Main Stake Research Articles

Two Samples of Queer Ecology in Romanian Contemporary Literature. From Silenced Witness to Redeemer

This paper will analyse the intersection between two components (queer and ecological) by reviewing two texts, both describing themselves as “ecological queer,” therefore, settling a new paradigm in Romanian literature, aiming beyond the aesthetic sphere. The examples are Copiii ecosistemului (The Children of the Ecosystem) by Ilinca Mănescu and the anthology Luminișuri (Glades), published under Cenaclul X. The main stake of the thesis is to identify and detail the similarities between the two ideologies, as a new phenomenon in Romanian literature and anthropology (as these critical lenses have been used before in world literature). A central convergence comes as a result of capitalism and colonialism, expanding the violence in human and non-human forms. To simplify, the queer community and nature are victims of the same system, which explains the constellation between the two. The interdisciplinary conjunction “ecoqueer” stands against heteronormativity and embraces the diversity of nature, and this article will focus on its development in the Romanian literary space, through the two examples, concerning both poetry and prose. Furthermore, this literary form has been exported from the West to the East-Central European periphery, highlighting Romanian literature’s status as a semi-peripheral literature, but on the other hand benefiting from this import and broadening the progressive ideology in the cultural space.

The Romanian education reform of 1995: ideological drifts and governance in the wake of the World Bank restructuring

After the fall of the communist regime, Romania launched the first multi-systemic reform in the education sector in 1995. The reform was largely financed through a World Bank loan and closely followed the neo-liberal ideology promoted by Bank officials. It aimed to privatize and to implement private sector management principles in the public education sector. This paper argues that in order to introduce neo-liberal policy models, the Bank first created a structure of knowledge around the Romanian system of education, which diagnosed it as inefficient and underperforming. Specific representations of domestic institutions, bureaucratic processes, and actors were used to legitimate the forms of intervention proposed and the role of the Bank in internal governance. I argue further that the main stake of the project was reforming governance in education as new mechanisms for power distribution and money allocation were set in place. By manufacturing their role as impartial, apolitical “experts,” and by ignoring the political nature of government, they created a niche in governance and imposed neo-liberal understandings in education.

Exemplarity of the State for the Energy Efficiency of Buildings Institutional - Case of Morocco

Engaged for many years in a strategy to control climate change, Morocco is committed to leverage on sustainable development as a new development model and as a true project for society. This commitment resulted in implementing several reforms targeting the consolidation of a developed economy, improving social conditions, and accelerating positive environmental changes. The public administration developed the Administration Exemplarity Pact (AEP) as a concrete action to lead by example in implementing the National Strategy for Sustainable Development. Developed in accordance with the main stake of the National Strategy of Sustainable Development, its goal is to promote sustainable development governance in our country through several strategic focus areas. This document presents the experience of a Moroccan administration that has implemented the guidelines described in the AEP. The approach and results are detailed and could be used as an example for other Moroccan companies. The first step of the methodology consists of a diagnostic phase to establish the current situation. The second step is related to the strategy to define the approach’s main orientations and the action plan. These key steps allow us to identify areas of improvement and build a roadmap adapted to the current context and constraints. One of the best practices for this approach is to define the main orientations to act by positive contagion on the ecosystem. In conclusion, the AEP axes deployed in a dynamic improvement logic give convincing results. By acting with partners (subcontractors and suppliers), the Moroccan administration can act on the whole value chain and induce an essential change in the Moroccan economic fabric.

The Main Vectors for the Development of Estonian National Policy in the Late XX - Early XXI Centuries

The practical foundations of the national policy of modern Estonia were laid in the conditions of the collapse of the USSR and the associated aggravation of interethnic relations. The contradictions of this period largely influenced the definition of the vector of further development of post-Soviet states, including in Estonia. In general, it can be assumed that the first five years of the recent history of Estonian statehood, the main stake in its national policy was made to stimulate the re-migration of most Russian-speaking residents. In the second half of the 1990s. in the official circles of Estonia, attention is gradually increasing to the need for a certain integration of national minorities into public life, which can be explained by the influence of the foreign policy conjuncture, namely to satisfy the recommendations of the European Union, which the Estonian state sought to join. It seems that the most acute issue for the Russian-speaking population of Estonia remains the language policy, which is closely linked by the government of this country with the task of forming Estonian identity among the non-Estonian population. It should be noted that this trend is a logical consequence of the new Estonia 2035 development strategy adopted by the Riigikogu on May 12, 2021, which declares the consolidation of society and extremely succinctly mentions the need to "pay attention to the availability of access to different layers of culture among Estonian communities and communities of national minorities." At the same time, the primacy of Estonian identity is affirmed, which is confirmed by various regulatory acts of the Estonian state in the field of education, language and youth policy. Sometimes you can find individual proposals for adjusting Estonia's policy in the field of finding the optimal interethnic consensus - in the spirit of, for example, the Leitzhart rental consonational model, which has been tested in practice in Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium or Northern Ireland. However, at present, such proposals lie rather in the theoretical plane.

Проблемы и перспективы развития «зеленого» роста

The article deals with different approaches of transition to the strategy of “green” growth as a part of systemic government policy. The relevance of the topic is justified not only by the global trend and concern for creating favorable environmental conditions, but also by considerations of the depletion of fossil sources which lead to a necessity to search for alternative energy development. The article presents the analysis of the “green” growth strategy implementation in some countries with their regularities and common features identified, such as setting a goal to achieve carbon neutrality and large-scale investments in the development of alternative energy. In Russia, this policy is now being formed and the main stake is still placed on the use of hydrocarbon raw materials. It is concluded that for the formation of a systemic policy of “green” growth in the Russian Federation, deep socio-economic transformations and changes in environmental and tax legislation are required in order to ensure economic growth without increasing the burden on the environment. The development of the “green” growth lags behind other countries and requires its inclusion in the governmental social and economic policy.

АНТИПАРТИЗАНСКАЯ ПРОПАГАНДА НЕМЕЦКИХ ВЛАСТЕЙ НА ОККУПИРОВАННОЙ ТЕРРИТОРИИ СОВЕТСКОЙ БЕЛОРУССИИ

The article examines the ideological aspects of the German struggle against partisans in the occupied territory of Soviet Belarus. The author, on the basis of previously unpublished documents of the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus (propaganda publications of the occupation authorities, orders and circulars of the heads of the German General Commissariat, reports of partisans) and a number of historical studies, analyzes the content of German propaganda materials, identifies its main thematic areas, determines the effectiveness of anti-partisan propaganda. The heads of the General District (W. Kube and C. von Gottberg) expressed a special opinion on the methods of anti-partisan struggle. They believed that punitive actions were ineffective and the main stake in the anti-guerilla struggle made on propaganda and involvement of the local population. The author concludes that the massive and large-scale propaganda influence of the German administration was neutralized by an extremely cruel occupation policy (namely, punitive actions of the SS against partisans and the civilian population living in the partisan zone, the genocide of Jews, which caused obvious rejection and fear) as well as partisan counter-propaganda. Attempts to involve the Belarusian population to combating partisans proved to be not very effective. Moreover, the very actions of the German occupation authorities — forced recruitment to work in Germany, as part of numerous collaborationist organizations — forced Belarusians to seek salvation among the partisans.

Turkey and NATO: the Biden’s Factor. Part 2: Afghanistan

The first part of the article examined the reasons for the deterioration of relations between Turkey and its Western partners, the European Union and the United States, which has progressed over the past four years. According to the author, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan managed to avoid aggravation of conflict situations fraught with the possibility of their solutions, including by force (for example, in the confrontation between Ankara and Nicosia and Athens). All this largely thanks to his personal relationship with the then US President Donald Trump. A priori, the arrival of Joseph Biden to the White House promised little to Erdogan and the prospects for the development of US – Turkish relations in general. In the second part of the article, the author focuses on the attempts, first of all, by the Turkish leader to normalize his country's relations with the United States and the EU – in the absence of the former factor of mutual personal sympathy between him and the head of the White House (under Trump). Erdogan made the main stake on demonstrating the usefulness of Turkey as a NATO member. The calculation partially justified itself against the background of the growing and aggravated problem of Afghanistan due to the accelerated (by August 31) withdrawal of US and NATO troops from there.

The Program of a Pedagogical University’s Strategic Development: Analyzing the Experience

The article analyzes the case of creating a project for Ulyanovsk State Pedagogical University development. This process resulted in the adoption of a university development program until 2024. The authors provide the alternatives and the reasons for choosing the strategic type of planning the development, the type of strategic orientation of the university (market, entrepreneurial and educational orientation), and the type of its reorganization (restructuring and reconfiguration). The paper indicates the reasons and the criteria for the experts’ selection and their role in its creation. There are presented the results of the analysis of all project development stages, the work of focus groups with the main stake holders, the group work on the blocks of the program and the sessions devoted to the road maps. This case can be useful to those who are starting this kind of activity for the first time, since the authors describe the progress of work and consider its timing, as well as the difficulties encountered. The article also explains why this or that decision was made, indicates the right decisions, reveals the errors and the lessons learned.

Evaluating the impact of branding on music streaming services such as Spotify, Apple Music and Tidal have had on consumers

The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of branding in the music streaming industry while considering the three companies, which include Spotify, Tidal and Apple Music. Following the quantitative research methodology, the researcher survey 80 music listeners in the university. Based on the results, the responses of participants were oriented towards Spotify. In regards to the preferences of music streaming services, Spotify lied on the first preference. Meanwhile, Apple Music lied at the second number. Whereas, Tidal lied on the third number followed by a minimal amount of responses for its services chosen by the consumers. Branding has main stake in the music streaming services industry. The evaluation of branding of three brands such as Tidal, Apple Music and Spotify provide the differing results. Tidal and Apple Music have good branding and its impact on the consumer choice. However, Tidal followed by Apple Music has lower impact when it comes to compare the results and responses with Spotify. Keywords : branding, music streaming services DOI: 10.7176/IKM/11-4-09 Publication date: August 31 st 2021

The European Factor: From ARM to Atos

Reports on ARM, a 30-year-old U.K.-based semiconductor Intellectual Property (IP) company that started as Advanced RISC Machines Ltd., a joint venture that included former U.K. company Acorn Computers, Apple Computers (now Apple Inc.),1 and VLSI Technology (a US company later bought by Phillips for USD 1 billion and now part of the Philips spin-off NXP Semiconductors). ARM was bought in 2016 by the Japanese conglomerate and investing company Softbank Group, which also has a main stake in US Sprint and also has significant T-Mobile stock via the merger of Sprint and T-Mobile that was completed in April 2020. In September 2020, NVIDIA announced that it is buying ARM,2 but it may take time to complete since it is running into some licensing issues regarding its subsidiary ARM-China. Unlike Intel, AMD, and Freescale, ARM does not produce any computer chips, but licenses its architecture designs and product ecosystem to other vendors.

Perceived Barriers of Tuberculosis Case Notification among Private Practitioners in Central Karnataka

Background: India is the highest tuberculosis (TB) burden country in the world accounting for almost one-fourth of the global cases and deaths as per the global TB report 2021. There are evidences suggesting that private practitioners (PPs) in India are not equipped with sufficient knowledge to carry out proper management of TB patients and certain barriers in TB case notification. So the present study is under taken to explore the perceived barriers for TB case notification from private practitioners.
 Methodology: In-depth interview, qualitative research was done with the PPs who diagnosed and treated TB patients in 2018 but not notified to district TB centre. PPs were selected for in-depth interview by simple random sampling method. In-depth interview were stopped based on the saturation of data. Study was conducted from July-December 2018.
 Results: In-depth interview were conducted with 28 private practitioners. Perceived barriers for notification of TB cases by private practitioners were few misconceptions, patient’s confidentiality and stigma, lack of co-ordination between public and private sector and lack of simplified mechanism for TB notification.
 Conclusion: Private practitioners are the main stake holders in moving the country toward TB elimination so addressing their challenges is the need of the hour. Trust building and reorientation of private practitioners will address the major misconceptions about the TB case notification.

PERAN STAKEHOLDER TERHADAP PROGRAM KESEHATAN JIWA DALAM PENANGGULANGAN PASUNG PADA ORANG DENGAN GANGGUAN JIWA (ODGJ) DI KECAMATAN MOYUDAN KABUPATEN SLEMAN

Background: Mental health problems or mental health disorders are closely related to the physical restraint. Physical restraint on people with mental disorders is due to lack of information about mental health, financial barriers, inadequate access of mental health services especially in rural areas. The participation or role of stakeholder in mental health programs is one of the determinants to prevent the physical restraint on people with mental health disorders (ODGJ).
 Objective: This study aimed to find out and explore the role of stakeholders on mental health programs in prevention of physical restraint on people with mental health disorders in Moyudan, Sleman regency.
 Methods: This research was a descriptive study with qualitative methods. The research design used was a case study to identify and explore the role of each stakeholder in overcoming shackles in ODGJ in Moyudan District, Sleman Regency. The study used purposive sampling with research subjects totaling 19 people. Data collection is done by in-depth interviews, observation and document review.
 Results: All stakeholders have a role in mental health programs to prevent physical restraint on people with mental health disorders. Puskesmas as a key stakeholders have to advocate for other stakeholders. The results of advocacy are political commitment from local government, policy support from Health District Office, Social Welfare District Office, Ghrasia Mental Hospital, Moyudan district and village government. However, the implementation of the advocacy
 was not always successful. In this case, family as the main stake holder refused the advocacy. The negative stigma about mental health is one of the problem that is still difficult to deal within the community.
 Conclusion: All stakeholders have a role in mental health programs to prevent physical restraint on people with mental health disorders, although not yet optimal.
 

The Promised Spring: Death and Neoliberalism in Iraq

Globalisation and modernisation were expected to transform the Middle East, by ending regional conflicts and spreading democracy, freedom, prosperity and peace. However, the oil reserves of the Gulf have been the main stake in Western policies that led to wars, not only to benefit the hegemon, but also the health of the world capitalist economy. Instead of democracy and prosperity, neoliberalism has fostered inequality, unemployment, poverty, mass migration and terrorism. Globalisation makes security interdependent; terrorism, gun crime and illegal migration are spill over effects of structural, political and economic insecurity. Iraq today shows how globalisation incites rebellion and radicalisation. The advancement of the neoliberal agenda by industrialised states through globalisation has failed to deliver the economic stability and growth it promised. Through a process of macro-securitisation, relationships, agendas and security dynamics have been consolidated. Globalisation coupled with a universalist narrative have constructed a neoliberal system of economic and ideological dominance, with clearly defined threats to it, regionally and globally. It is those security threats the War on Terror was designed to fight and eliminate, through the neoliberal, universalist narrative of a hegemonic social, political and economic culture. Thus was achieved the implementation of policies and procedures, ideas and cultures, that promote the structures and ideologies that will maintain hegemony.

“Shale Revolution” in the United States as the Main Driver of the World Oil Market Transformation

In 2018 the United States surpassed Saudi Arabia and Russia to become the largest world oil producer. The article focuses on the mechanisms through which the American shale revolution increasingly impacts functioning of the world oil market. The authors show that this impact is translated to the world oil market mainly through the trade and price channels. Lifting the ban on crude oil exports in December 2015 allowed the United States to increase rapidly supply of crude oil to the world oil market, the country’s share in the world crude oil exports reached 4,4% in 2018 and continues to rise. The U.S. share in the world petroleum products exports, on which the American oil sector places the main stake, reached 18%. In parallel with increasing oil production the U.S. considerably shrank crude oil import that forced many oil exporters to reorient to other markets. Due to high elasticity of tight oil production to the oil price increases oil from the U.S. has started to constrain the world oil price from above. According to the majority of authoritative forecasts, oil production in the U.S. will continue to increase at least until 2025. Since 2017 the tendency to the increasing expansion of supermajors into American unconventional oil sector has become noticeable, what will contribute to further strengthening of the U.S. position in the world oil market and accelerate its restructuring.

Selection of a geographic area of interest for syndromic surveillance

Selection of a geographic area of interest for syndromic surveillance

Methodology for Existing Railway Reconstruction with Constrained Optimization Based on Point Cloud Data

The reconstruction of an existing railway is important for railway reformation or double-track design. Obtaining the curve parameters of the railway and the location of the main stake accurately and rapidly is the key issue for existing railway reconstruction. A new method based on point cloud data is proposed in this paper. The issue of reconstruction was transformed into an optimization problem by constructing the objective function and introducing the constraint. With consideration of the slope of the curves’ chord, the robust local weighted moving average method was used for de-noising. The time complexity was reduced greatly after separating the curve unit. The proposed method can obtain the coordinates of the main stake and the parameters of the railway by particle swarm optimization using a full direction search, combining the design requirements and geometric relations of the railway. Finally, some experiments on the design data and measured data were conducted to verify the validity of the proposed method. The results also show that the proposed method is very effective and useful for existing railway reconstruction.

EXAMINING A SPEAKING SYLLABUS AT TERTIARY LEVEL

This study examines how a Speaking syllabus at tertiary level meets the students' needs through debating activity. Employing Brown's (1995) and Richards' (2001) theories as the main stake, six elements of the syllabus have been investigated that are needs analysis, objectives, language learning philosophy, methodology, materials used and resources and evaluation. It has been found that some revisions of the syllabus are needed to satisfy the Department's vision that prepares the students to be English teachers. However, both debating materials and activities seem to be useful for improving the students' critical thinking. Of all the elements, material resources are considered the weakest part of the syllabus since it provides less appropriate references.

Can We Secularize the Will to Believe?

This paper reconsiders the case of William James’s « will to believe », often taken to be only as a defense of the legitimacy of religious faith against such free-believers as William Clifford. It shows that the will to believe has no necessary relation with theism as it is only a very general method to solve philosophical dilemmas. This method is conceived to be applicable to every kind of topics where such dilemmas occur, such as the traditional antinomy between freedom and determinism. The main stake of this interpretation is to defend the general idea that pragmatism at large should primarily be understood not as a doctrine but as a method and even as an attitude. The virtue of such an understanding is to enable us to correct the doctrines of past pragmatists when they seem to contravene the pragmatist attitude. This paper ends up by presenting such a revision, as it claims pragmatist reasons for favoring an atheistic conclusion from the application of the will to believe-method.

Opportunistic-Harvesting: RF Wireless Power Transfer Scheme for Multiple Access Relays System

Wireless communications have become one of the main stake holders on which our contemporary world relies for carrying out many daily activities. In this era, the number of connected devices is increasing rapidly, contemplating not only smart phone, but also growing connectivity of machines, sensors, and so on. Therefore, it is important to investigate the alternative energy sources for powering these connected small devices. In this paper, we design an RF wireless power transfer scheme for multiple access relay system model with different signal transmission schemes. Here, it is assumed that the sources and relay are self-powered devices and fitted in with rechargeable batteries. Therefore, each node is powered by an RF wireless power transfer that relies on a dedicated energy beam sent from the destination (serves as a power beacon) and other RF transmission links and such approach is referred as opportunistic-harvesting (OH) scheme. An idea of message combining resorting to network coding (NC) and physical layer NC is presented. Performance is demonstrated in terms of error rate and outage probability analyses by using OH. The schemes presented in this paper contribute substantially to sustaining the energy in the proposed scheme.

The Iranian Strategic Thought and its Recent Evolution

Abstract The protracted negotiations on the nuclear dossier outline the difference of perception of both parties about the meaning of the nuclear question in Iranian strategic thought. Since the nuclear crisis, Western countries understand the nuclear issue as the main strategic stake for Iran, while the Western academic community questions the Iranian capacity to behave as a rational State and to react to a deterrence policy. In this paper, we examine the Iranian perception of their own strategic thought by using Iranian academic papers. We also examine the existence of a strategic thinking process in a State undermined by sclerosis of power and ideology. Lastly, we analyse the objectives in the defence field under the new presidency. Keywords: Iranian Strategic thought, deterrence, Iranian nuclear dossier, Iranian soft power, defence diplomacy, Persian Gulf security order ----- Bibliography: Alma, Berenice: The Iranian Strategic Thought and its Recent Evolution, ERIS, 1-2015, pp. 62-71. https://doi.org/10.3224/eris.v2i1.19354