43 research outputs found
India and Britain Inside and Outside Sakku Bai and Jackson: The Narrator and the Anglo-Indian Family in Ismat Chughtai’s “Quit India” (“Hindustan Chod Do”)
No full textIsmat Chughtai’s short story “Quit India” (“Hindustan Chod Do” in Urdu, 1953) represents the relationship between Indians and British colonists and Anglo-Indian Indians by examining the life of Eric William Jackson, a British official in pre-Independece India and an unemployed outcast and displaced person following Independence who lives with his working-class lover Sakku bai, and the narrator’s outlook towards the family. The ex-British official Jackson’s attempt to “Indianize” himself perhaps fails after Independence because he does not seek the desire of the new Indian state in the spaces of business and government like he does in the domestic space of Sakku Bai’s lodgings and in his relationship with her and perhaps also because the narrator and the other citizens of the new Indian state ignore those who are powerless such as the charwoman Sakku bai and the unemployed Jackson. The narrator’s focus on Jackson and Sakku bai’s family seems to indicate, at least partly, a desire to look outside the domestic sphere for mental and spiritual stimulation even though she appears to be a typical domestic goddess. This could be related to the women’s movement’s need for a greater role for women outside the house in pre-Independence and Independent India
Visibility through Distributive and Corrective Justice: A Reading of Munshi Premchand’s “The Woman Who Sold Grass” and M.M. Vinodini’s “The Parable of the Lost Daughter”
No full textThis essay takes a look at Munshi Premchand’s short story “The Woman Who Sold Grass” (“Ghaaswali”, 1929) that represents the harassment of a Dalit woman grass cutter that is not reported to the police so that no corrective justice is offered although the woman herself criticizes the caste-based assessment of her identity. The harasser, the upper-caste landlord Chain Singh, offers a form of reparation that resembles distributive justice for a Dalit family after observing the Dalit woman being verbally harassed by working-class “lower-caste” coachmen. M.M. Vinodini’s short story “The Parable of the Lost Daughter” (the translation was first published in 2013) is also examined for its representation of upward mobility and distributive justice for a young Dalit Christian woman who belongs to a working-class family and becomes a research scholar but decides to conform to Brahmanical practices on her way to empowerment and to erase her Dalit Christian identity. This seems to imply that distributive justice in India perhaps encourages compliance with upper-caste practices and fortifies the patriarchal category of caste itself. Her abuse by the father and brother-in-law of her close friend encourages her “return” to the patriarchal category of caste. The essay comes to an end by referring to Dr Ambedkar’s speech “We Too Are Human” that argues for the extermination of the Hindu caste hierarchy. It concludes that the visibility of Dalit and “lower-caste” communities, especially women, and their literature and cultural forms has to be amplified through the visible operation of corrective and distributive justice against all attempts to obliterate them
Influence of Material Variability on the Seismic Response of Pile Foundation
No full textPile foundation response during earthquakes is strongly affected by the type of material used in pile construction. In the present study three different types of materials viz. concrete, wood and bamboo are used to construct pile foundation. Specimens of clean sand and clay soil are used to prepare the soil for test and the physical properties of that soil are evaluated. Next, earthquake response analyses are conducted to clarify the effect of the nonlinear soil-pile foundation system on the performance of pile foundation. The input shaking included sinusoidal earthquake accelerations. Pile displacement, acceleration, strain and earth pressure are found out using PULSE and MICRON software. Performance evaluation of the pile foundation is discussed on the basis of pile curvature. Keywords: Soil-pile interaction, pile material, shake table test, curvature, PULSE, MICRON
Formulation of Seismic Passive Resistance of Non-Vertical Retaining Wall Backfilled
No full textThe seismic passive earth pressure is really the most important parameter in some special cases like key analysis, anchor analysis, foundation analysis etc. The simultaneous action of weight, surcharge, cohesion and adhesion is also taken into consideration. A visual presentation is made by plotting graphs with the wide range of variation Parameters like angle of internal friction, angle of wall friction, wall inclination angle, cohesion (c), adhesion (ca), seismic accelerations (kh, kv), surcharge loading (q), unit weight, height (H) to provide the variation of seismic passive earth pressure coefficient. Keywords: Pseudo-static, seismic passive resistance, single wedge, rigid retaining wall, wall inclination
Alternative Lengthening of Telomeres in Pediatric High-Grade Glioma and Therapeutic Implications
No full textPediatric high-grade gliomas (pHGGs), including diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), are highly aggressive tumors with dismal prognoses despite multimodal therapy including surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy. To achieve cellular immortality cancer cells must overcome replicative senescence and apoptosis by activating telomere maintenance mechanisms (TMMs) through the reactivation of telomerase activity or using alternative lengthening of telomere (ALT) pathways. Although the ALT phenotype is more prevalent in pHGGs compared to adult HGGs, the molecular pathway and the prognostic significance of ALT activation are not well understood in pHGGs. Here, we report the heterogeneity of TMM in pHGGs and their association with genetic alterations. Additionally, we show that sensitivity to the protein kinase ataxia telangiectasia- and RAD3-related protein (ATR) inhibitor and the ATR downstream target CHK1 is not specific to pHGG ALT-positive cells. Together, these findings underscore the need for novel therapeutic strategies to target ALT in pHGG tumors
Synthesis, Biological Screening and <I>in Silico</I> Studies of Chalcone Based Novel Phenyl Urea Derivatives as Potential Antihyperglycemics
No full textEXTH-27. VALIDATION OF BMI-1 AS A THERAPEUTIC TARGET IN DIFFUSE INTRINSIC PONTINE GLIOMA
No full textEffects of HCV on basal and tat-induced HIV LTR activation.
No full textHepatitis C virus (HCV) co-infection occurs in ∼30-40% of the HIV-infected population in the US. While a significant body of research suggests an adverse effect of HIV on HCV replication and disease progression, the impact of HCV on HIV infection has not been well studied. Increasing data suggest that hepatocytes and other liver cell populations can serve as reservoirs for HIV replication. Therefore, to gain insight into the impact of HCV on HIV, the effects of the HCV Core protein and infectious hepatitis C virions were evaluated on basal and Tat-induced activation of the HIV long terminal repeat (LTR) in hepatocytes. The HIV LTR was highly induced by the HIV transactivator protein Tat in hepatocytes. Activation varied according to the number of NF-kB binding sites present in the LTRs from different HIV subtypes. Involvement of the NF-kB binding pathway in LTR activation was demonstrated using an NF-kB inhibitor and deletion of the NF-kB binding sites. TNFα, a pro-inflammatory cytokine that plays an important role in HIV pathogenesis, also induced LTR activity in hepatocytes. However, HIV LTR activity was suppressed in hepatocytes in the presence of HCV Core protein, and the suppressive effect persisted in the presence of TNFα. In contrast, infectious hepatitis C virions upregulated HIV LTR activation and gene transcription. Core-mediated suppression remained unaltered in the presence of HCV NS3/4A protein, suggesting the involvement of other viral/cellular factors. These findings have significant clinical implications as they imply that HCV could accelerate HIV disease progression in HIV/HCV co-infected patients. Such analyses are important to elucidate the mechanisms by which these viruses interact and could facilitate the development of more effective therapies to treat HIV/HCV co-infection
Effects of infectious HCV on HIV transcription.
No full text<p>JFH1 virus infected or uninfected Huh7.5 cells were transfected with or without the pNL4-3luc.R<sup>−</sup>E<sup>−</sup> vector (<b>A</b>). Increased HIV transcription (as measured by CD24 expression) in HCV-infected cells compared to HCV-uninfected cells (<b>B</b>); HCV infected or uninfected Huh7.5 cells were transfected with the HIV expression vector pNL4-3HSA.R<sup>−</sup>E<sup>−</sup> containing the CD24 antigen as described in the methods section. The respective numbers indicate as follows: 1– HCV-uninfected Huh7.5 cells with CD24 antibody; 2– HCV-infected Huh7.5 cells with CD24 antibody; 3– HCV-uninfected Huh7.5 cells expressing pNL4-3.HSA-R<sup>−</sup>E<sup>−</sup> with CD24 antibody; 4– HCV-infected Huh7.5 cells expressing pNL4-3.HSA-R<sup>−</sup>E<sup>−</sup> with CD24 antibody.</p
