50 research outputs found

    Reliving Woman’s History through New Eyes: A Study of Women’s Electronic Literature and the Shifting Women’s Faces in Historical Fiction

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    Literature has spilled over from the pages of printed books to electronic media now. One holds a thousand books in the palm of his/her hands at will, and also there is a surge of writers writing online fiction. "Chick-lit" or woman's literature being one of the most popular genres, a considerable fraction of this umbrella genre overlaps with the category of historical fiction (or historical romance). It is with this genre that my paper shall critically engage with. One finds interesting outcomes when, living in, what debatably is, a post-feminist age and experiencing the womanist lifestyle on a daily basis, the online authors of today look back at the feminist movements from their modern perspectives. Can their heroines be the same as those in the time of the Bronte sisters or Austen? Of course not. The perspectives have greatly changed through the various movements affecting literature and society in the meantime. This paper shall aim to trace the effects of the changing face of feminism in the representation of women in the book lover's social media sites. To that purpose, the paper shall take into study some of the most popular authors of historical romance like Robert Thier, appearing on the hot lists of applications like Wattpad and Radish Fiction

    Heaney’s Spiritual Archaeology and the Poetic Promise of Political Memory

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    Poetry for Seamus Heaney has an ‘archaeological’ function. Much of Heaney’s poetry engages with the cultural amnesia that the atmosphere of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland threatens with. Against this distortion of historical memory by contemporary events and also by the forces of globalization, Heaney works with the belief inherited from Wordsworth that poetry ‘enshrine[s] the spirit of the past / For future restoration.’ Rather than the factual correction of distortions, poetry, hence, is more intent at preserving the ‘spirit’ of the past – which is not to say that facts are treated as redundant, but that in poetry facts lead us to the spirit of the past. With reference to specifically poems from the collection The Haw Lantern, the paper shall enquire as to what form of memory does poetry then engage with. This is spiritual archaeology since poetry is conceived as response towards spirits of the past, like that of Diogenes or the mud vision. Poetry is the call of responsibility when the past is being ‘dissipated in news’. Memory in poetry is also spiritual in the sense that it has a spiritual purpose – it preserves the sense of justice and a promise for future within a reality of violence. The possibility of ‘restoration’ is held out by a past that is itself strung with violent incidences. The paper shall interrogate poetry’s ambivalent dealings with memory and violence that occur in the process. Poetry and literature in general, we will see, shares a radical relation with history, but a radicalization that is politically an antidote of that other form of radicalization that potentially leads to terrorism. The paper shall discuss where these two radical trajectories concerning history vitally differ

    Biphasic Effect of Phyllanthus emblica L. Extract on NSAID-Induced Ulcer: An Antioxidative Trail Weaved with Immunomodulatory Effect

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    Amla (Phyllanthus emblica L.), apart from its food value, can be used as a gastroprotective agent in non steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID)-induced gastropathy. It has been suggested that the antioxidative property of amla is the key to its therapeutic effect. Hence, on the basis of in vitro antioxidative potential, the ethanolic extract of amla (eAE) was selected for in vivo study in NSAID-induced ulcer. Intriguingly, eAE showed biphasic activity in ulcerated mice, with healing effect observed at 60 mg/kg and an adverse effect at 120 mg/kg.The dose-dependent study revealed that switching from anti-oxidant to pro-oxidant shift and immunomodulatory property could be the major cause for its biphasic effect, as evident from the total antioxidant status, thiol concentration, lipid peroxidation, protein carbonyl content followed by mucin content, PGE2 synthesis and cytokine status. Further, Buthionine sulfoxamine (BSO) pretreatment established the potential impact of antioxidative property in the healing action of eAE. However, eAE efficiently reduced pro-inflammatory cytokine (TNF-α and IL-1β) levels and appreciably upregulate anti-inflammatory cytokine (IL-10) concentration. In conclusion, gastric ulcer healing induced by eAE was driven in a dose-specific manner through the harmonization of the antioxidative property and modulation of anti-inflammatory cytokine level

    A prospective analysis of adherence to standard treatment guidelines in management of snakebite in a tertiary care teaching hospital of rural Bengal, India

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    Background: Rural Bengal has one of the highest snakebite prevalence in India. This prospective observational study was initiated with the motive to analyse the effects and adherence to implementation of the new national snakebite protocol 2016.Methods: Data were collected from the patients admitted with snake bite on a pre-designed and pre tested case study form and analysed with the help of descriptive statistics.Results: A total of 75 patients arrived in the hospital during the study period out which 53 were male (most in the age group of 31-40 years) and majority of them were farmers (26.6%) or housewives (25%). Maximum of them were bitten in the lower limbs (54.6%) and peak time of bite was between 6 am-12 pm (40%). Most of them reached the hospital late, i.e., beyond 2 hours (70.6%). It was found that there were 26 neurotoxic, 16 hemotoxic and 1 neuro-hemotoxic cases and the rest were non-venomous cases. Fifty-one of them received ASV and 4 died. There was 80% adherence in the indication of ASV administration, 73.3% in the ASV dose, 32% in the monitoring after ASV administration, 94.66% in the monitoring 20 WBCT, 100% in adherence to haemodialysis as indicated.Conclusions: The results showed good adherence in all the parameters. Protocol guided treatment has also resulted in rational use of ASV. So, from this study, it was concluded that protocol guided treatment is effective in snakebite management, but its continuous revision and amendments should be considered in future

    Immunohistochemical Evaluation of p63, E-Cadherin, Collagen I and III Expression in Lower Limb Wound Healing under Honey

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    Honey is recognized traditionally for its medicinal properties and also appreciated as a topical healing agent for infected and noninfected wounds. This study evaluates impact of honey-based occlusive dressing on nonhealing (nonresponding to conventional antibiotics) traumatic lower limb wounds (n = 34) through clinicopathological and immunohistochemical (e.g., expression of p63, E-cadherin, and Collagen I and III) evaluations to enrich the scientific validation. Clinical findings noted the nonadherence of honey dressing with remarkable chemical debridement and healing progression within 11–15 days of postintervention. Histopathologically, in comparison to preintervention biopsies, the postintervention tissues of wound peripheries demonstrated gradual normalization of epithelial and connective tissue features with significant changes in p63+ epithelial cell population, reappearance of membranous E-cadherin (P < .0001), and optimum deposition of collagen I and III (P < .0001). Thus, the present study for the first time reports the impact of honey on vital protein expressions in epithelial and connective tissues during repair of nonhealing lower limb wounds

    Diffusion of Macromolecules across the Nuclear Pore Complex

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    Nuclear pore complexes (NPCs) are very selective filters that monitor the transport between the cytoplasm and the nucleoplasm. Two models have been suggested for the plug of the NPC. They are (i) it is a reversible hydrogel or (ii) it is a polymer brush. We propose a mesoscopic model for the transport of a protein through the plug, that is general enough to cover both. The protein stretches the plug and creates a local deformation. The bubble so created (prtoein+deformation) executes random walk in the plug. We find that for faster relaxation of the gel, the diffusion of the bubble is greater. Further, on using parameters appropriate for the brush, we find that the diffusion coefficient is much lower. Hence the gel model seems to be more likely explanation for the workings of the plug

    Betelvine (Piper betle L.): A comprehensive insight into its ethnopharmacology, phytochemistry, and pharmacological, biomedical and therapeutic attributes

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    Piper betle L. (synonym: Piper betel Blanco), or betel vine, an economically and medicinally important cash crop, belongs to the family Piperaceae, often known as the green gold. The plant can be found all over the world and is cultivatedprimarily in South East Asian countries for its beautiful glossy heart-shaped leaves, which are chewed or consumed as betelquidand widely used in Chinese and Indian folk medicine, as carminative, stimulant,astringent, against parasitic worms, conjunctivitis, rheumatism, wound, etc., andis also used for religious purposes. Hydroxychavicol is the most important bioactive compound among the wide range of phytoconstituents found in essential oil and extracts. The pharmacological attributes of P. betle are antiproliferation, anticancer, neuropharmacological, analgesic, antioxidant, antiulcerogenic, hepatoprotective, antifertility, antibacterial, antifungal and many more. Immense attention has been paid to nanoformulations and their applications. The application of P. betle did not show cytotoxicity in preclinical experiments, suggesting that it could serve as a promising therapeutic candidate for different diseases. The present review comprehensively summarizes the botanical description, geographical distribution, economic value and cultivation, ethnobotanical uses, preclinical pharmacological properties with insights of toxicological, clinical efficacy, and safety of P. betle. The findings suggest that P. betle represents an orally active and safe natural agent that exhibits great therapeutic potential for managing various human medical conditions. However, further research is needed to elucidate its underlying molecular mechanisms of action, clinical aspects, structure–activity relationships, bioavailability and synergistic interactions with other drugs.This research was funded by projects APOGEO (Cooperation Program INTERREG-MAC 2014–2020, with European Funds for Regional Development-FEDER, ‘Agencia Canaria de Investigación, Innovación y Sociedad de la Información (ACIISI) del Gobierno de Canarias’ (project ProID2020010134), and CajaCanarias (project 2019SP43).Peer reviewe

    Index Terms — Environmental applications,Health Applications,Home

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    Abstract — The past few years have witnessed accumulated interest within the potential use of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) in a very big selection of applications and it&apos;s become a hot analysis space. This has been enabled by the provision, notably in recent years, of sensors that are smaller, cheaper, and intelligent. These sensors are equipped with wireless interfaces with that they will communicate with each other to create a network. This survey paper aims at reportage an summary of WSNs technologies, main applications and standards, options in WSNs style, and evolution
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