The use of GPS-arrays in detecting shock-acoustic waves generated during rocket launchings

This paper is concerned with the form and dynamics of shock-acoustic waves (SAW) generated during rocket launchings. We have developed a method for determining SAW parameters (including angular characteristics of the wave vector, and the SAW phase velocity, as well as the direction towards the source) using GPS-arrays whose elements can be chosen out of a large set of GPS-stations of the global GPS network. The application of the method is illustrated by a case study of ionospheric effects from launchings of launch vehicles (LV) Proton and Space Shuttle from space-launch complexes Baikonur and Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in 1998 and 1999 (a total of five launchings). The study revealed that, in spite of a difference of LV characteristics, the ionospheric response for all launchings had the character of an N - wave corresponding to the form of a shock wave, regardless of the disturbance source (rocket launchings, industrial explosions). The SAW period T is 270--360 s, and the amplitude exceeds the standard deviation of TEC background fluctuations in this range of periods under quiet and moderate geomagnetic conditions by factors of 2 to 5 as a minimum. The angle of elevation of the SAW wave vector varies from 30 degree to 60 degree, and the SAW phase velocity (900-1200 m/s) approaches the sound velocity at heights of the ionospheric F-region maximum.Comment: EmTeX-386, 23 pages, 6 figure

Biology, contingency and the problem of racism in feminist discourse

In the 1970s and 1980s a strong opposition and anxiety towards biological and naturalizing knowledges was the norm in feminist discourse. In the past decades the certainties of that 'anti-biologism' have been challenged, in part because of a new recognition of the role of contingency in both biological determination and biological science. What seems to have survived the shift is a set of normative assumptions concerning the role of determinacy and contingency (or being-born and becoming) in the political implications of ontological claims: an assumed political valorization of contingency. This article challenges those assumptions. It draws attention to the embrace of contingency and processuality on the part of supremacist biopolitical discourse, and suggests the need to think again about the politics of contingency and becoming (in constructivist as well as biologistic discourses). Focusing on the issue of racism and supremacist-specification, the article takes a genealogical look at 'second-wave' feminist anti-biologism. Monique Wittig's materialist feminist attack on naturalizing ideology and 'the myth of woman' provides the (ideal-typical) historical example. The article draws attention to curious absences in Wittig's (and Rosalind Rosenberg's) anti-biologistic statements concerning early 20th-century biologistic feminism: the absence of a critique of eugenics, racism and supremacism. Arguably the condemnation of biology as a conservative 'ideology of the status quo' created masks for biopolitical ontology, obscuring the progressive, dynamic, processual character of biologism and of modern racism. While dislodging some powers of biologistic discourse, feminist anti-biologism might also have played a part in facilitating the revitalization of biopolitical racism within the constructivist culturalist rubric. The aim of the article is not to critique 'second-wave' feminism from the perspective of contemporary scholarship, but to help generate new ways of thinking and feeling about the role of ontology, contingency and temporality in the present politics of classification

Participação política e cotidiano da gestão em saúde: um ensaio sobre a potencialidade formativa das relações institucionais Political participation and routine of health care management: an essay on the formative potentiality in institutional relations

Este ensaio pretende contribuir para o debate sobre a participação política na experiência do SUS no Brasil. Nele é problematizado o espaço que tem sido reservado para seu exercício efetivo, procurando refletir sobre a atuação dos diferentes sujeitos envolvidos com a produção de políticas de saúde. Parte-se da hipótese de que as instituições de saúde permanecem assentadas na objetivação da dimensão política inerente à vida humana, o que traz limites significativos para a concretização de um sistema de saúde fundado em valores democráticos e universais. O ensaio trabalha teoricamente as relações entre política, cotidiano e linguagem, a partir de conceitos de Hannah Arendt, Antonio Negri e do círculo de Bakhtin. Em seguida, é discutido o problema da cultura política que perpassa as instituições de saúde, considerando que o recurso a capacitações ou estratégias de representação de interesses não tem sido eficaz em solucioná-lo. Nesta perspectiva, são abordadas as potencialidades formativas das relações institucionais, utilizando como referência a Política de Educação Permanente. Como conclusão, o ensaio procura evidenciar que a articulação de novas configurações para a participação política nas instituições de saúde requer a discussão sobre o que seja e o que se deseja da ação de participar, sem o que dificilmente os espaços institucionalizados de participação deixarão de reproduzir as relações de força que os sujeitos historicamente vivenciam no cotidiano do sistema de saúde.<br>This essay aims to contribute to the debate on political participation in the experience of the Brazilian Unified Health System. It discusses the space reserved for its effective exercise, trying to reflect on the actions of different actors involved in the production of health policies. The analysis supports the hypothesis that health institutions remain attached in the objectification of the political dimension inherent to the human life, what derives in significant limits to the achievement of a health system based on democratic and universal values. The text theoretically articulates the relationship between politics, everyday life and language, using concepts of Hannah Arendt, Antonio Negri and Bakhtin's Circle. Then it discusses the problem of political culture present in health institutions, considering that the training focused on skills and the strategies of interest representation has not been effective in solving it. In this perspective, it analyzes the potential formation of institutional relationships, using as reference the Permanent Education Policy. In conclusion, the essay seeks to highlight that a new policy for participation in health system must discuss what is and what is expected from participation. Without this reflection, it will be very difficult for institutionalized spaces to reproduce the power relations which are historically experienced in daily health care system