Democracy in South Africa Today : A Feminist Perspective

Kusum Datta Research Institute of Asian Women Sookmyung Women' 2005 Asian Women Vol.20 No.-

The new democratic constitution and the three general elections in South Africa since 1994 have redrawn the political map of the country. South Africa has one of the most women friendly governments led by the African National Congress. Nearly thirty three percent of the members of its Parliament are woman, and a large number of its power cabinet ministries are headed by black women. Yet, women remain the most deprived and the poorest section of its population with minimal recourse to resources and employment despite many legal reforms and gendered policies. This paper argues that South Africa's elaborate national machinery for gender equity has failed to improve women's situation primarily for two reasons. The first is the weakening political will of the government partly because of the growing influence of international financial institutions that prioritize fiscal balance at the expense of social justice. Secondly, there is a growing disjuncture between the feminists within the government and the bureaucracy on the one hand and the fractured women's movement in civil society on the other. The paper underscores the imperative need for strengthening the new type of civil society organisations and their pressure group capacity to support women within the government and to hold them accountable to the feminist project.

Type-Specific Incidence and Persistence of HPV Infection among Young Women: A Prospective Study in North India

Datta, Palika,Bhatla, Neerja,Pandey, R.M.,Dar, Lalit,Patro, A. Rajkumar,Vasisht, Shachi,Kriplani, Alka,Singh, Neeta Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2012 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.13 No.3

Background: Infections with human papillomavirus (HPV) are highly prevalent among sexually active young women in India. However, not much is known about the incidence of type-specific human papillomavirus (HPV) infections and their patterns of persistence, especially in the Indian context. Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the rate of acquisition and persistence of HPV types in young women. Methods: Women residing in an urban slum in Delhi (n=1300) were followed for 24 months at 6 monthly intervals. Exfoliated cervical cells collected at each visit were tested for the presence of HPV DNA. Genotyping was performed using the reverse line blot assay. Results: The incidence rate for any HPV type was calculated to be 5 per 1000 women-months. Among high risk HPV types, HPV16 had the highest incidence rate followed by HPV59, HPV52 and HPV18, i.e., 3.0, 0.58, 0.41 and 0.35 women per 1000 women-months respectively. The persistence rate was higher for high-risk than low-risk HPV types. Among low-risk types, HPV42, HPV62, HPV84 and HPV89 were found to persist. Whereas almost all high risk types showed persistence, the highest rate was found in women with HPV types 16, 45, 67, 31, 51 and 59. The persistence rate for HPV16 infection was 45 per 1000 women-months. Conclusion: Incident HPV infections and high risk HPV type-specific persistence were found to be high in our study population of young married women. Understanding the patterns of HPV infection may help plan appropriate strategies for prevention programs including vaccination and screening.

Performance Evaluation of CKF Based Sensorless Vector Controlled PM Synchronous Motor Drive

Datta Soumyajit,Arabindo Chandra,Dey Aritro,Chowdhuri Sumana 대한전기학회 2021 Journal of Electrical Engineering & Technology Vol.16 No.2

Sensor-less vector control of Surface Mount Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor (SPMSM) throughout the entire speed regime is a challenging problem in PMSM drive. This paper addresses this control problem and presents the design and simulation study of sensor-less vector control of SPMSM using Cubature Kalman fi lter (CKF) based rotor position and speed estimator. The use of CKF for speed and position estimation of PMSM is reported in recently literature. However, the results are not substantial. Position and speed estimation errors are quite large, also the estimated speed and position contain considerably large ripple. In the present work the performance of CKF observer in terms of position and speed estimation accuracy is signifi cantly improved. The dynamic performance of the drive throughout the entire speed zone under variable load torque is also improved.

Embryo Culture of Taxus wallichiana (Zucc.)

Datta Mukul Manjari,Jha Sumita The Korean Society of Plant Biotechnology 2004 Plant molecular biology and biotechnology research Vol.6 No.4

Zygotic embryos were excised from immature and mature seeds of the Himalayan yew, Taxus wallichiana. The embryos germinated precociously when kept in darkness for 5 weeks and developed into full seedlings within 10-12 weeks. The highest rate of embryo germination ($81\%$) was obtained in modified Lloyd & McCown' s woody plant medium containing macro and micronutrients at half strength supplemented with $1\%$ activated charcoal, which supported both the best embryonic growth ($43\%$) and seedling development ($32\%$). However, the supplementation of basal media with kinetin, thidiazuron, 6-benzyl aminopurine or $GA_3$ had no effect on the germination of the embryos. The embryos derived from immature seeds germinated but the frequency of embryonic growth was better in mature seeds. Stratification of seeds effected precocious germination of embryos. Seeds kept at $4^{\circ}C$ for 1 week germinated earlier and at a higher frequency irrespective of the stage of seed maturity, while the germination rate declined with prolonged cold treatment for 1 month at that same temperature. Analysis of taxanes in germinating seedlings revealed that root tissues contained high levels of taxol, 10-deacetyl-baccatin ill and baccatin ill as compared to shoots. Thus embryo culture technique appears to overcome the lengthy dormancy requirement of T. wallichiana seeds.

Dynamic Power–Frequency Control in a Hybrid Wind-PV Plant Interlinked with AC Power System

Datta Asim,Koley Indrajit,Panda Goutam K.,Atoche Alejandro C.,Castillo Javier V. 대한전기학회 2021 Journal of Electrical Engineering & Technology Vol.16 No.3

Hybrid renewable energy-based generation can improve the reliability in power supply. While avoiding the big cost in energy storage/battery, it is apparent that, such hybrid plants could be interlinked with the conventional power system for ensuring continuous power supply in the local area and better utilization of renewable energy sources. As generation from the renewable energy sources are intermittent, the interaction of such hybrid plants with the traditional power network can abruptly disturb the power/frequency level. Thus, devising a robust power–frequency control (PFC) scheme for the contemporary hybrid renewable interlinked power systems is highly obligatory. In this context, this paper presents a fractional-orderproportional-integral-derivative (FOPID) controller based advanced PFC scheme. Bacterial-foraging optimization (BFO) technique is adopted for computing the design parameters, namely, the controller gains and set-point weights. A typical hybrid wind- photovoltaic (PV) Plant interlinked thermal power system is modelled and simulated in order to investigate the system dynamics. Eff ectiveness of the proposed PFC scheme corroborated with the renewable power variations as well as load perturbation is confi rmed and the results are presented.

The Bacteriophage λ DNA Replication Protein P Inhibits the oriC DNA- and ATP-binding Functions of the DNA Replication Initiator Protein DnaA of Escherichia coli

Datta, Indrani,Sau, Subrata,Sil, Alok Kumar,Mandal, Mitai C. Korean Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biol 2005 Journal of biochemistry and molecular biology Vol.38 No.1

Under the condition of expression of $\lambda$ P protein at lethal level, the oriC DNA-binding activity is significantly affected in wild-type E. coli but not in the rpl mutant. In purified system, the $\lambda$ P protein inhibits the binding of both oriC DNA and ATP to the wild-type DnaA protein but not to the rpl DnaA protein. We conclude that the $\lambda$ P protein inhibits the binding of oriC DNA and ATP to the wild-type DnaA protein, which causes the inhibition of host DNA synthesis initiation that ultimately leads to bacterial death. A possible beneficial effect of this interaction of $\lambda$ P protein with E. coli DNA initiator protein DnaA for phage DNA replication has been proposed.

Association of Breast Cancer with Sleep Pattern - A Pilot Case Control Study in a Regional Cancer Centre in South Asia

Datta, Karabi,Roy, Asoke,Nanda, Durgaprasad,Das, Ila,Guha, Subhas,Ghosh, Dipanwita,Sikdar, Samar,Biswas, Jaydip Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2014 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.15 No.20

The rising trend of breast cancer both in developed and developing countries is a real threat challenging all efforts to screening, prevention and treatment aspects to reduce its impact. In spite of modern preventive strategies, the upward trend of breast cancer has become a matter of great concern in both developed and developing countries. Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute is a premier regional cancer institute in eastern region of India catering to a large number of cancer patients every year. A pilot case control study of fifty breast cancer patients and 100 matched controls was conducted during 2013 to evaluate the effects of habitual factors like working in night shift, not having adequate sleep, and not sleeping in total darkness on breast cancer of women. The study revealed that not sleeping in total darkness was associated with higher odds of outcome of breast cancer of women. This positive correlation can play a vital role in formulation of preventive strategies through life style modification.

습공기선도 추가제안

Datta Chander S. 대한설비공학회 1973 설비저널 Vol.2 No.2

The G23 and G25 Genes of Temperate Mycobacteriophage L1 Are Essential for The Transcription of Its Late Genes

Datta, Hirock Jyoti,Mandal, Prajna,Bhattacharya, Rajat,Das, Niranjan,Sau, Subrata,Mandal, Nitai Chanda Korean Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biol 2007 Journal of biochemistry and molecular biology Vol.40 No.2

Two lysis-defective but DNA synthesis non-defective temperature-sensitive (ts) mutants of mycobacteriophage L1, L1G23ts23 and L1G25ts889 were found to be defective also in phage-specific RNA synthesis in the late period of their growth at 42$^{\circ}C$each to the extent of 50% of that at 32$^{\circ}C$The double mutant, L1G23ts23G25ts889 showed the ts defect in phage RNA synthesis that was nearly additive of those shown individually by the two single-mutant parents. Both G23 and G25 were shown to start functioning sometimes between 30 and 45 min after infection but the former gene might be dispensable after 45 min, while the latter was not. Northern analysis also shows that at 42$^{\circ}C$>, L1G23ts23 affects RNA synthesis more strongly than L1G25ts889 from L1 DNA segments that serve as the template for late gene transcription. Among the 21 virion and 12 non-virion late proteins synthesized by L1, L1G23ts23 is defective in the synthesis of at least 9 virion and all of non-virion proteins at 42$^{\circ}C$>. In contrast, L1G25ts889 is completely defective in synthesis of all the 33 late proteins. Possible roles of G23 and G25 in the positive regulation of transcription of different sets of late genes of L1 have been discussed.

Modeling and simulation of large crowd evacuation in hazard-impacted environments

Datta, Songjukta,Behzadan, Amir H. Techno-Press 2019 Advances in computational design Vol.4 No.2

Every year, many people are severely injured or lose their lives in accidents such as fire, chemical spill, public pandemonium, school shooting, and workplace violence. Research indicates that the fate of people in an emergency situation involving one or more hazards depends not only on the design of the space (e.g., residential building, industrial facility, shopping mall, sports stadium, school, concert hall) in which the incident occurs, but also on a host of other factors including but not limited to (a) occupants' characteristics, (b) level of familiarity with and cognition of the surroundings, and (c) effectiveness of hazard intervention systems. In this paper, we present EVAQ, a simulation framework for modeling large crowd evacuation by taking into account occupants' behaviors and interactions during an emergency. In particular, human's personal (i.e., age, gender, disability) and interpersonal (i.e., group behavior and interactions) attributes are parameterized in a hazard-impacted environment. In addition, different hazard types (e.g., fire, lone wolf attacker) and propagation patterns, as well as intervention schemes (simulating building repellent systems, firefighters, law enforcement) are modeled. Next, the application of EVAQ to crowd egress planning in an airport terminal under human attack, and a shopping mall in fire emergency are presented and results are discussed. Finally, a validation test is performed using real world data from a past building fire incident to assess the reliability and integrity of EVAQ in comparison with existing evacuation modeling tools.