Dimensions Of Power Research Articles

The Ideational Power of Strategic Autonomy in EU Security and External Economic Policies

AbstractThis article undertakes a comparative analysis of European Union security and external economic policies to explore the different trajectories of strategic autonomy (SA) in these two domains. In so doing, it contributes to a better understanding of endogenous drivers of policy change in response to geopoliticising pressures. Drawing on discursive institutionalism, it analyses three dimensions of ideational power: power in, power through and power over. The evidence, based on documentary analysis and interviews, demonstrates that though SA presented a more significant challenge to pre‐established paradigms in external economic relations, the role of the Commission as an ideational entrepreneur, supported by its coercive power, facilitated the adoption of the idea of (open) SA. Conversely, French President Emmanuel Macron was unable to persuade others of the adoption of a sovereigntist conception of SA in security, with the exception of defence industrial policy, where the Commission enjoys budgetary power and competences.

Enhancing Adaboost performance in the presence of class-label noise: A comparative study on EEG-based classification of schizophrenic patients and benchmark datasets

The performance of Adaboost is highly sensitive to noisy and outlier samples. This is therefore the weights of these samples are exponentially increased in successive rounds. In this paper, three novel schemes are proposed to hunt the corrupted samples and eliminate them through the training process. The methods are: I) a hybrid method based on K-means clustering and K-nearest neighbor, II) a two-layer Adaboost, and III) soft margin support vector machines. All of these solutions are compared to the standard Adaboost on thirteen Gunnar Raetsch’s datasets under three levels of class-label noise. To test the proposed method on a real application, electroencephalography (EEG) signals of 20 schizophrenic patients and 20 age-matched control subjects, are recorded via 20 channels in the idle state. Several features including autoregressive coefficients, band power and fractal dimension are extracted from EEG signals of all participants. Sequential feature subset selection technique is adopted to select the discriminative EEG features. Experimental results imply that exploiting the proposed hunting techniques enhance the Adaboost performance as well as alleviating its robustness against unconfident and noisy samples over Raetsch benchmark and EEG features of the two groups.

Death Anxiety Among Urban Middle Class: The Predictive Role of Income and Symbolic Money Attitudes

Terror management theory argues that money can function as an existential anxiety buffer. Therefore, the primary goal of this study ( N = 153) was to examine the relationship of income and symbolic money attitudes to death anxiety among middle-class individuals. In line with our predictions, results demonstrated that higher income earners experienced less death anxiety than their lower income counterparts. In addition, the more those living on low incomes regarded money as a symbol of power, the more prone to death anxiety they were. Low income and symbolic money attitudes, namely the evil and power dimensions, strongly contributed to death anxiety, with income serving as a moderator in the power dimension and death anxiety association: it was significant and positive only for those at greater risk of poverty. Personal income also seemed to play a crucial role in the connection between left–right self-placement and death anxiety, especially among male participants upon whom other people were financially dependent. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Whose Cultural Ecosystem Service Values Matter? Exploring Power Inequities in Diverse Mangrove Communities

Cultural Ecosystem Services (CES) are often contextualized as intrinsically derived or as providing important non-monetary benefits, which many argue are discounted, improperly categorized, disregarded, or inadequately converted into direct monetary values. Assessing and communicating CES benefits with nuance is even more difficult when considering different cultural values held within a community. Drawing on frameworks that center culture, equity, and power, we conducted a CES evaluation of mangrove ecosystems in Bocas del Toro (BDT), Panamá via semi-structured interviews with individuals from culturally diverse groups. Our study is one of the first to examine mangrove CES from the perspective of different stakeholder groups while also including dimensions of equity and power to better understand how they are understood and accessed differently by diverse users who interact with these ecosystems. Our results show that mental health benefits are multi-dimensional, experienced differently across stakeholder groups, and should be considered a dominant CES that deserves more dedicated attention. Findings also suggest that the loss of CES benefits in the context of ecosystem loss represents an important form of ecological grief. Finally, our findings support the ongoing calls for inclusion of local and Indigenous voices when designing, developing, and steering CES-based research to more adequately identify the needs of individual communities but also for our collective survival.

CRToP: toward a critical race theory of power in higher education

ABSTRACT Critical Race Theory (CRT) is one of the most common forms of racial analysis in educational research, and it is largely responsible for introducing racial power into higher education scholarship. Frequently, scholars in this area make mention of power, yet explicit definitions within this work remain elusive. The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, it offers Lukes’ (2005/2021) three dimensions of power as a way of operationalizing Foucault’s theories of power/knowledge and domination in relation to CRT, and it explores how centering this power analysis potentially expands higher education racial analyses. It then takes insights generated CRT scholarship on student activism and the power dynamics around knowledge creation/dissemination to challenge some of the White normativity within Lukes’ theorizing. Ultimately, the synthesis generates the underlying concept, Critical Race Theory of Power (CRToP), which offers CRT a more nuanced understanding of how power is enacted in higher education space while also problematizing Lukes’ (2005/2021) contention that all power involves domination.

Populist political masculinities, gender equality, and norm contestation in Armenia and Georgia

ABSTRACT Over the past two decades, the literature on norm diffusion in the post-Soviet space has grown dramatically. Increasingly, scholars have stressed the role of geopolitical competition between powerful international actors, notably Russia and the European Union (EU), in achieving and/or resisting liberal-democratic reform in the region. This article contributes to this recent research by adding a corrective to the literature, exploring the agency of local rather than external actors in the contestation of global gender equality norms through the high-value cases of Armenia and Georgia. By uncovering taken-for-granted gendered power dimensions in local norm contestation – a subject barely addressed in the norm diffusion literature – the article offers an explanation for the persistence of non-democratic trends in the post-Soviet space as a whole. Specifically, the article examines populist political masculinities contesting EU gender equality policies and related norms concerning violence against women and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans (LGBT) rights, arguing that in Armenia and Georgia, it is local populist actors, using taken-for-granted patriarchal and heterosexual discourses to reclaim local masculinities and their political legitimacy, who represent a major challenge to gender equality norms.

Discerning Obstacles and Opportunities: A Framework for Evaluating Power

Understanding what hinders or facilitates the implementation of change strengthens formative assessments. We propose a framework for interrogating the relational, political, discursive, and structural dimensions of power-shaping change efforts. In addition, we describe the application of this framework to a change initiative to better understand the influences on the project. Although evaluators usually only consider how power affects the evaluation process, exposing how these dimensions of power influence an initiative can reveal obstacles and opportunities and lead to the formation of more effective initiatives.

Introduction of Electricity Storage and Photovoltaics for an Adequate Self-Sufficiency in Large Building Complexes

Energy usage in large-scale premises exhibits a distinctive pattern, encompassing both thermal energy and electricity. As a result of the recent energy crisis, the operational expenditures associated with these demands have markedly risen. In line with EU Energy Policies, one of the future goals is the transition towards energy-wise self-sufficient buildings powered by renewable energy sources (RES). Nowadays, a combination of contemporary energy management systems, electricity storage and RES are proposed to achieve nearly zero emission-producing energy consumption in buildings. This paper examines the energy consumption patterns of a hotel situated on the Mediterranean, in order to investigate the potential of RES-induced independence and forecast future expansion prospects. An algorithm has been introduced to both optimize and enhance the self-sufficiency of the hotel under consideration. The proposed algorithm successfully enhances the hotel's energy self-sufficiency, achieving a remarkable 99% rate through the dimensions of PV power and corresponding battery capacity for all years under examination, yielding the corresponding financial and environmental conclusions.

Exploring the intersection of art, technology, and social issues on Paglen’s work

Media Artivism refers to the use of digital and technological media to raise awareness and facilitate social and political transformation. Paglen’s artistic endeavors represent a powerful activist dimension epitomized in particular in his work Invisible Images (Your Pictures Are Looking at You). In this work, Paglen demonstrates how technology corporations exploit the images of viewers. Consequently, his work urges people to better understand how privacy works in the contemporary digital landscape, thus demanding more transparency and accountability from these corporations. The work of Trevor Paglen serves as an excellent example of the interplay between art, science and technology, underscoring the significance of Media Artivism as a means of raising awareness and promoting social transformation. Paglen’s work offers a model for artists to employ digital and technological tools to engage with pressing political and social concerns and also to interrogate the role of technology in contemporary society. His artistic practise underscores the potential of media artivism as a conduit for critically examining the relationship between art, science and technology, and its potential to effect change in society.

THE IMPACT MECHANISM OF KNOWLEDGE POWER ON ENTERPRISE INNOVATION PERFORMANCE RESEARCH

Knowledge is regarded as one of the most valuable resources of an enterprise, and it is necessary to deeply explore the impact mechanism of knowledge power on enterprise innovation performance. Based on resource dependence theory and dynamic capability theory, a theoretical model is constructed by introducing the two dimensions of knowledge power, discourse power, and disciplinary power, and through quantitative analysis of panel data of China's manufacturing listed companies from 2011 to 2020, it is found that knowledge power hurts innovation performance, has a positive impact, and further demonstrates that dynamic capabilities play a moderating role in the relationship between knowledge power and innovation performance. When dealing with complex internal and external environments, digital transformation positively strengthens the moderation of dynamic capabilities in the relationship between knowledge power and innovation performance. These findings expand the research on the relationship between knowledge power and innovation performance and provide empirical support for enterprises to optimize knowledge management strategies and improve innovation performance.

Outcomes of a homestead food production program on nutritional knowledge, dietary diversity, food security and empowerment of rural women in Tehran province, Iran

BackgroundFood and nutrition insecurity is a major health issue in developing countries. Homestead food production (HFP) programs are strategies for improving food and nutrition security of a country. Iran implemented a HFP program entitled “Nutrition Improvement of Rural and Nomadic Women” in its villages for a five-year period from 2017. The current study assessed the outcomes of this mentioned program and its determinants among rural women in Tehran province.MethodsThe population of this cross-sectional study comprised a group covered by the program (n = 143) and a non-covered group (n = 160). The participants were selected randomly from 32 villages of five counties in Tehran province. Data was collected using five questionnaires: (1) General information, (2) Women’s empowerment, (3) Nutritional knowledge, (4) Dietary diversity, and (5) Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS). Data was analyzed using the IBM SPSS version 21 and the IBM Amos SPSS version 22 software.ResultsThe results of the study showed no significant improvement in the expected indicators, such as frequency of home gardening, nutritional knowledge, dietary diversity, women’s empowerment, and household food insecurity status among women covered by the program (p > 0.05). The structural equation modelling (SEM) results indicated that women’s empowerment from the dimension of decision-making power (r = 0.151) and nutritional knowledge (r = 0.135) were the significant positive predictors of dietary diversity (p < 0.05), while household food insecurity predicted it negatively (r=-0.138) (p < 0.05).ConclusionBecause the current evaluated program has not been able to improve the expected indicators, modification of the program implementation may be needed, such as: addressing the probable barriers and challenges and strengthening the facilities in the covered villages. The current study presents a model of the dietary diversity predictors for consideration in redesigning or enhancing the program.

Synchronous myopia development induced by bilateral form deprivation in chicks

Form deprivation (FD) is a widely employed experimental paradigm, typically used to induce unilateral myopia in animal models. This model is weakened by potential influence upon the FD eye from vision in the freely-viewing contralateral eye, which could be eliminated by imposing FD in both eyes; but while a few previous studies have explored the feasibility of inducing bilateral FD in chicks, substantial discrepancies in treatment outcomes were noted. Consequently, this study aimed to establish a bilateral FD myopia model in chicks, with validation by investigating the associated ocular growth patterns, feeding, and social behavior. Six-day-old chicks were treated with bilateral (n = 21) or unilateral (n = 10) FD for 12 days; the fellow untreated eyes in the unilateral FD group served as controls. Refractive error, corneal power, and ocular axial dimensions were measured at 4-day intervals after the onset of form deprivation, with a Hartinger refractometer, a custom-made videokeratography system, and a high-resolution A-scan ultrasonographer, respectively. Body weight was monitored to assess the chick's physical development. Our results showed that birds treated with bilateral FD grew as robustly as the unilaterally form-deprived chicks, with similar or slightly heavier body weights and mortalities. Unilateral FD induced significantly higher myopia in the treated eye, with stronger corneal power, deeper anterior and vitreous chambers, and longer axial length. Moreover, either bilaterally or unilaterally FD eyes developed similar refractive error (bilateral FD, left: −28.03 ± 9.06 D, right: −28.44 ± 9.45 D; unilateral FD: −29.48 ± 8.26 D) and ocular biometric changes; but choroidal thickness was thicker in bilaterally FD eyes, rather than thinner as in unilaterally FD eyes. In addition to the highly synchronized (symmetrical, parallel) development reported previously in bilateral FD, we found in this study that the correlations between bilaterally form-deprived eyes were highest for ocular biometric parameters directly contributing to myopia development, including corneal power (r = 0.74 to 0.93), anterior chamber depth (r = 0.60 to 0.85), vitreous chamber depth (r = 0.92 to 0.94), and axial length (r = 0.90 to 0.96). The remarkably synchronized growth pattern confirmed the feasibility of the bilateral FD paradigm for future research on myopia.

Redefining Luxury Electric Cars: A Comprehensive Analysis of Faraday Future Inc.

The global automotive industry is experiencing a seismic shift towards sustainability, with electric vehicles (EVs) leading the way. Among the new entrants in this arena, Faraday Future Inc. (FF) stands out with its vision to redefine luxury electric cars. This article presents a comprehensive analysis of FF's approach, comparing it to established luxury car brands and examining the novel luxury values it introduces. FF has strategically positioned itself to cater to the growing demand for eco-friendly, technologically advanced, and luxurious EVs. The result is a holistic reimagining of the luxury EV. Key competitive advantages for FF include its team of industry experts, advanced EV technology, and savvy marketing. Furthermore, founder YT Jia's potential influence, particularly in the Chinese market, adds a powerful dimension to the company's prospects. Nonetheless, FF faces immediate financial challenges, evident in its lack of revenue juxtaposed with high operational expenses. To realize its ambitions, FF must secure substantial funding, a task complicated by YT Jia's unresolved credit issues. Despite these hurdles, FF's diverse product portfolio offers immense potential. However, the risk of delayed product launches looms in a fast-paced industry. In summary, this article explores FF's mission to redefine luxury electric cars, emphasizing its unique value propositions, competitive strengths, and financial obstacles. FF's innovative approach positions it as a promising contender in the EV market, poised to make a lasting impact on the luxury EV segment while advancing the global shift towards sustainable transportation solutions.

CEO power and stock price crash risk in India: the moderating effect of insider trades

PurposeThis study aims to explore the relationship between chief executive officer (CEO) power and stock price crash risk in India. Furthermore, it seeks to analyse how insider trades may moderate the impact of CEO power on stock price crash risk.Design/methodology/approachA study of 236 companies from the S&amp;P BSE 500 Index (2014–2023) have been analysed through pooled ordinary least square (OLS) regression in the baseline analysis. To enhance the results' reliability, robustness checks include alternative methodologies, such as panel data regression with fixed-effects, binary logistic regression and Bayesian regression. Additional control variables and alternative crash risk measure have also been utilised. To address potential endogeneity, instrumental variable techniques such as two-stage least squares (IV-2SLS) and difference-in-difference (DiD) methodologies are utilised.FindingsStakeholder theory is supported by results revealing that CEO power proxies like CEO duality, status and directorship reduce one-year ahead stock price crash risk and vice versa. Insider trades are found to moderate the link between select dimensions of CEO power and stock price crash risk. These findings persist after addressing potential endogeneity concerns, and the results remain consistent across alternative methodologies and variable inclusions.Originality/valueThis study significantly advances research on stock price crash risk, especially in emerging economies like India. The implications of these findings are crucial for investors aiming to mitigate crash risk, for corporations seeking enhanced governance measures and for policymakers considering the economic and welfare consequences associated with this phenomenon.

What is the prospect of a perennial grain revolution of agriculture?

Abstract Non-technical summary Agriculture has been dominated by annual plants, such as all cereals and oilseeds, since the very beginning of civilization over 10,000 years ago. Annual plants are planted and uprooted every year which results in severe disturbance of the soil and disrupts ecosystem services. Science has shown that it is possible to domesticate completely new perennial grain crops, i.e. planted once and harvested year after year. Such crops would solve many of the problems of agriculture, but their development and uptake would be at odds with the current agricultural technology industry. Technical summary Agriculture is arguably the most environmentally destructive innovation in human history. A root cause is the reliance on annual crops requiring uprooting and restarting every season. Most environmental predicaments of agriculture can be attributed to the use of annuals, as well as many social, political, and economic ones. Advances in domestication and breeding of novel perennial grain crops have demonstrated the possibility of a future agricultural shift from annual to perennial crops. Such a change could have many advantages over the current agricultural systems which are to over 80% based on annual crops mainly grown in monocultures. We analyze and review the prospects for such scientific advances to be adopted and scaled to a level where it is pertinent to talk about a perennial revolution. We follow the logic of E.O. Wright's approach of Envisioning Real Utopias by discussing the desirability, viability, and achievability of such a transition. Proceeding from Lakatos' theory of science and Lukes' three dimensions of power, we discuss the obstacles to such a transition. We apply a transition theory lens to formulate four reasons of optimism that a perennial revolution could be imminent within 3–5 decades and conclude with an invitation for research.

Warren, Monastery, Giant’s Cairn and Nordic Myths—Cultural Memory Writing in The Buried Giant

Japanese British author Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Buried Giant tells the story of an elderly British couple’s journey of finding their son and reminiscing. He writes the unfinished story between the Britons and Saxons in the post-Arthur era in a fantastical way, focusing on the grand propositions of history, memory and human survival. This article innovatively applies the Assmann couple’s cultural memory theory to analyze the memory writing in The Buried Giant from the dimensions of media, power, and function of cultural memory. The warren, monastery and giant’s cairn in the text are not only the carriers of individual, national and state memories, but also the necessary conditions for the buried stored memories to be awakened under the fog of amnesia. And the Nordic myths, as the cohesive structure in their cultural memory, play a crucial role in reconstructing their own cultural identity. As a result of which, this paper first analyzes the positive role that cultural memory plays in reconstructing identity and healing trauma for individuals, collectives, and nations under the shadow of the Holocaust. Secondly, it explores the writer’s intention to contemplate the survival status of all humanity, comprehend the meaning of life, and call for peace in the context of globalization. Thirdly, it reveals the theme of “facing historical trauma, rejecting negative forgetting, inheriting cultural memory, achieving identity reconstruction, and pursuing harmonious coexistence”.

Emotional expressivity in singing. Assessing physiological and acoustic indicators of two opera singers' voice characteristics.

In an earlier study, we analyzed how audio signals obtained from three professional opera singers varied when they sang one octave wide eight-tone scales in ten different emotional colors. The results showed systematic variations in voice source and long-term-average spectrum (LTAS) parameters associated with major emotion "families". For two of the singers, subglottal pressure (PSub) also was recorded, thus allowing analysis of an additional main physiological voice control parameter, glottal resistance (defined as the ratio between PSub and glottal flow), and related to glottal adduction. In the present study, we analyze voice source and LTAS parameters derived from the audio signal and their correlation with Psub and glottal resistance. The measured parameters showed a systematic relationship with the four emotion families observed in our previous study. They also varied systematically with values of the ten emotions along the valence, power, and arousal dimensions; valence showed a significant correlation with the ratio between acoustic voice source energy and subglottal pressure, while Power varied significantly with sound level and two measures related to the spectral dominance of the lowest spectrum partial. the fundamental.

A fully integrated nanosecond burst RF generator for quantum technologies

AbstractQuantum technologies is an emerging field of physics and engineering based on exploiting properties of quantum mechanics such as entanglement, superposition, or tunneling, and which is expected to impact many applications, such as communications, simulation, computation, or sensing and metrology. The operation of quantum technologies is based on the manipulation of the quantum states of certain devices, either to induce transitions between states or to detect the transitions. Irrespective of the practical realization of these quantum devices, their manipulation requires interacting with their quantum resonant states, for which very narrow radio‐frequency (RF) bursts in the range of the GHz are required. Arbitrary waveform generators are used to generate these signals for test purposes, but this is not suitable for practical quantum technology applications, which will need to produce the required bursts by specific circuit building blocks with low power and small dimensions. Here, an integrated RF burst generator capable of producing GHz bursts shorter than 1 ns is presented. The proposed architecture is tested using a 5 GHz quadrature LC‐tank voltage‐controlled oscillator (LC‐VCO), showing that the four equally spaced phases can be switched every 500 ps, which allows the generation of more complex RF bursts for optimized quantum state manipulation.

ПРИЧИНЫ ДИСФУНКЦИЙ МОДЕЛИ УПРАВЛЕНИЯ МИРОВЫМ СПОРТОМ

The article presents materials related to the analysis of the causes for management dysfunctions in modern sports and further prospects for the development of sports in a changing world order. Paradoxically, the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine and the subsequent reaction of sports officials of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and international sports federations (IFS) made it possible to really look at the existing models of management of individual sports and the entire Olympic system from an applied aspect. Governance and power in sport is viewed through the lens of theories of symbolic capital, critical realism, dominance theory and the three-level dimension of power in sport. In the analytical part, the focus is on the fact that international sport does not adhere to a unitary or federal model of governance, but corresponds to the principles of a polycentric management system, since power in sport is asymmetrical and dispersed across separately established bodies with overlapping jurisdictions, which are not always in a hierarchical relationship with each other. That is why IOC President Thomas Bach made recommendations to remove Russian and Belarusian athletes from international competitions, cancel competitions on the territory of these countries and ban Russian and Belarusian state symbols. The IOC leadership has no other management levers to make decisions. The author identified that dysfunctions in the management model led to the dependence of the Olympic movement on American capital and unfair distribution of income; creating a trend towards the development of regional sports projects and the formation of a new geopolitical economy of sports

Operationalizing Power in Health Law: The Hospital Abolition Hypothesis.

This symposium Article describes how prison abolitionist arguments also support the hypothesis that a defining goal of health law should be the abolition of hospitals. Like prison abolitionism, the hospital abolition hypothesis can provide a constructive way to shift the focus of legal analysis from substantive dimensions (in health law - cost, quality, access, and equity) to the dimension of power.