Homeopathy emerging as nanomedicine

Background: Homeopathy is a time-tested two-century old empirical system of healing. Homeopathic medicines are prepared through a characteristic process known as potentization, where serial dilutions are performed with strong strokes at each step of dilution. Homeopathy is controversial because most medicines do not contain one single molecule of the corresponding starting-substance. Aim: To investigate a possible nanoscience mechanism of action of homeopathic medicines. Methodology: Ultra-pure samples were prepared and were examined under scanning (SEM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM) along with selected area nanodiffraction (SAD) and energy-dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX). Also trace element analysis (TEA) for silicon was performed. Results: Homeopathic medicines showed not to be ‘nothing’, but exhibited nanoparticles and conglomerates of them, which had crystalline nature and were rich in silicon. Conclusions: During the violent strokes involved in potentization, information arising from the serially diluted starting-substance might be encrypted by epitaxy on silicon-rich crystalline nanoparticles present in the resulting homeopathic medicine. The ‘size’ of the information encrypted on nanoparticles might vary together with the degree of dilution. As homeopathic medicines exhibit healing effects, these nanoparticles along with the interfacial water on their surface might carry this information - which biological systems are able to identify - to the target. As various forms of silica are known to interact with proteins and cells of the immune system, homeopathy might represent a nanomedicine system. Possible confirmation, however, requires further research in materials and interfacial water.

Ionospheric control of space weather

As proposed by Saka (2019), plasma injections arising out of the auroral ionosphere (ionospheric injection) are a characteristic process of the polar ionosphere at substorm onset. The ionospheric injection is triggered by westward electric fields transmitted from the convection surge in the magnetosphere at field line dipolarization. Localized westward electric fields result in local accumulation of ionospheric electrons and ions, which produce local electrostatic potentials in the auroral ionosphere. Field-aligned electric fields are developed to extract excess charges from the ionosphere. This process is essential to the equipotential equilibrium of the auroral ionosphere. Cold electrons and ions that evaporate from the auroral ionosphere by ionospheric injection tend to generate electrostatic parallel potential below an altitude of 10 000 km. This is a result of charge separation along the mirror fields introduced by the evaporated electrons and ions moving earthward in phase space.

Functional limit theorems for the euler characteristic process in the critical regime

This study presents functional limit theorems for the Euler characteristic of Vietoris–Rips complexes. The points are drawn from a nonhomogeneous Poisson process on $\mathbb{R}^d$ , and the connectivity radius governing the formation of simplices is taken as a function of the time parameter t, which allows us to treat the Euler characteristic as a stochastic process. The setting in which this takes place is that of the critical regime, in which the simplicial complexes are highly connected and have nontrivial topology. We establish two ‘functional-level’ limit theorems, a strong law of large numbers and a central limit theorem, for the appropriately normalized Euler characteristic process.

Prototypical Models of the Terms Interaction in the Terminological Network

The research is devoted to the current cross-disciplinary problem of the knowledge organization for information search intellectualization and knowledge extraction acceleration by means of the specialized software - the expert system. The paper shows that an effective form of knowledge organization in the expert system is the terminological network of subject domain; the network can be structured on the basis of prototypical semantic models of terms interaction which reflect the relations of the concepts designated by terms. The authors reconstruct the fragment of the terminological network of nanotechnologies with the top-term nanoliquid and present it in the article. While analyzing definitions of the terms included into the network and the fragments of scientific publications with terminological units of the analyzed subject domain, the authors define the following semantic categories: Material, Substance, Natural object, Tool, Characteristic, Process. The paper reveals the prototypical models of the terms interaction reflecting the systemic relations between the term "nanoliquid" and its adjacent terms: generic, partitive, attributive, the relations between targeted object and result, between material and process. The article shows that the term "nanoliquid" is introduced in hierarchical classification of the nanostructured materials and has various semantic relations both with terms of one category and with terms of all other semantic categories.

Systematic and Model-Assisted Process Design for the Extraction and Purification of Artemisinin from Artemisia annua L.—Part III: Chromatographic Purification

In this study, the purification of an extract from Artemisia annua L. using chromatographic methods is studied. In a first step, a screening of different phases and solvents using thin-layer chromatography (TLC) was performed. Then, a laboratory-scale high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method was developed and transferred to a pilot scale. A reproducibility study based on 120 injections was carried out. The batch process that was developed and the results from a designed continuous simulated moving bed (SMB) chromatography were compared based on characteristic process numbers and economy.

Smart Planning

This chapter discusses the ability of new technologies to support collective intelligence. The technology trend brought into the spotlight is Web 2.0 because it has a great potential to contribute to the refined understanding of planning issues. Such an application field can be called Collective Intelligence 2.0 with crowdsourcing as its characteristic process. This chapter discusses how such an intelligence and crowd-sourced knowledge can be utilized in smartening up urban planning. Crowdsourcing has been experimented in urban planning since the late 2000s, most notably in the forms of wikiplanning, participatory sensing, and co-creation. By combining theoretical insights and empirical evidence, this chapter concludes that Web 2.0 tools can be used to increase various forms of social and collective intelligence and, especially when the precondition of citizen-centered open planning culture is met, have undeniable potential to smarten up urban planning.

LCA analyses for roads and bridges as a tool for detailed and comprehensive environmental impact assessment

The article presents possibilities of using LCA analyses for roads and bridges determining core boundary conditions and functional unit. The examples of characteristic process trees were studied and fundamental for further analyses. The environmental impact assessment methods, based on LCA analyses, illustrating roads and bridges influence on environmental elements such as climate or ozone layer, were presented. The influence of boundary conditions and the process tree expansion on the results obtained was described with its reference to the scale on environmental impact. It showed how the interpretation of the results make an optimization of a design possible in order to minimize the environmental impact.

Smart Planning

This chapter discusses the ability of new technologies to support collective intelligence. The technology trend brought into the spotlight is Web 2.0 because it has a great potential to contribute to the refined understanding of planning issues. Such an application field can be called Collective Intelligence 2.0 with crowdsourcing as its characteristic process. This chapter discusses how such an intelligence and crowd-sourced knowledge can be utilized in smartening up urban planning. Crowdsourcing has been experimented in urban planning since the late 2000s, most notably in the forms of wikiplanning, participatory sensing, and co-creation. By combining theoretical insights and empirical evidence, this chapter concludes that Web 2.0 tools can be used to increase various forms of social and collective intelligence and, especially when the precondition of citizen-centered open planning culture is met, have undeniable potential to smarten up urban planning.