Department of History

Ashoka University is a private university located in Sonipat, Haryana, India, focusing on liberal arts and sciences. It was established in 2014.&nbsp;It is guided by an academic council of academics and scholars from around the world. The council sets the university&#39;s academic standard, advising on matters of curriculum, faculty hiring and research.&nbsp;

Ashoka University offers a full-time 3 (+ 1) year undergraduate programme. The University comprises of&nbsp;2500 plus students, with a mix of both national and international students.&nbsp; &nbsp;

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Ashoka University

A thorough DFT study was performed to unravel the true mechanism involved in the Pd(0)-catalyzed functional group transposition between aroyl chlorides and aryl iodides. Two different experimental groups proposed different mechanisms for the functional group transposition reaction. A careful assessment of experimental findings and thorough computational studies endorsed that the functional group transposition proceeds via phosphonium salt formation and ligand-enabled C–P bond metathesis, leading to the formation of the PhI and the intermediate 2. After the formation of the intermediate 2, the transposition of functional groups takes place through the interpalladium ligand exchange mechanism, where two palladium centers act as shuttle catalysts. In short, both C–P bond metathesis and interpalladium ligand exchange steps are crucial in the functional group transposition mechanism.

Other Publications

J. Org. Chem

A Shuttle Catalysis: Elucidating a True Reaction Mechanism Involved in the Palladium Xantphos-Assisted Transposition of Aroyl Chloride and Aryl Iodide Functional Groups

The adhesion of cells to substrates occurs via integrin clustering and binding to the actin cytoskeleton. Oncogenes modify anchorage-dependent mechanisms in cells during cancer progression. Fluid shear devices provide a label-free way to characterize cell–substrate interactions and heterogeneities in cell populations. We quantified the critical adhesion strengths of MCF-7, MDAMB-231, A549, HPL1D, HeLa, and NIH3T3 cells using a custom fluid shear device. The detachment response was sigmoidal for each cell type. A549 and MDAMB-231 cells had significantly lower critical adhesion strengths (τ50) than their non-invasive counterparts, HPL1D and MCF-7. Detachment dynamics inversely correlated with cell invasion potentials. A theoretical model, based on τ50 values and the distribution of cell areas on substrates, provided good fits to results from de-adhesion experiments. Quantification of cell tractions, using the Reg-FTTC method on 10 kPa polyacrylamide gels, showed highest values for invasive, MDAMB-231 and A549, cells compared to non-invasive cells. Immunofluorescence studies show differences in vinculin distributions; non-invasive cells have distinct vinculin puncta, whereas invasive cells have more dispersed distributions. The cytoskeleton in non-invasive cells was devoid of well-developed stress fibers, and had thicker cortical actin bundles in the boundary. Fluorescence intensity of actin was significantly lower in invasive cells as compared to non invasive cells. These correlations in adhesion strengths and traction stresses with cell invasiveness may be useful in cancer diagnostics and other pathologies featuring mis-regulation in adhesion.

Department of Biology

World University root node

Soft Matter

Cell adhesion strength and tractions are mechano-diagnostic features of cellular invasiveness

Caste has remained implicit in Bollywood, appearing as class or as an unmarked subjecthood located in generalised north Indian identity. Through our article, we seek to understand what might be the grammar of caste representation in the film Manthan, which, in fact, is remembered more as a film about the “Amul experiment,” than about caste. How the word “society” transforms into “sisoti” in the film and how this process of translation leaves the villagers with a residual meaning are analysed in this article. This spillover of meaning eventually helps the characters deconstruct and recalibrate caste relations in the film.

Department of English

Economic and Political Weekly

The Making of ‘Sisoti’:The Churning of Caste Relations in Manthan

Mutations in the sialic acid biosynthesis enzyme GNE lead to a late-onset, debilitating neuromuscular disorder, GNE myopathy, characterized by progressive skeletal muscle weakness. The mechanisms responsible for skeletal muscle specificity, late-onset, and disease progression are unknown. Our main aim is to understand the reason for skeletal muscle-specific phenotype. To answer this question, we have analyzed the expression profile of the GNE gene and its multiple mRNA variants in different human tissues. A combinatorial approach encompassing bioinformatics tools and molecular biology techniques was used. NCBI, Ensembl, and GTEx were used for data mining. The expression analysis of GNE and its variants was performed with cDNA tissue panel using PCR and targeted RNA-seq. Among nine different GNE isoforms reported in this study, transcript variants 1, X1, and X2 were not tissue specific. Transcript variants 1, 6, X1, and X2, were found in skeletal muscles suggesting their possible role in GNE myopathy. In the current study, we present new data about GNE expression patterns in human tissues. Our results suggest that there may be a link between tissue-specific pathology and isoform pattern in skeletal muscles, which could provide clues for the development of new treatment strategies for GNE myopathy

Journal of Muscle Research and Cell Motility

Tissue-specific isoform expression of GNE gene in human tissues

What was in the rhetoric of Periyar that moved an entire people in a direction that has continuing political relevance? How does his style respond to concerns about how we may engage within contemporary political formations, especially given that his work continues to resist being co-opted by his detractors? Analysing the formal elements of a 1931 speech by Periyar, delivered at Nagapattinam, I investigate the movements in his rhetoric which repeatedly mobilises the self as a site of political action. I argue that Periyar’s presentation of the self provides a distinct avenue of political engagement that substantiates the notion of inner conflict as crucial to the development of the titular hero in the 2018 Tamil film Pariyerum Perumal. Methodologically, I draw on the work of the relational psychoanalytic thinker D.W. Winnicott; in particular, his concept of ‘playing’, which refers to the creative moment of passionate immediate engagement with the other that opens up a potent space of understanding and is vital for survival. I show how charting out the various dimensions of this moment of creative play in these two works is crucial to further our understanding of the politics of Periyar and the journey of Pariyerum Perumal.

Fulltext

CASTE / A Global Journal on Social Exclusion

Pariyerum Perumal and a Periyarite Note on Political Engagement

This paper adds to feminist epistemology by describing the methodological nuances of knowledge construction about rural women. Drawing from the methodology adopted and the research process undertaken during the study, it argues for using a feminist methodological approach in researching rural women’s lives. The study was conducted within a research paradigm constructed at the intersection of feminism and phenomenology to express the experiential and differential accounts of the participants in the study. The primary argument of the paper is that knowledge is not created in a vacuum and that knowledge creation is a dialogical and dialectical interaction with no privilege given to the researcher or the participant. It argues that the researcher’s ‘self’ and ‘situatedness’ often interact with the ‘self’ and ‘situatedness’ of the participants while procuring and presenting women’s experiences analytically and critically. The researcher’s journey shows how such ethical challenges may be navigated in the field. Finally, it asserts that being aware of reflexivity, the dialogical interactive nature of feminist research, and ‘situated knowledge’ help neutralise the power relations in research process. Overall, this paper contributes to the qualitative methodology by providing evidence for using an intersectional approach within feminist and phenomenological research in collaborative knowledge production.

Methodological Reflections on Construction of Knowledge About Rural Women

The control of spin waves in periodic magnetic structures has facilitated the realization of many functional magnonic devices, such as band stop filters and magnonic transistors, where the geometry of the crystal structure plays an important role. Here, we report on the magnetostatic mode formation in an artificial magnetic structure, going beyond the crystal geometry to a fractal structure, where the mode formation is related to the geometric scaling of the fractal structure. Specifically, the precessional dynamics was measured in samples with structures going from simple geometric structures toward a Sierpinski carpet and a Sierpinski triangle. The experimentally observed evolution of the precessional motion could be linked to the progression in the geometric structures that results in a modification of the demagnetizing field. Furthermore, we have found sets of modes at the ferromagnetic resonance frequency that form a scaled spatial distribution following the geometric scaling. Based on this, we have determined the two conditions for such mode formation to occur. One condition is that the associated magnetic boundaries must scale accordingly, and the other condition is that the region where the mode occurs must not coincide with the regions for the edge modes. This established relationship between the fractal geometry and the mode formation in magnetic fractals provides guiding principles for their use in magnonics applications.

Department of Physics

Physical Review B

Precessional dynamics of geometrically scaled magnetostatic spin waves in two-dimensional magnonic fractals

International Aid and Democracy Promotion investigates the link between foreign aid and the promotion of democracy, using theory, statistical tests, and illustrative case studies.&nbsp;This book challenges the field of development to recognize that democracy promotion is unlike other development goals. With a goal like economic development, the interests of the recipient and the donor coincide; whereas, with democratization, authoritarian recipients have strong reasons to oppose what donors seek. The different motivations of donors and recipients must be considered if democracy aid is to be effective. The author examines how donors exercise their leverage over aid recipients, and, more importantly, why, using selectorate theory to understand the incentives of both aid donors and recipients.International Aid and Democracy Promotion will be of great interest to academics and students of development and democratization, as well as policy makers with authority over foreign aid allocation.

Department of International Relations

International Aid and Democracy Promotion Liberalization at the Margins

International Aid and Democracy Promotion Liberalization at the Margins

We develop a calculus that gives an elementary approach to enumerate partition-like objects using an infinite number-theoretic matrix. We call this matrix the partition-frequency enumeration (PFE) matrix. This matrix unifies a large number of results connecting number-theoretic functions to partition-theoretic functions. The calculus is extended to arbitrary generating functions, and functions with Weierstrass products. As a by-product, we recover (and extend) some well-known recurrence relations for many number-theoretic functions, including the sum of divisors function, Ramanujan’s 𝜏<math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mi>τ</mi></math>&nbsp;function, sums of squares and triangular numbers, and for 𝜁(2𝑛)<math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mi>ζ</mi><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><mn>2</mn><mi>n</mi><mo stretchy="false">)</mo></math>, where n is a positive integer. These include classical results due to Euler, Ewell, Ramanujan, Lehmer, and others. As one application, we embed Ramanujan’s famous congruences 𝑝(5𝑛+4)≡0(mod5)<math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mi>p</mi><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><mn>5</mn><mi>n</mi><mo>+</mo><mn>4</mn><mo stretchy="false">)</mo><mo>≡</mo><mn>0</mn><mspace width="thickmathspace">&nbsp;</mspace><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"><mi mathvariant="normal">m</mi><mi mathvariant="normal">o</mi><mi mathvariant="normal">d</mi></mrow><mspace width="thinmathspace">&nbsp;</mspace><mn>5</mn><mo stretchy="false">)</mo></math>&nbsp;and 𝜏(5𝑛+5)≡0(mod5)<math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mi>τ</mi><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><mn>5</mn><mi>n</mi><mo>+</mo><mn>5</mn><mo stretchy="false">)</mo><mo>≡</mo><mn>0</mn><mspace width="thickmathspace">&nbsp;</mspace><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"><mi mathvariant="normal">m</mi><mi mathvariant="normal">o</mi><mi mathvariant="normal">d</mi></mrow><mspace width="thinmathspace">&nbsp;</mspace><mn>5</mn><mo stretchy="false">)</mo></math>&nbsp;into an infinite family of such congruences.

Department of Mathematics

The Ramanujan Journal

The partition-frequency enumeration matrix

Perhaps the most pressing challenge for singularism—the predominant view that definite plurals like ‘the students’ singularly refer to a collective entity, such as a mereological sum or set—is that it threatens paradox. Indeed, this serves as a primary motivation for pluralism—the opposing view that definite plurals refer to multiple individuals simultaneously through the primitive relation of plural reference. Groups represent one domain in which this threat is immediate. After all, groups resemble sets in having a kind of membership-relation and iterating: we can have groups of groups, groups of groups of groups, etc. Yet there cannot be a group of all non-self-membered groups. In response, we develop a potentialist theory of groups according to which we always can, but do not have to, form a group from any sum. Modalizing group-formation makes it a species of potential, as opposed to actual or completed, infinity. This allows for a consistent, plausible, and empirically adequate treatment of natural language plurals, one which is motivated by the iterative nature of syntactic and semantic processes more generally .