Why Europe Does not Need a Constitution: On the Limits of Constituent Power as a Tool for Democratization

In this article, I question the use of the notion of ‘constituent power’ as a tool for the democratization of the European Union (EU). Rather than seeing the absence of a transnational constituent power as a cause of the EU’s ‘democratic deficit’, I identify it as an opportunity for unfettered democratic participation. Against the reification of power-in-action into a power-constituted-in-law, I argue that the democratization of the EU can only be achieved through the multiplication of ‘constituent moments’. I begin by deconstructing the normative justifications surrounding the concept of constituent power. Here I analyze the structural aporia of constituent power and question the autonomous and emancipatory dimension of this notion. I then test the theoretical hypothesis of this structural aporia of the popular constituent power by comparing it with the historical experiments of a European popular constituent power. Finally, based on these theoretical and empirical observations, I propose to replace the ambivalence of the concept of popular constituent power with a more cautious approach to the bottom-up democratization of European integration: that of a multiplication of transnational constituent moments.

Theoretical Problems of Soviet Underground Culture

This article presents a spectrum of theoretical problems associated with the Soviet artistic underground as a historical and cultural phenomenon. The central focus is on constellating issues of terminology and definition around the borders of underground culture in the USSR, within scholarship about it. As a theoretical hypothesis of the handbook, the chapter introduces the concept of the lifeworld, which the volume editors and contributors interpret as a synthetic multimedia nexus of a given nonconformist circle’s activities, both artistic and cultural. The underground lifeworld manifests the aesthetic discourse idiosyncratic for each artistic circle and serves as the source of semi-spontaneous “relational art” that absorbs and generates artworks, along with performative and communicative practices. Through the concept of the aestheticized lifeworld, the authors of this article define the historical specificity of the Soviet artistic underground in relation to the Russian historical avant-garde and Western neo-avant-garde.

Digital Therapeutics: Exploring the Possibilities of Digital Intervention for Myopia

Pediatric myopia is increasing globally and has become a major public health issue. However, the mechanism of pediatric myopia is still poorly understood, and there is no effective treatment to prevent its progression. Based on results from animal and clinical studies, certain neuronal–humoral factors (NHFs), such as IGF-1, dopamine, and cortisol may be involved in the progression of pediatric myopia. Digital therapeutics uses evidence-based software as therapeutic interventions and it has the potential to offer innovative treatment strategies for pediatric myopia beyond conventional treatment methods. In this perspective article, we introduce digital therapeutics SAT-001, a software algorithm that modulates the level of NHFs to reduce the progression of pediatric myopia. The proposed mechanism is based on a theoretical hypothesis derived from scientific research and clinical studies and will be further confirmed by evidence generated from clinical studies involving pediatric myopia.

Perspectival usages of French past time verbal tenses: an experimental investigation

In this paper, we carried out two experimental studies to investigate whether verbal tenses, in their perspectival usages, give access to the speaker’s perspective. Study 1 is an annotation study in which annotators evaluated corpus excerpts as expressing situations or narrating events in a subjective or objective way. We manipulated access to the verbal tense: half of the annotators saw the tense of the verbs, and half saw only infinitive forms of the verbs. Study 2 is a self-paced reading experiment in which we examined how native speakers of French process utterances with the Passé Simple when it is preceded by aujourd’hui (semantic incompatibility solved pragmatically by perspective-taking), hier (semantic and pragmatic compatibility) and en ce moment (semantic incompatibility which cannot be solved pragmatically). The results of Study 1 suggest that the subjective interpretation of an utterance is not triggered by its verbal tense. Study 2 questions the idea that perspective-taking is a component of speaker’s subjectivity. In general, our experimental findings do not support the hypothesis that verbal tenses give access to speaker’s subjectivity, a theoretical hypothesis which has never before been directly experimentally tested.

Evolution of Tariff Government Regulation in Energy and Communal Markets on the Basis of Smart Regulation System

The Aim. Analysis of effects according to digital pricing system advent in energy and communal sphere in Russia as a part of new industrial revolution.Purpose of a research. Review of a current world trends on energy markets, determination of ways and instruments for tariff regulation digital development on the energy and communal markets, definition of possible results from complex digitalization of tariff regulation system.Methodology of a research. During research of this article were widely applied instruments of complex theoretical analysis, cause-effect relations were tested between theoretical hypothesis and practical realization of digital tariff regulation models.Result of a research. By the author were written and systematic defined concept of pricing digitalization system on the Russian energy and communal markets according to analysis of main world trends in this economic sphere. The term of digital platform of tariff regulation was developed.Output. Digitalization of tariff regulation could develop premises for deregulation of energy and communal spheres in Russia enable the competence development and lower the entrance barriers for new market players what can lead to higher innovation and investment level recruited in these important markets.

Features of Forming of Trust among Student Youth to Information in the Media Network

The article investigates the peculiarities of formation of students’ trust in information in online and offline communication spaces. For this purpose the theoretical hypothesis of the dual orientation of trust genesis is substantiated: basal and socio-cultural. The first orientation is connected with the action of primary social institutions, the second – with the action of secondary institutions and sociocultural technologies. But the meaning of trust is unified: possessing the character of social automatism, it is a general condition for launching specific kinds of people’s relations and activities. This is its positivity, which, however, does not guarantee the positivity of the result of activity. The hypothesis is tested by analyzing the results of empirical data on Nizhny Novgorod Oblast. The article analyzes the criteria for forming trust in Internet information sources, reveals its qualitative levels and shows how online interaction in information space contributes to the formation of a qualitatively new form of trust – socio-cultural.

Is there evidence for cross-domain congruency sequence effect? A replication of Kan et al . (2013)

Exploring the mechanisms of cognitive control is central to understanding how we control our behaviour. These mechanisms can be studied in conflict paradigms, which require the inhibition of irrelevant responses to perform the task. It has been suggested that in these tasks, the detection of conflict enhances cognitive control resulting in improved conflict resolution of subsequent trials. If this is the case, then this so-called congruency sequence effect can be expected to occur in cross-domain tasks. Previous research on the domain-generality of the effect presented inconsistent results. In this study, we provide a multi-site replication of three previous experiments of Kan et al . (Kan IP, Teubner-Rhodes S, Drummey AB, Nutile L, Krupa L, Novick JM 2013 Cognition 129 , 637–651) which test congruency sequence effect between very different domains: from a syntactic to a non-syntactic domain (Experiment 1), and from a perceptual to a verbal domain (Experiments 2 and 3). Despite all our efforts, we found only partial support for the claims of the original study. With a single exception, we could not replicate the original findings; the data remained inconclusive or went against the theoretical hypothesis. We discuss the compatibility of the results with alternative theoretical frameworks.

Co-evolution of internalization and externalization in the emergence of the human lexicon

There has been a long-standing controversy in the context of language evolution on whether the original function of human language was internal thought or external communication. However, given the fact that language clearly serves both functions, internalization and externalization must have been co-evolutionarily acted in the emergence of human language. This article proposes a theoretical hypothesis about this co-evolutionary relationship of internalization and externalization, which especially explains the emergence of the human lexicon. To discuss the evolution of language from a comprehensive perspective, this article proposes a promising model that integrates two approaches with different standpoints: generative grammar and cognitive linguistics. This paper also examines the definition and nature of the lexicon and lexical items based on this integrated model. The hypothesis presented here demonstrates that the co-evolutionary work of internalization and externalization has been involved in two processes in the development of the lexicon: the establishment of syntactic objects (lexical items) and the improvement of creativity responsible for the expansion of lexicon size. The main conclusion is that these processes have formed a positive feedback loop and provided our lexicon with complex and unique properties.

A New Methodology to Design Sustainable Archimedean Screw Turbines as Green Energy Generators

Current energy demand and climate target plans are leading to green energy facilities which are efficient and sustainable. Archimedean screw turbines (ASTs) are used to generate hydroelectricity in low heads. They have been manufactured and installed worldwide. However, there is a lack of knowledge about how to design them efficiently. In this study, the performance of ASTs is analyzed using an analogy between ASTs and bucket elevators. Based on this analogy, a theoretical hypothesis on how to produce efficient ASTs is proposed. The new methodology for the design of ASTs is based on two considerations: the filling level of the AST buckets must be 85% and the increase of leakage losses must be minimized. This hypothesis is numerically and experimentally studied. Two experimental prototypes were developed and installed in the north of Spain. The numerical and experimental results are provided. A discussion comparing the results of this work and other results from the literature is presented. Finally, conclusions are drawn from this work that contribute to the improvement of AST technology as a sustainable facility to generate green energy.