50 research outputs found
Stories from Panchatantra, Book IV
No full textLike Book II of the series (1966/78), this volume collects six good stories. The illustrations here rely on blue, brown, and a burnt red. Perhaps the best illustration shows the guest mosquito about to bite the king's neck (54-55); also good is the full cover picture of the chase after the blue jackal. There are two curious differences in the telling of standard stories here. The three thieves tell the man with the gift-goat that it is, respectively, a dog, a calf, and a donkey (18); I would have thought that the point of the story lies in the force of a repeated (not a varied) lie. And the mosquito finds in the king's bedroom a whole family of bugs that have been feeding on him undetected (49); Ramsay Wood's version speaks by contrast of The Bedbug and the Flea. The best story-twist comes in The Thief's Sacrifice (36). This book and its companion volume are among those things that may have wandered a long way to come into this collection.This is a hardbound book (hard cover)Shivkuma
Analysis and Reconstruction of Shipwreck YK 11 (c. Seventh Century A.D.) from the Theodosian Harbor at Yenikapı in Istanbul, Turkey
Get PDFSince 2004, the Istanbul Archaeological Museums have conducted salvage archaeological excavations at the construction site of an underground railway station at Yenikapı in Istanbul, Turkey. These excavations have unearthed the remains of Constantinople’s Theodosian Harbor (Portus Theodosiacus), including 36 Byzantine shipwrecks. The detailed study of eight of these wrecks was allocated to a small international team under the direction of Cemal Pulak from the Institute of Nautical Archaeology (INA) at Texas A&M University. One of these shipwrecks, YK 11, was a small, heavily-repaired, pine-built merchantman abandoned as a derelict at the western end of the harbor early in the seventh century. This dissertation serves as a detailed record of the YK 11 hull remains, provides a theoretical reconstruction of the vessel, compares the ship’s construction with that of contemporaneous vessels, and explores the ship’s historical context.
The YK 11 hull was excavated, dismantled, and removed from the construction zone at Yenikapı in 2008. The author conducted the post-excavation documentation of the ship’s timbers between 2009 and 2012, following methods established by Fred van Doorninck and J. Richard Steffy of INA in their work with Mediterranean shipwrecks. This documentation revealed that YK 11 had undergone a series of significant repairs over the ship’s lifetime. In these repairs, much of the ship’s original planking, edge fastened with unpegged mortise-and-tenon joints below the waterline, was replaced with planks lacking edge fasteners; a considerable number of the ship’s frames were also replaced. These repairs to YK 11 significantly complicated the interpretation of its original construction.
The paucity of edge fasteners, presence of caulking, and attachment of frames to the keel might be taken as evidence that YK 11 was built after a skeleton-based tradition. However, with the detailed documentation of each component timber, a careful analysis of fastening patterns, the identification of repairs, and a thorough study of the preserved surface detail, it is clear that YK 11, although exhibiting evidence of both shell-first and skeleton-first techniques, was initially designed and built as a primarily shell-based vessel. As such, this study of YK 11 contributes valuable new information toward a better understanding of the transition from shell-based to skeleton-based shipbuilding in the Mediterranean
Retinoid regulated macrophage cholesterol efflux involves the steroidogenic acute regulatory protein
No full textAbstractElimination of excess cholesteryl esters from macrophage-derived foam cells is known to be a key process in limiting plaque stability and progression of atherosclerotic lesions. We have recently demonstrated that regulation of retinoid mediated cholesterol efflux is influenced by liver X receptor (LXR) signaling in mouse macrophages (Manna, P.R. et al., 2015, Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun., 464:312-317). The data presented in this article evaluate the importance of the steroidogenic acute regulatory protein (StAR) in retinoid mediated macrophage cholesterol efflux. Overexpression of StAR in mouse RAW 264.7 macrophages increased the effects of both all-trans retinoic acid (atRA) and 9-cis RA on cholesterol efflux, suggesting StAR enhances the efficacy of retinoic acid receptor (RAR) and/or retinoid X receptor (RXR) ligands. Additional data revealed that atRA enhances (Bu)2cAMP induced StAR and ATP-binding cassette transporter A1 protein levels. Treatment of macrophages transfected with an LXRE reporter plasmid (pLXREx3-Luc) was found to induce the effects of RAR and RXR analogs on LXR activity
Noise-induced transport in a rough ratchet potential
No full textSeveral years ago Zwanzig considered the diffusion in a potential that is spatially rough due to hierarchical structure of protein. We extend this idea to the overdamped Brownian dynamics in a one-dimensional periodic and rough ratchet potential. A general expression is obtained for the effective current at the steady state. Variation in both current and efficiency has been studied with respect to the amplitude of the roughness and an external nonequilibrium, nonthermal driving force. It has been shown that roughness hinders current quite significantly. Our analysis is corroborated by detailed numerical simulations and may be useful in the context of laser switching of current through molecular wire
A parametric variant of resonant activation: Two-state model approach
No full textMean first passage time of a periodically driven particle for its escape over a fluctuating barrier with wells remaining unbiased exhibits a resonance when the frequency of the driving field is varied. This parametric variant of resonant activation and associated features of noise induced transition are realized in terms of a two-state model to estimate analytically several quantifiers of the escape event. Numerical simulation on a continuous double-well model collaborates our theoretical analysis
Kramers-like turnover in load-dependent activated dynamics
No full textRecent advancement of experimental techniques at the single molecule level has demonstrated how an external load affects a chemical reaction which controls the transport of biological motor proteins. Majority of these studies are concerned with thermodynamically open systems. We have examined a prototype model reaction in terms of inertial Brownian motion of a particle in a force field subjected to an overdamped motion of a viscous load coupled harmonically to the particle. A general analytical expression for the rate constant has been derived to demonstrate that depending on the strength of harmonic coupling and drag coefficient of the load a Kramers-like turnover can be realized in the spatial diffusion-limited regime. The turnover reduces to a crossover between the two states characterized by zero-load and finite load condition
Characterizing dynamical transitions in bistable systems using a non-equilibrium measurement of work
No full textWe show how the Jarzynski relation can be exploited to analyze the nature of order-disorder, and a bifurcation type dynamical transition in terms of a response function derived on the basis of work distribution over non-equilibrium paths between two thermalized states. The validity of the response function extends over a linear as well as a nonlinear regime, and far from equilibrium situations
Studies on <i>In-Situ</i> forming thermo sensitive injectable polymeric gel for sustained drug delivery
No full textCHROMOLAENA ODORATA: AS NATURE’S WOUND HEALER
Get PDFAccording to the world health organization, more than 80% of the world’s population relies on traditional medicine for their primary health needs. The use of herbal medicines represents a long history of human interactions with the environment. The study of wound-healing plants has acquired an interdisciplinary nature with a systematic investigational approach. Several biochemical are involved in the healing process of the body, including antioxidants and cytokines. Phytochemicals or biomarkers from numerous plants suggest they have positive effects on different stages of the wound healing process via the various mechanism. Injury to the soft tissues is followed by wound healing, which consists of four stages: hemostasis, inflammation, proliferation and remodeling. Chromolaena odorata is a weed that is traditionally used for the treatment of various ailments in humans and animals. However, it exhibits anti-inflammatory, antipyretic, analgesic, antimicrobial, cytotoxic and numerous other relevant medicinal properties on an appreciable scale, and is known in some parts of the world as a traditional medicine used to treat various ailments. To understand its specific role as nature\u27s gift for healing wounds and its contribution to affordable health care, this plant must be scientifically assessed based on the available literature. This review aims to summarize the role of C. odorata and its biomarkers in the wound healing activities of biological systems, which are crucial to its potential future use for the treatment of wounds
