DESCARTES and his project of a fantasized brain

ABSTRACT. Interest in anatomy dates from the earliest times. Such knowledge was acquired through dissections of animals and human corpses by many researchers. The macroscopic anatomy of the varied structures of the brain were identified over the centuries, and the predominating solid substance was seen as amorphous, and devoid of any specific function, until the Renaissance. René Descartes, a personage with a brilliant and creative mind, conceived the brain, its structure and function, in a distinct manner to what was known at his time. He valued the solid matter and gave it, for the first time, a theoretical minute structure, related to a presumptive function based on the presence of the pineal gland and the animal spirits, underlying cognitive, sensory and motor activities. Such structural view was endorsed, in a given sense, by the microscopic findings of Marcello Malpighi, which begun to change the understanding of the nervous system.

Synthesis of Glucopyranosyl Acetic from Sago Flour as Raw Material for the Synthetic Polymers

Synthesis of glucopyranosyl acetic from sago flour as raw material for the synthetic polymers has been successfully carried out. The synthesis product is obtained through two reaction stages, namely the hydrolysis and esterification reactions. Sago flour is hydrolyzed with 25% HCl and neutralized with 45% NaOH. Glucose hydrolysis of sago starch and acetic anhydride was esterified using a zinc chloride catalyst. Synthesis product was obtained as a white solid substance (57.31% recovery), a melting point of 110 - 111oC, and Rf 0.79 on TLC (SiO2, n-hexane: ethyl acetate = 9:1 v/v). The results of the analysis of synthesis products with FTIR and GC-MS spectrometers showed that the synthesis product was glucopyranosyl acetic or 2,3,4,6-tetra-O-acetyl glucopyranose.

About the anterior internal bundle of the lateral columns of the spinal cord

As is known, R. Flechsig for the first time, according to the method of development, isolated the part of the good substance adjacent to the solid substance under the name of the lateral boundary layer. He was convinced that in the brains of the fruits of an early period, for example, 25 stm. length, that area of ​​the lateral column, which remains minus the lateral pyramidal and cerebellar bundles and which he calls the remainder of the lateral pillars, according to the time of development of the fibers, it can be divided into 2 parts: one contains already pulpy fibers, while the other consists of non-pulpy fibers.

Isolation of lupeol from the stem bark of Leptadenia hastata (Pers.) Decne

Dried stem bark powder of Leptadania hastata was subjected to maceration with methanol to afford crude methanol extract, which was partitioned with n-hexane, ethylacetate, chloroform and n- butanol to afford different their respective fractions. Extensive phytochemical screening of the n-hexane fraction using column chromatography resulted to the isolation of a white solid substance. The substance was identified as of lupeol using IR, 1D – NMR, 2D – NMR data and by comparison with reference spectral data. Keywords: Leptadenia hastata, Isolation, Lupeol, 1D – NMR, 2D – NMR

Variation of axillary growth as respond of Morus spp. micropropagation using various concentration of Indonesian local solid substance

Wulandari YRE, Anggradita LD. 2020. Variation of axillary growth as respond of Morus spp. micropropagation using various concentrations of Indonesian local solid substance. Biodiversitas 21: 80-85. The difficulties of growing Morus spp. makes it become one local plant that hard to cultivate conventionally even though it’s a beneficiary plant. Hence cultivation Morus spp. through tissue culture technique could help growing this plant. This research is aimed to design the optimal condition for micropropagation of local Morus spp. (Morus bombycis var. lembang, M. cathayana, M. multicaulis, and M. alba var. kanva-2) using agar-agar as Indonesian local solid substance. This solid substance is used as its cheap and easy to find compared to other solid substances. This research used MS medium supplemented with 0.1 ppm naphthalene acetic acid + 1.0 ppm benzyl aminopurine and various concentration of agar-agar (0.6%, 0.8%, 1.0%). Growth rate, axillary bud length and number, leaf number, callus formation and contamination were observed in this research. All those concentrations could be used for micropropagation of Morus spp. Agar concentrations of 0.8 and 1.0% showed better results than 0.6% because it showed the highest results.

Aerodynamics of Monolithic Matrices for Supporting Solid Reactant or Catalyst

Heterogeneous solid/fluid chemical reactions—as well as reactions dependent on solid catalysts—require spreading the active solid substance on the largest accessible area. The solution is a thin layer covering as much as possible convoluted surface of an inert support. This is nowadays the internal surface of narrow parallel passages. The supporting body is usually ceramic, its passages now mostly of square cross section. Reliable detailed knowledge of pressure drop across the set of passages has to be available, especially for flow control based on fluid property changes (e.g., with temperature or fluid composition). This paper presents results of laboratory measurements as well as numerical flowfield computations of the passage flows, with discovered universal law.

Sound Words: Hymns in Twentieth-Century Literature

Why, in the twentieth century, do atheist or agnostic authors write so many hymns into their poems and novels? This essay contends that attending to the frequent but overlooked hymn episodes in early to mid-twentieth-century literature, and to their historical contexts, can complicate our understanding of literary postures of faith, and of everyday sounds as ‘filler’ in modernist literature. Focusing on Stevie Smith and D. H. Lawrence, with reference to a range of other writers, it draws on unpublished archival material to argue that hymn-history reveals an alternative narrative to that of religious writing as conservative, and literary writing as radical. Hymn-compilers often sought modernity, while poets and novelists tended to privilege older, more dated hymns. This ideological clash led to a literary approach which defiantly accommodated ‘bad old hymns’ through nostalgic reminiscence and extensive quotation. Used in this way, hymn oscillates between a status as textual padding and as focal point: an embarrassingly excessive and solid substance which nevertheless enables embarrassment to be discharged. Ultimately, the muffling, ostensibly authoritative substance of hymn, in twentieth-century literature, fills up gaps in which too much might resound or be revealed: it offers literary writing an opportunity to accommodate and neutralize awkwardness, failure and error.

Photoluminescence and Cathodoluminescence of the Solid Cometary Substance

We have proposed that solar ultraviolet and corpuscular radiations may excite photoluminescence and cathodoluminescence of the solid cometary substance including mineral halos of comets. Main characteristics of such possible luminescence and physical mechanisms of these phenomena have considered. Results of the tentative identification of previously unknown cometary emissions and data of laboratory research of meteorites are presented. We have shown as well that cometary solid substance may demonstrate red luminescence - similar of red luminescence by the circumstellar dust. Some other aspects of the problem have also been considered.