Core Assumptions Research Articles

Generalized time-bin quantum random number generator with uncharacterized devices

Random number generators (RNG) based on quantum mechanics are captivating due to their security and unpredictability compared to conventional generators, such as pseudo-random number generators and hardware-random number generators. This work analyzes evolutions in the extractable amount of randomness with increasing the Hilbert space dimension, state preparation subspace, or measurement subspace in a class of semi-device-independent quantum-RNG, where bounding the states’ overlap is the core assumption, built on the prepare-and-measure scheme. We further discuss the effect of these factors on the complexity and draw a conclusion on the optimal scenario. We investigate the generic case of time-bin encoding scheme, define various input (state preparation) and outcome (measurement) subspaces, and discuss the optimal scenarios to obtain maximum entropy. Several input designs were experimentally tested and analyzed for their conceivable outcome arrangements. We evaluated their performance by considering the device’s imperfections, particularly the after-pulsing effect and dark counts of the detectors. Finally, we demonstrate that this approach can boost the system entropy, resulting in more extractable randomness.

Multiscale-based multiaxial fatigue model of short fiber reinforced polymer composites under high-cycle proportional loading

Due to the inhomogeneity and anisotropy of short fiber-reinforced polymers (SFRP), even uniaxial loading can induce multiaxial stress states inside them, which significantly increases the difficulty of grasping their fatigue behavior. To efficiently predict the fatigue life of SFRP under proportional multiaxial stress, a multiaxial high-cycle fatigue model is proposed, relying upon the multiscale modeling strategy capable of integrating the influence of fiber microstructure. Taking the fiber-matrix interface stress at the critical region as the internal driving factor of fatigue fracture is the core assumption verified by microscopic observations. Off-axial fatigue tests with different orientations and stress ratios are performed to validate the fatigue model. Results show that the prediction accuracy has reached an acceptable level, and the quadratic polynomial surface can well represent the relationship between fatigue life and multiaxial stresses. This work provides an efficient tool for multiaxial fatigue life prediction and expounds the failure behavior of SFRP from multiscale perspectives.

Political Business Cycles in Türkiye: A Chaotic Perspective

AbstractThis paper has the goal of analyzing the chaotic structure of political business cycles in Türkiye for the period from 1986 March to 2020 January. To investigate the existence of uncertainty, the chaotic dynamics of the analyzed variables was examined using the Lyapunov exponent, Shannon entropy, and Hurst entropy. The Fourier VAR model was applied to determine the effects of unemployment, inflation, economic growth, and the minimum wage on voting behavior in Türkiye. The Granger Causality approach was also used to assess the direction of the causal relationship between macroeconomic factors and political party groups. Granger causality analysis findings of this paper reveal a bi-directional Granger causality link between the center-right party and economic growth, inflation, unemployment, and the minimum wage. Furthermore, there is also a uni-directional causality relation from inflation, unemployment, and economic growth to the center-left party and a bi-directional causality relation between the minimum wage and the center-left party. In this regard, one of the most remarkable evaluations of this paper is that the sensitivity findings of party groups to macroeconomic factors in Türkiye do not align with the core assumptions of the Partisan Theory concerning the right-left party division. Therefore, contrary to the related theory, the analysis results indicate that it is not eligible to make a sharp and distinct distinction between right-wing and left-wing parties in Türkiye. Additionally, Lyapunov exponent, Shannon entropy, and Hurst entropy findings point to the existence of chaotic structure and uncertainty in political cyclical fluctuations in Türkiye. Accordingly, it is figured out that the existence of chaotic structure and uncertainty in party groups and analyzed variables allows only short-term and not long-term forecasting.

Advocacy coalitions as political organizations

Abstract Conceptually, advocacy coalitions are referenced in several policy process theories and frameworks to describe groups of actors that share beliefs and coordinate efforts to influence public policy. In the past decades, advocacy coalitions have received increased attention as a concept and a theoretical approach to understanding collective action in the policy process. In this study, we argue that despite its growing popularity, past empirical research has mainly focused on identifying and describing advocacy coalitions while largely overlooking their role and impact as political organizations. Many of the core premises and assumptions about advocacy coalitions hereby remain understudied and untested. Here, we depart from the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) to discuss the political organization of advocacy coalitions by focusing on four dimensions: (1) a basis for engagement in joint strategies, (2) capacity to mobilize political resources, (3) ability to gain influence in policy processes, and (4) perceptions of advocacy coalitions as a political entity. We briefly review the theory and evidence of each dimension and conclude that several core assumptions about advocacy coalitions yet remain to be empirically tested to enable further conceptual specification and theory development within the ACF and beyond. To this end, we propose a research agenda with suggested research questions, designs, and methodological considerations for advancing empirical research on the role and impact of advocacy coalitions in different cases and contexts.

Blinded by “algo economicus”: Reflecting on the assumptions of algorithmic management research to move forward

AbstractThis paper reflects on the paradigmatic assumptions and ideologies that have shaped algorithmic management research. We identify two sets of assumptions: one about the “ontology of algorithms” (which holds that human resource management [HRM] algorithms are non‐human entities with material agency) and one about the “ontology of management” that HRM algorithms afford (which understands algorithmic management as a form of control for maximizing economic/shareholder value). We explain how these core assumptions underpin existing research of HRM algorithms, causing blind spots that hinder new ways of understanding and studying algorithmic management. After identifying and unpacking the assumptions and blind spots, we offer avenues to overcome these blind spots, allowing for future research based on new ideological assumption grounds that will help move algorithmic management scholarship further in significant ways.

When procedures and ideology replace strategy in corporate political activity: Industry associations in Interwar Finland

The core assumption in the management literature on corporate political activity (CPA) is that firms and industry associations representing their interests seek political ends driven by strategic concerns. Other streams of research, however, emphasise the role of ideology in CPA. In this article, we study the balance between strategic and ideological orientations over time. We draw on historical data from the early 1920s to the end of the 1930s to analyse a process in which two competing Finnish industry associations sought to balance strategic and ideological CPA, and how procedural CPA became increasingly important as a mechanism for increasing the emphasis on ideological goals. As industry associations become more autonomous, they gain more opportunities and greater power. As a result of this increased power, associations can promote their own ideological agendas, which often contrast with what would be directly beneficial for individual firms and societies.

Meta-theorizing framing in communication research (1992–2022): toward academic silos or professionalized specialization?

Abstract Framing, a prominent communication theory, is often lamented as a fractured paradigm, leading some to offer radical changes to its conceptualization, operationalization, and application. Using a meta-theoretical and computational approach, we analyze three decades of framing research to examine academic silos, specializations, the canon’s formation, gender inequalities, authors’ origins, countries studied, and methods used in framing research. Instead of silos, our analysis of 5,291 papers and over 170,000 citations identified specializations formed around a core of canonic texts. While framing research has become more diverse over the years, males affiliated with U.S. institutions still predominately author canonical works. Results reject the isolated-silos hypothesis in favor of a view of framing as a bridging networked paradigm, coalescing around core assumptions, definitions, and approaches. These findings contrast with the common fractured-paradigm narrative and challenge calls for radical solutions.

Revisiting ‘Accuracy’ in Formal Grounded Theory: Ambiguities and Opportunities

This study attempts to address the ‘scant attention’ (to use Barney Glaser’s words) given to formal grounded theory by revisiting and reformulating the concept of accuracy (interchangeably used with accurate descriptions and empirical evidence) which Glaser blames to be the reason behind grounded theorists neglecting formal grounded theorizing. A novel concept called pragmatic accuracy is introduced to meet the requirements of formal grounded theorizing. Pragmatic accuracy by supplementing inductive reasoning with abductive places methodological self-consciousness at the center of formal grounded theorizing as there is a continual need for scrutinizing the core assumptions of a researcher and those of their participants’. This study does not entirely reject Glaser’s approach of shunning accuracy. Rather it teases out the contradiction between Glaser’s words and practice towards qualitative descriptions and shows how he, in a coauthored formal grounded theory, recognizes the importance of empirical references and explanatory definitions. Along with Glaser, Charmaz’ and Kearney’s views on accuracy are also unpacked and brought in harmony with the requirements of formal grounded theorizing. A case is made through pragmatic accuracy to encourage a sustained focus on the inclusion of empirical content in an emerging formal theory to increase its applicability and generalizability. The reformulated pragmatic accuracy also offers two lengths for formal grounded theories, article-length and book-length, depending upon the requirements of the topic and the researcher.

"Will the welfare state survive the future? - How people legitimize the welfare state."

Background: Legitimacy of the welfare state is a requirement for efficient functioning. In the current political climate of Norway creating new co-governance models under the umbrella of New Public Governance (NPG). NPG draws resources from the public, the private as well as the volunteer sector. In the European welfare states pressure is building due to demographic ageing, globalization and disturbances in the social order which affect the social contract between citizen and state. This article aims to explore how citizens legitimize the Norwegian welfare state drawing on perspective of institutional theory. Why do or don’t the participants support the current form of the welfare state?
 The interviews were analysed focusing on the assumptions and reasons on which the participants based their view of the welfare state. Although the method has been used on exploring the epistemic dimension of discretion, it allows for identification of the cognitive aspects of decision making, hence the ability to identify core assumptions and beliefs. The findings from the interview are analysed using Schuman’s analytical categories of pragmatic, moral and cognitive legitimacy create the framework for analysing the argumentation which the participants use to legitimize their current view of the Norwegian welfare state, and where it is heading. Contrary to most institutional research this paper does not attempt to see the big picture, but rather explore legitimacy through the informant’s perception of the welfare state.
 Methods: This is a qualitative study. We conducted individual interviews with one woman and one man in each 10-year, thus representing ages from 20 to 80. We also interviewed two senior experts at research centres and two politicians. These interviews were thematically analysed and coded in NVivo.
 In order to analyse the informant’s arguments further this paper utilizes Anders Molander’s interpretation and use of Toulmin which sees discretion as a process in which a person legitimizes their own argument statements through expressing core concepts, values and understandings.
 Results and Lessons learned: This is an ongoing study and the results will be presented and discussed at the conference. The preliminary analysis shows that moral legitimacy tends to outweigh pragmatic legitimacy. This implies that legitimacy is a key concept in achieving integrated services. This may indicate that cooperative models such as NPG in combination with people’s perspective of “what is the right thing to do” is key to reaching ideals promised in tailoring of services from people’s perspective.
 
 
 Limitations and suggestions for future research: Legitimacy as a concept on the micro level may be a key element in understanding how to integrate services and increase quality of services from people’s perspective. Moral legitimacy tends to create support despite to achieving peoples wishes. To a certain extent, the upcoming results will be of relevance for a better understanding of the complexity of organising and supporting welfare services. 
 Keywords: Welfare state, legitimacy, NPG, Co-governance, integration, 

High school students' evolving alternative conception related to the volume of gas: A Lakatosian perspective

AbstractThe purpose of this case study, informed by a Lakatosian perspective, is to identify how an alternative conception that originates in present learning but is related directly to subsequent learning contexts can be constructed. Before the study, one of the authors found by accident that a student who had learned about Avogadro's principle and chemical reaction in South Korea constructed an alternative conception related to the volume of gas. Later, we identified seven Korean high school students with the alternative conception through a test and analyzed their underlying understandings qualitatively through interviews. The results show that they had a scientific conception—core conception—and intuitive assumptions about implicit information of external representations—implicit assumptions—in common. The students' implicit assumptions could be divided into three types again: core assumption, auxiliary assumption, and context‐inducing assumption. The core assumption, like the core conception, played a significant role in constructing the alternative conception (hard core), while the auxiliary assumptions were incomplete implicit assumptions to protect the alternative conception (protective belt). The context‐inducing assumption was an implicit assumption bringing the context of the subsequent curriculum, and the core conception and the core assumption could be interpreted in this induced context. At the end of the study, the implications related to learning progressions were discussed.

Shallow fixes and deep reasonings: framing sustainability at the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa)

The need for urgent, structural transformations to dominant food systems is increasingly recognized in research and policy. The direction these transformations take is in great part influenced by how the problem is framed and what future pathways become seen as plausible and desirable. Scientific knowledge and the organizations producing it hold considerable authority in suggesting what alternatives are or are not worth pursuing, ultimately shaping frames and in turn being shaped by them. This paper examines Brazil’s federal Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa), a major contributor to technological advances that made Brazil into an agricultural powerhouse. We examine the ways in which Embrapa’s leadership has framed sustainable agriculture in its public communication and the wider implications for food systems transformation. Drawing from Embrapa news articles in the period 2015–2020, we identify four interrelated frames forming Embrapa’s prevalent position on sustainability. Our results show that while Embrapa promotes practices based on alternative approaches such as agroecology, its deeper framing often reflects the core assumptions driving dominant industrial food systems. This framing reinforces underlying logics of control, efficiency, and competition aligned with the productivist paradigm and excludes divergent perspectives that exist within the organization.

Abstract IA034: Incorporating intersectionality in quantitative cancer disparities research

Abstract Intersectionality is a framework that posits individuals have multiple interacting social identities, both at the individual and structural level, that mediate both privilege and oppression. In the past decade, researchers have increasingly adopted intersectionality as a conceptual framework to study whether and how social identities influence health disparities. While individual and socio-contextual cancer disparities have been widely demonstrated across the cancer continuum (from prevention to survivorship), it is unknown the extent to which intersectionality as a framework, including its core assumptions and components, have been applied to this field of study. In this study, using PRISMA guidelines, we conducted a systematic review of quantitative cancer disparity studies that explicitly cited intersectionality as a guiding approach to their study. Results presented will narratively synthesize the identified literature to identify challenges, gaps, and recommendations for incorporating intersectionality theory into quantitative cancer disparity research. Citation Format: Priti Bandi, Kilan C. Ashad-Bishop. Incorporating intersectionality in quantitative cancer disparities research [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 16th AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2023 Sep 29-Oct 2;Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2023;32(12 Suppl):Abstract nr IA034.

Emosjonsfokusert terapi

Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT) is rooted in the humanistic psychotherapy tradition. A core assumption in EFT is that our life experiences are organised in emotion schemes. For instance, problematic childhood experiences that are not processed can form what are typically referred to as maladaptive emotion schemes, continuing to influence us later in in life. The goal in EFT is to activate, process and change maladaptive emotion schemes. Such a change process typically occurs through an emotional sequence, moving from secondary emotions (e.g., depressive hopelessness) through primary maladaptive emotions (e.g., maladaptive shame) to adaptive emotions (e.g., assertive anger). This sequence is termed changing emotion with emotion, and builds on substantial process research. In this article, we will describe from an EFT perspective how psychological illness arises and which conditions are necessary for it to change. We will give an account of the empirical foundation for the model and illustrate some specific interventions using the case of ‘Nadine’. Keywords: Emotion-Focused Therapy, transdiagnostic therapy, humanistic therapy, experiential therapy

Policy complementarity and the paradox of carbon pricing

AbstractWe present an economics framework appropriate to the exceptionally broad scope of the climate change problem. This considers that economic and social processes, particularly those involved in purposive transitions of energy technologies and systems, involve the interplay between three distinct domains of decision-making and associated actors. The first concerns small-scale and often short-term decision-making, much of which reflects extensive ‘satisficing’ and habituation as identified in behavioural economics. Calculated economic optimization decisions, especially of companies in the energy and energy-intensive industries, then best reflect the core assumptions of neoclassical and welfare economics, including discrete market failures. Third, at the largest scale are strategic judgements made by big actors (e.g. governments, large multinational companies) relevant to transformation of complex systems over long periods—particularly concerning innovation and structural changes, for which lessons from theories of evolutionary and institutional economics are most relevant.Economically, these can be logically mapped in relation to the technology (or more accurately, ‘best practice’) frontier. Each has corresponding policy implications: most directly, respectively in terms of (i) standards and engagement to establish norms; (ii) competitive markets with the critical role of prices; and (iii) strategic investment in innovation and infrastructure. Each faces challenges of implementation and government failure, as observed, for example, with wholly inadequate carbon pricing to date, naïve and ineffective approaches to enhancing energy efficiency, or misdirected support to R&D. Based on the domain distinctions, we argue that the corresponding pillars of policy are naturally complementary, and can be mutually supportive: strong standards and norms on energy efficiency, for example, would enhance the political space for carbon pricing by reducing its direct consumer impacts, while carbon pricing has multiple positive two-way interactions with enhanced low-carbon innovation.From this we also posit a ‘carbon pricing paradox’: that adequate carbon prices, the central recommendation of most economists, are in most jurisdictions only feasible (or even optimal) if equal analytic and policy attention is devoted to the other pillars, and the wider context of macroeconomic and fiscal policies. Only these other aspects can reduce the absolute cost impact of carbon pricing (potentially turning into a gain) and offer consumers and businesses better lower-carbon alternatives, which are critical to establishing climate-compatible pricing structures across our economies.

An interference model for visual and verbal working memory.

Research on working memory (WM) has followed two largely independent traditions: One concerned with memory for sequentially presented lists of discrete items, and the other with short-term maintenance of simultaneously presented arrays of objects with simple, continuously varying features. Here we present a formal model of WM, the interference model (IM), that explains benchmark findings from both traditions: The shape of the error distribution from continuous reproduction of visual features, and how it is affected by memory set size; the effects of serial position for sequentially presented items, the effect of output position, and the intrusion of nontargets as a function of their distance from the target in space and in time. We apply the model to two experiments combining features of popular paradigms from both traditions: Lists of colors (Experiment 1) or of nonwords (Experiment 2) are presented sequentially and tested through selection of the target from a set of candidates, ordered by their similarity. The core assumptions of the IM are: Contents are encoded into WM through temporary bindings to contexts that serve as retrieval cues to access the contents. Bindings have limited precision on the context and the content dimension. A subset of the memory set-usually one item and its context-is maintained in a focus of attention with high precision. Successive events in an episode are encoded with decreasing strength, generating a primacy gradient. With each encoded event, automatic updating of WM reduces the strength of preceding memories, creating a recency gradient and output interference. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

To trawl or not to trawl: Questioning core assumptions of trawl placement choice in fisheries acoustics surveys

In acoustic-trawl surveys, acoustic echosign needs to be biologically characterized, and if done correctly, will lead to accurate biomass estimates, robust stock assessments, and ensuing healthy fish stocks. However, methods for validating the core assumption that trawl placement choice yields a representative sample of the associated echosign (given an ideal net) are rarely described. Therefore we detail several such methods, using Pacific hake as a case study, exploiting both historic survey data as well as additional field experimental data. Specific methods focused on validation of (1) trawl effort spatially matching backscatter distributions, (2) trawled-location backscatter amounts matching all-location backscatter amounts, (3) trawled depth matching backscatter depth, and (4) spatial homogeneity of fish length within an aggregation. Application of the methods to the adult Pacific hake survey generally validated the assumption that trawl placement choice yielded a representative sample of the associated echosign, except for two instances. The backscatter from fished aggregations was greater than that from general aggregations in one of the two survey years analyzed. In addition, experimental field data detected a slight but significant trend of longer fish in the offshore portion of an aggregation. Neither of these occurrences are expected to yield a bias in the biomass estimate of Pacific hake.

When Legal Inclusion is not Enough: the “Uganda Model” of Refugee Protection on the Brink of Failure

ABSTRACT This article develops the existing literature on the challenges facing the Ugandan refugee protection system by showing the interrelatedness of these challenges and linking them to the core assumptions of the “Uganda Model” of refugee protection. To that effect, it presents primary, qualitative data gathered in the field. This empirical evidence reveals profound marginalisation of refugees within Uganda and the difficulties of the authorities to remedy it in the face of the status quo, where the international community’s support has been disproportionately small. This reality, being strikingly at odds with the promise of Uganda’s refugee protection architecture, has led the government and UNHCR officials who were interviewed for this research to doubt whether it is possible to uphold this architecture. This, together with the outcomes of a desk study utilising existing quantitative and qualitative data, suggests that the Uganda Model might, at the time of writing, be approaching its threshold of viability. The findings suggest that a substantial rethink of the model’s assumptions might be in order.

The ontology of financial markets and the policy paradigm of financial regulation

ABSTRACT This study aims to discern the ontological assumptions of the financial regulatory paradigm to clarify the meaning of a paradigm shift and the significance of the macroprudential turn in global financial regulation. An ontological understanding of financial markets is a key requirement to understand the hard core assumptions of the financial regulatory paradigm because the conflation of distinct ontologies makes it impossible to maintain the internal coherence of the financial regulatory paradigm. In terms of the ontological assumptions of the financial regulatory paradigm, the macroprudential turn in global financial regulations after the 2008 financial crisis fell short of leading to a paradigm shift in global financial regulation since it brought about an explanatory rather than ontological change. Macroprudential ideas rejected the explanatory reductionism of existing microprudential regulation without abandoning its ontological individualism.

A critical review of the antecedents of enabling communities

PurposeAdopting a sense of critical enquiry when examining historical sources, it is possible to gain a richer and broader sense of present practice. The aim of this study is to emphasise the importance of historical research to present practice in teasing out the different elements at work and how they developed. A core assumption is that our consciousness depends on our interactions with others.Design/methodology/approachThis study is part of ongoing research into the historical background of the practice of discerning compassion. The methods used include archival research and the reading of primary and secondary literature.FindingsIn particular, it becomes clear that this way of working is always going to be problematic for political authorities as it promotes the questioning of accepted beliefs. This study emphasises that the core concepts underlying enabling community practice reach deep into the past and involve events not usually associated with the traditional histories of the approach. In particular, exploring outside of the traditional mental hospital background reveals a greater involvement of women than previously demonstrated. There are processes that have deep historical roots, the culture of enquiry, the benefits of mutual support and the understanding that people flourish better interacting with each other in a supportive and trusting environment rather than through coercion and instruction.Research limitations/implicationsAs with all historical research, this paper is limited by the resources available to examine particular events.Practical implicationsRecognition of the importance of historical enquiry as relevant to present-day practice.Social implicationsHistorical enquiry helps to acknowledge the importance of social events in shaping our present understanding. As W.H. Rivers argues, we have to understand what happened in the past before comprehending why present sociological events occur.Originality/valueThis paper is a unique enquiry into the early historical antecedents of enabling community practice. It is intended to stimulate more research into the field and to stimulate debate about the relevance of particular aspects of practice. It refers to sources that are not usually part of such discussions and, by implication, suggests that there is more to be explored. It is not an exhaustive account and is to be supplemented by another paper on leadership.

Global international relations and the essentialism trap

AbstractGlobal IR is an encompassing term for a range of work that has set out to globalize the discipline in terms of its core concepts, assumptions, and substantive areas of study. Our symposium supports Global IR's goals but also offers some friendly critiques of the project with the aim of increasing its impact and durability. In this Introduction to the symposium, we posit that Global IR is vulnerable to a dynamic that limits its capacity to upend the status quo, which we term the ‘essentialism trap’. Essentialism captures a range of commitments oriented around the notion that the world is constituted by pre-formed, fixed, internally coherent, and bounded social forms. The trap involves the overuse of essentialist categories by radical projects, a process that can result in the reinforcement of status quo categories and assumptions. With reference to previous openings in IR that have succumbed to this trap, we identify the dynamics that lead to this trap and suggest ways in which Global IR can avoid it by leaning more into relationalism and global history, and, thereby, fulfil the promise contained in the range of movements it speaks with and for.