744 research outputs found
A Maussian Bargain: Accumulation by Gift in the Digital Economy
The harvesting of data about people, organizations, and things and their transformation into a form of capital is often described as a process of “accumulation by dispossession,” a pervasive loss of rights buttressed by predatory practices and legal violence. Yet this argument does not square well with the fact that enrollment into digital systems is often experienced (and presented by companies) as a much more benign process: signing up for a “free” service, responding to a “friend’s” invitation, or being encouraged to “share” content. In this paper, we focus on the centrality of gifting and reciprocity to the business model and cultural imagination of digital capitalism. Relying on historical narratives and in-depth interviews with the designers and critics of digital systems, we explain the cultural genesis of these “give-to-get” relationships and analyze the socio-technical channels that structure them in practice. We suggest that the economic relation that develops as a result of a digital gift offering not only masks the structural asymmetry between giver and gifted but also permits the creation of the new commodity of personal data, obfuscates its true value, and naturalizes its private appropriation. We call this unique regime “accumulation by gift.”Introduction Markets from gifts "Information wants to be free" The Maussian bargain Research design Engineering reciprocal obligations Conclusion: From gift to market? Funding ORCID IDs Acknowledgements Notes Reference
In-situ surface technique analyses and ex-situ characterization of Si1-xGex epilayers grown on Si(001)-2 Ă—1 by molecular beam epitaxy
Si1-xGex epilayers grown by Molecular Beam Epitaxy on Si(001) at 400 â—‹C have been analyzed in-situ by surface techniques such as X-ray and Ultraviolet Photoelectron Spectroscopies (XPS and UPS), Low Energy Electron Diffraction (LEED) and photoelectron diffraction (XPD). The Ge surface concentrations (x) obtained from the ratios of Ge and Si core level intensities are systematically higher than those obtained by the respective evaporation fluxes. This indicates a Ge enrichment in the first overlayers confirmed by Ge-like UPS valence band spectra. The structured crystallographic character of the epilayers is ascertained by LEED and XPD polar scans in the (100) plane since the Ge Auger LMM and the Si 2p XPD intensity patterns from the Si1-xGex epilayers are identical to those of the Si substrate. The residual stress in the epilayer is determined by ex-situ X-ray diffraction (XRD) which also allows, as Rutherford Back Scattering (RBS), Ge concentration determinations
Bronchogenic cyst excision using a robotic laparoscopic transdiaphragmatic approach
AbstractWe describe one case of a bronchopulmonary foregut malformations (BPFM) excision using robotic technology in a pediatric patient. Traditionally, surgical resection is performed using a thoracotomy or video-assisted thoracic surgery. A 12-year-old girl with a previous medical history of cough was diagnosed with a left cystic paracardiac mass. Her operation employed a transdiaphragmatic approach to remove the mass. The postoperative course was uneventful, and she was discharged after four days. The subsequent pathology concluded that the mass was a bronchogenic cyst. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of transdiaphragmatic laparoscopic approach and first use of robotics-platform for BPFM excision by children. We elected to use this type of procedure to decrease the postoperative morbidity associated with the thoracic approach. The robotic technology permitted surgical resection with a similar efficiency as standard thoracic or laparoscopic procedures. We hypothesized that this technology would simplify some of the technical points, decreasing any postoperative complications
Hypocycloid-shaped hollow-core photonic crystal fiber Part II: Cladding effect on confinement and bend loss
We report on numerical and experimental studies on the influence of cladding ring-number on the confinement and bend loss in hypocycloid-shaped Kagome hollow core photonic crystal fiber. The results show that beyond the second ring, the ring number has a minor effect on confinement loss whereas the bend loss is strongly reduced with the ringnumber increase. Finally, the results show that the increase in the cladding ring-number improves the modal content of the fiber
Bond-charge Interaction in the extended Hubbard chain
We study the effects of bond-charge interaction (or correlated hopping) on
the properties of the extended ({\it i.e.,} with both on-site () and
nearest-neighbor () repulsions) Hubbard model in one dimension at
half-filling. Energy gaps and correlation functions are calculated by Lanczos
diagonalization on finite systems. We find that, irrespective of the sign of
the bond-charge interaction, , the charge--density-wave (CDW) state is more
robust than the spin--density-wave (SDW) state. A small bond-charge interaction
term is enough to make the differences between the CDW and SDW correlation
functions much less dramatic than when . For and fixed (
is the uncorrelated hopping integral), there is an intermediate phase between a
charge ordered phase and a phase corresponding to singly-occupied sites, the
nature of which we clarify: it is characterized by a succession of critical
points, each of which corresponding to a different density of doubly-occupied
sites. We also find an unusual slowly decaying staggered spin-density
correlation function, which is suggestive of some degree of ordering. No
enhancement of pairing correlations was found for any in the range
examined.Comment: 10 pages, 7 PostScript figures, RevTeX 3; to appear in Phys Rev
Evaluating the ecological realism of plant species distribution models with ecological indicator values
Species distribution models (SDMs) are routinely applied to assess current as well as future species distributions, for example to assess impacts of future environmental change on biodiversity or to underpin conservation planning. It has been repeatedly emphasized that SDMs should be evaluated based not only on their goodness of fit to the data, but also on the realism of the modelled ecological responses. However, possibilities for the latter are hampered by limited knowledge on the true responses as well as a lack of quantitative evaluation methods. Here we compared modelled niche optima obtained from European-scale SDMs of 1,476 terrestrial vascular plant species with empirical ecological indicator values indicating the preferences of plant species for key environmental conditions. For each plant species we first fitted an ensemble SDM including three modeling techniques (GLM, GAM and BRT) and extracted niche optima for climate, soil, land use and nitrogen deposition variables with a large explanatory power for the occurrence of that species. We then compared these SDM-derived niche optima with the ecological indicator values by means of bivariate correlation analysis. We found weak to moderate correlations in the expected direction between the SDM-derived niche optima and ecological indicator values. The strongest correlation occurred between the modelled optima for growing degree days and the ecological indicator values for temperature. Correlations were weaker for SDM-derived niche optima with a more distal relationship to ecological indicator values (notably precipitation and soil moisture). Further, correlations were consistently highest for BRT, followed by GLM and GAM. Our method gives insight into the ecological realism of modelled niche optima and projected core habitats and can be used to improve SDMs by making a more informed selection of environmental variables and modeling techniques
Mechanism of CDW-SDW Transition in One Dimension
The phase transition between charge- and spin-density-wave (CDW, SDW) phases
is studied in the one-dimensional extended Hubbard model at half-filling. We
discuss whether the transition can be described by the Gaussian and the
spin-gap transitions under charge-spin separation, or by a direct CDW-SDW
transition. We determine these phase boundaries by level crossings of
excitation spectra which are identified according to discrete symmetries of
wave functions. We conclude that the Gaussian and the spin-gap transitions take
place separately from weak- to intermediate-coupling region. This means that
the third phase exists between the CDW and the SDW states. Our results are also
consistent with those of the strong-coupling perturbative expansion and of the
direct evaluation of order parameters.Comment: 5 pages(REVTeX), 5 figures(EPS), 1 table, also available from
http://wwwsoc.nacsis.ac.jp/jps/jpsj/1999/p68a/p68a42/p68a42h/p68a42h.htm
Nonconcave entropies in multifractals and the thermodynamic formalism
We discuss a subtlety involved in the calculation of multifractal spectra
when these are expressed as Legendre-Fenchel transforms of functions analogous
to free energy functions. We show that the Legendre-Fenchel transform of a free
energy function yields the correct multifractal spectrum only when the latter
is wholly concave. If the spectrum has no definite concavity, then the
transform yields the concave envelope of the spectrum rather than the spectrum
itself. Some mathematical and physical examples are given to illustrate this
result, which lies at the root of the nonequivalence of the microcanonical and
canonical ensembles. On a more positive note, we also show that the
impossibility of expressing nonconcave multifractal spectra through
Legendre-Fenchel transforms of free energies can be circumvented with the help
of a generalized free energy function, which relates to a recently introduced
generalized canonical ensemble. Analogies with the calculation of rate
functions in large deviation theory are finally discussed.Comment: 9 pages, revtex4, 3 figures. Changes in v2: sections added on
applications plus many new references; contains an addendum not contained in
published versio
Tricritical Behavior in the Extended Hubbard Chains
Phase diagrams of the one-dimensional extended Hubbard model (including
nearest-neighbor interaction ) at half- and quarter-filling are studied by
observing level crossings of excitation spectra using the exact
diagonalization. This method is based on the Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid theory
including logarithmic corrections which stem from the renormalization of the
Umklapp- and the backward-scattering effects.
Using this approach, the phase boundaries are determined with high accuracy,
and then the structure of the phase diagram is clarified. At half-filling, the
phase diagram consists of two
Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) transition lines and one Gaussian
transition line in the charge sector, and one spin-gap transition line.
This structure reflects the U(1) SU(2) symmetry of the electron
system. Near the line, the Gaussian and the spin-gap transitions take
place independently from the weak- to the intermediate-coupling region, but
these two transition lines are coupled in the strong-coupling region. This
result demonstrates existence of a tricritical point and a
bond-charge-density-wave (BCDW) phase between charge- and spin-density-wave
(CDW, SDW) phases. To clarify this mechanism of the transition, we also
investigate effect of a correlated hopping term which plays a role to enlarge
BCDW and bond-spin-density-wave (BSDW) phases. At quarter-filling, a similar
crossover phenomenon also takes place in the large- region involving
spin-gap and BKT-type metal-insulator transitions.Comment: 18 pages(REVTeX), 17 figures(EPS(color)), 3 tables, Detailed paper of
JPSJ 68 (1999) 3123 (cond-mat/9903227), see also cond-mat/000341
Consumer credit in comparative perspective
We review the literature in sociology and related fields on the fast global growth of consumer credit and debt and the possible explanations for this expansion. We describe the ways people interact with the strongly segmented consumer credit system around the world—more specifically, the way they access credit and the way they are held accountable for their debt. We then report on research on two areas in which consumer credit is consequential: its effects on social relations and on physical and mental health. Throughout the article, we point out national variations and discuss explanations for these differences. We conclude with a brief discussion of the future tasks and challenges of comparative research on consumer credit.Accepted manuscrip
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