scholarly journals FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS FROM WASTE PAPER. III. COMPARATIVE STUDY OF MORPHOLOGY OF POWDER CELLULOSES AND CELLULOSE HYDROGELS

2021 ◽  
pp. 83-94
Author(s):  
Aleksandra Mikhaylovna Mikhailidi ◽  
Natal'ya Nikolayevna Saprikina ◽  
Nina Efimovna Kotelnikova

The morphology of hydrogels regenerated from solutions of waste paper and cardboard in DMAс/LiCl was studied for the first time in comparison with the morphology of pristine samples and powder celluloses isolated from waste paper. Two sets consisted every of them from 4 samples, pristine waste paper or cardboard, powder cellulose, swollen hydrogel and freeze-dried hydrogel, were examined with a SEM. As revealed by SEM, the freeze-dried hydrogels are porous systems with a variety of through pores in a wide range of sizes. The number, shape, and size of pores, as well as their availability, differed markedly. The pore sizes in freeze-dried hydrogels obtained from the waste paper are mostly ranged at 30-50 nm. The smallest pores in the waste cardboard are 30-40 nm in size, the largest ones are up to 4 μm. According to the results of the study, these samples will have satisfactory sorption properties but, due to the different morphology of the porous system, the availability of each sample is likely to vary significantly.

2021 ◽  
pp. 83-98
Author(s):  
Aleksandra Mikhaylovna Mikhailidi ◽  
Nina Yefimovna Kotelnikova

An efficient process for recycling paper and cardboard wastes via dissolution in N,N-dimethylacetamide/lithium chloride (DMAc/LiCl) system and regeneration from solutions to obtain hydrogels has been developed. Pretreatment of waste paper has been carried out by thermal defibrillation of waste paper in water and homogenization to obtain fibre samples. The dissolution of fibre materials has been performed in two ways varying the process temperature and the way the reagents have been introduced. Regeneration from solutions has been carried out by spontaneous gelation without the use of antisolvents, at room temperature and atmospheric pressure. As a result, hydrogels were obtained which differed in color and transparency depending on feedstock. The physico-chemical properties of the hydrogels have been characterized. It has been shown that they were stable in an aqueous medium, capable of retaining a significant amount of water (over 4000 wt.%), and were porous systems which has been confirmed by scanning electron microscopy. According to a wide-angle X-ray scattering, the crystallographic structure of the pristine waste paper samples corresponded to a structural modification of cellulose I. Regenerated samples as freeze-dried hydrogels had the structure of cellulose II. A functional and an elemental composition studied with FTIR spectroscopy and an energy-dispersive X-ray microanalysis characterized these hydrogels as the cellulose samples containing small amount of inorganic impurities. The resulting hydrogels had a system of through pores of different sizes, and this predetermined their use as adsorbents and active matrices.


2020 ◽  
pp. 63-72
Author(s):  
Yu. Olefir ◽  
E. Sakanyan ◽  
I. Osipova ◽  
V. Dobrynin ◽  
M. Smirnova ◽  
...  

The entry of a wide range of biotechnological products into the pharmaceutical market calls for rein-forcement of the quality, efficacy and safety standards at the state level. The following general monographs have been elaborated for the first time to be included into the State Pharmacopoeia of the Russian Federation, XIV edition: "Viral safety" and "Reduction of the risk of transmitting animal spongiform encephalopathy via medicinal products". These general monographs were elaborated taking into account the requirements of foreign pharmacopoeias and the WHO recommendations. The present paper summarises the key aspects of the monographs.


Author(s):  
Petros Bouras-Vallianatos

Byzantine medicine is still a little-known and misrepresented field not only in the wider arena of debates on medieval medicine but also among Byzantinists. Byzantine medical literature is often viewed as ‘stagnant’ and mainly preserving ancient ideas; and our knowledge of it continues to be based to a great extent on the comments of earlier authorities, which are often repeated uncritically. This book presents the first comprehensive examination of the medical corpus of, arguably, the most important late Byzantine physician John Zacharias Aktouarios (c.1275–c.1330). The main thesis is that John’s medical works show an astonishing degree of openness to knowledge from outside Byzantium combined with a significant degree of originality, in particular, in the fields of uroscopy, pharmacology, and human physiology. The analysis of John’s edited (On Urines and On Psychic Pneuma) and unedited (Medical Epitome) works is supported for the first time by the consultation of a large number of manuscripts. The study is also informed by evidence from a wide range of medical sources, including previously unpublished ones, and texts from other genres, such as epistolography and merchants’ accounts. The contextualization of John’s works sheds new light on the development of Byzantine medical thought and practice, and enhances our understanding of the late Byzantine social and intellectual landscape. Finally, John’s medical observations are also examined in the light of examples from the medieval Latin and Islamic worlds, placing his medical theories in the wider Mediterranean milieu and highlighting the cultural exchange between Byzantium and its neighbours.


Author(s):  
Noel Malcolm

This book of essays covers a wide range of topics in the history of Albania and Kosovo. Many of the essays illuminate connections between the Albanian lands and external powers and interests, whether political, military, diplomatic or religious. Such topics include the Habsburg invasion of Kosovo in 1689, the manoeuvrings of Britain and France towards the Albanian lands during the Napoleonic Wars, the British interest in those lands in the late nineteenth century, and the Balkan War of 1912. On the religious side, essays examine ‘crypto-Christianity’ in Kosovo during the Ottoman period, the stories of conversion to Islam revealed by Inquisition records, the first theological treatise written in Albanian (1685), and the work of the ‘Apostolic Delegate’ who reformed the Catholic Church in early twentieth-century Albania. Some essays bring to life ordinary individuals hitherto unknown to history: women hauled before the Inquisition, for example, or the author of the first Albanian autobiography. The longest essay, on Ali Pasha, tells for the first time the full story of the role he played in the international politics of the Napoleonic Wars. Some of these studies have been printed before (several in hard-to-find publications, and one only in Albanian), but the greater part of this book appears here for the first time. This is not only a contribution to Albanian and Balkan history it also engages with many broader issues, including religious conversion, methods of enslavement within the Ottoman Empire, and the nature of modern myth-making about national identity.


The recycling and reuse of materials and objects were extensive in the past, but have rarely been embedded into models of the economy; even more rarely has any attempt been made to assess the scale of these practices. Recent developments, including the use of large datasets, computational modelling, and high-resolution analytical chemistry, are increasingly offering the means to reconstruct recycling and reuse, and even to approach the thorny matter of quantification. Growing scholarly interest in the topic has also led to an increasing recognition of these practices from those employing more traditional methodological approaches, which are sometimes coupled with innovative archaeological theory. Thanks to these efforts, it has been possible for the first time in this volume to draw together archaeological case studies on the recycling and reuse of a wide range of materials, from papyri and textiles, to amphorae, metals and glass, building materials and statuary. Recycling and reuse occur at a range of site types, and often in contexts which cross-cut material categories, or move from one object category to another. The volume focuses principally on the Roman Imperial and late antique world, over a broad geographical span ranging from Britain to North Africa and the East Mediterranean. Last, but not least, the volume is unique in focusing upon these activities as a part of the status quo, and not just as a response to crisis.


1998 ◽  
Vol 162 ◽  
pp. 100-105
Author(s):  
Andrew J. Norton ◽  
Mark H. Jones

The Open University is the UK's foremost distance teaching university. For over twenty five years we have been presenting courses to students spanning a wide range of degree level and vocational subjects. Since we have no pre-requisites for entry, a major component of our course profile is a selection of foundation courses comprising one each in the Arts, Social Science, Mathematics, Technology and Science faculties. The Science Faculty's foundation course is currently undergoing a substantial revision. The new course, entitled “S103: Discovering Science”, will be presented to students for the first time in 1998.


Metabolites ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 481
Author(s):  
Gemma G. Martínez-García ◽  
Raúl F. Pérez ◽  
Álvaro F. Fernández ◽  
Sylvere Durand ◽  
Guido Kroemer ◽  
...  

Autophagy is an essential protective mechanism that allows mammalian cells to cope with a variety of stressors and contributes to maintaining cellular and tissue homeostasis. Due to these crucial roles and also to the fact that autophagy malfunction has been described in a wide range of pathologies, an increasing number of in vivo studies involving animal models targeting autophagy genes have been developed. In mammals, total autophagy inactivation is lethal, and constitutive knockout models lacking effectors of this route are not viable, which has hindered so far the analysis of the consequences of a systemic autophagy decline. Here, we take advantage of atg4b−/− mice, an autophagy-deficient model with only partial disruption of the process, to assess the effects of systemic reduction of autophagy on the metabolome. We describe for the first time the metabolic footprint of systemic autophagy decline, showing that impaired autophagy results in highly tissue-dependent alterations that are more accentuated in the skeletal muscle and plasma. These changes, which include changes in the levels of amino-acids, lipids, or nucleosides, sometimes resemble those that are frequently described in conditions like aging, obesity, or cardiac damage. We also discuss different hypotheses on how impaired autophagy may affect the metabolism of several tissues in mammals.


Polymers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 1422
Author(s):  
Viktor V. Revin ◽  
Alexander V. Dolganov ◽  
Elena V. Liyaskina ◽  
Natalia B. Nazarova ◽  
Anastasia V. Balandina ◽  
...  

Currently, there is an increased demand for biodegradable materials in society due to growing environmental problems. Special attention is paid to bacterial cellulose, which, due to its unique properties, has great prospects for obtaining functional materials for a wide range of applications, including adsorbents. In this regard, the aim of this study was to obtain a biocomposite material with adsorption properties in relation to fluoride ions based on bacterial cellulose using a highly productive strain of Komagataeibacter sucrofermentans H-110 on molasses medium. Films of bacterial cellulose were obtained. Their structure and properties were investigated by FTIR spectroscopy, NMR, atomic force microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and X-ray structural analysis. The results show that the fiber thickness of the bacterial cellulose formed by the K. sucrofermentans H-110 strain on molasses medium was 60–90 nm. The degree of crystallinity of bacterial cellulose formed on the medium was higher than on standard Hestrin and Schramm medium and amounted to 83.02%. A new biocomposite material was obtained based on bacterial cellulose chemically immobilized on its surface using atomic-layer deposition of nanosized aluminum oxide films. The composite material has high sorption ability to remove fluoride ions from an aqueous medium. The maximum adsorption capacity of the composite is 80.1 mg/g (F/composite). The obtained composite material has the highest adsorption capacity of fluoride from water in comparison with other sorbents. The results prove the potential of bacterial cellulose-based biocomposites as highly effective sorbents for fluoride.


2020 ◽  
Vol 147 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-163
Author(s):  
Kirsten Dzwiza

SummaryThere are only a few sequences of ancient magic signs known to us today that have been preserved on multiple artefacts. A previously unnoticed sequence of 17 signs on a gem in the Museum of Fine Arts in Vienna occurs with minor but significant variations on two other gems in the State Museum of Egyptian Art in Munich. The Viennese gem is dated to the 16th century and is documented as a drawing in a 17th century publication. The first Munich gem has been assigned to the Graeco-Roman period. The second gem, which, according to the inventory card of the museum, also belongs to the Graeco-Roman period, is published here for the first time. A comparative study of the three gems and the drawing has lead to a number of new findings, including the re-dating of the Munich gems.


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