Departing from the recent scholarship that acknowledges fundamental similarities in the post-colonial and the post-socialist experiences, the article argues that comparisons across these two contexts and paradigms prove themselves to be a useful tool for analysis of specific problems of transitioning societies. This claim is demonstrated by examination of the making of public history of the recent past in the Czech Republic and South Africa. Two authoritative aspects of public history are considered: the state-sanctioned commemoration and historiography. Whereas the South African state has sought by the means of transitional justice to reconcile the former victims and victimizers in a shared quest for the truth, the Czech state prioritizes legislative and judiciary assignment of retroactive blame. The South African historiography is closely tied to collective memory and prefers the approach of social history. The Czech historiography of the recent past is dominated by the totalitarian paradigm and prioritizes archival work. In both cases, the political and the historiographical projects seem to overlap in crucial points. It is suggested that the articulation of public history as either resentment or forgiveness may have been ultimately predetermined by the forms of resistance to the opressive regimes.
The design, build and test of a re-programmable neural switch (RNS) are carried out. The function of such a switch is to operate as a synaptic processor behaving in an adaptive manner and suitable to be used as a compact programmable device with other artificial neural network hardware. Interaction between constituent materials forming the switch is discussed and carrier interaction during the Programming cycles is explained. Programmability of the switch is proved to be bi-directional and reversible with hysteresis effect which is due to excess charge storage.
The study offers a basic overview of the manuscripts of the ars memorativa treatises in late medieval Czech lands. On the basis of the surviving evidence it is possible to prove that during the 15th century this ancient art (however suspicious and cumbersome it may seem today) was known and practiced here. It coexisted with general (often primarily medical) set of advices on efficient studying some of which openly criticize the art of memory for being too impractical. Besides copies of Italian and West European art of memory models, there is a number of these treatises and shorter treatments of the art composed in the Czech lands. Each of them includes specific features and innovations not encountered elsewhere. The manuscript context of ars memorativa shows that it was not seen as a part of rhetoric theory intended for a restricted number of intellectuals but as a means of storing and recuperating important information actively used especially by students and preachers. and Lucie Doležalová.
The perception of danger represents a crucial component of everyday life (not only) in the city. The recording of the development of perception of danger in diachronic perspective of the twentieth century, as it reflected in the memory of the female inhabitants of Pilsen, enables to ascertain some changes that reflect the historical development. In its concrete parts, the research focused on the modes of „making“ of the urban space through the perception of danger (mental topography of danger), the perception of danger in general, as wall as the impact of the danger on the everyday life of the inhabitants. The qualitative methodology of the research included the making of mental maps and the half-structured interviews. The informers were nine women of age 80–91 years. For the purpose of presentation of the results of the research that aimed at ascertaining the ways of perceiving danger by the oldest generation of female inhabitants of Pilsen, the twentieth century was divided into several periods that to great degree reflected the political-historical development: the period before the Second World War; the period of the war; after-war period (1945–1960), the 1960s to 1980s and finally the period after the year 1990 up to the present. In the memory of the informers, these periods were characterized partly by differing types of danger (if danger at all) and their varying intensity. The perception of danger (or the absence of danger) was also influenced by the different development of life cycles in cases of concrete women. Besides individual differences, there was crucial influence of the general social development, the development of the city and the technological development, especially the increase of automobile transport and the media of communication.
Several diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) studies have reported on the anatomical neural tracts between the amygdala and specific brain regions. However, no study on the neural connectivity of the amygdala has been reported. In the current study, using probabilistic DTI tractography, we attempted to investigate the neural connectivity of the amygdala in normal subjects. Forty eight healthy subjects were recruited for this study. A seed region of interest was drawn at the amygdala using the FMRIB Software Library based on probabilistic DTI tractography. Connectivity was defined as the incidence of connection between the amygdala and each brain region at the threshold of 1 and 5 streamlines. The amygdala showed 100% connectivity to the hippocampus, thalamus, hypothalamus, and medial temporal cortex regardless of the thresholds. In contrast, regarding the thresholds of 1 and 5 streamlines, the amygdala showed high conncetivity (over 60%) to the globus pallidus (100% and 92.7%), brainstem (83.3% and 78.1%), putamen (72.9% and 63.5%), occipito-temporal cortex (72.9% and 67.7%), orbitofrontal cortex (70.8 and 43.8%), caudate nucleus (63.5% and 45.8%), and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (63.5% and 31.3%), respectively. The amygdala showed high connectivity to the hippocampus, thalamus, hypothalamus, medial temporal cortex, basal ganglia, brainstem, occipito-temporal cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, and ventromedial prefrontal cortex. We believe that the methods and results of this study provide useful information to clinicians and researchers studying the amygdala.
Emerging parasitoids of aphids encounter secondary plant chemistry from cues left by the mother parasitoid at oviposition and from the plant-feeding of the host aphid. In practice, however, it is secondary plant chemistry on the surface of the aphid mummy which influences parasitoid olfactory behaviour. Offspring of Aphidius colemani reared on Myzus persicae on artificial diet did not distinguish between the odours of bean and cabbage, but showed a clear preference for cabbage odour if sinigrin had been painted on the back of the mummy. Similarly Aphidius rhopalosiphi reared on Metopolophium dirhodum on wheat preferred the odour of wheat plants grown near tomato plants to odour of wheat alone if the wheat plants on which they had been reared had been exposed to the volatiles of nearby tomato plants. Aphidius rhopalosiphi reared on M. dirhodum, and removed from the mummy before emergence, showed a preference for the odour of a different wheat cultivar if they had contacted a mummy from that cultivar, and similar results were obtained with A. colemani naturally emerged from M. persicae mummies. Aphidius colemani emerged from mummies on one crucifer were allowed to contact in sequence (for 45 min each) mummies from two different crucifers. The number of attacks made in 10 min on M. persicae was always significantly higher when aphids were feeding on the same plant as the origin of the last mummy offered, or on the second plant if aphids feeding on the third plant were not included. Chilling emerged A. colemani for 24 h at 5°C appeared to erase the imprint of secondary plant chemistry, and they no longer showed host plant odour preferences in the olfactometer. When the parasitoids were chilled after three successive mummy experiences, memory of the last experience appeared at least temporarily erased and preference was then shown for the chemistry of the second experience.