H.M.'s personal crossword puzzles: understanding memory and language.

The amnesic patient H.M. has been solving crossword puzzles nearly all his life. Here, we analysed the linguistic content of 277 of H.M.'s crossword-puzzle solutions. H.M. did not have any unusual difficulties with the orthographic and grammatical components inherent to the puzzles. He exhibited few spelling errors, responded with appropriate parts of speech, and provided answers that were, at times, more convincing to observers than those supplied by the answer keys. These results suggest that H.M.'s lexical word-retrieval skills remain fluid despite his profound anterograde amnesia. Once acquired, the maintenance of written language comprehension and production does not seem to require intact medial temporal lobe structures.

Internal languages of retrieval: the bilingual encoding of memories for the personal past.

In contrast to most research on bilingual memory that focuses on how words in either lexicon are mapped onto memory for objects and concepts, we focus on memory for events in the personal past. Using a word-cue technique in sessions devoted exclusively to one language, we found that older Hispanic immigrants who had come to the United States as adults internally retrieved autobiographical memories in Spanish for events in the country of origin and in English for events in the U.S. These participants were consistently capable of discerning whether a memory had come to them "in words" or not, reflecting the distinction between purely imagistic or conceptual memories and specifically linguistic memories. Via examination of other phenomenological features of these memories (sense of re-living, sensory detail, emotionality, and rehearsal), we conclude that the linguistic/nonlinguistic distinction is fundamental and independent of these other characteristics. Bilinguals encode and retrieve certain autobiographical memories in one or the other language according to the context of encoding, and these linguistic characteristics are stable properties of those memories over time.

Incidencia de la participación en el empoderamiento personal y familiar, el poder de agencia y la autogestión comunitaria de un grupo emprendedor liderado por mujeres

En estos últimos tiempos, en los que la desocupación se ha instalado en nuestra sociedad, muchas mujeres han decidido encarar un emprendimiento para generar, aportar y/ o aumentar los ingresos hogareños, motivadas por diversos motivos pero, especialmente, por la falta de trabajo. En esta ocasión realizamos un estudio de caso de un grupo liderado por mujeres que se dedicó a la producción de alimentos en Tandil. Este trabajo se propone analizar la incidencia de la participación de estas mujeres en dicho emprendimiento en el empoderamiento personal y familiar, el poder de agencia y la autogestión comunitaria. La metodología utilizada se basó en entrevistas semi estructuradas y en profundidad a las mujeres integrantes del grupo y a profesionales técnicos que trabajan con el grupo, como también en recolección de información secundaria.

An AI formalism for competing claims of identification: capturing the "Smemorato di Collegno" amnesia case

A formal representation is given of the situational structure, and the agents' beliefs about personal identity, in the Smemorato di Collegno amnesia case tried in 1927, in Pollenza, Italy. Another section discusses and formalizes a sample heuristic rule for conjecturing whether an individual identity other than personal, being conveyed by a toponym, was used literally or fictitiously in a given historical corpus of legal casenotes. For example, a landlocked city being named and referred to as though it was a sea port is a fairly good cue for assuming that the toponym is a disguise. Yet, the interpretation is governed by other conventions, when in a play by Shakeaspeare it is stated that a given scene is set on the sea coast of Bohemia. Further discussion of a situational casuistry for identification (especially individual and personal) along with more formal representations will appear in a companion paper "nissanidentifpirandello", also at the disciplinary meet of AI formalisms and legal applications.

More than a nuisance: personal injury under Rylands

Discusses, by reference to case law, whether damages for personal injury are recoverable under Rylands v Fletcher liability. Considers the issue by reference to a hypothetical scenario in which a claimant suffers personal injury as a result of a chemical leak from a factory for which the factory owner is not at fault. Considers claims based on diminution in amenity and for consequential loss.

Personal and proprietary tenancies

Examines the Chancery Division ruling in London Development Agency v Nidai on whether a number of agreements providing for the construction of a bridge and shop premises on the retaining walls of a river resulted in a binding legal lease or a series of bare licences. Comments on the failure of the judgment to mention the House of Lords ruling in Bruton v London & Quadrant Housing Trust and discusses whether a Bruton tenancy is capable of binding third parties.

Una revisión de la Cadena Datos-Información-Conocimiento desde el Pragmatismo de Peirce

La Cadena Datos-Información-Conocimiento (DIC), denominada “Jerarquía de la Información” o “Pirámide del Conocimiento”, es uno de los modelos más importantes en la Gestión de la Información y la Gestión del Conocimiento. Por lo general, la estructuración de la cadena se ha ido definiendo como una arquitectura en la que cada elemento se levanta sobre el elemento inmediatamente inferior; sin embargo no existe un consenso en la definición de los elementos, ni acerca de los procesos que transforman un elemento de un nivel a uno del siguiente nivel. En este artículo se realiza una revisión de la Cadena Datos-Información-Conocimiento examinando las definiciones más relevantes sobre sus elementos y sobre su articulación en la literatura, para sintetizar las acepciones más comunes. Se analizan los elementos de la Cadena DIC desde la semiótica de Peirce; enfoque que nos permite aclarar los significados e identificar las diferencias, las relaciones y los roles que desempeñan en la cadena desde el punto de vista del pragmatismo. Finalmente se propone una definición de la Cadena DIC apoyada en las categorías triádicas de signos y la semiosis ilimitada de Peirce, los niveles de sistemas de signos de Stamper y las metáforas de Zeleny.

''Setting 'Em Up'': Personal, Familial and Institutional Grooming in the Sexual Abuse of Children

The term ‘grooming’ has been used to describe the offender’s actions during the preparatory stage of sexual abuse. This paper will argue that current discourses on grooming have created ambiguities and misunderstandings about child sexual abuse. In particular, the popular focus on ‘stranger danger’ belies the fact that the majority of children are abused by someone well known to them, where grooming can also occur. Current discourses also neglect other important facets of the sex offending pattern. They fail to consider that offenders may groom not only the child but also their family and even the local community who may act as the gatekeepers of access. They also ignore what can be termed ‘institutional grooming’ – that sex offenders may groom criminal justice and other institutions into believing that they present no risk to children. A key variable in the grooming process is the creation and subsequent abuse of trust. Given that the criminal law may be somewhat limited in its response to this type of behaviour, ultimately concerted efforts must be made to foster social and organisational awareness of such processes in order to reduce the offender’s opportunity for abuse.