Feminist Psyche in Anita Desai’s Where Shall We Go This Summer: A Study in Neurosis

The outburst of feminism throughout the world was not a matter of chance, but the natural corollary of centuries of struggle for woman's rights. In this context, Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman is the landmark which can be regarded as the manifesto of modern feminism. Incidentally, in the same period some women writers in England, Fenny Burney, Maria Edgeworth and Jane Austen and others came out of the obscure, suffocating shell and presented life and art from the point of view of women. They accentuated the importance of social life centered upon women and demonstrated it as significant as a subject matter as any other so far treated in literature. With the rise of feminism in India in the 70s, the feminist literary critics came to believe that women had to create a literature of their own, in which the feminine sensibility could consider and confront the peculiarly feminine issues and experiences. It was essential to do so, because a large part of the feminine experience is out of the reach of male psyche and, therefore, an authentic and sensitive portrayal of the conflicts and traumas, in all their nuances, ambiguities and contradictions could be achieved only by women writers. Through these female writer's works one can observe a clear picture of women in flash and blood with a distinct mind of their own

Statistical optimization of the Zinc chloride activated biomass using Box-Behnken design

483-493The preparation of activated carbon from an economically sustainable precursor Limonia acidissima shell (an agricultural waste) by chemical activation method has been explored in the present study. This investigation emphasizes the application of a statistical tool, Response surface methodology (RSM) coupled with Box-Behnken design (BBD) to optimize the experimental conditions for the preparation of activated carbon from lignocellulosic wastes activated with ZnCl2. The chemical activation is conducted at a different combination of impregnation ratios (IR), activation time and carbonization temperatures as suggested by the Design Expert software. The influences of these parameters on the responses i.e. iodine no. and yield of activated carbon has been investigated. Simultaneous optimization is performed using desirability approach. The desirability value reported for AC-ZnCl2 is 0.653. The carbon yield and iodine adsorption value approached 49.67% and 928.58 mg/g under the optimal conditions of impregnation ratio (1), activation time(57.09 min),and carbonization temperature (436.52°C). Important physicochemical properties of the optimized activated carbon is further confirmed by FTIR analysis, TEM analysis etc

A CLINICAL STUDY TO EVALUATE THE EFFECT OF SHANKHPUSHPYADI YOGA IN THE MANAGEMENT OF VYANBALVRIDDHI W.S.R. TO HYPERTENSION

Changing lifestyle is responsible for increase in number of people suffering from Hypertension, Stress, Diabetes mellitus, Obesity, Heart ailments and other Non Communicable diseases. Among these life-style disorders hypertension is an important public health challenge worldwide. The disease Hypertension has no such clear cut reference in Ayurvedic texts. Eminent Ayurvedic scholar Vaidhya Brihaspati Dev Triguna Padam Vibhushan correlated high blood pressure with Vyana BalaVridhi. He postulated that increased Vyana Bala is responsible for increased Arterial pressure. Present study was conducted to explore evidence based therapeutic potential of Shankhpushpyadi Yoga in the management of Vyan Bal Vriddhi w.s.r. to Hypertension. The patients fulfilling the inclusion criteria and voluntarily wiling for trial were registered from O.P.D. & I.P.D. Dept. of Kayachikitsa R.G.G.P.G.AYU Hospital, Paprola. The Clinical trial was approved by I.E.C. The trial formulation contains Hydroalcoholic extract of Shankhpushpi 150 mg, Bhumyamlaki 250 mg, Punarnava 200 mg, Jatamanshi and Sarpagandha 100 mg each.  Clinical trial was of 45 days and total 30 patients were registered for the same.After45days analysis revealed that out of 30 patients, 4 patients showed excellent improvement,15 showed marked, 7 showed mild improvement and no improvement was noted in 2 patients. The mean systolic blood pressure before treatment was 148.71 mm of Hg which dropped to 140.14 mm of Hg at the end of 45 days therapy, with 5.28% reduction. The mean diastolic blood pressure before treatment was 95 mm of Hg which dropped to 87.142 mm of Hg at completion of trial with 8.27% reduction which was statistically significant.  Shankhpushpyadi yoga proved to be an effective and safe remedy for patients of Hypertension.&nbsp

DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF STABILITY INDICATING ASSAY FOR GRISEOFULVIN BY RP-HPLC IN TABLET DOSAGE FORM

Objective: To development and validation of a stability indicating reverse phase HPLC (RP-HPLC) method for the analysis of griseofulvin, an antifungal drug, and its assay method, in tablet dosage forms.Methods: The proposed RP-HPLC method utilizes Shiseido C18, 250 mm × 4.6 mm i.d., 5μ column (at ambient temperature), isocratic run [using Methanol and Water (70:30) as mobile phase], at a flow rate of 1.0 ml/minute, and UV detection at 291 nm for analysis of griseofulvin. This method was selected after applying different chromatographic conditions, the chromatographic variables like flow rate, the composition of mobile phase and nature of stationary phase were studied.Results: The reported method is linear over the range of 0.1-1.2μg/ml with a coefficient of correlation (r2) value 0.9998, slope 274.9 and intercepts 19093. The precision study revealed that the percentage relative standard deviation was within the acceptable limit and the mean recovery was found to be between 98%-102%. Griseofulvin was exposed to acidic, alkaline, oxidative, thermal and photolytic stress conditions and the sample was taken at different time intervals. The stressed samples were analyzed by the proposed method. The proposed method can be used for routine analysis stability testing and assay of griseofulvin in quality control laboratories.Conclusion: An economical, accurate, sensitive and precise HPLC method with ultraviolet detection was developed and fully validated for quality control analysis of griseofulvin in tablets. The proposed method is very rapid, where the total analytical run time is 5.16 minute.Keywords: RP-HPLC, Method validation, Griseofulvin, Estimatio

Composite conchal loss from Bluetooth headset device: An interesting case report

It is a well-known fact that talking on the phone while driving increases the risk of an accident. Bluetooth headset provides simple and uncomplicated route to hands-free communication. While driving, the use of hands-free phone devices such as earpieces and Bluetooth headset is equally as dangerous as talking on a cell phone normally. Here, we are reporting a very unique case of a 25-year-old male who sustained severe ear injury (full-thickness conchal defect of the size of earpiece of Bluetooth headset device; a very unusual mechanism of injury) in a road traffic accident while wearing a Bluetooth headset device. Two-stage repair was done using a retroauricular flap for full-thickness conchal defect. The post-operative cosmetic outcome achieved by this technique was satisfactory

Daughter Preference and Contraceptive-use in Matrilineal Tribal Societies in Meghalaya, India

Although son preference in patrilineal society is an established fact, daughter preference in matrilineal society is not thoroughly examined. Very few studies have been carried out on the issue. This paper attempts to explore the daughter preference and contraceptive-use in matrilineal tribal societies in Meghalaya, India. Data from the National Family Health Survey 1998-1999 have been used in this study because, among the large-scale surveys, only this dataset allows identification of matrilineal sample. Mean, percentage, and standard deviation are computed in the present study. Further, the data have been cross-tabulated, and logistic regression has been run through SPSS (version 15). Among the ever-married matrilineal women, 17% desired more sons than daughters but 18.2% desired more daughters than sons. About 11% of ever-married women could achieve their desired sex composition of children. However, a very striking finding suggests that, even after achieving desired sex composition of children, as high as 61.8% of women were still not using contraception mainly because of programme factors while one-fourth were still depending on temporary methods. The rest 13.2% adopted terminal method of contraception, which calls for immediate attention of planners. With the increase in the number of sons but without daughter, contraceptive-use drastically decreased. The most desired sex composition of children seems to be two daughters and a son. Absence of daughter with increase in the total number of sons increased the desire for additional children. Every woman with two or more sons but without daughter wanted the next child to be a daughter. Thus, there are ample evidences to draw the conclusion that there is, in fact, a daughter preference in the matrilineal tribal societies in Meghalaya, India. Policy-makers may, thus, target the women who have achieved fertility and should ensure that daughter preference does not lead to the negligence to sons

Performance on ICI Self-Cancellation in FFT-OFDM and DCT-OFDM System

In orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) system, the existence of frequency offset in AWGN channel affects the orthogonality among the subcarriers and consequently introduces the intercarrier interference (ICI). The paper investigates new ICI self-cancellation technique to mitigate the effect of ICI in FFT-OFDM and compares it to DCT based OFDM system in terms of bit error rate (BER) and carrier to interference ratio (CIR). The proposed method for group size three results in a significant 20 dB improved CIR in FFT-OFDM. In terms of BER, proposed ICI self-cancellation technique outperforms the other self-cancellation techniques in FFT-OFDM. Also, this paper investigates outperforming BER and CIR improvement by using DCT-OFDM without applying self-cancellation techniques, due to its energy compaction property

Epidural bupivacaine combined with dexmedetomidine or clonidine in infraumbilical surgeries: a comparative evaluation

Background: Alpha-2 agonist are being extensively evaluated as an alternative to neuraxial opoids, as an adjuvants in regional anaesthesia The faster onset of action of local anaesthetics, rapid establishment of both sensory and motor blockade, prolonged duration of analgesia into postoperative period, dose sparing action of local anaesthetics and stable cardiovascular parameters make these agents a very effective adjuvant in regional anaesthesia.Methods: Our study had 45 patients, all patients belonged to ASA Grade-I or II, between 20 and 55 years of age with an average height of 150 and 170 cm and have ideal body weight requiring neuraxial blockade for lower abdominal surgeries. All the patients were randomly allocated into two groups Group-I: Epidural bupivacaine 0.5% (16 ml) + clonidine 75 µgm (1 ml) Group-II: Epidural bupivacaine 0.5 % (16 ml) + Dexmedetomidine 50 µgm (1 ml) Patients were monitored for sensory and motor blockade, hemodynamic parameters, rescue analgesia, sedation and adverse effects in perioperative period.Results: The time of onset of sensory block at T10 and time to reach maximum sensory block (T6) in group-I was significantly longer as compared to group-II. The complete motor blockade (grade-3) was achieved much later and time taken for recovery to grade-0 was significantly shorter in group-I. The time for rescue analgesia in group-I was significantly shorter as compared to group-II. Hypotension was the most common side effect in both the groups. Dry mouth is a known side effect of alpha-2 agonists. Epidural dexmedetomidine produced profound sedation.  Conclusions: We conclude from this study that dexmedetomidine is a better adjuvant than clonidine for providing early onset of sensory analgesia, superior sedative properties and prolonged post-operative analgesia.

India-US collaboration to prevent adolescent HIV infection: the feasibility of a family-based HIV-prevention intervention for rural Indian youth

Despite the centrality of family in Indian society, relatively little is known about family-based communication concerning sexual behaviour and HIV/AIDS in rural Indian families. To date, very few family-based adolescent HIV-prevention interventions have been developed for rural Indian youth. This study conducted formative research with youth aged 14 to18 years and their parents in order to assess the feasibility of conducting a family-based HIV-prevention intervention for rural Indian adolescents. Eight focus groups were conducted (n = 46) with mothers, fathers, adolescent females and adolescent males (two focus groups were held for each of the four groups). All focus groups consisted of same-gender participants. Adolescents aged 14 to18 years old and their parents were recruited from a tribal community in rural Maharashtra, India. Focus group transcripts were content analyzed to identify themes related to family perceptions about HIV/AIDS and participation in a family-based intervention to reduce adolescent vulnerability to HIV infection. Six primary thematic areas were identified: (1) family knowledge about HIV/AIDS; (2) family perceptions about adolescent vulnerability to HIV infection; (3) feasibility of a family-based programme to prevent adolescent HIV infection; (4) barriers to participation; (5) recruitment and retention strategies; and (6) preferred content for an adolescent HIV prevention intervention. Despite suggestions that family-based approaches to preventing adolescent HIV infection may be culturally inappropriate, our results suggest that a family-based intervention to prevent adolescent HIV infection is feasible if it: (1) provides families with comprehensive HIV prevention strategies and knowledge; (2) addresses barriers to participation; (3) is adolescent friendly, flexible and convenient; and (4) is developmentally and culturally appropriate for rural Indian families