The World of Indicators. The Making of Governmental Knowledge through Quantification

The twenty-first century has seen a further dramatic increase in the use of quantitative knowledge for governing social life after its explosion in the 1980s. Indicators and rankings play an increasing role in the way governmental and non-governmental organizations distribute attention, make decisions, and allocate scarce resources. Quantitative knowledge promises to be more objective and straightforward as well as more transparent and open for public debate than qualitative knowledge, thus producing more democratic decision-making. However, we know little about the social processes through which this knowledge is constituted nor its effects. Understanding how such numeric knowledge is produced and used is increasingly important as proliferating technologies of quantification alter modes of knowing in subtle and often unrecognized ways. This book explores the implications of the global multiplication of indicators as a specific technology of numeric knowledge production used in governance. Combination of insights from anthropology of law, history of science, science and technology studies, sociology of quantification, economics and geography will appeal to those who are uncomfortable with the separation between 'theoretical' and 'empirical' approaches and with the current weakness of critique that address the main trends shaping the relations between capitalism, markets, law and democracy Theoretical discussion of the nature and historical formation of quantification will appeal to those who ask questions such as, 'What is new or different about our contemporary reliance on quantitative knowledge?' Groundbreaking empirical case studies uncover the social work and politics that often go into the making of indicators and explore the far-reaching effects and impacts of these numerical representations in specific settings

Tracking individual membrane proteins and their biochemistry: The power of direct observation

The advent of single molecule fluorescence microscopy has allowed experimental molecular biophysics and biochemistry to transcend traditional ensemble measurements, where the behavior of individual proteins could not be precisely sampled. The recent explosion in popularity of new super-resolution and super-localization techniques coupled with technical advances in optical designs and fast highly sensitive cameras with single photon sensitivity and millisecond time resolution have made it possible to track key motions, reactions, and interactions of individual proteins with high temporal resolution and spatial resolution well beyond the diffraction limit. Within the purview of membrane proteins and ligand gated ion channels (LGICs), these outstanding advances in single molecule microscopy allow for the direct observation of discrete biochemical states and their fluctuation dynamics. Such observations are fundamentally important for understanding molecular-level mechanisms governing these systems. Examples reviewed here include the effects of allostery on the stoichiometry of ligand binding in the presence of fluorescent ligands; the observation of subdomain partitioning of membrane proteins due to microenvironment effects; and the use of single particle tracking experiments to elucidate characteristics of membrane protein diffusion and the direct measurement of thermodynamic properties, which govern the free energy landscape of protein dimerization. The review of such characteristic topics represents a snapshot of efforts to push the boundaries of fluorescence microscopy of membrane proteins to the absolute limit.

Reevaluation of the MASTER-2009 MLI and H-10 Debris Modeling

The current paper is an excerpt from the doctoral thesis ”Multi-Layer Insulation as Contribution to Orbital Debris”written at the Institute of Aerospace Systems of the Technische Universit ̈at of Braunschweig. The Multi-Layer In-sulation (MLI) population included in ESA’s MASTER-2009 (M eteoroid and Space-Debris Terrestrial Environment Reference) software is based on models for two mechanisms: One model simulates the release of MLI debris during fragmentation events while another estimates the continuo us release of larger MLI pieces due to aging related deterioration of the material. The aim of the thesis was to revise the MLI models from the base up followed by a re-validation of the simulated MLI debris population. The validation is based on comparison to measurement data of the GEO and GTO debris environment obtained by the Astronomical Institute of the University of Bern (AIUB) using ESA’s Space Debris Telescope (ESASDT), the 1-m Zeiss telescope located at the Optical Ground Station (OGS) at the Teide Observatory at Tenerife, Spain. The re-validation led to the conclusion that MLI may cover a much smaller portion of the observed objects than previously published. Further investigation of the resulting discrepancy revealed that the contribution of altogether nine known Ariane H-10 upper stage explosion events which occurred between 1984 and 2002 has very likely been underestimated in past simulations.

New algorithms for automated phylogenetic reconstruction using artificial intelligence and data mining techniques

Academic and industrial research in the late 90s have brought about an exponential explosion of DNA sequence data. Automated expert systems are being created to help biologists to extract patterns, trends and links from this ever-deepening ocean of information. Two such systems aimed on retrieving and subsequently utilizing phylogenetically relevant information have been developed in this dissertation, the major objective of which was to automate the often difficult and confusing phylogenetic reconstruction process. ^ Popular phylogenetic reconstruction methods, such as distance-based methods, attempt to find an optimal tree topology (that reflects the relationships among related sequences and their evolutionary history) by searching through the topology space. Various compromises between the fast (but incomplete) and exhaustive (but computationally prohibitive) search heuristics have been suggested. An intelligent compromise algorithm that relies on a flexible “beam” search principle from the Artificial Intelligence domain and uses the pre-computed local topology reliability information to adjust the beam search space continuously is described in the second chapter of this dissertation. ^ However, sometimes even a (virtually) complete distance-based method is inferior to the significantly more elaborate (and computationally expensive) maximum likelihood (ML) method. In fact, depending on the nature of the sequence data in question either method might prove to be superior. Therefore, it is difficult (even for an expert) to tell a priori which phylogenetic reconstruction method—distance-based, ML or maybe maximum parsimony (MP)—should be chosen for any particular data set. ^ A number of factors, often hidden, influence the performance of a method. For example, it is generally understood that for a phylogenetically “difficult” data set more sophisticated methods (e.g., ML) tend to be more effective and thus should be chosen. However, it is the interplay of many factors that one needs to consider in order to avoid choosing an inferior method (potentially a costly mistake, both in terms of computational expenses and in terms of reconstruction accuracy.) ^ Chapter III of this dissertation details a phylogenetic reconstruction expert system that selects a superior proper method automatically. It uses a classifier (a Decision Tree-inducing algorithm) to map a new data set to the proper phylogenetic reconstruction method. ^

Fort Richardson Ordnance Detonations and the Harbor Porpoise: A Case Study in Marine Mammal Bioacoustics

Hearing is extremely important for cetaceans because it is their “principal sense” (Weilgart, 2007) thus the harbor porpoise and other marine animals are highly dependent on sound for survival. This is why we should care about the impact of noise on animals like the harbor porpoise. Since sound travels so well in water, an explosion, sonar, boat noise, etc. can affect a very large area and thus many different species of marine mammals. Although military actions such as low frequency sonar have made recent news, noise has been affecting cetaceans, especially beaked whales, since at least 1991 (Weilgart, 2007). This study is an investigation of the possible impacts of artillery detonated on land on harbor porpoise hearing and covers some of the history of Fort Richardson, the legal and historical aspects and history of this type of concern, the science and physics of sound, marine mammal hearing and general biology of the harbor porpoise. Data were collected at the Fort Richardson Army base during June of 2007 by researchers from the University of Connecticut and the University of Rhode Island and will be used to determine the possible impacts that these detonations could have on the harbor porpoise.

La transformación y la memoria en la cultura : el caso de la murga uruguaya

Las diversas manifestaciones de la cultura (entre ellas los fenómenos llamados «comunicacionales») avanzan, nacen, se transforman y perduran a través de dos dinámicas entre contradictorias y complementarias: la transformación y la permanencia. Dichas dinámicas atraviesan las vanadas características de los fenómenos culturales; la autonomía relativa con respecto a la estructura económica, el cambio gradual, la explosión, la memoria, las vanguardias, las rupturas, la tradición, los géneros, etc. Autores de la escuela semiótica de Tartu, como luri Lotman, han estudiado cómo funcionan estos procesos propios de la esfera semiocultural, y han investigado los mecanismos específicos de los textos culturales que los hacen, a la misma vez, textos de la memoria y de la renovación. Este artículo busca describir sintéticamente dichos procesos (por momentos contradictorios) y mostrar su «funcionamiento» en la murga, un género musical-teatral carnavalero de la cultura popular uruguaya.

La población mundial : de la explosión a la implosión demográfica

El ritmo de crecimiento de la población mundial es observado en general desde una perspectiva negativa, basada en argumentaciones económicas o ecológicas. El temor a la sobrepoblación, que comenzó a difundirse cuando la humanidad alcanzó los mil millones, con frecuencia fue potenciado hasta la categoría de alarmismo, especialmente en ocasión de la incorporación de mil millones más, y desde entonces se traduce en el propósito de frenar el crecimiento, generalmente con medidas antinatalistas. A principios del siglo XXI, ante el fenómeno de la reducción planetaria de las tasas de crecimiento, se perfila un nuevo alarmismo por infrapoblación, que coexiste sin embargo con un alarmismo por sobrepoblación.

Tab. 2: Grain-sizes of cobble on the surface of sanderwurzel

yResults of 13 field investigations between 1966 and 1990 of the southwestern to eastern margin of Kötlujökull and its proglacial area are summarized with respect to sandar and their formation. Generally, the results are based on sedimentological examinations in the field and laboratory, on analyses of aerial photographs, and investigations of the glacier slope. The methods permitted a more detailed reconstruction of sandar evolution in the proglacial area of Kötlujökull since 1945, of tendencies in development and of single data going back until the last decades of the 19th century. Accordingly, there existed special periods of "flachsander"-formations with raised coarsegrained "sanderwurzels" resultant from the outbreak of subglacial meltwater tunneloutlets and other periods with "hochsander-"formations by supraglacial drainage. At present the belts of hochsanders in front of the glacier come up to more than 4 m in thickness and 1000 m in width, therefore containing perhaps more sediment direct in front of Kötlujökull than the old belts of flachsanderwurzels. In one case the explosion-like subglacial meltwater outburst combined with the genesis of a sanderwurzel could be observed for a time and is thoroughly discussed. The event is referred to the outburst of a sub- to inglacial meltwater body being under extreme hydrostatic press ures which is combined with the genesis of a new subglacial tunneloutlet as a new flachsander. Often these outbursts led to the destruction of a morainic belt more than 1000 m in width. Presumably the whole event was finished in not more than a few days. In addition to a characteristic pear-shaped form and water-moved stones up to diameters of 1 m the wurzels possess a single "main-channel" with rectangular cross-sections as far as 4 m deep and 50 m wide just as small flat channels resembling fish bones in connection with the main channel. Presumably, they have been active only in the last stage of wurzel formation. With regard to the subglacial tunnel gates long-living L-meltwater outlets are distinguished from short-living K-meltwater outlets. These are always combined with a raised coarse-grained sanderwurzel, but its meltwater discharge is generally decreasing and ceases after some years, whereas the discharge of L-meltwater outlets continues unchanged for long times (except seasonal differences). The material of flachsanders is preponderantly composed of mugearitic and andesitic cobble extending at least for some kilometres from the glacier margin, whereas the hochsanders correspond to medium to coarse sands without clay and without alternations into the direction of flow. The hochsander fans are covered with small braidet channels. Their sedimentary structures are determined by the short time changing of supraglacial meltwater discharge and the upper flow regime combined with the development of antidunes, which rule the channel-flows during the main activity periods in summer. Unlike the subglacial drainage the supraglacial drainage led to only weak effects of erosion on the glacier foreland. So the hochsanders refilled depressions of morainic areas or grew up on older flachsanderwurzels. Whereas all large flachsanders developed in front of approximate stationary glacier margins, the evolution of coherent belts of hochsanders were combined with progressive glacier fronts. On the other hand, there was obviously no evolution at all of large sandar in front of back-melting margins of Kötlujökull. Based on examinations of the glacier surface and on analyses of aerial photographs the different types of sandar are referred to different structures of the glacier snout. Finally chances of surviving of sandar in the proglacial area of Kötlujökull are shortly discussed just as the possibility of an application of the Islandic research results on Pleistocene sandar in northern Germany.

Participaciones de Sarduy en la prensa revolucionaria : Una entrevista fuera de lugar a Mariano Rodríguez

Entre 1956 y 1961 Severo Sarduy publicó una importante cantidad de textos sobre literatura, plástica y teatro cubano en el Diario Libre, Lunes de Revolución, Nueva Revista Cubana, Mañana libre y Combate 13 de Marzo. Participó de la explosión que caracterizó a la prensa literaria cubana a partir de la Revolución y se inscribió en las filas de los intelectuales que trabajaron en favor de ella. Entregado a sus labores de periodista plástico, un muy joven Sarduy entrevista al famoso pintor Mariano Rodríguez (1912-1990), co-fundador junto al escultor Alfredo Lozano (1913-1997) y a los escritores José Lezama Lima (1910-1976) y José Rodríguez Feo (1920-1993) de la revista Orígenes. Esta entrevista fue publicada en La Habana el 12 de octubre de 1959 y en ella se exponen juicios estéticos y políticos sobre el régimen de visibilidad cultural del arte cubano en el nuevo orden social. Cabe destacar que, a pesar de la ruptura que se produjo entre los editores de Orígenes, Mariano Rodríguez se convirtió en el creador del "Eolo" que sirvió de ícono a la postrera revista Ciclón (1955). Por lo tanto, presentamos un recorrido por dicha entrevista profundizando el breve pero significativo vínculo-desencuentro sucedido entre ambos

'Ces doux frémissements de la terreur' : La adaptación de un género extranjero en los albores del Romanticismo español

El presente artículo analiza las particularidades del proceso de trasferencia genérica de la novela gótica inglesa a la literatura española en el período de entresiglos (1788-1833), que quedan fijadas en una fase de traducción-adaptación especialmente intensa que tuvo lugar en las primeras décadas del siglo XIX, previa a la explosión que coincidirá con los albores del movimiento romántico y que supondrá el ocaso definitivo del género dentro de nuestras fronteras

Participaciones de Sarduy en la prensa revolucionaria : Una entrevista fuera de lugar a Mariano Rodríguez

Entre 1956 y 1961 Severo Sarduy publicó una importante cantidad de textos sobre literatura, plástica y teatro cubano en el Diario Libre, Lunes de Revolución, Nueva Revista Cubana, Mañana libre y Combate 13 de Marzo. Participó de la explosión que caracterizó a la prensa literaria cubana a partir de la Revolución y se inscribió en las filas de los intelectuales que trabajaron en favor de ella. Entregado a sus labores de periodista plástico, un muy joven Sarduy entrevista al famoso pintor Mariano Rodríguez (1912-1990), co-fundador junto al escultor Alfredo Lozano (1913-1997) y a los escritores José Lezama Lima (1910-1976) y José Rodríguez Feo (1920-1993) de la revista Orígenes. Esta entrevista fue publicada en La Habana el 12 de octubre de 1959 y en ella se exponen juicios estéticos y políticos sobre el régimen de visibilidad cultural del arte cubano en el nuevo orden social. Cabe destacar que, a pesar de la ruptura que se produjo entre los editores de Orígenes, Mariano Rodríguez se convirtió en el creador del "Eolo" que sirvió de ícono a la postrera revista Ciclón (1955). Por lo tanto, presentamos un recorrido por dicha entrevista profundizando el breve pero significativo vínculo-desencuentro sucedido entre ambos

'Ces doux frémissements de la terreur' : La adaptación de un género extranjero en los albores del Romanticismo español

El presente artículo analiza las particularidades del proceso de trasferencia genérica de la novela gótica inglesa a la literatura española en el período de entresiglos (1788-1833), que quedan fijadas en una fase de traducción-adaptación especialmente intensa que tuvo lugar en las primeras décadas del siglo XIX, previa a la explosión que coincidirá con los albores del movimiento romántico y que supondrá el ocaso definitivo del género dentro de nuestras fronteras

Age and chemical composition of magmatic rocks from the Belkovsky Island, New Siberian Islands

The study was inspired by information on Paleozoic andesites, dacites, and diabases on the Belkovsky Island in the 1974 geological survey reports used to reconstruct tectonic evolution of the continental block comprising the New Siberian Islands and the bordering shelf. We did not find felsic volcanics or Middle Paleozoic intrusions in the studied area of the island. Igneous rocks are mafic subvolcanic intrusions including dikes, randomly shaped bodies, explosion breccias, and peperites. They belong to the tholeiitic series and are similar to Siberian traps in petrography and trace-element compositions, with high LREE and LILE and prominent Nb negative anomalies. The island arc affinity is due to continental crust contamination of mantle magma and its long evolution in chambers at different depths. K-Ar biotite age (252+/-5 Ma) of magmatism indicates that it was coeval to the main stage of trap magmatism in the Siberian craton at the Permian-Triassic boundary. The terrane including the New Siberian Islands occurred on the periphery of the Siberian trap province where magmatism acted in rifting environment. Magma intruded into semiliquid wet sediments at shallow depths shortly after their deposition. Therefore, the exposed Paleozoic section in Belkovsky Island may include Permian or possibly Lower Triassic sediments of younger ages than it was believed earlier.