Areas of triangles and Beck's theorem in planes over finite fields

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Cognitive design. Creating the sets of categories and labels that structure our shared experience

A Dissertation submitted to the Graduate School — New Brunswick Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of PhilosophyFollowing in the tradition of studies of categorization in everyday life, this dissertation focuses on the specific case of sets of categories. The concept of the "contrast set," developed by cognitive anthropologists in the 1950s, is the central focus of analysis. Canonical examples of everyday life contrast sets include alphabets, identification numbers, standard pitches, and the elements of geographical categorizations. This dissertation focuses on the design issues surrounding the deliberate, conscious construction of such sets (rather than on contrast sets which are natural or emergent). The chapters focus respectively on the creation of contrast sets; the way contrast sets are used as labels for other contrast sets; the use of rules, principles, and set topologies in this labeling process; the standardization and institutionalization of contrast sets; the way in which people justify, legitimate, and attempt to change standardized contrast sets; and the ways people learn about unfamiliar contrast sets. The dissertation uses the method of pattern analysis. It identifies and describes abstract social forms, gives numerous concrete examples of each form, and includes sixty images. The goal is to understand a recurrent type of human activity that affects and structures many everyday life experiences. The dissertation is practically oriented as well, and directly addresses the concerns of those responsible for designing contrast sets for public use

Fast moving neutrons, graphite moderators and radioactive clouds: an ANT account of the Chernobyl accident's risky network

This research seeks to understand the Chernobyl accident at the material level and this is achieved through a sustained engagement and use of Latour’s Actor-Network Theory. The primary research question asks how has the accident travelled through various worlds: impacting upon them, reorienting their structure, and at times, creating new nuclear worlds in its wake. The ambiguous nature of the question is designed to allow the research to approach the expansive topic from several angles, thus accounting for the very real material spread radioactive fallout and, crucially, the material action engendered by the agency of RBMK no4, the central actant in the network in question. The nature of this work is quasi-scientific; that is, the majority of the empirical data is the discourses of the ‘hard sciences’, the disciplines tasked with understanding and mitigating one of the worst accidents the world has ever witnessed, and safeguarding against another similar occurrence. The reassembling of RBMK no4’s network, and its travels, hence ‘renders visible’ the lessons learnt by the nuclear industry in the wake of the event of April 1986. The spectre of Chernobyl has loomed over the industry for 3 decades. This research attempts to create a pragmatic context. It is not interested in the epistemological ‘sensationalist’ representations of the accident. Instead it embraces the complex intricacies of the physics, engineering and radiological sciences — the very essence of the materiality of RBMK no4, and its risky network

Bowdoin Orient v.139, no.1-26 (2009-2010)

https://digitalcommons.bowdoin.edu/bowdoinorient-2010s/1000/thumbnail.jp

The life and work of the Revd. T.H.E.C. Espin perpetual curate of tow law with special reference to his astronomical research

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