Paging: a Collection of Short Stories

Introduction: Paging is a series of thematically interconnected short stories that take place at a single fictional urban hospital center. The guiding questions that the stories explore are twofold: other than doctors and patients, what kinds of people spend their time in a hospital? And, what kind of place is the hospital for these people? Methods: The background research for Paging began by exploring written works of fiction, nonfiction, and memoir set in hospitals. After I had developed a set of guiding research questions, I spent the summer at a major hospital in New York City, where I was able to observe the people and employees that comprised the environment of an urban medical center. These observations were used draft fiction about the kinds of dilemmas various characters in a hospital might grapple with on a daily basis. Results: Paging is a series of three short stories that explore the lives of three different hospital employees at the same hospital center. The first story is about a medical assistant at an outpatient clinic who encounters an ethical dilemma that brings his personal life to work. The second is about a custodian who gets to know the patients of a hospital in a very different, but equally intimate, manner to the doctors and nurses who take care of the patients’ medical needs. The third is about a woman who assists in the distribution of organs that have been harvested for transplant. Discussion: We often think of the hospital as a place where patients go to seek care from doctors. In reality, the hospital is a far richer environment than this. Paging explores the other inhabitants of a hospital that allow it to be a bustling ecosystem, and offers stories from perspectives that are often overlooked

RACIAL DISCRIMINATION IN JAMAICA KINCAID'S THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MY MOTHER

Jamaica Kincaid is an American novelist, short-story writer, gardener, essayist, and reviewer. She has become one of Caribbean’s major woman writers in recent decades. Kincaid’s writings comprise exile, search for identity, and alienation. Her production strikes the reader with a balanced mixture of anger and loss. Kincaid’s great variety of issues draws so many readers to her writings. Kincaid’s novels reflect her desire to draw on the people, places, language, race, mother-daughter relationship, values, cultural traditions, and politics that have shaped her own life and that of African American people. In America, Racial discrimination is very common and hurts very much. During the slavery era, white people had black people as slaves in their own household. Black people have to satisfy their white masters. If the white people were not satisfied, they would try to hurt the black people. This paper “Racial Discrimination in Jamaica Kincaid’s The Autobiography of My Mother” focuses on how race plays a pivotal role in Africans literature and their day today life and how blacks suffered for their survival. It also reveals how Kincaid’s The Autobiography of My Mother illuminates black American experiences in the contemporary American society from various perspectives. It also shows how black women have been exploited in a white dominated male chauvinistic society. In the face of enormous problems and frequent victimization, black women are shown imitating through their sense of community and social powers

THE PORTRAYAL OF SOCIO- CULTURAL ISSUES IN AKHIL SHARMA’S AN OBEDIENT FATHER

Purpose of the Study: The aim of this paper is to explore the portrayal of socio-cultural issues in Akhil Sharma’s novel, An Obedient Father and the issues of cultural identity tormenting situations and incidents in a family and in their relationship with one another. Methodology: The research paper proposes to make use of the writings of Akhil Sharma’s novel, An Obedient Father through ground study with references drawn from a cultural perspective. The secondary data included related articles and web sources related to diaspora and cultural studies. The secondary data obtained help the researcher arrive at important inference and conclusion. The present paper analyses the cultural issues and problems faced by the characters and concentrates on the specific techniques and styles used by the novelist. Main Findings: The finding of the study is that Sharma integrates conventional Indian ideologies born out of a colonial past with an unknown future, depicting the cultural trauma and the problems of survival It also brings out socio-cultural issues through the major characters particularly the protagonist Ram Karan reflects the contemporary modern man’s corrupted personality. It also focuses on how the modern man breaks away from the age-old Indian tradition and culture and how Indian politics failed to maintain the traditional socio-cultural values. Applications of the Study: When analyzing the cultural issues in An Obedient Father, the readers can understand that Sharma is a diaspora novelist and his characters face the problems of expatriation, immigration, dislocation, disorientation, and displacement. This study is very useful to the researchers in the field of Indian Literature, Diaspora Literature, and Cultural studies. Novelty/Originality of this study: This paper highlights a realistic picture of contemporary India is portrayed by recording the changing Indian social and political scene with carefully creating the fictional characters for creative purposes. Sharma draws an acid-etched picture of modern Indian society, in which the corrupt political system victimizes all citizens

Occurrences of pathogenic Vibrio parahaemolyticus from Vellar estuary and shrimp ponds

Vibrio parahaemolyticus is the predominant seafood pathogen associated with human gastroenteritis. Samples were collected from Vellar estuary, shrimp ponds and shrimp for characterization of V. parahaemolyticus. A total of 26 blue green centre (BG) Vibrio strains were isolated and characterized through biochemical tests, toxR gene and 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Based on pathogenic characteristics, six strains were confirmed as pathogenic V. parahaemolyticus. This report implies that preventative measure must be taken before consumption of fish and shrimp.Keywords: Estuary, shrimp pond, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, protease, haemolysis, toxR geneAfrican Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(14), pp. 1624-162

Feasibility of carbon nanomaterials as gas sensors: a computational study

Carbonaceous materials are a promising class of materials for potential application as chemical and biomolecule sensors. In this work we have done first principles calculations to study the interaction of various small molecules, such as CO2, H2O, NH3, CH4 and H2, on the surface of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and graphene in order to study their feasibility as gas sensors. Model systems for armchair and zigzag CNTs of different diameter have been considered to study the effect of chirality and curvature of the carbon nanomaterials on binding with these small molecules. Our results reveal that these gas molecules have been weakly physisorbed on the surface and act as charge donors to the carbon nanomaterials. Charge transfer between the gas molecules and the carbon materials impacts the physical properties of the carbon materials, which may be traced to their sensitivity. As the gas molecules are physisorbed on the carbon materials, they may be suitable for repetitive sensor operation. Significant changes in the polarizability of the carbon materials have been observed on binding with the gas molecules and monitoring such changes provides valuable guidance in designing optimal gas sensors based on carbon materials that could satisfy the demand in various fields

Fluttering energy harvesters in the wind: A review

The growing area of harvesting energy by aerodynamically induced flutter in a fluid stream is reviewed. Numerous approaches were found to understand, demonstrate and [sometimes] optimise harvester performance based on Movement-Induced or Extraneously Induced Excitation. Almost all research was conducted in smooth, unidirectional flow domains; either experimental or computational. The power outputs were found to be very low when compared to conventional wind turbines, but potential advantages could be lower noise levels. A consideration of the likely outdoor environment for fluttering harvesters revealed that the flow would be highly turbulent and having a mean flow angle in the horizontal plane that could approach a harvester from any direction. Whilst some multiple harvester systems in smooth, well-aligned flow found enhanced efficiency (due to beneficial wake interaction) this would require an invariant flow approach angle. It was concluded that further work needs to be performed to find a universally accepted metric for efficiency and to understand the effects of the realities of the outdoors, including the highly variable and turbulent flow conditions likely to be experienced

IT STRATEGY FOR AN SME IN ANIMAL HEALTHCARE

Irrespective of the employee strength and volume of business, today’s business houses have started utilizing latest technologies in meeting their IT requirements. Majority of the organization in the complex and dynamic business environment have become completely dependent on IT systems and now there arise a situation in which without IT, businesses cannot run. Beyond using it for day to day activities of the business, for competing successfully in the market place, companies have started using IT as a tool of competitive advantage. Such a strategic use of Information Technology/Information Systems (IS/IT) paves way for further analysis on the relationship between strategy from the business side and IT side of the organization. The concept of Strategic Alignment deals with the issue of identifying and reducing the gap that exists between the two important entities of the organizations. In this dissertation I have tried to identify necessary concepts and use them in order to address issues faced by a leading animal healthcare organization in the United Kingdom

A Cross Sectional study to Assess the Unmet Need for Contraception among Married Women in Urban Slums in a Zone of Chennai City.

INTRODUCTION : India is the second most populous country in the world next only to that of The Peoples Republic of China. As per the 2001 census, the population of India is about 1027 million. India has about 16 % of the world’s population, While it enjoys just 2.4% of the total land area. The density of population Was 324 persons per sq km, according to the 2001 census. Even though the Growth rate of several other developing countries is even higher than that of India, it must be remembered that the population base of India is very large And therefore even a low growth rate leads to substantial addition to the Population in absolute numbers. If the current trend continues, India will Overtake China in 2045 and will become the most populous nation in the World. While the global population has increased three fold during the 20th Century from 2 to 6 billion, the population of India has increased 5 fold from 238 million to 1 billion. At the beginning of last century Dr. Pyare Kishan Wattal (1916) observed That our country’s increasing birth rate is a social danger. He said, “If we Want to go to the root of it (Increasing birth rate), we must look at the causes That give rise to this increasing birth rate much more seriously than to the Secondary causes that give rise to high death rate”. It must be seen that all the recent programs aim at the unmet need for Contraception, which is a powerful concept. Women are considered to have An “unmet need” for contraception, if they are sexually active and would Prefer to avoid becoming pregnant, but nevertheless using any method of Contraception. This concept points to the gap between some women’s Reproductive intentions and their contraceptive behavior. It poses a challenge To family planning programs. By responding to the concerns of women with Unmet need, programs can serve more people and serve them better. Programs can respond best if they have a strategy that focuses on women With unmet need as a distinct audience and clientele. To develop such a Strategy, we need to understand the various reasons for unmet need, based On qualitative and survey data, to determine the size and composition of this Group, to identify the high priority subgroups and deliver information and Services to meet the specific needs of each selected subgroup. OBJECTIVES : 1. To find out the prevalence of contraceptive usage among the married Women of reproductive age group (15-49 years) in the urban slums of Chennai city. 2. To calculate the unmet need for family planning among them. 3. To find out the factors associated with the non usage of contraception. SUMMARY : Recent programs have strategies, which focuses on meeting, rather than trying to change, people’s needs and aspirations. A descriptive cross sectional study among a sample of 520 currently married women of reproductive age group (15-49) of zone VIII (Kodambakkam) of Chennai Corporation, chosen by simple random method. A structured pre tested proforma, recommended for survey of family planning methods was used for the study, which included details on background characteristics, marital status and fertility, knowledge and attitude for contraception, perceived access and accessibility for contraceptives. Contraceptive prevalence rate among the study population was 59.7 %. Among the users tubectomy was the commonest method with 88 % usage, while IUDs, condoms and OCPs were used in 7.1 %, 3.5 %, and 1.3 % respectively. Knowledge of atleast one contraceptive was seen in 83.46 % of them with most of them knowing tubectomy instantaneously

Anomalous lithium adsorption propensity of monolayer carbonaceous materials: a density functional study

Interaction between lithium and carbonaceous materials has gained a lot of importance in lithium battery industry as an important source of energy and storage. The size, dimension, curvature and chirality of the carbonaceous materials are found to be very important factors in controlling the sequential binding of lithium. The propensity of lithium binding to the monolayer carbonaceous materials has been studied using Density functional theory (DFT). Structural and energetical parameters of the complexes have been analyzed through interaction energy, sequential energy, Mulliken population analysis and spin density distribution. Spindensity of odd Li doped systems reveals the preferences for addition of further lithium atoms on the surface. Upon analyzing the interaction energy in armchair carbon nanotubes (A-CNTs) and zigzag carbon nanotubes (Z-CNTs), it has been observed that external and internal surfaces of CNTs have contrasting binding preferences for sequential addition of Li atoms. Internal surface is found to be more feasible site for lithium adsorption than the external surface. This current study provides fundamental understanding of the mechanism of lithium adsorption in lithium battery