15,663 research outputs found
Sphingius paltaensis Biswas & Biswas, 1992, sp. nov.
No full text103. Sphingius paltaensis sp. nov. (Figs. 36-38) General: Cephalothorax greenish brown, legs uniformly light coloured, abdomen somewhat darker than carapace. Total length 7.90 mm. Carapace 3.30 mm. long. 2.50 mm. wde; abdomen 4.20 mm. long, 2.50 mm. wide. Cephalothorax: Longer than wide, narrow anteriorly and broad posteriorly covered with fine pubescence. Cephalic-shcild prominent without central fovea at the middle. Eyes in two parallel series anterior and posterior, more or less same size. Ocular quadrate approximately squire. Chelicerae strong and stout, longer than broad, inner and outer margin provided with two teeth. Maxillae and libium more longer than wide. Sternum heart-shaped covered with fine pubescence. Legs long partly black and partly compressed. The tibiae and metatarsi of all legs provided with a number of long spine-like hair. Abdomen: Longer than wide, more or less oval in shape; abdominal sheild prominent with golden pile. Two pair of sigillae present on the dorsum. Abdomen without white patches. Epigyne with elongated plate, provided with copulatory opening. Holotype: Female in spirit, deposited at Zoological Survey of India, Calcutta, Regd. No. 5046/18. Type locality: Palta, Santinagar, Dist. North 24-Parganas, West Bengal, India, 8.xii. 1986, coll. Bijan Biswas. This species resembles to Sphingius caniceps Simon but differs from that due to the following particulars: i) The anterior and posterior rows of eyes more or less in parallel series where as in S. caniceps anterior and posteior rows are not in parallel series, ii) The dorsum not provided with white patches where as in S. caniceps provided with while patches, iii) Epigyne and internal genitalia arc also structurally differentPublished as part of Biswas, B. & Biswas, K, 1992, Fauna of West Bengal- Araneae: Spiders- Subfamily Corinnidae, pp. 422-428 in Fauna of West Bengal Part 3 (Arachnida and acari), Calcutta, India :Zoological Survey of India on pages 426-427, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.89222
In conversation : Asit K. Biswas and Murad J. Bino
No full textFrench version available in IDRC Digital Library: Tête-à-tête avec Asit K. Biswas et Murad J. Bin
Tête-à-tête avec Asit K. Biswas et Murad J. Bino
No full textVersion anglaise disponible dans la Bibliothèque numérique du CRDI: In conversation : Asit K. Biswas and Murad J. Bin
Sphingius paltaensis Biswas & Biswas 1992
No full textSphingius paltaensis Biswas & Biswas, 1992 Fig. 7 Sphingius paltaensis Biswas & Biswas, 1992: 426, figs 36–38. Type material. Holotype ♀ from INDIA: West Bengal: North 24 Parganas: Palta: Santi Nagar (22°46’57.51’’N, 88°22’50.46’’E), 12 m a.s.l., leg. Bijan Biswas, 8 December 1986, deposited in NZC-ZSI (5046/18), examined (Fig. 7E). Diagnosis. Females of S. paltaensis are closely related to the females of S. spinosus Dankittipakul, Tavano & Singtripop, 2011, but can be separated by circular atrium (quadrangular in S. spinosus) and sharply curved copulatory ducts (gently curved in S. spinosus) (compare Fig. 7 C–D with Dankittipakul et al. 2011: figs 25–26). Supplementary description. Female (Fig. 7 A–B). Body length 6.46. Carapace length 2.76, width 2.30. Opisthosoma length 3.70, width 2.00. Eye diameters: ALE 0.14. AME 0.10. PLE 0.11. PME 0.15. Eye interdistances: ALE–PLE 0.07. AME–ALE 0.04. AME–AME 0.06. AME–PME 0.08. PME–PLE 0.06. PME–PME 0.07. Chelicerae length 0.96. Clypeus height at ALEs 0.07, at AMEs 0.13. Measurements of palp and legs. Palp 3.00 [0.93, 0.58, 0.59, 0.90], I 8.38 [2.38, 1.23, 1.90, 1.48, 1.39], II 6.52 [1.72, 0.87, 1.39, 1.36, 1.18], III 6.17 [1.66, 0.93, 1.18, 1.39, 1.01], IV 9.17 [2.74, 1.19, 1.96, 2.41, 0.87]. Leg formula: 4123. Genitalia (Fig. 7 C–D, F): epigynal plate moderately sclerotized. Atrium large, nearly circular, with wide anterior hood (Fig. 7C). Copulatory openings situated on postero-lateral margin of epigynal atrium. Copulatory ducts short, curving medially (Fig. 7D). Bursae globular, with indistinct stalks, arising on distal part of copulatory ducts (Fig. 7D). Spermathecae large, more or less pear-shaped, lying parallel to each other (Fig. 7D). Fertilization ducts more or less linear-shaped, directed mesally towards each other (Fig. 7D). Male. Unknown. Remarks. The ZSI collection has one glass bottle for this species labelled as ‘holotype’ (5046/18) containing a female specimen with broken legs, otherwise in good condition. The same bottle has a small glass vial containing the dissected genitalia. There is an inconsistency in the registration number of this species; the label mentions it as ‘5406/18’, but in the original literature, it is given as ‘5046/18’.Published as part of Sankaran, Pradeep M., Caleb, John T. D. & Sebastian, Pothalil A., 2020, A review of the genus Sphingius Thorell, 1890 from India (Araneae: Liocranidae), pp. 505-522 in Zootaxa 4896 (4) on pages 514-515, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4896.4.3, http://zenodo.org/record/438767
Environmental toxicity, redox signaling and lung inflammation:the role of glutathione
No full textGlutathione (gamma-glutamyl-cysteinyl-glycine, GSH) is the most abundant intracellular antioxidant thiol and is central to redox defense during oxidative stress. GSH metabolism is tightly regulated and has been implicated in redox signaling and also in protection against environmental oxidant-mediated injury. Changes in the ratio of the reduced and disulfide form (GSH/GSSG) can affect signaling pathways that participate in a broad array of physiological responses from cell proliferation, autophagy and apoptosis to gene expression that involve H(2)O(2) as a second messenger. Oxidative stress due to oxidant/antioxidant imbalance and also due to environmental oxidants is an important component during inflammation and respiratory diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, acute respiratory distress syndrome, and asthma. It is known to activate multiple stress kinase pathways and redox-sensitive transcription factors such as Nrf2, NF-kappaB and AP-1, which differentially regulate the genes for pro-inflammatory cytokines as well as the protective antioxidant genes. Understanding the regulatory mechanisms for the induction of antioxidants, such as GSH, versus pro-inflammatory mediators at sites of oxidant-directed injuries may allow for the development of novel therapies which will allow pharmacological manipulation of GSH synthesis during inflammation and oxidative injury. This article features the current knowledge about the role of GSH in redox signaling, GSH biosynthesis and particularly the regulation of transcription factor Nrf2 by GSH and downstream signaling during oxidative stress and inflammation in various pulmonary diseases. We also discussed the current therapeutic clinical trials using GSH and other thiol compounds, such as N-acetyl-l-cysteine, fudosteine, carbocysteine, erdosteine in environment-induced airways disease
A pastoral for Mr. Biswas
No full textThe opening chapter of V. S. Naipaul's A House for Mr. Biswas is entitled "Pastoral", but the word itself never appears in the novel. This is especially odd because all of the other chapter titles are grounded within the text as either geographic or temporal designations. "Pastoral" stands out for its absence, and this article reads A House for Mr. Biswas through the lens of the missing pastoral. While many works treat Naipaul's use of landscape, this essay looks at the pastoral as a literary form and also, in Naipaul's view, as a representative metaphor for the British literary tradition. While Biswas is saturated with pastoral imagery, the pastoral is impossible in the colonial society Naipaul depicts. It is only by escaping the temptations of the pastoral, both for Mr. Biswas and also for Naipaul, that meaningful experience can be achieved
Biswas-Milovic model and its optical solitons
No full textInternational Conference on Numerical Analysis and Applied Mathematics 2018, ICNAAM 2018 -- 13 September 2018 through 18 September 2018 -- -- 149843In this work, optical solitons are obtained for the Biswas - Milovic equation as a generalized model via the extended generalizing Riccati mapping method. This method reveals several optical solitons including traveling wave solutions. The found solutions are identified with two different forms including the hyperbolic functions, the rational functions and the trigonometric functions. Reliability of our solution is given graphical consequens. © 2019 Author(s)
Masculinity under Imperial Stress – Mr Biswas and V S Naipaul
No full textIn Mr Biswas, Naipaul creates his most destitute of protagonists. Born into a community of Indian labourers on a sugar estate, in a remote village of Trinidad, Mr Biswas grows to face a life without prospects. Cut off as much from the distant homeland of his ancestors in India, as from the African society around them, the circumstances of Mr Biswas and his people are a direct outcome of colonisation, and Indians in Trinidad are among the twice colonised. Claiming to be of Brahamincal origin yet uneducated, caught in poverty and demeaning labour, East Indians living in West Indies, the circumstances Mr Biswas finds himself in are dire. His efforts to break out of this world to which he is politically and socially confined eventually crystallise into the one desire – to have a house of his own. The ownership of a house for Biswas is fundamental to establishing his identity as a man within the colonial context. This paper examines the impact of colonisation in the construction of masculinity in Mr Biswas, and insofar there are biographical parallels, and in Naipaul himself
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