Multiple Regimes Research Articles

Utilitarianism: Merging the Dichotomy between Nationalist and Internationalist Conception of Cultural Property

Abstract The quest for the restitution of cultural property has not been an easy endeavour. Despite the availability of multiple legal regimes securing various channels for the restitution of cultural property, improvement has been quite sluggish. This article argues that the debacle to the restitution process lies in the simultaneous operation of two diametrically opposed conceptions of cultural property- the nationalist and internationalist schools of thought. The 1954 Hague Convention sees cultural property as the cultural heritage of all mankind whilst the 1970 Convention takes the view that it is the cultural heritage designated by each country. These two approaches have been used to characterise nations theoretically in the international arena into source nations with nationalistic interests and market nations with international concerns. The conflict between both conceptions of cultural property becomes evident where the nationalists seek to employ legal and extra-legal means to protect their cultural heritage and facilitate their return and restitution; whereas, internationalists sabotage these efforts on the ground that cultural heritage is the common heritage of mankind thereby contradicting the notion of return. This article finds that although both schools of thought have divergent propositions, they nonetheless share a common theoretical underpinning- utilitarianism, which validates their respective ideologies. Since utilitarianism supports the maximisation of the overall happiness of a collective group, nationalists can predicate the protection of their cultural heritage on the need to secure this happiness just like the internationalists. This article, therefore, seeks to examine if the common theoretical foundation which both schools of thought share can serve as a reconciliatory tool that bridges the gap between them towards the promotion of the interest of the international community in protecting cultural heritage.

One village, many nostalgias: The entanglements of embodied scopic regimes in the landscape production of Chinese nostalgia tourism

This article uses investigations into two villages to scrutinise the politics of space and visuality in the top-down development of nostalgia tourism across the Chinese countryside engineered by the government since 2014. It goes beyond the debate between the representational and non-representational approaches in tourist landscape studies and proposes the concept of ‘embodied scopic regimes’ as a more nuanced framework of analysis. It is argued that the landscape production in the current development of nostalgia tourism in China is featured by the coexistence and entanglement of three different embodied scopic regimes: ‘stop/gaze regime’, ‘flâneur/glance regime’ and ‘choraster/spectacle regime’. Each regime produces a unique fashion of visual pleasure and distinct mode of physical movements, manifested and afforded by different sets of cultural technologies. The operation of these multiple regimes also diversifies the meanings of nostalgia that these tourist sites claim to represent, which allows the overlapping between ‘reflective nostalgia’ and ‘restorative nostalgia’ in the same space. Based on this unique case, the article engages with the ‘landscape debate’ in critical tourist studies and extends the common ground between the two seemingly oppositional approaches.

Irreversibility analysis of micropolar nanofluid flow using Darcy–Forchheimer rule in an inclined microchannel with multiple slip effects

AbstractThe present work explores the consequence of the flow of micropolar fluid in an inclined microchannel when exposed to linear radiation in presence of a magnetic field. The microchannel is embedded with a porous medium and the Darcy–Forchheimer model is implemented. The walls of the microchannel facilitate the simultaneous suction and injection of the micropolar fluid. A multiple slip regime and temperature jump conditions were assumed at the boundaries. The equations are modeled and nondimensionalized using nondimensional entities and further solved with the aid of the Runge–Kutta–Fehlberg method. Entropy generated in the medium and ratio of irreversibilities is also computed. Results so obtained deliberate that enhancement in Darcy number has caused an increment in entropy generation rate whereas the opposite nature is attained for the Bejan number. Magnifying the radiation parameter has resulted in diminishing the profile of entropy generation rate and Bejan number.

Effective switching of an all-solid-state mode-locked laser by a graphene modulator.

Although sophisticated novel saturable absorber materials are available for the development of ultrafast lasers, innovative approaches and devices play an increasingly important role in continuously adjusting mode-locked lasers with electrical gating. In this study, electrically switched operational regimes of an Nd:YVO4 all-solid-state mode-locked laser with a high modulation ratio (from 900 ns to 15 ps) are demonstrated for the first time. The laser can automatically switch multiple operation regimes with the assistance of electrical signals using techniques such as Q-switching, Q-switched mode-locking (QML), and continuous-wave mode-locking (CWML). The device is operated at an ultralow electrical modulation power (0.1 nW) to generate sub 15 ps pulses with a high average output power (as much as 800 mW) from a mode-locked laser operating at 1064 nm. The results verify the reversible switching of the operational regimes from QML to CWML and provide a basis for exploring their applications in electro-optical devices.

Microscopic modelling of gas diffusivity in unsaturated cementitious materials considering multiple diffusion regimes

Common degradations of concrete including reinforcement corrosion and carbonation are highly associated with the transport of aggressive gases. However, it is still challenging to accurately understand the gas diffusion behaviour and determine the gas diffusivity in unsaturated cementitious materials. This study proposes a pore-scale model for simulating gas diffusivity in unsaturated cement paste covering multiple gas diffusion mechanisms. The representative volume elements of colloidal calcium silicate hydrate and heterogeneous cement paste with various water saturation degrees are established, capturing the structural attributes of hierarchical cement paste and water-gas distribution with minimum surface energy. A finite difference model for diffusion considering Knudsen effect and molecular diffusion is developed to simulate the diffusion process of various gases through partially saturated cement pastes with different pore structures. Results indicate that gas diffusivity decreases with the increasing water saturation level, the evolution of which can be divided into stable, decreasing and non-diffusive stages. The gas diffusion in partially saturated cement paste is highly dependent on the pore structure and diffusive gas type. The results obtained from this study are expected to provide a deeper insight into the solution of diffusion-related durability problems and the prediction of service life of concrete.

A legacy of fire emerges from multiple disturbances to most shape microbial and nitrogen dynamics in a deciduous forest

Healthy forests are vital components of terrestrial ecosystems for their raw materials, high biodiversity, cycling of nutrients, and potential to sequester carbon. However, these ecosystems are sensitive to disturbances, and anthropogenic activities pose a serious threat to forest ecosystems globally. For example, human activities have dramatically altered multiple historical disturbance regimes in forests, including suppressing fire, increasing the density of large herbivores, and reducing the size of canopy gaps, among other disturbances. Such disturbances can have dramatic impacts on microbially-mediated forest soil functions, but more research is needed to determine the collective impacts of these disturbances. In this study, we investigated the interactive effects of disturbances, namely the legacies of fire, large herbivore densities, and canopy gap creation, in a deciduous forest soil. We determined that forest floor and mineral soil carbon and nitrogen pools were shaped by multiple disturbances, but fire was more influential than the other disturbances. The abundance of several functionally-relevant microbial taxa were significantly impacted by fire, and the effect was more pronounced in the mineral soil than in the forest floor. Together, these findings demonstrate that multiple disturbances, especially a legacy of fire, exerts long-term control over soil carbon, nitrogen and microbial dynamics in a deciduous forest system.

Multi-synchronization and other patterns of multi-rhythmicity in oscillatory biological systems.

While experimental and theoretical studies have established the prevalence of rhythmic behaviour at all levels of biological organization, less common is the coexistence between multiple oscillatory regimes (multi-rhythmicity), which has been predicted by a variety of models for biological oscillators. The phenomenon of multi-rhythmicity involves, most commonly, the coexistence between two (birhythmicity) or three (trirhythmicity) distinct regimes of self-sustained oscillations. Birhythmicity has been observed experimentally in a few chemical reactions and in biological examples pertaining to cardiac cell physiology, neurobiology, human voice patterns and ecology. The present study consists of two parts. We first review the mechanisms underlying multi-rhythmicity in models for biochemical and cellular oscillations in which the phenomenon was investigated over the years. In the second part, we focus on the coupling of the cell cycle and the circadian clock and show how an additional source of multi-rhythmicity arises from the bidirectional coupling of these two cellular oscillators. Upon bidirectional coupling, the two oscillatory networks generally synchronize in a unique manner characterized by a single, common period. In some conditions, however, the two oscillators may synchronize in two or three different ways characterized by distinct waveforms and periods. We refer to this type of multi-rhythmicity as ‘multi-synchronization’.

Therapeutic Dilemmas Faced When Managing a Life-Threatening Presentation of a Myocardial Bridge

Background. Myocardial bridges are congenital abnormalities, where a segment of coronary artery travels intramyocardially, rather than the typical epicardial course. The overlying muscle segment is termed “the bridge”. Most myocardial bridges are asymptomatic, but some can result in myocardial ischaemia, arrhythmias, and sudden cardiac death. Case Presentation. A 31-year-old male with no past medical history presented to our tertiary cardiac centre following an out-of-hospital ventricular fibrillation arrest. Coronary angiography and computed tomography of the coronary arteries revealed a 2 cm myocardial bridge overlying the left anterior descending (LAD) artery. An exercise echocardiogram demonstrated severe apical ballooning and hypokinesis during peak exercise, with corresponding ST-segment elevation, resolving on rest. Options for medical therapy of a symptomatic myocardial bridge include beta blockers, calcium channel blockers, ivabradine, or a combination thereof. Surgical interventions include deroofing the bridge and revascularisation of the affected region with bypass grafting. However, a lack of trial data comparing medical regimens and surgical interventions makes it difficult to ascertain the most effective management strategy for each patient. There was disagreement between experts at different tertiary centres over the optimal management of this patient. He was treated with multiple regimes of medical therapy with ongoing ischaemia on stress testing, before undergoing a negative stress test on amlodipine, diltiazem, and isosorbide mononitrate. It was felt that no further intervention was necessary at this time given his exercise test was now negative for ischaemia. However, after seeking a second opinion, he underwent surgical intervention with bypass grafting of his left anterior descending artery, followed by implantation of an implantable cardiac defibrillator. Subsequently, an angiogram postsurgery demonstrated concomitant spasm of the LAD and he was resumed on medical therapy with calcium channel blockers and nitrates. Discussion. Without randomised trials, it is impossible to determine the optimal management strategy for each patient. It is possible that some patients with myocardial bridges are not being trialled on optimal medical therapy prior to undergoing invasive and irreversible interventions.

Inference of Binary Regime Models with Jump Discontinuities

Identifying the instances of jumps in a discrete-time-series sample of a jump diffusion model is a challenging task. We have developed a novel statistical technique for jump detection and volatility estimation in a return time series data using a threshold method. The consistency of the volatility estimator has been obtained. Since we have derived the threshold and the volatility estimator simultaneously by solving an implicit equation, we have obtained unprecedented accuracy across a wide range of parameter values. Using this method, the increments attributed to jumps have been removed from a large collection of historical data of Indian sectorial indices. Subsequently, we have tested the presence of regime-switching dynamics in the volatility coefficient using a new discriminating statistic. The statistic has been shown to be sensitive to the transition kernel of the regime-switching model. We perform the testing using Bootstrap method and find a clear indication of presence of multiple regimes of volatility in the data. A link to all Python codes is given in the conclusion. The methodology is suitable for analyzing high frequency data and may be applied for algorithmic trading.

“Fake News” and Multiple Regimes of “Truth” During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Zimbabwe

ABSTRACT Debates around the sociocultural phenomenon known as “fake news” have gathered storm since the 2016 US Presidential elections. Our study problematises the notion of “truth” in a politically polarised and trust-deficit Zimbabwean society, where audiences are balkanised and pigeonholed into predefined filter bubbles. In order to make sense of this phenomenon during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, we fuse three analytical frameworks—Foucauldian discourse, social construction of the truth and peripheral actors in journalism. This is pertinent in a context where politicians often dismiss news disseminated through mainstream private and social media platforms as “fake”. This deployment of the term “fake news” as a (de)legitimation ritual creates the impression that there are certain media organisations whose civic duty is to dispense “authentic” news. Although the government of Zimbabwe presented itself as the “authentic” voice on issues related to COVID-19, inconsistencies were observed through our analysis. The article demonstrates the multiple and systemic layers and structures embedded within the discourse of “fake news” related to the mediation of COVID-19 in Zimbabwe. Our article also argues that the multiple regimes of (non)truth must be understood in the context of power relations between public officials, professional journalists and peripheral actors in journalism.

Science and Really Existing Socialism in Maoist China

Science and Really Existing Socialism in Maoist China

Active optomechanics

Cavity optomechanics explores the coupling between optical and mechanical modes mediated by the radiation pressure force. Unlike the passive scheme, the active optomechanics with optical gain directly imposes the mechanical motion upon the lasing dynamics, unveiling the intrinsic properties determined by the system itself. Here we numerically explore the general characteristics of the active optomechanics. The effects of the mechanical oscillation on the macroscopic laser include introducing multiple unstable regimes in the lasing phase, shifting the laser central frequency, broadening the laser spectrum, and degrading the laser frequency stability. Reducing the optical gain down to one active atom highlights the quantum nature of atom–cavity and photon–phonon interactions. The one-atom optomechanical microlaser does not only emit nonclassical photons but also generate nonclassical photon–phonon pairs. Our work extends the cavity optomechanics to the active fashion, paving the way towards optomechanical light sources for photonic integrated circuits, on-chip quantum communication, and biosensing.

A general model for flow boiling heat transfer in microfin tubes based on a new neural network architecture

A new neural network architecture, namely DimNet, was designed for correlating dimensionless quantities with power-law-like relations. Unlike common neural networks that are usually used as “black-boxes”, DimNet is interpretable as it can be converted to an explicit algebraic piecewise power-law-like function. With DimNet, a data-driven, empirical model was developed to predict the pre-dryout heat transfer coefficient of flow boiling within microfin tubes. The model was trained on a database with 7349 experimental data points for 16 refrigerants, and then optimized by comparing different sets of dominant dimensionless quantities and by adjusting the network configuration. The model exhibits an overall mean-absolute-error of 13.8% and no systematic variation with respect to the salient parameters for most conditions. Besides being statistically accurate, the model captures parametric trends of the heat transfer coefficient. The excellent prediction performance of the model was attributed to the DimNet's ability to automatically classify the data into optimal regions and simultaneously correlate the data of each region. Therefore, the DimNet architecture is inherently suitable for modeling complex heat transfer and flow problems where multiple distinct physical regimes exist, especially for problems where a power-law-like input–output relation is desired such as convective heat transfer.

Transfer Learning with Recurrent Neural Networks for Long-Term Production Forecasting in Unconventional Reservoirs

Summary Robust production forecasting allows for optimal resource recovery through efficient field management strategies. In hydraulically fractured unconventional reservoirs, the physics of fluid flow and transport processes is not well understood and the presence of and transitions between multiple flow regimes further complicate forecasting. An important goal for field operators is to obtain a fast and reliable forecast with minimal historical production data. The abundance of wells drilled in fractured tight formations and continuous data acquisition effort motivate the use of data-driven forecast methods. However, traditional data-driven forecast methods require sufficient training data from an extended period of production for any target well, which may have limited practical use when the effective production life of wells is relatively short. In this paper, a deep recurrent neural network (RNN) model is developed for long-term production forecasting in unconventional reservoirs. As input data, the model takes completion parameters, formation and fluid properties, operating controls, and early (i.e., 3–6 months) production response data. The model is trained on a collection of historical production data across multiple flow regimes, control settings, and the corresponding well properties from multiple shale plays. The proposed RNN model can predict oil, water, and gas production as multivariate time series under varying operating controls. Once the forecast model is trained, it can be used to obtain a one-step forecast by feeding the model with input well properties, operating controls, and a short initial production. The long-term forecast is obtained by either recursively feeding the model with forecast results from the preceding timesteps or by training the model for multistep ahead predictions. Unlike other applications of RNN that require a long history of production data for training, our model employs transfer learning by combining early production data from the target well with the long-term dynamics captured from historical production data in other wells. We illustrate our approach using synthetic data sets and a case study from Bakken Play in North Dakota.

Institutional interplay in global environmental governance: lessons learned and future research

Over the past decades, the growing proliferation of international institutions governing the global environment has impelled institutional interplay as a result of functional and normative overlap across multiple regimes. This article synthesizes primary contributions made in research on institutional interplay over the past twenty years, with particular focus on publications with International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics. Broadening our understanding about the different types, dimensions, pathways, and effects of institutional interplay, scholars have produced key insights into the ways and means by which international institutions cooperate, manage discord, engage in problem solving, and capture synergies across levels and scales. As global environmental governance has become increasingly fragmented and complex, we recognize that recent studies have highlighted the growing interactions between transnationally operating institutions in the wake of polycentric governance and hybrid institutional complexes. However, our findings reveal that there is insufficient empirical and conceptual research to fully understand the relationship, causes, and consequences of interplay between intergovernmental and transnational institutions. Reflecting on the challenges of addressing regulatory gaps and mitigating the crisis of multilateralism, we expound the present research frontier for further advancing research on institutional interplay and provide recommendations to support policy-making.

Value co-creation and donation in non-profits: a social analysis through the service-dominant logic.

This research explores the value proposition of Brazilian non-profits (NPOs) to society, how donors and NPOs perceive value co-creation, and the elements required for value co-creation to occur in a donation context. This study includes case studies with managers and donors from three distinct non-profit organizations in the same sector. We conducted semi-structured interviews, report analysis, and direct observations. The interviews were recorded and typed up for content analysis using the MAXQDA software. The triangulation approach and multilevel data collection contributed to the research’s reliability and validity. NPOs propose value through marketing strategies, primarily by humanizing “sales techniques”. Donors perceive value co-creation as a beneficial collaborative result. Value co-creation is a way for non-profit organizations to achieve their missions of assisting patients or families in need. Although there is strong evidence of dialogue and transparency elements in the donor-NPO relationship, other factors, such as the individual’s background or empathy, stood out more in this context. Academically, this study contributes to the literature by elucidating the phenomena under multiple actor interaction regimes. Furthermore, most studies on value co-creation focus on customer participation and interaction in private organizational processes (i.e., innovation or feedback), leaving gaps for determining and exploring alternative forms of value co-creation. This gap was filled in this study.

Necrotising otitis externa antibiotic therapy complications: Aretrospective cohort analysis.

NOE is a rare but life-threatening condition. Treatment is long-term intravenous antibiotics. However, there is no evidence on the complications of antibiotic treatment in this complex cohort of patients In our study, patients on average are treated with two different antibiotic regimes 63% of these changes in regimen are due to direct adverse effects from treatment including drug intolerance and lack of significant clinical response leading to deterioration and morbid complications Patients requiring multiple antibiotic regimes have a statistically longer duration of treatment. These adverse effects appear to occur more frequently in patients with additional comorbidities. This novel data provides information clinicians can use when initiating treatment for NOE and counsel patients appropriately.

A lattice Boltzmann simulation on the gas flow in fractal organic matter of shale gas reservoirs

The gas flow in the organic matter with multiple flow regimes is critical to the shale gas production from shale gas reservoirs, but simultaneously simulating the full flow regimes of shale gas in the nanopores of the fractal shale organic matter is still unavailable. This paper presents a modified lattice Boltzmann model with effective relaxation time to simulate the shale gas micro-flow behaviors in fractal organic matter for permeability prediction. Firstly, some fractal shale organic matters are reconstructed by the quartet structure generation set (QSGS) algorithm, and the structural parameters such as fractal dimension, lacunarity and average pore diameter are calculated to characterize the complexity of the fractal shale organic matter. Secondly, effective viscosity and Knudsen layer are introduced into the effective relaxation time to formulate a modified lattice Boltzmann model. Thirdly, this modified lattice Boltzmann model is verified by comparing with the theoretical permeability models for the gas flow in the body centered cubic (BCC) arrays. Finally, a series of gas flow simulations in reconstructed fractal shale organic matter are conducted to explore the effects of structure parameters on permeability. Numerical simulations show that the modified lattice Boltzmann model can simulate the full gas flow regimes and predict the permeability of the fractal shale organic matter. The logarithm of permeability is negatively linearly correlated with fractal dimension and positively linearly correlated with lacunarity of the shale organic matter. This permeability exponentially increases with the increase of average pore diameter and a power law is observed between the fractal dimension and average pore diameter of these fractal shale organic matters. The anisotropic structures have great impacts on the directional permeability of shale organic matter. The permeability kx in the horizontal direction increases first and then decreases with the increase of anisotropic ratio (AR) and reaches the peak when AR is about 20. The permeability ky in the vertical direction monotonically decreases with the increase of AR.

Detecting and modeling changes in a time series of proportions

We propose a framework to detect and model shifts in a time series of continuous proportions, that is, a vector of proportions measuring the parts of a whole. By reparameterizing the shape of a Dirichlet distribution, we can model the location and scale separately through generalized linear models. A hidden Markov model allows the coefficients of the generalized linear models to change, thus allowing for the time series to undergo multiple regimes. This framework allows a practitioner to adequately model seasonality, trends, or include covariate information as well as detect change points. The model’s behavior is studied via simulation and through the analysis of lake phytoplankton data from 1992 through 2012. Our analyses demonstrate that the model can be effective in detecting and modeling changes in a time series of proportions. Pertaining to the phytoplankton data, the overall biomass has grown with some changes to the community level dynamics occurring circa 2000. Specifically, the proportion of cyanobacteria appears to have increased to the detriment of diatoms.

Vulnerability to Food and Nutritional Insecurity in Different Reaches of Tungabhadra Command Area of Karnataka: A Case Study

This study assessed the vulnerability to food and nutritional insecurity of farm households across multiple water regimes in the Tungabhadra command area of Karnataka by collecting data from 120 households comprising 40 respondents from head, middle and tail-end reaches. The Gini coefficients used to measure the inequality, which showed a high degree of income inequality among tail-end reach households. In head-reach regime, households experienced low vulnerability to food insecurity as they spent lesser proportion of their total expenditure on food, whereas, middle and tail-end reach farm households were more vulnerable. As land use decision is hard to change, there is a need for a comprehensive strategy and plan for irrigation water management and administration.