Cultural Homogeneity Research Articles

Automatically showing microbial growth kinetics with a high-performance microbial growth analyzer

It is difficult to show microbial growth kinetics online when they grow in complex matrices. We presented a novel strategy to address this challenge by developing a high-performance microbial growth analyzer (HPMGA), which employed a unique 32-channel capacitively coupled contactless conductivity detector as a sensing element and fixed with a CellStatz software. It was capable of online showing accurate and repeatable growth curves of well-dispersed and bad-dispersed microbes, whether they grew in homogeneous simple culture broth or heterogeneous complex matrices. Moreover, it could automatically report key growth kinetics parameters. In comparison to optical density (OD), plate counting and broth microdilution (BMD) methods, we demonstrated its practicability in five scenarios: 1) the illustration of the growth, growth rate, and acceleration curves of Escherichia coli (E. coli); 2) the antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) of Oxacillin against Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus); 3) the determination of Ag nanoparticle toxicity on Providencia rettgeri (P. rettgeri); 4) the characterization of milk fermentation; and 5) the enumeration of viable pathogenic Vibrio in shrimp body. Results highlighted that the HPMGA method had the advantages of universality and effectivity. This technology would significantly facilitate the routine analysis of microbial growth in many fields (biology, medicine, clinic, life, food, environment, and ecology), paving an avenue for microbiologists to achieve research goals that have been inhibited for years due to a lack of practical analytical methods.

Differentiating between psychological, spiritual, and religious dimensions of wellbeing among Orthodox Christians: an interpretative phenomenological analysis of lay perceptions

ABSTRACT This study explored lay perceptions of wellbeing dimensions. Six young adult Orthodox Christians participated in semi-structured interviews about their experiences of spiritual and psychological wellbeing. Data was analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis and produced three themes: articulating wellbeing experiences, relating the two domains, and journeys in wellbeing. This study highlights the role of culture in wellbeing, provides differentiation between lay and academic formulations, and contextualises spiritual wellbeing for an understudied religious group. Future research should refine cultural homogeneity in the sample and explore how specific theological concepts may underpin wellbeing experiences.

When opposites attract—Impact of cultural distance and polarised success in the future of economic unions

Aggregations between nations may be originated from many reasons: military, political, religious and especially economic. Basing ourselves on neoclassical economic theory and identity theory (i.e. local versus global), the aim of this research is to focus on international economic unions. Thus, we consider as economic polarizations, to investigate the levels of cultural homogeneity within the single polarization, to verify: i) whether in the single aggregation there is, in addition to economic harmonization, also cultural homogeneity and ii), if cultural homogeneity goes hand in hand with the economic success of the aggregation, with the help of Hofstede Model on 5 international economic unions. We also determine the crucial weight of cultural heterogeneity on the success of economic unions. The results also offer relevant theoretical and managerial implications for future aggregations.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic Crisis Narratives and Social Construction of Risk: Comparative Case Studies of China and India

COVID-19 is the greatest challenge the world has faced since World War II. By investigating two case countries—China and India, this study explains the variance based on the theory of the ‘social construction of risk’ concerning the COVID-19 pandemic. Does an individual country’s culture, style of governance, construction of risk, and communication affect the management of COVID-19? Findings reveal that the variations of risk construction and communication of narratives play a pivotal role in building the public perception of crisis. Cultural homogeneity and collectivism, the constitutional setting for policymaking risk narratives and communication, are crucial determinants of effective crisis management, and many states lacking these factors suffer profound difficulties. Regarding these, China is more successful than India in creating the social construction of the risk of COVID-19 crisis narratives. The policy implication of this study helps the government find a better approach to persuade its citizens to comply with the public health policy in case of an emergency.

Tourism, Value Appropriation, and Ecological Degradation

This article highlights the main characteristics of the rapid development of tourism during recent decades, as well as the limitations of the existing literature concerning this development. An alternative (Marxist) theoretical framework is then developed for the explication of the development of commodified tourism, the role of ecological and cultural (value) appropriation in the determination of capitalist profitability, and its developmental implications. As argued, this value and resource appropriation and the exploitation/appropriation dialectic have adverse socioeconomic and ecological implications, while leading to the rapid growth of tourism against other sectors. On the other hand, the cultural homogenization and ecological degradation brought about especially by mass tourism imply a self-limiting development of tourism itself. Concluding that the current mode of tourism development is ecologically and socially unsustainable, we end with a broad outline of a different perspective of decommodified tourism within a post-capitalist development.

Distinct Lipid Phenotype of Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts (CAFs) Isolated From Overweight/Obese Endometrial Cancer Patients as Assessed Using Raman Spectroscopy.

Obesity is strongly linked with increased risk and poorer prognosis of endometrial cancer (EC). Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are activated fibroblasts that form a large component of the tumor microenvironment and undergo metabolic reprogramming to provide critical metabolites for tumor growth. However, it is still unknown how obesity, characterized by a surplus of free fatty acids drives the modifications of CAFs lipid metabolism which may provide the mechanistic link between obesity and EC progression. The present study aims to evaluate the utility of Raman spectroscopy, an emerging nondestructive analytical tool to detect signature changes in lipid metabolites of CAFs from EC patients with varying body mass index. We established primary cultures of fibroblasts from human EC tissues, and CAFs of overweight/obese and nonobese women using antibody-conjugated magnetic beads isolation. These homogeneous fibroblast cultures expressed fibroblast markers, including α-smooth muscle actin and vimentin. Analysis was made in the Raman spectra region best associated with cancer progression biochemical changes in lipids (600-1800 cm-1 and 2800-3200 cm-1). Direct band analysis and ratiometric analysis were conducted to extract information from the Raman spectrum. Present results demonstrated minor shifts in the CH2 symmetric stretch of lipids at 2879 cm-1 and CH3 asymmetric stretching from protein at 2932 cm-1 in the overweight/obese CAFS compared to nonobese CAFs, indicating increased lipid content and a higher degree of lipid saturation. Principal component analysis showed that CAFs from overweight/obese and nonobese EC patients can be clearly distinguished indicating the capability of Raman spectroscopy to detect changes in biochemical components. Our results suggest Raman spectroscopy supported by chemometric analysis is a reliable technique for characterizing metabolic changes in clinical samples, providing an insight into obesity-driven alteration in CAFs, a critical stromal component during EC tumorigenesis.

The Korean Wave as the Globalization of South Korean Culture

The purpose of this study is to trace the growing attractiveness of the Korean Wave to understand the domestic culture of Korea that is becoming a global trend. The study is focused on the factors facilitating the formation of the phenomenon and proves that this trend has become one of the country's main export commodities and a “soft power”, as the promotion of Korean culture is a matter of national importance and pride for Seoul. The Republic of Korea has been absorbing the elements of Western culture and transforming them into a new phenomenon, representing a kind of coexistence and crossbreeding of the Western lifestyle and the traditional Eastern values. The context for the study is the cultural homogenization of the West and the East. Is it a blessing or an evil? What are its challenges and achievements, advantages, and disadvantages? What are the reasons for South Korean cultural expansion? The method utilized in the rerearch is narrative analysis to provide an overview of Korean pop culture that has been able to connect Western and Asian values into something unique.

Culture of Primary Neurons from Dissociated and Cryopreserved Mouse Trigeminal Ganglion.

Corneal nerves originate from the ophthalmic branch of the trigeminal nerve, which enters the cornea at the limbus radially from all directions toward the central cornea. The cell bodies of the sensory neurons of trigeminal nerve are located in the trigeminal ganglion (TG) while the axons are extended into the three divisions including ophthalmic branch that supplies corneal nerves. Study of primary neuronal cultures established from the TG fibers can therefore provide a knowledge basis for corneal nerve biology and potentially be developed as an in vitro platform for drug testing. However, setting up primary neuron cultures from animal TG has been dubious with inconsistency among laboratories due to a lack of efficient isolation protocol, resulting in low yield and heterogenous cultures. In this study, we employed a combined enzymatic digestion with collagenase and TrypLE to dissociate mouse TG while preserving nerve cell viability. A subsequent discontinuous Percoll density gradient followed by mitotic inhibitor treatment effectively diminished the contamination of non-neuronal cells. Using this protocol, we reproducibly generated high yield and homogenous primary TG neuron cultures. Similar efficiency of nerve cell isolation and culture was further obtained for TG tissue cryopreserved for short (1 week) and long duration (3 months), compared to freshly isolated tissues. In conclusion, this optimized protocol shows a promising potential to standardize TG nerve culture and generate a high-quality corneal nerve model for drug testing and neurotoxicity studies.

Sequence and context for the Cocina cave neolithic pottery: An approach from social networks analysis

Cocina cave has been considered one of the main sites when explaining the transition from Mesolithic to Neolithic in the Iberian Mediterranean façade. But the current review of its stratigraphy has evidenced important post-depositional disturbances affecting those layers where Neolithic pottery is present. These taphonomic problems question the usefulness of this record in any detailed approach to a potential process of acculturation of the local Mesolithic groups.Despite this negative preservation, and using decorative traits as a proxy, we have isolated two ceramic contexts with inner coherence. Over these contexts, we have developed a Bayesian approach to compare them with other well-dated regional contexts. To contextualise the obtained sequence, we decided to extend the analysis to a wide set of Neolithic known contexts from an area that covers most of the coastal Iberian Mediterranean region, from the Ebro basin in the North to the Segura basin in the South. These contexts have been organised in chronological windows, and a Social Networks Analysis (SNA) has been applied. Results confirm the insertion of Cocina in the regional Neolithic dynamics. After the first stage, with an important degree of cultural homogeneity, the analysis also outlines the existence of a cultural frontier among Neolithic groups North and South of the Xúquer basin, at least from the mid-seventh millennium cal BP.

Marital preferences and stable matching in cultural evolution

Building on previous literature that examines the influence of intergenerational transmission in cultural evolution, we highlight the importance of the marriage market in the determination of cultural homogeneity (“melting pot”) versus heterogeneity (“diversity”). To do so, we characterize cultural evolutionary processes under different distributions of marital preferences and stable matching schemes. In our setting, cultural substitutability (Bisin and Verdier, 2001) is neither sufficient nor necessary for cultural heterogeneity. We introduce a new concept, elasticity of cultural substitution, to capture the degree of increase in vertical socialization efforts in response to minority population decline. With perfect or inelastic vertical transmission in homogamous families, cultural heterogeneity is sustained only if all proposers are homophilic or all members of a cultural group are homophilic. With imperfect vertical transmission in homogamous families, the presence of heterophilic agents may destabilize cultural heterogeneity, and the proportion of heterophilic agents and elasticity of cultural substitution determine whether cultural heterogeneity can be sustained. We discuss the model's implications for the long-lasting impact of temporary gender imbalance on cultural evolution as well as the cultural assimilation and preservation of minorities and immigrants under distinct governmental and religious attitudes toward intermarriage.

Primary Culture of Dental Pulp Stem Cells.

The human dental pulp represents a promising multipotent stem cell reservoir with pre-eminent regenerative competence that can be harvested from an extracted tooth. The neural crest-derived ecto-mesenchymal origin of dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) bestows a high degree of plasticity that owes to its multifaceted benefits in tissue repair and regeneration. There are various practical ways of harvesting, maintaining, and proliferating adult stem cells being investigated for their use in regenerative medicine. In this work, we demonstrate the establishment of a primary mesenchymal stem cell culture from dental tissue by the explant culture method. The isolated cells were spindle-shaped and adhered to the plastic surface of the culture plate. The phenotypic characterization of these stem cells showed positive expression of the international society of cell therapy (ISCT)-recommended cell surface markers for MSC, such as CD90, CD73, and CD105. Further, negligible expression of hematopoietic (CD45) and endothelial markers (CD34), and less than 2% expression of HLA-DR markers, confirmed the homogeneity and purity of the DPSC cultures. We further illustrated their multipotency based on differentiation to adipogenic, osteogenic, and chondrogenic lineages. We also induced these cells to differentiate into hepatic-like and neuronal-like cells by adding corresponding stimulation media. This optimized protocol will aid in the cultivation of a highly expandable population of mesenchymal stem cells to be utilized in the laboratory or for preclinical studies. Similar protocols can be incorporated into clinical setups for practicing DPSC-based treatments.

Pluriversal Worlding: Design, Narratives, and Metaphors for Societal Transformation

This essay examines the concept of pluriversality, which refers to the human power to build worlds differently and envision different models for inhabiting the planet. The Pluriverse, ‘a world where many worlds fit’, is a decolonial vision created by the Zapatista movement that contrasts with the supposed universality of the Western Modern world. Our planet is still home to many ‘worlds’ that have resisted the cultural homogenization promoted by colonialism and imperialism. Pluriversality proposes a path for transformational world-building that begins with the belief that alternatives to capitalist modernity are possible. This essay investigates the relationship between the narratives and metaphors a society adopts and the kind of world we design. Pluriversality is focused on creating and nurturing new models of life and reweaving our reality, not on destroying the old. Recognizing and making visible and viable alternatives that enable healthier relationships with nature and each other, particularly the ones created by Indigenous and marginalized communities and peoples of color, is at the core of what pluriversality is about.

The future of defence rights in the light of the mcdonaldisation of criminal justice systems

Alongside the process of globalisation, from which no state can escape today, there appears to be an underlying “Americanisation of the world”, which is reflected essentially in the worldwide export of American industry and capital, but also of ideas, customs, and social habits. Among these habits, the American sociologist George Ritzer has highlighted the spread of fast-food chains which, according to him, is less a sign of the generalisation of a way of consuming than the implementation of a way of thinking. Indeed, Ritzer observed that contemporary societies have gradually abandoned the traditional way of reasoning in favour of more rational ways of thinking, similar to fast food chains, which rely on efficiency, calculability, predictability and the use of new technologies. Described as “McDonaldisation”, in reference to the famous multinational fast-food corporation, this phenomenon of rationalisation is affecting “more and more sectors of American society as well as the rest of the world” due to cultural homogenisation resulting itself from globalisation. Indeed, the American justice system as well as “the rest of the world”, such as many European legal systems, are also concerned by it, particularly regarding their criminal procedures, which are increasingly under the influence of this process of “McDonaldisation”. The relatively recent use of guilty pleas for individuals and legal persons, the use of sentencing guidelines and the increase in predictive justice in criminal matters reflect the key aspects of “McDonaldisation” mentioned above, namely efficiency, calculability, predictability, and the use of new technologies. However, this streamlining trend harms the defence rights placed at the heart of criminal procedures in general, such as the right to a fair trial, the right to an independent and impartial tribunal, the presumption of innocence and the individualisation of punishment.This paper therefore examines the future of these fundamental rights in the light of the “McDonaldisation” of criminal justice in America and in various European States and focus on the new principles that now guide it.

Can Cultural Homogenization be an Open-Ended Process? Reconstructing the Narratives of Brunei’s Homogenization Process

This paper examines the cultural homogenization process in Brunei Darussalam. While the success and outcomes of cultural homogenization, in general, have been thoroughly examined and highlighted, recent research trends have also been focusing more on the processes of cultural homogenization on the ground, i.e., the responses and reactions of ordinary people who are, supposedly, at the receiving end of the homogenization process. In the case of Brunei Darussalam (hereinafter Brunei), cultural homogenization strategies were introduced as early as the 1950s, primarily for state-building purposes. Similar to conventional writings, official narratives of Brunei’s homogenization also focus more on the outcomes of the process. Thus, focusing on the Dusun ethnic group as its case study, this article questions the ways the Dusuns view and respond to the homogenization process. This study utilizes the interview data gathered from thirty-four Dusun respondents to examine how they perceive, understand, and react toward the process and related policies. The findings of the study suggest that the Dusuns generally accept the homogenization with a sporadic indication of contestation mainly due to the observable decline of ethnic culture and language. Modernization has also been identified as a notable agent, integrating successfully with the homogenizing process, and driving the latter to the desired outcomes.

Introduction: Against citizenship: Visual belongings and transnational affects

This special issue “Against Citizenship: Visual belongings and transnational affects” gathers contributions that address the affective and transnational networks that position themselves against or confront the “fantasy” of an egalitarian citizenship, understanding that this notion is not only intrinsically segregating, but aleatory and artificial, in the same way that the creation and existence of states are. The framework of the issue is the possibility given by cultural practices to articulate and perform post-national, denationalized or transnational forms of citizenship in a world characterized by globalization, post-colonial societies and migratory movements. Through these cultural practices a variety of political communities try to solve the restrictions that the State imposes to differentiated types of citizenship or even to cross its limits, be them geographical or juridical, and a create a different sense of belonging and recognition. The struggles for the rights around intersections, such as race, gender or disability, that are fundamental to the internal exclusion of the “citizens” of a state, are key in questioning the political debt that citizenship has with its supposed cultural homogeneity, as post-colonial countries have experienced in the last years. In this sense, notions such as identity, belonging and affect motivate the needs and roadmaps of communities excluded from citizenship, but seeking precisely to provide radically opposite definitions and possibilities which guarantee the attenuation of vulnerability and, above all, the right to be, live and exist.

De novo full-length transcriptome analysis of two ecotypes of Phragmites australis (swamp reed and dune reed) provides new insights into the transcriptomic complexity of dune reed and its long-term adaptation to desert environments

BackgroundThe extremely harsh environment of the desert is changing dramatically every moment, and the rapid adaptive stress response in the short term requires enormous energy expenditure to mobilize widespread regulatory networks, which is all the more detrimental to the survival of the desert plants themselves. The dune reed, which has adapted to desert environments with complex and variable ecological factors, is an ideal type of plant for studying the molecular mechanisms by which Gramineae plants respond to combinatorial stress of the desert in their natural state. But so far, the data on the genetic resources of reeds is still scarce, therefore most of their research has focused on ecological and physiological studies.ResultsIn this study, we obtained the first De novo non-redundant Full-Length Non-Chimeric (FLNC) transcriptome databases for swamp reeds (SR), dune reeds (DR) and the All of Phragmites australis (merged of iso-seq data from SR and DR), using PacBio Iso-Seq technology and combining tools such as Iso-Seq3 and Cogent. We then identified and described long non-coding RNAs (LncRNA), transcription factor (TF) and alternative splicing (AS) events in reeds based on a transcriptome database. Meanwhile, we have identified and developed for the first time a large number of candidates expressed sequence tag-SSR (EST-SSRs) markers in reeds based on UniTransModels. In addition, through differential gene expression analysis of wild-type and homogenous cultures, we found a large number of transcription factors that may be associated with desert stress tolerance in the dune reed, and revealed that members of the Lhc family have an important role in the long-term adaptation of dune reeds to desert environments.ConclusionsOur results provide a positive and usable genetic resource for Phragmites australis with a widespread adaptability and resistance, and provide a genetic database for subsequent reeds genome annotation and functional genomic studies.

Resistance through clothing styles: Iranian young women’s body representation in public spaces

ABSTRACT This qualitative research extends critical theorizing on clothing practices by exploring how young women’s clothing styles serve the function of resistance to formal hegemonic culture in Iran. Thirty young women, recruited through a snowball-sampling strategy, reported their lived experiences of wearing fashionable clothing styles in urban public spaces. Data were gathered through in-depth interviews and analyzed by way of inductive thematic analysis. Seven key themes were found: young women use clothing styles (1) to communicate new meanings and values related to their femininity; (2) to resist dominant dress codes and veiled bodies; (3) to strengthen feminine agency; (4) to express elegance and openness; (5) to create alternative public spaces; (6) to resist hegemonic body shape; and (7) and to challenge the unbearable heaviness of being the same. It was concluded that the heterogeneity in appearance and in bodily practices among Iranian young women challenges the intended homogeneity of the dominant culture. In this sense, fashionable clothing styles are tools of resistance.

Postmigrant perspectives: Radical diversity as artistic-political intervention

In the last decade, the concept of radical diversity has gained traction, not least in the circles around the postmigrant theatre at the Maxim Gorki Theatre in Berlin. This essay explores this concept and interprets it as part of the overall tendency in postmigratory art and culture to move beyond clear-cut identity groups and to build alliances and coalitions beyond stable identity markers. Radical diversity thus not only denounces doctrines of cultural homogeneity and monoculturalism but also rejects the logic of integration and traditional ideas of multiculturalism. Against this background, radical diversity focuses on the multiplicity of subject positions in society, as well as on the complexity of structures of discrimination and marginalization. As a artistic-political intervention, this essay argues, radical diversity expresses some of the major characteristics of postmigrant societies and urges us to reconsider traditional research perspectives on migratory art and on the relation between culture and migration.

Conservation Practices of Maguindanaons in Lake Buluan, Maguindanao, BARMM

This study was conducted to determine the conservation practices of the Maguindanaoan community in Lake Buluan, Maguindanao, BARMM. A descriptive qualitative method was employed and a total of 50 respondents were randomly selected and interviewed using a structured questionnaire. Pearson correlation was used to assess the strength of the relationship of the variable considered. Data showed that most of the respondents are male (64%) and all are Maguindanaoan. The overall mean knowledge of biodiversity and conservation among respondents was very high, ranging from 4.21-5.00. However, the perceived attitude of the respondents towards biodiversity and conservation was medium, indicating that the majority of the respondents are aware of the loss, exploitation, and reasons of the loss of habitat of native species in the area. The overall mean of 4.16 indicates a high sense of dependent on biodiversity at Lake Buluan. It further showed a high sense of responsibility in preserving the environment, cultural homogeneity, and a high level of community belongingness in Lake Buluan. There is a significant correlation between community awareness and age, knowledge, practices, and well-being. Furthermore, the results of this study can be used as the basis for the government and policymakers in developing a more effective strategy for promoting biodiversity conservation.

Production, partial purification, and characterization of a glucoamylase from Epicoccum nigrum

Starch processing industries use amylases, accounting for approximately 30% of the world’s enzyme market. Previously, an amylase-producing strain of Epicoccum nigrum was isolated from maize grains. Although E. nigrum amylase production is already reported in the literature, no published data on production optimization or characterization of the produced enzyme exists. The objectives of this work were to improve the amylase production by the E. nigrum PG 16 strain and to purify and characterize the produced enzyme. The E. nigrum PG 16 amylase production best conditions in submerged culture were: inoculum of 4% (v v-1) of a five-days-old stationary culture homogenate, agitation at 100 rpm, 25°C, natural light, 72 hours of incubation, starch as the carbon source, and an initial medium pH of 7.0. A molecular exclusion chromatography profile has shown the production of only one amylase, which was partially purified with ammonium precipitation and dialysis. The enzyme optima pH and temperature are 6.0 and 50°C, respectively. The partially purified enzyme lost its activity when incubated for 30 min in temperatures above 40°C, presenting a T50 of 46.25°C. The KM and Vmax of the partially purified enzyme are 1.72 mg mL-1 of starch and 0.15 mg min-1 of degraded starch, respectively. The ion Ca2+ slightly activated the studied enzyme. The ions Cu2+, Zn2+, and Fe3+ and the detergents SDS and Tween 80 acted as inhibitors of the studied enzyme. The partially purified enzyme released glucose from p-nitrophenyl α-D-glucopyranoside (p-NPG). Glucose was the enzyme’s main product from starch hydrolysis, as evidenced by thin-layer chromatography. The E. nigrum PG 16 studied enzyme is a glucoamylase and represents an alternative for enzymatic starch hydrolysis.