Feeling, failure, fallacies

Digital culture has become instrumental for capturing and managing what RaymondWilliams would once have called “structures of feeling”. The journal issue A Peer-Reviewed Journal About Machine Feeling alludes to this, and points to a material analysisof aesthetics and culture, including its technical and social forms, and in the way thatthis concept was originally employed as an acknowledgment of the importance of thehard to capture dimensions of everyday life. What potential new sensibilities andstructures of feeling may arise in such normalized registers of our habits? What newcultural and social forms and practices emerge in the coming together of machinelearning and structures of feeling? In each their own way, the authors in this journalexplore these questions</jats:p

How To Refuse Research from The Ruins of Its Own Production

Writing in 1965, Mario Tronti’s claim was that the greatest power of the working class is refusal: the refusal of work, the refusal of capitalist development, and the refusal to bargain within a capitalist framework. One can see how this "strategy of refusal" has been utilised in all sorts of instances by social movements, but how does this play out now in the context of wider struggles over autonomy today – not just in terms of labour power and class struggles; but also intersectional feminism and queer politics; race and decolonialism, geopolitics, populism, environmental concerns; and the current pandemic? In what ways does a refusal of production manifest itself in contemporary artistic, political, social, cultural, or other movements? And, how might a refusal of certain forms of production come together with a politics of care and "social closeness" – also when thinking of how research itself might be refused?</jats:p

Loitering with intent: dealing with human-intensive systems

This paper discusses the professional roles of information systems analysts and users, focusing on a perspective of human intensive, rather than software intensive information systems. The concept of ‘meaningful use’ is discussed in re-lation to measures of success/failure in IS development. The authors consider how a number of different aspects of reductionism may distort analyses, so that processes of inquiry cannot support organizational actors to explore and shape their requirements in relation to meaningful use. Approaches which attempt to simplify complex problem spaces, to render them more susceptible to ‘solution’ are problematized. Alternative perspectives which attempt a systematic, holistic complexification, by supporting contextual dependencies to emerge, are advocated as a way forward

Experiences from polio supplementary immunization activities in Anambra State, Nigeria

Background: Routine immunization coverage is low in some States in Nigeria and contributes to the transmission of wild poliovirus. Anambra State has been polio‑free since 2004. However, the risk of importation of poliovirus from travelers and migrants is a public health concern due to the commercial nature of the State. This paper reported experiences and lessons from supplementary immunization activities (SIAs) conducted in the State that will be useful to other settings experiencing low uptake of routine immunization.Materials and Methods: The SIAs were conducted simultaneously in the 21 local government areas (LGAs) in Anambra State during January, March, and November 2010. Data were entered and analyzed in Excel spreadsheet and findings were summarized as frequencies and proportions.Results: A total of 1,187,866 children were vaccinated in January, 1,260,876 in March and 1,225,187 in November 2010. The State’s cumulative coverage exceeded the target coverage of &gt;90% in the three SIAs. All LGAs met the &gt;90% target in January and March, but one LGA achieved 79% coverage in November. The proportion of zero‑dose children decreased from 6% to 4.7%, and the vaccine wastage rate ranged from 6% to 6.6%. In that same year, the state did not achieve the target coverage of &gt;80% for routine oral polio vaccine (OPV3) immunization in any of the months and only 29% of the LGAs exceeded the routine OPV3 target.Conclusion: The State achieved high polio vaccination coverage through the SIAs, but coverage through routine immunization was low. Adopting proper planning and supervision, financial and political support, community involvement, improved vaccine logistics, and other measures utilized during the SIAs could help to improve routine immunization.Key words: Community involvement/participation, polio eradication, supplemental immunization activities, vaccination coverag

Dynamics of fully coupled rotators with unimodal and bimodal frequency distribution

We analyze the synchronization transition of a globally coupled network of N phase oscillators with inertia (rotators) whose natural frequencies are unimodally or bimodally distributed. In the unimodal case, the system exhibits a discontinuous hysteretic transition from an incoherent to a partially synchronized (PS) state. For sufficiently large inertia, the system reveals the coexistence of a PS state and of a standing wave (SW) solution. In the bimodal case, the hysteretic synchronization transition involves several states. Namely, the system becomes coherent passing through traveling waves (TWs), SWs and finally arriving to a PS regime. The transition to the PS state from the SW occurs always at the same coupling, independently of the system size, while its value increases linearly with the inertia. On the other hand the critical coupling required to observe TWs and SWs increases with N suggesting that in the thermodynamic limit the transition from incoherence to PS will occur without any intermediate states. Finally a linear stability analysis reveals that the system is hysteretic not only at the level of macroscopic indicators, but also microscopically as verified by measuring the maximal Lyapunov exponent.Comment: 22 pages, 11 figures, contribution for the book: Control of Self-Organizing Nonlinear Systems, Springer Series in Energetics, eds E. Schoell, S.H.L. Klapp, P. Hoeve

Non-Abelian vortex dynamics: Effective world-sheet action

The low-energy vortex effective action is constructed in a wide class of systems in a color-flavor locked vacuum, which generalizes the results found earlier in the context of U(N) models. It describes the weak fluctuations of the non-Abelian orientational moduli on the vortex worldsheet. For instance, for the minimum vortex in SO(2N) x U(1) or USp(2N) x U(1) gauge theories, the effective action found is a two-dimensional sigma model living on the Hermitian symmetric spaces SO(2N)/U(N) or USp(2N)/U(N), respectively. The fluctuating moduli have the structure of that of a quantum particle state in spinor representations of the GNO dual of the color-flavor SO(2N) or USp(2N) symmetry, i.e. of SO(2N) or of SO(2N+1). Applied to the benchmark U(N) model our procedure reproduces the known CP(N-1) worldsheet action; our recipe allows us to obtain also the effective vortex action for some higher-winding vortices in U(N) and SO(2N) theories.Comment: LaTeX, 25 pages, 0 figure

THU0600 a case of systemic sclerosis complicated by renal crisis: potential etiopathogenetic role of cytomegalovirus and treatment

Background: Scleroderma renal crisis (SRC) is a rare complication of systemic sclerosis (SSc), which can be triggered by viruses, such as Cytomegalovirus (CMV). SRC presents as a new-onset accelerated-phase hypertension with/without rapidly progressive renal failure. Objectives: Here we describe the case of a patient developing SSc complicated by the appearance of SRC after a recent episode of acute Cytomegalovirus infection. Methods: A 66-year-old male was referred to our Scleroderma Unit in March 2019. He presented with widespread skin rash, exertional dyspnoea and peripheral oedemas. He reported a myocarditis due to CMV occurred in October 2018. Antibodies anti-CMV IgM were detected in his serum. The patient developed a progressive cutaneous involvement characterized by diffuse oedema, sclerosis and melanoderma. Subsequently, Raynaud’s phenomenon, puffy hands and pitting scars

PCDD/Fs in sediments of Central Vietnam coastal lagoons: In search of TCDD

Samples from nine Central Vietnam coastal lagoons, together with three soils and sediments collected in 24 two freshwater reservoirs of the Thua Thien-Hué province, were analysed for polychlorinated dibenzo-p- 25 dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs). Total concentrations are low, from 192 to 2912 pg g1 and depth 26 profiles in Tam Giang-Cau Hai (TG-CH) sediment cores show only minor changes over time in PCDD/F 27 input and composition. Octachloro dibenzo-p-dioxin (OCDD) is the prevailing congener (approximately 28 90%), indicating combustion as the main PCDD/F source to these coastal systems, whereas natural forma- 29 tion might be partly responsible for the presence at depth. 2,3,7,8-Tetrachloro dibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD), 30 largely sprayed together with Agent Orange over the study areas during the war (1961–1971), is absent 31 or very low. This result supports the hypothesis of strong degradation soon after spraying. Multivariate 32 statistical analyses account for the presence of local, short-range sources as observed in the northern part 33 of the TG-CH lagoon

Relationship Between Gestation Length and Birth Weight in Nigerian Sheep and Their Crosses

Effect of genotype and birth weight on gestation length was evaluated using Nigerian breeds of sheep and their crosses. The study was carried out at the Sheep Project Unit of Small Ruminant Research Programme (SRRP) of National Animal Production Research Institute (NAPRI), Ahmadu Bello University, Shika-Zaria. The sheep breeds used were Balami, Uda and Yankasa. Heat (estrus) detection was carried out twice daily; in the morning (07:00-08:00 hours); and in the evening (16:00-17:00 hours) using apron fitted rams to pick does on heat. A total of 56 lambs were used for this study. The data obtained were subjected to analysis of variance using General Linear Model and Correlation Procedure of SAS. All the genotypes had similar gestation length with values between 150.3±0.61 days and 153.3±0.60 days, except for Balami pure breed (BAL X BAL) lambs that recorded a shorter gestation length (137.1±0.81 days). There was a wide variation in the birth weight of lambs with the crosses between Balami rams and Yankasa ewes recording a distinct birth weight of 3.5±0.08 kg while the crosses obtained using Yankasa rams on Uda and Balami ewes gave the lowest birth weights (1.7±0.19 and 1.4±0.18, respectively). Sex and litter type have no significant effect (P>0.05) on gestation length. Birth weight was however affected by sex of lambs and their litter type. Litter type was negatively correlated with birth weight (-0.372). Gestation length had a low and non-significant relationship with birth weight; litter type and lamb genotype. Lamb genotype does not have a significant relationship with litter type. Genetic improvement of Nigeria sheep breed is possible if the resources of within and between breed is exploited. Selection for a reduction in gestation length may indirectly increase prolificacy. (Animal Production 12(3): 135-138 (2010

Genetic dissection of zinc, iron, copper, manganese and phosphorus in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) grain and rachis at two developmental stages

The development of high-yielding wheat genotypes containing micronutrient-dense grains are the main prio- rities of biofortification programs. At the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, breeders have successfully crossed high zinc progenitors including synthetic hexaploid wheat, T. dicoccum, T. spelta and landraces to generate high-zinc varieties. In this study, we report a genome-wide association using a wheat diversity panel to dissect the genetics controlling zinc, iron, copper, manganese and phosphorus concentrations in the grain and rachis during grain development and at physiological maturity. Significant marker-trait associations (MTAs) were identified for each nutrient using multi-locus mixed model methodologies. For mature grain, markers that showed significant pleiotropic effects were found on chromo- somes 1A, 3B and 5B, of which those on chromosome 5B at ∼95.5 cM were consistent over two growing seasons. Co-located MTAs were identified for the nutrient concentrations in developing grain, rachis and mature grain on multiple chromosomes. The identified genomic regions included putative candidate genes involved in metal uptake and transport and storage protein processing. These findings add to our understanding of the genetics of the five important nutrients in wheat grain and provide information on genetic markers for selecting high mi- cronutrient genotypes.Suong T. Cua, Georgia Guilda, Alison Nicolsona, Govindan Velub, Ravi Singhb, James Stangouli