Online Screening of X-System Music Playlists Using an Integrative Wellbeing Model Informed by the Theory of Autopoiesis

Research suggests that music has a powerful effect on the human mind and body. This article explores the impact of music as an intervention. For this purpose, the X-System technology is used to curate relaxing and enlivening music playlists designed to positively impact wellbeing and emotional state during the COVID-19 pandemic. A wellbeing model grounded in autopoietic theory of self-organisation in living systems is developed to inform the evaluation of the impact of the intervention and ensure the reliability of the data. More specifically, data quality is enhanced by focusing the participants’ awareness on their immediate embodied experience of physical, emotional and relational wellbeing and sense of pleasure/displeasure prior to and after listening to a preferred playlist. The statistical analysis shows significant positive changes in emotional wellbeing, valence and sense of meaning ( p<0.001 ) with a medium effect size. It also reveals a statistically significant change for physical wellbeing ( p=0.009 ) with a small effect size. With the relaxing playlists leading to decrease in arousal levels and the enlivening playlists to an increase in activation, it is also concluded that appropriately curated playlists may be able to lead the listener to positive relaxation or activation states or indeed to positive mood change that may have health benefits

Comprehensive Student Assessment Program: 2002-2003

Comprehensive Student Assessment Program: 2002-200

7th International Conference on Higher Education Advances (HEAd'21)

Information and communication technologies together with new teaching paradigms are reshaping the learning environment.The International Conference on Higher Education Advances (HEAd) aims to become a forum for researchers and practitioners to exchange ideas, experiences,opinions and research results relating to the preparation of students and the organization of educational systems.Doménech I De Soria, J.; Merello Giménez, P.; Poza Plaza, EDL. (2021). 7th International Conference on Higher Education Advances (HEAd'21). Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAD21.2021.13621EDITORIA

Mind, Brain, and Literature: The Fiction of Iain (M.) Banks

Iain (M.) Banks never refrains from focusing on his characters: their thoughts, feelings, behaviour, and identity. While critics acknowledge the importance of character-building within Banks’ fiction, existing criticism on Banks is heavily oriented on the narrative strategies he is using, and rarely focuses on the writer’s preoccupation with the “celebration of the human” emphasised by Farah Mendlesohn (2005). The phenomenon Mendlesohn pinpointed became my primary point of interest, encouraging me to investigate what being human means within Banks’ oeuvre. In order to achieve my aim, I decided to follow an interdisciplinary method which incorporates within my literary study texts originating from the fields of neuro- and cognitive sciences. This decision grew out of three interconnected observations: Banks is predominantly focused on the human; he is often investigating deeply culturally-established terms and metaphors associated with the human being (such as the ones associated with emotions, memory, or consciousness); and he is in favour of seeking universal laws and schemes -instead on concentrating upon the specific. Thus, I treat Iain (M.) Banks’ fiction as the groundwork of my discussion, which includes close readings of the relevant parts of his works: both mainstream and science fiction. I use scientific texts within my literary study as a key, which allows me to not indulge in genre criticism or stylistic discussions, but to approach Banks’ oeuvre as a unified whole, focusing on persistent ideas and themes which Banks continues to explore. As Banks’ main area of focus is the human being - or, as I shall argue, the human mind – brain and mind sciences are particularly useful. I am postulating that by paying close attention to the different brain-based processes, such as the ones responsible for memory, emotions or consciousness, Banks aims for providing an integrative perspective of the human being. In terms of the cross-disciplinary approach I am using, I am indebted to Steven Shaviro, whose Discognition (2016) has been an example of how fiction can be put together with neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy. My analysis is divided into five chapters. I begin the discussion of Banks’ fiction with a chapter on memory and imagination perceived as interconnected faculties of the mind. In the second chapter I discuss Banks’ ideas concerning the cognitive nature of religious thinking and the fear of death. In the third chapter I analyse the concept of consciousness and that of the self. In the fourth chapter I focus on the differences separating - and similarities connecting - the Culture’s sentient machines with the panhuman citizens. The investigation of memory and imagination, religion, immortality and consciousness, as well as the discussion of the cognitive parallels between humans and machines in Banks’ novels, leads me to a conclusion that there is one question underlying Banks’ literary output: What is humanness? The answer is, according to Banks, the cognitive capacity for language, and, hence, for storytelling. I argue that for Banks, human cognitive powers amount to this unprecedented ability for the creation and sharing of stories.W swojej twórczości literackiej, Iain (M.) Banks zawsze skupia się na kreacji i prezentacji bohaterów – ich myśli, uczuć, zachowań oraz ich tożsamości. Jednak, mimo iż krytycy zaznaczają istotność kreacji postaci w fikcji Banksa, dotychczasowa krytyka skupia się przede wszystkim na strategiach narracyjnych wykorzystywanych przez pisarza, a rzadko na jego zainteresowaniu człowiekiem. Swoista „celebracja człowieka”, którą Farah Mendlesohn (2005) przypisuje twórczości Banksa, zachęciła mnie do zbadania, co to człowieczeństwo oznacza, i z czym się wiąże w jego twórczości. Aby osiągnąć swój cel, postanowiłam skorzystać z interdyscyplinarnej metody badawczej - wykorzystuję w moim studium literaturoznawczym teksty wywodzące się z dziedzin neuronauk i nauk kognitywnych. Ta decyzja była pochodną wysnucia trzech powiązanych ze sobą wniosków na temat twórczości Banksa: po pierwsze, pisarz skupia się głównie na człowieku; po drugie, zgłębia silnie zakorzenione w kulturze pojęcia i metafory związane z człowieczeństwem (m.in. z emocjami, pamięcią, czy świadomością); po trzecie, Banks jest zwolennikiem poszukiwania ogólnych zasad i wzorców zamiast koncentrowania się na studium przypadku. Traktuję twórczość literacką Iaina (M.) Banksa jako podstawę mojej pracy badawczej. Rozprawa zawiera więc interpretacje fragmentów prozy Banksa – zarówno tej głównego nurtu, jak i tej wydawanej jako fantastyka naukowa. W procesie interpretacji tekstów literackich korzystam z tekstów naukowych. Metoda ta pozwala mi na rezygnację z krytyki rodzajowej i analiz stylistycznych na rzecz holistycznej analizy twórczości Banksa - ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem idei i tematów, które Banks niestrudzenie porusza. Jako że głównym zainteresowaniem pisarza jest człowiek – a właściwie rzecz biorąc, jego umysł – nauki o mózgu i umyśle są w tym kontekście szczególnie przydatne. Udowadniam, że poprzez skupienie się na różnych procesach mentalnych – na przykład na tych, które odpowiadają za pamięć, emocje, czy pojawienie się świadomości, Banks konstruuje holistyczny obraz człowieka. Na wybór takiej, a nie innej metody badawczej, duży wpływ miała praca Stevena Shavira pod tytułem Discognition (2016), w której to Shaviro zestawia fikcję literacką z tekstami z dziedzin neuronauk, psychologii oraz filozofii. Moja praca składa się z pięciu rozdziałów. W pierwszym skupiam się na pamięci i wyobraźni rozumianych jako wzajemnie zależne zdolności ludzkiego umysłu. W drugim rozdziale omawiam podejście Banksa do myślenia religijnego i do strachu przed śmiercią. W trzecim rozdziale analizuję fenomen świadomości i tożsamości. W czwartym rozdziale koncentruję się na różnicach oraz podobieństwach między czującymi maszynami a biologicznymi organizmami w uniwersum Kultury. Analiza tematów regularnie poruszanych przez Banksa (takich jak pamięć, wyobraźnia, religia, nieśmiertelność czy świadomość), a także zbadanie jego podejścia do organizmów i maszyn, doprowadza mnie do konkluzji, że cała twórczość literacka Banksa podszyta jest próbą odpowiedzi na pytanie, czym jest człowieczeństwo. Według Banksa, odpowiedzią jest poznawczo-mentalna umiejętność tworzenia narracji. W twórczości Banksa ludzkie mentalne procesy przyczyniają się do wyłonienia się wyjątkowej i kluczowej zdolności do tworzenia opowieści i dzielenia się nimi

Kent çeperindeki konut mahallelerinde sürdürülebilir toplulukların planlaması : Ankara Ümitköy örneği

This research mainly focuses on the notions of liveable and sustainable community within suburban residential neighbourhoods. The concepts of ‘community’ and ‘sustainability of communities’, which have been studied within the context of urban planning, as well as many other disciplines within the framework of urban studies are of inevitable importance in terms of developing healthy and liveable cities and urban spaces. This study, therefore, intends to provide us with a theoretical framework to discuss and evaluate the sustainable community concept in urban environment, specifically in Turkey. It also evaluates the capacity of this theoretical framework to be used as an assessment instrument for communities. The highly limited understanding of sustainability in the urbanization process causes considerable problems among the communities in urban areas. The growing problems and piecemeal solutions to them indicate the complexity of urban planning and urbanization processes. Particularly since the 1980s, some Turkish cities have been experiencing rapid urbanization and suburbanization. The suburbanization concept, which is another focus of this research, has been developed as an alternative solution to the complex problems of city centres and residential neighbourhoods within the immediate vicinity of city centres, such as inadequate quality of life, insufficient housing supply, and the desire for new life styles. Liberal policies which reinforce this tendency have led to the re-definition of urban practices and today’s urbanization problems. The sustainable community concept, which constitutes the major focus of this study, has emerged around the 2000s in the international planning and urbanization studies. Developed countries have determined, as their major objective, the enhancement of sustainable community, and they have identified their urban planning policies according to this view-point. Sustainable communities are liveable social, spatial, environmental, economic, and administrative elements. Urban problems such as impairment in the quality of life, unhealthy and unsafe environment, weaknesses of social network, loss of sense of place and community are provided with solutions through sustainable community building/development in micro-scale. Usually defective policies and inappropriate approaches have been observed in Turkish urban growth and suburbanization practices, as well as practices under the illumination of international experiences. Therefore, the key motivation of this research is to remedy this deficiency and to provide an exemplary study for local planning application related to sustainable communities in micro-scale. This study focuses on the assessment and analysis of sustainable communities in suburban residential neighbourhoods. The research aims to identify the sustainable community components, or indicators, of suburban residential areas. The research examined the case study areas according to these sustainable community indicators, which have been identified through the literature review. The case study areas were selected in Ümitköy, a suburban residential neighbourhood of Ankara, and the community, neighbourhood and sustainability concepts were examined here. The research has selected case study areas with different spatial and design characteristics to understand how sustainable community development concept is influenced by spatial design. Thus, the research seeks to understand the reciprocal relationship (or interaction) between spatial design and sustainable community development. Additionally, the research findings obtained particularly from the suburban residential areas are discussed in relation with specific and pre-determined sustainable community components. The findings of the case studies in Ümitköy indicate the need for an approach towards sustainable community development within the planning and design processes from the neighbourhood scale to the scale of housing cluster in suburban areas.Ph.D. - Doctoral Progra