scholarly journals An Algorithmic Definition of the Axial Map

2005 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 425-444 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alasdair Turner ◽  
Alan Penn ◽  
Bill Hillier
Keyword(s):  
Formal Language ◽  
Spatial Configuration ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Space Syntax ◽  
Original Definition ◽  
Language Definition ◽  
Efficient Representation ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Analytical Power ◽  
Concise Description

The fewest-line axial map, often simply referred to as the ‘axial map’, is one of the primary tools of space syntax. Its natural language definition has allowed researchers to draw consistent maps that present a concise description of architectural space; it has been established that graph measures obtained from the map are useful for the analysis of pedestrian movement patterns and activities related to such movement: for example, the location of services or of crime. However, the definition has proved difficult to translate into formal language by mathematicians and algorithmic implementers alike. This has meant that space syntax has been criticised for a lack of rigour in the definition of one of its fundamental representations. Here we clarify the original definition of the fewest-line axial map and show that it can be implemented algorithmically. We show that the original definition leads to maps similar to those currently drawn by hand, and we demonstrate that the differences between the two may be accounted for in terms of the detail of the algorithm used. We propose that the analytical power of the axial map in empirical studies derives from the efficient representation of key properties of the spatial configuration that it captures.

scholarly journals Essentially contested concepts as a tool in political studies: definition and criteria

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 17-26
Author(s):  
Maksym Yakovlyev
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
General Rule ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Original Definition ◽  
Essentially Contested Concepts ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Definition Of

A notion of "essentially contested concepts", introduced by a prominent British philosopher W. B. Gallie in 1956, still remains practically unknown or at least not sufficiently well researched in the Ukrainian political science. In order for this notion to be applied as a tool in empirical studies either using data on political processes in Ukraine or studying external processes from a Ukrainian perspective, it has to be defined and discussed. This article provides an original definition of essentially contested concepts as it was introduced by Gallie, and his seven original criteria for defining a given concept an essentially contested are presented and commented. As a great master of his mother tongue – the English language – W. B. Gallie used a plethora of opportunities provided to him by the richness of his language to put forward and advocate for his idea of essential contestability of some concepts. Consequently, a number of criteria for defining essentially contested concepts possess some unique qualities that may be lost once translated into another language – which is also the case with Ukrainian translation. This article points to a number of such instances, of which Ukrainian scholars should be aware, namely: the original component "contested" provided for a whole stream of discussion regarding the "contestedness" of some concepts as a genuine quality of phenomena that will inevitably become objects of constant disputes and contestations. Secondly, the criteria of "appraisiveness" and "diverse describability" are not easily translated and need to be taken care of when applying them as practical characteristics of concepts under study. This article lists the original criteria for the essentially contested concepts: appraisive character of such concepts, their internal complexity, diverse describability, openness, recognition of their contested essence by the contending parties, existence of an exemplar that anchors conceptual meaning of such a concept, and progressive contestation by means of which a better coherence of concept’s usage can be achieved. Moreover this article also pays attention to a number of additional nuances articulated by Gallie that are of great importance when dealing with essentially contested concepts: the lack of any quantitative scheme or general rule for deciding on the best concept in any contestation regarding the correct use of such a concept and the fact that the uses of essentially contested concepts are discussed and debated "aggressively and defensively" by the contesting parties. Despite the fact that Gallie didn’t pay any attention to the linguistic side of concept’s studies, this article shows that a search for an original meaning of any concept can be misleading – or even illusory. Using two examples of contested concepts – "populism" in the works of two German scholars J.W. Müller and B. Stegemann and the “virus of dictatorship” by the Dutch social psychologist F. Schaper, this article demonstrates that the essence of such concepts can be contested based on the ideological stances taken by the contesting parties, as well as because of the choice of terms and methodologies embodied into the discussion of the correct uses of such concepts. Finally, this article calls for further enquiries into the studies of the nature of modern discourses in which different concepts are debated and contested.

Populism and Liberal Democracy

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takis S. Pappas
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Comprehensive Theory ◽  
The People ◽  
Original Definition ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Great Relevance ◽  
Definition Of

Based on an original definition of modern populism as “democratic illiberalism” and many years of meticulous research, Takis Pappas marshals extraordinary empirical evidence from Argentina, Greece, Peru, Italy, Venezuela, Ecuador, Hungary, the United States, Spain, and Brazil to develop a comprehensive theory about populism. He addresses all key issues in the debate about populism and answers significant questions of great relevance for today’s liberal democracy, including: • What is modern populism and how can it be differentiated from comparable phenomena like nativism and autocracy? • Where in Latin America has populism become most successful? Where in Europe did it emerge first? Why did its rise to power in the United States come so late? • Is Trump a populist and, if so, could he be compared best with Venezuela’s Chávez, France’s Le Pens, or Turkey’s Erdoğan? • Why has populism thrived in post-authoritarian Greece but not in Spain? And why in Argentina and not in Brazil? • Can populism ever succeed without a charismatic leader? If not, what does leadership tell us about how to challenge populism? • Who are “the people” who vote for populist parties, how are these “made” into a group, and what is in their minds? • Is there a “populist blueprint” that all populists use when in power? And what are the long-term consequences of populist rule? • What does the expansion, and possibly solidification, of populism mean for the very nature and future of contemporary democracy? Populism and Liberal Democracy will change the ways the reader understands populism and imagines the prospects of liberal democracy.

scholarly journals Proportional lumpability and proportional bisimilarity

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Marin ◽  
Carla Piazza ◽  
Sabina Rossi
Keyword(s):  
Markov Chain ◽  
Markov Chains ◽  
Upper And Lower Bounds ◽  
General Definition ◽  
Performance Indices ◽  
State Aggregation ◽  
Structural Regularity ◽  
Original Definition ◽  
Aggregation Technique ◽  
Definition Of

AbstractIn this paper, we deal with the lumpability approach to cope with the state space explosion problem inherent to the computation of the stationary performance indices of large stochastic models. The lumpability method is based on a state aggregation technique and applies to Markov chains exhibiting some structural regularity. Moreover, it allows one to efficiently compute the exact values of the stationary performance indices when the model is actually lumpable. The notion of quasi-lumpability is based on the idea that a Markov chain can be altered by relatively small perturbations of the transition rates in such a way that the new resulting Markov chain is lumpable. In this case, only upper and lower bounds on the performance indices can be derived. Here, we introduce a novel notion of quasi-lumpability, named proportional lumpability, which extends the original definition of lumpability but, differently from the general definition of quasi-lumpability, it allows one to derive exact stationary performance indices for the original process. We then introduce the notion of proportional bisimilarity for the terms of the performance process algebra PEPA. Proportional bisimilarity induces a proportional lumpability on the underlying continuous-time Markov chains. Finally, we prove some compositionality results and show the applicability of our theory through examples.

scholarly journals Feynman diagrams and rooted maps

Open Physics ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 149-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Prunotto ◽  
Wanda Maria Alberico ◽  
Piotr Czerski
Keyword(s):  
Single Particle ◽  
Feynman Diagram ◽  
Feynman Diagrams ◽  
Topological Properties ◽  
Many Body ◽  
Perturbative Order ◽  
Original Definition ◽  
Many Body Systems ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Particle Propagator

Abstract The rooted maps theory, a branch of the theory of homology, is shown to be a powerful tool for investigating the topological properties of Feynman diagrams, related to the single particle propagator in the quantum many-body systems. The numerical correspondence between the number of this class of Feynman diagrams as a function of perturbative order and the number of rooted maps as a function of the number of edges is studied. A graphical procedure to associate Feynman diagrams and rooted maps is then stated. Finally, starting from rooted maps principles, an original definition of the genus of a Feynman diagram, which totally differs from the usual one, is given.

Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Disease Activity Index 2000 Responder Index-50 Enhances the Ability of SLE Responder Index to Identify Responders in Clinical Trials

2011 ◽  
Vol 38 (11) ◽  
pp. 2395-2399 ◽  
Author(s):  
ZAHI TOUMA ◽  
DAFNA D. GLADMAN ◽  
DOMINIQUE IBAÑEZ ◽  
SHAHRZAD TAGHAVI-ZADEH ◽  
MURRAY B. UROWITZ
Keyword(s):  
Systemic Lupus Erythematosus ◽  
Clinical Trials ◽  
Disease Activity ◽  
Lupus Erythematosus ◽  
Activity Index ◽  
Disease Activity Index ◽  
Systemic Lupus ◽  
Original Definition ◽  
Definition Of

Objective.To evaluate the performance of the Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) Responder Index (SRI) when the SLE Disease Activity Index 2000 (SLEDAI-2K) is substituted with SLEDAI-2K Responder Index-50 (SRI-50), a valid and reliable index of disease activity improvement. Also, to determine whether the SRI-50 will enhance the ability of SRI in detecting responders.Methods.Our study was conducted on patients who attended the Lupus Clinic from September 2009 to September 2010. SLEDAI-2K, SRI-50, the British Isles Lupus Assessment Group measure, and the Physician’s Global Assessment were determined initially and at followup. SRI was determined at the followup visit according to its original definition using the SLEDAI-2K score and by substituting SLEDAI-2K with SRI-50.Results.A total of 117 patients with SLEDAI-2K ≥ 4 at baseline were studied. Patients had 1 followup visit over a 3-month period. Twenty-nine percent of patients met the original definition of SRI and 35% of patients met the definition of SRI when SLEDAI-2K was substituted with SRI-50. The use of SRI-50 allowed determination of significant improvement in 7 additional patients. This improvement could not be discerned with the use of SLEDAI-2K as a component of SRI. At followup visits that showed improvement, SRI-50 scores decreased to a greater extent than SLEDAI-2K scores (p < 0.0001).Conclusion.SRI-50 enhances the ability of SRI to identify patients with clinically important improvement in disease activity. SRI-50 was superior to SLEDAI-2K in detecting partial clinical improvement, ≥ 50%, between visits. These properties of the SRI-50 enable it to be used as an independent outcome measure of improvement or as a component of SRI in clinical trials.

What has Natural Information to do with Intentional Representation?

2001 ◽  
Vol 49 ◽  
pp. 105-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Garrett Millikan
Keyword(s):  
Informational Semantics ◽  
Original Definition ◽  
Natural Information ◽  
The One ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Definition Of Information ◽  
Flow Of Information

‘According to informational semantics, if it's necessary that a creature can't distinguish Xs from Ys, it follows that the creature can't have a concept that applies to Xs but not Ys.’ (Fodor, 1994, p. 32)There is, indeed, a form of informational semantics that has this verificationist implication. The original definition of information given in Dretske'sKnowledge and the Flow of Information(1981, hereafter KFI), when employed as a base for a theory of intentional representation or ‘content,’ has this implication. I will argue that, in fact, most of what an animal needs to know about its environment is not available as natural information of this kind. It is true, I believe, that there is one fundamental kind of perception that depends on this kind of natural information, but more sophisticated forms of inner representation do not. It is unclear, however, exactly what ‘natural information’ is supposed to mean, certainly in Fodor's, and even in Dretske's writing. In many places, Dretske seems to employ a softer notion than the one he originally defines. I will propose a softer view of natural information that is, I believe, at least hinted at by Dretske, and show that it does not have verificationist consequences. According to this soft informational semantics, a creature can perfectly well have a representation of Xs without being able to discriminate Xs from Ys.

Topology Optimization of Dynamic Systems Under Uncertain Loads: An H∞-Norm-Based Approach

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paolo Venini
Keyword(s):  
Topology Optimization ◽  
Structural Parameters ◽  
Goal Function ◽  
Dynamic Compliance ◽  
Case Scenario ◽  
Worst Case ◽  
Original Definition ◽  
Optimal Material ◽  
The One ◽  
Definition Of

An innovative approach to topology optimization of dynamic system is introduced that is based on the system transfer-function H∞-norm. As for the structure, the proposed strategy allows to determine the optimal material distribution that ensures the minimization of a suitable goal function, such as (an original definition of) the dynamic compliance. Load uncertainty is accounted for by means of a nonprobabilistic convex-set approach (Ben-Haim and Elishakoff, 1990, Convex Models of Uncertainty in Applied Mechanics, Elsevier Science, Amsterdam). At each iteration, the worst load is determined as the one that maximizes the current dynamic compliance so that the proposed strategy fits the so-called worst case scenario (WCS) approach. The overall approach consists of the repeated solution of the two steps (minimization of the dynamic compliance with respect to structural parameters and maximization of the dynamic compliance with respect to the acting load) until convergence is achieved. Results from representative numerical studies are eventually presented along with extensions to the proposed approach that are currently under development.

scholarly journals Asymptotic analysis for personalized Web search

2010 ◽  
Vol 42 (02) ◽  
pp. 577-604 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yana Volkovich ◽  
Nelly Litvak
Keyword(s):  
Web Search ◽  
Power Laws ◽  
User Preference ◽  
Importance Measure ◽  
Web Documents ◽  
Original Definition ◽  
Theoretical Predictions ◽  
Heavy Tailed ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Good Agreement

PageRank with personalization is used in Web search as an importance measure for Web documents. The goal of this paper is to characterize the tail behavior of the PageRank distribution in the Web and other complex networks characterized by power laws. To this end, we model the PageRank as a solution of a stochastic equationwhere theRis are distributed asR. This equation is inspired by the original definition of the PageRank. In particular,Nmodels the number of incoming links to a page, andBstays for the user preference. Assuming thatNorBare heavy tailed, we employ the theory of regular variation to obtain the asymptotic behavior ofRunder quite general assumptions on the involved random variables. Our theoretical predictions show good agreement with experimental data.

Another failed M&A: misaligned business models as culprit

2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (5) ◽  
pp. 18-26
Author(s):  
Gaël Le Floc’h ◽  
Laurent Scaringella
Keyword(s):  
Customer Value ◽  
Multinational Enterprises ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Small And Medium Enterprises ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Empirical Literature ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Recent Debate ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Medium Enterprises

Purpose Literature on business models (BMs) has grown ve ry rapidly since the beginning of the twenty-first century, and although the theoretical and empirical literature has developed significantly, the number of practical and management-oriented studies remains relatively low. A recent debate in the field has focused on the definition of BM invariants: sensing customer needs, creating customer value, sustaining value creation and monetizing value. Extant empirical studies have mainly focused on multinational enterprises (MNEs) and successful BMs; however, this study concentrates on the failure of BMs in the case of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). An important source of a BM’s failure is the misalignment between MNE and SME involved in an acquisition. Design/methodology/approach Looking through the lens of the four BM constants, the aim of this study is to examine the case of the acquisition Domestic Heating (an SME) by Ventilair (an MNE). Findings Although both separate entities were achieving good results and each had a specific BM, the acquisition produced poor results mainly due to the misalignment of the two BMs. The findings lead the authors to make recommendations to practitioners on avoiding BM misalignment during an acquisition. Originality/value The authors encourage practitioners to enhance communication, promote organizational experiments, acknowledge specificities of both entities, foster employee commitment and ensure homogeneity in IT system usage.

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