14 research outputs found
The Unique Determination of Neuronal Currents in the Brain via Magnetoencephalography
The problem of determining the neuronal current inside the brain from
measurements of the induced magnetic field outside the head is discussed under
the assumption that the space occupied by the brain is approximately spherical.
By inverting the Geselowitz equation, the part of the current which can be
reconstructed from the measurements is precisely determined. This actually
consists of only certain moments of one of the two functions specifying the
tangential part of the current. The other function specifying the tangential
part of the current as well as the radial part of the current are completely
arbitrary. However, it is also shown that with the assumption of energy
minimization, the current can be reconstructed uniquely. A numerical
implementation of this unique reconstruction is also presented
Researching underwater: a submerged study
This chapter explores the unknown territory of a lost project: an ethnography of a public swimming pool. The discussion is contextualised within my broader sociological theory of ânothingâ, as a category of unmarked, negative social phenomena, including no-things, no-bodies, no-wheres, non-events and non-identities. These meaningful symbolic objects are constituted through social interaction, which can take two forms: acts of commission and acts of omission. I tell the story of how this project did not happen, through the things I did not do or that did not materialise, and how I consequently did not become a certain type of researcher. I identify three types of negative phenomena that I did not observe and document â invisible figures, silent voices and empty vessels â and, consequently, the knowledge I did not acquire. However, nothing is also productive, generating new symbolic objects as substitutes, alternatives and replacements: the somethings, somebodies and somewheres that are done or made instead. Thus finally, I reflect on how not doing this project led me to pursue others, cultivating a different research identity that would not otherwise have existed
How to look good (nearly) naked: the performative regulation of the swimmer's body
This article explores the discursive construction, regulation and performance of the body in the context of the swimming pool. The near-naked state of the swimmers body presents a potential threat to the interaction order, insofar as social encounters may be misconstrued as sexual, and so rituals are enacted to create a `civilized definition of the situation. The term `performative regulation is introduced to theorize this process, as a synergy of the symbolic interactionist models of dramaturgy (Goffman) and negotiated order (Strauss) and the post-structuralist concept of disciplinary power (Foucault). The regulation and representation of the swimmers body can be understood as mutually constitutive mechanisms, enforced by the pool-as-institution but enacted through the embodied practices of individual actors in the pool-as-interaction. Crossleys notion of reflexive body techniques is applied to interpret this dualistic process in relation to communicative gestures and facework rituals, which implicates both individual and social bodies in the somatization of the interaction order