From social distancing to social containment

This essay develops an anthropological critique of ‘social distancing’. While the 2020 coronavirus pandemic requires us to reconfigure established forms of sociality, distancing regimes such as ‘lockdowns’ can profoundly disrupt the provision of care and support, creating practical difficulties and existential suffering. I advocate instead for strategies of ‘social containment’, outlining several of the containment arrangements people in England have developed to reconcile relational obligations with public health imperatives during the pandemic. I end by addressing some of the steps anthropologists must take when translating such ideas into policy

An Agent-Based Distributed Coordination Mechanism for Wireless Visual Sensor Nodes Using Dynamic Programming

The efficient management of the limited energy resources of a wireless visual sensor network is central to its successful operation. Within this context, this article focuses on the adaptive sampling, forwarding, and routing actions of each node in order to maximise the information value of the data collected. These actions are inter-related in a multi-hop routing scenario because each node’s energy consumption must be optimally allocated between sampling and transmitting its own data, receiving and forwarding the data of other nodes, and routing any data. Thus, we develop two optimal agent-based decentralised algorithms to solve this distributed constraint optimization problem. The first assumes that the route by which data is forwarded to the base station is fixed, and then calculates the optimal sampling, transmitting, and forwarding actions that each node should perform. The second assumes flexible routing, and makes optimal decisions regarding both the integration of actions that each node should choose, and also the route by which the data should be forwarded to the base station. The two algorithms represent a trade-off in optimality, communication cost, and processing time. In an empirical evaluation on sensor networks (whose underlying communication networks exhibit loops), we show that the algorithm with flexible routing is able to deliver approximately twice the quantity of information to the base station compared to the algorithm using fixed routing (where an arbitrary choice of route is made). However, this gain comes at a considerable communication and computational cost (increasing both by a factor of 100 times). Thus, while the algorithm with flexible routing is suitable for networks with a small numbers of nodes, it scales poorly, and as the size of the network increases, the algorithm with fixed routing is favoured

Knapsack based Optimal Policies for Budget-Limited Multi-Armed Bandits

In budget-limited multi-armed bandit (MAB) problems, the learner's actions are costly and constrained by a fixed budget. Consequently, an optimal exploitation policy may not be to pull the optimal arm repeatedly, as is the case in other variants of MAB, but rather to pull the sequence of different arms that maximises the agent's total reward within the budget. This difference from existing MABs means that new approaches to maximising the total reward are required. Given this, we develop two pulling policies, namely: (i) KUBE; and (ii) fractional KUBE. Whereas the former provides better performance up to 40% in our experimental settings, the latter is computationally less expensive. We also prove logarithmic upper bounds for the regret of both policies, and show that these bounds are asymptotically optimal (i.e. they only differ from the best possible regret by a constant factor)

In defence of bad comparisons? Comparisons and their motivations in Indonesia's Riau Islands

‘Bad comparisons’ premised on the assumption of equivalence between two disparate entities have long been the subject of both epistemological and anthropological critique. Yet, as I demonstrate with reference to ethnographic materials form Indonesia’s Riau Islands Province, the people with whom anthropologists work sometimes embrace forms of ‘bad’ comparison that anthropologists would be inclined to denounce, even claiming them to be ‘affirming’ or ‘motivating’. Such a situation reveals that an anthropology of comparisons, and anthropological responses to comparisons, must understand the affective, as well as epistemological, dimensions of comparative practice. In this chapter, I show how personal histories of comparison, shaped by colonial legacies, globalisation, economic inequality, and kinship structure, have profound implications for the affective consequences of specific comparative acts. Such an argument not only explains why ‘bad comparisons’ might routinely be made – indeed, might prove vital – but also presents a challenge to the universalising and evolutionary assumptions evident in the field of ‘social comparison theory’. I argue that comparison and its affects are better analysed through the psychoanalytically inspired frameworks that have been central to the tradition of person-centred ethnography and reflect on the implications of such insights for narrative strategy within anthropology itself at the dawn of what some have dubbed the discipline’s ‘new comparativism’

A Foundational Methodology For Determining System Static Complexity Using Notional Lunar Oxygen Production Processes

This thesis serves to develop a preliminary foundational methodology for evaluating the static complexity of future lunar oxygen production systems when extensive information is not yet available about the various systems under consideration. Evaluating static complexity, as part of a overall system complexity analysis, is an important consideration in ultimately selecting a process to be used in a lunar base. When system complexity is higher, there is generally an overall increase in risk which could impact the safety of astronauts and the economic performance of the mission. To evaluate static complexity in lunar oxygen production, static complexity is simplified and defined into its essential components. First, three essential dimensions of static complexity are investigated, including interconnective complexity, strength of connections, and complexity in variety. Then a set of methods is developed upon which to separately evaluate each dimension. Q-connectivity analysis is proposed as a means to evaluate interconnective complexity and strength of connections. The law of requisite variety originating from cybernetic theory is suggested to interpret complexity in variety. Secondly, a means to aggregate the results of each analysis is proposed to create holistic measurement for static complexity using the Single Multi-Attribute Ranking Technique (SMART). Each method of static complexity analysis and the aggregation technique is demonstrated using notional data for four lunar oxygen production processes

Straightening what’s crooked? Recognition as moral disruption in Indonesia’s Confucianist revival

In 2006, the Indonesian state re-recognised Confucianism as an official religion, but this did not have the straightforwardly positive consequences that either Confucianist revivalists or some theorists of recognition might have predicted. Revivalists were often—but not always—gripped by feelings of outrage and moral torment, whilst the pace of the revival itself was very uneven. These varied outcomes reflect the complex politics pervading the lives of Indonesian Confucianists (and Chinese Indonesians more generally) as post-Suharto reforms force them to grapple with their diverse histories of accommodation and resistance to the New Order’s discriminatory policies. To fully understand such material, first-person moral perspectives must be incorporated into critical anthropological studies of recognition, as a complement to approaches focused on power and domination. Doing so reveals an important general truth about recognition—its capacity to be morally disruptive—and broadens our understanding of why recognition can hurt those it ostensibly stands to benefit

Student-Assistants in Cal Poly, Facilities Planning and Capital Projects

The Cal Poly, Facilities Planning and Capital Projects Department has been an under utilized resource for students who desire the opportunity to work in the field while attending school. This internship-like opportunity would give the student an opportunity to step into the shoes as an owner’s representative. With over sixty separate construction projects consistently occurring around campus, students should be given the opportunity to work under supervision of a Cal Poly Project Manager as a student-assistant. Through multiple interviews with the Cal Poly, Facilities Planning and Capital Project Department Project Managers, it was agreed that there was a need to develop an application with a coversheet and informational flyer for people within the department to view. The application has been revamped to include things such as a LinkedIn Profile, availability schedule and an opportunity to relay any relevant information that may not have been discussed. Along with the application is an informational coversheet, explaining the responsibilities that a student may be placed with as a student-assistant. Lastly, the development of an informational flyer for the Project Managers will depict what students are not only learning in their classes, but have also experienced in their summer internships. These three deliverables will open up opportunities for many different students to apply what they are learning in their studies to real-world situations

Towards understanding the design of dual-modal MR/fluorescent probes to sense zinc ions

A series of gadolinium complexes were synthesised in order to test the design of dual-modal probes that display a change in fluorescence or relaxivity response upon binding of zinc. A dansyl-DO3ATA gadolinium complex [GdL1] displayed an increase and a slight blue-shift in fluorescence in the presence of zinc; however, a decrease in relaxation rate was observed. Consequently, the ability of the well-known zinc chelator, BPEN, was assessed for relaxivity response when conjugated to the gadolinium chelate. The success of this probe [GdL2], lead to the inclusion of the same zinc-probing moiety alongside a longer wavelength emitting fluorophore, rhodamine [GdL3], to arrive at the final iteration of these first generation dual-modal zinc-sensing probes. The compounds give insight into the design protocols required for the successful imaging of zinc ions