Preserving functionality: keeping artefacts ‘alive’ in museums

According to a recent article, ‘Instrument museums are mausoleums, places for the display of the musically dead, with organologists acting as morticians, preparing dead instrument bodies for preservation and display’. This view, often repeated since the 1960s, reflects the frustration experienced by most museum visitors facing objects stripped of their function and presented as aestheticized icons. Curatorial debate has led to the development of several alternative proposals to deliver a culturally engaging presentation of musical objects. However, none has managed to efficiently replace the expectation of museums visitors to appreciate the object in its functional state. Moreover, debate over the role of museums in preserving intangible – as well as tangible – heritage stimulated further consideration of the importance of preserving/presenting functionality of music‐related objects. While some authors have developed specific music‐related perspectives (e.g. Barclay R. [2005]. The Preservation and Use of Historic Musical Instruments: Display Case and Concert Hall), little or no cross‐fertilisation has happened with the much broader world of functional objects in museums, which includes at least scientific, technologic and mechanical objects and those pertaining to daily lives. The article will offer an overview of current debate, approaches and policies for the preservation and display of functionality in a variety of non‐music related museums, with a parallel perspective on the current approach to musical instruments

X-Ray Structure of the Human Calreticulin Globular Domain Reveals a Peptide-Binding Area and Suggests a Multi-Molecular Mechanism

In the endoplasmic reticulum, calreticulin acts as a chaperone and a Ca2+-signalling protein. At the cell surface, it mediates numerous important biological effects. The crystal structure of the human calreticulin globular domain was solved at 1.55 Å resolution. Interactions of the flexible N-terminal extension with the edge of the lectin site are consistently observed, revealing a hitherto unidentified peptide-binding site. A calreticulin molecular zipper, observed in all crystal lattices, could further extend this site by creating a binding cavity lined by hydrophobic residues. These data thus provide a first structural insight into the lectin-independent binding properties of calreticulin and suggest new working hypotheses, including that of a multi-molecular mechanism

An Expressed Sequence Tag collection from the male antennae of the Noctuid moth Spodoptera littoralis: a resource for olfactory and pheromone detection research

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Nocturnal insects such as moths are ideal models to study the molecular bases of olfaction that they use, among examples, for the detection of mating partners and host plants. Knowing how an odour generates a neuronal signal in insect antennae is crucial for understanding the physiological bases of olfaction, and also could lead to the identification of original targets for the development of olfactory-based control strategies against herbivorous moth pests. Here, we describe an Expressed Sequence Tag (EST) project to characterize the antennal transcriptome of the noctuid pest model, <it>Spodoptera littoralis</it>, and to identify candidate genes involved in odour/pheromone detection.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>By targeting cDNAs from male antennae, we biased gene discovery towards genes potentially involved in male olfaction, including pheromone reception. A total of 20760 ESTs were obtained from a normalized library and were assembled in 9033 unigenes. 6530 were annotated based on BLAST analyses and gene prediction software identified 6738 ORFs. The unigenes were compared to the <it>Bombyx mori </it>proteome and to ESTs derived from Lepidoptera transcriptome projects. We identified a large number of candidate genes involved in odour and pheromone detection and turnover, including 31 candidate chemosensory receptor genes, but also genes potentially involved in olfactory modulation.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our project has generated a large collection of antennal transcripts from a Lepidoptera. The normalization process, allowing enrichment in low abundant genes, proved to be particularly relevant to identify chemosensory receptors in a species for which no genomic data are available. Our results also suggest that olfactory modulation can take place at the level of the antennae itself. These EST resources will be invaluable for exploring the mechanisms of olfaction and pheromone detection in <it>S. littoralis</it>, and for ultimately identifying original targets to fight against moth herbivorous pests.</p

Les ZNIEFF-Marines en Normandie : outil de connaissance de la biodiversité marine

International audienc

Les ZNIEFF-Marines en Normandie : outil de connaissance de la biodiversité marine

International audienc

Investigation of surface treatment effects in micro-injection-moulding

Micro-injection-moulding as a replication method is one of the key technologies for micro-manufacture. An important stage in micro-injection-moulding which can affect the accuracy and mechanical properties of the produced components is part de-moulding. During this stage, part-mould forces can cause a variety of defects to micro-parts, including stress marks, deformation, fracture and stretching of the polymer structures. Therefore, in this paper, the effects of different surface treatments on the de-moulding behaviour of parts with micro-features are investigated. In particular, the de-moulding of a representative micro-part was studied as a function of two different tool coatings, diamond-like carbon and silicon carbide, in combination with four process parameters, employing the design of experiment approach. In addition, the results obtained using different combinations of process parameters were analysed to identify the best processing conditions in regards to de-moulding behaviour of polycarbonate and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene micro-parts when utilising these two coatings