Major Theories Research Articles

Functional Inequalities in the Framework of Banach Spaces

AbstractThis paper aims to illustrate the usefulness of majorization theory and higher-order convexity in generalizing several classical inequalities as functional inequalities. This includes results due to Ball et al. (Invent Math 115:463-482, 1994), Hanner (Ark Mat 3:239-244, 1956), Popoviciu (Analele ştiinţifice Univ “Al. I. Cuza” Iasi, Secţia I-a Mat 11:155-164, 1965) and Zhang (Matrix Theory: Basic Results and Techniques, Springer, New York, 2011). Also, based on a substitute for the parallelogram law due to Clarkson, a quadrilateral inequality established by Schötz (in Quadruple inequalities: Between Cauchy-Schwarz and triangle. ArXiv preprint, arXiv:2307.01361 v.3, 2024) in the context of Hilbert spaces is extended to the general framework of Banach spaces.

The Limits of Our Explanation: A Case Study in Myxococcus xanthus Cooperation

AbstractIn this article, I demonstrate two ways in which our major theories of the evolution of cooperation may fail to capture particular social phenomena. The first shortcoming of our current major theories stems from the possibility of mischaracterizing the cooperative problem in game theory. The second shortcoming of our current major theories is the insensitivity of these explanatory models to ecological and genomic context. As a case study to illustrate these points, I will use the cooperative interaction of a species of myxobacteria called Myxococcus xanthus. M. xanthus cooperate in many areas of their life cycle—in quorum sensing, social motility, fruiting body formation, and predation. I focus in particular on predation as we have not yet discovered an adequate explanation of how they sustain cooperative predation in the face of developmental cheats. In explaining why we have not, I draw generalizable conclusions that shed light on our use of simplified models to explain real-world behaviors in a variety of organisms.

Geopolitical Implications of the US-India Strategic Partnership in the Indo-Pacific Region

A geo-economics and geopolitical analysis of the shifting dynamics of the bilateral relationship between the USA and India has significant implications for the IPE in the Indo-Pacific region. This paper aims to evaluate the interaction process between the US and India, utilizing major theories related to China's emergence. This work, guided by the methodologies of realism, neoclassical realism, constructivism, and geo-economics, analyzes the strategic coordination of security defense technology and economic cooperation. It also scrutinizes how the cooperation impacts regional players such as ASEAN, Japan, and Australia, balancing the divergence of geographical perspectives and India's decoupled strategic sovereignty. The last chapter of the study analyses the transformation of the Indo-Pacific by the partnership and presents ways to advance this alliance. In fact, this paper will assist in developing a theoretical understanding regarding the great-power rivalry with the region and the importance of the bilateral partnership for the maintenance of the rule-based international order.

COMONOTONICITY AND PARETO OPTIMALITY, WITH APPLICATION TO COLLABORATIVE INSURANCE

Two by-now folkloric results in the theory of risk sharing are that (i) any feasible allocation is convex-order-dominated by a comonotonic allocation; and (ii) an allocation is Pareto optimal for the convex order if and only if it is comonotonic. Here, comonotonicity corresponds to the so-called no-sabotage condition, which aligns the interests of all parties involved. Several proofs of these two results have been provided in the literature, all based on a version of the comonotonic improvement algorithm of Landsberger and Meilijson (1994) and a limit argument based on the Martingale Convergence Theorem. However, no proof of (i) is explicit enough to allow for an easy algorithmic implementation in practice; and no proof of (ii) provides a closed-form characterization of Pareto optima. In addition, while all of the existing proofs of (i) are provided only for the case of a two-agent economy with the observation that they can be easily extended beyond two agents, such an extension is far from being trivial in the context of the algorithm of Landsberger and Meilijson (1994) and it has never been explicitly implemented. In this paper, we provide novel proofs of these foundational results. Our proof of (i) is based on the theory of majorization and an extension of a result of Lorentz and Shimogaki (1968), which allows us to provide an explicit algorithmic construction that can be easily implemented beyond the case of two agents. In addition, our proof of (ii) leads to a crisp closed-form characterization of Pareto-optimal allocations in terms of α-quantiles (mixed quantiles). An application to peer-to-peer insurance, or collaborative insurance, illustrates the relevance of these results.Acknowledgements: The authors thank the Editor and two anonymous Referees for numerous suggestions which helped to improve the text compared to its previous versions. We are grateful to K.C. Cheung for comments on an earlier version of this paper, and to Christopher Blier-Wong for his excellent research assistance in the numerical example. We thank the Associate Editor and two anonymous reviewers for comments and suggestions. Michel Denuit and Jan Dhaene gratefully acknowledge funding from the FWO and F.R.S.-FNRS under the Excellence of Science (EOS) programme, project ASTeRISK (40007517). Jan Dhaene acknowledges the financial support of BOF KU Leuven (project C14/21/089). Mario Ghossoub acknowledges financial support from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada NSERC Grant No. 2018-03961 and 2024-03744).

Инициатива «Один пояс, один путь» и традиционные западные геополитические теории

This article examines the relationship between the “One Belt, One Road” initiative and three major traditional geopolitical theories: sea power – by A.T. Mahan, Heartland – by H. Mackinder and Rimland – by N. Spykman. The author notes that all of them are fundamentally different from the “One Belt, One Road” initiative and are differentiated in time and space. Arguing this statement, he considers the essence of all three concepts, which can be reduced to the achievement of hegemony in human society through military conquests, economic pressure or coercion to subjugation through other means. In this context, the concept of “One Belt, one Road” is presented as an antipode to Western strategies, since it is focused on abandoning national interests in favor of universal human interests and represents a plan for the integration development of all countries of the world on the terms of partnership with each other, excluding any dominance.

Understanding the Mechanisms Mediating the Relationship Between Delinquent Peer Association and Adolescent Drug Use in the Greater China Region

Prior research on delinquent peer association and adolescent drug use predominantly examines the direct link between the two factors from the differential association/social learning perspective. The current study, based on survey data among 8,027 secondary school students sampled from three major cities in the Greater China Region, aims to elucidate this relationship further by identifying key mediators derived from several major criminological theories and perspectives, including social learning theory, lifestyle/routine activity theory, general strain theory, and the opportunity perspective. This study finds that significant mediators include pro-drug use attitudes, crime victimization, and drug availability, with pro-drug use attitudes exerting the most substantial influence on adolescent drug use. These results underscore the complexity of the relationship between delinquent peer association and adolescent drug use, advocating for a multifaceted theoretical approach for comprehensive understanding.

Global Green Finance: Roadmap for India

Climate change, and especially, ‘climate deterioration’ is an alarming situation for the global scenario, and thus, the need for developing financial services and products that aim to reduce the effects of these changes is the need of the hour. This long-felt need has given birth to a new form of investing, known as green finance or broadly, sustainable finance. So, it can be said that green finance is a subset under the larger umbrella of the concept of sustainable finance. This article tries to bring to the knowledge of the readers the basic understanding of the concept of green finance, its various instruments available globally and its developments at the global and Indian level, highlighting the three stages of green finance’s evolution and its major theories. Further, it reveals the global presence of major green finance instruments like green bonds and its types, green mutual funds (MFs) and green stock exchanges. The article also deals with the concepts of emissions trading system and European Union’s Carbon Border Tax. The discussion becomes more specific in the subsequent sections, drawing the present picture of green finance concerning the Indian scenario—its green bank, green bonds, green MF and green stock exchange. Reserve Bank of India’s recent guidelines regarding green finance and India’s presidency at the last held G20 summit are also discussed, finally concluding with mapping the road ahead for India.

Validating SMT Solvers for Correctness and Performance via Grammar-Based Enumeration

We introduce ET, a grammar-based enumerator for validating SMT solver correctness and performance. By compiling grammars of the SMT theories to algebraic datatypes, ET leverages the functional enumerator FEAT. ET is highly effective at bug finding and has many complimentary benefits. Despite the extensive and continuous testing of the state-of-the-art SMT solvers Z3 and cvc5, ET found 102 bugs, out of which 76 were confirmed and 32 were fixed. Moreover, ET can be used to understand the evolution of solvers. We derive eight grammars realizing all major SMT theories including the booleans, integers, reals, realints, bit-vectors, arrays, floating points, and strings. Using ET, we test all consecutive releases of the SMT solvers Z3 and CVC4/cvc5 from the last six years (61 versions) on 8 million formulas, and 488 million solver calls. Our results suggest improved correctness in recent versions of both solvers but decreased performance in newer releases of Z3 on small timeouts (since z3-4.8.11) and regressions in early cvc5 releases on larger timeouts. Due to its systematic testing and efficiency, we further advocate ET's use for continuous integration.

A new model for tracing interest: the growth cycle of interest framework

AbstractMotivation is an interdisciplinary concept which encompasses various theories, concepts and frameworks. This paper aims to bring various motivational theories together, with interest development at its core, to develop a more streamlined framework of interest development. Interest is believed to play a vital role in student learning, and this “Growth cycle of interest” framework aims to provide a deeper understanding of interest development in the context of education. This paper begins with a brief overview of major motivational theories, synthesising them into the Growth Cycle of Interest framework, which is then exemplified through case studies.

Childhood adversity and adolescent mental health: Examining cumulative and specificity effects across contexts and developmental timing.

Associations between adversity and youth psychopathology likely vary based on the types and timing of experiences. Major theories suggest that the impact of childhood adversity may either be cumulative in type (the more types of adversity, the worse outcomes) or in timing (the longer exposure, the worse outcomes) or, alternatively, specific concerning the type (e.g., parenting, home, neighborhood) or the timing of adversity (e.g., specific developmental periods). In a longitudinal sample from the Future of Families and Wellbeing Study (N = 4,210), we evaluated these competing hypotheses using a data-driven structured life-course modeling approach using risk factors examined at child age 1 (infancy), 3 (toddlerhood), 5 (early childhood), and 9 (middle childhood). Results showed that exposures to more types of adversity for longer durations (i.e., cumulative in both type and timing) best predicted youth psychopathology. Adversities that occurred at age 9 were better predictors of youth psychopathology as compared to those experienced earlier, except for neglect, which was predictive of internalizing symptoms when experienced at age 3. Throughout childhood (across ages 1-9), aside from the accumulation of all adversities, parental stressand low collective efficacy were the strongest predictors of internalizing symptoms, whereas psychological aggression was predictive of externalizing symptoms.

Fertility Transitions in Low‐ and Middle‐Income Countries: The Role of Preferences

AbstractSince the mid‐twentieth century, the Global South has experienced unprecedently rapid and pervasive changes in reproductive behavior with fertility declining from high pre‐transitional levels to below 3 births per woman in most low‐ and middle‐income countries (LMICs). Over time a rough consensus has been reached on major theories about the causes of these declines. However, a controversy remains about the widely held view that changing reproductive preferences (i.e., declining desired family size and rising demand for birth limitation) are the dominant drivers of fertility transitions. Several studies question this conclusion and suggest instead that the rising implementation of existing demand is the main cause of the reproductive revolution in LMICs. The objective of this study is to reconcile the competing “demand” and “implementation” perspectives. This paper assesses the strengths and weaknesses of published decompositions which take trends in the observed total fertility and contraceptive prevalence and break them down into their respective demand and implementation components. The main conclusion from this exercise is that fertility transitions are driven by changes in both preferences and their implementation. Claims of a completely dominant role for either demand or implementation are based on flawed methods and hence must be rejected.

Exploration of the Three in One Professional Course Ideological and Political Teaching Model of Virtue, Knowledge, and Creativity -- Taking the statistics major course Probability Theory as an example

Professional courses are important carriers of ideological and political education in courses. Probability Theory, as a core course in statistics, is of great significance in cultivating students ability to think randomly and solve complex problems. The existing ideological and political research on the course of Probability Theory mainly focuses on public basic courses. In depth analysis of the characteristics and curriculum features of statistics major, propose a deep integration of morality, knowledge, and creativity in the curriculum ideological and political education model, including the formation of morality, knowledge, and creativity integrated curriculum ideological and political education goals, the improvement of morality, knowledge, and creativity integrated curriculum ideological and political teaching links, the deepening of morality, knowledge, and creativity integrated curriculum ideological and political teaching content, and the innovation of morality, knowledge, and creativity integrated curriculum ideological and political teaching methods. Practice has shown that the three in one curriculum ideological and political model of morality, knowledge, and creativity effectively stimulates students interest in learning and enhances their professional confidence.

Understanding explore-exploit dynamics in child development: current insights and future directions

Examining children's decisions to explore or exploit the environment provides a window into their developing metacognition and reflection capacities. Reinforcement learning, characterized by the balance between exploring new options (exploration) and utilizing known ones (exploitation), is central to this discussion. Children initially exhibit broad and intensive exploration, which gradually shifts toward exploitation as they grow. We review major theories and empirical findings, highlighting two main exploration strategies: random and directed. The former involves stochastic choices without considering information or rewards, while the latter is driven by reducing uncertainty for information gain. Behavioral tasks such as n-armed bandit, horizon, and patch foraging tasks are used to study these strategies. Findings on the n-armed bandit and horizon tasks showed mixed results on whether random exploration decreases over time. Directed exploration consistently decreases with age, but its emergence depends on task difficulty. In patch-foraging tasks, adults tend to overexploit (staying too long in one patch) and children overexplore (leaving too early), whereas adolescents display the most optimal balance. The paper also addresses open questions regarding the mechanisms supporting early exploration and the application of these strategies in real-life contexts like persistence. Future research should further investigate the relation between cognitive control, such as executive function and metacognition, and explore-exploit strategies, and examine their practical implications for adaptive learning and decision-making in children.

The four Cs of physician leadership: A key to academic physician success.

Leadership is increasingly recognized as important in medicine. Physician leadership impacts healthcare delivery and quality. Little work has been done to determine how physician leadership in practice aligns with established models in leadership theory. We conducted 40 semi-structured, 50-minute interviews of physicians who had achieved the rank of professor in our school of medicine and were serving, or had served, in leadership positions. We used an inductive content analysis approach to identify content categories, with leadership emerging as one such category. Subsequently, for the present study, we performed a secondary analysis of the data. To do this, we reviewed all transcripts, seeking to identify if and how participants discussed leadership in relation to success in academic medicine. Following identification of sub-categories related to leadership, we performed qualitative content analysis. We then used a deductive content analysis approach to determine how participants' discussions of leadership aligned with major leadership theories. Then, the principal investigator conducted a secondary inductive content analysis revealing leadership themes that were synthesized into a new model of physician leadership. Twenty-nine participants spontaneously discussed leadership and leadership-related topics as important to their own academic success and comprised the present study cohort. Participants identified contributors to leadership success that aligned with multiple major leadership theories, including leadership traits, skills, behaviors styles, and situational leadership. None of the leadership theories aligned completely with our physician leaders' discussions, suggesting an alternate leadership framework was operating. Further analysis revealed a new model of leadership comprised of the "Four Cs of Physician Leadership": character, competence, caring, and communication. Our participant group of academic physicians identified leadership capabilities as being important in their academic success. While they discussed leadership in ways that fit to varying degrees with the major leadership theories, their discussions revealed a novel, more holistic leadership framework. Further work will be beneficial to determine if this model of leadership is specific to physicians or is more generalizable.

Corporate Governance Attributes and Sustainability of Selected Commercial State Corporations in Kenya

The sustainability of an organization means a lot, for it guarantees social responsibility, financial savings, preservation of resources, reduction of waste, and environmental protection. Kenya's commercial State Corporations face instances of mismanagement, financial improprieties, and inadequate disclosure and have expressed concerns regarding the sustainability and efficacy of these institutions. Specifically, this investigation sought to address these issues by examining the link between corporate governance characteristics and the viability of commercial state corporations in Kenya. The objectives were to evaluate the effect of board members' occupational expertise, board committee meetings, board tenure and board size on the sustainability of commercial state corporations in Kenya. The research can be pegged on 5 major theories, which encompass the Triple Bottom Line Model, Agency Theory, Stakeholders Theory, and Resource Dependence Theory. The Explanatory research design and research design were used in the research. Panel regression analysis was the chosen empirical model, considering the panel data nature of the research. The audited financial reports of the five firms served as the source of secondary data using a data collection schedule guide. Census was utilized because the target population of five commercial state corporations was below the central limit theorem threshold of the normal population. Diagnostic tests for the study were multicollinearity, normality, stationarity, heteroscedasticity, and the Hausman specification test, which were conducted to ensure the sturdiness of the results. Data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Descriptive analysis involves means and standard deviations, while inferential analysis utilizes panel regression analysis. Finally, the data analysis output was presented using tables. The study further concluded that the coefficient for board committee meetings was not significant, suggesting that meeting frequency does not significantly affect sustainability. Board tenure demonstrated a significant positive impact on sustainability, while board size also showed a significant positive effect. In an increasingly dynamic business environment, commercial state corporations should embrace innovation and adaptation to remain resilient and sustainable. This may involve leveraging emerging technologies, exploring new business models, and anticipating and responding to evolving market trends and regulatory requirements. Boards should encourage a culture of innovation and agility to drive long-term value creation and competitiveness.

Science literacy in the twenty-first century: informed trust and the competent outsider

ABSTRACT A primary justification of teaching science to all young people is to develop students to become “critical consumers” of science. This worthy goal, however, is hampered by a flawed premise that school science is sufficient to develop intellectual independence. In contrast, we start from the premise that we are all epistemically dependent on the expertise of others. Hence, any science education for all must develop the capabilities to become a “competent outsider” capable of making judgements not of the science itself, but whether the source is credible. Essential to developing such informed epistemic trust are: (1) a basic understanding of the social practices that enable the production of reliable knowledge; and (2) a familiarity with the major explanatory theories and styles of reasoning that guide the work of scientists. These elements provide a framework for the non-expert necessary to interpret and understand the work of scientists and the claims they make. We show how such an education would address three of the four primary aims of science education outlined by Rudolph (2022). To achieve this goal a substantial reduction of existing standards to an essential, but fundamentally different, core is required, while returning significant autonomy to classroom professionals.

La philosophie comme législation axiologique Platon nietzschéen?

In Nietzsche’s view, Plato certainly is not just any philosopher. First and foremost because of what Nietzsche refers to as his particular « sphinx nature » (BGE, § 28), his insuperable and artistic « secrecy » (BGE, § 28), his ability to hide, and sometimes even to lie : which means that it is extremely difficult to ascribe to him any precise, indisputable philosophical position, doctrine or notion. As is apparent, Nietzsche’s Plato is therefore completely different from the character usually discussed by other philosophers. Why then, is he so intensely interested in Plato if he does not take his so-called major theories seriously ? A closer scrutiny of Nietzsche’s corpus reveals that there is something really specific about Plato : his deep, mostly hidden, and sharp-sighted understanding of philosophy (and philosophers) ; namely not as a theoretical search for knowledge and truth, but as practical value creation and legislation, in other words as an activity intent on carving a new type of human life and being, very much akin to Nietzsche’s own analysis.

Implementing Gender Motivation Theory in Intimate Partner Violence

The aim of this article is to present and examine the principles of gender motivation theory against a backdrop of research findings accumulated over time. This theory is founded on two general, established, major theories: sexual selection theory and social role theory. Gender motivation theory focuses on the elementary primal motivations of men and women in social situations and contexts. This theory provides a theoretical foundation for a gendered understanding of intimate relationships among normative and clinical populations. Gender motivation theory was developed as a response to the existing discrepancies between previously developed theories whose principles continue to be used to understand and intervene with intimate partner violence and as a response to empirical data accumulated over the years.

Factors Influencing the Continued Use of Procreate Digital Painting Software by Fine Arts Students in Chongqing, China

Background and Aim: With the rise of digital technology, digital painting software has become a tool for artistic expression. The purpose of this paper is to explore the factors that influence the continued use of Procreate digital painting software by undergraduate art students in Chongqing, China, through three major theories: ECM, UTAUT 2, SCT, and other modeling frameworks. Materials and Methods: This study adopted a quantitative approach to data collection using a five-point Likert scale for the questionnaire. The sample of this study was undergraduate students of six fine arts programs in different regions of Chongqing, China, and the participants were selected through a Judgmental or purposive sampling technique. The instrument used to collect the data was a questionnaire and the data were analyzed on 487 valid questionnaires, CFA and SEM were executed to validate the fit, validity, and reliability of the model and to confirm the causality between the variables for hypothesis testing. Results: All hypotheses were supported, with perceived usefulness and satisfaction as direct influences. self-efficacy had the most significant effect on perceived usefulness. Conclusion: Key factors influencing Chongqing art students' continued use of Procreate digital drawing software include hedonic motivation, confirmation, self-efficacy, and knowledge application, which together contribute to students' continuance intention to use the software by enhancing satisfaction and perceived usefulness. This study provides new perspectives for understanding the use of digital drawing software in art education, offers insights for educational institutions to optimize digital strategies for art education, helps software developers to improve product functionality, and guides art students to make more effective use of digital tools for art creation, thus promoting the in-depth application and development of digital drawing technology in the art field.

Main Learning Theories in Education

Six major learning theories explain how people acquire knowledge and skills: behaviorism focuses on how environmental stimuli and consequences shape observable behaviors; cognitivism emphasizes internal mental processes and representations; constructivism highlights learners actively constructing their own understanding; humanism stresses personal experiences, values, and motivations; connectionism emphasizes neural networks and distributed representations; and sociocultural learning theory which according to this theory, learning takes place through collaborative activities with others, where individuals build upon their existing knowledge and skills. These influential theories have impacted educational practices and sparked ongoing debates as researchers and practitioners grapple with the complexity of learning.