Evaluating Spatiotemporal Distribution of Residential Sprawl and Influencing Factors Based on Multi-Dimensional Measurement and GeoDetector Modelling

Residential sprawl constitutes a main part of urban sprawl which poses a threat to the inhabitant environment and public health. The purpose of this article is to measure the residential sprawl at a micro-scale using a case study of Hangzhou city. An integrated sprawl index on each 1 km × 1 km residential land cell was calculated based on multi-dimensional indices of morphology, population density, land-use composition, and accessibility, followed by a dynamic assessment of residential sprawl. Furthermore, the method of GeoDetector modeling was applied to investigate the potential effects of location, urbanization, land market, and planning policy on the spatial variation of residential sprawl. The results revealed a positive correlation between CO2 emissions and residential sprawl in Hangzhou. There has been a remarkable increase of sprawl index on residential land cells across the inner suburb and outer suburb, and more than three-fifths of the residential growth during 2000–2010 were evaluated as dynamic sprawl. The rapid development of the land market and urbanization were noted to impact the spatiotemporal distribution of residential sprawl, as q-statistic values of population growth and land price ranked highest. Most notably, the increasing q-statistic values of urban planning and its significant interactions with other factors highlighted the effects of incremental planning policies. The study derived the policy implication that it is necessary to transform the traditional theory and methods of incremental planning.

Spontaneous Melodic Productions of Expert Musicians Contain Sequencing Biases Seen in Language Production

Language production involves complex action sequencing to produce fluent speech in real-time, placing considerable constraints on working memory that lead to sequencing biases in production. Researchers have speculated that these biases may extend beyond language to other human behaviors involving action sequencing, but this claim has not been empirically investigated. Here we provide a strong test of this hypothesis, examining whether biases seen in language production also constrain one of the most complex and spontaneous human behaviors: musical improvisation. Using a large corpus of improvised solo transcriptions from eminent jazz musicians, we test for the existence of an established production bias observed in language production termed easy first—a tendency for more accessible sequences to occur at the beginning of a phrase, allowing incremental planning of more complex phrases. Our analysis shows consistent evidence of easy first in improvised music. We find that the beginning of improvised musical phrases contains 1) more frequently occurring interval patterns, 2) smaller intervals, 3) less interval variety, 4) less pitch variety, and 5) fewer direction changes. There was no easy first bias in a control corpus containing simulated data with the same structure, indicating that the effects are specific to real-time melodic production and not simply due to stylistic conventions. The findings indicate that even expert jazz musicians, known for spontaneous creative performance, reliably retrieve easily-accessed melodic sequences before creating more complex sequences—consistent with an incremental planning strategy employed in language production—suggesting that similar biases constrain the spontaneous production of music and language.

Policymaking with Sen and Ambedkar - Case of Right to Education in India

Sen and Ambedkar represent different times in history, but they essentially want to tackle the same problems of political economy. On one hand, Ambedkar asserted that a social and economic reform must precede political reform in British India struggling to throw the yoke of colonial rule, on the other hand, in modern India, Sen enunciates how capacity building and capabilities approach to policy making can go a long way in strengthening democracy. As concerted policies in education have failed to deliver owing to the feudal mindset and incremental planning, it is time we look at issues of social justice, especially education, objectively. This paper examines the possible ways in which the thoughts and theories of these stalwarts can shape better public policies. To this end, a comparative study of themes like justice and democracy will be undertaken. Lastly, the paper analyses whether the Right to Education in India is a just policy when looked through the discerning eyes of Sen and Ambedkar.