Concrete Meaning Research Articles

El humor y la recreación en el encuentro virtual de aprendizaje, desde la convivencia felicitaria en tiempos de pandemia l

El presente trabajo muestra los resultados parciales de una investigación en curso sobre el humor y la recreación en actividades virtuales de aprendizaje de estudiantes universitarios. Una de las características del trabajo presencial es la espontaneidad, las risas e interacciones sociales que indican un interés genuino por el otro. Es una investigación de corte cualitativo, fenomenológica y hermenéutica, que recuperó la experiencia de transición al modelo virtual. Para la recopilación de información, se elaboró un cuestionario de preguntas abiertas a estudiantes de 3 programas educativos a nivel universitario, con el propósito de conocer si existen las prácticas de humor y recreación. Se encontró que en las aulas virtuales se experimentó un distanciamiento entre el profesor y el grupo participante, poca circulación de afectos, desconexión entre los participantes, y en ocasiones se perdía el sentido de las actividades. A modo de reflexión la recreación y el humor ayudan a dar un sentido concreto al qué hacer en ese tiempo, cada acción debe ser dirigida y construida para el encuentro colectivo para la presencia divertida, gozosa y lúdica.

The Ecological Philosophical Signification of Affordance

In Gibson’s theory of ecological visual perception, “affordance” is perhaps the most controversial concept. Concrete meaning of affordance should be researched adequately. According to Gibson’s original theories, the concept reflects the relationship between organisms and environment, but it refers to feature of environment itself. Clear definition of affordance is conducive to avoid philosophical relativism.

Public Agency in Changing Industrial Circular Economy Ecosystems: Roles, Modes and Structures

Value creation in the circular economy (CE) is a result of co-creation. In the industrial context, the theme of collaboration has been studied extensively on a company-to-company basis, but related public agency remains unexplored. Still, circular actions happen in societal contexts where public actors and logics are constantly present, enabling the change toward more sustainable actions. For systematic discovery of the topic, the following research questions are considered: (a) What roles can a public actor have in an industrial CE ecosystem? (b) What are the relationship modes a public actor can have? (c) In what kind of actor structures may the roles and modes occur? The study relies on two multiple case studies in the international (Study 1) and Finnish eco-industrial parks (Study 2) contexts. The results are based on qualitative content analysis conducted with both primary and secondary data. As a result, six distinct roles—operator, organizer, financer, supporter, policymaker, and regulator—and two modes—facilitative and dirigiste—for public agency in industrial CE ecosystems were identified. The roles depict the concrete means used by public actors whereas the modes depict the characteristics of these actions. Finally, exemplar organization models for the recognized roles and modes in industrial CE ecosystems were examined. The study provides insights into how public actors can contribute to sustainability transitions among their territories and helps practitioners to better understand the premises for public–private interaction.

THE NEUROPSYCHOLOGY OF METAPHORS IN PATIENTS AWAKENED FROM POST-TRAUMATIC COMA

Metaphor simply is defined as a verbal construct with two referents: one literal, based on the ordinary, concrete meanings of the word or words involved, and the other metaphorical, that is one derived from an implicit analogy between the literal referent and some other phenomenon, usually an abstraction that is implied, but not named. The aim of this paper is a description of the neuropsychology of metaphors in patients awakened from post-traumatic coma. A group of 34 patients awakened from post-traumatic coma and treated at the Reintegrative and Teaching Centre of the Polish Neuropsychological Society, Poland during the period 2017- 2019 participated in this study. This group included 15 women and 17 men, with an average age of 31.2 ± 8.72 years; as a group, the women were somewhat older (32.6 ± 9.79 vs. 31.1 ± 9.18). We recorded the patients’ utterances with the use of video record- ings of open-ended conversations, and made occasional efforts to introduce proverbs, idioms, and other metaphors into their conversation, but this was done on an impromptu basis. The analysis of recordings of 100 randomly selected statements obtained from each patient revealed the presence of 4 types of errors: (1) non-comprehension, i.e. the listener’s inability to comprehend the meaning of the metaphor used by the speaker, as indicated by the lack of an adequate response, an expression of puzzlement, or a question as to the meaning of the metaphor used by the speaker; (2) concretization, which occurs when the listener reacts to the literal meaning of the word, phrase, or sentence, rather than its metaphorical referent; (3) misapplication, when the speaker uses a familiar metaphor in an inappropriate context; (4) the use of incomprehensible or bizarre metaphors by the speaker, so that the intended meaning is difficult or impossible for the listener to ascertain. On many occasions, however, the gist of the metaphor emerged at some later point in the discourse, despite the surface problems. It was found that the TBI patients we studied showed a marked tendency in spontaneous conversation to concretize or misunderstand the metaphors used by others, and to use inappropriate or bizarre metaphors in their own speech. On many occasions, however, the gist of the metaphor emerged at some later point in the discourse, despite the surface problems.

Wrist-worn accelerometers: recommending ~1.0 mg as the minimum clinically important difference (MCID) in daily average acceleration for inactive adults

Physical activity is increasingly assessed using wrist-worn accelerometry.1 The primary unit of measurement is acceleration which lacks an obvious concrete meaning in the clinical and public health settings. If the...

A concrete reformulation of fuzzy arithmetic

Advancement in fuzzy arithmetic is essential to advancing the applicability of fuzzy set theory (FST) to approximate reasoning problems arose in engineering, medicine, managerial science and many other domains. In the recent FST literature, many of the noteworthy progresses in fuzzy arithmetic have been built upon increasingly sophisticated mathematical concepts and structures, leading to highly non-trivial results. In this article, we take a different approach, of offering a simple, concrete framework that could serve as an entry point for the classically-trained engineers (those who might not be well-acquainted with deep theoretical FST advances) to understand and use fuzzy arithmetic in their applications. Specifically, the contributions of this work are: (i) We extend a foundational model previously proposed in Ngan (2018) to arrive at a simple fuzzy arithmetic framework, in which each key element within the framework possesses simple, concrete meaning to these classically-trained engineers; (ii) We describe how to use these key elements as building blocks to create various concrete fuzzy arithmetic operators that are adaptive to various assumptions. This means that the classically-trained engineers can now easily customize and use fuzzy arithmetic robustly in their application domains; (iii) We demonstrate that the proposed framework can overcome the possibility of generating pathological results that were seen in other fuzzy arithmetic approaches in the FST literature; (iv) We demonstrate the utility of the proposed framework in solving multiple-criteria-decision-making (MCDM) problems concretely and in an easy-to-interpret manner (which are highly important considerations for the users of MCDM). Last but not least, we offer a new avenue for extending this fuzzy arithmetic framework to higher-order fuzzy settings, such as the type-2 fuzzy and other type-2-like fuzzy settings. Thus, our framework can potentially provide a unified, robust approach for developing fuzzy arithmetic in a wide range of FST settings.

The ISR-1 Drug Exercise: An Ethical Decision-Making Experiential Activity

Both governments and firms face the continuous challenge to maximize utility with a limited budget, however, knowledge about the way in which these organizations go about this process is relatively unknown to students. In this article, we outline an experiential exercise, based on a contemporary health policy challenge, which illustrates the ethical, moral, and team-based difficulties inherent in making decisions in instances of limited budgets and multiple stakeholders. Drawing on literature from stakeholder theory, decision-making, and groups, this highly-adaptable exercise provides students with a concrete means of learning about these issues by placing them in the context of a territorial government that must address a virulent blood-borne disease by funding a series of initiatives and having to defend these decisions both to their fellow decision-makers and to relevant stakeholder groups. The exercise has been successfully implemented in undergraduate and graduate-level classes and encourages high-quality class discussions in a wide-range of courses focused on ethics, decision-making, and teamwork.

Fantastische Technik im Mittelalter? Zu (Glücks-)Rädern in zwei mittelhochdeutschen Artusromanen

Recent works in the field of German medieval literature argue that the category of ›the fantastic‹ needs to be defined in demarcation to the medieval category of ›the marvelous‹, and, thus, the focus of text analyses should lay on forms and functions of ›fear/fright‹. Following up on this concept, the article analyses the motif of the wheel (of fortune) in two Middle High German Arthurian verse novels and asks whether it can be considered to be a fantastic element. It is pointed out that the (evil) marvelous is integrated into a concrete and dualis-tic religious meaning where it is linked to existential fear. By contrast, the fan-tastic keeps unnatural and strange things unexplained and enigmatic. Here, fright is realized in a more congealed, pictorial way and stays in the back-ground whereby the occurrences seem to be left in fantastic ambiguity and in-explicability. Therefore, valid systems of classification are subverted.Publisher's note: This article was originally published as part of issue 8.1. This has been updated to note that this article is part of issue 7.2.

Positive effects of grasping virtual objects on memory for novel words in a second language

Theories of embodied cognition describe language processing and representation as inherently connected to the sensorimotor experiences collected during acquisition. While children grasp their world, collect bodily experiences and name them, in second language (L2), students learn bilingual word lists. Experimental evidence shows that embodiment by mean of gestures enhances memory for words in L2. However, no study has been conducted on the effects of grasping in L2. In a virtual scenario, we trained 46 participants on 18 two- and three-syllabic words of Vimmi, an artificial corpus created for experimental purposes. The words were assigned concrete meanings of graspable objects. Six words were learned audio-visually, by reading the words projected on the wall and by hearing them. Another 6 words were trained by observation of virtual objects. Another 6 words were learned by observation and additional grasping the virtual objects. Thereafter participants were subministered free, cued recall, and reaction time tests in order to assess the word retention and the word recognition. After 30 days, the recall tests were repeated remotely to assess the memory in the long term. The results show that grasping of virtual objects can lead to superior memory performance and to lower reaction times during recognition.

A research on the co-occurrence of negative adverb “mei(you)没(有)”and“le(了)”

In this paper, the co-occurrence phenomenon of negative adverb “没”and “了” gets a systematic study and exposition. Under normal circumstances, the negative adverb “没”and “了” could not be co-occurrence, which we have reached a consensus in Modern Chinese. However, this is not absolute, there is a small part of sentences, in which the co-occurrence phenomenon of negative adverb “没”and “了”exists, they are as follows.<BR> 1. when the deep semantic orientation of the adverb “没”and tense aspect auxiliary “了”is absolutely same, the two could not be co-occurrence. when the deep semantic orientation of them is different, the contradiction is eliminated, and therefore they can exist in the same sentence.<BR> 2. the complement“了”is in a middle status from the verb“了”to the tense aspect auxiliary“了”, having the concrete meaning that expresses the result. Therefore, the complement “了”doesn’t contradict “没”. When “没”focus on the result, the co-occurrence could come true.<BR> 3. in the structure of “(差点儿没)VP了”and the structure of “(就差没)VP了”, “没” is just a semantic redundant ingredient with the subjective emphasis. No contradiction, no problem in co-occurrence.

Anticompetitive Effects in EU Competition Law

This article examines the meaning and scope of the notion of anticompetitive effects in EU competition law. It does so by bringing together several strands of the case law (and this across all provisions, namely Articles 101 and 102 TFEU and merger control). The analysis is structured around a framework that considers the main variables that shape the notion in practice: the time variable (actual or potential effects); the dimensions of competition and the counterfactual; the meaning of effects and the probability threshold (plausibility, likelihood, certainty). The exercise shows that it is possible to discern a concrete meaning to the notion of anticompetitive effects. Some central questions, including the role and operation of the counterfactual and the threshold of effects, have already been answered by the Court of Justice. In particular, it has long been clear that anticompetitive effects amount to more than a mere competitive disadvantage and/or a limitation of a firm’s freedom of action. The impact on equally efficient firms' ability and/or incentive to compete would need to be established. At the same time, some open questions and some potential areas of friction (relating, inter alia, to stakeholders' tendency to conflate appreciability and effects) remain. These are also discussed.

Место наименований игр в системе лексико-грамматических разрядов имен существительных

The article considers the problem of ambiguous interpretations of the lexico-grammatical status of nouns - game names - in scientific and educational literature. Traditional viewpoints on this issue are presented. Semantic and grammatical features of the lexical units under study are analysed. The conducted research allows identifying close relation of semantics of abstractedness to the primary concrete meaning of the linguistic units under study. Relying on a cognitive-pragmatic analysis, the authors determine the place of game names in the system of lexico-grammatical categories.

Towards circular cities—Conceptualizing core aspects

Already in agricultural societies issues like the efficient use of natural resources, recycling of goods and materials, and minimization of food waste were key principles. Current circular economy initiatives are building firmly on these same principles. Often circular economy actions concentrate on material efficiency ignoring other possible flows. This paper conceptualizes circular cities by reviewing their constraints, characteristics and connections.Even a proper definition for a “circular city” is missing. After analyzing circular economy (CE) challenges and opportunities in cities, the paper concentrates on characteristics of circular city concepts, namely definition, transition process, target setting and circularity indicators. These are the core issues a city has to define when targeting circularity.In addition, the paper addresses city streams, their interlinkages and boundaries which a city has to analyze when deciding about the concrete actions and means. Adequate tools are needed in this phase to analyze circular cities. Potential Nexus and expert tools were identified in the paper. The paper ends up with a synthesis of steps cities need to take when targeting circularity.

｢～にくい｣｢～づらい｣｢～がたい｣의 의미·용법 고찰

This paper examines the meaning and usage of the expressions｢～nikui｣｢～zurai｣｢～gatai｣, which connect to a verb and state difficulties in carrying out an action.<BR> A usage analysis of BCCWJ confirms that verbs connecting with｢nikui｣ include non-volitional verbs as well as volitional verbs, and that verbs with specific, concrete meanings can also come before it. Previously, it was thought that｢～zurai｣ cannot connect with non-volitional verbs, but it proves to be false and ｢～zurai｣connects with diverse verbs. Another expression｢～gatai｣was also known to be unable to connect with non-volitional verbs, which has also turned out to be false. Non-volitional verbs, with some limitations, can come before ｢～gatai｣ and it was found that verbs describing human mental activities most frequently connect with the expression.<BR> The analysis of the meaning and usage of ｢～nikui｣｢～zurai｣｢～gatai｣ focuses on the causes or sources of difficulties in taking the action described by the verb.<BR> ｢～nikui｣ can be divided into objective(physical, situational, physiological) causes and subjective(psychological) causes. In case of ｢～zurai｣,we can classify it into objective (physical(corporal), physical(material), situational) causes and subjective psychological) causes. In particular, it is found that physical causes and objective situations suggested by ｢～zurai｣ do not accompany mental and physical pain or displeasure, regardless of the etymology of ｢～zurai｣. Meanwhile, ｢～gatai｣ usually connects with verbs involving human mental activities. The study also confirms that it expresses the narrator’s subjective judgment that the extent or degree of a subject is prohibitively alarming, and mostly used in idiomatic expressions, literal expressions, and formal settings.

Research on the Integration of Industrial Design and Mechanical Product Design

The purpose of this paper is to integrate industrial design into mechanical design, improve the core competitiveness of mechanical products, and become a benign development path for the transformation and upgrading of traditional machinery enterprises. To provide perfect and feasible ideas, theories and concrete methods and means for traditional enterprises; Through the research and analysis of the present situation of the development of traditional machinery industry, this paper finds out a series of problems existing in the upgrading and transformation of traditional manufacturing industry in the emerging stage, combined with the core ideas of informatization and industrialization under the background of industrial design 4.0, taking Anshan old industrial base as an example. An innovative development model suitable for the integration of industrial design and regional machinery manufacturing industry is developed. Relying on the platform of Anshan Industrial Design Center, the development model of “industrial design industrial alliance + association + university” led by the government is established. And take the industrial design public service as the support, adjust measures to the local conditions. Focusing on “public service, platform construction, design competition, talent training, publicity and promotion, brand activities, standard formulation, basic research” and other aspects, to achieve the integration of new industrial design industry ecological model of machinery manufacturing industry.

True Price as Condition of Sustainability: The Global Coffee Crisis (1999–2003) and the Brazilian Amazon as Case Studies

Current approaches to pricing have proved inexplicable and unable to deliver sustainable development. This study explores how the combination of accounting logic and the concept of ‘true price’ — first proposed by Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925) — can provide a novel, dynamic and comprehensive causal model to understand how prices can contribute to unsustainability. Case studies are used to verify if the purported model is fit for explaining real-world issues, here, farmers facing untrue prices during the global coffee crisis (1999-2003) and on deforestation fronts in the Brazilian Amazon. The analysis of these case studies leads us to framing true prices as a necessary condition of sustainability, although it is probably not the only one. Combining accounting as a gauging tool and true price as a reference point lends both concrete meaning and technical grounding to the notion of sustainability, and guidelines to measure progress toward it. We make recommendations on how producers, consumers, investors, and public policymakers could further true prices and thus support sustainability.

Luther's Reform: Studies on Conversion and the Church by Jared Wicks

Reviewed by: Luther's Reform: Studies on Conversion and the Church by Jared Wicks Mark Mattes Luther's Reform: Studies on Conversion and the Church. By Jared Wicks. Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2019. ix + 351 pp. This book, a reprint, originally published by Verlag Philip von Zabern in 1992, is welcome. At one time there was a small but productive cohort of Roman Catholic Luther scholars. That number has, unfortunately, diminished. Wicks, who taught at both the Jesuit School of Theology in Chicago and the Gregorian in Rome, is clearly one of the best of these scholars. The introductory chapter and ten "studies" that compose the book are divided into three overarching themes: 1) Conversion, 2) Reform Teachings and Response, and 3) Early Lutheranism in Dialogue. These studies are intense encounters with specific texts and events and not primarily with overarching concepts. Wicks seeks to present how the early Luther understood "conversion," a concept pivotal for the early Luther. Likewise, Wicks' focus on Reformation teaching explores Luther's reinterpretation of the sacraments. He is markedly objective in his portrayal of both Luther and Catholic reactions. In contrast to many Catholic critics of Luther who saw him as infusing a "subjective" element in theology, since he rebelled against ecclesial authority, Wicks contends that Luther does just the opposite, offering instead a sacramental mediation of God's presence. Wicks is an important resource for those interested in the early Luther. He has little interest in Luther's later battles with other Protestants. In the first study, Wicks tackles the early Luther's view of conversion in which people come to a self-awareness of their sinfulness and are made righteous through God's hidden, transformative grace. Apparently independent of Tuomo Mannermaa, Wicks highlights [End Page 214] Luther's focus on union with Christ and its ethical ramifications (25). United with Christ, believers are the operative instruments through whom Christ who inhabits believers does good in the world (25). Far from nixing the importance of good works, Luther contends that faith "grows fat" through them (38). In the third study, Wicks outlines Luther's view of the heart as "clinging to the word," which Walter Cardinal Kasper most recently designated a "mysticism of the word." This chapter outlines the centrality that the concept "heart" plays in Luther's theology with the goal of showing an ultimate alliance between human hearts and God's own heart. It is surprising that more attention is not given to "heart" in Luther (of course, excepting the scholarship of Birgit Stolt and Bengt Hoffman) because it so frequently occurs in his writings. Wicks makes it clear that the monastic and devotional side of Luther's thinking, and not just the scholastic and academic, are crucial. Study five is an exegesis of Luther's Treatise on Indulgences (1517), supplementing the far better known "Explanations of the Ninety-Five Theses." Again, Wicks highlights conversion in Luther as a lifelong task of purifying human intentions (108). Far from seeing Luther as offering innovations in theology, as Cajetan accused him, Luther echoes earlier thinkers such as Bernard of Clairvaux, for whom personal appropriation of Christ's benefits was important (145). Indeed, in study eight, Wicks makes the case that Luther's work is best seen as an expression of the "theology for piety" stemming from Jean Gerson which saw theology as primarily the pastoral work of inculcating piety among the laity and catechetically training them. It is for this reason that Luther "shows no interest in speculating on the myriad possibilities open to the absolute power of God, but instead gives himself passionately to treating the concrete means that Christ has historically instituted for the daily mediation of his grace of salvation" (195). The last two essays focus on the context of the Augsburg Confession and its aftermath, highlighting the mild and irenic tone and the colloquy held in August 1530 between Lutheran and Catholic theologians and the difference in approach where Protestants tended to focus on "the dictates of a conscience that was formed by [End Page 215] Scripture" while "Catholics … insist that regulations set down by church authorities do bind in conscience" (314). Wicks' scholarship is impeccable, fair, and exact, a...

Revisiting Immutability: Competing Frameworks for Adjudicating Asylum Claims Based on Membership in a Particular Social Group

The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) defines a refugee as any person who has a “well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.” An emerging issue in U.S. asylum law is how to define the category “membership of a particular social group.” This question has become ever-more pressing in light of the fact that the majority of migrants seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border are claiming persecution on account of their “membership in a particular social group.” The INA does not define the meaning of “particular social group” and courts are split over the correct definition of the term. According to one approach, the focus should be on which immutable characteristics should be protected from systemic discrimination. According to a second approach, the focus should rather be on how members of a given society define the boundaries of the proposed group. Each framework centers the analysis on a fundamentally distinct set of questions and concerns. This Article outlines the development and conceptual basis of each framework, to show that an immutability-centered approach to defining particular social group generates more consistency in asylum decisions and broadens the scope of asylum to include women and victims of harm traditionally categorized as falling within the category of “private criminal activity.” This Article contributes to debates on asylum policy by shedding new light on how to define the contours of asylum status and proposing concrete means by which to accomplish change.

Final Report on The UN Human Rights Committee and other Human Rights Treaty Bodies

This report addresses the questions put by the Co-Rapporteurs, mainly in relation to the UN Human Rights Committee (HRCttee) established pursuant to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). When useful the jurisprudence of other UN human rights treaty bodies (UN treaty bodies) is also examined, in order to reinforce the findings emerging from the jurisprudence of the HRCttee or to underline any potential divergences in the practice of these bodies. The HRCttee (like the other UN treaty bodies) is a treaty-monitoring body, which performs three main functions: a) it conducts a periodic state reporting procedure and formulates concluding observations on state reports; b) it develops/adopts General Comments by which specific rights or cross-cutting issues are examined in a comprehensive way and presented as a formal (re)statement of the Committee’s considered understanding of the rights or issues in question; c) it hears ‘communications’ by individuals about alleged violations of their rights by a State Party and adopts ‘views’ determining whether or not an individual’s rights were violated in a specific case. Through these functions, which are to a large extent similar in all the UN human rights treaty bodies, these bodies play a role both in interpreting the normative content of the respective instruments and in giving concrete meaning to individual rights and state obligations. In all of its functions, the HRCttee interprets the Covenant. Rules of interpretation are relevant firstly, when the Committee renders views on an individual communication. Rules of interpretation are also relevant in the General Comments, where the HRCttee “distils its considered views on an issue which arises out of the provisions of the treaty whose implementation it supervises and presents those views in the context of a formal statement of its understanding to which it attaches major importance”. Notwithstanding the importance of General Comments in the interpretation of the Covenant, this paper focuses on “judicial interpretation” by the HRCttee and other UN treaty bodies. The ICCPR’s provisions are mainly interpreted in views rendered on individual communications, where the Committee acts as a quasi-judicial organ. The HRCttee has developed an important body of jurisprudence defining specific rights and obligations of states in concrete situations, reaching findings of breach or non-breach of Covenant provisions by the State concerned and recommending an appropriate remedy.

Image and Freedom in Fichte’s Doctrine of the State of 1813

In this paper, my aim is to offer an approach to the practical meaning of the concept of image in Fichte’s Doctrine of the State of 1813. The word “image” (Bild) plays an important role within Fichte’s philosophical terminology, especially during the last period of his intellectual production and his academic life, after leaving the University of Jena. Even a superficial reading of the several different versions of the Doctrine of Science allows one to recognize that the above-mentioned term is used by Fichte more frequently during his years in Berlin (1800–1814). Despite this, the determination of the concrete meaning of the term “image” represents a difficult interpretative challenge for readers of Fichte’s philosophy. From my point of view, Fichte uses the term “image” not only at the level of theoretical or methodological reflection, but also at that of praxis. For this reason, Fichte’s transcendental reflection in the Doctrine of the State contains not only an analysis of the negative relationship between image and being, but also, necessarily, an analysis of the positive relationship between image and freedom (Freiheit). Although his Doctrine of the State is based on a theological-religious conception, which could be questioned from the perspective of a secularized rationality, Fichte maintains a consistent conception of knowledge as an image of a world ordered by the moral law. Definitively, this image plays a central role as an original model for the action of every rational being in the sensible world.