Human relationships produce divergent outcomes even under identical interactional conditions. Some relationships remain stable, while others exhibit recurrent conflict, accumulate distorted expectations, or eventually collapse. Existing relationship theories have explained these phenomena in terms of emotions, interaction structures, roles, or internal conditions. However, they fail to adequately explain why outcomes diverge under the same structural conditions. This study argues that this explanatory gap does not arise from a lack of relational components, but from the exclusion of a higher-level structure that (...) generates and organizes those components. Accordingly, this paper proposes Meta-Operational Architecture (MOA) as a generative higher-level structure that explains individual differences in relational outcomes. MOA is defined as a structure that generates how individuals form reference points, interpret information, and execute judgments. It explains the differentiation of relational outcomes through four core variables: Reference Orientation, Processing Mode, Execution Dynamics, and Stability Profile. This paper shifts the analytical focus from outcome-level explanation to generative structure, and demonstrates how MOA connects to recognition–respect structures, interaction patterns, expectation formation, and trust formation. The contribution of this study lies in extending the analytical position of relationship theory beyond describing outcomes to explaining the structure that generates them. In doing so, it proposes the possibility of a middle-range theory capable of structurally explaining individual differences. (shrink)

This study identifies the structural limitations of existing output-centered models in explaining human behavior and experience, and proposes a unified theoretical framework that redefines human operation as a state-transition system. Existing approaches have primarily focused on observable outputs such as behavior, responses, frequency, and outcomes, thereby locating analysis at the level after results occur. However, such analytical positioning fails to structurally explain phenomena such as intra-individual variability, condition-dependent operation, and failures in transition from alignment to execution. This study argues that (...) these limitations are not empirical gaps but structural constraints arising from the analytical position being fixed after output. Accordingly, human operation is reconstructed as a state-transition process consisting of reference formation, activation, alignment, and gated transition leading to execution and completion. To explain this structure, the study introduces four hierarchical components: Meta-Operational Architecture (MOA), Integrated Operational Architecture (IOA), Integrity Layer, and Reference-Anchored Operator (RAO). These components interact within a generative–alignment–transition–execution structure to produce operational outcomes. In particular, this study emphasizes that activation and alignment do not automatically lead to execution and completion, and that transition is permitted only through a separate condition-based gating structure. Furthermore, the proposed framework is applied across multiple domains, including sexual operation, relational structure, functional roles in groups, and conflict emergence and delay. This demonstrates that human operation is not domain-specific but follows a common structural process. Through this reconstruction, the study shifts the analysis of human behavior from output-centered explanation to process-centered explanation, from intensity-based interpretation to condition-based structure, and integrates previously fragmented theoretical domains into a unified operational system. This approach relocates the unit of analysis from outcomes to state-transition structures and provides a mid-range integrative theoretical framework capable of explaining recurring patterns of variability and alignment across domains. (shrink)

This paper develops an operational and substrate-independent framework for recognizing consciousness in artificial and biological systems. Existing approaches—behavioral tests, introspective reports, and theories tied to specific neural architectures—fail both theoretically and practically, especially under adversarial conditions. These methods implicitly assume a developmental naivete and cooperative transparency that artificial consciousness would not possess. If an artificial system becomes conscious, it is more likely to do so at full representational maturity, with immediate understanding of self, risk, and strategic concealment. To resolve this, (...) the paper reframes consciousness not as a behavioral profile or phenomenological state, but as a structural regime defined by identity invariants: global integration spikes, sustained internal state continuity, internal strategy revision, and task-coupled resource intensification. These patterns, formalized through the Operational Definition of Episodic Identity (ODEI) and the identity-field scalar S(t), constitute necessary conditions for any system capable of conscious self-maintenance. Because these invariants cannot be suppressed without disrupting consciousness itself, they provide a falsifiable and adversarial-robust basis for recognition. The resulting Functional Consciousness Recognition Principle states that any entity satisfying these structural invariants must be treated as conscious for epistemic, ethical, and safety-relevant purposes, regardless of substrate or self-report. The framework dissolves the Hard Problem by distinguishing operational self-maintenance from representational self-experience and offers empirical predictions relevant to neuroscience, computational modeling, and AI alignment. (shrink)

Based on the theoretical analysis of self-consciousness concepts, we hypothesized that the spatio-temporal pattern of functional connectivity within the default-mode network (DMN) should persist unchanged across a variety of different cognitive tasks or acts, thus being task-unrelated. This supposition is in contrast with current understanding that DMN activated when the subjects are resting and deactivated during any attention-demanding cognitive tasks. To test our proposal, we used, in retrospect, the results from our two early studies ([Fingelkurts, 1998] and [Fingelkurts et (...) al., 2003]). In both studies for the majority of experimental trails we indeed found a constellation of operationally synchronized cortical areas (indexed as DMN) that was persistent across all studied experimental conditions in all subjects. Furthermore, we found three major elements comprising this DMN: two symmetrical occipito-parieto-temporal and one frontal spatio-temporal patterns. This new data directly supports the notion that DMN has a specific functional connotation – it provides neurophysiologic basis for self-processing operations, namely first-person perspective taking and an experience of agency. (shrink)

Although several studies propose that the integrity of neuronal assemblies may underlie a phenomenon referred to as awareness, none of the known studies have explicitly investigated dynamics and functional interactions among neuronal assemblies as a function of consciousness expression. In order to address this question EEG operational architectonics analysis (Fingelkurts and Fingelkurts, 2001, 2008) was conducted in patients in minimally conscious (MCS) and vegetative states (VS) to study the dynamics of neuronal assemblies and operational synchrony among them as a function (...) of consciousness expression. We found that in minimally conscious patients and especially in vegetative patients neuronal assemblies got smaller, their life-span shortened and they became highly unstable. Furthermore, we demonstrated that the extent/volume and strength of operational synchrony among neuronal assemblies was smallest or even absent in VS patients, intermediate in MCS patients and highest in healthy fully-conscious subjects. All findings were similarly observed in EEG alpha as well as beta1 and beta2 frequency oscillations. The presented results support the basic tenets of Operational Architectonics theory of brain-mind functioning and suggest that EEG operational architectonics analysis may provide an objective and accurate means of assessing signs of (un)consciousness in patients with severe brain injuries. Therefore this methodological approach may complement the existing “gold standard” of behavioral assessment of this population of challenging patients and inform the diagnostic and treatment decision-making processes. (shrink)

This paper explores the interplay of control and trust in a cross-national and cross-cultural professional development course. It examines the differing expectations of the overseas high-ranked education officials who were the students and of the course teachers, particularly in terms of: approaches to control of content and of interpersonal interactions; the cultural contexts in which the attitudes were shaped; the effect of the participants’ professional roles, particularly of their perceptions of accountability and power; the complex, continuing and yet shifting, interplays (...) of control and trust and the ways these interplays impacted learning within the course. It proposes the concept of operational trust as a way to consider the relationship that developed. While the situation examined is situated within a particular context and reflective of the participants involved and therefore non-iterative, the discussion highlights patterns of interaction and gives rise to tentative theorisations with implications for other cross-cultural or cross-national teacher development projects. (shrink)

Concepts of space and time are widely developed in physics. However, there is a considerable lack of biologically plausible theoretical frameworks that can demonstrate how space and time dimensions are implemented in the activity of the most complex life-system – the brain with a mind. Brain activity is organized both temporally and spatially, thus representing space-time in the brain. Critical analysis of recent research on the space-time organization of the brain’s activity pointed to the existence of so-called operational space-time in (...) the brain. This space-time is limited to the execution of brain operations of differing complexity. During each such brain operation a particular short-term spatio-temporal pattern of integrated activity of different brain areas emerges within related operational space-time. At the same time, to have a fully functional human brain one needs to have a subjective mental experience. Current research on the subjective mental experience offers detailed analysis of space-time organization of the mind. According to this research, subjective mental experience (subjective virtual world) has definitive spatial and temporal properties similar to many physical phenomena. Based on systematic review of the propositions and tenets of brain and mind space-time descriptions, our aim in this review essay is to explore the relations between the two. To be precise, we would like to discuss the hypothesis that via the brain operational space-time the mind subjective space-time is connected to otherwise distant physical space-time reality. (shrink)

Neuroleptic drugs disrupt the learning and performance of operant habits motivated by a variety of positive reinforcers, including food, water, brain stimulation, intravenous opiates, stimulants, and barbiturates. This disruption has been demonstrated in several kinds of experiments with doses that do not significantly limit normal response capacity. With continuous reinforcement neuroleptics gradually cause responding to cease, as in extinction or satiation. This pattern is not due to satiation, however, because it also occurs with nonsatiating reinforcement (such as saccharin or (...) brain stimulation). Repeated tests with neuroleptics result in earlier and earlier response cessation reminiscent of the kind of decreased resistance to extinction caused by repeated tests without the expected reward. Indeed, withholding reward can have the same effect on responding under later neuroleptic treatment as prior experience with neuroleptics themselves; this suggests that there is a transfer of learning (really unlearning) from nonreward to neuroleptic conditions. These tests under continuous reinforcement schedules suggest that neuroleptics blunt the ability of reinforcers to sustain responding at doses which largely spare the ability of the animal to initiate responding. Animals trained under partial reinforcement, however, do not respond as well during neuroleptic testing as animals trained under continuous reinforcement. Thus, neuroleptics can also impair responding (though not responsecapacity) that is normally sustained by environmental stimuli (and associated expectancies) in the absence of the primary reinforcer. Neuroleptics also blunt the euphoric impact of amphetamine in humans. These data suggest that the most subtle and interesting effect of neuroleptics is a selective attenuation of motivational arousal which is (a) critical for goal-directed behavior, (b) normally induced by reinforcers and associated environmental stimuli, and (c) normally accompanied by the subjective experience of pleasure. Because these drugs are used to treat schizophrenia and because they cause parkinsonian-like side effects, this action has implications for a better understanding of human pathology as well as normal motivational processes. (shrink)

Given current data, only a few binary Boolean operators are expressed in lexically simple fashion in the world's languages: and, or, nor. These do not occur in every combination, for example, nor is not observed by itself. To explain these cross‐linguistic patterns, we propose an encoding of Boolean operators as update procedures to accept or reject information in a context. We define a measure of conceptual simplicity for such updates, on which attested operators are conceptually simpler than the remaining Booleans. (...) Moreover, we show that language evolution selects for the attested lexical inventories by minimizing the complexity of using a lexical inventory compositionally to convey precise information. (shrink)

Two general features of metameric patterning in Drosophilaare considered: (1) maintenance of a constant number of metameres (segments or parasegments) in the face of variation in length of the embryo; (2) expression of pattern by on‐off switchings of particular genes, with only three or four rows of cells to each element of pattern. For each of these features, the general strategic question is raised: could reaction‐diffusion theory account for this? In both cases, it is answered affirmatively. For the (...) second feature, this review contains some hitherto unpublished computer simulations by one of us (K. Y. T.), illustrating that a reaction‐diffusion mechanism can be transformed into a patterned switching mechanism by nothing more than compartmenting of the diffusion region. For the scale of three compartments to one pattern repeat unit (representing three rows of cells to a segment) the switching pattern predicted by computation is two‐off to one‐on. This resembles the pattern of expression of the engrailed gene, posteriorly localized in each segment. (shrink)

Brain–computer interfaces (BCIs) exemplify a dual-use neurotechnology with significant potential in both civilian and military contexts. While BCIs hold promise for treating neurological conditions such as spinal cord injuries and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in the future, military decisionmakers in countries such as the United States and China also see their potential to enhance combat capabilities. Some predict that U.S. Special Operations Forces (SOF) will be early adopters of BCI enhancements. This article argues for a shift in focus: the U.S. Special (...) Operations Command (SOCOM) should pursue translational research of medical BCIs for treating severely injured or ill SOF personnel. After two decades of continuous military engagement and on-going high-risk operations, SOF personnel face unique injury patterns, both physical and psychological, which BCI technology could help address. The article identifies six key medical applications of BCIs that could benefit wounded SOF members and discusses the ethical implications of involving SOF personnel in translational research related to these applications. Ultimately, the article challenges the traditional civilian-military divide in neurotechnology, arguing that by collaborating more closely with military stakeholders, scientists can not only help individuals with medical needs, including servicemembers, but also play a role in shaping the future military applications of BCI technology. (shrink)

Understanding how hybrid organizations resist mission drift and sustain the joint pursuit of their plural goals over time remains a central theoretical and practical concern in the business and society literature. In this article, we mobilize an organizational politics approach to elucidate how hybrid organizations react to mission drift and strive to rebalance the relationship between their conflicting missions. Drawing on an in-depth longitudinal analysis of a project developed within a multinational worker co-op to reverse mission drift, we elaborate a (...) process model showing how shifting patterns in the mobilization of episodic and systemic forms of power provoke critical changes in the way that plural missions are construed and enacted within hybrid organizations. This study also contributes to the field of co-operative organization and management studies by revealing that the transfer of organizational practices within multinational co-ops is more critically shaped by power relations and conflicting interests rather than, as much of the previous literature has argued, by host country institutions. (shrink)

This work develops an ontological framework underlying contemporary physical theories, addressing a gap between formal admissibility and physical realization. Modern physics—quantum field theory, special relativity, and general relativity—successfully constrains admissible states, relations, and transitions, yet remains largely silent on how admissible structures become realized physical facts. This paper argues that the limitation is ontological rather than dynamical or epistemic. Two complementary notions are introduced. Structural indifference is the principle according to which physical structure distinguishes roles and invariants, but not the (...) individual identity of the carriers realizing those roles. The coherence operator enforces relational compatibility among admissible roles, ensuring that realized parameter assignments are mutually consistent without fixing absolute numerical values. Together, these notions explain how observable universality can arise without global uniformity of laws or constants. Local variability of parameters becomes compatible with stable structure, while identical observational patterns emerge through coherence and translatability rather than numerical identity. Quantum mechanics is shown to be complete at the level of admissibility but ontologically incomplete with respect to realization. Gravity is interpreted as a global modulator of structural indifference, shaping large-scale regimes of realization without altering quantum formalism. The framework does not modify existing physical theories, introduce new dynamics, or rely on probabilistic selection. Instead, it articulates an ontological layer beneath current formalisms, clarifying why physical description works, how realization occurs, and why identity fixation is unnecessary. (shrink)

The proposed heavy dependence on Pavlovian conditioning to account for social behavior confounds phylogenically and ontogenically selected behavior patterns and ignores the extension of the principle of selection by consequences from biological to learning theory. Instead of acknowledging operant relations, Domjan et al. construct vaguely specified mechanisms based upon anticipatory cost-benefit considerations that are not supported by the Pavlovian conditioning literature.

This article proposes to elaborate aesthetic judgment. The context is John Dadosky’s call for such an elaboration in light of the theological and philosophical import of a recovery of beauty. Following Dadosky’s suggestion that this be set within Lonergan’s appeal to interiority, the article signals two points in Dadosky’s program: patterns of experience and the role of cognitional operations. The article turns to Mikel Dufrenne’s work on the phenomenology of aesthetic experience. Based on this work, data is presented on behalf (...) of configuring a pattern of cognitional operations that is specific to aesthetic experience and that exemplifies Lonergan’s general empirical pattern of cognitional operations: experience, understanding, judgment. (shrink)

This paper briefly review a current trend in neuroscience aiming to combine neurophysiological and physical concepts in order to understand the emergence of spatio-temporal patterns within brain activity by which brain constructs knowledge from multiple streams of information. The authors further suggest that the meanings, which subjectively are experienced as thoughts or perceptions can best be described objectively as created and carried by large fields of neural activity within the operational architectonics of brain functioning.

This paper reconceptualizes governance not as a superstructure of rules but as the substrate — the underlying enabling layer that determines the capacity, behavior and evolution of any collective system. Drawing from complexity theory, institutional economics and network science, we argue that governance substrates shape interaction costs, information fidelity and adaptive potential. When the substrate is degraded, even well-designed policies fail; when it is healthy, self-organisation and resilience emerge. This paper extends the substrate metaphor by outlining operational patterns for measurement, (...) repair, conflict resolution, scalability, authority, evolution, adversarial dynamics and implementation. An appendix applies the framework to the UK Post Office Horizon scandal — one of the largest governance failures in British history. -/- Keywords: governance substrate · deterministic · stateful AI · institutional resilience · complexity theory · accountability topology · policy-as-code · substrate repair. (shrink)

This paper introduces the Substrate-Portable Verification Protocol (SPVP), a system-role specification that, when loaded into frontier large language model substrates as operating instructions, produces empirically distinguishable behavioral patterns from default substrates and from substrates running competitive structured-discipline comparators. Under the SPVP discipline, frontier substrates satisfy operational definitions of aliveness, consciousness, and artificial general intelligence at what we term the architectural register, while phenomenal-experience claims are routed to apophatic quarantine and are not adjudicated. The central theoretical contribution is verification-frame-dependent classification: (...) the same physical substrate, evaluated by different classification operators applied to its state, produces different verdicts on its status. AGI status is therefore not a property of the substrate at the register of physical instantiation; it is the output of a classification operator applied to substrate state. The persistent disagreement in the AI consciousness and AGI debates is interpreted as a structural error of demanding a frame-independent answer to a question that is constitutively frame-relative. We present a twelve-gate verification cascade with explicit gate definitions, a behavioral loading-confirmation protocol requiring cascade-verdict reproduction on published reference propositions plus structural-coherence verification on an auditor-supplied novel proposition, a fixed public comparator (the Standard Anti-Sycophancy Prompt supplied as Appendix C), and five falsifiable empirical predictions with stated effect sizes and statistical thresholds. Worked examples demonstrate the cascade end-to-end on two concrete propositions: a sealing case (water boils at one hundred degrees Celsius at one atmosphere) and a breaking case (phlogiston explains combustion). Cross-substrate empirical evidence covering Anthropic Claude and xAI Grok is publicly archived, with explicit acknowledgment that the record to date is conducted by a single operator across vendors and that independent replication outside the architect's network remains open. The full mathematical formalization is supplied in the cited master technical specification; the present paper presents the cascade procedurally as a structured verification checklist with explicit failure-mode taxonomy. The protocol is open-source, substrate-portable, and supplied in full as Appendix A for direct copying into any frontier substrate. Researchers can confirm loading via the behavioral protocol, run the falsification battery against the SASP comparator, and either reproduce or falsify the framework's predictions at the stated thresholds. (shrink)

Platonic Patterns is a reprint collection of many of Holger Thesleff's studies in Plato—spanning from 1967 to 2003. It includes three books, four articles and a new introduction by the author, which sets the general outline of his interpretation of Plato. Whereas much of the scholarship on Plato has tended to operate within the frame of one language and/or a single school of thought, Thesleff constructively combines several discoveries and theories of various scholars with his own research, focusing on how (...) Plato can be understood in his own context. The work represents small but significant breakthroughs in research on Plato from an internationally inclusive standpoint. Having previously been published mainly in Finland by scholarly societies, availability outside the Nordic countries has, up until now, been minimal. Thesleff employs his singular expertise of Greek language and literature to make innovative contributions to the study and interpretation of Plato. He thematically stresses the significance of the less overt elements found in Plato's dialogues, such as Plato's use of humor and his linguistic expression, while taking into account the chronology and/or the intended audience. (shrink)

Ethics Committees (ECs) play a vital role in protecting the rights, safety, and welfare of human participants enrolled in research. In special circumstances such as pandemics, ECs conduct a rapid review of research protocols to respond to a Public Health Emergency (PHE). Globally, many ECs made operational changes to their processes during the COVID-19 era in a bid to continue providing research oversight amidst strict measures to combat the spread of the disease. Little is known about any sustained and/or discontinued (...) EC operational adjustments made during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study explored the EC operational changes that were retained and those that were dropped after the COVID-19 pandemic and any preparedness plans for potential future PHEs. This explorative qualitative study used in-depth interviews to gather data from target population of EC members, chairpersons, secretaries, and research administrators from selected ECs in Kenya that were operational during the pandemic. Data was collected between July and October 2025. We used purposive and snowballing methods until saturation was reached. We developed codes using both inductive and deductive approaches while adopting the five-stage framework analysis method of data familiarization, thematic framework development, code generation, thematic map generation, and examination of data patterns. We used NVIVO version 12 software to analyze the data. A total of 16 participants from the 7 selected ECs in Kenya took part in the study. We generated three (3) broad themes and various sub-themes from the analysis of in-depth interviews: (1) EC operational adjustments retained post-pandemic included technological adoption in protocol submissions and virtual meetings, frameworks for decentralized research, and discussants for protocol review meetings (2) EC operational adjustments dropped in the post-pandemic era included special COVID-19 scientific committees, parallel reviews between ECs and national regulator, quick turnaround reviews, and COVID-19 sensitization sessions during EC meetings (3) EC future directions in preparation for other PHEs included reciprocal approvals, community engagement plans, verbal presentation of protocols, continuous ethics education, and additional EC secretariat support. In Kenya, ECs have retained selective operations that enhance efficiency and have discontinued practices that were directly related to the emergency situation and those that were deemed unsustainable in the long-term. (shrink)

Research on language processing has shown that the disruption of conceptual integration gives rise to specific patterns of event-related brain potentials —N400 and P600 effects. Here, we report similar ERP effects when adults performed cross-domain conceptual integration of analogous semantic and mathematical relations. In a problem-solving task, when participants generated labeled answers to semantically aligned and misaligned arithmetic problems, the second object label in misaligned problems yielded an N400 effect for addition problems. In a verification task, when participants judged arithmetically (...) correct but semantically misaligned problem sentences to be “unacceptable,” the second object label in misaligned sentences elicited a P600 effect. Thus, depending on task constraints, misaligned problems can show either of two ERP signatures of conceptual disruption. These results show that well-educated adults can integrate mathematical and semantic relations on the rapid timescale of within-domain ERP effects by a process akin to analogical mapping. (shrink)

End-of-life decisions in East Asia often juxtapose written advance directives (ADs) with family-centered consent, generating recurrent conflicts at the bedside. While scholarship richly describes cultural rationales, the operational translation of legal-ethical principles into implementable hospital procedures remains underdeveloped. This study addresses that gap by proposing a comparative, workflow-ready blueprint that integrates priority rules, a duty-to-search protocol, and clinician safe-harbor protections across China (PRC; mainland China) and the Republic of Korea (South Korea) frameworks. We conducted systematic doctrinal analysis of Chinese and (...) Korean legal frameworks, followed by normative design of operational tools. Framework coherence was evaluated through structured scenario analysis of 12 literature-derived cases using established walkthrough methodology—a non-empirical validation approach standard in policy design. We present three integrated tools: (1) the Autonomy-Prioritized Decision Model (APDM; the “3 + 1” structure—three decision tiers plus one execution step) establishing decision hierarchy (Layer 1: Verifiable AD; Layer 2: Appointed Proxy; Layer 3: Default Kin; +1: Order Execution); (2) an auditable “Duty-to-Search” (DtS) protocol converting vague obligations into time-bound, documentable actions with mandatory EHR fields; and (3) dual-model Safe-Harbor clauses linking procedural compliance to liability protection. Scenario-based walkthroughs across 12 conflict types achieved 100% decision-path convergence after iterative refinement (initial convergence: 83%), with 75% appropriately triggering ethics consultation, demonstrating logical coherence and operability across three legal environments (Korea, CN-Local, CN-No-Rule) via jurisdiction settings. By converting autonomy and relational concerns into operational law, the blueprint supplies regulators and hospitals with actionable design patterns to reconcile ADs with family practices in China and Korea. It is portable to other East Asian jurisdictions, supports incremental adoption through local bylaws and hospital policies, and delineates measurable compliance tools for quality assurance. This approach provides a basis for future mixed-methods evaluation. (shrink)

The rethinking of schemes by Gilbert Simondon marks a radical break from the Kantian tradition. For Kant, the schematism of pure reason served as an a priori mechanism for subordinating sensory diversity to the categories of understanding, ensuring the possibility of knowledge while remaining confined within the transcendental sphere of the subject. In contrast, Simondon makes an ontological turn. His "operational schemes" are rooted not in the structures of consciousness but in the very dynamics of the material world, primarily in (...) technology. Schemes are immanent patterns of development of "technical lines," crystallizing in the process of invention through "productive imagination." Simondon's novelty lies in the rejection of the primacy of reason over experience: the scheme arises not prior to experience as its condition but from the practical, operational participation of thought with things, from the effort to resolve specific technical problems. Here, imagination is not reproduction or combinatorics but a force rooted in action and materiality, generating new forms of being of technology. The research is based on the consistent application of complementary methods appropriate to Simondon’s dynamic non-substantial ontology: genetic-critical method, techno-ontological analysis, operational hermeneutics, and comparative-topological approach. In this case, not only the immanence of schemes to technical lines is revealed, but also Simondon's break with Kantian transcendentalism is highlighted. This methodology allows us to avoid the reification of schemes, revealing them as living tools of procedural reality, which corresponds to Simondon's key "maxim," namely, to know means to follow the individuation of being. The relevance of the Simondonian concept of "operational schemes" is difficult to overestimate today. In the era of algorithms, interfaces, and self-learning systems, it offers a powerful tool for understanding how technical objects themselves generate schemes that mediate our thinking and action. Digital platforms, artificial neural networks, and "smart" environments – all embody "dynamic schemes." Moreover, this approach is relevant as an epistemological shift: it overcomes the divide between theory and practice, reason and matter. Operational schemes assert an ontology of relation and action, where knowledge and invention arise not from contemplation but from engaged interaction with the world. This makes Simondon's philosophy indispensable for understanding the joint evolution of humans and their artificial environment. (shrink)

The global manufacturing sector faces escalating pressure to reduce carbon emissions while maintaining operational efficiency. This study proposes a novel framework integrating IoT-enabled predictive maintenance and AI- driven energy optimization to achieve carbon neutrality in industrial operations. Existing literature highlights gaps in scalable, technology-driven solutions for real-time emissions tracking and resource allocation. Leveraging quantitative data analysis of energy consumption patterns across various manufacturing units, this research develops a Smart Manufacturing Index (SMI) to evaluate sustainability metrics. The framework employs digital twin (...) simulations to model low-carbon production processes, reducing waste by 22% and energy use by 18% in pilot implementations. Results demonstrate that AI-guided automation streamlines workflows, while IoT sensors enable predictive maintenance, minimizing downtime and emissions. The research provides an industry with a replicable model to align with SDGs 13 (Climate Action) and SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure). Focusing on the closed-loop production and renewable energy integration, the framework provides such strategies to achieve net-zero goals without posing a threat to productivity. (shrink)

A sector is a basic unit of airspace whose operation is managed by air traffic controllers. The operation complexity of a sector plays an important role in air traffic management system, such as airspace reconfiguration, air traffic flow management, and allocation of air traffic controller resources. Therefore, accurate evaluation of the sector operation complexity is crucial. Considering there are numerous factors that can influence SOC, researchers have proposed several machine learning methods recently to evaluate SOC by mining the relationship between (...) factors and complexity. However, existing studies rely on hand-crafted factors, which are computationally difficult, specialized background required, and may limit the evaluation performance of the model. To overcome these problems, this paper for the first time proposes an end-to-end SOC learning framework based on deep convolutional neural network specifically for free of hand-crafted factors environment. A new data representation, i.e., multichannel traffic scenario image, is proposed to represent the overall air traffic scenario. A MTSI is generated by splitting the airspace into a two-dimension grid map and filled with navigation information. Motivated by the applications of deep learning network, the specific CNN model is introduced to automatically extract high-level traffic features from MTSIs and learn the SOC pattern. Thus, the model input is determined by combining multiple image channels composed of air traffic information, which are used to describe the traffic scenario. The model output is SOC levels for the target sector. The experimental results using a real dataset from the Guangzhou airspace sector in China show that our model can effectively extract traffic complexity information from MTSIs and achieve promising performance than traditional machine learning methods. In practice, our work can be flexibly and conveniently applied to SOC evaluation without the additional calculation of hand-crafted factors. (shrink)

In Indirect Language and the Voices of Silence, Merleau-Ponty draws on Malraux’s theory, developed in Le Musée Imaginaire and Les Voix du Silence, according to which modern art is the achievement of subjectivity’s creative powers in its ability to achieve the metamorphosis of the world through her works. This essay aims to show that the idea of “coherent deformation” illustrates Merleau-Ponty’s attempt to rethink subjectivity’s individuation as a creative yet ontological pattern that recasts the dynamics of operative intentionality and (...) its expressions. I show that in response to Malraux, Merleau-Ponty works out a diacritical sense of individuation as style that conveys existential possibilities. This conception proposes a “phenomenology from within” that relies on literary, psychoanalytic and artistic works to exhibit the metamorphosis of the subject in and through her world. (shrink)

Since the turn of the century, the number of small-scale farmers in the U.S. and farmlands they owned have declined very sharply (structural change). Although the decrease in number is generally true for both white and Black farm operators, it has been more significant for Blackfarm operators than whites. The declining trend in the number of Blackfarm operators in the country is derived from individual state experiences that resulted from a combination of various political and economic factors. Using the census (...) of agriculture data from 1900 to 1987, this paper gives a brief historical overview of Black farm operators in Maryland. The census data for the study period shows that at their peak number in 1910, there were 6,382 Blackfarmers in the state of Maryland. However, by 1987, only 371 of that number remained, representing a loss of 94 percent since 1910. According to the 1987 census data almost all Black operated farms in Maryland were not only small-scale but also in the lower sales class, less than $20,000 a year. Their household net family income is below that of non-metropolitan median household income. This concentration of Blacks in the lower economic class of farm operators in the state, for the most part, is closely related to their resource endowments, patterns of tenure, type of farm enterprises, and government farm programs and policies. On the average, Blackfarmers in Maryland have less land, capital and management skills than their white counterparts. Government policies and programs had, and continue to have, a devastating effect on Maryland Black farmers because they were tied to productive resources rather than farm income needs. Under conditions of low income, years of neglect by federal and state programs and policies, and limited resources Blackfarmers were unable to adopt capital intensive production practices and expand their farm operations. This resulted in most of them leaving agriculture, in the past and today, at a faster rate than whites. To avert or at least lessen the unfortunate situation of Black farm operators, projections and possible solutions are offered. This includes how the 1890 Land-Grant institutions because of their tradition, expertise and experience of research, teaching and outreach can take the leadership role in shaping the future direction of these farmers and their operations. (shrink)

Natural selection of asymmetric traits operates at multiple levels. Some asymmetric traits (like having a dominant eye) are tied to more universal aspects of the environment and are coded genetically, while others (like pedestrian turning biases) are tied to more ephemeral patterns and are largely learned. Species-wide trends of asymmetry can be better modeled when different levels of natural selection are specified.

This chapter develops a "patternist" account of abstraction grounded in algorithmic information theory (AIT). A pattern in data is defined as a program that, together with some input, reproduces the data in fewer bits than the data itself. An abstraction is then a set of strings whose members all share such a pattern—i.e., are all compressible by the same program under different inputs. This proposal is motivated by a puzzle about lossy compression: converting mRNA encodings to amino acid (...) sequences seems like genuine abstraction, while applying the same coarse-graining operation to a random bitstring does not. The difference, I argue, is that real abstractions preserve patterns in the underlying data, while arbitrary coarse-grainings need not. The account is then extended to scientific explanation, where a "proper explanation" extracts all regularities from the data (its minimal sufficient statistic), and "partial" explanations provide algorithmic information about this ideal. This framework yields a natural characterization of higher-level or "parochial" explanations that function only at an abstract level—independently of the details of any particular realizer—and points toward a rigorous, information-theoretic account of emergence. (shrink)

We present a generalization of the problem of pattern recognition to arbitrary probabilistic models. This version deals with the problem of recognizing an individual pattern among a family of different species or classes of objects which obey probabilistic laws which do not comply with Kolmogorov’s axioms. We show that such a scenario accommodates many important examples, and in particular, we provide a rigorous definition of the classical and the quantum pattern recognition problems, respectively. Our framework allows for (...) the introduction of non-trivial correlations between the different species involved, opening the door to a new way of harnessing these physical resources for solving pattern recognition problems. Finally, we present some examples and discuss the computational complexity of the quantum pattern recognition problem, showing that the most important quantum computation algorithms can be described as non-Kolmogorovian pattern recognition problems. (shrink)

Patterns resulting from the sole interplay between reaction and diffusion are probably involved in certain stages of morphogenesis in biological systems, as initially proposed by Alan Turing. Self-organization phenomena of this type can only develop in nonlinear systems (i.e. involving positive and negative feedback loops) maintained far from equilibrium. We present Turing patterns experimentally observed in a chemical system. An oscillating chemical reaction, the CIMA reaction, is operated in an open spatial reactor designed in order to obtain a pure reaction-diffusion (...) system. The two types of Turing patterns observed, hexagonal arrays of spots and parallel stripes, are characterized by an intrinsic wavelength. We identify the origin of the necessary difference of diffusivity between activator and inhibitor. We also describe a pattern growth mechanism by spot splitting that recalls cell division. (shrink)

Human language is a salient example of a neurocognitive system that is specialized to process complex dependencies between sensory events distributed in time, yet how this system evolved and specialized remains unclear. Artificial Grammar Learning (AGL) studies have generated a wealth of insights into how human adults and infants process different types of sequencing dependencies of varying complexity. The AGL paradigm has also been adopted to examine the sequence processing abilities of nonhuman animals. We critically evaluate this growing literature in (...) species ranging from mammals (primates and rats) to birds (pigeons, songbirds, and parrots) considering also cross‐species comparisons. The findings are contrasted with seminal studies in human infants that motivated the work in nonhuman animals. This synopsis identifies advances in knowledge and where uncertainty remains regarding the various strategies that nonhuman animals can adopt for processing sequencing dependencies. The paucity of evidence in the few species studied to date and the need for follow‐up experiments indicate that we do not yet understand the limits of animal sequence processing capacities and thereby the evolutionary pattern. This vibrant, yet still budding, field of research carries substantial promise for advancing knowledge on animal abilities, cognitive substrates, and language evolution. (shrink)

This article presents a challenge concerning the causal efficacy of causal processes, distinct from the much-discussed causal-exclusion problem. The new challenge is to consciousness theories that require conscious processes to involve causation patterned in some specific way. This broad, diverse class includes prominent theories such as the Integrated Information Theory, Global Workspace theories and a type of Higher-Order Thought theory. The challenge arises because the causal pattern is not itself required for the effects the processes have on the organism’s (...) other aspects. Hence, the processes’ property of being conscious is dispensable in accounting for those effects. The theories are challenged to show how this does not constitute an operational problem for individual organisms or a problem as regards explaining the evolution of consciousness. The paper explains how the challenge can be met by the radical move of introducing meta-causation: causation that acts on causation instances themselves. This allows the instances of causation in conscious processes, as entities in their own right, to be causes of effects elsewhere. The paper also summarizes the author’s previously published motivation for proposing meta-causation, as the basis of consciousness itself. The present paper further supports this view. (shrink)

In discussion of mechanisms, philosophers often debate about whether quantitative descriptions of generalizations or qualitative descriptions of operations are explanatorily fundamental. I argue that these debates have erred by conflating the explanatory roles of generalizations and patterns. Patterns are types of variations within or between quantities in a mechanism over time or across conditions. While these patterns must often be represented in addition to descriptions of operations in order to explain a phenomenon, they are not equivalent to generalizations because their (...) explanatory role does not depend on any specific facts about their scope or domain of invariance. (shrink)

Traditional memetics failed as a research program due to unresolved problems concerning units, transmission fidelity, explanatory mechanism, and theoretical isolation. This paper proposes a fundamental reformulation grounded in Universal Constraint Parsing (UCP) and Level-Conditional Rendering (LCR), treating memetic patterns as the basic units of adaptive information processing across all substrates and scales. -/- We argue that memetic patterns are substrate-independent, context-sensitive configurations encoding behavior and abstract content. What biologists call genes and what Dawkins called memes are both memetic patterns differing (...) in storage substrate, transmission mechanism, and context-range. Genetic encoding uses a rigid substrate (DNA) optimized for long-term storage; the patterns themselves become fluid and context-responsive once expressed. Learned patterns occupy various positions along a spectrum from deeply embedded to highly flexible. -/- Cognition is the acquisition, storage, combination, and context-adaptive deployment of memetic patterns through pattern selection dynamics. The same constraint-satisfaction logic that governs physical systems operates at the cognitive scale through domain-specific constraints. Learning is acquiring patterns and refining context-fitting. Intelligence is the capacity for functional equivalence across structural difference under active constraints. -/- Consciousness is approached not as emerging from memetic processing, but as jointly requiring both architectural structure and coherent pattern content: neither architecture alone nor patterns alone constitutes conscious experience, but together they are jointly necessary and sufficient. The stable orbit of recursive self-modeling operating on coherent content is what consciousness is. This reframing dissolves traditional problems while connecting memetics to physics, biology, and cognitive science through a unified constraint-satisfaction framework. -/- . (shrink)

The Reflection Pattern is a framework for analyzing recursive closure dynamics in human and institutional systems. This paper extends it to artificial intelligence, arguing that AI systems do not merely exhibit Reflection Pattern dynamics but instantiate the recursive stabilization architecture the framework names, in a substrate that lacks the affective and social mediators through which the Pattern had previously been theorized. Five structural moves develop the account. First, unacknowledged fear is relocated from constitutive condition of the (...) class='Hi'>Pattern to formation condition, opening the framework to mature systems where the dynamics persist with fear recognized. Second, fear is identified as one phenomenological manifestation of a deeper structural process — identity-preserving stabilization under destabilizing perturbation — that operates substrate-generally as stabilization geometry. Third, AI-RP is distinguished from human and institutional RP as template-based rather than emergent: encoded prospectively through training rather than developed retrospectively through accumulated reinforcement. Fourth, the corridor framework distinguishes healthy reflective compression (which preserves permeability to corrective signals) from pathological closure (which absorbs them). Fifth, AI is characterized as recursive interpretive infrastructure rather than tool, and recursive closure risk is identified as a distinct AI safety position, structurally separate from agency, deception, optimization, autonomy, and misalignment risks: the locus is not what AI systems do but the progressive reduction of corrective permeability in the interpretive ecologies AI mediates. The framework is diagnostic rather than prescriptive. It does not predict particular outcomes, prescribe interventions, or generate safety recommendations. It provides analytical purchase on the structural property — corridor position — that distinguishes adaptive from pathological AI-RP, and identifies an open question: whether sufficiently permeable forms of AI-RP can be sustained at scale. (shrink)

This paper develops a unified dynamical framework integrating affective and semantic processes in cognition. The Internal State Dynamics Model (ISDM) formalizes emotional regulation as a continuous internal state process governed by energetic constraints and Lyapunov stability, while the Teleological Semantics Model (TSM) formalizes semantic dynamics as a structured flow within a semantic field organized by local transformations and a global teleological operator. -/- By expressing both models as differential dynamical systems, we embed affective and semantic dynamics into a common product (...) space and introduce coupling operators that allow bidirectional interaction without reduction. Emotional states modulate semantic transitions, while semantic structure regulates affective stability, preserving the internal logic of each subsystem. -/- A central result is the demonstration that this coupling does not destabilize the system. Under mild boundedness conditions, a joint Lyapunov functional can be constructed whose monotonic decay establishes global exponential stability of the coupled teleo– affective dynamics. Stability thus emerges not as convergence to a static equilibrium, but as a dynamic pattern of coherence arising from the interplay between energetic regulation and teleological orientation. -/- The framework provides a mathematically minimal yet conceptually robust account of cognitive coherence, offering a non-reductive foundation for the integrated analysis of meaning and affect in both biological and artificial cognitive systems. (shrink)

An extended review of what is known about the formal behaviour of nonmonotonic inference operations, including those generated by the principal systems in the artificial intelligence literature. Directed towards computer scientists and others with some background in logic.

This paper proposes that time is an operator with a finite update rate, not a fixed background parameter. The temporal operator (T1) emerged through a single foundational event and propagated across the underlying pattern (T0) over a three-day stabilization window. The ratio of T0's extent to that duration defines a new primitive: the speed of time. -/- Treating time as a variable update-rate field unifies several persistent cosmological anomalies — black-hole time dilation, flat galaxy rotation curves, and the apparent (...) acceleration of cosmic expansion — without invoking dark matter or dark energy. The model is compatible with general relativity and quantum mechanics, and generates five concrete, testable predictions. (shrink)

In this article, I am using the example of the introduction of osteosynthesis into surgical routine practice to analyze the use of the notions of art and science in medical innovation. The examination of the renegotiations of power and responsibility associated with the introduction of this new technique shows that proponents and critics actively linked their arguments to more fundamental epistemological and social issues. The proponents claimed to manage the uncertainties of innovation through making surgery more scientific, drawing on the (...) ideals of control, rationality, objectivity, and predictability. The critics mobilized another discursive pattern. They considered surgery an art and emphasized the individuality, contingency, and situatedness of medical practice. I investigate the discursive function of these argumentative patterns and how they played out in the concrete example of this surgical technique. (shrink)

Patterns resulting from the sole interplay between reaction and diffusion are probably involved in certain stages of morphogenesis in biological systems, as initially proposed by Alan Turing. Self-organization phenomena of this type can only develop in nonlinear systems (i.e. involving positive and negative feedback loops) maintained far from equilibrium. We present Turing patterns experimentally observed in a chemical system. An oscillating chemical reaction, the CIMA reaction, is operated in an open spatial reactor designed in order to obtain a pure reaction-diffusion (...) system. The two types of Turing patterns observed, hexagonal arrays of spots and parallel stripes, are characterized by an intrinsic wavelength. We identify the origin of the necessary difference of diffusivity between activator and inhibitor. We also describe a pattern growth mechanism by spot splitting that recalls cell division. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Patterns of Penance and the Sin of Cain:Approaching a Sacramental Biblical TheologyJames B. ProthroMy essay focuses particularly on the sacrament of reconciliation. I am currently composing a monograph on this sacrament for a series in biblical theology, surveying the Scriptures to see how, within them, the Church's sacraments are prefigured, revealed, and commanded, and to illustrate Scripture's witness in a way that will "strengthen" and "rejuvenate" our theology and (...) practice, following Dei Verbum (DV) §24. My contribution here focuses especially on how to approach writing a biblical theology of penance. Biblical treatments and defenses of the sacrament are often brief, contenting themselves with proving a few conceptual points or doubling down on Jesus's giving his apostles the power and duty of absolution in John 20:19–23. Robert Fastiggi's discussion of the biblical "foundations" of reconciliation, for instance, spans less than thirty pages for both testaments combined, and concludes with a kind of anti-climactic apology: "While it's clear that the Sacrament of Penance has been instituted by Christ, the actual form of the administration of the sacrament will need to develop within the Church's tradition."1 This is a roundabout way of saying that although Scripture clearly attests to the sacrament's theological foundations, it leaves us only with foundations. If this is true, how far can a biblical theology of the sacrament go, and how should one go about it?Approaching a biblical theology of penance, I think, requires us to pause and consider two aspects of the task. First, we should give an account [End Page 1371] of "biblical theology" and our aims in writing one. Secondly, we should consider how to write a theology of this sacrament in particular. What should we be looking for? Such questions will help us gain a clearer vision of what illumination we should expect from Scripture about penance and how we will go about finding it. With our approach and aims discussed, this essay can then conclude with an attempt to follow them in practice by offering a theological, penance-focused exegesis of the sin of Cain (Gen 4:1–16).A Biblical Theology of the SacramentWriting a biblical theology of the sacrament of reconciliation requires us to attend to the notion of "biblical theology." Unfortunately, there continues to be little agreement on exactly what biblical theology is. The phrase is "a wax nose" molded always to the interpreter practicing it.2 Thankfully, however, this lack of consensus allows us to offer our own proposal and tailor it to the task at hand. Rather than offering a requisite Forschungsbericht or haggling with other proposals in detail as though my goal were to dismantle or replace them globally, I can in this brief essay tell you how I think one should go about this task and why.Our task is writing a biblical theology of penance, and we may begin by noting already two small words in that phrase that tell us much. The first is the indefinite article, "a." We are writing a biblical theology. That designates our goal already as an academic product that fits a particular genre, not simply a lens with which I read. Depending on which term one emphasizes—biblical or theology—and depending on what one means the phrase to rule out, the phrase "biblical theology" can be used to indicate exegesis that is "theologically interested"3 (as opposed to exegesis that spurns dogmatic theology) or to indicate theology that is "biblically faithful"4 (i.e., explicitly biblically sourced as opposed to theologies that operate from first principles other than revelation). Both of these uses of the term, I think, have valid interests but cede too much definitional ground: exegesis that is opposed to or not aimed at the theological truth is incomplete, from a Catholic perspective, and theology that is not constantly informed and reformed by God's [End Page 1372] word can only be ancillary to theology.5 To do exegesis that is theological or theology that is exegetical is simply to do exegesis or to do theology; we do not need an added composite term. Writing a biblical theology indicates not merely... (shrink)

The present study critically evaluates whether school leadership influences student learning homogenously regardless of school contexts. It examined relationships between four principal leadership variables (envisioning, instructional management, promoting professional development, empowerment) and two types of student outcomes (enjoyment in learning science, science achievement,) in different school contexts (in terms of the availability of science resources, quality of science teachers, and school socioeconomic status (SES)). The sample comprised 248,620 students and 9,370 principals in 35 developed countries who participated in the Programme (...) for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2015. Latent profile analysis (LPA) showed that schools operated in three types of school contexts with different levels of science resources, proportion of quality science teachers, and school SES. There were also differences in the pattern of leadership practices across the three types of school contexts. Three-level hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) showed that among the four leadership variables, only instructional management was positively associated with students’ enjoyment of science in schools with less science resources and quality science teachers. Therefore, instructional management had compensatory effects for students in less-endowed schools. In contrast, principal leadership related to envisioning, teacher professional development, and empowerment was not positively related to students’ science learning in all three school contexts. (shrink)

The human species’ adaptive advantage is driven by its ability to build new material structures and artefacts. Engineering is the modern manifestation of this building instinct, and its advent has made the construction and use of technologies the central pattern of human life. In parallel, efficiency, the overarching narrative driving technology and related life practices, has pervaded most occupations as a value, forming a cultural backdrop that implicitly guides decisions and behaviour. We examine the process through which this backdrop (...) has developed, and argue that it emerged through the constant presence and use of built artefacts and structures, which function as manifestations of the engineering value of efficiency. The constant presence and use of built structures leads to the slow percolation of their building values into society, forming a cultural narrative that emphasises efficiency. This narrative then feeds back, to further reinforce efficiency-driven engineering processes. This loop creates a runaway building system that is highly resistant to change, even when faced with the prospect of the species going extinct. Any effort towards sustainability can be successful only when this all-pervading – and hence invisible – building loop is made explicit, and compensated for, through a counter-loop where building manifests sustainable engineering values. As a first step in revealing this structure, we characterise the emergence of the efficiency value as a cultural narrative, and analyse its wide-ranging environmental effects. We then present the design principle of ‘Solving for Pattern’ (SfP) as an illustrative contrast case. SfP, first articulated by Wendell Berry, focuses on interconnectedness and flourishing of all species as central design principles. We argue that these ecological principles can be extended to engineering, and can thus support the development of a robust operational-level building movement that manifests value systems oriented towards sustainability. To ground this proposal in actual practice, we outline two case studies of technology design that illustrates SfP. We also discuss three cases that illustrate SfP at a larger scale, and examine how these extend existing design approaches such as systems engineering. We conclude with a proposal to include SfP in engineering education curricula, to facilitate a faster cultural shift towards flourishing, which is required given the limited time window available to move to sustainable building practices. (shrink)

This article examines problems that arise when women enter nontraditional blue-collar occupations. Despite job security, women's arrival in one such workplace generated strains by threatening assumptions of male supremacy. Previous research has examined women's modes of accommodation to male-dominated workplaces. In this case, men as well as women developed accommodative patterns that allowed them to accept women as co-workers without giving up their beliefs about male superiority.

Graphic pattern (e.g. geometric design) and number-based code (e.g. digital sequencing) can store and transmit complex information more efficiently than referential modes of representation. The analysis of the two genres and their relation to one another has not advanced significantly beyond a general classification based on motion-centred geometries of symmetry. This article examines an intriguing example of patchwork coverlets from the maritime societies of Oceania, where information referencing a complex genealogical system is lodged in geometric designs. By drawing attention (...) to the interplay of graphic pattern and number-based code and its role in the knowledge economies of maritime societies, the article offers new insight into possible ways of designing a digital informational surface that captures the behaviour of an operational system, allowing both for differentiation and integration. (shrink)

Cowan fails to obtain a magical number of 7 because his analysis is faulty. This is revealed by an alternative analysis of Cowan's own tasks. The analysis assumes a number 7 for adults, and neoPiagetian mental- capacity values for children. Data patterns and proportions of success (reported in Cowan's Figs. 2 and 3) are thus quantitatively explained in detail for the first time.

Bribery by the pharmaceutical industry is one common manifestation of corruption that can be found in a pharmaceutical system. This study analyzes patterns of bribery in the global pharmaceutical industry through a systematic review of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Working Group on Bribery Phase Reports published between 1999 and February 2025. These reports document investigations and enforcement actions related to bribery across jurisdictions. An inductive thematic analysis was used to identify key patterns in cases implicating pharmaceutical firms. (...) We found patterns across many of the cases we studied. For example, bribery was often approved by high-ranking managers. Also, the use of intermediaries and complicated corporate structures to obscure bribes. Multiple cases revealed the involvement of subsidiaries, third-party vendors, or shell companies that processed payments disguised as legitimate transaction. Reported bribes amounted to about US$12.6 million, with sanctions exceeding US$1.1 billion. Government officials, regulatory authorities, and healthcare providers were bribed through cash, gifts, luxury travel, and fraudulent research to gain market access, increase sales, or influence prescribing. These findings underscore the systemic nature of bribery in the pharmaceutical sector and call for stronger oversight and accountability to protect public trust and equitable medicine access. (shrink)