Scattering of electromagnetic waves by two- and three-dimensional dielectric bodies

Imperial Users onl

Market-making strategies in Tanzimat era Istanbul: The quest for an elusive cosmopolitanism

Focusing on a pivotal period of the Ottoman Empire, we illustrate how advertising tactics act as market-making tools for local and non-local businesses during the Tanzimat (1839–1876) (Re-organization) era through a study of advertisements in the popular Armeno-Turkish daily newspaper Manzume-i Efkâr. We show that using standardised marketing communications in both form and content to invoke Westernness, forging dealership networks to induce demand, and legitimising the products and brands acted as market-making mechanisms and helped to introduce new products into the local market. Our findings further illuminate that although the market making efforts of the era might suggest the existence of a multilingual, ethnically, and culturally diverse consumer group, the adverts only speak to a limited and inorganically bound set of consumers

Role of surface functional groups in the adsorption kinetics of water vapor on microporous activated carbons

Activated carbons have both hydrophilic surface oxygen functional groups, which act as primary adsorption centers for water vapor, and hydrophobic graphene layers on which nonpolar species are primarily adsorbed. The aim of this research was to investigate the effects of oxygen surface functional groups, in activated carbons, on the adsorption characteristics of water vapor. Activated carbon G was oxidized using nitric acid and then heat treated in the range 387-894 K to produce a suite of adsorbents with varying oxygen contents in the range 0.4-21.5 wt % daf, but very similar porous structure characteristics, thereby minimizing effects due to changes in porous structure. The type and concentration of surface oxygen groups present in each sample were assessed using TPD, FTIR, Boehm titration, and analytical methods. Water vapor adsorption at low relative pressure was dramatically enhanced by the presence of functional groups, in particular, carboxylic groups. Kinetic profiles for each pressure increment were modeled using a set of nested kinetic models, which allow the adsorption kinetics to be analyzed in relation to the adsorption mechanism. Relationships between water adsorption kinetics at low surface coverage and the type and concentration of oxygen surface functional groups were observed. A two component double exponential kinetic model was used when carboxylic groups were present in significant amounts with a slow kinetic component associated with adsorption on these groups. In the case of carbons where carboxylic groups were only present in, at most, relatively small amounts, a stretched exponential kinetic model was used and the rate constants in the low-pressure region decreased linearly with increasing Henry's Law constant and oxygen content. The results indicate the importance of adsorbate-adsorbent interactions in water adsorption kinetics and are consistent with a site-to-site hopping mechanism between functional groups

Capital Fixity and Mobility in Response to the 2008-09 Crisis: Variegated Neoliberalism in Mexico and Turkey

The article examines the 2008-9 crisis responses in Mexico and Turkey as examples of variegated neoliberalism. The simultaneous interests of corporations and banks relative to the national fixing of capital and their mobility in the form of global investment heavily influenced each state authority’s policy responses to the crisis at the expense of the interests of the poor, workers, and peasantry. Rather than pitching this as either evidence of persistent national differentiation or some Keynesian state resurgence, we argue from a historical materialist geographical framework that the responses of capital and state authorities in Mexico and Turkey actively constitute and reconstitute the global parameters of market regulatory design and neoliberal class rule through each state’s distinct domestic policy formation and crisis management processes. While differing in specific content the form of Mexico and Turkey’s state responses to the crisis ensured continuity in their foregoing neoliberal strategies of development and capital accumulation, most notably in the continued oppression of workers. That is, the prevailing strategy of accumulation continues to be variegated neoliberalism

Communication Research

Contains reports on seven research projects.Rockefeller FoundationCarnegie Foundatio

Novel roles for class II Phosphoinositide 3-Kinase C2 beta in signalling pathways involved in prostate cancer cell invasion

Phosphoinositide 3-kinases (PI3Ks) regulate several cellular functions such as proliferation, growth, survival and migration. The eight PI3K isoforms are grouped into three classes and the three enzymes belonging to the class II subfamily (PI3K-C2a, ß and ?) are the least investigated amongst all PI3Ks. Interest on these isoforms has been recently fuelled by the identification of specific physiological roles for class II PI3Ks and by accumulating evidence indicating their involvement in human diseases. While it is now established that these isoforms can regulate distinct cellular functions compared to other PI3Ks, there is still a limited understanding of the signalling pathways that can be specifically regulated by class II PI3Ks. Here we show that PI3K-C2ß regulates mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase (MEK1/2) and extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK1/2) activation in prostate cancer (PCa) cells. We further demonstrate that MEK/ERK and PI3K-C2ß are required for PCa cell invasion but not proliferation. In addition we show that PI3K-C2ß but not MEK/ERK regulates PCa cell migration as well as expression of the transcription factor Slug. These data identify novel signalling pathways specifically regulated by PI3K-C2ß and they further identify this enzyme as a key regulator of PCa cell migration and invasion

Communication Research

Contains reports on nine research projects.Bell Telephone Laboratories, Incorporate