The first description of sudden cardiac death was made by Hippocrates in the 4‘th century BC1. Such cases of sudden collapse and death has intrigued both the public and medical science for centuries and a practical definition is that sudden cardiac death is the unexpected and natural death from a cardiac cause within a short period of time, usually less than 1 hour from the onset of symptoms, in a person without any known prior condition1,2. Sudden cardiac death (SCD) is clearly the end-result of a wide variety of cardiac conditions—both congenital and acquired. However, the most common mechanism for the event of SCD is ventricular fibrillation1. However this is an evolving field of study and the recent study published by Stojanovic et al3 is of great importance as it links two well known risk factors for SCD—left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) and QT-dispersion4. The finding by Stojanovic et al3 that septal thickness in both athletes and sedentary men are associated with increased QTd is concerning and future studies need to clarify if we need to keep the septum thin at all costs with more exercise for some and less for others.

There are severe logistic and environmental problems associated with increased global garbage production and rapid urbanization. The traditional management system of trash usually suffers from overflowing containers, unpredictable collection times, and costly operating costs. The main focus of this lecture is on an IoT-enabled smart trash management system comprising a combination of robotics and AI along with its mobile application. It happens to be a modern and environmentally friendly solution. The proposed solution also uses IoT sensors to monitor the real-time waste levels, and optimization of collection routes is mainly through AI algorithms. The process is further automated with a robot that collects waste, thus increasing productivity and the requirement for less human intervention. The integration of a mobile app will allow users and authorities to update schedules for garbage collection, receive warnings, and track the status of bins, thus keeping them on time and ensuring that decisions were based on actual facts. It encourages resource optimization, reduces environmental impact, and decreases operational expenses.

Note: Fabrication of arrays of vertically aligned cobalt nanowires on flat surfaces and field emission (FE) using them as electron cathodes is used.These arrays are obtained by electrodeposition in the form of nanoparticles on Au/Ti/Si substrates at very low temperature (<100°C).  After pattern removal, the arrays consist of structurally upright nanowires with high aspect ratios, uniform dimensions, and predetermined densities.  Electron field emission measurements of metallic properties and propagation of cobalt nanowires.

This study compares strawberry agrivoltaics using two different types of solar photovoltaic (PV) modules: uniform illumination provided from semi-transparent thin-film cadmium telluride (Cd-Te) and non-uniform illumination from semitransparent crystalline silicon (c-Si) which include rows of solar cells and the remainder transparent solar-grade glass. Strawberry plants were grown outdoors in Ilderton, ON under CdTe modules with 40% and 70% transparency (red, blue, and green), and c-Si modules with 44% and 69% transparency. Plant metrics such as fresh weight, height, leaf count, and chlorophyll content were measured, alongside soil temperature and humidity. Statistical analysis examined interactions between plant growth parameters. Overall, non-uniform illumination from c-Si PV modules significantly increased fresh weight by 18% compared to controls, while lowering soil temperatures and increasing humidity. Converting Canada’s strawberry farmland to agrivoltaics could increase fruit revenue by CAD $27 million, and generate over CAD $100 million in electricity value. Total revenues could more than double or triple, depending on the c-Si module density. Additionally, applying electricity savings to reduce fruit prices could lower strawberry costs from CAD $6.51/kg to CAD $4.82/kg, a reduction of over 25%. Agrivoltaics offers the potential for energy self-sufficiency and substantial additional revenue for strawberry farmers, leading to reduced food prices.

Objective To identify modifiable risk factors in the development and persistence of depression. Design Prospective observational cohort study. Setting Healthy midlife women from well-women clinics in a Singapore tertiary hospital enrolled from September 2014 to October 2016. Population Enrolled participants at baseline (n=1201) who were followed-up 6.6 years later. Methods Sociodemographic characteristics and medical history were collected using a questionnaire. Conditions such as urinary incontinence and sleep quality were ascertained using validated questionnaires, and physical performance was objectively-measured. Changes in health conditions and physical performance measures were calculated by subtracting baseline from follow-up values. Modified Poisson regression analyses examined associations between risk factors and outcomes. Main outcome measures Depressive symptoms were defined using the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression (CES-D) scale score ≥16 and/or use of anti-depression medication. Incident cases were defined as new cases that emerged during follow-up, while persistent cases were present at both timepoints. Results After 6.6 years, depression developed in 120 out of 741 (16.2%) participants, while persistent depression was present in 34 out of 146 (23.3%) with baseline depression. Urinary incontinence (adjusted relative risks, aRR: 1.51, 95% confidence interval, CI: 1.06-2.13), poorer perceived health (1.78, 1.25-2.52), lower education attainment (1.72, 1.02-2.90), and alcohol consumption (1.81, 1.11-2.96) at baseline were independently associated with incident depression. Improvements in one-leg stand duration over 6.6 years reduced the risk of incident depression (0.98, 0.96-0.99). Baseline poor sleep quality was a risk factor for both incident and persistent depression. Conclusions Poor sleep, urinary incontinence and weak physical performance are potentially modifiable risk factors for incident and persistent depression.

Human Rights Awareness in South Asia: Structural Barriers and Transformative Possibilities Among the Poor AbstractThis article examines the degree of human rights awareness among marginalized and poor people in South Asia, focusing on the interrelated and structural socio-political, economic, and cultural barriers of internalization and realization of rights. While formal legal structures exist via national constitutions and international human rights covenants, the structural social deprivation, systemic illiteracy, caste and gender hierarchies and limited state institutions make these frameworks unworkable. By exploring these areas of disconnect through a multi-disciplinary lens, we analyze how civil society actors including non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and grassroots movements navigate rights-based knowledge and empowerment. Utilizing Amartya Sen’s “capability deprivation” and Martha Nussbaum’s “capabilities approach,” we suggest a model to conduct intersectional engagement that connects normative human rights rhetoric with lived experience for the poor in South Asia. IntroductionHuman rights, at their core, are the moral and legal claims about the rights of all human beings to establish dignity and agency. The practical access to and understanding of those rights is still unevenly shared, especially among socio-economically excluded communities in South Asia; it is easy to see that access to such rights being enshrined in constitutional provisions and internationally ratified treaties does not correspond to the lived experience of millions of South Asians who face poverty, caste oppression, gender violence, and political disinterest on a daily basis.This article aims to assess the awareness of human rights among the poor living in South Asia by assessing the interplay between structural poverty, educational exclusion/disenfranchisement, socio-cultural hierarchy, and the alleviatory functions of NGOs and social movements; while much of the attention will focus on India, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Pakistan as individual nations that all, on paper, endorsed international human rights norms, and continued to offer up millions of people who were socially excluded from those systems. The article considers the historical context by developing an interdisciplinary approach that combines critical social understandings, as well as analytical, theoretical and lived experiences to assess a complex human rights context in this region. Literature ReviewThe literature depicts a consistently absent relationship between the formal articulation of human rights and their substantive fulfilment among impoverished people of South Asia. In his landmark work Development as Freedom (1999), Sen introduces "capability deprivation" to describe the difference between the formal legal rights and the ability of an individual to convert their rights to functional freedom. He argues that formal rights are dormant unless a person has the material and cognitive capacity to exercise their rights. Nussbaum (2000) further develops this idea with her "capabilities approach" in which she argues that human development is more than formal rights; it is also about the conditions of people being able to flourish within dignity and self-determination.Similarly, South Asian scholars have characterized region-specific dynamics that add to the precluded access to rights education. Jodhka (2015) discusses the relevance of caste-based structures that continue to limit access to an equal state and reparation of legal harms. Chatterjee (2004) continues this idea but goes on to discuss the ambivalence of post-colonial statecraft where the "politics of the governed" operates in such a way as to make poor citizens recognizable only in terms that are contingent upon bureaucratic outcomes. Reports from international organizations continue to burnish the reality of human rights abuses (Amnesty International, 2019; Human Rights Watch, 2020) and demonstrate prevalence of violations and highlights the ongoing need for rights based education and action in rural and conflicted based settings. Socio-Economic Constraints on Human Rights AwarenessPoverty in South Asia is not just about lack of material benefit; it is a systemic stripping of dignity, autonomy, and legal recognition. It denies access to the cognitive and institution to fulfil human rights. For those struggling to achieve food security and housing, to obtain healthcare, the rights of citizenship, civil rights, and political participation fall into a distant second tier of importance. The end result is perpetual underclass status. Rights exist: but they will not ever be accessible when people's frames of reference are defined by chronically impoverished living conditions.In India and Nepal, poverty is a rural phenomenon that has been compounded by an utter breakdown in physical and social infrastructure, as well as degradation of education. The World Bank (2011, 2015; 2016) shows data over the years that basic literacy is improving, but educational performance remains inequitable. For the poorest communities, increased opportunity for schooling does not bring even the most basic knowledge, which can be mobilized for rights-based self-advocacy. Informed knowledge of constitutional guarantees, for example, or state obligations and standards under international human rights treaties are necessary, otherwise, individuals cannot claim entitlements, since they are unable to comprehend and participate in structures, ideologies, and relationships that condition poverty.This blindness is also not incidental: it is recognized and accepted in institutions and states, as well as in increasingly normalized social exclusion. The culture of entitlement as claims against an institution is called into question if people cannot recognize their rights. It is political exclusion, and therefore financing of poverty continues to exist. Cultural and Social Hierarchies as Structural BarriersCulturally entrenched hierarchies are a significant obstacle to awareness and realization of human rights, besides the economic deprivation. South Asian (particularly in India & Nepal) societies are seldom stratified according to caste, ethnicity, and gender. Although legal protections exist in the constitution (e.g. India's Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act) it rarely translates into actual protection under the law. The oppressed castes often lack the knowledge on how to proceed with a claim and the institutional confidence to do so, on top of the overwhelming presence of intimidation, bureaucratic opacity, and legal and administrative delay.Patriarchy can also exacerbate exclusion on the basis of gender. Women in rural Bangladesh and Pakistan, particularly of low-income or minoritized backgrounds, often face multi-dimensional discrimination that prevents movement, access to education, health and well-being, and voicing themselves within the public sphere. This is where the intersections of caste, class, and gender create "compound marginalization," making women that are most vulnerable, the least suitable to engage with formal legal and political institutions.The absence of any form of culturally responsive legal outreach, combined with the social stigma associated with breaching imposed normative social roles, have led to an overwhelming sense of powerlessness. Unless these deep-rooted structures are overturned, formal legal provisions will continue to be available to those most in need of their assistance. The Role of Education and Civil Society OrganizationsEducation is the sine qua non of human rights awareness. Nevertheless, access to education in South Asia is conditioned by structural inequity and ideological bias. Schools run by the state in impoverished areas of South Asia do not have trained teachers, sufficient facilities, and they do not offer a rights-based curriculum. In these conditions, civil society actors—including NGOs—provide a mediating role.NGOs such as BRAC inBangladesh and SEWA in India exhibit a quasi-institutional role that provides services as well as legal consciousness. NGOs engage in the “micro-politics of empowerment”, offering literacy programs, vocational training, legal awareness campaigns, and support networks that allow people to engage with state bureaucracies to reclaim their entitlements. These activities begin to reframe the identity of the poor from recipients of charity to claimants of justice.However, the ability to reach and sustain these claims is limited. Whenever there are regulatory barriers against civil society and a moving political feast take shape, then the work of NGOs is inhibited. The opportunity of organizations to expand their work is limited in rural areas that are impacted by conflict, or removed from urban centers. Although NGOs deliver much-needed services, they cannot replace structural reform or state accountability. Social Movements as Catalysts of Rights-Based TransformationWhile the work of NGOs is typically limited by donor accountabilities and legal accountability, social movements provide a more confrontational and grassroots way of articulating rights. In South Asia, popular mobilizations have successfully been able to assert the identities of the marginalized and demand change entrenched in habitus. The RTI (Right to Information) campaign in India represents a movement that has now been able to exist as a recognizable movement because it gave ordinary people the ability to reformulate and hold state institutions accountable through the legitimizing nature of citizenry. The RTI Act of 2005 is an example of a formalized bureaucratic process that came about not as a result of policy discussions but instead as a result of a long-range campaign that organized rural workers, students, and legal activists.The Dalit Rights movement also highlighted caste oppression and made it a national concern, by remedial grievances and legal recognition of oppressed populations as a social movement. These movements shape the parameters of legal entitlement and shift it from elite entitlement to realised rights for the subaltern, and they extend the notion of rights through re-scripting the relationship between law and life and the experience of it.Similarly, the Aurat March in Pakistan is a powerful feminist articulation that challenges the political nature of patriarchal discipline and opens up space for national discourse on gender justice. In the case of Nepal, deliberate movements for land reform, and the formation of indigenous peoples' movements around the idea of distributive justice is a qualitatively different human rights type movement. These examples show compelling evidence that the language of rights, when appropriated by the poor themselves and presented as a new argument, is transformative only on the grammar by which we are usely accustomed; and used as a grammar of justice. ConclusionThe recognition and understanding of human rights by South Asia's poor are shaped by overlapping systems of deprivation, exclusion and resistance. We have seen how in both international and national mechanisms to promote human rights there are legal instruments, resources and entitlements, however their implementation is often not consistent nor reliable. The level of knowledge of available entitlements among the poor will depend heavily upon social capital, education and their level of legal literacy. Poverty, culture and gender all functions to weaken - and at times override - any possible rights-based agency. Thus far, civil society organizations, and the generative power of social movements, have importantly worked against this embedded inertia.My concluding suggestions are that human rights awareness needs to be reconceptualized, not simply as a result of policy disseminations or legal reform, but as a social process that requires investment in education, politics and culture, over time. On the part of policymakers, human rights promises can be realized in actual rights practice much more effectively if systems, processes and initiatives are established to ensure rights to literacy begin 'from below' rather than with a bureaucratic guarantee.In the end, if South Asia's poor are to change from passive actors in suffering to active makers of their own change, we need an intersectional and participatory reinterpretation of human rights practice. Human dignity is not something you delegate; it is experienced, enacted, and defended - especially at the margins. References・Chatterjee, P. (2004). The Politics of the Governed: Reflections on Popular Politics in Most of the World. Columbia University Press. ・Human Rights Watch. (2020). World Report: South Asia. ・Jodhka, S. S. (2015). Caste in Contemporary India. Routledge. ・Nussbaum, M. C. (2000). Women and Human Development: The Capabilities Approach. Cambridge University Press. ・Sen, A. (1999). Development as Freedom. Oxford University Press. ・Amnesty International. (2019). Human Rights in South Asia: Challenges and Progress. ・World Bank. (2011, 2015, 2016). South Asia Regional Reports on Education and Development. World Bank Publications.

The Contemporary Indian Disposition and Its Socio-Cultural Background AbstractThis essay critically reflects on the current Indian disposition, accounting for its complex sociocultural, historical and economic configurations. The Indian disposition is informed not only by its historical civilization, nor its colonial past but also by its complexity of modernity, globalization, and internal pluralisms. The primary dispositions of adaptability, collectivism, entrepreneurial agency, and dynamic tension between tradition and innovation are not arbitrary psychological traits but historically and culturally dependent phenomena. Based on interdisciplinary scholarship in cultural psychology, postcolonial studies, and development studies, this essay illustrates how the emerging Indian identity represents both continuity and change. Moreover, we reflect on what this disposition means for social cohesion, socio-economic mobility, and civil society; especially in the context of India in the 21st Century. IntroductionThe contemporary Indian mentality is not easy to define within simplified classifications. It is the product of a complex process of civilizational depth, colonial rupture, socio-economic shifts and cultural hybridities. Although India is a continually grounded location with layers of historical continuities, it has also undergone disruptive transformations led by economic liberalization, demographic shifts and pervasive digital linkages. Thus, understanding the national character of present-day India should seek to recognize elements of both longue durée and rupture.This paper considers the Indian mentality not merely as a stable personality structure, but as a potential configuration of dispositions in constant adaptive motion to structural, cultural, and historic arguments. The paper discusses key dispositions such as resilience, adaptability, collectivism and entrepreneurialism within the contexts of post-colonial recovery, plurality (religious and linguistic) and the realities of neoliberal modernization. The most significant of tensions arb reasoned as the tension towards tradition and modernity. This tension is not simply two competing cultural positions, but a lived mediation in everyday Indian life. Ultimately, this paper seeks to contribute to the literature on cultural psychology and national identity by providing an empirical footing within contemporary literature and critical theory. Literature ReviewIt is difficult to pin down the modern Indian mentality into simple binary classifications. This modern Indian mentality is a result of a long and deep civilizational process, colonial fracture, socio-economic transitions and mixed cultures. While being a site of constantity with layers of historical continuities, India also has undergone interruptions of significant magnitude by way of economic liberalization, demographic shifts and total connectivity. Therefore, the relational character of contemporary India is best understood by recognizing both the sustained existences of long histories and interruptions. This paper takes into consideration Indian mentality as not an underlying stable personality structure but rather a configuration of dispositions that are in an ongoing process of adaptation to structural, cultural, and historic arguments. This paper examines core dispositions such as resilience, adaptability, collectivism and entrepreneurship, situated within the realities of post-colonial mourning, plurality, (religious and linguistic), and neoliberal modernity. The major underlying tension is that of reasoned tensions which lie between tradition and modernity; which is not just two competing cultural positions, but a mediation in lived Indian lives. This paper hopes to contribute in some way about the cultural psychology and national identity literature and firmly place an empirical footprint within contemporary literature and critical theory. Adaptability and Resilience: Cultural Continuity in the Face of DisruptionAdaptability and resilience are some of the most manifest and historically rooted characteristics of the Indian disposition. It is important to stress that these are not only behavioral modalities but cultural dispositions that developed over centuries of civilizational encounters, external powers and authorities, and societal and political transitions. India’s resilience to adapt to and integrate external influences—from Islamic to British colonial interventions—without losing its original identity, reveals an extraordinary hybridized resilience (Khilnani, 1997).These contemporary expressions of adaptability are portrayed in the modern pheno- menon of jugaad, a colloquial term, referring to informal flexible, improvised solutions to specific practical problems framed as innovations. Jugaad is often heralded as a hallmark for bottom-up innovations, while revealing the structural lack of public infrastructure and failed formal systems of supports, juggad also demonstrates how resilience in this case, is not an individual trait but a structural necessity related to enduring socio-economic precarity, precarious and unpredictable environments, and political instability (Ray & Katzenstein, 2005). Another contemporary example of structural resilience, demonstrated by the rise of informal labour economies–from street vendors to small artisans to gig workers, reflects the cultural disposition to endure and persist through hardship. Such endurance is often mythologised as an ethic of patience and courage (dhairya), yet warrants critical analysis in relation to structural injustices that endorse and legitimise suffering and restrict mobility through choice. To put it succinctly, while the examination of Indian resilience is commendable, it also should not be romanticised when embedded in socio-economic conditions. Collectivism and Kinship Ethics: The Social Foundations of IdentityCollectivism remains potent in Indian society which relies on the ‘joint family’ system of a single extended household for socialization, family support, identity formation, and other functions. This collectivism is found in Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, or other religious traditions that often prioritize interdependence and filial obligation (dharma) over autonomy (Roland, 1988).As opposed to the liberal individualism found in Euro-American contexts, Indian subjectivity is relational and situational. This emphasis on interdependence means that decisions about education, marriage, careers, and even migration emerge through family negotiation in koje huzurality may be important to consider (Das, 1995). Social networks of kinship function as emotional anchors but are also seen as informal economic institutions to some extent, particularly in rural and peri-urban locales.Collectivism is not without tension. It can also promote conformity and dissent avoidance, and reinforce systems of patriarchy and caste hierarchy. In urban spaces, younger cohorts of Indians may pursue greater agency in partner choice, mode of life, and using direct language, careers (as well as migration) which creates friction between generations and changes in family behavior norms slowly. Still, even urban youth, retain enduring legacies of collectivism through the family, often emerging in the digital sphere (i.e. WhatsApp family groups, arranged marriage platforms, and family payments based on remittance). Entrepreneurialism and Economic Aspiration in the Post-Liberalization EraSince the economic reforms of 1991, India has experienced a new aspirational sensibility. Entrepreneurship—both necessity and innovative driven—has become a prominent dimension of the post-liberalization Indian disposition, particularly among the developing urban middle classes and digitally connected youth, who see economic self-determination as a practical and symbolic break from the past (Fuller & Narasimhan, 2006).Start-ups, digital finance, and co-working reflect a new valuation of risk and individual initiative, and are often invoked as a moral economy of self-making. However, scholars like Upadhya (2016) note that it is important to contextualize entrepreneurialism alongside ongoing underemployment and informalization. Not everyone has access to the "new Indian dream": has privilege in relation to structural inequalities of caste, class, and geography.Additionally, this economic sensibility has an ambivalent relationship with older collectivism. Families, in two senses—as networks of care and as economic agents—are often the initial investment and moral support for entrepreneurial ventures. But the celebration of self-making often obscures the structural dependencies and social advantages that have made such accomplishments possible. Hence, the entrepreneurial disposition in India can be understood as a distinct intersection of ambition, necessity, kinship logic, and neoliberal ideology. Tension Between Tradition and Modernity: Negotiating Cultural HybridityThe dynamic of tradition and modernity serves as a central axis through which the present Indian identity is formed. This tension is dynamic, dependent on a multi-level negotiation—not simply a case of a binary opposition-- at the family, sectional, and economic, gendered, and religious levels. Tradition, in the Indian context, cannot be merely understood as an inflexible memory from the past—it continues to exert normative force, often ritualized, and, in the context of a fluid and tenuous global politics, is shaped by the complexities of kinship, values, and moral codes (Appadurai, 1996).Modernity was only introduced into India in the past century and half of colonial rule but advanced with the removal of British rule and the greater societal and media based mobility and subjectivity that has occurred as a result. We receive new (individual) educational forms of and mobility, and attitudes towards entitlement to (and enjoyment of) greater socio-economic status. Superordinate individualistic values and norms of behaviour from global and digital media, urbanization, and non-linear migration patterns into larger cities function as pathway to autonomy and self-expression and socio-economic mobility for young Indians, especially young women and the socio-culturally 'stereotypical' other than elite.To be clear, young people take up modernity but often in conflicted and partial ways and within contested discourses. Inter-caste and love marriages represent significant ruptures in contemporary society, with much resistance to these traditional social institutions and, in some cases, more extreme forms of subjugation, such as honour killings. Respectively, employment opportunities for women advance, changes in behaviours and practices occur, but education and the law still afford discriminatory role expectations around mobility and autonomy. Modernity in the Indian context is an experience in cultural hybridity—a simultaneous attachment to heritage, inherited values and aspirational realignments—prone to negotiation and uncertainty and the vexed feelings of anxiety, ambivalence, and moral disorientation around identity. Globalization and Technological Mediation of IdentityGlobalization has drastically reshaped Indian society and the processes of economic production, frames of reference, modes of cultural consumption, and the processes of identity making as we move into the twenty-first century. The liberalization process that took off in the 1990s opened the Indian market to global flows of capital, good, and information, giving rise to a new Indian middle-class that is passingly more cosmopolitan in outlook, but culturally more locally embedded by its affective ties and practices (Fernandes, 2006).Technology -specifically the internet and mobile telecommunications- is critical to the process of change. Social networking sites, internet portals, online marketplaces, and globally reached entertainment channels allow Indians to interact with a wider range of lifestyles and ideologically motivated trends including consumer capitalism, feminist political action, and environmental investment. The resulting exposure to these vastly diverse lifestyles has prompted a new "networked individualism" (Castells, 2010) for many of India's urban youth, who might concurrently engage with local social responsibilities while also participating in global discourses.However, the benefits of global interconnectedness and digital connectivity are unevenly shared; the urban elite are able to participate in the global market and create transnational affiliations with few benefits for rural populations and the subaltern. Uneven global sophistication likewise produces a "digital divide" (Dholakia and Kshetri, 2004) that often reinforces existing social hierarchies. Like with other dimensions of culture, the algorithmic mediation of aspects of identity -including targeted advertising and political messaging- often further reinforces parochialism, disinformation, and digital tribalism. The Indian disposition in the contemporary digital era is characterized by a sort of duality where the increasing exposure to pluralism is countered by a more pronounced stubbornness of cultural essentialism and political polarization. Toward a Critical Understanding of the Indian DispositionThe contemporary Indian subject's disposition must not be understood in isolation from broader, structural, and historical conditions. It is cultivated out of processes of cultural syncretism, colonial disruption, postcolonial nation-building, and neoliberal transformation. Features of adaptability, perseverance, collectivism, and entrepreneurialism should not be understood as foundational elements of a national identity, since they were cultivated out of structural contradictions and varying ideals.What emerges is not a unified national character, but a tapestry of dispositions—heterogeneous, contingent, and internally contested. There is a theoretical way of understanding the Indian disposition as a ground of struggle: construction and agency, autonomy, and being embedded in traditions, aspirations, and limitations. This recognition challenges essentialist readings of national identity and urges a consideration of subjectivity that centres on situated, relational, and critically reflexive understanding. ConclusionThe present-day Indian disposition is shaped by both continuity and rupture, evolving from a synthesis of ancient civilization values and the dynamics of modern structures. Features such as adaptation, resilience, collectivist spirit, and small-business aspiration are rooted in deep historical trajectories and heightened by the impact of economic liberalization, technological advance, and international cultural flows. These features are not just psychological dispositions but are also socio-culturally embedded habits persisting under conditions of enduring social structure. This disposition is still fraught with tension, as the ordinariness of negotiating tradition and modernity are ever-present in the lives of its individuals and communities. Similarly, globalization offers both new opportunities and disparities, engendering hybrid subjectivities that are aspirational, yet entangled. For academics, policy-makers, and civil society actors, understanding what this disposition looks like matters beyond the academic sense. It enables a more culturally-grounded and larger evidence base from which to develop policy, deploy development initiatives, and frame visions of national progress. The Indian disposition is not a fixed identity. Instead, it is an ongoing project—a historical process that is rearticulated in the contemporary; what it becomes is open-ended. References・Appadurai, A. (1996). Modernity at large: Cultural dimensions of globalization. University of Minnesota Press. ・Castells, M. (2010). The rise of the network society (2nd ed.). Wiley-Blackwell. ・Das, V. (1995). Critical events: An anthropological perspective on contemporary India. Oxford University Press. ・Dholakia, R. R., & Kshetri, N. (2004). Digital divide in India: Measurement, determinants and policy for addressing the challenges in bridging the digital divide. International Journal of Business Research, 3(2), 1–12. ・Fernandes, L. (2006). India's new middle class: Democratic politics in an era of economic reform. University of Minnesota Press. ・Fuller, C. J., & Narasimhan, H. (2006). Information technology professionals and the new rich middle class in Chennai (Madras). Modern Asian Studies, 40(1), 121–150. ・Harriss-White, B. (2002). India working: Essays on society and economy. Cambridge University Press. ・Jodhka, S. S. (2015). Caste in contemporary India. Routledge. ・Khilnani, S. (1997). The idea of India. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ・Nandy, A. (1983). The intimate enemy: Loss and recovery of self under colonialism. Oxford University Press. ・Ray, R., & Katzenstein, M. F. (2005). Social movements in India: Poverty, power, and politics. Rowman & Littlefield. ・Roland, A. (1988). In search of self in India and Japan: Toward a cross-cultural psychology. Princeton University Press. ・Sen, A. (2005). The argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian history, culture and identity. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ・Upadhya, C. (2016). Rewriting the code: Software professionals and the reconstitution of the “new” Indian middle class. In L. Fernandes (Ed.), Routledge Handbook of Indian Politics (pp. 370–386). Routledge. ・Varma, P. (2005). Being Indian: Inside the real India. Penguin Books.

The Origin, Evolution, and Contemporary Dynamics of the Caste System in India AbstractThis article constitutes a critical and contextual analysis of the caste system in India, from its origins in Vedic ritual hierarchies and consolidations via religious, social, and political institutions, to its formal codification through British colonialism – which transformed flexible identity groups into fixed categories of administration, thereby formalizing caste into a technique of control. The article then examines the post-independence era of the caste system in India by analyzing the constitutional amendments and reforms regarding caste identities, affirmative action policies, social movements led by Dalits for anti-caste system activism, and the framing of caste and caste systems. The articulation of caste as a systematic, economic and symbolic violence creates a critique that caste still infuses contemporary aspects of Indian society, despite of it being outlawed. This article will contribute to ongoing debates regarding caste by calling out the need for intersectional, interdisciplinary, and post-colonial ways of situating caste, caste systems and legacies of caste with a view for what such changes mean for the context of modern-day India. IntroductionThe caste system denotes one of the oldest and most durable forms of social stratification in the human condition. Caste in the Indian context was not merely a system of occupational division, but a complex matrix of religious meaning, socio-political authority, and cultural reproduction. Caste is often conceptualized as a single and static institution of the past. However, caste is continually adapted and transformed as a result of political and economic changes, colonial interventions, and resistance movements.This study aims to critically consider the genealogical trajectory and contemporary manifestation of caste in India. The study begins with an examination of caste's Vedic origins and Brahmanism's ideological work constructing purity hierarchies. It then considers the colonial era, specifically British administrative practices that systematized and bureaucratized caste identity. Finally, the paper will consider the post-colonial era, focusing on legal reforms, like the abolition of untouchability and affirmative action, while also considering the limits and paradoxes in state-led strategies of caste justice in contemporary India. The purpose here is not to simply recount a history of caste, but to also unpack its transformations, contestations, and continuing implications for democratic citizenship in India. Literature ReviewThe caste system has received considerable and sometimes flare interested scholarship that continually changes. The most classical sociological account of caste is, and what still remains the most serious account of caste, appears in Louis Dumont´s Homo Hierarchicus published in 1970. Dumont treated caste as a radically religious category that organized society in terms of the social dimensions of purity and pollution. Dumont's classic Indological account of caste has been importantly critiqued by postcolonial, Dalit, and other subaltern scholarship.A seminal political thinker, B.R. Ambedkar, also a radical critic of caste orthodoxy, proposed that caste is a "graded inequality" and argued for its eradication as a corollary to a democratic polity (Ambedkar, 1944). Nicholas Dirks, in Castes of Mind (2001), radically redefined caste as primarily a colonial construct, wherein the British projects of ethnography and bureaucracy transformed a fluid set of social practices into an actual, exploitable and reifiable system of governance.More recent scholarship is examining caste as enduring configurations of power that are in rapport with class, gender and religious identity. G. Shah (2006) and S.S. Jodhka (2015) have wrestled with caste as a persistent feature of democratic India, most recently in rural economies, electoral politics, and educational institutions. Contemporary feminist scholarship has articulated the gendered experience of caste. Other scholarship has examined the caste variable with respect to neoliberal economic reforms and media portrayals.The array of fields of study and the multiple angles in which the literature of caste has opened up shows us that caste is not easily or manageably studied in a single manner; it could be, as hierarchy has been suggested, multi-dimensional and usable in interdisciplinary academic engagement of history, anthropology, sociology, and political theory. The Origins and Ritual Foundations of the Caste SystemThe caste system originated during the early Vedic period (approximately 1500–500 BCE), which structured society ideally into four major divisions called varnas: Brahmins (priests and teachers), Kshatriyas (rulers and warriors), Vaishyias (agriculturists and merchants), and Shudras (laborers and service providers). These original categories were primarily related to occupations, but the embrace of hereditary and religiousness followed, particularly through Brahmanical orthodoxy.One aspect contributing to the longevity of caste was the idea of ritual purity, which related moral and spiritual worth to bodily relationship practices (including eating and socializing). Those at the top of the hierarchy—Brahmins—were seen as protectors of sacred knowledge and were ritually pure, whereas people outside of the varna system, that were later identified as “untouchables” or Dalits, were seen as polluted or unclean, and excluded from society.The caste hierarchy was entrenched in texts such as the Manusmriti (approximately circa 200 CE) and by the time it was written, the caste system, viewed religiously, had grown into a social contract believed to be ordained by God. Such classifications of caste not only strengthened the views of social inequality but endorsed the idea of inequality rooted in a metaphysical cosmology. Scholars such as Romila Thapar note that while these norms were constructed, embraced, and sometimes resisted, they made the system dynamic. Institutionalization in the Medieval and Colonial ErasBetween the 8th and 18th centuries (medieval period), caste identities became more rigid as regional political systems adopted caste-based regulations into local customs and legal systems. Caste was never promoted by Islamic rulers, but their indirect rule often maintained caste distinctions and utilized those distinctions to manage predominantly Hindu regions. However, the most critical shift occurred under British colonialism. As the British sought to rationalize and systematize Indian society, they collected data and classified society, through censuses every ten years, that turned caste into bureaucratic fact. Dirks (2001) has persuasively argued that the colonial state transformed caste into a type of adminstrative technology, removed from its ritual & local usage, and made it an essential and unchanging feature of Indian identity. We should also consider this period in the context of public, anti-caste, movements. Jyotirao Phule, Periyar E.V. Ramasamy, and most importantly, B.R. Ambedkar developed radical critiques of Brahmanical dominance. Ambedkar's declaration that the annihilation of caste must be a fundamental moral and political stance was inspirational for future generations of Dalit intellectuals and activist. Furthermore, Ambedkar's leadership in the framing of the Indian constitution embedded anti-caste principles into the legal fabric of independent India. Postcolonial Legal Reforms and Their ContradictionsThe enactment of the Indian Constitution in 1950 constituted a monumental historical event in the institutional repudiation of caste discrimination. Article 15 prohibited caste discrimination in public spaces, and Article 17 repealed untouchability. Moreover, institutionalized reservations, or affirmative action, were instituted for Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) in education, public service and political representation.Nonetheless, the enforcement of constitutional provisions has failed miserably on too many occasions, and faced deep systemic obstacles. Caste hierarchies continue to exist in rural India in terms of land ownership, access to water and sanitation services, and political patronage. The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act (1989) was intended to protect victims of caste-based violence, but continued sporadic enforcement. The entitled victim would sometimes encounter institutional indifference, police bias or impotence, and social retaliation.Simultaneously, both middle and upper castes have increasingly mobilized political power to resist and oppose reservation policies with conditions to supplant policy with economic based affirmative action. This has produced complex political discourse in which caste is both denied, exploited and reclaimed, depending on the contextual circumstances. Caste in Contemporary India: Social Mobility and Structural EntrenchmentCaste continues to play a significant role in contemporary India in the structures of social stratification, resource access, and symbolic capital. Urbanization, economic liberalization and digital interconnectedness have opened up new pathways to social mobility but castes have not disappeared, rather they have transformed within modern institutions.In urban contexts, lower castes, also with the assistance of reservations, have revived access to education, public service and middle-class occupations. However, such caste mobility comes with "...passing" or hiding caste. Dalit identities remain stigmatized in elite spaces. In rural India, where the majority of Indians are located, caste remains spatially and economically embedded in village geographies of housing and labour relations.Caste violence continues through honor killings, attacks on inter-caste couples and public humiliation of Dalit citizens. Even if legislation intends to protect marginalized groups, conviction rates for caste atrocities are dismal and are often obstructed by caste bias by agencies representing the law.Social movements led by Dalit, Adivasi and Old Backward Classes (OBC) have emerged as assertive counter -narratives. Collective organizations such as the Bhim Army, and Ambedkarite student organizations, and Dalit feminist groups advocate simultaneously involved in legal activism and cultural advocacy. Alongside, new Dalit-led political movements such as the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) have brought shifts within electoral politics in certain Indian states, if not at the national level.Caste is mediated through digital technologies which has recently changed how caste operates in lives of Indians. Digital media has allowed voice to those who have been historically marginalized, but repeated castest abuse has also been experienced on several platforms along with rich discriminatory rhetoric came out. In sum, the public sphere of the digital has demonstrated the liberatory and oppressive aspects of caste in the 21st century. ConclusionThe caste system in India can no longer be understood only in historical context, and can not be considered to simply be a product of the past: it continues to define a rubric of social control, symbolic power, and systemic oppression and manifests in innumerable forms. While its roots can be traced to ritualised categories defined in the Vedic period, its sustained existence is partially a function of colonial policy, postcolonial governance, and the support of the structures of caste by the Indian public.While the Constitution provides a starting point for equality in law, and affirmative action has produced limited mobility, caste continues to be perpetuated in overt ways and, importantly, in silent ways. Caste-based violence, economic understating, and social exclusion indicate that the law does not break the structural reality of caste.Thus, if we truly wish to end caste, we must not only demand vigilance in the law, but demand a complete reorganization of our social rations, our social ethics, our epistemologies. We may end caste only through sustained commitments to structural alteration, intersectionality, and cultural democratization. Only then can India advance toward a realized state of liberty, equality, and fraternity, rather than meaningless slogans, towards a collective lived reality. References・Ambedkar, B. R. (1944). Annihilation of caste. Bombay: Bheem Patrika Publications. ・Dirks, N. B. (2001). Castes of mind: Colonialism and the making of modern India. Princeton University Press. ・Dumont, L. (1970). Homo hierarchicus: The caste system and its implications. University of Chicago Press. ・Jodhka, S. S. (2015). Caste in contemporary India. Routledge. ・Shah, G. (2006). Caste and democratic politics in India. Permanent Black. ・Thapar, R. (2002). Early India: From the origins to AD 1300. University of California Press.

Background: High-frequency low-tidal-volume (HFLTV) ventilation is a safe and cost-effective strategy that improves catheter stability, first-pass pulmonary vein isolation, and freedom from all-atrial arrhythmias during radiofrequency catheter ablation (RFCA) of paroxysmal and persistent atrial fibrillation (AF). However, the incremental value of adding rapid-atrial pacing (RAP) to HFLTV-ventilation has not yet been determined. Objective: To evaluate the effect of HFLTV-ventilation plus RAP during RFCA of paroxysmal AF on procedural and long-term clinical outcomes compared to HFLTV-ventilation alone. Methods: Patients from the REAL-AF prospective multicenter registry, who underwent RFCA of paroxysmal AF using either HFLTV+RAP (500-600 msec) or HFLTV ventilation alone from April 2020 to February 2023 were included. The primary outcome was freedom from all-atrial arrhythmias at 12-month follow-up. Secondary outcomes included procedural characteristics, long-term clinical outcomes, and procedure-related complications. Results: A total of 545 patients were included in the analysis (HFLTV+RAP=327 vs. HFLTV=218). There were no significant differences in baseline characteristics between the groups. No differences were observed in procedural (HFLTV+RAP 74 [57-98] vs. HFLTV 66 [53-85.75] min, p=0.617) and RF (HFLTV+RAP 15.15 [11.22-21.22] vs. HFLTV 13.99 [11.04-17.13] min, p=0.620) times. Both groups showed a similar freedom from all-atrial arrhythmias at 12-month follow-up (HFLTV+RAP 82.68% vs. HFLTV 86.52%, HR=1.43, 95% CI [0.94-2.16], p=0.093). There were no significant differences in freedom from AF-related symptoms (HFLTV+RAP 91.4% vs. HFLTV 93.1%, p=0.476) or AF-related hospitalizations (HFLTV+RAP 98.5% vs. HFLTV 97.2%, p=0.320). Procedure-related complications were low in both groups (HFLTV+RAP 0.6% vs. HFLTV 0%, p=0.247). Conclusion: In patients undergoing RFCA for paroxysmal AF, adding RAP to HFLTV-ventilation was not associated with improved procedural and long-term clinical outcomes.

The recruitment industry, a critical pillar in the workforce ecosystem, has undergone a transformative evolution with the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI). As we stand on the cusp of a new era in computing, AI has emerged as a revolutionary catalyst, reshaping traditional recruitment processes and offering unprecedented opportunities to both employers and candidates. This article will delve into the profound impact of AI on the recruitment industry, exploring the key advancements, challenges and the paradigm shift it has brought to the hiring landscape.

The Healthcare Integrated Research Database (HIRD) is a real-world data source for health-related research. Data elements of the HIRD, including sourcing, timeliness, and validity, demographic and healthcare-related characteristics of individuals in the HIRD, and aspects of the HIRD relevant to real-world evidence generation, are described. The HIRD includes health insurance claims and other health-related information for individuals enrolled in health insurance plans offered or managed by Elevance Health and has been utilized for research for almost two decades. Individuals in the HIRD reside throughout the United States. Data in the HIRD are available since January 1, 2006, and are updated monthly. As of July 31, 2024, the researchable population of the HIRD included over 91 million individuals with medical benefits, and over 24 million individuals were actively enrolled. The median age of individuals in the HIRD is 36 years (interquartile range, IQR: 22, 54) and 50% of individuals in the HIRD are female. The median duration of continuous enrollment in the HIRD is 2.0 years (IQR: 0.8, 4.7). For those actively enrolled, the median duration of continuous enrollment is 3.8 years (IQR: 1.7, 8.3). Other important characteristics of the HIRD include the ability to trace data back to their source, to support both deterministic and probabilistic linkage with external data sources, and to link family members within health plans. The HIRD has been a trusted resource to generate real-world evidence for a variety of health-related research, including regulatory required safety studies, comparative effectiveness studies, and health outcomes and economics research.

In recent years, the application of probiotics has garnered increasing attention. This surge in interest is largely attributed to an expanding body of research revealing the positive role of probiotics in enhancing human health. Specifically, the gut microbiome—a complex ecosystem dominated by bacteria—exerts significant influence on host health through microbial interactions and inter-species crosstalk. Despite Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB) constituting a relatively minor proportion of the gut microbiome, numerous studies have confirmed their pivotal role in intestinal health. Historically, LAB have been integral to foods and pharmaceuticals, exhibiting beneficial effects on various human body systems. For instance, certain strains of LAB are involved in addressing neurological issues through the microbiota-gut-brain/liver/lung axis, highlighting their probiotic characteristics. However, in-depth research into the intrinsic mechanisms of LAB, along with assessments of their dietary safety and scientific value, remains imperative. A deeper understanding of how LAB influences and modulates the molecular mechanisms of intestinal diseases will aid in the development of innovative microbial therapeutic strategies in biology and medicine. This paper aims to review the latest research advancements in LAB’s promotion of intestinal health.

Understanding how climatic variability impacts coastal water quality is increasingly urgent, but in many regions we lack multi-year, coastal biogeochemical time series that can provide these insights. We analyzed a 7–9-year time series of salinity, dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM) from a site in the centre of Southeast Asia’s Sunda Shelf Sea, the Singapore Strait, to understand the biogeochemical variability and corresponding climatic drivers. Our site receives substantial terrestrial inputs via rivers, especially from regional peatlands, but is also subject to seasonal reversal in ocean circulation due to the Asian monsoon system, delivering different water masses in different seasons. We therefore additionally performed realistic hindcast simulations with a regional physical circulation model to understand the impact of physical oceanography. We show that salinity, DOC, and CDOM at our site are significantly correlated with regional precipitation, seawater volume transport, and the climate phenomena El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD), both at seasonal and interannual time scales. The impacts of ENSO and IOD appear to result partly from their influence over regional precipitation, but also from direct effects on regional physical circulation. Our results illustrate how physical oceanographic variability can interact with climatic variability to drive coastal biogeochemistry. This highlights the importance of accurately representing such drivers in models for future projections of coastal water quality.

Note: Using  the knowledge of electronic nano technology  , nano robots can be designed that are placed in the human body and play the role of protector and healer. These smart micro machines are able to make several copies of themselves and replace worn out or damaged tissues. This process is   called self-replication .Nano-robots have potential facilities that are able to protect the system meticulously and accurately by socializing and placing in colonies. In fact, they are placed in a process with an atomic or molecular structure to complete a cycle. However, due to the complexities of the human body, the construction of this micro  - robot is able to move among the arteries and veins of the body and examine and identify diseases.  This micro-robot has features such as the ability to be used in small spaces with high flexibility, high adaptability and adaptability in different conditions of the energy production source required by the nano-robot, including  the kinetic energy of fluid (such as blood), electromagnetic rays, temperature changes caused by The increase and decrease of light is created and the appropriate vibrations are created which can be used in various biological environments. The important thing that exists in medical nano robots  is through the provision of their driving force, which is mainly done by blood flow and thus The reason should be done by observing the patient's safety points. The system of transferring  information and controlling the movement of nano robots in the body should also be such that it can be easily checked from outside the body, which means that the nano machines can repair cells with tools and receivers He designed special ones on a molecular scale to reach the target cell and identify the existing problems by using the blood flow.

Note: Nano robots are small machines designed to perform specific and sometimes repetitive operations with very high precision.  One of the other capabilities of nano-robots is self-replication,  and they are also compatible with the biological conditions of the human body.They have machine intelligence at an advanced level to choose the best option to diagnose the disease. For example, cancer, which is the most common incurable disease,  they will not only be able to diagnose the exact location of the cancer, but also inject the right medicine to destroy the cancer cells. Nano robots are made in sizes between 0.1 and 10 micrometers and with nano scale or molecular components. Nano machines are largely in the research and development phase.

The presence and distribution of mycorrhizal symbionts can influence plant distribution through specific host-mycorrhiza symbiosis interactions. However, generalist hosts also exist, such as dual-mycorrhizal plants that form symbiotic associations to both ectomycorrhizal-fungi (EM) and arbuscular mycorrhizal-fungi (AM). Little is known about the effect of dual mycorrhization status on the hosts’ global distribution and acclimation to specific environments. This study investigates the potential advantage of dual associations of more than 400 tree genera spread at a global scale. We found that dual host tree species occupy a broader geographical and climatic range compared to those associating exclusively with either AM or EM mycorrhiza groups. We show that an increased niche space is independent of phylogenetic architecture and evolutionary history of the tree species. Our results highlight the advantage of generalist host-microbe symbioses between trees and fungi to expand niche space, and their potential role in colonizing dry climates.

A document by Emma Reich. Click on the document to view its contents.

Spillback – where non-native species increase the prevalence of native pathogens – is an important mechanism by which non-natives species may contribute to the emergence of zoonoses. However, spillback is rarely directly demonstrated because it is difficult to disentangle from confounding factors which correlate with non-native species abundance and native pathogen prevalence. Here, we capitalise on 25 independent, quasi-experimental releases of non-native pheasants (Phasianus colchicus) to compare vector abundance and native pathogen prevalence between sites with similar local conditions but different non-native densities. Questing adult (but not nymph) Ixodes ricinus were more abundant in woods where pheasants are released compared to control woods, and Borrelia sp. (the causative agent of Lyme disease) prevalence in questing nymphs and adults was 2.5 times higher, with a particularly strong effect on Borrelia garinii. This work provides direct evidence that non-native species can amplify zoonotic pathogens via spillback in an ecologically meaningful context.

The agricultural sector causes negative impacts, such as soil degradation and land abandonment, which must be addressed and recovered. Conservation programs typically focus on vulnerable animal species, neglecting arthropods such as insects and spiders, and their roles in the ecosystems. The objective was to evaluate the number of leaves per branch, branches per plant, ground cover, and the ecological indices of arthropods of Sapindus saponaria plants, a native plant of the Americas, with or without application of dehydrated sewage sludge. The hypothesis is that sewage sludge increases leaf production and ground cover by this plant, as well as the abundance, richness, and diversity of arthropods. The trial was carried out in a degraded area in Montes Claros, Minas Gerais state, Brazil. Sapindus saponaria plants were grown fertilized (T1) or not fertilized (T2) with urban dehydrated sewage sludge. The numbers of leaves and branches, ground cover, and arthropod population were assessed over 24 months. The numbers of leaves per branch, branches per plant, ground cover, and abundance and diversity of arthropods, including predators and chewing insects, were higher on plants fertilized with sewage sludge. The development of S. saponaria and the abundance and diversity of arthropods were greater with the application of dehydrated sewage sludge. The use of this compost material can enhance the benefits for this plant and its ecological interactions in ecosystems during the recovery of degraded areas. This increases the importance of using urban wastes in the restoration of degraded areas with biodiversity conservation and ecosystem restoration.

Note: Nobots (medical micro-nano robots) are small machines in the (nanoparticle) range that are designed to perform specific and sometimes repetitive operations with very high precision.Using  the knowledge of nanotechnology,  it is possible to design nano-robots   that are placed in the human body and play the role of protector and healer. These smart micro machines are able to make several copies of themselves and replace worn out or damaged tissues. This process is   called self-replication . Nano-robots have potential facilities that are able to protect the system meticulously and accurately by socializing and being placed in a colony. In fact, they are placed in a process with an atomic or molecular structure to complete a cycle. But the construction of this micro-robot is due to the complexities of the human body so that it is able to move among the arteries and veins of the body and  examine and identify diseases.  The nano-robot is a controlled robotic system on a nano and molecular scale. This micro-robot has features such as the ability to be used in small spaces with high flexibility, high adaptability and adaptability in different conditions of the energy production source required by the nano-robot, including  the kinetic energy of fluid (such as blood), electromagnetic rays, temperature changes caused by low and The increase of light is created and the creation of appropriate vibrations that can be used in various biological environments. The important thing that exists in medical nano robots  is through the provision of their driving force, which is mainly done by blood flow, and for this reason, it should be used with The patient's safety points should be observed. The system of transmitting  information and controlling the movement of nanorobots in the body should be such that it can be easily checked from outside the body.

Background: The availability of self- or caregiver-administered nasal spray live attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV) raises the potential for increased influenza vaccine uptake and increased vaccine effectiveness (VE) via mucosal immunity. Direct and indirect benefits of increased uptake among school-age children (decreased influenza cases and hospitalizations) may be realized across the age spectrum. We used an agent-based model, the Framework for Reproducing Epidemiological Dynamics (FRED) to determine the extent to which increased vaccination of children might affect overall influenza epidemiology. Methods: FRED uses a population based on the US census and accounts for individual characteristics to estimate the effect of changes in parameters including vaccine uptake on outcomes. We modeled increases in vaccine uptake and VE among school-age children 5-17 years on influenza cases and hospitalizations by age group. Results: Increasing vaccination rates in school-aged children by 5%-15% decreased their symptomatic influenza cases by 3.2%-10.9%, and over all age groups by 3.3%-11.6%, corresponding to an estimated annual reduction in cases among school-age children of 522,867-1,810,170 and 1,394,687-4,945,952 overall. Fewer days of missed school by children and work by caregivers could offset those required to increase vaccination coverage. Annual U.S. hospitalizations could decrease by as much as 49,977, with the greatest impact (23,258) in those ages 65 years and over. If childhood influenza VE increased only 5%, the attendant improvement in cases would exceed that of a 5%-15% increase in vaccination coverage. Conclusion: The opportunity to increase vaccination coverage in school-age children using LAIV can have a positive impact across all ages.

Paclitaxel (PAC), derived from Taxus brevifolia, is commonly used to treat solid tumors but has significant adverse effects, including reproductive toxicity, driven by oxidative stress. PAC can damage the reproductive system, leading to histological changes and reduced sperm quality. Nerolidol (NRL), a sesquiterpene alcohol with antioxidant properties, has not been studied for its role in mitigating PAC-induced reproductive damage. This study investigates NRL’s potential to counteract PAC-induced reproductive toxicity in rats. Forty healthy adult male Spraque Dawley rats were randomly divided into four equal groups (Control, PAC, NRL, PAC+NRL). PAC was given intraperitoneally at a dose of 2 mg/kg once a week for four weeks. NRL was given orally at a dose of 100 mg/kg/day for four weeks. Control group received PAC and NRL vehicles. After four weeks, testis tissue samples were collected, and parameters, including oxidants, antioxidants, sperm motility, density, abnormal spermatozoon ratios and cytokines were measured. PAC administration increased oxidant levels and decreased antioxidant enzyme activities. Nerolidol mitigated these alterations significantly. Similarly, PAC elevated IL-1, IL-6, TNF-α levels and lowered IL-10 levels, these effects attenuated by nerolidol in the PAC+NRL group. In conclusion, it was determined that PAC induces reproductive toxicity through oxidative stress, and NRL demonstrates potential in ameliorating these effects through its antioxidant activity.

This paper presents the design and realization of a compact microstrip patch filtenna for 5G mid-band (n78) applications. The proposed structure integrates a parallel-coupled bandpass filter with a rectangular microstrip patch antenna, operating at 3.5 GHz with a 400 MHz bandwidth (3.3–3.7 GHz). The Taconic TLY-5 substrate was used to achieve low dielectric loss and stable performance. Electromagnetic simulations optimized the design parameters for impedance matching, minimal return loss, and sufficient gain. A prototype was fabricated and experimentally validated, showing good agreement with simulations. Measured results indicate return loss better than –20 dB, gain of 4–6 dBi, and improved stopband rejection compared to a conventional patch antenna. By combining filtering and radiation functions into a single device, the proposed filtenna reduces circuit complexity, enhances spectral selectivity, and improves overall efficiency. These results highlight its suitability for compact and high-performance 5G wireless communication systems.

Beheaded for Honor: Patriarchy, Gender Violence, and the Crisis of Female Autonomy in Contemporary India Abstract This article examines patriarchal violence in India, using the disturbing but under-researched cases of fathers who beheaded daughters for honor as an opportunity to reflect on violence in a broader context. The honor killing of fathers and daughters is the extreme case of what is often called an honor killing, and although shocking, it is not an outlier but rather a predictable consequence of a gendered society, such as India, with a normative and institutional framework that normalizes and legitimizes male control of female autonomy. It uses case study analysis, legal critique, and psychological framing to engage with the social logic that makes such violence possible. It also analyzes the problematic role of the Indian legal system and the development of counter-hegemonic practices by feminist movements and civil society organizations. Ultimately, the article argues for an account of the epistemic shift in patriarchal society denies the validity of honor based morality, as a necessary aspect of dismantling patriarchy in India and not simply a need for legislative change. Introduction Patriarchy, in the Indian sociocultural landscape, is not just a backdrop condition, but works as a normative infrastructure that prescribes, disciplines, and punishes. This architecture comes to bear most starkly in acts of gender-based violence aimed at regulating female bodies and behaviors, justified in the language of familial "honor" (izzat). One of the worst manifestations of this logic is the practice of honor killings, where male relatives, especially fathers, kill their daughters for supposedly dishonorable activities such as inter-caste love, elopement, or refusing an arranged marriage.This article focuses on these disturbing practices, especially those involving fathers who behead daughters, arguing that these actions are not merely expressions of individual pathology and rural backwardness but are violent expressions of patriarchal sovereignty. The discussion will consider cultural, legal, and psychologically dimensions in order to expose how violence is legitimated and sustained socially in systematic ways. It will also be concerned with how various state institutions, legal regimes, and grassroots movements reconvene and resist the moral economy of honor. Literature ReviewResearch on honor killings in India situates itself within broader discourses of gender, caste, and legal pluralism. Nussbaum (2007) builds on the capabilities approach to explore how gender-based violence is a systematic deprivation of agency. Sen (1990, 2005) considers the politics of shame and honor as a symbolic collective discipline. Agarwal's work (1994) connected patriarchal control of women to the agrarian and property regime established by control of land, lineage, and honor.Research shows that honor killings take place when women exercise agency over sexuality or marriage and foils normative expectations of obedience and purity. The framework of honor killings combines patriarchal contexts, local policing, and notions of family and loyalty; these disobediences are seen collectively and not as individual acts. The Indian Penal Code punishes homicide and attempts to murder, which can cover honor killings, but uneven state enforcement provides little deterrent for local use of violence. This uneven state enforcement is notable across locales, particularly urban to rural divides. Scholars have stated that even when laws are altered, without cultural changes, lack of enforcement in villages and limited policing and prosecutions makes working with patriarchal norms to develop laws insufficient. Local authorities frequently minimize (or ignore) cases of violence as "family matters."This literature underlines the need for a multidimensional framework that interrogates not only the juridical failures but also the cultural epistemes that render honor-based violence morally intelligible and politically sustainable. Cultural and Social Context of PatriarchyTo understand patriarchal domination in India we need to consider its cultural substrates: on the level of abstract ideas, most notably the sacralization of family izzat or honor and surveillance of women's sexuality. In much of rural and peri-urban India, women are conceptualized as vessels of community izzat or respectability. The policing of women's moral behavior—arising from their chastity, marital obedience, and caste compliance—is not solely up to family members, but also local social hierarchies and customary panchayats. Under such a system, even the agency of a daughter choosing a life partner can be cast as a threat to the kinship order altogether.Izzat functions as a disciplinary system, making explicit the male property right to act as guardians of honor. The father, as the apex of household authority, becomes in charge, and the executor of the moral code. If a daughter breaches the code (in other words, if she elopes, has a partner from a different caste, or if she expresses her reproductive agency) she is not simply a victim of violence, she sometimes becomes heroic for being victimized. A father may, for example, be celebrated for killing a daughter, as horrifically violent as the weapon used to accomplish this act of violence is. Beheading is exceptional for its method, but for the violent control of daughters becomes an aspiration towards social control that intends to reaffirm order through terror. In light of current constitutional principles, few people will absolve these and are therefore contained, through religiosity, caste loyalties, and celebration of hegemonic masculinity. The cultural capacity for atormenting these kinds of beliefs and practices helps to demonstrate just how difficult it is to overcome gender-based violence in cultural contexts where patriarchy is not only justified, but it becomes ideological. Case Study: Fathers Beheading DaughtersRecent happenings illustrate the grotesque extent of honor-based morality that has become naturalized into the psyche of male family members. One high profile event in Uttar Pradesh in 2020 involved a father who beheaded his teenage daughter with a sickle because she was romantically engaged with a boy he deemed as unsuitable. The father proclaimed that because his daughter had “disgraced” him as a father doing the right thing, he was therefore obligated to “punish” her as a father. While this particular event incited some outrage, it also revealed residual sympathies in public discourse that framed his acts of violence as “understandable” within the bounds of culture.Another case from Rajasthan also involved a father beheading his daughter after she married a man against his wishes. Although this man was arrested, the sight of him told a different story. In parts of his village he was being hailed as a person who had restored honor to the family. Such processes create a normative space where patriarchal violence is not only normalized but also embraced as morally warranted. These are not merely “crimes of passion”, but purposeful scripts addressing moral self-justification propelled by patriarchal justice.The media's role is important because while some have sensationalized the outright barbaric nature of some of these stories, others have provided platforms that have important critiques at the deeper structural roots of gendered violence. While the presence of gendered violent cases would indicate that outrage is inadequate, these events pose a requirement to rethink the structural frameworks (legal, cultural and psychological) that run in tandem with and enable these violent acts. Psychological Dimensions of Honor-Based Violence From both psychoanalytic and sociological approaches, honor killings are a collective psychopathology in which a father so deeply internalizes legal patriarchy that it becomes impossible to separate his moral identity from regulating his daughter's sexuality. The daughter has ceased to be an autonomous subject and becomes simply a case whose moral transgressions are only evidence of a father's failure.Fathers who do this often distinguish themselves rationally with words of duty and sacrifice instead of aggression: instead of calling themselves murderers, they call themselves martyrs for a cultural cause. The importance of psychological displacement (from violence to virtue) is crucial in recognizing why these crimes continue. It requires communal reinforcement, religious support, and fear of ostracism.The social pressure to conform is also a major aspect. In close castes or village communities, lost honor may mean lost livelihood, an unattainable marriage for siblings, or expulsion from community life; violence is committed as a tool of preservation and then transformed into a necessary moral act. Solving this is demanding, as it requires not only legal deterrent, but dismantling an ideological framework that makes the appalling conceivable. Legal and Law Enforcement ResponsesThe law in India formally criminalizes honor killings under Sections 302 and 307 of the Indian Penal Code as murder and attempted murder respectively. Yet, the formal equivalence posited by the law shifts our attention away from the need for an increasingly complex and nuanced legal framework that recognizes the cultural distinctiveness and ideological underpinnings of honour killings. This was indirectly recognized by the Supreme Court of India in 2010, by describing honor killings as ‘barbaric’ and instructing state authorities to adopt strict legal and punitive measures. However, legal scholars and empirical studies and have shown consistently that they offer uneven enforcement - often in rural jurisdictions.Particularly at issue is local discretion in enforcement. Police officers, particularly in patriarchal enclaves, when faced with the prospect of dealing with honor crimes, exhibit reluctance to either register cases, move to arrest, or even remove the victims to ensure their protection. In some cases, they act in ways that might be considered tacitly complicit, such as convincing, or forcing, victims to abandon their complaints or siding with community elders that normalize communal violence as customary practice. Recorded or unrecorded methods of under-reporting of honor crimes is more than a statistical issue, revealing structural realities in which structures of state are intermeshed with patriarchal logics.In addition, the failure to establish a distinct legal framework for honour crimes, as there is in jurisdictions such as Jordan or Pakistan, is a major factor undermining the possibility of systematic monitoring and developing policy. Although the Law Commission of India proposed establishing a separate legal provision for honour crimes in 2012, it is yet to be considered in terms of codification into national law. Ultimately, the lack of a legal framework supports the impunity of perpetrators, generally patriarchal figures such as fathers or male guardians who believe they may expect some compassion from criminal justice actors as they respond to ‘grave and sudden provocation’, with the belief that they take the moral high ground.The abovementioned institutional failures have been vocally resisted through civil society organizations such as feminist legal collectives and human rights organizations. In particular the All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA) has advocated for stricter laws and more community-based methods of surveillance and security for women, at risk of being subjected to honour-based violence. Internationally, organizations such as Human Rights Watch have exploited their institutional influence, and described honour crimes in India as violating international human rights practices, including the provisions of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).Despite attempts to establish a legal mechanism to deal with honour crimes, they ultimately lack judicial legitimacy unless there is a meaningful transformation in enforcement culture within criminal justice, including the interpretation of the law. The transformation required indicates the development of a jurisprudence of gender justice, whereby legal practitioners are willing to go further than punishment, and examine the symbolic and material structures that effectively penalize female autonomy. ConclusionThe act of fathers decapitating daughters for their perceived dishonor is not just a perverse aberration, it is a concentrated manifestation of an overarching patriarchal crisis across India. These acts reveal the murderous confluence of gender, caste, tradition and social control. They show, once again, that violence against women is simply legitimised through a moral lexicon that prioritises family honour above all else over the personhood of women.While the Indian legal system has started to address the uniqueness of honour-based violence, there is still a distance between legislative intent and ground-level realities. The challenge is clear: it is not only to prosecute individual offenders but dismantle the ideological scaffolding incorporated in relations of religion, kinship and community that normalises this violence. This will require a multifaceted approach: legal reform that will recognise honour killings explicitly as a sui generis offence; educational programmes aimed at dismantling deeply entrenched patriarchal norms; and sustained civil society activism which is capable of shifting public consciousness.Therefore, the struggle against honour killings must be framed within an emancipatory vision which asserts the dignity, autonomy and subjectivity of Indian women against any attempts to subordinate their lives to family honour. References・Agarwal, B. (1994). A field of one’s own: Gender and land rights in South Asia. Cambridge University Press. ・Human Rights Watch. (2019). India: Honor killings and the challenge to women’s rights. Retrieved from https://www.hrw.org ・Nussbaum, M. C. (2007). Women and human development: The capabilities approach. Cambridge University Press. ・Sen, A. (2005). The argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian history, culture and identity. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ・Supreme Court of India. (2010). Landmark judgment on honor killings. Retrieved from https://www.sci.gov.in