Buen vivir : la irrupción de América Latina en el campo gravitacional del desarrollo sostenible

This paper aims at reviewing the content of Buen vivir as an emergent discourse within the “gravitational field” of sustainable development: its genesis, its foundations and its singularity. First, we consider the criticisms to the development discourse and to its direct descendant: sustainable development. Next, we review the position of Latin America in the global discursive field of sustainable development and the situation of Buen vivir facing the debates therein. Drawing on the traditional repository of the aboriginal cultures of the continent, this new discourse has been theorized in the academic sphere and translated into normative principles that have permeated the political sphere, which is especially visible in the cases of Ecuador and Bolivia. In this article we refer to “Buen vivir” as the contemporary reelaboration of the quechua concept Sumak Kawsay, and other similar concepts from other indigenous nations. It includes both the idea of interdependence between society and its natural environment, as well as a conception of the universal as plural. Lastly, beyond its implications for environmental debate, Buen vivir also involves an imperative for the redefinition of relations between the citizenry, the state and the market.En el presente artículo, proponemos una revisión del contenido del Buen vivir como discurso emergente dentro del “campo gravitacional” del desarrollo sostenible: su génesis, sus fundamentos y su singularidad. En primer lugar, consideraremos las críticas al discurso del desarrollo y a su heredero directo: el desarrollo sostenible. Luego revisaremos brevemente la posición de América Latina en el campo discursivo global del desarrollo sostenible y el lugar del Buen vivir dentro de las controversias en torno a este campo. Abrevando en el imaginario tradicional de los pueblos originarios del continente, este nuevo discurso fue teorizado en la esfera académica y traducido en principios normativos que han permeado la esfera política, lo que es visible especialmente en Ecuador y Bolivia. En este artículo nos referimos al “Buen vivir” como la reelaboración contemporánea del concepto quechua Sumak Kawsay y conceptos afines de otros pueblos autóctonos. Incluye tanto la idea de una interdependencia entre la sociedad y su medio ambiente natural como también una concepción de lo universal como realidad plural. Por último, más allá de sus implicancias para el debate medio ambiental, la propuesta del Buen vivir implica también una redefinición de las relaciones entre ciudadanía, Estado y mercado

Mapping Environmental/Sustainable Governance Research in Chile: A Bibliometric and Network Analysis

In light of increasing concerns about the efficacy of environmental governance (EG) to address the global sustainability challenges of the Anthropocene era, more integrative, transversal, and far-reaching approaches, referred to here as sustainability governance (SG), are gaining ground both in governance praxis and in research. Empirical and methodological challenges emerge from this conceptual analytical cleavage between EG and SG. Through a combination of bibliometric and network analysis, the objective of this article is to explore the structure and trends in the field of EG/SG research in Chile, internationally regarded as the posterchild of Latin-American EG/SG, and derive empirical insights to feed the analytical distinction between EG and SG that informs global debates about ways forward towards an effective governance in the Anthropocene. Our results show that scientific research on EG/SG has experienced a significant increase since the 1990s. We find that while the topical range of the field is broad, including water governance, biodiversity conservation, environmental institutions, climate change and energy issues, and environmental conflicts and justice, key cross-cutting socio-economic and cultural dynamics underpinning the prevalent, yet fundamentally unsustainable, ways of life and economic model are virtually absent from the field, against their growing presence in diagnoses of “sustained unsustainability”.Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Científico y TecnológicoPeer Reviewe

Towards a Dynamic Model of the Palm Mute Guitar Technique Based on Capturing Pressure Profiles Between the Guitar Strings

(Abstract to follow

Spontaneous suppression of inverse energy cascade in instability-driven 2D turbulence

Instabilities of fluid flows often generate turbulence. Using extensive direct numerical simulations, we study two-dimensional turbulence driven by a wavenumber-localised instability superposed on stochastic forcing, in contrast to previous studies of state-independent forcing. As the contribution of the instability forcing, measured by a parameter $\gamma$, increases, the system undergoes two transitions. For $\gamma$ below a first threshold, a regular large-scale vortex condensate forms. Above this threshold, shielded vortices (SVs) emerge within the condensate. At a second, larger value of $\gamma$, the condensate breaks down, and a gas of weakly interacting vortices with broken symmetry spontaneously emerges, characterised by preponderance of vortices of one sign only and suppressed inverse energy cascade. The latter transition is shown to depend on the damping mechanism. The number density of SVs in the broken symmetry state slowly increases via a random nucleation process. Bistability is observed between the condensate and mixed SV-condensate states. Our findings provide new evidence for a strong dependence of two-dimensional turbulence phenomenology on the forcing

Flow driven control of pulse width in excitable media

Models of pulse formation in nerve conduction have provided manifold insight not only into neuronal dynamics but also the non-linear dynamics of pulse formation in general. Recent observation of neuronal electro-chemical pulses also driving mechanical deformation of the tubular neuronal wall and thereby generating ensuing cytoplasmic flow now question the impact of flow on the electro-chemical dynamics of pulse formation. We, here, theoretically investigate the classical Fitzhugh-Nagumo model now accounting for advective coupling between the pulse propagator typically describing membrane potential and here triggering mechanical deformations and, thus, governing flow magnitude, and the pulse controller, a chemical species advected with the ensuing fluid flow. Employing analytical calculations and numerical simulations we find, that advective coupling allows for a linear control of pulse width while leaving pulse velocity unchanged. We therefore uncover an independent control of pulse width by fluid flow coupling.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure

Translating Scientific Articles to the Non-scientific Public Using the Wikipedia Encyclopedia

The multilingual, web-based Wikipedia free Encyclopedia is used worldwide by people from different audience. It is openly editable, allowing quick updates. We used these properties as an educational tool in University classrooms, where students' assignment was to rephrase scientific articles for the public. We share here our teaching experience with an Earth Sciences class, based on class assessments and students evaluations. During the 2017 Fall semester, a 1 ECTS MSc level reading seminar on the broad topic of Heat and Mass Transfers in Magmatology was taught for 6 weeks at ETH Zürich. Three first semester and six third semester M.Sc. students have attended the course. All students had a B.Sc. degree in Earth Sciences, among which seven had their main specialisation in Mineralogy and Geochemistry and two had their major in Geophysics. By groups of two, students have read a scientific article, presented it orally to classmates and answered questions from their peers. During the last two classes, students have edited and created Wikipedia Encyclopedia pages in relation to their article's topic. Students really enjoyed creating a Wikipedia page, even if they didn't use it before or didn't trust the Wikipedia content. They had little experience with communication to a non-scientific audience and considered this exercise was challenging. Evaluations show that writing about a scientific paper in a Wikipedia page is a less efficient learning technique than reading a scientific article, presenting it orally or listening to such a presentation. However, it certainly contributes to better memorise important information, it is an efficient way to practice writing and public and scientific communication skills and it encourages students to work collaboratively on real-time projects. The teachers can use those combined effects as a multi-channel learning technique. It is also highly motivating for the students and the teacher to have a class exercise using modern media techniques with the potential to reach a wide international community. With this article, we wish to encourage colleagues to teach students how to communicate science, to scientific peers and to the non-scientific public. This promotes high-quality education and helps reducing inequality, two sustainable development global goals