South Indian Carnatic singing and Irish Sean-nós - an ethnographic, musical and linguisticcomparison

Despite sharing some interesting linguistic and possible cultural connections from a very distant past, South Indian and Irish musical cultures have emerged from highly distinct contexts and influences. Drawing on doctoral field research within the respective traditions as practiced in Australia as well as experience as a student and performer, this paper presents a comparison of Carnatic and Sean-nós singing from the perspectives of anthropology, ethnomusicology and linguistics and outlines some significant areas of connection and contrast. This analysis of two diasporic traditions in an antipodean settler context represents an innovative departure, by focusing not on the heartlands of these musical traditions, but on their existence in an urban, transnational context, dominated by an Anglo-Australian majority. Such a comparison reveals differing perspectives on both traditions.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Evaluation of novel 1-(4-(substituted)piperazin-1-yl)- 2-(phenylamino)ethanone derivatives as Falcipain-2 inhibitors

Background: Malaria, an infectious disease transmitted by mosquitoes, has affected the world since the beginning of recorded human history and it remains an ensconced global health challenge even today. Among the various proteases, expressed in the life cycle of parasite, cysteine protease falcipain-2 plays a pivotal role in parasite food assimilation and inhibition of this protease cause deleterious effects on the growth of parasite. Methods: Employing a ligand-based approach, 1-(4-(substituted)piperazin-1-yl)-2-(phenylamino) ethanone derivatives were designed and synthesized from the starting material piperazine in a sequence of reactions. Structural assignments are based on spectral data (1H NMR, mass) and elemental analyses. The purity of the final compounds was confirmed by HPLC. The compounds were tested for their in vitro falcipain-2 inhibitor activity on recombinant falcipain-2 enzyme. Furthermore, molecular docking studies were performed using Glide 5.9 software to incur a precise picture of the active ligand at the atomic level which will be helpful in the discovery of new antimalarial drugs. Results: Among the screening results of seventeen novel entities, three compounds (6h, 6n and 6o) have showed good inhibitory activity and eleven compounds were showed weak to moderate inhibitor activity. Docking studies for these active analogues revealed that the amino acids Trp 206, Ile 85, Leu 84, Val 152 most commonly involved in hydrophobic interactions and Asn 173, Cys 42, Gln 36, amino acids involved in hydrogen bonding. Conclusion: The preliminary structure-activity relationships indicated that compound 6h, is the most potent compound from this series, and it can be used as a potential lead compound in the designing of new candidates to optimize the inhibitory potencies of this class of compounds, and potentially with potent antimalarial activity

Documenting modern Sri Lanka Portuguese

Sri Lanka Portuguese (SLP) is a Portuguese-lexified creole formed during Sri Lanka’s Portuguese colonial period, which lasted from the early 16th century to the mid-17th century. The language withstood several political changes and became an important medium of communication for a portion of the island’s population, but reached the late 20th century much reduced in its distribution and vitality, having essentially contracted to the Portuguese Burgher community of Eastern Sri Lanka. In the 1970s and 1980s, the language was the object of considerable research and documentation efforts, which were, however, curtailed by the Sri Lankan civil war. This chapter reports on the activities, challenges, and results of a recent documentation project developed in the post-war period and designed to create an appropriate and diverse record of modern SLP. The project is characterised by a highly multidisciplinary approach that combines linguistics and ethnomusicology, a strong focus on video recordings and open-access dissemination of materials through an online digital platform (Endangered Languages Archive), archival prospection to collect diachronic sources, a sociolinguistic component aimed at determining ethnolinguistic vitality with a view to delineating revitalisation strategies, and a strongly collaborative nature. This chapter describes the principal outputs of the documentation project, which, in addition to a digital corpus of transcribed and annotated materials representing modern manifestations of SLP and the oral/musical traditions of the Burghers, also include the findings of the sociolinguistic survey, an orthographic proposal for the language, as well as the copies and transcriptions of hard-to-obtain historical sources on SLP (grammars, dictionaries, biblical translations, liturgical texts, collections of songs).Endangered Languages Documentation Programme (MDP0357) / Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (IF/01009/2012

Solvent effects on lasing characteristics for Rh B laser dye.

We demonstrate pulsed, photopumped multimode laser emission in the visible spectral range from rhodamine B dye dissolved in various solvents. The laser emission is characterized by a well-defined, low threshold pump power at which the emission spectral intensity dramatically increases and collapsed into several dominant laser modes with reduced mode spacing and spectral width. The modes were found to originate from the subcavities formed by the plane-parallel walls of the cuvette containing the gain medium. The cavity lasing spectral structure and the numbers of longitudinal modes were easily controlled by changing the solvents. A shift in the emission spectra has been also observed by changing the solvents will allow a limited range of tuning of laser emission wavelength. We also determined the gain coefficient and stimulated emission cross-section for the Rh B dye dissolved liquid laser system. A detailed discussion of the solvent effect in the lasing characteristics of Rh B in different solution is explained along with the computational data

Genomic characterization and epidemiology of an emerging SARS-CoV-2 variant in Delhi, India

Delhi, the national capital of India, experienced multiple severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) outbreaks in 2020 and reached population seropositivity of >50% by 2021. During April 2021, the city became overwhelmed by COVID-19 cases and fatalities, as a new variant, B.1.617.2 (Delta), replaced B.1.1.7 (Alpha). A Bayesian model explains the growth advantage of Delta through a combination of increased transmissibility and reduced sensitivity to immune responses generated against earlier variants (median estimates: 1.5-fold greater transmissibility and 20% reduction in sensitivity). Seropositivity of an employee and family cohort increased from 42% to 87.5% between March and July 2021, with 27% reinfections, as judged by increased antibody concentration after a previous decline. The likely high transmissibility and partial evasion of immunity by the Delta variant contributed to an overwhelming surge in Delhi

Development and comparison of loop mediated isothermal amplification assay and polymerase chain reaction based on major capsid protein gene for detection of CyHV-2 infection in gold fish Carassius auratus (L.)

Cyprinid herpesvirus 2 (CyHV-2) is the etiological agent of goldfish herpesviral haematopoietic necrosis (GHVHN) that caused high economic losses in goldfish aquaculture. In this study, a loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay as well as a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) targeting major capsid protein (MCP) gene of CyHV-2 were standardised and evaluated for detection of CyHV-2. CyHV-2 was purified from infected fantail goldfish fin (FtGF) cells using ultracentrifugation and used as template for developing the diagnostic assays. The new LAMP and PCR assays are highly specific and did not amplify the nucleic acids of other fish pathogens tested, namely spring viraemia of carp virus (SVCV), Cyprinid herpesvirus-3 (CyHV-3), and viral nervous necrosis virus (VNNV), Aeromonas hydrophila, A. veronii, A. caviae, Edwardsiella tarda, Vibrio anguillarum, V. parahaemolyticus, V. harveyi and Proteus hauseri. Among the two assays developed, LAMP was found to be more sensitive, capable of detecting 10 copies of the plasmid construct containing 942 bp fragment of MCP gene of CyHV-2, while PCR could detect only 100 copies. The LAMP assay developed is a simple, rapid and reliable method for detection of CyHV-2 infection which can also be used in field conditions