Life Is Strange and ‘‘Games Are Made’’: A Philosophical Interpretation of a Multiple-Choice Existential Simulator With Copilot Sartre

The multiple-choice video game Life is Strange was described by its French developers as a metaphor for the inner conflicts experienced by a teenager in trying to become an adult. In psychological work with adolescents, there is a stark similarity between what they experience and some concepts of existentialist philosophy. Sartre’s script for the movie Les Jeux Sont Faits (literally ‘‘games are made’’) uses the same narrative strategy as Life is Strange—the capacity for the main characters to travel back in time to change their own existence—in order to stimulate philosophical, ethical, and political thinking and also to effectively simulate existential ‘‘limit situations.’’ This article is a dialogue between Sartre’s views and Life is Strange in order to examine to what extent questions such as what is freedom? what is choice? what is autonomy and responsibility? can be interpreted anew in hybrid digital–human—‘‘anthrobotic’’—environments

On the Concept of Creal: The Politico-Ethical Horizon of a Creative Absolute

Process philosophies tend to emphasise the value of continuous creation as the core of their discourse. For Bergson, Whitehead, Deleuze, and others the real is ultimately a creative becoming. Critics have argued that there is an irreducible element of (almost religious) belief in this re-evaluation of immanent creation. While I don’t think belief is necessarily a sign of philosophical and existential weakness, in this paper I will examine the possibility for the concept of universal creation to be a political and ethical axiom, the result of a global social contract rather than of a new spirituality. I argue here that a coherent way to fight against potentially totalitarian absolutes is to replace them with a virtual absolute that cannot territorialise without deterritorialising at the same time: the Creal principle

Photohadronic scenario in interpreting the February-March 2014 flare of 1ES 1011+496

The extraordinary multi-TeV flare from 1ES 1011 +496 during February-March 2014 was observed by MAGIC telescopes for 17 nights and the average spectrum of the whole period has a non-trivial shape. We have used the photohadronic model and a template EBL model to explain the average spectrum which fits well to the flare data. The spectral index $\alpha$ is the only free parameter in our model. We have also shown that the non-trivial nature of the spectrum is due to the change in the behavior of the optical depth above $\sim 600$ GeV $\gamma$-ray energy accompanied with the high SSC flux.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, LaTe

Blazar origin of some IceCube events

Recently ANTARES collaboration presented a time dependent analysis to a selected number of flaring blazars to look for upward going muon events produced from the charge current interaction of the muon neutrinos. We use the same list of flaring blazars to look for possible positional correlation with the IceCube neutrino events. In the context of photohadronic model we propose that the neutrinos are produced within the nuclear region of the blazar where Fermi accelerated high energy protons interact with the background synchrotron/SSC photons. Although we found that some objects from the ANTARES list are within the error circles of few IceCube events, the statistical analysis shows that none of these sources have a significant correlation.Comment: Latex file, 6 pages, two columns, 1 Figur

A importância do Pibid na escola: uma abordagem sobre o estímulo na criatividade dos alunos

Anais do II Seminário Seminário Estadual PIBID do Paraná: tecendo saberes / organizado por Dulcyene Maria Ribeiro e Catarina Costa Fernandes — Foz do Iguaçu: Unioeste; Unila, 2014O presente artigo tem por objetivo buscar demonstrar a importância do Programa Institucional de Bolsas e Iniciação à Docência (PIBID) em sua prática na escola, considerando assim, seus benefícios, tanto para os bolsistas, quanto para os alunos envolvidos. Com isso podemos ver a relação de uma atividade diferenciada que foi realizada em uma escola de atuação do programa na área das Artes Visuais e seus resultados. Fazendo referência a embasamentos de Ana Mae Barbosa, o artigo também ressalta a possibilidade do uso de uma sala de aula personalizada para a questão do desenvolvimento da criatividade dos alunos. Com este fato também é considerado o contexto em que está inserida a escola e a movimentação que ocorreu devido a tal atividade diferenciad

Direct introduction of nitrogen and oxygen functionality with spatial control using copper catalysis.

Synthetic chemists have spent considerable effort optimizing the synthesis of nitrogen and oxygen containing compounds through a number of methods; however, direct introduction of N- and O-functionality remains challenging. Presented herein is a general method to allow for the simultaneous installation of N- and O-functionality to construct unexplored N-O heterocyclic and amino-alcohol scaffolds. This transformation uses earth abundant copper salts to facilitate the formation of a carbon-centered radical and subsequent carbon-nitrogen bond formation. The intermediate aminoxyl radical is terminated by an intramolecularly appended carbon-centered radical. We have exploited this methodology to also access amino-alcohols with a range of aliphatic and aromatic linkers

A new species of \u3cem\u3eAnanteris\u3c/em\u3e (Scorpiones: Buthidae) from Panama

A new buthid species belonging to the genus Ananteris Thorell, 1891 is herein described from Panama Oeste Province, Panama. This is the second Ananteris species known from this Central American country and clearly differs from Ananteris platnicki Lourenço, 1993, distributed in Costa Rica and Panama, by its smaller size and male having a different hemispermatophore and telson similar to that of the female

Cognitive reserve mediates the severity of certain neuropsychological deficits related to cocaine use disorder

Introduction: The concept of cognitive reserve (CR) is being considered in the field of substance use disorder (SUD) by observing that there are individuals whose brain alterations are not related to the cognitive symptomatology they present. Aims: Our aims were to characterise the possible neuropsychological deficits in a sample of subjects with SUD compared to a control group and to determine whether the degree of CR is a mediator in the cognitive functioning of these patients. Methods: To perform these objectives, the study involved a sample of subjects with SUD in outpatient treatment and a control group. A CR questionnaire and a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment were administered, and we also collected data related to drug consumption and psychological well-being. Results: The SUD group showed poorer performance compared to the control group in several cognitive domains (attention, declarative memory, executive functions and emotional perception), as well as in psychological comfort. Interestingly, we observed that the deficits found in attention, declarative memory and executive functions were mediated by the CR level of the participants, an effect that we did not observe in the rest of the variables registered. Conclusion: Our results suggest that long-term drug consumption leads to cognitive deficits and affects the psychological well-being of the subjects. Moreover, the CR should be taken into account during the assessment and rehabilitation of patients with SUD due to its protective role against certain neuropsychological deficits.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Inclusão profissional de pessoas com deficiências: um estudo sobre as políticas e práticas adotadas por empresas do setor de óleo e gás do Estado do Rio de Janeiro

ResumoA pesquisa foi norteada pelo objetivo de analisar a inclusão de profissionais com deficiências no setor de óleo e gás do Estado do Rio de Janeiro e buscou avaliar as políticas e iniciativas desenvolvidas pelas empresas da indústria à luz das ações afirmativas. A concepção do emprego como importante fator de inclusão social, por intermédio da ampla adaptação das empresas, vai de encontro ao atual cenário de despreparo das organizações produtivas para receber em seus quadros profissionais com deficiências. O estudo empírico envolveu levantamento social qualitativo feito com informantes‐chave e representantes dos interesses das pessoas com deficiências. Como principal resultado, conclui‐se que, mesmo mais de duas décadas depois da promulgação da Lei de Cotas, a inclusão continua vista como problemática por empresas do setor, muitas das quais alegam ser impossível atingir as cotas e ignoram e/ou descumprem a legislação.AbstractThe goal of this research is to analyze the inclusion of professionals with disabilities in the Oil and Gas industry of Rio de Janeiro, seeking to understand the policies adopted, and initiatives developed by industry companies in the light of affirmative action. The empirical study involved a qualitative social survey conducted with key informants and representatives of the interests of people with disabilities. As a main result, it has concluded that, despite more than two decades after the enactment of the People with Disabilities Quota Law, that inclusion is still seen as an issue for companies in the sector, many of which ignore and/or violate the law, claiming to be impossible to reach the defined quotas

The Crealectic Method: From Creativity to Compossibility

Can we fruitfully apply creative ecology practices in the world of industrial production? Enter the crealectic method for innovation and self-innovation, aiming at fostering creative long-term thinking and acting. The crealectic method proposes five steps: Step 1—Resetting (doing tabula rasa); Step 2—Crealing (reconnecting with the “Creal”); Step 3—Profusing (letting ideas pour out without censorship); Step 4—Compossibilizing (connecting compatible ideas); Step 5—Realizing (understanding and making real). I describe a pilot test of the method within the Research and Development unit of Vattenfall, a Swedish power company dedicated to fossil-free energy production