Belly fat or bloating? New insights into the physical appearance of St Anthony of Padua

Over the centuries, iconographic representations of St Anthony of Padua, one of the most revered saints in the Catholic world, have been inspired by literary sources, which described the Saint as either naturally corpulent or with a swollen abdomen due to dropsy (i.e. fluid accumulation in the body cavities). Even recent attempts to reconstruct the face of the Saint have yielded discordant results regarding his outward appearance. To address questions about the real appearance of St Anthony, we applied body mass estimation equations to the osteometric measurements taken in 1981, during the public recognition of the Saint’s skeletal remains. Both the biomechanical and the morphometric approach were employed to solve some intrinsic limitations in the equations for body mass estimation from skeletal remains. The estimated body mass was used to assess the physique of the Saint with the body mass index. The outcomes of this investigation reveal interesting information about the body type of the Saint throughout his lifetime.

Words and Images in Maleficent: Mistress of Evil Movie

This research is about analyzing the words and images in Maleficent: Mistress of Evil movie. To analyze the two modes of words and images contained in this research, the researcher uses the theory by Kress & Van Leeuwen (2006) to analyze verbal and visual elements in the framework of proposing a comprehensive and systemic interpretation of meaning. This research objective is to determine how words and images are used and related meaning among them. This research uses qualitative description to discuss the two meanings of verbal and visual modes in the Maleficent: Mistress of Evil movie. The types of data collection in this research are downloading the movie in the telegram application, watching the movie repeatedly, screenshotting the movie, and then transcribing the utterances in dialogue related to data analysis, selecting and coding data, and identifying data. The types of data analysis are presenting the data, describing the data, finding out the relationship between the meaning of words and the meaning of images, and concluding the data. The researcher found that the dominant used on Mental Processes in the words component. While images were analyzed using only three elements which are on the body of the actors in Maleficent movie such as facial expressions dominant in the feeling happy, gestures dominate when characters stand up straight has meaning confidence, and clothing color dominant the black colors have meaning sadness and 4 data were interrelated for relationships meaning among the modes. The researcher found that this research shows a movie that brings ideology for the community not to judge someone only from their outward appearance and for women to have the power so that they are not easily oppressed.

The East-Asian Happiness Gap: Causes and Implications

Despite spectacular economic growth, most East Asian countries (especially those with the Confucian cultures) score relatively low in happiness surveys. This chapter discusses the reasons for this East-Asian happiness gap, including environmental disruption, excessive competitiveness, repressive education, excessive conformity, negative attitudes towards enjoyment, and the emphasis on outward appearance. Implications on the desired direction of future growth especially regarding the relative importance of public spending on the environment and research and the non-material aspects of life are also briefly touched on.

Resistance

esistance features a selection of overtly non-conformist positions in the contemporary visual art scene of Albania vis-à-vis the most recent social, political, and economic turmoils in the Western Balkans – a region marked by the dark side of political governances that have remained “democratic” in their outward appearance (especially toward the European Union), while dramatically leaning toward autocratic regimes in the eyes of their own citizens. Regardless of their citizens’ primary interests, and despite some positive signals surfacing in the international media, almost every attempt to establish lasting conditions for democratic governance in the Western Balkans has been shrouded in the veil of profit-driven political scandals, personal greed for more and more power over the people’s rights, and the extinction of public property in pursuit of social elite’s corporate and private interests. Additionally, and more specifically related to Tirana, artists and citizens have, over the years, been involved in various types of revolt, expressing their disagreements with the ongoing destruction of public property in the name of “modernization and development”: a movement led by local political powers through financially and strategically motivated processes of architectural cannibalism – not only at the expense of erasing Albanian cultural heritage or long-term residents’ habitats, but also at the expense of taking human lives under the pretext of “urbanization.” The most obvious instance of this economy of destruction was the complex of buildings linked to the National Theater of Albania in downtown Tirana that has served as a symbolic and material place of citizens’ resistance: for more than two years, together with local artists, they have been opposing the government’s plans to demolish the old complex in order to build a new one – until this finally happened in Spring 2020, in the midst of the ongoing COVID19 pandemic. Rooted in the atmosphere of the National Theater Protests in Tirana, RESISTANCE was conceived in Summer 2019 by ZETA Center for Contemporary Art as the International Artists-in-Residence Program, in cooperation with three partner organizations from Kosovo, Serbia and North Macedonia (Stacion – Center for Contemporary Art in Prishtina; Ilija & Mangelos Foundation in Novi Sad; and Faculty of Things That Can’t Be Learned in Bitola) and supported by Swiss Cultural Fund in Albania, a project of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. Gradually, the project expanded into an exhibition (Heterotopias of Resistance, curated by Blerta Hoçia and featuring works by Lori Lako, Fatlum Doçi, Edona Kryeziu, Nina Galiç, Darko Vukiç, Nikola Slavevski, and Natasha Nedelkova) and a series of interviews and panel discussions (with contributions by Lindita Komani, Edmond Budina, Ervin Goci, Ergin Zaloshnja, Pleurad Xhafa, Gentian Shkurti, Stefano Romano, Luçjan Bedeni, HAVEIT, Leonard Qylafi, Jonida Gashi, and Fatmira Nikolli). The results of both have been collected and presented in the format of a publication that, besides serving as an indispensable reading material concerning visual arts and politics in contemporary Albania, especially to those abroad, functions by itself as a form of resistance against contagious cultural policies in weak post-socialist “democracies” in Southeastern Europe.

Simultaneous pathway engagement of translation in astrocytes, circadian rhythm in GABAergic neurons and cytoskeleton in glutamatergic neurons precede electroencephalographic changes in neurodegenerative prion disease

Selective vulnerability is an enigmatic feature of neurodegenerative diseases (NDs), whereby a widely expressed protein causes lesions in specific brain regions and cell types. This selectivity may arise from cells possessing varying capacities to regain proteostasis when stressed by cytotoxic protein conformers. Using the RiboTag method in mice, translational responses of five neural subtypes to acquired prion disease (PrD) were measured. Pre-onset and disease onset timepoints were chosen based on longitudinal electroencephalography (EEG) that revealed a gradual increase in theta power between 10- and 18-weeks after prion injection, resembling a clinical feature of human PrD. At disease onset, marked by significantly increased theta power and histopathological lesions, mice had pronounced translatome changes in all five cell types despite having a normal outward appearance. Remarkably, at a pre-onset stage, prior to EEG and neuropathological changes, we found that 1) translatomes of astrocytes indicated a sharply reduced synthesis of ribosomal and mitochondrial components, 2) excitatory neurons showed increased expression of cytoskeletal genes, and 3) inhibitory neurons revealed reduced expression of circadian rhythm network genes. Further assessment for the role of circadian rhythms using a jet lag paradigm modestly exacerbated disease. These data demonstrate that early translatome responses to neurodegeneration emerge prior to other signs of disease and are unique to different cell types. Therapeutic strategies may need to target multiple pathways, each in specific populations of cells, early in the disease process.

“And Her Heart Fluttered”: The Psychopathology of Desire in the Argonautika

<p>This thesis investigates the way that Apollonios constructs Medea’s psyche and body in response to contemporary medical and philosophical influences in order to portray realistically the way that erōs manifests itself in Medea as both sickness and mental illness. Apollonios delves into Medea’s psyche and exposes how it functions in moments of intense desire, pain, indecision and introspection while under the powerful sways of erōs. Medea’s erōs manifests as erratic and dangerous behaviour and crippling indecision, the analysis of which is done in light of Chrusippos’ discussion of Euripides’ Medea’s akrasia. Apollonios draws from Euripides’ version to depict Medea in a different stage of her life, making a similar life-altering decision: whether or not to help Jason and betray her family or stay at home and watch him die. Apollonios makes the audience sympathize with Medea by showing her as a victim of destructive erōs and by exhibiting her emotional suffering. He heightens the degree that the internal is depicted and the very fact that he does internalize Medea shows an interest in her side of the story. It humanizes her to see her motivations, her fears, her desires and her moral dilemmas. Apollonios twists the image of Medea that an audience may expect to see by focusing, in Book 3 at least, almost entirely on her maidenhood and her struggle between exercising maidenly shame and giving in to the temptation of Jason. Apollonios makes the audience understand and sympathize with Medea by delving into the workings of her psyche and explaining her pleasure and pain, and most importantly, explaining why she cannot act rationally. erōs also manifests itself inside Medea and in turn this is expressed in Medea’s outward appearance as medical symptoms, like those of fever. In addition, by incorporating contemporary medical discoveries like the nervous system Apollonios is able to utilize the new conceptions of sense-perception to realistically show the way that destructive emotions manifest themselves as perceivable physical pain. Apollonios draws on philosophical and medical influences to heighten the realism of Medea’s physical and psychological pain and pleasure while simultaneously providing a forceful warning of the destructiveness of erōs’ nature.</p>

“And Her Heart Fluttered”: The Psychopathology of Desire in the Argonautika

<p>This thesis investigates the way that Apollonios constructs Medea’s psyche and body in response to contemporary medical and philosophical influences in order to portray realistically the way that erōs manifests itself in Medea as both sickness and mental illness. Apollonios delves into Medea’s psyche and exposes how it functions in moments of intense desire, pain, indecision and introspection while under the powerful sways of erōs. Medea’s erōs manifests as erratic and dangerous behaviour and crippling indecision, the analysis of which is done in light of Chrusippos’ discussion of Euripides’ Medea’s akrasia. Apollonios draws from Euripides’ version to depict Medea in a different stage of her life, making a similar life-altering decision: whether or not to help Jason and betray her family or stay at home and watch him die. Apollonios makes the audience sympathize with Medea by showing her as a victim of destructive erōs and by exhibiting her emotional suffering. He heightens the degree that the internal is depicted and the very fact that he does internalize Medea shows an interest in her side of the story. It humanizes her to see her motivations, her fears, her desires and her moral dilemmas. Apollonios twists the image of Medea that an audience may expect to see by focusing, in Book 3 at least, almost entirely on her maidenhood and her struggle between exercising maidenly shame and giving in to the temptation of Jason. Apollonios makes the audience understand and sympathize with Medea by delving into the workings of her psyche and explaining her pleasure and pain, and most importantly, explaining why she cannot act rationally. erōs also manifests itself inside Medea and in turn this is expressed in Medea’s outward appearance as medical symptoms, like those of fever. In addition, by incorporating contemporary medical discoveries like the nervous system Apollonios is able to utilize the new conceptions of sense-perception to realistically show the way that destructive emotions manifest themselves as perceivable physical pain. Apollonios draws on philosophical and medical influences to heighten the realism of Medea’s physical and psychological pain and pleasure while simultaneously providing a forceful warning of the destructiveness of erōs’ nature.</p>

Distribution and mapping pulasan (Nephelium ramboutan-ake Bill. Liinh) in Riau ecosystem zone area

Pulasan (Nephelium ramboutan-ake Bill. Liinh.) is one of the genetic sources of the Sapindaceae family which has many benefits, including fresh fruit, processed food industry as well as traditional and modern medicines. Currently, the existence of outward appearance has experienced scarcity, even threatened with extinction. This study aims to determine the distribution and create a map of the outward distribution in the Riau Ecosystem Area. This study uses a survey method, namely the technique of getting outward distribution points by tracking using the Garmin 76csx Global Positioning System (GPS). The data obtained were processed using the Map Source program and ArcGIS 10. The basic map used was a map of the administrative boundaries of Kampar, Kuantan Singingi, Siak and Bengkalis districts as well as a map of soil types. The outward distribution of each sub-district is presented descriptively and in the form of a map. Overlays of germplasm have been explored in as many as 495 trees spread over four districts in Riau. The population of the outward distribution in the mineral soil ecosystem zone is more than the population in the peat soil ecosystem zone. Distributed in groups with unequal populations.

К определению художественного метода Достоевского и его гносеологической наполненности

Toward Defining Dostoevsky’s Poetic Method and Its Epistomological Contents. The article offers a new concept of Dostoevsky’s poetic method; the concept is based on the writer’s epistemology and philosophical and religious anthropology. The article problematizes the notion of polyphony as antithetic to Dostoevsky’s system of ideas. In formulating his anti-heroes’ ideas, Dostoevsky frequently alters his own ideas in such a way that they radically change their essence while preserving their outward appearance. This is what we call an apatetic novel. To find their way in the world of apatetic ideas, readers must assess them in the perspective of truth that, in Dostoevsky’s view, has been given to people in the image of Christ in the flesh and consists in loving one’s neighbor as oneself.