The Intangible Lightness of Heritage

Abstract

Although my own fieldwork site in Japan is far from Tohoku, where the Great East Japan Earthquake occurred in 2011, my research in a small rural community helped me to place the narratives of survivors into a context I could better understand. Against this backdrop, I consider the role of certain forms of "heritage," such as local festivals and rituals, in the aftermath of disaster, suggesting that the infrastructure created for the practice of traditional activities during normal times can, in times of trauma, become a template for more urgent forms of organizationsuch as setting up shelters. Moreover, the fact that many communities persist in performing festivals and rituals soon after disaster suggests that the very practice of such traditions, even when the context has changed, has symbolic and practical value. Ultimately, however, for heritage to work under these circumstances communities must maintain flexibility and a "light" approach.

β-cell deletion of the PKm1 and PKm2 isoforms of pyruvate kinase in mice reveals their essential role as nutrient sensors for the KATP channel

“…Excitation (x) and emission (m) filters (ET type; Chroma Technology) were used with an FF444/521/608-Di01 dichroic (Semrock) as follows: FuraRed, 430/20x and 500/20x, 630/70m (R430/500 was reported) and Perceval-HR, 430/20x and 500/20x, 535/35m (R500/430 was reported). A custom MATLAB script was used to quantify cytosolic Ca 2+ oscillation parameters (script available at https://github.com/hrfoster/Merrins-Lab-Matlab-Scripts , ( Foster, 2022 copy archived at swh:1:rev:1bd221c947942271d1abdb4aad0e77b29cd77585 )). In order to differentiate between islets of control and knockout mice, islets of one genotype were barcoded by preincubation with 2 µM DiR (Thermo Fisher Scientific D12731) or 2 µM DiD (Thermo Fisher Scientific D7757) in islet media for 10 min at 37°C.…”