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Although scholars in science and technology studies have explored many dynamics and consequences of scientific controversy, no coherent theory of scientific dissent has emerged. This paper proposes the elements of such a framework, based on understanding scientific dissent as a set of heterogeneous practices. I use the controversy over the presence of transgenic DNA in Mexican maize in the early 2000s to point to a processual model of scientific dissent. 'Contrarian science' includes knowledge claims that challenge the dominant scientific trajectory, but need not necessarily lead to dissent. 'Impedance' represents efforts to undermine the credibility of contrarian science (or contrarian scientists) and may originate within or outside of the scientific community. In the face of impedance, contrarian scientists may become dissenters. The actions of the scientist at the center of the case study, Professor Ignacio Chapela of the University of California, Berkeley, demonstrate particular practices of scientific dissent, ranging from 'agonistic engagement' to 'dissident science'. These practices speak not only to functional strategies of winning scientific debate, but also to attempts to reconfigure relations among scientists, publics, institutions, and politics that order knowledge production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Qualitative Data Repository (QDR) provides infrastructure and guidance for the sharing and reuse of digital data used in qualitative and multi-method social inquiry. In this paper we describe some of the repository’s early experiences providing services developed specifically for the curation of qualitative research data. We focus on QDR’s efforts to address two key challenges for qualitative data sharing. The first challenge concerns constraints on data sharing in order to protect human participants and their identities and to comply with copyright laws. The second set of challenges addresses the unique characteristics of qualitative data and their relationship to the published text. We describe a novel method of annotating scholarly publications, resulting in a “transparency appendix” that allows the sharing of such “granular data” (Moravcsik et al., 2013). We conclude by describing the future directions of QDR’s services for qualitative data archiving, sharing, and reuse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public libraries in the Netherlands face growing scepticism about their value to communities and society at large. The digitization of media, information and communication gives rise to questions about the library’s function, as it still is based mainly on physical service provision. Furthermore, the current economic recession causes local, regional and national governments to critically question every euro spent on cultural institutions. In this climate, there is a growing need for public libraries to show their worth – not only in an economical, but also in a more sociological sense. As standardized measurements for these values are still lacking, a research program was started to develop these outcome measurements. In this paper, we sketch the rationale behind this program and the steps the Netherlands Institute of Public Libraries is taking to develop a measurement instrument geared at validly and reliably demonstrating the societal value of public libraries. Results from the first stages of the research program will be presented: a theoretical framework of the (possible) impact of libraries on Dutch society, based on the findings of a literature study and qualitative research. The findings help us identify and conceptually enrich five domains of possible impact: cognitive, social, cultural, affective and economical. This outcome framework will guide the development of a measuring instrument. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents results from a qualitative study of perceptions of science careers in the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), the main research institution in France. Its aim is to understand the 'glass ceiling' effect, which reduces the proportion of women at the higher levels of the career hierarchy. Long interviews were carried out with men, as well as women, support staff and researchers. Factors such as tension between individual and collective dimensions of research activity, and long-term time-management problems, were identified: these affect both men and women but in different ways. Organizations bear an important responsibility through the way they reinforce or alleviate difficulties that women and men face in contributing to scientific research at all levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an empirical analysis of simplification processes in the scientific work place. Any scientific task involves complex sets of problems and contingencies. But the conclusions produced do not represent all details of the work performed, nor do consumers take full account of the complexity of results. This paper examines the ways in which chains of inference are simplified at all stages of the research work, from research design and sampling to publication. What is deleted in the 'fact-making' process? What constraints operate to make this deletion necessary? This paper examined institutional and intersectional constraints and processes which affect the final work. The analytic approach of the paper is symbolic interactionist/Pragmatist, and field data were collected by participant observation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We model the dynamics of self-organized robot aggregation inspired by a study on the aggregation of gregarious arthropods. In swarms of German cockroaches, aggregation into clusters emerges solely from local interactions between the individuals, whereas the probabilities of joining or leaving a cluster are a function of the cluster size. We propose a non-spatial population dynamics model that keeps track of the number of robots in clusters of specific size using control parameters of the individual robots and the probability of detecting another robot in the environment. The model is able to quantitatively and qualitatively predict the dynamics observed in extensive realistic multi-robot simulation, and provides qualitative agreement with data obtained from aggregation of Blattela germanica larvae. In particular, we show by analysis, numerical and realistic simulation that the emergence of a single aggregate requires a minimal communication range between individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reduction of the cerebral perfusion pressure caused by vessel occlusion or stenosis is a cause of neurological symptoms and border-zone infarctions. The aim of this article is to describe perfusion patterns in hemodynamic stroke, to give a practical approach for the assessment of colour encoded CT- and MR-perfusion maps and to demonstrate the clinical use of comprehensive imaging in the workup of patients with hemodynamic stroke. Five patients with different duration cause and degree of hemodynamic stroke were selected. The patients shared the typical presentation with fluctuating and transient symptoms. All were examined by MR or CT angiography and MR or CT perfusion in the symptomatic phase. All patients were examined with diffusion weighted imaging. All five cases showed the altered perfusion patterns of hemodynamic insufficiency with a slight or marked increase in CBV in the supply area of the affected vessel and only slightly reduced or maintained CBF. The perfusion disturbances were most easily detected on the MTT maps. Border-zone infarctions were seen in all cases. The typical pattern for hemodynamic insufficiency is characterized by increased CBV, normal or decreased CBF and prolonged MTT in the affected areas. The increased CBV is the hallmark of stressed autoregulation. Reading the color-encoded perfusion maps enables a quick and robust assessment of the cerebral perfusion and its characteristic patterns. Internal border-zone infarctions can be regarded as a marker for hemodynamic insufficiency. Finding of the typical rosary-like pattern of DWI lesions should call for further work up. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

22-year-old woman had an aneurysmal SAH due to a ruptured anterior communicating artery aneurysm and was treated successfully with endovascular coiling. The patient subsequently developed severe clinical and angiographically distal vasospasm. After failure of both medical treatment and proximal balloon angioplasty, the NeuroFlo™ device was tried and the patient showed substantial clinical recovery. We demonstrated an excellent outcome using a novel treatment for distal cerebral vasospasm with the NeuroFlo™ device. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When abstract quantitative and generalizing sociologies are juxtaposed to qualitative sociologies, the relationship is often seen as complementary or competitive. Our purpose is to articulate a different type of relationship between abstract social scientific knowledge (as exemplified in Survey Research [SR]) and the form of concrete and particularized knowledge represented in ethnomethodological conversation analysis. SR, historically, represents what we (following Jean Converse) refer to as the `ascendance of the objectivized subjective realm'. Like other kinds of (in Ted Porter's phrase) `mechanical objectivity', this ascendance is everywhere made possible because it is accompanied by practitioners' (researchers' and interviewers') tacit practical forms of knowledge that enable them to work through the situated problems endemic to SR. As endeavours that locate orderliness and social organization in the details of actual social activity, ethnomethodology and conversation analysis find that SR Centres have intrinsic interest as sites of locally-produced structures. Investigating the situated tacit practices of investigators actually conducting SR and survey interviews, ethnomethodological and conversation analytical approaches to SR are also akin to the Sociology of Scientific Knowledge (SSK), which has largely investigated practices in natural science laboratories. This may suggest that there is `symmetry' between natural and social science, but we also argue that `asymmetry' is a serviceable notion for science studies. Indeed, understanding the asymmetry between survey-based and ethnomethodological social sciences offers potential for communication (rather than a `state of non-intercourse') between sociologists and the scientists they study. As an illustration of the Sociology of Social Scientific Knowledge (SSSK), we examine a successful attempt at `refusal conversion' in an SR Centre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the relationship between economic growth and innovation. Although economic growth is probably related to innovation, the relationship has been studied principally from a qualitative viewpoint. The problem has lain in appropriately quantifying innovation. Innovation can be considered in terms of the number of innovators or scientists. The relationship between the proportion of scientists to population and economic growth was explored for the regions within 11 countries. There is a strong negative correlation between growth and the scientific concentration. This indicates that the international example of Japan, which has combined high growth rates with comparatively small number of scientists, may hold regionally within many countries as well. In addition, the degree of centralization of scientific concentration, as a function of region, dropped for most countries between 1967 and 1972. The international degree of scientific inequality is decreasing.