Cosmic Gas Thermodynamics at z = 1089

The Universe at z = 1089 is treated as an expanding ideal gas. Its internal kinetic energy loss exceeds the amount absorbed by gravity and drives further expansion. A Hubble relation (Hg) is derived and compared to the value found by the ΛCDM model (HΛ) over the range z = 1089 to 0. The results suggest that the adiabatic release of energy from cosmic gas accounts for about half of present-day Universal expansion.

Time for Universal Public Distribution System: Food Mountains and Pandemic Hunger in India

The latest National Family Health Survey (NFHS 5) indicates that child stunting in India was severe and has been deteriorating since 2015. This trend could have worsened since the pandemic and the stringent lockdowns meant to contain it. There has been an acute increase in impoverishment as governmental food policies have further exacerbated rather than mitigated inequalities. Families eligible under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013, have been provided with double food grain rations during two waves of the pandemic. However, nearly 45% of India’s population without these ration cards have been largely excluded from additional food relief from the central government. Simultaneously, India’s food grain stocks in government granaries have accumulated to their all-time peak with 2 years of bumper harvests. Therefore, in light of the acute distress faced by marginalised communities due to the pandemic, this article analyses the availability of adequate food grain stocks and contends that the time is opportune for the universal expansion of the public distribution system.

Universal Public Distribution System: Food Mountains and Pandemic Hunger in India

The latest National Family Health Survey (NFHS 5), indicates that even before the pandemic, child stunting in India was severe and has been deteriorating since 2015. But after the stringent lockdown, there has been an acute increase in impoverishment as governmental food policies have further exacerbated rather than mitigated inequalities. Families eligible under the National Food Security Act (NFSA, 2013) have been provided with double food grain rations during two waves of the pandemic. But nearly 45 percent of India’s population without these ration cards have been excluded from any additional food relief from the central government. Simultaneously, India’s food grain stocks in government granaries have accumulated manifold with two years of bumper harvests. Therefore, in light of the acute distress faced by marginalised communities due to the pandemic and unprecedented economic recession, this paper analyses the availability of adequate foodgrain stocks and contends that the time is ripe for the universal expansion of the public distribution system.

The Parable of the Talents (Matt 25:14–30)

There is an unresolved tension between the parable of the Talent’s Matthean literary arrangement and readings proposed by modern scholars using socio-historical research to assess the parable’s reception by a first century audience. Drawing on metaphor theory and incorporating insights from the main interpretive trajectories found in modern scholarship on this parable, the author here proposes a new literary-critical reading that resolves this tension. He argues the parable’s rhetorical function within the Matthean narrative is to prepare the Matthean disciples to lead the universal expansion of the mission of the Matthean Jesus in the post-Easter period.

A commentary on drug safety and genomics: Promising new agents may require expansion of guidelines for subject screening in clinical trials

The fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) inhibitors likely represent a novel therapeutic yet complex target with the potential to impact various disease processes that present significant unmet medical needs. Despite a history of significant adverse events and still ill-defined risks associated with FAAH inactivation, potential clinical results of FAAH inhibitors for the management of human diseases suggest strongly that the research not be abandoned. In the present commentary we argue that the way to move forward safely and effectively may lie in universal expansion of clinical trials guidelines and toxicology protocols to include targeted genomic screening of clinical trial subjects. Generalization to the safety testing of many new pharmaceutical agents may be the silver lining of an otherwise dark cloud.

Bolívar Echeverría y las asimultaneidades de la modernidad capitalista: Ethos barroco y blanquitud

This article presents an approach to the way in which Bolívar Echeverría, based on his reformulation of Marxist criticism, attempts to locate in the truncated configurations of Latin American modernity potentials for resisting the universal expansion of the value form. Drawing on his distinction between modernity and capitalism, as well as his interpretation of the fundamental tension between natural form and value form, the article exposes Exheverría’s historical analysis of the triumph of the realist ethos over the baroque ethos of Latin American modernity. Nevertheless, the remnants of the latter constitute for Echeverría a possible counter-figure of the realistic ethos embodied by Whiteness. This is how his approach attempts to go beyond both Eurocentrism and the postmodern rejection of modernity, aiming to save the hope of a concrete universalism against the purely abstract universalism of capitalist modernity.

Ocular Pressure-Volume Relationship and Ganglion Cell Death in Glaucoma

We studied how GC death in glaucoma related to the intraocular pressure (IOP), eyeball volume (VS) and elasticity (volumetric KS and tensile ES), and eyeball volume-pressure relation. Glaucomatous GC loss was studied in DBA/2J (D2) mice with wild-type mice as controls. GCs were retrogradely identified and observed with a confocal microscope. The elasticity calculation was also done on published data from patients treated by a gas bubble injection in the vitreous cavity. The GC population in D2 mice (1.5- to 14-month-old) was negatively correlated with following factors: VS (p = 0.0003), age (p = 0.0026) and IOP (but p = 0.0966). As indicated by average values, adult D2 mice (³6 months) suffered significant GC loss, low KS and ES, and universal expansion of VS with normal IOP. KS and ES in the patients were also lower upon prolonged eyeball expansion compared to acute expansion. Based on the results and presumptions of a closed and continuous eyeball space (thereby ΔVS » ΔVW, ΔVW-the change in the aqueous humor amount), we deduced equations on the ocular volume-pressure relationship: ΔIOP = KS*ΔVW/VS or ΔIOP = (2/3)*[1/(1-n)]*(H/R)*ES*ΔVW/VS (n, Poisson’s ratio taken as 0.5; R, the curvature radius; and H, the shell thickness). Under normal atmospheric pressure, IOP of 10~50 mmHg contributed only 1.2~6.6% of the pressure opposing the retina and eyeball shell. We conclude: 1) A disturbance of ocular volume-pressure homeostasis, mediated primarily by low KS and ES, expanded VS, and large ΔVW, is correlated with GC death in glaucoma and 2) D2 mice with GC loss and normal IOP may serve as animal models for human normal-tension glaucoma.

Cellulose-Based Polymers in Additive Manufacturing

The materials for additive manufacturing (AM) technology have grown substantially over the last few years to fulfill industrial needs. Despite that, the use of bio-based composites for improved mechanical properties and biodegradation is still not fully explored. This limits the universal expansion of AM-fabricated products due to the incompatibility of the products made from petroleum-derived resources. The development of naturally-derived polymers for AM materials is promising with the increasing number of studies in recent years owing to their biodegradation and biocompatibility. Cellulose is the most abundant biopolymer that possesses many favorable properties to be incorporated into AM materials, which have been continuously focused on in recent years. This critical review discusses the development of AM technologies and materials, cellulose-based polymers, cellulose-based three-dimensional (3D) printing filaments, liquid deposition modeling of cellulose, and four-dimensional (4D) printing of cellulose-based materials. Cellulose-based AM material applications and the limitations with future developments are also reviewed.

Extending Cellulose-Based Polymers Application in Additive Manufacturing Technology: A Review of Recent Approaches

The materials for additive manufacturing (AM) technology have grown substantially over the last few years to fulfill industrial needs. Despite that, the use of bio-based composites for improved mechanical properties and biodegradation is still not fully explored. This limits the universal expansion of AM-fabricated products due to the incompatibility of the products made from petroleum-derived resources. The development of naturally-derived polymers for AM materials is promising with the increasing number of studies in recent years owing to their biodegradation and biocompatibility. Cellulose is the most abundant biopolymer that possesses many favorable properties to be incorporated into AM materials, which have been continuously focused on in recent years. This critical review discusses the development of AM technologies and materials, cellulose-based polymers, cellulose-based three-dimensional (3D) printing filaments, liquid deposition modeling of cellulose, and four-dimensional (4D) printing of cellulose-based materials. Cellulose-based AM material applications and the limitations with future developments are also reviewed.

Lens modelling of the strongly lensed Type Ia supernova iPTF16geu

ABSTRACT In 2016, the first strongly lensed Type Ia supernova (SN Ia), iPTF16geu, at redshift z = 0.409 with four resolved images arranged symmetrically around the lens galaxy at z = 0.2163, was discovered. Here, refined observations of iPTF16geu, including the time delay between images, are used to decrease uncertainties in the lens model, including the the slope of the projected surface density of the lens galaxy, Σ ∝ r1 − η, and to constrain the universal expansion rate H0. Imaging with Hubble Space Telescope provides an upper limit on the slope η, in slight tension with the steeper density profiles indicated by imaging with Keck after iPTF16geu had faded, potentially due to dust extinction not corrected for in host galaxy imaging. Since smaller η implies larger magnifications, we take advantage of the standard candle nature of SNe Ia constraining the image magnifications, to obtain an independent constraint of the slope. We find that a smooth lens density fails to explain the iPTF16geu fluxes, regardless of the slope, and additional substructure lensing is needed. The total probability for the smooth halo model combined with star microlensing to explain the iPTF16geu image fluxes is maximized at 12 per cent for η ∼ 1.8, in excellent agreement with Keck high-spatial-resolution data, and flatter than an isothermal halo. It also agrees perfectly with independent constraints on the slope from lens velocity dispersion measurements. Combining with the observed time delays between the images, we infer a lower bound on the Hubble constant, $H_0 \gtrsim 40\, {\rm km \ s^{-1} Mpc^{-1}}$, at 68.3 per cent confidence level.