Global versus Glocal Dimensions of the Post-1981 Indian English Novel

In the context of endless theoretical debates on the benefices and drawbacks of cultural globalisation and the emergence of a global culture, the present article analyses different aspects of the rise of the Indian Novel written in English (INE). It focuses on various strategies of cultural legitimation and global recognition INE has found in its various stages of evolution and on the recent fictional formulae it has adopted, in order to see the extent to which the “global” paradigm can be applied to this type of writing. The aim of the article is to demonstrate that INE, though usually associated to the idea of “global novel” – on account of its hybrid status as a “born translated” postcolonial text, its global circulation, international recognition, impressive sales figures and extraordinary success – traverses a moment of relative crisis. Currently considered a complex literary phenomenon in possession of a recognized protean character and a successful formula of integration on globalised cultural markets, INE seems to escape close categorisations, to defy paradigms and to promote its own formula of glocalism. In order to meet this challenge, the article reviews some of the most important theoretical approaches to globalisation and glocalisation in relation to cultural productions, to the significant impact these have on the new economic and cultural reconfigurations of the contemporary world and to the clash between local and diasporic cultural identities. It also provides a short history of the evolution of the INE and of the current critical debates that divide the Indian literary stage on the issue of global versus local literatures in relation to such concepts as authenticity, cultural essentialism, cosmopolitanism and regionalism

Reconstructing trauma and recovery: life narratives of survivors of political violence during apartheid

The central aim of this study was to examine the narratives of survivors of political violence during apartheid and their complex ways of reconstructing trauma and recovery, almost twenty years after the collapse of apartheid in South Africa. The traumatic events experienced by victims occurred during 1960 - 1993. This retrospective study involved victims of both sides of the conflict. The sample comprised twenty survivors of gross human rights violations who suffered: detention, torture, police harassment, displacement, shootings, or the loss of a significant other. Interviews were conducted between late 2009 and early 2010, involving participants from a diversity of race groups, ages, gender and socio-economic status. General areas of exploration were: (hi)story of suffering under apartheid, impact of traumatic events, ways of coping with negative effects, helpful and hindering aspects of their journey after trauma, present situation and views about the future. Interviews were recorded and transcribed for analysis

On-command enhancement of single molecule fluorescence using a gold nanoparticle as an optical nano-antenna

We investigate the coupling of a single molecule to a single spherical gold nanoparticle acting as a nano-antenna. Using scanning probe technology, we position the particle in front of the molecule with nanometer accuracy and measure a strong enhancement of more than 20 times in the fluorescence intensity simultaneous to a 20-fold shortening of the excited state lifetime. Direct comparison with three-dimensional calculations allow us to decipher the contributions of the excitation enhancement, spontaneous emission modification, and quenching. Furthermore, we provide direct evidence for the role of the particle plasmon resonance in the modification of the molecular emission.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. submitted to Phys.Rev.Lett. 12/04/200

Multigene Methylation Analysis And The Noninvasive Diagnosis Of Prostate Cancer From Body Fluids

Introduction During prostatic carcinogenesis, DNA hypermethylation occurs, thus representing a promising biomarker for the early detection of this malignancy. In our study, we aim to determine the usefulness of a molecular and multigene test for prostate cancer. However, this is based on the quantitative methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction (qMSP) of three genes from voided urine specimens by noninvasive methods. Materials and Methods In this study, the voided urine specimens were collected from 89 patients with prostate cancer and 69 controls. Genomic DNA was isolated and subjected to bisulfite modification. Consequently, we tested the methylation status of genomic DNA of three genes, namely: GSTP1, APC, and MDR1. This was done using the quantitative methylationspecific PCR method. Therefore, the obtained results were correlated with the clinicopathologic findings. Results Promoter methylation of GSTP1 gene in voided urine samples was found in 87 out of 89 (97.8%) PCa patients and in 13 out of 62 (21 %) BPH men. In APC gene, methylated levels have been found in 61 out of 89 (68.5%) PCa patients and in 8 out of 62 (12.9%) BPH men. MDR1 gene was found to be hypermethylated in 60 out of 89 (67.4%) PCa patients and in 4 out of 62 (6.5%) BPH men. In addition, we obtained a sensitivity of 88.99% and a specificity of 85.5% for the multigene panel. The AUC in this case was 0.927. Conclusion The analysis of a multigene panel of three methylated genes in prostate cancer by qMSP, can be used to distinguish between men with malignant and benign prostatic diseases from voided urine specimens. Also, it can be used for the follow-up of those men who are presenting increased risk of prostate cancer by noninvasive methods

Coping Strategies and Life Satisfaction among Romanian Emerging Adults during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The aim of the present study was to understand coping mechanisms among Romanian youth in their response to institutional COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. Data were collected from emerging adults (N = 214), aged 18–29, enrolled in various fields of study throughout a public university in Romania. Adopted versions of the Coping Orientation for Problem Experiences Scale (Brief-COPE, Carver, 1997) and Satisfaction with Life Scales (SLWS, Diener et al., 1985) were administered to explore the impact of the specific social distancing and isolation enforced pandemic restrictions. Findings elucidate the response styles, impact of coping skills, and strategies employed by students toward their well-being during stay-at-home courses. Results indicated that Romanian emerging-adults tend to use diverse strategies, but they use more disengagement, problem-focused coping, humor, socially supportive coping or religion, rather than denial, avoidant-focused coping or substance use, when faced with unprecedented situations during the COVID-19 pandemic. We discuss these findings framed in resilience as it relates to the positive youth psychology framework

Le soi et ses institutions: images du sujet entre texte et photographie (Roland Barthes, Hervé Guibert, Sophie Calle, Édouard Levé)

This dissertation examines the theoretical, aesthetic, and institutional outcome of poststructuralist thought dating to the turn of the 1970s. Through close analyses of texts and visual works by four practitioners of self-writing (semiotician Roland Barthes, AIDS memoirist Hervé Guibert, installation artist Sophie Calle, and photo-conceptualist Édouard Levé) I show how the construction of subjectivity has been transformed in the arts of the self-portrait and the diary. Part One examines theoretical and aesthetic implications of the “Death of the Author,” understood as a critique of the relation between the creative and the literary subject in the context of institutions that regulate the creative act. First I relate Roland Barthes’ article to the Nietzschean tradition of nihilist perspectivism through which French postructuralist thinkers critiqued the metaphysical subject. Analysis of the article’s publication context affords historical comprehension of the changing relation between literary theory and the visual arts. I then draw a parallel between photographic practice and autobiography. The artistic and theoretical uses of photography made by the avant-gardes of the 1960s and 1970s (but also by the Surrealists in the 1920s) transformed it into a theoretical object and eventually into an aesthetic and mythological one. Part Two focuses on autobiographical discourse. First, by looking at Philippe Lejeune, Georges Gusdorf and the Dictionnaire de l’autobiographie I show how critical discourses informed by poststructuralism allow autobiography to become a literary genre during the second half of the 20th century. Second, I discuss how each artist and writer engages with self-writing and self-portraiture through a direct confrontation of text and image in narratives that, far from being authenticated by photographs, are troubled by the distortions of fiction and by the confrontation of different textual versions. Part Three turns to the journal intime understood as an impure practice (text, photographs, videos). I first show the historical transformation of diaries in a literary genre. I then focus my attention on primary sources that further push the very definition of the genre. I conclude with the question of finitude, namely the ways in which suicide not only informs the unfolding of the work of Guibert and Levé on the level of theme, but provides historical and structural resolution to their respective artistic careers

Light Scattering on Nanowire Antennas: A Semi-Analytical Approach

Two semi-analytical approaches to solve the problem of light scattering on nanowire antennas are developed and compared. The derivation is based on the exact solution of the plane wave scattering problem in case of an infinite cylinder. The original three-dimensional problem is reduced in two alternative ways to a simple one-dimensional integral equation, which can be solved numerically by a method of moments approach. Scattering cross sections of gold nanowire antennas with different lengths and aspect ratios are analysed for the optical and near-infrared spectral range. Comparison of the proposed semi-analytical methods with the numerically rigorous discrete dipole approximation method demonstrates good agreement as well as superior numerical performance.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure

Taxing Families Fairly

The UK’s taxation system is based on an assessment of individual income. This is not unique in the Western world, but there are many countries in which a different approach is taken. At first sight, it may seem reasonable to tax individuals on the basis of their personal income. However, to do so, when we have a system of progressive taxes, leads to highly problematic outcomes. It is also an approach that we believe is flawed philosophically. Miriam Cates MP and, more recently, both Liz Truss and Penny Mordaunt during the Conservative leadership contest, have highlighted the problems caused by our current treatment of families in the tax system and have made the case for reform. Of course, the tax system works perfectly well for single people and our proposals in this paper would not affect them directly. However, for much of our lives, most people do not live as single persons. They live in families or households. When they do, in almost all cases, they share resources with others in the household. Indeed, this is why we measure inequality, both domestically and internationally, by looking at household incomes. It would not make sense to suggest that somebody was poor because they earned the minimum wage for ten hours a week (or earned nothing at all) whilst their spouse was paid £4m a year as a professional footballer. And yet, when we assess them for income tax, that is precisely what we assume. It could be argued that this approach to taxation both pre-supposes and encourages a hyper-individualistic mentality. For fiscal purposes, we ignore the basic unit from which societies are built. This is a cultural and political problem which among other things leaves the UK with a bigger fertility gap (the gap between the number of children people say they want and the number they actually have) than most comparable countries. However, there is also an economic problem. As we show below, this approach to taxation creates huge disparities between the taxation position of families that have the same income depending on whether or not their income is split evenly between members of the household. A single-earner family with a gross household income of £30,000 per annum, for example, pays far more tax than a family where two adults earn £15,000 each. This is inequitable and it creates perverse incentives for members of the household to take employment decisions based on their tax position rather than on their domestic circumstances. The system directly discriminates against households where one member takes on caring responsibilities for younger or older members of the family. Interestingly, our welfare system tops up incomes based on an assessment of household income. The spouse of the footballer mentioned above does not receive welfare benefits simply because they have low earnings because eligibility takes into account the earnings of both spouses or both members of an unmarried couple. When we put the tax and welfare systems together, we find that family formation is penalised – to a substantial degree. If, for example, a woman has a child and does not work whilst the father is in paid employment, if they live together or marry, her entitlement to benefits is lost whilst he continues to pay tax at the same rate as if they were single. They are, literally, better off apart. Thus, the state, through having designed an individualised tax system alongside a benefits system based on household income penalises the family as if, somehow, it is a bad thing that needs to be discouraged through taxation. Of course, all the evidence suggests the opposite. The family is important for individual wellbeing as well as having beneficial societal effects. These questions might only be of theoretical interest if it were impossible to envisage things being done a different way. However, as we show, many countries levy taxation based on household and not individual income. Such countries include France and Germany. In the chapters immediately following we discuss the economic and philosophical arguments for our current approach to taxation as compared with alternatives. We then follow this by modelling the cost to families with an uneven split of earnings between their main adults of the current tax system. After examining the relationship between the tax and benefits system, we examine how we can “tax families fairly” by moving to an approach along the lines of that used in France and Germany. We conclude that it is important for the UK to adopt an approach that involves taxing families on the basis of their family income and structure rather than taxation being based on the assumption that we live as individuals outside families and households

Exact off-resonance near fields of small-size extended hemielliptic 2-D lenses illuminated by plane waves

The near fields of small-size extended hemielliptic lenses made of rexolite and isotropic quartz and illuminated by E- and H-polarized plane waves are studied. Variations in the focal domain size, shape, and location are presented versus the angle of incidence of the incoming wave. The problem is solved numerically in a two-dimensional formulation. The accuracy of results is guaranteed by using a highly efficient numerical algorithm based on the combination of the Muller boundary integral equations, the method of analytical regularization, and the trigonometric Galerkin discretization scheme. The analysis fully accounts for the finite size of the lens as well as its curvature and thus can be considered as a reference solution for other electromagnetic solvers. Moreover, the trusted description of the focusing ability of a finite-size hemielliptic lens can be useful in the design of antenna receivers.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figure