Spatial and Angular Resolution Enhancement of Light Fields Using Convolutional Neural Networks

Light field imaging extends the traditional photography by capturing both spatial and angular distribution of light, which enables new capabilities, including post-capture refocusing, post-capture aperture control, and depth estimation from a single shot. Micro-lens array (MLA) based light field cameras offer a cost-effective approach to capture light field. A major drawback of MLA based light field cameras is low spatial resolution, which is due to the fact that a single image sensor is shared to capture both spatial and angular information. In this paper, we present a learning based light field enhancement approach. Both spatial and angular resolution of captured light field is enhanced using convolutional neural networks. The proposed method is tested with real light field data captured with a Lytro light field camera, clearly demonstrating spatial and angular resolution improvement

Preparation and stability of organic nanocrystals. Experimental and molecular simulation studies.

A major challenge affecting the likelihood of a new drug reaching the market is poor oral bioavailability derived from low aqueous solubility. Nanocrystals are rapidly becoming a platform technology to address poor solubility issues, although several challenges including stabilisation and control of particle size distribution for nanosuspensions still need to be addressed. The aim of this study was to revisit the simplest approach of re-precipitation and to identify the critical parameters, including the effect of different stabilisers as well as process conditions. We utilised a combined approach of both experiments and molecular modelling and simulation, not only to determine the optimum parameters but also to gain mechanistic insight. The experimental studies utilised three rather distinct, relatively insoluble drugs, the hypoglycaemic glibenclamide, the anti-inflammatory ibuprofen, and the anti-malarial artemisinin. The choice of crystal growth inhibitors/stabilizers was found to be critical and specific for each drug. The effect of the process variables, temperature, stirring rate, and the solute solution infusion rate into the anti-solvent, was rationalized in terms of how these factors influence the local supersaturation attained at the earliest stages of precipitation. Coarse grained simulation of antisolvent crystallisation confirmed the accepted two step mechanism of nucleation at high supersaturation which involves aggregation of solute particles followed by nucleation. Recovery of nanocrystals from nanosuspensions is also a technical challenge. A novel approach involving the use of carrier particles to recovery the nanocrystals was developed and shown to be able to recover more than 90% of the drug nanocrystals. The phase stability of nanocrystals along with bulk crystals for the model compound glycine was explored using molecular dynamics simulation. The simulations were consistent with experimental data, a highlight being the ¿ phase transforming to the ¿ phase at temperature >400K and 20kbar respectively, as expected. Nanocrystals of ¿, ¿ and ¿ glycine, however did not show any phase transformation at high temperature. In summary the study demonstrates that standard crystallization technology is effective in producing nanocrystals with the primary challenge being physico-chemical (rather than mechanical), involving the identification of molecule-specific crystal growth inhibitors and/or stabilizers. The developed nanocrystal recovery method should enable the production of nanocrystals-based solid dosage forms. The molecular simulation studies reveal that crystal-crystal phase transformations can be predicted for hydrogen-bonded systems.HEC Pakistan and University of Malakand KP (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Pedagogy of Alienation: Epistemic Hegemony of the Mental Space and Fatal Fault Lines in the National Space

This paper delves into pedagogic practices that privilege the remote over the proximate, the unfamiliar over the familiar, and the far-off over the intimate. It delineates how this pedagogy of alienation entails embedding of ‘the west’ in cognitive spaces of the subjects and conditions ways in which they negotiate their familiar terrain: the national space. Spatial dynamics of the humanistic functions attached with the teaching of E. literature: “the shaping of character, the development of aesthetics and the disciplines of ethical thinking” will also be identified. The paper investigates how English literary texts in an institutionalized space win assent for their judgments in a “clandestine” manner. An attempt has been made to equate these acts of assent, on part of the subjects, as steps of spatial alienation ensuring successive approximation to a desired behavior or a reconfiguration of the cognitive space, ultimately “transforming the way in which objects of knowledge are constructed.” The resulting epistemes have then been mapped onto the fatal fault lines of the proximal, national space to test their political efficac

Neoliberal Epistemology in Pakistani Anglophone Fiction

The paper is an attempt to offer textual readings of two works by Pakistani writers: Mohsin Hamid‘s The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Musharaf Ali Farooqi‘s Between Clay and Dust. It offers readings of these texts from the perspective of neoliberalism, especially with an accent on epistemological factors. It explains how as a zeitgeist of our times, neoliberalism controls, dominates and trespasses personal domains, favours the moneyed class and necessitates an epistemology that governs relationships within a human society, whether it is the first world i.e. the US or a South Asian city. Educational and cultural institutions, whether in the US or in Pakistan, the paper argues, are meaningful, according to the neoliberal epistemology, as long as they have their monetary or exchange value.&nbsp

Fabrication and characterization of curcumin loaded ZnO nanoparticles and their in vitro antibacterial activity

Nanotechnology is broadly defined as the study and development of the chemical physical and natural properties of materials, devices, and structures that differ from those found on a larger scale, and Nano patents are derived from the Japanese language. Zinc oxide nanoparticles are used in a wide-ranging applications, visible light, catalytic actions, ultrasonic, deodorizing, diabetes treatment, cosmetics, lasers, paints, ultraviolet light absorbing constituents, rubber industry, catalytic agent for light flattening, and specifically in the medical and pharmaceutical sciences7. Curcumin is a useful plant-based material derived from "turmeric" that has the potential to be used in the green synthesis of ZnONPs. This is due to the influence of "polyphenol," which may also result in the formation of ZnONPs during the reduction process. Characterization reported Spherical particles with varying size from few nanometers to about 900 nm. The antibacterial activity by disk diffusion method against E. coli (Gram negative), Pseudomonas aerugionsa, Bordetella bronchiseptics & Micrococcus luteus revealed mark able zone of inhibition that declared potent antibacterial activity of Curcumin ZnO NP against gram positive bacteria more than negative ones where Ciprofloxacin was used as standard

Politics of Representation in Raza Rabbani’s Invisible People

This study focuses on the problematics of representation of the downtrodden in the Invisible People by Raza Rabbani. This research presents a case study of how when the rich and the powerful decide to represent the poor and the powerless, the endeavour may result not only in an artistic failure but may also amount to an ethical failure. Such a study is warranted as Rabbani belongs to the politicalelite of Pakistan but chooses to represent the oppressed in his collection of stories. This cross-class representative endeavor cannot be taken normatively and has to be investigated and evaluated in the context of relevant discourses. The theories of Re-Orientalism (Lau, Introducing ReOrientalism, 2014) and Huggan’s The Postcolonial Exotic have been utilized to build a theoretical framework to undertake this study. Nivedita Majumdar’s work “The Question of Exoticism in Indian Anglophone Literature” has also been utilized for deeper scrutiny of the text. The importance of the politics of representation cannot be overestimated, as the so-called representative institutions continue to operate on a non-representative basis

Transgenerational Trauma and Postmemorial Atonement: A Case Study of Uzma Aslam Khan’s The Miraculous True History of Nomi Ali

This paper undertakes to explore the transmission of transgenerational trauma by means of postmemory in Uzma Aslam Khan’s novel The Miraculous True History of Nomi Ali in light of contemporary trauma studies and postcolonial discourse. It draws upon Marianne Hirsch’s concept of postmemory in 1) The Generation of postmemory: writing and visual culture after the Holocaust 2) Family frames: Photography, narrative, and postmemory and Gabriele Schwab’sconcept of transgenerational trauma in Haunting Legacies: Violent Histories andTransgenerational Trauma. This paper, by using the interpretive approach in textual analysis, seeks to follow the trails of trauma experienced by the second generation of political prisoners of Andaman Islands under the British colonial rule in the text. It investigates how transmission of trauma operates in the text through narratives, pictures, objects, places, scars, language, silence and inherited memories. While mapping the trauma pathways of different characters in the text, the present study also focuses on identifying indigenous ways through which transgenerational trauma functions within a postcolonial geography. The study calls attention to the multitude of effects of ancestral trauma on the post generations living in a colonial regime. While looking atthe political background of the text, the present paper points out the possibility of constructive political activism within society with the production of postmemorial works of art. By using trauma theory and postmemory under the critical lens of postcolonial discourse, the paper deviates from conventional use of trauma studies which mostly focuses on psychoanalytical interpretations. Thisstudy is an attempt to incorporate a decolonized conception of trauma within contemporary Pakistani trauma paradigm

ALHAJJ – HAJJ APP FOR IOS

This paper introduces the AlHajj app for iOS which is an interactive guide to Hajj, like an interactive map allowing users to walk through the process of the Hajj to develop a better understanding of the obligations, locations, dates and Hajj activities with the sequence they are performed in.  It covers both pre and post Hajj activities. AlHajj has a very simplistic and clean User Interface (UI).  The app is also written for maintainability and it is free. KEYWORDS:  Hajj; iOS; Software Tools; Interactive Map; Mobile App; Isla

Sodium–Glucose Cotransporter-2 Inhibitors and Heart Failure Prevention in Type 2 Diabetes

Diabetes and heart failure (HF) are closely linked, with one causing a worse prognosis in the other. The majority of anti-hyperglycaemic agents primarily reduce risk of ischaemic microvascular events without targeting the mechanisms involved for diabetes cardiomyopathy and HF. Sodium–glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors have emerged as a novel class of glucose-lowering agents that have consistently reduced HF hospitalisations, unlike other agents. The authors discuss the current evidence and highlight possible future directions for the role of SGLT2 inhibitors in HF prevention