Proactive Player Research Articles

Política Exterior de China: del ascenso pacífico al sueño chino - implicaciones para el análisis de las relaciones internacionales

This article aims to examine the evolution of China’s foreign policy from the adoption of the “peaceful rise” policy to the present one which stems from the concept of the “Chinese dream” presented by Xi Jinping. The analysis is carried out in the light of major traditional international relations theories and introduces the doctrine underpinning the “Chinese dream” known as Tianxia. It finds that western traditional doctrine lacks rigorous consideration of Asian historical and cultural singularities that prevent them from fully explaining the international actions of the People’s Republic of China. In particular, China’s increasing assertiveness in its international relations along with its economic, military and technological advances, as well as the military conflicts in Ukraine and Israel, have exacerbated differences with the West. It is imperative to provide diplomacy with tools to assess the international context and the opposing positions of the West and the PRC that considers a theoretical framework that incorporates elements such as Tianxia, not as a substitute for Western tradition frameworks of analysis, but to enrich them. This is particularly true for the defense and projection of the interests of developing countries, which will require extensive diplomatic skills to navigate this complex context effectively as proactive players rather than bystanders in the international arena.

Gender in European Union Asylum Law: The Istanbul Convention as a Game Changer?

Abstract The European Union (EU) has historically been a proactive player in advancing equality between women and men, and fighting gender-based discrimination. The past two decades have also seen the EU becoming a major actor in asylum law, with several EU secondary law instruments and a large amount of case law in EU Member States relating to the application of the 1951 Refugee Convention. Yet, these two areas of EU legislation – gender equality and asylum – have yet to become consistently connected. Similarly, judgments of the Court of Justice of the European Union addressing gender-related elements of asylum cases are scarce. Could the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention) help bridge the gap? The Istanbul Convention identifies gender-based violence as an extreme form of discrimination and contains a whole chapter dedicated to women in the context of migration. This article sheds light on the yet-to-be-realized potential of the Istanbul Convention to amplify the protective power of the Refugee Convention in the EU. While at present neither the Common European Asylum System, nor its new iteration in the New Pact on Migration and Asylum, fully meets the standards of the Istanbul Convention, it may be expected that the EU’s accession to the treaty will further encourage a gender-sensitive approach in EU asylum law. The Istanbul Convention may well be a game changer for the protection of female asylum seekers, and possibly also for asylum seekers with other gender identities.

Pericytes modulate endothelial inflammatory response during bacterial infection.

A previously unknown mechanism by which pericytes modulate inflammation was discovered. The absence of pericytes or blocking interaction between pericytes and endothelium through connexin 43 results in stronger inflammation, which shifts our understanding of pericyte biology, from a structural cell to a player in controlling inflammation.

Practising future‐making: Anticipation and translocal politics of Tesla's Gigafactory in Shanghai as assemblage

AbstractHuman geographers are increasingly concerned with how ‘futures’ are imagined and rendered governable, yet mostly their methods lack the sensitivity to explore the functioning of complex relations between heterogeneous actors across places. The world's electric vehicle (EV) sector is booming, presaging a widely expected decarbonised future, associated with a restructuring of the automobile industry as anticipated by proactive players. This paper interrogates the spatiality and politics of the EV future‐making through disentangling the translocal practices involved in realising Tesla's Gigafactory in Shanghai (TGS) as assemblage. Informed by interviews with industrial insiders and opensource information in Chinese and English, the article finds that, first, TGS's imagined future embodies a multiplicity of interdependent but divergent expectations, the coherence of which underlies the formation and operation of the TGS assemblage by virtue of the concerted actions of its member‐actors. Second, such coherence is conditional as designed by TGS's central planners—namely, Tesla and Chinese government agencies at central and local levels—for their differentiated but overlapping interests. The TGS's imagined future is rendered actionable, enrolling other agents at certain moments, through anticipatory practices of regulatory changes, strategic arrangements interweaving land and financing, firm acquisition and intra‐firm reorganisation linking up places in and outside China, as well as the selection of key suppliers and technological use of critical raw materials. Concluding after a sketch on the TGS's ‘possible futures’ and broader implications, the paper contributes an assemblage‐informed approach to disentangle futuremaking practices and generates timely insights into the ‘future‐oriented’ restructuring of the automobile industry.

A proactive player of the future? Working life discourses in the Finnish upper secondary school curriculum

A proactive player of the future? Working life discourses in the Finnish upper secondary school curriculum

Optimising Building-to-Building and Building-for-Grid Services Under Uncertainty: A Robust Rolling Horizon Approach

Energy systems are undergoing radical changes that have resulted in buildings being regarded as proactive players with the potential to contribute positively to energy networks. This study investigates the role of active buildings (ABs) as prosumers in energy systems by introducing a building-to-building (B2B) strategy for energy exchange between residential units, as well as a building-for-grid (B4G) model by exploiting the demand flexibility of residential microgrids (RMGs). The mid-market rate mechanism is adopted to produce local market price signals at RMG level. A robust rolling horizon controller is developed for real-time energy management of a community of ABs. This control philosophy can improve the robustness of the RMG in face of real-time weather and energy price prediction errors. The proposed method is a multi-level optimisation which pursues multiple goals while making a trade-off between operational cost and occupant comfort. Finally, the repercussions of COVID-19 induced power consumption resulting from changing lifestyle and building occupancy profile is analysed by the proposed method as a case study. The results show that the proposed B2B and B4G strategy can reduce energy bills by 18.45%, while notable robust real-time control and computational efficiencies are achieved when benchmarked against conventional methods.

On arches and stones, places and experiments: Public libraries and democratic society

Abstract This article discusses the role of public libraries under the new political and social dynamics of democratic societies. It assumes that the continuity and expansion of the democratization process lead society to demand an increasingly larger and more active participation in the public arena and in decision-making. In the landscape of a world in crisis, seeking spaces of participation and new forms of coexistence and fellowship seem insufficient. Formal cultural institutions are urged to dialogue with new, proactive players, and with the new loci of production, circulation and appropriation of culture in democratic societies. Flexibility and openness to the new social dynamics are a challenge that they must address. This article is an exploratory reflection and, as such, the essayistic form was chosen as a strategy that allows one to understand, by means of subjective perceptions grounded on the bibliography of various fields of the human sciences, the emblematic situations of an emerging context presenting knowledge in a way that keeps it open, so that it includes its own rectification and originates new cogitations.

Coaching is teamwork! the role of need-supportive coaching and the motivational climate in stimulating proactivity in volleyball teams.

Team sports settings are challenging, dynamic environments in which coaches often benefit from proactive players who take initiative in providing valuable suggestions and feedback. Based on self-determination theory and achievement goal theory, this study examined the mediating role of a mastery and performance motivational climate in the positive relation between coaches' psychological need-supportive behavior and team athletes' proactivity. The study sample consisted of 75 male and 105 female volleyball players (Mage =21.92, SDage =4.92), whose level ranged from the highest national level in Belgium to the regional levels. They completed a questionnaire assessing coach need support, motivational climate and three primary types of proactivity (voice, taking charge, and upward communication). Multilevel structural equation modeling yielded a good fit for the hypothesized model. Consistent with our hypotheses, need support related positively to a mastery climate (β=0.74, P<.001), which, in turn, positively predicted proactivity (β=0.72, P<.001). Need-supportive coaching behavior negatively predicted a performance climate (β=-0.39, P<.001). Rejecting our hypothesis, a performance climate positively predicted proactivity, albeit to a smaller extent than a mastery climate (β=0.21, P<.001). These findings suggest that a need-supportive coaching style enables coaches to create a mastery climate. Such a climate seems to encourage athletes to be proactive, which enables teams to effectively tackle encountered challenges. The weaker but significant positive relation between a performance climate and proactivity will be discussed within the framework of social interdependence theory.

Bold and newly Independent, or Isolated and Cast Adrift? The Implications of Brexit for Intellectual Property Law and Policy

AbstractWhat happens when a breakdown in relations results in mutually possessed objectives becoming harder to achieve? This article explores the consequences of the UK's withdrawal from the EU for intellectual property (IP) law and policy. Compared with other fields such as Economic and Monetary Union and the development of the EU's ‘social chapter’, the UK has been a supportive and proactive player in internal market integration, particularly pertaining to IP protection. As a result of ‘Brexit’, the EU may find that the impetus for further harmonization and integration in this field is lost, such as with the EU unitary patent. However, the consequences for the UK are likely to be more severe – a loss of influence, both over laws that govern it and in exporting IP norms internationally, as well as a loss of access to certain protections, agencies and market sectors that are within the UK's economic interests.

PROCEDURA „ZIELONEJ KARTKI” – PANACEUM NA WZMOCNIENIE ROLI PARLAMENTÓW NARODOWYCH W UNIJNYM PROCESIE DECYZYJNYM?

After and even in the run-up to the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, national parliaments have implemented new procedures to apply the instruments in practice. However, five years from the entry of the Lisbon Treaty into force, national parliaments are still evaluating the means of their influence and control over the EU law and policies. National parliaments would determine their own position and contribute to further development in the European cooperation by becoming more actively involved in the decision-making of the European Union. Not just as the guardians of the subsidiarity principle, granted the possibility to block and delay draft laws, but also as proactive players in a constructive sense, with a right to invite the European Commission to table legislative proposals either to create new legislation or to amend the existing one. The role of national parliaments can be increased if they as such have more influence on the content of legislation.

Bajaj Auto Limited: Synergizing Product Engineering and Market Engineering Initiatives

The case chronicles the rise-fall-rise saga of the Indian two-wheeler major Bajaj Auto Limited from the perspective of product engineering and market engineering initiatives. The Indian two-wheeler industry went through a metamorphosis over the last two decades as consumer preference shifted from inconspicuous scooter to elegant motorcycle. Even as Bajaj implemented product and market engineering initiatives to satisfy changing consumer tastes, its market share was not a reflection of its efforts until it integrated these two vital domains. The case elucidates upon the decision situations encountered by the top management of Bajaj in its quest to attain consumer centricity through synergistic assimilation of product engineering skills and market engineering acumen. The case is divided into eight sections. The introduction section traces the history of Indian two-wheeler industry from the product and market engineering perspective and elucidates upon the challenge of creating a customer-centred company through synergistic assimilation of both these vital domains. The second section offers a view of the present two-wheeler industry landscape; critically evaluates the consumer value system to reveal the different benefit-based customer segments; and, documents the shifting loyalty of Indian consumers from archaic scooters to aesthetic motorcycles. The third section maps the industry in terms of price and engine capacity so as to sketch out the competitive scenario. The fourth section highlights the trials and tribulations that the organization has undergone on its way to learning the ropes towards better integration of product engineering and market engineering initiatives. The fifth section provides a description of the various product innovation measures taken by Bajaj in the decade gone by to win back its lost glory. The sixth section delineates Bajaj's endeavour in the last decade to harness latent consumer needs, wants and desires to its advantage. The section on competitors' product and market engineering strategies puts into perspective the product engineering and market engineering strategies of Bajaj's key competitors — Hero Honda and TVS. The case culminates with the conclusion section wherein the authors have discussed how the synergy achieved between the product engineering and market engineering initiatives in the last decade has catapulted Bajaj back into reckoning as a proactive player in the Indian two-wheeler industry.

ANÁLISIS DE LAS REDES EMPRESARIALES Y SU INCIDENCIA TERRITORIAL. TRANSFERENCIA TECNOLÓGICA, APRENDIZAJE E INNOVACIÓN

In the present text is to establish the importance of innovation processes, which not only established in the sphere of production and business, but also in the social and cultural level. No doubt the territory is not a passive element, which conducts socioeconomic activities, to be a more proactive player. Hence, establishing a development and evaluation of the concept of innovation epistemological where geographers, in collaboration with other disciplines such as economics, have much to contribute from the study and empirical analysis, validating not only theories but also qualitative processes and procedures quantitative in technology transfer, business networks and factors to promote innovation and learning.

Beyond Low Plasma T3: Local Thyroid Hormone Metabolism during Inflammation and Infection

Decreased serum thyroid hormone concentrations in severely ill patients were first reported in the 1970s, but the functional meaning of the observed changes in thyroid hormone levels, together known as nonthyroidal illness syndrome (NTIS), remains enigmatic. Although the common view was that NTIS results in overall down-regulation of metabolism in order to save energy, recent work has shown a more complex picture. NTIS comprises marked variation in transcriptional and translational activity of genes involved in thyroid hormone metabolism, ranging from inhibition to activation, dependent on the organ or tissue studied. Illness-induced changes in each of these organs appear to be very different during acute or chronic inflammation, adding an additional level of complexity. Organ- and timing-specific changes in the activity of thyroid hormone deiodinating enzymes (deiodinase types 1, 2, and 3) highlight deiodinases as proactive players in the response to illness, whereas the granulocyte is a novel and potentially important cell type involved in NTIS during bacterial infection. Although acute NTIS can be seen as an adaptive response to support the immune response, NTIS may turn disadvantageous when critical illness enters a chronic phase necessitating prolonged life support. For instance, changes in thyroid hormone metabolism in muscle during critical illness may be relevant for the pathogenesis of myopathy associated with prolonged ventilator dependence. This review focuses on NTIS as a timing-related and organ-specific response to illness, occurring independently from the decrease in serum thyroid hormone levels and potentially relevant for disease progression.

Break Down the Wall Between QA and IT

Break Down the Wall Between QA and IT

Towards Theory Building in Agile Manufacturing Strategy&amp;mdash;A Taxonomical Approach

Agility has been widely accepted in industry as a new competitive concept. However, how to develop a strategy based around agility is not fully understood. This paper proposes a framework for the implementation of agility as a strategy and describes the development and analysis of a numerical taxonomy of agility strategies using the framework. The taxonomy was developed with cluster analysis based on the relative importance attached to seven agility capabilities by a number of U.K. companies. Three distinct clusters of strategy groups were observed across the industry studied: Quick, Responsive and Proactive Players. Quick Players are oriented towards a strong customer focus and quickness. They do not emphasize flexibility and responsiveness to changes and they give low priority to proactiveness and partnership. Responsive Players are preoccupied with flexibility and responsiveness to changes. They do not emphasize proactiveness and partnerships and they attach low importance to quickness. Proactive Players are characterized by high priorities on proactiveness and customer focus, high values attached to all capabilities, and high importance given to partnerships. The underlying dimensions of agile capabilities along which the three strategy groups differ were investigated based on factor analysis and canonical discriminant analysis. Changes/uncertainties in the business environment experienced by members of different strategic groups were compared, and manufacturing strategy choices, in terms of practices for achieving agility, employed by members of different strategic groups were studied. Business characteristics and typical cases for each strategy group were investigated