Phyxsius..putting into flight***

2009-10-01T18:56:00.003+05:30

When Robert Clive, a "harum-scarum schoolboy" not yet out of his teens, arrived in India in 1744, he found himself in the middle of chaos: English merchants fought against French traders, Indian princes warred among themselves, Portuguese and Dutch privateers plied the coasts, and throughout the country, anarchy reigned. Clive flourished amid the confusion. He quickly distinguished himself both in battle, showing bravery and unusual presence of mind, and in trade. The combination was profitable for his employer, the East India Company, and although Clive committed suicide in the wake of political scandal in 1774, he set in motion what would become the British conquest of India and the establishment of the Raj, a mixed form of government in which the English ruled through a network of Indian politicians and civil servants. Outwardly stable, the Raj was constantly under threat both by Indian aspirations to self-rule and by other imperialists' intrigues, notably on the part of Russia, Britain's chief competitor in what would come to be called "the great game."

Historically India has always has been a land of Diversity , divesity in its geography and physical topography , diversity of culture and human character ,diversity of ecomony and livelihood..the list is endless as the vast and seemingly infinite as the human resource of the nation itself. Though the Indian civilization has been a tale of diversity and a sequel of bloody battles there is still but a discern , a certail underlying unity which is often missed out by a superficial observer . It is the undefined underlying Unity which has made her to emerge as One Nation even after a few hundred years of separation.This unity has been an unity of hearts ,unity of minds and unity of consciousness which comes to the makinhg of the Greatest Democracy on land.

Through time immemorial Indianism has been torn apart by forces of seperatism , invaders and opportunist traders, but the Indian national character has been an unrelenting , undefying entity which has never been taken away from millions and billions of teeming Indian hearts cutting across centuries ..frm Himalayas to the Nilgiries, from the arid lanscapes of Thar to the wet plateaus of Cherrapunji .

This underlying unity of Indian nationality has prevented and protected the nation's identity and buffered the social and potitical vicissitudes from taking India off her moorings.

2007-09-10T03:39:00.001+05:30

Understanding Neuronal Networks & The Mystic Brain: An Insight

The most wonderful machine known to human race is perhaps the conglomerations of around 100 billion cells or neurons and its myriad interconnections, the human brain. The urge to understand the brain and use the knowledge to make human lives better has inspired me to persue[or rather opt to persue :)..thats more commensurate to the current scenario] for a career in neurosciences research. The Project ‘nPAD’ testify the quest for the same.
Understanding the working of the brain and its underlying foundations have intrigued the researchers, recent advances has shown brain wiring is probably the key factor behind it .Furthermore, it is also assumed that specificity and plasticity are the fundamental requirements for brain wiring. Networks transforms simple inputs into complex output that mediate brain function and behavior, often achieved through non linear operations. The understanding of these principles can greatly aid areas like machine learning and artificial cognition which are necessary to design and fabricate kinetic and interactive artificial intelligence. This applied to the robotics platform coupled with innovations in network algorithms can create a new breed of intelligent and self sustaining machines which can automate various workflows and processes.
Molecular imaging methods and computational techniques in neurosciences can provide valuable insights into the dynamics of cortical connections. This may be achieved by imagining neuronal function in single cell level and monitoring network activities. Imaging Ca2+ in vivo using extrinsic dyes or genetic reporters and the future development of sensitive voltage reporters are the proposed mechanism for such experimentations. Functional imaging of single‐cell activity in vivo combined with molecular markers that might provide information as to cellular identity will enable the determination of network connectivity and its plasticity following activity‐dependent manipulation. Mechanisms of rapid functional plasticity can also be investigated by imaging of single cell molecular changes and synapses.

The Roadmap :

Here, I can take the liberty to introduce to the readers one of the greatest talks which has been instrumental in drawing my attention and also further consolidating my career goals in the fields of neurosciences. The speaker not only delivers a fervent speech to ignite new research but also dismisses the sullen thoughts of morphological disorientations present in the core areas of neural research and the myths thats circumvent the growth of an unified Brain Theory.The hallmark of the research and the path for development as sketched is that it is inspire by the progressive idea of generation of a unified theory for Brain apprehension and not for amassing some more neurophysiological or anatomical data or either to develop newer computational techniques as it has been the swansong of the neural reseach community for decades now. This is testified by fact that data from Medline ,Nature &IEEE publications[sources uncinfirmed] about 17% of Biological and computational research is directly or indirectly related to Brain Sciences. This has led to the generation of colossal data related to neurosciences with no apparent breakthroughs that can directly address the cause of Humanity ..or answer the query ..."What we are ? ..and How we are ?"
Hope some day this fellowship of endless quest will end and men will rise again to a new truth ...

About this Talk

To date, there hasn't been an overarching theory of how the human brain really works, Jeff Hawkins argues in this compelling talk. That's because we still haven't defined intelligence accurately. But one thing's for sure, he says: The brain isn't like a powerful computer processor. It's more like a memory system that records everything we experience and helps us predict, intelligently, what will happen next. Bringing this new brain science to computer devices will enable powerful new applications -- and it will happen sooner than you think.

Why you should listen to him:

Jeff Hawkins' Palm PDA became such a widely used productivity tool during the 1990s that some fanatical users claimed it replaced their brains. But Hawkins' deepest interest was in the brain itself. So after the success of the Palm and Treo, which he brought to market at Handspring, Hawkins delved into brain research at the Redwood Center for Theoretical Neuroscience in Berkeley, Calif., and a new company called Numenta.

Hawkins' dual goal is to achieve an understanding of how the human brain actually works -- and then develop software to mimic its functionality, delivering true artificial intelligence. In his book On Intelligence (2004) he laye human neocortex doesn't work like a processor; rather, it relies on a memory system that stores and plays back experiences to help us predict, intelligently, what will happen next. He thinks that "hierarchical temporal memory" computer platforms, which mimic this functionality (and which Numenta might pioneer), could enable groundbreaking new applications that could powerfully extend human intelligence.

"Even if Hawkins finds only a small sliver of the Holy Grail he seeks [in brain research], he'll add yet another industry-moving startup to his resume."

Business Week

2007-07-28T12:46:00.000+05:30

A paean against perfidy ....

Sometimes there are people who is so close to you ...but it takes a few hundred miles to reach them ...and few thousands more to interact with them ..this anomaly is a canonical reaction of the colonists or the administrators who fails to realise the ingenious and highly mundane human relationships that nature has nurtured. It does not care about the prattles of perfidy but believes in the perennial paean of universal brotherhood. Its not a predilection extended to those who are weaker and less privileged..neither do we aim at prevaricating what history tells us ...but it is a bliss, a reticent stream of unanimousity running deep inside our veins ...one neither needs the magnanimity of a scholar neither be erudite of a scientist to understand the discordant truth ...he just needs to have the alscrity to understand the depth of the human relationship and the veracity to accept it ....the world will be a better place to dwell in if we can innervate the sense of sorbidity ..and recant from the path of refute and prattle over the qualms...and be complaisant with the profound sense of unity and reliance.

2006-10-03T01:37:00.000+05:30

A Trip on Dussera: Jamalabad Fort
-------------------------------------------------------------

Overlooking the Arabian seas and nestled by the garland of the dotted hills of the westen Ghats the Kudremukh range forms an unique outback with deep valleys and steep precipices. Herein lies a Trekker's delight yet 'undiscovered' by the tourists...a secluded hill station , retaining it pristine and profound natural beauty.

The high rock forms a part of the Kudremukh range of hills near Belthangadi. It is surrounded by lush green flora on all frontiers with the top veiled by the mist and the cloud....

On the top of this single piece of granite the fort of Tipu Sultun was built...the same ..our destination on the day of Dusseera..........here the Biomeds go..on ...and on ...&on...

........Conquering the Gateway .........

After a three hour long journey ......with lots of intro and technical and HR stuff on the way ......and few puri bhajji and masala dosas gulped down ........Baseer bond fasting..huh ..(a big respite for many..no acknowledgemens and inspirations here) ........we did reach to out first halt...the base where we start of wih out expedition towards the unknown ........the Gate is here...whats inside .???...lets walk in ...statistically not much ....a couple of miles of walk ...another couple climbing the slippery ,mossy ,grassy, watery granite stones..........chale chalo .....!!!

The History behind Genesis

The fort was built by Tipu Sultan in 1974 and later renamed after the name of the Sultan's mother Jamalbee. The stories are numerous centred round this mostly unknown fort but as history goes...the fort was once captured by the British but again Tipu snatched it back ...and remained in his possession till 1799 ..till his defeat and demise in Fourth Mysore War and in the following year in 1800 the fort was remanded back under the queen's authority.
As of the present state it lies unattended , totally derelict and in utter relics ...only the Archaeological Survey of India proudly announcing ..something was here and it is being preserved for the future(:) but it never tells...it needs to be present at 'present'..)

The relics still stands tall ...a testimony of a glorious past...

Upholding the fighting spirit...in remission ...for centuries now....

The Journey to the Summit

The valley from the hills ( a mid -range shot)

A journey too tough ...but there are some to whom the road never seems unsurmountable ..no target unachievable ,failure and retreats may be the story of the day but there were some who could carry the FLAMES to the top ..and yup ..they did it ...kudos to those Bravehearts..
Back to the Base ...at the river banks....

In the End...it doesn even matter...

Someone wrote.."men may come and men may go , but i go on forever..." ...life is eternal and endless in its many forms and frequencies.....some people come ..some go ..some empires rise ..and they rise to fall one day ...but some truth remains unfazed by these vicissitudes ...
.........a new life generates from the relics ..and newer life forms ..and fresh youthful energy is drawn to the destination to taste the adventure , the fun , the dogma of uncertainty ..and thats whats unites us ..lets us grow into manhood...and thats what matters at the end of the day ..and nothin else.......!!!!!!!!!!!!!!...........the obligation of endure never dies....

2006-09-22T15:17:00.000+05:30

Sakti Rupena Sanksthita

[Story in FLASH]

"Ya devi sarbabhuteshshu,sakti rupena sanksthita
Namasteshwai Namasteshwai Namasteshwai namo namaha."

Storms of the summer have waned off ,the dripping rains of the moonsoons gradually gives place to the crystal clear sky as only fleecy clouds flow by the glassy firmament...the gentle lull of the gastly wind passes by the green fields creating a wave of lively dance....the grass seems greener as ever swiveling in the breeze busking in the golden sunshine...slowly as the days pass by the white 'Kash Phul" starts to blossom in the endless stretches of land- the people know its autumn again...and its the month of 'Ashwin' ,the time of mother's home coming....
The time has arrived for the mother to come ..for the people to meet their beloved ones ..and to worship the Power ..and the glory of "Streesakti"(women power)...as the Devipaksha(the term of the mother) takes over Pitripaksha (pitri=father) for the time onwards...
Durga - Goddess of deliverance - comes to earth on the seventh day after the autumn new moon. Seven days before Her arrival starts the Devipaksha. The day is being observed as ‘Mahalaya’, the day of invocation. In the dark night of amabasya (new moon), people pray to Goddess Durga to arrive in the earth to ward off all evils. On the dawn of ‘Mahalaya’, homes in Bengal resonate with the immortal verses of the ‘Chandipath’ (chanting of the hymns of ‘Chandi’).

'Mahalaya' is not an myth but a concept ..and a tribute..to the primeval source of power..the qualities of all inundated in form of one shaki ..one Nari..the unity of power, energy and enterprise within one soul one body..she is manifestation of the same individual in different forms and different names....She is one and yet known by many names. She is Narayani, Brahmani, Maheshwari, Shivaduti and She is the fierceful ‘Chamunda’, decked with a garland of skulls...the godess of power is eternal ..she has no birth ..no specific physical form ...but is an manifestation of majestic might..an unified strength..preeminently materialised to protect humanity ..and restore normalcy in the process of creation from the evil incernates......

This post is dedicated to someone who has been the unilateral and never exhausting source of my energy ..my power...someone i love more than my self....."amar maa"...!!!

2006-08-28T09:52:00.000+05:30

What do you need to run the new windows......

A new PC that carries the Windows Vista Capable PC logo can run Windows Vista. All editions of Windows Vista will deliver core experiences such as innovations in organizing and finding information, security, and reliability. All Windows Vista Capable PCs will run these core experiences at a minimum. Some features available in the premium editions of Windows Vista—like the new Windows Aero user experience—may require advanced or additional hardware.
A Windows Vista Capable PC includes at least:
A modern processor (at least 800MHz1).
512 MB of system memory.
A graphics processor that is DirectX 9 capable.

If you still wanna have a better vista experience lets go for an small upgrade...
A Windows Vista Premium Ready PC includes at least:
1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor1.
1 GB of system memory.
Support for DirectX 9 graphics with a WDDM driver, 128 MB of graphics memory (minimum)2, Pixel Shader 2.0 and 32 bits per pixel.
40 GB of hard drive capacity with 15 GB free space.
DVD-ROM Drive3.
Audio output capability.
Internet access capability.
Windows Vista Aero provides spectacular visual effects such as glass-like interface elements that you can see through.

Can the Windows Vista experience vary on different PCs?
Yes. Windows Vista is the first Windows operating system with a user experience that adapts to take advantage of the capabilities of the hardware on which it is installed.
All Windows Vista Capable%

Use Flip 3D to navigate through open windows using the scroll wheel on your mouse.

Finally Windows Vista can be yours ....free of cost ...delivered to your doorsteps...

More offers.....no piracy please..........

Obtain a whooping 50% discount on Windows Vista as you complete the quiz..........
---successfully take the quiz
---use an original Windows XP Pro ...upgrade at 50%

Microsoft Software Assurance is a maintenance offer that helps your organization get the most from Microsoft software through a broad range of benefits. From deployment planning and staff training to product support and software upgrades, Software Assurance benefits help you increase worker productivity, accelerate organizational performance, and realize a return on your software investment faster.

Get Ready for it.............
for more updates click here.....

2006-08-27T14:56:00.006+05:30

The Technology behind Blogging.......

Blogging...as it is famous as ...an online publication tool to express oneself..make an individual an universal entity .......but the technology behind the blog is often missed out..or rather unappreciated. But as of the technology ...it makes life simlier ..and the most easier is the blog the more difficult is to make it happen on the tech platform...
blog of late has become an high tech affair esp when we peep into the msdn blogs...the channel9 blogs ...and try out this... www.joelonsoftware.com ..this cool dude have a lot to tell you if r a geek who dont wanna miss out the changing global economical scenario also...
as blogging gets into deeper social intricacies as customisable , personalised web interface of your personality ..its importance increases ..and security is curtailed...
but technology is one entity which cannot be curtailed n any form ..it evolves ..and effects revolves round the society....
.........the major technologies operational to make the lives simplier..........

RSS is a family of web feed formats specified in XML (a generic specification for data formats) and used for Web syndication. RSS delivers its information as an XML file called an "RSS feed", "webfeed", "RSS stream", or "RSS channel". These RSS feeds provide a way for users to passively receive newly released content (such as text, web pages, sound files, or other media); this might be the full content itself or just a link to it, possibly with a summary or other metadata (data describing the content).

In the typical use scenario, a content provider publishes a feed link on their site which end-users can add to an aggregator program running on their machine; periodically (typically every 60 minutes or every day, though most aggregators make this user-configurable), the aggregator asks all the servers in its feed list if they have new content; if so, the aggregator either makes a note of the new content or downloads it.

Windows Communication Foundation, sometimes shortened to just WCF, previously codenamed Indigo, is a new communication subsystem to enable applications, in one machine or across multiple machines connected by a network, to communicate. It is a part of .NET Framework 3.0 (formerly called WinFX) - the new .NET Windows API to succeed Win32 with the release of Windows Vista. It will also be available for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. WCF applications can be developed in any language which can target the .NET runtime.

WCF programming model unifies Web Services, .NET Remoting, Distributed Transactions, and Message Queues into a single Service-oriented programming model for distributed computing. It is intended to provide the rapid application development methodology to the development of web services, with a single API for inter-process communication in a local machine, LAN, or over the Internet. WCF runs in a sandbox and provides the enhanced security model all .NET applications provide.

WCF uses SOAP messages for communication between two processes, thereby making WCF based applications interoperable with any other process that communicates via SOAP messages. When a WCF process communicates with a non – WCF process, XML based encoding is used for the SOAP messages but when it communicates with another WCF process, the SOAP messages are encoded in an optimized binary format. Both the encodings conform to the data structure of the SOAP format, called Infoset.

The enhanced bloogging features may one day make it the main founadation of interpersonal relationship in the world ..where every person is an Universal individual with a niche of his/her own in the open cyberspace revolutionizing the press and print...which may well cease to exist by 2015.................

Thanks for inputs....
Mr Vivek Ravindran
Tech Lead , Microsoft Bangalore
http://vivekravindran.blogspot.com/

2006-06-26T20:21:00.000+05:30

Reactive Oxygen Specis and implications on Oncology Research

Reactive oxygen species are constantly formed in the human body and removed by antioxidant defenses. An antioxidant is a substance that, when present at low concentrations compared to that of an oxidizable substrate, significantly delays or prevents oxidation of that substrate. Antioxidants can act by scavenging biologically important reactive oxygen species (O2-., H2O2.OH, HOCl, ferryl, peroxyl, and alkyl), by preventing their formation, or by repairing the damage that they do. One problem with scavenging-type antioxidants is that secondary radicals derived from them can often themselves do biologic damage.
Reactive oxygen species are widely generated in biological systems. Consequently humans have evolved antioxidant defence systems that limit their production. Intracellular production of active oxygen species such as *OH, O2- and H2O2 is associated with the arrest of cell proliferation. Similarly, generation of oxidative stress in response to various external stimuli has been implicated in the activation of transcription factors and to the triggering of apoptosis.Free radicals induce DNA sequence changes in the form of mutations. deletions, gene amplification and rearrangements. These alterations may result in the initiation of apoptosis signalling leading to cell death, or to the activation of several proto-oncogenes and or the inactivation of some tumour suppressor genes. The regulation of gene expression by means of oxidants, antioxidants and the redox state remains as a promising therapeutic approach. Several anticarcinogenic agents have been shown to inhibit reactive oxygen species production and oxidative DNA damage, inhibiting tumour promotion. In addition, recombinant vectors expressing radical-scavenging enzymes reduce apoptosis. In conclusion, oxidative stress has been implicated in both apoptosis and the pathogenesis of cancer providing contrived support for two notions: free radical reactions may be increased in malignant cells and oxidant scavenging systems may be useful in cancer therapy.

2006-06-26T20:20:00.000+05:30

BD LSR...the Flow Cytometer..running on MaC

Liquid Scintillation Counter ...used to obtain Thymidine Count..

2006-06-26T00:12:00.000+05:30

Have a look at the lab at the facility...Indian Institute of Chemical Biology (CSIR)