7 steps to SPAN the gap

With a government eager to boost the UK's standing in global space research, a few key changes could significantly increase academia's influence in the space sector

Applied genomics for identification of virulent biothreats and for disease outbreak surveillance

Fortifying our preparedness to cope with biological threats by identifying and targeting virulence factors may be a preventative strategy for curtailing infectious disease outbreak. Virulence factors evoke successful pathogenic invasion, and the science and technology of genomics offers a way of identifying them, their agents and evolutionary ancestor. Genomics offers the possibility of deciphering if the release of a pathogen was intentional or natural by observing sequence and annotated data of the causative agent, and evidence of genetic engineering such as cloned vectors at restriction sites. However, to leverage and maximise the application of genomics to strengthen global interception system for real-time biothreat diagnostics, a complete genomic library of pathogenic and non-pathogenic agents will create a robust reference assembly that can be used to screen, characterise, track and trace new and existing strains. Encouraging ethical research sequencing pathogens found in animals and the environment, as well as creating a global space for collaboration will lead to effective global regulation and biosurveillance.

Development of the Pre-Professional Identity of Vocational Students during Their Training through a Program Based on OER-Enabled Pedagogy and an Online Community of Practice

Online professional communities based on sharing under open licenses have become a new way of building knowledge, learning and professional development of the participants who build and expand their professional identity in the new global space. These new dynamics of cyberculture are not being sufficiently explored in the training of vocational students. However, open pedagogy models can foster pre-professional identity, influence academic success and self-perception, as well as contribute to the commons. In this study, we have investigated from the anthropological perspective, the impact of a training program based on an open pedagogy model. Specifically, we have investigated the effect on the pre-professional identity and the academic results of vocational students, as well as on the development of the commons of their profession. Methodologically, we have combined the bibliographic review with the empirical, quantitative, and qualitative data, collected in the ethnographic fieldwork carried out during two academic years on 77 students of “Microcomputer Systems and Networks”, in a vocational center located in the Community of Valencia (Spain). The results indicate that this methodology promotes, among students, the development of pre-professional identity, a better understanding of copyright and open licenses, appreciation of the documentation processes of their tasks, and the value of their works for society.

Fourth Industrial Revolution and Geopolitics of Knowledge Production: The Question of Africa’s Place in the Global Space

Francis Fukuyama postulated that there are two powerful forces at work in human history. One, he calls, ‘the logic of modern science’ and the other, ‘the struggle for recognition’. I agree with Fukuyama that human developmental progression is propelled by these twin principles. It is my position that these principles have been the drivers of geopolitics. In this paper, I argue that, in addition, knowledge production is a major factor in geopolitics and that the Euro-American worldview has occupied the place of hegemony by reason of knowledge production. Africa has been denied having any form of epistemic tradition by the Euro-American world to sustain itself in the position of hegemony. In the era of Fourth Industrial Revolution, it will be antithetical for Africa to continue to adopt or consume technologies driven by Eurocentrism without projecting its contribution to the global space. Hence, using a critical hermeneutical approach, I contend that Africa needs to make a unique African contribution in the era of Fourth Industrial Revolution. It is Africa’s unique contribution that will guarantee Africa a place in geopolitics.

The Prospect of Investment Banking and Arbitration in the Space Economy

Morgan Stanley estimates that the global space industry could generate revenues of more than $1 trillion or more by 2040, up from over $400 billion currently. Do declining launch costs, technological advancements and a rising interest in the public sector make space the next trillion-dollar economy? The dynamics of the space sector has led wall street analysts to forecast that the space industry could become the next trillion-dollar industry by 2040. As of January 2018, the global space economy grew more than 8%, generating $414.75 billion in space activities.With unmanned scientific exploration, high levels of private funding advancement in technology the implications of investment for a more accessible, low cost into outer space is significant, with potential opportunities for improvement of the resources in space for profit-making and expansion of business concerns, the expanding interest of public sector migrate into the shift from private finding to public and herald the entrance of traditional finance There are fortunes and resources in the space economy which aids the activities of humans, as well as the bold exploration of countries to expand research and understand the limits use and the extent to the use in the space economy.This paper seeks to explore the prospects of investment banking activities in the growing space economy, seeing the growing development of exchange-traded funds already being explored in the space economy and the new regulations allowing Wall Street to do Venture Capital which expands the exploration of capital and buttresses the objective of raising capital by a major player, Space X which raised about $44 Billion and so grows the prospect of more banking activity. Furthermore, the possibilities that are inherent in the eventual proliferation of investment banking activities in the space industry will be addressed. In attempting to do justice to such a lofty idea, the universal need for funding in the world of business will be examined as a representation of the intersection between banking interests and space interests. The interplay of factors such as risk and understanding of business processes in the dynamics of any relationship between investment banking and the space industry will also be examined. The purpose of such analysis will be to afford an understanding of the role that investment banking has to play in the space industry, as an over text to the elements and characteristics of space activities that define the rate of the growth of the influence and applicability of investment banking to the peculiar needs and unique concerns associated with the pursuit of profitable business in the space economy. Lastly, this paper looks to give an account of the evolution of Space Dispute Arbitration, and how the existing legal mechanisms in force for directing arbitral awards have evolved in scope and flexibility since the first satellite launch. In general, and as a statement of fundamental purpose, this paper will attempt to provide a wide and sufficiently detailed representation of what the space industry is, the dynamics of space arbitration and how its resultant economic sector functions, in order to hypothesize on the part that investment banking has to play in its growth and in the maximization of its resultant profits for all shareholders involved.”

Conceptualizing an Outside World

This article studies the concept of buitenland (the foreign) in a broad sample of Dutch newspapers in the period between 1815 and 1914. Buitenland emerged as a key concept in the nineteenth century. It referred to an “outside word” that was marked by semantic properties such as instability and closeness. As such, this apparently mundane spatial indicator bolstered the emergent “spatial regime” of globality and globalization. The article thus shows how a computational analysis of concepts that could be easily overlooked reveals structural transformations in the way past and present societies conceptualize (global) space.

Reflection on Criticisms of Critical Geopolitics

The book Critical Geopolitics: The Politics of Writing Global Space was first published twenty-five years ago. In this article, I briefly discuss the geopolitical and intellectual sources of inspiration for the development Critical Geopolitics as a distinctive approach within Anglo-American political geography. In doing so, I distinguish it from other concurrent critical approached to International Relations and the world-system within English-speaking Geography at this time. Thereafter I consider four lines of critique of Critical Geopolitics. The first is the argument that the approach is too political. A subsidiary argument considers its relationship to violence. The second is the argument that it is neglects embodiment and everyday life and that, consequently, a Feminist Geopolitics is needed as a necessary corrective. The third is that claim that the approach is too textual and operates with a flawed conception of discourse, one that neglects practice. The fourth critique is that Critical Geopolitics has an undeveloped conception of materiality and neglects more-than-human agency. In discuss these criticisms, I make an argument for a continuity of concern with latent catastrophism in Critical Geopolitics from the danger of nuclear war in the mid-nineteen eighties to the climate emergency of today.

Cyberspace: Key Properties and Traits

Backbone telecom networks have become one, which created an artificially global space known as cyberspace. The very emergence of such a complex space calls for detailed investigation and making a thesaurus. This paper is an attempt to create a terminology base applicable to the concept.

Measuring the Sciences Contribution to Socioeconomic Development: Russian Approaches in the Global Space of Ideas

Purpose: this review aims to present the ‘state-of-the-art’ on the theory and practice of measuring the contribution of sciences to socioeconomic progress and trace the Russian approaches in the global space of ideas.Methods: for studying a multidisciplinary sample of academic publications and gray literature includes multifactor systematization, critical analysis, and synthetic generalization in a large context («helicopter view»).Results: a brief history of the subject is presented in the context of the state's use of science for socio-economic development. The review outlines the focus areas of scientific thought, the conceptual frameworks state, current approaches to measuring the contribution of sciences, the limitations and risks of the evaluation practice.Conclusions and Relevance: key areas of scientific thought in the subject under review for 100 years: (1) development of econometric approaches for measuring the «profitability» of science; (2) attempts to identify and measure the societal impacts of science; (3) scientific support of government experiments to use the evaluation technologies for increasing the return of budget investment to science; (4) conceptualizing and universalizing the terms. There are no indisputable solutions in any of these areas. Disappointment with the catch-all indicators and universal metrics encourages the development of case-oriented methods and process-oriented approaches.Russian research covers the full range of issues, but their world recognition (except some achievements of Soviet time) is low. The lack of institutional memory leads to the rediscovery of the ideas of the 20th century. Establishing the equivalence of terms and conceptual approaches used by scientists from different countries and periods will help to effectively use the scientific heritage, avoid duplicate research, provide a fair place to the Russian achievements in world science.