Central University of Kerala

About: Central University of Kerala is a education organization based out in Kāsaragod, India. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Catalysis. The organization has 556 authors who have published 881 publications receiving 7474 citations.

Epilepsy region localization in signal domain — A smart getup

Abstract: Epilepsy region localization is a key stage in pre-surgical evaluation of patients with medical refractory epilepsy (which is more burdensome than any other types of epilepsy). A common way of analyzing regions which are affected with epilepsy is using electroencephalogram by capturing electric potential from human scalp. In this article, a method is presented for the effective epilepsy region localization by analyzing electroencephalogram signals based on signal domain features. Features such as average signal energy and average log-energy entropy are extracted from signals and their differential signals in the signal domain. The experimental results show the ability of the proposed features to localize the epileptic regions by classifying the epileptic signals from non epileptic signals.

Theatre for Re-education: experimenting with documentary form in Kerala

Abstract: This paper is a study of a Malayalam documentary play ‘Not Just the Victims’ staged by Abhinaya Theatre Research Centre Trivandrum. Along with analyzing the documentary method of the play this study looks at how the theatre group employed the play for ‘re-educating’ the people regarding certain existing norms. The play initiates a discourse in theatre regarding various atrocities happening against woman and children in society. The need for re-educating our parents and educational institutions regarding their out-dated techniques in nurturing woman and children as well as male counterparts is highlighted in this study. Also, the paper investigates how traumatic narratives of victims could make a greater impact on the audience for a change in their attitudes.

Protective effects of fucoidan against 4-nitroquinolin-1-oxide provoked genetic damage in mouse bone marrow cells

Abstract: Fucoidan is a unique bioactive and dietary polymer enriched mainly in the cell wall matrix of the brown seaweeds. This present study was intended to reveal the antigenotoxicity effect of fucoidan on 4-nitroquinolin-1-oxide (4-NQO) induced genetics damage and apoptosis in mice bone marrow cells. The 4-NQO caused genetic damages in the form of chromosome/chromatic breakage was estimated by micronuclei assay whereas apoptosis by annexin-V FITC kit and DNA damage by comet assay kit. In addition, oxidative damage in terms of plasma lipid peroxidation (LPO) and 8-OHdG was also estimated. In the experimental regime, six groups with each in five either sex of mice were used. Fucoidan constituted (50,100,200 mg/kg bwt) by orally for 5 days consequently and on 6th day, 4-NQO was administered (7.5 mg/kg bwt) by i.p. The results clearly show that negative control (H2O) and fucoidan alone constituted mice were not exhibited significant effect on LPO, genetic damages whereas positive control group (4-NQO 7.5 mg/kg bwt, i.p.) showed significant effect on genetic damage by showing increased level of LPO (6.25 vs 1.3 μM MDA), 8-OHdG (12 vs 4%), micronuclei about six-fold, 5-fold of comet, and 4-fold of apoptosis when compared with negative control, 11.6 ± 2.07, 5.00 ± 1.58, and 4.14 ± 0.65 respectively. Fucoidan pretreatment significantly protected the 4-NQO-induced genetic damage by 77% decreased level of micronuclei and 96% comet at dose of 200 mg/kg bwt over the positive control whereas LPO, 8-OHdG, and apoptosis were restored as equal to negative control. This study found as fucoidan possessing significant antigenotoxicity property by protecting 4-NQO-induced genetic damage in mice bone marrow cells as dose dependent manner suggest as valuable food supplements and medicine for mankind from environmental toxicants.

Small Eigenvalue Based Skew Estimation of Handwritten Devanagari Words

Abstract: In this work, a novel technique for estimating skew angle in handwritten Devanagari words is proposed. Orientation of the Shirorekha, a horizontal line present at the top and touching all the characters of a word, is used as a clue to identify its skew. The method exploits the eigenvalue analysis of the covariance matrix formed by the edge pixels of the word image over a small connected region of support for the purpose extracting straight line segments. The line segments thus obtained are grouped according to their orientations. The orientation of a line segment is computed as a function of angles of its associated edge pixels. The angle of an edge pixel is identified using the eigenvector corresponding to the small eigenvalue associated with it. The line segments of each group are processed to locate a longest connected line which is decided to be the Shirorekha. The method is very fast when compared to Hough transform based line detection approach in addition to being robust to noise. Performance of the method is studied on a dataset consisting of 400 word images extracted from handwritten Devanagari documents especially of Hindi language with arbitrary orientations ranging from -45i¾? to 45i¾? under different scaling.

Caste-Specific Expression of Na+/K+-ATPase in the Asian Weaver Ant, Oecophylla smaragdina (Fabricius, 1775).

Abstract: Social insect colonies adopt different levels of survival strategies and exhibit well-defined reproductive division of labour. Oecophylla smaragdina (Fabricius, 1775) has physiological and behavioral adaptations that enable them to forage at extreme environmental conditions and are lethal to most other insects. Ion homeostasis is the key process in an organism's survival mechanism. Among ion pumps, the ATP-dependent sodium-potassium ion pump is essential for maintaining the Na+ and K+ ionic balance and is well known as the primary consumer of energy. Oecophylla smaragdina plays pivotal role as a model among social insects for understanding ion homeostasis at the organization level of the castes. We have evaluated the expression and activity of Na+/K+-ATPase among various castes of O. smaragdina (worker subcastes, queen and male). Real-time PCR and immunoblotting analyses revealed the differential expression of Na+/K+-ATPase in the castes. Significantly higher expression of Na+/K+-ATPase mRNA and protein were observed in the minor workers, queen, major workers and males respectively. These results suggest that in the weaver ant colony, the castes might have variously adapted and evolved with a well-developed ion transport mechanism which allows them to perform allocated tasks within the nest and could be a key to their adaptive benefits towards division of labour.