Dramatis Personae in the Acts of Peter: Character Identification and the Conveyance of Ethical Values

The Roman senator Marcellus plays a prominent role among the considerable number of characters mentioned in the apocryphal Acts of Peter. He was very important for the Christian community, and his house was a central meeting place for widows, orphans, foreigners, and the poor, before it became the residence of Simon Magus and his followers. By applying a specific approach of cognitive narratology and by taking serious an active participation of readers in analyzing a character more closely, this study intends to analyze the extent to which such an approach might help to perceive and understand Marcellus more appropriately and to highlight his function within the story and his impact on readers.

SMART Identification by Vision System

The paper describes a machine vision system for SMART identification of objects. In the introduction, this system is analyzed from a theoretical point of view. Advantages and possibilities of its use are emphasized. The following section presents our research workplace, where the machine vision is located. It involves two identification stations, one of them with 3D measurement and the second is a 2D multi-spectrum with several types of lighting. One part of this section describes the workplace in 2D view and equipment of vision system situated in this laboratory. The third part examines the possibilities of character identification by this system. The novelty of the paper is presented experiment with different wavelengths of light (RGB, UV, AM, W, infrared, far-red). The result of experiment is the most suitable light for characters identification by vision system.

Adult attachment and engagement with fictional characters

Adult attachment influences how people engage with stories, in terms of how immersed or transported they become into these narratives and the tendency to form close bonds with characters. This likely stems from the ability of stories and story characters to provide interpersonal intimacy without the threat of rejection. In Study 1, we expand on this work to examine how attachment relates to two previously uninvestigated aspects of character engagement: character identification and parasocial interactions. Taking a statistically conservative approach, controlling for broader traits, we demonstrate that the attachment dimensions of anxiety and avoidance differentially predict these forms of character engagement. A high-powered, pre-registered, Study 2 follows up on these results by examining the types of characters that are most appealing, based on one’s attachment orientation. Together, these studies demonstrate that attachment plays an essential role in both how we engage with characters and the types of characters to whom we are attracted.

Analysis of the Influence of Factors Affecting Purchase Intention of Premium Items in MOBA-Type Online Games

Increased mobile gaming revenue can’t be separated from the rapid growth of technology, especially on smartphones. The popularity of free-to-play games also supports the increase in mobile gaming revenue. The Mobile Legends and AoV, games with Multiplayer Online Battle Arena type, are popular today, where they can be played on any smart phone anywhere and anytime. One of the main commodities in this game is the premium items. to get the virtual goods players have to exchange some money that can be purchased through google play store or electronics stores. The purpose of this research is to analyze the effect of enjoyment value, character competency value, visual authority value, monetary value, character identification, and the satisfaction of the game against the intention of repurchase. This research uses survey method to collect data. The Sampling method is non- probabilities with purposive sampling approach. The number of samples in this study is 130 respondents, with the criteria playing a Mobile Legends or AoV and make purchases of premium items on the games. Hypothesis testing was analyzed using multiple linier regression. The result of hypothesis testing shows that the six independent variables, namely the value of pleasure, the value of character competence, the value of visual authority, the value of money, the character identification, and the satisfaction of the game have a positive effect on the intention of repurchasing premium items.

Character strategy: exploring character strengths using real-life story model’s as positive therapy intervention in college

Character as an important result of education seeks so that individuals can understand and behave properly in accordance with moral values in their lives. The character building strategy has been implemented even applied in several researches and studies in universities. One effort to build the right character is done for students through the implementation of ongoing guidance of character values and manifested in behavior. The Real-Life Story (RELIST) model as one of the positive therapeutic interventions is felt to be more appropriately applied also in developing individual character identification of character strengths related to the development of individual strengths or strengths, through a series of structured and systematic activities.

Narrative Persuasion: Moderating effects of character identification on relationship between message format and intention to screen for cervical cancer among women in agricultural sector in Kiambu County, Kenya.

There is evidence that use of narrative messages is effective in the context of health behavior change. There is however no explanation as to what aspect of narrative leads to high level of persuasion. We evaluated the moderating effects of character identification on the three elements of narrative message (narrative message frame, narrative rationality and narrator’s perspective) in regard to the uptake of cervical cancer screening among women in the agricultural sector in Kiambu county, Kenya. A randomised experimental design was used. Narrative Message frame (gain frame vs. loss frame), narrative perspective (first vs third person), and narrative rationality, were manipulated. The messages were presented via a brief narrative video on cervical cancer and cervical screening. A uniform pretest questionnaire on cervical cancer and cervical cancer screening (T1) was completed by respondents before watching a narrative video. After watching a narrative video on cervical cancer screening, participants responded to the post test questionnaire (T2). Data from 378 (100 per cent) respondents for the pretest and 344 (91 per cent) for posttest was analysed and included in the study findings for the baseline and posttest respectively. Multiple hierarchical regression analysis was used. The study found that the majority of respondents were aged above 41 years of age at 32 per cent majority 249 (65.9 per cent) of the respondents were married, and majority 210 (55 per cent) of the respondents had 1 to 3 children followed by 4 to 5 at 91 (24 per cent). After running multiple hierarchical regression analysis, the study found that identification with story character moderated for all the independent variables. The study concluded that while using narrative messages to promote health behaviour, use of story characters which the target audience can identify with, may help in increasing adoption of advocated health behaviour.

An Algorithm for the Detection of Hidden Propaganda in Mixed-Code Text over the Internet

Internet-based communication systems have become an increasing tool for spreading misinformation and propaganda. Even though there exist mechanisms that are able to track unwarranted information and messages, users made up different ways to avoid their scrutiny and detection. An example is represented by the mixed-code language, that is text written in an unconventional form by combining different languages, symbols, scripts and shapes. It aims to make more difficult the detection of specific content, due to its custom and ever changing appearance, by using special characters to substitute for alphabet letters. Indeed, such substitute combinations of symbols, which tries to resemble the shape of the intended alphabet’s letter, makes it still intuitively readable to humans, however nonsensical to machines. In this context, the paper explores the possibility of identifying propaganda in such mixed-code texts over the Internet, centred on a machine learning based approach. In particular, an algorithm in combination with a deep learning models for character identification is proposed in order to detect and analyse whether an element contains propaganda related content. The overall approach is presented, the results gathered from its experimentation are discussed and the achieved performances are compared with the related works.