Project Andvari: A Digital Portal to the Visual World of Early Medieval Northern Europe

Project Andvari is designed to provide integrated access to dispersed collections of northern European art and artifacts of the early medieval period (4th-12th centuries). Our goal is to create a digital portal offering aggregated search options and enhanced metadata. Funding is requested to convene an international workshop for humanities scholars, museum professionals, and technology experts to refine the conceptual design of the proposed research tool and identify its technological requirements in preparation for a pilot project. Ultimately, Project Andvari will facilitate interdisciplinary research in art, archaeology, history, and literary and religious studies of the northern periphery of medieval Europe. It will allow users to study visual culture across media and beyond traditional geographical and disciplinary boundaries. Its innovative application of search methods will promote analyses of relationships of artifacts and cultures, and help us discover the hitherto unnoticed

Impaired Structural Connectivity of Socio-Emotional Circuits in Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Diffusion Tensor Imaging Study

Abnormal white matter development may disrupt integration within neural circuits, causing particular impairments in higher-order behaviours. In autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), white matter alterations may contribute to characteristic deficits in complex socio-emotional and communication domains. Here, we used diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and tract based spatial statistics (TBSS) to evaluate white matter microstructure in ASD.DTI scans were acquired for 19 children and adolescents with ASD (∼8-18 years; mean 12.4±3.1) and 16 age and IQ matched controls (∼8-18 years; mean 12.3±3.6) on a 3T MRI system. DTI values for fractional anisotropy, mean diffusivity, radial diffusivity and axial diffusivity, were measured. Age by group interactions for global and voxel-wise white matter indices were examined. Voxel-wise analyses comparing ASD with controls in: (i) the full cohort (ii), children only (≤12 yrs.), and (iii) adolescents only (>12 yrs.) were performed, followed by tract-specific comparisons. Significant age-by-group interactions on global DTI indices were found for all three diffusivity measures, but not for fractional anisotropy. Voxel-wise analyses revealed prominent diffusion measure differences in ASD children but not adolescents, when compared to healthy controls. Widespread increases in mean and radial diffusivity in ASD children were prominent in frontal white matter voxels. Follow-up tract-specific analyses highlighted disruption to pathways integrating frontal, temporal, and occipital structures involved in socio-emotional processing.Our findings highlight disruption of neural circuitry in ASD, particularly in those white matter tracts that integrate the complex socio-emotional processing that is impaired in this disorder

Bracteates and Beverages : An Image from Scalford (and Hoby) and the Inscription alu

Recent metal-detector discoveries of two die-identical Migration Period bracteates from the parishes of Scalford and Hoby with Rotherby, both in Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England, may throw light on the use of these objects and the interpretation of the older runic inscription alu. These pieces display an imitation Latin inscription but no runes, along with an image interpreted as a man quaffing a drink from a glass beaker, a figure previously unknown on bracteates. The iconography reinforces a connection between bracteates and beverages and may be construed as a profane representation of hospitality and nourishment.https://doi.org/10.33063/diva-438872</p

Bracteate Inscriptions and Context Analysis in the Light of Alternatives to Hauck’s Iconographic Interpretations

Runic inscriptions on Scandinavian Migration Period gold bracteates have long been considered problematic. Although many of them are readable, only a few are interpretable. One of the major questions about bracteate texts is whether they are related to the images depicted on the pieces. During the past quarter century, these inscriptions have been interpreted chiefly on the basis of Karl Hauck’s identification of the major figure depicted on bracteates as Odin. However, there are other interpretations of the pictures that may also assist our understanding of the texts. This paper examines some of these alternative explanations of bracteate imagery, with particular reference to how the objects were used and by whom, the aim being to arrive at a better understanding of the inscriptions

The writer's roles : reading with rhetoric

508 p.; 21 cm