Review of Walaa Alqaisiya. Decolonial Queering in Palestine. London: Routledge, 2023

Decolonial Queering in Palestine by WalaaAlqaisiya offers an in-depth study of the conquest of Palestine with respect to the variegated power structures of settler colonialism and underscores the political significance of a reformulated mode of decolonization. It argues for the need to interweave queer into the native Palestinian positionality termed as \u27decolonial queering\u27, so as to challenge the (hetero) sexualizing and gendered discourses embedded within both the Israeli/Zionist settler colonial regime and the Palestinian Nationalist visions of liberation. By the \u27ethnographic\u27 engagement with the works of Palestinian artists and activists from one of the prominent queer groups, alQaws, the book foregrounds voices, strategies, and imaginings of a decolonial future that is primarily rooted in socio-political history and localized, embodied experiences of the Palestinian queers. In particular, it reinforces the standpoint of the native/ queer in shaping the struggle for freedom to resist the systematic structural elimination of Palestine

BIOSYNTHESIS OF TITANIUM DIOXIDE NANOPARTICLES USING VIGNA RADIATA

ABSTRACTObjectives: Nanotechnology holds an important area in recent research due of its immense use in the different field of sciences. The small size, largesurface area, orientation, and physical properties make them appropriate to be used in medical sciences, physics, and chemistry. Physical and chemicalprocesses of synthesizing nanoparticles are continued for ages. The biological approaches to preparing nanoparticles have drawn the attention ofresearchers due to eco-friendly nature, low cost, and easier steps for synthesis. To synthesize titanium nanoparticles, Vigna radiata legumes werepowdered and used, and the effectiveness of biologically synthesized titanium nanoparticles against clinical pathogens and anticancer activity werechecked.Methods: Green synthesis of titanium dioxide nanoparticles is carried out in simple steps. The extract of V. radiata legumes was used for the biologicalsynthesis of the titanium dioxide nanoparticles which was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy.Antibacterial activity of the titanium dioxide nanoparticles was checked against nine clinical pathogens. 2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazyl-hydrateassay was performed to determine the antioxidant activity of the nanoparticles. Cytotoxic activity against osteosarcoma cell lines was performed by3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay.Results: Oval shaped titanium nanoparticles were biologically synthesized. The particles showed effectiveness against both Gram-positive and Gramnegativebacteria.The particlesexhibitedantioxidantnature.Cytotoxicityassayrevealedthe nanoparticles werecapable ofinhibitingproliferationofosteosarcomacell lines.Conclusions: V. radiata has been confirmed to be a good source for biosynthesis of titanium nanoparticles. The cytotoxicity effect of the nanoparticleshints that it can be further used for treatment and medicine purposes.Keywords: Green synthesis, Titanium dioxide, Vigna radiata, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, Scanning electron microscopy, 2,2-diphenyl-1picryl-hydrazyl-hydrate,3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazoliumbromide

Studying Cosmic Dawn using redshifted HI 21-cm signal: A brief review

In this review article, we briefly outline our current understanding of the physics associated with the HI 21-cm signal from cosmic dawn. We discuss different phases of cosmic dawn as the ambient gas and the background radiations evolve with the redshift. We address the consequences of several possible heating sources and radiation background on the global 21-cm signal. We further review our present perspective of other important aspects of the HI 21-cm signal such as the power spectrum and imaging. Finally, we highlight the future key measurements of the Square Kilometre Array and other ongoing/upcoming experiments that will enlighten our understanding of the early Universe.Comment: 22 pages, 9 figures, Accepted for publication in Journal of Astrophysics and Astronomy(JoAA

Community assembly, functional traits and phylogeny in Himalayan river birds

Heterogeneity in riverine habitats acts as a template for species evolution that influences river communities at different spatio-temporal scales. Although birds are conspicuous elements of these communities, the roles of phylogeny, functional traits, and habitat character in their niche use or species' assembly have seldom been investigated. We explored these themes by surveying multiple headwaters over 3000 m of elevation in the Himalayan Mountains of India where the specialist birds of montane rivers reach their greatest diversity on Earth. After ordinating community composition, species traits, and habitat character, we investigated whether river bird traits varied with elevation in ways that were constrained or independent of phylogeny, hypothesizing that trait patterns reflect environmental filtering. Community composition and trait representation varied strongly with increasing elevation and river naturalness as species that foraged in the river/riparian ecotone gave way to small insectivores with direct trophic dependence on the river or its immediate channel. These trends were influenced strongly by phylogeny as communities became more clustered by functional traits at a higher elevation. Phylogenetic signals varied among traits, however, and were reflected in body mass, bill size, and tarsus length more than in body size, tail length, and breeding strategy. These variations imply that community assembly in high-altitude river birds reflects a blend of phylogenetic constraint and habitat filtering coupled with some proximate niche-based moulding of trait character. We suggest that the regional co-existence of river birds in the Himalaya is facilitated by this same array of factors that together reflect the highly heterogeneous template of river habitats provided by these mountain headwaters

River birds as potential indicators of local- and catchment-scale influences on Himalayan river ecosystems

Rivers are affected by changes in catchment land-use and other modifications to their channel, floodplains and riparian zones. Such changes can affect biodiversity downstream, and specialist river birds might indicate the effects across multiple scales and through different ecological pathways. The risks of catchment-scale effects on rivers are especially acute in the Himalayan mountains, where the world’s greatest diversity of river birds occupies one of the most rapidly changing riverine environments on Earth. Here, we use multivariate analysis on data collected over two years to investigate the distribution of this group of birds in relation to natural and anthropogenic variations in riverine habitats along one of the major headwaters of the Ganges. River bird distribution was linked to channel character, bank morphology, aspects of river flow and land use. Riverine specialists were associated significantly with the least modified reaches characterised by faster flows, exposed bedrocks, banks with pebbles, boulders with more intact riverine forests. Our data provide evidence from which to develop specialist river birds as cost-effective indicators of human impacts on river ecosystems, but further work is needed to separate the effects of natural and anthropogenic influences. Such work could also guide conservation action to help balance the exploitation of catchment ecosystem services with the protection of river biodiversity

Search for flavor-changing neutral current interactions of the top quark and the Higgs boson decaying to a bottom quark-antiquark pair at root s=13 TeV

A search for flavor-changing neutral current interactions of the top quark (t) and the Higgs boson (H) is presented. The search is based on a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 137 fb(-1) recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC in proton-proton collisions at root s = 13TeV. Events containing exactly one lepton (muon or electron) and at least three jets, among which at least two are identified as originating from the hadronization of a bottom quark, are analyzed. A set of deep neural networks is used for kinematic event reconstruction, while boosted decision trees distinguish the signal from the background events. No significant excess over the background predictions is observed, and upper limits on the signal production cross sections are extracted. These limits are interpreted in terms of top quark decay branching fractions (B) to the Higgs boson and an up (u) or a charm quark (c). Assuming one nonvanishing extra coupling at a time, the observed (expected) upper limits at 95% confidence level are B(t -> Hu) Hc) < 0.094 (0.086)%