This paper unpacks the finesse and intricacies with which some of pre-colonial pre-modern sound-producing instruments were conceived built in South Asia using indigenous technologies. The argues that these technologies as sophisticated technology we know today from a Western modernist colonialist understanding it riding on ideas control, surveillance exploitati...

One hundred and forty-four published successions of shallow-water carbonates, deposited between the Palaeocene Miocene, from Levant to Himalayas, have been re-analysed using a standardised approach investigate distribution carbonate facies carbonate-producing organisms. Large benthic foraminifera were found be volumetrically most important group producers during whole period, with peak in abund...

Malaria imposes great socio-economic burden on humanity and with six other diseases like diarrhoea, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, measles, hepatitis B and pneumonia account for 85% of Global infectious disease burden. About 36% of the world population, i.e. 2020 million is exposed to the risk of contracting malaria in ~ 90 countries. World Health Organization estimates 300–500 million malaria cases a...

 The estimated number of people living with HIV in Asia and the Pacific is just under 5 million (4.883 million in 2011)  160,000 of these people are children younger than 15 years.  Approximately 300,000 people died from AIDS-related causes in 2009. This figure has remained stable in recent years.  HIV epidemics in Asia and the Pacific remain largely concentrated among people who inject dru...

The origins and genetic affinities of the more than 500 tribal populations living in South Asia are widely disputed. This may reflect differential contributions that continental populations have made to tribal groups in South Asia. We assayed for the presence of the intergenic COII/tRNALys 9-bp deletion in human mtDNA in 646 individuals from 12 caste and 14 tribal populations of South India and...

The multicolored Asian lady beetle, Harmonia axyridis (Pallas), native to Asia, has recently been detected in South America after successfully invading North America and Europe. This coccinellid is a voracious predator; therefore, it is popular and effective in biological control. Unfortunately, H. axyridis also has associated adverse impacts (i.e., as a household pest, pest of fruit production...

This study examines differences in the surface black carbon (BC) aerosol loading between the Bay of Bengal (BoB) and the Arabian Sea (AS) and identifies dominant sources of BC in South Asia and surrounding regions during March–May 2006 (Integrated Campaign for Aerosols, Gases and Radiation Budget, ICARB) period. A total of 13 BC tracers are introduced in the Weather Research and Forecasting Mod...

OBJECTIVE Chronic hepatitis B virus infection is one of the most serious infections and a major risk factor for deaths from cirrhosis and liver cancer. We estimate age-, sex- and region-specific prevalence of chronic HBV infection and calculate the absolute number of persons being chronically infected. METHODS A systematic review of the literature for studies reporting HBV infection was condu...