Department of History

Ashoka University is a private university located in Sonipat, Haryana, India, focusing on liberal arts and sciences. It was established in 2014.&nbsp;It is guided by an academic council of academics and scholars from around the world. The council sets the university&#39;s academic standard, advising on matters of curriculum, faculty hiring and research.&nbsp;

Ashoka University offers a full-time 3 (+ 1) year undergraduate programme. The University comprises of&nbsp;2500 plus students, with a mix of both national and international students.&nbsp; &nbsp;

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Ashoka University

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Other Publications

European Physical Journal Plus

Emergent activity networks in a model of punctuated equilibrium

Department of Philosophy

Archiv fur Geschichte der Philosophie

The Practical Syllogism and Practical Cognition in Aristotle

Nature Ecology and Evolution

Low protein expression enhances phenotypic evolvability by intensifying selection on folding stability

<h3>Background</h3>Current therapies targeting several neurotransmitter systems are only able to partially mitigate the symptoms of stress- and trauma-related disorder. Stress and trauma-related disorders lead to a prominent inflammatory response in humans, and in pre-clinical models. However, mechanisms underlying the induction of neuroinflammatory response in PTSD and anxiety disorders are not clearly understood. The present study investigated the mechanism underlying the activation of proinflammatory NLRP3 inflammasome and IL1β in mouse models of stress.<h3>Methods</h3>We used two mouse models of stress, i.e., mice subjected to physical restraint stress with brief underwater submersion, and predator odor stress. Mice were injected with MCC950, a small molecule specific inhibitor of NLRP3 activation. To pharmacologically inhibit BTK, a specific inhibitor ibrutinib was used. To validate the observation from ibrutinib studies, a separate group of mice was injected with another BTK-specific inhibitor LFM-A13. Seven days after the induction of stress, mice were examined for anxious behavior using open field test (OFT), light–dark test (LDT), and elevated plus maze test (EPM). Following the behavior tests, hippocampus and amygdale were extracted and analyzed for various components of NLRP3–caspase 1–IL1β pathway. Plasma and peripheral blood mononuclear cells were also used to assess the induction of NLRP3–Caspase 1–IL-1β pathway in stressed mice.<h3>Results</h3>Using two different pre-clinical models of stress, we demonstrate heightened anxious behavior in female mice as compared to their male counterparts. Stressed animals exhibited upregulation of proinflammatory IL1β, IL-6, Caspase 1 activity and NLRP3 inflammasome activation in brain, which were significantly higher in female mice. Pharmacological inhibition of NLRP3 inflammasome activation led to anxiolysis as well as attenuated neuroinflammatory response. Further, we observed induction of activated Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK), an upstream positive-regulator of NLRP3 inflammasome activation, in hippocampus and amygdala of stressed mice. Next, we conducted proof-of-concept pharmacological BTK inhibitor studies with ibrutinib and LFM-A13. In both sets of experiments, we found BTK inhibition led to anxiolysis and attenuated neuroinflammation, as indicated by significant reduction of NLRP3 inflammasome and proinflammatory IL-1β in hippocampus and amygdala. Analysis of plasma and peripheral blood mononuclear cells indicated peripheral induction of NLRP3–caspase 1–IL1β pathway in stressed mice.<h3>Conclusion</h3>Our study identified BTK as a key upstream regulator of neuroinflammation, which drives anxiogenic behavior in mouse model of stress. Further, we demonstrated the sexually divergent activation of BTK, providing a clue to heightened neuroinflammation and anxiogenic response to stress in females as compared to their male counterparts. Our data from the pharmacological inhibition studies suggest BTK as a novel target for the development of potential clinical treatment of PTSD and anxiety disorders. Induction of pBTK and NLRP3 in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of stressed mice suggest the potential effect of stress on systemic inflammation.

Department of Psychology

Fulltext

Journal of Neuroinflammation

Bruton’s tyrosine kinase drives neuroinflammation and anxiogenic behavior in mouse models of stress

This transcription of a presentation, commentary and a discussion at IIM Bangalore in 2020 has three parts. In Part 1, contested definitions of food, urgent food questions and concepts of food systems are clarified before considering the ways agricultural markets are integrated in food systems, the contradictory principles at work in policies for their regulation, and the ways such policy practices are imagined. Sixteen multidisciplinary depictions of global food systems, agricultural markets and food policies are analysed, concluding that their conceptual fracturing results from a disregard of theory. New models of the Indian food system will need to give rigorous attention to institutions for policy. Part 2 problematises the empirical granularity needed to understand market behaviour that policymakers ignore as they shift agriculture from being the driver of industrialisation to being a residualised welfare sector. By continuing to ignore and misunderstand existing physical markets, regulatory reforms like the new central laws assume that the deregulation would somehow automatically bypass the vast number of private intermediaries necessary for distribution whose relatively easy-to-enter, small-scale activity undercuts the transaction costs of corporate agribusiness. In doing so, they lose sight of the original purpose and need for public regulation in primary agricultural markets in the first place. Part 3 discusses the need for consultative policy processes for policy and the implications for small scales and informality in agriculture and its markets of the close integration of self-employment in the rural non-farm economy.

Department of Sociology & Anthropology

Economic and Political Weekly

Agro-food Systems and Public Policy for Food and Agricultural Markets A Discussion

Background The neurocognitive mechanisms underlying autism spectrum disorder (ASD) remain unclear. Progress has been largely hampered by small sample sizes, variable age ranges and resulting inconsistent findings. There is a pressing need for large definitive studies to delineate the nature and extent of key case/control differences to direct research towards fruitful areas for future investigation. Here we focus on perception of biological motion, a promising index of social brain function which may be altered in ASD. In a large sample ranging from childhood to adulthood, we assess whether biological motion preference differs in ASD compared to neurotypical participants (NT), how differences are modulated by age and sex and whether they are associated with dimensional variation in concurrent or later symptomatology.Methods Eye-tracking data were collected from 486 6-to-30-year-old autistic (N = 282) and non-autistic control (N = 204) participants whilst they viewed 28 trials pairing biological (BM) and control (non-biological, CTRL) motion. Preference for the biological motion stimulus was calculated as (1) proportion looking time difference (BM-CTRL) and (2) peak look duration difference (BM-CTRL).Results The ASD group showed a present but weaker preference for biological motion than the NT group. The nature of the control stimulus modulated preference for biological motion in both groups. Biological motion preference did not vary with age, gender, or concurrent or prospective social communicative skill within the ASD group, although a lack of clear preference for either stimulus was associated with higher social-communicative symptoms at baseline.Limitations The paired visual preference we used may underestimate preference for a stimulus in younger and lower IQ individuals. Our ASD group had a lower average IQ by approximately seven points. 18% of our sample was not analysed for various technical and behavioural reasons.Conclusions Biological motion preference elicits small-to-medium-sized case–control effects, but individual differences do not strongly relate to core social autism associated symptomatology. We interpret this as an autistic difference (as opposed to a deficit) likely manifest in social brain regions. The extent to which this is an innate difference present from birth and central to the autistic phenotype, or the consequence of a life lived with ASD, is unclear.

Molecular Autism

Preference for biological motion is reduced in ASD: implications for clinical trials and the search for biomarkers

Chirality, ubiquitous in biological systems, is the property of the non-superimposable structures found in both macroscopic and nanoscopic objects. In the last ten years, the research on chiral inorganic nanomaterials has witnessed tremendous growth due to their shape, size, crystal facets-controlled unparalleled physical, chemical, optoelectronic, and bio-compatibility features. Due to the quantum confinement, the chiral nanomaterials exhibit high anisotropy factors and, therefore, there has been an upsurge in research activities around the chiroptical and (bio)recognition properties of optically active inorganic nanomaterials. Advancements in synthesis and characterization technologies have made it possible to prepare complex multi-functional materials. Inorganic nanoparticles are known to exhibit fascinating semiconducting or metallic behavior and when combined with chirality, their usability in various devices is enhanced drastically due to an additional degree of freedom over achiral systems. In this review, we discuss different chemical routes to transfer chirality from intrinsic chiral systems into achiral nanomaterials for optoelectronics and bio-applications, in the light of recent experimental findings. Despite the progress in the research field of nanomaterials, imprinting chirality, device fabrication, scalability, long-term stability, and reproducibility remain challenging tasks that need to be addressed. Since the synthesis and growth mechanisms of chiral inorganic systems can be found in literature, here, we shed light only on the complimentary metal-oxides semiconductors (CMOS), and bio-compatibility of either intrinsic or imprinted chiral nanomaterials and their potential applications in next-generation chiroptical devices. We also discuss feasible strategies to resolve existing issues related to the integration into devices and their operational aspects.&nbsp;

Department of Chemistry

Materials Advances

Imprinting chirality in inorganic nanomaterials for optoelectronic and bio-applications: Strategies, challenges, and opportunities

Buddhist monks have become increasingly visible in environmental movements in the last few decades, including in Arunachal Pradesh, India, my fieldwork site. Monks in environmental protests have contributed to the popular representation of Buddhism as ecological. A review of existing literature suggests that what we are looking at is a re-interpretation of Buddhist traditional philosophy by modern environmentally conscious people and contemporary Buddhists. I argue that as anthropologists, we have to note that while Buddhism can help mobilise lay activism, local practices about the environment do not often overlap with Buddhist doctrine. I illustrate this through the example of the ban on yak meat in Arunachal Pradesh, which is linked to wider Hindu nationalist politics in India. Environmental activities in the Buddhist Himalayas cannot be understood simply through the lens of Buddhism and one has to adopt a more pluralistic approach that is accommodating of customs that do not fit within an imagined “environmental identity” (Sharma 2009). I propose Himalayan environmentalism as an alternative to Buddhist environmentalism, not to disregard the role of Buddhist belief but to show how Himalayan environmentalism goes beyond Buddhism in scope. Second, my intention is not to propose a uniform model for the Himalaya, but to point to the processes at work between culture, politics, and ecology, and to the role of power in fashioning environmental identities. I support my argument with empirical data from my own fieldwork and those of scholars working in other parts of the Himalaya.

New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies

HIMALAYAN ENVIRONMENTALISM: BUDDHISM AND BEYOND

Since the summer of 2020, Indian farmers have been protesting three laws that aim to liberalize agricultural markets and encourage contract farming. In doing so, they have also mounted the largest challenge to an authoritarian Hindu nationalist government to date. The contributions to this JPS Forum provide deep and diverse insights into these farmer protests, including their social composition and political character, as well as their roots in long-term transformations in markets, ecology, and agrarian—and non-agrarian—political economy. In this introduction, we put these contributions into dialogue with older debates in JPS over India’s ‘new farmers’ movements,’ which reached their zenith in the 1980s, in order to throw into relief what has changed in rural India and in agrarian studies over the subsequent decades. We argue that the polarized terms of the earlier debates—between Marxists and populists—are no longer adequate for the transformed agrarian milieu of the twenty-first century, which is increasingly defined by agrarian distress, ecological crisis, semi-proletarianization and diversification of occupations amidst jobless and exclusionary growth. This new agrarian reality, combined with the significance of the protests in challenging an authoritarian regime, helps to explain not only the broad coalition behind the current farmers’ protests, but their far more sympathetic treatment by agrarian scholars.

Department of Environmental Studies

The Journal of Peasant Studies

Farmers’ protests in India: introduction to the JPS Forum

Number words seemingly function both as adjectives attributing cardinality properties to collections, as in Frege’s ‘Jupiter has four moons’, and as names referring to numbers, as in Frege’s ‘The number of Jupiter’s moons is four’. This leads to what Thomas Hofweber calls Frege’s Other Puzzle: How can number words function as modifiers and as singular terms if neither adjectives nor names can serve multiple semantic functions? Whereas most philosophers deny that one of these uses is genuine, we instead argue that number words, like many related expressions, are polymorphic, having multiple uses whose meanings are systematically related via type shifting.