The status of shepherds in the novel ‘Keethari’

The author of the novel 'Keethari' is S. Tamilselvi. The introductory message about the novelist summarizes all the details about education, work, marriage, family, and arrival to the field of writing. In this novel, the shepherds lead a nomadic life due to the occupational system. Due to their sheep herding occupations, nature leads them to live a nomadic life in search of grazing and water. Men and women are engaged in sheep herding without any discrimination. Therefore, the habits of the shepherds change accordingly. The diets of the shepherds' lives are also structured to suit the nomadic life. In that way, the artifacts used by the shepherds are also different from the artifacts of the common people. Some professional beliefs are found among the shepherds when steering sheep. Marriage is one of the major turning points in human life. At such an important juncture in the life of the bridegroom, he has to go to the shepherd. Therefore, in the life of the shepherds, instead of the bridegroom, they perform the wedding rites with the shepherd's crook. The article sets out to explore the rituals, stories, songs, deities worshiped by the shepherds, the blessings bestowed on the shepherds by Parvathi and Lord Shiva, and the manifestation of the shepherds' kindness in their daily troubles of the shepherds

Impact of microvariability on classification and management of peatlands in Asia

Globally, wetlands occupy about 18.96 x 106 km2, of which 2% is made up of organic soils. In Asia, about 2.2 million km2 (~ 1.0%) of the land surface comprises peat or Histosols. The current global approach to agriculture places considerable emphasis on environmental quality, conservation of biodiversity and preservation of ecosystem while striving to achieve sustainable production in agroecosystems. In Asia, land use on the peatlands is low-input subsistence-based systems. In a few countries, such as Malaysia and Indonesia, rubber and oil-palm are cultivated on a plantation scale. Subsistence-based agricultural systems, understandably, would not be able to provide the level of input required for sustainable management of peat lands. The knowledge base for such systems is highly traditional in nature and is therefore vulnerable to the uncontrolled changes that occur in the evolution of the agro-ecosystem. Commercial-based agricultural systems appear to thrive in areas dominated by shallow peat. This system is technology-based, has a greater control over changes that may occur within the system but is perhaps still not in harmony with nature. Ignorance of the functions and value of such areas has lead to many forms of degradation. Therefore, sustainable development of the peat soils requires not only a holistic approach to the management but also dictates the need for a paradigm shift in resource characterization, research trends and land use policies.The paper elaborates on the paradigm shift in sustainable land management system and advocates a holistic approach wherein agronomic factors, environmental considerations as well as the much de-emphasized socioeconomic aspects, are all integrated into new research approaches. Research strategies needed to ensure sustainable agricultural development of organic soils include the urgent need for innovative measures to characterize the resource, evaluating and monitoring soil quality, assessing the potential of peat lands to release methane and other greenhouse gases upon drainage, and assessing the integrity of the ecosystem. Issues pertaining to productivity, assisting in the design of rational policies for development, promoting preservation of heritage, inculcating the ownership concept and developing better methods to gauge the economic viability of such projects are additional important factors that ensure sustainability. The most important factor differentiating peatlands from their mineral counterparts is microvariability; this, specifically in the context of small farms had not been addressed adequately and requires innovative approaches and technologies. Conventional soil surveys must be augmented with more innovative techniques as current methods suffer from various kinds of limitations

Synchronization analysis of the uterine magnetic activity during contractions

BACKGROUND: Our objective was to quantify and compare the extent of synchronization of the spatial-temporal myometrial activity over the human uterus before and during a contraction using transabdominal magnetomyographic (MMG) recordings. Synchronization can be an important indicator for the quantification of uterine contractions. METHODS: The spatialtermporal myometrial activity recordings were performed using a 151-channel noninvasive magnetic sensor system called SARA. This device covers the entire pregnant abdomen and records the magnetic field corresponding to the electrical activity generated in the uterine myometrium. The data was collected at 250 samples/sec and was resampled with 25 samples/sec and then filtered in the band of 0.1–0.2 Hz to study the primary magnetic activity of the uterus related to contractions. The synchronization between a channel pair was computed. It was inferred from a statistical tendency to maintain a nearly constant phase difference over a given period of time even though the analytic phase of each channel may change markedly during that time frame. The analytic phase was computed after taking Hilbert transform of the magnetic field data. The process was applied on the pairs of magnetic field traces (240 sec length) with a stepping window of 20 sec duration which is long enough to cover two cycle of the lowest frequency of interest (0.1 Hz). The analysis was repeated by stepping the window at 10 sec intervals. The spatial patterns of the synchronization indices covering the anterior transabdominal area were computed. For this, regional coil-pairs were used. For a given coil, the coil pairs were constructed with the surrounding six coils. The synchronization indices were computed for each coil pair, averaged over the 21 coil-pairs and then assigned as the synchronization index to that particular coil. This procedure was tested on six pregnant subjects at the gestational age between 29 and 40 weeks admitted to the hospital for contractions. The RMS magnetic field for each coil was also computed. RESULTS: The results show that the spatial patterns of the synchronization indices change and follow the periodic pattern of the uterine contraction cycle. Spatial patterns of synchronization indices and the RMS magnetic fields show similarities in few window frames and also show large differences in few other windows. For six subjects, the average synchronization indices were: 0.346 ± 0.068 for the quiescent baseline period and 0.545 ± 0.022 at the peak of the contraction. DISCUSSION: These results show that synchronization indices and their spatial distributions depict uterine contractions and relaxations

Vascular Disease Patient Information Page: Livedoid vasculopathy

What is livedoid vasculopathy (LV)? Livedoid vasculopathy, or LV, is a chronic skin condition characterized by small, painful sores that come and go over the legs and feet. ‘Livedoid’ refers to the bluish skin discoloration that often accompanies these sores. ‘Vasculopathy’ means a disease of the blood vessels. LV has been called different names such as livedoid vasculitis and atrophie blanche. LV is a rare disease, occurring in less than one in 100,000 people per year

Dust in Brown Dwarfs IV. Dust formation and driven turbulence on mesoscopic scales

Dust formation in brown dwarf atmospheres is studied by utilising a model for driven turbulence in the mesoscopic scale regime. We apply a pseudo-spectral method where waves are created and superimposed within a limited wavenumber interval. The turbulent kinetic energy distribution follows the Kolmogoroff spectrum which is assumed to be the most likely value. Such superimposed, stochastic waves may occur in a convectively active environment. They cause nucleation fronts and nucleation events and thereby initiate the dust formation process which continues until all condensible material is consumed. Small disturbances are found to have a large impact on the dust forming system. An initially dust-hostile region, which may originally be optically thin, becomes optically thick in a patchy way showing considerable variations in the dust properties during the formation process. The dust appears in lanes and curls as a result of the interaction with waves, i.e. turbulence, which form larger and larger structures with time. Aiming on a physical understanding of the variability of brown dwarfs, related to structure formation in substellar atmospheres, we work out first necessary criteria for small-scale closure models to be applied in macroscopic simulations of dust forming astrophysical systems.Comment: A&A accepted, 20 page

Livedoid vasculopathy: A review with focus on terminology and pathogenesis

Livedoid vasculopathy (LV) is a rare thrombotic vasculopathy of the dermis characterized by painful, relapsing ulcers over the lower extremities. Diagnosis is challenging due to the overlap in clinical appearance and nomenclature with other skin disorders. Treatment selection is complicated by poor understanding of the pathogenesis of LV and lack of robust clinical trials evaluating therapy efficacy. The terminology and pathophysiology of LV are reviewed here, along with its epidemiology, clinical and histologic features, and treatment options. A diagnostic pathway is suggested to guide providers in evaluating for comorbidities, referring to appropriate specialists, and choosing from the available classes of therapy

Improved management of Vertisols in the semiarid tropics for increased productivity and soil carbon sequestration

This study was undertaken to test the hypothesis that an improved system of catchment management in combination with appropriate cropping practices can sustain increased crop production and improve soil quality of Vertisols, compared with prevailing traditional farming practices. Initiated in 1976, the improved system consisted of integrated land management to conserve soil and water, with excess rainwater being removed in a controlled manner. This was combined with improved crop rotation (legume based) and integrated nutrient management. In the traditional system, sorghum or chickpea was grown in the post-rainy season with organic fertilizers, and in the rainy season the field was maintained as a cultivated fallow. The average grain yield of the improved system over 24 years was 4.7 t ha−1 yr−1, nearly a five-fold increase over the traditional system (about 1 t ha−1 yr−1). There was also evidence of increased organic C, total N and P, available N, P and K, microbial biomass C and N in the soil of the improved system. A positive relationship between soil available P and soil organic C suggested that application of P to Vertisols increased carbon sequestration by 7.4 t C ha−1 and, in turn, the productivity of the legume-based system, thus ultimately enhancing soil quality

Synthesis, characterization and biological activity of novel Cu(II) complexes of 6-methyl-2-oxo-1,2-dihydroquinoline-3-carbaldehy de-4N-substituted thiosemicarbazones

Three new 6-methyl-2-oxo-1,2-dihydroquinoline-3-carbaldehyde-thiosemicarbazones-N-4-substituted pro-ligands and their Cu(II) complexes (1, -NH2; 2, -NHMe; 3, -NHEt) have been prepared and characterized. In both the X-ray structures of 1 and 3, two crystallographically independent complex molecules were found that differ either in the nature of weakly metal-binding species (water in 1a and nitrate in 1b) or in the co-ligand (water in 3a and methanol in 3b). Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) measurements carried out on complexes 1 and 3 confirmed the presence of such different species in the solution. The electrochemical behavior of the pro-ligands and of the complexes was investigated, as well as their biological activity. Complexes 2 and 3 exhibited a high cytotoxicity against human tumor cells and 3D spheroids derived from solid tumors, related to the high cellular uptake. Complexes 2 and 3 also showed a high selectivity towards cancerous cell lines with respect to non-cancerous cell lines and were able to circumvent cisplatin resistance. Via the Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) imaging technique, preliminary insights into the biological activity of copper complexes were obtained