Porcelain Cups Research Articles

Development of Glaze Compositions to Increase the Durability of Decorative Paints Used in Glazed Porcelain

Colorful paint works are carried out to highlight the visuality of ornamental and tableware products, such as cups and plates. As these products come into contact with detergents, food products or grime, erosion and abrasion occur in paint and patterns over time. In this study, transparent glaze compositions that can be applied on patterned products have been developed in order to minimize wear and damage to the paint on ornamental and tableware products such as porcelain cups and plates. It is aimed to have a compatibility with the glaze layer and the porcelain body, to have high transparency and brightness. Different glaze compositions have been implemented to porcelain wares containing precious metallic paints. Then the glazed products were coducted to final firing between 870˚C-900˚C. Colours values of porcelain wares were determined with L-a-b spectrophotometer colours measurment devices and ΔE values was found to be lower than 0.50. Erosion and abrasion resistance were determined by staining test and washing test. According the results, the mass loss values are in the range of 2.7-3.4 mg (24h washing) and 7.9-8.3 mg (168 h washing). The morphology of the samples and the analysis of the phases formed during sintering were determined by X-ray diffraction (XRD) technique and scanning electron miscroscopy (SEM and EDX). Quartz-SiO2 and Albite-Na (AlSi3O8) phases were observed in the structure of the glazes. The results showed that glaze compositions with high transparency and wear resistance can be obtained with only 30% frit content.

From traditional to continental to inter-continental and back in search of the roots: A culinary journey of the typical Malayalee

Identity, culture, tradition, and heritage define our basic food habits. From tapioca and fish curry served on a leaf platter; cold rice and mango pickle served in an earthen pot; black coffee with jaggery served in a porcelain cup; fish wrapped in a banana leaf and barbequed in firewood; the Malayalee shifted his palate to the taste of the neighbouring state's idli, sambhar and vada; to the North Indian dishes, Mughalai dishes, continental, and inter-continental dishes served in steel plates to Chinese porcelain to western crockery. But after savouring dishes pan world, the typical Malayalee is back in search of his roots. This paper aims to delineate that search and identify the various traditional dishes now understood to be healthy, and tasty and anchoring the community to the roots of food culture. This study involves an in-depth observation and analysis of food culture, identity, heritage, cooking techniques and ingredients used. The change in the culinary aspects of a typical Malayalee's life is understood and his search back to his roots is portrayed through this article. Therefore, this study highlights the gastronomical journey of the Malayalee to the traditional roots of Kerala cuisine in the modern age of globalization. The Valorisation of established classic dishes from the margins to the table top of the finest restaurants is also analysed.

Пейзаж на театральном занавесе, чайном блюдце и экране веера: экфрасис в произведениях О. Бердсли, Р. Фирбенка, М. Кузмина

The article studies the influence of Aubrey Beardsley on the English prose writer Ronald Firbank and Russian poet Mikhail Kuzmin, both of whom worked at the beginning of the 20th century. Theanalysis of literary works in the article is based on comparative-historical and aesthetic-poetological ap-proaches. The ekphrasis of the palace in Firbank’s novel The Artificial Princessis shown to have intermedial connections with A.Beardsley’s novel Under the Hill, or the Story of Venus and Tannhäuserand with M.Kuzmin’s poems Fuji in a Saucerand The Northern Fan. Comparative analysis leads to the conclusion that the relationships between nature and art in the works of Beardsley, Firbank, and Kuzmin are viewed through the prism of culture. In Beardsley’s novel, the landscape of a lake with frogs is created in the hero’s imagination and reflects his desires and fears, which emphasizes the romantic genesis of decadence. The de-scription ends with the assumption that the lake does not really exist, but is only painted on a theater curtain. Firbank presents the ekphrasis of the palace park from different points of view. Reality is transformed not so much by the subjectivity of vision as by its paradoxical perspective. The ‘deceptive expanse’ of the land-scape, narrowing, is compared with the image on a porcelain cup or saucer, or on the silken panel of a fan –‘so much... in so little’.In Kuzmin’s ekphrastic poem Fuji in a Saucer, the landscape simultaneously nar-rows and expands, demonstrating the unity of nature and art. Unlike the landscape descriptions by Beardsley and Firbank, Kuzmin’s poem immediately indicates the ekphrastic nature of the description, which deter-mines its genre integrity. In Firbank’s novel, the leaves of the fan in the hands of the princess cross the night sky with twin-kling planets leading into the world of dreams and imagination. A direct reference to Charles Conder indi-rectly points to the tradition of Beardsley, whose drawings the creator of the fan admired and imitated. Kuzmin’s poetic cycle The Northern Fanopens with a direct reference to Beardsley, whom Kuzmin com-pared with his friend Yu.Yurkun (the cycle is dedicated to him). Each poem is like a leaf of a fan, but while the first poem mentions only the material and details, the last one describes the movement of the fan leaves as four elements and four cardinal points, reminiscent of the film by J.Méliès The Wonderful Living Fan. The transformation of the fan in this film ends with the rotation of the planets in the starry sky, as on Fir-bank’s fan. Thus, ekphrasis in the works of Firbank and Kuzmin, aesthetically ascending to Beardsley, is distinguished by a change of points of view, by allusions to cinematographic images and the realities of the 20thcentury.

B Flach! B Flach!

B Flach! B Flach!

Corner Detection of Ceramic Crack Computer VR Image Based on Three-Dimensional Reconstruction Algorithm

In order to improve the analysis ability of three-dimensional reconstruction of ceramic crack computer VR image corners, a ceramic crack computer VR image corner detection based on three-dimensional reconstruction algorithm is proposed. Taking the celadon tea cup with cracked glaze as the research object, multiple-side images of porcelain were extracted. Harris corner detection, image registration, and stitching are used to splice the multiple-side image into a complete unfolded image. In order to determine the generalization ability of the algorithm, 10 cracked porcelain cups with the same type but different glaze color are used for image acquisition and stitching, and the effect of the stitching method proposed in this paper is evaluated. The experimental results show that the image mosaic accuracy is more than 92%, which has high accuracy and effectiveness. Through image graying, binarization and morphological thinning, the crack is displayed in three dimensions, which can provide support for subsequent crack morphological display and topology analysis. The processing flow of this paper improves the automation of image stitching of cracked porcelain, and provides support for image stitching, texture detection, and three-dimensional crack analysis of cracked porcelain and other split porcelain. It has strong innovation and practicability.

MANUFACTURING SODIUM LIGNO SULFONATE (SLS) CHEMICAL INJECTION IN THE OIL EOR PROCESS EARTH WITH SULFONATION METHOD USING PEANUT SHELL WASTE

Sodium lignosulfonate (SLS) is made by reacting lignin with the chemical compound Natium bisulfite (NaHSO3). In this study, lignin was processed from peanut shell waste, that is not economically valuable and tends to be garbage, into high economic value materials. The nutshells are dried, crushed and cooked in an autoclave (gaping vessel) then added Sodium bisulfite (NaHSO3). The use of temperature and pressure that has been varied in the autoclave and the continuous stirring process will produce a thick black liquid smelling pungent with acidic pH. To get a solution that has a neutral pH added NaOH drop by drop. After the pH is neutral, weigh the porcelain cup dry and clean, put the lignin liquid in the porcelain cup, weigh the lignin liquid along with the porcelain cup. Next, the lignin liquid along with the porcelain cup is heated in the oven until the lignin liquid is free from the water content. Once drying process in the oven is finished, the lignin solids in the porcelain cup are weighed. The mass of the weighing minus the mass of the porcelain cup results in the mass of the SLS produced.

Partial black porcelain using wood charcoal as carbon source: Characterization of porcelain body part

This paper observes the fabrication of partial black porcelain by carbon diffusion from wood charcoal as a solid carbon source, and the characterization of body at bottom area. The porcelain cup was created by conventional ceramic technique. For second firing step, the cup was set on the wood charcoal pieces contained in a closed refractory container and fired at 1250 °C for 1 h. The traces of carbon compounds at different positions on a cross-section sample were detected by Raman spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Graphitic carbon and Si − O − C were discovered. Furthermore, graphite peak was detected by X-ray diffraction (XRD). This work provides a confirmation of solid diffused carbon from wood charcoal into the porcelain body by scientific techniques.

A Study Of Green Hr Practices Andit’seffective Of Implemention In Five Star Hotels In Jordan

Green HRM is the integration of corporate environmental management into HRM. Typical green activities contain online interviews and training, green payroll, electronic signatures to avoid wasting paper, and using porcelain cups for tea. The present research has been undertaken to study the green HR practices in five star hotels. For the purpose of the study, a sample of 151employees has been selected for the study. Data have been collected through self administered questionnaires designed on a five point Likert scale. Independent sample t-test has been used as the statistical tool to measure the difference in green HR practicesin hotel of Jordan. The analysis of the data revealed that significant differencedo not exists in green HR practicesin Movenpick hotel and Intercontinental hotel

Serving Temperatures of Best-Selling Coffees in Two Segments of the Brazilian Food Service Industry Are "Very Hot".

The International Agency for Research on Cancer has classified the consumption of “very hot” beverages (temperature >65 °C) as “probably carcinogenic to humans”, but there is no information regarding the serving temperature of Brazil’s most consumed hot beverage—coffee. The serving temperatures of best-selling coffee beverages in 50 low-cost food service establishments (LCFS) and 50 coffee shops (CS) were studied. The bestsellers in the LCFS were dominated by 50 mL shots of sweetened black coffee served in disposable polystyrene (PS) cups from thermos flasks. In the CS, 50 mL shots of freshly brewed espresso served in porcelain cups were the dominant beverage. The serving temperatures of all beverages were on average 90% and 68% above 65 °C in the LCFS and CS, respectively (P95 and median value of measurements: 77 and 70 °C, LCFS; 75 and 69 °C, CS). Furthermore, the cooling periods of hot water systems (50 mL at 75 °C and 69 °C in porcelain cups; 50 mL at 77 °C and 70 °C in PS cups) to 65 °C were investigated. When median temperatures of the best-selling coffees are considered, consumers should allow a minimum cooling time before drinking of about 2 min at both LCFS and CS.

Jawahar Kala Kendra

JAWAHAR KALA KENDRA (JKK), जवाहर कला केन्द्र, Jaipur’s art center, could be considered an oasis within a semidesert city. On any busy street of Jaipur, there are tiny temples, stray street dogs, and neon pink bougainvillea. It is easy to get lost in the haze of Indian traffic: Uber drivers shout over the cacophony of horns, and green and yellow autorickshaws rumble past motorcycles where women sit sidesaddle, their vibrant saris flowing behind them. In the chaos of Jaipur, it is difficult to find a single moment of silence. There is, however, something serene about the arts center; the incessant din of traffic, voices of fruit vendors , cows mooing, Bollywood music, or broadcasted prayer calls all disappear. For likely the first time of the day—walking into JKK—it is quiet. The entrance of JKK is a lush garden where peacocks strut the greens. Plumeria trees that never seem to stop blooming line the walkway from the busy street to the peach gates. On certain afternoons, artisans sell jewelry, embroidered school supplies, pottery and hand-block printed textiles in the gardens. Some evenings, emerald-green parakeets and azure kingfishers frequent the gardens. Once inside the courtyard, the building opens into a series of open-air pavilions. Archways lead to painted domes, amphitheaters, cafés, and art galleries alike. The history of India is still fresh within JKK. While Jaipur was the former capital of the Mughal Empire, a predominantly Muslim kingdom, the art that adorns the walls speaks to partition and the Hindu citizens of a modern India. But the memories of astrologer princes of the Mughal Empire are acknowledged with a mural of a palm reading at the entrance to the cinema. Even in the temporary art exhibit, India’s struggle for independence from the British is expressed through textiles; handspun textiles were a symbolic cornerstone in India’s fight for independence under Gandhi. Still today, textiles hold an important place in India’s identity and growing economy. Additionally , textiles can serve as an important means of creative expression. Art pieces showcased in the center’s galleries capture the evolution from the raw materials necessary to weave cloth by hand to modernist tapestries and postmodern interpretations of fabric. Part of what makes JKK such a successful home for the arts is that it makes the arts accessible to everyone, thus providing a home for aspiring artists and artisans. In the center of the arts complex there is an open-air canteen. Waiters with swirled moustaches, wearing starched turbans , wait on the patrons, busily carrying platters of silver porcelain cups of chai. Artists, musicians, poets, students, and astrologers all frequent the café. Even in temperatures of 100 degrees, artists dabble in watercolors, and musicians pluck away on acoustic guitars in the shade of the jasmine-wrapped pavilion. Open and free to the public, JKK offers comprehensive programs—its own library, international film festivals, Hindi and English plays, art exhibits—and the perfect, peaceful place for both artists and the public to gather and engage with the arts. Ella Parsons is an anthropology major and undergraduate research assistant in the department of biochemistry at the University of Oklahoma. She aspires to pursue research within the field of epidemiology while continuing to document her adventures in global health and remaining a poet on the side. Outpost Jawahar Kala Kendra by Ella Parsons The arts center is serene compared to the streets outside. Photo: Jaipur Beat Digital Magazine 112 WLT WINTER 2019 ...

POTTERY FROM A CLOSED COMPLEX OF THE LATE 17th CENTURY IN KAMYANETS-PODILSKY (Polish market, pit 2)

In 2016 Kamianets-Podilsky Architectural and Archaeological Expedition of the Protective Archeology Department of the Institute of Archeology NUAS discovered remains of the construction on the stone foundation on the south-east part of the Polish Market Square. The big amount of clay pipes, painted porcelain, earthenware and clay coffee cups, architectural peculiarities of the building and literary pieces of evidence let interpret the remains as a coffee house. Findings from the pit 2 are introduced as the new types of ceramics. The majority of the pottery discussed: pots, jugs, «makitras», bowls, and plates — is of the local origin. The analogies to these types of pottery are largely represented in the 17th century material complexes on the territory of Ukraine. Bowls and bailers are of the Turkish origin. These types of pottery are found among the artifacts excavated on the territories of the Ottoman Empire fortresses in Belgrad, Akkerman, and Izmail.
 The article uncovers the peculiarities of everyday living of the citizens of Kamianets-Podilsky and Turkish garrison in Podolia Eyalet (1672—1699).

Solomon D. Butcher: Photographing the American Dream ed. by John E. Carter

Reviewed by: Solomon D. Butcher: Photographing the American Dream ed. by John E. Carter Audrey Goodman John E. Carter, ed., Solomon D. Butcher: Photographing the American Dream. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1916. 152 pp. Paper, $29.95. Solomon D. Butcher chronicled a critical moment in the settlement and transformation of the Great Plains with precision and imagination. Best known for his portraits of Nebraska pioneer families in front of their sod houses, taken in the late 1880s and 1890s, Butcher shared the history of his settler subjects (having come to Custer County, Nebraska, in two wagons with his family in 1882) and sought to create a new kind of collaborative photographic record in these pivotal decades. Despite repeated catastrophic losses of fortune and materials, he largely succeeded with the publication of The Pioneer History of Custer County, and Short Sketches of Early [End Page 227] Days in Nebraska in 1901, thanks to the patronage of wealthy neighbor Ephraim Finch. This large-format paper edition reprints editor John Carter's preface and the photographs he selected for the original cloth edition published in 1985 by the University of Nebraska Press. New to the 2016 edition is Carter's afterword, which describes the circulation of Butcher's photographs through many venues and media, from the Museum of Modern Art exhibit curated by Edward Steichen (1949) to an episode of Ken Burns's PBS documentary The West (1996). Current viewers can now access Butcher's work online, notably through the Nebraska State Historical Society and the American Memory website created by the Library of Congress (2000). Carter reveals the new visual information and oral histories that emerged through the digitization process and argues persuasively for the revived relevance of Butcher's archive. The 2016 version of Solomon D. Butcher: Photographing the American Dream continues to showcase the photographer's distinctive achievement, even if the critical apparatus lacks engagement with contemporary scholarship. The judiciously selected portraits remain striking for the evidence they provide of common opportunity, hardship, and hard work, as well as for the quirkiness and individuality of each family and structure on view. They mix worlds and degrees of documentary truth in striking ways, and because Carter chose to print full images rather than the cropped versions Butcher often preferred, viewers can now appraise the photographer's eye for arrangement, unabashed mechanical interventions, and astonishing juxtapositions: a family holding porcelain cups for tea while taking a break from baling hay on the M. C. Eckstrom ranch (1904) or the pump organ displayed in front of the livestock at the David Hilton homestead (1887). Important historical information is visible too, from the presence of freed slaves to conflicts between cowboys, ranchers, and homesteaders. Through the arrangement of Butcher's images and the strategic insertion of quotes from writers like Willa Cather and Wright Morris, the book communicates the energy and imaginative power of the homesteaders' dreams, as well as a historic transformation of the natural and built environment that couldn't be faked. [End Page 228] Many readers will contest Carter's explanation for the appeal of Butcher's photographs (he states that "we would all like to be descended" from such "pioneer stock") and note the absence of Native Americans in Carter's history of Custer County; he provides no accounting of the county's name, for example, and insists throughout that the settler culture stands for a singular American experience. Readers seeking a scholarly history should consult the fine chapter on Butcher's photographic albums in Rachel Sailor's Meaningful Places (2014) and Martha Sandweiss's Print the Legend (2002). But readers and viewers seeking a rich and detailed visual record of the individual and collective process of settlement in central Nebraska will want to study, remember, and return to Butcher's photographs, so effectively displayed in this book. Audrey Goodman Georgia State University Copyright © 2017 Western Literature Association

An Outbreak of Norovirus Infection from Shellfish Soup Due to Unforeseen Insufficient Heating During Preparation.

Norovirus causes large outbreaks involving all age groups and are considered the most common cause of infectious foodborne diseases worldwide. The aim of this study was to describe a norovirus outbreak connected to insufficient heat treatment during preparation of a shellfish soup in serving portions, during a company Christmas celebration in Norway, December 2013. A questionnaire sent to the employees, showed that 67% (n=43) of the celebration participants, reported gastrointestinal symptoms including stomach pain, vomiting, diarrhoea and light fever in the period between 24 and 48h post celebration. Several dishes were served, including shellfish soup made with carpet shell clams (Tapes rhomboides) in porcelain cups. Consuming this soup, was the only significant risk factor for infection. Norovirus GI and GII were detected in the remaining raw shellfish. To mimic the time and temperature obtained during bivalve soup preparation, raw chopped shellfish tissue and raw cepa onion were added in porcelain cups tempered to 20°C. To each of these cups, boiling soup base was added. The temperature in the shellfish tissue was continuously recorded, and showed a maximum of 49°C in the period between 3 and 7min after adding the boiling soup base. After 1h the temperature was 30°C. This time and temperature combination was obviously not sufficient for inactivation of norovirus present in the shellfish tissue. In conclusion, the heat-absorbing capacity of cold ingredients, utensils and table wear porcelain should not be underestimated during food production. Consumers who want to avoid eating raw shellfish, should not assume that the shellfish tissue in preparation as described in our study is adequately heat treated.

An Ever of Salt

An Ever of Salt Katrina Roberts (bio) That Great Blue Heron stands for one steady thing in the meanwhile of misfortune, stands so still he could be something chipped in time from a slab of gray granite. So small is his head, and his smaller yellow eye the French knot embroidered in the middle of such smooth gunmetal plumage, he might have been rendered here from silk or dreams or oils dabbed by the delicate brush of Audubon himself. Oh, meanwhile of misfortune, ever-present since mischance befell us. How can we live this way? Mischance? Forgetting, he stood; beneath a beam of steel, its lip, he rose as though hell-bent to skim the crown right off, to top his skull from the mastoids up. Think blunt. Think carapace; an upturned nest, its thrown-off eggs; think a porcelain cup cradling the lopped shell, soft- boiled ooze of what’s exposed—but not, simply scrambled now beyond all thought. And if the hypothetical bird would let me cup, if he’d let me place my cool palms around his face, this face of-a-bird, this face-of-reason-and-truth itself, would the still-point of his breath align my fears and hopes, smooth feathers, and still panic beating to burst my heart? But of course, how could it bring relief, this imagined act, how could it bring back the one I love. He’s here, yes; I love him still. Still. His breath at night so soft I place my hand against the cool plane between blades where wings would sprout, to see that life still courses in, and out. In the fraught meanwhile that is each night, in the meanwhile of misfortune’s long hours when shaken his brain rests in its brokenness, unstressed, my mind darts [End Page 51] skittering like minnows beneath shadows the Great Blue Heron makes, waiting, his eye blinking from below to above and back, while this other mind swims uneasily between what’s known and lost. He twitches; I watch. Body writhes; mind flips to encircle some thought swimming away. Here, gone. And the eye (mine) watching both, never closes. Who am I? Trying to see where body and shadow meet, worrying the rift like a torn nail, its frayed edge rimmed red—small eye of a beast sought by a preying self, nursing the pain of a talon or claw pulled askance. And the mind, meanwhile, afraid of what bites at the heart of the dark-even-by-day-mind, an ever of salt seeming endlessly-flung over the shoulder, and a sting in the cut of not knowing when and whether a bridge will ever span the lake again. Oh, those of you who pray this would be the moment to pray for me . . . For once both patience and light stood within a body unbroken before me, within one whose laugh was quick to dip beneath any surface with ease, whose face was the granite cliff of composure itself only until the warm shaft of sun washed across it . . . Where no tears fell, now silent streams. The red-cheeked burn. The no longer being inside. And Audubon’s birds. How lifelike they seem. Love, slippage, and we paint over the messy stuff. And the bird- mask, damn! And the things one does. The way in the meanwhile a table gets set. The bed. The bath. The children fed. Because the meanwhile of misfortune happens again and again. Twitch below the left eye, the sign he’s lost himself in a fog of down. Sometimes all I want is the promise nothing was lost, all that was can be as it was unchanged. And the bird, his head, tiny goblet of bone, tiny globe of shell, of bone that holds the far-off-thought-he’s-thinking even-in-this-invisible-minute; the minute flicker of cadmium eye, the sable gash above that twitch. And the way accident rose up to seize and swallow us in a rush, before the slow-motion unfolding of wings, the whoosh up and rowing down too slow to be happening yet already happened, done, and the unlikely ascent, when the least likely thing...

Mechanochemical synthesis evaluation of nanocrystalline bone-derived bioceramic powder using for bone tissue engineering

Introduction: Bone tissue engineering proposes a suitable way to regenerate lost bones. Different materials have been considered for use in bone tissue engineering. Hydroxyapatite (HA) is a significant success of bioceramics as a bone tissue repairing biomaterial. Among different bioceramic materials, recent interest has been risen on fluorinated hydroxyapatites, (FHA, Ca 10 (PO 4 ) 6 F x (OH) 2−x ). Fluorine ions can promote apatite formation and improve the stability of HA in the biological environments. Therefore, they have been developed for bone tissue engineering. The aim of this study was to synthesize and characterize the FHA nanopowder via mechanochemical (MC) methods. Materials and Methods: Natural hydroxyapatite (NHA) 95.7 wt.% and calcium fluoride (CaF 2 ) powder 4.3 wt.% were used for synthesis of FHA. MC reaction was performed in the planetary milling balls using a porcelain cup and alumina balls. Ratio of balls to reactant materials was 15:1 at 400 rpm rotation speed. The structures of the powdered particles formed at different milling times were evaluated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Results: Fabrication of FHA from natural sources like bovine bone achieved after 8 h ball milling with pure nanopowder. Conclusion: F− ion enhances the crystallization and mechanical properties of HA in formation of bone. The produced FHA was in nano-scale, and its crystal size was about 80-90 nm with sphere distribution in shape and size. FHA powder is a suitable biomaterial for bone tissue engineering.

“… And I Was Born”

“… And I Was Born”

Cr(VI)/Cr(III) and As(V)/As(III) Ratio Assessments in Jordanian Spent Oil Shale Produced by Aerobic Combustion and Anaerobic Pyrolysis

With the increase in the awareness of the public in the environmental impact of oil shale utilization, it is of interest to reveal the mobility of potentially toxic trace elements in spent oil shale. Therefore, the Cr and As oxidation state in a representative Jordanian oil shale sample from the El-Lajjoun area were investigated upon different lab-scale furnace treatments. The anaerobic pyrolysis was performed in a retort flushed by nitrogen gas at temperatures in between 600 and 800 °C (pyrolytic oil shale, POS). The aerobic combustion was simply performed in porcelain cups heated in a muffle furnace for 4 h at temperatures in between 700 and 1000 °C (burned oil shale, BOS). The high loss-on-ignition in the BOS samples of up to 370 g kg(-1) results from both calcium carbonate and organic carbon degradation. The LOI leads to enrichment in the Cr concentrations from 480 mg kg(-1) in the original oil shale up to 675 mg kg(-1) in the ≥ 850 °C BOS samples. Arsenic concentrations were not much elevated beyond that in the average shale standard (13 mg kg(-1)). Synchrotron-based X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) analysis revealed that within the original oil shale the oxidation states of Cr and As were lower than after its aerobic combustion. Cr(VI) increased from 0% in the untreated or pyrolyzed oil shale up to 60% in the BOS ash combusted at 850 °C, while As(V) increased from 64% in the original oil shale up to 100% in the BOS ash at 700 °C. No Cr was released from original oil shale and POS products by the European compliance leaching test CEN/TC 292 EN 12457-1 (1:2 solid/water ratio, 24 h shaking), whereas leachates from BOS samples showed Cr release in the order of one mmol L(-1). The leachable Cr content is dominated by chromate as revealed by catalytic adsorptive stripping voltammetry (CAdSV) which could cause harmful contamination of surface and groundwater in the semiarid environment of Jordan.

Winterströme: Goethes erste Harzreise , and: Im Labyrinth der Täler: Goethes zweite Harzreise , and: Die Würde der Steine: Goethes dritte Harzreise (review)

Bernd Wolff, Winterstrome: Goethes erste Harzreise. Dornach: Pforte, 1986. 294 pp.; Im Labyrinth der Taler: Goethes zweite Harzreise. Dornach: Pforte, 2004. 363 pp.; Die Wurde der Steine: Goethes dritte Harzreise. Dornach: Pforte, 2008. 407 pp. Bernd Wolff, author of poetry and children's books, grew up in Wernigerode in the Harz, and now lives in Blankenburg. He has published illustrated books on the Harz and was fachlicher Berater for television programs on Goethe's Harz journeys. He clearly knows the Harz through which Goethe traveled in 1777, 1783, and 1784. Though he is not a professional Germanist, these novels are evidence of an enviable knowledge of Goethe's oeuvre, the eighteenth-century Weimar milieu in which he lived and worked, and the human and geological history of the Harz and of Saxony. Each novel focuses on one of Goethe's three journeys. Featured players include the well and the less well known: Carl August, Anna Amalia, Georg Melchior Kraus, Goethe's servant and factotum Christoph Sutor, Friedrich Victor Plessing, Charlotte von Stein, Fritz von Stein, Anna Maria Antonia Bianconi, Carl Johann Matthaei, and the mining superintendent Friedrich Wilhelm von Trebra. Walk-on parts are occupied by the familiar and the more obscure: Luise von Gochhausen, a terribly insecure Duchess Luise Auguste, Josias von Stein (absorbed more in his horses than in his wife), Goethe's cook Dorothee Wagenknecht (who disturbs his peace with her singing), Fritz Jacobi, Domherr von Berg in Halberstadt, the poet Gleim, Luise von Hartefeld (mistress of Carl Wilhelm Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick), and Johann Joachim Eschenburg. The background is filled with figures one has heard of but whose position in Goethe's life one might not be able to place: Emilie von Werthern, Adelaide von Waldner, and Sophie von Schardt, to name a few. We attend Duchess Luise's birthday, a somber affair in view of the recent loss of a child (thus, a reading from Herder's work in progress, Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit) .There are even intimate tete-a-tetes between Carl August and his mother concerning his marital duties as well as state policy. Mostly Anna Amalia sits around with court ladies gossiping while drinking tea from porcelain cups. Such court happenings serve as a contrast to the Harz world Goethe explores. Thus, we are introduced to such man-made wonders as the Rehberger Graben, completed in the early seventeenth century to regulate the Oder, and to the legends behind the Rostrappe and, of course, to the Teufelskanzel and the Hexenaltar on the Brocken. We make the perilous descent into mines with Goethe. Some are very deep, up to 520 meters, and some (e.g., Rammelsberg) were important sources of revenue in the Middle Ages already, forming self-sufficient communities in which, for instance, no agricultural work was allowed, the better to exploit their potential. Since Goethe was present, we are even privy to the ruminations of the powerful - the Duke of Brunswick and Carl von Hardenberg-Reventlow - at the secret negotiations in Brunswick in connection with plans for the Furstenbund. Carl Wilhelm Ferdinand appears here in a moment of transition, after his brilliant military successes, while he was devoting himself to his enlightened ruler intentions, and before the period of defeat as portrayed in Campagne in Frankreich .We read of boar hunting, of clouds, of the accommodations at inns, of the Boten who led Goethe through the Harz, of Eierkuchen, of butterflies. I refrain from going on. Wolff of course has a more serious purpose than trotting out details of natural and human history. The Harz journeys, though closely connected with Goethe's mining and mineralogical duties and interests, offer a framework for exploring his first decade in Weimar. Thus, Wolff attempts to show the effect of the journeys on Goethe's literary conceptions and also his developing interest in the natural sciences: not only Harzreise im Winter and Die Geheimnisse but also the granite essays, the osteological work, and ultimately the Spinozist worldview. …

A Map and Simple Heuristic to Detect Fragility, Antifragility, and Model Error

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