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The study of tribal religion has drawn the interest of anthropologists for quite a long time so as to locate their place in the context of Indian civilization. The matter has drawn keen interest even among the laity of late as tribals in many areas of the country surprisingly have been involved in the anti Muslim carnages. Even in the Christian pockets or North-East tribals have been found allying with the Hindu parties like the BJP. A closer look, however, shows that tribals have by and large evolved syncretic religions and in spite of assimilating elements of Hinduism and Christianity, have retained their distinct tribal identities. Their clan totems indicate a cosmic orientation to life in contrast to the anthropomorphic world view of the caste-Hindus. In spite of the spread of Hindutva elements in tribal areas, signs of religious revivalism are eminent as corroborated by the census figures. These trends have been briefly discussed here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The state of Arunachal Pradesh is one of the greenest states of India. The forests there are mostly managed by the tribal communities. Many of the tribal villages have forest management committees who regularly keep vigil over their surrounding forests. While some of the tribals have committees to directly manage the forests, many of them also have cultural means to morally lay a control over the forest and other natural resources. In spite, of having so effective systems the state on the other hand has been evolving ways to lay a claim over the forests directly and indirectly. JFM and Apna Van programmes are two main methods to get entry into the community forests. No doubt a tussle is one between the people's will and the state and the international monetary order. A modest attempt is being made here unravel some of the participatory systems of forest management prevalent among some of the tribes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary We evaluated the effectiveness, ease of use and safety of five machines for blood salvage during coronary artery surgery. All were equally effective in concentrating red cells. We measured haemoglobin, packed cell volume, free haemoglobin, white cells, neutrophil elastase, platelets, thrombin–antithrombin complex (TAT), prothrombin activation peptide F1·2 , fibrin degradation product (d-dimers), tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) and heparin in wound blood, in washed cell suspensions and in a unit of bank blood prepared for each patient. All machines were equally safe and easy to use and were equally effective in removing heparin and the physiological components measured. There were no adverse effects on patients. Clotting factors are severely depleted both in salvaged blood, even before washing, and in bank blood. Cell savers are a valuable adjunct to coronary artery surgery, but careful monitoring of coagulation is required when the volumes of either bank blood or salvaged blood are large. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Asthma has been associated with eosinophil activation, measured in serum, sputum, bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid, and urine. A whole blood automated method was developed to assess eosinophil and neutrophil activity in terms of peroxidase content and cell morphology using the Bayer haematology analyser. The method was applied to an in vitro stimulation model when fMLP was added to whole blood and the samples were then analysed for changes in granularity and shape. In addition, cells stimulated with interleukin (IL)-8 were examined by electron microscopy.Methods: A cross sectional analysis was performed on venous blood from non-atopic, non-asthmatic normal subjects (n = 37), mild (n = 46) and symptomatic (n = 22) asthmatic patients on inhaled beta(2) agonist only, and more severe asthmatic patients (n = 17) on inhaled and oral corticosteroid therapy. Samples were analysed by the haematology analyser and peroxidase leucograms gated using the WinMDI software program.Results: There were significant differences in the amount of light scatter by the neutrophil populations in the symptomatic (p = 0.007) and severe asthmatic (p = 0.0001) groups compared with the control group. However, abnormalities in eosinophil populations were not observed. In vitro activation of whole blood with fMLP caused similar changes in neutrophil light scatter, suggesting that neutrophil activation is present in peripheral blood of symptomatic asthmatic patients. IL-8 caused a change in shape of the neutrophils seen using transmission electron microscopy.Conclusions: Evidence of neutrophil activation can be seen in whole blood from patients with asthma using a novel automated method. This may potentially be applied to other inflammatory diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Syrian family is described with three children who had inherited selective vitamin B12 malabsorption associated with proteinuria. (Imerslund-Grasbeck syndrome). Although inherited the defect was apparently not present at birth. A third child had less severe vitamin B12 malabsorption, was not vitamin B12 deficient and had no proteinuria. Studies on two of the affected children with subcellular fractionation of the uptake of radioactive vitamin B12 by ileal tissue in vivo indicate a defect in the ileal receptors for IF-bound vitamin B12. These findings are different from the single in vitro experiment on a patient with this condition that has been previously reported. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An assessment has been made of 25 patients who have undergone ileorectal anastomosis for Crohn's disease. The rate of anastomotic leakage was high (32%) but was fatal in only one patient. The likelihood of leakage was not affected by a safety valve ileostomy, failure to excise all diseased bowel, or steroid therapy. The overall recurrence rate was 60 per cent. This was not affected by the age of the patient, duration of the disease, steroid therapy, or anastomotic leak but was affected adversely by the presence of concurrent small bowel disease and by residual rectal disease at the site of the anastomosis. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study shows that faecal diversion by ileostomy or colostomy results in an improvement in the patient's general health which is substantiated by the haematological and biochemical findings. However, in the bowel distal to the diversion there is always histological evidence of mucosal and transmural disease and complications such as fistulae may still occur. In only two patients (7%) was restoration of bowel continuity successful. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The author comments on the article "Social Exclusion: A Sceptical View," by Abhijit Guha which appeared in the November 2007 issue. In the author's opinion, the article by Guha was well written. He expresses his agreement with Guha with regard to the concept of social exclusion in which the latter regarded such as a Western construct that holds little radical component of interest to third world nations. He discusses the different social status of the dalits in India.

Comments on William R. Bell and Steven C. Hillmer's article concerning issues associated with the seasonal adjustment of economic time-series. Discussion of the unobserved-components autoregressive integrated moving average model; Nature of seasonal adjustment; Definition of a seasonal component.