Wahrheitskommissionen als Instrument der Transitional Justice. Genese, Entwicklung, Verbreitung

Wahrheitskommissionen haben in den vergangenen rund dreißig Jahren eine bemerkenswerte internationale Karriere aufzuweisen gehabt. Sie haben sich dabei von einer der wichtigsten Innovationen im gesellschaftlichen Umgang mit historischem Unrecht zu einem globalen Aufarbeitungsstandard entwickelt. Bis in die Gegenwart sind Dutzende Wahrheitskommissionen auf fünf Kontinenten eingesetzt worden. Diese Entwicklung ist eng mit derjenigen des Feldes der Transitional Justice verbunden gewesen. Der Beitrag betrachtet die Genese, die Entwicklung und die Verbreitung der Wahrheitskommissionen als zentrales Instrument von Transitional Justice.

The Dissociation of Location and Object Working Memory using fMRI and MEG

Visual working memory (VWM) involves maintaining and processing visual information, often for the purpose of making immediate decisions. Neuroimaging experiments of VWM provide evidence in support of a neural system mainly involving a fronto-parietal neuronal network, but the role of specific brain areas is less clear. A proposal that has recently generated considerable debate suggests that a dissociation of object and location VWM occurs within the prefrontal cortex, in dorsal and ventral regions, respectively. However, re-examination of the relevant literature presents a more robust distribution suggestive of a general caudal-rostral dissociation from occipital and parietal structures, caudally, to prefrontal regions, rostrally, corresponding to location and object memory, respectively. The purpose of the present study was to identify a dissociation of location and object VWM across two imaging methods (magnetoencephalography, MEG, and functional magnetic imaging, fMRI). These two techniques provide complimentary results due the high temporal resolution of MEG and the high spatial resolution of fMRI. The use of identical location and object change detection tasks was employed across techniques and reported for the first time. Moreover, this study is the first to use matched stimulus displays across location and object VWM conditions. The results from these two imaging methods provided convergent evidence of a location and object VWM dissociation favoring a general caudal-rostral rather than the more common prefrontal dorsal-ventral view. Moreover, neural activity across techniques was correlated with behavioral performance for the first time and provided convergent results. This novel approach of combining imaging tools to study memory resulted in robust evidence suggesting a novel interpretation of location and object memory. Accordingly, this study presents a novel context within which to explore the neural substrates of WM across imaging techniques and populations.

Electronic Communications as a Distinct and Unique Object of Regulation

The present paper is an abridged version of the first chapter to the book EC Electronic Communications and Competition Law (London: Cameron May, 2007). It is intended to pinpoint the contours of the communications sector as an object of regulation - an exercise that is essential to any thoughts on appropriate regulatory design. The communications sector is defined through its salient features of being (i) network-bound; (ii) dynamic; (iii) converging; (iv) sensitive to regulation and society’s reactions; and as one (v) with special societal role and as (vi) part of the new economy.

The Software Prototype as Digital Boundary Object – A Revelatory Longitudinal Innovation Case

With the availability of lower cost but highly skilled software development labor from offshore regions, entrepreneurs from developed countries who do not have software development experience can utilize this workforce to develop innovative software products. In order to succeed in offshored innovation projects, the often extreme knowledge boundaries between the onsite entrepreneur and the offshore software development team have to be overcome. Prior research has proposed that boundary objects are critical for bridging such boundaries – if they are appropriately used. Our longitudinal, revelatory case study of a software innovation project is one of the first to explore the role of the software prototype as a digital boundary object. Our study empirically unpacks five use practices that transform the software prototype into a boundary object such that knowledge boundaries are bridged. Our findings provide new theoretical insights for literature on software innovation and boundary objects, and have implications for practice.

Improved Space Object Orbit Determination Using CMOS Detectors

CMOS-sensors, or in general Active Pixel Sensors (APS), are rapidly replacing CCDs in the consumer camera market. Due to significant technological advances during the past years these devices start to compete with CCDs also for demanding scientific imaging applications, in particular in the astronomy community. CMOS detectors offer a series of inherent advantages compared to CCDs, due to the structure of their basic pixel cells, which each contains their own amplifier and readout electronics. The most prominent advantages for space object observations are the extremely fast and flexible readout capabilities, feasibility for electronic shuttering and precise epoch registration,and the potential to perform image processing operations on-chip and in real-time. Here, the major challenges and design drivers for ground-based and space-based optical observation strategies for objects in Earth orbit have been analyzed. CMOS detector characteristics were critically evaluated and compared with the established CCD technology, especially with respect to the above mentioned observations. Finally, we simulated several observation scenarios for ground- and space-based sensor by assuming different observation and sensor properties. We will introduce the analyzed end-to-end simulations of the ground- and spacebased strategies in order to investigate the orbit determination accuracy and its sensitivity which may result from different values for the frame-rate, pixel scale, astrometric and epoch registration accuracies. Two cases were simulated, a survey assuming a ground-based sensor to observe objects in LEO for surveillance applications, and a statistical survey with a space-based sensor orbiting in LEO observing small-size debris in LEO. The ground-based LEO survey uses a dynamical fence close to the Earth shadow a few hours after sunset. For the space-based scenario a sensor in a sun-synchronous LEO orbit, always pointing in the anti-sun direction to achieve optimum illumination conditions for small LEO debris was simulated.

The developmental and evolutionary origins of psychological essentialism lie in sortal object individuation

Cimpian & Salomon (C&S) present promising steps towards understanding the cognitive underpinnings of adult essentialism. However, their approach is less convincing regarding ontogenetic and evolutionary aspects. In contrast to C&S's claim, the so-called inherence heuristic, though perhaps vital in adult reasoning, seems an implausible candidate for the developmental and evolutionary foundations of psychological essentialism. A more plausible candidate is kind-based object individuation that already embodies essentialist modes of thinking and that is present in infants and nonhuman primates.

Die grenzüberschreitende Übertragung von Wissen über Transitional Justice und ihre Akteure in historischer Perspektive

Historische Ansätze sind in der Betrachtung von Transitional Justice rar geblieben. Den weitreichenden Veränderungen, die das Feld im Zuge seiner Ausdehnung zum weltweit dominierenden Reflexions- und Handlungszusammenhang im Umgang mit historischem Unrecht erfahren hat, ist deshalb in aller Regel keine angemessene Beachtung geschenkt worden. Der vorliegende Beitrag widmet sich aus historischer Sicht den Fragen, wie seit den späten 1980er Jahren über die Grenzen nationaler Aufarbeitungsschauplätze hinaus Wissen über Transitional Justice generiert und übertragen worden ist, welche die beteiligten Akteursgruppen waren und welche Auswirkungen der Wandel in den Wissenstransfers und im Verhältnis zwischen den Akteuren auf die Entwicklungen im Feld hatte. Im Mittelpunkt der Analyse steht dabei das Instrument der Wahrheitskommissionen. Historical approaches to the study of transitional justice are rare. In the process of its expansion to the dominating paradigm in dealing with past injustices, the field experienced far reaching changes. Scholarship about transitional justice, however, has hardly taken into account these shifts in appropriate ways. This article examines from a historical point of view how knowledge about transitional justice was generated and transferred across the borders of the national sites of dealing with the past, what were the groups of actors involved and what effects the transformations of the knowledge circulation as well as of the relationship between the actors since the late 1980s had on the development of the field. The focus of the analysis, thereby, is on the instrument of truth commissions.