From Natural Tendencies to Perceptual Interests and Motivation in Plato’s Timaeus

In the Timaeus, human bodies are treated as homeostatic systems, striving to maintain their natural state. This striving constitutes Plato’s explanatory framework for perception: perceptions come about when the equilibrium is shaken, and when it is restored. The article makes two main suggestions: first, that experienced pleasure and pain are grounded in non-experiential departures from and restorations of the natural state. Second, that the striving to maintain the natural state grounds perceptual interests, especially through conscious algesic and hedonic affection. Explanation of what humans find desirable and avoidable in their environment – what they attend to – is a complicated story that in the context of the Timaeus must include the role of human rational abilities. This article, however, only sheds light on its other, very basic aspect: the teleology involved in bodies and how it affects perceptual interests.

Analysis and design of diode physical limit bandwidth efficient rectification circuit for maximum flat efficiency, wide impedance, and efficiency bandwidths

Generally, a conventional voltage doubler circuit possesses a large variation of its input impedance over the bandwidth, which results in limited bandwidth and low RF-dc conversion efficiency. A basic aspect for designing wideband voltage doubler rectifiers is the use of complex matching circuits to achieve decade and octave impedance and RF-dc conversion efficiency bandwidths. Still, the reported techniques till now have been accompanied by a large fluctuation of the RF-dc conversion efficiency over the operating bandwidth. In this paper, we propose a novel rectification circuit with minimal inter-stage matching that consists of a single short-circuit stub and a virtual battery, which contributes negligible losses and overcomes these existing problems. Consequently, the proposed rectifier circuit achieves a diode physical-limit-bandwidth efficient rectification. In other words, the rectification bandwidth, as well as the peak efficiency, are controlled by the length of the stub and the physical limitation of the diodes.

A reference framework for health and safety in the workplace in China and the European Union: A comparative study

BACKGROUND: Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) has a direct repercussion on the work, social and economic environments. The regulatory frameworks developed by each country are a basic aspect of OHS action policies. OBJECTIVE: This study analyses and compares the differences in OHS regulations in China and the European Union (EU) to identify weaknesses or gaps in the Chinese regulations. METHODS: Firstly, an overview of the OHS situation in the EU and China is carried out to provide context. Following this, a comparison of OHS regulations is conducted by searching different European and Chinese databases. The comparison focuses on several areas: socio-economic issues, accident rates, and the OHS regulatory framework. RESULTS: Since 1989, the EU has produced a broad and comprehensive OHS regulatory framework. Almost 30 years later, its positive impact can be seen in EU accident rates, indicating that this framework might be used as a reference for other territories or countries. China has a complicated system with over 280 OHS legislative regulations, in the form of laws, regulations, rules, integrated regulations, etc. that lead to a mixture and repetition of contents. CONCLUSIONS: The Chinese OHS legislation is still being constructed and complemented, since the two main Chinese OHS laws were approved during the last decade. This contrasts with the mature European framework, as it has been modified and completed over the years.

The Obligation to Use Bahasa Indonesia in National Trade: A Juridical Review

Language is one of the tools and also a communication system both orally and in writing that is used by certain people in certain countries or regions. Language is a very important essence and a very basic aspect. Therefore, every human being in various activities and life is always closely related to it. This includes trading. Considering that no research discusses the use of Bahasa Indonesia in national trade, especially after passing the omnibus law on job creation, so by using the normative juridical method, this study aims to identify and analyze the need for the use of Indonesian which has emerged as the national language and the ideal official language as part of the from national identity in national trade to achieve fair trade. This research uses a method that is built on a system of norms, rules of laws and regulations, principles, court decisions, agreements, and doctrines (teachings). The results of this study ultimately conclude that the use of Bahasa Indonesia in national trade is mandatory for every party, especially business actors in determining the inclusion of Indonesian on labels of goods and services that are distributed and traded domestically. The results of this study also suggest that every individual and business actor should not forget to include product information in the form of labels using Bahasa Indonesia. Because it can create a “win-win solution” for business actors and their consumers.

Diode physical-limit-bandwidth efficient rectification

Generally, a conventional voltage doubler circuit possesses a large variation of its input impedance over the bandwidth, which results in limited bandwidth and low RF-dc conversion efficiency. A basic aspect for designing wideband voltage doubler rectifiers is the use of complex matching circuits to achieve decade and octave impedance and RF-dc conversion efficiency bandwidths. Still, the reported techniques till now have been accompanied by a large fluctuation of the RF-dc conversion efficiency over the operating bandwidth. In this paper, we propose a novel rectification circuit with minimal inter-stage matching that consists of a single short-circuit stub and a virtual battery, which contributes negligible losses and overcomes these existing problems. Consequently, the proposed rectifier circuit achieves a diode physical-limit-bandwidth efficient rectification. In other words, the rectification bandwidth, as well as the peak efficiency, are controlled by the length of the stub and the physical limitation of the diodes.

Neuronal variability reflects probabilistic inference tuned to natural image statistics

Neuronal activity in sensory cortex fluctuates over time and across repetitions of the same input. This variability is often considered detrimental to neural coding. The theory of neural sampling proposes instead that variability encodes the uncertainty of perceptual inferences. In primary visual cortex (V1), modulation of variability by sensory and non-sensory factors supports this view. However, it is unknown whether V1 variability reflects the statistical structure of visual inputs, as would be required for inferences correctly tuned to the statistics of the natural environment. Here we combine analysis of image statistics and recordings in macaque V1 to show that probabilistic inference tuned to natural image statistics explains the widely observed dependence between spike count variance and mean, and the modulation of V1 activity and variability by spatial context in images. Our results show that the properties of a basic aspect of cortical responses—their variability—can be explained by a probabilistic representation tuned to naturalistic inputs.

Religionis et societatis, the archaic gaze of reason

In these times of generalized neoliberalism that we are living, as totalitarian gazes are falling, it seems relevant to discuss the social role of religion from the critical-social perspective of modernity and especially, from the humanism of the future. Of course, I will drastically limit the scope this analysis being the topic so broad and complex. Thus, with rigorous humility, I will look at only one basic aspect of Max Weber’s religious thought, framing it and contrasting it with the critical vision of the Mesoamerican tradition. Max Weber argued that all religions form part of a historicaluniversal process whose evolution can be explained as driven by an inner logic constructed by the relentless urge toward the rationalization of ideas and life, especially in the case of salvation religions. This line of thought, with its universalist pretensions, leads us to question the validity of deterministic schemata that should be limited to the Western world and to European concerns -given their reductionism not only when compared to religious visions such as Kierkegaard’s with respect to Christianity (for him rationalism was not enough)- but also inasmuch as they leave out polytheistic projects and syncretic combinations such as the traditional conceptions of colonized peoples (where religions are monotheistic in name only, not having followed the steps of the Weberian protocol), or the ancient civilizational horizons such as China, India or Mesoamerica, whose evolution does not necessarily lead to the sort of final-stage rationality the German thinker had in mind

Diode physical-limit-bandwidth efficient rectification

Generally, a conventional voltage doubler circuit possesses a large variation of its input impedance over the bandwidth, which results in limited bandwidth and low RF-dc conversion efficiency. A basic aspect for designing wideband voltage doubler rectifiers is the use of complex matching circuits to achieve decade and octave impedance and RF-dc conversion efficiency bandwidths. Still, the reported techniques till now have been accompanied by a large fluctuation of the RF-dc conversion efficiency over the operating bandwidth. In this paper, we propose a novel rectification circuit with minimal inter-stage matching that consists of a single short-circuit stub and a virtual battery, which contributes negligible losses and overcomes these existing problems. Consequently, the proposed rectifier circuit achieves a diode physical-limit-bandwidth efficient rectification. In other words, the rectification bandwidth, as well as the peak efficiency, are controlled by the length of the stub and the physical limitation of the diodes.

Indexing Highly Repetitive String Collections, Part I

Two decades ago, a breakthrough in indexing string collections made it possible to represent them within their compressed space while at the same time offering indexed search functionalities. As this new technology permeated through applications like bioinformatics, the string collections experienced a growth that outperforms Moore’s Law and challenges our ability to handle them even in compressed form. It turns out, fortunately, that many of these rapidly growing string collections are highly repetitive, so that their information content is orders of magnitude lower than their plain size. The statistical compression methods used for classical collections, however, are blind to this repetitiveness, and therefore a new set of techniques has been developed to properly exploit it. The resulting indexes form a new generation of data structures able to handle the huge repetitive string collections that we are facing. In this survey, formed by two parts, we cover the algorithmic developments that have led to these data structures. In this first part, we describe the distinct compression paradigms that have been used to exploit repetitiveness, and the algorithmic techniques that provide direct access to the compressed strings. In the quest for an ideal measure of repetitiveness, we uncover a fascinating web of relations between those measures, as well as the limits up to which the data can be recovered, and up to which direct access to the compressed data can be provided. This is the basic aspect of indexability, which is covered in the second part of this survey.

Rosetta Stone CALL Software as A Vocabulary Teaching Media at Indonesian High Schools

Vocabulary is the basic aspect of language. The ability to master vocabulary holds an important part in learning a language, including English. That becomes one of the researcher's considerations to conduct this research when observing at one of Indonesia's high schools since the students show difficulties in vocabulary mastery. Modifying the teaching media can become a problem solving for students' lack of vocabulary mastery. In this case, using Rosetta Stone CALL software is suggested to overcome the problem. The research's objective was to determine whether or not the use of Rosetta Stone CALL software can improve the tenth-grade students' vocabulary mastery. The researcher applied a quasi-experimental method, with two group pre-test and post-test design. The research sample was forty students from two classes taken from the population of the 10th-grade students of SMA Negeri 2 Barru. The data analysis result showed that the pre-test's mean score in the experimental class was 2.21, and the post-test was 3.04. It proves that the tenth-grade students' vocabulary mastery improved using Rosetta Stone CALL Software. After analyzing the data using SPSS version 21, the probability value in the post-test was 0.01, and the significance value was 0.05. It means that the probability value (0.01) was lower than the significance value (0.05). It was indicated that H0 was rejected and H1 was accepted. It revealed that the vocabulary mastery of the tenth-grade students of SMA Negeri 2 Barru for the experimental and control groups was significantly different.