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The devotional literatures across the Hindu bhakti traditions of medieval India are shaped by distinctive styles of affective responses to the divine reality. A theme which recurs in several layers of their songs is a theological dialectic between divine majesty and divine accessibility; the divine is not only simply transcendent in the sense of being a distant deity but is also immanently present in and through a range of human sensitivities, emotions, and affectivities. We will highlight the dialectic in the devotional songs of three medieval figures, Tulsīdās (c. 1600), Sūrdās (c. 1600), and Mādhavadeva (1489–1596), which are structured primarily by the devotional attitude of a servant (dāsa) towards the Lord. As we will see, this theological servitude is not to be understood as a form of abject servility, for the three poets, in their somewhat distinctive ways, can not only speak of the Lord as a friend and as a lover, but can even level various kinds of complaints, challenges, and accusations at the Lord. Thus, if the Lord’s transcendental sovereignty is emphasised by the devotee through the modes of self-censure, the Lord’s immanent availability is also highlighted through the protests that the devotee fervently makes to the seemingly uncaring Lord.

Objective: To report outcomes of tacrolimus immunosuppression after penetrating keratoplasty (PK) in very young children. Methods: Retrospective, consecutive, cohort study of children undergoing PK at a tertiary children’s hospital between 2005 and 2016. Oral tacrolimus immunosuppression was given for 2 years, followed by topical tacrolimus. Results: Fourteen children (20 eyes) had 24 PKs; nineteen eyes had primary PKs, five eyes had repeat PKs. Mean age at primary graft was 95 days (3.1 months) for anterior segment dysgenesis (ASD), 430 days (14.3 months) for non-ASD children. Eleven children (15 eyes) had ASD. Three children (five eyes) had non-ASD: two children (three eyes) had glaucoma-related corneal opacity and one child (two eyes) had congenital hereditary endothelial dystrophy (CHED). Conclusion: We compare our results to published literature: 1-year graft survival was higher than previously reported, with lower failure due to rejection. Overall infection rates did not increase, however, proportionally, severe infections were higher. Overall graft survival is at least comparable to reported literature.

A simple anterior lamellar repositioning can be effective in improving the signs and symptoms of patients with Meibomian gland inversion refractory to conservative Meibomian gland dysfunction treatment.

Keratoconus is emerging as a new subspecialty in ophthalmology. The literature is booming with publications on the topic as we have better understanding of the pathophysiology, treatment and prognosis of the disease over the past two decades. Advances in diagnostic tools as well as genuine increase in prevalence have shifted perspective of the disease from being a rare one. Early diagnosis is of public health interest as early treatment arrests progression. With the view to encourage research, increase awareness and to reflect the evolution of knowledge related to keratoconus, the European Journal of Ophthalmology has dedicate a special section on keratoconus in its journal.

A significant volume of philosophical literature produced by Indian academic philosophers in the first half of the twentieth century can be placed under the rubric of ‘Śaṁkara and X’, where X is Hegel, or a German or a British philosopher who had commented on, elaborated or critiqued the Hegelian system. We will explore in this essay the philosophical significance of Hegel-influenced systems as an intellectual conduit for these Indo-European conceptual encounters, and highlight how for some Indian philosophers the British variations on Hegelian systems were both a point of entry into debates over ‘idealism’ and ‘realism’ in contemporary European philosophy and an occasion for defending Advaita against the charge of propounding a doctrine of world illusionism. Our study of the philosophical enquiries of A.C. Mukerji, P.T. Raju, and S.N.L. Shrivastava indicates that they developed distinctive styles of engaging with Hegelian idealisms as they reconfigured certain aspects of the classical Advaita of Śaṁkara through contemporary vocabulary. These appropriations of Hegelian idioms can be placed under three overlapping styles: (a) Mukerji was partly involved in locating Advaita in an intermediate conceptual space between, on the one hand, Kantian agnosticism and, on the other hand, Hegelian absolutism; (b) Raju and Shrivastava presented Advaitic thought as the fulfilment of certain insights of Hegel and F.H. Bradley; and (c) the interrogations of Hegel’s ‘idealism’ provided several Indian academic philosophers with a hermeneutic opportunity to revisit the vexed question of whether the ‘idealism’ of Śaṁkara reduces the phenomenal world, structured by māyā, to a bundle of ideas.

Both Samkhya-Yoga and Advaita Vedanta grapple with a conceptual tension which informs their understandings of spiritual practice--that while embodied selves seek liberation from the structures of worldly suffering, they are essentially the immutable reality which is never subject to any empirical ills. Though the metaphysical visions of these systems sharply diverge, Advaitins such as Samkara were able to appropriate from Samkhya-Yoga certain practices geared toward the yogic purification of the mind while rejecting its ontological scheme outlining a dualism between purusa and prakrti. By highlighting the complex relationship between Samkhya-Yoga and Samkara, we examine how it was creatively re-imagined by Ramana Maharshi who developed certain distinctive pedagogical styles centred around the liberating value of silence.

PRECIS:Various Roman Catholic figures during the last hundred years have engaged with vedāntic themes relating to self-enquiry. Two Benedictine pioneers of these spiritual exercises, Bede Griffiths and Henri Le Saux (Swami Abhishiktananda), elaborated and practiced these themes through which they sought to articulate visions of the divine presence within humanity. This essay discusses one central aspect of their “experiments with truth,” namely, their experiential and conceptual struggles to point toward the “trinitarian mystery” with the terminology of Advaita Vedānta.

In this report, the authors have conducted a prospective study to assess whether visual acuity continues to improve beyond 4 months to 6 months after macular hole surgery. Thirty-six patients were analyzed, and over a mean follow-up period of 36 months after surgery they found that visual acuity continues to improve beyond 4 months to 6 months postoperatively by 0.13 logMAR (P< 0.01). Reconstruction of the ellipsoid layer in the early postoperative period may help predict the patients that are likely to have subsequent long-term improvement in visual acuity.

AbstractThere are about 1 in 20 Malaysians who are carriers of the thalassemia gene and the prevalence of this disease in Malaysia is 6-10 percent. This study was conducted to assess knowledge, awareness and participation of medical and non-medical students in the Malaysia National Thalassemia Prevention Programme. The design of the study was a cross-sectional study. A total of 300 questionnaires were distributed to selected students from the university. The collected data was analysed using SPSS version 20.0. Data analysis revealed a highly significant difference in total knowledge between medical students and non-medical students and the thalassemia awareness also showed significant statistical association between medical and non-medical students. In conclusion, medical students have better knowledge, awareness and screening rate of thalassemia.

A survey of the key arguments that have been developed for and against the rationality of belief in reincarnation shows that often the central dispute is not over what the ‘data’ are but how to assess the ‘data’ from specific metaphysical–hermeneutical horizons. By examining some of these arguments formulated by Hindu thinkers as well as their critiques – from the perspectives of metaphysical naturalism and Christian theology – we argue that one of the reasons why these debates remain intractable is that the ‘theory’ is underdetermined by the ‘data’, so that more than one set of the latter can be regarded as adequate explanations of the former.

Assessment is an important aspect of learning and teaching which enables students to progress to either higher grades of studies or seek for employment, it also helps the teachers to assess the effectiveness of their teaching methodology. Several academicians have emphasized that assessment has strong impact on all aspects of learning. According to Buck, Backwash is influence of examination on learning.

A vital point of dispute within both classical Indian thought and contemporary analytic ontology is the following: which facts are bruteso that they are, so to speak, beyond any need of civilizing through logical transformations, conceptual revisions, or linguistic reformulations? In this article, we discuss certain strands of the debate in these fields with two central purposes in mind. Firstly, we shall argue that metaphysical debates are seemingly interminable partly because disputing parties carve up the ontological landscape in such a manner that what one party views as primitive, basic, or fundamental is regarded by an opponent as derivative, imagined, or constructed and vice versa. Second, unlike debates over these themes in contemporary analytic ontology, the classical Indian counterparts were usually located within a soteriological context, where it was claimed that an individual should develop meditative praxis on the way towards the goal of ultimate liberation. While it might seem that one could appeal to “experience” in this manner to settle the debate over whether universals were fundamental ingredients of the fabric of reality or merely conceptual artefacts, we shall argue that this approach is complicated by the fact that aspirants in these traditions would interpret their experiences in accordance with their doctrinal schemes. Therefore, the question of whether or not this appeal succeeds leads us to an ongoing dispute in religious epistemology over whether experiences are completely “constructed” by doctrinal context.

In order to achieve better treatment for local wounds and bacterial infections, topical formulations containing Cocos nucifera Linn. were developed. These formulations were evaluated for their physicochemical properties and antimicrobial efficacy against various strains of microorganisms. Semisolid formulations containing 5 w/w of Cocos nucifera Linn. were prepared by employing different dermatological bases and were evaluated for their physical appearance, pH, rheological properties, FTIR-spectroscopic analysis, thermodynamic stability and stability studies. The antimicrobial activity of each prepared formulation was determined using disk-diffusion method against various strains of microorganisms. All the prepared formulations were found to be stable and exhibited suitable physicochemical characteristics including pH, viscosity and spreadability which are necessary for an ideal topical preparation, in addition to strong antimicrobial activity. Carbopol gel base was found to be the most suitable dermatological base for Cocos nucifera Linn. in comparsion to other bases. Cocos nucifera Linn. formulations showed great potential for wounds and local bacterial infections. Moreover, carbopol gel base with its aesthetic appeal was found to be a suitable dermatological base for Cocos nucifera Linn. semisolid formulation as it had demonstrated significant physicochemical properties and greater diffusion when assessed using disk- diffusion method.

Jon Paul Sydnor, Ramanuja and Schleiermacher: Toward a Constructive Comparative Theology. Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2011. 226 pp. $45. ISBN 978-1608993086 (paperback)

This article is an investigation into whether it is possible to trace certain parallels between the conception of the divine reality as ‘gracious’ from within the contextualized vocabularies of both Christian thought and some forms of South Indian Vaisnavite devotional belief and practice. We explore the nature of a certain dialectic that appears in the thought of St Augustine, namely, between God’s prevenient grace and God’s justice: on the one hand, if grace is offered to human beings on the basis of their prior merits, it is not an unmerited gift that is freely and unconditionally given by God, but, on the other, if God does not graciously approach all human beings, the divine salvific will seems to be ‘arbitrary’, at least from a human perspective. Some Vaisnavite theologians have grappled with a similar dialectic in conceptualizing the relation between Brahman who ‘graciously’ elects the devotee and Brahman who is the ‘just’ supervisor of the karmic order of retributions and rewards: on the one hand, if Brahman is under the sway of the law of moral causation, Brahman is not supreme over the world, but, on the other, if Brahman liberates only a few individual selves without regard to operation of the karmic principle, Brahman is partial to them.

Epidural anesthesia is a widely used method for pain control during labor; nevertheless, it is not without risks. Horner syndrome is an uncommon related complication. We report a case of transient Horner syndrome following epidural anesthesia and a review of the literature. We discuss the pathophysiologic and contributing factors to this syndrome and its potential complications.