Centralized Structure Research Articles

Family rivalry and its impact on local democracy: An analysis of political dynasties in Samosir Regency, Indonesia

Political dynasties in Indonesia often serve as a tool to maintain concentrated power, resulting in a centralized power structure and potential negative impacts on democratization. This research analyzes the dynamics of dynastic politics and family rivalry in the Regional Head Election in Samosir Regency, North Sumatra, Indonesia. Using a qualitative approach, the research method involved document analysis, in-depth interviews with local political figures, and field observations to identify the impact of political dynasties on local democratic processes. The findings show that competition within clans creates political tensions and contributes to shifts in people’s assessment of the quality and legitimacy of leaders. While political dynasties can offer stability, they often reduce transparency and accountability and inhibit public participation. This research highlights the importance of understanding how political dynasties adapt to electoral system changes and their impact on local political dynamics. Recommendations include evaluating public policies to reduce the negative impact of political dynasties, improve accountability, and strengthen public participation in democratic processes. Further research is needed to explore how internal rivalries within political dynasties affect elections and community responses to political change.

Dynamic Buffer Management in Massively Parallel Systems: The Power of Randomness

Massively parallel systems, such as Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), play an increasingly crucial role in today’s data-intensive computing. The unique challenges associated with developing system software for massively parallel hardware to support numerous parallel threads efficiently are of paramount importance. One such challenge is the design of a dynamic memory allocator to allocate memory at runtime. Traditionally, memory allocators have relied on maintaining a global data structure, such as a queue of free pages. However, in the context of massively parallel systems, accessing such global data structures can quickly become a bottleneck even with multiple queues in place. This paper presents a novel approach to dynamic memory allocation that eliminates the need for a centralized data structure. Our proposed approach revolves around letting threads employ random search procedures to locate free pages. Through mathematical proofs and extensive experiments, we demonstrate that the basic random search design achieves lower latency than the best-known existing solution, Ouroboros, in most situations. Furthermore, we develop more advanced techniques and algorithms to tackle the challenge of warp divergence and further enhance performance when free memory is limited. Building upon these advancements, our mathematical proofs and experimental results affirm that these advanced designs can yield an order of magnitude improvement over the basic design and consistently outperform the state-of-the-art by up to two orders of magnitude. To illustrate the practical implications of our work, we integrate our memory management techniques into two GPU algorithms: a hash join and a group-by. Both case studies provide compelling evidence of our approach’s pronounced performance gains.

A Unified Canon? Latin American Graduate Training in Comparative Politics

ABSTRACT In Latin American comparative politics, a tension exists between North Americanization and parochialism. While certain academic scholarship is published in Scopus-indexed journals that engage with “mainstream” Global North literature, other works are found in non-indexed outlets, focusing solely on their home countries and fostering parochial scientific communities. To assess this tension in graduate program curricula, we compiled an original dataset of comparative politics readings from 21 universities across nine Latin American countries. Our network analysis reveals a centralized structure influenced by mainstream readings, challenging the expectation of parochialism. In addition to the mainstream content, universities tend to incorporate readings from regional journals to facilitate cross-case comparisons. However, these materials are inconsistently shared, resulting in fragmentation of content from Latin American sources. Our findings contribute to and challenge the North Americanization versus parochialism debate, showing that future scholars receive similar mainstream training but encounter diverse regional materials during their PhD studies.

An Analysis of the Effect of Land Development Projects on Urban Centrality and Spatial Structure : Focusing on the Land Development District in the Capital Area

An Analysis of the Effect of Land Development Projects on Urban Centrality and Spatial Structure : Focusing on the Land Development District in the Capital Area

The emergence of international police cooperation in Europe with the creation of the TREVI group

The article examines the roots of international police cooperation in Europe, dating back to the creation of the TREVI Group in the 1970s. The format of the Group is considered and the reasons for its placement outside the format of the European Communities are explained. The centralization and formalization of international police cooperation in Europe, which was observed with the creation of the TREVI Group, is considered. The powers of the TREVI Group to fight terrorism are being investigated. It is emphasized that the granting of such powers to the Group was the result of a response to the threats faced by European states in the 1970s. The debate on the format of the group, which arose among European states, primarily between the United Kingdom, France and Germany, is considered. Germany’s proposals to create a centralized structure and the United Kingdom’s and France’s proposals to create an informal political association are under consideration. It is emphasized that the format of the Group reflects the asymmetric impact of security threats in different countries, which led to the unevenness of the preferences of the states during its formation. The Group’s chosen format reflected the «common denominator» of these political influences. Along with the existence of a common desire to develop international police cooperation, EU member states differed in their vision of the format of such cooperation. It is emphasized that the final format of the TREVI Group reflected the complex structural interdependencies in security issues between the member states of the European Communities and the politicization of security issues in domestic and international discourses. It is emphasized that the negotiations on the creation of the TREVI Group took place in conditions of strong internal politicization of the issue of combating terrorism, which shaped the preferences of states at the EU level. At the same time, the inability of states to agree on a formal structure led to the formation of the TREVI Group primarily as a platform for discussion and cooperation between participating states and an informal body promoting practical cooperation. It is concluded that the Trevi Group has become a relatively free political association, independent of the bodies of the European Communities.

Dynamic Evolution Analysis of Digital Technology Multilayer Convergence Networks

This paper constructs a digital technology multilayer convergence network model to explore the mechanisms of digital technology convergence. The analysis is based on patent data from China’s A-share listed companies from 2012 to 2021. The results show a continuous increase in network scale and structural complexity, with intensified cross-domain interactions. The company collaboration subnetwork evolved from decentralization to a more centralized structure, while the technology convergence subnetwork expanded and became increasingly complex. Core technologies maintained dominant positions, and the co-evolution between companies and technologies showed sustained development. This study reveals intricate interdependencies between technological convergence and company collaboration, providing theoretical insights and practical implications for digital technology innovation and strategic decision-making.

Can reusable packaging revolutionise e-commerce? Unveiling the environmental impact through a comparative carbon footprint analysis

E-commerce is a rapidly growing, evolving sector. Its environmental impact has also increased, with shipping packaging being a key contributor. The sector is, however, struggling to tackle this environmental impact, as well as to follow new packaging regulations. Previous studies on reusable packaging have predominantly been qualitative or concentrated on material selection, overlooking essential elements of supply chain design and consumer behaviour. Industry reports attempting to quantify the sustainability of reusable packaging have produced varied results that lack generalisability or transferability to other contexts. Consequently, it is difficult to determine the actual environmental sustainability of reusable packaging in e-commerce. In this research, we assess the carbon footprint of reusable packaging in e-commerce, through a comparison of eight case studies. A multiple case study approach is followed, employing an embedded design where more than one unit of analysis is explored in each case. We evaluate the CO2 emissions of all processes related to the circular supply chain of reusable packaging employing a method that can evaluate different solutions and situations and a sensitivity analysis. Findings highlight three specific factors influencing the carbon footprint of reusable packaging: (1) reusable packaging material, (2) return and reuse rate, and (3) supply chain design (i.e., centralised versus decentralised design, travel distance, transport mode). For the same type of reusable packaging, we found that polyester generates 215% more CO2 emissions than cardboard in production and waste management. However, by analysing the same reusable packaging and supply chain, these same emissions can drastically increase if the return and reuse rate decreases. Changes in the return and reuse rate mainly linked, among others, to customer behaviour and involvement. Furthermore, for the same reusable packaging and return and reuse rate, a decentralised supply chain can reduce the CO2 emissions compared to a centralised structure. Interestingly, reusable packaging is environmentally sustainable long before it reaches its maximum life cycle. Most of the analysed solutions were more environmentally friendly than a cardboard box when they reached 10% of their estimated life cycle.

Governance structure, organizational form, and business performance: A study of the Shanxi piaohao (banks), 1820s–1930s

This paper studies Shanxi piaohao, China’s first and largest private remittance banking group, established by a group of merchants from Shanxi province. Drawing on extensive primary sources, our study offers the first empirical analysis of the piaohao’s business organisation and performance. We show that piaohao thrived but were also constrained by their own private rules. In their earlier development, they successfully overcame the commitment problem by implementing a townsmen-guarantor-based recruitment system, a centralised M-form structure, and a multilateral punishment mechanism. To align the interests of shareholders and employees, they created employment shareholders and offered a competitive compensation scheme. However, piaohao’s governance structure became obsolete as shareholders increasingly failed to monitor head managers in the later period. A drastic increase in business volume and a changing business climate also exposed the defects of a centralised structure. As modern Chinese banks rose to prominence, the piaohao were gradually outcompeted and declined.

Armed resistance of partisans in 1944–1953 and its suppression in Skapiškis rural district

There were similarities and differences between armed resistance activities of partisans that took place in various regions of Lithuania in 1944–1953. Still, irrespective of several regional peculiarities, three main periods of the partisan warfare may be distinguished as characteristic of all Lithuania: 1944–1946 – a period of spontaneous fighting, 1946–1948 – a period of organized fighting and 1949–1953 – the end of partisan warfare. Therefore, if you look closely at armed resistance of partisans and tactics they used in the rural district of Skapiškis, you will see a reduced image of all armed activities against occupants across Lithuania. Like everywhere in Lithuania, in Skapiškis rural district, first platoons featuring great numbers of partisans were formed spontaneously. The partisans here used to apply the tactics of attacking the towns. Therefore, on November the 7th 1944, the town of Skapiškis, the centre of the rural district itself, was assaulted. Like everywhere in Lithuania, in this rural district as well, the very first battles of the partisans brought huge losses – the forces of the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD) attacked numerous platoons of partisans and frequently destroyed them immediately. The young people from Skapiškis land boycotted mobilization to the Red Army. After the call for legalization appeared, a lot of fighters left the forests and hid they relationship with the partisans. The partisans used to hinder the occupants’ authorities from organizing the local elections. During the second part of fighting, in 1946–1948, the issues of uniting the partisan units and transition to organized fighting became the focus of attention of partisan commanders. At that time, the county of Kupiškis was established and Skapiškis rural district became a part of this county. On May 1st 1947, Algimantas Military District was established, and all partisans of Kupiškis land became subordinate to Šarūnas Special Team of that Military District. The last period of fighting stood out from those above by completing the formation of centralized structures of partisans as well as by their destruction. Refined combinations of agencies, activity of the agents, treacheries, destruction of headquarters and military structures and greatly reduced numbers of partisans were the main causes of defeat of both Skapiškis land partisans and those operating all over Lithuania. It has been estimated that during entire period of partisan warfare (1944–1953), in Skapiškis rural district, 40 partisans, their liaisons and supporters lost their lives.

An Empirical Analysis of the Relationship Between Digital Transformation and Supply Chain Centralization

The study delves into the repercussions of enterprise digital transformation on supply chains, particularly scrutinizing how the international experiences of enterprise top management teams (TMTs) shape these effects. Drawing upon data spanning from 2007 to 2020 from Chinese listed companies, the research unveils that the digital metamorphosis of enterprises substantially diminishes the concentration within their supply chains. Interestingly, TMTs’ overseas experiences exhibit a mitigating effect on this phenomenon, indicating that such experiences significantly foster the reduction of supply chain concentration propelled by enterprise digital transformation. Moreover, they facilitate the diversification of supply chains. Further analysis underscores that this influence is more pronounced in non-high-tech sectors and privately-owned enterprises. This investigation highlights a noteworthy trend: as Chinese enterprises embrace digitalization, their supply chain configurations tend towards greater diversification rather than centralized structures. These findings underscore the pivotal role of TMTs' international exposure in shaping the dynamics of supply chain evolution amidst the digital transformation landscape.

The insights of allied health professionals transitioning from a matrix structure to a centralized profession-based structure within a public hospital setting

The insights of allied health professionals transitioning from a matrix structure to a centralized profession-based structure within a public hospital setting

Pragmatic Trial of Palliative Care Support Using Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes Mentoring.

Increasing rates of chronic diseases and an aging population have placed palliative care at the forefront of public health efforts. The major goal of palliative care is to achieve the best possible quality of life for patients and their families or caregivers. To reduce barriers and improve palliative care, the From Advance Care Planning Toward Palliative Care coalition was first formed in South Dakota in 2017. It comprises an interprofessional, multi-institutional group of health care professionals who aim to promote palliative care through education, research, and advocacy. The project's purpose was to increase awareness and knowledge of best palliative care practices and to improve access to resources and networking among stakeholders. In 2021 and 2022, the coalition implemented the Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes model. The objective was to provide a centralized structure for distant providers to obtain mentoring in palliative care through case-based learning according to a standardized communication and mentoring strategy, thereby increasing access to palliative care networking opportunities in rural and underserved regions.

Impact of Quality Investment and Vertical Shareholding in Hybrid Competing Supply Chains

Product quality is a key factor affecting consumers’ willingness to buy, providing greater advantages to an enterprise than product price. This paper investigates the impact of two factors, price and quality, on the operational decisions of hybrid competing supply chains. Supply chain I, which consists of a manufacturer and a retailer, is a decentralized structure. Supply chain II, where the manufacturer and retailer are integrated, is a centralized structure. Quality investment and vertical shareholding are introduced into the decentralized supply chain. Models are constructed for three different scenarios, examining whether the manufacturer makes a quality investment and whether the retailer holds shares in the quality investment. By comparing the equilibrium results, solved by the Stackelberg game method, the following conclusions are drawn: (1) Quality investment and shareholding can enhance product quality and price. (2) The retail price in a centralized supply chain is consistently lower than that in a decentralized one, leading to generally higher total profits for centralized supply chain. (3) The total profit of the decentralized supply chain only exceeds that of the centralized ones when the degree of substitution between products is lower than 0.6285 and the quality effort cost factor is within a specific range. While centralized supply chain is generally more advantageous, decentralized supply chain can outperform him under specific conditions.

Centralised visual processing center for remote sensing target detection

Target detection in satellite images is an essential topic in the field of remote sensing and computer vision. Despite extensive research efforts, accurate and efficient target detection in remote sensing images remains unsolved due to the large target scale span, dense distribution, and overhead imaging and complex backgrounds, which result in high target feature similarity and serious occlusion. In order to address the above issues in a comprehensive manner, within this paper, we first propose a Centralised Visual Processing Center (CVPC), this structure is a parallel visual processing center for Transformer encoder and CNN, employing a lightweight encoder to capture broad, long-range interdependencies. Pixel-level Learning Center (PLC) module is used to establish pixel-level correlations and improve the depiction of detailed features. CVPC effectively improves the detection efficiency of remote sensing targets with high feature similarity and severe occlusion. Secondly, we propose a centralised feature cross-layer fusion pyramid structure to fuse the results with the CVPC in a top-down manner to enhance the detailed feature representation capability at each layer. Ultimately, we present a Context Enhanced Adaptive Sparse Convolutional Network (CEASC), which improves the accuracy while ensuring the detection efficiency. Based on the above modules, we designed and conducted a series of experiments. These experiments are conducted on three challenging public datasets, DOTA-v1.0, DIOR, and RSDO, showing that our proposed 3CNet achieves a more advanced detection accuracy while balancing the detection speed (78.62% mAP for DOTA-v1.0, 79.12% mAP for DIOR, and 95.50% mAP for RSOD).

Unlocking pathways in constrained local governance: exploring paradiplomacy under competitive-disharmony through the case of Istanbul

ABSTRACT Amidst the complexities of globalisation and resurgent global protectionism, paradiplomacy emerges as pivotal in sub-state politics. This paper delves into the case of Turkish local governance post-2019 elections, within a unitary, centralised state structure. Termed ‘competitive-disharmony’, it scrutinises how opposition mayors in key Turkish metropolitan areas, notably Istanbul, navigate tensions with central authorities through foreign diplomacy. Analysing political activities from 2019 to 2024, the study uncovers strategies used by sub-state actors to assert their interests on the international stage. Focusing on Istanbul, it offers insights into paradiplomacy’s role within authoritarian governance structures and evolving city diplomacy. These findings illuminate paradiplomacy’s resilience and adaptability, crucial for managing tensions between local and national governments in highly centralised political environments.

Spatial Pathology of Earthquake Management in Salas Babajani County, Kermanshah, Iran

Background and objective Human settlements are formed and developed in a specific natural environment. Social, political, cultural, and economic systems that govern the societies can affect residential spaces. Therefore, the special natural and human habitats cause the formation of special spaces, which require their own management system. After the earthquake on November 12, 2017, in Salas Babajani County, Kermanshah, Iran, whose epicenter was Ezgeleh district, the presence of natural areas in the county caused the crisis management in this region to face special problems. In addition, the sectoral and centralized management structure governing the country and thus the Salas Babajani County added to the complexity of these problems and caused the residents of this region to suffer a deep crisis. The aim of the current study is a spatial pathology of earthquake management in urban and rural settlements of Salas Babajani County. Method This is a descriptive-analytical study. Data were collected using the documentary method and a researcher-made questionnaire. Participants were the residents of Salas Babajani County. Results The findings showed that the earthquake management in the County has a high compliance with the centralized and sectoral management model. In addition, it was found that the crisis management in the four stages (prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery) was in an unfavorable situation. the highest weakness was in the prevention stage and the lowest weakness was related to the preparedness stage. Conclusion Overall, the results showed that crisis management has worsened by moving away from the center towards the outskirts, especially towards the southwestern borders. In other words, by moving away from the political center of the County (Tazeh Abad district), the crisis management became very unfavorable. Also, it was found that the crisis management was greatly influenced by the spatial factors of elevation, land slope, transportation network, distribution of human settlements, and population density.

텍스트마이닝을 이용한 인구감소·지방소멸 연구 동향 메타분석 및 연구 방향

In South Korea, population decline has emerged as a serious social issue in recent years, posing a significant challenge to the nation's future. Particularly in rural areas, population decline has exacerbated concerns about regional extinction. Hence, this study aims to analyze existing research trends on population decline and regional extinction, with the intention of proposing future research directions. According to the results of the TF-IDF analysis, key terms such as centrality, change, population, regional extinction, and population structure were deemed significant. Social Network Analysis(SNA) revealed that population decline was closely associated with terms like population, locality, and decline, while regional extinction was linked to locality, issues, and population. Topic analysis identified population decline topics such as population, decline, and change, and regional extinction topics such as population, locality, and decline. Additionally, low birth rate topics included population, locality, South Korea, and aging topics included locality, local government, and population decline. Based on these findings, future research directions include studies on marriage and childbirth, research on the era of youth, studies on the elderly and aging, development strategies for local governments, and research on the causes and countermeasures of population decline and regional extinction.

Research Trend Analysis of Community-based Occupational Therapy in Korea through Key Word Network Analysis

Objectives: For this study, we analyzed research trends of community-based occupational therapy in Korea using key word network analysis (KNA). Methods: Our sample was 155 studies in the Journal of the Korean Society of Community-Based Occupational Therapy in Korea. We used key word network analysis (KNA), a method used to examine the flow and trends of research by using key words that represent the core topics of the literature, allowing for the identification of relationships, influence, and importance of key topics in a specific field. The analysis was divided into 2 parts – network distribution and centrality. Indicators for network distribution include average degree, density, mean distance, inclusiveness, and the number of isolated nodes. Network centrality is assessed through degree centrality, betweenness centrality, and eigenvector centrality. Results: The analysis of network distribution indicated that the average degree was 7.064, density was .024 (2.4%), mean distance was 3.195, and there were no isolated nodes. Key words with the highest degree centrality values were occupational therapy, stroke, elderly, quality of life, activity of daily living, and occupational therapist. Key words with the highest betweenness centrality values were occupational therapy, stroke, quality of life, elderly, occupational therapist, and depression. Key words with the highest eigenvector centrality values were curriculum, service provider qualification, sensory integration therapy, sensory developmental rehabilitation, developmental rehabilitation service, and program development. Conclusions: These results have important academic implications regarding the research trend of community-based occupational therapy in Korea. These findings can enhance understanding of community-based occupational therapy and provide guidance for future studies. Particularly, the analysis results of degree centrality and cohesion structure offer insights into various aspects of occupational therapy, facilitating the development of more effective treatment approaches. It is anticipated that these results will contribute to practical value in clinical settings.

The maximal Tori of finite exceptional groups of Lie type

Let G(q) be a twisted or untwisted finite exceptional group of Lie type over GF ( q ) , either adjoint or simply connected, and let W be the Weyl group of G(q). This paper compiles an extensive data set on the maximal tori of G(q). A systematic labeling is given, via the corresponding conjugacy classes of W, together with a complete list of the structures of the maximal tori in terms of their torsion coefficient decomposition. Additionally the associated admissible graphs and the structure or shape of centralizers of elements in W are given as well as compatible computer files. Also various apparent inconsistencies in the current literature on simply connected groups are discussed and resolved.

Unveiling Influence in Networks: A Novel Centrality Metric and Comparative Analysis through Graph-Based Models.

Identifying influential actors within social networks is pivotal for optimizing information flow and mitigating the spread of both rumors and viruses. Several methods have emerged to pinpoint these influential entities in networks, represented as graphs. In these graphs, nodes correspond to individuals and edges indicate their connections. This study focuses on centrality measures, prized for their straightforwardness and effectiveness. We divide structural centrality into two categories: local, considering a node's immediate vicinity, and global, accounting for overarching path structures. Some techniques blend both centralities to highlight nodes influential at both micro and macro levels. Our paper presents a novel centrality measure, accentuating node degree and incorporating the network's broader features, especially paths of different lengths. Through Spearman and Pearson correlations tested on seven standard datasets, our method proves its merit against traditional centrality measures. Additionally, we employ the susceptible-infected-recovered (SIR) model, portraying virus spread, to further validate our approach. The ultimate influential node is gauged by its capacity to infect the most nodes during the SIR model's progression. Our results indicate a notable correlative efficacy across various real-world networks relative to other centrality metrics.