Beliefs, Habits and Rituals in KI.RA's Pinchukal

Ki. Rajanarayanan is a celebrated, veteran Tamil writer who has recorded the lives of people in "Karisal Kaadu', which means area of black cotton soil. His stories are set in the aforementioned area in and around Kovilpatti. People of this area have unique culture, beliefs, customs and rituals. They worshipped their land, nature and natural forces like all ancient communities do. This belief led them into following certain customs like: rituals for small pox victims, applying the paste of finely ground red chillies on the deity of Lord Ganesha   for rain, snacking on flies, processing and preserving onions, consideration of mushroom as non vegetarian by a sect, naming birds following taxonomy, making bullets from soil and using it for hunting, processing the soil and using it to build houses. These people are keen observers of nature and hence possessed abundant knowledge about nature and its components like flora and fauna. Ki. Ra is the first writer to register the life of this geographic area and people; He has a clan of writers following his footsteps. This research focuses on the rituals, beliefs and customs of the people of 'Karisal' (black soil) area through Ki. Ra's novel Pinchukal

Biographical and Cultural Evolution of Paanar

Tamil literary tradition registers 'tinai' divisions which is "a language with in a language" comments A.K. Ramanujan as it provides infinite possibilities to create in a finite frame. Along with people in respective landscapes, there are a nomadic group of paanar who visited all five landscapes spreading the oral tradition. References about the paanar, their oral tradition and nomadic lifestyle are found in cankam literature. There are different kinds of paanar referred performers, singers, declaimers, kuttar, viraliyar, poribar and panar along with their female counterparts and characteristic instruments. Records correspond that they were nomadic and visited kings to sing their praise and receive gifts. Their female counterparts were called 'viraliyar'. The Bard community depended on Kings and patrons for their livelihood. They are also called as 'isai panar' or musical paanar. They are further classified into three 'isai panar', 'yazh panar' and 'mandai panar'. This classification is also considered as separate caste by some and separate sect by others. These three sects of paanar are the ancestors of paanar. This research paper intends to study whether this nomadic lifestyle, singing the praise of kings, depending on kings' gifts for livelihood gave the paanar contentment in life from anthropological perspective

Examining customer's intention to rely on online reviews

The use of online reviews among online shoppers has increased significantly in recent years and has reduced uncertainty and risks associated with online shopping. The objective of this research is to identify the segment of online shoppers relying on online reviews. Consumers were classified based on their shopping motivation, trait and online behavior. A quantitative survey involving 375 Indian online shoppers were performed to identify and understand their reliance of online reviews. The findings show that consumer with high price consciousness, value consciousness, brand consciousness and self-esteem rely on online reviews for their online purchases. On the other side consumer who are quality conscious and having online shopping anxiety don’t rely on online review. This research adds to the growing literature on consumer information theory and validates the link between consumer shopping motivation and their informational needs

Design and FPGA Implementation of Variable FIR Filters using the Spectral Parameter Approximation and Time-Domain Approach

This brief present a design and FPGA implementation of variable FIR filters using time domain approach of the spectral parameter approximation (SPA) technique. Farrow structure is used to implement the SPA-based filter. In the design of variable filters first design the practical filters which satisfy the given transition bandwidth, passband ripple, and stopband attenuation specifications and then approximate the coefficients of these filters by the impulse response of the Farrow structure. Least-squares technique is used to approximation problem. Various design and implementation cases with FPGA synthesis results are presented

DEVELOPMENT AND OPTIMIZATION OF ORODISPERSIBLE TABLETS OF CARVEDILOL BY COMBINATION OF SUPER-DISINTEGRANTS ADDITION AND SUBLIMATION TECHNIQUES

Objective: Objective of the present research work was to prepare orodispersible tablets of carvedilol (CDL) for dysphagic patients.Methods: Carvedilol, an anti-hypertensive drug, was chosen as a model drug in this study. Orodispersible tablets of carvedilol were prepared using different super-disintegrating agents such as crospovidone, croscarmellose sodium and sodium starch glycolate at different concentrations. The best formulation was selected based on disintegration and dissolution profile that was further taken for sublimation studies using camphor, menthol and thymol. Drug-excipients interaction studies were carried out by fourier transform infra-red (FTIR) spectrophotometer with pure drug sample and optimized formulation.Results: The orodispersible tablet formulation having 4% croscarmellose sodium disintegrated in 92 sec. Hence this formulation was considered best formulation and taken further for sublimation studies. A formulation containing 10% w/w of menthol showed disintegration time of 16 sec with more than 96.64% drug release within 15 min. Menthol leaves the porous structure as it sublimates from the tablet. This might have contributed to the decrease in disintegration time. Hence, this formulation was considered optimized.Conclusion: From this study, it can be concluded that orodispersible tablets of carvedilol may prove to be more efficacious in the treatment of hypertension particularly in dysphagic patients

Oxidative Stress in Invertebrate Systems

Invertebrates have been valuable research models in the discovery of many scientific principles owing to the numerous advantages they provide. Throughout the life cycle, many of them thrive in pathogen-rich environments, manage harsh weathers, exposed to a number of allochemicals, and adapt well to both terrestrial and marine ecosystems. Their remarkable ability to cope up with the enormous oxidative stress generated in all these circumstances, make them attractive models in this field of research. Endocrine control of oxidative stress in insects is recently emerging. Adipokinetic hormone, glucagon, ecdysteroids and juvenile hormone have been implicated in antioxidative protective role in insects. Drosophila and Caenorhabditis elegans have provided the largest body of evidence addressing the free radical theory of ageing. Oxidative stress is also induced by pesticides/insecticides. In mollusks, pesticides exert their biological effects via generation of ROS. Oxidative stress has been shown to be associated with exposure to several organophosphorous compounds and different classes of pyrethroids. Malathion is a potential hazard to the environment. Adverse effects induced by malathion in earthworms and insects have been reported. Information is now available in great detail on the role of ROS in modulating insect immunity during parasite invasion and bacterial infection. In Drosophila melanogaster ROS are actively produced in the midgut at a basal level in the presence of commensal microbiota and highly generated upon bacterial challenge. The involvement of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in mosquito immunity against bacteria and Plasmodium was investigated in the malaria vector Anopheles gambiae. The concentration of ROS increased in sand fly midguts after they fed on the insect pathogen Serratia marcescens. Elevated oxidative stress was previously reported for a mosquito line experimentally infected with Wolbachia, indicating that oxidative stress may be important for Wolbachia-mediated antiviral protection. In a nutshell, this chapter highlights the current advances of oxidative stress in invertebrate model systems and its implications

A Unique Test Bench for Various System-on-a-Chip

This paper discusses a standard flow on how an automated test bench environment which is randomized with constraints can verify a SOC efficiently for its functionality and coverage. Today, in the time of multimillion gate ASICs, reusable intellectual property (IP), and system-on-a-chip (SoC) designs, verification consumes about 70 % of the design effort. Automation means a machine completes a task autonomously, quicker and with predictable results. Automation requires standard processes with well-defined inputs and outputs. By using this efficient methodology it is possible to provide a general purpose automation solution for verification, given today’s technology. Tools automating various portions of the verification process are being introduced. Here, we have Communication based SOC The content of the paper discusses about the methodology used to verify such a SOC-based environment. Cadence Efficient Verification Methodology libraries are explored for the solution of this problem. We can take this as a state of art approach in verifying SOC environments. The goal of this paper is to emphasize the unique testbench for different SOC using Efficient Verification Constructs implemented in system verilog for SOC verification

A Study on Vadha Karappan (வாத கரப்பான்) (Eczema)

This study Karappan is explained by ‘Yugi Vaithiya Chinthamani’ as 7 types. In this “Vadha karappan”. Vadha karappan can be correlated with ‘Eczema’ in modern medicine. Karappan is one the most common dermatological disease. This accounts for a great deal of misery, suffering and economic loss in the society. Moreover this causes psychological disturbances and has remissions. Patients who suffer from atopy in childhood suffer with eczema in their adult life. The studies revealed that prevalence of eczema is 115.56 per 1000 and this increases year by year. Drugs prescribed for eczema like immune suppressants and anti-histamine further cause side effects. So the author have selected the disease “Vatha Karappan” for her dissertation work to study the incidence, etiology, aggravating factors, course of disease, prognosis, diet and preventive aspects.The work is carried out OPD and IPD of Government Siddha Medical College and Hospital, Palayamkottai. The drugs selected are Internal medicine; Amirtha Kandhi Kukkil Valladhi – 500mg (tds), Agathiyar Vaidhiya Valladhi 600 and External medicine; Sivappu ennai in Sirappu Maruthuram.The disease Vadha karappan was comparatively studied with Eczema with reference to its etiology, pathogenesis and clinical features. This disease forms social stigma with recurrences and exacerbations. So the drug Amirtha Kandhi Kukkil Valladhi is chosen as internal medicine and Sivappu ennai as external medicine and clinical trial was done in Government Siddha Medical College, Palayamkottai. For this trail, 25 cases were selected in OPD and 15 cases in IPD. The pre clinical studies reveal that the drug ‘Amirtha kanthi kukki valladhi has Significant Acute Anti inflammatory action, Moderate Anti Histaminic action and Moderate analgesic action. Pharmacological analysis of Sivappu ennai has - Moderate acute anti inflammatory action Daily progress of the disease are noted from first week throughout the trial period results. No adverse reaction were found. Hence the trial drug is safe and effective

A Review on Codec?s for Crosstalk Avoidance in VLSI Interconnects

This paper reviews different encoding and decoding techniques for reducing crosstalk noise, delay and power dissipation using Fibonacci codes. The increasing demand for SOCs lead to several issues like crosstalk, delay, data security, especially area and power consumption. This makes the researchers are tending to resolve all these issues. Here we are concentrating on the crosstalk avoidance in on-chip buses. There are several techniques for crosstalk avoidance that is mainly concentrated on eliminating capacitive crosstalk completely, but not inductance. But due to faster clock speeds, lengthy interconnects and smaller rise and fall times inductive crosstalk?s became significant. This paper reviews all the schemes in order to have a better performance in avoiding inductive and capacitive crosstalk