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Articles by Sandhya Kumar
COVID-19 lockdown and coverage of maternal health and nutrition care in rural West Bengal, India: a single interrupted time-series analysis
Abstract While COVID-19 lockdowns globally disrupted healthcare, the extent of changes in India’s maternal health and nutrition services coverage in rural settings requires further empirical investigation.
Functional chimeric mRNAs encode proteins in mammalian immunity
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Abstract Individual mammalian mRNAs and proteins are typically believed to originate from single genomic loci, with isoform diversity arising through cis-splicing of pre-mRNA. Whether mRNA from distant genes can undergo trans-splicing to generate functionally relevant chimeric transcripts has remained unclear. Here we develop a pipeline combining long-read direct RNA sequencing with non-targeted and targeted validation to identify chimeric transcripts in macrophages.
By Harry Kane, Gang Du, Hannah D. Coughlan, Timothy Johanson, Hongshen Wang, Pathricia Veronica Tilstam, Samuel W. Kazer, Georgia Gunner, Daisy Hoagland, Megha G. Basavappa, Kanchana R. Ravichandran, Ademi Zhakyp, Sandhya Kumar, Coco Duizer, Leonel Joannas, Shilong Yang, Liam Healy, Qiankun Wang, Joia K. Capocchi, Sarah A. Slavoff, Liang Shan, Jorge Henao-Mejia, Ruth Franklin, Isaac M. Chiu, Jose Ordovas-Montanes, Kate Jeffrey, Judy Lieberman, Rhys S. Allan, Jonathan Kagan, Hao Wu, Ruaidhri Jackson, Olivia Venezia, Eren Ada, Owen Searle, Chris Geo Provido, Bahawar Sharif Dhillon
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Nature
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Mesh Location, Hernia Recurrence, and Small Bowel Obstruction
Retromuscular mesh placement has been touted as the ideal location for mesh reinforcement of ventral hernia.1-3 First, the technique avoids the creation of lipocutaneous flaps and division of rectus perforators, theoretically reducing tissue ischemia, seroma formation, and subcutaneous infection. Second, the technique accesses a wide tissue space, up to the lateral boundary of the posterior rectus sheath, allowing for large mesh overlap and theoretically less hernia recurrence.
ChatGPT Has Been My Tutor for the Last Year. I Still Have Concerns.
About one year ago, I became friends (or at least classmates) with ChatGPT, and wrote about my concerns. I worried my education was becoming less personal, as I typed questions into a chatbot rather than asking peers or trained teaching staff. I emphasized the need for more structure around how generative AI tools like ChatGPT are permitted to be used in the classroom. Since then, both the technology and its presence at Harvard have rapidly grown.
Is Harvard College Lost in the Haze?
Hidden among the many trainings and policies new clubs at Harvard are required to attend and review lies a significant update: a revised College hazing policy. For many students, this might feel like yet another compliance task to check off. But it deserves closer attention. Hazing is not just a relic of tradition; it is an active threat to student safety and inclusion.
Is Going to Class Still Worth It?
I like to think I’m a very rational person. I try to evaluate the costs and benefits of my decisions, whether it be deciding to indulge in an extra cup of tea, taking a 20-minute power nap, or choosing between an Uber and public transit. I’m abashed to admit that lately, this sentiment has extended to deciding whether going to class is worth it. It is no secret that the University has a problem with the prioritization of coursework, and Harvard has caught on.
Peer Teaching Is Key to Our Education. I’m Glad Harvard’s Protecting It.
Amid the hiring freeze and funding uncertainty, Harvard has taken an important step to upholding our teaching mission. I’m glad the University is still supporting student jobs, especially in the realm of undergraduate course assistants and teaching fellows.
Freshmen, Embrace Your New Home
If you ask any Harvard student for their Harvard intro, they’ll most likely follow this script: "I’m [insert name] studying [insert concentration] in [insert house] — THE BEST HOUSE!” Today, freshmen get to add that final defining detail to their Harvard intro: the name of their House.
Harvard Needs To Connect the Disciplines
It’s often at least 1:30 a.m. before my roommates and I gather in our common room and have the chance to talk. Each of us studies something different — one is an English concentrator who’s passionate about comedy and music, the other focuses on engineering and design, and I split my time between biology and statistics. Our late-night conversations make for some of my most enriching experiences at Harvard, and yet, if it weren’t for a chance rooming assignment, they would never take place.
Harvard’s Registration Is So Off-Course
Last week marked the end of a trying saga: finalizing my spring class schedule. While course registration was due Nov. 20th — right in the middle of Harvard’s elongated and chaotic midterm season — I chose placeholder classes to avoid the $50 fee for late registration. I’m sure I wasn’t alone. Harvard’s current course selection system doesn’t make room for carefully-reasoned enrollment decisions. It’s time for a change.
Science Is Being Threatened. Researchers Can’t Stand By.
Like many Americans, I spent my Tuesday night glued to the television, watching state after state turn red on CNN’s “magic wall.” What I saw was sobering. Since then, I have reflected on the last Donald Trump presidency and prepared myself for what the next four years might look like. As a prospective physician-scientist, I worry about the potential implications of this shift for public health policy. Voices on the right have too often sidelined or even undermined important scientific insights.
I’m a First-Time Voter. Is This Really What Politics Are Like?
I am turning 21 this year, and have been preparing for two things: Having my first drink and voting in my first presidential election. While I feel more than ready for the former, I am uncertain that I have been adequately prepared to cast my ballot.
My New Tutor Is ChatGPT. Here Are My Concerns.
At the start of a school year, there will always be changes: new dorm rooms, new classes, and new faces on campus. This year, all Harvard students also gained a new study buddy: ChatGPT. In an email to the college, Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education, Academic Programs and Policy Gillian B.
Bad pits of Bengaluru
Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda recently took to X urging the BBMP and BMRCL to fix the ORR BBMP’s tall claims aside, city’s arterial and sub-arterial roads are filled with craters — so much so that even ministers, MLAs feel the jitters now Survey shows 432 km of roads in poor condition due to asphalt layer peeling off He urged either the BBMP or BMRCL to take immediate steps to repair the roads.
Francis Kéré's vision of serpentine pavilion
Every architect strives to uphold themselves amidst the competitive world through their design virtue. Holding to the fundamentals of design, they develop a deep thought process to achieve the solution. The approach to a design may vary depending on the way of thinking, but the resulting design will reflect their practice, culture, learning, and persistence through the years. Also, it is inappropriate to say that a design problem can have only one solution.
Is College Worth It? Not Necessarily, But a Higher Education Is
I just finished my first year of college at Harvard. I would have been euphoric to learn this as a third grader, when my ambitions to attend a top college first sprung up. To me, college was the means to a high paying job, a stable career, and a contented life. It seems that many others would disagree with my naivety. Faith in our system of college education is falling.
Rhyme, Reason & Celebration: Here’s why you should attend the Bengaluru Poetry Festival 2023
“Poetry is such a broad spectrum, but it isn’t given much importance in any of the festivals,” rues Subodh Sankar. As co-founder of Atta Galatta, he realised platforms were limited for poets.
Rhyme, Reason & Celebration: Here's why you should attend the Bengaluru Poetry Festival 2023
“Poetry is such a broad spectrum, but it isn’t given much importance in any of the festivals,” rues Subodh Sankar. As co-founder of Atta Galatta, a Bengaluru-based bookstore, along with his wife, Lakshmi, Sankar realised that while poetry was gaining immense popularity, opportunities and platforms were limited for poets. So, they, along with a core team of poets and poetry lovers, conceptualised the Bengaluru Poetry Festival (BPF) as a celebration of poetry.
Why Networks Net-Work
Columns Science ‘n Tradition By Sandhya Kumar, Crimson Opinion Writer Sandhya Kumar ’26 lives in Greenough Hall. Her column, “Science ‘n Tradition,” runs on alternate Tuesdays. In popular media, like the film “The Social Network,” Harvard is portrayed as a hub for networking. Students flock to career fairs to connect with top companies while fielding numerous LinkedIn requests from peers — happily accepting them all in case we truly are speaking with the next Mark Zuckerburg.
Duck, Duck, Stress
Harvard is full of ducks. Not the long-billed, webbed-footed birds, but the students who maintain a superficial aura of tranquility. Coined at Stanford University — but still very much applicable to Harvard — the term “Stanford Duck Syndrome” posits that while students appear to be as calm as a duck floating across a pond, under the surface they are paddling furiously to keep up with the competitive and rigorous college environment.
The Uncompromisable Eight Hours
If you walk into Lamont Library at 4 a.m., you will likely find many resolute Harvard students finishing essays, working on problem sets, or cramming for exams. These are the Lamonsters. Lamonsters are a special breed of student intent on taking advantage of Lamont Library’s 24-hour availability, and clearly willing to compromise on spending time on other seemingly unimportant things in life, like sleep.
Why I Call Home(Sickness)
I FaceTime my entire family every day. I often get surprised looks when I tell my peers this fact; they frequently claim that’s too much communication. The thing is, I may suffer from the disease of homesickness. We don’t typically think of homesickness as a disease, but perhaps we should. Early on, the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates attributed homesickness to excessive black bile in the blood.
The continued effects of COVID-19 on the lives and livelihoods of vegetable farmers in India
PLOS ONE, Jan 2023 This is a preview of a remote PDF: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0279026&type=printable Sandhya S. Kumar, Pepijn Schreinemachers, Arshad Ahmad Pal, Ravishankar Manickam, Ramakrishnan M. Nair, Ramasamy Srinivasan, Jody Harris. , PLOS ONE, 2023, Volume 18, Issue 1, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0279026
Assembly chaperone Nas6 selectively destabilizes 26S proteasomes with defective regulatory particle-core particle interfaces
RP assembly chaperone Nas6 associates with free RP in mutants with weakened RP-CP interfaces The accumulation of free RP observed in Rpt3 tail docking mutant cells was similar to a phenotype our group had previously observed in a conformational mutant of the RP, called rpn5-s1mut.
The continued effects of COVID-19 on the lives and livelihoods of vegetable farmers in India
Diets and food insecurity in 2021 Nearly 30% of farmers across the five states reported either reduced vegetable consumption or having stopped consuming vegetables altogether as compared to before the pandemic (Fig 2). At the same time, approximately 18% of farmers in 2021 reported increased vegetable consumption compared to before COVID-19.
Making a monumental change
Express News Service CHENNAI: There is an untapped history aficionado in all of us. It awakens when we watch a movie, read interesting nuggets or watch the spectacular sight of a monument. For Vigneshwar, a faculty member at Loyola Institute of Business Administration, and co-founder of The History Rewind, it was one such building in Chennai that he saw during his tenure at Madras University. “I was spellbound by the Senate House, as I made my way into the University.
Keys and Conversations
Express News Service CHENNAI: Performances, applauses and struggles, SPLICE, an all-women band, have been slicing their way through it all. The pandemic has wholly altered the future of the music industry. In an age that relies heavily on technology post the pandemic, getting your foot in the music industry’s door is a herculean feat, and staying afloat, nother. The demand for indie music and bands has considerably reduced with the onset of the pandemic.
A tale woven and spoken
Express News Service CHENNAI: The chatter and laughter of children stand out in every room that professional storyteller Vithya Dhanraj is a part of. She painstakingly narrates her stories, mimics every individual voice of her characters and engages with her audience. Through her captivating stories and spellbinding words, Vithya Dhanraj manages to keep her audience engaged and eager for more.
Sealed, steamed and served featuring Thiruvanmiyur's 'The Momo Truck'
Express News Service CHENNAI: With the anticipation of Chennai’s infamous annual unseasonal showers, stepping out seems like a Herculean feat, let alone visiting the beach. But with the promise of a hot, steaming plate of artisan momos, even the strong-willed can be persuaded to venture out to Thiruvanmiyur Beach. And bringing this respite to us is Mokesh Raj, founder of The Momo Truck, a food truck that has been capturing the hearts of Chennai, one momo at a time.
All about adult acne Original
When 26-year-old Nalin Adithya saw an onset of pimples dotting his cheeks and nose, the initial reaction was indifference. The same couldn't be said for his thoroughly worried mother. Although she forced him to visit a dermatologist, who diagnosed his condition as adult acne, the seriousness didn’t set in for him until much later. "I thought the pimples would subside after a while, but they kept getting worse.
A fruitful match
Express News Service BENGALURU: Social media’s chokehold over us netizens is fascinating and alarming, especially in the pandemic era where fitness has become an acute priority. And in an attempt to achieve this, curating an enriching diet with a combination of fruits and veggies seems to be the ideal resort. However, puritans of health believe that some combination of fruits can hamper one’s digestive system, some others seem to refute the claim.
A fruitful match
Express News Service CHENNAI: Social media’s chokehold over us netizens is fascinating and alarming, especially in the pandemic era where fitness has become an acute priority. And in an attempt to achieve this, curating an enriching diet with a combination of fruits and veggies seems to be the ideal resort. However, puritans of health believe that some combination of fruits can hamper one’s digestive system, some others seem to refute the claim.
Chennai gets a new BAE!
Express News Service CHENNAI: A sense of calm arises within me as I guzzle down shot after shot of colourful concoctions on a sweltering weekday noon. Mind you, these are not your average alcohol shots. Fruity and healthy, they are just what we need to cool our nerves in Singara Chennai’s unforgiving summer. And bringing this respite to us is Abdul Manaf, founder of Fruit Bae, Chennai’s newest fruit-based juice and dessert shop.
The sweet template
Express News Service CHENNAI: A resolution to return to a healthier lifestyle, picking up a disciplined diet, the extra attention required in the case of any type of diabetes any of these reason could have you on the lookout for a substitute to the sweet villain that is sugar. Yet, between the natural sweeteners, honey, date offerings, palm sugar and more, it isn’t always arriving at the right alternative for your needs.
Out of the closet and into the world
Express News Service CHENNAI: Coming out requires the careful confluence of many an element, especially in our here and now that accords far too much importance to external approval. Yet, when every element falls in place, coming out can offer the means to a healthy ‘happily ever after’, for the one coming out and those around them. Constructing such an ideal outcome, however, doesn’t come all that easily. How often does a gay man get to learn from the experience of a fellow homosexual?
Empowering People to Power the Public Distribution System : A Process Mapping Analysis of Six Indian States
Empowering People to Power the Public Distribution System Despite comparatively high growth rates, India has struggled to dampen the scourge of food and nutrition insecurity facing its population. The public distribution system, at the heart of India’s food security initiatives, has been plagued by problems ranging from ineffective targeting of beneficiaries, to corruption and pilferage of foodgrains.
An obstructive sleep apnea primer
The approach to the treatment of OSA is multifactorial and includes lifestyle modifications, such as weight loss, avoidance of alcohol or other sedating agents, implementation of positional therapy, and interventions to improve airway patency.CPAP as a treatment for sleep disordered breathing was first described in 1981 by Sullivan et al.58x[58]Sullivan, C.E., Issa, F.G., Berthon-Jones, M., and Eves, L.
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