Critical Norm Research Articles

Concentraciones críticas nutrimentales y normas DRIS para árboles de medio turno de Cedrela odorata L.

El diagnóstico nutrimental ayuda a mejorar la eficiencia del uso de fertilizantes en plantaciones forestales y a incrementar tanto las utilidades económicas, como los beneficios ecológicos. Dos métodos comúnmente usados, para tal efecto, son las concentraciones críticas y el Sistema Integrado de Diagnóstico y Recomendación (DRIS); sin embargo, no existen estudios que aporten los valores críticos o normas DRIS para Cedrela odorata (cedro rojo), especie importante en las regiones tropicales. El objetivo del presente estudio fue desarrollar un conjunto de concentraciones críticas y uno de normas DRIS para C. odorata en su etapa de medio turno. El estudio se realizó con 74 árboles localizados a lo largo del área de distribución natural del taxon en México, a los cuales se les determinó el incremento diamétrico y la concentración nutrimental entre julio de 2017 y enero de 2018. Se derivó un conjunto de concentraciones críticas y uno de normas DRIS. Una segunda fase fue la verificación de las concentraciones críticas y normas DRIS generadas, mediante un experimento en una plantación de cedro rojo de medio turno. El ensayo fue completamente al azar con arreglo factorial 3 × 4, en el que los factores correspondieron a la aplicación de P y K, respectivamente. Se presenta un conjunto de concentraciones críticas y uno de normas DRIS para árboles de C. odorata de medio turno. El proceso de verificación indica que ambos conjuntos de valores de referencia predicen correctamente el estado nutrimental de los árboles de medio turno del cedro rojo.

Teaching feminism: Problems of critical claims and student certainty

Learning about feminism can be a revelation for many students. However, for others, it can be a confounding, troubling experience. These difficulties return as problems for the teacher: how to help sceptical, resistant students understand the theory. Moreover, understanding what can be so troubling about learning feminism helps us to better understand the situation of feminist modules in the contexts of broader humanities curricula. Obviously, these are complex issues, and I wish to focus on just two specific points: how feminist theories make critical claims and the challenges that emerge for students as a result; how feminist theory claims find challenges in student certainty. Firstly, feminist theory claims, which describe sociocultural states of affairs while at the same time destabilising them, are operating with critical norms. These critical norms are at odds with norms of descriptive theory claims that students find elsewhere in their curriculum. As such, I want to explore the effects of this clash in student learning experience, and the difficulties that teachers face a result. In the second part of the article, I use Wittgenstein’s analysis of certainty to explore how feminist theory claims often challenge the very foundations of students’ understanding of themselves, and the world around them. As such, learning in the feminist classroom is not merely an issue of learning about and then adjudicating between theories. Feminist theories implicate the way in which we live, and the conditions of intelligibility for theories as such. In light of my discussions, I do not think there are onesize solutions to these issues. However, I think that recognising these problems in theory can help us to articulate them in the classroom, and this might go some way to alleviating the structural challenges faced by teachers of feminism.

Global regularity to the 3D incompressible Navier–Stokes equations with cone-condition

In this paper, we obtain the global existence of smooth solutions to 3D incompressible Navier–Stokes equations with a class of large initial data, whose critical norm can be arbitrarily large. The key is to gain an angle quantity in the estimate of nonlinear term by restricting the solution to a cone.

Existence of solutions to the slow diffusion equation with a nonlinear source

In this paper we consider the existence of solutions to Cauchy problem for the slow diffusion equation with a source term ∂tu=Δum+up, x∈RN, t>0, u(x,0)=φ(x)≥0, where m≥1 and p>m. Our purpose is to obtain lower estimates of the existence time of solutions in the uniformly local Lebesgue spaces. Furthermore, we obtain the estimate of blow-up time, blow-up rate of solutions and blow-up of critical norm.

Conditional Stable Soliton Resolution for a Semi-linear Skyrme Equation

We study a semi-linear version of the Skyrme system due to Adkins and Nappi. The objects in this system are maps from $$(1+3)$$-dimensional Minkowski space into the 3-sphere and 1-forms on $$\mathbb {R}^{1+3}$$, coupled via a Lagrangian action. Under a co-rotational symmetry reduction we establish the existence, uniqueness, and unconditional asymptotic stability of a family of stationary solutions $$Q_n$$, indexed by the topological degree $$n \in \mathbb {N}\cup \{0\}$$ of the underlying map. We also prove that an arbitrarily large equivariant perturbation of $$Q_n$$ leads to a globally defined solution that scatters to $$Q_n$$ in infinite time as long as the critical norm for the solution remains bounded on the maximal interval of existence given by the local Cauchy theory. We remark that the evolution equations are super-critical with respect to the conserved energy.

RETRACTED ARTICLE: A uniqueness lemma with applications to regularization and incompressible fluid mechanics

In this paper, we extend our previous result from Levy (2016). We prove that transport equations with rough coefficients do possess a uniqueness property, even in the presence of viscosity. Our method relies strongly on duality and bears a strong resemblance to the well-known DiPerna-Lions theory first developed by DiPerna and Lions (1989). This uniqueness result allows us to reprove the celebrated theorem of Serrin (1962) in a novel way. As a byproduct of the techniques, we derive an L1 bound for the vorticity in terms of a critical Lebesgue norm of the velocity field. We also show that the zero solution is unique for the 2D Euler equations on the torus under a mild integrability assumption.

Optimal condition for blow-up of the critical Lq norm for the semilinear heat equation

We shed light on a long-standing open question for the semilinear heat equation ut=Δu+|u|p−1u. Namely, without any restriction on the exponent p>1 nor on the smooth domain Ω, we prove that the critical Lq norm blows up whenever the solution undergoes type I blow-up. A similar property is also obtained for the local critical Lq norm near any blow-up point.In view of recent results of existence of type II blow-up solutions with bounded critical Lq norm, which are counter-examples to the open question, our result seems to be essentially the best possible result in general setting. This close connection between type I blow-up and critical Lq norm blow-up appears to be a completely new observation.Our proof is rather involved and requires the combination of various ingredients. It is based on analysis in similarity variables and suitable rescaling arguments, combined with backward uniqueness and unique continuation properties for parabolic equations.As a by-product, we obtain the nonexistence of self-similar profiles in the critical Lq space. Such properties were up to now only known for p≤pS and in radially symmetric case for p>pS, where pS is the Sobolev exponent.

Fostering a Culture of Performance Management in Municipalities: Perceptions of Municipal M & E Practitioners in Kwazulu Natal

Creating a culture that considers monitoring and evaluation as an essential tool for performance improvement is not an easy task. Some employees are likely to resist due to a lack of awareness of the value of monitoring and evaluation while others could do so due to fear of the accountability and transparency implicit in the implementation of such a system. Nonetheless, it is imperative that performance management is prioritised in municipal development interventions. This article is based on a doctoral study that used qualitative participatory research techniques to gather data from evaluation practitioners’ municipalities in KwaZulu-Natal. It presents these practitioners’ perspectives on fostering a culture of performance management in local government. The article expounds on their lived experiences that reflect on how performance management could facilitate an effective monitoring and evaluation culture within this sector. The study found that monitoring and evaluation practitioners were sloppy towards their responsibilities and this contributed to poor tracking of the impact of municipal interventions, thereby compromising their abilities to fulfil their constitutional mandates. Furthermore, the study found that there is no political will to enforce performance in most municipalities. The implication of this study is that a culture of performance management must be enforced by government as a critical institutional norm towards achieving accountable, effective, efficient and responsive developmental local government. Municipalities must harness the necessary political will for this to become a reality in municipalities towards promoting good governance in local government supported by a culture of performance.

Challenges affecting quality of objective structured clinical examination: Assessment of academic staff perception and their improvement suggestions

Background: Assessment of clinical competence is an essential, mandatory requirement and critical norm for accountability of educational objectives as the traditional testing tools cannot evaluate clinical competence. But it became a tough job for nurse educator as it poses several challenges in terms of objectivity and reliability. In spite of increasing usage of OSCE in nursing and the huge number of studies published about it, it is still debatable about advantages of its using. OSCE costs remain an obstacle facing its use. The aim of this study: was to assess challenges affecting quality of OSCE and suggestions of improvement as perceived by academic nursing staff.Design: A descriptive exploratory research design was used.Setting: Faculty of Nursing, Minia University.Subjects: A purposive sample of 40 clinical instructors and assistant lecturers at medical-surgical, pediatric, obstetric, and community health nursing that using OSCE in students' clinical evaluation.Tools: I-Socio-demographic data sheet II- Self-administered questionnaire to assess the perceived challenges affects quality of OSCE among study participants and to obtain their suggestions to overcome these challenges.Results: The highest manpower related challenges perceived by participants were insufficient faculty members (83%) and OSCE is stressful for students (81%). For non-human challenges, the most prominent ones were that some procedures require longer time than others (90%), unsuitability of the available settings to the number of students (83%) and insufficient needed materials/equipment (73%).Conclusion: The founded human and non-human challenges of the current study may affect the quality of OSCE in all steps, from preparation to application and subsequent suggestions are interrelated. Staff suggested improving in labs preparation and increasing labs numbers. Also, allocating sufficient budget and increasing number of trained staff.Recommendations: Increase the number of clinical instructors, budget and the work hours of OSCE to accommodate with the increased number of students and permit periods of rest for both staff and students.

On scattering for the defocusing high dimensional inter-critical NLS

In this paper, we study the critical norm conjecture for the inter-critical nonlinear Schrödinger equation with critical index sc satisfying 12<sc<1 when d≥5. Under the assumption of uniform boundedness of the critical norm, we prove the global well-posedness and scattering for the Cauchy problem. We follow the standard ‘Concentration compactness/Rigidity method’ established in [15,16], and treat three scenarios for the critical element respectively. Moreover, double Duhamel method and interaction Morawetz estimate are applied to exclude the critical element.

Geodesic distance for right-invariant metrics on diffeomorphism groups: critical Sobolev exponents

We study the geodesic distance induced by right-invariant metrics on the group $\operatorname{Diff}_c(M)$ of compactly supported diffeomorphisms of a manifold $M$, and show that it vanishes for the critical Sobolev norms $W^{s,n/s}$, where $n$ is the dimension of $M$ and $s\in(0,1)$. This completes the proof that the geodesic distance induced by $W^{s,p}$ vanishes if $sp\le n$ and $s<1$, and is positive otherwise. The proof is achieved by combining the techniques of two recent papers --- [JM19] by the authors, which treated the sub-critical case, and [BHP18] of Bauer, Harms and Preston, which treated the critical 1-dimensional case.

How Transparency Affects Survey Responses

Abstract Following a shift toward greater transparency, many academic journals across a variety of disciplines now require authors to post their data. At the same time, many university Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) have followed recent US federal guidelines and now require researchers to be more transparent with survey participants regarding what will happen to the collected data. In this paper, we take the first steps toward considering the interaction between these two survey research developments. Using a nationally representative panel, we show that informing survey participants that their de-identified data will be publicly shared by a researcher can affect how these participants answer certain questions. In some cases, public posting notifications can increase data quality (e.g., knowledge measures), but in other cases informing participants of the data’s future use can exacerbate social desirability issues (e.g., turnout). Our results suggest conditional costs and benefits to the intersection between two critical ethical norms underlying survey research: data-sharing and informed consent.

Global Well-Posedness for the Massive Maxwell–Klein–Gordon Equation with Small Critical Sobolev Data

In this paper we prove global well-posedness and modified scattering for the massive Maxwell–Klein–Gordon equation in the Coulomb gauge on $$\mathbb {R}^{1+d}$$ $$(d \ge 4)$$ for data with small critical Sobolev norm. This extends to the general case $$ m^2 > 0 $$ the results of Krieger–Sterbenz–Tataru ( $$d=4,5 $$ ) and Rodnianski–Tao ( $$ d \ge 6 $$ ), who considered the case $$ m=0$$ . We proceed by generalizing the global parametrix construction for the covariant wave operator and the functional framework from the massless case to the Klein–Gordon setting. The equation exhibits a trilinear cancelation structure identified by Machedon–Sterbenz. To treat it one needs sharp $$L^{2}$$ null form bounds, which we prove by estimating renormalized solutions in null frames spaces similar to the ones considered by Bejenaru–Herr. To overcome logarithmic divergences we rely on an embedding property of $$ \Box ^{-1} $$ in conjunction with endpoint Strichartz estimates in Lorentz spaces.

CONSENSUAL RECOGNITION OF UNIVERSAL RIGHTS IN AFRICAN CUSTOM

Rights are commonly distinguished in African ethics from Western rights according to the distinct ideas of personhood which ground them. However, this sacrifices universality for cultural specificity. Against this approach, I argue that universal rights are better supported by consensual rights recognition. I show how normative justification of rights from consensual recognition is consistent with deliberative ideas of justice in African ethics. Africanist criticism, of individualist bias in Eurocentric interpretations of rights, supports the contention that rights are justified between people, not in personhood. Consensually accredited, recognized critical norms are preferable to rules derived from personhood, for the normative justification of universal rights from African ethics.

Infinite energy solutions to the Navier-Stokes equations in the half-space and applications

This short note serves as an introduction to the papers [35, 36]. These two works deal with the existence of mild solutions on the one hand and local energy weak solutions on the other hand to the Navier-Stokes equations in the half-space ℝ + 3 . We emphasize a concentration result for (sub)critical norms near a potential singularity. The contents of these notes were presented during the X-EDP seminar at IHÉS in October 2017.

A Genuine Islamic Conceptualization of Religious Freedom

AbstractDeparting from a critical norm research perspective, the paper first sketches the need to unveil the Eurocentric and secular bias of International Relations (IR) as a discipline in general and its constructivist norm research program in particular. With regard to human rights norms, and religious freedom in particular, the dominant liberal-secular international human rights law understanding of religious freedom marginalizes religious, and especially, Islamic grounds and understandings of this truly global norm. Indeed, it demonstrates both, the dominant ideational perspective of religious freedom as a Western human right grounded by Western-canonical thinkers, and the limits of accommodating religion and religious voices in IR. In contrast, and against the background of a post-secular IR, the paper seeks to unveil alternative and marginalized bodies of Islamic knowledge for the sake of a more comprehensive picture to be painted by IR. By reconstructing reformist Islamic thought and Islamic ideational perspectives and conceptualizations of religious freedom, the paper seeks to let these voices speak for themselves as truly genuine Islamic contributions to IR. The overall aim is threefold: to theoretically connect critical norm research and post-secular approaches with reformist Islamic thought by conceptualizingijtihadas religious norm contestation; to unveil the double marginalized character of critical Muslim voices in IR; and finally to paint a broader and more comprehensive picture of Islam and IR by revealing an alternative Islamic genealogy of universal religious freedom.

Designing Soundscapes for Argumentation

ABSTRACT This article asks if soundscapes are reasonable by inquiring if they can be designed to enhance the capacity for reasoned judgment. Using a normative pragmatic approach to argumentation theory, I demonstrate that soundscapes can be strategically designed to amplify or attenuate obligations, increase or weaken conviction, and create or mask argumentative context. I use the paradigm case of the 2012 casserole protests in Quebec to identify how arguers can use soundscapes to compel a response, increase the desire for advocacy, and create a public context. This expands the multimodal argumentation literature to incorporate sound. This article also intervenes into sound studies by supplying critical norms of reasonableness to assess soundscapes.

The New Regionalism in Global Organic Agricultural Governance Through Standards: A Cross-Regional Comparison

In recent years, scholars in global environmental politics have contributed to the development of regional environmental governance (REG) research. This article contributes to the ongoing debate from an international relations perspective. It provides findings from a comprehensive qualitative comparative analysis of the six regional organic agriculture standards (OAS) in Europe, East Africa, the Pacific, Central America, and Asia. Building on research on norm localization, the analysis draws attention to interactions between the global and regional regulatory levels, regional issue-specific normative infrastructures, and the pooling of different sources of political authority by transnational entrepreneurs and regional agents. The analysis serves three purposes in the light of the ongoing debate on REG: (1) to conduct systematic comparative research; (2) to locate regional OAS within the context of conceptual debates about global norm and policy diffusion, critical norm research, policy mobilities, and comparative regionalism; and (3) to outline future areas of research.

Blow-up criteria for the Navier–Stokes equations in non-endpoint critical Besov spaces

We obtain an improved blow-up criterion for solutions of the Navier-Stokes equations in critical Besov spaces. If a mild solution $u$ has maximal existence time $T^* < \infty$, then the non-endpoint critical Besov norms must become infinite at the blow-up time: $$ \lim_{t \uparrow T^*} \lVert{u(\cdot,t)}\rVert_{\dot B^{-1+3/p}_{p,q}(\mathbb{R}^3)} = \infty, \quad 3 < p,q < \infty. $$ In particular, we introduce a priori estimates for the solution based on elementary splittings of initial data in critical Besov spaces and energy methods. These estimates allow us to rescale around a potential singularity and apply backward uniqueness arguments. The proof does not use profile decomposition.

After Habermas: Applying Axel Honneth’s critical theory in accounting research

Abstract This paper argues Axel Honneth’s critical theory can advance critical accounting research, especially within the Frankfurt School tradition. As prior accounting scholars have shown, Frankfurt School critical theory aims to mobilize rationally-defensible norms embedded in, or ‘immanent’ to, extant social practice that can effect emancipatory social change. While prior critical theory focuses on Jurgen Habermas, Honneth offers a promising alternative. Habermasian critical accounting derives critical norms from rational pre-conditions of autonomous social discourse. Honneth mobilises a broader set of norms from two alternative sources: (i) a philosophical anthropology of recognitive self-development; and, (ii) sociological reconstructions of normative pre-conditions of specific institutions or social practices. Honneth’s critical theory can illuminate injustices and pathologies in which accounting is complicit, but which fall outside of Habermas’ discursive-procedural lens. The paper illustrates these possibilities across multiple levels of critical accounting research. Within organisations, Honneth’s philosophical anthropology of recognition can provide a richer phenomenology of how accounting practices or systems can impair subjects’ self-relations. Honneth’s normative sociology also suggests some less historically contingent, more rationally-grounded strategies to critique accounting institutions and frameworks that violate their own enabling promises or norms.