Chilling and warming effects on the production of international law scholarship

How do international law scholars decide what to write about? I hope that most of us try to write about what interests us or, for the more idealistic, what best serves humanity. In this article though, I suggest that more insidious influences swirl around us, chilling and warming our interest in research topics. We may not even be aware of these subtle threats, pressures and incentives, and even when we are, we may underestimate their impact. I reflect on how two aspects of my own research environment – the implicit intimidation of (usually political and institutional) power and the pressure to publish – quietly seep into my epistemological decisions. I never imagined that I could simultaneously be such a coward and opportunist. The piece also draws on insights from psychology, sociology and other academic literature to better understand how we respond to and can manage these influences. In the end though, I suggest that we not be too hard on ourselves. Rather than feeling bad or good about our decisions, our aim should be to decide whether our choices about what research to pursue are at their foundation compatible with our personal values and those of the greater scholarly enterprise

Trajan Places: Establishing Identity and Context for the Bosham and Hawkshaw Heads

Two damaged, weathered marble portraits, both discovered in the 1780s at opposite ends of Roman Britain, one at Bosham in West Sussex, the other at Hawkshaw in Peeblesshire, are here re-examined and identified as portraits of the emperor Trajan. The Bosham head is interpreted as a post-mortem image of the deified Trajan set up at the margins of Chichester Harbour, probably during the visit to Britain by the emperor Hadrian in the early a.d. 120s. The Hawkshaw portrait of Trajan appears to have been refashioned from a likeness of Domitian and may originally have been part of a monument created to celebrate and commemorate the total conquest of Britain, in the early a.d. 80s, which was decapitated and buried during a period of unrest on the northern frontier

A review of squeaking in ceramic total hip prostheses

The occurrence of audible squeaking in some patients with ceramic-on-ceramic (CoC) hip prostheses is a cause for concern. Considering multifactor contributing to this phenomenon, many studies have been conducted over the last decade. Great efforts have been put on understanding the mechanics of the hip squeaking to gain a deep insight into factors resulting in sound emission from hip articulation. Disruption of fluid-film lubrication and friction were reported as main potential causes of hip squeaking, while patient and surgical factors as well as design and material of hip implants were identified as affecting factors. This review article therefore summarised the recent available literature on this subject to provide a platform for future developments. Moreover, high wear rates and ceramic liner fracture as viable consequences of hip squeaking were discussed.The first author gratefully acknowledges Macquarie University for International Macquarie University Research Excellence Scholarship (iMQRES)-No. 2010017. The second author would like to thank to the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology through the project UID/EEA/04436/2013

Sucrose in the concentrated solution or the supercooled “state” : a review of caramelisation reactions and physical behaviour

Sucrose is probably one of the most studied molecules by food scientists, since it plays an important role as an ingredient or preserving agent in many formulations and technological processes. When sucrose is present in a product with a concentration near or greater than the saturation point—i.e. in the supercooled state—it possesses high potentialities for the food industry in areas as different as pastry industry, dairy and frozen desserts or films and coatings production. This paper presents a review on critical issues and research on highly concentrated sucrose solutions—mainly, on sucrose thermal degradation and relaxation behaviour in such solutions. The reviewed works allow identifying several issues with great potential for contributing to significant advances in Food Science and Technology.Authors are grateful for the valuable discussions with Teresa S. Brandao and Rosiane Lopes da Cunha during this research. Author M. A. C. Quintas acknowledges the financial support of her research by FCT grant SFRH/BPD/41715/2007