Topographic Shear and the Relation of Ocular Dominance Columns to Orientation Columns in Prime and Cat Visual Cortex

Shear has been known to exist for many years in the topographic structure of prirnary visual cortex, but has received little attention in the modeling literature. Although the topographic map of V1 is largely conformal (i.e. zero shear), several groups have observed topographic shear in the region of the V1/V2 border. Furthennore, shear has also been revealed by anisotropy of cortical magnification factor within a single ocular dominance colunm. In the present paper, we make a functional hypothesis: the major axis of the topographic shear tensor provides cortical neurons with a preferred direction of orientation tuning. We demonstrate that isotropic neuronal summation of a sheared topographic map, in the presence of additional random shear can provide the major features of corlical functional architecture with the ocular dominance column system acting as the principal source of the shear tensor. The major principal axis of the shear tensor determines the direction and its eigenvalues the relative strength of cortical orientation preference. This hypothesis is then shown to be qualitatively consistent with a variety of experimental results on cat and monkey orientation column properties obtained from optical recording and from other anatomical and physiological techniques. In addition, we show that a recent result of (Das and Gilbert, 1997) is consistent with an infinite set of parameterized solutions for the cortical map. We exploit this freedom to choose a particular instance of the Das-Gilbert solution set which is consistent with the full range of local spatial structure in V1. These results suggest that further relationships between ocular dominance columns, orientation columns, and local topography may be revealed by experimental testing

Agile Product Testing with Constrained Prototypes

The means to acquire reliable functional information is a critical factor that differentiates product development time and cost. Thanks to advances in solid freeform fabrication techniques, industries can produce geometrically complex parts within dramatically reduced time and cost. Even though industries can save significant efforts by performing functional tests rapid prototypes, they still prefer full-scale product tests, especially in later design phases, due to inherent limitations in traditional similarity methods (TSM). This paper describes a new method to perform reliable functional tests with rapid prototypes that cannot be properly handled by the TSM.Mechanical Engineerin

Thinking Culturally about Politics: Habits 20 Years Later and 20 Years Hence

Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life clearly mattered when it was published in 1985: One of only a handful of truly sociological books on the New York Times\u27 list of bestsellers in recent decades, it was widely discussed in congregations, book groups, and classrooms throughout the country. But how might it matter today? Does it carry lasting significance twenty-plus years after publication, or stand as an important but dated commentary on the excesses of 1980s individualism

Higher Power: Strategic Capacity for State and National Organizing

This chapter studies an organizing effort of the PICO National Network, which organizes in poor, working-class, and middle-class neighborhoods in the United States, mostly in urban areas. PICO engages in faith-based community organizing to generate democratic pressure to advance the interests of its nonelite, highly multiracial participants. The research reported here goes beyond other studies of grassroots organizing through its focus on efforts to influence policymaking on health care, public safety, education, immigrant rights, and housing at the state and national levels.\u2

Advancing the Grounded Study of Religion and Society in Latin America

In rediscovering the interpenetration of popular culture and politics in Latin America, and thus the ways these realms mutually constitute one another, scholars have also witnessed the analytic irruption of one particular cultural fi eld: religion. Close attention to grassroots political culture allows us to probe how peoples spiritual subjectivity and political subjectivity overlap and cross-fertilize one another. In the process, religion shapes political outcomes in ways often unintended. Two further analytic insights are discussed: First, analysis of lived religion must partially decenter religious institutions from the focus of analysis but also pay attention to how institutions shape spiritual and political subjectivities. Second, our theoretical frameworks—while rightly rejecting dominant Western forms of anti-body dualism—must preserve analytic place for a realm of human experience termed here \u27embodied dualism\u27 or \u27experiential dualism.\u27\u2

Religious Culture and Political Action

Recent work by political sociologists and social movement theorists extend our understanding of how religious institutions contribute to expanding democracy, but nearly all analyze religious institutions as institutions; few focus directly on what religion qua religion might contribute. This article strives to illuminate the impact of religious culture per se, extending recent work on religion and democratic life by a small group of social movement scholars trained also in the sociology of religion. In examining religions democratic impact, an explicitly cultural analysis inspired by the new approach to political culture developed by historical sociologists and cultural analysts of democracy is used to show the power of this approach and to provide a fuller theoretical account of how cultural dynamics shape political outcomes. This article examines religious institutions as generators of religious culture, presents a theoretical model of how religious cultural elements are incorporated into social movements and so share their internal political cultures, and discusses how this in turn shapes their impact in the public realm. This model is then applied to a key site of democratic struggle: four efforts to promote social justice among low-income urban residents of the United States, including the most widespread such effort—faith-based community organizing.\u2

Up from the Parishes: Reclaiming the Public Voice of Catholicism

An important story is being told in the land, of the unrecognized but powerful role of faith communities in challenging American political and economic institutions to live up to their democratic promise. That story involves Catholic, historic black Protestant, liberal and moderate Protestant, Jewish, Unitarian, and evangelical congregations working to influence local and state-level public policy through faith-based community organizing (FBCO) models.\u2

Reading Robert Bellah: On Faith, Culture, and Power in America

For four decades, Robert Bellah\u27s books, articles, and public speaking have influenced thoughtful sectors of American faith communities, including readers of Christian Century. Though widely known among academic specialists, a holder of an elite endowed chair at one of the premier public universities in America, Bellah is best known in church circles for the books Habits of the Heart and The Good Society (both co-authored with the team of Richard Madsen, William Sullivan, Ann Swidler, and Steven Tipton). Their interpretation of the deep cultural patterns of American life has found resonance among religious leaders of many stripes, and shaped sermons and adult education hours in many American congregations

Raising the Bar: Organizing Capacity in 2009 and Beyond; A Report for the Neighborhood Funders Group

Efforts to reshape the life opportunities for working families in America face a critical juncture in 2009 and beyond, involving both new opportunities and new challenges. This critical juncture arises due to two recent changes. First, 2008 brought important changes in national political dynamics as a result of the economic meltdown and the election of President Barack Obama and a new Congress. Second, internal dynamics within community organizing efforts in poor, working-class and middle-class communities have changed, with significant progress made over the last decade in re-engaging working families in the political process. This report uses the recent experience of two projects — different models for mobilizing working families for civic engagement on policy reform — as a lens to explore the broader dynamics of community organizing today. Ultimately, it argues that these dynamics present a strategic window of opportunity for those dedicated to advancing the interests of working families in the United States