Des clercs qui se mesleront de faire lettres et obligations : public notaries and comital vassals or 'hommes de fief' in the organisation of voluntary jurisdiction in late-medieval Hainaut (1345-1467)

During the late Middle Ages, the organization of voluntary jurisdiction in the customary regions of the Southern Low Countries was strongly determined by local developments. While it thrived in the major bishoprics of Liège and Tournai as well as in the commercial centers of Flanders and Brabant, historiography long assumed that the notary public failed to integrate into society in the rural county of Hainaut. Competition with the more dominant aldermen and comital vassals or 'hommes de fief' supposedly prevented notaries from institutionalizing their role as private legal intermediaries. Yet, the long-held top-down perspective disregarded interactions between, and the mutual competition among these different 'agents', thus creating a unilateral view that emphasized the importance of existing or indigenous alternatives. This contribution aims to better comprehend the organization of late-medieval voluntary jurisdiction in Hainaut, taking the co-existence of public notaries and 'hommes de fief' into consideration. From a bottom-up approach, relying on contemporary documentary writing practices, it will demonstrate how they both employed pragmatic literacy to gain authority, claim 'fides publica' and consolidate their own institutional position as such. This paradigm shift offers a framework that nuances previous insights regarding the reception of and developments within the notarial office in late-medieval Hainaut

pH-sensitive textile materials as innovative wound dressings

Halochromic (or pH-sensitive) textile materials can give an indication of the pH of the surrounding environment by a visible colour change and can therefore act as first signal systems. A possible application of this textile pH-sensor can be found in wound dressings. In addition to the use of traditional textile materials such as cotton gauze, nanofibrous nonwovens may provide benefits in medical applications. This paper discusses the development of pH-sensitive cotton fabrics by the combination of standard pH-indicator dyes with standard dyeing processes. Also halochromic polyamide nanofibres were produced by adding the pH-indicator dyes to the polymer solution. Both approaches were found to be promising. After the immobilization of the dye on a textile structure, still a clearly visible colour change was present for most of the dye-textile systems. It should however be noted that the behaviour of the pH-indicator dye was dependent on the medium in which it is incorporated

Color change textile materials: a feasibility study on the use of pH-indicator dyes in textile pH-sensors

This paper verifies the possibility of using standard water-soluble pH-indicator dyes in color change textile materials made out of conventional textiles and produced by a dyeing process. After a screening process in which the color depth, levelness and the color change properties of the dyed samples were examined, some dyes were selected to study in more detail. It was found that the behavior of the indicator dyes is different when the dyes are incorporated in textile materials instead of being dissolved in an aqueous solution. Our results show that it is possible to develop a textile pH-sensor using pH-indicators and conventional textiles

Optimum sol viscosity for stable electrospinning of silica nanofibres

Silica nanofibres have, due to their excellent properties, promising characteristics for multiple applications such as filtration, composites, catalysis, etc. Silica nanofibres can be obtained by combining electrospinning and the sol–gel process. To produce silica nanofibres most of the time organic solutions are applied containing a carrying polymer, which is afterwards removed by a thermal treatment to form pure ceramic nanofibres. Although electrospinning of the pure silica precursors without carrying polymer is preferred, the parameters influencing the stability of the electrospinning process are however largely unknown. In addition, this knowledge is essential for potential upscaling of the process. In this study, the optimum viscosity to electrospin in a stable manner is determined and the way to obtain this viscosity is evaluated. Sols with a viscosity between 120 and 200 mPa.s could be electrospun in a stable way, resulting in uniform and beadless nanofibres. Furthermore, this viscosity region corresponded with nanofibres having the lowest mean nanofibre diameters. Electrospinning with diluted sols was possible as well, but electrospinning of the fresh sols was more stable. These results illustrate the importance of the viscosity and degree of crosslinking of the sol for the stable electrospinning of silica nanofibres and demonstrate that upscaling of the electrospinning process of silica nanofibres is feasibl

Polycaprolactone and polycaprolactone/chitosan nanofibres functionalised with the pH-sensitive dye Nitrazine Yellow

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Blend electrospinning of dye-functionalized chitosan and poly(ε-caprolactone) : towards biocompatible pH-sensors

Fast-response and easy-to-visualize colorimetric nanofibrous sensors show great potential for visual and continuous control of external stimuli. This makes them applicable in many fields, including wound management, where nanofibers serve as an optimal support material. In this paper, fast responding and user-friendly biocompatible, halochromic nanofibrous sensors are successfully fabricated by incorporating the halochromic dyes Methyl Red and Rose Bengal inside a chitosan/poly(e-caprolactone) nanofibrous matrix. The commonly applied dye-doping technique frequently suffers from dye-leaching, which not only reduces the sensor's sensitivity over time but can also induce adverse effects. Therefore, in this work, dye-immobilization is accomplished by covalent dye-modification of chitosan before blend electrospinning. It is shown that efficient dye-immobilization with minimal dye-leaching is achieved within the biomedical relevant pH-region, without significantly affecting the halochromic behavior of the dyes. This is in contrast to the commonly applied dye-doping technique and other dye-immobilization strategies stated in literature. Moreover, the nanofibers show high and reproducible pH-sensitivity by providing an instantaneous color change in response to change in pH in aqueous medium and when exposed to acidic or basic gases. The results stated within this work are of particular interest for natural (bio) polymers for which covalent modification combined with electrospinning provides a universal method for versatile dye-functionalization of large area nanofibrous membranes with proper dye-immobilization