Heidegger on the History of Machination

Abstract

Heidegger’s discussion about the rise of the arbitrary power of “machination” (Machenschaft) in his late 1930s writings does not just echo his well-known later thinking on technology, but also affords a profound insight to the ontological mechanism of oblivion behind the history of Western thinking of being. The paper shows how this rise of the coercive power of ordering (Machenschaft) signifies an emergence of historically and spatially significant moment of completion: outgrowth of the early Greek notions of tekhne and phusis in terms of globally expanding systems of calculative orderings. The paper thus aims to show how the condition of machination marks a fundamental implementation of the hidden consummation of the mechanism of oblivion now being re-adopted into the operational clarity of calculative rationality. It is argued that the rise of machination became possible through the historical process of replacing the early Greek disposition of existence, the wonder, with calculative rationality of ordering.     

Integrated DNA and Fingerprint Analyses in the Identification of 60‐Year‐Old Mummified Human Remains Discovered in an Alaskan Glacier

Abstract: This report describes the identification of a merchant mariner who perished in 1948 when Northwest Airlines Flight 4422, a DC‐4 carrying 24 seamen and six crew members crashed into Mount Sanford, Alaska. Fifty‐one years later, a human forearm and hand were found close by the wreckage of the plane, prompting identification efforts using DNA and fingerprints. There were significant challenges to both the fingerprint and DNA analyses. The hand was badly desiccated, making fingerprint friction‐ridge detail almost invisible and the remains had been embalmed upon discovery, making DNA amplification difficult. We present the results of an interdisciplinary approach that successfully addressed these challenges and ultimately led to the identification of the remains. These efforts relied on efficient fingerprint rejuvenation and imaging techniques that improved print resolution, as well as new DNA extraction techniques optimized for aggressively embalmed remains.     

Evaluating probabilistic genotyping for low-pass DNA sequencing

Most genomic methods consider the sample genotype. Data are evaluated at some location, and if the signal strength is sufficient, a genotype call is made. Conversely, sites that lack sufficient signal are treated as missing data. Such methods for genotype calling are binary, and this dichotomy limits genomic analyses to relatively high-coverage (and high-cost) massively parallel sequencing (MPS) data. It follows that bioinformatic methods that rely on genotypes may not be ideal for trace DNA samples, such as those sometimes encountered in forensic investigations, but even when applicable such analyses can be expensive. However, there are some genomic analyses where having many uncertain genotypes (with measured uncertainty) assayed over the entirety of the genome may be more powerful than current multi-locus approaches that consider a limited number of well-characterized markers. Methods for such problems may rely on genotype likelihood, which expresses the likelihood of alternative genotype calls in addition to the most likely call. One application that can benefit from genotype likelihoods is kinship analysis. NgsRelate is a bioinformatic tool that infers pairwise relatedness using a probabilistic genotyping framework, which accommodates the uncertainty associated with genotype calls for low-pass MPS data. Here, NgsRelate was used to infer kinship coefficients from low-pass whole genome sequencing data from a known pedigree. Multiple samples in a titration series (ranging from 50 ng to 0.5 ng) on a single MPS S4 flow cell were assessed. A reproducible scientific bioinformatic workflow was developed to evaluate kinship coefficients considering up to 3rd degree relatives. NgsRelate was found to provide robust assessments of kinship. Further, the use of low-pass MPS data provides a more cost-effective way to conduct forensic investigations.     

民间文献:妇女史研究资料的价值与利用

民间文献中有关妇女的内容丰富,呈现出多样性、民间性、鲜活性的特点。这些特点决定了它们在妇女史研究中既能弥补正史资料的不足与缺陷,又在一定程度上为研究领域的扩展和深入提供重要的支撑。但目前的妇女史研究中,民间文献资料搜集与运用还相对薄弱。本文即以碑刻、契约、家谱以及其他形式的民间文献资料为内容,讨论了民间文献在妇女史研究中的重要价值。     

哲学的方法与后现代法理学

当代西方法学的理论与实践呈现出明显的后现代转向,这种转向深受后现代哲学方法的影响。后现代法理学主要借鉴了解构、系谱学与新实用主义三种方法或理论。这些方法虽有很大的不同,但在理论指向上具有很大的一致性,由此导致后现代法理学外部视角的批判与反基础主义两大理论倾向。     

人本主义--中华法系特点之一

中国古代的人本主义是一种比较早熟的、具有相当理性的思维方式,它在一定程度上支配着中国古代的政治、哲学、文化的许多方面.就法律而言,也就表现出浓厚的人本主义色彩其一,德主刑辅,明刑弼教;其二,援法断罪,重惜民命;其三,矜恤老幼孤寡,宽宥残疾废疾;其四,存留养亲,免死承祀.     

Feminism, Aestheticism and the Limits of Law

This article seeks to identify and address the normative void that resides at the heart of postmodernist-feminist theory, and to propose a philosophical framework – beyond postmodernism, but incorporating its central insights – for thinking through the normative questions with which feminists are inevitably confronted in their engagements with positive law. Two varieties of postmodernist-feminism are identified and critically analysed: the ‘corporeal feminism’ of Elizabeth Grosz and Judith Butler, which seeks to ground feminist critical practice in the irruptive capacities of the material body considered as an arte fact of social construction; and the deconstructionist feminism of Drucilla Cornell, for whom ‘the feminine’ is an indeterminate but disruptive force beyond its construction in law and in other social sites. The first component of the argument elaborated here is that each of these approaches ultimately reduces to a form of aestheticism which is incapable of generating a worthwhile and workable feminist approach to the restructuring of politics and law. The second component of the argument involves a return to aesthetics, in particular to the philosophical aesthetics of Kant’s Critique of Judgement. Kant’s aesthetic philosophy, it will be suggested, yields a framework of concepts which, duly re-manipulated, could speak to the very concerns that have inspired postmodernist-feminism: how to attend to (bodily) particularity while avoiding the dangers associated with ‘essentialism’; and how to theorise the propensity of the unrepresentable power of the feminine to exceed both embodied human capacities and the confining rein of socially privileged rationalities. Crucially, however it also responds to a set of preoccupations – those of the feminist lawyer – that cannot be accommodated by postmodernism: how to translate embodied experience into (legal) norms; generalise from the particular; seek consensus; and codify an endless potentiality in the form of law. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Whole-genome sequencing of degraded DNA for investigative genetic genealogy

Whole genome sequencing has opened the doors to Investigative genetic genealogy (IGG) analysis of challenging forensic samples that are not suitable for microarray genotyping. These samples still do not typically achieve high enough coverage for direct genotype calling, therefore a pipeline for imputation from low coverage sequencing data was evaluated using data from the 1000 Genomes Project. This pipeline generated results suitable for IGG down to 0.25X coverage. Additionally, forensic samples from a variety of tissue types and input amounts were sequenced and successfully uploaded to genetic genealogy databases after imputation.     

安源精神：中国工人运动革命精神的典范

长期以来，安源精神未引起社会足够的重视，其历史地位也未得到全面的揭示。研究从中国共 产党早期工人运动、近代工业文明遗产和中国共产党精神谱系的维度对安源精神进行解读。研究认为，安源工 人运动，是中国工人运动的代表作，其所形成的安源精神，是中国共产党早期工人运动一面光辉的旗帜，是中 国近代工业文明的一份宝贵红色遗产，也是中国共产党精神谱系演进中的一个重要枢纽，堪称中国工人运动革 命精神的典范。它是整个中国革命和国家工业化共同的历史记忆和宝贵的精神财富。     

法社会学研究的新视域——以魏晋南北朝王僧孺谱学为中心

魏晋南北朝时期,谱牒编修蔚为风气。当时所修谱牒的主要内容包括谱主姓名、郡望、官爵、世系、婚姻关系等。这些内容折射出较强的等级差别性和血缘传承性等法社会学特征。魏晋南北朝谱牒本质上是当时社会分层——门阀制度的客观体现。王僧孺是魏晋南北朝时期的谱学名家,亦是中国谱牒学史上著名的王氏谱学的代表人物。以王僧孺谱学为中心展开研究,在历史性考述王僧孺修谱行为的基础上,探析其行为背后的法社会学动因并作出评价,具有法社会学与历史学的双重意义。