bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Sustainable Development of Offender Treatment Policy in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Countries
Authors: Minoura Satoshi
Published: March 2018

The United Nations Asia and Far East Institute for the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders (UNAFEI) promotes community corrections through technical assistance for developing countries based on the United Nations policies related to offender treatment policy, particularly the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for Non-Custodial Measures and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Still, many Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries suffer from prison overcrowding and some of them largely rely on “imprisonment” as a single solution. This is due, in part, to the underdeveloped state of community corrections in many of these countries. Therefore, this paper considers the sustainable development of offender treatment for the effective prevention of recidivism through the analysis of the relationship between social conditions and the status of imprisonment in Asia.
Deconstructing an Ediacaran frond: three-dimensional preservation of Arborea from Ediacara, South Australia
Authors: Laflamme Marc , Gehling James G. , Droser Mary L.
Published: March 2018

Exquisitely preserved three-dimensional examples of the classic Ediacaran (late Neoproterozoic; 570–541 Ma) frond Charniodiscus arboreus Jenkins and Gehling, 1978 (herein referred to as Arborea arborea Glaessner in Glaessner and Daily, 1959) are reported from the Ediacara Member, Rawnsley Quartzite of South Australia, and allow for a detailed reinterpretation of its functional morphology and taxonomy. New specimens cast in three dimensions within sandy event beds showcase detailed branching morphology that highlights possible internal features that are strikingly different from rangeomorph and erniettomorph fronds. Combined with dozens of well-preserved two-dimensional impressions from the Flinders Ranges of South Australia, morphological variations within the traditional Arborea morphotype are interpreted as representing various stages of external molding. In rare cases, taphomorphs (morphological variants attributable to preservation) represent composite molding of internal features consisting of structural supports or anchoring sites for branching structures. Each primary branch consists of a central primary branching stalk from which emerge several oval secondary branches, which likely correspond to similar structures found in rare two-dimensional specimens. Considering this new evidence, previous synonymies within the Arboreomorpha are no longer justified, and we suggest that the taxonomy of the group be revised.
IntCal, SHCal, or a Mixed Curve? Choosing a14C Calibration Curve for Archaeological and Paleoenvironmental Records from Tropical South America
Authors: Marsh Erik J , Bruno Maria C , Fritz Sherilyn C , Baker Paul , Capriles José M , Hastorf Christine A
Published: March 2018

Because the14C calibration curves IntCal and SHCal are based on data from temperate latitudes, it remains unclear which curve is more suitable for archaeological and paleoenvironmental records from tropical South America. A review of climate dynamics reveals a significant influx of Northern Hemisphere air masses and moisture over a substantial part of the continent during the South American Summer Monsoon (SASM). Areas affected by the SASM receive unknown amounts of input from both hemispheres, where an argument could be made for either curve. Until localized tree-ring data can resolve this, we suggest using a mixed calibration curve, which accounts for inputs from both hemispheres, as a third calibration option. We present a calibration example from a crucial period of environmental and cultural change in the southern Lake Titicaca. Given our current lack of data on past ∆14C variation in South America, our calibrations and chronologies will likely change in the future. We hope this paper spurs new research into this topic and encourages researchers to make an informed and explicit choice of which curve to use, which is particularly relevant in research on past human–environmental relationships.
REDUCING NITROGEN LOSSES AND INCREASING MAIZE PRODUCTIVITY IN ORGANIC MANURES-AMENDED SOILS BY INCREASING THE RIDGE TO FURROW PROPORTION
Authors: IQBAL SHAHID , ARIF MUHAMMAD , THIERFELDER CHRISTIAN , YASMEEN TAHIRA , LI TANG
Published: March 2018

Nitrogen (N) losses greater than 40% in furrow-irrigated cropping systems are a common problem that substantially limits yields. Sustainable production methods are therefore required to reduce these losses and increase the yield under semi-arid conditions. A field trial was carried out to study the soil N dynamics and soil physicochemical properties in soils amended with organic manure (i.e. with poultry manure (PM), farmyard manure (FYM) and pressmud compost (PrM)). Soil N dynamics and properties were evaluated under different ridge to furrow ratios (1:1 and 2:1) as well as maize yield and profitability. When ridge to furrow ratio increased (2:1) in soils amended with PM, the inorganic and organic N status was increased and N losses were reduced. This strategy lowered soil pH, and maximized organic matter status and maize yield. The highest yield, net income and benefit–cost ratio were attained with 2:1 ridge to furrow ratio and PM amendment, being an alternative management for increasing maize productivity and profitability while improving nutrient use efficiency.
Early sowing increases nitrogen uptake and yields of winter wheat grown with cattle slurry or mineral fertilizers
Authors: Suarez-Tapia A. , Rasmussen J. , Thomsen I. K. , Christensen B. T.
Published: March 2018

The current study evaluated the effect of sowing date (early, mid-August or timely, mid-September) on two winter wheat (Triticum aestivumL.) cultivars (Hereford, Mariboss) with different rates of nitrogen (N) (0–225 kg total N/ha) applied as animal manure (AM; cattle slurry) or mineral fertilizers (N: phosphorus: potassium; NPK). Overwinter plant N uptake and soil mineral N content were determined during 2014/15, while harvest yields (grain, straw, N content) were determined during 2014/15 and 2015/16. Overwinter uptake of N was 14 kg N/ha higher in early than in timely-sown wheat. Despite very different yield levels in 2015 and 2016 harvests, the advantage of early sowing on grain yields was similar (1.1 and 0.9 t/ha); straw yield benefits were greater in 2015 (1.7 t/ha more) than in 2016 (0.4 t/ha more). In 2015 and 2016, N offtake was 35 and 17 kg N/ha higher in early than in timely-sown wheat, respectively. The mineral N fertilizer value of cattle slurry averaged 50%. Early sowing increased the apparent N recovery (ANR) for wheat regardless of nutrient source. However, ANR was substantially higher for NPK (82% in 2015; 52% in 2016) than for AM (39% in 2015; 27% in 2016). Performance of the two cultivars did not differ consistently with respect to the effect of early sowing on crop yield, N concentration and offtake, or ANR. Within the north-west European climatic region, moving the sowing time of winter wheat from mid-September to mid-August provides a significant yield and N offtake benefit.
“Howdy Partner!” Space Brotherhood, Detente and the Symbolism of the 1975 Apollo–Soyuz Test Project
Authors: ELLIS THOMAS
Published: March 2018

In 1975 American and Soviet spacecraft docked together in orbit as part of the Apollo–Soyuz Test Project (ASTP), the world's first international crewed space mission. Focussing on the project's political symbolism, this article argues that the ASTP was an attempt by the Nixon and Ford administrations to advertise US–Soviet detente by harnessing the optimistic imagery of “space brotherhood,” an instinctive kinship supposedly shared by American astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts. This was ultimately unsuccessful, as detente's critics appropriated the mission for their own symbolic use to attack US–Soviet detente as a fantastical escape from earthly problems.
Occulting the Dao: Daoist Inner Alchemy, French Spiritism, and Vietnamese Colonial Modernity in Caodai Translingual Practice
Authors: Jammes Jeremy , Palmer David A.
Published: March 2018

This article takes the case of the Vietnamese Cao Dai religion to examine how Asian religious leaders and translators, in a context of colonial modernity, invested a European language with their own cosmologies and discourses, building both a national identity and an alternative spiritual universalism. Studies of translation in colonial contexts have tended to focus on the processes and impact of translating European texts and ideas into the languages of the colonized. This article discusses the inverse process, examining how Caodai textual production used French spiritist language and tropes to occult its Chinese roots, translating Daoist cosmology into a universalist and anti-colonial spiritual discourse rooted in Vietnamese nationalism. These shifts are examined through a close examination of translingual practices in the production and translation of the core esoteric scripture of Caodaism, theĐại Thừa Chơn Giáo 大乘真教(The True Teachings of the Great Vehicle), rendered in its 1950 Vietnamese-French edition asThe Bible of the Great Cycle of Esotericism.This study demonstrates how colonial religious institutions and networks of circulation in Asia stimulate the emergence of new movements and textual practices that mimic, invert, jumble, and transcend the cosmologies of both the Chinese imperium and the European colonial regime.
C=f(P): The trust, ‘general public utility’, and charity as a function of profit in India
Authors: BIRLA RITU
Published: March 2018

With an interest in historicizing contemporary philanthropic formations such as corporate social responsibility, this article outlines the modern Indian governmental coding of charity as a function of profit. To do so, it charts a trajectory of legal-fiscal policy on charitable tax exemption in India, especially since the 1940s. Informed by the study of vernacular capitalism, research on economization and on epistemologies of calculation, the analysis maps juridical trajectories on the idea of charity, its relationship with trade, and, more specifically, profit-making. It demonstrates how the legal mechanism of the public trust, which serves in the late nineteenth century to institutionalize a strict distinction and separation between charity and profit-making, later reconfigures and connects them by buttressing the main legal criterion for charity in India, that is, ‘general public utility’. This legal story is deployed to draw attention to philanthropy more broadly as a key terrain for research on processes of economization and neoliberal governing. At the same time, the argument also works against the grain of palimpsests in contemporary public discourse which stage a continuous and direct line from pre-colonial vernacular practices to Indian philanthropy today.
Receipts and Other Forms of Islamic Charity: Accounting for piety in modern North India
Authors: TAYLOR CHRISTOPHER B.
Published: March 2018

Islamic almsgiving is on the rise among Muslims in India, as charitable donations by individuals come to supplant landed endowments as the lifeblood of many Islamic associations. Techniques of mass fundraising in India by Islamic revivalist movements such as Deoband facilitated their expansion across the subcontinent. Such fundraising depended on documentary practices such as verification letters, lists of donors, and receipts for donations. This article illustrates how charity receipts and other documents that change hands in ritual Islamic almsgiving are also a key part of new Indian Muslim collective identities. Moral ties as well as money circulate in this Islamic charity economy. Financial documents are Islamic philanthropy's answer to ‘print capitalism’, serving as material rituals of symbolic community across vast distances. Moreover, the use of documents in traditional Islamic almsgiving is also inflecting pious Muslims’ spiritualities. Islamic charity receipts in particular are contributing to the individualization of religiosity among Lucknow Muslims. New modes of accounting (originally intended to ensure financial compliance) also allow Muslim almsgivers to ‘account’ for accrued piety in a perceived spiritual merit economy.
Ungiven: Philanthropy as critique
Authors: BANERJEE DWAIPAYAN , COPEMAN JACOB
Published: March 2018

Drawing on field research principally from contexts of medical blood donation in North India, this article describes how gifts that are given often critique—by obviation—those that remain ungiven: the care not provided by the Indian state for Bhopal survivors, the family members unwilling to donate blood for their transfusion-requiring relative, and so on. In this way, giving can come to look like a form of criticism. The critiques that acts of giving stage are of absences and deficits: we present cases where large paper hearts donated by survivors of the 1984 Bhopal Gas Disaster to the prime minister of India signal his lack of one, where donated human blood critiques others' unwillingness to do so, where acts of blood donation critique and protest communal violence, and where similar acts of giving over simultaneously highlight a deficit in familial affects and an attempt to resuscitate damaged relational forms. We thus illustrate how critique can operate philanthropically by way of partonomic relations between the given and not-given.
Imitation, Then and Now: On the emergence of philanthropy in early colonial Calcutta
Authors: HATCHER BRIAN A.
Published: March 2018

The goal of this article is to provide conceptual and historical orientation useful for thinking about the emergence of philanthropy in modern South Asia. Conceptually, the article suggests the need to approach the expression of philanthropy in early colonial Bengal in terms of processes of imitation. To do so, we must overcome the stigma attached to the idea of imitation within both nationalist and post-colonial thought. In the particular context of early colonial Calcutta, local actors entered into intimate relationships with Europeans and these relationships provided occasions to borrow, translate, and retool a range of ideas and practices relevant to new modes of public charity. The importance of attending to historical context is suggested by reading such early colonial developments against the grain of late nineteenth-century perspectives—a time when Bengalis grew anxious about cultural imitation. Rather than deferring to these late-colonial anxieties over imitation, we need to situate them within a critically informed historical framework. To do this, the present article draws on the writings of the Brāhmo intellectual Rajnarain Bose, who pondered the relationship between an earlier colonial moment (‘then’) and his own late-colonial ‘now’. Close reading of Bose allows us to plumb the nature of late-colonial anxiety about cultural borrowing while opening up a new perspective on imitation and intimacy in early colonial Bengal that is not predicated on the teleology of the late-colonial modern.
Good Deeds: Parsi trusts from ‘the womb to the tomb’
Authors: VEVAINA LEILAH
Published: March 2018

Parsis (Indian Zoroastrians), a small traditionally endogamous group, are well known in India for their philanthropic giving. The Parsis of Mumbai are beneficiaries of hundreds of Parsi public charitable trusts today, and this article will show how trusts, as particular forms of giving, establish perpetual communal obligation connecting the past and present. It will show how the circulation of personal assets through customary inheritance within a family is replaced by the trust with the circulation of communal obligations in perpetuity. While this mechanism of giving has a marked endurance, what has changed is what constitutes ‘the good’ within these deeds. Moving away from traditional philanthropic practices of subsidizing education, medical care, and welfare to the poor, the focus of giving has shifted to the pursuit of communal reproduction, both biological and social.
Efficient Donors, Meritorious Receivers: Professionalizing transnational philanthropy in coastal Andhra
Authors: ROOHI SANAM
Published: March 2018

‘High skilled’ Kamma migrants from Coastal Andhra domiciled in the USA maintain strong ties with their villages and towns of origin. Since the 1990s, one key way in which they have sustained relations with their roots is through transnational philanthropy. Over the last two decades, migrant donors have diversified the modalities of their philanthropic engagements, increasingly institutionalizing them through US-based transnational associations. While the institutionalization of philanthropy may appear to be an import from the USA, closer examination reveals its historical antecedent in the caste-basedVaraalusystem practised by the Kammas during the late colonial period. The transnationalization of older forms of giving are marked by key modifications in the way giving is conceptualized—from being localized, need based, and individualized to being based on merit, efficiency, and professionalization. The term ‘donation’ is used to describe their philanthropy, rather thandaanor charity, and the politics of semantics points to the modernizing impulse within the community to transcend caste owing to their diasporic location. Yet, by aiming to reachdeservingbeneficiaries while upholding meritocracy, donors often circulate philanthropic resources horizontally on a caste inflected and highly politicized transnational plane. The discourse and practices of transnational giving in post-reform India bring out the contradiction that simultaneously obscures the workings of a caste while transnationalizing its boundaries.
Gurusand Gifting:Dana, themathreform campaign, and competing visions of Hindusangathanin twentieth-century India
Authors: KASTURI MALAVIKA
Published: March 2018

From the early twentieth century, Hindu socio-religious and political bodies debated the use thatmaths(monastic establishments) made of their wealth, amassed in large part throughdana(socio religious gifts). From the early nineteenth century, Anglo Hindu law on inheritance, and thereafter the Religious and Charitable Endowments Acts, had enabled the autonomy ofmathsby classifying them as private religious corporations, not charitable endowments. This article suggests that themathreform campaign between 1920 and 1940 in north India was impelled by the preoccupations of heterogeneous Hindu political and socio-religious organizations withdanaand its potential to fund cultural and political projects regenerating an imagined Hindu socio-religious community. Specifically, the Hindu Mahasabha yokeddanato its Hindusangathan(unity) campaign to strategically craft an integrated ‘Hindu public’ transcendingsampraday(religious traditions) to protect its interests from ‘external enemies’. My discussion probes how the Hindu Mahasabha and its ‘reformist’ allies urged the conversion ofmathsinto public charitable trusts, or endowments accountable to an ephemeral ‘Hindu public’ and the regulation of their expenditure. Monastic orders,guru-based associations like the Bharat Dharma Mahamandala, and the majority of orthodox Hindus successfully opposed this campaign, defending the interests ofmathsandsampradaybefore and after independence. In so doing, they challenged Hindusangathanby articulating alternative visions of the socio-religious publics and communities to be revitalized through philanthropy. Through this discussion, the article charts the uneasy relationship between monasticism and an emerging Hindu nationalist cultural and political consciousness that remained fractured and internally contested.
Charity and Philanthropy in South Asia: A preamble
Authors: RAMASWAMY SUMATHI , OSELLA FILIPPO
Published: March 2018

Why should we care about giving in modern South Asia, and why now? These are among the questions at the forefront of this special issue whose contributors explore charitable practices and philanthropic transformations in diverse historical and cultural contexts across the colonial/post-colonial divide at a time when trade liberalization, the transformation of state welfare-ism, and the consolidation of a global economy has led to a deepening of neo-liberal regimes across the region as well as political and religious fundamentalisms. We also write at a time when non-governmental organizations have proliferated across the region, as has the discourse regarding humanitarian aid for a diverse range of development projects. This special issue, then, seeks to throw light on what is new and different, and what persists in the context of the region's long and well-established traditions of giving. Who gives and toward what purposes and with what stated intentions? How have acts of giving changed over time and across cultural, religious, and regional complexes? What are the institutional frameworks within which specifically local, national and regional mechanisms and instruments of giving intersect with global practices? How do the economic and financial incentives interact with ethical and affective imperatives to give?
The role of spore morphology in horizontal transmission of a microsporidium of Daphnia
Authors: Urca Hadas , Ben-Ami Frida
Published: March 2018

The microsporidian parasite Hamiltosporidium tvaerminnensis can infect Daphnia magna both horizontally (through environmental spores) and vertically (through parthenogenetic and sexually produced eggs). The spores of H. tvaerminnensis come in three distinguishable morphologies, which are thought to have different roles in the transmission of the parasite. In this study, we examined the role of the two most common spore morphologies (i.e. oval-shaped spores and pear-shaped spores) in horizontal transmission of H. tvaerminnensis. To this end, we infected hosts with solutions consisting of either mostly oval- or mostly pear-shaped spores, and quantified infection rates, parasite-induced host mortality and mean number of parasite spores produced per host. We found that spore morphology by itself did not influence infection rates and parasite-induced host mortality. Instead, host clone and parasite isolate interacted with spore morphology in shaping infection outcome and mortality. Thus, there appear to be strong genotype-by-genotype (G × G) interactions in this system. While there is no dispute that H. tvaerminnensis can transmit both vertically and horizontally, our findings do not support theoretical predictions that different spore morphologies hold different roles in horizontal transmission of H. tvaerminnensis.
From Outside the Persianate Centre: Vernacular Views on “Ālamgīr” Introduction
Authors: MURPHY ANNE , PAUWELS HEIDI
Published: March 2018

In an unprecedented show of efficiency, workers of the New Delhi Municipal Corporation worked overnight on September 3, 2015 to change signposts of Aurangzeb Road to A. B. J. Abdul Kalam Road. This renaming had been decided on roughly a week earlier, prompted by a proposal from Members of Parliament from the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party). The move proved popular, but was followed by a degree of soul-searching in the Indian press about whether Aurangzeb's image as a villain is justified. Discussion of the figure of Aurangzeb in South Asian history has not abated since then, with scholars intervening in the debate. The popular reaction to such interventions has been equally contentious, with vituperative web-based responses too numerous to cite.
Activity space-based measures of the food environment and their relationships to food purchasing behaviours for young urban adults in Canada
Authors: Widener Michael J , Minaker Leia M , Reid Jessica L , Patterson Zachary , Ahmadi Tara Kamal , Hammond David
Published: March 2018

Objective

To examine the potential links between activity spaces, the food retail environment and food shopping behaviours for the population of young, urban adults.

Design

Participants took part in the Canada Food Study, which collected information on demographics, food behaviour, diet and health, as well as an additional smartphone study that included a seven-day period of logging GPS (global positioning system) location and food purchases. Using a time-weighted, continuous representation of participant activity spaces generated from GPS trajectory data, the locations of food purchases and a geocoded food retail data set, negative binomial regression models were used to explore what types of food retailers participants were exposed to and where food purchases were made.

Setting

Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Edmonton and Halifax, Canada.

Subjects

Young adults aged 16–30 years (n496). These participants were a subset of the larger Canada Food Study.

Results

Demographics, household food shopper status and city of residence were significantly associated with different levels of exposure to various types of food retailers. Food shopping behaviours were also statistically significantly associated with demographics, the activity space-based food environment, self-reported health and city of residence.

Conclusions

The study confirms that food behaviours are related to activity space-based food environment measures, which provide a more comprehensive accounting of food retail exposure than home-based measures. In addition, exposure to food retail and food purchasing behaviours of an understudied population are described.
Moore's Law: A Review of Feature Size Shrinkage and its Effect on Microscopy in the Semiconductor Industry
Authors: Mardinly John
Published: March 2018

In 1965, Gordon Moore predicted that the number of components in an integrated circuit would double every year. The drive for higher performance with greater economy has been a major factor in the pursuit of Moore's Law. Device scaling is expected to continue without interruption, and products manufactured using a nominal 22nm feature size should become commercially available by the year 2011. This article will detail the technology enablers that make Moore's Law possible, and the improvements in microscopy techniques required to meet the challenges that Moore's Law presents.
Resolution and Sampling in Digital Imaging
Authors: Dobbie Ian
Published: March 2018

As nearly all imaging has moved from analogue media such as photographic film into digital image files it has become vital to understand how resolution and digital sampling affect the information contained in these images. This article is a basic introduction to the important concepts and how they should be applied, using general assumptions, rather than a rigorous mathematical approach. The focus is on optical microscopy although the essentials are the same for any digital imaging. The basic concepts are explained with reference to optical microscopy, but then the article moves on to more general aspects of sampling in digital imaging. More detailed, and mathematical, treatments can be found in a range of literature but a particularly detailed and instructive description can be found in Chapter 4, Handbook of Biological Confocal Microscopy, 3rd edition, Ed J.B. Pawley, Springer 2006.
Vapor Coating: A Simple, Economical Procedure for Preparing Difficult Specimens for Scanning Electron Microscopy
Authors: Ellis E Ann , Pendleton Michael W
Published: March 2018

The Microscopy and Imaging Center at Texas A&M University is a multi-user facility involved with preparation and analysis of many different biological and materials sciences projects. Vapor stabilization and coating is an important part of our specimen preparation methodology for difficult biological and materials, especially polymer, samples. The procedure for all our vapor preparation techniques is done in a simple, economical apparatus set up in a properly functioning fume hood with a flow rate of at least 100 ft/min (Fig. 1). The apparatus is made from a glass petri dish or a glass petri dish for the bottom and an appropriate size beaker for the top. Specimens, mounted on stubs, are placed inside the chamber and the fixative (osmium tetroxide, ruthenium tetroxide or acrolein) is placed in a small container (plastic bottle cap) near the specimens.
Students and the SEM: The First Encounter
Authors: Dusevich VM , Eick JD
Published: March 2018

The first demonstration of an SEM to students is a rewarding experience. Whether it is the beginning of a course in instrumentation or just an illustration of the abilities of an SEM for “prospective users”, whether students have engineering or biological backgrounds, both graduate and undergraduate students are thrilled to see a “real electron microscope”. We thus have an easy task of only having to choose the right specimens to fulfill their anticipation and to present the right amount of information that will be easily absorbed and remembered for a long time.

Insects are the prima donnas of SEM imaging. We usually start our demonstrations with insects (Fig.1). Their multifaceted eyes, terrifying (at proper magnifications) mouths, exoskeletons, jointed limbs, and segmented bodies look so astonishingly alien under the microscope, so remarkably different from their familiar (to the naked eye) appearance, that insects unfailingly get the students thrilled and prepare them to absorb information.
Quality Controls on SEM Performance: A Novel Reference Sample
Authors: Griffin Brendan J , Platten Sharon T
Published: March 2018

The monitoring of performance of an SEM in a multi-user facility is a difficult task as user feedback is generally not reliable. Regular quality control measurements must be undertaken using standard conditions to maintain research-quality products. The test specimens should also be available to the general user community to allow them to monitor their own skills against the reference images. The ready availability of these specimens also helps to eliminate problems related to user specimen preparation, as users can refer back to them when in doubt with respect to SEM performance.

Certified SEM imaging standards are expensive and cannot be provided routinely, particularly where a number of SEM are present. We have investigated a range of potential materials and preparations in search of a low cost, reliable and robust specimen for use in routine (day-to-day) quality control.
Probing Individual Proteins in Unsupported Membranes
Authors: Carmichael Stephen W
Published: March 2018

Proteins in biologic membranes perform a large variety of essential functions. The fact that about one third of all genes code for membrane proteins, and that the majority of drugs target these proteins, attest to that fact. However, until now, proteins have been studied under artificial conditions, such as after being crystallized, frozen, or adsorbed to a substrate. Rui Pedro Gonçalves, Guillaume Agnus, Pierre Sens, Christine Houssin, Bernard Bartenlian, and Simon Scheuring have devised a novel setup with the atomic force microscope (AFM) to allow proteins to be probed while they are in unsupported membranes. Their method is similar in principle to methods where a small area of a membrane is sampled, such as when a piece of membrane is examined by patch clamping. The difference is that instead of attaching a membrane to the end of a pipette, it is spread across a piece of perforated Si(001).
Luminance Contrast — a New Visible Light Technique for Examining Transparent Specimens
Authors: Piper Jörg
Published: March 2018

Transparent specimens are usually examined by dark field, phase contrast and interference contrast light microscopy. In dark field, specimens are illuminated by oblique light beams that come from the periphery of the illuminating apparatus. Therefore, some transparent objects, e.g. unstained native bacteria, are barely visible and fine structures inside them are often not visible. In phase contrast, the discernment of fine detail can be reduced by halo artifacts. The intensity of contrast, i.e. the difference in brightness between the background and specimen, is constant and not variable; it is determined by the specification of the phase ring within the phase contrast lens and dependent on the specific phase differences between the specimen and its surrounding medium. Interference contrast images are free from halo artifacts, but their contrast may be lower than in corresponding phase contrast or dark field images, especially, when transparent specimens are examined in thinlayer preparations.
Multimode Trans-Illuminator for the Stereomicroscope
Authors: Clarke Ted
Published: March 2018

The stereomicroscope was the main tool I once used for metallurgical failure analysis. I have owned a Meiji EMT Greenough-type stereomicroscope since the late 1980's. I had not used transmitted light with the stereomicroscope until about a year ago when I completed a multimode transmitted light illuminator for my Meiji stereomicroscope. I thought this capability would be very useful for introducing the grandkids to the microscopic world, especially with live lake water organisms. My earlier article in Microscopy Today, “Rediscovery of Darkfield Dispersion Staining while Building a Universal Student Microscope,” January/February 2003, demonstrated usefulness of a dual brightfield and darkfield capability in transmitted light for viewing living organisms. I have a ½″ fiber-optic bundle light guide used in the illumination system for my modified Biolam microscope also shown in Microscopy Today, “Effects of Condenser Spherical Aberration on Image Quality,” March 2005.
Digital Cameras and the TEM
Authors: Straszheim Warren
Published: March 2018

Resolution and pixel number is a recurring question in microscopy, especially in regards to appreciating or visualizing the image's resolution once an image is captured. For instance, what is the effect of changing a one megapixel camera for a three megapixel camera? It is important to consider nanometers (or micrometers) per pixel, which will determine the ultimate resolution available. Of course Nyquist will tell you that you can't push things to the single-pixel dimensions—a couple of pixels is more likely the limit.

It is also important to remember that raw pixel count alone is meaningless. The image formation process must be considered. The camera needs to be matched to the phosphor for optimum cost and performance.
Silicon Cross-Section Sample Preparation (Cleaving)
Authors: Beanland Richard
Published: March 2018

I have found the best way to cleave [001]-oriented silicon wafers is rather different compared to GaAs or InP. The problem is that Si prefers to cleave on (111) planes rather than (110) and so one gets an angled face with the cleave, which is usually rather uneven and often doesn't run straight. This is even worse when cleaving close to an existing edge, which attracts the crack front as it propagates. Good for making low-angle cleaved specimens, but a problem otherwise. It is possible to make Si cleave on (110) by cleaving the wafer without any support.
When Did Agriculture Begin?
Authors: Carmichael Stephen W
Published: March 2018

It has generally been considered that cereals (such as wheat, rice, and maize) were the first crops to be cultivated by human beings. But a new study that included scanning electron microscopy, by Mordechai Kislev, Anat Hartmann, and Ofer Bar-Yosef (micrographs by Yakov Langsam) provides strong evidence that figs were the first agricultural crop in human history.

Kislev et al. recovered nine fig fruits (plus many nutlets called drupelets) from the ruins of a burned building near Jericho. The fire had carbonized the fruit which helped preserve the morphology of the specimens. The site was radiocarbon dated to 11,400 to 11,200 years ago. Microscopic analysis demonstrated that these specimens were of an edible fig that produces drupelets without embryos; that is, these fruits are sterile. Wild fertile figs have a symbiotic relationship with a wasp that plays an essential role in pollinating the fruit, but this fruit is inedible. In this study, no evidence of wasps or where a wasp could exit the fruit were found and these are features found in wild fruit. In other words, wild figs that can be pollinated and reproduce without human intervention are inedible, but edible figs require human intervention. The specimens examined in this study were of the latter variety.
Olympus E330 DSLR for Photomicrography with Older Design Microscopes
Authors: Clarke Theodore M
Published: March 2018

Jan Hinsch wrote an excellent review article “About the Use of Digital Single Lens Reflex Cameras on Microscopes” in 2004 for the web journal Modern Microscopy, http://www.modernmicroscopy.com/main.asp?article=33&print=true. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the capabilities of the new Olympus Evolt E-330 DSLR for use with older design microscopes to capture the full diagonal of an 18 mm field number eyepiece that is not high eyepoint. This camera can be fitted with OM mount film camera lenses using the Olympus MF-1 adapter. A key requirement I had before purchasing a DSLR was that critical focusing must be possible at the full resolution of the sensor. I asked the Olympus Precision Instruments Group whether Olympus would have a DSLR available with this capability, and learned from them that the new E-330 DSLR would allow a selected area to be displayed at full resolution from the main CMOS sensor for critical focusing. This 7.5 megapixel sensor measures 13 by 17 mm.
Probing the Liquid-Solid Interface with Dynamic Force Microscopy
Authors: Lindsay Stuart , Zhu Judy
Published: March 2018

Processes at real interfaces, such as drug dissolution, corrosion, enzyme activity and surfactant structure can now be studied with nanometer resolution using dynamic force microscopy. Optimal sensitivity is achieved when the tip is excited by direct application of a driving force using magnetic methods.
Comments on Zinc Formalin Fixative
Authors: Dapson Richard W
Published: March 2018

Questions have arisen recently on the Histonet listserver about the properties of zinc formalin fixative. The advantage of zinc formalin over the usual formalin fixatives appears to be that zinc ions hold macromolecules in their native conformation via coordinate bonds, preventing the damaging crosslinkages that formaldehyde alone would create. The result is greatly enhanced immunopreservation: rarely is antigen retrieval necessary, and primary antibodies can be diluted 2 to 10 fold greater than usual.
Making and breaking a health service
Authors: Doran Tim
Published: March 2018

The creation of the National Health Service (NHS) marked a radical break with the past, making health care universally available on the basis of need rather than means. The NHS was conceived during wartime emergency and has had to survive further regular crises to reach its 70th year, but it now faces challenges that are unprecedented in scale and there are doubts about its ability to continue in its present form. Resources have not increased with need, and the NHS can no longer function as a comprehensive service during periods of peak demand. Policymakers look for solutions in service rearrangements, new technologies, quality improvement initiatives and alternative funding arrangements; meanwhile, chronic lack of capacity is taking a predictable toll on patient care and staff morale. The NHS has become a formidably resilient institution, but securing its future may take as great a collective effort as the one that created it.
Looking forward to the next 70 years: from a National Ill-Health Service to a National Health System
Authors: Hunter David J.
Published: March 2018

Amidst the NHS’s (National Health Service) success lies its major weakness, although one that Klein overlooks in his reflections on the NHS as it approaches 70. The focus on, and investment in, curing ill-health has been at the expense of attending to the public’s overall health and well-being. This preoccupation poses a greater threat to the NHS’s future than privatisation. Despite the weakness having been diagnosed decades ago, redressing the imbalance has proved stubbornly hard to achieve. Rhetoric has not been translated into reality. Yet, we may be on the cusp of a tipping point where in order to ensure a sustainable NHS, and one that is capable of meeting the 21st century challenges facing it, there is a renewed and overdue interest in promoting health and well-being in communities. But for this to succeed, the NHS will need to embrace its bete noire, local government.
Prairies, Potholes, and Public Policy
Authors: Witman Sarah
Published: March 2018

Studying the Prairie-Pothole Region of North America could help improve water resource management across the continent.
Nutrient-Rich Water Around Seamounts Lures Top Predators
Authors: Kornei Katherine
Published: March 2018

At an Indian Ocean marine refuge, tides drive cold water laden with nutrients onto the tops of underwater mountains, where it sustains a long food chain that culminates in sharks, tuna, and seabirds.
Highly concentrated collagen solutions leading to transparent scaffolds of controlled three-dimensional organizations for corneal epithelial cell colonization
Authors: Tidu Aurélien , Ghoubay-Benallaoua Djida , Teulon Claire , Asnacios Sophie , Grieve Kate , Portier François , Schanne-Klein Marie-Claire , Borderie Vincent , Mosser Gervaise
Published: March 2018

Controlling both organizations and transparency of dense collagen scaffolds.
Comparing winter-time herbicide behavior and exports in urban, rural, and mixed-use watersheds
Authors: Parajulee Abha , Lei Ying Duan , Cao Xiaoshu , McLagan David S. , Yeung Leo W. Y. , Mitchell Carl P. J. , Wania Frank
Published: March 2018

This study compares winter-time herbicide yields, concentration patterns, and transport pathways in urbanversusagricultural streams five to six years after a ban on cosmetic pesticide use.
Surface interaction of doxorubicin with anatase determines its photodegradation mechanism: insights into removal of waterborne pharmaceuticals by TiO2 nanoparticles
Authors: Curry Dennis E. , Andrea Kori A. , Carrier Andrew J. , Nganou Collins , Scheller Hope , Yang Dongchang , Youden Brian , Zhang Youwei , Nicholson Amanda , Cui Shufen , Oakes Ken D. , MacQuarrie Stephanie L. , Lu Mingsheng , Zhang Xu
Published: March 2018

Adsorption of pharmaceuticals on anatase nanoparticles determines the rate and intermediates formed during photodegradation.
COSMO-CAMPD: a framework for integrated design of molecules and processes based on COSMO-RS
Authors: Scheffczyk J. , Schäfer P. , Fleitmann L. , Thien J. , Redepenning C. , Leonhard K. , Marquardt W. , Bardow A.
Published: March 2018

We present COSMO-CAMPD, a framework for integrated design of molecules and processes based on COSMO-RS.
Improving analyte selectivity by post-assembly modification of metal–organic framework based photonic crystal sensors
Authors: von Mankowski A. , Szendrei-Temesi K. , Koschnick C. , Lotsch B. V.
Published: March 2018

The porous nature and tailorable host–guest interactions of metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), cast into a 1D photonic crystal architecture, provide a versatile platform for specific and selective sorption, which can be exploited for chemo-optical sensing.
Ozonation of ketoprofen with nitrate in aquatic environments: kinetics, pathways, and toxicity
Authors: Zeng Yongqin , Lin Xiaoxuan , Li Fuhua , Chen Ping , Kong Qingqing , Liu Guoguang , Lv Wenying
Published: March 2018

In this study, nitrate ion (NO3−) was found to collaborate with ozone thereby accelerating the degradation of ketoprofen.
Identification of potential serum biomarkers of acute paraquat poisoning in humans using an iTRAQ quantitative proteomic
Authors: Wei Liming , Wang Yi , Lin Ling , Zhang Lei , Shi Yan , Xiang Ping , Cao Shujun , Shen Min , Yang Pengyuan
Published: March 2018

Using an iTRAQ quantitative proteomic, S100 alarmins, TfR1 and SAP have been discovered as potential indicators to paraquat poisoning in humans.
Interface engineering of graphene–silicon Schottky junction solar cells with an Al2O3 interfacial layer grown by atomic layer deposition
Authors: Alnuaimi Aaesha , Almansouri Ibraheem , Saadat Irfan , Nayfeh Ammar
Published: March 2018

One approach to improve Gr/Si SBSC performance is engineering the interface with an interfacial layer. We demonstrate the improved performance of Gr/Si SBSC upon engineering the interface with an aluminium oxide (Al2O3) layer grown by atomic layer deposition (ALD)..
Hybrid MoSe2–indocyanine green nanosheets as a highly efficient phototheranostic agent for photoacoustic imaging guided photothermal cancer therapy
Authors: Chen Jingqin , Li Xueshen , Liu Xiaoyang , Yan Huixiang , Xie Zhihua , Sheng Zonghai , Gong Xiaojing , Wang Lidai , Liu Xin , Zhang Peng , Zheng Hairong , Song Liang , Liu Chengbo
Published: March 2018

The synthesis of sMoSe2–ICG NSs for highly efficient tumor photoacoustic imaging guided photothermal therapy.
Layered perovskite-like La2−xCaxNiO4±δ derived catalysts for hydrogen production via auto-thermal reforming of acetic acid
Authors: Xie Wei , Yang Jilong , Wang Qiao , Huang Lihong , Wang Ning
Published: March 2018

Layered perovskite La2−xCaxNiO4±δ produced ordered porous structures with Ni dispersed over La–Ca–O oxides, which promoted transformation of CH3COOH.
Development of hydroxy-containing imidazole organocatalysts for CO2 fixation into cyclic carbonates
Authors: Castro-Osma José A. , Martínez Javier , de la Cruz-Martínez Felipe , Caballero María P. , Fernández-Baeza Juan , Rodríguez-López Julián , Otero Antonio , Lara-Sánchez Agustín , Tejeda Juan
Published: March 2018

Metal-free catalysts for cyclic carbonates synthesis.
A thermoelectric copper-iodide composite from the pyrolysis of a well-defined coordination polymer
Authors: Bai Shi-Qiang , Wong Ivy Hoi Ka , Lin Ming , Young David James , Hor T. S. Andy
Published: March 2018

A robust and relatively light CuI-rich carbon composite derived from an inorganic–organic hybrid molecular material demonstrates a high Seebeck coefficient from room temperature to 204 °C.
Metal-free α-alkylation of alcohols with para-quinone methides
Authors: Qi Jifeng , Deng Ziyang , Huang Bo , Cui Sunliang
Published: March 2018

A metal-free α-alkylation of alcohols with para-quinone methides (p-QMs) for accessing alcohol-containing phenols and dihydroisocoumarins has been developed.
Facile preparation of a tetraethylenepentamine-functionalized nano magnetic composite material and its adsorption mechanism to anions: competition or cooperation
Authors: Hu Meiqin , Shen Haoyu , Ye Si , Wang Yan , Zhang Jiali , Lv Shanshan
Published: March 2018

A tetraethylenepentamine (TEPA)-functionalized nano-Fe3O4 magnetic composite material (nFe3O4@TEPA) was synthesized by a facile one-pot solvothermal method.
Cadmium specific proteomic responses of a highly resistantPseudomonas aeruginosasan ai
Authors: Izrael-Živković Lidija , Rikalović Milena , Gojgić-Cvijović Gordana , Kazazić Saša , Vrvić Miroslav , Brčeski Ilija , Beškoski Vladimir , Lončarević Branka , Gopčević Kristina , Karadžić Ivanka
Published: March 2018

When exposed to cadmium a highly resistant strainP. aeruginosasan ai responds by an increased metalloprotein expression (particularly denitrification proteins), an enhanced respiration, and a pronounced thiol-disulfide protein modifications.
Superior visible light photocatalytic performance of reticular BiVO4 synthesized via a modified sol–gel method
Authors: Zhang Lingyun , Dai Zhenxiang , Zheng Ganhong , Yao Zifeng , Mu Jingjing
Published: March 2018

Reticular BiVO4 catalysts with superior visible light photocatalytic performance were successfully synthesized via a modified sol–gel method.
Structurally colored coating films with tunable iridescence fabricated via cathodic electrophoretic deposition of silica particles
Authors: Katagiri Kiyofumi , Uemura Kensuke , Uesugi Ryo , Inumaru Kei , Seki Takahiro , Takeoka Yukikazu
Published: March 2018

Structurally colored coatings with and without iridescence can be fabricated by varying pH of coating sols for cathodic electrophoretic deposition.
In situ synthesis of MoS2/graphene nanosheets as free-standing and flexible electrode paper for high-efficiency hydrogen evolution reaction
Authors: Zhang Xianghui , Zhang Mingguang , Tian Yiqun , You Jing , Yang Congxing , Su Jun , Li Yuebin , Gao Yihua , Gu Haoshuang
Published: March 2018

An improved flexible hybrid MoS2/graphene free-standing electrocatalyst paper was fabricated by a one-step in situ solvothermal process for hydrogen evolution reaction applications.