Vision of the body and the differentiation of perceived body side in touch

Although tactile representations of the two body sides are initially segregated into opposite hemispheres of the brain, behavioural interactions between body sides exist and can be revealed under conditions of tactile double simultaneous stimulation (DSS) at the hands. Here we examined to what extent vision can affect body side segregation in touch. To this aim, we changed hand-related visual input while participants performed a go/no-go task to detect a tactile stimulus delivered to one target finger (e.g., right index), stimulated alone or with a concurrent non-target finger either on the same hand (e.g., right middle finger) or on the other hand (e.g., left index finger = homologous; left middle finger = non-homologous). Across experiments, the two hands were visible or occluded from view (Experiment 1), images of the two hands were either merged using a morphing technique (Experiment 2), or were shown in a compatible vs incompatible position with respect to the actual posture (Experiment 3). Overall, the results showed reliable interference effects of DSS, as compared to target-only stimulation. This interference varied as a function of which non-target finger was stimulated, and emerged both within and between hands. These results imply that the competition between tactile events is not clearly segregated across body sides. Crucially, non-informative vision of the hand affected overall tactile performance only when a visual/proprioceptive conflict was present, while neither congruent nor morphed hand vision affected tactile DSS interference. This suggests that DSS operates at a tactile processing stage in which interactions between body sides can occur regardless of the available visual input from the body.

Voice, body and the transmission of the real in documentary theatre

This article analyses how listening is used to develop performances in Alecky Blythe’s verbatim theatre. Listening includes Blythe’s use of recorded oral interviews for devising performances, and also the actors’ creation of performance by precisely imitating an interviewee’s voice. The article focuses on listening, speaking and embodiment in London Road, Blythe’s recent musical play at London’s National Theatre, which adopted and modified theatre strategies used in her other plays, especially The Girlfriend Experience and Do We look Like Refugees. The article draws on interviews with performers and with Blythe herself, in its critical analysis of how voice legitimates claims to authenticity in performance. The work on Blythe is contextualised by brief comparative analyses. One is Clio Barnard’s film The Arbor, a ‘quasi-documentary’ on the playwright, Andrea Dunbar which makes use of an oral script to which the actors lip-sync. The other comparator is the Wooster Group’s Poor Theater, which attempts to recreate Grotowski's Akropolis via vocal impersonation. The article argues that voice in London Road both claims and defers authenticity and authority, inasmuch as voice signifies presence and embodied identity but the reworking of speech into song signals the absence of the real. The translation of voice into written surtitles works similarly in Do We Look Like Refugees. Blythe’s theatre, Barnard’s film and The Wooster Group’s performances are a useful framework for addressing questions of voice and identity, and authenticity and replication in documentary theatre. The article concludes by placing Blythe’s oral texts amid current debates around theatre’s textual practices.

“The suffering black male body and the threatened white female body": ambiguous bodies in Candyman

This article explores the roles of monster and victim as experienced through the body, and considers how the relationship between violence and the body affects the presentation of these roles through close analysis of performance in Candyman (Bernard Rose, 1992). I aim to demonstrate that commitment to such a detailed approach, offers a more intricate and rewarding critical interaction, reflecting the complexity of narrative film. Consideration of the particulars of performance is crucial, in its affect on our engagement with the performer and their physical presence. Through this attention I intend to demonstrate how the seemingly fixed role of monster is in fact more fluid than first apparent, that monster and victim can co-exist in the same body. Candyman’s physicality and the way it is presented foregrounds the oscillations between violence and suffering, the relationship between the body and the violence inflicted on and by it, ambiguities which are also found in the heroine’s development, thus enhancing the film’s striking preoccupation with the shifting parallels between monster and victim.

Assessment of inbreeding depression in a Guzerat dairy herd: Effects of individual increase in inbreeding coefficients on production and reproduction

Influences of inbreeding on daily milk yield (DMY), age at first calving (AFC), and calving intervals (CI) were determined on a highly inbred zebu dairy subpopulation of the Guzerat breed. Variance components were estimated using animal models in single-trait analyses. Two approaches were employed to estimate inbreeding depression: using individual increase in inbreeding coefficients or using inbreeding coefficients as possible covariates included in the statistical models. The pedigree file included 9,915 animals, of which 9,055 were inbred, with an average inbreeding coefficient of 15.2%. The maximum inbreeding coefficient observed was 49.45%, and the average inbreeding for the females still in the herd during the analysis was 26.42%. Heritability estimates were 0.27 for DMY and 0.38 for AFC. The genetic variance ratio estimated with the random regression model for CI ranged around 0.10. Increased inbreeding caused poorer performance in DMY, AFC, and CI. However, some of the cows with the highest milk yield were among the highly inbred animals in this subpopulation. Individual increase in inbreeding used as a covariate in the statistical models accounted for inbreeding depression while avoiding overestimation that may result when fitting inbreeding coefficients.

Stress, cortisol and reproduction in female pigs

Two key hypotheses emerge in the literature regarding the impact of stress on reproduction in females of any species. First, prolonged stress impairs reproduction in females. Secondly, acute stress impairs reproduction, if it occurs at a critical time during the precisely timed series of endocrine events that induce oestrus and ovulation. We reviewed studies conducted in female pigs to find support or opposition for these hypotheses in female pigs. We also considered the role of cortisol. We found confirmation that prolonged stress or the prolonged elevation of cortisol can impair reproductive processes in female pigs, but also found that there appear to be some female pigs in which reproduction is resistant to such treatments. Reproduction in female pigs appears to be resistant to acute or repeated acute stress or elevation of cortisol, even if these occur during the series of precisely timed endocrine events that induce oestrus and ovulation. Thus, we propose modified versions of the above hypotheses that are specific to female pigs. Furthermore, while cortisol may mediate the effects of prolonged stress on reproduction in female pigs, there is evidence that, in female pigs, ACTH may require the presence of the adrenal glands to impair reproduction rather than having direct effects.

Age, growth and reproduction of deepwater dogfishes from southeastern Australia

The productivity of six deepwater dogfishes was investigated by examining their age, growth and reproductive biology. A new method of ageing was developed, and compared with existing techniques. Some species live greater than 50 years, and populations may not sustain commercial fisheries.

Visual discrimination and reproduction of movement by individuals with an intellectual disability

This study investigates the capacity of individuals with an intellectual disability to make accurate discriminations of computer-generated displays and also to reproduce the characteristics of those displays. The findings suggest that the learning of everyday motor skills in this population may be hampered by difficulties in visually perceiving important characteristics of the demonstration. Procedures, employed for teaching these skills to intellectually disabled, are being reassessed in the light of these findings.

Uomo universale : the imaginary relation between body and mathematic(s) in architecture

What is the role of the human figure in the drawing of the uomo universale? Interlocked with the “master architect” as a constituent component of the canonical bodies of architecture, is the idea of the uomo universale, the universal man, an idea that was especially compelling to Renaissance masters. In contemporary social theory the uomo universale is read for its generic sense as the “universal subject”. Critical to this is a dialectical sense in which “man” confronts its non-neutral association with a gender specificity, either man or woman. This paper looks at the drawing and image of the uomo universale and explores the distinction between presence and representation, between the visibility of the image, its content and detail and the symbolic role of the image as constitutive of a canon of architecture. Though we are not meant to “see” the human figure as corporeal presence and rather focus our attention on the image as a geometric schema, my argument is that only through the figure is the uomo universale engendered as an image of the highest form of nature.

Molting and reproduction in portunus pelagicus

This investigation describes ovarian maturation stages in the female reproductive system, evidence for histones in sperm nuclei and novel morphological changes that occur during spermiogenesis in the male blue swimming crab, portunus pelagicus. It also identifies dual functionality of the molt inhibiting hromone on molting and vitellogenesis through RNA inteference.

Invitation to the feed: the body and the environment in a selection of dystopian YA science fictions

 In an analysis of Monica Hughes’ Invitation to the Game and M. T. Anderson’s Feed, this paper explores the nexus between nature and the artificial, and how that both empowers and disempowers young adults in two highly technological futuristic dystopias.