The Perils of Migration. Countervailing Mediations of Risk at the EU’s Maritime Frontier

This chapter traces the successive strategies developed by the Forensic Oceanography project we have led since 2011 to document and contest the conditions leading to large-scale deaths of migrants at sea. The chapter first traces the aesthetic regime within and against which the project sought to position itself. It then analyzes the project’s shift from the documentation of specific practices of actors at sea leading to cases of deaths (such as the “Left-to-die Boat”), to the reconstruction of the lethal effects of state policies (such as the ending of the Mare Nostrum operation), and finally its contribution towards the WatchTheMed Alarm Phone, a 24/7-operating nongovernmental emergency phone line allowing to intervene directly to support migrants in distress at sea. While European agencies such as Frontex operate a state-centered “risk analysis” in the aim of neutralizing the “threat” illegalized migrants are constructed as constituting, Forensic Oceanography has forged a form of migrant-centered “counter-risk analysis,” which seeks to contest the violence of borders and mitigate the risks that migrants encounter as a result of state policies. The Mediterranean mobility conflict, this chapter demonstrates, is also fought out through conflicting knowledges and mediations of the border

The Bayesian Echo Chamber: Modeling Social Influence via Linguistic Accommodation

We present the Bayesian Echo Chamber, a new Bayesian generative model for social interaction data. By modeling the evolution of people's language usage over time, this model discovers latent influence relationships between them. Unlike previous work on inferring influence, which has primarily focused on simple temporal dynamics evidenced via turn-taking behavior, our model captures more nuanced influence relationships, evidenced via linguistic accommodation patterns in interaction content. The model, which is based on a discrete analog of the multivariate Hawkes process, permits a fully Bayesian inference algorithm. We validate our model's ability to discover latent influence patterns using transcripts of arguments heard by the US Supreme Court and the movie "12 Angry Men." We showcase our model's capabilities by using it to infer latent influence patterns from Federal Open Market Committee meeting transcripts, demonstrating state-of-the-art performance at uncovering social dynamics in group discussions.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, to appear in AISTATS 2015. Fixed minor formatting issue

Analysis of One-Bay, Multi-Story, Rectangular Frames by Modified Moment Distribution

Civil Engineerin

Liquid Trajectories : Documenting Illegalised Migration and the Violence of Borders

This PhD thesis offers an account of my trajectory as a researcher and aesthetic practitioner seeking to document and contest the violence of the migration regime operating between Europe and Africa. I describe the successive shifts my research and practice has undergone in a “diary of practice” of sorts. Through my successive experiments with the use of a wide range of sensing devises – ranging from photographs, videos, maps, satellite images and statistical graphs – this thesis explores the intersection between the politics of migration and that of aesthetic practices. In the introduction to this thesis, I describe further my approach and inscribe it within broader theoretical fields. In the second chapter, Image/Migration, I follow the “lives” of the images of migration I have produced as a documentary filmmaker, and enquire into their effects. Considering images as practices and objects which produce variegated effects depending on their use by different actors, I chart the way images depicting migrants’ precarious condition have become embedded in the government of migration. In a third chapter, Forensic Oceanography, I present a collaborative research project aiming at documenting the deaths of migrants in the Mediterranean Sea and accounting for the conditions which have led to them. I engage with the complex geography of the EU’s maritime frontier and seek to reappropritate some of the tools normally used for surveillance – such as mapping and remote sensing – so as to reinscribe responsibility in a sea of impunity. In a fourth chapter, Tactical Statistics, I explore the potential of a critical statistical practice to register the violence of the European migration regime, which operates indirectly and leads to deaths on a structural basis. In a concluding chapter, For Movement, I discuss the conditions for thinking alternatives to the current migration regime in the form of a policy and right to universal freedom of movement

Genetically identified suppressed-by-contrast retinal ganglion cells reliably signal self-generated visual stimuli

Spike trains of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) are the sole source of visual information to the brain; and understanding how the ∼20 RGC types in mammalian retinae respond to diverse visual features and events is fundamental to understanding vision. Suppressed-by-contrast (SbC) RGCs stand apart from all other RGC types in that they reduce rather than increase firing rates in response to light increments (ON) and decrements (OFF). Here, we genetically identify and morphologically characterize SbC-RGCs in mice, and target them for patch-clamp recordings under two-photon guidance. We find that strong ON inhibition (glycine > GABA) outweighs weak ON excitation, and that inhibition (glycine > GABA) coincides with decreases in excitation at light OFF. These input patterns explain the suppressive spike responses of SbC-RGCs, which are observed in dim and bright light conditions. Inhibition to SbC-RGC is driven by rectified receptive field subunits, leading us to hypothesize that SbC-RGCs could signal pattern-independent changes in the retinal image. Indeed, we find that shifts of random textures matching saccade-like eye movements in mice elicit robust inhibitory inputs and suppress spiking of SbC-RGCs over a wide range of texture contrasts and spatial frequencies. Similarly, stimuli based on kinematic analyses of mouse blinking consistently suppress SbC-RGC spiking. Receiver operating characteristics show that SbC-RGCs are reliable indicators of self-generated visual stimuli that may contribute to central processing of blinks and saccades. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT This study genetically identifies and morphologically characterizes suppressed-by-contrast retinal ganglion cells (SbC-RGCs) in mice. Targeted patch-clamp recordings from SbC-RGCs under two-photon guidance elucidate the synaptic mechanisms mediating spike suppression to contrast steps, and reveal that SbC-RGCs respond reliably to stimuli mimicking saccade-like eye movements and blinks. The similarity of responses to saccade-like eye movements and blinks suggests that SbC-RGCs may provide a unified signal for self-generated visual stimuli

The Ursinus Weekly, October 20, 1941

Noted economist will speak on campus next Monday at Founders\u27 Day program • Registrar reveals frosh median score is up to standard • Gay asks for real confession of faith at vesper service • Dean Kline announces topic for this year\u27s Paisley prize contest • Thursday to be opera night here when company presents its program • Gordon to provide syncopations for ball on December 12 • Varsity Club to stage Old Timers\u27 Day dance in gym November 1 • Counselors meet to discuss ways of helping frosh study • Prince Zu Loewenstein to address forum; Byron announces plans • Librarian reveals acquisition of over 400 books on fiction, current topics, and reference work • Snooping reporters pry into private lives of two strangers on campus to learn their interests, history • Y sponsors one-day trips to centers of social service interest in New York City • Y speaker emphasizes dire needs of stricken war refugee students • Freeland bell rings out season\u27s first all victorious weekend: Hard fighting bears hold favored Lehigh to 0-0 tie; booters conquer Lafayette 4-2 for season\u27s first victory • Hockey squad defeats Beaver, 5-3, to remain in undefeated ranks • Cub gridders complete all-victorious weekend beating Farm School 6-0 • Cub reporter tells of jay vee soccer game in inimitable style • Playing nursemaid to 200 lb. athletes is work of Tadley; trainer hopes to see winning ways at Ursinus in future • Women debater apply for forensic club membership • Varied subjects usher in eight new members to men\u27s Debate Club • Rec center, featuring sports for non-athletes, now openhttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/weekly/1766/thumbnail.jp

Non connective K-theory via universal invariants

In this article, we further the study of higher K-theory of dg categories via universal invariants, initiated by the second named author. Our main result is the co-representability of non-connective K-theory by the base ring in the universal localizing motivator. As an application, we obtain for free higher Chern characters, resp. higher trace maps, e.g. from non-connective K-theory to cyclic homology, resp. to topological Hochschild homology.Comment: This is a slight revision in the exposition of the paper previously entitled "Negative K-theory via universal invariants"; hopefully for the bes