Independent Actors Research Articles

Attention-Shared Multi-Agent Actor-Critic-Based Deep Reinforcement Learning Approach for Mobile Charging Dynamic Scheduling in Wireless Rechargeable Sensor Networks.

The breakthrough of wireless energy transmission (WET) technology has greatly promoted the wireless rechargeable sensor networks (WRSNs). A promising method to overcome the energy constraint problem in WRSNs is mobile charging by employing a mobile charger to charge sensors via WET. Recently, more and more studies have been conducted for mobile charging scheduling under dynamic charging environments, ignoring the consideration of the joint charging sequence scheduling and charging ratio control (JSSRC) optimal design. This paper will propose a novel attention-shared multi-agent actor–critic-based deep reinforcement learning approach for JSSRC (AMADRL-JSSRC). In AMADRL-JSSRC, we employ two heterogeneous agents named charging sequence scheduler and charging ratio controller with an independent actor network and critic network. Meanwhile, we design the reward function for them, respectively, by considering the tour length and the number of dead sensors. The AMADRL-JSSRC trains decentralized policies in multi-agent environments, using a centralized computing critic network to share an attention mechanism, and it selects relevant policy information for each agent at every charging decision. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed AMADRL-JSSRC can efficiently prolong the lifetime of the network and reduce the number of death sensors compared with the baseline algorithms.

Developing design principles to standardize e-commerce ecosystems

Platform ecosystems have captured a variety of markets, enabling coordination, transactions, and value co-creation between independent actors. A focal platform constitutes the central nexus of e-commerce ecosystems and fosters the interaction among ecosystem participants through their boundary resources. Standardizing these interfaces simplifies ecosystem entry for developers and increases the number of participants propelling the network effects, and thus the overall value of the ecosystem. Currently, there is a lack of prescriptive design knowledge guiding platform owners in designing successful e-commerce ecosystems. Addressing this issue, we followed a dual approach, reporting on a systematic literature review in which we identified design requirements and complemented these with a multiple-case study on selected e-commerce ecosystems. Aggregating the requirements resulted in six meta-requirements and 19 design principles that foster the standardization of focal e-commerce platforms. Our design principles simplify the development of complements and enable multi-homing for developers due to possible standardization across ecosystems.

Birth Legacies and State Failure

We argue patterns of state failure are influenced by variation in how states emerged as independent political actors. In particular, states with positive birth legacies, those whose emergence required relatively high levels of capacity and legitimacy, should be less likely to experience state failure than countries that experienced less auspicious births. We assess this claim on the universe of states in the international system between 1950 and 2002 with multistate duration models that estimate the probabilities states transition into and out of periods of failure. We find that states with positive birth legacies are less likely to experience state failure and that this relationship is driven by states with positive birth legacies being able to more quickly transition from failure back to being functioning states. Our findings offer evidence that state failure is usefully thought of in the context of state-making processes and show that how states emerge as independent actors influences phenomena central to comparative and international politics.

Parental Attitudes Towards Homework in Maltese Primary School Settings: An Empirical Analysis

This paper explores a range of parental attitudes towards homework (HW) in primary school settings in Malta and Gozo. International research suggests that while parental attitudes towards HW vary across certain groups and population characteristics, they tend to be mostly positive. Positive attitudes are associated with increased direct parental involvement, which is in turn thought to improve overall academic performance. However, HW can also become a source of struggle and stress. This study aimed to further explore such claims, as well as develop previous work by local undergraduate researchers in ascertaining major trends in parental attitudes in Maltese primary school settings, and finally, understand how these fit more broadly in the context of Maltese society. A survey design and quantitative analysis of online questionnaire data from a sample of 59 Maltese and Gozitan parents was carried out to test various hypotheses relating to general attitudes towards HW, attitudes towards direct involvement in helping children do their HW, as well as perceptions of HW as stressful, excessive, or too difficult for children. The results showed that despite considering it as a stress factor, Maltese parents held generally positive attitudes towards HW as a valid educational tool, while favouring a less direct approach to helping their children. Maltese children are apparently expected to take a degree of personal responsibility for their HW, which can be interpreted as a crucial requirement for the early education of citizens and independent economic actors in an increasingly individualistic and consumeristic contemporary Maltese society.

SOVEREIGNTY FICTIONS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM'S TRADE AGENDA

AbstractThis article explores how sovereignty fictions have been used to advance different legal, political and economic aims in the articulation of the United Kingdom's future approach to global regulation. By mapping the transformative shifts in sovereignty paradigms, this article highlights the disconnect between the absolutist sovereignty popularised in the UK government's political rhetoric and the concept of regulatory sovereignty that underpins the UK's future trading strategy. To maintain its status as a global leader in regulation and standards-setting, the UK government will need to diffuse power and delegate autonomy through networked orders of public and private actors. These competing sovereignty paradigms are analysed with reference to European Union (EU) law and practice, to highlight the opportunities and challenges for the UK as an independent trade actor. This article concludes by evaluating how sovereignty fictions can disrupt the objectives of the UK's proposed ‘common law’ approach to regulatory governance and discusses the policy interventions that may be required to enable the UK to harness its potential as a regulatory leader.

Семиотика двойничества в современной эсхатологии

Traditionally, a double (or doppelgänger) is considered to be a personified part of one’s consciousness or subconsciousness, social experience, behavioural patterns, etc. represented as an independent actor of social relations (in a literary text, an independent character or a character claiming independence). Doubles are characters that have something in common. The study of the doubles phenomenon is often limited to artistic discourse, its religious interpretation, including in eschatological narratives, being poorly investigated. In the Christian tradition, the eschatological interpretation of doubles goes back to early Christian hermeneutics of the New Testament texts about false apostles and the Antichrist. This article analyses the mythology of doubles formed under the influence of modern eschatology. In terms of hermeneutics, modern versions of the theological mythologeme of doubles are attempts at an apocalyptic interpretation of information technology, while information models are assigned the role of demonic doppelgängers. Thus, a binary opposition is formed: the real world created by God vs the digital world of the Antichrist, functioning in a similar way to binary oppositions of mythological discourse. The content analysis of modern eschatological discourse identified the following key mythologemes of doubles in it: digital double-image, digital kingdom of the Antichrist, doubles of rulers and prominent personalities. The abovementioned mythologemes are analysed using the methods of semiotic and hermeneutic analysis. The sources of the study are original texts of the prophetic and pseudo-prophetic genres, popular among Orthodox subcultures, but found in the canon of the Russian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) as well.

"Can You Deny Her That?" Processes of Governmentality and Socialization of Parents in Elite Women's Gymnastics.

Abusive practices in elite women’s artistic gymnastics (WAG) have been the focus of discussions about how to eliminate or reduce them. Both coaches and parents have been named as key actors in bringing about change. Our focus is on parents and their ability to safeguard their daughters in WAG. Parents are not independent actors, however, but are part of a larger web consisting of an entanglement of emotions and technologies and rationalities used by staff, other parents, and athletes, bounded by skill development plans and by coaching expertise and authority. This entanglement may limit the ability of parents to bring about change. We draw on a Deleuzian notion of assemblage, Foucauldian concepts of discourse and governmentality and Ahmed’s assertion about the entanglement of discourses and emotions to explore how parents are disciplined into accepting dominant discursive practices of sport clubs for elite athletes. The data were drawn from a project called the Parental Awareness Program (PAP) that was designed to make parents aware of practices in competitive WAG that may not be in their child’s best interest. Participants were parents of young gymnasts who had been identified as “talented” and who were members of an elite gymnastics club. The data analysis was based on focus group discussions with a total of 22 parents and semi-structured interviews with 8 parents. The results suggested that although parents problematized many practices during PAP, processes of governmentality involving an assemblage of discourses about coaching expertise, families, talent, enjoyment, long term skill development plans and its associated time demands, together ensured parental consent for dominant practices. The data suggested that a reduction of abusive practices lies in part in critical examinations of skill development plans that are presented as regimes of truth and are kept in place by emotions and the authority accorded to coaching expertise. These processes curtail parents in their ability to safeguard what is in the best pedagogical interest of their daughter.

GULF RECONCILIATION AND ITS IMPACT ON THE CONFLICT IN YEMEN

This study examined the impact of Gulf States reconciliation on the conflict in Yemen. The Gulf crisis that led to the blockade of Qatar from 2017 until 2021 had a severe negative impact on the Gulf military intervention in Yemen, known as Decisive Storm. The Houthi militia supported by Iran invested The Gulf States dispute to defeat the Gulf military intervention in Yemen. Accordingly, the Houthi controls the Yemeni Capital and most of the densely populated cities in the country. Contrary to what was expected, the Gulf reconciliation had no significant effect on resolving the conflict and restoring stability to Yemen. In fact, this study shows that the Yemeni conflict is no longer local as much as it became regional. It is clear that the failure of the Arab coalition in Yemen was due to the American intervention directly after the Decisive Storm being launched. The U.S. diverted the course of the Decisive Storm to serve its strategy in Yemen on the expense of the required peace. The study concluded that the conditions and policies of the Gulf States in the Yemeni crisis fall within and are affected by the conflicts of international and regional axes in the region. The Gulf States are not independent actors in this conflict. Key words: Military Intervention, Gulf Reconciliation, Yemen.

How do actors coordinate for value creation? A signaling and screening perspective on resource integration

Purpose Although service research typically asserts that institutions coordinate actors’ value creation processes, institutions and resources are not necessarily transparent, aligned, or pre-existing. This paper aims to develop a more granular perspective on how actors coordinate for value. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on the established concepts of signaling and screening theory, this paper adopts a service marketing perspective to explore how independent heterogeneous actors coordinate for value creation at the individual level. Illustrative cases of corporate startup collaborations are presented in support of the proposed conceptual framework. Findings Actors share and acquire information through signaling and screening activities in a coordinative dialogue with other actors. These resource integration activities (for resource creation and matching) affect actors’ valuations and future actions. Originality/value The one-sided explanations of coordination in the existing literature reflect the dominance of the institutional theory. By contrast, the proposed agency-oriented perspective based on the integration of signaling and screening functions offers a more granular conceptualization of the resource integration process. As well as capturing how actors use coordinating dialogue to match resources and institutions, this account also shows that matching is a core element of resource integration rather than an antecedent. The findings indicate paths for future research that focus on the actor.

Status of the Caspian Sea Issue within the Framework of International Law: 1991–2014 years

In the period from 1729 to 1991, two main actors, that is, the USSR and Iran, dominated the Caspian region. However, with the collapse of the USSR and the formation of three new Turkic-speaking states, the number of coastal countries increased to five. This led to the beginning of the struggle for dominance and division of the hydrocarbon resources of the Caspian. This struggle, in which many non-regional actors participated at various levels, especially the United States, EU countries, and China, further increased the geopolitical significance of the Caspian. With the collapse of the bipolar world order, the Caspian region came to the fore as the world's third largest hydrocarbon reserves in terms of energy resources, the Caspian basin turned from a bilateral into a basin of multi-vector relations. The new independent actors on the Caspian coast, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan, are land states that do not have direct access to the international ocean due to their current geopolitical position. Due to their geopolitical nature, the problems of international transportation and corridors have brought oil and gas pipelines to the forefront of the agenda of these countries. Therefore, the countries bordering the Caspian continue to perceive the status of the Caspian as a national security issue. The article analyzes and historically explores the geopolitical significance of the Caspian region within the framework of classical geopolitical theories and, in particular, covers the period after the Cold War until 2014. In this regard, both geopolitical theories and theoretical assumptions are analyzed within the framework of classical theories.

Cheerleading in Cyberspace: How the American Public Judges Attribution Claims for Cyberattacks

Abstract How does the US public evaluate claims attributing responsibility for a cyberattack? It seems plausible that political factors complicate how the US public judges attribution claims. In this article, we collect original survey data and use two survey experiments to explore this subject. Specifically, we analyze how cues and endorsements from partisan, intelligence, and independent non-governmental actors affect public confidence in attribution claims regarding the identity of cyberaggressors and support for retribution. We find evidence of polarization, particularly regarding perceptions of Russia's threat in cyberspace. To uncover whether this polarization results from partisan cheerleading or more sincere motivations, we conduct two experiments regarding political factors and attribution claims. In the first experiment, we find that respondents respond similarly to independent observers’ endorsements of attribution claims but that Democrats appear to respond strategically in a test of the link between attribution and retribution rather than endorse a proposal by then-President Trump. In the second experiment, we find that partisans respond similarly to intelligence and independent experts' evaluations of attribution claims, and that both respond much more favorably to independent experts than the intelligence community. Superficial polarization thus turns out to look more like partisan cheerleading.

Is the EU perceived and recognised as an actor in international relations? The case of EU-Nigeria energy relations

Energy plays an important role in EU-Nigeria relations. In this respect, the main aim of the article is to answer two questions. (1) Is the EU perceived and recognised in Nigeria's media discourse as an independent actor in their mutual energy relations, or are these relations more the domain of individual European states? (2) Do perceptions of EU actorness by Nigeria differ concerning the energy policy segment? The research questions are answered by a qualitative content analysis of 420 articles from the seven main Nigerian newspapers between 2007 and 2018 which are focused on the field of energy interaction, and which are examined as to whether they contain views in which the EU or European states is/are perceived as (an) important energy actor(s). At the theoretical level, the article is based on the criterion of the perception and external recognition as one aspect of a modified concept of EU actorness in energy relations.

National scenarios of digitalization of political protest

The authors consider significant changes in the political landscape associated with the impact of digitalization. The aim of the work was to study the changes in the characteristic features of political protests due to the introduction of new digital technologies in them. National scenarios of digitalization of political protest are considered through comparative analysis. Case study and comparative analysis were used as research methods. The techniques of the scenario method were applied. The object of the study were five cases reflecting the nature of the digitalization of political protest: protests against the extradition bill in Hong Kong (2019-2020), protests of those who disagree with the results of the presidential elections in Belarus (2020-2021), protests in France against the bill "On Global Security" (2020-2021), protests of those who disagree with the results of the elections in the United States (2020-2021), as well as protests in support of A. Navalny in Russia (2021). The result of the study was the identification of common and special characteristics of the national models under consideration. First of all, the variety of technologies used allows activists to form an alternative information agenda and involve broad masses of people in the protest. Secondly, the harsh reaction of the authorities to protest activity damages any attempts at dialogue between the state and civil society. Thirdly, the network nature of the organization of modern protests determines the trend towards decentralized protest management. Fourth, large media corporations in modern conditions acquire the status of independent political actors. Fifth, the request for anonymity in order to minimize restrictions on the use of digital tools in the future may also become a new serious challenge for public authorities.

Conceptual System Dynamics and Agent-Based Modelling Simulation of Interorganisational Fairness in Food Value Chains: Research Agenda and Case Studies

System dynamics and agent-based simulation modelling approaches have a potential as tools to evaluate the impact of policy related decision making in food value chains. The context is that a food value chain involves flows of multiple products, financial flows and decision making among the food value chain players. Each decision may be viewed from the level of independent actors, each with their own motivations and agenda, but responding to externalities and to the behaviours of other actors. The focus is to show how simulation modelling can be applied to problems such as fairness and power asymmetries in European food value chains by evaluating the outcome of interventions in terms of relevant operational indicators of interorganisational fairness (e.g., profit distribution, market power, bargaining power). The main concepts of system dynamics and agent-based modelling are introduced and the applicability of a hybrid of these methods to food value chains is justified. This approach is outlined as a research agenda, and it is demonstrated how cognitive maps can help in the initial conceptual model building when implemented for specific food value chains studied in the EU Horizon 2020 VALUMICS project. The French wheat to bread chain has many characteristics of food value chains in general and is applied as an example to formulate a model that can be extended to capture the functioning of European FVCs. This work is to be further progressed in a subsequent stream of research for the other food value chain case studies with different governance modes and market organisation, in particular, farmed salmon to fillet, dairy cows to milk and raw tomato to processed tomato.

Distributed Reinforcement Learning for the Management of a Smart Grid Interconnecting Independent Prosumers

In the context of an eco-responsible production and distribution of electrical energy at the local scale of an urban territory, we consider a smart grid as a system interconnecting different prosumers, which all retain their decision-making autonomy and defend their own interests in a comprehensive system where the rules, accepted by all, encourage virtuous behavior. In this paper, we present and analyze a model and a management method for smart grids that is shared between different kinds of independent actors, who respect their own interests, and that encourages each actor to behavior that allows, as much as possible, an energy independence of the smart grid from external energy suppliers. We consider here a game theory model, in which each actor of the smart grid is a player, and we investigate distributed machine-learning algorithms to allow decision-making, thus, leading the game to converge to stable situations, in particular to a Nash equilibrium. We propose a Linear Reward Inaction algorithm that achieves Nash equilibria most of the time, both for a single time slot and across time, allowing the smart grid to maximize its energy independence from external energy suppliers.

О субъектности в правотворчестве и правообразовании

Introduction. The issues of lawmaking and lawformation currently have sufficient doctrinal development. However, the issue of the functional role of the subjects involved in lawmaking and lawformation is not under attentive consideration yet. Purpose. The main idea of the article is the development of a new concept that reveals a special role of the subject as a bearer of a legal consciousness in the formation of a rule of law. Methodology. A new anthropological and psychological approach is proposed. It consists in examinating the processes of formation and development of a rule of law, taking place in the conditions of human adaptation to the surrounding natural, social and technogenic reality. At the same time, the most significant social and psychological features of the manifestation of a person's legal consciousness are taken into account, that are maximally limited from its random and transient properties. The necessity of making a distinction between the subject of law, to which legal regulation is directed, and the subject of law as an independent actor in the formation of rules of law is substantiated. These two types of subjectivity are in dialectical interaction with each other and are of particular importance for the doctrinal solution of the issues of lawformation and lawmaking. It is important to separate the subject-bearer of the legal status, which implements the prescribed rule of law, from the subject-bearer of a legal consciousness, intentionally aimed at adapting to the legal reality or its transformation. Outputs. The process of purposeful formation of rules of law is differentiated from the formation (institutionalization) of law. Their comparative analysis was carried out. Conclusion. The purpose of lawmaking is to streamline social interaction through the legal regulation of social relations. The main functionof the subject of lawmaking should be recognized as a reasonable identification and observance of the boundaries of legal intervention, as well as an objective choice of methods of legal regulation. For its part, lawformation is a way of adapting a person to the natural, technogenic and social environment. The procedure and the result of lawmaking is provided by means of external regulatory impact. The process and outcome of lawformation is largely determined by the internal mechanisms of human self-regulation. A rule of law in lawmaking is a tool of legal regulation. A rule of law in lawformation is a result of self-regulation.

“In Kibitkas through Snow…” Faithful Wives and Fragile Masculinity in the Late Soviet Jewish Movement

The article explores the participation of women in Jewish national movement: their family roles, activism and their images in the narratives of the movement. The sources and the scholarship of the movement often mentioned an important role of its women. However, for all great numbers and activism of these women, they were not seen as independent actors: their struggle was the struggle for husbands and sons. Activism and self–sacrifice of the women notwithstanding, their role was viewed as that of helpers, and this fact has been articulated in the sources and seen as natural. The movement’s rhetoric is patrilineal, activists linked their Jewish consciousness with fathers, learned the language of fathers and desired to go to the fatherland. As a result, synchronically and diachronically, a new Jewish nation has been constructed as a predominantly male community, faithful women–helpers’ presence remained at the background and confirmed the male activists’ heroic self–image and made it possible to create a new and desirable masculinity of cunny and fearless fighters against regime.

ON THE UKRAINIAN-POLISH FORUM OF HISTORIANS AND RELATED INSIGHTS ON POLICY MAKING AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE

This paper focuses on preserving, translating and analyzing pieces of information on the 2015–2018 Ukrainian- Polish Forum of Historians, allowing for knowledge of this event to be spread beyond Ukraine and Poland. Through this article the author wishes to show that to the governments of Central and Eastern Europe, such as Ukraine and the Republic of Poland, history became a consideration in state policy, due to massive shifts of views on how to approach history between the era of totalitarian Soviet domination and the development of current democratic governments. Although it is something that would be considered outside of state purview in the West, possibly even called “undemocratic”, the government’s interest in how history is told to the population must be viewed in the context of both information warfare, and in how the countries of Central and Eastern Europe approach international relations. Because of this, the Ukrainian-Polish Forum of Historians, organized by Polish and Ukrainian Institutes of National Remembrance (differential in their approaches to what can be considered “shared history”) is of interest as an example of how joint discussions of history, attempts to find a common position, or a compromise, were considered relevant and needed for policy makers in Poland and Ukraine. Analyzing the prerequisites of the events, the topics discussed at the Forum (largely concerning mid-20th century history of Poland and Ukraine), and its results we conclude that, although the differences on how Ukrainian and Polish governments viewed their countries’ history eventually led to the Forum stopping, the initiative led to new actions from independent actors trying to support the idea of shared forgiveness and modern Polish-Ukrainian unity despite different views on various historical events. That shows that politics of memory affect Ukrainian and Polish policymaking, allowing an alternative perspective on the theory of international relations, one that considers not simply realist expectations, but emotional attachments to a country’s past and wishes to see that past respected, or at least not actively opposed, by other nations.

Существует ли Балтия? Особенности политического позиционирования Эстонии, Латвии и Литвы (2014–2021)

The political self-positioning of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania often remains on the periphery of research interest while studying political processes in the European Union. This is partly due to the usual attribution of the Baltic states to the «natural» sphere of influence of Russia, and partly to the idea of the specificity and «regionality» of this issue. As far as we can judge, the traditional term «Baltic Land» (Baltia) in relation to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania has lost its significance, and those countries represent themselves as independent actors, striving to overwhelm this imposed community. A closer study of the Baltic issues shows that the positions of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were shaped in complicated historical conditions, and despite geographical proximity, are unique in each case. The idea of their initial cohesion turns out to be speculative. The relatively small size and limited political opportunities of the Baltic states paradoxically contributed to the fact that Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have always promoted the interests of their nations first. Their unity was at the same time an expression of unfavorable external conjuncture. Contrary to the public declarations of the Baltic states, the European identity is rather used as a moral category, whereas the national agenda always prevails. Overall, the «real politics» on the part of official Tallinn, Riga, and Vilnius are actually associated not with European, but Euro-Atlantic integration. It can be assumed that the Baltic states’ accession to the EU and NATO fixed the imperatives of their foreign policy developed by that time, and such events as the Ukrainian and Belarusian crises only actualize them.

Strategic robustness in bi-level system-of-systems design

Abstract Robust designs protect system utility in the presence of uncertainty in technical and operational outcomes. Systems-of-systems, which lack centralized managerial control, are vulnerable to strategic uncertainty from coordination failures between partially or completely independent system actors. This work assesses the suitability of a game-theoretic equilibrium selection criterion to measure system robustness to strategic uncertainty and investigates the effect of strategically robust designs on collaborative behavior. The work models interactions between agents in a thematic representation of a mobile computing technology transition using an evolutionary game theory framework. Strategic robustness and collaborative solutions are assessed over a range of conditions by varying agent payoffs. Models are constructed on small world, preferential attachment and random graph topologies and executed in batch simulations. Results demonstrate that systems designed to reduce the impacts of coordination failure stemming from strategic uncertainty also increase the stability of the collaborative strategy by increasing the probability of collaboration by partners; a form of robustness by environment shaping that has not been previously investigated in design literature. The work also demonstrates that strategy selection follows the risk dominance equilibrium selection criterion and that changes in robustness to coordination failure can be measured with this criterion.