Malacca's “Straits Chinese traditional courtyard eclectic style shophouses”: facades' architectural design elements through place identity

PurposeThe traditional courtyard shophouses modifications, alterations and deterioration over the years have become a source of concern to major stakeholders. In George Town World Heritage Site Malaysia, studies have shown that the worst hit among its various shophouses are the Straits Chinese traditional courtyard eclectic style shophouses. This paper investigates the traditional courtyard shophouses concerning the role of architectural formation design components, and how this can sustain the place identity of the Straits Chinese typology.Design/methodology/approachThe methodological approach regards the collection of data and analysis of 30 face-to-face interviews and the observation of Lots number 3, 5 and 7, located along Lorong Ikan, George Town World Heritage Site.FindingsIt was found that these Lots express the place identity of the Straits Chinese, and its major exterior architecture components to be observed are the column head (Chi Tou) capital, parapet wall, bressummer beam and ionic column, and gable and gable ends.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper is limited to the role of architectural formation design components. Future research is needed to expand the scope of participant elements via a quantitative approach. This will enhance the validation of findings from this paper.Practical implicationsIt is recommended the use of the proposed checklist to enhance the sustainability of the architectural components regarding the place identity of these styles of shophouses, which provides salutary lessons on how to preserve the heritage buildings. Also, major stakeholders with leading evidence from relevant government agencies should ensure the preservation of these cultural and heritage buildings for the next generation.Social implicationsThis paper found that the family beliefs and social impact were the components that express the place identity of the Straits Chinese.Originality/valueThis paper demonstrates that the role of architectural formation design components regarding place identity of Straits Chinese traditional courtyard eclectic style shophouses cannot be over-emphasised.

Intermittent Time-Varying Formation Control for High-Order Networked Agents Subject to Discontinuous Communications

This paper investigates the leaderless and leader-follower time-varying formation design and analysis problems for a group of networked agents subject to discontinuous communications. Firstly, a leaderless time-varying formation control protocol is proposed via the intermittent control strategy, where the control input of each agent is constructed by the distributed local state information and formation instructions in the communication time unit, but it is zero in the noncommunication time unit. Then, an explicit formulation of the formation center function is determined to describe the formation movement trajectory of the whole networked agents. Leaderless time-varying formation design and analysis with discontinuous communications are given in the form of linear matrix inequalities. Moreover, the main results of the leaderless cases are extended to the leader-follower cases. Finally, two numerical examples are provided to illustrate the theoretical results of leaderless and leader-follower cases, respectively.

Historical and Legal Aspects of Some Issues of Customs Law Taught in Universities

Анализируются и комментируются историкоправовые аспекты некоторых вопросов таможенного права (его отдельных правовых институтов), преподаваемого в вузах в рамках различных учебных дисциплин по специальности «Таможенное дело». Отмечается значимость знания истории вопроса при формировании (проектировании) его современного состояния для использования в различных областях деятельности, в том числе образовательной. Th e article analyzes and comments on the historical and legal aspects of some issues of customs law (its separate legal institutions), taught in universities within the framework of various academic disciplines in the specialty “Customs”. Th e importance of knowledge of the background in the formation (design) of its current state for use in various fi elds of activity, including education, is noted.

THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ABSOLUTE AND RELATIVE IN HISTORICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES

Статья посвящена философскому осмыслению теоретико-методологических проблем взаимосвязи (содержательной и процессуальной) в историко-философском исследовании двух философских начал - абсолютного и относительного. Предложен новый вариант трактовки этой взаимосвязи, от которой, в свою очередь, зависит успешное и научно-корректное познавательное формирование (конструирование) важнейших начал любого подобного исследования: «историко-философская реальность», «цель», «объект», «предмет», «новизна», «историко-философская интерпретация». The article is devoted to philosophical understanding of theoretical-methodological problems of relationship (substantive and procedural) in historical philosophical study of two philosophical beginnings - absolute and relative. A new version of interpretation of this relationship is proposed, on which, in its turn, the successful and scientific correct cognitive formation (design) of the most important beginnings of any such research depends: «historical-philosophical reality», «aim», «object», «subject», «novelty», «historical philosophical interpretation».

Limited-Budget Formation Control for High-Order Linear Swarm Systems with Fix Topologies

This paper discusses limited-budget time-varying formation design and analysis problems for a high-order linear swarm system with a fixed communication topology. Firstly, the communication topology among agents is modeled as an undirected and connected graph, and a new formation control protocol with an energy integral term is proposed to realize formation control and to guarantee the practical energy assumption is less than the limited energy budget. Then, by the matrix inequality tool, sufficient conditions for limited-budget formation design and analysis are proposed, respectively, which are scalable and checkable since they are independent of the number of agents of a swarm system and can be transformed into linear matrix inequality constraints. Moreover, an explicit expression of the formation center function is given, which contains the formation function part and the cooperative state part and is not associated with the derivatives of the formation functions. Finally, a numerical simulation is shown to demonstrate the effectiveness of theoretical results.