Aiming at a moving target: methodological reflections on the study of politics of citizen-centric governance in post-earthquake Nepal

PurposeThe growing prominence of disaster research has also prompted vibrant discussions about the motivation and ethical conduct of disaster researchers. Yet, the individual researchers' aspirations and aims, together with the challenging and changing circumstances under which one undertakes disaster research have received relatively scant attention. Drawing on the author’s personal experience of becoming a disaster researcher under the unexpected humanitarian crisis following the 2015 Nepal earthquakes, this paper seeks to contribute to the debates surrounding the role of reflexivity and ethical sensitivity in doing disaster research under the climate of uncertainty.Design/methodology/approachThe paper draws on the author’s reflections and vignettes to highlight the author’s experience of becoming a disaster researcher, and my trajectory of navigating the complex terrain of fieldwork.FindingsThe paper underscores how the process of becoming a disaster researcher was closely intertwined with and shaped by my concerns and care for the disaster-affected communities. The paper argues that doing contextually relevant and ethically sensitive research is not a static target. It demands constant reflexivity and improvisation, in response to the unpredictable real-world conditions of disasters. Instead of aiming to tame such uncertainty, disaster researchers may benefit from appreciating and embracing uncertainty as a major facet of its epistemological distinctiveness.Originality/valueThe paper contributes to the ongoing efforts in advancing methodological reflection and innovation in disaster research. In so doing, the paper is expected to aid early-career researchers who are often faced with ethical and practical dilemmas of doing fieldwork.

Adaptive ratchets and the evolution of molecular complexity

Biological systems have evolved to amazingly complex states, yet we do not understand in general how evolution operates to generate increasing genetic and functional complexity. Molecular recognition sites are short genome segments or peptides binding a cognate recognition target of sufficient sequence similarity. Such sites are simple, ubiquitous modules of sequence information, cellular function, and evolution. Here we show that recognition sites, if coupled to a time-dependent target, can rapidly evolve to complex states with larger code length and smaller coding density than sites recognising a static target. The underlying fitness model contains selection for recognition, which depends on the sequence similarity between site and target, and a uniform cost per unit of code length. Site sequences are shown to evolve in a specific adaptive ratchet, which produces selection of different strength for code extensions and compressions. Ratchet evolution increases the adaptive width of evolved sites, accelerating the adaptation to moving targets and facilitating refinement and innovation of recognition functions. We apply these results to the recognition of fast-evolving antigens by the human immune system. Our analysis shows how molecular complexity can evolve as a collateral to selection for function in a dynamic environment.

SFCW Radar with an Integrated Static Target Echo Cancellation System

Continuous Wave (CW) radars systems, especially air-coupled Ground-Penetrating Radar (GPR) or Through-Wall Imaging Radar (TWIR) systems, echo signals reflected from a stationary target with high energy, which may cause receiver saturation. Another effect caused by reflection of stationary targets is noticeable as background within a radargram. Nowadays, radar systems use automatic gain control to prevent receiver saturation. This paper proposes a method to remove stationary targets automatically from the received signal. The method was designed for a radar system with a moving platform, with an assumption that the distance between the surface and target is constant. The design is proposed of an SFCW radar with an integrated system for real-time multiple static target Echo Cancellation (EC). The proposed EC system removes the static target using active Integrated Circuit (IC) components, which generate the corresponding EC signal for each frequency step of the SFCW radar and sum it with the received echo signal. This has the main advantage of removing even multiple echoes at any distance, and excludes the need for a high-dynamic-range receiver. Additionally, the proposed system has minimal impact on the radar size and power consumption. Besides static target removal, the antenna coupling can be removed if the signal appears to be constant. The operating frequency was selected between 500 MHz and 2.5 GHz, due to the limitation of the used electronic components. The experimental results show that the simulated target’s echo using a cable with a known length could be suppressed to up to 38 dB. Experimental results using a moving radar platform and the real environment scenario with static and dynamic targets, show that the proposed EC system could achieve up to 20 dB attenuation of the static target. The system does not affect any other target of interest, which can even move at any distance during the measurement. Therefore, this could be a promising method for further compact implementation into SFCW radars, or any other radar type that generates CW single frequencies.

Target Tracking and Ranging Based on Single Photon Detection

In order to achieve non-cooperative target tracking and ranging in conditions of a weak echo signal, this paper presents a real-time acquisition, pointing, tracking (APT), and ranging (APTR) lidar system based on single photon detection. With this system, an active target APT mechanism based on a single photon detector is proposed. The target tracking and ranging strategy and the simulation of target APT are presented. Experiments in the laboratory show that the system has good performance to achieve the acquisition, pointing and ranging of a static target, and track a dynamic target (angular velocity around 3 mrad/s) under the condition of extremely weak echo signals (a dozen photons). Meanwhile, through further theoretical analysis, it can be proven that the mechanism has stronger tracking and detection ability in long distance. It can achieve the active tracking of the target with a lateral velocity of hundreds of meters per second at about one hundred kilometers distance. This means that it has the ability of fast long-distance non-cooperative target tracking and ranging, only by using a single-point single photon detector.

The Syntactic and Semantic Analysis of Suffix -in in Balinese

This paper discusses the syntactic and semantic analysis of Balinese suffix -in. It is to determine its distribution in sentence construction. This study uses the RRG theory by Van Valin and Randy (1999) supported by the data taken from Balinese articles issued in the Bali Orti of Bali Post newspapers. The result of the analysis shows that as a transitivizing suffix, Balinese suffix -in can be added to nominal, adjectival, adverbial, intransitive and transitive bases. Syntactically, -in can be used in stative, transitive, imperative, passive constructions. The word orders assigned by the suffix -in require different morphology of the verbs. Semantically, the derived verbs with -in refer to the activities treating object as static target of action. As an applicative suffix, -in expresses causative, benefactive, source or locative meaning.