"The fruits of independence": Satyajit Ray, Indian nationhood and the spectre of empire

Challenging the longstanding consensus that Satyajit Ray's work is largely free of ideological concerns and notable only for its humanistic richness, this article shows with reference to representations of British colonialism and Indian nationhood that Ray's films and stories are marked deeply and consistently by a distinctively Bengali variety of liberalism. Drawn from an ongoing biographical project, it commences with an overview of the nationalist milieu in which Ray grew up and emphasizes the preoccupation with colonialism and nationalism that marked his earliest unfilmed scripts. It then shows with case studies of Kanchanjangha (1962), Charulata (1964), First Class Kamra (First-Class Compartment, 1981), Pratidwandi (The Adversary, 1970), Shatranj ke Khilari (The Chess Players, 1977), Agantuk (The Stranger, 1991) and Robertsoner Ruby (Robertson's Ruby, 1992) how Ray's mature work continued to combine a strongly anti-colonial viewpoint with a shifting perspective on Indian nationhood and an unequivocal commitment to cultural cosmopolitanism. Analysing how Ray articulated his ideological positions through the quintessentially liberal device of complexly staged debates that were apparently free, but in fact closed by the scenarist/director on ideologically specific notes, this article concludes that Ray's reputation as an all-forgiving, ‘everybody-has-his-reasons’ humanist is based on simplistic or even tendentious readings of his work

"Mother-weights" and lost fathers: parents in South Asian American literature

That parent-child relationships should play a significant role within South Asian American literature is perhaps no surprise, since this is crucial material for any writer. But the particular forms they so often take – a dysfunctional mother-daughter dynamic, leading to the search for maternal surrogates; and the figure of the prematurely deceased father – are more perplexing. Why do families adhere to these patterns in so many South Asian American texts and what does that tell us about this œuvre? More precisely, why are mothers subjected to a harsher critique than fathers and what purpose does this critique serve? How might we interpret the trope of the untimely paternal death? In this article I will seek to answer these questions – arguably key to an understanding of this growing body of writing – by considering works produced between the 1990s and the early twenty-first century by a range of South Asian American writers

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

A benzimidazole-based chemodosimeter for the fluorometric detection of Zn and Cu via 1,5 proton shifts and C–N bond cleavage

Here, we report the design and synthesis of the fluorescent probe APBHN, which was derived from 2- (1H-benzo[d]imidazol-2-yl)benzenamine and is capable of detecting intracellular Zn and Cu ions in the micromolar range. Single-crystal X-ray analysis revealed that the structure of the ligand comprises a fused cyclic system with a pendent naphthol moiety. With the addition of Zn and Cu ions the inherent fluorescence behaviour of the ligand APBHN is perturbed via a chemodosimetric change that involves a 1,5 proton shift followed by C–N bond cleavage. Upon detailed analysis, it was found that the ligand forms 1 : 1 and 1 : 2 (metal to ligand) complexes with the corresponding metal ions. The detection limits of Zn2+ and Cu2+ were 5.59 μM and 0.148 μM, respectively, with APBHN, which are lower than the WHO guidelines (76 μM for Zn2+ and 31.5 μM for Cu2+) for drinking water. Moreover, APBHN could be used as a practical, visible colorimetric test kit for both Zn2+ and Cu2+. APBHN can efficiently detect Zn2+ and Cu2+ in liver carcinoma cells with insignificant cytotoxicit

Design and development of an amperometric immunosensor based on screen-printed electrodes

A novel disposable amperometric immunosensor has been developed based on laboratory fabricated screen-printed electrodes (SPEs) using an indirect enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) approach. The electrodes were screen-printed on a non-tearable flexible polyester film using commercially available inks and characterized by cyclic voltammetry, scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. In order to study the immunosensing performances of these SPEs, bovine serum albumin (BSA) antigen was directly immobilized on the bare electrode surface without any surface modification. It was then exposed to primary antibody followed by horseradish peroxidase (HRP)-linked secondary antibody. 3,3′,5,5′-Tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) was used as the substrate. HRP oxidised TMB in the presence of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and the electron transfer was measured using amperometry at an applied scan rate of 50 mV s−1 which enabled the quantification of the antigen. The electrochemical response of this laboratory made SPE was about 2.5 times higher when compared to that of a commercially available SPE. A two-fold linear range for this immunosensor was obtained from 15.6–125 ng mL−1 and from 125–1000 ng mL−1, respectively

Identifying subset errors in multiple sequence alignments

Multiple sequence alignment (MSA) accuracy is important, but there is no widely accepted method of judging the accuracy that different alignment algorithms give. We present a simple approach to detecting two types of error, namely block shifts and the misplacement of residues within a gap. Given a MSA, subsets of very similar sequences are generated through the use of a redundancy filter, typically using a 70-90% sequence identity cut-off. Subsets thus produced are typically small and degenerate, and errors can be easily detected even by manual examination. The errors, albeit minor, are inevitably associated with gaps in the alignment, and so the procedure is particularly relevant to homology modelling of protein loop regions. The usefulness of the approach is illustrated in the context of the universal but little known [K/R]KLH motif that occurs in intracellular loop 1 of G protein coupled receptors (GPCR); other issues relevant to GPCR modelling are also discussed. © 2013 Taylor & Francis

Emergence of Vibrio cholerae O1 biotype El Tor serotype Inaba from the prevailing O1 Ogawa serotype strains in India

The toxigenic Inaba serotype of Vibrio cholerae O1 biotype El Tor reappeared in India in 1998 and 1999, almost 10 years after its last dominance in Calcutta in 1989. Extensive molecular characterization by ribotyping, restriction fragment length polymorphism, and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis indicated that recent Inaba strains are remarkably different from the earlier Inaba strains but are very similar to the prevailing V. choleraeO1 Ogawa El Tor biotype strains. The antibiograms of the Inaba strains were also similar to those of the recent V. cholerae Ogawa strains. These V. cholerae O1 Inaba strains appear to have evolved from the currently prevailing Ogawa strains and are likely to dominate in the coming years