313 research outputs found
The sustainability zine: The value of art-based pedagogy to support education for sustainability in a creative business and management course
No full textThis chapter explores some of the opportunities, challenges and wide benefits that art-based pedagogy offers to support education for sustainability, in the Integrated Foundation in Business and Management for the Creative Industries course at the University for the Creative Arts (UCA). It shares the process and reflections of the Sustainability Zine assignment completed as part of a Materials, Models, Mindsets project that started with exploring the Zine special collection at UCA. Zines are a form of radical self-publishing, derived from the word Fanzine. Zines often challenge convention, presenting alternative personal perspectives, they generate a sense of empowerment and community among readers and creators. Intended learning outcomes included: creating a Zine using Adobe InDesign, evidence of critical analysis, evaluation and reflection, through independent research into the circular economy, greenwashing, and sustainable business case studies. In this chapter I demonstrate that using art-based pedagogy in creative business teaching, that includes authentic portfolio assessment, developing critical analysis skills and self-reflection, offers opportunities for engagement and developing knowledge in sustainability and ethics. This chapter notes the importance of mindset development at the foundation level. It recognises that developing a sustainability mindset is as important for students as skills development. I highlight the potential impact this project and mindset has for students’ future study and for creating a more sustainable world
Merchants of Virtue
No full textMerchants of Virtue explores the question of what it meant to be Hindu in precolonial South Asia. Divya Cherian presents a fine-grained study of everyday life and local politics in the kingdom of Marwar in eighteenth-century western India to uncover how merchants enforced their caste ideals of vegetarianism and bodily austerity as universal markers of Hindu identity. Using legal strategies and alliances with elites, these merchants successfully remade the category of “Hindu,” setting it in contrast to “Untouchable” in a process that reconfigured Hinduism in caste terms. In a history pertinent to understanding India today, Cherian establishes the centrality of caste to the early-modern Hindu self and to its imagination of inadmissible others.
“A refreshingly different perspective on the history of caste and untouchability in India, enlarging the field of scholarship from its focus on the colonial era by telling us how precolonial configurations of power in the locality shaped the everyday experience of caste.” — GOPAL GURU, coauthor of The Cracked Mirror and Experience, Caste, and the Everyday Social
“This provocative and empirically rich study offers a plenitude of fascinating insights into aspects of western Indian history ca. 1800, from kingship and caste hierarchy to abortion and alcohol consumption. Particularly innovative is its focus on the critical role played by merchants in articulating social identities that became widespread in modern times.” — CYNTHIA TALBOT, author of The Last Hindu Emperor
“A pathbreaking book that explodes essentialist views of the construction of Hindu and Muslim identities in precolonial India. Divya Cherian provocatively argues that the category of ‘Hindu’ was the primary locus for a system of radical othering that excluded Untouchables (and Muslims as Untouchables) through mechanisms of state, law, and everyday life.” — CHRISTIAN LEE NOVETZKE, Professor of South Asian and Religious Studies, University of Washingto
Merchants of Virtue
No full textMerchants of Virtue explores the question of what it meant to be Hindu in precolonial South Asia. Divya Cherian presents a fine-grained study of everyday life and local politics in the kingdom of Marwar in eighteenth-century western India to uncover how merchants enforced their caste ideals of vegetarianism and bodily austerity as universal markers of Hindu identity. Using legal strategies and alliances with elites, these merchants successfully remade the category of “Hindu,” setting it in contrast to “Untouchable” in a process that reconfigured Hinduism in caste terms. In a history pertinent to understanding India today, Cherian establishes the centrality of caste to the early-modern Hindu self and to its imagination of inadmissible others.
“A refreshingly different perspective on the history of caste and untouchability in India, enlarging the field of scholarship from its focus on the colonial era by telling us how precolonial configurations of power in the locality shaped the everyday experience of caste.” — GOPAL GURU, coauthor of The Cracked Mirror and Experience, Caste, and the Everyday Social
“This provocative and empirically rich study offers a plenitude of fascinating insights into aspects of western Indian history ca. 1800, from kingship and caste hierarchy to abortion and alcohol consumption. Particularly innovative is its focus on the critical role played by merchants in articulating social identities that became widespread in modern times.” — CYNTHIA TALBOT, author of The Last Hindu Emperor
“A pathbreaking book that explodes essentialist views of the construction of Hindu and Muslim identities in precolonial India. Divya Cherian provocatively argues that the category of ‘Hindu’ was the primary locus for a system of radical othering that excluded Untouchables (and Muslims as Untouchables) through mechanisms of state, law, and everyday life.” — CHRISTIAN LEE NOVETZKE, Professor of South Asian and Religious Studies, University of Washingto
Improved collision detection in StarLogo Nova
No full textThesis: M. Eng., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2015.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (page 65).StarLogo Nova is blocks-based educational software that allows students to write and play their own 3D games online. It is the online version of StarLogo TNG. This thesis explores the problem of needing more accurate collision detection in StarLogo Nova while maintaining reasonable performance. Three new collision detection systems for StarLogo Nova are developed and evaluated. Compared to the spheres used to perform collision checks in the current system, the first new system, called the TightestFitCollider, introduces a variety of bounding spheres, bounding boxes, and bounding capsules as bounding structures that may fit the models in StarLogo Nova more closely. The second system, called the HierarchicalCollider, uses hierarchies of bounding boxes to perform even more precise collision detection than the TightestFitCollider. Finally, the third system combines the first two systems, so that the advantages of each can be used as appropriate. The three systems are evaluated for their accuracy and performance within the StarLogo Nova framework.by Divya Bajekal.M. Eng
Women Empowerment through Social initiatives: An Indian Story
No full textIt is now proven that the relationship between business and society is integral in the success of any enterprise. With the growing role of business in society, organizations are becoming more “socially responsible” and engaging in various social initiatives. Organizations involve themselves in various kinds of initiatives generally targeted towards a selected underprivileged section of the society or a specific area like education, health, and environment. Women play an important role in building sustainable development. Promoting women empowerment and widening their contribution in decision-making roles are key strategies for sustainable development. The present paper is an attempt to highlight women empowerment through various social initiatives. In this regard, I attempted to review some of the exemplary sustainable social initiatives running in India through this paper
Supplemental materials for preprint: A Descriptive Study of Indian General Public’s Psychological responses during COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown Period in India
No full textSupplemental materials for preprint: A Descriptive Study of Indian General Public’s Psychological responses during COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown Period in India
No full textFemA based drug design for potentiation of B-lactam antibiotics against Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus
No full textThe present study was oriented to identify the resistance modifying agent (RMA) for β-lactam antibiotics, Penicillin and Oxacillin against Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Initially, identification of RMA’s was based on inhibitors of FemA protein’s structure, which is a novel drug target and has not been exploited so far in antibiotic drug development, using computational tools by virtual library of compounds. Catechin Gallate (CG) was selected as the inhibitor of FemA protein from in silico studies which comprised of docking, interaction, toxicity and checking of Lipinski violations. Subsequently to identifying CG as a lead molecule from in silico studies, its antibacterial property in presence and absence of antibiotics Oxacillin and Penicillin was carried out to arrive to MIC and FIC index of the antibiotic combinations. Further time kill kinetics and mucopolysaccharide content of the test and control organisms was carried out by nLC-MS in the three standard isolates of S. aureus.
Three synergistic formulations viz formulation of 62.5 μg/ml oxacillin with 7.8 μg/ml of CG, 62.5 μg/ml oxacillin with 31.25 μg/ml of CG and 125 μg/ml of oxacillin with 7.8 μg/ml of CG were found to potentiate oxacillin against three isolates of S. aureus viz. NCTC 6571, MTCC 737 and MTCC 96, while one synergistic formulation of 2000 μg/ml penicillin with 7.8 μg/ml of CG was found to be effective against
NCTC 6571
Reduction of more than 50% peak area in concentration of muropeptides of test formulations compared to their control, indicates the modulation of functional expression of FemXAB proteins by CG the selected inhibitor of FemA protein. Subsequently, β-lactam antibiotic efficiency has been increased in MRSA strains. With the use of CG, possibly due to inhibition of FemXAB protein as evident from change in muropepides content. Hence, the present study establishes the potential of Catechin Gallate as potentiator of β-lactam antibiotics against MRSA in vitro and warrants extensive studies on clinical isolates and their muropeptides composition
Single-Cell Chromatin and Transcriptional Profiles of Pediatric Brain Tumour Evolution
No full textPediatric brain tumors are one of the most common solid tumors and are the leading cause of cancer-related deaths among children. Despite significant advancements aimed at improving treatment for these tumors, the overall prognosis for affected children has improved minimally during the past decade, primarily due to a limited understanding of the underlying tumor biology. This thesis is based on the hypothesis that epigenetic dysregulation plays a key role in the development, progression, and recurrence of pediatric brain tumors. To explore this hypothesis, I analyzed the epigenetic and transcriptional profiles of three specific types of pediatric brain tumors: pediatric high-grade glioma (pHGG), posterior fossa A (PF-A) ependymoma, and supratentorial (ST) ependymoma. The first section centers on pHGG, employing single-nuclei ATAC-seq on paired diagnostic and recurrent samples. By assessing these paired samples, our data show that new chromatin states arise at relapse, enabling specific transcription factors (TFs) to dominate their chromatin accessibility landscapes and driving transcriptional divergence between diagnostic and relapse tumors. The second section explores the transcriptional and epigenetic landscape of pediatric solid tumor ependymomas, with a focus on the RELA-fused, HGNET-BCOR, and PF-A subtypes, particularly regarding the effects of azacitidine (Vidaza) treatment. I find that the response to Vidaza is highly patient-specific, with observable shifts in the epigenome and a more neuronal phenotype. Furthermore, I identify potential metabolic changes caused by azacitidine treatment. The third section presents a case study that offers valuable insights into the molecular evolution of a rare supratentorial ependymoma harboring a ZFTA-NCOA2 fusion. By utilizing a multiome strategy on paired diagnostic and relapse samples, I observe a shift from astroglial signatures to an epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) state at relapse. In summary, this thesis offers comprehensive insights into the dynamic epigenetic and transcriptional dynamics in pediatric brain tumors as they progress and adapt to therapy. These findings significantly enhance our understanding of pediatric brain tumor biology and indicate promising opportunities for improving clinical outcomes in these severe childhood cancers
- …
