and countries) and intellectual structure of SIR. The retrospective
indicates that SIR, which has grown substantially in productivity and impact, attracts
contributions worldwide, notably from the USA, with 11 major themes revealed between
1974 and 2019. Using a zero-inflated negative binomial regression, this study also reveals
the factors that influence the citation count of SIR publications, namely article age, number
of author keywords, title novelty, title length, USA affiliation, and number of authors.
Noteworthily, this study, which represents the inaugural review of SIR, should be useful for
readers to gain rich insights into the state of research on social indicators related to quality
of life and sustainability
Gender and Public Spending on Education in Pakistan: A Case Study of Disaggregated Benefit Incidence
It is generally believed that education is one of the basic rights of every human being, irrespective of sex, age, creed, religion, etc. Moreover, the target of universal primary education cannot be achieved without female access to educational opportunities, which contains several external benefits. In addition, access to educational opportunities assumes prime importance for empowerment of women. However, inequalities in access to education between males and females can be found in many countries across the world including Pakistan. According to conventional wisdom, a combination of cultural, social, and economic factors are responsible for placing young girls and women at a serious disadvantage vis-a-vis access to school and the prospect of completing their education. This disadvantage can be altered through public policies including gender sensitive public spending on education. The above assertion about the role of public policy is based on the theory of public finance1, which demonstrates that public expenditure on education can affect the population in a number of ways, which has significant gender dimensions. For example, government spending on primary education is likely to generate more income for women than spending on universities, for the simple reason that there are relatively more women primary school teachers than women university lecturers. Moreover, these expenditures provide subsidized educational services, which is a form of “in kind transfers”. These “in-kind transfers” improve the current well-being of the recipients, and enhance their longer-run income-earning potential. They can be considered as both current and capital transfers to the recipients, and therefore can be termed as the “benefit incidence” of public spending. The main concern of this paper is to assess the gender dimension of the benefitincidence”. The tudy has two basic objectives. First and foremost, it aims to investigate which income group actually benefits from the government’s subsidized.
Biochar: a sustainable solution for solid waste management in agro-processing industries [Latest Articles]
Author Impact Factor: tracking the dynamics of individual scientific impact
The impact factor (IF) of scientific journals has acquired a major role in the evaluations of the output of scholars, departments and whole institutions. Typically papers appearing in journals with large values of the IF receive a high weight in such evaluations. However, at the end of the day one is interested in assessing the impact of individuals, rather than papers. Here we introduce Author Impact Factor (AIF), which is the extension of the IF to authors. The AIF of an author A in year t is the average number of citations given by papers published in year t to papers published by A in a period of Δt years before year t. Due to its intrinsic dynamic character, AIF is capable to capture trends and variations of the impact of the scientific output of scholars in time, unlike the h-index, which is a growing measure taking into account the whole career path.Peer reviewe
An ethnobotanical study of plants used for the treatment of livestock diseases in Tikamgarh District of Bundelkhand, Central India
ABSTRACTObjectiveTo explore and document the information regarding usage of ethnoveterinary medicinal plants utilized by rural farmers and traditional herbal healers for livestock healthcare in Tikamgarh District of Bundelkhnad, Central India.MethodsThe remote villages of Tikamgarh district were regularly visited from July 2011 to June 2012. Following the methods of Jain and Goel (1995) information regarding the usage of ethnoveterinary medicinal plants was collected.ResultsA total of 41 plant species in 39 genera and 25 families were used traditionally with various plant parts and their combinations for the treatment of more than 36 diseases in the studied area. Trees (17 species) were found to be the most used Ethnoveterinary medicinal plants followed by herbs (15 species), shrubs (6 species) and grasses (3) in descending order. The most common diseases cough, diarrhoea and fever were treated by 04 ethnoveterinary medicinal plant species.ConclusionsThe present study recommended that the crop and medicinal plant genetic resources cannot be conserved and protected without conserving/managing of the agro-ecosystem or natural habitat of medicinal plants and the socio-cultural organization of the local people. The same may be applied to protect indigenous knowledge, related to the use of medicinal and other wild plants. Introduction of medicinal plants in degraded government and common lands could be another option for promoting the rural economy together with environmental conservation, but has not received attention in the land rehabilitation programs in this region
- …
