June 1, 2020 | Adamas University

Finding a prosperous career in the Pharmaceutical field: The checklist that you need to follow.

The genre of pharmaceutical industry encompasses a wide range of services ranging from research and development, production of new medicines for treating the mankind by prevention of onset of diseases or combating the ongoing diseases, along with ensuring patient safety. Regardless of the numerous job opportunities for the pharmacy graduates, one pivotal task faced by the job seekers are choosing the right role, complex application procedure and facing the final interview. Among the various job options the pharmacy sector such as working in production unit, clinical research, and regulatory affairs or as a pharmacist, you need to analyse which area is ideally perfect for you to showcase your maximum skills. However, this can be a little difficult since skills needed in every job varies significantly. For instance, the qualities required in production jobs may vary completely in a hospital pharmacy or clinical sector. Therefore, it is important for you to stay focussed on your goal which will ensure about your consistency in the professional development.

Let us now discuss about some crucial stages that you can follow in order to have a fruitful career.

The important career opportunities in pharmacy profession [1]:

Hospital Pharmacist, Clinical Pharmacist, Community Pharmacist
Data analyst
Retail or Wholesale business
Sales and Marketing
Government sector: Drug inspector
Academicians
Chemical / Drug Technician
Research and development
Bio-tech Industries
Preparing Prescription to Patients (not allowed in India)
Production and manufacturing unit
Contract Research Organizations
Member of regulatory organizations like FDA, WHO etc.

Improve your skills from training and development:

During your 4 year tenure in Pharmacy College, never lose the opportunity to utilise all the training and development program that is provided to you by attending different national and international seminars or workshops. The internships in various pharmaceutical companies will give you a demonstration of the real work stations. Several pharmaceutical companies and contract research organizations (CROs) provide online training program for self development, only you need to reach them out. You can also gain the qualification by online certification courses and different practices such as Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP), Good Clinical Practice (GCP) and many more, which not only widen your horizon of knowledge but also upgrade your resume.

Develop your knowledge by taking responsibilities:

A whole lot of our learning is basically achieved by what we listen and see around us. Being inquisitive and in sighting a habit of critical thinking can make you more inclined towards knowledge development process. Try to indulge yourself in a project that will test your skills of taking responsibilities so as to finish the task within stipulated time. No matter at what extent you remain in job, make sure that you are continuously focused on development of your technical skills and responsible enough to carry out new assignments. If you can build a strong establishment in future it will prepare you better for the next career jump.

Discover your specialty:

Being an expertise in a particular domain of your chosen field of work gives an additional kick-start in your job prospects. At the point when you are confident about your expertise, you will be in a position to negotiate the salary and the employment desires. For example, if you have a good hold on any particular therapeutic areas (oncology, neurology and so on) or any practical experience in a specific clinical trial phase, then your demand of negotiation becomes more justified.

Enhance your profile by social networking:

Without any qualms, the social networking sites such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook are the hub of employers of various organization. It is highly advisable for you to create your profile which is much presentable and updated your job title, responsibilities, skills, experience as most of the recruiters and companies seek the LinkedIn as a tool for picking the right candidate for their job positions. You can also increase your networking to propel your profession by using this social media. LinkedIn is an astounding method to collaborate and develop a professional relationship with those in higher positions. As you meet individuals, try to add them to your profile and keep on building a constructive relationship at the workplace.

Keep updated about the industry news:

Online networking, e- newspaper can also be a supportive aid for staying up with the latest news about the pharmaceutical industry. Regular follow up with the progresses and achievements of the pharmaceutical companies through their websites, social networking sites or web magazines, can provide you with detailed information that which might save you in an interview panel. Every company desires a candidate who is quite aware of their developments. Thus, knowing a company much before facing them in interview is a mandatory task for you. Find out for the new trends and clinical innovation within your field with the goal that your professional knowledge is persistently developed and you are prepared yourself for the change. As said before, you can always utilize the social media to share your innovative thoughts or articles of your interest. Joining LinkedIn groups and sharing your thoughts as well as a specialist in your field within relevant communities also help in your career graph.

Take advice from university career advisor:

With the rapid advancements in the pharmaceutical industries in terms of switch over from traditional jobs to new kinds of employments having new technologies, it becomes difficult to keep pace with the updated news. In such scenarios, the career counsel of the colleges and universities can help you and guide you towards your choice of job profiles. Additionally, you can also seek the guidance from the faculties as well as from the alumni who can give a real time exposure of the current employment scenario.

Learn other languages

Pharmaceutical industries are scattered worldwide. In the era of globalization, you need to reach out to every corners of the world. Fluency in foreign language (English, German, and Spanish) can open the door for multiple positions with top international employers. Never fail to grab the opportunity to learn, you never know, it might open the doors for better prospects of your career.

To conclude, it is never too late to learn. Never stop chasing your dreams. A confident and determined goal is the ultimate key of a rewarding career.

[1] Sandhya Bawa, Rajiv K Tonk, Jyoti A Tonk, Suresh Kumar, Sumit Singla. Career opportunities in pharmacy profession: An informative note, Chronicles of Young Scientists, 2010, 1, 7-11.

Big data and pharmaceutical sector- how the future looks like

Information is ubiquitous, the expanse of which is so vast that the present age is historically termed as “The age of information”. Nevertheless, another pragmatic statement by American military historian Caleb Carr, “It is the greatest truth of our age: Information is not knowledge.” holds true to its very core. The intervention of a new-found stream of science, the Data Science, plays a massive role in an utilitarian transfer of information into a more plausive knowledge of not only what has happened in the past but also into what will happen in the future. The goliath of the mid-to-late 20^th century, the pharmaceutical industry, also could not avert the slingshot of this calibre of information.

So, what is BIG DATA?

The science has seen a fascinating change lately but wisely—transition of coining the jargons from Latin to colloquialetopian English—Big Data, therefore, is nothing more than a large volume of relevant information. It is not exactly about what a small group of people posting about a health condition on Facebook or searching for somedespicable remedy of a terrifying disease on Google. This focuses on what theimprints, the mass is leaving behind the pan-continent. The relevant piece of information thus can infer whether you shall be able to repay your heath loan, or which medical college you might take admission in, or whether you are susceptible to a severe mental disorder. Such ‘predictions’ are not any shamanic tricks, but the exemplifying effort of a data scientist.

The influx of such data can be varied. It can be collected from your recent hospital visit, your buying habit, the medicine you are taking recently. In a structured method, the same influx can be correlated to the quality of a raw material in sampling, the production data of bulk material, errors in packaging, apparently irrelevant data that deemed the scientist’s hypothesis unsuccessful and even the economic condition that governs the ability of a patient to buy a branded drug or its generic alternative.

The highest influence of Big Data in pharmaceutical sector—R&D or Market research?

There is no doubt that Data science can influence a lot in the sector, however, without haranguing on the meticulous details of each of the field, one must focus on the segment, where data can influence the most:

Market research: Market research is crucial for a new product launch. A keen analyst’s eye can capture the behaviour of the customer (i.e the health care professionals including doctors and nurses) and the end user (the patients). This, in conjunction with demographic and para-economical data of a localised bunch, can reduce the cost of prodigal ad campaigns, optimise the profit margin and fine tune the logistic support.
Research and Development: Like any other industry driven R&D sector, several dataset of present disease scenarios, can lead to identification of the conundrums of health-care systemsbeing manifested. If a disease is far more prevalent that the other, a focused team of research scientist can not only make a break-through but also be highly rewarding the industry itself. Even if we consider core research works such as drug discovery, big data related tools such as library screening, drug repurposing, natural product library, drug-receptor interaction database are making research more parsimonious compared to what it used be a few decades back.
Clinical research: As a highly regulated sector, the clinical research field in an exemplar of the influence of data science. The various stages of clinical trial require a myriad of data from diversifiedvolunteers and a swift and accurate inference of the pattern demonstrated through statistical modelling. Even post market surveillance and pharmacovigilance has shown significant result in identifying the egregious drugs which were initially thought of being apparently safe.One such major example is the drug Nimesulide which was initially regarded as an equally innocuous and effective alternative to Paracetamol, later showed a great amount of hepatotoxic adverse effects. Undoubtedly, data analysis bolstered by tireless collection of post marketing safety data led to a greater safety for the patient.

The above-mentioned points can only gently brush the tip of the iceberg. If we consider the health care sector at large, the rabbit hole runs deeper. Big data amalgamated with machine learning results into artificial intelligence. This artificial intelligence can minimise the error in prediction, fastens diagnosis for a miniscule financial cost. In the ongoing pandemic as we face at the time of writing this article, epidemiologists of the world are relying on cold hard numbers to morph them into a fruitful prediction to successfully evade the chaos and rejuvenate the nose-diving economy.

To keep up the pace—upgrading yourself:

Of course, as any professional enthusiast, big data opens a scope of unfathomable enormity and keeping a dead eye will be ingenuous. For any pursuing pharmacy graduate, a few upgrades will be unavoidable.

Brush up your statistics and maths: Gone are those days where the subject
was considered to be related to biology and chemistry. The basic knowledge of maths and statistics will give unorganised numbers to a more manageable data. Visualisation relaxes the nerves by making those data even more plausible ones. Start form the considerably basic like the mean, median mode and grow to more complex modelling and curve fitting.
Learn to handle the data: You will not want your tiresome domino art to fall before a complete set up. It is extremely important to learn how to tackle the colossal amount of data and prune them. While advanced knowledge of MS Excel can be beneficial, more concentrated tools such as SQL, Oracle will be proven functional at a later stage. However, a basic idea will be good at an initial phase which can be honed as per the future requirement.
Fall in love with computer, in its true sense: A PC is an all-round entertainment device, but for a data scientist, use of can be a lot more object oriented. The tools for data computation and statistical handling can be broadly classified into two segments—tools with GUI and tools with CLI. Graphical User Interface (GUI) tools such as Minitab, Staistica, SAS, SAP are easy to operate as they are mostly based on visual cues. The Command Line Interface (CLI) programs such as python, R, J, Rubi, are difficult to grasp but shall be more rewarding in terms of flexibility. Both subcategories of tools have growing libraries to tackle difficult conditions.
Mechanistic approaches—putting the common sense into work: All these computations will result into some mathematical equation and to some extent, a majestic graph with beautiful colours. However, to convert the art into a deductible science human intelligence and experience is of utmost importance. This is known as the mechanistic representation of a model. Reading through relevant papers, following the work of data scientist and thorough perusal of case studies will not only gather relevant experience but hone the deduction capabilities as a budding data scientist.

Amidst the proliferation of real-time and historical data from sources, such as, web, social media, sensors, log files and transactional applications, Big Data is rapidly gaining traction from a diverse range of vertical sectors. The healthcare and pharmaceutical industry is none other the exception to this trend, where Big Data has found a host of applications ranging from drug discovery and precision medicine to clinical support and population health management. In this data frenzy time and age, strong analytical prodigue infrastructures are leading the pharmaceutical sector. Data democratization is the next step in pharma analytics and is essential during today’s ruthless markets. The world is changing at a rapid pace. May be even a lot more than we can imagine right now. May be a new hypothesis is being born from data while we finish reading this article. While big data and AI might threaten the existence of menial jobs, highly skilled professionals shall have the tenacity to reign over these wild horses and ride to places limited by the horizon itself. There was a saying, “He who holds knowledge shall have the power”, now it’s surely, he who can manage data shall have the power.

Novel Drug Delivery with Colon targeting

When drugs are bioavailable in blood circulation, they reach every part of the body and cause undesirable side effects. Novel drug delivery ensures that maximum therapeutic efficacy can be obtained with minimum side effects. Targeted drug delivery to various parts of the human body is a part of novel drug delivery which ensures that the drug is available at the site of disease and minimum quantity is in circulation reaching undesirable tissues and organs, thus, minimizing side effects. Drug delivery targeting various parts of the gastrointestinal tract (git) is achieved utilizing various targeting approaches relevant to the concerned part of the git.

Colon targeted drug delivery systems are specially developed to target diseases of the colon, like ulcerative colitis, chron’s disease, irritable bowel syndrome or colon cancer. Such delivery systems aim for local delivery at the site of disease with minimum systemic absorption. The colon or the large intestine is the terminal part of the git ending with the anus. The colonic fluids are viscous harbouring a diverse microbial flora which is not seen in the upper parts of the git. The pH of the colon is on the alkaline side, usually greater than 6.5, however, inter subject variations are also seen which make the development of formulations more challenging.

Several colon targeting approaches have been devised accordingly for delivery of drugs in the colonic part of the git, as follows:

pH dependent approach

We are aware that the git has variations of pH ranging from highly acidic to alkaline. The stomach pH of the human body generally ranges from 1-2; whereas the pH gradually rises as we cross the duodenum, jejunum and ileum, the three parts of the small intestine. The pH in the small intestine may range from 4.5 to 7.5 or greater. Finally the pH of the colon usually ranges from 6.5 to 7.5. However, higher and lower ranges have also been observed. Keeping these considerations in mind, dosage forms have been prepared or coated with polymers that are soluble in higher pH, greater than pH 6 or 7 (like shellac, Eudragits, Cellulose acetate phthalate, etc) which are resistant to pH in the upper parts of git including the stomach and major part of the small intestine. The drug release starts to occur once the pH is near to neutral and thus, minimum drug release occurs in the upper git including the small intestine and major amounts of release occurs in the colon.

Time dependent release

Like the pH, the transit times of food or drugs in various parts of the git is an important factor which can be considered when developing strategies for colon targeting. Usually, the gastric transit time ranges from 15 min to 2 hours and the transit time in small intestine is approximately 3 hours. Thus, 5 hours of time on average is required for a dosage form to cross the upper parts of the git and to reach the large intestine. With this observation, we can develop dosage forms with high molecular weight polymers (like Hydroxypropylmethylcellulose, Carbopol, Ethylcellulose, etc) or hydrogels (alginate, pectin, etc) which have crosslinked structures and release drug slowly by diffusion. The concentration of the polymer can be optimized in such a way that the drug release starts approximately after 5 hours and then sustained release of the drug occurs in the colon. The residence time of a particular dosage form is much higher than that of stomach or small intestine and ranges from 2-48 hours. Thus, enough time for the sustained drug release is there in the colon. Further, small amounts of release over prolonged periods of time allow the drug to act over the whole length of the colon and allow dissolution in the small volume of colonic fluids. The viscous fluid in the colon is present in small pockets spread over the entire length of the colon, rather than filling the whole lumen. Thus sustained release of drug is highly favourable. Further, fast release from the dosage form may cause exposure of the colonic mucosa to high concentrations of drug resulting in irritation.

Microbial triggered systems: degradation of natural polysaccharides

This approach is perhaps is one of the most researched topics which has attracted the interests of the formulation scientists recently. Natural polysaccharides like alginate, chitosan, pectin, inulin, natural gums like xanthan or gellan, have been explored extensively. The colon is the site which harbours maximum concentrations of microbial flora in the git and they secrete enzymes which can degrade and break down the natural polysaccharides. Scarce amounts of microbial flora in the highly acidic environment of stomach or in alkaline small intestine cause the dosage forms prepared with such polysaccharides to pass the upper git without releasing any drug. However, in the colonic environment when the enzymes degrade and break down the polysaccharides, the drug release occurs. Such polymers being biodegradable are also safe and nontoxic compared to synthetic polymers used in earlier approaches.

Apart from these, osmotic drug delivery has been used in colon targeting which is neither dependent on pH, transit times or microbial flora. They release drug due to generation of osmotic pressure within the device.

Colon targeting is one of the most promising prospects for treatment and management of colonic diseases. However, the formulation challenges need to be solved with brainstorming strategies which can deliver maximum amounts of drugs to the colon causing lesser side effects. Certain important approaches are hereby outlined which may help to overcome the challenges and ensure better therapeutic effect for the consumers, which is the ultimate goal for every researcher involved with formulation development.

References:

Das M, Ghosh LK. Colon Targeting Of Drugs: The Factors, Targeting Approaches And Evaluation Strategies. International Journal of Pharm Tech Research, Vol.5, No.3, 2013, pp 1416-1425.
Das M, Ghosh B, Sen S and Ghosh LK. Formulation and Optimization of Controlled Release 5-Fluorouracil Tablets for Colonic Delivery. J Young Pharm. Vol. 9(2), 2017, pp 192-196.
Yihong Qiu, ‎Yisheng Chen, ‎Geoff G.Z. Zhang. Developing solid oral dosage forms: Pharmaceutical Theory and Practice, 2009, Pg 283
Hong Wen, ‎Kinam Park, Oral Controlled release formulation design and drug delivery, 2010, pg 3

APPLICATIONS AND OPPORTUNITIES OF GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM (GIS) AS A CAREER

Introduction

Geographic Information System is an integrated framework for storing, retrieving, analysing, displaying geographic data. Therefore, it is a system to process geographic data from input to display but at the same point of time; we can retrieve both input and output data as per our requirement. The speciality of GIS is to bring space or earth features into analysis or visualisation. There are six major components of GIS. They are as follows

Hardware: A basic hardware component is necessary for GIS analysis.
Software: GIS software helps in the smooth functioning of all GIS activities.
Data: Data works as input for GIS.
People: People is the end-user as well as producer of GIS product.
Procedure: GIS requires a standardised procedure for implementation.
Network: Sharing of the digital information

Applications of GIS

GIS has now become ubiquitous. It is now being used in almost all areas of life. GIS is used from rudimentary map-making (Cartography), in environmental issues, education, health sector, transport, real state, smart city development, tourism, to name a few. GIS has also associated the Internet of things (IoT), automation and robotics. In present days, GIS is helping to combat COVID 19 with identification of hots spots in affected areas. So within these myriad applications, comes different opportunities to work in the domain GIS. Many of the business houses now operate based on core and allied functionalities of GIS. Environmental System Research Institute (ESRI), Hexagon Geospatial, Pitney Bowes, Blue Marble, General Electric, Golden Software are the major software producing companies of the world. As the resources are becoming scarce day by day, allocation, monitoring, and decision making require the application of Geographical Information System than ever before. So GIS has become a vital skill-oriented domain under Geography and Geoscience.

Opportunities in GIS career

As GIS is used as a framework and tools for the solution of multifaceted real-world problems, it has become a pivotal point for different public and private organisations to sink in. Public organisations like ISRO, NATMO, PWD, Ministry of Environment and Forest and (MoEF) many others organisations of both central and state governments now recruit persons with high-end GIS aptitude, apart from a large number os private organisations also employ GIS professionals. Organisation like Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Microsoft, Infosys, TCS, Map My India and many other organisations, both onshore and offshore employs GIS professionals with various level of skills. For these reasons, students and professionals with and technical knowledge GIS can quickly enter into the job market.

Conclusion

As we are entering into Industrial Revolution 4.0, knowledge and applications of GIS is going to be even more crucial. Because as the world is moving towards automation, location-based service is the future for organisations. So the knowledge and skills of GIS is the need of the hour for future students and professionals of present times.

The Relevance of Deep Ecological Thoughts in the Perspective COVID-19

Human being has become that force of the ecosystem which is continuously shaping the earth. Human action has transformed between one third and half of the earth’s surface; the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has enhanced by almost 30 percent since the onset of the industrial revolution. Humankind fixes more atmospheric nitrogen than all natural terrestrial sources considered. They use more than half of all available surface freshwater; and about one-quarter of Earth’s bird species have been forced to extinction. Simultaneously they are making growing efforts to reverse and to change the course of these trends. It had become obvious that human beings are capable of both creating, and solving all kinds of environmental problems.

But this outbreak of epidemics like COVID-19 reveals humans are nowhere near as special as we like to think. The emergence of COVID-19 has challenged the human-centered relationship between humans and nature. From the prehistoric hunting-gathering society to diverse modern society, in this evolution, somewhere human beings reduced all other species to unemotional machines. Now, it is the time when we must try to understand and appreciate the limitations of the human being as a part of the ecosystem.

In 1973, a Norwegian philosopher Arne Naess introduced us with the term “deep ecology” which claims that all living creatures have same right to live and flourish and human being is just as important as an insect in this ecosystem. As part of the ecosystem, humans must learn to live within nature, according to nature’s laws, and learn to accept our role as one among many.

Deep ecology and our life today

Deep ecology is an emerging philosophical concept of ecology, which focuses on our moral obligation to protect the environment. It is the radical idea that all life has the right to exist, that no one species is more important than another. This is an ecocentrism philosophy and entirely rejects anthropocentrism. Deep ecology has eight principles. Below we list the concepts and some important details to understand how they are relevant to our life in quarantine.

Human and nonhuman life on Earth has a value independent of its usefulness to humans: This world is a wonderful place, and humans often are awed by the wonders of the animals. But there is an underlying aspect, we as humans, vehemently disregard that we are just another species of animals. Humans decide for everything in this world, where it should have been a symbiotic correspondence as every being on earth is entitled to live. Since the beginning of the quarantine period, we have seen that the dolphins have come back in the canals of Italy, endangered sea turtles have laid eggs on beaches in Brazil and India. Human activity destroyed their habitats as they are not useful to humans. The COVID-19 makes us understand that these ‘useless’ nonhuman creatures have similar importance to maintain ecological balance.

Biodiversity contributes to this value: From an individual standpoint, deep ecology may seem a bit pessimistic, but most of the discourse regarding this particular philosophy is undeniable. Imagine a world with increasingly low biodiversity, will that be an example of sustainable ecology? This kind of power exhibition of the human population has resulted in a decrease in biodiversity. Land use and land cover changes are responsible for habitat loss, degradation, and fragmentation which in turn affect biodiversity in any region. Besides, the introduction of exotic species and genetically modified organisms, pollution, and overexploitation of resources are some major human-induced threats to biodiversity. The COVID-19 has reduced the activity of the human population and helped to recover the biodiversity on the earth.

Humans have no right to reduce this biodiversity except to satisfy vital human needs: The basic idea of deep ecology is about considering human as just another species, how the pride of intelligence has brought up a war which is likely never to end. However, the so-called practicality of humans to be a doctrine of everything on earth is vehemently reducing biodiversity. There is no doubt the humans have destroyed the weather pattern as well as the biodiversity to such an extent that it has become irreversible. Quite a varied species had become extinct due to poaching, also with the name of sustainable hunting humans ethically hunt animals.

A substantial percentage of the human populationmust be eliminated: The deep ecologist thinks that a substantial percentage of the human population must be eliminated to establish the balance of the environment. However, it is unethical to kill humans; as a result, they have become the highest populated species that adversely affect the ecology. There are some alternative ways to check the human population. These are war, epidemics like COVID-19, famines and other natural calamities that have eliminated millions of life till date.

Humans interfere with the world too much already, and this activity is worsening: From the early age of civilization, humans had the impulse to create things to lower the proximity of labour. The striking of stones gave them fire to burn and round shaped stones formed the first transport. Since then humans have never stopped for a moment to make things easy for their own cause. It was pretty much confined to the discoveries until humans vehemently started to interfere with the world so much that they turned themselves into a paradox. During this time of COVID-19 pandemic, the violence of human interference is becoming more prominent. Be the virus dispersed from the wet market of Wuhan, or from some institute of virology, both are the result of too much power exhibition upon other species. The constant need for change in the lifestyle to make it easier is nothing but a better way to sugar-coat the brutality in the name of development. For the record, there is one only thing humans are good at, and that is interfering. And by doing that they confirm how wonderful that world would have been without them.

A new political and economic model must be devised to replace that of present governments: The human race does need a government completely designed in a new pattern. Humans often talk about the urgent need to protect the plant, but then it is wrong. The plant doesn’t need our protection; the world has sustained without humans; humans need to defend their home. Environment-friendly governance is highly required to bring back the ecological balance. Sound environmental policies have to be formed to reduce the human impact on the environment. Besides, new economic models have to be developed to secure human livelihoods.

Individuals must be content with the situation they are in instead of striving for a higher standard of living: The concept of self-awareness has projected in such a manner that man has become selfish. The very attitude of overconsumption has increased the global race. Thus, humans became very derogatory to their norms. This excessive consumption of wealth is drying the resources gradually which in turn destroys the balance of the ecosystem.

Deep ecologists have an obligation to implement the above: Deep ecologists always want to establish the right of nonhuman life to preserve the biodiversity of any region. Deep ecologists organize workshops to grow ecological awareness among the human population, to make them environment friendly and to heal our relationship with the earth

Time to rethink…

It is high time we understood that all other ecosystem beings are not meant for human ends. It is ethically wrong and the source of environmental crises. Human needs are unlimited but the planet has limited capacity to meet them. In both the short and long term, the benefits of anthropocentric pressure to satisfy human needs are much lower than the potential costs to society. Ultimately, lost ecological infrastructure and the decline of natural capital, including human health, causes a decline in inclusive wealth. Before the impact becomes more negative we should rethink the relationship between humans and nature keeping deep ecology in the backdrop.