Single injection of streptozotocin (STZ) resulted diabetes mellitus which was reflected here by the levels of fasting blood glucose and serum insulin. Moreover, this experimental diabetes also ...resulted testicular dysfunctions evaluated by count, viability and motility of sperm as well as by the activities of key enzymes for androgen synthesis. Diabetes induced testicular oxidative stress has been indicated here by the monitoring of testicular peroxidase and catalase activities as well as by quantification of TBARS and CD of testis. Testicular glucose was increased and leydig cell nuclear area was decreased in STZ induced diabetes. Treatment of herbal formulated drug named as MTEC consist of aqueous-methanol extract of Musa paradisiaca, Tamarindus indica, Eugenia jambolana and Coccinia indica to streptozotocin induced diabetic rat at the ratio of 2 : 2 : 1 : 1 at the dose of 60 mg/d for two times a day for 14 d resulted a significant protection in fasting blood glucose and serum insulin levels (p<0.05) along with correction of testicular above parameters towards the control level (p<0.05). This herbal formulated drug has no general toxic effects on the body weight, as well as on the activities of serum glutamate and pyruvate transaminases in serum. The results support the validity of this herbal drug for the management of testicular disorders noted in diabetic state.
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•High harmonic generation spectrum from energetic molecule is recorded.•Experimental spectrum is compared with theoretical one.
Understanding the interaction between strong laser ...field and energetic molecules is an important task for practical implementation of the laser-induced ignition for high energy propulsion applications. One of the generic consequences of the interaction of a strong laser field with molecules is high harmonic generation (HHG). Thus far, high harmonic generation has not been observed from any energetic molecule. The purpose of this paper is to present an HHG spectrum obtained for a simple energetic molecule, nitromethane, at various gas cell pressures and laser beam intensities. The experimental spectrum is compared and contrasted with the theoretical one obtained under the approximation of single active electron in molecular electrostatic potential. We believe that the present work would open door to the further investigation of the laser ignition chemistry of energetic molecules from an HHG point of view.
Speculative fiction emerged in 19th-century Bengal as a mode of narrative engagement with the city's colonial modernity during its contact with British colonialism. This fiction, however, was ...essentially a city-based enterprise interacting with, and moulding, the imperial city of Kolkata in myriad ways. The interaction gave rise to dissenting voices within the gradually emerging educated class of Kolkata. This article explores such intersections of the city and speculative fiction with the aid of two conceptual arcs - morality and corporeality - and argues that, located within divergent imaginaries of representing the city, they construct a contested cityscape. These arcs produce an alternative metropolitan imagination that subverts the colonial imaginary of the city. The article examines two early speculative texts written by Kylas Chunder Dutt and Shoshee Chunder Dutt to explore the nature of this imagination. The colonial imaginary of Kolkata within this speculative textual space offers a locus distinct from the colonizers.
This article examines Bhudeb Mukhopadhyaya’s Swapnolabdho Bharatbarsher Itihas (History of India Revealed in a Dream) as a speculative dream narrative within the wider context of literary practices ...of colonial Bengal in the nineteenth century. History is a contested terrain within the colonial domain and intersects with pedagogy, politics, and technology in myriad ways. History in the text is also refracted through identitarian religious, gender, and caste prisms. We investigate Bhudeb’s text within these sites, arguing that the text represents a contradictory colonial modernity that negotiates the historical self through the speculative possibility of a dream.
While glacier mass changes in the Himalaya since the year 2000 are relatively well investigated, there is still a lack of knowledge about the long-term changes and their climatic drivers. We use ...historical and recent remote sensing data to study glacier changes of the Lahaul-Spiti region in western Himalaya, India, over the last four decades (1971–2013). The glaciers were losing mass moderately between 1971 and 1999 (− 0.07 ± 0.1 m w.e. year
−1
) while the losses have increased significantly after 2000 (− 0.30 ± 0.1 m w.e. year
−1
). During both periods, the debris-covered glaciers and glaciers having pro-glacial lakes lost more mass than glaciers with little debris cover. Mass changes of Chhota Shigri, a benchmark glacier, closely matched the average of the overall study area. Analysis of gridded climate data covering the period 1948–2015 shows that the mean annual air temperature increased, especially since 1995. One dataset shows a significant increase in summer temperature after 2000 while others do not show any trend. The mean annual precipitation started decreasing around 1995 and reached a minimum around 2000, after which it increased again. One dataset shows a significant decrease in winter precipitation after 2000 while the others show no trend. The climate data indicate that the increase in mean annual temperature from 1995, combined with no significant trend/significant decrease of winter precipitation in the period after 2000, has probably resulted in accelerated mass loss of the glaciers.
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•Decomposition mechanisms of model energetic salt, guanidium triazolate, are explored.•Decomposition pathways are electronically nonadiabatic.•CASPT2, CASMP2 and CASSCF methodologies ...are employed.•N2 and NH3 are predicted to be the most possible initial decomposition products.
Electronically nonadiabatic decomposition pathways of guanidium triazolate are explored theoretically. Nonadiabatically coupled potential energy surfaces are explored at the complete active space self-consistent field (CASSCF) level of theory. For better estimation of energies complete active space second order perturbation theories (CASPT2 and CASMP2) are also employed. Density functional theory (DFT) with B3LYP functional and MP2 level of theory are used to explore subsequent ground state decomposition pathways. In comparison with all possible stable decomposition products (such as, N2, NH3, HNC, HCN, NH2CN and CH3NC), only NH3 (with NH2CN) and N2 are predicted to be energetically most accessible initial decomposition products. Furthermore, different conical intersections between the S1 and S0 surfaces, which are computed at the CASSCF(14,10)/6-31G(d) level of theory, are found to play an essential role in the excited state deactivation process of guanidium triazolate. This is the first report on the electronically nonadiabatic decomposition mechanisms of isolated guanidium triazolate salt.
Natural and man-made disasters like earthquakes, landslides, avalanches, unplanned mining are some of the most serious factors responsible for earth surface displacement. These incidences can be ...harmful for the society due to loss of life and also threatful for future urban development. Therefore, continuous monitoring of disasters in terms of displacements is of fundamental importance in a modern well-organized society to understand its effects on the social and economic fabric. Availability of SAR data has been proved to be an excellent source for estimation of surface displacements with high accuracies. However, in India, SAR interferometry-related displacement measurement has still not gained appreciable momentum. More rigorous research needs to be carried out for the efficient use of this new generation technique. This review article is an attempt to discuss the issues related to SAR-based displacement studies so far conducted on Indian Himalayan region and possible advanced alternatives.
The Corona KH-4 reconnaissance satellite missions acquired panoramic stereo imagery with high spatial resolution of 1.8-7.5 m from 1962 to 1972. The potential of 800000+ declassified Corona images ...has not been leveraged due to the complexities arising from handling of panoramic imaging geometry, film distortions, and limited availability of the metadata required for georeferencing of the Corona imagery. This article presents the Corona Stereo Pipeline (CoSP): A pipeline for processing of Corona KH-4 stereo panoramic imagery. CoSP utilizes the deep learning-based feature matcher SuperGlue to automatically match feature points between Corona KH-4 images and recent satellite imagery to generate ground control points (GCPs). To model the imaging geometry and the scanning motion of the panoramic KH-4 cameras, a rigorous camera model consisting of modified collinearity equations with time-dependent exterior orientation parameters is employed. Using the entire frame of the Corona image, bundle adjustment with well-distributed GCPs results in an average standard deviation (SD) or <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">\sigma _{0} </tex-math></inline-formula> of less than two pixels. We evaluate fiducial marks on the Corona films and show that pre-processing the Corona images to compensate for film bending improves the 3-D reconstruction accuracy. The distortion pattern of image residuals of GCPs and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">y </tex-math></inline-formula>-parallax in epipolar resampled images suggest that film distortions due to long-term storage likely cause systematic deviations of up to six pixels. Compared to the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) digital elevation model (DEM), the Corona DEM computed using CoSP achieved a normalized median absolute deviation (NMAD) of elevation differences of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">\approx </tex-math></inline-formula>4 m over an area of approximately 4000 km2 after a tile-based fine coregistration of the DEMs. We further assess CoSP on complex scenes involving high relief and glacierized terrain and show that the resulting DEMs can be used to compute long-term glacier elevation changes over large areas.
This article examines Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain's speculative science fiction story "Sultana's Dream" in the context of science fiction writing in 19th- and 20th-century Bengal. It analyses the story's ...intersection with a range of discourses and the way this creates a distinctive text. The story is discussed in terms of the key discursive formations that Hossain contends with: that of the "women's question" (with an emphasis on the Muslim woman's question); the nature of the violence that produces a male-dominated state; and the possibility of a scientific-aesthetic intervention capable of countering such male violence. The article argues that Hossain's speculative science fiction, by portraying the liberatory potential of a transformed scientific state apparatus, produces a model of a feminist Utopia which is not grounded simply in gender, but also in the possibility of a state based on a rational aesthetic.
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