Consideration on the urban spatial morphology and operation of Taiyuan, China from the religious building perspective

Understanding the physical characteristics and cultural connotations of the historical city is essential for the preservation of their hereditary and cultural values.This work aims to gain a more in-depth understanding of the historical city by identifying the relationship between religious buildings and the urban spatial morphology and the urban operation.Taiyuan,a northern city in China,is a suitable case for exploring this research idea.Cities with frequent foreign exchanges and distinct living groups tend to have more prosperous religious cultures than those in the central areas.The expansion of Taiyuan in the Ming Dynasty and the presence of Prince Jin,who respected Buddhism and Taoism,exacerbated the impact of the religious building on urban development.With regard to the evolution of Taiyuan in the Ming Dynasty,we highlight the changes in urban space brought by the religious buildings through the content analysis of the historical documents.Furthermore,the social functions of religious buildings are revealed,fleshing out the trajectory of the mutual development of religious buildings and Taiyuan in the Ming Dynasty.On this basis,the research findings are linked to the current needs of historical city preservation through the survey of reality.We suggest to coordinate the protection of religious architectural heritage and urban characteristics brought by religious factors and emphasize the utilization of religious architectural heritage as a potential culture and economic regeneration pathway.

Continuous-time System Identification with Nuclear Norm Minimization and GPMF-based Subspace Method

To improve the accuracy and effectiveness of continuous-time (CT) system identification, this paper introduces a novel method that incorporates the nuclear norm minimization (NNM) with the generalized Poisson moment functional (GPMF) based subspace method. The GPMF algorithm provides a simple linear mapping for subspace identification without the timederivatives of the input and output measurements to avoid amplification of measurement noise, and the NNM is a heuristic convex relaxation of the rank minimization. The Hankel matrix with minimized nuclear norm is used to determine the model order and to avoid the over-parameterization in subspace identification method (SIM). Furthermore, the algorithm to solve the NNM problem in CT case is also deduced with alternating direction methods of multipliers (ADMM). Lastly, two numerical examples are presented to evaluate the performance of the proposed method and to show the advantages of the proposed method over the existing methods. © 2014 Chinese Association of Automation.

Where Does AlphaGo Go: From Church-Turing Thesis to AlphaGo Thesis and Beyond

An investigation on the impact and significance of the AlphaGo vs. Lee Sedol Go match is conducted, and concludes with a conjecture of the AlphaGo Thesis and its extension in accordance with the Church-Turing Thesis in the history of computing. It is postulated that the architecture and method utilized by the AlphaGo program provide an engineering solution for tackling issues in complexity and intelligence. Specifically, the AlphaGo Thesis implies that any effective procedure for hard decision problems such as NP-hard can be implemented with AlphaGo-like approach. Deep rule-based networks are proposed in attempt to establish an understandable structure for deep neural networks in deep learning. The success of AlphaGo and corresponding thesis ensure the technical soundness of the parallel intelligence approach for intelligent control and management of complex systems and knowledge automation. © 2014 Chinese Association of Automation.

Representation of Minimalism in Kim Young-Sub's Church Design

Taking religious buildings as the object of study and the Korean architect Kim Young-Sub's art of church design as a sample, the paper attempts to discuss the pronounced effects that minimalist design methods have for building up religious environment from the perspective of space, details, decoration and lighting.

Striking elements-A lifebelt or a fad?Searching for an effective way of adapting abandoned churches

Are avant-garde elements added to historical objects as a temporary fashion to fulfill the aspirations of designers or an attempt to draw attention to themselves?It may be the exact opposite,and this type of controversial project is the best lifebelt for such monuments.This article explores issues related to external avant-garde elements added to adapted churches and their influence on the efficiency of such adaptation projects.Gothic churches located in the north of Europe that have changed their religious function,entirely or in part,were considered.This work examined former churches in Maastricht,namely,the Minorite Church,the Church of the Kruisheren Monastery,the Dominican Church,as well as Polish churches located in Gdansk,including St.John’s Church and St.Catherine’s Church.This article attempted to identify the factors that contribute to the successful adaptation of former churches and the benefits and drawbacks of adopting avant-garde design solutions.Results of this study might provide valuable inspiration for other churches that are losing worshippers.This study was conducted on the basis of a wide range of literature,statistical data,logical reasoning,and comparative methods.Observations from selected edifices were checked for their correlation over time.This study also included in situ investigations.