Review: Jens Brockmeier (2015). Beyond the Archive: Memory, Narrative, and the Autobiographical Process

Jens Brockmeier's new book proposes a very provocative aim for memory studies: "[T]o radically re-think our very idea of memory and challenge the notions of remembering and forgetting that we have taken for granted" (p.vii). The main target for the author's critique is the archival model of memory. In order to support his approach, the author provides empirical evidence from the neurosciences, social sciences, and humanities. "Beyond the Archive" represents an innovative contribution to the field of memory studies. It brings together disparate disciplinary fields in a novel and sophisticated fashion with a clear goal in mind: to propose a new model for the analysis of autobiographical remembering. Brockmeyer's book is a true exercise of multidisciplinary research in action, which is much needed in the current climate of psychological and neuroscientific reductionism in the sciences of memory.Jens Brockmeiers neues Buch schlägt ein sehr provokatives Ziel für memory studies vor: "to radically re-think our very idea of memory and challenge the notions of remembering and forgetting that we have taken for granted" (S.VII). Das Hauptziel seiner Kritik ist das archival model of memory. Um seinen Ansatz zu belegen, führt der Autor empirische Beweise aus den Neurowissenschaften sowie aus den Sozial- und Geisteswissenschaften an. "Beyond the Archive" bildet einen neuen Beitrag zum Forschungsfeld der memory studies. Es vereint verschiedene Forschungsfelder auf anspruchsvolle Art zu einem Roman mit dem klaren Ziel, ein neues Modell vorzustellen, um über autobiografische Erinnerung nachzudenken. Brockmeiers Buch ist die Aufgabe multidisziplinärer Forschung in Aktion, die dringend benötig wird in der gegenwärtigen Zeit der psychologischen und neurologischen Reduktion der memory sciences

Oktatási segédlet a NAT helytörténeti programjához

Monosubstituted cycloalkanes undergo regio- and enantioselective aliphatic C−H oxidation with H2O2 catalyzed by biologically inspired manganese catalysts. The reaction furnishes the corresponding ketones resulting from oxidation at C3 and C4 methylenic sites (K3 and K4, respectively) leading to a chiral desymmetrization that proceeds with remarkable enantioselectivity (64% ee) but modest regioselectivity at C3 (K3/K4 ≈ 2) for tert-butylcyclohexane, and with up to 96% ee and exquisite regioselectity toward C3 (up to K3/K4 > 99) when N-cyclohexylalkanamides are employed as substrates. Efficient H2O2 activation, high yield, and highly enantioselective C−H oxidation rely on the synergistic cooperation of a sterically bulky manganese catalyst and an oxidatively robust alkanoic acid. This represents the first example of nonenzymatic highly enantioselective oxidation of nonactivated methylenic sites. Furthermore, the principles of catalyst design disclosed in this work constitute a unique platform for further development of stereoselective C−H oxidation reactions

Multiple Timescales of Joint Remembering in the Crafting of aMemory-Scaffolding Tool during Collaborative Design

Joint remembering relies on the successful interweaving of multiple cognitive, linguistic, bodily, social and material resources, anchored in specific cultural ecosystems. Such systems for joint remembering in social interactions are composed of processes unfolding over multiple but complementary timescales which we distinguish for analytic purposes with the terms ‘coordination’, ‘collaboration’, ‘cooperation’, and ‘culture’, so as better to study their interanimation in practice. As an illustrative example of the complementary timescales involved in joint remembering in a real-world activity, we present a micro-qualitative analysis of an interactional sequence in which two members of a fourperson team of video designers crafted a memory- scaffolding tool. In order to find the temporal structure of the crafting of the memory-scaffolding tool, we used software for pattern recognition. The analysis suggests that coordination, collaboration, cooperation, and culture reveal complementary aspects of interacting to remember, which should be considered as complex phenomenon unfolding at multiple interanimating timescales

Text as signal. A tutorial with case studies focusing on social media (Twitter)

Sentiment analysis is the automated coding of emotions expressed in text. Sentiment analysis and other types of analyses focusing on the automatic coding of textual documents are increasingly popular in psychology and computer science. However, the potential of treating automatically coded text collected with regular sampling intervals as a signal is currently overlooked. We use the phrase "text as signal" to refer to the application of signal processing techniques to coded textual documents sampled with regularity. In order to illustrate the potential of treating text as signal, we introduce the reader to a variety of such techniques in a tutorial with two case studies in the realm of social media analysis. First, we apply finite response impulse filtering to emotion-coded tweets posted during the US Election Week of 2020 and discuss the visualization of the resulting variation in the filtered signal. We use changepoint detection to highlight the important changes in the emotional signals. Then we examine data interpolation, analysis of periodicity via the fast Fourier transform (FFT), and FFT filtering to personal value-coded tweets from November 2019 to October 2020 and link the variation in the filtered signal to some of the epoch-defining events occurring during this period. Finally, we use block bootstrapping to estimate the variability/uncertainty in the resulting filtered signals. After working through the tutorial, the readers will understand the basics of signal processing to analyze regularly sampled coded text

Cultural transmission in a food preparation task: The role of interactivity, innovation and storytelling

Some individuals seek to enhance their cognitive capabilities through the use of pharmacology. Such behavior entails potential health risks and raises ethical concerns. The aim of this study was to examine whether a precursor of behavior, ethical judgement towards the use of existing biological cognitive enhancers (e.g., coffee, legal and illegal drugs), is shaped by the perceived characteristics of these cognitive enhancers. Students and employees completed an online questionnaire which measured perceived characteristics of 15 substances presented as potential cognitive enhancers and a measure of ethical judgement towards these cognitive enhancers. Results of mixed model regression analyzes show that ethical judgement is more favourable when cognitive enhancers are perceived as being legal, familiar, efficient, and safe for users' health, supporting all hypotheses. Results further show that 36% of variance (in the null model) lies at the level of cognitive enhancers and 21% at the level of participants. In conclusion, cognitive enhancers vary widely in terms of ethical judgement, which is explained by the perception of the mentioned characteristics. Implications regarding prevention and policy-making are discussed

Antioxidant activities of hydroxylated naphthalenes: the role of aryloxyl radicals

Herein is delineated a first systematic framework for the definition of structure-antioxidant property relationships in the dihydroxynaphthalene (DHN) series. The results obtained by a combined experimental and theoretical approach revealed that 1,8-DHN is the best performing antioxidant platform, with its unique hydrogen-bonded peri-hydroxylation pattern contributing to a fast H atom transfer process. Moreover, the comparative analysis of the antioxidant properties of DHNs carried out by performing DPPH and FRAP assays and laser flash photolysis experiments, revealed the higher antioxidant power associated with an α-substitution pattern (i. e. in 1,8- and 1,6-DHN) with respect to DHNs exhibiting a β-substitution pattern (i. e. in 2,6- and 2,7-DHN). DFT calculations and isolation and characterization of the main oligomer intermediates formed during the oxidative polymerization of DHNs supported this evidence by providing unprecedented insight into the generation and fate of the intermediate naphthoxyl radicals, which emerged as the main factor governing the antioxidant activity of DHNs

Diffraction of Quantum Dots Reveals Nanoscale Ultrafast Energy Localization

Unlike in bulk materials, energy transport in low-dimensional and nanoscale systems may be governed by a coherent “ballistic” behavior of lattice vibrations, the phonons. If dominant, such behavior would determine the mechanism for transport and relaxation in various energy-conversion applications. In order to study this coherent limit, both the spatial and temporal resolutions must be sufficient for the length-time scales involved. Here, we report observation of the lattice dynamics in nanoscale quantum dots of gallium arsenide using ultrafast electron diffraction. By varying the dot size from h = 11 to 46 nm, the length scale effect was examined, together with the temporal change. When the dot size is smaller than the inelastic phonon mean-free path, the energy remains localized in high-energy acoustic modes that travel coherently within the dot. As the dot size increases, an energy dissipation toward low-energy phonons takes place, and the transport becomes diffusive. Because ultrafast diffraction provides the atomic-scale resolution and a sufficiently high time resolution, other nanostructured materials can be studied similarly to elucidate the nature of dynamical energy localization

Ultrafast atomic-scale visualization of acoustic phonons generated by optically excited quantum dots

Understanding the dynamics of atomic vibrations confined in quasi-zero dimensional systems is crucial from both a fundamental point-of-view and a technological perspective. Using ultrafast electron diffraction, we monitored the lattice dynamics of GaAs quantum dots—grown by Droplet Epitaxy on AlGaAs—with sub-picosecond and sub-picometer resolutions. An ultrafast laser pulse nearly resonantly excites a confined exciton, which efficiently couples to high-energy acoustic phonons through the deformation potential mechanism. The transient behavior of the measured diffraction pattern reveals the nonequilibrium phonon dynamics both within the dots and in the region surrounding them. The experimental results are interpreted within the theoretical framework of a non-Markovian decoherence, according to which the optical excitation creates a localized polaron within the dot and a travelling phonon wavepacket that leaves the dot at the speed of sound. These findings indicate that integration of a phononic emitter in opto-electronic devices based on quantum dots for controlled communication processes can be fundamentally feasible

Special Issue 2: Uncertainties 2012

A time-resolved kinetic study of the reactions of ring-substituted cumyloxyl radicals (4-X-CumO•: X = OMe, t-Bu, Me, Cl, CF3) with methylferrocenes (MenFc: n = 2, 8, 10) has been carried out in acetonitrile solution. Evidence for an electron transfer (ET) process has been obtained for all radicals and an increase in reactivity has been observed on decreasing the oxidation potential of the ferrocene donor and on going from electron-releasing to electron-withdrawing ring substituents. Computations predict the formation of strongly bound π-stacked 4-X-CumO•/DcMFc complexes, characterized by intracomplex π−π distances around 4 Å. These findings point toward a (nonbonded) inner-sphere ET mechanism for the reactions of the 4-X-CumO•/MenFc couples