Sunday, July 8, 2007

Cancer: A Mistep into Chaos Quicksand?

I spent much of this weekend pouring over two publications. The first, Probing Genetic Overlap Among Complex Human Phenotypes, was published in PNAS. Gene Expression has a nice post about the publication. While the paper itself focuses on genetic overlap between Autism, Schizophrenia, and Bi-polar Disorder, the scope of the work spans across over 150 diseases which were all compared in a pair-wise fashion. My personal interests in this work lie in their findings regarding Amytrophic Lateral Sclerosis which the authors included in their 200+ pages of supplementary materials. As I learn more about this work, I will share more about my understanding of the potential significance.

The second publication I spent a lot of time attempting to wrap my feeble mind around this past weekend was a fascinating conceptual "modeling" paper written by Dr. Ivo Janecka, MD, MBA, PhD (that's a lot of letters...). As I mentioned in my post about Miuro, I am very much intrigued by chaos mathematics and non-linear dynamics. It is the most ambitious of my many amateur interests.

The introduction of Janecka's publication starts with a quote by Fritjof Capra saying:

"The more we study the major problems of our time, the more we come to realize that they cannot be understood in isolation. They are systemic problems, which means they are interconnected and interdependent."
It is a sentiment which many scientists share, but is very easy to lose site of when we attempt to make our research efforts more manageable. We try to linearize our experiments. We pretend that we can study individual variables. We forget that we are usually attempting to solve complex problems rather than answer simple binary questions. In the twenty-first century, living systems and their "problems" are proving to be more complex than any systems humans have ever tried to understand.

When I decided to pursue a career in life sciences, it was because I could not imagine that any other field of study could offer systems as beautiful and mysterious as life. I also could not imagine a field that could offer so much promise to help fellow humans once some of the mysteries were unlocked.

In this publication, Janecka offers a conceptual model for life systems. He describes life as a "non-linear dynamical system following the principles of organized complexity" with a "health territory" defined by the the systems ability to self-organize and self-adapt.

OK, so what does that mean? Let's take it one part at a time.

What is a non-linear dynamical system?

This is a system where small changes to early conditions can directly result in hugely different results at some later time. Many people have heard of the concept of a butterfly fluttering its wings on the North American west coast resulting in dramatic changes to huge tropical weather system on the east coast. Weather patterns are good examples of non-linear dynamical systems.

What is self-organization?

A system that self-organizes is one that will find a way to go back to "normal" after it has been disrupted. Imagine a beehive that is completely buzzing with activity. Now, imagine throwing a very small pebble at that beehive and disrupting the activity of the bees. For a few moments, the bees buzz away and circle the hive, only to go right back to the hive. The hive then appears almost exactly as it had before it had been disrupted. The system always approaches an organized baseline of activity.

Life, specifically human life, is very much the same. Our bodies work to self-organize. When we suffer lacerations, bleeding stops and the lesion closes/heals. This propensity to self-organize is catagorized by Janecka into a "zone of order".

What is self-adaptation?

Self-adaptation can be described as a systems flexibility to change based on information received from outside to the system. If you have ever attempted to play the guitar, you will know that it hurts at first. Fingertips become raw. Forearms become very sore. Over time, the muscles in the hand and forearm become much stronger and the fingertips become calloused and less sensitive to pain. The system is self-adapting to the information conveyed from the environment. If we could not adapt the environment around us and we didn't have flexibility to express a variety of phenotypes, our species could not survive. This flexibility is catagorized by Janecka within the "inner edge of chaos".

If life is a self-organizing and self-adapting system, then, Janecka reasons, it can be described as a pendulum swinging back and forth through the "zone of order" and the "inner edge of chaos".

When life swings too far into the "zone of order", it is at the expense of adaptability. This can result in detrimental rigidity as in the case of ECG cardiac signalling. Lack of chaotic fluctuations in cardiac electical signalling invariably indicates cardiac disease because of its lack of adaptability to variable conditions of stress and strain. Imagine if your heart couldn't beat faster when you needed to run. You wouldn't be able to get oxygen to your blood and muscles fast enough. It would be detrimental to you as a "living system".

Likewise, when life swings too far past the "inner edge of chaos", the system loses its ability to self organize. This can be observed in cases of cancer where a subsystem of cells within the complete living system loses the ability to regulate expenditure of resources. In cancer, most cellular resources are allocated to reproduction instead of differentiation and functionality. The cancer cells replicate in exponential self-similar chaos fractal patterns like the common Mandelbrot geometic patterns of Merkel cell carcinomas.

Janecka suggests that many untreatable human diseases can be catagorized as pendulum swinging too far in either direction of the self-organizing/self-adapting systems. A swing in either direction plunges the living system into a stage of accelerating entropy ontil the system completely unravels at death. He goes on to suggest that scientists and clinicians could use the model to evaluate what needs to happen to a diseased patient to best bring them back to their healthy balance of order and chaos. In the case of cancer, Janecka proposes that efforts be made to re-educate the cancer cells to move back toward efficient energy consumption. Teach the cancer cells to differentiate again instead of reproduce. Re-balance the system.

The concept is fascinating and I look forward to following up on researcher who reference this publication.

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Cathy Peck: Solve seed germination mysteries

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Cathy Peck: Solve seed germination mysteries
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Seeds can be a mystery. Sometimes they germinate quickly; other times it seems to take forever and then there are the times when they don’t sprout at all.

Perennials flowers are often the most challenging. Perhaps we need to understand a bit more about what makes seeds tick.

For a plant species to survive (its main purpose), it often uses extraordinary means. Each plant has a niche where it thrives – the best growing zone, best soil, moisture, and light conditions, the place it can compete well with other hungry species, whether plant or animal.

A plant can’t pack a suitcase and move, but it does have a number of survival mechanisms, one of which is its seeds. Plants, however, don’t put all their eggs in one basket.

Some plants produce a lot of seeds but don’t necessarily expend all their energy giving every seed an embryo, thus some seeds don’t germinate. In nature some seeds become plants and ensure that the species survives. Too many little plants might grow into an overcrowded mass where all are weakened and none survive (plant birth control?).

Other seeds from the same seed pod may germinate at different times. This survival mechanism is good because if all seeds germinated at the same time, poor growing conditions, disease, insect or other predation might kill all the plants. This would endanger survival of that species. Plants often ensure survival by staggering germination times of their seeds. Some germinate immediately but others may go into a deep dormancy and not germinate for a year or longer. This can frustrate a gardener who isn’t forewarned, is impatient or simply can’t maintain the right germinating conditions for such a long period of time.

Some seeds need the forces of nature to allow them to germinate. It may take a cycle of freezing and thawing to break the seed coat or the seed coat may need exposure to certain chemicals present in the soil to break it open, allowing moisture to reach the seed itself so that it can sprout.

Other times it may take specific moisture levels and temperature fluctuations as well as daylight length to bring about the blessed event, germination. This usually occurs when it can have a reasonable expectation that it will grow, e.g., going through seasonal changes. Remember, a plant’s purpose is to live and reproduce successfully within its niche so that the species survives.

Our success in germinating and growing seeds lies in learning about and then duplicating nature’s methods. A good book such as Eileen Powell’s “From Seed to Bloom” can give you information about what it takes to germinate many types of plants. It includes advice on moisture needs, planting depth, temperature (air temperatures are higher than the soil mix in the six pack in your house), darkness or light, whether it needs a heat or cold treatment, whether the seed coat needs nicking to allow moisture to penetrate and how long it should take to germinate.

None of this will help, however, if the seeds have been stored improperly in too warm temperatures. Storing newly purchased seed in a refrigerator will aid your success. Seed sitting on a shelf in a store too long may fail.

Even with all your best efforts, you can get poor germination. Having started perennial flowers for over 30 years, I still persist.

The resulting plants often thrive better than the ones I purchase at a nursery. You can try new and different varieties and can grow many plants for create masses of color at a nominal cost. It is fun and worth the effort. Look for reliable horticulture information on the University of Minnesota Extension website at


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JEE (Main) Syllabus

  • Mathematics
  • Physics
  • Chemistry

Mathematics Syllabus for JEE Main 2016

UNIT 1: Sets, Relations and Functions

Sets and their representation; Union, intersection and complement of sets and their algebraic properties; power set; Relation, types of relations, equivalence relations, functions;. one-one, into and onto functions, composition of functions.

UNIT 2: Complex Numbers and Quadratic Equations

Complex numbers as ordered pairs of reals, representation of complex numbers in the form a + ib and their representation in a plane, Argand diagram, algebra of complex numbers, modulus and argument (or amplitude) of a complex number, square root of a complex number, triangle inequality, quadratic equations in real and complex number system and their solutions. relation between roots and co-efficients, nature of roots, formation of quadratic equations with given roots.

UNIT 3: Matrices and Determinants

Matrices, algebra of matrices, types of matrices, determinants and matrices of order two and three. Properties of determinants, evaluation of determinants, area of triangles using determinants. adjoint and evaluation of inverse of a square matrix using determinants and elementary transformations, test of consistency and solution of simultaneous linear equations in two or three variables using determinants and matrices.

UNIT 4: Permutations and Combinations

Fundamental principle of counting, permutation as an arrangement and combination as selection, meaning of P (n, r) and C (n, r), simple applications.

UNIT 5: Mathematical Induction

Principle of Mathematical Induction and its simple applications.

UNIT 6: Binomial Theorem and its Simple Applications

Binomial theorem for a positive integral index, general term and middle term, properties of Binomial coefficients and simple applications.

UNIT 7: Sequence and Series

Arithmetic and Geometric progressions, insertion of arithmetic, geometric means between two given numbers. Relation between A.M. and G.M. Sum upto n terms of special series: S n, S n2, Sn3. Arithmetico – Geometric progression.

UNIT 8: Limit, Continuity and Differentiability

Real-valued functions, algebra of functions, polynomials, rational, trigonometric, logarithmic and exponential functions, inverse functions. Graphs of simple functions. Limits, continuity and differentiability. Differentiation of the sum, difference, product and quotient of two functions. Differentiation of trigonometric, inverse trigonometric, logarithmic, exponential, composite and implicit functions; derivatives of order upto two. Rolle’s and Lagrange’s Mean Value Theorems. Applications of derivatives: Rate of change of quantities, monotonic - increasing and decreasing functions, maxima and minima of functions of one variable, tangents and normals.

UNIT 9: Integral Calculus

Integral as an anti-derivative. Fundamental integrals involving algebraic, trigonometric, exponential and logarithmic functions. Integration by substitution, by parts and by partial fractions. Integration using trigonometric identities. Evaluation of simple integrals of the type

Integral as limit of a sum. Fundamental Theorem of Calculus. Properties of definite integrals. Evaluation of definite integrals, determining areas of the regions bounded by simple curves in standard form.

UNIT 10: Differential Equations

Ordinary differential equations, their order and degree. Formation of differential equations. Solution of differential equations by the method of separation of variables, solution of homogeneous and linear differential equations of the type:

UNIT 11: Co-ordinate Geometry

Cartesian system of rectangular co-ordinates in a plane, distance formula, section formula, locus and its equation, translation of axes, slope of a line, parallel and perpendicular lines, intercepts of a line on the coordinate axes.

Straight lines:

Circles, conic sections:

UNIT 12: Three Dimensional Geometry

Coordinates of a point in space, distance between two points, section formula. direction ratios and direction cosines, angle between two intersecting lines. Skew lines, the shortest distance between them and its equation. Equations of a line and a plane in different forms, intersection of a line and a plane, coplanar lines.

UNIT 13: Vector Algebra

UNIT 14: Statistics and Probability

Measures of Dispersion: Calculation of mean, median, mode of grouped and ungrouped data. Calculation of standard deviation, variance and mean deviation for grouped and ungrouped data.

UNIT 15: Trigonometry

Trigonometrical identities and equations. Trigonometrical functions. Inverse trigonometrical functions and their properties. Heights and Distances.

UNIT 16: Mathematical Reasoning

Statements, logical operations and, or, implies, implied by, if and only if. Understanding of tautology, contradiction, converse and contrapositive.

Physics Syllabus for JEE Main 2016

The syllabus contains two Sections - A and B. Section - A pertains to the Theory Part having 80% weightage, while Section - B contains Practical Component (Experimental Skills) having 20% weightage.

UNIT 1: Physics and Measurement

Physics, technology and society, SI units, Fundamental and derived units. Least count, accuracy and precision of measuring instruments, Errors in measurement, dimensions of Physical quantities, dimensional analysis and its applications.

UNIT 2: Kinematics

Frame of reference. Motion in a straight line: Position-time graph, speed and velocity. Uniform and non-uniform motion, average speed and instantaneous velocity. Uniformly accelerated motion, velocity-time, position-time graphs, relations for uniformly accelerated motion. scalars and vectors, vector addition and subtraction, zero vector, scalar and vector products, unit vector, resolution of a vector. Relative Velocity, Motion in a plane, Projectile Motion, Uniform Circular Motion.

UNIT 3: Laws of Motion

  • Force and Inertia, Newton’s First Law of motion; Momentum, Newton’s Second Law of motion; Impulse; Newton’s Third Law of motion. Law of conservation of linear momentum and its applications, equilibrium of concurrent forces.
  • Static and Kinetic friction, laws of friction, rolling friction.
  • Dynamics of uniform circular motion: Centripetal force and its applications.

UNIT 4: Work, Energy and Power

UNIT 5: Rotational Motion

Centre of mass of a two-particle system, centre of mass of a rigid body, basic concepts of rotational motion; moment of a force, torque, angular momentum, conservation of angular momentum and its applications, moment of inertia, radius of gyration. Values of moments of inertia for simple geometrical objects, parallel and perpendicular axes theorems and their applications. Rigid body rotation, equations of rotational motion.

UNIT 6: Gravitation

UNIT 7: Properties of Solids and Liquids

Elastic behaviour, stress-strain relationship, hooke’s Law, young’s modulus, bulk modulus, modulus of rigidity. Pressure due to a fluid column; Pascal’s law and its applications. Viscosity, Stokes’ law, terminal velocity, streamline and turbulent flow, reynolds number. Bernoulli’s principle and its applications. Surface energy and surface tension, angle of contact, application of surface tension - drops, bubbles and capillary rise. Heat, temperature, thermal expansion; specific heat capacity, calorimetry; change of state, latent heat. Heat transfer; conduction, convection and radiation, Newton’s law of cooling.

UNIT 8: Thermodynamics

UNIT 9: Kinetic Theory of Gases

Equation of state of a perfect gas, work done on compressing a gas. Kinetic theory of gases - assumptions, concept of pressure. Kinetic energy and temperature: rms speed of gas molecules; degrees of freedom, law of equipartition of energy, applications to specific heat capacities of gases; mean free path, Avogadro’s number.

UNIT 10: Oscillations and Waves

Periodic motion - period, frequency, displacement as a function of time. Periodic functions. Simple harmonic motion (S.H.M.) and its equation; phase; oscillations of a spring -restoring force and force constant; energy in S.H.M. - kinetic and potential energies; Simple pendulum - derivation of expression for its time period; Free, forced and damped oscillations, resonance.

Wave motion. Longitudinal and transverse waves, speed of a wave. Displacement relation for a progressive wave. Principle of superposition of waves, reflection of waves, standing waves in strings and organ pipes, fundamental mode and harmonics, beats, doppler effect in sound.

UNIT 11: Electrostatics

Electric field: Electric field due to a point charge, electric field lines, Electric dipole, electric field due to a dipole, torque on a dipole in a uniform electric field.

UNIT 12: Current Electricity

Electric current, Drift velocity, Ohm’s law, electrical resistance, resistances of different materials, V-I characteristics of Ohmic and non-ohmic conductors, electrical energy and power, electrical resistivity, colour code for resistors; series and parallel combinations of resistors; temperature dependence of resistance.

Electric Cell and its Internal resistance, potential difference and emf of a cell, combination of cells in series and in parallel. Kirchhoff’s laws and their applications. Wheatstone bridge, metre bridge. Potentiometer - principle and its applications.

UNIT 13: Magnetic Effects of Current and Magnetism

Force on a current-carrying conductor in a uniform magnetic field. Force between two parallel current-carrying conductors-definition of ampere. Torque experienced by a current loop in uniform magnetic field; moving coil galvanometer, its current sensitivity and conversion to ammeter and voltmeter.

Magnetic susceptibility and permeability, hysteresis, electromagnets and permanent magnets.

UNIT 14: Electromagnetic Induction and Alternating Currents

Electromagnetic induction; Faraday’s law, induced emf and current; Lenz’s Law, eddy currents. Self and mutual inductance. Alternating currents, peak and rms value of alternating current/ voltage; reactance and impedance; LCR series circuit, resonance; quality factor, power in AC circuits, wattless current. AC generator and transformer.

UNIT 15: Electromagnetic Waves

Electromagnetic waves and their characteristics. Transverse nature of electromagnetic waves.

Electromagnetic spectrum (radio waves, microwaves, infrared, visible, ultraviolet, X-rays, gamma rays). Applications of e.m. waves.

UNIT 16: Optics

Reflection and refraction of light at plane and spherical surfaces, mirror formula, total internal reflection and its applications, deviation and dispersion of light by a prism, Lens Formula, magnification, power of a Lens, combination of thin lenses in contact, microscope and astronomical Telescope (reflecting and refracting) and their magnifying powers.

Wave optics: wavefront and Huygens’ principle, Laws of reflection and refraction using Huygens' principle. Interference, Young’s double slit experiment and expression for fringe width, coherent sources and sustained interference of light. Diffraction due to a single slit, width of central maximum. Resolving power of microscopes and astronomical telescopes, polarisation, plane polarized light; Brewster’s law, uses of plane polarized light and Polaroids.

UNIT 17: Dual Nature of Matter and Radiation

Dual nature of radiation. Photoelectric effect, Hertz and Lenard’s observations; Einstein’s photoelectric equation; particle nature of light. Matter waves-wave nature of particle, de Broglie relation. Davisson-Germer experiment.

UNIT 18: Atoms and Nuclei

UNIT 19: Electronic Devices

UNIT 20: Communication Systems

Propagation of electromagnetic waves in the atmosphere; sky and space wave propagation, need for modulation, amplitude and frequency modulation, bandwidth of signals, bandwidth of transmission medium, basic elements of a communication system (Block Diagram only).

UNIT 21: Experimental Skills

Familiarity with the basic approach and observations of the experiments and activities:

  • Vernier callipers-its use to measure internal and external diameter and depth of a vessel.
  • Screw gauge-its use to determine thickness/diameter of thin sheet/wire.
  • Simple Pendulum-dissipation of energy by plotting a graph between square of amplitude and time.
  • Metre Scale - mass of a given object by principle of moments.
  • Young’s modulus of elasticity of the material of a metallic wire.
  • Surface tension of water by capillary rise and effect of detergents.
  • Co-efficient of Viscosity of a given viscous liquid by measuring terminal velocity of a given spherical body.
  • Plotting a cooling curve for the relationship between the temperature of a hot body and time.
  • Speed of sound in air at room temperature using a resonance tube.
  • Specific heat capacity of a given (i) solid and (ii) liquid by method of mixtures.
  • Resistivity of the material of a given wire using metre bridge.
  • Resistance of a given wire using Ohm’s law.
  • Potentiometer
    • Comparison of emf of two primary cells.
    • Determination of internal resistance of a cell.
  • Resistance and figure of merit of a galvanometer by half deflection method.
  • Focal length of:
    • Convex mirror
    • Concave mirror
    • Convex lens
    • using parallax method.
  • Plot of angle of deviation vs angle of incidence for a triangular prism.
  • Refractive index of a glass slab using a travelling microscope.
  • Characteristic curves of a p-n junction diode in forward and reverse bias.
  • Characteristic curves of a Zener diode and finding reverse break down voltage.
  • Characteristic curves of a transistor and finding current gain and voltage gain.
  • Identification of Diode, LED, Transistor, IC, Resistor, Capacitor from mixed collection of such items.
  • Using multimeter to:
    • Identify base of a transistor.
    • Distinguish between npn and pnp type transistor.
    • See the unidirectional flow of current in case of a diode and an LED.
    • Check the correctness or otherwise of a given electronic component (diode, transistor or IC).

Chemistry Syllabus for JEE Main 2016

UNIT 1: Some Basic Concepts in Chemistry

Matter and its nature, Dalton’s atomic theory; Concept of atom, molecule, element and compound; Physical quantities and their measurements in Chemistry, precision and accuracy, significant figures, S.I. Units, dimensional analysis; laws of chemical combination; atomic and molecular masses, mole concept, molar mass, percentage composition, empirical and molecular formulae; chemical equations and stoichiometry.

UNIT 2: States of Matter

Classification of matter into solid, liquid and gaseous states.

Gaseous State: Measurable properties of gases; Gas laws - Boyle’s law, Charle’s law, Graham’s law of diffusion, Avogadro’s law, Dalton’s law of partial pressure; concept of absolute scale of temperature; ideal gas equation; kinetic theory of gases (only postulates); concept of average, root mean square and most probable velocities; real gases, deviation from ideal behaviour, compressibility factor and van der Waals equation.

Liquid State: Properties of liquids - vapour pressure, viscosity and surface tension and effect of temperature on them (qualitative treatment only).

Solid State: Classification of solids: molecular, ionic, covalent and metallic solids, amorphous and crystalline solids (elementary idea); Bragg’s Law and its applications; unit cell and lattices, packing in solids (fcc, bcc and hcp lattices), voids, calculations involving unit cell parameters, imperfection in solids; electrical and magnetic properties.

UNIT 3: Atomic Structure

Thomson and Rutherford atomic models and their limitations; nature of electromagnetic radiation, photoelectric effect; spectrum of hydrogen atom, Bohr model of hydrogen atom - its postulates, derivation of the relations for energy of the electron and radii of the different orbits, limitations of Bohr’s model; dual nature of matter, de-Broglie’s relationship, Heisenberg uncertainty principle. Elementary ideas of quantum mechanics, quantum mechanical model of atom, its important features. Ψ and Ψ2 concept of atomic orbitals as one electron wave functions; Variation of Ψ and Ψ2 with r for 1s and 2s orbitals; various quantum numbers (principal, angular momentum and magnetic quantum numbers) and their significance; shapes of s, p and d - orbitals, electron spin and spin quantum number; rules for filling electrons in orbitals – Aufbau principle, Pauli’s exclusion principle and Hund’s rule, electronic configuration of elements, extra stability of half-filled and completely filled orbitals.

UNIT 4: Chemical Bonding and Molecular Structure

Kossel - Lewis approach to chemical bond formation, concept of ionic and covalent bonds.

Covalent Bonding: Concept of electronegativity, Fajan’s rule, dipole moment; valence shell electron pair repulsion (VSEPR) theory and shapes of simple molecules.

Quantum mechanical approach to covalent bonding: Valence bond theory – Its important features, concept of hybridization involving s, p and d orbitals; Resonance.

Molecular Orbital Theory: Its important features, LCAOs, types of molecular orbitals (bonding, antibonding), sigma and pi-bonds, molecular orbital electronic configurations of homonuclear diatomic molecules, concept of bond order, bond length and bond energy. Elementary idea of metallic bonding. Hydrogen bonding and its applications.

UNIT 5: Chemical Thermodynamics

Fundamentals of thermodynamics - System and surroundings, extensive and intensive properties, state functions, types of processes.

First law of thermodynamics - Concept of work, heat internal energy and enthalpy, heat capacity, molar heat capacity; Hess’s law of constant heat summation; enthalpies of bond dissociation, combustion, formation, atomization, sublimation, phase transition, hydration, ionization and solution.

Second law of thermodynamics - Spontaneity of processes; ΔS of the universe and ΔG of the system as criteria for spontaneity, ΔG° (Standard Gibbs energy change) and equilibrium constant.

UNIT 6: Solutions

Different methods for expressing concentration of solution - molality, molarity, mole fraction, percentage (by volume and mass both), vapour pressure of solutions and Raoult’s Law – Ideal and non-ideal solutions, vapour pressure - composition, plots for ideal and non-ideal solutions; colligative properties of dilute solutions - relative lowering of vapour pressure, depression of freezing point, elevation of boiling point and osmotic pressure; determination of molecular mass using colligative properties; abnormal value of molar mass, van’t Hoff factor and its significance.

UNIT 7: Equilibrium

Meaning of equilibrium, concept of dynamic equilibrium.

Equilibria involving physical processes: Solid -liquid, liquid - gas and solid – gas equilibria, Henry’s law, general characteristics of equilibrium involving physical processes.

Equilibria involving chemical processes: Law of chemical equilibrium, equilibrium constants (Kp and Kc) and their significance, significance of ΔG and ΔG° in chemical equilibria, factors affecting equilibrium concentration, pressure, temperature, effect of catalyst; Le Chatelier’s principle.

Ionic equilibrium: Weak and strong electrolytes, ionization of electrolytes, various concepts of acids and bases (Arrhenius, Bronsted - Lowry and Lewis) and their ionization, acid - base equilibria (including multistage ionization) and ionization constants, ionization of water, pH scale, common ion effect, hydrolysis of salts and pH of their solutions, solubility of sparingly soluble salts and solubility products, buffer solutions.

UNIT 8: Redox Reactions and Electrochemistry

Electrochemical cells - Electrolytic and Galvanic cells, different types of electrodes, electrode potentials including standard electrode potential, half – cell and cell reactions, emf of a Galvanic cell and its measurement; Nernst equation and its applications; relationship between cell potential and Gibbs’ energy change; dry cell and lead accumulator; fuel cells.

UNIT 9: Chemical Kinetics

Rate of a chemical reaction, factors affecting the rate of reactions: concentration, temperature, pressure and catalyst; elementary and complex reactions, order and molecularity of reactions, rate law, rate constant and its units, differential and integral forms of zero and first order reactions, their characteristics and half - lives, effect of temperature on rate of reactions – Arrhenius theory, activation energy and its calculation, collision theory of bimolecular gaseous reactions (no derivation).

UNIT-10: Surface Chemistry

Adsorption- Physisorption and chemisorption and their characteristics, factors affecting adsorption of gases on solids - Freundlich and Langmuir adsorption isotherms, adsorption from solutions.

Catalysis- Homogenous and Hetrogenouus, activity and selectivity of solid catalysts, enzyme catalysis and its mechanism.

Colloidal state - distinction among true solutions, colloids and suspensions, classification of colloids - lyophilic, lyophobic; multi molecular, macromolecular and associated colloids (micelles), preparation and properties of colloids - Tyndall effect, Brownian movement, electrophoresis, dialysis, coagulation and flocculation; emulsions and their characteristics.

UNIT 11: Classification of Elements and Periodicity in Properties

Modem periodic law and present form of the periodic table, s, p, d and f block elements: periodic trends in properties of elements atomic and ionic radii, ionization enthalpy, electron gain enthalpy, valence, oxidation states and chemical reactivity.

UNIT 12: General Principles and Processes of Isolation of Metals

Modes of occurrence of elements in nature, minerals, ores; Steps involved in the extraction of metals - concentration, reduction (chemical and electrolytic methods) and refining with special reference to the extraction of Al, Cu, Zn and Fe; Thermodynamic and electrochemical principles involved in the extraction of metals.

UNIT 13: Hydrogen

Position of hydrogen in periodic table, isotopes, preparation, properties and uses of hydrogen; physical and chemical properties of water and heavy water; Structure, preparation, reactions and uses of hydrogen peroxide; Classification of hydrides - ionic, covalent and interstitial; hydrogen as a fuel.

UNIT 14: S - Block Elements (Alkali and Alkaline Earth Metals)

Group - 1 and 2 Elements

Preparation and properties of some important compounds - sodium carbonate and sodium hydroxide and sodium hydrogen carbonate; industrial uses of lime, limestone, plaster of paris and cement; biological significance of Na, K, Mg and Ca.

UNIT 15: P - Block Elements

Group - 13 to Group 18 Elements

Groupwise study of the p – block elements

Group – 13
Preparation, properties and uses of boron and aluminium; Structure, properties and uses of borax, boric acid, diborane, boron trifluoride, aluminium chloride and alums.

Group – 14
Tendency for catenation; Structure, properties and uses of Allotropes and oxides of carbon, silicon tetrachloride, silicates, zeolites and silicones.

Group – 15
Properties and uses of nitrogen and phosphorus; allotrophic forms of phosphorus; preparation, properties, structure and uses of ammonia, nitric acid, phosphine and phosphorus halides, (PCl3, PCl5); structures of oxides and oxoacids of nitrogen and phosphorus.

Group – 16
Preparation, properties, structures and uses of ozone; allotropic forms of sulphur; Preparation, properties, structures and uses of sulphuric acid (including its industrial preparation); structures of oxoacids of sulphur.

Group – 17
Preparation, properties and uses of hydrochloric acid; trends in the acidic nature of hydrogen halides; structures of interhalogen compounds and oxides and oxoacids of halogens.

Group –18
Occurrence and uses of noble gases; structures of fluorides and oxides of xenon.

UNIT 16: d – and f – Block Elements

Transition Elements: General introduction, electronic configuration, occurrence and characteristics, general trends in properties of the first row transition elements – physical properties, ionization enthalpy, oxidation states, atomic radii, colour, catalytic behaviour, magnetic properties, complex formation, interstitial compounds, alloy formation; preparation, properties and uses of K2Cr2O7 and KMnO4.

Inner Transition Elements
Lanthanoids - Electronic configuration, oxidation states and lanthanoid contraction.
Actinoids - Electronic configuration and oxidation states.

UNIT 17: Co-ordination Compounds

Introduction to co-ordination compounds, Werner’s theory; ligands, coordination number, denticity, chelation; IUPAC nomenclature of mononuclear co-ordination compounds, isomerism; bonding-valence bond approach and basic ideas of crystal field theory, colour and magnetic properties; importance of co-ordination compounds (in qualitative analysis, extraction of metals and in biological systems).

UNIT 18: Environmental Chemistry

Environmental pollution - atmospheric, water and soil.

Atmospheric pollution - tropospheric and stratospheric.

Tropospheric pollutants - gaseous pollutants: oxides of carbon, nitrogen and sulphur, hydrocarbons; their sources, harmful effects and prevention; green house effect and global warming; acid rain

Particulate pollutants - smoke, dust, smog, fumes, mist; their sources, harmful effects and prevention

Stratospheric pollution - Formation and breakdown of ozone, depletion of ozone layer - its mechanism and effects.

Water Pollution - Major pollutants such as, pathogens, organic wastes and chemical pollutants; their harmful effects and prevention.

Soil pollution - Major pollutants such as: Pesticides (insecticides, herbicides and fungicides), their harmful effects and prevention.

Strategies to control environmental pollution.

UNIT 19: Purification and Characterisation of Organic Compounds

Purification - Crystallization, sublimation, distillation, differential extraction and chromatography principles and their applications.

Qualitative analysis - Detection of nitrogen, sulphur, phosphorus and halogens.

Quantitative analysis (basic principles only) - Estimation of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, halogens, sulphur, phosphorus.

Calculations of empirical formulae and molecular formulae; numerical problems in organic quantitative analysis.

UNIT 20: Some Basic Principles of Organic Chemistry

Tetravalency of carbon; Shapes of simple molecules - hybridization (s and p); classification of organic compounds based on functional groups: and those containing halogens, oxygen, nitrogen and sulphur; homologous series; isomerism - structural and stereoisomerism.

Nomenclature (Trivial and IUPAC)

Covalent bond fission - Homolytic and heterolytic: free radicals, carbocations and carbanions; stability of carbocations and free radicals, electrophiles and nucleophiles.
Electronic displacement in a covalent bond - Inductive effect, electromeric effect, resonance and hyperconjugation.
Common types of organic reactions - Substitution, addition, elemination and rearrangement.

UNIT 21: Hydrocarbons

Classification, isomerism, IUPAC nomenclature, general methods of preparation, properties and reactions.

  • Alkanes - Conformations: sawhorse and newman projections (of ethane); mechanism of halogenation of alkanes.
  • Alkenes - Geometrical isomerism; mechanism of electrophilic addition: addition of hydrogen, halogens, water, hydrogen halides (Markownikoff’s and peroxide effect); Ozonolysis and polymerization.
  • Alkynes - Acidic character; addition of hydrogen, halogens, water and hydrogen halides; polymerization.
  • Aromatic hydrocarbons - Nomenclature, benzene - structure and aromaticity; mechanism of electrophilic substitution: halogenation, nitration, Friedel – Craft’s alkylation and acylation, directive influence of functional group in monosubstituted benzene.

UNIT 22: Organic Compounds Containing Halogens

General methods of preparation, properties and reactions; nature of C-X bond; mechanisms of substitution reactions.
Uses; environmental effects of chloroform, iodoform, freons and DDT.

UNIT 23: Organic Compounds Containing Oxygen

  • General methods of preparation, properties, reactions and uses.
    • Alcohols: Identification of primary, secondary and tertiary alcohols; mechanism of dehydration.
    • Phenols: Acidic nature, electrophilic substitution reactions: halogenation, nitration and sulphonation, reimer - tiemann reaction.
    • Ethers: Structure.
    • Aldehyde and Ketones: Nature of carbonyl group; nucleophilic addition to >C=O group, relative reactivities of aldehydes and ketones; important reactions such as – Nucleophilic addition reactions (addition of HCN, NH3and its derivatives), grignard reagent; oxidation; reduction (Wolff Kishner and Clemmensen); acidity of hydrogen, aldol condensation, cannizzaro reaction, Haloform reaction; Chemical tests to distinguish between aldehydes and Ketones.
  • CARBOXYLIC ACIDS: Acidic strength and factors affecting it.

UNIT 24: Organic Compounds Containing Nitrogen

General methods of preparation, properties, reactions and uses.

  • Amines: Nomenclature, classification, structure, basic character and identification of primary, secondary and tertiary amines and their basic character.
  • Diazonium Salts: Importance in synthetic organic chemistry.

UNIT 25: Polymers

General introduction and classification of polymers, general methods of polymerization-addition and condensation, copolymerization;

Natural and synthetic rubber and vulcanization; some important polymers with emphasis on their monomers and uses - polythene, nylon, polyester and bakelite.

UNIT 26: Biomolecules

General introduction and importance of biomolecules.

  • CARBOHYDRATES - Classification: aldoses and ketoses; monosaccharides (glucose and fructose) and constituent monosaccharides of oligosaccharides (sucrose, lactose and maltose)
  • PROTEINS - Elementary Idea of α - amino acids, peptide bond, polypeptides; proteins: primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary structure (qualitative idea only), denaturation of proteins, enzymes.
  • VITAMINS - Classification and functions.
  • NUCLEIC ACIDS - Chemical constitution of DNA and RNA. Biological functions of nucleic acids.

UNIT 27: Chemistry in Everyday Life

  • Chemicals in medicines - Analgesics, tranquilizers, antiseptics, disinfectants, antimicrobials, antifertility drugs, antibiotics, antacids, antihistamins – their meaning and common examples.
  • Chemicals in food - Preservatives, artificial sweetening agents – common examples.
  • Cleansing agents - Soaps and detergents, cleansing action.

UNIT 28: Principles Related to Practical Chemistry

  • Detection of extra elements (N,S, halogens) in organic compounds; detection of the following functional groups: hydroxyl (alcoholic and phenolic), carbonyl (aldehyde and ketone), carboxyl and amino groups in organic compounds.
  • Chemistry involved in the preparation of the following:
    Inorganic compounds: Mohr’s salt, potash alum.
    Organic compounds: Acetanilide, p-nitroacetanilide, aniline yellow, iodoform.
  • Chemistry involved in the titrimetric excercises - Acids bases and the use of indicators, oxalic-acid vs KMnO4, Mohr’s salt vs KMnO4.
  • Chemical principles involved in the qualitative salt analysis:
    Anions- CO 2-3S2-, SO2-4, NO3-, NO2-, CI -, Br-, I-. (Insoluble salts excluded).
  • Chemical principles involved in the following experiments:
    1. Enthalpy of solution of CuSO4
    2. Enthalpy of neutralization of strong acid and strong base.
    3. Preparation of lyophilic and lyophobic sols.
    4. Kinetic study of reaction of iodide ion with hydrogen peroxide at room temperature.

B.Arch./B.Planning (Aptitude test)

  • Part- I Awareness of persons, places, Buildings, Materials, Objects, texture related to architecture and build~environment. Visualising three dimensional objects from two dimensional drawings. Visualising. different sides of three dimensional objects. Analytical Reasoning Mental Ability (Visual, Numerical and Verbal).
  • Part- II Three dimensional - perception: Understanding and appreciation of scale and proportion of objects, building forms and elements, colour texture, harmony and contrast. Design and drawing of geometrical or abstract shapes and patterns in pencil. Transformation of forms both 2 D and 3 D union, subtraction, rotation, development of surfaces and volumes, Generation of Plan, elevations and 3 D views of objects. Creating two dimensional and three dimensional compositions using given shapes and forms.
  • Sketching of scenes and activities from memory of urbanscape (public space, market, festivals, street scenes, monuments, recreational spaces etc.), landscape (river fronts, jungles, gardens, trees, plants etc.) and rural life.


The EASY2C man-machine interface

Design plays an important role when developing new products. In the past, the design review process required physical models to be constructed at the original scale and with the planned design of the surface, which involved high expense in both time and cost. Today's modern technologies in terms of computers and presentation make it possible to render photorealistic images presented at any given perspective in real time. The object is shown in a "virtual reality", which is how this phrase was coined in the first place. The various possibilities of presentation are used for example by the automotive industry, where the "Virtual Showroom" has become a standard facility. So far a technical assistant has been required to create the desired views of the virtual models.

Man-machine interface

Therefore, for several years, the automotive industry has been looking for appropriate man-machine interface that is as easy to operate as possible, even by untrained staff. Many interfaces have been examined and evaluated as unsuitable, from keyboard and dataglove to head mounted display. A first marketable approach for these demands to synthetic image presentation was designed in 1999at the DLR Institute in cooperation with the licencee Realtime Technology A.G. (RTT), Munich. The special feature of the new technology is that anyone can operate it without the need for training or prior knowledge. The product is now marketed by RTT as "EASY2C" (pronounce: easy to see).

Mode of Operation

This new technology makes it possible to experience objects before their physical existence. The user moves a tangible object, the input medium, over a glass plate to create a view of the virtual model, which is displayed either on a projection screen or a monitor, where it follows the hand movements of the user. Moreover, the user can adjust a variety of options interactively.

Technical components

The shape of the input medium, be it a model car, a computer mouse or a cuboid, is irrelevant for the function of the system. The objects serving as input media have markers on their underside. They are moved by hand across a glass plate and detected by a video camera under the glass. The markers function as both, object reference points and identifiers. The evaluation of the video image is performed on a standard computer. According to this information, computer graphics calculates and displays a virtual image of the object in the given pose.

Using a touch-screen, the operator can achieve a variety of different ways of presentation, such as selecting the model type and color, as on a rotating plate, and varying the tilt angle which changes according to body height.

The ease of use and the closeness to reality of the experienced virtual object contributes considerably to the potential of this technology. For the immediate spatial relationship between the physical input medium and the virtual model makes the user instantly grasp the proper usage of the system and enables instant operation.

Innovation transfer

This technology was first introduced to the public on the 12th July 2000 in Ingolstadt at a trade fair for automotive suppliers. The first customer to use "EASY2C" was BMW Group Design Development at the Paris Autosaloon 2000 trade fair, where design studies for the new BMW MINI were presented. The enormous potential of the new technology was fully exploited by virtually exhibiting vehicles which did not yet exist. Thus visitors were able to see the already existing MINI COOPER or designs for a new MINI convertible, a MINI truck or a MINI pick-up, and choose their desired views themselves. In future, such techniques will also be used in marketing to help the customer decide whether or not to buy a car, a piece of furniture, or a house.

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Bebop, Jazz Manhood and “Piano Shame”

March 13, 2013

By Guthrie P. Ramsey, Jr.

pianoIn sixth or seventh grade, a time of life when most guys my age were trying on their swagger, I was walking back home from a practice session at a buddy’s house that was furnished with a piano.  Along the way, my instruction book clutched under my arm like any average nerd, I passed some classmates who asked with simple curiosity and no malice, what was up, where I had been.  “Practicing my music,” I said, probably looking serious, deep in my thoughts, and studiously absent-minded, as some people say they remember me.  “Cool. What do you play?” somebody asked.  Before I knew it, the word “sax” fell out my mouth.

I don’t know exactly where I had gotten this information, but it was clear to my adolescent, late-blooming ass that claiming the saxophone would make me look more swagger-full than the truth—that I was thoroughly enthralled with the piano.  And that my family couldn’t afford one at the time so I practiced however I could, mapping out homes in my black, working-class neighborhood with an instrument.  It was, indeed, another time when a kid with ambitions larger than his immediate circumstances could get a boost from the “Village.”  I passed what I apparently perceived as the “coolness test,” relieved that nobody in the group pointed out that I was not actually carrying a saxophone.  The heroic performance of self-assured, cool manhood would finally settle in by late adolescence, as admiring women would quietly pass their phone numbers after a stage show, other musicians would seek me out for gigs, and academic opportunities unavailable to those with picture perfect cross-over moves and jump shots began to open up.  Although I’ve lost the need to lie about music for the sake of traditional manhood, the historical and social grounding of my childhood “piano shame” is a complex matter about masculinities worthy of discussion.

In a media-scape saturated with electronic beats, auto-tuned voices and urban contemporary styles grounded in hip-hop production sensibilities, contemporary popular music commands the attention of many commenters concerned with gender analysis.  Jazz, for the most part, is not seen as a site worthy of such investigations, particularly in social media.  Yet it’s fascinating to consider bebop (or modern jazz) and what people heard in it as a gendered sonic field doing extraordinary cultural work in the quest for masculinity. Artists such as Amiri Baraka and Quincy Jones have confessed their intense identification with bebop’s experimental language as young men, describing it as more of lifestyle than a musical choice, much like hip-hop devotees. It may surprise some readers that like the lyrics of rap, non-representational instrumental music such as jazz can be analyzed with respect to its registration of historically contingent social energies like masculinity in potent and pleasurable ways.

Much of this energy occurs at the borders of a perceived musical style or genre. And here is where the case for gender study gets compelling with regard to jazz and bebop. Feminist musicologist Susan McClary argues that “genres and conventions crystallize because they are embraced as natural by a certain community: they define the limits of what counts as proper musical behavior.” Thus, the occasions of stylistic disruption—those times when jazz musicians seemed to push the limit of acceptable generic expectations like they did in bebop—are important sites in which to tease out gendered meanings: in the space between convention and innovation exists the stories of power struggle through experimentation. In other words, as musicians push against a listening community’s acceptable codes of musical behavior, they are usually articulating who they believe they are in the world through displays of musical prowess, stylistic challenge, and experimentation.  All of this has circulated, by the way, within a network of ideologies in which popular and “Other” cultures were historically rendered as “feminine” or non-prestigious when compared to an intentionally “butched-up” western art music discourse, illustrating yet another example of how musicality and gender are diligently policed performance fields.

What are some of the historical politics of “jazz-manhood”?

down beatWriting in 2001, in the context of a wave of scholarship named the New Jazz Studies, Sherrie Tucker argued persuasively for the inclusion of gender in jazz studies in many publications. Rather than seeing her project as solely aimed at recovering the history of women participating in jazz, Tucker suggested a more radical strategy. She pushed for the placement of jazz studies over the field of gender as a way to understand how the latter structures all aspects of the jazz field. While the compensatory histories of women in jazz are useful and long overdue, the critical study of gender in jazz studies should involve more than the “women were there, too” framework. All this work demands that we see jazzmen as possessing gendered identities, too: the music was an activity in which they negotiated their sense of manhood in American society.  Although we’ve come a long way since the days when women’s bodies were used as a sign of music being “not real jazz” in publications such as Down Beat, the time is ripe for critical expansion. As Tucker argued, we “need to conceive of gender not as a synonym for women, and not just as a critical description of sex and gender roles, but as one of the primary fields ‘within which or by means of which power is articulated.’

budAn intense, aggressive virtuosity within and on top of the structures of American popular song constituted the heart of the bebop aesthetic. One scholar called this aesthetic a “politics of style,” a concept describing the specific mode of cultural work the music achieved in its time. The young black men in the bebop movement found in its sounds and politics a patriarchal, heroic performance space, one that became the new musical language of “jazz manhood.”  One such musician was pianist Bud Powell (1924-66).  The subject of my new book, The Amazing Bud Powell: Black Genius, Jazz History, and the Challenge of Bebop, he was certainly “the man” of bebop piano.  He was a talented but introverted boy whose musical skills and seriousness about his craft paved the way for his meteoric rise in the New York jazz world. According to various people who knew Powell in his younger years, he had become enamored with the modernist sound elements in bebop before he was twenty years old. Former acquaintances shared stories of an increasingly impatient young man who sought out competitive situations in which he could show off his technical command in the new style in the tradition of the stride piano contests of previous generations. Otherwise soft-spoken and withdrawn, in purely musical settings Powell was known to want his own way—never with violence, but often with the seething insistence of someone with little regard for the feelings of others. Whether he was refusing to play a bandleader’s desired number or brusquely removing another pianist (or competitor) from the instrument to brandish his own “weapons,” Powell’s single-minded, almost myopic focus on showcasing his own gifts was often excused by others as harmless, youthful unruliness. But his exposure to alcohol, drugs, a nocturnal lifestyle that had interrupted his education, and the overall phallocentric vibe of the scene no doubt caused the sheltered prodigy to grow up and man up fast—both artistically and otherwise—although one can surmise from various accounts that Powell was still very much an adolescent emotionally.

What were the technical specifics of this language of jazz manhood in which Powell would immerse himself? And in which historical and material notions of the gender/music relationship were this language and its social environment grounded? What were the terms of Powell’s social contract as a black virtuoso in the bebop scene?

Although historians may still debate whether bebop was a revolutionary or an evolutionary style development, agreement exists on its core qualities. Most prominently, bebop consists of an enriched melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic vocabulary that required astute musicianship and a “virtuosic bravado.” Bebop’s most significant contribution to the jazz tradition was in the area of improvisation, both in soloing and accompanying. Improvised bebop solos shared the melodic and rhythmic character of many bebop themes, including a frequent use of asymmetrical phrase structures; a harmonic vocabulary that employed ninths, elevenths, and thirteenths; and chromatic melodic lines that often stressed the weak beats of the measure. Swing, bebop’s immediate stylistic predecessor, used more uniform phrases, structures, and accents and had less varied rhythmic patterns and less emphasis on harmonic dissonance.

hornFrontline virtuosos such as Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie attracted the lion’s share of public attention as they wove intricate solos before awestruck listeners. Yet much of the musical enchantment of bebop emanated from its new conception of accompaniment in the rhythm sections, which created brilliant sonic tapestries supporting the dramatic solos. Pianists, drummers, guitarists, and bassists supported bebop’s themes and solos with a rich and sometimes cacophonous mix of timbres, harmonic substitutions, and polyrhythmic accents that complemented and at the same time challenged the soloists. All the while, they maintained the fixed rhythmic pulse that linked the music to traditional black dance music forms. Bebop innovations brought about a heightened tension in melody, harmony, and rhythm that was, on some levels, a break with earlier styles of jazz. Thus, bebop musicians struck a balance that both satisfied modernist ideals of musical “complexity” and situated their music conceptually under the umbrella of black Atlantic musical traditions. The dynamic grooves struck by modern jazz musicians such as Powell were as central to the music’s influence as the work of frontline soloists. It was there—in the midst of the give and go of rhythms, subtle timbral shifts, and cagey harmonic embellishments—that audiences were able to discern that a new day had dawned in popular music, and that new communities and identities were being formed as well.

These new musical conceptions, together with a new social contract with the listening public, signaled that jazz had experienced a generic shift; that it had, in other words, become something new. Because social identities are “made” and often communicated to others within the context of expressive culture, one can look to concepts such as gender and genius to interpret modern jazz’s generic development.

onyxIn his discussion of gender and jazz in the 1930s, Patrick Burke argues that white masculinity in this context was constituted at “the tangled intersection of ideas about race, gender, labor, and musical practice.” In the after-hours cultural space of 52nd Street’s Onyx Club, a popular speakeasy, white male musicians negotiated their own sense of identity through several means, including their emulation of stereotypes about black musical spontaneity and “hotness,” the marginalization of women, and their antagonistic views about a supposed antithetical relationship between their lucrative gigs and “authentic expression.” These musicians were not exceptions in this regard: many throughout the history of the music have negotiated their identities in the jazz world. In this particular social setting, racial ventriloquism and anticommercial sentiments were rehearsed within a culture of urban bachelorhood. This was a powerful cocktail indeed.

How might the setting of the Onyx Club help us understand the world of black male musicians who, like Powell, played bebop at a later historical moment?  As they operated with somewhat different social standings, white and black masculinities in the musical world of the 1940s shared little save the marginalization of female musicians, especially instrumentalists. Black musicians negotiated their immediate social worlds to procure for themselves some of the traditional advantages of male power—earning wages, spectacle, and hegemony over women—in the context of a growing black, urban, and artistic proletariat. Significant work in gender and music has, of course, been developed in studies of western art music and popular music studies. When we work with those insights into jazz and black music specifically, we must account for their similarities to and differences from both of those realms.

By the early 1900s, a “classical sphere” network based on European traditions of compositions was clearly in place in America, and it included “performing groups, concert halls, conservatories, and enough public interest in these institutions to support them financially.” Involvement with classical music became at this time a set of activities—performance, promotion, and audience participation—in which “men and women articulated their anxieties about changing gender roles.” As women pushed for fulfilling lives outside the home and the domestic realm, careers in music provided new alternatives: professional women musicians became emblematic of women’s desires for more satisfying public lives. Many formed civic clubs in which they exercised control over the community’s musical life and other realms of the public sphere. For their part, men tempered their muses by emphasizing their enthusiasm for “boxing, wrestling, or other similar activities, or by expressing their interests [in music] solely as a civic and husbandly duty.” Gender distinctions were a pressing concern, and America’s classical music world was a potent place in which to struggle with them, indeed, to “arbitrate anew the meanings of masculinity and femininity” in modern industrialized society.

During these same years, jazz emerged as a musical form distinct from classical-sphere music and its concerns, replete with varying ideas about gender, class, and, of course, race. Jazz became part of the popular sphere, and, as Richard Crawford has noted, “popular entertainment was well on its way to becoming modern ‘show business.’ And the workings of this new entertainment industry depended on a new approach to creating and marketing popular song.” The elements of this emerging structure created a space for a wide range of social formations. For example, it provided opportunities to work out gender roles in the public sphere, and African Americans were crucial in these new formations because the industry offered one of the precious few opportunities for them to be considered something more than servants and menial workers with the lowest pay.

jellyThe great jazz composer and pianist Jelly Roll Morton’s discussion of his childhood musical attitudes and aspirations in early-twentieth-century New Orleans gives us a snapshot of how race, gender, and class shaped his thinking. As Creoles, his class-conscious parents wanted him to play the “proper music heard at the French Opera House” and not popular music. As a child, he heard a man play a classical recital, and he was attracted to the music. But there was a problem. The gentleman had “long bushy hair, and, because the piano was known in our circle as an instrument for a lady, this confirmed for me my idea that if I played the piano I would be misunderstood.” In his own words, Morton “didn’t want to be called a sissy.” Because of this aversion to one of the prevalent social meanings of the piano in his world, he decided to study other instruments, “such as violin, drums, and guitar, until one day at a party I saw a gentleman sit down at the piano and play a very good piece of ragtime. This particular gentleman had short hair and I decided then that the instrument was good for a gentleman same as it was for a lady.”

Fletcher Henderson’s educated parents stressed piano lessons in the home as a crucial part of a thorough, well-rounded education in the Deep South at a time (the early twentieth century) when the instrument was a symbol of uplift and middle-class respectability. Everyone in the Henderson household read music and played the piano, although the repertoire was circumscribed to “classical and church music.” Because of this background, the pull of financial gain and masculinist success was strong and inevitable. Henderson would eventually forego his plans to earn a master’s degree in chemistry at Columbia University to pursue a successful career in dance music. The music industry at this time, together with a heightened African American cultural presence in American consciousness, provided what Jeffrey Magee has called “unprecedented opportunities for African Americans with ambition and talent.” Henderson clearly possessed both, and by 1923, three years after he arrived in New York, he was thoroughly ensconced in the city’s popular musical world.

One of his activities involved the new blues craze of the 1920s. Although he was not a blues or jazz musician per se when he came to New York, Henderson accepted the professional challenges of this environment, one far removed from his sheltered upbringing in the upper crust of the new black South. He enjoyed the money, notoriety, and popularity with the ladies. Indeed, the music industry became a promising alternative realm for black men to make new meanings in masculinity, even well-educated, prepared men such as Henderson.

Here it is important to remember that the popular sphere also gave women a platform to attain the empowering visibility and wage-earning potential that defined traditional masculinities. The blues industry in particular provided women with their own stage on which to publicly negotiate gender roles. The rise of black popular culture was part of a larger shift in the 1920s that wrested the sole responsibility for black progress and representation away from the educated, literate men of the “Talented Tenth.” In her study of 1920s blueswomen, Hazel Carby argues that black power and representation were up for grabs across the board—not just in the realm of music–as various constituencies jockeyed to publicly claim that their own group best represented “the experience of the race.” Thus black musical masculinity was performed in a larger cultural frame of diverse intra–African American struggles for social power, including but not limited to both men and women actively stepping out of traditional subservient roles.

We see multiple shifts occurring here. Popular music became an important province for African Americans, and classical music solidified their own idea of authenticity. Each realm was an important cultural territory for negotiating power through gendered meanings, and they would collide in the bebop movement. For black men, popular culture provided an arena of accomplishment that was thoroughly rooted in wage earning, visibility, and creative expression. Since the public aspect of popular culture remained, for the most part, segregated, it provided little threat to the “separate but equal” doctrine that policed race relations. In other words, there existed—on the surface, at least—few risks of direct sexual, financial, or social competition with white men.

The ascendancy of popular culture tended to flatten out class distinctions within the black community as well, as black middle-class musicians flocked to the unprecedented opportunities and prestige that it offered. Apparently, what the cultural arbiters of good taste considered “low-brow” was a shot at upward mobility for these “Others.” What was perceived as a threat to virile masculinity and good class standing by Jelly Roll Morton’s generation—particularly seen in his apparent view that “classical” music posed a threat to perceptions of his masculinity—was a springboard to becoming a sex symbol and iconic success for Duke Ellington, Willie “the Lion” Smith, and other, later musicians. It is within this historical, social, and material grounding that bebop and the new idea of “jazz manhood” emerged.

With all of these histories swirling around music, gender and sexuality, it’s easy to understand why I bailed on my beloved piano and claimed an instrument in which I had little interest.  Ideas about manhood and musicality have always been fraught, fickle and powerful.

ramseyGuthrie P. Ramsey, Jr. is the Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Term Professor of Music and Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of Race Music:  Black Cultures from Bebop to Hip-Hop and The Amazing Bud Powell: Black Genius, Jazz History and the Challenge of Bebop. In 2012, his band released The Colored Waiting Room, a recording of original music blending jazz, rhythm and blues, gospel, neo-soul, and classical. Ramsey is the founder popular music blog,, which is read around the world.

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4 Responses to Bebop, Jazz Manhood and “Piano Shame”

  1. Blksnse on March 18, 2013 at 1:05 pm

    What a wonderful, thoughtful and historical journey through a black perspective. The question of evolutionary verses revolutionary in terms of bebop in my mind has to be revolutionary because of the predominant white media and other forces who didn’t like the music and created a kind of protest about something they didn’t quite undestand nor quite contol. Evolutionary would be a more smooth transition.

  2. Blksnse on March 18, 2013 at 1:05 pm

  3. Blksnse on March 18, 2013 at 1:05 pm

  4. Blksnse on March 18, 2013 at 1:05 pm

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Francis Channing Barlow (1834-1896)

Francis Channing Barlow (October 19, 1834 - January 11, 1896) was a lawyer, politician, and Union general during the American Civil War.

Barlow was born in Brooklyn, New York. He studied law at Harvard University, graduated first in his class, and was practicing law on the staff of the New York Tribune newspaper when the Civil War broke out in 1861.

In April, 1861, Barlow enlisted as a private in the 12th New York Militia, but was commissioned a first lieutenant in his first month of service. By November he was a lieutenant colonel in the 61st New York, with which he fought in the Seven Days Battles.

At the Battle of Antietam, commanding the 1st Brigade, 1st Division, II Corps of the Army of the Potomac, he was wounded by an artillery shell in the face and by grapeshot in the groin. Two days later Barlow was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers.

Barlow commanded the 2nd Brigade, 2nd Division, XI Corps at the Battle of Chancellorsville in May, 1863, and was subjected to the devastating flank attack of "Stonewall" Jackson that routed his corps.

In July, he commanded the 1st Division, XI Corps at the Battle of Gettysburg, where he led his division to a defensive position on Blocher's Knoll, which is now known as Barlow's Knoll. Unfortunately, this slight rise in the terrain was too far forward in comparison to the other XI Corps division and Barlow's position formed a salient that could be attacked from multiple sides. Jubal Early's division overwhelmed Barlow's division, causing serious losses and Barlow himself was wounded and left for dead on the field. He was found and cared for by Confederate General John B. Gordon. According to an account written by Gordon in 1901, he allowed Barlow's wife Arabella to enter the Confederate camp to tend to her wounded husband, but this account is deemed apocryphal. The popular story continued that Gordon presumed Barlow had died and that both men met years later, being very surprised each was still alive. An examination of Barlow's subsequent war record makes this story very unlikely.

Barlow recovered and was exchanged in time to assume command of the 1st Division, II Corps at the Battle of the Wilderness.

At the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House his division incorporated shock tactics developed by Col. Emory Upton to quickly assault the rebel entrenchments, effecting a breakthrough that could be exploited by reinforcements. Hand-to-hand fighting ensued for 21 hours, the longest hand-to-hand combat in the entire war, before Barlow's division finally broke through.

He fought at the Battle of Cold Harbor and the Siege of Petersburg in the same command. At Petersburg he took a brief sick leave but returned to command the 2nd Division, II Corps during the Appomattox Campaign.

Arabella Barlow died of typhus in the summer of 1864 while Francis was battling in the Overland Campaign. After the war, Barlow married Ellen Shaw, sister of Robert Gould Shaw.

Leaving the army in November, 1865, Barlow served as a United States Marshal and the secretary of state and attorney general of New York, before he returned to his law practice.

Francis Barlow died in New York City in 1896 and is buried in Brookline, Massachusetts.


Spanish Dictionary

Translation of detection in Spanish

the detection     el descubrimiento

Translation by Vocabulix

I bought the ticket very quickly and ran to the gate. A stewardess was waiting for me and waved. She shouted that I should hurry up. I ran as fast as I could and entered the gate leading to the plane.
My Spanish is weak, and I need to improve it here. But it is very difficult because I have many other things to do. I must take care of my family and my friends and have no time for Spanish.
Most common translations: dinner    dismissal    doggie    dressing    earn    electron    encourage    equality    exacerbate    exploit


CHEM106: Physical Chemistry II

Course Syllabus for "CHEM106: Physical Chemistry II"

Physical Chemistry II is quite different from Physical Chemistry I.  In this second semester of the Physical Chemistry course, you will study the principles and laws of quantum mechanics as well as the interaction between matter and electromagnetic waves.  During the late 19th century and early 20th century, scientists opened new frontiers in the understanding of matter at the molecular, atomic, and sub-atomic scale.  These studies resulted in the development of quantum physics, which nowadays is still considered one of the greatest achievements of human mind.  While present day quantum physics “zooms in” to look at subatomic particles, quantum chemistry “zooms out” to look at large molecular systems in order to theoretically understand their physical and chemical properties.  Quantum chemistry has created certain “tools” (or computational methods) based on the laws of quantum mechanics that make it theoretically possible to understand how electrons and atomic nuclei interact with each other to form any kind of matter, ranging from diamond crystals to DNA strands to proteins to plastic polymers.  Using these tools, quantum chemists can simulate complex biological systems, such as nucleic acids, proteins, and even cells, in order to understand their functions and behavior.  These tools are increasingly used by researchers at pharmaceutical companies as they need to simulate the interaction of a potential drug molecule with the target receptor, such as a protein binding pocket on the surface of a cell.  Scientists use computational tools of quantum chemistry to predict the optical and electronic properties of novel materials to be used in advanced technologies, such as organic photovoltaics (OPVs) for solar energy harvesting and organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) for electronic displays.  In these applications, scientists can “calculate” the range of sunlight frequencies a certain material can absorb or the color of the emitted light in a pixel fabricated using certain molecules.  Quantum chemistry treats light as both a wave and a particle and uses wavefunctions to describe systems composed by “tangible” matter, such as electrons and nuclei.  A substantial portion of the course is dedicated to the theoretical understanding of the interactions between light (electromagnetic radiations) and matter (molecules, electrons, nuclei, etc.).  These interactions are at the base of modern image techniques used in the medical field, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). This senior course in quantum chemistry usually serves as an introduction to more advanced graduate courses in theoretical chemistry, rather than concluding your degree in chemistry.  With the knowledge gained in this course, you will be able to calculate the energies of simple systems, such as small molecules.  Keep in mind that these calculations of quantum chemistry are fairly complicated, thus you will learn several approximation techniques to aid your calculations of more advanced molecular systems.  You will also be able to correlate the outcome of your calculation to certain physical properties of the molecule.  In particular, you will learn how the spectroscopy properties are strictly interconnected with the electronic structure of molecules.

Learning Outcomes

  • Describe the difference between classical and quantum mechanics.
  • Explain the failure of classical mechanics in elucidating the black body radiation, the photoelectric effect, and atomic emission spectra.
  • Define the wave-particle duality.
  • Define the uncertainty principle.
  • Solve the Hamiltonian for a particle in box, on a ring, and on a sphere.
  • Solve the Schrodinger equation for hydrogen-like systems.
  • Use technique of approximation to compute the Schrodinger equation for polyatomic systems.
  • Describe the difference between the Valence Bond and the Molecular Orbital Theories.
  • Identify the symmetry elements in a molecule.
  • Predict and explain the outcome of electromagnetic radiations interacting with matter.
  • Define Raman spectroscopy.
  • Predict the vibrational spectra of molecules based on their electronic structure.
  • Explain the selection rules for a molecule to be Raman or IR active.
  • Explain the difference between fluorescence and phosphorescence.
  • Describe the principle of operation of LASERs.
  • Explain the effect of magnetic fields on electrons and nuclei.

Course Requirements

In order to take this course, you must:

√    Have access to a computer.

√    Have continuous broadband Internet access.

√    Have the ability/permission to install plug-ins (e.g., Adobe Reader or Flash) and software.

√    Have the ability to open Microsoft Office files and documents (.doc, .ppt, .xls, etc.).

√    Have competency in the English language.

√    Have read the Saylor Student Handbook.

√    Have strong skills in mathematics.  Knowledge of using computational software, such as MatLab or Mathematica, will greatly facilitate your work and learning.

√    Have completed the following mathematics courses: multivariable calculus (MA103), linear algebra (MA211), and differential equations (MA221).  Physical Chemistry I (CHEM105) is conceptually very different from Physical Chemistry II (this course), and the scientific concepts learned in Physical Chemistry I are not necessary to understand Physical Chemistry II.  However, it is highly recommended that you take CHEM105 first, so you can master the use of multivariable calculus (partial derivatives) to solve chemistry problems.  Another important prerequisite that some students in college take is calculus-based Physics-Classical Mechanics; the Saylor Foundation offers the algebra-based equivalent of such a course: PHYS101.  Engineering courses such as ME102/ME202 could complement PHYS101.

Course Information

Welcome to CHEM106: Physical Chemistry II.  Below, please find some general information about the course and its requirements.
Primary Resources: This course is comprised of a range of different free, online materials.  However, the course makes primary use of the following materials:

Requirements for Completion: In order to complete this course, you will need to work through each unit and all of its assigned materials.  Pay special attention to Units 1 and 2, as these lay the groundwork for understanding the more advanced, exploratory material presented in the latter units.  You will also need to complete:

  • The Final Exam

Note that you will only receive an official grade on your Final Exam.  However, in order to adequately prepare for this exam, you will need to work through all of the resources in this course.
Time Commitment: This course should take you a total of 124.5 hours to complete.  Each unit includes a “time advisory” that lists the amount of time you are expected to spend on each subunit.  These should help you plan your time accordingly.  It may be useful to take a look at these time advisories and determine how much time you have over the next few weeks to complete each unit and then set goals for yourself.  For example, Unit 1 should take you 18 hours.  Perhaps you can sit down with your calendar and decide to complete subunit 1.1 (a total of 4 hours) on Monday night, subunit 1.2 (a total of 4 hours) on Tuesday night, and so forth.
Tips/Suggestions: As noted in the “Course Requirements,” multivariable calculus (MA103) is a prerequisite for this course.  If you are struggling with the mathematics as you progress through this course, consider taking a break to revisit MA103.


Royal Society Publishing

Structure and biological activity of glasses and ceramics

A. N. Cormack, A. Tilocca

Biomaterials for repairing and regenerating parts of the human body play a key role in contemporary medicine, and have an increasing impact in modern society. Given the importance of orthopaedic medicine (bone is the second most replaced organ after blood), bioactive glasses and ceramics represent a key reference to guide technological advances in this field. Their established role in current biomedical applications has already led many research groups worldwide to look into their structural properties, with a view to identifying the molecular basis of their biological activity. As the efforts directed towards this crucial and exciting direction continue to increase, it is now timely to review the situation, in order to guide future investigations on structure–bioactivity relationships. In this introductory article, the field is reviewed, to provide an appropriate context for the contributions to this Theme Issue.

1. Introduction

During the last decades, the repair of weakened, deteriorated or damaged tissues has increasingly been affected by synthetic substitutes, the use of which will continue to grow. To take the case of bone, which is the second most replaced organ in the body after blood, approximately 2.2 million bone graft procedures are performed worldwide each year (2005 data [1]), and the estimated cost of these procedures approaches $2.5 billion per year [2]. Of these, currently, around 90–95% involve harvesting bone from either the patient or another donor, and thus the grafts require two surgical procedures, even if the replacement tissue is available. Using a synthetic substitute halves the number of invasive procedures, significantly reducing the possibility of infection or other complications, as well as lowering costs. This has been one of the main driving forces for the development of bone substitute materials.

2. Ceramics for biomedical applications

Approximately 60 per cent of the bone graft substitutes currently available involve ceramics (including glasses), either alone or in combination with another material [3]. Since the primary inorganic component of bone is calcium hydroxyapatite (HAp), ceramic materials, especially calcium phosphates, have been the focus of much of this development. The point of a bone graft is that it promotes new bone growth by acting as a scaffold to which new bone cells migrate, proliferate and differentiate. The cavity into which the graft has been inserted is thus replaced by new bone.

On the other hand, in many cases, the goal is to provide replacement material, as in prostheses such as hip or knee joints, for example. Ceramic materials have been found to be advantageous in these situations because of their good mechanical properties (strength and toughness) and excellent (i.e. low) wear rates. Alumina has been US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved for femoral heads and the acetabular cup linings since the 1960s [4], but is being replaced by zirconia-based materials because of their better mechanical properties—higher strength and toughness and lower Young's modulus [5]. However, zirconia suffers from ageing, even in its stabilized, or partially stabilized, form, a problem associated with low-temperature degradation [6]. A combination of alumina and zirconia, zirconia toughened alumina (ZTA), a composite material, is emerging [7,8] as a possible replacement for both alumina and zirconia.

Originally, materials for such prostheses were chosen on the basis of their inertness (and lack of toxicity, a feature of bioceramics [9,10]), but it was soon realized that improved performance was possible if the materials were bioactive, that is, if they elicited a biological response that led to bonding between the implant and the surrounding tissue. This would promote osseointegration and reduce the need for a further revision procedure to replace the original prosthesis. Presently, the average lifetime of orthopaedic implants is of the order of 15 years [11]. With patients requiring implants getting younger and younger, this is a strong driver to extend the lifetimes of implants, and so reduce the number of revision surgical procedures.

One approach to improve the integration of non-ceramic implants such as the titanium alloys used in femoral stems is to coat the metal with a ceramic [12]. Although alumina has been used, HAp is a preferred contender because it is bioactive and thus will bond to the surrounding bone. In fact, for many years [13,14] it was considered that the precipitation of such an HAp layer on an implant was a key indicator of bioactivity, or bone-bonding ability. This position is now being challenged [15], since some crystalline calcium phosphates (e.g. β-TCP) bond to bone without the formation of an HAp layer.

Inert bioceramics may be considered to be first generation biomaterials; second generation biomaterials include the bioactive glasses pioneered by Hench who has argued that the third generation biomaterials [16] will involve the use of regenerative, instead of replacement, materials. Consequently, a deeper understanding is required of the mechanisms of bioactivity, and the nature of the biological response that leads to bonding between the biomaterial and the surrounding tissue. In particular, one needs to consider the role of the biomaterial in osteogenesis: is it capable of osteoinduction?

This moves us to the realm of tissue engineering [1719], in general, and back to scaffolds, in particular.

In addition to being bioactive, materials for scaffolds for bone tissue engineering have to provide adequate mechanical strength and exhibit resorption rates equal to that of the new bone growth, since the scaffold is meant to be a transient structure [20]. Such materials should also be osteoconductive, osteointegrative and, perhaps most importantly, osteoinductive. Bioactive glasses are key contenders because they can be engineered to have these properties [21,22].

3. Bioactive glasses

There are several reasons why bioactive glasses continue to attract considerable attention [23]. As is well known, they can bond to both bone and soft tissue, and the extent of the bioactivity can be controlled through adjusting the composition. They have recently been found to show proangiogenic tendencies [2428], further promoting their use in tissue engineering. They are also resorbable, because the glass structure is fragmented and gradually dissolves during the process of forming an amorphous calcium phosphate layer and afterwards. This process is crucial, since the bioactivity is related to the formation on the glass surface of the layer of HAp which is known to be osteoconductive [29] and osteoinductive [30], and also due to the osteogenic properties of the products of the glass dissolution (see below).

Hench has outlined a multi-stage process to describe the bioactive nature of glasses [31]. The first step involves the exchange of sodium ions in the glass with protons in the biological environment, followed by the destruction of the silica tetrahedral network and the re-precipitation of an amorphous silica gel layer on the surface, onto which the HAp is deposited. Additional steps are related to the bonding of proteins to the glass surface, the adhesion of osteoblasts and the continuing dissolution of the glass [32].

It has recently become appreciated that the glass dissolution products are also of considerable importance: in 2001, Xynos et al. [33] found that ionic dissolution products of the 45S5 Bioglass® were able to regulate gene expression in human osteoblastic cells: this feature contributes to the superior bioactivity of the 45S5 composition (compared with other bioactive materials such as synthetic HAp) and has potential applications in tissue regeneration. Recent reviews of further work on this key property of bioactive glasses are available [34,35].

In addition to their bioactivity and resorbability, glasses are relatively easy to shape and to produce in microporous structures, making them extremely useful in a variety of scaffold applications [36]. For example, a gel casting approach has recently been demonstrated which allows near net shape three-dimensional fabrication [37].

The original Bioglass®, 45S5 [38], was a melt-derived glass, as this is the traditional way of making glasses. However, there is a tendency for some compositions, close to 45S5, to phase separate and crystallize, forming glass ceramics [39]. Crystallization is known to reduce the bioactivity [31]; in the case of 45S5, this results in the dissolution proceeding quite slowly, so there may be some remnant glass in the newly formed bone. There has thus been some work aimed at finding compositions that do not crystallize, such as the 13–93 (54.6 mol.% SiO2, 22.1 mol.% CaO, 6.0 mol.% Na2O, 7.7 mol.% MgO, 7.9 mol.% K2O, 1.7 mol.% P2O5) [40,41] and the ICIE 16 (49.46 mol.% SiO2, 36.27 mol.% CaO, 6.6 mol.% Na2O, 1.07 mol.% P2O5 and 6.6 mol.% K2O) [42] glasses. Alternatively, low-temperature sol–gel routes can be used [4345]. Because sol–gel-derived glasses are nanoporous, their specific surface areas are larger compared with melt-derived glasses, and so their bioactivity is greater, owing to the higher density of surface silanol groups and accelerated ion release [46]. It should be noted, however, that sol–gel-derived glasses are not suitable for large dense monolithic parts [19].

Although the original bioactive glasses are based on silicate compositions, a number of other glasses based on borate compositions have recently been shown to be bioactive as well [4750].

4. Need for a more rational approach

Whereas technological progress in the development of new biomaterials has generally been achieved through trial-and-error approaches, it is now clear that further substantial advances require a more fundamental understanding of the processes underlying bioactivity, that is, the integration of the biomaterial with the biological host. Here, we focus on bioceramics and bioactive glasses, because, as we have noted, their chemical properties resemble those of bone. (To be sure, their major drawback is the considerable differences in mechanical properties.) To date, there is no clear explanation for the mechanisms of tissue bonding in ceramics with bone and soft tissue, nor is there a complete understanding of how biomaterials promote osteoblast functions, such as adhesion, proliferation and differentiation [51]. What is clear, however, is that these are associated with the surface structure and chemistry of the biomaterial. It is known, for example, that these features, at the macro- and micro-scales, can have a strong influence on cell behaviour [52], and this point is underlined to a large extent by the observation that nanophase materials seem to offer enhanced bioactivity, at least to the extent of increased osteoblast adhesion [5356]. The interaction between cells and surfaces has been reviewed recently by Anselme et al. [57]. Although the surfaces in those studies were almost exclusively polymeric, such as the polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) used by Dalby et al. [58] in their work on the stimulation of human mesenchymal stem cells to produce bone mineral in vitro, it is not unlikely that a similar nanoscale structural disorder on the surfaces of bioceramics and glasses would produce a similar result.

A key issue is thus the characterization of the structure of a biomaterial and, particularly, of its interface with the biological environment. However, the inherent complexity of current (inorganic) biomaterials has somewhat hampered the application of standard experimental (e.g. diffraction) and theoretical (e.g. atomistic simulations) probes to determine key structural features and their correlation with the observed biological activity.

In the past few years, advances in experimental techniques (e.g. high-energy diffraction [59,60], multi-nuclear nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) [61] and extended X-ray fine structure (EXAFS) [61]), as well as in theoretical approaches [62] (e.g. development of optimized codes to exploit the rapidly growing computer power available) have led to substantial advances in the structural characterization of bioactive glass and ceramics.

For instance, the short- and medium-range structure of bulk 45S5 Bioglass® is now relatively well understood, thanks to the high-resolution experimental and theoretical probes available, and recent simulations have provided the first atomistic views of the dry [63] and hydrated Bioglass® surface [64] (figure 1).

Figure 1.

SEM micrograph of the Bioglass–bone interface (adapted from Fujibayashi et al. [65]), also showing the corresponding atomistic models of the bulk glass [66] and the interface with liquid water [64].

Given the central role of these materials in the present and future of biomedical applications, it is vital to use this information to rationalize the way in which biomaterials work. From this perspective, it is now important and timely to identify what has emerged from fundamental investigations on bioceramics and bioglasses so far, in order to guide future work in the field of biomaterials. For instance, understanding in detail the interlink between surface dissolution, ion release and triggering of osteogenic cellular processes in bioglasses is likely to expose features common to other biomedical materials, for which less or no structural information is available.

Thus, in this Theme Issue, we have invited leading practitioners to discuss their recent work. As has been discussed, bioactivity is essentially an interface-mediated property, but our molecular-level understanding of the surface structure of biomaterials and their interface with the physiological environment is somewhat rudimentary. Progress is now being made in this area. The contribution from Cerruti [67] discusses the use of a variety of surface characterization techniques—microscopy, spectroscopy, grazing angle diffraction and nanoscale visualization using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM)—to probe the surface structure of silicate bioceramics, as well as suggesting some new approaches which have yet to be adopted by the biomaterials community. The use of H2O and CO as probe molecules to investigate the nature of surface structure and chemistry of HAp is reported by Bolis et al. [68]. Grandfield et al. [69] describe the use of tomographic techniques to achieve nanometre resolution of the interface between biomaterials and bone, as well as of mesoporous titania coatings used in controlled drug delivery.

Some effort has been expended in trying to explain how the structure and bioactivity of glasses depends on chemical composition [34,66,7072], so that new bioactive compositions may be designed with larger processing windows than 45S5. This has involved both theoretical methods as well as experimental approaches. Here, Kiani et al. [73] discuss the range of techniques that have been used to elucidate the structure of phosphate glasses, focusing on the network connectivity information which can be obtained from two-dimensional magic angle spinning (MAS) NMR correlation experiments. They show how this has led to progress in the processing of these glasses, by describing the structural chemistry of titanium dopants in phosphate glasses.

Above we have noted the versatility of glasses as scaffolds in tissue engineering; Gunawidjaja, et al. [74], who are interested in mesoporous bioactive glasses because of their larger surface areas, also use solid-state NMR to probe both the bulk and surface structures of these biomaterials. They have elucidated details of surface alteration reactions and relate these to the steps in the Hench mechanism of bioactivity [23]. Vallet-Regi et al. [75] discuss in more detail an approach to engineer bioactive glasses (templated glasses) by combining structural and textural concepts of silica mesoporous materials (SMMs) with chemical compositions similar to those of conventional bioactive sol–gel glasses. They also describe the functionalization of the three-dimensional-ordered arrangement of mesopores in SMM, in order to control the rate of release of the drug molecules which are incorporated into the pores.

The nanoporous nature of sol–gel-derived glasses was noted earlier; in this issue, Martin et al. [76] describe a foaming process which produces scaffolds with a hierarchical structure, where the nanoporous walls are organized into a network of interconnected macropores, similar to porous human bone, and suitable for hosting osteogenic cells. They also echo the observation of Cerruti [67] that a range of complementary characterization techniques is required.

The biological response induced by a biomaterial is ultimately determined by its interaction with cells, mediated by proteins adsorbed on the biomaterial surface.

Consequently, a fundamental understanding of how proteins adsorb to biomaterial surfaces is essential to prospective biomaterials design for advanced medical devices. This requires an atomic-level description of both protein and biomaterial surface. One approach to obtaining this understanding is the use of computational and simulation tools. Raffaini & Ganazzoli [77] describe a classical combined MM/MD study of protein adsorption on the surface of TiO2 polymorphs. Giussani et al. [78] also use classical models to elucidate the interactions between an explicitly hydrated pepsin molecule and a silica surface. Although the numbers of atoms in the systems discussed in the previous two contributions preclude a full quantum mechanical (QM) treatment, by limiting attention to specific amino acid groups, it is possible to investigate with ab initio QM accuracy how side chains interact with biomaterial surfaces, as Rimola et al. [79] discuss for amino acid adsorption at HAp surfaces.

5. Conclusions

Whereas in the past, the tremendous advances in the development of bioactive glasses and ceramics have been largely empirical in nature, it is recognized that there is now a need for a more rational approach, based on a fundamental understanding of the relationship between structure and bioactivity, at the atomic or molecular level. The contributions to this Theme Issue describe the state of the art in this field.

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Prefaced as “A True Story/A True Family”, An Exercise In Discipline – Peel is Jane Campion’s debut work as a filmmaker, an uncomfortable short film that captures a brief incident of dissent during a family’s country drive. It would go on to earn Campion the Short Film Palme d’Or at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival, making her the first woman to ever win the prestigious award. Her command as a director is on full-display in the movie with its precise shot structure and editing, an incisive narrative arc, and the careful escalation of an increasingly unnerving tone.