Journal articles on the topic 'Busbar joint'

Recent uptake in the use of lithium-ion battery packs within electric vehicles has drawn significant attention to the selection of busbar material and corresponding thickness, which are usually based on mechanical, electrical and thermal characteristics of the welded joints, material availability and cost. To determine joint behaviour corresponding to critical-to-quality criteria, this study uses one of the widely used joining technologies, ultrasonic metal welding (UMW), to produce tab-to-busbar joints using copper and aluminium busbars of varying thicknesses. Joints for electrical and thermal characterisation were selected based on the satisfactory mechanical strength determined from the T-peel tests. Electrical contact resistance and corresponding temperature rise at the joints were compared for different tab-to-busbar joints by passing current through the joints. The average resistance or temperature increase from the 0.3 mm Al tab was 0.6 times higher than the 0.3 mm Cu[Ni] tab, irrespective of busbar selection.

Insulated copper busbar is widely used as a new type of electrical equipment in recent years. The joint of the busbar is linked with soft connection copper belt in the field. So, it is very easily lead to the metal protrusion defect at the joint. The metal protrusion detect at joint with entity insulated copper busbar is builded in lab. The partial discharge characteristics of this defect is studied under different applied voltage and the results show that such defect has apparent polarity effect, the discharge always appears in the negative half cycle. The discharge amplitude will not be increased very much with increasing of applied voltage but the discharge frequency will be increased significantly. The results provide the basis of laboratory studies for the field testing of insulated copper busbar.

Abstract This work investigates the benefits of having an aluminum (Al) busbar with welded copper (Cu) ends, and evaluates the force relaxation phenomena of a pre-loaded bolt joint on Cu versus Al, under cyclic thermal loading. The results show a force relaxation rate 50% lower in the Cu-bolted joint compared with the one in Al. The core of this research is the weldability analysis of Al-Cu butt joints made by friction stir welding (FSW). The materials are AA1050 H14/24 and Cu OF 04 with thickness of 6 mm. Temperature monitoring during the FSW cycle emphasize how heat generation depends mostly on local internal viscoplastic deformation. Tensile, bending, and microhardness tests were used to establish the mechanical properties. Optical microscope and scanning electron microscopy were used to characterize the microstructure. Joining mechanisms in the weld were investigated using energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The FSW resulted in 85% tensile strength efficiency compared to the Al base material, and 97% electrical conductivity efficiency compared to an ideal bimetallic component made of the same materials with no contact resistance. Electrical resistance of the FSW is 200 times lower than the electrical contact resistance between the Al-Cu materials while under high compressive force.

To improve the structure of metal in welded butt joints of railway rails produced by flash-butt welding and increase the reliability of butt joints, it is advisable to carry out their induction heat treatment using high-frequency currents. Solving the problem of a uniform bulk heating of weld metal of railway rails in a narrow area during its heat treatment remains an urgent task. The work describes the principle of designing an inductor without magnetic cores for carrying out a uniform bulk heat treatment of welded butt joints of railway rails for realization of favorable phase transformations of metal and normalization of its structure. The principle is based on the physical laws of propagation of electromagnetic fields and electric currents in the inductor and a rail. Based on the carried out investigations, an inductor was designed that has a variable shape along the perimeter of a rail and a variable distance from it, as well as a partial splitting of the inductor busbar for current parallelization, which provides a uniform bulk heating of a rail butt joint. Splitting of the inductor busbar allowed adjusting the propagation of currents in the inductor and a rail in such a way as to avoid overheating of a rail in its particular areas without a significant increase in the distance between the inductor and a rail, and respectively without a significant increase in the reactive power of the “inductor-product” system. The carried out experiments on heating the welded butt joint of a rail by the designed inductor showed the indices of uniformity and rate of its bulk heating, which are acceptable for heat treatment of rails both on the surface as well as in the depth of a rail in a narrow heating zone with providing the required temperature levels.

To improve the structure of metal in welded butt joints of railway rails produced by flash-butt welding and increase the reliability of butt joints, it is advisable to carry out their induction heat treatment using high-frequency currents. Solving the problem of a uniform bulk heating of weld metal of railway rails in a narrow area during its heat treatment remains an urgent task. The work describes the principle of designing an inductor without magnetic cores for carrying out a uniform bulk heat treatment of welded butt joints of railway rails for realization of favorable phase transformations of metal and normalization of its structure. The principle is based on the physical laws of propagation of electromagnetic fields and electric currents in the inductor and a rail. Based on the carried out investigations, an inductor was designed that has a variable shape along the perimeter of a rail and a variable distance from it, as well as a partial splitting of the inductor busbar for current parallelization, which provides a uniform bulk heating of a rail butt joint. Splitting of the inductor busbar allowed adjusting the propagation of currents in the inductor and a rail in such a way as to avoid overheating of a rail in its particular areas without a significant increase in the distance between the inductor and a rail, and respectively without a significant increase in the reactive power of the “inductor-product” system. The carried out experiments on heating the welded butt joint of a rail by the designed inductor showed the indices of uniformity and rate of its bulk heating, which are acceptable for heat treatment of rails both on the surface as well as in the depth of a rail in a narrow heating zone with providing the required temperature levels.

The authors seek to investigate the characteristics of outage-causing faults that can be observed in a short time frame after their occurrence: waveform of the voltages and currents. The aim is to identify which characteristics can be used to estimate the failure type immediately after its occurrence. This paper lays the groundwork to determine which features display a stronger relation to four failure types with the aim of using this information in a later work, not presented in this paper, aimed at designing a reliable failure type estimator from readily available data. This paper focuses on the most common failures of the underground cable MV networks in Portugal: cable insulation; cable joint; secondary substation busbar; and excavation-motivated failures. A set of 206 waveform records of real underground MV network failures was available for analysis. After investigating the waveforms, the authors identified seven waveform characteristics which can be used for failure type estimation. Fault type characteristics can be used to distinguish secondary substation failures from the remaining failure types. Fault evolution does not yield relevant information. Fault self-extinction phenomenon was not observed in excavation-caused failures. There are differences for self-extinction characteristics between secondary substation busbar failures and the cable insulation and joint failures. Fault inception instant and arc voltage are two characteristics which are shown to have a promising merit to the identification process of failure types. Finally, fault intra-cycle repetitive extinction results have been found to be very similar for cable insulation failures and joint failures, but otherwise different regarding the remaining failure types.

Abstract Thermal silver plating method by means of nanosilver-based paint could be an alternative to electrochemical processes. Electrochemical silver layering on aluminium is typically achieved with an intermediate layer, which provides very good adhesion of the layer to the aluminium surface but increases the resistance of the whole junction system. In the method of silver plating promoted by the authors, the intermediate layer is eliminated. The layer of silver paint was applied directly on the aluminium surface by spraying using aerograph. Procured silver layers, according to ISO 2409, prove proper adhesion to aluminium. The value of contact resistance with a pressure of 300 N cm−2 and current load of 200 A is 0.03 μΩ mm−2, which is comparable to the contact resistance of layers generated by electrochemical means. This new method decreases the level of toxic waste emission and therefore is less harmful for the natural environment. It is also cheaper and simpler than the electrochemical process. An additional advantage is the possibility of silver plating of the chosen surfaces with various shapes.

Due to the increasing demand for connecting cells in packets to power electric tools, bicycles and electric cars, the issue of the quality of battery cells with busbars joints with the use of external heat electrodes is particularly important. The paper presents the conditions of the joining process and modelling results using the DC source. Modelling was performed using commercially available Sorpas 3D software. It included checking the influence of the busbar shape, clamping force, electrode material, the shape of electrode face, the length of the tungsten inserts in the welding electrodes on the amount of heat and the diameter of the connections. Modelling results revealed in particular increased heat generation and connection diameters for electrodes with a smaller work surface, however, industrial practice shows that the electrode face diameter durability is limited and that the electrodes flatten - the electrode face diameter increases.

In industry, the transmission of electricity usually requires high currents transported for very long distances, and in some cases, such as in aluminum plants, the use of high currents is essential for the reduction process. The connections between the electrical furnaces and the transmission cables are made with busbars, which can be comprised of either one or two different types of metal. In this transmission process, the main method to upgrade electrical circuit performance is by improving conductivity at the joint interface. Due to the need to reduce cost and simplify maintenance procedures, the interfaces at the joints are simply brushed, and conductive pastes are pressed between the contacting metals. The material most commonly used is a high-cost graphite paste, which is not produced by any Brazilian company. This paper presents a novel conductive paste, easily elaborated from industrial residues, involving low-cost production, yet presenting better results than those obtained with the graphite paste.

Objetivo: Descrever os achados relatados na literatura científica em relação as alterações articulares em indivíduos acometidos por Chikungunya. Metodología: Este estudo foi realizado noe meses de setembro a novembro de 2020, por meio das bases de dados: Pubmed, Scientific Eletronic Library Online (Scielo), Literatura Latino-Americana e do Caribe em Ciências da Saúde (Lilacs), Science Direct e Google acadêmico. Não houve restrições de idioma e ano de publicação. Foi utilizada uma chave de buscas associadas aos conectores booleanos AND e OR: Chikungunya OR Chikungunya virus infection OR Infection, chinkugunya virus AND adult OR old man AND joint OR joint pains OR joint diseases OR alteration joint. Todos os descritores utilizados nas chaves de buscas foram obtidos na base Medical Subject Headings (MeSH). Foram excluidos do estudo: revisão de literature, capítulos de livros, indivíduos com idade abaixo de 18 anos e estudos realizados em animais. Resultados: Pacientes infectados pela Chikungunya podem apresentar como sintomatologia, alterações articulares como: poliartrite inflamatória crônica, artrite crônica pós-chikungunya, reumatismo inflamatório, dor crônica nas articulações associada à sinovite. As regiões mais relatadas para alterações articulares são joelho, punho e tornozelo. dores articulares podem apresentar duração variada. A maioria dos pacientes se recupera completamente, mas, em alguns casos, a dor nas articulações pode persistir por meses ou anos. Conclusão: Pacientes infectados por Chikungunya pode apresentar alterações articulares além do processo álgico. Sugere-se continuidade de estudos nessa área com objetivo de conhecer ainda mais sobre esse processo inflamatório que ocorre nas articulações dos pacientes infectados por essa arbovirose.

SummaryThe Little Bustard Tetrax tetrax (Linnaeus, 1758) is a medium-sized, ‘Near Threatened’ steppe bird, whose Iberian population has been alarmingly declining over recent decades. Although this population loss has been mainly attributed to agricultural intensification, there is no information on Little Bustard adult mortality levels and their drivers. Based on a joint effort combining all the tracking data on adult Little Bustards collected over a period of 12 years by all research teams working with the species in Iberia, we found that annual anthropogenic mortality is likely to have a critical impact on the species, with values almost as high as the mortality attributed to predation. Collision with power lines was found to be the main anthropogenic threat to the adult population (3.4–3.8%/year), followed by illegal killing (2.4–3%/year), which had a higher impact than initially foreseen. Our work shows how poorly understood and previously unknown threats are affecting the survival of the most important Little Bustard population in Europe.

Dada a importância de seus resultados, projetos, programas e serviços dirigidos a diferentes segmentos da sociedade têm sido acompanhados por avaliações que buscam revelar se houve o alcance da desejada qualidade. No entanto, a condução adequada dessas avaliações pode ser posta em cheque, isto é, verificada por meio de meta-avaliações. Meta-avaliação foi definida como a avaliação de uma avaliação. Assim, o presente artigo apresenta algumas abordagens que representam a contribuição de diversos autores para a realização de meta-avaliações. São abordagens aplicáveis a meta-avaliações somativas e formativas. Algumas indicações de meta-avaliações já desenvolvidas fazem parte do artigo, que destaca as possibilidades de utilização da última versão publicada dos padrões internacionais de avaliação, do Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation.

Este artigo tem como objetivo principal analisar o comportamento das atividades de inovação em empresas de base tecnológica que passaram por um processo de incubação. Para tal, realizou-se uma pesquisa exploratória baseada em um estudo de caso múltiplo aplicado a seis empresas de base tecnológica graduadas de uma incubadora, a partir do modelo de gestão de inovação de três etapas: buscar, selecionar e implementar. A pesquisa destaca o papel que a incubadora tem no acompanhamento das atividades de gestão das Empresas de Base Tecnológica (EBTs) durante a fase de incubação e o comportamento das empresas nas atividades que fazem parte do processo de gestão da inovação. Os resultados mostram aspectos positivos e negativos das atividades do processo de gestão de inovação nas empresas estudadas. O baixo desempenho na aplicação de procedimentos para estudar as oportunidades de mercado e identificar melhorias potenciais nos produtos existentes foi evidenciado através dos índices calculados. Adicionalmente, as auditorias de projetos de inovação e os planos de investimento em pesquisa e desenvolvimento foram identificadas como as ferramentas de gestão menos padronizadas pelas EBTs. Elementos dentro das rotinas de gestão de inovação destacados como positivos foram os joint ventures para a concepção de novos produtos, a troca de know-how e a alavancagem de capacidade tecnológica. Finalmente, as EBTs mostraram um bom desempenho no índice atrelado à implementação de testes e ensaios antes do lançamento de novos produtos e/ou serviços ao mercado.

Electroluminescence (EL) measurements allow one to detect damages and/or defective parts in photovoltaic systems. In principle, it seems possible to predict the complete current/voltage curve from such pictures even automatically. However, such a precise analysis requires image corrections and calibrations, because vignetting and lens distortion cause signal and spatial distortions. Earlier works on crystalline silicon modules used the cell gap joints (CGJ) as calibration pattern. Unfortunately, this procedure fails if the detection of the gaps is not accurate or if the contrast in the images is low. Here, we enhance the automated camera calibration algorithm with a reliable pattern detection and analyze quantitatively the quality of the process. Our method uses an iterative Hough transform to detect line structures and uses three key figures (KF) to separate detected busbars from cell gaps. This method allows a reliable identification of all cell gaps, even in noisy images or if disconnected edges in PV cells exist or potential induced degradation leads to a low contrast between active cell area and background. In our dataset, a subset of 30 EL images (72 cell each) forming grid (5×11) lead to consistent calibration results. We apply the calibration process to 997 single module EL images of PV modules and evaluate our results with a random subset of 40 images. After lens distortion correction and perspective correction, we analyze the residual deviation between ideal target grid points and the previously detected CGJ after applied distortion and perspective correction. For all of the 2200 control points in the 40 evaluation images, we achieve a deviation of less than or equal to 3 pixels. For 50% of the control points, a deviation of of less than or equal to 1 pixel is reached.

Abstract: in the context of contemporary politico-economic higher education institutions have been revalued and came to be regarded as one of the crucial actors in the development of a particular region or location. The present study sought to investigate whether the expansion of higher education, in the 1995-2014 period, has contributed to the regional development of the State of Goiás and if there have been joint social policies with regional policies. For both, the bibliographical research and exploratory socioeconomic profiles-Central Goiás State, Brazil. To get greater familiarity with the object of study, were observed some threads involving higher education short term both as long-term. Apparently, the short-term (expenditures-backward linkages) were successful, but those of long term (knowledge-forward linkages) had a result quite insignificant when compared with the efforts expended. Similarly, it is believed that these could, in the analyzed period, if the social and regional policies were more articulated, generate higher positive externalities that would promote sustained and cumulative regional and local developmentA Expansão da Educação Superior no Estado de Goiás: Novas Possibilidades para o Desenvolvimento RegionalResumo: num contexto político-econômico contemporâneo as instituições de ensino superior foram revalorizadas e passaram a ser consideradas como um dos atores cruciais no desenvolvimento de determinada região ou local. O presente trabalho procurou investigar se a expansão da educação superior, no período 1995-2014, tem contribuído para o desenvolvimento regional do Estado de Goiás e se tem ocorrido articulação das políticas sociais com as políticas regionais. Para tanto, utiliza-se a pesquisa bibliográfica e exploratória dos perfis socioeconômicos do Estado de Goiás. Ao buscar maior familiaridade com o objeto de estudo, foram observados alguns encadeamentos que envolvem a educação superior tanto de curto prazo quanto de longo prazo. Ao que parece, os de curto prazo (dispêndios - backwards linkages) foram exitosos, porém aqueles de longo prazo (conhecimento – forward linkages) tiveram um resultado bastante insignificante ao serem comparados com os esforços despendidos. Da mesma forma, acredita-se que estes poderiam, no período analisado, se as políticas sociais e regionais fossem mais articuladas, gerar maiores externalidades positivas que viessem a promover prolongado e acumulativo desenvolvimento regional e local.La Expansión de la Educación Superior en el Estado de Goiás: Nuevas Posibilidades para el Desarrollo Regional?Resumen: en un contexto político-económico contemporáneo las instituciones de enseñanza superior fueron revalorizadas y pasaron a ser consideradas como uno de los actores cruciales en el desarrollo de determinada región o local. El presente trabajo buscó investigar si la expansión de la educación superior, en el período 1995-2014, ha contribuido al desarrollo regional del Estado de Goiás y si ha habido articulación de las políticas sociales con las políticas regionales. Para ello, se utiliza la investigación bibliográfica y exploratoria de los perfiles socioeconómicos del Estado de Goiás. Al buscar mayor familiaridad con el objeto de estudio, se observaron algunos encadenamientos que involucran la educación superior tanto a corto plazo como a largo plazo. Por lo que parece, los de corto plazo (desembolsos - backwards linkages) fueron exitosos, pero aquellos de largo plazo (conocimiento - forward linkages) tuvieron un resultado bastante insignificante al ser comparados con los esfuerzos gastados. De la misma forma, se cree que éstos podrían, en el período analizado, si las políticas sociales y regionales fueran más articuladas, generar mayores externalidades positivas que vinieran a promover prolongado y acumulativo desarrollo regional y local.

La necesidad de construir un procedimiento administrativo rápido, ágil y flexible justifica la necesidad de este estudio, frente a uno de los problemas jurídicos actuales más graves, que se detectan en la práctica española, como es el silencio administrativo o de otra forma la falta de respuesta de una Administración silente en sus procedimientos con sus administrados. Para la defensa de la reforma jurídica de esta figura, ha sido necesario proponer una visión en conjunto sobre sus orígenes y la situación actual en el ordenamiento jurídico, analizando el impacto de las últimas sentencias sobre el tema. La conclusión alcanzada confirma la tesis planteada de que actualmente el fin de la sociedad , es conseguir tener una Administración eficaz, eficiente y diligente en la que no tiene cabida el Silencio Administrativo y todo ello supone buscar nuevas propuestas metodológicas como la que se plantea en este estudio. Con ello se reforzarían las garantías procedimentales, se recuperaría la confianza de los administrados, cuando se relacionan con la administración, pero además permitiría una aplicación más eficaz del Derecho Administrativo y un mejor control de la aplicación del procedimiento. The need to build a fast ,agile and flexible administrative procedure justifies the need for this study , in the face of one of the most serious current legal problems that are detected in Spanish practice, such as administrative silence or otherwise the lack of response of a silent administration in its procedures with its administered. For the defense of the legal reform of this figure, it has been necessary to propose a joint vision on its origins and the current situation in the legal system, analyzing the impact of the last sentences on the subject. The conclusion reached confirms the thesis that currently the aim of society, is to have an effective, efficient and diligent administration in which administrative silence has no place and all this means finding new methodological proposals such as the one proposed in this study. This would strengthen the procedural guarantees, recover the trust of the administrated, when they are related to the administration, but also allow a more effective application of Administrative Law and a better control of the application of the procedure.

En la Universidad Estatal a Distancia, existe un movimiento orientado al desarrollo de la cultura de la acreditación, con miras a asegurar el mejoramiento continuo de los programas de educación que se imparten, en donde también participan de manera importante los programas de posgrado, quienes actualmente se basan en los estándares del modelo ACAP/SINAES. La UNED utiliza el modelo cualitativo, que impulsa el autoconocimiento, la reflexión y el análisis de los actores que buscan asegurar la calidad de sus programas por medio de la autoevaluación, acreditación y mejoramiento continuo. Para lograr lo anterior, debe existir una cultura de compromiso de las partes involucradas, para concentrar esfuerzos en los lineamientos y objetivos trazados desde el momento en que se decide ingresar al proceso de autoevaluación de los programas.Palabras clave: posgrado, autoevaluación, mejoramiento, acreditación, calidad.Abstract In the State University Distance, there is a movement aimed at developing a culture of accreditation in order to ensure continuing improvement of education programs that are taught, which also involved a major graduate programs, who are currently are based on model standards ACAP / SINAES. UNED use the qualitative model, which promotes self-awareness, reflection and analysis of the actors who seek to ensure the quality of their programs through self-evaluation, accreditation and continuous improvement. To achieve this, there must be a culture of commitment of the parties involved to focus efforts on the guidelines and targets set from the moment you decide to join the process of self-evaluation of programs.Keywords: graduate, self, improvement, accreditation, quality

Estuda-se aqui a contribuição do princípio misericórdia, formulado por Jon Sobrino em teologia e por nós colocado no contexto da questão dos princípios em Bioética. Em grande parte tributária ao principialismo norte-americano, a bioética carrega marcas do liberalismo reforçado pelo princípio kantiano da autonomia. O princípio misericórdia oferece um contraponto contundente que vem da vulnerabilidade dos pobres e da sua condição social nomeada por Sobrino como um “povo de crucificados”. Superando a formulação de uma misericórdia ingênua, soma-se a sua força espiritual com as exigências de uma responsabilidade capaz de torná-la transformadora. Desta forma, o princípio misericórdia vem reforçar tendências da bioética no Brasil que buscam superar o principialismo circunscrito aos âmbitos das relações de saúde, para se tornar uma bioética social de grande abrangência.Abstract: This study is about the principle of mercy formulated by Jon Sobrino in theology and put in the context of the principles in Bioethics. Mostly attributed to the North American principialism, bioethics hold marks from the liberalism reinforced by the Kantian principle of autonomy. The principle of mercy offers a crucial counterpoint which comes from the vulnerability of the poor and their social condition named by Sobrino as a “people of crucified ones”. Suppressing the formulation of a naïve mercy, its spiritual strength joins the demands of responsibility in order to be capable to change and to transform realities. So, the principle of mercy can reinforce the bioethical tendencies in Brazil in overlapping its circumscription to the principialism in the field of health relations, in order to reach a social bioethics with a broader inclusion of the poor.

In the past four years, there has been a flurry of valuable new work on the poems of the Gawain-poet (also known as the Pearl-poet), which includes new editions, translations, monographs, pedagogical studies, and online resources. Among the editions and translations are Malcolm Andrew and Ronald Waldron’s excellent facsimile edition and translation of Cotton Nero A.x (Folio Society, 2016), Simon Armitage’s verse translations of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Pearl (W.W. Norton, 2008 and 2016 respectively) and, I allow myself to mention, my own dual-language edition-translation of Pearl with supplementary materials for collegiate teaching (Broadview, forthcoming). Academic monographs include Piotyr Spyra’s Epistemological Perspective of the Pearl-Poet (Ashgate, 2014), Cecelia Hatt’s God and the Gawain-Poet: Theology and Genre (Boydell & Brewer, 2015), my Signifying Power of Pearl: Medieval Literary and Cultural Contexts for the Transformation of Genre (Routledge, 2017), and Lisa Horton’s Scientific Rhetoric of the Pearl-Poet (Arc Humanities Press, forthcoming). Editors Mark Bradshaw Busbee and I have published Approaches to Teaching the Middle English Pearl (MLA, 2017), which contains insightful pedagogical essays from several professors. The journal Glossator provides a complete commentary on each section of Pearl, available online (<ext-link ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="https://glossator.org/2015/03/30/glossator-9-2015-pearl">https://glossator.org/2015/03/30/glossator-9-2015-pearl</ext-link>/), and additional resources are available at “Medieval Pearl” (<ext-link ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="https://medievalpearl.wordpress.com">https://medievalpearl.wordpress.com</ext-link>). Now Ethan Campbell’s The Gawain-Poet and the Fourteenth-Century English Anticlerical Tradition joins the ranks, making a meaningful contribution to our understanding of the poet in his cultural milieu.

La represa Salvajina, una de las grandes hidroeléctricas de Colombia, ubicada en el noroccidente del Cauca, en los municipios de Suárez, Morales y Buenos Aires, ha sido una construcción controversial por los impactos sociales y ambientales que ha generado durante la administración de diferentes multinacionales y empresas privadas. La gobernanza se involucra en la administración de esta, pues es permanente la articulación entre Estado sociedad civil y actores privados, donde supone el reto de efectuar la gobernabilidad en el margen legal. La administración de la represa, sus repercusiones socioambientales y la gobernabilidad son tres factores que confluyen para determinar el impacto general de este proyecto frente a la población aledaña. A partir de lo anterior, este escrito intenta ver cómo dicho impacto ha sido remediado, o, en su defecto, cuáles son las tentativas para lograrlo, pues desde una perspectiva críticoanalítica, el manejo y regulación del Estado frente a los actores privados permite que las dinámicas sociales se vean impactadas negativa o positivamente, en la culturalización de nuevas formas de vida relacionadas con la construcción de la represa. En suma, el artículo apunta a que el reto del Estado, en el marco de la gobernanza, y dentro de una armonía teórica horizontal, es suscitar la gobernabilidad entre los actores que buscan beneficio de distinta índole en la represa Salvajina.Palabras clave: megaproyectos, desarrollo, impacto social, impacto ambiental, actores privados, sociedad civil, acción estatal, gobernanza, gobernabilidad. Abstract:Salvajina Dam: far from development, close to oblivion Salvajina dam, one of the greatest hydroelectric of Colombia, located in the Northwest of Cauca, in the municipalities of Suárez, Morales and Buenos Aires has been controversial for the social and environmental impacts generated, within the administration of different multinationals and private companies. Governance is involved in the administration of this, because joint is permanent between State, civil society and private actors, where the challenge of governance in the legal margin. The management of the dam, its social and environmental impacts; and it governance are three factors that converge in determine an impact general to the population surrounding and how these have been remediated, or in its defect them attempts of achieving it. As a perspective critical analytical, management and regulation of the State to private players allows that the social dynamics will be impacted positively or negative on the culturalisation of new forms of life because of the construction of the dam. Raise governance is the challenge of the State within the framework of governance, within a horizontal theoretical harmony between players seeking benefits of different kind in the Salvajina dam.Keywords: Megaprojects, development, social impact, environmental impact, private actors, civil society, state action, governance, governability.

The Western academic literature and media coverage of the increasing economic and political relations between the People’s Republic of China (PRC or China) and the Latin American and Caribbean countries contains biases, fears, and misinformation about those relations. Closer examination reveals that Chinese trade, investment and loans have supported the left-leaning governments in the region that are attempting to develop alternative postcapitalist societies. China’s leaders seek allies among the developing countries to join with them in creating a new multipolar and more equitable global order. The PRC has launched a new economic strategy that makes consumer demand the main engine of China’s economic development. It seeks to boost productivity, reduce the country’s growing income disparities, and pursue an environmentally sustainable path of economic development based on advanced high-value and clean manufacturing technologies and renewable sources of clean energy. The PRC’s goal of developing a new ecological civilization will provide opportunities for the Latin American and Caribbean economies to export a more diversified basket of goods to China and attract Chinese investments and loans into new areas such as renewable energy.La literatura académica occidental y la cobertura mediática de las crecientes relaciones económicas y políticas entre la República Popular China (RPC o China) y los países de América Latina y el Caribe incluyen prejuicios, miedos, y desinformación respecto a esas relaciones. Un examen más detenido revela que el comercio, la inversión, y los préstamos chinos han apoyado los gobiernos de izquierda en la región que intentan establecer sociedades alternativas post-capitalistas. Los líderes chinos buscan aliados entre los países en vías de desarrollo para aunar esfuerzos en la creación de un nuevo orden global multipolar y más equitativo. La RPC ha lanzado una nueva estrategia económica colocando la demanda consumidora como motor principal del desarrollo económico chino. Busca impulsar la productividad, reducir las crecientes disparidades de ingresos en el país, y emprender un camino sostenible de desarrollo económico en base a tecnologías avanzadas de alto valor y de manufactura limpia junto con fuentes renovables de energía limpia. El objetivo de la RPC de promover una nueva civilización ecológica brindará oportunidades para la exportación de parte de las economías latinoamericanas y caribeñas de una canasta más diversificada de bienes a la China y de atraer inversiones y préstamos chinos en nuevas áreas como la energía renovable.

Purpose – Interfirm relationships create value, but buyers and suppliers can appropriate this value in different amounts. Using the relational-view of strategy, the purpose of this paper is to explain value creation and determine the portion of that value appropriated by each organization. Design/methodology/approach – The data source was a survey with 166 respondents covering two industries. The authors used confirmatory factor analysis to validate construct measurement and structural equation modeling to test the hypotheses. A parallel qualitative investigation composed of 31 interviews assisted in interpreting the findings. Findings – Based on the relational view of strategy, the authors found support for only two of the four hypotheses that sought to explain value creation. This result calls into question the applicability of this theory to contexts other than the automotive industry, in which it was developed. Only a joint construct combining Relational Governance and Resource Complementarity had a significant effect on relational value creation. With respect to value appropriation, although both buyers and suppliers captured part of the relational value created, the buyers tended to receive the great majority of this value. Research limitations/implications – The focussed context of this study (Brazilian companies in the personal care/cosmetics and food/beverage industries) limits its generalizability but provides deeper insight into the interpretation of its results. Practical implications – Both buyers and suppliers can benefit from collaborative relationships, but buyers appear to capture a larger share, forcing suppliers to continuously seek new sources of value. Originality/value – This paper bridges the gap between the buyer-supplier literature and the definition of competitive advantage as value creation found in the strategic management literature. This study proposes and tests an integrative definition of the relational value that is created and appropriated in a dyad. Keywords Buyer-supplier, Relational-view of strategy, Value creation and appropriation Paper type Research paper Resumen Objetivo Objetivo – Las relaciones entre empresas generan valor, pero los compradores y proveedores puede apropiarse de este valor en cantidades diferentes. Usando una perspectiva relacional (relational-view) de la estrategia, este articulo explica la creación de valor y determina la proporción de ese valor asignado por cada organización. Diseño/metodología/enfoque – Nuestra fuente de datos fue una encuesta con 166 respuestas abarcando dos industrias. Usamos el Análisis Factorial Confirmatorio para validar los factores construidos y modelos de ecuaciones estructurales para evaluar las hipótesis. Una investigación cualitativa paralela compuesta por 31 entrevistas ayudó a interpretar los hallazgos. Hallazgos – Basados en la perspectiva relacional de la estrategia, encontramos respaldo sólo para dos de las cuatros hipótesis que buscaban explicar la creación del valor. Este resultado invita a preguntar la aplicabilidad de esta teoría a contextos más allá de la industria automotriz, en donde se desarrolló. Solo un factor conjunto que combina la Gobernanza Relacional y Complementariedad de Recursos tuvo un efecto significativo en la Creación De Valor Relacional. En cuanto a la apropiación de valor, aunque ambos compradores y proveedores capturan parte del valor relacional creado, los vendedores tendieron a recibir la gran mayoría de este valor. Limitaciones/implicaciones del estudio – El contexto en el cual se focalizó este estudio (Empresas Brasileñas de cosméticos y cuidado personal e industrias de comidas/bebidas) limita su generalización pero provee un conocimiento más profundos a la interpretación de sus resultados. Implicaciones practices – Ambos, compradores y proveedores pueden beneficiarse de una relacion de colaboración, pero los compradores parecen capturar una mayor proporción, forzando a los proveedores a continuamente buscar nuevas fuentes de valor. Originalidad/valor – Este articulo acerca la brecha entre la literatura del comprador y proveedor y la definición de la ventaja competitiva como creación de valor hallada en la literatura de estrategia de administración. Este estudio propone y prueba una definición integradora del valor relacional que es creado y apropiado en la díada. Tipo de papel Trabajo de investigación Resumo Objetivo Objetivo – As relações entre empresas criam valor, mas os compradores e fornecedores podem apropriar-se deste valor em quantidades diferentes. Usando a Visão Relacional da Estratégia, este artigo explica a criação de valor e determina a proporção deste valor apropriado por cada organização. Desenho/metodologia/enfoque – A base de dados foi uma survey respondida por 166 empresas de dois setores industriais. Foi utilizada uma Análise Fatorial Confirmatória para avaliação dos constructos e Modelagem de Equações Estruturais para teste de hipóteses. Uma pesquisa qualitativa paralela composta de 31 entrevistas ajudou a interpretar os resultados. Achados – Baseado na Visão Relacional da Estratégia, foram confirmadas apenas duas das quatro hipóteses que buscavam explicar a criação de valor. Este resultado questiona assim a aplicabilidade desta teoria a outros setores que não a indústria automobilística, no qual esta abordagem originalmente foi desenvolvida. Somente um construto resultante da combinação dos construtos de Governança Relacional e de Complementaridade de Recursos teve um efeito significativo na criação de Valor Relacional. Quanto à apropriação de valor, embora compradores e fornecedores capturam parte do valor relacional criado, os compradores tendem a ficar com maior parte deste valor. Limitações/implicações da pesquisa – O foco desta pesquisa (empresas brasileiras dos setores de alimentos, bebidas e higiene pessoal) limita a sua generalização, embora forneça um conhecimento mais profundo à interpretação dos resultados. Implicações práticas – Tanto compradores e fornecedores podem se beneficiar de uma relação de colaboração, mas os compradores parecem capturar uma maior proporção forçando os fornecedores a continuamente buscar novas fontes de valor. Originalidade/valor – Este artigo preenche uma lacuna na literatura de comprador-fornecedor e a definição da vantagem competitiva como resultado do valor. Esta pesquisa se propõe a testar uma definição integrada do valor relacional criado e apropriado dentro de uma díade. Tipo de papel Trabalhos de pesquisa

This experience report presents the implications in the search for the implementation of the project "Middle level technical education: the dialogue between disciplines", developed on one of the campuses of the Catarinense Federal Institute (IFC). The integrated technical course of medium level in agriculture was chosen due to it having a higher supply of vacancies and, therefore, a greater number of classes and professionals of related areas acting. The professors who welcomed the challenge of seeking paths for the integration of knowledge from different areas of expertise planned activities in a joint way, identifying common points. The purpose was to implicate each component in the context of the others, considering its specificities, as a way of valuing the widening of understandings in the search for expanding and merging horizons through dialogue in the context of the course curriculum. The work consisted of a double-handed exercise among professors as the main agents of this proposal, electing the needs of the collective as a priority. This allowed achieving considerable success, because in addition to a differentiated training offered to students, the discussions were also constituted in formative pathways for the professors themselves. Thus, when their results were exposed and presented to the other professionals of the institution, being visited by parents and other students, it was demonstrated that it is possible to make the integrated high school in practice, through the articulation between the technical preparation associated with the possibilities of dialogue and alterity exercises as paths used in the construction of this work proposal.ResumoEste relato de experiência apresenta as implicações na busca da implementação do projeto “Ensino técnico de nível médio: o diálogo entre disciplinas”, desenvolvido em um dos campi do Instituto Federal Catarinense (IFC). Escolheu-se o Curso Técnico Integrado de Nível Médio em Agropecuária porque este dispunha de maior oferta de vagas e, portanto, maior número de turmas e profissionais de áreas afins atuando. Os professores que acolheram o desafio de buscar caminhos para a integração dos saberes de diferentes áreas do conhecimento planejaram atividades de forma conjunta, identificando pontos em comum. O propósito era implicar cada componente ao contexto dos demais, considerando suas especificidades, como forma de valorizar o alargamento de compreensões na busca de ampliar e fundir horizontes por intermédio do diálogo no contexto do currículo do curso. O trabalho constituiu-se de um exercício de mão dupla entre professores como principais agentes dessa proposta, elegendo as necessidades do coletivo como prioridade. Isso permitiu alcançar considerável sucesso, pois, para além de uma formação diferenciada oferecida aos discentes, as discussões se constituíram em percursos formativos para os próprios docentes. Desse modo, quando seus resultados foram expostos e apresentados aos demais profissionais da instituição, sendo visitados por pais e demais estudantes, demonstrou-se que é possível fazer acontecer o Ensino Médio Integrado na prática, por meio da articulação entre o preparo técnico associado às possibilidades de diálogo e de exercícios de alteridade como caminhos utilizados na construção dessa proposta de trabalho.ResumenEste informe de experiencia presenta las implicaciones para la implementación del proyecto "Educación técnica en la escuela secundaria: el diálogo entre disciplinas", desarrollado en uno de los campus del Instituto Federal de Santa Catarina (IFC). Se eligió el Curso Técnico Integrado de Nivel Medio en Agricultura porque tenía una mayor oferta de vacantes y, por lo tanto, un mayor número de clases y profesionales de áreas similares. Los docentes que asumieron el desafío de buscar formas de integrar el conocimiento de diferentes áreas del conocimiento planificaron actividades conjuntamente, identificando puntos en común. El propósito era implicar a cada componente en el contexto de los demás, considerando sus especificidades, como una forma de valorar la ampliación de la comprensión en la búsqueda de ampliar y fusionar horizontes a través del diálogo en el contexto del plan de estudios del curso. El trabajo fue un ejercicio bidireccional entre los maestros como los principales agentes de esta propuesta, eligiendo las necesidades del colectivo como una prioridad. Esto permitió alcanzar un éxito considerable, porque además de la capacitación diferenciada ofrecida a los estudiantes, las discusiones también constituyeron cursos de capacitación para los propios maestros. Así, cuando sus resultados fueron expuestos y presentados a otros profesionales de la institución, visitados por padres y otros estudiantes, se demostró que es posible hacer que la escuela secundaria integrada suceda en la práctica, a través de la articulación entre la preparación técnica asociada con las posibilidades y ejercicios de diálogo y otredad como caminos utilizados en la construcción de esta propuesta de trabajo.Palavras-chave: Ensino médio integrado, Interdisciplinaridade, Profissionalização.Keywords: Integrated High School, Interdisciplinarity, Professionalization.Palabras claves: Escuela secundaria integrada, Interdisciplinariedad, Profesionalización.ReferencesARROYO, Miguel G. Experiências de inovação educativa: o currículo na prática da escola. In: MOREIRA, Antônio Flávio Barbosa. Currículo: políticas e práticas. 4. ed. Campinas, SP: Papirus, 2001. p. 131-164.BARBIER, René. A pesquisa-ação. Brasília, DF: Líber Livro, 2007.BRASIL. Ministério da Educação. Resolução n. 11 – CONSUPER/2015. Brasília, DF: Ministério da Educação, 2015. Disponível em: <http://concordia.ifc.edu.br/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/resolu%C3%87%C3%83o-011-2015-aprova-regulamento-de-atividades-docentes-110220161350.pdf>. Acesso em: 22 maio 2020.BRASIL. Ministério da Educação. O Sistema Nacional de Educação Tecnológica. Brasília, DF: Ministério da Educação, 1991.CIAVATTA, Maria. A formação integrada: a escola e o trabalho como lugares de memória e de identidade. In: FRIGOTTO, Gaudêncio; CIAVATTA, Maria; RAMOS, Marise (org.). Ensino médio integrado: concepção e contradições. São Paulo: Cortez, 2005. p. 83-105.DOMINGUES, Ivan. Epistemologia das ciências humanas. Tomo 1: positivismo e hermenêutica. São Paulo: Loyola, 2004.FAZENDA, Ivani C. A. Interdisciplinaridade: qual o sentido? São Paulo: Paulus, 2003. 85p.FAZENDA, Ivani C. A. (org.). Interdisciplinaridade: história, teoria e pesquisa. Campinas, SP: Papirus, 1994. 143p.FREIRE, Paulo; SHOR, Ira. Medo e ousadia: o cotidiano do professor. 13. ed. São Paulo: Paz e Terra, 2011.FRIGOTTO, Gaudêncio. A interdisciplinaridade como necessidade e como problema nas ciências sociais. In: JANTSCH, Ari Paulo; BIANCHETTI, Lucídio (org.). Interdisciplinaridade: para além da filosofia do sujeito. Petrópolis, RJ: Vozes, 1995. p. 41-62.FRIGOTTO, Gaudêncio; CIAVATTA, Maria; RAMOS, Marise (org.). Ensino Médio integrado: concepção e contradições. São Paulo: Cortez, 2005. 175p.GADAMER, Hans-Georg. Verdade e método II. Tradução de Enio Paulo Gianchini. Petrópolis, RJ: Vozes, 2002. 624p.GADAMER, Hans-Georg. Estética e hermenêutica. Tradução de Antônio Gómes Ramos. Madrid: Tecnos, 1998. 320p.GADAMER, Hans-Georg. Verdade e método. 4. ed. Tradução de Flavio Paulo Meurer. Petrópolis, RJ: Vozes, 1997. 730p.HERMANN, Nadja. Hermenêutica e educação. Rio de Janeiro: DP&A, 2002.INSTITUTO FEDERAL CATARINENSE (IFS). Sobre o Consuper. [2020?]. Disponível em: <http://consuper.ifc.edu.br/sobre-o-consuper/>. Acesso em: 22 maio 2020.KAUFMANN, Jean-Claude. A entrevista compreensiva: um guia para a pesquisa de campo. Tradução de Thiago de Abreu e Lima Florencio. Petrópolis, RJ: Vozes, 2013.MARTINS, Angela Maria. Diretrizes curriculares nacionais para o Ensino Médio: avaliação de documento. Cadernos de Pesquisa, n. 109, p. 67-87, 2000.RIOS, Terezinha Azerêdo. Compreender e ensinar: por uma docência da melhor qualidade. 3. ed. São Paulo: Cortez, 2002.e3690107

Existe algum consenso sobre a precariedade da formação oferecida pelas escolas públicas no Estado do Rio de Janeiro. Há, inclusive, investigações sobre as causas do baixo desempenho dos estudantesem exames nacionais e também sobre os sentidos da educação escolar entre jovens pertencentes às camadas populares. Nossa pesquisa dialoga com estas questões, mas a perspectiva é diferente. Analisamoso “produto final” destes processos de escolarização: jovens pobres, com ensino médio concluído, que pretendem ingressar na Universidade, mas têm clareza sobre as falhas de sua formação escolar. Os jovens analisados frequentam um pré-vestibular popular na cidade de Petrópolis, região serrana do Rio de Janeiro.Buscam, neste espaço, o saber escolar necessário para a aprovação nos exames e também o apoio de outros jovens que se encontram na mesma situação. Este processo, que denominamos em outro momento de “escolarização fora da escola”, é permeado pela construção e fortalecimento de redes de solidariedade, afeto e sociabilidade que acabam por contribuir para a redefinição dos projetos de vida trazidos pelos jovensno momento de sua inserção no pré-vestibular. O ano letivo permite a experimentação de uma série de vivências coletivas que redefinem expectativas escolares e projetos de futuro. O processo é intermeado por emoções diversas, todas narradas pelos jovens quando reconstroem suas trajetórias. Este trabalho analisará estas narrativas com foco nas emoções associadas às mudanças de perspectiva experimentadas pelos jovens.Palavras-chave: Juventudes. Escolarização. Sociabilidade. Afeto. EDUCATIONAL PROJECTS FOR POOR YOUTH:the social construction of solidarity networks, affection and sociabilityAbstract: There is some consensus about the precariousness of the education offered by public schools in the State of Rio de Janeiro. There is even research on the causes of low student performance in national tests and also on the meanings of schooling among young people belonging to poor classes. Our research dialogues with these issues, but the perspective is different. We analyze the "product" of these processes of schooling: poor youth with high school completed. They intend to join the University, but knows about the problems of your education. The investigation was conducted in the only popular “pré-vestibular” of the city of Petropolis, mountain region of Rio de Janeiro. They seek, in this place, school knowledge needed to the exams and also the support of other young people who are in the same situation. This process, which we call in another moment of "education out of school" is permeated by networks of solidarity, affection and sociability that contribute to the redefinition of life projects for young people. The school year allows experimentation with a series of collective experiences that redefine educational expectations and plans for the future. The process is added by different emotions, all narrated by the young students when they reconstruct their trajectories. This paper will examine these narratives focusing on the emotions associated with changes in perspective experienced by young people.Keywords: Youth. Education. Sociability. Affection. JUVENTUDES POPULARES Y PROYECTOS EDUCACIONALES:construcción y fortalecimiento de redes de solidaridad, afecto y sociabilidadResumen: Existe un consenso sobre la precariedad de la formación ofrecida por las escuelas públicas del Estado de Río de Janeiro, en Brasil. Algunas investigaciones discuten las causas del bajo rendimiento de los estudiantes en las evaluaciones de desempeño nacionales y también sobre la educación entre los jóvenes de las clases populares. Nuestra investigación dialoga con esos temas pero con otra perspectiva. Analizamosel "producto final" de estos procesos de escolarización: los jóvenes pobres que tienen secundaria completa y desean ingresar a la Universidad, pero son conscientes de los problemas de su formación. Los jóvenes analizados fueron alumnos de un curso de preparatoria para la universidad para clases populares, en la ciudad de Petrópolis, en la sierra del Estado de Rio de Janeiro. Entran en el curso con el objetivo de obtener el conocimiento escolar necesario para la aprobación en los exámenes para la Universidad y buscan el apoyo de otros jóvenes que están en la misma situación. Este proceso, que llamamos en otro momento de "educación fuera de la escuela", está permeado por la construcción y fortalecimiento de redes de solidaridad, afecto y sociabilidad que contribuyen para la redefinición de los proyectos de vida llevados por los jóvenes en el momento de su inserción en el curso preparatorio. El año escolar permite una serie de vivencias colectivas que redefinen las expectativas escolares y los proyectos del futuro. El proceso es intermediado por diversas emociones, todas narradas por los jóvenes cuando hacen la reconstrucción de sus trayectorias. En este artículo examinaremos estas narraciones centrando en las emociones asociadas a los cambios de perspectiva que experimentan los jóvenes.Palabras clave: Juventud. Educación. Sociabilidad. Afecto.

The characteristics of solder joints between the busbars of solar cells and copper ribbons can affect the performance of a photovoltaic (PV) module significantly. The resistivity of the joints and the intermetallic compound structures within the joints are the two main characteristics that impose a substantial impact on the yield and the reliability of the PV module. In this paper, we aim to present and analyze a novel platinum-reinforced tin-silver-copper (Sn-3.8Ag-0.7Cu-0.2Pt) as the lead-free solder material to connect copper ribbons to the metallization of bifacial solar cells. The performance of the PV module using platinum-reinforced solder is investigated by constructing two bifacial PV modules using the popular lead-free Sn-3.8Ag-0.7Cu solder and Sn-3.8Ag-0.7Cu-0.2Pt solder, respectively. Micrographs of the joints are obtained to show that the platinum-reinforced solder joint has fewer voids and a more evenly distributed and thinner intermetallic layer than that of a conventional SnAgCu solder joint. As a result, the physical attachment between the busbars and the ribbon using SnAgCuPt solder is stronger than that using SnAgCu solder. The power outputs of both PV modules are measured together with two commercial PV modules under the sun using an IV plotter. The results show that the total energy yield of the bifacial PV module with the new solder is about 6–10% higher than that with the conventional SnAgCu solder. The energy yield of the bifacial PV module using SnAgCuPt solder is 35.8% and 0.2% higher than that of the commercially available monofacial polycrystalline and monocrystalline PV modules, respectively.

This paper is focused on fastened hybrid busbars made from copper and aluminium with the purpose of analysing the influence of the steel bolts, of their tightening torque and of the surface condition of the sheets on the electric current flow and electric resistance of the joints. The methodology combines experimentation with unit cells that are representative of the joints and electro-mechanical numerical simulation using a finite element computer program developed by the authors. Results are a step forward in understanding the combined influence of bolts, contact pressure and surface roughness on the electric performance of fastened hybrid busbars. Design guidelines for dimensioning the cross sections of the copper and aluminium sheets and for effectively distributing bolts across the contacting surfaces are also provided.

Resumen: Este artículo examina el potencial que supone la creación de redes colaboración académica como estrategia en el proceso de internacionalización en un Centro Regional de la Universidad de Guadalajara: el Centro Universitario del Norte, CUNorte. Después de una introducción a la temática y su posterior contextualización, se analiza qué supone la implementación de las redes de colaboración académica y el proceso de reciprocidad como estrategia de internacionalización solidaria y sus implicaciones en la educación superior en un centro universitario de reciente creación y geográficamente ubicado lejos de la zona metropolitana. Tras una descripción de las características de la institución y de su contexto, se especifica y detalla lo que el centro define como alianzas estratégicas; que, en definitiva, son los acuerdos institucionales con determinadas universidades y países que, de acuerdo con determinadas características, facilitan acciones conjuntas encaminadas a buscar solución a problemas comunes. El estudio de caso concluye con el análisis de un modelo de internacionalización como referencia idónea para este Centro Universitario caracterizado por una especificidad institucional muy determinada. Abstract:This article examines the potential of the creation of academic collaboration networks as a strategy in the process of internationalization in a Regional Center of the University of Guadalajara: the University Center of the North, CUNorte. After an introduction to the subject and its subsequent contextualization, this text shows the effect of the implementation of academic collaboration networks and the process of reciprocity, as a strategy of solidarity internationalization. Also analyses the implications for higher education in a newly created university center and geographically located far from the metropolitan area. Next, it shows a description of the characteristics of the institution and its context, it specifies and details what the center defines as strategic alliances. That is, the institutional agreements with certain universities and countries that, according to certain characteristics, facilitate joint actions aimed at finding a solution to common problems. The case study concludes with the analysis of an internationalization model as an ideal reference for this University Center characterized by a very specific institutional specificity.

Background: Organized stroke systems of care, including accreditation of hospitals as primary stroke centers (PSC), are meant to improve patient care and compliance with national guidelines. Nationwide, less than a third of eligible hospitals have achieved advanced certification in stroke. We aimed to characterize hospital factors associated with achievement of stroke center certification. Methods: We utilized the 2011 American Hospital Association survey to obtain data on hospital characteristics. Only hospitals with ≥ 25 beds and 24-hour emergency departments were evaluated. The Joint Commission (TJC), Healthcare Facilities Accreditation Program and DNV Healthcare websites were used to determine certification status of each hospital as a primary stroke center. All comprehensive SC were considered as PSC. Factors found to be associated with achievement of certification (P<0.010) were evaluated by logistic regression to determine a final model of independent association. Results: Of the 3696 hospitals to complete the survey, 3069 fulfilled study criteria, including 908 PSC (31%) and 2161 non-PSC. PSC were larger (mean 354 vs. 136 beds), had busier EDs (56,000 vs. 24,000 visits/year), were more often affiliated with ACGME residency programs (43% vs. 14%), AMA medical schools (51% vs. 21%), TJC-accreditation (95% vs. 65%), inpatient neurological services (94% vs. 46%) and trauma centers (55% VS 38%); and were less likely to be governmental (Federal/State/County 10% vs. 26%) and designated sole community provider (1% vs 9%). Independent hospital characteristics associated with PSC certification were TJC accreditation (OR 3.5, 95%CI 2.4-5.0), sole community provider (OR 0.22, 0.10-0.47), hospital type (governmental vs. non 0.61, 0.44-0.84), increasing size (per quartile in number of beds OR 2.5, 2.1-3.1) and neurological services (OR 3.2, 2.4-4.6). Conclusions: PSC hospitals are larger non-governmental hospitals with availability of neurological services. Increasing the low numbers of governmental (i.e. County or State) hospital achievement of PSC may be a potential area of focus.

A história de segregação ainda é objeto de muitos dos estudos que buscam compreender os fundamentos, a produção e a consolidação das desigualdades sociais, baseadas no racismo, na dominação e na exclusão, ao sul do continente africano. O presente texto soma-se a um conjunto de narrativas acerca da história sul-africana, especificamente sobre os princá­pios do segregacionismo na áfrica do Sul, durante o Partido Nacional, e sobre o corpus legislativo desse regime e seus efeitos na vida local. Palavras-chave: áfrica do Sul. Apartheid (1948-1994). Leis. SOCIAL POLICIES AND LEGISLATION IN THE SOUTH-AFRICAN APARTHEID Abstract: The story of segregation is still the subject of many studies, which tries to understand the fundamentals, the production, and the consolidation of social inequality based on racism, domination and exclusion in the south of African continent. This text joins a set of narratives about South African history, specifically on the principles of segregation in South Africa, under the regime of the National Party, and during the legislative corpus of this system and its impact on local life.Keywords: South Africa. Apartheid (1948-1994). Laws. POLáTICAS SOCIALES Y LEGISLACIÓN EN EL APARTHEID SUR AFRICANOResumen: La historia de segregación todavá­a es un objeto para muchas investigaciones que buscancomprender los fundamentos, la producción y la consolidación de las desigualdades sociales, basadas en el racismo, en la dominación y en la exclusión, al sur del continente africano. El presente texto se resume a un conjunto de narrativas sobre la historia sur africana, especá­ficamente sobre los principios del segregacionismo en áfrica del Sur, durante el régimen del Partido Nacional, y sobre el corpus legislativo del régimen y de sus efectos en la región. Palabras clave: áfrica del Sur. Apartheid (1948-1994). Leyes.

RESUMOObjetivos: em um cenário cada vez maior de escassez de recursos financeiros, as organizações de saúde são pressionadas a melhorar seus processos e a buscar novas formas de oferecer atendimento com melhor qualidade, tendo os sistemas da qualidade como alternativas importante. Neste sentido, o estudo tem como objetivo identificar como a qualidade encontra-se estruturada nas organizações de saúde, utilizando a tríade proposta por Donabedian. Métodos: os dados foram captados a partir do questionário estruturado para a pesquisa disponibilizado via e-mail visando compreender os aspectos organizacionais dos sistemas da qualidade (estrutura, processo e resultado) bem como os aspectos de implementação destes sistemas nas organizações brasileiras. Em seguida, os dados foram analisados segundo a abordagem quantitativa e qualitativa. Resultados: o estudo permitiu uma amostra regional diversificada enriquecendo às análises realizadas, no entanto, a dificuldade de se conseguir que as pessoas aderissem à pesquisa é significativa. Este estudo mostrou iniciativas, mesmo que ainda prematuras, de ações de qualidade aplicadas nas unidades de saúde, mas é importante que se avance em ações, mais abrangente de atuação com ações da qualidade voltadas aos processos e os sistemas organizacionais. Conclusão: requisitos de estrutura, processo e resultados auxiliam no desenvolvimento e aplicação dos preceitos da qualidade, refletindo na utilização de um sistema prático. Pelos dados analisados na pesquisa, verifica-se que as organizações carecem dos retornos que um sistema da qualidade bem implementado e introjetado nas rotinas de trabalho das organizações oferece. Mas, estamos dando passos, mesmo que ainda incipientes, para uma prestação de serviço com maior qualidade e segurança tanto para o cliente, quanto para o profissional.Palavras-chaves: Melhoria Contínua da Qualidade, Gestão da Qualidade, Unidade de Saúde ABSTRACTObjectives: In a scenario of increasing financial resources scarcity, health organizations are under pressure to improve their processes and seek new ways to offer better quality care, with quality systems as an important alternative. In this sense, the study aims to identify how quality is structured in health organizations, using the triad proposed by Donabedian. Methods: The data were captured from the structured questionnaire for research made available via e-mail in order to understand the organizational aspects of quality systems (structure, process and result) as well as the implementation aspects of these systems in Brazilian organizations. Then, the data were analyzed according to the quantitative and qualitative approach. Results: The study allowed a diversified regional sample enriching the analyzes carried out, however, the difficulty in getting people to join the research is significant. This study showed initiatives, even if still premature, for quality actions applied in health units, but it is important to move forward in actions, a more comprehensive action with quality actions focused on organizational processes and systems. Conclusion: structure, process and results requirements assist in the development and application of quality precepts, reflecting the use of a practical system. From the data analyzed in the research, it appears that organizations lack the returns that a quality system well implemented and introjected into the work routines of organizations. But we are taking steps, even if still incipient, for a service with higher quality and security for both the client and the professional.Keywords: Continuous Quality Improvement, Quality Management, Health Unit

A folk musician is an important carrier of the folk music tradition. Most of the folk musicians are talented representatives of the musicians’ craft, highly appreciated in the 20th century by the countryside society. Music making is a must at different gatherings and family celebrations (birthday parties, weddings, seasonal festivities, etc.), and this secures a high social status for the musician within the culture environment, though this also gives rise to competition among the musicians. Along with the changes within the countryside culture environment at the turn of the 20th and 21st century, also the society’s attitude towards the folk music- making tradition has changed, on the one hand viewing it as some old-fashioned activity of elderly men (the musicians), while on the other it is viewed as an important object of study for the preservation of the tradition, its renewal and reintroduction into the culture environment of the 21st century. The present study traces the development of the notion “kaktu muzikants” (literally ‘corner musician’ – a busker; self-taught, amateur musician) in Latvia from both historical and contemporary perspective, performing the culture semiotic analysis of the symbolic and mythic meanings of corner. In the Latvian culture discourse the designation “kaktu muzikants” has the following semantic aspects: 1) in the macro space – opposition of the periphery and the centre; 2) in the micro space – a special location in the inner space (the location of the musician, while playing at the dance; the „red” corner); 3) the level of professionalism, its expressive belittlement (playing without the musical score). The present study characterises the importance of the “kaktu muzikants” in the Latvian culture in 1930’s-60’s and in the present day – in the context of the traditional instrumental music. This study also uses the field-work method in order to obtain the empiric material. During field-work the data are gathered in direct interviews, deeply or partially structured interviews, where the data are obtained from the original source in the presence of the interviewer; as the result a joint view of the culture environment of the period under study was formed, along with a view of the importance and place of a country musician in the aforementioned culture environment. In the 1930’s-40’s the folk music-making tradition is mostly a local tradition of some secluded culture environment – within the boundaries of a single family, village or parish. The first skills of music making as well as those of singing are acquired within the family, where these are inherited from the members of family belonging to the older generation. Each village and parish has its musicians. Usually within a parish a single group is formed of musicians having gained recognition by the community, with this group playing at all most important events within that community – like the weddings of the better-off families and the most important dances (e.g. the dance after the remembrance event at the local cemetery). All other musicians are peripheral musicians in relation to this main group, usually playing on their own or in duos. The situations when the music is played without a written score are self-explanatory and characteristic of folk - musicians’ technique. Lacking the knowledge of musical score, the folk - musicians mainly base on the auditory or musical memory and the song’s text, the latter taking the place of notes. In cases of purely instrumental pieces playing is based on musical hearing alone. Such a technique provides good opportunities for improvisation, and reveals the creativity of the musician, his sense of music and taste. Lack of knowledge of the musical score unites people for whom music is an important part of their lives, providing them with the experience of public performance and the sense of belonging to the group of musicians, simultaneously positioning themselves as musicians of lower status compared to those graduated from some musical education institution. The division by the level of professionalism into insiders and outsiders in relation to one or the other group of musicians was especially pronounced in 1950’s-60’s, but this division has still been retained. In any music playing situation the musician has a special place within the available space allocated to him, where this space can be either inside a house (a single room), some shed or place chosen for an open air dance as a relative space. According to the data gathered during the interviews conducted in the field, the musician most frequently is seated in the corner, that corner becoming the place of honour and the centre for the musician. The designation “kaktu muzikants” is not only current in the culture environment of the 20th century countryside, but is still retained. In 1920’s-40’s quite frequently the designation “kaktu balle” (local, less important or inferior quality dance-party) is used to indicate that the event is organised by the local community (dance at some farmstead, open air dance at some grove, etc.) as compared to more official events organised and recognised by the state institutions. With this also the designation “kaktu balles muzikants” enters currency, though this has no relation to the level of professionalism of the particular musician, instead his location – the periphery. The modern designation “kaktu muzikants” is actualised particularly in the memories of the folk musicians and their life stories of the period beginning with the 1950’s. In the vocabulary of the younger generation of musicians (meaning by that the early 21st century) “kaktu muzikants” prevails as a designation of a musician aiming at understanding of the folk music-making tradition and/or the ones who have restored a music-making tradition of some of the aforementioned periods or imitate the particular instrument technique of a single individual musician.

In “Dilemmas in a General Theory of Planning,” urban planners Horst Rittel and Melvin Webber outline what they term “wicked problems.” According to Rittel and Webber, wicked problems are unavoidably “ill-defined,” that is, unlike “problems in the natural sciences, which are definable and separable and may have solutions that are findable…[wicked problems] are never solved. At best they are only re-solved—over and over again” (160). Rittel and Webber were thinking specifically of the challenges involved in making decisions within immensely complex social circumstances—building highways through cities and designing low income housing projects, for example—but public policy-making and urban design are not the only fields rife with wicked problems. Indeed, the nub of Rittel and Webber’s articulation of wicked problems concerns a phenomenon common to many disciplines: interdisciplinary collaboration. As anyone who has collaborated with people outside her area of expertise will acknowledge, interdisciplinary collaboration itself is among the wickedest problems of all. By way of introduction, we direct the Learning Games Initiative (LGI), a transdisciplinary, inter-institutional research group that studies, teaches with, and builds computer games. In the seven years since LGI was inaugurated, we have undertaken many productive and well-received collaborations, including: 1) leading workshops at national and international conferences; 2) presenting numerous academic talks; 3) editing academic journals; 4) writing books, book chapters, journal articles, and other scholarly materials; 5) exhibiting creative and archival work in museums, galleries, and libraries; and 6) building one of the largest academic research archives of computer games, systems, paraphernalia, and print-, video-, and audio-scholarship in the world. We thus have a fair bit of experience with the wicked problem of collaboration. The purpose of this article is to share some of that experience with readers and to describe candidly some of the challenges we have faced—and sometimes overcome—working collaboratively across disciplinary, institutional, and even international boundaries. Collaborative Circle? Michael Farrell, whose illuminating analysis of “collaborative circles” has lent much to scholars’ understandings of group dynamics within creative contexts, succinctly describes how many such groups form: “A collaborative circle is a set of peers in the same discipline who, through open exchange of support, ideas, and criticism develop into an interdependent group with a common vision that guides their creative work” (266). Farrell’s model, while applicable to several of the smaller projects LGI has nurtured over the years, does not capture the idiosyncratic organizational method that has evolved more broadly within our collective. Rather, LGI has always tended to function according to a model more akin to that found in used car dealerships, one where “no reasonable offer will be refused.” LGI is open to anyone willing to think hard and get their hands dirty, which of course has molded the organization and its projects in remarkable ways. Unlike Farrell’s collaborative circles, for example, LGI’s collaborative model actually decentralizes the group’s study and production of culture. Any member from anywhere—not just “peers in the same discipline”—can initiate or join a project provided she or he is willing to trade in the coin of the realm: sweat equity. Much like the programmers of the open source software movement, LGI’s members work only on what excites them, and with other similarly motivated people. The “buy-in,” simply, is interest and a readiness to assume some level of responsibility for the successes and failures of a given project. In addition to decentralizing the group, LGI’s collaborative model has emerged such that it naturally encourages diversity, swelling our ranks with all kinds of interesting folks, from fine artists to clergy members to librarians. In large part this is because our members view “peers” in the most expansive way possible; sure, optical scientists can help us understand how virtual cameras simulate the real properties of lenses and research linguists can help us design more effective language-in-context tools for our games. However, in an organization that always tries to understand the layers of meaning-making that constitute computer games, such technical expertise is only one stratum. For a game about the cultural politics of ancient Greece that LGI has been working on for the past year, our members invited a musical instrument maker, a potter, and a school teacher to join the development team. These new additions—all experts and peers as far as LGI is concerned—were not merely consultants but became part of the development team, often working in areas of the project completely outside their own specialties. While some outsiders have criticized this project—currently known as “Aristotle’s Assassins”—for being too slow in development, the learning taking place as it moves forward is thrilling to those on the inside, where everyone is learning from everyone else. One common consequence of this dynamic is, as Farrell points out, that the work of the individual members is transformed: “Those who are merely good at their discipline become masters, and, working together, very ordinary people make extraordinary advances in their field” (2). Additionally, the diversity that gives LGI its true interdisciplinarity also makes for praxical as well as innovative projects. The varying social and intellectual concerns of the LGI’s membership means that every collaboration is also an exploration of ethics, responsibility, epistemology, and ideology. This is part of what makes LGI so special: there are multiple levels of learning that underpin every project every day. In LGI we are fond of saying that games teach multiple things in multiple ways. So too, in fact, does collaborating on one of LGI’s projects because members are constantly forced to reevaluate their ways of seeing in order to work with one another. This has been particularly rewarding in our international projects, such as our recently initiated project investigating the relationships among the mass media, new media, and cultural resource management practices. This project, which is building collaborative relationships among a team of archaeologists, game designers, media historians, folklorists, and grave repatriation experts from Cambodia, the Philippines, Australia, and the U.S., is flourishing, not because its members are of the same discipline nor because they share the same ideology. Rather, the team is maturing as a collaborative and productive entity because the focus of its work raises an extraordinary number of questions that have yet to be addressed by national and international researchers. In LGI, much of the sweat equity we contribute involves trying to answer questions like these in ways that are meaningful for our international research teams. In our experience, it is in the process of investigating such questions that effective collaborative relationships are cemented and within which investigators end up learning about more than just the subject matter at hand. They also learn about the micro-cultures, histories, and economies that provide the usually invisible rhetorical infrastructures that ground the subject matter and to which each team member is differently attuned. It is precisely because of this sometimes slow, sometimes tense learning/teaching dynamic—a dynamic too often invoked in both academic and industry settings to discourage collaboration—that François Chesnais calls attention to the fact that collaborative projects frequently yield more benefits than the sum of their parts suggests possible. This fact, says Chesnais, should lead institutions to value collaborative projects more highly as “resource-creating, value-creating and surplus-creating potentialities” (22). Such work is always risky, of course, and Jitendra Mohan, a scholar specializing in cross-cultural collaborations within the field of psychology, writes that international collaboration “raises methodological problems in terms of the selection of culturally-coloured items and their historical as well as semantic meaning…” (314). Mohan means this as a warning and it is heeded as such by LGI members; at the same time, however, it is precisely the identification and sorting out of such methodological problems that seems to excite our best collaborations and most innovative work. Given such promise, it is easy to see why LGI is quite happy to adopt the used car dealer’s slogan “no reasonable offer refused.” In fact, in LGI we see our open-door policy for projects as mirroring our primary object of study: games. This is another factor that we believe contributes to the success of our members’ collaborations. Commercial computer game development is a notoriously interdisciplinary and collaborative endeavor. By collaborating in a fashion similar to professional game developers, LGI members are constantly fashioning more complex understandings of the kinds of production practices and social interactions involved in game development; these practices and interactions are crucial to game studies precisely because they shape what games consist of, how they mean, and the ways in which they are consumed. For this reason, we think it foolish to refuse any reasonable offer to help us explore and understand these meaning-making processes. Wicked Problem Backlash Among the striking points that Rittel and Webber make about wicked problems is that solutions to them are usually created with great care and planning, and yet inevitably suffer severe criticism (at least) or utter annihilation (at worst). Far from being indicative of a bad solution, this backlash against a wicked problem’s solution is an integral element of what we call the “wicked problem dialectic.” The backlash against attempts to establish and nurture transdisciplinary collaboration is easy to document at multiple levels. For example, although our used car dealership model has created a rich research environment, it has also made the quotidian work of doing projects difficult. For one thing, organizing something as simple as a project meeting can take Herculean efforts. The wage earners are on a different schedule than the academics, who are on a different schedule from the artists, who are on a different schedule from the librarians. Getting everyone together in the same room at the same time (even virtually) is like herding cats. As co-directors of LGI, we have done our best to provide the membership with both synchronous and asynchronous resources to facilitate communication (e.g., conference-call enabled phones, online forums, chat clients, file-sharing software, and so on), but nothing beats face-to-face meetings, especially when projects grow complex or deadlines impend mercilessly. Nonetheless, our members routinely fight the meeting scheduling battle, despite the various communication options we have made available through our group’s website and in our physical offices. Most recently we have found that an organizational wiki makes the process of collecting and sharing notes, drawings, videos, segments of code, and drafts of writing decidedly easier than it had been, especially when the projects involve people who do not live a short distance (or a cheap phone call) away from each other. Similarly, not every member has the same amount of time to devote to LGI and its projects despite their considerable and demonstrated interest in them. Some folks are simply busier than others, and cannot contribute to projects as much as they might like. This can be a real problem when a project requires a particular skill set, and the owner of those skills is busy doing other things like working at a paying job or spending time with family. LGI’s projects are always done in addition to members’ regular workload, and it is understandable when that workload has to take precedence. Like regular exercise and eating right, the organization’s projects are the first things to go when life’s demands intrude. Different projects handle this challenge in a variety of ways, but the solutions always tend to reflect the general structure of the project itself. In projects that follow what Andrea Lunsford and Lisa Ede refer to as “hierarchical collaborations”—projects that are clearly structured, goal-oriented, and define clear roles for its participants—milestones and deadlines are set at the beginning of the project and are often tied to professional rewards that stand-in for a paycheck: recommendation letters, all-expenses-paid conference trips, guest speaking invitations, and so forth (133). Less organized projects—what Lunsford and Ede call “dialogic collaborations”—deal with time scheduling challenges differently. Inherently, dialogic collaborations such as these tend to be less hampered by time because they are loosely structured, accept and often encourage members to shift roles, and often value the process of working toward the project’s goals as highly as actually attaining them (134). The most common adaptive strategy used in these cases is simply for the most experienced members of the team to keep the project in motion. As long as something is happening, dialogic collaborations can be kept fruitful for a very long time, even when collaborators are only able to contribute once or twice a month. In our experience, as long as each project’s collaborators understand its operative expectations—which can, by the way, be a combination of hierarchical and dialogical modes—their work proceeds smoothly. Finally, there is the matter of expenses. As an institutionally unaffiliated collective, the LGI has no established revenue stream, which means project funding is either grant-based or comes out of the membership’s pockets. As anyone who has ever applied for a grant knows, it is one thing to write a grant, and another thing entirely to get it. Things are especially tough when grant monies are scarce, as they have been (at least on this side of the pond) since the U.S. economy started its downward spiral several years ago. Tapping the membership’s pockets is not really a viable funding option either. Even modest projects can be expensive, and most folks do not have a lot of spare cash to throw around. What this means, ultimately, is that even though our group’s members have carte blanche to do as they will, they must do so in a resource-starved environment. While it is sometimes disappointing that we are not able to fund certain projects despite their artistic and scholarly merit, LGI members learned long ago that such hardships rarely foreclose all opportunities. As Anne O’Meara and Nancy MacKenzie pointed out several years ago, many “seemingly extraneous features” of collaborative projects—not only financial limitations, but also such innocuous phenomena as where collaborators meet, the dance of their work and play patterns, their conflicting responsibilities, geographic separations, and the ways they talk to each other—emerge as influential factors in all collaborations (210). Thus, we understand in LGI that while our intermittent funding has influenced the dimension and direction of our group, it has also led to some outcomes that in hindsight we are glad we were led to. For example, while LGI originally began studying games in order to discover where production-side innovations might be possible, a series of funding shortfalls and serendipitous academic conversations led us to favor scholarly writing, which has now taken precedence over other kinds of projects. At the most practical level, this works out well because writing costs nothing but time, plus there is a rather desperate shortage of good game scholarship. Moreover, we have discovered that as LGI members have refined their scholarship and begun turning out books, chapters, and articles on a consistent basis, both they and the organization accrue publicity and credibility. Add to this the fact that for many of the group’s academics, traditional print-based work is more valued in the tenure and promotion economy than is, say, an educational game, an online teachers’ resource, or a workshop for a local parent-teacher association, and you have a pretty clear research path blazed by what Kathleen Clark and Rhunette Diggs have called “dialectical collaboration,” that is, collaboration marked by “struggle and opposition, where tension can be creative, productive, clarifying, as well as difficult” (10). Conclusion In sketching out our experience directing a highly collaborative digital media research collective, we hope we have given readers a sense of why collaboration is almost always a “wicked problem.” Collaborators negotiate different schedules, work demands, and ways of seeing, as well as resource pinches that hinder the process by which innovative digital media collaborations come to fruition. And yet, it is precisely because collaboration can be so wicked that it is so valuable. In constantly requiring collaborators to assess and reassess their rationales, artistic visions, and project objectives, collaboration makes for reflexive, complex, and innovative projects, which (at least to us) are the most satisfying and useful of all. References Chesnais, François. “Technological Agreements, Networks and Selected Issues in Economic Theory.” In Technological Collaboration: The Dynamics of Cooperation in Industrial Innovation. Rod Coombs, Albert Richards, Vivien Walsh, and Pier Paolo Saviotti, eds. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar, 1996. 18-33. Clark, Kathleen D., and Rhunette C. Diggs. “Connected or Separated?: Toward a Dialectical View of Interethnic Relationships.” In Building Diverse Communities: Applications of Communication Research. McDonald, Trevy A., Mark P. Orbe, and Trevellya Ford-Ahmed, eds. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, 2002. 3-25. Farrell, Michael P. Collaborative Circles: Friendship Dynamics & Creative Work. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2001. Lunsford, Andrea, and Lisa Ede. Singular Texts/Plural Authors: Perspectives on Collaborative Writing. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1990. Mohan, Jitendra. “Cross-Cultural Experience of Collaboration in Personality Research.” Personality across Cultures: Recent Developments and Debates. Jitendra Mohan, ed. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2000. 313-335. O’Meara, Anne, and Nancy R. MacKenzie. “Reflections on Scholarly Collaboration.” In Common Ground: Feminist Collaboration in the Academy. Elizabeth G. Peck and JoAnna Stephens Mink, eds. Albany: State U of New York P, 1998. 209-26. Rittel, Horst W. J., and Melvin M. Weber. “Dilemmas in a General Theory of Planning.” Policy Sciences 4 (1973): 155-69. Citation reference for this article MLA Style Ruggill, Judd, and Ken McAllister. "The Wicked Problem of Collaboration." M/C Journal 9.2 (2006). echo date('d M. Y'); ?> <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0605/07-ruggillmcallister.php>. APA Style Ruggill, J., and K. McAllister. (May 2006) "The Wicked Problem of Collaboration," M/C Journal, 9(2). Retrieved echo date('d M. Y'); ?> from <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0605/07-ruggillmcallister.php>.

In August 2006 the LiveJournal (hereafter LJ) community sga_flashfic posted its bimonthly challenge: a “Mission Report” challenge. Challenge communities are fandom-specific sites where moderators pick a theme or prompt to which writers respond and then post their specific fan works. The terms of this challenge were to encourage participants to invent a new mission and create a piece of fan fiction in the form of a mission report from the point of view of the Stargate Atlantis team of explorers. As an alternative possibility, and this is where the trouble started, the challenge also allowed to “take another author’s story and write a report” of its mission. Moderator Cesperanza then explained, “if you choose to write a mission report of somebody else’s story, we’ll ask you to credit them, but we won’t require you to ask their permission” (sga_flashfic LJ, 21 Aug. 2006, emphasis added). Whereas most announcement posts would only gather a few comments, this reached more than a hundred responses within hours, mostly complaints. Even though the community administrators quickly backtracked and posted a revision of the challenge not 12 hours later, the fannish LiveJournal sphere debated the challenge for days, reaching far beyond the specific fandom of Stargate Atlantis to discuss the ethical questions surrounding fannish appropriation and remix. At the center of the debate were the last eight words: “we won’t require you to ask their permission.” By encouraging fans to effectively write fan fiction of fan fiction and by not requiring permission, the moderators had violated an unwritten norm within this fannish community. Like all fan communities, western media fans have developed internal rules covering everything from what to include in a story header to how long to include a spoiler warning following aired episodes (for a definition and overview of western media fandom, see Coppa). In this example, the mods violated the fannish prohibition against the borrowing of original characters, settings, plot points, or narrative structures from other fan writers without permission—even though as fan fiction, the source of the inspiration engages in such borrowing itself. These kinds of normative rules can be altered, of course, but any change requires long and involved discussions. In this essay, we look at various debates that showcase how this fan community—media fandom on LiveJournal—creates and enforces but also discusses and changes its normative behavior. Fan fiction authors’ desire to prevent their work from being remixed may seem hypocritical, but we argue that underlying these conversations are complex negotiations of online privacy and control, affective aesthetics, and the value of fan labor. This is not to say that all fan communities address issues of remixing in the same way media fandom at this point in time did nor to suggest that they should; rather, we want to highlight a specific community’s internal ethics, the fervor with which members defend their rules, and the complex arguments that evolve from all sides when rules are questioned. Moreover, we suggest that these conversations offer insight into the specific relation many fan writers have to their stories and how it may differ from a more universal authorial affect. In order to fully understand the underlying motivations and the community ethos that spawned the sga_flashfic debates, we first want to differentiate between forms of unauthorised (re)uses and the legal, moral, and artistic concerns they create. Only with a clear definition of copyright infringement and plagiarism, as well as a clear understanding of who is affected (and in what ways) in any of these cases, can we fully understand the social and moral intersection of fan remixing of fan fiction. Only when sidestepping the legal and economic concerns surrounding remix can we focus on the ethical intricacies between copyright holders and fan writers and, more importantly, within fan communities. Fan communities differ greatly over time, between fandoms, and even depending on their central social interfaces (such as con-based zines, email-based listservs, journal-based online communities, etc.), and as a result they also develop a diverse range of internal community rules (Busse and Hellekson, “Works”; Busker). Much strife is caused when different traditions and their associated mores intersect. We’d argue, however, that the issues in the case of the Stargate Atlantis Remix Challenge were less the confrontation of different communities and more the slowly changing attitudes within one. In fact, looking at media fandom today, we may already be seeing changed attitudes—even as the debates continue over remix permission and unauthorised use. Why Remixes Are Not Copyright Infringement In discussing the limits of unauthorised use, it is important to distinguish plagiarism and copyright violation from forms of remix. While we are more concerned with the ethical issues surrounding plagiarism, we want to briefly address copyright infringement, simply because it often gets mixed into the ethics of remixes. Copyright is strictly defined as a matter of law; in many of the online debates in media fandom, it is often further restricted to U.S. Law, because a large number of the source texts are owned by U.S. companies. According to the U.S. Constitution (Article I, Section 8), Congress has the power to secure an “exclusive Right” “for limited Times.” Given that intellectual property rights have to be granted and are limited, legal scholars read this statute as a delicate balance between offering authors exclusive rights and allowing the public to flourish by building on these works. Over the years, however, intellectual property rights have been expanded and increased at the expense of the public commons (Lessig, Boyle). The main exception to this exclusive right is the concept of “fair use,” defined as use “for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching..., scholarship, or research” (§107). Case law circumscribes the limits of fair use, distinguishing works that are merely “derivative” from those that are “transformative” and thus add value (Chander and Sunder, Fiesler, Katyal, McCardle, Tushnet). The legal status of fan fiction remains undefined without a specific case that would test the fair use doctrine in regards to fan fiction, yet fair use and fan fiction advocates argue that fan fiction should be understood as eminently transformative and thus protected under fair use. The nonprofit fan advocacy group, the Organization for Transformative Works, in fact makes clear its position by including the legal term in their name, reflecting a changing understanding of both fans and scholars. Why Remixes Are Not Plagiarism Whereas copyright infringement is a legal concept that punishes violations between fan writers and commercial copyright holders, plagiarism instead is defined by the norms of the audience for which a piece is written: definitions of plagiarism thus differ from academic to journalist to literary contexts. Within fandom one of the most blatant (and most easily detectable) forms of plagiarism is when a fan copies another work wholesale and publishes it under their own name, either within the same fandom or by simply searching and replacing names to make it fit another fandom. Other times, fan writers may take selections of published pro or fan fiction and insert them into their works. Within fandom accusations of plagiarism are taken seriously, and fandom as a whole polices itself with regards to plagiarism: the LiveJournal community stop_plagiarism, for example, was created in 2005 specifically to report and pursue accusations of plagiarism within fandom. The community keeps a list of known plagiarisers that include the names of over 100 fan writers. Fan fiction plagiarism can only be determined on a case-by-case basis—and fans remain hypervigilant simply because they are all too often falsely accused as merely plagiarising when instead they are interpreting, translating, and transforming. There is another form of fannish offense that does not actually constitute plagiarism but is closely connected to it, namely the wholesale reposting of stories with attributions intact. This practice is frowned upon for two main reasons. Writers like to maintain at least some control over their works, often deriving from anxieties over being able to delete one’s digital footprint if desired or necessary. Archiving stories without authorial permission strips authors of this ability. More importantly, media fandom is a gift economy, in which labor is not reimbursed economically but rather rewarded with feedback (such as comments and kudos) and the growth of a writer’s reputation (Hellekson, Scott). Hosting a story in a place where readers cannot easily give thanks and feedback to the author, the rewards for the writer’s fan labor are effectively taken from her. Reposting thus removes the story from the fannish gift exchange—or, worse, inserts the archivist in lieu of the author as the recipient of thanks and comments. Unauthorised reposting is not plagiarism, as the author’s name remains attached, but it tends to go against fannish mores nonetheless as it deprives the writer of her “payment” of feedback and recognition. When Copyright Holders Object to Fan Fiction A small group of professional authors vocally proclaim fan fiction as unethical, illegal, or both. In her “Fan Fiction Rant” Robin Hobbs declares that “Fan fiction is to writing what a cake mix is to gourmet cooking” and then calls it outright theft: “Fan fiction is like any other form of identity theft. It injures the name of the party whose identity is stolen.” Anne Rice shares her feelings about fan fiction on her web site with a permanent message: “I do not allow fan fiction. The characters are copyrighted. It upsets me terribly to even think about fan fiction with my characters. I advise my readers to write your own original stories with your own characters. It is absolutely essential that you respect my wishes.” Diana Gabaldon calls fan fiction immoral and describes, “it makes me want to barf whenever I’ve inadvertently encountered some of it involving my characters.” Moreover, in a move shared by other anti-fan fiction writers, she compares her characters to family members: “I wouldn’t like people writing sex fantasies for public consumption about me or members of my family—why would I be all right with them doing it to the intimate creations of my imagination and personality?” George R.R. Martin similarly evokes familial intimacy when he writes, “My characters are my children, I have been heard to say. I don’t want people making off with them.” What is interesting in these—and other authors’—articulations of why they disapprove of fan fiction of their works is that their strongest and ultimate argument is neither legal nor economic reasoning but an emotional plea: being a good fan means coloring within the lines laid out by the initial creator, putting one’s toys back exactly as one found them, and never ever getting creative or transformative with them. Many fan fiction writers respect these wishes and do not write in book fandoms where the authors have expressed their desires clearly. Sometimes entire archives respect an author’s desires: fanfiction.net, the largest repository of fic online, removed all stories based on Rice’s work and does not allow any new ones to be posted. However, fandom is a heterogeneous culture with no centralised authority, and it is not difficult to find fic based on Rice’s characters and settings if one knows where to look. Most of these debates are restricted to book fandoms, likely for two reasons: (1) film and TV fan fiction alters the medium, so that there is no possibility that the two works might be mistaken for one another; and (2) film and TV authorship tends to be collaborative and thus lowers the individual sense of ownership (Mann, Sellors). How Fannish Remixes Are like Fan Fiction Most fan fiction writers strongly dismiss accusations of plagiarism and theft, two accusations that all too easily are raised against fan fiction and yet, as we have shown, such accusations actually misdefine terms. Fans extensively debate the artistic values of fan fiction, often drawing from classical literary discussions and examples. Clearly echoing Wilde’s creed that “there is no such thing as a moral or immoral book,” Kalichan, for example, argues in one LJ conversation that “whenever I hear about writers asserting that other writing is immoral, I become violently ill. Aside from this, morality & legality are far from necessarily connected. Lots of things are immoral and legal, illegal and moral and so on, in every permutation imaginable, so let’s just not confuse the two, shall we” (Kalichan LJ, 3 May 2010). Aja Romano concludes an epic list of remixed works ranging from the Aeneid to The Wind Done Gone, from All’s Well That Ends Well to Wicked with a passionate appeal to authors objecting to fan fiction: the story is not defined by the barriers you place around it. The moment you gave it to us, those walls broke. You may hate the fact people are imagining more to your story than what you put there. But if I were you, I’d be grateful that I got the chance to create a story that has a culture around it, a story that people want to keep talking about, reworking, remixing, living in, fantasizing about, thinking about, writing about. (Bookshop LJ, 3 May 2010)Many fan writers view their own remixes as part of a larger cultural movement that appropriates found objects and culturally relevant materials to create new things, much like larger twentieth century movements that include Dada and Pop Art, as well as feminist and postcolonial challenges to the literary canon. Finally, fan fiction partakes in 21st century ideas of social anarchy to create a cultural creative commons of openly shared ideas. Fan Cupidsbow describes strong parallels and cross-connection between all sorts of different movements, from Warhol to opensource, DeviantArt to AMV, fanfiction to mashups, sampling to critique and review. All these things are about how people are interacting with technology every day, and not just digital technology, but pens and paper and clothes and food fusions and everything else. (Cupidsbow LJ, 20 May 2009) Legally, of course, these reuses of collectively shared materials are often treated quite differently, which is why fan fiction advocates often maintain that all remixes be treated equally—regardless of whether their source text is film, TV, literature, or fan fiction. The Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works, for example, does not distinguish in its Content and Abuse Policy section between commercial and fan works in regard to plagiarism and copyright. Returning to the initial case of the Stargate Atlantis Mission Report Challenge, we can thus see how the moderator clearly positions herself within a framework that considers all remixes equally remixable. Even after changing the guidelines to require permission for the remixing of existing fan stories, moderator Cesperanza notes that she “remain[s] philosophically committed to the idea that people have the right to make art based on other art provided that due credit is given the original artist” (sga_flashfic LJ, 21 Aug. 2006). Indeed, other fans agree with her position in the ensuing discussions, drawing attention to the hypocrisy of demanding different rules for what appears to be the exact same actions: “So explain to me how you can defend fanfiction as legitimate derivative work if it’s based on one type of source material (professional writing or TV shows), yet decry it as ‘stealing’ and plagiarism if it’s based on another type of source material (fanfiction)” (Marythefan LJ, 21 Aug. 2006). Many fans assert that all remixes should be tolerated by the creators of their respective source texts—be they pro or fan. Fans expect Rowling to be accepting of Harry Potter’s underage romance with a nice and insecure Severus Snape, and they expect Matthew Weiner to be accepting of stories that kill off Don Draper and have his (ex)wives join a commune together. So fans should equally accept fan fiction that presents the grand love of Rodney McKay and John Sheppard, the most popular non-canonical fan fiction pairing on Stargate Atlantis, to be transformed into an abusive and manipulative relationship or rewritten with one of them dying tragically. Lydiabell, for example, argues that “there’s [no]thing wrong with creating a piece of art that uses elements of another work to create something new, always assuming that proper credit is given to the original... even if your interpretation is at odds with everything the original artist wanted to convey” (Lydiabell LJ, 22 Aug. 2006). Transforming works can often move them into territory that is critical of the source text, mocks the source text, rearranges relationships, and alters characterisations. It is here that we reach the central issue of this article: many fans indeed do view intrafandom interactions as fundamentally different to their interactions with professional authors or commercial entertainment companies. While everyone agrees that there are no legal, economic, or even ultimately moral arguments to be made against remixing fan fiction (because any such argument would nullify the fan’s right to create their fan fiction in the first place), the discourses against open remixing tend to revolve around community norms, politeness, and respect. How Fannish Remixes Are Not like Fan Fiction At the heart of the debate lie issues of community norms: taking another fan’s stories as the basis for one’s own fiction is regarded as a violation of manners, at least the way certain sections of the community define them. This, in fact, is not unlike the way many fan academics engage with fandom research. While it may be perfectly legal to directly cite fans’ blog posts, and while it may even be in compliance with institutional ethical research requirements (such as Internal Review Boards at U.S. universities), the academic fan writing about her own community may indeed choose to take extra precautions to protect herself and that community. As Kristina Busse and Karen Hellekson have argued, fan studies often exists at the intersection of language and social studies, and thus written text may simultaneously be treated as artistic works and as utterances by human subjects (“Identity”). In this essay (and elsewhere), we thus limit direct linking into fannish spaces, instead giving site, date, and author, and we have consent from all fans we cite in this essay. The community of fans who write fic in a particular fandom is relatively small, and most of them are familiar with each other, or can trace a connection via one or two degrees of separation only. While writing fan fiction about Harry Potter may influence the way you and your particular circle of friends interpret the novels, it is unlikely to affect the overall reception of the work. During the remix debate, fan no_pseud articulates the differing power dynamic: When someone bases fanfic on another piece of fanfic, the balance of power in the relationship between the two things is completely different to the relationship between a piece of fanfic and the canon source. The two stories have exactly equal authority, exactly equal validity, exactly equal ‘reality’ in fandom. (nopseud LJ, 21 Aug. 2006) Within fandom, there are few stories that have the kind of reach that professional fiction does, and it is just as likely that a fan will come across an unauthorised remix of a piece of fan fiction as the original piece itself. In that way, the reception of fan fiction is more fragile, and fans are justifiably anxious about it. In a recent conversation about proper etiquette within Glee fandom, fan writer flaming_muse articulates her reasons for expecting different behavior from fandom writers who borrow ideas from each other: But there’s a huge difference between fanfic of media and fanfic of other fanfic authors. Part of it is a question of the relationship of the author to the source material … but part of it is just about not hurting or diminishing the other creative people around you. We aren’t hurting Glee by writing fic in their ‘verse; we are hurting other people if we write fanfic of fanfic. We’re taking away what’s special about their particular stories and all of the work they put into them. (Stoney321 LJ, 12 Feb. 2012)Flaming_muse brings together several concepts but underlying all is a sense of community. Thus she equates remixing within the community without permission as a violation of fannish etiquette. The sense of community also plays a role in another reason given by fans who prefer permission, which is the actual ease of getting it. Many fandoms are fairly small communities, which makes it more possible to ask for permission before doing a translation, adaptation, or other kind of rewrite of another person’s fic. Often a fan may have already given feedback to the story or shared some form of conversation with the writer, so that requesting permission seems fairly innocuous. Moreover, fandom is a community based on the economy of gifting and sharing (Hellekson), so that etiquette becomes that much more important. Unlike pro authors who are financially reimbursed for their works, feedback is effectively a fan writer’s only payment. Getting comments, kudos, or recommendations for their stories are ways in which readers reward and thank the writers for their work. Many fans feel that a gift economy functions only through the goodwill of all its participants, which remixing without permission violates. How Fan Writing May Differ From Pro Writing Fans have a different emotional investment in their creations, only partially connected to writing solely for love (as opposed to professional writers who may write for love but also write for their livelihood in the best-case scenarios). One fan, who writes both pro and fan fiction, describes her more distanced emotional involvement with her professional writing as follows, When I’m writing for money, I limit my emotional investment in the material I produce. Ultimately what I am producing does not belong to me. Someone else is buying it and I am serving their needs, not my own. (St_Crispins LJ, 27 Aug. 2006)The sense of writing for oneself as part of a community also comes through in a comment by pro and fan writer Matociquala, who describes the specificity and often quite limited audience of fan fiction as follows: Fanfiction is written in the expectation of being enjoyed in an open membership but tight-knit community, and the writer has an expectation of being included in the enjoyment and discussion. It is the difference, in other words, between throwing a fair on the high road, and a party in a back yard. Sure, you might be able to see what’s going on from the street, but you’re expected not to stare. (Matociquala LJ, 18 May 2006)What we find important here is the way both writers seem to suggest that fan fiction allows for a greater intimacy and immediacy on the whole. So while not all writers write to fulfill (their own or other’s) emotional and narrative desires, this seems to be more acceptable in fan fiction. Intimacy, i.e., the emotional and, often sexual, openness and vulnerability readers and writers exhibit in the stories and surrounding interaction, can thus constitute a central aspect for readers and writers alike. Again, none of these aspects are particular to fan fiction alone, but, unlike in much other writing, they are such a central component that the stories divorced from their context—textual, social, and emotional—may not be fully comprehensible. In a discussion several years ago, Ellen Fremedon coined the term Id Vortex, by which she refers to that very tailored and customised writing that caters to the writers’ and/or readers’ kinks, that creates stories that not only move us emotionally because we already care about the characters but also because it uses tropes, characterisations, and scenes that appeal very viscerally: In fandom, we’ve all got this agreement to just suspend shame. I mean, a lot of what we write is masturbation material, and we all know it, and so we can’t really pretend that we’re only trying to write for our readers’ most rarefied sensibilities, you know? We all know right where the Id Vortex is, and we have this agreement to approach it with caution, but without any shame at all. (Ellen Fremedon LJ, 2 Dec. 2004)Writing stories for a particular sexual kink may be the most obvious way fans tailor stories to their own (or others’) desires, but in general, fan stories often seem to be more immediate, more intimate, more revealing than most published writing. This attachment is only strengthened by fans’ immense emotional attachment to the characters, as they may spend years if not decades rewatching their show, discussing all its details, and reading and writing stories upon stories. From Community to Commons These norms and mores continue to evolve as fannish activity becomes more and more visible to the mainstream, and new generations of fans enter fandom within a culture where media is increasingly spreadable across social networks and all fannish activity is collectively described and recognised as “fandom” (Jenkins, Ford, and Green). The default mode of the mainstream often treats “found” material as disseminable, and interfaces encourage such engagement by inviting users to “share” on their collection of social networks. As a result, many new fans see remixing as not only part of their fannish right, but engage in their activity on platforms that make sharing with or without attribution both increasingly easy and normative. Tumblr is the most recent and obvious example of a platform in which reblogging other users’ posts, with or without commentary, is the normative mode. Instead of (or in addition to) uploading one’s story to an archive, a fan writer might post it on Tumblr and consider reblogs as another form of feedback. In fact, our case study and its associated differentiation of legal, moral, and artistic justifications for and against remixing fan works, may indeed be an historical artifact in its own right: media fandom as a small and well-defined community of fans with a common interest and a shared history is the exception rather than the norm in today’s fan culture. When access to stories and other fans required personal initiation, it was easy to teach and enforce a community ethos. Now, however, fan fiction tops Google searches for strings that include both Harry and Draco or Spock and Uhura, and fan art is readily reblogged by sites for shows ranging from MTV’s Teen Wolf to NBC’s Hannibal. 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