Incorporating the Digital Commons

The concept of ‘the commons’ has been used as a framework to understand resources shared by a community rather than a private entity, and it has also inspired social movements working against the enclosure of public goods and resources. One such resource is free (libre) and open source software (FLOSS). FLOSS emerged as an alternative to proprietary software in the 1980s. However, both the products and production processes of FLOSS have become incorporated into capitalist production. For example, Red Hat, Inc. is a large publicly traded company whose business model relies entirely on free software, and IBM, Intel, Cisco, Samsung, Google are some of the largest contributors to Linux, the open-source operating system. This book explores the ways in which FLOSS has been incorporated into digital capitalism. Just as the commons have been used as a motivational frame for radical social movements, it has also served the interests of free-marketeers, corporate libertarians, and states to expand their reach by dragging the shared resources of social life onto digital platforms so they can be integrated into the global capitalist system. The book concludes by asserting the need for a critical political economic understanding of the commons that foregrounds (digital) labour, class struggle, and uneven power distribution within the digital commons as well as between FLOSS communities and their corporate sponsors

Integrative analysis of genomic data

This thesis is composed of three different projects, and aims to predict substrates which transported by transmembrane proteins, understand the effects caused by copy number alterations (CNAs) on target proteins of antineoplastic (AN) agents, and on the genes in antineoplastic resistance pathways in cancer patients. In the first project, we propose a computational method to classify membrane transporters from three organisms (Escherichia coli, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Homo sapiens) according to their transported substrates. Our method focuses on neighboring genes that show high co-expression with query gene. Then, we identified frequent gene ontology (GO) terms among these co-expressed neighbors and used a support vector machine classifier to annotate the substrate specificity of the query gene. The second project analyses CNAs and clinical data of 31 tumor types from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). We found that the genome sequences of tumor patients generally contain more recurrently deleted CNAs than recurrently amplified CNAs. We observed certain signs of apparently compensating effects of CNAs. The third project continues the idea of chemoresistance as suggested in the second one. This project utilized TCGA CNAs data from both normal and tumor tissues. We found that the genome sequences of tumor tissues contain more recurrently amplified CNAs of genes in cancer antineoplastic resistance pathways than normal tissues.Diese Arbeit besteht aus drei verschiedenen Projekten, die darauf abzielen Substrate die von Transmembranproteinen transportiert werden vorherzusagen, die Auswirkungen sog. Kopienzahlvariationen (CNAs) sowohl auf Zielproteine von Antineoplastischen Medikamenten als auch auf die zugehörigen Gene in den entsprechenden Resistenzwegen von Krebspatienten zu verstehen. Im ersten Projekt wird eine computergestützte Methode zur Klassifizierung von Transmembrantransportern dreier Organismen (Escherichia coli, Saccharomyces cerevisiae und Homo sapiens) anhand der von ihnen transportierten Substrate vorgestellt. Im zweiten Projekt wurden CNAs und klinische Daten von 31 Tumorarten die aus dem Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) stammen analysiert. Dabei stellte sich heraus, daß die genomischen Sequenzen von Tumorpatienten im allgemeinen mehr wiederkehrend deletierte CNAs aufweisen als wiederkehrend amplifizierte CNAs. Ebenfalls beobachtet wurden bestimmte Anzeichen für offensichtlich kompensatorische Effekte durch CNAs. Wie im vorgehenden Projekt wurde auch im dritten Teil der Arbeit die Idee der Chemoresistenz weiterverfolgt. Hierbei wurden CNA-Daten von normalem Gewebe, als auch von Tumorgewebe aus dem TCGA verwendet. Dabei wurde festgestellt, daß die genomischen Sequenzen von Tumorgewebe mehr wiederkehrend amplifizierte CNAs von Genen aufweisen, welche sich in Resistenzwegen von Antineoplastica befinden, als dies in normalem Gewebe der Fall ist

Art and Media: resistance tactics (1932-2016)

Tesis inédita de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Facultad de Bellas Artes, leída el 21 de junio de 2017; presidente, José Manuel Gayoso Vázquez.En los últimos años, con una intensidad creciente, los medios digitales han comenzado a ser vistos como dispositivos sociales clave: desde ser herramientas comunicacionales paradigmáticas para la organización de movimientos sociales como la llamada Primavera Árabe, Occupy Wall Street o el 15-M; hasta posicionarlas como infraestructura informacional estratégica en relación a las mediatizadas filtraciones de WikiLeaks o los hackeos de Annonymous. Al mismo tiempo, viejos relatos sobre las posibilidades propagandísticas propias del contexto del nacimiento de los medios de masas –aplicadas al condicionamiento conductual de la audiencia comienzan a resurgir como temor entre algunos usuarios de los medios digitales en relación a corporaciones como Google o Facebook –o incluso variaciones más conspiranoicas que involucran gobiernos, agencias de inteligencia, o hackers a sueldo de la red profunda–. En medio de esta polarización discursiva, pensadores de primer nivel y periodistas tecnólogos inician múltiples reflexiones sobre las posibles ‘revoluciones electrónicas’ o la ‘resistencia digital’ en torno a las potencialidades políticas de los ‘nuevos’ medios; y, sin embargo, las aportaciones del arte no son tenidas en cuenta. En 1987 nace en Florida el colectivo Critical Art Ensemble, conformado por especialistas de diseño web, vídeo, la fotografía y la performance, con el objetivo de ‘explorar las intersecciones entre el arte, la teoría crítica, la tecnología y el activismo’. Además de múltiples proyectos, para el año 1994 publicarán una teoría sobre la ‘perturbación electrónica’, que será continuada con la ‘desobediencia civil electrónica’ (1996) y la ‘resistencia digital’ en (2001). Por otro lado, en Holanda se celebrará en 1993 un festival artístico transdisciplinar en torno a las posibilidades sociales de la televisión y los computadores, que se repetirá en 1997 centrándose específicamente en la potencialidad de internet en relación al conjunto de los medios; la extensa documentación teórica allí producida –siendo paradigmático el manifiesto de los ‘medios tácticos’– está disponible online desde entonces. Estos dos breves relatos –siendo a su vez dobles– representan el punto de partida de esta investigación, o más bien, la ausencia que la motiva: aquello que hemos denominado ‘tácticas de resistencia’ –aunando la propuesta de Critical Art Ensemble y los ‘medios tácticos’– y cuya genealogía se remonta, al menos, dos décadas atrás, permaneciendo casi desapercibido en nuestra contemporaneidad inmediata a pesar de ser tema de análisis habitual. Así, la intención primera que da forma a esta investigación es trazar la genealogía de esta tipología específica de praxis artística para poder estudiar los vínculos y afectaciones mutuas históricas que haya podido haber –tanto a nivel técnico como discursivo– en relación a los medios. De este modo, el objetivo último es analizar las intersecciones que existen entre el arte y los medios para, a partir de ello, poder evaluar la importancia que esta tradición artística tiene en relación al pensamiento y las técnicas contemporáneas...In recent years, with increasing intensity, digital media have begun to be seen as key social devices: from being paradigmatic communication tools for the organization of social movements such as the Arab Spring, Occupy Wall Street or 15-M; to position them as strategic informational infrastructure in relation to the mediated leaks of WikiLeaks or the hacks of Annonymous. At the same time, old accounts of the propagandistic possibilities of the context of the birth of the mass media –applied to the behavioral conditioning of the audience– begin to reemerge as fear among some digital media users in relation to corporations like Google or Facebook –or even more conspiranoic variations involving governments, intelligence agencies, or hackers from the deep network–. In the midst of this discursive polarization, top level thinkers and technological journalists initiate multiple reflections on possible 'electronic revolutions' or 'digital resistances' around the political potentialities of 'new' media; but, however, the contributions of art are not taken into account. In 1987, the Critical Art Ensemble was created in Florida, made up of specialists in web design, video, photography and performance, with the aim of 'exploring the intersections between art, critical theory, technology and activism'. In addition to multiple projets, by 1994 they will publish a theory on 'electronic disturbance', which will be continued with 'electronic civil disobedience' (1996) and 'digital resistance' in (2001). On the other hand, in 1993 a transdisciplinary artistic festival will be held in Netherlands, focusing on the social possibilities of television and computers, which will be repeated in 1997 focusing specifically on the potential of the internet in relation to all media. The extensive theoretical documentation produced there –being paradigmatic the manifesto of 'tactical media'– has been available online ever since. These two short stories –which are themselves doubles– represent the starting point of this research, or rather, the absence that motivates it: what we have coined as 'resistance tactics' –joining the Critical Art Ensemble proposal and the' tactical media'– and whose genealogy goes back at least two decades ago, remaining almost unnoticed in our immediate contemporaneity despite being a subject of habitual analysis. Thus, the first intention that gives shape to this research is to trace the genealogy of this specific typology of artistic praxis, to be able to study the historical links and affectations that may have been –both at a technical and discursive level– in relation to the media. In this way, the ultimate goal is to analyze the intersections between art and the media, so as to be able to evaluate the importance of this artistic tradition in relation to contemporary thinking and techniques...Fac. de Bellas ArtesTRUEunpu