The Development of a Methodology to Understand Climate-induced Damage in Decorated Oak Wood Panels

Climate-induced damage in decorated oak wood panels is considered to be a high risk for pre-eminent museum collections. To advise museums on the development of sustainable future preservation strategies and rational guidelines for indoor climate specifications, the risk of this type of damage – physical and mechanical is analysed in full depth in this research. A comprehensive methodology is required that meets the requests of the conservation community and also helps to bridge the gap between scientists and conservators. Therefore, this research couples an extensive examination of empirical data obtained from naturally aged museum objects, i.e. a collection analysis, with numerical modelling and experimental testing. A multidisciplinary collaboration has been initiated, whereby conservators and scientists are working together to fulfil the common objectives of sustainable and low-risk preservation of valuable museum collections. In this paper, the methodology is outlined and some results are presented

The Limits of Anthropocene Narratives

The rapidly growing transdisciplinary enthusiasm about developing new kinds of Anthropocene stories is based on the shared assumption that the Anthropocene predicament is best made sense of by narrative means. Against this assumption, this article argues that the challenge we are facing today does not merely lie in telling either scientific, socio-political, or entangled Anthropocene narratives to come to terms with our current condition. Instead, the challenge lies in coming to grips with how the stories we can tell in the Anthropocene relate to the radical novelty of the Anthropocene condition about which no stories can be told. What we need to find are meaningful ways to reconcile an inherited commitment to narrativization and the collapse of storytelling as a vehicle of understanding the Anthropocene as our current predicament

Peripheral blood mononuclear cell secretome for tissue repair

For almost two decades, cell-based therapies have been tested in modern regenerative medicine to either replace or regenerate human cells, tissues, or organs and restore normal function. Secreted paracrine factors are increasingly accepted to exert beneficial biological effects that promote tissue regeneration. These factors are called the cell secretome and include a variety of proteins, lipids, microRNAs, and extracellular vesicles, such as exosomes and microparticles. The stem cell secretome has most commonly been investigated in pre-clinical settings. However, a growing body of evidence indicates that other cell types, such as peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), are capable of releasing significant amounts of biologically active paracrine factors that exert beneficial regenerative effects. The apoptotic PBMC secretome has been successfully used pre-clinically for the treatment of acute myocardial infarction, chronic heart failure, spinal cord injury, stroke, and wound healing. In this review we describe the benefits of choosing PBMCs instead of stem cells in regenerative medicine and characterize the factors released from apoptotic PBMCs. We also discuss pre-clinical studies with apoptotic cell-based therapies and regulatory issues that have to be considered when conducting clinical trials using cell secretome-based products. This should allow the reader to envision PBMC secretome-based therapies as alternatives to all other forms of cell-based therapies.(VLID)348919

How should novelty be valued in science?

<p>Box plot analysis of serum concentrations of sRAGE (A), esRAGE (B), S100A9 (C) and HMGB1 (D) in patients with CTEPH (n = 26) and controls (n = 33). Independent Student’s t-test was used to compare groups. <i>RAGE</i> receptor for advanced glycation endproducts, <i>sRAGE</i> soluble RAGE, <i>esRAGE</i> endogenous secretory RAGE, <i>S100A9</i> member of S100 family of Ca+ binding proteins, <i>HMGB1</i> high mobility group box1, <i>CTEPH</i> chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension.</p

Forum Debate on Jouni-Matti Kuukkanen's Postnarrativist Philosophy of Historiography Introduction

Is narrativism dead or still alive? Have all questions occasioned by the historical text been answered, so that philosophers of history must now turn to other problems? Or did narrativist philosophy of history have its blind spots that now demand their scrutiny? And if the historical text still has its secrets and mysteries, is narrativism capable of dealing with them? Or would we need for this a 'postnarrativist' approach? And, if so, what will this new approach look like and what can we expect from it? These are the questions put on the agenda by Kukkanen's Postnarrativist Philosophy of Historiography (2015). In this forum debate five scholars (Brian Fay, Eugen Zelenak, Anton Froeyman, Frank Ankersmit and Daniel Fairbrother) comment on Kuukkanen's book. Pragmatism proves to be an important clue to their findings