Chapter 1. Introduction: The Many Faces of Multilingualism

Keyword(s):  
Author(s):  
Ray Guillery

My thesis studies had stimulated an interest in the mamillothalamic pathways but also some puzzlement because we knew nothing about the nature of the messages passing along these pathways. Several laboratories were studying the thalamic relay of sensory pathways with great success during my post-doctoral years. Each sensory relay could be understood in terms of the appropriate sensory input, but we had no way of knowing the meaning of the mamillothalamic messages. I introduce these nuclei as an example of the many thalamic nuclei about whose input functions we still know little or nothing. Early clinical studies of mamillary lesions had suggested a role in memory formation, whereas evidence from cortical lesions suggested a role in emotional experiences. Studies of the smallest of the three nuclei forming these pathways then showed it to be concerned with sensing head direction, relevant but not sufficient for defining an animal’s position in space. More recent studies based on studies of cortical activity or cortical damage have provided a plethora of suggestions: as so often, the answers reported depend on the questions asked. That simple conclusion is relevant for all transthalamic pathways. The evidence introduced in Chapter 1, that thalamocortical messages have dual meanings, suggests that we need to rethink our questions. It may prove useful to look at the motor outputs of relevant cortical areas to get clues about some appropriate questions.


Author(s):  
Wylie Breckenridge
Keyword(s):  

The theory of visual experience that the author has developed in the book is an adverbial theory, as these were characterized in Chapter 1: according to the theory, to have a visual experience with a certain character is to have a visual experience that is occurring in a certain way. There is a well-known problem for adverbial theories, called the ‘many property problem’. In this chapter the author explains what the problem is, and offers a solution to it. Key to the proposed solution is recognizing that when a visual experience occurs in a certain way it simultaneously occurs in many distinct ways, of various degrees of generality, and that some of these ways are more specific determinates of others.


2020 ◽  
pp. 11-30
Author(s):  
Jack Parkin

Chapter 1 opens the lid on Bitcoin so that all of its attributes, problems, and connotations come spilling out. At the same time, it pulls these disparate strands back into focus by outlining the many discrepancies examined in subsequent chapters. So while in some ways the chapter acts like a primer for cryptocurrencies, blockchains, and their political economies, the material laid out works to set up the book’s underlying argument: asymmetric concentrations of power inevitably form though processes of algorithmic decentralisation. In the process, a short history of Bitcoin introduces some of its key stakeholders as well as some of its core technical functions.


Dancing Women ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 27-58
Author(s):  
Usha Iyer

Chapter 1 presents a dance-centered taxonomy of musical numbers, which clarifies how dance promotes agency and authorship. Reconsidering the term “song picturization,” which suggests the primacy of the song as setting the agenda for the visuals, this chapter proposes that in the case of certain dance numbers or famed dancer-actors, a reverse process of “dance musicalization” is at work, in which a desired dance vocabulary precedes and influences the conceptualization of the song. This disruption of given logics of production and authorship spurs the conceptualization of a multi-bodied “choreomusicking body,” which directs our attention to the many on- and off-screen bodies laboring to produce the song-and-dance number, and fundamentally shifts ideological readings of narrative and spectacle in popular Hindi cinema. Employing choreomusicological theory, historical accounts of dancer-actors’ influence on musical composition, and spectatorial responses to the music-dance composite, this chapter proposes new models for theorizing the Hindi film song-and-dance sequence.


2020 ◽  
pp. 13-32
Author(s):  
Kristopher Norris

Chapter 1 engages in social analysis to outline the current racial landscape in churches in the United States. Beginning with our current political and religious moment, it addresses and defines the many layers to the problem of whiteness. Drawing on the work of James Baldwin, womanist theology, and contemporary sociology, this chapter describes whiteness as a process of social and identity formation currently experiencing a crisis of legitimation. This current legitimation crisis has precipitated the phenomenon of colorblindness, which leads white people to see our interests and perspectives as universal, blinds us to our epistemological limitations, and leads to a posture of defensiveness and fragility. The chapter concludes by arguing that whiteness presents itself as a “wicked problem” with no identifiable solution.


Author(s):  
Jason Beckfield

How might the political-sociological concepts reviewed in Chapter 1 contribute to the distribution of population health? To connect the dots, the author begins this chapter with a reconsideration of several established facts about social inequalities in health. Next, he discusses new evidence that establishes relationships between political-sociological structures and processes described in the last chapter, and social inequalities in health. Disease is distributed unequally within populations according to socioeconomic position (SEP), even after controlling for the many behavioral and other factors that affect health and are also—variably across institutional contexts—correlated with SEP. A consideration of political sociology helps us to explain these facts. Moreover, the political-sociological context also shapes the distribution of resources that matter for health.


Author(s):  
Diana Joyce-Beaulieu ◽  
Brian A. Zaboski ◽  
Alexa R. Dixon

Anxiety, depression, substance use, conduct disorders, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and learning disorder are but a subset of problems that youth experience throughout their lives. Chapter 1 presents the school-based practitioner as a first-line interventionist for these difficulties. Framing school-based care within a multi-tiered system of support, Chapter 1 introduces cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), an evidence-based intervention with flexible applications for children and adolescents. It acknowledges the complex intersection between CBT, 504 plans, and Individualized Education Programs; discusses the many ways students may receive services under the law (and otherwise); and highlights the details of school-based practice integral to evaluating these plans. Chapter 1 ends with a thorough case presentation complete with background information, interviews, behavior and symptom assessment, CBT session planning, and outcome data.


Author(s):  
Stephen Barnett

The astute reader might have formed the impression that quantum in formation science is a rather qualitative discipline because we have not, as yet, explained how to quantify quantum information. There are three good reasons for leaving this important question until the final chapter. Firstly, quantum information theory is technically demanding and to treat it at an earlier stage might have suggested that our subject was more complicated than it is. Secondly, there is the fact that many of the ideas in the field, such as teleportation and quantum circuits, are unfamiliar and it was important to present these as simply as possible. Finally, and most importantly, the theory of quantum information is not yet fully developed. It has not yet reached, in particular, the level of completeness of its classical counterpart. For this reason we can answer only some of the many questions we would like a quantum theory of information to address. Having said this, we can say that however, there are beautiful and useful mathematical results and it seems certain that these will continue to form an important part of the theory as it develops. We noted in the introduction to Chapter 1 that ‘quantum mechanics is a probabilistic theory and so it was inevitable that a quantum information theory would be developed’. A presentation of at least the beginnings of a quantitative theory is the objective of this final chapter. The entropy or information derived from a given probability distribution is, as we have seen, a convenient measure of the uncertainty associated with the distribution. If many of the probabilities are large, so that many of the possible events are comparably likely, then the entropy will be large. If one probability is close to unity, however, then the entropy will be small. It is convenient to introduce entropy in quantum mechanics as a measure of the uncertainty, or lack of knowledge, of the form of the state vector. If we know that our system is in a particular pure state then the associated uncertainty or entropy should be zero. For mixed states, however, it will take a non-zero value.


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