Memory Recently Retold: The Chinese Historical Writing of the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II

Memories regarding the history of the Second Sino-Japanese War (1931-1945) and World War II (1939-1945) have always been refreshed in the minds of contemporaries through the retelling of “historical war stories” in various forms including books, posters, films and other media presentations. However, these retellings are often criticised by some academics as distortion of historical facts. This is because many of the present generation of readers and audiences were not even born at the time the events happened. Thus, “historical facts” of this era are, in reality, very vague in people’s minds and their “facts” are often simply a construction of frequently retold “historical war stories” mixed with imagination. This article will argue that even immediately after the end of both wars in 1945, fresh history memory was already distorted, with China being the main victim. Following the end of World War II, there was an extensive publication of books and periodicals about the war. However, through varied interpretations of primary sources and use of visual materials in different ways, various positions were created to suit specific needs for justification of China’s desire to be part of the camp of world powers after 1945. Similar diverse positions were also used to make political arguments criticising both the Axis and Allied Powers for working toward different political ends.published_or_final_versio

High Sensitivity AC Field Measurement Using Rhombic Inducer

The principle behind the ac field measurement (ACFM) technique has been explained in [1]. In this technique, a thin-skin eddy current is induced in the metal under test. The current is perturbed by defects in the metal surface and the result is reflected in the magnetic field above the surface. A probe is used to detect perturbations in this field

Discharge of water containing waste emanating from land to the marine environment: A water quality management perspective

The National Water Act, 1998 (Act 36 of 1998) mandates the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry to manage all water containing waste (wastewater), which emanates from land-based sources and which directly impact on the marine environment. These sources include sea outfalls, storm water drains, canals, rivers and diffuse sources of pollution. To date there are many places where wastewater is being discharged into the sea. More than forty sea outfalls are formalised through authorisations issued in terms of the old Water Act, 1956 (Act 54 of 1956) and the National Water Act, 1998 (Act 36 of 1998). In order to protect water quality, effluent standards were applied under the old Water Act to discharges into the water resource. However, the National Water Act, 1998 follows a receiving water quality objectives approach recognising differences in the assimilative capacity of different resources. Both approaches have the same main objective namely to maintain the resource at a quality fit for use by other users. The same principle applies to discharges to the marine environment. In addition, South Africa, as a signatory to a number of international Conventions and treaties such as the London Convention, is committed to certain requirements pertaining to the disposal of waste at sea. To meet such requirements, a very clear policy on what could be allowed for discharge to sea is required for South Africa. Such a policy should be very clear on what is allowed, why it is allowed and the conditions that apply for such discharges in order for this country to retain international credibility. In this paper the authors provide a concise discussion on: • The development of an operational policy providing the strategic view on marine disposal, as well as the goal, basic principles, ground rules and management framework that will be applied to the discharge of land-derived wastewater to the marine environment; and • Overview of procedures to guide authorities and managers in terms of the administrative and institutional responsibilities in dealing with land-derived wastewater discharges to the marine environment of South Africa.br> Water SA Vol. 30 (5) 2005: pp.56-6

Monetary valuation of salinity impacts and microbial pollution in the Olifants Water Management Area, South Africa

This paper estimates costs associated with water pollution in the Olifants River Water Management Area (WMA) in South Africa, and, more specifically, the area represented by the Loskop Dam Water User Association. We focus on the impacts of salinisation on commercial irrigated agriculture, and of microbial pollution on the general population of the WMA, many of whom do not have access to municipal water and sanitation services, leaving them vulnerable to microbial pollution inthe water resource. Costs associated with salinity are estimates based on the impacts of increased salinity on the value of marginal product of certain irrigated crops. Costs associated with microbial pollution are estimated based on the direct and indirect costs of human health impacts as a result of microbial pollution in the study area. These monetary value estimates give an indication of the magnitude of the cost of water pollution to society in the WMA. It is concluded that the once-off cost required to provide some pollution prevention infrastructure will be lower than the current annual cost burden of pollution on society in the WMA, and that pollution prevention is therefore cost effective

The Development of Analytical Procedures for Analysis of Trace Metals in Pharmaceutical Formulations and the Speciation of Arsenic in Antacids

The reliability of data obtained from the existing United States Pharmacopeia (USP) method, USP for elemental impurities (EI) have been questioned in the literature. New regulations regarding EI in pharmaceutical products were recently implemented on the 1st January 2018. The new regulations are USP / and the International Council for Harmonisation equivalent guidelines (ICH Q3D). The new regulations include the use of instrumentation such as inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The aim of this work was to develop, optimise and validate analytical methods for the determination of Class 1 and Class 2A elements, arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), mercury (Hg),lead (Pb), cobalt (Co), nickel (Ni) and vanadium (V) simultaneously in pharmaceutical products in compliance with the new guidelines. The developed ICP-OES and ICP-MS methods were validated using the only available solid standard reference material (SRM) NIST 3280 Multivitamin/Multielement tablets. It was found that relying solely on spiked addition technique as suggested by USP is inefficient as it may not reflect clearly the method’s accuracy particularly when the sample preparation involves the use of microwave (MW)-assisted acid digestion step, which is very common for pharmaceutical samples. Sample preparation was performed using a developed MW-assisted acid digestion method with reverse aqua regia. It was found that reaching a temperature of 210°C for sample’s digestion is necessary to get EI recoveries of greater than 95% and pre-digestion grinding was found to be beneficial to minimise variation in data and get relative standard deviation (RSD)of less than 5%. The validation results showed good linearity (R2>0.995) over a wide range with low limits of detection (LoDs) and limits of quantification (LoQs). The calculated LoQs in ng/mL are As (5.86, 1.149), Cd (0.87, 0.037), Hg (2.23, 1.701) Pd (4.73, 0.041), Co (1.58, 0.299), Ni (1.74, 0.159) and V (7.64, 0.485) for ICP-OES and ICP-MS incorporated with collision reaction cell (CCT) respectively. Twenty-four commercially available pharmaceutical products including analgesic tablets, cough remedies, flu powders and antacids were analysed. Four products contained Cd in concentrations exceeding the permitted daily exposure limit (PDE) of 5µg/day when the maximum dose is taken, and nine products exceeded the 5µg/day PDE of Pb. This is especially concerning for the paediatric products because children are more susceptible to EI adverse effects as for example, they can absorb up to 40-70% of ingested Pb. The antacids were found to contain As and although the levels quantified were below the PDE (15µg/day), a speciation method using an ion-pair reversed phase high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)-ICP-MS was optimised and validated according to ICH Q2B guidelines as no information regarding what species are present in such products is available in the literature. Four arsenic species were selected, arsenite (AsIII), arsenate (AsV), monomethyl arsonate (MMA) and dimethyl arsenate (DMA). Calibrations with R2>0.995 for all four species in the range of 1 to 50 ng/L and % recoveries>95% with RSD95%). This method was able to extract 95% or more of arsenic for all products. The ion-pair reversed phase chromatography was performed using a mobile phase: 10mmol/L tetrabutylammonium, 20mmol/L potassium dihydrogen orthophosphate and 2% methanol at pH 6 with a C18 column. The speciation analysis results for all the antacids showed that approximately 50% of the extracted As was present as the most toxic AsIII form. The work demonstrates some of the potential issues with the new regulations and the availability of suitable solid SRM and seeks to provide workable solutions for the analysis

Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor Ameliorates Brain Stem Cardiovascular Dysregulation during Experimental Temporal Lobe Status Epilepticus

Background: Status epilepticus (SE) is an acute, prolonged epileptic crisis with a mortality rate of 20–30%; the underlying mechanism is not completely understood. We assessed the hypothesis that brain stem cardiovascular dysregulation occurs during SE because of oxidative stress in rostral ventrolateral medulla (RVLM), a key nucleus of the baroreflex loop; to be ameliorated by brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) via an antioxidant action. Methodology/Principal Findings: In a clinically relevant experimental model of temporal lobe SE (TLSE) using Sprague-Dawley rats, sustained hippocampal seizure activity was accompanied by progressive hypotension that was preceded by a reduction in baroreflex-mediated sympathetic vasomotor tone; heart rate and baroreflex-mediated cardiac responses remained unaltered. Biochemical experiments further showed concurrent augmentation of superoxide anion, phosphorylated p47 phox subunit of NADPH oxidase and mRNA or protein levels of BDNF, tropomyosin receptor kinase B (TrkB), angiotensin AT1 receptor subtype (AT1R), nitric oxide synthase II (NOS II) or peroxynitrite in RVLM. Whereas pretreatment by microinjection bilaterally into RVLM of a superoxide dismutase mimetic (tempol), a specific antagonist of NADPH oxidase (apocynin) or an AT1R antagonist (losartan) blunted significantly the augmented superoxide anion or phosphorylated p47 phox subunit in RVLM, hypotension and the reduced baroreflex-mediated sympathetic vasomotor tone during experimental TLSE, pretreatment with a recombinant human TrkB-Fc fusion protein or an antisense bdn

Two-dose Covid-19 vaccination and possible arthritis flare among patients with rheumatoid arthritis in Hong Kong

Objectives: To investigate the relationship between COVID-19 full vaccination (two completed doses) and possible arthritis flare. Methods: Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) were identified from population-based electronic medical records with vaccination linkage and categorised into BNT162b2 (mRNA vaccine), CoronaVac (inactive virus vaccine) and non-vaccinated groups. The risk of possible arthritis flare after vaccination was compared using a propensity-weighted cohort study design. We defined possible arthritis flare as hospitalisation and outpatient consultation related to RA or reactive arthritis, based on diagnosis records during the episode. Weekly prescriptions of rheumatic drugs since the launch of COVID-19 vaccination programme were compared to complement the findings from a diagnosis-based analysis. Results: Among 5493 patients with RA (BNT162b2: 653; CoronaVac: 671; non-vaccinated: 4169), propensity-scored weighted Poisson regression showed no significant association between arthritis flare and COVID-19 vaccination ((BNT162b2: adjusted incidence rate ratio 0.86, 95% Confidence Interval 0.73 to 1.01); CoronaVac: 0.87 (0.74 to 1.02)). The distribution of weekly rheumatic drug prescriptions showed no significant differences among the three groups since the launch of the mass vaccination programme (all p values >0.1 from Kruskal-Wallis test). Conclusions: Current evidence does not support that full vaccination of mRNA or inactivated virus COVID-19 vaccines is associated with possible arthritis flare

A Terminal Velocity on the Landscape: Particle Production near Extra Species Loci in Higher Dimensions

We investigate particle production near extra species loci (ESL) in a higher dimensional field space and derive a speed limit in moduli space at weak coupling. This terminal velocity is set by the characteristic ESL-separation and the coupling of the extra degrees of freedom to the moduli, but it is independent of the moduli's potential if the dimensionality of the field space is considerably larger than the dimensionality of the loci, D >> d. Once the terminal velocity is approached, particles are produced at a plethora of nearby ESLs, preventing a further increase in speed via their backreaction. It is possible to drive inflation at the terminal velocity, providing a generalization of trapped inflation with attractive features: we find that more than sixty e-folds of inflation for sub-Planckian excursions in field space are possible if ESLs are ubiquitous, without fine tuning of initial conditions and less tuned potentials. We construct a simple, observationally viable model with a slightly red scalar power-spectrum and suppressed gravitational waves; we comment on the presence of additional observational signatures originating from IR-cascading and individual massive particles. We also show that moduli-trapping at an ESL is suppressed for D >> d, hindering dynamical selection of high-symmetry vacua on the landscape based on this mechanism.Comment: 46 pages, 6 figures. V3: typos corrected compared to JHEP version, conclusions unchange