Identification of natural dyes in historical textiles from Romanian collections by LC-DAD and LC-MS (single stage and tandem MS)

In this study, the dyes present in five 17th- to 18th-century textiles from the National Museum of Art of Romania, three religious embroideries and two brocaded velvets, are characterized and discussed, together with earlier results on textiles from Romanian collections obtained by the same research group. Dye analyses were performed using two methods: the well-established liquid chromatography-diode array detection (LC–DAD) and a recently developed liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC–MS) analytical protocol. The examination of very small historical samples by both techniques allows a better insight in the advantages and limitations of the two approaches to real analyses to be obtained. LC–MS data interpretation is based entirely on the results accumulated for dye standards. Electrospray ionization (ESI) was used in the negative ion mode and an ion trap served as mass analyzer. Both single stage (MS) and tandem (MS/MS) mass spectrometric approaches were considered. The dyes and natural sources identified by both analytical techniques are discussed in the historical context of the textiles, with respect to earlier results collected for similar Romanian objects. The study showed that the dye sources found in the 17th- and 18th-century Romanian velvets and embroideries were produced using a wide variety of dye sources, suggesting influences from Europe as well as from Asia Minor. Dye sources imported from New World have been also detected. The range of biological sources is in very good correspondence with earlier results obtained from textiles in the Romanian Collections. LC-MS (single stage and tandem MS) approaches have been demonstrated to be valuable tools for dye identification in small-scaled samples from historical textile objects only if sufficient knowledge on the dyes and their biological sources is first accumulated within experiments performed on standard dyes and standard dyed fibers.     

University Interaction in Central and South Eastern Europe

If regional groupings are a legitimate step on the road to European integration, co-operation in education, particularly university education, has a principal role to play in the process. In Central and Eastern Europe, university education is essential for finding solutions to the common problems of adopting a market economy and of achieving scientific and technological parity with the West. Its aims can be furthered by co-operation and emphasis upon multiculturalism and initiatives aimed at furthering the aims of the Bologna Declaration of June 1999 on a European Area of Higher Education.     

Data search strategy for science and technology emergence: A scalable and evolutionary query for nanotechnology tracking

Nanotechnology, like other emerging technologies that increasingly characterize the dynamic of our era, makes specific demands on datamining to track and interpret efficiently what is happening, through publications and other scientific output. We here propose and describe a strategy based on an automated lexical modular methodology to overcome rapidly evolving content and classification problems, which may otherwise accommodate poor quality of data and expert bias, with potential dire consequences for interpretation, decision and strategy. The proposed methodology is based on an initial nanostring enriched and screened by eight subfields, automatically identified and defined through the journal inter-citation network density displayed in the initial core nanodataset. Relevant keywords linked to each subfield are then tested for their specificity and relevance before being sequentially incorporated to build a modular query. We then, as a first test, compare the database constructed using this methodology for years 2003 and 2005 with those obtained by other approaches previously used to cover and explore the nanotechnology dynamic. Finally, using the inherent transparency, portablity and replicability of our methodology, we offer, in order to help our initial query evolve and develop, a set of evaluation processes for tests by researchers in the nano field, other scientometric teams and intelligence experts involved in decision-making processes.     

Representation of morality in children: A qualitative approach

ABSTRACT

Previous research on children’s moral reasoning usually used a quantitative approach and a pre-determined set of methods in order to establish early moral landmarks. We proposed a qualitative perspective on the basis of which we have formulated three main objectives: 1) to identify the main categories of behaviors that children spontaneously associate with the notion of morality, in line with Turiel’s Domain Theory; 2) to investigate children’s conceptions of moral and social-conventional rules and 3) to assess the gender differences in the use of care and justice reasoning, in line with Gilligan’s assertion that females are care-oriented and that males consistently use the justice orientation and infrequently use the care orientation. Ninety-two children (57% boys, mean age was 8.19 years) were required to describe morality in behavioral terms without being guided by specific indications from the researchers. Our results reflected a tendency towards morality perceived through behaviors directed towards others, namely through altruism, and also the domination of moral norms as compared to social ones, partially confirming Gilligan’s theory concerning gender specificities regarding moral reasoning in the questions of care and justice.     

The accidental conservationist: William T. Hornaday, the Smithsonian bison expeditions and the US National Zoo

In 1886 William T. Hornaday, the Chief Taxidermist of the US National Museum, led the "Smithsonian Institution Buffalo Outfit" to Montana. The American bison was fast heading toward extinction and the mission of the expedition was to locate those of the elusive animals that remained and obtain specimens for the scientific collection at the museum. The successful expedition produced the most complete scientific series, and the finest artistic grouping of taxidermied specimens of the American bison anywhere in the world. Haunted by the scattered skeletal remains of the millions of slaughtered bison that peppered the Eastern Montana Plains, Hornaday fought to establish the National Zoological Park, which would provide sanctuary for bison and other endangered species, and a captive breeding program, which would result in the eventual reintroduction of the American bison to the wild.     

University Reform in Europe: Some Ethical Considerations

European universities must face the crisis of the Humboldtian model, and find new organisational solutions. This paper proceeds from two starting observations. The first is the one according to which we are in a “cultural shift” that makes culture the element on which performance, including technologically and cognitively, depends. The development of societies now depends on the culture shared by human beings more than on their economy or technology. The second observation is that culture itself and its ethical underpinning should be open for consideration. The development of society now depends on culture and on its adaptive capacity.     

Envy and scorn as primary markers of the pervasive antipathy in college football’s rivalry games: the University of Michigan as a representative microcosm

Rivalry games – or derbies – are special. They involve emotions and identities that reach way beyond the playing field. This article submits that the emotional content and normative expression of college football rivalries in the United States are less defined by the respective teams’ actual athletic results in the competition but rather by their institutions’ perceived prestige as well as their social and cultural capital encapsulated by their academic ranking. Fans of the institution that is lower ranked in its academic status display envy towards their opponents representing an institution with higher academic ranking, whereas the latter express scorn for the former. They both hate each other but the nature of their respective hatred differs: envy up, scorn down. The paper analyses a bevy of college rivalries before focusing on two featuring the University of Michigan.