Powerful Ideas Research Articles

The Phenomenon of Power: The Social and Psychological Foundations of Power Relations

Today, in the academic environment and on the practical level, many methods are used to assess the motive of collective and internal (personal) power. At the same time, less and less attention is being paid to the issue of the phenomenon of power itself, epistemological and ontological side of it. In this work, variety of approaches to the analysis of the phenomenon of power are considered, evidence is provided that power, first of all, has a social basis and the motive of expanding power is an internal engine for all human activity. In order to form clear definitions related to such a complex phenomenon, it became necessary to integrate the ideas of power of many authors. However, due to the breadth of the notion of power, it is difficult to reduce it to one simple definition. The reader needs to understand the impossibility of fully covering everything related to the phenomenon of power in one scientific article. One of the indirect goals pursued in this work is to revive the discussion about the foundations of the concept of power and power relations.

Neuro-enhanced fractional hysteresis modeling and identification by modified Newton-Raphson optimizer

The modeling and parameter identification of a system with hysteresis remains a difficult task. This paper aims to develop a hysteretic model by combining with a fractional Backlash-like model and cascade forward neural network, and proposed a modified Newton-Raphson-based optimizer parameter identification method to precisely capture the nonlinear behavior of piezoelectric platform. There are three contributions in this paper. Firstly, leveraging the definition of fractional calculus, a fractional Backlash-like model is proposed, whose rate dependence is proved theoretically. Secondly, a hybrid fractional Backlash-like model is established by combining fractional Backlash-like model with cascade forward neural network to enhance the fitting and generalization ability of the model. Thirdly, a modified Newton-Raphson-based optimizer enhances the original Newton-Raphson-based optimizer by incorporating a dynamic reverse learning strategy, a Q-learning strategy, a new adaptive coefficient, and local exploitation based on Levy flight, with theoretical analysis demonstrating improvements in convergence, diversity, and accuracy. The ablation test results show that the accuracy of the proposed modeling method is more than 40% less than that of the root mean square error obtained by the classic Backlash-like model. In addition, compared with the traditional Newton-Raphson-based optimizer, dandelion optimizer, particle swarm optimization and african vultures optimization algorithm, the modified algorithm shows significant advantages in accuracy, convergence speed and robustness under all test frequencies. The root mean square error obtained was reduced by more than 20%. These results show that the proposed method provides a powerful research idea for efficient and accurate hysteresis system modeling and parameter identification.

Schaár Erzsébet ifjúkora és korai szobrászművészete (1908-1931)

The present paper is a subchapter of my doctoral dissertation titled The Oeuvre of Sculptor Erzsébet Schaár (1908– 1975). The paper discussing a period of her life’s path sofar only tangentially touched on by special literature divides into three parts: the first is concerned with the artist’s family background, childhood and adolescence, the second with the initial phase of the career, the academy years, and the third looks at works created in the 1920s and the early 1930s, as well as exhibitions of that period.Schaár was a veritable “child prodigy”. She began her studies as Zsigmond Kisfaludi Stróbl’s private pupil at the age of sixteen and a year later, in 1925 she was admitted to the Royal Academy of Art where her tutor was again Kisfaludi Stróbl. She debuted with her works publicly in 1926, first of all in exhibitions of the Szinyei Society and the KÚT (=new society of artists). Though several of her that-time works got lost or are latent, an approximately authentic overview of her art in that period can be had from exhibition catalogues, receptions, materials in archives and private collections – first of all the Vilt estate in the King St Stephen Museum in Székesfehérvár and the mostly unprocessed written and photography documents, correspondence in the Schaár estate, as well as from recollections by her contemporaries, first of all Tibor Vilt. A few nudes are known from this period, but her early artistic activity centred on portrait sculpture. This is also the clew along which the phases Schar’s artistic development, the modifications of her style, the influences exerted on her can be demonstrated from the earliest known portraits of her mother to the series of children’s portraits in the late 1920s, early 1930s. The studied period is characterized by a search of her own idiosyncratic style: in the 1920s she created both realistic portraits and works displaying features of art deco and cubism, she was interested in modelling with simple forms, experimented with facial casts – a procedure that returned in later phases of the oeuvre.In sum, the earliest period of Schaár’s sculptural activity displays such singularly powerful idea of plasticity and creative outlook that compare with the later phases of the oeuvre in talent and quality, but with the help of which posterity can discern the trends that were to unfold in full later. Studying this early period may contribute to a more profound understanding and comprehensive interpretation of the entire oeuvre.

Concept image framework for derivatives from contour graphs

Physics experts and students commonly use a variety of representations when working with partial derivatives, including symbols, graphs, and words. One especially powerful representation is the contour graph. In open-ended problem-solving interviews with nine upper-division physics students, we asked students to determine derivatives from contour graphs with electrostatic and thermodynamic contexts. Students undertook three overarching actions: (i) orienting to the given graph, (ii) finding one or more derivatives, and (iii) reflecting on the task. In general, students tended to have more difficulty with the thermodynamic task than the electrostatic one. Students made use of a variety of representational features throughout the interviews, namely by annotating the provided contour graphs in ways that highlighted what is held constant. We use these results to generalize the existing concept image framework for ordinary derivatives to create a framework useful for understanding student ideas about multivariable derivatives. In particular, we add a new layer to the framework—the layer—that calls attention to how students do or do not attend to which variables are changing (or remaining constant) when finding a derivative. We view the change layer as a powerful central idea for both further research and the development of instructional tasks for physics students. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Anthropocene Desire Lines: A Coal Story

In this experimental visual essay, we follow an imaginary lump of coal across space and time from its Gondwanan beginnings, through its extraction from the Talcher Coalfields in Odisha in India, combustion in a thermal power plant in Ennore in Tamil Nadu, and into the future through its multitude of postcombustion afterlives. We do so through the figure of ‘anthropocene desire lines’, which draws on Karen Coelho’s idea of ‘water lines’ (Coelho 2022) and Gabrielle Hecht’s idea of ‘residual governance’ (Hecht 2023), to track how flows of earthly matter that begin in subterranean strata, and, mobilized by ideas of power, growth and national pride, result in indifference towards the molecular colonization of bodies, soils, waters and airs they produce (Mendes 2017). The essay compresses the deep, everyday and future times of coal and its geologic, territorial, microscopic and planetary scales into a single textual/visual narrative. In this way, it draws out simultaneities across time and interconnections across space, as a way of developing a relational Anthropocene imaginary.

Polyphony as a Transformative Factor in Solopreneurship Education of Language Specialists

This article aims to demonstrate that the notion of multiple voices (polyphony) is a powerful educational idea that can bring value to translator education programmes. Based on a class dedicated to entrepreneurial functioning of MA students in translation, the article strives to show how polyphony can be entrenched in class content and classroom dynamics. It is argued that polyphony can empower students’ polyphonic approach to career choices. The empirical part discusses the responses from the class participants in 2023 concerning their perception of the modes of work they find most attractive. Conclusions outline areas for enhancements in class content and classroom dynamics.

Examples of entropy: from physics to nature

Abstract This paper aims to give a short history of how the concept of entropy has been developed and how it is used today in diverse scientific disciplines in our quest for understanding ourselves and our environment. The first part of the paper gives a historical perspective, which starts with the invention of the first heat engines, continues with the verbal formulation of the laws of thermodynamics and ends with the formulation of the mathematical equations that tell the complete story of thermodynamics by describing the transport of mass, momentum, energy and entropy. The second part of the paper focusses on the use of entropy beyond heat engines and shows how entropy has influenced the thinking in scientific disciplines such as chemistry, biology, ecology, communication, economy and sociology. Both a historical summary and the examples presented in this paper are limited to within the domain of classical mechanics. Although entropy has ignited powerful ideas and has many uses in both relativistic and quantum mechanics, these are not within the scope of this paper.

An Epistemology of Revelation

The aim of this article is to approach the epistemology of revelation through the approach of political anthropology. It departs from Max Weber’s distinction between ordinary and out-of-the-ordinary situations, which led to his idea of charismatic power. This article complements the Weberian perspective by introducing the anthropological term “liminality” for such situations, as well as the term “trickster” for figures who have a specific affinity for appearing in such situations, creating havoc instead of offering a solution. Ordinary knowledge does not apply to liminal void situations of incommensurability; incommensurable knowledge can be gained by magic and religion. Magic forces the transcendent and claims to produce effects, while religion is based on revealed knowledge, the validity of which is established by trust. Under particularly anguishing liminal conditions, the hardly tolerated practitioners of magic might gain positions of power. An important such example is offered by Persian Magi. Turning to the present, modern rationalism, with Bacon and Descartes, undermined both ordinary and revealed knowledge. The possible relevance of revealed knowledge in contemporary times is discussed through the related phenomena of apocalyptic expectations and Marian apparitions.

Values, prices and natural liberty: on the dual role of prices in the history of economic analysis

Natural liberty is a powerful idea of social order. However, a tension has always existed between its reality and social values. Here, I try to identify where the fault line may lie between an order that fulfils social expectation and one that does not. I claim that throughout history, this fault line had been manifested in the distinction drawn between the concepts of price and value. The first emerges in markets and the second reflects social expectations. Juxtaposing the two reveals either harmony or dissonance between natural liberty and social expectations. Convergence then is a necessary condition for social validity.

Reflection of in Narkh (Price) Pashto Rhymed Literature

Jirgas and talks grounded on the idea of (Power and Price) are the means by which the issues that arise among the Pashtuns are resolved. The article's goal is to pinpoint the Pashtuns' shared understanding of Narkh (price). It is a field study with a bibliographic focus, and the researcher employed both descriptive and analytical methods to achieve this goal. In any location or nation where there is a dearth of educated individuals, people would always resort to their civil laws in an attempt to resolve disputes or other issues. Among these rules and precepts, the majority of Pashtuns, particularly the tribes centered in Paktia, have a particular folk law known as Narkh (Price), which they frequently apply to resolve disputes. Narkh literally means "price" or "public law." Price, as it is known locally, refers to the customary choice made by the Merakchis (interviewers) to resolve a conflict between two or more individuals, families, villages, or tribes. Regarding societal concerns, there are many different kinds of prices: the cost of heat, the cost of cold, the cost of preparing halal food, the cost of murder, the cost of Quba, the cost of a woman, the cost of a woman on the run, the cost of theft, and the cost of walking off the road. Similarly, the price, or Jirga, has been referenced in literature, both written and oral, and it has served as the basis for poetic theory in this regard.

Producing Power: Dennis Hume Wrong’s Perspective on Gender in Contemporary Indonesian Cinema

This article seeks to uncover some of the ramifications of Dennis Hume Wrong's perspective on power in contemporary Indonesian cinema. The cinema is considered as a discursive medium that comprises a series of relationships between the characters, according to this idea of power and gender relations. The targeted films are Ali & Ratu-Ratu Queens (2021), Generasi 90an: Melankolia (2020), dan Imperfect (2019). The three films were made as a screen adaptation of a literary plot in the drama-romance genre. The findings demonstrate that the power relations in the films are legitimized by two consequences: intended and unintended power. Intended power is legitimized by force, manipulation, persuasion, and authority. Meanwhile, the unintended power is legitimized via a process in which power domination is implicitly assumed because everyone is aware of their position. Through these power relations, gender is conceived as a fluid and unstable notion in contemporary Indonesian cinema. The male and female binary is constructed by the flexibility and hybridity of gender identity, which dictates how they should act, feel, and function in society. Women already have an equal bargaining position with men, particularly in the workplace, yet the stereotype of femininity persists due to Indonesian society's belief in ideal gender rather than the modern mainstream of feminism's practice of new stereotypes.

Placing authenticity at the heart of student self-assessment: an integrative review

ABSTRACT Self-assessment involves students making judgements about their own learning. Self-assessment is promoted widely due to its benefits for lifelong learning. However, students often find self-assessment mechanical, useless and redundant – indeed inauthentic. This may partly result from understanding self-assessment as an instrumental and acontextual practice. We take an alternative approach by focusing on the authenticity of self-assessment. We bring together two research areas that have rarely intersected: self-assessment and authentic assessment. How has research conceptualised authenticity with respect to self-assessment? What could we learn from earlier studies to consider authenticity more meaningfully in self-assessment design? To answer these questions, we conduct an integrative review of 40 studies. We formulate an organising framework that outlines the various dimensions of authenticity in self-assessment. We argue that authenticity is a powerful idea that may bring self-assessment from the margins of higher education to its very centre.

Leadership, Intersectionality, and Feminism: Radical-Relational Perspectives

This essay takes a radical-relational perspective on systemic, institutional, and individual leadership. It identifies the function of intersectionality and feminism in decoding normative mindsets in leadership. Then, using the ideas of power, authority, and responsibility, the author describes the relational psychodynamics between the powerful and the vulnerable. Two examples are offered to illustrate how these dynamics operate. The first describes mental health provision in the United Kingdom, and the second is a personal example from the author’s experiences as a young teacher.

ALIRAN JABARIAH DAN QODARIAH BESERTA PEMIKIRAN PARA TOKOHNYA

Aqidah is the main aspect of Islamic teachings preached by the Prophet Muhammad. This is clearly visible in the Prophet's main mission to spread Islam in Mecca. The Aqidah aspect is an issue that is quite important than the Sharia and is clearly visible in the Qur'an which explains a lot about faith. After the death of the Prophet Muhammad, the Islamic community experienced a split in several sects, namely after the death of Caliph Usman bin Affan and after the murder of Ali Bin Abi Talib. The sects in Islam emerged because of the many different thoughts of figures, for example thoughts about the power of Allah and human will, the position of revelation. and reason, God's justice. And in the end various sects emerged such as Jabariah, Qodariah, Shi'ah, Kkhuarij, Murjiah and others. This was said by the Prophet that the Islamic community would split into several groups. Qadariah is a sect founded by Ma'bad Al-Juhani, Gaila al-Dimasyqi, and the followers of Wasil ibn' Atha, Umar bin Ubaud, they believe that humans have freedom in their actions, where there are no demands or wills of God in their affairs. Some of these groups believe that human deeds or actions are not God's will And the background to the birth of genre Jabariah is still unclear. And the opinion of Abu Zahra says that this sect emerged from the time of the Companions and the time of the Bani Umayyh. At that time the ulama were discussing the issues of Qada, Qadar, and human power. This sect was founded by Jahm bin Afwan and Ja'ad bin Dirham. This research discusses sects or schools of Islam with conflicting thoughts, namely the idea of God's power over humans and the thought of Qada and Qodar. Because studying the meaning of these two schools is very important for us to be careful and be able to lead someone to strong-founded beliefs. The aim of this research is to address the wisdom of differences in thinking regarding Qoda and Qodar beliefs. The method used is the Leatherface Method by collecting sources from literature. The results of this research show that Muslims are no longer confused or lost with the teachings of deviant sects.

COMMUNIST PARTY’S REGIONAL CONFERENCE AND REGIONAL COMMITTEE AS INSTITUTIONS OF REGIONAL POWER OF THE LATE SOVIET ERA (based on the material of the Upper Volga regions)

The article analyses the social characteristics of key regional structures of the Communist Party power and the features of their composition. The study focuses on the Party institutions of regional power in the late USSR: the regional Party conference, the regional committee of the Party, the bureau of the regional committee of the Party. Considerable attention is paid in the article to the historiography of the issue of regional power in the USSR. The methodological framework of the study consisted of an institutional approach, a combination of source analysis and the oral history paradigm, the principles of historicism and systematicity. The theoretical basis of the article is based on the network approach to institutions of power (ideas of Aleksandr Konovalov, Viktor Mokhov, Oleg Khlevniuk, Yoram Gorlizki). The central concept of the study is the concept of “regional leadership network”. The “ administrative market theory” is of an auxiliary nature. Acording to Simon Kordonskiy. The basis of the corpus of sources for the article was unpublished material from archives of Russia’s regions (Vladimir, Ivanovo, Kostroma, Yaroslavl). A significant part of the sources consisted of oral history evidence – semi-structured interviews conducted personally by the author. The article concludes that contradictory trends had been growing in regional Party institutions of power. It is noted that there was an active inclusion of broad sections of the population in regional authorities, based on the values of Soviet democracy. However, actual decision-making was in the hands of the Party nomenclature clique, headed by the first secretary of the regional Party committee. It is emphasised that the real institutional centre for making management decisions at the regional level of government in the USSR was the Bureau of the Regional Committee of the Communist Party. A general increase in the educational level of the Party conference delegates and members of the regional committee of the Party is noted.

THE CONCEPT OF THE SOVEREIGN IN J. AUSTIN’S THEORY

The paper considers the interpretation of the problem of sovereign power proposed by John Austin. According to the jurist, political power is a neutral force, similar to the objective forces of nature and abstracted from social relations. The abstract idea of power, being the “soul” of political communication, has a conditionally independent existence. Its effect on the actual relations is possible only insofar as it turns out to be “rei ed” and “personi ed”. The power remains in a “dormant” state in the institutions of the state and its head (sovereign), who is responsible for the reproduction of the political and legal plane, legal and social order. The article analyzes the essence of political power in the concept of J. Austin, a number of features that could characterize, in his opinion, any sovereign power, and especially emphasizes the most vulnerable place in his teaching - the feature of the “determinateness” of the sovereign. In conclusion, the author summarizes that, rstly, in the theory of J. Austin it is unclear who exactly acts as the “true” bearer of the properties of sovereignty, secondly, if it is impossible to determine the “party of sovereignty”, or it is extremely di cult to determine it, then the theory under consideration that is trying to operate empirical facts should be considered as inconsistent with reality.

Examining Young Children’s Computational Thinking through Animation Art

AbstractEducators and researchers are becoming interested in cultivating computational thinking (CT). However, in the Hong Kong context, CT-related studies regarding young children are rarely found. The present study aimed to use an unplugged digital arts activity to examine the CT concepts that children performed and document their CT developmental trajectories. Constructionism theory highlights the importance of children engaging in hands-on activities and developing independent thinking skills. Meanwhile, social constructivism theory emphasizes the role of teachers as scaffolders, supporting children in their learning processes. A sample of children (N = 27, aged 3–6) was recruited from a nursery school in Hong Kong to participate in an animation art workshop. A total of 540 min of video data was recorded and collected for content analysis. The teaching team (N = 4) for this workshop were invited to write up their reflective journals, capturing their observations of the scaffolding strategies employed and their perspectives on how children at various levels demonstrated their understanding of CT concepts throughout the entire process. Within an analytical framework based on powerful ideas, the findings from the observations and field notes revealed that the children’s CT concepts and practices could be linked with the CT conceptual framework. In this study, older children showed a sophisticated competency and a more complicated mind structure in terms of the CT concept. Our findings highlight the importance of designing an age-appropriate curriculum for nurturing the computational thinking of young children through animation art.

Marxism and the Critique of Antisemitism

Abstract Antisemitism is an increasingly prevalent aspect of public life in the West, both as a consequence of the growth of the far right across the board and through its mobilisation against Palestinian liberation and Palestine solidarity activism. While synagogues are targeted and far-right politicians revive ideas of Jewish global power, it is the left, Muslims, and Palestinians that are continuously constructed as the source of the current rise in hatred and violence against Jews. If historically the Marxist tradition engaged actively with the so-called Jewish question, in recent decades the subject has receded from focus. This shift took place as other forms of racism – directed at Muslims, Black populations, or migrants – became the basis for reactionary politics in the West. This article argues that while some of the assumptions that underwrote classical Marxist texts on the issue have been found wanting – perhaps most notably the inevitable (or desirable) character of the trend towards assimilation – they remain important starting points for making sense of our present, both by their method and their political commitment to liberation.

A Review on Techniques of Power Transmission Lines Congestion Management in Deregulated Electricity Market

The idea of market power has gained its significance after the electric power industry started a practice of transition and restructuring since early Nineteen ninety. In this competitive electricity market, the physical and operational the constraints of the network hold key intimidation to the market by the generation companies. The growth of deregulated power systems has an outcome in terms of overloading transmission networks or network congestion. Congestion has severe effects on power systems, which includes rigorous system damage. Congestion take place when transmission systems fail to deliver power based on the load demand. These problems can be managed by implementing congestion management methods, which has a significant role in current deregulated power systems. Congestion has created the risk to reliability and power system security through defiance of transmission ability limits of line. This paper reviews some of important techniques and meticulous used by various researcher for management of congestion of lines. The exertion of various publications is used to review the implication of each anticipated technique in relieving congestion and optimizing system operating costs.

Constructing Deep Concepts through Shallow Search

We propose bootstrap learning as a computational account for why human learning is modular and incremental, and identify key components of bootstrap learning that allow artificial systems to learn more like people. Originated from developmental psychology, bootstrap learning refers to people's ability to extend and repurpose existing knowledge to create new and more powerful ideas. We view bootstrap learning as a solution of how cognitively-bounded reasoners grasp complex environmental dynamics that are far beyond their initial capacity, by searching ‘locally’ and recursively to extend their existing knowledge. Drawing from techniques of Bayesian library learning and resource rational analysis, we propose a computational modeling framework that achieves human-like bootstrap learning performance in inductive conceptual inference. In addition, we demonstrate modeling and behavioral evidence that highlights the double-edged sword of bootstrap learning, such that people processing the same information in different batch orders could induce drastically different causal conclusions and generalizations, as a result of the different sub-concepts they construct in earlier stages of learning.