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A comprehensive and analytical assessment of the history of the Indian subcontinent until 1750 CE, History of Precolonial India situates Indian history in the wider context of its Asiatic background in an effort to accommodate the ongoing cultural transactions, intersections, and overlaps. This, it is hoped, will allow the reader to go beyond the usual brief flirtations with Asian history and appreciate the historical significance of the cultural and political interactions across the shifting and permeable regional borders. Divided into three parts, the book begins with an exploration of ancient and medieval South Asian history. The second part focuses on the major debates in precolonial Indian history such as periodization, the Indo-Aryan problem, state formation, and the Indian Ocean trade. The final section comprises a thematically arranged and exhaustive bibliography. In bringing out the changing historiographical contours through time, this volume focuses on facets of connected histories that went into the shaping of the cultural fabric of South Asia.

Hemodialysis for chronic kidney disease (CKD) relies on vascular access (VA) devices, such as arteriovenous fistulas (AVF), grafts (AVG), or catheters, to maintain blood flow. Nonetheless, unpredictable progressive vascular stenosis due to neointimal formation or complete occlusion from acute thrombosis remains the primary cause of mature VA failure. Despite emergent surgical intervention efforts, the lack of a reliable early detection tool significantly reduces patient outcomes and survival rates. This study introduces a soft, wearable device that continuously monitors blood flow for early detection of VA failure. Using thermal anemometry, integrated sensors noninvasively measure flow changes in large vessels. Bench testing with AVF and AVG models shows agreement with finite element analysis (FEA) simulations, while human and preclinical swine trials demonstrate the device’s sensitivity. Wireless adaptation could enable at-home monitoring, improving detection of VA-related complications and survival in CKD patients. Vascular access failure in subjects with chronic kidney diseases undergoing hemodialysis significantly reduces survival rates. Here, the authors introduce a portable device to detect early failure with high sensitivity and real-time thrombosis detection.

When thinking of India, it is hard not to think of caste. In academic and common parlance alike, caste has become a central symbol for India, marking it as fundamentally different from other places while expressing its essence. Nicholas Dirks argues that caste is, in fact, neither an unchanged survival of ancient India nor a single system that reflects a core cultural value. Rather than a basic expression of Indian tradition, caste is a modern phenomenon--the product of a concrete historical encounter between India and British colonial rule. Dirks does not contend that caste was invented by the British. But under British domination caste did become a single term capable of naming and above all subsuming India's diverse forms of social identity and organization. Dirks traces the career of caste from the medieval kingdoms of southern India to the textual traces of early colonial archives; from the commentaries of an eighteenth-century Jesuit to the enumerative obsessions of the late-nineteenth-century census; from the ethnographic writings of colonial administrators to those of twentieth-century Indian scholars seeking to rescue ethnography from its colonial legacy. The book also surveys the rise of caste politics in the twentieth century, focusing in particular on the emergence of caste-based movements that have threatened nationalist consensus. Castes of Mind is an ambitious book, written by an accomplished scholar with a rare mastery of centuries of Indian history and anthropology. It uses the idea of caste as the basis for a magisterial history of modern India. And in making a powerful case that the colonial past continues to haunt the Indian present, it makes an important contribution to current postcolonial theory and scholarship on contemporary Indian politics.

Key Points Renal dysfunction associated with vasculopathy is a common pathology in systemic sclerosis (SSc), and usually exhibits a benign course Scleroderma renal crisis (SRC) is rare — it affects 5–15% of patients, according to studies published in the past 20 years; however, a 2015 case series suggests that the incidence of SRC has decreased to 2.4% Predictive factors for SRC include anti-RNA polymerase III antibodies, diffuse cutaneous disease, tendon friction rubs, and arthritis; glucocorticoid treatment is a risk factor for SRC SRC should be differentiated from ANCA-positive, rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis, as treatment regimens and patient management are different Control of SRC-associated hypertension with angiotensin-converting-enzyme (ACE) inhibitors in patients with SSc improves outcomes; however, this treatment does not prevent SRC, and might increase SRC-associated mortality Although prognosis improved with the introduction of ACE inhibitors in the 1990s, SRC remains a major risk factor for mortality in SSc; endothelin receptor antagonists might further improve patient outcomes Scleroderma renal crisis is a rare, potentially life-threatening complication of systemic sclerosis. Here, the authors discuss advances made in the detection, management and prognosis of scleroderma renal crisis, which can limit the progression of affected patients to chronic kidney disease. Scleroderma renal crisis (SRC) is a rare, potentially life-threatening complication that affects 2–15% of patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc, also known as scleroderma). SRC typically presents in patients with early, rapidly progressive, diffuse cutaneous SSc within the first 3–5 years after the onset of a non-Raynaud sign or symptom. SRC is characterized by an acute, usually symptomatic increase in blood pressure, a rise in serum creatinine levels, oliguria and thrombotic microangiopathy in about 50% of patients. The prognosis of SRC substantially improved in the 1980s with the introduction of angiotensin-converting-enzyme inhibitors for rapid blood pressure control, with additional antihypertensive agents as required. However, the survival of patients with SRC can still be improved. Current patient survival is 70–82% at 1 year, but decreases to 50–60% at 5 years despite dialysis support. Patients with SRC who show no signs of renal functional recovery despite timely blood pressure control are candidates for transplantation. In this Review, we discuss progress made in the identification and proactive management of patients at risk of SRC and make recommendations aimed at optimizing management for those who progress to chronic kidney failure.

At the turn of the nineteenth century, James Vann, a Cherokee chief and entrepreneur, established Diamond Hill in Georgia, the most famous plantation in the southeastern Cherokee Nation. In this first full-length study to reconstruct the history of the plantation, Tiya Miles tells the story of Diamond Hill's founding, its flourishing, its takeover by white land-lottery winners on the eve of the Cherokee Removal, its decay, and ultimately its renovation in the 1950s. This moving multiracial history sheds light on the various cultural communities that interacted within the plantation boundaries--from elite Cherokee slaveholders to Cherokee subsistence farmers, from black slaves of various ethnic backgrounds to free blacks from the North and South, from German-speaking Moravian missionaries to white southern skilled laborers. Moreover, the book includes rich portraits of the women of these various communities. Vividly written and extensively researched, this history illuminates gender, class, and cross-racial relationships on the southern frontier.

\"In this compelling new study, Whitney Cox presents a fundamental re-imagining of the politics of pre-modern India through the reinterpretation of the contested accession of Kulottunga I (r. 1070-1120) as the ruler of the imperial Chola dynasty. By focusing on this complex event and its ramifications over time, Cox traces far-reaching transformations throughout the kingdom and beyond. Through a methodologically innovative combination of history, theory and the close reading of a rich series of Sanskrit and Tamil textual sources, Cox reconstructs the nature of political society in medieval India. A major intervention in the fields of South Asian social, political and cultural history, religion and comparative political thought, this book poses fresh comparative and conceptual questions about politics, history, agency and representation in the pre-modern world\"--Provided by publisher.

This article discusses an unrealized photographic project by Michał Chomiński (1819–1886), an actor and chronicler of the Warsaw State Theaters. Based on primary sources (partly included in the appendix), this reconstruction of the hitherto untold story of Chomiński’s Gallery of Dramatic Artists of Warsaw Theaters broadens our knowledge of the beginnings of Polish theater historiography. Chomiński is shown as the first collector of theater iconography who appreciated the documentary value of the photograph. The methodological framework of the article is based on selected aspects of research on collecting practices from the perspective of cultural studies.