The Principle of Symmetry from the Respondents' Perspective: Possessions, Apparitions and Mental Illnesses in Research Interviews with Clerics

En nuestro proyecto actual de investigación, estudiamos cómo experiencias tales como escuchar la voz del Señor o tener una visión de la Virgen Maria son tratadas en la psiquiatría y en la práctica Pastoral. ¿Cómo es el estatus de este fenómeno negociado por los participantes? ¿Bajo qué condiciones se convierten en casos de experiencias religiosas legítimas o, alternativamente, síntomas de enfermedad mental? Nosotros abordamos el estudio de estos asuntos "simétricamente", no preferimos explicaciones médicas a priori o espirituales. Hace tiempo demostramos y explicamos este enfoque (que es común por ejemplo en la sociología contemporánea de la ciencia), y su relevancia para nuestra investigación, en un artículo analítico sobre la película "El exorcismo de Emily Rose" (proyectada en el 2005). El articulo debate una relación altamente ambigua, presentada en la película, entre la interpretación médica la espiritual de la historia de una joven que fue considerada poseída por demonios y que murió después de un exorcismo fallido (KONOPÁSEK & PALEČEK 2006). La pregunta que ha inspirado este artículo es: ¿puede un enfoque simétrico ser de alguna relevancia para personas a las que estamos estudiando? En un intento por obtener una respuesta, hemos entrevistado a cuatro sacerdotes católicos sobre este tema en particular. A los sacerdotes se les ha pedido que vean la película acerca de Emily Rose y lean nuestro artículo sobre ella, en preparación para la entrevista. Basados en las discusiones posteriores (y también en algunos otros datos empíricos de nuestra investigación actual), queríamos arrojar algo de luz sobre y en qué formas nuestra perspectiva epistémica es coherente con los puntos de vista y opiniones de nuestros entrevistados. Resultó que este experimento de investigación reflexiva no solo ayudó a clarificar nuestros malentendidos con nuestros entrevistados, sino que también contribuyó a nuestra propia apreciación del papel de la simetría en nuestro proyecto actual de investigación así como en la práctica social estudiada. URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1101129in unserer aktuellen Forschung beschäftigen wir uns mit der Frage, wie Erfahrungen wie "die Stimme des Herrn hören" oder eine Erscheinung der Jungfrau Maria zum einen in psychiatrischen Kontexten und zum anderen in der Praxis katholischer Geistlicher behandelt werden. Wie wird der Status solcher Phänomene ausgehandelt? Unter welchen Bedingungen gelten sie entweder als eine legitime religiöse Erfahrung oder als Symptom einer seelischen Erkrankung? Unser eigener Untersuchungsansatz hierbei ist "symmetrisch" – es gibt keine Apriori-Festlegung auf entweder medizinische oder religiöse Erklärungen. In einem Beitrag zu dem Film "Der Exorzismus von Emily Rose" (erstmals 2005 ausgestrahlt) haben wir einen solchen Ansatz (der z.B. in der zeitgenössischen Wissenschaftssoziologie durchaus üblich ist) bereits zu erläutern und zu demonstrieren versucht. Wir diskutierten dort die sehr ambige Beziehung zwischen einer medizinischen vs. spirituellen Interpretation der Lebensgeschichte eines jungen Mädchens, das nach einem missglückten Exorzismus gestorben war (KONOPÁSEK & PALEČEK, 2006). Die zentrale Frage zu dem hier veröffentlichten Artikel war, ob ein solcher symmetrischer Ansatz auch für die von Bedeutung sein könnte, die wir beforschen. Um sie zu beantworten, haben wir vier katholische Geistliche interviewt, nachdem wir sie zunächst gebeten hatten, den Film zu sehen und unseren 2006 erschienenen Beitrag zu lesen. Auf der Grundlage der Gespräche (und unter Hinzuziehung weiteren empirischen Materials aus unserer aktuellen Forschung) werden wir im Folgenden zu zeigen versuchen, ob und in welcher Weise unsere eigene epistemische Perspektive mit den Sichtweisen und Positionen unserer Gesprächspartner vereinbar war. Für uns selbst erlaubte dieses reflexive "Experiment" nicht nur, einige (Miss-) Verständnisse zwischen uns und unseren Forschungspartnern zu klären, sondern es hat auch zu unserem eigenen Verstehen des Prinzips der Symmetrie in unserer Forschung und in der untersuchten sozialen Praxis beigetragen. URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1101129In our current research project, we study how experiences such as hearing the voice of the Lord or having a vision of Virgin Mary are dealt with in psychiatry and Catholic pastoral practice. How is the status of these phenomena negotiated by the participants? Under what conditions do they become instances of legitimate religious experience or, alternatively, symptoms of mental illness? We approach the study of these issues "symmetrically"—we do not prefer a priori medical or spiritual explanations. Some time ago, we demonstrated and explained such an approach (which is common, e.g., in contemporary sociology of science), and its relevance for our research, in an analytic paper on the movie "The Exorcism of Emily Rose" (released in 2005). The paper discusses a highly ambiguous relationship, pictured in the film, between medical and spiritual interpretation of the story of a young girl who was considered possessed by demons and who died after unsuccessful exorcism (KONOPÁSEK & PALEČEK, 2006). The question that has inspired this paper is: can such a symmetrical approach be of any relevance also for people we are studying? In an attempt to get an answer, we have interviewed four Catholic priests on this particular issue. The priests had been asked to watch the movie on Emily Rose and read our paper on it in preparation for the interview. Based on the subsequent discussions (and also on some other empirical data of our current research), we wanted to shed some light on whether and in what ways our specific epistemic perspective coheres with the views and positions of our respondents. It turned out that this reflexive research experiment not only helped to clarify points of mis/understanding between us and our respondents, but also contributed to our own appreciation of the role of symmetry in our current research project as well as in the studied social practice. URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs110112

Kandidáti na prezidenta v kyberprostoru - komparace politické komunikace před českými prezidentskými volbami v roce 2023

Hlavní pozornost diplomové práce je věnována fenoménu politického marketingu v éře internetu a sociálních médií. Práce je rozdělena do tří hlavních částí. První část slouží jako teoretický základ a podrobněji představuje politický marketing a jeho dílčí trendy, konkrétně negativní kampaň, personalizaci a depolitizaci politiky a užívání archetypů v politických kampaních. Druhá část představuje detailní metodologii, která je klíčová pro poslední část práce, jíž je část analytická. Metodologie blíže popisuje zvolenou metodu (obsahová analýza), definuje výzkumné otázky, specifikuje korpus dat, sběr dat a jejich následnou operacionalizaci. Metodologická část práce taktéž nastiňuje potenciální limity výzkumu. Třetí částí práce je analytická část, která je rozdělena na dvě dílčí části. První z nich nabízí základní informace o českých prezidentských volbách v roce 2023 a podrobně se zaměřuje na jeden z představených konceptů - stylizaci do archetypů u kandidátů, kteří před prezidetnskou volbou používali sociální síť Twitter. Druhou dílčí část tvoří analýza komunikace sedmi prezidentských kandidátů na Twitteru. Na základě metodologie bylo analyzováno celkem 1137 tweetů ze dvou sledovaných období. Hlavní důraz byl kladen na negativní kampaň, ale nikoliv výhradně. Součástí analýzy byly i další aspekty, jako je například depolitizace. Po každém z časových období je poskytnuto shrnutí, které zodpovídá příslušné stanovené otázky, jež jsou prostředkem pro naplnění cíle práce.ObhájenoThe main focus of this thesis is on the phenomenon of political marketing in the age of the internet and social media. The thesis is divided into three main parts. The first part serves as a theoretical basis and introduces more precisely the concept of political marketing, but also its sub-trends, namely negative campaigning, personalisation and depoliticization of politics, and the usage of political archetypes in political campaigns. The second part provides a detailed methodology that is crucial for the last part of this thesis, which is the analytical part. The chosen method is content analysis. The methodology describes the chosen method in detail, defines the research questions, specifies the corpus of the research, the collection of the data and the subsequent operationalization of the data. The methodology section also outlines the potential limitations of the research. The third part of this thesis is the analytical part, which is split into two sub-parts. The first sub-part presents basic data about the Czech presidential election of 2023 and closely focuses on one introduced concept - the usage of archetypes by presidential candidates who used Twitter in this election. The second sub-part is the analysis of the Twitter communication of 7 political candidates before the 2023 presidential election in the Czech Republic. Based on the methodology, in total, 1137 tweets from 2 time periods were analysed. The emphasis of the analysis was mainly placed on negative campaigning, but not exclusively. Other aspects, such as depoliticization, were also addressed. After each time period, a summary that answers the corresponding research questions is provided

Preservation of Garnet Growth Zoning and the Duration of Prograde Metamorphism

Chemically zoned garnet growth and coeval modification of this zoning through diffusion are calculated during prograde metamorphic heating to temperatures of up to 850°C. This permits quantification of how the preservation or elimination of zoning profiles in garnet crystals of a given size is sensitive to the specific burial and heating (P-T) path followed, and the integrated duration spent at high temperature (dT/dt). Slow major element diffusion in garnet at T 30 Myr at amphibolite-grade conditions, but small-scale (tens of micrometres) zoning features will be lost early in the prograde stage unless this is ‘rapid' (5 Myr for rocks reaching c. 600°C). Calculations indicate that preservation of unmodified growth compositions in even relatively large (up to 3 mm diameter) pelitic garnet crystals requires prograde and exhumational events to be <10 Myr for rocks reaching c. 600°C. This timescale can be 5 Myr for garnet in rocks reaching 650°C or hotter. It is likely, therefore, that most natural prograde-zoned crystals record compositions already partially re-equilibrated between the time of crystal growth and of reaching maximum temperature. However, a large T-t window exists within which crystals begin to lose their growth compositions but retain evidence of crystal-scale zoning trends that may still be useful for thermobarometry purposes. The upper limit of this window for 500 μm diameter crystals can be as much as several tens of millions of years of heating to c. 700°C. Absolute re-equilibration timescales can be significantly different for garnet growing in different rock compositions, with examples of a granodiorite and a pelite give

Systém pro správu úkolů a testů

Cílem této práce je implementace softwarového systému usnadňujícího správu domácích úkolů a automatické generování testů. Správou domácích úkolů se z pohledu vyučujících rozumí vytváření úloh a jejich zadávání studentům a oprava a hodnocení přijatých řešení. Z pohledu studentů se pak jedná o odevzdávání řešení k aktuálně zadaným úlohám a o přehled hodnocení vypracovaných řešení. Těžištěm práce je popis implementace a způsobu použití webové aplikace Assignment Manager. Součástí aplikace je kromě výše uvedených vlastností také správa uživatelských skupin, správa studentských skupin a sdílení úloh mezi skupinami v rámci přednášky a možnost částečné automatizace kontroly řešení pomocí externích "pluginů". Samostatnou částí je schopnost generování testů z uložených množin testových otázek. Aplikace byla testována ve zkušebním provozu po dobu jednoho semestru a upravována na základě připomínek studentů i pedagogů. Práce obsahuje i diskuzi kontrastu mezi původními předpoklady, na jejichž základě byla aplikace navržena, a reálnými požadavky při nasazení aplikace v praxi.The goal of this thesis is to implement a software system facilitating management of homework assignments and automated generation of tests. From the teachers' point of view, homework management means creation of problems, their assignment to students, and correction and rating of solutions. For students, it means handing in solutions to assigned problems and solution rating overview. The focus of this thesis is the description of implementation and utilization of the Assignment Manager web application. Apart from the goals described above, the application also enables the management of user groups, sharing of problems among student groups within the scope of a single course, and using external "plug-ins" for automated correction of solutions. Furthermore, it is capable of automated generation of tests from saved sets of test questions. The application was field-tested during a single semester and it was extended based on the teachers' and students' suggestions. The thesis includes a discussion of the differences between the original assumptions serving as the basis for the application's implementation and the demands of live deployment.Department of Software EngineeringKatedra softwarového inženýrstvíFaculty of Mathematics and PhysicsMatematicko-fyzikální fakult

The onset of flysch sedimentation in the Kaoko Belt (NW Namibia) – Implications for the pre-collisional evolution of the Kaoko–Dom Feliciano–Gariep orogen

Detrital zircon provenance study of a metamorphosed sedimentary succession in the eastern part of the Kaoko Belt in Namibia has revealed two distinct sources for the Neoproterozoic sedimentation along the southwestern Congo Craton margin. The lower part of the succession shows detrital zircon ages consistent with erosion of Paleoproterozoic basement of the Congo Craton with an inferred Mesoproterozoic volcano-sedimentary cover. Within the middle part of the succession, which includes glaciogenic sediments correlated with the Sturtian (717&ndash;660 Ma) glaciation, the Mesoproterozoic zircon grains disappear and the signal is dominated by ages known from the Congo Craton basement. The sedimentation in these parts of the succession is interpreted as related to the early Neoproterozoic rifting. The sedimentary rocks in the top part of the profile contain only subordinate proportion of the Paleoproterozoic&ndash;Archaean zircon grains and the populations are dominated by three age groups of ca. 1.0&ndash;1.2 Ga, ca. 800&ndash;750 Ma and ca. 650 Ma, consistent with erosion of the Punta del Este&ndash;Coastal Terrane exposed in the centre of the Kaoko&ndash;Dom Feliciano&ndash;Gariep orogen. An associated glaciogenic horizon interpreted as reflecting the Marinoan (645&ndash;635 Ma) glaciation constrains the sedimentation in the upper part of the succession and suggests a short time span between the high-grade metamorphism/magmatism in the Punta del Este&ndash;Coastal Terrane and its exhumation. Sedimentary rocks with such detrital zircon pattern appear also in the Damara and Gariep belts. Their source in the western part of the Kaoko&ndash;Dom Feliciano&ndash;Gariep orogen suggests that they represent an early orogenic flysch that originated during early collision in the western part of the orogen. The short time span between the metamorphism/magmatism in the Punta del Este&ndash;Coastal Terrane and deposition of the early orogenic flysch derived from it suggests that the Coastal Terrane was never separated from the Congo Craton by an oceanic domain. The estimated time span between the end of lithospheric stretching and sedimentation of the early flysch suggests that the hypothetical Adamastor Ocean separating the western and eastern forelands of the Kaoko&ndash;Dom Feliciano&ndash;Gariep orogen must have been small.acceptedVersio

Garnet growth and mineral geochronology constrains the diachronous Neoproterozoic convergent evolution of the southern Dom Feliciano Belt, Uruguay

The Dom Feliciano Belt of southern Brazil and Uruguay represents part of a larger Neoproterozoic orogenic system formed during the amalgamation of Western Gondwana. The hinterland and foreland domains in parts of the belt preserve deformation structures and metamorphic assemblages that developed during early crustal thickening from c. 650 Ma. However, the metamorphic history of the southern foreland, in Uruguay, and its relationship with the hinterland, is not so well understood. We show that metamorphism in the southern hinterland is characterized by near-isothermal decompression from ~10 kbar (~770°C) down to ~6 kbar, reflecting exhumation from depths of ~40 km during convergent thrusting and crustal thickening. This metamorphic event and associated magmatism is constrained by garnet Lu–Hf and zircon U–Pb dating to c. 655–640 Ma, supporting age and P–T constraints from previous studies. In contrast, prograde metamorphism in the foreland supracrustal rocks reached maximum lower-amphibolite facies conditions (~6–7 kbar and ~550–570°C) and is constrained by garnet Lu–Hf dating to 582 ± 23 Ma. An exposed sheet of imbricated foreland basement rocks reached partial melting at upper-amphibolite facies conditions, and metamorphism is similarly constrained to c. 585–570 Ma by monazite U–Pb dating. The data indicate that metamorphism in the foreland occurred during a sinistral transpressional event c. 55–85 Ma after the start of crustal thickening recorded in the hinterland, whereby strain partitioning during sinistral transpression led to imbrication in the foreland and oblique thrusting of the basement over more distal supracrustal rocks. This event is coeval with transpressional deformation in the Kaoko and Gariep belts, indicating a distinct two-stage tectonic history driven by the three-way convergence between the Congo, Kalahari, and South American cratons

Comment to “Neoproterozoic magmatic arc systems of the central Ribeira belt, SE-Brazil, in the context of the West-Gondwana pre-collisional history: A review”

publishedVersio

The transmembrane gradient of the dielectric constant influences the DPH lifetime distribution

AbstractThe fluorescence lifetime distribution of 1,6-diphenyl-1,3,5-hexatriene (DPH) and 1-[4-(trimethylamino)phenyll-6-phenyl-1,3,5-hexatriene (TMA-DPH) in egg-phosphatidylcholine liposomes was measured in normal and heavy water. The lower dielectric constant (by ∼12%) of heavy water compared with normal water was employed to provide direct evidence that the drop of the dielectric constant along the membrane normal shifts the centers of the distribution of both DPH and TMA-DPH to higher values and sharpens the widths of the distribution. The profile of the dielectric constant along the membrane normal was not found to be a linear gradient (in contrast to [1]) but a more complex function. Presence of cholesterol in liposomes further shifted the center of the distributions to higher value and sharpened them. In addition, it resulted in a more gradient-like profile of the dielectric constant (i.e. linearization) along the normal of the membrane. The effect of the change of dielectric constant on the membrane proteins is discussed

Arc-like magmatism in syn- to post-collisional setting: The Ediacaran Angra Fria Magmatic Complex (NW Namibia) and its cross-Atlantic correlatives in the south Brazilian Florianópolis Batholith

Ediacaran syn-tectonic plutonic rocks (amphibole gabbros, quartz diorites/tonalites to biotite- and muscovite-bearing granites) of the Angra Fria Magmatic Complex (Kaoko Belt, north-western Namibia) belong to two compositionally similar, magnesian, transitional tholeiitic–calc-alkaline suites, the Older (∼625–620 Ma) and the Younger (∼585–575 Ma). Both have counterparts in the broadly contemporaneous Florianópolis Batholith (southern Brazil), from which they were separated during the Cretaceous opening of the southern Atlantic. In the Angra Fria Magmatic Complex, the only unequivocal mantle contributions are identified in mingling zones of the Younger Suite and hybrid mafic–intermediate dykes of uncertain age. Previously published Hf-in-zircon isotopic data, together with new whole-rock geochemical and Sr–Nd isotopic signatures, underline an important role of crustal anatexis of a material with late Palaeoproterozoic to early Mesoproterozoic mean crustal residence (1.9–1.5 Ga). This interval resembles some of the published Nd model ages for Tonian ‘Adamastor Rift’-related felsic magmatic rocks in the Namibian Coastal and Uruguayan Punta del Este terranes. In detail, the Older Suite probably originated mainly by fluid-present melting of metabasalts and metatonalites, followed by (near) closed-system fractional crystallization (with or without accumulation) of amphibole ± plagioclase. For the Younger Suite, the principal process was the dehydration melting of relatively felsic lower crustal protoliths (metagreywackes or intermediate–acid orthogneisses >> metapelites), leaving garnet in the residue. Based on the geological context, the conspicuous enrichment of hydrous-fluid-mobile large ion lithophile over the conservative high field strength elements is not interpreted through a classic model of oceanic plate subduction, devolatilization, and fluxed-melting of the overriding mantle wedge. Instead, it is thought to reflect high-grade metamorphism of deeply buried continental crust and attendant water-fluxed melting of the overlying crustal lithologies, connected with inversion of the Tonian ‘Adamastor Rift’