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This article attempts to reformulate and resuscitate the seemingly prosaic methodological task of description, which is often derided in favour of causal analysis. First, the problem of definition is addressed: what does this category of analysis (‘description’) refer to? Secondly, a taxonomy of descriptive arguments is offered, emphasizing the diversity contained within this genre of empirical analysis. Thirdly, the demise of description within political science is charted over the past century, with comparisons to other disciplines. Fourthly, it is argued that the task of description ought to be approached independently, not merely as a handmaiden of causal theories. Fifthly, the methodological difficulties of descriptive inference are addressed. Finally, fruitful research areas within the rubric of description are reviewed.

A hybrid seismic fragility model for territorial-scale seismic vulnerability assessment of masonry buildings is developed and presented in this paper. The method combines expert-judgment and mechanical approaches to derive typological fragility curves for Italian residential masonry building stock. The first classifies Italian masonry buildings in five different typological classes as function of age of construction, structural typology, and seismic behaviour and damaging of buildings observed following the most severe earthquakes occurred in Italy. The second, based on numerical analyses results conducted on building prototypes, provides all the parameters necessary for developing fragility functions. Peak-Ground Acceleration (PGA) at Ultimate Limit State attainable by each building’s class has been chosen as an Intensity Measure to represent fragility curves: three types of curve have been developed, each referred to mean, maximum and minimum value of PGAs defined for each building class. To represent the expected damage scenario for increasing earthquake intensities, a correlation between PGAs and Mercalli-Cancani-Sieber macroseismic intensity scale has been used and the corresponding fragility curves developed. Results show that the proposed building’s classes are representative of the Italian masonry building stock and that fragility curves are effective for predicting both seismic vulnerability and expected damage scenarios for seismic-prone areas. Finally, the fragility curves have been compared with empirical curves obtained through a macroseismic approach on Italian masonry buildings available in literature, underlining the differences between the methods.

Background Premarital sexual behavior (PSB) is a controversial topic in China. However, in recent times, changes in attitudes have led to PSB being more common among college students. This study investigated the attitudes of Chinese undergraduates toward PSB to identify whether a typological classification exists among them. Methods A total of 278 undergraduate students from two public universities in Mainland China completed a 17-item survey that included five dimensions( emotions, responsiveness, sexual health, sexual freedom, and condemnation) on attitudes toward PSB. Data were collected online from April 2023 to July 2023. Results The PSB questionnaire demonstrated good reliability and construct validity in this study, with a Cronbach’s α of 0.759 and a KMO value of 0.769. Meanwhile, a series of models were estimated specifying one through five latent classes and three typologies on the attitude were identified: “Affective,”“Avoidant,” and “Open.” After the best fitting model was determined, multiple analysis of variance testing of different factors such as gender, year of study and where one came from were found to have significant effects on attitude complexity ( p  < .01). Conclusion This research will contribute to the dissemination of information on PSB in China, which will be helpful in understanding relevant issues associated with PSB.

The study focuses on the assessment of geosites in the Dolny Spi§ region of eastern Slovakia as a foundational framework for the establishment of a potential geopark. This region is characterized by significant geological diversity, notable geomorphological features, and substantial anthropogenic heritage, particularly related to historical mining activities. Based on the inventory of 42 geosites, a typological classification was conducted, dividing the sites into six main types and several subtypes. The evaluation methodology applied a modified version of the M-GAM (Modified Geosite Assessment Model), which enables a comprehensive assessment of geosites based on scientific, aesthetic, conservation, functional, and touristic criteria. According to their M-GAM scores, the geosites were subsequently ranked into four hierarchical levels of importance (local, regional, national, and international). The results revealed that five geosites reach international importance, confirming the high geotourism potential of the area. The study provides a methodological tool for the systematic assessment of geosites in the planning process of establishing a potential geopark, supporting its role as an effective model of regional development grounded in geoscientific knowledge.

The aim of this study is to detect changes in flow regime of rivers in Poland. On the basis of daily discharges recorded in 1951-2010 at 159 gauging stations located on 94 rivers regularities in the variability of the river flow characteristics in the multi-year period and in the annual cycle were identified and also their spatial uniformity was examined. In order to identify changes in the characteristics of river regime, similarities of empirical distribution functions of the 5-day sets (pentads) of discharges were analyzed and the percent shares of similar and dissimilar distributions of the 5-day discharge frequencies in the successive 20-year sub-periods were compared with the average values of discharges recorded in 1951-2010. Three alternative methods of river classification were employed and in the classification procedure use was made of the Ward’s hierarchical clustering method. This resulted in identification of groups of rivers different in terms of the degree of transformation of their hydrological regimes in the multi-year and annual patterns.

Imprecise definition of key terms in the \"public participation\" domain have hindered the conduct of good research and militated against the development and implementation of effective participation practices. In this article, we define key concepts in the domain: public communication, public consultation, and public participation. These concepts are differentiated according to the nature and flow of information between exercise sponsors and participants. According to such an information flow perspective, an exercise's effectiveness may be ascertained by the efficiency with which full, relevant information is elicited from all appropriate sources, transferred to (and processed by) all appropriate recipients, and combined (when required) to give an aggregate/consensual response. Key variables that may theoretically affect effectiveness-and on which engagement mechanisms differ-are identified and used to develop a typology of mechanisms. The resultant typology reveals four communication, six consultation, and four participation mechanism classes. Limitations to the typology are discussed, and future research needs identified.

Explanatory typologies are powerful tools in the qualitative study of international politics. They are likely to be most valuable when scholars systematically apply shared techniques. This article provides an account of analytic steps used in working with typologies, and an accessible vocabulary to describe them. These analytic steps are illustrated with concrete examples drawn from prominent versions of offensive structural, defensive structural, and neoclassical realism. Five forms of cell compression—rescaling and indexing, as well as logical, empirical, and pragmatic compression—are considered, along with the drawbacks associated with each. The expansion of a partial typology and the rediscovery of deleted cells are also discussed. Finally, the article considers the potential drawbacks of a typological approach, and argues that scholars must be mindful of the risks of reification and of relabeling anomalies.I am especially grateful to David Collier for extensive critiques of several drafts of this article. Stephen G. Walker, Miriam Fendius Elman, James Mahoney, Gary Goertz, Reilly O'Neal, John Gerring, Bear Braumoeller, Lisa Martin, two anonymous reviewers, and the participants at the January 2004 Institute for Qualitative Research Methods at Arizona State University provided valuable comments. An earlier version of this article was presented at the 2004 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association. Ryan Davis, Michael Jensen and Mallory Hutchison provided greatly appreciated research assistance. Templates for dichotomous and trichotomous four-variable property spaces are available from colin.elman@asu.edu.

The Ejido of Tzurumútaro is within the municipality of Pátzcuaro in the central part of the state of Michoacán, Mexico. An ejido is an agrarian settlement with a community-based land tenure system, which is common in Mexico. The Ejido of Tzurumútaro in particular, has a historical significance in the Lake of Pátzcuaro region, because it played an important role during the post-revolutionary land reform. The objective of this study is to describe the structure of the biophysical landscapes of this agrarian settlement. To accomplish this, biblio-cartographic data collection of biophysical components was done, which included information on geology, lithology, hydrology, climate, and pedology. Three taxonomic units were defined; specifically, five superior units or localities; nine Land areas and 30 Sub-land areas. Landscapes of volcanic origin are widely prevalent, although geo-systems of river and lake origin are also present. The map constitutes an important basic information basis on landscape units.

Durante los últimos años, han proliferado de forma exponencial los estudios sobre epígrafes medievales. Son muchas las disciplinas desde las que se ha abordado su estudio: la Filología, la Historia, la Historia del Arte y, como es lógico, la propia Epigrafía medieval. El resultado ha sido muy productivo y ha permitido que la crítica epigráfica se cuestione algunos aspectos relacionados con el concepto y con el método. Una de las que más literatura está generando es la funcionalidad o finalidad de los epígrafes y desde qué perspectiva debe ser analizada esta. Del mismo modo, también se ha puesto el foco sobre la mayor o menor adecuación de clasificar las inscripciones en orden a su formulación textual y sobre si resulta necesario para un estudio integral de los epígrafes. La relación que existe entre estas dos cuestiones y sobre su interpretación dentro de las coordenadas espacio-temporales que dio origen a esas inscripciones es la piedra angular de este trabajo que presentamos y que pretende hacer una primera reflexión sobre la aplicación del método epigráfico para la clasificación tipológica de las inscripciones.

The article presents regional differences in the impact that the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) exerts on the flow of European rivers. The impact is determined by temporal variations in the strength of relations expressed by coefficients of correlation between monthly or seasonal NAO indices and discharges recorded at 510 river profiles. The results of the correlation analysis were arranged using Ward’s method of hierarchical grouping. The classification of river profiles thus obtained made it possible to distinguish seven regions differing in the nature of the dependence between streamflow and the intensity of the NAO. The most statistically significant positive correlations are displayed by the rivers of Fennoscandia, Denmark and the northwest part of the British Isles in the winter period, while the most significant negative correlations (also in winter) are recorded for streams of the Mediterranean Basin, western France and the southeast of England. In the southeast part of the Baltic Sea drainage basin, significant positive correlations of streamflow with the NAO indices can be observed in the winter season and negative correlations are observed in spring.