‘Temporary Until Further Notice’: The Museum of Islamic Art and the Discursive Endeavour of Displaying Islamic Art in Qatar

Taking the case of curatorial practices at the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) in Doha, this study analyses practices of exhibiting Islamic art in Qatar. Drawing on interviews, observations and visual material collected during a stay in Doha in November and December 2015, it sheds light on MIA’s conditions, history, and present. Against the backdrop of Michel Foucault’s writings on power/knowledge, I argue that MIA cannot be understood on the basis of a dominant liberal cultural policy paradigm. Rather, it needs to be understood as ‘a dynamic and contingent multiplicity’ (Barad 2007, 147). Notwithstanding, this multiplicity meaningfully relates to Qatar’s shifting political priorities as well as discourses on Islamic art and the exhibition

Soliton Dynamics in Computational Anatomy

Computational anatomy (CA) has introduced the idea of anatomical structures being transformed by geodesic deformations on groups of diffeomorphisms. Among these geometric structures, landmarks and image outlines in CA are shown to be singular solutions of a partial differential equation that is called the geodesic EPDiff equation. A recently discovered momentum map for singular solutions of EPDiff yields their canonical Hamiltonian formulation, which in turn provides a complete parameterization of the landmarks by their canonical positions and momenta. The momentum map provides an isomorphism between landmarks (and outlines) for images and singular soliton solutions of the EPDiff equation. This isomorphism suggests a new dynamical paradigm for CA, as well as new data representation.Comment: published in NeuroImag

Interacting with autistic virtual characters: intrapersonal synchrony of nonverbal behavior affects participants’ perception

Temporal coordination of communicative behavior is not only located between but also within interaction partners (e.g., gaze and gestures). This intrapersonal synchrony (IaPS) is assumed to constitute interpersonal alignment. Studies show systematic variations in IaPS in individuals with autism, which may affect the degree of interpersonal temporal coordination. In the current study, we reversed the approach and mapped the measured nonverbal behavior of interactants with and without ASD from a previous study onto virtual characters to study the effects of the differential IaPS on observers (N = 68), both with and without ASD (crossed design). During a communication task with both characters, who indicated targets with gaze and delayed pointing gestures, we measured response times, gaze behavior, and post hoc impression formation. Results show that character behavior indicative of ASD resulted in overall enlarged decoding times in observers and this effect was even pronounced in observers with ASD. A classification of observer’s gaze types indicated differentiated decoding strategies. Whereas non-autistic observers presented with a rather consistent eyes-focused strategy associated with efficient and fast responses, observers with ASD presented with highly variable decoding strategies. In contrast to communication efficiency, impression formation was not influenced by IaPS. The results underline the importance of timing differences in both production and perception processes during multimodal nonverbal communication in interactants with and without ASD. In essence, the current findings locate the manifestation of reduced reciprocity in autism not merely in the person, but in the interactional dynamics of dyads

Prefrontal cortex gyrification index in twins: an MRI study

Cortical development and folding seems to be under environmental as well as genetic control. The aim of our study was to estimate the genetic influence on gyrification and cortical volumes, comparing prefrontal gyrification index (GI) in monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs, and unrelated pairs. Twenty-four subjects (6 pairs of MZ and 6 pairs of DZ twins) were included in this study. Prefrontal cortical folding (gyrification) was measured by an automated and manual version of the gyrification index (A-GI, M-GI) according to previously published protocols. MR-imaging was performed and 3 representative slices were selected from coronar MR-imaging scans. The volumes of the total brain, temporal lobes, prefrontal lobes, and cerebellum were analyzed, too. To evaluate similarity in GI, absolute differences in GI, and brain volumes as well as intraclass correlations of twin pairs were compared with regard to twin status. Finally, a control group of unrelated pairs was assembled from the first two study groups and analyzed. Compared to unrelated pairs, twin pairs exhibited more similarity concerning different brain volumes and a trend to more similarity concerning A-GI. MZ twins did not present more similarity concerning GI (automatically and manually measured) and volume measurements compared to DZ twins. Different factors, like intrauterine factors, postnatal development conditions, and especially environmental factors might account for the differences between related and unrelated pairs. The nonexistence of a pronounced similarity in MZ twins compared to DZ twins concerning prefrontal GI raises questions about the extent of genetic influence on GI

Regionally Specific White Matter Disruptions of Fornix and Cingulum in Schizophrenia

Limbic circuitry disruptions have been implicated in the psychopathology and cognitive deficits of schizophrenia, which may involve white matter disruptions of the major tracts of the limbic system, including the fornix and the cingulum. Our study aimed to investigate regionally specific abnormalities of the fornix and cingulum in schizophrenia using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). We determined the fractional anisotropy (FA), radial diffusivity (RD), and axial diffusivity (AD) profiles along the fornix and cingulum tracts using a fibertracking technique and a brain mapping algorithm, the large deformation diffeomorphic metric mapping (LDDMM), in the DTI scans of 33 patients with schizophrenia and 31 age-, gender-, and handedness-matched healthy controls. We found that patients with schizophrenia showed reduction in FA and increase in RD in bilateral fornix, and increase in RD in left anterior cingulum when compared to healthy controls. In addition, tract-based analysis revealed specific loci of these white matter differences in schizophrenia, that is, FA reductions and AD and RD increases occur in the region of the left fornix further from the hippocampus, FA reductions and RD increases occur in the rostral portion of the left anterior cingulum, and RD and AD increases occur in the anterior segment of the left middle cingulum. In patients with schizophrenia, decreased FA in the specific loci of the left fornix and increased AD in the right cingulum adjoining the hippocampus correlated with greater severity of psychotic symptoms. These findings support precise disruptions of limbic-cortical integrity in schizophrenia and disruption of these structural networks may contribute towards the neural basis underlying the syndrome of schizophrenia and clinical symptomatology

Konzeption und Durchführung einer Nichtnutzer-Befragung als Marktforschungsinstrument der Hamburger Öffentlichen Bücherhallen

Die Durchführung einer Benutzerbefragung wird häufig in Bibliotheken angewendet, um die Benutzerstruktur, das Benutzerverhalten und die Benutzerzufriedenheit zu ermitteln. Anhand der gewonnenen Ergebnisse, hat die Bibliothek die Möglichkeit ihre Angebote auf die Wünsche der Benutzer abzustimmen. Bei einer Nichtnutzer-Befragung hingegen soll herausgefunden werden, aus welchen Gründen die Nichtnutzer nicht in die Bibliothek kommen, welche Meinung sie über die Bibliothek haben und ob es Möglichkeiten gibt, diese Menschen als Kunden gewinnen zu können. In dieser Arbeit wird eine Nichtnutzer-Befragung für die Hamburger Öffentlichen Bücherhallen durchgeführt. Sie soll dabei helfen, Maßnahmen zu finden, um vermehrt Nichtnutzer für Bibliotheksnutzung zu gewinnen

‘Temporary Until Further Notice’: The Museum of Islamic Art and the Discursive Endeavour of Displaying Islamic Art in Qatar

Taking the case of curatorial practices at the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) in Doha, this study analyses practices of exhibiting Islamic art in Qatar. Drawing on interviews, observations and visual material collected during a stay in Doha in November and December 2015, it sheds light on MIA’s conditions, history, and present. Against the backdrop of Michel Foucault’s writings on power/knowledge, I argue that MIA cannot be understood on the basis of a dominant liberal cultural policy paradigm. Rather, it needs to be understood as ‘a dynamic and contingent multiplicity’ (Barad 2007, 147). Notwithstanding, this multiplicity meaningfully relates to Qatar’s shifting political priorities as well as discourses on Islamic art and the exhibition.</jats:p