Balanced Norms Research Articles

SOFIA’S choices: Discourses, values, and norms of the World Ocean Regime

Some scholars have thought the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea would transform marine politics and policy by incorporating social values of equity and justice via the Common Heritage of Mankind and authentic conservation of an essential part of the biosphere, displacing the dominant commodification of the ocean. Likewise, the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization has claimed that the “productivity paradigm” of growth in fishery catch has been replaced by balanced norms of sustainability. This article tests these claims by asking “What is the ‘generative grammar’, or value-based blueprints, of governance for the World Ocean?” using a quantitative content analysis of all extant State of the World Fisheries and Aquaculture (SOFIA) reports (1995–2016). Not only does the analysis disprove the FAO’s assertions, this research reveals an otherwise invisible, non-codified economistic regime governing the World Ocean that is guided by the norms of sheer volume production, named here simply the “World Ocean Regime.” This partially explains why the marine world is experiencing structural ecological changes, including massive biodiversity loss partly driven by overfishing. The analysis finds that overfishing, ecological life support, moral aesthetic values, social equity, and science are very minor concerns for the World Ocean Regime. Governance is the second-most important set of discourses, but this governance is clearly driven by economic values and norms. The World Ocean Regime has critical implications not only for the sustainability of the World Ocean, but the planetary system that depends on the World Ocean.

Beyond false balance: How interpretive journalism shapes media coverage of climate change

Abstract This study explores two pre-eminent features of transnational media coverage of climate change: The framing of climate change as a harmful, human-induced risk and the way that reporting handles contrarian voices in the climate debate. The analysis shows how journalists, and their interpretations and professional norms, shape media debates about climate change. The study links an analysis of media content to a survey of the authors of the respective articles. It covers leading print and online news outlets in Germany, India, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Switzerland. It finds that climate journalism has moved beyond the norm of balance towards a more interpretive pattern of journalism. Quoting contrarian voices still is part of transnational climate coverage, but these quotes are contextualized with a dismissal of climate change denial. Yet niches of denial persist in certain contexts, and much journalistic attention is focused on the narrative of ‘warners vs. deniers,’ and overlooks the more relevant debates about climate change.

Robust coupling of DPG and BEM for a singularly perturbed transmission problem

We consider a transmission problem consisting of a singularly perturbed reaction diffusion equation on a bounded domain and the Laplacian in the exterior, connected through standard transmission conditions. We establish a DPG scheme coupled with Galerkin boundary elements for its discretization, and prove its robustness for the field variables in so-called balanced norms. Our coupling scheme is the one from Führer et al., (2016), adapted to the singularly perturbed case by using the scheme from Heuer and Karkulik (2015). Essential feature of our method is that optimal test functions have to be computed only locally. We report on various numerical experiments in two dimensions.

Robust Error Estimation for Singularly Perturbed Fourth Order Problems

We consider two-dimensional singularly perturbed fourth order problems and estimate on properly constructed layer-adapted errors of a mixed method in the associated energy norms and balanced norms. This paper is a shortened version of [4].

Error Estimates in Balanced Norms of Finite Element Methods on Shishkin Meshes for Reaction-Diffusion Problems

Error estimates of finite element methods for reaction-diffusion problems are often realized in the related energy norm. In the singularly perturbed case, however, this norm is not adequate. A different scaling of the H1 seminorm leads to a balanced norm which reflects the layer behavior correctly.

Robust error estimation in energy and balanced norms for singularly perturbed fourth order problems

We consider singularly perturbed fourth order problems in two dimensions. Under assumptions on the structure of their solutions, we construct layer-adapted meshes and prove for a mixed-method convergence and supercloseness in the associated energy norms as well as convergence in balanced norms.

An hp finite element method for 4th order singularly perturbed problems

We present the analysis for the hp finite element approximation of the solution to singularly perturbed fourth order problems, using a balanced norm. In Panaseti et al. (2016) it was shown that the hp version of the Finite Element Method (FEM) on the so-called Spectral Boundary Layer Mesh yields robust exponential convergence when the error is measured in the natural energy norm associated with the problem. In the present article we sharpen the result by showing that the same hp-FEM on the Spectral Boundary Layer Mesh gives robust exponential convergence in a stronger, more balanced norm. As a corollary we also get robust exponential convergence in the maximum norm. The analysis is based on the ideas in Roos and Franz (Calcolo 51, 423---440, 2014) and Roos and Schopf (ZAMM 95, 551---565, 2015) and the recent results in Melenk and Xenophontos (2016). Numerical examples illustrating the theory are also presented.

A changing climate of skepticism: The factors shaping climate change coverage in the US press.

Skepticism toward climate change has a long tradition in the United States. We focus on mass media as the conveyors of the image of climate change and ask: Is climate change skepticism still a characteristic of US print media coverage? If so, to what degree and in what form? And which factors might pave the way for skeptics entering mass media debates? We conducted a quantitative content analysis of US print media during one year (1 June 2012 to 31 May 2013). Our results show that the debate has changed: fundamental forms of climate change skepticism (such as denial of anthropogenic causes) have been abandoned in the coverage, being replaced by more subtle forms (such as the goal to avoid binding regulations). We find no evidence for the norm of journalistic balance, nor do our data support the idea that it is the conservative press that boosts skepticism.

Robust exponential convergence of $$hp$$ h p -FEM in balanced norms for singularly perturbed reaction-diffusion equations

The $hp$-version of the finite element method is applied to a singularly perturbed reaction-diffusion equation posed in one- and two-dimensional domains with analytic boundary. On suitably designed \emph{Spectral Boundary Layer meshes}, robust exponential convergence in a balanced norm is shown. This balanced norm is stronger than the energy norm in that the boundary layers are $O(1)$ uniformly in the singular perturbation parameter. Robust exponential convergence in the maximum norm is also established. The theoretical findings are illustrated with two numerical experiments.

A balanced finite element method for a system of singularly perturbed reaction-diffusion two-point boundary value problems

A system of linear coupled reaction-diffusion equations is considered, where each equation is a two-point boundary value problem and all equations share the same small diffusion coefficient. A finite element method using piecewise quadratic splines that are globally C1 is introduced; its novelty lies in the norm associated with the method, which is stronger than the usual energy norm and is "balanced", i.e., each term in the norm is O(1) when the norm is applied to the true solution of the system. On a standard Shishkin mesh with N subintervals, it is shown that the method is O(N?1lnN)$O(N^{-1}\ln N)$ accurate in the balanced norm. Numerical results to illustrate this result are presented.

Norm construction and analysis of one-leg balance in children aged 3 to 6 years in Nanjing

Objective To construct the norm of the one-leg balance of 3-6 years old children and provide the basis for assessing children's static balance.The results can used as one of the children's physical fitness evaluation content and applied into the fitness test. Methods The stratified random sampling method was used to select kindergarten children in 5 major areas out of 11 districts or counties in Nanjing, and 4 kindergartens were selected from each selected district according to the random number table method, with 65 healthy children in each selected kindergarten.Totally, 1 282 children of 3-6 years old were tested.The maximum scores by three trials were used as the one-leg balance score for each leg. Results The percentile 5, 25, 50, 75, 95 values of the one-leg balance of 3-6 years old children were recorded, respectively.The findings indicated that the maximum one-leg balance scores went up with the increase of age, and one-leg balance scores of the girls' was greater than those of boys'(t=2.552, 4.680, 2.732, 2.074, 2.538, 2.065, all P 0.05). Conclusions One-leg balance mainly reflects the ability of children's static balance.It is an important item of fitness.The results can provide clinicians with preliminary descriptive data for the one-leg balance of 3-6 years old children and provide reference for evaluating children's ability of static balance and balance training.One-leg balance can also be regarded as an essential item of fitness test. Key words: Child; One-leg balance; Fitness

Intellectual Property Rights Vis-A Vis Right to Health: A Critique

Health is a fundamental human right indispensable for the exercise of other human rights. The Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948 mentioned health as part of the right to an adequate standard of living. The International Covenants, Treaties relating to human rights and the Constitutions of various nations recognize that a number of elements would be encompassed by the right to health from prevention to cure to access to drugs. However, health trends indicate that despite progress made in the last 35 years, millions of the people in the developing countries do not have access to the medicines which are required for treating diseases. One of the significant reasons for the lack of access of essential medicines required for needed treatment is the high prices fixed for those drugs. Strong intellectual property protection keeps prices inflated up to one hundred times the cost of manufacture of drugs. Monopolies are created by patents and they restrict competition in pharmaceutical market and permit patentee to set up high prices. It clearly indicates that the linkage between intellectual property rights and health has been the focus of much debate. Much initiative has been taken by World Intellectual Property Organization, World Trade Organization (WHO) and World Health Organization (WTO) through Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Agreements (TRIPS), Doha Declaration and then the 30 August 2003 Compulsory License Import Export mechanism for providing safeguards to remedy the patent abuse, giving primacy to the public health over private intellectual property and also clarifying the WTO members States’ rights for using TRIPS safeguards. However, such measures failed to resolve the terrific issue ensuring production and export of generic medicines to developing countries that were incapable to produce them and also certain concepts remained un-clarified demanding clear guidelines to be issued in this respect at the international level for removing various types of controversies which still arise between developed and developing member States. Moreover, the intellectual property rules in TRIPS have been observed to be considerably less stringent than the rules developing countries are increasingly adopting in free-trade agreements known as "TRIPS-plus" agreements with the United States and other Western Governments which put greater restrictions on the use of TRIPS flexibilities like, compulsory licensing and parallel imports making it much more difficult for generic drugs to enter the market upon patent expiration and then extend patent periods beyond twenty years. Consequently, the developing countries that attempt to bring the price of the medicines down have to come under pressure from the industrialized countries and multi-national pharmaceutical industry for implementing patent legislation that goes beyond the obligations of TRIPS. However, in India Glivec case is remarkable because the judgment has a positive impact on affordability and accessibility of medicines. Now, it will be more difficult to indulge in ever-greening in India.This paper attempts to analyze critically at the global and national level two bodies of law, human right to health and intellectual property rights in order to examine certain core issues such as how despite the interactions concluded between both the bodies of law at the international level, the monopoly right conferred via intellectual property legislations transgresses the right to health particularly right to access to drug through the practice of ever-greening and threat of trade sanctions or corporate litigation from both pharmaceutical companies and developed countries. Further this paper aims to study various cases of external pressures put upon the developing countries from the side of developed nations in order to stop the entry of competitive generic medicines in the global market in the context of Indian landmark judgment and then to suggest various measures such as: making coherent, consistent and balanced legal norms at international level clarifying different concepts and issuing clearly stringent and mandatory guidelines/regulations in TRIPS providing a place of supremacy to fundamental right to health over intellectual property right; establishing high patentability standards at international level; developing Publicly funded research or pharmaceutical subsidies as well as creating policies to relax patents and increase the affordability of generic anti-retroviral through coordinated effort of global system. In order to achieve this objective, the doctrinal research is done by studying various Reports, Declarations, and Conventions of United Nations Organization and its different specialized agencies like; World Intellectual Property Organization, World Health Organization and World Trade Organization, free trade treaties among different nations as well as various other relevant national statutory enactments. The important works of a number of jurists contributing towards this field has also been the material of study.

Dependence of the yield and quality of potato tubers in the forest-steppe zone of Southern Urals on the level of mineral nutrition and planting density

The influence of mineral nutrition on the formation of potato yield under conditions of the Southern Urals has been studied depending on variety and density of planting. The quantitative assessment is given in the influence of agronomical practices on indicators of potato productivity. It is demonstrated that the cropping power of potato in the forest-steppe zone of the region depends mainly on the density of planting (factor contribution: 57.4% in experiment one and 46.6% in experiment two, respectively) and the level of mineral nutrition (36.1 and 42.7%) depends to a lesser degree on the genotype (5.0 and 8.0%). Under these conditions, it will be expedient to employ balanced fertilizer norms calculated for getting the yield of 40 tn/ha at planting pattern 75 × 24 and 70 × 19 cm.

Convergence and stability in balanced norms of finite element methods on Shishkin meshes for reaction‐diffusion problems

Error estimates of finite element methods for reaction‐diffusion problems are often realized in the related energy norm. In the singularly perturbed case, however, this norm is not adequate. A different scaling of the H1 seminorm leads to a balanced norm which reflects the layer behavior correctly. We prove error estimates in balanced norms and investigate also stability questions. Especially, we propose a new C0 interior penalty method with improved stability properties in comparison with the Galerkin FEM.

Error estimation in a balanced norm for a convection-diffusion problem with two different boundary layers

The $$\varepsilon $$ ? -weighted energy norm is the natural norm for singularly perturbed convection-diffusion problems with exponential layers. But, this norm is too weak to recognise features of characteristic layers. We present an error analysis in a differently weighted energy norm--a balanced norm--that overcomes this drawback.

Radiation balance variations of underlying surface from the long-term observations of the Meteorological Observatory of the Moscow State University

The data on the radiation balance of underlying surface, its components, and main factors defining their variations are systematized and generalized for 50 years (1958–2007) on the basis of continuous observations at the Meteorological Observatory of the Moscow State University. The climatic norms of radiation balance are obtained and its variability (diurnal, annual, and interannual) limits are estimated. The correlation dependences between its main components and factors influencing their variability are obtained and the probability of one or another diurnal radiation balance sum during the year is determined. The existence is demonstrated of the tendency toward the increase in the absorbed, effective, and atmospheric back radiation and terrestrial radiation balance mostly pronounced in the nighttime in winter months.

Mismatches between ‘Scientific’ and ‘Non-Scientific’ Ways of Knowing and Their Contributions to Public Understanding of Science

As differentiation within scientific disciplines increases, so does differentiation between the sciences and other ways of knowing. This distancing between 'scientific' and 'non-scientific' cultures reflects differences in what are considered valid and reliable approaches to acquiring knowledge and has played a major role in recent science-oriented controversies. Scientists' reluctance to actively engage in science communication, coupled with journalists' reliance on the norms of balance, conflict, and human interest in covering scientific issues, have combined to exacerbate public mistrust of science on issues like the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine. The failure of effective communications between scientists and non-scientists has hindered the progress of both effective science and effective policy. In order to better bridge the gap between the 'scientific' and 'non-scientific' cultures, renewed efforts must be made to encourage substantive public engagement, with the ultimate goal of facilitating an open, democratic policy-making process.

Covering the Qana ‘Massacre’ 1996: A Case of Contextual Objectivity

AbstractThis article is part of a larger qualitative study that investigates the Lebanese journalism culture and performance in relation to the Israeli forces' operations against Lebanon and their encounters with the Lebanese resistance between 1996 and 2000. News values and objectivity are key aspects of the culture that this paper explores. It is a story about journalism told by a journalist, yet one who uses academic tools to narrate her story and the story of her fellow journalists. The article presents part of the author's own story - an ethnographic account of Tele Liban's coverage during the 1996 ‘Grapes of Wrath’ operation, as Israel then called it. The performance of Tele Liban journalists during this period will be presented and examined in relation to journalistic norms of objectivity, neutrality, balance and truth. This paper examines what might be identified as alternative ways of understanding reporting wars and conflicts and argues that in this particular situation, reporting was a case of contextual objectivity.

The Rise and Fall of the Norm of Budget Balance - Seeking a Budgetary Logic Behind Federal Budget Deficits

Deficits and debts are very complex issues for eternal public debate. The norm of budget balance - whether as a value judgment or ideal, as a political symbol or as a budgetary principle - often appears in literature and public debate over federal budgetary and fiscal policies. This paper offers a preliminary examination of this norm. The purpose is to provide a perspective on how federal has evolved, where it is going and how deficit and debt issues are to be tackled in a theoretically reasonable and practically acceptable way. The paper traces the genesis of the norm, dissects the different elements of the norm for their inner logic, and divides the elements into an annual component and a cyclical component. Using historical data, the paper finds that the norm of budget balance had its heyday from the 19th century till roughly 1960; the tax-smoothing theory well explains its operation. Since then, budget balance has been ignored, for which no theory offers adequate explanation. This paper finds that new functions of the federal government opened a window for entitlements while electoral politics developed downward pressure on taxation, which is the logic behind chronic deficits and increasing debts. The paper also finds that decline of the norm has left a vacuum in research; current literature identifies difficulties in federal but is shy of specific answers. This paper proposes the concept of balanced budgeting as a new paradigm for further discussion and as a potentially rich area for future research.

Balanced fuzzy sets

The paper presents a new approach to fuzzy sets and uncertain information based on an observation of asymmetry of classical fuzzy operators. Parallel is drawn between symmetry and negativity of uncertain information. The hypothesis is raised that classical theory of fuzzy sets concentrates the whole negative information in the value 0 of membership function, what makes fuzzy operators asymmetrical. This hypothesis could be seen as a contribution to a broad range discussion on unification of aggregating operators and uncertain information processing rather than an opposition to other approaches. The new approach “spreads” negative information from the point 0 into the interval [−1, 0] making scale and operators symmetrical. The balanced counterparts of classical operators are introduced. Relations between classical and balanced operators are discussed and then developed to the hierarchies of balanced operators of higher ranks. The relation between balanced norms, on one hand, and uninorms and nullnorms, on the other, are quite close: balanced norms are related to equivalence classes of some equivalence relation build on linear dependency in the spaces of uninorms and nullnorms. It is worth to stress that this similarity is raised by two entirely different approaches to generalization of fuzzy operators. This observation validates the generalized hierarchy of fuzzy operators to which both approaches converge. The discussion in this paper is aimed at presenting the idea and does not aspire to detailed exploration of all related aspects of uncertainty and information processing.