Computing vs. Genetics

This chapter first presents the interrelations between computing and genetics, which both are based on information and, particularly, self-reproducing artificial systems. It goes on to examine genetic code from a computational viewpoint. This raises a number of important questions about genetic code. These questions are stated in the form of an as yet unpublished working hypothesis. This hypothesis suggests that many genetic alterations are caused by the last base of certain codons. If this conclusive hypothesis were to be confirmed through experiementation if would be a significant advance for treating many genetic diseases

Space is the machine, part four: theoretical syntheses

Part IV of the book, ‘Theoretical Syntheses’, begins to draw together some of the questions raised in Part I, the regularities shown in Part II and the laws proposed in Part III, to suggest how the two central problems in architectural theory, namely the form-function problem and the form-meaning problem, can be reconceptualised. Chapter 10, ‘Space is the machine’, reviews the form-function theory in architecture and attempts to establish a pathology of its formulation: how it came to be set up in such a way that it could not be solved. It then proposes how the configuration paradigm permits a reformulation, through which we can not only make sense of the relation between form and function in buildings, but also we can make sense of how and why buildings, in a powerful sense are ‘social objects’ and in fact play a powerful role in the realisation and sustaining of human society. Finally, in Chapter 11, ‘The reasoning art’, the notion of configuration is applied to the study of what architects do, that is, design. Previous models of the design process are reviewed, and it is shown that without knowledge of configuration and the concept of the non-discursive, we cannot understand the internalities of the design process. A new knowledge-based model of design is proposed, with configuration at its centre. It is argued from this that because design is a configurational process, and because it is the characteristic of configuration that local changes make global differences, design is necessarily a top down process. This does not mean that it cannot be analysed, or supported by research. It shows however that only configurationally biased knowledge can really support the design Introduction Space is the machine | Bill Hillier Space Syntax Introduction process, and this, essentially, is theoretical knowledge. It follows from this that attempts to support designers by building methods and systems for bottom up construction of designs must eventually fail as explanatory systems. They can serve to create specific architectural identities, but not to advance general architectural understanding. In pursuing an analytic rather than a normative theory of architecture, the book might be thought by some to have pretensions to make the art of architecture into a science. This is not what is intended. One effect of a better scientific understanding of architecture is to show that although architecture as a phenomenon is capable of considerable scientific understanding, this does not mean that as a practice architecture is not an art. On the contrary, it shows quite clearly why it is an art and what the nature and limits of that art are. Architecture is an art because, although in key respects its forms can be analysed and understood by scientific means, its forms can only be prescribed by scientific means in a very restricted sense. Architecture is law governed but it is not determinate. What is governed by the laws is not the form of individual buildings but the field of possibility within which the choice of form is made. This means that the impact of these laws on the passage from problem statement to solution is not direct but indirect. It lies deep in the spatial and physical forms of buildings, in their genotypes, not their phenotypes. Architecture is therefore not part art, and part science, in the sense that it has both technical and aesthetic aspects, but is both art and science in the sense that it requires both the processes of abstraction by which we know science and the processes of concretion by which we know art. The architect as scientist and as theorist seeks to establish the laws of the spatial and formal materials with which the architect as artist then composes. The greater scientific content of architecture over art is simply a function of the far greater complexity of the raw materials of space and form, and their far greater reverberations for other aspects of life, than any materials that an artist uses. It is the fact that the architect designs with the spatial stuff of living that builds the science of architecture into the art of architecture. It may seem curious to argue that the quest for a scientific understanding of architecture does not lead to the conclusion that architecture is a science, but nevertheless it is the case. In the last analysis, architectural theory is a matter of understanding architecture as a system of possibilities, and how these are restricted by laws which link this system of possibilities to the spatial potentialities of human life. At this level, and perhaps only at this level, architecture is analogous to language. Language is often naïvely conceptualised as a set of words and meanings, set out in a dictionary, and syntactic rules by which they may be combined into meaningful sentences, set out in grammars. This is not what language is, and the laws that govern language are not of this kind. This can be seen from the simple fact that if we take the words of the dictionary and combine them in grammatically correct sentences, virtually all are utterly meaningless and do not count as legitimate sentences. The structures of language are the laws which restrict the combinatorial possibilities of words, and through these restrictions construct the sayable and the meaningful. The laws of language do not therefore tell us what to say, but prescribe the structure and limits of the sayable. It is within these limits that we use language as the prime means to our individuality and creativity. In this sense architecture does resemble language. The laws of the field of architecture do not tell designers what to do. By restricting and structuring the field of combinatorial possibility, they prescribe the limits within which architecture is possible. As with language, what is left from this restrictive structuring is rich beyond imagination. Even so, without these laws buildings would not be human products, any more than meaningless but syntactically correct concatenations of words are human sentences. The case for a theoretical understanding of architecture then rests eventually not on aspiration to philosophical or scientific status, but on the nature of architecture itself. The foundational proposition of the book is that architecture is an inherently theoretical subject. The very act of building raises issues about the relations of the form of the material world and the way in which we live in it which (as any archaeologist knows who has tried to puzzle out a culture from material remains) are unavoidably both philosophical and scientific. Architecture is the most everyday, the most enveloping, the largest and the most culturally determined human artefact. The act of building implies the transmission of cultural conventions answering these questions through custom and habit. Architecture is their rendering explicit, and their transmutation into a realm of innovation and, at its best, of art. In a sense, architecture is abstract thought applied to building, even therefore in a sense theory applied to building. This is why, in the end, architecture must have analytic theories

Innovation and First-Mover Advantages in Corporate Underwriting: Evidence from Equity Linked Securities

Investment banks develop new securities permanently even when their competitors can imitate them almost immediately and at significantly smaller development costs. Using data of all the new issues of Equity Linked and Derivative Securities since 1985 compiled by SDC, and firm financial data from COMPUSTAT, I test if innovators have a demand advantage over the imitators when they compete to underwrite new issues using innovative corporate products. If the innovator has private information about the innovation, his own variety of the security may be better valued than the imitators’ varieties by the issuers. I estimate the issuers’ demand for the banker’s underwriting service across different varieties of equity-linked securities. Using a nested-logit model of discrete choice I find that, ceteris paribus, the demand for innovators’ varieties is larger than for imitators’. I also find that this demand advantage is decreasing in time, suggesting that imitators learn from observing deals made in the past by the innovator and by themselves. The initial innovator’s advantage is larger for securities that appear later in a sequence of innovations but it diminishes faster.Financial Innovation; Investment Banking; Underwriting; First-Mover Advanatges; Demand Estimation

Suitably underspecified: systematic notations and the relations between paper and music

Through building a taxonomy of drawing, and a set of four drawing research studies aimed at generating innovative cross-disciplinary practices, an argument will be developed that systematised drawings such as the music notation are hybrid representational environments, sufficiently different from other inscriptive practices as to merit a separate classification. The taxonomical model will decentralise specific modes of drawing, in favour of a multi-disciplinary view appropriate to the persistence of its subject as a deeply rooted strategic and executive practice, and the four studies will engage the time-factoring of notation systems as transductive environments, setting the conditions for innovative practices both in and outside of the frame of the inscription

Latino Career Choice and Prestige: Examining Prestige, Cultural Values and Family Influence in Predicting Career Choice

Career choice continues to be a principal area for career development research, as finding ways to determine what contributes to career choices, and how those choices impact individuals’ micro and macro systems, informs best practices in vocational psychology. The field of vocational psychology can benefit from exploring myriad variables that may have an impact on career choice, career congruency, and persistence in the world of work; and highlighting the unique experiences and needs of diverse populations can produce new insight about different groups and people that the field should endeavor to improve. To this end, this study sought to uniquely contribute to the field of vocational psychology by being among the first to utilize certain measures with Latino/a populations; explore cultural values and family influences on career decision making and congruence; glean insight on traditional career choices and what may impact them; and address the gap in examining prestige with Latino/a populations: a potent dimension in career choice informed by social desirability, social norms, and present day attitudes about work. The Latino/a Values Scale, specifically the subscales of Cultural Pride and Familismo, was used to explore and predict career congruence in Latino/a males and females. The Family Influence Scale, specifically informational support, family expectations, financial support, and values/beliefs was used to explore and predict career congruence in Latino/a males and females. Finally, prestige was examined among Latino/a males and females in this study. While some analysis produced significant results, there were also considerable limitations to the study. However, all exploration within the analyses in this study can inform directions for future research, invite further inquiry into the dynamics between these groups and variables, and contribute to development and refinement of further measures and research questions around these topics

Contribution to the tagus rock art complex study

Master Erasmus Mundus em quaternário e pré-história. Volume I e IIA arte rupestre que se estende ao longo do rio Tejo é considerada como um dos maiores complexos ao ar livre de arte Pós-Paleolitica, não só na Península Ibérica mas também da Europa. Milhares de imagens banham as margens do rio Tejo num repertorio que conjuga todas as formas de representação. Contudo, com a construção da barragem nos anos 70, mais de 90% desta arte rupestre foi condenada às profundezas do rio para sempre. No entanto e antes do nível da água subir, conseguiu-se preservar grande parte da arte através da transferência das gravuras para moldes de Latex. Estes moldes, ao cuidado do Museu do COA, são da responsabilidade do CNART (Centro Nacional de Arte Rupestre). Por meio do projecto RUPTEJO 2008 – Presente, os moldes foram emprestados ao Instituto Terra e Memoria, Mação, Portugal, onde os investigadores ligados ao projecto podem estudar e tentar compreender os aspectos culturais sociais e técnicos, dando deste modo alguma justiça aos autores originais deste conjunto fascinantes de gravuras. Esta tese foca-se no estudo do sito de Gardete analisando os seus aspectos tipológicos e técnicos, estando inserida numa serie de estudos levados a cabo noutros sítios do Tejo ao longo dos anos que tentam contribuir para uma melhor compreensão de todo o complexo do Tejo. Elaborou-se deste modo um catálogo das gravuras de modo a manter viva a mística e curiosidade que o complexo de arte rupestre do rio tejo desperta nos seus observadores

The Case For Culturally Affirming Systems Of Education: Exploring How Professional Development Impacts Culturally Relevant And Critical Literacy Teaching Practices

This case study based on a qualitative paradigm utilized grounded theory to analyze teacher interviews, focus groups and elite interviews focused on culturally relevant and critical literacy practices. This case study focuses on a small group of teachers and facilitators in a large urban school district in Minnesota. This dissertation focused on the impact of culturally relevant and critical literacy professional development on teachers\u27 mindsets and practices. The theoretical concepts that emerged from this case study are the importance of culturally affirming systems. The data collected from this project support the need for creating culturally affirming classrooms, diverse literature, and the opportunity for student voices to be heard. During and after professional development, teachers must have the opportunity for application, reflection, and time to dialogue with peers

Practitioner Inquiry: Teaching literacy with English language learners

This qualitative research examines a practitioner inquiry group comprised of teachers of English Language Learners (ELLs) with the following research questions in mind: What happens when a group of ESL teachers collaborate in a dialogically inspired professional development context to learn about navigating discussion with complex texts and their ELL students? How does teacher learning evolve and address the complexities of the teacher/learner discourse under discussion in the professional development inquiry? What are the thematic and discursive contours of teaching and learning in this professional development context? In what ways will lesson development be relevant to the needs of those in the practitioners’ settings? This study documents the concerns, strengths, and weaknesses that ELL teachers express about teaching ELLs’ literacy through an examination of teachers’ experiences over eight months of group sessions. Dialogic teaching is presented in the inquiry as a lens to compare and contrast teachers’ ideas about their engagement with ELLs in comprehending complex texts in literacy learning. Data sources include (1) digital recordings of initial interviews, (2) field notes and digital recordings of group meetings, (3) digital recordings of exit focus group, (4) transcripts of observed lessons, (5) digital recordings of debriefing interviews after observations, (6) a case study of two teachers in their classrooms, and (7) the researcher’s reflexive journal. Case studies of two teachers include additional classroom observations and in-depth interviews. Data analysis tools included narrative structure (Gee, 2011; Labov & Waletzky, 1987), critical discourse analysis (Fairclough, 1992; Rogers 2011), and grounded theory techniques (Strauss & Corbin, 2008). Findings show that practitioners’ discourse changed to include more positive appraisals of their students’ classroom discussions after working through readings about dialogic teaching (Alexander, 2008; Boyd & Markarian, 2011; Reznitskaya, 2012; Wells, 2002). An awareness of how EL students are positioned in higher education is revealed with an understanding of the complex nuances of English language practitioner discourse. This research adds to existing scholarship in professional development for English language teachers and in-service teachers as well as to narratives about teaching literacy with ELLs