The Rise of the Knowledge Broker

International audienceKnowledge brokers are people or organizations that move knowledge around and create connections between researchers and their various audiences. This commentary reviews some of the literature on knowledge brokering and lays out some thoughts on how to analyze and theorize this practice. Discussing the invisibility and interstitiality of knowledge brokers, the author argues that social scientists need to analyze more thoroughly their practices, the brokering devices they use, and the benefits and drawbacks of their double peripherality. The author also argues that knowledge brokers do not only move knowledge, but they also produce a new kind of knowledge: brokered knowledge

Build your own lab: Do-it-yourself biology and the rise of citizen biotech-economies

http://peerproduction.net/issues/issue-2/invited-comments/build-your-own-lab/ Journal of Peer Production - ISSN: 2213-5316 All the contents of this journal are in the public domain.International audienceMost articles on garage biology and do-it-yourself (DIY) biology highlight its somewhat immaterial cultures or ideologies. The issues usually raised include: the ways in which do-it-yourself biology potentially democratizes science and fosters a citizen science, that its practitioners are a "creative proof of the hacker principle", that the field is an illustration of the open source movement, that concerns about control, security and safety need to be addressed. However, rather than focusing on such relatively abstract cultures, this article focuses on the more material aspects of do-it-yourself biology: its locations, its equipments, its objects. The article presents three sites of DIY practices: a community laboratory in Paris, a private laboratory in Boston and, third, cheap alternatives to scientific equipment, such as the DremelFuge. The argument I am concerned with is that the circulability, the affordability and the mutability of objects play a key role in do-it-yourself biology and, at the same time, that we witness the emergence of a "citizen biotech-economy"

On the boundaries and partial connections between amateurs and professionals

This paper explores the boundaries and partial connections between amateurs and professionals in the context of a museum of natural history. It examines how these boundaries are made and unmade, paying particular attention to their materiality and their heterogeneity. My aim is to draw the temporal, spatial and material profiles of amateurs and professionals. In doing so, the paper focuses on the partial connections between amateurs and professionals and shows that, in a sense, amateurs and professionals belong to more than one but less than many social spaces. I will further argue that professionalization and amateurisation are not merely historical processes, but also processes that happen in everyday practices in order to demarcate specific identities. While amateurs can be involved in co-producing science with professionals, they still might resist and avoid translation in order to protect their independence and concentrate their identity as amateur practitioners of science

Influence of Gluteus Medius Strength on Interlimb Asymmetry in Female Recreational Runners.

PURPOSE: Running-related injuries are most often single-sided and are partially attributed to lower limb movement and loading asymmetries.1 Gluteus Medius (GM) plays a significant role in lower limb alignment, especially in the frontal and transverse planes by its influence on the pelvis and the femur.2 Female runners are more prone to GM weakness which has been proposed to be a risk factor for overuse injuries.3 These strength deficits contribute to abnormal lower limb kinematics and kinetics during dynamic tasks like running and jumping.4 These changes include an increase in peak hip adduction angle (HA), hip internal rotation angle (HI), knee abduction moment (KA) and rearfoot eversion angle (RE).4 Symmetry Angle (SA) is a commonly-used, robust measure of determining symmetry.1 No study has evaluated the role of unilateral GM strength on interlimb asymmetry for HA, HI, KA and RE during running. We hypothesized that female runners with stronger GM would demonstrate decreased interlimb asymmetry for HI, HA, KA and RE during running. METHODS: Thirty healthy female recreational runners (Age: 35.40±10.52 yrs, Height: 1.66±0.06 m, Weight: 61.61±7.31 kg) running at least 10 km per week participated in this study. Isometric GM strength was measured using a handheld dynamometer for the right lower limb and participants were divided into two groups of stronger and weaker. 3D gait analysis was conducted as participants ran on an instrumented treadmill at 2.98 m/s. Peak HA, HI, KA and RE were generated for the bilateral lower extremities and interlimb asymmetry using SA was calculated for all variables. A Shapiro-Wilk test for normality was conducted and it showed that all variables were not normally distributed. Wilcoxon Two-Sample Test was performed to look at differences between the two groups for HA, HI, KA and RE. RESULTS: Female runners with weaker GM demonstrated significantly increased asymmetry for HA (18.80±24.11 vs 12.20±24.11 %, p=0.02), HI (18.47±24.11 vs 12.53±24.11 %, p=0.03), and KA (18.33±24.11 vs 12.67±24.11 %, p=0.04). For RE, the weaker group had greater asymmetry (16.13±24.11 vs 14.87±24.11 %, p=0.35), but the relationship was not significant. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggested that runners with weaker GM on one side exhibited increased interlimb asymmetry during running for certain kinematic and kinetic variables. Future studies should determine how unilateral and bilateral strength deficits contribute to interlimb asymmetry and running biomechanics in healthy and injured runners.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/uresposters/1290/thumbnail.jp

Impact of tunnel barrier strength on magnetoresistance in carbon nanotubes

We investigate magnetoresistance in spin valves involving CoPd-contacted carbon nanotubes. Both temperature and bias voltage dependence clearly indicate tunneling magnetoresistance as the origin. We show that this effect is significantly affected by the tunnel barrier strength, which appears to be one reason for the variation between devices previously detected in similar structures. Modeling the data by means of the scattering matrix approach, we find a non-trivial dependence of the magnetoresistance on the barrier strength. Furthermore, analysis of the spin precession observed in a nonlocal Hanle measurement yields a spin lifetime of $\tau_s = 1.1\,$ns, a value comparable with those found in silicon- or graphene-based spin valve devices.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, 1 tabl

A SETTLER COLONIAL FRAMEWORK DEVELOPED THROUGH THE DAWES ACT AND THE NATIVES LAND ACT

Honors (Bachelor's)HistoryUniversity of Michiganhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/139642/1/momeyer.pd

F, G, K, M Spectral Standards in the Y Band (0.95-1.11 um)

We take advantage of good atmospheric transparency and the availability of high quality instrumentation in the 1 um near-infrared atmospheric window to present a grid of F, G, K, and M spectral standards observed at high spectral resolution (R ~ 25,000). In addition to a spectral atlas, we present a catalog of atomic line absorption features in the 0.95-1.11 um range. The catalog includes a wide range of line excitation potentials, from 0-13 eV, arising from neutral and singly ionized species, most frequently those of Fe I and Ti I at low excitation, Cr I, Fe I, and Si I at moderate excitation, and C I, S I, and Si I having relatively high excitation. The spectra also include several prominent molecular bands from CN and FeH. For the atomic species, we analyze trends in the excitation potential, line depth, and equivalent width across the grid of spectroscopic standards to identify temperature and surface gravity diagnostics near 1 um. We identify the line ratios that appear especially useful for spectral typing as those involving Ti I and C I or S I, which are temperature sensitive in opposite directions, and Sr II, which is gravity sensitive at all spectral types. Ascii versions of all spectra are available to download with the electronic version of the journal.Comment: 40 pages, 21 figures, 4 tables, spectra available for download with source file, updated to mirror published versio