The interpretation of Machiavelli's philosophy of history encounters specific difficulties. His contribution to the history of thought is unique and yet rooted in the culture that was typical of the Renaissance; it constitutes—something rarely found among the creative spirits of the High Renaissance—the logical-historical limit of that culture, the critical point at which the contradictions that characterize it tragically come to light.

For three centuries Europe has been holding forth on the advantages and disadvantages of the Chinese system of writing.

At first, judgments were positive. The abundant correspondence “à la Chine” of the missionaries inspired a number of commentaries in the early years of the 17th century and even roused the admiration of Leibnitz for a system which he considered, briefly, completely rational. At that time, the Chinese Empire was one of the most important in the world, and the number of techniques coming from the East was not negligible. But while in Europe modern science was being confirmed, China's evolution proceeded very slowly.

A. L. Kroeber, who together with C. Kluckhohn wrote a now classical review of the concept of culture (1958), claimed that the most significant accomplishment of anthropology in the first half of the twentieth century was the extension and clarification of the concept of culture. In the book mentioned they analyzed about 300 different definitions of the concept. In a critical review of Kroeber's and Kluckhohn's book their colleague L. A. White contests Kroeber's claims and writes: “On the contrary, I believe that confusion has increased as conceptions of culture have been multiplied and diversified” (1954, p. 461).

Two rapid methods for the decomposition and chemical analysis of clays were adapted for use with 20–40-mg size samples, typical amounts of ultrafine products (<0.5-μm diameter) obtained by modern separation methods for clay minerals. The results of these methods were compared with those of “classical” rock analyses. The two methods consisted of mixed lithium metaborate fusion and heated decomposition with HF in a closed vessel. The latter technique was modified to include subsequent evaporation with concentrated H2SO4 and re-solution in HCl, which reduced the interference of the fluoride ion in the determination of Al, Fe, Ca, Mg, Na, and K. Results from the two methods agree sufficiently well with those of the “classical” techniques to minimize error in the calculation of clay mineral structural formulae. Representative maximum variations, in atoms per unit formula of the smectite type based on 22 negative charges, are 0.09 for Si, 0.03 for Al, 0.015 for Fe, 0.07 for Mg, 0.03 for Na, and 0.01 for K.

It seems to me that not enough consideration has been given to the fundamental importance of the conditioning to which our physical as well as our mental being have been submitted due to the fact that they develop within a certain gravitational field. All the long evolution of the species seems to proceed from our desire for the impossible abolition of our own gravity, or at least for its partial alleviation. Many centuries before the appearance of man compensatory means were tried and adopted, ranging from the acquatic bladder to the wing and including the simple hopping of the marsupials.

A model describing the electric double layers in clay-electrolyte systems containing particles with different surface charge densities was developed and used to calculate the film thickness of water present in a clay paste. The average water film thicknesses (~18 Å) calculated by considering the clay to contain 9 groups of particles of different charge densities did not differ from those calculated by assuming one average charge density; provided the minimum potential between particles remained constant. These values, however, were higher than those obtained from gravimetric water determinations by about 30%. The overestimation of the average thickness of the water films by the theoretical model is most likely due to the assumption of a complete parallel arrangement of particles in the paste and the validity of the Gouy theory for double layers on clays.

Heidegger's affirmation is categorical: “… the thinking expressed in Being and Time is against humanism”. Heidegger's thesis is not only categorical, it is also polemical. He maintains that the humanist conception does not grasp man's essence, and it is for this reason that he is opposed to humanism, which is a doctrine that “has not thought profoundly enough of man's humanitas.

The swelling of an n-butylammonium vermiculite in solutions of n-butylammonium chloride has been studied by neutron diffraction as a function of temperature and the concentration of the soaking solution. On heating a swollen sample a transition to the crystalline phase took place at a well-defined temperature, the c-axis spacing changing from 120 to 19.4 Å at 14°C in a 0.1 M solution and from 330 to 19.4 Å at 33°C in a 0.01 M solution. The phase transition was completely reversible, and a study of the temperature-concentration phase diagram was made as high as 50°C The swollen phase was studied in a range of concentrations of the external solution between 0.2 M and 5 × 10-4 M, for which the c-axis spacings were 85 and 910 Å, respectively. The reversibility, sharpness, and reproducibility of the phase change from crystalline to swollen gel suggest that the transition is truly thermodynamic, which is not in accord with DLVO theory. The concentration dependence of the observed d-values also could not be explained satisfactorily by DLVO theory.

Among all the possible choices of “objects” for collection, that of works of art is the richest in meaning. In this paper we propose to discover if this ages-old activity may be understood as a historical phenomenon or only interpreted as one of the expressions man may give of his relationship with the universe of artistic works.

In the History of Philosophy, the atomistic physics of Epicurus and of Democritus have been considered as very similar. Contrary to the more conventional view, Marx considers this similarity as only apparent. He indicates that as an analysis becomes more fundamental and specific, a basic difference becomes clearer. At the end of his analysis Marx indicates that there is an inner contradiction in each of those theories. Marx also intended to explain the reasons for this contradiction but, regrettably, his explanation has not been found among his writings. This paper must be considered as an attempt to reconstruct Marx's own philosophical presuppositions in his efforts to interpret ancient atomistic philosophy and to throw light on the beginnings of his critical method.

The layer charge of five smectites, one vermiculitic material, and five reduced-charge clays was determined by the alkylammonium and structural formula methods. The two sets of results were found to be linearly correlated (r =.961); however, the values that were determined by the alkylammonium method were 20 to 30% lower than those determined by the structural formula method, and the regression slope for their linear relationship was 1.67. The fact that the structural formula method includes the effects of cations on the lateral edges of the clay particles probably accounted for some of the differences in the magnitude of the results but should not have caused the regression slope to deviate substantially from 1.00. Therefore, inaccurate estimates of the packing density of alkylammonium cations in the interlayer space of 2:1 phyllosilicates were deemed responsible for the systematic divergence of the results of the two methods. To satisfy the need for a relationship between the two methods of determining layer charge, an empirical means of adjusting the alkylammonium values has been proposed and shown to yield values of layer charge that are comparable to those determined by the structural formula method.

The chemical compositions of chlorite-smectite mixed-layered minerals (C/S) from the Ohyu caldera (Inoue, 1985) are analyzed using M+-4Si-3R2+ diagrams. The assumed original saponite has the following composition: Si3.54Al0.46O10Al0.173Fe2+1.385Mg1.295Mn0.02(OH)2M+0.56. Random C/S minerals (100 to 80% expandable layers) are interpreted as an interstratification of the starting 2:1 smectite layer with a A1XR2+3−x interlayer. The 2:1 smectite layer charge remains constant but Ca, Na, K cations are replaced by a Al-R2+ complex ion. The brucitic layer (produced by the polymerization of the complex ions) and the 2:1 smectite layer form a 14 Å non-expandable phase having a composition different from a true chlorite.

The true chlorite layers first appear in the ordered (corrensite) phase composed of a high charge saponite: Si3.35A10.65O10R2+3(OH)2M+0.65 and an octahedral vacancy-free chlorite Si2.90A11.10O10Al1.10R2+4.90(OH)8. The recrystallization of the original trioctahedral smectite into a high-charge saponite decreases the b-dimension difference with the chlorite component.

From these data, it is suggested that the trioctahedral smectite-to-chlorite conversion is controlled by three reactions: 1. fixation and polymerization of Al-R2+ complex ions in the interlayer region of the original smectite producing a 14 Å non-expandable phase (the interlayering of this phase with the original smectite gives the randomly interstratified C/S mineral. 2. dissolution of these random mixed-layered minerals and precipitation of corrensite. 3. dissolution of corrensite and growth of Fe-rich chlorite.

Samples of mixed-layer illite/smectite were investigated from a single bentonite bed zoned with respect to expandability from 90 to 30%. Chips of natural rocks were embedded in a resin, using a procedure designed to preserve the original fabric, cut with an ultramicrotome, and observed by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). These observations confirmed the X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) model of mixed-layer clays, i.e., that illite/smectite grains in natural rocks are built of mixed-layer crystals, from 1 to as many as 15 silicate layers thick (4–6 interlayers per crystal on average). These crystals are present either as individual particles (loose crystals) or, typically, they form nearly parallel face-to-face groupings called here quasi-crystals. Free fundamental smectite and illite particles as defined by Nadeau and coworkers were essentially absent.

Illite and smectite interlayer spacings were 10 and 13.5 Å, respectively. Crystal thickness and number of interlayers were measured for 35–100 mixed-layer crystals per sample. Illite/smectite expandabilities were calculated from these data in two ways: either neglecting the crystal edges or accounting for them. The former determinations agree well with XRD estimates of expandability and the latter, with expandabilities calculated from the distributions of fundamental particle thickness measured by a shadowing technique in the TEM. This result explains the systematic discrepancy between XRD and TEM measurements of illite/smectite expandability.

To pose the question of myth and truth is to pose three complementary questions: that of myth, that of truth and that of their relationship. It is also to pose a still more fundamental question: that of knowing if the question of myth and truth is not badly put. a pseudo-problem. In other words, is there not a “myth” of the “myth” and, perhaps, of truth? More precisely, is there a philosophical problem of the myth that is not at the same time a problem of language, of its usage and its claim to truth? The myth-philosophy-science hierarchization is not perhaps itself a “supermyth”? Is not myth always a certain philosophy? And science, is it not always an undertaking of testing concepts suffused in a non-scientific context, i.e., philosophical, religious or mythical?

Does modernity still have a future? The news from the modern world suggests a negative answer. It is true, the project of modernity, in the fourth century after its inception, has still not been brought to its completion. Modern man has not yet succeeded in establishing himself as maître et possesseur de la nature. Nevertheless, he has elevated himself above his earthly existence by mastering the laws of space travel; the man in the moon, formerly a mythological figure, has now an American name. Modern man has not yet reached Utopia where the necessity of labor and the ease of leisure would be reconciled; in many regards, he is still bound to toil for his subsistence. But he has invented artificial intelligence and thus has found a humanoid substitute for an endless number of cumbersome tasks; work is transformed into computer games. Modern man has not yet become the Lord of his life, he continues to miss a complete control over infirmities, afflictions, and, finally, death. But he has fathomed the biochemical basis of life and acquired the skills to manipulate the forms of being; the breath of life is recorded as genetic code.

A low-charge corrensite, i.e., a regular 1:1 interstratified smectite/chlorite was found in veins and fissures of an extensively fractured dolomite south of Perth, Ontario, Canada. Total chemical analysis indicated that the mineral was trioctahedral, having a structural formula corresponding to:

$({\text{Ca}}_{0.17}){({\text{Mg}}_{7.36}{\text{Al}}_{0.90}{\text{Fe}}^{3+}{\hspace{0.17em}}_{0.45}{\text{Fe}}^{2+}{\hspace{0.17em}}_{0.42})}^{\text{VI}}{({\text{Si}}_{6.06}{\text{Al}}_{1.94})}^{\text{IV}}{\text{O}}_{20}{(\text{OH})}_{10}.$

The coefficient of variation (CV) of the d(00l) spacings calculated for the mineral from X-ray powder diffraction data was 0.42, well below the maximum recommended value for corrensite, 0.75. The corrensite coexists with phlogopite, which is present as small (~0.5 mm) crystals throughout the rock and locally as large (~5 cm) crystals in pegmatitic veins. Microscopic observatiofls of large phlogopite crystals partially altered to corrensite suggest that corrensite formed at the expense of phlogopite by hydrothermal alteration.

We prove that the cubic nonlinear Schrödinger equation (both focusing and defocusing) is globally well-posed in $H^s({{\mathbb {R}}})$ for any regularity $s>-\frac 12$. Well-posedness has long been known for $s\geq 0$, see [55], but not previously for any $s<0$. The scaling-critical value $s=-\frac 12$ is necessarily excluded here, since instantaneous norm inflation is known to occur [11, 40, 48].

We also prove (in a parallel fashion) well-posedness of the real- and complex-valued modified Korteweg–de Vries equations in $H^s({{\mathbb {R}}})$ for any $s>-\frac 12$. The best regularity achieved previously was $s\geq \tfrac 14$ (see [15, 24, 33, 39]).

To overcome the failure of uniform continuity of the data-to-solution map, we employ the method of commuting flows introduced in [37]. In stark contrast with our arguments in [37], an essential ingredient in this paper is the demonstration of a local smoothing effect for both equations. Despite the nonperturbative nature of the well-posedness, the gain of derivatives matches that of the underlying linear equation. To compensate for the local nature of the smoothing estimates, we also demonstrate tightness of orbits. The proofs of both local smoothing and tightness rely on our discovery of a new one-parameter family of coercive microscopic conservation laws that remain meaningful at this low regularity.

Lately, the issues of “transfer of technology” seem to have become fashionable. However, they cannot be considered at length until those of DEVELOPMENT are clarified: transfer of technology is a means, development is an end, and, if we are not careful, we risk—in all good faith—being carried away by the example of the development and techniques of the “Northern countries,” while the needs and possibilities of the “South” may be quite different.