Connections and Complicities: Reflections on Epistemology, Violence, and Humanitarian Aid

This paper explores the relationship between power/knowledge and violence. It attempts to connect epistemological constructions and discursive practices to conflict and humanitarian aid operations by deconstructing the narrative of ‘Development’. The paper also attempts to tease out the way seemingly transparent and humanitarian actions, even within the academy, are complicit in reiterating hegemonic representations that reproduce systems of inequality and injustice. The paper draws on feminist methodologies that are primarily deconstructive in nature in order to highlight these connections and complicities, making clear that the way certain knowledges become centralized, while others are subjugated, reflects the functioning of the global political economy and imperialism. Thus, the paper argues that a transformative humanitarian aid practice must affirm what is ‘excluded’ from the discourse – the ‘incommensurable’. Lastly, the paper examines the potential of the ‘rights-based’ approach to sustain the affirmation of incommensurability. The paper hopes to make clear the importance of critical feminist theory for politics and practices

The SNS Cryogenic Control System: Experiences in Collaboration

The cryogenic system for the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) is designed by Jefferson Laboratory (JLab) personnel and is based on the existing JLab facility. Our task is to use the JLab control system design [2] as much as practical while remaining consistent with SNS control system standards. Some aspects of the systems are very similar, including equipment to be controlled, the need for PID loops and automatic sequences, and the use of EPICS. There are differences in device naming, system hardware, and software tools. The cryogenic system is the first SNS system to be developed using SNS standards. This paper reports on our experiences in integrating the new and the old.Comment: 3 page

The Effect of Training Intensity on VO2max in Young Healthy Adults: A Meta-Regression and Meta-Analysis

International Journal of Exercise Science 9(2): 230-247, 2016. Exercise training at a variety of intensities increases maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max), the strongest predictor of cardiovascular and all-cause mortality. The purpose of the present study was to perform a systematic review, meta-regression and meta-analysis of available literature to determine if a dose-response relationship exists between exercise intensity and training-induced increases in VO2max in young healthy adults. Twenty-eight studies involving human participants (Mean age: 23±1 yr; Mean VO2max: 3.4±0.8 l·min−1) were included in the meta-regression with exercise training intensity, session dose, baseline VO2max, and total training volume used as covariates. These studies were also divided into 3 tertiles based on intensity (tertile 1: ~60-70%; 2: ~80-92.5%; 3: ~100-250%VO2max), for comparison using separate meta-analyses. The fixed and random effects meta-regression models examining training intensity, session dose, baseline VO2max and total training volume was non-significant (Q4=1.36; p=0.85; R2=0.05). There was no significant difference between tertiles in mean change in VO2max (tertile 1:+0.29±0.15 l/min, ES (effect size) =0.77; 2:+0.26±0.10 l/min, ES=0.68; 3:+0.35±0.17 l/min, ES=0.80), despite significant (p\u3c0.05) reductions in session dose and total training volume as training intensity increased. These data suggest that exercise training intensity has no effect on the magnitude of training-induced increases in maximal oxygen uptake in young healthy human participants, but similar adaptations can be achieved in low training doses at higher exercise intensities than higher training doses of lower intensity (endurance training)

The Impact of a 48-Hour Fast on Mitochondrial Biogenesis in Young Healthy Men

Please view abstract in the attached PDF fil

‘Priming’ exercise and O2 uptake kinetics during treadmill running

We tested the hypothesis that priming exercise would speed kinetics during treadmill running. Eight subjects completed a square-wave protocol, involving two bouts of treadmill running at 70% of the difference between the running speeds at lactate threshold (LT) and max, separated by 6-min of walking at 4 km h−1, on two occasions. Oxygen uptake was measured breath-by-breath and subsequently modelled using non-linear regression techniques. Heart rate and blood lactate concentration were significantly elevated prior to the second exercise bout compared to the first. However, kinetics was not significantly different between the first and second exercise bouts (mean ± S.D., phase II time constant, Bout 1: 16 ± 3 s vs. Bout 2: 16 ± 4 s; slow component amplitude, Bout 1: 0.24 ± 0.10 L min−1vs. Bout 2: 0.20 ± 0.12 L min−1; mean response time, Bout 1: 34 ± 4 s vs. Bout 2: 34 ± 6 s; P > 0.05 for all comparisons). These results indicate that, contrary to previous findings with other exercise modalities, priming exercise does not alter kinetics during high-intensity treadmill running, at least in physically active young subjects. We speculate that the relatively fast kinetics and the relatively small slow component in the control (‘un-primed’) condition negated any enhancement of kinetics by priming exercise in this exercise modality

Eastern and Western Management Control Systems

Articledepartmental bulletin pape

Rationalizing values: global diffusion, global professionals, and truth commissions

In this dissertation, I explore global diffusion, rationalization, and the role global professionals play within both these processes. The main question I explore in this dissertation is: What role do global professionals play in the global diffusion and rationalization of formal structures? Within global diffusion studies, professions and professionals feature prominently. However, the literature says little about how formal structures become rationalized or, in other words, the process by which organizations, principles, and practices are rationalized. In addition, the specific, concrete ways that global professionals contribute to and partake in this diffusion is left relatively vague. My dissertation fills this gap in the literature. To do this, I focus on the new global professional field of transitional justice and, specifically, the diffusion and rationalization of truth commissions, a main mechanism of transitional justice. I draw on ethnographic and archival data derived from a year of internship within a leading transitional justice organization that works on truth commissions. I discuss the unintentional role that values play in provoking global professionals to rationalize and the consequences this rationalization has had on the diffusion of truth commissions, the values and culture of the organization, and the identity of the professionals. Theoretically, the dissertation contributes to scholarship on global diffusion and global professionals, specifically world polity theory. Empirically, the dissertation illuminates possible pitfalls non-profit organizations may fall into that subvert their foundational values and therefore offers a different approach to understanding organizational 'failures' and their potential fixes. Throughout the dissertation, I hope to highlight the import of values, both in being a driving force behind social action and within organizations, particularly those with humanitarian objectives. I also aim to make clear the precariousness of values and thus the critical need to think seriously about how they can be maintained as organizations grow, mature, and diffuse principles and practices

Management of a Large Distributed Control System Development Project

Building an accelerator at six geographically dispersed sites is quite mad, but politically expedient. The Spallation Neutron Source (SNS), currently under construction in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, combines a pulsed 1 Gev H- superconducting linac with a compressor ring to deliver 2MW of beam power to a liquid mercury target for neutron production [1]. Accelerator components, target and experimental (neutron-scattering) instruments are being developed collaboratively by Lawrence Berkeley (Ion Source and Front End), Los Alamos (Linac), Thomas Jefferson (Cryosystems), Brookhaven (Compressor Ring), Oak Ridge (Target and Conventional Facilities) and Argonne (Neutron Scattering Instruments) National Laboratories. Similarly, a team distributed among all of the participating laboratories is developing the EPICS-based control system. This paper discusses the management model and strategies being used to address the unusual issues of organization, communication, standardization, integration and hand-off inherent in this widely-distributed project.Comment: 5 pages. Invited Paper delivered to the International Conference on Accelerator and Large Experimental Physics Control Systems (ICALEPCS '01), Nov 27-30, San Jose CA. PSN# TUDI00