Red Ink Research Articles

Influence of success rate representation on the changes of performance and the corticospinal excitability accompany a short‐term motor skill learning of a coordinated upper limb movement in humans

Although it is known that motor performance improves through motor skill learning, it is unclear whether the success rate representation affects the motor performance in association with the corticospinal excitability changes through the learning process. By using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), we examined the changes in the corticospinal excitability of the engaged muscles (first dorsal interosseous, extensor and flexor carpi radialis, and anterior deltoid, FDI, ECR, FCR, AD muscles) before and after a short-term learning of a dynamic and coordinated upper limb movement. The TMS coil was placed on the motor hots pot of the FDI muscle. Nineteen healthy volunteers using their dominant hand were asked to hold a pen and dot (black ink) the center of an A4-size paper at which a small red ink dot was printed. The subjects performed the trials at 1 Hz, and were asked to put their hand higher than 100 mm apart from the paper surface trial-by-trial. All subjects were divided into two groups; one engaged motor learning without success rate (SR) representation (control group) and other with (SR group). With the control group, 50 trials per session, totally 20 sessions were performed in the motor learning sessions by using the same papers. With the SR group, on the other hand, the performance before learning (50 trials) was assessed before the experiment on a separate day, and a circle with a diameter of which the length was calculated by the success rate of 60 percents according to the performance before learning (50 points distance from the target), was printed around the target red dot in the motor learning sessions. The changes in the performance, electromyography (EMG), and motor evoked potentials (MEP) to TMS before and after motor learning were analyzed. The results showed that the error from the target significantly decreased through the learning in both groups, and the success rate was significantly smaller in the SR group compared with that in the control group. The EMG activity of FDI muscle was smaller, and that of AD muscle was larger in the SR group than those in the control group, while difference in the EMGs showed nether in the ECR nor FCR muscle. Through learning, interestingly, MEP in the FDI muscle was significantly larger in the SR group than that in the control group at resting state, but no difference in the MEP between the groups during voluntary movements (motor task). Also, the MEP/Background EMG ratio showed no difference between the groups. Our results suggest that, in the motor learning the performance can be further improved by representing the success rate of the motor task, and that the central motor command emphasizing on the proximal rather than distal muscle may contribute to the improved performance.

Hyperspectral Imaging for Bloodstain Identification.

Blood is key evidence to reconstruct crime scenes in forensic sciences. Blood identification can help to confirm a suspect, and for that reason, several chemical methods are used to reconstruct the crime scene however, these methods can affect subsequent DNA analysis. Therefore, this study presents a non-destructive method for bloodstain identification using Hyperspectral Imaging (HSI, 397–1000 nm range). The proposed method is based on the visualization of heme-components bands in the 500–700 nm spectral range. For experimental and validation purposes, a total of 225 blood (different donors) and non-blood (protein-based ketchup, rust acrylic paint, red acrylic paint, brown acrylic paint, red nail polish, rust nail polish, fake blood, and red ink) samples (HSI cubes, each cube is of size 1000 × 512 × 224, in which 1000 × 512 are the spatial dimensions and 224 spectral bands) were deposited on three substrates (white cotton fabric, white tile, and PVC wall sheet). The samples are imaged for up to three days to include aging. Savitzky Golay filtering has been used to highlight the subtle bands of all samples, particularly the aged ones. Based on the derivative spectrum, important spectral bands were selected to train five different classifiers (SVM, ANN, KNN, Random Forest, and Decision Tree). The comparative analysis reveals that the proposed method outperformed several state-of-the-art methods.

Effects of endoscopic sinus surgery on nasal spray deposition using dye-based methods for humans and a human silicone sinonasal cavity model

ObjectiveWe have evaluated that the deposition patterns of corticosteroid nasal spray in the sinonasal cavity of both post-operated human cases, which were further compared with a computed tomography-based sinonasal airway model. MethodsFifty-one patients with chronic rhinosinusitis following an endoscopic sinus surgery were enrolled in this study. Nasal spray mometasone furoate hydrate (Nasonex®) containing 0.1% indigocarmine was applied to the patients' nasal cavities and the sinonasal cavity was observed by endoscopy and video documentation. A single plaster sinonasal model was used to quantify the sinonasal deposition of nasal sprays containing 10% red ink solution using 12 round paper strips. ResultsThe predominant areas of the spray deposition of the operated sinonasal cavities were recognized in the ethmoid sinus and the olfactory cleft in the human study. The droplets were mainly deposited in the inferior turbinate followed by the posterior part of the ethmoid sinus, the olfactory cleft, and anterior part of the ethmoid sinus in a sinonasal model. ConclusionThe corticosteroid nasal spray efficiently reached the olfactory cleft and the ethmoid sinus in post-operative conditions, which was demonstrated by post-operated human cases and a computed tomography-based sinonasal airway model.

A Short Course on the Teachings of Paul Barash.

A Short Course on the Teachings of Paul Barash.

Light Output, Thermal Properties, and Reliability of Using Glass Phosphors in WLED Packages

White-light-emitting diodes (WLED) based on yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG) phosphors sintered with glass (PiG) and with silicone (PiS) are compared in terms of their light properties, temperature properties and reliability.The complete YAG phosphor was doped with an encapsulant traditional WLED (PiS WLED), and the WLED was covered with PiG (PiG WLED). PiG was made by sintering glass powder and YAG phosphor at the ratio of 87:13 (%), and the correlated color temperature (CCT) was 5564 K. The CCT of the PiG WLED with the YAG doping concentration of 8.5 wt.% approximated 5649 K. The initial light output of the PiG WLED was 6.4% lower than that of the PiS WLED. Under 1008 h and 350 mA aging, PiG WLED and PiS WLED’ light output, CCT and color rendering index variation rates were all within 1%. In the saturated vapor-pressure test, no sample exhibited red ink infiltration, light nor peeling between the encapsulant and the lead-frame. Compared with that of the PiS WLED, the junction temperature of the PiG WLED reduced from 88.4 °C to 81.3 °C. Thermal resistance dropped from 37.4 °C/W to 35.6 °C/W. The PiG WLED presented a better CIE (Commission Internationale de l’Eclairage) 1931 chromaticity coordinate (x,y) concentration and thermal properties than the PiS WLED.

Red and Black Marginalia in the Quran from Toledo

The Toledo Quran is the only manuscript in Aljamiado containing the full Quranic text. Manuscript T235 differs from others by its significant number of marginalia in Arabic, Spanish and Aljamiado. The text is divided into partsprayers, muqaṭṭaa, brief corrections, notes to the textand features decorated letters and drawings. Marginalia are written in black and red ink. The distinguishing feature of the Toledo Quran is that red ink, while being used for the decorative purposes, has a wider range of significance (for instance, to highlight the suras title and the ayat order). The particularity of Quran in Aljamiado is the inclusion of exegetical comments, usually borrowed from tafsirs, into the text corpus. These comments are highlighted in red in the Toledo Quran.
 Thus, the ink color of marginalia on the whole coincides with that of the text, without taking into consideration the usage of red ink in marginalia on pages 1105r inclusive. The numbers of ḥizbs are in red as well as those of ayats. This color is used for decorative purposes.
 The inconsistent usage of color for juzs numbers allows us to make an assumption that the scribe could have made the decision about using the color in his own manner, without basing its usage on that which is employed in the manuscript he copied. Furthermore, the inconsistency in juzs designation leads to a conclusion that text division was not copied from the original manuscript but introduced by the scribe. The corrections of exegetical comments are written in red as well as the comments.

Divining Gospel: Oracles of Interpretation in a Syriac Manuscript of John by Jeffrey W. Childers

Reviewed by: Divining Gospel: Oracles of Interpretation in a Syriac Manuscript of John by Jeffrey W. Childers John F. Healey jeffrey w. childers, Divining Gospel: Oracles of Interpretation in a Syriac Manuscript of John (Manuscripta Biblica 4; Berlin: de Gruyter, 2020). Pp. 230. $99.99. The “Divining Gospel” of the title refers to a very particular type of text used by diviners. John’s Gospel was especially favored, the divinatory process being based on the concept that specific divine guidance could be attached to particular sections of the base [End Page 511] text. It is usually unclear what mechanism was used to locate the correct answers, but an eighth- to ninth-century Latin Gospel of John (Paris, BnF, lat. 11553) has an elaborate diagram that appears to have been used to identify the correct oracle. In the Divining Gospel tradition, the content of the particular passage of the Gospel was less important than the sors or oracle to be found at the foot of the page or in the margin. The general concept of text-based divination of this kind goes back to pre-Christian Egypt, but it was adopted by Christians (despite some official church nervousness on practices that would certainly later be regarded as tainted by magic and, indeed, sorcery). There is evidence of continued interest in sortilege, however, in the Syriac-speaking churches as late as the nineteenth century (p. 167, referring to BL Or. 4434). The Syriac manuscript that is the direct concern of this book, BL Add. 17.119 (sixth/seventh century), is a unique manifestation of this tradition, in which the sortes, Syriac puššāqē (ἑρμηνείαι in Greek), are inserted into the running text of John’s Gospel. In this manuscript each puššāqā is written in red ink, which distinguishes it from the biblical text. When read with the rest of the text as if they belonged to it, the puššāqē are in most cases meaningless. The sortes are numbered in the margin, the last in the Syriac being no. 308 (with several missing at the end), and there is evidence that lists of sortes were sometimes kept separately from the base text. An example may help the reader imagine the overall effect. In John 9:3–4, the Syriac reads: “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but in order that the works of God might be seen in him—the puššāqā [no. 140]: He will be saved from flight and the lost thing will be found—I must do the works of the one who sent me” (my translation and italics; cf. p. 128). One can easily imagine theologians of the post-Reformation era complaining about misuse of the Word of God, magical practices, sorcery, and so on. The attitude in academic research is reflected, as Childers notes, in the use of BL Add. 17.119 in the edition of the Syriac Gospels edited by Philip Edward Pusey and G. H. Gwilliam (The Fourfold Holy Gospel: Tetraeuangelium Sanctum in the Peshitta Syriac Version [London: British & Foreign Bible Society, 1901]): they simply used the manuscript as a source of information on the text of John, without even mentioning the puššāqē. In the work under review only the puššāqē are edited and translated. In fact, it is only in very recent years that the approaches and methodology of the “new philology” and focus on book culture have come to the fore. From this perspective, the BL MS is a real-world artifact in its own right, a special manifestation of the book culture of late antiquity. This “edition” of the Gospel of John was a divining handbook (a “Diviner’s Edition”!) used to answer practical questions. C. explores the mechanisms through which it might have been employed and argues persuasively that the consultation with the priest or monk who had charge of the Divining Gospel might have provided opportunities for pastoral engagement and spiritual direction. It is very unusual, in any case, to have a single Gospel rather than all four Gospels in a complete codex, and this is already a pointer to “special use.” The puššāqē are not exegetical in the normal sense, though the disconnect between particular...

When Race Was Removed from Racism: Per Engdahl, the Networks that Saved Fascism and the Making of the Concept of Ethnopluralism.

When Race Was Removed from Racism:Per Engdahl, the Networks that Saved Fascism and the Making of the Concept of Ethnopluralism Elisabeth Åsbrink However false, the idea that victory over Germany in 1945 was synonymous with victory over the ideologies behind the war—Nazism and Jew-hatred—has lingered on in media narratives and the collective consciousness. Alongside new moral codes that emerged in the years following the peace—such as the legitimation of democracy, the Nuremberg Code on medical experimentation, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the prevalent slogan "Never Again"—ideologies of hatred developed across complex international networks. With particular attention to Sweden, in this article I will trace how personal and intellectual networks revived Nazi ideas using new words, such as culture, identity, and enthnopluralism. "Swedish Fascism—Why Bother?" asked historian Lena Berggren in 2002, noting that the influence of interwar fascism had been ignored by scholars because the political ideology had indisputably failed in Swedish elections.1 In a notable 1980 article, Bernt Hagtvet focused on various groups (not the ideas) and their fracturing,2 but despite the historian Heléne [End Page 133] Lööw's groundbreaking 1990 dissertation, "Hakkorset och Wasakärven,"3 academic disinterest prevailed for another decade. Still, while it never became a political force within the Swedish party system, nor did it draw crowds of people to the streets, Swedish fascism played a major international role as postwar mediator. One man was particularly instrumental in the survival of Nazi and antisemitic ideologies: the Swedish fascist leader Per Engdahl, originally the leader of Sveriges Fascistiska Kamporganisation, SFKO (Sweden's Fascist Combat Organization), during the 1930s. Engdahl was long gone from public consciousness when my nonfiction book And in the Vienna Woods the Trees Remain was published in 2011.4 The book offers the account of a Viennese Jewish boy, Otto Ullmann, who was sent to Sweden at age thirteen in February 1939 to escape Nazi persecution and, in 1944, applied for work at the farm estate Elmtaryd in Småland. The farm's owners were the Kamprad family and Otto soon became close friends with the son, Ingvar, who would go on to become the founder of the company Ikea. The Kamprad family was partially Nazi. Ingvar's German grandmother had immigrated from the Sudetenland and rejoiced in its annexation by Hitler in March 1939. His father was "a Nazi in his heart and soul."5 Born in 1926, Ingvar became a member of the Swedish fascist movement before the war and was a great admirer of its leader, Engdahl. In spite of this, Ullmann was hired as a farmhand and friendships were built. When Ingvar started developing Ikea after the war, his best friend Otto was right by his side, working on marketing.6 In an interview published in And in the Vienna Woods the Trees Remain, Kamprad found it hard to answer the core questions concerning the anomaly of these relationships: How could the Ikea founder remain loyal to the fascist leader and Holocaust denier Engdahl, and, at the same time, be close to his Jewish friend, Otto Ullman? Otto, whose parents were murdered at Auschwitz? Kamprad finally replied: "There's no contradiction as [End Page 134] far as I'm concerned. Per Engdahl was a great man, and I will maintain that as long as I live."7 When I investigated the matter further, I discovered a file on Ingvar Kamprad from 1943 in the Swedish Security Service archive, labeled "Memorandum concerning: Nazi" and stamped "secret" in red ink.8 It states that Kamprad, then seventeen, was Member No. 4014 of Svensk Socialistisk Samling (the Socialist Unity), the leading Swedish Nazi party before and during the war. The Swedish secret police had kept him under surveillance for over eight months, confiscating and reading correspondence in which he wrote that he had recruited "quite a few comrades" and missed no opportunity to work for the movement. The memorandum about his correspondence reached the Sixth Division of the Stockholm police on July 6, 1943. (Six days later, Kamprad sent an application to the county administrative office in Vaxjo to register Ikea.) When the information about Kamprad's membership in Socialist...

The codex-images and captions of the Barlaam-romance (cod. Athon. Iviron 463 [Lambros 4583

The study examines the relations between different aspects (Ancient Greek main text, miniatures, Old French translation on the margins, Old French headlines) of the manuscript Iviron ? 463, which is a bilingual (Ancient Greek-Old French) Byzantine manuscript kept on Mount Athos, from a new perspective by including formerly not investigated viewpoints: by exploring the relationship between the miniatures and the headlines that are highlighted by red ink in the Old French text. The study also mentions the explanatory inscriptions in codices that preserved the Greek versions of the Barlaam-romance and are relevant in connection with the Iviron manuscript, furthermore, it investigates the common features of the manuscripts. The analysis reveals new important relations regarding the circumstances of the creation of codex Iviron.

The Koebner phenomenon on tattoos and piercings in a patient with cutaneous lupus: a case report and review of the literature

The Koebner phenomenon is associated with cutaneous lupus erythematosus (CLE). A 20-year-old woman with a 10-year history of systemic lupus, treated with hydroxychloroquine and methotrexate, presented with features of chronic discoid lupus erythematosus (DLE) on the scalp, at the site of ear piercings, and on the temporal bone at the site of trauma from her jewelry. She also had subacute CLE (SCLE) lesions on old black tattoos. Histology and direct immunofluorescence confirmed CLE. We reviewed 13 cases of Koebner phenomenon on tattoos in patients with CLE (seven men, median age: 31.5 years) and none after piercings. Lesions developed within 1 week to 16 years after tattooing. Lesions may be isolated, precede, or be associated with other CLE lesions. They can appear secondarily on the tattoo. There is no specific color affinity, but cases have shifted from red to black, possibly when mercury was withdrawn from red inks. CLE on tattoos is a rare phenomenon that more often presents with DLE features than SCLE. Patients should be warned of the potential risk of developing lesions on tattoos. Immunosuppressive treatment needs to be taken into account if a patient wishes to get a tattoo. However, tattooing is not associated with severe complications.

Reaction to Red Tattoo Ink in the Setting of Immune Reconstitution Inflammatory Syndrome

A 50-year-old woman presented to a dermatology clinic with new-onset swelling, pruritus, and discomfort in the areas of red ink within the tattoo on her right lower abdomen, which she had obtained 18 years prior to presentation.

Libros miniare potestis: Religious women’s agency, literacy, and monastic book collections in Late Medieval Northern Italy

Recent scholarship on women’s relationships with books has covered various issues: book production and collection, women’s education, and literacy, in close relation to spirituality and liturgy in the case of religious women. Research has focused on Central and Northern Europe, and more recently on Central Italy, whereas Southern and Northern Italian women’s monasteries remain less well-known. This chapter will address the libraries and scriptoria in some North-eastern Italian female monasteries, during the Late Middle Ages. They will be compared with other examples from Northern and Central Italy, and from other territories, mainly the Iberian Peninsula and Germany. The fragmentation and scarcity of the known corpus of medieval liturgical sources stemming from these monasteries makes the holistic approach adopted here crucial for this research. Sources such as library catalogues, chronicles, sacristy inventories, official city property registers: the Castastico or Estimo, will be taken into account. Miscellaneous volumes will be discussed as vehicles for the transfer of knowledge, exploring the close relationships between liturgy and learning. Finally, this article will examine nuns’ role in promoting the circulation of manuscripts through different networks, as well as in the production of liturgical books, alone or in collaboration with friars or priests or external illuminators. The word ‘miniare’ will be reconsidered to distinguish nun’s work – mainly the execution of pen-illuminated initials in red and blue ink – from the illumination of historiated initials by lay illuminators.

Orthography of “<i>wo</i>” ヲ in the <i>Kyōgyōshinshō</i>: A Study of Character Readings Written in Different Handwriting in the Bandō Manuscript

Shinran 親鸞 uses the kana “wo” ヲ in a specific way. First, particular forms such as woka をか,woba をば,womo をも,and woya をやare always written using oka オカ,oha オハ,omo オモ,and oya オヤ.Second, all initial “wo” ヲ at the beginning of readings of characters provided in the text are also transcribed with the kana “o” オ.Virtually all of the Bandō 坂東 text (that is, Shinran’s holographic manuscript) conforms to this convention for the use of wo, but there are a few exceptions. Twelve exceptions to the second rule were found in the Bandō manuscript, primarily in the “Chapter on Practice” (行巻). Moreover, most of these instances are in red ink. Therefore, it is difficult to think that Shinran made a mistake in writing these. Instead, it is quite possible that these instances where written by someone other than Shinran.

Wheat/faba bean intercropping improves physiological and structural resistance of faba bean to fusaric acid stress

AbstractFusarium oxysporum f. sp. fabae is the causal agent of fusarium wilt. Fusaric acid (FA), produced by F. oxysporum, plays an important role in the occurrence of disease, and intercropping is an effective measure for control of disease and for improving host resistance in plants. The objective of this study was to investigate the physiological and biochemical responses, and mechanisms of tissue structure resistance, of intercropped faba beans following exposure to different concentrations of FA. Results demonstrated that intercropping reduced the occurrence of fusarium wilt, and improved faba bean growth and yield. In addition, wheat intercropping significantly reduced red ink absorption of faba bean (33.2%), increased water content (3.1%), and increased activity of the root antioxidant enzymes peroxidase (POD) and catalase (CAT) (26.3% and 2.2.%, respectively). Furthermore, increased lignin content and callose deposition in plant vessels were observed (12.5% and 42.7%, respectively) when subjected to the highest concentration of FA stress (200 mg/L). Intercropping resulted in more intact root cell morphology, increased occurrence of intracellular vacuoles, increased cell wall thickness, and an increase in the number of mitochondria and rough endoplasmic reticulum. Intercropping alleviated the wilting effect of FA on faba bean via enhanced physiological, biochemical, and tissue structure resistance of faba bean root.

On the Pairs of Shafts in the Pyramid of Khufu as Means for the Ascent to the Akhet

The shafts in the pyramid of Khufu have been investigated by robots in several projects. Mason’s marks in red ink at the end of the southern shaft of the “Queen’s Chamber” can be read as the hieratic number 121 (cubits), which would indicate the shaft’s length. Precise measurements were planned for the pyramid superstructure and its architectural elements. This paper shows that the shafts represent paths of the solar circuit, which would have led the king’s immaterial components to the akhet. The model is highly coherent, and all of its features are discussed, as the shape of the inner step pyramid, the sharp turns of 45° in the northern shafts, and the two metal pins inserted into a blocking slab at the end of each lower shaft.
 
 
 
 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5913/jarce.56.2020.a008
 
 

Ink as a Functional Marker in the Study of the Syriac and Christian Sogdian Manuscript Fragments in the Turfan Collection (Berlin) and in the Krotkov Collection (St. Petersburg)

The Syriac and Christian Sogdian manuscript fragments in the Turfan Collection (Berlin) and in the Krotkov Collection (St. Petersburg) were written in black ink and, much less frequently, in brown ink. The use of red ink is very limited and not yet studied in detail. By linking the analysis of all the elements that are due or related to the scribal discourse in Christian Medieval Central Asia with a well‑established codicological tradition, this contribution is meant to outline the purposes of the use of different ink in the Syriac and Christian Sogdian manuscript fragments discovered in the early 20th century in Xinjiang (China). A broader perspective that takes into account other Eastern Christian manuscript traditions is also included.

Influence of superabsorbent polymers (SAPs) type and particle size on the performance of surrounding cement-based materials

Superabsorbent polymer (SAP) has been considered as the most promising internal curing material due to its excellent internal curing efficiency. SAP type and particle size are important factors influencing the performance of cement-based materials. In this paper, cement paste was prepared by incorporating swollen SAP-SA and SAP-AA (sodium acrylate type of polymer and acrylic acid of polymer) with different particle sizes, 100 mesh, 120 mesh, 140 mesh, 170mesh, and 200 mesh, respectively. Firstly, the moisture diffusion areas of SAPs were compared and analyzed at different ages, and then the effect of the moisture released from SAPs on the mechanical properties, micro-hardness, and hydration was characterized and investigated. The results indicate that the 28-day moisture diffusion area of per gram of dry SAP-SA swollen with red ink in testing cement paste is about 40.3 cm2 to 50.8 cm2, while for each gram of dry SAP-AA, the 28d moisture diffusion area in testing cement paste is about 52.0 cm2 to 59.6 cm2. The cement pastes with SAP-SA and SAP-AA presents the higher 28d compressive strength at particle sizes of 140 mesh and 200 mesh, respectively. For the SAP-SA and SAP-AA of the same particle size of SAP-SA and SAP-AA, the incorporation of SAP-AA is more beneficial to the development of 28-day compressive strength and internal curing water diffusion of specimen than that of SAP-SA. The microhardness values of the specimens are closely related to the cumulative step length. The average crystal size of alite in the specimen containing SAP-AA200 is smaller than that in the specimen containing SAP-SA200.

Insights into the composition of ancient Egyptian red and black inks on papyri achieved by synchrotron-based microanalyses

A hitherto unknown composition is highlighted in the red and black inks preserved on ancient Egyptian papyri from the Roman period (circa 100 to 200 CE). Synchrotron-based macro-X-ray fluorescence (XRF) mapping brings to light the presence of iron (Fe) and lead (Pb) compounds in the majority of the red inks inscribed on 12 papyrus fragments from the Tebtunis temple library. The iron-based compounds in the inks can be assigned to ocher, notably due to the colocalization of Fe with aluminum, and the detection of hematite (Fe2O3) by micro-X-ray diffraction. Using the same techniques together with micro-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, Pb is shown to be associated with fatty acid phosphate, sulfate, chloride, and carboxylate ions. Moreover, micro-XRF maps reveal a peculiar distribution and colocalization of Pb, phosphorus (P), and sulfur (S), which are present at the micrometric scale resembling diffused "coffee rings" surrounding the ocher particles imbedded in the red letters, and at the submicrometric scale concentrated in the papyrus cell walls. A similar Pb, P, and S composition was found in three black inks, suggesting that the same lead components were employed in the manufacture of carbon-based inks. Bearing in mind that pigments such as red lead (Pb3O4) and lead white (hydrocerussite [Pb3(CO3)2(OH)2] and/or cerussite [PbCO3]) were not detected, the results presented here suggest that the lead compound in the ink was used as a drier rather than as a pigment. Accordingly, the study calls for a reassessment of the composition of lead-based components in ancient Mediterranean pigments.

Changes in canal width and angle in curved canals in the resin blocks: pro taper next versus one shape instruments

To compare the effect of OneShape and ProTaper Next file on the change in canal width and angle of curvature in simulated curved canal in resin blocks. The quasi-experimental study was conducted at the Aga Khan University, Karachi, from January to March 2018, and comprised endodontic resin blocks that had inbuilt curved canals. These were randomly divided into 2 equal groups and were subsequently prepared using OneShape in group A, and ProTaper Next rotary instrument in group B followed by staining with red and blue ink for comparison of pre- and post operative images of canals. Standardised photographs were taken along with reference measuring scale. Independent sample t-test and Paired sample t-test were used to compare the angle of curvature and canal width changes and pre and post instrumentation changes in resin block after using both the instruments, respectively. Intra class correlation was used to determine inter-examiner reliability. The level of significance was kept at p value < 0.01. SPSS 22 was used for data analysis. Of the 60 blocks, 30(50%) were in each of the two groups. The mean pre-instrumentation angle of curvature was 32.3±2.13 and 31.0±3.28 degrees for groups A and B. The mean degree of canal straightening post-intervention was 1.5±0.5 and 3.6±1.38 degrees in groups A and B (p<0.001). In terms of canal width changes, OneShape file removed more resin material from the canal walls compared to the ProTaper Next system (p<0.001). ProTaper Next file significantly altered the angle of curvature in the resin block compared to OneShape file, but the amount of material removed from the canal space was significantly higher with the OneShape file compared to ProTaper Next.

Writing and Power in the Roman World: Literacies and Material Culture

Writing and Power in the Roman World: Literacies and Material Culture