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AbstractThis is a material culture-based case study of two bandolier bags dated to the late nineteenth or early twentieth century in the Agnes Etherington Art Center collection in Kingston, Canada. The floral motifs that decorate these two bags are not made from porcupine quills, nor are all of them bilaterally symmetrical as in “traditional” Indigenous art. Instead, they are made from glass beads, and most of the floral designs are asymmetrical. The bags’ surface patterns and materials were made possible through international trade, which facilitated the merging of European and other global designs, materials, and forms with Indigenous visual and material culture. Contemporary Western anthropological discourse framed these Indigenous objects as “hybrids” and alleged that they distorted the original meaning of such styles in a European context while simultaneously “corrupting” traditional Indigenous art and culture. Such art forms were denied a place in modernity due to their supposed inauthenticity. Ironically, “authentic” Indigenous art and material culture was likewise barred from being considered “modern” due to its hand-made, “preindustrial” nature. Connecting North American historical developments with discourse on Indigenous modernisms, I argue that on the contrary, these bags evince their makers’ conscientious engagement with modernity and can be considered modern Indigenous art. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author, a Red River Métis beadwork artist and researcher, offers a brief introduction to the history and purpose of octopus/fire bags, a traditional Métis garment. She explores both her experience of reclaiming the garment design following disruption of intergenerational knowledge transfer as a result of colonialism, and details textile and garment construction processes. Reflecting on the finer points of selecting materials, choosing lining, and binding of the piece, the author takes an organic detour into the sphere of Métis fingerweaving and beadwork, and ultimately explores the meaning and visual language of the beadwork featured on Ob-La-Di, Oc-To-Pus (Life Goes On): A Modern Métis Fire Bag. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The museum world is currently grappling with questions of how to decolonize anthropological collections and many of these debates are epistemologically oriented. In pursuit of colonial ordering, material culture was extracted from colonized societies, deprived of its contextual meaning, and scrutinized through the lens of colonial knowledge. This article considers how an empirical decolonial practice can be applied drawing on from the current work at the Manchester Museum (MM). Dialogue, open engagements, multivocal conversations, collaborations, and shared authority in knowledge production are some of the decolonial strategies that I share. To illustrate this praxis turn in museum decolonial work, I first look at how we have addressed cultural objects looted from Benin in 1897 that we hold and "contain" at MM in our living cultures collection, underscoring a commitment by MM to transparency and a provision of access to the living collection by different groups of people. The second example is drawn from a collaborative provenance research that I undertook with Nongoma community members in South Africa in rewriting biographies of Zulu beadwork that we house at MM. Overall, I argue that decolonization should embrace a relational practice of caring for objects through active relations of reciprocity and dialogue with communities. The downside of decolonial practices and how are they are inherently shaped by power imbalances and tensions between curators and communities is also critically discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cree visual artist Ruth Cuthand utilizes traditional and contemporary Indigenous beading techniques to craft multicolored, enlarged images of deadly diseases spread during contact with European settlers. The beaded virus makes visible the 500-year history of biological warfare waged against Indigenous communities, while the act of beading, a form of medicine in itself, is a centuries-old practice of continuity and memory. The paper builds upon Avery Gordon's (2008) theory of hauntings to investigate traces of memory contained in viruses, beads and beadwork. I argue that the continuous outbreak of viruses that Indigenous communities experience operate as ghostly matter that make present the ghost of colonial violence. Building on decolonial feminist theories of inoculation, theories of temporality and semiology, bio-medical innovation and material history, I consider the viral impact of glass beads to argue that Cuthand's beadwork acts as decolonial inoculation: a technology that indigenizes the elements of colonial invasion to enable Indigenous resurgence and continuity. I examine Cuthand's beadwork as well as the role of the needle in both Western scientific and Indigenous practices of medicine. The paper closes with an examination of works made by Cuthand during the COVID-19 pandemic including A Remembrance of COVID-19 (2022) and a photo of Cuthand wearing an N-95 respirator mask beaded with COVID-19 microbes. I propose the mask is an act of temporal recurrence and discontinuity: it aligns the present with past moments of bioterrorism but reflects a divergence, a move toward Indigenous communicability as an act of survival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Native American communities known as the first owners the American continent, have dominated the continent for a long time although their numbers have decreased considerably today. The earliest known history since the first settlements on the continent is based on the ice age. It is pointed that the first crossing from Asia to America took place via the Bering Strait, the land bridge that was allegedly formed due to the freezing of the ocean. In almost every corner of the America, there are a great many of indigenous communities which were numerous before the discovery. Native Americans create beadwork as one of their cultural characteristics. Today, geometric motifs are commonly used in ornamental designs. The northern part of the country rarely uses curvilinear motifs. Native American motifs use the star motif differently, as there are many motifs similar to Turkish motifs. One of the important common cultural features of Turks and Native Americans is their similar belief systems. In both cultures, the elements of the sky were found valuable and considered sacred. In this study; it is aimed to determine whether the star motif that appears in different areas in Turkish and Native American cultures belonging to different beliefs which don't have a border between them, has a common expression language, for which purposes and meanings it is used. This study is limited to the star motif which is commonly found in Anatolian weaving and Native American beadwork. In 2015, field research was done on the Arizona Navajo reservation by interviewing resource people and looking at literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article looks at several ways in which computer science topics can be made more accessible to students and librarians alike. They include the use of sophisticated unplugged computing activities such as game play or beadwork, doing book sorting activities and using an app that allows students to program their strategies, and learning block coding to create weavings.

The emergence and utilization of gold beads in China were influenced by foreign civilizations and cultures, while the exploration of composite beads in China has been relatively limited compared to single-material beads. Metal foil glass beads represent a distinct type of composite beadwork popular in ancient times. This paper presents findings from a study conducted on a group of beads that were unearthed in Nanyang City, Henan Province. Theoretical calculations and CT imaging suggested that a particular class of gold beads, previously misidentified as single-material beads, actually consisted of gold foil wrapped around an inner layer of glass beads. Elemental analysis techniques such as pXRF, SEM and μ-EDXRF were used to reveal that the purity of the gold foil of the two differently shaped beads is around 95% and 98.5%, while the silver foil of the silver beads is also around 85% due to corrosion. Microscopic observation confirmed that the gold leaf was applied through foil-fusion gilding. Lead isotope analysis indicated that the gold beads originated from different sources, whereas the silver beads likely originated from the Central Plains region. Furthermore, the evidence of beadwork from Southeast Asia and South China supports the view that the gold beads may have been originally exotic but gradually adaptated through indigenous learning, allowing the creation of high-quality imitations. This study emphasizes the importance of scientific analyses for the proper determination of bead types and craftsmanship, and contributes to a better understanding of the ancient bead circulation network. • A special type of beadwork that wraps glass in a gold leaf is recognized. • The purity of the gold foil of two differently shaped beads is around 95% and 98.5%. • These gold beads may have originated in Southeast Asia and then spread to China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crow warrior-artist White Swan authored more biographic images than any other Historic-period Crow artist. It has even been suggested that he drew one rock art scene at the historically important petroglyphs at Joliet, Montana. Here, the authors evaluate the likelihood that the Joliet scene is a White Swan drawing, and they also evaluate the possibility that one of the "anonymous" ledger drawings in the Barstow collection was drawn by him. Unfortunately, neither drawing has sufficient similarities to known White Swan drawings to be classified as such. Instead, these drawings indicate there were likely far many more Crow men who could execute pictographic narratives of style and content similar to those produced byWhite Swan than has so far been reported in the anthropological literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the promising practice of an emerging culturally adapted, trauma-informed yoga program for Indigenous adolescent girls. I draw from my experiential learning during a series of 12 yoga sessions over 2018 and 2019 with eight Indigenous girls (ages 13-17) from rural and remote Inuit communities in Quebec, Canada. Participants had experienced varying degrees of child maltreatment and interaction with the child welfare system, and they were all under the care of youth protection services in a residential facility. The yoga and mindfulness intervention provided weekly 60-minute sessions in the residential unit. Yoga sessions integrated a blended model of cultural teachings, group dialogue, and trauma-informed yoga. The approach included circle sharing, cultural teachings, gentle progressions of physical postures, guided meditation, breathing techniques, centring practices, and beadwork. This promising practice explores trauma-informed yoga as a strengths-based community strategy for relational healing that promotes cultural connectedness, safety, and resilience among Indigenous adolescent girls removed from their rural and remote communities to a residential facility in an urban area. This paper outlines an introductory framework for health professionals, paraprofessionals, program administrators, and staff working with Indigenous children and youth in residential facilities. Specifically, this promising practice builds on existing findings of trauma-informed yoga with adolescents, as well as movement and centring approaches through an Indigenous lens of relational healing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the degree to which belonging to "Southern Ndebele"' identity is expressed through material culture, such as beadwork, wall paintings, architecture and distinctive ways of dressing. Seeing material culture as a signifier and proclamation of Ndebele identity has attracted media attention and generated valuable insight about the expression of belonging to Ndebele identity in South Africa. However, drawing inferences about identity from material culture can obscure details and nuances about identity and belonging and the complex manner in which they relate to material culture. This article argues that the inherently complex and unstable nature of ethnic identities has to be considered when analysing and detecting shifts in material culture and its use as an identity marker in Ndebele communities. Drawing on the long history of association between Ndebele identity and material culture, this paper exposes the dynamics, complexities and nuances about identity and belonging to push beyond narrow interpretations of material culture as markers and expression of Ndebeleness. Based on ethnographic research conducted in the KwaMhlanga region, the paper explores the material production of Ndebeleness within the context of crafting a South African nation in order to illuminate the complexities of formulations of meaning and belonging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A unified model for the feedback and ballooning instabilities in the magnetosphere‐ionosphere (M‐I) coupling is developed by means of the reduced magnetohydrodynamic and two‐fluid equations, involving the local current closure and the ionospheric conductivity change in a scale of auroral fine structures, self‐consistently. In a low pressure gradient case, the Alfvén harmonics are destabilized through the feedback mechanism, while the ballooning instability appears if the magnetospheric pressure gradient exceeds a critical value. Transition of the dominant instability between the feedback and ballooning modes is brought by change of the normalized pressure gradient or the convection electric field in the magnetosphere. The obtained results imply a variety of appearance of auroral arcs and beads in the M‐I coupling system. Plain Language Summary: A novel explanation on generation of arc and beading structures of auroras is provided by means of theoretical analysis based on the first principle of plasma physics. The theory predicts competition of two different types of perturbation growth, leading to a variety of auroral appearance. Key Points: A new magnetosphere‐ionosphere coupling model is derived, where the feedback and ballooning instabilities are simultaneously describedTransition of dominant instability mode is brought by change of pressure gradient or convection electric field in the magnetosphereThe magnetosphere‐ionosphere coupling theory predicts a novel scenario on the auroral beading and preexisting arcs [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite their ubiquity in Holocene African archaeological assemblages, ostrich eggshell (OES) beads are rarely studied in detail. An exception is in southern Africa, where there is a proposed relationship between OES bead diameter and the arrival of herding ~2000 years before present. In 1987, Leon Jacobson first observed that beads from forager sites in Namibia tended to be smaller than those associated with herder sites. Studies examining bead size around the Western Cape have generally confirmed Jacobson's findings, though the driving forces of the diameter change remain unknown. Since this time, diameter has become an informal way of distinguishing forager and herder assemblages in southern Africa, but no large-scale studies of OES bead variation have been undertaken. Here we present an expanded analysis of Holocene OES bead diameters from southern, and for the first time, eastern Africa. Results reveal distinct patterns in OES bead size over time, reflecting different local dynamics associated with the spread of herding. In southern Africa, OES diameters display low variability and smaller absolute size through time. While larger beads begin to appear <2000 years ago, most beads in our study remained smaller. In contrast, eastern African OES bead diameters are consistently larger over the last 10,000 years and show no appreciable size change with the introduction of herding. Notably, larger beads thought to be associated with herders in southern Africa fall within the range of eastern African beads, indicating a potential connection between these regions in the Late Holocene consistent with genetic findings. Regional differences in bead size are subtle, on the order of millimeters, yet offer a potentially important line of evidence for investigating the spread of herding in sub-Saharan Africa. In order to understand the meaning of these changes, we encourage additional studies of OES bead assemblages and urge researchers to report individual bead diameters, rather than averages by level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given that Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) generally infects people in early childhood and that such persons when not treated with antibiotics remain infected for the rest of their lives, it is quite important to detect H. pylori in children, and convenient to do so using non-invasive methods. Stool antigen tests constitute such an effective non-invasive method. In the current work, a novel fecal test was developed to detect H. pylori based on immunomagnetic beads (IMBs) with monoclonal antibodies sensitively recognizing and capturing the H. pylori, coupled with a polyclonal antibody-conjugating quantum dot probe, and ultrasensitive detection was achieved by using a fluorescence spectrometer. The detection method took 120 min to perform, and showed a limit of detection of 102 CFU mL−1 and a linear range of 10 to 106 CFU mL−1 (R2 = 0.9962). Most importantly, this method can be effectively applied to real samples. This study provided a novel method for the non-invasive detection of the fecal antigen H. pylori. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beadwork is a well-documented aspect of the socio-political culture of isiZulu-speaking groupings in Southern Africa. Whilst scholarship on beadwork deals largely with the denotative and connotative value it offers wearers, this article's contribution relates both to its commodification and apolitical value by confronting a general assumption that a beadwork style known as isimodeni [modern beadwork], produced as trinkets for tourists along Durban's racially stratified Golden Mile since the 1960s, is an authentic representation of a Zulu material culture. The paper probes how traditional beadwork and highly decorated rickshaw carts and pullers were earmarked by tourism officials of the time as commodities that could serve a demand for colourful exoticism and accessible "Zulu" culture. Methodologically, the article draws on a visual analysis of beaded artefacts and photographs, in addition to ethnographic data derived from unstructured interviews with beadworkers on the Durban beachfront, to examine how a beadwork tradition transformed into a "Zulu" tourism commodity, and then transmuted into a nationalised form of ethnic identity and sartorial tradition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immunoagglutination assay is a promising approach for the detection of waterborne analytes like virus, cells, proteins with its advantages such as a smaller amount of reagents and easier operation. This paper presents a microfluidic agglutination assay on which all the assay processes including analyte capture, agglutination, and detection are performed. The chip integrates an on-chip pump for sample loading, a dynamic magnetic bead (MB) clump for analyte capture and agglutination, and a sheath-less flow cytometry for particle detection, sizing, and counting. The chip is tested with streptavidin-coated MBs and biotinylated bovine serum albumin as a model assay, which realizes a limit of detection (LOD) of 1 pM. Then, an antigen/antibody assay using rabbit IgG and goat anti-rabbit IgG coated MBs is tested and a LOD of 5.5 pM is achieved. At last, human ferritin in 10% fetal bovine serum is tested with Ab-functionalized MBs and the detection achieves a LOD of 8.5 pM. The whole procedure takes only 10 min in total. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A major limitation of the single antigen bead (SAB) assay is the so called prozone effect, whereby the detection of high titer complement fixing HLA antibodies is compromised due to complement split product (from C3 and C4 components) deposition and interference with the reporter anti-IgG-PE antibody binding. Strategies to minimize prozone include serum titration or treatment with heat, dithiotreitol (DTT), or ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA). While effective, these treatments may compromise HLA antibody binding and detection. Here we describe the D ual A ntibody R apid T est (DART), a modified version of the r apid o ptimized SA B (ROB) protocol, in which we use an IgG-PE/C3d-PE antibody cocktail to simultaneously detect bead bound IgG and C3d, which allows for detection of HLA antibodies independent of the prozone effect. Twenty prozone positive sera (10 class I and 10 class II), identified by titration, were tested by the ROB protocol, with or without EDTA pre-treatment, using three reporter antibody cocktails: (1) IgG-PE, (2) C3d-PE, or (3) IgG-PE/C3d-PE (DART). Mean fluorescence intensity (MFI) values were then compared. IgG negative (n = 735) vs IgG positive (n = 1185) reactions were identified using a 1000 MFI IgG EDTA cutoff. IgG positive reactions were classified based on ΔMFI (IgG EDTA – IgG) as follows: (1) prozone negative (ΔMFI < 3000; n = 737), (2) slight prozone (ΔMFI 3001–5000; n = 49), (3) moderate prozone (ΔMFI 5001–10,000; n = 93), and (4) marked prozone (ΔMFI > 10,001; n = 306). No C3d deposition was present on IgG negative beads, and the majority of prozone positive specificities (438/448; 98%) fixed complement and were detected with the C3d-PE reporter. Interestingly, C3d-PE MFI was directly proportional to the degree of prozone (mean C3d-PE MFI = 4419.5 ± 1606.3 for slight, 5991.0 ± 2302.7 for moderate, and 12,417.4 ± 2969.9 for marked prozone specificities). Interestingly, EDTA treatment was found to have a negative impact on MFI of up to 15% of prozone negative specificities. Importantly, the DART protocol detected all prozone positive specificities while MFI for prozone negative specificities correlated well with those seen with the IgG-PE reporter alone (R2 = 0.97). In conclusion, the DART protocol accurately detects HLA antibodies independent of the prozone effect. Implementation of DART is an easy way to overcome the prozone effect without compromising HLA antibody detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various wet ball nanomilling-screening tools for poorly soluble APIs are available which differ in their milling principle, batch size and number of samples. Here, the transferability of results from screening (small to medium-scale) to pharmaceutical production (largescale) was investigated. Wet ball milling in a dual centrifuge (DC) (10–100 mg API, 40 samples in parallel) was used to identify stable nanoformulations. In addition different sized agitator bead mills were used for scale-up to industrial scales. DC-and small-scale agitator milling (AM) resulted in small and virtually identical API-particles. Additionally, similar API-particles were obtained using two different sized agitator bead mills (batch size 1.5 and 30 kg) and applying comparable specific grinding energies (SGE). The SGE used in the trials represents the grinding limit for this API-suspension. Using lower SGEs, AM results in larger API-particles. All used milling tools had no influence on the APIs crystal structure and wear of grinding media (Zr/Y) is low. The study confirmed the importance to choose the right formulation and process parameters, which positively affect grinding efficacy, particle size distribution and wear contamination. The excellent comparability of results obtained from DC-milling and AM significantly reduces the duration for successful and predictable formulation development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chitosan nanoparticles and chitosan beads were synthesized through the ionic gelation procedure in which sodium citrate was used as the cross-linking agent. The prepared nanoparticles were characterized by using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), zeta potential, and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. The synthesized nanoparticles and beads were examined as drug carriers for controlled release of two important drugs including betamethasone and tetracycline. For this purpose, various properties such as swelling behavior, loading capacity, encapsulation efficiency, and release degree of the particles were obtained. The effect of pH on the aforementioned parameters was also studied. The results indicated that the amount of drug released from chitosan nanoparticles is lower than that released from chitosan beads. It was also found that the release degree for both of the drugs at the pH of 4.8 is much larger than that at the pH of 7.4. • Chitosan in nano and bead scales were synthesized by ionic gelation procedure • TEM image revealed that the nanoparticles have a size lower than 5 nm • Chitosan particles were used as carriers for betamethasone and tetracycline • Swelling behavior, loading capacity, and release degree of carriers were obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on contemporary art In Uganda. It focuses on empowering women economically while mobilizing new trajectories that reflect the intersecting and shifting landscapes of public space and private space to shape inquiry into gender relationships, art, art-making, and politics; and the hierarchies of art and decorative crafts and their links to women's exclusion from the art scene came under scrutiny. It also focuses on to examine the ways in which paper beads and the process of beading, implicated as symbolic conventions or become very means deployed by women.

Nacreous pearls are usually found in saltwater (SW) or freshwater (FW) environments, yet there are some reports of pearls originating from a brackish environment. Likewise, nacreous pearls may form naturally or by human manipulation (bead and non-bead cultured), but in some cases the origin is hard to prove and professional opinions are not always unanimous. Two pearls were examined by the authors, who were in the unique situation of being unable to positively identify either their origin (natural or cultured) or growth environment (FW versus SW). This in turn had a direct impact on the ability to determine which mollusk produced the pearls, a factor that would have helped answer the former two questions. It is very rare to find pearls for which all three of these criteria are in doubt, as usually it is straightforward to determine at least two of them. The results of this study illustrate the challenges that laboratories sometimes face when testing pearls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the patterns that result from intercommunity contact has long been an interest in anthropology. Although linguistically diverse, peoples of the Historic-period Great Plains came into contact through a diversity of means, both malevolent and benevolent in form. Accordingly, the idea that the Plains was an environment that led to high degrees of cultural interchange has long been held. Recently, it has been proposed that the among-tribe distribution of some material culture patterns, such as beadwork patterns on moccasins, is explicable in geographic terms. That is, geographically proximate groups exchanged cultural features at higher rates than those more geographically distant from each other. While logically sound, this pattern would only emerge at statistically significant levels if selective biases were not operating to prevent the "free flow" of information. However, there are viable and well-documented reasons why decorative features may be subject to such cultural selection. Moreover, previous assessments of the geographic hypothesis only examined the general layout of beadwork designs, rather than more detailed features such as motifs, beadwork techniques, and other decorative features. Here, the role of geographic spacing in explaining the among-tribe distribution of beadwork attributes on the High Plains during the Historic period is reexamined. A dataset describing motifs, beadwork techniques, and additional decorative features is used. These data are subjected to several sets of statistical analysis. The role of linguistic affinities is also considered. The results show that geographic "isolation by distance" does indeed explain the distribution of beadwork attributes among these ethnolinguistically diverse tribes, with no equivalent statistical effect for language patterns. In turn, these results highlight the role of specific processes operating among these communities. These results also underline the value of ethnographic museum collections for addressing the role of social processes among the people responsible for their manufacture, which can have anthropological relevance over much broader scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The potential of hydrothermal technology was utilized for the preparation of promising adsorbents in order to overcome the troubles of methemoglobinemia (blue baby syndrome) and eutrophication which is caused by excess nitrate (NO 3 −) and phosphate (PO 4 3−) ions in water. Hence, in the present investigation, the chitosan (CS) encapsulated lanthanum oxide (La 2 O 3) admixed Aegle marmelos(AM) (La 2 O 3 AM@CS) composite beads was prepared by both in situ precipitation (In situ) and hydrothermal (Hydro) methods for NO 3 − and PO 4 3− adsorption. The hydro supported La 2 O 3 AM@CS composite beads hold an enhanced nitrate and phosphate sorption capacity (SC) of 27.84 and 34.91 mg/g than the other adsorbents prepared by in situ method. The characterization studies of the adsorbents such as FTIR, XRD, SEM and BET analysis were explored in detail. In batch scale, the adsorption affecting parameters such as contact time, pH, adsorbent dosage, initial adsorbate strength, competing anions and temperature was optimized. The fitted experimental data of various isotherms and thermodynamic parameters supports the feasible nature of NO 3 − and PO 4 3− adsorption system. The field trial investigations and reuse of La 2 O 3 AM@CS composite beads were also executed. • Easily separable La 2 O 3 AM@CS composite beads were developed and utilized for nitrate and phosphate adsorption. • La 2 O 3 AM@CS composite beads (Hydro) possess enhanced nitrate and phosphate SC. • Nitrate and phosphate adsorption mechanism was governed by complexation, electrostatic adsorption and hydrogen bonding. • In field water, a La 2 O 3 AM@CS composite bead reduces nitrate and phosphate concentration below the tolerance limit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) has revolutionized biomedical research by enabling the in-depth analysis of cell-to-cell heterogeneity of tissues with unprecedented resolution. One of the catalyzing technologies is single cell droplet microfluidics, which has massively increased the overall cell throughput, routinely allowing the analysis of thousands of cells per experiment at a relatively low cost. Among several existing droplet-based approaches, the Drop-seq platform has emerged as one of the most widely used systems. Yet, this has surprisingly not incentivized major refinements of the method, thus restricting any lab implementation to the original Drop-seq setup, which is known to suffer from up to 80% bead loss during the process. In this study, we present a systematic re-engineering and optimization of Drop-seq: first, we re-designed the original dropleting device to be compatible with both air-pressure systems and syringe pumps, thus increasing the overall flexibility of the platform. Second, we devised an accompanying chip for post-encapsulation bead processing, which simplifies and massively increases Drop-seq's cell processing efficiency. Taken together, the presented optimization efforts result in a more flexible and efficient Drop-seq version. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sulfonic containing polymer bead was synthesized using sodium p-styrenesulfonate (SSS) and N,N′-methylenebisacrylamide (MBA) through inverse suspension polymerization and evaluated as catalyst for esterification of of n-octanol and acrylic acid. The influence of some principal factors, such as combination dispersant, crosslink agent content, posttreatment methods, and porogen types, was investigated in detail. The results showed that the morphology and characteristics of polymer beads were controllable. The polymer beads with 20wt% crosslink agent showed the best catalysis ability achieving almost 96% esterification conversion at the first time and 80% after 5 cycles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article introduces key examples of Ndebele beadwork from the study collection of Berlin's Ethnologisches Museum. The Ndebele of South Africa are a minority ethnic group that has attracted international recognition for its vibrant mural art, the exclusive domain of women artists. The Ndebele live predominantly in rural villages that were functionalized as tourist attractions during apartheid, catering beadwork arts to a souvenir market. This article traces the connections between Ndebele beadwork, ceremonial dress, dolls and murals as objects of a material culture unfolding on the backdrop of a problematic history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maasai beaded ornaments are generally understood as traditional artifacts, but are in fact the result of modern developments. This case study refutes widespread assumptions about Maasai beadwork, showing that modernity cannot be captured accurately by the narrative of binary oppositions it has produced. I describe how the very presence, but also many of the uses and designs of these artifacts are material expressions of the dynamic and complex interactions and relationships between people across continents in modern times. By establishing and reflecting on these connections, I argue that modernity should be approached as a stage in the ongoing, increasingly integrated, humanity-wide cultural dynamic on our earth. This insight takes us out of the impasse in the debate on how to approach the concept of modernity, giving a clear space to the singular concept while simultaneously acknowledging that a variety of modernities have come about as different peoples are influenced by, as well as contribute to, the wider cultural dynamic. Employed so often in daily and scientific sense-making, it is essential to further disentangle understandings of modernity from modernist thinking in simple and absolute dichotomies, and establish it as an emergent and interactive process with semi-permeable boundaries that includes opposing voices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most of the families of a village Mangali in Hisar block of Haryana are involved in production of wooden beads for decades. The production process is a joint effort made by both male and female members of the family. However the works done by male members start from procurement of wood to making of beads till their marketing whereas women work to string the beads for whole days and give them finishing looks for selling in not more than 50-100 rupees per day that too only if work is available in abundance. Even the male members only get a limited selling price as all the benefits are secured by the middlemen. The women also face physiological hazards and musculoskeletal discomforts for doing all the works sitting on floor in a bending posture. The plight of the women is so high that even after the long day seasonal field works, they are sitting over floors in a bent posture which is causing them discomforts over the body for next many days. The activities performed by the women which are related to beads are numerous in nature like jewellery, crafts, etc, and hence the postures. Squatting and cross legged are the major postures that are observed among the women in forward-bent condition and which cause them further musculoskeletal disorders. A workstation having the facilities regarding back support, eye-level works, wrist support, storage and light requirements is suggested. The multipurpose workstation can help the women to healthy work not for the bead works only but also for other housing chores to speed the activities and enhance the productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aimed to determine the information needs and information seeking behavior of beads producers in the Eastern Region of Ghana. It also looked at the sources of information available to the beads producers, as well as the problems they encountered when searching for information about their work. The study employed qualitative research methods. Data was triangulated through interview, observation and focus group discussions. One hundred and sixty three (163) beads producers participated in the study, The findings of the study revealed that the main knowledge gaps of the bead producers were related to their work, and these were registration of their designs, branding of their beads, marketing of their beads, copyright and health issues. The beads producers mainly sought information through their immediate family members and neighbours/friends, radio, television, NGOs, and individual beads sellers/exporters. The study recommends among other things the need for community radio stations, especially state owned radio and the information centres in the local communities to consciously develop and broadcast programmes to disseminate information that are relevant to the bead producers in their local language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The degree to which the development of migrancy as a way of life for men in South Africa affected the ways in which people fashioned their identity through dress constitutes the core of this article. The history of the development and adaptation of particular forms of dress is traced, with variations considered, following Mikhail Bakhtin (Speech Genres and Other Late Essays.Austin: University of Texas Press, 1986), as speech/dress acts within specific speech/ dress genres. Black miners are shown to have adopted a tripartite set of identities in colonial and apartheid times; these are, as Achille Mbembe (On the Postcolony. Johannesburg: Wits University Press, 2015) argues, interlocking rather than chronologically separate and sequenced. They included the “traditional”, associated with rural homes; the specifically ethnic, associated with performative mine spectacles; and the modern, manifested in the urbane returnee to the “homeland”. These three interchangeable identities traverse a period from the late 1800s to the present. Focusing (but not exclusively) on mid-twentieth-century miners from the eastern seaboard of South Africa and their beadwork—often considered as one of the main markers of ethnicity—it is argued that these dress genres, interwoven and changing, are part of their fashioning of a modern masculine identity. The archive used here is largely photographic, and so visual analysis and historical contextualisation are the methodological tools employed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article examines contemporary Indigenous art, focusing upon artists that utilize beading, stitching and other traditional arts. Particular focus is given to the reclamation of these materials beyond the traditional art/craft debate. Additional topics discussed include the meditative quality of artmaking, and a closer look at the work of contemporary Indigenous artists including Jamie Okuma, Ursula Johnson and Ruth Cuthand.

This article considers a collection of Plains Indigenous beadwork donated to the Royal Saskatchewan Museum by the Canadian author and collector Mary Weekes (1884–1980). Taking the rural cottage where she acquired her collection as a contact zone, the analysis considers how Weekes developed unusually intimate settler–Indigenous friendships that forced her to confront her complicity in colonial practices of dispossession and assimilation. It also interrogates how her dedication to Saskatchewan's marginalised Indigenous peoples at times irreconcilably conflicted with her own marginalised status as a woman with persistent professional ambitions. Moreover, the article contends that Weekes's domestic circumstances and exchanges of labour therein offer insight into the reproduction of settler identity in twentieth-century Saskatchewan and the simultaneous (and not necessarily oppositional) resistance of Indigenous dispossession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pulsatile Drug delivery systems are gaining a lot of interest as they deliver the drug at the right site of action, at the right time and in the right amount, as per the pathophysiological needs of the diseases, resulting in increasing patient compliance. A combination of floating, pulsatile and multiparticulate systems is now widely employed for the treatment of various diseases. Floating pulsatile beads release drug after a lag time with no release during floating in the stomach after which a burst release in the upper part of the g.i.t. so drugs can be delivered at right time, in right amount and at right site of action by use of floating pulsatile beads. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The single antigen bead (SAB) test contributes to conventional cellular and solid phase crossmatch tests in renal transplantation. However, the determination of anti-HLA antibodies of the patients may not reflect the pathologic features of these antibodies. Highly sensitized patients produce antibodies against a number of HLAs; therefore, their transplantation chance decreases. In this study, we aimed to evaluate SAB and C1q test results of highly sensitized patients. In this study, 33 end-stage renal failure patients with >80% panel reactive antibody were included. Of the patients, 58% (n = 19) were female, and 42% (n = 14) were male. The mean age was 46.2 ± 12.4. All of the serum samples were inactivated by heat before use. SAB and C1q tests were performed according to the manufacturer's instructions. We obtained statistically significant results between the positive bead counts and raw mean fluorescence intensity (MFI) values of 2 tests (P <.01 for class I and II). There was a statistically significant difference between the 2 tests in terms HLA-A, -C, -DR, and -DP MFI values, whereas HLA-B and -DQ MFI values were similar for the 2 tests. The difference of raw MFI values between the 2 tests may be due to the fact that the C1q test detects only IgG1 and IgG3 antibodies, whereas the SAB test can detect all IgG subtypes. We considered that anti-HLA-B and -DQ antibodies have high complement-fixing features; these antibodies should be investigated selectively due to the similarity of anti-HLA-B and -DQ antibody MFI values in the 2 tests. • The single antigen bead test has a significant contribution to conventional crossmatch methods. • The C1q test is important for the characterization of IgG antibodies. • Anti-HLA-B and -DQ antibodies may be more complement-fixing antibodies than HLA-A, -C, -DR, and -DP antibodies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines beadwork made and worn by the Mpondomise peoples living in the district of Tsolo in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. Particular focus is given to beadwork items dating from 1897 to 1934, which had mass-produced snuff boxes attached to them. Additional topics discussed include a collection of beadwork from the Englishman Frank Cornner, how Cornner's collections relate to the history of missions in Africa and St. Cuthbert's Mission near Tsolo, Eastern Cape, South Africa.

The article reviews the exhibition "Beadwork, Art and the Body: Dilo Tše Dintši/Abundance," which was curated by Anitra Nettleton and Christopher Richards at Wits Art Museum in Johannesburg, South Africa from July 28-October 11, 2015.