Contemporary Framework Research Articles

Business process reengineering leadership: princes of Machiavelli

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to establish a supported and validated reference point for Machiavellianism as an antecedent to the contemporary management philosophy of business process reengineering (BPR).Design/methodology/approachThis paper analyzes BPR and Machiavellianism by using the seminal work of Hammer and Champy (1993) on BPR and the original writings of Machiavelli coupled with the personal correspondence of Machiavelli with his contemporaries.FindingsThe findings of this research indicate that the constructs of Machiavellian thought transcend the five centuries since the publication of The Prince, and can be found in the contemporary managerial framework of BPR. This comparison of historical leadership frameworks demonstrates how recent management decisions in companies show the rise of Machiavellian as BPR. In an analysis of these theories, the authors show similarities in five significant tenets of business leadership and argue how these repackaged ideas and prescriptions undermine employee-centric advances.Research limitations/implicationsThis comparison reviews the managerial frameworks presented in Machiavelli’s The Prince and Hammer and Champy’s book Reengineering the Corporation through the theoretical tenets of leadership.Practical implicationsEmployment of Machiavellianism and BPR results in an expendable utilization of followers and employees. Implications abound for modern managers, as the authors emphasize the elements and outcomes which lead to deleterious organizational outcomes.Social implicationsIn an analysis of these theories, the authors argue how these strategies undermine employee-centric advances within human relations by embracing these repackaged ideas and concepts.Originality/valueThis research leverages historical perspective to provide a qualitative understanding of the follies of recycled versions of Machiavelli’s ideas. The overall study and inquiry of BPR from a leadership perspective is not robust and leaves antecedents and influences critically unevaluated.

Acting locally, thinking nationally: layering Indigenous ontology within wellbeing frameworks.

There are hundreds of sovereign nations covering the modern nation-state of Australia.1 Noting the inadequacy of many contemporary terms to encompass Indigenous ontology, Indigenous nations have long practised what is now being expressed as 'wellbeing frameworks' in many nation-states. Unlike the sentiment expressed in contemporary wellbeing frameworks, Country - the complex web of relationships between the human and other-than-human that underpins everything2 - and relationality are fundamental to Indigenous 'wellbeing'. The philosophy of mabu liyan (good feeling), intrinsic to the Yawuru nation of North Western Australia, is only one example of Indigenous governance where Country-centred planning and relational wellbeing are 'business as usual'. Layering elements that are critical to Indigenous expressions of wellbeing, specifically Country and relationality, when developing wellbeing frameworks would broaden and deepen contemporary approaches to wellbeing while accommodating differences at the local scale.

A Comparative Analysis of Shariah Governance Framework of Islamic Bank in Malaysia and Pakistan

The aim of this paper is to investigate the differences between the contemporary Shariah governance frameworks of Malaysia and Pakistan. The study also examines the ways in which the Shariah governance frameworks of both countries can complement each other. This research concludes that the SGF principles of both countries under discussion abide by the AAOIFI and IFSB guidelines regarding SGF. Many aspects of the SGF of Malaysia are similar to the SGF of Pakistan. For example, both structures need to further develop the ethical aspect. While the similarities are plentiful, a few differences can be found between the two as well. This research provides insights to policy makers, regulators, and practitioners on approaches in governance policy and an assessment of the governance scope adopted by Malaysia and Pakistan via their respective SGFs. The SGFs have also been assessed for their conformance to international standards, including the AAOIFI and the IFSB.

Developing student's skills and work readiness: an experiential learning framework

PurposeThis paper outlines a contemporary conceptual framework for the embedding of experiential learning into a business consultancy module. Experiential learning is a fundamental teaching approach that allows students to apply theory into a working business context.Design/methodology/approachAs a conceptual and not an empirical paper, the methodological approach was to draw upon the literature reviewed and to build a framework to support student learning through a business consultancy module.FindingsExploration of the literature suggests that there are four elements critical to student learning in experiential learning environments: action, reflection, social and context. A framework has been developed utilising these elements with the interaction between the factors being key to developing learning.Research limitations/implicationsSo far, the framework is conceptual, and further research is needed to explore its use when staff members are developing these types of modules and to understand the interaction of the factors over the course of the student learning experience.Originality/valueThe originality comes from the intersection and interaction between the core factors in experiential learning, which enables this framework to move thinking beyond more static models and hence work in a more fluid student learning environment.

Simulation And Modeling Of PV And Wind Hybrid Power System

In the contemporary framework where the depletion of fossil fuel resources and environmental pollution with dramatic climate changes leading to the depletion of constrain alternate energy resources. Renewable energy sources have been arising as a popular alternative resource, the construction of these renewable energy as solar and wind energy has developed as a reliable source of renewable energy supplies. The paper mainly objects to the hybridized model that generates wind power hybrid with the solar. For the hybridized model the primary component is the power generating system which includes the MPPT technique to obtain the maximum and constant output. Further the solar power generating system have been combined with the wind power generating system and then attached to the grid. And the whole hybridized system has being developed in MATLAB/Simulink and the output characteristics of the hybridized structure is presented.

Incompatible sovereigns: Populism, democracy and the two peoples

The article aims to investigate the problematic relationship between populism and democracy by comparing the conceptions of ‘the people’ and popular sovereignty which they presuppose. In the first two sections, the populist and the democratic ‘peoples’ are reconstructed, and the unbridgeable gap dividing them is highlighted. The discussion of the democratic people requires a concise analysis of the main contemporary democratic frameworks, including deliberative democracy, ‘neo-Roman’ republicanism, agonistic democracy. The article works out the implications of the incompatibility between the two ‘sovereign peoples’ identified, and concludes that such an incompatibility undercuts the kinship of populism and democracy. While populism is often said to intertwine with democracy in some way, the article argues that it significantly departs from democratic theory and practice, and belongs to a distinct conceptual space. It cannot be made to overlap with ‘illiberal democracy’, a ‘democratic myth’, a crude electoral majoritarianism, nor does it amount to hiding undemocratic policies into properly democratic justifications. The boundary dividing populism and democracy, therefore, starts unfolding at the level of the conception of the people. While democratic theory invariably assumes a people intended as simultaneously heterogeneous and united, populism conceives of the people as a moral whole, internally undifferentiated, whose homogeneity and intrinsic righteousness preclude the task of specifying what popular sovereignty ultimately means. Such specification, on the other hand, is inescapable for any democrat assuming the people as a composite unity. The last section addresses four possible objections to the argument, variously formulated by Ernesto Laclau and by scholars approaching populism from a post-Laclauian or discursive-performative perspective.

Utilising the learning in development research framework in a professional youth football club.

Underpinned by an ecological dynamics rationale, the Learning in Development Research Framework (LDRF) has been suggested to introduce methodological possibilities to investigate and illuminate: (i) socio-cultural constraints within a sports organization or club, and (ii), a research gap on the need for a more contemporary framework to guide reliable ways of conducting investigations and designing practical applications. To provide a strong justification for the nature of the fieldwork and methods adopted, we present insights from a 3-year and 5-month study at a professional football club in Sweden that adapted the framework as a central feature of their Department of Methodology for player development. A phronetic iterative approach was employed to analyze the data. The findings highlight the nature of constraints acting over varied timescales, transcending contexts to manifest in other contexts (e.g., practice task designs), influencing events and experiences. This indicated a need to dampen (using probes) the influence of the pervasive organizational "control over context" approaches that were acting as "sticky" socio-cultural constraints, shaping the intentions (in session design) and attention (during practice and performance) of players and coaches. A practical implication is that the LDRF does not prescribe a universal solution to player development. Rather that it can guide how researchers, practitioners, clubs and organisations could challenge themselves to adapt strategies to design contemporary athlete development frameworks within their ecosystem.

Comparative Study of Mediterranean Courtyard Houses and the Bioclimate Impact on Their Design from Four Axes: Historical, Environmental, Social and Geometry

As a result of the many efforts made in recent decades to implement bioclimatic criteria and passive house models in Mediterranean areas, traditional architectural typologies can play a role in the contemporary environmental architectural framework. The interactive and adaptive relationship between climate, site, and building is a fundamental rule in the climate-responsive approach to reducing environmental impacts. Lately, this idea has been extended to include protecting the cultural identities of places. Many cases in the Mediterranean Basin show that conventional courtyard houses can provide high adaptability, sustainability, and functionality. Mediterranean courtyard houses are founded on a set of adaptable and sustainable standards derived from a combination of active and passive design approaches. This paper presents a comparative study of courtyard houses in five Mediterranean countries: Spain, Türkiye, Greece, Libya, and Palestine, addressing four areas of interest: history, environment, society and geometry. Considering the bioclimatic approach as a critical component in reorienting the construction process, the study’s goal is to compare and evaluate the inner courtyards of these Mediterranean countries, analysing the most important constant factors and modification paths. The study concludes that the courtyard morphology is a shared human legacy with a past and future as it meets its inhabitants’ physical and sociocultural requirements. Furthermore, despite the differences in some aspects, courtyard houses were constructed throughout the Mediterranean with a common meaning of heaven on earth; this could imply that the courtyard garden is the world’s meaning.

Inconsistently reporting post-licensure EPA specifications in different clinical professions hampers fidelity and practice translation: a scoping review

BackgroundEntrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) are defined units of professional practice entrusted to professionals once they have attained the specific competencies required to complete the end-to-end task. They provide a contemporary framework for capturing real-world clinical skillsets and integrating clinical education with practice. Our scoping review question was: how are post-licensure EPAs reported in peer reviewed literature, in different clinical professions?MethodWe followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) checklist, Arksey and O’Malley and Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) methodology. Searching ten electronic databases returned 1622 articles, with 173 articles included. Data extracted included demographics, EPA discipline, titles and further specifications.ResultsAll articles were published between 2007–2021 across sixteen country contexts. The majority were from North America (n = 162, 73%) describing medical sub-specialty EPAs (n = 126, 94%). There were comparably few EPA frameworks reported in clinical professions other than medicine (n = 11, 6%). Many articles reported only EPA titles without further explanation and limited content validation. The majority did not include information about the EPA design process. Few EPAs and frameworks were reported according to all the recommended EPA attributes. There was unclear distinction between specialty-specific EPAs and those that could be useful across disciplines.DiscussionOur review highlights the large volume of EPAs reported in post-licensure medicine, including the volume disparity compared to other clinical professions. Basing our enquiry upon existing guidelines for EPA attributes and features, our experience in conducting the review and our primary finding demonstrated heterogeneity of EPA reporting according to these specifications. To promote EPA fidelity, and quality appraisal, and to reduce interpretation subjectivity, we advocate: diligently reporting EPA attributes and features; including reference or citation to EPA design and content validity information; and considering distinguishing EPAs as specialty-specific or transdisciplinary.ConclusionA large volume of post-licensure EPAs were identified in medicine relative to other clinical professions. EPA specifications were absent or variously reported in the literature, risking ambiguous interpretation. The authors recommend that future EPAs are reported with reference to established and evolving construct recommendations, which is integral to concept fidelity and translation to practice and education.

On the area in the red of Lévy risk processes and related quantities

Under contemporary insurance regulatory frameworks, an insolvent insurer placed in receivership may have the option of rehabilitation, during which a plan is devised to resolve the insurer's difficulties. The regulator and receiver must analyze the company's financial condition and determine whether a rehabilitation is likely to be successful or if its problems are so severe that the appropriate action is to liquidate the insurer. Therefore, it is essential to evaluate the cost required to support the insurer during its insolvent states in the decision-making process. To this end, we study areas in the red (below level 0) up to the recovery time, Poissonian, and continuous first passage times in this paper. Furthermore, we extend the study to the areas associated with Parisian ruin to evaluate the total cost until possible liquidation. For spectrally negative Lévy processes (SNLPs), also known as Lévy risk models, we derive the expectations of these quantities in terms of the well-known scale functions. Our results improve the existing literature, in which only expected areas for the Brownian motion and the Cramér-Lundberg risk process with exponential jumps are known.

К проблеме актуализации языковой личности в политическом дискурсе современной Франции (на материале последних выступлений Э. Макрона за 2022 год)

The paper deals with French political discourse. The scope of research includes the latest speeches of the acting French president Emmanuel Macron illustrating his anti-russian declamations which could represent the peculiarities of the linguistic indentity of the acting French leader. The object of research consists of E. Macron’s word usages extracted from such speeches delivered throughout the year 2002 as «Discours du Président Emmanuel Macron à l’Assemblée générale des Nations unies 2022», «Sonférence de à l’issue du Sommet informel des chefs d’État et de gouvernement de l’Union européenne», «Guerre en Ukraine: l’intégralité de l’allocution d’Emmanuel Macron», «Bénin: «La Russie a commencé au fond un nouveau type d’une guerre hybride”. Macron accuse la Russie d’être “l’une des dernières puissances impériales coloniales”». It is attempted to illustrate that his linguistic identity is diverse and could be designated by excessive metaphorical modeling, literature-centricity straightforwardness and picturesque descriptive words. While studying the metaphorical meanings of the lexical units under consideration the method of contextual analysis, component analysis method and the descriptive method are being used. The aim of the research is to represent the specifics of E. Macron’s verbal behavior by the example of anti-russian declamations in mass media. The relevance of the study is determined be citing and analyzing the latest interventions and declarations of the acting French president that illustrate contemporary political framework. The paper contains a large number of examples. The article may be of interest to experts in the field of French political discourse. The practical significance of the study consists in the possibility of inclusion of the examples of analysis of E. Macron’s speeches in didactic materials while designing special courses in the language of the French political communication for training students of such Master’s Degree programs as “International Relations”, “International Strategic Communication”, “Global Politics”, and “Information Support of State Interests”.

Analysis of emergency remote teaching in formal education: crosschecking three contemporary techno-pedagogical frameworks

During the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak many countries around the world were forced to turn to Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) and upscale the use of digital technologies for learning, teaching and assessment. The current study analysed field reports from 89 elementary and secondary Hebrew-speaking and Arabic-speaking information and communication technology schools in Israel, representing the cultural, ethnic, and religious diversity of the education system. The qualitative analysis of the collected data was based on three well established contemporary models of technology integration and Digital Competence of Educators (DigCompEdu): the International Society for Technology in Education, Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge and DigCompEdu. The analysis (n = 872 statements) yielded aspects in the teachers’ reports that correspond with the theoretical models, alongside aspects that extend these models to ERT and aspects that were missing from the reports. Finally, based on our findings and previous work we suggested a comprehensive framework for ERT that can be used to design teachers’ professional development necessary for effective remote teaching in both emergency and routine times.

Revisiting Islamic Law in Indonesia’s Legal System Discourse: A Critical Analysis of the Legal and Social Implications

This article examines the difficulties associated with reintroducing Islamic law (fiqh) into the legal system and regulations of a pluralistic contemporary society. The function of Islamic law in the context of contemporary society is examined, including its historical impact on Islamic civilization and the significance of Islamic legal legislation in Islamic modernism. The current reality is Islamic law's struggle with modern nation-states, especially in terms of its transformation and incorporation into the national legal system. The article also discusses Ibn al-Muqaffa's proposal for the first Islamic legal code, which sought to establish universally applicable legal provisions. The purpose of this article is to cast a spotlight on the challenges and opportunities of reintroducing Islamic law into the regulatory framework of contemporary society. To better comprehend the implications and potential outcomes of such integration, there is a need for more scholarly work and research. In conclusion, the incorporation of Islamic law into contemporary legal systems is an ongoing and significant topic of discussion in a pluralistic modern society. While there have been attempts in the past to codify Islamic law within state regulations, there are still numerous obstacles to overcome before it can be successfully reintroduced into contemporary legal frameworks. Progress can be made towards the incorporation of Islamic law into the regulatory framework of contemporary society through sustained scholarly work, research, and consideration of ethical and social implications.

Phylogenetic assessment of the halophilic Australian gastropod Coxiella and South African Tomichia resolves taxonomic uncertainties, uncovers new species and supports a Gondwanan link

Genetic and morphological data have suggested a Gondwanan connection between the three non-marine aquatic gastropod genera Coxiella Smith, 1894, Tomichia Benson, 1851 and Idiopyrgus Pilsbry, 1911. These genera have recently been included in the family Tomichiidae Wenz, 1938, however, further assessment of the validity of this family is warranted. Coxiella is an obligate halophile that occurs in Australian salt lakes while Tomichia occurs in saline and freshwater environments in southern Africa and Idiopyrgus is a freshwater taxon from South America. Despite their novel evolutionary and ecological characteristics, Coxiella, Tomichia and Idiopyrgus are poorly studied, and the lack of a contemporary taxonomic framework restricts our ability to assess the risk of declining habitat quality to these gastropods. We used data from mitochondrial (COI and 16S) and nuclear (28S and 18S) genes in 20 species from all three genera to undertake the most comprehensive phylogenetic test of the Tomichiidae to date. Bayesian and Maximum Likelihood phylogenetic analyses of a concatenated dataset (2974 bp) of all four genes strongly supported a monophyletic Tomichiidae. The COI analysis (n = 307) identified 14 reciprocally monophyletic lineages in Coxiella that comprised eight of the nine currently described species and at least six putative new species. Four distinct genetic clades of species with somewhat distinctive morphologies were found, each of which may constitute a distinct genera. In addition, four species of Tomichia were identified, including three described and one putatively new species. Current species descriptions of Coxiella do not account for the range of morphological variation observed within most described species, and although morphology is reasonably effective at delineating between clades, it is of limited use when trying to separate closely related Coxiella species. The improved understanding of the taxonomy and diversity of Tomichia and especially Coxiella will underpin future studies and conservation planning for these taxa.

Using automated analysis to assess middle school students' competence with scientific argumentation

AbstractArgumentation is fundamental to science education, both as a prominent feature of scientific reasoning and as an effective mode of learning—a perspective reflected in contemporary frameworks and standards. The successful implementation of argumentation in school science, however, requires a paradigm shift in science assessment from the measurement of knowledge and understanding to the measurement of performance and knowledge in use. Performance tasks requiring argumentation must capture the many ways students can construct and evaluate arguments in science, yet such tasks are both expensive and resource‐intensive to score. In this study we explore how machine learning text classification techniques can be applied to develop efficient, valid, and accurate constructed‐response measures of students' competency with written scientific argumentation that are aligned with a validated argumentation learning progression. Data come from 933 middle school students in the San Francisco Bay Area and are based on three sets of argumentation items in three different science contexts. The findings demonstrate that we have been able to develop computer scoring models that can achieve substantial to almost perfect agreement between human‐assigned and computer‐predicted scores. Model performance was slightly weaker for harder items targeting higher levels of the learning progression, largely due to the linguistic complexity of these responses and the sparsity of higher‐level responses in the training data set. Comparing the efficacy of different scoring approaches revealed that breaking down students' arguments into multiple components (e.g., the presence of an accurate claim or providing sufficient evidence), developing computer models for each component, and combining scores from these analytic components into a holistic score produced better results than holistic scoring approaches. However, this analytical approach was found to be differentially biased when scoring responses from English learners (EL) students as compared to responses from non‐EL students on some items. Differences in the severity between human and computer scores for EL between these approaches are explored, and potential sources of bias in automated scoring are discussed.

Epigenetic opportunities for evolutionary computation

Evolutionary computation is a group of biologically inspired algorithms used to solve complex optimization problems. It can be split into evolutionary algorithms, which take inspiration from genetic inheritance, and swarm intelligence algorithms, that take inspiration from cultural inheritance. However, much of the modern evolutionary literature remains relatively unexplored. To understand which evolutionary mechanisms have been considered, and which have been overlooked, this paper breaks down successful bioinspired algorithms under a contemporary biological framework based on the extended evolutionary synthesis, an extension of the classical, genetics focused, modern synthesis. Although the idea of the extended evolutionary synthesis has not been fully accepted in evolutionary theory, it presents many interesting concepts that could provide benefits to evolutionary computation. The analysis shows that Darwinism and the modern synthesis have been incorporated into evolutionary computation but the extended evolutionary synthesis has been broadly ignored beyond: cultural inheritance, incorporated in the sub-set of swarm intelligence algorithms, evolvability, through covariance matrix adaptation evolution strategy (CMA-ES), and multilevel selection, through multilevel selection genetic algorithm (MLSGA). The framework shows a gap in epigenetic inheritance for evolutionary computation, despite being a key building block in modern interpretations of evolution. This leaves a diverse range of biologically inspired mechanisms as low hanging fruit that should be explored further within evolutionary computation and illustrates the potential of epigenetic based approaches through the recent benchmarks in the literature.

Theories of Skill Acquisition: Implications for Tennis Coaching

This article discusses different theories of skill learning, including ecological dynamics, and their implications for coaching and practice design. Concerns with current beliefs about skill acquisition and the associated traditional practice methods will be discussed. The major tenets of ecological dynamics will be presented, followed by some practice design recommendations for coaches. The goal of this paper is to introduce coaches to a more contemporary theoretical framework of skill acquisition that will drive the exploration of new practice methods to maximize skill development across all ages.

The Legal Duty of States to Cooperate in the Fight Against Pandemic Disease under the International Health Regulations

Abstract The paper outlines the contemporary legal framework of global health focusing on the legal duty of States to cooperate in the surveillance, prevention, and control of epidemic and pandemic disease. The paper details, in particular, the content and nature of States’ duty to cooperate under the International Health Regulations – the primary international legal instrument governing the global response to such events. It also examines the role of the World Health Organization and other UN bodies in fostering cooperation between States in the fight against epidemics and pandemics.

Merging Minds: The Conceptual and Ethical Impacts of Emerging Technologies for Collective Minds

A growing number of technologies are currently being developed to improve and distribute thinking and decision-making. Rapid progress in brain-to-brain interfacing and swarming technologies promises to transform how we think about collective and collaborative cognitive tasks across domains, ranging from research to entertainment, and from therapeutics to military applications. As these tools continue to improve, we are prompted to monitor how they may affect our society on a broader level, but also how they may reshape our fundamental understanding of agency, responsibility, and other key concepts of our moral landscape.In this paper we take a closer look at this class of technologies – Technologies for Collective Minds – to see not only how their implementation may react with commonly held moral values, but also how they challenge our underlying concepts of what constitutes collective or individual agency. We argue that prominent contemporary frameworks for understanding collective agency and responsibility are insufficient in terms of accurately describing the relationships enabled by Technologies for Collective Minds, and that they therefore risk obstructing ethical analysis of the implementation of these technologies in society. We propose a more multidimensional approach to better understand this set of technologies, and to facilitate future research on the ethics of Technologies for Collective Minds.

Public and Engaged Anthropology: The Legacy of Nina S. de Friedemann

Nina S. de Friedemann (1930-1998) was a public anthropologist. She practiced engaged research, with a view to promoting social justice for the communities with whom she collaborated and studied, and she anticipated the public anthropology of the North Atlantic academia by five decades. A pioneer in Afro￾Colombian studies and in visual anthropology, she documented and defended the cultural contributions of Black populations to the identity of an ethnically diverse Colombia. Friedemann’s fundamental work inspired leaders of the Black communities in their demands that culminated in Law 70 of 1993, also known as the ley de negritudes. Her research materials are housed at the Luis Angel Arango Library under the name Fondo Nina S. de Friedemann, a repository available for study. Using unpublished materials, correspondence, publications, and photographs, Greta Friedemann-Sánchez reflected on three pillars of her mother’s ethical legacy within the contemporary normative framework for the protection of human subjects and the historical context during which Nina S. de Friedemann worked as an anthropologist.