As the body must appear : contemporary performances in post-Marikana South Africa

On the 16th of August 2012 34 Lonmin miners lost their lives at Marikana in South Africa. Marikana bears witness to the socio-economic inequality and precarious work and living conditions in South Africa’s new globalized state. Two site-specific contemporary performances Mari and Kana (2015) and Iqhiya Emnyama (The black cloth, 2015) voice this sad event in a remarkable way. In this article we critically reflect on the performances’ avenues of creating transformative encounters between performers, spectators and the performance sites in South African society. Both performances invoke for the audience members a remarkable awareness of the performance site as the spectator is obliged to navigate him- or herself in a politically induced public landscape in Cape Town’s Company Garden. We concur that Mari and Kana and Iqhiya Emnyama both elicit a profound reflection on the daily life struggle of mourning women against inhumanity and socio-economic inequality in a neoliberal South Africa. Unsettling the dominant focus on resilient subjects, the omnipresence of women’s vulnerability in the two performances nurtures a rethinking process on structural justice. In doing so, we more closely analyse the performances’ intention to subvert the constructed category of ‘the mourning South African woman’ via multiple representations of mourning precedents as cultural elements. We conclude that both performances entail unique driving forces that question existing power systems that impact on SA and the problematic structural injustice at the heart of the massacre

Lire et lire, Écrire le lire, et lire ici-même

I/ Préambule comme une biographie de lire 1 – Cela a commencé ainsi On m’a donné la chambre des Grands Il y est sur l’étagère de livre « une vie de Proust », par un auteur anglais, George D. Painter, Une lecture de ma mère en prêt de bibliothèque Et, après qu’on eut sonné à la porte de l’appartement, la chambre tout près, mon père vint me chercher et me demanda d’assumer la commande que j’avais faite : Dans ces années 1950 – j’ai sept ans, puis bientôt quatorze – les éditions Jean de Bonnot e..

Dye modification of nanofibrous silicon oxide membranes for colorimetric HCl and NH3 sensing

Colorimetric sensors for monitoring and visual reporting of acidic environments both in water and air are highly valuable in various fields, such as safety and technical textiles. Until now sol-gel-based colorimetric sensors are usually nonflexible bulk glass or thin-film sensors. Large-area, flexible sensors usable in strong acidic environments are not available. Therefore, in this study organically modified silicon oxide nanofibrous membranes are produced by combining electrospinning and sol-gel technology. Two pH-indicator dyes are immobilized in the nanofibrous membranes: methyl yellow via doping, methyl red via both doping, and covalent bonding. This resulted in sensor materials with a fast response time and high sensitivity for pH-change in water. The covalent bond between dye and the sol-gel network showed to be essential to obtain a reusable pH-sensor in aqueous environment. Also a high sensitivity is obtained for sensing of HCl and NH3 vapors, including a memory function allowing visual read-out up to 20 min after exposure. These fast and reversible, large-area flexible nanofibrous colorimetric sensors are highly interesting for use in multiple applications such as protective clothing and equipment. Moreover, the sensitivity to biogenic amines is demonstrated, offering potential for control and monitoring of food quality

Identification of a cis‐acting element required for shunt‐mediated translational initiation of the Sendai virus Y proteins

Shunting is a mechanism that permits translational initiation at internal codons positioned in proximity to a ribosome acceptor sequence. Sendai virus exploits shunting to express a series of proteins that initiate at the fourth and fifth start sites on the P/C mRNA (namely, the Y1 and Y2 proteins, respectively). Shunt‐mediated initiation at these sites is codon independent. In an attempt to characterise the acceptor site, an extensive deletion analysis was performed spanning the entire C ORF. Only mutants flanking the Y1/Y2 start sites exhibited altered shunt phenotypes. Some of these significantly enhanced shunting efficiency to the point where the Y1/Y2 proteins were the major translational products of the mRNA. Additionally, removal of a short region just downstream of the Y2 start codon (referred to as Δ10) ablated all Y protein initiation via shunting but had no effect on Y expression when the AUG codons were viewed by a scanning ribosome. Point mutations introduced into this Δ10 sequence severely perturbed shunt‐mediated initiation. We also provide evidence that changes in this region of the P/C mRNA may be used to modulate Y protein expression levels in different viral strain

DSP-free and real-time NRZ transmission of 50Gb/s over 15km SSMF and 64Gb/s back-to-back with a 1.3um VCSEL

We demonstrate and analyze 50 Gb/s non-return-to-zero (NRZ) transmission over 15 km of standard single-mode fiber (SSMF), 60-Gb/s NRZ transmission over 5 km of SSMF and up to 64-Gb/s NRZ back-to-back using a directly modulated short-cavity long-wavelength single-mode vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) emitting at 1326 nm. Owing to an analog 6-tap transmit feedforward equalizer, the link can operate without digital signal processing. In all three cases, real-time bit error ratio measurements below the 7% overhead hard-decision forward error correction threshold are demonstrated when transmitting a pseudorandom bit sequence with a period of 2(7) - 1 bits. In addition, we analyze the interplay between the residual fiber chromatic dispersion at the operating wavelength of the VCSEL and the chirp due to direct modulation. These results demonstrate how O-band, short-cavity long-wavelength single-mode VCSELs can be used in intradata center networks, as well as in interdata center networks at reaches below 15 km

A pilot study using a mouse mastitis model to study differences between bovine associated coagulase-negative staphylococci

Coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS) are a group of bacteria classified as either minor mastitis pathogens or commensal microbiota. Recent research suggests species-and even strain-related epidemiological and genetic differences within the large CNS group. The current pilot study investigated in 2 experiments whether a mouse mastitis model validated for bovine Staphylococcus aureus can be used to explore further differences between CNS species and strains. In a first dose titration experiment, a low inoculum dose of S. aureus Newbould 305 (positive control) was compared with increasing inoculum doses of a Staphylococcus chromogenes strain originating from a chronic bovine intramammary infection to a sham-inoculated mammary glands (negative control). In contrast to the high bacterial growth following inoculation with S. aureus, S. chromogenes was retrieved in very low levels at 24 h postinduction (p.i.). In a second experiment, the inflammation inflicted by 3 CNS strains was studied in mice. The host immune response induced by the S. chromogenes intramammary strain was compared with the one induced by a Staphylococcus fleurettii strain originating from cow bedding sawdust and by a S. chromogenes strain originating from a teat apex of a heifer. As expected, at 28 and 48 h p.i., low bacterial growth and local neutrophil influx in the mammary gland were induced by all CNS strains. As hypothesized, bacterial growth p.i. was the lowest for S. fleurettii compared with that induced by the 2 S. chromogenes strains, and the overall immune response established by the 3 CNS strains was less pronounced compared with the one induced by S. aureus. Proinflammatory cytokine profiling revealed that S. aureus locally induced IL-6 and IL-1 beta but not TNF-alpha, whereas, overall, CNS-inoculated glands lacked a strong cytokine host response but also induced IL-1 beta locally. Compared with both other CNS strains, S. chromogenes from the teat apex inflicted a more variable IL-1 beta response characterized by a more intense local reaction in several mice. This pilot study suggests that an intraductal mouse model can mimic bovine CNS mastitis and has potential as a complementary in vivo tool for future CNS mastitis research. Furthermore, it indicates that epidemiologically different bovine CNS species or strains induce a differential host innate immune response in the murine mammary gland

The quorum sensing inhibitor hamamelitannin increases antibiotic susceptibility of Staphylococcus aureus biofilms by affecting peptidoglycan biosynthesis and eDNA release

Treatment of Staphylococcus aureus infections has become increasingly challenging due to the rapid emergence and dissemination of methicillin-resistant strains. In addition, S. aureus reside within biofilms at the site of infection. Few novel antibacterial agents have been developed in recent years and their bacteriostatic or bactericidal activity results in selective pressure, inevitably inducing antimicrobial resistance. Consequently, innovative antimicrobials with other modes of action are urgently needed. One alternative approach is targeting the bacterial quorum sensing (QS) system. Hamamelitannin (2′,5-di-O-galloyl-d-hamamelose; HAM) was previously suggested to block QS through the TraP QS system and was shown to increase S. aureus biofilm susceptibility towards vancomycin (VAN) although mechanistic insights are still lacking. In the present study we provide evidence that HAM specifically affects S. aureus biofilm susceptibility through the TraP receptor by affecting cell wall synthesis and extracellular DNA release of S. aureus. We further provide evidence that HAM can increase the susceptibility of S. aureus biofilms towards different classes of antibiotics in vitro. Finally, we show that HAM increases the susceptibility of S. aureus to antibiotic treatment in in vivo Caenorhabditis elegans and mouse mammary gland infection models