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The Bannon Doctrine: Network Insurrectionism and Democratic Backsliding
No full textThis chapter unpacks insurrectionist practices driving democratic backsliding and authoritarian reversion typically distributed by grassroots networks and backed by the political leadership. These practices advance Steve Bannon’s mission of revolting against the compromised political class by leveraging the highly centralized and far-reaching audiences engineered by social media platforms, which provide the channels to distribute insurrectionist frames rallying grassroots activists and coordinating elite rhetoric toward an envisioned revolution. We discuss the implementation of this insurrectionist playbook in the 2020 United States and the 2022 Brazilian elections, a set of presidential campaigns marked by multiple claims of electoral fraud that culminated with insurrectionist attacks against federal government buildings. We review the influence of Bannon’s doctrine on the social media posts of Jair Bolsonaro and Donald Trump and the relative alignment of their campaigns with Bannon’s call for action. The article concludes with a discussion of the remarkable adaptability of this broad ideological program that spans the ‘Make America Great Again’ and ‘Brazil above everything, God above everyone’ projects
The Limits of Company Law in Saving Our Planet: Rethinking the future of the corporate purpose movement
No full textThe revival of the corporate purpose debate has once again brought to the forefront the question of whose interests companies should serve. Purposes that focus on shareholder value are increasingly scrutinised in a world grappling with challenges like climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic. While historically company law played a role in shaping corporate purpose by requiring companies to assume certain social responsibilities, this paper argues that it is unrealistic to expect modern company law to shift away from a shareholder orientation. Using English company law as an example, including recent cases such as BTI 2014 LLC v Sequana and ClientEarth v Shell Plc, this paper critically examines directors’ shareholder-oriented fiduciary duties, shareholders’ ultimate control, and other forces that reinforce such a focus. It finds that company law in its current form is not well equipped to address negative externalities or social harms. As a result, proposals like mandating a purpose clause or revising fiduciary duties are unlikely to be effective. The paper concludes that viable tools lie outside the traditional boundary of company law: regulatory regimes in areas such as consumer protection, employment, anti-discrimination, and environmental protection can more effectively impose obligations that ensure directors consider broader stakeholder interests in their decision-making. By shifting the focus towards these external legal frameworks, the paper attempts to guide scholars, commentators, and policymakers towards more effective strategies for promoting corporate responsibility in an era full of pressing global challenges
Does Self-Employment Increase Stress? A Co-Twin Control Analysis of Finnish and US Twins
No full textEntrepreneurs enjoy autonomy and work on projects they are passionate about, which may improve their mental well-being and reduce stress. At the same time, they face several potential stressors, including long working hours. Empirical evidence on whether those who engage in self-employment experience greater stress than those who do not is mixed, which could reflect the failure to consider self-selection into entrepreneurial careers. In this paper, we re-examine the relationship between self-employment and stress, over and above the self-selection bias of individuals’ predispositions, using two separate studies of monozygotic twins. In the first study (monozygotic twins from Finland), stress is reported as a perceptual measure. In the second study (monozygotic twins from the United States), we measure cortisol as a physiological indicator of stress. In both studies, we show a positive association between self-employment and stress (both perceived and physiological) above and beyond the impact of genetic and rearing factors. We also show that long working hours mediate the relationship between self-employment and stress
Nation, gender and political consciousness: Souleymane Cissé’s Baara and Satyajit Ray’s Ghare Baire
Full text linkDarwinian dynamics of Host-Pathogen interactions
Full text linkEpizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD) causes varied clinical outcomes across ruminants and geographical locations. Northern white-tailed deer experience infrequent, high-mortality outbreaks; southern white-tailed deer experience seasonal, lower-mortality infections; and African cattle experience endemic, subclinical infections. These observations provide a natural setting to explore how environmental exposure impacts the evolution of host defense strategies. In this paper, we develop a Darwinian pathogen-epidemic model that couples host-pathogen population dynamics with the evolution of resistance (recovery from pathogen) and tolerance (minimizing the effects of infection) traits. We obtain the basic reproduction number and show that the unique disease-free equilibrium is locally asymptotically stable if and unstable if , consistent with the corresponding purely ecological model. However, we also identify key differences between the models, as the evolution of traits can have a stabilizing effect and may promote bistability. Numerical simulations reveal that high pathogen burden and transmission favor the evolution of tolerance, whereas low pathogen burden promotes the evolution of resistance. Host-intrinsic factors, such as natural death rates and density-dependent suppression of growth, lead to resistance evolution, whereas high host reproductive rates lead to tolerance. Applying our model to EHD shows that intermittent exposure in northern deer leads to no evolved defense, seasonal exposure in southern deer results in the evolution of resistance, and endemic exposure in African cattle selects for tolerance. Furthermore, we demonstrate that continuous vs. periodic control of the disease vector population can lead to the evolution of different defense mechanisms. These findings highlight how environmental and host-pathogen factors shape the evolution of defense strategies, thereby informing disease management and control in wildlife and livestock populations affected by pathogens, such as the EHD virus
Universality of heavy operators in matrix models
Full text linkIn large N theories with a gravity dual, generic heavy operators should be dual to black holes in the bulk. The microscopic details of such operators should then be irrelevant in the low energy theory. We look for such universality in the strong coupling limit of a very simple two matrix model — the Hoppe model. Using analytics as well as Monte Carlo simulations, we show that there exists a universal black hole regime where the eigenvalue densities are given by parabolas and the correlation functions of probes in these backgrounds are completely determined by a few parameters. An important feature of strong coupling in this model is that the matrices commute and one can define joint eigenvalue distributions which also exhibit universality. These two results extend the beautiful findings of Berenstein, Hanada and Hartnoll. Not all heavy operators are universal and at strong coupling there is a sharp phase boundary between the universal and non universal regimes (Of course this should not be confused with the universality of eigenvalue spacing in matrix models). Moreover, in the non universal phase, we also find an interesting phenomenon we call Abelianization where some eigenvalues run off to infinity, reminiscent of heavy dual giant gravitons in N = 4SYM
Weight Conjectures for Fusion Systems on an Extraspecial Group
Full text linkIn a previous paper, we stated and motivated counting conjectures for fusion systems that are purely local analogues of several local-to-global conjectures in the modular representation theory of finite groups. Here, we verify some of these conjectures for fusion systems on an extraspecial group of order p3, which contain among them the Ruiz–Viruel exotic fusion systems at the prime 7. As a byproduct, we verify Robinson’s ordinary weight conjecture for principal p-blocks of almost simple groups G realizing such (nonconstrained) fusion systems
EEG changes associated with hallucinations caused by Charles Bonnet Syndrome
Full text linkCharles Bonnet syndrome (CBS) is characterised by the presence of visual hallucinations following visual loss in many patients. The neuropathophysiology of CBS is poorly understood. We used electroencephalography (EEG) in individuals with frequent hallucinations in order to identify changes in neural activity that co-occur with hallucination onset. We found reduced α power in occipital electrodes at the onset of the hallucinations compared to offset (p < 0.05), suggesting that intermittent periods of low endogenous alpha may create the neural conditions for hallucination to emerge in CBS patients. This is the first group study that shows a repeatable marker of brain activity changes in CBS that occur either at the onset or just prior to the onset of the hallucination. This offers important implications for both research and clinical practice. It could aid in early detection and prediction of hallucination onset and improve our understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying CBS. It also may help reduce stigma around the condition by validating the patient experience through measurable brain changes
Comparative experimental study of torus and segmented-buoy wave energy converters integrated with a monopile-supported offshore wind turbine
No full textHybrid systems integrating offshore wind turbines (OWTs) and wave energy converters (WECs) can significantly reduce overall costs and enhance spatial utilization of marine areas. This paper presents wave basin experiments for two hybrid systems—the monopile segmented-buoy combination system (MSCS) and the monopile torus-buoy combination system (MTCS)—to comparatively study the hydrodynamic response and power performance under both regular and irregular wave conditions. The 1:25 Froude similarity scaled model of the MSCS can transform to an MTCS by connecting the three buoys with extra connectors and filling their gaps with foam boards. A hydraulic PTO system is adopted for wave energy conversion. In addition to employing the Response Amplitude Operator (RAO) to analyze buoy motion characteristics, a novel parameter, i.e., Response Cycle Ratio (RCR), is proposed to quantitatively assess wave-following behavior, particularly under irregular wave conditions. The results show that RAO peaks consistently occur near the buoy' natural periods, with motion amplitudes gradually decreasing relative to wave amplitudes as wave periods increase, while the RCR progressively rises. Under the same wave periods and wave energy flux, the MSCS system exhibits higher power capture in regular waves compared to irregular waves, while both conditions share comparable optimal Coulomb PTO forces. Moreover, the MSCS system outperformed the MTCS system in energy capture, particularly in shorter-period waves, but both systems maintained nearly identical optimal PTO. This research provides valuable guidance for designing and optimizing hybrid systems incorporating heaving-type buoys, while also supplying reliable experimental data for numerical model validation
PROTECTION: Provably Robust Intrusion Detection system for IoT through recursive Delegation
No full textThe security of Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystems is crucial for maintaining user trust and facilitating widespread adoption. Machine Learning (ML) based Intrusion Detection and Prevention Systems (IDS/IPS) are frequently used to protect IoT networks, yet they are susceptible to adversarial attacks (AAs) and lack formal verifiability of their robustness. It has been demonstrated that meticulously designed AAs can alter the classification of ML-based IDSs, rendering them ineffective and posing risks to lives and physical infrastructure in safety-critical systems. This paper addresses these issues by introducing PROTECTION: a Provably RObust Intrusion DeTECTion system for IoT through recursive delegatION, which combines formal methods with ensemble machine learning. To enhance the robustness of ensemble ML models, we utilise Satisfiability-Modulo-Theory (SMT) to formally verify the classifier’s robustness, ensuring that output probabilities remain outside a thick decision boundary even when small perturbations are applied to the inputs. If a classifier fails to meet this criterion on any training sample, we reassign the training task to other classifiers that are iteratively trained until all samples are trained in accordance with the required property. The efficacy of the final ensemble model is thoroughly tested against various input perturbations and AAs using SMT based formal verification
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