Aghor medicine Barrett, Ron
2008., 20080203, 2008, 2008-03-04
eBook
For centuries, the Aghori have been known as the most radical ascetics in India: living naked on the cremation grounds, meditating on corpses, engaging in cannibalism and coprophagy, and consuming ...intoxicants out of human skulls. In recent years, however, they have shifted their practices from the embrace of ritually polluted substances to the healing of stigmatized diseases. In the process, they have become a large, socially mainstream, and politically powerful organization. Based on extensive fieldwork, this lucidly written book explores the dynamics of pollution, death, and healing in Aghor medicine. Ron Barrett examines a range of Aghor therapies from ritual bathing to modified Ayurveda and biomedicines and clarifies many misconceptions about this little-studied group and its highly unorthodox, powerful ideas about illness and healing.
Microtremor measurements are used for preliminary site effect of the Quaternary sediments of Varanasi in Indo-Gangatic plain, which is being planned as a Smart City of India. We evaluated site ...effects using single and arrays Microtremor measurements at various sites in the Varanasi City, Uttar Pradesh, India. At City, H/V spectral ratios using microtremor measurements indicate fundamental frequency range 0.37–0.63 Hz, corresponds amplification 5 to 14 times. This indicates that the deep thickness of the upper soft soil at about several hundreds of meters. Such huge amount of sediments deposition sources could be associated with fluvial rivers system in the area and sediment drain from Himalaya. The average peak frequency (~0.5) may reflect the Quaternary-Tertiary boundary. Microtremor array measurements at two sites were taken using circular arrays (30 and 60 m) which consists of three recording stations on the circumference of circle and one in the centre of circle. The Phase velocity dispersion of Rayleigh wave is calculated from array using SPAC method, and a 1-D shear wave velocity structure is determined by means of inversion processes. The top layers up to 50 m show shear velocities between 280 and 320 m/s and the velocities of underneath layer vary between 1500 and 1600 m/s till 100 m of depth. These results from the present study would be useful for future planning purposes as well as risk management and to reduce severity of earthquake effects in the study area.
Allahabad to Buxar, the Ganga River shows distorted menders, huge meander cut-offs, ox-bow lakes, scroll bars and abandoned linear channel belts, all suggesting to a fault system-related tectonic ...control on the river. The confluence dynamics of northern tributaries Gomati and Varuna Rivers which have shifted progressively from north to south, and confluences of southern tributary Jirgo which shifted from south to north, further corroborate the view and also suggest that the presence of a NE-SW trending dextral strike slip fault having a gravity component.
The Ganga River came close to Varanasi around 40 ka ago following a tectonic event that caused extensive liquefaction of the sediments due to a seismic pulse and upheaval in the area. Between 40 to 7ka, the Ganga River was freely oscillating within its valley when another tectonic event took place and the Ramnagar cliff was raised due to upheaval and channel incision along NE-SW trending fault. After 7ka, the Ramnagar cliff was degraded before it was inhabited by man at around 3800 years BP, which have been contemporaneous to antiquity of Varanasi.
Based on available remote sensing data, the morphometry has shown that in 1972 active channel covered 12% area in Ganga River Valley and aerial extent remained 8% in 2010. The decrease of sand bar areas (14%–11%) in the studied stretch reflects the decrease in monsoon strength over the last four decades. However, the decline in the aerial extent of relict valley features, viz. meander scars, meander cut-offs and alluvial islands, is quite characteristic and may be related to sediment recycling by migrating channels present within the active channel belt and floodplain areas of the Ganga River.
Demand for groundwater in urban centres across Asia continues to rise with ever deeper wells being drilled to avoid shallow contamination. The vulnerability of deep alluvial aquifers to contaminant ...migration is assessed in the ancient city of Varanasi, India, using a novel combination of emerging organic contaminants (EOCs) and groundwater residence time tracers (CFC and SF6). Both shallow and intermediate depth private sources (<100 m) and deep (>100 m) municipal groundwater supplies were found to be contaminated with a range of EOCs including pharmaceuticals (e.g. sulfamethoxazole, 77% detection frequency, range <0.0001–0.034 μg L−1), perfluoroalkyl substances (e.g. PFOS, range <0.0001–0.033 μg L−1) as well as a number of pesticides (e.g. phenoxyacetic acid, range <0.02–0.21 μg L−1). The profile of EOCs found in groundwater mirror those found in surface waters, albeit at lower concentrations, and reflect common waste water sources with attenuation in the subsurface. Mean groundwater residence times were found to be comparable between some deep groundwater and shallow groundwater sources with residence times ranging from >70 to 30 years. Local variations in aquifer geology influence the extent of modern recharge at depth. Both tracers provide compelling evidence of significant inputs of younger groundwater to depth >100 m within the aquifer system.
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•Indian drinking water sources from groundwater contaminated with EOCs.•Deep groundwater vulnerable to modern recharge and EOC contamination.•Anti-microbial compounds and other organic compounds frequently detected.•Higher concentrations and numbers of EOCs found in surface waters.
Summary Background National levels of personal health-care access and quality can be approximated by measuring mortality rates from causes that should not be fatal in the presence of effective ...medical care (ie, amenable mortality). Previous analyses of mortality amenable to health care only focused on high-income countries and faced several methodological challenges. In the present analysis, we use the highly standardised cause of death and risk factor estimates generated through the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) to improve and expand the quantification of personal health-care access and quality for 195 countries and territories from 1990 to 2015. Methods We mapped the most widely used list of causes amenable to personal health care developed by Nolte and McKee to 32 GBD causes. We accounted for variations in cause of death certification and misclassifications through the extensive data standardisation processes and redistribution algorithms developed for GBD. To isolate the effects of personal health-care access and quality, we risk-standardised cause-specific mortality rates for each geography-year by removing the joint effects of local environmental and behavioural risks, and adding back the global levels of risk exposure as estimated for GBD 2015. We employed principal component analysis to create a single, interpretable summary measure–the Healthcare Quality and Access (HAQ) Index–on a scale of 0 to 100. The HAQ Index showed strong convergence validity as compared with other health-system indicators, including health expenditure per capita (r=0·88), an index of 11 universal health coverage interventions ( r =0·83), and human resources for health per 1000 ( r =0·77). We used free disposal hull analysis with bootstrapping to produce a frontier based on the relationship between the HAQ Index and the Socio-demographic Index (SDI), a measure of overall development consisting of income per capita, average years of education, and total fertility rates. This frontier allowed us to better quantify the maximum levels of personal health-care access and quality achieved across the development spectrum, and pinpoint geographies where gaps between observed and potential levels have narrowed or widened over time. Findings Between 1990 and 2015, nearly all countries and territories saw their HAQ Index values improve; nonetheless, the difference between the highest and lowest observed HAQ Index was larger in 2015 than in 1990, ranging from 28·6 to 94·6. Of 195 geographies, 167 had statistically significant increases in HAQ Index levels since 1990, with South Korea, Turkey, Peru, China, and the Maldives recording among the largest gains by 2015. Performance on the HAQ Index and individual causes showed distinct patterns by region and level of development, yet substantial heterogeneities emerged for several causes, including cancers in highest-SDI countries; chronic kidney disease, diabetes, diarrhoeal diseases, and lower respiratory infections among middle-SDI countries; and measles and tetanus among lowest-SDI countries. While the global HAQ Index average rose from 40·7 (95% uncertainty interval, 39·0–42·8) in 1990 to 53·7 (52·2–55·4) in 2015, far less progress occurred in narrowing the gap between observed HAQ Index values and maximum levels achieved; at the global level, the difference between the observed and frontier HAQ Index only decreased from 21·2 in 1990 to 20·1 in 2015. If every country and territory had achieved the highest observed HAQ Index by their corresponding level of SDI, the global average would have been 73·8 in 2015. Several countries, particularly in eastern and western sub-Saharan Africa, reached HAQ Index values similar to or beyond their development levels, whereas others, namely in southern sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and south Asia, lagged behind what geographies of similar development attained between 1990 and 2015. Interpretation This novel extension of the GBD Study shows the untapped potential for personal health-care access and quality improvement across the development spectrum. Amid substantive advances in personal health care at the national level, heterogeneous patterns for individual causes in given countries or territories suggest that few places have consistently achieved optimal health-care access and quality across health-system functions and therapeutic areas. This is especially evident in middle-SDI countries, many of which have recently undergone or are currently experiencing epidemiological transitions. The HAQ Index, if paired with other measures of health-system characteristics such as intervention coverage, could provide a robust avenue for tracking progress on universal health coverage and identifying local priorities for strengthening personal health-care quality and access throughout the world. Funding Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
This study investigates the chemical composition of PM10 aerosols at Varanasi, in the central Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) during April to July 2011, with emphasis on examining the contribution of ...elemental carbon (EC) to the estimates of direct aerosol radiative effect (DARE). PM10 samples are analysed for carbonaceous aerosols (Organic Carbon, OC and EC) and water-soluble ionic species (WSIS: Cl−, SO42−, NO3−, PO42− NH4+, Na+, K+, Mg2+ and Ca2+) and several diagnostic ratios (OC/EC, K+/EC, etc) have been also used for studying the aerosol sources at Varanasi. PM10 mass concentration varies between 53 and 310 μgm−3 (mean of 168 ± 73 μgm−3), which is much higher than the National and International air quality standards. The OC mass concentration varies from 6 μg m−3 to 24 μg m−3 (mean of 12 ± 5 μg m−3; 7% of PM10 mass), whereas EC ranges between 1.0 and 14.3 μg m−3 (4.4 ± 3.9 μg m−3; ∼3% of PM10 mass). The relative low OC/EC of 3.9 ± 2.0 and strong correlation (R2 = 0.82) between them suggest the dominance of primary carbonaceous aerosols. The contribution of WSIS to PM10 is found to be ∼12%, out of which ∼57% and 43% are anions and cations, respectively. The composite DARE estimates via SBDART model reveal significant radiative effect and atmospheric heating rates (0.9–2.3 Kday−1). Although the EC contributes only ∼3% to the PM10 mass, its contribution to the surface and atmospheric forcing is significantly high (37–63% and 54–77%, respectively), thus playing a major role in climate implications over Varanasi.
•Carbonaceous aerosols account for 14% (6%–26%) of PM10 mass at Varanasi.•Relatively lower OC/EC suggests higher contribution from fossil-fuel combustion.•Relatively low secondary organic aerosol formation.•Ratios between organic and inorganic species help in understanding aerosol source.•EC contributes to the surface (37–63%) and atmospheric (54–77%) radiative effect.
The Indo-Gangetic alluvium is prime region for intensive agricultural. In some areas of this region, groundwater is now becoming progressively polluted by contamination with poisonous substances like ...arsenic. Intensive irrigation with arsenic contaminated ground water in dry spell results in the formation of As(III) which is more toxic. Thus groundwater quality assessment of Gangetic basin has become essential for its safer use. Therefore we under took study on the spatial variability of arsenic by collecting georeferred groundwater samples on grid basis from various water sources like dug well, bore and hand pumps covering the river bank region of Ganga basin. Water quality was investigated through determination pH, EC, TDS, salinity, Na, K, Ca, Mg, SAR, SSP, CO3, HCO3, RSC, Cl, As, Fe, Zn, Mn and Cu, etc. Results pointed severe As contamination in ground water of three sites of the study area. ARC GIS software is now able to process maps along with tabular data and compare them well, to provide the spatial visualization of information and using this tool, the Geographical Information System (GIS) of arsenic was developed. It was noticed from spatial maps that concentration of arsenic was more near the meandering points of Ganga.
•Arsenic toxicity was high at some of the meandering positions of the Ganga river.•Alkali desorption was the dominant reason for arsenic release.•Ground water samples were highly alkaline.
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