Plains Indian Costume in Catlin's Indian Gallery. The Renwick Gallery,Smithsonian American Art Museum,Washington DC

Abstract

“Ritual | Repetition” is one of eight essays that explore correlations between architecture and textiles, those surfaces that both enclose and enclothe us, and foregrounds the significance of the surface in our understanding and experience of place. Arising from a series of photographs of Melbourne’s mid-twentiethcentury façades, Urban Fabric: Greige, in which the latent image of Harris Tweed was exposed, readings of correspondences between surfaces are drawn from a photograph of a curtain wall façade and a swatch of Harris Tweed juxtaposed. It is not these images themselves that are so much transcribed, but rather those that have emerged in their wake. In Ritual | Repetition the body’s shaping of the world through semblance and play is considered, in light of the rhythms of work and labor. The significance of ritual, as demonstrated in the waulking of the cloth, in its perpetuation of an ever-changing tradition, is contrasted with the deadening nature of labor, evidenced in the production of the curtain wall. The effects of these two differing modes of production are reflected in the nature of crafted artifact or artwork, and the commodity. While technological reproducibility was seen to disengage the artwork from the domain of ritual, through translation and transmission, it is suggested, it also enables its return, through the playful reengagement of the thinking hand and the marks that it makes, giving rise to meaningful impressions.     

Disease patterns of microbial keratitis in Singapore: A retrospective case series

PurposeTo investigate the disease patterns of Microbial Keratitis(MK) in patients seen in a tertiary referral hospital, to evaluate the clinical outcomes of MK and the risk factors for poorer visual outcomes.MethodsThis is a retrospective case series of all culture-positive corneal scrapings between April 2012 and October 2016. A total of 230 patients(n = 230) were included into this study. Patient demographics, clinical information and microbiological characteristics of organisms are collected.Results64.3% of patients with MK are contact lens(CL) users. Among CL users, there is a preponderance of females(68.9%) and they tend to be younger (27.1 ± 10.6 years).The most frequently isolated organism in this study is Pseudomonas aeruginosa(51.7%) with 69.6% of cases belonging to CL users. MK in non-CL users tend to involve other organisms, such as coagulase-negative Staphylococci, Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus pneumoniae.Pseudomonas aeruginosa exhibits good sensitivity rates to ciprofloxacin, levofloxacin and gentamicin. Non-Pseudomonas organisms display similar sensitivities to ciprofloxacin, levofloxacin and gentamicin.MK in non-CL users is related to predisposing factors of prior ocular trauma and concomitant ocular pathology. They tend to have worse visual acuity(VA) on presentation and after treatment compared to CL users. Poorer VA outcome is associated with larger ulcers, increasing age, trauma and non-CL wearers.Successful clinical outcome is achieved in 97.8% of patients, with only 2.2% requiring further surgical intervention.ConclusionCL use alters the disease patterns of MK as well as the underlying microbiological etiology. Fluoroquinolones and aminoglycosides are good empirical antibiotics for MK treatment. Early referral to a tertiary centre will likely allow for earlier treatment, which can result in better VA outcome, especially so in patients who are older, non-CL wearers and have larger ulcers with associated trauma.     

Text(ile)s: How to Fabric(ate) Yourself a Body without Organs

Abstract

From momentary metaphorical allusions to “unraveling,” or “stitching,” to more elaborately built philosophical models that directly employ the likenesses of folded and/or patchworked cloth, the regular repetition of fabric(ated) references—punctuated by the physical refrain of turning, cloth-like pages—in the works of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari cleverly makes the relationships between “our bodies,” which are largely understood through clothed pleats, and the matter-content-expression of “their books” exceedingly palpable.

This article aims to unpack this aspect of Deleuze and Guattari's projects and to explore the implications it has not only for our immediate experiences of “the book” and/or “the textile,” but also for the traditional plays between man, beast, and technology that have been historically related through the technology of cloth and which have served to, in part, justify the human's neatly ordered dominance in the world.

As a means of embarking on this project, the article considers Deleuze and Guattari's works alongside a cast of other figures preoccupied with various fabrics, namely the matador, various (textile) artists including Eran Schaerf, and even one's own self and wardrobe, and recasts all of these figures' texts and textiles as “text(ile)s.”     

COVID-19 Pandemic: Survey of future use of personal protective equipment in optometric practice

PurposeThe aim of this project was to evaluate which personal protective equipment (PPE) eye care practitioners (ECP) will use during the next months and also what they will ask the patient to use in clinical practice.MethodsA social-media survey was carried out, asking 257 optometrists and opticians in Germany, Austria and Switzerland (i) which PPE they intended to use in the future (after lockdown and before herd immunity and / or vaccine availability) and (ii) what they would ask the patient to do in terms of this.Results75 % of the ECPs planned on wearing masks during refractions and 69 % when fitting contact lens. 62 % of the ECPs also expected their patients to wear masks in these tasks. This number is higher than for distance tasks such as fitting frames. Around 90 % of the ECPs would, in addition to hand washing, disinfect their hands and around 80 % expected their patients to do so too. Less than one third of ECPs favoured wearing safety spectacles, gloves and / or protective facial shields. 73 % planed on disinfecting frames after they would have been tried on by customers.ConclusionsIn summary, most ECPs planed on continuing to use higher standards of PPE. Those, who intended to wear masks themselves, would ask their patients to also do so, combined with hand disinfection.     

Eco-innovative technologies for extraction of proteins for human consumption from renewable protein sources of plant origin

BackgroundThe need for renewable and sustainable sources of proteins is growing. Diets containing more plant protein are increasing due to several reasons: the negative environmental impacts of animal protein production, the increasing vegetarianism and veganism trends, and inadequate consumer acceptance of food grade insects.Scope and approachThis paper links the isolation of valuable proteins from sustainable sources – by-products from processing industry of plant origin and eco-innovative technologies which are emerging for this purpose (electrostatic separation, subcritical water extraction, reverse micelles extraction, aqueous two-phase systems extraction, enzyme-, microwave-, ultrasound-, pulsed electric energy- and high pressure-assisted extraction). In this way, not only the key challenges of modern food processing are met-the assurance of cost-effective, sustainable and environmentally friendly production, but also the concept of zero food waste seems more achievable.Key findings and conclusionsA number of different techniques have emerged with high potential to assist protein extraction of preserved techno-functional properties, but they are still in the early stage of its industrial applications. In the EU, its industrial application may be hindered by legislative issues. The respective Novel Food Regulation classifies food obtained in a production process not used for food production before 15 May 1997, as “novel food’’ and the regulatory status for each single case must be sought. On the other hand, the utilization of novel processing technologies is regulatory encouraged in EU due to their potential to reduce the environmental impact of food production, enhance food security and bring benefits to consumers.     

Material Worlds: Denim on the Globalized Shop Floor

Abstract

This paper focuses on a material culture approach in order to explore multiple dimensions in the production of denim in an export-dominated assembly plant in Port Said, Egypt. Ethnographic data are analyzed to highlight the interplay between the surfaces and tools used in garment making and the skills and strategies deployed by factory workers, so elucidating some of the less immediately visible nuances in the turbulence of daily life on the production shop floor. Contrary to the common view that dismisses production tasks as repetitive and boring, these processes reveal the technical structures, skill hierarchies and uses of shop-floor language that give shade and variation to the skills attributed to different stages of “made-to-order” garment assembly work. These dynamics become more significant within the specific context of global and local competition for orders in which denim is established as the definitive fabric and brand through which reputations are made and sustained—for workers, for firms and for the city.     

The influences of thermal processing on phytochemicals and possible routes to the discovery of new phytochemical conjugates

ABSTRACT

In our diets, many of the consumed foods are subjected to various forms of heating and thermal processing. Besides enhancing the taste, texture, and aroma of the foods, heating helps to sterilize and facilitate food storage. On the other hand, heating and thermal processing are frequently reported during the preparation of various traditional herbal medicines. In this review, we intend to highlight works by various research groups which reported on changes in phytochemicals and bioactivities, following thermal processing of selected plant-derived foods and herbal medicines. Relevant cases from plant-derived foods (garlic, coffee, cocoa, barley) and traditional herbal medicines (Panax ginseng, Polygonum multiforum, Aconitum carmichaelii Debeaux, Angelica sinensis Radix) will be presented in this review. Additionally, related works using pure phytochemical compounds will also be highlighted. In some of these cases, the amazing formation of new compounds were being reported. Maillard reaction could be concluded as the predominant pathway leading to the formation of new conjugates, along with other possibilities being suggested (degradation, transglycosylation, deglycosylation and dehydration). With collective efforts from all researchers, it is hoped that more details will be revealed and lead to the possible discovery of new, heat-mediated phytochemical conjugates.     

Effects of geographical origin,varietal and farming system on the chemical composition and functional properties of purple grape juices: A review

BackgroundGrape juice is a beverage derived from Vitis sp genus, mainly V. labrusca, V. vinifera and V. rotundifolia species, in which sales have increased steeply because of the alleged beneficial health effects it exerts when consumed regularly. However, the isolated and interlinked impacts of geographical origin, varietal, and farming system on the juice's chemical composition and functional properties still are not fully comprehended.Scope and approachThis paper aims to assess how the producing region, variety, and farming system of grapes (conventional, organic, and biodynamic) affect the quantitative and qualitatively the chemical composition and the functionality (in vitro, in vivo) of juices.Key findings and conclusionsData have shown that the effects of botanical and geographical origins of purple grapes on the chemical composition (especially phenolic compounds) and functional properties of juices are remarkable. On the other hand, organic and biodynamic grape juices have very similar composition and functional properties in vitro, while organic and conventional are somewhat different. This evidence is in line with in vivo animal studies and human trials on healthy individuals have shown: differences in functional properties, especially antioxidant effects, between organic and conventional grape juices are negligible from the nutritional and biochemical perspectives.     

Mistaken Ancestry: The Jacquard and the Computer

Abstract

The punched-card-driven loom introduced by Joseph-Marie Jacquard in the early years of the nineteenth century was the culmination of a number of efforts to mechanize the tedious work of manipulating the separate threads in a draw loom. The data constituting the desired pattern were introduced to the loom via a set of cards with punched holes. Noting the use of punched cards with the computers of the 1960s and also the fact that the intrinsic binary nature of weaving (a given thread is either “up” or “down”) is shared by the binary circuitry of computers, weavers have been heard to claim that the Jacquard loom is the ancestor of the modern computer. This idea is the result of a profound misconception about the nature of computers. A Jacquard loom is no more like a computer than is a player piano, which also used punched holes as an input device. For a computer, the role of punched cards was only to provide a mechanism for enabling it to receive the data it needs to accomplish the significant and revolutionary aspects of its functioning, namely to carry out the sequential steps of any processing of its data whatever, so long as these are spelled out with utter precision and subject only to limitations of space and time. The use of binary logic in computer circuitry is a great simplifying tool, deriving from the work of mathematicians such as Leibniz and Boole, but is by no means an essential aspect of the nature of computers.     

浅谈非离子表面活性剂的特点与应用

表面活性剂的类型较多，应用很广，涉及到人类活动的各个领域，因此表面活性剂的生产状况也是衡量一个国家化工发展水平的一个因素。我国是生产表面活性剂大国，是目前仅次于美国的第二大表面活性剂生产国家。本文重点阐述了表面活性剂中的一个重要品种——非离子表面活性剂，列出了目前使用较多的几种非离子表面活性剂的性能、特点、应用等。     

The Influence of Pectin from Apple and Gum Arabic from Acacia Tree on the Quality of Pizza

The aim of this work was to determine the effect of apple pectin and arabic gum on the organoleptic characteristics of pizza flans. Significant differences in the sensory characteristics, such as flavour and change during chewing as well as the quality between the pizza flan with the addition of hydrocolloids and the pizza flan without them were found out. The additions of hydrocolloids improve the quality and flavour of pizza flans. On the other hand, higher amounts of gum arabic from the acacia tree caused worse tenderness of the bakery product.      

Potential effects of umami ingredients on human health: Pros and cons

Abstract

Umami taste is the most recent confirmed basic taste in addition to sour, sweet, bitter, and salty. It has been controversial because of its effects on human nutritional benefit. Based on the available literatures, this review categorized 13 positive and negative effects of umami taste on human health. On the positive side, umami taste can improve food flavor and consumption, improve nutrition intake of the elderly and patients, protect against duodenal cancer, reduce ingestion of sodium chloride, decrease consumption of fat, and improve oral functions. On the other hand, umami taste can also induce hepatotoxicity, cause asthma, induce migraine headaches, damage the nervous system, and promote obesity. Due to its novelty, there are many functions and effects of umami taste waiting to be discovered. With further investigation, more information regarding the effects of umami taste on human health will be discerned.     

Diversity of Bacillus megaterium isolates cultured from honeys

Bacillus megaterium isolates recovered from Argentinean honeys (n = 48) were compared with isolates recovered from honey from other countries (n = 4) and with strain NRRL B-939. All the isolates and the NRRL strain were characterized using rep-PCR fingerprinting with primers BOX-, REP- and ERIC-; restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis of a 16S rRNA gene fragment (16S rRNA PCR/RFLP), and morphological and biochemical tests. There was a high degree of diversity, both phenotypic and genotypic among the isolates of B. megaterium. Our results not only show considerable levels of diversity among isolates of B. megaterium analyzed here but also that repetitive sequences such as BOX, ERIC and REP are reliable tools to characterize isolates at the genomic level. Haemolytic activity was shown by 77% of the isolates, as β-haemolysis (40 isolates) or α-haemolysis (one isolate). Within the β-haemolytic group, 10% of isolates produced a discontinuous haemolytic pattern, which is usually correlated with enterotoxin activity in other bacterial species. In addition, coagulase activity was detected in 74% of 53 isolates tested suggesting a pathogenic activity not ordinarily reported as a property of B. megaterium. According to our knowledge, this is the first report of phenotypic and genotypic characterization of B. megaterium isolates from honey.     

基于SolidWorks包装盒参数化研究与盒型库建立

借助于SolidWorks这一强大的三维图形软件以及合理参数化处理设计了一个包装盒CAD盒型库,其具有良好的移植性,程序除了具备一些常用盒型的盒型库,还提供了盒型参数化功能,方便用户快速得到所需尺寸的盒型,也提供了三维图形预览功能,以及各种格式工程图输出保存功能.以DXF文件格式作为包装纸盒结构展开图的最终文件存储格式...     

Reimagining Bolivian cuisine: Haute traditional food and its discontents

Abstract

This article considers the emerging Bolivian gastronomic discourse as a project fraught with tensions. On the one hand, the discourse surrounding Bolivian cuisine, as presented in urban restaurants, highlights a new kind of nationalism that promotes regional cooking and innovation. This process has elevated indigenous ingredients, such as quinoa, chuño (freeze-dried potatoes), and llama meat, to the status of delicacies. This gastronomic emergence parallels the recent rise of an indigenous middle-class, as well as the shifting political boundaries between indigenous and non-indigenous in the era of President Evo Morales. Nevertheless, elite urban forms of Bolivian cuisine only partially transcend gender, class, and ethnic divides; they sometimes have the (unintended) effect of highlighting and re-inscribing existing social fault-lines. This article considers how indigenous Bolivian women are used to mark Bolivian cuisine, while they are simultaneously marginalized from it. While indigenous women dominate the “culinary field” of quotidian eating in domestic and marketplace arenas, they are far less evident in the “gastronomic fields” of elite restaurants, cookbooks, and written texts. Despite this exclusion, their presence is often invoked through ethnically-marked clothing such as the pollera and their symbolic production of “local” food.     

利用猪副产物酶法制备胶原多肽

近年科学研究发现,人体摄取蛋白质经酶消化后,并非主要以氨基酸形式吸收,而以肽的形式吸收;一些肽不仅能提供人体生长发育所需营养物质,同时还具有多种生理功能。猪副产物中含有丰富的胶原蛋白,利用蛋白酶水解胶原蛋白生产胶原多肽,对促进猪副产物的精深加工发展具有积极作用。本文介绍目前酶法制备胶原多肽研究进展,讨论影响酶解效果的因素,阐述了胶原多肽生理功能及发展前景。     

Textiles,Technical Practice,and Power in the Andes,edited by Denise Arnold,with Penelope Dransart,London: Archetype Publications,June 2014

Abstract

This article was written in conjunction with my production of the Morris Kitsch Archive. The archive contains 530 images, largely drawn from the Internet, of commercial objects decorated with William Morris patterns. I excluded objects that been produced in multiples with different patterns, and objects that claim to be inspired or influenced by Morris but where a Morris design is not identifiable. The images are individually laminated in A4 sheets and hung thematically in a grid. Morris Kitsch Archive was first shown as part of Have Nothing in your Houses That You Do Not Know to Be Useful, or Believe to Be Beautiful at Leo Kamen Gallery, Toronto, February 21-March 21, 2009.     

开发钾盐矿资源实施"走出去"战略

针对我院从事盐矿矿山开采设计业务的开展情况，与上海化工设计院合作，走出轻工系统，进入化工矿山领域，走出国门，到老挝进行钾盐矿山开采设计，拓宽了我院的发展道路。     

Maja Bajevic: The Matrix of Memory

Abstract

This paper deals with three performance pieces by the Bosnian artist Maja Bajevic, entitled Women at Work (1999–2001). The artist performed these works in public spaces, in collaboration with Muslim women who were war refugees from Srebrenica. The first piece Women at Work—Under Construction took place in Sarajevo (1999), the second subtitled The Observers was performed in a French castle (2000), and the last in the series, Women at Work—Washing Up was situated in women's public bath in Istanbul (2001). All three performances were delicately interlaced with Bajevic's inimitable politics of domesticity. In her solo pieces and those realized in cooperation with other women, her politics manifest through the public performance of diverse manual activities, such as embroidering, sewing or laundering. These habitual female proceedings, repetitive and monotonous, are carried out in public spaces so as to lay bare women's traditional activities for coping with absences. The theme of absence is at the core of Maja Bajevic's art. Most of her works relate to subjective “voids,” distances, digressions, separations and the plausibility of loss; they refer to absent “spaces,” the spaces that may have existed or have been imagined as homes or homelands.     

A Comparison of the Irregularity and Tensile Properties of Worsted Yarns Spun with Travellers of Rectangular and Round Cross-sections

Abstract

This paper presents a method to design a wavelet-filter that minimizes entropy in the wavelet transform of images of woven fabrics. Filters that minimize entropy in images tend to filter out fabric texture while highlighting fabric defects. The design of the wavelet filter is couched as a non-convex optimization problem which is solved using a hybridized Genetic Algorithm. Three distinct filters are tuned to detect horizontal, vertical and blob defects in woven fabrics. In addition to texture filtering, defect segmentation, noise removal, and object extraction are presented. The effects of shifting on the optimized set of coefficients is also explored.