On the nature of the carbohydrates found in the Jerusalem artichoke

Ethanol versus gasoline: the contestation and closure of a socio-technical system in the USA

A variety of forces aligned at the turn of the last century to make ethyl alcohol--what is today known as ethanol--inefficient and uneconomical as a fuel alternative. Rather than a case of inevitable technological unfolding, the transition from King Coal to Big Oil was a sociologically contingent event. As a controversy study, this paper seeks to avoid the reductionist tendencies of past historical analyses of fuel. The author also seeks to redress a fundamental gap within the STS literature on the subject of automobile/fuel socio-technical systems, where the story of ethyl alcohol remains conspicuously absent. Among studies that examine how/why the automobile became locked in, little is said about ethyl alcohol, even though, as this paper details, it remained part of the fuel landscape well into the 20th century. The paper begins with an overview of the landscape developments of fuel during the later decades of the 19th century. Attention then turns to examining the various factors that went into shaping the automobile/fuel socio-technical system within the US during the first half of the 20th century.

THE PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF INULIN SOLUTIONS

1. Carefully recrystallized samples of inulin have been analysed chromatographically for low-molecular-weight contaminants. The analysis of the samples revealed amounts of low-molecular-weight polyfructosans amounting to 5-10% of the inulin. 2. The possible polymorphism of inulin, its solubility behaviour and suggestions of association in solution are discussed. 3. Physical techniques suggest considerable polydispersity. Ultracentrifugation gives a weight-average molecular weight (M(w)) 7250, whereas osmotic-pressure measurements suggest a number-average molecular weight (M(n)) 5600. 4. A probable steric model is suggested of a helix repeating every four residues, of diameter 12A and axial ratio 7.5-10. 5. Fractionation of the inulin on columns of Sephadex G-25 show a pronounced polydispersity. 6. Some doubt is cast on the reliability of inulin as an indicator of physiological volumes of distribution in body fluids.

Anti-complementary action of polymorphic "solubility forms" of particulate inulin

Inulin crystallizes in a series of polymorphic forms with different solubility rates, ranging from one instantly soluble at 23 degrees C (beta 0(23) inulin) through a form soluble at 37 degrees C with a half-time of 8 min (alpha 8(37) inulin) to a form virtually insoluble at 37 degrees C (gamma inulin). All forms are interconvertible, the more soluble and unstable progressing on standing to less soluble and more stable forms, only reversible by complete solution followed by recrystallization. The end product is the stable gamma inulin, only formed by polymers greater than 8000 mol. wt. A method is given for preparing pure "gamma inulin for injection", comprising insoluble ovoids of less than 1 micron diameter free of soluble inulin and endotoxin. An assay developed for complement action by the alternative pathway showed that gamma inulin was the most potent activator polymorph, more active than killed S. aureus and zymosan. Dissolved inulin and the more soluble polymorphs were inactive and in a mixture hindered alternative pathway activation by the gamma form.