Drug delivery systems

Abstract

Drug delivery systems have an important role to play in the administration of drugs, vaccines, and diagnostic agents. Systems based on biodegradable polymers can be especially advantageous for use as implants that provide a slow, steady release of a pharmacological agent. Materials include poly--hydroxy acids, polyanhydrides, and polyphosphazenes. The products of biotechnology in the form of peptides and proteins are challenging compounds that are difficult to deliver. Novel methods of delivery include polymeric microspheres and microcapsules. Polymers can be used to deliver antigens in order to obtain improved responses after injection. Nanoparticles based on polymeric materials can be employed to deliver drugs to specific target sites, especially via the bloodstream or lymphatic system. Natural polymers also have an important role in drug delivery, for example chitosan is of special interest for its ability to interact with mucosal surfaces and to provide a bioadhesive effect that will retain drugs at target sites.     

Disciplining technology: Electronic reliability,Cold‐War military culture and the topside ionogram

Abstract

This essay explores the relationship between cold‐war military electronics and the material culture of space science. Focusing on the world's first ionospheric research satellite, designed and built by the Canadian Defence Research Telecommunications Establishment at the height of the Cold War, it seeks to situate the practices and beliefs that underwrote the reliability of this instrument within more profound changes in electronics and electrical engineering during the 1950s. Rather than invoke a monolithic culture of reliability to explain the work of satellite technicians and engineers, this investigation identifies instead two principle approaches to the question of reliability in cold‐war electronics, their origin in the shortcomings of industrial electronics after the Second World War, as well as the place of the satellite project within them. By concentrating our attention on the conceptual and technical dimensions of electronic reliability, radier than on more traditional aspects of solid‐state research and industrial innovation, we can understand how technicians and engineers, developing weapons systems and scientific instruments alike, struggled to understand and use operationally and cognitively unstable electronic devices, and what these struggles suggest about the complex material and social legacy of the Cold War.     

The Formation of Swedish Independent Local Lists, 1990–2015.

In this comparative case-study, elements of diffusion theory are used to examine local conditions conducive to political organization in terms of independent local lists (ILLs). Empirical evidence supports the formulation of three hypotheses for future and more systematic research into the problem: a hypothesis of size, an elite-hypothesis and a mobilization-hypothesis. Although several factors are likely to play a role, the results suggest particularly that ILLs are less likely to occur in localities lacking historical legacies in terms of popular mobilization.     

Identifying stone tools used in mining,smelting, and casting in Middle Bronze Age Cyprus

Abstract

Metallurgical production sites are often difficult to identify in the archaeological record because ore beneficiation and slag processing in the past involved the use of ground stone tools that were similar to those used in other contexts to prepare cereals and foods. Analysis of the ground stone assemblage from a Middle Bronze Age copper mining and production site at Ambelikou Aletri in Cyprus provided an opportunity to distinguish industrial and domestic ground stone tools and to identify the types of tools used in different stages of metal production. A comparison of tool morphologies, raw materials, and wear and breakage patterns from Ambelikou Aletri with those from contemporary domestic contexts, suggests that distinctions in the nature and structure of industrial and domestic tool kits do exist and those distinctions have an important role to play in identifying mining, smelting, and casting sites in the future.     

石质文物表面防护中的问题和新材料

野外的大型石质物暴露在自然界的风化环境中,近代环境污染和酸雨使侵蚀更加严重,已有许多防护材料用于石质物的防护,本分析了目前防护材料,特别是憎水性有机高分子防护材料在使用中存在的问题,并初步探索了使用新的生物无机防护材料的可能性。     

A Response to Tomás Halík

Abstract

The Churches were significant players in the debate surrounding what has been called Britain's "lost opportunity" in the 1940s and 50s to play a leading role in building a united Europe. This article focuses on Christian theological and historical assumptions about humanity as a universal community, the nation and the Church. It examines Christian discourse about the political dimension of these communities and the part that Christianity as a belief system should ideally play between them. It then outlines the "Christendom" narrative, which represented medieval Europe as a model for the future of Europe, as a partial realization of the ideal alignment of power and culture, which in its decay was the cause of international crisis. Finally, some of the points of tension between Christendom, British national identity, and a united Europe among Christians are discussed.     

Investigating the presence of ancient absorbed organic residues in groundstone using GC–MS and other analytical techniques: a residue study of several prehistoric milling tools from central California

Analysis of absorbed organic molecules in groundstone could provide a valuable means to study resource use and processing in antiquity. The following study analyzed extracts from the surfaces of several central California milling tools to assess whether organic residues remained from prehistoric resource processing. It also sought to determine which source identification methods are likely to be successful at providing information about the type, or even the specific identify, of resources that were processed. Lipids (primarily fatty acids) were analyzed using GC–MS and the presence of phenolic compounds was assessed with UV-Vis spectroscopy. Milling surfaces were compared to previously broken surfaces from the same tool with the assumption that both surfaces had been exposed to similar post-depositional conditions. Results supported the presence of ancient residues in milling tools. A higher concentration of fatty acids was recovered from milling surfaces than paired broken surfaces. Furthermore, measurable amounts of azelaic acid (an oxidation product of some unsaturated fatty acids) were present in most milling surfaces, but not in broken surfaces. However, results also indicated that environmentally absorbed lipids formed a significant portion of the total lipid content. Thus, it is suggested that future analyses employ a biomarker approach, rather than criteria based on ratios of common fatty acids, to identify sources of organic residues in prehistoric milling tools.     

Joined-Up Archaeology at Old Scatness,Shetland: Thin Section Analysis of the Site and Hinterland

Abstract

Excavations on the multi-period settlement at Old Scatness, Shetland have uncovered a number of Iron Age structures with compacted, floor-like layers. Thin section analysis was undertaken in order to investigate and compare the characteristics of these layers. The investigation also draws on earlier analyses of the Iron Age agricultural soil around the settlement and the midden deposits that accumulated within the settlement, to create a 'joined-up' analysis which considers the way material from the settlement was used and then recycled as fertiliser for the fields. Peat was collected from the nearby uplands and was used for fuel and possibly also for flooring. It is suggested that organic-rich floors from the structures were periodically removed and the material was spread onto the fields as fertilisers. More organic-rich material may have been used selectively for fertiliser, while the less organic peat ash was allowed to accumulate in middens. Several of the structures may have functioned as byres, which suggests a prehistoric plaggen system.     

Mobile Media as New Forms of Spatialization

Abstract

The physical space has historically served as an important support for human expression. However, the production of location-based information has been consciously used as means of social control by the hegemonic power, which decides what can be publicly displayed, and what should be hidden. With the development of mobile media, space has gained new dimensions, resulting in a sort of hybrid space where digital information overlays the physical space revealing what was previous unknown about a place. As mobile devices become increasingly present in our society, they should be understood as a social interface to our experience of space, serving not only as means to consume information, but also tools for communication. This paper discuss the current mobile media practices, such as mapping, urban electronic annotations, location-based mobile games, and smart mobs, which creates opportunities for new forms of human expression, reappropriations of space, and contestation of hegemonic power.     

Processing together,celebrating apart: shared processions in the Latin East

ABSTRACT

Twelfth-century narrative accounts in Armenian, Syriac and Latin recount a number of processions in Syria and Palestine in which both Eastern Christians and Latins participated. Processions were one of the many ways by which the Franks expressed their political dominance over the urban (and likely also the rural) landscape, but it was also a way that all Christian communities used to express and even construct relationships among themselves. Scholars often assume that the procession performs (in a Durkheimian sense) the work of creating or displaying unity. Yet the scattered sources of the twelfth-century Frankish Levant suggest that this is only one of the functions an inter-confessional procession can play. As common were processions that delimited, separated and hierarchised communities.     

“That type of thing does give you a boost”: Control,Self‐valorisation,and Autonomist Worker Copings in Call Centres

There are growing concerns over current and future incarnations of routine work, based on the rise of technology and its perceived impact on skill requirements in the labour market. Drawing on Autonomist Marxist (AM) literature, the following article demonstrates how and why workers are likely to play a role in maintaining meaningful forms of work. Complimenting labour process research, which focuses on the role of worker “resistance” in the workplace, we develop a more nuanced perspective on worker agency and the human potential to create meaning through self‐governance in even the most unlikely service work encounters. Taking resilience and reworking agencies as subtle forms of “self‐valorisation”, we show how different spaces of routine work are mobilised for reproducing human connections and values in ways which act in opposition to management’s control and the evolution of unpleasant work environments.     

Author response: between liberty and discipline

Abstract

Most accounts of the microelectronics revolution have emphasized the role of military patronage and procurement in the shaping of silicon technology and the consolidation of the semiconductor industry. Little attention has been devoted, however, to the silicon industry's shift from military to commercial markets in the early and mid‐1960s. Drawing on an examination of Fairchild Semiconductor, the firm that initiated this shift, this essay argues that the silicon industry's expansion into non‐military markets was indissociable from deep changes in manufacturing, organizational structures as well as component and system technologies. Special attention is devoted to the ways in which Fairchild created a user base for its products in the computer and consumer electronics industries by hiring engineers from these sectors and encouraging them to design components as well as applications for the firm's potential customers. This article also examines how Fairchild introduced mass production techniques from the automotive and electrical industries, delocalized its assembly operations to South‐East Asia, and developed new packaging techniques to meet the cost and manufacturing requirements of commercial users. This article is intended to contribute to recent interest in the role of user ‐ supplier relations in technological change and, more specifically, to the question of the pervasive use of silicon components across a wide range of industrial sectors, a central phenomenon in the history of industrialized economies since the 1960s.     

化学保护的副作用及其对策的探索性研究:(Ⅰ)多层化学保护

化学防护和化学加固是目前保护土、石、砖等材质的不可移动文物的常用方法.所用化学材料主要是有机硅等憎水性有机化合物.这些材料能起到一定的防水和加固作用,但也存在不少问题,有的导致了更严重的破坏.其中,憎水性保护层的起壳剥落是最常见的破坏现象,特别当环境干湿循环频繁,文物本体或地下可溶性盐含量较高的情况下,憎水性化学保护层很容易从文物本体上起壳剥落,造成文物的加速腐蚀破坏.为了减小此类破坏的危害程度,本工作探讨了化学保护剂在混合使用和多层配合使用条件下的防护和加固效果.结果发现,以憎水性较弱的化学材料做基底渗透,以憎水性较强的化学材料做表而保护,由此构成的多层保护措施可以降低化学保护层起壳剥落的危害.其主要原因是,多层保护形成的憎水梯度分散了吸湿膨胀形成的界面拉应力,也缓解了盐结晶析出产生的膨胀应力.     

Nuclear Energy: Beliefs,Values and Acceptability

Abstract

The last decade has seen a dramatic increase in public concern about nuclear energy. As a consequence, it has become recognised that the future of nuclear energy will not only depend on technical and economic factors, but that public acceptability of this technology will play a crucial role in the long-term future of nuclear energy. Research has shown a considerable divergence in public and expert assessment of the risks associated with nuclear energy. Qualitative aspects of risks play a dominant role in the public's perception of risks, and it seems necessary for experts to recognise this in order to improve relations with the general public. It is also clear, however, that differences in the perception of risks do not embrace all the relevant aspects of the public's assessment of nuclear energy. Public reaction is also related to more general beliefs and values, and the issue of nuclear energy is embedded in a much wider moral and political domain.     

The Wizard War

Abstract

This review examines some little known aspects of historical garden design, dealing especially with meanings and complex allusions to ideas beyond the mere notion of an agreeable, shady, cool garden with plants to give pleasure. The author discusses some eighteenth century gardens in which mnemonic devices played a major role, and reveals some unusual themes of the Enlightenment.     

A Five-Step Procedure for the Dimensioning of Viscous Dampers to Be Inserted in Building Structures

Viscous dampers have widely proved their effectiveness in mitigating the effects of the seismic action upon building structures. In view of the large impact that use of such dissipative devices is already having and would most likely have soon in earthquake engineering applications, this article presents a practical procedure for the seismic design of building structures equipped with viscous dampers, which aims at providing practical tools for an easy identification of the mechanical characteristics of the manufactured viscous dampers which allow to achieve target levels of performances. Selected numerical applications are developed with reference to simple, but yet relevant, cases.     

Experimental Study on Postponing the Deboning of FRP Sheets in Masonry Walls

ABSTRACT

A large number of buildings all around the world are constructed of unreinforced masonry. These structures do not act well during earthquakes because of their vulnerable behavior. In last two decades, fiber-reinforced polymers (FRPs) has been used widely in seismic rehabilitation and strengthening unreinforced concrete and masonry structures. One important issue in using FRP composites for strengthening masonry walls is the inopportune debonding of composites from the wall surface; thus, in this article new methods are proposed to further delay the mentioned debonding issue. For this purpose, 13 masonry panels with 100x870x870 mm dimension are strengthened by using carbon and glass FRPs (CFRPs and GFRPs). A variety of strengthening methods such as surface preparation, boring, grooving, nailing, and plaster are used to mount FRP composites to the walls. For each specimen subjected to diagonal compression test, the loading level along with tensile and compressive diagonal displacements are evaluated. In order to assess the effect of FRP composites, four unreinforced masonry walls are tested as well. The results show 110% increase in ductility index of reinforced specimens compared to the unreinforced ones.     

The wrong plan: some thoughts on National Missile Defense

Abstract

The current proposals to construct a system of hit to kill interceptors as a safeguard against missiles which might be launched against the USA by a rogue state are shown in this paper to be badly flawed. Any nation with the ability to develop and construct an intercontinental ballistic missile would also likely be capable of employing countermeasures against interception. In short, the system would be unlikely to work against a missile travelling unpowered at great speed through space. If the USA is determined to have protection against such attack it would be far cheaper and more efficient to employ antimissile devices nearer to potential sources and to intercept hostile projectiles at the booster stage. It might even be possible to collaborate with Russia on such a scheme, which would not violate the spirit of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.     

Land-holding,participation in agriculture and short-term migration in rural India

ABSTRACT

We analyse a nationally representative data set from India for the year 2013 in order to provide evidence on how short-term migration is affected by household ownership of land and participation in agricultural activities. We estimate a recursive-bivariate-probit model recognising the simultaneity between short-term migration and the decision to operate the land. The results of the likelihood ratio test imply that it would be incorrect to ignore this simultaneity. Households with less than 1?ha of land and those leasing out land are more likely to have a short-term migrant. Households leaving their land fallow, a common occurrence in South Asia, are also more likely to have a short-term migrant. Moreover, the choice of crops and livestock farming has a significant role to play in the migration decision. Current initiatives to increase coverage of irrigation and facilitate access to formal finance could improve the livelihoods of small and marginal farmers, thereby reducing the probability of distress-related short-term migration.     

The painting of the Etruscan “Tomba della Quadriga Infernale” (4th century BC), in Sarteano (Siena, Italy): technical features

This work presents the results of an investigation of the painting technique used in the Etruscan tomb “Tomba della Quadriga Infernale”. This tomb was discovered in Sarteano (Siena, Italy) in October 2003 and dated back to the second half of the 4th century BC. Red, dark red, pink, yellow, white, black, and grey colours were used in the tomb in order to create paintings, which now represent a very precious record of the Etruscan art of wall painting in a hypogeal environment. The technical features of the painting were revealed by stratigraphy using optical and electronic microscopy. The components and preparatory layers of the painted areas were characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis (SEM-EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). XRD, SEM-EDS, and optical microscopic techniques were also used for mineralogical analysis of the rock substrate. The SEM-EDS and FTIR analyses showed that red and yellow ochre, calcite, and vegetable charcoal were used to paint the walls of the tomb: the pigments, either alone or mixed together, were utilized to produce pure colours (red, yellow, white, and black) and intermediate tonalities (pink, dark red, and grey). SEM-EDS, FTIR, and XRD highlighted that the painting was made on a preparatory layer of calcite, applied onto a levelling material made up of calcite, clay minerals, quartz, and iron oxides. GC/MS analyses revealed that egg was used as an organic binder to disperse the pigments.