Property vs. Liberty: Procedural law and practice of freedom trials in Portugal and Brazil

The article provides an overview of the historiographical debates on the relevance of law and courts for colonial slavery in the early modern, presenting several possible master narratives. Departing from the question about the legal sources used by the jurists of the early modern era producing “slave law in action”, the article focuses on procedural law of the freedom trials, especially on the interim situation of the person whose status the trial was about. This aspect of the proceedings is fascinating, because here the tension between the two extreme positions of the parties (liberty vs. slavery/property) is discharged for the first time. A close look at the sources proves that the jurists sought to justify the possible solutions not only with the custom of the courts (stilus curiae), but that a variety of legal formants contributed to colonial slave law, notably the authority of the Roman model, which the article presents shortly in its development, and of certain medieval forms, like the summariissimum or the actio (or execeptio) spolii. Legal doctrine was frequently quoted. As a result, Brazilian colonial slavery did not occur in a legal vacuum, but proves to have been highly institutionalized, and many aspects of the civil law of slavery appear as a relatively conservative continuation of European practice, without visible innovations to the favor or the detriment of the unfree population

The administrative structure and urban geography of the jund of Filasṭīn and the jund of al-Urdunn : the cities and districts of Palestine and East Jordan during the early Islamic, 'Abbāsid and early Fāṭamid periods

In this study, we test the strength of a cross-cultural simulation game, Ecotonos, in the development of cultural intelligence (CQ) and self-efficacy amongst business students. Cross-cultural training is perceived as an important tool to help develop cross-cultural competence in international managers. Within the training literature, a distinction is made between various types of training, roughly the more cognitive knowledge-transferring training formats and more behavioral training formats such as cultural simulation games or cross-cultural role-plays. The impact of these cross-cultural role-plays is perceived to be stronger due to the process of practicing new behavior in an intercultural safe setting. In this study, we test such a behavioral training format, Ecotonos, to investigate the impact of this cross-cultural intervention on the cultural competence of students in higher business education. This study shows that the use of the Ecotonos cross-cultural role-play supports the development of CQ, specifically metacognitive, motivational, and behavioral CQ. Next, it shows an increase in the development of confidence in cross-cultural encounters. Communication effectiveness did not increase as a result of the Ecotonos cross-cultural role-play

Performing Victory: The Different Kind of War of Bush 43

In the pieces to camera that George W. Bush has delivered since 9/11, the ideals of “victory” and “freedom” have driven the arguments for initiating, prolonging and sustaining belligerent action—bello jus—against a number of different targets. The arguments by which the “different kind of war” is conceptualised and justified have their basis upon the acts that are considered to have provoked the need for war, namely the acts of 9/11. This paper examines ways in which the performance of “presidency”—particularly as the “war president”—has generated and maintained the performative conditions of armed conflict, as well as ways in which those performative conditions have been interrupted and eroded over time.The conference was sponsored by A.D.S.A., the Department of Performance Studies, the School of Letters, Arts and Media, and the Faculty of Arts of the University of Sydney

Divisions and Square Roots with Tight Error Analysis from Newton–Raphson Iteration in Secure Fixed-Point Arithmetic

In this paper, we present new variants of Newton–Raphson-based protocols for the secure computation of the reciprocal and the (reciprocal) square root. The protocols rely on secure fixed-point arithmetic with arbitrary precision parameterized by the total bit length of the fixed-point numbers and the bit length of the fractional part. We perform a rigorous error analysis aiming for tight accuracy claims while minimizing the overall cost of the protocols. Due to the nature of secure fixed-point arithmetic, we perform the analysis in terms of absolute errors. Whenever possible, we allow for stochastic (or probabilistic) rounding as an efficient alternative to deterministic rounding. We also present a new protocol for secure integer division based on our protocol for secure fixed-point reciprocals. The resulting protocol is parameterized by the bit length of the inputs and yields exact results for the integral quotient and remainder. The protocol is very efficient, minimizing the number of secure comparisons. Similarly, we present a new protocol for integer square roots based on our protocol for secure fixed-point square roots. The quadratic convergence of the Newton–Raphson method implies a logarithmic number of iterations as a function of the required precision (independent of the input value). The standard error analysis of the Newton–Raphson method focuses on the termination condition for attaining the required precision, assuming sufficiently precise floating-point arithmetic. We perform an intricate error analysis assuming fixed-point arithmetic of minimal precision throughout and minimizing the number of iterations in the worst case.</p

LEIBNIZ: DOUBLE-ASPECT ONTOLOGY AND THE LABYRINTH OF THE CONTINUUM

The main issue to be articulated in this thesis is the proposition that Leibniz’s mature philosophy is best, or preferably, presented as a double-aspect ontology. All the arguments to be furnished herein support this case; however, their intrinsic weight and extent far exceeds that of the principal contention, so that the whole of Leibniz’s natural philosophy and metaphysics will be seen to be involved and to undergo some measure of re-orientation away from more traditional interpretive concerns. Part I follows Leibniz in his emendation of Aristotelian-Scholastic notions as a result of his need for a “higher, metaphysical principle” to remedy the defects of the ‘modern’ account of motion. From this flowed his new conception of substance. The fundamental premise of Leibniz’s metaphysics is that spirit and body lie in series. The cosmos presents itself as aspects of an unbroken continuum. Ineluctably our conclusions as to the ‘whole’ is therefore an intellectual reconstruction of the perspectives delivered to us by these aspects. This emerges most clearly from the phenomenotaxis which has been collated in this part of the thesis – apparently the first such exercise in the scholarly literature. All this involves a separation of domains which require appropriate levels of description to explain their autonomous features. A double-aspect theory seems indispensable to account for the one world to which these levels nonetheless refer. In Part II we engage with Leibniz’s conception of substance as a unit of force. From this protean idea (aka monad) the whole material and spiritual cosmos is derived. The basis of this theory is that to act is to be. Accordingly we arrive at an ontology of agency. The nature of a monad is to exert Daseinstreben, the equivalent of individuation. Included in its definition is an absolute freedom to act. God’s “concession” of existence therefore refers to the autonomous collectivisation of monads into universes eligible for actualisation. Accordingly Leibniz arrives at a theory of a self-constructing universe. Post-Arnauld, Leibniz discarded the complete concept, having realised that contingency breaks open the system of determinism. Accordingly Leibniz replaced the ‘sum of predicates’ doctrine with the law of the series. In this conception monads collect the asymmetrical and irreversible information relevant to their internal states; for it transpires that freely executed choices guarantee avoidance of indiscernibles. The section therefore presents a schema of the ten main issues entangled in the conception of agency as well as an analytical chart of the structure of monads. In Part III, the “Labyrinth of the Continuum” resolves the perspectives on the world. Leibniz declares his colours unambiguously – realism concerns the world of facts, idealism the realm of foun-dations. The Principle of Continuity covers a vast range of indeterminate parts which serve as the foundations of real parts. We investigate some case studies, e.g. petites perceptions and especially the Pacidius, in which the conception of an agent-in-motion is studied in depth to reveal Leibniz’s extraordinary conclusions on change. We also consider Shapes, Limits and Boundaries which are relevant to the theory of the self-constructing universe (infolding and unfolding order); and finally his models of self-similarity and scale invariance. PART IV is concerned with grounding existents from the principle of sufficient reason. The virtue claimed here for the double-aspect theory is the possibility of penetrating into the thought of an exceptionally complex thinker through more than one portal. It yields a greater variety of facets, an inner coherence and a much richer texture of thought than the traditional insistence on just one primary aspect reveals

An improved corrective smoothed particle method approximation for second-order derivatives

To solve (partial) differential equations it is necessary to have good numerical approximations. In SPH, most approximations suffer from the presence of boundaries. In this work a new approximation for the second-order derivative is derived and numerically compared with two other approximation methods for a simple test case. The new method is slightly more expensive, but leads to a significantly improved accuracy

Picture This: Developing a Model for the Analysis of Visual Metadiscourse

© The Author(s) 2015. Corporate documents increasingly rely on visual rhetoric to complement text. Although previous studies have indicated that companies’ local culture may be reflected in the images they employ, scholars have never systematically investigated the use of visual rhetoric as it is used across different business cultures. This study analyzes visual rhetoric using a new model of visual metadiscourse—a set of devices that designers use to convey meaning in order to influence the audience’s interpretation of the text. The study compares the visual metadiscourse in photos used in English management statements in the annual reports of Dutch and U.K. companies. The results show that metadiscourse is inherent not only in the written text of a corporate document but also in the visuals that a design team chooses to include. The results also indicate that despite some similarities, Dutch-based and U.K.-based statements contain differences in their use of visual metadiscourse. Several of these differences can be attributed to cultural differences between the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The study underlines the applicability of the new model and warns international text designers not to overlook cultural differences in visual metadiscourse

Different paths to consensus? The impact of need for closure on model-supported group conflict management

Empirical evidence on how cognitive factors impact the effectiveness of model-supported group decision making is lacking. This study reports on an experiment on the effects of need for closure, defined as a desire for definite knowledge on some issue and the eschewal of ambiguity. The study was conducted with over 40 postgraduate student groups. A quantitative analysis shows that compared to groups low in need for closure, groups high in need for closure experienced less conflict when using Value-Focused Thinking to make a budget allocation decision. Furthermore, low need for closure groups used the model to surface conflict and engaged in open discussions to come to an agreement. By contrast, high need for closure groups suppressed conflict and used the model to put boundaries on the discussion. Interestingly, both groups achieve similar levels of consensus, and high need for closure groups are more satisfied than low need for closure groups. A qualitative analysis of a subset of groups reveals that in high need for closure groups only a few participants control the model building process, and final decisions are not based on the model but on simpler tools. The findings highlight the need to account for the effects of cognitive factors when designing and deploying model-based support for practical interventions

Momentum conserving methods that reduce particle clustering in SPH

In this paper we present two remedies for particle clustering in SPH. Since particle clustering is the consequence of a diminishing kernel gradient for small inter-particle distances, the first method uses a convex kernel with a non-zero kernel gradient at the origin. The second method is based on inter-particle collisions. They are both compared with conventional SPH in several case studies. The results show a great improvement in particle distribution, where particle clustering is strongly reduced or absent, with only a small influence on the accuracy of the computations