Closing the gap: symbolic reparations and armed groups

The question of whether non-state armed groups could and should provide reparations to their victims has been largely overlooked. This article explores this gap, with a particular focus on symbolic reparations, such as acknowledgement of the truth and apologies. It argues that, while the question is fraught with legal, conceptual, and practical difficulties, there are some circumstances in which armed groups are capable of providing measures of reparations to their victims. The article identifies the issue of attacks on informers as one potential area for armed groups to provide such measures, and demonstrates that in a few cases armed groups have already engaged in actions that could be seen as analogous to symbolic reparations. The article’s main case study is provided by recent actions by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in relation to its past attacks against suspected informer

Spacing it: Expanding perception of spatial relationships through art therapy

This article explores, in the context of art therapy, the perception of space as represented through maps. It focuses particularly on the way spatial perception is embodied, and worked through by the use of images which map and stand in for a physical space, such as the therapy room or a geographical location. Spatial perception is reviewed through the lens of brain research (Tolman 1973; O'Keefe and Nadel 1978; Maguire et. al. 2000, 2006), and approaches in psychoanalysis (Bick 1968; Meltzer 1975; Weddell 1975) and art therapy (Schaverien 1991; Meyerowitz-Katz & Reddick 2017). This investigation into spatial perception is then developed by comparing two individuals' uses of what I call ‘geographical images’, based on Meltzer's (1975) concept of personality organization as a geographic space. The first account is of maps representing the art therapy room created by an autistic child. These images seemed to embody a bizarre perception of space and transference relationships. The second is of an adolescent girl who created maps of her neighbourhood, which helped her to expand her ability to explore her environment as well as her object relations. Through comparing the two cases, the article aims to discuss the formation of mental space perception and to highlight the importance of making maps in art therapy as it expands—cognitively, conceptually and interpersonally—the quality and range of a distorted or limited perception of space

Molecular Structure and Catalytic Activity of Membrane-Bound Acetylcholinesterase from Electric Organ Tissue of the Electric Eel

The catalytic activity of membrane-bound acetylcholinesterase in electric organ tissue was shown to be governed by diffusion- controlled substrate and hydrogen ion gradients, generated by acetylcholinesterase-catalysed hydrolysis leading to a lower substrate concentration and pH in the vicinity of the particulate enzyme. Various solubilization procedures, including extraction with salts and detergents, chemical modification proteolysis showed that interaction of most of the acetylcholinesterase with the excitable membrane is primarily electrostatic, but that part of the enzyme seems to be more intimately associated with the membrane. \u27Native\u27 acetylcholinesterase, as isolated from fresh electric organ tissue, is a complex molecular structure in which a multisubunit head is connected to an elongated tail. Proteolytic digestion or autolysis leads to detachment of the tail and conversion of acetylcholinesterase to a globular tetramer containing four similar subunits in which each pair is connected by disulfide bonds. Further digestion leads to cleavage of the individual polypeptide chains of the subunits which are not, however, released unless the enzyme is denatured. The possible modes of attachment of the \u27native\u27 acetylcholinesterase molecule to the excitable membrane are discussed

Blockade of Cochlear NMDA Receptors Prevents Long-Term Tinnitus during a Brief Consolidation Window after Acoustic Trauma

Tinnitus, the perception of sound in the absence of external acoustic stimulation, is a common and devastating pathology. It is often a consequence of acoustic trauma or drug toxicity. The neuronal mechanisms of tinnitus are neither yet fully understood nor are effective treatments available. Using a novel behavioral paradigm for measuring tinnitus in the rat based on tone-guided navigation, we show here that the development of long-term noise-induced tinnitus, the most prevalent and clinically important form of human tinnitus, can be abated by local administration of the NMDA antagonist “ifenprodil” into the cochlea in the first 4 days following the noise insult but not afterwards. This suggests that long-term tinnitus undergoes a consolidation-like process, resembling the ontogeny of items in long-term memory. Furthermore, this finding paves the way to potential therapeutic strategies for the prevention of chronic tinnitus once the noise insult had taken place

Signatures of Memory: Brain Coactivations during Retrieval Distinguish Correct from Incorrect Recollection

Are specific distributed coactivations in the brain during memory retrieval a signature of retrieval outcome? Here we show that this is indeed the case. Widespread brain networks were reported to be involved in the retrieval of long-term episodic memories. Although functional coactivation among particular regions occurs during episodic memory retrieval, it is unknown to what extent it contributes to the accuracy and confidence of recollection. In this study we set out to explore this question. Participants saw a narrative documentary movie. A week later they underwent an fMRI scan during which they either accepted or rejected factual or fictitious verbal statements concerning the movie. Correct vs. incorrect responses to factual statements were more common and were provided with higher confidence than those made to fictitious statements. Whereas activity in the retrieval network correlated mostly with confidence, coactivations primarily correlated with memory accuracy. Specifically, coactivations of left medial temporal lobe regions with temporal and parietal cortices were greater during correct responses to factual statements, but did not differ between responses to fictitious statements. We propose that network coactivations play a role in recovering memory traces that are relevant to online retrieval cues, culminating in distinct retrieval outcomes

The Privileged Brain Representation of First Olfactory Associations

SummaryAuthors [1], poets [2], and scientists [3–6] have been fascinated by the strength of childhood olfactory memories. Indeed, in long-term memory, the first odor-to-object association was stronger than subsequent associations of the same odor with other objects [7]. Here we tested the hypothesis that first odor associations enjoy a privileged brain representation. Because emotion impacts memory [8–10], we further asked whether the pleasantness of an odor would influence such a representation. On day 1, we associated the same visual objects initially with one, and subsequently with a second, set of pleasant and unpleasant olfactory and auditory stimuli. One week later, we presented the same visual objects and tested odor-associative memory concurrent with functional magnetic resonance brain imaging. We found that the power (% remembered) of early associations was enhanced when they were unpleasant, regardless of whether they were olfactory or auditory. Brain imaging, however, revealed a unique hippocampal activation for early olfactory but not auditory associations, regardless of whether they were pleasant or unpleasant. Activity within the hippocampus on day 1 predicted the olfactory but not auditory associations that would be remembered one week later. These findings confirmed the hypothesis of a privileged brain representation for first olfactory associations

From Excess to Origin: Traversing Time Zones as an Act of Redemption in The Man who Never Stopped Sleeping by Aharon Appelfeld

In this paper I will address an aspect of the literary work of Aaron Appelfeld, that binds the traumatic experience of the Holocaust with a religious state of mind and with poetic writing. I will illustrate my position by referring to Appelfeld’s book The Man who never stopped sleeping. I will link religiosity to a strategy of circumventing traumatic memory. In my view, Appelfeld’s coping with the traumatic memory involves substitution of the void of the trauma with adherence to religiosity, which is identified with an ecstatic act of poetic writing. For Appelfeld, as expressed for example in his First Person Essays (1979), religiosity represents the experience, emotion and personal attitude to the transcendental, which is also intimately related to creative writing. In his view, the unspoken residue of the trauma points toward the beginning of his own life and also that of his ancestors. The trajectory of the route which Appelfeld follows in re-connecting to life takes him backwards to the primordial sources of his family. This is a morbid act with an Orphic dimension, yet for Appelfeld is a source of life. In his return home, to the “beginnings”, his parents and grandparents and grand-grandparents, Appelfeled seemingly returns to the pre-traumatic time, mending the shattered fragments via his writing while attempting to heal his threatened Self.Je voudrais aborder dans cet article un aspect de l’œuvre littéraire d’Aharon Appelfeld qui met en relation l’expérience traumatique de la Shoah avec un sentiment religieux et avec l’écriture poétique. J’illustrerai mon propos en faisant référence au livre d’Appelfeld Le garçon qui voulait dormir. Il me semble que la religiosité pourrait être vue comme une stratégie de contournement de la mémoire traumatique. De mon point de vue, la confrontation d’Appelfeld avec la mémoire traumatique implique la substitution du vide engendré par le trauma avec un attachement à la religiosité, vue comme un acte extatique d’écriture poétique. Pour Appelfeld, la religiosité représente l’expérience, l’émotion et l’attitude personnelle par rapport à la transcendance, une expérience qui est très proche de l’acte créateur de l’écriture. Dans cette perspective, le résidu inexprimé du trauma renvoie au début de sa propre vie et de celle de ses ancêtres. La trajectoire qui le remet en contact avec la vie le conduit aussi vers les origines primordiales de sa famille. Il s’agit d’un acte morbide, à la dimension orphique, mais pour Appelfeld c’est une source de vie. En revenant chez lui, aux origines, à ses parents, ses grands-parents et ses arrière-grands-parents, Appelfeld semble retourner au temps d’avant le trauma, en réparant ainsi les brisures de sa vie par l’écriture et en essayant de guérir son être meurtri.במאמר זה אציג היבט מסוים ביצירתו של אפלפלד הקושר בין טראומת השואה, החוויה הרלגיוזית והכתיבה היצירתית. אדגים את דברי על פי הרומן “האיש שלא פסק לישון”

Treatment of Upper Respiratory Tract Infections in Primary Care: A Randomized Study Using Aromatic Herbs

This study is a prospective randomized double-blind controlled trial whose aim was to investigate the clinical effects of aromatic essential oils in patients with upper respiratory tract infections. The trial was conducted in six primary care clinics in northern Israel. A spray containing aromatic essential oils of five plants (Eucalyptus citriodora, Eucalyptus globulus, Mentha piperita, Origanum syriacum, and Rosmarinus officinalis) as applied 5 times a day for 3 days and compared with a placebo spray. The main outcome measure was patient assessment of the change in severity of the most debilitating symptom (sore throat, hoarseness or cough). Sixty patients participated in the study (26 in the study group and 34 in the control group). Intention-to-treat analysis showed that 20 minutes following the spray use, participants in the study group reported a greater improvement in symptom severity compared to participants in the placebo group (P = .019). There was no difference in symptom severity between the two groups after 3 days of treatment (P = .042). In conclusion, spray application of five aromatic plants reported in this study brings about significant and immediate improvement in symptoms of upper respiratory ailment. This effect is not significant after 3 days of treatment

Some differences between soluble and membrane-bound acetylcholinesterase from Electrophorus electricus

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