The Perspective of the Instruments: Mediating Collectivity

Numerous studies in the fields of Science and Technology Studies (STS) and philosophy of technology have repeatedly stressed that scientific practices are collective practices that crucially depend on the presence of scientific technologies. Postphenomenology is one of the movements that aims to draw philosophical conclusions from these observations through an analysis of human–technology interactions in scientific practice. Two other attempts that try to integrate these insights into philosophy of science are Ronald Giere’s Scientific Perspectivism (2006) and Davis Baird’s Thing Knowledge (2004). In this paper, these two approaches will be critically discussed from the perspective of postphenomenology. We will argue that Giere and Baird problematically assume that scientific instruments (a) have a determined function, and (b) that all human members of a scientific collective have immediate access to this function. However, these assumptions also allow them to offer a clear answer to the question how scientists can collectively relate to scientific phenomena. Such an answer is not yet (explicitly) formulated within the postphenomenological perspective. By adding a postphenomenological touch to the semiotic approach in Actor-Network Theory, we offer an account of how different individual human–technology relations are integrated into larger scientific collectives. We do so by showing that scientific instruments not only help constitute scientific phenomena, but also the intersubjectivity within such collectives.     

The Struggle for Technology: Towards a Realistic Political Theory of Technology

Pieter Lemmens’ neo-Marxist approach to technology urges us to rethink how to do political philosophy of technology. First, Lemmens’ high level of abstraction raises the question of how empirically informed a political theory of technology needs to be. Second, his dialectical focus on a “struggle” between humans and technologies reveals the limits of neo-Marxism. Political philosophy of technology needs to return “to the things themselves”. The political significance of technologies cannot be reduced to its origins in systems of production or social organization, but requires study at the micro-level, where technologies help to shape engagement, interaction, power, and social awareness.     

Expanding Mediation Theory

In his article In Between Us, Yoni van den Eede expands existing theories of mediation into the realm of the social and the political, focusing on the notions of opacity and transparency. His approach is rich and promising, but two pitfalls should be avoided. First, his concept of ‘in-between’ runs the risk to conceptualize mediation as a process ‘between’ pre-given entities. On the basis of current work in postphenomenology and actor-network theory, though, mediation should rather be seen as the origin of entities, not as an intermediary between them. Second, Van den Eede’s separate discussion of transparency and opacity in ‘use’ and in ‘context’ runs the risk to make invisible the complementarity of the two dimensions. While transparency of use embodies an experiential form of the distinction between transparency and opacity, transparency of context embodies a more cognitive dimension of the distinction. Only by linking the two it becomes possible to take responsibility for the impact that technological mediations can have. Users and designers need a ‘double vision’ to simultaneously see the transparency of both use and context.     

Very high frequency of lymphoma induction by a chemical carcinogen in pim-1 transgenic mice

Infection of mice with Moloney murine leukaemia virus (MuLV) induces T-cell lymphomas after an average latency period of 150 days. In these lymphomas the MuLV DNA is frequently integrated into the mouse chromosomal DNA in the vicinity of the pim-1 oncogene. Transgenic mice overexpressing the pim-1 oncogene are predisposed to develop T-cell lymphomas, but only to the extent that approximately 10% of the mice develop a lymphoma within 240 days. When these mice are infected with MuLV, lymphomas develop in all mice in only 50-60 days. In these lymphomas MuLV DNA is integrated near either the c-myc or N-myc gene, suggesting that pim-1 and myc synergize in lymphomagenesis. To determine whether this system has a more general application, we have now tested the susceptibility of pim-1 transgenic mice to N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea (ENU), a chemical carcinogen. With a single low dose of ENU, nearly all pim-1 transgenic mice, but only 15% of non-transgenic mice, develop T-cell lymphomas within 200 days. All ENU-induced lymphomas in both pim-1 transgenic and non-transgenic mice express high levels of c-myc messenger RNA, supporting the notion that pim-1 and c-myc synergize in lymphoma induction. We propose that pim-1 transgenic mice could be used to test the oncogenic potential of other chemical compounds.     

承载供应链管理的客户关系链管理分析与建模

指出了客户关系管理的概念不足,以实际例子引出客户关系链的概念,并分析指出客户关系链可以承载供应链的运作管理.利用Markov链对该过程建模,对简单的情况进行了分析和计算,并给出了如果忽略了客户下游信息,企业所受到的损失分析.并同供应链系统作了类比.     

Many sequence variants affecting diversity of adult human height

Adult human height is one of the classical complex human traits. We searched for sequence variants that affect height by scanning the genomes of 25,174 Icelanders, 2,876 Dutch, 1,770 European Americans and 1,148 African Americans. We then combined these results with previously published results from the Diabetes Genetics Initiative on 3,024 Scandinavians and tested a selected subset of SNPs in 5,517 Danes. We identified 27 regions of the genome with one or more sequence variants showing significant association with height. The estimated effects per allele of these variants ranged between 0.3 and 0.6 cm and, taken together, they explain around 3.7% of the population variation in height. The genes neighboring the identified loci cluster in biological processes related to skeletal development and mitosis. Association to three previously reported loci are replicated in our analyses, and the strongest association was with SNPs in the ZBTB38 gene.     

Systems microscopy approaches to understand cancer cell migration and metastasis

Cell migration is essential in a number of processes, including wound healing, angiogenesis and cancer metastasis. Especially, invasion of cancer cells in the surrounding tissue is a crucial step that requires increased cell motility. Cell migration is a well-orchestrated process that involves the continuous formation and disassembly of matrix adhesions. Those structural anchor points interact with the extra-cellular matrix and also participate in adhesion-dependent signalling. Although these processes are essential for cancer metastasis, little is known about the molecular mechanisms that regulate adhesion dynamics during tumour cell migration. In this review, we provide an overview of recent advanced imaging strategies together with quantitative image analysis that can be implemented to understand the dynamics of matrix adhesions and its molecular components in relation to tumour cell migration. This dynamic cell imaging together with multiparametric image analysis will help in understanding the molecular mechanisms that define cancer cell migration.     

一个用于中小型企业的扩展ERP软件流程集成模型分析

在以前工作的基础上,主要讨论了一个将ERP(enterpriseresourceplanning,企业资源规划)、SRM(supplierrelationshipmanagement,供应商关系管理)、CRM(customerrelationshipmanagement,客户关系管理)集成为一体的简化流程模型.论文在界定了几个基本概念的基础上,描述了接触中心的发出流程和接收流程功能,讨论了对ERP软件的流程及核心管理和CRM软件的流程及核心管理思路,研究了对ERP同CRM的关联点,仿照对CRM的分析,对SRM做了类似的分析,最后给出了以关系为企业围墙的扩展ERP简化模型.