Representing representations: the ethics of filming at Ground Zero

In this paper I analyse the ethical challenges that informed the production and filming of my documentary September Signs and Symbols. The film focuses on the material objects that commemorate the terrorist attacks of 9/11, and how this memorabilia circulates in New York City. The film explores how these objects have come to be complex signifiers containing within them the possibility for a range of meanings for people who create them, sell them, collect them, and use them and this paper reflects on the complex ethics of filming at Ground Zero – a highly charged political and cultural site. I analyse the ethics of representing a hyper‐represented space, the necessity for self‐reflexivity in the process of demystifying signifiers that have had meaning appended to them and my own complicity in the dialectic of production and consumption that informs any engagement with the objectified discourse of September 11th.     

Inventory control in hospital blood banks

The delicate relationship between donors and the Transfusion Service in the U.K. implies a clear duty to make the best possible use of the limited blood supplies, and this turns attention upon the stocking policies adopted by Hospital Blood Banks. Whereas Blood Bank staff can obtain an intuitive grasp of the effects of various stock levels for the common bloods, this is not usually the case for the rare bloods which are more difficult to control. A policy decision has to be made which balances the conflicting stock requirements of maintaining a high availability and also low out-dating rates. A Markovian structure is exploited in this paper for this purpose and the effects of the key variables are shown to be interrelated. In any particular instance the form of the probability distribution of demand between replenishments, the scale of the throughput, the blood life in relation to the ordering interval, the fraction of blood transfused and the fraction of the replenishment order which is supplied to the Bank will together determine the form of the operating characteristics.     

Combinatorial analysis for route first-cluster second vehicle routing

Two Route first-cluster second vehicle routing algorithms are contrasted in the first section of the paper. Next, the ‘large’ number of feasible solutions to a multiple travelling salesman problem is established given that each salesman can visit any number of customers in a stated range. An approximate expression is given for the ‘small’ fraction of this solution space searched by a route first-cluster second vehicle routing heuristic. Nevertheless, this heuristic is seen to be a very efficient means of searching its solution space.     

Liquidity and Trading Dynamics

In this paper, we build a model where the presence of liquidity constraints tends to magnify the economy's response to aggregate shocks. We consider a decentralized model of trade, where agents may use money or credit to buy goods. When agents do not have access to credit and the real value of money balances is low, agents are more likely to be liquidity constrained. This makes them more concerned about their short‐term earning prospects when making their consumption decisions and about their short‐term spending opportunities when making their production decisions. This generates a coordination element in spending and production which leads to greater aggregate volatility and greater comovement across producers.     

Adverse Selection in Competitive Search Equilibrium

We study economies with adverse selection, plus the frictions in competitive search theory. With competitive search, principals post terms of trade (contracts), then agents choose where to apply, and they match bilaterally. Search allows us to analyze the effects of private information on both the intensive and extensive margins (the terms and probability of trade). There always exists a separating equilibrium where each type applies to a different contract. The equilibrium is unique in terms of payoffs. It is not generally efficient. We provide an algorithm for constructing equilibrium. Three applications illustrate the usefulness of the approach, and contrast our results with those in standard contract and search theory.     

A Slippery Road to Equality: Hong Kong's experience of unplanned integrated education

This article examines the issue of children with a disability who are 'informally integrated' into mainstream school. Its main purpose is to reflect the views and experiences of parents, and to identify the major difficulties that arise and their suggestions for ameliorating the situation. The data is based on a series of interviews and focus groups of parents. In order to provide a balanced perspective, responses of schools to a questionnaire were also included. Teachers were asked to express their views about integrated education. These responses were then categorised. It was found that lack of resources and training predominated.     

Trapped in the Working Class? Prospects for the Intergenerational (Im)Mobility of Latino Youth

Opportunities for upward mobility have been declining in the United States in recent decades. Within this context, I examine the mobility trajectories of a contemporary cohort of 1.5‐, second‐, and third‐plus‐generation Latino youth. Drawing on survey data from California that accounts for the precarious legal status of many 1.5 generation immigrants, I find that Latino youths' patterns of postsecondary enrollment and employment do not differ by generation since migration. Additionally, I do not find evidence of racial/ethnic barriers to Latino youths' enrollment in less selective colleges and participation in the labor market. Yet, given the low socioeconomic origins of many Latino youth and their correspondingly low 4‐year college enrollment rates, only a small proportion will likely enjoy upward mobility through jobs that require a bachelor's degree. Overall, the cohort of Latino youth coming of age during the Great Recession is poised to experience working‐class stagnation. This group's future access to economic and political positions of power will likely be limited by their low enrollment rates in 4‐year colleges in general, but in selective postsecondary institutions in particular.     

Social media time,identity narratives and the construction of political biographies

ABSTRACT

The question of identity narrative is at the core of the interaction between social movements and temporalities. In this paper, we draw on long-term qualitative research amongst activists engaged in Italian social movements and argue that identity narratives are often the result of a complex mnemonic, contradictory and open-ended process that spans through a life-time of engagement with multiple collectives. We then question whether the use of social media reshape these dynamics. The analysis shows that the construction of identity narratives on social media tends to take place with knowledge of the complexity and overlaps that characterise these processes online. Nevertheless, the temporality of social media, based on immediacy, archival and predictive time, challenges the unpredictable, contradictory, and open-ended nature of political identity construction offline. The need to escape the hegemonic temporalities of social media poses new challenges to activists in their creative agency.     

Analysis of the Multistep Process of Carcinogenesis Using Human Fibroblasts

Normal human cells in culture have never been neoplastically transformed by carcinogen exposure. One possible explanation is that the life span of such cells is too short for them to acquire the necessary changes. To test this hypothesis, we needed normal human cells with a greatly extended or an infinite life span. We transfected the v- myc gene and a selectable marker into normal human fibroblasts, identified a drug-resistant clone expressing v- myc protein, and passaged the progeny of the clone until they senesced. A few cells continued to proliferate and gave rise to a diploid, infinite life span cell strain, MSU-1.0, that has normal growth control and is nontumorigenic in athymic mice. Analysis showed that one more genetic change, in addition to unregulated expression of the v- myc gene, was involved in generating MSU-1.0 cells. They spontaneously gave rise to a variant strain, designated MSU-1.1, that grows more rapidly and is less dependent on exogenous growth factors. Analysis showed that at least two additional changes were involved in generating this cell strain. It has a stable karyotype composed of 45 chromosomes, including two markers. Transfection of specific oncogenes was used to determine the number and nature of additional changes required to transform MSU-1.1 cells into malignant cells. Analysis indicated that two changes were involved, but no change in karyotype. Exposure of MSU-1.1 cells to a single carcinogen treatment, followed by selection for cells with the characteristics of oncogene-trans-formed MSU-1.1 cells also yielded malignant human cells. We conclude that malignant transformation of normal human fibroblasts requires six or seven genetic changes, some of which involve suppressor genes.