Search Results (6)

Character toys are toys identifiable by name, personality, and visual traits. They represent specific characters derived from or associated with popular culture. This entry explores adult engagement with character toys, or toy play, through a multidisciplinary lens, emphasizing playability, materiality, affect, creativity, and sociocultural meaning. Drawing on earlier toy research on dolls, action figures, figurines, and soft toys—those with a face and assigned personality—it considers how adults collect, customize, create stories, and critique societal conditions through toys for personal enrichment, identity work, and community formation. The toy play of adults is framed as a legitimate and complex form of self-expression and cultural participation that intersects with object play, creative fandoms, and political resistance. Full article

Simulations of the Brownian dynamics of diffusing particles in complex environments provide important information about the characteristics of the medium and the properties of biological processes. Notable examples include the diffusion of ions and macromolecular solutes through channels of varying cross-section, such as pores in biological membranes, living tissues, zeolites, carbon nanotubes, and synthetic porous materials. In these systems, the observed diffusion can exhibit anomalous behavior characterized by a nonlinear increase in the mean squared displacement. In this article, we present a toy model of the diffusion of rod-shaped particles through a narrowing, conical pore with a trapezoidal longitudinal cross-section. Particles of different sizes undergo a random walk due to interactions with the environment (modeled as noise). We study how the diffusion properties change with particle size as a function of pore width. The numerical analysis of diffusion-driven transport through narrowing conical channels reveals its effective subdiffusive, i.e., anomalous, character. Full article

Different plastic toys are on sale in the Italian market: they are sold as souvenirs and/or as toys. Such statuettes, called Gongoli, represent a famous character (a soccer player, a politician, the Pope, etc.). In particular, these products are widely sold, but the material composition is not sufficiently defined. Further, the effect of the release of dangerous compounds on human health is not sufficiently documented. Following this hypothesis, a study on eight different statuettes was carried out both for evaluating the possible presence of heavy metals and for evidencing their release from these objects. Preliminary analysis by means of EDS spectroscopy highlighted the percentage chemical composition of different products, especially the presence of total Cr and Ni. Release tests evidenced the release of Cr, Cu, Ni, and Pb: Pb reached 74 mg kg⁻¹, which is an interesting value even if it is lower than reported in the legislation. This study should be considered preliminary due to its limitations, such as the number of items investigated and the large variability found for some elements, but it highlights a serious problem related to the classification of these products which are marketed as souvenirs but manipulated by children. Full article

This study focuses on the contemporary use of two well-known Sámi offering sites in Alta, Finnmark, Norway. Today, these are hiking destinations and sightseeing points for both the Sámi and the non-Sámi local population, as well as a few non-local visitors. Many of these visitors leave objects at the sites, such as parts of recently slaughtered reindeer, clothing, coins, toys, sweet wrappers and toilet paper. This indicates that visitors have different levels of knowledge about and reverence for the traditional significance of these places. Through repeated surveys over several years, we also observed a certain development and change in the number and character of these depositions, as well as a variation in depositions between different sites. A series of interviews with various users and key stakeholders were performed to clarify the reasons for these changing practices, as well as what individuals and groups visit these sites, their motivation for doing so and for leaving specific objects, and what potential conflict of interest there is between different users. Furthermore, we surveyed what information has been available to the public about these sites and their significance in Sámi religion and cultural history over time. The results show that a diverse group of individuals visit the sites for a variety of reasons, and that there are contrasting views on their use, even among different Sámi stakeholders. While it is difficult to limit the knowledge and use of these places because they are already well known, more information about old Sámi ritual practices and appropriate behaviour at such sites may mediate latent conflicts and promote a better understanding of the importance of offering sites in both past and present Sámi societies. Full article

Robots for communication are developed extensively with an emphasis on sympathy. This study deals with the growth of character and the control of its operation. The child has time to be alone with the nature of his/her robot friend. That child can interact with other people’s emotional expressions through a robot. Step by step, the robot character will grow as the child grows. Through design studies, qualitative processes such as customer experience audit, eye tracking, mental model diagrams, and semantic differences have been executed for the results. The participatory behavior research approach through user travel is mapped from the user’s lead to the evidence-based design. This research considers how synthetic characteristics can be applied to the physical growth of robot toys through the product design process. With the development of robot toy “Buddy”, two variations on the robot were made to achieve recognizable growth. (1) one-dimensional height scaling and (2) facial expression including the distance between two eyes on the screen. Observations represented children’s reactions when "Buddy" was released with the children. As an independent synthetic character, the robot was recognized by children who had the designed function. Robots for training may require more experimentation. Full article

This article suggests that reading John Cameron Mitchell’s musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch as a religious classic undermines the logic of complementarity within Catholic theological anthropology, particularly the Theology of the Body of John Paul II. A religious classic, a term coined by theologian David Tracy, describes a work with an “excess of meaning” that offers hope and resistance against a normative social structure. Hedwig resists the hegemonic structure of sexual dimorphism, as represented by the logic of complementarity operative within the Theology of the Body. This theological anthropology proposes a normative framework for human beings as gendered and sexual agents who “complete” each other through heterosexual and monogamous marital acts, reinforcing heterosexist and transphobic bodily norms. The work of Judith Butler helps illuminate the embodied performance of gender that the musical so brilliantly subverts. Hedwig, while toying with gender norms, also undermines the idea of the logic of complementarity—namely, that each person has another “half” that will cause completion, bringing human flourishing. In the title character not finding a version of “completeness” by the end of the show, the musical, thus, offers hope for those who cannot fit into gendered bodily norms. Full article