Outward Appearance Research Articles

Антропологические предпосылки кантовской этикотеологии

In Kant’s main treatise on philosophy of religion, the doctrine of religion itself is forestalled by a discourse about the moral quality of human nature, which has an outward appearance of an overt declaration of anthropological pessimism. This paper aims to investigate this introductory anthropological survey within the context of Kant’s ethical principles and philosophical methodology, as an anthropological framework of his philosophy of religion. Dogmatic optimism as well as dogmatic pessimism in anthropology equally eliminate the possibility of ethico-theology, conceived as religious extension of the ethics of duty. Between the positions of good and evil, between the two versions of rigorism, no mid-point is possible; they cannot be united in an abstract, external manner. Good and evil in Kant’s philosophy exists only as definitions of freedom, are traceable to an act of freedom and imputable to free actors. According to Kant, in human nature there is an inborn potential for the good: a receptivity for the moral law as self-sufficing incentive for an action. The moral law, although it is objectively (in the idea) the prevailing incentive, is at the same time subjectively (in the experience) weaker than the incentive from inclination. The reflection upon this circumstance uncovers an antinomy in the foundations of Kant’s doctrine of religion; transcendental idealism, specifically the notion of intelligible deed, which chooses the supreme maxim of one’s moral disposition, gives a clue for its solution. The problem of the moral quality of the will is therefore determined, not by the character of the performed action itself, but by the “form of a maxim”, by the interrelation of incentives in the rule which determines the action. And so the radical evil of human nature in the appearance does not revoke, for Kant, the unconditional relevance of the moral goal guiding free human beings.

In This Modern Age: Medieval Studies in Honor of Paul Edward Dutton, ed. Courtney M. Booker and Anne A. Latowsky. Budapest: Trivent Publishing, 2023, 532 pp.

I am reminded of Paul Dutton whenever I don my green raincoat. Reaching into the pocket, I rediscover the handful of dried fava beans that he distributed to the audience of a keynote lecture that he gave at a conference on the material world of the early Middle Ages hosted by Pacific University in October 2016. The beans illustrated a point that he was making about the so-called “Green Children of Woolpit,” a legend about the sudden appearance of two strange children, a sister and a brother, who caused a stir in a twelfth-century Suffolk village because their skin was green and they only ate fava beans. Their outward appearance, Dutton argued, may have been symptomatic of hemolytic anemia (favism), a reaction to eating fava beans that can cause skin discoloration of this kind. The beans served a higher purpose, however. Over the years, they have demonstrated to me how tactile encounters with material objects evoke powerful memories. Those who know Paul Dutton will recognize many aspects of his intellectual character in this anecdote, not least his penchant for drawing significance out of odd bits of medieval cultural history that other historians have dismissed as meaning-deficient.

Ring Species Are Natural Experiments for Understanding the Relative Contribution of Genetic Replication Machinery and Outward Appearance on Speciation

Ring Species Are Natural Experiments for Understanding the Relative Contribution of Genetic Replication Machinery and Outward Appearance on Speciation

Supplemental Material for Judging a Book by Its Cover: Cultural Differences in Inference of the Inner State Based on the Outward Appearance

Supplemental Material for Judging a Book by Its Cover: Cultural Differences in Inference of the Inner State Based on the Outward Appearance

Visual Disability and the Pursuit of Normality in Preeti Monga’s Biographical Novel The Other Senses

For Ancient Greeks, beauty was a characteristic of individuals and actions that they considered to be morally good. Greek statuary and art in general project beauty based on the assumption that outward appearance reflects personal virtues (Tytler, 1982, p. 36). Pythagoreans, for example, held that ugliness expressed confusion and turmoil, and that beauty was a material expression of universal truth. In more modern times, and in many ways envisaging today’s materialistic societies, Kant expresses a certain perplexity that beauty is perceived primarily as a pleasurable response to exterior form (2000, p. 111). In this sense contemporary culture, with the increasing visual refinements of its graphic products and virtual reality, has set new metrics for defining the value of beauty. Our televisions, for example, broadcast images of heroes who are physically beautiful while being morally suspect and socially abrasive. The unstable value of beauty is reflected in literature. In Indian literature disability has been represented, but these representations have lacked significant scholarly diagnostic treatment. The Disability Rights Movement has recently begun to change this situation. This paper strives to examine a disabled individual’s struggle for integration through Preeti Monga’s autobiography The Other Senses. It also analyses how the disabled create subjective normality and the process by which they attain it. By tracing the roles of sexuality, dependency, and interpersonal relationships in the lived experience of Preeti Monga, this research aims to reveal the significance of the quest for normality in shaping personal identity.

Wygląd i zaangażowanie, czyli rola księżniczki koronnej Wiktorii Bernadotte w podtrzymywaniu szwedzkiej monarchii

The role of the Swedish monarch is mainly ceremonial and involves representing the state at some national events and in international relations. Outward appearance and social-cultural activity are important for preserving the tradition of having a monarchy in Sweden and for stressing its necessity. The aim of this article is to discuss how the image of the heir apparent to the Swedish throne, Victoria Bernadotte, in terms of both appearance and social-cultural activity, helps to maintain support for the monarchy, even though it has only a symbolic role.

Modified nano-SiO2/TiO2 hybrid fluorinated B-72 as antimicrobial and hydrophobic coatings for the conservation of ancient bricks

A transparent superhydrophobic organic–inorganic composite coating was prepared with fluorinated B72 as the base organic component and methyl-modified silica/titania (SiO2/TiO2) by hexamethyldisilazane (HMDS) as the inorganic component by a simple and gentle means to protect ancient bricks from the invasion of micro-organisms and the breakage of weathering. Contact angle, transparency, adhesion, and hardness tests were utilized to testify the content of TiO2 in the inorganic component. The modified SiO2/TiO2 and the composite coating were characterized by infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), transmission electron microscope (TEM), and scanning electron microscope (SEM). 8% TiO2 in methyl-modified silica was proved to achieve the highest contact angle. Compared with the untreated bricks, the composite coating enhanced the performance of ancient bricks against weathering, bacteria, and algae. In detail, the inhibitory effect of the coating on Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and Escherichia coli (E. coli) was studied by a bacteriostatic circle test and fluorescence staining, and the influence of the composite coating on algae was determined by comparative experiment as well. Finally, the mechanism of the coating on antibacterial and anti-algae was explored and summarized. The results demonstrated that the weathering process can be slowed by coating the bricks with silica-titania hybrid fluorinated B-72 without altering their outward appearance, thereby protecting ancient buildings without structural repairs involving cement, glues, or concrete which alter the original architect's concept.

The influence of differential leadership and proactive personality on employee in-role performance: An integrated model.

Differential leadership does not necessarily bring only negative effects, as it may also become an incentive management strategy. This study explores whether outsiders can actively become insiders through proactive personality traits, or whether they can actively approach resource controllers to remove obstacles at work and enhance their performance in a Chinese cultural setting. A stratified random sampling method was used. The sample objects were medical staff from hospitals in the six urban districts of Beijing. In 2021, a total of 900 online questionnaires were distributed. 524 valid questionnaires were recovered. The results show that differential leadership, defined as favoritism towards insiders and prejudice against outsiders, can cause changes in employees' sense of organizational justice and in-role performance. Meanwhile, by introducing 'proactive personality' as an independent variable that also acts as a moderator, our study confirms that, under differential leadership, employees with a proactive personality can actively improve situational barriers and have better work performance. Our research offers managers the following advice: First, it is better to look not only at relationships, but also to understand an employee's personality characteristics, whether it has a superficial or deep role at work, in order to reduce the turnover rate and to raise productivity. Second, it is important to teach employees to serve customers with a sincere appreciation of their point of view, rather than focusing on presenting an outward appearance of friendliness. This paper contributes to the theory of proactive personality, emotional labor, and differential leadership. Contrary to previous studies, our research has used 'proactive personality' as both a distractor and a predictor at the same time. Also, insiders favored by leaders are not found to perform better at work.

The Afterlife of Early Modern Images of Jews

Early modern copperplate engravers, painters, and printers produced an increasing number of images that depicted Jewish individuals or more often groups of Jewish men and women. Many of these images sought to present an ideal type, displaying (allegedly) typical Jewish dress and outward appearance. Some of these images saw adaptations already during the eighteenth-century, but all were photographed, reprinted, adapted, and altered from the nineteenth to the twenty-first centuries. This article choses three images – an engraving of a Jewish man and woman from an early-eighteenth century costume book, the depiction of a Jewish couple from a late eighteenth-century painting, and the painting of Bertha Pappenheim posing as early modern Jewish merchant Glikl bas Judah from the early twentieth century – and follows their adaptations over time. I analyze how these adaptations were (re)used in different contexts and the problems they may create for historians as well as for (non-professional) observers interested in the history of early modern European Jewry. The afterlife of these early modern images is often framed in a discourse of Jewish belonging and identity. Especially popular adaptations are characterized by an uncritical and sometimes ahistorical approach to these images.

“Imagine this smart speaker to have a body”: An analysis of the external appearances and the characteristics that people associate with voice assistants

IntroductionModern digital devices, such as conversational agents, simulate human–human interactions to an increasing extent. However, their outward appearance remains distinctly technological. While research revealed that mental representations of technology shape users' expectations and experiences, research on technology sending ambiguous cues is rare.MethodsTo bridge this gap, this study analyzes drawings of the outward appearance participants associate with voice assistants (Amazon Echo or Google Home).ResultsHuman beings and (humanoid) robots were the most frequent associations, which were rated to be rather trustworthy, conscientious, agreeable, and intelligent. Drawings of the Amazon Echos and Google Homes differed marginally, but “human,” “robotic,” and “other” associations differed with respect to the ascribed humanness, consciousness, intellect, affinity to technology, and innovation ability.DiscussionThis study aims to further elaborate on the rather unconscious cognitive and emotional processes elicited by technology and discusses the implications of this perspective for developers, users, and researchers.

Perceptions of persons who wear face coverings are modulated by the perceivers' attitude.

We examined if the effect of facial coverings on person perception is influenced by the perceiver's attitudes. We used two online experiments in which participants saw the same human target persons repeatedly appearing with and without a specific piece of clothing and had to judge the target persons' character. In Experiment 1 (N = 101), we investigated how the wearing of a facial mask influences a person's perception depending on the perceiver's attitude toward measures against the COVID-19 pandemic. In Experiment 2 (N = 114), we examined the effect of wearing a head cover associated with Arabic culture on a person's perception depending on the perceiver's attitude toward Islam. Both studies were preregistered; both found evidence that a person's perception is a process shaped by the personal attitudes of the perceiver as well as merely the target person's outward appearance. Integrating previous findings, we demonstrate that facial covers, as well as head covers, operate as cues which are used by the perceivers to infer the target persons' underlying attitudes. The judgment of the target person is shaped by the perceived attitude toward what the facial covering stereotypically symbolizes.

Hidden Heretics: Jewish Doubt in the Digital Age by Ayala Fader

Reviewed by: Hidden Heretics: Jewish Doubt in the Digital Age by Ayala Fader Andrea Lieber Ayala Fader. Hidden Heretics: Jewish Doubt in the Digital Age. Princeton Studies in Culture and Technology. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2020. 270 pp. In her compelling ethnography, Hidden Heretics: Jewish Doubt in the Digital Age, Ayala Fader shines light on the insular world of ultra-Orthodoxy as it navigates challenges sparked by the ubiquity of the Internet in twenty-first-century life. Fader's analysis unfolds on two fronts. Through deeply personal interviews she reveals the complex stories of individuals whose lives are upended by fervent religious doubt, leading them to find community and self-expression in a digitally mediated online world. In parallel, Fader also voices the perspective of the religious leaders and therapists charged with counseling those in doubt and who uphold the notion that the Internet is a moral threat that must be curtailed to preserve the sanctity of the Jewish soul. Unlike Jewish skeptics of any previous generation, the "double lifers" at the center of Fader's work have the Internet—a virtual platform that is at once private and uniquely public—to voice their doubt, externalize it, and pursue answers to their fundamental questions. By connecting anonymously with others, those struggling with doubt create an alternative, digital public that extends well beyond the confines of the ultra-Orthodox communities in which they live. This parallel world, where religious doubt is facilitated by and expanded through technology, [End Page 445] poses an existential challenge to ultra-Orthodoxy by subverting the mechanisms (such as the control of information) that it has used historically to maintain the authority of an increasingly strict interpretation of Jewish tradition. The human stories that animate Hidden Heretics are of individuals living with "life-changing doubt." Distinct from doubt that strengthens faith, "life-changing doubt" is deeply existential, urgently challenging a skeptic's world view with an intensity that compels action. Committing small transgressions in secret, searching blogs and online chat rooms for affirmation of and answers to their questions, and eventually making small, sometimes imperceptible changes to their personal practice, over time Fader's informants craft double lives—maintaining the outward appearance of piety while developing an interior, alternative space for expression of a different, alternative self. As an "anthropology of life-changing doubt," Hidden Heretics surfaces the complexities of what it means to live with these untenable contradictions by studying the semiotic forms (language, dress, and the body) that effectively embody doubt, turning it into a practice that can be seen, studied, and interpreted. Hidden Heretics builds on the approach employed in Fader's previous book, Mitzvah Girls, which analyzed the way Hasidic girls are socialized to become women and mothers in the closed community of Boro Park, Brooklyn. In this work, too, Fader emphasized the power of language, embodiment, and gender to communicate cultural meaning. While earlier generations of anthropologists saw religious categories like faith and belief as private and hidden from the public realm of practice, Fader suggests that belief and doubt are externalized practices, manifest in the things people do. "If belief and doubt are practices," she argues, "they can be ethnographically studied to account for the diversity of experiences afforded by age, gender, piety, or social class" (217). The power of Hidden Heretics lies in the way Fader takes her method in a new direction, exploring the way online spaces take shape as a "heretical counter-public." Showing how virtual space becomes externalized as discursive and public, yet simultaneously remains anonymous and private, her project is a useful model of how to do ethnographic research in hybrid spaces. In this regard, Fader's work will be of interest beyond Jewish studies, breaking important ground in anthropology, religion, and media studies. Another key strength Fader brings to this work is her astute ability to read for gender. A thread throughout the study notes the marked difference between the experiences of men and women living with doubt. While the men she studied could draw on the long history of apikorsim (heretics) and the legacy of the Jewish Enlightenment to frame their experience of doubt, the women she met had no such legacy and...

The Effect of Oxalic Acid as the Pre-Activator for the Electropolishing of Additive Manufactured Titanium-Based Materials and Its Characterization.

The use of additive manufactured (AM) titanium-based materials has increased substantially for medical implants and aerospace components. However, the inferior surface roughness of additive manufactured products affects the outward appearance and reduces performance. This study determines whether activation treatment prior to electropolishing produces a better surface. Oxalic acid (OA) is used as a pre-activator using different experimental conditions and the surface roughness is reduced by electropolishing with an electrolyte of perchloric acid and glacial acetic acid. The SEM surface morphology, mechanical properties, phase transformation and electrochemical properties are measured to determine the effect of different degrees of roughness on the surface. The results show that the surface roughness of AM titanium-based samples decreases from 8.47 µm to 1.09 µm after activation using OA as a pre-treatment for electropolishing. After electropolishing using optimal parameters, the hardness and resistance to corrosion resistance are increased.

Drum Rhythms and Golden Scriptures: Reasons for Mormon Conversion Within Haiti's Culture of Vodou

Drum Rhythms and Golden Scriptures: Reasons for Mormon Conversion Within Haiti's Culture of Vodou

Masquerading their way to authenticity: Does age stigma concealment benefit older women?

As women age they can be subject to both sexism and ageism, and consequently be stereotyped as low in competence and irrelevant despite having a relatively young subjective age. Drawing on theories of stigma, we conducted a survey study of older women (N = 184) with a strong interest in fashion and their visual image. We used template thematic analysis to understand their experiences in relation to their age-changed appearance. Two major themes were identified: unfavourable experiences of ageism and efforts to evade these experiences through attention to appearance. Our participants employed masquerade to conceal or reduce the visible evidence of their age—both to avoid ageism and to align their outward appearance more closely with their inner, felt, authentic selves. We interrogate the benefits and penalties of concealment for a group whose stigmatised condition is dynamic, changing as their appearance grows increasingly dissimilar to societally favoured youthfulness. Masquerade may for this group of women produce more positive than negative outcomes, via effects on felt authenticity.

What do adolescents value most and is this affected by HIV status? Aspirations and self-perceptions from a large cohort study in South Africa

ABSTRACT Hundreds of millions of adolescents across Africa face challenges in many areas of their lives, including elevated risk of HIV exposure and acquisition. Understanding the aspirations and self-perceptions of adolescents could play an important role in better targeting effective investments to break the cycle of adversity for adolescents and into their adulthood. Aiming to understand what adolescents value most for themselves and their future, we analysed and summarised cross-sectional data on the aspirations and self-perceptions of 1519 adolescents living in South Africa, overall and by HIV status. Outcomes were coded from participant responses to two open-ended questions: ‘What job do you want to do when you grow up?’ and ‘What are you most proud of about yourself?’. Associations with HIV status were then evaluated using multivariable logistic regression adjusting for six sociodemographic factors measured from the same cohort. The sample had a mean age of 14 years, 55% were female, and 70% were living with HIV. The five most common job aspirations were: ‘Health and Medical Science Professionals’ (28%), ‘Law Enforcement and Public Safety Professionals’ (14%), ‘Social Work Associate Professionals’ (12%), ‘Legal Professionals’ (9%), and ‘Education Institutions Teaching Professionals’ (6%). The top five themes for what adolescents were most proud of about themselves were ‘School performance’ (22%), ‘Outward appearance’ (15%), ‘Sports skills’ (12%), ‘Personality’ (11%), and ‘Behaviour at home/with elders’ (7%). Adjusted analysis showed no evidence that HIV status was associated with important differences in aspirations or self-perceptions. In conclusion, adolescents facing high levels of adversity in South Africa hold high value for their education and aspirations for their futures. Policies and initiatives should focus on meeting these aspirations as vehicles for development, independent of their HIV status. Therefore, more needs to be done to not just help adolescents survive but thrive into adulthood.

Staging Depth: Eugene O’Neill and the Politics of Psychological Discourse

Staging Depth: Eugene O’Neill and the Politics of Psychological Discourse

Linguistic Landscape: Reports on immigrant language at Asian-Australian community

Studies in linguistic landscape (LL) have been emerged as one of the growing topics in the societal multilingualism. Linguistic landscape transpires as a significant element to study linguistic contacts in multilingual settings. Despite the fact that Australia has been acknowledged as one of the multilingual hotspots, a study in linguistic landscape received scant attention among scholars. In enhancing a broad appreciation of the linguistic diversity at the multilingual society like Australia, thus, the centrality of this article is to report significant component of rich linguistic scenes at Springvale-Greater Dandenong, Victoria. The sources of data were derived from visual data, and further will be intertwined with the consensus data. Taken together, the twofold data presented in this article have revealed that the LL studies emerge as an important element to contribute to the richness of multi-ethnic representation in multilingual societies. The result showed that English translation is mostly found in the terrestrial signage, this appearance denotes the significance of English language as an official signage or a lingua franca for the community rather than a bilingual outward appearance. Despite English language has been identified as the dominant language representation though the signage, there are a buoyance of minority languages representation in the city of Springvale�s LL.

سمات المرأة في البرنامج التلفزيوني العراقي الساخر ولاية بطيخ بحث مستل من رسالة ماجستير

يهدف البحث إلى معرفة سمات الم أ رة التي قدمها البرنامج التلفزيوني الع ا رقي الساخر «ولايةبطيخ » الذي عُرض على شاشة مجموعة من القنوات وهي: » قناة هنا بغداد ومن ثم قناة آسياوقناة دجلة وقناة »UTV ، استعمل البحث المنهج المسحي باستعمال طريقة تحليل المضمونبالاعتماد على نموذج مارغريت جلاجر لتحليل صورة الم أ رة في وسائل الاتصال .اخضعتالباحثة للتحليل ) 132( حلقة توزعت متفرقة على )الموسم الثاني- وحلقات ماقبل الموسمالثالث-والموسم الثالث-والموسم ال ا ربع- الموسم الخامس(.توصل البحث الى مجموعة من النتائج وهي:ظهرت الم أ رة إتكالية في علاقتها بالآخرين، فضلاً عن كونها قلقة وعدوانية بم ا زجها ومشاعرها.كُرست الم أ رة ضمن الشخصيات المترددة والمتقلبة ضمن مجموعة القدرة والمقدرةللشخصيات في البرنامج.جاءت في مقدمة دوافع السلوك للم أ رة في برنامج ولاية بطيخ على انها تسيرهامشاعرها،فيما كان يسيطر على مظهرها الخارجي صفة الفظاظة.

Local Binary Patterns Based on Neighbor-Center Difference Image for Color Texture Classification with Machine Learning Techniques

This is a topic that receives a lot of interest since many applications of computer vision focus on the detection of objects in visually appealing environments. Information about an object’s appearance and information regarding the object’s motion are both used as crucial signals in the process of identifying and recognising any given item. This information is used to characterise and recognise the item. The identification of objects based solely on their outward appearance has been the subject of a substantial amount of research. However, motion information in the recognition task has received only a marginal amount of attention, despite the fact that motion plays an essential role in the process of recognition. In order to analyze a moving picture in a way that is both fast and accurate, it is required to make use of motion information in conjunction with surface appearance in a strategy that has been designed. Dynamic texture is a kind of visual phenomenon that may be characterised as a type of visual phenomenon that shows spatially repeated features as well as some stationary properties during the course of time by using methodologies that are associated with machine learning. The design of modern VLSI systems takes into consideration a larger chip density, which results in a processor architecture with several cores that are capable of performing a wide range of functions (multicore processor architecture). It is becoming more challenging to run such complicated systems without the use of electric power. In order to increase the effectiveness of power optimization strategies while maintaining system performance for text data extraction, it has been developed and put into practice power optimization strategies that are based on scheduling algorithms. Over the last twenty years, texture analysis has been an increasingly busy and profitable field of study. Today, texture interpretation plays a vital role in various activities ranging from remote sensing to medical picture analysis. The absence of tools to newline analyze the many properties of texture pictures was the primary challenge faced by the texture analysis approach. Texture analysis may be roughly categorised as texture classification, texture segmentation, texture synthesis, and texture synthesis. Texture categorization is useful in numerous applications, such as the retrieval of picture databases, industrial agriculture applications, and biomedical applications. Texture categorization relies on three distinct methods, namely, statistical, spectral, and structural methods. Statistical methods are based on the statistical characteristics of the image’s grey level. Features are collected using second order statistical order, autocorrelation function, and grey level co-occurrence matrix function.