924 research outputs found

    Quest for Revolt in Joothan by Omprakash Valmiki

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    Omprakash Valmiki, like other writers of autobiographies, articulates the Dalit confrontation in his renowned story, Joothan. He describes every aspect of his disturbing social experiences, unfolding his complete life. Thus, Omprakash Valmiki's Joothan is about the voyage of Dalit discrimination and social boycott. The Valmiki kin is under pressure for schooling and position in the social order. In the meantime, it is also the fairy-tale of a Dalit family unit in search of self-esteem and identity in the Indian Hindu society. Omprakash Valmiki portrayed his life as an untouchable and Dalit in the newly self-governing India. The tale of Joothan refers to scraps of food left on a plate; this is meant for waste and animals. India's untouchables have been obligatory to acknowledge and eat leftovers for centuries, and these terms encompasses the pain, humiliation and poverty of the group of people enforced to survive at the underneath of India's societal pyramid. Although untouchability was abolished in 1949, But Dalits is being unrelenting to face prejudice, economic deficiency, aggression and mockery. Even after attaining Independence, the Dalits had to struggle a long time to get education; Joothan takes it seriously. Valmiki shares his daring resist to escape a prearranged life of steady physical and mental agony and his transformation into a speaking subject under the influence of the great Dalit political manager, BR Ambedkar. An article of the long silenced and long denied sufferings of Dalits, Joothan is a key role to the archives of Dalit history and a proposal for a radical transform of humanity and human consciousness. Dalits are being unrelenting to face unfairness, economic deprivation, hostility and ridicule. This paper is trying to portray the Quest for Revolt in Omprakash Valmiki’s Joothan

    In silico investigation of the mechanism of ricin-catalysed depurination reaction and design of novel ricin inhibitors

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    Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references.Ricin is a dimeric enzyme found in the castor bean plant. It is extremely toxic with a fatal dose for humans ranging from 0.1-1.0 ug/kg. This has lead to its use as a biological weapon. Cell death is caused when ricin ceases the protein synthesis by removing a specific adenine (A-4324) of the GAGA tetra loop of 28S ribosomal RNA. Despite this destructive feature, ricin has been touted as a potential therapeutic agent where applications such as immunotoxins to treat cancer, AIDS and other diseases are actively being pursued. However, the prime challenge in such applications is the non specific cytotoxicity of ricin, which cannot currently be treated due to the absence of an effective antidote. The primary objective of this thesis is to describe the catalytic mechanism of ricin using computational reaction dynamics. For an accurate simulation of the ricin-catalysed reaction, a reasonable model of the target natural substrate is required

    Diversity analysis of phenotypic traits in okra (Abelmoschus esculentus L. Moench)

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    It is necessary to obtain cultivars which provide high yield by exploiting desirable traits from wild genotypes of okra (Abelmoschus esculentus L. Moench). Okra genotypes were evaluated for phenotypic traits during 2018. High genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) and phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) occurred for nine traits and narrow differences between GCV and PCV indicated the influence of environment was negligible. High estimates of heritability, coupled with moderate to high genetic advance as a percent over mean, were recorded for nine traits. Thousand seed weight had a positive, significant, correlation with yield per hectare. Plant height and number of fruits per plant had direct and positive effects towards the yield per hectare The principal component analysis indicated the first 3 principal components contributed 80.517% of total variation among traits describing genotypes. Cluster analysis indicated hybridization of genotypes among inter-cluster I and II could be used to develop stable, uniform varieties in diverse climatic conditions. EC359637 and IARI Selection 2 are distantly placed and can be used for overall improvement in further crop breeding

    IN VITRO RELEASE KINETICS OF SIMVASTATIN FROM METHYL CELLULOSE GEL

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    Objective: a) To estimate the ideal percentage of polymer (methyl cellulose) and the drug (simvastatin) for controlled release gel. b) To evaluate the release kinetics and physical property.Methods: Drug polymer interaction was studied using Differential Scanning Calorimeter (DCS) and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). Simvastatin powder was hydrolysed to active simvastatin hydroxyl acid. Nine gel formulations using three different concentrations of simvastatin (SMV) (1.2%, 1.7% and 2.2%) and three concentration of methyl cellulose (MC) (4%, 5% and 6%) were prepared. Drug release kinetics of 9 formulations was assessed using open end tube method with the dialysis membrane. The physical property was studied using rheometer.Results: DSC and FITR results showed no drug polymer interaction. The release kinetics of all nine formulations was in a controlled manner. 4% MC 2.2% SMV, 5% MC 2.2% SMV, 6% MC 2.2% SMV showed controlled drug release compared to other six formulations. The pH of all the nine formulations ranged between 6.21–6.25. The drug content of each formulation was above 97.9%.Conclusion: This study showed that increase in polymer concentration in the gel increased the controlled release of the drug and addition of the drug to the gel decreased the viscosity of the gel.Â

    An Overview

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    Chapter 1 provides a brief overview of the entire book. It commences by discussing the rationale for government interventions to promote innovation and entrepreneurship in countries around the world. It then proceeds to state the principal aim of the book, which is a systematic, evidence-based investigation of how fiscal and non-fiscal policy instruments have been employed by governments around the world to spur innovation and entrepreneurship. In so doing, the book fills a certain gap in the present literature. Chapter 1 also explains how the book is organized into three sections, namely, overview of government interventions, non-tax incentives and tax incentives. Finally, it highlights the key findings from each of the remaining chapters

    A Novel Approach for Extraction of Design Features Using DXF Files

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    Feature recognition is the key linking element between CAD and CAPP. Different CAD/geometricmodeling packages store the design related information in their own databases. Structures of thesedatabases are different from each other. Automatic Feature Recognition (AFR) is the process ofextracting such feature data for use in the other stages of product life cycle viz., process planning,CNC code generation and inspection etc. This paper presents different algorithms to extract thedesign data stored in the form of Data Exchange Format (DXF) files and to store such data in anorderly form. . A software program is developed in ‘C++’, for extraction of the features (entity)data from the DXF file. The flow chart of the program is given as an appendix. The paperdemonstrates the working of the algorithms using a set of examples

    Changes in liver lipids after administration of 2‐decanoylamino‐3‐morpholinopropiophenone and chlorpromazine

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    The enzyme which forms glucocerebroside, ceramide: UDP‐glucose glucosyltransferase, is inactivated in vitro by a cationic analog of cerebroside, 2‐decanoylamino‐3‐morpholinopropiophenone. A study of the inhibitor using intraperitoneal injection into young mice showed that the level of the enzyme activity in liver was appreciably lowered between 3 and 6 hr after injection. The activity increased subsequently, overshooting the normal level within 24 hr by about 20%, then returning to normal within the next 24 hr. Additional effects observed in liver were an increase in lipid content (primarily in the triglyceride fraction and ceramides) and a decrease in the glucocerebroside level. Body temperature dropped rapidly. Markedly similar effects were produced by injecting chlorpromazine, which was tried in order to reduce the hyperirritability and inhibitory effects on monoamine oxidase previously demonstrated by the glucosyltransferase inhibitor. Chlorpromazine did indeed block the hyperirritability and resulted in enhancement of the keto amine’s effects on the enzyme and lipids. It is possible that the two drugs in combination would be helpful in ameliorating the symptoms due to the cerebroside accumulation that occurs in Gaucher disease. Diazepam also produced a reduced level of glucosyltransferase. A color reaction for chlorpromazine, possibly suitable for quantitative determination in tissues, was accidentally discovered.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/142035/1/lipd0538.pd

    Abiotic controls on macroscale variations of humid tropical forest height

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    Spatial variation of tropical forest tree height is a key indicator of ecological processes associated with forest growth and carbon dynamics. Here we examine the macroscale variations of tree height of humid tropical forests across three continents and quantify the climate and edaphic controls on these variations. Forest tree heights are systematically sampled across global humid tropical forests with more than 2.5 million measurements from Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) satellite observations (2004–2008). We used top canopy height (TCH) of GLAS footprints to grid the statistical mean and variance and the 90 percentile height of samples at 0.5 degrees to capture the regional variability of average and large trees globally. We used the spatial regression method (spatial eigenvector mapping-SEVM) to evaluate the contributions of climate, soil and topography in explaining and predicting the regional variations of forest height. Statistical models suggest that climate, soil, topography, and spatial contextual information together can explain more than 60% of the observed forest height variation, while climate and soil jointly explain 30% of the height variations. Soil basics, including physical compositions such as clay and sand contents, chemical properties such as PH values and cation-exchange capacity, as well as biological variables such as the depth of organic matter, all present independent but statistically significant relationships to forest height across three continents. We found significant relations between the precipitation and tree height with shorter trees on the average in areas of higher annual water stress, and large trees occurring in areas with low stress and higher annual precipitation but with significant differences across the continents. Our results confirm other landscape and regional studies by showing that soil fertility, topography and climate may jointly control a significant variation of forest height and influencing patterns of aboveground biomass stocks and dynamics. Other factors such as biotic and disturbance regimes, not included in this study, may have less influence on regional variations but strongly mediate landscape and small-scale forest structure and dynamics.The research was funded by Gabon National Park (ANPN) under the contract of 011-ANPN/2012/SE-LJTW at UCLA. We thank IIASA, FAO, USGS, NASA, Worldclim science teams for making their data available. (011-ANPN/2012/SE-LJTW - Gabon National Park (ANPN) at UCLA

    Direct and inverse spectral transform for the relativistic Toda lattice and the connection with Laurent orthogonal polynomials

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    We introduce a spectral transform for the finite relativistic Toda lattice (RTL) in generalized form. In the nonrelativistic case, Moser constructed a spectral transform from the spectral theory of symmetric Jacobi matrices. Here we use a non-symmetric generalized eigenvalue problem for a pair of bidiagonal matrices (L,M) to define the spectral transform for the RTL. The inverse spectral transform is described in terms of a terminating T-fraction. The generalized eigenvalues are constants of motion and the auxiliary spectral data have explicit time evolution. Using the connection with the theory of Laurent orthogonal polynomials, we study the long-time behaviour of the RTL. As in the case of the Toda lattice the matrix entries have asymptotic limits. We show that L tends to an upper Hessenberg matrix with the generalized eigenvalues sorted on the diagonal, while M tends to the identity matrix.Comment: 24 pages, 9 figure
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