The formation of political consciousness in rural Nepal

This chapter considers the formation of political consciousness at the village level in Nepal through an ethno-historical examination of the 1984 Piskar Massacre, in which a local festival in Sindhupalchok district became a fatal confrontation between villagers and the police. Using a Gramscian theoretical framework, this case study suggests how we might broadly conceptualize the formation of political consciousness in rural Nepal as a key historical process, in relation to which any genuine understanding of motivations behind participation in the Maoist movement in particular, and the political sphere in general, must be considered.     

Semantic Analysis of Meanings in Psycholinguistics

This short chapter is an appendix to the book on which this issue is based. The excerpt is from the study “Semantic Study of Stereotypes of Nonnormal Gender Role Behavior,” by N.G. Yanova. This example offers characteristics of the semantic analysis of meaning carried out in the authors' project. The meaning of the word “princess” is analyzed in the example.     

Using Graph Components Derived from an Associative Concept Dictionary to Predict fMRI Neural Activation Patterns that Represent the Meaning of Nouns

In this study, we introduce an original distance definition for graphs, called the Markov-inverse-F measure (MiF). This measure enables the integration of classical graph theory indices with new knowledge pertaining to structural feature extraction from semantic networks. MiF improves the conventional Jaccard and/or Simpson indices, and reconciles both the geodesic information (random walk) and co-occurrence adjustment (degree balance and distribution). We measure the effectiveness of graph-based coefficients through the application of linguistic graph information for a neural activity recorded during conceptual processing in the human brain. Specifically, the MiF distance is computed between each of the nouns used in a previous neural experiment and each of the in-between words in a subgraph derived from the Edinburgh Word Association Thesaurus of English. From the MiF-based information matrix, a machine learning model can accurately obtain a scalar parameter that specifies the degree to which each voxel in (the MRI image of) the brain is activated by each word or each principal component of the intermediate semantic features. Furthermore, correlating the voxel information with the MiF-based principal components, a new computational neurolinguistics model with a network connectivity paradigm is created. This allows two dimensions of context space to be incorporated with both semantic and neural distributional representations.     

Variation Among Student Chapters of The Wildlife Society

ABSTRACT Student Chapters of The Wildlife Society serve the parent organization as a source of new members while promoting professional development among aspiring wildlife biologists. However, little is known about the operation of the Student Chapters across North America. I conducted an online survey between March and May 2006 to learn about variation among chapters and to define successful chapters with a quantifiable, objective parameter (e.g., the active members or budgets). I sent chapter advisors and student officers the online survey via e-mail. Of 92 Student Chapters known to the parent Society in 2005, 66 active and one inactive chapters responded. Activities, sizes, and budgets varied greatly among chapters. Additionally, perceived values of membership by survey participants matched the parent Society's goals. No clear definition of a successful chapter (e.g., those with the most money or members) emerged, but chapters faced some evident problems including apathy from students and advisors as well as a lack of support from the parent Society. Based upon the survey, I recommend Student Chapters have strong projects and activities as well as consider collaborating with other professional organizations. I recommend the parent Society continue to expand student programs and incorporate students into the Society.     

Psychophysical study of image orientation perception

The experiment reported here investigates the perception of orientation of color photographic images. A collection of 1000 images (mix of professional photos and consumer snapshots) was used in this study. Each image was examined by at least five observers and shown at varying resolutions. At each resolution, observers were asked to indicate the image orientation, the level of confidence, and the cues they used to make the decision. The results show that for typical images, accuracy is close to 98% when using all available semantic cues from high-resolution images, and 84% when using only low-level vision features and coarse semantics from thumbnails. The accuracy by human observers suggests an upper bound for the performance of an automatic system. In addition, the use of a large, carefully chosen image set that spans the 'photo space' (in terms of occasions and subject matter) and extensive interaction with the human observers reveals cues used by humans at various image resolutions: sky and people are the most useful and reliable among a number of important semantic cues.     

Political efficacy and interest as mediators of expected political participation among Belgian adolescents

Abstract

Citizenship education intends to prepare students to become politically active citizens. However, studies investigating the relationship between citizenship education and political participation have largely neglected the mediating role of political attitudes. This study examines whether political efficacy and political interest are mediators of expected political participation, using the data of the Belgian (Flemish) sample of the ICCS 2016 study. The results indicate that three educational strategies (i.e., classroom discussions, civic learning opportunities, and student participation at school) are positively associated with expected political participation (i.e., institutionalized and noninstitutionalized participation) in a distinct way. A substantial part of this relationship is mediated by political interest and political efficacy. Future research should take this underlying mechanism into account when studying the development of civic engagement amongst adolescents in a school context. The findings of this study call for a broad approach to citizenship education for the development of political attitudes, as well as behavior.     

Canvases of Political Competition: Image Production as Politics in Tamil Nadu,India

In this article, I explore the production of political images in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The state is known for the ubiquitous presence of banners, murals and posters in its public spaces, featuring prominent politicians and actors. It is commonly argued that these images help to convey the heroic or exclusive status of political leaders. However, such images are actually produced by party workers and therefore do not simply transpose status and image. Instead, political supporters praise their leader via these images and act as ‘kingmakers’ in constructing reputation and power. Simultaneously, by putting political images on display, supporters also authorise their own power. While praise is important in showing a person's dedication to a political party, the images, in the motivations of their producers, are suffused with ambivalence and competition as well. Hence, I argue, political image practices are not representative of politics, they are politics.     

A new United States Pharmacopeia (USP) Chapter 1046: cell and gene therapy products

The United States Pharmacopeia (USP) has published the first draft of a new information chapter on cell and gene therapy products in January, 2000. The chapter discusses the manufacturing and testing cell and gene therapy products. It is intended for people working in the field as well as for pharmacists and clinicians who would like more information on this subject. This article outlines the background of USP and explains how it became involved with cell and gene therapy and what an information chapter is. It details the subjects covered by the chapter and the philosophy behind the chapter. This draft will be revised based on comments received from the public and then published as a revision subject to further comments before it becomes an official chapter in a supplement to USP 24-NF 19.     

Role of school climate and personality in the development of Czech adolescents’ political self-efficacy

This study examined the effects of school climate (open classroom and positive student relationships) and personality dispositions (shyness and need for cognition) on adolescents’ political self-efficacy. Data were collected in 2014 from 1,954 Czech ninth- and tenth-graders (mean age?=?15.60). A multilevel analysis showed that school-level political self-efficacy predicted self-efficacy for local politics. However, schools and classrooms were rather homogeneous in terms of students’ mean political self-efficacy and students’ self-reported acquisition of civic skills at school. Hence, school characteristics had only limited associations with adolescents’ political self-efficacy. At the same time, students’ political efficacy had a considerable association with lower shyness and higher need for cognition. These results suggest that the development of political efficacy at school goes beyond simple general influences of school environment and individual differences between students must be considered.     

Brain imaging tools in neurosciences

In this chapter brain imaging tools in neurosciences are presented. These include a brief overview on single-photon emission tomography (SPET) and a detailed focus on positron emission tomography (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). In addition, a critical discussion on the advantages and disadvantages of the three diagnostic systems is added.Furthermore, this article describes the image analysis tools from visual analysis over region-of-interest technique up to statistical parametric mapping, co-registration methods, and network analysis. It also compares the newly developed combined PET/CT scanner approach with established image fusion software approaches.There is rapid change: Better scanner qualities, new software packages and scanner concepts are on the road paved for an amply bright future in neurosciences.     

Suggestion-Induced Modulation of Semantic Priming during Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging during a primed visual lexical decision task, we investigated the neural and functional mechanisms underlying modulations of semantic word processing through hypnotic suggestions aimed at altering lexical processing of primes. The priming task was to discriminate between target words and pseudowords presented 200 ms after the prime word which was semantically related or unrelated to the target. In a counterbalanced study design, each participant performed the task once at normal wakefulness and once after the administration of hypnotic suggestions to perceive the prime as a meaningless symbol of a foreign language. Neural correlates of priming were defined as significantly lower activations upon semantically related compared to unrelated trials. We found significant suggestive treatment-induced reductions in neural priming, albeit irrespective of the degree of suggestibility. Neural priming was attenuated upon suggestive treatment compared with normal wakefulness in brain regions supporting automatic (fusiform gyrus) and controlled semantic processing (superior and middle temporal gyri, pre- and postcentral gyri, and supplementary motor area). Hence, suggestions reduced semantic word processing by conjointly dampening both automatic and strategic semantic processes.     

Dual-Force ISOMAP: A New Relevance Feedback Method for Medical Image Retrieval

With great potential for assisting radiological image interpretation and decision making, content-based image retrieval in the medical domain has become a hot topic in recent years. Many methods to enhance the performance of content-based medical image retrieval have been proposed, among which the relevance feedback (RF) scheme is one of the most promising. Given user feedback information, RF algorithms interactively learn a user’s preferences to bridge the “semantic gap” between low-level computerized visual features and high-level human semantic perception and thus improve retrieval performance. However, most existing RF algorithms perform in the original high-dimensional feature space and ignore the manifold structure of the low-level visual features of images. In this paper, we propose a new method, termed dual-force ISOMAP (DFISOMAP), for content-based medical image retrieval. Under the assumption that medical images lie on a low-dimensional manifold embedded in a high-dimensional ambient space, DFISOMAP operates in the following three stages. First, the geometric structure of positive examples in the learned low-dimensional embedding is preserved according to the isometric feature mapping (ISOMAP) criterion. To precisely model the geometric structure, a reconstruction error constraint is also added. Second, the average distance between positive and negative examples is maximized to separate them; this margin maximization acts as a force that pushes negative examples far away from positive examples. Finally, the similarity propagation technique is utilized to provide negative examples with another force that will pull them back into the negative sample set. We evaluate the proposed method on a subset of the IRMA medical image dataset with a RF-based medical image retrieval framework. Experimental results show that DFISOMAP outperforms popular approaches for content-based medical image retrieval in terms of accuracy and stability.     

Beyond the printed page: physiology education without a textbook?

Pedagogical innovations, ideas, and outcomes designed to enhance student learning in physiology courses are encouraged by our professional organizations and are actively discussed at conferences and in Advance in Physiological Education. Here, we report our experiment with freely available internet-based material as a substitute for the textbook for a single chapter on muscle physiology in a sophomore-level Human Physiology course. Student reactions to the textbookless curriculum were registered with the use of a questionnaire. Their responses indicated that they enjoyed the online material (animations, images, reviews, etc.), the emphasis on important concepts, and the variety of resources. Furthermore, students were almost unanimous in their praise for such pedagogical approaches to science education. Yet, students were reluctant to part with their textbooks. We believe that with subsequent iterations of this course we will be more successful at further separating the learning experience from the textbook. Reliance on freely available material may eventually relieve students from the burden of purchasing a costly textbook.     

基于工程教育专业认证产业需求为导向的“环境微生物学”课程项目化教学改革

本课程团队以地方产业需求为导向,结合国家工程教育专业认证的标准,实施了“环境微生物学”课程项目化教学改革,构建了“教、学、育、用”一体化的创新教学模式。课程设计了3个教学项目、17个学习任务,设定了4个课程目标,完善了课程各目标达成的评价方法,建立了多元化的考核评价体系。课程教学方法多样,授课形式多元,同时注重课程的特色教学和思政教育。课程改革后学生学习的主动性、积极性明显增强,课程目标的达成度均高于期望值;期末学生及格率、综合成绩、督导评价、同行评价、学生评价均有明显的提升,课程的项目化教学改革取得良好的成效。     

Poetic Duels and Political Change in the Gayo Highlands of Sumatra

Discourse, and particularly discourse in dialogue form, recently has been proposed as a privileged arena for the interaction of language and society. This article examines the process by which performances of public dialogue have been structured and restructured in Gayo society, Indonesia, from 1900 to 1945. I trace changes in the formal, semantic, and contextual features of Gayo poetic duels. The integration of Gayo society into colonial and postcolonial sociopolitical frameworks is shown to have opened up performance to competing political voices, in Bakhtin's sense. Implications are drawn for current research on dialogues as models for social relations.     

Effects of a single short exposure to blue light on cognitive performance

The aim of the present study is to explore the effects of a single short one-minute exposure to blue light on cognitive performance. For this purpose, 32 young adults (16 females, mean age 24.06 ± 1.88 years) took part in a within-subjects research design, under two conditions: blue light and no light. Under both conditions, they performed the lexical decision task (LDT) in order to assess the degree of automatic activation of semantic memory through an embedded semantic priming (reaction times to prime – reaction times to target), together with the Attention Network Test (ANT) to assess the efficiency of the alerting, executive and orienting networks. During the LDT, a significantly stronger semantic priming under the blue light condition compared to no light was observed, while during the ANT a significant difference in orienting network efficiency between conditions was observed. The present data appear to highlight that even a single short exposure to blue light has an effect on cognitive performance in young adults.     

Fine-Grained Semantic Categorization across the Abstract and Concrete Domains

A consolidated approach to the study of the mental representation of word meanings has consisted in contrasting different domains of knowledge, broadly reflecting the abstract-concrete dichotomy. More fine-grained semantic distinctions have emerged in neuropsychological and cognitive neuroscience work, reflecting semantic category specificity, but almost exclusively within the concrete domain. Theoretical advances, particularly within the area of embodied cognition, have more recently put forward the idea that distributed neural representations tied to the kinds of experience maintained with the concepts'' referents might distinguish conceptual meanings with a high degree of specificity, including those within the abstract domain. Here we report the results of two psycholinguistic rating studies incorporating such theoretical advances with two main objectives: first, to provide empirical evidence of fine-grained distinctions within both the abstract and the concrete semantic domains with respect to relevant psycholinguistic dimensions; second, to develop a carefully controlled linguistic stimulus set that may be used for auditory as well as visual neuroimaging studies focusing on the parametrization of the semantic space beyond the abstract-concrete dichotomy. Ninety-six participants rated a set of 210 sentences across pre-selected concrete (mouth, hand, or leg action-related) and abstract (mental state-, emotion-, mathematics-related) categories, with respect either to different semantic domain-related scales (rating study 1), or to concreteness, familiarity, and context availability (rating study 2). Inferential statistics and correspondence analyses highlighted distinguishing semantic and psycholinguistic traits for each of the pre-selected categories, indicating that a simple abstract-concrete dichotomy is not sufficient to account for the entire semantic variability within either domains.     

临“疫”发“微”——新型冠状病毒肺炎疫情下“病原生物学与医学免疫学”课程思政教学模式的探索与研究

课程思政是高校思想政治理论课改革创新的重要举措,因其德育与智育协同的优势,逐渐成为高校课程改革的方向.为探究新型冠状病毒肺炎(COVID-19,简称“新冠”病毒肺炎)疫情下“病原生物学与医学免疫学”课程思政教学模式及其实施效果,以成都中医药大学2018级中医学(5+3一体化)的2个班级学生为教学对象,其中1班采用传统教...