"Attacks" or "Whistling": Impact of Questionnaire Wording on Wheeze Prevalence Estimates.

BACKGROUND Estimates of prevalence of wheeze depend on questionnaires. However, wording of questions may vary between studies. We investigated effects of alternative wording on estimates of prevalence and severity of wheeze, and associations with risk factors. METHODS White and South Asian children from a population-based cohort (UK) were randomly assigned to two groups and followed up at one, four and six years (1998, 2001, 2003). Parents were asked either if their child ever had "attacks of wheeze" (attack group, N=535), or "wheezing or whistling in the chest" (whistling group, N=2859). All other study aspects were identical, including questions about other respiratory symptoms. RESULTS Prevalence of wheeze ever was lower in the attack group than in the whistling group for all surveys (32 vs. 40% in white children aged one year, p<0.001). Prevalence of other respiratory symptoms did not differ between groups. Wheeze tended to be more severe in the attack group. The strength of association with risk factors was comparable in the two groups. CONCLUSIONS The wording of questions on wheeze can affect estimates of prevalence, but has less impact on measured associations with risk factors. Question wording is a potential source of between-study-heterogeneity in meta-analyses.

"Power to the people" : De la Hegemonía al Policentrismo: Una mirada desde las Antípodas sobre el devenir del inglés en el contexto postcolonial de Asia del Sur

Esta tesis buscará diferencias y similitudes sobre el fenómeno "Imperialismo Lingüístico" en contextos poscoloniales desde la mirada de lingüistas angloparlantes, por un lado occidentales, para quienes el inglés es su lengua materna, como así también orientales, para quienes es una segunda lengua. Creemos que los fuertes procesos de apropiación, naturalización, indigenización y re-significación de la lengua inglesa por parte de la población de Asia del Sur han hecho del inglés una lengua de carácter policéntrico, lengua de cultura (Guitarte, 1991) más que una lengua de carácter hegemónico, lengua de culto (Guitarte, 1991). Esta lengua poli/pluricéntrica, lejos de ser una lengua que perpetúe la inequidad social, como proponen los teóricos occidentales, es una lengua que empodera a sus hablantes, inclusive a aquellos más excluidos del sistema social como los dalits. Los textos para el análisis corresponden a las variedades postcoloniales del inglés indio (Indian English) y sri lankeano (Sri Lankean English) que se ubican dentro de los denominados inglés[es] Sud asiático[s] (South Asian English[es]). La evaluación en India y Sri Lanka (colonizados) respecto de la imposición de la Lengua Inglesa es altamente positiva, no sólo en los estratos sociales elevados sino también en los estratos sociales de menores recursos (los dalits). Esto se opone a la evaluación del mismo fenómeno visto desde occidente (colonizadores), quienes consideran haber cometido, a través de la imposición, una especie de genocidio lingüístico de las lenguas locales. Si bien, ambas posturas coinciden en ver al inglés como a un medio capaz de crear un nuevo estrato social: ?la casta de los hablantes bilingües del inglés?, creemos que la diferencia principal radica en que esta capacidad es vista como exclusiva por parte de los occidentales, y es vista como inclusiva por los orientales. Mientras que los primeros se preguntan quiénes quedan afuera del uso predominante del inglés para la comunicación y el acceso a la tecnología, la ciencia, la educación y la cultura; los orientales se preguntan quiénes quedan adentro del uso del inglés para las distintas funciones intra e internacionales. Los autores del este dan un paso más allá de la mera descripción del estado de cosas y proponen políticas lingüísticas que contemplan sus variedades estandarizadas. Queremos también mostrar que la capacidad de transformar algo negativo en positivo; algo que ha sido impuesto, en algo propio es característica de la cultura india. Esto se refleja también en otros ámbitos, como el audiovisual, el gastronómico o el religioso

"Power to the people" : De la Hegemonía al Policentrismo: Una mirada desde las Antípodas sobre el devenir del inglés en el contexto postcolonial de Asia del Sur

Esta tesis buscará diferencias y similitudes sobre el fenómeno "Imperialismo Lingüístico" en contextos poscoloniales desde la mirada de lingüistas angloparlantes, por un lado occidentales, para quienes el inglés es su lengua materna, como así también orientales, para quienes es una segunda lengua. Creemos que los fuertes procesos de apropiación, naturalización, indigenización y re-significación de la lengua inglesa por parte de la población de Asia del Sur han hecho del inglés una lengua de carácter policéntrico, lengua de cultura (Guitarte, 1991) más que una lengua de carácter hegemónico, lengua de culto (Guitarte, 1991). Esta lengua poli/pluricéntrica, lejos de ser una lengua que perpetúe la inequidad social, como proponen los teóricos occidentales, es una lengua que empodera a sus hablantes, inclusive a aquellos más excluidos del sistema social como los dalits. Los textos para el análisis corresponden a las variedades postcoloniales del inglés indio (Indian English) y sri lankeano (Sri Lankean English) que se ubican dentro de los denominados inglés[es] Sud asiático[s] (South Asian English[es]). La evaluación en India y Sri Lanka (colonizados) respecto de la imposición de la Lengua Inglesa es altamente positiva, no sólo en los estratos sociales elevados sino también en los estratos sociales de menores recursos (los dalits). Esto se opone a la evaluación del mismo fenómeno visto desde occidente (colonizadores), quienes consideran haber cometido, a través de la imposición, una especie de genocidio lingüístico de las lenguas locales. Si bien, ambas posturas coinciden en ver al inglés como a un medio capaz de crear un nuevo estrato social: ?la casta de los hablantes bilingües del inglés?, creemos que la diferencia principal radica en que esta capacidad es vista como exclusiva por parte de los occidentales, y es vista como inclusiva por los orientales. Mientras que los primeros se preguntan quiénes quedan afuera del uso predominante del inglés para la comunicación y el acceso a la tecnología, la ciencia, la educación y la cultura; los orientales se preguntan quiénes quedan adentro del uso del inglés para las distintas funciones intra e internacionales. Los autores del este dan un paso más allá de la mera descripción del estado de cosas y proponen políticas lingüísticas que contemplan sus variedades estandarizadas. Queremos también mostrar que la capacidad de transformar algo negativo en positivo; algo que ha sido impuesto, en algo propio es característica de la cultura india. Esto se refleja también en otros ámbitos, como el audiovisual, el gastronómico o el religioso

Late Miocene palaeoflora and palaeoclimate of Lincang (China)

The Miocene Lincang leaf assemblage is used in this paper as proxy data to reconstruct the palaeoclimate of southwestern Yunnan (SW China) and the evolution of monsoon intensity. Three quantitative methods were chosen for this reconstruction, i.e. Leaf Margin Analysis (LMA), Climate Leaf Analysis Multivariate Program (CLAMP), and the Coexistence Approach (CA). These methods, however, yield inconsistent results, particularly for the precipitation, as also shown in European and other East Asian Cenozoic floras. The wide range of the reconstructed climatic parameters includes the Mean Annual Temperature (MAT) of 18.5-24.7 °C and the Mean Annual Precipitation (MAP) of 1213-3711 mm. Compared with the modern Lincang climate (MAT, 17.3 °C; MAP, 1178.7 mm), the Miocene climate is slightly warmer, wetter and has a higher temperature seasonality. A detailed comparison on the palaeoclimatic variables with the coeval Late Miocene Xiaolongtan flora from the eastern part of Yunnan allows us to investigate the development and interactions of both South Asian and East Asian monsoons during the Late Miocene in southwest China, now under strong influence of these monsoon systems. Our results suggest that the monsoon climate has already been established in southwest Yunnan during the Late Miocene. Furthermore, our results support that both Southeast Asian and East Asian monsoons co-occurred in Yunnan during the Late Miocene.

Low workforce participation of educated female and the role of work organizations in post-war Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka as a developing economy that achieved gender equity in education and a higher literacy rate (both adult and youth) in the South Asian region still records a low labor force participation and high unemployment rate of females when compared to their male counterparts. With the suggestion of existing literature on the non-conventional models of careers those adopted by young and female populations at the working age, this paper discusses the role of work organizations in absorbing more females (and even minority groups) into the workforce. It mainly focuses on the need of designing appropriate human resource strategies and reforming the existing organizational structures in order for contributing to the national development in the post-war Sri Lanka economy.

Marriage, dowry, and women's status in rural Punjab, Pakistan

Dowry is a common custom observed in South Asian countries. It has been a target of an opposition movement because it is assumed to be a root cause of women's mistreatment, for example, in the form of sex-selective abortion, girls' malnutrition, female infanticide, and domestic homicide called "dowry murder." Despite its alleged evil consequences and the legal ban or restrictions on it, the custom has been extended, and recently, the dowry amount seems to be increasing. However, there is little empirical evidence of dowry's effects. This study empirically investigates the effects of dowry on women's status in rural Pakistan. We conducted a unique survey in rural Punjab, Pakistan, to explore the marriage practices there and to answer the research question. Results show that a higher dowry amount enhances women’s status in the marital household. This implies that an outright ban on dowries does not necessarily improve women's welfare at this time.

High-precision 40Ar/39Ar geochronology and the advent of North America’s Late Cretaceous terrestrial fauna

A densely sampled, diverse new fauna from the uppermost Cedar Mountain Formation, Utah, indicates that the basic pattern of faunal composition for the Late Cretaceous of North America was already established by the Albian-Cenomanian boundary. Multiple, concordant 40Ar/39Ar determinations from a volcanic ash associated with the fauna have an average age of 98.39 ± 0.07 million years. The fauna of the Cedar Mountain Formation records the first global appearance of hadrosaurid dinosaurs, advanced lizard (e.g., Helodermatidae), and mammal (e.g., Marsupialia) groups, and the first North American appearance of other taxa such as tyrannosaurids, pachycephalosaurs, and snakes. Although the origin of many groups is unclear, combined biostratigraphic and phylogenetic evidence suggests an Old World, specifically Asian, origin for some of the taxa, an hypothesis that is consistent with existing evidence from tectonics and marine invertebrates. Large-bodied herbivores are mainly represented by low-level browsers, ornithopod dinosaurs, whose radiations have been hypothesized to be related to the initial diversification of angiosperm plants. Diversity at the largest body sizes (>106 g) is low, in contrast to both preceding and succeeding faunas; sauropods, which underwent demise in the Northern hemisphere coincident with the radiation of angiosperms, apparently went temporarily unreplaced by other megaherbivores. Morphologic and taxonomic diversity among small, omnivorous mammals, multituberculates, is also low. A later apparent increase in diversity occurred during the Campanian, coincident with the appearance of major fruit types among angiosperms, suggesting the possibility of adaptive response to new resources.

Representational Subversions and the Limits of Postcoloniality: Shahzia Sikander's Strategic Contemporaneity

Transnational artist Shahzia Sikander challenges the limitations of Edward Said's postcolonial emphasis on secular humanism by deploying the heterogeneous traditions of South Asian miniature painting while strategically drawing on tradition to critique contemporaneity. Through a palimpsest process of composition, Sikander reincorporates the unknown and silenced histories implicit in the tradition of miniature painting to create social imaginaries with motifs that draw on the diverse traditions of South Asian religions and aesthetics to create a subversive politics of remembering wherein alternative images of cosmopolitanism emerge. Through a sustained analysis, this dissertation demonstrates how these alternative traditions interrogate and critique the limitations of postcolonial theory. Particularly important to this critique are some recent approaches of Third World feminists that highlight the limitations of secular humanism implicit in much of postcolonial critique. Sikander's compositions mirror these approaches as her motifs of the feminine become an intervention into the spiritual emptiness and ethical confusions of contemporaneity. In effect, Sikander's work is an intervention, a warning, and a plea for the re-invention of positive alternatives as her images embody and facilitate a critical and daring consciousness that is necessary to both our social and spiritual well-being.

[ Collection of Mohammedan prayers] : manuscript, undated

Collection of prayers and various devotional writings in prose and poetry.

Sat:veṇī [niñḍhī] : manuscript, 1890?

Foreign wove paper; watermark: made in Belgium for Nuzzurally Heptoolabhoy, Bombay.

Vāek:vaḏo : manuscript, 1890?

Foreign wove paper, probably German; watermark: Keferstein & Sohn, 1871.

Satveṇī:vaḍī : manuscript, 1884

Foreign paper, good quality.

[ Nikāḥ] : manuscript, ca. 1894

Marriage ritual in Arabic, the Story of the fast of Satī Mā also known as the fast of Maulā ʻAlī, a Prayer to be recited during ceremony for the forgiveness of sin on the Great Day (the Day of Judgement), the short kalimah or testimony of faith and the long kalimah.

Bhaet : manuscript, 1890?

Narratives to be recited at the commemorative assembly (majlis) held on the 30th and 40th days after the martyrdom of Imām Ḥusain.

[ Farmāns] : manuscript, 1910?

According to a note on p. 1, contains farmāns made by Imām Sulṭān Muḥammad Shāh [Aga Khan III] at Zanzibar, Bagamoyo and Dar es Salaam. The manuscript records those farmāns made between 19 Jeṭh [Jyeshtha] to 23 Bhadr [Bhadrapad] s. 1956 (approx. May-September 1899).