Search results for "Alien"
showing 10 items of 553 documents
Contact with Nature as Essential to the Human Experience
2021
Human contact with nature is more important than ever before considering the global confinement brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, the increased urbanization of society, and increased rates of mental disorders and threats to human well-being. This article conveys the importance of contact with nature from three perspectives: historical, sociocultural, and scientific. These perspectives convey the many ways in which contact with nature is essential to human life, the multiple ways in which this is expressed, and the broad range of benefits this has. The case for preserving the natural environment continues to be made in light of the dangers of climate change, the deleterious effects of …
In search of Experimental Evidence for Secondary Antisemitism
2019

 
 
 In 1955, Adorno attributed antisemitic sentiments voiced by Germans to a paradox projection: The only latently experienced feelings of guilt were warded off by antisemitic defense mecha- nisms. Similar predictions of increases in antisemitic prejudice in response to increased Holo- caust salience follow from other theoretical apparatuses (e.g., social identity theory as well as just-world theory). Based on the – to the best of our knowledge – only experimental evidence for such an effect (published in Psychological Science in 2009), the present research reports a series of studies originally conducted to better understand the contribution of the different assumed mechan…
The ‘value of solidarity’ in the public housing stock alienation. a case study in palermo (italy)
2020
As many low-income households have still been facing the problem of affordable housing, in several countries governmental institutions have implemented various measures of housing policy and are supporting both the “right to housing” and the “right to buy” a dwelling at a subsidized price. Alienation of public housing is a political measure mostly directed towards low-income tenants, by which the dwellings are sold at a price set by law, assumed as a “administered” price. The gap between market and administered prices may be considered as the “value of solidarity” to be taken into account as the monetary reference of the social housing welfare policies aimed at reducing social inequities. T…
Efficiency versus Fairness in the Management of Public Housing Assets in Palermo (Italy)
2019
Public housing policy has been proposing plans of public housing (PH) stock alienation or, as an alternative, property enhancement plans, since administrative and financial commitments have become too heavy for municipalities. This paper deals with one of the current public housing management policy initiatives, undertaken by the Municipality of Palermo (Italy), which aimed at transferring a significant part of the public housing asset to the current tenants, according to some terms and conditions, and applying a politically fixed price. This policy is described in general, focusing on the amount of the assets involved, reporting the terms and conditions for transferring them at an affordab…
Leratiomyces ceres (Strophariaceae, Basidiomycota), new to Poland
2019
<em>Leratiomyces ceres</em>, an extra-European species hitherto unknown in Poland, was identified in a public park in Rybnik City (SW Poland). The first Polish collections of the fungus were studied using macroscopic and microscopic features. A brief description and illustration of the species, based on Polish specimens, are presented. The ecology and characteristics distinguishing <em>L. ceres</em> from related <em>Leratiomyces</em> species are also discussed.
Minding morality : ethical artificial societies for public policy modeling
2020
AbstractPublic policies are designed to have an impact on particular societies, yet policy-oriented computer models and simulations often focus more on articulating the policies to be applied than on realistically rendering the cultural dynamics of the target society. This approach can lead to policy assessments that ignore crucial social contextual factors. For example, by leaving out distinctive moral and normative dimensions of cultural contexts in artificial societies, estimations of downstream policy effectiveness fail to account for dynamics that are fundamental in human life and central to many public policy challenges. In this paper, we supply evidence that incorporating morally sal…
Seeing with the visual cortex
1984
A short analysis of the input-output organization of the primary visual cortical areas in the cat and monkey is followed by a description of the salient microelectrophysiological properties of retino-geniculo-cortical system neurons. It is concluded that a strict hierarchical model of cortical processing of visual information is no longer tenable.
The paradox of the alien plant Leucaena leucocephala subsp. glabrata (Rose) S. Zárate in Sicily: another threat for the native flora or a valuable re…
2020
With this contribution, an updated picture of the rapid expansion of Leucaena leucocephala subsp. glabrata in Sicily is provided. On the one hand, this is a quite worrying sign, as this woody species figures among the world’s worst invasive alien species. On the other hand, the species shows interesting potential for production purposes (for wood, biomass and for feeding livestock), also considering its nitrogen fixation ability. Consequently, the two opposite options to cope with this species, i.e. cultivation and control/eradication, should accurately take into account the possible uses as well as its invasive behaviou.
2016
How do individuals emotionally cope with the imminent real-world salience of mortality? DeWall and Baumeister as well as Kashdan and colleagues previously provided support that an increased use of positive emotion words serves as a way to protect and defend against mortality salience of one’s own contemplated death. Although these studies provide important insights into the psychological dynamics of mortality salience, it remains an open question how individuals cope with the immense threat of mortality prior to their imminent actual death. In the present research, we therefore analyzed positivity in the final words spoken immediately before execution by 407 death row inmates in Texas. By u…
Aggression in television programs in Finland
1993
A detailed coding system was constructed to study the frequency and salience of aggression in TV programs broadcast on Finnish television. Salience of aggression was measured by the brutality index which consisted of ratings concerning the 1) program context, 2) seriousness, 3) justification, and 4) dramatization of aggressive acts. When compared to previous studies of TV-violence, the rate of aggression in Finnish TV was moderate with 3.5 aggressive acts per program hour. Only 14% of aggressive acts portrayed brutal aggression, which was mostly seen in fictional films and serials. A clear 9 pm watershed was not seen in Finland, since aggressive acts were distributed quite evenly during the…