Dominance of Self-hood in Shagun, the Mother: A Study of Manju Kapur’s Custody

Marriage as an arranged one is a religious ceremony. A man and a woman who enter into marital life as husband and wife promise that they will live together till the end of their earthly life braving all the seasons of life. Besides, as husband and wife, they are destined to enter into conjugal relationship for procreation as well as continuation of their posterity on earth. The wife begets children from what her husband gives during their sexual relationship and thus both become blessed parents. The wife as a mother lives only for her children and husband. She never entertains any thought other than dedicating herself to the welfare of her family. The husband as a father provides life, comforts and security to his family. But in the modern days, such established conventions have gone into oblivion because of the absence of understanding and genuine love, the lack of conjugal bliss and the dominance of ego and selfishness between the married ones. Both are tempted to go astray in their ways of life affecting the peace and happiness at home. Men hardly divorce their wives but women do on various unimaginable reasons known only to them. The woman who is selfish to the core never worries about leaving children to their fate just because they are born to him. She either remarries or lives in relationship with another even without marriage to satisfy her selfishness. Her womanliness occupies the entire space of her heart dethroning the spirit of motherhood. Whatever happens to her, she should stay back at her marital home as the mother of her children without any conjugal relationship with her husband but she does not do so because her selfishness to quench her personal interest for sex reigns supreme.  This is what Manju Kapur has portrayed through the mother character Shagun in her novel Custody

Cryptographic Interweaving of Messages

During the past several decades, the information and communication technology sector has advanced significantly, enabling extensive information interchange over the internet, including message sharing and electronic transactions. These days, the main issue is how to transmit information securely. From ancient times, there has been interest in the field of cryptography research. A masterwork of cryptography is Muni Kumudendu's original work, Siribhoovalaya. His study served as the basis for the method suggested in this publication. Several messages can be sent using different keys utilising a single matrix. Encryption uses a variety of matrix traversal techniques, making it challenging for cryptanalysis to map the plaintext and ciphertext

Radiographic Assessment of Impacted Canine: A Systematic Review

Dental professionals face a lot of challenges in treatment of impacted canine due its position. Localisation of impacted canine in diagnosis and treatment is important. There are various radiographic methods in localization of impacted canine. In this article, different radiographic methods in the diagnosis of impacted canine. The use of periapical radiograph, panoramic radiograph, occlusal radiograph, CT scan, and CBCT have been reviewed using various literature. CBCT gives an accurate dimension and position of impacted canine

Freeze-thaw Resistance of an Alluvial Soil Stabilized with EcoSand and Asbestos-free Fiber Powder

Stabilization of poor soils subjected to large daily temperature variations requires careful selection of suitable stabilizer for improvement of such soils. This study investigated the freeze-thaw resistance of an alluvial soil stabilized with EcoSand and asbestos-free fiber powder (AFP). Physical and mechanical properties of the soil were determined. The soil sample was stabilized with 5 variants of equal mixtures of the EcoSand and AFP in proportions of 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10%, with 1% sodium silicate and 1% fly ash, by weight of the soil. UCS tests were conducted before and after three freeze-thaw cycles, while keeping the sample at 0ºC for 8 hours and later at 30ºC for 8 hours for each cycle. It was found that the 8% EcoSand + AFP with 1% sodium silicate and 1% fly ash content provided an optimized increase of the freeze-thaw resistance of the soil. The use of a mixture of EcoSand and AFP as a soil stabilizer for regions of the world experiencing large temperature variation has the potential to improve the resistance of sand to freezing and thawing

Salivary C-Reactive Protein in Hashimoto's Thyroiditis and Subacute Thyroiditis

C-reactive protein (CRP), an acute-phase reactant, has been identified as a saliva-based biomarker of inflammation. The objective of the study was to estimate and compare salivary CRP levels in Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) and Subacute thyroiditis (SAT). The study included 30 HT patients who presented with clinical features of hypothyroidism, 15 SAT patients who presented with clinical features of hyperthyroidism, and 20 healthy age- and sex-matched euthyroid controls. CRP levels in saliva were estimated using an Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay method with enhanced sensitivity. In HT, the mean salivary CRP levels did not differ significantly from controls. SAT patients had significantly elevated salivary CRP levels compared to HT patients and controls. The rise in salivary CRP levels in SAT patients conceivably reflects the presence of an inflammatory process. Saliva CRP levels appear to serve as inflammatory markers in SAT patients and may aid their clinical evaluation

SYMBOL LEVEL DECODING FOR DUO-BINARY TURBO CODES

This paper investigates the performance of three different symbol level decoding algorithms for Duo-Binary Turbo codes. Explicit details of the computations involved in the three decoding techniques, and a computational complexity analysis are given. Simulation results with different couple lengths, code-rates, and QPSK modulation reveal that the symbol level decoding with bit-level information outperforms the symbol level decoding by 0.1 dB on average in the error floor region. Moreover, a complexity analysis reveals that symbol level decoding with bit-level information reduces the decoding complexity by 19.6 % in terms of the total number of computations required for each half-iteration as compared to symbol level decoding

Effect of lead content on the formation of the 2223 phase

Freeze-dried powders have been used for the formation of the high Tc (110 K) superconducting phase in the Bi-Sr-Ca-Cu-O system. Effects of lead content and oxygen partial pressure were investigated. It was shown that lead content and oxygen partial pressure were affecting liquid phase formation. Lead content affected the dissolution of the 2212 phase into the liquid phase from which the 2223 high Tc superconducting phase forms. Powder reacted as pellet with Bi{sub 1.8}Pb{sub 0.4}Sr{sub 2.0}Ca{sub 2.0}Cu{sub 3.0}O{sub x} composition shows essentially phase pure 2223 after 12 hrs at 845{degrees} C in 7%O{sub 2}

Chemoecological studies on marine natural products: terpene chemistry from marine mollusks

Some species of nudibranchs (Mollusca) protect themselves from predatory attacks by storing defensive terpene chemicals acquired from dietary sponges (Porifera) in specialized body parts called MDFs (mantle dermal formations), often advertising their unpalatability to potential predators by means of bright coloration patterns. Consequently, the survival of these trophic specialist species is closely related to the possibility of obtaining the defensive tools from sponges that live in their immediate vicinity; therefore, it is important to determine as precisely as possible the chemical composition of nudibranch extracts prior to any ecological studies addressing issues that involve their alimentary behavior and their defensive strategies, including the significance of their color patterns. Some of our recent studies on the chemical composition of terpene extracts from nudibranchs belonging to the genera Chromodoris and Hypselodoris are summarized. We also report the development of a method to assay extracts and purified metabolites for their feeding deterrent activity against co-occurring generalist predators. In a recent chemoecological study, showing that repugnant terpene chemicals are accumulated at extremely high concentrations in exposed parts of the nudibranchs' bodies, the feeding deterrence assays were carried out on the generalist marine shrimp Palaemon elegans, very common in the Mediterranean. We have modified this assay for use with the Australian shrimp species P. serenus, and confirmed the ecological validity of the assay by analysis of extracts from species of sponges and mollusks that live in the same habitat as P. serenus. The deterrent properties of haliclonacyclamine alkaloids isolated from the sponge Haliclona sp. were demonstrated, with the alkaloid mixture demonstrating palatability deterrence at concentrations as low as 0.05 mg/mL, and complete deterrence at 0.75 mg/mL. In contrast, the diterpene thuridillin metabolites from the sacoglossan mollusk Thuridilla splendens did not deter feeding by P. serenus

Plethora of transitions during breakup of liquid filaments.

Thinning and breakup of liquid filaments are central to dripping of leaky faucets, inkjet drop formation, and raindrop fragmentation. As the filament radius decreases, curvature and capillary pressure, both inversely proportional to radius, increase and fluid is expelled with increasing velocity from the neck. As the neck radius vanishes, the governing equations become singular and the filament breaks. In slightly viscous liquids, thinning initially occurs in an inertial regime where inertial and capillary forces balance. By contrast, in highly viscous liquids, initial thinning occurs in a viscous regime where viscous and capillary forces balance. As the filament thins, viscous forces in the former case and inertial forces in the latter become important, and theory shows that the filament approaches breakup in the final inertial-viscous regime where all three forces balance. However, previous simulations and experiments reveal that transition from an initial to the final regime either occurs at a value of filament radius well below that predicted by theory or is not observed. Here, we perform new simulations and experiments, and show that a thinning filament unexpectedly passes through a number of intermediate transient regimes, thereby delaying onset of the inertial-viscous regime. The new findings have practical implications regarding formation of undesirable satellite droplets and also raise the question as to whether similar dynamical transitions arise in other free-surface flows such as coalescence that also exhibit singularities.The authors thank Dr. Pankaj Doshi for several insightful discussions. This work was supported by the Basic Energy Sciences program of the US Department of Energy (DE-FG02-96ER14641), Procter & Gamble USA, the Chevron Corporation, the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (Grant EP/H018913/1), the John Fell Oxford University Press Research Fund, and the Royal Society.This is the final published version. It first appeared via PNAS at http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.141854111