Return of Kosi river induced by Tibet earthquake

Seismotectonics and change in river courses were correlated. Following the elastic rebound theory before the occurrence of the earthquake the subsurface rocks accumulate the energy by the tectonic movement. The Kosi river barrage was broken due to the tectonic forces accumulation in the south of Tibet Himalayas. Kosi river originates from Tibetan Himalayas and any disturbance in Tibet plateau has the potential to change the river course

Governance in the gullies : democratic responsiveness and leadership in Delhi's slums

The authors use detailed ethnographic evidence to design and interpret a broad representative survey of 800 households in Delhi's slums, examining the processes by which residents gain access to formal government and develop their own informal modes of leadership. While ethnically homogeneous slums transplant rural institutions to the city, newer and ethnically diverse slums depend on informal leaders who gain their authority through political connections, education, and network entrepreneurship. Education and political affiliation are more important than seniority in determining a leader's influence. Informal leaders are accessible to all slum dwellers, but formal government figures are most accessed by the wealthy and the well-connected.City Development Strategies,National Governance,Housing&Human Habitats,Urban Environment,Urban Services to the Poor

Kali, Untamed Goddess Power and Unleashed Sexuality: A Study of the 'Kalika Purana' of Bengal

This paper attempts to analyse the paradox inherent in the myth of Kali, both in her iconic delineation and the rituals associated with her worship as depicted in the twelfth century Kalika Purana. The black goddess Kali breaks conventional stereotypes of feminine beauty and sexuality in Hindu goddess mythology. She is the dominant sexual partner straddling the prone Siva and the wild warrior goddess drinking demon blood. She is originally depicted as a symbol of uncontrolled fury emerging from the fair, beautiful goddess Ambika in the battle with the demons in older goddess texts. Thereafter she gains independent existence both as the dark, mysterious and sexually demanding version of the more benign and auspicious Parvati and the Primordial Goddess Power pre-dating the Hindu trinity of male gods, the Universal Mother Force which embraces both good and evil, gods and demons in the Kalika Purana. Unlike other goddess texts which emphasize Kali's role in the battle against the demons, the Kalika Purana's focus is on her sexuality and her darkly sensual beauty. Equally it is on the heterodoxical rituals associated with her worship involving blood and flesh offerings, wine and the use of sexual intercourse as opposed to Vedic rituals

Defeating Patriarchy on Its Own Terms: The Paradox of Female Chastity in Krittivasa’s Ramayana

This essay attempts to analyze the role of women in the Bengali Ramayana of Krittivasa, a regional version of the original Sanskrit epic composed by Valmiki. It does so from the perspective of the strict code of female chastity enshrined in a patriarchal society and enforced upon its women by their male guardians within and beyond the home. While on the one hand, it is an instrument of female subjugation, this essay make an attempt to analyze how the strict observance of this code by the women in the epic, makes it a weapon of female empowerment across the different strata of society through which the text operates. The powerful spiritual energy generated in the process by these women can threaten even the most powerful of patriarchs including the epic hero Rama himself

Silence of the genes- 2006 nobel prize in physiology or medicine

The 2006 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Andrew Fire and Craig Mello for discovering "RNA interference-genesilencing by double-stranded RNA". The Nobel Committee at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden selected them for the award for unraveling "a fundamental mechanism for controlling the flow of genetic information" that is "already being widely used in basic science as a method to study the function of genes and may lead to novel therapies in the future". This has been one of the fastest Nobel Prizes conferred in physiology or medicine, considering that Fire and Mello published their path-breaking article in the journal Nature in 1998, less than ten years ago

Engineering Nanowire n-MOSFETs at Lg < 8 nm

As metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFET) channel lengths (Lg) are scaled to lengths shorter than Lg<8 nm source-drain tunneling starts to become a major performance limiting factor. In this scenario a heavier transport mass can be used to limit source-drain (S-D) tunneling. Taking InAs and Si as examples, it is shown that different heavier transport masses can be engineered using strain and crystal orientation engineering. Full-band extended device atomistic quantum transport simulations are performed for nanowire MOSFETs at Lg<8 nm in both ballistic and incoherent scattering regimes. In conclusion, a heavier transport mass can indeed be advantageous in improving ON state currents in ultra scaled nanowire MOSFETs.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures, journa