'Concrete freedom' : C.L.R. James on culture and black politics

This article aims to provide a synoptic account of the cultural writings of the West Indian intellectual and activist C.L.R. James. I aim to make a case for greater recognition of his work among cultural sociologists. I go on to show how James’ original, historicising account of cultural forms relates closely to his wider political interventions including, specifically, his ground-breaking discussion of mid-twentieth century black politics in America

Hypnotic analgesia reduces brain responses to pain seen in others.

Brain responses to pain experienced by oneself or seen in other people show consistent overlap in the pain processing network, particularly anterior insula, supporting the view that pain empathy partly relies on neural processes engaged by self-nociception. However, it remains unresolved whether changes in one's own pain sensation may affect empathic responding to others' pain. Here we show that inducing analgesia through hypnosis leads to decreased responses to both self and vicarious experience of pain. Activations in the right anterior insula and amygdala were markedly reduced when participants received painful thermal stimuli following hypnotic analgesia on their own hand, but also when they viewed pictures of others' hand in pain. Functional connectivity analysis indicated that this hypnotic modulation of pain responses was associated with differential recruitment of right prefrontal regions implicated in selective attention and inhibitory control. Our results provide novel support to the view that self-nociception is involved during empathy for pain, and demonstrate the possibility to use hypnotic procedures to modulate higher-level emotional and social processes

Aging is associated with a prefrontal lateral-medial shift during picture-induced negative affect

The capacity to adaptively respond to negative emotion is in part dependent upon lateral areas of the prefrontal cortex (PFC). Lateral PFC areas are particularly susceptible to age-related atrophy, which affects executive function (EF). We used structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to test the hypothesis that older age is associated with greater medial PFC engagement during processing of negative information, and that this engagement is dependent upon the integrity of grey matter structure in lateral PFC as well as EF. Participants (n = 64, 38–79 years) viewed negative and neutral scenes while in the scanner, and completed cognitive tests as part of a larger study. Grey matter probability (GMP) was computed to index grey matter integrity. FMRI data demonstrated less activity in the left ventrolateral PFC (VLPFC) and greater ventromedial PFC (VMPFC) activity with increasing age during negative-picture viewing. Age did not correlate with amygdala responding. GMP in VLPFC and EF were negatively associated with VMPFC activity. We conclude that this change from lateral to medial PFC engagement in response to picture-induced negative affect reflects decreased reliance on executive function-related processes, possibly associated with reduced grey matter in lateral PFC, with advancing age to maintain emotional functioning

Landscape Ecotoxicology of Coho Salmon Spawner Mortality in Urban Streams

In the Pacific Northwest of the United States, adult coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) returning from the ocean to spawn in urban basins of the Puget Sound region have been prematurely dying at high rates (up to 90% of the total runs) for more than a decade. The current weight of evidence indicates that coho deaths are caused by toxic chemical contaminants in land-based runoff to urban streams during the fall spawning season. Non-point source pollution in urban landscapes typically originates from discrete urban and residential land use activities. In the present study we conducted a series of spatial analyses to identify correlations between land use and land cover (roadways, impervious surfaces, forests, etc.) and the magnitude of coho mortality in six streams with different drainage basin characteristics. We found that spawner mortality was most closely and positively correlated with the relative proportion of local roads, impervious surfaces, and commercial property within a basin. These and other correlated variables were used to identify unmonitored basins in the greater Seattle metropolitan area where recurrent coho spawner die-offs may be likely. This predictive map indicates a substantial geographic area of vulnerability for the Puget Sound coho population segment, a species of concern under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Our spatial risk representation has numerous applications for urban growth management, coho conservation, and basin restoration (e.g., avoiding the unintentional creation of ecological traps). Moreover, the approach and tools are transferable to areas supporting coho throughout western North America

Non-contractual legal institutions of the use of a copyright work

- English The theme of my dissertation is non-contractual institutes of usage of author's work. These are cases where it is permitted to use copyrighted work without a contractual arrangement with the author. Specifically, I am talking about the use of free work, the free usage of work and lawful use of a legal license. Statutory licenses are analyzed in detail - the two major sub-sections are chargeable and free-of-charge statutory licenses. Also I pay attention to a so-called three-step test. Of course I do not forget to state the issue of copyright law in general