Notre Dame de Namur University

Ordinal regression bridges regression and classification by assigning objects to ordered classes. While human experts rely on discriminative patch-level features for decisions, current approaches are limited by the availability of only image-level ordinal labels, overlooking fine-grained patch-level characteristics. In this paper, we propose a Dual-level Fuzzy Learning with Patch Guidance framework, named DFPG that learns precise feature-based grading boundaries from ambiguous ordinal labels, with patch-level supervision. Specifically, we propose patch-labeling and filtering strategies to enable the model to focus on patch-level features exclusively with only image-level ordinal labels available. We further design a dual-level fuzzy learning module, which leverages fuzzy logic to quantitatively capture and handle label ambiguity from both patch-wise and channel-wise perspectives. Extensive experiments on various image ordinal regression datasets demonstrate the superiority of our proposed method, further confirming its ability in distinguishing samples from difficult-to-classify categories. The code is available at https://github.com/ZJUMAI/DFPG-ord.

In this paper I discuss the crisis of Indian secularism and how Roman Catholic Indian theologians address such a crisis. First, I define the crisis as the result of the application of Western illiberal ideas to the distinct reality of Indian secularism. The result is a separation between politics and religion that resembles that in place in the West. I also study Roman Catholic Indian theologians’ distinctive understanding of Indian secularism and the role that it plays in their theology. Their distinctive understanding of Indian secularism plays an important role in their effort to develop an Indian theology that is properly Indian. 1

The Modi dispensation provides a unique vantage for assessing the role, program, and self-understanding of the emergence of a local, indigenous style of theology within Roman Catholicism in India during the Nehruvian era. The style has often been linked to the internal history of Catholicism in the aftermath of Vatican II. In this article, the emphasis is rather located in the Indian context, and more specifically in the Nehruvian India. A special role in this relationship between Indian theologians and Nehruvian India was played by the category of difference that allows an appropriation of Western modes of thinking and yet marks a distance from them. I offer some consideration of the complex implications of this approach in theology.

The purpose of this instrumental case study was to be able to determine ways that professional jazz musicians utilize self-assessment during jazz improvisation and to better understand how social competencies and interpersonal communication influence self-assessment practice. Participants included four experienced jazz musicians who performed together regularly and had developed deep social and musical connections with one another prior to the study. Data were collected in five phases: (1) a rehearsal observation, (2) a group interview, (3) a second rehearsal observation, (4) a journaling session, and (5) a focus group. Five themes were developed from the data—“Empathy,” “Self-Doubt,” “Transcendence,” “Prior Knowledge,” and “Self-Awareness.” Self-Awareness served as a meta-theme to which the other four themes were connected. Further analysis of the themes indicated that the participants utilized self-assessment through non-verbal communication, deep listening, connecting to their past experiences, incorporating musical constraints such as form and harmony, using Norgaard’s tools of evaluative monitoring and sketch planning, and through empathetic attunement.

ABSTRACT Raimon Panikkar was a Spanish theologian with Indian roots whose reflections on monasticism were at once creative and inspiring. He aimed to renew the monastic tradition not in the sense of restoration but rather aggiornamento, namely, bringing it up to date. His scholarly considerations were matched with a personal tendency toward solitude, although seen as a complement to rather than a priority in an integrated life. This article is primarily a study of Panikkar’s engagement with monasticism as a positive resource for spirituality but also as an avoidance of accountability. While reviewing both Panikkar’s intellectual constructions and personal aspirations, reframed within the concept of ‘cosmic monasticism,’ I identify their main characters and limits. Among the former, I consider the assumption that the human spirit is naturally oriented toward grace; regarding the latter, I mention the omissions of the role of grace and of rules in spiritual development associated with ‘new monasticism’.

The sexual abuse crisis that has rocked the Catholic Church in recent decades has resulted in one major unintended casualty: creating a skeptical distance in the relationship between adult leaders and youth. This article provides a short history of the abuse scandal in the US and discusses the reforms and repercussions of the Dallas Charter, in conjunction with the relationships between adult leaders and youth. By incorporating the five aspects of the Developmental Relationships Framework into youth programs, ministers and volunteers will have the means to provide tangible action items for developing positive relationships with young people. These five items include expressing care, challenging growth, providing support, sharing power, and expanding possibilities.

Technologies are changing marketing due to the amount of information available to consumers, along with information being generated by consumers. Marketers face a challenge with greater volume and variety of data generated at a faster rate than ever before along with fragmentation of channels. This data when combined with artificial intelligence presents an opportunity to marketers to provide value add at a granular level and a personalized customer experience round the clock 24/7/365. Treating customers as individuals by offering an optimized personalized offering, sending the right personalized message at the right time through their preferred channel is the promise of data fed into AI algorithms. Artificial intelligence has the potential to transform companies by making sense out of an insanely voluminous variety of data being generated with its ability to serve customers more effectively and efficiently, personalizing at scale.