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Luke Cooper's Authoritarian Contagion draws attention to the politics of protection proffered by contemporary ethno-nationalist authoritarian rulers. This article argues that the origins of this protectionist politics lies in neoliberal projects, which promoted conservative social hierarchies, such as those associated with gender, race and class, to further capital accumulation. These neoliberal projects led to anti-democratic governance and the concentration of wealth and power, trends that contemporary authoritarian leaders claim to challenge but, in fact, consolidate and intensify in the name of protecting an ethnically-defined people.

This paper investigates India and Australia’s respective strategic narratives of regional order in the Indo-Pacific. Despite apparently significant convergences in their terminology around the desi...

The promotion of conservative gender values has been a feature of the rise of authoritarian populism globally. This paper argues that India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) uses populist strat...

Foreign policy making in India is typically viewed as highly centralised and dominated by the Prime Minister’s Office and bureaucracy. Yet in 2004, the Congress-Party-led United Progressive Allianc...

A novel and an expeditious approach for the synthesis of 3-phenyl-[1,2,4]triazolo[3,4-a]phthalazine derivatives has been achieved from 1,4-dichlorophthlazine and benzohydrazides in the presence of ...

The embrace of markets and globalization by radical political parties is often taken as reflecting and facilitating the moderation of their ideologies. This article considers the case of Hindu nationalism, orHindutva, in India. It is argued that, rather than resulting in the moderation of Hindu nationalism, mainstream economic ideas are adopted and adapted by its proponents to further theHindutvaproject. Hence, until the 1990s, the Hindu nationalist political party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), its earlier incarnation, the Jana Sangh, and the grass-roots organization, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), adopted and adapted mainstream ideas by emphasizing the state as the protector of (Hindu) society against markets and as a tool of societal transformation for its Hindu nationalist support base. Since the 1990s, Indian bureaucratic and political elites, including in the BJP, have adopted a view of the market as the main driver of societal transformations. Under the leadership of Narendra Modi, in particular, the BJP has sought to consolidate a broader support base and stimulate economic growth and job creation by bolstering the corporate sector and recreating the middle and ‘neo-middle’ classes as ‘virtuous market citizens’ who view themselves as entrepreneurs and consumers but whose behaviour is regulated by the framework of Hindu nationalism. These policies, however, remain contested within the Hindu nationalist movement and in Indian society generally. The BJP's discourse against ‘anti-nationals’ and the use of legal sanctions against dissent is an attempt to curb these challenges.

Postcolonial scholarship on nuclear weapons has demonstrated that mainstream literature perpetuates a set of orientalist discourses about ‘Enlightenment’ and ‘civilization’ which legitimizes global...

Proponents of the Indo-Pacific concept assume that growing economic and societal linkages and the need for greater political and security cooperation and order-building are leading to the integration of the region. India and Indonesia were thought to be crucial in these processes of regionalisation and regionalism and were early adopters of the Indo-Pacific idea. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the extent to which the Indo-Pacific initiatives of India and Indonesia are leading to the integration of the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean regions through greater Indian involvement with the Pacific region and stronger Indonesian engagement with the Indian Ocean region. It is argued that an interlinked set of security and economic concerns drove India and Indonesia’s adoption of the Indo-Pacific idea. In both cases, a desire for economic growth and preventing Chinese economic and political dominance in the region were important drivers. However, the nature of the political economies of India and Indonesia does not readily facilitate extensive economic linkages or strategic interests beyond their immediate regions. Moreover, both countries are wary of being seen as members of anti-China coalitions due to the impact this may have on regional stability and their domestic political and economic priorities. These factors place significant limitations on the regional integration of the Indo-Pacific.

The rise of new powers has sparked greater interest in their foreign policy ideas and debates, given their potential to reshape international order. The existing literature, however, has shortcomings in understanding the dynamics of change and continuity in foreign policy ideas and practices, which in turn leads to a poor understanding of the changing foreign policy behaviour of rising powers. For instance, it is often claimed that India’s colonial history has given it an attachment to ‘Westphalian’ forms of sovereignty and an aversion to interventionist policies. This article, however, argues that India’s intervention behaviour has varied considerably. Specifically, India was supportive of multilateral intervention in the 1950s and 1960s, it turned to unilateral interventionism in the late 1970s, and became non-interventionist in the 1990s. These changes constituted significant but not radical changes in foreign policy because foundational ideas about what constitutes legitimate state-building continued to resonate, thereby constraining and shaping the nature of India’s interventionism and non-interventionism. To make this argument, the paper advances a framework that draws on cultural political economy and constructivist approaches to foreign policy analysis. This framework helps to elucidate how shifts in state-society relations, and the domestic and international political and economic contexts in which these shifts occur, shape ideational change and continuity in foreign policy.

This article argues that the growth of authoritarian forms of politics in India should be seen in the context of a long-term crisis of the state as successive governments have been unable to establ...

Recent scholarship has identified a new era of post-democracy or democratic crisis in the West, characterised by the increasing resort to authoritarian measures and the erosion of mechanisms such a...

A simple one pot procedure for the synthesis of α-amino acyl amide with chromone, indole, and napthalene substitution pattern is presented. This protocol involves the nano structured spinel Co3O4 catalysed coupling of aryl alcohols, anilines, carboxylic acids and tert-butyl isocyanide. The salient features of this protocol were simple procedure, mild reaction condition and high yield.

Proposals for regional economic integration, namely, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and the One Belt One Road proposal, have recently been driving the security dynamics of the Asian region. To explain the growing ‘economic’ focus of states’ foreign policies, we need to go beyond the dominant approaches in International Relations and International Political Economy, which are limited in their analytical power because they often make a distinction between politics/security and economics, and prioritise one over the other, rather than seeing them as internally related. Drawing on Leon Trotsky’s theory of ‘uneven and combined development’ and Nicos Poulantzas’s notion of ‘internalised transformations’, we develop a ‘Poulantzian-uneven and combined development’ framework to argue that the increased focus on economics in foreign policymaking represents a fundamental change related to the transnationalisation of capitalist state-building projects. The paper argues that while the Trans-Pacific Partnership reflected an attempt by the Obama administration to fashion a new stage in the transnationalisation of American capital, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and One Belt One Road proposal reflect an emerging China-centred transnationalised state project. We characterise the Trans-Pacific Partnership, Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and One Belt One Road proposal as constituting different forms of a particular type of geoeconomic strategy called ‘regulatory geographies’ because they entail the export of distinctive modes of regulatory governance that aim to overcome key contradictions of uneven and combined capitalist development in the US and China. As the recent demise of the Trans-Pacific Partnership with the election of Donald Trump shows, however, these transnationalised state projects generate resistance and contestation within, as well as between, states.

In this short article, the authors analyse the implications of the election of Donald Trump for the future of the liberal rules-based order, with specific emphasis on its implications for the Asian region. Departing from the institutional fetishism that figures prominently in the literature, the authors argue that this liberal order needs to be conceptualised in terms of its social foundations. Particularly important to consider, in terms of understanding these social foundations, is the nature of social relations in the USA. The election of Trump reflects the deep crisis of the US state and the rise of a new ‘authoritarian populism’. The authors trace the roots of this authoritarian populism to patterns of global capitalist transformation, the crisis of the US state and the modes of crisis management that this has generated. They then explore the implications of Trump’s authoritarian populism for the region.

Women’s economic empowerment (WEE) can be defined as the process of change that gives women (i) access to and control over resources and markets; (ii) increased agency and choice and; (iii) the cap...

This chapter focuses on Indira Gandhi’s turn to populism and authoritarianism from the late 1960s and 1970s. It is argued that populism and authoritarianism had a long-term impact on Indian politics and political economy by creating the conditions that facilitated the emergence of long-term processes of political fragmentation – due to the decline of the Congress Party and the rise of various social forces and political formations – and economic reform. The chapter first shows how Cold War interventionism played a key role in Indira Gandhi’s shift toward agrarian populist policies and authoritarianism. It then details the ways in which the outcomes of populism and authoritarianism laid the path for the turn to pro-business and pro-market policies as well as political fragmentation and democratic deepening. Hence, the chapter makes the case for seeing the 1970s as a critical juncture in Indian history which laid the foundations for the major economic and political changes India has recently experienced. Within this period, the Cold War context was a crucial factor in the decisions and choices made by the Indian leadership.

This chapter analyses contestations over citizenship in contemporary India with a focus on how these struggles manifest in debates over social policy. It argues that in recent years, civil society campaigns have sought to appropriate and reconfigure neoliberal concepts of accountability, localisation and participation to further a regime of social citizenship in India. Successive governments, headed by two different political parties, however, have reappropriated these ideas to push varied regimes of ‘market citizenship’ which seek to reconcile social policy with market reform. The chapter makes these arguments by drawing on a relational conception of the state as the outcome of the balance of power between different social forces which act through the state’s institutional ensemble and by analysing policy documents and debates on social policy. The chapter contributes to literature on citizenship in India, civil society and the regulatory state, and welfare policy in a time of market reform.

A novel library of aminomethylphenol has been developed using magnetic $$\hbox {Fe}_{3}\hbox {O}_{4}$$ nanoparticles via Petasis borono-Mannich reaction of salicylaldehydes, secondary amines and phenyl boronic acids. This one-pot protocol features mild reaction conditions, excellent yields in short reaction times, readily available starting materials, good functional group tolerance and reusability of the catalyst for four consecutive cycles without significant loss in its activity. A novel library of aminomethylphenol has been developed using magnetic $$\hbox {Fe}_{3}\hbox {O}_{4}$$ nanoparticles via Petasis borono-Mannich reaction of salicylaldehydes, secondary amines and phenyl boronic acids. This one-pot protocol features mild reaction conditions, excellent yields in short reaction times, readily available starting materials, good functional group tolerance and reusability of the catalyst for four consecutive cycles without significant loss in its activity.

A novel synthesis of N-fused imino-1,2,4-thiadiazolo derivatives is described. This approach involves the inexpensive, nontoxic, recoverable, and easy to handle montmorillonite K10 that catalyzes the coupling of 3-aminoisoquinolines and phenylisothiocyanates to afford the N-fused imino-1,2,4-thiadiazolo isoquinoline motifs in exemplary yields. The main attractions of this synthetic strategy were simple procedure and excellent yields.

The paraneoplastic cerebellar syndrome presents as severe neuroimmunological disease associated with malignancies. Antibodies against antigens expressed by tumor cells cross-react with proteins of cerebellar Purkinje cells leading to neuroinflammation and neuronal loss. These antineuronal antibodies are preferentially investigated by serological analyses while examination of the cerebrospinal fluid is only performed infrequently. We retrospectively investigated 12 patients with antineuronal antibodies against Purkinje cells with a special focus on cerebrospinal fluid. Our results confirm a subacute disease with a severe cerebellar syndrome in 10 female patients due to anti-Yo antibodies associated mostly with gynecological malignancies. While standard cerebrospinal fluid parameters infrequently revealed pathological results, all patients presented oligoclonal bands indicating intrathecal IgG synthesis. Analyses of anti-Yo antibodies in cerebrospinal fluid by calculating the antibody specific index revealed intrathecal synthesis of anti-Yo antibodies in these patients. In analogy to anti-Yo syndrome, an intrathecal production of anti-Tr antibodies in one patient who presented with a paraneoplastic cerebellar syndrome was detected. In an additional patient, anti-Purkinje cell antibodies of unknown origin in the cerebrospinal fluid but not in serum were determined suggesting an isolated immune reaction within the central nervous system (CNS) and underlining the importance of investigating the cerebrospinal fluid. In conclusion, patients with a cerebellar syndrome display a distinct immune reaction within the cerebrospinal fluid including intrathecal synthesis of disease-specific antibodies. We emphasize the importance of a thorough immunological work up including investigations of both serum and cerebrospinal fluid.

Since the 1990s, India and Myanmar have sought rapprochement through geo-economic strategies and discourses. The results, however, have been largely underwhelming. This paper offers an explanation for why this has been the case. We argue that the two geo-economic strategies deployed—sub-regionalism and diaspora-driven trade and investment—require the emergence of particular types of deterritorialised and denationalised citizenship regimes which facilitate the mobilisation of provincial capital and diasporic capital. The development of such social forces in India and Myanmar have been stifled by the persistence of older ‘regimes of citizenship’ associated with geopolitical strategies based on territoriality and pre-existing social hierarchies. In Myanmar, the emphasis on ‘Bamar’ identity has led to a hierarchical citizenship regime which marginalises people of Indian origin. While deterritorialised forms of citizenship have emerged in India as the government seeks to harness the economic power of the Indian diaspora, the target of its policies has been the more socially privileged diaspora settled in the West. Moreover, India’s Northeast has long been constructed as being culturally distinct and prone to ‘disloyalty’ which hinders sub-regionalism. Hence, transforming the relationship requires not just greater political will or technocratic policy changes, but addressing the long-held national anxieties and social hierarchies which underpin India and Myanmar’s regimes of citizenship.

As part of an outreach program, we integrated chemistry apps with blogging to enhance the learning experience of students in and outside the classroom. Our outreach program involved college mentors who participated in the development and implementation of chemistry lessons alongside the classroom teacher. Three technology-rich modules that focused on molecules, balancing equations, and nuclear chemistry were taught to high school students. Feedback-oriented and interactive lessons through apps with blogging were used to engage the students with the instructors as well as their peers. The combination of blogging with interactive apps increased student involvement and sustained their interests in the chemistry topics covered by the modules. The students were divided into experimental and control groups. The experimental groups were required to use the blog, where students viewed the questions and uploaded their answers and comments. The control group did not have access to the blog during the modules. Perfo...

The literature on India and Africa, as Emma Mawdsley and Gerard McCann note in their introduction to India in Africa, tends to be panoramic with a focus on the geopolitics of ‘India's rise in Afric...

With a focus on India, and drawing on critical scholarship on geo-politics and geo-economics and “relational” state theories, this article examines the ways in which ideational and material processes of state transformation have shaped India’s international engagement in different periods. Prior to 1991, geo-political social forms linked to a national developmentalist state project shaped India’s engagement with global and regional multilateralism and the nature of this engagement fluctuated according to shifts in the legitimacy and viability of this state project. The erosion of the developmentalist state project from the 1970s laid the path for a deeper shift in the national social order in the 1990s with the recasting of statehood wherein India’s future was thought to be best secured through policies of economic openness, growth and competitiveness. This shift in India’s state project has given rise to new forms of global and regional engagement that are distinct to older forms of international...

In India's 2014 general election, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured an outright majority of seats, the first time any party has done so since 1984. This has led to claims that this is a ‘critical’ or ‘realigning’ election. Yet, most Indian elections are initially described as ‘critical’ elections, which suggests that this concept needs to be further refined to be analytically useful in India's electorally volatile and regionalised political context. This commentary conceptualises critical elections in India as those that enable the winning party to build lasting regional social coalitions. Such coalitions need to be consolidated in subsequent elections for a realignment to take place. A mastery of regional politics was crucial to the BJP's 2014 win, which does mark this as a potentially realigning election. Yet, questions remain about its ability to consolidate the coalitions that delivered this result.2014年的普选中，印度人民党获得了绝对多数的议席，破了1984以来各政党的记录。这被看作一次“关键性”的、改弦易辙的选举。不过，印度的选举一开始也多被说成“关键性”的选举。所以，这个概念尚需推...

In 2011, the concept of the Indo-Pacific began to appear in India's foreign policy discourse. This article argues that rather than signalling a dramatic shift in India's foreign policy, however, the way in which the Indo-Pacific has been interpreted by the Indian leadership suggests significant continuity as well as change, which is contrary to the goals of the concept's most fervent proponents in India. The article seeks to develop a framework for understanding ideational change and continuity in foreign policy by theorising the interplay between ideas, political and economic flux, and social expectations related to effective and legitimate state-building. It is argued that the Indo-Pacific concept has instigated a new emphasis on regional architecture-building to manage the ongoing regionalisation in the area between the Indian and Pacific Oceans as a result of heightened trade flows and production and investment linkages. Yet, the Indo-Pacific concept, like the new policy ideas on regional engagement t...

This article argues that power transitions generate not just physical security concerns for states, but also “ontological” insecurity, as established identities, hierarchies, and relationships are revised and challenged. It is suggested that seeking out “special relationships” with others is one way in which states seek to mitigate this uncertainty. Through an analysis of the discourse on the “rise of India” from policymakers and commentators in the United States, it is shown that recent US representations of India seek to consolidate a particular US identity, based on the notion of American exceptionalism, and attempt to construct a new “special relationship” with India in order to ameliorate the challenge posed by the rise of China to a US-dominated world order and the assumption of the universality of US ideas and institutions. However, while India–US relations have improved, the relationship continues to be hampered by their differing world-views and self-perceptions, which, as in the past, undermine each other's sense of ontological security.

Background Paraneoplastic syndromes are serious immune caused diseases of the peripheral and/or central nervous system associated with malignant neoplasm. Symptoms develop when antibodies against antigens expressed by tumor cells cross-react with neuronal proteins. Antineuronal antibodies are usually examined in patient’s sera while examination of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) often fails. Furthermore, the few previous reports describing CSF data summarized different antineuronal antibodies and/or regarded patients with different neurological symptoms as one group. Methods We retrospectively evaluated data of 18 patients with paraneoplastic syndromes due to anti-Hu antibodies. The study aimed to differentiate patients with peripheral neuropathy and encephalitis by cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) parameters including anti-Hu antibody titers. Results Our results confirm previous observations that serum titers of anti-Hu antibodies and standard CSF values do not differ between patients with neuropathy and encephalitis. However, analysis of CSF anti-Hu titers and calculating the intrathecal synthesis helped to discriminate between both groups. Conclusion In conclusion, our results indicate that patients even with one defined antineuronal antibody need to be regarded separately depending on the involved location of the nervous system. We recommend incorporation of anti-Hu analyses in the CSF and calculating the intrathecal synthesis in patients with anti-Hu syndrome.

Large scale centralised water, wastewater and stormwater systems have been implemented for over 100 years. These systems have provided a safe drinking water supply, efficient collection and disposal of wastewater to protect human health, and the mitigation of urban flood risk. The sustainability of current urban water systems is under pressure from a range of challenges which include: rapid population growth and resulting urbanisation, climate change impacts, and infrastructure that is ageing and reaching capacity constraints. To address these issues, urban water services are now being implemented with Integrated Urban Water Management (IUWM) and Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) approaches. WSUD systems can deliver multiple benefits including water conservation, stormwater quality improvement, flood control, landscape amenity and a healthy living environment. These systems can be provided as stand-alone systems or in combination with centralised systems. These systems are still novel and thus face knowledge gaps that are impeding their mainstream uptake. Knowledge gaps cover technical, economic, social, and institutional aspects of their implementation. This paper is based on the outcomes of a comprehensive study conducted in South Australia which investigated impediments for mainstream uptake of WSUD, community perceptions of WSUD and potential of WSUD to achieve water conservation through the application of alternative resources, and in flood management. The outcomes are discussed in this paper for the benefit of water professionals engaged with WSUD planning, implementation, community consultation and regulation. Although the paper is based on a study conducted in South Australia, the comprehensive framework developed to conduct this detailed study and investigation can be adopted in any part of the world. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

Concepts about space and time, such as the Asia-Pacific and the Asian Century, are not articulated lightly in international relations discourses. When a spatial or temporal term comes into vogue, it often comes with political connotations and policy implications. This is the context in which we ought to consider the making of the spatial term Indo-Pacific, which has recently made it into the lexicon of official speeches, think-tank reports, government white papers and scholarly works. While many pundits and practitioners are embracing this new formulation, others cast doubt on its usefulness or even question its actual existence. Yet, despite its sudden stardom in foreign policy circles and some debate around its policy implications, how the Indo-Pacific as a political spatial concept came about has not been well understood.To address this gap, this chapter will first briefly survey the Indo-Pacific debate and examine how the debate has not paid adequate attention to the issue of the Indo-Pacific as a discursive construct. It then turns to how the United States, Australia, Japan, India and China together contribute to the formation of this concept amid ongoing geopolitical anxieties about the shape and trajectory of future Asian regional order. While acknowledging China's role in this constitutive process, I argue that as a discursive construct the Indo-Pacific has been motivated primarily by geopolitical anxieties about a perceived emerging regional order dominated by China. Driven by such anxieties, the concept is not an innocent description of a natural region out there; it has the potential of fuelling regional rivalries and exacerbating security dilemmas. Given its possible destabilising consequences, the chapter concludes with a call for a critical reimagination of this now increasingly accepted term.

This article examines the relationship between India's nuclear programme and its postcolonial identity. In particular, I argue that making sense of the anomalies and contradictions of India's nuclear behaviour, such as the gap of two decades between its nuclear tests, its promotion of nuclear disarmament and its failure to sign non-proliferation and test-ban treaties requires an understanding of the racially gendered construction of India's postcolonial modernity and the central roles given to science and morality within it. I suggest that India's postcolonial identity is anchored in anticolonial discourses that are deeply ambivalent toward what was viewed as a Western modernity that could provide material betterment but was also potentially destructive. What was desired was a better modernity that took into account what was believed to be Indian civilisation's greater propensity toward ethical and moral conduct. India's nuclear policies, such as its pursuit of nuclear technology and its promotion of disarmament cannot be seen in isolation from the successes and failures of this broader project of fashioning an ethical modernity.

Metabolic activation and inactivation of potential genotoxic agents occur by Phase I and Phase II enzymes in multiple interactions. An expanding body of literature demonstrates that ethnic differences in breast cancer incidence may be partly caused by host genetic factors particularly genetic polymorphisms of these carcinogen-metabolizing enzymes. The present case-control study aimed at identification of such low penetrance breast cancer susceptibility genes in 224 Indian women and to investigate the potential effects of their polymorphisms on sporadic breast cancer risk. The main objective of the study was to evaluate the effects of genetic polymorphisms of the xenobiotic metabolizing genes CYP1A1, GSTM1 and GSTT1 on breast cancer risk by PCR-RFLP and DNA sequencing. Our results showed a significant association between CYP1A1 m1, m2 polymorphisms and breast cancer risk; however there was a lack of association between GSTM1 null deletion and breast cancer. The associations of CYP1A1, GSTM1 and GSTT1 genotypes with breast cancer risk were more pronounced among the pre-menopausal patients. Combined genotype analysis revealed the CYP1A1 m2 ValVal-GSTM1 homozygous null deletion genotype combinations to be associated with the highest risk of breast cancer (OR=10.3, 95% CI=1.2-86.1). Correlations with clinicopathological factors and treatment outcome were also analyzed for predicting disease free survival by univariate and multivariate analysis. Significant differences in disease free survival between the wild and polymorphic genotypes were observed only for CYP1A1 m2, GSTT1 genotypes. Our results based on the analysis of functionally relevant polymorphisms in these low penetrance genes may provide a better model that would exhibit additive effects on individual susceptibility to breast cancer. Such genotype analysis resulting in a high-risk profile holds considerable promise for individualizing screening and therapeutic intervention in breast cancer. Hence, the present study may provide strong supportive evidence for genetic interactions in the etiology of breast cancer.

Background Biotransformation plays a crucial role in carcinogen activity and many genetic polymorphisms in xenobiotic metabolising enzymes have been associated with an increased risk of cancer. Such polymorphisms can lead to considerable variation in the activities of these enzymes, which are crucial in carcinogen and drug metabolism. These variations could play a role in the risk of developing paediatric acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) by their varying action on environmental carcinogens. Procedure The present study looked for two polymorphisms (m1 and m2) in the CYP1A1, CYP2D6*4 genes and deletions of the glutathione S-transferases (GSTM1 and GSTT1) in 118 paediatric ALL patients and 118 age matched control children. The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) were used to study gene polymorphisms. Results In children with ALL, CYP1A1 m1 polymorphism was evident in 42.4% of subjects and CYP1A1 m2 in 37.3%. These were significantly different from the results obtained for control children (20.3% for CYP1A1 m1 and 19.5% for m2). Subjects with CYP1A1 m1 homozygous variant had a sixfold risk and CYP1A1 m2 a fourfold risk. In contrast, CYP2D6*4 was more prevalent in the controls than in the cases. Subjects with GSTM1 deletions had increased risk of ALL (OR = 2.1, P = 0.009). The odds ratios for both CYP1A1 m1 and m2 homozygous polymorphisms being associated with childhood ALL was 5.67 (95% CI = 2.11–15.27). The odds ratios for both GSTM1 and GSTT1 deletions being associated with ALL was 2.78 (95% CI = 0.67–11.56). Conclusions These results suggest that genetic polymorphisms of xenobiotic metabolising enzymes appear to influence susceptibility to childhood ALL. © 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Aims: Folate receptors (FRs) mediate cellular uptake of folates in many cancer cells and in folate deficiency heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein E1 (hnRNP-E1) mediates translational upregulation of FR in cultured cervical cancer cells. hnRNP-E1 can also interfere with human papillomavirus 16 (HPV-16) viral capsid protein synthesis (and thereby HPV proliferation) in vitro. This study aimed to evaluate prospectively the relevance of FR and hnRNP-E1 expression in the normal cervix, cervical dysplasia, and cancer. Methods: Cervical tissues from 12 women with normal histology and 69 consecutive women with varying grades of cervical dysplasia and cancer were prospectively evaluated for immunohistochemical expression of FR, hnRNP-E1, proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), and HPV. There were 22 women with low grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (LGSIL), 22 with high grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HGSIL), and 25 with invasive cervical carcinoma. Results: Among normal subjects, 100% and 92% expressed hnRNP-E1 and FR, respectively. FR expression decreased from 91% in LGSIL to 68% and 64% in women with HGSIL and cancer, respectively. Similarly, hnRNP-E1 expression decreased from 86% in LGSIL to 68% and 40% in HGSIL and cancer, respectively. There was a highly significant positive correlation between the extent of FR and hnRNP-E1 expression, and an inverse correlation between HPV infection and hnRNP-E1 expression during progression of cervical dysplasia to cancer. Conclusion: These results are consistent with a hypothesis that reduced hnRNP-E1 expression may be permissive for HPV proliferation and progression to cervical cancer, and support the need for prospective longitudinal studies of hnRNP-E1 expression in HPV-16 infected women.