scholarly journals How Sustainability Is Defined: An Analysis of 100 Theoretical Approximations

Mathematics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 1308
Author(s):  
Arturo Luque González ◽  
Jesús Ángel Coronado Martín ◽  
Ana Cecilia Vaca-Tapia ◽  
Francklin Rivas

Sustainability processes are imperfect, hence there is a need to analyze their construction, evolution and deployment. To this end, a sample of one hundred sustainability constructs was taken, together with their conceptual approaches, in order to gauge their impact and to ascertain the dimensions to which they belong. A frequency count and categorization were carried out using Google, which saturated in seven dimensions: economic, social, environmental, legal, political, ethical and cultural. A higher-order association of these hierarchies was then proposed, establishing a triad model that indicated only the most representative combinations of dimensions resulting from the extraction of the most significant definitions. From these definitions and in accordance with their frequency of use in Google, it is inferred that the current concept of sustainability is based on the economic-social-ethical category. This highlights the distance between what, a priori, seems to implicitly allow any definition of sustainability and the existing reality.

2022 ◽  
pp. 44-71
Author(s):  
Arturo Luque González ◽  
Aracely Berenice Apunte Guerra ◽  
Jeniffer Elizabeth Robles Briones ◽  
Jesús Ámgel Coronado Martín ◽  
Juan Carlos Morales-Intriago

Femicide is intrinsically part of gender-based violence, and the two are inevitably linked at all levels. Yet, despite having a common origin, there is a need to analyze femicide as a problem that must be recognized, in social and legal terms, as having its own, particular features. To achieve this, an analysis of 102 concepts was carried out through a frequency count in Google Scholar, followed by their categorization, saturating in six dimensions: economic, social, legal, political, ethical, and cultural. The methodology used a higher-order association of hierarchies by establishing a dyad-triad-tetrad model that shows only the most representative combinations extracted from the definitions of greater weight and scope. From this, it emerges that the current concept of femicide is defined on the basis of a dual social-ethical category in view of its frequency of use in Google. This highlights the distance between what, a priori, seems to implicitly allow for any definition of femicide and the existing reality that favors private or institutional interests.


2022 ◽  
pp. 78-101
Author(s):  
Arturo Luque González

The concept of consumerism brings together many of the social transformations that serve as predictors of present and future behaviors and act as vehicles for today's society. Its evolution is diffuse and corresponds to different periods of history that have incorporated the characteristics of desire, superficiality, and exclusivity that drive new needs and potentialities. Its importance underlies the need to analyze 46 theoretical approaches through their categorization in six dimensions and frequency count in Google Scholar. The methodology used a higher-order association, establishing the most significant combinations and weightings. From these results, the concept of consumerism is defined by the economic-social-cultural-ethical categories according to its frequency of use in Google. This shows economic influences as a determining factor, over and above processes that are far from the common good or the general interest.


2022 ◽  
pp. 154-176
Author(s):  
Arturo Luque González

The term knowledge society brings together many of the transformations that are taking place in today's society, and its definition serves as an indicator of these changes. The related concentrations or asymmetries that arise from the phenomenon are also the subject of analysis and dispute. Its development and scope have been uneven, constantly incorporating new meanings to the existing terminology, hence the need to analyze 82 concepts of the knowledge society through a frequency count in Google Scholar, with a subsequent categorization saturating in six dimensions, in order to analyze their framing. The methodology used a higher-order association, establishing the most significant combinations and weightings. From these results, the concept of the knowledge society is defined by the dual economic-social category, according to its frequency of use in Google. This shows economic influences as a determining factor in the knowledge society, engendering processes far from the common good or the general interest.


Mathematics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (12) ◽  
pp. 1340
Author(s):  
Damir Vrančić ◽  
Mikuláš Huba

The paper presents a tuning method for PID controllers with higher-order derivatives and higher-order controller filters (HO-PID), where the controller and filter orders can be arbitrarily chosen by the user. The controller and filter parameters are tuned according to the magnitude optimum criteria and the specified noise gain of the controller. The advantages of the proposed approach are twofold. First, all parameters can be obtained from the process transfer function or from the measured input and output time responses of the process as the steady-state changes. Second, the a priori defined controller noise gain limits the amount of HO-PID output noise. Therefore, the method can be successfully applied in practice. The work shows that the HO-PID controllers can significantly improve the control performance of various process models compared to the standard PID controllers. Of course, the increased efficiency is limited by the selected noise gain. The proposed tuning method is illustrated on several process models and compared with two other tuning methods for higher-order controllers.


Author(s):  
Chiara Treghini ◽  
Alfonso Dell’Accio ◽  
Franco Fusi ◽  
Giovanni Romano

AbstractChronic lung infections are among the most diffused human infections, being often associated with multidrug-resistant bacteria. In this framework, the European project “Light4Lungs” aims at synthesizing and testing an inhalable light source to control lung infections by antimicrobial photoinactivation (aPDI), addressing endogenous photosensitizers only (porphyrins) in the representative case of S. aureus and P. aeruginosa. In the search for the best emission characteristics for the aerosolized light source, this work defines and calculates the photo-killing action spectrum for lung aPDI in the exemplary case of cystic fibrosis. This was obtained by applying a semi-theoretical modelling with Monte Carlo simulations, according to previously published methodology related to stomach infections and applied to the infected trachea, bronchi, bronchioles and alveoli. In each of these regions, the two low and high oxygen concentration cases were considered to account for the variability of in vivo conditions, together with the presence of endogenous porphyrins and other relevant absorbers/diffusers inside the illuminated biofilm/mucous layer. Furthermore, an a priori method to obtain the “best illumination wavelengths” was defined, starting from maximizing porphyrin and light absorption at any depth. The obtained action spectrum is peaked at 394 nm and mostly follows porphyrin extinction coefficient behavior. This is confirmed by the results from the best illumination wavelengths, which reinforces the robustness of our approach. These results can offer important indications for the synthesis of the aerosolized light source and definition of its most effective emission spectrum, suggesting a flexible platform to be considered in further applications.


1944 ◽  
Vol 41 (6) ◽  
pp. 155
Author(s):  
Arthur Child
Keyword(s):  
A Priori ◽  

Author(s):  
D. Egorov

Adam Smith defined economics as “the science of the nature and causes of the wealth of nations” (implicitly appealing – in reference to the “wealth” – to the “value”). Neo-classical theory views it as a science “which studies human behavior in terms of the relationship between the objectives and the limited funds that may have a different use of”. The main reason that turns the neo-classical theory (that serves as the now prevailing economic mainstream) into a tool for manipulation of the public consciousness is the lack of measure (elimination of the “value”). Even though the neo-classical definition of the subject of economics does not contain an explicit rejection of objective measures the reference to “human behavior” inevitably implies methodological subjectivism. This makes it necessary to adopt a principle of equilibrium: if you can not objectively (using a solid measurement) compare different states of the system, we can only postulate the existence of an equilibrium point to which the system tends. Neo-classical postulate of equilibrium can not explain the situation non-equilibrium. As a result, the neo-classical theory fails in matching microeconomics to macroeconomics. Moreover, a denial of the category “value” serves as a theoretical basis and an ideological prerequisite of now flourishing manipulative financial technologies. The author believes in the following two principal definitions: (1) economics is a science that studies the economic system, i.e. a system that creates and recombines value; (2) value is a measure of cost of the object. In our opinion, the value is the information cost measure. It should be added that a disclosure of the nature of this category is not an obligatory prerequisite of its introduction: methodologically, it is quite correct to postulate it a priori. The author concludes that the proposed definitions open the way not only to solve the problem of the measurement in economics, but also to address the issue of harmonizing macro- and microeconomics.


2002 ◽  
Vol 7 (8) ◽  
pp. 423-452
Author(s):  
Marcelo Montenegro

The higher order quasilinear elliptic equation−Δ(Δp(Δu))=f(x,u)subject to Dirichlet boundary conditions may have unique and regular positive solution. If the domain is a ball, we obtain a priori estimate to the radial solutions via blowup. Extensions to systems and general domains are also presented. The basic ingredients are the maximum principle, Moser iterative scheme, an eigenvalue problem, a priori estimates by rescalings, sub/supersolutions, and Krasnosel'skiĭ fixed point theorem.


2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kwan Tze-wan

AbstractIn the Shuowen, one of the earliest comprehensive character dictionaries of ancient China, when discussing where the Chinese characters derive their structural components, Xu Shen proposed the dual constitutive principle of “adopting proximally from the human body, and distally from things around.” This dual emphasis of “body” and “things around” corresponds largely to the phenomenological issues of body or corporeality on the one hand, and lifeworld on the other. If we borrow Heidegger’s definition of Dasein as Being-in-the world, we can easily arrive at a reformulation of Xu Shen’s constitutive principle of the Chinese script as one that concerns “bodily Dasein.” By looking into various examples of script tokens we can further elaborate on how the Chinese make use not only of the body in general but various body parts, and how they differentiate their life world into material nature, living things, and a multifaceted world of equipment in forming a core basis of Chinese characters/components, upon which further symbolic manipulation such as “indication”, “phonetic borrowing”, semantic combination, and “annotative derivation”, etc. can be based. Finally, examples will be cited to show how in the Chinese scripts the human body (and its parts) might interact with other’s bodies (and their parts) or with “things around” (whether nature, living creatures, or artifacts) in various ways to cover the social, environmental, ritual, technical, economical, and even intellectual aspects of human experience. Bodily Dasein, so to speak, provides us with a new perspective of understanding and appreciating the entire scope of the Chinese script.


2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-70
Author(s):  
Gaëtanelle Gilquin ◽  
Andrew McMichael

Abstract This paper empirically tests a number of criteria proposed in the literature to identify the prototype of a linguistic category in order to see how they compare with each other - and what this can tell us about the concept of prototypicality. The item under investigation is through, and the starting point is an intuition-based definition of prototypical through. The different criteria are frequency of use, ease of elicitation, historical origin, patterns in L1 acquisition and patterns in L2 use. All instances of through retrieved for testing each of these criteria are classified according to a taxonomy couched in Construction Grammar terms. The findings confirm the special status of the intuition-based prototype of through (the [X moves through Y] construction) according to some of the criteria, but also reveal divergent results, in particular a central use of the instrumental prepositional phrase with through. Conclusions are drawn about the theoretical concept of prototypicality and its possible multi-faceted nature, and more generally about the place of empirical evidence in Cognitive Linguistics.


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