Archive of Darkness:William Kentridge's Black Box/Chambre Noire

Situating itself in histories of cinema and installation art, William Kentridge's Black Box/Chambre Noire (2005) raises questions about screens, exhibition space, site-specificity and spectatorship. Through his timely intervention in a debate on Germany’s colonial past, Kentridge’s postcolonial art has contributed to the recognition and remembrance of a forgotten, colonial genocide. This article argues that, by transposing his signature technique of drawings for projection onto a new set of media, Kentridge explores how and what we can know through cinematic projection in the white cube. In particular, his metaphor of the illuminated shadow enables him to animate archival fragments as shadows and silhouettes. By creating a multi-directional archive, Black Box enables an affective engagement with the spectres of colonialism and provides a forum for the calibration of moral questions around reparation, reconciliation and forgiveness

Mystics' Critiques of Mystical Experience

Existing studies of mysticism have emphasized the place of "experience" in mystical writing and practice. However, an examination of texts from diverse mystical traditions shows that numerous mystics were critical of the pursuit of experience. The present article considers the various reasons for this critique, and its implications for our understanding of the nature of mystical discourse and practice. At the same time, I shall attempt to differentiate the critique of experience from related — but separate — issues, such as the "discernment of spirits" ("discretio spirituum"). I shall also examine the impact of modernization on the formulation of the critique of experience, as well as the role played by gender issues.Lorsque les mystiques critiquent l'expérience mystique Les études existantes sur le mysticisme ont souligné la place tenue par l' "expérience" dans l'écriture et la pratique mystiques. Cependant, l'examen de textes issus de traditions mystiques differentes montre que plusieurs auteurs mystiques étaient réservés sur la poursuite de cette expérience. Le présent article examine les diverses raisons de cette critique et leurs implications pour notre compréhension de la nature de l'écriture et de la pratique mystiques. Il tente par la même occasion de différencier la critique de l'expérience de questions connexes — mais distinctes — telles que le "discernement des esprits" ("discretio spirituum"). On examinera aussi l'impact de la modernisation sur la formulation de la critique de l'expérience, aussi bien que le rôle du sexe dans ces questions.Garb Jonathan. Mystics' Critiques of Mystical Experience. In: Revue de l'histoire des religions, tome 221, n°3, 2004. pp. 293-325

MaLiAmPi enables generalizable and taxonomy-independent microbiome features from technically diverse 16S-based microbiome studies.

For studies using microbiome data, the ability to robustly combine data from technically and biologically distinct microbiome studies is a crucial means of supporting more robust and clinically relevant inferences. Formidable technical challenges arise when attempting to combine data from technically diverse 16S rRNA gene variable region amplicon sequencing (16S) studies. Closed operational taxonomic units and taxonomy are criticized as being heavily dependent upon reference sets and with limited precision relative to the underlying biology. Phylogenetic placement has been demonstrated to be a promising taxonomy-free manner of harmonizing microbiome data, but it has lacked a validated count-based feature suitable for use in machine learning and association studies. Here we introduce a phylogenetic-placement-based, taxonomy-independent, compositional feature of microbiota: phylotypes. Phylotypes were predictive of clinical outcomes such as obesity or pre-term birth on technically diverse independent validation sets harmonized post hoc. Thus, phylotypes enable the rigorous cross-validation of 16S-based clinical prognostic models and associative microbiome studies

Expanding canonical spider silk properties through a DNA combinatorial approach

The properties of native spider silk vary within and across species due to the presence of different genes containing conserved repetitive core domains encoding a variety of silk proteins. Previous studies seeking to understand the function and material properties of these domains focused primarily on the analysis of dragline silk proteins, MaSp1 and MaSp2. Our work seeks to broaden the mechanical properties of silk-based biomaterials by establishing two libraries containing genes from the repetitive core region of the native Latrodectus hesperus silk genome (Library A: genes masp1, masp2, tusp1, acsp1; Library B: genes acsp1, pysp1, misp1, flag). The expressed and purified proteins were analyzed through Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometry (FTIR). Some of these new proteins revealed a higher portion of β-sheet content in recombinant proteins produced from gene constructs containing a combination of masp1/masp2 and acsp1/tusp1 genes than recombinant proteins which consisted solely of dragline silk genes (Library A). A higher portion of β-turn and random coil content was identified in recombinant proteins from pysp1 and flag genes (Library B). Mechanical characterization of selected proteins purified from Library A and Library B formed into films was assessed by Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and suggested Library A recombinant proteins had higher elastic moduli when compared to Library B recombinant proteins. Both libraries had higher elastic moduli when compared to native spider silk proteins. The preliminary approach demonstrated here suggests that repetitive core regions of the aforementioned genes can be used as building blocks for new silk-based biomaterials with varying mechanical properties.National Institute of Health (NIH U01 EB014976)Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR FA9550-14-1-0015