New evidence for ball games in Eurasia from ca. 3000-year-old Yanghai tombs in the Turfan depression of Northwest China

Three leather balls discovered in tombs IM157, IM209, and IM214 of the prehistoric Yanghai cemetery (42 degrees 48'N, 89 degrees 39'E) located about 43 km southeast of the modern city of Turfan, were AMS radiocarbon dated to the time interval between 1189 and 911 BCE (95% probability), and thus predate other currently known antique balls and images of ball games in Eurasia by several centuries. Our study approves the antiquity of the Yanghai balls, but the available data is not enough to answer the question how these balls were played. Although, their use in team and goal sport is likely, a suggested game similar to hockey, golf or polo cannot be confirmed, because no appropriate sticks were found in direct association with the balls. The affiliation of curved wooden sticks in Yanghai with ball games suggested earlier remains hypothetical, as all found sticks are noticeably younger in age, and other forms of use should be verified by future studies. Two of the three balls were found in the burials of the possible horse riders. Given that ball games from ancient times were considered an excellent form of physical exercise and military training, we suggest that balls (and ball games) appeared in the region at the same time as horseback riding and mounted warfare began to spread in the eastern part of Central Asia

Synthesis of two-phase polymer particles in supercritical carbon dioxide

The synthesis of particles with discrete phases using traditional emulsion polymerisation is a well-established process. Phase-separated particles have a wide range of applications, such as in coatings, drug delivery, impact modification and as supports in catalysis. However, as a dry powder is often desired for the end application, post-polymerisation, energy intensive drying steps are usually required for the removal of water. Alternatively, dispersion polymerisation utilising supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2) as a reaction medium allows for the production of dry, free-flowing powders upon release of the CO2. Here, we present the innovative use of scCO2 to provide a novel and environmentally acceptable route for creating phase-separated particles. Particles containing a high Tg poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) phase, combined with a low Tg polymer phase of either poly(benzyl acrylate) (PBzA) or poly(butyl acrylate) (PBA), were investigated. Both monomers were added to the reaction after the formation of PMMA seed particles. Benzyl acrylate (BzA) was chosen as a model low Tg monomer, with well-defined and detectable functionality when mixed with PMMA. Butyl acrylate (BA) was also used as an alternative, more industrially relevant monomer. The loading of the low Tg monomer was varied and full characterisation of the particles produced was performed to elucidate their internal morphologies and compositions

Droplet Deposition Pattern Affected by Different Heating Directions

The coffee ring effect commonly exists in droplet deposition patterns, which fundamentally affects scientific research and industrial applications, like pharmaceutical purification, salt manufacturing, etc. Some researchers have tried different solutions to control the distributions of droplet deposition patterns, but most control deposits by adjusting droplet characteristics. In this work, droplet deposition patterns with different wettability are investigated by both localized and substrate heating. A whole process of droplet evaporation is recorded. The droplet generally evaporates from constant contact radius (CCR) mode to constant contact angle (CCA) mode, and CCR stage occupies the most of time. Experimental results show that, without any chemicals, laser induced local heating transitions particle deposition patterns from ring-like structure to dot-like patterns on a hydrophilic surface, driving most saline solvent to the center. Meanwhile, a hydrophobic surface is also investigated showing that the particles tend to assemble at the central area, but the pattern is slightly different compared to that on hydrophilic surface. In addition, physical mechanisms of local heating and heating from substrate are also explored in the present study

Facile approach to generating polymeric nanoarrays containing populations of nanoparticles

The production of nanoarrays containing a population of entrapped, heterogeneous nanoparticles is reported. The nanoarray consists of a nanoporous film with pores of diameter 60-180 nm, formed from the phase separation of two immiscible polymers: polystyrene (PS) and polymethylmethacrylate coated onto glass or silicon wafer. Nanoparticles of PS (120 nm) and silica (90 nm) were deposited into the nanoporous films to generate the nanoarray containing a mixed population of nanoparticles

Polymers with hydro-responsive topography identified using high throughput AFM of an acrylate microarray

Atomic force microscopy has been applied to an acrylate polymer microarray to achieve a full topographic characterisation. This process discovered a small number of hydro-responsive materials created from monomers with disparate hydrophilicities that show reversibility between pitted and protruding nanoscale topographies.Wellcome Trust (London, England) (Grant number 085245/Z/08/Z

Investigation of chemical and physical surface changes of thermally conditioned glass fibres

A number of analytical techniques were applied to investigate changes to the surface of unsized boron-free E-glass fibres after thermal conditioning at temperatures up to 700 °C. Novel systematic studies were carried out to investigate the fundamental strength loss from thermal conditioning. Surface chemical changes studied using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) showed a consistent increase in the surface concentration of calcium with increasing conditioning temperature, although this did not correlate well with a loss of fibre strength. Scanning electron microscopy fractography confirmed the difficulty of analysing failure-inducing flaws on individual fibre fracture surfaces. Analysis by atomic force microscopy (AFM) did not reveal any likely surface cracks or flaws of significant dimensions to cause failure: the observation of cracks before fibre fracture may not be possible when using this technique. Fibre surface roughness increased over the whole range of the conditioning temperatures investigated. Although surface roughness did not correlate precisely with fibre strength, there was a clear inverse relationship at temperatures exceeding 400 °C. The interpretation of the surface topography that formed between 400-700 °C produced evidence that the initial stage of phase separation by spinodal decomposition may have occurred at the fibre surface

Administration of protopine prevents mitophagy and acute lung injury in sepsis

Introduction: Sepsis is a severe life-threatening infection that induces a series of dysregulated physiologic responses and results in organ dysfunction. Acute lung injury (ALI), the primary cause of respiratory failure brought on by sepsis, does not have a specific therapy. Protopine (PTP) is an alkaloid with antiinflammatory and antioxidant properties. However, the function of PTP in septic ALI has not yet been documented. This work sought to investigate how PTP affected septic ALI and the mechanisms involved in septic lung damage, including inflammation, oxidative stress, apoptosis, and mitophagy.Methods: Here, we established a mouse model induced by cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) and a BEAS-2B cell model exposed to lipopolysaccharide (LPS).Results: PTP treatment significantly reduced mortality in CLP mice. PTP mitigated lung damage and reduced apoptosis. Western blot analysis showed that PTP dramatically reduced the expression of the apoptosis-associated protein (Cleaved Caspase-3, Cyto C) and increased Bcl-2/Bax. In addition, PTP decreased the production of inflammatory cytokines (IL-6, IL-1β, TNF-α), increased glutathione (GSH) levels and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity, and decreased malondialdehyde (MDA) levels. Meanwhile, PTP significantly reduced the expression of mitophagy-related proteins (PINK1, Parkin, LC-II), and downregulated mitophagy by transmission electron microscopy. Additionally, the cells were consistent with animal experiments.Discussion: PTP intervention reduced inflammatory responses, oxidative stress, and apoptosis, restored mitochondrial membrane potential, and downregulated mitophagy. The research shows that PTP prevents excessivemitophagy and ALI in sepsis, suggesting that PTP has a potential role in the therapy of sepsis

Design and development of 3D hierarchical ultra-microporous CO2-sieving carbon architectures for potential flow-through CO2 capture at typical practical flue gas temperatures

Developing effective carbon materials for post-combustion CO2 capture (PCC) has received great attentions over many recent years, owing to their desirable adsorption?desorption performance and exceptional thermo-oxidative stability compared to virtually any other capture materials typically the wide array of amine-based sorbent materials. However, due to the nature of physical adsorption, virtually none of the carbon materials reported so far can be practically used for PCC applications without deep flue gas cooling to ambient or even lower temperatures in order to achieve appreciable levels of CO2 uptake capacities at low CO2 partial pressures. Here, we present a category of 3D hierarchical molecular sieving carbon architectures that are able to operate at realistic flue gas temperatures with exceedingly high reversible CO2 capacities. The breakthrough CO2-sieving carbon materials are prepared from using a cost-effective and commercially widely available precursor of polymeric polyisocyanurates with a facile one-step compaction-activation methodology. Tested at sensible flue gas temperatures of 40?70 o C and a low CO2 partial pressure of 0.15 bar, the best performing materials are found to have exceedingly high reversible CO2 capacities of up to 2.30mmol/g at 40 o C and 1.90mmol/g at 70 o C. Advanced characterisations suggest that the unique geometry and chemistry of the easily available precursor material coupled with the characteristics of the compaction-activation protocol used are responsible for the CO2-sieving structures and capacities of the 3D carbon architectures. The findings essentially change the general perception that carbon-based materials can hardly find applications in post-combustion capture due to their low CO2 uptake capacity at low CO2 partial pressures and realistic flue gas temperatures