This paper presents the R package
PlackettLuce
, which implements a generalization of the Plackett–Luce model for rankings data. The generalization accommodates both ties (of arbitrary order) and ...partial rankings (complete rankings of subsets of items). By default, the implementation adds a set of pseudo-comparisons with a hypothetical item, ensuring that the underlying network of wins and losses between items is always strongly connected. In this way, the worth of each item always has a finite maximum likelihood estimate, with finite standard error. The use of pseudo-comparisons also has a regularization effect, shrinking the estimated parameters towards equal item worth. In addition to standard methods for model summary,
PlackettLuce
provides a method to compute quasi standard errors for the item parameters. This provides the basis for comparison intervals that do not change with the choice of identifiability constraint placed on the item parameters. Finally, the package provides a method for model-based partitioning using covariates whose values vary between rankings, enabling the identification of subgroups of judges or settings with different item worths. The features of the package are demonstrated through application to classic and novel data sets.
Summary
This paper investigates the use of rank aggregation strategies for the finite element model calibration of monitored masonry structures subjected to earthquakes. Ranking is used to obtain ...optimal results from several competing optimization strategies, with the final aim of establishing a numerical model of reference to support the existing monitoring systems installed on the structures. For the tuning of the model, different optimization methods are currently employed (i.e., genetic optimization, particle swarm optimization, and simulated annealing optimization), which can provide an initial nonunique definition of the structural parameters. Starting from the results obtained from selected updating methods, a combinatorial parameter selection is proposed to define the best finite element model among several optimal results. In this case, the ranking problem is solved by using a Plackett‐Luce model‐based strategy. The calibrated model is a useful tool to investigate the dynamic response of the structure, allowing a preliminary structural assessment at the same time. The data recorded by the permanent dynamic structural health monitoring system installed on a masonry building, the Town Hall of Pizzoli in central Italy, are used to demonstrate the proposed model calibration strategy.
This essay was written by a South American architect who has made the relationship between architecture and poetry1 a fundamental way of life in his work. For this reason, in the text that follows, ...the poetic word appears together with the written text and anticipates reflections on the territory, earthquakes, the projects carried out, and some utopian projects which will be discussed. There are four main themes: 1) The South American continent facing the Pacific Ocean; 2) The churches of southern Chile and the possibility of an architectural reconstruction thanks to the presence of a new liturgical act (1960); 3) The port of Valparaíso with a new layout after the earthquake (1906); 4) Santiago-Valparaíso, towards a “happily habitable” city-region, or how we can inhabit this land that never stops trembling (2020). As an epilogue, a reflection on the “Sign” of contemporary art dealing with earthquakes (Athenea in Santiago de Chile, the Cretto di Gibellina in Sicily, and the Terrae Motus collection in Naples).
Madame's American Adventures Haygood, Daniel M.; Scott, Glenn W.
Media history,
10/2023, Letnik:
29, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Henry Luce's many critics accused him of using his Time Inc. media to advocate for Chinese General Chiang Kai-shek and his Nationalist party during the pre-war, World War II, and post-war eras. ...Specifically, Luce is accused of using Soong Mei-ling, the English-speaking, American-educated, and Christian wife of General Chiang, as part of his strategy to generate support among Americans for the Chiangs' Nationalist Party. This research reviews U.S. news magazines' coverage of Madame Chiang's three trips to America in 1943, 1944-45, and 1948 to understand the differences in the reporting, thereby potentially revealing an embedded Luce agenda. While the reportage in the U.S. news magazines evolved, this analysis demonstrated few substantive differences in the magazines' portrayals of Madame Chiang during her three visits during the 1940s, challenging common depictions of Luce's distinct agenda. The tone and direction of the coverage mirrored the changing relationship between the United States and China.
Bridging feminist new materialism and feminist phenomenology, Astrida Neimanis’s volume, Bodies of Water, discusses water in terms of nurturing maternality based on a figural reservoir of what she ...terms “amniotics” and “planetary breastmilk” in order to posit this maternality as the material condition of the embodiment of life. In this article I show that this imagery is a construction consistently haunted by figures of anxiety and loss. I do this by first revisiting earlier interventions in deconstruction concerning materiality and feminist theory as follows. First, pointing out a resonance between this figuration of wateriness and Kant’s notion of the dynamic sublime, I turn to Paul de Man’s reading of materiality in the Kantian sublime in order to suggest that Neimanis’s figuration of maternal water is an effect of an aesthetic ideology. Subsequently, I will revisit Diana Fuss’s reading of Irigaray – Neimanis’s main feminist resource – to show that the ontological status of water as maternal is constructed via an Irigarayan distinction between metaphor and metonymy. Finally, in order to show ways in which the maternal materiality of water is haunted by figures of anxiety and loss, I will consult Elissa Marder’s more recent work on the maternal function.
We develop a new statistical model to analyse time‐varying ranking data. The model can be used with a large number of ranked items, accommodates exogenous time‐varying covariates and partial ...rankings, and is estimated via the maximum likelihood in a straightforward manner. Rankings are modelled using the Plackett–Luce distribution with time‐varying worth parameters that follow a mean‐reverting time series process. To capture the dependence of the worth parameters on past rankings, we utilise the conditional score in the fashion of the generalised autoregressive score models. Simulation experiments show that the small‐sample properties of the maximum‐likelihood estimator improve rapidly with the length of the time series and suggest that statistical inference relying on conventional Hessian‐based standard errors is usable even for medium‐sized samples. In an empirical study, we apply the model to the results of the Ice Hockey World Championships. We also discuss applications to rankings based on underlying indices, repeated surveys and non‐parametric efficiency analysis.
The placenta’s role as a mediating passage between bodies has been a conceptual resource for feminist theorists and philosophers interested in developing more nuanced explanations of the ...maternal–fetal relation, a relation that has tended to be identified with maternal and fetal bodies rather than with the placenta between them. I draw on efforts by philosopher Luce Irigaray and her readers to theorise placental relations as a model for the negotiation of differences. In her more recent work, Irigaray figures the placenta as an enveloping space of metaphorical enclosure. The placental relation in Irigaray’s work thus offers insights into the temporal structure of her theory of becoming and can inform a more ‘materialist’ account of pregnancy. I then consider how placental relations are conceptual resources for re-imagining relations of self–other in pregnancy, and for addressing emergent ethical concerns over the transformation of the placenta into a scientific object.
An efficient urban freight transport (UFT) system is crucial for sustainable city development. However, implementing city logistics measures still seems challenging for municipalities and ...decision-makers. Moreover, city authorities’ decisions depend on politics and social issues, and the city residents’ opinions seem to be very important in this context. Therefore, the primary objective of this paper was to assess the perception of urban mobility problems and freight solutions from the perspective of city users, considering the point of view of Brazilian and Polish city dwellers. The work was based on a survey realised in Belo Horizonte (Brazil) and Szczecin (Poland). The analysis identified the similarities and differences between the perceptions of different resident groups in both cities. The practical advantage of this research is the establishment of a set of recommendations for city decision-makers in the context of residents’ perceptions and their expectations regarding the implementation of urban freight measures.
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