A Digambara Jain Samskāra in the Early Seventeenth Century: Lay Funerary Ritual according to Somasenabhattāraka's Traivarnikācāra

AbstractThis paper examines the description of the funeral ritual to be performed for a lay Digambara Jain which is provided by Somasenabhattāraka in his Traivarnikācāra , written in Maharashtra in 1610. This description represents the fullest textual account hitherto available of premodern Jain mortuary ceremonial for a non-renunciant. Despite Jainism's consistent rejection of brahmanical śrāddha ceremonies intended to nourish deceased ancestors, Somasenabhattāraka clearly regards the performance of these as a necessary component of post-funerary commemoration. The paper focusses on Somasenabhattāraka's references to árāddha and the ancestors and suggests how categories deriving from brahman ritual ideology were maintained in a devalorised form in the Digambara Jain context. </jats:sec

The integral motivic dual Steenrod algebra

We calculate the motivic integral dual Steenrod algebra over base schemes for which the mod p motivic dual Steenrod algebra conforms with Voevodsky's formula

More miles on the clock: Neighbourhood stressors are associated with telomere length in a longitudinal study

Background There is a substantial gap in health and longevity between more affluent and more deprived areas, and more knowledge of the determinants of this health divide is required. Experience of the local residential environment is important for health although few studies have examined this in relation to biological markers of age such as telomere length. We sought to examine if residents’ perceptions of neighbourhood stressors over time were associated with telomere length in a community study. Methodology/Principal findings In a prospective cohort study of 2186 adults in the West of Scotland, we measured neighbourhood stressors at three time points over a 12-year period and telomere length at the end of the study. Using linear regression models, we found that a higher accumulation of neighbourhood stressors over time was associated with shorter telomere length, even after taking cohort, social class, health behaviours (smoking status, diet, physical activity), BMI and depression into account among females only (Beta = 0.007; 95%CI [0.001, 0.012]; P < 0.014). Conclusions/Significance Neighborhood environments are potentially modifiable, and future efforts directed towards improving deleterious local environments may be useful to lessen telomere attrition

Prediction of broad-spectrum pathogen attachment to coating materials for biomedical devices

Bacterial infections in healthcare settings are a frequent accompaniment to both routine procedures such as catheterization and surgical site interventions. Their impact is becoming even more marked as the numbers of medical devices that are used to manage chronic health conditions and improve quality of life increases. The resistance of pathogens to multiple antibiotics is also increasing, adding an additional layer of complexity to the problems of employing safe and effective medical procedures. One approach to reducing the rate of infections associated with implanted and indwelling medical devices is the use of polymers that resist the formation of bacterial biofilms. To significantly accelerate the discovery of such materials, we show how state of the art machine learning methods can generate quantitative predictions for the attachment of multiple pathogens to a large library of polymers in a single model for the first time. Such models facilitate design of polymers with very low pathogen attachment across different bacterial species that will be candidate materials for implantable or indwelling medical devices such as urinary catheters, cochlear implants and pacemakers

Achieving Microparticles with Cell-Instructive Surface Chemistry by Using Tunable Co-Polymer Surfactants

© 2020 The Authors. Published by WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim A flow-focusing microfluidic device is used to produce functionalized monodisperse polymer particles with surface chemistries designed to control bacterial biofilm formation. This is achieved by using molecularly designed bespoke surfactants synthesized via catalytic chain transfer polymerization. This novel approach of using polymeric surfactants, often called surfmers, containing a biofunctional moiety contrasts with the more commonly employed emulsion methods. Typically, the surface chemistry of microparticles are dominated by unwanted surfactants that dilute/mask the desired surface response. Time of flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) analysis of particles demonstrates that the comb-graft surfactant is located on the particle surface. Biofilm experiments show how specifically engineered surface chemistries, generated by the surfactants, successfully modulate bacterial attachment to both polymer films, and microparticles. Thus, this paper outlines how the use of designed polymeric surfactants and droplet microfluidics can exert control over both the surface chemistry and size distribution of microparticle materials, demonstrating their critical importance for controlling surface-cell response