A Dancer’s Discipline and Diligence in the Drafts of Leonor Orosa-Goquingco

Excerpt: We can learn so much about Leonor Orosa-Goquingco from the documents she left behind. From these, we can access her thoughts and insights, discern her habits, and know more about the ethos of National Artists. Sifting through the multitude of documents she bequeathed to the Ateneo Library of Women’s Writing, I stumbled upon a very telling set of materials labeled “Interviews”: over ninety drafts for feature articles she wrote on dozens of movers and shakers in the art and culture scene. Written in the early to mid-1990s, the drafts were typewritten and faxed or delivered by messenger to the editor of the Lifestyle section of the Philippine Star, complete with handwritten notes in the margins. If reading her published works is like watching her performances from the audience’s angle of vision, reading her drafts is like watching her rehearsals from backstage: we see not only the polished dance but also the process and the effort that had gone into the crafting and orchestration of the dance. That these drafts were mostly from the 1990s also offers us a window into the National Artist’s latter years, and how she kept herself busy in her mid-to-late seventies

The Diplomat-Scholar: Erwin S. Fernandez. The Diplomat-Scholar: A Biography of Leon Ma. Guerrero. Singapore: ISEAS Publishing. 2017. 360 pages.

Excerpt: The Diplomat-Scholar: A Biography of Leon Ma. Guerrero is a detailed account of the life and work of a pioneering Southeast Asian diplomat and intellectual. The book aims to describe and determine Leon Ma. Guerrero’s place in Philippine literary and diplomatic history while situating him within the larger context of global affairs. This biography offers a unique perspective on international relations, from the angle of vision of a subaltern diplomat in the age of decolonization

Ateneo Theater since 1986

Excerpt: The year 1986 was a turning point in Philippine history as the EDSA Revolt that overthrew the Marcos government energized Filipino citizens to embark on nation building projects and to capitalize on their newfound freedom. The Ateneo theater scene in the “post-EDSA years” reflected this empowered political climate. The theater companies based in the college, later the Loyola Schools, of the Ateneo de Manila University produced a diverse repertoire of plays, ranging from classics to originals, from Broadway musicals to non-traditional projects, in both English and Filipino languages

Identification and Structural Characterization of a New Three-Finger Toxin Hemachatoxin from Hemachatus haemachatus Venom

10.1371/journal.pone.0048112PLoS ONE710

Influence of the Water Content on the Diffusion Coefficients of Li⁺ and Water across Naphthalenic Based Copolyimide Cation-Exchange Membranes

The transport of lithium ions in cation-exchange membranes based on sulfonated copolyimide membranes is reported. Diffusion coefficients of lithium are estimated as a function of the water content in membranes by using pulsed field gradient (PFG) NMR and electrical conductivity techniques. It is found that the lithium transport slightly decreases with the diminution of water for membranes with water content lying in the range 14 < λ < 26.5, where λ is the number of molecules of water per fixed sulfonate group. For λ < 14, the value of the diffusion coefficient of lithium experiences a sharp decay with the reduction of water in the membranes. The dependence of the diffusion of lithium on the humidity of the membranes calculated from conductivity data using Nernst–Planck type equations follows a trend similar to that observed by NMR. The possible explanation of the fact that the Haven ratio is higher than the unit is discussed. The diffusion of water estimated by 1H PFG-NMR in membranes neutralized with lithium decreases as λ decreases, but the drop is sharper in the region where the decrease of the diffusion of protons of water also undergoes considerable reduction. The diffusion of lithium ions computed by full molecular dynamics is similar to that estimated by NMR. However, for membranes with medium and low concentration of water, steady state conditions are not reached in the computations and the diffusion coefficients obtained by MD simulation techniques are overestimated. The curves depicting the variation of the diffusion coefficient of water estimated by NMR and full dynamics follow parallel trends, though the values of the diffusion coefficient in the latter case are somewhat higher. The WAXS diffractograms of fully hydrated membranes exhibit the ionomer peak at q = 2.8 nm⁻1, the peak being shifted to higher q as the water content of the membranes decreases. The diffractograms present additional peaks at higher q, common to wet and dry membranes, but the peaks are better resolved in the wet membranes. The ionomer peak is not detected in the diffractograms of dry membranes.The authors acknowledge financial support provided by the DGICYT (Dirección General de Investigación Cientifíca y Tecnológica) through Grant MAT2011-29174-C02-02