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• Proposes a heuristic framework to describe transition politics. • Distinguishes between ideas, interests, institutions, mass and elite politics. • Provides a review of existing transitions research on politics. • Maps areas deemed important for future research on transition politics. While the past decade of transitions scholarship has increasingly acknowledged the centrality of politics, key questions on transition politics deserve further research. Here, we develop a heuristic framework from the discipline of political science that separates transition politics into the classic categories of interests, ideas, institutions, as well as elite and mass politics. Based on this framework, we conduct a review of existing transitions literature on politics. We find that some areas of our framework are better covered than others. For instance, while the institutional foundations of elite politics are relatively well researched, there are only few studies on interests and ideas in mass politics. In geographical and sectoral terms, research is biased toward energy transitions in Europe and North America. Based on our review, we map areas for future research we believe to be indispensable to better understand varieties of transition politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Byline: P. Sugathan, Meera. Bhagyanathan Sir, Cutaneous larva migrans are lesions that migrate or creep on the skin and are due to the presence of moving parasites in the skin. [...]

Mudi-Chood is a strange dermatosis affecting the nape of the neck and upper back of young women in Kerala State of south India. It was first described by us in 1972. Here we report one more such case recently seen by us.

Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is defined as a cluster of known disorders that increase the risk for morbidity and mortality from cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and type 2 diabetes mellitus. This cross sectional study was carried out to estimate the prevalence of MetS using Adult Treatment Panel 3 (ATP 3) classification and socio-demographic and lifestyle factors contributing to metabolic syndrome among rural indigenous Malaysian population from Perak state, Malaysia which included 148 rural Malay and 145 Orang Asli(OA) individuals. This community based cross-sectional study revealed that the prevalence of MetS was significantly higher among Malays (27.7%) as compared to Orang Aslis (13.8%). Overall Prevalence of Metabolic syndrome in the rural indigenous Malaysian population was 20.8%. Prevalence of abdominal obesity and high blood pressure were significantly higher among Malays as compared to OA population. Metabolic syndrome was significantly higher among those above 45 years of age group in overall rural indigenous Malaysian population and among OA. The prevalence of MetS was significantly higher among those who were obese and overweight and among Malays who were regularly taking snacks between meals. There was no significant association between other dietary risk factors, smoking, alcohol use or physical activity with metabolic syndrome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Experimental fission cross-sections are reported for the 19F + 194,196,198Pt reactions populating an isotopic chain of compound nuclei comprising both closed and non-closed shell nuclei. The fission cross-sections are obtained at near and above Coulomb barrier energies by measuring fission fragment angular distributions. The present work aims to estimate nuclear dissipation and find its isotopic and shell closure dependence from statistical model (SM) analysis of experimental data. Pre-scission neutron multiplicity data for the same systems is also included in the SM analysis. An updated version of SM is used in the present analysis, which includes shell corrections in level density and fission barrier as well as the effect of collective enhancement of level density and orientation effect of the compound nucleus along the symmetry axis. An isotopic dependence of the dissipation strength fitting the fission excitation functions is observed. The pre-scission neutron multiplicity, however, is underestimated by the SM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background Small heat shock proteins are ubiquitous family of stress proteins, having a role in virulence and survival of the pathogen. M. leprae, the causative agent of leprosy is an uncultivable organism in defined media, hence the biology and function of proteins were examined by cloning M. leprae genes in heterologous hosts. The study on sHsp18 was carried out as the knowledge about the functions of this major immunodominant antigen of M. leprae is scanty. Results The gene encoding Mycobacterium leprae small heat shock protein (sHsp18) was amplified from biopsy material of leprosy patients, and cloned and expressed in E. coli. The localization and in vitro characterization of the protein are detailed in this report. Data show that major portion of the protein is localized in the outer membrane of E. coli. The purified sHsp18 functions as an efficient chaperone as shown by their ability to prevent thermal inactivation of restriction enzymes SmaI and NdeI. Physical interaction of the chaperone with target protein is also demonstrated. Size exclusion chromatography of purified protein shows that the protein can form multimeric complexes under in vitro conditions as is demonstrated for several small heat shock proteins. Conclusion The small heat shock protein sHsp18 of M. leprae is a chaperone and shows several properties associated with other small heat shock proteins. Membrane association and in vitro chaperone function of sHsp18 shows that the protein may play a role in the virulence and survival of M. leprae in infected host.

Byline: P. Sugathan, Abhay. Martin Mudi-Chood is a strange dermatosis affecting the nape of the neck and upper back of young women in Kerala State of south India. It was [...]

Byline: T. Gopinathan, P. Sugathan Professor Bala Krishna Hareendran Nair [Figure:1] died at Trivandrum after a protracted illness at the age of 71. He was one of the pioneers in [...]

The article analyzes the ability and influence of the comics/graphic novel medium to portray the city space and the lived experiences of the metropolis. Topics discussed include an examination of the graphic novels "Corridor" and "The Barn Owl's Wondrous Capers," by Sarnath Banerjee, comparison of the cityscape and the graphic novel medium and history of the Indian graphic novel.