#Dr. Mahtani

[rajanmahtanizambia]

Dr. Rajan Lekhraj Mahtani is a noted businessman, philanthropist and charity worker in Zambia with several successful businesses. Read More.

[charlottechua]

NTU Sociology module reviews: HS1001, HS1002, HS1003

Note: I took these modules in AY22/23, there is a chance that things have since changed.

(Ctrl+F to skip to the mods you’re looking for :-D)

HS1001 Person and Society

Course Type: Major Core, 3AU Course Coordinator/ lecturer: Associate Professor Shirly Sun When I took it: Y1S1, AY2022-2023 Assessment structure:

Class participation - 10%

Group in-tutorial presentation - 20%

Term paper - 30% (Due: Week 13)

Finals (essay-based) - 40%

TL;DR:

Not hard, not easy. Attending lectures is important. Readings can be overwhelming, don't waste too much time on the longer, traditional texts; skim those readings for key concepts and useful case studies which will come in handy for finals. For the presentations, be concise. For the term paper, do A LOT of research and planning.

What is this mod about?

This module is an introduction to Sociology. Accordingly, it goes through Sociology’s basic concepts, the major schools of thought/ theories in the field, and some of the major social phenomena that shape our lives today.

Overall,

This module is relatively manageable and really quite interesting. The main concepts across the mod are not hard to grasp. This is mainly because the module's textbook, The Practical Skeptic (McIntyre, Lisa. 2020) is very accessible for people with no background knowledge.

Attending lectures is important:

They go through useful concepts that are not really covered elsewhere in the course and the lecture slides alone are not sufficient to fully understand what was taught in lecture.

There were a number of documentary screenings during lectures over the sem. Info from the documentaries will be useful for finals, attending lectures will let you know which parts of the documentaries you need to pay attention to.

Prof Shirly is very kind.

Tutorials and tutorial presentations:

Courtesy of the wonderful graduate TA that helmed tutorials when I took this mod (Ms. Raksha Kirpal Mahtani), tutorials were, at once, productive and low-pressure.

Tutorial presentations: Most sociology mods seem to have a tutorial presentation component. At the beginning of the semester, students will be assigned to a particular week and they would then have to prepare a presentation (and usually facilitate discussion for) the week’s readings. Here, being concise is key, do not be afraid to cut out large parts of the readings for your presentation.

Though, the readings outside the textbook can be overwhelming:

There are a few readings from the ~19th Century that can be tricky to navigate (vis-à-vis old fashioned academic language). These are classic works in sociology by the field's founding fathers (Marx, Weber, Durkheim). But, fret not, the concepts covered in these readings are also covered in the textbook in a more digestible form. So, do not make the mistake of spending too much time deciphering these classic readings.

And there are a few other quite lengthy, info-overload papers. Be selective in identifying which parts to pay attention to and which parts to skim over.

Term paper:

Involved writing about a social issue of your choice that fell into one of 3 broad categories (racial profiling, gender discrimination or class inequality).

This will probably be one of sociology students' first experiences with academic writing. Don't be too intimidated, the syllabus lays out a clear structure to follow in writing this paper.

I intend on writing a more comprehensive guide to academic writing but for now, to do well for this essay, I suggest you do a lot of research on your chosen issue and the sociological concepts you intend on using in the paper (and make a plan before you start writing!).

Finals (essay-based):

Even though the content was relatively easy to understand, there was a lot of it.

Understanding the broad concepts and processes in the mod is, of course, the most important thing to do.

Secondary to that is cherry picking case studies/examples from the readings to supplement your answers.

HS1002 Singapore Society in Transition

Course Type: Major Prescribed Elective (compulsory), 3AU Course Coordinator, Lecturer: Assistant Prof Ye Junjia When I took it: Y1S1, AY2022-2023 Assessment structure:

Class participation - 15%

Group in-tutorial presentation - 15%

Term paper - 30% (Due: Week 7)

Finals (essay-based) - 40%

TL;DR: Again,  not hard, not easy and attending lectures is important. For tutorial presentations, focus on facilitating discussion rather than summarising content. Don’t be intimidated by the term paper, as long as you nail the basic elements of a paper, you can do well. For finals, keep in mind the main theme of the course ‘transition’

What is this mod about?

This mod is a sociological overview of Singapore: its history, how it is today, and how it might be in the future. Specifically, the mod explores how SG has been governed and how that has shaped its society. Some topics include: gender & family; race & ethnicity; public space; civil society; migration.

Once again, attending lectures is important:

I found that lectures went through the core, most important ideas which were supplemented by the readings. Lecture content gives you the necessary framework to understand the readings and clues you in as to which parts of the readings are most important

Also, the lecture slides are pretty bare bones. They won’t be too useful to you if you don’t attend the lecture.

Readings:

Compared to HS1001, I found that HS1002 had a heavier reading load. Though, most of them are easy enough to grasp.

Again, readings will provide you with a lot of supplemental information; do not attempt to memorise everything, pick out several key examples when studying for finals.

Some readings will introduce other concepts that weren’t really covered in lectures. In my experience, I don’t think that these are too important, I think that you can do well in finals without them. Instead, use the readings to build on the core ideas from lectures.

Tutorials and tutorial presentations:

Tutorials revolved around student presentations. In my tutorial group, we didn’t do anything other than listen to student presentations and engage with their discussion questions

Prof Jia emphasised that the presentations should mainly be about on facilitating discussion (as opposed to being a regurgitation of the readings by students). However, it played out very differently in my tutorial group. The presentations essentially became ~30 min lectures with some breaks for discussion questions. I think what happened was: early presenters focused on regurgitating content and everybody else was subsequently pressured into doing the same. As a result, the presentation became a rather demanding. 

That said, I think that essentialising your presentation’s content and focusing on facilitating discussion (via discussion questions, debates, Kahoot, etc) is for the best, even if everyone else seems to be doing presentations deep diving into the readings. Your presentation will be far more engaging and a lot less onerous to prepare for.

Term paper:

HS1002′s term paper was due mid-semester, which is a bit out of the ordinary but not a bad thing, you’ll likely be juggling several other deadlines towards the end of the semester. So, this paper was the very first experience with academic writing for many soci Year 1s.

Accordingly, there was an (ungraded) abstract that you had to submit before the paper. This was probably just for the TAs to make sure you were on the right track. This is a good opportunity to get some feedback on your paper so take this seriously, even though it is ungraded.

The topic for the paper is very broad -- any issue related to Singapore, essentially. This meant that I had difficulty deciding on a topic/research question. My advice: don’t waste too much time trying to think of a unique or impressive area of study, it’s fine to write about a generic topic.

Also, given that almost everyone will be new to academic writing, it won’t be hard to do well in this paper. Getting the baiscs of writing a paper correct will be enough for a good grade (i.e. Organised structure; a research question/argument; coherent writing; proper citating and formatting).

Finals:

Take direction from the core concepts from lectures in your revision. Do not blindly memorise content from the readings.

Do not study the weekly topics in isolation, think about how they interact. This will be crucial for finals. And relatedly,  think about the main theme of the course ‘Singapore society in TRANSITION’ -- how has society transitioned/changed?

I found it helpful to put together a short timeline of major developments in SG’s history with info from lectures and various readings.

Dust off your exam taking skills and try to craft some essay questions and attempt to answer them.

Some thoughts from myself:

I really enjoyed this mod. Not only is Prof Jia a wonderfully engaging speaker, the content content of the mod was very eye opening; it called into question a lot of the taken-for-granted beliefs that we might have about SG. I feel like I have a more holistic understanding of SG society now.

HS1003 Social problems in a global context

Course Type: Major Prescribed Elective, 3AU Course Coordinator, Lecturer:  Assoc. Professor Sulfikar Amir When I took it: Y1S2, AY2022-2023 Assessment structure:

Class participation - 10%

Group in-tutorial presentation - 20%

Term paper - 30% (Due: Week 13)

Finals (essay-based) - 40%

TL;DR: The presentation/essay assignments were pretty demanding (if you wanted to do well, anyway). The mod’s content is not difficult to comprehend, finals were relatively manageable. The topics from the first few weeks are especially important. If you’re aiming for an A+, thorough knowledge of the readings is necessary, with regards to finals. Otherwise, understanding lecture content, its broad concepts, is all you need to do decently for finals.

What is this mod about?

Contemporary globalisation is the central theme in this mod. Each week typically looks at a set of social problems and how they relate to/are created by globalisation. Some topics include: crime; poverty and inequality; technology; war.

Lectures

And once again, attending lectures is important. But probably more important for this mod than others. Prof Amir has a few ‘whiteboard style’ lectures. That is to say, a lecture comprised of mostly verbal communication and some mind-mapping-type drawing on the whiteboards with very minimal slides. You will be completely lost without attending lectures.

The first few topics covered in the mod are particularly important.

They are broad, foundational concepts that are the mainstays of the rest of the mod’s content (e.g. social structures, global division of labor, neoliberalism). So, make sure to establish a strong understanding of these topics early on. These should be the first topics you revise in your preparation for finals.

Readings and finals

With the exception of the first few weeks of content, the readings didn’t seem to be too important in the rest of the mod. However, I was rather blindsided during finals for this mod. without revealing too many details, the exam questions made explicit reference to several readings. This was surprising because we never really went through any of that in lecture or tutorial. Had I known that, I would’ve studied the readings in greater depth.

Tutorials 

I just want to say that the TA for my batch was so incredible in all respects. (Thanks for everything, Ming Wei!)

Tutorial presentations and the social problems essay

These are individual and connected assignments. In the presentation, we had to go through the outline of our essays, answer questions from the audience and receive feedback. Like the other mods, we were assigned a topic at the beginning of the semester and had to present and write our essays about the assigned topic.

There is a fairly set structure to the essay: describe your chosen problem, explain the problem with sociological concepts/theories, and link it all back to globalisation. The tricky part of this essay is weaving these 3 parts into a seamless, coherent argument (and you do, in fact, need to have an argument; your essay cannot simply be a description of a social problem)

My advice: read widely in search of the sociological concept(s) you choose to use in your essay; a very common mistake people made was to invoke ‘cOnFliCT thEoRY’ which is probably better described as an overarching paradigm in sociology rather than a theory.

Regarding the presentation, I can’t speak for future batches, this might depend on your TA, but in my experience, presentation skills did not seem to matter as much as the content of your presentation. It was alright to read off a script, to have not-so-pretty slides. 

More importantly, the presentation is a fantastic opportunity to get feedback on your essay. So, even if you were unlucky enough to be assigned a week 3 presentation slot, take this very seriously.

On a final note, this presentation and essay were the most difficult and demanding assignments I did that semester. Though, they were also the most rewarding. I’m quite proud of the essay I ultimately produced and I think the process of researching for and writing this essay really upgraded my writing skills.

[beardedmrbean]

US forces have killed an Islamic State leader, Bilal al-Sudani, and 10 of his operatives in northern Somalia, American officials say.

He was killed after US special forces raided a remote mountainous cave complex hoping to capture him.

"Al-Sudani was responsible for fostering the growing presence of ISIS in Africa," Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said.

He also allegedly funded the group's activities globally, Mr Austin added.

Analysts say the fact that US troops were sent under orders of President Joe Bidento kill or capture Sudani, rather than using a less risky drone strike, indicates his significance.

Details about the nature of the operation have not been released, however the soldiers were drafted in via helicopter, according to the New York Times with Sudani killed after a gunfight broke out.

The operation comes after President Biden redeployed hundreds of US troops to the country after his predecessor, Donald Trump, pulled them out. However, those forces are reportedly only there to train Somali soldiers, rather than conduct operations.

In recent years, the Islamic State group has reportedly expanded its activities into several African countries, including Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

However Islamic State is a relatively small group in Somalia, with the al-Qaeda linked group al-Shabab far more prominent - it controls many southern areas.

Prior to joining Islamic State, Sudani allegedly did operational work for al-Shabab, assisting with training fighters. However he split from the group, along with others, to form an IS-affiliated group in the mid-2010s, according to security researcher Dino Mahtani.

He is accused of playing a "financial role with specialized skills which made him an important target for US counterterrorism action," an anonymous US official told the AFP news agency.

Sudani became "an important figure in the attempt by this faction of Islamic State to build a trans-national network straddling Central Africa and East Africa and now with links down to Mozambique," Mr Mahtani told the BBC's Focus on Africa radio programme.

His group are "master weapon-smugglers into the northern part of Somalia" and also have connections in DR Congo, Mr Mahtani continued, so was therefore a "high priority" to capture or kill.

The operation to target Sudani is said to have taken months to plan.

Somalia has welcomed the killing of Sudani, according to the Voice of America news site.

"It's a very positive and welcoming," said Somali government security adviser Hussein Sheikh Ali.

He stressed that Islamic State was not as big a threat as al-Shabab in Somalia, but that Sudani was "dangerous".

"The message is, that the leaders of all terror groups in Somalia are not safe," he continued.

IS Somalia is one of the group's smaller branches - claiming 32 attacks in 2022, mostly in the capital of Mogadishu.

One UN report from last year estimated the number of Islamic State fighters in Somalia was around 200 to 280 and that the country is used as a significant base to finance IS activity in Iraq and the Levant, but this has not been independently verified by the BBC.

Just last week IS published a rare propaganda video from its Somalia branch, which showed combat footage of clashes with Somali forces in a mountainous region in the north-eastern Bari region.

The raid comes less than a week after the US said a drone strike had killed 30 al-Shabab militants.

In recent months, pro-government forces in Somalia have been making progress against al-Shabab.

[southparkfunctionalmedicine]

Functional Medicine Doctor, Charlotte, NC - SouthPark Functional Medicine

Finding the right doctor for your holistic healthcare needs can be a challenge. At SouthPark Functional Medicine, we're proud to have Dr. Sarita Mahtani, a leading holistic doctor practitioner in Charlotte, NC. Dr. Mahtani leverages her expertise in functional medicine to go beyond symptom management and address the root cause of your health concerns. Our personalized approach focuses on uncovering the underlying issues contributing to your specific condition, whether it's fatigue, digestive problems, hormonal imbalances, or any other chronic concern. We work collaboratively with you to create a treatment plan tailored to your unique needs, empowering you to achieve lasting well-being. Ready to embark on a journey towards optimal health with a leading holistic doctor? Schedule an appointment with SouthPark Functional Medicine today!

[evilgreys]

Boundless game healing

#BOUNDLESS GAME HEALING SERIES#

Dr Stephanie Tierney –University of Oxford.Nick Starr – Chief Executive, The Bridge Theatre.Alistair Spalding – Chief Executive and Artistic Director, Sadler’s Wells.Dr Martin Smith – Creative Consultant and AHRC Creative Industries Advisory Group.Lucy Shaw – Head of Partnerships, Oxford Galleries, Libraries and Museums.Professor Caroline Scarles – University of Surrey.Harman Sagger - Head of Analysis, Arts Heritage and Tourism, DCMS.Laura Pye – Chief Executive, National Museums Liverpool.Lorna Probert – Producer, Aardman Animation.Rene Olivieri – National Lottery Heritage Fund Interim Chair.Karen O’Brien – Head of Humanities, University of Oxford.Caroline Norbury - Creative England, CEO.Maddy Mills – Artistic Director, Entelechy Arts.Kate Mavor – Chief Executive, English Heritage.Dr Kamal Mahtani – Co-Director of the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine.Anthony Lilley – Magic Lantern Productions.Caroline Jones – Chief Executive, The Story Museum Oxford.Victoria Hume – Director, Culture, Health and Wellbeing Alliance.Cassian Harrison – Senior Vice President of Commissioning and Global Content Services, BBC.Dominic Gray – Projects Director, Opera North.Peter Florence – Director, Hay Festival.Dr Daisy Fancourt – University College London.Nadia Fall – Artistic Director, Theatre Royal Stratford East.Sarah Ellis – Head of Digital Development, Royal Shakespeare Company.Phil Edgar-Jones – Chief Executive, Sky Arts.Michael Eakin – Chief Executive, Liverpool Philharmonic.Professor Paul Crawford –University of Nottingham.Craig Chettle – Confetti Institute of Creative Technologies, Nottingham.Nica Burns – Chief Executive, Nimax Theatres.Patrick Bradley – Managing Director, Station12.Professor James Bennett – Royal Holloway University.Hasan Bakhshi – Director, Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre.Dr Jo Twist, UK Interactive Entertainment.Imogen Heap, Recording Artist and Tech Founder.Professor Helen Chatterjee, University College London.John Cassy, Founder and CEO, Factory-42.Maria Balshaw CBE, Director, Tate Arts Museums and Galleries.Professor Andrew Thompson CBE, University of Oxford (Chair).Lord Mendoza, Commissioner for Cultural Recovery and Renewal (Chair).The Panel brought together expertise from across the arts, cultural, creative and higher education sectors to discuss key insights and findings and to make recommendations.

#BOUNDLESS GAME HEALING SERIES#

Recommend specific research and policy interventions to drive engagement with the issues highlighted in this report, including those which will allow the sector to maximise the potential of new digital and immersive technologies in engaging and diversifying audiences.īetween September 2020 and February 2021, the project held a series of roundtable discussions with representatives from across the cultural and creative sectors, under the guidance of an Expert Advisory Panel.

Explore the links between cultural participation and mental health and well-being and how these differ across audience and population groups.

Identify how the cultural and creative sectors can innovate through their content and business models to build resilience against future shocks.

Investigate the impact of COVID-19 on new technology-enabled distribution platforms and online cultural participation, consumption and user preferences across a range of audience groups.

Provide new data and real-time intelligence on the impact of COVID-19 across the UK’s arts, cultural and creative sectors.

The key aims of Boundless Creativity are as follows: The project has examined the role of innovation in shaping cultural experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic and generated a new evidence base to inform the recovery, renewal and future growth of the UK’s cultural and creative sectors. Boundless Creativity was set up as a joint research project by UK Research and Innovation’s Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), in partnership with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS).

[drmahtaniandfinancebank]

[jaiashokmahtani19]

Dr.Jai Ashok mahtani, Nigeria- Root Canal Treatment

Jai Ashok Mahtani, Nigeria- Root canal treatment (endodontics) is a dental procedure used to treat infection at the centre of a tooth. Root canal treatment is not painful and can save a tooth that might otherwise have to be removed completely.

Why it's needed

The infection at the centre of a tooth (the root canal) is caused by bacteria that live in the mouth and invade the tooth.

This can happen after:

tooth decay

leaky fillings

damage to teeth as a result of trauma, such as a fall

Tooth structure 

A tooth is made up of 2 parts. The crown is the top part of the tooth that's visible in the mouth.

The root extends into the bone of the jaw, anchoring the tooth in position.

Teeth also consist of:

enamel – the hard outer coating

dentine – a softer material that supports the enamel and forms most of the tooth 

cementum – a hard material that coats the root's surface

dental pulp – the soft tissue at the centre of the tooth

The root canal system contains the dental pulp and extends from the crown of the tooth to the end of the root.

A single tooth can have more than 1 root canal.

When root canal treatment is needed

Root canal treatment is only required when dental X-rays show that the pulp has been damaged by a bacterial infection.

The pulp will begin to die if it's infected by bacteria, allowing the bacteria to then multiply and spread.

The symptoms of a pulp infection include:

pain when eating or drinking hot or cold food and drink

pain when biting or chewing

a loose tooth

As the infection progresses, these symptoms often disappear as the pulp dies.

Your tooth then appears to have healed, but the infection has in fact spread through the root canal system.

You eventually get further symptoms such as:

pain when biting or chewing returning

swelling of the gum near the affected tooth

pus oozing from the affected tooth

facial swelling

the tooth becoming a darker colour

It's important to see your dentist if you develop toothache. If your tooth is infected, the pulp cannot heal by itself.

Leaving the infected tooth in your mouth may make it worse.

There may also be less chance of the root canal treatment working if the infection within your tooth becomes established.

Antibiotics, a medicine to treat bacterial infections, are not effective in treating root canal infections.

How root canal treatment is done

To treat the infection in the root canal, the bacteria need to be removed.

This can be done by either:

removing the bacteria from the root canal system (root canal treatment)

removing the tooth (extraction)

But removing the tooth is not usually recommended as it's better to keep as many of your natural teeth as possible.

After the bacteria have been removed, the root canal is filled and the tooth sealed with a filling or crown.

In most cases the inflamed tissue near the tooth will heal naturally.

Before having root canal treatment, you'll usually be given a local anaesthetic.

This means the procedure should be painless and no more unpleasant than having a filling.

Root canal treatment is usually successful. In about 9 out of 10 cases a tooth can survive for up to 10 years after root canal treatment.

Find out how root canal treatment is done

Recovering from root canal treatment

It's important to look after your teeth when recovering from root canal treatment.

You should avoid biting on hard foods until your treatment is complete.

After your final treatment, your restored tooth should no longer be painful, although it may feel sensitive for a few days.

You can take over-the-counter painkillers, such as paracetamol or ibuprofen, to relieve any discomfort.

Return to your dentist if you still have pain or swelling after using painkillers.

In most cases it's possible to prevent the need for further root canal treatment by:

keeping your teeth clean 

not eating too much sugary food

giving up smoking if you smoke

About Jai Ashok Mahtani, Nigeria

Jai Ashok Mahtani is a Dentist having 25 years of experience in dentistry. His Company develops and manufactures dental solutions focusing on the field of implants and prosthetics. It offers implant systems and prosthetic parts, implant surfaces, surgical instrumentation, and overdenture attachments systems. His Company is present in Nigeria.

[rajanmahtanizambia]

Dr. Rajan Lekhraj Mahtani is a noted businessman, charity worker and philanthropist from Zambia.

[rajanmahtanizambia]

Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema recently made a stunning announcement. This announcement was made on the occasion of ‘Africa Day’. Read More.

[rajanmahtanizambia]

Dr. Rajan Mahtani is a noted businessman and philanthropist in Zambia. Recently, Dr. Mahtani extended his support for the decision made by Zambian President. Read More…

[rajanmahtanizambia]

Dr.RajanLekhraj Mahtani is a well-known businessman and philanthropist from Zambia. He is the owner of the Mahtani Group of Companies and Finsbury Investments. Read More...

[rajanmahtanizambia]

Dr. Rajan Mahtani has worked tirelessly for many years to enhance Zambia and its people's welfare as well as their overall social and economic development. Read More...

[rajanmahtanizambia]

In light of these facts, Zambia's president, Hakainde Hichilema, declared that his country aims to abolish the death sentence statute. Read More…

[rajanmahtanizambia]

On the occasion of Africa Day, Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema announced his intention to repeal the death penalty statute. Read More…

[rajanmahtanizambia]

Dr. Rajan Lekhraj Mahtani, a well-known businessman and philanthropist from Zambia, recently expressed his support for the president of that nation's most recent choice. Read More…