On the Pragmatics and Problematics of Defining Beauty and Character: The Greek Poet Lucian (120-200) Engages Exacting Portraitures and Difficult Subjects

Although best known as a satirist of the classical Roman era, Lucian's (c120-200CE) Essays in Portraiture and Essays in Portraiture Defended provide considerable insight into the problematics of people knowing and defining objects (along with the consequential and related matter of people sharing their definitions of reality with others). Engaging notions of admiration, beauty, and character in these two statements, Lucian not only faces the task of establishing viable frames of reference for linguistically defining the essence of a woman deemed to be particularly beautiful and gracious but also assumes the challenge of defending one’s preferred definitions of particular subject matters from others who do not share these views. Whereas Lucian uses the works of prominent sculptors, painters, poets, and philosophers as reference points in articulating beauty and grace, this paper also acknowledges the perils of people who sincerely express their viewpoints on others even when these descriptions of others are cast in clearly positive terms. Lucian may be a lesser-known classical Greek (Syrian) author, but he is an astute observer of human endeavor. Lucian’s work on portraiture also has a striking cross-cultural and transhistorical relevance for a more enduring pragmatist emphasis on human knowing and acting. Not only is Lucian (a) explicitly attentive to the necessity of people establishing frames of reference for describing objects to others in meaningful terms, but he also overtly recognizes (b) the multiple viewpoints that people may invoke with respect to describing particular objects, (c) the resistances that people may encounter from others, and (d) the importance of speakers articulating the foundations for their claims amidst contested notions of reality. Approached from an interactionist perspective (Mead 1934; Blumer 1969; Strauss 1993; Prus 1996, 1997, 1999), wherein attention is given to the more general matters of people acquiring perspectives, defining objects, and sustaining particular notions of reality, this paper uses Lucian’s materials on portraiture as a cross-cultural and transhistorical resource both for assessing (and qualifying) existing interactionist conceptualizations of human group life and for suggesting some more particular areas of inquiry to which contemporary scholars may attend.

Laboratory Methods for the Diagnosis of SARS-Cov-2

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) which has become the pandemic par excellence of our time places pressure on various aspects of human endeavor and as such requires detailed study to better combat it. However, diagnostic tests were used to provide data on the incidence of COVID-19 and to assess the immune status of infected individuals. The objective of this chapter is to describe the diagnostic methods currently used to identify SARS-CoV-2 infection. Obtaining the first SARS-CoV-2 genome sequence was decisive for the development of molecular diagnostic assays that currently make it possible to diagnose and screen for the Sars-CoV-2 infection. Their uses depend on the target to be detected. Antigenic tests detect the presence of a virus antigen, which usually makes a proteinaceous part of the virus surface. The serology tests detect the presence of antibodies generated against SARS-CoV-2 and are also a relevant tool for epidemiological studies.

Disaster Planning

As disasters become more frequent and severe worldwide, disaster planning as a human endeavor is more important than ever, with the potential to save millions of lives globally. In this important new book, the author offers a practical, step-by-step guide for writing, implementing, and measuring the quality of your own disaster plan to address any threat with an approach that has been tested in public health and medical settings worldwide. Filling a significant gap in the existing literature, this book offers a comprehensive reference for both the principles and the practice of disaster planning. Access to a 25-lecture training course provides ancillary teaching materials for college level courses, offering added value for academic readers. An essential resource for public health graduates and anyone responsible for the management of disasters, primarily public health professionals, emergency physicians, first responders, and emergency managers.

The Metalog Distributions: Virtually Unlimited Shape Flexibility with Bayesian Updating in Closed Form

Users of probability distributions frequently need to convert data (empirical, simulated, or elicited) into a continuous probability distribution and to update that distribution when new data becomes available. Often, it is unclear which traditional probability distribution(s) to use, fitting to data is laborious and unsatisfactory, little insight emerges, and updating with Bayes rule is impractical. Here we offer an alternative -- a family of continuous probability distributions, fitting methods, and tools that: provide sufficient shape and boundedness flexibility to closely match virtually any probability distribution and most data sets; involve a single set of simple closed-form equations; stimulate potentially valuable insights when applied to empirical data; are simply fit to data with ordinary least squares; are easy to combine (as when weighting the opinion of multiple experts), and, under certain conditions, are easily updated in closed form according to Bayes rule when new data becomes available. The Bayesian updating method is presented in a way that is readily understandable as a fisherman updates his catch probabilities when changing the river on which he fishes. While metalog applications have been shown to improve decision-making, the methods and results herein are broadly applicable to virtually any use of continuous probability in any field of human endeavor. Diverse data sets may be explored and modeled in these new ways with freely available spreadsheets and tools.

Imperatives for Setting up a Body of Knowledge on Public Procurement Practice in Nigeria

A body of knowledge (BOK) refers to the core teachings and skills required to work in a particular field of human endeavor or industry. This study is set to ascertain if there is need to develop an acceptable body of knowledge on public procurement practice in Nigeria. It adopted a survey research design as open ended questionnaires were administered and used to elicit response on subject matter. The population consists of procurement staff in some selected MDA’s at the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Nigeria. Outcome of the study reveals that there is no one-stop body of knowledge or a comprehensive guide on procurement practice in Nigeria. This may be a pointer to the fact that, there is need to establish one. It is one thing for Nigeria to enact the Public Procurement Act; it is yet another for practitioners as well as the general public to fully understand and imbibe the basic tenets and regulations guiding the procurement practice. It will be necessary to train and retrain practitioners and a veritable tool in this direction is the establishment of a body of knowledge on procurement practice. If this is properly articulated, will provide the procedures, skills and tools needed to practice the trade. This is bound to impact positively on process flow and make for a good procurement practice in Nigeria.

Pure Kashmir: Nature, Freedom and Counternationalism

Bringing political thought to bear upon one of the world's most pressing geopolitical problems, this article explores Kashmiri engagements with nature and how these served the attempt to concurrently champion two nations: ethno-linguistic and almost homogeneous Kashmir, and heterogeneous but organic India. Disconnected from human endeavor and, therefore, astonishingly unreliant on other ideas to define Kashmir's distinctiveness, the idea of natural purity had something in common with the earlier New World nationalisms of colonial white settlers who sought to remake conquered lands. But since Kashmiris had long resisted what they saw as the theft of their beautiful land by more powerful, envious outsiders, how far was it possible for their twentieth-century thinkers to integrate this disruptive idea of a nonhuman nature into an otherwise historicized sense of nationhood?

CommentsA Star to Steer Her By

And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by. –From Sea Fever, John Masefield Perhaps my definition of a foundational work is idiosyncratic, so let me explain. For me, a foundational work is an idea or vision that provides a platform for a field of human endeavor. Such works provide a new, and often better, usually different, understanding of particular phenomena. Memorable foundational statements or formulations seem both simple and game-changing: the earth is round; e = mc...

A Critical Review of Standards to Examine the Parameters of Child-Friendly Environment (CFE) in Parks and Open Space of Planned Neighborhoods: A Case of Lucknow City, India

The creation of cities has been one of the most phenomenal achievements of human endeavor. Adults are the major stakeholders for such achievements but the children are helpless and representationless. The current research paper aims at understanding the issues faced by the children in the rapidly urbanized world where the lack of child-friendly environments/open spaces for their outdoor activities is cause for concern. The research paper looked at various national and international norms, standards, and practices of parks and open spaces to identify various child-friendly environmental parameters. The research adopted the Delphi method as a tool for the validation of child-friendly environment parameters. It also used children’s drawings and essays to understand children’s perceptions about the child-friendly environment. It is observed that present government norms and policies do not adhere to those parameters. The research found that Lucknow city does not meet the defined quantitative norms and standards as laid out by the national norms and standards for open spaces and parks. The quality dimensions for planning a child-friendly environment are weakly addressed by cities and neighborhoods. The city neighborhoods lack the physical, cognitive, perceptional, emotional, and social dimensions of a child-friendly environment. There is a need to adopt suitable norms and standards with measurable parameters as part of various dimensions and implement these in creating a child-friendly environment in planned neighborhoods.

Organizational Leadership Styles and Employees’ Performance in Nigerian Deposit Money Banks

The concept of organizational leadership has engendered a lot of arguments. This is because the effect of leadership on every human endeavor cannot be over emphasized. This study examines the effect of organizational leadership styles, particularly transformational and servant leadership styles on deposit money banks (DMBs) employees’ performance in Nigeria. The study employs survey research design, through the administration of structured questionnaire on some selected employees of Guaranty Trust Bank, United Bank for Africa and First Bank. The research instrument was validated through content validity index, while test-retest method was employed in ascertaining the reliability of the research instrument. The findings revealed that transformational leadership and servant leadership styles have positive and significant combined effect on deposit money banks employees’ performance (F-stat= 58.02 *0.000). The adjusted coefficient of determination (adjusted R2) suggested that, 39.4% variation in employees’ performance is accounted for by transformational leadership and servant leadership styles. The t-value revealed that when the two variables (transformational leadership and servant leadership styles) are combined, they both have positive and significant effect on deposit money banks employees’ performance. Therefore, it can be concluded that transformational leadership and servant leadership styles both have individual as well as combined positive and significant effect on deposit money banks employees’ performance.