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Charles William Morris (1901-1979) was a student of George Herbert Mead in the early 1920s when Mead was involved in the Chicago School. Inspired by his mentor, Morris wrote extensively on semiotics, philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, aesthetics, axiology and religion. Morris has received wide acclaim for his writings on semiotics. However, his writings pertaining to religion--the study of which preoccupied him throughout his life--have been all but entirely overlooked. / Morris first presented the "Maitreyan path" in his Paths of Life: Preface to a World Religion (1942). The expression "Maitreyan path" is derived from the Sanskrit name Maitreya (Metteyya in Pali) meaning "the friendly one." Morris' understanding of this symbol is unorthodox and must be differentiated from traditional Buddhist conceptions. According to him, the Maitreyan path is best understood in terms of the paradoxical expression "generalized detached-attachment." At the centre of this expression is the idea of overcoming. Yet it is not a symbol in the traditional sense of the term. It is beyond all form yet open to all forms; it neither prescribes nor ascribes any path, yet it is open to all particular paths. / If the Maitreyan path is without any specifiable form or content, how can it be an effective symbol for self-overcoming? In answering this question this study will apply Morris' well-known theory of signs to his little-known study of religious behaviour. This being done, it is then possible to analyze the Maitreyan symbol in terms not only of overt behaviours, but also of sign functioning. Based on the preceding analysis, this study argues that self-overcoming is achieved not via negativa by diminishing the self through the negation and abandonment of language, but rather via positiva by increasing the self through the affirmation and reclamation of language.

Memory is subdivided into short- and long-term memory. The interaction between transcription factors (TF) and expressed genes are essential steps in memory formation. Some TFs that might be involved in memory formation include CREB, NF-kB and Egr-2. We hypothesized that there would be a difference in the expression levels of these TFs following learning in the Morris Water Maze (MWM). In study one, CD1 mice were categorized into two groups. Group 1 assigned as non-trained control group. Group 2 (experimental group) underwent 9 consecutive days of MWM training. In the second study, male C57BL/6 mice were categorized into four groups. Group 1 was a non-trained control group (allowed to swim randomly). Groups 2, 3, and 4 (experimental groups) had variations in their MWM training. Search strategies, escape latency, time spending in the target quadrant and number of attempts passing the missing platform, were measured. To evaluate the expression levels of TFs pre- versus post-learning, mice were sacrificed at the end of MWM. Hippocampi were separated and Western blot and immunohistochemical procedures were done. In study one, the escape latency decreased progressively toward the end of the acquisition phase in the trained group. The search pattern showed that the mice used primarily spatial strategies. Mice spent more time in the target quadrant during the retention phase. The number of passes over the missing platform peaked on the first day of the retention phase. NF-kB and CREB were expressed significantly higher in the control group versus the MWM trained mice (p = 0.0031 and p < 0.0001 respectively). There was no statistically significant difference in expression of Egr-2 between the two groups (p = 0.3092). In study two, Group 4 showed the highest and Group 1 the lowest levels of CREB expression. CREB and NF-kB were decreased following MWM training in study one. In study two CREB levels were highest in the Group 4 which had interval between the acquisition and retention phases. These differences could be due to multiphasic expression patterns and/or other experimental design issues. Further studies are warranted to examine time dependent differential expression of TFs in memory.

Memory is subdivided into short- and long-term memory. The interaction between transcription factors (TF) and expressed genes are essential steps in memory formation. Some TFs that might be involved in memory formation include CREB, NF-kB and Egr-2. We hypothesized that there would be a difference in the expression levels of these TFs following learning in the Morris Water Maze (MWM). In study one, CD1 mice were categorized into two groups. Group 1 assigned as non-trained control group. Group 2 (experimental group) underwent 9 consecutive days of MWM training. In the second study, male C57BL/6 mice were categorized into four groups. Group 1 was a non-trained control group (allowed to swim randomly). Groups 2, 3, and 4 (experimental groups) had variations in their MWM training. Search strategies, escape latency, time spending in the target quadrant and number of attempts passing the missing platform, were measured. To evaluate the expression levels of TFs pre- versus post-learning, mice were sacrificed at the end of MWM. Hippocampi were separated and Western blot and immunohistochemical procedures were done. In study one, the escape latency decreased progressively toward the end of the acquisition phase in the trained group. The search pattern showed that the mice used primarily spatial strategies. Mice spent more time in the target quadrant during the retention phase. The number of passes over the missing platform peaked on the first day of the retention phase. NF-kB and CREB were expressed significantly higher in the control group versus the MWM trained mice (p = 0.0031 and p < 0.0001 respectively). There was no statistically significant difference in expression of Egr-2 between the two groups (p = 0.3092). In study two, Group 4 showed the highest and Group 1 the lowest levels of CREB expression. CREB and NF-kB were decreased following MWM training in study one. In study two CREB levels were highest in the Group 4 which had interval between the acquisition and retention phases. These differences could be due to multiphasic expression patterns and/or other experimental design issues. Further studies are warranted to examine time dependent differential expression of TFs in memory.

The research program described in this dissertation updates the knowledge base concerning human navigation and presents new methods for investigating selection and use of cognitive navigational strategies. Four experiments were designed to answer questions about the effects of environmental and experiential factors on cognitive mapping and selection of navigation strategies. Humans are thought to navigate using two different reference frames often referred to as “world based” and “person based”. These reference frames correspond to two probable cognitive/memory systems respectively labelled “allocentric” for the formation and use of cognitive maps of the environment, and “egocentric” for navigation by stimulus response or guidance. Different navigational strategies are associated with the two systems. Allocentric strategies rely on the presence of a stable environmental structure containing a number of more distal, relational stimuli whereas egocentric strategies rely only on the presence of simple, local cues (cue-based egocentric) or on body movements (response-based egocentric). The experiments tested navigation behaviour and strategy selection using virtual environment analogues of an animal model, the Morris water maze. Adaptations included, 1) the Place maze biasing participants toward the use of an allocentric strategy, 2) the Cue maze (and Floor Cue maze) biasing participants toward the use of an egocentric strategy, and 3) the Dual-strategy maze that has no bias because participants can choose to utilize either an allocentric or egocentric strategy. Experiment 1 was a behavioural study testing 101 university students in the Place maze and Floor Cue maze, with and without the opportunity to explore the environment before testing. The experiment showed for the first time that exploration is necessary for allocentric but not for egocentric navigation, suggesting that prior exploration is important for cognitive mapping. Experiment 2 outlined a novel and reliable eye tracking method for differentiating strategy use in the Place and Cue mazes. Eye movements were measured during the first orientation second of behavioural trials to differentiate allocentric from egocentric strategy use. Experiment 3 employed the established eye tracking method to test the effects of experience on strategy selection. Participants were trained in either the Place maze or the Cue maze and then tested in the Dual-strategy maze. A strategy probe trial was introduced at the end of testing to indicate whether participants had selected an allocentric or an egocentric strategy. Training experience had a strong behavioural effect on later strategy selection at the end of testing. Furthermore the effect of experience occurred independently of the gender of participants. However, the experience effect was only briefly shown using eye tracking measures. Experiment 4 was a successful feasibility study showing that eye tracking measures can be utilized to measure navigational strategy use in survivors of traumatic brain injury. Together these experiments may indicate that strategies are not innate or within the person but rather are interactions of the person with the environment. / Graduate

This dissertation is a compendium of multiple research papers that, together, address two main objectives. The first objective and primary research question is to determine whether or not, through a procedure of independent component analysis (ICA)-based data mining, volume-domain validation, and source volume estimation, it is possible to construct a meaningful, objective, and informative model of brain activity from scalpacquired EEG data. Given that a methodology to construct such a model can be created, the secondary objective and research question investigated is whether or not the sources derived from the EEG data can be used to construct a model of complex brain function associated with the spatial navigation and the virtual Morris Water Task (vMWT). The assumptions of the signal and noise characteristics of scalp-acquired EEG data were discussed in the context of what is currently known about functional brain activity to identify appropriate characteristics by which to separate the activities comprising EEG data into parts. A new EEG analysis methodology was developed using both synthetic and real EEG data that encompasses novel algorithms for (1) data-mining of the EEG to obtain the activities of individual areas of the brain, (2) anatomical modeling of brain sources that provides information about the 3-dimensional volumes from which each of the activities separated from the EEG originates, and (3) validation of data mining results to determine if a source activity found via the data-mining step originates from a distinct modular unit inside the head or if it is an artefact. The methodology incorporating the algorithms developed was demonstrated for EEG data collected from study participants while they navigated a computer-based virtual maze environment. The brain activities of participants were meaningfully depicted via brain source volume estimation and representation of the activity relationships of multiple areas of the brain. A case study was used to demonstrate the analysis methodology as applied to the EEG of an individual person. In a second study, a group EEG dataset was investigated and activity relationships between areas of the brain for participants of the group study were individually depicted to show how brain activities of individuals can be compared to the group. The results presented in this dissertation support the conclusion that it is feasible to use ICA-based data mining to construct a physiological model of coordinated parts of the brain related to the vMWT from scalp-recorded EEG data. The methodology was successful in creating an objective and informative model of brain activity from EEG data. Furthermore, the evidence presented indicates that this methodology can be used to provide meaningful evaluation of the brain activities of individual persons and to make comparisons of individual persons against a group. In sum, the main contributions of this body of work are 5 fold. The technical contributions are: (1) a new data mining algorithm tailored for EEG, (2) an EEG component validation algorithm that identifies noise components via their poor representation in a head model, (3) a volume estimation algorithm that estimates the region in the brain from which each source waveform found via data mining originates, (4) a new procedure to study brain activities associated with spatial navigation. The main contribution of this work to the understanding of brain function is (5) evidence of specific functional systems within the brain that are used while persons participate in the vMWT paradigm (Livingstone and Skelton, 2007) examining spatial navigation. / Graduate / 0541 / 0622 / 0623

The present thesis investigated the effects of a western diet (WD) on cell death and functional outcome following global ischemia in rats. Experiment 1 assessed the effects of a 60-day WD regimen on temperature, activity and glucose levels in normal rats. Experiment 2 evaluated the influence of a 60-day WD regimen on hippocampal CA1 injury and cognition following global ischemia. Results from experiment 1 revealed significant differences in activity levels only; animals fed the WD were less active than control diet animals. Results from experiment 2 suggested that a WD did not aggravate CA1 injury or behavioral deficits. The second portion of my thesis examined the effects of a 120-day WD regimen on stroke severity and cognition following global ischemia. Briefly, the surgical protocol used to induce a global ischemic insult did not produce consistent damage across all animals. Plausible reasons for this surgical variability and future directions are discussed.

The work of documentary director Errol Morris can be approached in a variety of ways as it intersects and engages with many of the major themes of film and television scholarship - genre, authorship, and historical representation. But while his films and television episodes expose debates within film and documentary studies, they also call up major elements of postmodern debates within the historical discipline. Morris makes historical documentaries that do not simply render a (hi)story visually; he also attempts to draw viewers' attention to the conventions and construction of both visual media and of history. His work reveals both his keen awareness of postmodern historical debates, and a willingness to play, to confront basic assumptions, question boundaries, and to contribute to those debates. In 'Errol Morris and the Art of History', I argue that Morris is a visual historian; his films and television episodes draw as much from his understanding of historiographical debates as they do from his knowledge and artistic approach to visual media. All of Morris' work challenges the notion of objectivity in both documentary filmmaking and history; he attempts to illuminate the limits and conventions of visual depictions of history; he uses strategies to denaturalise historical and narrative construction, the naturalising tendencies of visual media, and the conventions of documentary practice; and he attempts to promote increased critical reflection. This thesis closely examines Morris' documentary films and television episodes to consider the structure and strategies that characterise his work, and situate it within contemporary film and historical debates. I explore Morris' methods and approach to documentary and history, showing how his work relates to postmodern history debates, to written and visual representations of history, and to documentary history and theory, including more recent factual forms like reality television.

Over the past four or so decades, a number of social transformations—including in particular the dramatic expansion of the tertiary education sector—have impacted significantly on the role and status of the intellectual in contemporary life. While the authority of the intellectual was once based on a claim to universality, the openly professionalised nature of contemporary intellectual life has thoroughly problematised such claims. Accordingly, the broadly representative role that so-called “public” intellectuals were once said to have played has increasingly been challenged by more “specific” models of intellectual practice, models that have emerged in particular out of new fields of knowledge such as cultural studies. While cultural conservatives have argued that this challenge marks the declining status of the intellectual in contemporary society, the emergence of a variety of “new” intellectual models linked to specific social and institutional formations suggests that, far from declining, concerns over the status and responsibility of the intellectual are ongoing. / This thesis examines the complex relations between contemporary intellectual practices and social and cultural location. Focusing in particular on the field of cultural studies, I examine the careers and biographies of four intellectuals. In my introductory chapter I review the major theories of intellectual practice circulating within cultural studies and conclude that a new, more “located” approach to understanding intellectual practice is required. Putting this new approach to work, the first part of my thesis examines the personal and intellectual biography of the black British intellectual Stuart Hall and—using the trope of “diaspora”—positions him in relation to the field of British cultural studies. In part two I focus on the largely academically-situated intellectual practices of Lawrence Grossberg and Andrew Ross, two prominent American-based cultural studies practitioners. Taking them as exemplars of American cultural studies, a highly academicised and disciplined field, I place into question the common assumption that the institutionally-located intellectual lacks critical autonomy. In part three, I discuss the life and career of the Australian intellectual, Meaghan Morris, focusing on the transnational and trans-institutional genealogy of both Morris and the Sydney-based strand of cultural studies with which she is associated. Finally, I conclude the thesis with a brief postscript reiterating my argument for the increasing importance of a “comparative cosmopolitan” model of intellectualism—that is, an approach to intellectuals that is able to engage with both broad-based and transnational concerns while, at the same time, also acknowledging their responsibilities as a geographically and socially-situated group.