Attractive Theory Research Articles

Knowledge on Loose Sheets in the Context of fixed Theories. Theodor Leber's Research of Inflammation

At the end of the nineteenth century, after twelve years of intensive research, the ophthalmologist Theodor Leber (1840-1917) established the chemotaxis of leukocytes as part of inflammation research. Although at the time his theory was smoothly enlisted into immunological research, up until now his name has been connected to chemotaxis only in the English-language literature. Leber was able to use his experimental system to develop a theory of the chemical attraction of the leukocytes during inflammation processes by the beginning of the 1880s, but his unconventional methodology-introducing chemically neutral contaminants in order to trigger inflammation in the eyes of rabbits-contradicted the basic bacteriological Denkstil (style of thought) of inflammation research at the time. Leber held fast to his research practice, which consisted of closely interlocking experimental and theoretical work. Only when an opening appeared in the bacteriological Denkstil was Leber able to transform his experimental observations, written on loose sheets of paper, into convincing evidence for his theory of inflammation. This micro-historical reconstruction of Leber's experimental and written work, based on his original lab protocols, opens up the research practice of a scientist who was not recognized by the established microbiological inflammation research of the time. Moreover, persistent factors in the generation of knowledge are revealed by connecting this micro-historical reconstruction with a macro-history analysis. Indeed Leber developed his specific paper technology in order to mobilise and stabilise the scientific findings gained through experiment because of the persistence of the bacteriological Denkstil.

A competence-performance based model to develop a syntactic language for artificial agents

The hypothesis of language use is an attractive theory in order to explain how natural languages evolve and develop in social populations. In this paper we present a model partially based on the idea of language games, so that a group of artificial agents are able to produce and share a symbolic language with syntactic structure. Grammatical structure is induced by grammatical evolution of stochastic regular grammars with learning capabilities, while language development is refined by means of language games where the agents apply on-line probabilistic reinforcement learning. Within this framework, the model adapts the concepts of competence and performance in language, as they have been proposed in some linguistic theories. The first experiments in this article have been organized around the linguistic description of visual scenes with the possibility of changing the referential situations. A second and more complicated experimental setting is also analyzed, where linguistic descriptions are enforced to keep word order constraints.

The Body and the Beautiful: Health, Attractiveness and Body Composition in Men's and Women's Bodies.

The dominant evolutionary theory of physical attraction posits that attractiveness reflects physiological health, and attraction is a mechanism for identifying a healthy mate. Previous studies have found that perceptions of the healthiest body mass index (weight scaled for height; BMI) for women are close to healthy BMI guidelines, while the most attractive BMI is significantly lower, possibly pointing to an influence of sociocultural factors in determining attractive BMI. However, less is known about ideal body size for men. Further, research has not addressed the role of body fat and muscle, which have distinct relationships with health and are conflated in BMI, in determining perceived health and attractiveness. Here, we hypothesised that, if attractiveness reflects physiological health, the most attractive and healthy appearing body composition should be in line with physiologically healthy body composition. Thirty female and 33 male observers were instructed to manipulate 15 female and 15 male body images in terms of their fat and muscle to optimise perceived health and, separately, attractiveness. Observers were unaware that they were manipulating the muscle and fat content of bodies. The most attractive apparent fat mass for female bodies was significantly lower than the healthiest appearing fat mass (and was lower than the physiologically healthy range), with no significant difference for muscle mass. The optimal fat and muscle mass for men’s bodies was in line with the healthy range. Male observers preferred a significantly lower overall male body mass than did female observers. While the body fat and muscle associated with healthy and attractive appearance is broadly in line with physiologically healthy values, deviations from this pattern suggest that future research should examine a possible role for internalization of body ideals in influencing perceptions of attractive body composition, particularly in women.

Extending the Role of Similarity Attraction in Friendship and Advice Networks in Angel Groups

Although similarity attraction theory is often utilized to explain why people form relationships with similar others, we utilize diversity research to look beyond surface–level demographic characteristics similarity to explain situations when angels form interpersonal relations with angels with dissimilar deep–level personal characteristics due to a strong desire to receive information and cognitive benefits. We use data collected from a chapter of one of the largest angel organizations in the United States. Our results show that although individuals often form relations with similar others, conditions exist when angels exert the extra effort required to form relations with dissimilar others.

A Portrait of Male’s Struggle Quality in William Somerset Maugham’s Liza Of Lambeth

This article attempts to analyze William Somerset Maugham’s novel entitled Liza of Lambeth. This novel tells about Liza who is loved by two men, Jim and Tom, who want Liza as their lover, so they make some efforts to get her. This article focuses on analyzing the male characters’ struggle to attract Liza. The aims of this article are to describe the main characters’personality and to reveal the quality of the male characters’ struggle in the novel. Dealing with the focus of the study, this study uses theory of character as the basic concept to lead the further analysis using existentialism theory to depict the male characters’ struggle, and it is supported by theory of interpersonal attraction. For the last, the main point of this study will be directed to theory of deconstruction which reveals that everyone who works hard is not guaranteed to be a success. Furthermore, this paper also tries to reflect some points with Islamic value.

The (Long) Nose doesn’t have it: Nose Length as a Factor in Salt and Pepper Passage

This paper contains expected abstract and report of results that would confirm Minér et al’s (2016) proposed experiment on salt passage. Eighty female undergraduates completed questionnaire with snacks and drinks, along with a salt shaker and a pepper shaker available. They were asked to pass salt or pepper by another female or a male who also worked on questionnaire, but who was in league with the experimenter. These confederates had either very long nose or normal-sized (short) nose (le nez normal). Participants complied to both requests, but were slower to respond to pepper request than to salt request and to the person with the long nose. Response times were particularly slow when the request was made by male with long nose (homme avec le nez long). Implications for similarity theory and attraction theory are discussed and suggestions are made for the future research going forward.

Reasons to be fussy about cultural evolution.

This discussion paper responds to two recent articles in Biology and Philosophy that raise similar objections to cultural attraction theory, a research trend in cultural evolution putting special emphasis on the fact that human minds create and transform their culture. Both papers are sympathetic to this idea, yet both also regret a lack of consilience with Boyd, Richerson and Henrich’s models of cultural evolution. I explain why cultural attraction theorists propose a different view on three points of concern for our critics. I start by detailing the claim that cultural transmission relies not chiefly on imitation or teaching, but on cognitive mechanisms like argumentation, ostensive communication, or selective trust, whose evolved or habitual function may not be the faithful reproduction of ideas or behaviours. Second, I explain why the distinction between context biases and content biases might not always be the best way to capture the interactions between culture and cognition. Lastly, I show that cultural attraction models cannot be reduced to a model of guided variation, which posits a clear separation between individual and social learning processes. With cultural attraction, the same cognitive mechanisms underlie both innovation and the preservation of traditions.

Revisiting Quine on Truth by Convention

In “Truth by Convention” W.V. Quine gave an influential argument against logical conventionalism. Even today his argument is often taken to decisively refute logical conventionalism. Here I break Quine’s arguments into two—(i) the super-task argument and (ii) the regress argument—and argue that while these arguments together refute implausible explicit versions of conventionalism, they cannot be successfully mounted against a more plausible implicit version of conventionalism. Unlike some of his modern followers, Quine himself recognized this, but argued that implicit conventionalism was explanatorily idle. Against this I show that pace Quine’s claim that implicit conventionalism has no content beyond the claim that logic is firmly accepted, implicit rules of inference can be used to distinguish the firmly accepted from the conventional. As part of my case, I argue that positing syntactic rules of inference as part of our linguistic competence follows from the same methodology that leads contemporary linguists and cognitive scientists to posit rules of phonology, morphology, and grammar. The upshot of my discussion is a diagnosis of the fallacy in Quine’s master critique of logical conventionalism and a re-opening of possibilities for an attractive conventionalist theory of logic.

Conditionals in Theories of Truth

We argue that distinct conditionals—conditionals that are governed by different logics—are needed to formalize the rules of Truth Introduction and Truth Elimination. We show that revision theory, when enriched with the new conditionals, yields an attractive theory of truth. We go on to compare this theory with one recently proposed by Hartry Field.

When stem cells grow old: phenotypes and mechanisms of stem cell aging.

All multicellular organisms undergo a decline in tissue and organ function as they age. An attractive theory is that a loss in stem cell number and/or activity over time causes this decline. In accordance with this theory, aging phenotypes have been described for stem cells of multiple tissues, including those of the hematopoietic system, intestine, muscle, brain, skin and germline. Here, we discuss recent advances in our understanding of why adult stem cells age and how this aging impacts diseases and lifespan. With this increased understanding, it is feasible to design and test interventions that delay stem cell aging and improve both health and lifespan.

What to diffuse in a gender‐specific store? The effect of male and female perfumes on customer value and behaviour

AbstractSensory marketing can be an efficient way to involve consumers in the store environment. Diffusing a pleasant ambient scent that matches with the store setting is often used to create pleasant shopping experiences. The aim of this study is to extend scent marketing research: (i) by examining the effect of pleasant ambient scent on the different dimensions of customer value; and (ii) by exploring whether product‐scent incongruity can have a positive effect on consumer evaluations. A field experiment with 182 participants showed that a pleasant gender‐incongruent ambient perfume positively influences different dimensions of customer value as compared to the absence of a perfume. Moreover, a gender‐incongruent perfume also leads to a more positive evaluation of the play, product excellence, and social dimension of customer value as compared to a gender‐congruent perfume. A pleasant gender‐congruent ambient perfume, on the other hand, only has a positive effect on the aesthetic dimension of customer value as compared to the absence of a perfume. The observed ambient scent effects do not differ between men and women. These results are in contrast with existing literature. However, an explanation for this undocumented effect can be found in the mate attraction theory. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Enduring Simples and the Stages They Compose

AbstractIn this article I introduce a hybrid view of persistence whereby simple objects persist by enduring while composite objects persist by being stage‐related. I first show how, by sharing certain features and not others with the standard (non‐hybrid) views of persistence, this hybrid view navigates two metaphysical problems that have been raised against such standard (non‐hybrid) views. I then consider some implications of the view by addressing a couple of worries that may be raised against it. I conclude that this hybrid view provides an attractive theory, one that deserves further investigation in the debate on persistence.

Borderline Experiences One Cannot Undergo

Representationalism maintains that the phenomenal character of an experience is fully determined by its intentional content. Representationalism is a very attractive theory in the project of naturalizing consciousness, on the assumption that the relation of representation can itself be naturalized. For this purpose, representationalists with naturalistic inclinations typically appeal to teleological theories of mental content. Not much attention has been paid, however, to the interaction between representationalism and teleological theories of content. This paper will provide reasons to think that such an interaction is not felicitous. In particular, I will argue that those who endorse the conjunction of these two theories are committed to the existence of impossible experiences.

Does luck egalitarianism lose its appeal in the face of genetic engineering?

It has been suggested that the era of genetic interventions will sound the death knell for luck egalitarianism, as it will blur the line between chance and choice, on which theories of distributive justice often rest. By examining the threats posed to these theories, a crucial assumption is exposed; it is assumed that a commitment to the neutralisation of the effects of luck implies the endorsement of even the most morally controversial enhancements. In antithesis, I argue that an attractive theory of luck egalitarianism, Dworkinian liberal equality, enables us to deduce plausible implications for genetic engineering. By focusing on the abstract moral commitments at the heart of Dworkin’s theory, a twofold purpose is served. First, they reveal in what ways the criticisms misfire, thereby safeguarding luck egalitarianism. Second, Dworkinian luck egalitarianism is further strengthened, as it produces plausible guidelines for public policy on genetic engineering in liberal societies.

Cognitive Obstacles to Pro-Vaccination Beliefs

Two frameworks--cultural attraction theory and epistemic vigilance--predict a cultural disadvantage for counter-intuitive beliefs. We review several cognitive mechanisms that conspire to render pro-vaccination beliefs counter-intuitive. Trust and argumentation can spread counter-intuitive beliefs, but only under some conditions. We discuss the hurdles that trust and argumentation face in the case of vaccination.

INSTITUTIONAL DETERMINANTS — DECORATIONS OR YOKE — A CRISIS TEST

Institutional determinants of economic crises as a subject of scientific study is a compromise between quality notions and quantity calculation. Under pressure of practical governing and disrupted by crises, economic thought developed some concepts and doctrines, addressed to the state authorities. As attractive component theory of economic cycles come out institutionalism. The concepts of two scholars: Svetlana Kirdina (Russia) and Thráinn Eggertson (Iceland) are worth noting. S. Kirdina promote the theory of an institutional matrix, where the area of conflicts is located. Eggertson is recognized as an author of the theory of imperfect institutions and limit of reform. Interesting issues, both theoretic and practical ones, against the background of Ukrainian drama, may be found in publications of Vladimir Lipov. He developed methodology of institutional economics and focused attention on the theory of goods, especially on dual notions complementary and substitution. As a starting point to an analysis, Lipov proposes the structure of institutional blocs. Progressing gradually and employing the dynamics of blocs cooperation, he justifies the importance of complementary. It provides an opportunity to analyze an institution from a structural and functional angle. In the further section of the paper, Hyman P. Minsky‘s “financial instability hypothesis” is extensively covered and discussed. Among the reasons, the rebirth of Keynesianism and the pressure exerted by the last American crises are listed. Financial instability is blamed very intensively. Given the above, various determinants are obviously necessary but always distant from a perfect resolution.

Applications of weak attraction theory in $$\mathrm {Out}(\mathbb {F}_N) $$ Out ( F N )

Given a finite rank free group \(\mathbb {F }_N \) of rank \(\ge 3\) and two exponentially growing outer automorphisms \(\psi \) and \(\phi \) with dual lamination pairs \({\varLambda }^\pm _\psi \) and \({\varLambda }^\pm _\phi \) associated to them, which satisfy a notion of independence described in this paper, we will use the pingpong techniques developed by Handel and Mosher (Subgroup decomposition in Out(F_n), part III: weak attraction theory, 2013) to show that there exists an integer \(M > 0\), such that for every \(m,n\ge M\), the group \(G=\langle \psi ^m,\phi ^n \rangle \) will be a free group of rank two and every element of this free group which is not conjugate to a power of the generators will be fully irreducible and hyperbolic.

Positive impacts of foreign direct investment on socioeconomic development in Vietnam’s Southern Key Economic Region

This paper evaluates the attraction of foreign direct investment (FDI) and its positive impacts on the socioeconomic growth in the special economic zones in Vietnam’s Southern Key Economic Region. Findings of the study confirm theories of FDI attraction. In particular, to promote the socioeconomic development in each area, it is necessary to improve the investment environment and enhance the FDI. Furthermore, the findings also provide researchers and policy makers a more comprehensive understanding about the current situation of the FDI attraction in the special economic zones in the Vietnam’s Southern Key Economic Region

Implicit Theories of Attraction

Sexual satisfaction is an important component of relationship well-being within romantic relationships. Yet, relatively little is known about the psychological factors that predict responses to the inevitable sexual challenges couples face. Four studies provide evidence that implicit theories of sexual attraction as either fixed or malleable predict responses to sexual challenges. In Studies 1 and 2, individual differences in these beliefs predicted (above and beyond other implicit theories, relationship beliefs, and measures of sexual desire) perceptions of success for a relationship lacking sexual chemistry. In Study 3, these beliefs predicted actual relationship outcomes in committed couples. Finally, in Study 4, these beliefs predicted willingness to engage in destructive behaviors in response to a sexual challenge—but not in response to a non-sexual challenge—in a hypothetical long-term relationship. This latter finding was mediated by expectations that the problem faced by the couple was solvable.

Refined zigzag theory for homogeneous, laminated composite, and sandwich beams derived from Reissner’s mixed variational principle

A highly accurate and computationally attractive shear-deformation theory for homogeneous, laminated composite, and sandwich laminates is developed for the linearly elastic analysis of planar beams. The theory is derived using the kinematic assumptions of Refined Zigzag Theory (RZT) and a two-step procedure that implements Reissner’s Mixed Variational Theorem (RMVT). The basic expression for the transverse-shear stress that satisfies a priori the equlibrium conditions along the layer interfaces is obtained from Cauchy’s equilibrium equations. The resulting transverse-shear stress consists of second-order derivatives of the two rotation variables of the theory, which subsequently are restated as the unknown stress functions. As the first step in fulfilling RMVT, the Lagrange-multiplier functional is minimized with respect to the unknown stress functions, resulting in the stress functions consisting of first-order derivatives of the kinematic variables. Subsequently, the second term of RMVT is minimized, producing four beam equilibrium equations and consistent boundary conditions. For any number of material layers the new theory maintains only four kinematic variables. The theory is labeled RZT(m), where the superscript (m) stands for mixed formulation. The RZT(m) can accurately model the axial stretch, bending, and transverse-shear deformations, without shear-correction factors. Analytic solutions are derived for simply supported beams subjected to transverse-normal and transverse-shear tractions on the top and bottom surfaces. It is demonstrated that RZT(m) has a wide range of applicability which includes sandwich construction and the laminates with embedded thin compliant layers that can potentially model progression of delaminations. The main advantage of RZT(m) over RZT is in the superior predictions of transverse-shear stresses that are obtained directly from the low-order transverse-shear strain measures of the theory without resorting to a post-processing integration procedure. Importantly, the methodology can be readily extended to plate theory, and it can be applied effectively for developing simple and efficient C0-continuous finite elements.