Basic Vocabulary with a Phonetic Approach to the Dictionary

A report written by Ruth Barnes on Basic Vocabulary with a Phonetic Approach to the Dictionary submitted as a final report to the Faculty Research Committee in 1980

Textiles and Museum Displays: Visible and Invisible Dimensions

The paper discusses changing attitudes towards textiles and their displays in museum collections. As a curator of textiles who has worked in two major university museums, at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and the Yale University Art Gallery, over a stretch of more than twenty years, I document a change in attitude to textile history and collections. Much of it is positive, as textiles have moved from a Cinderella role into a position where they are taken seriously both in art and social history. The two museums mentioned above were recently the subjects of dramatic building projects, and I was involved in both renovations. At the Ashmolean I curated a new Textile Gallery that for the first time ever had displayed a selection of the Museum’s significant textile collection. At Yale my brief as the inaugural curator of a new Department of Indo-Pacific Art meant that the important collection of Indonesian textiles had to be given a prominent place in the new gallery space. The paper follows two strands of analysis and interpretation. One is chronological, presenting the shift in attitude towards textile displays over the years, both in the choice of context and the suggested ranking of textiles in the overall museum display. The second one looks at the role of textiles in museums that do not primarily focus on the history or ethnographic context of objects, but want to see them first of all as art, as objects with a strong aesthetic value. This can create a tension between factual and perceived interpretation, which should be of concern especially for university museums where teaching from the collections is a declared goal. As this addresses the issue of how to cross cultural barriers of understanding, I consider this to be of particular relevance

Indian Trade Cloth in Egypt: The Newberry Collection

The Department of Eastern Art in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, holds what is undoubtedly one of the largest single collections of block-printed textiles produced in India, but exported to Egypt as part of the medieval Islamic Indian Ocean trade. These textiles, all now mere fragments, are of particular interest for two reasons. Firstly, fabrics of this type give us the earliest surviving examples of Indian weaving, although single fibre fragments have been found at the Indus Valley site of Mohenjo-Daro, dating to the second millenium B.C. , and we have numerous Vedic references to dress and textiles, as well as pictorial evidence of sumptuous garments from the Ajanta caves (5th-6th century A.D.). Secondly, the presence of the fragments in Egypt is evidence of trade links which have an ancient origin.1 THE COLLECTION The textiles in the Ashmolean Museum were all acquired by the Egyptologist P.E. Newberry (1869-1949), for his own private collection. He was the first Brunner Professor of Egyptology at the University of Liverpool, and afterwards he held the Chair of Ancient Egyptian History and Archaeology in Cairo from 1929 to 1933. Apparently he had a particular interest in historical textiles. His collection came to the Ashmolean in 1946. Apart from the fragments under consideration here, there is an equally big collection of Islamic embroidered textiles, and the museum\u27s Department of Antiquities holds textiles which are Late Antique or Coptic.2 Newberry had worked with Sir Flanders Petrie and Howard Carter and had first-hand excavation experience, but his large private collection was almost certainly acquired exclusively from dealers during his years in Cairo. The extent of Newberry\u27s interest must have been considerable. While most collections of Indo-Egyptian textile fragments can be numbered in tens rather than hundreds, the Ashmolean\u27s holdings are vast by comparison: there is a total of 1225 block-printed fragments. The size is matched by quality and variation of design; virtually any pattern known in this kind of textile is well represented, and there are pieces which are probably unique.3 However, the collection is not widely known, and until very recently (May 1990) it could not be used as research material, as the fragments had not been properly accessioned into the Department\u27s holdings, hence had no number or other means -of identification which made them available as a reference. Furthermore, the fragments were stuck onto cardboard sheets with glue and were stacked into boxes, quite at random and ordered by size alone.

Indian Trade Cloth in Egypt: The Newberry Collection

The Department of Eastern Art in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, holds what is undoubtedly one of the largest single collections of block-printed textiles produced in India, but exported to Egypt as part of the medieval Islamic Indian Ocean trade. These textiles, all now mere fragments, are of particular interest for two reasons. Firstly, fabrics of this type give us the earliest surviving examples of Indian weaving, although single fibre fragments have been found at the Indus Valley site of Mohenjo-Daro, dating to the second millenium B.C. , and we have numerous Vedic references to dress and textiles, as well as pictorial evidence of sumptuous garments from the Ajanta caves (5th-6th century A.D.). Secondly, the presence of the fragments in Egypt is evidence of trade links which have an ancient origin.1 THE COLLECTION The textiles in the Ashmolean Museum were all acquired by the Egyptologist P.E. Newberry (1869-1949), for his own private collection. He was the first Brunner Professor of Egyptology at the University of Liverpool, and afterwards he held the Chair of Ancient Egyptian History and Archaeology in Cairo from 1929 to 1933. Apparently he had a particular interest in historical textiles. His collection came to the Ashmolean in 1946. Apart from the fragments under consideration here, there is an equally big collection of Islamic embroidered textiles, and the museum\u27s Department of Antiquities holds textiles which are Late Antique or Coptic.2 Newberry had worked with Sir Flanders Petrie and Howard Carter and had first-hand excavation experience, but his large private collection was almost certainly acquired exclusively from dealers during his years in Cairo. The extent of Newberry\u27s interest must have been considerable. While most collections of Indo-Egyptian textile fragments can be numbered in tens rather than hundreds, the Ashmolean\u27s holdings are vast by comparison: there is a total of 1225 block-printed fragments. The size is matched by quality and variation of design; virtually any pattern known in this kind of textile is well represented, and there are pieces which are probably unique.3 However, the collection is not widely known, and until very recently (May 1990) it could not be used as research material, as the fragments had not been properly accessioned into the Department\u27s holdings, hence had no number or other means -of identification which made them available as a reference. Furthermore, the fragments were stuck onto cardboard sheets with glue and were stacked into boxes, quite at random and ordered by size alone.

Media stickiness and cognitive imprinting: inertia and creativity in cooperative work & learning with ICTs

This paper attempts to build a bridge between the fields of Computer Supported Cooperative Work and learning in online communities. Of particular importance is their use of information and communication technologies. Each field has independently developed notions of inertia in the behaviour of users of these technologies. The notion of media stickiness is examined and related to that of imprinting in learning communities. Various suggestions are made of value to both fields and further research identified.Education for the 21 st century - impact of ICT and Digital Resources ConferenceRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Magic Numbers for the Photoelectron Anisotropy in Li-Doped Dimethyl Ether Clusters

Photoelectron velocity map imaging of Li(CH$_3$OCH$_3$)$_n$ clusters (1 $\leq$ n $\leq$ 175) is used to search for magic numbers related to the photoelectron anisotropy. Comparison with density functional calculations reveals magic numbers at n=4, 5, and 6, resulting from the symmetric charge distribution with high s-character of the highest occupied molecular orbital. Since each of these three cluster sizes correspond to the completion of a first coordination shell, they can be considered as 'isomeric motifs of the first coordination shell'. Differences in the photoelectron anisotropy, the vertical ionization energies and the enthalpies of vaporization between Li(CH$_3$OCH$_3$)$_n$ and Na(CH$_3$OCH$_3$)$_n$ can be rationalized in terms of differences in their solvation shells, atomic ionization energies, polarizabilities, metal-oxygen bonds, ligand-ligand interactions, and by cooperative effects

A novel approach in acidic disinfection through inhibition of acid resistance mechanisms; Maleic acid-mediated inhibition of glutamate decarboxylase activity enhances acid sensitivity of Listeria monocytogenes

Here it is demonstrated a novel approach in disinfection regimes where specific molecular acid resistance systems are inhibited aiming to eliminate microorganisms under acidic conditions. Despite the importance of the Glutamate Decarboxylase (GAD) system for survival of Listeria monocytogenes and other pathogens under acidic conditions its potential inhibition by specific compounds that could lead to its elimination from foods or food preparation premises has not been studied. The effects of maleic acid on the acid resistance of L. monocytogenes were investigated and found that it has a higher antimicrobial activity under acidic conditions than other organic acids, while this could not be explained by its pKa or Ki values. The effects were found to be more pronounced on strains with higher GAD activity. Maleic acid affected the extracellular GABA levels while it did not affect the intracellular. Maleic acid had a major impact mainly on GadD2 activity as also shown in cell lysates. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that maleic acid is able to partly remove biofilms of L. monocytogenes. Maleic acid is able to inhibit the GAD of L. monocytogenes significantly enhancing its sensitivity to acidic conditions and together with its ability to remove biofilms, make a good candidate for disinfection regimes