Празднование как социально-культурный феномен и как коммуникативная технология

The article is devoted to the philosophic-aesthetical analysis of a «special event» phenomenon. It reveals cultural, historical, and aesthetical basics of a celebration and its social functions. The celebration is approached as a communicative technology. A big part of the article is devoted to the corporate celebrations - it reveals the goals of such celebrations, principles of their organization, and specifics of conduct. Corporate celebration is presented as a communicative technology used for building positive relations within the internal audiences (employees) of the company, for developing corporate culture, and forming corporate identity.Статья посвящена изучению праздника как социокультурного феномена. В статье раскрыты культурно-исторические и эстетические основания праздника, социальные функции. Праздник рассмотрен как коммуникационная технология. В статье уделяется большое внимание корпоративным праздникам, раскрыты их цели, принципы организации и особенности проведения. Корпоративный праздник рассмотрен как пример коммуникационной технологии, используемой для построения позитивных отношений с внутренними целевыми аудиториями (сотрудниками) компании, для развития корпоративной культуры и формирования корпоративной идентичности

WHY PRESERVE? : QUESTIONING CENTRAL EUROPEAN ETHNICITY AND THE PRACTICE OF PRESERVING BUILDINGS AND MONUMENTS; OR, CURATING (IN) DECAY

Our culture of appreciation of old buildings today is a product of the heritage culture of the (broadly speaking) eighteenth-century Central European (white, male, educated) upper class. While we find it pleasant and historically informative to have buildings well preserved, we find the absence of critical questioning of the practice surprisingly absent, although we observe an increasing number of academic discussions in the field of heritage studies, informed by decolonisation, climate change activism, and sustainability issues. Critical artistic practices have too been venturing into heritage and memory politics. The extensive costs of preserving old architecture raise eyebrows mainly only in the far- and alt-right circles, but as late reactions by parts of the global community, such as the attacks on statues as part of the Black Lives Matter movement, signal, there might be a change coming regarding our relationship to the built material past. We offer a reading of the history of the phenomenon, which will make it easier to, first, see it as an ethnic and class construct, and then sketch out a new perspective on its metaphysics, from memory to identity, to discourse. We include voices external to the world of heritage­­ – one that is still run by a privileged group that often claims to speak for others, and whose aims and practices are often, at least for now, accepted by others. We then proceed to discuss what kind of a role a curatorial approach could have in questioning and rethinking the idea of preserving

Focal adhesions come unstuck

When cells let go of a surface, they don't let go of their integrins

A Focal Adhesion Filament Cross-correlation Kit for fast, automated segmentation and correlation of focal adhesions and actin stress fibers in cells

This is the software described in our article 'A Focal Adhesion Filament Cross-correlation Kit for fast, automated segmentation and correlation of focal adhesions and actin stress fibers in cells' and the used datasets for image analysis and correlation.The zip file contains the microscopy images and segmentation and analysis. The software itself is the executable java (.jar) file 'GUIFocalAdhesionOnly.jar

Nascent Focal Adhesions Are Responsible for the Generation of Strong Propulsive Forces in Migrating Fibroblasts

Fibroblast migration involves complex mechanical interactions with the underlying substrate. Although tight substrate contact at focal adhesions has been studied for decades, the role of focal adhesions in force transduction remains unclear. To address this question, we have mapped traction stress generated by fibroblasts expressing green fluorescent protein (GFP)-zyxin. Surprisingly, the overall distribution of focal adhesions only partially resembles the distribution of traction stress. In addition, detailed analysis reveals that the faint, small adhesions near the leading edge transmit strong propulsive tractions, whereas large, bright, mature focal adhesions exert weaker forces. This inverse relationship is unique to the leading edge of motile cells, and is not observed in the trailing edge or in stationary cells. Furthermore, time-lapse analysis indicates that traction forces decrease soon after the appearance of focal adhesions, whereas the size and zyxin concentration increase. As focal adhesions mature, changes in structure, protein content, or phosphorylation may cause the focal adhesion to change its function from the transmission of strong propulsive forces, to a passive anchorage device for maintaining a spread cell morphology

Region-Specific Microtubule Transport in Motile Cells

Photoactivation and photobleaching of fluorescence were used to determine the mechanism by which microtubules (MTs) are remodeled in PtK2 cells during fibroblast-like motility in response to hepatocyte growth factor (HGF). The data show that MTs are transported during cell motility in an actomyosin-dependent manner, and that the direction of transport depends on the dominant force in the region examined. MTs in the leading lamella move rearward relative to the substrate, as has been reported in newt cells (Waterman-Storer, C.M., and E.D. Salmon. 1997. J. Cell Biol. 139:417–434), whereas MTs in the cell body and in the retraction tail move forward, in the direction of cell locomotion. In the transition zone between the peripheral lamella and the cell body, a subset of MTs remains stationary with respect to the substrate, whereas neighboring MTs are transported either forward, with the cell body, or rearward, with actomyosin retrograde flow. In addition to transport, the photoactivated region frequently broadens, indicating that individual marked MTs are moved either at different rates or in different directions. Mark broadening is also observed in nonmotile cells, indicating that this aspect of transport is independent of cell locomotion. Quantitative measurements of the dissipation of photoactivated fluorescence show that, compared with MTs in control nonmotile cells, MT turnover is increased twofold in the lamella of HGF-treated cells but unchanged in the retraction tail, demonstrating that microtubule turnover is regionally regulated

Parietal epithelial cell differentiation to a podocyte fate in the aged mouse kidney

Healthy aging is typified by a progressive and absolute loss of podocytes over the lifespan of animals and humans. To test the hypothesis that a subset of glomerular parietal epithelial cell (PEC) progenitors transition to a podocyte fate with aging, dual reporte

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Components of Germany’s Foreign Economic Activity

Data from the German Federal Statistical Office show that economic production in this country decreased significantly in 2020, and gross domestic product decreased by 5% compared to the previous year. This means that the German economy suffered a deep recession in 2020 owing to the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, which disrupted the ten-year positive dynamics of economic growth. The purpose of the article is to define the features and characteristics of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the components of Germany’s foreign economic activity. The place and role of Germany in world trade are considered. The impact of the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economic indicators of Germany and the European Union was examined, in particular, a significant drop in GDP in the second quarter of 2020. It is substantiated that the German economy is export-oriented and at the same time to some extent it is import-dependent. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on international trade in goods is outlined. In particular, since March 2020, there has been a significant drop in Germany’s exports and imports indicators owing to logistical problems and failures in supply chains. It is defined that motor vehicles and spare parts for them, as well as machinery and chemical products are the largest groups of goods among the exports and imports of Germany. Using the calculated RCA index, it was found out that according to these groups of goods, Germany also has comparative advantages. The dynamics of export and import volumes of the main commodity groups of Germany is presented. The prolonged impact of the pandemic, in particular the restrictive measures taken in the spring of 2019, on a significant drop in exports and imports in mid-April 2020 has been researched. It is proved that the high degree of openness of the German economy has increased macroeconomic stability in the context of the impact of the pandemic. It is found out that foreign economic activity is one of the important factors that helped the German economy cope with the COVID-19 crisis. A description of the successful EU policy in response to the consequences of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is given