Understanding Postcolonial South Asian Communities Through Bollywood

Inspired by my personal experience as a South Asian-American, I chose to create a series of paintings that seek to analyze the relationship between South Asians and a Western environment. I was further influenced by Bollywood painted posters, which I argue encapsulate postcolonial aesthetics in the form of fair skin, colored eyes, and exoticism. Moreover, I believe that Bollywood has continued to disseminate these aesthetics to the South Asian collective community. Bollywood and its implicit fascination with the West, in addition to its inherently South Asian identity, embody the struggle that many South Asians face. This struggle, which I as a South Asian-American woman painter have also experienced, includes a constant internal conflict between desiring to fit into Western culture and trying to maintain one’s cultural heritage within a Western environment. Ultimately, through these paintings and this essay, I seek to shed light on this complex relationship between South Asian culture and a Western context

Women Surrealists: Muses or Seekers?

Surrealism has often been labeled as a misogynistic movement that sought to provide man with an avenue into a higher reality at the expense of the humanity of women. By perceiving the opposite sex as their muses, Surrealist men rendered women as mysterious sources of the marvelous, the name given to the higher realm, which they desired to attain. I propose that Surrealist women were empowered by the fact that ‘woman’, as an abstract concept, and femininity were synonymous with the marvelous. This entailed that Surrealist women had the advantage of being “sources of revelation, as provokers of wonder, dreams, and freedom,” whose intellectual agency allowed them to delve into their own femininity in order to attain the higher reality that Surrealism was devoted to unlocking. In contrast from Surrealist men who relied on the image of woman to lead them to this superior realm, Surrealist women were able to look within themselves in order to comprehend the marvelous. Conversely, Surrealist women often reversed the idea of the muse, by exploring their feminine unconscious through the objectification of men

Design of a contactless body temperature measurement system using arduino

The recent advances in electronics and microelectronics devices allow the development of newly low-cost monitoring tools used by peoples for health preventive purposes. Sensors used in medical equipments convert various forms of human body vital signs into electrical signals. Therefore, the healthcare monitoring systems considering non-invasive and wearable sensors with integrated communication mediums allow an efficient solution to live a comfortable home life. This paper presents the remote monitoring of human body temperature (HBT) wirelessly by means of Arduino controller with different sensors and open source internet connection. The proposed monitoring system uses an internet network via wireless fieldity (wifi) connection to be linked with online portal on smart phone or computer. The proposed system is comprised of an Arduino controller, LM-35 (S1), MLX-90614 (S2) temperature sensors and ESP-wifi shield module. The obtained result has shown that real time temperature monitoring data can be transferred to authentic observer by utilizing internet of things (IoT) applications. The findings from this research indicates that the difference of average temperature in between Sensor S1 and S2 is about 15 0C

A Cross-Cultural Examination of Medicinal Plants Used in the Treatment of Lumpy Skin Disease in Bovine Herds in Sargodha, Punjab, Pakistan

Medicinal plants are being used for the treatment of various livestock ailments by the local peoples since earliest times. It is a recognized fact that plants are an important source of ethnoveterinary medicines. From the last decade, ethnoveterinary practices have gained tremendous importance due to the discovery of some effective ethnoveterinary products. Ethnoveterinary practices are more common in developing countries including Pakistan due to different socioeconomic factors. The studies showed that many medicinal plants used for the treatment of Lumpy skin disease (LSD). Ethno-pharmacological content was obtained from 200 people with knowledge and experience of using plants as medicines for this disease in different areas of Sargodha and Khushab, Punjab, Pakistan. The field study was carried out from January-2023 to June-2023. All the data was collected by evaluation and interviews by calculating Use value (UV). The result from this study shows that 20 medicinal plants that belong to fifteen families greatly represented by Family Meliaceae were significant in treating LSD. This study indicated that the ethno-medicinal practices and knowledge are still used in District Sargodha and Khushab plants that support health care and help in the improvement of alternative system of medicines. These results gave commencing information on the significance use of medicinal plants. It can be tested for use in the future that leading to new discoveries of medicines in the treatment of LSD and other diseases of cattle

Microwave-assisted transesterification of Litchi chinensis seed oil using extracted KOH from potato waste for sustainable development

The fast depletion of conventional fuel supplies has forced the world to find suitable substitutes to overcome the expected energy crisis. Fossil fuels also contribute to global warming because of their harmful emissions. Biofuels are sustainable and environment friendly. Biodiesel can be sourced from both edible and non-edible oils to replace fossil fuels. To avoid a shortage of food supply, it is preferred to produce biodiesel from non-edible oils. In this research, Litchi chinensis seed oil (LSO) is used as a feedstock to synthesize biodiesel employing transesterification using a microwave oven. The catalyst, potassium hydroxide (KOH), used in this research was extracted from potato waste. Sun-dried potato waste was converted into ash. The produced ash is then dissolved in distilled water, leading to a 34% yield of KOH. The transesterification achieves a 92.9% conversion rate under the conditions: 30% microwave power utilization, a catalyst loading of 15% (W/W), a stirring speed of 700 RPM, and a methanol concentration of 70% (V/V) with an 8-min reaction time. Response surface methodology (RSM), in comparison with artificial neural networks (ANNs), has been utilized for the optimization of biodiesel yield, giving efficient results with errors of 0.003% for RSM and 0.005% for ANN. Consequently, the study reports optimized biodiesel yields of 92.9% (experimental), 93.27% (RSM), and 92.40% (ANN). Physicochemical properties such as kinematic viscosity (4.4 mm2/s) at 40°C, density (875 kg/m3) at 15°C, cetane number (53.2), calorific value (38.8 MJ/kg), flash point (175°C), oxidative stability (6.1 h), and cold flow properties were determined with respect to the ASTM and EN standards. The findings reveal that biofuels primarily support Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 7 and 13, with the prime focus on “affordable and clean energy” and “climate action,” respectively

Influence of glass fiber content on tensile properties of polyamide-polypropylene based polymer blend composites

In recent years, the rapid development of polymer composites is replacing the use of metals and alloys in high performance engineering applications, particularly in automotive and aerospace industries. In this research study, influence of glass fiber (GF) content on tensile properties of polyamide-polypropylene (PA-PP) based blend composites was investigated. Considering, 0%, 3%, 6%, 9% and 12% GF content, PA6-PP-GF composites of five compositions were prepared through injection molding method. In the experiments, tensile tests were performed under strain rate of 5 mm/min for all types of composite specimens. Test results show that tensile properties of composites of five different compositions are influenced by glass fiber content. In general, tensile strength of composite increases gradually with increase in fiber content. On the other hand, tensile modulus increases significantly with increase in fiber content. Experimental data also revealed that yield strength, strength at fracture and strain at break of the composites are influenced by the content of glass fiber. Test data also show that tensile strain at maximum load almost corresponds to the tensile strain at break for all composite specimens

Investigation on microstructure and hardness of aluminium-Aluminium oxide functionally graded material

This study investigated the microstructure and hardness of aluminium-aluminium oxide (Al-Al2O3) functionally graded material (FGM). Preparation of metal-ceramic functionally graded material was carried out following powder metallurgy (PM) route. Four-layered aluminium-aluminium oxide (Al-Al2O3) graded composite structure was processed using 0%, 5%, 10% and 15% (from first layer to fourth layer) aluminium oxide as ceramic concentration. A cylindrical steel die was used for the fabrication process of the FGM green compact. The green compact was prepared by applying cold pressing technique using a hydraulic press. The sintering process was implemented at 600 °C sintering temperature and 3 h sintering time using 2-step cycle. Microstructural characterization of the sample was conducted layer by layer using high resolution optical microscopy (OM). Hardness of the sample was also performed layer by layer using Vickers microhardness tester. The obtained results revealed that there is a uniform ceramic particle distribution within the metallic phase. From the microstructural observation it was clear that smooth transition occurred from one layer to next layer and each interface was distinct. It was also observed that there is a steady increase in layer hardness with the increase in ceramic concentration

Effects of hospital facilities on patient outcomes after cancer surgery: an international, prospective, observational study

Background Early death after cancer surgery is higher in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) compared with in high-income countries, yet the impact of facility characteristics on early postoperative outcomes is unknown. The aim of this study was to examine the association between hospital infrastructure, resource availability, and processes on early outcomes after cancer surgery worldwide.Methods A multimethods analysis was performed as part of the GlobalSurg 3 study-a multicentre, international, prospective cohort study of patients who had surgery for breast, colorectal, or gastric cancer. The primary outcomes were 30-day mortality and 30-day major complication rates. Potentially beneficial hospital facilities were identified by variable selection to select those associated with 30-day mortality. Adjusted outcomes were determined using generalised estimating equations to account for patient characteristics and country-income group, with population stratification by hospital.Findings Between April 1, 2018, and April 23, 2019, facility-level data were collected for 9685 patients across 238 hospitals in 66 countries (91 hospitals in 20 high-income countries; 57 hospitals in 19 upper-middle-income countries; and 90 hospitals in 27 low-income to lower-middle-income countries). The availability of five hospital facilities was inversely associated with mortality: ultrasound, CT scanner, critical care unit, opioid analgesia, and oncologist. After adjustment for case-mix and country income group, hospitals with three or fewer of these facilities (62 hospitals, 1294 patients) had higher mortality compared with those with four or five (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 3.85 [95% CI 2.58-5.75]; p<0.0001), with excess mortality predominantly explained by a limited capacity to rescue following the development of major complications (63.0% vs 82.7%; OR 0.35 [0.23-0.53]; p<0.0001). Across LMICs, improvements in hospital facilities would prevent one to three deaths for every 100 patients undergoing surgery for cancer.Interpretation Hospitals with higher levels of infrastructure and resources have better outcomes after cancer surgery, independent of country income. Without urgent strengthening of hospital infrastructure and resources, the reductions in cancer-associated mortality associated with improved access will not be realised