Iain MacDonald examines how the medieval Church in Gaelic Scotland, often regarded as isolated and irrelevant, continued to function in the face of poverty, periodic warfare, and the formidable powers of the clan chiefs.
This book, written from the perspective of a designer and educator, brings to the attention of media historians, fellow practitioners and students the innovative practices of leading moving image designers. Moving image design, whether viewed as television and movie title sequences, movie visual effects, animating infographics, branding and advertising, or as an art form, is being increasingly recognised as an important dynamic part of contemporary culture. For many practitioners this has been long overdue. Central to these designers' practice is the hybridisation of digital and heritage methods. Macdonald uses interviews with world-leading motion graphic designers, moving image artists and Oscar nominated visual effects supervisors to examine the hybrid moving image, which re-invigorates both heritage practices and the handmade and analogue crafts. Now is the time to ensure that heritage skills do not atrophy, but that their qualities and provenance are understood as potent components with digital practices in new hybrids.
Possibility is a concept central to both philosophy and social theory. But in what philosophical soil, if any, does the possibility of a better society grow? At the intersection of metaphysics and social theory, What Would Be Different looks to Theodor W. Adorno to reflect on the relationship between the possible and the actual. In repeated allusions to utopia, redemption, and reconciliation, Adorno appears to reference a future that would break decisively with the social injustices that have characterized history. To this end, and though he never explains it in any detail—let alone in the form of a full-blown theory or metaphysics—he also makes extensive technical use of the concept of possibility. Taking Adorno's critical readings of other thinkers, especially Hegel and Heidegger, as his guiding thread, Iain Macdonald reflects on possibility as it relates to Adorno's own writings and offers answers to the question of how we are to articulate such possibilities without lapsing into a vague and naïve utopianism.
An easy-to-use, straightforward guide for British family historians looking to trace their ancestry using DNA testing. DNA research is one of the most rapidly advancing areas in modern science, and the practical use of DNA testing in genealogy is one of its most exciting applications. Yet there is no recent British publication in this field. That is why this accessible, wide-ranging introduction is so valuable. It offers a clear, practical way into the subject, explaining the scientific discoveries and techniques and illustrating with case studies how it can be used by genealogists to gain an insight into their ancestry. The subject is complex and perhaps difficult for traditional genealogists to understand but, with the aid of this book, novices who are keen to take advantage of it will be able to interpret test results and use them to help answer genealogical questions which cannot be answered by documentary evidence alone. It will also appeal to those with some experience in the field because it places the practical application of genetic genealogy within a wider context, highlighting its role as a genealogical tool and suggesting how it can be made more effective.
This collection of essays explores the conflictual history and future implications of two important traditions of twentieth-century European thought: the critical theory of Theodor W. Adorno and the ontology of Martin Heidegger.
Hidden Markov Models for Time Series: An Introduction Using R, Second Edition illustrates the great flexibility of hidden Markov models (HMMs) as general-purpose models for time series data. The book provides a broad understanding of the models and their uses. After presenting the basic model formulation, the book covers estimation, forecasting, decoding, prediction, model selection, and Bayesian inference for HMMs. Through examples and applications, the authors describe how to extend and generalize the basic model so that it can be applied in a rich variety of situations. The book demonstrates how HMMs can be applied to a wide range of types of time series: continuous-valued, circular, multivariate, binary, bounded and unbounded counts, and categorical observations. It also discusses how to employ the freely available computing environment R to carry out the computations. Features Presents an accessible overview of HMMs Explores a variety of applications in ecology, finance, epidemiology, climatology, and sociology Includes numerous theoretical and programming exercises Provides most of the analysed data sets online New to the second edition A total of five chapters on extensions, including HMMs for longitudinal data, hidden semi-Markov models and models with continuous-valued state process New case studies on animal movement, rainfall occurrence and capture-recapture data
Reveals How HMMs Can Be Used as General-Purpose Time Series Models Implements all methods in R Hidden Markov Models for Time Series: An Introduction Using R applies hidden Markov models (HMMs) to a wide range of time series types, from continuous-valued, circular, and multivariate series to binary data, bounded and unbounded counts, and categorical observations. It also discusses how to employ the freely available computing environment R to carry out computations for parameter estimation, model selection and checking, decoding, and forecasting. Illustrates the methodology in action After presenting the simple Poisson HMM, the book covers estimation, forecasting, decoding, prediction, model selection, and Bayesian inference. Through examples and applications, the authors describe how to extend and generalize the basic model so it can be applied in a rich variety of situations. They also provide R code for some of the examples, enabling the use of the codes in similar applications. Effectively interpret data using HMMs This book illustrates the wonderful flexibility of HMMs as general-purpose models for time series data. It provides a broad understanding of the models and their uses.
Discrete-valued time series are common in practice, but methods for their analysis are not well-known. In recent years, methods have been developed which are specifically designed for the analysis of discrete-valued time series. Hidden Markov and Other Models for Discrete-Valued Time Series introduces a new, versatile, and computationally tractable class of models, the "hidden Markov" models. It presents a detailed account of these models, then applies them to data from a wide range of diverse subject areas, including medicine, climatology, and geophysics. This book will be invaluable to researchers and postgraduate and senior undergraduate students in statistics. Researchers and applied statisticians who analyze time series data in medicine, animal behavior, hydrology, and sociology will also find this information useful.
For an eleven-year-old boy, living with his widowed mother and younger brother in a remote seaside village on one of the Western Isles of Scotland, growing up has its difficulties, as well as its idyllic pleasures. Iain Crichton Smith's vivid evocation is loosely based on memories of his own childhood on Lewis. There are so many discoveries to be made, along the shore and on the moor. Crossing a field under snow has its perils; exploring an empty cottage has its imaginative terrors; you might be humiliated by a village woman when your mother has sent you to a neighbour to borrow half-a-crown until her pension comes through: or playing along the shore with Pauline, a visitor from London with her wider knowledge of the world, you might find your own certainties called into question. There is poverty and richness; and eventually the war casts its shadows across your world. Iain Crichton Smith has brought to life a gallery of distinctly memorable figures: the sure-footed Blinder with his amazing sense of the island terrain; Stork with his wooden leg; Speedy, the reluctant footballer; Jim returned after twenty years in America with such stories ... The author's own sense of the terrain, and of the characters who inhabit it, is equally sure and beautifully precise; his book will evoke for all ages the inner-emotions of growing up, as well as the outward sights and scents of an island experience.
When the Forth Bridge opened on 4 March 1890 it was the longest railway bridge in the world and the first large structure made of steel. Crossing the wide Firth of Forth east of Edinburgh, it represents one of the greatest engineering triumphs of Victorian Britain, man's victory over the intractable topography of land and water. Not surprisingly, such a vigorous rebuff of the natural order was condemned at the time by those late Victorians who resisted the march of technology, and William Morris described the Bridge as the »supremest specimen of all ugliness«. In response, Benjamin Baker insisted that its beauty lay in its functional elegance. Contrasting his masterpiece with the only comparable structure of the period, the Eiffel Tower, he concluded: »The Eiffel Tower is a foolish piece of work, ugly, illproportioned and of no real use to anyone.
Thank you for visiting our website. Would you like to provide feedback on how we could improve your experience?
This site does not use any third party cookies with one exception — it uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and to analyze traffic.Learn More.