Reconstructing the Social Fabric amid On-going Violence: Attitudes toward Reconciliation and Structural Transformation in Colombia

Given the increase of reconciliation processes initiated amid on-going violence, this study focuses on community reconciliation and its relation to structural transformation, or social reconstruction through reforming unjust institutions and practices that facilitate protracted violent conflict. Drawing lessons from the Caribbean coast of Colombia, mixed method analyses include eight in-depth interviews and 184 surveys. Four key dimensions of reconciliation – truth, justice, mercy, peace – are examined. In the interviews, participants prioritize reconstructing the truth and bringing perpetrators to justice as essential aspects of reconciliation. Notions of mercy and forgiveness are less apparent. For the participants, sustainable peace is dependent on structural transformation to improve livelihoods. These data, however, do not indicate how this understanding of reconciliation may relate to individual participation in reconciliation processes. Complementing the qualitative data, quantitative analyses identify some broad patterns that relate to participation in reconciliation events. Compared to those who did not participate, individuals who engaged in reconciliation initiatives report higher levels of personal experience with violence, live alongside demobilized paramilitaries, are more engaged in civic life, and express greater preference for structural transformation. The paper concludes with policy implications that integrate reconciliation and structural transformation to deepen efforts to rebuild the social fabric amid violence.

Perceptual learning of acoustic noise generates memory-evoked potentials

Experience continuously imprints on the brain at all stages of life. The traces it leaves behind can produce perceptual learning [1], which drives adaptive behavior to previously encountered stimuli. Recently, it has been shown that even random noise, a type of sound devoid of acoustic structure, can trigger fast and robust perceptual learning after repeated exposure [2]. Here, by combining psychophysics, electroencephalography (EEG), and modeling, we show that the perceptual learning of noise is associated with evoked potentials, without any salient physical discontinuity or obvious acoustic landmark in the sound. Rather, the potentials appeared whenever a memory trace was observed behaviorally. Such memory-evoked potentials were characterized by early latencies and auditory topographies, consistent with a sensory origin. Furthermore, they were generated even on conditions of diverted attention. The EEG waveforms could be modeled as standard evoked responses to auditory events (N1-P2) [3], triggered by idiosyncratic perceptual features acquired through learning. Thus, we argue that the learning of noise is accompanied by the rapid formation of sharp neural selectivity to arbitrary and complex acoustic patterns, within sensory regions. Such a mechanism bridges the gap between the short-term and longer-term plasticity observed in the learning of noise [2, 4-6]. It could also be key to the processing of natural sounds within auditory cortices [7], suggesting that the neural code for sound source identification will be shaped by experience as well as by acoustics.

Fabric formwork – prototype to typology

When developmental vernacular practice is telescoped into industrial activity, the role played by construction workers in the honing of a craft is rapidly bypassed. An almost political act is required to maintain the contribution that the hand makes to the uniformity of result that is demanded by the standard classification of typologies of building and technique. Research into fabric formwork techniques conducted by Alan Chandler utilises the flexibility of the concrete mould to explore the meaning of the making ‘process’ and the workers’ role in relation to the formal ‘result’. Chandler’s ‘Wall One’ exemplifies the exploratory prototype and its potential for variety and the trace of the hand in making. The shift to a mass production typology involved in realising the 325,000 square-metre Heatherwick studio project in Shanghai, presented the problem of how to orchestrate the fabric into a fully industrialised process. Part of the research then became how to make the shift from play to profit - and can anything of craft survive the transition into the international development marketplace? Through managing the inherent variety available to the fabric itself, a fabric based formwork solution for realising a building at the scale of a landscape offered the Chinese form work maker the opportunity to be present within the results of a fully industrialised process – a ghost in the machine.

Non-invasive measurement of trigeminal nerve somatosensory evoked potentials

Whiplash injuries are common yet enigmatic to substantiate clinically. Trigeminal somatosensory evoked potentials (TSEPs) were posited as an indicator of trigeminal nerve conduction damage resulting from whiplash. Alternating polarity square-wave current stimuli were applied transcutaneously in the facial region. 379 recorded pilot trials from 27 participants (8 male and 19 female) were utilized to develop a non-invasive recording capability for TSEPs. Stimulus intensity and artifact, cortical recording sites, stimulation electrode design and placement were explored. Statistically significant differences in amplitude of TSEP waveform components at 13, 19 and 27 ms between uninjured and whiplashed participants were noted. Increased stimulus intensity in whiplashed participants was observed to increase TSEP amplitude. The present methodology and hardware are discussed and directions for future advancement of the current process are outlined.

Family Record of the Clement Family (on fabric)

Family Record of the Clement Family (1 printed page) exactly as above, but printed on fabric, n.d.

Receipt from H. Carlisle and Co., St. Catharines for fabric

Receipt from H. Carlisle and Co., St. Catharines for fabric, Jan. 3, 1888.

Predictive values of neurological examination, otoscopic examination and brainstem auditory evoked response (BAER) in calves with otisis media-interna

Présentement, le diagnostic d’otite moyenne-interne chez le veau est basé sur la présence de signes cliniques appropriés ainsi que les tests diagnostiques tels que la radiographie et la tomodensitométrie. L’objectif de cette étude prospective était d’évaluer les valeurs prédictives de l’examen neurologique, l’examen otoscopique et le test des potentiels auditifs évoqués (PAE) dans le diagnostic d’otite moyenne-interne chez le veau, en utilisant la tomodensitométrie comme test standard. Le deuxième objectif était de définir les valeurs de référence pour le PAE chez le veau normal et d’en décrire les anomalies chez des veaux atteints d’otite moyenne-interne. Dix-sept veaux de race Holstein entre 5-7 semaines d’âge ont été inclus. Tous les veaux ont eu un examen neurologique, un examen otoscopique et une évaluation des PAEs. Les veaux ont été tranquillisés avec de la xylazine intraveineuse (0,05-0,15mg/kg) pour la tomodensitométrie des bulles tympaniques afin d’évaluer pour la présence d’otite moyenne-interne. Selon les résultats de la tomodensitométrie, 11 des 17 veaux étaient atteints avec otite moyenne, 4 de façon unilatérale et 7 bilatéralement. Cinq ondes ont été identifiées de façon constante sur les tracés des PAEs des 6 veaux normaux. Les valeurs positives prédictives pour le PAE, l’examen neurologique et l’examen otoscopique étaient 94,7%, 91,7% et 66,7% respectivement. D’un point de vue clinique, le test le plus fiable dans le diagnostic d’otite moyenne-interne chez le veau est le PAE. Les anomalies ont été observées au PAE avant le développement des signes neurologiques chez certains veaux.

Exploring the neural entrainment to musical rhythms and meter : a steady-state evoked potential approach

Thèse de doctorat réalisé en cotutelle avec l'Université catholique de Louvain, Belgique (Faculté de médecine, Institut de Neuroscience)

Latency and slope values of evoked responses in children in brain stem audiometry

This paper is a review of a study to compare latencies of early evoked responses in young children with those of adults.

The slow cortical evoked potential: cross modality interaction of auditory, vibro-tactile and shock stimuli

This paper discusses a study that collected cortical evoked responses when stimuli of different modalities were presented.