Factional Groups Research Articles

The African National Congress's factionalism and targeted killings as risks to human security in KwaZulu-Natal province.

In quest for curbing the crisis of factionalism in the ruling ANC, the article recommends that the ANC needs to re-visit its leadership selection as these killings have seemingly happened during leadership selection, which leads to ruthless competition of positions in government and party structures. Members of the ruling party need to identify themselves as one, as opposed to belonging to different factional groups within the party. Failure by the ruling party to address divisions within the organisation shall result in more fatal killings resulting from competition for positions and resources.

Preparation and application of modified carbon black nanofluid as a novel flooding system in ultralow permeability reservoirs

Conventional flooding systems have very low recovery rates in ultralow permeability reservoirs in virtue of the characteristics of high injection pressure, low permeability and small pores in such reservoirs. In this study, a novel surface-modified carbon black (MCB) nanofluid was prepared as a flooding system to resolve this problem. The preparation process of MCB nanoparticles was divided into three stages: (1) oxidation of carbon black (CB) nanoparticles, (2) acyl chlorination of oxidized carbon black (OCB) nanoparticles and (3) grafting of active groups onto the surface of acyl chloride carbon black (ACB) nanoparticles, and the main synthesis conditions, such as modifier concentration and grafting temperature, were optimized. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis indicated that the factional groups were successfully introduced onto the surface of CB nanoparticles, and the crystallinity of CB nanoparticles decreased gradually during the reaction process. Additionally, the dispersed stability, temperature resistance, salinity tolerance, wettability alteration and oil stripping ability were evaluated so as to obtain the performance of the MCB nanofluid. The results show that the average size of the MCB nanoparticles is approximately 72.3 nm, and the dispersed stability of the MCB nanofluid is much better than that of the CB nanofluid. Compared with the carbon black (CB) nanofluid, the MCB nanofluid shows stronger wettability alteration and oil stripping ability, and can also withstand the high temperature and high salt environment of oil reservoirs. 1 PV of MCB nanofluid can enhance oil recovery by 28.9%. Furthermore, the enhanced oil recovery (EOR) mechanisms for the MCB nanofluid are revealed through analysis of low oil–water IFT (IFT), wettability alteration and Wasan’s theory of structural disjoining pressure. This new type of environment-friendly flooding system injects vitality into the development of ultralow permeability reservoirs.

Inner composition alignment networks reveal financial impacts of COVID-19

We show that inner composition alignment networks derived for financial time-series data, studied in response to worldwide lockdown imposed in response to COVID-19 situation, show distinct patterns before, during and after lockdown phase. It is observed that significant couplings between companies as captured by inner composition alignment between time series, reduced considerably across the globe during lockdown and post-lockdown recovery period. The study of global community structure of the networks show that factions of companies emerge during recovery phase, with strong coupling within the members of the faction group, a trend which was absent before lockdown period. The study of strongly connected components of the networks further show that market has fragmented in response to COVID-19 situation. We find that most central firms as characterized by in-degree, out-degree and betweenness centralities belong to Chinese and Japanese economies, indicating a role played by these organizations in financial information propagation across the globe. We further observe that recovery phase of the lockdown period is strongly influenced by financial sector, which is one of the main result of this study. It is also observed that two different group of companies, which may not be co-moving, emerge across economies during COVID-19. We further notice that many companies in US and European economy tend to shield themselves from local influences.

The Twin Crises of Principles and Stories.

This symposium contribution argues that politicized responses to the COVID-19 pandemic mark the fracturing of the consensus that bioethics has been built upon. This consensus involved the mutual dependence of principles and stories: principles need stories to become applicable in clinical action, and stories need to reflect principles if they are to make generalized claims. Two mid-20th-century theorists, Erving Goffman and Walter Benjamin, each predicted the thinness of appeals to principles and to stories, respectively; their skepticism describes our moment. Anti-public health responses to COVID restrictions show that principles now have radically different meanings within different factional groups, so appealing to them perpetuates divisions. Complementary to that, stories are told more as displays of group membership than as testimony of individual experience. The predictable future is that bioethics controversies will become more fraught.

White-Collar Crimes and Corruption at Border Crossings in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq: Causes, Effffects, and Challenges for Reform

This paper examines border crossing corruption in Kurdistan in northern Iraq. Based on data obtained from key informants, government documents, peer review literature and grey literature, the study uncovered widespread white-collar fraud by criminals and corruption in all four formal, and all five informal, border crossings in Kurdistan. These criminals and corruption take two forms: collusion between factional groups and private companies; and white-collar fraud committed by criminals. The unique feature of these criminals and corruption is that it is the result of an officially sanctioned system of sharing management of border control posts between Kurdistan’s two main political parties - the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Democratic Party of Kurdistan (PDK) – i.e. the politicization/privatization of border control governance. Privatization in this context attracted criticism due to abuse and inefficiency. For the most part, the abuse focuses on consequences of privatization. Moreover, politicization has drawn the private sector into its web of corruption thereby creating a blend of politicization and privatization wherein officials and owner of firms have used legal means to protect their own interests thereby exercising an artificial monopoly and privilege. The total estimated sum of revenue lost to the government of Kurdistan because of these criminals and corruption is more than $US 200 million per month . The present paper discusses two alternative ways of dealing with these criminals and corruption: either radical change to end border control corruption completely by structural and/or cultural change; or piecemeal reform to reduce the extent of the damage caused by border control corruption. While the long-term aim should be radical change in order to eliminate the problem, a more realistic objective is piecemeal reform in order to manage the problem by minimizing its effects.

Principles and procedure for forming temporary investigation commissions of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine

Realization an investigation by temporary investigative commissions of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine is one of the leading forms of parliamentary control in Ukraine. Nevertheless, their legal framework still needs to be improved, and parliamentary investigations are relatively infrequent with insufficient efficiency. In this regard, there is a need to study the current legal framework for the formation of temporary investigative commissions.
 The purpose of the work is an in-depth analysis of the principles and procedure for forming temporary investigative commissions of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, determination their essence and features, as well as substantiation the priority directions for improving the constitutional and legal framework of their organization and activities.
 Methods. To solve the problems of the research, a number of methods of scientific knowledge were used, including formal-legal method, which determined the current state and problems of legal regulation of the formation of temporary investigative commissions. System-structural method – the unity and interrelation of the procedure of formation and termination of powers of temporary investigative commissions, staffing of their personnel are characterized; logical-semantic method – the essence of the grounds for the formation of temporary investigative commissions is revealed.
 Results. It is established that the formation of temporary investigative commissions for investigation certain «issues of public interest» allows to take into account the variability of such public interest and the objective impossibility of its exhaustive legal definition. However, this does not preclude the abuse of the right to form temporary investigative commissions in the absence of established parliamentary practice, traditions and political culture. The formation of the staff of the temporary investigative commissions based on proportional representation of each parliamentary faction (group) provides a majority in the temporary investigative commissions to the parliamentary coalition, which may be disinterested in conducting a thorough parliamentary investigation.
 Conclusions. It is substantiated that the development of constitutional and legal bases for the formation of temporary investigative commissions of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine should include expansion of constitutional guarantees for the formation of temporary investigative commissions and clarification of issues that cannot be the subject of parliamentary investigation. Other measures should be bringing the rules of procedure of the parliament in line with the relevant Law of Ukraine, taking into account the modern parliamentary practice of Ukraine and the experience of democratic countries, as well as application of disciplinary measures to members of the temporary investigative commission in case it fails to submit a report. It is also advisable prohibition of conducting parliamentary investigations into issues pending before the court, guaranteeing the opposition at least half of the seats in the temporary investigative commission, as well as legislative establishment of its minimum and maximum quantitative composition. The following measures should be establishing requirements for the professionalism and competence of the members of the temporary investigative commission and prohibition of combining senior positions in temporary commissions and committees of parliament.

Intra-party dissent over Brexit in the British Conservative Party

This article seeks to map the evolution of intra-party dissent over Brexit in the parliamentary Conservative Party between July 2016 and January 2020. It shows that dissent was primarily due to the relentless intra-party disputes over the fact that the Conservative Government failed to deliver Brexit during Theresa May’s premiership. Brexit could not have been settled if Boris Johnson had not managed to reunite the party through the 2019 general election. This article gauges the intensity of intra-party dissent by drawing on three representative indicators, including the number of Conservative MPs quitting the party, the number of ministerial resignations and parliamentary voting records of the Conservative MPs over Brexit. Three dominant factional groups, namely hard Brexiteers, soft Brexiteers and Bremainers, competed to shape the government’s handling of Brexit. They diverged over issues of sovereignty, economic implication of Brexit, and the UK–EU future relationship. The research also finds that the hard Brexiteers and the Bremainers appeared less compromising over Brexit, while the soft Brexiteers with a pragmatic mindset were relatively flexible and ready for concessions.

Predictability of Inpatient Mortality of Different Comorbidities in Both Types of Acute Decompensated Heart Failure: Analysis of National Inpatient Sample

BackgroundSeveral prediction models have been proposed to assess the short outcomes and in-hospital mortality among patients with heart failure (HF). Several variables were used in common among those models. We sought to focus on other, yet important risk factors that can predict outcomes. We also sought to stratify patients based on ejection fraction, matching both groups with different risk factors.MethodsWe conducted a retrospective cohort study utilizing the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project National Inpatient Sample (HCUP-NIS) 2016 database.ResultsThere were totally 116,189 admissions for acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF). Of these, 50.9% were for heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) group (n = 59,195), and 49.1% were for heart failure with preserved ejection faction (HFpEF) group (n = 56,994). Overall, in-hospital mortality was 2.5% of admissions for ADHF (n = 2,869). When stratified by HF types, admissions for HFrEF had higher mortality rate (2.7%, n = 1,594) in comparison to admissions for HFpEF (2.2%, n = 1,275) (P < 0.001). Significantly associated variables in univariate analyses were age, race, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, chronic kidney disease (CKD), atrial fibrillation/flutter, obesity, and chronic ischemic heart disease (IHD), while gender and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) did not achieve statistical significance (P > 0.1).ConclusionsTo our knowledge, this is the first study to stratify HF patients based on ejection fraction and utilizing different predictors and in-hospital mortality. These and other data support the need for future research to utilize these predictors to create more accurate models in the future.

Bacha Posh: A Study of The Micronarratives of Gender in Afghanistan

The blitzkrieg destabilization of Afghanistan by major world powers and factional groups in contemporary times has triggered major academic works on the country. One witnessed a surge in interest and curiosity about the socio-cultural, religious, political, and economic dynamics of the country. Often regarded as one of the most unsafe country for women in the world, this paper will focus on the concept of a bacha posh in Afghanistan. A bacha posh is a Dari word for a girl disguised as a boy. This paper attempts to examine the power structures that ‘created’ a bacha posh in Afghanistan. The idea of a bacha posh in Afghanistan is a “performativity”, shaped by dialogues that moves beyond the “normative” gender binaries of male and female. A bacha posh move beyond the grand totalizing narratives of gender binaries to create a space that marked by fluidity and freedom. Even though the identity of a bacha posh is a shared deceit, created to serve the needs of an androcentric society, one cannot ignore its subversive nature. A bacha posh subverts the dictums of patriarchy by allowing the girl- child to re-define her subalternity. What happens if the realization of her subalternity results, not in striving for acceptance in the dominant framework of knowledge from which she is excluded, but in the establishment of an alternative centre?

Estimation of the Severity of Aortic Insufficiency by HVAD Flow Waveform

Aortic insufficiency (AI) significantly affects morbidity and mortality in patients with left ventricular assist devices. Although AI may be commonly assessed by echocardiography, expert techniques are required for accurate quantification of AI severity. In this prospective blinded study, screenshots from the HVAD (Medtronic, Framingham, MA) display and simultaneous echocardiographic measurements were obtained. Each screenshot was digitized and the early diastolic phase slope was calculated, with blinding to the echocardiographic results. The regurgitant fraction of AI was quantified by Doppler echocardiography of the outflow graft. A total of 30 patients (median, 57 years old; 57% male) were enrolled. A cutoff of-17.6 L/min/s for the early diastolic phase slope had a sensitivity of 0.92 and a specificity of 0.53 to estimate significant AI with a regurgitant fraction of 30% or greater, and it significantly stratified patients into a low regurgitant faction group (0.3%) and a high regurgitant fraction group (33.0%) (P= .009). The early diastolic phase slope had a moderate correlation with the actually measured regurgitant fraction (r= .50). The early diastolic phase slope of the HVAD flow waveform may be a parameter that can estimate the presence of clinically significant AI.

Group Commitment Among U.S. Party Factions: A Perspective From Democratic and Republican National Convention Delegates

Parties need to win elections, but they also heed the policy preferences of activists to provide the incentive to mobilize. Moving beyond the debate as to whether parties as a whole are policy or office driven, we examine groups within parties and identify different factions that place differential emphasis on office-seeking versus policy-demanding. Using data from the 2012 Convention Delegate Study of Democratic and Republican Party national delegates, we identify distinct factional groups within each party. We map these factions within each party, finding policy-driven and office-driven factions of delegates in both Republican and Democratic parties. We evaluate each group’s response to political and party involvement, support for the larger party organization, and response to both intra- and interparty conflict. Finally, we make clear the picture of factional relationships within each party by accounting for how factional goals are integrated into the party organization over time.

Regime Agenda, Elite Views and Youth Voices in a Polarized HKSAR’s Mainland Interface

The Hong Kong political landscape has been increasingly characterized by widening partisan gaps and sharpening socio-economic cleavages that pit regime against society, as well as factional groups ...

Electoral Violence and the Challenge of Democratic Consolidation in Nigeria

Elections are the hallmarks of democracy; they also serve the purpose of peaceful change in government and confer political legitimacy on the government. Viewed from this prism, elections represent the expression of the sovereign will of the people. However, the conduct of elections in a plural society like Nigeria is often fraught with animosities and violence. Failing is the process to satisfy the test of popular participation and legitimacy. At the core of this bitter contest is the struggle for power by factional elite groups perceived as representing ethno religious and regional interest. Electoral seasons more than anytime else reveals the fragility and soft underbelly of the Nigerian state. The country’s electoral history is replete with narratives of flawed and disputed elections that have turned violent, resulting in numerous fatalities and reversing previous attempts at democratic consolidation. The 2015 general election was unprecedented in the annals of the country because for the first time an entrenched and incumbent party was defeated at the polls, and the country witnessed a peaceful alternation of power between contending political parties thereby fulfilling one of the preconditions for democratic consolidation. A tensed pre-election political atmosphere occasioned by the activities of the terrorist group, Boko Haram, that then controlled a large swath of Nigeria’s territory and a fragmented elite divided along ethno-religious and regional lines foreshadowed the election. Shuttle diplomacy by the United States secretary of state and the constitution of body called ‘National Peace Committee’ comprised of Kofi Anan, the immediate past secretary general of the United Nations, past presidents of Nigeria and leading clergymen and the postponement of the election date by six weeks before the electoral management body could deliver an election whose outcome was accepted by the contending political parties and averting the prediction of an apocalyptic endgame. This study seeks to engage the factors that make conduct of elections in Nigeria to be violent prone and undermine attempts at institutionalising a democratic tradition. The methodology is qualitative in approach, relying on secondary data from books, journal articles and newspaper commentaries.

A Comprehensive Approach to Multidimensional Operations

Peacekeeping and crisis response missions face novel challenges in the modern era. Disruptive changes, including economic globalization, mass communications and access to information, and the emergence of powerful and influential non-state agents require a better understanding of the mission space and the political, economic, and social conditions that impact stabilization efforts. The comprehensive approach is among the most recent functional models for coordinating the efforts of the broad assortment of actors involved in addressing complex crises or conflicts. The principles of a comprehensive approach are widely accepted, but mechanisms for practical application are still evolving. Moreover, the benefits realized through coordinated efforts may be limited by organizational constraints. In some cases, mission conditions may also restrict comprehensive approaches. For example robust military engagement in conflict zones may compromise humanitarian access to vulnerable populations; or neutral administration of aid to factional groups might run counter to military actions against named threats. Despite these challenges, mission leaders agree that a comprehensive approach is vital to mission success. Multidimensional peacekeeping, campaigns to combat piracy, and energy security provide useful models for achieving better situational understanding and mission effectiveness via a comprehensive approach. Each of these examples demands political leadership, protection and advocacy for affected or underserved populations, enhanced development, and military intervention to guarantee security.

INTERNAL REPRESENTATION AND FACTIONAL FAULTLINES AS ANTECEDENTS FOR BOARD PERFORMANCE IN SOCIAL ENTERPRISES

ABSTRACTThere is an increasing scholarly interest in how social enterprises manage their hybrid nature. As hybrid organizational forms, social enterprises combine mission‐driven social goals and revenue generating activities in a variety of organizational constellations and in diverse institutional contexts. Acknowledging the potentially conflicting demands that institutional environments impose on social enterprises there is an increasing research interest in the existence and proliferation of these conflicting demands at the organizational level. Some researchers have pointed to the importance of particular management practices and governance characteristics – such as authority relations and internal representation – as mechanisms to deal with the conflicting demands at the organizational level. This paper adds to this stream of literature by taking into account the organizational level dynamics of internal representation and the proliferation of factional groups in the boards of directors of hybrid organizational forms and their impact on board performance, ultimately influencing the organizational performance.

Thailand's troubled politics

A bomb attack in the Thai capital, Bangkok, on 17 August 2015 – while not conclusively linked straightaway to any particular faction or terrorist group – has again focused international attention on the country's turbulent domestic politics

Asymmetric Factional Groups in Family Firms: When Group Faultline is a Good Thing

We develop the concept of asymmetric factional groups, or those in which involve both a factional group and independent entities. We take top management teams in family businesses as an example to ...

LINDY BOGGS: A DEMOCRAT FOR ALL SEASONS

Lindy Boggs achieved a number of firsts in her political career. Most notably, she was the first woman elected to the House of Representatives from Louisiana, as well as the first woman and first southerner to serve as ambassador to the Holy See. The keys to understanding her career are her family background, her Catholicism, and her relations with the various factions of the Democratic Party. This analysis examines the influences of these three variables on Boggs' career. It uses the pattern of Democratic factionalism identified by Nicol C. Rae to argue that Boggs was effective and influential among her Democratic congressional colleagues at least partially because she possessed characteristics of all of the party's major factional groups.

Balance of Factional Power in China: The Seventeenth Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party

The Seventeenth National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), held on 15–21 October 2007 in Beijing, produced some interesting changes to the balance of power among different factional groups in Chinese politics. Compared to the balance of power among factional groups generated as a result of the Sixteenth National Congress of the CCP five years earlier, the four major factional groups had different experiences. In terms of power index, the Shanghai Gang, a factional group affiliated with Former General Secretary Jiang Zemin, declined substantially; the Qinghua Clique, graduates of the Qinghua University, also declined significantly; the Princelings, children of former high-ranking officials, however, increased a great deal; and the Chinese Communist Youth League (CCYL) Group, a factional group closely associated with General Secretary Hu Jintao, witnessed substantial expansion. In terms of group cohesion index, both the Shanghai Gang and the Qinghua Clique shrank significantly; the Princelings increased somewhat; and the CCYL Group expanded substantially.

表面酸性官能基の有無が活性炭の鉛イオン吸着におよぼす影響

表面酸性官能基の有無が活性炭の鉛イオン吸着におよぼす影響