Genetic Enhancement and the Biopolitical Horizon of Class Conflict

In this paper I argue that the widespread use of liberal eugenics  would establish a biopolitical horizon for class conflict.  In the course of my discussion, I examine Foucault’s discussion of the origins of class racism in Society Must Be Defended.  I then turn to an examination of how a widespread use of genetic engineering could aggravate class divisions and produce new forms of class racism.  I conclude the essay with an overview of the political options which are available to opponents of liberal eugenics

Life of the People, Body of the People: Re-reading the Imagery of the Body Politic

According to traditional interpretations, the language of the body politic is regarded as an essentially marginal turn of phrase which, if it does have any theoretical importance, simply refers to the civil order formed by agents who agree to exit from the state of nature by transferring their right of self-defense to a duly recognized sovereign authority. From the standpoint of Agamben and Foucault\u27s work on biopower, however, corporeal language is no longer viewed one-dimensionally, as a metaphor of popular consent; rather, we can re-read the body politic in a more literal way, as the intersection of cooperation and antagonism between subjects who vie for power. In other words, the body of society, as well as the body of the individual, is transformed into a space of politics. While my reading of the body politic views it as a space of antagonism and power, however, I also draw on Slavoj Zizek\u27s argument that political theory has been haunted by what he calls the corporatist fantasy , which is the idea that society is a unified, organic Whole, without divisions or fissures. I apply Zizek\u27s critique to the social contract tradition, arguing that authors such as Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau and more surprisingly John Rawls all defend a conception of the body politic which eliminates, or at least attempts to eliminate, difference from the social body. I argue that the unity of the body politic is secured in two ways: first of all, signs of antagonism are excluded from the social body, but at the same time biopolitical technologies of power form subjects who consent to the rule of the State. Thus, social unity is guaranteed through a double movement: otherness is systematically excluded, while subjects are normalized and integrated into the social order. I argue, furthermore, that the desire for social unity isn\u27t just a theoretical aspect of the liberal/social-contract tradition; drawing on the work of Foucault, I try to map out the practices of governmentality which actively exclude alterity, as well as producing governable political agents. I conclude with a discussion of Laclau and Mouffe, arguing that their work helps us to re-conceptualize the social body as a space of hegemonic contestation and power relations, moving beyond the liberal fiction that the body politic is formed through non-coercion and consent

Technocracy and Organization: Utopia and the Question of Value-Pluralism

In this essay I will examine technological utopias, in which scientists and technocratic experts wield the power of knowledge and planning in order to produce a harmonious social order in which conflict has been eliminated (examples are Bacon’s New Atlantis, as well as the various Enlightenment utopias of authors such as Condorcet). I argue that one of the central problems with technological utopias is that they transfer decision-making/organizational authority and power over to experts who implicitly presuppose a monistic and quasi-utilitarian conception of the good. Following Berlin, I contend that the irreconcilable conflict of certain core values inevitably undoes any attempt to definitively resolve social antagonisms using scientific/technological means

Prevalence of working smoke alarms in local authority inner city housing: randomised controlled trial

Objectives To identify which type of smoke alarm is most likely to remain working in local authority inner city housing, and to identify an alarm tolerated in households with smokers. Design Randomised controlled trial. Setting Two local authority housing estates in inner London. Participants 2145 households. Intervention Installation of one of five types of smoke alarm (ionisation sensor with a zinc battery; ionisation sensor with a zinc battery and pause button; ionisation sensor with a lithium battery and pause button; optical sensor with a lithium battery; or optical sensor with a zinc battery). Main outcome measure Percentage of homes with any working alarm and percentage in which the alarm installed for this study was working after 15 months. Results 54.4% (1166/2145) of all households and 45.9% (465/1012) of households occupied by smokers had a working smoke alarm. Ionisation sensor, lithium battery, and there being a smoker in the household were independently associated with whether an alarm was working (adjusted odds ratios 2.24 (95% confidence interval 1.75 to 2.87), 2.20 (1.77 to 2.75), and 0.62 (0.52 to 0.74)). The most common reasons for non-function were missing battery (19%), missing alarm (17%), and battery disconnected (4%). Conclusions Nearly half of the alarms installed were not working when tested 15 months later. Type of alarm and power source are important determinants of whether a household had a working alarm

Classroom Influences on Third Grade African American Learners\u27 Mathematics Identities

Students’ mathematics identity has become a more prominent concept in the research literature (Jackson & Wilson, 2012). The experiences of African Americans are still underreported, with African American elementary students receiving the least attention. This dissertation uses a case study method to explore two learners’ experiences. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore African American third grade students’ classroom interactions with mathematics in order to better understand factors that promote positive mathematics identities. This research study explored the mathematics classroom influences on three third grade African American learners’ mathematics identities in a K-8 school in a north central Midwestern city in the United States. The school was classified as 100% free and reduced lunch and served approximately 900 students, with the vast majority of students classified as African American. The three student participants and their teacher were all African American. The student participants wore glasses that video recorded their perspectives. A stationary camera was also used to capture the wider classroom environment. Each student participant completed three interviews (Seidman, 2013). The teacher participant completed one interview. Additionally, the student participants completed a mathematics interest questionnaire. Findings showed the importance of an explicit focus on the Standards for Mathematical Practice, a growth mindset, and positioning for promoting positive mathematics identities. In one case study, Janae’s experiences in lessons about fractions highlight the relevance of the Standards for Mathematical Practice, specifically attending to precision and making sense of and persevering in solving problems. In both the classroom and in interviews, she shows the importance of making sense of problems and persevering in solving them and of attending to precision. In the second manuscript, I explore Jaane and Kayla’s different experiences. Janae was positioned more positively and faces limited resistance in maintaining a positive mathematics identity. Kayla, on the other hand, regularly rejected and renegotiated the positions offered to her as she aimed for success and a positive mathematics identity. Kayla’s growth mindset and negotiation of positions offered to her in the classroom were critical factors in how she maintained a positive mathematics identity

Current Activities and Capabilities of the Terrestrial Environment Group at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) designated Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) the center of excellence for space transportation. The Aerospace Environments and Effects (AEE) team of the Electromagnetics and Aerospace Environments Branch (EL23) in the Systems Analysis and Integration Laboratory at MSFC, supports the center of excellence designation by providing near-Earth space, deep space, planetary, and terrestrial environments expertise to projects as required. The Terrestrial Environment (TE) group within the AEE team maintains an extensive TE data base. Statistics and models derived from this data are applied to the design and development of new aerospace vehicles, as well as performance enhancement of operational vehicles such as the Space Shuttle. The TE is defined as the Earth's atmospheric environment extending from the surface to orbital insertion altitudes (approximately 90 km)

The Value of Regional Annual Nitrogen Needs Information for Wheat Producers in Oklahoma

Crop producers are increasingly interested in reducing nitrogen use without sacrificing yield. Technology is available for precise application at the sub-field level, but adoption has been sluggish. This paper estimates the relative profitability of a field level annual predictor of mid-season N requirements and a regional predictor of the same.nitrogen seeds, nitrogen use efficiency, precision agriculture, wheat, Crop Production/Industries, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

A Gauge-Independent Mechanism for Confinement and Mass Gap: Part II -- G=SU(2) and D=3

We apply to the case of gauge group G = SU(2) in three dimensions a recently proposed gauge-independent mechanism for confinement that is based on a particular form of the dual spin foam framework for lattice gauge theory. Explicit formulae for interaction factors and their asymptotics are introduced and their behavior in different sectors of the theory are identified and analyzed. We arrive at several elementary properties of the dual theory that represent one scenario by which confinement may be realized at weak coupling. We conclude with an outlook for further development of this approach.Comment: 18 pages, 3 figure

Replicability of nitrogen recommendations from ramped calibration strips in winter wheat

Ramped calibration strips have been suggested as a way for grain producers to determine nitrogen needs more accurately. The strips use incrementally increasing levels of nitrogen and enable producers to conduct an experiment in each field to determine nitrogen needs. This study determines whether predictions from the program Ramp Analyzer 1.2 are replicable in Oklahoma hard red winter wheat (Triticum aestivum). Predictions are derived from 36 individual strips from on-farm experiments—two pairs of adjacent strips at each of nine winter wheat fields in Canadian County, OK. The two pairs of strips within each field were between 120 and 155 m apart. Each strip was analyzed three times during the 2006–2007 growing season. Nitrogen recommendations from Ramp Analyzer 1.2 are not correlated even for strips that were placed side by side, and recommendations from strips in the same field show no more homogeneity than randomly selected strips throughout the county. The results indicate that ramped calibration strips are unlikely to produce accurate nitrogen requirement predictions at any spatial scale, whether at the county level or for subsections of a single field. In contrast, a procedure that uses only measures from the plot with no nitrogen and the plot with the highest level of nitrogen applied does show replicability. Thus, improvements in the ramped calibration strip technology are needed if it is to become viable.Fertilizer; Nitrogen; Precision agriculture; Ramped calibration strip; Winter wheat