857 research outputs found
Replication Data for: Bird’s Decision to Shift the Direction of Migration Path Depends on the Position of Sun as well as Moon: A Directional Statistical Inference
No full textDataset for: Bird’s Decision to Shift the Direction of Migration
Path Depends on the Position of the Sun as well as Moon:
A Directional Statistical Inference
(Author: Prithwish Ghosh, Debashis Chatterjee, Amlan Banerjee
Tea Tales – India’s ever evolving chai culture
No full textAs we observed International Tea Day on May 21, to peek into the vibrant history of chai and chai tapris in India, Village Square spoke to Arup K Chatterjee, professor of English at OP Jindal Global University. He is the author of widely acclaimed books including, The Purveyors of Destiny: A Cultural Biography of the Indian Railways and The Great Indian Railways
Restoring Vision through “Project Prakash”: The Opportunities for Merging Science and Service
No full text“So how does this help society?” is a question we are often asked as scientists. The lack of immediate and tangible results cannot be held against a scientific project but statements of future promise in broad and inchoate terms can sometimes pass the benefit-buck indefinitely. There is no incentive against over-stating the benefits, especially when they are hypothetical and lie in the distant future. Few scientists will say their science is not designed to serve society. Yet the proliferation of “potential benefits” in grant proposals and the Discussion sections of research papers, in the absence of tangible translations, can make the service element of science seem like a cliched ritual. Its repetition hollows out its meaning, breeding cynicism about the idea that basic science can be of service
6 Indians who helped make London the city it is today
No full textArup K Chatterjee, author of Indians in London, tells us about the Indian people who came to London and changed it — as well as Britain and the world — for good
Capturing specific abilities as a window into human individuality: The example of face recognition
No full textProper characterization of each individual's unique pattern of strengths and weaknesses requires good measures of diverse abilities. Here, we advocate combining our growing understanding of neural and cognitive mechanisms with modern psychometric methods in a renewed effort to capture human individuality through a consideration of specific abilities. We articulate five criteria for the isolation and measurement of specific abilities, then apply these criteria to face recognition. We cleanly dissociate face recognition from more general visual and verbal recognition. This dissociation stretches across ability as well as disability, suggesting that specific developmental face recognition deficits are a special case of a broader specificity that spans the entire spectrum of human face recognition performance. Item-by-item results from 1,471 web-tested participants, included as supplementary information, fuel item analyses, validation, norming, and item response theory (IRT) analyses of our three tests: (a) the widely used Cambridge Face Memory Test (CFMT); (b) an Abstract Art Memory Test (AAMT), and (c) a Verbal Paired-Associates Memory Test (VPMT). The availability of this data set provides a solid foundation for interpreting future scores on these tests. We argue that the allied fields of experimental psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and vision science could fuel the discovery of additional specific abilities to add to face recognition, thereby providing new perspectives on human individuality
Cumellana Petrescu, Chatterjee & Schizas, 2012, gen. nov.
No full textCumellana gen. nov. Diagnosis. Female. Carapace without antennal notch. Antenna 1 long, second article of peduncle without tubercle. Labium with a forked terminal seta. Maxilliped 1 with large dactylus. Maxilliped 3 with long propodus, twice as long as carpus. Pereopod 1 dactylus with short terminal setae. Pereopod 2 dactylus with three terminal short setae, middle one highly robust. Male unknown. Etymology. The name is a combination between the generic name Cumella and the Christian name of the daughter of first author, Ana. Type species. Cumellana caribbica sp. nov. Remarks. The new genus could be distinguished from other genera of the family Nannastacidae by having long antennules and pereopod 2 with short terminal setae, equal in length.Published as part of Petrescu, Iorgu, Chatterjee, Tapas & Schizas, Nikolaos V., 2012, New genus and new species of Cumacea (Crustacea: Peracarida) from the mesophotic coral ecosystem of SW Puerto Rico, Caribbean Sea, pp. 55-61 in Zootaxa 3476 on page 58, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.21129
Results of late surgical intervention in children with early-onset bilateral cataracts
No full textBackground Cataracts are a major cause of childhood blindness globally. Although surgically treatable, it is unclear whether children would benefit from such interventions beyond the first few years of life, which are believed to constitute ‘critical’ periods for visual development.
Aims To study visual acuity outcomes after late treatment of early-onset cataracts and also to determine whether there are longitudinal changes in postoperative acuity.
Methods We identified 53 children with dense cataracts with an onset within the first half-year after birth through a survey of over 20 000 rural children in India. All had accompanying nystagmus and were older than 8 years of age at the time of treatment. They underwent bilateral cataract surgery and intraocular lens implantation. We then assessed their best-corrected visual acuity 6 weeks and 6 months after surgery.
Results 48 children from the pool of 53 showed improvement in their visual acuity after surgery. Our longitudinal assessments demonstrated further improvements in visual acuity for the majority of these children proceeding from the 6-week to 6-month assessment. Interestingly, older children in our subject pool did not differ significantly from the younger ones in the extent of improvement they exhibit.
Conclusions and relevance Our results demonstrate that not only can significant vision be acquired until late in childhood, but that neural processes underlying even basic aspects of vision like resolution acuity remain malleable until at least adolescence. These data argue for the provision of cataract treatment to all children, irrespective of their age.National Eye Institute (Grant R01EY020517)James S. McDonnell Foundatio
Copidognathus gurui Chatterjee & Pešić 2014, sp. nov.
No full text<i>Copidognathus gurui</i> sp. nov. <p>(Figs. 1­ 4)</p> <p> <b>Material examined.</b> Holotype (female), paratype (female), and additional materials ­ two females used for SEM, Matemwe (05 o 52'S, 39 o 21'E) the east coast of Unguja, Zanzibar, Tanzania in coral rubble of <i>Fungia</i> (Anthozoa, Scleractinia), August 17 th 2004, coll. M Raes & H Gheerardyn.</p> <p> <b>Description</b></p> <p> Female. Idiosoma 295­ 317 (holotype: 317) µm long. AD 104­ 111 (holotype: 106) µm long. Anterior half of AD joining with dorsal part of AE. AD with frontal process and three areolae. Anterior areola oblong; paired crescent shaped middle areolae with 18­ 20 rosette pores each. Paired ds 1 anterior to middle areolae on AD. Pair of gland pores lie near anterolateral margin of AD anterior to ds 1. Area between areolae comperises large sized panels (panels not subdivided). Posterior margin of AD with a ridge containing a row of panels, each panel subdivided comprising four to eight small shallow subpanels. OC 82­ 84 µm long, 51­ 56 µm width, length to width ratio about 1.6, each with two corneae, areolae with rosette pores medial to corneae and posterolateral to posterior cornea; gland pore lateral to posterior cornea adjacent to lateral margin of OC; pore canaliculus present adjacent to lateral margin of OC. Setae ds 2 located at anteromedial corner of OC. PD 173 – 193 (holotype: 193) µm long. PD with two middle and two lateral costae. Each middle costae about 16 µm wide: with one to two rosette pores (each rosette pore with prominent ostium and canaliculi in and around it) and with panels lateral to it (each panel subdivided comprising subpanels) (Figs. 1D, 3E, F). Anterior part of middle costae and lateral costae joined together with panels (each panel with subpanels). Area between two middle costae three to six panels wide, panels not subdivided (devoid of subpanels). Setae ds 3 – ds 5 on PD. Gland pores lateral to middle costae on posterior part of PD. AE with three pairs of ventral setae and a pair of epimeral pores. Paired ventrolateral areolae between insertion of legs I and II, paired marginal areolae posterior to insertion of leg II. PE with three ventral and one dorsal seta. GA 150­ 153 (holotype: 151) µm long, GO 50­ 59 (holotype: 52) µm long. Distance between anterior end of GO and that of GA subequal to GO length. Paragenital areolae well developed. Three pairs of PGS present. In holotype anterior PGS 22 µm anterior to anterior end of GO; middle pair of PGS posterior to anterior margin of GO, 32 µm apart from lateral margin of GA; third pair near posterior side of GO. Pair of SGS located at the anterior end of genital sclerites.</p> <p> Gnathosoma 83 ­ 93 µm long. Palp consisting of four segments. Tip of rostrum just passing distal end of P 3. P 1 and P 3 devoid of any seta. P 2 with one dorsal seta distally. P 4 with three long proximal seta and one minute distal seta. Proto and deutorostral seta situated at the tip of rostrum; tritorostral setae (long maxillary setae of rostrum) located at 0.35 of rostrum length from its tip. Gnathosomal base with a pair of setae (basirostral setae). Rostral sulcus long extends posteriorly just beyond the tritorostral seta.</p> <p>Chaetotaxy of legs: trochanters I­IV, 1­ 1­ 1­ 0; basifemora I­IV, 2­ 2­ 2­ 2; telofemora I­IV, 5­ 5­ 3­ 3; genua I­IV, 4­ 4­ 3­ 3; tibiae I­IV, 7­ 7­ 5­ 5; tarsi I­IV (PAS excluded), 7­ 4­ 4­ 3. Telofemora III­IV with two dorsal setae and one ventral seta. Telofemur I swollen with well developed trilobed ventrolateral lamella. Tibia I with three ventral setae (one long, pointed ventral seta and two thick, smaller ventromedial setae). Tibia II with one long, pointed ventral seta and two thick, pectinate ventromedial setae. Tibia III with one thick, pectinate ventromedial seta. All setae of tibia IV smooth. Tibia I with two denticulate proximoventral processes (lamella) (Fig. 1E). Tibia II with a feebly developed (not clear properly) proximoventral process. Tarsus I with three dorsal setae, one solenidion, three ventral setae and two eupathidial doublet PAS. Tarsus II with three dorsal setae, one solenidion; PAS obscured by specimen compression. Tarsus III with four dorsal setae (distance between two basidorsal setae a little less than height of the segment) and two PAS. Tarsus IV with three dorsal setae and two PAS. All legs with two lateral claws and one bidentate median claw. Lateral claws with accessory process dorsally. Lateral claws of tarsi II­IV with ventral pecten.</p> <p> <b>Etymology.</b> The species is dedicated in honor of Prof. B. C. Guru, Utkal University, Bhubaneswar, Orissa, India, thesis advisor (in D. Sc.) of first author (TC).</p> <p> <b>Remarks.</b> <i>Copidognathus gurui</i> sp. nov. is characterized by two crescent shaped middle areolae on anterior dorsal plate, ds 2 on anteromedian corner of OC, a swollen telofemur I with a trilobed ventrolateral lamella, tibia I with two denticulate proximoventral processes, tarsi III and IV with 4:3 dorsal setae, telofemora III and IV each with one ventral seta.</p> <p> Present new species has some similarity with <i>C. punctatissimus</i> (Gimbel, 1919), <i>C. dentatus</i> Viets, 1940, <i>C. biscayneus</i> Newell, 1947, <i>C. dentipes</i> Bartsch, 1989, <i>C. eblingi</i> Chatterjee, 1991, <i>C. jejuensis</i> Chatterjee & Chang, 2004 and <i>C. mumbaiensis</i> Chatterjee & Chang, 2004. <i>C. tupinamborum</i> Pepato & Tiago, 2005 (Gimbel 1919; Newell 1947; Bartsch 1989; Chatterjee 1991; Chatterjee and Annapurna 2003, Chatterjee and Chang 2004a, b, 2006; Pepato and Tiago 2005).</p> <p> <i>C. punctatissimus</i> has ds 2 located on anteromedial corner of OC as in <i>C. gurui</i> sp. nov. while in all of the other aforementioned species ds 2 are located in the membranous cuticular area between AD and OC. <i>Copidognathus gurui</i> sp. nov. differs from <i>C. punctatissimus</i> and all other species in having a well developed trilobed ventrolateral lamella on telofemur I.</p> <p> <i>Copidognathus mumbaiensis</i> is characterised by the presence of a serrated lamella ventrolaterally on telofemur I instead of trilobed lamella.</p>Published as part of <i>Chatterjee, Tapas & Pešić, Vladimir, 2014, A new species of the genusCopidognathus (Acari, Halacaridae) from Zanzibar, Tanzania, pp. 169-175 in Ecologica Montenegrina 1 (3)</i> on pages 170-17
Development of pattern vision following early and extended blindness
No full textVisual plasticity peaks during early critical periods of normal visual development. Studies in animals and humans provide converging evidence that gains in visual function are minimal and deficits are most severe when visual deprivation persists beyond the critical period. Here we demonstrate visual development in a unique sample of patients who experienced extended early-onset blindness (beginning before 1 y of age and lasting 8–17 y) before removal of bilateral cataracts. These patients show surprising improvements in contrast sensitivity, an assay of basic spatial vision. We find that contrast sensitivity development is independent of the age of sight onset and that individual rates of improvement can exceed those exhibited by normally developing infants. These results reveal that the visual system can retain considerable plasticity, even after early blindness that extends beyond critical periods.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant R01EY020517
Ruminations of a Gandhian: Margaret Chatterjee
No full text This article is based on conversations the author had with nonagenarian Gandhian, Margaret Chatterjee, over the last one year. It is reflective of Chatterjee’s engagement with Gandhian philosophy—non-violence and satyagraha, drawn from influences in Gandhi’s life—and captures why she rejects the categorization of Gandhi as either a traditionalist or a modernist. </jats:p
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