scholarly journals Microbial-Driven Stabilisation of Archaeological Iron Artefacts

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 274-292
Author(s):  
Sarah James ◽  
Edith Joseph

The instability of iron artefacts is rooted in salt contamination during burial and damages associated with exposure to alternative oxygen levels and high relative humidity once excavated. While a combination of chemical and mechanical treatments is utilised to remove the harmful ions (chlorides, sulphur species) and excess bulky corrosion products, these methods can be hazardous for conservation staff’s health, have limited success, or require extensive treatment times. Bio-based treatments provide a potentially greener alternative for removing damaging corrosion and creating biogenic mineral passivation layers, thus remediating concerns over costs, duration, and health and safety. Pseudomonas putida mt-2 (KT2440) is capable of utilising iron under certain conditions and for phosphating mild steel; however, applications have not been made in the cultural heritage sector. To address the potential of using bacteria for conservation purposes, Pseudomonas was assessed for both the bioremediation of salt contaminates and the production of a passivation layer suitable for iron artefacts, with specific conservation concerns in mind. Key factors for optimisation include the role of agitation, chloride content, and oxygen content on bacterial growth and biomineralisation. The initial results indicate a growth preference, not reliance, for NaCl and agitation with partial success of bioconversion of a mineral source.

1996 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 109
Author(s):  
George Barker

The late 1980s and early 1990s saw a revolution in economic policy and a transformation of the New Zealand economy. Such events also involved a revolution in legal thought and analysis. This article brings the main elements of this new economic approach to law and policy to a wider audience. It seeks to review the main features of the recent and significant advances that have been made in the economic analysis of organisations and institutions. The article first discusses the fundamental factors which must be recognised as constraints on the ability to secure an ideal society. It then discusses how private arrangements seek to overcome these constraints and the limits to their success. The role of the state in alleviating or overcoming problems with private solutions is also discussed, with the author stressing the need to recognise that the state is not an omniscient and omnipotent solver of social problems. The author concludes that the analysis of government and government policy needs to be based on a comparative institutional approach involving an assessment of institutional structures according to the processes and outcomes they involve, utilising generally accepted criteria for making social choices. Key factors that must be considered in comparing alternative means for achieving social goals are identified. 


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Jankit Chotigo ◽  
Yasuo Kadono

BACKGROUND: Recently, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, customer sentiment has evolved as the new “normal” for food consumption—as it affects customer behavioral change, including the way customers eat. Therefore, understanding customer demands and needs will help food delivery aggregators and retailers produce sustainable, competitive advantage and drive profitability. OBJECTIVE: This paper aims to investigate the determinant factors of Thai consumers’ intention to use on-demand food delivery applications. METHODS: Convenient random sampling was used to gather data from 250 participants who have used food delivery applications in Thailand and Amos version 23 to test model validity and the hypotheses. RESULTS: The results show that satisfaction is critical for the intention to use food delivery applications. Social influence, trust, convenience, and application quality were found to play an essential role in meeting the needs of satisfaction toward the intention to use, and application quality is the most important. However, habit showed a negative relationship, and price value was found to have a nonsignificant impact on satisfaction. CONCLUSIONS: Food delivery aggregators should ensure the quality of application updates and efficiency and that users have the best quality experience to maintain customer satisfaction. However, customers are also concerned about their health and safety, which has altered their purchasing behavior. Therefore, restaurant players should add a third delivery system that optimize online ordering and delivery.


Author(s):  
Petar Halachev ◽  
Victoria Radeva ◽  
Albena Nikiforova ◽  
Miglena Veneva

This report is dedicated to the role of the web site as an important tool for presenting business on the Internet. Classification of site types has been made in terms of their application in the business and the types of structures in their construction. The Models of the Life Cycle for designing business websites are analyzed and are outlined their strengths and weaknesses. The stages in the design, construction, commissioning, and maintenance of a business website are distinguished and the activities and requirements of each stage are specified.


Author(s):  
Stephen Yablo

Aboutness has been studied from any number of angles. Brentano made it the defining feature of the mental. Phenomenologists try to pin down the aboutness features of particular mental states. Materialists sometimes claim to have grounded aboutness in natural regularities. Attempts have even been made, in library science and information theory, to operationalize the notion. However, it has played no real role in philosophical semantics, which is surprising. This is the first book to examine through a philosophical lens the role of subject matter in meaning. A long-standing tradition sees meaning as truth conditions, to be specified by listing the scenarios in which a sentence is true. Nothing is said about the principle of selection—about what in a scenario gets it onto the list. Subject matter is the missing link here. A sentence is true because of how matters stand where its subject matter is concerned. This book maintains that this is not just a feature of subject matter, but its essence. One indicates what a sentence is about by mapping out logical space according to its changing ways of being true or false. The notion of content that results—directed content—is brought to bear on a range of philosophical topics, including ontology, verisimilitude, knowledge, loose talk, assertive content, and philosophical methodology. The book represents a major advance in semantics and the philosophy of language.


2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (11) ◽  
pp. 800-818
Author(s):  
Zujian Xiong ◽  
Xuejun Li ◽  
Qi Yang

Pituitary Tumor Transforming Gene (PTTG) of human is known as a checkpoint gene in the middle and late stages of mitosis, and is also a proto-oncogene that promotes cell cycle progression. In the nucleus, PTTG works as securin in controlling the mid-term segregation of sister chromatids. Overexpression of PTTG, entering the nucleus with the help of PBF in pituitary adenomas, participates in the regulation of cell cycle, interferes with DNA repair, induces genetic instability, transactivates FGF-2 and VEGF and promotes angiogenesis and tumor invasion. Simultaneously, overexpression of PTTG induces tumor cell senescence through the DNA damage pathway, making pituitary adenoma possessing the potential self-limiting ability. To elucidate the mechanism of PTTG in the regulation of pituitary adenomas, we focus on both the positive and negative function of PTTG and find out key factors interacted with PTTG in pituitary adenomas. Furthermore, we discuss other possible mechanisms correlate with PTTG in pituitary adenoma initiation and development and the potential value of PTTG in clinical treatment.


2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (7) ◽  
pp. 1041-1051 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Spartalis ◽  
Eleftherios Spartalis ◽  
Antonios Athanasiou ◽  
Stavroula A. Paschou ◽  
Christos Kontogiannis ◽  
...  

Atherosclerotic disease is still one of the leading causes of mortality. Atherosclerosis is a complex progressive and systematic artery disease that involves the intima of the large and middle artery vessels. The inflammation has a key role in the pathophysiological process of the disease and the infiltration of the intima from monocytes, macrophages and T-lymphocytes combined with endothelial dysfunction and accumulated oxidized low-density lipoprotein (LDL) are the main findings of atherogenesis. The development of atherosclerosis involves multiple genetic and environmental factors. Although a large number of genes, genetic polymorphisms, and susceptible loci have been identified in chromosomal regions associated with atherosclerosis, it is the epigenetic process that regulates the chromosomal organization and genetic expression that plays a critical role in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. Despite the positive progress made in understanding the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis, the knowledge about the disease remains scarce.


Author(s):  
Amy Strecker

The final chapter of this book advances four main conclusions on the role of international law in landscape protection. These relate to state obligations regarding landscape protection, the influence of the World Heritage Convention and the European Landscape Convention, the substantive and procedural nature of landscape rights, and the role of EU law. It is argued that, although state practice is lagging behind the normative developments made in the field of international landscape protection, landscape has contributed positively to the corpus of international cultural heritage law and indeed has emerged as a nascent field of international law in its own right.


Universe ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (12) ◽  
pp. 226 ◽  
Author(s):  
Don Koks

I analyse the role of simultaneity in relativistic rotation by building incrementally on its role in simpler scenarios. Historically, rotation has been analysed in 1 + 1 dimensions; but my stance is that a 2 + 1 -dimensional treatment is necessary. This treatment requires a discussion of what constitutes a frame, how coordinate choices differ from frame choices, and how poor coordinates can be misleading. I determine how precisely we are able to define a meaningful time coordinate on a gravity-free rotating Earth, and discuss complications due to gravity on our real Earth. I end with a critique of several statements made in relativistic precision-timing literature, that I maintain contradict the tenets of relativity. Those statements tend to be made in the context of satellite-based navigation; but they are independent of that technology, and hence are not validated by its success. I suggest that if relativistic precision-timing adheres to such analyses, our civilian timing is likely to suffer in the near future as clocks become ever more precise.


2021 ◽  
pp. 088506662199232
Author(s):  
Xiaojuan Zhang ◽  
Xin Li

Septic shock with multiple organ failure is a devastating situation in clinical settings. Through the past decades, much progress has been made in the management of sepsis and its underlying pathogenesis, but a highly effective therapeutic has not been developed. Recently, macromolecules such as histones have been targeted in the treatment of sepsis. Histones primarily function as chromosomal organizers to pack DNA and regulate its transcription through epigenetic mechanisms. However, a growing body of research has shown that histone family members can also exert cellular toxicity once they relocate from the nucleus into the extracellular space. Heparin, a commonly used anti-coagulant, has been shown to possess life-saving capabilities for septic patients, but the potential interplay between heparin and extracellular histones has not been investigated. In this review, we summarize the pathogenic roles of extracellular histones and the therapeutic roles of heparin in the development and management of sepsis and septic shock.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document