Mary Douglas Perri 6, Paul Richards
2017, 2017-06-30
eBook
Mary Douglas's innovative explanations for styles of human thought and for the dynamics of institutional change have furnished a distinctive and powerful theory of how conflicts are managed, yet her ...work remains astonishingly poorly appreciated in social science disciplines. This volume introduces Douglas's theories, and outlines the ways in which her work is of continuing importance for the future of the social sciences. Mary Douglas: Understanding Human Thought and Conflict shows how Douglas laid out the agenda for revitalizing social science by reworking Durkheim's legacy for today, and reviews the growing body of research across the social sciences which has used, tested or developed her approach.
AbstractMost steel moment frames rely on beam yielding to safely handle the inelastic drifts that will be imposed by severe earthquakes. More resilient steel moment frame concepts such as ...post-tensioned self-centering frames and friction connections have not seen widespread use, perhaps because they deviate dramatically from current practice. Experimental work was performed to investigate the performance of a new moment frame connection called the replaceable shear fuse connection. The replaceable shear fuse connection uses beam flange plates with special cutouts to prevent beam damage. Seven reduced-scale specimens were tested to investigate the effect of fuse geometry on drift capacity, connection strength, and connection stiffness. The specimens achieved maximum drifts of 0.06–0.10 rad without experiencing strength degradation prior to fuse tearing. The shear fuses experienced strain hardening of 1.39–1.75 times yield, similar to high strain hardening that has been observed in shear link testing. The connections had more-than-adequate stiffness to be classified as fully rigid. Full-scale testing should be conducted to evaluate the effects of beam depth, column depth, and fuse parameters.
Soil and its biota are fundamental components of the “Critical Zone”: Earth's living skin that most directly sustains life. Within that zone, geologically-rapid soil and saprolite displacement by ...biota, particularly invertebrate meso- and macrofauna, affects a large proportion of Earth's soils. This was first recognised by late-19th century observers, on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, who regarded bioturbation as fundamental to soil formation. Throughout much of the 20th century, however, the agronomical focus of soil scientists and the dominant paradigm of landscape evolution relegated bioturbation. As a result, many aspects of bioturbation are still not widely appreciated. Only in the last few decades has a re-evaluation commenced, in a range of disciplines. Primary effects of bioturbation, which we quantify herein, include soil production from saprolite, the formation of surface mounds, soil burial, and downslope transport. Rates of bioturbation can be as rapid as sustained maximum rates of tectonic uplift. In concert with surface geomorphic processes, bioturbation alters fundamental properties of soil, including particle-size distribution, porosity, the content of carbon and other nutrients, and creep flux rate. The precise influence of biotic mixing is regulated by its depth function. Earth's incredibly diverse soil biota also perform a number of functions, at a range of spatial and temporal scales, that extend beyond soil to landscape evolution, ecosystem engineering, niche construction, and carbon cycling. Understanding these linkages—which have operated since the evolution of trees in the Devonian Period—is of growing importance as we seek a fuller picture of Earth's history to predict and manage its future.
Most special moment frames (SMF) rely on beam yielding to reach drifts of 0.04 rad and beyond. In contrast, DuraFuse Frames (DFF) incorporate a fuse plate that acts as the yielding element. Nine ...full-scale DFF specimens were tested using AISC 341, Seismic Provisions for Structural Buildings, Chapter K, to prequalify the DFF connection for use in SMF and inclusion in AISC 358, Prequalified Connections for Special and Intermediate Steel Moment Frames for Seismic Applications. Eight specimens were tested with the standard protocol and exceeded the qualification criteria. The other specimen completed a custom protocol representing three maximum credible earthquakes (MCE) in sequence. The experiments demonstrated that the stiffness of the DFF connection is sufficient to classify the connection as fully restrained (FR).
Improvisation is currently enjoying an intellectual vogue across fields as diverse as the musicology of free jazz to management science. But what are the theoretical moorings of this far-reaching new ...enterprise? First, the article offers a brief review of some potential foundations for studies of improvisation. The hypothesis that humans possess neurons for mirrored interaction because they have evolved as social animals is arguably as plausible as the notion that interactive, social behaviour is a product of a neural architecture primed for interactive cognition. Durkheim responded to a similar unresolved set of arguments about brains and cognition at the end of nineteenth century by taking his well-known late ethnographic turn (towards Australia). This takes us to the second part of the article. The ethnography of performance retains its value to nourish our understanding of larger questions regarding properties of human sociality. Specifically, the article seeks to suggest that a focus on the ritual shaping of embodied actions is crucial to understand and address the emergence of a range of competing "styles of thought." An example helps show that the "bubbles" and "echo chambers" of opinion, of which contemporary political commentators complain, are not (as supposed) products of the internet and social media, but rooted in more fundamental differences in social ordering reinforced by variations in practical and ritual performance. The article seeks to bring out the persistent "deafness" of development agencies to connections between shifting cultivation and social practices of marriage and death in a West African farming community. Calls by development agencies to abandon shifting cultivation have no effect. Approaching agrarian intervention via joint improvisation might help two circular arguments sustained by institutional differences to connect. Key words: Social theory, development, ethnography, performance
This study presents an experimental investigation into the cyclic performance of a new tube-in-tube buckling restrained brace (BRB) configuration. In this study, reduced- and large-scale brace ...geometries are tested to quantify inelastic hysteretic response, understand core confinement parameters, and determine the influence of end connection constraints. A total of 11 reduced-scale brace specimens are cyclically tested, along with three large-scale braces representing two core geometries and two core constraint configurations. Results from the reduced- and large-scale brace testing suggest that the tube-in-tube BRB configurations are capable of achieving the required inelastic capacity for qualification in AISC 341-16 specifications. All scaled specimens survived cumulative inelastic demands that exceeded 240 times the yield displacement (with several surviving more than 400 times the yield displacement). Results indicate that tube-in-tube BRBs are capable of producing stable tension-compression hysteretic behavior during cyclic loading. Measured β values for the large-scale Specimen G2 were lower than 1.06 for all deformation cycles at or below 9.2Δby, while measured β values for the large-scale Specimen G3 were lower than 1.07 for all cycles at or below 3.6Δby. The peak β value for Specimens G2 and G3 was 1.16 and occurred during the 15.3Δby and 7.1Δby cycles, respectively.
GLP-1 is an intestinal hormone with widespread actions on metabolism. Therapies based on GLP-1 are highly effective because they increase glucose-dependent insulin secretion in people with type 2 ...diabetes, but many reports suggest that GLP-1 has additional beneficial or, in some cases, potentially dangerous actions on other tissues, including the heart, vasculature, exocrine pancreas, liver, and central nervous system. Identifying which tissues express the GLP-1 receptor (GLP1R) is critical for the development of GLP-1-based therapies. Our objective was to use a method independent of GLP1R antibodies to identify and characterize the targets of GLP-1 in mice. Using newly generated glp1r-Cre mice crossed with fluorescent reporter strains, we show that major sites of glp1r expression include pancreatic β- and δ-cells, vascular smooth muscle, cardiac atrium, gastric antrum/pylorus, enteric neurones, and vagal and dorsal root ganglia. In the central nervous system, glp1r-fluorescent cells were abundant in the area postrema, arcuate nucleus, paraventricular nucleus, and ventromedial hypothalamus. Sporadic glp1r-fluorescent cells were found in pancreatic ducts. No glp1r-fluorescence was observed in ventricular cardiomyocytes. Enteric and vagal neurons positive for glp1r were activated by GLP-1 and may contribute to intestinal and central responses to locally released GLP-1, such as regulation of intestinal secretomotor activity and appetite.
The paper considers local responses to the introduction of an Ebola Treatment Centre in eastern Sierra Leone during the West African epidemic of 2014-15. Our study used qualitative methods consisting ...of focus groups and interviews, to gather responses from patients, members of the families of survivors and deceased victims of the disease, social liaison workers from the centre, and members of the general public. The data indicate that scepticism and resistance were widespread at the outset, but that misconceptions were replaced, in the minds of those directly affected by the disease, by more positive later assessments. Social workers, and social contacts of families with workers in the centre, helped reshape these perceptions, but a major factor was direct experience of the disease. This is apparent in the positive endorsements by survivors and families who had members taken to the facility. Even relatives of deceased victims agreed that the case-handling centre was valuable. However, we also present evidence of continuing scepticism in the minds of members of the general public, who continue to suspect that Ebola was a crisis manufactured for external benefit. Our conclusions stress the importance of better connectivity between communities and Ebola facilities to facilitate experiential learning. There is also a need to address the wider cognitive shock caused by a well-funded Ebola health initiative arriving in communities with a long history of inadequate health care. Restoring trust in medicine requires Ebola Virus Disease to be re-contextualized within a broader framework of concern for the health of all citizens.
In internal fertilisers, the precise timing of ovulation with the arrival of sperm at the site of fertilisation is essential for fertilisation success. In birds, mating is often not synchronised with ...ovulation, but instead females utilise specialised sperm storage tubules (SSTs) in the reproductive tract, which can ensure sperm are always available for fertilisation at the time of ovulation, whilst simultaneously providing a mechanism of post‐copulatory sexual selection. Despite the clear importance of SSTs for fertilisation success, we know little about the mechanisms involved in sperm acceptance, storage, and release. Furthermore, most research has been conducted on only a small number of species, based on which SSTs are usually assumed to look and function in the same way across all species. Here, we conduct a comparative exploration of SST morphology across 26 species of Galliformes. We show that SSTs, and the surrounding tissue, can vary significantly in morphology across species. We provide observational evidence that Galliformes exhibit at least 5 distinct categories of tubule types, including distinctive coiled and multi‐branched tubules, and describe 2 additional features of the surrounding tissue. We suggest functional explanations for variation in tubule morphology and propose next steps for future research. Our findings indicate that SSTs are likely to be far more variable than has previously been assumed, with potentially important consequences for our understanding of sperm storage in birds and post‐copulatory sexual selection in general.
Female birds utilise specialised sperm storage tubules in the reproductive tract, which ensure sperm are always available for fertilisation, whilst also potentially facilitating female sperm selection . Here, we show that sperm storage tubules, and the surrounding tissue, can vary substantially in morphology across species of Galliformes. We present 5 distinct categories of tubule and describe 2 additional features of the surrounding tissue. These findings have important implications for our understanding of sperm storage in birds and post‐copulatory sexual selection in general.
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