Towards a Noncompliant Pedagogy of the Image: Reading Negentropic Bifurcatory Potentials in Video Images

The authors explore the noncompliant pedagogy of the image based on their video Autopoietic Veering: Schizo Socius of Tokyo and Vancouver (2021). It is not the kind of trendy modelized video abstract or kinetic presentation eagerly promoted by international publishers; it is a cross-cultural collaborative work intended to generate affirmative temporal ruptures of entropic habitual modes of seeing, memorizing, and thinking of human and nonhuman life in the cities of Tokyo (Japan) and Vancouver (Canada). The authors elucidate Stiegler’s (2015b) concept of a “global mnemotechnical system” that stores and produces human memories in vast digital archives and databases (tertiary retentions) through “mnemonic control” (Parisi & Goodman, 2011). The authors repurpose video images to interrupt and recontrol human perception and memories as “living engines” (Lazzarato, 2006). They foreground the philosophical work of Deleuze, Heidegger, and Virilio to rethink and revive the creative act of “critique” (Foucault, 1997) through “metamodelization” (Guattari, 1995; Manning, 2020); therefore, they plug these apparently incommensurable modes of thinking into their readings of the video’s images. They read the images as “time-images” and focus on their five dimensions that possibly activate “spiritual automation” (Deleuze, 1989), which they assess as “negentropic bifurcatory” potentials (Bradley & Kennedy, 2019).

The Theodorus Variation

The Spiral of Theodorus, also known as the "root snail" from its connection with square roots, can be constructed by hand from triangles made with from paper with scissors, ruler, and protractor. See the Video Abstract. Once the triangles are made, two different but similar spirals can be made. This paper proves some things about the second spiral; in particular that the open curve generated by the inner vertices monotonically approaches a circle, and that the vertices are ultimately equidistributed around that inner circle.

Log-lightning computation of capacity and Green's function

See Video Abstract (click the "Video Abstract" button next to the "PDF" button) A basic measure of the size of a set E in the complex plane is the logarithmic capacity cap(E). Capacities are known analytically for a few simple shapes like ellipses, but in most cases they must be computed numerically. We explore their computation by the new "log-lightning'' method based on reciprocal-log approximations in the complex plane. For a sequence of 16 examples involving both connected and disconnected sets E, we compute capacities to 8–15 digits of accuracy at great speed in MATLAB. The convergence is almost-exponential with respect to the number of reciprocal-log poles employed, so it should be possible to compute many more digits if desired in Maple or another extended-precision environment. This is the first systematic exploration of applications of the log-lightning method, which opens up the possibility of solving Laplace problems with an efficiency not achievable by previous methods. The method computes not just the capacity, but also the Green's function and its harmonic conjugate. It also extends to "domains of negative measure" and other Riemann surfaces.

Video Abstract for Ceiling Effects Indicate a Possible Threshold Structure for Working Alliance

http://hdl.handle.net/10477/83007

Authentic Fear Responses in Virtual Reality: A Mobile EEG Study on Affective, Behavioral and Electrophysiological Correlates of Fear

Fear is an evolutionary adaption to a hazardous environment, linked to numerous complex behavioral responses, e.g., the fight-or-flight response, suiting their respective environment. However, for the sake of experimental control, fear is mainly investigated under rather artificial laboratory conditions. The latter transform these evolutionary adaptions into artificial responses, like keystrokes. The immersive, multidimensional character of virtual reality (VR) enables realistic behavioral responses, overcoming aforementioned limitations. To investigate authentic fear responses from a holistic perspective, participants explored either a negative or a neutral VR cave. To promote real-life behavior, we built a physical replica of the cave, providing haptic sensations. Electrophysiological correlates of fear-related approach and avoidance tendencies, i.e., frontal alpha asymmetries (FAA) were evaluated. To our knowledge, this is the first study to simultaneously capture complex behavior and associated electrophysiological correlates under highly immersive conditions. Participants in the negative condition exhibited a broad spectrum of realistic fear behavior and reported intense negative affect as opposed to participants in the neutral condition. Despite these affective and behavioral differences, the groups could not be distinguished based on the FAAs for the greater part of the cave exploration. Taking the specific behavioral responses into account, the obtained FAAs could not be reconciled with well-known FAA models. Consequently, putting laboratory-based models to the test under realistic conditions shows that they may not unrestrictedly predict realistic behavior. As the VR environment facilitated non-mediated and realistic emotional and behavioral responses, our results demonstrate VR’s high potential to increase the ecological validity of scientific findings (video abstract: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qROsPOp87l4&feature=youtu.be).

Sex differences in psychiatric comorbidity and clinical presentation in youths with conduct disorder - Gregor Kohls, PhD

Video abstract from Gregor Kohls, PhD, on his JCPP paper 'Sex differences in psychiatric comorbidity and clinical presentation in youths with conduct disorder.'

The developmental origins of genetic factors influencing language and literacy: Associations with early‐childhood vocabulary - Dr. Ellen Verhoef and Dr. Beate St Pourcain

Video abstract from Dr. Ellen Verhoef and Dr. Beate St Pourcain from their JCPP paper 'The developmental origins of genetic factors influencing language and literacy: Associations with early‐childhood vocabulary'.