Cities, Information, and the Epigraphic Habit: Re-evaluating the Links between the Numbers of Inscriptions and the Sizes of Sites - Dataset

Among classical scholars there is a widespread assumption that there is no relationship between the sizes of communities and their epigraphic output. In this article, I offer a new model, which suggests two hypotheses for how inscriptions increase with population, depending on whether they can be regarded as a form of infrastructure or a measure of wealth or disposable income. I show that, despite the variation between sites, there is nonetheless a consistent relationship between the numbers of inscriptions and the estimated populations of sites. The numbers of inscriptions increase slower than the estimated populations of sites, however, suggesting that they acted as a form of information infrastructure. This has important implications for our understanding of the mechanisms for transmitting information in ancient contexts, suggesting several avenues for future research.

Cities, Information, and the Epigraphic Habit: Re-evaluating the Links between the Numbers of Inscriptions and the Sizes of Sites - Dataset

Among classical scholars there is a widespread assumption that there is no relationship between the sizes of communities and their epigraphic output. In this article, I offer a new model, which suggests two hypotheses for how inscriptions increase with population, depending on whether they can be regarded as a form of infrastructure or a measure of wealth or disposable income. I show that, despite the variation between sites, there is nonetheless a consistent relationship between the numbers of inscriptions and the estimated populations of sites. The numbers of inscriptions increase slower than the estimated populations of sites, however, suggesting that they acted as a form of information infrastructure. This has important implications for our understanding of the mechanisms for transmitting information in ancient contexts, suggesting several avenues for future research.

Complexity and Use in Building Evaluation (CUBE2): The Modular Case of the BCR Corridors at Qatar University

The BCR Corridors at QU are notorious for wayfinding difficulties of end-users in the building complex. These navigation problems appear to arise due to the repetitive similarity of individual parts in its modular design, highly localized impediments to readability and visibility such as shading device screens and temporary installations, and the relationship of those different parts composing the collective whole of the BCR Corridors to the immediate surrounding context of the QU campus (Figure 1). The purpose of the “Complexity and Use in Building Evaluation” research project (CUBE2: QUST-2-CENG-2019-12) is to build on the research success of the post-occupancy cluster in the first demonstration project (CUBE1: QUST-2-CENG-2018-9). It includes continuing to develop a detailed post-occupancy dataset of movement and space use in buildings at QU. The goal is to contribute positively to future design refinements, alterations, and design of new university buildings at QU. We want to help create a world-class center of education and research where space use, interaction, and innovation are tactically ‘woven’ into the design and planning of the campus at various scales of the built environment. In the CUBE1 study, Major et al. (2019) were able to graphically illustrate building program/use and movement/space use patterns. It included quantifying the relationship between movement and spatial layout, and the significance of other end-user activities such as sitting and interacting in the common areas of the QU Women’s Engineering Building. It also included identifying adaptive re-use of classrooms and storage spaces for laboratory and office uses, leading to a shortage of storage spaces in the building. There was a consistent relationship (R^2=0.68, p < 0.001) between sitting and interacting unrelated to accessibility or metric area, i.e., the availability of seating was the dominant factor for casual encounter, mostly of students. Finally, there was a weak but consistent relationship (R^2=0.38, p < 0.001) between spatial layout and movement flows using space syntax modeling when allowing for the strongly programmatic differences (classrooms versus faculty offices) in different wings of the building (Major et al., 2019) (Figure 2). The post-occupancy evaluation findings in the CUBE1 project were largely consistent with previous results of space syntax research over the last 30 years for generative layouts such as office buildings, colleges, and research laboratories. Those results include the generative role of spatial layout for movement and casual encounter in buildings, the prescriptive effects of strong programmatic aspects (in this case, classroom location and course schedules) in causing some spaces to over-perform/underperform for some types of uses, most usually movement, and the singular importance for the provision of seating to facilitate consistent and robust use of spaces whether at the building or urban level (Hillier and Penn, 1991; Hillier, 1996; Hillier et al., 1996; Major et al., 2019; Sailer et al., 2016).

SEMANTIC PATTERN OF GIFT IN THE NOBLE QURAN

ALLAH has honored Arabic for preserving the Qur’an for it, and it is miraculous in its statement, wording and saying, and the Qur’an expression is based on semantic patterns that constitute as a whole the unity of the Qur’anic discourse unique in its composition and miracle. I was concerned with the study of the specialization of expressions in their homeland from the Qur’an context exclusively. From the positions in which the context (the gift) was mentioned, and after observing all the citizen and identifying the contexts that contained the gift, the effort devoted himself to the semantic pattern that concerned the verb with its revelations in order to reveal its truth and reveal its identity, and to explain the use of the word in its context and its harmonious and consistent relationship in order to show textual coherence between the signifier And its significance in its functional interrelated relationship between the context and the word gift, in conformity with the documented intent intended in the general verse, The study presented the views of commentators and linguists in its homeland, then the researcher directed the linguistic saying to clarify the situation, clarify the significance and reveal the harmony of the Qur’anic discourse, the location of the study according to the semantic pattern of the gift in the Qur’an.

Ideologically consistent, but for whom? An empirical assessment of the populism-elitism-pluralism set of attitudes and the moderating role of political sophistication

Scholars who study populism from an ‘ideational approach’ consider populism as a set of ideas based on a moralised anti-establishment thinking and a strong people-centrist view of politics. From this perspective, at a theoretical level, populist attitudes have the following two main contrasts: pluralism and elitism. In this article, we investigate the ideological consistency of the populism-pluralism-elitism set of attitudes among voters. Analysing data from Flanders (N = 1444), we make three main contributions. First, we show that there indeed exists an internally consistent relationship between populism, elitism, and pluralism among voters. Second, we demonstrate that this consistency only holds for the most politically sophisticated citizens. And third, we show that the relationship between populist and elitist attitudes is much more nuanced than often assumed. We show that it is possible to empirically distinguish between ‘expertise elitism’ and ‘anti-populist elitism’, two forms of elitism which relate differently to populist attitudes.

Towards a Textual Deconstruction of Adebowale’s Lonely Days

No literary creation exists hermetically; it is not self-sufficient and independent. It does not emanate from a vacuum. Every literary creation is textually incorporated in relation; whether compulsorily, optionally or accidentally, to other pre-existing texts. This implies that the realization of a literary text by a writer results from the fact that such literary creator has studied several other pre-existing texts; thus it is presumptuous of a writer to claim the competence of producing a literary text without dialoging with existing ideas and ideologies, mœurs, legends and myths as well as pre-existing communication codes. But then, the objective of this study is to unearth and demonstrate how Adebowale, in his Lonely Days (2006), has related in either a compulsory, optional or accidental manner with existing ideas and ideologies, mœurs, legends and myths and pre-existing communication codes. With Kristevan methodology of intertextuality and critical textual analysis, the study succinctly deconstructs how the textual incorporation of the hypertext relates with the existing hypo-texts through the markers of intertextuality. The study finds out that, in its consistent relationship with other pre-existing texts, the text is stylistically incorporated in with the view to reconstructing and revalorizing the African altered history and culture while portraying the reality of women’s condition in male African hegemonic societies. It concludes that the realization of any literary text and preoccupation is relational to existing texts.

New data on tail lengths and variation along the caudal series in the non-avialan dinosaurs

The tails of non-avialan dinosaurs varied considerably in terms of overall length, total number of vertebrae, and gross form and function. A new dataset confirms that there is little or no consistent relationship between tail length and snout-sacrum length. Consequently, attempts to estimate one from the other are likely to be very error-prone. Patterns of changes in centra lengths across the caudal series vary among non-avian dinosaurs. However, some overarching patterns do emerge. A number of taxa show (anterior to posterior) a series of short centra, followed by a series of longer centra, with the remainder of the tail consisting of a long series of centra tapering in length. This pattern is consistent with functional constraints, and the anterior series of longer centra are coincident with the major attachments of femoral musculature. This pattern is not present in many basal taxa and may have evolved independently in different dinosaurian groups, further suggesting functional importance.

A new role for joint mobility in reconstructing vertebrate locomotor evolution

Reconstructions of movement in extinct animals are critical to our understanding of major transformations in vertebrate locomotor evolution. Estimates of joint range of motion (ROM) have long been used to exclude anatomically impossible joint poses from hypothesized gait cycles. Here we demonstrate how comparative ROM data can be harnessed in a different way to better constrain locomotor reconstructions. As a case study, we measured nearly 600,000 poses from the hindlimb joints of the Helmeted Guineafowl and American alligator, which represent an extant phylogenetic bracket for the archosaurian ancestor and its pseudosuchian (crocodilian line) and ornithodiran (bird line) descendants. We then used joint mobility mapping to search for a consistent relationship between full potential joint mobility and the subset of joint poses used during locomotion. We found that walking and running poses are predictably located within full mobility, revealing additional constraints for reconstructions of extinct archosaurs. The inferential framework that we develop here can be expanded to identify ROM-based constraints for other animals and, in turn, will help to unravel the history of vertebrate locomotor evolution.

Belbin’s team roles and their performance in road design courses: a study with undergraduate and postgraduates students

This article analyzes the relationship between the Belbin’s team roles and their performance in road design courses. Data were collected from four Civil Engineering groups (undergraduate and postgraduates students) divided into 25 teams. As a result, a consistent relationship was not found between the team balance and its performance in all teams. However, the three most influential roles in performance were identified, but this was only relevant to postgraduate students.

A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Aesthetic Preferences for Neatly Organized Compositions: Native Chinese- vs. Native Dutch-Speaking Samples

Do aesthetic preferences for images of neatly organized compositions (e.g., images collected on blogs like Things Organized Neatly©) generalize across cultures? In an earlier study (Van Geert &amp; Wagemans, 2019), focusing on stimulus and person properties related to order and complexity, Dutch-speaking participants (N = 421) indicated their preference for one of two simultaneously presented images (100 pairs) and completed questionnaires such as the Big Five Inventory and the Personal Need for Structure scale. Preferences related to differences in order, soothingness, and fascination ratings between the images in a pair. In the current study, we compared the data of the native Dutch-speaking participants from this earlier sample (N = 356) to newly collected data from a native Chinese-speaking sample (N = 220). Overall, aesthetic preferences were quite similar across cultures, and preferences related to differences in soothingness and order between the images in a pair for both Chinese-speaking and Dutch-speaking participants. However, some interesting differences were found as well. Chinese-speaking participants showed an additional preference for simplicity, and Dutch-speaking participants for fascination. As fascination ratings of the images related positively with measures of order and complexity, whereas soothingness ratings related positively with order and negatively with complexity (Van Geert &amp; Wagemans, 2019), these results hint at a cross-culturally consistent relationship between order and aesthetic appreciation, but a cross-culturally diverse link between complexity and appreciation.