The Absolute of Advaita and the Spirit of Hegel: Situating Vedānta on the Horizons of British Idealisms

$\textit{Purpose}$ A significant volume of philosophical literature produced by Indian academic philosophers in the first half of the twentieth century can be placed under the rubric of ‘Śaṁkara and X’, where X is Hegel, or a German or a British philosopher who had commented on, elaborated or critiqued the Hegelian system. We will explore in this essay the philosophical significance of Hegel-influenced systems as an intellectual conduit for these Indo-European conceptual encounters, and highlight how for some Indian philosophers the British variations on Hegelian systems were both a point of entry into debates over ‘idealism’ and ‘realism’ in contemporary European philosophy and an occasion for defending Advaita against the charge of propounding a doctrine of world illusionism. $\textit{Methodology}$ Our study of the philosophical enquiries of A.C. Mukerji, P.T. Raju, and S.N.L. Shrivastava indicates that they developed distinctive styles of engaging with Hegelian idealisms as they reconfigured certain aspects of the classical Advaita of Śaṁkara through contemporary vocabulary. $\textit{Result and Conclusion}$ These appropriations of Hegelian idioms can be placed under three overlapping styles: (a) Mukerji was partly involved in locating Advaita in an intermediate conceptual space between, on the one hand, Kantian agnosticism and, on the other hand, Hegelian absolutism; (b) Raju and Shrivastava presented Advaitic thought as the fulfilment of certain insights of Hegel and F.H. Bradley; and (c) the interrogations of Hegel’s ‘idealism’ provided several Indian academic philosophers with a hermeneutic opportunity to revisit the vexed question of whether the ‘idealism’ of Śaṁkara reduces the phenomenal world, structured by $\textit{māyā}$, to a bundle of ideas

Residue Specific and Chirality Dependent Interactions between Carbon Nanotubes and Flagellin

Flagellum is a lash-like cellular appendage found in many single-celled living organisms. The flagellin protofilaments contain 11-helix dual turn structure in a single flagellum. Each flagellin consists of four sub-domains - two inner domains (D0, D1) and two outer domains (D2, D3). While inner domains predominantly consist of α-helices, the outer domains are primarily beta sheets with D3. In flagellum, the outermost sub-domain is the only one that is exposed to the native environment. This study focuses on the interactions of the residues of D3 of an R-type flagellin with 5nm long chiral (5,15) and arm-chair (12,12) single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT) using molecular dynamics simulation. It presents the interactive forces between the SWNT and the residues of D3 from the perspectives of size and chirality of the SWNT. It is found that the metallic (arm-chair) SWNT interacts the most with glycine and threonine residues through van der Waals and hydrophobic interactions, whereas the semiconducting (chiral) SWNT interacts largely with the area of protein devoid of glycine by van der Waals, hydrophobic interactions, and hydrogen bonding. This indicates a crucial role that glycine plays in distinguishing metallic from semiconducting SWNTs

Hierarchical model for the scale-dependent velocity of seismic waves

Elastic waves of short wavelength propagating through the upper layer of the Earth appear to move faster at large separations of source and receiver than at short separations. This scale dependent velocity is a manifestation of Fermat's principle of least time in a medium with random velocity fluctuations. Existing perturbation theories predict a linear increase of the velocity shift with increasing separation, and cannot describe the saturation of the velocity shift at large separations that is seen in computer simulations. Here we show that this long-standing problem in seismology can be solved using a model developed originally in the context of polymer physics. We find that the saturation velocity scales with the four-third power of the root-mean-square amplitude of the velocity fluctuations, in good agreement with the computer simulations.Comment: 7 pages including 3 figure

Nociceptin/Orphanin FQ receptor expression in clinical pain disorders and functional effects in cultured neurons

The Nociceptin/Orphanin FQ peptide receptor (NOP), activated by its endogenous peptide ligand Nociceptin/Orphanin FQ (N/OFQ), exerts several effects including modulation of pain signalling. We have examined, for the first time, the tissue distribution of the NOP receptor in clinical visceral and somatic pain disorders by immunohistochemistry, and assessed functional effects of NOP and [micro] opioid receptor activation in cultured human and rat dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons. Quantification of NOP-positive nerve fibres within the bladder sub-urothelium revealed a remarkable several-fold increase in Detrusor Overactivity (p<0.0001) and Painful Bladder Syndrome patient specimens (p=0.0014), compared to controls. In post-mortem control human DRGs, 75-80% of small/medium neurons (<=50 [micro]m diameter) in the lumbar (somatic) and sacral (visceral) DRG were positive for NOP, and fewer large neurons; avulsion-injured cervical human DRG neurons showed similar numbers. NOP-immunoreactivity was significantly decreased in injured peripheral nerves (p=0.0004), and also in painful neuromas (p=0.025). Calcium imaging studies in cultured rat DRG neurons demonstrated dose-dependent inhibition of capsaicin responses in the presence of N/OFQ, with an IC50 of 8.6 pM. In cultured human DRG neurons, 32% inhibition of capsaicin responses was observed in the presence of 1 pM N/OFQ (p<0.001). The maximum inhibition of capsaicin responses was greater with N/OFQ than [mu]-opioid receptor agonist DAMGO. Our findings highlight the potential of NOP agonists, particularly in urinary bladder overactivity and pain syndromes. The regulation of NOP expression in visceral and somatic sensory neurons by target-derived neurotrophic factors deserves further study, and the efficacy of NOP selective agonists in clinical trials

Bioinformatics and the politics of innovation in the life sciences: Science and the state in the United Kingdom, China, and India

The governments of China, India, and the United Kingdom are unanimous in their belief that bioinformatics should supply the link between basic life sciences research and its translation into health benefits for the population and the economy. Yet at the same time, as ambitious states vying for position in the future global bioeconomy they differ considerably in the strategies adopted in pursuit of this goal. At the heart of these differences lies the interaction between epistemic change within the scientific community itself and the apparatus of the state. Drawing on desk-based research and thirty-two interviews with scientists and policy makers in the three countries, this article analyzes the politics that shape this interaction. From this analysis emerges an understanding of the variable capacities of different kinds of states and political systems to work with science in harnessing the potential of new epistemic territories in global life sciences innovation

The state of things: state history and theory reconfigured

This article looks at the relationship between logistical power and the assemblages of sites that constitute modern states. Rather than treating states as centralizing institutions and singular sites of power, we treat them as multi-sited. They gain power by using logistical methods of problem solving, using infrastructures to enforce and depersonalize relations of domination and limit the autonomy of elites. But states necessarily solve diverse problems by different means in multiple locations. So, educating children is not continuous with governing colonies even though both are necessary to nineteenth-century states. For this reason, states use logistical means of coordination to link sites, and they make the power of the state seem unitary even though the exercise of state power is not

How does Inflation Depend Upon the Nature of Fluids Filling Up the Universe in Brane World Scenario

By constructing different parameters which are able to give us the information about our universe during inflation,(specially at the start and the end of the inflationary universe) a brief idea of brane world inflation is given in this work. What will be the size of the universe at the end of inflation,i.e.,how many times will it grow than today's size is been speculated and analysed thereafter. Different kinds of fluids are taken to be the matter inside the brane. It is observed that in the case of highly positive pressure grower gas like polytropic,the size of the universe at the end of inflation is comparitively smaller. Whereas for negative pressure creators (like chaplygin gas) this size is much bigger. Except thse two cases, inflation has been studied for barotropic fluid and linear redshift parametrization $\omega(z) = \omega_{0} + \omega_{1} z$ too. For them the size of the universe after inflation is much more high. We also have seen that this size does not depend upon the potential energy at the end of the inflation. On the contrary, there is a high impact of the initial potential energy upon the size of inflation.Comment: 20 page

A CURE on the Evolution of Antibiotic Resistance in <i>Escherichia coli</i> Improves Student Conceptual Understanding

We developed labs on the evolution of antibiotic resistance to assess the costs and benefits of replacing traditional laboratory exercises in an introductory biology course for majors with a course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE). To assess whether participating in the CURE imposed a cost in terms of exam performance, we implemented a quasi-experiment in which four lab sections in the same term of the same course did the CURE labs, while all other students did traditional labs. To assess whether participating in the CURE impacted other aspects of student learning, we implemented a second quasi-experiment in which all students either did traditional labs over a two-quarter sequence or did CURE labs over a two-quarter sequence. Data from the first experiment showed minimal impact on CURE students' exam scores, while data from the second experiment showed that CURE students demonstrated a better understanding of the culture of scientific research and a more expert-like understanding of evolution by natural selection. We did not find disproportionate costs or benefits for CURE students from groups that are minoritized in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics