scholarly journals Which one to trust? Exploratory analysis on astrology, science and religiosity among students in Bucharest

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-133
Author(s):  
Dragoș Obreja

Confidence in astrology remains a visible phenomenon in contemporary society, and this is a constant topic of academic interest. A survey based on 512 valid questionnaires were obtained from a non-probability sample of university students from Bucharest, in order to observe possible statistical relations between confidence in astrology, confidence in sciences such as medicine and mathematics, but also fields such as astronomy and horoscope. On the other hand, several statements have been used to measure the level of religiosity. Notable is the moderate positive correlation obtained between astrology and astronomy, but also the strong correlation between astrology and horoscope (this last correlation was expected). Broadly speaking, it is observed that astrology correlates positively with the variables that constitute the ‘inward’ component of religiosity, while the ‘outward’ component shows a rather negative correlation, but which does not enjoy a similar statistical significance. Astronomy, like medicine, outlines negative relation with the level of religiosity. Instead, the correlations that involve trust in medicine have a negative and moderate value, in relation to religiosity. In conclusion, it is observed that the trust in “strong sciences” generates more prompt correlations compared to the trust in astrology, while further studies are needed to clarify the reasons for such uncertain correlations between astrology and religiosity.

1988 ◽  
Vol 32 ◽  
pp. 123-137
Author(s):  
A. Koet

Dutch students of EngHsh at the tertiary level will usually have to pass a pronunciation test of some kind or other if they are to obtain their degree or certification. It is not entirely clear what factors determine their success of failure on these tests. In this study three groups of judges were asked to assess the pronunciation of Dutch lst-year students of English: - British lst-year university students of linguistics; - Dutch lst-year college students of English; - Dutch college teachers of English. They were asked to assess the pronunciation on five 7-point scales: pleasant-unpleasant; ugly-beautiful; broad-cultured; strong accent-no accent; monotonous-melodious. The results of the three groups were compared. The results were also compared with the marks that the students had actually been given after an oral interview test at the end of their first year. It was found that: - the three groups of judges agree on the question whether the pronunciation is monotonous or melodious; - Dutch students are much more positive than the other groups in their judgments on the scal stron accent-no accent; - for the British stude s there is a strong correlation between the three scales unpleasant-pleasant, ugly-beautiful, and monotonous-melodious as well as between the two scales ugly-beautiful and broad-cultured; - there was very little correlation between the British students' judgments on the scale strong accent-no accent and the marks the students had actually been given; - the Dutch students' judgment on the scale broad-cultured correlated most strongly with the actual mark after the lst-year interview test.


2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-125
Author(s):  
Johannes Schult ◽  
Rebecca Schneider ◽  
Jörn R. Sparfeldt

Abstract. The need for efficient personality inventories has led to the wide use of short instruments. The corresponding items often contain multiple, potentially conflicting descriptors within one item. In Study 1 ( N = 198 university students), the reliability and validity of the TIPI (Ten-Item Personality Inventory) was compared with the reliability and validity of a modified TIPI based on items that rephrased each two-descriptor item into two single-descriptor items. In Study 2 ( N = 268 university students), we administered the BFI-10 (Big Five Inventory short version) and a similarly modified version of the BFI-10 without two-descriptor items. In both studies, reliability and construct validity values occasionally improved for separated multi-descriptor items. The inventories with multi-descriptor items showed shortcomings in some factors of the TIPI and the BFI-10. However, the other scales worked comparably well in the original and modified inventories. The limitations of short personality inventories with multi-descriptor items are discussed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 6946
Author(s):  
Mercedes Cuevas López ◽  
Inmaculada Ávalos Ruiz ◽  
Emilio Jesús Lizarte Simón

Studies focusing on strategies for the cognitive regulation of emotions are gaining importance due to the development and perpetuation of psychopathologies. The obligatory home confinement imposed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic has led to new virtual learning methodologies. Objective: Our objective aimed to analyze and compare the cognitive emotional regulation of students from universities on the Spanish mainland with that of students attending the Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. Methods: An online Emotional Regulation Questionnaire was applied, together with a survey covering the students’ beliefs about the pandemic, including information about their housing conditions and beliefs about online learning. The study included a sample of 1030 university students. Results: On the mainland and at Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, the students most frequently used adaptive strategies. Three of the strategies were used in both groups but to different extents (Acceptance, Positive reappraisal, Putting into perspective), while the other strategies were used in both groups to the same extent (Refocusing on planning, Positive refocusing, Rumination, Blaming others, Catastrophizing, Self-blame). Meanwhile, the results were quite similar regarding the students’ housing conditions and beliefs about the pandemic and online learning.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan L. S. Sharpe ◽  
Mufti Mahmud ◽  
M. Shamim Kaiser ◽  
Jianhui Chen

AbstractHere we provide evidence with an exploratory pilot study that through the use of a Gamma 40 Hz entrainment frequency, mood, memory and cognition can be improved with respect to a 9-participant cohort. Participants constituted towards three binaural entrainment frequency groups: the 40 Hz, 25 Hz and 100 Hz. Participants attended a total of eight entrainment frequency sessions twice over the duration of a 4-week period. Additionally, participants were assessed based on their cognitive abilities, mood as well as memory, where the cognitive and memory assessments occurred before and after a 5-min binaural beat stimulation. The mood assessment scores were collected from sessions 1, 4 and 8, respectively. With respect to the Gamma 40 Hz entrainment frequency population, we observed a mean improvement in cognitive scores, elevating from 75% average to 85% average upon conclusion of the experimentation at weak statistical significance ($$\alpha$$ α = 0.10, p = 0.076). Similarly, memory score improvements at a greater significance ($$\alpha$$ α = 0.05, p = 0.0027) were noted, elevating from an average of 87% to 95%. In pertinence to the mood scores, a negative correlation across all populations were noted, inferring an overall increase in mood due to lower scores correlating with elevated mood. Finally, correlation analysis revealed a stronger R$$^2$$ 2 value (0.9838) within the 40 Hz group between sessions as well as mood score when compared across the entire frequency group cohort.


2009 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Mubi Brighenti

In this article I review a series of artworks, artistic performances and installations that deal with the topic of surveillance. My aim is twofold. On the one hand, I want to look comparatively at how different artists interrogate, question, quote, or critise surveillance society. On the other hand, I take these artistic actions as themselves symptomatic of the ways in which surveillance interrogates contemporary society. In other words, my claim is that surveillance does not simply produce substantive social control and social triage, it also contributes to the formation of an ideoscape and a collective imagery about what security, insecurity, and control are ultimately about, as well as the landscape of moods a surveillance society like ours expresses.


2005 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. A. H Penna ◽  
M. A Villacorta-Corrêa ◽  
T. Walter ◽  
M. Petrere-JR

In order to decide which is the best growth model for the tambaqui Colossoma macropomum Cuvier, 1818, we utilized 249 and 256 length-at-age ring readings in otholiths and scales respectively, for the same sample of individuals. The Schnute model was utilized and it is concluded that the Von Bertalanffy model is the most adequate for these data, because it proved highly stable for the data set, and only slightly sensitive to the initial values of the estimated parameters. The phi' values estimated from five different data sources presented a CV = 4.78%. The numerical discrepancies between these values are of not much concern due to the high negative correlation between k and L<FONT FACE=Symbol>¥</FONT> viz, so that when one of them increases, the other decreases and the final result in phi' remains nearly unchanged.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giovanni Ciancio ◽  
Stefania Volpinari ◽  
Maria Fotinidi ◽  
Federica Furini ◽  
Ilaria Farina ◽  
...  

Objective. To evaluate the involvement of the bursa located next to the head of the 5th metatarsal bone in patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) in comparison with the other seronegative spondyloarthritis (SpA).Methods. All patients with PsA seen during a period of 24 months were enrolled. The control group included healthy subjects and patients with the other SpA. All subjects underwent clinical and ultrasound (US) examination of the lateral surface of the 5th metatarsal.Results. 150 PsA patients (88 M; 62 F), 172 SpA (107 M; 65 F), and 95 healthy controls (58 M; 37 F) were evaluated. Based on clinical and US evaluation, bursitis was diagnosed in 17/150 (11.3%) PsA patients but in none of the SpA (P<0.0001) and healthy (P=0.0002) controls. In detecting bursitis, US was more sensitive than clinical examination, although the difference did not reach statistical significance (P=0.09).Conclusion. The bursa of the 5th metatarsophalangeal joint appears to be involved in PsA more frequently than by chance. If confirmed by other studies, this finding could be considered as a distinctive clinical sign of PsA, useful for differential diagnosis with the other SpA. In asymptomatic patients, US proved to be more sensitive in the detection of bursitis.


2004 ◽  
Vol 96 (4) ◽  
pp. 1277-1284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roy L. P. G. Jentjens ◽  
Luke Moseley ◽  
Rosemary H. Waring ◽  
Leslie K. Harding ◽  
Asker E. Jeukendrup

The purpose of the present study was to examine whether combined ingestion of a large amount of fructose and glucose during cycling exercise would lead to exogenous carbohydrate oxidation rates >1 g/min. Eight trained cyclists (maximal O2consumption: 62 ± 3 ml·kg-1·min-1) performed four exercise trials in random order. Each trial consisted of 120 min of cycling at 50% maximum power output (63 ± 2% maximal O2consumption), while subjects received a solution providing either 1.2 g/min of glucose (Med-Glu), 1.8 g/min of glucose (High-Glu), 0.6 g/min of fructose + 1.2 g/min of glucose (Fruc+Glu), or water. The ingested fructose was labeled with [U-13C]fructose, and the ingested glucose was labeled with [U-14C]glucose. Peak exogenous carbohydrate oxidation rates were ∼55% higher ( P < 0.001) in Fruc+Glu (1.26 ± 0.07 g/min) compared with Med-Glu and High-Glu (0.80 ± 0.04 and 0.83 ± 0.05 g/min, respectively). Furthermore, the average exogenous carbohydrate oxidation rates over the 60- to 120-min exercise period were higher ( P < 0.001) in Fruc+Glu compared with Med-Glu and High-Glu (1.16 ± 0.06, 0.75 ± 0.04, and 0.75 ± 0.04 g/min, respectively). There was a trend toward a lower endogenous carbohydrate oxidation in Fruc+Glu compared with the other two carbohydrate trials, but this failed to reach statistical significance ( P = 0.075). The present results demonstrate that, when fructose and glucose are ingested simultaneously at high rates during cycling exercise, exogenous carbohydrate oxidation rates can reach peak values of ∼1.3 g/min.


2013 ◽  
Vol 732 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rick Salmon

AbstractOrdinary two-dimensional turbulence corresponds to a Hamiltonian dynamics that conserves energy and the vorticity on fluid particles. This paper considers coupled systems of two-dimensional turbulence with three distinct governing dynamics. One is a Hamiltonian dynamics that conserves the vorticity on fluid particles and a quantity analogous to the energy that causes the system members to develop a strong correlation in velocity. The other two dynamics considered are non-Hamiltonian. One conserves the vorticity on particles but has no conservation law analogous to energy conservation; the other conserves energy and enstrophy but it does not conserve the vorticity on fluid particles. The coupled Hamiltonian system behaves like two-dimensional turbulence, even to the extent of forming isolated coherent vortices. The other two dynamics behave very differently, but the behaviours of all four dynamics are accurately predicted by the methods of equilibrium statistical mechanics.


2021 ◽  
Vol 78 (4) ◽  
pp. 408-417
Author(s):  
Nicu Dumitraşcu

In this article I briefly examine chapter 6 of the document For the Life of the World issued by the Ecumenical Patriarchate concerning “ecumenical relations and relations with the other faiths.” In the first part, I discuss the relationship between the Orthodox Church and other Christian denominations, and in the second, the dialogue with Judaism and Islam. The document has an optimistic, inspiring, and hopeful tone, but it will simply remain an idealistic statement without a major echo inside of the Christian world and contemporary society.


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