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"Ahmad Irfan"
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Religion as critique : Islamic critical thinking from Mecca to the marketplace
\"Irfan Ahmad makes the far-reaching argument that potent systems and modes for self-critique as well as critique of others are inherent in Islam--indeed, critique is integral to its fundamental tenets and practices. Challenging common views of Islam as hostile to critical thinking, Ahmad delineates thriving traditions of critique in Islamic culture, focusing in large part on South Asian traditions. Ahmad contemplates and interrogates Greek and Enlightenment notions of reason and critique, and he notes how they are invoked in relation to \"others,\" including Muslims. Drafting an alternative genealogy of critique in Islam, Ahmad reads religious teachings and texts, drawing on sources in Hindi, Urdu, Farsi, and English, and demonstrates how they serve as expressions of critique. Throughout, he depicts Islam as an agent, not an object, of critique.\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
A Hybrid Rule-Based and Machine Learning System for Arabic Check Courtesy Amount Recognition
Courtesy amount recognition from bank checks is an important application of pattern recognition. Although much progress has been made on isolated digit recognition for Indian digits, there is no work reported in the literature on courtesy amount recognition for Arabic checks using Indian digits. Arabic check courtesy amount recognition comes with its own unique challenges that are not seen in isolated digit recognition tasks and, accordingly, need specific approaches to deal with them. This paper presents an end-to-end system for courtesy amount recognition starting from check images as input to recognizing amounts as a sequence of digits. The system is a hybrid system, combining rule-based modules as well as machine learning modules. For the amount recognition system, both segmentation-based and segmentation-free approaches were investigated and compared. We evaluated our system on the CENPARMI dataset of real bank checks in Arabic. We achieve 67.4% accuracy at the amount level and 87.15% accuracy at the digit level on the test set consisting of 626 check images. The results are presented with detailed analysis, and some possible future work is identified. This work can be used as a baseline to benchmark future research in Arabic check courtesy amount recognition.
Journal Article
The algebra of warfare-welfare : a long view of India's 2014 election
Electoral democracy combines the ideas and practices of warfare and welfare, where both work in tandem as near synonyms. India's robust electoral democracy exemplifies this combination in diverse forms. Critically analyzing the 2014 Parliamentary elections beyond the seduction of immediacy and bare cold statistics, this book puts human subjectivity at the center of election studies and, through an anthropological-sociological approach, makes lives - human and non-human, lived and unlived or unlivable - central to any understanding of elections and democracy. Crafting a new, comprehensive approach, this volume looks at the 2014 elections in relation to the changing nature and forms of elections and democracy globally. Coming from multidisciplinary backgrounds, the contributors to this volume use ethnographic observations to open up a space for new theoretical and methodological reflections on the role of media in Indian elections, the shift to the right in 2014 and its consequences, the significance of traditional Hindu spaces such as the river Ganga in BJP's victory, the role of gurus like Baba Ramdev, and the electoral choices available to and exercised by the minorities, among others.
Book
Polymer Composites in 3D/4D Printing: Materials, Advances, and Prospects
Additive manufacturing (AM), commonly referred to as 3D printing, has revolutionized the manufacturing landscape by enabling the intricate layer-by-layer construction of three-dimensional objects. In contrast to traditional methods relying on molds and tools, AM provides the flexibility to fabricate diverse components directly from digital models without the need for physical alterations to machinery. Four-dimensional printing is a revolutionary extension of 3D printing that introduces the dimension of time, enabling dynamic transformations in printed structures over predetermined periods. This comprehensive review focuses on polymeric materials in 3D printing, exploring their versatile processing capabilities, environmental adaptability, and applications across thermoplastics, thermosetting materials, elastomers, polymer composites, shape memory polymers (SMPs), including liquid crystal elastomer (LCE), and self-healing polymers for 4D printing. This review also examines recent advancements in microvascular and encapsulation self-healing mechanisms, explores the potential of supramolecular polymers, and highlights the latest progress in hybrid printing using polymer–metal and polymer–ceramic composites. Finally, this paper offers insights into potential challenges faced in the additive manufacturing of polymer composites and suggests avenues for future research in this dynamic and rapidly evolving field.
Journal Article
Flavonoids a Bioactive Compound from Medicinal Plants and Its Therapeutic Applications
Plants generally secrete secondary metabolites in response to stress. These secondary metabolites are very useful for humankind as they possess a wide range of therapeutic activities. Secondary metabolites produced by plants include alkaloids, flavonoids, terpenoids, and steroids. Flavonoids are one of the classes of secondary metabolites of plants found mainly in edible plant parts such as fruits, vegetables, stems, grains, and bark. They are synthesized by the phenylpropanoid pathway. Flavonoids possess antibacterial, antiviral, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimutagenic, and anticarcinogenic properties. Due to their various therapeutic applications, various pharmaceutical companies have exploited different plants for the production of flavonoids. To overcome this situation, various biotechnological strategies have been incorporated to improve the production of different types of flavonoids. In this review, we have highlighted the various types of flavonoids, their biosynthesis, properties, and different strategies to enhance the production of flavonoids.
Journal Article
A Survey on IoT-Enabled Smart Grids: Technologies, Architectures, Applications, and Challenges
The state of the power system has changed over the last decades. Recently, the power system has faced several challenges and issues. On the one side, demands for electrical energy are increasing day-by-day, with power losses, grid failure, and lack of smart technology; on the other side, security threats are also increasing. The current power grid cannot deal with these issues. The Internet of things (IoT) has grown quickly in a very short time because of its main features. By using IoT in the power grid, we can enhance the conventional grid’s efficiency, capacity, reliability, sustainability, scalability, and stability. Using the IoT in smart grids resolves the numerous problems faced by current smart grids. According to the latest research on IoT-enabled smart grid (SG) systems, security issues have been identified as one of the key problems. This paper reviews the different security aspects and applications while integrating the IoT with smart grids and discusses various frameworks. Apart from this, we also focus on various IoT and non-IoT technologies used in the smart grid network, such as sensing, communication, and computing technologies, as well as their standards.
Journal Article
Hydrogel-Based Adsorbent Material for the Effective Removal of Heavy Metals from Wastewater: A Comprehensive Review
Water is a vital resource that is required for social and economic development. A rapid increase in industrialization and numerous anthropogenic activities have resulted in severe water contamination. In particular, the contamination caused by heavy metal discharge has a negative impact on human health and the aquatic environment due to the non-biodegradability, toxicity, and carcinogenic effects of heavy metals. Thus, there is an immediate need to recycle wastewater before releasing heavy metals into water bodies. Hydrogels, as potent adsorbent materials, are a good contenders for treating toxic heavy metals in wastewater. Hydrogels are a soft matter formed via the cross-linking of natural or synthetic polymers to develop a three-dimensional mesh structure. The inherent properties of hydrogels, such as biodegradability, swell-ability, and functionalization, have made them superior applications for heavy metal removal. In this review, we have emphasized the recent development in the synthesis of hydrogel-based adsorbent materials. The review starts with a discussion on the methods used for recycling wastewater. The discussion then shifts to properties, classification based on various criteria, and surface functionality. In addition, the synthesis and adsorption mechanisms are explained in detail with the understanding of the regeneration, recovery, and reuse of hydrogel-based adsorbent materials. Therefore, the cost-effective, facile, easy to modify and biodegradable hydrogel may provide a long-term solution for heavy metal removal.
Journal Article
Single-Cell RNA Sequencing with Spatial Transcriptomics of Cancer Tissues
Single-cell RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) techniques can perform analysis of transcriptome at the single-cell level and possess an unprecedented potential for exploring signatures involved in tumor development and progression. These techniques can perform sequence analysis of transcripts with a better resolution that could increase understanding of the cellular diversity found in the tumor microenvironment and how the cells interact with each other in complex heterogeneous cancerous tissues. Identifying the changes occurring in the genome and transcriptome in the spatial context is considered to increase knowledge of molecular factors fueling cancers. It may help develop better monitoring strategies and innovative approaches for cancer treatment. Recently, there has been a growing trend in the integration of RNA-seq techniques with contemporary omics technologies to study the tumor microenvironment. There has been a realization that this area of research has a huge scope of application in translational research. This review article presents an overview of various types of single-cell RNA-seq techniques used currently for analysis of cancer tissues, their pros and cons in bulk profiling of transcriptome, and recent advances in the techniques in exploring heterogeneity of various types of cancer tissues. Furthermore, we have highlighted the integration of single-cell RNA-seq techniques with other omics technologies for analysis of transcriptome in their spatial context, which is considered to revolutionize the understanding of tumor microenvironment.
Journal Article
Simmons–Smith Cyclopropanation: A Multifaceted Synthetic Protocol toward the Synthesis of Natural Products and Drugs: A Review
Simmons–Smith cyclopropanation is a widely used reaction in organic synthesis for stereospecific conversion of alkenes into cyclopropane. The utility of this reaction can be realized by the fact that the cyclopropane motif is a privileged synthetic intermediate and a core structural unit of many biologically active natural compounds such as terpenoids, alkaloids, nucleosides, amino acids, fatty acids, polyketides and drugs. The modified form of Simmons–Smith cyclopropanation involves the employment of Et2Zn and CH2I2 (Furukawa reagent) toward the total synthesis of a variety of structurally complex natural products that possess broad range of biological activities including anticancer, antimicrobial and antiviral activities. This review aims to provide an intriguing glimpse of the Furukawa-modified Simmons–Smith cyclopropanation, within the year range of 2005 to 2022.
Journal Article