In a number of texts throughout his career, Thomas Aquinas identifies different senses of the term ‘esse’. Most notably, he notes that according to one sense, the term signifies the act of existence (actus essendi), which he famously holds is really distinct from essence in all beings other than God. Perhaps surprisingly, he also notes on a number of occasions that according to another sense, the term ‘esse’ can signify that very principle that he says is distinct from the act of existence, namely, essence. In light of Aquinas's semantic theory, this paper investigates how he coherently holds within his metaphysical system that this term ‘esse’ can signify in different ways both essence and the act of existence. More broadly, what it shows is how, for Aquinas, the metaphysician can look to the modes of signification (modi significandi) of terms and as well as their modes of predication (modi praedicandi) to draw careful conclusions about the modes of existence (modi essendi) of real beings. These considerations reveal that in Aquinas's view, although the grammarian and logician in their way are also concerned with these semantic modes, it is not their job to employ them to discern the various senses of the term ‘being’ or the fundamental modes of being. In the end, this is a task for the metaphysician.

At the University of Cape Town Libraries, the vast and valuable Special Collections Africana, rare books, government publications, manuscript and audio-visual archives were housed in the historic Jagger Library until 18 April 2021, when the building was razed by a runaway wildfire. With the reading room and galleries gutted by flames, and the basements flooded, the losses to the collection were extensive, representing a tragic and irreparable loss to South African research and historiography. While salvage and recovery efforts are ongoing, this article outlines what was lost by fire. It provides a snapshot of what was in the reading room at the time of the fire, and details the losses as far as possible – these include the prized published collections housed in the reading room and galleries, as well as the miscellany of archival materials situated on the tables and reserve shelving in the building at the time of the fire.

This article addresses links between musical-poetic structure and architecture in four songs of the Cantigas de Santa Maria. Made at Alfonso X of Castile’s court in the latter years of his reign (1252–84), the Cantigas present a unique case of miracle narratives (cantigas de miragre) set to song. As Parkinson has shown, the four songs in the Castrojeriz set present technical faults that hinder effective comprehension of their miracle texts. This article shows that the songs’ cyclical structures can aid textual logic by aligning narrative highlights with points of sonic focus in the poetry and music. Tension between textual and musical-poetic form often mirrors the songs’ narratives, which concern difficulties during the construction of Castrojeriz’s church. This article argues that such tensions can be read as a text-as-building metaphor, also alluded to in the songs as they appear in surviving manuscripts.

This research paper aimed to examine the antibacterial activity of lactoferrin (LF) as a potential natural alternative in the dairy sector, by measuring its minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) against a number of common food-borne pathogens as well as Pseudomonas aeruginosa, one of the major dairy product spoiling microorganisms. Additionally, a viability experiment was applied to laboratory-manufactured set yoghurt to assess its impact on the activity of starter culture, sensory properties and STEC survivability. The findings demonstrated that LF exhibited significant antimicrobial activity, particularly against E. coli and S. typhimurium with MIC values of 0.0001 and 0.01 mg/ml, respectively. However, P. aeruginosa and B. cereus were quite resistant to LF requiring higher concentrations for MIC (2.5 mg/ml). By the third day of storage, LF at 0.0001 and 0.001 mg/ml significantly reduced the survivability of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli STEC by 70 and 91.6%, respectively, in the lab-manufactured yoghurt. Furthermore, LF enhanced the sensory properties of fortified yoghurt with a statistically significant difference in comparison to the control yoghurt group. There was no interference with the activity of the starter culture throughout the manufacturing process and the storage period. In conclusion, the potent antimicrobial effect of LF opens a new avenue for the dairy industry's potential applications of LF as a natural preservative without negatively influencing the sensory properties and starter culture activity of fermented products.

This paper reviews the trends, topics, and research directions in shipwreck archaeology over the past decade. As archaeology increasingly embraces advances in technological methods that can aid our research, the so-called ‘digital turn’, it behoves maritime archaeologists, and archaeologists more broadly, to consider how collaborative utilization of specialized fields including biomolecular archaeology, geophysics, and contemporary philosophy have spurred on a rapid modernization of our field in recent times. Archaeological research, both terrestrial and underwater, has long been a collaborative discipline. However, we argue here that difficulties in working underwater have encouraged maritime and underwater archaeologists to embrace technological developments at a rapid pace. An explicit theoretical framework and the incorporation of contemporary philosophy in the field of underwater archaeology was, until recently, largely lacking in the discipline’s discourse. The incorporation and advancement of adjacent disciplines within the field of underwater archaeology mark the most relevant changes within the shifting tides of shipwreck research.

Why celebrate Thomas Aquinas? Three eras that celebrated Aquinas in unique ways—the Fourteenth century that canonized him, the Sixteenth century that declared him a doctor of the Church, and the nineteenth century that made him patron of the schools—all struggled with the corrosive effects of nominalism and voluntarism on Western culture. With the help of G. K. Chesterton and C. S. Lewis, this essay suggests that these eras were drawn to Aquinas because his theology offers an antidote against these twin diseases. Specifically, Thomas Aquinas's theology can help us confront the ills of nominalism and voluntarism by encouraging us to celebrate nature, grace, and Christian apprenticeship in virtue as the perennial gifts of God's love.

In Iraq, like elsewhere in the region, cinemagoing became a popular form of leisure in the 1920s and 1930s. The emergence of permanent indoor and outdoor cinemas during this period gave rise to new consumption practices, ways of inhabiting the city, opportunities for investors and entrepreneurs, and the creation of a leisure and entertainment economy that was both modern, international, and Iraqi. In the early 1930s, three Jewish brothers, Ezra, Meʾir, and Hayyawi Sawdaʾi, began transforming their family's wealth from one based in regional trading to a modern cinema business. During the period of British colonial rule, Iraq was forcefully integrated into a global, Western dominated market economy and the brothers tried their hands at several import and local businesses before eventually finding their niche in entertainment. They rented movie theaters, built cinemas, established themselves as prime importers of foreign movies, and left a deep imprint on the Iraqi film industry.

This essay evaluates the current United Nations approach to preventing and punishing genocide by considering micro-level research on behavioral variation in genocide and proposing two ideas for intervention. The first idea extends the theory that economic inequality explains people’s decisions to kill or not kill in genocide and suggests specific economic remedies to intervene in ongoing violence. The second idea extends the theory that local authorities shape civilians’ decision making about violence and suggests specific ways to bolster moderate meso-level authorities to mitigate violence. The essay concludes by considering how social science research and theory can practically impact international law concerning genocide.

This research paper addresses the hypothesis that mast cells (MCs) contribute to the formation of mammary fibrosis. MCs are important immune regulatory and immune modulatory cells that play major roles in the inflammatory process. Since there is no detailed knowledge, this research study aimed to comparatively investigate the presence, localization, and immunophenotypes of MCs in healthy and mastitic mammary tissues. A total of 264 mammary samples were evaluated for the examination of mast cells and fibrosis. The mean mast cell number in both acute and chronic mastitis samples were very significantly higher than the control group P < 0.001). A 7.9-fold increase in the number of mast cells was found when the chronic mastitis group was compared with the control (healthy) group. Immunohistochemistry revealed presence of all three immune phenotypes in control and mastitic mammary samples (tryptase + (MCT), chymase + (MCC) and both chymase and tryptase + (MCTC). The mean MCT, MCC, and MCTC numbers in the chronic mastitis group were found to be significantly higher than the control (P < 0.001 for all three phenotypes) but did not differ significantly between control and acute mastitis samples. When the mean numbers of MCT, MCC, and MCTC in the control group and chronic mastitis group were compared, a 10.5, 7.8, and a 4.1-fold increase was observed, respectively. The amount of connective tissue was strongly increased in tissues with chronic mastitis and a 3.01-fold increase was detected compared to the control group. A statistically significant relation was also found between the amount of fibrosis and the increased number of total MCs (P < 0.001).