Function Theory Research Articles

Understanding citizen scientists’ willingness to invest in, and advocate for, conservation

Citizen science (CS) can be an effective means for achieving conservation outcomes while also generating a range of benefits to participants. According to functionalist theory, similar activities may serve distinct psychological functions in different people. To understand how benefits are generated, we must, therefore, gain insight into citizen scientists' motivations. A question that has yet to be addressed, is the extent to which motivations and perceived benefits may affect participants' engagement and productivity. We surveyed participants in a diverse range of CS programmes in the South-east of England using a modification of the Volunteer Functions Inventory (VFI). We then linked variation in motivations and perceived benefits to participant-specific project outputs (effort and time invested) and outcomes (willingness to advocate for the cause).Citizen scientists were most motivated by personally held values and by the opportunity to engage with nature. However, the relative importance of the various motivators differed significantly between programmes. Participants most commonly reported altruistic benefits, e.g. contributing to community needs. The strongest drivers of personal investment appeared to be social motivations and the desire to learn or share knowledge. Those motivated by personally held values and by knowledge were also more likely to advocate.The modified VFI offers a nuanced understanding of citizen scientists' motivations and lays the foundation for an evidence-based approach to designing, implementing and evaluating CS. However, the study offers but a snapshot, and longitudinal studies will be crucial to capture the dynamic relationship between motivations, benefits and the factors that drive engagement and retention.

A Note on New Construction of Meyer-König and Zeller Operators and Its Approximation Properties

The topic of approximation with positive linear operators in contemporary functional analysis and theory of functions has emerged in the last century. One of these operators is Meyer–König and Zeller operators and in this study a generalization of Meyer–König and Zeller type operators based on a function τ by using two sequences of functions will be presented. The most significant point is that the newly introduced operator preserves {1,τ,τ2} instead of classical Korovkin test functions. Then asymptotic type formula, quantitative results, and local approximation properties of the introduced operators are given. Finally a numerical example performed by MATLAB is given to visualize the provided theoretical results.

“Living Document”: From Documents to Documentality, from Mimesis to Performative Indexicality

In this article, in distinction to documentation as an epistemic understanding of documents, I will discuss the epistemology of documentality as an indexical theory of documental functions, which I will develop through Bruno Latour’s notion of information. This notion of indexicality is different than Suzanne Briet’s notion of indexicality (which I have discussed elsewhere (Briet, 2006)). I will begin this paper with an historical problem that illustrates the issues of viewing documents as content representation. This is the problem identified by Vincent Debaene (Debaene, 2014) in early and mid-twentieth century French field anthropology of the “two book” phenomenon, which attempted to address a perceived epistemic distance between lived experience and its representation through scientific documents. The solution to this problem of presence and representation was the writing and publication by French anthroplogists of a second, more literary, document after the production of the scientific paper or book, which supposedly represented the experience of the anthropologist and the group under study more fully. I will argue that both texts, however, followed genre conventions and practices, which are neither more or less faithful to an original experience. I will argue that the notion of an original experience reflected in the content of the text misses the performatively indexical relationship of text to world and the role that this plays in scientific and other forms of documentality. In short, what Vincent Debaene identified as the French anthropologists’ quest for producing a “living documents,” which closes the gap between life and documental representation, is a Quixotic task, since the problem is not real but rather is a product of the epistemology of re-presentation, which forecloses from our understanding what really happens with scientific and other documents.

Examination of the sensitivity of quasifree reactions to details of the bound-state overlap functions

It is often stated that heavy-ion nucleon knockout reactions are mostly sensitive to the tails of the bound-state wavefunctions. In contrast, (p,2p) and (p,pn) reactions are known to access information on the full overlap functions within the nucleus. We analyze the oxygen isotopic chain and explore the differences between single-particle wave functions generated with potential models, used in the experimental analysis of knockout reactions, and ab initio computations from self-consistent Green's function theory. Contrary to the common belief, we find that not only the tail of the overlap functions, but also their internal part are assessed in both reaction mechanisms, which are crucial to yield accurately determined spectroscopic information.

AN APPRAISAL OF THE DILEMMA OF POLITICAL PARTIES IN SUSTAINING DEMOCRACY IN NIGERIA

For any Democracy to thrive, the onus lies significantly on the activities and strength of political parties. It is framework as per- analyzing the efficacy and efficiency of democracy in both the developed and developing countries. However, it is a different kettle of fish in Nigeria as our political parties are characterized by primordial and gender chauvinistic tendencies, inadequate ideology, inadequate mechanism and ethnic sentiments. Information is mainly sourced from existing literature and among other sources. This paper adopts the structural functionalist theory as a method of analyzing the political system in the country. Modern challenges of democracy in the country were highlighted, such as: ethnicism, inadequate political institution, poor internal democratic culture, electoral misconduct (vote buying, etc.), gender inequality, religious diversity, among others. Measures on how best to sustain the country’s democracy are strengthening democratic institutions, shunning: ethno-religious sentiment; electoral misconduct of any magnitude; among others.

THE INDIGENOUS MUSIC OF CHRIST APOSTOLIC CHURCH IN NIGERIA AND THE DIASPORAS: A PROOF OF CHRISTIAN TRANSFORMATIVE MUSICALITY

One of the distinguishing identities of any Church movement is music. Christ Apostolic Church (C.A.C) in Nigeria and the Diasporas at her inception came with her peculiar music firmly rooted in the Pentecostal theology of the church and in indigenous African musical culture. It became a great tool in the spirituality, evangelisation and proselytisation processes in the Church. Today, not only has C.A.C. influenced Nigerian Christian music greatly, but also dominated the gospel music, one of the most popular music genres in Nigeria. This paper, hinged on transformative and functionalism theories, aims at exhuming the philosophical theology, performance practices and the evolution of this Pentecostal brand of music, both at home and abroad. Employing theological, musicological and historical approaches, the paper as a sacred musicological study, discovers that C.A.C. music is highly functional with deep metaphysical connotations. From indigenous native airs, anthems, hymnody, art music and lyric-airs to gospel music, its style forms one of the manifestations of indigenous Pentecostalism; as it has been instrumental to the diverse operations, spread and acceptability of the Church. The Church extended overseas through migration, had her music ‘carried’ along, though not without re-contextualised modifications. This paper concludes on the note that the Church, bearing in mind her leadership roles, should strive to uphold the legacies that earned her identity; especially her musical culture.

Pusaka Sakinah sebagai Upaya Penurunan Angka Perceraian oleh KUA Kiaracondong dan KUA Cipeudeuy di Jawa Barat

The high divorce rate encourages the Ministry of Religion to make various efforts to maintain family resilience. The Service Center Program of Sakinah Family or Program Pusat Layanan Keluarga Sakinah (Pusaka Sakinah) is one of the Ministry of Religion’s effort through the transformation of KUA’s role into a more significant in protecting Indonesian families from divorce. This article aims to get an overview of KUA's activities in implementing the Pusaka Sakinah program including the forms of innovation and initiative in pursuing program sustainability. The research method uses qualitative methode through case study type with the locus at KUA Kiaracondong representing program implementation in urban areas, and at KUA Cipeundeuy representing program implementation in rural areas. This study uses the theory of AGIL Structural Functionalism (Adaptation, Goal-attainment, Integration, Latency). This research results several findings: first, although the increasing role of KUA in facilitating the people to actualize sakinah family can be realized through the implementation of the Pusaka Sakinah program, efforts to maintain program sustainability are not an easy way due to KUA's high dependency on the institution in financing the program. Second, initiative and innovation are relatively limited because the concept of the Pusaka Sakinah program has not been understood and there has even been a misinterpretation on transforming KUA, causing disorientation, reduction, and even rejection of programs that are seen as burdensome to KUA. Third, the synergy of implementation program with similar programs carried out by other ministries and local governments is still low. In this regard, the Ministry of Religion needs to make efforts to increase the intended synergy which will also have a positive impact on the availability of resources in program implementation.

Estetica vieții cotidiene în filozofia RSR

The present paper analyses the emergence of a novel field of interest in the philosophical aesthetics of the 1960s in Romania: the aesthetics of everyday life. As such, it first starts by drawing out an overview of the aesthetic discussions in 1950s Romania by closely reading several articles from the main philosophical journal of the period: Cercetări filozofice. In this regard, I focus on two main aspects, namely the theory of reflection, which was the guiding principle of Marxist-Leninist aesthetics, and the theory of the social function of art. Further on I will sketch out how these two aspects defined the main traits of the local aesthetics of everyday life, a topic which took the center fold of aesthetic interest for almost a decade, and which has ever since the early 2000s found renewed interest.

CONSUMING CONCERNS: LANGUAGE STYLE OF HUMOUR ON FOUR FEMALE STAND-UP COMEDIANS

Comedy is a male-dominated world as sociolinguistics theory also mentions that women employ less humour compared to men. However, female comedians also appeared on television. In Indonesia, Stand-Up Comedy Indonesia (SUCI) is a popular stand-up comedy competition broadcasted by a reputable national network channel, Kompas TV. Interestingly, numerous young female stand-up comedians also took part as participants of SUCI. This study aimed to analyse humour performed by four female comedian finalists from different cultural backgrounds such as Arab-Indonesian, Chinese-Indonesian, British expatriate, and Indonesian with Batak ethnicity. This study employed a qualitative method by applying various techniques such as video selection, downloading, transcribing relevant data, reducing data, applying theories, and concluding. The data were analysed using the theory of women's language and the theory of types and functions of humour. The study found that women employed humour in stand-up comedy to speak up their minds and share their concerns with the audiences using various language styles, including rhetorical questions, hypercorrect grammars, taboo words, and rising intonations. The humour was employed primarily to share their concerns toward sensitive cultural issues such as stereotypes and identity, sexism, relationship and gender equality, and body positivity. In addition, it contributes to enriching the theory of women's language style and humour.
 Keywords: humour, stand up comedy competition, women's language style, identity

On Filtration in a Rectangular Interchange with a particularly Unpermatable Vertical wall in the Evaporation

We consider a plane steady-state filtration in a rectangular bridge with a partially impermeable vertical wall in the presence of evaporation from a free surface of groundwater. To study the effect of evaporation, a mixed multiparametric boundary-value problem of the theory of analytic functions is formulated and using the method of P. Y. Polubarinova-Kochina. Based on the proposed model, an algorithm is developed to calculate the dependence of efficiency and productivity of hydrodynamic analysis.

English

The manifestation of addiction in modern day American society is novel in its materialization. Marxist concepts of self-estrangement and alienation provides a frame for viewing the way market capitalism and the way labor distribution negatively impact individuals because it supplies humans with false needs and a sense of disillusionment. The utilization of labor as identity and emphasis on profit creates a divide between a person and his self, a disconnect that ultimately causes an overarching culture of dissatisfaction in multiple areas of life. Durkheim’s conceptualizations of anomie theorize the classification of addiction as a form of slow suicide due to external social forces, and the functionalist theory of society serves as a frame for the purpose the addict identity as deviant plays an important role in instigating and upholding certain ideologies of capitalist control and individualism.    Key words: Marx, Durkheim, addiction, capitalism.

Pumping Up the Base: Deployment of Strong Emotion and Simple Language in Presidential Nomination Acceptance Speeches

Background and Method: This research examines the nomination acceptance speeches of US presidential candidates from Republican and Democratic parties in the post-WWII mass communication era (1948–2020, 38 speeches). Variables studied are the emotional tone of the speeches, their abstractness, their Grade Level, their employment of personal pronouns and their mentions of “America”. Speeches were scored with the Dictionary of Affect in Language (a sentiment analysis tool).Predictions: On the basis of functionalist theories of political discourse, it was predicted that the speeches would have a pleasant and active or celebratory emotional tone. Based on related research that focused on the effects of mass distribution on presidential communications, it was predicted that the speeches would increase in pleasantness, arousal and linguistic simplicity across years.Results: As predicted, speeches were pleasant and active in tone. Across years, speeches became significantly more arousing, less abstract, simpler, and longer. When individual speeches were divided into five equal portions, a strong significant quadratic trend was observed for pleasantness, which started high at the beginning of a speech, fell in the center, and rose again at the end.Conclusions: Presidential nomination acceptance speeches are emotionally pleasant and active and linguistically simple (Grade 8 level). Between 1948 and 2020, they remained pleasant, and became more active and simpler. In service of their aim to “pump up the base” individual speeches began on a pleasant, nationalistic and personal note, encompassed duller and more impersonal material in their centers, and became positive again at the end.

A Formal Analysis of the Concept of Behavioral Individuation of Mental States in the Functionalist Framework

The functionalist theory of mind proposes to analyze mental states in terms of internal states of Turing machine, and states of the machine’s tape and head. In the paper, I perform a formal analysis of this approach. I define the concepts of behavioral equivalence of Turing machines, and of behavioral individuation of internal states. I prove a theorem saying that for every Turing machine T there exists a Turing machine T’ which is behaviorally equivalent to T, and all of whose internal states of T’ can be behaviorally individuated. Finally, I discuss some applications of this theorem to computational theories of mind.

Coefficients Calculation of Laurent Series in the Neighborhood of Complex Variable Function Poles

The theory of complex function is a key part of mathematics, which can solve the complex problems in production and life. It is of great significance to extend the research field of complex function theory. In this paper, taking a complex variable function as the research object, a calculation method of Laurent series coefficient of complex function pole neighborhood expansion was proposed to determine the complex variable function pole, determine the order of complex variable function pole, calculate the residue of high-order pole in complex variable function, thus judging the attribute of complex variable function. In this regard, the coefficient formula was used to calculate the coefficients of Laurent series in the neighborhood of the complex variable function poles.

Ramanujan continued fractions of order sixteen

We study the continued fractions [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] of order sixteen by adopting the theory of modular functions. These functions are analogues of Rogers–Ramanujan continued fraction [Formula: see text] with modularity and many interesting properties. Here we prove the modularities of [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] to find the relation with the generator of the field of modular functions on [Formula: see text]. Moreover we prove that the values [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] are algebraic integers for certain imaginary quadratic quantity [Formula: see text].

Trade Mark Functions in Business Practice: Mapping the Law Through the Search for Economic Content

The functions theory seemed to herald the modernisation of European trade mark law through the recognition and protection of trade mark functions other than source-identification, namely those of quality, advertising, investment and communication. However, more than a decade into its inception, the doctrinal edifice of trade mark functions remains far too underdeveloped to provide the required degree of legal certainty in everyday practice. Despite scholars’ and decision makers’ efforts to give content to these functions, their economic dimension remains largely unexplored. This article seeks to fill this gap in trade mark scholarship by exploring how each function maps to different branding strategies deployed by firms in the course of trade. This will bring much-needed clarity to the field by allowing to better delimit the contours of each function. Perhaps more importantly, it can provide the required analytical tools to better frame each function within its market context and, thus, for improved fine-tuning of the protection afforded to trade marks under the functions theory.

Multiloop Multirate Continuous-Discrete Drone Stabilization System: An Equivalent Single-Rate Model

The article discusses the UAV lateral motion stabilization system, as a MIMO multiloop multirate continuous-discrete system, specified in the form of an input–output model in the domain of discrete Laplace transform or in the form of a structural diagram. Approaches to the construction of equivalent T and NT single-rate models for MIMO multiloop multirate continuous-discrete systems are considered. Here, T is the largest common divisor of the sampling periods of the system, N is a natural number that is the smallest common multiple of the numbers characterizing the sampling periods of the system. The resulting impulse representations of the outputs of equivalent models are in the form of rational functions. The basis for the construction of these models is a matrix of sampling densities—a structural invariant of sampling chains. An example of the construction of the indicated matrix and an equivalent single-rate model are given. Obtaining equivalent single-rate models for MIMO multiloop multirate systems allows us to extend the methods of research and synthesis of MIMO continuous and continuous-discrete systems to a common theoretical base—the theory of polynomials and rational functions, which are typical elements of the description of these classes of systems.

Geguritan Kebo Iwa (Kajian Bentuk, Fungsi, dan Pendidikan Karakter)

<em><span lang="EN-US">The uniqueness of Balinese culture in the form of folklore (satua), should be preserved as an ancestral heritage that contains elements of education, especially in character building. One of the existing folklore is the Kebo Iwa story where its existence is starting to be forgotten. By one of the sons of Bali, the story of Kebo Iwa is presented in the form of geguritan as an educational medium with Hinduism in mind. Geguritan Kebo Iwa was formed by pupuh who were already known to the public, bound by the Padalingsa rules. The work of Mr. I Nyoman Suprapta uses the common Balinese language and the presentation time is short so that the contents and meanings are easy to understand, can provide enlightenment and foster a sense of pride, especially to the younger generation of Bali. The general purpose of research is as an effort to explore, preserve, develop, and describe conceptual values. The specific objectives are to find out the form, explain the function, and understand the value of character education in Geguritan Kebo Iwa. The concepts presented are form, function, and character education, which are guided by structuralism theory, function theory, semiotic theory and value theory. This type of research uses qualitative research. The primary data source is the Geguritan Kebo Iwa manuscript, the secondary data includes books, magazines, and other libraries that are considered relevant, as well as the results of observations, interviews, literature studies and documentation to ensure the truth of the data obtained.</span></em>

Modeling Infrared Superlattice Photodetectors: From Nonequilibrium Green’s Functions to Quantum-Corrected Drift Diffusion

Carrier transport in type-II superlattice photodetectors is investigated by means of a rigorous nonequilibrium Green's function model based on a physics-based B\"uttiker-probe formalism. Intraband scattering self-energies (carrier-phonon interactions) are computed in the self-consistent Born approximation, while interband self-energies (Shockley-Read-Hall and optical transitions) are included in terms of semiclassical generation-recombination rates, neglecting interband renormalization effects. Current conservation is achieved with an efficient Newton-Raphson algorithm. While carrier transport in infrared detectors is usually understood in terms of quantities (e.g., mobilities and quasi-Fermi-levels) that are admittedly not germane to nonequilibrium Green's function theory, the proposed model provides a quantum-kinetic description of tunneling, miniband transport, hopping, and carrier extraction within a drift-diffusion-friendly framework. The connection with semiclassical theories allows exploration of the possibilities offered by Poisson-Schr\"odinger or localization landscape drift-diffusion approaches.

Education and the achievement of national development through girl child empowerment in Nigeria

Education plays a very pertinent role in promoting development, as it is concerned with imparting knowledge, skills, attitudes, belief systems and values. This paper focuses on the utilization of the girl child education as an effective tool to foster national development. It conceptualized education, girl child education, empowerment and National Development. The theory of functionalism was adopted to offer credence to the paper. This paper vividly explicates how various negative attitudes and negligence towards the girl child education in African continent in general and Nigeria to be specific has exacerbated poverty, illiteracy and untold hardship on the citizenry. It further unraveled the strategies for using girl child education as an instrument for national development thereby eradicating poverty in Nigeria. Based on the issues raised in the paper, as education remains a formidable weapon of socio- economic development of any nation, the paper recommends the need for change in the Nigerian policy towards education, especially the girl child education by improving public budget in education, improve education for self-reliance, to enhance educational efficiency by improving on skills learning via entrepreneurship education and building of critical and objective reasoning, and girl child empowerment.