Pushing Back the Limits of Death: Immortal Characters in Toni Morrison’s Paradise

Much of what Toni Morrison writes in her fiction concerns death and immortality. Both death and immortality are central concerns for Morrison and undergo their fullest exploration in her trilogy. In fact, by taking the afterlife as a peaceful place or even a solution to earthly suffering, Morrison seeks to transcend the fear of death that she considers a step towards eternal life. The purpose of this article is to give a way in to Morrison’s representation of death and immortality in Paradise, by addressing the questions: How are both themes represented in Paradise? What does it mean for protagonists to live on (survive) after death? What is the conviction that guides protagonists through facing death without the dread that is often associated with it? What is the value of the relationship of the living to dead characters? These are the major questions in this article. Our way into these questions is taken from the standpoint of Arthur Schopenhauer’s philosophy, especially his reflections on death and immortality. This article treats Schopenhauer’s metaphysics as a framework to account for the condition in which Morrison’s protagonists are as far removed as possible from the anxiety of death and as close to live in peace as possible within immortality

Synonymous Codon Usage Analysis of Thirty Two Mycobacteriophage Genomes

Synonymous codon usage of protein coding genes of thirty two completely sequenced mycobacteriophage genomes was studied using multivariate statistical analysis. One of the major factors influencing codon usage is identified to be compositional bias. Codons ending with either C or G are preferred in highly expressed genes among which C ending codons are highly preferred over G ending codons. A strong negative correlation between effective number of codons (Nc) and GC3s content was also observed, showing that the codon usage was effected by gene nucleotide composition. Translational selection is also identified to play a role in shaping the codon usage operative at the level of translational accuracy. High level of heterogeneity is seen among and between the genomes. Length of genes is also identified to influence the codon usage in 11 out of 32 phage genomes. Mycobacteriophage Cooper is identified to be the highly biased genome with better translation efficiency comparing well with the host specific tRNA genes

Insight to pyrazinamide resistance inMycobacterium tuberculosisby molecular docking

Pyrazinamide (PZA) - an important drug in the anti-tuberculosis therapy, activated by an enzyme Pyrazinamidase (PZase). The basis of PZA resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis was owing to mutation in pncA gene coding for PZase. Homology modeling of PZase was performed using software Discovery Studio (DS) 2.0 based on the crystal structure of the PZase from Pyrococcus horikoshii (PDB code 1im5), in this study. The model comprises of one sheet with six parallel strands and seven helices with the amino acids Asp8, Asp49, Trp68, Lys96, Ala134, Thr135 and Cys138 at the active site. Five mutants were generated with Gly at position 8, Thr at position 96, Arg at position 104, Tyr and Ser at position 138. The Wild-type (WT) and five mutant models were docked with PZA. The results indicate that the mutants Lys96Thr, Ser104Arg Asp8Gly and Cys138Tyr may contribute to higher level drug resistance than Cys138Ser. These models provide the first in-silico evidence for the binding interaction of PZA with PZase and form the basis for rationalization of PZA resistance in naturally occurring pncA mutant strains of M. tuberculosis

Mycobacteriophage Genome Database

Mycobacteriophage genome database (MGDB) is an exclusive repository of the 64 completely sequenced mycobacteriophages with annotated information. It is a comprehensive compilation of the various gene parameters captured from several databases pooled together to empower mycobacteriophage researchers. The MGDB (Version No.1.0) comprises of 6086 genes from 64 mycobacteriophages classified into 72 families based on ACLAME database. Manual curation was aided by information available from public databases which was enriched further by analysis. Its web interface allows browsing as well as querying the classification. The main objective is to collect and organize the complexity inherent to mycobacteriophage protein classification in a rational way. The other objective is to browse the existing and new genomes and describe their functional annotation

Literature review of recent, practical - oriented computer networks papers

This thesis report is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Science in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, 2009.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis report.Includes bibliographical references (page 61).This thesis will include a literature review of recent practical oriented computer networks papers in premier IEEE conferences. The objective of the thesis is to provide detailed plans for a number of computer network related projects that may be implemented by subsequent BRAC University students. We will do an in-depth study of the selected topics and provide a step by step implementation process.Hasibul IslamHassan SameerIrtiza Ahmad FarooqB. Electrical and Electronic Engineerin

Binding of activated isoniazid with acetyl-CoA carboxylase from Mycobacterium tuberculosis

AccD6 (acetyl coenzyme A (CoA) carboxylase), plays an important role in mycolic acid synthesis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb). Induced gene expression by isoniazid (isonicotinylhydrazine - INH), anti-tuberculosis drug) shows the expression of accD6. It is our interest to study the binding of activated INH with the AccD6 model using molecular docking procedures. The study predicts a primary binding site for activated INH (isonicotinyl acyl radical) in AccD6 as a potential target

Green Networking: Analyses of Power Consumption of Real and Complex IFFT/FFT used in Next-Generation Networks and Optical Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing

The Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing is a promising technology for the Next Generation Networks. This technique was selected because of the flexibility for the various parameters, high spectral efficiency, and immunity to ISI. The OFDM technique suffers from significant digital signal processing, especially inside the Inverse/ Fast Fourier Transform IFFT/FFT. This part is used to perform the orthogonality/De-orthogonality between the subcarriers which the important part of the OFDM system. Therefore, it is important to understand the parameter effects on the increase or to decrease the FPGA power consumption for the IFFT/FFT. This thesis is focusing on the FPGA power consumption of the IFFT/FFT uses in the OFDM system. This research finds a various parameters effect on FPGA power of the IFFT/FFT. In addition, investigate the computer software used to measure and analyse the FPGA power consumption of OFDM transceivers, and selects the target hardware used in the computer software. The researched parameters include the number of bits used in calculating the phase factor precision; Cyclic Prefix length effected on IP core IFFT, Subcarrier modulation type, word length width, Real and Complex Value IFFT, IFFT length, and subcarriers sampling frequency. The real value IFFT is proposed in 1987 and implemented in this thesis. These parameters above are discussed by comparing the result between the Real and Complex value IFFT used inside the OFDM system

Foreign Direct Investment, Human Capital and Economic Growth in Malaysia

The international markets have been the major influence spurring economic growth and development in the Malaysian economy even until today. There were two sources of growth, namely foreign capital and exports of commodities. The government particularly beginning in 1971 moved to develop human capital stock by investing a large amount of public capital in the education sector. However, the growth of human capital did not become a significant catalyst for economic growth. Public and private expenditures for research and development (R&D) remained low compared to neighboring countries such as South Korea and Singapore. This paper examines the effects of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and Human Capital (HC) development on economic growth in Malaysia. This paper will also discuss the contribution of these two factors to Malaysia’s economic growth for the period of 1980 - 2010 from three angles: Gross Domestic Products (GDP) growth, GDP per capita growth and technological change