Humans' capacity to attain knowledge is central to Spinoza's philosophy because, in part, knowing things enables humans to deal properly with their affects. But it is not just any sort of knowledge that humans should attain. There are different types of knowledge, but only two of them–rational and intuitive knowledge–enable humans who attain them to know things clearly. Because rational knowledge attends to universals whereas intuitive knowledge attends to particulars, intuitive knowledge is better than rational knowledge at enabling humans to deal with their affects. Most scholars recognize both the importance of knowledge to humans' dealing with their affects and the superiority of intuitive knowledge at enabling them to do this. But these points are particularly relevant to the affect that Spinoza calls "tristitia," which is usually translated as either "pain" or "sadness." I argue in this dissertation that attaining knowledge– especially intuitive knowledge–enables humans to deal properly with their experiences of pain. This ability that humans acquire by knowing things is what I call "active suffering." A person suffers passively when she merely reacts to her pain, in this way allowing an external force to control her. She suffers actively when she uses knowledge to respond to her pain, in this way being in control of herself. This knowledge she uses to deal actively with her pain bears a relation to Spinoza's theory of freedom, since it entails a realization that all events (such as a person's experience of pain) happen necessarily and that embracing this necessity is the same as being free.

Intuitive eating assesses the degree to which individuals eat based on physiological cues rather than emotional or situational cues. The Intuitive Eating Scale was initially developed using college women. This study extends the work of Tylka and reports on the psychometric evaluation of the Intuitive Eating Scale (IES) in a sample of 515 middle school boys and girls. Exploratory factor analysis uncovered 4 factors: unconditional permission to eat, eating for physical rather than emotional reasons, trust in internal hunger/satiety cues and awareness of internal hunger/satiety cues; confirmatory factor analysis suggested that this 4-factor model adequately fit the data after 4 items with low factor loadings were deleted. Supporting its construct validity, IES scores were negatively related to body mass index, body dissatisfaction, negative affect, pressure for thinness, and internalization of the thin ideal, and were positively related to satisfaction with life, and experiencing greater positive affect.

In diesem Artikel wird ein innovativer Ansatz zur intuitiven, kraftgesteuerten Bahnplanung bei kollaborativen Robotern mithilfe von Augmented Reality (AR)-Technologie vorgestellt. Eine benutzerfreundliche Schnittstelle gewährt dem Bediener die volle Kontrolle über den Roboterarm. Durch die Verwendung eines Mixed-Reality-Head-Mounted Displays (HMD), wird virtueller Inhalt überlagert, was eine nahtlose Interaktion mit dem Robotersystem ermöglicht. Die Schnittstelle liefert umfassende Daten zum Roboterstatus, einschließlich Gelenkpositionen, Geschwindigkeiten und auf den Flansch wirkende Kräfte. Der Bediener kann Bewegungsbefehle im Gelenk- und im kartesischen Raum erteilen, intuitiv Pfade planen und kraftgesteuerte Bewegungen ausführen, indem Kontrollpunkte um ein Objekt festgelegt werden. Visuelles Feedback in Form von Schiebereglern ermöglicht die Anpassung der auf das Objekt wirkenden Kräfte. Diese Schieberegler erlauben eine dynamische und intuitive Kraftregulierung im kartesischen Raum und minimieren die Notwendigkeit umfangreicher Programmierung. Ein virtuelles Robotermodell in der Arbeitsumgebung bietet zudem eine Bewegungsvorschau. Die Schnittstelle zwischen Mensch und Roboter sowie der virtuelle Inhalt werden mithilfe von Unity3D erstellt, während die Datenübertragung durch das Robot Operating System (ROS) erfolgt. Dieser Ansatz bietet eine intuitive und sichere Methode zur Steuerung kollaborativer Roboter. Der vorgeschlagene Ansatz hat Potenzial, die Roboterprogrammierung zu vereinfachen, deren Effizienz zu steigern und die Sicherheit in verschiedenen Anwendungen mit kollaborativen Robotern zu verbessern.

Dietitians are expected to deliver sound and scientifically objective advice to the general public, yet their personal beliefs and behaviors could influence delivery of nutrition care. Increased understanding of the personal attitudes and behaviors of dietitians concerning eating behavior and body image could help improve dietetic practice. Traditional nutrition education emphasizes cognitive eating, i.e., monitoring energy intake and comparing macronutrient intakes to the current acceptable ranges. Intuitive eating, however, promotes the release of cognitive eating in favor of greater attention to physiologic cues, or “body wisdom”. We hypothesized that nutrition students in a traditional curriculum would report eating less intuitively than non-nutrition majors. We surveyed 258 female undergraduate students (96 nutrition majors and 162 non-majors) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Using Mann-Whitney U tests, we assessed the differences between nutrition majors and non-majors in terms of: intuitive eating, as measured by the Intuitive Eating Scale-2 (IES-2); body mass index (BMI, kg/m2); magnitude of body dissatisfaction (actual weight – ideal weight); and dieting behavior. We also used non-parametric Spearman’s rho correlations and Chi-squared statistics to examine relationships between variables. A two-way between-groups analysis of variance was used to calculate statistical differences in intuitive eating scores between diet behavior and major. Contrary to our working hypothesis, we found that IES-2 scores were significantly higher in majors versus non-majors (p= 0.01) and significantly lower (pnormalor underweight BMI. These observations provide novel information indicating that nutrition undergraduate students, who have the intention of becoming registered dietitians, report that they eat more intuitively and have a lower degree of body dissatisfaction than do undergraduate students not majoring in nutrition. Additional research is needed to address issues related to body dissatisfaction and body weight.

Les changements sociétaux et techniques ont porté à son paroxysme un des phénomènes clés de notre modernité, à savoir, l’accélération à son paroxysme. Dans ce contexte, les organisations publiques ont à naviguer, promouvoir et guider pour l’intérêt général. Concrètement, les capacités décisionnelles sont mises au-devant de la scène. Notre thèse porte sur la place de l’intuition dans les organisations à haute fiabilité. Là, où, soumis aux plus hautes exigences de l’action, c’est-à-dire, dans les organisations à haute fiabilité, les hommes et les femmes ont dû se doter de capacités décisionnelles exceptionnelles. Ainsi, nos travaux de recherche s’intéressent à la place que font les acteurs de ces organisations à l’intuition, de comment ils la considèrent et l’utilisent, et ce, afin d’en retirer des connaissances utiles à toutes les organisations / Societal and technological changes have pushed to a climax one of the key phenomena of our modernity, namely, the acceleration. In this context, changing public organizations have to navigate, and guide to promote the public interest. Specifically, decision-making abilities are put in front of the stage. Our P.H.D focuses on the place of intuition in high reliability organizations. There, where, subject to the highest demands of the action, that is to say, in high reliability organizations, men and women have to develop exceptional decision-making capabilities. Thus, our research focuses on how the actors of these organizations view and use intuition, in order to draw useful knowledge to all organizations

I have been overwhelmed by curiosity, a curiosity that is keeping my desire to make valid. I have an endless infatuation with growth and constructing. My aim is to juxtapose an academic and a "rudimentary" approach that will set up contradictions in which traditional woodworkers may find irreverence towards.

Technological innovation is increasingly contributing to the development of smart objects, meant as semi-autonomous devices augmented by sensing, processing and network capabilities that facilitate older adults being independent and in control of a healthy lifestyle. Given the lessened familiarity that the ageing population has with internet-based technologies, a 'digital divide' among generations is often observed. This research is premised on the basis that design interventions can develop intuitive and understandable smart objects minimising age-related differences and promote a greater technology adoption. The aim of this thesis is to investigate how the understandability of smart objects for the ageing population could be supported through the application, at the product design level, of Smart Materials (SMs), a category of engineered materials whose properties can be designed to both stimulate human sensorial abilities and to develop engaging experiences. In line with such research enquiry, SMs are adopted in this thesis for their ability to embody 'analogies' and 'metaphors' into product designs and systematically stimulate the prior knowledge and memories of older adults to facilitate their understanding of new concepts, following the principle of 'familiarity'. Analogies and metaphors, powerful learning tools for written, verbal and visual communication, have been recently investigated as 'non-linguistic' tools, when physically embedded into product designs, to facilitate the users' understanding how technology works. How non-linguistic metaphors help to cope with age-related differences is still incomplete. In order to demonstrate that embodied SMs can minimise differences in the understandability of technologies across generations, a qualitative and exploratory study was conducted; empirical evidence was collected through four techniques to accomplish the following objectives: 1. identify critical areas that affect older adults' everyday life and that smart objects should cope with; 2. define a set of embodied Smart Materials to be included into the prototype of a Smart Radio, a novel communicative device specifically design for the ageing population; 3. evaluate the prototype of the Smart Radio, where age-related similarities and differences in the interpretation are made explicit. 62 participants (n=31 under-60-year-old and n=31 over-60-year-old participants) evaluated the developed Smart Radio, the main evaluation study conducted in this thesis, using four different families of SMs. Findings reveal that embodied SMs considerably help mitigate age-related differences in the understanding of smart objects; this in return may increase the chance of technology adoption among ageing users. The embodiment of Smart Materials that enable metaphorical processing shows promising improvements on the older adult's ability to reaffirm their own subjective awareness, hence control, of the world around them along with opportunities for a human-centred technology development.

The law too often avoids or misuses statistical evidence. This problem is partially explained by the absence of a shared normative framework for working with such evidence. There is considerable disagreement within the legal community about how statistical evidence relates to legal inquiry. It is proposed that the first step to addressing the problem is to accept Bayesianism as a normative framework that leads to outcomes that largely align with legal intuitions. It is only once this has been accepted that we can proceed to encourage education about common conceptual errors involving statistical evidence as well as techniques to limit their occurrence. Objections to using Bayesianism in the legal context are addressed. It is argued that the objection based on the irrelevance of statistical evidence is fundamentally incoherent in its failure to identify most evidence as statistical. Second, objections to the incompleteness of a Bayesian approach in accounting for non-truth-related values do place legitimate limits on the use of Bayesianism in the law but in no way undermine its normative usefulness. Lastly, many criticisms of the role of Bayesianism in the law rest on misunderstandings of the meaning and manipulation of statistical evidence and are best addressed by presenting statistical evidence in ways that encourage correct understanding. Once it is accepted that, put in its proper place, a Bayesian approach to understanding statistical evidence can align with most fundamental legal intuitions, a less fearful approach to the use of statistical evidence in the law can emerge.

The law too often avoids or misuses statistical evidence. This problem is partially explained by the absence of a shared normative framework for working with such evidence. There is considerable disagreement within the legal community about how statistical evidence relates to legal inquiry. It is proposed that the first step to addressing the problem is to accept Bayesianism as a normative framework that leads to outcomes that largely align with legal intuitions. It is only once this has been accepted that we can proceed to encourage education about common conceptual errors involving statistical evidence as well as techniques to limit their occurrence. Objections to using Bayesianism in the legal context are addressed. It is argued that the objection based on the irrelevance of statistical evidence is fundamentally incoherent in its failure to identify most evidence as statistical. Second, objections to the incompleteness of a Bayesian approach in accounting for non-truth-related values do place legitimate limits on the use of Bayesianism in the law but in no way undermine its normative usefulness. Lastly, many criticisms of the role of Bayesianism in the law rest on misunderstandings of the meaning and manipulation of statistical evidence and are best addressed by presenting statistical evidence in ways that encourage correct understanding. Once it is accepted that, put in its proper place, a Bayesian approach to understanding statistical evidence can align with most fundamental legal intuitions, a less fearful approach to the use of statistical evidence in the law can emerge.

How many times have you been dreaming as a child that you run and after a few steps your body detaches off the ground and floats into the air? Most of the leisure activities we cultivate today have deep roots into humankind`s history and are still confined to land. The history of hovering has been inspired by the great comic books sci-fi stories and was illustrated through Star Wars flying vehicles, which have been later translated into jetpacks and hovering bikes. What if you would be stuck somewhere in the middle way between dream and reality? What if this vehicle would be at first available to you in a virtual platform, so that you could train to fly it, and when you would master the art or flying it, you could try the real experience?