Linking activity and place attachment dimensions in enhancing the sense of place

Sense of place definition includes the point where the physical form, activity and meaning are intertwined in the people experience of a place. In urban design and place quality research, much has been discussed on the influence of the physical form and activity on the sense of place. However, the linkage between these components with place meaning and attachment has not been adequately explored, in particular on urban streets. This paper highlights the role of activity in supporting attachment to shopping streets in the city centre of Kuala Lumpur. Surveys and face-to-face interviews with users of Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman (JTAR), Jalan Masjid India (JMI), Jalan Petaling (JP) and Jalan Bukit Bintang (JBB) were conducted to examine their perception of the streets’ activities and its significance to their association with the places. The research demonstrates that activity has strongly influenced place attachment as reflected in the users’ identification of and dependence on the shopping streets. The attachment is the result of constant and long term engagement with the activities, mainly shopping, trading and socio-cultural interaction

Semiparametric stationarity and fractional unit roots tests based on data-driven multidimensional increment ratio statistics

In this paper, we show that the central limit theorem (CLT) satisfied by the data-driven Multidimensional Increment Ratio (MIR) estimator of the memory parameter d established in Bardet and Dola (2012) for d $\in$ (--0.5, 0.5) can be extended to a semiparametric class of Gaussian fractionally integrated processes with memory parameter d $\in$ (--0.5, 1.25). Since the asymptotic variance of this CLT can be estimated, by data-driven MIR tests for the two cases of stationarity and non-stationarity, so two tests are constructed distinguishing the hypothesis d \textless{} 0.5 and d $\ge$ 0.5, as well as a fractional unit roots test distinguishing the case d = 1 from the case d \textless{} 1. Simulations done on numerous kinds of short-memory, long-memory and non-stationary processes, show both the high accuracy and robustness of this MIR estimator compared to those of usual semiparametric estimators. They also attest of the reasonable efficiency of MIR tests compared to other usual stationarity tests or fractional unit roots tests. Keywords: Gaussian fractionally integrated processes; semiparametric estimators of the memory parameter; test of long-memory; stationarity test; fractional unit roots test.Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1207.245

Sustainable Approaches in Built Environment in Preparing for Global Environmental Change

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Perancangan Bisnis Online Sewatempat.com

Berdasarkan data statistik jumlah penduduk yang membutuhkan tempat tinggal dan kebutuhan atas tempat USAha semakin meningkat. Diimbangi dengan bertambahnya pengguna internet di Indonesia hingga ke pelosok daerah, sehingga penulis melihat adanya peluang bisnis online untuk sewa properti. Metodologi yang digunakan untuk melihat peluang bisnis tersebut memakai analisis SWOT, Porter 5 Forces, Segmentation-Targeting-Positioning (STP) dan Marketing Mix 4P. Dari metodologi yang digunakan, sehingga dapat menunjang dalam pembuatan Business Plan yang feasible dan profitable. Dilihat dari analisis keuangan untuk nilai IRR sebesar 20% dan ROI sebesar 28%

The Acquisition of Relative Clauses: How Do Second Language Learners of Arabic Do It?

The new developments in syntactic theory under Minimalism reconsiders the relation between the language faculty and general cognitive systems whereby language acquisition is accomplished by the interaction of Chomsky (2005)\u27s three factors: (F1) a minimally specified UG (Genetic endowment); (F2) Primary Linguistic Data (PLD), i.e., input; and (F3) non-language faculty-specific considerations, including principles of efficient computation and principles of data analysis employed in acquisition. Based on this assumption, this study examines the role of economy conditions of (F3) on syntactic derivation and feature interpretability in accounting for the process of second language acquisition by investigating the nature of interlanguage grammars of Arabic-English relative clauses. Arabic and English differ with respect to the operations involved in the derivation of relative clauses, such that, while English uses Move of an operator to generate relative clauses, in Arabic they are base-generated with a resumptive pronoun in the extraction site and are hence derived through (external) Merge. The two languages also differ with respect to the use of overt versus covert relative complementizers and the use of agreement features. Focusing on these three aspects of relativization, I carried out a study with 16 adult English-speaking learners of Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). The participants completed 3 tasks: (1) a grammaticality judgment task, (2) a sentence combination task, and (3) a picture description task. Based on syntactic differences and the cost of syntactic derivations I hypothesized that: (1) individual interlanguage grammars obey the economy conditions of Merge-over-Move and the Shortest Derivation Requirement in the distribution of resumptive pronouns within different types of relative clauses, (2) individual interlanguage grammars would show a systematic pattern in the use of relative complementizer within definite and indefinite relative clauses, and that (3) individual interlanguage grammars would show a systematic pattern in the distribution of agreement features on relative complementizers and resumptive pronouns as the complexity of the relative clause structure increases. The results of the study show that: (1) the distribution of resumptive pronouns in the interlanguage relative clauses systematically varies depending on the extraction site which still obeys to economy conditions of syntactic derivation, (2) individual interlanguage grammars show a systematic use of overt versus covert relative complementizers within both definite and indefinite relative clauses, and (3) individual interlanguage grammars show a systematic use of matching/mismatching agreement features on relative complementizers and resumptive pronouns but the pattern does not appear to be related to the increasing complexity of the relative clause structure. I argue that these results suggest that a minimalist account can be implemented to specify what language features and operations are least accessible to the learner. Distribution of resumptive pronouns is constrained by economy conditions of Merge-over-Move and the Shortest Derivation Requirement. Errors with complementizer\u27s use and agreement are related to feature interpretability and Agree. We conclude that, the general principles of computational efficiency of syntactic derivations are operative on the process of second language acquisition

Transformability in Post-Earthquake Houses in Iran: with Special Focus on Lar City

Earthquake is considered as one of the most catastrophic disasters in Iran, in terms of both short-term and longterm hazards. Due to the particular financial and time constraints in Iran, quickly constructed post-earthquake houses (PEHs) do not fulfill the minimum requirements to be considered as comfortable dwellings for people. Consequently, people often transform PEHs after they start to reside. However, lack of understanding about process, motivation, and results of housing transformation leads to construction of some houses not suitable for future transformations, hence resulting in eventually demolished or abandoned PEHs. This study investigated housing transformations in a natural bed of postearthquake Lar. This paper reports results of the conducted survey for comparing normal condition housing transformation with postearthquake housing transformation in order to reveal the factors that affect post-earthquake housing transformation in Iran. The findings proposed the use of a combination of ‘Temporary’ and ‘Permanent’ housing reconstruction models in Iran to provide victims with basic but permanent post-disaster dwellings. It is also suggested that needs for future transformation should be predicted and addressed during early stages of design and development. This study contributes to both research and practice regarding post-earthquake housing reconstruction in Iran by proposing new design approaches and guidelines

PERTUMBUHAN KUNYIT PUTIH (Curcuma zedoaria Roscoe) PADA MEDIA MURASHIGE-SKOOG DENGAN PENAMBAHAN BERBAGAI KONSENTRASI 6-Benzyl Amino Purine (BAP) dan SUKROSA SECARA IN VITRO

ABSTRACT The study about growth of Curcuma zedoaria Roscoe on Murashige-Skoog media with addition of several concentrations of 6-Benzyl Aminopurine (BAP) and sucrose with In Vitro was conducted from June 2013 - February 2014 in the Laboratory of Plant Physiology and Tissue Culture, Department of Biology, mathematic and Natural Science Faculty, Andalas University. The aim of the study was to determine the ability of shoot formation of white turmeric (Curcuma zedaoria Roscoe) on the effect of BAP and sucrose concentration. The method used a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with 8 treatments and 3 replications were the addition of sucrose (3% and 5%) and BAP (0, 1.5, 3 and 4.5 mg/L) in MS medium. The result showed that addition of sucrose and BAP were not significantly different to the number and height of shoots. Key words: In vitro, Curcuma zedoaria, Sucrose and BA

Public participation in planning for sustainable development: operational questions and issues

The call for radical change to the traditional planning approaches in terms of policy, management, administration, information, knowledge, values and actions is not new. Consequently, the search for efficient and effective public participation is never ending. Malaysian town planning has progressed since the colonization period and it is a challenge for the government to shape a new approach to encourage participation from the public. This paper proposes quality public participation and its importance for sustainable development, the changing approach of participation in Malaysian planning process, role of actors involved in participation and some methods to facilitate quality participation and issues related to its operation