Loneliness in Carson Mcculler’s The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

As the novel The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, it is a darker, more terrifying drama of isolation and despair.The novel through its characterization of Mick and Portia, can be seen as a critique towards certain intersecting power structures of the 1930s South, and by that demonstrate the crucial need of inter sectionality theory when examining those power structures in the characterization of the two characters. With my account of previous research on both Carson McCullers’ works in general, and her novel The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter more specifically, I have found that the novel has been read both as political and also as a text concerned with the social and political issues of its time. The major characters as well as the minor characters are greatly influenced by their past, their families, and people they met. Both primary socialization and secondary socialization spell out the future of their lives. Their isolation, resentment, bitterness, rebelliousness or meekness are caused according to Durkheim by many factors such as the material and non material social facts such as society, environment, church, state, morality, collective conscience, collective representation and social currents

Seagull Optimization-based Feature Selection with Optimal Extreme Learning Machine for Intrusion Detection in Fog Assisted WSN

On the internet, various devices that are connected to the Internet of Things (IoT) and Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) share the resources that they have in accordance with their respective needs. The information gathered from these Internet of Things devices was preserved in the cloud. The problem of latency is made significantly worse by the proliferation of Internet of Things devices and the accessing of real-time data. In order to solve this issue, the fog layer, which was previously an adjunct layer between the cloud layer and the user, is now being utilised. As the data could be retrieved from the fog layer even if it was close to the edge of the network, it made the experience more convenient for the user. The lack of security in the fog layer is going to be an issue. The simple access to sources provided by the fog layer architecture makes it vulnerable to a great number of assaults. Consequently, the purpose of this work is to build a seagull optimization-based feature selection approach with optimum extreme learning machine (SGOFS-OELM) for the purpose of intrusion detection in a fog-enabled WSN. The identification of intrusions in the fog-enabled WSN is the primary focus of the SGOFS-OELM approach that has been presented here. The given SGOFS-OELM strategy is designed to accomplish this goal by designing the SGOFS approach to choose the best possible subset of attributes. In this work, the ELM classification model is applied for the purpose of intrusion detection. In conclusion, the political optimizer (PO) is utilised in order to accomplish automatic parameter adjustment of the ELM technique, which ultimately leads to enhanced classification performance. In order to demonstrate the usefulness of the SGOFS-OELM approach, a number of simulations were carried out. As compared to the other benchmark models that were employed for this research, the suggested SGOFS-OELM models give the best accuracy, which is 99.97 percent. The simulation research demonstrates that the SGOFS-OELM approach has the potential to deliver a good performance in the intrusion detection process

Post ATT Status of Patients who had Category II ATT: A Follow up study

INTRODUCTION : Outcome surveillance is an essential tool to determine the effectiveness of the national effort to control Tuberculosis. It provides an insight into the proportion of patients who complete treatment, experience complications, lose follow up or die. The main purpose of treatment outcome monitoring is to determine the outcome of potentially infectious cases and thus it provides information about the likely transmission of infection. The Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP), adopting the DOTS strategy advocated by World Health Organization (WHO), was implemented in 1993 in the country and has been scaled up rapidly since mid 1998. Based on a stringent diagnostic algorithm and history of previous TB treatment, the diagnosed cases under RNTCP are classified as ‘New’ and ‘Re-treatment’ cases for allotting an appropriate drug regimen to them. Retreatment cases i.e. those who give history of previous TB treatment of more than one month, are put on Category II regimen. This category comprises smear positive ‘Failures’, ‘Relapses’, ‘Treatment after Default (TAD)’ and ‘Others’. The question often posed by clinicians is regarding effectiveness of Cat II regimen for re-treatment cases, especially those with failures. It has been suggested that they may be treated with a stronger regimen since such cases are likely to harbor drug resistant organisms. We conducted a retrospective study to evaluate the outcome of category II retreatment cases in a DOTS programme in Chennai city to examine if these concerns had any basis. AIM OF THE STUDY : To evaluate the present status of a cohort of retreatment cases started on Category II ATT in the year 2002 in three tuberculosis units of Chennai city and to evaluate the effectiveness of Category II. DESIGN OF THE STUDY: Descriptive study. MATERIALS AND METHODS : The study was conducted in the Institute of Thoracic Medicine, Chennai in the period from July 2005 to February 2006 .The study population is selected from three tuberculosis units of Chennai city, namely Pulianthope TU , Thanthai periyar TU and Saidapet TU. All the patients who received Category II anti-tuberculosis treatment in the year 2002 in those tuberculosis units were included for study. The indications for Category II were being relapse or treatment after default or failure or for other reasons. The details regarding treatment details, sputum status and treatment outcome at the end of Category II were collected from the tuberculosis register (T.R) available in the respective tuberculosis units. Postal cards were sent to the patient’s addresses, requesting them to come to the institute for evaluation. The non responders were traced personally with the help of staff available at the concerned TUs and were interrogated at their door steps. The patients were asked regarding their present symptoms with duration, past anti-tuberculosis treatment in a questionnaire. Then their sputum was collected in sputum cups and culture bottle. Sputum smear was examined using Ziehl-Neelsen method for the presence of acid fast mycobacteria. All the culture specimens were collected in a sterile culture bottle containing trisodium citrate. The specimens were processed with sodium hydroxide ( for decontamination) and then centrifuged. The inoculum is then inoculated in Lowenstein –Jensen medium. Chest skiagram was taken to all the patients. For those whose culture was positive for M.tuberculosis that specimen was sent to culture & sensitivity testing at Tuberculosis Research Centre. CONCLUSIONS : The purpose of the present study is to address the often-posed query regarding effectiveness of Category II regimen for re-treatment. In Our study the cure rate is 53% and overall successful treatment completion rate is 58%. Since that was the early days of implementation of the programme and the number of staff exclusively available were less, the outcome of the patients who had Category II is acceptable. 46.3 % of Category I defaulters again defaulted in Category II. Recommendations to be formulated concerning management of TB patients with respect to the risk of treatment default. In the three year follow up it is found that five of the cured patients of Category II now found to be positive by culture. This stresses the importance of prompt evaluation of patients who have completed the treatment in the presence of recurrent chest symptoms. Out of the 83 patients subjected for culture examination, only five patients showed drug resistance and among the five patients only two were having multi drug resistant tuberculosis. With this low incidence of drug resistance , Category II will be adequate under programme conditions for the management of re-treatment cases

Development of bioformulations using plant extracts for the control of dengue vector, Aedes aegypti

Dengue fever is a life-threatening illness in humans caused by the dengue virus belonging to Flaviviridae, affecting mainly in tropical and subtropical countries. The spread of this disease is through the dengue vector Aedes aegypti. Development of biodegradable, environmentally safe, low-cost larvicides is essential to overcome the resurgence effects of chemical insecticides. The present study included the development of bioformulations from larvicidal polar solvent extracts of the plant leaves. The solvents used for the extractions were ethyl acetate for Aloe vera (A), ethanol for Carica papaya (B), and methanol for Parthenium hysterophorous (C). Bioformulations in different combinations like A, B, C, A+B, B+C, C+A, and A+B+C with the concentrations of 50ppm, 100ppm, 150ppm, 200ppm, 250ppm and 300ppm were tested against the IVth instar larvae of Aedes aegypti and the results were recorded for every 24h 48h and 72h . The bioformulation  extracts B+C (300ppm) showed 90 percent mortality of larvae after 72 h of treatment. It was concluded that the larvae's mortality was caused by the presence of bioactive compounds of B+C extracts. This formulation can be considered an effective biopesticide for the dengue vector Ae. aegypti IVth instar larvae

PHYTOSOCIOLOGICAL STUDY OF WEED FLORA IN LOW LAND RICE ECO-SYSTEMS IN ANNAMALAI NAGAR, TAMIL NADU, INDIA

Phytosociological study was carried out to estimate the dominant of weed flora in low land rice eco-system under varing climatic condition. The survey was conducted at Annamalai University experimental farm, Department of Agronomy, Annamalainagar during 2016 and 2017. The identified numbers were 11 and 14 during 2016 and 2017 wet season. Cyperus rotundus, Cyperus irria, Cyperus difformis, Echinocoloa colonum, Eclipta alba, Echinocoloa crusgali were the densely populated in 2016 while Cyperus rotundus, Cyperus irria, Echinocoloa colonum, Cyperus difformis, Marsilia quatrifolia,  Echinocola crusgali and Bergia capensis, were the most densed in 2017. IVI computed for individual weed species in 2016 at annamalai nagar indicated that Cyperus rotundus was the predominant weed species with highest Relative abundance (RA) of 10.54 %, Relative density (RDE) of 18.97%, Relative frequency (RF) of 16% and Important value index (IVI) of 45.50 while in 2017 also obtained the Cyperus rotundus was the predominant weed species with highest Relative abundance (RA) of 10.61 %, Relative density (RDE) of 19.64%, Relative frequency (RF) of 1615.38% and Important value index (IVI) of 45.63. All other weed species were low in IVI and also rare in their occurrence with lesser frequency

A Study on Annual Expenditure and Income from Goat Farming in Kerala

A study on goat farmers from three districts of Kerala viz., Kannur, Kozhikode and Malappuram districts was carried out to study the annual expenditure and income from goat farming under field condition in Northern Kerala. Study revealed that small flock size (16-45) got the highest net return per goat per annum. The net return worked out to be Rs. 1748, 2374, 2960, 2258 and 1602 per goat /annum, respectively. The net profit (per goat/annum) increases and reaches a maximum point and again decreases with the increase of flock sizes due to inadequate nutrition and management practices by larger goat keepers. B:C ratio also showed a similar pattern of change with flock size. Selling of goats was the major source of income followed by milk, manures and urine. In the present study, shrinking of grazing resources, lack of good quality breeding stocks improper management practices, high and labour cost were found to be the major constraints in making the goat farming more remunerative. Therefore, rearing of goat cannot sustain only on grazing resources and cut fodder and needs to switch over to systematic commercial goat farming systems via., semi-intensive / intensive system of management. Recurring cost need to be curtailed by adopting mechanization and modernization especially in large farms and also cultivating fodder and formulating and preparing concentrate in the farm itself

Development of graphite based nanomaterials for green chemistry applications

Graphite is a valuable natural resource and useful carbon allotrope that has been explored for various applications. Graphene is a two-dimensional (2D) transparent material, which is the strongest, thinnest, and most conductive substance known. Graphene-based materials are strategic nanomaterials that have been investigated for various applications, encompassing water contaminant remediation, energy conversion and storage, and electrochemical biosensors, and graphite is its primary source. This MSc thesis focuses mainly on: (a) the characterization of graphite and the study of its properties, both of which influence the quality of graphene based materials; (b) the development of a novel and simple strategy toward the generation of high quality graphenoids; and (c) the exploration of green chemistry applications such as environmental contaminant remediation and energy conversion and storage. [...