Advanced design of Chinese traditional materials for the conservation of historic stone buildings

The conservation of historic stone buildings and sculptures is recently receiving growing attention and becoming a focus of research because of rapid changes in weather conditions (pollution, acid rain, etc.). Presently, techniques for stone conservation primarily involve the use of organic coating treatments, but their side effects have been recognized. In contrast, some traditional materials used in historic stone buildings function well for thousands of years. In this paper, we report our research on the reasons why traditional protective materials can provide an unexpected long-term protection. First, calcium carbonate was prepared according to a formula for making Chinese traditional consolidating materials, and its structure and morphology were examined by different instruments. Second, the reinforcing effectiveness of the prepared CaCO₃ powders was tested and analyzed by investigating its surface characteristics. The experimental results reveal that a biocontrolled process occurs, in which an organic template can induce the precipitation of a mineral structure, which in turn results in a great improvement in the conservation of the historic stone buildings protected by these traditional protective materials. This provides a contribution toward the development of new researches on biocontrolled processes and on some protective materials with excellent performance through biocontrolled synthesis.     

Lucy Hutchinson,Lucretius and Soteriological Materialism

Abstract

This article examines Lucy Hutchinson's pervasive materialism, arguing that her use of corporeal imagery – in part shaped by her early translation of Lucretius – contributes to the soteriological purposes of her later works in multiple ways. Criticism on Hutchinson has tended to divorce the materialist imagery of her translation from the Calvinistic themes of her other writings. I argue, however, for the lasting presence of a materialism constructed from the vocabularies of Lucretian Epicureanism, Neoplatonism and John Owen. Focusing especially on the poem Order and Disorder and Hutchinson's theological tract to her daughter, I show how she uses materialism as a “means” to achieving assurance and grace. I suggest that these various responses to physical experience are part of Hutchinson's enduring investigation into the ontology of “Order” and “Disorder”, and her quest for stable spiritual being.     

Differentiating between anthropogenic calcite in plaster,ash and natural calcite using infrared spectroscopy: implications in archaeology

Infrared spectroscopy provides information not only on the type of calcium carbonate polymorph, but also on the extent of atomic order. In calcite, three major infrared absorption peaks are identified: ν₃, ν₂, and ν₄. It was shown that the ratio between ν₂ and ν₄ bands reflects the order of the calcite crystal structure. In this paper we analyse this ratio in geologically formed calcites, archaeological plasters, modern plasters and experimentally prepared plasters. For the geological calcite, the values of the ν₂/ν₄ ratio are around 3, whereas for the experimentally prepared plasters, the values are around 6.5. The ν₂/ν₄ ratio for archaeological plasters varies from 3 to 6. This shows that a high ratio is indicative of disorder in the crystal, and implies that the calcite was formed from calcium oxide at high temperatures. It also implies that this disorder can be preserved for at least 14,000 years. The ν₂/ν₄ ratio of calcite from archaeological sites can thus be used to differentiate between anthropogenic calcite, such as in plaster, mortar and wood ash, from geogenic calcite, such as in limestone. The ratio may also be used to identify plaster or ash that still retains its original crystals and therefore carbon-14 content.     

基于人地关系的生态旅游地域系统演变定量分析

本研究通过建立人类活动无序度和生态环境承载力评价指标体系和模型,用简化系统结构关系的方法测算生态旅游地域系统熵值,以此来分析生态旅游地域系统的功能状况;生态旅游地域系统中人类活动主要是旅游者的旅游活动、当地社区和居民的活动和当地旅游业活动三个方面,构建了27个具体指标来评价人类活动的无序度;生态环境承载力主要通过自然基础、生态系统、水资源和大气环境四个方面共8个具体指标来测算。最后通过生态旅游地域系统熵变即两个不同时刻人类活动无序度熵变和生态环境承载力熵变差值,来判断生态旅游地域系统在时间断面上的演变方向和可持续发展能力。     

Camp evolution and Israel's creation: Between ‘state of emergency’ and ‘emergence of state’

This paper examines the central role of the camp in the early Israeli state period and its spatial and geopolitical evolution. Unlike official Israeli history, which presents the immigrant camps as an inevitable improvised response to the unexpected problem of mass immigration, I examine the camp as a strategic modern biopolitical instrument that allowed for the state's profound geopolitical changes and was itself altered according to them. The paper analyses the ways in which the camp facilitated the creation of Israel as a state formed by two seemingly contradictory, but in fact complementary, conditions: on one hand, a product of a chaotic ‘state of emergency’ and a form of ‘ordered disorder’ created by mass immigration, and on the other hand, a product of a comprehensive, tightly controlled modernist project combining physical planning and social engineering. This duality reveals the role of these immigrant camps, which were created both in Israel and abroad, as spatial ‘black holes’ which swallowed the contradiction between the radical geopolitical transformation and the rational self-image of the Israeli state-building project. The evolving and hybrid typologies of the camp in Israel's pre-state and early-state periods expose it as a versatile instrument, highlighting the need for informed spatial and geographical genealogies of the camp in order to illuminate its various transformations.     

Making of the Seventh NWS: Historiography of the Beginning of the Nuclear Disorder in South Asia

ABSTRACT

Efforts to explore Pakistan's nuclear weapons options had been underway since 1972 alongside Pakistan's quest for nuclear energy. However, the American concerns about Pakistan developing a nuclear weapons capability did not surface until after the Indian test in May 1974. The Indian nuclear test marked the beginning of the nuclear disorder in South Asia and paved way for Pakistan's nuclearization. This article assesses US non-proliferation policy towards Pakistan under the Gerald Ford administration from 1974 to 1977. The administration attempted to curb Pakistan's latent proliferation potential by pressuring France and Pakistan to cancel their plutonium reprocessing agreement. Though it remained unsuccessful in its attempts to restrain Pakistan's nuclear development, the administration tried to develop a quid pro quo with Pakistan by pushing the country to choose military aid over bomb. Pakistan chose the bomb for it felt that US non-proliferation policy in South Asia was skewed in favor of India.     

The Gordon-Hey Reflex

Nowadays, a neurologist, even in many years of practice, rarely sees a patient with Sydenham's chorea. Things were quite different during the period ±1850–±1950, when ‘chorea minor’ was the subject of hundreds of publications. In those days, the practising neurologist stood a good chance of coming across patients with such a degree of muscular hypotonia (a characteristic feature of severe Sydenham's) that he was inclined to infer the presence of paralysis. Those instances used to be denoted as chorea mollis or chorea paralytica. According to textbooks then considered to be authoritative, any doubt regarding the diagnosis of Sydenham's chorea was largely removed if one succeeded in eliciting Gordon-Hey's reflex. This eponym turns out to be as fascinating as the question of its still largely unclarified pathophysiology. In spite of that, mention of the reflex has wholly disappeared from the textbooks of neurology since circa forty years.     

The Early History of the Neuroscience of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Research on the neurobiology and pharmacotherapy of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has grown exponentially since 1980. A reasonable question is whether this research has improved our understanding and treatment of ADHD. This article describes relevant developments that took place roughly between 1900 and 1970. During this time, the efficacy of stimulant therapy for the disorder was established and the symptoms of ADHD were linked to many possible nervous system disorders including in the brain-stem, reticular formation, diencephalon, basal ganglia, frontal lobes, and cortex. In 1970, the catecholamine hypothesis of ADHD was proposed. It is concluded that early theories about the neurobiologic basis of ADHD anticipated core ideas of modern theory.     

从无序到有序：群体性事件与公民政治参与问题研究

近年来,作为无序政治参与表现的群体性事件在我国呈现出频发的趋势,要求我们不断思考公民有序政治参与的制度创新及其有效性问题。文章对群体性事件中公民无序政治参与的基本形式、产生原因进行了客观的分析,从坚持基本原则、健全制度建设、培育公民社会及提升公民能力素质四个方面探讨了促进公民无序政治参与向有序政治参与转变的可行性路径。     

Differentiation between Seizure and Hysteria in a Tenth-Century Persian Text: Hidāyat of al-Akhawayni (d. 983 AD)

Although hysteria is associated largely with the nineteenth century, we find the subject treated in a tenth-century Persian medical text, the Hidayat al-Muta`allemin Fi al-Tibb [A Guide to Medical Learners] by al-Akhawayni Bukhari (d. 983 AD), a prominent physician in the Persian history of medicine. In this article, we discuss al-Akhawayni’s views on seizure and hysteria and his differentiation between the two conditions, and we place it in a historical context.