Tainted Ideals: The Rise and Fall of the Tupamaros

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College

Letter perception: from item-level ERPs to computational models

ISBN : 978-2-9532965-0-1In the present study, online measures of letter identification were used to test computational models of letter perception. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded to letters and pseudo-letters revealing a transition from feature analysis to letter identification in the 100-200 ms time window. Measures indexing this transition were then computed at the level of individual letters. Simulations with several versions of an interactive-activation model of letter perception were fitted with these item-level ERP measures. The results are in favor of a model of letter perception with feedforward excitatory connections from the feature to the letter levels, lateral inhibition at the letter level, and excitatory feedback from the letter to the feature levels

Les animaux et la communication organisationnelle

Ami, ennemi, divinité ou divertissement, repoussoir ou modèle, de Bastet à Mickey Mouse, ranimai a toujours accompagné la vie de l’homme. Des profondeurs de la préhistoire, on retrouve les témoignages de sa présence. Repas cavaleur qu’il faut traquer, courser, finalement piéger, puis aliment sur pied, les groupements humains le contrôlent, l’élèvent, manipulent sa nature, pour s’assurer l’accessibilité et la qualité de sa toison, sa peau, ses os, c’est selon. Un peu, beaucoup, passionnément, ..

Why Neurons Are Not the Right Level of Abstraction for Implementing Cognition

International audienceThe cortex accounts for 70% of the brain volume. The human cortex is made of micro-columns, arrangements of 110 cortical neurons (Mountcastle), grouped in by the thousand in so-called macro-colums (or columns) which belong to the same functional unit as exemplified by Nobel laureates Hubel and Wiesel with the orientation columns of the primary visual cortex. The cortical column activity does not exhibit the limitations of single neurons: activation can be sustained for very long periods (sec.) instead of been transient and subject to fatigue. Therefore, the cortical column has been proposed as the building block of cognition by several researchers, but to not effect – since explanations about how the cognition works at the column level were missing. Thanks to the Theory of neuronal Cognition, it is no more the case. The cortex functionality is cut into small areas: the cortical maps. Today, about 80 cortical maps are known in the primary and secondary cortex [1]. These maps form a hierarchical organization. A cortical map is a functional structure encompassing several thousands of cortical columns. The function of such maps (also known as Kohonen maps) is to build topographic (i.e., organized and localized) representations of the input stimulii (events). This organization is such that similar inputs activate either the same cortical column or neighboring columns. Also, the more frequent the stimulus, the greater the number of cortical columns involved. Each map acts as a novelty detector and a filter. Events are reported as patterns of activations on various maps, each map specialized in a specific " dimension ". Spatial and temporal coordinates of events are linked to activations within the hippo-campus and define de facto the episodic memory. Learning is achieved at neuronal level using the famous Hebb's law: " Neurons active in the same time frame window reinforce their connections ". This rule does not respect " causality ". This, plus the fact that there is at least as much feedback connections as there are feed-forward ones, explain why a high level cortical activation generates a low level cortical pattern of activations – the same one that would trigger this high level activity. Therefore, our opinion is that the true building block of the cognition is a set of feed-forward and feedback connections between at least two maps, each map a novelty detector

Rencontre avec Hubert Montagner

Hubert Montagner est directeur de recherche à l’Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM) où il a la responsabilité du groupe de recherche « Psychophysiologie et psychopathologie du développement » (UMR-CNRS 554 Université Victor Ségalen-Bordeaux 2). Expert à l’Institut National de la Recherche Pédagogique auprès de la « Mission École Primaire » du Comité National de Suivi de la Charte « Bâtir l’école du XXIe siècle », il est aussi appelé fréquemment en tant qu’expert..

Du coche au coach le cheval et le manager

La connaissance des mécanismes de communication chez les chevaux peut mener à des applications inattendues : deux formateurs à l’équitation ont élaboré, avec l’aide de praticiens du coaching, un protocole grâce auquel ils peuvent faire prendre conscience à des cadres de leurs attitudes et comportements dans les situations de leadership. Cette démarche peut orienter, avec l’aide de spécialistes (coach ou thérapeutes), l’évaluation et le développement personnel.Knowing how horses communicate can produce unexpected developments : two horse-riding trainers have elaborated, with the help of specialists in coaching, a program through which they allow managers to become aware of their attitudes and behaviors in situation where they have to exert their leadership. This process. when taken up by specialists (therapists or couches) may help assessment of personal qualities. and personal development

Comment raisonner pour décider : apprendre à trouver des solutions de Jean-Michel Bazin et Roger Bazin, ESF éditeur, Collection formation permanente - Séminaires Mucchielli Paris, 1998, 174 p.

Les auteurs s’efforcent dans cet ouvrage de formation de faire converger les expériences contradictoires de la résolution individuelle et de la résolution collective de problèmes. Car le monde contemporain exige de chacun, au sein de sociétés et d’organisations de plus en plus évolutifs – et par-delà l’incontournable expérience professionnelle – une importante capacité d’évolution pour inventer de nouvelles approches de la réalité, notamment dans le cadre professionnel, mettre en œuvre les én..

Relevance of gonadotropin-regulated testicular RNA helicase (GRTH/DDX25) in the structural integrity of the chromatoid body during spermatogenesis

AbstractGonadotropin-regulated testicular RNA helicase (GRTH/DDX25), a multifunctional protein and a component of ribonucleoprotein complexes, is essential for the completion of spermatogenesis. We investigated the nuclear/cytoplasmic shuttling of GRTH in germ cells and its impact on the chromatoid body (CB)—a perinuclear organelle viewed as a storage/processing site of mRNAs. GRTH resides in the nucleus, cytoplasm and CB of round spermatids. Treatment of these cells with inhibitors of nuclear export or RNA synthesis caused nuclear retention of GRTH and its absence in the cytoplasm and CB. The nuclear levels of GRTH bound RNA messages were significantly enhanced and major reduction was observed in the cytoplasm. This indicated GRTH main transport function of mRNAs to the cytoplasm and CB. MVH, a germ cell helicase, and MIWI, a component of the RNA-induced-silencing complex (RISC), confined to the CB/cytoplasm, were absent in the CB and accumulated in the cytoplasm upon treatment. This also occurred in spermatids of GRTH-KO mice. The CB changed from lobular-filamentous to a small condensed structure after treatment resembling the CB of GRTH-KO. No interaction of GRTH with MVH or RISC members in both protein and RNA were observed. Besides of participating in the transport of messages of relevant spermatogenic genes, GRTH was found to transport its own message to cytoplasmic sites. Our studies suggest that GRTH through its export/transport function as a component of mRNP is essential to govern the CB structure in spermatids and to maintain systems that may participate in mRNA storage and their processing during spermatogenesis

Image - discours et discours sur l’image

Dans les années soixante on nous parlait beaucoup du « professeur et des images ». Davantage du professeur, du reste, que des images. L'image déferlait sur nous, la télévision se démocratisait et nous nous demandions ce que l'on allait pouvoir en faire, avec une double inquiétude ainsi résumée : si nous n'introduisons pas ces moyens « modernes » dans notre enseignement, on va nous prendre pour des enseignants d'un autre âge ; si nous plaçons des circuits fermés partout, nous allons devenir de..

Transmettre l’in-tangible

Face à la fragilité d’une mémoire, à la rareté des traces visuelles ou écrites, comment parvenir à retrouver une œuvre, à lui redonner vie et sens dans le présent ? Pour aborder, réactiver et transmettre la chorégraphie Éclats de Françoise Dupuy, j’ai avant tout puisé dans ma longue expérience de son travail, de sa poétique du mouvement et de son langage chorégraphique. Le va-et-vient constant entre pratique et théorie, re-production et ré-invention, la confrontation critique aux sources et le recours à la notation Laban comme outil d’analyse, ont été les moteurs du travail et de l’expérience partagée. Par les choix effectués, nous verrons en quoi ce travail s’est révélé à la fois archéologique et artisanal dans son processus, et comment il aura permis d’ouvrir un seuil (Louppe, 1994, p. 16) en apportant des outils, une démarche de recherche et de transmission liée à une pensée singulière de la culture chorégraphique.Facing the fragility of a memory, the scarcity of visual or written traces, how can we get to recover a work, give it a new life and meaning? To approach, reactivate and transmit the choreography Éclats by Françoise Dupuy, I first drew on my extensive experience of her work, of her poetic movement and choreographic language. The constant back and forth between practice and theory, re-production and re-invention, the critical confrontation at the sources and the use of Labanotation as an analysis tool, have been the drivers of work and shared experience. Through the choices that have been made, we’ll show how this work has proven to be both archaeological and artisanal in its process, and how it will have allowed to open a threshold (Louppe, 1994, p. 16), by providing tools, bringing a research process and transmission approach, both linked to a uniquely conception of choreographic culture