855 research outputs found

    AlʔilbÄ«rī’s Book of the rational conclusions. Introduction, Critical Edition of the Arabic Text and Materials for the History of the ážȘawāáčŁáčŁic Genre in Early Andalus

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    [eng] The Book of the rational conclusions, written perhaps somewhen in the 10th c. by a physician from IlbÄ«rah (Andalus), is a multi-section medical pandect. The author brings together, from a diversity of sources, materials dealing with matters related to drug-handling, natural philosophy, therapeutics, medical applications of the specific properties of things, a regimen, and a dispensatory. This dissertation includes three different parts. First the transmission of the text, its contents, and its possible context are discussed. Then a critical edition of the Arabic text is offered. Last, but certainly not least, the subject of the specific properties is approached from several points of view. The analysis of Section III of the original book leads to an exploration of the early AndalusÄ« assimilation of this epistemic tradition and to the establishment of a well-defined textual family in which our text must be inscribed. On the other hand, the concept itself of ‘specific property’ is often misconstrued and it is usually made synonymous to magic and superstition. Upon closer inspection, however, the alleged irrationality of the knowledge of these properties appears to be largely the result of anachronistic interpretation. As a complement of this particular research and as an illustration of the genre, a sample from an ongoing integral commentary on this section of the book is presented.[cat] El Llibre de les conclusions racionals d’un desconegut metge d’IlbÄ«rah (l’Àndalus) va ser compilat probablement durant la segona meitat del s. X. Es tracta d’un rudimentari perĂČ notablement complet kunnaix (un gĂšnere epistĂšmic que Ă©s definit sovint com a ‘enciclopĂšdia mĂšdica’) en quĂš l’autor aplega materials manllevats (sovint de manera literal i no-explĂ­cita) de diversos gĂšneres. El llibre obre amb una secciĂł sobre apoteconomia (una mena de manual d’apotecaris) perĂČ se centra desprĂ©s en les diferents branques de la medicina. A continuaciĂł d’uns prolegĂČmens filosĂČfics l’autor copia, amb mĂ­nima adaptaciĂł lingĂŒĂ­stica, un tractat sencer de terapĂšutica, desprĂ©s un altre sobre les aplicacions mĂšdiques de les propietats especĂ­fiques de les coses, una sĂšrie de fragments relacionats amb la dietĂštica (un rĂšgim en termes tradicionals) i, finalment, una col·lecciĂł de receptes mĂšdiques. Cadascuna d’aquestes seccions mostren evidents lligams d’intertextualitat que apunten cap a una intensa activitat sintetitzadora de diverses tradicions aliades a la medicina a l’Àndalus califal. El text Ă©s, de fet, un magnĂ­fic objecte sobre el qual aplicar la metodologia de la crĂ­tica textual i de fonts. L’ediciĂł crĂ­tica del text incorpora la dimensiĂł cronolĂČgica dins l’aparat, que esdevĂ© aixĂ­ un element contextualitzador. Quant l’estudi de les fonts, si tot al llarg de la primera part d’aquesta tesi Ă©s nomĂ©s secundari, aquesta disciplina pren un protagonisme gairebĂ© absolut en la tercera part, especialment en el capĂ­tol dedicat a l’anĂ lisi individual de cada passatge recollit en la secciĂł sobre les propietats especĂ­fiques de les coses

    Mismarked Flesh: The Interpretability of the Male Body in Julio-Claudian Literature

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    This dissertation studies the increasing failure of the elite Roman male body to serve, as it had done for centuries, as an easily interpretable sign of social identity. The socio-political shift from Republic to Empire led to general disorientation and a crisis of male elite identity that found expression through depictions of the male body. Through Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Petronius’ Satyrica, and Senecan drama, I study this preoccupation in light of the Roman socio-historical context and modern theories of bodily identity found in Kristeva, Spillers, and Scarry, among others. I argue that we can trace the frequent scenes of misrecognition and confusion and the preponderance of wounded, marked, and dismembered non-slave bodies to this identity crisis. The mutilated male body in Julio-Claudian literature becomes a nodal point for multiple intersecting anxieties about gender, class, and status in an uncertain world. Chapter One reviews the socio-political context of the early empire and contemporary theories of embodied identity, and surveys the scholarship on embodied masculinity in early imperial literature. Chapter Two shines light on the confusion of bodily signifiers in the disorienting worlds of Ovid’s Metamorphoses and of Augustan Rome, showing through such stories as Actaeon and Pyramus that failure to interpret signs or to act as an interpretable signifier can be disastrous. Chapter Three examines the new vulnerability of elite men in Augustus’ Rome through the mutilated and dehumanized male bodies of the Metamorphoses, including Marsyas and Hippolytus. Chapter Four connects the confusion of bodily signifiers with a larger failure of the body in Petronius’ Satyrica and in Neronian Rome: whether they do not display legible social identities, fail to perform sexually, or are assaulted, bodies in Petronius’ novel are problems. Chapter Five connects the abject bodies of Seneca’s Oedipus, Thyestes, and Phaedra to the violence of Nero’s reign, reading them as broken signifiers whose misinterpretation spells disaster for their onlookers. Chapter Six offers concluding thoughts, as well as case studies of Pompey’s head in Lucan’s Bellum Civile and Hercules’ suffering in the pseudo-Senecan Hercules Oetaeus.Doctor of Philosoph

    From the Ground Up: An Anarchic Methodology for Creative Practice Beyond Capitalism

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    This research addresses the constraints of creative practice as it exists within the realm of mainstream capitalist culture and the possibilities for creative practice when practiced through a lens of anarchism. Drawing from Silvia Federici’s historical analysis of Marxist enclosures, and Gregory Sholette’s argument of art as a form of enclosure, this research advocates for an expansion of what is considered creative practice. The Dominant Art World Structures indicate institutional organization, a relationship with the cultivation of capital, and a hierarchical construction, making space for the conversations, practices, and people that have been allocated to this realm of mainstream contemporary art practice. In my research, I explore the potential for a creative commons, that allows for inclusion of voices that would traditionally be excluded from the Dominant Art World Structures. I engage with practices that often lie outside of the Dominant Art World, that may not even be commonly identified as art. The research also includes examples of creative practitioners whose practices are not acknowledged. Sources include punk zines, small town newspapers, posters from events that were not otherwise documented, and interviews with community members. This research advocates for a foundation of anarchic perspective that grounds itself on consciousness as stemming from the relational of being part of the other, of being a participant of the collective. The first half of the dissertation examines what capitalism, consumption, and commodification has created in relation to art, leaving a realm filled with competition with the eventual outcome being the monetization of people and relationships themselves. The second half of the dissertation begins to construct a perspective of what creative practice could be, when coming from a consciousness that employs anarchic sensibilities. These chapters identify characteristics of the creative commons and explore practices that demonstrate these characteristics, including collaboration or collective action without claim to authorship, skill sharing, and what it means to build from the ground up.https://digitalmaine.com/academic/1048/thumbnail.jp

    Examining the Relationships Between Distance Education Students’ Self-Efficacy and Their Achievement

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    This study aimed to examine the relationships between students’ self-efficacy (SSE) and students’ achievement (SA) in distance education. The instruments were administered to 100 undergraduate students in a distance university who work as migrant workers in Taiwan to gather data, while their SA scores were obtained from the university. The semi-structured interviews for 8 participants consisted of questions that showed the specific conditions of SSE and SA. The findings of this study were reported as follows: There was a significantly positive correlation between targeted SSE (overall scales and general self-efficacy) and SA. Targeted students' self-efficacy effectively predicted their achievement; besides, general self- efficacy had the most significant influence. In the qualitative findings, four themes were extracted for those students with lower self-efficacy but higher achievement—physical and emotional condition, teaching and learning strategy, positive social interaction, and intrinsic motivation. Moreover, three themes were extracted for those students with moderate or higher self-efficacy but lower achievement—more time for leisure (not hard-working), less social interaction, and external excuses. Providing effective learning environments, social interactions, and teaching and learning strategies are suggested in distance education

    Metaverse. Old urban issues in new virtual cities

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    Recent years have seen the arise of some early attempts to build virtual cities, utopias or affective dystopias in an embodied Internet, which in some respects appear to be the ultimate expression of the neoliberal city paradigma (even if virtual). Although there is an extensive disciplinary literature on the relationship between planning and virtual or augmented reality linked mainly to the gaming industry, this often avoids design and value issues. The observation of some of these early experiences - Decentraland, Minecraft, Liberland Metaverse, to name a few - poses important questions and problems that are gradually becoming inescapable for designers and urban planners, and allows us to make some partial considerations on the risks and potentialities of these early virtual cities

    ChannelComp: A General Method for Computation by Communications

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    Over-the-air computation (AirComp) is a well-known technique by which several wireless devices transmit by analog amplitude modulation to achieve a sum of their transmit signals at a common receiver. The underlying physical principle is the superposition property of the radio waves. Since such superposition is analog and in amplitude, it is natural that AirComp uses analog amplitude modulations. Unfortunately, this is impractical because most wireless devices today use digital modulations. It would be highly desirable to use digital communications because of their numerous benefits, such as error correction, synchronization, acquisition of channel state information, and widespread use. However, when we use digital modulations for AirComp, a general belief is that the superposition property of the radio waves returns a meaningless overlapping of the digital signals. In this paper, we break through such beliefs and propose an entirely new digital channel computing method named ChannelComp, which can use digital as well as analog modulations. We propose a feasibility optimization problem that ascertains the optimal modulation for computing arbitrary functions over-the-air. Additionally, we propose pre-coders to adapt existing digital modulation schemes for computing the function over the multiple access channel. The simulation results verify the superior performance of ChannelComp compared to AirComp, particularly for the product functions, with more than 10 dB improvement of the computation error

    Contextualizing Premodern Philosophy

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    This volume brings together contributions from distinguished scholars in the history of philosophy, focusing on points of interaction between discrete historical contexts, religions, and cultures found within the premodern period. The contributions connect thinkers from antiquity through the Middle Ages and include philosophers from the three major monotheistic faiths—Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. By emphasizing premodern philosophy’s shared textual roots in antiquity, particularly the writings of Plato and Aristotle, the volume highlights points of cross-pollination between different schools, cultures, and moments in premodern thought. Approaching the complex history of the premodern world in an accessible way, the editors organize the volume so as to underscore the difficulties the premodern period poses for scholars, while accentuating the fascinating interplay between the Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, and Latin philosophical traditions. The contributors cover many topics ranging from the aims of Aristotle’s cosmos, the adoption of Aristotle’s Organon by al-Fārābī, and the origins of the Plotiniana Arabica to the role of Ibn Gabirol’s Fons vitae in the Latin West, the ways in which Islamic philosophy shaped thirteenth-century Latin conceptions of light, Roger Bacon’s adaptation of Avicenna for use in his moral philosophy, and beyond. The volume’s focus on ""source-based contextualism"" demonstrates an appreciation for the rich diversity of thought found in the premodern period, while revealing methodological challenges raised by the historical study of premodern philosophy. Contextualizing Premodern Philosophy: Explorations of the Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, and Latin Traditions is a stimulating resource for scholars and advanced students working in the history of premodern philosophy
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