bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Stabilisation of non‐linear DISS systems with uncertainty via encoded feedback
Authors: Li Xiuxian , Li Chanying , Z. Q. Chen Michael
Published: January 2017

The global asymptotic stability of non‐linear systems with uncertainty through sampled encoded measurements is investigated. With the objective of achieving global asymptotic stability, some sufficient conditions are derived on sampling time and the quantity of uncertainty under differentiably ISS (DISS) condition, which can be relaxed under input‐to‐state stability (ISS) condition. Additionally, as a special case, the result when the non‐linear system is fixed without uncertainty is improved compared with that in Liberzon and Hespanha, where ISS, a strictly stronger condition than DISS, is employed.
Hierarchical identification for multivariate Hammerstein systems by using the modified Kalman filter
Authors: Ma Junxia , Xiong Weili , Chen Jing , Feng Ding
Published: January 2017

The parameter estimation problem for multi‐input multi‐output Hammerstein systems is considered. For the Hammerstein model to be identified, its dynamic time‐invariant subsystem is described by a controlled autoregressive model with a communication delay. The modified Kalman filter (MKF) algorithm is derived to estimate the unknown intermediate variables in the system and the MKF‐based recursive least squares (LS) algorithm is presented to estimate all the unknown parameters. Furthermore, the hierarchical identification is adopted to decompose the system into two fictitious subsystems: one containing the unknown parameters in the non‐linear block and the other containing the unknown parameters in the linear subsystem. Then an MKF‐based hierarchical LS algorithm is derived. The convergence analysis shows the performance of the presented algorithms. The numerical simulation results indicate that the proposed algorithms are effective.
Distributed filtering for a class of periodic non‐linear systems with jumping uncertainties and unreliable channels
Authors: Tao Jie , Lu Renquan , Su Hongye , Wu Zheng‐Guang , Xu Yong
Published: January 2017

The problem of distributed filtering for discrete‐time periodic non‐linear systems over sensor networks in the presence of jumping uncertainties and unreliable channels is investigated in this study. A random variable which is subject to a Markov chain is introduced to govern the jumping uncertainties. Considering the unreliable channels between the system and filters, a discrete‐time fading model is introduced to describe this channel fading phenomenon with the discrete probability distribution of each channel coefficients known a priori. On the basis of a fixed network topology, by establishing the periodic Lyapunov function, sufficient conditions on the existence of distributed filter are proposed to ensure the stability and dissipativity of the filtering error system. The distributed filter for discrete‐time periodic non‐linear systems is designed via solving a set of linear matrix inequalities. The merits and validity of the proposed design techniques are verified by means of a numerical simulation example.
Flocking motion of multi‐agent system by dynamic pinning control
Authors: Gao Jingying , Xu Xu , Ding Nan , Li Eric
Published: January 2017

The flocking motion in multi‐agent system with switching topology is investigated in this study. A dynamic pinning control algorithm (DPCA) is developed to generate a stable flocking motion for all the agents without the assumption of connectivity or initial connectivity of the network. For the switching network, the network topology may be varied with time. All the agents at each topology switching time are regrouped into some connected subgroups, and the agent with the highest degree in each subgroup is selected as the informed agents. Based on LaSalle Invariance Principle, it is proved that the proposed DPCA ensures that the velocities of all the agents approach to that of the virtual leader asymptotically, no collision happens between the agents, and the system approaches to a configuration that minimises the global potentials. Moreover, the convergent rate and the computational cost of the proposed algorithm are investigated. The proposed DPCA is also applied to the situation where the virtual leader travels with a varying velocity. Numerical simulations demonstrate the stability and efficiency of the proposed algorithm.
On SFTSM control with fixed‐time convergence
Authors: Li Huijie , Cai Yuanli
Published: January 2017

A singularity‐free terminal sliding mode (TSM) control scheme with fast and fixed‐time convergence for a class of second‐order non‐linear systems with matched uncertainties and external disturbances is proposed. A novel singularity‐free fast TSM (SFTSM) structure is constructed and the upper‐bound of convergence time is independent of initial states and can be set arbitrarily in advance. Then, the proposed SFTSM controller is designed by combining the SFTSM structure and the composite fast reaching law and the globally fixed‐time stability is guaranteed and derived with the phase plane analysis and Lyapunov stability theory. Finally, the simulation results for a single inverted pendulum tracking system are included to verify the effectiveness of the proposed control method.
Detection of mixed eccentricity fault in doubly‐fed induction generator based on reactive power spectrum
Authors: Faiz Jawad , Moosavi Seyed Mohammad Mahdi
Published: January 2017

Wide application of wind energy in the world towards reduction of global warming, have made the low cost maintenance of these turbines very important. Basically, mechanical faults such as gear‐box faults in these turbines lead to a long down time and consequently heavy financial loss. Generally, these faults cause eccentricity in the generator air gap, so by its early detection the fault can be largely prevented. In this paper, eccentricity fault detection is studied in doubly‐fed induction generator (DFIG) which is the most established generator in wind turbines and also is more prone to mechanical faults compared to other technologies. One of frequency components of reactive power is introduced as eccentricity fault index. As the reactive power is always evaluated in the control system, there is no need to include a new hardware for fault detection. Finite elements method is used to model the wound rotor induction machine (WRIM) which is coupled with closed‐loop control system. Following the validation of the model in the healthy case experimentally, eccentricity under different operating conditions is included in the modeling. Finally, a simple procedure based on simple signal processing methods is introduced for eccentricity fault diagnosis considering the operating conditions of the wind turbine.
Design guidelines for fractional slot multi‐phase modular permanent magnet machines
Authors: Li Guang Jin , Ren Bo , Zhu Zi Qiang
Published: January 2017

This study presents the design considerations for a fractional slot multi‐phase modular permanent magnet (PM) machine with single‐layer concentrated windings. The winding factors for various slot/pole number combinations are calculated to identify the optimal slot/pole number combinations for different phase numbers. In addition, the electromagnetic performance influenced by flux gaps (FGs), such as air‐gap magneto‐motive force, back‐electro‐motive force, cogging torque, on‐load torque and torque ripple etc. are comprehensively investigated by using the two‐dimensional finite element (FE) method. Several general rules with respect to the influence of FGs on multi‐phase modular PM machines performance are established. The prototypes of modular PM machines are built and the FE results are validated with experiments.
Voltage sag assessment using type‐2 fuzzy system considering uncertainties in distribution system
Authors: Mitra Rituparna , Goswami Arup Kumar , Tiwari Prashant Kumar
Published: January 2017

Power quality (PQ) is the key concern in every corner of the world today. Regarding PQ voltage sag is one of the most relevant issues. The causes of faults in distribution system resulting voltage sag are impact of wind speed on conductors and attachments, faults caused by cattle, animal, mice, rat, birds, bat, snakes and vagaries of weather seems to be definite but found unpredictable in quantum. Considering the intensity and the impacts of these uncertainties as an input interval type‐2 fuzzy system is applied to ascertain fault rates of individual lines in distribution systems. The fault rate of each line is calculated using type reduction Karnik–Mendel algorithm. Selection of the location of fault is done by Monte Carlo simulation to assess voltage sag in each bus of the distribution system. This approach is applied to IEEE 30‐bus system and Barak Valley 37‐bus distribution system for validation.
DFIG virtual inertia control in micro‐grid based on setting trigger condition and ZN method for parameters optimisation
Authors: Fu Yang , Huang Lisha , Zhang Hengyi , Mi Yang , Zhao Jingjing , Li Fangxing
Published: January 2017

The virtual inertia control (VIC) is used to design frequency regulation for a doubly fed induction generator (DFIG). The VIC method can be improved by adding supplementary control loops for inertia response and rotor speed recovery. In this study, certain delay time of the recovery module is replaced by setting a trigger condition to make the speed recover. Then the modified Ziegler–Nichols (ZN) method is used to calculate proportional–integral parameters of the recovery module quickly and accurately. Finally, the VIC method is applied to the micro‐grid switch grid‐connected mode to unplanned island mode. Simulation results demonstrate that the modified VIC method is effective to improve transient stability for the micro‐gird during switching mode.
Effect of transformer winding mechanical defects, internal and external electrical faults and inrush currents on performance of differential protection
Authors: Bagheri Sajad , Moravej Zahra , Gharehpetian Gevork B.
Published: January 2017

This study investigates the winding mechanical defects of power transformers including radial deformation and axial displacement of windings. The effects of these defects on performance of differential protection of the transformer will be investigated by modelling these mechanical defects using the detailed model in EMTP software. The inrush current phenomenon and internal electrical faults including turn‐to‐turn short circuit and terminal fault are investigated. Then, the differential and restraint currents, obtained using EMTP simulations, are analysed by MATLAB software. Using the statistical methods and extracting various indexes in MATLAB environment, these disturbances are discriminated and classified. Both the experimental and simulation results show that some winding mechanical defects affect the performance of the differential protection and the proposed statistical indexes are able to discriminate among mechanical faults, external faults, inrush currents and internal faults.
Efficient frame‐level bit allocation algorithm for H.265/HEVC
Authors: He Jing , Yang Fuzheng
Published: January 2017

Rate control (RC) plays a critical role in video coding for regulating the coded bit‐stream to achieve the target bitrate, which involves two basic steps: bit allocation (BA) and quantisation parameter selection. Here, the former is a key element to directly affect the performance of RC. So, in this study, an efficient frame‐level BA algorithm is proposed for the latest video coding standard H.265/high‐efficiency video coding (HEVC). First, by analysing the optimisation problem of the frame‐level BA, two factors have been found to be related to the frame‐level BA, which are inter‐frame dependency and the target bitrate. Then, a measure of inter‐frame dependency is put forward to reflect the correlation among consecutive frames. Finally, according to the results of allocation weights through the dynamic programming method, the relationships among the allocation weights and the two factors are investigated, and based on which the efficient BA model is established. Experimental results show that in comparison with the original RC scheme in HM‐14.0, the proposed frame‐level BA algorithm reduces, on average, BD‐rate by 5.19% with negligible encoding time increase. In addition, the proposed algorithm also achieves higher GOP‐level RC accuracy compared with the original RC scheme in HM.
D‐Q frame predictive current control methods for inverter stage of solid state transformer
Authors: Liu BaoLong , Zha YaBing , Zhang Tao
Published: January 2017

Solid state transformer (SST) is regarded as the most emerging technologies of energy internet. The inverter stage of SST supplies sinusoidal voltage to the home users. This study proposes model predictive current control (MPCC) of the inverter stage of SST. It is much easier to perform analysis and design controllers in DQ frame for the inverter stage of SST because all time‐varying state variables of the inverter stage become DC time‐invariant. Without integral action, the conventional MPCC contains steady‐state errors in both d‐axis and q‐axis currents, hence degrading the closed‐loop performance. The integral MPCC (IMPPC) is therefore proposed to eliminate the steady‐state errors of the current control system and improve its closed‐loop performance. Furthermore, the improved IMPCC is less sensitive to system parameter variations when compared with the conventional MPCC. Simulation and experimental results are utilised to show the successful design and implementation of the conventional MPCC and improved IMPCC. The experimental results reveal that the improved IMPCC has the benefit of fast dynamic performance, zero steady‐state errors and insensitive to system parameter variations.
Wind turbine manufacturers observation regarding reactive power support and control requirements
Authors: Dimov Atanas , Bolik Sigrid
Published: January 2017

With the increase of power generated by wind power plants, network operators have placed steady‐state and dynamic reactive power requirements at their grid connection point in several EU member states. This has forced wind turbine manufacturers to invest in upgrade of their technology and power plant owners and developers to invest in external compensation devices, adding to overall project costs. With the introduction of EU regulation Network Code Requirements for Generators (NC RfG) in 2016, it is expected that many countries (national implementation) will implement higher than currently required reactive power requirements accordingly to the new EU framework. The purpose of this study is to discuss the reactive power requirements and to investigate the reactive power support actually provided by wind power plants to date. SCADA data from a number of operational sites are analysed with regards to their actual reactive production utilising different control modes and to compare the given reactive power support with the requirements defined by the limits within the NC RfG. At the end of this study, a derived proposal for steady‐state reactive power needs and dynamic power needs are discussed, therefore a minimum technical reactive power provision required is derived based on the current utilisation.
Basic cadmium salts as phase‐directing agent for the phase and morphology control of metal hydroxychlorides
Authors: Cui Hongtao , Wang Li , Li Yanhong , Shi Min
Published: January 2017

Basic cadmium salts (CdOHCl and Cd(OH)NO3 ·H2O) were used as phase‐directing agents to guide the phase development of various metal hydroxychlorides including Cu2 (OH)3Cl, Co2 (OH)3Cl, Zn5 (OH)8Cl2(H2O), Sn3O(OH)2Cl3 and PbOHCl. The simple synthesis procedure includes only one step: solid basic cadmium salt was suspended in aqueous or ethanolic solution of metal salt for 6 h in ambient environment. The separated products from the solution had various morphologies such as sphere, bundle, sheet, hollow sphere and cube. The phase direction behaviour of basic cadmium salts can be attributed to their high reactivity, and most importantly to the structure similarity between basic cadmium salts and metal hydroxychlorides.
Excitons based on spatially separated electrons and holes in Ge/Si heterostructures with germanium quantum dots
Authors: Pokutnyi S. I.
Published: January 2017

There is a significant increase in the binding energy between the exciton's space-separated electrons and holes (the hole moves across the volume of the quantum dot, and the electron is localized on a spherical surface of the quantum dot-matrix interface) in a nanosystem containing germanium quantum dots grown in a silicon matrix, in comparison to the binding energy of an exciton in a silicon single crystal. It is established that in such a nanosystem, in the conduction band of the silicon matrix there first exists a band of electron-hole pairs which turns into a band of exciton states located in the band gap of the silicon matrix, as the radius of the quantum dot increases. It is shown that the light absorption mechanisms in such nanosystems are implemented by electron transitions between quantum-levels of the electron-hole pair, as well as electron transitions between the quantum-exciton levels.
Effect of low-temperature argon matrices on the IR spectra and structure of flexible N-acetylglycine molecules
Authors: Stepanian S. G. , Ivanov A. Yu. , Adamowicz L.
Published: January 2017

A study of how the matrix environment impacts the structure and IR spectra of N-acetylglycine conformers. The conformational composition of this compound is determined according to an analysis of the FTIR spectra of N-acetylglycine isolated in low temperature argon matrices. Bands of three N-acetylglycine conformers are identified based on the spectra: one major and two minor. The structure of all observed conformers is stabilized by different intramolecular hydrogen bonds. The Gibbs free energies of the conformers were calculated (CCSD(T)/CBS method), and these energy values were used to calculate conformer population at a temperature of 360 K, of which 85.3% belonged to the main conformer, and 9.6% and 5.1% to the minor conformers. We also determined the size and shape of the cavities that form when the N-acetylglycine conformers are embedded in the argon crystal during matrix deposition. It is established that the most energetically favorable cavity for the planar main conformer is the cavity that forms when 7 argon atoms are replaced. At the same time, bulky minor conformers were embedded into cavities that correspond to 8 removed argon atoms. We calculated the complexation energy between argon clusters and conformers, and the deformation energy of the argon crystal and the N-acetylglycine conformers. The matrix-induced shifts to the conformer oscillation frequency are calculated.
Efficient Degradation of Cellulose in Its Homogeneously Aqueous Solution over 3D Metal-Organic Framework/Graphene Hydrogel Catalyst
Authors: Huang Pei , Yan Li-feng
Published: January 2017

Catalytic degradation of cellulose to chemicals is an attracting topic today for the conversion of biomass, and the development of novel catalysts is a key point. Since metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) possess uniform, continuous, and permeable channels, they are valuable candidate as catalysts. Here, a new 3D MOF/graphene catalyst was prepared by in situ growth of the zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIF-8) nanoparticles inside the pore of an as-formed 3D reduced graphene oxide (rGO) hydrogel. The ZIF-8/rGO nanocomposite owns both micropores and mesopores with large specific surface area and plenty of acids sites, which is an idea catalyst for biomass degradation. Cellulose was dissolved in alkaline aqueous solution at first, and then it was degraded efficiently over the new catalyst under hydrothermal condition. The conversion reaches 100% while the main products are formic acid with a maximum yield of 93.66%. In addition, the catalyst can be reused with high activity.
Correlating Photovoltaic Performance of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell to the Film Thickness of Titania via Numerical Drift-Diffusion Simulations
Authors: Wang Yu-dan , Sun Zhe , Ren Ya-jun , Zhang Yan , Liang Mao , Xue Song
Published: January 2017

The thickness of TiO2 film is vital to realize the optimization on photovoltaic performance of dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Herein, the process of charge separation in DSSCs was simulated by using a drift-diffusion model. This model allows multiple-trapping diffusion of photo-generated electrons, as well as the back reaction with the electron acceptors in electrolyte, to be mimicked in both steady and non-steady states. Numerical results on current-voltage characteristics allow power conversion efficiency to be maximized by varying the thickness of TiO2 film. Charge collection efficiency is shown to decrease with film thickness, whereas the flux of electron injection benefits from the film thickening. The output of photocurrent is actually impacted by the two factors. Furthermore, recombination rate constant is found to affect the optimized film thickness remarkably. Thicker TiO2 film is suitable to the DSSCs in which back reaction is suppressed sufficiently. On the contrary, the DSSCs with the redox couple showing fast electron interception require thinner film to alleviate the charge loss via recombination. At open circuit, electron density is found to decrease with film thickness, which engenders not only the reduction of photovoltage but also the increase of electron lifetime.
Epigenetic changes of hepatic glucocorticoid receptor in sheep male offspring undernourished in utero
Authors: Chadio Stella , Kotsampasi Basiliki , Taka Stylliani , Liandris Emmanouil , Papadopoulos Nikolaos , Plakokefalos Elias
Published: January 2017

The aim of this study was to characterise the effects of maternal undernutrition during gestation on hepatic gluconeogenic enzyme gene expression and to determine whether such effects are mediated through epigenetic changes in the glucocorticoid receptor (GR). Pregnant ewes were fed a 50% nutrient-restricted diet from Day 0 to 30 (R1) or from Day 31 to 100 of gestation (R2) or a 100% diet throughout gestation (Control). After parturition lambs were fed to appetite. At 10 months of age offspring were euthanised and livers were removed. Maternal undernutrition did not affect offspring bodyweight at birth or at 10 months of age. However, liver weight of males of the R2 group was lower (P < 0.05) in relation to other groups. A significant (P < 0.05) hypomethylation of the hepatic GR promoter was revealed in males of the R2 group and a tendency towards the same in the R1 group, along with increased (P < 0.001) GR gene expression in both restricted groups. A significant increase (P < 0.05) in hepatic phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PEPCK) gene expression was found in male lambs of both undernourished groups, accompanied by increased (P < 0.01) protein levels, while no differences were detected for glucose-6-phosphatase (G6Pase) mRNA abundance and protein levels. In female lambs, no differences between groups were observed for any parameter studied. These data represent potential mechanisms by which insults in early life may lead to persistent physiological changes in the offspring.
Urban sustainability in an age of enduring inequalities: Advancing theory and ecometrics for the 21st-century city
Authors: Sampson Robert J.
Published: January 2017

The environmental fragility of cities under advanced urbanization has motivated extensive efforts to promote the sustainability of urban ecosystems and physical infrastructures. Less attention has been devoted to neighborhood inequalities and fissures in the civic infrastructure that potentially challenge social sustainability and the capacity of cities to collectively address environmental challenges. This article draws on a program of research in three American cities—Boston, Chicago, and Los Angeles—to develop hypotheses and methodological strategies for assessing how the multidimensional and multilevel inequalities that characterize contemporary cities bear on sustainability. In addition to standard concerns with relative inequality in income, the article reviews evidence on compounded deprivation, racial cleavages, civic engagement, institutional cynicism, and segregated patterns of urban mobility and organizational ties that differentially connect neighborhood resources. Harnessing “ecometric” measurement tools and emerging sources of urban data with a theoretically guided framework on neighborhood inequality can enhance the pursuit of sustainable cities, both in the United States and globally.
𝔸¹-equivalence of zero cycles on surfaces
Authors: Zhu Yi
Published: January 2017

In this paper, we study

A

1

\mathbb {A}^1

-equivalence classes of zero cycles on open algebraic surfaces. We prove the logarithmic version of Mumford’s theorem on zero cycles. We also prove that the log Bloch conjecture holds for surfaces with log Kodaira dimension

−
∞

-\infty

.
A DNA intercalation methodology for an efficient prediction of ligand binding pose and energetics
Authors: Soni Anjali , Khurana Pooja , Singh Tanya , Jayaram B
Published: January 2017

Motivation

Drug intercalation is an important strategy for DNA inhibition which is often employed in cancer chemotherapy. Despite its high significance, the field is characterized by limited success in identification of novel intercalator molecules and lack of automated and dedicated drug–DNA intercalation methodology.

Results

We report here a novel intercalation methodology (christened ‘Intercalate’) for predicting both the structures and energetics of DNA–intercalator complexes, covering the processes of DNA unwinding and (non-covalent) binding. Given a DNA sequence and intercalation site information, Intercalate generates the 3D structure of DNA, creates the intercalation site, performs docking at the intercalation site and evaluates DNA–intercalator binding energy in an automated way. The structures and energetics of the DNA–intercalator complexes produced by Intercalate methodology are seen to be in good agreement with experiment. The dedicated attempt made in developing a drug–DNA intercalation methodology (compatible with its mechanism) with high accuracy should prove useful in the discovery of potential intercalators for their use as anticancers, antibacterials or antivirals.

Availability and Implementation

http://www.scfbio-iitd.res.in/intercalate/

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Enzyme Activity, Cold Hardiness, and Supercooling Point in Developmental Stages of Acrosternum arabicum (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae)
Authors: Mohammadzadeh Mozhgan , Izadi Hamzeh
Published: January 2017

Several species of pentatomid bugs feed on pistachio fruits in Iran. Acrosternum arabicum Wagner (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) is one of the most important pests of pistachio in Rafsanjan, Iran. This study was carried out to investigate the carbohydrase activities, supercooling points, and cold hardiness profiles of different developmental stages of A. arabicum under laboratory conditions. The midgut amylolytic of A. arabicum showed an optimal pH at 7.0. The highest amylolytic activity was found in the female adults (35.41 ± 0.90 nmol/min/gut). The mean amylolytic activity measured in first instar nymph was 6.75 ± 0.54 nmol/min/gut. Midgut α- and β-glucosidase showed an optimal activity at pH 5 and 7, respectively. These activities increased from first (83 ± 5 and 54 ± 5 nmol/min, respectively) to fifth (881 ± 17 and 237 ± 14 nmol/min, respectively) instar nymphs. The enzyme activities increased in the adults. Midgut α- and β-galactosidase showed an optimal activity at pH 5. α- and β-galactosidase activities were low in the first instar nymphs (73 ± 5 and 21 ± 3 nmol/min, respectively). The level of α- and β-galactosidase activities in the female adults (533 ± 18 and 246 ± 6 nmol/min, respectively) was higher than the nymphs. The lowest super cooling points (−19 and −18.2 °C, respectively) and the highest cold hardiness (22 and 18% following 24 h exposure at − 20 °C, respectively) were recorded for the eggs and adult females.
Helping That Hurts Intended Beneficiaries: A New Perspective on the Dark Side of Helping Organizational Citizenship Behavior
Authors: Lennard Anna , Van Dyne Linn
Published: January 2017

Organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) is essential for organizations to gain and maintain competitive advantage in environments with constantly evolving demands. Although most of the literature implicitly assumes that OCB predicts positive work attitudes, affective states, cognitions, and behavior for employees and organizations, some work raises the question of when OCB fails to produce positive consequences, and scholars have called for a more balanced perspective that acknowledges possible negative consequences of OCB. In this chapter, we focus on the unintended negative outcomes of helping OCB to recipients. More specifically, we consider factors that paradoxically cause positively intended helping to backfire and have negative effects on recipients. To date, most research on outcomes of OCB has focused on performance outcomes. In contrast, we focus on nonperformance outcomes for recipients of helping because nonperformance outcomes are more proximal and can shed light on processes that influence more distal outcomes, such as performance.
To Be Black, Excess, and Nonrecyclable
Authors: Jones Janine
Published: January 2017

One way of understanding the white man’s burden is as a waste management problem. The White West abjected Africans and people of African descent, thereby enacting and enabling their perception and treatment as a form of waste. The value of black waste to white Western economies is discernable in the metaphysics of a white imaginary of black abjection. It is necessary to elucidate that metaphysics, which reveals the structure of a humanist discourse that imagines black bodies as alienated from language, and the degradation entailed by such alienation. For example, when Africana people today chant “Black lives matter,” they do so against the historical perception and treatment of black people as waste.
Race and Ethnicity
Authors: Gracia Jorge J.E.
Published: January 2017

Discussions of race are often entangled with ethnicity and vice versa. Indeed, some of the most difficult epistemic and social problems they each raise rely on solutions that involve the other. None of the views that propose solutions that involve the elimination of race or ethnicity, their reduction to each other or something else, or that neglect the constructive and realist elements in these phenomena provides a viable alternative that can serve as basis for solving the critical epistemic and social problems that race and ethnicity raise. The concepts of race and ethnicity, and the distinction between them, can be preserved through their proper understanding.
Cornel West, American Pragmatism, and the Post-Obama Racial/Social Dynamics
Authors: Johnson Clarence Sholé
Published: January 2017

Recent violent racial events in the United States, starting with the killing in Florida of Travon Martin by a white “crime vigilante” George Zimmerman, and followed in Fergusson, Missouri, by the killing of nineteen-year-old Michael Brown, by a white police officer, have provoked critical discussions about the issue of racial violence against young black males in US society. As a major crisis for black America, such killings have motivated cries about injustice from all quarters of society concerned with advancing social and racial justice. But while such calls have been made and outrage expressed in certain news outlets and by social activists “in the field” such as Black Lives Matter, there seems to have been an inaudible response from Cornel West, or one in which West deploys his theory of prophetic pragmatism as he does to certain issues he examines in Race Matters.
The Concept of Race and Equal Protection Law
Authors: Botts Tina
Published: January 2017

As equal protection law develops, the Supreme Court’s concept of race moves from sociocultural/sociohistorical to biological. Concurrently, (1) the academic concept of race moves in the opposite direction, (2) the Court’s understanding of why racial discrimination is problematic changes from how racial discrimination reinforces the badges of slavery to the idea that racial discrimination is problematic per se, and (3) whites begin to become successful at using equal protection law to protect them from “racial discrimination.” One explanation is that this is another example of the divestiture of the rights of blacks since the end of the civil rights movement.
How Mixed Race Is Not Constructed
Authors: Zack Naomi
Published: January 2017

American racial identities change over time and place, as all social constructions do, but they are also stable in historical and generational ways, because people in the same family are usually the same race. This is not the case for mixed race, particularly mixed black and white (MBW). People in mixed-race families belong to different races. Motives from self-interest, to lack of racial solidarity, to a sense of justice could motivate choosing mixed-race identity. Passing for the race others think one is not, and conforming or not, to norms for racial identities raise social and moral questions for members of the unconstructed racial group of mixed-race Americans.
White Privilege
Authors: Sullivan Shannon
Published: January 2017

The term “white privilege” attempts to make visible de facto systems of white advantage. Problems with the concept exist, however, affecting its ability to adequately capture contemporary forms of racial injustice. Examining the advantages and disadvantages of the concept of white privilege involves comparing it to alternatives such as (global) white supremacy and (human/black) rights discourse. These comparisons suggest that the concept of white privilege should be modified to white class privilege and that, to be maximally effective, racial justice movements need the concept of white class privilege in addition to that of human rights and white supremacy.
Leisure-Time Music Activities from the Perspective of Musical Agency
Authors: Karlsen Sidsel
Published: January 2017

This chapter aims to understand the phenomenon of leisure-time music activities from the perspective of musical agency. It explores how individuals’ and groups’ recreational practices involving music can be seen as a means for expanding their capacities for acting in the lived-in world. The exploration proceeds through theoretical and experiential accounts. It first draws on literature from general sociology, music sociology, and the sociology of music education in order to elaborate on the broader notion of agency, as well as the more field-specific concept of musical agency. It then explores various music-related agency modes through narrating the author’s own experiences of participating in, leading, and observing leisure-time music activities. The chapter aims to dissolve the binary opposition between recreational music production and music consumption. It argues that the two poles instead can be understood as inseparably intertwined venues for the constitution of agency, musical taste and music-related learning trajectories.
DIY Recreational Recording as Music Making
Authors: Bell Adam Patrick
Published: January 2017

This chapter presents a portrait of DIY (do-it-yourself) recreational recording as it exists currently, using the personal example of a band’s music making processes. It also examines the evolution of DIY recording from its genesis to its current iteration (e.g., digital audio workstation) to illustrate how present practices have been informed and influenced by past practices. While DIY recording may not always be recreational by nature, the chapter focuses specifically on DIY recording as a leisurely pursuit. The ethos of DIY, self-sufficiency, is summarized by the idea that music making is all about producing your own music using whatever resources are available to you. Interspersing autoethnographic excerpts with an analysis of select primary and secondary historical documents on recording (home studio, project studio, tape recording, audio engineering), this chapter charts the development of DIY recreational recording as a process-based music making practice tethered to the tenets of ease of access and ease of use.
“Singer’s Music”
Authors: Malone Thomas
Published: January 2017

With a turbulent musical fabric of open and parallel fifths, high-decibel vocal production, and a grassroots DIY organizational structure, Sacred Harp singing has been described variously as “Gregorian Chant meets Bluegrass” and “Punk Rock Choral Music.” With historical roots in rural singing schools of New England and the American South, singing from The Sacred Harp tunebook remains a living, growing, and vital musical multinational subculture that operates without auditions, rehearsals, or performances. This chapter discusses participatory and social factors of music outside the presentational frame, the ideas of serious leisure, and philosophical notions of musicking and musical praxis to illuminate ways in which Sacred Harp singing stands apart from the concertizing traditions of Western art music and choral performance.
Grasping the Jellyfish of Music Making and Leisure
Authors: Mantie Roger , Smith Gareth Dylan
Published: January 2017

This chapter sets out the editors’ rationale for the book, and walks readers through the structure of this rich, multifaceted, and interdisciplinary volume. Music making as leisure has in the past and in some contexts been construed as vital to the pursuit of the good life, yet today the notion has become marginalized, and music making is frequently regarded as a dyadic domain for only professionals and consumers. Chapters include perspectives from psychology, sociology, ethnomusicology, community music making, and leisure studies in physical, online, and hybrid environments. Contributors provide rich analyses of a broad range of topics, including guitar playing, gaming, hip-hop, happiness and fulfillment, motivation, death metal, DIY and DAW (digital audio workstations), illegal raves, and reconnecting with former musician identities. Music making and leisure is a dynamic and vital framework for understanding more about the ways in which music making plays a part in the day-to-day lives of people.
Contemplating Compilations
Authors: Pate Joseph , Kumm Brian
Published: January 2017

Through this chapter the crafting of compilations is explored as an act, art, and expression of music making, illuminating the listeners’ and compilers’ positions as cocreators of meaning, function, and purpose. Music becomes repositioned and repurposed as found or sound objects that pass through Gaston Bachelard’s triptych of resonance, repercussion, and reverberations, a process of music speaking to so as to speak for individuals’ deeply personal and significantly meaningful experiences. The chapter addresses the question, “What motivates someone to partake in this personally meaningful, vulnerable, and artistic endeavor?” Using Josef Pieper’s conceptions of leisure as celebration, an orientation toward the wonderful, and an act of affirmation, the chapter concludes that the creation and crafting of compilations (e.g., mix tape) affords poetic spaces for connection, enchantment, felt-aliveness, or what Max van Manen called an “incantative, evocative speaking, a primal telling, [whose] aim [is] to involve the voice in an original singing of the world.”
Trust in Justice
Authors: Bradford Ben , Jackson Jonathan , Hough Mike
Published: January 2017

This article considers what it means for citizens to trust the police and criminal courts. First, a broad definition of trust is outlined. Four theories of trust formation and reproduction are then used to derive a set of propositions concerning the sources of trust in the legal system and the factors that sustain and/or undermine it. A brief review of existing criminological research that provides evidence on the relevance of these factors is also provided. The article closes with a discussion of the relationship between the concepts of trust and legitimacy in the context of the criminal justice system.
Richard Tuck, Natural Rights Theories
Authors: Lee Daniel
Published: January 2017

The chapter reconstructs the main arguments of Richard Tuck’s Natural Rights Theories in order to examine Tuck’s claim that a philosophical problem can be “solved historically” by investigating what role a concept, such as natural rights, might have played in various systems of thought. I focus especially on Tuck’s thesis that natural rights originated in the notion of dominium in medieval jurisprudence and theology, contesting the view that natural rights were a specifically modern liberal phenomenon. I also consider Tuck’s treatment of Gerson, Grotius, Selden, Hobbes, and Locke to highlight what he regards as the ambiguous “Janus-faced” character of natural rights, represented in two separate legacies—the “conservative” theory and the “radical” theory of rights. In recovering these diverse languages of rights, Tuck underlines their historically contingent character, while also forcing us to alienate ourselves from something that is all too often taken to be immediately familiar.
The Iron Heel and the Contemporary Bourgeois Novel
Authors: Knapp Kathy
Published: January 2017

This essay examines The Iron Heel in the context of twenty-first century realist fiction to argue while the novel may borrow from dystopian and science fiction, as well as leftist lectures and essays, at its heart, The Iron Heel is a bourgeois bildungsroman that has much to say to contemporary readers coming of age in an era of dramatically rising economic inequality. Read against the backdrop of the current economic and political climate, London’s futuristic novel about a fascist oligarchy intent on preserving its own wealth and power is not only prescient. It also offers an alternative to the neoliberal logic that recent bourgeois fiction cannot seem to escape.
From Atavistic Gutter-Wolves to Anglo-Saxon Wolf
Authors: Malinowska Agnes
Published: January 2017

The genealogical connection that London so clearly draws between the Fire People and modern humans in Before Adam suggests the centrality of technology—most basically, the transformation of natural resources into tools and crafts—to his vision of human evolution and species dominance. Indeed, we can follow London’s technological focus from the prehistoric world of Before Adam to the author’s Klondike stories set in the primitive wild to urban dramas like The People of The Abyss (1903) and The Iron Heel (1908), which take as their environment the modern industrial metropolis. Tracking the movement of technology throughout these works illuminates London’s sense of the evolutionary trajectories possible for his own turn-of-the-century historical moment, the “machine age,” as he sometimes called it.
The Sovereign Logic of Jack London’s Sea Stories
Authors: Scotch Hank
Published: January 2017

Jack London’s maritime writing often interrogates the difference between the savage space of the “outside” sea and the relative domesticity of land’s civilized interior, as well as the ways in which this spatial distinction supports the sovereignty of space, society, and the self. But instead of maintaining these spatial differences, London’s work is all about exposing their increasing indistinction in the early twentieth century and the effects such a spatial destabilization had on sovereignty itself. This interrogation of the new world order and its effects on previous forms of sovereignty, the chapter argues, is what makes London’s contribution to American maritime writing (especially The Sea-Wolf and The Cruise of the Snark) so important. London’s sea stories not only acknowledge the world’s new “nomos” but the effects this order has on political and personal forms of autonomy and coherence.
Jack London, War, and the Journalism that Acts
Authors: Roggenkamp Karen
Published: January 2017

Jack London’s reportorial work for American newspapers remains rich territory for investigation, especially given the porous boundaries between fact and fiction, news and story at the turn of the century—porous boundaries evident in London’s style, as well. This essay examines the articles he penned as a correspondent for William Randolph Hearst’s San Francisco Examiner during the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905). The dispatches from the Far East reveal how London deployed his literary skill to produce provocative reportage, and how he cast himself as a character type—that of the fearless newspaper man—in his own articles as he attempted to experience the real-life adventures of war and, in turn, offer those adventures up to readers through his true stories of the news.
A Framework for a Comparative Politics of France
Authors: Elgie Robert , Grossman Emiliano , Mazur Amy G.
Published: January 2017

The larger comparative theory-building and stocktaking goals and questions, and the plan of the book, are presented in this chapter. The major dynamics and developments of French political life are discussed in terms of explaining and understanding the evolution of French politics. The next section provides an overview of French political science to situate the analysis of the study of French politics both inside and outside France in the chapters that follow. The outside-in/inside-out approach of the book is next highlighted in terms of how the vast majority of the chapters follow a common three-part comparative framework: the development of the study of French politics first outside and then inside France and then the emerging research agenda. The chapter then outlines the book’s structure in three sections: conceptual foundations, large-scale processes, and comparative politics dimensions—institutions; parties, elections, and voters; civil society; and policy and policymaking, both domestic and international.
Political Communication
Authors: Gerstlé Jacques
Published: January 2017

This chapter provides a panorama of the community of scholars in France who work on political communication broadly understood and situates that body of work in the fundamentally interdisciplinary international field of political communication. The study of political communication in France, largely conducted by political scientists, has had to struggle to have its scientific credibility acknowledged both inside and outside France, arguably more so than other disciplines. While the scientific community, dominated by US-based scholars and often using the electoral persuasion paradigm, has become increasingly institutionalized at the international level, French scholars have been quite resistant to this international work. Recently, the electoral persuasion paradigm has been embraced to a certain degree and the emerging French research agenda includes experimental approaches, some critical sociology, and, as with all countries, a focus on new media. There has been little evidence of the ‘French touch,’ however, in the international political communication community.
French Economic Policy
Authors: Clift Ben
Published: January 2017

This chapter explores contemporary economic policy and state–market relations in France against the backdrop of comparative political economy debates about interventionism in the economy and international political economy debates about capital mobility and policy autonomy. Charting contemporary theoretical and empirical developments in the French case and beyond, the chapter explores how to situate economic policy within institutional and ideational context, and how interests can be brought into explanation. These three “i”s, it argues, represent different but not mutually exclusive ways to explore economic policy autonomy amidst international liberalization. It argues that insights from each of the three “i”s’ literatures have enhanced understandings of French economic policy, and informed its conduct to different degrees across the decades. It concludes with the potential for “post-dirigisme” to frame future research exploring the tension between the creeping influence of rules-based policymaking, co-existing and conflicting with enduring dirigiste practices and aspirations within French economic governance.