Journal articles on the topic 'Gold flax seeds'

<em>Model experiments were carried out to establish the effect of flax seeds on the processes that form and mature wheat-flour dough. The study objects were wheat flour of the highest grade (control) and a mixture of wheat flour of the highest grade and whole flax seeds in the amount of 15&nbsp;% by weight of flour (experimental sample), as well as dough made from them.</em> <em>It was found during the research that the introduction of flax seeds to the dough system prolongs the duration of its formation by 22&nbsp;minutes. In this regard, when making wheat bread with the addition of whole flax seeds, it is necessary to provide for an extended duration of kneading the dough. Along with this, the formation of the amount of gluten in the dough was observed that is less by 17&nbsp;% than that in the control, and which had a low unbound structure and less stretchability. The reason for this is that the slime-forming polysaccharides of flax seeds enter the liquid phase of the dough, thereby enveloping the protein substances, limiting their swelling, and, by sticking to the gluten frame, prevent the formation of a solid gluten structure. This further predetermines the formation of products of a smaller volume.</em> <em>Studying the effect of flax seeds on dough maturation processes in terms of the amount of released carbon dioxide during fermentation has shown that in a sample with flax, the duration of dough fermentation can be reduced to 90&nbsp;minutes.</em> <em>The result of this study has also established that in the sample with the addition of whole seeds, due to the influence of water-soluble polysaccharides of flax, the accumulation and fermentation of sugars in the dough system occurs to a lesser extent than that in control.</em> <em>The introduction of flax seeds leads to a decrease in the susceptibility of starch to gel formation. Consequently, it can be predicted that starch grains will not be able to bind enough water and, during baking, a less elastic crumb will be formed.</em>

Rusk and ring-shaped bakery products relate to the group of long-stored ones. For today it is urgent to use ingredients that give products functional properties in food technologies. The important source of food fibers, full-value protein, unsaturated fatty acids, mineral substances and vitamins are grain and oil-bearing crops. Buckwheat and flax seeds are separated among them due to the valuable chemical composition and positive effect on the human organism. The aim of the work was to establish the influence of buckwheat flour and flax seeds on the technological process course and quality of long-stored bakery products. Buckwheat flour of green and dark buckwheat of TM &ldquo;Organic-Eco-Product&rdquo; (Ukraine) is used in the rusk technology. For producing ring-shaped products (ring-shaped crackers), gold flax seeds were used. Research results testify that good quality parameters of bread for producing rusks from it, were achieved at dosing green buckwheat seeds as 20 % and dark ones as 15 % instead of the flour mass. It has been established, that rusks with adding green buckwheat flour have quality parameters, corresponding to requirements of normative documents. It has been proven, that it is not expedient to use dark buckwheat flour in the rusk technology, because ready products have the increased water share and soaking index. It is connected with the influence of the operation of hydrothermal processing of grains that dark buckwheat flour is produced of, its high water-absorbing and water-retaining capacities. For the technology of ring-shaped crackers, enriched with flax seeds, it is recommended to dose flax seeds as 15 % of the flour mass. At such dosage bakery products got the highest number of points by the complex quality parameter and corresponded to requirements of normative documents.

Rusk and ring-shaped bakery products relate to the group of long-stored ones. For today it is urgent to use ingredients that give products functional properties in food technologies. The important source of food fibers, full-value protein, unsaturated fatty acids, mineral substances and vitamins are grain and oil-bearing crops. Buckwheat and flax seeds are separated among them due to the valuable chemical composition and positive effect on the human organism. The aim of the work was to establish the influence of buckwheat flour and flax seeds on the technological process course and quality of long-stored bakery products. Buckwheat flour of green and dark buckwheat of TM “Organic-Eco-Product” (Ukraine) is used in the rusk technology. For producing ring-shaped products (ring-shaped crackers), gold flax seeds were used. Research results testify that good quality parameters of bread for producing rusks from it, were achieved at dosing green buckwheat seeds as 20 % and dark ones as 15 % instead of the flour mass. It has been established, that rusks with adding green buckwheat flour have quality parameters, corresponding to requirements of normative documents. It has been proven, that it is not expedient to use dark buckwheat flour in the rusk technology, because ready products have the increased water share and soaking index. It is connected with the influence of the operation of hydrothermal processing of grains that dark buckwheat flour is produced of, its high water-absorbing and water-retaining capacities. For the technology of ring-shaped crackers, enriched with flax seeds, it is recommended to dose flax seeds as 15 % of the flour mass. At such dosage bakery products got the highest number of points by the complex quality parameter and corresponded to requirements of normative documents.

Опыты проводили в двух закладках в 2019–2020 годах на базе обособленного подразделения ФГБНУ «Федеральный научный центр лубяных культур» в Пензенской области. Новизна исследований заключается в том, что впервые изучалось аллелопатическое взаимодействие растений костреца безостого с широким набором масличных культур. Цель работы — изучить аллелопатический эффект в начальные этапы онтогенеза растений. В задачи исследования входило выделение культур с положительным и негативным воздействием на рост и развитие проростков костреца безостого. Объектами исследований служили кострец безостый Пензенский 1, сафлор красильный Александрит, горчица сарептская Люкс, рапс яровой Таврион, конопля Надежда, сурепица яровая Искра, горчица белая Люция, крамбе абиссинская Полёт, гвизоция абиссинская Медея, редька масличная Фиолина, нигелла дамасская Ялита, гибрид подсолнечника P63 LE 10 (XF 3020), озимый рыжик Барон, яровой рыжик Велес, лён масличный Исток. Оценка аллелопатической активности проведена с использованием метода, который предусматривает проращивание семян растений с последующим вычислением процента всхожести. На начальных этапах онтогенеза негативное аллелопатическое воздействие на количество полноценных всходов костреца безостого Пензенский 1 оказывали конопля Надежда (–4,5% к контролю) и сурепица яровая Искра (–12,6% к контролю). Положительное влияние на прорастание и развитие проростков костреца оказывали сафлор красильный Александрит (+8,8% к контролю) и лён масличный Исток (+7,5 % к контролю). Длина проростков костреца достоверно была выше в варианте с льном масличным Исток — 6,19 см (+0,77 см к контролю). Существенное снижение наблюдалось в вариантах с горчицей сарептской, нигеллой дамасской, горчицей белой, рыжиком озимым, подсолнечником, рапсом яровым, рыжиком яровым, сурепицей яровой и коноплёй — от 4,37 до 2,66 см (от –1,05 до –2,76 см). The investigation was carried out in 2019–2020 at the Federal Research Center of Fiber Crops in the Penza region. For the first time allelopathy of wide number of oil crops was analyzed when growing with smooth brome. The aim was to evaluate the effect of allelopathy at early plant ontogenesis and determine plants having beneficial or detrimental effects on smooth brome seedlings. The objects of the study were smooth brome “Penzenskiy 1”, safflower “Aleksandrit”, brown mustard “Lyuks”, spring rapeseed “Tavrion”, hemp “Nadezhda”, spring cress “Iskra”, white mustard “Lyutsiya”, Abyssinian mustard “Polet”, noog “Medeya”, oil radish “Fiolina”, ragged lady “Yalita”, sunflower hybrid P63 LE 10 (XF 3020), winter camelina “Baron”, gold-of-pleasure “Veles”, flax “Istok”. To determine positive or negative effect the germination ability was tested. Hemp and spring crees negatively affected smooth brome in the beginning of its ontogenesis (–4.5 and –12.6%, respectively). Safflower and flax had positive effect on smooth brome (+8.8 and +7.5 %, respectively). The length of smooth brome seedlings was significantly higher when seeding with flax — 6.19 cm (+0.77 cm). Brown mustard, ragged lady, white mustard, winter camelina, sunflower, spring rapeseed, gold-of-pleasure, spring cress and hemp significantly reduced seedling length — from 4.37 to 2.66 cm (from –1.05 to –2.76 cm).

Abstract Camelina sativa is well known due to high content of polyunsaturated fatty acids in its oil. Till now this oil has been studied mainly for applications as raw material for synthesis of resins, biodiesel and hydrocarbon fuels. This study examines the oxidative stability of cold-pressed Camelina sativa (also known as camelina, false flax or gold-of-pleasure) oil and its extracts of spices. Despite the high content of polyunsaturated fatty acids, Camelina sativa oil appeared more rigid against oxidation than rapeseed or flax oil. Extracts of different spices were prepared by maceration in camelina oil at room temperature for 24 h. The stability of extracts was determined under accelerated oxidation conditions and monitored by peroxide values. Most of the tested additives (e.g., bay leaves, allspice, clove, barley sprouts, coriander, ginger) did not influence or even decreased oxidative stability of the oil. However, oil with thyme additive demonstrated remarkably higher stability then Camelina sativa oil alone. Press-cakes of camelina seeds were extracted with two polar solvents (ethanol or water) and their mixtures under variable conditions (room temperature or reflux). Prepared polar extracts of press-cakes were characterised by total polyphenol content (Folin–Ciocalteu method) and antiradical activity against 1,1-diphenyl-2-picryl hydrazyl and galvinoxyl.

AbstractDue to their small sizes and high reactivity, nanoparticles have a completely different toxicity profile than larger particles, and it is difficult to predict their potential ecological impact. There is a need for broad ecotoxicological studies of nanomaterials in order to specify their environmental impact and ensure safe application of nanotechnology products. In this work, we have assessed the toxicity of Au and Au/ZnO metal nanoparticles obtained with the use of Tanacetum parthenium (herba) extract. The obtained nanoparticles were characterized by UV–Vis spectrophotometry (UV–VIS), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Atomic force microscopy (AFM), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). In order to assess the toxicity of biologically synthesized nanoparticles, we used seeds of various plants: Lepidium sativum, Linum flavum, Zea mays, Salvia hispanica-chia, Lupinus angustifolius, Petroselinum crispum subsp. Crispum, Beta vulgaris, Phaseolus vulgaris. The in vitro phytotests showed that gold nanoparticles at a specific range of concentrations for all plants stimulated their growth. The highest growth activity was exhibited by the solution at the concentration of 0.300 mg/ml towards corn (Aw ≈ − 135 ± 16) and flax (Aw ≈ − 44 ± 10). Only for parsley the IC50 was determined at 0.57 mg/ml, but solutions at the concentration of 0.030 to 0.150 mg/ml also stimulated plant growth. Au/ZnO had a toxic effect at all concentrations applied in the study.

Camelina (Camelina sativa) also known as false flax or gold of pleasure is an oilseed crop of the Brassica (Cruciferae) family. Camelina is not a food crop, however, the by-product (meal or cake) obtained from the oil extraction of camelina seeds is useful as animal feed because of its moderate crude protein content. The dietary use of camelina meal in broiler diets is limited to low inclusion due to the presence of anti-nutritional factors such as fibre, phytic acid, glucosinolates and tannins which have negative effects on broiler performance. Solid-state fermentation (SSF) is a suitable processing method for enriching agroindustrial by-products since it offers several cost-effective and practical advantages. In the present study, the effect of SSF on the nutrient composition, phytic acid and total phenolic contents of expeller-extracted camelina meal was evaluated. Aspergillus ficuum (ATCC 66876) was used for SSF under aerobic conditions at 30oC for 7 days. Unfermented and fermented camelina meals were analyzed for dry matter, crude protein, crude fat, crude fibre, total sugar (sucrose) and starch as well as for pH, phytic acid and total phenolic contents. Crude protein was improved by 6.79% while total sugar and starch were reduced by 90.99% and 75.78%, respectively in the solid-state fermented camelina meal. Phytic acid and total phenolic contents were also decreased by 39.17% and 56.11%, respectively. This study revealed that SSF could be used to improve the nutritional quality of camelina meal for improved use in poultry feed formulation.

ABSTRACTWe present a simple, novel procedure to selectively deposit gold nanoparticles using pure water. It enables patterning of nanoparticle monolayers with a remarkably high degree of selectivity on flat as well as microstructured oxide surfaces. We demonstrate that water molecules form a thin ‘capping’ layer on exposed thiol molecules within the mercaptan self-assembled layer. This reversible capping of water molecules locally ‘deactivates’ the thiol groups, therewith inhibiting the binding of metallic gold nanoparticles to these specific areas. In addition, we show that this amazing role of water molecules can be used to selectively metalize the patterned gold nanoparticle arrays. Employing an electroless seeded growth process, the isolated seeds are enlarged past the percolation threshold to deposit conducting metal layers.

AlrumBurnt houses at an Early Iron Age tell site in Western JutlandThe Alrum settlement is renowned in particular for producing one of the largest prehistoric finds of charred grain and seeds ever discovered in Denmark.The site was excavated in 1939 under the direction of Gudmund Hatt, but it was Hans Helbæk who carried out a detailed analysis of the plant remains. The latter were subjected to re-examination in 1994, whereas the extensive finds assemblage, stored at Ringkøbing Museum, has only now been fully investigated and analysed. The reason for this is that the excavation records, thought for many years to have been lost, turned up by chance at the National Museum of Denmark in 2000.The Alrum site is located on a slight elevation, about 1 km from Stadil Fjord and 10 km north of the town of Ringkøbing (fig. 1).The settlementThe excavation trench exposed an area of about 300 m2, within which there were sequences of six to seven house sites lying one on top of the other, resulting in cultural deposits with a vertical stratigraphy of 1.5 m, in other words a tell site (fig. 2). Two of the houses (house I and house II) had been destroyed by fire and had been abandoned in such great haste that everything remained within the burnt-out remains of the buildings. House II was the better preserved of the two, containing building timbers, c. 50 pottery vessels, straw ropes, some stone tools, a ball of wool etc. The house was 14.5 m long and 4.5 m wide (c. 60 m2), with living quarters at the western end and a presumed byre to the east. Relative to contemporary houses in Eastern Jutland, those in Western Jutland were small. The roof was borne by five pairs of posts arranged along the length of the house and was probably comprised of heather turf. The post-built walls had an inner cladding of thick oak planks, whereas the outer surface is presumed to have been covered with a layer of straw or grass. The living quarters were fitted out with a clay bench or platform at the gable, an ornamented hearth in the middle and, between the two, a stone mortar set firmly into the clay floor (fig. 3). No traces were seen in the byre of the usual stall dividers, so perhaps the house had not been fully completed when the fire broke out! Most of the pottery lay close to the clay bench, together with several bodies of untempered clay; these weighed c. 9 kg. Up against the north wall there were two impressive solid andirons, 27-28 cm in height and weighing more than 3 kg (figs. 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8). The pottery dates the house to the late Pre-Roman Iron Age.Beneath house II lay the successive remains of six to seven other houses. The pottery reveals that this small village was founded around 500 BC, whereas the latest examples are from the century around the birth of Christ (figs. 6 and 13). Only parts of house I could be excavated, but here too a great deal of pottery was encountered, together with a few stone artefacts (figs. 9 and 11).Building timberVirtually all the woodwork in the burnt houses was of oak, supplemented by a little willow and alder which are well suited to making the wattle of the walls. In each house there was a large number of roof and wall postholes, with the charred post ends still in situ; along the walls lay large pieces of so-called wattle panels. As a consequence, it was possible to measure the dimensions of the timbers. Charring leads to a reduction in size of the timber, but by how much? Information received from the Danish Institute of Fire and Security Technology states that, as a rule of thumb, there is a reduction of 0.5-0.6 mm for every minute the fire burns. Figure 10 gives the timber dimensions alongside a column showing measurements after 20 minutes of burning, to which 1 cm has been added. In spite of the latter, the timber dimensions were still markedly less than those of unburnt posts seen at for example Feddersen Wierde in the North German salt marshes. As oak is totally dominant as the building timber, this begs the question as to where it was obtained? A pollen diagram from a site located 4-5 km from Alrum shows that the landscape was open and unlikely to have had large areas of oak woodland. One possibility is that the oak wood was obtained from Eastern Jutland, perhaps being exchanged for fish and other marine resources?Agriculture and fishingThe large quantities of charred grain and seeds recovered from the site constitute an excellent basis on which to gain a detailed insight into the subsistence. The most important cereals were barley and oats, accompanied by a little wheat, flax and gold of pleasure. In addition to these, seeds had been gathered from a range of weedy species, with corn spurrey, goosefoot, and persicaria being the commonest (fig. 14). These weeds show that the arable fields were sandy and only lightly manured and this conclusion is supported by the size of the cereal grains which is also very modest. It seems likely that the low-lying fields were flooded with salt water from time to time, but barley, flax and gold of pleasure are all salt tolerant.In historical times seeds of the above weed species were used in bread, porridge and gruel by farmers living on the Jutland heath. Tubers of false oat grass were also found at Alrum; these are rich in starch and therefore represent a good food supplement. The heaps of crop plant remains can be classified as threshed and unthreshed (fig. 15). This can perhaps give an indication of the time of year at which the fire took place; it was most probably in the autumn. On the other hand, the bone material from the site is very limited due to the well-drained acid sandy soil. Mention can, however, be made of a perforated ox astragalus (fig. 11a-b). Even so, it can safely be presumed that the many good grazing areas were extensively exploited.On the basis of the site’s location and finds of stone net sinkers, it seems justified to refer to Alrum’s inhabitants as fisher-farmers.Settlement and landscapeToday, the Jutland west coast has a harsh climate with sand drift and storms as significant factors in the lives of the inhabitants. But this was not always the case and in the Early Iron Age the situation must have been quite different: Sand drift was less extensive, the coastline had a different appearance and the sea level fluctuated, as can be seen for example at Højbjerg just south of Ringkøbing Fjord and in several other locations (fig. 1). A rise in sea level of just 0.5 m would reduce the area of shore meadow considerably (fig. 16). The woodland picture was also different.The most important indicator of this very different landscape and environment is the sustained habitation which characterises many settlements, and is exemplified by Alrum with more than 500 years of activity at the same location, and even a further couple of centuries close by, as suggested by recent aerial photographs. People lived at Nørre Fjand for 300-400 years and Klegod, now located directly on the present-day coastline, was probably occupied for at least a century. Such extended occupation of the same site must also be presumed to have resulted in social and family-related changes.There was of course some sand drift in the Early Iron Age. This is apparent from sand layers between the individual house phases and on the arable fields. However, it was apparently not so extensive that it prompted people to move; the sand layers are modest in their thickness. A good example of the stubbornness of these Iron Age people is seen at the small village of Klegod where the inhabitants ploughed through a layer of sandy soil of no less than 40 cm in thickness.The course of the coastline must also have been quite different back then as remains of Iron Age settlements are revealed now and then by today’s fierce winter storms which can cut deep into the sand dunes. Klegod, which dates from c. 500 BC, is just such a locality and provides secure proof that the coast must have lain a good way out to the west at the time, perhaps as much as several kilometres.In this dynamic and changeable landscape, the fisher-farmers of the Early Iron Age managed to maintain their existence over many generations and they were perhaps not as isolated as one could easily imagine. However, one main question remains: What led these people to settle in these near-coastal areas? The numerous Iron Age sites show that many families must have been involved. Was it marine resources or the good grazing along the shore meadows which attracted them? Another factor should also be pointed out: The coastline also hosted an archipelago, with a protective row of islands located offshore as seen today in the Netherlands and Northern Germany and these provided opportunities for closer contacts with the latter areas.Jørgen Lund &amp; Poul NissenMoesgård Museum

The objective of this study was to carry out macro- and micromorphological studies of fruits and seeds of representatives of the genus <em>Lonicera </em>of the flora of Ukraine (both natural and introduced), to clarify their features, to provide additional characteristics and to evaluate the possibility of using carpological features for the diagnosis of taxa of the genus. <strong>Material and methods.</strong> Materials of the National Herbarium of the M.G. Kholodny Institute of Botany of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (KW) and Herbarium of the M.M. Gryshko National Botanical Garden of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (KWHA) were used, as well as samples from living plants from the collections of the M.M. Gryshko National Botanical Garden and O.V. Fomin Botanical Garden. The citations are given by the original text of the labels. The fruits and seeds of seven species of the genus (four are introduced, and the other are species of natural flora), which are listed in &ldquo;Vascular plants of Ukraine. A nomenclatural checklist&rdquo;, have been studied. Morphological features of fruits and seeds were studied under the light microscope (LM, MBS-9) and scanning electron microscope (SEM, JSM-6060 LA). Samples were sprayed with a layer of gold according to the standard method. The study was conducted at magnification from &times;30 to &times;3000. Descriptions of fruits and seeds were performed using terminology, summarized in specialized papers. Fruit and seed sizes were measured using Axio Vision Rel. 4.8. <strong>Results. </strong>The fruits of Lonicera species are free or adnate at the base, surrounded by, for the most part, free bracteoles. A pseudocarp of <em>L. caerulea</em> is formed of the bracteoles of paired flowers concrescent in a tubular cupule, which completely and tightly wraps free paired fruits. The <em>L. nigra</em> has an uneven concrescent of the bracteoles that freely surround the paired fruits, which have concrescent only at the base. The fruits of the species <em>Lonicera </em>are black and dark blue, or red and yellow. The fruits of subgenus <em>Periclymenum </em>(<em>L.&nbsp;caprifolium, L.&nbsp;etrusca, L.&nbsp;periclymenum</em>) are free and spherical. The subgenus <em>Chamaecerasus </em>species&rsquo; fruits are mainly spherical, but in some species the fruits are also hemispherical, elliptical and elongated (<em>L. caerulea, L. tatarica</em>). Fruits in this subgenus are free (<em>L.&nbsp;caerulea, L.&nbsp;tatarica</em>) or coalescent at the base (<em>L.&nbsp;nigra, L.&nbsp;xylosteum</em>). All the studied species are characterized by glabrous fruits, except fruits of <em>L.&nbsp;xylosteum</em> that are pubescent with glandular and simple hairs. The seeds are elliptical, ovoid, nearly spherical, flat, concave on one side and convex on the other side, with a recess on the periphery and a crest in the center, at the base they are mainly narrow-rounded. All species of the section <em>Eucaprifolium </em>and one species of the section <em>Coeloxylosteum </em>have truncated seeds. The surface of the seeds is almost similar and pitted; in <em>L. xylosteum</em> it is shallow-pitted; in <em>L. nigra</em> it is tubercular-pitted. In some species, the seed surface is pitted, and also flat cells are present. <strong>Conclusions. </strong>Based on the results of a critical review of literature materials and analysis of own data, the detailed characteristics of fruits and seeds of the representatives of the genus <em>Lonicera </em>within the flora of Ukraine have been compiled. These characteristics are useful for more accurate identification of fruiting <em>Lonicera </em>plants. The species of the subgenus <em>Periclymenum </em>have exclusively free fruits, while the fruits in the subgenus <em>Chamaecerasus </em>are free or coalescent at the base. The features of color and shape of the fruits and seeds, the peculiarities of pubescence of the fruits, are suggested to be used to distinguish<em> L. caerulea, L. caprifolium, L. etrusca, L. nigra, L. periclymenum, L. tatarica,</em> and <em>L. xylosteum</em>. Analysis of the microstructure of the surface of the seeds revealed that there no features that can be used as diagnostic at the level of subsections, sections, and subgenera. However, seeds microstructure showed some differences at the species level.

Araecerus is a genus of beetles belonging to the family Anthribidae. They are very important economic pests of coffee, cocoa and other agricultural crops. The species that commonly attack coffee (Rubiaceae) beans is Araecerus fasciculatus (Degeer) commonly known as coffee bean weevil. However, five (5) undescribed species of genus Araecerus were reared predominantly from the seeds of Mastixiodendron pachyclados (Rubiceae) commonly known as Garo garo and it is a native tree of Papua New Guinea. Fruits of M. pachyclados were regularly sampled and insects attacking them were reared, preserved and identified. Fruits were hand collected, photographed, weighed and reared. Insects emerging from the fruits were captured and preserved in 99% ethanol. All the specimens were identified into morphospecies at the laboratory. The five new species of genus Araecerus (Anthribidae) were designated as Araecerus sp.1, Araecerus sp.2, Araecerus sp.3, Araecerus sp.4 and Araecerus sp.5 according to their differences in body length; scutellum color, size, hair-scales and visibility; length of first and second segments of fore tarsus; apical and subapical teeth-size (mandible and maxillary palpi); declivity of dorsal abdomen; basal-anterior eye markings; lateral eye markings; absence of eye markings; and shape of pygidium. Araecerus sp.1 was described as having yellowish gold marking inside the base of eye, Araecerus sp.2 with pygidium almost vertically-flat at abdominal apex, Araecerus sp.3 have eyes without yellowish gold marking and generally dark in colour, Araecerus sp.4 with distinct yellowish gold interior-lateral marking in its eye, and Araecerus sp.5 with pygidium pointed at abdominal apex. Proper identification of these five species is beneficial for effective application of control measures. Since they are major pests of cash crops such as coffee and cocoa, identification of their species and quantification of their abundance will foster economic returns and crop protection aspects as their abundance is closely related to crop damage. Keywords: Araecerus; scutellum; declivity; pygidium.

Abstract The objective of this experiment was to evaluate stage of maturity at harvest for pea hay on DMI, eating behavior, ruminal fermentation, and digestibility when fed to beef heifers. Pea hay was harvested at early, mid, and late stages of maturity. Early was defined as observing flat pods at one or more nodes. Mid stage was defined as seeds filling the pods at one or more nodes and leaves beginning to turn from green to gold. Late stage was defined as yellow, dry seeds filling pods on most or all of the nodes, with a yellow color to the leaves and pods. Six ruminally-cannulated Speckle Park heifers were used in a replicated 3 × 3 Latin square design with 3 18-d periods with pea hay included at 40% of the dietary DM. Stage of maturity did not affect DMI or ruminal total SCFA concentration with averages of 3.2 kg/d and 96.55 mM, respectively. Time spent ruminating decreased with advancing maturity when reported as min/d, min/kg DMI, and min/kg NDF (P ≤ 0.01). Mean ruminal pH also decreased with advancing pea maturity (P &amp;lt; 0.01). The ruminal DM and uNDFOM pools were not affected by stage maturity (P ≥ 0.55). While the rate of digestion for NDF was not affected, NDF passage rate decreased by 0.21 %/h with advancing maturity (P = 0.02). Apparent total tract digestibility of NDF (average = 16.30%, P = 0.41) was not affected but starch digestibility tended to decrease from 96.10 to 93.08% with advancing maturity (P = 0.07). Overall, stage of maturity at harvest for pea hay does not appear to impact DMI, fermentation, or digestibility.

Abstract The objective of this study was to evaluate the stage of maturity at harvest for pea hay (Pisum sativum L., c.v. CDC Horizon) on dry matter intake (DMI), eating behavior, ruminal fermentation, and digestibility when fed to beef heifers. Pea hay was cut at EARLY (defined to occur when flat pods were on one or more nodes), MID (when seeds filled the pods at one or more nodes and the leaves were changing from green to gold), and LATE (yellow dry seeds filled pods on most or all of the nodes and the pods and leaves had a yellow color) phases, and was cured in the field and baled. Six ruminally-cannulated Speckle Park heifers were used in a replicated 3 × 3 Latin square design with three 18-d periods including 12 d for adaptation, 2 d for measurement of ruminal pool sizes, and 4 d for the collection of eating behavior, ruminal pH, ruminal digesta, and feces. For all treatments, the respective pea hay was included at 40% of the dietary DM. Stage of maturity at harvest for pea hay did not affect total DMI, pea hay DMI, or the total short-chain fatty acid concentration in ruminal fluid with averages of 8.6 kg/d, 3.2 kg/d, and 96.55 mM, respectively. The duration of time spent ruminating decreased with advancing pea hay maturity when reported as min/d, min/kg DMI, and min/kg neutral detergent fiber (NDF) (P ≤ 0.01). Mean ruminal pH also decreased with advancing pea maturity (P &amp;lt; 0.01). The ruminal DM and undigested NDF corrected for OM pools were not affected by stage of maturity (P ≥ 0.55) nor was the rate of digestion for NDF. However, NDF passage rate decreased by 0.21%/h with advancing pea hay maturity (P = 0.02). Apparent total tract digestibility of NDF (average = 16.30%, P = 0.41) was not affected, but starch digestibility decreased from 96.10% to 93.08% with advancing pea hay maturity (P = 0.07). Overall, stage of maturity at harvest for pea hay does not appear to affect DMI or NDF digestibililty but decreases chewing activity, apparent total tract starch digestibility, ruminal pH, and ruminal NDF passage rate.

In the spring of each year from 2007 to 2009, a leaf blight of garlic (Allium sativum L.) was observed in more than 50 fields in Zhushan County of Hubei Province, China. Gray mold was observed on many of the blighted garlic leaves. The percentage of garlic plants with blight and gray mold symptoms ranged from 10 to 50% with one to three blighted leaves on each plant, which severely reduced the yield of young garlic plants (produced as a green vegetable). Ten strains of a Botrytis sp. were isolated from symptomatic garlic leaves collected from 10 different fields. These strains were inoculated onto potato dextrose agar (PDA) in petri dishes and incubated at 20°C for 3 to 15 days for observation of colony characteristics and morphology of sclerotia and conidia. All 10 Botrytis strains formed flat and “ropy” mycelia (mycelial strands) on PDA. Abundant sporulation with a gray powdery appearance was observed on the colonies after 6 days. Conidiophores were erect with alternate branches at the top and ranged from 907 to 1,256 μm high. Conidia were borne in botryose clusters on conidiophores, obovate, and 10.4 to 17.6 × 7.6 to 13.1 μm with an average length/width ratio of 1.36. Discrete sclerotia were produced on each colony after 15 days. Mature sclerotia were black, cerebriform and convoluted, and 1.9 to 9.1 × 1.6 to 6.5 mm. Morphological characteristics of the colonies, conidia, and sclerotia of these Botrytis strains were similar to Botrytis porri Buchwald (1,2). Strain GarlicBC-16 was selected as a representative for molecular identification. Genomic DNA was extracted from mycelia of this strain and used as a template for amplification of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of rDNA using primer pair ITS1/ITS4. A 539-bp amplicon was obtained and sequenced (GenBank Accession No. EU519206). Excluding the flanking regions, the amplicon contained a 453-bp ITS sequence (ITS1 + 5.8S rDNA + ITS2) 100% identical to the ITS sequence of strain MUCL3234 of B. porri (GenBank Accession No. AJ716292). Pathogenicity of strain GarlicBC-16 was tested by inoculation of 10 young and fully expanded garlic leaves taken from 100-day-old garlic plants with mycelial agar plugs (three plugs per leaf and spaced by 5 cm). Ten garlic leaves inoculated with agar plugs of PDA alone served as controls. Inoculated garlic leaves were covered with a plastic film (0.1 mm thick; Gold Mine Plastic Industrial Ltd. Jiangmen, China) and incubated at 20°C with 12-h light/12-h dark. Control leaves remained healthy after 48 to 120 h, but gray, water-soaked lesions appeared on leaves inoculated with strain GarlicBC-16 after 48 h. The average lesion length reached 27.3 mm after 90 h and abundant sporulation was produced on necrotic leaf lesions after 120 h. Microscopic examination showed the shape and size of conidia that formed on garlic leaf lesions were similar to those formed by strain GarlicBC-16 on PDA. On the basis of the isolation, identification, and pathogenicity tests, B. porri was determined to be the causal agent of garlic leaf blight in Zhushan County. B. porri has been reported to cause neck rot of leek (A. porrum) (1) and clove rot of garlic (2), and has been isolated from asymptomatic foliage and seeds of A. cepa (3). To our knowledge, this is the first report of garlic leaf blight caused by B. porri in China. References: (1) S. K. Asiedu et al. Plant Dis. 70:259, 1986. (2) F. M. Dugan et al. J. Phytopathol. 155:437. 2007. (3) L. J. du Toit et al. Plant Dis. 86:1178, 2002.

AbstractDifferent form of seeds (whole or ground) may have a gelling effect and can substitute pectin in jams, moreover the type of their form have a remarkable impact on jams quality. The objective of this study was to ascertain if the form of added seeds have an influence on the physicochemical and antioxidant properties of cranberry jams incorporated in gold flax and chia seeds. Compared to traditional cranberry jam, the addition of both chia and gold flax seeds to the jams enhanced the nutritional value of samples by significant increase in protein, dietary fiber and polyunsaturated fatty acids content. Moreover, the enrichment of cranberry jams with seeds caused an increase in total polyphenols and phenolic acids content as well as their antioxidant activities. The texture measurement showed that both chia and flax seeds (irrespectively of their form) exhibited a gelling properties, however, the jams with the addition of ground seeds were characterized by similar texture as the control cranberry jam. Based on the obtained results, both gold flax and chia seeds can be considered as promising substitute for the gelling agents which additionally can change the physicochemical and antioxidant properties of jams.

False flax [Camelina sativa (L.) Crantz.] popularly known as gold-of pleasure, a proposed biofuel species is an oil seed crop of Brassicaceae, family introduced in India in 2009. A study was carried out at Defence Institute of Bio-Energy Research, Field Station- Pithoragarh, Uttarakhand, India during 2011-13 to know the effect of split application of sulphur (20 kg/ha S) on growth, yield and oil content of C. sativa cv Calena (EC-643910). Statistical analysis revealed that split application of sulphur significantly affected parameters undertaken during the study viz. plant height, branch/plant, number of pods/plant, seeds/pod, flowering, pod formation as well as maturity duration, seed yield and oil yield. Camelina productivity enhanced with two split application of S (T 2) and gave 170.84% higher seed yield compared to control. Thus, sulphur applied in two splits resulted in the higher seed yield (1061.13kg/ha), oil content (36.43%) and oil yield of 434.345 lit/ha and is recommended for improving the productivity of Camelina as a emerging biofuel crop.

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) sensors are commonly based on metal nanoparticles in colloidal suspension followed by deposition on a substrate. Despite its simplicity, this approach leads to non-uniform SERS substrates that are hampered by features such as coffee rings. Seed-mediated growth starting from nanoparticles already deposited on a flat substrate potentially allows for creating more uniform and reliable sensors. However, the deposition process, the control of the distribution of the seed nanoparticles, and their optimal growth have not been thoroughly explored. In this work, we present a systematic approach to designing and fabricating gold nanostructured surfaces, tailoring their SERS responses on demand. By controlling and tuning the deposition of nanoparticles, assisted by an experimental and theoretical investigation, we achieved good control over the spatial distribution of the deposited seeds. After enlarging such seeds through chemical reduction, the optimized SERS substrates show great uniformity in their hotspots, a critical feature for sensors. The so-fabricated substrates were used for detecting Skatole in water, achieving a detection limit of 42.2 ppt. The developed methodology has significant implications for the advancement of several fields, particularly SERS-based sensing, enabling the design and targeting of specific excitation wavelengths and Raman bands while obtaining uniform and reliable substrates.

AbstractAn electronic imaging system using a curved image sensor can use a faster lens, and cover a greater field of view, than an imaging system using a planar sensor. The simpler lens systems also weight less, a decisive advantage in portable applications.This paper describes a method to fabricate a curved silicon substrate from a flat wafer containing appropriate circuits. To curve the substrate, the processed wafer is diced, by dry-etching from the backside, into 1x1cm tiles. The tiles are separated by 0.5mm gaps, which are bridged, in turn, by a dense array of 45x100μm gold leads formed by electroplating using lithographically defined leads as seeds. Two methods were used to curve the wafer. In the first one, the wafer was bonded with epoxy to a PMMA disk, and then curved by heating the sandwich, under a load of ∼ 230gr, for 1.5 hrs at 130°C in a concave metal mold with a radius of curvature of 7.8cm. In the second method, the wafer was put into a curved metal mold, radius 14cm, loaded with 230gr, and heated to 290°C for 2 hrs. The normal and shear strains accommodated by the flexible interconnects were measured by analyzing their deformation. The experimentally measured strains are compared with a model that calculates the deformation required to deform a flat sheet into a spherical surface.

Objective – to carry out macro- and micromorphological studies of fruits and seeds of representatives of the genus Lonicera of the flora of Ukraine (both natural and introduced), to clarify their features, to provide additional characteristics and to evaluate the possibility of using carpological features for the diagnosis of taxa of the genus.&#x0D; Material and methods. Materials of the National Herbarium of the M.G. Kholodny Institute of Botany National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (KW) and Herbarium of the M.M. Gryshko National Botanical Garden of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (KWHA) were used, as well as samples from living plants of the collections of the M.M. Gryshko National Botanical Garden and O.V. Fomin Botanical Garden. The citations are given by the original text of the labels. The fruits and seeds of seven species of the genus (four are introduced and the other are species of natural flora), listed in “Vascular plants of Ukraine. A nomenclatural checklist”, have been studied. Morphological features of fruits and seeds were studied under light microscope (LM, MBS-9) and scanning electron microscope (SEM, JSM-6060 LA). Samples were sprayed with a layer of gold according to the standard method. The study was conducted at magnification from ×30 to ×3000. Descriptions of fruits and seeds were performed using terminology, summarized in specialized papers. Fruit and seed sizes were measured using Axio Vision Rel. 4.8.&#x0D; Results. The fruits of Lonicera species are free or adnate at the base, surrounded by, for the most part, free bracteoles. A pseudocarp of L. caerulea is formed of the bracteoles of paired flowers concrescent in a tubular cupule, which completely and tightly wraps free paired fruits. The L. nigra has an uneven concrescent of the bracteoles that freely surround the paired fruits, which have concrescent only at the base. The fruits of the species Lonicera are black and dark blue, or red and yellow. The fruits of subgenus Periclymenum (L. caprifolium, L. etrusca, L. periclymenum) are free and spherical . The subgenus Chamaecerasus species’ fruits are mainly spherical, but in some species the fruits are also hemispherical, elliptical and elongated (L. caerulea, L. tatarica). Fruits in this subgenus are free (L. caerulea, L. tatarica) or coalescent at the base (L. nigra, L. xylosteum). All the studied species are characterized by glabrous fruits, except fruits of L. xylosteum that are pubescent with glandular and simple hairs. The seeds are elliptical, ovoid, nearly spherical, flat, concave on one side and convex on the other side, with recess on the periphery and a crest in the center, at the base they mainly narrow-rounded. All species of the section Eucaprifolium and one species of the section Coeloxylosteum have truncated seeds. The surface of the seeds is almost similar and pitted; in L. xylosteum it is shallow-pitted, in L. nigra it is tubercular-pitted. In some species the seed surface is pitted and also flat cells are present.&#x0D; Conclusions. Based on the results of a critical review of literature materials and analysis of own data, the detailed characteristics of fruits and seeds of the representatives of the genus Lonicera L. within the flora of Ukraine have been compiled. These characteristics can be useful for more accurate identification of fruiting Lonicera plants. The species of the subgenus Periclymenum have exclusively free fruits, while the fruits in the subgenus Chamaecerasus are free or coalescent at the base. The features of color and shape of the fruits and seeds, the peculiarities of pubescence of the fruits are suggested to be used to distinguish L. caerulea, L. caprifolium, L. etrusca, L. nigra, L. periclymenum, L. tatarica and L. xylosteum. Analysis of the microstructure of the seeds surface revealed that there no features that can be used as diagnostic at the level of subsections, sections and subgenera. However, seeds microstructure showed some differences at the species level.

Limitations for the application of genome editing technologies on elite wheat (Triticum aestivumL.) varieties are mainly due to the dependency onin vitroculture and regeneration capabilities. Recently, we developed anin plantaparticle bombardment (iPB) method which has increased process efficiency since no culture steps are required to create stably genome-edited wheat plants. Here, we report the application of the iPB method to commercially relevant Japanese elite wheat varieties. The biolistic delivery of gold particles coated with plasmids expressing CRISPR/Cas9 components designed to targetTaQsd1were bombarded into the embryos of imbibed seeds with their shoot apical meristem (SAM) exposed. Mutations in the target gene were subsequently analyzed within flag leaf tissue by using cleaved amplified polymorphic sequence (CAPS) analysis. A total of 9/358 (2.51%) of the bombarded plants (cv. “Haruyokoi,” spring type) carried mutant alleles in the tissue. Due to the chimeric nature of the T0 plants, only six of them were inherited to the next (T1) generation. Genotypic analysis of the T2 plants revealed a single triple-recessive homozygous mutant of theTaQsd1gene. Compared to wild type, the homozygous mutant exhibited a 7 days delay in the time required for 50% seed germination. The iPB method was also applied to two elite winter cultivars, “Yumechikara” and “Kitanokaori,” which resulted in successful genome editing at slightly lower efficiencies as compared to “Haruyokoi.” Taken together, this report demonstrates that thein plantagenome editing method through SAM bombardment can be applicable to elite wheat varieties that are otherwise reluctant to callus culture.

Authors: Priyanka Sharma, V Bhalla, E Senthil Prasad, V Dravid, G Shekhawat &amp; C. Raman Suri ### Abstract This protocol describes an optimized signal amplification strategy to develop an ultra-sensitive magneto-electrochemical biosensing platform. The new protocol combines the advantages of carbon nanotube (CNT) and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) together with electrochemical bursting of magnetic nanoparticles. The method involves synthesis of gold-iron (Au/Fe) nano-structures functionalized with specific antibodies to be used as nanobioprobes (Ab-Au/Fe). The next step requires the precise designing of the rGO/CNT nanohybrid sensing platform. The combined system offers the enhanced electrochemical properties giving a synergistic effect in electroanalytical performance of the resulting electrode material along with a large number of metal ions (Fe2+) available on electrode demonstrating ultra-high sensitivity of developed assay. This method provides a promising biosensing platform for environmental or clinical applications where sensitivity is a major issue. ### Introduction Graphene-based nanocomposite films have recently been used as enhanced sensing platform for the development of electrochemical sensors and biosensors because of their unique facile surface modification characteristics and high charge mobility (1-3). Zhang et al., have recently reported a hybrid film consisting of graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets together with the prussian blue films for electrochemical sensing applications (4). In a different approach, an in-situ chemical synthesis approach has been developed to prepare graphene-gold nanoparticles based nanocomposite, demonstrating its good potential as a highly sensitive electrochemical sensing platform (5). A GO sheet consists of two randomly distributed regions namely, aromatic regions with unoxidised benzene rings and regions with aliphatic six-membered rings making it to behave like an amphiphilic molecule (6). The oxygen containing groups render GO sheets hydrophilic and highly dispersible in water, whereas the aromatic regions offer active sites to make it possible to interact with other aromatic molecules through supramolecular interactions. This chemical nature makes GO a unique dispersant to suspend CNTs in water and to develop a new strategy for making graphene/CNT hybrids (7,8). Similarities in structure and physical properties between CNTs and graphene, their hybridization would presumably have useful synergistic effects in biosensing applications (9-11). Nanometer-sized magnetic particles of iron are potential candidates in catalysis, magnetic separation and biomedical applications (12). However, pure iron nanoparticles are chemically unstable and easily oxidize, which limits their utility in biosensing and other applications. These particles are therefore coated with another inert layer such as metal-oxide (iron oxide), inorganic material (SiO2), and noble metals (gold and silver), thereby making a core–shell nano-structure showing favorable magnetic properties of metal iron while preventing them from oxidation (13). Gold has been one of the potential coating materials owing to its chemical inertness, biocompatibility, non-toxic, and diverse cluster geometries (14). Very recently, inorganic or semiconductor nanoparticles tagged with receptor molecules has generated good interest for electrochemical detection of analyte (15,16). Anodic stripping voltammetry (ASV) has proved to be a very sensitive method for trace determination of metal ions liberated from nanoparticles. Recently, Liu developed multi-QDs functionalized silica nanoparticles based electrochemical amplification platform which dramatically enhanced the intensity of the signal and led to ultrasensitive detection (17). Our previous study reported the use of gold nanoparticles mediated ASV technique based upon oxidative gold nanoparticles dissolution in an acidic solution. The consequent release of large amount of gold (Au) metal ions after dissolution leads to the development of sensitive stripping voltammetry based immunoassay (18). However, it suffers from the use of strongly corrosive and hazardous agents such as HBr/Br2 for the oxidation of gold nanoparticles, which minimizes it’s usage in common lab practices. Although significant achievements have been obtained in this field, the finding of more sensitive, environment friendly convenient assay still attracts increasing interest where sensitivity is a major cause of concern, such as clinically important biomarkers or assaying environmental pollutants. In this protocol, we present a detailed and proven procedure based on metal ions derivatized electrochemical immunoassay format using specific antibody tagged gold-iron (Au/Fe) nanoparticles on reduced graphene oxide-carbon nanotubes (rGO/CNT) modified biosensing platform (19) (Fig. 1).  The use of core magnetic nanoparticles offers rapid immunocomplex formation on magneto-microtitre plates and their further electrochemical bursting into a large number of Fe2+ ions presented ultra-high sensitivity for diuron detection on SPE. Although this protocol has successfully been implemented for detection of herbicide diuron in environmental samples, yet the success of assay depends on the selection of bioreceptor (antibodies) used with respect to its specificity and sensitivity towards the target molecule. ### Reagents 1. Ferric chloride (FeCl3; Sigma Aldrich, cat. No. 451649) ! CAUTION Keep the container tightly closed and away from bright light; Corrosive to metals. - Ferrous Sulfate heptahydrate (FeSO4.7H2O; Sigma Aldrich, cat. No. F8048) ! CAUTION Skin irritant - Sodium Hydroxide pellets (NaOH; Himedia, cat. No. RM1183) ! CAUTION Highly corrosive and always store below 30 ºC. - Sodium citrate tribasic dehydrate 99% pure (Sigma, cat. No. S4641) - Potassium carbonate anhydrous (K2CO3; Qualigens, Product No. 19275) ! CAUTION Keep container tightly closed. - Sodium azide ! CAUTION Highly toxic - Gold chloride (Sigma, cat. No. G4022-1G) ! CAUTION Store in cool place. Keep container tightly closed in a dry and well-ventilated place. It is light sensitive and moisture sensitive - CRITICAL Prepare gold chloride solution in ultra-pure Milli-Q water (Millipore, India) having a resistivity &gt; 18 MΩ-cm. - 3-glycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane (GOPS) (Sigma, India) CRITICAL All glassware used for synthesizing gold nanoparticles were thoroughly cleaned and siliconized with GOPS solution. - Graphite Flakes (Reinste, Noida) CRITICAL Use 99% or analytical grade graphite flakes as their impurities may affect the subsequent formation of GO. - Sodium Nitrate (NaNO3) Fischer Scientific ! CAUTION Keep away from sources of ignition and keep the container tightly closed. - Potassium permanganate (KMnO4; Merck B. No. QK1Q612321) ! CAUTION It may cause fire when comes in contact with combustible materials. - Multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs); Nanoshel, India ! CAUTION Avoid breathing of its dust/ fume/ gas/ mist/ vapours/ spray. - Dimethyl formamide (DMF) Fluka ! CAUTION Harmful in contact with skin. - Skimmed Milk (Difco, cat. No. 232100) ! CAUTION Hygroscopic, keep container tightly closed. CRITICAL Always prepare fresh skimmed milk solution in 1 X phosphate buffer saline (PBS; see REAGENT SETUP). - Anti-diuron antibodies (generated in house) The specific anti-diuron antibodies were generated by immunizing New Zealand white rabbits (4-6 months old) with well characterized hapten-protein conjugate (23). ! CAUTION Always store antibody stock solutions at concentration &gt;1 mg/ml in PBS buffer with 0.01% sodium azide at -20ºC. However, for short term storage, 4ºC is recommended. Avoid frequent freeze and thaw, make aliquots. ### Equipment 1. Freezer (− 70 °C, operating range − 60 to − 80 °C; New Brunswick USA) - Refrigerator (2–8 °C; Samsung, India) - Magnetic stirrer with hot plate Remi, India - Rocker Shaker (Genei, India) - Bar magnet (Dimension: 6” x 6”; 10 Tesla) - ELISA Plate washer (Biotek, Finland) - ELISA plate reader, multimode (Biotek, Finland) - Flat bottom microtiter plates (C96), Nunc, USA - Screen printed electrodes (TE 100), CH Instruments, USA - Electrochemical workstation (600D), CH Instruments, USA - Eppendorf microtubes (0.5 and 1.5 ml), Tarson, India - Micro-refrigerated centrifuge (SVI, Germany) - Incubator (Labtech, Korea) - Fume hood for chemical synthesis (Labguard, India) - Vaccum concentrator (Eppendorf, Germany) - Vaccum Oven (IEC, India) - pH meter (Century, India) - UV-vis spectrophotometer (Schimadzu, Japan) - FTIR spectrophotometer (Brucker, USA) - Dynamic light scattering (DLS) system (Malvern, USA) - Transmission electron microscope (TEM-Hitachi HD 2300A STEM) operating at 200 kV accelerating voltage - Scanning Transmission Electron Microscope, Atomic Resolution (A STAR) (JEOL JEM-2100F) equipped with Oxford EDS and Gatan GIF system for the atomic resolution Z-contrast imaging at sub-nanoscale resolution in point mapping and line scanning analysis - Atomic Force Microscope used in non-contact mode (Veeco, USA) - Contact angle measurements by Sessile drop method, DSA 100, DSA/V 1.9, Kruss Gmbh Hamburg - Raman Spectrometer (785-HP-NIR laser-1.58 eV), (Renishaw Invia, UK) - (SQUID), Quantum Design (MPMS, USA) - Microcal Origin software version 8.0 for detailed assay analysis - ChemDraw Ultra 11.0 for chemical structural drawing ### Procedure **Experimental design** **Ab-Au/Fe synthesis**. The Au/Fe nanoparticles were first synthesized by preparing Fe3O4 seeds using modified co-precipitation method20 which were further oxidized to encapsulate with Au shells. Various parameters such as Au/Fe salt concentration and time kinetics of the reaction were optimized to have monodispersed nanoparticles. These gold coated iron oxide particles were separated out from the solutions by using a lab magnet (10 Tesla). High resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) was carried out to characterize the surface morphology and elemental mapping of synthesized nanobioprobes. The line mapping and elemental composition studies of the selected nanoparticles confirmed the formation of Fe core and Au shell as single Au/Fe nanostructure (Fig. 2).  Functionalization of synthesized Au/Fe nanoparticles with specific anti-diuron antibody is dependent mainly on pH, ionic strength and hydrophobic attractions besides covalent binding between the gold and sulfur atoms. The ionic strength of antibody solution was kept minimum (10 mM) since the increase in ionic strength effects the reduction of the thickness of the electric double layer over charged surfaces, thus decreasing the electrostatic interactions between antibodies and nanoparticles accompanied by coagulation (21). The minimum amount of protein required to stabilize the nanoparticles was optimized by employing flocculation assay (22). The concentration of protein has a marked tendency for flocculation of nanoparticles in solution. A flocculation assay was designed by taking different concentrations of antibody solutions (0.1–1 mg/ml). 100 μl of each dilution was added to 1 ml of as prepared Au/Fe nanoparticles. After 15 min, flocculation was induced by adding 100 μl of 10% NaCl and absorbance was measured at 580 nm. The characterization of nanobioprobes was done with Dynamic light scattering (DLS), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Atomic force microscopy (AFM) and Superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) (Supplementary Fig. S1 and S2). A fully optimized protocol, both for the Au/Fe nanoparticles synthesis and their functionalization with specific antibodies was developed in this study. **rGO/CNT nanocomposite based biosensing platform**. GO was synthesized by the oxidation of exfoliated graphite using modified Hummer’s method (6) requiring ice bath and sonicator (1h, 96% power). Oxidation of GO has marked tendency over single layer GO film formation. Filtrate through anodized aluminium oxide (AAO) membrane with a nominal pore size of 0.02 μm yielded single layer GO thin film. rGO/CNT nanocomposite was prepared using well optimized concentrations of multiwalled CNTs and GO suspension drop-casted on working area of SPE (Fig. 3).  A potential reductive scan from 0 to -1.5 V with the scan rate 0.1 V/s was applied for the electrochemical conversion of rGO/CNT nanocomposites (Supplementary Fig. S3). The thus formed nanohybrid was characterized by Raman spectroscopy and contact angle measurements (Supplementary Figs. S4 &amp; S5). Raman spectroscopy investigated the structural aspects of rGO/CNT modification on SPE. The experimental data was fitted using Microcal Origin 6.1 in order to elucidate the peak position and full width of half-maxima (FWHM) of D, G, and 2D bands. The contact angle measurements further revealed the hydrophilic/hydrophobic character of the modified SPE surface due to the decrease in value of the contact angle after surface modification with rGO/CNT. A large number of hydrophilic (-COOH) groups present in rGO and CNT makes the surface more hydrophilic resulting in reduced contact angle value. **Magneto-immunoassay optimisation**. A competitive inhibition immunoassay format was developed on ELISA plates with in-house generated hapten-protein conjugate and specific bioreceptor (anti-diuron antibody) (23). Concentration of nanobioprobes in the reported ELISA procedure was optimized. Nanobioprobe mediated immunocomplex formed on the plates were washed and acid dissolved for the desorption of nanoparticles from the immobilized antibody by using a mild acid (1N HCl) followed by partial neutralization with 1N NaOH. The electrochemical bursting of Au/Fe nanoparticles to release large number of Fe ions on rGO/CNT modified biosensing platform was optimized in terms of reductive scan (0 to -1.5 V). (Supplementary Fig. 6) monitored by differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) technique. Liberation of the large number of (Fe2+) ions were detected by their oxidation response on rGO/CNT nanostructured electrodes, which possess the enhanced electrochemical response due to the oxygen containing groups leading to rapid electron transfer (24). **Results analysis**. Calibration curve for diuron (standard sample concentrations between (0.01 pg/ml to 1 μg/ml) was established based on a semi-log plot method. Data analysis was performed by normalizing the absorbance values using the following formula: % B/B0 = {(I – Iex) / (I0 – Iex)} Where I, I0, and Iex are the relative current intensities of the sample, hapten at zero concentration, and hapten at excess concentration, respectively. The cross reactivity of the generated antibody was calculated by determining half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) for diuron and other herbicides, atrazine, 2,4-D, fenuron and linuron (Supplementary Figs. S7 and S8). **Procedure** **Synthesis of Ab-Au/Fenanobioprobes ● TIMING ~3 h 30 min** 1. The Au/Fe nanoparticles were synthesized by first preparing Fe3O4 seeds using modified co-precipitation method25 which are further oxidized to encapsulate with gold shells by following the steps given in Box 1. The synthesized Au/Fe nanoparticles were labeled with anti-diuron antibodies23 (generated in-house) as per the steps followed in Box 2. Box 1 | SYNTHESIS OF Au/Fe NANOPARTICLES ● TIMING ~1 h 30 min 1. Dissolve FeCl3 (1.28 M) and FeSO4.7H2O (0.64 M) in 1:2 ratios in deoxygenated water under vigorous stirring in nitrogen environment. - CRITICAL STEP Oxygen-free environment protects the oxidation of iron nano particles/seeds. - Add a solution of 1.5 M NaOH dropwise into the mixture followed by stirring for 40 min. - Black precipitate of magnetite formed which is collected by a permanent magnet. Wash the precipitate with deionized water. CRITICAL STEP Thoroughly wash the precipitate formed to remove trace amount of NaOH (reducing agent). - ? TROUBLESHOOTING - Reconstitute the precipitate 1: 200 dilution in deionized water. - Add sodium citrate (155 mM) slowly to the boiling solution under constant stirring for 15 min. - CRITICAL STEP Boiling of magnetic seeds are important before addition of gold and sodium citrate for the efficient coating of gold over magnetic seeds/nanoparticles. - Add 10 ml of gold chloride (10 mM) immediately into the oxidized magnetic solution on a stirring sonicator to encapsulate the iron nanoparticles with gold shells. - CRITICAL STEP Increase in the Au concentration in the Au/Fe ratio will lead to thicker gold shells thereby affecting the magnetic properties of NPs. - Collect Au/Fe NPs by magnetic separation followed by washings with deionised water and finally reconstitute in 0.5 ml water. - CRITICAL STEP The water used for the synthesis should be de-ionised, pH ~7.0, and having resistivity &gt;18 MΩ-cm to avoid flocculation. - Characterise the synthesised nanoparticles by TEM/EDX. The Figure 2 indicates the inclusion of Fe core and Au shell as single Au/Fe nanostructure on the basis of point and line mapping studies. Box 2 | LABELING OF Au/Fe NANOPARTICLES ● TIMING ~2h 1. Prepare antibody solution (1 mg/ml) in PB - Add 100 µl antibody solution in 1 ml Au/Fe solution under mild stirring conditions. - CRITICAL STEP The minimum amount of antibody required to stabilize the NPs is optimized by flocculation assay (see experimental design). - Maintain the pH of NPs solution at 7.4 by adding 0.1 M K2CO3 before adding antibody solution. - Incubate the solution at 37 °C for 2 h followed by centrifugation at 12,000 rpm for 30 min to remove traces of unconjugated antibody. - PAUSE POINT May also be incubated overnight at 4 °C. - Wash the pellet twice with 10 mM Tris (pH 8.0) containing 3% BSA. - CRITICAL STEP The addition of BSA will prevent the aggregation of nanoparticles and will eventually increase the stability of the nanobioprobes. - ? TROUBLESHOOTING - Resuspend the pellet in 1 ml of phosphate buffer (pH 7.4) and store at 4 °C. 2│The synthesized Ab-Au/Fenanobioprobes are characterized morphologically by Scanning Transmission Electron Microscope. Further, size profiling of antibody tagged nanoparticles by dynamic light scattering system confirms the binding of antibodies to NPs (Supplementary Fig. S1). SQUID analysis also demonstrates the change in magnetic properties of Au/Fe NPs and their subsequent functionalization with specific antibodies. CRITICAL STEP For SQUID analysis, the samples should be vacuum concentrated and completely dry. **Development of Magneto-electrochemical immunoassay ● TIMING ~3 h** 1. Coat the microtiter ELISA plates with 100 µl of hapten-protein conjugate (10 µg/ml) prepared in carbonate buffer. - Cover the plate with an adhesive plastic sheet and incubate at 37 ⁰C for 2 hours followed by washing with PBST (three times). - PAUSE POINT Incubation can be prolonged to overnight at 4 °C - Block the unbound protein binding sites with 10% defatted skimmed milk (prepared in PBS) for 1 h at 37 °C. - Wash the plates with PBST (three times). - A competitive inhibition immunoassay format is developed by coating the ELISA plates with DCPU–BSA conjugate by following the steps given in Box 3. **Synthesis of rGO/CNT nanohybrid ● TIMING ~1 h** 1. Synthesize GO by the oxidation of exfoliated graphite using modified Hummer’s method6 from graphite powders using NaNO3, H2SO4, and KMnO4 in an ice bath. - Filter GO through anodized aluminium oxide (AAO) membrane with a nominal pore size of 0.02 μm. - Peel off the thin GO film from the AAO filter after air drying. CRITICAL STEP Vaccum oven can be used for the complete drying of the nanocomposite. - For preparing rGO/CNT nanocomposite, high aspect ratio (length: 15–30 nm and diameter: ~30 nm) pristine multiwalled CNTs and the above prepared GO in step 5 are dissolved in (1:1) DMF and water. - Sonicate the mixture for 1h at 96% power. - Drop-caste the 5 µl of the suspension on the working area of SPEs followed by incubation in vacuum oven for 1 h at 60 °C. - CRITICAL STEP Optimise the concentration of rGO/CNT nanocomposite on SPE on the basis of maximum current signal response using cyclic votammetry (CV) technique. - ? TROUBLESHOOTING - Apply a potential reductive scan from 0 to -1.5 V with the scan rate 0.1 V/s for the electrochemical conversion of rGO/CNT nanocomposites on SPE. - CRITICAL STEP Carefully observe the characteristic reduction peak of rGO/CNT at -0.5V (Supplementary Fig. S2). If the peak is not observed check the contacts with SPE and repeat the reduction scan. - Characterize the thus formed nanohybrid by TEM and Raman spectroscopy. For characterization, samples are prepared electrochemically on Indium tin oxide (ITO) coated glass by applying the potential between 0 to -1.5 V. - Raman spectra of first order scattering (D and G peaks) are observed around 1350 cm-1 and 1600 cm-1 respectively (Supplementary Fig. S4). - Completely dry the samples in vacuum oven for 1h at ~60 ºC. Scrap off the samples from the surface followed by TEM analysis on a carbon coated copper grid (#300 mesh) dropcasted with sample followed by drying in air for 15 min. The micrograph of the nanocomposite display a view of CNT bundles attached to GO layer indicating the formation of rGO/CNT nanocomposite (inset of Fig. 3a). - Use the characterized rGO/CNT modified SPE for DPV measurements in the development of immunoassay using varying concentrations of diuron. Box 3 | IMMUNOCOMPLEX FORMATION AND ASSAY DEVELOPMENT ● TIMING ~45 min 1. Mix as prepared Ab-Au/Fe nanobioprobes (1:5 dilution) with varying concentrations of diuron (0.01 pg/ml – 1 μg/ml); 50 µl of mixture added into each well of microtiter plate and subsequently incubated for 20 min at RT. - A strong magnet kept beneath the plate speed up the immunocomplex formation which is separated. - Wash the immunocomplex formed on the plates with PB. PAUSE POINT The plates can be stored at 4 ºC. - Dissociate the bound immobilized antibody complex from plate with 0.1N HCl followed by partial neutralization with 0.1 N NaOH to retain pH ~5.2. - Transfer the solution (50 µl) to rGO/CNT modified SPE surface, as prepared in steps 8-14. - Apply a reductive scan (0 to -1.5 V) which will eventually burst Fe2O3 nanoparticles into large number of metal ions (Fe2+) by applying a potential sweep between 0 to -1.6 V vs. Ag/AgCl. - CRITICAL STEP Observe a characteristic broad reductive peak at -0.75 V as shown in inset of supplementary fig. S6. - Use differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) at amplitude 50 mV, pulse width 0.2 s, pulse period 0.5 s. using the electrochemical workstation. ### Troubleshooting - Box 1 - Step 3 No black color precipitate formed Rusting of Magnetic seeds during reaction Carry out the synthesis of magnetic seeds in deoxygenated environmemt - Box 2 - Step 5 Aggregation of synthesized nanobioprobes Excessive concentration of antibody if added. Optimum concentration of antibody should be added into NPs solution after employing critical flocculation assay. - Step 13 Decreased current signal of rGO/CNT modified sensors than bare SPE The concentration of the nanocomposite on SPE may be too high or too low Varying concentrations of nanocomposite (0.1-10 µg/ml) can be used for optimization. ### Anticipated Results The developed sensing platform combines the advantages of GO and CNT nanohybrid offering enhanced electrochemical properties giving a synergistic effect in electroanalytical performance of the resulting electrode material along with a large number of metal ions (Fe2+) available on electrode which are detected by differential pulse voltammetry technique (Fig. 4a,b). This combined strategy successfully enhanced the immunoassay sensitivity, and thus provides a novel promising platform for environmental or clinical applications where sensitivity is a major issue.  ### References 1. 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Synthesis and surface engineering of iron oxide nanoparticles for biomedical applications. *Biomaterials*, 26, 3995-4021 (2005). ### Acknowledgements The authors greatly acknowledge NUANCE, NWU, IL for carrying out TEM/EDX imaging. Authors also acknowledge Jiaxing Huang and Laura Cote, NWU, IL for valuable suggestions and discussions on GO synthesis. ### Figures **Figure 1: Schematic illustration of the optimised nanohybrid biosensing systems**  *Schematic illustration of the optimised nanohybrid biosensing systems. The method involves synthesis of Au/Fe nanoparticles functionalised with specific antibodies used as nanobioprobes and their subsequent metal ion sensing on rGO/CNT nanostructured electrodes. Microtiter ELISA plates were coated with 100 µl of hapten-protein conjugate (10 µg/ml) prepared in carbonate buffer and subsequently immunocomplex was formed with different concentrations of diuron sample in competitive ELISA approach. Electrochemical bursting of nanoparticles releasing large number of Fe2+ ions presented ultra-high sensitivity for diuron detection on SPE*. *Figure from reference 19: Sharma, P., Bhalla, V., Dravid, V., Shekhawat,G., Wu, J., Prasad, E. S., Suri, C. R. Enhancing electrochemical detection on graphene oxide-CNT nanostructured electrodes using magneto-nanobioprobes. Scientific Report 2, 877 (2012)*. **Figure 2: TEM micrographs of Au/Fe nanoparticles**  *(a) TEM micrograph of Au/Fe nanoparticles showing the morphology of the synthesized Au/Fe nanoparticles with an approximate dia of ~30 nm (b) The line map curve showing the ratio of Au:Fe found to be nearly 11:1 in a single selected nanoparticle (c) EDX spectra of the whole scan area showing Au LR, Au Lâ, Fe KR, and Fe Kâ lines at 9.8 keV, 11.6 keV, 6.4 keV, and 7.0 keV respectively (d) The whole area mapping analysis of nanoparticles in dark field showing the distribution of Fe and Au in the synthesized nanoparticles. In (e) and (f) pink and red dots represent Fe and Au respectively* *Figure from reference 19: Sharma, P., Bhalla, V., Dravid, V., Shekhawat,G., Wu, J., Prasad, E. S., Suri, C. R. Enhancing electrochemical detection on graphene oxide-CNT nanostructured electrodes using magneto-nanobioprobes. Scientific Report 2, 877 (2012)*. **Figure 3: Cyclic voltammograms of nanocomposite formed on SPE**  *(a) Cyclic voltammograms (CV) of rGO, CNT and rGO/CNT nanocomposite formed on SPE using 2.5 mM ferrocyanide solution prepared in PBS. Inset of the figure shows the TEM characterization of rGO/CNT nanocomposite. The corresponding CV scans recorded for the redox of small ion (Fe2+) for rGO/CNT showed maximum current signal for anodic and cathodic peak currents for the first reductive scan as compared to GO and CNTs dropcasted individually on separate electrodes and further reduced electrochemically. In figure b, CV scans recorded at different scan rates from 25 to 200 mV/s. The anodic potential shifts more towards the positive potential and the cathodic peak potential shifts in the reverse direction with increase in higher scan rate* *Figure from reference 19: Sharma, P., Bhalla, V., Dravid, V., Shekhawat,G., Wu, J., Prasad, E. S., Suri, C. R. Enhancing electrochemical detection on graphene oxide-CNT nanostructured electrodes using magneto-nanobioprobes. Scientific Report 2, 877 (2012)*. **Figure 4: Magneto-electrochemical immunoassay format using modified SPE**  *(a) Response curves of rGO/CNT modified SPE The signal response was measured by a differential pulse voltammetry technique at amplitude 50 mV, pulse width 0.2 s, pulse period 0.5 s. (b) Competitive inhibition response curve for diuron at different concentrations from 0.01 pg/ml to 1 µg/ml (a to h). Analysis of the competitive inhibition assay data was performed by normalizing the absorbance (Fig. 4ii). The developed immunoassay showed excellent sensitivity and specificity demonstrating detection limit upto 0.1 pg/ml (sub-ppt) for diuron samples with high degree of reproducibility (n=3)* *Figure from reference 19: Sharma, P., Bhalla, V., Dravid, V., Shekhawat,G., Wu, J., Prasad, E. S., Suri, C. R. Enhancing electrochemical detection on graphene oxide-CNT nanostructured electrodes using magneto-nanobioprobes. Scientific Report 2, 877 (2012)*. **Supplementary document: Supplementary document** [Download Supplementary document](http://www.nature.com/protocolexchange/system/uploads/2359/original/supporting_info.doc?1354775056) ### Associated Publications **Enhancing electrochemical detection on graphene oxide-CNT nanostructured electrodes using magneto-nanobioprobes**. Priyanka Sharma, Vijayender Bhalla, Vinayak Dravid, Gajendera Shekhawat, Jinsong-Wu, E. Senthil Prasad, and C. Raman Suri. *Scientific Reports* 2() 19/11/2012 [doi:10.1038/srep00877](http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep00877) ### Author information **Priyanka Sharma, V Bhalla, E Senthil Prasad &amp; C. Raman Suri**, IMTECH V Dravid &amp; G Shekhawat, NWU, IL Correspondence to: C. Raman Suri (raman@imtech.res.in) *Source: [Protocol Exchange](http://www.nature.com/protocolexchange/protocols/2535) (2012) doi:10.1038/protex.2012.059. Originally published online 6 December 2012*.

I spent more than two years in Bangladesh and lived through several incarnations—as a volunteer for aid organisations, an expatriate socialite, a bidesi (foreigner) trying to live sodesi (locally)—before becoming an ethnographer and, simultaneously, a lover and fighter of my adopted country. During the winter of my second lifetime I was sexually assaulted and at the beginning of my third lifetime, I recounted the experience at an academic conference in Dhaka. Smitten by the possibility that personal revelation could overcome cross-cultural barriers, I read A Night Out to compel others to sympathise and share, perhaps even loosen the somewhat restricted discussion of sexual intimidation in Bangladesh. Yet the response to A Night Out was quiet, absorbed by the static of courtesy, and taught me that disclosure alone cannot transcend differences to reach a space of mutual understanding. Later, when I posted A Night Out online, I observed the continued and changing capacity of revelation to evoke responses from people across genders and cultures. This article argues that the impact of revelation, although difficult to quantify, is never static and depends significantly on context: first, by describing autoethnography, a way of writing about other cultures that connects the "autobiographical and personal to the cultural, social and political" (Ellis xix), in the "Before" section to give background to A Night Out; secondly, the "After" section considers the various responses to the story and discusses it as "both a process and a product" of cultural research (xix). Before A Night Out Switching lives between Australia and Bangladesh has shown me the value of cultural research that deconstructs traditional conceptions of the "Western" and "Eastern" worlds. In terms of the representations of women, those in the East are too often prescribed the characteristics of ignorance, poverty, illiteracy, domesticity, maternity, and victimization, while the Western woman is depicted as modern, educated, in control of her body and sexuality (Gandhi 86). As a researcher, ultimately, of the life stories of Bangladeshi women, I sought to decrease the misconceptions surrounding those who were, like me, never only "West" or "East", influenced but never solely defined by their culture. Autoethnography is a method of cultural research that makes connections between "individual experience and social processes" in ways that emphasise the essential falsity of cultural categories (Sparkes 217). To transcend these boundaries of people, place and time, autoethnographers make use of narrative, believing it to be "the best way to understand the human experience" because it is "the way humans understand their own lives" (Richardson 218). As a writer, I likewise believe that narrative provides a way to make sense of or negotiate one's place in relation to any space or group of people. In particular, telling personal stories "bears fruit" of "reaching out to others," provoking their own stories and emotional responses, thereby becoming an effective cultural research method (Four Arrows 106). I remember my admiration for the Bangladeshi writer Shabnam Nadiya, who in Woman Alone describes her isolating experiences of sexual molestation as a girl and, later, the realisation via the writing of Taslima Nasrin that "it happened everywhere, everyday ... to anyone" (2008). For Nadiya, self-reflexivity created a "bridge" between the interior practise of reading and the exterior "everyday lived life" of communal experience and identity (2008). While connections on such an intimate scale may be difficult or unwelcome, making them is significant as "the process of revolution itself" (Ware 239). Inspired by Nadiya to write a piece with enough emotional power to reach over the public space of the conference room, my revelation concerned one of my own experiences as a woman in Bangladesh. A Night Out I was never afraid of my city at night. The time I liked Dhaka best was when the day wore down to dusk and the sky looked like it had been brushed clean. When I lived near Dhanmondi Lake I would walk through the drab hues of the surrounding park with its concrete paths and dusty trees that stretched their reflections across the pond-green water. The park was always crowded with raucous wallahs (vendors) and power walking women in bright dresses, yet even so I was the focus of attention, haunted by exclamations of "Koto lomba!" (How tall!) until my shadows became longer than myself in the quartzy light, and I was not so noticeable. When I moved to the Newmarket area I would spend the twilight hours sitting barefoot on my balcony in a voluminous housedress, watching Dhaka's night stage. Children played games on the rooftop of the lower apartment block opposite, women unhooked lines of fresh laundry and groups of friends would chat or play guitar. Even when the evening azan growled from the megaphones of nearby mosques there was activity on the street below, figures moving under the marigold glare of the sodium streetlights or, in winter, stretching nets across the street for badminton matches. Rickshawallahs rang their bells to the call of the crows and there was always an obnoxious motorist laying into his car horn. I felt more a part of my neighbourhood at this distance than when I became, eight floors down, the all-too-visible spectacle of the only foreigner in the district. The flat, my only source of solitude in Dhaka, was in a peaceful building set at the end of a road that turned three corners before coming to a blind halt. Walking its length day and night to reach the main thoroughfare, I got to know the road well. A few old bungalows remained, with comfortably decaying verandas behind wrought-ironwork and the shade of banana trees. Past the first corner the road became an entry for Dhaka College and the high school opposite; houses gave way to walls papered with adverts, a cluster of municipal bins surrounded by litter and wooden shacks that served cha (tea) and fried snacks. I was on friendly terms with the grey-haired wallah who stalked the area daily with his vegetable cart and one betel-chewing woman who sorted the neighbourhood rubbish. Once I neared the college attention from the chawallahs and students became more harassing than friendly, but I continued to walk to and from my house and most of the time, I walked alone. When solitude turns oppressive, the solution is to open all windows and doors and let air and friends in. One evening I invited Mia and Farad, both journalists and wine-drinkers, who arrived before sunset and stayed almost til midnight. We all knew the later it became the harder it would be for Mia to reach her home across the city. A call to one of the less dodgy cab companies proved us right—there were no taxis available in the area. It would be better, said Farad, to walk to the main road and hail a cab from there. Reluctant to end the evening at the elevator, I locked my door and joined my friends on the walk out to Mipur Road, which even at midnight stirred with the occasional activity of tradesmen and drivers. After a few attempts, Farad flagged down a cab, negotiated a fare and recorded the driver's number. It was part of the safety training Mia and I had imbibed as foreigners over the years. Other examples included "Never buy spices from the sacks at the market" and "Never wear gold necklaces while riding rickshaws." "I should catch my bus," Farad announced after Mia's departure. "But you've left your books in my house," I replied. "I thought you were coming back to get them." Farad was incredibly sexy with his brooding face and shaggy black beard and I had hoped more time would reveal reciprocal interest. From one writer to another it was not a suggestive line, but I was too shy to be more explicit with my male friends in Bangladesh, who treated me as one of the boys and silenced me sometimes with their unexpectedly conservative views of women. Farad considered my comment. "I'll collect them later, or we can meet at the university in a few days. Do you need to catch a rickshaw to your door?" "I don't have any taka on me," I said, "and it's not far." I was, after all, in my own street, not being chauffeured home by a bleary-eyed driver. "Thanks for coming! Abar dekha hobe (see you again)." "Goodnight," Farad replied and as he turned to leave I saw him grin into his beard, amused by my tipsy pronunciation. Fatigue dropped heavily on my shoulders as I strolled back down the road. My flat, with its small clean bed and softly purring ceiling fans, seemed far away at the end of the alley. It was very quiet, as quiet as home when I used to walk through the city to the train station after late night shifts on the suicide hotline. The dim light in the street exposed its emptiness. The stalls along the road had shut hours earlier and the only movement came from a middle-aged man taking his exercise, swinging his arms widely from side to side as he strode home. As I turned the first corner of the alley, another man approached me from behind. I glanced at him, probably because he had glanced at me. "Are you OK?" he asked. "Fine." "What is your country?" "Look," I said, unaccountably feeling my heart rate increase, "I'm sorry, but I don't want to talk now." "No problem, no problem," he assured me, spreading his hands and smiling, displaying two charming rows of teeth. "Relax. You're very nice." My instinct was to smile back. We walked past the waste piles that had been emptied from the bins, ready for sorting. The woman I exchanged greetings with worked here on most days and instructed me on how to wear my orna (scarf) when it wasn't placed correctly over my chest. I wondered now where she slept at night. Calculating the closeness of my friend seemed less like idle speculation when the man who was walking beside me stepped directly into my path. He was tall and lean and wore a dark blue shirt. His face gleamed, as if he had been sweating during the day and had not washed off the residue. It occurred to me to twist past him and walk faster, maybe even run. I considered how fast and how far I could go in my thongs and wondered if I should kick them off, and then start to run. "No problem," the man repeated, holding out his hands again, placing them tightly behind my neck. He pulled me towards the wall as he forced me back by moving closer. Instant wetness struck me as I felt the concrete—my pelvic floor had made the first start of surprise. The strong hands moved quickly from my neck to my breasts. "I just want to…" said the man, squeezing both breasts like he was selecting fruit. He added, "You're very nice." I was wearing the only remotely attractive bra I owned, purchased from the supermarket on Dhanmondi 27. The cups, moulded from black synthetic lace, made my chest stick out in jaunty cones like a 1950s sex-bomb and the underwire dug into my chest. Clothes can be armour, yet in this case had depleted my self-preservation. I stood quite still, thinking only of what might happen next. I was against a wall in an alleyway at midnight, with no-one around except the man who was groping me. Finally I reacted, though it was not the reaction I would have guessed at my most objective self. Cowgirls get the blues, rough beasts slouch to be born and six foot one kick-boxing world travelling feminists scream like frightened cats with the shock of even minor violation. And certain men, I learned on my night out, chuckle at the distress they cause and then run away. After A Night Out The personal and public impacts of A Night Out proved to be cumulative over time and throughout retellings. When I read the piece at the Dhaka conference I was set to unleash the "transformative and efficacious potential" that autoethnography legendarily contains (Spry 712), though if my revelation achieved anything close to such a transformation, it was unclear. A female academic who had been chatting with me before my presentation, left the room directly after it. The students, mainly female undergraduates, had no questions to ask about any aspect of my paper. Whatever reactions my audience felt, if any, were not discussed. After my presentation, the male convenor privately expressed his regret over my experience and related more horrific examples. Sexual harassment of women is prevalent in Bangladesh yet so too is the culture of blaming the victim and denying the crime (cf. Lodhi; Mudditt; Nadiya), an attitude reflected through the use of the term "Eve Teasing," which assigns the provocative role to the woman and normalises the aggressive or sexual actions of the perpetrator (Kabeer 149). The response of this liberal and thoughtful man to my revelation was the only one that was articulated. By this measurement, A Night Out had failed to make the desired impact. One of the greatest reasons for this was the tension between the personal motivation behind my revelation and the public impact I had optimistically expected. A Night Out omits the reactions of my community immediately after my assault, when I was chastised for walking alone at such at late hour and for failing to defend myself, particularly given my size. In my street, gossip spread that I had not been groped but mugged, a less lecherous so perhaps more acceptable offense. I read A Night Out partly to gain some retrospective acknowledgement of my experience and in my determination I defied the complexities of a conservative country…[in which] women do not live alone, do not have male friends, do not travel by themselves or smoke cigarettes publicly and most definitely [...] do not talk or write about sexual topics. In Dhaka these things matter and 'decent women' are supposed to play by the rules. (Deen 35) Although I observed this conservatism to varying degrees in Bangladesh, I know that when women play outside the rules, negotiating cultural norms becomes a process of "alliance and conflict" that requires sensitivity to practise (Akhter 22)—a sensitivity that is difficult to grasp. The career of Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasrin illustrates this: credited with opening doors of feminist discussion "that had been shuttered by genteel conservatism, by niceness, by ignorance and denial" (Nadiya), Nasrin diminished this effect and alienated her audience through subsequent "shock tactics and sensationalism" (Deen 56). Although my revelation had also alienated my audience, it was not the impact I had hoped for. While Linda Park-Fuller celebrates autoethnographic performance as a "transgressive act—a revealing of what has been kept hidden, a speaking of what has been silenced" (26), the conference experience made me realise the significance of cultural context to the impact of revelation. I considered recasting A Night Out in a setting that was more intimate than academic, to an audience prepared for the content and united by achieving a specific outcome, where responses could be given privately if desired. I would also have to shift my role from defiant storyteller to one who welcomed all types of feedback. By posting A Night Out online as a Facebook note, I not only fulfilled the requirements above but made the story accessible to a large audience of men and women of diverse cultural backgrounds, including Bangladeshi. The written replies I received were easier to decipher than the faces after the conference presentation. Among the responses, some from people I did not know at all, many conveyed their appreciation for the description of Bangladesh. Others commented on the risk I took in walking down the road at night and suggested ways I could defend myself in future. I was told I was tough to write the account and was invited to share more of my experiences. One friend in Bangladesh shared my note with others and wrote to describe the reaction of a female friend of his who was "terribly shocked" by what I had written about my breasts, more than my attraction to Farad or the sexual assault itself. This anonymous respondent's "pure cultural shock", which my conference audience may also have felt, was better communicated through the Facebook retelling of A Night Out, although I am unable to interpret the silence of the other Bangladeshi women I sent the note to. While the responses I received indicated my revelation had made some impact in its online context, I could not help being especially touched when a male friend wrote, "And as a Bangladeshi I feel sorry for [your trouble]." It is one matter to write up a personal experience and another to have it make a public impact. As my first reading of A Night Out shows, autoethnographic revelation contains the potential to alienate as well as to create sympathy with an audience. Combined with the second, more private and accessible, distribution of A Night Out, this "Before" and "After" analysis shows the evolution of the revelation's impact on my audience as well as myself, over time and within different cultural contexts, in the academic, social and online arenas. Although my experience confirms the impact autoethnography can make as a form of cultural research, it can only be strengthened by continued attempts to seek a balance between the projections and inflections of culture, self and audience. It is not only in the telling but in the re-telling that personal revelations will gather and continue to give impact, which is why I now present A Night Out to a new audience in a new context and await your new responses. References Akhter, Farida. Seeds of Movements: On Women's Issues In Bangladesh. Dhaka: Narigrantha Prabartana, 2007. Deen, Hanifa. Broken Bangles. New Delhi: Penguin, 1998. Ellis, Carolyn. The Ethnographic I: A Methodological Novel about Autoethnography. Walnut Creek: AltaMira P, 2004. Four Arrows. The Authentic Dissertation: Alternate Ways of Knowing, Research, and Representation. London: Routledge, 2008. Gandhi, Leela. Postcolonial Theory: A Critical Introduction. St Leonards: Allen and Unwin, 1998. Kabeer, Naila. Reversed Realities: Gender Hierarchies in Development Thought. London: Verso, 1994. Lodhi, Muhamad. "Reply." Unheard Voice: All Things Bangladesh. 25 Jun. 2011. 5 Oct. 2011 ‹http://unheardvoice.net/blog/2011/06/24/silence/#comments›. Mudditt, Jessica. "Mugged, Dragged and Scarred: Harrowing Tales from Foreigners In Dhaka." The Independent Digital 23 Aug. 2011: 1-2. Nadiya, Shabnam. "Woman Alone." The Daily Star—Features. 29 Sep. 2008. 5 Oct. 2011 ‹http://www.thedailystar.net/suppliments/2008/eid_special/woman.htm›. Park-Fuller, Linda. "Performing Absence: The Staged Personal Narrative as Testimony." Text and Performance Quarterly 20 (2000): 20–42. Richardson, Laurel. "Narrative Sociology." Representation in Ethnography. Ed. John Van Maanen, Thousand Oaks: Sage, 1995. 198–221. Sparkes, Andrew C. "Autoethnography: Self-Indulgence or Something More?" Ethnographically Speaking: Autoethnography, Literature and Aesthetics. Eds. Arthur Bochner and Carolyn Ellis. Walnut Creek: AltaMira, 2002. 209–32. Spry, Tami. "Performing Autoethnography: An Embodied Methodological Praxis." Qualitative Inquiry 7.6 (2001): 706–32. Ware, Vron. Beyond the Pale: White Women, Racism and History. London: Verso, 1992.

<em>Behind the existing of literature, we want to know about the letters which were written on something. In particular, palm leaves were mostly used. Palm leaves were easily available in large number, and writing on palm leaves was easier than other. So they were dutiful for writing. In this paper, therefore, palm leaf manuscripts and their background history will be presented according to periods and regions.</em> <em>Pe Sar, Palm leaf Manuscripts, palm leaf inscriptions. </em> &nbsp; <strong>Introduction</strong> It is palm leaf manuscripts that have propagandized the Piṭakas and Pᾱḷi Texts of the Buddha Era. It is undeniable that the face texts on Piṭakas in Pᾱḷi and those in Myanmar and skills and knowledge related texts such as classic text onprose and poetry, and medical fortune telling text, which were written by ancient poets and persons of letters belonging to periods from Bagan to late Konbaung, can still be studied until today, is due to the fact that palm leaf manuscripts have been cherished. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The palm leaf manuscript is valuable not onlyin terms of subject but also in terms of material. In former times, a palm leaf manuscript was made withdifficulty on a step by step basis. A palm leaf manuscript indicates good characteristic of ancient Myanmar people such as their great diligence, their value on literature, their systematic behavior, their meticulous care, their patience, their wisdom and their devotion to religion. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Their religious literary works and the texts on poetry and prose by ancient poets, which can now be studied in today&rsquo;s printed words, were copied from palm leaf manuscripts. Unless manuscripts had not remained, no text of ancient poets could have revived again. Therefore, palm leaf manuscripts and their background history will be presented to indicate how great the standard and value of palm leaves are. <strong><em>The term of &ldquo;Pe Sar&rdquo;</em></strong> The term &ldquo;pesar&rdquo; is a Myanmar expression which combines the two words &ldquo;pe&rdquo; and &ldquo;sar&rdquo;. &ldquo;Pe&rdquo; means leaves from the palm tree, and &ldquo;sar&rdquo; stands for words. Therefore, &ldquo;pesar&rdquo; is meant for palm leaves on which words are written. Inthis way, in Myanmar culture, &ldquo;pe&rdquo; and &ldquo;sar&rdquo; cannot be separated and &ldquo;sarpe&rdquo; (literature) come from &ldquo;pesar&rdquo;. In English, the expression &ldquo;sarpe&rdquo; is called literature, and &ldquo;per sar&rdquo; is palm leaf manuscript. <strong><em>The distinction calls palm trees</em></strong> Scholars accepted the fact that ancient Myanmar people used coryphe palm leaves and tody palm leaves in writing. Myanmar people call toddy palm as &ldquo;htan&rdquo; and Mon people call it as &ldquo;ta&rdquo;. It is found that it is called &ldquo;tᾱ&rdquo; or &ldquo; tᾱla&rdquo; in Pᾱḷi, Hindi and Sanskrit. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Ancient Myanmar people called coryphe palm as &ldquo;pe&rdquo; and Myanmar people of today call it as &ldquo;pe&rdquo;. Mon people call it &ldquo;rai&rdquo; or &ldquo;rou&rdquo;. The use of coryphe palm is not found in Pᾱḷi, Hindi and Sanskrit. The coryphe palm is a kind of palm and it is the same species with toddy palm, coconut, areca nut, nipa palm, date palm, saga palm and salῡ palm. It is referred to as a kind of grass (tiṇajᾱti) in the text of abhidhᾱnappadῑpikᾱ. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Corypha palm and palmyra palm (toddy palm) grow in tropical regions and they are the same in shape. The former is bigger in trunk, its fruit is merely the size of an areca nut, and its leaf is broad and soft. The tiny fibers of the leaf of the latter are parallel and they easily tear, but those of the leaf of the former is like a network, and they donot easily tear. Therefore, the palm leaves seem tohave been used in writing in former times. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The palmyra palm also grow as a staminate plant but the coryphe palm only grows as a pistillate palm. However, the former bears fruits every year whereas the latter bears fruits only once in its life. When the latter is eight or twelve years old, its leaves can be used. Its life span is approximately 60 years, and that of its leaves lasts up to a maximum of 1000 years. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The Piṭakas of Theravada Buddhism and ancient Myanmar literary works were recorded on palm leaves. Therefore, it is learnt that literature, fine arts, ways of living, customs, and religion which are the foundation of culture were not unrelated to palm leaves. <strong><em>The history of Palm leaf</em></strong> <strong><em>Manuscripts</em></strong> Scholars made assumptions is many ways as to the period in which palm leaf manuscripts were originally used. The periods that can be assumed as the origin of the use of palm leaf manuscripts in Myanmar and in foreign countries will be presented. <strong><em>ṤriLaṅka</em></strong> It is found as evidence that in ṤriLaṅka, palm leaf manuscripts wre originally used in the year 450 B.E (BC 94). At that time, King Vaṭṭagāmaṇi contemporary to King Ngatapa ruling Ṥῑkṣetrᾱ reigned in Myanmar. The reason is that for the purpose of making the three Piṭakas, which are said to be the words of the Buddha, last long, they were put onto palm leaves. However, it should not be assumed that writing on palm leaves started from that time. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; It is no little work to do to put the three Piṭakas onto palm leaves. It is obvious that one or two texts were written in ṤriLaṅka before. It is because the three Piṭakas hat to be written in over 90 texts combining those in Pāḷi and commentaries on Buddhist Pāḷi texts. However, such over 90 texts are a set of the three Piṭakas, but numerous copies of the set had to be made for Buddhist monks residing all over ṤriLaṅka to study the texts. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; A lot of tradition, methods and skill are needed to write so many texts. It can be assumed that even in times earlier than the year 450 B.E(BC 94), writings on palm leaves had been used. It was approximately the year 237 B.E (BC 307) when Shin Mahinda arrived in Sri Lanka to propagandize Buddhism. From that time, the people of Sri Lanka learnt the Piṭakas, and soon afer the arrival of Shin Mahinda, the old commentaries on Buddhist Pāḷi texts are thought to have been translated into the language of Sri Lanka. Therefore, it is assumed that even before the year 236 B.E, the tradition of writing on palm leaves originated. <strong><em>India</em></strong> India should not be ignored as to literature. Although the evidence of literature about writings on palm leaves is not found, the use of literature can be assumed to have existed. It is a great nation in Asia in which cultures such as religion, philosophy, literary works, medicine and astrology flourished. If the tradition of writing on palm leaves flourished in Sri Lanka before the year 236 B.E, such a tradition must have existed in India even in the time of the Buddha earlier than that period. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The existence of writing on palm leaves in the time of the Buddha can be proved by the story of the rich man Ghosaka mentioned in commentaries on Dhammapada, who did not even read basic writings, the story of King Bimbisāra mentioned in Dhātuvibhaṅga Sutta, who presented King Pakkusāti from the kingdom of Thakatho a gold plate on which the three Gems were written, and the story of Vinaya MahāvaggaUpālidāraka in which the young man Upali&rsquo;s parents prepared to teach him the art of writing. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In addition, the subject mentioned in the text of Dhammaruddha Vinaya translated into Chinese was stated by Professor Jishilin as follows: Sūra Bhikkhu, a kinsman of the tribe of Brahmaṇa, requested the Buddha to write the Buddhist texts in |Sanskrit. However, the Buddha did not allow him to do so by saying that shoes texts in Sanskrit. However, the Buddha did not allow him to do so by saying that shoes texts would be spoil in the mixture of other languages. The language contemporarily dominant since the period of Buddhism flourishing was that of Brahamaṇa. Therefore, it can be assumed that the Buddha denied the writing of His sermons in Sanskrit, the language of Brahmaṇa. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; It can be conjectured that writing mentioned above existed even during the lifetime of the Buddha in accordance with Chinese Buddhist literature, as referred by Professor Jishinlin. There is some more evidence of writing earlier than that. Approximately BC 1750 before the appearance of the Buddha, the people of Arayan entered India from the north-east region. Animist offerings which were their belief were included. The texts of Veda were written in order to have efficacy in making such offerings. Therefore, the tradition of writing is thought to have existed even before the appearance of the Buddha. However, there is no evidence found to prove on which objects such writing were used. <strong><em>Myanmar</em></strong> The fact as to how palm leaf writings were involed in the texts of Buddhism and in which ways they came to Myanmar people will be presented. The period in which the earliest writing in Myanmar was found was 101 B.E (BC 443) during the reign of King Duttabaung in the kingdom of Ṥrīkṣetrā. At that time, it is said in historical and religious texts that ArahatDeibathwe gave the king the text of the kingly code beginning with apāyagatimupayaṃ. Additionally, it is obvious that writing existed according to golden palm leaf manuscripts of Khinbakon excavated in the district of Ṥrīkṣetrā and the writings inscribed on Buddha images. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; It is found that according to commentaries on VisuddhiMagga, Glass Palace Chronicles and writings of Piṭakas, in 956 B.E (AD 412), Shin Mahābuddhaghosa went to ṤriLaṅka where he wrote commentaries. It said that after that time the texts by Shin Mahābuddhaghosa came to Thaton during the reign of King Dhammapᾱla. The fact about the arrival of Piṭakas in Thaton needs to be mentioned. At that time, the capital city of the people of Mon was Suvaṇṇabūmi (Thaton). It is said to have been a sea port and populous. The people of Mon traded with the peoples of Pallava, Indara, Celanga from India. From the latter, the former got the art of writing, architecture and fine arts, and cultures such as Hinduism and Buddhism. The kings of Pallava lived in the city of Kiňcipura. It was a region where men of letters lived during the reign of such kings. Therefore, it should be noted that the people of Mon received the Piṭakas by trading with the king of Pallava rather than from Shin Mahābuddhaghosa. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; It is accepted that according to the assumptions mad by stone inscribers, Buddhism and Buddhist literature arrived in Myanmar from such cities as Madura, Tanzora and Kiňcipura even before its contact with Ṥrilaṅka. It must be said that writing started depending on religion. The palm leaf writing was not found since the palm leaves were decayed. Shin Uttamasīri, writer of the text &ldquo;Kappaliṅkāra&rdquo; clearly stated that palm leaves were used in writing in Ṥrīkṣetrā in a bout the year 629. The monk said that at the end of the text, the stone cave of hermit collapsed and the writings from brass parabaik put in the stone box were copied onto wood parabaik. Then, the writings from wood parabaik were put to palm leaves, as he wrote. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Palm leaves coming across the sea arrived in Ṥrīkṣetrā, Myanmar. It should be noted that the palm leaves arriving in Ṥrīkṣetrā were earlier than the arrivalof palm leaves of the three Piṭakas in Thaton from ṤriLaṅka. Evidence about palm leaf manuscripts should be sought in Bagan in Myanmar, whose pagodas and stupas are still prominent and Buddhist culture flourishes. According to Glass Palace Cronicles, in the year 29, Ṥrīkṣetrā was ruined and divided into three groups: Pyu, Kanyan, and Myanmar. At that time, the people of Pyu lived together in 19 villages on the island of Bagan-yonhlut under the reign of King Samuddarit. The fact that the assumption is right is proved by the stone inscriptions in the language of Pyu found in Bagan. The golden palm leaves excavated from Kinbagone, the text of kindly code beginning with apāyagatimupāyaṃ written by Shin Deibahtwe to King Duttabaung, and he text of Kappāliṅkāra written by AshinUtamasīri, which indicate that the people of Pyu in the period of Ṥrīkṣetrā earlier than that of Bagan had writing. This fact has been mentioned before. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Therefore, it can be conjectured that in the Bagan period, the art of writing had developed since the reign of King Samuddarit. The writing of characters would have been received from the people of Pyu.When during the reign of King Anawrahta the Piṭakas arrived from Thaton, the people of Bagan became well-versed with writing, as it is concluded. However, Budhism that came together with the people of Pyu from Ṥrīkṣetrā seemed to have changed in some way. Additionally, as regards arigyis, the writing in the Bagan period is also mentioned. These persons created a kind of writing they wanted in order to make people believed their beliefs put it onto a tree bearing trumpet flowers, covered it with the tree&rsquo;s outer bark, and seduced people into finding it as if such finding were from a dream. Since the writing found was read, a misunderstanding occurred between the king and the people. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; It is said by stone inscribers that in the year 420 (AD 1058), in the context of the stone inscription of Lettheshay Pagoda built by King Anawrahta, which was inscribed in the Myanmar language, the writing of the language stared from that time. In particular, it is obvious that after the Piṭakas were received with the conquer of King Manūhā of Thaton, the tradition of writing on palm leaves flourished in Bagan. In other words, King Anawrahta himself spread the seeds of palm around the lake of Mya close to the foot of Taywin Hill, as said by historical records. Such writing developed more and more from the Bagan period through the periods such as Myinzin, Sagaing, Innwa, Taungngu, and Nyaungyan until the end the Kombaung period. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; However, in the early colonial period, writing on palm leaves were no longer used since printing machines were in vogue, and the former only survived in rural areas. After the country gained independence, the tradition of writing on palm leaves vanished, and merely writing on buds of toddy-palm leaves by fortune tellers remained. <strong><em>Scrutinizing to be done &ldquo;Pe&rdquo;</em></strong> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; However, scrutinizing needs to be done as regards palm leaf manuscripts. In the celebration of the fourth Buddhist Council, Pāḷi was used in the texts of Sri Lanka such as Sāratthadīpanī and Mahāvaṃsa as in Potthakāroha, potthakāruḷhaetxc. In addition, Shin Uttamasīri of Ṥrīkṣetrā used Pāḷi expressions such as potthakaṃaropeyyāmi in writing the text of Kappālaṅkāra. Although Myanmar people wish to translate the expression pottaka as palm leaves, it is not found in Pāḷi with that sense. It seemed that writers on palm leaf manuscripts believe that even in the period of the appearance of writing, characters were written on palm leaves and nothing else could be used. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Nontheless, to call &ldquo;pesar&rdquo; as &ldquo;pe&rdquo; is not acceptable. It is thought that wood, board, leather, cloth and paper on which writing is visible can be called &ldquo;pe&rdquo; because in Pāḷi, everything that can be written is called potthakā. When it was translated into Myanmar, ancient writers used it as &ldquo;pe&rdquo;, &ldquo;bud of toddy-palm leaf&rdquo;, &ldquo;parabaik or writing table mad of paper, cloth or metal in the form of according folds&rdquo;, or &ldquo;paper&rdquo;. Hluttaw Minister from Bagan U Tin stated in his paper on Myanmar King&rsquo;s Ruling System (5^th volume, p.98) that &ldquo;every cloth and object that can be written on is included in Potthakā&rdquo;. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In other words, a big piece of iron that can be struck by hammer is called &ldquo;pe&rdquo;. In this case, &ldquo;pe&rdquo; is something based. In brief, it is assumed that everything based for writing should be called &ldquo;pe&rdquo;. Conclusion Before the advent of printing in Myanmar, writing was used on flat stone, palm leaves, and parabaiks. In particular, palm leaves were mostly used. Palm leaves were easily available in large numbers and writing on palm leaves was easier than writing on flat stone. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In the stone inscriptions during the Bagan period, Piṭakas were written on palm leaves. It can be clearly seen as inscribed that palm leaves were bound and bundled with two pieces of wood and palm leaf bundles were in a wood container and donated. Ancient person of letters wrote palm leaves poems, verses, texts of prose like histories and stories. In the present day, however, palm leaf manuscripts are rarely seem since it is now the age of printing and computing. Only in ancient monasteries, large libraries and some departments can be seen palm leaf bundles. Although they are kept and seen there, they are so old. Some of them are so valuable that they are kept with care and system in order not to let them be broken and destroyed. Therefore, palm leaf manuscripts are in the hiding and new generations are not at all aware of their existence. However, palm leaf manuscripts contributed the interests of all the Myanmar people. Although such valuable and helpful palm leaf manuscripts were stopped, they are still honored under the name &ldquo;pesar&rdquo;.

The habitual passenger cannot grasp the folly of traffic based overwhelmingly on transport. His inherited perceptions of space and time and of personal pace have been industrially deformed. He has lost the power to conceive of himself outside the passenger role (Illich 25).The most basic definition of Stillness refers to a state of being in the absence of both motion and disturbance. Some might say it is anti-American. Stillness denies the democratic freedom of mobility in a social system where, as Ivan Illich writes in Energy and Equity, people “believe that political power grows out of the capacity of a transportation system, and in its absence is the result of access to the television screen” (26). In America, it isn’t too far of a stretch to say that most are quite used to being interpolated as some sort of subject of the screen, be it the windshield or the flat screen. Whether in transport or tele-vision, life is full of traffic and flickering images. In the best of times there is a choice between being citizen-audience member or citizen-passenger. A full day might include both.But during the summer of 2008 things seemed to change. The citizen-passenger was left beached, not in some sandy paradise but in their backyard. In this state of SIMBY (stuck in my backyard), the citizen-passenger experienced the energy crisis first hand. Middle class suburbanites were forced to come to terms with a new disturbance due to rising fuel prices: unattainable motion. Domestic travel had been exchanged for domestication. The citizen-passenger was rendered what Paul Virilio might call, “a voyager without a voyage, this passenger without a passage, the ultimate stranger, and renegade to himself” (Crepuscular 131). The threat to capitalism posed by this unattainable motion was quickly thwarted by America’s 'big box' stores, hotel chains, and news networks. What might have become a culturally transformative politics of attainable stillness was hijacked instead by The Great American Staycation. The Staycation is a neologism that refers to the activity of making a vacation out of staying at home. But the Staycation is more than a passing phrase; it is a complex cultural phenomenon that targeted middle class homes during the summer of 2008. A major constraint to a happy Staycation was the uncomfortable fact that the middle class home was not really a desirable destination as it stood. The family home would have to undergo a series of changes, one being the initiation of a set of time management strategies; and the second, the adoption of new objects for consumption. Good Morning America first featured the Staycation as a helpful parenting strategy for what was expected to be a long and arduous summer. GMA defined the parameters of the Staycation with four golden rules in May of 2008:Schedule start and end dates. Otherwise, it runs the risk of feeling just like another string of nights in front of the tube. Take Staycation photos or videos, just as you would if you went away from home on your vacation. Declare a 'choratorium.' That means no chores! Don't make the bed, vacuum, clean out the closets, pull weeds, or nothing, Pack that time with activities. (Leamy)Not only did GMA continue with the theme throughout the summer but the other networks also weighed in. Expert knowledge was doled out and therapeutic interventions were made to make people feel better about staying at home. Online travel companies such as expedia.com and tripadvisor.com, estimated that 60% of regular vacation takers would be staying home. With the rise and fall of gas prices, came the rise of fall of the Staycation.The emergence of the Staycation occurred precisely at a time when American citizens were confronted with the reality that their mobility and localities, including their relationship to domestic space, were structurally bound to larger geopolitical forces. The Staycation was an invention deployed by various interlocutors most threatened by the political possibilities inherent in stillness. The family home was catapulted into the circuits of production, consumption, and exchange. Big TV and Big Box stores furthered individual’s unease towards having to stay at home by discursively constructing the gas prices as an impediment to a happy domestic life and an affront to the American born right to be mobile. What was reinforced was that Americans ideally should be moving, but could not. Yet, at the same time it was rather un-American not to travel. The Staycation was couched in a powerful rhetoric of one’s moral duty to the nation while playing off of middle class anxieties and senses of privilege regarding the right to be mobile and the freedom to consume. The Staycation satiates all of these tensions by insisting that the home can become a somewhere else. Between spring and autumn of 2008, lifestyle experts, representatives from major retailers, and avid Staycationers filled morning slots on ABC, NBC, FOX, CBS, and CNN with Staycation tips. CNN highlighted the Staycation as a “1st Issue” in their Weekend Report on 12 June 2008 (Alban). This lead story centred on a father in South Windsor, Connecticut “who took the money he would normally spend on vacations and created a permanent Staycation residence.” The palatial home was fitted with a basketball court, swimming pool, hot tub, gardening area, and volleyball court. In the same week (and for those without several acres) CBS’s Early Show featured the editor of behindthebuy.com, a company that specialises in informing the “time starved consumer” about new commodities. The lifestyle consultant previewed the newest and most necessary items “so you could get away without leaving home.” Key essentials included a “family-sized” tent replete with an air conditioning unit, a projector TV screen amenable to the outdoors, a high-end snow-cone maker, a small beer keg, a mini-golf kit, and a fast-setting swimming pool that attaches to any garden hose. The segment also extolled the virtues of the Staycation even when gas prices might not be so high, “you have this stuff forever, if you go on vacation all you have are the pictures.” Here, the value of the consumer products outweighs the value of erstwhile experiences that would have to be left to mere recollection.Throughout the summer ABC News’ homepage included links to specific products and profiled hotels, such as Hiltons and Holiday Inns, where families could at least get a few miles away from home (Leamy). USA Today, in an article about retailers and the Staycation, reported that Wal-Mart would be “rolling back prices on everything from mosquito repellent to portable DVD players to baked beans and barbecue sauce”. Target and Kohl’s were celebrated for offering discounts on patio furniture, grills, scented candles, air fresheners and other products to make middle class homes ‘staycationable’. A Lexis Nexis count revealed over 200 news stories in various North American sources, including the New York Times, Financial Times, Investors Guide, the Christian Science Monitor, and various local Consumer Credit Counselling Guides. Staying home was not necessarily an inexpensive option. USA Today reported brand new grills, grilling meats, patio furniture and other accoutrements were still going to cost six percent more than the previous year (24 May 2008). While it was suggested that the Staycation was a cost-saving option, it is clear Staycations were for the well-enough off and would likely cost more or as much as an actual vacation. To put this in context with US vacation policies and practices, a recent report by the Center for Economic and Policy Research called No-Vacation Nation found that the US is the only advanced economy in the world that does not guarantee its workers paid vacation (Ray and Schmidt 3). Subsequently, without government standards 25% of Americans have neither paid vacation nor paid holidays. The Staycation was not for the working poor who were having difficulty even getting to work in the first place, nor were they for the unemployed, recently job-less, or the foreclosed. No, the Staycationers were middle class suburbanites who had backyards and enough acreage for swimming pools and tents. These were people who were going to be ‘stuck’ at home for the first time and a new grill could make that palatable. The Staycation would be exciting enough to include in their vacation history repertoire.All of the families profiled on the major networks were white Americans and in most cases nuclear families. For them, unattainable motion is an affront to the privilege of their white middle class mobility which is usually easy and unencumbered, in comparison to raced mobilities. Doreen Massey’s theory of “power geometry” which argues that different people have differential and inequitable relationships to mobility is relevant here. The lack of racial representation in Staycation stories reinforces the reality that has already been well documented in the works of bell hooks in Black Looks: Race and Representation, Lynn Spigel in Welcome to the Dreamhouse: Popular Media and Postwar Suburbs, and Jeremy Packer in Mobility without Mayhem: Safety, Cars and Citizenship. All of these critical works suggest that taking easily to the great open road is not the experience of all Americans. Freedom of mobility is in fact a great American fiction.The proprietors for the Great American Staycation were finding all sorts of dark corners in the American psyche to extol the virtues of staying at home. The Staycation capitalised on latent xenophobic tendencies of the insular family. Encountering cultural difference along the way could become taxing and an impediment to the fully deserved relaxation that is the stuff of dream vacations. CNN.com ran an article soon after their Weekend Report mentioned above quoting a life coach who argued Staycations were more fitting for many Americans because the “strangeness of different cultures or languages, figuring out foreign currencies or worrying about lost luggage can take a toll” (12 June 2008). The Staycation sustains a culture of insularity, consumption, distraction, and fear, but in doing so serves the national economic interests quite well. Stay at home, shop, grill, watch TV and movies, these were the economic directives programmed by mass media and retail giants. As such it was a cultural phenomenon commensurable to the mundane everyday life of the suburbs.The popular version of the Staycation is a highly managed and purified event that reflects the resort style/compound tourism of ‘Club Meds’ and cruise ships. The Staycation as a new form of domestication bears a significant resemblance to the contemporary spatial formations that Marc Augé refers to as non-places – contemporary forms of homogeneous architecture that are scattered across disparate locales. The nuclear family home becomes another point of transfer in the global circulation of capital, information, and goods. The chain hotels and big box stores that are invested in the Staycation are touted as part of the local economy but instead devalue the local by making it harder for independent restaurants, grocers, farmers’ markets and bed and breakfasts to thrive. In this regard the Staycation excludes the local economy and the community. It includes backyards not balconies, hot-dogs not ‘other’ types of food, and Wal-Mart rather than then a local café or deli. Playing on the American democratic ideals of freedom of mobility and activating one’s identity as a consumer left little room to re-think how life in constant motion (moving capital, moving people, moving information, and moving goods) was partially responsible for the energy crisis in the first place. Instead, staying at home became a way for the American citizen to support the floundering economy while waiting for gas prices to go back down. And, one wouldn’t have to look that much further to see that the Staycation slips discursively into a renewed mission for a just cause – the environment. For example, ABC launched at the end of the summer a ruse of a national holiday, “National Stay at Home Week” with the tag line: “With gas prices so high, the economy taking a nosedive and global warming, it's just better to stay in and enjoy great ABC TV.” It comes as no shock that none of the major networks covered this as an environmental issue or an important moment for transformation. In fact, the air conditioning units in backyard tents attest to quite the opposite. Instead, the overwhelming sense was of a nation waiting at home for it all to be over. Soon real life would resume and everyone could get moving again. The economic slowdown and the energy crisis are examples of the breakdown and failure of capitalism. In a sense, a potential opened up in this breakdown for Stillness to become an alternative to life in constant and unrequited motion. That is, for the practice of non-movement and non-circulation to take on new political and cultural forms especially in the sprawling suburbs where the car moves individuals between the trifecta of home, box store, and work. The economic crisis is also a temporary stoppage of the flows. If the individual couldn’t move, global corporate capital would find a way to set the house in motion, to reinsert it back into the machinery that is now almost fully equated with freedom.The reinvention of the home into a campground or drive-in theatre makes the house a moving entity, an inverted mobile home that is both sedentary and in motion. Paul Virilio’s concept of “polar inertia” is important here. He argues, since the advent of transportation individuals live in a state of “resident polar inertia” wherein “people don’t move, even when they’re in a high speed train. They don’t move when they travel in their jet. They are residents in absolute motion” (Crepuscular 71). Lynn Spigel has written extensively about these dynamics, including the home as mobile home, in Make Room for TV and Welcome to the Dreamhouse. She examines how the introduction of the television into domestic space is worked through the tension between the private space of the home and the public world outside. Spigel refers to the dual emergence of portable television and mobile homes. Her work shows how domestic space is constantly imagined and longed for “as a vehicle of transport through which they (families) could imaginatively travel to an illicit place of passion while remaining in the safe space of the family home” (Welcome 60-61). But similarly to what Virilio has inferred Spigel points out that these mobile homes stayed parked and the portable TVs were often stationary as well. The Staycation exists as an addendum to what Spigel captures about the relationship between domestic space and the television set. It provides another example of advertisers’ attempts to play off the suburban tension between domestic space and the world “out there.” The Staycation exacerbates the role of the domestic space as a site of production, distribution, and consumption. The gendered dynamics of the Staycation include redecorating possibilities targeted at women and the backyard beer and grill culture aimed at men. In fact, ‘Mom’ might suffer the most during a Staycation, but that is another topic. The point is the whole family can get involved in a way that sustains the configurations of power but with an element of novelty.The Staycation is both a cultural phenomenon that feeds off the cultural anxieties of the middle class and an economic directive. It has been constructed to maintain movement at a time when the crisis of capital contains seeds for an alternative, for Stillness to become politically and culturally transformative. But life feels dull when the passenger is stuck and the virtues of Stillness are quite difficult to locate in this cultural context. As Illich argues, “the passenger who agrees to live in a world monopolised by transport becomes a harassed, overburdened consumer of distances whose shape and length he can no longer control” (45). When the passenger is the mode of identification, immobility becomes unbearable. In this context a form of “still mobility” such as the Staycation might be satisfying enough. ConclusionThe still citizen is a threatening figure for capital. In Politics of the Very Worst Virilio argues at the heart of capitalism is a state of permanent mobility, a condition to which polar inertia attests. The Staycation fits completely within this context of this form of mobile immobility. The flow needs to keep flowing. When people are stationary, still, and calm the market suffers. It has often been argued that the advertising industries construct dissatisfaction while also marginally eliminating it through the promises of various products, yet ultimately leaving the individual in a constant state of almost satisfied but never really. The fact that the Staycation is a mode of waiting attests to this complacent dissatisfaction.The subjective and experiential dimensions of living in a capitalist society are experienced through one’s relationship to time and staying on the right path. The economic slowdown and the energy crisis are also crises in pace, energy, and time. The mobility and tempo, the pace and path that capital relies on, has become unhinged and vulnerable to a resistant re-shaping. The Staycation re-sets the tempo of suburbia to meet the new needs of an economic slowdown and financial crisis. Following the directive to staycate is not necessarily a new form of false consciousness, but an intensified technological and economic mode of subjection that depends on already established cultural anxieties. But what makes the Staycation unique and worthy of consideration is that capitalists and other disciplinary institutions of power, in this case big media, construct new and innovative ways to control people’s time and regulate their movement in space. The Staycation is a particular re-territorialisation of the temporal and spatial dimensions of home, work, and leisure. In sum, Staycation and the staging of National Stay at Home Week reveals a systemic mobilising and control of a population’s pace and path. As Bernard Stiegler writes in Technics and Time: “Deceleration remains a figure of speed, just as immobility is a figure of movement” (133). These processes are inexorably tied to one another. Thinking back to the opening quote from Illich, we could ask how we might stop imagining ourselves as passengers – ushered along, falling in line, or complacently floating past. To be still in the flows could be a form of ultimate resistance. In fact, Stillness has the possibility of becoming an autonomous practice of refusal. It is after all this threatening potentiality that created the frenzied invention of the Staycation in the first place. To end where I began, Illich states that “the habitual passenger must adopt a new set of beliefs and expectations if he is to feel secure in the strange world” (25-26). The horizon of political possibility is uniformly limited for the passenger. Whether people actually did follow these directives during the summer of 2008 is hard to determine. The point is that the energy crisis and economic slowdown offered a potential to vacate capital’s premises, both its pace and path. But corporate capital is doing its best to make sure that people wait, staycate, and see it through. The Staycation is not just about staying at home for vacation. It is about staying within reach, being accounted for, at a time when departing global corporate capital seems to be the best option. ReferencesAlban, Debra. “Staycations: Alternative to Pricey, Stressful Travel.” CNN News 12 June 2008. 6 Mar. 2009 ‹http://edition.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/worklife/06/12/balance.staycation/index.html›.Augé, Marc. Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity. Verso, London, 1995.hooks, bell. Black Looks: Race and Representation. Boston: South End Press, 1992.Illich, Ivan. Energy and Equity. New York: Perennial Library, 1974.Leamy, Elisabeth. “Tips for Planning a Great 'Staycation'.” ABC News 23 May 2008. 6 Mar. 2009 ‹http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Parenting/story?id=4919211›.Massey, Doreen. Space, Place, and Gender. Minneapolis: Minnesota U P, 1994.Packer, Jeremy. 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