Brexit on Stage: Two Verbatim Projects in Progress

The article deals with two post-Referendum projects launched by British national organizations, the National Theatre and the Guardian with Headlong, whose task was to reflect more accurately on a broader range of current British experience. The projects were written in response to questions on whether national artistic institutions, the subsidized “complex culture,” have not been out of touch with the rest of the country, notably the post-Referendum crisis. Both projects set out to research the crisis with documentary and quasi-documentary methods, to involve in an exercise in “listening” and to focus on polarisation, voter fatigue and lack of trust. The article concentrates on the two projects as variants of political theatre and on the ways they use the verbatim method in their attempts to diagnose and understand the crisis arguing, further on, that the effects differ, leading either to populism or to empathetic understanding and reconciliation.

Hunter–gatherer foraging networks promote information transmission

Central-place foraging (CPF), where foragers return to a central location (or home), is a key feature of hunter–gatherer social organization. CPF could have significantly changed hunter–gatherers’ spatial use and mobility, altered social networks and increased opportunities for information-exchange. We evaluated whether CPF patterns facilitate information-transmission and considered the potential roles of environmental conditions, mobility strategies and population sizes. We built an agent-based model of CPF where agents moved according to a simple optimal foraging rule, and could encounter other agents as they moved across the environment. They either foraged close to their home within a given radius or moved the location of their home to new areas. We analysed the interaction networks arising under different conditions and found that, at intermediate levels of environmental heterogeneity and mobility, CPF increased global and local network efficiencies as well as the rate of contagion-based information-transmission. We also found that central-place mobility strategies can further improve information transmission in larger populations. Our findings suggest that the combination of foraging and movement strategies, as well as the environmental conditions that characterized early human societies, may have been a crucial precursor in our species’ unique capacity to innovate, accumulate and rely on complex culture.

Identifying the essential nutritional requirements of the probiotic bacteria Bifidobacterium animalis and Bifidobacterium longum through genome-scale modeling

Although bifidobacteria are widely used as probiotics, their metabolism and physiology remain to be explored in depth. In this work, strain-specific genome-scale metabolic models were developed for two industrially and clinically relevant bifidobacteria, Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis BB-12® and B. longum subsp. longum BB-46, and subjected to iterative cycles of manual curation and experimental validation. A constraint-based modeling framework was used to probe the metabolic landscape of the strains and identify their essential nutritional requirements. Both strains showed an absolute requirement for pantethine as a precursor for coenzyme A biosynthesis. Menaquinone-4 was found to be essential only for BB-46 growth, whereas nicotinic acid was only required by BB-12®. The model-generated insights were used to formulate a chemically defined medium that supports the growth of both strains to the same extent as a complex culture medium. Carbohydrate utilization profiles predicted by the models were experimentally validated. Furthermore, model predictions were quantitatively validated in the newly formulated medium in lab-scale batch fermentations. The models and the formulated medium represent valuable tools to further explore the metabolism and physiology of the two species, investigate the mechanisms underlying their health-promoting effects and guide the optimization of their industrial production processes.

An Analysis of Gender Equality of Chinese Culture in Mulan Film (2020)

Mulan film (2020) raises gender issues and is still related to the laws of norms and traditions. Mulan has a strong and patriarchal nature while Chinese cultural traditions are not unilateral with Mulan figures. The study aims to promote justice for women with regard to Chinese culture and traditions, as well as whether it has the opportunity to promote equal treatment without discrimination. Gender equality is commonplace to raise and talk about. Each gender is formed in a complex culture of each gender either in their respective positions or positions. Gender equality is linked to feminist, masculine and also includes sexism. Women and men can change roles like women can be wise leaders and men can do the skills that women have such as cooking. This study uses qualitative descriptive methods to analyze the social circumstances associated with the scene. Researchers use the technique of observing the film, interpreting each situation in the film, then collecting data, seeking information on gender equality or activities through observation and sensing that are still related to gender equality in culture, After that give a view on the object to be observed. Thus the research of Mulan film (2020) is intended to find a new mindset or an idea and a new understanding. This method uses observation and sensing and then provides a new interpretation.

Multilingualism in Cameroon: An Expression of Many Countries in One Country

Cameroon is a country with many languages interacting together. The languages have a complex history reflecting its complex culture. This paper focuses on some of these complexities and demonstrate how people belonging to different linguistic groups construct and deconstruct the concept of country using local languages. I will expand on the feeling of belonging to the country when a local language is used. The paper will set the context, provide a historical background of Cameroon, explain the language situation and settle on how the multiple languages spoken in Cameroon make village and ethnic entities countries within a country. It may not be possible to discuss the possible interactions between the multiple languages but levels of interaction of these languages will be established. The notion of country will be explained through the use of the languages and linked to the complexity in the governance process undermining the unity of the people of Cameroon.

Boosting Auto-induction of Recombinant Proteins in Escherichia coli with Glucose and Lactose Additives

Background: Auto-induction is a convenient way to produce recombinant proteins without inducer addition using lac operon-controlled Escherichia coli expression systems. Auto-induction can occur unintentionally using a complex culture medium prepared by mixing culture substrates. The differences in culture substrates sometimes lead to variations in the induction level. Objectives: In this study, we investigated the feasibility of using glucose and lactose as boosters of auto-induction with a complex culture medium. Method: First, auto-induction levels were assessed by quantifying recombinant GFPuv expression under the control of the T7lac promoter. Effectiveness of the additive-containing medium was examined using ovine angiotensinogen (tac promoter-based expression) and Thermus thermophilus manganese-catalase (T7lac promoter-based expression). Results: Auto-induced GFPuv expression was observed with the enzymatic protein digest Polypepton, but not with another digest tryptone. Regardless of the type of protein digest, supplementing Terrific Broth medium with glucose (at a final concentration of 2.9 g/L) and lactose (at a final concentration of 7.6 g/L) was successful in obtaining an induction level similar to that achieved with a commercially available auto-induction medium. The two recombinant proteins were produced in milligram quantity of purified protein per liter of culture. Conclusion: The medium composition shown in this study would be practically useful for attaining reliable auto-induction for E. coli-based recombinant protein production.

Ice Age Humans (30,000 Years Ago)

Starting about 35,000 years ago, humans seem to have made a great leap forward culturally. The authors argue that this wasn’t because of genetic changes that caused the human brain to have increased capacity. It was because some groups culturally evolved the “social tools” that allowed them to maintain connections and share information over long distances. The groups with the most effective social tools managed to stay connected and to survive, and their descendants inherited this culture of connectedness. It’s likely that forming greater connectedness and more complex culture was necessary in order to survive the periods of high climate variability that were a feature of the last ice age.

Hunter-gatherer foraging networks promote information transmission

Central-place foraging, where foragers return to a central location (or home-base), is a key feature of hunter-gatherer social organization. Although why or when our ancestors started returning to “home-bases” remains unclear, it likely had significant implications for many aspects of hominin evolution. For example, central-place foraging, by changing hunter-gatherers’ use of space and mobility, could have altered social networks and increased opportunities for information exchange. We evaluated whether central-place foraging patterns facilitate information transmission and considered the potential roles of environmental conditions and mobility strategies. We built an agent-based central-place foraging model where agents move according to a simple optimal foraging rule, and can encounter other agents as they move across the environment. They either forage close to their home-bases within a given radius or move their home-bases to new areas. We analyzed the interaction networks arising across different environments and mobility strategies. We found that, at intermediate levels of environmental heterogeneity and mobility, central-place foraging increased global and local network efficiencies as well as the rate of contagion-based information transmission (simple and complex). Our findings suggest that the combination of foraging and movement strategies, as well as the underlying environmental conditions that characterized early human societies, may have been a crucial precursor in our species’ unique capacity to innovate, accumulate and rely on complex culture.

Virtual 3D-Reconstruction of the Interiors of Moscow Oblast Manor Complexes (18th – early 20th Centuries): Ceremonial Interiors of Nikolskoye-Uryupino Manor Complex

Historical interiors of manor complexes as one of the main forms of spatial organization of life in the Russian Empire in the 18th – early 20th centuries are unique historical monuments that unite both social and individual elements charactering everyday life of the privileged classes of the Russian Empire. Stylistically and compositionally, historical interiors of Moscow Oblast manor complexes have a special place increasingly attracting the attention of Russian history and culture researchers. However, today most of Moscow Oblast manor complexes are ruined and their interiors are completely lost. The latest computer technologies grant unique opportunities for their virtual 3D-reconstruction and further preservation. The article generalizes types of interiors of Moscow Oblast manor complexes of the 18th – early 20th centuries and describes the transformation of t interiors throughout the main periods of classical manor complex culture development. The author clarifies a ceremonial interior type by the example of Nikol’skoe-Uryupino manor (Krasnogorsk district, Moscow region, Russia) and reconstructs the interiors in the Main Building and the White House by collecting an extensive database of visual and textual historical sources. The result of this work is 3D-reconstruction of the main ceremonial interiors of Nikol’skoe-Uryupino manor made in Autodesk 3DsMax and visualized in Corona Renderer software. The research was conducted in collaboration with the Central State Archive of Moscow Oblast.