X-ray radiography and tomography for monitoring the penetration depth of consolidants in Opuka – the building stone of Prague monuments

Stone consolidation is one of the major restoration treatments used for historical monuments preservation. A natural stone is a complicated heterogeneous porous system making the process of consolidation dependent on many variables. In practical restoration aims, for a given stone type, the selection of a suitable consolidant and consolidation conditions therefore remains a complex issue. The impregnation depth is a key factor for the assessment of the treatment efficiency. The combination of state-of-the-art hybrid pixel semiconductor detectors with newly available micro-focus X-ray sources makes possible to apply X-ray radiography, an ideal non-destructive tool, for penetration depth monitoring. In this study, high-resolution X-ray radiography is used for monitoring the penetration depth of organosilicon consolidants in the Opuka stone. The penetration depth has been evaluated in relation to the time of consolidation, stone porosity and consolidation mixtures properties. The exact influence of the X-ray contrast agent on the consolidation depth has been investigated as well. The information obtained provides supplementary knowledge on the suitability of investigated products for the treatment of this type of stone. In our study, the capabilities of X-ray radiography have been demonstrated on X-ray radiography simple projections, high-resolution computed tomography (CT) as well as on the dynamic processes monitoring. The results thus can serve also as an instrumental and methodological example applicable for consolidation monitoring of other stone types.     

Inside the Nobel Committee on Medicine: Prize Competition Procedures 1901–1950 and the Fate of Carl Neuberg

The present study explores some ofthe mechanisms at work in the award of theNobel Prize in medicine or physiology duringthe period 1901–1950. In his will, Nobelmentioned three explicit criteria for the NobelCommittees, but an examination of the fate ofGerman biochemist Carl Neuberg reveals howimplicit criteria came to be added. Forexample, the Nobel Committees in Medicine andChemistry were challenged by the emergence ofnew disciplines such as biochemistry, and inresponse began to rotate awards arounddifferent specialities.     

A study of the blue colors used by Telemaco Signorini (1835–1901)

Telemaco Signorini (Florence 1835-1901), one of the most important Italian painters of the 19th century, was particularly famous among his colleagues for his way of depicting dark details and shadows by using primarily blue colors. The restoration of his painting Pascolo a Pietramala (c. 1889, Galleria di arte moderna, Palazzo Pitti, Florence) gave the authors the opportunity to study Signorini's blue palette using non-invasive fiber optics reflectance spectroscopy (FORS) in the ultraviolet (UV), visible (vis), and near infrared (NIR) regions (350-1700 nm). Furthermore, to help in the identification of the pigments used, a suitable spectroscopic database was created for Prussian blue, artificial ultramarine blue, Thénard blue (or cobalt blue), and cerulean blue modern blue pigments, in masstone and in mixtures with lead white as well as zinc white. The main pigments used by the artist in the aforesaid painting were found to be Prussian blue, artificial ultramarine blue, Thénard blue (or cobalt blue).     

A Perfect Marriage of the Soundless and the Sound

Gao Nianhua as a specialist in ancient architecture and Chen Hongbing as an opera singer are well known in Hangzhou. But few local people know they are husband and wife, for they seldom appear together in news stories.How they knew each other and how they got married was a delightful anecdote. Gao and Chen's elder brother were good buddies in their early youth. Chen's family knew him well. Years later, a close friend of Chen Hongbing arranged a blind date     

Money and moneyness: thoughts on the nature and distributional power of the ‘backbone’ of capitalist political economy

This paper contends that political economy may profit from an understanding of money that is both able to account for its systemic importance as well as money’s specific role for the contemporary distribution of wealth. ‘Money-ness’ is a strategic factor in profit-making and capital accumulation. If we accord moneyness to all those instruments that make the repackaging of credit and other financial assets and liabilities and their capitalization possible, we arrive at an understanding of money that underscores the Marxian analysis of the structural importance of the money relation for capital accumulation that is up to speed with current financial innovations. As a social structure and process, moneymaking through capital permeates society. As a public-private deal between the state, rentiers, banks, and taxpayers that has existed since the foundation of the Bank of England in 1694, it binds these actors together in shifting relations of dependence. Under financial capitalism today, what counts as money and how far moneyness stretches into the realms of financial innovation has been a core object of struggle in the public-private deal of money creation.     

A discussion on the development model of earthquake relic geopark – a case study of the Qingchuan Earthquake Relic Geopark in Sichuan Province,China

Earthquake relic is a unique geoheritage. At present, the research on earthquake relic geoparks or national parks is less domestic and overseas, while the protection, development and exploration are in its infancy. This paper, taking ‘Qingchuan Earthquake Relic Geopark’ (QERG) as an example, analyses the characteristics of the geopark, and explores the development model, in order to provide reference for the earthquake relic geopark and national park development domestic and overseas.     

Evolution of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project: The Effects of the “Third” on the Interplay Between Cooperation and Competition

Minerva - The paper investigates the evolution of the first manned international space mission – a rendezvous and docking between a US and a Soviet spacecraft in 1975 known as the...     

A taste of Europe: Eating/reading between the lines of the German–Italian failed love story

This essay examines the topicality of intra-European intercultural tensions, focusing on German–Italian relations. Grounded in Burke’s interpretation of literature as “equipment for living,” this project uses Marisa Fenoglio’s Never without a woman—a novel about an Italian Gastarbeiter in Germany—as a case study and suggests a critical cultural analysis of German–Italian food-related rhetoric as reflective and constructive of German–Italian interculturality. This essay invites a nuanced understanding of the rhetoric of European foodways as representative of the contemporary European culture and intercultural communication because we are what we eat.     

First results of using combined mass and temperature measurements to study the water flow at the rock–atmosphere interface

The preservation of historical monuments requires both a detailed understanding of water circulation inside construction materials, and a deep comprehension of the associated physical and chemical effects on building structure. Combining mass and temperature measurements may be a new powerful tool to achieve this purpose, as first results obtained on a wall of the Saint-Gatien cathedral in Tours, France, indicate. The proposed method has been evaluated with dedicated experiments in a climatic chamber, regulated in both temperature and humidity, using three types of stones: Tours tuffeau, Baumberg limy sandstone, and Rüthen sandstone. Climatic chamber data indicate that temperature gradients between rock surface and atmosphere provide a meaningful and practical estimate of the water flow, which controls the heat exchange between rock and atmosphere because of the high enthalpy of vaporisation of water. Continuous measurements of the mass of a sample confirm this assumption and allow the calibration of temperature data with respect to water flow estimations. Temperature gradients between points on the stone surface are also dominated by changes in the water flux, and they provide a sensitive estimate of local variations in the heat and water transport properties of non-saturated stones. Combined mass and temperature measurements therefore appear as a promising method to estimate in situ the global and local water flow between the rock and the atmosphere and thus to diagnose the state of stone degradation, or to estimate quantitatively the efficiency of treatment processes, both in the field and in the laboratory.     

Characterization and origin of weathering crusts on Kylin carved-stone,Kylin countryside,Nanjing – A case study

To evaluate the effects of the environment pollution on weathering of outdoor stone artifacts in Kylin countryside, Nanjing, a Kylin carved-stone was studied accordingly to the observable decay pattern on its surface. Different samples were collected either from the deteriorated areas or from the sound stone substrate. The samples were characterized by IR, XRD, XRF, SEM, IC and ICP techniques. Gypsum, kaolinite, calcium oxalate and phosphate together with an high content of heavy metals and soil particulates are mainly located on sheltered or partially exposed areas, while an extensive network of parallel fissures is mainly developed on surfaces directly exposed to rainwater. Furthermore, an extensive colonization by lichen is affecting a wide surface of the carved-stone, which is strongly adherent to the surface. The obtained results show that the deterioration is mainly due to the atmospheric pollutants and its extent is strongly dependent on the surface exposition to the environment.     

Viscoelastic and mechano-sorptive studies applied to the conservation of historical violins: A case study of the Guarneri “del Gesù” violin (1743) known as the “Cannone”

To assess the possible effects of mechanical loading on the conservation of historical wooden musical instruments, a research project was carried out on the violin Guarneri “del Gesù” (1743), known as the “Cannone”. This paper refers to the results obtained by studying the deformations to which a violin is subjected after being tuned, with special attention to the viscous and mechano-sorptive behaviour (as in a concert environment for example). The amount of viscoelastic creep was quantified under normal tuning conditions, and the mechano-sorptive creep was quantified using a dead mass resulting in 55% of the elastic deformation obtained after tuning. The viscoelastic and mechano-sorptive deformations were clearly observed. These deformations were completely recovered once the violin was unloaded, demonstrating that this violin structure is appropriately dimensioned for the applied stresses.     

Global Health Interventions and the “Common Sense” of Neoliberalism: A Dialectical Analysis of PEPFAR

Abstract

Neoliberal ideologies, implicated in increasing global inequality, have significantly influenced how global health interventions are conceived and executed. In this article, we take a critical stance towards the market-based impetus of neoliberalism as articulated in the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the largest comprehensive effort against the global HIV/AIDS epidemic. Using a variety of PEPFAR policy documents, our analysis points to the operation of a neoliberal “common sense” that provides a justification for intervention. Our analysis resulted in three themes: (a) the body as labor, (b) the gendering of the intervention, and (c) political economies of partnerships.     

Do cultural differences affect the trade of cultural goods? A study in trade of music

This study investigates the impact of cultural differences on trade decision and trade volume of cultural goods, using the data of traded music compact discs (CDs). According to ethnomusicological and civilization classifications, we classify countries into several groups and make novel variables that properly represent the cultural differences. We use the gravity model of trade proposed in Helpman et al. (The Quarterly Journal of Economics 123(2):441–487, 2008), which is utilized to avoid selection and endogeneity biases of estimation. In addition, we exploit an identifying assumption on the types of consumers, so that one of the cultural variables can satisfy the exclusion restriction in our two-stage estimation procedure. Our empirical hypothesis is that the trade volume of music is larger between two countries with greater cultural familiarity. The empirical results show that cultural differences have significant influences on the trading decision and volume of music traded in addition to the traditional determinants of trade. This finding supports our hypothesis that cultural familiarity promotes the cultural goods trade.     

The Incidence of and Returns to ‘Overeducation’: PIAAC Evidence on the G7

Minerva - PIAAC data are used to evaluate the extent of overeducation in G7 countries. Incidence of overeducation is seen to vary systematically with a number of demographic characteristics. The...