Valuable Objects Research Articles

Soprano as a phenomenon of artistic representation of the human image in European and Chinese traditions

Soprano as a phenomenon of artistic representation of the human image in European and Chinese traditions

Chronology or Context: Temporality and Artificiality of Museum Collections

Although museum collections represent a temporary assemblage of “affiliated objects”, aimed at facilitating the responsible curation of the museum funds, in practice they are treated as an obligatory unit, without which the museum object itself does not exist, and they are imminently permanent. The origins, as well as the consequences of their formation may differ.
 The text examines several issues concerning the artificiality and temporality of collections: what are the values we observe when museum collections are formed, are these values transparent and permanent? Which attributes are con- sidered as crucial bythe curators in the classification of archaeological material and are these classifications consistent?
 Does chronology/periodization prevail in practice and how are the boundaries between the periods established? Is context preserved or, more precisely, is an object attributed along with the other artefacts from the same unit, which was carefully separated during excavation? What or whoinfluences the processes of formation of museum collections?
 The analysis is conducted on the case of the National Museum of Serbia, the oldest and the main museum institution, primarily because the archaeological objects form its basic fund ever since its establishment in 1844. Today, there are several hundred-thousand objects, organized into 16 basic collections and study material. Along with the obligatory authenticity, dating is most frequently the basic principle on which classifications are based, concerning period, origin, or typological systematization. Chronology – period/sequence – is also the main criterion of the permanent museum exhibitions, and necessary to custodians inmediating the disciplinary knowledge.
 Custodians “re-arrange” the past, starting from a museum object and collection, creating specific units of museum(archaeological) time – time capsules, frozen reconstructions, new realities. The museum may thus be understood as a contextdetermined by multi-temporality, or the co-existence of different times.
 Furthermore, working from the idea of Bennet (2009) that the museum may be identified as “the field”, it can also be interpreted as a “multi-layered site”. Various actors – object, collection, custodian, public – contribute to the accumulated character of the record. The “museum layering” is determined by the diversity of the criteria of acquisition, various attributes of classification, the artificiality of collections, transitionary value of objects, as well as personally and socially determined interpretations.

МЕТАФОРА ЯК ЧИННИК ДИСКУРСИВНОГО ТВОРЕННЯ (НА ПРИКЛАДІ ЛЕКСЕМИ ВКУСНЫЙ)

This article attempts a comprehensive discourse analysis of the metaphor using the lexeme “вкусный” (tasty) as an example. Considering that metaphor can be viewed from the perspective of its ability to create social reality, and that reality images are discursively conditioned, the authors explore metaphor as a discursive agent that implies information about the basic parameters of discursive instances: metasubject, metaobject, and meta-addressee. The tasks of discourse analysis of metaphor in the article include: 1) consecutive explication of metaphorically conditioned components of meaning; 2) reconstruction of the constitutive parameters of discursive instances of subject, object, and addressee, based on these components; 3) reconstruction of the worldview and articulatory possibilities of the speaker who occupies the position of discursive subject. The study was conducted on the material of the National Corpus of the Russian Language using descriptive, contextual, interpretative methods, and the method of component analysis. Discourse analysis of linguistic material allows for the reconstruction of two possible types of discursive subject. The first one (nominally designated as DS1) represents the subject as a prepared listener, viewer, appreciator, or expert. Its discursive orientation realizes such intentions as: recognition of the complexity and intrinsic value of objects in the surrounding world; readiness to expend one`s own resources to interact with them; existential needs to act as a subject of love, care, and knowledge; and transfer of the value center from one`s own “self” to the surrounding world. With such a focus, the source of positive emotions (“satisfaction”) becomes the discursive subject itself, which is characterized by the ability to valorize objects and endow them with meaning. These constitutive parameters of discursive subject DS1 are implicated in such metaphorical constructions as “tasty music”, “tasty picture”, “tasty space”, “tasty design solution”, “tasty movie”, “tasty goal”, “tasty opponent”, and so on. The second type of discursive subject (DS2) can be reconstructed based on metaphors like “tasty assets”, “tasty prices”, “tasty discounts”, “tasty offer”, “tasty text”, “tasty position”, “tasty option”, “tasty life”. Unlike DS1, its attitude towards things, phenomena, and events in the surrounding world is determined by the ratio of “resources spent – satisfaction received”, which characterizes the subject of this type as a consumer. The main intentional characteristics of DS2 are: a primary desire for satisfaction of their own needs and desires (receiving positive emotions, material benefits, achieving an attractive social status); the devaluation of the sovereign value of objects and the unwillingness to make an effort to interact with them; the devaluation of all qualities and properties inherent in an object, except for the consumer ones (capable of bringing satisfaction to the speaker); a fundamental unwillingness to expend their own resources, avoidance of novelty, and a desire to maintain the stability of their own internal and external space. These two configurations of discursive subject allow the speaker to articulate almost diametrically opposed attitudes towards the surrounding world. In general terms, they correspond to two worldviews: modernist and postmodernist.

Value-Based Search Efficiency Is Encoded in the Substantia Nigra Reticulata Firing Rate, Spiking Irregularity and Local Field Potential.

Recent results show that valuable objects can pop out in visual search, yet its neural mechanisms remain unexplored. Given the role of substantia nigra reticulata (SNr) in object value memory and control of gaze, we recorded its single-unit activity while male macaque monkeys engaged in efficient or inefficient search for a valuable target object among low-value objects. The results showed that efficient search was concurrent with stronger inhibition and higher spiking irregularity in the target-present (TP) compared with the target-absent (TA) trials in SNr. Importantly, the firing rate differentiation of TP and TA trials happened within ∼100 ms of display onset, and its magnitude was significantly correlated with the search times and slopes (search efficiency). Time-frequency analyses of local field potential (LFP) after display onset revealed significant modulations of the gamma band power with search efficiency. The greater reduction of SNr firing in TP trials in efficient search can create a stronger disinhibition of downstream superior colliculus, which in turn can facilitate saccade to obtain valuable targets in competitive environments.

Valued Objects Dynamics and Adaptability of Domestic Workspaces

This paper discusses the dynamic value of objects that influence the spatial organization of a home-based workspaces. Spatial organization of workspace at home becomes significant with the emerging work-from-home arrangement during and post COVID-19 pandemic. The physical and psychological needs of working from home require adaptations on the domestic setting through the use and placement of objects in relation to how humans produce and experience space. This paper examines the value mechanism of remote workers with regards to their everyday objects and how such mechanism affects the overall workspace organization them. The study explores the workspace of 3 remote workers with different activities and preferences. The study shows that the dynamic value of objects shapes the workplace arrangements, enabling better accessibility, supporting the need for comfortable and pleasant qualities of space, as well as demonstrating self-identity. The study expands discussions on the spatial adaptation driven by dynamic system of objects.

A Singular Step: Freer’s Purchase of the Hanna Collection

Charles Lang Freer’s purchase of the Henry Bathurst Hanna collection of Indian paintings in 1907 can seem an anomalous, almost incidental acquisition in the career of a collector whose interests for the most part lay elsewhere. Its peculiarity makes it an intriguing episode, and one that but for the presence of some remarkable pieces might arguably be relegated to a footnote in the annals of Freer’s wide-ranging and more extensive areas of collecting. A clearer picture of his motivations comes into focus, however, by considering his pursuit of the collection within the broader range of his own experiences, his milieu, and the prevailing cultural context. This article situates Freer’s interest in a particular collection of Indian art—understood narrowly at the time as concomitant with Mughal painting—against the background of the long presence of India in the United States, the growth of interest in Eastern culture and spirituality in late nineteenth-century New England, the beginnings of the appreciation of the aesthetic value of objects from India in the early twentieth century, and the burgeoning market and place for non-Western works in art museums in metropolitan cities, including the one that Freer had committed to establishing. In so doing, one may better understand the importance he placed on the acquisition of the collection, which would be a singular step that initiated a place for India within fine art museums in the United States.

Chemical Homogeneity of Wide Binary Systems: An Approach from Near-Infrared Spectroscopy

Wide binaries, with separations between the two stars from a few au to more than several thousand au, are valuable objects for various research topics in Galactic astronomy. As the number of newly reported wide binaries continues to increase, studying the chemical abundances of their component stars becomes more important. We conducted high-resolution near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy for six pairs of wide binary candidates using the Immersion Grating Infrared Spectrometer at the Gemini-South telescope. One pair was excluded from the sample due to a significant difference in radial velocity between its component stars, while the remaining five pairs exhibited homogeneous properties in 3D motion and chemical composition among the pair stars. The differences in [Fe/H] ranged from 0.00 to 0.07 dex for these wide binary pairs. The abundance differences between components are comparable to the previous results from optical spectroscopy for other samples. In addition, when combining our data with literature data, it appears that the variation of abundance differences increases in wide binaries with larger separations. However, SVO 2324 and SVO 3206 showed minimal differences in most elements despite their large separation, supporting the concept of multiple formation mechanisms depending on each wide binary. This study is the first approach to the chemical properties of wide binaries based on NIR spectroscopy. Our results further highlight that NIR spectroscopy is an effective tool for stellar chemical studies based on equivalent measurements of chemical abundances from the two stars in each wide binary system.

Traditional culture of the ethnicities of Uzbekistan based on materials from expeditions of Soviet ethnographers in the 1980s.

This article focuses on the reporting materials compiled by ethnographers working at the State Museum of Ethnography of the Peoples of the USSR who in the 1980s participated in expeditions to the Republic of Uzbekistan. They set themselves the goal not only to collect information or artefacts valuable for studying the cultural history of particular region, but also to explore the transformation of national identity, that was a consequence of linguistic, cultural and economic integration of the ethnicities inhabiting Uzbekistan. After many years of expeditions the collections of the Russian Ethnographic Museum were replenished with valuable and unique objects. The article pays attention to corporeal, illustrative, and reporting materials that attest to traditions and innovations in the material culture of modern Uzbekistan, as well as interethnic relations. The authors adhered to the methodological principles of historical anthropology, which focus on the evolution and diversity of societies and social relations. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that, based on the study of sources introduced into scientific circulation for the first time, the authors came to the conclusion that the expeditions not only contributed to the preservation of the material culture of the region under study, but also recorded the difficulties in interethnic relations long before they became part of the official discourse of national policy in the USSR. The national-territorial demarcation carried out by the Soviet government in Central Asia in 1924 took place, for the most part, not in accordance with the ethnicity of the peoples living in the territory, but according to ideological and economic parameters. Consequently such a significant event, regardless of its overall effect, created the preconditions for interethnic problems, which were indicated in the named reports.

“Let’s See If We’ve Been Missing Out!”

Contemporary music analysis podcasts are engaged in an ongoing project of deconstructing pop songs and recoding them as valuable cultural objects. In this article, I understand podcasting as an extension of the popular music press and trace the affective strategies hosts use to elevate and evaluate pop songs new and old. I argue that music podcasts have seen a slow but steady departure from the conventions of critical distance and affectless, disembodied engagement to adopt an embodied, emotive response to the music that moves them. Drawing on theories of feminist affect, fan studies, and reactivity, I read the incorporation of fannish affect and the celebration of male creators’ emotive response to pop music as a continuation of a middlebrow sensibility that informs the popular music press writ large. Popular music analysis podcasts, on their surface, are a project of taking pop music seriously. When we scratch this surface, however, what we find is a mixed bag of tactics that seek to affirm the majority white, majority male creators as uniquely positioned to analyze, evaluate, and respond to music, much of which they are encountering considerably after it has already achieved the success that codes these songs as “popular” in the first place.

Features of cultivation of hydrid forms of sturgeon fish in quarriers of the Rostov region

The paper presents the results of growing juvenile sturgeon species and their hybrid forms in a mine pit lake in the Rostov region. In the Rostov region, there are many mine pit lake that can be successfully used to organize economic activities for the cultivation of valuable aquaculture objects, such as sturgeon fish. It has been established that the hydrochemical regime of the lake from May to September is favorable for the cultivation of juvenile sturgeon fish species and their hybrid forms. Studies have shown that the highest growth rate for 30 days of growing in pools was shown by beluga juveniles, its absolute increase was 1200 mg with a survival rate of 75%. Lenk and Bester had an increase of 565 mg and 710 mg, respectively. The most highly sensitive was the transition of juveniles to active nutrition, when the yolk sac in the larvae resolved by 2/3. The fastest transition and the least waste was observed in the larvae of bester and lenka. Upon reaching the age of 30 days, the juveniles were transplanted into cages, where good growth of beluga juveniles and hybrids was noted. On June 15 (40 days), the juveniles switched completely to dry food. At the same time, the average weight of the beluga was 3.5 g. It should be noted that with the complete transfer of beluga juveniles to dry food, the waste was from 3 to 5%. The young of Lenka and bester adapted better to dry food, the waste did not exceed 2%. The largest growth was in juveniles of all sturgeon species in August and early September.

Ecosystems conservation and analysis of the representativeness of protected areas of the Kyrgyz Republic in a climate change

The most valuable natural complexes and objects should be represented in the State protected areas (PA) system. In order to preserve biodiversity, it is necessary to expand protected lands to 10% of the total country area and create an ecological network that includes various categories of ecosystems. Each protected area can represent one or a number of ecosystems, depending on the height above sea level, landform, climate and other factors. In a perfect scenario, PA system of Kyrgyz Republic must represent all categories of ecosystems including mountain, steppe, semi-desert and desert. In this research the analysis of the representativeness of protected areas in Kyrgyz Republic was performed for the first time. For this purpose, GIS data sets for PAs and classification of ecosystems were used. According to the results, forest ecosystems have the highest coverage, whereas low mountain meadows and wetlands have the lowest coverage in PA system of Kyrgyz Republic. This research suggests that this type of analysis is an important tool for biodiversity conservation and evaluation of an ecological vulnerability.

Синий краб Paralithodes platypus – востребованный объект крабового промысла в северо-западной части Охотского моря (в Северо-Охотоморской подзоне)

The history of the study and fishing, the main biological indicators of the blue king crab Paralithodes platypus, living in the north-western part of the Sea of Okhotsk, are considered. Based on the materials collected in 2003-2022, the course of fishing and catching of this crab is analyzed. It is shown that the prospects of industrial development of this valuable object in the coming years do not cause concerns.

Cultural heritage and event tourism as a driver of a large historical town development (on the example of Avignon, southeastern France)

The authors investigate development resources and mechanisms for managing cultural tourism in Avignon, a large historical city (200 thousand inhabitants) located in southeastern France in Provence. The main attractions of the historical center are described (in the UNESCO World Heritage List), as well as famous theater festivals and other events, that form a very powerful tourist flow to this city on the Ron – over 3 million a year. A well-developed system of internal tourist arrangement has been studied, this system allows to use the Old City territory rationally without damaging valuable architectural objects. The surroundings of Avignon are briefly described – a picturesque cultural landscape, saturated with interesting historical and natural objects. Statistics characterizing the volume, composition and seasonality of tourist flow to Avignon is given.

Analysis of the beautiful value of marine tourism attractive objects in the coral reef rehabilitation area of Badi Island, Pangkep Regency

The marine tourist attraction has been one of the most important concerns for tourism. The diversity of biota in this coral reef ecosystem has the potential for the development of marine ecotourism. The aim of the research was to reveal the potential of coral the rehabilitation areas in the Badi, Pangkajene and Archipelago for a good tourist destination, especially as a dive site and restoration of coral reef ecosystems, based on the categories of tourism object value and attraction. This research was carried out in March-December 2022 with several stages, including preparation, initial survey, and field data collection. This study includes the suitability matrix for diving activities, and the Scenic Beauty Estimate (SBE) used to determine the quality and the beauty of coral reefs. The results showed that Station 2 and Station 3 were in the very suitable category, while Station 1 and Station 4 were included in the appropriate category because at 6 parameters the appropriate value parameters were calculated for diving tourism. The results of the SBE calculation show that the image with the highest value is Number 4 which is in the transplant location 2 and number 1 is in the transplant location 1 with an SBE value of 97 and 93, respectively. Meanwhile, figure Number 2 is in the natural location 1 and image Number 9 is in the Natural 2 location with SBE values of 0 and 8, respectively. In conclusion, most people are interested in the healing world, and the coral reef rehabilitation object has various types and is rich in coral reefs.

Contemporary approaches to determining the value of architectural heritage

The article discusses the concepts of “heritage” and “value”, identifies approaches to determining the value of architectural heritage objects, and provides recommendations for its definition. The traditional interpretation of the concept of “heritage” is undergoing changes in modern times, and therefore, its value becomes the fundamental basis for its protection and preservation. Modern researchers distinguish groups of values (tangible and intangible), which are based on the interpretation of architectural heritage as part of the past and related to its modern existence in the context of a certain place, time and community. Thus, the determination of the value of an architectural heritage object should be based primarily on the study of its historical and architectural and artistic features (as an element of the past) and its current state in the context of sustainable development. Currently, there are two approaches to determining the value of architectural heritage objects: a formalized, based on a point system, and an approach linking value values with their material carriers, which allows taking into account the individual characteristics of each monument. The general standard for determining the value of architectural heritage objects has not yet been developed.

Penetapan Nilai Jual Objek Pajak yang Berimplikasi pada Penerimaan PBB-P2 Kota Cilegon Tahun 2014-2018

The purpose of this study was to determine the determination of the sale value of tax objects as the basis for the imposition of PBB-P2 at the City of Cilegon, the level of effectiveness and contribution of the receipt PBB-P2 at the City of Cilegon, the factors can hamper the receipt of PBB-P2 at the City of Cilegon and efforts that can optimize the revenue PBB-P2. The method used in this research is descriptive qualitative method. The results showed that the Determination of the Sales Value of Tax Objects as the basis for the imposition of PBB-P2 in the City of Cilegon used a price comparison method which was conducted once a year. The level of effectiveness PBB-P2 in the city of Cilegon in 2014-2018 very effective, And the contribution of PBB-P2 in the city of Cilegon is still in the category of under-contributing the Regional Original Revenue.

Third-Party Source Switches: Objective Valuation or Fair Value Opinion Shopping?

ABSTRACT Fair value estimates from external third-party sources are generally considered more reliable than internal estimates based on managerial inputs. However, even externally sourced estimates are subject to managerial opportunism, because firms can switch from one external source to another. In the context of life insurance companies that mostly rely on external sources, we posit that such source switches could be driven by managerial incentive either to faithfully report fair values (objective valuation) or to inflate estimates to avoid OTTI (opinion shopping). Our results support both motives. In instances in which the two incentives yield conflicting predictions for source switching, we find the opinion-shopping motive dominates. We also find that switches that increase fair value estimates are associated with a reduced OTTI likelihood and magnitude, especially for high-impairment-risk securities. On balance, our evidence suggests that opportunism with respect to source switching can compromise the reliability of externally sourced fair value estimates. Data Availability: Data are available from the public sources cited in the text. JEL Classifications: G22; M41.

Automated Generation of Room Usage Semantics from Point Cloud Data

Room usage semantics in models of large indoor environments such as public buildings and business complex are critical in many practical applications, such as health and safety regulations, compliance, and emergency response. Existing models such as IndoorGML have very limited semantic information at room level, and it remains difficult to capture semantic knowledge of rooms in an efficient way. In this paper, we formulate the task of generating rooms usage semantics as a special case of room classification problems. Although methods for room classification tasks have been developed in the field of social robotics studies and indoor maps, they do not deal with room usage and occupancy aspects of semantics, and they ignore the value of furniture objects in understanding room usage. We propose a method for generating room usage semantics based on the spatial configuration of room objects (e.g., furniture, walls, windows, doors). This method uses deep learning architecture to support a room usage classifier that can learn spatial configuration features directly from semantically labelled point cloud (SLPC) data that represent room scenes with furniture objects in place. We experimentally assessed the capacity of our method in classifying rooms in office buildings using the Stanford 3D (S3DIS) dataset. The results showed that our method was able to achieve an overall accuracy of 91% on top-level room categories (e.g., offices, conference rooms, lounges, storage) and above 97% accuracy in recognizing offices and conference rooms. We further show that our classifier can distinguish fine-grained categories of of offices and conference rooms such as shared offices, single-occupancy offices, large conference rooms, and small conference rooms, with comparable intelligence to human coders. In general, our method performs better on rooms with a richer variety of objects than on rooms with few or no furniture objects.

IS PSYCHOLOGY ALREADY CONCEPTUALLY COMPLETED, OR ABOUT INFORMATIONAL ACTIVITY OF THE BRAIN WHICH IS “OBSESSIVELY” ACCOMPANIED BY MENTAL ACTIVITY

The article considers a “paradoxical” situation of general scientific significance, which can be formulated in the question “Why does the human brain, being a physical entity, nevertheless process information biologically or socially expediently?”, although no physical law supports this. A way out of this situation is offered. It consists in indicating that the limbic region of the brain realizes the ability of a person to subjectively evaluate the biological (social) value of external objects and phenomena. Such an explanatory concept, which is, in fact, a “product” of both humanitarian and natural knowledge, allows, in our opinion, to “cross” the line of conceptual and categorical misunderstanding between these “irreconcilable” branches of knowledge. And this intersection is carried out through understanding the essence of the information activity of the brain, which occurs with the help of mental phenomena.
 It is argued that in the neural networks of the brain, along with the usual physical causality, there is an informational causality that orchestrates this physical causality. But it acts due to the presence in the brain, again, of mental phenomena. And above all, the ability of a person to subjectively evaluate (either positively or negatively) the surrounding world, and therefore, to be motivated to eliminate states of uncertainty through the process of information integration (unification, summation, accumulation), which in the language of psychology is mainly a thinking process.
 The leading role of psychology in solving this general scientific problem is considered – primarily because of the scale of its research object, which is the psyche. Psyche, which, it is believed, is an evolutionarily mature “tool” of direct human existence and adaptation to constantly changing world – to uncertainty, to information deficit.

Problems of the development of cultural tourism in the Carpathian region: the vision of consumers and service providers

Tourism development in Ukraine has improved in terms of tourist flows, both as a diversification of tourism demand and tourism products in the last decades. Cultural tourism is a promising direction of tourist activity and occupies a leading position in the modern global tourist management system. The object of research is cultural tourism within the tourist destination of the Ivano-Frankivsk region. Regarding this, the authors revisit the phenomenon of cultural tourism in the country, in order to identify cultural tourism potential through cultural consumption among tourists, applying a special tourism survey. The purpose of this research is to identify the main problems of the development of cultural tourism in the Carpathian region from the point of view of demand and supply of cultural tourism programs based on the results of a comprehensive sociological study on the evaluation of tourist objects and the possibility of their inclusion in the cross-border tourist product “Carpathian Cultural Route”. The results of the survey demonstrated responses from 264 consumers of cultural tourism, which is 2,5% of the number of tourists (general population), and 140 respondents – employees of cultural institutions (objects of cultural tourism), the calculated sample of which was 28% of providers of cultural tourism services. The estimated sample was 28% of cultural tourism service providers. Among the positive aspects of the visit, tourists noted the price policy of institutions acceptable to them, the high level of authenticity and historical and cultural value of objects, the appropriate quality of service, and emotional comfort when visiting cultural and historical objects. According to consumers, the main problems of the development of cultural tourism are the low level of infrastructure support of objects and tourist destinations in general, the limited range of additional services, and limited information about the object. The authors emphasize the importance of developing culturally coherent policies to increase the competitiveness of tourist destinations. The most significant problems of the development of cultural tourism from the point of view of employees of tourist objects of cultural tourism are low level of infrastructure development of cultural tourist objects and tourist destinations in general, insufficient financing of institutions, low level of monetization of objects, low level of tourist and cultural activities in a tourist destination, insufficient advertising of the tourist object, imperfection of state tools for regulating tourist activity within cultural objects, low qualification of employees. Scientific developments on this topic will foster the application of innovative approaches towards the differentiation of cultural tourism objects, which, as a consequence, will help to target potential consumers and improve cultural tourism programs.