Body image distortions and muscle dysmorphia symptoms among Asian men : do exercise status and type matter?

Theoretical Framework: Body image distortions and muscle dysmorphia symptoms were assessed among 78 Asian men who engaged in regular resistance training, aerobic training or did not engage in either. Method: Body fat and muscularity were measured and participants also completed the Muscle Dysmorphia Disorder Inventory. Results: Resistance trained men selected a body shape ideal that was higher in muscularity and lower in body fat. Aerobically trained men also reported higher perceived current Body Fat even though their actual levels were close to their ideal. Conclusion: The results suggest that specificity in body image distortion (e.g., perceived current-ideal versus perceived current-actual) when examining body image distortions might reduce conflicting findings in extant research

Grand Rapids Art Museum

Local sand and gravel, cast in place, carefully crafted with no patching allowed.https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/bcs/1192/thumbnail.jp

When the Dark Shines: The role of dark personality traits in leadership role occupancy and hiring decisions in a collectivistic culture

Two studies investigated the role of the Dark Triad traits (i.e., narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism), conscientiousness, and intelligence on leadership role occupancy and hiring decisions in Indonesian culture, which is a collectivist culture. Study 1 used Generalized Linear Model to examine two groups of participants with (i.e., school principals) and without (i.e., teachers) significant leadership responsibilities by controlling for participant grouping by school. The results indicated that, in comparison with teachers, school principals had significantly higher narcissism and conscientiousness and lower psychopathy and intelligence. In study 2, video recordings of simulated job interviews of 133 undergraduates were evaluated by 133 professional recruiters. Interviewee narcissism was the only significant positive predictor for hiring decision. Both studies provide consistent evidence that narcissism is a significant positive factor in both leadership role occupancy and hiring decision in a collectivist culture

Feasibility of restoring the Louisiana black bear (Ursus americanus luteolus) to portions of their former range

Black bears (Ursus americanus) historically occurred throughout much of North America’s forested landscapes, but loss of critical habitat and overharvest significantly reduced abundance and distribution. In the southeastern United States, black bear conservation has become a high priority and restoration has been suggested y to recolonize suitable habitat. My study focused on evaluating restoration of the Louisiana black bear (U. americanus luteolus) to the Red River Complex (RRC) in east-central Louisiana. This involved translocating female bears with new born cubs from source populations within Louisiana and monitoring their movements, habitat use, and social acceptance of the restoration program to determine if restoration attempts should be continued. Females relocated using this method had restricted home ranges and movements during the initial 30-days following release, and established home ranges at the release site within 7 months. Females continued to den in the area they established home ranges through the following 2 winters. Vegetation measurements at used locations suggest that habitat suitability in the RRC similar to other areas considered highly suitable for bears in the Southeast. A survey of hunters within the RRC indicates that support for the project was high (\u3e 70%) but knowledge about the restoration was low (\u3c 60%), although public meetings were held prior to the release of bears to the area. This data indicates that restoration of the Louisiana black bear to the RRC is feasible and should be continued in an effort to establish a new breeding sub-population of bears in the region

Mining Human Shape Perception with Role Playing Games

Games with a purpose’ is a paradigm wheregames are designed to computationally capture the essence of theunderlying collective human conscience or commonsense thatplays a major role in decision-making. This human computingmethod ensures spontaneous participation of players who, asa byproduct of playing, provide useful data that is impossibleto generate computationally and extremely difficult to collectthrough extensive surveys. In this paper we describe a gamethat allows us to collect data on human perception of characterbody shapes. The paper describes the experimental setup, relatedgame design constraints, art creation, and data analysis. Inour interactive role-playing detective game titled Villain Ville,players are asked to characterize different versions of fullbodycolor portraits of three villain characters. They are latersupposed to correctly match their character-trait ratings toa set of characters represented only with outlines of primitivevector shapes. By transferring human intelligence tasks into coregame-play mechanics, we have successfully managed to collectmotivated data. Preliminary analysis on game data generatedby 50 secondary school students shows a convergence to somecommon perception associations between role, physicality andpersonality. We hope to harness this game to discover perceptionfor a wide variety of body-shapes to build up an intelligent shapetrait-role model, with application in tutored drawing, proceduralcharacter geometry creation and intelligent retrieval

The sociodemographic context of observed solitary and social smoking behaviours using a behavioural ecological approach

This study used a behavioural ecological approach by observing whether solitary and social smoking varied as a function of gender and stress. In sample 1 (N = 414), the result was consistent with the Tend-and-Befriend Hypothesis in that more female smokers were observed to engage in social smoking during high stress. When the number of smokers observed by stress condition was controlled for in sample 2 (N = 587), this effect was non-significant. Effect sizes were small for both samples. Discrepancies with previous research suggests that self-reported data might over-estimate the interaction of various psychosocial factors on smoking behaviours

Nilai Filosofis dalam Karya Sastra Harry Potter

Literature work can influence humans’ character through the thought process of fiction and fantasy world. Essentially, humans have imaginary thoughts which attached to rational, creative and imaginative resilience system. Philosophy values in literature as a determinant of human thought, as a mechanism to function the gap between reality and experiences. This study starts from three important questions: (1) how philosophy values in literature are used in the real life; (2) what factors determine the success of literature works through philosophy values; and (3) how does the use of philosophy values in literature for transforming the life. By using interpretive analysis of observational data and documentation, this study found that: Philosophy values in Harry Potter literature are based on the power of love as a form of philosophy value and become a mechanism for how to interact and to think in life. The success of the philosophy value of the power of love in Harry Potter literature is extracted from cultural traditions, into distinctive characters that are incarnate and function in life. The existence of a Protagonist who upholds the philosophy value of the power of love makes the conflicts that occur can be resolved. The protagonist in this study also has an important position as a central figure which has a relevant function in playing socialization, integration, normative, and social control functions, so that the conflicts in life can be resolved. The use of the concept of literature works in this article succeeds in showing that the philosophy value in the Harry Potter literature in the realm of the power of love is a form of mechanism in the formation of basic traits, personalities, dispositions and characters in life

COVID-19 Recombinant mRNA Vaccines and Serious Ocular Inflammatory Side Effects: Real or Coincidence?

Purpose: To report two cases; bilateral arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (AAION) and bilateral acute zonal occult outer retinopathy (AZOOR) after COVID-19 mRNA vaccination. Case Reports: The first patient was a 79-year-old female was presented to us 35 days after a sudden bilateral loss of vision, which occurred two days after receiving the second recombinant mRNA vaccine (Pfizer) injection. Temporal artery biopsy was compatible with AAION. At presentation, the best-corrected visual acuity was 20/1250 and 20/40 in the right and left eyes on the Snellen acuity chart, respectively. There was 3+ afferent pupillary defect in the right eye. The anterior segment and posterior segment exams were normal except for pallor of the optic nerve head in both eyes. Intraocular pressure was normal in both eyes. She was diagnosed with bilateral AAION and Subcutaneous tocilizumab 162 mg weekly was recommended with monitoring her ESR, CRP, and IL-6. The second patient was a 33-year-old healthy female who was referred to us for a progressive nasal field defect in her left eye, and for flashes in both eyes. Her symptoms started 10 days after receiving the second recombinant mRNA vaccine (Moderna) injection. Complete bloodwork performed by a uveitis specialist demonstrated high ESR (25) and CRP (19) levels. As a result, she was diagnosed with unilateral AZOOR in her left eye and was subsequently treated with an intravitreal dexamethasone implant in the same eye. At presentation, vision was20/20 in both eyes. The anterior segment and posterior segment exams were completely normal except for the presence of abnormal white reflex in the temporal macula of her left eye. We diagnosed her with bilateral AZOOR. Since she was nursing, intravitreal dexamethasone implant was recommended for the right eye. Conclusion: There may be a correlation between ocular inflammatory diseases with autoimmune mechanism and the mRNA COVID-19 vaccination

IMU integration for ATRIAS

An Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) is an important part of a freestanding bipedal robot's state estimation system. IMUs return translational accelerations and rotational velocities, which must be numerically integrated to obtain a robot's orientation. This thesis documents the implementation of the IMU alignment and integration systems for the ATRIAS robot. As a result of this work, ATRIAS has responsive and reliable orientation estimation, which allowed it to achieve freestanding walking. Key Words: IMU, bipedal locomotio

Best practices to address medical identity theft awareness : the case of South African medical aid members

The prevalence of medical identity theft continues to increase. This is a concern for medical aid members within the South African private healthcare sector. Medical identity theft can be caused by various individuals, including internal and external role players. The deceptions involved in medical identity theft can affect medical aid members, the healthcare industry, and medical aids. Medical aid members remain unaware that they are victims of medical identity theft until they receive high medical bills or are notified by their healthcare providers. This research study focused on the lack of awareness of medical identity theft among medical aid members. The main objective of this research study was to propose best practices that can be used to address medical aid members’ awareness of medical identity theft in the South African private healthcare sector. Sub-objectives were used to achieve the main objective. The first sub-objective was to identify the parties causing and the parties affected by medical identity theft. The second sub-objective was to determine the level of medical identity theft awareness among medical aid members in the South African private healthcare sector. The third sub-objective was to identify best practices to address medical identity theft awareness. The methodology used by this exploratory research study included a convergent mixed method design, which was used to obtain quantitative and qualitative data. Data collection was completed using a literature review and a questionnaire. Data analysis and reporting made use of a qualitative content analysis, descriptive statistics, and logical argumentation. Respondents’ answers to a questionnaire about their experiences with medical identity theft provided insight into South African medical aid members’ awareness of medical identity theft. The data gathered from the respondents was analysed, and themes emerged that emphasised a lack of awareness of medical identity theft among South African medical aid members. Twenty-six pre-emptive and nine retroactive best practices to address medical identity theft awareness were identified from existing literature. These best practices were cross-referenced to determine their relevance to the list of concerns about medical identity theft that emanated from the survey completed by South African medical aid members