Structure Determination, Thermal Stability and Dissolution Rate of δ Indomethacin

<div> <p>The structure solution of the δ-polymorph of indomethacin was obtained using three-dimensional electron diffraction. This form shows a significantly enhanced dissolution rate compared with the more common and better studied α- and γ-polymorphs, indicating an increased bioavailability for medicinal applications. The structure was solved in non-centrosymmetric space group <i>P</i>2₁ and comprises two molecules in the asymmetric unit. Packing and molecule conformation closely resemble indomethacin methyl ester and indomethacin methanol solvate. Knowledge of the structure allowed the rational interpretation of spectroscopic IR and Raman data for δ-polymorph and a tentative interpretation for still unsolved indomethacin polymorphs. Finally, we observed a solid-solid transition from δ-polymorph to α-polymorph that can be driven by similarities in molecular conformation.</p> </div> <br>

Structure Determination, Thermal Stability and Dissolution Rate of δ Indomethacin

<div> <p>The structure solution of the δ-polymorph of indomethacin was obtained using three-dimensional electron diffraction. This form shows a significantly enhanced dissolution rate compared with the more common and better studied α- and γ-polymorphs, indicating an increased bioavailability for medicinal applications. The structure was solved in non-centrosymmetric space group <i>P</i>2₁ and comprises two molecules in the asymmetric unit. Packing and molecule conformation closely resemble indomethacin methyl ester and indomethacin methanol solvate. Knowledge of the structure allowed the rational interpretation of spectroscopic IR and Raman data for δ-polymorph and a tentative interpretation for still unsolved indomethacin polymorphs. Finally, we observed a solid-solid transition from δ-polymorph to α-polymorph that can be driven by similarities in molecular conformation.</p> </div> <br>

Christian textual amulet on a lead sheet from Rękawczyn in Greater Poland Province

The subject of this article is the discovery of a lead amulet with an engraved Latin inscription. It was found in Rękawczyn (the eastern part of Greater Poland) in 2018 during research conducted by the District Museum in Konin. This artefact is the first and so far only find of its kind in a Polish context. It was identified by comparing it to similar finds from Germany and Bohemia from the 11th-13th centuries that bear apotropaic Latin inscriptions. The text on the amulet consists of 24 lines, which are barely legible and which contain a long quotation from the Gospel of John followed by an apotropaic formula with magical words. The reconstruction of the text is accompanied by a tentative interpretation and commentary. The palaeographical analysis of the script (Gothic minuscule) dates the amulet to the second half of the 14th century. The study presents the amulet in the wider context of similar inscriptions of European origin.

Ionians and Carians in an Aramaic Letter from Saqqâra: Notes for a Tentative Interpretation of NSaqPap 26

This paper aims to present preliminary textual and historical observations towards a more comprehensive interpretation of a late 5th-4th cent. BC fragmentary letter of a Persian official from the corpus of Aramaic papyri of Saqqâra (NSaqPap 26). The understanding of this document, which deals with some situation of turbulence arisen between the Persian administration at Memphis/Saqqâra and the Ionians and Carians who lived and worked on the spot, is rendered complicated by the poor conditions of preservation of the papyrus, whose top and right portions are lost. Apart from the editio princeps by J.B. Segal (Aramaic Texts from North Saqqâra, London 1983, no. 26) and few additional notes in the reviews of it by J. Teixidor (JAOS1985) and S. Shaked (Orientalia1987), specific contributions on the piece are lacking. More in particular, despite its relevance to the study of the long-established communities of Greeks and Carians in Egypt, the letter has not received yet an adequate treatment from the historical point of view. Following a lexical and syntactical revision, I provide a new tentative translation of the text, with the aim to reach as thorough and coherent an interpretation of the document as possible, and to shed further light on the living conditions of the communities of Ionians and Carians in Egypt under the Persian rule. By further contextualizing the events described in the letter with the aid of external sources, I argue for a mercenary revolt that affected the storehouses at the port of Memphis as the situation that prompted the response of the local Persian administration.

International Cultural Heritage Conventions and the Central Asian Region: Current Framework and Future Perspectives

Acknowledging the value and importance of culture at local, national and global levels, the international community has progressively developed a series of conventions for the protection, preservation and enhancement of cultural heritage. Each of these conventions provides a unique set of binding principles and practices that member-states must follow in order to strengthen the protection of the heritage at stake. Still, while some of these laws have been enthusiastically embraced by Central Asian countries, others have been mostly ignored or avoided. This article aims to briefly examine three issues. First, the current rate of ratification of these conventions in the Central Asian region. Second, the main reasons why some of these legal documents have not received a spread endorsement in Central Asia. Third, a tentative interpretation of Central Asian states’ intentions over the next years.

The ‘refugee crisis’ in Europe: shortening distances, containment and asymmetry of rights—a tentative interpretation of the 2015–16 events

This article analyses the recent growth in asylum applications both in and at the borders of Europe. It enriches the scholarship on the so-called ‘refugee crisis’ with an emphasis on structural transformations and geographical processes. While an increase in regional violence near Europe in 2015 played a key role in triggering displacements, we suggest three longer-term factors that may have facilitated access to European borders but led to urgent and often dangerous migratory situations for asylum seekers: the ‘shortening’ of distances, the crisis of containment policies and the geographic asymmetry of rights. On this basis, we interpret the EU policy of closing borders as an attempt to (re)create a geographic buffer separating refugees from their destinations in the context of the globalization of asylum-related issues.

Tradizione giurisprudenziale manoscritta dei Digesta e tabulae ceratae da Londinium: TLond. 55 e 57

The comparison between the texts of the Roman jurists (which we know in a fragmentary way thanks to Justinian’s Digesta) and the records of specific cases helps us to better understand some aspects of the formation of Roman law. In these pages, I discuss two tabulae ceratae found at Londinium and edited by Tomlin in 2016. Concerning TLond. 55 – already studied by Camodeca and Nasti in 2017 – a better comparison is offered between its formula of stipulatio, which appears in the text (curari... dari), and the one included in two passages by the Roman jurist Labeo (D. 12.1.42.1; D. 45.1.67.1). With regards to TLond. 57, I provide here a first tentative interpretation. The document seems to be related to the trial and to the procedural representation.

The lexicon of the “act of accepting (pratigraha)”: an approach to the multilayered Vedic culture

This joint work has its ground (and scope) in a variation-oriented reading of the Vedic sources, here applied to those which mention the act of the so-called “[gift-]acceptance” (pratigraha) within mechanisms for attaining and distributing the “goods of life” among all the members of a community. The most ancient occurrences are read and contrasted against the subsequent socio-ritual context where the well-known homonymous privilege and peculiar means of livelihood for Brahmans is depicted. The tentative interpretation of the relevant passages and the consequent reconstruction of the several layers of the Vedic lexicon revolving around the verbal base prati-grah- might contribute to better assessing the presence of a specific Indo-Aryan cultural matrix that might have pre-existed (and co-existed with) the mainstream Vedic world, and to better understanding how later knowledge systems succeeded in creating a new all-encompassing balance.

A circular pool in the main courtyard (1) of the „Hellenistic” House in Nea Paphos: preliminary remarks

Excavations in the main courtyard of the “Hellenistic” House in Nea Paphos in 2016, Polish excavations, revealed a small circular pool with immured tops of Dressel 6A amphorae in the wall surrounding it and a circular imprint in the middle of the floor. The paper undertakes a discussion of possible form and function, putting forward a tentative interpretation based on a study of parallels that we are dealing with an ornamental pool, a popular furnishing of wealthy Roman house gardens, functioning perhaps as a fishpond (piscina) or a tank with water constantly running in and out, with a labrum or columnar pedestal standing in the middle.