Fetal memory: Does it exist? what does it do?

Whether fetal memory exists has attracted interest for many thousands of years. The following review draws on recent experimental evidence to consider two questions: does the fetus have a memory? And, if so, what function(s) does it serve? Evidence from fetal learning paradigms of classical conditioning, habituation and exposure learning reveal that the fetus does have a memory. By comparison little attention has been paid to the possible function of memory. Possible functions discussed are: practice, recognition of and attachment to the mother, promotion of breastfeeding, and language acquisition. It is concluded that the fetus does possess a memory but that more attention to the functions of fetal memory will guide future studies of fetal memory abilities.

Valved Dataflow For FPGA Memory Hierarchy Synthesis

For modern FPGA, implementation of memory intensive processing applications such as high end image and video processing systems necessitates manual design of complex multilevel memory hierarchies incorporating off-chip DDR and onchip BRAM and LUT RAM. In fact, automated synthesis of multi-level memory hierarchies is an open problem facing high level synthesis technologies for FPGA devices. In this paper we describe the first automated solution to this problem.
By exploiting a novel dataflow application modelling dialect, known as Valved Dataflow, we show for the first time how, not only can such architectures be automatically derived, but also that the resulting implementations support real-time processing for current image processing application standards such as H.264. We demonstrate the viability of this approach by reporting the performance and cost of hierarchies automatically generated for Motion Estimation, Matrix Multiplication and Sobel Edge Detection applications on Virtex-5 FPGA.

Denial, Silence and the Politics of the Past: Unpicking the Opposition to Truth Recovery in Northern Ireland

There has been considerable and protracted debate on whether a formal truth recovery process should be established in Northern Ireland. Some of the strongest opposition to the creation of such a body has been from unionist political elites and the security forces. Based on qualitative fieldwork, this article argues that the dynamics of denial and silence have been instrumental in shaping their concerns. It explores how questions of memory, identity and denial have created a ‘myth of blamelessness’ in unionist discourse that is at odds with the reasons for a truth process being established. It also examines how three interlocking manifestations of silence – ‘silence as passivity,’ ‘silence as loyalty’ and ‘silence as pragmatism’ – have furthered unionists’ opposition to dealing with the past. This article argues that making peace with the past requires an active deconstruction of these practices.

The place(s) of student voice in 14-19 education policy reform: reflections on consultation and participation

Certain policy areas with considerable impact on young people's educational experiences and achievements, notably assessment and qualifications, do not involve consultation with young people to any meaningful extent. Findings from a national study, which included focus groups with 243 students in the 14-19 phase, are presented with respect to student consultation and participation in such policy areas. A lack of meaningful consultation regarding what students see as ‘higher level’ policy agendas was found (such as qualifications provision, choice or structure). Students are therefore ‘voiceless’ in relation to major qualifications reforms

Episodic memory and learning in patients with chronic schizophrenia

This study explored the pattern of memory functioning in 58 patients with chronic schizophrenia and compared their performance with 53 normal controls. Multiple domains of memory were assessed, including verbal and nonverbal memory span, verbal and non-verbal paired associate learning, verbal and visual long-term memory, spatial and non-spatial conditional associative learning, recognition memory and memory for temporal order. Consistent with previous studies, substantial deficits in long-term memory were observed, with relative preservation of memory span. Memory for temporal order and recognition memory was intact, although significant deficits were observed on the conditional associative learning tasks. There was no evidence of lateralized memory impairment. In these respects, the pattern of memory impairment in schizophrenia is more similar in nature to that found in patients with memory dysfunction following mesiotemporal lobe lesions, rather than that associated with focal frontal lobe damage. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Cinematic and Architectonic Space in Tarkovsky's Solaris

Architecture plays an important role in Andrei Tarkovsky’s films in defining the atmosphere of a space and memory of a place. This paper is a study of how the settings in Tarkovsky’s Solaris (1972) are used to provoke and convey feelings to the audience through architectonic space depicting the city, library, home and aspects of the home such as paintings and mirrors. The rooms depicted in Solaris (Fig. 1) are filled with symbolism and detail. They are imbued with a poetic quality rarely seen in cinema. The everyday places of city, library and home in Solaris are given an emotional depth not usually found in these spaces in reality. Solaris is an anomaly among Tarkovsky’s films in that the majority of the narrative takes place in an enclosed built set. Rarely do Tarkovsky spaces exert so much control over the actors’ movements within a meticulously designed and detailed set. This paper analyses how the director uses constructed sets in Solaris to confront our perception of memories, dreams and reality.
The intent of this study is to gain better understanding of the link between architecture and other art forms such as painting and cinema through spatial analysis. This study also relates to our imagination and how we perceive architectonic space portrayed through cinematic images. The architectural theory of Juhani Pallasmaa forms the basis of this paper.

Invisible Targets, Strengthened Morale: Static Camouflage as a ‘Weapon of the Weak’

In the natural world, camouflage is habitually deployed by 'vulnerable' creatures to deceive predators. Such protective strategies have been culturally, socially and technologically translated into human societies, whereby camouflage has been used to mask intentions, actions, feelings and valuable objects or spaces. Through the material presence of such techniques, everyday spaces can become inscribed as places of sanctuary. Focusing on British civil camouflage work of the 1930s and 1940s, this paper explores the historical, cultural and political connotations of camouflage and how the attainment of invisibility, as a 'weapon of the weak', can both physically and affectively protect urban populations. © 2012 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

Linear Optics Simulation of Quantum Non-Markovian Dynamics

The simulation of open quantum dynamics has recently allowed the direct investigation of the features of system-environment interaction and of their consequences on the evolution of a quantum system. Such interaction threatens the quantum properties of the system, spoiling them and causing the phenomenon of decoherence. Sometimes however a coherent exchange of information takes place between system and environment, memory effects arise and the dynamics of the system becomes non-Markovian. Here we report the experimental realisation of a non-Markovian process where system and environment are coupled through a simulated transverse Ising model. By engineering the evolution in a photonic quantum simulator, we demonstrate the role played by system-environment correlations in the emergence of memory effects.

Analysis of Dependence Tracking Algorithms for Task Dataflow Execution

Processor architectures has taken a turn towards many-core processors, which integrate multiple processing cores on a single chip to increase overall performance, and there are no signs that this trend will stop in the near future. Many-core processors are harder to program than multi-core and single-core processors due to the need of writing parallel or concurrent programs with high degrees of parallelism. Moreover, many-cores have to operate in a mode of strong scaling because of memory bandwidth constraints. In strong scaling increasingly finer-grain parallelism must be extracted in order to keep all processing cores busy.

Task dataflow programming models have a high potential to simplify parallel program- ming because they alleviate the programmer from identifying precisely all inter-task de- pendences when writing programs. Instead, the task dataflow runtime system detects and enforces inter-task dependences during execution based on the description of memory each task accesses. The runtime constructs a task dataflow graph that captures all tasks and their dependences. Tasks are scheduled to execute in parallel taking into account dependences specified in the task graph.

Several papers report important overheads for task dataflow systems, which severely limits the scalability and usability of such systems. In this paper we study efficient schemes to manage task graphs and analyze their scalability. We assume a programming model that supports input, output and in/out annotations on task arguments, as well as commutative in/out and reductions. We analyze the structure of task graphs and identify versions and generations as key concepts for efficient management of task graphs. Then, we present three schemes to manage task graphs building on graph representations, hypergraphs and lists. We also consider a fourth edge-less scheme that synchronizes tasks using integers. Analysis using micro-benchmarks shows that the graph representation is not always scalable and that the edge-less scheme introduces least overhead in nearly all situations.

Non-apologies and prolonged silences in post-conflict settings: The case of post-colonial Cyprus

Despite the growing use of apologies in post-conflict settings, cases of non-apology remain unaddressed and continue to puzzle scholars. This article focuses on the absence of apology by non-state and anti-state actors by examining the case of the Cypriot armed group EOKA, which has refused to offer an apology to the civilian victims of its ‘anti-colonial’ struggle (1955–1959). Using field data and parliamentary debates, and drawing on comparisons, this article analyses the factors that contributed to a lack of apology. It is argued that the inherited timelessness of Greek nationalism, and the impression of a perpetual need for defence, set up textbook conditions for the development of a hegemonic discourse and prevented an apology for human rights violations.

Unearthing the Truth: The Politics of Exhumations in Cyprus and Spain

Contrary to the experience of other countries with memories of clandestine violence and “missing persons”, where the mobilisation of the (civil) society towards “truth recovery” was immediate and pivotal, the societies of Cyprus and Spain remained silent for a remarkably long period of time. This article aspires to explain the reasons why both Cypriot communities and the Spanish society did not manage, until recently, to comprehensively address—not to mention resolve—the problem of “missing persons”. The recent emergence of the “politics of exhumations” in these two countries, which highlight issues related to truth recovery and collective memory, renders the attempt to respond to the question of why these processes are taking place only today even more stimulating

Voyage(s) to Sarajevo: Jean-Luc Godard and the Image of War

This essay discusses Jean-Luc Godard’s artistic response to the Bosnian War (1992-95), and its representations in the Western mass media. For Godard, the reluctance of Europe’s advanced liberal democracies to intervene meaningfully in Bosnia – their insistence that 'humanitarianism' rather than protective intervention was the order of the day – was tantamount to supporting Serbian fascism, and – a fortiori – regressing to a policy of appeasement reminiscent of the days of the Munich Agreement. Although Godard's stance set him against some of his former compatriots on the left, speculating on his ideological motivations is beside the point. Rather, it is is in his filmmaking, in his vision of cinema, and how it relates to other histories of the image, that Godard’s sensibility can be most keenly felt and understood. As the essay points out, even his recent contribution to Jean-Michel Frodon's compilation film, Bridges of Sarajevo/Les ponts de Sarajevo (2014, 114 mn.), persists in posing questions about how the past continues to shape the present, and how Sarajevo and its contemporary history still delineates the identity of Europe. 

The Effect of Community-Based Specialist Palliative Care Teams on Place of Care

BACKGROUND: Prior research on community-based specialist palliative care teams used outcome measures of place of death and/or dichotomous outcome measures of acute care use in the last two weeks of life. However, existing research seldom measured the diverse places of care used and their timing prior to death.

OBJECTIVE: The study objective was to examine the place of care in the last 30 days of life.

METHODS: In this retrospective cohort study, patients who received care from a specialist palliative care team (exposed) were matched by propensity score to patients who received usual care in the community (unexposed) in Ontario, Canada. Measured was the percentage of patients in each place of care in the last month of life as a proportion of the total cohort.

RESULTS: After matching, 3109 patients were identified in each group, where 79% had cancer and 77% received end-of-life home care. At 30 days compared to 7 days before death, the exposed group's proportions rose from 33% to 41% receiving home care and 14% to 15% in hospital, whereas the unexposed group's proportions rose from 28% to 32% receiving home care and 16% to 22% in hospital. Linear trend analysis (proportion over time) showed that the exposed group used significantly more home care services and fewer hospital days (p < 0.001) than the unexposed group. On the last day of life (place of death), the exposed group had 18% die in an in-patient hospital bed compared to 29% in usual care.

CONCLUSION: Examining place of care in the last month can effectively illustrate the service use trajectory over time.

On the performance of LDPC and turbo decoder architectures with unreliable memories

In this paper, we investigate the impact of faulty memory bit-cells on the performance of LDPC and Turbo channel decoders based on realistic memory failure models. Our study investigates the inherent error resilience of such codes to potential memory faults affecting the decoding process. We develop two mitigation mechanisms that reduce the impact of memory faults rather than correcting every single error. We show how protection of only few bit-cells is sufficient to deal with high defect rates. In addition, we show how the use of repair-iterations specifically helps mitigating the impact of faults that occur inside the decoder itself.