We used whole brain functional MRI to investigate the neural network specifically engaged in the recognition of “biological motion” defined by point-lights attached to the major joints and head of a human walker. To examine the specificity of brain regions responsive to biological motion, brain activations obtained during a “walker vs. non-walker” discrimination task were compared with those elicited by two other tasks: (i) non-rigid motion (NRM), involving the discrimination of overall motion direction in the same “point-lights” display, and (ii) face-gender discrimination, involving the discrimination of gender in briefly presented photographs of men and women. Brain activity specific to “biological motion” recognition arose in the lateral cerebellum and in a region in the lateral occipital cortex presumably corresponding to the area KO previously shown to be particularly sensitive to kinetic contours. Additional areas significantly activated during the biological motion recognition task involved both, dorsal and ventral extrastriate cortical regions. In the ventral regions both face-gender discrimination and biological motion recognition elicited activation in the lingual and fusiform gyri and in the Brodmann areas 22 and 38 in superior temporal sulcus (STS). Along the dorsal pathway...

The complex dynamic properties of biological timing in organisms remain a central enigma in biology despite the increasingly precise genetic characterization of oscillating units and their components. Although attempts to obtain the time constants from oscillations of gene activity and biochemical units have led to substantial progress, we are still far from a full molecular understanding of endogenous rhythmicity and the physiological manifestations of biological clocks. Applications of nonlinear dynamics have revolutionized thinking in physics and in biomedical and life sciences research, and spatiotemporal considerations are now advancing our understanding of development and rhythmicity. Here we show that the well known circadian rhythm of a metabolic cycle in a higher plant, namely the crassulacean acid metabolism mode of photosynthesis, is expressed as dynamic patterns of independently initiated variations in photosynthetic efficiency (φPSII) over a single leaf. Noninvasive highly sensitive chlorophyll fluorescence imaging reveals randomly initiated patches of varying φPSII that are propagated within minutes to hours in wave fronts, forming dynamically expanding and contracting clusters and clearly dephased regions of φPSII. Thus...

A vivid perception of the moving form of a human figure can be obtained from a few moving light points on the joints of the body. This is known as biological motion perception. It is commonly believed that the perception of biological motion rests on image motion signals. Curiously, however, some patients with lesions to motion processing areas of the dorsal stream are severely impaired in image motion perception but can easily perceive biological motion. Here we describe a biological motion stimulus based on a limited lifetime technique that tests the perception of a moving human figure in the absence of local image motion. We find that subjects can spontaneously recognize a moving human figure in displays without local image motion. Their performance is very similar to that for classic point-light displays. We also find that tasks involving the discrimination of walking direction or the coherence of a walking figure can be performed in the absence of image motion. Thus, although image motion may generally aid processes such as segmenting figure from background, we propose that it is not the basis for the percept of biological motion. Rather, we suggest biological motion is derived from dynamic form information on body posture evolving over time.

by Jonathan Seth Dordick.; Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Applied Biological Sciences, 1986.; MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND SCIENCE; Bibliography: leaves 217-231.

by Sew-Wah Tay.; Thesis (Sc. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Applied Biological Sciences, 1986.; MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND SCIENCE.; Bibliography: leaves 157-166.

by Matthew S. Bryant.; Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Applied Biological Sciences, 1987.; Bibliography: leaves 125-134.

by Spiros Jamas.; Thesis (Sc. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Applied Biological Sciences, 1986.; Title as it appeared in M.I.T. Graduate List June 1987: Control of the structure-function properties of yeast glucans.; Bibliography: leaves 166-171.

by Michael W. Glacken.; Thesis (Sc. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Applied Biological Sciences, 1987.; Bibliography: leaves 216-226.

by Sy-dar Wang.; Thesis (Sc. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Applied Biological Sciences, 1988.; Vita.; Bibliography: leaves 264-278.

by Donald Davidson Easson Jr.; Thesis (Sc. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Applied Biological Sciences, 1988.; Vita.; Bibliography: leaves 119-125.

by Heewon Yu.; Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Applied Biological Sciences, 1988.; Vita.; Includes bibliographical references.

by Neal Foster Cariello.; Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Applied Biological Sciences, 1988.; Includes bibliographical references.

by Joseph James Francis Zimmerman.; Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Applied Biological Sciences, 1988.; Title as it appeared in M.I.T. Graduate List September 1988: Heparin degrading enzymes from Flavobacterium heparinum.; Includes bibliographical references.

by Maximillian Todd Follettie.; Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Applied Biological Sciences, 1989.; Includes bibliographical references (leaves 168-186).

by Sergio A. Sanchez-Ruiz.; Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Applied Biological Sciences, 1989.; Includes bibliographical references (leaves 176-181).

By this research we proposed to perform an analysis of the political pedagogical project focused on teachers formation in two Biological Sciences undergraduate courses in Goiânia city - the Biological Sciences Licentiateship (BSL) at the Federal University of Goiás and the Pontifical Catholic University of Goiás one - and the continuing education programs offered by Municipal Education Secretary, through the Education Center for Teaching, and by the State Secretary of Education and Culture, through the Special Education Management, from 2009 to 2010, in order to verify if, and how, such institutions were improving the Biological Sciences teacher training for inclusive education, as they prepared him to deal with diverse learning needs. We chose a qualitative approach and a documentary research. Official documents that establish the teacher education policy were analyzed as well as the inclusion policy in such institutions. For systematization and data analysis was used theoretically based content analysis. Seven themes emerged from reading and re-reading of the data: common aspects between legislation on inclusive approach and the political-pedagogical projects of the BSL courses; the educational and philosophical principles of inclusion adopted by projects; the organizational structure of the BSL – initial teacher education; issues related to inclusive education presented in disciplines of the BSL courses; the political fundamentals that guide the projects of continuing education courses for teachers offered by employing institutions; the pedagogical purposes of the continuing education courses offered by employing institutions; issues related to inclusive education discussed in the continuing education for teachers. We found that the BSL courses of the higher education institutions surveyed do not mention public policies concerned with preparing teachers for inclusive education. We also found that the historical...

The main objective of this research was to analyze and understand the role of assessment of learning in the training of teachers, especially those that work in higher education in the area of teachers training. Considering the entire evaluation context with their contradictions and controversies and the different concepts I decided to study the assessment of learning process in an undergraduate course of Biological Sciences, from the State University of Goiás, Brazil. The study included teachers and students of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th grades in that course. The proposal was to investigate the documents guiding of evaluation practice of teachers and trainers, in order to grasp the concepts of teachers and academics on the assessment of learning. To develop this proposal the following research questions was formulated: What are the conceptions of learning assessment from teacher trainers and students of Biological Sciences course in this University and yet, what are the consequences of these conceptions in teachers' practice and training of undergraduates? To answer these questions was carried out a qualitative study, whose method was the case study that considers relevant to observe and understand the subjects in their context of social and historical; I was also a participating in this study since it was considered for analysis of data my own experience beyond the academic experiences lived throughout my professional practice. It was noted that scholars tend to understand the assessment...

A presente pesquisa consiste em compreender as contradições, possibilidades e limitações da Educação Sexual na disciplina de Ciências nas Escolas de Ensino Fundamental. Parte-se dos fundamentos históricos, políticos e filosóficos para compreender a sexualidade humana e os discursos hegemônicos sobre sexualidade e educação. Aborda-se a trajetória histórica e os marcos epistemológicos da universidade brasileira, as políticas de formação do professor de Ciências Biológicas e a Educação Sexual no Brasil da matriz colonial à proposta da universidade liberal, do patriarcalismo às políticas educacionais leigas e a concepção médica-higienista de Educação Sexual; a universidade brasileira como projeto nacional-desenvolvimentista, as políticas de formação de professores para a industrialização e a abordagem tecnicista da sexualidade. Analisam-se as concepções de sexo e sexualidade no discurso e prática dos professores de Ciências Biológicas e passagem histórica da sexualidade como tema do campo biológico para as Ciências Humanas; as matrizes da reflexão sobre a sexualidade na modernidade, a identidade biológico-reprodutiva matricial e suas legitimações a partir das teorias de Lamarck, Mendel e Darwin; a ruptura moderna com o naturalismo biológico: Havelock Ellis e Freud; a apropriação das ciências humanas e sociais das representações matriciais de sexo e sexualidade...

Darwin's 19th century evolutionary theory of descent with modification through natural selection opened up a multidimensional and integrative conceptual space for biology. We explore three dimensions of this space: explanatory pattern, levels of selection, and degree of difference among units of the same type. Each dimension is defined by a respective pair of poles: law and narrative explanation, organismic and hierarchical selection, and variational and essentialist thinking. As a consequence of conceptual debates in the 20th century biological sciences, the poles of each pair came to be seen as mutually exclusive opposites. A significant amount of 21st century research focuses on systems (e.g., genomic, cellular, organismic, and ecological/global). Systemic Darwinism is emerging in this context. It follows a “compositional paradigm” according to which complex systems and their hierarchical networks of parts are the focus of biological investigation. Through the investigation of systems, Systemic Darwinism promises to reintegrate each dimension of Darwin's original logical space. Moreover, this ideally and potentially unified theory of biological ontology coordinates and integrates a plurality of mathematical biological theories (e.g....

This paper attempts to identify major conceptual issues that have inhibited the application of physical chemistry to problems in the biological sciences. We will trace out where theories went wrong, how to repair the present foundations, and discuss current progress toward building a better dialogue.