Cyanobacteria are the simplest organisms known to have a circadian clock. A circadian clock gene cluster kaiABC was cloned from the cyanobacterium Synechococcus. Nineteen clock mutations were mapped to the three kai genes. Promoter activities upstream of the kaiA and kaiB genes showed circadian rhythms of expression, and both kaiA and kaiBC messenger RNAs displayed circadian cycling. Inactivation of any single kai gene abolished these rhythms and reduced kaiBC-promoter activity. Continuous kaiC overexpression repressed the kaiBC promoter, whereas kaiA overexpression enhanced it. Temporal kaiC overexpression reset the phase of the rhythms. Thus, a negative feedback control of kaiC expression by KaiC generates a circadian oscillation in cyanobacteria, and KaiA sustains the oscillation by enhancing kaiC expression.
In this article, I consider intercaste negotiations in defining ethically desirable sociopolitical relationships in contemporary Orissa, India. Democratization following local self‐government reforms led to the inclusion of hitherto marginalized voices in local political dialogue. Particularly notable is subalterns' employment of egalitarian sacrificial ethics to reinterpret the ontology of caste as founded on participation and cooperation of equal parts rather than on the colonially traditionalized hegemonic values of hierarchy and domination. This may be seen as an attempt to establish a vernacular democracy that mediates embodied sociopolitical morality and the idea and institution of equal participation.
Caste in contemporary Indian society has often been seen as a remainder of waning tradition. Advent of egalitarian liberalism and/or capitalism is taken to be the force of change which is destroying or restricting the relevance of caste in contemporary society. Against such a view, this paper will argue that caste remains an important frame of reference for defining people's identity especially in rural society. In particular, I would like to discuss the role of people's agency in the reshaping of caste in contemporary rural Orissa. It is the aggregate efforts of different groups of people in local situations to constantly redefine the form and meaning of caste that maintains its relevance. I feel this aspect has been neglected in many previous theories, which have tended to consider caste concerns merely in terms of the presence or absence of ‘hierarchy’ or in terms of ‘substantialized’ group formations.
The “Paika Rebellion” of 1817 in Orissa, India has been depicted by colonial officers as a local disturbance caused by the dissatisfaction of one powerful individual deprived of traditional privileges who instigated the pāikas. The nationalist reconstruction has depicted the event as a popular freedom movement involving various castes and classes of Orissan society. This has culminated in a current move to declare the “Paika Rebellion” the First Indian War of Independence. I would like to suggest a third perspective, which focuses on the heterogeneities and linkages of the Rebellion. It is important to note that the “Paika Rebellion” was a meeting point of plural genealogies: “tribal” revolts to protect autonomy, “peasant” resistance to secure livelihood, restorative attempts by the traditional landed class, and ruling class efforts to defend and expand authority. Appreciating the plural genealogies of the Rebellion leads to more perceptive understandings of the heterogeneous characteristics of popular movements and their aftermaths in modern India. Lastly, in order to go beyond colonial and dominant-caste centred perspectives, I propose that we name it the “Orissa Uprising of 1817”.
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