bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Carbon losses by tillage under semi-arid Mediterranean rainfed agriculture (SW Spain)
Authors: López-Garrido R. , Díaz-Espejo A. , Madejón E. , Murillo J.M. , Moreno F. , Moreno F.
Published: November 2013

Conservation tillage has been promoted as a solution to counteract constraints caused by intensive agriculture. In this work the effects of two conservation tillage systems, reduced tillage (RT) and no-tillage (NT) were compared to the traditional tillage (TT) in a long- (15 years, RT) and short-term experiment (3 years, NT). Both experiments were carried out under semi-arid, rainfed agriculture of Mediterranean SW Spain. Tillage caused a sharp increase in soil CO2 emissions immediately after tillage implementation, with a maximum value of 6.24 g CO2/square m/h under long-term TT treatment. Along the year, losses of carbon through CO2 emission were higher (905 and 801 g C/square m/year for the long- and shortterm TT treatments respectively), than those estimated for conservation systems (764 and 718 g C/square m/year for RT and NT respectively). Conservation tillage systems accumulated more soil organic carbon (SOC) in surface than the corresponding TT treatments (1.24 and 1.17 times greater for RT and NT, respectively, at 0-10 cm depth). Despite SOC accumulation would be moderate other variables related to soil quality, such as dehydrogenase activity, can be consistently increased in soil surface in conservation tillage, as the stratification ratio values indicated. Crop yields in conservation tillage were similar to or even greater than those obtained in TT. The agricultural (soil quality) and environmental (less CO2 emission to the atmosphere) benefits derived from conservation tillage make this system recommendable for semi-arid Mediterranean rainfed agriculture.
Spinless Particles Subject to Unequal Scalar-Vector Nuclear Woods– Saxon Potentials in Arbitrary Dimensions
Authors: Hamzavi Majid , Ikhdair Sameer M. , Rajabi Ali Akbar
Published: November 2013

We present analytical bound state solutions of the spin-zero particles in the Klein-Gordon (KG) equation in presence of an unequal mixture of scalar and vector Woods-Saxon potentials within the framework of the approximation scheme to the centrifugal potential term for any arbitrary l-state. The approximate energy eigenvalues and unnormalized wave functions are obtained in closed forms using a parametric Nikiforov-Uvarov (NU) method. Our numerical energy eigenvalues demonstrate the existence of inter-dimensional degeneracy amongst energy states of the KG-Woods-Saxon problem. The dependence of the energy levels on the dimension D is numerically discussed for spatial dimensions D = 2 - 6.
Sustainability and Common-Pool Resources Alternatives to Tragedy
Authors: Carpenter Stanley R. ,   Society for Philosophy and Technology
Published: November 2013

The paradox that individually rational actions collectively can lead to irrational outcomes is exemplified in human appropriation of a class of goods known as "common-pool resources" ("CPR"): natural or humanly created resource systems which are large enough to make it costly to exclude potential beneficiaries. Appropriations of common-pool resources for private use tend toward abusive practices that lead to the loss of the resource in question: the tragedy of the commons. Prescriptions for escape from tragedy have involved two institutions, each applied largely in isolation from the other: private markets (the "hidden hand") and government coercion (Leviathan). Yet examples exist of local institutions that have utilized mixtures of public and private practices and have survived for hundreds of years.Two problems further exacerbate efforts to avoid the tragic nature of common- pool resource use. One, given the current level of knowledge, the role of the resource is not recognized for what it is. It is, thus, in a fundamental, epistemological sense invisible. Two, if the resource is recognized, it may not be considered scarce, thus placing it outside the scrutiny of economic theory. Both types of error are addressed by the emerging field of ecological economics.This paper discusses common pool resources, locates the ambiguities that make their identification difficult, and argues that avoidance of a CPR loss is inadequately addressed by sharply separated market and state institutions. When the resource is recognized for what it is, a common-pool good, which is subject to overexploitation, it may be possible to identify creative combinations of public and private institutions that can combine to save that resource. Disparate examples of self-organized enterprises, public/private utilities, and "green" taxes, to name a few, provide empirical content for developing theories of self-organized collective action.
The Place of Engineering and the Engineering of Place
Authors: Moriarty Gene ,   Philosophy Documentation Center
Published: November 2013

The role or place of engineering is to engineer place, a location of engaging life events. That is the case for focal engineering, which is distinguished from two other kinds of engineering: traditional engineering and modernist engineering. These three kinds of engineering are discussed in terms of ways of knowing appropriate to them: know-how for traditionalist engineering, knowhow/know- what for modernist engineering, and know-how/know- what/know-why for focalengineering. Various notions of place and space are relevant to the three kinds of engineering discussed. In traditional engineering, place and space are backgrounded. In modernist engineering, space begins to dominate, causing a disharmony in the place/space constellation. In focal engineering, place is stressed in order to re-harmonize the place/space constellation.
On the Social Organization of Space and the Design of Electronic Landscapes.
Authors: Crabtree Andy , Hughes John A. , O’Brien Jon , Rodden Tom ,   Philosophy Documentation Center
Published: November 2013

This paper reports on-going work in the eSCAPE Project (Esprit Long Term Research Project 25377) directed to the research and development of electronic landscapes for public use. Our concern here is to elucidate a sociologically informed approach towards the design of electronic landscapes or virtual worlds. We suggest — and demonstrate through ethnographic studies of virtual technologies at a multimedia art museum and information technology trade show — that members sense of space is produced through social practices tied to the accomplishment of activities occurring within the locations their actions are situated. Space, in other words, is socially constructed and shaped through members’ practices for accomplishing situated activities. We explicate, by practical examples, an approach to discovering social practices in and through which a sense of space is constructed and outline how such understandings may be used to formulate requirements for the design of electronic landscapes. In explicating our ethnographically informed approach, we outline how future technologies may bedeveloped through the situated evaluation of experimental prototypes in public use.
From Challenger to Columbia
Authors: Murata Junichi ,   Philosophy Documentation Center
Published: November 2013

One of the most important tasks of engineering ethics is to give engineers the tools required to act ethically to prevent possible disastrous accidents which could result from engineers’ decisions and actions. The space shuttle Challenger disaster is referred to as a typical case in almost every textbook. This case is seen as one from which engineers can learn important lessons, as it shows impressively how engineers should act as professionals, to prevent accidents. The Columbia disaster came seventeen years later in 2003. According to the report of the Columbia accident investigation board, the main cause of the accident was not individual actions which violated certain safety rules but rather was to be found in the history and culture of NASA. A culture is seen as one which desensitizedmanagers and engineers to potential hazards as they dealt with problems of uncertainty. This view of the disaster is based on Dian Vaughan’s analysis of the Challenger disaster, where inherent organizational factors and culture within NASA had been highlighted as contributing to the disaster. Based on the insightful analysis of the Columbia report and the work of Diane Vaughan, we search for an alternative view of engineering ethics. We focus on the inherent uncertainty of engineers’ work with respect to hazard precaution. We discuss claims that the concept of professional responsibility, which plays a central role in orthodox engineering ethics, is too narrow and that we need a broader and more fundamental concept of responsibility. Responsibility which should be attributed to every person related to an organization and therefore given the range of responsible persons, governments, managers, engineers, etc. might be called “civic virtue”. Only on the basis of this broad concept of responsibility of civic virtue, we can find a possible way to prevent disasters and reduce the hazards that seem to be inseparable part of the use of complex technological systems.
Safe Design
Authors: Hansson Sven Ove ,   Philosophy Documentation Center
Published: November 2013

Safety is an essential ethical requirement in engineering design. Strategies for safe design are used not only to reduce estimated probabilities of injuries but also to cope with hazards and eventualities that cannot be assigned meaningful probabilities. The notion of safe design has important ethical dimensions, such as that of determining the responsibility that a designer has for future uses (and misuses) of the designed object.
Function and Probability
Authors: Longy Francoise ,   Philosophy Documentation Center
Published: November 2013

The existence of dysfunctions precludes the possibility of identifying the function to do F with the capacity to do F. Nevertheless, we continuously infer capacities from functions. For this and other reasons stated in the first part of this article, I propose a new theory of functions (of the etiological sort), applying to organisms as well as to artefacts, in which to have some determinate probability P to do F (i.e. a probabilistic capacity to do F) is a necessary condition for having the function to do F. The main objective of this paper is to justify the legitimacy of this condition when considering artefacts. I begin by distinguishing “perspectival probabilities”, which reflect a pragmatic interest or an arbitrary state of knowledge, from “objective probabilities”, which depend on some objective feature of the envisageditems. I show that objective probabilities are not necessarily based on physical constitution. I then explain why we should distinguish between considering an object as a physical body and considering it as an artefact, and why the probability of dysfunction to be taken into account is one relative to the object as member of an artefact category. After clarifying how an artefact category can be defined if it is not defined in physical terms, I establish the objectivity of the probability of dysfunction under consideration by showing how it is causally determined by objective factors regulating the production of items of a definite artefact type. Ifocus on the case of industrially produced artefacts where the objective factors determining the probability of dysfunction can be best seen.
The (Alleged) Inherent Normativity of Technological Explanations
Authors: De Ridder Jeroen ,   Philosophy Documentation Center
Published: November 2013

Technical artifacts have the capacity to fulfill their function in virtue of their physicochemical make-up. An explanation that purports to explicate this relation between artifact function and structure can be called a technological explanation. It might be argued, and Peter Kroes has in fact done so, that there issomething peculiar about technological explanations in that they are intrinsically normative in some sense. Since the notion of artifact function is a normative one (if an artifact has a proper function, it ought to behave in specific ways) an explanation of an artifact’s function must inherit this normativity.In this paper I will resist this conclusion by outlining and defending a ‘buck-passing account’ of the normativity of technological explanations. I will first argue that it is important to distinguish properly between (1) a theory of function ascriptions and (2) an explanation of how a function is realized. The task of the former is to spell out the conditions under which one is justified in ascribing a function to an artifact; the latter should show how the physicochemical make-up of an artifact enables it to fulfill its function. Second, I wish to maintain that a good theory of function ascriptions should account for the normativity of these ascriptions. Provided such a function theory can be formulated — as I think it can — a technological explanation may pass the normativity buck to it. Third, to flesh out these abstract claims, I show how a particular function theory — to wit, the ICE theory by Pieter Vermaas and Wybo Houkes — can be dovetailed smoothly with my own thoughts on technological explanation.
The Balance Between Expertise and Authority in Citizen Engagement About New Biotechnology
Authors: Castle David ,   Philosophy Documentation Center
Published: November 2013

Academic-researcher-led public engagement and consultation on new biotechnology provides information about new biotechnology to the public, and solicits their attitudes, beliefs and understanding about the technology. A burden associated with the democratic ideals of transparency and accountability encourages researchers to provide accurate information to the public. Less recognized is their role as actual, or perceived, authorities to provide new knowledge and to make policy or regulatory decisions. This paper focuses on the first of these two – the conflation between expertise on the subject of the engagement and the authority to represent that subject in an engagement process. While expertise, or at least accuracy in portraying expert knowledge, is consistent with transparency and accountability, it is argued here that authority in the representation of expert knowledge may be inconsistent with the intent of public engagement and consultation.
Spirit of Place and Sense of Place in Virtual Realities
Authors: Relph Edward ,   Philosophy Documentation Center
Published: November 2013

About forty years ago, when print media were still in their ascendancy, Marshall McLuhan argued that all media are extensions of the senses and that the rational view of the world associated with print is being replaced by a world-view associated with electronic media that stresses feelings and emotions (McLuhan, 1964). In 2003 researchers from the School of Information Management Sciences at Berkeley estimated that five exabytes (five billion gigabytes) of information had been generated in the previous year, equivalent to 37,000 times the holdings of the Library of Congress and that 92.00% of this was on magnetic media, mostly hard disks, while only 0.01% was in print (http://www.sims.berkeley.edu, 2003). This SIMS estimate could be wrong by several orders of magnitude and it would still be clear that the era of the printed word is waning rapidly. We are well-advised to pay attention to McLuhan’s suggestionthat electronic media change how we think and how we feel.Sense of place and virtual reality are both inextricably caught up in this cultural-technological upheaval. I have written about the concept of ‘place’ from a phenomenological perspective for many years and have achieved a reasonable understanding of its subtleties, but I have a limited knowledge of digital virtual reality and its technical attributes. Nevertheless, it seems to me that a mutual interaction is at work between what might be called ‘real’ place and virtual places, that digital virtual reality shares characteristics with other electronic media and that our experiences of real places are being changed those same media. This essay explores these issues particularlyfrom the perspective of the distinction between spirit of place and sense of place.
Reasoning With Safety Factor Rules
Authors: Clausen Jonas , Cantwell John ,   Philosophy Documentation Center
Published: November 2013

Safety factor rules are used for drawing putatively reasonable conclusions from incomplete datasets. The paper attempts to provide answers to four questions: “How are safety factors used?”, “When are safety factors used?”, “Why are safety used?” and “How do safety factor rules relate to decision theory?”. The authors conclude that safety factor rules should be regarded as decision methods rather than as criteria of rightness and that they can be used in both practical and theoretical reasoning. Simplicity of application and inability or unwillingness to defer judgment appear to be important factors in explaining why the rules are used.
Postphenomenology and Pragmatism
Authors: Hickman Larry A. ,   Philosophy Documentation Center
Published: November 2013

In this commentary on Evan Selinger’s book Postphenomenology: A Critical Companion to Ihde, I begin with Carl Mitcham’s claim that with respect to Don Ihde’s “postphenomenology” there are “challenges both to and from pragmatism.” I discuss four points on which postphenomenology and pragmatism seem to be in agreement, and then two points on which I believe pragmatism offers a program that socially thicker.
Normative Judgment and Technoscience
Authors: Selinger Evan ,   Philosophy Documentation Center
Published: November 2013

This essay interrogates the relation between descriptive and prescriptive elements in Don Ihde’s philosophy of technology. I argue that while Ihde’s philosophy contributes more to normative inquiry than is often acknowledged, it may be insufficient for addressing core issues concerning cosmopolitanism, ecological catastrophe, and animal rights.
Reading Feynman Into Nanotechnology
Authors: Toumey Christopher P. ,   Philosophy Documentation Center
Published: November 2013

As histories of nanotechnology are created, one question arises repeatedly: how influential was Richard Feynman’s 1959 talk, “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom”? It is often said by knowledgeable people that this talk was the origin of nanotech. It preceded events like the invention of the scanning tunneling microscope, but did it inspire scientists to do things they would not have done otherwise? Did Feynman’s paper directly influence important scientific developments in nanotechnology? Or is his paper being retroactively read into the history of nanotechnology? To explore those questions, I trace the history of “Plenty of Room,” including its publication and republication, its record of citations in scientific literature, and the comments of eight luminaries of nanotechnology. This biography of a text and its life among other texts enables us to articulate Feynman’s paper with the history of nanotechnology in new ways as it explores how Feynman’s paper is read.
Three Species of Technological Dependency
Authors: Gerrie Jim ,   Philosophy Documentation Center
Published: November 2013

One can find from a survey of the work of three prominent philosophers of technology in the late twentieth century, a very different kind of metaphor for describing the powerful, but not fully determinative influence that technology has on our lives. These three theories each centre on a concept I call "technological dependency." The most prominent exponents of technological dependency are Marshall McLuhan, Herbert Marcuse and Jacques Ellul. Although there are similarities between their descriptions of the phenomenon of dependency, their discussions of this phenomenon are focused around very different sub-metaphors for describing the nature of the dependency. McLuhan portrays our relationship with technology as capable of becoming a form of addiction or habit, Marcuse portrays it as a form of bribery, and Jacques Ellul portrays it as a form of religious cultism.
Structure and Coherence of Two-Model-Descriptions of Technical Artefacts
Authors: Krohs Ulrich ,   Philosophy Documentation Center
Published: November 2013

A technical artefact is often described in two ways: by means of a physicalistic model of its structure and dynamics, and by a functional account of the contributions of the components of the artefact to its capacities. These models do not compete, as different models of the same phenomenon in physics usually do; they supplement each other and cohere. Coherence is shown to be the result of a mapping of role-contributions on physicalistic relations that is brought about by the concept of function. It results a sandwich-like structure of the two models, which can be reconstructed as a two-sorted theory element.
The Public Thing
Authors: Coeckelbergh Mark ,   Philosophy Documentation Center
Published: November 2013

Is there a politics of artifacts, and if so, what does it mean? Defining the issue as a problem about the relation between the human and the non-human, I argue that our common philosophical concepts bar us from an adequate understanding of this problem. Using the work of Hannah Arendt and Bruno Latour, I explore an escape route that involves a radical redefinition of the social. But the cost of this solution is high: we would lose the metaphysical foundation for our belief in the absolute value and dignity of humans. We should pay that prize only if we gain a better understanding of what we are doing and what we want to do together – with things.
Technological Paradigm in Ancient Taoism
Authors: Teschner George , Tomasi Alessandro ,   Philosophy Documentation Center
Published: November 2013

Heidegger, Winner, and Ellul's critiques of Western technology focus on a notion of efficiency that subordinates to itself all non-instrumental values. An alternative conception of efficiency is proposed based on the Taoist theory of non-action (wu-wei). The ancient Taoist text, The Chuang Tzu, reveals a type of efficiency that is effective, resourceful, and entrepreneurial. It is a form of action which has an intimate rather than alienated relation to technology, and which is sensitive to the ethical and aesthetic values that Heidegger and Ellul claim are excluded from the Western conception of efficiency.
Material Agency
Authors: Kirchhoff Michael David ,   Philosophy Documentation Center
Published: November 2013

This article attempts to articulate a theoretical framework, the target of which is to systematically unearth the conditions validating the ascription of agency to material culture. A wide range of studies, located within the interdisciplinary field known as material culture studies, testify to and aim at (re)uniting the materials of material culture with the notion of agency. In this article the argument is advanced that material entities have agency only if two necessary conditions are met: an ontological condition (agency is an asymmetrical and relational category) and an epistemological condition (material entities mediate and transform human understanding). Hopefully, this way of approaching matters will help to establish a constructive framework for future debates.
Ten Paradoxes of Technology
Authors: Feenberg Andrew ,   Philosophy Documentation Center
Published: November 2013

Though we may be competent at using many technologies, most of what we think we know about technology in general is false. Our error stems from the everyday conception of things as separate from each other and from us. In reality technologies belong to an interconnected network the nodes of which cannot exist independently qua technologies. What is more we tend to see technologies as quasi-natural objects, but they are just as much social as natural, just as much determined by the meanings we give them as by the causal laws that rule over their powers. The errors of common sense have political consequences in domains such as, development, medicine and environmental policy. In this paper I summarize many of the conclusions philosophy of technology has reached reflecting on the reality of our technological world. These conclusions appear as paradoxes judged from our everyday perspective.This paper presents a philosophy of technology. It draws on what we have learnt in the last 30 years as we abandoned old Heideggerian and positivist notions and faced the real world of technology. It turns out that most of our common sense ideas about technology are wrong. This is why I have put my ten propositions in the form of paradoxes, although I use the word loosely here to refer to the counter-intuitive nature of much of what we know about technology.
Living in a Nanotech Home
Authors: Manuel de Cózar-Escalante José ,   Philosophy Documentation Center
Published: November 2013

While applying general ethical principles and reasoning to the dilemmas presented by the development of nanotechnology is often useful and always legitimate, we also need to find a way to bridge the gap between general principles and the specific issues that arise from the development of individual nanotechnologies. Drawing inspiration from pragmatist thinking, a useful strategy is to focus on the links between the epistemological, political and social representations of a particular case. Using the example of a nanotechnological house, this paper analyzes the problematic connections between scientific knowledge, technical expertise, decision-making and public engagement in nanotechnology representational networks.
Three Schools of Thought on Freedom in Liberal, Technological Societies
Authors: Waelbers Katinka , Briggle Adam ,   Philosophy Documentation Center
Published: November 2013

Are citizens of contemporary technological society authors of their own lives? With Alasdair MacIntyre (contemporary Aristotelianism), Bruno Latour (Science and Technology Studies) and Albert Borgmann (Philosophy of Technology), we discuss the shortcomings of traditional liberalism in terms of its ability to answer this question. MacIntyre argues that biological vulnerabilities and social interdependencies establish meaningful parameters within which reason and willing emerge. But MacIntyre ignores technologies as a third parameter. Latour defines humans as nodes in a socio-technical network, in which technologies are actors on par with humans. However, Latour adopts a purely external perspective, ignoring human intentions, desires, and reasons. Borgmann argues that although freedom of choice is severely restricted, sometimes one can still resist the rule of technology. But Borgmann denies the pluralism of modern societies. Although all three schools have their shortcomings, combined, they provide us with a valuable palette of insights on human agency in a technological culture.
I-Object
Authors: Van Den Berg Bibi ,   Philosophy Documentation Center
Published: November 2013

In this article, I will investigate the ways in which Ambient Intelligence, the technological paradigm of the near future proposed by the European Union and the electronics multinational Philips, will affect the ways in which individuals construct and express their identities. The Ambient Intelligence vision predicts a world in which technologies will deliver personalized services in a proactive (rather than a responsive or interactive) fashion. I argue that this brings about a change in the way we interact with these technologies, which in turn has an effect on the way we construct and express identities in relation to such technologies. In a world of Ambient Intelligence, I will argue in this article, technological artifacts may come to function as ‘reference collectivities’, comparable to human reference groups. Due to their proactivity, their level of autonomy and self-reliance and our personalized interactions with them, these technologies will come to function as ‘others’, rather than as ‘quasi-others’.
Virtual Communities
Authors: Ward Andrew ,   Philosophy Documentation Center
Published: November 2013

The Internet, as it exists today, is an outgrowth of the late 1960’s Advanced Research Projects Agency Network. During the 1980’s, the National Science Foundation established a high-speed, high-capacity network called NSFnet connecting many universities and government agencies. Finally, with the creation of the World Wide Web and the development and diffusion of inexpensive, reliable and easy to use public Internet access, electronic information technologies connect an increasingly large portion of the population. As a result, the communities with which we are all familiar, communities based on geographic proximity, have changed. These sorts of changes raise many interesting but difficult questions. This paper focuses on two of those questions. First, what does the increasing use of and reliance on electronically mediated communications portend for our understanding of human communities, and second, what sorts of socio-political concepts and relationships best characterize the new “virtual community”?
Astronomy and Experimentation
Authors: Sandell Michelle ,   Philosophy Documentation Center
Published: November 2013

In this paper I contest Ian Hacking’s claim that astronomers do not experiment. Riding on this thesis is a re-evaluation of his view that astronomers are less justified than other natural scientists in believing in the existence of the objects they study, and that astronomers are not proper natural scientists at all. The defense of my position depends upon carefully examining what, exactly, is being manipulated in an experiment, and the role of experimental effects for Hacking’s experimental realism. I argue that Hacking’s experimental realism is not adequately defended, and even if we accept it in good grace, the case can be still made that astronomers experiment by Hacking’s account.
Incommensurability and Rationality in Engineering Design
Authors: van Eck Dingmar ,   Philosophy Documentation Center
Published: November 2013

In engineering design research different models of functional decomposition are advanced side-by-side. In this paper I explain and validate this co-existence of models in terms of the Kuhnian thesis of methodological incommensurability. I advance this analysis in terms of the thesis’ construal of (non-algorithmic) theory choice in terms of values, expanding this notion to the engineering domain. I further argue that the (by some) implicated threat of the thesis to rational theory choice has no force in the functional decomposition case: co-existence of different models of functional decomposition is rational from an instrumental point of view. My explanation covers cases in which different models are advanced as means for the same objective. Such cases cannot be explicated with the explanatory construct of variety in objectives, as advanced in other analyses of co-existing conceptualizations in engineering.
Knowing What to Wish For
Authors: Vallor Shannon ,   Philosophy Documentation Center
Published: November 2013

Through an analysis of the appeals to human dignity used by bioconservatives to criticize transhumanist proposals for aggressive development of human enhancement technologies, I identify an implicit tension within such appeals that renders them internally incoherent and ultimately unpersuasive. However, I point the way to a more compelling objection to radical human enhancement available to bioconservatives, a version of the argument from hubris that employs an Aristotelian account of prudential virtue in order to challenge the normative content of the liberal transhumanist vision. The vulnerability of the transhumanist project to this argument is underscored by Ortega y Gasset’s critique of technological mass culture, in which he suggests that humans may increasingly lack the prudential virtues needed to identify and authentically choose those ends worthy of technological pursuit.
Dissection and Simulation
Authors: Friesen Norm ,   Philosophy Documentation Center
Published: November 2013

The increasing use of online simulations as replacements for animal dissection in the classroom or lab raises important questions about the nature of simulation itself and its relationship to embodied educational experience. This paper addresses these questions first by presenting a comparative hermeneutic-phenomenological investigation of online and offline dissection. It then interprets the results of this study in terms of Borgmann’s (1992) notion of the intentional “transparency” and “pliability” of simulated hyperreality. It makes the case that it is precisely encumbrance and disruption—elements that are by definition excluded from simulations and interfaces—which give dissection its educational value.
Response to Norm Friesen
Authors: Borgmann Albert ,   Philosophy Documentation Center
Published: November 2013

Friesen has presented an articulate and detailed account of the injuries of virtualized education and a convincing brief for the value of education that is face-to-face and engaged with tangible reality.
Dissection and Simulation
Authors: Ihde Don ,   Philosophy Documentation Center
Published: November 2013

In the lead article dissection is juxtaposed to simulation, but the problem is the example set on both sides is antiquated. I argue that a dynamic set of imaging technologies uses as in science documentaries is far superior to either the the 18th-19th century notions of biological education illustrated is what is needed.
Reproductive Autonomy and Reproductive Technology
Authors: Burrow Sylvia ,   Philosophy Documentation Center
Published: November 2013

The emergence of new forms of reproductive technology raise an increasingly complex array of social and ethical issues. Nevertheless, this paper focuses on commonplace reproductive technologies used during labor and birth such as ultrasound, fetal monitoring, episiotomy, epidurals, labor induction, amniotomy, and cesarean section. This paper maintains that social pressures increase women’s perceived need to such reproductive technologies and thus undermine women’s capacity to choose an elective cesarean or avoid an emergency cesarean. Routine, normalized use of technology interferes with the possibility of choosing use of technology where best suited through misdirecting laboring women to use technological resources whenever possible. This normalized use of technology decreases risk tolerance and increases dependence on technology for reassurance, which bears significant implications for self-trust and self-confidence. My account encourages women’s cultivation of autonomy as a capacity interconnected with our own attitudes and those of other persons; and as a function of cultivating trust and confidence in one’s body.
Hooked Up
Authors: Cook Tanya N. ,   Philosophy Documentation Center
Published: November 2013

Near ubiquitous use of electronic fetal monitoring (EFM) during low-risk childbirth constrains both maternal agency and maternal autonomy. An analysis of interdisciplinary literature about EFM reveals that its use cannot be understood apart from broader norms and values that have significant implications for the agency and autonomy of laboring women. Overreliance on EFM use for low-risk women threatens their autonomy in several ways: by privileging the status of the fetal patient, by delegitimizing women’s embodied experience of childbirth, and by constructing EFM data as objective science despite evidence to the contrary. In birth situations defined as high-risk, however, EFM may lead to greater maternal agency by enabling women to choose vaginal over cesarean birth. Viewing doctor-patient interactions as a co-construction in the context of an understanding that sees EFM as a social as well as technological construction may improve autonomy in childbirth.
Análise morfométrica em neotectônica: o exemplo do Planalto de Campos do Jordão, SP
Authors: Hiruma Silvio Takashi , Riccomini Claudio
Published: November 2013

Mapas morfométricos e modelos digitais de terreno foram gerados utilizando-se técnicas de geoprocessamento com o intuito de subsidiar a análise neotectônica do Planalto de Campos do Jordão. Modelos digitais de terreno (MDT) permitiram uma visão global do relevo, realçando os diferentes níveis topográficos e as principais feições morfológicas, além de constituírem a base para a obtenção de parâmetros morfométricos. Mapas de sombreamento de relevo e de orientação de vertentes auxiliaram na identificação delineamentos morfoestruturais, em complemento à análise de sensores remotos. A análise de lineamentos morfoestruturais permitiu a identificação das seguintes direções principais: NE-SW/ENE-WSW, coerentes com a estruturação regional pré-cambriana, e N-S/NW-SE que refletem uma estruturação mais recente. Tais direções correspondem a falhas de reativação com componentes normais e transcorrentes relacionadas a diferentes regimes de esforços neotectônicos. Os mapas morfométricos, em conjunto com a análise estrutural, indicam um forte controle tectônico na organização da rede de drenagem e na compartimentação do planalto. A distribuição espacial da densidade de drenagem, rugosidade de relevo, gradientes hidráulicos e superficies de base permite a subdivisão do planalto em blocos menores, delimitados pelos principais lineamentos morfoestruturais. As técnicas mostraram-se adequadas para a identificação preliminar de áreas anômalas indicativas de controle neotectônico e podem ser adotadas em áreas onde dados geológicos e geomorfológicos básicos são escassos.
SCADA Optimization: Pump Smart, Save More
Authors: Kuzman Paul , Gallagher Carrie Meek
Published: November 2013

To reduce the effect of rising electricity costs, a New York water authority implemented a pump optimization program to take advantage of an off‐peak energy rate structure. The new approach is paying big dividends.
La democracia como política pública: oportunidades para el fortalecimiento democrático
Authors: Monsiváis Carrillo Alejandro
Published: November 2013

This paper will argue that democracy should be treated as an object of policy studies. Against some opposing theoretical views stemming from political theory, I will sustain that the public policies which are relevant for democracy are those pertaining to effective political inclusion. This requires casting light on the institutional design of political regimes, on the conditions that promote democratic values, electoral competition and political representation, and on the models of participatory governance in public policy. This paper will also discuss some factors related to the processes of institutional change that affect policies related to democracy. This paper aims to stimulate a more dynamic dialogue between political theory, comparative politics and policy studies.
Hacia la multiplicidad del espacio en la historia. Relaciones entre el cambio social y los cambios en la disciplina en las últimas cuatro décadas
Authors: Sánchez Calderón Fabio Vladimir
Published: November 2013

Historiography, in the last four decades, has changed the way space is included in history as a category for analysis. Multiple scales, connections and space-temporal dynamics have emerged in the discipline that has led to questioning the Nation-state as the dominant spatiality of society. Based on the notion of regime of historicity, this article states that this change in the discipline is related to a turn in society which tends to privilege present over future in the conception and experience of time, which is, in turn, related to a critique of progress as the driving concept of society.
Empleabilidad, educación y equidad social
Authors: Formichella María Marta , London Silvia
Published: November 2013

This paper analyzes the link between the concepts of employability, education, and social equality. A large portion of society has limitations when entering or remaining in the job market. This difficulty in being “employable”, understood as the “ability to obtain or keep a job”, stands out in groups of individuals which have greater economic disadvantages. These individuals are caught in an environment that hinders studying and acquiring employability competences. This perpetuates and deepens social inequality in time.
Indigentes urbanos: entre la estigmatización y la exclusión social en la ciudad de Buenos Aires
Authors: Groisman Fernando , Sconfienza María Eugenia
Published: November 2013

The paper characterizes the social exclusion that affects individuals suffering extreme poverty in Buenos Aires. The article consists of two sections. First, it summarizes some relevant aspects of the literature on social exclusion and the functioning of the labor market in the recent past in Argentina. Second, it presents the results of the fieldwork completed by the authors. The research was based on a survey of 190 adult males living in homeless shelters in the City of Buenos Aires. The goal of the investigation was to record their perceptions regarding labor opportunities and to identify the factors that might influence their inclusion into/exclusion from economic activities, including the role of educational credentials. We found that the vast majority of respondents exhibited work trajectories characterized by alternating unemployment, unstable jobs, and inactivity. That pattern seems to be insensitive to economic cycles.
Continuidades y rupturas en los discursos de la guerra de Afganistán: intelectuales, políticos y soldados
Authors: Leyton Tomás
Published: November 2013

This work seeks to establish continuities and ruptures between the discourses related to the war in Afghanistan by intellectuals, politicians, and soldiers. Soldiers were questioned through the Afghan War Diary filtered by Wikileaks, and the conceptual construction of the discourse of politicians was based on the National Security Strategy and other relevant documents. One of the most important findings is the naming of the enemy. While soldiers use the word Taliban, politicians use terrorist, and intellectuals use the word “insurgents”, showing heterogeneity and little discursive penetration among actors.
Three-dimensional electron crystallography of protein microcrystals
Authors: Shi Dan , Nannenga Brent L , Iadanza Matthew G , Gonen Tamir
Published: November 2013

We demonstrate that it is feasible to determine high-resolution protein structures by electron crystallography of three-dimensional crystals in an electron cryo-microscope (CryoEM). Lysozyme microcrystals were frozen on an electron microscopy grid, and electron diffraction data collected to 1.7 Å resolution. We developed a data collection protocol to collect a full-tilt series in electron diffraction to atomic resolution. A single tilt series contains up to 90 individual diffraction patterns collected from a single crystal with tilt angle increment of 0.1–1° and a total accumulated electron dose less than 10 electrons per angstrom squared. We indexed the data from three crystals and used them for structure determination of lysozyme by molecular replacement followed by crystallographic refinement to 2.9 Å resolution. This proof of principle paves the way for the implementation of a new technique, which we name ‘MicroED’, that may have wide applicability in structural biology.
Tapered whiskers are required for active tactile sensation
Authors: Hires Samuel Andrew , Pammer Lorenz , Svoboda Karel , Golomb David
Published: November 2013

Many mammals forage and burrow in dark constrained spaces. Touch through facial whiskers is important during these activities, but the close quarters makes whisker deployment challenging. The diverse shapes of facial whiskers reflect distinct ecological niches. Rodent whiskers are conical, often with a remarkably linear taper. Here we use theoretical and experimental methods to analyze interactions of mouse whiskers with objects. When pushed into objects, conical whiskers suddenly slip at a critical angle. In contrast, cylindrical whiskers do not slip for biologically plausible movements. Conical whiskers sweep across objects and textures in characteristic sequences of brief sticks and slips, which provide information about the tactile world. In contrast, cylindrical whiskers stick and remain stuck, even when sweeping across fine textures. Thus the conical whisker structure is adaptive for sensor mobility in constrained environments and in feature extraction during active haptic exploration of objects and surfaces.
The haves and the have nots
Authors: Marder Eve
Published: November 2013

As the equipment needed to perform state-of-the-art research in many areas of biology becomes ever more expensive, Eve Marder worries that researchers in less wealthy institutions might be left behind.
Distribution, transport, and production of volatile halocarbons in the upper waters of the ice‐covered high Arctic Ocean
Authors: Karlsson A. , Theorin M. , Abrahamsson K.
Published: November 2013

Volatile halogenated compounds (CHBr3, CH2Br2, CHBr2Cl, and CH2ClI) were measured in the water column and in sea ice brine across the Arctic Ocean, from Barrow, Alaska, to Svalbard, during the Beringia 2005 expedition (August–September) with RV/IB Oden. High concentrations of brominated compounds (up to 42 pmol kg−1 of bromoform) were found under multiyear ice in the surface waters over the Makarov Basin and the Lomonosov Ridge, near the North Pole. Even higher concentrations (bromoform up to 160 pmol kg−1) were found in sea ice brine. We propose that the high load of riverine dissolved organic matter that is transported in the Transpolar Drift is a main factor responsible for the high concentration of brominated volatile compounds found in sea ice brine and upper waters and that cycles of freezing and thawing during the transport enhance the transfer of halocarbons to the seawater. The iodinated compound (CH2ClI) showed a completely different distribution with highest concentrations in water of Pacific origin in the mixed layer and upper halocline of the northern Canada Basin and over the Alpha Ridge. In the southern Canada Basin, low concentrations of halocarbons were found in upper waters. Higher concentrations in water of Pacific origin, especially on the continental shelf, indicate production in the shelf regions, likely in the Chukchi Sea and the East Siberian Sea.
Rapid modification of cloud‐nucleating ability of aerosols by biogenic emissions
Authors: Ma Yan , Brooks Sarah D. , Vidaurre German , Khalizov Alexei F. , Wang Lin , Zhang Renyi
Published: November 2013

Although secondary organic aerosol formation is well studied, the extent to which oxidation products of biogenic volatile organic compounds condense onto primary aerosols and modify their cloud‐nucleating properties remains highly uncertain. Here we show that water‐soluble organic acids produced from the reaction between α‐pinene and ozone rapidly accumulate onto preexisting particles forming coatings of organic materials that reach a mass fraction of 80–90% within a time period of 30 to 60 min for the reactant conditions of 7 to 37 ppbv α‐pinene and 20 ppbv ozone. Cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) measurements reveal that the initially hydrophobic aerosols are rapidly converted to efficient CCN at a supersaturation of 0.22%. Our results imply that changes in the activation potential of a significant fraction of the atmospheric aerosol population are controlled by the formation and composition of coatings formed during the aging process, rather than by the original particle size or composition.