34,419 research outputs found

    Building envelope design as a contribution for improvement of urban spaces and social housing environmental quality

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    The design of building envelope and the definition of its elements, can influence both the quality of the external spaces perception and the living standard referred to internal building spaces. This improvement depends by the planning of some component design. Particularly, solar shadings and integrated plant solutions, also thanks to an increasing consequential interest about the issue and the legislative and normative evolution, represent factors able to be involved both in the performance and morphological quality of building envelope (improvement of energy efficiency and living quality of internal spaces), which can influence the perception of environment. A study about this questions has been conducted through the elaboration of a system of Best Pratices, a Code of Practice, for the new Plans of Zone of Rome Municipality. The indications contained in the Code takes in examination the integration-mitigation and facilities connection of solar collectors in the building design, and the possibility of integration between solar shading and collector elements, customized like a support tool for the sustainable design of building envelope. The design of building envelope, reported to morphological and technological issues, can assume particular importance in the definition of living quality. Design of closures, developed through some indications referred to its technological components, can influence both the quality perception of external living spaces through the morphological definition of building, and the life quality of internal spaces by the implementation of energy efficiency of building system. Solar shading in particular, also thanks to the increasing consequential interest in the evolution of legislation about the argument, more in the future will represent a fundamental element for design and the increment of performance and morphological quality of building enclosure

    The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure, and Human Evolution

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    Institutional virtue: how consensus matters

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    The paper defends the thesis that institutional virtue is properly modeled as a "consensual” property, along the lines of the Lehrer-Wagner model of consensus (LWC). In a first step, I argue that institutional virtue is not exhausted by duty-fulfilling, since institutions, contrary to natural individuals, are designed to fulfill duties. To avoid the charge of vacuity, virtue, if attributed to institutions, must be able to motivate supererogatory action. In a second step, I argue against discontinuity of institutional virtue with individual virtue. Two main arguments for discontinuity of collective properties display serious shortcomings when applied to virtues of institutions. Given that motivation for supererogatory action is neither inferred from statutory duties nor accommodates a right of reprobation, modeling institutional virtue on collective rationality or explaining it in terms of joint commitment both prove problematic. In a third step, I argue that LWC has the explanatory potential to account for institutional virtue. Due to its main features, iteration and evaluation, it provides a non-trivial analysis of continuity and thereby satisfies basic constraints on the notion of genuine institutional virtu

    Jerzy Kmita’s Methodological Interpretation of Karl Marx’s Philosophy. From Ideology to Methodological Concepts

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    The article presents J. Kmita’s methodological interpretation of selected cognitive methods used by K. Marx. Those methods were (and I believe they still are) significant for the social sciences and the humanities, even a century after they had been developed. J Kmita’s interpretation reveals specificity of epistemic procedures carried out by the author of “Capital” and emphasizes contemporary actuality of Marx’s epistemological ideas. To achieve that aim, Kmita refers to the concepts established in the field of philosophy of science of his time. According to J. Kmita, the attractiveness of Marx’s approach lies in the opportunity to develop a methodological interpretation of Marx philosophy, which in turn enables the formation of a unique theory of science development, alternative to those provided by logical positivism, falsificationism, neopragmatism or sociology of knowledge. Such theory would combine the perspective of sociology of knowledge with an epistemological approach to the development of science

    Language and argumentation in the controversy economic

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    This article offers an approach to the general structure of the controversy in economy. In our case we adopted a perspective to study a particular aspect of the rhetoric that comes from the context of a particular controversy: the controversy on the advantages of the free commerce between Daly and Bhagwati. It is sustained that the positions in economy present with relative frequency interest conflicts that are revealed in the dialectic one of the arguments. A proponent in open defense of the free commerce is not released of presumptions reflected in the field of the rhetoric. Reason why to include the language dimensions of the argumentation in economy has advantages for the field of the explanation and the epistemology in the social sciences.

    VELOS : a VR platform for ship-evacuation analysis

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    Virtual Environment for Life On Ships (VELOS) is a multi-user Virtual Reality (VR) system that aims to support designers to assess (early in the design process) passenger and crew activities on a ship for both normal and hectic conditions of operations and to improve ship design accordingly. This article focuses on presenting the novel features of VELOS related to both its VR and evacuation-specific functionalities. These features include: (i) capability of multiple users’ immersion and active participation in the evacuation process, (ii) real-time interactivity and capability for making on-the-fly alterations of environment events and crowd-behavior parameters, (iii) capability of agents and avatars to move continuously on decks, (iv) integrated framework for both the simplified and advanced method of analysis according to the IMO/MSC 1033 Circular, (v) enrichment of the ship geometrical model with a topological model suitable for evacuation analysis, (vi) efficient interfaces for the dynamic specification and handling of the required heterogeneous input data, and (vii) post-processing of the calculated agent trajectories for extracting useful information for the evacuation process. VELOS evacuation functionality is illustrated using three evacuation test cases for a ro–ro passenger ship

    Language and argumentation in the controversy economic

    Get PDF
    This article offers an approach to the general structure of the controversy in economy. In our case we adopted a perspective to study a particular aspect of the rhetoric that comes from the context of a particular controversy: the controversy on the advantages of the free commerce between Daly and Bhagwati. It is sustained that the positions in economy present with relative frequency interest conflicts that are revealed in the dialectic one of the arguments. A proponent in open defense of the free commerce is not released of presumptions reflected in the field of the rhetoric. Reason why to include the language dimensions of the argumentation in economy has advantages for the field of the explanation and the epistemology in the social sciences.language, argumentation, theory economics, epistemology, public choice, decision theory.
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