Undisciplined research: the proceduralisation of quality control in transdisciplinary projects

In this paper I argue that so-called trans-disciplinary research, that is problem-oriented, non-technological research outside the disciplinary structure, leads to a strengthening of organisational aspects of knowledge production and, particularly, of a change in quality standards. Quality standards are increasingly defined in intra-organisational or project-dependent and procedural instead of disciplinary terms. The paper is based on fieldwork in several environmental consulting companies that perform a broad, non-disciplinary spectrum of research and consulting. Although they perform government-funded research, neither their organisational structure nor their praxis is oriented towards disciplines. Instead their research focuses on social problems and methods that are translated into research without an intermediary disciplinary filtering. Quality has to be accomplished via non-disciplinary standards. These non-disciplinary standards are all procedural: namely quality management, timesheets and accompanying supervisory group

Negative heat-capacity at phase-separations in microcanonical thermostatistics of macroscopic systems with either short or long-range interactions

Conventional thermo-statistics address infinite homogeneous systems within the canonical ensemble. However, some 170 years ago the original motivation of thermodynamics was the description of steam engines, i.e. boiling water. Its essential physics is the separation of the gas phase from the liquid. Of course, boiling water is inhomogeneous and as such cannot be treated by conventional thermo-statistics. Then it is not astonishing, that a phase transition of first order is signaled canonically by a Yang-Lee singularity. Thus it is only treated correctly by microcanonical Boltzmann-Planck statistics. This was elaborated in the talk presented at this conference. It turns out that the Boltzmann-Planck statistics is much richer and gives fundamental insight into statistical mechanics and especially into entropy. This can be done to a far extend rigorously and analytically. The deep and essential difference between ``extensive'' and ``intensive'' control parameters, i.e. microcanonical and canonical statistics, was exemplified by rotating, self-gravitating systems. In the present paper the necessary appearance of a convex entropy $S(E)$ and the negative heat capacity at phase separation in small as well macroscopic systems independently of the range of the force is pointed out.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure, 1 table; contribution to the international conference "Next Sigma Phi" on news, expectations, and trends in statistical physics, Crete 200

Max Huber

At the time of Max Huber's death, the Revue internationale paid a succession of moving tributes to someone who had given so much of himself to the Red Cross cause. His work as a thinker, jurist and man of action, first as a member, then as President and Honorary President of the ICRC, has been evoked. Reference will also shortly be made to this when we publish other contributions concerning personalities belonging to our movemen

Are academic spin-offs really doing science?

Organisations make an indispensable contribution to reproducing functional systems. Can this also be said of organisations with multiple systemic ties? In considering this issue, this paper looks at the example of academic spin-offs. On the basis of qualitative interviews with people involved in founding spin-offs from non-university research institutes in Germany, the authors investigate the extent to which such firms help reproduce the structural characteristics of science. The theoretical yield of this study is the linkage of systems-theoretical and practice-theoretical perspectives.Organisationen leisten unverzichtbare Beiträge zur Reproduktion von Funktionssystemen, aber trifft das auch für mehrfach systemisch gebundene Organisationen zu? Der vorliegende Beitrag untersucht diese Frage am Beispiel akademischer Ausgründungen. Auf der Grundlage von qualitativen Interviews mit Personen, die an Firmengründungen aus außeruniversitären Forschungseinrichtungen in Deutschland beteiligt waren, wird gezeigt, inwiefern diese Firmen dazu beitragen, Strukturmerkmale des Wissenschaftssystems zu reproduzieren. Der theoretische Ertrag dieser Analyse besteht in einer Verknüpfung von systemtheoretischen und praxistheoretischen Perspektiven

Exploring an uncharted market: Evidence on the unsecured Swiss franc money market

To date, various central banks have lacked detailed statistical evidence on developments in the unsecured interbank money market. Furfine (1999) introduced the idea of calculating unsecured overnight interbank lending by using data of a RTGS system. Based on data from the Swiss payment system (SIC) we developed an algorithm to identify unsecured interbank loans in Swiss francs. In contrast to Furfine (1999) we also identify longer-term transactions. We thereby gain a deeper insight on the size and structure of the unsecured interbank money market in Swiss francs. This is the first time that SIC data have been used to identify transactions and market rates in the unsecured Swiss franc money market. Overall, the estimates show that after the collapse of Lehman Brothers loss of confidence led to a freezing-up of the market for several months and a decrease in daily turnover.unsecured interbank money market, development, money market turmoil, financial stability, Switzerland

Black Hole Thermodynamics in Carath\'eodory's Approach

We show that, in the framework of Carath\'eodory's approach to thermodynamics, one can implement black hole thermodynamics by realizing that there exixts a quasi-homogeneity symmetry of the Pfaffian form \deq representing the infinitesimal heat exchanged reversibly by a Kerr-Newman black hole; this allow us to calculate readily an integrating factor, and, as a consequence, a foliation of the thermodynamic manifold can be recovered.Comment: 10 pages; elsart styl