85 research outputs found
Behind our sip of tea : an ecofeminist study of environmental refugees in Kokilam Subbiah’s Mirage
Women, in general, have been victims of so many oppressive factors such as domestic violence, gender
inequalities, and patriarchal oppression in all the contexts such as personal, social, cultural, and professional.
Furthermore, they often bear the brunt of natural calamities such as tsunami, famine, drought, wildfire, and
hurricane and manmade disasters like war, industrialisation, urbanisation and so on, when compared to men.
Many ecofeminists and researchers have studied the homogeneity between women and nature, similarity in their
traits, their subjugation by the oppressive powers, and their resultant plight, under various discriminative factors
such as race, caste, class, religion, culture, and colonialism. This paper aims to explore the additional challenges
faced by women refugees, in particular, climate refugees as portrayed in Kokilam Subbiah’s Mirage, through the
lens of ecofeminism. Throughout the novel, Kokilam Subbiah has captured the lives of women refugees through
the metaphorical representation of nature. This study also attempts to underscore the parallelism between the
refugee women and nature and how they are closely intertwined with each other in their victimisation and
resilience and endeavours to study the veracity and universality of Warren’s premise of “naturalizing women”
and “feminizing nature” with reference to the novel Mirage
SYNTHESIS, MOLECULAR BIOINFORMATICS MODELLING, AND ANTIMICROBIAL EVALUATION OF SOME NOVEL OXADIAZOLE FLUOROQUINOLONE DERIVATIVES
Objective: The present study envisages a series of oxadiazole fluoroquinolone derivatives that were synthesized (D1–D12) with added derivatives such as phenyl, aminophenyl, amino hydroxyphenyl along with cyclopropyl, ethyl, piperazine, and imidazole.
Methods: All of the newly produced molecules were characterized by infrared, 1H nuclear magnetic resonance, mass spectrometry, and elemental analysis technique and screened for docking stimulation to find out binding modes of synthesized derivatives with 3FV5, 5IMW, and 5ESE and evaluated for in vitro antimicrobial activity.
Results: From this study, it was found that the compound D8 showed good antibacterial activity against Gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus), compound D9 showed good antibacterial activity against Gram-negative (Escherichia coli), and compound D3 showed good antifungal activity against fungi (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) in comparison with standard drugs (Ciprofloxacin and fluconazole). The zone of inhibition and minimum inhibitory concentration studies was performed on synthesized compounds.
Conclusion: The analogs of oxadiazole flouroquinolone are suggested to be potent inhibitors with sufficient scope for further exploration
A review of antibiotic synergy in carbapenemase-producing bacteria
The problem of antibiotic resistance has garnered too much attention over the last few decades for posing a global hazard to the clinical handling and the inhibition of several deadly infections caused by bacteria. It burdens the world not only clinically but also economically... Antibiotic agents known as carbapenems are a very effective and typically designated for the treatment of multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacterial infections. To identify a suitable antibiotic combination to be used in vivo, one must be able to determine the synergism between the antibiotics in vitro. Several methods, such as the checkerboard method, multiple-combination bactericidal test, time-kill and E-test, have been used for this purpose. However, the lack of proper standardization procedures, types of bacterial agents, bacterial load, stage of infection and other factors make it very difficult to reproduce or correlate the results with other methods.Carbapenem-destroying lactases, which have recently emerged as mechanisms of resistance, are increasing in number and decreasing the treatment alternatives available. These infections are treated with colistin and tigecycline, but monotherapy may result in clinical breakdown because of a variety of factors. To control these infections, clinicians often choose combinations of drugs over monotherapy. There is an extreme lack of information on synergistic antibiotic combinations accounting for the diverse mechanisms of GNB resistance commonly encountered. The incidence of carbapenem-resistant GNB in Indian articles is also unknown. Therefore, we anticipate that this study may provide methodology for the selection of an appropriate antibiotic combination
The Novel Calpain Inhibitor SJA6017 Improves Functional Outcome after Delayed Administration in a Mouse Model of Diffuse Brain Injury
A principal mechanism of calcium-mediated neuronal injury is the activation of neutral proteases known as calpains. Proteolytic substrates for calpain include receptor and cytoskeletal proteins, signal transduction enzymes and transcription factors. Recently, calpain inhibitors have been shown to provide benefit in rat models of focal head injury and focal cerebral ischemia. The present study sought to investigate, in experiment 1, the time course of calpain-mediated cytoskeletal injury in a mouse model of diffuse head injury by measuring the 150- and 145-kDa α-spectrin breakdown products (SBDP). Secondly, in experiment 2, we examined the effect of early (20 min postinjury) administration of the novel calpain inhibitor SJA6017 on functional outcome measured 24 h following injury and its effect on posttraumatic α-spectrin degradation. Lastly, in experiment 3, we examined the effect of delayed (4 or 6 h postinjury) administration of SJA6017 on 24-h postinjury functional outcome. In experiment 1, isoflurane-anesthetized male CF-1 mice (18-22 g) were subjected to a 750 g-cm weight drop-induced injury and were sacrificed for SBDP analysis at postinjury times of 30 min, and 1, 2, 6, 24 and 48 h (plus sham). In experiments 2 and 3, mice were injured as described, and delivered a single tail vein injection of either SJA6017 (0.3, 1, or 3 mg/kg) or vehicle (administered immediately, 4 or 6 h postinjury [3 mg/kg]). Functional outcome was evaluated in both studies , and, in experiment 2, 24-h postinjury assessment of SBDPs was determined. Following injury, the level of SBDP 145 was significantly different from sham at 24 and 48 h in cortical and at 24 h in the hippocampal tissues and at 48 h in the striatum. Immediate postinjury administration of SJA6017 resulted in a dose-related improvement in 24-h functional outcome (p < 0.05 at 3 mg/kg). Significance was maintained after a 4-h delay of the 3 mg/kg, but was lost after a 6-h delay. Despite improvement in functional outcome at 24 h, SJA6017 did not reduce spectrin breakdown in cortical or hippocampal tissues. These results support a role for calpain-mediated neuronal injury and the potential for a practical therapeutic window for calpain inhibition following traumatic brain injury. However, measurements of regional spectrin degradation may not be the most sensitive marker for determining the effects of calpain inhibition.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/63231/1/089771501317095269.pd
Cosmological distance indicators
We review three distance measurement techniques beyond the local universe:
(1) gravitational lens time delays, (2) baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO), and
(3) HI intensity mapping. We describe the principles and theory behind each
method, the ingredients needed for measuring such distances, the current
observational results, and future prospects. Time delays from strongly lensed
quasars currently provide constraints on with < 4% uncertainty, and with
1% within reach from ongoing surveys and efforts. Recent exciting discoveries
of strongly lensed supernovae hold great promise for time-delay cosmography.
BAO features have been detected in redshift surveys up to z <~ 0.8 with
galaxies and z ~ 2 with Ly- forest, providing precise distance
measurements and with < 2% uncertainty in flat CDM. Future BAO
surveys will probe the distance scale with percent-level precision. HI
intensity mapping has great potential to map BAO distances at z ~ 0.8 and
beyond with precisions of a few percent. The next years ahead will be exciting
as various cosmological probes reach 1% uncertainty in determining , to
assess the current tension in measurements that could indicate new
physics.Comment: Review article accepted for publication in Space Science Reviews
(Springer), 45 pages, 10 figures. Chapter of a special collection resulting
from the May 2016 ISSI-BJ workshop on Astronomical Distance Determination in
the Space Ag
Molecular breeding tools improved drought tolerant groundnut variety for resistance to foliar fungal diseases
A largely rainfed crop in India, drought tolerance, particularly
mid- and end-season tolerance, is a key trait in groundnut
varieties. A combination of both empirical and trait-based
approaches was used in breeding programs of ICAR and ICRISAT,
resulting in release of few tolerant varieties that have
superior pod yield under drought stress and/or have enhanced
water-use-efficiency. There is a need to breed varieties with
drought tolerance, disease resistance and quality traits that suit
different production ecologies as well as meet the needs of the
farmers, consumers and industries. ICRISAT has released an
early-maturing (90-95 d) and drought- tolerant variety ICGV
91114 for the drought-prone Ananthapur district of Andhra
Pradesh, India, where about 0.7 m ha area is under groundnut
cultivation and has low (300 mm) and erratic (30-40 rainy
days) rainfall. On-farm studies conducted with ICGV 91114
during 2008-10 showed 30% reduction in yield variability over
the years. Following screening in hot-spots of both rust and LLS
disease during 2014 rainy season, a total of 27 introgression
lines derived from ICGV 91114 were selected and advanced for
evaluation in multi-location trials at six locations in 2015 under
rainfed conditions. Based on the pod yield under rainfed conditions
and disease resistance, three superior introgression lines
(ICGV 14410, ICGV 13189, ICGV 14421) were proposed for the
first-ever NILs trial (near-isogenic lines trial) along with eight
others conducted under All India Coordinated Research Project
on Groundnut (AICRP-G) at national level
Thermoresponsive Poly(2-oxazoline) Block Copolymers Exhibiting Two Cloud Points: Complex Multistep Assembly Behavior
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