From Crisis to Compensation: Reinventing Identity and Place in the Sideshow and the Laboratory

Examining the ambivalent place of the sideshow and the laboratory within Victorian culture and its reimaginings, this essay explores the contradiction between the narratively orchestrating role and peripheral location of the sideshow in Leslie Parry’s Church of Marvels (2015) and the laboratory in NBC’s Dracula (2013–2014), reading these neo-Victorian spaces as heterotopias, relational places simultaneously belonging to and excluded from the dominant social order. These spaces’ impacts on individual identity illustrate this uneasy relationship. Both the sideshow and the laboratory constitute sites of resignification, emerging as “crisis heterotopias” or sites of passage: in Parry’s novel, the sideshow allows the Church twins to embrace their unique identities, surpassing the limitations of their physical resemblance; in Dracula, laboratory experiments reverse Dracula’s undead condition. Effecting reinvention, these spaces reconfigure the characters’ senses of belonging, propelling them to places beyond their confines, and thus projecting the latter’s heterotopic qualities onto the city. Potentially harmful, yet opening up urban space to include identities which are considered aberrant, these relocations envision the city as a “heterotopia of compensation”: an alternative, possibly idealized, space that reifies the sideshow’s and the laboratory’s attempts to achieve greater extroversion and visibility for their liminal occupants, thus fostering neo-Victorianism’s outreach efforts to support the disempowered.

Phytotoxity of waste waters with Cr and

The dry and fresh biomass and metal concentration (Cr, Ni) in roots and shoots of mustard (S. alba L.) seedlings was evaluated in laboratory experiments with three types of washing waste-waters from cutlery production line. All tested washing waters reduced root dry mass, where-as the dry mass of shoots was either not affected or it increased. The effect of tested washing waters was stronger on fresh mass production than on dry mass production. This indicates problems in water reception and translocation. While the accumulation of Cr was higher in the roots, Ni was distributed equally through the whole plant seedling. Cr uptake in the roots and shoots was in average about 1.7 and 7.3 times, respectively, lower than that of Ni. Ni percentage uptake from washing waters in the roots and shoots was nearly equal and range from 10.2 to 15.8%.

Null results for the steal-framing effect on out-group aggression

Whether intergroup conflict is a necessary condition for the evolution of human prosociality has been a matter of debate. At the center of the debate is the coevolutionary model of parochial altruism—that human cooperation with in-group members has coevolved with aggression toward out-group members. Studies using the intergroup prisoner’s dilemma–maximizing difference game to test the model have repeatedly shown that people do not exhibit out-group aggression, possibly because of an inappropriate operationalization and framing of out-group aggression. The coevolutionary model predicts out-group aggression when the actor understands that it will lead to the in-group’s benefit. However, in the game, such an aspect of out-group aggression that benefits the in-group is typically not well communicated to participants. Thus, this study tested the hypothesis that out-group aggression in the game would be promoted by a framing that emphasizes that attacking out-group members enhances the in-group’s gain. Results of two laboratory experiments with 176 Japanese university students in total showed that such a framing did not promote out-group aggression and individuals invested more money to cooperate with in-group members only, avoiding the strategy of cooperating with in-group members to harm out-group members. These results do not support the coevolutionary model.

Rhombic calcite microcrystals as a textural proxy for meteoric diagenesis

Numerous Phanerozoic limestones are comprised of diagenetic calcite microcrystals formed during mineralogical stabilization of metastable carbonate sediments. Previous laboratory experiments show that calcite microcrystals crystallizing under conditions similar to those that characterize meteoric diagenetic settings (impurity-free, low degree of supersaturation, high fluid:solid ratio) exhibit the rhombic form/morphology, whereas calcite microcrystals crystallizing under conditions similar to those that prevail in marine and marine burial diagenetic settings (impurity-rich, high degree of supersaturation, low fluid:solid ratio) exhibit non-rhombic forms. Based on these experimental observations, it is proposed here that rhombic calcite microcrystals form exclusively in meteoric environments. This hypothesis is tested using new and previously published textural and geochemical data from the rock record. These data show that the vast majority of Phanerozoic limestones characterized by rhombic microcrystals also exhibit petrographic and/or geochemical evidence (depleted δ13C, δ18O, and trace elements) indicative of meteoric diagenesis whereas non-rhombic forms are associated with marine burial conditions. By linking calcite microcrystal textures to specific diagenetic environments, our observations bring clarity to the conditions under which the various microcrystal textures form. Furthermore, the hypothesis that rhombic calcite microcrystals form exclusively in meteoric environments implies that this crystal form may be a useful textural proxy for meteoric diagenesis.

Seed Dormancy Class and Ecophysiological Features of Veronicastrum sibiricum (L.) Pennell (Scrophulariaceae) Native to the Korea Peninsula

Veronicastrum sibiricum is a perennial species distributed in Korea, Japan, Manchuria, China, and Siberia. This study aimed to determine the requirements for germination and dormancy break of V. sibiricum seeds and to classify the kind of seed dormancy. Additionally, its class of dormancy was compared with other Veronicastrum and Veronica species. V. sibiricum seeds were permeable to water and had a mature embryo during seed dispersal. In field conditions, germination was prevented by physiological dormancy, which was, however, relieved by March of the next year, allowing the start of germination when suitable environmental conditions occurred. In laboratory experiments, the seeds treated with 0, 2, 4, 8, and 12 weeks of cold stratification (4 °C) germinated to 0, 79, 75, 72, and 66%, respectively. After the GA3 treatment (2.887 mM), ≥90% of the seeds germinated during the four incubation weeks at 20/10 °C. Thus, 2.887 mM GA3 and at least two weeks at 4 °C were effective in breaking physiological dormancy and initiating germination. Therefore, the V. sibiricum seeds showed non-deep physiological dormancy (PD). Previous research, which determined seed dormancy classes, revealed that Veronica taxa have PD, morphological (MD), or morphophysiological seed dormancy (MPD). The differences in the seed dormancy classes in the Veronicastrum-Veronica clade suggested that seed dormancy traits had diverged. The results provide important data for the evolutionary ecological studies of seed dormancy and seed-based mass propagation of V. sibiricum.

Virtual Three-phase Laboratory Exercise During Pandemic Situation

The Corona pandemic has changed our way to teach, even our laboratory experiments. The exercises for the three-phase systems had to be transferred to the web. The virtual exercises are described and the results are shown. The pros and contras of this way to teach are discussed.

Traditional Selection Potato Varieties and Their Resistance to the 28-punctata Potato Ladybug Henosepilachna vigintioctomaculata (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) in the Southern Russian Far East

Background: Henosepilachna vigintioctomaculata is a polytrophic pest, causing the greatest damage to plants from the nightshade family. The study aimed to research the resistance of potato cultivars that are promising for breeding to damage by a potato ladybug in laboratory and field experiments. Methods: In laboratory experiments, the indicators of fertility, mortality and duration of development, morphological anomalies and the effect of potato varieties on the composition of Epilakhna’s hemolymph were studied. The sample consisted of 50 individuals with a slight predominance of females. The experiment used 13 varieties of potatoes. Result: A specific dependence of the frequency of phytophage anomalies on the variety was revealed. The influence of nutrition on survival and the timing of ontogenesis has been established. The results obtained indicate the high breeding value of the material when recommending it for cultivation in regions with a high number of pests, as well as when creating new varieties.