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Feminist discourses on the 'New Indian Woman' focus on the woman's body as a surface upon which modernity is inscribed. Sexual transgression has been the only lens through which the New Woman has been usually studied and analyzed until now, thus offering a superficial definition of modernity by women being defined only by the corporeal. This is problematic not only because it offers a reductionist view of modernity but also 'constructs a boundary around the notion of modern womanhood that excludes woman whose bodily autonomy has been compromised, for example through sexual assault' (Daya, 'Embodying Modernity' 97). This paper will study two novels, Kishwar Desai's Witness the Night (2010) and Kalpana Swaminathan's I Never Knew It Was You (2012), closely analyzing the women sleuths as portrayed in these texts: Simran Singh in the former, Lalli and Sita in the latter. The paper will move beyond the existing discourses on the New Indian woman and demonstrate how the New Woman in these narratives of detection is transgressive in contesting dominant ideals of femininity. The aim will be to understand how these women detectives contest and challenge patriarchal hegemonies through their behavior and how their acts of detection also are essential acts of rebellion against a largely misogynistic system. Swaminathan's Lalli and Sita and Desai's Simran can be seen as a reflection of the uninhibited, independent, professional, twenty-first century Indian woman. The paper seeks to reconstruct the figure of the New Indian woman through the representations of these women fighting crimes against women in modern-day India, enacting their autonomy and rebellion in the process by deftly taking on the role of a detective, traditionally a profession for men. The aim will also be to discuss how these works provide a space for creating new roles for women, while also illustrating a wide spectrum of women's experiences. Lastly, the paper will explore these works in the context of India's economic growth and how they affect and are affected by India's publishing industry. Keywords: Detective fiction, Women sleuths, New Indian Woman, 21st century women's fiction, Introduction The New Indian woman is often discussed in academic and popular discourses as the embodiment of the 'new India'--an emerging superpower. Shari Daya argues that the identity of womanhood [...]

A cylindrical mandrel with axially aligned rods was designed and tested for the collection of electrospun fibers. Blended polyaniline/polyethylene oxide fibers were electrospun from a solution containing a nonvolatile solvent, mcresol. Camphorsulfonic acid served as the primary dopant and m-cresol were used as the secondary dopant to enhance fiber conductivity. A smooth, rotating cylindrical mandrel collector failed to collect and align fibers and instead afforded a wet, sticky film. An eight-rod, rotating cylindrical mandrel resulted in a dry, aligned fiber mat composed of 7-10 [micro]m diameter fibers. Alignment was maintained for at least 18 h of continuous spinning and the resulting mat could be easily recovered from the mandrel. A simulation of the rotating system indicated that the efficient formation of dry, nonsticky, aligned fiber mat was facilitated by the high mass transfer coefficient associated with the use of corrugated rods. Experiments indicated that 6-10 rods were optimal avoiding sagging of the fibers at the low end and increased mas transfer resistance at the high end. KEYWORDS aligned fibers, electrospinning, mandrel design, mass transfer coefficient, nonvolatile solvent, 1 | INTRODUCTION First explored in the 1930s, (1) electrospinning has become a simple and versatile method to produce micrometer or nanometer scale fibers from polymer solutions. Electrospun fibers have [...]

Physiologically G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are an important class of cell surface proteins capable of sensing the exogenous signals across the cell membrane through G-protein-dependent and independent pathways. Activated GPCRs initiate diverse G-protein-independent signalling through interaction with arrestin. Arrestins comprise a family of four proteins that act as signal regulators of GPCRs. Arrestin specificity and assembly orientation with a particular GPCR depend on the finger loop's residues. Recent cryo-EM structural elucidation of neurotensin receptor-1(NTSR1)-ß-arrestin1complex reveals its striking difference from Rhodopsin-visual-Arrestin by a 90° rotation of ß-Arrestin1 concerning the receptor. Alignment of neurotensin receptor 1(NTSR1)-ß-Arrestin1 assembly with 5-HTR1B (Serotonin receptor) structure shows an ionic interaction mediated complex formation between receptor binding cleft and finger loop of arrestin. Mutational analysis of finger loop residues R65, D67, and D69 of ß-Arrestin1 by tango assay confirms its possible interaction with an electropositive pocket of K79 and R161 in 5-HTR1B. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article brings together critical perspectives on a broad range of issues that emerge from a reading of the National Policy on Education 2016. The issues vary from accountability to transdisciplinarity and from the marginalization of transgender people to value education. Such a complex task of critiquing this policy document cannot be accomplished by an individual alone. This task must be borne by a team of scholars with training in diverse fields. Working in a team however generates divergences as well as convergences. Yet no attempt has been made to iron out the creases emanating from differences in opinions, nor persist with the search for an underlying singularity, nor enforce a consensus. Such is the uncertain nature of the task of reforming higher education.

The present paper seeks to focus on one of the prominent aspects of South Asian comics; the nature of urbanity, through a study of Sarnath Banerjee's All Quiet in Vikaspuri, a narrative primarily set in Delhi. Banerjee's Delhi is the space of the capitalists, urban planners, and corrupt policies; in short a 'social product', as Henri Lefebvre had formulated. The paper will examine how Delhi, in Banerjee's comics, is symptomatic of various states of discriminatory infrastructural development, failure and violence endemic to the system, as in many other emerging South Asian cities. It will further investigate the dynamics of uneven development and urban inequality of Delhi to argue the emergence of new socio-spatial and economic trajectories in post-liberalisation India. The paper seeks to argue that through the multiple references to pulp fictions, mythic and hybrid spaces, Banerjee maps the nuanced changes in urban lifestyle and the more liberal shift towards exclusionary spatial practices such as 'short-termism', but also present alternative histories and regional resistance of the lived space that go against the planned space of the city. Finally, the paper will borrow insights from theorists such as Sanjay Srivastava, Ananya Roy, David Harvey, and others to argue how social and spatial justice can be achieved through urban comics that, according to Dominic Davies, helps to restructure 'more socially and spatially just cities'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: 'Seeking Refuge in a Hostile City: Minority Narratives of Kolkata in Aparna Sen's 36 Chowringhee Lane and Anjan Dutt's Bow Barracks Forever' 'Community is the antagonist supplement of modernity: [...]

This article examines the representation of racism and immigration and the ways they transform borderline and bordered space into criminal space in two popular Swedish crime novels by Henning Mankell . In Mankell's Firewall and Dogs of Riga, negotiations between individuals and borders realize the interaction between state apparatuses and technology, potentially destabilizing the physical and the virtual border . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this interview, Ritam Sarkar and Somdatta Bhattacharya talk to the French comics artist Simon Lamouret, to discuss his comics The Alcazar. Lamouret is a graphic novelist and illustrator based out of Toulouse, France. He has produced two graphic novels: Bangalore (part of the Angouleme International Comics Festival selection) and L'Alcazar (Winner of the debut award ADAGP/Quai des Bulles, France, 2021). L'Alcazar was published in India in 2022 as The Alcazar. In this conversation, Lamouret talks about his creative process, his experiences of living in Bangalore and the relationship comics share with cities. The interview was conducted on 3 July 2022 via Microsoft Teams. It has been edited for length and clarity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The application of solid-state (SS) nanopore devices to single-molecule nucleic acid sequencing has been challenging. Thus, the early successes in applying SS nanopore devices to the more difficult class of biopolymer, glycosaminoglycans (GAGs), have been surprising, motivating us to examine the potential use of an SS nanopore to analyze synthetic heparan sulfate GAG chains of controlled composition and sequence prepared through a promising, recently developed chemoenzymatic route. A minimal representation of the nanopore data, using only signal magnitude and duration, revealed, by eye and image recognition algorithms, clear differences between the signals generated by four synthetic GAGs. By subsequent machine learning, it was possible to determine disaccharide and even monosaccharide composition of these four synthetic GAGs using as few as 500 events, corresponding to a zeptomole of sample. These data suggest that ultrasensitive GAG analysis may be possible using SS nanopore detection and well-characterized molecular training sets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A mystery story which focuses on a crime and the investigation of that crime is commonly understood as a crime fiction narrative. Its ability to excite the readers, challenge their rational abilities and involve them in the gradual unravelling of the mystery is what makes crime fiction a huge success. With innumerable critical works, scholarly study and continued relevance, crime fiction has entered the canon of literature. A genre that closely reflects the socio-political, historical and cultural aspects of the society, it has gradually acquired a significant role both in critiquing the social order and at the same time for documenting history through its gradual evolution and development. This paper attempts to map the evolution of crime fiction from the eighteenth century to the contemporary times. In doing so, the paper aims to study how social changes impact literary traditions. This study also aims to establish the relevance of crime fiction as a literary genre as it evolves into multiple sub-genres, structures itself into specific rules and regulations and metamorphosises into extra-literary forms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food studies, a new addition to the family of humanities, has experienced a rapid rise in the last twenty years and a number of scholars have devoted their time and energy in studying food culture as well as the patterns of eating (Albala, 2013). Food writing has slowly spread its branches into all literary genres including into crime fiction. In more recent crime mysteries, the main plot is supplemented by authentic recipes and descriptions of food and cooking and "gumshoes not only track killers" but also "grill sherryflavoured tuna" or "bake" chocolate cookies (Carvajal, 1997). The sub-genre of crime fiction that brings together food and crime, has been termed as 'culinary mystery' and with the more recent academic interest in food in literature, it has received the critical attention it deserves. The present paper will analyze the role of food in the Reema Ray mysteries of Madhumita Bhattacharyya, The Masala Murder (2012) and Dead in a Mumbai Minute (2014) and the Lalli mysteries of Kalpana Swaminathan, The Secret Gardener (2013) and Page 3 Murders (2006). While for Lalli and her niece Sita, food becomes a luxury, an indulgenceafter a hard day's grim investigative work; for Reema, baking is her sleuthing tool and stands for her intelligence and autonomy. This paper will thus argue how these novels, with female sleuths who use food/cooking as tools of detection, pose a challenge to the patriarchal roles assigned to women as caregivers and providers of nutrition, and attempt to show how "food mysteries are ultimately about female independence and sustaining the self" (Kalikoff, 2006, p. 75). In doing this, it will alsofocus on how women bridge the gap between the public and private spheres. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]