The recent 2014 Nobel Prize in chemistry honored an era of discoveries and technical advancements in the field of super‐resolution microscopy. However, the applications of diffraction‐unlimited imaging in biology have a long road ahead and persistently engage scientists with new challenges. Some of the bottlenecks that restrain the dissemination of super‐resolution techniques are tangible, and include the limited performance of affinity probes and the yet not capillary diffusion of imaging setups. Likewise, super‐resolution microscopy has introduced new paradigms (...) in the design of projects that require imaging with nanometer‐resolution and in the interpretation of biological images. Besides structural or morphological characterization, super‐resolution imaging is quickly expanding towards interaction mapping, multiple target detection and live imaging. Here we review the recent progress of biologists employing super‐resolution imaging, some pitfalls, implications and new trends, with the purpose of animating the field and spurring future developments. (shrink)

Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation, a non-invasive alternative to vagus nerve stimulation with implantable devices, has shown promise in treating disorders such as depression, migraine, and insomnia. Studies of these disorders with resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging have found sustained changes in resting-state functional connectivity in patients treated with low frequency taVNS. A recent study has reported reductions in pain scores in patients with rheumatoid arthritis after a 12-week treatment of high-frequency sub-threshold taVNS. However, no studies to date have (...) examined the effects of high-frequency sub-threshold taVNS on rsFC. The objective of this study was to determine whether high-frequency sub-threshold taVNS induces changes in rsFC using seed regions from the cingulate cortex and insula, brain regions that play a key role in interoception and processing of pain. With a single-blind placebo-controlled repeated measures experimental design, rsfMRI scans were acquired before and after 15 min of either sub-threshold taVNS treatment or a sham control. Significant taVNS-related changes in functional connections to the cingulate cortex were detected between the anterior cingulate cortex and right superior temporal gyrus and between the midcingulate cortex and right inferior parietal lobule. In addition, significant changes in functional connections to the insula were detected between the posterior insula and right precuneus and between the anterior insula and right cuneus gyrus. These results suggest that high-frequency sub-threshold taVNS can lead to sustained effects on the rsFC of brain regions involved in interoception and processing of pain in a cohort of healthy subjects. This study lays the foundation for future rsfMRI studies of high-frequency sub-threshold taVNS in clinical populations. (shrink)

By probability theory the probability space to underlie the set of statistical data described by the squared modulus of a coherent superposition of microscopically distinct (sub)states (CSMDS) is non-Kolmogorovian and, thus, such data are mutually incompatible. For us this fact means that the squared modulus of a CSMDS cannot be unambiguously interpreted as the probability density and quantum mechanics itself, with its current approach to CSMDSs, does not allow a correct statistical interpretation. By the example of a 1D completed scattering (...) and double slit diffraction we develop a new quantum-mechanical approach to CSMDSs, which requires the decomposition of the non-Kolmogorovian probability space associated with the squared modulus of a CSMDS into the sum of Kolmogorovian ones. We adapt to CSMDSs the presented by Khrennikov (Found. Phys. 35(10):1655, 2005) concept of real contexts (complexes of physical conditions) to determine uniquely the properties of quantum ensembles. Namely we treat the context to create a time-dependent CSMDS as a complex one consisting of elementary (sub)contexts to create alternative subprocesses. For example, in the two-slit experiment each slit generates its own elementary context and corresponding subprocess. We show that quantum mechanics, with a new approach to CSMDSs, allows a correct statistical interpretation and becomes compatible with classical physics. (shrink)

A new medical image enhancement algorithm based on spatial frequency domain is presented in this article. The medical image is first divided into several sub-images based on dyadic wavelet scale analysis. At each level, different directional sub-band images can reflect the different characteristics of the image. A low-frequency sub-band image maintains the original image content information, and high-frequency sub-band images represent image details such as edges and regional boundaries. The corresponding sub-band images are then enhanced by different Butterworth homomorphic filtering (...) functions, which can attenuate the low frequencies and amplify the high frequencies. A linear adjustment is carried out on the low frequency of the highest level. Then, the wavelet reconstruction course is used to obtain the final enhanced image. Experiments on magnetic resonance images of temporomandibular joint soft tissues have shown that the proposed method can effectively eliminate the non-uniform luminance distribution of medical images. Its performance is much better than traditional Butterworth homomorphic filtering algorithm whether in subjective vision quality or objective evaluations such as detailed information entropy and average gradient. (shrink)

One characteristic of the transition from the Middle Paleolithic to the Upper Paleolithic in Europe was the emergence of representational charcoal drawings and engravings by Aurignacian and Gravettian artists. European Neanderthals never engaged in representational drawing during the Middle and Early Upper Paleolithic, a property that might reflect less developed visuomotor coordination. This article postulates a causal relationship between an evolved ability of anatomically modern humans to throw spears accurately while hunting and their ability to draw representational images from working (...) memory. Unlike Neanderthals, archaic and anatomically modern humans in sub-Saharan Africa adopted longer-range hunting practices using hand-cast spears as a compensation for the emergence of increasingly wary game. For Neanderthals, paleoclimatic fluctuations likely precluded consistent hunting of cold-adapted game, a property making game more approachable for close-range hunting with thrusting spears. As evidence of less historical wariness of humans, many of the species hunted by Neanderthals were eventually domesticated. Due to strong sources of natural selection on archaic and anatomically modern humans for effective hunting, the parietal cortex that integrates visual imagery and motor coordination expanded progressively, yielding the globular shape of the human cranium that is not evident in Neanderthals. To characterize how the cognitive properties employed for throwing spears and drawing line work are similar, the Upper Paleolithic drawings of animals in Chauvet cave, France, are discussed in the speculative context of how these artists engaged simultaneously in overt attention to guide their hand movements and covert attention to their mental images during the drawing process. (shrink)

The use of super‐resolution imaging techniques in cell biology has yielded a wealth of information regarding cellular elements and processes that were invisible to conventional imaging. Focusing on images obtained by stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy, we discuss how the new high‐resolution data influence the ways in which we use and interpret images in cell biology. Super‐resolution images have lent support to some of our current hypotheses. But, more significantly, they have revealed unexpectedly complex processes that cannot be (...) accounted for by the simpler models based on diffraction‐limited imaging. The super‐resolution imaging data challenge cell biologists to change their theoretical framework, by including, for instance, interpretations that describe multiple functions, functional errors or lack of function for cellular elements. In this context, we argue that descriptive research using super‐resolution microscopy is now as necessary as hypothesis‐driven research. (shrink)

By using certain basic tools of analysis of modern information theory, particularly the principle of feed-back, the author tries to develop what might be called a new Logic of Appearance--Eiconics. Eiconics is the science--not the philosophy--which is to study how individuals, cultures, and cultural sub-groups attain to their respective "images," i.e., to those belief-constellations which, functioning somewhat analogously to the control of--say--a thermostat, determine what messages are taken as significant; significance may consist in behavorial consequences, or "outgoing messages," or it (...) may consist in modification of the "control" mechanism, the image, itself. Having shown examples of the role of the "image" in economics, politics, history, and natural science, the author concludes by raising some questions concerning the epistemological implications of his new science.--C. M. (shrink)

Amidst the progress being made in the various (sub-)disciplines of the behavioural and brain sciences a somewhat neglected subject is the problem of how everything fits into one world and, derivatively, how the relation between different levels of discourse should be understood and to what extent different levels, domains, approaches, or disciplines are autonomous or dependent. In this paper I critically review the most recent proposals to specify the nature of interdiscourse relations, focusing on the concept of supervenience. Ideally supervenience (...) is a relation between different discourses which has all the advantages of reduction, but without its disadvantages. I apply the more abstract considerations to two concrete cases: schizophrenia and colour. Usually an interlevel or interdiscourse relation is seen as asymmetrical: the overlaying discourse depends on the underlying discourse (and not vice versa), where the out- or un-spoken assumption is that the ultimate underlying discourse is physical. Instead I argue that scientific categories referred to in interdiscourse relations are, ultimately, dependent on common sense categories and common sense normative criteria. It is the manifest categories and common sense ideas about what is reasonable and what is right that determine the relevant categorisations at the deeper, underlying levels. I suggest that the implications of this are not merely methodological or epistemological. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the applicability of multivariate mapping techniques to the exploration of the rhetorical semiotic brand image structure of ad films. By drawing on correspondence analysis and multidimensional scaling, two techniques that are amply used in corpus linguistics and in marketing research, but also on the data reduction technique of factor analysis, it will be displayed how a set of nuclear semes and classemes or an intended semic structure that underlies ad filmic discursive structures (...) may be projected alongside rhetorical figures by its internal stakeholders (i.e., a brand management team, an account planning team or a marketing research team) with view to attaining differential brand associations. The illustration of the exploratory analytical methods takes place by recourse to a corpus of 62 ad filmic texts from 13 sub-brands of the 3 major brands in the UK cereals market and 321 ad filmic segments that resulted from the segmentation procedure. This paper seeks to contribute to advancements in the brand image and advertising rhetoric research streams by addressing distinctive modes of advertising rhetorical configuration at the level of the ad filmic text (as against print ads where the bulk of research on advertising rhetoric has concentrated), and moreover on a segment-by-segment level, rather than treating the ad film as a standalone unit of analysis, by adopting a multimodal outlook to advertising configurations that takes into account not only the verbal or the visual mode, but also interactions among modes, by adopting a product category-specific approach to advertising/brand textuality that draws on rhetorical semiotics and by employing exploratory statistical methods against the background of content analytic output. (shrink)

Exploration of INTERSUBJECTIVITY is continued. Different kinds of if are differentiated and signs for its presence and effects are shown. The difference between it, subjectivity and objectivity are explored. Intersubjectivity is crucial and universal for general everyday discourse in all cultures, sub-cultures, institutions, communities and socio-cultural practices such as religion, sport, etc or the so-called Manifest Image. It is essential for specialized areas, for example religion, sport and disciplines such as the humanities, arts, sciences, philosophy and all institutions. It is (...) a necessity for both cultural, social, interpersonal as well as intra-personal existence, emotions, attitudes, values and norms. But, it is not limited to human existence, life-worlds, realities and worlds, but also required for animals and all organisms. Object Oriented Ontology would emphasize that is it not merely something anthropocentric and restricted to human existence and consciousness (and anthropocentric interpretations of and projections on other objects, non-human creatures and all organisms, as well as all objects.. In the case of the latter one would probably replace the notion of intersubjectivity with terms such as energy and other ways of action and interaction for example intra- and inter-atoms.) In the Appendix is included work related to the above by others such as Sellars, Brandom (and his two images, Manifest and Scientific), Davidson, Dennett, Habermas, Nagel, etc. (shrink)

A kind of “ruthless reductionism” characterized the experimental practices of the first two decades of molecular and cellular cognition. More recently, new research tools have expanded experimental practices in this field, enabling researchers to image and manipulate individual molecular mechanisms in behaving organisms with an unprecedented temporal, sub-cellular, cellular, and even circuit-wide specificity. These tools dramatically expand the range and reach of experiments in MCC, and in doing so they may help us transcend the worn-out and counterproductive debates about “reductionism” (...) and “emergence” that divide neuroscientists and philosophers alike. We describe examples of these new tools and illustrate their practical power by presenting an exemplary recent case of MCC research using them. From these tools and results, we provide an initial sketch of a new image of the behaving organism in its full causal-interactive complexity, with its molecules, cells, and circuits combined within the single system that it is. This new image stands in opposition to the traditional “levels” image of the behaving organism, and even the initial sketch we provide of it here offers hope for avoiding the dreary metaphysical debates about “emergence” and “downward causation,” and even the reduction vs. anti-reduction dispute, all dependent upon the familiar “levels” image. (shrink)

This article introduces a simple and effective new algorithm for image encryption using a chaotic system which is based on the magic squares. This novel 3D chaotic system is invoked to generate a random key to encrypt any color image. A number of chaotic keys equal to the size of the image are generated by this chaotic system and arranged into a matrix then divided into non-overlapped submatrices. The image to be encrypted is also divided into sub-images, and each sub-image (...) is multiplied by a magic matrix to produce another set of matrices. The XOR operation is then used on the resultant two sets of matrices to produce the encrypted image. The strength of the encryption method is tested in two folds. The first fold is the security analysis which includes key space analysis and sensitivity analysis. In the second fold, statistical analysis was performed, which includes the correlation coefficients, information entropy, the histogram, and analysis of differential attacks. Finally, the time of encryption and decryption was computed and show very good results. (shrink)

© Ginn et al. 2016.The indexing methods currently used for serial femtosecond crystallography were originally developed for experiments in which crystals are rotated in the X-ray beam, providing significant three-dimensional information. On the other hand, shots from both X-ray free-electron lasers and serial synchrotron crystallography experiments are still images, in which the few three-dimensional data available arise only from the curvature of the Ewald sphere. Traditional synchrotron crystallography methods are thus less well suited to still image data processing. Here, a (...) new indexing method is presented with the aim of maximizing information use from a still image given the known unit-cell dimensions and space group. Efficacy for cubic, hexagonal and orthorhombic space groups is shown, and for those showing some evidence of diffraction the indexing rate ranged from 90% to 151%. Here, the indexing rate refers to the number of lattices indexed per image. (shrink)

This study investigates the complex relationship between the physical and digital spaces of the city of Douala, Cameroon by comparing its online representation with the social representations emerging orally by locals. Using the results of two existing studies reporting on the online image of the city, we investigate the social representations foreigners and locally relevant people have of Douala and uncover similarities and discrepancies of the two resulting representations. Outcomes from the analysis permit reflection on the implications of these and (...) show an unripe, intermediate stage of the “hybrid Douala,” where the virtual space seems still not to be affecting the way the physical space is experienced, as well as where the gaps in the digital divide are perpetuated. At the same time, strong local ownership of certain digital activities suggests how the online image of the city is in the process of being constructed and developed locally. As the spaces of the city start appearing online, the process of hybridization between physical and digital Douala is slowly taking place and offline and online narratives, now rather separated, will possibly communicate a different image of the city to global online narratives. (shrink)

This paper describes a Bayesian method for constructing a super-resolved surface model by combining information from a set of images of the given surface. We develop the theory and algorithms in detail for the 2-D reconstruction problem, appropriate for the case where all images are taken from roughly the same direction and under similar lighting conditions. We show the results of this 2-D reconstruction on Viking Martian data. These results show dramatic improvements in both spatial and gray-scale resolution. The Bayesian (...) approach uses a neighbor correlation model as well as pixel data from the image set. Some extensions of this method are discussed, including 3-D surface reconstruction and the resolution of diffraction blurred images. (shrink)

This paper examines the different ways in which the body is linguistically codified in the Chinese language of emotions. The three general modes of emotion description under examination are via (a) externally observable (involuntary) bodily changes, (b) sensation, and (c) figurative bodily images. While an attempt is made to introduce a typology of sub-categories within each mode of emotion description, the paper focuses on the meaning of different iconic descriptions through the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM). On one hand, the linguistic (...) evidence, from a Chinese perspective, attests to the emotional universals proposed by Wierzbicka (1999). On the other, it points to cultural diversity in bodily conceptualisation and interpretation in emotional experiences, which are crystallised in linguistic conventions of Chinese emotion talk, including certain syntactic constructions. This paper also demonstrates the importance of examining the language of emotions in emotion studies, and concludes that a full account of emotions must include the examination of the language of emotions. (shrink)

Proceeding from Lessing’s distinction between poetry and visual art, Boris Groys argues that language is not external to, but resides behind, the image. The image constitutes the scene of a frustrated linguistic desire. Modern visual art sought to avoid the obscenity of staging this unfulfilled desire by conducting a systematic ascetic repression of the linguistic impulse. This negation of linguistic desire culminated in Judd’s ‘specific ob jects’. Y et the modern image, Groys emphasizes with reference to Greenberg and McLuhan, still (...) transmits a message, namely that of its medium bearer. Modern artists torture the image and put it into a state of emergency or exception in which it confesses its interior. In the image’s sub-medium space, in turn, resides language. Avantgarde artists and modern media theorists share the wish to achieve durability by becoming the media of the media. The border between the image and language, Groys closes, can neither be stabilized nor abolished. (shrink)

Picture books are often part of children's socialisation processes, contributing to the children forming images of the world, including ideas about (categories of) people, such as nurses. The study aims to explore how nurses/nursing are portrayed in children's picture books in a Swedish context. Through a systematic search, 44 books were included for analysis using thematic analysis and a theoretical lens inspired by Goffman. The results were presented in three themes: ‘The costume characterised and designated nurses’, ‘Nurses and nursing were (...) defined through specific activities and accessories’, and ‘Nurses’ role as caregivers and decency practitioners'. The results showed that nurses were depicted/described in varied contexts, performing their roles mainly front stage in ‘hands‐on work’ in close contact with patients and relatives. Nurses were attributed different accessories and personality characteristics. Nurses/nursing were generally set within a healthcare context, oftentimes within an overarching medical logic. Historical depictions of nurses' uniforms still appeared as a signifier for nurses/nursing. The presentation of nurses/nursing might have potential implications on children's understanding of and for reputations of nurses/nursing in the long term as primary socialisation and related understandings of the (sub)world(s) are deeply rooted in humans. (shrink)

Amidst the progress being made in the various (sub-)disciplines of the behavioural and brain sciences a somewhat neglected subject is the problem of how everything fits into one world and, derivatively, how the relation between different levels of discourse should be understood and to what extent different levels, domains, approaches, or disciplines are autonomous or dependent. In this paper I critically review the most recent proposals to specify the nature of interdiscourse relations, focusing on the concept of supervenience. Ideally supervenience (...) is a relation between different discourses which has all the advantages of reduction, but without its disadvantages. I apply the more abstract considerations to two concrete cases: schizophrenia and colour. Usually an interlevel or interdiscourse relation is seen as asymmetrical: the overlaying discourse depends on the underlying discourse (and not vice versa), where the out- or un-spoken assumption is that the ultimate underlying discourse is physical. Instead I argue that scientific categories referred to in interdiscourse relations are, ultimately, dependent on common sense categories and common sense normative criteria. It is the manifest categories and common sense ideas about what is reasonable and what is right that determine the relevant categorisations at the deeper, underlying levels. I suggest that the implications of this are not merely methodological or epistemological. (shrink)

This article presents a novel full-reference image quality assessment algorithm by depicting the sub-band characteristics in the wavelet domain. The proposed image quality assessment method is based on energy estimation in the wavelet-transformed image. Image QA is achieved by applying a multilevel wavelet decomposition on both the original and the enhanced image. Next, the wavelet energy and vector are computed to obtain the percentage of the energy that corresponds to the approximation and the details, respectively. Further, the approximate and detailed (...) energy levels of both the original and the enhanced images are compared to formulate an image quality assessment. Numerous experiments are conducted on a dozen of image enhancement algorithms. The results presented show that the image with poor contrast in the foreground than the background has continuous regular coefficient values. The probability density function for such an image has a relatively lower WE and skewness compared with the background. The proposed scheme not only evaluates the global information of an image but also estimates the fine, detailed changes in an enhanced image. Thus, the proposed metric serves as an objective and effective FR criterion for color image QA. The experimental results presented confirm that the proposed WE metric is an efficient and useful metric for evaluating the quality of the color image enhancement. (shrink)

A study of the structural perfection of icosahedral quasicrystalline grains of various alloys and Al-Cu-Fe), grown by different slow solidification techniques was performed using high-resolution diffraction, including recording rocking curves combined with X-ray topography and phase contrast radiography, at a third-generation synchrotron radiation source . For Al-Pd-Mn, additional coherent diffraction and diffuse scattering measurements were also carried out. After evaluating the potentialities of the techniques used, in the light of the criteria defined for crystals, it is shown that (...) the structural perfection of icosahedral quasicrystals is quite comparable with that of metallic crystals but is considerably influenced by either uniform phason strains which can destroy the quasiperiodic long-range order, or by long-wavelength phason fluctuations leading to diffuse scattering. The structural perfection was also found to be extremely variable across the as-grown quasicrystalline grains and to be dependent on the presence and characteristics of inhomogeneities often included in the quasicrystalline matrix. Regarding the grains that we used, it has been impossible to distinguish a clear influence of either the type of alloy or the growth method. It has, however, been noticed that Al-Pd-Mn and Al-Cu-Fe grains appeared less defective than Zn-Mg-RE grains and that the microstructure of these latter grains looks like that of crystals grown by the same technique. Annealing and mechanical polishing effects have also been analysed in the case of Al-Pd-Mn grains. It appeared that annealing improves the quasicrystalline lattice perfection by lowering phason strains insofar as no precipitates are nucleated. Mechanical polishing can introduce defects, located at the external surfaces, having the shape of bands. (shrink)

This study examines the theology of the fourth-century bishop, Hilary of Poitiers, concentrating particularly on two commentaries written at different times in his life. The main focus of the study is on Hilary's anthropological theology.

Discipline and passion: meaning, masochism and mythology in popular medical romancesThis paper is an interpretive analysis of the discourses within popular romance literature, with a particular focus on the genre that includes constructions of the images of nurses and nursing. An historical contrast is made along with examinations of the uses and meanings encompassed within this body of literature, and its messages for women as nurses as it reflectdcreates societal change. Deviations from the formulaic nature of these works are explored. (...) Discipline and passion are the recurring themes evident throughout in juxtapositions of romance and power differentials in the hospital/medical scene. The soft‐core, sado‐masochistic images evident in many titles are explored in a way that raises questions about sexuality, romance, nursing mythology, and the future of this sub‐genre of the popular romance. (shrink)

What Makes That Black? The African American Aesthetic in American Expressive Culture delineates the African-American aesthetic in both the African-American culture and the artistic cultural formation of the United States. It presents a definition of the African-American aesthetic using a typology of seventy-four tenets-markers that expand the aesthetic's definition to include its artistic structure, cultural function, and consciousness.¿The book is both anecdotal and scholarly, creating an accessible dialogue in a research area sometimes burdened by excessive scholarly nomenclature. The power of (...) story (art) reaches into cognitive spaces and impact understandings unreachable by linear academic argument. ¿Physical features such as images, links to visual media, glossary, bibliography, and index make the project easier for teachers/students to use.¿The book approaches the African-American Aesthetic from wide-ranging sources, cross-referencing literature, dance, oration, music, dress, sub-Saharan African aesthetics, scholarly text, visual arts, athletics, children's games, and anecdotal accounts. (shrink)

A familiar image from the Roman world is a Pompeian portrait of a man and woman sometimes identified as Terentius Neo and his wife. He has a papyrus roll under his chin, while she looks out with a writing tablet in one hand, a stylus held to her lips in the other. The message of the attributes presented would seem to be: ‘ We can and do read and write’. But how should the message be interpreted? To judge from the (...) houses in which this and similar portraits were found, the couple was not of the elite decurion class, but belonged to that difficult to define group of varying social, economic and cultural statuses recently described by Keith Hopkins as ‘sub-elites’. Does the display of book and pen then reflect the social reality of the sub-elite orders of Pompeian society, or is the self-representation rather an expression of social pretension, with the couple attempting to emulate the Roman elite? If the latter is the case, what does the image say about the habits of the Roman ruling class? This question has been raised in relation to the issue of literacy, particularly women's literacy, but the image invites another question. (shrink)

En Afrique, les religions ancestrales enseignent à chercher sa cohérence intérieure, en restant relié aux autres et à l’univers. Ainsi, chez les Maasaï, la spiritualité peut se traduire par ces lignes de force : vaincre ses peurs, rester relié, ne pas créer de divisions en soi et autour de soi. L’homme doit mettre en adéquation ses mots et ses actes pour éviter la dissonance et les antagonistes, sources de déséquilibres personnel et relationnel. Actes et mots doivent être «jumeaux», aller de (...) paire. Aucune différence entre le dire et le faire chez ces peuples d’Afrique, qui savent par expérience que cette cohérence est la garantie de relations saines et durables. Au-delà des images, l’Afrique est avant tout la terre de la religion. Non pas d’une religion mystique et abstraite vouée aux grandes questions de la métaphysique, mais d’une religion terrienne, liée à la nature, qui s’exprime à chaque instant de la vie, qui inspire aux hommes et aux femmes chaque geste, chaque parole. Sophie Ekoué nous guide dans la découverte de la sagesse africaine, dans toute la diversité des peuples. Mythes fondateurs de l’Afrique, art de la parole juste et du silence, représentation du corps à travers les masques et les danses, conception du temps conjugué au présent, lien étroit entretenu avec les ancêtres et la nature : autant de conceptions du monde à prendre en compte dans notre quotidien, quelle que soit notre culture et nos croyances. (shrink)

The Archive is a central but paradoxical image in the work of the con temporary French artist Christian Boltanski (born 1944). Because Boltanski is obsessively concerned with the death-like rupture and loss by which experience is continuously reduced to fragmentary and inac curate memories of the past, especially regarding the adult's perception of childhood, archives represent for him a potential means of regaining access to what has been lost and is being mourned. However, Boltan ski's installation and performance works that (...) investigate the powers of archives set out ironically the absurdly limited and misleading processes of an archive. Photography in particular is shown to be unreliable, more icon than document, challenging rather than asserting notions of cat egory and coherence. The notion of the icon, moreover, underlines the spiritual dimension that accompanies this absurdist relationship with the past. Our faulty but much-desired awareness of a past gives complex value to our present, often in a touching, pathetic way, however arbitrary the means involved. The trail of the archive leads to an uncertainty that is nonetheless precious. The many subjects that Boltanski treats in this light vary disarmingly and controversially from the trivia and detritus of everyday living to the supreme seriousness of the Holocaust. He also transforms himself and his family into a labyrinthine and playful archive. Here a curious relationship emerges with the reputation and books of his brother, the sociologist Luc Boltanski. Christian borrows with no explicit acknowledgement the archive resources of Luc's sociological research as a sub-text in his visual works. Even more surprisingly, Luc Boltanski published in 1993 HISTORY OF THE HUMAN SCIENCES Vol. 11 No. 4 © 1998 SAGE Publications (London, Thousand Oaks and New Delhi) [0952-6951(199811)11:4;121-140; 006612]Poème, a collection of highly emotive and personal poetry about the past and the Holocaust. The problems raised by Christian Boltanski and by Luc conflate the personal and historical dimensions of the Archive. (shrink)

Embryos and microscopes share a long, remarkable history and biologists have always been intrigued to watch how embryos develop under the microscope. Here we discuss the advances in microscopy which have greatly influenced our current understanding of embryogenesis. We highlight the evolution of microscopes and the optical technologies that have been instrumental in studying various developmental processes. These imaging modalities provide mechanistic insights into the dynamic cellular and molecular events which drive lineage commitment and morphogenetic changes in the developing (...) embryo. We begin the journey with a brief history of microscopy to study embryos. First, we review the principles and optics of light, fluorescence, confocal, and electron microscopy which have been key techniques for imaging cellular and molecular events during embryonic development. Next, we discuss recent key imaging modalities such as light‐sheet microscopy, which are suitable for whole embryo imaging. Further, we highlight imaging techniques like multiphoton and super resolution microscopy for beyond light diffraction limit, high resolution imaging. Lastly, we review some of the scattering‐based imaging methods and techniques used for imaging human embryos. (shrink)

SummaryThe present paper deals with the determination of the size and charge of a single submicroscopic particle, measured in a small horizontal condenser of a diameter of approximately 8 mm., using the author's method first stated April 1910. To obtain the highest sensitivity, author used solid particles of an order of magnitude under 3 × 10–5 cm. and found charges less than that of the electron. Various objections were raised against his findings, namely that the particles investigated were not spheres, (...) and that their density was not that of the macroscopic substance, so that his findings of charges less than the electronic charge were merely imaginary. The author has succeeded in precipitating and measuring a particle after having observed it in the condenser under normal and also very high gas pressures. The particles were shown to be perfect spheres. A new method is indicated whereby it is possible to determine the size of sub-microscopic spheres by pushing together two equal spheres with a micromanipulator; the two diffraction disks overlap and render it very easy to determine the actual size. It is also possible to show that the density of each individual sphere is that of the macroscopic substance, since it can be computed easily from the velocity of fall at high gas pressures. These two data being accurately determined, the author still found charges considerably less than the electronic charge, and the deviations are too great to be accounted for by errors of observation. The reason that the author has used a solid substance and not oil, which is a liquid, was in the first place, that liquids evaporate, and therefore do not yield correct results, and secondly, because liquid spheres are not certain to preserve their sphericity when precipitated. Thus charges less than that of the electron are to be considered as actually existing. (shrink)