From grass to plastic: The Effects of Economic Development on the Design and Production of the Traditional Swazi Grass Mat Made by Women

Student Number : 9812661N - MA dissertation - School of Art - Faculty of HumanitiesThis research focuses on change and the effects of economic development on the design and production of the traditional grass mat made by women in Swaziland. The visual quality of the traditional Swazi grass mat has transformed. The mat making technique remains unchanged, as does the main raw material in the construction of the mat, but now the traditional grass is accompanied by an artificial element: sweet wrappers, creating shimmering new designs. The technology of making grass mats has been revolutionised with the introduction of the Imbongolo mat-making frame. These changes represent an example of a dynamic art form in the context of the deep-rooted tradition of Swazi material culture. Through interviews with a number of mat-makers and a comprehensive collection of mat samples gathered over an extended period these modifications have been recorded and evaluated in terms of the producers’ response to economic constraints, and the availability of new plastic materials

Feeding diversity in macroinvertebrate communities: a contribution to estimate the ecological status in shallow waters

The feeding diversity of subtidal samples of macroinvertebrates from Ria Formosa was estimated with Shannon Wiener information index and complementary evenness. The results were compared with other commonly used methodologies under the European water framework directive, such as diversity indices, AMBI and ITI. Assuming that in a healthy environment all feeding groups are present, and that no group clearly dominates, the feeding diversity is expected to be maximal and the evenness feeding diversity will be close to 1. In degraded environments some feeding groups might be absent or having low relative abundance, and generally with one or two groups dominating the community. In this way the evenness feeding diversity index would measure deviations from expected values due to a degradation of the environment. Although confirmation of this approach needs to be tested in other shallow waters, the results obtained show interesting features. To each of the 297 species belonging to the Ria Formosa data matrix a feeding group was assigned, among six groups: surface deposit feeders, sub surface deposit feeders, herbivores, suspension feeders and suspension/deposit feeders (species which have the two feeding modes depending on food availability). The carnivorous, parasites, omnivorous and scavengers were all grouped together, forming the sixth group. Most of the stations of Ria Formosa showed high feeding diversity, which could correspond to a good or high ecological status (ES) except at one location, that occasionally showed low feeding diversity. This poor condition was essentially due to low water renewal and extreme environmental variation of some parameters, such as salinity. At some locations an intermediate feeding diversity was observed mainly due to natural accumulation of organic matter. Other commonly used indices also point out to the same tendencies. We propose the evenness feeding diversity estimate approach as a practical and apparently robust method to estimate the ES of shallow waters, which can be used together with other common indicators. This approach has also the advantage of showing low sensibility to small samples and to low taxonomic identification effort

Ecosystem Services and poverty alleviation in urbanising contexts

The impacts of urbanisation on ecosystems and the dependence of urban populations on ecosystem services are widely acknowledged but poorly understood. In the Global South, rural–urban linkages are increasingly shaped and transformed by the processes of peri-urbanisation, through which rural areas become increasingly enmeshed in a mosaic of rural and urban land use and juxtaposed rural and urban livelihoods and overlapping institutions. Peri-urban areas are frontiers of sustainability transformations, where deep and sustained engagement with communities of the poor, and enhanced understanding of dynamic ecosystem service-poverty alleviation interactions, can reveal possibilities to improve the health and livelihoods of both urban and peri-urban residents, whilst also supporting more effective, efficient and equitable management of environmental resources. We demonstrate this through an example of peri-urban food systems in the outskirts of Delhi, India

Local environmentalism in peri-urban Ghaziabad: emergent ecological democracy?

This paper explores the potential of a range of peri-urban environmentalisms to come together in support of sustainable urbanisation. The present-day ‘urban,’ along with the dominant planning visions of urbanisation, lack in inclusivity, deliberative democracy, grassroots innovations, and bottom-up processes of knowledge generation. To sustainably transform this scenario, there is a need for the participation of various sections of citizens, who should be seen not just as subjects of planning, but as creators of a planning framework that emerges from both contestations and innovations in everyday living. Our earlier research on a peri-urban village situated between Delhi city and Ghaziabad town suggested that there is little support for continuation of agriculture in such areas, despite its strategic importance for sustainable urban development. Agriculture could contribute to the greening of urban spaces while enhancing the livelihoods of the poor, recycling urban waste and producing perishable food items for the urban populations. However, we found that present-day government schemes, as they unfold–often under the banner of sustainability–tend to exacerbate peri-urban inequalities. Having observed local citizen environmental action in Ghaziabad, we wanted to understand the potential role it could play in dealing with the environmental crises facing the district and region. During the course of our research we came across a distinctive peri-urban civil society activism, which cannot be viewed in binaries and reflects a pluralist spectrum that allows for alliance building. This environmentalism in Ghaziabad is distinct from the ‘environmentalism of the poor’ practiced by rural and forest dwelling groups; from the dominant elite urban ‘green development’ practices and discourses of ‘bourgeois environmentalism’; and from the urban politics of the poor. It reflects the possibility of creating bridges across sectional interests–rural and urban, red and green ideological streams– and across classes

The impact of automatic and deliberative processing on ingroup-outgroup biases in moral judgments.

Thesis (M.S.

નાની સિંચાઈ યોજનાની ખેત ઉત્પાદન, આવક અને રોજગારી પરની અસરોઃ સૌરાષ્ટ્ર પ્રદેશના રાજકોટ અને જામનગર જિલ્લાના સંદર્ભમાં અભ્યાસ

Not availabl

Delivery and stability of antisense oligonucleotide conjugates in vitro

The efficacy of antisense oligonucleotide (ODN) therapy is dependent on four major parameters: delivery to cells, intracellular stability and localisation and efficient action at the target site.The aim of this project was to study the delivery of ODNs to macrophages and to assess the stability of two ODN conjugates, in vitro. The first conjugate aimed to improve uptake of ODNs via mannose receptor mediated delivery, the second investigated the improved delivery of ODN conjugates via non-specific lipophilic interaction with the cell membrane. A mono-mannose phosphoramidite derivative was designed and synthesised and a mono-mannose ODN conjugate synthesised by standard phosphoramidite chemistry. Delivery of this conjugate was enhanced to RAW264.7 and J774 macrophage cell lines via a mechanism of receptor mediated endocytosis. The delivery of three lipophilic ODN conjugates, cholesterol (cholhex), 16-carbon alkyl chain (C16) and hexa-ethylene glycol (HEG) moieties and an unconjugated ODN were assessed in RAW264.7 macrophages. All three conjugates increased the lipophilicity of the ODN as assessed from partition coefficient data. Both the cholhex and unconjugated ODNs were found to have higher degrees of cellular association than the C16 and HEG conjugates. Cellular uptake studies implicated internalisation of these ODNs by an adsorptive endocytosis mechanism. Following endocytosis, ODNs must remain stable during their residence in endosomal/lysosomal compartments prior to exiting and exerting their biological action in either the cytosol or nucleus. Assessment of in vitro stability in a lysosomal extract revealed the cholhex conjugate and unconjugated ODNs to have a longer half-life than the C16 and HEG conjugated ODNs, highlighting the influence of conjugate moieties on lysosomal stability. The effects of base composition and length on stability in a lysosomal extract revealed the longest half-life for homo-cytidine ODNs and ODNs over 20 nucleotides in length. These studies suggest that the above conjugates can enhance cellular association and delivery of antisense ODNs to cultured macrophages. This may lead to their use in treating disorders such as HIV infection, which affects this cell type

COGNITIVE CONTEXTUAL MODEL IN AMERICAN POLITICAL DISCOURSE

This article explores the cognitive contextual model within American political discourse, focusing on its role in shaping public perceptions, constructing societal ideologies, and facilitating effective communication between political figures and the public. Employing cognitive-discursive analysis, the study investigates how linguistic strategies, such as framing, metaphorical constructs, emotional appeals, and repetition, are utilized in political speeches to influence public opinion and advance political agendas. The research is grounded in an interdisciplinary approach, integrating insights from cognitive linguistics, discourse analysis, and political science. The analysis of public speeches by U.S. presidents highlights the interplay between language, cognition, and context, emphasizing the importance of shared knowledge and cognitive structures in understanding political messaging. By developing a cognitive contextual model, the study identifies key elements such as macro-level goals, micro-level linguistic features, and the implicit and explicit mechanisms that underpin political discourse. This research contributes to the fields of discourse studies and political communication, providing a comprehensive framework for analyzing the cognitive and contextual dimensions of political language and offering practical applications for enhancing communication strategies in political contexts

Practicing Self Learning of ICT for Resilience Amidst the COVID-19 Outbreak: Experiences from Kathmandu Valley

The purpose of the study was to unravel how the school leaders, teachers, students and parents from Kathmandu Valley have experienced the self- learning of ICT use during the COVID- 19.  It basically aimed at exploring how the sudden outbreak of COVID- 19 pandemic led the research participants to different vulnerabilities, and how the adoption of ICT use worked as resilience mechanism for them. Guided by the philosophical assumptions of interpretivism, the study considered the school leaders, teachers, students and parents to have subjective experiences regarding COVID- 19 and ICT use.  And for making sense about how they have experienced ICT use amid the pandemic subjectively, narrative inquiry was adopted as research method.  Using purposive sampling, a school leader, a teacher, a student and a parent having different socio-economic backgrounds were selected from Kathmandu Valley.  Their experiences were assembled through in-depth interview, for which the researchers engaged with them for a prolonged period via phone calls and real time meetings.  The assembled experiences were further analyzed with theoretical support, following the process of transcribing, coding, categorization and thematization. Through the collective narratives, it was explored that the COVID- 19 outbreak had come to the research participants, while the adversities they experienced were about the insecurities and stress resulted due to school closures, along with their less familiarity with ICT use.  Nonetheless, the adversities were found to have minimized due to their motivation for self- learning of ICT use, and adopting the same, they were found to have grown resilient

The Issue of Hybridization of Discursive Practices

The discourse research, which was reduced to analysing such linguistic problems as the text and the conditions of its generation, gradually gave way to analysing discourse as a social phenomenon. In the 90s of the last century, the status of discourse analysis was determined as an interdisciplinary science. In all fundamental research, the central theme is the concept of discourse as a derivative of social practice and its connection with the social structure