Object Of Desire Research Articles

The Honorable, the Useful, and the Pleasurable: John Buridan on Good and Goodness

ABSTRACT Question 11 in Book 2 of John Buridan’s Questions on the Ten Books of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, concerns whether the good can be well divided into the honorable, the useful, and the pleasurable. Aristotle, according to Buridan, claims that it can. But should we follow Aristotle in this respect? Buridan argues that we should not. In his view, the good is extensionally equivalent with the honorable, as well as with the useful and the with the pleasurable. But the relevant division is still important for our understanding of goodness, according to Buridan. He proposes a fitting attitude account of goodness. In its most general sense, the good refers to the desirable, that is, to that which is (or would be) a fitting object of desire. However, we can distinguish between three different ways in which things may be desirable: in themselves (in which case they are honorable), as means to some other good (in which case they are useful) and for ourselves (in which case they are pleasurable). On the substantive level, these always coincide. But that arguably does not follow from the more fundamental account of the nature of the good, according to Buridan.

Multilayered politicized constructions of COVID-19 vaccines: A global south view of Pfizer and Sinovac

Despite their overwhelming public health benefits for pandemic response, Covid-19 vaccines have been subject to political controversy around the world. Multidisciplinary scholarship in the health and social sciences points to a wide range of factors that influence the public’s divided views of vaccines. But these factors have largely been considered in relative isolation from each other as independent influences on vaccine beliefs. In this paper, we propose a multilayered politico-psychological model of collective constructions of the Covid-19 vaccines. Borrowing from Montiel and Christie’s (2007) theoretical framework, we examine how the Covid-19 vaccines are holistically constructed in relation to interdependent social meanings across micro-level, meso-level, and macro-level socio-ecological layers. Harnessing a mixed methods research design, we apply this framework to analyze a large corpus of Filipino tweets (N = 229,236) about the Pfizer and Sinovac vaccines. Micro-level discourses feature competing individual emotions which construct Pfizer as an object of desire and Sinovac as an object of fear. Meso-level constructions invoke collective contexts of information and resource scarcity within which Pfizer is a serendipitous prize while Sinovac is a mandated responsibility. Finally, macro-level constructions embed the Covid-19 vaccines within national and international structures, framing Pfizer as a symbol of political integrity and Sinovac as an instrument of political corruption for government leaders. In conclusion, these multilayered discourses around the Covid-19 vaccines illuminate complex negotiations of agency among a Global South public during the pandemic. We discuss multilevel interventions and politico-psychological implications for public health campaigns more broadly.

The obscure object of desire: The role of political reflections, strategic calculations and informal networks in the development of national social dialogue across time in Spain over five decades

This article provides an in-depth analysis of the dynamics of social dialogue in Spain and highlights that to understand the relations between organised labour and the state a greater degree of historical sensibility in the way risks and calculations are developed in terms of exchanges and expectations is required. It goes beyond traditional institutionalist analysis to further understand how social dialogue at the state level occurs across different and complex trade-offs within political networks, even in weaker state contexts such as that of Spain. The article uses interviews with union leaders from the main Spanish unions involved in different historical moments to understand a range of uneven or opaque activities, the features of which can only be understood by expanding what we mean by the notion of political exchange, as well as the deliberate or conscious calculations and longer-term risks of such exchanges during different points in time.

Empire from Another Angle: Queer Pleasures of Art in Statius, Silvae 4.6

Recent work on Statius’s Silvae has emphasized the poet’s efforts to create “intimacy” with his private patrons through espousing a value system based on friendship, connoisseurship, and shared literary interests, a system opposed to the public values of political ambition and the blunt glorification of military power in imperial expansion. This essay, however, argues that we have yet to comprehend the extent to which the dynamics of empire itself inform the creation of such intimacy in the Silvae. Specifically, what Sara Ahmed has described as empire’s “queering” effect on the subject’s relation to objects of desire has a formative role in Statian intimacy. I focus on one of the Silvae that has been central to the formation of the current view of Statius outlined above: Silvae 4.6, on a Hercules statuette owned by Novius Vindex but previously the possession of three empire-builders, Alexander, Hannibal, and Sulla.

Female landscapes

The aim of this article is to reflect on the presence of colonized women in photographs and other representations, such as drawings, posters, postcards, exhibition catalogues, newspapers and magazines, which were disseminated in the context of the Portuguese colonial expositions, and in exhibition spaces conceived by the Portuguese with a colonial component. Generally speaking, the exhibitions sought to put forward the progress, taking into account land, rail and sea transport, but also roads, communications, trade, industry, arts, architecture, culture, and the most recent advances in science and medicine. The exhibitions were also places where the logic of colonial models was staged, showing a clear relationship between colonial domination and gender representation. The research includes several materials produced throughout the 1930s (a fertile period regarding the Portuguese participation in this kind of international events) intended to publicize these exhibitions or serve as a complement to them. These materials may include art works or merely propagandistic works, or works that combine both components. The analysis will include materials associated with several exhibitions between 1931 and 1940, such as the International Colonial Exhibition of Paris (1931), the Lisbon Industrial Exhibition (1932), the Portuguese Colonial Exhibition in Porto (1934), the Exhibition of the Portuguese World in Lisbon (1940), and the Portugal of the Little Ones (Portugal dos Pequenitos) in Coimbra (1940). The contexts in which women appear and the way they are represented — as active beings (performing tasks), as contemplative beings (as in natural landscapes) or as objects of sexual desire, revealing the context of power (legislative, administrative, male and colonial) in which the images and the representations were produced — will be analyzed.

An Overview of Three-Dimensional Printing in Pharmaceutical Technology

Three-dimensional printing (3DP) in pharmaceutical technology is a new technique that can build the desired objects directly from CAD models using a layer-by-layer material build-up approach. This article presents an overview of the 3DP technique with a brief look into the history of the 3DP process and various methods like stereolithography, fused deposition method, hot melt extrusion, polyjet, etc., their merits and demerits, and applications of 3DP in pharmaceutical technology. The challenges 3DP has surmounted in the areas of pharmaceutical and biomedical research related to additive manufacturing are outlined in this review.. The use of 3DP has increased recently. Personalized medicine may now have access to a whole new range of options due to 3DP. The concept of specialists and researchers is to create customized oral pills using 3DP. Since technology is still developing, any regulations on security, safety, and privacy have yet to exist. Thus, these issues will be of more significant concern shortly. The applications of 3DP technologies in modern drug delivery are highlighted in this article, which expounds on using these technologies for forward-thinking advancements in pharmacy practice.

118 DHGLMF90: A software tool using double hierarchical generalized linear models for estimating the genetic heterogeneity of residual variance

Abstract In animal breeding, there is a growing interest in selecting animals that exhibit uniform responses to environmental conditions, aiming for product consistency as a desirable breeding objective. This could be achieved by modeling heteroskedastic residuals when estimating breeding values through a hierarchical single-trait model that includes a mean and dispersion part. The latter could be influenced by genetic and non-genetic features. Bayesian methods can estimate heteroskedastic residuals using the Metropolis-Hastings algorithm, which is a slow and inefficient approach. Double hierarchical generalized linear models (DHGLM) provide a faster alternative to Bayesian methods. This study aimed to develop software named DHGLMF90 to implement DHGLM using a highly efficient algorithm to accurately estimate heterogeneous residual variances and breeding values, particularly suited for handling large datasets. We improved the reweighted least squares algorithm (IRWLS) to enhance convergence properties compared with prior implementations. IRWLS iteratively computes variance components and leverages them for a bivariate model, covering both the mean and dispersion part of the original model. In DHGLMF90, variance component estimation is performed using REML through BLUPF90+. The software was tested using both simulated and real datasets, the latter from previous studies. Additionally, the simulations were replicated to ensure a comprehensive evaluation of the DHGLMF90 performance. Results indicated that, in most cases, there were no significant differences in estimation compared with results obtained from previous studies. DHGLMF90 converged in order of magnitude faster than Bayesian methods. Future developments will include analyzing datasets with genomic information and multiple-trait models.

Navigating the Housing Bureaucracy in Late Soviet Moscow: A Housing Order as a Document of Socialist Desire

Many scholars have drawn attention to the large housing programme at play in the late Soviet period. However, this programme did not solve the housing shortage, and the housing order (zhilishchnyi order) remained an object of desire for Soviet citizens. This document was an official guarantee of accommodation in the USSR, where there was no housing market. Based on archival sources and interviews, this article focuses on the history of the housing order and people’s strategies for obtaining it. It reveals the specifics of the public housing delivery system and the means through which ordinary Soviet citizens navigated its bureaucracy.

Hijab is Women’s Shield and Fortress

Hijab has been applied in different forms in different civilizations and traditions since the era of first man and prophet Adam (Alayhi As-Salam). So, hijab and seclusion were practiced in many cultures long before Islam. Hijab is compulsory for women to save their modesty and chastity of all periods and times in Islam. Hijab themselves is natural for women and their innate dispositions demand it. Hijab frees women from being thought of as sexual objects of desire, or from being evaluated by their looks, or body shape rather than their minds and intellect. Studies indicate that girls and women may encounter sexual violence in their day-to-day social life in all cultures and societies. Hijab protects adolescent girls and women from sexual harassment. Hijab is women’s shield and fortress. The obvious fact is this, that the house is a protecting and secure place for a woman in a society. Islam does not like to go outside from the house without the essential needs. If the woman goes outside because of the essential requirement, then she should cover her whole body with a long cloth and should keep her gaze down. Allah says “And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that they should not display their beauty and ornaments except what (ordinarily) appear thereof; that they should draw their veils over their bosoms.

Beyond Grid Girls and Checkered Flags: Exploring Sexual Objectification at Motorsport Events

Motorsport has long been a very male-oriented sport, its events synonymous with conventionally attractive, provocatively dressed “grid girls.” This research note examines the issue of sexual objectification in the male-dominated motorsport industry, shedding light on its prevalence and impact through findings from an online survey. While previous studies have focused on objectification in service industries, such as airlines, sports and events environments remain underexplored. The study highlights the mental health implications of employees’ objectification, emphasizing the harmful effects of stereotyping individuals, reducing them to objects of desire, and perpetuating gender inequality. Our exploratory study advocates for promoting inclusivity, respect, and empowerment within the industry to combat sexism and objectification, calling for increased awareness and understanding in the broader events sector and specifically in motorsports.

From passion to knowledge

AbstractIn this paper, I aim to situate the practical agency of the sage in an overall picture of the development of the Plotinian moral agent. This development can be seen as a gradual transition from external to internal principles of action guidance which endow the agent with autonomy and coherence in her practical actions. The transition from external to internal principles corresponds to a changing relationship between the agent's telos and particular actions. Non-virtuous agents aim at the attainment of an object of desire, while the civically virtuous person aims to perform virtuous actions irrespectively of the achievement of particular objects of desire. Finally, the telos of the sage is the contemplation of forms and she acts practically as a consequence and external activity of having achieved her goal. The analysis of Plotinus' theory of moral development shows that the sage's inward turn and detachment from external circumstances do not involve inactivity in the practical sphere but figure as a necessary condition of her making an active contribution to the order of the sensible world through her actions as opposed to passively responding to external circumstances.

Contrasting Realities: Italian Advertisements and Non-Sexist Linguistic and Social Norms

This research aims to scrutinise whether sexism is confined solely to the Italian advertising domain or extends into the language employed by the general populace and the broader cultural fabric of society. In Italy, despite numerous efforts made over the past decades to eradicate sexism in advertising campaigns, marketers frequently resort to its various manifestations, deeming it a powerful tool for attracting potential consumers. The prevalent utilisation of the female image in a sexist manner, portraying women as objects of desire, remains commonplace. Surprisingly, even renowned influencers aligned with the radical feminist movement often incorporate such tactics in their social media content. Sexism manifests through two principal avenues: firstly, the erotic portrayal of women’s bodies and/or their sensual behaviours, frequently coupled with language expressions encompassing with dual meanings; secondly, the perpetuation and reinforcement of stereotypical gender roles. While the latter has largely diminished in the contemporary era, the former persists prominently. This case study research employs a qualitative analysis approach. Various data sources, including legal documents, historical records, and contemporary media, are critically analysed. The findings suggest that, despite the societal and linguistic rejection of sexism in contemporary Italy, where gender equality prevails across social, economic, and legal realms, the advertising industry continues to rely on such practices heavily.

Wheel loader seat damping control research based on ADRC

This paper proposes a new type of damped multi-mode switching damper based on a high-speed switching solenoid valve. The structural design of the damper is completed, and its working principle of realizing different damping modes is analyzed. A damping characteristic model of the damper is constructed, and the change rule of the damping characteristic of the multi-mode switching damper is analyzed. The seat suspension of a wheel loader is equipped with a damper that is controlled by a damping strategy. A 10-degree-of-freedom mixed-logic dynamic model of the seat suspension system is established using HYSDEL, and a multi-mode switching damper is employed. The weight coefficients are adjusted using a self-immunity control strategy, and the hybrid model predictive control method is used to complete the damping control strategy. Simulation results show that, compared with the fuzzy control strategy, the designed wheel loader seat suspension damping active disturbance rejection control (ADRC) strategy not only effectively reduces the root-mean-square (RMS) value of the driver’s vertical vibration acceleration up to more than 40% at different speeds and shock conditions, but also effectively reduces the driver’s vertical vibration acceleration. The ADRC strategy is a robust approach that achieves the desired control objective of the system.

Observer-based proportional-retarded controller for payload swing attenuation of 2D-crane systems including load hoisting-lowering

Crane systems are essential systems utilized in industry and for research. Nevertheless, they are always affected by endogenous and exogenous disturbances, which may generate undesirable payload oscillations, compromising people’s security and the system itself. Thus, to deal with these issues and control these mechatronic systems efficiently, this manuscript develops a novel robust observer-based proportional-retarded controller for perturbed two-dimensional cranes, considering variation in the rope length. This novel scheme makes the trolley follow a desired reference signal while reducing the payload variations. The controller structure allows for compensating disturbances, while a new control approach introduces artificial delays that stabilize the closed-loop system and attain the desired control objective. A formal theoretical analysis demonstrates the validity of the new proposal. Then, experimental results show the outstanding performance of the proposed control scheme and its superior performance against other methodologies from the literature.

Moment-Based Reinforcement Learning for Ensemble Control.

Problems involving controlling the collective behavior of a population of structurally similar dynamical systems, the so-called ensemble control, arise in diverse emerging applications and pose a grand challenge in systems science and control engineering. Owing to the severely under-actuated nature and the difficulty of placing large-scale sensor networks, ensemble systems are limited to being actuated and monitored at the population level. Moreover, mathematical models describing the dynamics of ensemble systems are often elusive. Therefore, it is essential to design broadcast controls that excite the entire population in such a way that the heterogeneity in system dynamics is robustly compensated. In this article, we propose a reinforcement learning (RL)-based data-driven control framework incorporating population-level aggregated measurement data to learn a global control signal for steering a dynamic population in the desired manner. In particular, we introduce the notion of ensemble moments induced by aggregated measurements and derive the associated moment system to the original ensemble system. Then, using the moment system, we learn an approximation of optimal value functions and the associated policies in terms of ensemble moments through RL. We illustrate the feasibility and scalability of the proposed moment-based approach via numerical experiments using a population of linear, bilinear, and nonlinear dynamic ensemble systems. We report that the proposed method achieves the desired control objectives of various ensemble control tasks and obtains significantly better averaged-reward when compared with three existing methods.

Beauty, nobility, and desire: Ideals of gentlemanliness and the male body in Confucius and Plato

ABSTRACT Both Plato and Confucius were deeply concerned with moral cultivation and political leadership, topics that were inherently gendered in ancient patriarchal societies. I show that both thinkers focused their discussions on concepts that were associated with male aristocratic ideals of gentlemanliness. Yet while Confucian texts emphasize moral behavior and ritual to beautify the male body (shen 身), Plato focuses on the cultivation of a non-physical soul, which women also possess. Various theories have been proposed to explain this difference in their understandings of the self, but when we bear the gendered nature of their inquiry in mind, an important difference takes center stage: for Socrates, the male body is an object of sexual desire. This paper highlights the influence of homoerotic desire in Plato’s unique approach to gentlemanliness, offering a new perspective for comparing these philosophers' views on gender, cultivation, and leadership.

A Robust Hybrid Iterative Learning Formation Strategy for Multi-Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Systems with Multi-Operating Modes

This paper investigates the formation control problem of multi-unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) systems with multi-operating modes. While mode switching enhances the flexibility of multi-UAV systems, it also introduces dynamic model switching behaviors in UAVs. Moreover, obtaining an accurate dynamic model for a multi-UAV system is challenging in practice. In addition, communication link failures and time-varying unknown disturbances are inevitable in multi-UAV systems. Hence, to overcome the adverse effects of the above challenges, a hybrid iterative learning formation control strategy is proposed in this paper. The proposed controller does not rely on precise modeling and exhibits its learning ability by utilizing historical input–output data to update the current control input. Furthermore, two convergence theorems are proven to guarantee the convergence of state, disturbance estimation, and formation tracking errors. Finally, three simulation examples are conducted for a multi-UAV system consisting of four quadrotor UAVs under multi-operating modes, switching topologies, and external disturbances. The results of the simulations show the strategy’s effectiveness and superiority in achieving the desired formation control objectives.

Infinite or Indefinite? Leopardi’s Infinite through the Lens of Fyodor Dostoevsky

ABSTRACT Leopardi employs the traditional distinction between infinite and indefinite in his works, prompting a question rarely asked in Leopardi studies: what is the role of the true infinite in Leopardi’s oeuvre? My contention is that the true infinite should not be dismissed as having no role in Leopardi’s production simply because it does not exist in reality. Rather, it is the supreme object of desire, the impossible ideal that his texts pursue. This idea is explored through a comparative reading with the work of Fyodor Dostoevsky, whose belief in the true infinite is not in question. Starting from Leopardi’s reflections on the infinite and his ‘theory of pleasure’, it becomes clear that the infinite cannot be expressed or comprehended by human beings, yet they must have some notion of it. This comparison, therefore, helps to reassess the role of the true infinite in Leopardi, which would otherwise remain hidden.

On One’s Own or with Someone Else

Since around 2000, Japanese comics in which protagonists eat out by themselves garnered popularity. The solitude of the characters enable readers to relive the situation and even to communicate with them in a fictional manner. The success of such works led to dramatization, and they rapidly gained in popularity. This paper analyzes such comics and their adaptations. In particular, it focuses on two enormously successful series, Solitary Gourmet, which created the boom of solo-eating comics and What Did You Eat Yesterday?, which shows everyday life of a gay couple in Tokyo. The male protagonists successfully escape the traditional masculinity by eating and narrating tastes in monologues, which are traditionally used in female-oriented works. It serves as a device for suppressing and oozing desire here. Furthermore, other comics and their adaptations employing female protagonists deal with food in a more progressive manner. There, women are not depicted as objects of desire but subjective figures who liberate their character and desire through the act of eating, and when they eat together, the differences in their attributes get blurred and there even emerges a solidarity. Food has become a way of liberating and connecting people by dissolving the boundaries between them.

Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare With an Emphasis on Public Health.

Artificial Intelligence (AI), since its inception, has revolutionized multiple sectors, including healthcare in the 20th century, and has applications in data interpretation, leading to advancements in diagnostics, therapeutics, and clinical decision-making.AI is referred to as the capability of a software program to accurately analyze extrinsic information and utilize it for accomplishing desired goals and objectives through appropriate flexibility. It makes use of complicated operative algorithms to excel in humanlearning potential with overwhelming abilities to interpret large sets of data. The scope and implications of AI are consistently amplifying and have contributed significantly in nearly all phases of human life, especially healthcare. The integration of AI-related advancements would surely ameliorate the delivery of healthcare by allowing its accessibility, affordability, and level of care provided. For instance, reading CT scans is feasible by both AI as well as a radiologist. The screening of Tuberculosis is possible through AI via Chest X-rays with comparability in performance as molecular testing and mammography scans can predict the onset of breast cancer prior to the appearance of the ocular signs. Therefore, AI has been realized as one of the core areas by researchers and the governmentfor public health benefit. For the same reason, it is imperative to adopt an ethically sound policy framework for guiding the further development of AI-based technologies and their application in public health. AI-based interpretations themselves cannot be fully trusted for their diagnostic decisions and judgements, and hence, it is vital to assess their accountability through all phases of development and deployment in the field of health. This article emphasizes the advancements in AI-based technologies, their assistance in public healthcare delivery systems, and their merits and demerits. It also explores the various ethical directives that need to be adhered to while utilizing it for public health welfare.