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.

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.

Aeroelastic Behaviour of Aerospace Structural Elements with Follower Force: A Review

Datta, P.K.,Biswas, S. The Korean Society for Aeronautical and Space Scie 2011 International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sc Vol.12 No.2

In general, forces acting on aerospace structures can be divided into two categories-a) conservative forces and b) nonconservative forces. Aeroelastic effects occur due to highly flexible nature of the structure, coupled with the unsteady aerodynamic forces, causing unbounded static deflection (divergence) and dynamic oscillations (flutter). Flexible wing panels subjected to jet thrust and missile type of structures under end rocket thrust are nonconservative systems. Here the structural elements are subjected to follower kind of forces; as the end thrust follow the deformed shape of the flexible structure. When a structure is under a constant follower force whose direction changes according to the deformation of the structure, it may undergo static instability (divergence) where transverse natural frequencies merge into zero and dynamic instability (flutter), where two natural frequencies coincide with each other resulting in the amplitude of vibration growing without bound. However, when the follower forces are pulsating in nature, another kind of dynamic instability is also seen. If certain conditions are satisfied between the driving frequency and the transverse natural frequency, then dynamic instability called 'parametric resonance' occurs and the amplitude of transverse vibration increases without bound. The present review paper will discuss the aeroelastic behaviour of aerospace structures under nonconservative forces.

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.

Comparison of black and gray box models of subspace identification under support excitations

Datta, Diptojit,Dutta, Anjan Techno-Press 2017 Structural monitoring and maintenance Vol.4 No.4

This paper presents a comparison of the black-box and the physics based derived gray-box models for subspace identification for structures subjected to support-excitation. The study compares the damage detection capabilities of both these methods for linear time invariant (LTI) systems as well as linear time-varying (LTV) systems by extending the gray-box model for time-varying systems using short-time windows. The numerically simulated IASC-ASCE Phase-I benchmark building has been used to compare the two methods for different damage scenarios. The efficacy of the two methods for the identification of stiffness parameters has been studied in the presence of different levels of sensor noise to simulate on-field conditions. The proposed extension of the gray-box model for LTV systems has been shown to outperform the black-box model in capturing the variation in stiffness parameters for the benchmark building.

습공기선도 추가제안

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

The Mutation that Makes Escherichia coli Resistant to λ P Gene-mediated Host Lethality Is Located within the DNA Initiator Gene dnaA of the Bacterium

Datta, Indrani,Banik-Maiti, Sarbani,Adhikari, Lopa,Sau, Subrata,Das, Niranjan,Mandal, Nitai Chandra Korean Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biol 2005 Journal of biochemistry and molecular biology Vol.38 No.1

Earlier, we reported that the bacteriophage $\lambda$ P gene product is lethal to Escherichia coli, and the E. coli rpl mutants are resistant to this $\lambda$ P gene-mediated lethality. In this paper, we show that under the $\lambda$ P gene-mediated lethal condition, the host DNA synthesis is inhibited at the initiation step. The rpl8 mutation maps around the 83 min position in the E. coli chromosome and is 94% linked with the dnaA gene. The rpl8 mutant gene has been cloned in a plasmid. This plasmid clone can protect the wild-type E. coli from $\lambda$ P gene-mediated killing and complements E. coli dnaAts46 at $42^{\circ}C$. Also, starting with the wild-type dnaA gene in a plasmid, the rpl-like mutations have been isolated by in vitro mutagenesis. DNA sequencing data show that each of the rpl8, rpl12 and rpl14 mutations has changed a single base in the dnaA gene, which translates into the amino acid changes N313T, Y200N, and S246T respectively within the DnaA protein. These results have led us to conclude that the rpl mutations, which make E. coli resistant to $\lambda$ P gene-mediated host lethality, are located within the DNA initiator gene dnaA of the host.

Potential Benefit of Genetic Engineering in Plant Breeding: Rice, a Case Study

Datta, Swapan K. The Korean Society for Applied Biological Chemistr 2000 Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry (J. Appl. Vol.43 No.4

This paper summarizes recent developments in the field of molecular biology and its application to plant breeding, particularly in rice. Plant breeding in the past mostly depended on the time-consuming crossing of known genomes limited to certain traits. Plant breeding has now benefited from marker-assisted selection and genetic engineering to widen the gene pool, improve plant protection, and increase yield. Future plant breeding will expand based on functional and nutritional genomics, in which gene discovery and high-throughput transformation will accelerate crop design and benefits will accrue to human health, in the form of nutritional food for poor people to reduce malnutrition, or food enriched with antioxidants and with high food value for rich people. Agricultural biotechnology for food is no longer a dream but a reality that will dominate the 21st century for agriculture and human welfare.

Recent Breakthroughs in Sericultural Technology in India to Match the Requirement of Silk Industry in Tropics

Datta, R.K. Korean Society of Sericultural Science 2000 International Journal of Industrial Entomology Vol.1 No.2

Strengthening of R & D components of sericulture in India since the sixties has led to a quantum jump in silk production and presently India is the second largest producer in the world. This achievement is primarily due to a number of breakthroughs in R & D to match the requirements of tropics, by way of introduction of improved mulberry varieties and silkworm breeds, better mulberry cultivation and rearing management practices suited to tropical conditions. Of late, new approaches in molecular biology and biotechnology have also been vigorously pursued to strengthen the current conventional strategies. The present paper attempts to provide an overview of the present status of silk production in both mulberry and non-mulberry sectors, breakthroughs achieved through new approaches of biotechnology and the future prospects for maximizing silk productivity in India.