Colonialism radically transformed the cultures of colonized peoples, often rupturing Indigenous traditions and folklore. Whether creating colonial discourse, promoting orientalist literature, advocating western educational institutions, or through biased media representations, imperial powers systematically oppressed Indigenous and Native peoples. Subjugated communities, however, created, and still form postcolonial discourse from their knowledge systems. This discourse insists on Indigenous and Native culture as central to Indigenous and Native peoples identity. This study examines the postcolonial literature of three groups: Kānaka Maoli, African Americans, and Iraqis. The scope of this dissertation scrutinizes how folklore is employed as resistance in the postcolonial literature of Kānaka Maoli, African Americans, and Iraqis. Folklore as Resistance in Postcolonial Narratives and Cultural Practices: Hawaiian, African American, and Iraqi focuses on the centrality of folklore and cultural histories in the literature of these three groups. Kānaka Maoli emphasize the mo’olelo (hi/story) in their literature. Moʻolelo acts not only as a means to pass down hi/story and culturally significant stories from generation to generation (a genealogy) but also as a mode of resistance to hegemonic and imperial powers. Moʻolelo are not merely legends or myths; instead, they represent ancestral knowledge and connection to Kānaka history. Kānaka Maoli claim and revive ancestral moʻolelo in their literature and cultural performance to illuminate their relationship to place, ʻāina, and their country, the Hawaiian Kingdom. In this work, Dhiffaf al-Shwillay suggests that there are similar tendencies in the literature of Kānaka Maoli, African American, and Iraqis. The folklore and literature of these groups signify the histories of oppression and/or colonization and its aftermath. Al-Shwillay finds that Kānaka Maoli, African American, and Iraqi folklore in literature can be read as resistance to orientalism, oppression, and stereotyping. Following the trajectory of the historical and cultural context for the literary productions of these three communities, she offers analysis and reading of Sage Takehiro, Dana Naone Hall, Haunani-Kay Trask, Brandy Nālani McDougall, Zora Neale Hurston, Badr Shakir al-Sayyab, and Selim Matar. This dissertation concludes by emphasizing the dynamic political and cultural value of moʻolelo and folklore in postcolonial narratives. Al-Shwillay asserts that literature that draws upon folklore and cultural histories transmits evidence of oppressive powers and, crucially, resistance. In this mode of examination of postcolonial literature, al-Shwillay asserts that folklore records the resistance of peoples through their literary production. Folklore carries the knowledge of ancestors, cultural, and history.
Ocular drug delivery is challenging due to the presence of anatomical and physiological barriers. These barriers can affect drug entry into the eye following multiple routes of administration (e.g., topical, systemic, and injectable). Topical administration in the form of eye drops is preferred for treating anterior segment diseases, as it is convenient and provides local delivery of drugs. Major concerns with topical delivery include poor drug absorption and low bioavailability. To improve the bioavailability of topically administered drugs, novel drug delivery systems are being investigated. Nanocarrier delivery systems demonstrate enhanced drug permeation and prolonged drug release. This review provides an overview of ocular barr
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As cities across the world grow and the mobility of populations increases, there has also been a corresponding increase in the number of vehicles on roads. The result of this has been a proliferation of challenges for authorities with regard to road traffic management. A consequence of this has been congestion of traffic, more accidents, and pollution. Accidents are a still major cause of death, despite the development of sophisticated systems for traffic management and other technologies linked with vehicles. Hence, it is necessary that a common system for accident management is developed. For instance, traffic congestion in most urban areas can be alleviated by the real-time planning of routes. However, the designing of an efficie
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The nephrotoxicity induced by methotrexate is a severe condition that greatly affects its therapeutic potential and has a significant inflammatory component. Fimasartan is an angiotensin receptor blocker that offers organ-protective effects and may be useful in mitigating renal injury. The present study explored the anti-inflammatory potential of two doses of fimasartan against methotrexate-mediated nephrotoxicity. Albino rats were intraperitoneally administered a single methotrexate (20 mg/kg). Intraperitoneal treatment with fimasartan (5 or 10 mg/kg/day) was initiated on day two after methotrexate injection and continued for seven consecutive days. Methotrexate significantly increased serum urea, creatinine, and NGAL concentrations. It al
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Nefopam (N.F.) HCl is a non-narcotic centrally-acting, non-opioid benzoxazocine analgesic to relieve acute and chronic pain. It exhibits low bioavailability (about 36%) due to its first-pass degradation in the liver.
Intranasal administration has been used as a new route for targeting active brain sites and enhancing the bioavailability of N.F. HCl bypassing hepatic metabolism.
In situ gel of N.F. HCl was prepared by the cold method using different concentrations of Poloxamer 407, Poloxamer 188, HPMC K4M, Carbapol 934, and Hyaluronic acid polymers.
The results show that identification tests are superimposed with references, solubility study shows that N.F. HCl is suitable to be administered intranasally; Compatibi
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Due to the huge variety of 5G services, Network slicing is promising mechanism for dividing the physical network resources in to multiple logical network slices according to the requirements of each user. Highly accurate and fast traffic classification algorithm is required to ensure better Quality of Service (QoS) and effective network slicing. Fine-grained resource allocation can be realized by Software Defined Networking (SDN) with centralized controlling of network resources. However, the relevant research activities have concentrated on the deep learning systems which consume enormous computation and storage requirements of SDN controller that results in limitations of speed and accuracy of traffic classification mechanism. To fill thi
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Doxorubicin (DOX) is an efficient antineoplastic agent with a broad antitumor spectrum; however, doxorubicin-associated cardiotoxic adverse effect through oxidative damage and apoptosis limits its clinical application. Cafestol (Caf) is a naturally occurring diterpene in unfiltered coffee with unique antioxidant, antimutagenic, and anti-inflammatory activities by activating the Nrf2 pathway. The present study aimed to investigate the potential chemoprotective effect of cafestol on DOX-induced cardiotoxicity in rats. Wistar albino rats of both sexes were administered cafestol (5 mg/kg/day) for 14 consecutive days by oral gavage alone or with doxorubicin which was injected as a single dose (15 mg/kg intraperitoneally at day 14) to i
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This paper presents a novel inverse kinematics solution for robotic arm based on artificial neural network (ANN) architecture. The motion of robotic arm is controlled by the kinematics of ANN. A new artificial neural network approach for inverse kinematics is proposed. The novelty of the proposed ANN is the inclusion of the feedback of current joint angles configuration of robotic arm as well as the desired position and orientation in the input pattern of neural network, while the traditional ANN has only the desired position and orientation of the end effector in the input pattern of neural network. In this paper, a six DOF Denso robotic arm with a gripper is controlled by ANN. The comprehensive experimental results proved the appl
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Irinotecan induced-mucositis is an inflammatory event of intestine caused by an increase in concentration of active metabolite 7ethyl10-hydroxycamptothecin (SN38) in the intestine. Irinotecan must first be converted by a carboxylesterase (CES) to the active metabolite (SN38), which is subsequently glucuronidated by the hepatic enzyme to SN38G. The SN-38G is deconjugated in the intestine to SN-38 via ?-glucuronidase produced by the intestinal bacterial flora, which accounts for SN-38 delayed intestinal mucositis of irinotecan. To study the protective effect of mentha in irinotecan-induced mucositis, intestinal mucositis induced by I.P injection of irinotecan (75mg/Kg/day) for 4 days. Mentha ethanolic extract orally administered to
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