Commandeering Aesop’s Bamboo Canon: A 19th Century Confederacy of Creole Fugitive Fables

In my thesis, “Commandeering Aesop’s Bamboo Canon: A 19th Century Confederacy of Creole Fugitive Fables,” I ask and answer the ‘Who? What? Where? When? Why?” of Creole Literature using the 19th century production of Aesopian fables as clues to resolve a set of linguistic, historical, literary, and geographical enigmas pertaining the ‘birth-place(s)’ of Creolophone Literatures in the Caribbean Sea, North and South America, as well as the Indian Ocean. Focusing on the fables in Martinique (1846), Reunion Island (1826), and Mauritius (1822), my thesis should read be as an attempt capture the links between these islands through the creation of a particular archive defined as a cartulary-chronicle, a diplomatic codex, or simply a map in which I chart and trace the flight of the founding documents relating to the lives of the individual authors, editors, and printers in order to illustrate the articulation of a formal and informal confederation that enabled the global and local institutional promotion of Creole Literature. While I integrate various genres and multi-polar networks between the authors of this 19th century canon comprised of sacred and secular texts such as proclamations, catechisms, and proverbs, the principle literary genre charted in my thesis are collections of fables inspired by French 17th century French Classical fabulist, Jean de la Fontaine. Often described as the ‘matrix’ of Creolophone Literature, these blues and fables constitute the base of the canon, and are usually described as either ‘translated,’ ‘adapted,’ and even ‘cross-dressed’ into Creole in all of the French Creolophone spaces. My documentation of their transnational sprouting offers proof of an opaque canonical formation of Creole popular literature. By constituting this archive, I emphasize the fact that despite 200 years of critical reception and major developments and discoveries on behalf of Creole language pedagogues, literary scholars, linguists, historians, librarians, archivist, and museum curators, up until now not only have none have curated this literature as a formal canon. I also offer new empirical evidence in order to try and solve the enigma of “How?” the fables materially circulated between the islands, and seek to come to terms with the anonymous nature of the texts, some of which were published under pseudonyms. I argue that part of the confusion on the part of scholars has been the result of being willfully taken by surprise or defrauded by the authors, or ‘bamboozled’ as I put it. The major paradigmatic shift in my thesis is that while I acknowledge La Fontaine as the base of this literary canon, I ultimately bypass him to trace the ancient literary genealogy of fables to the infamous Aesop the Phrygian, whose biography – the first of a slave in the history of the world – and subsequent use of fables reflects a ‘hidden transcript’ of ‘masked political critique’ between ‘master and slave classes’ in the 4th Century B.C.E. Greece.

This archive draws on, connects and critiques the methodologies of several disciplinary fields. I use post-colonial literary studies to map the literary genealogies Aesop; use a comparative historical approach to the abolitions of slavery in both the 19th century Caribbean and the Indian Ocean; and chart the early appearance of folk music in early colonial societies through Musicology and Performance Studies. Through the use of Sociolinguistics and theories of language revival, ecology, and change, I develop an approach of ‘reflexive Creolistics’ that I ultimately hope will offer new educational opportunities to Creole speakers. While it is my desire that this archive serves linguists, book collectors, and historians for further scientific inquiry into the innate international nature of Creole language, I also hope that this innovative material defense and illustration of Creole Literature will transform the consciousness of Creolophones (native and non-native) who too remain ‘bamboozled’ by the archive. My goal is to erase the ‘unthinkability’ of the existence of this ancient maritime creole literary canon from the collective cultural imaginary of readers around the globe.

Role of Vinculin in Regulating Force-Sensitive Dynamics of Adherens Junctions During Collective Cell Migration

Dynamic processes such as morphogenesis and tissue patterning require the precise control of many cellular processes, especially cell migration. Historically, these processes are thought to be mediated by genetic and biochemical signaling pathways. However, recent advances have unraveled a previously unappreciated role of mechanical forces in regulating these homeostatic processes in of multicellular systems. In multicellular systems cells adhere to both deformable extracellular matrix (ECM) and other cells, which are sources of applied forces and means of mechanical support. Cells detect and respond to these mechanical signals through a poorly understood process called mechanotransduction, which can have profound effects on processes such as cell migration. These effects are largely mediated by the sub cellular structures that link cells to the ECM, called focal adhesions (FAs), or cells to other cells, termed adherens junctions (AJs).

Overall this thesis is comprised of my work on identifying a novel force dependent function of vinculin, a protein which resides in both FAs and AJs - in dynamic process of collective migration. Using a collective migration assay as a model for collective cell behavior and a fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) based molecular tension sensor for vinculin I demonstrated a spatial gradient of tension across vinculin in the direction of migration. To define this novel force-dependent role of vinculin in collective migration I took advantage of previously established shRNA based vinculin knock down Marin-Darby Canine Kidney (MDCK) epithelial cells.

The first part of my thesis comprises of my work demonstrating the mechanosensitive role of vinculin at AJ’s in collectively migrating cells. Using vinculin knockdown cells and vinculin mutants, which specifically disrupt vinculin’s ability to bind actin (VinI997A) or disrupt its ability to localize to AJs without affecting its localization at FAs (VinY822F), I establish a role of force across vinculin in E-cadherin internalization and clipping. Furthermore by measuring E-cadherin dynamics using fluorescence recovery after bleaching (FRAP) analysis I show that vinculin inhibition affects the turnover of E-cadherin at AJs. Together these data reveal a novel mechanosensitive role of vinculin in E-cadherin internalization and turnover in a migrating cell layer, which is contrary to the previously identified role of vinculin in potentiating E-cadherin junctions in a static monolayer.

For the last part of my thesis I designed a novel tension sensor to probe tension across N-cadherin (NTS). N-cadherin plays a critical role in cardiomyocytes, vascular smooth muscle cells, neurons and neural crest cells. Similar to E-cadherin, N-cadherin is also believed to bear tension and play a role in mechanotransduction pathways. To identify the role of tension across N-cadherin I designed a novel FRET-based molecular tension sensor for N-cadherin. I tested the ability of NTS to sense molecular tension in vascular smooth muscle cells, cardiomyocytes and cancer cells. Finally in collaboration with the Horwitz lab we have been able to show a role of tension across N-cadherin in synaptogenesis of neurons.

Champs de bataille: experiences et imaginaires

This contribution takes as its starting point the original conception of the overall research project which sought to examine the ‘battle’ as an event and a cultural act. It examines the representation of violence by non-combatants – who are in any case implicated in the act of war – as well as by combatants themselves. It does, however, also slightly subvert the original proposition of the war narrative as a historical source, towards the idea of the war narrative as a source of artistic representation, as well as towards the notion of ‘narrative’ understood in its broadest sense, towards visual as well as written narratives. The primary focus is however, a specific site of the violence perpetrated and endured by soldiers, the battlefield. One of the fundamental questions posed by the analysis here concerns the issue of the representation and of the reality of the battlefield, and of the reception of the expression of violence. Is representation in fact the only authentic way to seize and to try to understand violence? These questions, and some of the examples used in the first section dealing with the ‘experience’ of the battlefield, have their origins in work conducted for two decades within the international and interdisciplinary research group, the ‘Group for War and Culture Studies’, and therefore concern the bases of a cultural approach to the study of war. In the second section, the analysis moves from the notion of experience to the work of the imagination with a reading of various battlefields created by the contemporary artist Cozette de Charmoy; these are imaginary battlefields certainly, but ones which viscerally engage the body of the soldier and which seem to enable the reader/spectator to access a collective experience. Finally, the question is raised of whether representation actually becomes performative, if it becomes the experience itself, and a way not to ‘see’ that experience, but to ‘know’ it.

Exploring the Shopping Imaginary: The Dreamworld of Women's Magazines

This paper focuses on the consumer imagination and, more specifically, on the imaginary shopping spaces which women's magazines create. It addresses the anticipatory, imaginary and experiential consumption which this medium invites. The paper explores how women's magazines function as ‘dreamworlds’ of shopping; and how contemporary readers consume these imaginary shopping spaces. In order to illustrate what the authors term the ‘shopping imaginary’, they draw on findings from a study of women's experiential consumption of magazines, which show the multifaceted ways around which imaginary consumption is explored and enjoyed by women. The study suggests that women's magazines, like department stores, are spaces that facilitate and celebrate just looking and browsing, and, above all, they are shopping spaces that address the power of the imagination within them. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Non-Gaussian distribution of collective operators in quantum spin chains

We numerically analyse the behavior of the full distribution of collective observables in quantum spin chains. While most of previous studies of quantum critical phenomena are limited to the first moments, here we demonstrate how quantum fluctuations at criticality lead to highly non-Gaussian distributions. Interestingly, we show that the distributions for different system sizes collapse on thesame curve after scaling for a wide range of transitions: first and second order quantum transitions and transitions of the Berezinskii–Kosterlitz–Thouless type. We propose and analyse the feasibility of an experimental reconstruction of the distribution using light–matter interfaces for atoms in optical lattices or in optical resonators.

Permissibility of Non-Voluntary Collective Management of Copyright under EU Law – The Case of the French Law on Out-of-Commerce Books

The possibility of the EU member states to adapt copyright legislation to new circumstances and to address unforeseen issues is limited by the list of exceptions and restrictions of the InfoSoc Directive. In spite of this constraint, the EU copyright framework provides for a possibility of introduction of non-voluntary forms of collective rights management that can help to tackle some of the contemporary problems with remuneration and access. This article is an attempt to deepen the understanding of non-voluntary collective management and its possible use. First, it provides a detailed description of the French mechanism adopted for facilitating mass digitization and making out-of-commerce books available, which was implemented through a new form of collective management of copyright. Then, it examines the mechanism’s compatibility with the InfoSoc Directive through comparison with the extended collective licensing.

Exploring the Justificational Status of Assertions Made About Nursing’s Collective Beliefs

Nursing publications frequently reference groups (e.g. the group nurses). The nature and capabilities of group agents or collective subjects, and the relationship between nursing as a group and nurses as individuals is, however, rarely made explicit in these publications. Following Alvin Goldman, questions pertaining to groups can be classified as metaphysical or epistemic. Metaphysical questions take two forms. First, we might ask about the ontological status of group agents. For example, to what extent, if at all, do group agents exist and act independently of their constituent members? Second, we can ask whether group agents have psychological states or properties that can, for example, be formulated as propositional attitudes and, if they can, in what ways are group attitudes correlated with or tied to those of individual group members? In this presentation, having recognised the potential reality of group ontological and psychological being, I examine an under researched element of social epistemology. Specifically, the potential of non-individualist reliabilism (social process reliabilism) to justify doxastic group beliefs (i.e. statements such as “nurses believe that”) are considered. It is suggested that this issue has concrete implications for how we think about nursing.

“Art Will Not Disappear Into Nothing; It Will Disappear Into Everything“: The Black Audio Film Collective and Latin America

The development of Latin American cinema in the 1960s was underwritten by a number of key texts that outlined the aesthetic and political direction of individual filmmakers and collectives (Solanas and Getino, 1969; Rocha, 1965; Espinosa, 1969). Although asserting the specificity of Latin American culture, the theoretical foundations of its New Wave influenced oppositional filmmaking way beyond its own regional boundaries. This chapter looks at how movements in British art cinema, especially the Black Audio Film Collective, were inspired and propelled by the theories behind New Latin American cinema. Facilitated by English translations in journals such as Jump Cut in the early ‘80s, Cuban and Argentine cinematic manifestoes provided a radical alternative to the traditional language of film theory available to filmmakers in Europe and works such as Signs of Empire (1983-4); Handsworth Songs (1986) and Seven Songs for Malcolm X (1993) grew out of this trans-continental exchange. The Black Audio Film Collective represented a merging of politics, popular culture, and art that was, at once, oppositional and melodic. Fusing postcolonial discourse with pop music, the avant-garde and re-imaginings of subalternity, the work of ‘The Collective’ provides us with a useful example of how British art cinema has drawn from theoretical foundations formed outside of Europe and the West. As this chapter will argue however, the Black Audio Film Collective’s work can also be read as a reaction to the specificity of British socio-politics of the ‘80s and ‘90s. Its engagement with the aesthetico-political strategies of Latin American cinema, then, undercut what was a solidly British project, rooted in (post)colonial history and emerging ideas of disaporic identity. If the propulsive thrust of The Black Audio Film Collective’s art was shaped by Third Cinema, its images and concerns were self-consciously British.

A Computer Model of Drafting Effects on Collective Behavior in Elite 10,000 m Runners

Purpose Drafting in cycling influences collective behaviour of pelotons. Whilst evidence for collective behaviour in competitive running events exists, it is not clear if this results from energetic savings conferred by drafting. This study modelled the effects of drafting on behavior in elite 10,000 m runners. Methods Using performance data from a men’s elite 10,000 m track running event, computer simulations were constructed using Netlogo 5.1 to test the effects of three different drafting quantities on collective behaviour: no drafting, drafting to 3m behind with up to ~8% energy savings (a realistic running draft); and drafting up to 3m behind with up to 38% energy savings (a realistic cycling draft). Three measures of collective behaviour were analysed in each condition; mean speed, mean group stretch (distance between first and last placed runner), and Runner Convergence Ratio (RCR) which represents the degree of drafting benefit obtained by the follower in a pair of coupled runners. Results Mean speeds were 6.32±0.28m.s-1, 5.57±0.18 m.s-1, and 5.51±0.13 m.s-1 in the cycling draft, runner draft, and no draft conditions respectively (all P<0.001). RCR was lower in the cycling draft condition, but did not differ between the other two. Mean stretch did not differ between conditions. Conclusions Collective behaviours observed in running events cannot be fully explained through energetic savings conferred by realistic drafting benefits. They may therefore result from other, possibly psychological, processes. The benefits or otherwise of engaging in such behavior are, as yet, unclear.

Mandevillian Intelligence: From Individual Vice to Collective Virtue

Abstract Mandevillian intelligence is a specific form of collective intelligence in which individual cognitive vices (i.e., shortcomings, limitations, constraints and biases) are seen to play a positive functional role in yielding collective forms of cognitive success. In this talk, I will introduce the concept of mandevillian intelligence and review a number of strands of empirical research that help to shed light on the phenomenon. I will also attempt to highlight the value of the concept of mandevillian intelligence from a philosophical, scientific and engineering perspective. Inasmuch as we accept the notion of mandevillian intelligence, then it seems that the cognitive and epistemic value of a specific social or technological intervention will vary according to whether our attention is focused at the individual or collective level of analysis. This has a number of important implications for how we think about the cognitive impacts of a number of Web-based technologies (e.g., personalized search mechanisms). It also forces us to take seriously the idea that the exploitation (or even the accentuation!) of individual cognitive shortcomings could, in some situations, provide a productive route to collective forms of cognitive and epistemic success. Speaker Biography Dr Paul Smart Paul Smart is a senior research fellow in the Web and Internet Science research group at the University of Southampton in the UK. He is a Fellow of the British Computer Society, a professional member of the Association of Computing Machinery, and a member of the Cognitive Science Society. Paul’s research interests span a number of disciplines, including philosophy, cognitive science, social science, and computer science. His primary area of research interest relates to the social and cognitive implications of Web and Internet technologies. Paul received his bachelors degree in Psychology from the University of Nottingham. He also holds a PhD in Experimental Psychology from the University of Sussex.

La mémoire collective et le paysage urbain tatoués des vestiges du passé: La corderie du quartier St-sauveur

Cette recherche vise, dans un premier temps, à colliger les informations existantes sur l’histoire de la corderie du quartier Saint-Sauveur qui passa au feu en 1866 dans un seul document tout en le bonifiant des nouveaux éléments trouvés. Puis, dans un deuxième temps, élaborer diverses activités artistiques thématiques inspirées de son histoire afin de réaliser une œuvre collective grâce à la participation d’aînés fréquentant le Centre de jour du Centre d’hébergement Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes, centre directement situé sur le site où la corderie avait été construite. Enfin, la recherche vise aussi à découvrir quelles sont les retombées pour ces aînés impliqués dans le processus de création. La recherche s’inscrit dans une perspective herméneutique puisque la question de signification et de sens en est le cœur. Que ce soit selon l’approche de Heidegger, de Gadamer, de Dilthey, de Ricœur ou celle de Grondin, chacune des avenues que ces auteurs proposent sont des pistes de compréhension. Les notions de textile, de trace, de mémoire et d’histoire contribuent aussi à éclairer et à analyser les réponses au questionnement qui sous-tend cette recherche. Les résultats obtenus permettent d’en connaître davantage sur le développement de la partie sud-est du quartier Saint-Sauveur au XIXe siècle, développement étroitement relié à la construction de navires à voiles, vaste industrie qui participa à l’essor de la ville de Québec à la même époque. Les résultats permettent aussi de comprendre ce que les thèmes inspirés de l’histoire de la corderie représentent pour les aînés participant à la création et aident également à découvrir ce que les participants ont pu retirer d’une telle expérience et ce, pour l’ensemble du processus. Mots clés : Corderie – quartier Saint-Sauveur – herméneutique – aîné – œuvre collective – textile.

L’inclusion scolaire dans l’enseignement primaire: L’évaluative formative comme source de progression collective?

Ce travail s’inscrit dans le champ des recherches concernant les pratiques inclusives en milieu scolaire ordinaire dans l’enseignement primaire. En France, le système éducatif propose de scolariser les élèves à besoins éducatifs particuliers soit en classe ordinaire, soit en classe spécialisée, bien que les gouvernements valorisent l’accueil en milieu ordinaire depuis la loi de 2005. Or, ceci questionne les pratiques des acteurs de l’école sur la prise en charge de ces élèves. Partant des travaux montrant que les enseignants utilisant l’évaluation formative gèrent mieux la diversité des élèves, nous étudions ici dans quelle mesure cette fonction de l’évaluation aiderait les élèves présentant des besoins éducatifs particuliers à acquérir des connaissances grâce aux feedbacks émis lors d’évaluations orales et de corrections collectives. L’analyse des données recueillies à l’aide d’entretiensavec des enseignants et d’observations d’élèves fait ressortir les attitudes des acteurs, les interactions et les régulations. (DIPF/Orig.)

WikiRate.org - Leveraging collective awareness to understand companies' environmental, social and governance performance

Abstract. WikiRate is a Collective Awareness Platform for Sustainability and Social Innovation (CAPS) project with the aim of \crowdsourcing better companies" through analysis of their Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) performance. Research to inform the design of the platform involved surveying the current corporate ESG information landscape, and identifying ways in which an open approach and peer production ethos could be e ffectively mobilised to improve this landscape's fertility. The key requirement identi ed is for an open public repository of data tracking companies' ESG performance. Corporate Social Responsibility reporting is conducted in public, but there are barriers to accessing the information in a standardised analysable format. Analyses of and ratings built upon this data can exert power over companies' behaviour in certain circumstances, but the public at large have no access to the data or the most infuential ratings that utilise it. WikiRate aims to build an open repository for this data along with tools for analysis, to increase public demand for the data, allow a broader range of stakeholders to participate in its interpretation, and in turn drive companies to behave in a more ethical manner. This paper describes the quantitative Metrics system that has been designed to meet those objectives and some early examples of its use.

THE HEALTH OF YOUNG ADULTS WITH DISABILITIES IN THE UNITED STATES: THE COLLECTIVE ROLES OF RISK FACTORS IN SOCIAL ECOLOGIC FRAMEWORK

Background: Over the last few decades, the prevalence of young adults with disabilities (YAD) has steadily risen as a result of advances in medicine, clinical treatment, and biomedical technologythat enhanced their survival into adulthood. Despite investments in services, family supports, and insurance, they experience poor health status and barriers to successful transition into adulthood. Objectives: We investigated the collective roles of multi-faceted factors at intrapersonal, interpersonal and community levels within the social ecological framework on health related outcome including self-rated health (SRH) of YAD. The three specific aims are: 1) to examine sociodemographic differences and health insurance coverage in adolescence; 2) to investigate the role of social skills in relationships with family and peers developed in adolescence; and 3) to collectively explore the association of sociodemographic characteristics, social skills, and community participation in adolescence on SRH. Methods: Using longitudinal data (N=5,020) from the National Longitudinal Transition Study (NLTS2), we conducted multivariate logistic regression analyses to understand the association between insurance status as well as social skills in adolescence and YAD’s health related outcomes. Structural equation modeling (SEM) assessed the confluence of multi-faceted factors from the social ecological model that link to health in early adulthood. Results: Compared with YAD who had private insurance, YAD who had public health insurance in adolescence are at higher odds of experiencing poorer health related outcomes in self-rated health [adjusted odds ratio (aOR=2.89, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.16, 7.23), problems with health (aOR=2.60, 95%CI: 1.26, 5.35), and missing social activities due to health problems (aOR=2.86, 95%CI: 1.39, 5.85). At the interpersonal level, overall social skills developed through relationship with family and peers in adolescence do not appear to have association with health related outcomes in early adulthood. Finally, at the community level, community participation in adolescence does not have an association with SRH in early adulthood. Conclusions: Having public health insurance coverage does not equate to good health. YAD need additional supports to achieve positive health outcomes. The findings in social skills and community participation suggest other potential factors may be at play for health related outcomes for YAD and the need for further investigation.