The Missing Link. : An Inquiry into Michel Foucault’s Distinction from “Penal Evolution” Literature between The Punitive Society and Discipline and Punish (1973-1975)

International audienceMichel Foucault presents his starting point in Discipline and Punish by positioning his work in relation to two major socio-historical milestones: a short article by Émile Durkheim, who was trying to explain “the gradual softening of punishment”, and the book Punishment and Social Structure published by Rusche and Kirchheimer during the interwar period, which laid the groundwork for an economic analysis of criminal justice systems. This positioning is made on two pages of Discipline and Punish. Thanks to the recent publication of Foucault’s The Punitive Society, we find more advanced arguments over these issues and see how, in the months prior to the completion of Discipline and Punish , Foucault moved and refined what seemed the most problematic with modern penality

A constitutive law for cross-linked actin networks by homogenization techniques

Inspired by experiments on the actin driven propulsion of micrometer sized beads we develop and study a minimal mechanical model of a two-dimensional network of stiff elastic filaments grown from the surface of a cylinder. Starting out from a discrete model of the network structure and of its microscopic mechanical behavior we derive a macroscopic constitutive law by homogenization techniques. We calculate the axisymmetric equilibrium state and study its linear stability depending on the microscopic mechanical properties. We find that thin networks are linearly stable, whereas thick networks are unstable. The critical thickness for the change in stability depends on the ratio of the microscopic elastic constants. The instability is induced by the increase in the compressive load on the inner network layers as the thickness of the network increases. The here employed homogenization approach combined with more elaborate microscopic models can serve as a basis to study the evolution of polymerizing actin networks and the mechanism of actin driven motion.Comment: 19 pages, 7 figure

Formation of H3−_3^- by radiative association of H2_2 and H−^- in the interstellar medium

We develop the theory of radiative association of an atom and a diatomic molecule within a close-coupling framework. We apply it to the formation of H$_3^-$ after the low energy collision (below 0.5 eV) of H$_2$ with H$^-$. Using recently obtained potential energy and permanent dipole moment surfaces of H$_3^-$, we calculate the lowest rovibrational levels of the H$_3^-$ electronic ground state, and the cross section for the formation of H$_3^-$ by radiative association between H$^-$ and ortho- and para-H$_2$. We discuss the possibility for the H$_3^-$ ion to be formed and observed in the cold and dense interstellar medium in an environment with a high ionization rate. Such an observation would be a probe for the presence of H$^-$ in the interstellar medium

Calibration of plant functional type parameters using the adJULES system

Land-surface models (LSMs) are crucial components of the Earth system models (ESMs) that are used to make coupled climate-carbon cycle projections for the 21st century. The Joint UK Land Environment Simulator (JULES) is the land-surface model used in the climate and weather forecast models of the UK Met Office. JULES is also extensively used offline as a land-surface impacts tool, forced with climatologies into the future. In this study, JULES is automatically differentiated with respect to JULES parameters using commercial software from FastOpt, resulting in an analytical gradient, or adjoint, of the model. Using this adjoint, the adJULES parameter estimation system has been developed to search for locally optimum parameters by calibrating against observations. This thesis describes adJULES in a data assimilation framework and demonstrates its ability to improve the model-data fit using eddy-covariance measurements of gross primary productivity (GPP) and latent heat (LE) fluxes. The adJULES system is extended to have the ability to calibrate over multiple sites simultaneously. This feature is used to define new optimised parameter values for the five plant functional types (PFTs) in JULES. The optimised PFT-specific parameters improve the performance of JULES at over 85% of the sites used in the study, at both the calibration and evaluation stages. The new improved parameters for JULES are presented along with the associated uncertainties for each parameter. The results of the calibrations are compared to structural changes and used in a cluster analysis in order to challenge the PFT definitions in JULES. This thesis concludes with simple sensitivity studies which assess how the calibration of JULES has affected the sensitivity of the model to CO2-induced climate change