Search

Some manuscripts of the 11th and 12th centuries preserved in Catalonia present a specific rite when a bishop had to consecrate a church. In the altar he placed relics, three fragments of hosts, three grains of incense and small parchments on which was written the information about the consecration, the ten commandments and the beginning of the four gospels. The Catalan consecration ritual corresponded to a specific liturgical codification, the Catalan-Narbonne ordo, which is generally accepted to have been strictly followed. However, archaeological excavations carried out in pre-Romanesque and Romanesque churches in Catalonia since the 19th century have often brought to light a practice that was not codified in these texts: the modest containers of wood, stone or alabaster that contained the consecration relics had been engraved with names. This paper is dedicated to these nominal inscriptions from the consecration ritual, found inside the altars.

In this work, we discuss the process development and scale-up of the melt polycondensation of polyester amides from a laboratory scale to kg-scale in a kneader reactor. We identified and optimized the most important critical parameters and produced kg-quantities of polyester amides with Mn up to 25'000 g/mol and reproducible thermal and mechanical properties. The special kneader reactor allows safe and efficient scale-up of polymerisation reactions at high temperature and viscous melts due to good mixing and efficient mass transfer.

Purpose: In France at the high school the subject matter “Sciences Économiques et Sociales” (economic and social sciences) deals with the present economic crisis. We study the ways it is taught about: words, and explanatory patterns. Design/methodology/approach: We use a specific approach, that we call “semantic holism”, conceiving subject contents as the product of a dual process of didactization and of axiologization of reference knowledge. That implies relating these contents to the social value system and, especially, to the lexicon, set of keywords through which people must think and talk at some point. The analysis starts from the examination of economic and social sciences syllabuses and teaching resources, and leads us to highlight the predominance of the references to standard economics, but this predominance cannot be justified by the state of scientific knowledge. Findings: We show on the contrary a lexicon effect: the subject key notions have been selected in accordance to the lexicon keywords. Therefore the proposed contents seem far from the objective to understanding the major issues at stake today. Research limitations/implications: Then further researches must focus on the ways of teaching about the crisis in spite of the present lexicon.

Buruli ulcer, classified as a neglected tropical disease by the World Health Organization, is caused by a mycobacterium which secretes a macrolidic exotoxin called mycolactone A/B. In this article, several synthetic strategies for the preparation of this toxin are discussed, highlighting the importance of total synthesis for the exploration of biological mechanism underpinning relevant human diseases.

The fermentation of yeast in fed-batch mode shows great potential in winemaking because it allows the concentration of sugars to be kept low and constant throughout the process which, in turn, reduces cell stress and leads to a significant decrease in the production of unwanted secondary metabolites. The implementation of this technique requires reliable on-line analysis of sugar and a robust control strategy to maintain sugar concentrations at defined levels over the course of the fermentation. In this study, a laboratory-scale setup was used to implement and assess a fully automated fed-batch fermentation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae in grape must. Total sugar levels were monitored in-line by FT-MIR ATR spectroscopy and kept constant at 50 g/kg by a modified PI controller regulating the must feed flow rate. Good setpoint tracking and disturbance rejection were achieved in fermentations of up to four days despite occasional yeast sedimentation on the ATR crystal. The controller parameter adaptation strategy needs to be optimized for longer fermentations.

This study deals with the fine tuning of the photophysical characteristics, and especially two-photon absorption (2PA) properties, of several homo- and heteroleptic ruthenium(II) complexes involving 5-substituted-1,10-phenanthroline ligands. The 2PA spectra of the complexes were determined in the 700–930 nm range by investigating their two-photon excited luminescence (2PEL). Structure – linear and nonlinear optical properties correlations are discussed, and potential applications (therapy and optical power limiting in the near infrared) can be anticipated.

Der mittelpleistozäne Vulkankomplex des Rodderbergs südlich von Bonn birgt vermutlich ein höchst wertvolles Klimaarchiv von regionaler und überregionaler Bedeutung. Er sitzt der aus dem älteren Mittelpleistozän stammenden „jüngeren Hauptterrasse“ des Rheins auf. Sein zentraler Krater stellt eine bis heute geschlossene Hohlform dar, die noch fast vollständig von einem Wall aus Schlacken und Tephren umgeben ist. Eine im Jahre 2000 im Krater durchgeführte 55 m tiefe Kernbohrung (Rodderberg 1) förderte fast durchgängig feinkörnige Sedimente zutage, die im oberen Teil als Lösse und Lössderivate, im unteren Teil als Seesedimente angesprochen werden. Eine vom Leibniz-Institut für Angewandte Geophysik (LIAG) im Jahre 2008 niedergebrachte 69 m tiefe Schneckenbohrung erreichte in ca. 65 m Tiefe interglaziale Torfe. Festgestein wurde bisher nicht erreicht. Eine weitere Forschungsbohrung des LIAG ist für 2011 geplant. Der vorliegende Beitrag resümiert die bisherigen Ergebnisse zur Eruptionsgeschichte des Rodderberges und zu den Untersuchungen am Kerninhalt der Bohrung Rodderberg 1, zeigt bestehende Probleme auf und versucht, Anregungen für die weiteren Untersuchungen an der geplanten neuen Forschungsbohrung sowie in ihrem Umfeld zu geben.

Middle and Upper Quaternary volcanic events are often difficult to date, in particular when minerals suitable for 40Ar/39Ar-dating are missing. Here, we present first tests of a newly developed technique to use the thermoluminescence (TL) of maar tephra and crustal xenoliths for dating the eruption event. We take into consideration that resetting of the latent geological TL of country rock fragments during eruption may be incomplete. We therefore develop the “partial heat – longest plateau” (PHLP) technique to approach the inherited TL signal at eruption. This technique can overcome TL age overestimates due to incomplete zeroing, as is demonstrated for some eruptions in the Quaternary Eifel Volcanic Field, Germany, in the time range from 11 to 300 ka old. Although we avoid the often observed strong anomalous fading of volcanic feldspars and other volcanic minerals by using heated country rock xenoliths, we still face the problem of longer-term anomalous fading which may be responsible for apparent age underestimates. The orange-red TL emissions (RTL) of pure fine-grained quartz extracts from crustal xenoliths are also tested from two samples. This approach needs, however, further systematic investigations into the TL characteristics of RTL.

Photoredox catalysis is now well-known in organic synthesis for the formation of free radicals under very soft irradiations conditions (e.g. sunlight, household fluorescence or LED bulbs, Xe lamp). This method has been introduced here to the polymer chemistry area to initiate ring opening polymerizations (ROP) or free radical polymerizations (FRP). The present paper will give an up-to date situation of the photocatalyst achievements in FRP and ROP.