Cultural Field Research Articles

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Archives on Food, Culture and Nutrition (AFOCUN) was sponsored by the International Commission on Anthropology of Food and Nutrition (ICAF) with the firm commitment of a small Spanish university – the University of Extremadura – to what can be seen as an affirmation of its counter-current spirit. It is born in some way in the subalternity, located on the periphery of the great centers of knowledge dissemination, alien to the flows of exchange of broad academic capital. And it also did so with the aim of clarifying the category of Open Access (OA), offering researchers a space to disseminate their findings free of charge and without restriction of any kind. This assumption of subalternity as a political ethos also refers to the delimitation of the objects of study that can be addressed in this publication. In the first place, because of a firm commitment to interdisciplinarity, given that the journal is open to publications that address the food issue from different perspectives. But also, because of the firm commitment to offer a space for contexts of subalternity that have not been addressed with due attention. This issue largely addresses all these foundational ethos of the publication with which it intends to carve out a path. It combines research by authors of recognized prestige in the academic and cultural fields with incipient authors; It caters to different languages, such as English and Spanish, while opening its doors to European, but also Asian and American researchers. But, above all, this second issue of AFOCUN provides a space for multidisciplinary expression and reflection on food and nutrition, addressing classic topics such as indigenous ways of eating with other more innovative ones such as reflection on the "cultural sustainability" of food systems.

Indian Sequins: A Jeweled Textile of India

Looking back from the time of civilization, India always has rich competencies in the field of fascinating arts, crafts, and cultures along with its high-end heritage. From that time competent craftsmen not only used their skills to fulfill the needs and wants of society but also trade overseas. This used to be a reason for their earning and livelihood. Little by little these skills started demolishing, mukeish or badla or kamdani work is one of them. Mukeish (also known as Badla work or Kamdani in the local language) is a type of old-age metal wire embroidery with its legacy in the capital of Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow, the city of Nawabs. Mukeish work involves twisting metallic thread to create patterns over the surface of the fabrics. Earlier original gold and silver wires were used to make these patterns, depicting royalty. With the passage of time, mukeish work lost its shine and royalty. Though it is not vaporized completely, only a handful of skilled craftsmen are available in Uttar Pradesh. The core reason for the decreasing demand for Mukeish work is not crystal clear but a small number of craftsmen are available who work on mukeish embroidery. It is said that mukeish or badla work is the original sequence of India that paves out the track of sequence work around the fashion globe. It is an expensive and indeed time-consuming craft. This meticulous work has lost its shine and glamour due to the lack of skilled artisans. The availability of substitute sequences in embroidery is also the reason for its blurry image in the world of Embroidery. The purpose of shedding light on mukeish or badla work is to review this meticulous craft of India and promote this precious craft around the globe.

Reassessment of views on public administration in the field of physical culture and sports in Ukraine under martial law

The scientific research is aimed at determining the forms of public administration in the field of physical culture and sports, in particular, at clarifying the peculiarities of this field in the conditions of martial law. In order to fulfill the tasks of the research, the author analyzed the forms and means of public administration in the field of physical culture and sports, determined the state of their legal regulation, taking into account the substantiated provisions regarding the need to increase the efficiency of the use of some of them in wartime conditions. According to the results of the conducted research, it has been established that public administration in the field of physical culture and sports is the activity of public administration subjects regulated by laws and other normative legal acts, aimed at the implementation of laws and other normative legal acts, including making administrative decisions, provision of administrative services established by legislation regarding the development of physical culture and sports. Forms of public administration in the field of physical culture and sports are systematized, in particular: issuance of normative acts of public administration in the field of physical culture and sports, their application and implementation of material and technical measures; provision of administrative services by carrying out registration, permit (licensing) and approval procedures in the field of physical culture and sports; conclusion of administrative contracts in the field of physical culture and sports regarding the delegation of management powers to local sports federations with the minimization of centralized management; implementation of public control over compliance with legislation in this area, detection, recording of violations and application of measures of legal responsibility. It has been established that in the conditions of martial law and post-war period, there will be following most effective forms of public administration in the field of physical culture and sports: attraction of investments in the reconstruction of destroyed or damaged infrastructure; further development and investment of veteran sports and sports aimed at restoring the physical and psychological shape of military personnel, involving the military in the sports movement and reviving the country on the international arena, as well as simplifying the system of providing administrative services in the specified areas.

VISUAL COMPETENCE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ART PROFILE FUTURE SPECIALISTS IN THE PROCESS OF PROFESSIONAL TRAINING

The article discusses the development of visual competence among professionals in the artistic field. It explains that changes in visual information depend on cultural and historical context, linking social experience with individual visual culture and impacting the requirements for working with visual information. It is emphasised that visual culture is a psychological phenomenon associated with finding meaning in the visual information flow that occurs in space and time. An innovative approach in the field of visual culture involves conceptualizing reality through visual imagery, allowing the visual image to become timeless and open to multiple interpretations. The development of visual culture reflects a dynamic multi-level system, with different stages characterised by varying depth and breadth of mastered visuality in a professional setting. This process is defined by literacy, competence, and culture. The text also clarifies the approach to determining the structure of visual competence in different countries. It outlines the unique characteristics of professional activity and defines visual culture and visual competence for professionals in the artistic field. The continuous need for ongoing visual practice influences the development of visual skills for artistic professionals. The acquisition of visual experience, and the understanding of cultural changes and symbolic content. Valuable methods for developing visual competence among future artistic professionals include the professional creativity of teachers and various artistic practices within and outside the educational institution.

ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF CULTURAL INDUSTRIES IN AZERBAIJAN

Cultural areas are the cause of social and economic consequences as well as cultural consequences. That is why every country should pay special attention to the development of cultural areas. Thus, cultural fields are one of the industrial fields that influence economic activity by increasing the cultural level in the country. Cultural fields act as a driving force in economic development with unemployment, direct, and added value. In addition to all this, cultural fields act as one of the powerful means for implementing the country's political ideology. As previously noted, the recognition of the significance of cultural sectors is particularly crucial for newly independent nations such as Azerbaijan, which, despite only gaining independence within the past 34 years, has made substantial progress across various domains. Beyond the preservation and transmission of national and moral values to future generations, cultural sectors hold the potential to contribute to the diversification of the economy, reducing unemployment, and enhancing political influence. These considerations have motivated my research into the role and development of cultural sectors within Azerbaijan. Taking all this into account, I decided to investigate the economic aspects of cultural activities in Azerbaijan for the first time. The article contains statistical data. The conclusions reached are that cultural fields in Azerbaijan have undergone a wave of development since the country's independence, and certain developments have been observed in recent years. In addition to all this development, the development of cultural fields lags behind the international level, and various problems show their impact here.

Exploration and Prospect of the Mode of International Collaborative Education Model of Traditional Chinese Medicine Talents

With the promotion of globalization, the international collaborative education model has become increasingly popular. As an important cultural field in China, the demand for international talents in traditional Chinese medicine is also increasing. It is crucial to explore a unique international collaborative education model suitable for traditional Chinese medicine talents by conducting in-depth research on the current status of international collaborative education models and combining them with traditional Chinese medicine. Such research can not only promote the development of traditional Chinese medicine, but also provide more ideas for the international collaborative education model.

Fracturing Processes in Specimens with Internal vs. Throughgoing Flaws: An Experimental Study Using 3D Printed Materials

AbstractThe fracturing behavior and associated mechanical characterization of rocks are important for many applications in the fields of civil, mining, geothermal, and petroleum engineering. Laboratory testing of rocks plays a major role in understanding the underlying processes that occur on the larger scale and for predicting rock behavior. Fracturing research requires well-defined and consistent boundary conditions. Consequently, the testing design and setup can greatly influence the results. In this study, a comprehensive experimental program using an artificial material was carried out to systematically evaluate the effects of different parameters in rock testing under uniaxial compression. The parameters include compression platen type, specimen centering, loading control method, boundary constraints, and flaw parameters. The results show that these testing conditions have a significant effect on the mechanical behavior of rocks. Using a fixed compression platen helped reduce bulging of the material. Centering of the specimen played a critical role to avoid buckling and unequal distribution of stress. Slower displacement rates can control the energy being released once failure occurs to prevent the specimen from exploding. Also, the frictional end effects were investigated by comparing friction-reduced and non-friction-reduced end conditions. Very importantly, the study also identified variations in crack initiation and propagation between specimens with internal flaws and specimens with throughgoing flaws. This investigation showed that wing cracks appeared in specimens with throughgoing flaws, while wing cracks with petal cracks were associated with the internal flaws. It also showed that the mechanical properties are influenced by the inclination of the flaws and established that specimens with internal flaws generally exhibit higher strength compared to specimens with throughgoing flaws. The systematic analysis presented in this work sheds light on important considerations that need to be taken into account when conducting fracture research and adds knowledge to the fundamental understanding of how fractures occur in nature.

Adaptive Weighted Multi-kernel Learning for Blast-Induced Flyrock Distance Prediction

AbstractIn the field of civil and mining engineering, blasting operations are widely and frequently used for rock excavation, However, some undesirable environmental problems induced by blasting operations cannot be ignored. Blast-induced flyrock is one important issue induced by blasting operation, which needs to be well predicted to identify the blasting zone’s safety zone. This study introduces an adaptive weighted multi-kernel learning model (AW-MKL) to provide an accurate prediction of blast-induced flyrock distance in Sungun Copper Mine site. The proposed model uses a combination of multi-kernel learning (MKL) approach and adaptive weighting strategy based on weighted Euclidean distance and modified local outlier factor (MLOF) to maximally improve the predictive ability of kernel ridge regression (KRR). To demonstrate the superiority of the proposed approach, six machine learning models were developed as comparisons, i.e., KRR, RF, GBDT, SVM, M5 Tree, MARS and AdaBoost. The outcomes of the proposed method achieved the highest accuracy in testing phase, with RMSE of 2.05, MAE of 0.98 and VAF of 99.92, which confirmed the strong predictive capability of the proposed AW-MKL in predicting blast-induced flyrock distance.

Social and psychological portrait of the KGB agent

After 1953, the KGB faced new challenges. With the Soviet system gradually opening, ever more intense relations with the West in the fields of science, culture, industry and tourism were established, which was a certain challenge in protecting strategically important information and ensuring control of the territory. However, it was no longer possible to break civil resistance and the fight of ideas by means of brutal measures alone. Secret collaborators became an ever more important instrument in implementing the KGB tasks. The agent’s environment and in what way he could be of use to the KGB created the greatest value for the agent. Hence, not only professional experience and knowledge but also personal qualities became important. It was not only collection of information that prevailed during the fight against partisans but also the dissemination of certain ideas or rumours, observance and analysis of moods and principles of certain groups of society (the youth, the intelligentsia, representatives of culture, education and clergy), as well as performance of other tasks became of greatest importance in the agents’ work. Hence, the most significant feature in recruiting an individual became his age, education, duties and responsibilities, the social medium in which he worked and lived. The following groups of society are most often referred to in the KGB reports, which determined their choice: the cultural and academic, technical intelligentsia, (teachers, lecturers, physicians, artists, engineers, specialists), political prisoners (deportees), the clergy, the youth, workers (workers and collective farmers). Agents’ education and social situation, perhaps their age to a lesser degree, were determined, speaking in the KGB terms, by the operational situation of a city (region): the geographical location of the territory (e.g., the border), the city of Kaunas as the temporary capital of the interwar period, where there was a great concentration of the intelligentsia, young people, political prisoners and deportees who came back from places of imprisonment, objects of industry, science, education, culture located in other cities, certain social groups, such as the former political prisoners, deportees who maintained contacts with people living abroad and, of course, the factor of the clergy was of great significance. Though it was sought to have as many agents as possible among the young people, political prisoners and the clergy, the KGB reports show that the KGB efforts gave no desired results. The level of education and the social basis of the agency was an integral part of the portrait of the KGB agent. On the basis of the available information about the psychological characteristic of the KGB agents, it is difficult to draw conclusions about the agent’s portrait. However, the specificity of the agent’s activity that included concealing everything from the family, the surrounding people, specific tasks, how to collect and obtain certain information, approaching certain persons – required certain skills such as communicability, but, on the other hand, certain reticence, as well as flexibility and composure. However, the most valuable quality of the agent was the ability to come close to the people and information that were of use to the KGB.

“They don't care what we watch”: On ratings and culture‐making in the dizi industry

AbstractThis article challenges Western‐centric assumptions in existing media theories that assume a relatively democratic society by exploring the media worlds of dizis, Turkey's globally famous, serialized television melodramas. It examines dizi makers' frustrations with a recently revised rating system at a time when Turkey's conservative and authoritarian‐leaning ruling AKP elite increasingly intervene in the country's cultural field. The article argues that in Turkey's highly polarized, authoritarian context, ratings become a crucial site of culture‐making, through which Turkish culture, the value of cultural products like dizis, and the place of their creators in Turkey's cultural hegemony get renegotiated. Exploring the resentments of today's dizi makers reveals that contemporary Turkish power contestations cannot be reduced to either the secular/religious binary or to class dynamics alone, as often deployed to explain the current polarization between Erdoğan's supporters and his dissidents. The article also demonstrates the need for more rigorous theorizing about how states—as repressive actors in authoritarian contexts—affect the worlds of media creators and their works.

On the Importance of Extracurricular Physical Education Activities in the Physical Education of Students of Higher Education Institutions

The article presents material on the organization of extracurricular activities in physical education at a higher educational institution. The relevance of this topic is due to structural and substantive changes in undergraduate educational programs and work programs in physical education, which have led to an increasing role of extracurricular activities in the formation of student's physical culture competence. This circumstance requires consideration of issues of planning, organization and methodological support of this type of pedagogical activity. The purpose of the study is to identify the organizational and educational aspects of student sports and wellness activities conducted in their free time from study at the university. As an example of the organization of extracurricular work carried out by teachers of the Department of Physical Culture and Sports, a number of physical culture and recreation and sports events held at the Omsk State Agrarian University named after P. A. Stolypin are proposed. The analysis and generalization of pedagogical experience in the higher education system, data from literary sources on the problems of physical education of students allowed us to make practical recommendations on the basics of planning, goal-setting and organizational features of extracurricular activities in physical culture. The possibility of increasing the effectiveness of this activity is emphasized due to the uniform distribution of activities throughout the academic year, attracting students with different levels of physical, sports and technical readiness and motivation in the field of physical culture and sports to participate. In addition to the calendar plan, the organizers for each event must define a goal, develop a program, create a festive atmosphere, ensure the safety of spectators and participants, and create conditions for informational coverage of the planned event.

Adaptive dynamic programming–based fault-tolerant control of multi-UAV formation system

With the increasing utilization of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) swarms in civilian and military field applications, it is crucial to eliminate the potential impacts of UAV faults on task completion and efficiency. To address this issue, the present paper investigates a fault-tolerant control scheme based on the adaptive dynamic programming (ADP) method and fault observer. The whole closed-loop system is composed of a position loop and an attitude loop. An ADP-based position-tracking controller is established with an improved cost function that can simultaneously represent actuator faults, control inputs, and tracking errors. In addition, a single-layer critic neural network is constructed to estimate the cost function and approximate control inputs. In the process of adjusting the weights of the neural network, a unique adjustment method combining policy gradient and prioritized experience replay is adopted to improve the data usage efficiency and speed up the weight convergence. Furthermore, a sliding mode–based attitude controller is utilized for the inner-loop attitude subsystem. The significant feature of this scheme is that it has the ability to self-learn and self-adapt. A Lyapunov stability analysis is performed to verify whether the signals are uniformly ultimately bounded. Finally, simulation experiments are conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.

Strategies of Media Communication in the Digital Cultural Sphere

The significance of media communication approaches in creating cultural connections and experiences has become increasingly important in the quickly changing world of digital culture. This essay examines effective media communication techniques within the framework of digital culture. The study includes a critical examination of the dynamic interplay between culture and media, emphasizing how digital technologies have revolutionized communication methods. This research study points to the fundamental importance of strategizing/politicized media communication in a highly polycentric, digital cultural field. It combines theory with practice, brings perspectives of working cases and provides example data to demonstrate the importance of communication strategies fit for different cultural audiences going online. The study attests to the urgent imperative of developing flexible and imaginative media communication strategies for generating significant, transcultural meeting in our digitally-connected globe.

Summarize of the Development of UAV

An unmanned aerial vehicle is an unmanned aerial vehicle that, compared to a piloted aircraft, does not require a pilot to fly, and is therefore also called an unmanned aerial vehicle. UAVs have a wide range of applications in both military and civilian fields. In the military field, UAVs are capable of performing a variety of missions such as reconnaissance, surveillance, target location. This article will analyze the current application of unmanned aerial vehicles in military and civilian fields from the development history and current situation of unmanned aerial vehicles, and prospect its future development trend.

Influence factors and improvement scheme on the breakdown behavior of pseudospark switch

Abstract High-power pulse generators are widely used in civil and military fields. The main switch directly determines the output characteristics of the high-power pulse generators, such as the voltage front time (tf). Pseudospark switches (PSS) show a promising future for middle voltage, high repetitive frequency pulse power applications. However, how to further improve the breakdown behavior without reducing its advantages is a challenging task. In this paper, the influence of operating parameters (anode voltage UA and gas pressure p) and structural parameter (number of cathode holes) on the breakdown behavior are investigated, the related mechanism are explained, and specific improvement schemes are proposed. It is found that the tf of the single channel PSS (SCPSS) decreased significantly with increasing p, but hardly varied with UA under moderate p. However, it is not a sound solution to increase the p excessively to reduce tf. Besides, increasing the number of cathode holes can obtain a shorter tf at low pressures (which implies superior repetition frequency performance). However, at 25 Pa, the jitter (which is defined as the standard deviation of tf in multiple tests) of the 2-channel PSS is larger than that of the SCPSS. And the jitter of the 4-channel and 8-channel PSS is also greater than 6 ns and 2 ns, respectively. Through experimental and simulation analyses, it can be explained as the stepwise penetration of the virtual anode and the non-simultaneous ignition of the channels. A scheme to increase the trigger energy (ε) has been adopted to improve the simultaneous ignition probability, while shortening tf and reducing jitter. After optimization, the good ignition probability of the 4-channel PSS has been improved to 82% and the jitter has been reduced to less than 1 ns at 25 Pa and 14.7 mJ.

Defining ‘Russianness’, defining ‘Austrianness’ – defining ‘Europe’: Austrian Tchaikovsky imageries during the Allied occupation, 1945–55

ABSTRACT This essay will examine critical discourses regarding Peter Tchaikovsky as a symbolic figurehead of high-brow Russian music in the two most widely circulated Austrian newspapers of the Allied occupation period: the Wiener Kurier (WK) and the Salzburger Nachrichten (SN), both affiliated with the US administration. In the context of Austria’s (problematic) denazification, post-war reconstruction, nation-building and reorientation towards the West, the reception of Tchaikovsky serves as a litmus test of negotiations concerning questions of cultural capital, habitus, musical canon, and nationalism (Otherness), Austria’s position as Europe’s Musikland, and a composer’s branding. Influential critics evaded a clear positioning within the Cold War ‘East–West’ context by appropriating Tchaikovsky for constructing an Austrian, European identity from a position of cultural power. This led to the coexistence of several musical ‘Russias’ in the Austrian public space: Soviet cultural diplomacy, US promotion of musical modernity (Stravinsky) and Austrians’ own, and self-interested, reconstruction of a Russian ‘national’ canon. Wiener Kurier and Salzburger Nachrichten columnists display a significant degree of middle-term continuity, while developing remarkable independence from and agency vis-à-vis the hard power presence of both the United States and the USSR, by subverting the superpowers’ cultural offensives, engaging in Austrian prestige politics, and affirming their interpretative sovereignty and knowledge-power within the re-emerging Austrian musical field. The music critics’ robust judgment, combined with the relative popularity that Tchaikovsky enjoyed, affirmed the considerable autonomy of the cultural field, and the discursive pre-eminence of musical conservatives and their knowledge-power.

UAV path planning based on bird flock migration

Unmanned aerial vehicle, generally referred to as UAV, due to its high-performance and low-cost characteristics, it is particularly widely used in both military and civil applications, and is often used to perform a variety of complex missions. Trajectory planning is the basis for UAVs to realize autonomous flight, which ensures that UAVs avoid obstacles and threatening areas when performing tasks, and guarantees the safe execution of tasks. The operation of a UAV requires finding the safest and most efficient trajectory from a starting point to a specified end point based on several specific constraints. Current UAV trajectory planning algorithms, such as swarm algorithm, particle swarm algorithm, and ant colony algorithm, have been widely recognized, but still have many limitations when they are applied to complex and variable terrain. Therefore, this paper proposes an improved UAV trajectory planning algorithm based on simulated bird migration, and uses matlab for simulation and algorithm evaluation. The simulation results indicate that the improved search strategy is effective, the algorithm can find a better solution in each iteration, and the search strategy of the algorithm can effectively guide the algorithm towards a more optimized region. Overall, this algorithm has high research value in both military and civilian fields.

Understanding the Instrument Making Process of Pemade Semar Pegulingan Saih Pitu | Memahami Proses Pembuatan Instrumen Pemade Semar Pegulingan Saih Pitu

Considering the length and complexity of the process of making Balinese Gamelan, the process of learning to make instruments from bronze/kerawang is very important. Gamelan is one of the media expressed by Balinese composers in creating various musical compositions. However, before there is a composition, of course an instrument is needed as an important medium in realizing the musical idea. The process of making instruments from bronze or filigree is very interesting to learn to increase sensitivity to tones, the process of forging or forming blades, the tuning process, the process of making resonators/bumbung, and the process of making hangung/pelawah, as well as knowing the steps or stages of making instruments other. With the Internship/Practice program, it is hoped that it can awaken and maintain the enthusiasm of the next generation of young people in the field of arts and culture. Therefore, the author designed a work program with the title "From Blade to Pelawah: Understanding the Instrument Making Process of Pemade Semar Pegulingan Saih Pitu”.

Metamaterial structure design based on genetic algorithm and phase change material GST for multispectral camouflage

This study proposes a multispectral camouflage tunable multilayer film metamaterial (TMFM) with thermal management function based on genetic algorithm (GA), which is composed of ZnS/YbF3/Ge/Ge2Sb2Te5 (GST)/Au multilayer film. Through numerical analysis, we assess its efficacy in visible-infrared compatibility camouflage and radiative heat dissipation. Within the visible light band, different structural colors can be produced by adjusting the thickness of the ZnS film. The average emissivity within the 3–5 μm and 8–14 μm infrared bands is measured at 0.04 and 0.14, respectively. The low emissivity facilitates effective thermal management. Moreover, an average emissivity of 0.52 within the 5–8 μm range is instrumental in achieving efficient radiation heat dissipation. Laser stealth capability is further enhanced, with an emissivity reaching 0.70 at 10.6 μm. Therefore, this metamaterial structure has broad application prospects in both military and civilian industrial fields.

Third Information Day: Research Infrastructure Services in the Humanities and Social Sciences

The main results of the work of the team of the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences on the research projects CLaDA-BG – the Bulgarian National Interdisciplinary Research e-Infrastructure for Resources and Technologies in Favor of the Bulgarian Language and Cultural Heritage, Part of the EU Infrastructures CLARIN and DARIAH and No KP-06-N50/4 30.11.2020 “Fourteenth Century South Slavonic Scribes and Scriptoria (Palaeographical Attribution and Online Repertorium)”, will be presented during the Information Day within the DiPP2024 conference. The main emphasis will be placed on developments and implementations of CultIS – a webbased software platform for intelligent digital management and presentation of large data sets and knowledge from the fields of culture, humanities, and social sciences.