Singular Concept Research Articles

The global food security conundrum through the lens of the right to food

Working through the complexities of food insecurity with the intention to address issues requires taking a step back to the drawing board to firm up the understanding of food security through the principles that inform the governance framework of the right to food in the context of the current global food security crisis. Considering the multi-dimensional nature of food security in relation to the right to food alongside concepts such as food sovereignty, and issues such as climate change, food loss and food waste, economic and political turmoil is paramount in determining exactly why all people at all times do not have access to adequate food, or the means for its procurement. This commentary delves into the intricacies of the concept of food security, and the hindrances to realising food security for all by considering what food security is, and where, therefore, the challenges in effecting the right to food are. Through careful consideration of the components of the food security equation, this commentary seeks to show how the right to food comes down to more than ensuring that food is physically available. By connecting the right to food to the factors that affect food security and exploring the ways in which those factors can be broken down and addressed separately, this commentary ultimately advocates for the realisation of food security through collaboration. The consideration of the singular concepts that form the food security equation in solving the multi-dimensional food security problem through conjoined and synchronised efforts influenced by obligations of states and international organisations with mandates directly connected to, and influencing the different aspects of the food security equation. Using reports, statistics, theories and academic opinions, this commentary seeks to explore the different components, which form the concept of food security to draw conclusions and analyse existing systems in an attempt to determine what approaches could be considered in addressing the growing food security crisis and the concerns attached to it. Key words: Food security, right to food, climate change, crisis, malnutrition, food loss, food waste

Unified Energy: The Concept of Singularity in Multidimensional Reality and a New Perspective on Frequency

Unified Energy: The Concept of Singularity in Multidimensional Reality and a New Perspective on Frequency

Worldview and Ideology through the Eyes of «Comandante Akopo»

This article reviews the legacy of Hakob Pogosovich Nazaretyan (1947–2019), a distinguished Russian scholar, with a focus on the ideologization of societies and meaning formation as the major challenges of our time. The concept of historical singularity, a phenomenon of planetary significance that shapes the emerging scenarios of today’s world landscape, is defined. The growing importance, both for the international community and Russians, of maintaining a balance between the technological and humanistic aspects of universal culture to effectively address the escalating global crisis is highlighted. Based on the analysis of H.P. Nazaretyan’s key works, the role of ideology in this process, its productive anti-entropic function in the past and counterproductivity in the present and future, is examined.

Singular concepts

Alonzo Church proposed a powerful and elegant theory of sequences of functions and their arguments as surrogates for Russellian singular propositions and singular concepts. Church’s proposed theory accords with his Alternative (0), the strictest of his three competing criteria for strict synonymy. The currently popular objection to strict criteria like (0) on the basis of the Russell–Myhill antinomy is here rebutted. Russell–Myhill is not a problem specifically for Alternative (0); it is a refutation of unrestrained concept comprehension. Unrestricted comprehension is also inconsistent with facts about sets of properties. Criteria more lax than (0) are philosophically inadequate. In particular, the rival conception of propositions as classes of possible worlds is subject to a fatal philosophical collapse. It follows on that conception, given that each of us is fallible, that everyone believes everything. It is shown, however, that Church’s proposed theory is vulnerable under (0) to a version of Russell’s notorious Gray’s Elegy objection. Some amendments to Church’s proposal are proffered, including an amendment, first proposed in the author’s Frege’s Puzzle (1986), that addresses Russell’s objection. Church’s response (personal correspondence) is considered.

TECHNOLOGICAL SINGULARITY AS AN ATTRACTOR FOR THE EVOLUTION OF DIGITAL SOCIETY

Technological singularity is understood as the acquisition by the techno-sphere of the quality of self–organization, self-government - a kind of transformation of the techno-sphere into the noo-sphere. The essence of the concept of technological singularity lies in the fact that such processes and events as digitalization, the creation of general artificial intelligence, the development of robotics, the success of genetic engineering, the improvement of convergent NBICS technologies, the integration of the human body and intelligence with technology, etc. will fatally inevitably entail a phase transition to a qualitatively new level of reality. The technological singularity is the attractor of this evolution of the digital world. The uniqueness of this attractor lies in the fact that it is relevant, empirically absent, but at the same time (according to the authors and proponents of the concept of technological singularity) the need for its appearance determines the trajectories of embedding digital technologies in natural and social processes, plays the role of a regulatory idea for most conceptual models of the development of a digital society. The article provides a philosophical, theoretical, and methodological analysis of the fundamental aspects of the concept of technological singularity, and examines the consequences of wrapping its conclusions and provisions in the field of socio-political process.

A Scoping Review of Military Culture, Military Identity, and Mental Health Outcomes in Military Personnel.

The military is a unique cultural institution that significantly influences its members, contributing to the development and transformation of their identities. Despite growing interest in identity research in the military, challenges persist in the conceptualization of military identity, including understanding how it forms, assessing the influence of military culture on identity development, and evaluating the implications for mental health. The primary objective of this scoping review was to map the complexities of military culture's impact on military identity and its effects on mental health. A scoping review of the literature was conducted using the Joanna Briggs Institute Scoping Review Methodology. Studies were included if they described military culture, military identity, and mental health, resulting in 65 eligible studies. The extracted data were thematically analyzed to identify how military culture impacts military identity and mental health and well-being. Multiple identities were evident within the military population, with 2 overarching identities, loyalty and military, overall conferring positive mental health outcomes. Where these identities were hidden or disrupted, poorer mental health outcomes were observed. The scoping review conducted in this study challenges the notion of military identity as a singular concept promoting positive mental health outcomes. It highlights its multifaceted nature, revealing that individuals may face identity concealment and disruptions during periods of transition or adjustment, resulting in adverse mental health outcomes. To capture the complexity of military identity, the authors developed the Military Identity Model (MIM). Military leaders, policymakers, and health care professionals are encouraged to recognize the complex nature of military identity and its impact on mental health and well-being. We recommend using the Military Identity Model to explore military identity and adjustment-related difficulties.

Polarization singularities for shaping of vector flat-top beams in utilization for high-power laser micromachining of various materials

Structured light is desired in the micromachining of various materials. As the latest ultrashort laser sources increase the average power by increasing the repetition rate, the efficiency of the process becomes crucial in laser micromachining. The standard Gaussian beam shape, because of its slow ascending/descending slope, is not the most efficient beam, neither in precise energy deposition nor in heat management. Flat-top beams are required for precise and even energy distribution and are used in laser ablation or thin-film removal. We look at a rather abstract concept of polarization singularities and investigate them to create a vector flat-top beam. For this purpose, we devise a beam-shaping method based on the volumetric birefringent nano gratings which allow the generation of high-energy polarization singularities. By tuning the input beam waist, we have generated three most common laser micromachining beam profiles (Gaussian, Flat-top, and ring- or doughnut-shaped). The resulting high-quality and high-energy polarization singularities allow us to systematically demonstrate their use in transparent and opaque material micromachining, as well as the usual application for flat-top beams of thin-film removal.

Topology and Dynamics of Transcriptome (Dys)Regulation.

RNA transcripts play a crucial role as witnesses of gene expression health. Identifying disruptive short sequences in RNA transcription and regulation is essential for potentially treating diseases. Let us delve into the mathematical intricacies of these sequences. We have previously devised a mathematical approach for defining a "healthy" sequence. This sequence is characterized by having at most four distinct nucleotides (denoted as nt≤4). It serves as the generator of a group denoted as fp. The desired properties of this sequence are as follows: fp should be close to a free group of rank nt-1, it must be aperiodic, and fp should not have isolated singularities within its SL2(C) character variety (specifically within the corresponding Groebner basis). Now, let us explore the concept of singularities. There are cubic surfaces associated with the character variety of a four-punctured sphere denoted as S24. When we encounter these singularities, we find ourselves dealing with some algebraic solutions of a dynamical second-order differential (and transcendental) equation known as the Painlevé VI Equation. In certain cases, S24 degenerates, in the sense that two punctures collapse, resulting in a "wild" dynamics governed by the Painlevé equations of an index lower than VI. In our paper, we provide examples of these fascinating mathematical structures within the context of miRNAs. Specifically, we find a clear relationship between decorated character varieties of Painlevé equations and the character variety calculated from the seed of oncomirs. These findings should find many applications including cancer research and the investigation of neurodegenative diseases.

Interrogating global narratives of trans queerness. Well-being and agency? Or more stories of trans trauma?

In the international contemporary discourse transgender individuals arguably have an increased presence within public media highlighting the visible diversity that constitutes the LGBTQI2S+ community. However, in response to the challenging of cisgendered normative assumptions there has been an unprecedented swathe of anti-trans measures executed through the frenzied repealing of rights and freedoms within the key arenas of legal, medical, sporting, and educative domains. This paper explores the intersections of pathologizing rhetoric that emplotted anti-trans and transphobic discourses within and across public consciousness. The quotidian presence of these discourses provoked in us a wondering about how evolving conceptual debate is constructing a trans inclusive global imaginary. In this paper we situate trans safety not as a singular concept, but rather a differentially experienced phenomenon that is related to and embedded in questions of bio power and privilege. As such, when we refer to a trans safety imaginary, we are not solely addressing protection from physical violence but also safeguarding against psychological and emotional vulnerability.

Homo Faber Scapegoated, or Apocalyptic Artificial Intelligence: Rethinking the Technological Singularity Concept from the Synergetic Historicism Position

Homo Faber Scapegoated, or Apocalyptic Artificial Intelligence: Rethinking the Technological Singularity Concept from the Synergetic Historicism Position

What Should we Reasonably Expect from Artificial Intelligence?

Objective: the objective of this article is to address the misalignment between the expectations of Artificial Intelligence (or just AI) systems and what they can currently deliver. Despite being a pervasive and cutting-edge technology present in various sectors, such as agriculture, industry, commerce, education, professional services, smart cities, and cyber defense, there exists a discrepancy between the results some people anticipate from AI and its current capabilities. This misalignment leads to two undesirable outcomes: Firstly, some individuals expect AI to achieve results beyond its current developmental stage, resulting in unrealistic demands. Secondly, there is dissatisfaction with AI's existing capabilities, even though they may be sufficient in many contexts.Methods: the article employs an analytical approach to tackle the misalignment issue, analyzing various market applications of AI and unveils their diversity, demonstrating that AI is not a homogeneous, singular concept. Instead, it encompasses a wide range of sector-specific applications, each serving distinct purposes, possessing inherent risks, and aiming for specific accuracy levels.Results: the primary finding presented in this article is that the misalignment between expectations and actual AI capabilities arises from the mistaken premise that AI systems should consistently achieve accuracy rates far surpassing human standards, regardless of the context. By delving into different market applications, the author advocates for evaluating AI's potential and accepted levels of accuracy and transparency in a context-dependent manner. The results highlight that each AI application should have different accuracy and transparency targets, tailored on a case-by-case basis. Consequently, AI systems can still be valuable and welcomed in various contexts, even if they offer accuracy or transparency rates lower or much lower than human standards.Scientific novelty: the scientific novelty of this article lies in challenging the widely held misconception that AI should always operate with superhuman accuracy and transparency in all scenarios. By unraveling the diversity of AI applications and their purposes, the author introduces a fresh perspective, emphasizing that expectations and evaluations should be contextualized and adapted to the specific use case of AI.Practical significance: the practical significance of this article lies in providing valuable guidance to stakeholders within the AI field, including regulators, developers, and customers. The article's realignment of expectations based on context fosters informed decision-making and promotes responsible AI development and implementation. It seeks to enhance the overall utilization and acceptance of AI technologies by promoting a realistic understanding of AI's capabilities and limitations in different contexts. By offering more comprehensive guidance, the article aims to support the establishment of robust regulatory frameworks and promote the responsible deployment of AI systems, contributing to the improvement of AI applications in diverse sectors. The author's call for fine-tuned expectations aims to prevent dissatisfaction arising from unrealistic demands and provide solid guidance for AI development and regulation.

Scoring, Casting, Instilling

Abstract Ari Benjamin Meyers's Kunsthalle for Music is simultaneously an institution, an exhibition, a concert, a music collection, a process, and an ensemble. In this essay, I take readers on a tour of the show's first presentation, followed by reflections on questions that it posed. In particular, the project troubles the issue of art's mediums, their relation to art as a singular concept and its institutional form(s), and art's mode of cultural transmission through time. The philosopher Peter Osborne, who has written on and presented at the Kunsthalle, provides my theoretical foil alongside Theodor Adorno and Rosalind Krauss. I add musings by Jean-Luc Nancy to consider how the project exhibits liveness and its musical significance. Mediums of art are neither essences nor concepts for deconstruction, I conclude; rather, they insist and persist as modalities of action.

Topological polarization singular enables multiple-system excellent circular dichroism via chiral bound states in the continuum with all-dielectric metasurfaces

The advancements in chiroptics have propelled applications beyond traditional optics, expanding its reach into domains such as heat and fluid mechanics. The current research predominantly focused on utilizing plasmonic materials in the photothermal and photofluidic systems. However, these systems face limitations in circular dichroism due to inherent Ohmic loss associated with plasmonic materials. Herein, we introduce the concept of topological polarization singularity in an all-dielectric structure, which supports chiral bound states in the continuum. The introduction of topological polarization singularity gives the structure an impressive chiral light absorption response. The BICs resonant mode achieves a 147-fold field enhancement, significantly improving the photothermal conversion efficiency of dielectric material. Moreover, the g factors of photothermal and optical fluids reach 1.9, approaching the theoretical limit value. Consequently, an exceptionally high degree of circular dichroism is realized in multiple systems including light absorption, photothermal, and photofluidic systems. Our proposed structures can potentially be used in chiral photothermal and chiral nanoparticle capture, as well as photofluidic applications related to biochemistry and clinical biology.

Singularidade e a disputa por uma ideologia transhumanista

Abstract We understand Singularism, a stream of transhumanist thought, to be an ideology associated with Silicon Valley and the political right-wing (Hughes 2002). Taking this as our object of study, the present article conducts an anthropological discussion around the concepts of culture, ideology, and cosmology as proposed by Eric Wolf (1999). Cosmology provides a basis for ideology so as to offer elements for criteria such as truth and the inevitability of a given project for power. We point out how cybernetics works as a cosmology for Singularism and we explore political and philosophical differences between exponents of Singularism, which -- to a large extent - express different appropriations of cybernetics in their construction of the concept of Singularity.

Criticism of the justification of history acceleration with the help of synergetics and the concept of “Big History”

There are a large number of different models of history acceleration. This article discusses the models proposed by S. P. Kapitsa, S. V. Tsirel and A. D. Panov. They are based on the prerequisites of a synergetic methodology, the concepts of Big History and singularity, as well as the interpretation of the acceleration of history as a consistent reduction in the duration of significant historical epochs. The purpose of the paper is to show the unconvincing nature of such an approach as a variant of substantiating the conception of history acceleration.

Frobenius methods for analytic second order linear partial differential equations

The main subject of this text is the study of analytic second order linear partial differential equations. We aim to solve the classical equations and some more, in the real or complex analytical case. This is done by introducing methods inspired by the Frobenius method for second order linear ordinary differential equations. We introduce a notion of Euler type partial differential equation. To such a PDE we associate an indicial conic, which is an affine plane curve of degree two. Then comes the concept of regular singularity and finally convergence theorems, which must necessarily take into account the type of PDE (parabolic, elliptical or hyperbolic) and a nonresonance condition. This condition gives a new geometric interpretation of the original condition between the roots of the original Frobenius theorem for second order ODEs. The interpretation is something like, a certain reticulate has or not vertices on the indexical conic. Finally, we retrieve the solution of all the classical PDEs by this method (heat diffusion, wave propagation and Laplace equation), and also increase the class of those that have explicit algorithmic solution to far beyond those admitting separable variables. The last part of the text is dedicated to the construction of PDE models for the classical ODEs like Airy, Legendre, Laguerre, Hermite and Chebyshev by two different means. One model is based on the requirement that the restriction of the PDE to lines through the origin must be the classical ODE model. The second is based on the idea of having symmetries on the PDE model and imitating the ODE model. We study these PDEs and obtain their solutions, obtaining for the framework of PDEs some of the classical results, like existence of polynomial solutions (Laguerre, Hermite and Chebyshev polynomials).

What Do We Call an ‘MP’? On Categories of Thought in the Anthropology of Parliaments

Abstract This article questions what social scientists mean by the term ‘Member of Parliament’ (‘MP’) and explains that they tend to associate it with a universal conception of parliamentary representation. The author starts to present the rationale behind this presupposition, which lies in the resistance of legislative studies to interpretive approaches, and shows its limits. He then defends the necessity of extensive scientific knowledge of deliberative assemblies to distinguish the vernacular meanings of the notion of ‘MP’ from its analytical meaning. Finally, he takes the example of his own research in France to show the concrete difficulties of a singular conception of parliamentary representation and to expose the virtues of using empirical-based ideal types to overcome them.

Selection and Application of Bohai Sea Environmental Governance Policy Instrumental: A Quantitative Analysis Based on Policy Text (1996–2022)

The Bohai Sea is the only inland sea in China and serves as an important carrier for the Bohai Sea Economic Zone. However, it is also one of the areas with serious marine environmental pollution. This paper selects the policy text concerning Marine environmental pollution control issued by the central and local governments from 1996 to 2022 as the research object. Based on the three policy instruments of government environmental regulation, market incentive mechanisms and public participation, and using a content analysis method to encode and quantify the text content, it was found that the Bohai Sea marine environmental governance suffers from issues such as a singular concept of the use of policy instruments, imbalance in the proportion of their use, and insufficient supervision in the event of their use. Consequently, it is recommended to adopt diversified policy concepts, optimize the structure of policy instruments, and strengthen in-process supervision in the governance of the Bohai Sea marine environment.

A Trilemma for the Singularitarian

Singularitarianism is a view that is grounded in certain claims about the technological singularity. In this paper, I identify a trilemma that confronts singularitarianism. This trilemma may be characterized in terms of the following horns: the concept of a technological singularity having a literal sense, the concept of a technological singularity having a metaphorical sense, and the concept of a technological singularity having neither a literal nor a metaphorical sense (i.e., its being nonsensical). I will outline the unpalatable consequences that are associated with each of these three horns of the trilemma. I will also anticipate a few argumentative moves on behalf of singularitarianism and suggest why these moves may be insufficient. I will conclude by arguing that we have good philosophical grounds to defend an eliminativism about the concept of the technological singularity.

Academic boredom(s): a person-centered investigation.

Should we refer to boredom or boredoms? Research on the emotion of boredom sets itself apart from studies on other emotions by posing the question: is boredom a singular concept or does it have multiple facets? In this manuscript presenting empirical research on academic boredom, our aim is to demonstrate the justification for claiming a distinct position. Person-centered models examining university students' achievement emotions reveal the existence of multiple types of boredom, in contrast to other learning emotions that are typically represented as singular constructs. Using data generated by dispositional learning analytics applications, we further investigate the progression of learning boredom over time, exploring the impact of the pandemic and analyzing how various student learning aptitudes, such as mindsets, epistemological beliefs, epistemic emotions, learning motivation, engagement, as well as demographic factors like gender and culture, can be considered as potential antecedents or triggers of boredom. Consistent with the control-value theory of achievement emotions, we conclude that control and value constructs serve as proximal antecedents of boredom, alongside epistemic boredom as a distal antecedent. However, the relationships between boredom and its antecedents exhibit notable variations across different types of boredom.