This article explores how Emmanuel Levinas’s concept of the epiphany of the face can illuminate ethical responsibility in pedagogical encounters under late-modern conditions, where masks and roles dominate intersubjective life. Drawing on a normative-philosophical reading of Levinas and contextualised by sociological diagnoses, the analysis foregrounds how ethical responsibility precedes method, rule, and moral codes. A simple heuristic triad—the lived, the emotional, and the vulnerable—makes visible what masks attempt to conceal yet persistently leak through our (micro-)gestures. The article further examines how “the Third” translates the primary ethical call into justice and institutions without dissolving its asymmetry, and how Levinas’s account of language shapes pedagogical communication. The contribution is conceptual: it articulates conditions for pedagogical judgement and responsibility, and points toward implications for assessment, professional formation, and the design of pedagogical frameworks.
Philosophy (General), Theory and practice of education
Abstract Background Taraxasterol, a pentacyclic triterpenoid compound, has been widely used in traditional and modern medicine because of its pharmacological properties such as anti-inflammatory, antioxidative and antitumor effects. 2,3-oxidosqualene cyclase (OSC) is highly important for the generation of phytosterols and triterpenoid compounds and the structural diversity of natural products. However, the specific role of TmOSCs in the taraxasterol biosynthesis pathway has not yet been precisely resolved. Results In this study, 10 TmOSC gene family members were identified via the Taraxacum mongolicum (dandelion) genome and classified into three subgroups. Phylogenetic and collinearity analyses revealed evolutionary conservation among OSC proteins from Asteraceae species. RNA-seq data analysis revealed that TmOSC8 and TmOSC10 were highly expressed in nutrient-containing tissues. In addition, methyl jasmonate (MeJA) and abscisic acid (ABA) significantly induced the expression of TmOSC3, and the change in its relative expression was consistent with the taraxasterol content. The relative expression level of the TmOSC8-overexpressioning line was significantly increased by approximately 20 fold compared with that of the wild type, and the content of taraxasterol was significantly increased to 3 fold greater than that of the wild type. Conclusion This study systematically analyzed the evolutionary characteristics and expression patterns of the TmOSC gene family, suggested potential key roles of TmOSC3 and TmOSC8 in sterol synthesis and stress response, and provided a preliminary theoretical basis for the metabolic engineering of medicinal components in dandelion.
The rapid evolution of conversational artificial intelligence (AI) has sparked an ongoing debate regarding its ability to replicate, or even experience, human emotions. While early conversational chatbots such as Joseph Weizenbaum’s ELIZA (1966) relied on simple pattern recognition to create the illusion of understanding, modern AI systems like ChatGPT generate highly sophisticated, contextually appropriate responses that can convincingly mimic emotional engagement. This paper draws upon cinematic reflections, such as Spike Jonze’s Her (2013), to offer a critical examination of the question of whether AI is capable of genuine emotional experience or merely simulating such experiences through advanced language modelling. Utilising a theoretical framework grounded in philosophy, psychology and communication studies, this research critically assesses AI’s capacity for emotional experience, positing that while chatbots may convincingly simulate human emotional expression, they lack the subjective element that is integral to genuine emotional experience. This distinction, nowadays, has profound implications for human-AI interaction, ethics, and our understanding of artificial intelligence’s humanity in contemporary society.
I Gusti Ngurah Agung Pawana, Made Widya Jayantari, Made Dika Nugraha
Kemajuan teknologi informasi telah mendorong berbagai institusi, termasuk perguruan tinggi, untuk mengadopsi sistem pengelolaan yang lebih modern dan efisien. Fakultas Vokasi, Universitas Warmadewa saat ini masih menggunakan metode manual dalam pengelolaan surat, yang melibatkan pencatatan di Excel dan penyimpanan dokumen dalam bentuk digital hasil pemindaian. Sistem ini kurang efisien dan rawan terhadap kesalahan, seperti hilangnya data dan keterlambatan disposisi surat. Mengatasi permasalahan ini, dirancanglah sistem informasi pengelolaan surat berbasis web menggunakan framework CodeIgniter. Data yang digunakan dalam pengembangan sistem ini meliputi dokumen surat masuk dan surat keluar yang dikelola dalam satu tahun terakhir. Sistem ini mencakup fitur pendaftaran surat, pengarsipan digital, disposisi online, dan pelacakan surat secara real-time, mendukung inisiatif paperless yang dapat mengurangi penggunaan kertas. Pengembangan sistem menggunakan metode Research and Development (R&D), melalui tahap analisis, perancangan, pengembangan, implementasi, dan pengujian. Pengujian dilakukan dengan metode black box untuk memastikan fungsionalitas sistem berjalan sesuai dengan yang diharapkan. Hasil pengujian menunjukkan peningkatan efisiensi pengelolaan surat hingga lebih dari 70% dibandingkan dengan metode manual. Implementasi dari sistem ini diharapkan Fakultas Vokasi dapat mencapai pengelolaan yang lebih efektif dan efisien serta ramah lingkungan.
Giulia Mazzari, Christopher A. Lowry, Dominik Langgartner
et al.
Chronic psychosocial stress is a burden of modern society and poses a clear risk factor for a plethora of somatic and affective disorders, of which most are associated with an activated immune status and chronic low-grade inflammation. Preclinical and clinical studies further suggest that a failure in immunoregulation promotes an over-reaction of the inflammatory stress response and, thus, predisposes an individual to the development of stress-related disorders. Therefore, all genetic (i.e., sex) and environmental (i.e., early life adversity; ELA) factors facilitating an adult's inflammatory stress response are likely to increase their stress vulnerability.In the present study we investigated whether repeated subcutaneous (s.c.) administrations with a heat-killed preparation of Mycobacterium vaccae (M. vaccae; National Collection of Type Cultures (NCTC) 11659), an abundant soil saprophyte with immunoregulatory properties, are protective against negative behavioral, immunological and physiological consequences of ELA alone or of ELA followed by chronic psychosocial stress during adulthood (CAS) in male and female mice. ELA was induced by the maternal separation (MS) paradigm, CAS was induced by 19 days of chronic subordinate colony housing (CSC) in males and by a 7-week exposure to the social instability paradigm (SIP) in females.Our data indicate that ELA effects in both sexes, although relatively mild, were to a great extent prevented by subsequent s.c. M. vaccae administrations. Moreover, although the use of different paradigms for males and females impedes a direct comparison, male mice seemed to be more susceptible to CAS than females, with only females benefitting slightly from the stress protective effects of s.c. M. vaccae administrations when given prior to CAS alone. Finally, our data support the hypothesis that female mice are more vulnerable to the additive effects of ELA and CAS than male mice and that s.c. M. vaccae administrations subsequent to ELA but prior to CAS are protective in both sexes.Taken together and considering the limitation that CAS in males and females was induced by different paradigms, our findings are consistent with the hypotheses that murine stress vulnerability during different phases of life is strongly sex dependent and that developing immunoregulatory approaches, such as repeated s.c. administrations with immunoregulatory microorganisms, have potential for prevention/treatment of stress-related disorders.
Neurosciences. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry, Neurology. Diseases of the nervous system
Yanis Belkheyar, Joan Daemen, Christoph Dobraunig
et al.
Recently, a memory safety concept called Cryptographic Capability Computing (C3) has been proposed. C3 is the first memory safety mechanism that works without requiring extra storage for metadata and hence, has the potential to significantly enhance the security of modern IT-systems at a rather low cost. To achieve this, C3 heavily relies on ultra-low-latency cryptographic primitives. However, the most crucial primitive required by C3 demands uncommon dimensions. To partially encrypt 64-bit pointers, a 24-bit tweakable block cipher with a 40-bit tweak is needed. The research on low-latency tweakable block ciphers with such small dimensions is not very mature. Therefore, designing such a cipher provides a great research challenge, which we take on with this paper. As a result, we present BipBip, a 24-bit tweakable block cipher with a 40-bit tweak that allows for ASIC implementations with a latency of 3 cycles at a 4.5 GHz clock frequency on a modern 10 nm CMOS technology.
Computer engineering. Computer hardware, Information technology
The socio-economic consequences of regional unevenness remain one of the major problems of Japan’s development in the 21st century. Despite some success in regional economic policy, the main quantitative indicators of territorial-economic proportions or lack thereof have changed little over the past 30 years despite certain successes of regional economic policy. However, a number of internal and external factors have made it necessary to adjust approaches to regional strategic planning. These include globalization and the changing positioning of Japan in the world market, the partial loss of competitive positions in Asian markets, and increased competition between “international” cities for foreign investment. Internal factors include the decline of the Japanese population at a rate higher than previously expected, changes in people’s lifestyles and shifts in their value system, the increasing importance of such of its components as stability, security, favorable environmental conditions, attractive landscapes, and diversification of lifestyles. The new strategy of the 21st century is based on the idea of creating a multilayered “compact and networked territorial structure”, which should ensure the availability of social services for residents of all localities by optimizing the social infrastructure and forming “new urban cores”. The economic development of regions should focus on the development of industries that rely on local resources and take into account local specifics, as well as the creation of “ecosystems” of innovations. Along with vitalizing regional and rural economy, Japan’s New Spatial Strategy also aims to adjust the excessive concentration of population and economic potential of large megacities (primarily Tokyo) and at the same time strengthen their global competitiveness. As necessary conditions for achieving the ambitious goals, the Spatial Development Strategy calls for achieving economic growth, increasing industrial productivity, building innovation through regional resources and interregional cooperation, increasing the participation of women and senior persons in work and public life, using modern “smart” technologies, and sharing economy formats. The traditional imperative in formulating Japan’s spatial development strategy remains the obvious desire to solve the problems of territorial unevenness in conjunction with solving other socio-economic problems of the country, in particular, the problems of environment and demographic decline (which is especially noticeable in the regions), issues of upgrading economic and social infrastructure.
V. Ya. Romanchenko, I. A. Nozhkina, O. N. Shmygina
Background. The purpose of this work is to analyze the first steps of the Bolshevik
government to form a system of agricultural management. The socio-economic
and political conditions and features of this process are determined. Attention is focused
on the political bias of the government’s activities in organizing agricultural
management, the priority focus of this activity on the development of large public
farms and support for the rural poor. An important condition for studying the modern
system of agriculture, especially its management, is the need to study the experience
of agricultural management in the historical past, which determines the relevance
of this study.
Materials and methods. The research is based on documents and materials that
reveal the essence of the Soviet system of agricultural management at the initial
stage of the formation of the Soviet government and works by scientists in the field
of organization of public farms in the Russian countryside. In the course of preparing
the work, we used basic research methods – dialectical, historicism, objectivity,
system ones which allowed us to organize and structure the material taking into
account agricultural issues. We also used common research methods such as problem-
chronological, historical description, comparative-historical ones which allowed
us to form a holistic view of the origins of the Soviet system of agricultural management.
Results. The system of agricultural management in Russia in the period 1917–
1920 is studied, allowing us to identify the features of the formation and management
of agriculture at the initial stage of its development.
Conclusions. It is concluded that initially the functioning of the management system
of the agricultural sector of the economy was based on the principle of command
administration, characteristic of totalitarian regimes. The emerging system of
agricultural management was based on the principles of strict leadership and dictate.
There was an acute shortage of managerial personnel in the field of agriculture.
In general, in this period of time, it was not possible to create a coherent management
system.
Luciana Randazzo, Giuseppe Paladini, Valentina Venuti
et al.
Neutron radiography (NR) was here applied to study the effects of two different commercially available consolidants on the water absorption properties in a particular type of limestone (biocalcarenite), known as <i>Pietra d’Aspra</i> stone, which is one of the most extensively used lithotypes in Sicilian Baroque buildings. Our attention was mainly focused on the evaluation, using a fast and nondestructive visualization of water motion through capillarity, of the effectiveness of such layers as consolidating agents in view of preserving and maintaining both old and modern structures. The biocalcarenite was treated with nanosilica (Nano Estel<sup>®</sup>) and nanolime (CaLoSil<sup>®</sup>) by brushing it until full saturation, and then artificially weathered by salt crystallization and temperature/relative humidity jumps. Liquid distribution and height of the water front were monitored as a function of time. Significant differences in the water suction behavior among all the investigated samples were highlighted, which allowed us to gain insight into the coating/substrate interaction mechanisms which regulate the fluid mobility inside the porous network of the limestone.
Bosko Vladislav Pavlovich, Zakharova Julia Georgievna
The article presents an analysis of barbarisms used in Internet blogs, websites, forums, etc. The authors determine functional areas of the use and factors affecting the spread of barbarisms as well as mechanisms of barbarisms’ adaptation in speech. The article reveals the features of changes in a number of foreign-language words at the phonetic-graphic, semantic and derivational levels.
History of scholarship and learning. The humanities
Background. It is a generally shared belief that “Bednaya Liza” (1792; «Poor Liza») of N.М. Karamzin is a classic example of the Russian sentimental school. Actually it is not sufficient just to attribute this story to the particular genre. A careful reading of “Poor Lisa” we will appear to allow identifying basic, archetypal psychological mechanisms that determine the characteristics of modern artistic perception in a latent form. The work continues the line of psychological research on the interpretation of a literary text identified by L.S. Vygotsky as ‘reader’s criticism’. A number of psychological techniques and hermeneutic methods of text analysis are used.
The Objective is to reveal explicit or implicit literary techniques used by Karamzin, e.g. plot construction, speech and behaviour characters, description of the landscape,
etc., and also to consider the psychological characteristics of the real behaviour of the characters, i.e. motives, affective reactions, behavioural norms, social expectations,
moral and ethical assessments, worldview, etc.
Design. The paper provides an artistic and real analysis of the story used by the author to play two games with the reader. Both of them are played by the author and the
reader simultaneously, where both artistic and real plains are combined on «one playing ground», i.e. the ground of the literary piece, which making different combinations
determine the reader’s experience.
Results. A number of psychological phenomena are highlighted that are quite clearly manifested in the perception of the story «Poor Liza». The phenomena are compared
with the text features and those artistic techniques that generate them. The issues concerning the study of authentic psychological mechanisms, authentic artistic experience and eliciting their meaning when reading a story are considered. The author brings together the explanatory models and concepts used in philological and psychological works in order to clarify the genuine sentimental feelings
Memristor is a nonlinear resistor with memory, which has the characteristics of neuron synapses and can be used to design a new generation of memristive neural networks. Based on the Pavlov associative memory, a novel memristive associative memory neural network model is designed by using the charge-controlled nanoscale HP memristor model as the electronic synapse. This model includes neurons, memristor synapses, and weighted input feedback learning rule. Based on the proposed memristive associative memory model, a memristor-based neural network structure for simulating human emotions is further designed. The emotion simulation takes into account the excitation and inhibition between different neurons, making it more bionic. In order to simulate the memristive neural network structure, a relatively simplified emotional simulation circuit is constructed, which effectively reduces the network complexity and circuit power consumption. Finally, PSPICE is used to simulate the circuit. The simulation results not only verify the correctness of the model but also achieve a simple simulation of human emotions, which is helpful for the further development of the artificial neural network in the field of artificial intelligence.