Forum Activity for @chief-admin
Dear Greg,I cross-posted a link to your request, in our Social Science group page.See: http://researchcooperative.org/group/socialsciencecommunication/forum/topics/readers-and-feedback-requested In the future, you can post requests there (after joining the group) as well as in our main, public forum.Cheers, Peter (Admin.)
What Africans Eat: Traditional Foods and Food Traditions of West Africa
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Dear Dr Ekunsanmi,
Thank you for this! So little has been published about food in Africa - it is really a remarkable gap in the world literature concerning food. I will recommend this to the ethnology museum where I work, and also to my student who has conducted fieldwork in Africa, looking at the history of taro (Colocasia, cocoyam).
Best regards, Peter
Nanoparticle project via Pulsed Laser Ablation in Liquid
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Dear Gabriele,I should give you more context. About 20 years ago, archaeologists began finding remnants of starchy foods on ancient food processing tools. At first nobody thought it was a real result, but then more and more people began finding starch on stone tools and pottery in many different countries and environments. Having such direct evidence of the foods used in the past, including foods such as root crops that do not have easily preserved hard parts, has been a very important advance for understanding the transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture. Starch has been found on tools up to 200,000 years in age. It is incredibly stable, but it is often hard to identify the species because it is variable within species, and has not many obvious distinguishing features, and is also often in a partly degraded condition. If your laser ablation approach could somehow generate a species-specific signature for identifying starch, it would be revolutionary for archaeology, because until now, identification is the key problem limiting the interpretation of ancient starch remains.To find and see the starch, is very simple: we can use a micropipette and water to remove the starch from cracks and holes in the surfaces of stone tools, and from residues stuck on the insides of pots. If 80 ul is removed from a particular point on a tool, 8 ul can be used for one slide, filling the space under a cover slip, and within that 8 ul there might be anything from 0 to 100s of starch granules (if clumps of starch are present), as well as fragments of plant tissue, and a lot of dirt particles. Removing a coverslip to transfer individual starch granules to another place for analysis would be very tricky. With light microscopy and cross-polarised light, we can recognise starch by the laminated internal structure of the granule, shape, and a characteristic birefringence - which produces a so-called Maltese cross effect. Sometimes we can identify the species, but often not. There is a real need for specialists in other fields to look at ancient starch, as it is an almost completely unexplored subject from physical and natural science perspectives. I am interested in the historical implications of the material, but of course the challenge of analysing this newly-discovered phenomenon could have many unexpected outcomes for the natural and physical sciences, for methods, and for related subject fields (e.g. for understanding the ultimate fate of photosynthetic carbon in the physical environment).Best regards, P.
Nanoparticle project via Pulsed Laser Ablation in Liquid
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Dear Gabriele,I have seen that confocal microscopy can be done as an adjunct to normal light microscopy for material under a glass cover slip. This is convenient for ancient starch research because there are typically just a few individual starch granules on a single slide. These have to be located manually and then given a grid reference so that they can be located again for confocal laser microscopy. Are your techniques compatible with a glass cover slip (or cover of some other kind of optically transparent material?)Thanks again, P.
Nanoparticle project via Pulsed Laser Ablation in Liquid
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Dear Gabriele,Thanks for the explanation. Your interest is in what is released and produced when a target object is ablated in a liquid. My question is whether the laser can be used to degrade in a controlled manner the surface of the object (a starch granule for example) in order to reveal characteristics of the object. These might be revealed by looking at the eroded surface (e.g. by confocal laser microscopy), and also by looking at the products formed in the surrounding solution. Starch is primarily composed of long and more-or-less branched polysaccharide chains, but also contains fats and proteins, and in archaeological contexts may be partially-mineralised with silica and other soil components. Playing with controlled, experimental combinations of silica, starch and starch-silica mixtures might be an interesting starting point. I work in an anthropology museum, so can only speculate about these materials and methods.Cheers, P.
Nanoparticle project via Pulsed Laser Ablation in Liquid
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I wonder what happens when the liquid is a gel composed of hydrated polymers? I'm thinking of carbohydrates.....Could the method be used to highlight the internal structure of semi-crystalloid substance like starch, in a starch granule? This could be useful for archaeologists wishing to identify individual starch granules with diameters of 10 to 50 nm.P.
Publishing
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Probably it is most important when publishers are just getting started.
Most academic journal publishers publish just one or a few journals, so even after getting established, their range of experience may be limited.
Now, at the same time that new online publishing systems are becoming available, there is also more information becoming available to quickly learn about all aspects of publishing.
Bioline International (for example) has a lot of good resources for publishers, and the African Journals Online project is also very interesting.
Publishing
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Dear Tulasi,Your message did not seem to be an offer or request for a particular service, so I have reclassified it as a 'Project' topic.You might like to see some of the publishers we are trying to support through the Research Cooperative, here: http://cooperative.ning.com/group/publishing If you would like to suggest any local publishers in your area who we can support, please let me know. We need people like you to contact publishers and make them aware of how the Research Cooperative can help them.Best regards, P.
Publishing
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Dear Tulasi,I see on your profile that you are a student of publishing at your university - so you already know why publishing management is important, and your question is "where"?My own view is that publishing management is most important in situations where people are trying to communicate across linguistic and territorial boundaries. In such situations, the problems for manuscript quality, communication in the publishing process, and eventual distribution are greatest.I see this a lot here in Japan. Some institutions have better systems for producing English-language publications than others. They all struggle to find suitable editors and reviewers and to get their publications seen in the world. Some are woefully ignorant of how to extend the visibility of their publications beyond the institution itself.
Research and Media Network seeks support and activity
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The following message was sent out to all members of the Research and Media Network, which like Research Cooperative, has been built using the Ning social networking platform.
Many members of R&M have joined our network, and all members of the Research Cooperative are encouraged ot visit and join the the R&M network!
Peter (Admin. Research Co-op)
Mike Shanahan writes:
A message to all members of Research and Media Network
Dear members of the Research and Media Network
Iset up this online network as an experiment in April 2007. Since then
nearly 2000 people have joined. It is great to see that so many people
are using the network to make new contacts and share information.
Unfortunately,the company that provides the network software has decided to stop
providing the free service and is now asking networks to pay an annual
fee.
The InternationalInstitute for Environment and Development (IIED) has paid the fee
so the Research and Media Network can continue for the next year.
IIEDwill decide next year whether to continue to pay for the network on the
basis how well it is being used. So the message here is "use it or lose
it".
If you find the network useful then please do continue toshare your news and opinions with Blog posts, and start any new
discussions using the Forums. You can also invite other contacts with an
interest in research and communication to join the network.
Bestwishes
Mike Shanahan
Press officer
International Institutefor Environment and Development
mike.shanahan [at] iied.org
updated by @chief-admin: 21/06/17 01:16:09PM