Early English travellers in India: a study in the travel literature of the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods with particular reference to India

The narratives of travel and exploration written by the English voyagers and merchant adventurers who visited India during 1579 -1630 are of great literary and historical value for many reasons. For the first time they brought the ordinary Englishman in contact with the peoples of the East and made it possible for tradesmen to see through the mind's eye new and unlooked -for splendours in the Indies, the glamour of the Mughal court, or the power of the Great Turk. The common man found in the narratives of travel not only a romantic literature more fascinating than fiction, but a call to personal adventure. These were the stories, not of King Arthur or of fabulous knights, but of men who had lived and had their being in Elizabethan England. To any apprentice might come adventures that would have dazzled even Guy of Warwick -, as Captain John Smith2 himself had witnessed. Nor was rhetorical decoration needed to adorn these tales. The plain narratives were sufficiently attractive without adornment. No one has yet appraised the influence on modern English prose of the matter -of -fact relations of the voyagers; but merely as evidence of the development towards verbal simplicity many of these accounts deserve the study of literary historians. Out of utilitarian works on geography and the homespun narratives of merchants and seamen grew a vast literature, perhaps more completely than any other inspired by and appealing to the middle class. For the modern reader, these narratives not only throw considerable light on one of the most crucial periods of Indian history, but also reveal the beginnings and gradual growth of English power in the East. Compiled by men to whom everything in India was new and strange, they form a valuable supplement to the records of the native chroniclers; for the latter took for granted many local institutions and customs unfamiliar to Europeans, and all too often sacrificed objectivity to eulogies of the reigning sovereign.The number of English visitors to India during this period was remarkably large, and for this reason, detailed examination of all of them is outside the scope of such a study as this. In order to avoid swelling the dimensions of this already lengthy work to unreasonable proportions, I have omitted all but a few absolutely important travellers and have employed the word 'traveller' to signify only those who left extensive records of their experiences in India. Amongst them, how - ever, I have included, at the very outset, a Jesuit who is hardly a traveller except in an extended sense of the word, since no account of the early British transactions in the East can be deemed complete unless some notice is taken of this pioneer of British `gravel to India. The importance of Fr. Stephens (for this was the name of the Jesuit in question), which has led me to devote one full chapter to him, will be sufficiently clear in the following pages, but the particular circumstance which has made his inclusion imperative is the fact that he is little known in this country, whereas he deserves to be much better known by his countrymen, perhaps as well known as some of the distinguished poets of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries or the Orientalists of later ages.From what we have seen..., it is clear that although there were notions current about Indian people, Indian traits, Indian climate, long before there was any regular contact between England and India, precise information about the latter began to find its way into Europe after the discovery of the Cape route, and into England after the return of the British pioneers, such as Ralph Fitch, Newberry, etc. The modern European knows much about India, and in this sense at least these early travel -accounts may appear to be outdated; but their importance lies in the fact that they throw considerable light on the India of the great Mughals and that their writers had a certain advantage over the chroniclers of the court. Having nothing to fear or to expect from the powers that were, they could fearlessly tell the unvarnished truth regardless of official frowns or favours. Having come from other lands, they recorded with meticulous care matters seemingly unimportant which a native of India would ordinarily have dismissed as commonplace. Moreover, their narratives and journals have been drawn upon by English poets and prose- writers, some of whom read them extensively and thus broadened and enriched both their knowledge of the world and their general outlook on life. Through these accounts accessions were made to the English language of many Hindi, Arabic and Persian words.It is these travellers, sailors and sea- captains who ask us Indians not to be led too far astray by complacent dreans of the days of glory that are no more, but to see and realize our most degrading varieties of superstition, our most grotesque forms of idolatry. They had no desire to hide things. They spoke more plainly than we do, and far more strongly, and they believed, as we do, that what we think of ourselves is not necessarily what the world thinks of us

Differential Power Analysis attack of CLEFIA Block cipher

The objective of this research work is to mount Side channel attack particularly power analysis attack on FPGA Hardware implementation of CLEFIA block cipher. CLEFIA is claimed to be reliable cipher. CLEFIA specifications and design of algorithm is available to evaluation by public, cryptographers for performance and security analysis. CLEFIA is an international standardized cipher in ISO/IEC lightweight cryptography. It has four branch generalized Feistel network structure. This structure can be implemented compactly in both in hardware and software. CLEFIA consists of Diffusion Switching Mechanism, which ensures immunity against major attacks. Moreover, the similarity of functions between the data processing part and the key scheduling part of CLEFIA reduces the gate size

Effect of nitrate metal (Ce, Cu, Mn and Co) precursors for the total oxidation of carbon monoxide

The ambient temperature carbon monoxide oxidation is one of the important topics in the present scenario. In this paper, we prepared various types of catalysts from the precursors of cobalt nitrate, cerium nitrate, copper nitrate and manganese nitrate for the oxidation of CO. Among the prepared catalysts, the cerium nitrate precursor showed the best performance for CO oxidation at low temperature. The activity of the catalysts was measured in different calcination conditions like stagnant air, flowing air and reactive calcination (4.5% CO in air). The activity test was done in the reactor under the following reaction conditions: 100 mg of catalyst, 2.5% CO in the air and the reaction temperature was increased from ambient to a higher value at which complete oxidation of CO was achieved. The characterization of the catalyst was done by several techniques like XRD, FTIR, SEM-EDX, XPS and BET. The order of activity for different catalysts was as follows: Ce-Oxide > Mn-Oxide > Cu-Oxide > Co-Oxide

Effect of Preparation Conditions on the Catalytic Activity of CuMnOx Catalysts for CO Oxidation

The hopcalite (CuMnOx) catalyst is a well-known catalyst for oxidation of CO at ambient temperature. It has prepared by co-precipitation method and the preparation parameters were like Copper/Manganese (Cu:Mn) molar ratios, drying temperature, drying time, calcination temperature and calcination time has an influence on activity of the resultant catalyst. The activity of the catalyst was measured in flowing air calcinations (FAC) conditions. The reaction temperature was increased from ambient to a higher value at which complete oxidation of CO was achieved. The particle size, weight of catalyst and CO flow rate in the air were also influenced by the activity of the catalyst for CO oxidation. The characterizations of the catalysts were done by several techniques like XRD, FTIR, BET, SEM-EDX and XPS. These results were interpreted in terms of the structure of the active catalyst. The main aim of this paper was to identify the optimum preparation conditions of CuMnOx catalyst with respect to the performance of catalyst for CO oxidation. Copyright © 2017 BCREC Group. All rights reserved Received: 9th January 2017; Revised: 24th May 2017; Accepted: 25th May 2017; Available online: 27th October 2017; Published regularly: December 2017 How to Cite: Dey, S., Dhal, G.C., Mohan, D., Prasad, R. (2017). Effect of Preparation Conditions on the Catalytic Activity of CuMnOx Catalysts for CO Oxidation. Bulletin of Chemical Reaction Engineering & Catalysis, 12 (3): 431-451 (doi:10.9767/bcrec.12.3.900.437-451

Simultaneous Control of NOx-Soot by Substitutions of Ag and K on Perovskite (LaMnO3) Catalyst

The different Ag and K substituted perovskite catalysts including base catalyst were LaMnO3 by the solid state method and the diesel soot was prepared in the laboratory. Their structures and physico-chemical properties were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), BET, SEM, H2-TPR, and XPS techniques. The Ag Substituted at A-site perovskite structured catalysts are more active than other type of catalysts for the simultaneous soot-NOX reaction, When Ag and K are simultaneously introduced into LaMnO3 catalyst, soot combustion is largely accelerated, with the temperature (Tm) for maximal soot conversion lowered by at least 50 °C, moreover, NOX reduction by soot is also facilitated. The high activity of La0.65Ag0.35MnO3 perovskite catalyst is attributed to presence of metallic silver in the catalyst. The activity order of Ag doped LaMnO3 is as follows La0.65Ag0.35MnO3 > La0.65Ag0.2MnO3 > La0.65Ag0.4MnO3 > La0.65Ag0.1MnO3. The dual substitution of silver and potassium in place of La in LaMnO3 gives better activity than only silver doped catalyst. In a series of La0.65AgxK1-xMnO3, the optimum substitution amount of K is for x=0.25. The single and doubled substituted perovskite catalyst proved to be effective in the simultaneous removal of NOX and soot particulate, the two prevalent pollutants in diesel exhaust gases in the temperature range 350-480 °C.

Effect of Preparation Conditions on the Catalytic Activity of CuMnOx Catalysts for CO Oxidation

The hopcalite (CuMnOx) catalyst is a well-known catalyst for oxidation of CO at ambient temperature. It has prepared by co-precipitation method and the preparation parameters were like Copper/Manganese (Cu:Mn) molar ratios, drying temperature, drying time, calcination temperature and calcination time has an influence on activity of the resultant catalyst. The activity of the catalyst was measured in flowing air calcinations (FAC) conditions. The reaction temperature was increased from ambient to a higher value at which complete oxidation of CO was achieved. The particle size, weight of catalyst and CO flow rate in the air were also influenced by the activity of the catalyst for CO oxidation. The characterizations of the catalysts were done by several techniques like XRD, FTIR, BET, SEM-EDX and XPS. These results were interpreted in terms of the structure of the active catalyst. The main aim of this paper was to identify the optimum preparation conditions of CuMnOx catalyst with respect to the performance of catalyst for CO oxidation.

Study of Hopcalite (CuMnOx) Catalysts Prepared Through A Novel Route for the Oxidation of Carbon Monoxide at Low Temperature

Carbon monoxide (CO) is a poisonous gas, recognized as a silent killer. The gas is produced by incomplete combustion of carbonaceous fuel. Recent studies have shown that hopcalite group is one of the promising catalysts for CO oxidation at low temperature. In this study, hopcalite (CuMnOx) catalysts were prepared by KMnO4 co-precipitation method followed by washing, drying the precipitate at different temperatures (22, 50, 90, 110, and 120 oC) for 12 h in an oven and subsequent calcination at 300 oC in stagnant air, flowing air and in a reactive gas mixture of (4.5% CO in air) to do the reactive calcination (RC). The prepared catalysts were characterized by XRD, FTIR, SEM-EDX, XPS, and BET techniques. The activity of the catalysts was evaluated in a tubular reactor under the following conditions: 100 mg catalyst, 2.5% CO in air, total flow rate 60 mL/min and temperature varying from ambient to a higher value, at which complete oxidation of CO was achieved. The order of calcination strategies based on activity for hopcalite catalysts was observed to be as: RC > flowing air > stagnant air. In the kinetics study of CuMnOx catalyst prepared in RC conditions the frequency factor and activation energy were found to be 5.856×105 (g.mol)/(gcat.h) and 36.98 kJ/gmol, respectively.

Effects of Doping on the Performance of CuMnOx Catalyst for CO Oxidation

The rare earth-doped CuMnOx catalysts were prepared by co-precipitation method. The CuMnOx catalyst was doped with (1.5 wt.%) CeOx, (1.0 wt.%) AgOx, and (0.5 wt.%) of AuOx by the dry deposition method. After the precipitation, filtration, and washing process, drying the sample at 110 oC for 16 hr in an oven and calcined at 300 oC temperature for 2 h in the furnace at stagnant air calcination condition. The influence of doping on the structural properties of the catalyst has enhanced the activity of the catalyst for CO oxidation. The doping of noble metals was not affected the crystal structure of the CuMnOx catalyst but changed the planar spacing, adsorption performance, and reaction performance. The catalysts were characterized by Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface are, Scanning Electron Microscope Energy Dispersive X-ray (SEM-EDX), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), and Fourier Transform Infra Red (FTIR) techniques.  The results showed that doping metal oxides (AgOx, AuOx, and CeOx) into CuMnOx catalyst can enhance the CO adsorption ability of the catalyst which was confirmed by different types of characterization technique.

Mask mandates and COVID-19: A Re-analysis of the Boston school mask study

Background: A recent epidemiological analysis of staggered policy implementation reported a 29.4% reduction in COVID-19 cases by maintaining school mask mandates in the greater Boston area during the first half of 2022. The robustness of their results and the appropriateness of methodology are explored. Methods: Using data from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, we re-analyze differences in COVID-19 incidence in school districts that did and did not lift mask mandates using the same districts as the original study and expanded the analysis to the entire state of Massachusetts. We present changes in case rates and differences in prior immunity in areas with different mask lifting policies. Results: The Boston and Chelsea districts, which maintained mask mandates, were outliers in terms of size, demographics, and testing. We failed to find a notable change in student cases in mask mandate districts compared with the 70 districts in the original study (-0.08/1000; p=0.98) and found a slight increase compared with a statewide control group +3.63/1000 (p=0.291). Results were similar for students and staff combined. Districts that dropped mask mandates first experienced the largest decreases in cases (22% drop vs 12% in the masked districts). There was a moderate to strong relationship (R2 = 0.35-0.66; p-values <0.001) between prior community infection burden and district case rates in Spring 2022, with prior immunity alone explaining as much as two-thirds of the variation in case rates in Spring of 2022. Conclusions: We fail to find any consistent notable negative relationship between school mask mandates and infection rates in the Greater Boston Area or state of Massachusetts during the 2021-2022 academic year.Comment: 37 pages including supplement. 3 figures and 2 tables in main text. 4 figures in the supplementary materia