Outer Membrane Vesicles (OMVs) of Pseudomonas aeruginosa Provide Passive Resistance but Not Sensitization to LPS-Specific Phages

Outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) released from gram-negative bacteria are key elements in bacterial physiology, pathogenesis, and defence. In this study, we investigated the role of Pseudomonas aeruginosa OMVs in the anti-phage defence as well as in the potential sensitization to LPS-specific phages. Using transmission electron microscopy, virion infectivity, and neutralization assays, we have shown that both phages efficiently absorb on free vesicles and are unable to infect P. aeruginosa host. Nevertheless, the accompanying decrease in PFU titre (neutralization) was only observed for myovirus KT28 but not podovirus LUZ7. Next, we verified whether OMVs derived from wild-type PAO1 strain can sensitize the LPS-deficient mutant (Δwbpl PAO1) resistant to tested phages. The flow cytometry experiments proved a quite effective and comparable association of OMVs to Δwbpl PAO1 and wild-type PAO1; however, the growth kinetic curves and one-step growth assay revealed no sensitization event of the OMV-associated phage-resistant P. aeruginosa deletant to LPS-specific phages. Our findings for the first time identify naturally formed OMVs as important players in passive resistance (protection) of P. aeruginosa population to phages, but we disproved the hypothesis of transferring phage receptors to make resistant strains susceptible to LPS-dependent phages.

THE NEW WAY OF LIFE OF THE OLD BELIEVERS IN BURYATIA: “LIFE HAS IMPROVED, LIFE HAS BECOME MORE JOYOUS”? (1930s)

Establishment of the Soviet power in Buryatia was another and the most painful factor in the decline of the lifestyle of one of the communities living here – the Old Believers. Having appeared in the region in the second half of the XVIII century, they managed to preserve their religious identity and cultural specifics, although already at the beginning of the XX century researchers noted trends of breaking with the most orthodox traditions and discontinuity of generational ties. In the 1920s, the Bolsheviks skillfully supported the protest wave of young people against the power of their parents, the desire to change their lives by leaving the confines of a closed community, as well as the idea of Old Believers about everyday life (built around the basis of their identity, the Old-Orthodox religion) as about the dark and hopelessly outdated. Already in the 1930s, the messages of the main newspaper of the republic – “Buryat-Mongol Pravda” – reported on the new happy life of not only young, but also elderly Old Believers who had abandoned religious prejudices and were in the forefront of building the Soviet society in the villages of Buryat-Mongolia. The article considers the issue on what caused such a change in people’s mentality: the ideological victory of the Soviet propaganda or a socially approved behavior (including cases of active and continued general passive resistance to a new life)? Hence, taking into account the desire of the current Old Believers to return and develop old traditions, the tasks of analyzing the external (everyday) changes of the 1930s in working life and searching for attempts to preserve (for further continuity) the identity of the social group are set. The object of the study is the Old Believers’ community of a part of the former Verkhneudinsky uyezd (since the 1930s – Tarbagataisky and Mukhorshibirsky aimaks of the Buryat-Mongolian ASSR), the subject is the ideological, cultural and religious processes that took place in their environment during the indicated period. As a brief conclusion, it follows that the ideological campaign in Buryat-Mongolia, which continued in the 1930s, had a formal character in the Old Believer districts, which took place in the adoption of changes in the way of life while preserving the foundations of religious identity.

Działalność konspiracyjna Żydów w Krakowie jako reakcja na niemiecką politykę Zagłady

This article presents a detailed history of what the underground resistance of Krakow’s Jews consisted of during the Second World War. It incorporates examples of different types of passive resistance applied as well as the history of illegal organisations that undertook aid activities and Jewish partisan actions. The activities of the partisans in the Krakow forests is scrutinised, together with how contact networks and the production of illegal documents were organised. The article contains a comprehensive analysis of the greatest military achievement of Krakow Jews, known as “attack on Bohemia”, which was remembered as a momentous occasion. Finally, the article shows the evo-lution of the idea of resistance to the Germans and their anti-Jewish policy among Jewish youth.

"that headquarters of fanaticism and disaffection": Protest and the construction of space at Parihaka in the 1880s

At the 2009 version of this symposium I presented a paper that outlined how protests at Waitangi during the 1980s were played out architecturally through the media. Despite the heavy focus on biculturalism during the 1980s, reporting of proceedings at Waitangi on February 6th each year clearly showed a trifurcation of space. Television networks and the national newspapers showed that the "landscape of nationhood" was in fact inhabited by three actors in the symbolically important rituals - the State, tame Māori, and wild Māori.This trifurcation of space also played out a hundred years earlier at Parihaka. Sue Abel's examinations of media constructions of nationhood and cultural interaction can be identified in reports on happenings at Parihaka pā through the 1880s. From the passive resistance to the Crown's persistent surveying of the land and building of roads, the frequent large hui held at Parihaka that drew Māori from around the country, through to the invasion of the pā by a government force of more than 1500 troops – there was rich material for spatial representation by the media of the time. While the channels were different (dominated by newspapers and Parliamentary reports, with no television networks), this paper shows that the message of trifurcation was as strong in the 1880s as it would be in the 1980s.

An Afrasian Entanglement

The establishment of the Phoenix Settlement and the Gandhi Development Trust (GDT) in South Africa was an experiment in self-sufficient communal living and the promotion of the values and principles of Mahatma Gandhi and South Africa’s democratic Constitution, respectively. While both entities are the result of Gandhi’s South African connection, they serve to embody, through the Mahatma, an Afrasian Entanglement. Gandhi’s time in South Africa made a remarkable impact on him and the country, transforming his political and social positions and influencing its struggle for freedom. In post-apartheid South Africa, the shared mission of both organisations is to advance a culture of nonviolence, peace and social responsibility through a range of transformative programmes. This article details Gandhi’s South African journey, his evolving ideas of passive resistance and social reconstruction there, and the resultant legacy programmes that resonate with the spirit of Ubuntu and the South African Constitution to reinforce democracy.

Women’s resistance to domestic violence during COVID-19 pandemic: A study from Indonesia

COVID-19 pandemic affected the increasing frequency and intensity of a husband and wife’s interaction. The pandemic further worsened domestic violence experienced by women, and this has made them resist the violence. This study aims to unravel domestic violence and women’s resistance. The research used a qualitative method on women who experienced domestic violence amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings suggest that the resistance was triggered by numerous internal conflicts, such as declining income and increasingly diverse household conflicts during the pandemic. Women spontaneously resist against verbal, physical, and psychological abuse to save themselves from harm and to protect their dignity. The resistances are demonstrated in various ways, including fighting the husband back, verbal abuse, shouting, threatening to divorce, scratching, and punching the husband. Additionally, women also resorted to passive resistance by giving the silent treatment, staying away, stopping communication, not sleeping in the same bed, and refusing to serve the husband. This resistance exhibited women’s awareness to defend their rights. Women did realize that they have the right to fight back as a manner of combating gender inequality.

Transmission Comparison for Cooperative Robotic Applications

The development of powered assistive devices that integrate exoskeletal motors and muscle activation for gait restoration benefits from actuators with low backdrive torque. Such an approach enables motors to assist as needed while maximizing the joint torque muscles, contributing to movement, and facilitating ballistic motions instead of overcoming passive dynamics. Two electromechanical actuators were developed to determine the effect of two candidate transmission implementations for an exoskeletal joint. To differentiate the transmission effects, the devices utilized the same motor and similar gearing. One actuator included a commercially available harmonic drive transmission while the other incorporated a custom designed two-stage planetary transmission. Passive resistance and mechanical efficiency were determined based on isometric torque and passive resistance. The planetary-based actuator outperformed the harmonic-based actuator in all tests and would be more suitable for hybrid exoskeletons.