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A Nandy

Publications and source records attributed to A Nandy.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

Modulation of the cell-mediated immune response in kala-azar and post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis in relation to chemotherapy.

Cell-mediated immune (CMI) response and the concurrent clinical events were studied longitudinally before, during and after treatment in 24 kala-azar (KA) and ten post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis (PKADL) patients for a period of six months. The status of specific CMI response was estimated by in vitro tests, viz. lymphocyte transformation and leucocyte migration inhibition in response to L. donovani antigen. The generalized CMI response was assessed by lymphocyte transformation in the presence of mitogen (phytohaemagglutinin) and quantitation of the circulatory T-lymphocyte population. To measure the drug response, the extent of clinical improvement following treatment was used as a yardstick. The results showed that suppression of the CMI response was both specific and generalized in nature during the active stage of KA; but in PKADL, unlike in KA, suppression of the CMI response was found to be associated only at the specific level. With administration of the drug (sodium antimony gluconate), the immunosuppression was gradually eliminated with concomitant clinical improvement in both KA and PKADL patients, although the latter took a longer period of time and a larger amount of drugs compared to the former.

Adolescent↗

Leishmanin test survey in an endemic village of Indian kala-azar near Calcutta.

A leishmanin test survey was carried out in a village during the declining phase of an outbreak of Indian kala-azar. One hundred and fifty of the total population of 220, including 25 clinically cured cases of kala-azar, were available for this study. Nineteen per cent (24 of 125) of the otherwise normal subjects showed delayed hypersensitivity to leishmanin antigen. The majority of these were household contacts of kala-azar patients, and the remainder came from the close neighbourhood. This may support the view that microfoci are of importance in the spread of the disease. The age-specific profile of leishmanin positivity was found to increase steadily, attaining a high level in older age groups.

Adolescent↗

B lymphocyte population and immunoglobulins in Indian kala-azar in response to chemotherapy.

The levels of immunoglobulin classes (IgG, IgM and IgA) along with B lymphocyte population size were estimated in 24 kala-azar (KA) patients and results were compared with those obtained from 30 controls. A marked increase in the level of IgG and to a lesser extent in that of IgM was noted in the sera of KA patients. But, no such difference could be noted in serum IgA level. Along with the increased levels of immunoglobulins the elevation of B lymphocyte population size was also observed. Follow-up studies during and after chemotherapy for the period of 8 months showed that clinical improvement in KA patients resulting from treatment had a positive correlation with the progressive decline in the B lymphocyte population and in the level of immunoglobulin though the latter, particularly IgG, took a longer time to return to normal.

Adolescent↗

The psychology of colonialism: sex, age, and ideology in British India.

It is becoming more and more obvious that colonialism--as we have come to know it during the last two hundred years--cannot be identified with only economic gain and political power. In Manchuria, Japan consistently lost money, and for many years colonial Indochina, Algeria and Angola, instead of increasing the political power of France and Portugal, sapped it. This did not make Manchuria, Indochina, Algeria or Angola less important as colonies. Nor did it disprove the point that economic gain and political power are important motives in a colonial situation. It only showed that colonialism could be characterized by the search for economic and political advantage without concomitant real economic or political gains, and sometimes even with economic or political losses. This essay argues that the first differentia of colonialism is a state of mind in the colonizers and the colonized, a colonial consciousness which includes the sometimes unrealizable wish to make economic and political profits from the colonies, but other elements, too. The political economy of colonization is of course important, but the vulgarity and insanity of colonialism are principally expressed in the sphere of psychology. The following pages will explore some of these psychological contours of colonialism in the rulers and the ruled and try to define colonialism as a shared culture which may not always begin with the establishment of alien rule in a society and end with the departure of the alien rulers from the colony. The example I shall use will be that of India, where a colonial political economy began to operate seventy-five years before the full-blown ideology of British imperialism became dominant, and where thirty years after the formal ending of the raj, the ideology of colonialism is still triumphant in many sectors of life.

Cultural Characteristics↗