Статті в журналах з теми "Vijayan Complex"

ABSTRACT The acute and chronic management of paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia (PSVT) during pregnancy presents a challenging clinical situation as there are no evidence-based guidelines despite being the commonest arrhythmia found in pregnancy. We report a case of paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia in a 25 years old antenatal woman with no organic heart disease, where she received verapamil followed by diltiazem as antiarrhythmics instead of adenosine for conversion into sinus rhythm. Since she had recurrent episodes in third trimester she received verapamil and metoprolol as prophylaxis with good fetal and maternal outcome. This case highlights the need to understand the complexities in diagnosis and management of paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia during pregnancy. How to cite this article Kumare BD, Kawathalkar A, Vijay NR. Paroxysmal Supraventricular Tachycardia: A Complex Dilemma during Pregnancy. J South Asian Feder Obst Gynae 2015;7(1):44-47.

This study is an investigation of the theme of misogyny as represented by the female characters in the select plays of Vijay Tendulkar. The study argues that the Indian cultural context leaves space for man to be superior and woman to be inferior. The term misogyny denotes hatred, dislike, or mistrust of women, manifested in various forms such as physical intimidation and abuse, sexual harassment and rape, social shunning and ostracism, etc. In most of the plays of Vijay Tendulkar women stand to be the objects of subjugation in the hands of their male counterparts with whom they happen to connect with in the hope of leading their normal life. Tendulkar’s plays display a wide range of complex behaviours those constitute different forms of violence – physical attacks and verbal abuses. A thorough analysis of the situations and circumstances related to women in Vijay Tendulkar’s plays reveal that the domestic, personal, political and social ambience in which the characters live in contribute them much violence physically, sexually, psychologically and verbally. As Tendulkar’s plays stand for the middle class society, the man in his plays quite often is brutal towards his female counterpart with his deep rooted ideologies. The paper’s finding speaks on how the woman characters evolve to be strong individuals amidst their adverse ambience.

In the sphere of drama, the name of Vijay Tendulkar does not require any introduction. In the galaxy of Indo-Anglo playwrights, Tendulkar is one of the most shining stars. Marathi Theatre is incomplete without the contribution made by Vijay Tendulkar. This Marathi literary figure is a multifaceted personality. He is the one who brought revolution in Marathi Theatre. An avant-garde playwright, Tendulkar has shown versatility by writing several works including one-act plays, children’s plays, short stories, essay collections etc. Vijay Tendulkar is the mouthpiece of the oppressed women in male dominant society. He has deep insight into human nature. He has proved in his plays that it is the male dominant society that does not allow woman to rise from the status of man’s foot. They are exploited, tortured, taunted both physically and emotionally. They are considered inferior to male human beings as male human beings are victims of their superiority complex. Even in some of the societies they are treated as bane while the male child is hailed as boon. His plays depict that women are treated as mere commodities. He has shown how the voice of women is suppressed when they try to voice their concerns against the cruelties. He makes a psychological study of human characters in his plays. An analytical approach to his plays reveals that women are deprived of the life they wish to live. The present research paper focuses on his four plays, to bring to light the enslaved and exploited position of women in society. In ‘Sakharam Binder’ and ‘Kamala’ he brings to light how women are enslaved and exploited. In ‘Silence! The Court is in Session’ and ‘Kanaydaan’ he ascertains the fact that it is male human being who is responsible for the exploitation of women.

Abstract Bright Peak Therapeutics is developing a portfolio of differentiated biotherapeutics using chemistry for applications in immuno-oncology and autoimmune diseases. Our unique chemical protein synthesis and engineering platform allows us to fine-tune cytokines and other proteins to interrogate and modulate biological functions by incorporating new functional modifications. Standard recombinant bacterial or cellular expression systems used to produce proteins are largely restricted to using canonical amino acids, which limits access to diverse modifications that can bestow additional functional properties. With chemical protein synthesis technology, canonical and non-canonical modifications including conjugation handles can be easily introduced, ultimately enabling a medicinal chemistry approach for engineering cytokine structures. Enhanced cytokines with differentiated biology developed using this approach can be further elaborated by conjugating to a diverse array of molecules. We first applied our technology platform to identify BPT-143, a rationally designed enhanced IL-2 variant currently in IND-enabling studies. BPT-143 is engineered to have enhanced binding to IL2Rβ and no binding to IL2Rα for improved efficacy and safety independent of the conjugation to a half-life extending 30 kDa PEG. The chemical synthesis technology is robust, reproducible, and scalable. We are applying our platform to enhance a number of other cytokines for use in immuno-oncology and autoimmune diseases. Additionally, our synthetically engineered cytokines can be easily conjugated to monoclonal antibodies as ‘payloads’ using a distinct chemical conjugation technology. A rapid and simple chemical process allows site-selective conjugation of our engineered cytokines to existing antibodies ‘as-is’ to generate novel immunocytokines (IC). This ‘off-the-shelf’ approach is orthogonal to recombinant fusion methods to create ICs and does not require complex recombinant protein expression optimization and lengthy cell-line development. Moreover, it allows rapid screening of cytokine payloads in a structure-activity relationship (SAR) format to identify dual-targeting ICs with precisely tailored properties to generate the desired biological effect. We have prepared a number of ICs including anti-PD-1/IL-2 ICs with various drug-antibody ratio (DAR) and conjugation sites within the antibody. We will provide an overview of the platform technology and present highlights of its application for discovery and development of designer therapeutic cytokines and ICs. Citation Format: Vijaya R. Pattabiraman, Matilde Arévalo Ruiz, Régis Boehringer, Benoit Hornsperger, Roy Meoded, Robert C. Tam, Bertolt Kreft. Creating next-generation biologics using a novel chemistry platform technology [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2022; 2022 Apr 8-13. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2022;82(12_Suppl):Abstract nr 2138.

Abstract Background: The BAF (SWI/SNF) chromatin remodeling complex comprises of two mutually exclusive ATPases, SMARCA2 (BRM) and SMARCA4 (BRG1), that affect the mobilization and positioning of nucleosomes on DNA and thereby regulates important cellular functions including transcription, DNA recombination, DNA repair and chromosome decatenation during mitosis. SMARCA4 is frequently overexpressed in several types of cancers. Overexpression has been linked to increased proliferation and survival, as well as aggressive tumors and poor prognosis. SMARCA4 knockdown in these tumors lead to inhibition of proliferation and increased sensitivity to known chemotherapeutic agents, supporting the validity of targeting SMARCA4. Genetic silencing studies have established that the oncogenic activity of tumors lacking SMARCA4 is primarily driven by SMARCA2-containing residual SWI/SNF complex, suggesting the importance of dual inhibition of SMARCA2 and SMARCA4. While SMARCA4 is known to play a vital role in maintaining the oncogenic transcription program and driving proliferation in leukemia, the impact of dual SMARCA2 and SMARCA4 inhibition/degradation in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is largely unexplored. Methods and Results: As part of the initial design plan, selective SMARCA2/4 Bromodomain inhibitors and specific ligands of several E3 ligases were chosen to arrive at different degrader designs. A choice of linkers and different exit vectors were considered to construct a variety of hetero bifunctional molecules. Our proprietary ternary complex modeling algorithm, ALMOND (ALgorithm for MOdeling Neosubstrate Degraders) helped in prioritizing the designs. Short listed compounds were synthesized and profiled in multiple cellular assays to understand their degradation potential. Several compounds that degrade SMARCA2, SMARCA4 & PBRM1 with pico molar DC50 were identified. These compounds have shown very potent anti-proliferative activity in both SMARCA2/4 proficient (MV-4-11, VCaP etc) and SMARCA4 mutant cell lines (SK-MEL-5 & RERF-LC-A1 etc). Further, potent compounds were optimized for their pharmacokinetic properties. Multiple lead compounds with low IV clearance and good oral bioavailability in rodents were identified. Advanced lead compounds are currently being evaluated in rodent tolerability and PK-PD experiments to select doses for the efficacy study. Conclusions: Highly potent degraders of SMARCA2, SMARCA4 & PBRM1 were identified by conjugating selective SMARCA2/4 Bromodomain inhibitors and several E3 ligase specific ligands. Further optimization of the linkers resulted in compounds with improved pharmacokinetic profile and very good oral bioavailability in rodents. Highly potent and orally available degraders of SMARCA2, SMARCA4 are efficacious in AML xenograft models and advanced profiling of candidate molecule is in progress. Citation Format: Chandrasekhar Abbineni, Leena Khare, Bilash Kuila, Abdul Rawoof Khaji, Dhaytadak Bhagwan Mahadeo, Sandeep Vitthal Dukare, Bhagya M S Kumar, Suraj T Gore, Vijay Kamal Ahuja, Amit A Dhudashiya, Raghavendra N R, Nagesh Gowda, Charamanna K B, Kiran Aithal B, Samiulla D S, Subhendu Mukherjee, Thomas Antony, Sanjeev Giri, Shekar Chelur, Kavitha Nellore, Girish Daginakatte, Murali Ramachandra, Susanta Samajdar. Discovery of orally bioavailable SMARCA2/4 dual degraders for treatment of acute myeloid leukemia [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2022; 2022 Apr 8-13. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2022;82(12_Suppl):Abstract nr 3729.

Background:Interstitial lung disease is a well described extra-articular manifestation in a range of rheumatic diseases. It carries significant morbidity and mortality. Management of rheumatic diseases associated ILD (r-ILD) requires expertise as the needs of such patients are complex and treatment options limited. Historically, such complex ILD has been managed in tertiary referral centres.Objectives:We set up a combined service incorporating both rheumatology and respiratory domains in a district general hospital (DGH) to help patients avoid long journeys and improve their experience whilst focusing on an integrated care pathway. We evaluated the outcomes of the first set of patients managed in this proof-of-concept service model.Methods:Referrals were accepted from any hospital specialist involved in the management r-ILD. They were triaged by lead ILD pulmonologist to monthly ILD MDT comprising a rheumatologist, respiratory physician, a radiologist and ILD specialist nurse. Appropriate patients were booked into combined clinic, run by the respective rheumatology and chest specialists with ILD interest, attracting a multi-speciality tariff. All the data was recorded electronically with full access to demographics, disease parameters, investigations and drug management.Results:89 patients were included in this proof-of-concept. Mean age was 66.1 yrs (19-90 yrs) and 44% (n=39) were male. 35 (40%) had RA, 34 (39%) had CTD, eight (10%) had sarcoidosis, five had IPAF and seven others. Most predominant HRCT pattern was NSIP (n=53,60%) followed by UIP (n=23, 21%), sarcoid (n=10, 12%) and miscellaneous (LIP and mixed). Mean FVC was 2.64 L/min (1.93-4.13) with DLCOc of 52.7% (28.9-90.1%) predicted. Only two patients had all antibodies negative whilst 87 had at least one antibody positive with ANA being the most common (n=28).Most (83%) patients were treated with immunomodulators including nine with rituximab. 39 (44.3%) patients had significant improvement in clinical, imaging and pulmonary parameters with DLCOc improving to 56.57% and FVC to 2.70 L/min. There were similar improvements in six minute walk test. 17 patients died and 20 patients required long term oxygen therapy.Conclusion:This proof-of-concept real world study confirms the utility of a combined specialist service in a district general hospital. Nearly half of this complex and resource intensive patient cohort had good clinical outcomes and derived benefit from the expertise in one room. Feedback from both patients and referrers was unanimously positive. No patient required tertiary centre referral and all could be managed adequately in the clinical setting.Our report confirms that r-ILD can be managed in a DGH setting with a stream-lined service offering clear benefits to patients. We would argue that r-ILD service, congruent to satellite pulmonary hypertension clinics in secondary care with hub-and-spoke model liaison with tertiary centre, can be established on similar principles and could help over-stretched tertiary care with repatriation of services whilst helping develop local expertise in the management of chronic ILD.Disclosure of Interests:Karim Salama: None declared, Natasha Ramsundar: None declared, Vijay Joshi: None declared, Muhammad Khurram Nisar Grant/research support from: Muhammad Nisar undertakes clinical trials and received support (including attendance at conferences, speaker fees and honoraria) from Roche, Chugai, MSD, Abbvie, Pfizer, BMS, Celgene, Novartis and UCB, Consultant of: Muhammad Nisar undertakes clinical trials and received support (including attendance at conferences, speaker fees and honoraria) from Roche, Chugai, MSD, Abbvie, Pfizer, BMS, Celgene, Novartis and UCB, Speakers bureau: Muhammad Nisar undertakes clinical trials and received support (including attendance at conferences, speaker fees and honoraria) from Roche, Chugai, MSD, Abbvie, Pfizer, BMS, Celgene, Novartis and UCB

In this study, cobalt-zinc ferrite (Co0.5Zn0.5Fe2O4) was obtained by the glycine-nitrate method followed by annealing in a high-temperature furnace at a temperature of 1300 °С. The qualitative composition and its microstructural characteristics were determined using energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction analysis, and scanning electron microscopy.The analysis of the micrographs demonstrated that the cobalt-zinc ferrite micropowder obtained after thermal annealing has an average particle size of 1.7±1 μm. The analysis of XRD data showed that the annealed cobalt-zinc ferrite micropowder has a cubic crystal structure with a lattice parameter of a = 8.415 Å. Using the Scherrer and Williamson-Hall equations we calculated the average sizes of the coherent scattering regions, which were commensurate with the size of crystallites: according to the Scherrer equation D = 28.26 nm and according to the Williamson-Hall equation D = 33.59 nm and the microstress value e = 5.62×10–4 in the ferrite structure.Using a vector network analyser, the electromagnetic properties of a composite material based on synthesized cobalt-zinc ferrite were determined. The frequency dependences of the magnetic and dielectric permeability values from the measured S-parameters of the composite material (50% ferrite filler by weight and 50% paraffin) were determined using the Nicolson-Ross-Weir method and were in the range of 0.015–7 GHz. The analysis of the graphs of the dependence of the magnetic permeability on the frequency of electromagnetic radiation revealed a resonance frequency of fr ≈ 2.3 GHz. 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A field experiment was conducted at the ICAR Research Complex for NEH Region, Umiam, Meghalaya to evaluate nine pesticides applied in two phenological stages of maize (variety Vijay composite) against stem borer Chilo partellus (Swinhoe), and cob borer Stenachroia elongella Hampson. Deadheart due to stem borer recorded after 30 and 45 days after emergence and cob borer infestation recorded during harvesting of cobs revealed that flubendiamide was superior with 80.09% reduction in infestation of deadheart and 80.38% reduction of cob borer over untreated control. Similarly, among the biopesticides, Bacillus thuringiensis was effective against both the pests.

India has one of the world’s highest proportions of plant-based consumers relative to its total population (Sawe). However, the view that India is a predominantly vegetarian nation is likely inaccurate, as recent findings from the 2014 Indian Census indicate that only three in ten Indians self-identity as vegetarian (Census of India). Other studies similarly estimate the prevalence of vegetarianism to range from about 25% (Mintel Global) to about 40% (Euromonitor International; Statista, “Share”), and many Indians are shifting from strict plant-based diets to more flexible versions of plant-based eating (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations). When it comes to meat eating, poultry is the most widely consumed (USDA Foreign Agricultural Service; Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). Some claim that the changing consumer landscape is also eroding traditional taboos associated with beef and buffalo meat consumption (Kala; Bansal), with many tending to underreport their meat consumption due to religious and cultural stigmas (Bansal).This change in food choices is driven by several factors, such as increasing urbanisation (Devi et al.), rising disposable incomes (Devi et al.; Rukhmini), globalisation, and cross-cultural influences (Majumdar; Sinha). Today, the urban middle-class is one of India’s fastest growing consumer segments (Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania), and the rise in the consumption of animal products is primarily occurring in urban India (National Sample Survey Office), making this an important market to investigate.From a global perspective, while many Western nations are increasingly adopting plant-based diets (Eswaran), the growth in meat consumption is predicted to mainly come from emerging markets (OECD/FAO) like India. With these points in mind, the purpose of this study was to explore contemporary eating practices in urban India and to understand how social structures, cultures, and traditions influence these practices. The findings indicate that the key reasons why many are transitioning away from plant-based diets are the rise of new and diverse meat-based foods in urban India, emerging tastes for meat-based cuisines, and meat becoming to be viewed as a status symbol. These factors are further elaborated upon in this article.MethodA key question of this research was “What are eating practices like in urban India today?” The question itself is a challenge, given India’s varied cultures and traditions, along with its myriad eating practices. Given this diversity, the study used an exploratory qualitative approach, where the main mode of data gathering was twenty-five unstructured individual face-to-face interviews, each approximately sixty minutes in duration. The discussions were left largely open to allow participants to share their unique eating practices and reflect on how their practices are shaped by other socio-cultural practices. The research used an iterative study design, which entailed cycles of simultaneous data collection, analysis, and subsequent adaptations made to some questions to refine the emerging theory. Within the defined parameters of the research objectives, saturation was adequately reached upon completion of twenty-five interviews.The sample comprised Mumbai residents aged 23 to 45 years, which is fairly representative given about a third of India’s population is aged under 40 (Central Intelligence Agency). Mumbai was selected as it is one of India’s largest cities (Central Intelligence Agency) and is considered the country’s commercial capital (Raghavan) and multicultural hub (Gulliver). The interviews were conducted at a popular restaurant in downtown Mumbai. The interviews were conducted predominantly in English, as it is India’s subsidiary official language (Central Intelligence Agency) and the participants were comfortable conversing in English. The sample included participants from two of India’s largest religions—Hindus (80%) and Muslims (13%) (Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India), and comprised an even split of males and females.The Market Research Society of India has developed a socio-economic classification (SEC) grid that segments urban households into twelve groups (Market Research Society of India). This segmentation is based on two questions: level of education—from illiteracy to a postgraduate degree—and the ownership of eleven items that range from fairly basic (e.g., electricity connection, gas stove) to relatively sophisticated (e.g., refrigerator, personal computer). As previous qualitative work has found that education levels and disposable incomes can significantly impact one’s ability to make informed and deliberate food choices (Khara), and given meat is a relatively expensive commodity in India (Puskar-Pasewicz), the study focused on the most affluent segments—i.e., SEC A1 and some of SEC A2.It is said that researcher values and predispositions are to some extent inseparable from the research process, and therefore that potential researcher bias must be managed by being self-aware, looking for contradictory data, and being open to different interpretations of the data (Ogden). As the interviewer is a vegan of Indian ethnicity, she attempted to manage researcher bias in several ways. Triangulation of data sources (e.g., interviews, observations, product analysis) helped provide a multi-faceted understanding of the topic (Patton). The discussion guide and findings were also discussed with researchers from different cultural and dietary backgrounds. It is also argued that when a researcher shares the same background as the participants—as was the case in this study—participants may remain silent on certain issues, as they may assume the researcher knows the context and nuances in relation to these issues (McGinn). This arose in some instances as some participants said, “it’s standard stuff you know?” The interviewer hence took an “outsider” role, stating “I’ll need to know what standard stuff is”, so as to reduce any expectation that she ought to understand the social norms, conventions, and cultural practices related to the issue (Leckie). This helped yield more elaborate discussions and greater insight into the topic from the participant’s own unique perspective.The Rise of New and Diverse Meat-based Foods in Urban India Since the early 1990s, which marked the beginning of globalisation in India, urban Indian food culture has undergone a significant change as food imports have been liberalised and international food brands have made their way into the domestic market (Vepa). As a result, India’s major urban centres appear to be witnessing a food revolution:Bombay has become so metropolitan, I mean it always was but it’s so much more in terms of food now … and it’s so tempting. (Female, age 32)The changing food culture has also seen an increase in new dishes, such as a lamb burger stuffed with blue cheese, and the desire to try out exotic meats such as octopus, camel, rabbit, and emu. Many participants described themselves as “food obsessed” and living in a “present and continuous state of food”, where “we finish a meal and we’ve already started discussing our next meal”.In comparison, traditional plant-based foods were seen to have not undergone the same transformation and were described as “boring” and “standard” in comparison to the more interesting and diverse meat-based dishes:a standard restaurant menu, you don’t have all the different leafy vegetables…It’s mostly a few paneer and this or that—and upon that they don’t do much justice to the vegetable itself. It’s the same masala which they mix in it so everything tastes the same to me. So that’s a big difference when you consider meats. If I eat chicken in different preparations it has a different taste, if I have fish each has a different taste. (Male, age 29)If I’m going out and I’m spending, then I’m not going to eat the same thing which I eat at home every day which is veg food ... I will always pick the non-vegetarian option. (Male, age 32)Liberalisation and the transformation of the local media landscape also appears to have encouraged a new form of consumerism (Sinha). One participant described how an array of new TV channels and programmes have opened up new horizons for food:The whole visual attraction of food, getting it into your living room or into your bedroom and showing you all this great stuff … [There are now] kiddie birthdays which are MasterChef birthdays. There are MasterChef team building activities … So food is very big and I think media has had a very, very large role to play in that. (Female, age 40+)In a similar vein, digital media has also helped shape the food revolution. India has the world’s second largest number of Internet users (Statista, Internet) and new technology seems to have changed the way urban Indians interact with food:We are using social sites. We see all the cooking tips and all the recipes. I have a wife and she’s like, “Oh, let’s cook it!” (Male, age 25)I see everything on YouTube and food channels and all that. I really like the presentation, how they just a little they cook the chicken breast. (Female, age 42)Smartphones and apps have also made access to new cuisines easier, and some participants have become accustomed to instant gratification, givendelivery boys who can satisfy your craving by delivering it to you … You order food from “Zomato” at twelve o’clock, one o’clock also. And order from “Sigree” in the morning also nowadays … more delivery options are there in India. (Male, age 30)This may also partially explain the growing popularity of fusion foods, which include meat-based variations of traditional plant-based dishes, such as meat-filled dosas and parathas.Emerging Tastes for Meat-based Cuisines Many highlighted the sensory pleasure derived from meat eating itself, focusing on a broad range of sensory qualities:There’s the texture, there’s the smell, there’s aroma, there’s the taste itself … Now imagine if chicken or beef was as soft as paneer, we probably wouldn’t enjoy it as much. There’s a bit of that pull. (Female, age 32)Some discussed adopting a plant-based diet for health-related reasons but also highlighted that the experience, overall, was short of satisfactory:I was doing one week of GM Diet … one day it was full of fruits, then one day it was full of vegetables. And then in the third day, when it was actually the chicken part, frankly speaking even I enjoyed … you just cannot have veggies everyday. (Female, age 35)Only eating veg, I think my whole mouth was, I think gone bad. Because I really wanted to have something … keema [minced meat]. (Female, age 38)Plant-based foods, in comparison to meat-based dishes, were described as “bland”, “boring”, and lacking in the “umami zing”. Even if cooked in the same spices, plant-based foods were still seen to be wanting:you have chicken curry and soya bean curry made from the same masala … but if you replace meat with some other substitutes, you’re gonna be able to tell the difference ... the taste of meat, I feel, is better than the taste of a vegetable. (Male, age 32)The thing is, vegetarian dishes are bland … They don’t get the feeling of the spices in the vegetarian dish ... So when you are eating something juicy, having a bite, it’s a mouthful thing. Vegetarian dishes are not mouthful. (Male, age 25)At the end of a vegetarian meal … I think that maybe [it is] a lack of fullness … I’m eating less because you get bored after a while. (Female, age 32)Tasting the Forbidden FruitIn India, chicken is considered to be widely acceptable, as pork is forbidden to Muslims and beef is prohibited for Hindus (Devi et al.; Jishnu). However, the desire for new flavours seems to be pushing the boundaries of what is deemed acceptable, as highlighted in the discussion below with a 25-year-old male Muslim participant:Participant: When I go out with my friends then I try new things like bacon.Moderator: Bacon?Participant: Yeah... when I went with my colleagues to this restaurant in Bandra—it’s called Saltwater Cafe. And they had this chicken burger with bacon wrapped on it.Moderator: Okay.Participant: And I didn’t know at the time that it’s bacon … They didn’t tell me what we are having … When I had it, I told them that it’s tasting like different, totally different, like I haven’t had this in my life.Moderator: Yeah.Participant: And when they told me that it’s bacon then, I thought, okay fine. Something new I can have. Now I’m old enough to make my own choices.Similarly, several Hindu participants expressed similar sentiments about beef consumption:One of our friends, he used to have beef. He said this tastes better than chicken so I tried it. (Male, age 30)I ended up ordering beef which I actually would never eat ... But then everyone was like, it’s a must try ... So I start off with eating the gravy and then it entices me. That’s when I go and try the meat. (Female, aged 23)Although studies on meat eating in India are limited, it seems that many prefer to consume meats outside the home (Suresh; Devi et al.), away from the watchful eyes of parents, partners and, in some instances, the neighbours:My dad would say if you want to eat beef or anything have it outside but don’t bring it home. (Male, age 29)One of my friends … he keeps secret from his girlfriend … he come with us and eat [meat] and tell us not to tell her. (Male, age 26)People around have a little bit of a different view towards people eating non-veg in that area—so we wouldn’t openly talk about eating non-veg when somebody from the locality is around. (Female, age 32)Further to this point, some discussed a certain thrill that arose from pushing social boundaries by eating these forbidden meats:feel excited ... it gave me confidence also. I didn’t know ... my own decision. Something that is riskier in my life, which I hadn’t done before. (Male, age 25)Meat as a Status SymbolIn urban India, meat is increasingly considered a status symbol (Roy; Esselborn; Goswami). Similarly, several participants highlighted that meat-based dishes tend to be cooked for special occasions:non-vegetarian meals [at home] were perceived as being more elaborate and more lavish probably as compared to vegetarian meals. (Male, age 34)Dal [a lentil dish] is one of the basic things which we don’t make in the house when you have guests, or when you have an occasion … We usually make biryani…gravies of chicken or mutton. (Female, age 38)Success in urban India tends to be measured through one’s engagement with commodities that hold status-enhancing appeal (Mathur), and this also appears to apply to eating practices. Among meat-eating communities, it was found that serving only plant-based foods on special occasions was potentially seen as “low grade” and not quite socially acceptable:It’s just considered not something special. In fact, you would be judged…they would be like, “Oh my God, they only served us vegetables.” (Female, age 32)If you are basically from a Gujarati family, you are helpless. You have to serve that thing [vegetarian food] ... But if you are a non-vegetarian … if you serve them veg, it looks too low grade. (Female, age 38)In fact, among some families, serving “simple vegetarian food” tended to be associated with sombre occasions such as funerals, where one tends to avoid eating certain foods that give rise to desires, such as meat. This is elaborated upon in the below discussion with a Hindu participant (female, aged 40+):Participant: So an aunt of mine passed away a little over a year ago … traditionally we have this 13 day thing where you eat—We call it “Oshoge”… the khaana [food] is supposed to be neutral.Moderator: The khaana is supposed to be vegetarian?Participant: Yeah, it’s not just vegetarian … You’re supposed to have very simple vegetarian food like boiled food or you know dahi [plain yoghurt] and puffed rice … after a day of that, we were all looking at each other and then my cousin said, “Let me teach you how to fillet fish.” Similarly, a Muslim participant mentioned how serving certain dishes—such as dal, a common vegetarian dish—tends to be reserved for funeral occasions and is therefore considered socially unacceptable for other occasions:I’m calling a guest and I make dal chawal [lentils and rice] okay? They will think, arrey yeh kya yeh mayat ka khaana hai kya? [oh what is this, is the food for a corpse or what]? ... I can make it on that particular day when somebody has died in the family ... but then whenever guest is at home, or there is an occasion, we cannot make dal. (Female, age 38)ConclusionUrban India is experiencing a shift in norms around food choices, as meat-based dishes appear to have become symbolic of the broader changing landscape. Meat is not only eaten for its sensory properties but also because of its sociocultural associations. In comparison, many plant-based foods are perceived as relatively bland and uninteresting. This raises the question of how to make plant-based eating more appealing, both in terms of social significance and sensory enjoyment. In view of the attachment to familiar customs against the backdrop of a rapidly changing urban culture (Sinha; Venkatesh), perhaps plant-based foods could be re-introduced to the urban Indian as a blend of Western novelty and traditional familiarity (Majumdar), thereby representing the “the new along with the old” (Sinha 18), and hence enhancing their status. 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At one point in Victor Hugo’s novel, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the archdeacon, Claude Frollo, looked up from a book on his table to the edifice of the gothic cathedral, visible from his canon’s cell in the cloister of Notre Dame: “Alas!” he said, “this will kill that” (146). Frollo’s lament, that the book would destroy the edifice, captures the medieval cleric’s anxiety about the way in which Gutenberg’s print technology would become the new universal means for recording and communicating humanity’s ideas and artistic expression, replacing the grand monuments of architecture, human engineering, and craftsmanship. For Hugo, architecture was “the great handwriting of humankind” (149). The cathedral as the material outcome of human technology was being replaced by the first great machine—the printing press. At this point in the third millennium, some people undoubtedly have similar anxieties to Frollo: is it now the book’s turn to be destroyed by yet another great machine? The inclusion of “post print” in our title is not intended to sound the death knell of the book. Rather, we contend that despite the enduring value of print, digital publishing is “present and active” and is changing the way in which research, particularly in the humanities, is being undertaken. Our approach has three related parts. First, we consider how digital technologies are changing the way in which content is constructed, customised, modified, disseminated, and accessed within a global, distributed network. This section argues that the transition from print to electronic or digital publishing means both losses and gains, particularly with respect to shifts in our approaches to textuality, information, and innovative publishing. Second, we discuss the Children’s Literature Digital Resources (CLDR) project, with which we are involved. This case study of a digitising initiative opens out the transformative possibilities and challenges of digital publishing and e-scholarship for research communities. Third, we reflect on technology’s capacity to bring about major changes in the light of the theoretical and practical issues that have arisen from our discussion. I. Digitising in a “post-print age” We are living in an era that is commonly referred to as “the late age of print” (see Kho) or the “post-print age” (see Gunkel). According to Aarseth, we have reached a point whereby nearly all of our public and personal media have become more or less digital (37). As Kho notes, web newspapers are not only becoming increasingly more popular, but they are also making rather than losing money, and paper-based newspapers are finding it difficult to recruit new readers from the younger generations (37). Not only can such online-only publications update format, content, and structure more economically than print-based publications, but their wide distribution network, speed, and flexibility attract advertising revenue. Hype and hyperbole aside, publishers are not so much discarding their legacy of print, but recognising the folly of not embracing innovative technologies that can add value by presenting information in ways that satisfy users’ needs for content to-go or for edutainment. As Kho notes: “no longer able to satisfy customer demand by producing print-only products, or even by enabling online access to semi-static content, established publishers are embracing new models for publishing, web-style” (42). Advocates of online publishing contend that the major benefits of online publishing over print technology are that it is faster, more economical, and more interactive. However, as Hovav and Gray caution, “e-publishing also involves risks, hidden costs, and trade-offs” (79). The specific focus for these authors is e-journal publishing and they contend that while cost reduction is in editing, production and distribution, if the journal is not open access, then costs relating to storage and bandwith will be transferred to the user. If we put economics aside for the moment, the transition from print to electronic text (e-text), especially with electronic literary works, brings additional considerations, particularly in their ability to make available different reading strategies to print, such as “animation, rollovers, screen design, navigation strategies, and so on” (Hayles 38). Transition from print to e-text In his book, Writing Space, David Bolter follows Victor Hugo’s lead, but does not ask if print technology will be destroyed. Rather, he argues that “the idea and ideal of the book will change: print will no longer define the organization and presentation of knowledge, as it has for the past five centuries” (2). As Hayles noted above, one significant indicator of this change, which is a consequence of the shift from analogue to digital, is the addition of graphical, audio, visual, sonic, and kinetic elements to the written word. A significant consequence of this transition is the reinvention of the book in a networked environment. Unlike the printed book, the networked book is not bound by space and time. Rather, it is an evolving entity within an ecology of readers, authors, and texts. The Web 2.0 platform has enabled more experimentation with blending of digital technology and traditional writing, particularly in the use of blogs, which have spawned blogwriting and the wikinovel. Siva Vaidhyanathan’s The Googlization of Everything: How One Company is Disrupting Culture, Commerce and Community … and Why We Should Worry is a wikinovel or blog book that was produced over a series of weeks with contributions from other bloggers (see: http://www.sivacracy.net/). Penguin Books, in collaboration with a media company, “Six Stories to Start,” have developed six stories—“We Tell Stories,” which involve different forms of interactivity from users through blog entries, Twitter text messages, an interactive google map, and other features. For example, the story titled “Fairy Tales” allows users to customise the story using their own choice of names for characters and descriptions of character traits. Each story is loosely based on a classic story and links take users to synopses of these original stories and their authors and to online purchase of the texts through the Penguin Books sales website. These examples of digital stories are a small part of the digital environment, which exploits computer and online technologies’ capacity to be interactive and immersive. As Janet Murray notes, the interactive qualities of digital environments are characterised by their procedural and participatory abilities, while their immersive qualities are characterised by their spatial and encyclopedic dimensions (71–89). These immersive and interactive qualities highlight different ways of reading texts, which entail different embodied and cognitive functions from those that reading print texts requires. As Hayles argues: the advent of electronic textuality presents us with an unparalleled opportunity to reformulate fundamental ideas about texts and, in the process, to see print as well as electronic texts with fresh eyes (89–90). The transition to e-text also highlights how digitality is changing all aspects of everyday life both inside and outside the academy. Online teaching and e-research Another aspect of the commercial arm of publishing that is impacting on academe and other organisations is the digitising and indexing of print content for niche distribution. Kho offers the example of the Mark Logic Corporation, which uses its XML content platform to repurpose content, create new content, and distribute this content through multiple portals. As the promotional website video for Mark Logic explains, academics can use this service to customise their own textbooks for students by including only articles and book chapters that are relevant to their subject. These are then organised, bound, and distributed by Mark Logic for sale to students at a cost that is generally cheaper than most textbooks. A further example of how print and digital materials can form an integrated, customised source for teachers and students is eFictions (Trimmer, Jennings, & Patterson). eFictions was one of the first print and online short story anthologies that teachers of literature could customise to their own needs. Produced as both a print text collection and a website, eFictions offers popular short stories in English by well-known traditional and contemporary writers from the US, Australia, New Zealand, UK, and Europe, with summaries, notes on literary features, author biographies, and, in one instance, a YouTube movie of the story. In using the eFictions website, teachers can build a customised anthology of traditional and innovative stories to suit their teaching preferences. These examples provide useful indicators of how content is constructed, customised, modified, disseminated, and accessed within a distributed network. However, the question remains as to how to measure their impact and outcomes within teaching and learning communities. As Harley suggests in her study on the use and users of digital resources in the humanities and social sciences, several factors warrant attention, such as personal teaching style, philosophy, and specific disciplinary requirements. However, in terms of understanding the benefits of digital resources for teaching and learning, Harley notes that few providers in her sample had developed any plans to evaluate use and users in a systematic way. In addition to the problems raised in Harley’s study, another relates to how researchers can be supported to take full advantage of digital technologies for e-research. The transformation brought about by information and communication technologies extends and broadens the impact of research, by making its outputs more discoverable and usable by other researchers, and its benefits more available to industry, governments, and the wider community. Traditional repositories of knowledge and information, such as libraries, are juggling the space demands of books and computer hardware alongside increasing reader demand for anywhere, anytime, anyplace access to information. Researchers’ expectations about online access to journals, eprints, bibliographic data, and the views of others through wikis, blogs, and associated social and information networking sites such as YouTube compete with the traditional expectations of the institutions that fund libraries for paper-based archives and book repositories. While university libraries are finding it increasingly difficult to purchase all hardcover books relevant to numerous and varied disciplines, a significant proportion of their budgets goes towards digital repositories (e.g., STORS), indexes, and other resources, such as full-text electronic specialised and multidisciplinary journal databases (e.g., Project Muse and Proquest); electronic serials; e-books; and specialised information sources through fast (online) document delivery services. An area that is becoming increasingly significant for those working in the humanities is the digitising of historical and cultural texts. II. Bringing back the dead: The CLDR project The CLDR project is led by researchers and librarians at the Queensland University of Technology, in collaboration with Deakin University, University of Sydney, and members of the AustLit team at The University of Queensland. The CLDR project is a “Research Community” of the electronic bibliographic database AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource, which is working towards the goal of providing a complete bibliographic record of the nation’s literature. AustLit offers users with a single entry point to enhanced scholarly resources on Australian writers, their works, and other aspects of Australian literary culture and activities. AustLit and its Research Communities are supported by grants from the Australian Research Council and financial and in-kind contributions from a consortium of Australian universities, and by other external funding sources such as the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy. Like other more extensive digitisation projects, such as Project Gutenberg and the Rosetta Project, the CLDR project aims to provide a centralised access point for digital surrogates of early published works of Australian children’s literature, with access pathways to existing resources. The first stage of the CLDR project is to provide access to digitised, full-text, out-of-copyright Australian children’s literature from European settlement to 1945, with selected digitised critical works relevant to the field. Texts comprise a range of genres, including poetry, drama, and narrative for young readers and picture books, songs, and rhymes for infants. Currently, a selection of 75 e-texts and digital scans of original texts from Project Gutenberg and Internet Archive have been linked to the Children’s Literature Research Community. By the end of 2009, the CLDR will have digitised approximately 1000 literary texts and a significant number of critical works. Stage II and subsequent development will involve digitisation of selected texts from 1945 onwards. A precursor to the CLDR project has been undertaken by Deakin University in collaboration with the State Library of Victoria, whereby a digital bibliographic index comprising Victorian School Readers has been completed with plans for full-text digital surrogates of a selection of these texts. These texts provide valuable insights into citizenship, identity, and values formation from the 1930s onwards. At the time of writing, the CLDR is at an early stage of development. An extensive survey of out-of-copyright texts has been completed and the digitisation of these resources is about to commence. The project plans to make rich content searchable, allowing scholars from children’s literature studies and education to benefit from the many advantages of online scholarship. What digital publishing and associated digital archives, electronic texts, hypermedia, and so forth foreground is the fact that writers, readers, publishers, programmers, designers, critics, booksellers, teachers, and copyright laws operate within a context that is highly mediated by technology. In his article on large-scale digitisation projects carried out by Cornell and University of Michigan with the Making of America collection of 19th-century American serials and monographs, Hirtle notes that when special collections’ materials are available via the Web, with appropriate metadata and software, then they can “increase use of the material, contribute to new forms of research, and attract new users to the material” (44). Furthermore, Hirtle contends that despite the poor ergonomics associated with most electronic displays and e-book readers, “people will, when given the opportunity, consult an electronic text over the print original” (46). If this preference is universally accurate, especially for researchers and students, then it follows that not only will the preference for electronic surrogates of original material increase, but preference for other kinds of electronic texts will also increase. It is with this preference for electronic resources in mind that we approached the field of children’s literature in Australia and asked questions about how future generations of researchers would prefer to work. If electronic texts become the reference of choice for primary as well as secondary sources, then it seems sensible to assume that researchers would prefer to sit at the end of the keyboard than to travel considerable distances at considerable cost to access paper-based print texts in distant libraries and archives. We considered the best means for providing access to digitised primary and secondary, full text material, and digital pathways to existing online resources, particularly an extensive indexing and bibliographic database. Prior to the commencement of the CLDR project, AustLit had already indexed an extensive number of children’s literature. Challenges and dilemmas The CLDR project, even in its early stages of development, has encountered a number of challenges and dilemmas that centre on access, copyright, economic capital, and practical aspects of digitisation, and sustainability. These issues have relevance for digital publishing and e-research. A decision is yet to be made as to whether the digital texts in CLDR will be available on open or closed/tolled access. The preference is for open access. As Hayles argues, copyright is more than a legal basis for intellectual property, as it also entails ideas about authorship, creativity, and the work as an “immaterial mental construct” that goes “beyond the paper, binding, or ink” (144). Seeking copyright permission is therefore only part of the issue. Determining how the item will be accessed is a further matter, particularly as future technologies may impact upon how a digital item is used. In the case of e-journals, the issue of copyright payment structures are evolving towards a collective licensing system, pay-per-view, and other combinations of print and electronic subscription (see Hovav and Gray). For research purposes, digitisation of items for CLDR is not simply a scan and deliver process. Rather it is one that needs to ensure that the best quality is provided and that the item is both accessible and usable by researchers, and sustainable for future researchers. Sustainability is an important consideration and provides a challenge for institutions that host projects such as CLDR. Therefore, items need to be scanned to a high quality and this requires an expensive scanner and personnel costs. Files need to be in a variety of formats for preservation purposes and so that they may be manipulated to be useable in different technologies (for example, Archival Tiff, Tiff, Jpeg, PDF, HTML). Hovav and Gray warn that when technology becomes obsolete, then content becomes unreadable unless backward integration is maintained. The CLDR items will be annotatable given AustLit’s NeAt funded project: Aus-e-Lit. The Aus-e-Lit project will extend and enhance the existing AustLit web portal with data integration and search services, empirical reporting services, collaborative annotation services, and compound object authoring, editing, and publishing services. For users to be able to get the most out of a digital item, it needs to be searchable, either through double keying or OCR (optimal character recognition). The value of CLDR’s contribution The value of the CLDR project lies in its goal to provide a comprehensive, searchable body of texts (fictional and critical) to researchers across the humanities and social sciences. Other projects seem to be intent on putting up as many items as possible to be considered as a first resort for online texts. CLDR is more specific and is not interested in simply generating a presence on the Web. Rather, it is research driven both in its design and implementation, and in its focussed outcomes of assisting academics and students primarily in their e-research endeavours. To this end, we have concentrated on the following: an extensive survey of appropriate texts; best models for file location, distribution, and use; and high standards of digitising protocols. These issues that relate to data storage, digitisation, collections, management, and end-users of data are aligned with the “Development of an Australian Research Data Strategy” outlined in An Australian e-Research Strategy and Implementation Framework (2006). CLDR is not designed to simply replicate resources, as it has a distinct focus, audience, and research potential. In addition, it looks at resources that may be forgotten or are no longer available in reproduction by current publishing companies. Thus, the aim of CLDR is to preserve both the time and a period of Australian history and literary culture. It will also provide users with an accessible repository of rare and early texts written for children. III. Future directions It is now commonplace to recognize that the Web’s role as information provider has changed over the past decade. New forms of “collective intelligence” or “distributed cognition” (Oblinger and Lombardi) are emerging within and outside formal research communities. Technology’s capacity to initiate major cultural, social, educational, economic, political and commercial shifts has conditioned us to expect the “next big thing.” We have learnt to adapt swiftly to the many challenges that online technologies have presented, and we have reaped the benefits. As the examples in this discussion have highlighted, the changes in online publishing and digitisation have provided many material, network, pedagogical, and research possibilities: we teach online units providing students with access to e-journals, e-books, and customized archives of digitised materials; we communicate via various online technologies; we attend virtual conferences; and we participate in e-research through a global, digital network. In other words, technology is deeply engrained in our everyday lives. In returning to Frollo’s concern that the book would destroy architecture, Umberto Eco offers a placatory note: “in the history of culture it has never happened that something has simply killed something else. Something has profoundly changed something else” (n. pag.). Eco’s point has relevance to our discussion of digital publishing. The transition from print to digital necessitates a profound change that impacts on the ways we read, write, and research. As we have illustrated with our case study of the CLDR project, the move to creating digitised texts of print literature needs to be considered within a dynamic network of multiple causalities, emergent technological processes, and complex negotiations through which digital texts are created, stored, disseminated, and used. Technological changes in just the past five years have, in many ways, created an expectation in the minds of people that the future is no longer some distant time from the present. 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