Impoliteness in women’s specialised writing in seventeenth-century English

The notion of impoliteness may not trigger prompt associations with earlier women writing, especially non-fiction, in the pre-scientific period. Evidence drawn from seventeenth-century scientific and technical writings reveals that women make use of impoliteness strategies in order to claim and delineate their place within their community of practice. In our texts, we have detected that membership to communities of practice justifies the women’s use of positive impoliteness and sarcasm devices. Interestingly, the stereotypical female weakness represents a source for sarcastic speech, as this may offer women writers a protective shield against male critical stance. Negative impoliteness seems to be potentially related to establish power relationships and position in relation to knowledge. The idea is that scientific and technical contributions should be impartially appraised without considering the sex of the author. Impoliteness appears to be a potential means of legitimising women writers’ voices.

Simulation of Small-Size Space Debris Impact on the Protective Shield of a Transformable Trap

The growth in the number of space debris, especially small-size debris undetectable by radars, urges the development of protective equipment for the crucial satellites and space station. Passive multilayer shields are the most effective means of protection. As the shields are big, it makes sense to make them out of flexible composite materials that allow them to be deployed in orbit. The article determines the loads acting on the composite load-bearing frame of the trap for small-size debris during impact. For a rational choice of the structural trap layout and optimization of its design parameters it is critical to know these loads. The hypervelocity impact of the projectile on the shield was modeled in the Altair Radioss software package using a combined model based on the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamic (SPH) method and mesh finite elements. The simulation of the shield penetration at various locations was carried out. For each simulation case, a time history of the reaction force in the attachment point of the protective shield to the load-bearing frame was determined. It was shown that the maximum load of about 2000 N acts for around 6 milliseconds on the joint closest to the impact point for the debris projectile size of 10 mm and velocity of 2 km/s.

Biodegradable polysarcosine with inserted alanine residues: Synthesis and enzymolysis

Polysarcosine (PSar), a water-soluble polypeptoid, is gifted with biodegradability via random ring-opening copolymerization of sarcosine- and alanine-N-thiocarboxyanhydrides catalyzed by acetic acid in controlled manners. Kinetic investigation reveals the copolymerization behavior of the two monomers. The random copolymers, named PAS, with high molecular weights between 22.0 and 43.6 kg/mol and tunable Ala molar fractions varying from 6% to 43% are able to be degraded by porcine pancreatic elastase within 50 days in mild conditions (pH=8.0 at 37 °C). Both the biodegradation rate and water solubility of PAS depend on the content of Ala residues. PAS with Ala fractions below 43% are soluble in water while the one with 43% Ala self-assembles in water into nanoparticles. Moreover, PAS are non-cytotoxic at the concentration of 5 mg/mL. The biodegradability and biocompatibility endow the Ala-containing PSar with potential to replace PEG as protective shield in drug-delivery.

Glycocalyx crowding with mucin mimetics strengthens binding of soluble and virus-associated lectins to host cell glycan receptors

Membrane-associated mucins protect epithelial cell surfaces against pathogenic threats by serving as nonproductive decoys that capture infectious agents and clear them from the cell surface and by erecting a physical barrier that restricts their access to target receptors on host cells. However, the mechanisms through which mucins function are still poorly defined because of a limited repertoire of tools available for tailoring their structure and composition in living cells with molecular precision. Using synthetic glycopolymer mimetics of mucins, we modeled the mucosal glycocalyx on red blood cells (RBCs) and evaluated its influence on lectin (SNA) and virus (H1N1) adhesion to endogenous sialic acid receptors. The glycocalyx inhibited the rate of SNA and H1N1 adhesion in a size- and density-dependent manner, consistent with the current view of mucins as providing a protective shield against pathogens. Counterintuitively, increasing the density of the mucin mimetics enhanced the retention of bound lectins and viruses. Careful characterization of SNA behavior at the RBC surface using a range of biophysical and imaging techniques revealed lectin-induced crowding and reorganization of the glycocalyx with concomitant enhancement in lectin clustering, presumably through the formation of a more extensive glycan receptor patch at the cell membrane. Our findings indicate that glycan-targeting pathogens may exploit the biophysical and biomechanical properties of mucins to overcome the mucosal glycocalyx barrier.

Decoding the Elements of Human Rights from the Verses of Ancient Védic Literature and Dharmaśāstras

This manuscript aims to provide a nuanced study of the idea of rights and duties prevalent in ancient Védic society through Védic literature and Dharmaśāstras. This manuscript delves into the exegesis of the Védas and Dharmaśāstras to accomplish this. The archaic Védic literature and Dharmaśāstra texts are the origin and backbone of Sanskrit literature. They have a plethora of ideas that, if accepted, could be quite useful for the protection of any person’s human rights. In the Védas and Dharmaśāstras, rights and duties complement each other, and rights are integrated with duties. According to these texts, rights and duties are correlated and the relationship between rights and duties leads to the core concept of dhárma (constitutional laws). Dhárma is a systematic Sanskrit concept that includes traditions, obligations, morals, laws, order, and justice. It was a unique concept of dhárma that kept checks and balances on sovereign officials and prevented them from becoming autocratic and anarchist. It also provided the common man with a protective shield against the dictatorship of sovereign officials. Ordinary citizens had more privileges and fewer responsibilities relative to the state’s highest officials. The greater the authority, the less his privileges were, and the more extensive his responsibilities became. This research is an exegetical analysis of ancient Indian Védic and later Védic literature and is primarily aimed at deciphering some of the essential ideas about rights found in these texts, which are akin to contemporary human rights. It endeavours to discern and explain the tenets of human rights obnubilated in the pristine mantras of the ancient Védic and Smṛti texts of India. The essay further attempts to add a much-needed non-western perspective to the historiography of human rights.

The Plight of the Female Protagonist Depicted in Doris Lessing’s The Grass Is Singing

The Woman is a God-given boon to mankind. She is the most lively and endearing personality on the earth because of her never-ending compassion and her care for fellow human beings. She is such a protective shield for humanity that tolerates everything with a smile. But ironically this male-dominated society has been harming, crushing, and suppressing its armor for centuries. The status of a woman in our society is still debatable. A woman sacrifices her desires, aspirations, and ambitions at every phase of her life sometimes by being a daughter, a wife, a sister, or a mother. From time to time woman finds herself in such an odd and precarious situation that later causes her plight. The present paper attempts to explain the plight of the female protagonist, Mary Turner in the novel The Grass Is Singing written by Nobel Prize winner Doris Lessing.

Decoding the Elements of Human Rights from the Verses of Ancient Vedic Literature and Dharmaśāstras

This manuscript aims to provide a nuanced study of the idea of rights and duties prevalent in ancient Vedic society through Vedic literature and Dharmaśāstras . This manuscript delves into the exegesis of the Védas and Dharmaśāstras to accomplish this. The archaic Vedic literature and Dharmaśāstra texts are the origin and backbone of Sanskrit literature. They have a plethora of ideas that, if accepted, could be quite useful for the protection of any person's human rights. In Védas and Dharmaśāstras, rights and duties complement each other, and rights are integrated by duties. According to these texts, rights and duties are correlated and the relationship between rights and duties leads to the core concept of dharma (constitutional laws). Dharma is a systematic Sanskrit concept that includes traditions, obligation, morals, laws, order, and justice. It was a unique concept of dharma that kept checks and balances on sovereign officials and prevented them from becoming autocratic and anarchist. It also provided the common man with a protective shield against the dictatorship of sovereign officials. Ordinary citizens had more privileges and fewer responsibilities relative to the state's highest officials. The greater the authority, the less his privileges were, and the more extensive his responsibilities became. This research is an exegetical analysis of ancient Indian Vedic and later Vedic literature and is primarily aimed at deciphering some of the essential ideas of the rights found in these texts, which are akin to contemporary human rights. It endeavours to discern and explain the tenets of human rights obnubilated in the pristine mantras of Antediluvian Vedic and Smṛti texts of India. The essay further attempts to add a much needed non-western perspective to the historiography of human rights.

Topical instillation of cell-penetrating peptide-conjugated melphalan blocks metastases of retinoblastoma

Retinoblastoma is the most common primary intraocular malignancy in infancy with a metastases-related death risk. However, a safe and convenient treatment without enucleation is still an unmet clinical need. In this work, a cell-penetrating peptide, 89WP, was conjugated with melphalan (89WP-Mel), which achieved comparable tumor inhibition effects to intravitreally injected melphalan via topical instillation for the first time. Notably, the “outside-in” diffusion of instilled 89WP-Mel created a protective shield surrounding the eye, efficiently preventing tumor metastases. In contrast, the mice treated with intravitreally injected melphalan suffered more brain metastases related death, probably due to the “inside-out” diffusion of injected melphalan expelling the tumor outside the eye. The ocular absorption of 89WP-conjugated melphalan and other small molecules, both hydrophobic and hydrophilic, occurred via non-corneal pathway with high safety and a prolonged residence duration in retina up to 24 h. The present work paves a new avenue for simultaneous intraocular tumor inhibition and extraocular metastases prevention in a safe and convenient way via topical instillation.