scholarly journals The Myth of Eternal Youth: Two Japanese Perspectives

Trictrac ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raluca Nicolae
Keyword(s):  
Human Form ◽  
Japanese Poetry ◽  
Strongly Connected

The people’s mind can conjure up a certain imagery that denies the reality of death and proclaims eternity and perpetual youth. The story of Urashima Tarō is well known across Japan and there is no child or adult who does not know the tale of the fisherman who rescued a turtle. In return for his kindness, the turtle assumed human form and took him under the sea, to the Dragon Palace, where he stayed three years, till he bacame homesick and wanted to go back to his village, but, upon his return, he learned that three hundred years had passed and his family was long dead. The story of Urashima first appeared in Tango Fudoki (713), then in Nihongi (Chronicles of Japan, 720) and, a few decades later, in 759, in Man’yōshū (Collection of the Ten Thousand Leaves), the oldest anthology of Japanese poetry. There is a “feminine” counterpart to this story, the legend of Happyaku Bikuni (The eight-hundred-year-old nun) about a quasi-immortal woman who wandered throughout Japan till she reached Wakasa/Obama, where she died at an age of eight hundred years. The woman had attained eternal youth after accidentally eating mermaid flesh. The two tales introduce different perspectives on immortality and eternal youth, but, interestingly enough, both are strongly connected with water, either by plunging to the bottom of the sea, into the Dragon Palace, or by eating the flesh of a marine creature. Even if the “immortality context” of Urashima Tarō and Happyaku Bikuni may differ—the fisherman’s immortality is topological, related to the special attributes of a given space; the nun’s immortality is circumstantial, rendered by a set of events that made her consume mermaid flesh—what unites the two characters is their “unintentionality.” They neither asked for eternal youth nor pursued immortality as desperately as Gilgamesh or Ponce de Leon, but they were involuntarily pushed towards that outcome.

Intimation

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. R. F. Ferrari
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Relevance Theory ◽  
Self Presentation ◽  
Erving Goffman ◽  
Strongly Connected ◽  
Dan Sperber ◽  
Paul Grice

The communicative scale is introduced. What is fundamental to communication is the intention of the communicator rather than the codes that languages employ. Following the model first proposed by Paul Grice and developed in Dan Sperber and Deirdre Wilson’s ‘relevance theory’, the structure of communicative intentionality is understood to be recursive: its underlying form is ‘I want you to know that I want you to know’. This leaves room for a simpler kind of transmission, to be called ‘intimation’, whose underlying form would be ‘I want you to know’. If communication is a transmission at the ‘full-on’ position of the scale, and if the switch is off when no communication is intended, then intimation would be at the intermediate, ‘half-on’ position. Intimation is particularly useful in contexts where discretion, suggestiveness, or plausible deniability are needed. It is strongly connected to self-presentation in social life (as studied by Erving Goffman).

Political Science: Seeing Like a Subversive Social Scientist

2021 ◽  
Vol 80 (2) ◽  
pp. 431-437
Author(s):  
Meredith L. Weiss
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
Social Scientist ◽  
Human Agency ◽  
The Political ◽  
Human Form ◽  
Global Patterns ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
New Democracy

Much of the work of political science revolves around institutions—the structures through which politics happens. Leaders enter the frame, of course, but often as institutions in human form: presidents, premiers, populists, and mobilizers who serve to channel and direct who does what and what they do, much like an agency or law. We might trace this pseudo-structural, largely mechanical reading of human agency to political scientists of an earlier era: the behavioralists of the 1950s and 1960s. James C. Scott began his career as just such a scholar. For his dissertation-turned-book, Political Ideology in Malaysia: Reality and the Beliefs of an Elite, Scott surveyed a gaggle of Malaysian bureaucrats to examine, effectively, the extent to which their values and assumptions supported or subverted the new democracy they served. Although itself fairly prosaic, that work foreshadows the political grime and games that soon pulled Scott in more promising directions theoretically, whether scrutinizing Southeast Asia or global patterns: disentangling structure from norms, finding agency around the margins of class and state, and rethinking how power looks and functions.

Making Up 3D Bodies

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Kiona Hagen Niehaus ◽  
Rebecca Fiebrink
Keyword(s):  
Software Tool ◽  
The Body ◽  
Design Parameters ◽  
Artistic Practice ◽  
Human Form ◽  
Modeling Systems ◽  
Exploratory Approach ◽  
Disability Status ◽  
High Level ◽  
The Impact

This paper describes the process of developing a software tool for digital artistic exploration of 3D human figures. Previously available software for modeling mesh-based 3D human figures restricts user output based on normative assumptions about the form that a body might take, particularly in terms of gender, race, and disability status, which are reinforced by ubiquitous use of range-limited sliders mapped to singular high-level design parameters. CreatorCustom, the software prototype created during this research, is designed to foreground an exploratory approach to modeling 3D human bodies, treating the digital body as a sculptural landscape rather than a presupposed form for rote technical representation. Building on prior research into serendipity in Human-Computer Interaction and 3D modeling systems for users at various levels of proficiency, among other areas, this research comprises two qualitative studies and investigation of the impact on the first author's artistic practice. Study 1 uses interviews and practice sessions to explore the practices of six queer artists working with the body and the language, materials, and actions they use in their practice; these then informed the design of the software tool. Study 2 investigates the usability, creativity support, and bodily implications of the software when used by thirteen artists in a workshop. These studies reveal the importance of exploration and unexpectedness in artistic practice, and a desire for experimental digital approaches to the human form.

scholarly journals The Nexus of Sophisticated Digital Assets with Economic Policy Uncertainty: A Survey of Empirical Findings and an Empirical Investigation

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 5383
Author(s):  
Nikolaos A. Kyriazis
Keyword(s):  
Economic Policy ◽  
Empirical Investigation ◽  
Econometric Analysis ◽  
Policy Uncertainty ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Economic Policy Uncertainty ◽  
Strongly Connected ◽  
Threshold Arch ◽  
Best Fit ◽  
Digital Assets

This paper sets out to explore the nexus between economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and digital currencies. An integrated survey takes place based on eleven primary studies. Furthermore, an econometric analysis is conducted by the threshold ARCH, simple asymmetric ARCH and non-linear ARCH specifications covering the bull and the bear markets as well as the highly volatile period up to the present. Threshold ARCH is found to provide the best fit for estimations. Outcomes reveal that Bitcoin is strongly connected with EPU while Ethereum and Litecoin are not but are strongly linked with Bitcoin performance. Moreover, weak negative effects of the VIX on both cryptocurrencies are detected while oil exerts weak positive impacts on Ethereum. Overall, Ethereum and Litecoin could serve for diversifiers against Bitcoin or hedgers against traditional assets during highly stressed periods with the advantage of not being affected by economic policy uncertainty news.

scholarly journals Case of Human Infestation with Dermanyssus gallinae (Poultry Red Mite) from Swallows (Hirundinidae)

Pathogens ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 299
Author(s):  
Georgios Sioutas ◽  
Styliani Minoudi ◽  
Katerina Tiligada ◽  
Caterina Chliva ◽  
Alexandros Triantafyllidis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Phylogenetic Analysis ◽  
Cytochrome C ◽  
Cytochrome C Oxidase ◽  
Clinical Symptoms ◽  
Skin Lesions ◽  
Coi Gene ◽  
Dermanyssus Gallinae ◽  
Poultry Red Mite ◽  
Human Form ◽  
Bayesian Phylogenetic Analysis

Dermanyssus gallinae (the poultry red mite, PRM) is an important ectoparasite in the laying hen industry. PRM can also infest humans, causing gamasoidosis, which is manifested as skin lesions characterized by rash and itching. Recently, there has been an increase in the reported number of human infestation cases with D. gallinae, mostly associated with the proliferation of pigeons in cities where they build their nests. The human form of the disease has not been linked to swallows (Hirundinidae) before. In this report, we describe an incident of human gamasoidosis linked to a nest of swallows built on the window ledge of an apartment in the island of Kefalonia, Greece. Mites were identified as D. gallinae using morphological keys and amplifying the Cytochrome C oxidase subunit I (COI) gene by PCR. Bayesian phylogenetic analysis and median-joining network supported the identification of three PRM haplogroups and the haplotype isolated from swallows was identical to three PRM sequences isolated from hens in Portugal. The patient was treated with topical corticosteroids, while the house was sprayed with deltamethrin. After one week, the mites disappeared and clinical symptoms subsided. The current study is the first report of human gamasoidosis from PRM found in swallows’ nest.

scholarly journals Nisyros Volcanic Island: A Geosite through a Tailored GIS Story

Geosciences ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 132
Author(s):  
Varvara Antoniou ◽  
Paraskevi Nomikou ◽  
Dimitrios Panousis ◽  
Effrosyni Zafeirakopoulou
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Data ◽  
Hot Springs ◽  
Volcanic Rocks ◽  
Data Communication ◽  
Aegean Sea ◽  
Volcanic Island ◽  
Eastern Aegean ◽  
Strongly Connected ◽  
Historical Heritage ◽  
Available Information

The volcanic island of Nisyros (Greece) is here presented as it presents unique characteristics being a Quaternary volcano in the eastern Aegean Sea, composed of volcanic rocks, and featuring a central caldera that is surrounded by volcanic domes and thick lavas. Its history is strongly connected to the volcano impressing the visitors with steaming hydrothermal craters, intensive smell of sulfur and fumarolic gases, and hot springs. Due to its morphology and geographical position, its cultural and historical heritage has been unchanged in time, bequeath to the island plenty of churches, monasteries with hagiographic frescoes, castles, caves, and spas. To present the geodiversity, the cultural environment, and the biodiversity of this geosite, a relatively new geographic approach was used, ESRI Story Maps. Being web-based applications, they are widespread as an interactive responsive tool used for spatial data communication and dissemination, by combining thematic 2D and 3D webmaps, narrative text, and multimedia content. Such applications can be an ideal way for presenting the available information of places characterized as geosites or protected areas worldwide, providing quick access to the available information to a broader, non-technical audience, developing the interest, and possibly motivating the public to learn more or visit them.

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