(Furniture) books and book furniture as markers of authority

There is a complex relationship between the authority of (printed) texts and their contents. While this is a worthwhile and indeed underrepresented research topic, this contribution will explore a different angle. For Megan Benton, the book is “a cultural emblem, [...] its particular content [...] often regarded merely as one ingredient in the larger iconographic package”. She continues, “one owns books for many reasons beyond a desire to read them” (271). Among other definitions, Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary indicates that authority is the “power to influence or command thought, opinion, or behavior” or a “convincing force” (83). What kinds of authority (and other characteristics) do we attribute to those who surround themselves with books and filled bookshelves? How do filled bookshelves “command thought, opinion, or behavior”? What role does the book as a cultural object play in establishing and perpetuating positions of (intellectual?) authority? The term “furniture books” denotes books on display for representative purposes. Book sales clubs like the American Book-of-the-Month Club (BOMC) were a prime opportunity for consumers to buy “fine book sets” in affordable but attractive bindings “not simply because they wanted to read them but also because they wished to display them as prized possessions” (BOMC founder Harry Scherman, qtd. in Radway, 160). This short paper will reflect upon the authority of books as objects on display during the second half of the twentieth century. In regards to the current changes in book and reading culture, the paper will explore new forms of authority. Traditional furniture books have lost their wide appeal. However, thick and heavy tomes still demand our attention. Even today – in an age of bare shelves due to the popularity of digital reading – literary critics often make a connection between the materiality of a book and its implicit importance. (Works cited: Benton, Megan: “Too Many Books”: Book Ownership and Cultural Identity in the 1920s. In: American Quarterly 49.2 (June 1997), 268–297. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary. Eleventh edition. Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 2011. Radway, Janice: A feeling for books: The Book-of-the-Month Club, literary taste, and middle-class desire. Chapel Hill, NC: The Univ. of North Carolina Press, 1997.

Transport and handling LHC components: A permanent challenge

The LHC project, collider and experiments, is an assembly of thousands of elements, large or small, heavy or light, fragile or robust. Each element has its own transport requirements that constitute a real challenge to handle. Even simple manoeuvres could lead to difficulties in integration, routing and execution due to the complex environment and confined underground spaces. Examples of typical LHC elements transport and handling will be detailed such as the 16-m long, 34-t heavy, fragile cryomagnets from the surface to the final destination in the tunnel, or the delicate cryogenic cold-boxes down to pits and detector components. This challenge did not only require a lot of imagination but also a close cooperation between all the involved parties, in particular with colleagues from safety, cryogenics, civil engineering, integration and logistics

Regularization and finiteness of the Lorentzian LQG vertices

We give an explicit form for the Lorentzian vertices recently introduced for possibly defining the dynamics of loop quantum gravity. As a result of so doing, a natural regularization of the vertices is suggested. The regularized vertices are then proven to be finite. An interpretation of the regularization in terms of a gauge-fixing is also given.Comment: 16 pages; Added an appendix presenting the gauge-fixing interpretation, added three references, and made some minor change

Local Interactions of Higher-Spin Potentials That are Gauge Invariant in Linear Approximation

We study connected Wightman functions of $N$ conserved currents, each of which is formed from a scalar field and has even spin $l_{i}$. The UV divergence of this vertex function is regularized by the analytic continuation in the space dimension $D\longrightarrow D-\epsilon$. We evaluate the residue of $\epsilon ^{-1}$ only, which is a local interaction Lagrangian density and gauge invariant in linearComment: Talk given at Group XXVII Yerevan, Armenia, August 13-29, 2008, v.2 published in Yadernaya Fizika 73 (2010) 518-52

Exactly solvable potentials of Calogero type for q-deformed Coxeter groups

We establish that by parameterizing the configuration space of a one-dimensional quantum system by polynomial invariants of q-deformed Coxeter groups it is possible to construct exactly solvable models of Calogero type. We adopt the previously introduced notion of solvability which consists of relating the Hamiltonian to finite dimensional representation spaces of a Lie algebra. We present explicitly the $G_2^q$-case for which we construct the potentials by means of suitable gauge transformations.Comment: 22 pages Late

On the Free-Energy of Three-Dimensional CFTs and Polylogarithms

We study the O(N) vector model and the U(N) Gross-Neveu model with fixed total fermion number, in three dimensions. Using non-trivial polylogarithmic identities, we calculate the large-N renormalized free-energy density of these models, at their conformal points in a ``slab'' geometry with one finite dimension of length L. We comment on the possible implications of our results.Comment: Latex, 13 pages, 2 eps figures; v2 typos corrected; v3 Expanded discussion of the results, added reference

Basis States for Relativistic, Dynamically-Entangled Particles

In several recent papers on entanglement in relativistic quantum systems and relativistic Bell's inequalities, relativistic Bell-type two-particle states have been constructed in analogy to non-relativistic states. These constructions do not have the form suggested by relativistic invariance of the dynamics. Two relativistic formulations of Bell-type states are shown for massive particles, one using the standard Wigner spin basis and one using the helicity basis. The construction hinges on the use of Clebsch-Gordan coefficients of the Poincar\'e group to reduce the direct product of two unitary irreducible representations (UIRs) into a direct sum of UIRs.Comment: 19 pages, three tables, revte

Laser Scanning Microscopic Investigations of the Decontamination of Soot Nanoparticles from the Skin

Background/Aims: Airborne pollutants, such as nano-sized soot particles, are increasingly being released into the environment as a result of growing population densities and industrialization. They can absorb organic and metal compounds with potential biological activity, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and airborne pollen allergens. Local and systemic toxicities may be induced in the skin if the particulates release their harmful components upon dermal contact. Methods: In the present study, skin pretreatments with serum and/or shield as barrier formulations prior to exposure and washing with a cleanser subsequent to exposure were evaluated as a protection and decontamination strategy using laser scanning microscopy. Results: The results indicate that while the application of serum and a cleanser was insufficient for decontamination, the pretreatment with shield prior to nanoparticle exposure followed by washing led to the removal of a considerable amount of the carbon black particles. The combined application of serum and shield before the administration of carbon black particles and subsequent washing led to their elimination from the skin samples. Conclusion: The application of barrier-enhancing formulations in combination with a cleanser may reduce the penetration of harmful airborne particulates by preventing their adhesion to the skin and facilitating their removal by subsequent washing with the cleanser

Probing polarization response of monolayer cell cultures with photon entanglement

This study addresses the critical need for high signal-to-noise ratio in optical detection methods for biological sample discrimination under low-photon-flux conditions to ensure accuracy without compromising sample integrity. We explore polarization-based probing, which often excels over intensity modulation when assessing a specimen's morphology. Leveraging non-classical light sources, our approach capitalizes on sub-Poissonian photon statistics and quantum correlation-based measurements. We present a novel, highly sensitive method for probing single-layer cell cultures using entangled photon pairs. Our approach demonstrates capability in monolayer cell analysis, distinguishing between two types of monolayer cells and their host medium. The experimental results highlight our method's sensitivity, showcasing its potential for biological sample detection using quantum techniques, and paving the way for advanced diagnostic methodologies

Hair follicles as a target structure for nanoparticles

For at least two decades, nanoparticles have been investigated for their capability to deliver topically applied substances through the skin barrier. Based on findings that nanoparticles are highly suitable for penetrating the blood–brain barrier, their use for drug delivery through the skin has become a topic of intense research. In spite of the research efforts by academia and industry, a commercial product permitting the nanoparticle-assisted delivery of topically applied drugs has not yet been developed. However, nanoparticles of approximately 600 nm in diameter have been shown to penetrate efficiently into the hair follicles, where they can be stored for several days. The successful loading of nanoparticles with drugs and their triggered release inside the hair follicle may present an ideal method for localized drug delivery. Depending on the particle size, such a method would permit targeting specific structures in the hair follicles such as stem cells or immune cells or blood vessels found in the vicinity of the hair follicles