scholarly journals ‘When Hunger Makes Everything Better Looking!’: The Effect of Hunger on the Aesthetic Appreciation of Human Bodies, Faces and Objects

Author(s):  
Valentina Cazzato ◽  
Carmelo M. Vicario ◽  
Cosimo Urgesi

Abstract Background: Research evidence suggests that physiological state of hunger might affect preference for female body weight, such that hungrier, compared to satiate, men prefer heavier body weight and rate as more attractive heavier female figures. Here, we seek to extend these findings by comparing the effects of fasting and snack on aesthetics judgements of the bodies and faces of conspecifics and of objects in a sample of female and male participants. Methods: Forty-four participants (women: n = 21, mean age = 23.70yrs ± 0.62) provided aesthetic liking judgments of round and slim human bodies, faces and objects, under at least 12 h of overnight fasting and immediately after having eaten a snack (i.e., bananas). An anthropometric measure of adiposity (i.e., Body Mass Index, BMI) was also collected from each observer. Results: Overall, we found that participants’ aesthetic judgements were higher for slim stimuli compared to round ones. However, after fasting, participants rated round stimuli as more attractive compared to when they had a snack. This hunger-based shift in ratings not only was apparent when stimuli depicted a human body or face, but also when they depicted an object, thus suggesting a general modification of observers’ aesthetic preference related to hunger. Importantly, this effect was modulated by participants’ BMI so that only participants with a high BMI provided higher aesthetic judgements for round stimuli after fasting than after a snack. Conclusions: Our results demonstrated that both the modification of the physiological state and the individual differences in adiposity level of the observers might affect the aesthetic appreciation of the external world.

CounterText ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-43
Author(s):  
Mads Rosendahl Thomsen

Visions of the posthuman are almost inevitably tied up with questions of scale. The size of Frankenstein's creation sets him apart from humanity, the longevity of Virginia Woolf's Orlando makes her / him uncannily posthuman, and the travels of Gulliver constantly confront the protagonist with the issue of physical scale. This article investigates different dimensions of posthuman scale with examples from fiction, film, and transhumanist writings. From the sizes of bodies and the length of lives to the more complex matters of the scale of consciousness and the magnitude of social connections, what happens when an element of human existence is changed and becomes either very large or very small is a recurrent and important question. Such changes have consequences for ethical dispositions towards the lives of others, for the aesthetic appreciation or dislike of new beings, and for the ability to envision completely new ways of connecting to the world and others, for example through a cloud of shared thoughts, as Olaf Stapledon imagined. One special case of posthuman scale is the replication of the individual and the number of possible lives an individual can live without losing individuality, a question that is also pivotal for the idea of the human as a simulation that has been proposed by writers, filmmakers, and futurists alike.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 2236
Author(s):  
Francesco Riccioli ◽  
Roberto Fratini ◽  
Fabio Boncinelli

Using spatial econometric techniques and local spatial statistics, this study explores the relationships between the real estate values in Tuscany with the individual perception of satisfaction by landscape types. The analysis includes the usual territorial variables such as proximity to urban centres and roads. The landscape values are measured through a sample of respondents who expressed their aesthetic-visual perceptions of different types of land use. Results from a multivariate local Geary highlight that house prices are not spatial independent and that between the variables included in the analysis there is mainly a positive correlation. Specifically, the findings demonstrate a significant spatial dependence in real estate prices. The aesthetic values influence the real estate price throughout more a spatial indirect effect rather than the direct effect. Practically, house prices in specific areas are more influenced by aspects such as proximity to essential services. The results seem to show to live close to highly aesthetic environments not in these environments. The results relating to the distance from the main roads, however, seem counterintuitive. This result probably depends on the evidence that these areas suffer from greater traffic jam or pollution or they are preferred for alternative uses such as for locating industrial plants or big shopping centres rather than residential use. Therefore, these effects decrease house prices.


1947 ◽  
Vol 23 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 346-349
Author(s):  
A. T. PHILLIPSON

The significance of fermentation in the large gut of the dog has been investigated. According to the quantities of volatile acids and their relation to body weight, the lower fatty acids do not appear to contribute more than a small portion of the energy requirements of the animal. Evidence is presented to show that the individual acids produced in the large intestine consist largely of acetic and propionic acids and that the amount of butyric present is small. This is the same mixture of acids found where fermentation occurs in the alimentary tract of ruminants, horses, pigs, rabbits and rats. The higher proportion of propionic acid is interesting and suggests that the propionic acid bacteria are normal inhabitants of the large intestine of the dog and possibly of a wide variety of animals.


2011 ◽  
Vol 250-253 ◽  
pp. 4026-4029
Author(s):  
Bai Ling Zhou

Research the evolution of architectonic aesthetics by concentrating on politics and economics in the background of Globalization. The accelerative modernization forces the individual aesthetic needs into the opposite, from which point out the evolution of the post-modern architecture can also be traced into the process from the deviation from astriction to sensibility then to the reflection on basic rationalism and at last to the aesthetic individualism. In conclusion, the trend of individualism, personalization and pure “experience” in architectonic aesthetics will continue its evolution and exert its influence on the development of Chinese architecture.


Author(s):  
Gwendolyn M. Bryan ◽  
Patrick W. Franks ◽  
Seungmoon Song ◽  
Ricardo Reyes ◽  
Meghan P. O’Donovan ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Load carriage is common in a wide range of professions, but prolonged load carriage is associated with increased fatigue and overuse injuries. Exoskeletons could improve the quality of life of these professionals by reducing metabolic cost to combat fatigue and reducing muscle activity to prevent injuries. Current exoskeletons have reduced the metabolic cost of loaded walking by up to 22% relative to walking in the device with no assistance when assisting one or two joints. Greater metabolic reductions may be possible with optimized assistance of the entire leg. Methods We used human-in the-loop optimization to optimize hip-knee-ankle exoskeleton assistance with no additional load, a light load (15% of body weight), and a heavy load (30% of body weight) for three participants. All loads were applied through a weight vest with an attached waist belt. We measured metabolic cost, exoskeleton assistance, kinematics, and muscle activity. We performed Friedman’s tests to analyze trends across worn loads and paired t-tests to determine whether changes from the unassisted conditions to the assisted conditions were significant. Results Exoskeleton assistance reduced the metabolic cost of walking relative to walking in the device without assistance for all tested conditions. Exoskeleton assistance reduced the metabolic cost of walking by 48% with no load (p = 0.05), 41% with the light load (p = 0.01), and 43% with the heavy load (p = 0.04). The smaller metabolic reduction with the light load may be due to insufficient participant training or lack of optimizer convergence. The total applied positive power was similar for all tested conditions, and the positive knee power decreased slightly as load increased. Optimized torque timing parameters were consistent across participants and load conditions while optimized magnitude parameters varied. Conclusions Whole-leg exoskeleton assistance can reduce the metabolic cost of walking while carrying a range of loads. The consistent optimized timing parameters across participants and conditions suggest that metabolic cost reductions are sensitive to torque timing. The variable torque magnitude parameters could imply that torque magnitude should be customized to the individual, or that there is a range of useful torque magnitudes. Future work should test whether applying the load to the exoskeleton rather than the person’s torso results in larger benefits.


2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dr. FarihaIshrat Ullah

Sense of well-being is one of the most important goals which individuals strive for. It affects our perceptions of the external world such that we are able to view it with greater positivity and deal with day to day problems effectively. With an increasingly competitive existence, the pressures and challenges confronting the individual are extremely high, therefore it is difficult to maintain this sense of well-being at all stages of life. Adolescence and early adulthood are particularly demanding, because conflicts relating to quest for identity, concerns for academic success, career and uncertainty about the future all magnify the problems manifold. This is a phase in which several mental health disorders of adulthood appear and affect adjustment in society. Intellectual capacities increase and emotions intensify. The major tasks during this phase include establishing independence, realizing one’s identity and capabilities and preparing for adult self reliance. Psychological well-being has been defined as a dynamic state characterized by a reasonable amount of harmony between an individual’s abilities, needs and expectations, and environmental demands and opportunities (Levi, 1987). It is connotative as a harmonious satisfaction of one’s desires and goals (Chekola, 1975). Since personality is a core factor which determines our reactions and adjustments, psychological-well-being during such a stressed phase as adolescence should be studied within its perspective. It is important that researches which identify factors which contribute to psychological well-being should continue to be conducted in different contexts and with better methodologies. The present research aims to study the personality factors as determinants of psychological well-being amongst university students. Appropriate analysis will be conducted to explore the topic further.


2021 ◽  
pp. 220-231
Author(s):  
Carmel Cefai

In contrast to the earlier understandings of resilience for the select, invulnerable few, an ecological perspective provides the opportunity for all children to develop resilience given resilience-enhancing, protective social contexts. In this chapter, the author explores a transactional-ecological perspective of resilience in the context of educational systems, underlining the limitations of an overreliance on the individual in resilience building. The chapter presents a transactional, whole-school, resilience framework for educational systems informed by the research evidence, focusing on both curricular competence-building and contextual processes across multiple systems. The chapter concludes with an illustration of a recent resilience program, RESCUR Surfing the Waves, informed by this approach.


Author(s):  
Ricardo Wallace das Chagas LUCAS ◽  
Paulo Afonso Nunes NASSIF ◽  
Fernando Issamu TABUSHI ◽  
Denise Serpa Bopp NASSIF ◽  
Bruno Luiz ARIEDE ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Background: Obesity changes the anatomy of the patient. In addition to the aesthetic change, the high percentage of fat determines evident functional changes. Anthropometric normality in measuring abdominal circumference and height can serve as a basis for measuring cardiometabolic risks of obesity. Aim: To verify if it is possible to determine parameters of normality between waist and height in people with normal BMI and fat percentages, to serve as a basis for assessing risks for obesity comorbidities. Methods: A sample of 454 individuals with BMI and percentages of fat considered within the normal range was extracted. It was divided into age groups for both men and women between 18 and 25; 26 to 35; 36 to 45; 46 to 55; 56 to 65. A total of 249 men and 205 women were included. Results: Regarding the percentage of height as a measure of the abdominal perimeter, the total female sample had an average of 44.2±1.1% and the male 45.3%+1.5. For women, this percentage determined the equation of the waist-height ratio represented by X=(age+217) / 5.875, and for men X=(age+190.89) / 5.2222. “X” represents the percentage of the height measurement so that the individual falls into the category of adequate percentage of fat and BMI. Conclusion: Between the stature of adult men and women with normal fat percentage and BMI, there is a common numerical relationship, with is on average 44% for women and 45% for men.


Author(s):  
Monika Maria Stumpp ◽  
Claudio Calovi Pereira

The development of design activity uses technical suports that allow the architect to record the evolution of your idea or communication with it. Historically, the support that has been used is the graphical representation, which, as a intelligence technology, joins with the creative and cognitive processes of the individual, allowing communication with their imagination and also to all individuals involved in projecting. The representations graphically materialized, calls drawing,  are important in the practice of architecture because they represent the evolution of the design process. The drawing means the way in which design is conducted, tested, controlled and ultimately appears performed. In this context the drawings of the Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio play a special role in the history of architecture, because it makes clear how he understood and thought the architecture. At that time, the graphical representation of the space acquired an importance that had not previously, incorporating a greater number of alternative representation, highlighting the aesthetic concerns and the current building techniques. A lot of drawings produced by Palladio, shows how he was deeply convinced of eloquence and priority of images to understand the architecture, more than any other form of discursive explanation. In this sense, this work investigates the drawings of Palladio as a tool at the process of design solutions translation. The reading of the project through the design has been used to study designs and architectural objects or certain styles or specific authorship of an architect. Here the method is used for reading the project of Villa Pisani in Bagnolo (1542). Using two and three dimensional drawings, represented by plan, section and volumetry, it is intended to make explicit certain aspects underlying the architectural work, as questions of proportion and symmetry. It is expected that, at the work of Palladio, this method allows to compare and understand drawings, in order to analyze mutations and replications and  search of new meanings, readings and interpretations.


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