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Textual Evidence (textual + evidence)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Humanities and Social Sciences66%

Selected Abstracts

Does topic metadata help with Web search?

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Issue 5 2007
David Hawking
It has been claimed that topic metadata can be used to improve the accuracy of text searches. Here, we test this claim by examining the contribution of metadata to effective searching within Web sites published by a university with a strong commitment to and substantial investment in metadata. The authors use four sets of queries, a total of 463, extracted from the university's official query logs and from the university's site map. The results are clear: The available metadata is of little value in ranking answers to those queries. A follow-up experiment with the Web sites published in a particular government jurisdiction confirms that this conclusion is not specific to the particular university. Examination of the metadata present at the university reveals that, in addition to implementation deficiencies, there are inherent problems in trying to use subject and description metadata to enhance the searchability of Web sites. Our experiments show that link anchor text, which can be regarded as metadata created by others, is much more effective in identifying best answers to queries than other textual evidence. Furthermore, query-independent evidence such as link counts and uniform resource locator (URL) length, unlike subject and description metadata, can substantially improve baseline performance. [source]

THE MYTH OF CARTESIAN QUALIA

PACIFIC PHILOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY, Issue 2 2007
RAFFAELLA DE ROSA
Accordingly, Descartes' view would be that in perceiving the color red, for example, we are merely experiencing the subjective feel of redness rather than seeming to perceive a property of bodies. In this paper, I establish that the argument and textual evidence offered in support of SV fail to prove that Descartes held this view. Indeed, I will argue that there are textual and theoretical reasons for believing that Descartes held the negation of SV. Qualia aren't Descartes' legacy. [source]

An isotopic perspective on the transport of Byzantine mining camp laborers into southwestern Jordan

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 3 2009
Megan A. Perry
Abstract The Byzantine Empire managed a complex administrative network that controlled the mining and processing of natural resources from within its boundaries. Scholars relying upon archeological and textual evidence debate the level of imperial involvement in these ventures, particularly in the provinces. Ancient sources note that many mining camps, for instance, purportedly contained criminal laborers and elite administrators transported from distant locales, indicating significant organization and expenditures by the imperial administration to run the mines. This analysis explores the presence of these nonlocal individuals in a cemetery associated with the third to seventh century A.D. mining camp of Phaeno (Faynan), located in modern Jordan. Strontium isotope analysis of 31 burials indicates that most spent their childhood in a similar geological region as Phaeno, implying that they were locally born. The ,18O results mirror the homogeneous 87Sr/86Sr values, confirming a local origin for most of the sample. Isotopic evidence therefore suggests that the Phaeno mining camp was largely a local operation, contrary to the picture presented in textual sources, although the profits surely padded imperial coffers. Am J Phys Anthropol, 2009. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]

KIERKEGAARD, INDIRECT COMMUNICATION, AND AMBIGUITY

THE HEYTHROP JOURNAL, Issue 1 2009
JAMIE TURNBULL
Notoriously, Kierkegaard claims his project to be one of indirect communication. This paper considers the idea that Kierkegaard's distinction between direct and indirect communication is to be accounted for in terms of ambiguity. I begin by outlining the different claims Kierkegaard makes about his method, before examining the textual evidence for attributing such a distinction to him. I then turn to the work of Edward Mooney, who claims that the distinction between direct and indirect communication is to be drawn in just this way. I argue that Mooney misinterprets the type of ambiguity Kierkegaard holds to be involved in indirect communication, and consequently ends up with an unsatisfactory account of Kierkegaard's method. Finally I seek to cast doubt on the very idea that ambiguity might do justice to the claims Kierkegaard makes about his project, and suggest that what is required to do so is a theological interpretation of his work. [source]

GEOCHEMICAL ANALYSIS AND SOCIOCULTURAL COMPLEXITY: A CASE STUDY FROM EARLY IRON AGE MEGIDDO (ISRAEL)*

ARCHAEOMETRY, Issue 4 2005
T. P. HARRISON
Few archaeological sites can claim a more celebrated position than Megiddo, the Armageddon of biblical revelation. Guardian to a strategic pass on the ancient land bridge that traverses the region, it has long been known that Megiddo played a prominent role in the emergence of the Iron Age nation-states of biblical fame. Given its pivotal location, Megiddo provides an ideal opportunity to examine the experience of a community that found itself at the centre of these developments. The archaeological and textual evidence indicates a community that enjoyed extensive contact with an array of culturally distinct sociopolitical groups emerging in its hinterland. To further explore the nature and extent of this interaction, an assemblage of 86 ceramic sherds was analysed by instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA). This paper presents the results of this analysis, together with an evaluation of potential geochemical and archaeological interconnections. Based on this comparative analysis, implications are drawn regarding Megiddo's role in the changing cultural and political landscape of this formative period in the history of the region. [source]

THE IMMACULATE BODY IN THE SISTINE CEILING

ART HISTORY, Issue 2 2009
KIM E. BUTLER
A new reading of textual evidence roots the imagery of Michelangelo's Sistine Ceiling frescoes in contemporary theological commitment to the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. The cluster of abstract metaphors contained in a sermon written by Pope Sixtus IV, dedicated to the Immaculate Conception, and the liturgical and devotional texts the sermon inspired, offers foundational source material for the ceiling programme. It is proposed that such an Immaculacy message exists alongside and mutually supports Incarnationist and Eucharistic ones, all rooted in a metaphor of bodily perfection that Michelangelo ,figures' at the level of gender as well. [source]