bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Effects of modal incompleteness on quantification of mode shapes complexity in vibrating structures
Authors: Iezzi F , Valente C
Published: July 2019

In experimental modal analysis, the mode shapes turn out to be complex due to the non-proportionality of damping in actual structures. For identification purposes, several indices have been proposed to quantify this complexity. Unfortunately, the effectiveness of the above indices is affected by the problem of data incompleteness that arises when a limited set of modal data is available, as in the case of reduced eigenvector components or in the case of band limited eigenvalues range. In contexts such as model updating, this problem makes it difficult to pair experimental versus numerical data and methods to compare the two sets of data are based on the reduction of numerical models or, conversely, on the expansion of the experimental one. However none of them reveals completely satisfactory. The present work aims to analyze the effectiveness of the above modal complexity indices. To this end, the most sensitive index found from previous studies is used in order to detect the mode shapes complexity compared to the damping non-proportionality in vibrating structures for different levels of modal incompleteness.
Wave transmission from asymmetrical changes of cross-sectional area in a beam
Authors: Takiuti B E , Manconi E , Brennan M J , Junior V Lopes
Published: July 2019

In this paper wave scattering from an asymmetrical change of cross-sectional area in a beam is numerically studied. Incident symmetric and antisymmetric Lamb waves are considered and multiple wave mode conversion due to interaction with the discontinuity are investigated up to high frequency (above the cut-off of the second symmetric Lamb wave mode, S
2). Results are presented in terms of transmission power coefficients, kinetic energy, and energy velocity. These are evaluated using the Wave Finite Element method to predict the wave modes from FE cross-sectional nodal displacements and nodal forces. It is shown that the methodology proposed can give an insight into wave scattering and multiple converted Lamb wave modes, which can be useful in Structural Health Monitoring.
Costs to achieve target net emissions reductions in the US electric sector using direct air capture
Authors: Supekar Sarang D , Lim Tae-Hwan , Skerlos Steven J
Published: July 2019

This paper examines the scale and costs of using direct air capture (DAC) with CO2 storage to reduce net CO2 emissions from the US electric sector by 70% in 2050 relative to 2010. Least-cost emission and technology trajectories are generated using an optimization-based stock-and-flow model of electricity generation to meet the 70% target. The analysis finds that the 30%–44% reduction in emissions projected under a least cost business-as-usual (BAU) scenario dominated by natural gas would fall well short of the 70% reduction target at 2050. Delaying reductions in BAU emissions beyond 2030 would require deployment of DAC to achieve the 70% target. Further delays to reduce BAU emissions until 2035 would require up to 1.4 Gt CO2 of DAC capacity to achieve the 70% target. Delaying reductions in BAU emissions beyond 2035 would require so much DAC deployment as to be implausible, placing the 70% target out of reach for most scenarios. Each year of delay in reducing CO2 emissions beyond BAU after 2020 increases costs to achieve the 70% target. A DAC-based emissions reduction future could cost an additional 580–2015 billion USD through 2050 compared to emissions mitigation starting immediately. This translates to approximately 100–345 million USD per day of delay starting in 2020. These costs arise not just from building DAC plants, but from replacing relatively young fossil fuel plants being built today with renewables as well as for the electric power needed for DAC. These results make clear that minimizing the costs of DAC deployment depend on reducing BAU emissions as early as possible, and if done quickly enough, DAC can be avoided altogether—which reduces costs the most. Hence there should be no delay in aggressively reducing emissions from the US electric sector.
Optimal power and resource-intensive process design under uncertainty
Authors: Lapteva T.V. , Nguen K.T. , Laptev S.A.
Published: July 2019

Approach to the solution of a problem of optimal power and resource-intensive process design under uncertainty is proposed. The problem has a form of two-stage optimization problem with separate chance constraints. The approach based on the problem’s functions approximations allows us to avoid calculation of multiple integrals. This allows us to reduce the problem of stochastic nonlinear programming to the usual problem of nonlinear programming.
The emergence of bifurcation phenomena during the flow of rheologically complex media in a tubular reactor
Authors: Livshits S.A. , Yudina N.A. , Dunaeva T.U. , Novikova O.V. , Prudchenko M.S.
Published: July 2019

Annotation

The mathematical model describing heat-mass transfer in the course of rheologically complex media in a tubular reactor is developed in the article. Using the example of the continuous production scheme for grade B2 polymethacrylate, solutions of the characteristic equations confirming the possibility of emergence of critical flow regimes for certain sets of control parameters were obtained.
Decrease of pressure losses in elbow fittings of ventilation systems of thermal power plant buildings
Authors: Ziganshin A M , Beljaeva E E , Logachev K I , Averkova O A
Published: July 2019

The paper presents the results of a numerical study of the flow in the elbows of the ventilation systems in buildings of thermal power plants. Elbow fittings, as well as other shaped elements of ventilation systems are the main causes of energy losses. A method is proposed for reducing such losses through the use of an insert profiling the sharp edge of the elbow along the outline of the vortex zone. For a wide range of practical dimensions, numerical models of “sharp” elbows at 90° have been studied, a good correspondence between pressure losses in them, numerical and known experimental data has been shown. The outlines of the vortex zones, as well as the lengths of the influence zones of the elbow on the flow parameters upstream and downstream, are determined. Next, numerical models of profiled elbows are constructed and studied; a significant reduction in pressure losses (up to 64%) and lengths of influence zones (up to 45%) as compared with unprofiled ones is shown. Dependence has been found to determine the local resistance coefficient of the profiled elbow, which can be used in the design of ventilation systems.
The analysis on air pollution characteristics at the bus stops in Jinan City
Authors: Weidong Gao , Wei Jiang , Xiaomei Gao , Mimi Zhou
Published: July 2019

The concentration of pollutants is higher near the bus stops because of the frequent start-stop emissions of bus vehicles, which brings great risks to the travel crowd. At the stop of University of Jinan, in Jinan City, PM2.5 concentration and PM10 concentration generally showed an upward trend, and the maximum concentration was mainly concentrated at 20:00-22:00, during the observation period; the concentration of PM2.5 concentration had two peak value, around 11:00 and after 20:00, respectively, during the non-smog weather; the concentration of PM2.5 concentration and PM10 concentration has been rising gradually from 6:00 to 22:00, and the peak value around 11:00 is not very obvious, during the smog weather, but the late peak of PM2.5 concentration and PM10 concentration around 17:00 is especially obvious. The peak of PM2.5 concentration and PM10 concentration of bus stop appeared due to the frequent start and stop of the bus. The content of heavy metals in atmospheric particulates is obviously higher, especially the concentrations of Cd, Cr, Pb and Hg are 59.56, 4.31, 8.68 and 4.19 times of soil background values, respectively, which are obviously enriched. the heavy metal concentrations in falldust are very close to the heavy metal concentrations of atmosphere particulate matter, the result indicated that the heavy metal emitted by automobile exhaust gas has no obvious influence on atmospheric heavy metal content in a short time, the disturbance of ground dustfall has a great influence on the concentrations of heavy metals in the atmosphere. The exposure level of PM2.5 and PM10 during haze weather conditions is far greater than exposure level of PM2.5 and PM10 during non-haze weather conditions.
Enlightenment of Foreign Theories of Sustainable Storm Water Management to Sponge Cities in China
Authors: Jiayu Hu , Manhua Li , Yang Shu
Published: July 2019

With the promotion of sponge cities in China, foreign theories of sustainable rain and flood management similar to sponge cities has also begun to attract attention from all sectors of society. In China, sponge cities are developing continuously. However, people’s doubts about sponge cities are rising because of people’s low understanding of sponge cities, some problems in the construction process of sponge cities, and the results so far are not significant. This paper makes a comparative study on the foreign theories of sustainable rain and flood management and sponge cities.
Study on the Controlling Factors of Coal Seam Distribution in Jurassic Yan’an Formation in Longdong Area in Ordos Basin
Authors: Li Zhenhua , Zhang Suya , Li Xiangyang
Published: July 2019

The distribution characteristics of coal seams and the main controlling factors of coal accumulation of the Middle Jurassic Yan’an Formation in Longdong area are analyzed in this paper based on geophysical logging data, drilling data and sedimentation background. The results show that the central and western parts of Longdong are the main development areas of coal seams, the coal seams are thick in the west and south, while they are thin in the east and north, and thickness of coal seams in this area ranges from 10m to 30m. The characteristics of sedimentary structure indicate that the warm and humid climate, palaeogeographic environment of swamp facies, palaeo-vegetation and late tectonic movement influenced the formation and distribution of coal in Longdong area. The study suggests that the coal resource in Longdong area is rich and preserved well, and its structure is simple, so it is favourable for exploration and has great economic potential.
Research on Optimization of LNG pressure control safety accessories based on fault tree analysis
Authors: Liu Hongkai , Zhu Genmin , Zhang Mingqiang , Shen jiankang , Zhang Xiaohui
Published: July 2019

This paper classifies more than 20 accidents according to the main factors and types of accidents from 1994 to now. Through analysis, it is found that the safety attachment of LNG pressure control is a weak link in LNG storage system. The safety attachment of LNG pressure control is analyzed from four aspects of people machine Environmental management, and the fault tree model is established. After calculation, the minimum cut set and structural importance of the safety attachment of LNG pressure control are obtained. Based on the fault tree analysis results of LNG pressure control safety accessories and the statistical results of 20 accidents, control measures and suggestions are put forward from the peripheral layout, electrical, equipment, installation, production operation, daily maintenance of LNG pressure control safety accessories, in order to prevent and reduce accidents caused by LNG pressure control safety accessories.
Design of half-rotating impeller tidal turbine and its energy-capturing characteristics
Authors: Wang Xiaoyi , Gao Xu , Xue Kang , Zhang Yuhua , Zhang Liangan , Qiu Zhizhen
Published: July 2019

Based on characteristics of the half-rotating mechanism, a new type of vertical axis turbine with characteristic of lift-drag combination was proposed, which named the half-rotating impeller tidal turbine(HRITT). The turbine was composed of rotary mechanism, alignment mechanism and support mechanism. The mechanism design and manufacture of the HRITT were completed and underwater operation experiments were carried out to verify the rationality of mechanism design and its good self-starting performance. Through the hydrodynamic simulation of the impeller by Xflow, the changes of pressure and velocity around the blades in the flow field were analyzed, which proved the feasibility of the operation and energy-capturing characteristics of lift-drag combination of the HRITT.
Preparation and characteristics of magnetic water hyacinth
Authors: Zeng Huiting , Wu Xiaoqing , Zeng Honghu , Zhang Hua , Shahab Asfandyar
Published: July 2019

The preparation process and method of magnetic water hyacinth(MBC) were conducted, and the morphological structure and surface characteristics of biochar were characterized. The optimal MBC preparation method was obtained under different carbonation temperatures, impregnation times, and mass ratio of potassium carbonate to water Gourd: carbonization temperature is 450 °C, iron nitrate concentration is 0.2 M, and the mass ratio of potassium carbonate to water hyacinth is 0.5:5.
Seismic damage pattern analysis of high piers of RC bridges based on the fiber model
Authors: Li Zheng , Ren Qingying
Published: July 2019

The practical method of the seismic damage analysis of high piers of RC bridges is established using the uniaxial modified Faria-Oliver damage model for concrete and modified Menegotto-Pinto model for rebars, based on the fiber beam-column element, in the FEA software ABAQUS. Furthermore, the seismic damage analysis of short pier and high piers of different section sizes are conducted, respectively. The results indicate that for the short piers the damage zone is located at the bottom of piers. However, the high piers tend to have multi-location damage zones, and the tendency is more obvious for the high piers with a more slender shape.
Development of a Practical Uniaxial Cyclic Constitutive Model for Concrete
Authors: Li Zheng , Ren Qingying
Published: July 2019

The uniaxial stress-strain curves of concrete suggested in Chinese Concrete Standard (GB50010-2010) are combined with the modified Yassin hysteretic rule. The integrated cyclic constitutive model for concrete is aimed at the nonlinear analysis of the reinforced concrete (RC) structures under strong earthquake. The model is implemented into general-purpose FEA software ABAQUS through the user material subroutine VUMAT. Then, some typical performances of the proposed model are verified. Furthermore, a seismic damage analysis of a multi-story RC frame structure is conducted using the cyclic model. The results show that the constitutive model is applicable to the nonlinear seismic analysis of RC structures.
Research on Investment Management System and Supervision System Construction of Power Grid Enterprise Group
Authors: Ma Yungao , Xia Liyu , Lu Qiang
Published: July 2019

This paper analyzes the internal and external situations faced by the power grid enterprise group investment management system and supervision, and puts forward the ideas and key points of the group company’s investment management system and supervision system optimization and improvement. It will play a positive role in implementing the state’s legal management of enterprises, standardizing investment activities, preventing and controlling investment risks, and achieving high-quality development.
A new method for division water injection layers based on difference of interlayer percolation resistance
Authors: Haidong Wang , Yikun Liu , Jiqiang Zhi , Jianpeng Sun
Published: July 2019

Dynamic split model for injection fluid of water drive oil production was established based on theoretical calculation. It can be used to analyse the mutual interference between the layers in the arbitrary water cut stage and predict the occurrence and aggravation of the interference node. The results show that: Liquids preferentially pass through areas with low percolation resistance, so the difference of interlayer percolation resistance is the essence of interlayer contradiction; Percolation resistance is mainly determined by the difference of layers (Permeability and Thickness of layer) and dynamic water status. The greater the percolation resistance difference is, the worse the average degree of injection fluid is, and the lower the oil production efficiency is; A new method of water injection layer division was established to weaken the interlayer interference from the source. This method considered influence factors of permeability, thickness and water cut. And the new method is better than the old method of assigning water injection interval only by the limit of permeability differential. It can guide the high efficiency production of oil field.
Audible Noise Characters Analysis of 220kV Xiangtang Transmission Line
Authors: Zhao Can , Zhao Xinmin , Wu Fayuan , Xu Chenyong
Published: July 2019

In order to know the corona audible noise characters of the 220kV transmission line and its influences on nearby residents’ life, we measured the corona discharge UV-light, the environmental noise and sound energy of the transmission line respectively. The study results showed that the corona discharge occurred at the transmission line. The audible noise sound level on the roof was 46.2dB(A) at night, that was slightly beyond the limit value of the first zone of Sound Environment Quality Standard. At night, the transmission line audible noise like ‘SiSi’ was so obvious that disturbs residents. The sound energy analysis results showed that the transmission line audible noise energy focused on the frequency range below 200Hz. The directivity study of sound intensity showed that the highest sound energy happened at 100 Hz in the direction from the transmission line to the top floor of the residents’ house, in which explains that the transmission line noise, slightly beyond the limit, is obvious.
Review on the Leak Detection Technology of Unsymmetrical Dimethylhydrazine
Authors: Xie Chuang , Mu Xiaogang , Wang Xuanjun
Published: July 2019

Unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (UDMH) is a flammable, combustible, volatile and highly toxic hazardous chemical with strong corrosiveness. The leak detection technology of unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine mainly includes sensor method, detection tube method and personal monitor method. This review covers the theories, characteristics and applications of several gas leakage detection methods for unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazinthe (UDMH), and its development prospect is also discussed.
Lithofacies classification of fine-grained sedimentary rocks in the early Cambrian Qiongzhusi formation of Huize area, Eastern Yunnan Province
Authors: Cheng Yong , Wen Yiming , Xia Jianbo , Liu Cong , Chang Lantian
Published: July 2019

In recent years, the shale gas development boom around the world has made finegrained sedimentary rocks become the focus and hotspot of sedimentological research. Lithofacies are rock types and assemblages formed in a certain sedimentary environment, and are important parameters in formation evaluation. The lithofacies classification of fine-grained sedimentary rocks is an important basis for the study of hydrocarbon source rocks, shale oil and gas and tight oil reservoirs. Anchored in the previous studies, the lithofacies classification scheme of fine grained sedimentary rocks in study area based on mineral composition was established in this paper. The results prove that the main lithofacies of Qiongzhusi formation in study area are mainly felsic clay rocks and clayey felsic fine-grained sedimentary rocks, and a small number of which are dolostone, limestone, felsic fine-grained sedimentary rocks, dolomitic felsic fine-grained sedimentary rocks, clayey felsic fine-grained sedimentary rocks, felsic dolostone, and dolomitic mixed fine-grained sedimentary rocks. This study can provide some geological basis for the evaluation and regional election of shale gas in this area.
Asian American Literary Reception and Readership
Authors: Bhalla Tamara
Published: July 2019

Asian American literary studies, and multi-ethnic literatures more broadly, have maintained a constant faith in the power of literature as a potential tool of anti-racist education. This faith in literature’s potential is not naïve, since it also recognizes how even the most diverse and ideal literary education can be co-opted by the workings of capitalism and neoliberalism. These fields are founded in an enduring and powerful belief that literature affects the social, cultural, and political esteem of a minority group in the United States. Within the field of Asian American studies, academics, activists, and cultural critics have sought to harness the power of various forms of cultural discourse and literature by mediating the stories told about (and at times by) Asian Americans. As Asian American literature has grown in popularity, there has been increasing attention to questions of who is represented within Asian American literature and who is deemed worthy to produce these representations. Such concerns have over time produced an abiding if somewhat tacit interest in questions of literary reception in the field. In fact, although many of the major literary controversies in Asian American studies have circulated around questions of representation and reception and ushered in paradigm shifts in how the field has conceptualized itself, it is an area that remains understudied. Asian American literary reception study and studies of readership are still emerging and crucial areas of analysis that could pose and posit answers to questions of literature’s possibilities and limitations as a tool of anti-racism in 21st-century America.
Global China in 21st-Century Asian American Literature
Authors: Xiang Sunny
Published: July 2019

Contemporary English-language prose and poetry writers, primarily of Chinese descent, are employing a range of stylistic strategies and exploring increasingly diverse themes in their representations of China and Chineseness. Through these representations, these contemporary writers build on, adapt, and contest a historically complex relation between “global” and “China” within an American imaginary. Twenty-first-century literary novelists and poets raise many questions about this relationship. These literatures of and about “Global China” both extend from and depart from, a “Chinese American” literary tradition. For instance, writers such as Jenny Zhang, Sharlene Teo, and Wang Weike are reworking long-standing narrative tropes such as intergenerational strife and transforming conventionally ethnic genres such as the autobiography. Contemporary literary works also take more heterogeneous approaches to referencing the United States and even “the West” more generally. And, unlike a prior tradition of Chinese American literature, these works open us to consider multiple kinds of China that far exceed the putative origin point of Mainland China (the most famous instance is Kevin Kwan’s Crazy Rich Asians, which features Singaporeans of Chinese descent). On the flip side, representations of “Global China” may lack representations of identifiably “Chinese” characters (for instance, Rachel Khong’s Goodbye Vitamin). In other cases, Chinese characters may be relegated to a role, or Chineseness may be insignificant to a story’s plot. New themes and topics are emerging, most notably adoption, biraciality, mental health, and return-to-Asian journeys. Finally, the literatures of Global China include robust outgrowths of genre literature, ranging from speculative fiction to detective fiction. Writers of genre fiction include Ovidia Yu and Ted Chiang.
The View from Another Shore: An Island-Specific Approach to Literary Criticism
Authors: Luangphinith Seri
Published: July 2019

Scholarship surrounding literature from Hawai‘i has often been beset by battles over representation. In particular, controversies over how outsiders depict Hawaiian life and culture have been raised with texts such as James Michener’s 1959 bestseller Hawaii, and arguments about local and settler literary authority emerged as part of academic literary criticism back in the 1990s. Current scholarship on literature from Hawai‘i emphasizes ethnic and racial conflict, and in so doing tends to obscure other kinds of significant differences—between urban and rural, academic and non-academic, large- and small-scale production—that exist in literary practices in Hawai‘i. In contrast, there is a plentiful, heterogenous, and multifaceted body of writing that has been and continues to be produced on the Island of Hawai‘i (the Big Island). These literary practices include publishing houses that promote literature in multiple languages including English and Native Hawaiian, groups that actively seek to preserve Big Island culture and history (such as the memory of plantation life), and collaborative community and student efforts. Newer forms of expression such as bilingual manga, documentary film, musical theater, and Native Hawaiian and English rap music have added to long-standing traditions of storytelling, theater and performance, and life writing. Detailing these many voices and different kinds of writing and working directly with writers allows for a much more nuanced understanding of what “literature from Hawai‘i” encompasses and how it should be read. This interpretive model reconnects a large present-day and historical body of work to a specific place (as opposed to a vague notion of the islands) and to the Big Island communities who serve as the primary audiences and critical readers of this work.
Advertising and Journalism
Authors: Lauerer Corinna
Published: July 2019

News is produced primarily to inform readers and viewers. However, audiences are charged only a fraction of the high production costs or not asked to pay at all. The reason is subsidy by advertising revenue. Since the beginning of professional journalism, news has been bundled with advertisements. This way, media companies can sell the attention of audiences attracted by journalistic content to advertising companies, which in return seek to attract consumers to their products and brands. Beyond distributing both simultaneously, advertising and journalism can intermingle, which causes ethical concerns. From a normative point of view, news and advertisements should be separated clearly in regard to the production process and the content itself. The separation of “church and state” or the “Chinese Wall” between the newsroom and the business side within a media company are commonly used metaphors used to express the ideal of separation. This principle aims to protect journalistic autonomy from economic influences such as advertising considerations. Nevertheless, advertising interests may influence journalism in different forms and to various degrees. They are regularly discussed as influence on journalistic selection of topics as well as writing style, and as the source of attempts to blend advertising and editorial content. Scholarly concerns are increasingly consumer oriented and less critical journalism, biased reporting on advertisers’ brands or products, and the potential deception of audiences, for example, when hybrid forms of advertising such as native ads camouflage their commercial nature. The relationship between journalism and advertising has been treated as an orphan compared to the relationship to public relations or politics. However, the media organizations’ struggles for sustainable business models in the 21st century fuel discussions in media economics and journalism studies about whether advertising is a blessing or curse to journalism. In a nutshell, the relationship between advertising and journalism is as long-standing as it is ambivalent (see “Evolution of the Relationship”). On the one hand, advertising revenue largely lays the financial foundation for prospering professional journalism (see “Funding Journalism”). On the other hand, this financial dependency causes potential threats to journalistic autonomy (see “Influencing Journalism”).
Fictional Representations of Journalism
Authors: Painter Chad
Published: July 2019

Since the earliest years of the film industry, journalists and journalism have played a leading role in popular culture. Scholars debate whether journalism films—and by extension television programs, plays, cartoons, comics, commercials, and online and interactive stories and games—are a distinct genre, or whether journalists are featured in a variety of genres from dramas to comedies and satires to film noir. They also debate whether a film needs to feature a journalist doing journalism as a primary character or whether having a journalist as a secondary character still counts as a “journalism” film.

Regardless, research into depictions of journalists in popular culture is important because the depictions influence public opinion about real-world journalists, as well as the credibility and public trust of the journalism field. Indeed, the influence might be greater even than the actual work performed by real-world journalists. Popular culture cultivates legend and myth, and this cultivation is especially true for a field such as journalism because the majority of the public will never see the inside of an actual newsroom. Popular culture myths about journalism focus on its normative role. Journalistic heroes are the foreign correspondents and investigative reporters who stand for community and progress. Journalistic villains are the lovable rogues, remorseful sinners, and unrepentant scoundrels who break journalistic norms and roles.

A wide range of heroes and villains have been depicted on the big and small screen. For every Woodward and Bernstein working tirelessly to expose a corrupt presidential administration in All the President’s Men, there is a Chuck Tatum hiding an injured man in order to keep an exclusive in Ace in the Hole. For every Murphy Brown, a prominent and award-winning investigative journalist and anchor, there is a Zoe Barnes in House of Cards who has sex with sources and knowingly publishes false information. Many of the most interesting depictions, however, feature a character who has aspects of heroism and villainy. For example, Megan Carter in Absence in Malice attempts to be a watchdog reporter but destroys lives with her mistakes. Viewers ultimately are left with the idea that Carter will become a better journalist because of the lessons she has learned during the course of the film.

Due to the potential impact of these depictions, entertainers must hold themselves to a higher standard to fulfill their discursive role within the broader republic. Entertainment programming needs a positive ethical code because it helps inform citizens by raising questions, offering incisive observations, and voicing marginalized perspectives. The code is in its nascent stages, but it is past time for media ethicists to develop a social responsibility theory for entertainment and amusement, the dominant role of almost all media.
Media Systems and Journalism
Authors: Mancini Paolo
Published: July 2019

In the early days of media studies researchers essentially devoted their attention to the effects of the media message. This has led to a major focus on the choices of single individuals while the analysis of more complex entities and phenomena has often been given secondary importance. This has created a delay in dealing with the aggregate level of system that had already been at the core of sister scientific fields such as political science. From these fields, communication studies has derived many possible directions for a systems approach, in particular a focus on the complex framework of interactions with other systems and their reciprocal influences. Comparative research in particular has gained from the adoption of a systems approach. Nevertheless criticism has not been lacking and has pointed out some major weakness in the systems approach: the difficulty in setting the borders of a system and the risk of underestimating the processes of globalization that makes the identification of media systems with the nation state difficult.
Behavioral Science and Climate Policy
Authors: Howlett Michael , Rawat Stuti
Published: July 2019

Behavioral science consists of the systematic analysis of processes underlying human behavior through experimentation and observation, drawing on knowledge, research, and methods from a variety of fields such as economics, psychology, and sociology. Because policymaking involves efforts to modify or alter the behavior of policy-takers and centers on the processes of decision-making in government, it has always been concerned with behavioral psychology. Classic studies of decision-making in the field derived their frameworks and concepts from psychology, and the founder of policy sciences, Harold Lasswell, was himself trained as a behavioral political scientist. Hence, it should not be surprising that the use of behavioral science is a feature of many policy areas, including climate change policy.

This is given extra emphasis, however, because climate change policymaking and the rise of climate change as a policy issue coincides with a resurgence in behaviorally inspired policy analysis and design brought about by the development of behavioral economics. Thus efforts to deal with climate change have come into being at a time when behavioral governance has been gaining traction worldwide under the influence of works by, among others, Kahneman and Tversky, Thaler, and Sunstein. Such behavioral governance studies have focused on the psychological and cognitive behavioral processes in individuals and collectives, in order to inform, design, and implement different modes of governing. They have been promoted by policy scholars, including many economists working in the area who prefer its insights to those put forward by classical or neoclassical economics.

In the context of climate change policy, behavioral science plays two key roles—through its use of behaviorally premised policy instruments as new modes of public policy being used or proposed to be used, in conjunction with traditional climate change policy tools; and as a way of understanding some of the barriers to compliance and policy design encountered by governments in combating the “super wicked problem” of climate change. Five kinds of behavioral tools have been found to be most commonly used in relation to climate change policy: provision of information, use of social norms, goal setting, default rules, and framing. A large proportion of behavioral tools has been used in the energy sector, because of its importance in the context of climate change action and the fact that energy consumption is easy to monitor, thereby facilitating impact assessment.
Russia and the European Union
Authors: Casier Tom
Published: July 2019

Relations between the European Union (EU) and Russia have gone through a dramatic journey from close partnership to confrontation. The narratives of the crisis that erupted over Ukraine in late 2013 and early 2014 are diametrically opposed. The root causes of the crisis are primarily related to colliding visions of the European order that have existed ever since the end of the Cold War. Yet, to understand why the escalation happened at that time, one also needs to understand the dynamics of a process of increasing tensions and dwindling trust. The Ukraine crisis was thus both the outcome of an escalation of tensions and a radical rupture.

In the run-up to the Ukraine crisis (2003–2013), EU–Russia relations were characterized by a Strategic Partnership. The latter was launched in 2003, closing a decade of asymmetrical EU-centric cooperation and redressing the balance in a formally equal partnership, based on pragmatic cooperation and a recognition of mutual interests. Despite high aspirations, the Strategic Partnership gradually derailed into a logic of competition. Tensions eventually crystallized around colliding integration projects: the Eastern Partnership (aiming at Association Agreements) on the EU’s side and the Eurasian Economic Union on Russia’s side. The crisis erupted specifically as the result of the choice Ukraine had to make between the two options. This choice radicalized the negative geopolitical reading that Moscow and Brussels had gradually developed of each other’s behavior.

Since the start of the Ukraine crisis (2014), EU–Russia relations have been characterized by a harsh confrontation in the field of high politics. The Strategic Partnership was suspended and the EU imposed sanctions in response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea and destabilization of Ukraine. Moscow retaliated and relations became highly acrimonious. Security-related issues dominate the agenda: Russia accuses the West of neo-containment, while Moscow is blamed for undermining the pan-European border regime and security order.

The stalemate between Russia and the EU (and by extension the Euro-Atlantic Community) is ambivalent. On the one hand, it has taken the form of a systemic crisis, where both parties risk running from incident to incident in the absence of effective pan-European instruments that may constrain or reverse the conflict. On the other hand, in the field of low politics, in particular trade and energy, business often seems to continue as usual.
The Legal History of the European Union: Building a European Constitution
Authors: Rasmussen Morten
Published: July 2019

Attempts to analyze and understand how European law developed from a set of international treaties in the 1950s to a constitutional, proto-federal legal order, accompanied by a constitutional legal discourse today, has been a key concern in European studies in the last three decades. Legal scholars, political scientists, and sociologists have explored this from their specific disciplinary viewpoints and have produced a rich literature of sophisticated theoretical as well as empirical studies. Since the mid-2000s, historians have also finally—after years of negligence—taken an interest in European law and produced a new body of archive-based studies of the history of European law from 1950 to 1993. Based on primary sources drawn from private, national, and European archives, historians have contributed with much new empirical information and managed to uncover the social, political, and legal forces that have shaped European law in a qualitatively new way. The central argument is that the constitutionalization of European law was part of the broader battle over the political and institutional soul of the European construction. Even though the ECJ successfully constructed a European legal order that resembled and worked as a proto-federal constitution, the project ultimately suffered a defeat in not being able to codify this achievement in the Maastricht Treaty as part of a broader step toward a federal Europe.
Nonbinary Trans Identities
Authors: Aultman B. Lee
Published: July 2019

Nonbinary trans identities have historically referred to a range of gender non-normative embodiments and self-making practices that stand on the outside of, or sometimes in direct opposition to, the Western binary classifications of sex/gender (i.e., man or woman, male or female). These identities include but are not limited to androgyny, genderqueer, genderfluid, gender nonconforming, and genderf*ck. Increasingly, nonbinary has become its own free-standing identity, without many of the historical connotations that genderqueer, for instance, might invoke. Nonbinary people identify themselves with gender-neutral pronouns or a fluid mixture of gendered pronouns in social practices. Some transition and take on embodiments that have a particular gendered aesthetic. This may or may not include sexual reassignment surgeries and other procedures that are body confirming. In short, nonbinary people have varied and robust social lives.

The umbrella category of “trans” helps to situate some of the meaning and history of gender-non-normative identities. On the one hand, it can be a productive political vehicle that mobilizes communities of similarly felt histories toward collective action. On the other hand, it can limit the range of recognized embodiments and practices that have participated in the historically pertinent conventions that trans describes. The history of nonbinary identities is then a complex prospect. Such identities alter the categorical assumptions that underscore transsexual and transgender identities within binary terms. The complex narratives and histories of nonbinary trans identities raise some timely questions about the conventions of sex/gender in contemporary life. What constitutes one’s enduring sense of gender now that the binary itself has come under dispute? Should the gender binary be protected and for whom? In what varied ways do nonbinary identities alter a commonly shared imaginary of the bodily aesthetic? What role does desire play in the ongoing social changes in this long revolution of the body? The politics that emerge from these questions are becoming increasingly pressing as technology can now link otherwise isolated people across global boundaries. And finally, the reception of nonbinary identities offers important spaces of dialogue about the proliferation of identity politics, political movements, and the social divisions of labor these forces demand.
The Political Economy of Taxation in Latin America
Authors: Sanchez-Sibony Omar
Published: July 2019

While Latin America has augmented its tax effort significantly since 2000, tax revenues remain below the global norm given the region’s income per capita. Indirect taxes constitute a disproportionate portion of overall revenues, a manifestation of the political and technical difficulties inherent to taxing Latin American elites. Several structural factors characterizing the region hamper revenue collection, including mediocre economic performance, a large informal sector, high income inequality, the rentier status of some economies, and weak state infrastructural power, alongside feeble tax administration agencies, among other factors.

Political scientists have deployed three main paradigms for understanding tax policy outcomes and tax reform: interest-based, ideational, and institutional accounts. Interest-based accounts, centered on the political power and resources that interest groups can wield, provide a useful first approximation to understanding tax outcomes; nevertheless, this theoretical lens under-predicts the prevalence of observed tax reform in Latin America. The ideational lens is indispensable to account for the overall contours of the taxation system in the region, because tax reform was informed by the neoliberal paradigm. In recent years, moderately progressive tax policy changes have been enacted by left- and right-wing governments alike, reflecting the increasing centrality of addressing inequality (the vertical equity objective) in the realm of ideas. Democracy, qua a system of institutions geared to enhance the public interest, has not spawned the taxation systems that the median-voter theory predicts in the context of high societal inequality, however. Democracy has not fulfilled the taxation and fiscal policy expectations placed upon it. Nonetheless, structural factors may yet produce a salutary fiscal result. The recent increase in the size of the region’s middle class has translated into greater societal pressures to enhance the quality and quantity of public services, which may portend the development of a more encompassing state–society fiscal pact.
Party Finance in Latin America
Authors: Bruhn Kathleen
Published: July 2019

Modern representative democracy cannot function without political parties, however rudimentary. Parties in turn cannot function without money. The subject of party finance is therefore central to the construction of contemporary democracies. Latin American countries have attempted to meet the challenges of preserving democracy while providing for political parties across three main areas of financial regulation: provision of public finance, regulation of private finance, and limiting campaign spending. In all three areas, transparency (reporting), oversight, and enforcement of existing legal regulations remain important problems for the health of the political system.

In the late 20th century, Latin American countries increasingly turned to public finance as a way of supplementing existing systems of private contributions. This trend seems to have been inspired both by a desire to reduce the inequalities inherent in Latin America’s socioeconomic structure and by efforts to contain and prevent episodes of scandal and undue influence generated by private contributors. Public finance particularly benefits small parties and parties with fewer connections to the wealthy sectors that tend to dominate private contributions. Public finance may contribute to the institutionalization of both party organizations and party systems, but it may also weaken the dependence of parties on their members and supporters in ways that undermine representation.

Private finance in Latin America remains largely obscure. We know that relatively few private donors account for the lion’s share of party donations, but it is unclear in many cases exactly who donates, or what their money buys. It is therefore difficult for voters (and analysts) to determine the structure of party obligations to donors and to hold parties accountable. Partly as a result, drug money is believed to have penetrated the political systems of many Latin American countries, especially but not exclusively at the local level.

Campaign spending limits, including limits on the duration of campaigns and campaign advertising, have been employed in some cases to try to contain costs and thus reduce the incentives of parties to seek out private donations, especially of questionable origin. Lax enforcement, however, limits the impact of these initiatives.
Administrative Styles and Policy Styles
Authors: Bayerlein Louisa , Knill Christoph
Published: July 2019

There are distinct characteristics to the ways and procedures through which public administrations typically accomplish their daily tasks. The informal routines that characterize the behavior and activities of public administrations in the policymaking process are called administrative styles. They can be understood as the meso-level of organizational culture. Studying administrative styles is important for comparative research on policymaking because they capture and explain variance in policymaking and implementation beyond merely structural aspects or formal institutions. Similar to policy styles and regulatory styles, the concept of administrative styles has long been employed to describe state–society relationships. It has found to be a useful independent variable in the study various phenomena, such as divergent policy developments across European states, national idiosyncrasies in regulatory regimes or the impact of Europeanization on national administrations.

However, administrative styles can also be informative of the relationship between the bureaucracy with both their political masters and society and bureaucratic influence in policymaking. In this regard, one can distinguish two orientations underpinning administrative styles, namely positional and functional orientations characterizing informal bureaucratic routines and standard operating procedures. Depending on the prevalence of positional and functional orientations in behavioral patterns, it is possible to distinguish four ideal-typical administrative styles that apply to administrative routines of influencing the policymaking process: a servant style, an advocacy style, a consolidator style, and an entrepreneurial style. Variation in administrative styles across different organizations can be explained by two factors, namely the internal and external challenges they face. Understood this way, administrative styles could enable a comparative assessment of bureaucratic routines and influence in policymaking across different countries or sectors as well as in supra- and international bureaucracies.