METHODOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS IN THE STUDY OF SOCIOMATERIALITY

This article uses a case of oil and gas exploration as the starting point for methodological considerations in the study of sociomateriality. I argu a sociomaterial research continuum ranging from hard to soft sociomateriality depending on how the technology-human relationship is conceptualised in the literature. In the hard end, there can be no understanding of the one without the other, while contributions towards the soft end of the scale accept a conceptual distance between them, although claiming symmetry. The hard version is under critiqu for using unclear language and producing confusing levels of analysis, and the soft version has been critiqud for not properly addressing macro level influnces. The case is critical in that it illustrates the problematics of sociomateriality, being saturated of data and IT tools that are both necessary for the process to work and produce outputs that without these same tools would be very different. There is in other words symmetry performed. I answer the call to not reside to simplified and single scholarly approaches and use relevant discussions and insights from science studies, sociology and organisational research to suggest that the issus discussed in sociomateriality transcends the debate between critical realism and agential realism going towards the core of scientific qustions of the relationship between the subjective and the objective and between data and theory. I find that the consequnce of this is that sociomaterial research must cut across ontological, epistemological and methodological borders to embed the notion of performativity and not impose a-priori ontological barriers, but rather ask qustions that allow us to construct concepts that are applicable in our empirical analysis. I suggest that sociomateriality in addition to commit to subtle realism should glance to conventionalism and pragmatically consider the applicability of the concept without restricting to claims of truth. Sociomateriality is, it seems, in the constructive process of exhausting epistemological obstacles by a necessary consideration of existing concepts (such as agential realism, sociotechnical and critical reality)

Queer asylum seekers in the European Union

Queer asylum seekers experience discrimination and rejection at European borders. Research has established that the European Union is contradictory in how it promotes itself as a queer- friendly, but simultaneously maintains an asylum system unsuited to recognize the asylum needs of queer asylum applicants. This study aims at tackling these contradictions. Specifically, it investigates how queer asylum seekers are portrayed in the Common European Asylum System’s (CEAS) discourse. In addition, it discusses how these discourses contribute to producing homonationalism and ideas of European ideological borders. In order to answer these questions, a Critical Discourse Analysis of central CEAS policy documents has been conducted. Five thematic categories were identified in the discourse: 1) invisibility, with the subcategory 2) invisibility ? risk of overlooking, 3) stigmatization, 4) ambivalence and 5) limited representation. The analysis demonstrates several tendencies of heteronormativity and homonormativity, because the CEAS is not able to reflect the myriad of sexual orientations and gender identities that exists and their unique experiences. In addition, it indicates that the CEAS is not able to harmonize the different conceptions of sexual citizenship across the EU, resulting in an unharmonized asylum system for queer persons. The findings demonstrate tendencies of homonationalism and ideological border-making in the CEAS due to the utilization of queer identities in order to construct ideas of European citizenship vis a vis homophobic ‘others’. This is also found due to how the EU is asserting its image as a queer rights advocate, and the general saliency of queer rights in the policy documents.Os requerentes de asilo que procuram asilo queer sofrem discriminação e rejeição nas fronteiras europeias. A investigação estabeleceu que a União Europeia é contraditória na forma como se promove a si própria como uma organização queer-friendly, mas simultaneamente mantém um sistema de asilo inadequado para reconhecer as necessidades de asilo dos requerentes de asilo queer queer. Este estudo tem como objectivo enfrentar estas contradições. Especificamente, investiga como os requerentes de asilo queer são retratados no discurso do CEAS. Além disso, discute a forma como estes discursos contribuem para produzir homonacionalismo e ideias sobre as fronteiras ideológicas europeias. Para responder a estas questões, foi realizada uma Análise Discursivo Crítica dos documentos políticos centrais do CEAS. Foram identificadas cinco categorias temáticas no discurso: invisibilidade, invisibilidade - risco de ignorar, estigmatização, ambivalência e representação limitada. A análise demonstra várias tendências de heteronormatividade e homonormatividade, porque o CEAS não é capaz de reflectir a miríade de orientações sexuais e identidades de género que existe e as suas experiências únicas. Além disso, indica que o CEAS não é capaz de harmonizar as diferentes concepções de cidadania sexual em toda a UE, resultando num sistema de asilo não harmonizado para pessoas queer. Os resultados demonstram tendências de homonacionalismo e de criação de fronteiras ideológicas no CEAS devido à utilização de identidades queer para construir ideias de cidadania europeia face a um "outro" homofóbico. Isto também se encontra devido à forma como a UE está a afirmar a sua imagem como defensora dos direitos queer

Performance study of the J/psi reconstruction after the ALICE LS2 upgrade

Masteroppgave i fysikkPHYS399MAMN-PHY

Description of Perithreticus neglectus sp. n. from the West Usambara Mountains, Tanzania (Diptera, Psychodidae)

Background The Psychodinae of the Afrotropical Region remain poorly understood. Slightly under 200 species have been described, but many countries have received very little attention from collectors and even countries where significant collection efforts have taken place have rarely had their collections studied in detail by specialist taxonomists. New information Perithreticus neglectus sp. n. is described from the West Usambara Mountains, Tanzania, based on a male specimen collected in 1990. The new species is similar to Perithreticus anderseni Kvifte, 2015, which occurs in the same forest reserve, but can be separated by several genitalic characters, including the hypandrium well-developed with sclerotised anterior and posterior margins, gonocoxites narrower, the gonostyles with the slender apex shorter, the parameres shorter without pronounced basolateral projections and the surstylus with slightly fewer tenacula. The world fauna of Perithreticus now comprises five described species, of which two occur in the Afrotropical Region.Description of Perithreticus neglectus sp. n. from the West Usambara Mountains, Tanzania (Diptera, Psychodidae)publishedVersio

Time Series Cluster Kernel for Learning Similarities between Multivariate Time Series with Missing Data

Similarity-based approaches represent a promising direction for time series analysis. However, many such methods rely on parameter tuning, and some have shortcomings if the time series are multivariate (MTS), due to dependencies between attributes, or the time series contain missing data. In this paper, we address these challenges within the powerful context of kernel methods by proposing the robust \emph{time series cluster kernel} (TCK). The approach taken leverages the missing data handling properties of Gaussian mixture models (GMM) augmented with informative prior distributions. An ensemble learning approach is exploited to ensure robustness to parameters by combining the clustering results of many GMM to form the final kernel. We evaluate the TCK on synthetic and real data and compare to other state-of-the-art techniques. The experimental results demonstrate that the TCK is robust to parameter choices, provides competitive results for MTS without missing data and outstanding results for missing data.Comment: 23 pages, 6 figure

Description of Perithreticus neglectus sp. n. from the West Usambara Mountains, Tanzania (Diptera, Psychodidae)

Background The Psychodinae of the Afrotropical Region remain poorly understood. Slightly under 200 species have been described, but many countries have received very little attention from collectors and even countries where significant collection efforts have taken place have rarely had their collections studied in detail by specialist taxonomists. New information Perithreticus neglectus sp. n. is described from the West Usambara Mountains, Tanzania, based on a male specimen collected in 1990. The new species is similar to Perithreticus anderseni Kvifte, 2015, which occurs in the same forest reserve, but can be separated by several genitalic characters, including the hypandrium well-developed with sclerotised anterior and posterior margins, gonocoxites narrower, the gonostyles with the slender apex shorter, the parameres shorter without pronounced basolateral projections and the surstylus with slightly fewer tenacula. The world fauna of Perithreticus now comprises five described species, of which two occur in the Afrotropical Region.Description of Perithreticus neglectus sp. n. from the West Usambara Mountains, Tanzania (Diptera, Psychodidae)publishedVersio

Citizen science reveals the establishment of the invasive container breeder Clogmia albipunctata in Sweden and Denmark (Diptera: Psychodidae)

publishedVersio

Temporal changes in plant available phosphorus in a long term experiment growing winter wheat (Triticum aestivum) on Rothamsted, England

Fosfor er eit næringsstoff naudsynt for alt liv, men det er ein avgrensa ressurs som på avvege kan føra til uynskja algeblømingar. Difor er det viktig med god fosforbruk i landbruket, der det kjem mykje mat frå den tilførde fosforgjødsla. Fosfor bitt seg sterkt i jorda, og plantane må bruka krefter på å taka det opp. Det er ikkje semje om korleis fosforbindinga endrar seg gjennom vekstsesongen, då det er gjort lite forsking på feltet, og resultata har vore varierande. På forsøksfeltet "Exhaustion Land" (starta i 1856) på Rothamsted i England vart det hausta jordprøver og kveiteplantar 10 gongar millom mars og august. Plantane vart vegde og målt fosfor i, og jordprøvene blei analysert for plantetilgjengeleg fosfor ved landbrukstesten Olsen P metode og DGTar eksponerte i 6, 24 og 72 timar. Resultata viste at total plantetilgjengeleg fosfor endrar seg lite gjennom vekstsesongen, men at den mest plantetilgjengelege delen (målt med DGT eksponert i 6 timar) vert større tidleg i vekstsesongen, for so å verta umåleleg liten. Dette er tolka som at plantane gjer tungt plantetilgjengeleg fosfor om til lett plantetilgjengeleg fosfor, for so å taka det opp. Plantane gjer tungt plantetilgjengeleg fosfor om til lett plantetilgjengeleg tidlegare i sesongen enn hovudopptaket deira av fosfor. Jorda etterfyller det tungt plantetilgjengelege fosforet geokjemisk, og fort nok til at tungt plantetilgjengeleg fosfor ikkje vert utarma i laupet av ein enkel vekstsesong. Kjennskap til den geokjemiske fosforbufferen kan hjelpa foredlarar i planteal for fosforfatig jord, og kunnskap om planteopptak og endringar gjennom sesongen kan vera til nytte i gjødslingsrådgjevinga.Phosphorus is a macronutrient essential for all life, but it is a limited resource and it's unwise use can cause detrimental algal growth. Therefore, an effective agricultural use of phosphorus, where large amounts of food is produced from the applied phosphorus, is important. Phosphorus binds strongly in soils, and plants need active mechanisms for it's uptake. There is no general agreement on the seasonality of phosphorus binding, as there is done little research on the field, and the results are diverging. On the long-term experiment “Exhaustion Land” (established 1856) in Rothamsted, England, soil and plant samples were harvested 10 times from March to August. The plants were weighed and phosphorus analysed, and the soil samples were analysed for plant available phosphorus by Olsen P and DGTs exposed for 6, 24 and 72 hours. The results showed total plant available phosphorus changing but little trough the growing season, but the most available part (measured by DGTs exposed for 6 hours) increases early on, for then being depleted below the limit of detection. This is regarded as the plants transforming more heavily plant available phosphorus to more easily available phosphorus before uptake. The plants transform heavily plant available to easily available earlier on in the season than their main uptake of phosphorus. The soil buffers the heavily plant available fraction geochemically, and fast enough for the heavily available phosphorus not to be depleted over the course of a single growing season. The geochemical buffering of P could influence breeding for low P environment, and a general knowledge of P seasonability and plant uptake could advise the farmes on when to fertilise.M-MIN

Gothic Infections: Henry Tilney and Storytelling as Therapy

This article proposes, a reading of Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey (1818) as a case study for discussing infectious literature, storytelling as therapy and the interconnectedness of Gothic methodologies and medical humanities. Northanger Abbey was written in a period when women’s reading habits was a contested topic, so I will provide a quick historical overview of the period and the problematic Gothic novel, which Northanger Abbey satirizes. Where previous research has focused on Catherine Morland, the protagonist and ‘misreader’ in this Gothic satire, this article will focus on Austen’s feminized hero, Henry Tilney, and read him in the role of a mesmeric healer. His goal is to cure Catherine of her obsession with Gothic novels, in order for her to fulfil the feminine ideal of the time. The mesmeric method is to produce a crisis in the patient, however, I will show how Henry’s plan fails and he inadvertently produces a crisis in himself, and forces him to realize the extent of his own ‘reading illness’. He is ‘infected’ by the masculine literary canon, which in his mind entails literary superiority over Catherine and his sister Eleanor. Storytelling as therapy is a term that connects literature and trauma into a method of organizing experience. My analysis will focus on a selection of dialogue between the main characters and Henry’s monologues, to highlight where Austen’s hero is compelled to take narrative control as a way to control his own trauma; his troubled relationship with his father and the death of his mother