Journal articles on the topic 'Carvone selectivity'

Carveol is used in many different industries, some as an ingredient in flavors or pharmaceuticals. A method for obtaining carveol through the hydrogenation of carvones is considered. Various catalyst loading values, temperatures, and the nature of the solvent are considered. The optimal conditions for the hydrogenation of carvones under mild conditions, in various solvents and at various temperatures were determined. Conditions have been found under which complete conversion of carvones is achieved, and the maximum selectivity of the catalysts for carveol is also achieved. It has been established that selective hydrogenation of the carbonyl group of carvone is an alternative route, however, research is limited by the low yield of the target compound, so it is relevant to study the route of selective reduction of carvone to carveol.

Acid-treated montmorillonites (MMT) were used as catalysts of carvone isomerization to carvacrol. Mineral acids—sulfuric, hydrochloric, nitric acids and organic acids (acetic and chloroacetic)—were used for the acid treatment. Prepared materials were characterized by available characterization methods, namely XRD, EA, TPD, TPO, UV-Vis, laser light scattering and nitrogen physisorption. The structure of montmorillonite remained intact after treatment. However, TPD proved the increase of acidity of acid-treated materials comparing pure montmorillonite. All materials were tested in the isomerization of carvone, producing carvacrol as the desired product. The initial reaction rate increased using the materials in the row MMT-COOH < MMT-HNO3 < MMT-ClCOOH < MMT-H2SO4 < MMT-HCl, which is in accordance with the pKa of acids used for the treatment. The number of weak acid sites strongly influenced the selectivity to carvacrol. The optimal solvent for the reaction was toluene. Total conversion of carvone and the selectivity to carvacrol 95.5% was achieved within 24 h under 80 °C, with toluene as solvent and montmorillonite treated by chloroacetic acid as catalyst. The catalyst may be reused after calcination with only a low loss of activity.

Liquid phase oxidation of limonene by hydrogen peroxide over the CeO2 and Fe2O3 catalysts supported by γ- Al2O3 was reported. Etly acetate and acetone were used as solvent to investigate the effect of the solvent on the oxidation reaction. The experiments were carried out at 80 °C The conversion of limonene and the selectivities of the carvone were calculated during the 10h reaction time. According to experimental results, maximum conversion of limonene and product selectivity of carvone were obtained with CeO2-γAl2O3 catalyst as 85% and 41%, respectively end of the 10 h reaction. The XRD analysis of the CeO2- γAl2O3 catalyst were performed.

Liquid-phase catalytic oxidation of limonene was carried out under mild conditions, and carvone was produced in the presence of ZIF-67(Co), cobalt based zeolitic imidazolate framework, as catalyst, using t-butyl hydroperoxide (t-BHP) as oxidant and benzene as solvent. As a heterogeneous catalyst, the zeolitic imidazolate framework ZIF-67(Co) exhibited reasonable substrate–product selectivity (55.4%) and conversion (29.8%). Finally, the X-ray diffraction patterns of the catalyst before and after proved that ZIF-67(Co) acted as a heterogeneous catalyst, and can be reused without losing its activity to a great extent.

Limonene epoxidation was carried out in the liquid phase using Ti/KIT-6 as the catalyst and tert-butyl hydroperoxide as oxidant. The best selectivity (60%) was obtained at 50 °C after 7 h of reaction, and the conversion was 23%. The main side products were carvone, carveol, 1,2-epoxylimonene diol, perillyl alcohol and p-mentha-2,8-dien-1-ol. The catalyst does not leach under reaction conditions and it can be reused after calcination at 550 ºC. The catalyst was characterized by atomic absorption, XRD, UV-vis and N2 adsorption isotherms.

A mild and convenient method for the allylic chlorination of naturally occurring terpenic olefins was investigated in the presence of different supported and non-supported Lewis acid catalysts. The reaction has been tested on carvone as a model substrate in the presence of sodium hypochlorite as chlorine donor. The scope and limitations of transition metal-based Lewis acid catalysts, stoichiometry, and substrate structure were evaluated. Among the iron precursors used, FeCl3 and FeCl2 provide the promise of a general approach to allylic or vinylic chlorination reaction. Various terpenic olefins were examined in the presence of FeCl3/NaOCl combination system. The catalytic chlorination proceeds under mild conditions with short reaction time and shows a high selectivity affording the corresponding chlorides in good to excellent yields.

The aim of this study was to determine, first, the chemical composition of Aloysia polystachya (Griseb) Moldenke essential oil, from leaves harvested in central Chile; and second, its antioxidant and cytotoxic activity. Eight compounds were identified via gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) analyses, with the most representative being R-carvone (91.03%), R-limonene (4.10%), and dihydrocarvone (1.07%). For Aloysia polystachya essential oil, antioxidant assays (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), H2O2, ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), and total reactive antioxidant potential (TRAP)) showed good antioxidant activity compared to commercial antioxidant controls; and anti-proliferative assays against three human cancer cell lines (colon, HT-29; prostate, PC-3; and breast, MCF-7) determined an IC50 of 5.85, 6.74, and 9.53 µg/mL, and selectivity indices of 4.75, 4.12, and 2.92 for HT-29, PC-3, and MCF-7, respectively. We also report on assays with CCD 841 CoN (colon epithelial). Overall, results from this study may represent, in the near future, developments for natural-based cancer treatments.

The preemergence herbicide cinmethylin is a benzyl ether derivative of the monoterpene 1,4-cineole. Other oxygenated monoterpenes (carvone, citronellol, fenchone, geraniol, and pulegone) were previously found to inhibit the germination and growth of several weed species while exhibiting low phytotoxicity to soybean. Benzyl ether derivatives of these oxygenated monoterpenes were synthesized and examined for preemergence and postemergence activity towards corn, soybean, wheat, and velvetleaf. Benzyl pulegyl ether exhibited the most preemergence activity when applied directly to the soil, completely inhibiting wheat and velvetleaf emergence at 1.0 kg ha−1while reducing soybean emergence 80%. Several of the benzyl ethers were more inhibitory to velvetleaf radicle elongation relative to cinmethylin but less inhibitory to corn and wheat radicle elongation in petri dish bioassays. Several of the benzyl ethers exhibited limited postemergence activity when applied at 1.0 kg ha−1to seedlings of the test species 10 d after emergence. The benzyl ether derivatives demonstrated altered selectivity and sensitivity as compared to the parent compounds and cinmethylin.

Monoterpenes are plant secondary metabolites, widely used in industrial processes as precursors of important aroma compounds, such as vanillin and (−)-menthol. However, the physicochemical properties of monoterpenes make difficult their conventional conversion into value-added aromas. Biocatalysis, either by using whole cells or enzymes, may overcome such drawbacks in terms of purity of the final product, ecological and economic constraints of the current catalysis processes or extraction from plant material. In particular, the ability of oxidative enzymes (e.g., oxygenases) to modify the monoterpene backbone, with high regio- and stereo-selectivity, is attractive for the production of “natural” aromas for the flavor and fragrances industries. We review the research efforts carried out in the molecular analysis of bacterial monoterpene catabolic pathways and biochemical characterization of the respective key oxidative enzymes, with particular focus on the most relevant precursors, β-pinene, limonene and β-myrcene. The presented overview of the current state of art demonstrates that the specialized enzymatic repertoires of monoterpene-catabolizing bacteria are expanding the toolbox towards the tailored and sustainable biotechnological production of values-added aroma compounds (e.g., isonovalal, α-terpineol, and carvone isomers) whose implementation must be supported by the current advances in systems biology and metabolic engineering approaches.

Selective transformations of limonene by asco- and basidiomycetes were investigated. On the shake flask scale, Penicillium citrinum hydrated R-(+)-limonene to α-terpineol [83% regioselectivity (rs), more than 80 mg 1-1 product yield], and Gongronella butleri catalysed the terminal oxidation to yield perillyl alcohol (60% rs, 16 mg 1-1). On the laboratory bioreactor scale, Penicillium digitatum produced a peak concentration of 506 mg α-terpineol 1-1 in the fed-batch mode, equivalent to a theoretical yield of 67%, and no volatile by-products were found. Fusarium proliferatum transformed R-(+)-limonene enantiospecifically to cis-(+)- carveol (98.6% ee, more than 35 mg 1-1 product yield) and S-(-)-limonene predominantly to trans-(-)-carveol (96.3% ee). Pleurotus sapidus selectively dehydrogenised the accumulating trans-(-)-carveol to the corresponding enantiopure R-(-)-carvone. The results show that a careful selection of strain and bioprocess parameters may improve both the yield and the optical purity of a desired product.

Humans are able to learn tool-handling tasks, such as carving, demonstrating their competency to make movements in unstable environments with varied directions. When faced with a single direction of instability, humans learn to selectively co-contract their arm muscles tuning the mechanical stiffness of the limb end point to stabilize movements. This study examines, for the first time, subjects simultaneously adapting to two distinct directions of instability, a situation that may typically occur when using tools. Subjects learned to perform reaching movements in two directions, each of which had lateral instability requiring control of impedance. The subjects were able to adapt to these unstable interactions and switch between movements in the two directions; they did so by learning to selectively control the end-point stiffness counteracting the environmental instability without superfluous stiffness in other directions. This finding demonstrates that the central nervous system can simultaneously tune the mechanical impedance of the limbs to multiple movements by learning movement-specific solutions. Furthermore, it suggests that the impedance controller learns as a function of the state of the arm rather than a general strategy.

Seedlings of two chemotypes of mint (Mentha spicata L.), i.e. the piperitone and piperitenone oxide rich wild mint (chemotype I) and the carvone and dihydrocarvone rich spearmint (chemotype II), were grown to maturity in the field under ambient or ambient plus supplemental UV-B radiation, simulating a 15% ozone depletion over Patras (38.3°N, 29.1°E). Enhanced UV-B radiation had no effect on total stem length, photochemical efficiency of PS II, chlorophyll content, UV-B absorbing capacity of epicuticular and internal compounds, photosynthetic capacity at 5% CO2 and relative water content of both chemotypes. However, specific leaf mass in chemotype II, and leaf number in chemotype I were significantly increased under UV-B supplementation, while total leaf area remained unaffected. Dry mass accumulation measured at plant harvest showed a slight, non-significant trend for increased above- and below-ground biomass in both chemotypes, but a particularly significant increase in the biomass allocated to inflorescences in chemotype II was found. Seed yield was significantly improved by supplemental UV-B radiation in both chemotypes, but, again, chemotype II was particularly responsive, increasing the number of seeds by 100%. We conclude that the aromatic species M. spicata is not only resistant to enhanced UV-B radiation, but some chemotypes may be selectively benefited through increased reproductive effort.

Gas (CO2 and CH4) and ammonia production in the rumen represent major sources of lost carbon and nitrogen, respectively. The essential oils of some plants have been shown to decrease gas and ammonia production by selectively inhibiting rumen microbes. Particularly, those of Zataria multiflora (ZEO; thymol 21%, carvacrol 32%) and Mentha spicata (SEO; carvone 55%) were evaluated in vitro as ruminant-feed additives. The experiments employed mixed rumen microbes and a hyper-ammonia-producing bacterium (HAP) isolated from the rumen of a Mehraban sheep. Both ZEO and SEO decreased in vitro fibre digestibility and also gas production by mixed rumen microbes that were fermenting a typical growing-lamb diet. ZEO decreased ammonia concentration in mixed culture of rumen microbes, but SEO exerted the opposite effect. A bacterial isolate (MT8) was obtained from the rumen of a Mehraban sheep, and the 16S rRNA gene sequence indicated that it was most closely related to Clostridium bifermentans. Isolate MT8 exhibited rapid ammonia production when peptides were the growth substrate, which indicated that MT8 was a HAP. Both oils inhibited the growth and ammonia production of isolate MT8. However, ZEO decreased ammonia production at lower doses, and to a greater degree, than did SEO. These results indicated that both essential oils could potentially be used to modulate rumen fermentation. The detrimental effects on fibre digestion could be problematic in high-forage diets, and this requires further investigation. Isolate MT8 is the first described HAP from the Mehraban sheep rumen. Results on ammonia production by isolate MT8 and mixed rumen microbes indicate differential mode of action of each oil on this parameter.

Endophytic fungi infect plant tissues by evading the immune response, potentially stimulating stress-tolerant plant growth. The plant selectively allows microbial colonization to carve endophyte structures through phenotypic genes and metabolic signals. Correspondingly, fungi develop various adaptations through symbiotic signal transduction to thrive in mycorrhiza. Over the past decade, the regulatory mechanism of plant-endophyte interaction has been uncovered. Currently, great progress has been made on plant endosphere, especially in endophytic fungi. Here, we systematically summarize the current understanding of endophytic fungi colonization, molecular recognition signal pathways, and immune evasion mechanisms to clarify the transboundary communication that allows endophytic fungi colonization and homeostatic phytobiome. In this work, we focus on immune signaling and recognition mechanisms, summarizing current research progress in plant-endophyte communication that converge to improve our understanding of endophytic fungi.

When the Almighty Allah adorned this earthly realm with humankind, the eternal struggle between good and evil also came into existence. As humanity became increasingly entangled in the abyss of misguidance, the Supreme Guide—Allah, the Most Glorious, continued to send His chosen messengers to illuminate the path from darkness to light. While some individuals embraced the truth, others outright denied it. However, there were also those who wavered in between. Regarding such people, Allah Almighty states in Surah An-Nisa: "They are wavering between this and that, belonging neither to these nor to those. And whoever Allah leaves astray, you will never find for him a way." (Surah An-Nisa: 143) Furthermore, Allah has also identified individuals who selectively accept only what aligns with their own desires while rejecting what contradicts their inclinations. Almighty Allah has not only highlighted their motives but has also recorded their statements: “They wish to make a distinction between Allah and His Messenger and say, ‘We believe in some and reject others,’ and they seek to get a way in between." (Surah An-Nisa: 150) The disbelievers of Hadith adopt a similar approach, attempting to carve out a middle path within Islam by claiming adherence to the Quran while simultaneously rejecting the teachings of the Prophet (ﷺ), thereby altering the religion according to their own desires. By His perfect wisdom, Allah ensured that nearly all His prophets were first accepted and trusted by their societies. He supported them with miracles so that the people would recognize their truthfulness and develop unwavering confidence in their character. This foundational trust enabled the followers to fully submit to and obey the divine instructions conveyed by the prophets. Consequently, how the early Muslim community was guided towards righteousness and the straight path remains the most effective method even today that is, the complete obedience and adherence to the teachings of the Prophet (ﷺ). While we do not claim to have examined every single Hadith compilation, we have yet to come across any authentic narration or Quranic verse that negates the acceptance of Hadith. However, the disbelievers of Hadith present certain objections aimed at discrediting the Hadith corpus. When subjected to rigorous academic scrutiny, these objections appear to stem from individuals who are heavily influenced by foreign ideologies, parrot the arguments of outsiders, interpret the Quran as per their whims, and are disconnected from the mainstream Muslim scholarship. These individuals, numbering no more than 15 to 20 persons across the entire 1,500-year history of Islam, attempt to impose their personal opinions upon the entire Ummah. Ironically, their objections are often borrowed from the works of Orientalists, who have historically sought to undermine Islam. The weight of their argument’s pales in comparison to the immense intellectual legacy of Islam. This article, therefore, presents a comprehensive scholarly analysis of their objections. Each objection will be systematically listed, attributed to its proponent, and then critically examined. This analytical process will clearly demonstrate the credibility of their claims and the strength of the responses to them. Ultimately, this discourse will determine whether their arguments hold any significant weight and whether the necessity of Hadith remains indispensable to Islam.

AbstractA ZnO‐mediated benzoylation between carvone oxime and acyl is reported, enabling access to diverse carvone oxime ester and carvone oxime sulfonic esters under solvent‐free conditions. The operationally simple procedure provides a novel method for the synthesis of oxime‐ester bonds with excellent chemo selectivity. This strategy provides a mild, direct, and green approach for synthesizing carvone oxime ester in moderate to excellent yields with good substrate tolerance. In addition, carvone oxime was synthesized under solvent‐free conditions.

AbstractWithin the context of Molecular Electronic Density Theory (MEDT), this study investigates the Diels–Alder reaction among isoprene (2) and R-carvone (1R) applying DFT simulations, with and without Lewis acid (LA) catalysis. The results show that carvone (1R) acts as an electrophile and isoprene (2) as a nucleophile in a polar process. LA catalysis increases the electrophilicity of carvone, thereby improving the reactivity and selectivity of the reaction by reducing the activation Gibbs free energy. Parr functions reveal that the C5=C6 double bond is more reactive than the C9=C10 double bond, indicating chemoselectivity. The examination of the Electron Localization Function (ELF) reveals high regio- and stereoselectivity, indicating an asynchronous mechanism for the LA-catalyzed DA reaction. Furthermore, it is suggested that cycloadduct 3 has great anti-HIV potential because it exhibits lower binding energies than azidothymidine (AZT) in the docking studies of cycloadducts 3 and 4 amongst a primary HIV-1protein (1A8O plus 5W4Q).

AbstractIn this work, a broad screening of possible catalysts for limonene oxide isomerization was performed. The catalysts included both Brønsted and Lewis acids as homogeneous or heterogeneous catalysts. The aim was to show the efficiency of different catalysts in the studied reaction and use one homogeneous (methanesulfonic acid) and two heterogeneous (zeolite beta-25, montmorillonite K10) catalysts to evaluate the influence of the acid site type on the selectivity. When the selected catalysts were used, almost total conversion up to 1 h was observed (2?50% of the catalyst was based on type, 80 °C, and 16.6 V% of the solution was limonene oxide in toluene). The strength of the acid/acid catalyst influenced the composition of the products. When a strong acid (methanesulfonic acid) was used, the products formed by dehydration (p-cymene) and isomerization of the double bond (carvenone) were detected in large amounts. Using the majority of catalysts, the main products were cis- and trans-dihydrocarvone, and the minor products were carveols and carvone. The water content of the acid catalyst strongly affected the selectivity. Limonene diol was formed as a hydration product, which decreased the selectivity for the desired products. We have described a wide spectrum of possible catalysts for limonene isomerization. Moreover, our study enables the simple choice of catalyst on the basis of the desired composition of the products.

AbstractChiral sensing is essential in pharmaceuticals, food safety, and environmental monitoring, but effectively and accurately detecting various enantiomers continues to be a substantial challenge. Inspired by the dynamic conformational change of olfactory receptor proteins, natural L‐carnosine (Car) is used as a ligand to assemble the first highly crystalline and oriented chiral peptide‐based metal‐organic framework (MOF) thin films with liquid‐phase epitaxial layer‐by‐layer approach (named surfac‐coordinated MOF thin films, SURMOFs). By adjusting the solvent environment, these chiral and at the same time porous SURMOFs mimic the conformational flexibility of receptor proteins, exhibiting dynamic structural changes. This “breathing effect” enables ZnCar SURMOFs to selectively sense six fragrance enantiomers, including (+)/(−)‐carvone, (+)/(−)‐menthol, and (+)/(−)‐limonene. By incorporating these films into a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) and analyzing the frequency shifts using convolutional neural networks (CNN), a highly sensitive gravimetric biomimetic chiral sensor capable of detecting multiple enantiomers has been developed. With a sensitivity range of 10 to 200 ppm, the sensor reached a recognition accuracy of 98.58% for these six enantiomers, showcasing outstanding selectivity and flexibility.

We report a highly selective (100 %) epoxidation of α‐pinene and R‐carvone using an oxygen atom transfer (OAT) reaction facilitated by a dioxo‐Mo complex (Mo(VI)O2Cl2Ln) incorporated into the ligand 5,5’‐dicarboxylate‐2,2’‐bipyridine (bpydc) within a Metal‐Organic Framework (MOF) type UiO‐67. Photo‐stimulated (350 nm) OAT reaction was carried out with oxygen molecular used as the oxidant for 10 h. UiO‐67 was synthesized with a mixture of the ligands 2,2'‐biphenyl‐5,5'‐dicarboxylate (bpdc) and 2,2‐bipyridine‐5,5‐dicarboxylate (bpydc) in different molar ratios (67:33, 50:50, 70:30, 0:100 bpdc:bpydc) to promote a higher presence of catalytic sites, i.e., the dioxo‐Mo complex units. Furthermore, a post‐synthetic exchange of Zr for Ti, between 64:36 to 78:22 Ti:Zr molar ratio, was performed to improve the optical properties of the MOF and promote the photoinduced OAT reaction. The Catalytic system was characterized by FTIR, XRD, 1H NMR, XPS, TGA, N2 adsorption/desorption and UV‐Vis‐DR. The amount of the epoxide monoterpene is proportional to the number of the dioxomolybdenum(VI) units (MoO2) incorporated in the UiO‐67 (Zr/Ti), and the OAT reaction selectivity is due to the absence of the oxygen radicals in the medium of reaction. Besides, The Mo complex exhibited excellent stability after five cycles of use.

AbstractXanthomonas campestris pv. vesicatoria (Xcv) causes brown spots on the leaves, stems, and fruits of plants, called bacterial leaf scorch (BLS). For the control of pathogens, antibiotics have been used frequently, and they can develop the resistance. In this study, the bactericidal and synergistic effects of caraway oil and its main components against the pathogen (Xcv) were investigated. The tested caraway oil consisted of 58.4% of carvone and 31.1% of limonene. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of caraway oil and carvone was the same as 125 μg mL−1, and the minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) was 1000 μg mL−1 for caraway oil and 500 μg mL−1 for carvone, while limonene showed no inhibition below 1000 μg ml−1. In the growth of Xcv, carvone treatment over 31.3 μg mL−1 inhibited dose-dependently, and the bactericidal effect showed after 18 h more than 250 μg mL−1; It was agreed with the release of intracellular components over 250 μg mL−1, especially. Furthermore, carvone damaged the plasmid DNA of Xcv, and it would be the reason for the bactericidal activity. The synergistic effect of carvone was found with β-lactams selectively; the fractional inhibitory concentration (FIC) indexes of carvone with ampicillin or amoxicillin were below 0.5, and the mixture of carvone (125 μg mL−1) and ampicillin (500 μg mL−1) showed the bactericidal activity as well.

Chemoselective hydrogenation of α,β‐epoxy ketones and α‐ketoamides is achieved at room temperature (25 °C) using 2.0 bar H<sub>2</sub> and a pincer‐ligated Mn(I) catalyst that provides synthetically valuable α‐hydroxy epoxides and α‐hydroxy amides. This protocol applies to a wide range of alkyl and aryl‐substituted α,β‐epoxy ketones, including terpenes (α‐ionone, nootkatone, and R‐carvone)‐ and steroids (testosterone and progesterone)‐derived epoxy ketones, and tolerates H<sub>2</sub> sensitive functionalities, such as halides, acetyl, nitrile, nitro, epoxide, alkenyl and alkynyl groups. Additionally, the α‐ketoamides bearing reducible functional groups, including acetyl and diazo benzene, were untouched under this protocol and selectively converted to α‐hydroxy amides. A preliminary mechanistic study highlighted the metal‐ligand cooperative H<sub>2</sub> activation process.

Summary We propose a general framework based on selectively traversed accumulation rules for interactive multiple testing with generic structural constraints on the rejection set. It combines accumulation tests from ordered multiple testing with data-carving ideas from post-selection inference, allowing highly flexible adaptation to generic structural information. Our procedure defines an interactive protocol for gradually pruning a candidate rejection set, beginning with the set of all hypotheses and shrinking the set with each step. By restricting the information at each step via a technique we call masking, our protocol enables interaction while controlling the false discovery rate in finite samples for any data-adaptive update rule that the analyst may choose. We suggest update rules for a variety of applications with complex structural constraints, demonstrate that selectively traversed accumulation rules perform well in problems ranging from convex region detection to false discovery rate control on directed acyclic graphs, and show how to extend the framework to regression problems where knockoff statistics are available in lieu of $p$-values.

AbstractTransport diffusivity of molecules in a porous solid is constricted by the rate at which molecules move from one pore to the other, along the concentration gradient, i.e. by following Fickian diffusion. In heterogeneous porous materials, i.e. in the presence of pores of different sizes and chemical environments, diffusion rate and directionality remain tricky to estimate and adjust. In such a porous system, we have realized that molecular diffusion direction can be orthogonal to the concentration gradient. To experimentally determine this complex diffusion rate dependency and get insight of the microscopic diffusion pathway, we have designed a model nanoporous structure, metal-organic framework (MOF). In this model two chemically and geometrically distinct pore windows are spatially oriented by an epitaxial, layer-by-layer growth method. The specific design of the nanoporous channels and quantitative mass uptake rate measurements have indicated that the mass uptake is governed by the interpore diffusion along the direction orthogonal to the concentration gradient. This revelation allows chemically carving the nanopores, and accelerating the interpore diffusion and kinetic diffusion selectivity.

A novel solid electrolyte sensor with considerably improved response times is presented. The new so-called eFIPEX [etched flux (Φ) probe experiment] is based on the FIPEX [flux (Φ) probe experiment] sensor applied for the measurement of molecular and atomic oxygen concentrations. A main application is the measurement of atmospheric atomic oxygen aboard sounding rockets up to altitudes of 250 km. eFIPEX employs a new manufacturing technique for its electrodes combining two manufacturing steps—the deposition of platinum films with a polyol process and electrochemical etching to carve out the electrode geometry. Selectivity toward atomic oxygen is achieved through gold plating. All work steps can be completed in ambient air. Electrodes with thicknesses of 200 nm to 1.5 μm are manufactured and characterized with optical and electron microscopy as well as with energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy. It is shown that the significantly faster response times are related to pores in the platinum film reaching down to the substrate. The new eFIPEX were flown in comparison with conventional FIPEX sensors on the PMWE-2 sounding rocket flight showing significantly improved performance. Due to the easier fabrication and the superior transient behavior, this new sensor system will be preferentially used in future missions.

The concept of form today remains as indispensable to philosophical reflection as it was for Plato and Aristotle. In view of its centrality to Goethe’s work, the concept may thus be considered one of the privileged themes for assessing Goethe’s position in the Western philosophical tradition. The following remarks must pursue a more modest aim. Their purpose is to highlight sites of reflection in Goethe’s oeuvre in which the concept of form does irreplaceable intellectual work. It is important to stress the selectivity of such a project, for to examine the peculiar inflection the concept of form undergoes in Goethe’s work is to enter a field of intricately interwoven concepts. Kindred terms include Gestalt, (Um-) Gestaltung, Typus, Urbild; crucial explicating concepts are Organisation, Einheit, and Idee; syntactic and semantic linkages run inter alia to schaffen and Gewalt (in the sense of force, not violence); Morphologie is the science of form; negative concepts such as formlos and Chaos likewise have their place. The entire nexus is central both to Goethe’s aesthetics and to his scientific studies. Finally, nearly all the terms within the nexus are susceptible to poetic intensification, as exemplified in the verses from Pandora recalled at the outset. A brief entry such as this can do no more than carve a slender path through this variegated semantic terrain.

Abstract In this paper, we examine how the Chinese state controls social media. While social media companies are responsible for censoring their platforms, they also selectively report certain users to the government. This article focuses on understanding the logic behind media platforms’ decisions to report users or content to the government. We find that content is less relevant than commonly thought. Information control efforts often focus on who is posting rather than on what they are posting. The state permits open discussion and debate on social media while controlling and managing influential social forces that may challenge the party-state's hegemonic position. We build on Schurmann's “ideology and organization,” emphasizing the Party's goals of embedding itself in all social structures and limiting the ability of non-Party individuals, networks or groups to carve out a separate space for leadership and social status. In the virtual public sphere, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) continues to apply these principles to co-opt, repress and limit the reach of influential non-Party “thought leaders.” We find evidence to support this logic through qualitative and quantitative analysis of leaked censorship documents from a social media company and government documents on information control.

Abstract Citation metrics are statistical measures of scientific output that draw on citation indexes. They purport to capture the impact of scientific articles and the journals in which they appear. As evaluative tools, they are mostly used in the natural sciences, but they are also acquiring an important role in the humanities. While the strengths and weaknesses of citation metrics are extensively debated in a variety of fields, they have only recently started attracting attention in the philosophy of science literature. This paper takes a further step in this direction and presents an analysis of citation metrics from the perspective of a Kuhnian model for the development of science. Starting from Gillies’ argument against the use of citation metrics for scientific research (2008), this paper shows that citation metrics interfere with the development of normal science in certain fields or subfields. The main issue is that citation metrics do not take field-specific differences into account, thereby selectively favoring some fields and arbitrarily hindering the development of others. In other words, this paper shows that current citation metrics fail to “carve science at its joints”. In light of this, the paper cautions against their use for evaluative purposes.

The contribution of the gut microbiota to health and disease is becoming ever more apparent in the last number of years, due to developments in DNA sequencing technology and more well-defined cultivation techniques. This has resulted in the identification of health-promoting bacteria. Until recently, prebiotics, non-digestible food substrates which are selectively utilised by beneficial bacteria, were employed with a view to increasing the growth of well-established health promoting bacteria, namely Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium. However, other beneficial bacteria recently revealed may also be targeted to enhance their growth as they establish themselves as the next generation of health-promoting microbes. These include anaerobes such as Akkermansia muciniphila, Faecalibacterium prausnitziiand Eubacterium rectale. Identification of growth substrates/bioactives through the analysis of genome sequence data can aid in elucidating which substrates may best enhance the growth of these microbes which are often difficult to grow. The phenotypic microbial trait analyser, Traitar, can predict 67 phenotypes based on the genome sequence inputted. Some of these traits include substrates that could potentially be utilised by the bacteria. Another tool, CarveMe, which has been created with the aim of making metabolic modelling more user-friendly, was also used with the same genomes. A select number of substrates identified in both tools have been chosen to be evaluated in vitroin order to establish the accuracy of these predictive tools as well as giving an indication as to how these beneficial microbes can be modulated through dietary components.

The contribution of the gut microbiota to health and disease is becoming ever more apparent in the last number of years, due to developments in DNA sequencing technology and more well-defined cultivation techniques. This has resulted in the identification of health-promoting bacteria. Until recently, prebiotics, non-digestible food substrates which are selectively utilised by beneficial bacteria, were employed with a view to increasing the growth of well-established health promoting bacteria, namely Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium. However, other beneficial bacteria recently revealed may also be targeted to enhance their growth as they establish themselves as the next generation of health-promoting microbes. These include anaerobes such as Akkermansia muciniphila, Faecalibacterium prausnitzii and Eubacterium rectale. Identification of growth substrates/bioactives through the analysis of genome sequence data can aid in elucidating which substrates may best enhance the growth of these microbes which are often difficult to grow. The phenotypic microbial trait analyser, Traitar, can predict 67 phenotypes based on the genome sequence inputted. Some of these traits include substrates that could potentially be utilised by the bacteria. Another tool, CarveMe, which has been created with the aim of making metabolic modelling more user-friendly, was also used with the same genomes. A select number of substrates identified in both tools have been chosen to be evaluated in vitro in order to establish the accuracy of these predictive tools as well as giving an indication as to how these beneficial microbes can be modulated through dietary components.

Administrative boundaries are ubiquitous. A vital technology of power within the modern nation-state’s mode of bureaucratic governance, they carve up and abstract land and water alike into conceptual totalities that, in their simplification, render them legible to centralised administrative bodies. This is a foundational tool of state planning, the impact of which permeates all aspects of socio-economic life. These boundaries are not passive; they do not simply define a geographical area. Rather, they are selective in what they encompass and, as a result, what they include and exclude and what is rendered visible and, hence, valuable. This article describes an example of the real-world impact of this selectivity through discussion of the experiences of a community-led charity (Ardagh Community Trust) and the community group that founded it (Friends of Horfield Common). In their work to demonstrate that an administrative-boundary-spanning public green space (Horfield Common) and leisure facility (the Ardagh) was a vital community resource and hub, this article focuses on the work of Friends of Horfield Common/Ardagh Community Trust to ensure that their local community, one dissected by multiple administrative boundaries, was recognised and acknowledged when, in 2008, Bristol City Council in the UK proposed the sale of multiple publicly owned green spaces through their Parks and Green Space Strategy. Administrative boundaries played a key role in defining and determining which sites in the city were proposed for sale and in structuring the accompanying public consultation process, thereby determining which communities were recognised as communities in relation to this policy and, hence, which communities’ opinions were actively sought and heard. This article concludes by highlighting some of the potential political and economic costs attendant on reifying administrative boundaries rather than lived communities in both planning and consultation processes.

Boxing is a purely masculine activity and it inhabits a purely masculine world. […] Boxing is for men, and it is about men, and is men. (Joyce Carol Oates) IntroductionWriting about boxing is an intimate, private, and unusual activity. Although a decade has passed since I first “stepped into the ring” (sparring or fighting), I have not engaged with boxing in academic terms. I undertook a doctoral degree from 2012 to 2016, during which I competed and won amateur titles in three different countries. Boxing, in a sense, shadowed my research. My fieldwork, researching heritage foods networks, brought me to various locales, situating my body in reference to participants and academics as well as my textual analysis. My daily interactions and reflections in the boxing gym, though, were marginalised to give priority to my doctorate. In a mirrored journey to Wacquant’s “carnal ethnography of the skilled body” (Habitus 87), I boxed as a hobby. It was a means to escape my life as a doctoral student, my thesis, and the library. Research belonged to the realm of academia; boxing, to the realm of the physical. In this paper, I seek to implode this self-imposed distinction.Practising the “noble art,” as boxing is commonly called, profoundly altered not only my body but also my way of seeing the world, myself, and others. I explore these themes through an autoethnographic account of my experience in the ring. Focusing on sparring, rather than competing, I explore conceptualisations of my face as a material, as well as part of my body, and also as a surface for violence and apprenticeship. Reflecting upon a decade of sparring, the analysis presented in this paper is grounded in the phenomenological tradition whereby knowledge is not an abstract notion that exists over and above felt experience: it is sensed and embodied through practice.I delve into the narratives of my personal “social logic of a bodily craft” of boxing (Wacquant, Habitus 85). More specifically, I reflect upon my experiences of getting hit in the face by men in the ring, and the acclimatisation required, evolving from feelings of intrusion, betrayal, and physical pain to habit, and at times, excitement. As a surface for punching, my face became both material and immaterial. It was a tool that had to be tuned to varying degrees of pain to inform me of my performance as well as my opponent’s. Simultaneously, it was a surface that was abstracted and side-lined in order to put myself purposefully in harm’s way as one does when stepping into the ring. Through reflecting on my face, I consider how the sport offered new embodied experiences through which I became keenly aware of my body as a delineated target for—as well as the source of—violence. In particular, my body boundaries were profoundly reconfigured in the ring: sparring partners demonstrated their respect by hitting me, validating both my body and my skill as a boxer. In this manner, I discuss the spatiality of the ring as eliciting transitions of felt and abstracted pain as well as shaping my self-image as a re-gendered boxer in the ring and out. Throughout my account, I briefly engage with Wacquant’s discussion of “pugilistic habitus” (Body 99) and his claims that boxing is the epitome of masculine valour. In the final section, I conclude with deliberations upon the new bodily awareness(es) I gained through the sport, and the re-materiality I experienced as a strong woman.Methodological and Conceptual FrameworksThe analysis in this paper is based on the hybrid narrative of ethnography and autobiography: autoethnography. In the words of Tami Spry, autoethnography is “a self-narrative that critiques the situatedness of self and others in social context” (710). As such, I take stock in hindsight (Bruner; Denzin) of the evolution of my thoughts on boxing, my stance as a boxer, and the ways the ring has affected my sense of self and my body.Unlike Wacquant's “carnal ethnography” (Habitus 83) whose involvement with boxing was foregrounded in an academic context where he wrote detailed field-notes and conducted participant observation, my involvement was deliberately non-academic until I began to write this paper. Based on hindsight, the data collected through this autoethnography are value-inflected in ways that differ from other modes of data collection. But I have sought to recreate a dialectic between perceptual experience and cultural practices and patterns, in a manner aligned with Csordas’s paradigm of embodiment. My method is to “retrospectively and selectively write about epiphanies that stem from, or are made possible by, being part of a culture” (Ellis et al. 276) of boxing. These epiphanies, as sensed and embodied knowledge, were not solely conceptual moments but also physical realisations that my body performed, such as understanding—and executing—a well-timed slip to the side to avoid a punch.Focusing on my embodied experiences in the ring and out, I have sought to uncover “somatic modes of attention:” the “culturally elaborated ways of attending to and with one’s body in surroundings that include the embodied presence of others” (Csordas 138). The aim of this engagement is to convey my self-representation as a boxer in the ring, which emerged in part through the inter-subjectivity of interacting with other boxers whilst prioritising representations of my face. As such, my personal narrative is enmeshed with insights gleaned during embodied epiphanies I had in the ring, interweaving storytelling with theory.I have chosen to use the conventions of storytelling (Ellis and Ellingson) to explore the defining moments that shaped the image I hold of myself as a boxer. My personal narrative—where I view myself as the phenomenon—seeks “to produce aesthetic and evocative thick descriptions of personal and interpersonal experience” (Ellis et al. 287) whilst striving to remain accessible to a broader audience than within academia (Bochner). Personal narratives offer an understanding of the “self or aspect of a life as it intersects with a cultural context, connect to other participants as co-researchers, and invite readers to enter the author's world and to use what they learn there to reflect on, understand, and cope with their own lives” (Ellis 14; see also Ellis et al. 289).As the focus of my narrative is my face, I used my body, in Longhurst et al.’s words, as the “primary tool through which all interactions and emotions filter in accessing subjects and their geographies” (208). As “the foundation of the entire pugilistic regimen”, the body is the site of an intimate self-awareness, of the “body-sense” (Heiskanen 26). Taking my body as the starting point of my analysis, my conceptual framework is heavily informed by Thrift’s non-representational theory, enabling me to inquire into the “skills and knowledges [people] get from being embodied beings” (127), and specifically, embodied boxers. The analysis presented here is thus based on an “epistemic reflexivity” (Wacquant, Habitus 89) and responds to what Wacquant coins the “pugilistic habitus” (Body 99): a set of acquired dispositions of the boxer. Bourdieu believes that people are social agents who actively construct social reality through “categories of perception, appreciation and action” (30). The boxing habitus needs to be grasped with one’s body: it intermingles “cognitive categories, bodily skills and desires which together define the competence and appetence specific to the boxer” (Wacquant, Habitus 87). Through this habitus, I construct an image of myself not only as a boxer, but also as a re-gendered being, directly critiquing Wacquant’s arguments of the “pugilist” as fundamentally male.Resistance to Female BoxingMischa Merz’s manuscript on her boxing experience is the most accurate narrative I have yet read on female boxing, as a visceral as well as incorporeal experience, which led Merz to question and reconsider her own identity. When Merz published her manuscript in 2000, six years before I put the gloves on, the boxing world was still resisting the presence of women in the ring. In the UK, licenses for boxing were refused to women until 1998, and in New South Wales, Australia, it was illegal for women to compete until December 2008. It was not until 2012 that female boxing became internationally recognised as a sport in its own right. During the London Olympics, after a sulphurous debate on whether women should be made to box in skirts to “differentiate” them from men, women were finally allowed to compete in three weight categories, compared to ten for men.When I first started training in 2006 at the age of 21, I was unaware of the long list of determined and courageous women who had carved their way—and facilitated mine—into the ring, fighting for their right to practise a sport considered men’s exclusive domain. By the time I started learning the “sweet science” (another popular term used for boxing), my presence was accepted, albeit still unusual. My university had decreed boxing a violent sport that could not be allowed on campus. As a result, I only started boxing when I obtained a driving licence, and could attend training sessions off-campus. My desire to box had been sparked five years before, when I viewed Girlfight, a film depicting a young woman’s journey into the ring. Until then, I had never imagined a woman could box, let alone be inspirational in the use of her strength, aggression, and violence; to be strong was, for me, to be manly—which, as a woman, translated as monstrous or a perversion. I suddenly recognised in boxing a possibility to rid myself of the burden of what I saw as my bulk, and transform my body into a graceful pugilist—a fighter.First Sparring SessionTwo months after I had first thrown a punch in my coach’s pad—the gear coaches wear to protect their hands when a boxer is punching them to train—I was allowed into the ring to spar. Building up to this moment, I had anticipated and dreaded my first steps in the ring as the test of my skill and worthiness as a boxer. This moment would show my physical conditioning: whether I had trained and dieted correctly, if I was strong or resilient enough to fight. More crucially, it would lay bare my personality, the strength of my character, the extent of my willpower and belief in myself: it would reveal, in boxing terminology, if I had “heart.” Needless to say I had fantasised often about this moment. It was my initiation into the art of being punched and I hoped I would prove myself a hardened individual, capable of withstanding pain without flinching or retreating.The memory of the first punch to my face—my nose, to be exact—remains clear and vivid. My sparring partner was my coach, a retired boxer who hit me repeatedly in the head during the entirety of my first round. Getting hit in the face for the first time is a profound moment of rupture. Until then, my face had been a bodily surface reserved for affective gestures by individuals of trust: kisses of greeting on the cheeks or caresses from lovers. Only once had I been slapped, in an act of aggression that had left me paralysed with shock and feeling violated. Now in the ring, being punched in the face by a man I trusted, vastly more experienced and stronger than I, provoked a violent reaction of indignation and betrayal. Feelings of deceit, physical intrusion, and confusion overwhelmed me; pain was an entirely secondary concern. I had, without realising, assumed my coach would “go easy” on me, softening his punches and giving me time to react adequately to his attacks as we had practised on the pads. A couple of endless minutes later, I stepped out of the ring, breathless and staring at the floor to hide my tears of humiliation and overwhelming frustration.It is a common experience amongst novices, when first stepping into the ring, to forget everything they have been taught: footwork, defence, combinations, chin down, guard up … etc. They often freeze, as I did, with the first physical contact. Suddenly and concretely, with the immediacy of pain, they become aware of the extent of the danger they have purposely placed themselves in. The disturbance I felt was matched in part by my belief that I was essentially a coward. In an act condemned by the boxing community, I had turned my face away from punches: I tried to escape the ring instead of dominating it. Merz succinctly describes this experience in the boxing realm: “aspects of my character were frequently tossed in my face for assessment. I saw gaping holes in my tenacity, my resilience, my courage, my athleticism” (49). That night, I felt an unfamiliar sting as I took my jumper off, noticing a slight yet painful bruise on the bridge of my nose. It reminded me of my inadequacy and, I believed at the time, a fundamental failure of character: I lacked heart.My Face: A Tool for Sensing and Ignoring PainTo get as accustomed as a punching bag to repeated hits without flinching I had to mould my face into a mask of impassivity, revealing little to my opponent. My face also became a calibrated tool to measure my opponent’s skill, strength, and intent through the levels of pain it would experience. If an opponent repeatedly targeted my nose, I knew the sparring session was not a “friendly encounter.” Most often though, we would nod at each other in acknowledgement of the other’s successful “contact,” such as when their punches hurt my body. The ring is the only space I know and inhabit where the display of physical violence can be interpreted as a “friendly gesture” (Merz 12).Boxers, like most athletes, are carefully attuned to measuring the degrees of pain they undergo during a fight and training, whilst accomplishing the paradoxical feat—when they are hit—of setting aside that pain lest it be a distraction. In other words, boxers’ bodies are both material and immaterial: they are sites for accessing sensory information, notably pain levels, as well as tools that—at times detrimentally—have learned to abstract pain in the effort to ignore physical limitations, impediments or fatigue. Boxers with “heart,” I believe, are those who inhabit this duality of material and immaterial bodies.I have systematically been questioned whether I fear bruising or scarring my face. It would seem illogical to many that a woman would voluntarily engage in an activity that could blemish her appearance. Beyond this concern lies the issue, as Merz puts it, that “physical prowess and femininity seem to be so fundamentally incompatible” (476). My face used to be solely a source of concern as a medium of beautification and the platform from which I believed the world judged my degree of attractiveness. It also served as a marker of distinction: those I trusted intimately could touch my face, others could not. Throughout my training, my face evolved and also became an instrument that I conditioned and used strategically in the ring. The bruises I received attested to my readiness to exchange punches, a mark of valour I came to relish more than looking “nice.”Boxing has taught me how to feel my body in new ways. I no longer inhabit an “absent body” (Leder). I intimately know the border between my skin and the world, aware of exactly how far my body extends into that world and how much “punishment” (getting hit) it can withstand: boxing—which Oates (26) observed as a spectator rather than boxer—“is an act of consummate self-determination—the constant re-establishment of the parameters of one’s being.” A strong initial allure of boxing was the strict discipline it gave to my eating habits, an anchor—and at times, a torture—for someone who suffered from decade-long eating disorders. Although boxing plagued me with the need to “make weight”—to fight in a designated weight category—I no longer sought to be as petite as I could manage. As a female boxer, I was reminded of my gender, and my “unusual” body, as I am uncommonly big, strong, and heavy compared to most female fighters. I still find it difficult to find women to spar with, let alone fight. Unlike in the world outside the gym, though, my size is something I continuously learn to value as an advantage in the ring, a tool for affirmation, and significantly, a means of acceptance by, and equality with, men.The Ring: A Place of Re-GenderingAs sparring became routine, I had an epiphany: what I had taken as an act of betrayal from my coach was actually one of respect. Opponents who threw “honest” (painful) punches esteemed me as a boxer. I have, to this day, very rarely sparred with women. I often get told that I punch “like a guy,” an ability with which I have sought to impress coaches and boxers alike. As such, I am usually partnered with men who believe, as they have told me, that hitting a “girl”—and even worse, hitting a girl in the face—is simply unacceptable. Many have admitted that they fear hurting me, though some have quickly wanted to after a couple of exchanges. I have found that their views of “acceptable” violence seem unchanged after a session, as I believe they have come to view me as a boxer first and as a woman second.It would be disingenuous to omit that boxing attracted me as much for the novelty status I have gained within and outside of it. I have often walked a thin line between revelling in the sense of belonging that boxing provides me—anchored in a feeling that gender no longer matters—and the acute sense of feeling special because I am a woman performing as a man in what is still considered a man’s world. I have wavered between feeling as though I am shrugging off the very notion of gender in the ring, to deeply reconsidering what my gender means to me and the world, embracing a more fluid and performative understanding of gender than I had before (Messner; Young).In a way, my sense of self is shaped conflictingly by the ways in which boxers behave towards me in the ring, and how others see me outside of the boxing gym. As de Bruin and de Haan suggest, my body, in its active dimension, is open to the other and grounds inter-subjectivity. This inter-subjectivity of embodiment—how other bodies constitute my own sensory and perceptual experience of being-in-the-world—remains ambivalent. It has led me to feel at times genderless—or rather, beyond gender—in the ring and, because of this feeling, I simultaneously question and continuously re-explore more vividly what can be understood as “female masculinity” (Halberstam). As training progressed, I increasingly felt that:If women are going to fight, we have to be reminded, at every chance available, time and again, that they are still feminine or capable, at least, of wearing the costume of femininity, being hobbled by high heels and constrained by tight dresses. All female athletes in a way are burdened with having to re-iterate this same public narrative. (Merz)As I learned to box, I also learned to delineate myself alongside the ring: as I questioned notions of gender inside, I consequently sought to reaffirm a specific and static idea of gender through overt femininity outside the ring, as other female athletes have also been seen to do (Duncan). During my first years of training, I was the only woman at the gyms I trained in. I believed I had to erase any physical reminders of femininity: my sport clothes were loose fitting, my hair short, and I never wore jewellery or make-up. I wanted to be seen as a boxer, not a woman: my physical attractiveness was, for once, irrelevant. Ironically, I could not conceive of myself as a woman in the ring, and did not believe I could be seen as a woman in the ring. Outside the gym, I increasingly sought to reassert a stereotypical feminine appearance, taking pleasure in subverting another set of beliefs. People are usually hesitant to visualise a woman in a skirt, without a broken nose, as a competitive fighter with a mouth guard and headgear. As Wacquant succinctly put it, “I led a sort of Dr. Jekyll-and-Mr. Hyde existence” (Habitus 86), which crystallised when one of my coaches failed to recognise me on three occasions outside the gym, in my “normal” clothes.I have now come to resent profoundly the marginal, sensationalised status that being a boxer denotes for a woman. This is premised on particular social norms surrounding gender, which dictate that if a woman boxes, she is not “your usual” woman. I have striven to re-gender my experience, especially in light of the recent explosion of interest in female boxing, where new norms are being established. As I have trained around the world, including in Cuba, France, and the USA, and competed in the UK, Mexico, and Belgium, I have valued the tacit connection between those who practice the “noble art.” Boxing fashions a particular habitus (Bourdieu), the “pugilistic habitus” (Wacquant, Body 12). Stepping into the ring, and being able to handle getting hit in the face, constitutes a common language that boxers around the world, male and female, understand, value, and share; a language that transcends the tacit everyday embodiments of gender and class. Boxing is habitually said to give access to an upward mobility (Wacquant, Habitus; Heiskanen). In my case, as a white, educated, middle-class woman, boxing has given me access to cross-class associations: I have trained alongside men who had been shot in Coventry, were jobless in Cuba, or dealt with drug gangs in Mexico. The ring is an equalising space, where social, gender—and in my experience, ethnic—divides can be smoothed down to leave the pugilistic valour, the property of boxing excellence, as the main metric of appreciation.The freedom I have found in the ring is one that has allowed my gendered identity to be thought of in new and creative ways that invite continuous revision. I have discovered myself not solely through the prism of a gendered lens, but as an emotive athlete, and as a person desperate to be accepted despite—or because of—her physical strength. I find myself returning to Merz’s eloquence: “boxing cannot help but make you question who you really are. You cannot hide from yourself in a boxing ring. It might seem a crazy path to self-knowledge, but to me it has been the most rich, rewarding, and perhaps, the only true one” (111). Using Wacquant’s own words to disprove his theory that boxing is fundamentally a virile activity that reaffirms specific notions of masculinity, to become a boxer is to “efface the distinction between the physical and the spiritual [...] to defy the border between reason and passion” (Body 20). In my view, it is to implode the oppositional definitions that have kept males inside the ring and females, out. The ring, in ways unrivalled elsewhere, has shown me that I am not reducible, as the world has at times convinced me, to my strength or my gender. I can, and indeed do, coalesce and transcend both.ConclusionAfter having pondered the significance of the ring to my life, I now begin to understand Merz’s journey as “so much more than a mere dalliance on the dark side of masculine culture” (21). When I box, I am always boxing against myself. The ring is the ultimate space of revelation, where one is starkly confronted with one’s own weaknesses and fears. As a naked mirror, the ring is also a place for redemption, where one can overcome flaws, and uncover facets of who one is. Having spent almost as much time at university as I have boxing, it was in the ring that I learned that “thinking otherwise entails being otherwise, relating to oneself, one’s body, and ambient beings in a new way” (Sharp 749). Through the “boxing habitus,” I have simultaneously developed a boxer’s body and habits as well as integrated new notions of gender. As an exercise in re-gendering, sparring has led me to reflect more purposefully on the multiplicity of meanings that gender can espouse, and on the possibilities of negotiating the world as both strong and female. Practising the “noble art” has given me new tools with which to carve out, within the structures of the society I inhabit, liberating possibilities of being a pugilistic woman. 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