Midnight's Children: From Communalism to Community

Peer reviewed article. Salman Rushdie has been the epitome of diasporic writing since his seminal work in Midnight's Children. While it is arguable that the question of what constitutes the identity of an immigrant (in an already existing diaspora) is first fully articulated in The Satanic Verses, it is already in his Booker Prize Winning novel that Rushdie tackles the questions typical for diasporic individuals and communities. The novel indeed takes place in the subcontinent, but it was written at the time when Rushdie was heavily negotiating the terms of his own identity in relation to his double cultural heritage. His character, Saleem Sinai, is something of an immigrant when he moves to Pakistan, but then when he goes back to Bombay, the sense of being-out-of-place remains. The most pertinent question for him seems to be that of authentic identity. In fact, as a writer in diaspora, Rushdie seems quite influenced by variegated European philosophies on selfhood and identity, in particular some Existentialist thought that constituted a part of a certain Zeitgeist in the 60s and 70s. Midnight's Children indeed explores the issue of authenticity in the culturally specific setting of post-Partition Bombay, but the influences from European culture on Rushdie are hardly negligible. The novel puts in dialogue Existentialism's discourse on individual authenticity and subcontinental nativism, or communalism

Global Citizenship in Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist

In this paper, I use the established readings of Mohsin Hamid’s novel The Reluctant Fundamentalistas a political allegory of contemporary international relations to formulate an inquiry into the notion of citizenship. Taking my cue from Aihwa Ong’s work on “flexible citizenship,” which stresses the way global capital calls for disrespect of national borders and laws, I look at the way Hamid’s novelistic imagination problematises the conflict between economic, political, and social citizenships and how it looks forward to the emergence of a new understandings of citizenship as something defined in terms of global rights and duties

Images of Nursing from West Michigan: A Photo Essay

The image of nursing is diverse and complex, with public perceptions influenced by traditional imagery and negative stereotypes. Few recent studies consider how nurses view their professional image. My study aimed to uncover how West Michigan nurses perceive the image of nursing. Approval was given by the local Sigma chapter (Kappa Epsilon at Large), to recruit participants from members, and by Grand Valley\u27s IRB. Via an online REDCap survey, participants submitted an original photo and written narrative. Submissions were searched for underlying patterns using thematic analysis. Themes identified were: (1) nurses establish relationships with unique and vulnerable clients, using their insight to act as sources of peace, care, and compassion; (2) nurses are strong, knowledgeable professionals who utilize creative and critical thinking to address clients\u27 complex, and at times, urgent healthcare needs. West Michigan nurses possess positive images that present nurses as professionals who possess multifaceted roles and identities as they strive to have a positive influence on humanity. The findings of this study indicate a strong need for better communication of positive nursing images, as well as continued advocacy for the representation of nursing in society

A Bosnian refugee who became a great story-teller: Adnan Mahmutovic on what drives him as a person and author

Adnan Mahmutovic is fast becoming a literary phenomenon across the Anglophonic world, courtesy a strong narrative voice that is unique and spotlights the human endurance in most extreme conditions, including war, ethnic cleansing and survival in new places as a refugee. His recent novel Thinner than a hair is in news; so is the collection of short fiction How to fare well and stay fair. Adnan has a PhD in English literature and an MFA in creative writing, and is currently a lecturer and writer-in-residence at the Department of English, Stockholm University. Fellow writer Sunil Sharma interviewed Adnan by email

Which Side are You On? The Worlds of Grant Morrison

Grant Morrison is a key figure among the first wave of authors of the so-called British Generation (Sandifer and Eklund). The works of the other two creators, Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore, have been the basis for a wealth of scholarly research within the field of comics studies and whole constellations of literary scholarship (Sandifer and Eklund; Sanders; Krueger and Shaeffer; Millidge). Morrison\u27s fictional worlds, however, remain understudied, despite the fact that, as Marc Singer observes, Morrison\u27s work and career seem to be evenly distributed along a continuum ranging from the alternative Vertigo material to the mainstream superhero comics (Singer 10-30). Furthermore, what should be of interest to comics scholars is the peculiar character of Morrison\u27s method, which seems to lie in his unique approach to the creative process. A chaos magician, shrewd comic entrepreneur, self-proclaimed geek and a closet workaholic, Morrison has always juggled several projects at once, often transferring ideas and concepts across series as a result, using subtle references to Borges and Calvino together with obscure mentions of silver age characters of DC comics, as for instance Buddy Baker/Animal Man (Callahan; Shapira). Since Morrison has spread his intense commitment to artistic production over a vast continuum of work, the net result is that the boundaries between mainstream and alternative productions have become thin

Zijad Mahmutovic - Grout Museum District

I was able to provide the Grout Museum with oral histories of Bosnian Immigrants. These interviews are crucial for the Museum, and their future plans for an inclusive Bosnian exhibit, one that will show the process of immigration to the United States and the Waterloo, Iowa area.https://scholarworks.uni.edu/koob_recipients/1029/thumbnail.jp

Increase of the Lutein Content in Hens' Eggs

Lutein is a plant pigment that belongs to the xantophyll group of carotenoids. In nature it is widespread (prevalent) in green leafy vegetables (spinach, kale, collard greens, lettuce) but also in peppers, tangerines, corn and egg yolk. Since it cannot be synthesized in the body it has to be taken with food. In human body lutein is concentrated in the retina and macula lutea and its content in those tissues rises with increased intake through food or supplements. It has antioxidant activity, protects eyes from high-energy blue light and helps in reducing the risk of developing age-related macular degeneration and cataracts. Until now, lutein was used in poultry industry mostly for pigmenting broiler's meat and skin and egg yolk and lately there have been more studies whose goal is to increase lutein content in yolk and production of enriched, functional food. Although table egg is not the best source of lutein, studies have shown that its bioavailability in human body is higher from lipid matrix of yolk compared with lutein from vegetable sources or food supplements. The egg is highly nutritious food because it contains high-quality proteins with balanced amino acid composition, essential fatty acids, minerals and vitamins necessary for proper functioning of the body and with increased content of lutein it becomes a value-added product. Addition of natural or synthetic sources of lutein in mixtures for laying hens enables the transfer of lutein through hen's metabolism into egg yolk. The increase of lutein content in yolk is noticeable already after one week of feeding the hens with modified mixtures although it takes a longer time for its content to be stabilized. Egg with increased content of lutein in yolk represents quality and accessible source of lutein in human nutrition. Consumption of enriched eggs contributes to increased intake of lutein as well as its accumulation in the human organism

Discriminant Analysis of Deaf Persons Communication Systems

Deaf persons, in their communications, use verbal and non-verbal communication systems, as well as bilingual communication. The aim of this article is to determine which communication system the deaf people prefer, and to determine whether there is a statistically significant difference between the sub-samples of the respondents in the preference of the communication systems using discriminant analysis. Study findings have shown that deaf people prefer a non-verbal communication system and a bilingual manner of communicating, and do not reject the verbal communication system because it is essential to communicating with hearers but, they do not prefer it. Discriminant analysis revealed that there was no statistically significant difference between the sub-groups of the respondents at a statistical significance level of 0.01

Increased expression of upstream TH2-cytokines in a mouse model of viral-induced asthma exacerbation

Additional file 2: Table S2. Primary and secondary antibodies used during western blot analysis of lung homogenate samples. All primary antibodies were diluted in TBS-T with 5 % BSA, while the secondary antibody was diluted in TBS-T with 5 % milk