Dominant Position Research Articles

The response and ecological implications between various sulfur forms and environmental factors in acid mine drainage.

The response and ecological implications between various sulfur forms and environmental factors in acid mine drainage.

Marketing Strategies of Flipkart and their effect on Consumers

ABSTRACT This research investigates the marketing strategies employed by Flipkart and their impact on consumer behaviour in India. As one of the country's leading e-commerce platforms, Flipkart has leveraged digital marketing, competitive pricing, promotional campaigns, and strategic partnerships to build consumer trust and influence purchase behaviour. This study explores how these strategies have helped Flipkart retain a dominant position in the market and affect customer perceptions, loyalty, and buying decisions. In recent years, the Indian e-commerce landscape has evolved rapidly, driven by technological advancements, mobile penetration, and growing digital literacy. Flipkart's ability to adapt to these changes through aggressive marketing, targeted segmentation, influencer partnerships, and AI-powered personalization tools has been instrumental in its growth. The research examines various facets of Flipkart's marketing mix, evaluates the efficacy of its advertising techniques, and assesses customer feedback on service satisfaction. Using a descriptive research methodology, data were collected through structured surveys from 150 respondents and supported by a comprehensive review of academic and industry literature. Quantitative analysis reveals key insights into consumer engagement, trust-building mechanisms, and promotional campaign effectiveness. The findings suggest that Flipkart’s aggressive digital approach, including the Big Billion Days sale and user-centric advertising, significantly influences consumer trust, engagement, and purchase frequency. Recommendations include increased female-oriented campaigns, enhanced delivery systems, and a possible hybrid offline-online model to strengthen consumer confidence further. The study contributes valuable insights for both academic research and practical application in the Indian digital retail sector

Research Progress and Technology Outlook of Deep Learning in Seepage Field Prediction During Oil and Gas Field Development

As the development of oilfields in China enters its middle-to-late stage, the old oilfields still occupy a dominant position in the production structure. The seepage process of reservoirs in the high Water Content Period (WCP) presents significant nonlinear and non-homogeneous evolution characteristics, and the traditional seepage-modeling methods are facing the double challenges of accuracy and adaptability when dealing with complex dynamic scenarios. In recent years, Deep Learning technology has gradually become an important tool for reservoir seepage field prediction by virtue of its powerful feature extraction and nonlinear modeling capabilities. This paper systematically reviews the development history of seepage field prediction methods and focuses on the typical models and application paths of Deep Learning in this field, including FeedForward Neural networks, Convolutional Neural Networks, temporal networks, Graphical Neural Networks, and Physical Information Neural Networks (PINNs). Key processes based on Deep Learning, such as feature engineering, network structure design, and physical constraint integration mechanisms, are further explored. Based on the summary of the existing results, this paper proposes future development directions including real-time prediction and closed-loop optimization, multi-source data fusion, physical consistency modeling and interpretability enhancement, model migration, and online updating capability. The research aims to provide theoretical support and technical reference for the intelligent development of old oilfields, the construction of digital twin reservoirs, and the prediction of seepage behavior in complex reservoirs.

1793. Realismo distopico nella Stoccolma di Niklas Natt och Dag

During the twenty-first century, dystopia has occupied a dominant position in the literary market. Nowadays ‘dystopia’ almost automatically compels readers to project their mind towards inscrutable futures. Such a connection may risk weakening its essential focus on the pressing issues that frame contemporary times. Niklas Natt och Dag’s debut novel, 1793, can be seen as a text that redefines dystopia as a space capable of exploring not only future worlds, but also those that belong in the past. Combining features of crime fiction and the historical novel, my claim is that 1793 displays eighteenth-century Stockholm as a dystopic setting. The purpose of this paper is therefore to test the hypothesis that the concept of dystopia can be used as a theoretical framework to study events and places from the past, not only catastrophic scenarios from the future.

Мир авторитарного правления в начале XXI века (Часть 2)

This article explores the world of authoritarian rule in the institutional paradigm. It structures the world of authoritarian rule on the basis of religion highlighting clusters of Muslim, Christian and Buddhist states, as well as a cluster of states in which followers of any religion do not constitute an absolute majority and a communist cluster, in which states are ruled by parties professing communist ideology in its various interpretations. The article shows that the states of the world under authoritarian rule are unevenly distributed across the geographical regions: 90% of these are located in Asia and Africa, while America, Europe, and Oceania are home to only 10% of such states. At the same time, dominant position in the world of authoritarian rule is held by China, which claims to be the pole of power opposing the United States and NATO. The Greater Middle East can be considered the territorial core of the world of authoritarian rule with Iran, Saudi Arabia and Turkey claiming leading positions and Qatar holding a special position. Extreme isolationist positions are taken, on the one side, by Afghanistan as an uncompromising defender of true Islam and, on the other, by DPRK as an “unassailable fortress” based on the state ideology of Juche. At the beginning of the 21st century, which can be described as the “autumn of the patriarchs,” twenty-four rulers of authoritarian states with a republican form of government, who had begun to rule in the 20th century, left the political scene. Eleven more political centenarians retain power till the present day. This article analyzes the phenomenon of political instability, which is typical exclusively of the world of authoritarian rule and the key factor of which is the participation in the political field of armed groups in the form of a military coup, civil war and terrorist activity of radical Islamic organizations. It is pointed out that internationalized civil wars, local civil wars with a cross-border component and cross-border terrorist activities of radical Islamic organizations pose significant threats to stability and security at the global level, in the global political realm as a whole.

Politics of power instead of coordination in public space management

AbstractThe paper investigates mechanisms of intergovernmental coordination in the governance of public space in Hungary. The paper primarily relies on doctrinal legal and empirical analysis. It discusses horizontal and vertical intergovernmental cooperation by presenting both its legal background and some concrete examples. The results show how legislative changes relate to the reality of intergovernmental coordination and how political conflicts over public space use are transformed into legal conflicts. Using the example of the two-tier governance system of Budapest, the capital city and its districts, the paper shows the need for close cooperation between different actors in the face of legal fragmentation and explains how the government, in a position of legal and economic dominance, instead avoids intergovernmental coordination and uses genuinely innovative instruments to do so. The paper concludes that effective intergovernmental coordination depends on the autonomy of the actors who are involved.

Review of Research on Middle School English Teaching Strategies based on Project - Based Learning

In the context of continuous educational innovation, project - based learning, as an innovative teaching model, has received extensive attention in the field of middle school English teaching. With elements such as authentic tasks, driving questions, and an emphasis on students’ dominant position, it integrates deeply with middle school English teaching, significantly enhancing students’ comprehensive language application ability, thinking quality, and cultural awareness. Teachers can promote in - depth learning effectively by identifying projects that fit the unit theme and students’ interests, creating real - life situations, and guiding students to conduct cooperative inquiries. However, in practice, project - based learning still faces many challenges, such as insufficient teacher guidance capabilities, a lack of teaching resources, and an imperfect evaluation system. Future research should focus on developing targeted teacher training programs, exploring efficient resource integration strategies, and constructing a scientific and comprehensive evaluation system to promote the wide application and optimization of project - based learning in middle school English teaching, facilitate the cultivation of core competencies in the English subject, improve the quality of middle school English teaching, and achieve the educational goals of the English subject.

‘They Are All the Same’: Securitising the Muslim Brotherhood in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, Ordering Space and the Regional ‘Common Sense’

ABSTRACT Order in the Middle East cannot be fully understood without delving into the securitisation of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB). In its multi-faceted existence as an organisation, a movement and, most importantly, an idea, the MB weaves together transnational and domestic struggles over what political projects are legitimate, who holds dominant positions and other divisions and gradations that organise social space. By looking at securitisation as a struggle over order, it is possible to examine the post-2011 securitisation of the MB and its spatial implications, focusing on processes in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and Egypt at the intersection of transnational politics. Combining securitisation theory, Bourdieu’s social theory and spatial theory strengthens our understanding of how interlocking securitisation processes carry far-reaching implications for power, order and space in the Middle East, shaping relations and the normative ‘common sense’ in and across scales.

Quality management in its relation to professionalisation revisited

This paper revisits a theoretical paper on quality published in the adult education journal RELA in 2011. It analyses the relationship between quality management and professionalisation in Germany, drawing on empirical studies conducted after 2011. The diverse and sometimes ambivalent results demonstrate that there is still a conflation of quality management and professionalisation, with the latter occasionally taking a dominant position. Nevertheless, bridges and mutual benefits between both logics are also observed. One significant finding is that the landscape of quality management is not solely determined by external forces such as policies and other professions. The role of trained educators is also crucial and perhaps relatively more important than other professions and disciplines.

Tackling Predatory Pricing Practices in the Electric Motorcycle Trade in Denpasar

The current frequent cases of monopoly are caused by market imbalances, which allow business actors to gain a dominant position. Many factors can cause monopolistic practices, one of which is the lack of supervision of existing regulations from the government. This study discusses the legal arrangements to deal with predatory pricing by business actors, which are based on Law No. 5 of 1999 concerning the Prohibition of Monopolistic Practices and Unfair Business Competition which regulates the interaction between business actors or companies in the market by considering the actions of a business actor or company in interacting which are driven by economic motives. Business actors or companies are prohibited from making an agreement by requiring buyers or customers to pay unequal prices for a similar product or service, this is regulated in Article 6. However, Article 7 also regulates the prohibition for entrepreneurs to make agreements with their competitors who determine market prices that are cheaper than the prices determined in the market which will later lead to unfair business competition. Efforts to prevent predatory pricing practices in the electric motorbike market in Denpasar show that this practice is still often found, both in online and offline businesses. Therefore, there is a need for more comprehensive regulations so that business actors can be supervised or monitored effectively by KPPU. Business actors are also prohibited from setting selling prices below the average for products currently sold.

The Birth, Effects, and Analysis of Competition Law on A Global Scale

Liberalization and globalization are two developments that characterize international economic law activities today. These two developments, with the increase in transportation and communication, have led to the national markets of countries influencing each other in some way since the beginning of the 19th century. Countries have transformed into a form that is economically dependent on each other. This dependency has increased exponentially, especially after World War II. These developments on a global scale have pushed national governments to take measures with the help of taxation of goods in the traditional international trade area to protect their economies. Over time, subsidizing exports, restricting imports, and limiting capital movements at the international level have been added to these measures. These measures implemented by national governments to eliminate the negative effects of liberalization and globalization have led to increased costs during cross-border economic activities and major problems in commercial competition. These measures taken by national governments have given birth to competition law and policy at the national and international level. Competition law and policy, after these developments, have gained a dominant position in today’s international economic decision-making policy. In situations where there is no strong legal mechanism to eliminate or limit the harmful effect caused by globalization and liberalization, the ability of national states to control cross-border transactions and transactions within their borders with local policies has disappeared. This conflict has brought up the issue of erosion related to the sovereignty of nations and has gone as far as creating a tendency for conflict between countries. Ultimately, it inevitably triggers trade wars. With this study, the main issues concerning competition law that cause international concern will be revealed and will focus on the cooperation efforts of multinational institutions in the field of competition law and policy to solve these issues. It will be examined whether the measures taken by these institutions and regulatory mechanisms are sufficient to overcome the problems. Keywords: Liberalization, globalization, competition law and policy, multinational institutions, anti-competitive practices, and international cooperation.

Effects of different irrigation amounts on soil structure in newly cultivated land on the Loess Plateau.

It is imperative to promote water-saving irrigation technology and develop newly cultivated land in the Loess Plateau. This study focused on the interaction between roots and soil to examine the effects of different amounts of irrigation on soil structure of newly cultivated land. Herein, five irrigation levels were set, i.e., sufficient irrigation (W100), mild deficit irrigation (W80), moderate deficit irrigation (W60), severe deficit irrigation (W40), andrain-fed(RF). Physical properties and structural stability indexes of the rhizosphere soil were measured, and their relationship with plant root morphology were analyzed. The results showed that the soil structure under the high irrigation amount group (W80 and W100) was relatively stable. The average particle density of soil in each plot decreased significantly after the experiment, while the soil total porosity remained unchanged in W80 and W100 treatments. The proportion of large aggregates, the mean weight diameter, and the geometric mean diameter of soil significantly reduced in the low irrigation amount group (RF, W40, and W60). In contrast, the W100 and W80 treatments inhibited the decline in soil aggregate stability. Change in the generalized soil structure index (GSSI) and soil three-phase structure distance (STPSD) of W100 and W80 treatments were not significant, before and after the experiment. These results suggested that the soil in newly cultivated land treated with sufficient and mild deficit irrigation was closer to the ideal state for crops growing. Path analysis identified the average soil moisture content had the greatest negative effect on STPSD primarily through the root length, root surface area, and root dry weight. In conclusion, irrigation amount occupies a dominant position among all factors influencing soil structure considered in the study. And the mild deficit irrigation is suitable for agricultural cultivation in the Loess Plateau area, from the soil structure protection and water-saving perspectives.

A systematic analysis for disease burden, risk factors, and trend projection of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias in China and globally.

This study aims to provide improvement directions for aging societies by analyzing the disease burden, risk factors and trend forecasts of AD and other dementias (ADD) in China and globally from 1990 to 2021. Data sourced from Global Burden of Disease 2021. We extracted indicators of disease burden and risk factors for ADD in people aged 40 years and older, including incidence, prevalence, deaths, disability-adjusted life years, years lived with disability and years of life lost. The annual percent change and average annual percent change over the past 32 years were analyzed by Joinpoint regression. Decomposition analysis was used to clarify the contribution of aging, population and epidemiological change. The directions of deaths and incidence in China and globally were predicted using ARIMA model for the next 15 years. The disease burden of ADD in China is heavier than in most countries and regions. By 2021, China's disease burden has increased by three times, while the global disease burden has doubled. Females bear more burden but face lower mortality. Population growth is the main reason for the burden. Smoking, high fasting plasma glucose and high body-mass index are the three major risk factors, among which high fasting plasma glucose occupies a dominant position. The disease burden of ADD in China and globally is increasing daily and will remain high in the future. It is urgent to introduce some effective intervention measures to prevent such diseases as early as possible.

Pluralism and normativity in environmental and sustainability education

Among the three traditions in environmental and sustainability education (ESE) identified as ‘fact-based’, ‘normative’ and ‘pluralist’, the favoured approach for researchers using this typology is clearly pluralism. Arguments in support of pluralism include its democratic qualities, acknowledgement of complexity and commitment to the ethos of education itself. This theoretical study traces how the pluralist approach to ESE was built toward an increasingly dominant position, with Sweden as an epicentre, and questions some of the epistemological moves and justifications along the way. Special attention is given to how normativity, as the primary contrast to pluralism, is portrayed in shifting and sometimes questionable ways. Although pluralism clearly deserves a place in ESE, the article argues for a more nuanced representation of pluralism as one of several democratic teaching approaches, including more approving notions of normativity.

α/G figure of merit for infrared photodetector materials

In the last 20 years, we have witnessed enormous technological nanofabrication progress in the development of a new generation of infrared photodetectors. In this broad class of photodetectors, generally called low-dimensional solids (LDS), we can distinguish two-dimensional materials, perovskites, nanowires/quantum dots, and organic materials. They operate in a wide wavelength range from ultraviolet to far-infrared. However, our considerations are limited to the IR spectral range. A great number of papers have been published so far, including review papers, some of which predict an enthusiastic future for these photodetectors. One of the fundamental criteria for assessing the suitability of material used in the active region of an infrared photodetector is the α/G ratio, where α is the threshold absorption coefficient of the material and G is the thermal carrier generation rate. From carried out consideration follows that the square root of the absorption coefficient of the material and the carrier lifetime (ατ) can be used as a criterion for the quality of the infrared material. In this study, we use this criterion to compare the suitability of different groups of new-generation materials potentially competing with standard materials dominating the commercial global market. Before that, however, the basic differences in the photoelectric properties of LDS materials compared to standard materials are explained. Particular attention was paid to the influence of basic material properties (absorption coefficients, carrier lifetimes, and carrier mobility) on the performance of infrared photodetectors. Since HgCdTe occupies a dominant position among the latter, this ternary alloy system is the reference material. It has been shown that it will be difficult for LDS photodetectors to compete with HgCdTe photodiodes.

Competition law in limbo: Intel, fidelity rebates, and the price of procedural errors

ABSTRACT The latest judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union in the Intel case confirmed the General Court’s decision that annulled the EU Commission’s decision from 2009, imposing a €1.06 billion fine on Intel for abusing its dominant position by offering fidelity rebate schemes. The article critically evaluates the judgment and discusses the extent to which the CJEU judgment can influence the substantive assessment of fidelity rebates under Art. 102 TFEU. The article concludes that the Intel case is an example of a procedural error that led to the annulment of a decision, and a missed opportunity to bring clarity to the most complex area in competition law – a price too high to bear in terms of administrative cost and effective enforcement. The paper provides some recommendations on how the Commission could integrate the judgment to streamline Article 102 enforcement in the new Art. 102 Guidelines.

A resilient active target defense strategy using multiple UAVs with nonlinear dynamics

In this study, a resilient defense strategy (RDS) is proposed for a team of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) with nonlinear dynamics to protect the target in a multiple defender multiple attacker active target defense differential game. To keep a defender’s dominance over an attacker, a control barrier function (CBF)-based controller is designed based on the geometric relationships between players’ dominant regions formed by the defender-attacker game and the attacker-target game, which is applicable to players with nonlinear control-affine dynamics. This controller integrates a forward-invariant constraint that connects nonlinear players’ control variables to their dominant regions, ensuring the defense winning condition in a 1-defender-1-attacker game. To dynamically allocate the defenders against potential intelligent attackers with evasive maneuvers in a multiple-defender-multiple-attacker game, resilience is integrated with a designed reallocation mechanism to form the RDS. When any of the allocated defenders no longer takes the dominant position, a reallocation of the defenders is triggered. In terms of the defense winning rate, the results show that the RDS outperforms the distance-based task allocation method with a pure pursuit controller. Moreover, a higher defender-to-attacker speed ratio helps improve the winning rate of the defenders, while the disadvantaged maneuverability (angular turn rates) of the defenders does not degrade the winning rate when there are sufficient defenders.

Lions and Tigers and Bears—Wait, Why?

Modern zoos and aquaria are sites of education, recreation, research, and conservation; they are also the result of thousands of years of human-animal interaction, colonial expansion, and imperial violence. Beginning with the similar but not identical menagerie, this paper historically situates customs and ideologies to demonstrate how the zoo genre has changed over time. A brief review of academic, grey, professional, and community literature explores critical perspectives on contemporary animal display practices. Though North American zoos have come a long way from the concrete pits and metal bars of the 19th and 20th centuries—and it is important to recognize that the people working in zoos and aquaria do critically important work—I argue that contemporary zoo exhibitions still act as a manifestation of these legacies when they remove tangible reminders of human contact and interference with animals and other non-human beings. Through an analysis of exhibit design at a zoo and an aquarium in Canada, this paper explores how animal exhibits at zoos and aquaria may maintain a colonial gaze in their dominant positioning of human visitors. Elder Albert Marshall’s “Two-Eyed Seeing” framework shows us how we might reimagine these practices with both Indigenous and mainstream Western ways of knowing.

The entry of remanufactured and refurbished products considering channel powers

Remanufactured and refurbished products have posed challenges to new products in many developing countries. In these countries, remanufactured products are required to meet the quality standards of new products, while the quality of refurbished products is usually lower than that of new and remanufactured products due to the lack of government regulation. Motivated by these observations, this paper develops a game-theoretic model in which an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) offers new products, while a third-party refurbisher (TPF) and a third-party remanufacturer (TPM) provide refurbished and remanufactured products, respectively. The model investigates the TPF’s entry decision and optimal quality level by considering the OEM’s dominant position, and also explores the TPM’s entry decision by considering different channel powers between the TPF and the TPM. Moreover, we examine the effect of channel powers on entry barriers for both the TPF and the TPM, and the optimal pricing decisions and maximum profits of channel members when the new, refurbished and remanufactured products coexist in the market. We find that channel powers between the TPF and the TPM do not influence the TPM’s entry barrier. Moreover, although the entry barrier for the TPM is not lower than that for the TPF, whereas if the TPM enters the market, the TPF’s maximum profit never exceeds the TPM’s maximum profit regardless of channel powers between the TPF and TPM. In addition, when the OEM competes with the TPF who sets a low quality in the market, the effect of the TPM’s entry on the demand for the OEM’s new products depends on channel powers between the TPF and the TPM; specifically, only if the TPF has more channel power than the TPM, the TPM’s remanufactured products completely cannibalize the demand for the OEM’s new products.

A competition law probe into abuse of dominant position by pharmaceutical patent holders: the Indian perspective

Innovation is the very foundation on which the pharmaceutical industry stands with originators playing a pivotal role in this regard. In order to recoup the significant investments made in the course of drug development, the originator pharmaceutical companies (the companies that manufacture novel, brand name drugs) heavily depend upon the exclusivity granted by intellectual property rights and by patents, in particular. As the expiry of such patents approaches, in anticipation of the loss of market power, these patentees indulge in various kinds of practices to artificially prolong their initial monopoly to delay or prevent the generic versions of their patented drugs from entering the market. These practices could take the form of strategic patenting (also known as secondary patenting or evergreening), double patenting and other strategies resulting in denial of market access for potential competitors, which may give rise to competition law violations under the law of the land. Thus, the pharmaceutical sector the world over is most likely to be prone to anti-competitive practices, the primary effect of which is that access to affordable medicines is adversely affected. This paper, a work based on purely doctrinal research, shall elucidate purported instances of abuse of dominant position by pharmaceutical patentees in the Indian scenario. This shall be accomplished by an extensive analysis of the Indian jurisprudence that so far exists on this subject as well as on the interface between patent law and competition law in the Indian pharmaceutical sector.