A corrosion control manual for rail rapid transit

In 1979, during the planning stage of the Metropolitan Dade County Transit System, the need was expressed for a corrosion control manual oriented to urban rapid transit system use. This manual responds to that need. The objective of the manual is to aid rail rapid transit agencies by providing practical solutions to selected corrosion problems. The scope of the manual encompasses corrosion problems of the facilities of rapid transit systems: structures and tracks, platforms and stations, power and signals, and cars. It also discusses stray electric current corrosion. Both design and maintenance solutions are provided for each problem. Also included are descriptions of the types of corrosion and their causes, descriptions of rapid transit properties, a list of corrosion control committees and NASA, DOD, and ASTM specifications and design criteria to which reference is made in the manual. A bibliography of papers and excerpts of reports and a glossary of frequency used terms are provided

Exploring Economists & Society: Constructing Expert Identity

The recent economic crisis has created a heightened interest in economics and greater demand for economics experts. The media has played an important role in meeting this demand as mediated expertise is relied upon to understand the complex relationships within society (Albaek, Christiansen and Togeby 2003; Beck 1992; Boyce 2006; Giddens 1990). Such interactions of experts with media are a key element of the knowledge flows within society (Sturdy et al. 2009) and so have attracted research attention (Ekstrom and Lundell 2011; Hutchby 2006; Montgomery 2008). This paper contributes to this literature by focusing on the under-researched area of the expert interview (Montgomery 2008), and in particular on the less-studied interview with the social science expert (Cassidy, 2008). The management experts chosen – economists – are key to the knowledge flows about business. Using discourse analysis we examined interactions on a prominent Irish radio news programme, building on previous literature which analyses radio interaction (Fitzgerald and Housley 2002; Hutchby 2006). Interviews with a well-known economist are analysed. This provides insights into how discursive tools are used to construct and preserve an expert identity in media interactions and how this influences the construction of the economy in knowledge flows

The Evolution of an Enduring Expertise: Understanding Irish Economists in Irish public discourse in the Great Recession

This work focuses on the institutional and social contexts of Irish economists’ prominence in public discourse in Ireland during the Great Recession. While examining performative aspects of experts’ legitimacy is important, understanding the wider societal context of how particular professional expertise is recognised is also vital (Collins & Evans 2007). The economics profession generally is characterised by strong hierarchy and dense integration (Fourcade, 2009; Mirowski & Plehwe, 2009; Pautz, 2014), we explore such phenomena in the Irish context. The Irish context is of interest more generally as a prominent PIIGS country in the Eurozone crisis, as a small peripheral state and as a site of confluence between Anglo-American and European Influences. Its close relationships with both the United Kingdom and the United States are particular interesting for an examination of the relationships between national and international influences on economists in a society

Performing Economics: How Economics Discourse Gets Enacted in Radio News Interviews

This paper analyses the performance of economics expertise on the main radio news show in Ireland. It does this through an analysis of the discourse used by known economics experts. This analysis will illustrate how the expert constructs a societally-legitimised economics discourse that builds their identity as an economics expert, constructs a particular representation of the economy, and gains societal legitimacy. In advance of the Great Recession, the media played a key role in the prominence of economics expertise in public discourse (Mercille 2013, p.1). Both the lack of warning of impending economic crash and the elite nature of experts has been criticised (Berry 2013). Nevertheless, economics experts remain in high demand from the media and the prominence of economics persists in response to the Great Recession (Mercille 2013). Engagement with media presents interesting challenges for economics experts as they communicate knowledge of complicated economic policies (Mercille 2013). They need a discourse that establishes their authority as economics experts and yet is accountable to the layperson. This is key for experts to achieve societal legitimacy for the knowledge they produce (Collins and Evans 2007, p.113). Osborne (2004) argues that this challenge requires the skilful performance of a \u27mediator\u27 identity - allowing for public participation but guarding against demands on meaning. Economics provides an interesting turn on expertise and its need to achieve societal legitimacy: the accusation of the ‘pretence of knowledge’ (Hayek, 1975). This ‘scientism’ critique has fuelled an almost anti-expertise expertise through its emphasis on the fallacy of forecasting future events (e.g. Taleb et al. 2014) and a paradoxical certainty in the confident faith in markets \u27as ultimate judges\u27 (Pühringer, 2015)

A new method for constructing small-bias spaces from Hermitian codes

We propose a new method for constructing small-bias spaces through a combination of Hermitian codes. For a class of parameters our multisets are much faster to construct than what can be achieved by use of the traditional algebraic geometric code construction. So, if speed is important, our construction is competitive with all other known constructions in that region. And if speed is not a matter of interest the small-bias spaces of the present paper still perform better than the ones related to norm-trace codes reported in [12]

A Corrosion Control Manual for Rail Rapid Transit

This manual addresses corrosion problems in the design, contruction, and maintenance of rapid transit systems. Design and maintenance solutions are provided for each problem covered. The scope encompasses all facilities of urban rapid transit systems: structures and tracks, platforms and stations, power and signals, and cars. The types of corrosion and their causes as well as rapid transit properties are described. Corrosion control committees, and NASA, DOD, and ASTM specifications and design criteria to which reference is made in the manual are listed. A bibliography of papers and excerpts of reports is provided and a glossary of frequently used terms is included

Legitimising expertise: analysing the legitimation strategies used by economics experts in broadcast interviews

Few would doubt that economists have taken a prominent role as experts on policy issues [Maesse, J. 2015. Economic experts: A discursive political economy of economics. Journal of Multicultural Discourses 10, no.3: 279–305] and some contend that no other social science discipline has gained such prominence [Fourcade, M., E. Ollion, and Y. Algan. 2015. The superiority of economists. Journal of Economic Perspectives 29, no.1: 89–114]. This prominent societal role has long been evident and leans on their perceived objectivity with regard to the economy and policy advice. Yet, the Great Recession of 2008 put past understandings of the economy, and public confidence in economists, under significant strain [Colander, D., M. Goldberg, A. Haas, K. Juselius, T. Lux, and B. Sloth. 2009. The financial crisis and the systemic failure of the economics profession. Critical Review 21, no.2–3: 249–267]. Faced with this challenge of public confidence, the question of how economics experts, whose expertise on the economy was so dominant before the crisis, maintain their legitimacy in the face of this crisis is of interest. This paper draws on the work of Van Leeuwen [2007. Legitimation in discourse and communication. Discourse & Communication 1, no.1: 91–112] to analyse the legitimising strategies used by economics experts during radio interviews, and echoes the work of Maesse [2015. Economic experts: A discursive political economy of economics. Journal of Multicultural Discourses 10, no.3: 279–305] in arguing that economists benefit from the legitimacy of their profession that has been created in academia, but also acknowledging that economists still have to work for societal legitimacy

Watchdogs of the Economy: The Development of Irish Economics Profession’s Independent Voice

Histories of the development of professions show a profession’s relationship with the state as key to its authority. Yet professions, to gain technocratic authority, also strive to depoliticise their discourses to gain technocratic authority. This dilemmatic tension is particularly true for the economics profession. The historical development of the Irish economics provides an interesting case, where a complicated relationship with the state ultimately strengthened the profession within a society. An initial formalisation trajectory of Irish economics was thrown off course by the formation of an independent Irish state in the 1920s. This marked a period of isolation for the profession and saw it ostracised from government policy. Subsequent developments also saw the Irish economists’ position as critics of government policy rather than a core part of the state

Secular Authority: Economists in Irish Public Discourse

This paper explores how the authority of Economics Experts has developed over time in Ireland. The identity of ‘expert’ serves as a powerful authority device for an individual’s discourse (Montgomery 2008). Although the definition of who is considered an expert has become broader and more inclusive (Collins and Evans 2007), the authority derived from the label of expert is usually reserved for Contributory Experts (Collins, Evans, and Weinel 2016). This authority has traditionally allowed such experts to engage with society from a position of authority and prestige that is not afforded to other societal actors. Such authority has been acknowledged of economists, whose discourse appears to have an assumed legitimacy (Maesse 2015). Theoretically, this research draws from a number of areas including work on the identity of experts in general (Montgomery, 2008) on economics experts in particular (Maesse, 2015), professionalization both generally (Macdonald, 1995) and of economics in particular (Fourcade, 2009). The Irish context is of interest more generally it was a prominent crisis, yet speedily recovering country in the Eurozone crisis, is a small peripheral state and is a site of confluence between Anglo-American and European influences. Its close relationships with both the UK and the United States are particular interesting for an examination of the relationships between national and international influences on economists in a society