What really matters? The elusive quality of the material in feminist thought

The concept of the 'material' was the focus of much feminist work in the 1970s. It has always been a deeply contested one, even for feminists working within a broadly materialist paradigm of the social. Materialist feminists stretched the concept of the material beyond the narrowly economic in their attempts to develop a social ontology of gender and sexuality. Nonetheless, the quality of the social asserted by an expanded sense of the material - its 'materiality' - remains ambiguous. New terminologies of materiality and materialization have been developed within post-structuralist feminist thought and the literature on embodiment. The quality of 'materiality' is no longer asserted - as in materialist feminisms - but is problematized through an implicit deferral of ontology in these more contemporary usages, forcing us to interrogate the limits of both materialist and post-structuralist forms of constructionism. What really matters is how these newer terminologies of 'materiality' and 'materialization' induce us to develop a fuller social ontology of gender and sexuality; one that weaves together social, cultural, experiential and embodied practices

High Temperature Thermal Expansion Studies of Pure UO2, Gd2O3 & of UO2-1.5 w/o Gd2O3 Solid Solution

1096-109

A Mini-Review: Comparison between curcumin and tetrahydrocurcumin based on their activities

Curcumin, a natural ingredient present in turmeric rhizome is known for its various therapeutic activities such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, antidiabetic, NF-kB activation suppresser. The hydrogenated derivative of curcumin, i.e., tetrahydrocurcumin, is also found to reveal the same activities. Moreover, the pro-oxidant effect of curcumin is reported, whereas tetrahydrocurcumin does not show any pro-oxidant effects. This contrasting behaviour of the two is attributed to their structures, because conjugation is involved only in curcumin, not in the tetrahydrocurcumin. It can be evidently concluded that double bonds affect the keto-enol ratio of the molecules and are therefore responsible for the degradation of curcumin, whereas tetrahydrocurcumin remains stable. Nevertheless, these double bonds are liable to affect the kinetics of beneficial activities of curcumin and tetrahydrocurcumin

Gastro-intestinal helminths of pigeons (Columba livia) in Gujarat, India

A study was conducted to assess the prevalence of helmith parasites of domestic wild and zoo pigeons in Gujarat, India by faecal sampling and postmortem examination. Qualitative examination of 78 faecal samples revealed 71 (91%) with parasitic infections of nematodes (85%), cestodes (31%) and Eimeria sp (77%). There were 200-1600 nematode eggs per gram during the monsoon season, which was high compared to the 200-1000 eggs per gram in winter and summer. In post-mortems 85% had parasitic infections, of nematodes (75%), cestodes (69%) and Eimeria sp (58%). Two species of nematodes (Ascaridia columbae and Capillaria obsignata) and five species of three genera of cestodes (Raillietina echinobothridia, R. tetragona, R. cesticillus, Cotugnia digonophora and Hymenolepis sp) were identified. Despite their parasitic infections, not a single pigeon revealed any alarming clinical signs

Studies on gastro-intestinal helminths of Equus acinus in North Gujarat, India

A year round study (October to September) was conducted in the districts of North Gujarat (India) to identify the gastro-intestinal helminths of donkeys (Equus acinus), determine prevalence and correlate haematological parameters with parasite burdens. A total of 1794 faecal samples of donkeys contained the following helminths (prevalence % in brackets): Strongyloides westeri (17.2), Parascaris equorum (23.8), Strongylus sp. (55.3), an amphistome digenean (1.5), Anoplocephala sp. (1.0), Balantidium coli (13.1) and Eimeria leuckarti (7.0). Overall prevalence was 75.9 with a mean of 627 (50-1650) eggs per gram faeces. Seasonally the maximum prevalence (85.3) occurred in March and minimum (65.2) in July. 14% of donkeys were considered to be severely infected, 38% heavily, 36% moderately and 12% mildly infected. Larval cultures revealed the presence of (prevalence%): Cyathostomum sp. (48), Gyalocephalus sp. (8), Oesophagodontus sp. (6), Triodontophorus sp. (10), Strongyloides westeri (10), Strongylus vulgaris (30), Strongylus equines (40) and S. edentatus (30). Hematological indices were inversely proportional to epg counts.Keywords: donkeys, gastro-intestinal parasites, haematology, prevalence

A transaction execution model for mobile computing environments

A mobile computing environment is characterized by limited execution capability at the mobile hosts, low bandwidth and the relatively high costs of wireless connection, and frequent disconnections and mobility of the mobile hosts. Such an environment naturally suggests an optimistic mode of execution, where the mobile host caches data and does the computation in disconnected mode and, on reconnection, the transaction is either committed or aborted based on the current values in the fixed network. -- We propose a new transaction execution model, based on optimistic concurrency control mechanism, which dynamically adjusts the transaction execution status at the mobile host to be consistent with the database state on the mobile support station. This increases the possibility of the transaction to commit successfully and hence makes the computation on the mobile host more meaningful. A detailed algorithm is presented and its adaptability to various aspects of the mobile environment discussed. -- We further strengthen the computation at the mobile host by facilitating partial guarantee against invalidation. This is accomplished by using a flexible concurrency control scheme which integrates optimistic and pessimistic approaches to access data items based on Read/Write and Write/Write-conflicts. -- Keywords: Mobile computing; Transaction processing; Concurrency control; Optimistic approach; Re-execution

High Temperature Behaviour of Strontium Uranates

192-19

Effect of prepregnancy body mass index and gestational weight gain on birth weight

Objective: Nutritional status of women has been considered an important prognostic indicator of birth outcome. The study aims to show the effect of various prepregnancy Body Mass Index (BMI) categories and corresponding gestational weight gain on newborn birth weight.Methods: Two hundred women were included in the study. These women had regular antenatal visits and later delivered at The Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH) between the period January 1, 1996 to December 31, 1997.Results: For women with prepregnancy BMI \u3c 19., mean birth weight of newborns was lower for those gaining \u3c 12.5 kg than those gaining \u3e 12.5 kg (P \u3c 0.001). Women who started their pregnancy with BMI 19.8-26 and gained weight above expected range gave birth to high birth weight babies (P = 0.009). Gestational weight gain did not have a significant association with birth weight for women having prepregnancy BMI \u3e 26.Conclusion: Efforts should be made to attain adequate prepregnancy weight to reduce the likelihood of low birth weight babies. Hence, special attention should be paid to women with low prepregnancy BMI

Pharmacological investigation of selected medicinal plants of Bangladesh

Purpose: To pharmacologically investigate the methanol and petroleum ether extracts of the plant leaves of Manilkara zapota (MZME and MZPE, respectively), Abroma augusta (AAME and AAPE, respectively) and Vitex negundo (VNME and VNPE, respectively).Methods: Analgesic and anti-diarrheal activities were assessed by acetic acid-induced writhing and castor oil-induced diarrhea in mice, respectively, while CNS depressant activity was evaluated using hole-cross and open-field method by observing the decrease in exploratory behavior and spontaneous motor activity in mice, respectively.Results: All the extracts exhibited good analgesic activity at a dose of 200 mg/kg with the following rank order of activity: MZME > MZPE > VNME > VNPE > AAME > AAPE. Analgesic activity was insignificant at 100 mg/kg dose except for VNPE (67.81 % inhibition). The extracts produced significant reduction in diarrheal episodes in mice at a dose of 400 mg/kg MZPE (highest protection: 80.3 %, p < 0.05) and VNME (lowest protection: 38.6 %, p < 0.001). The extracts demonstrated CNS depressant activity in a dose-dependent manner (p < 0.05 compared to the standard except for AAME and AAPE which showed insignificant activity).Conclusion: The results indicate that the traditional use of the investigated plants appears to be justified; however, further studies are required to unravel the underlying mechanisms of action.Keywords: Manilkara zapota, Abroma augusta, Vitex negundo, Analgesic, Central nervous system depressant, Anti-diarrhoea