Spatial Concepts Research Articles

Общечеловеческий статус понятия «экология» как необходимость структурирования ее составных частей

The discrepancy between the name of science “ecology” and its content in the proclamation of this “new science” by E. Heckel in 1866 was noted., since the spatial concept inherent in the name(“oikos”) contradicts its content, designed primarily to study biological objects. This ambiguity to this day is one of the main reasons for the lack of a clear definition of the main attributes of environmentalscience – conceptual foundations, goals, tasks and content of this science, the subject and objects of its research, basic methods, methods of studying, etc. Moreover, in the diversity in the definition of ecology, proposed by various scientists, one of the most important issues of our time is often outside the frame of reference, concerning the creative or destructive impact on theenvironment of a specific representative of the biota, which is Homo sapiens. Now it is human activity that determines the main features of environmental science, which makes it attributed toone of the most unique concepts of the modernity, designed to canonize specific actions of man and humankind from the position of a conscious attitude to the environment. In this context, ecologyhas now «outgrown itself» and, with its new status, it responds not to a separate science, but to the universal idea, which must consider both the natural and humanitarian branches of humanknowledge. Accordingly, the concept of «ecology» now requires a new structuring, because the numerous variants of the classified division of the general ecology into «private sciences» do notcontribute to the ordering of the goals, objectives and content of these environmental units. To prevent the confusion of concepts and improve the overall systematics of the environment, it isproposed to distinguish between the ecology of natural content and the ecology of “man-made content”, conditionally calling the first supergroup “natural-or natural ecology”, and the second –“homogeneous or anthropogenic ecology”.

Natural Capital Changes in Poland – Integrating Spatial and Economic Approach

In the context of decision making, the main challenge is the assessment of changes in natural capital stocks due to conversion of ecosystems for development purposes. Ecosystems are basically a spatial concept, so the natural approach is to use GIS to evaluate land cover changes. Basic economic model of competing land uses allows us to formulate the criteria of economic rationality in the management of natural capital. The goal of this paper is a preliminary application of the criteria coming from the economic model of land uses to assess changes in land cover in Poland in the years 2000-2012.

A brain worth keeping? Waste, value and time in contemporary brain banking

If a temporal rather than spatial concept of waste is adopted, novel categories emerge which are useful for identifying and understanding logics of temporality at play in determining what is kept in contemporary brain banks, and reveal that brain banks are constituted by more than stored materials. First, I apply the categories analytically on a recent UK brain banking discussion among professionals. This analysis highlights the importance of data in brain banks, as well as the centrality of ideas about pasts and futures in the discussions. Secondly, I investigate the case of a seven decades old, Danish brain bank which had been reduced to its physically stored material for 24 years, before being reinstituted in 2006. This case demonstrates the importance of material and conceptual infrastructures that co-constitute a collection, as they make up an experimental system that is crucial to maintaining the collection's continued relevance and usefulness as a scientific institution.

Language, Thought And Social Awareness: a Preliminary Anthropological Linguistic Investigation Of Time And Space in The Bima Language

This article discusses the connection between language and thought processes and its implication towards social consciousness and attitudes. The framework is developed from various concepts of linguistic relativity particularly temporal and spatial deictic systems. Data were introspectively collected from the Bima native speakers selected based on dialectal variation, topography, and political geography and descriptively analyzed by identifying, classifying, describing and explaining the connection between various linguistic forms and spatio-temporal dimensions and social consciousness. The study finds that the concept of time in the language is not only semantically realized in adverbs of time but also morphologically represented in linguistic markers of present, past and future. Space is realized through the choice of three-dimensional locative markers: ‘ake’ speaker proximity, ‘ede’ hearer proximity, and ‘aka’ speaker-hearer distant detachment. Location is also marked by other factors: topography, geography, trans-communication pathways, and socio-political vitality of referred area. The study shows a strong relationship in both expert and commoner speakers’ understanding of spatial and temporal concepts although explicit reference to space and time as required in the language does not significantly materialize in different attitudes toward them. Key Words: language, thought, social awareness, deictic systems

Focusing on the methodology shift in epidemiological study of eye diseases

As chronic diseases gradually become the primary threat to the health of Chinese population and the rapid increase in the need of high eye health quality, the population-based epidemiological study of eye disease in China should be conducted in the following mode: large-scale, multicenter, and prospective cohort studies in different gender, age, ethnicity and living habits population, with new analytical models similar to generalized linear and nonlinear mixed effects to better analyze the interaction between environmental causes and individual internal factors.The systematic epidemiology and spatial epidemiology concepts are suggested to be included in eye research, in order to deconstruct the cause of eye disease diversification.All these facilitate precision prediction, diagnosis and treatment of individual patient. Key words: Epidemiology; Population; Cohort studies; Statistics; Precision medicine; Evidence-based medicine

Global Production Networks, Foreign Direct Investment, and Supplier Linkages in the Integrated Peripheries of the Automotive Industry

This article examines the regional development effects of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the integrated peripheries of the automotive industry by analyzing supplier linkages between foreign subsidiaries and domestic firms. It develops the spatial concept of integrated peripheries in core-based macroregional production networks. Conceptually, it draws on the dynamic notion of uneven development in contemporary capitalism, namely, on David Harvey’s spatiotemporal fix and on the global production networks concept of strategic coupling to investigate the mode of articulation of integrated peripheries into macro-regional production networks. Empirically, it analyzes the quantity and quality of supplier linkages in the automotive industry of Slovakia based on unique data collected by the author from both foreign subsidiaries and domestic firms through a survey completed by 133 automotive firms in 2010 and interviews with 50 automotive firms conducted between 2011 and 2015. The empirical analysis uncovered weak and dependent supplier linkages between foreign subsidiaries and domestic firms, which undermine the potential for technology and knowledge transfer from foreign subsidiaries to the domestic economy and positive long-term regional development effects of large FDI by automotive industry corporations in integrated peripheries.

Beyond Statist Paradigms: Sociospatial Positionality and Diaspora Mobilization in International Relations

This article presents a new positional perspective for the analysis of diaspora mobilization in International Relations, seeking to shift debates beyond realist, liberalist, and constructivist thinking, and speaking to a cluster of socio-positional theories in IR. It provides a conceptual discussion and empirical illustrations of diaspora positionality – the power diaspora activists derive from their socio-spatial positions in particular contexts – and its utility to account for different mobilization trajectories. Positionality as a socio-spatial concept offers opportunities to analyze diaspora politics beyond statist paradigms, dominated by analyses of triadic relationship between diasporas, host-states (immigration states), and home-states (sending states). Diasporas have links to many contexts beyond host-states and original home-states. Such linkages structure their relationships globally. If diaspora entrepreneurs perceive themselves as deriving strong powers to achieve homeland-oriented goals from a particular socio-spatial context, they are more likely to pursue claims through institutional politics and moderate means. If they perceive themselves as deriving weak powers from a context, they are more likely to engage with activist networks and pursue claims in transgressive ways. The conceptual discussion engages aspects of diaspora positionality in juxtaposition with other spatial concepts such as geographical proximity/distance and position in a social network. The empirical discussion brings patterns of mobilization trajectories from the Armenian diaspora mobilization for genocide recognition and the Palestinian diaspora mobilization for statehood, informed by a rich multi-sited fieldwork.

„Er versucht sich in französischer Konversation“. Frankreich-Bilder in Thomas Manns Zauberberg

La présente contribution analyse les significations particulières qui sont associées à la France dans La Montagne magique de Thomas Mann. Dépassant la polémique contre la France et les Français qui caractérise Les Considérations d’un homme étranger à la politique , le roman fait éclater les virulents stéréotypes nationaux qui s’appliquent à ce qui est français, notamment à travers les personnages de Lodovico Settembrini et Clawdia Chauchat. Par le procédé d’hybridation des espaces et des personnages, les différences entre le propre et l’étranger tendent, au fur et à mesure que l’action progresse, à perdre de leur pertinence.

Border as “Zone of Indistinction”: The State of Exception and the Spectacle of Terror Along Turkey’s Border With Syria

Turkey’s border with Syria today is a laboratory in which biopolitics and the spectacle coincide in new ways. As a consequence of the ongoing war between the state and Kurdish insurgents, and the state of emergency accompanying it, this border region has incrementally transformed into a “zone of indistinction” in which the spatial concepts of inside and outside interpenetrate. As exception is normalized, the logic of “the camp” (in Agamben’s sense) tends to become a dispositif. Exceptional routines are being exercised in this border region both to (re)construct the figure of the “Kurd” as a citizen and to generalize the domain of the camp, while also producing bare life in the context of counterterrorism. However, the “Kurd” as a subject cannot be ambiguously constructed, neither can the region be politically homogenized. Based on multisited fieldwork in the border city of Mardin, I claim that this zone of indistinction is simultaneously the place of revolt and resistance for the Kurdish case. Against this backdrop, the article argues the practical implications of counterterrorism policies in the region by focusing on how the state of exception is enforced on the Kurdish population as a biopolitical tool while being represented as a public spectacle to the rest of Turkey.

Unsupervised spatial lexical acquisition by updating a language model with place clues

Abstract This paper describes how to achieve highly accurate unsupervised spatial lexical acquisition from speech-recognition results including phoneme recognition errors. In most research into lexical acquisition, the robot has no pre-existing lexical knowledge. The robot acquires sequences of some phonemes as words from continuous speech signals. In a previous study, we proposed a nonparametric Bayesian spatial concept acquisition method (SpCoA) that integrates the robot’s position and words obtained by unsupervised word segmentation from uncertain syllable recognition results. However, SpCoA has a very critical problem to be solved in lexical acquisition; the boundaries of word segmentation are incorrect in many cases because of many phoneme recognition errors. Therefore, we propose an unsupervised machine learning method (SpCoA++) for the robust lexical acquisition of novel words relating to places visited by the robot. The proposed SpCoA++ method performs an iterative estimation of learning spatial concepts and updating a language model using place information. SpCoA++ can select a candidate including many words that better represent places from multiple word-segmentation results by maximizing the mutual information between segmented words and spatial concepts. The experimental results demonstrate a significant improvement of the phoneme accuracy rate of learned words relating to place in the proposed method by word-segmentation results based on place information, in comparison to the conventional methods. We indicate that the proposed method enables the robot to acquire words from speech signals more accurately, and improves the estimation accuracy of the spatial concepts.

Spatial Modernist Architectural Artistic Concepts

The development of a single spatial modernist conception had continued until the middle of the twentieth century. The first authors who proposed the new conceptual solutions of an architectural space that had the greatest impact on the further development of architecture were Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright, Mies van der Rohein. They embodied different approaches within the common modernist spatial concept using the language of morphological, symbolic and phenomenological descriptions of space. The concept was based on the simplification of functional links, integration of internal architectural space with the environment due to the vanishing of boundaries between them and expansion of their interrelation. Le Corbusier proposed a spatio-temporal concept based on the movement and tempo-rhythmics of the space “from inside to outside.” Frank Lloyd Wright proposed the concept of integral space where inner and outer spaces were the parts of a whole. Mies van der Rohein was the author of the universal space concept in which the idea of the “dissolution” of the inner space in the outer space was embodied.

MODEL FOR SEMANTICALLY RICH POINT CLOUD DATA

Abstract. This paper proposes an interoperable model for managing high dimensional point clouds while integrating semantics. Point clouds from sensors are a direct source of information physically describing a 3D state of the recorded environment. As such, they are an exhaustive representation of the real world at every scale: 3D reality-based spatial data. Their generation is increasingly fast but processing routines and data models lack of knowledge to reason from information extraction rather than interpretation. The enhanced smart point cloud developed model allows to bring intelligence to point clouds via 3 connected meta-models while linking available knowledge and classification procedures that permits semantic injection. Interoperability drives the model adaptation to potentially many applications through specialized domain ontologies. A first prototype is implemented in Python and PostgreSQL database and allows to combine semantic and spatial concepts for basic hybrid queries on different point clouds.

Separation and Creation in Genesis 1 and Psalm 104, A Continuation of the Discussion of the Verb ברא

Abstract The meaning of the verb ברא is the subject of fierce discussions. Conventionally it has been rendered by biblicists and Hebraists as “to create,” but this traditional interpretation fails to explain adequately numerous linguistic and conceptual aspects of the verb’s usage. Historical solutions of these problems are discussed. The alternative hypothesis defended here is that the verb ברא Qal designates “to separate.” It is considered to be a spatial concept, not a concept that figures in the domain of construction. In the present article I present further analyses of the verb ברא in Gen 1 and explain the significance for the idea of creation it represents, and of the most famous creation psalm, Ps 104, and especially of vv. 26-30 in which the term ברא is used. The similarities and dissimilarities between these two texts demonstrate that each context of usage of ברא must be independently investigated and appreciated.

Justice and the City: A Reading of Amos 3:9-15

Abstract The article strives to understand the urban prophecies in the Book of Amos with a view to spatial and literary concepts. Amos 3:9-15 is a collection of short prophecies, with v. 12 serving as its linchpin. The imagery of vv. 9-11 is part of an urban tradition in biblical literature, which underscores the importance of justice and peace for the maintenance of the city. Verses 12 and 15 constitute one prophecy about Samaria, which intensifies the tension between the city and its surroundings by contrasting items from the urban scenery with a gruesome picture of the lion in prey. Vv. 13-14 constitute a Bethel prophecy, introduced in between the Samaria prophecies. The city is poetically defined by the unification of its surroundings (the wall) with the edifices at its heart. Several cruxes in the interpretation of Amos 3:9-15 are elucidated throughout the discussion.

Towards an elementary architecture

The design teaching in the first year of the architecture courses has a propaedeutic character. That is, it should allow students to develop basic skills and knowledge that will enable them to undertake more complex activities in subsequent stages. In the architecture course of FAU UFRJ, the propaedeutics for the architectural project has been gradually transformed in the last two decades: it moved away from practices historically linked to the Bauhaus tradition of the Study of Form – based on the creation of plastic compositions of abstract character and on the understanding of their effects on perception – and towards the project of architecture and urbanism. This article presents the description of an exercise conceived in the discipline Conception of Architectural Form II, of the second semester of the architecture course in FAU / UFRJ, with the purpose of making explicit the pedagogical agenda of the discipline, which has among its premises the valuation of a so called "elementary architecture", which is based on the synthetism and visual elementarity of the object. The exercise consists of conceiving a project without a defined program, in a narrow urban lot, by means of manipulating an independent structure formed by pillars and beams and based on a modular frame. The focus is on the relationships between form, structure and space. This agenda, besides being a suited tool for teaching and reflecting on the project practice, also aligns itself with more pressing architectural problems in the construction of Brazilian cities. This is because it opens space for reflection on project principles based on the use of basic forms combined in a formal system compatible with the available constructive means, allied to spatial concepts and urban guidelines capable of guiding the occupation of these territories.

Walking Back to the Future

Embodied cognition frameworks suggest a direct link between sensorimotor experience and cognitive representations of concepts ( Shapiro, 2011 ). We examined whether this holds also true for concepts that cannot be directly perceived with the sensorimotor system (i.e., temporal concepts). To test this, participants learned object-space (Exp. 1) or object-time (Exp. 2) associations. Afterwards, participants were asked to assign the objects to their location in space/time meanwhile they walked backward, forward, or stood on a treadmill. We hypothesized that walking backward should facilitate the online processing of "behind"/"past"-related stimuli, but hinder the processing of "ahead"/"future"-related stimuli, and a reversed effect for forward walking. Indeed, "ahead"- and "future"-related stimuli were processed slower during backward walking. During forward walking and standing, stimuli were processed equally fast. The results provide partial evidence for the activation of specific spatial and temporal concepts by whole-body movements and are discussed in the context of movement familiarity.

LumpR 2.0.0: an R package facilitating landscape discretisation for hillslope-based hydrological models

Abstract. The characteristics of a landscape pose essential factors for hydrological processes. Therefore, an adequate representation of the landscape of a catchment in hydrological models is vital. However, many of such models exist differing, amongst others, in spatial concept and discretisation. The latter constitutes an essential pre-processing step, for which many different algorithms along with numerous software implementations exist. In that context, existing solutions are often model specific, commercial, or depend on commercial back-end software, and allow only a limited or no workflow automation at all. Consequently, a new package for the scientific software and scripting environment R, called lumpR, was developed. lumpR employs an algorithm for hillslope-based landscape discretisation directed to large-scale application via a hierarchical multi-scale approach. The package addresses existing limitations as it is free and open source, easily extendible to other hydrological models, and the workflow can be fully automated. Moreover, it is user-friendly as the direct coupling to a GIS allows for immediate visual inspection and manual adjustment. Sufficient control is furthermore retained via parameter specification and the option to include expert knowledge. Conversely, completely automatic operation also allows for extensive analysis of aspects related to landscape discretisation. In a case study, the application of the package is presented. A sensitivity analysis of the most important discretisation parameters demonstrates its efficient workflow automation. Considering multiple streamflow metrics, the employed model proved reasonably robust to the discretisation parameters. However, parameters determining the sizes of subbasins and hillslopes proved to be more important than the others, including the number of representative hillslopes, the number of attributes employed for the lumping algorithm, and the number of sub-discretisations of the representative hillslopes.

To Recognize the Tyranny of Distance: A Spatial Reading of Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt

Distance — physical, material distance — is an obviously spatial concept, but one rarely engaged by legal or feminist geographers. We take up this oversight in relation to the 2016 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt, which adjudicated the constitutionality of a Texas law that imposed new regulations on abortion providers. Because half of the state’s abortion providers were unable to meet these regulations and thus closed, the distance that many Texas women had to travel for abortion services increased dramatically. In part because of these increases, the Supreme Court ultimately determined that the Texas laws imposed an unconstitutional “undue burden.” Bringing together case law and ethnographic data, this paper traces the process by which distance is made legally “legible” in the context of reproductive in/justice. In so doing, it confronts more uneasy realities of distance, including the discursive dismissal of social and literal im/mobility and isolation; contradictory readings of “emptiness”; and the material spatiality of distance through the non/place-ness of rural areas. Together, these factors illuminate a more significant distance, namely the epistemic and social distance that exists between the legal performance of distance in litigation and the embodied traversal of distance by a woman seeking an abortion in Texas. Prioritizing rural distance as material, legal and gendered, this work engages and augments the nascent field of feminist legal geographies. It likewise challenges legal geographers’ insistence on urban space by uncovering the ways in which even the relative “emptiness” of distance is intimately consequential. Finally, this paper makes connections between the exercise of the abortion right and the exercise of other rights that implicate distance, most notably the right to vote. Just as abortion regulations have often had the effect of requiring women to travel farther for abortion services, voter ID laws have the effect of requiring voters to travel to a public agency in order to secure the requisite identity document. Other voting regulations and state and local voting practices may similarly impose spatial burdens on voters. We thus assert that what Whole Woman’s Health reveals about making distance legally cognizable finds ready legal application in other contexts.

Coastal Planning for Sustainable Maritime Management

The Kendari Bay has a unique asset as a tourist attraction for the residents of the city of Kendari. The coastal area with all its potential like as a green open space, mangrove forests, the play area, is still a main destination to attract visitors. The function of Kendari Bay area as a tourist attraction makes this area as a place that has potential as a center of the economic vibrant and social interaction. Unfortunately, the arrangement of the area has not been done so that the integrated development of the region is not optimal. Therefore, it is important to promote a concept of area development as a tourist destination of coastal areas in order to improve function of the area. The concept of the coastal development area of Kendari Bay as tourist areas is formulated by the development criteria that influence to capable of attracting tourists. The criteria is formulated by the factors that play a role in the development of tourist areas, further exploration by qualitative descriptive analysis based on the information respondents. Fixation of the results of the criteria development was done with descriptive analysis assessed based on theoretically references through literature and regulations regarding the criteria for the development of tourism. To formulating the concept of tourism development used qualitative descriptive analysis technique with validation using triangulation techniques. The concept of tourism development based on the potential of the region is divided into three zones, namely area development of the core zone, direct supporting zone and indirect supporting zone. The macro spatial concept is necessary for the development of the area through the improvement of accessibility to tourist attraction, while the micro spatial concept includes improvements and additions to the activity in each zone to provide the convenience facilities for the tourists.

Początki krzyżackich zamków na ziemi chełmińskiej. Pierwsze warownie i obiekty murowane

The Teutonic Knights after their arrival to Kuyavian side of the Vistula River durin following decades of the 13th century erected a series of wooden and earthen forts, which role was to secure conquered lands and to establish the new order. The 13th century was a crucial period in Central Europe. There occurred major social and economic changes, linked to the introduction of new feudal system, the development of new settlement and legal system. In Bohemia, as well as in Silesia, there were characteristic castles of transition type associated with the central authority – centres of new administration and settlement. They did not constitute a simple continuation of early medieval strongholds, but, in fact, they were constructed with impermament materials, usually erected on a ‘greenfield’. Fortification constituted a perimeter of ramparts without internal wooden structures, strengthened from the outside by a wooden or stone wall. Building were erected in timberframed onstruction, or other impermament one and they were coupled with ramparts. Due to the limited state of research the reconstruction of the characteristics of wooden and earthen strongholds of the Teutonic Order from this period is not easy. In contrast to Bohemia, in Chelmno Land more often in the 13th century they were built in places of early medieval strongholds, which should be explained by wartime urgency and convenient location. Fortifications constituted ramparts, and buildings erected in impermament constructions were coupled with them. Strongholds formed in this way were associated with the needs of new monastic rulers of these lands, and therefore they included chapels required by the rule of the Teutonic Order, and perhaps also refectories. The socio-economic background, as well as the general features of the Teutonic Order’s wooden and earthen strongholds lead to the conclusion that they should be classified as so-called castles of transition type. From the mid-13th century (Torun), and above all from the 1270s (Bierzglowo, Grudziądz, Pokrzywno) selected strongholds, located in the centres of the newly formed commandries of Chelmno Land, were transformed from wooden and earthen into mortared ones. As first were erected single mortared buildings, and it was characteristic that the original mortared building was located in place of future chapel. Instead the construction of castle wings was not planned back then, they were created later, from the end of the 13th century, according to completely new concepts. In their original form these complexes probably were never completed. Simultaneously with these works construction of outer walls proceeded, replacing old wooden and earthen fortifications, starting from the most vulnerable side. Therefore, they were irregular complexes with single mortared and probably wooden buildings originating from the previous period. In this respect they resembled seats of the Teutonic Order commandries from Germany and Bohemia. Of particular interest is the analogy to the Teutonic Order castle Bradlo in Bohemia, where a similar spatial concept is perceptible. Recent research has produced a lot of new information about the origins of the Teutonic Order’s castles, but it is still insufficient knowledge, requiring enlargement.