The Effect of Viscosity and Polymer Additives on Fluorescent Dyes in Latex Coatings

Fluorescent Whitening Agents (FWAs) are commonly used in many areas of the pulp and paper industry. FWAs are also known as Optical Brightening Agents (OBAs) and generically as fluorescent dyes. Nearly one-third of all FWAs manufactured are used in the pulp and paper industry. FWAs work by converting ultraviolet light into blue-white light in the visible region. When FWAs are used in coatings with latex binders, the fluorescent dyes have a tendency to migrate toward the basesheet during drying. This is due to mainly to the lack of suitable carrier for the dye. Previous research has shown that the addition of highly polar polymers, such a polyvinyl alcohol, will help keep the dyes evenly distributed throughout the coating structure. If the dyes accumulate near the bottom of the structure, they will not be activated by the ultraviolet radiation, and are therefore significantly less effective. The purpose of this research project is to determine what effect coating viscosity and polymer additives have on FWAs in latex coatings. After the completion of research and data analysis, it was determined that an increase in coating viscosity effectively caused an increase in fluorescence and the apparent whiteness of the coated papers containing FWAs. It was also concluded that the fully hydrolyzed polyvinyl alcohol was the most effective FWA optimizing agent. Keywords: Florescence, brightness, whiteness, Fluorescent Whitening Agent

Incontri tra controcultura e sperimentazione fototestuale nella rivista "ABRACADABRA"

Nel panorama artistico e letterario del Novecento nasce un prodotto ibrido, sviluppatosi sull’onda lunga del fenomeno Beat: le riviste underground autoprodotte. Il carattere innovativo di queste pubblicazioni non riguarda i soli contenuti, bensì anche e soprattutto la grafica, poliedrica e anticonvenzionale, ispirata alle libertà formali introdotte dalle avanguardie storiche. Fra il 1977 e il 1981 viene stampata ABRACADABRA, rivista di poesia sperimentale nata dall’incontro tra il traduttore Marcello Angioni, l’artista Harry Hoogstraten e il poeta di origine ticinese Franco Beltrametti (Locarno, 1937-1995). ABRACADABRA è un tipico esempio di pubblicazione del periodo, territorio di confine sulle cui pagine venivano sperimentati diversi gradi di interazione tra specifici linguaggi, testandone potenzialità e cortocircuiti.  Keywords: riviste autoprodotte, ABRACADABRA, controcultura, Franco Beltrametti, guerriglia semiologica.&nbsp

La maggioranza silenziosa della Controriforma. Il cardinale bergamasco Giovanni Girolamo Albani (1509-1591)

Nella prima metà del Cinquecento la Chiesa di Roma dovette misurarsi anche in Italia con la contestazione protestante. In questa lotta, la fazione più intransigente si avvalse di quei membri dei ceti dirigenti che, per tradizione e interessi, rimasero fedeli al papato. A questa maggioranza silenziosa, meno studiata dalla storiografia rispetto alla costellazione eterodossa, appartenne il giurista bergamasco Giovanni Girolamo Albani. Nei suoi trattati, scritti alla vigilia della stagione tridentina, egli prospettò quella esorbitante potenza della curia romana che, decenni più tardi, Paolo Sarpi avvertirà come nefasto esito del Concilio. Pur guardando a Roma, però, Albani rimase a lungo un laico a servizio della Serenissima, per divenire cardinale in età avanzata, grazie al favore di Pio V. Laico e chierico, dunque, la biografia del quale rileva dinamiche e tratti salienti della vita sociale e religiosa del secolo XVI

Una carriera ecclesiastica: il cardinale Giovanni Girolamo Albani (1509-1591)

The thesis is about the life and works of Giovanni Girolamo Albani (1509-1591), and his ecclesiastical career. It begins with the study of the rise of Albani’s family in the city of Bergamo, and then the analysis of the three books published by Albani on the eve of the Council of Trent, dedicated to the defence of papal authority. Then, it examines the reasons of Albani’s cardinal promotion in 1570, especially the aid he gave in the 1536 and 1551 to the inquisition in Bergamo. Therefore, the thesis tries to retrace his curial activity from 1569 to 1591, with a special attention to the conclaves and to the strategies of the factions of cardinals. A chapter focuses on a group of letters, written from 1578 to 1587 by some familiares of the cardinal, which offers an interpretation some prophecies that foresee the imminent death of the pope, nurturing among Albani’s entourage the desire to see their master elected

L’historicisation juridique de la Couronne entre 1584 et 1593

In 1584, the Crown of France was contested, as was the law of succession. In the midst of the dynastic crisis, a process of juridical historicisation of the Crown was unleashed, during which all historical accounts aimed to support a candidate for the throne, while political writings favouring a pretender were always based on a certain history of the Crown and of France. Historical objectivity and its methods thus emerge as major strategic devices in political conflict.En 1584, la Couronne de France est contestée, ainsi que la loi de succession. Au sein de la crise dynastique, un procès d’historisation juridique de la Couronne se déclenche, durant lequel tout récit historique vise à soutenir un candidat au trône, tandis que les écrits politiques favorisant un prétendant s’appuient toujours sur une certaine histoire de la Couronne et de la France. L’objectivité historique et ses procédés apparaissent ainsi comme des dispositifs stratégiques majeurs du conflit politique

The plastisphere microbiome in alpine soils alters the microbial genetic potential for plastic degradation and biogeochemical cycling

Plastic is exceedingly abundant in soils, but little is known about its ecological consequences for soil microbiome functioning. Here we report the impacts of polyethylene and biodegradable Ecovio and BI-OPL plastic films buried in alpine soils for 5 months on the genetic potential of the soil microbiome using shotgun metagenomics. The microbiome was more affected by Ecovio and BI-OPL than by polyethylene. Fungi, α- and β-Proteobacteria dominated on the biodegradable films. Ecovio and BI-OPL showed signs of degradation after the incubation, whereas polyethylene did not. Genes involved in cellular processes and signaling (intracellular trafficking, secretion, vesicular transport), as well as metabolism (carbohydrate, lipid and secondary metabolism), were enriched in the plastisphere. Several α/β-hydrolase gene families (cutinase_like, polyesterase-lipase-cutinase, carboxylesterase), which encode enzymes essential to plastic degradation, and carbohydrate-active genes involved in lignin and murein degradation increased on Ecovio and BI-OPL films. Enriched nitrogen fixation and organic N degradation and synthesis genes and decreased nitrification genes on Ecovio altered the biogeochemical cycling, leading to higher ammonium concentrations and depletion of nitrite and nitrate in the soil. Our results indicate that plastics affect the alpine soil microbiome and its functions and suggest that the plastisphere has an untapped microbial potential for plastic biodegradation. + Graphical Abstrac

Development of a knowledge management system within the system of schools comprising the Catholic Education Office Diocese of Wollongong

The purpose of this research is to design an effective knowledge management system within the Catholic Education Wollongong system of schools. This study will examine “how can a knowledge based information system support teachers in their learning and pedagogical practice?” A research design approach is used as it allows the construction of the technology to support a knowledge management system, having regard to the users of the system and theoretical frameworks regarding on-line learning and knowledge transfer. The study will be conducted in four discrete phases as described by Reeves (2000) and will utilise a sequential mixed method design, (Creswell, 2003). The contribution of this research to the field will be in the development of design principles that can be applied to knowledge management system design in education

The domestic drama of Thomas Dekker, 1599-1621

The dissertation reappraises Thomas Dekker's dramatic achievement through an examination of his contribution to the development of Elizabethan-Jacobean domestic drama. Dekker's alterations and modifications of two essential features of early English domestic drama--the homiletic pattern of sin, punishment, and repentance, which the genre inherited from the morality tradition, and the glorification of the cult of domesticity--attest to a complex moral and dramatic vision which critics have generally ignored. In Patient Grissil, his earliest extant domestic play, which portrays ambivalently the vicissitudes of marital and family life, Dekker combines an allegorical superstructure with a realistic setting. The tension between homiletic and realistic impulses is also at the heart of The Honest Whore. In Part I, although Dekker provides a trenchant portrait of the afflicted domus, the play's satirical tone clashes oddly with the homiletic schemes. In Part II, however, the marriage code is presented amid intricate plotting and a complex ethical design in which orthodox homiletic paradigms such as the patient wife, the testing of the wife's virtue, and the prodigal husband's reformation are consistently undermined through irony and paradox. Taken as a whole, these three plays reveal Dekker's growing cynicism toward the tidy moral and dramatic schemes of their analogues, and of the treatises and domestic-conduct books from which domestic dramas took their plots. Dekker's skillful exploitation of homiletic motifs extends to the comic vision of The Roaring Girl. The play sustains a central tension between the domus and the city, and offers a bold portrait of the heroine, Moll Cutpurse, who scorns marriage, preferring the openness of the city to the confinement of the household. In Dekker's domestic tragedy, The Witch of Edmonton, written shortly after his lengthy imprisonment for debt, the comic optimism that informs The Roaring Girl yields to bitter tones and to the defeat by a repressive society of those protagonists who openly challenge the values imbedded in the marriage code. The conclusion surveys the development of domestic drama since the Renaissance, and shows how Dekker anticipates the domestic plays of modern dramatists such as Ibsen, Arthur Miller, and Eugene O'Neill.Arts, Faculty ofEnglish, Department ofGraduat

Subjectivity, Theory, and Early Modern Drama. Introduction

This forum has been organized, introduced, and edited by Viviana Comensoli with the aim of exploring current theoretical and critical approaches to the conceptualization and representation of subjectivity in English Renaissance drama. The introduction provides an overview of various poststructuralist theoretical approaches that since the 1980s have guided our thinking about the representation of early modern subjectivities, and calls for continued revision and revaluation of contemporary theoretical applications. In the spirit of continuing debate, the three essays that follow approach the topic from different revisionist perspectives. Although the three essays differ substantially in their theoretical/critical apparatus, they share two important and unqualified claims: 1) the need to link our contemporary investigations of Renaissance subjectivities and identifications with ideologies (early modern and modern) of power; and 2) the absolute need, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, for a theoretical methodology that is politically engaged and progressive