Living GenoChemetics by hyphenating synthetic biology and synthetic chemistry in vivo

Marrying synthetic biology with synthetic chemistry provides a powerful approach toward natural product diversification, combining the best of both worlds: expediency and synthetic capability of biogenic pathways and chemical diversity enabled by organic synthesis. Biosynthetic pathway engineering can be employed to insert a chemically orthogonal tag into a complex natural scaffold affording the possibility of site-selective modification without employing protecting group strategies. Here we show that, by installing a sufficiently reactive handle (e.g., a C–Br bond) and developing compatible mild aqueous chemistries, synchronous biosynthesis of the tagged metabolite and its subsequent chemical modification in living culture can be achieved. This approach can potentially enable many new applications: for example, assay of directed evolution of enzymes catalyzing halo-metabolite biosynthesis in living cells or generating and following the fate of tagged metabolites and biomolecules in living systems. We report synthetic biological access to new-to-nature bromo-metabolites and the concomitant biorthogonal cross-coupling of halo-metabolites in living culture

Beyond Statistical Significance: Implications of Network Structure on Neuronal Activity

It is a common and good practice in experimental sciences to assess the statistical significance of measured outcomes. For this, the probability of obtaining the actual results is estimated under the assumption of an appropriately chosen null-hypothesis. If this probability is smaller than some threshold, the results are deemed statistically significant and the researchers are content in having revealed, within their own experimental domain, a “surprising” anomaly, possibly indicative of a hitherto hidden fragment of the underlying “ground-truth”. What is often neglected, though, is the actual importance of these experimental outcomes for understanding the system under investigation. We illustrate this point by giving practical and intuitive examples from the field of systems neuroscience. Specifically, we use the notion of embeddedness to quantify the impact of a neuron's activity on its downstream neurons in the network. We show that the network response strongly depends on the embeddedness of stimulated neurons and that embeddedness is a key determinant of the importance of neuronal activity on local and downstream processing. We extrapolate these results to other fields in which networks are used as a theoretical framework

Five approaches to the theory of divine kingship and the kingship of the Shilluk of the Southern Sudan

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:D87843 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Seaborne empires and hub societies: connectivity in motion across the Indian Ocean world

In diesem Artikel wird die Welt des Indischen Ozeans als Referenz gewählt und eine Perspektive eingenommen, die vom Konzept der „Konnektivität in Bewegung“ ausgeht. Zunächst werden einige historische Varianten der Seeimperien (Portugiesen, Niederländer und Briten) betrachtet, um herkömmliche, terrazentrische Modelle des Staates zu hinterfragen und zu modifizieren. Die drei Hauptteile des Beitrags untersuchen die Insel Mauritius als „Hub“ und „Hub Society“ und stützen ein zentrales Argument für ein polyzentrischeres, gebrochenes und durchlässiges Modell. In drei miteinander verbundenen analytischen und empirischen Schritten wird zunächst die Außendimension des mauritischen Hubs untersucht. In den nächsten beiden Abschnitten wird auf die interne Dimension des „Hubbing“ eingegangen, zunächst in Bezug auf kollektive Identitäten und dann auf der Ebene individueller und familiärer Strategien. Abschließend werden die empirischen und historischen Daten, die in diesen drei Abschnitten präsentiert werden, unter Bezugnahme auf die diskutierten theoretischen und methodologischen Fragen analysiert. Eine entschiedenere Anerkennung der Mobilität und der maritimen Dimension der menschlichen „Konnektivität in Bewegung“ bietet neue Einsichten in die konventionellen Auffassungen von Staatlichkeit, Nation und Territorium – und, außerhalb von ausschließlich terrestrischen Ansätzen – der eurasischen Landmasse.This article takes the Indian Ocean world as a frame of reference and applies a perspective guided by the concept of “connectivity in motion”. It looks, to start with, at some historical paradigms of seaborne empires (Portuguese, Dutch and British) in order to question and modify conventional, terra-centric models of the state. Substantiating an argument in favor of a more polycentric, fractured and porous model, the three central sections of the paper investigate the island of Mauritius as a “hub” and “hub society”. In three interconnected analytical and empirical steps, first the external dimension of the Mauritian hub is scrutinized. The next two sections zoom in to focus on the internal dimension of “hubbing”, first with respect to collective identities, and then at the level of individual and family strategies. In conclusion, the empirical and historical data presented in these three sections are analyzed with reference to the theoretical and methodological issues raised earlier. It is argued that the more decisive recognition of mobility and of the maritime dimension of human “connectivity in motion” brings new insights into conventional notions of statehood, nation and territory – and of the Eurasian landmass, beyond exclusively terrestrial approaches