The grammar of traditional Malay long-roof type houses

In this paper, the grammar of the traditional Malay houses (TMH) built in the past century is presented. The basic unit structures that form the shape of the TMH are first derived. Evidences of the basic unit structures or their combinations were documented by previous researchers and are used as a way of explaining the physical, spatial and functional relationships of the built forms of the TMH. The scope of the study is currently limited to the original TMH of the bumbung panjang (long roof) type in which the key features of the houses were easily discernible from the side view. The shape addition rules for generating these structures are used to characterize the compositional aspects of TMH style

Diasporic and Local Mainstream Media as a Tool for Intercultural Integration? The Case of Latin American Communities in Italy

In Italy, communication research on the impact of media on immigrants’ integration dynamics has up until now privileged the sphere of national mainstream media. This paper takes into consideration the role of diasporic media as complimentary to perspective, by exploring the disposition of the two media fields towards the promotion of intercultural dialogue. In an attempt to assess whether there is in fact an intercultural media integration process occurring in both mainstream and Latin-America diasporic media players in Italy, this paper focuses on gathering evidence from the media pertaining to the society in general and from those created by and for immigrant communities. This evaluation aims to establish the degree to which majority and minorities take an interest in each other as well as the story telling they deploy or one another. Interculturalism and intercultural media integration are the main theoretical frameworks used to understand how intercultural dialogue is operationalized at the media level. Preliminary findings suggest a local mainstream media scene out of step with the de facto multicultural society, whereas only in some cases do Latin-American diasporic media demonstrate integrative potential capable of” bridging the gap” with the host society rather than merely fulfilling its ingroup “bonding” role

Construction of frames for shift-invariant spaces

We construct a sequence {\phi_i(\cdot-j)\mid j\in{\ZZ}, i=1,...,r} which constitutes a $p$-frame for the weighted shift-invariant space [V^p_{\mu}(\Phi)=\Big{\sum\limits_{i=1}^r\sum\limits_{j\in{\mathbb{Z}}}c_i(j)\phi_i(\cdot-j) \Big| {c_i(j)}_{j\in{\mathbb{Z}}}\in\ell^p_{\mu}, i=1,...,r\Big}, p\in[1,\infty],] and generates a closed shift-invariant subspace of $L^p_\mu(\mathbb{R})$. The first construction is obtained by choosing functions $\phi_i$, $i=1,...,r$, with compactly supported Fourier transforms $\hat{\phi}_i$, $i=1,...,r$. The second construction, with compactly supported $\phi_i,i=1,...,r,$ gives the Riesz basis

The commercialisation of knowledge management practices to k-based development in Malaysia

This paper studies the connection between the commercialization of knowledge management practices and its contributions toward the knowledge-based development in Malaysia. Theoretical relations in this paper were tested through an empirical study carried out among public-listed organisations in the industrial products, consumer products, and service industries in Malaysia. The findings of this paper revealed that it is important for corporations to focus on knowledge management in the development of the organisation’s corporate strategy. Empirical evidence supported the view that firms with knowledge management capabilities and understanding will utilise these capabilities to drive their quality strategy, thus performing better than those that do not. In addition, the finding serves as an initial move among private sector business toward a knowledge-based country. This paper concludes that these practices have a positive incidence not only on the performance of the firm but it also gives some initial contributions toward the development of Malaysia as a knowledge-based country

Backward Causation, Isolation and the Pursuit of Justice

The recent operationalization of the famous Newcomb's game by Schmidt (1998) offers an interesting and thought-provoking look at the plausibility of backward causation in a Newtonian universe. Hereby we investigate two details of the Schmidt's scenario which may, at least in principle, invalidate his conclusion in two different domains: one dealing with the issue of Newtonian predictability in specific instance of human actions, and the other stemming from a possible strategy aimed at obviating the anthropically oriented view of backward causation as applied to a judicial and ethical problem posed by a version of the scenario. We conclude that the scenario is at least to be more complex than originally presented in order to remain viable. However, it points to a very deep and delicate question of compatibility of backward causation with the conventional ethical standards.Comment: Epistemologia, accepted for publicatio