Giovanni Pastrone’s Cabiria, Gesture, Modernism

Giovanni Pastrone’s epic Cabiria—not least because of its most famous technical innovation, the tracking or “Cabiria shot”—is a film preoccupied by gesture. In Cabiria the stylizations of human movement are central to the film’s establishment of a modernist vision of Italy in the context of an increasing technological interest in the analysis of human movement. Where modernism across all genres attends to gesture, from Edgar Degas’s dancers to the gait of Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, Cabiria does so with a modernist technology of the gaze that is now able to represent gesture in “real time.” Cabiria—which introduced both the lateral movement of the camera and the gesture later adopted by Benito Mussolini as the fascist salute—explores how such gestures situate the historical subject, and the historical crowd, in relationship to structures of political power.

Nanoemulsions for the Encapsulation of Hydrophobic Actives

This work analyzes the dispersion of two highly hydrophobic actives, (9Z)-N-(1,3-dihydroxyoctadecan-2-yl)octadec-9-enamide (ceramidelike molecule) and 2,6-diamino-4-(piperidin-1-yl)pyrimidine 1-oxide (minoxidil), using oil-in-water nanoemulsions with the aim of preparing stable and safe aqueous-based formulations that can be exploited for enhancing the penetration of active compounds through cosmetic substrates. Stable nanoemulsions with a droplet size in the nanometric range (around 200 nm) and a negative surface charge were prepared. It was possible to prepare formulations containing up to 2 w/w% of ceramide-like molecules and more than 10 w/w% of minoxidil incorporated within the oil droplets. This emulsions evidenced a good long-term stability, without any apparent modification for several weeks. Despite the fact that this work is limited to optimize the incorporation of the actives within the nanoemulsion-like formulations, it demonstrated that nanoemulsions should be considered as a very promising tool for enhancing the distribution and availability of hydrophobic molecules with technological interest.

Tailored Physical and Optical Traits of TiO Thin Film formed Via Spray Pyrolysis Strategy: Influence of Annealing Temperature Change

Based on the worldwide technological interest, titanium oxide (TiO) thin film with its adapted form is well-known in the solar batteries and optoelectronic devices. Hence, we prepared a thin film upon a glass substrate using a chemical spray pyrolysis approach. Varied annealing temperatures (303, 323, 373, 423, 473 and 523 K) were used to establish the physicochemical properties of TiO thin film. The transmittance spectra values were observed between 50% and 70% with extinction coefficient value ~ 0.28 cm‒1. Consequently, the bandgap of the TiO were steadily decreased with enlarging the annealing temperature from 3.5 eV up to 2.8 eV.

Unravelling the intertwined atomic and bulk nature of localised excitons by attosecond spectroscopy

The electro-optical properties of most semiconductors and insulators of technological interest are dominated by the presence of electron-hole quasi-particles, called excitons. The manipulation of excitons in dielectrics has recently received great attention, with possible applications in different fields including optoelectronics and photonics. Here, we apply attosecond transient reflection spectroscopy in a sequential two-foci geometry and observe sub-femtosecond dynamics of a core-level exciton in bulk MgF2 single crystals. Furthermore, we access absolute phase delays, which allow for an unambiguous comparison with theoretical calculations. Our results show that excitons surprisingly exhibit a dual atomic- and solid-like character, which manifests itself on different time scales. While the former is responsible for a femtosecond optical Stark effect, the latter dominates the attosecond excitonic response. Further theoretical investigation reveals a link with the exciton sub-femtosecond nanometric motion and allows us to envision a new route to control exciton dynamics in the close-to-petahertz regime.

Ultrafast exciton dynamics reconstruction with a ptychographic approach

Excitons characterize the ultrafast response of many materials of technological interest. While the development of attosecond science has unlocked the possibility of performing experiments with a suitable timeresolution, the access to the exciton properties remains a non-trivial step. We propose therefore a novel approach to disclose the physical properties behind the ultrafast exciton dynamics based on a phase-retrieval method.

America's Scientific Treasures

America’s Scientific Treasures is a comprehensive travel guide, designed for adults, that takes the reader to well-known and lesser-known sites of scientific and technological interest in the United States. The book is divided into nine geographical chapters. Subdivided by states, each chapter is represented by its scientific and technological treasures, including museums, arboretums, zoos, national parks, planetariums, natural or technological points of interest, and the homes of famous scientists. While the book is aimed at adults, many of the sites may also be of interest to teens and younger children. The traveler is provided with essential information, including addresses, telephone numbers, hours of entry, handicapped access, dining facilities, dates open and closed, available public transportation, and websites. Nearly every site included here has been visited by the authors. Although written with scientists in mind, this book is for anyone who likes to travel and visit places of historical and scientific interest. Included are photographs of many sites within each state.

Assessment of Salts Effect in Sugar-aqueous System

In the present study, the preferential salvation of salts in sugar-aqueous systems has been considered. It is carried out by using conductometric observation of analytical grade sugar and plantation white sugar aqueous system with salts viz. CaCl2, MgCl2, KCl, NaCl. It shows that the conductivity is in a linear relationship with the electrolytes and non-sugar present in both analytical grade sugar and plantation white sugar over a range of 5 to 25 W/V percent. The optimum range of concentration found to be for both the sugars is about 20%. Encouraging results could be obtained in the determination of sugars i.e. non-electrolytes and electrolytes in aqueous sugar solution products. The present study shows valid technological interest to understand the Maillard reaction due to the adoption of MgCl2 salt in place of sulphite. These sugars–salts complexes are responsible for the formation of molasses which leads to substantial loss of sugar of around ten percent of the total sugar present in cane.

Application of Shape Memory Alloys in Pipeline Couplings for Shipbuilding

The aim of the study is to analyse shape memory alloy (SMA) pipeline joints in limited space applications for all kinds of ships. Generally, the space available in various areas on ships is strictly limited and service works usually meet many obstacles. If we consider a pipeline, the flange joints always require a larger free space around the pipe than the pipe alone. A simultaneous problem can occur with the propeller shaft line coupling between bearings. SMA couplings require less space around the pipe and service should be easier, e.g., insulation fixing, painting and so on. SMA couplings last for a lifetime and there is no need for periodical seal replacement. Herein, some proposals among other unpublished data are discussed. There is a significant technological interest in the use of SMAs for applications not widely used yet. A wide variety of alloys present the shape memory effect and many generate an expressive restitution force considerable for commercial interests.

Fluorination of Diamond Nanoparticles in Slow Neutron Reflectors Does Not Destroy Their Crystalline Cores and Clustering While Decreasing Neutron Losses

If the wavelength of radiation and the size of inhomogeneities in the medium are approximately equal, the radiation might be intensively scattered in the medium and reflected from its surface. Such efficient nanomaterial reflectors are of great scientific and technological interest. In previous works, we demonstrated a significant improvement in the efficiency of reflection of slow neutrons from a powder of diamond nanoparticles by replacing hydrogen located on the surface of nanoparticles with fluorine and removing the residual sp2 amorphous shells of nanoparticles via the fluorination process. In this paper, we study the mechanism of this improvement using a set of complementary experimental techniques. To analyze the data on a small-angle scattering of neutrons and X-rays in powders of diamond nanoparticles, we have developed a model of discrete-size diamond nanospheres. Our results show that fluorination does not destroy either the crystalline cores of nanoparticles or their clustering in the scale range of 0.6–200 nm. This observation implies that it does not significantly affect the neutron scattering properties of the powder. We conclude that the overall increase in reflectivity from the fluorinated nanodiamond powder is primarily due to the large reduction of neutron losses in the powder caused by the removal of hydrogen contaminations.