scholarly journals SOUNDSCAPE DESIGN IN CITY PARKS: EXPLORING THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN SOUNDSCAPE COMPOSITION PARAMETERS AND PHYSICAL AND PSYCHOACOUSTIC PARAMETERS

Author(s):  
Jiang LIU ◽  
Jian KANG

Soundscape design in city parks is important for a better visiting experience. The aim of this research is to find a more effective way to design soundscapes in city parks, by exploring the relationships between certain physical and psychoacoustic parameters and soundscape composition parameters as proposed in this study, including perceived loudness of individual sound (PLS), perceived occurrences of individual sound (POS), and soundscape diversity index(SDI). The parameters were based on soundscape information gathered with a specifically designed soundwalk method in five city parks in Xiamen, China. The results showed that the soundscape composition parameters play important roles as soundscape parameters. LCeq–LAeq, LA10–LA90 and sharpness showed more explanatory power to the soundscape composition parameters of individual sound categories than other physical and psychoacoustic parameters. PLS of human sounds was the most frequently introduced variable for nearly all the other objective parameters, followed by SDI. Some of the soundscape composition parameters were found to be mutually explainable, including PLS of human sounds with LA10, LCeq–LAeq and sharpness, respectively, POS of traffic sounds with LA10, and PLS of both mechanical and geophysical sounds with sharpness, which supply important information for soundscape design in city parks.

2021 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-47
Author(s):  
Julia Langkau

AbstractThis paper argues that we should distinguish two different kinds of imaginative vividness: vividness of mental images and vividness of imaginative experiences. Philosophy has focussed on mental images, but distinguishing more complex vivid imaginative experiences from vivid mental images can help us understand our intuitions concerning the notion as well as the explanatory power of vividness. In particular, it can help us understand the epistemic role imagination can play on the one hand and our emotional engagement with literary fiction on the other hand.


2005 ◽  
pp. 105-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gordana Djeric

The article deals with the explanatory relevance of the concept of stereotype in one of its original meanings - as a "mental image". This meaning of the term is the starting point for further differentiations, such as: between linguistic and behavioral stereotypes (in the sense of nonverbal, expected responses); universal and particular stereotypes; self representative and introspective stereotypes; permanent and contemporary stereotypes; and finally, what is most important for our purposes, the difference between silent and audible stereotypes. These distinctions, along with the functions of stereotype, are discussed in the first part of the paper. In the second part, the relations of silent and audible stereotypes are tested against the introduction of "innovative vocabularies" in popular lore. In other words, the explanatory power of this differentiation is checked through an analysis of unconventional motives in Serbian epic poems. The goal of the argument is to clarify the procedure of self creation of masculinity as a relevant feature of the "national character" through "tactic games" of silent and audible stereotypes. The examination of these "poetic strategies" serves a twofold purpose: to illustrate the process of constructing particular features of the "ethno type", on one hand, and to check hypotheses and models which are taken as frameworks in analyzing stereotypes, on the other.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-178
Author(s):  
Doli Juna Setia Tanjung ◽  
Bintal Amin ◽  
Syafruddin Nasution

This research was conducted in March 2019 to determine the oil content in sediment, it’s community structure of macrozoobenthos and it’s a relationship in Belawan Waters of Medan City, North Sumatera. Four sampling stations with five replications in each station were surveyed. The results showed that the average oil content in sediments exceeded the threshold had set by the National Academy of Science. Macrozoobenthos found consists of Ocypode quadrata, Scyla serrate, Rotun dicauda, Penaeus sp, Murex tribulus, and Nassarius olivaccus. The highest abundance was in Station 3 and the lowest was in Station 2. The diversity index in each station was generally very low. Dominance Index in Station 4 was medium, whilst the other stations were high. Evenness index showed in Station 3 and 4 were in high population, Station 1 was in medium population and Station 2 was in low population. Simple linear regression analyses between oil content in sediment with community structure of macrozoobenthos indicated negative correlation ( Y = 10,5-0,0001x , R2 = 0,0004 and r = 0,02 ) which indicated that the higher the oil content, the lower the macrozoobenthos abundance in sediment.


2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 89-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmed El-Masry ◽  
Dalia A. El-Mosallamy

This study examines the performance of 21 Saudi mutual funds using the CAPM and downside CAPM D-CAPM models over the period 2005-2011. Initially equity fund performance is examined against two benchmarks TASI and the GCCI Islamic index utilizing the traditional beta and CAPM performance evaluation measures. The evaluation is then replicated utilizing the downside beta and other tests of funds’ performance derived from the CAPM in the down side framework. The results indicate that the downside beta could be more relevant in terms of its higher explanatory power than the traditional beta and thus CAPM in the downside framework could be more relevant to report on funds’ performance in this emerging market. After exploring the aggregate performance by forming two fund portfolios; one representing the average Islamic mutual fund and the other is the average conventional fund, to examine the performance of the Islamic mutual funds portfolio compared to its conventional peers and to the overall market, the study finds, on average, Islamic mutual funds in outperform conventional mutual funds and the market portfolio. The study concludes that it is equally important for practitioners in emerging markets, to report performance using both CAPM measures and D-CAPM measures and if differences exist, then the D-CAPM could be the superior measure because of its suitability to the asymmetrical distribution of returns existing in emerging markets in general.


2006 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-124
Author(s):  
Wilhelm Geuder

In a recent contribution to a long-standing discussion in semantics as to whether the neo-Davidsonian analysis should be extended to stative predicates or not, Maienborn (2004, 2005) proposes to distinguish two types of statives; one of them is said to have a referential argument of the Davidsonian type, the other not. As one of her arguments for making such a distinction, Maienborn observes that manner modification seems to be supported only by certain statives but to be excluded by others (thus linking the issue to the use of manner modification as one major argument in favour of event semantics, cf. Parsons 1990). In this paper, it is argued that the absence of manner modification with Maienborn's second group of statives is actually due to a failure of conceptual construal: modification of a predicate is ruled out whenever its internal conceptual structure is too poor to provide a construal for the modifier; hence, the effects observed by Maienborn reduce to the fact that eventive predicates have a more complex conceptual substructure than stative ones. Hence, the issue of manner modification with statives is shown to be orthogonal to questions of logical form and event semantics. The explanatory power of the conceptual approach is demonstrated with a case study on predicates of light emission, adapting the representation format of Barsalou's (1992) frame model.  


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 109-139
Author(s):  
Hamid Tafazoli

Abstract My paper discusses the controversial relationship between literature and literary studies by using the example of the term ›migration literature‹. It demonstrates in the first part that ›migration literature‹ as a term in literary studies does not expose explications of rational reconstructions of a conceptual content in Harald Fricke’s and Klaus Weimar’s understanding. In its history (Adelson 1991; 2004), ›migration literature‹ goes back to a chain of different terms and definitions as Gastarbeiter- or Ausländerliteratur and reflects strategies of homogenization and exclusion. From the 1980s forward, those terms produce in cultural contexts a semantic field that propagates culture based on a definition of ex negativo (Tafazoli 2019). The first part of my paper describes an outline of influences of homogenization and reductionism on the discourses of migration in literary studies and explains in the second part an asymmetrical relationship between motive on the one hand and terminology on the other. The term ›migration literature‹ seems to dominate this relationship by determination of a source of ›accepted truths‹ related to the life and background – specifically to the place of birth and the origin – of the author (Bay 2017). By prioritization of criteria beyond narrative reality, literary studies led in the 1980s and 1990s discourses on migration on the sidelines of canon of German speaking literature (Weigel 1991; Wilpert 2001). With regard to terminological determination in order to produce interpretative sovereignty (Foucault 1994), my paper exemplifies in the second part that the term ›migration literature‹ collects selected and limited fields of social, historical and political knowledge in perspective adjustment and in order to classify literature beyond aesthetic criteria. By this means, inductive standards (Müller 2010a; 2010b) classify the literary object ›migration‹ ontologically and regardless of factuality of the author’s life on the one hand and fictionality of narrative text on the other. The ontological classification has been used, for example, in contexts that replace the figure of stranger (Fremder) by the figure of migrant and determines the latter as figuration of external space of culture. The replacement suggests a perspective rigidity in the cultural production of knowledge that flows into a terminological classification and claims with the term ›migration literature‹ sovereignty over culture. From this point of view, the author and his work should be located in the external space of canonized literature. The second part of my paper comes to the conclusion that the term ›migration literature‹ has been developed in politicized frames of external-textual ›accepted truths‹ and bases its stability on cultural essentialism and exclusion regardless of heterogenetic appearance (Bhatti 2015). With regard to theories of »literature on the move« (Ette 2001), my paper understands that migration has always formed a considerable part of literary production. Therefore, migration could be understood as a literary motive. This meaning would undermine an ontological understanding of culture. Narrative texts develop poetics of migration and create by figurations of migration a poly-perspectivity in which migration advances to a polysemantic motive. My paper discusses these thoughts in the context of cultural memory in the third part and understands varied and multifaceted constructions of cultural memory on all sides of cultural borders. This part confronts the asymmetrical relationship between motive and terminology with discussions on migration as narrative of cultural memory that belongs to cultural majority and minority equally, at the same time and in the same space. Based on this understanding, my paper argues that migration as a motive construct shapes and leads discourses of culture under the conditions of global re-formation. The shift of the perspective from conceptual classification to close-readings of literary constructions should lead us to considerations about the openness of the narrative in distinction to terminological unity and should also initiate a paradigm shift in locating migration in discourses of literary studies. The theoretical considerations will be exemplified in the fourth section by Mohammad Hossein Allafis Frankfurter Trilogie that is a collection of the novels Die Nächte am Main (1998), Die letzte Nacht mit Gabriela (2000) and Gabriela findet einen Stapel Papier (2012). The fourth part of my paper examines in Frankfurter Trilogie a reading that integrates migration as a motive into the discourse of cultural memory of global challenges. Using the example of the Trilogie, this part of my paper demonstrates that discussions on migration in the context of cultural memory could initiate a shift in the perspective of reception from conceptual homogenization to narrative openness. The shift of perspective shows that literature translates the questions of community into the aesthetic perception of the form of culture and civilization in which the community actually articulates and appears itself and shows also that reading of migration as a statement about one nation has lost its explanatory power. The last part of my paper resumes my thoughts and takes position in the current fields of research in literary studies.


Author(s):  
Denise Meyerson

What is the nature of a court? In this article I argue that we need to know what a court is supposed to do in order to understand what it is. I argue against two conceptions of a court which I call ‘minimalist’ and ‘essentialist’. The former holds that a court is simply a body empowered to make binding resolutions of disputes by applying existing laws. I argue that this conception is incomplete. The latter identifies further essential features of courts, such as the use of fair processes. I argue that the essentialist conception lacks explanatory power. Drawing on the central case methodology in legal philosophy, I introduce a conception that I call the ‘paradigm case conception’. I argue that paradigm courts are not merely empowered to apply the law but equipped to do so, by virtue of possessing features that assist them to resolve legal disputes accurately and effectively (ie, with the public’s acceptance). Courts that do not possess all of these features or possess them to a limited degree are not ‘non-courts’ but defective courts. I explain why the paradigm case conception is theoretically and practically superior to the other conceptions.


Argumentation ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesca Poggi

AbstractThe phenomenon of defeasibility has long been a central theme in legal literature. This essay aims to shed new light on that phenomenon by clarifying some fundamental conceptual issues. First, the most widespread definition of legal defeasibility is examined and criticized. The essay shows that such a definition is poorly constructed, inaccurate and generates many problems. Indeed, the definition hides the close relationship between legal defeasibility and legal interpretation. Second, this essay argues that no new definition is needed. I will show that from an interpretative standpoint, there is nothing special about legal defeasibility. Contrary to what some authors maintain, no unique or privileged source of legal defeasibility exists, nor are there privileged arguments to justify it. Specifically, legal defeasibility refers to interpretative outcomes deriving from interpretative arguments that, on the one hand, are very different from one another, and, on the other, are often employed to justify different interpretative outcomes. In the legal field, the problems related to defeasibility have little in common with the problems that this label covers in other areas—such as logic or epistemology—and they are nothing but the well-known problems related to legal interpretation. In conclusion, this paper argues that as far as legal argumentation is concerned, the notion of legal defeasibility lacks explanatory power, and it should be abandoned.


2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 363-375 ◽  
Author(s):  
Micah Lott

In The Value of Living Well, Mark LeBar develops a position that he calls “virtue eudaimonism” (ve). ve is both a eudaimonistic theory of practical reasoning and a constructivist account of the metaphysics of value. In this essay, I will explain the core of LeBar’s view and focus on two issues, one concerning ve’s eudaimonism and the other concerning ve’s constructivism. I will argue that, as it stands, ve does not adequately address the charge of egoism, once that charge has been formulated in the strongest way. I will also argue that a substantive constructivism like ve must have considerably less explanatory power than any (successful) constructivism that appeals to a formal characterization of agency. Although my remarks are largely critical, I offer them in a spirit of sympathetic engagement with LeBar’s impressive book.


AGRICA ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-59
Author(s):  
Wilfridus Lena ◽  
Yustina Maria Silvia Wonga Puu

This study aims to determine the type of white lice (Mealybug) pest associated with cassava plants (ManihotesculentaCrantz) in Ende Regency. The observation variables used included the identification of the hamlet species found in the field and calculating the level of diversity, abundance, dominance, similarity / similarity and intensity of pest attacks. The results showed that the diversity index for Nangapanda District was 1.052 (medium), abundance of 0.243 (low), and dominance index of 0.465 (moderate). Ende District diversity index 0.953 (low), abundance 0.348 (low), and dominance index 0.428 (moderate). Ende Selatan Subdistrict diversity index is 0.927 (low), abundance is 0.351 (low), and dominance index is 0.438 (moderate). In NdonaSubdistrict the diversity index is 0.683 (low), abundance is 0.358 (low), and dominance is 0.397 (moderate). For the similarity / similarity type index between Nangapanda sub-district and other sub-districts which is 85.71%. Similarity / similarity between Ende District and three other Sub-districts, namely 85.71%, 100% and 100%. The similarity between Ende Selatan District and the other three Sub-districts is 85.71%, 100% and 100%. The similarity between NdonaSubdistrict and the other three Subdistricts is 85.71%, 100% and 100%. While the intensity of pest damage in each Subdistrict was 47.7%, in Ende District 32.5%, South Ende 25% and Ndona District 38.33%.


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