History,Modernity, and the Making of an African Spatiality: Addis Ababa in Perspective

A body of scholarship in urban theory of global South over the last two decades has begun to present counterhegemonic notions of modernity and urbanism thereby charting new ways to conceptualize and study African cities. While the need for fuller, richer, and more textured accounts of ordinariness of African cities is often emphasized, the usefulness of differentiated accounts of cities to understanding their spatiality is also highlighted. This article attempts to supplement the ongoing discussion by exploring Addis Ababa as an African city with particular cultural and political historical contexts that gave it distinct experiences of modernity. Data is primarily drawn from historical study of modernizations of the city, supplemented with an ethnographic study that documents contemporary changes and lived experiences in the city and its emerging modern residential places. The study shows that the local experience of modernity is primarily situated in the isolated and noncolonial history of the nation, which on the one hand helps preserve indigenous qualities and on the other becomes a source of envy contributing to the consciousness of belatedness compared to other colonized and Western countries. This consciousness coordinates political intentions with people’s everyday practices in the co-making of a new, modern Addis Ababa and the reassertion of its unofficial identity as “the Diplomatic Capital of Africa.” Potentials and challenges of place-based conceptions of urbanism are implicated.     

Discovering new invertebrate neuropeptides using mass spectrometry

Neuropeptides are a complex set of messenger molecules controlling a wide array of regulatory functions and behaviors within an organism. These neuromodulators are cleaved from longer protein molecules and often experience numerous post-translational modifications to achieve their bioactive form. As a result of this complexity, sensitive and versatile analysis schemes are needed to characterize neuropeptides. Mass spectrometry (MS) through a variety of approaches has fueled the discovery of hundreds of neuropeptides in invertebrate species in the last decade. Particularly successful are direct tissue and single neuron analyses by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) MS, which has been used to elucidate approximately 440 neuropeptides, and examination of neuronal homogenates by electrospray ionization techniques (ESI), also leading to the characterization of over 450 peptides. Additional MS methods with great promise for the discovery of neuropeptides are MS imaging and large-scale peptidomics studies in combination with a sequenced genome.     

Iodide/triiodide electrochemistry in ionic liquids: Effect of viscosity on mass transport, voltammetry and scanning electrochemical microscopy

The electrochemistry of I⁻/I₃⁻ was studied in ionic liquids using a combination of cyclic voltammetry, chronoamperometry and scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM). The electrolytes were 1-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide [C_nC₁Im][Tf₂N], ionic liquids (where n = 2, 4 and 8) and I⁻ was typically added at a concentration of approximately 11 mM. During cyclic voltammetry, two sets of peaks were observed in each ionic liquid due to oxidation and reduction of the I⁻/I₃⁻ redox couple and oxidation/reduction of the I₃⁻/I₂ redox couple. The diffusion coefficients of I⁻ and I₃⁻, as determined using chronoamperometry, increased with increasing temperature and decreased with increasing ionic liquid viscosity. The effect of ionic liquid viscosity on ultramicroelectrode (UME) voltammetry was also determined using the I⁻/I₃⁻ redox couple. Steady-state behaviour was observed at 1.3 μm UMEs at slow voltammetric scan rates and steady-state SECM feedback approach curves were also obtained at a 1.3 μm Pt SECM tips, provided that the tip approach speed was sufficiently low.     

Fabrication of stretchable and high-filtration performance melt-blown nonwoven webs for PM0.3 aerosol filtration

Polypropylene (PP) is a semi-crystalline polymer that displays simple manufacturing, high stiffness, lightweight, chemical resistance, and inexpensive. However, PP has significant drawbacks, such as poor brittleness at low temperatures, high shrinkage ratio, and low impact resistance, which limit its development. Thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) possesses recyclable and eco-friendly characteristics, along with the elasticity of rubber and exceptional mechanical properties. In this study, a flexible and high-filtration performance PP-TPU textile material was developed by melt-blowing for filtering PM_0.3 aerosols. For the first time, a melt-blown PP-TPU nonwoven was used as an air filter. The fiber morphological studies exhibited that addition of 10 and 20 wt.% TPU into PP resulted in a fiber diameter increment from 0.94 to 1.24 μm. Also, melt-blown PP-TPU forms helical fibers, which are different from fibers noticed in melt-blown PP. Corona-charged double-layer 80PP-20TPU nonwovens have a filtration efficiency of 99.25% and quality factor (QF) of 0.13 mm H₂O⁻¹ at an air flow rate of 95 L/min. Moreover, PP's tensile strength was increased by 72.22%, and elongation was raised by 38.1% with the addition of 20 wt.% TPU. Thus, PP-TPU melt-blown composites may bring novel perspectives into the design and development of high-performance filtering materials for a variety of applications.