Many people use conspiracy theories to make sense of a changing world and its ever more complexif social structures (e.g., international financial systems, global bodies of governance), tragic events (e.g., terrorist attacks, man-made catastrophes, or natural disasters), or socio-political and economic issues (e.g., security, migration, distribution of resources, health care). The widespread flour

Research on development aid has focused on Western powers—the global South's 20th century colonial masters—largely ignoring the practices of donors who are not members of the West-dominated Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and its Development Assistance Committee (DAC). This article informs about the world of "non-DAC donors," through examining Polish development aid and its s

Abstract in French En 2018, le peuple irlandais a voté l’abrogation du huitième amendement de la Constitution irlandaise interdisant l’avortement dans le pays depuis 1983. L’Irlande vivait alors un moment décisifde son histoire, qui n’était pas sans lien avec de plus vastes débats, aujourd’hui en cours dans lemonde entier, portant sur le genre, le droit à la procréation, l’avenir de la religion, lIn 2018, the Irish public voted to repeal the Eighth Amendment to the Irish Constitution, which since 1983 banned abortion in the country. While this was a watershed moment in Irish history, it was not unconnected to wider discussions now taking place around the world concerning gender, reproductive rights, the future of religion, Church–State relationships, democracy and social movements. With th

This article provides an insight into the world of Polish development workers operating in South Sudan. It shows that the conceptualisations of aid work in terms of a ‘mission’, a unique job with a special, ethical goal, a difficult, risky operation requiring specific skills are not incidental. Instead, the point is made, that such ways of thinking about foreign aid and distant locations are stron

As the coronavirus started to spread in Ireland, the epidemiological data became the most sought-after information in the country. This article will examine the ways in which COVID-19 redefined the intimacies of the relationships that health professionals and the members of the public have with medical data. It will focus on Irish examples and explore how the context of the pandemic turned numbers

Since the late 1990s, researchers have been predicting that the era of neutrality in aid politics is coming to an end and that foreign organizations will have to take a more engaged stance. Yet while the boundaries between humanitarianism and development are fading, in some cases the neutrality norm is actually expanding rather than giving way to an engaged paradigm. Recognizing that the principle

This article purports to explain why the concept of global civil society recently has attracted so much interest within academic and political discourse. Given the ambiguity and apparent incoherence of this concept, its centrality within contemporary International Relations and political theory is puzzling. The article argues that once we pay attention to the function of the concept of domestic ci

This article analyses existing assumptions about state identity within contemporary International Relations theory, arguing that the quest for the identity of the state leads to either circularity or regress. Departing from commonsensical criteria of self-identity such as indivisibility, distinctness and spatiotemporal continuity, this article examines how these criteria are interpreted and applie

The biotechnology industry has recently been demanding second generation of nanoparticle byproducts such as viruses, plasmids, virus-like particles and drug-delivery assemblies (20-300 nm). The possibility of preparing uniform nanoparticles consisting of proteins such as gelatin followed by covalent linkage of avidin was investigated. Gelatin nanoparticles were prepared by two-step desolvation. As

Albumin-based cryogels for capturing haemin were synthesised by crosslinking different biomolecules, bovine serum albumin (BSA) and ovalbumin (OVA). The impact of the protein and coupling agent concentrations on cryogel’s mechanical properties, swelling ratios and polymerisation yields, as well as autoclaving as a post-treatment on the cryogel, were studied. We found that BSA (50 mg/ml) and the cr

Eupergit C, an acrylic polymer support containing oxirane groups, for pseudo affinity adsorption of bioproducts was modified and functionalized by 1,2-ethanedithiol followed by graft copolymerization of 3- acrylamidophenylboronic acid and N,N-dimethylacrylamide. The resin was characterized by elemental analysis and IR spectroscopy and was subjected to biochemical evaluation through batch binding a

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are fascinating structures with a wide range of applications and several methods have been developed for their fabrication. The arc-discharge in liquid method is a new technique for synthesis of nanocarbon structures and is recognized as a low-cost method. In this work, this method was used for fabrication of carbon nanotubes, and subsequently a modified acid treatment meth

A novel prototype polymer-coated adsorbent (PCA) has been developed for the effective expanded bed recovery of protein products from particulate feedstocks. The adsorbents were manufactured using the three-phase emulsification process by which the selected core phases (anion- and cation-exchangers and a custom-assembled pseudo-affinity adsorbent) were coated by an agarose gel. This new non-stick e

In recent years, significant effort has been devoted to develop nanotechnology for drug delivery since it offers a suitable means of delivering small molecular weight drugs, as well as macromolecules such as proteins, peptides or genes by either localized or targeted delivery to the tissue of interest. Nanotechnology focuses on formulating therapeutic agents in biocompatible nanocomposites such as

The biotechnology industry has recently been demanding nanoparticulate products (20-200 nm) such as viruses, plas-mids, virus-like particles and drug delivery assemblies. Fluid-ized bed/expanded bed adsorption (EBA) is a technique that can be employed for nanoparticulate purification providing practical advantages such as the potential for direct process integration as has been seen with protein p